The birth of chemistry / by G.F. Rodwell.

  • George Farrer Rodwell
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The birth of chemistry / by G.F. Rodwell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    alchemy, was of importance to the human race, for the better prevention and curing of their ills. In the way of discovery or research, Paracelsus did little. He mentions zinc and bismuth, and associates them with metallic bodies, and he makes considerable use of several compounds of mercury, and of sal am- moniac. Paracelsus compares the alchemist of his day with the physician, and speaks of the former in the following terms:—“For they are not given to idleness, nor go in a proud habit, or plush and velvet garments, often showing their rings upon their fingers, or wearing swords with silver hilts by their sides, or fine and gay gloves upon their hands, but diligently follow their labours, sweating whole days and nights by their furnaces. They do not spend their time abroad for recreation, but take delight in their labo- ratory. They wear leather garments with a pouch, and an apron wherewith they wipe their hands. They put their fingers amongst coals, into clay, and filth, not into gold rings. They are sooty and black like smiths and colliers, and do not pride themselves upon clean and beautiful faces.” Among the Paracelsians we find Oswald Crollius, who mentions chloride of silver under the long- retained name of lima cornea, or horn-silver, from its peculiar horny appearance and texture after fusion. He was also acquainted with fulminating gold. The name of Andrew Libavius (died 1616) deserves mention, because he sought to free chemistry from the mazes of alchemy and mysticism in which it was involved. In this he to some extent succeeded ; and he appears also to have been a patient worker in the
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