Three presidential addresses to the Chemical Section of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow : on the study of the history of chemistry, recent inquiries into the early history of chemistry, eleven centuries of chemistry / by John Ferguson.

  • John Ferguson
Date:
1879
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Three presidential addresses to the Chemical Section of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow : on the study of the history of chemistry, recent inquiries into the early history of chemistry, eleven centuries of chemistry / by John Ferguson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    <2 to this subject. * He quotes the well known passages from the lexicon of Suidas, who nourished in the eleventh century, and who, in his explanation of the word ^/Lie'ia as the preparation of silver and gold, tells how the Emperor Diocletian sought out and burned the books on the subject, to prevent the Egyptians becoming rich thereby and resisting the Romans. The other passage is under the word Sepag, skin, where Suidas explains that the golden fleece won by the Argonauts through the love of Medea for Jason, was not a fleece of gold at all, but a skin, on which was written the mode of preparing gold chemically. From these two passages, he pro- ceeds, there can be no doubt that the word chemistry was known to the Greeks in the eleventh century, and that it signified at that time the art of making gold and silver'. He mentions that though the lexicon of Suidas be the first printed book in which the word Chemistry occurs, yet it is said to be found in much earlier tracts, which still continue in manuscript. Thus Scaliger informs us that he perused a Greek manuscript of Zosimus, the Panapolite, written in the fifth century, and deposited in the King of France's library. Olaus Borrichius mentions this manuscript, but in such terms that it is difficult to know whether he had him- self read it, though he seems to insinuate as much, t The title of this manuscript is said to be ' A faithful description of the sacred and divine art of making gold and silver, by Zosimus, the Pana- polite.' In this treatise Zosimus distinguishes the art by the name XV^ta, chemia. From a passage in this manuscript, quoted by Scaliger, and given also by Olaus Borrichius, it appears that Zosimus carries the antiquity of the art of making gold and silver much higher than Suidas has ventured to do. He thereupon quotes the passage which narrates how the angels rewarded women for their love, by teaching them the operations of nature, and then adds:— Zosimus is not the only Greek writer on chemistry. Olaus Borrichius has given us a list of thirty-eight treatises, which he says exist in the libraries of Borne, Venice, and Paris; and Dr. * The History of Chemistry, by Thomas Thomson, M.D., i. 3. London, 1S30. The story about Diocletian has got into general history : it is referred to, for instance, by Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap, xiii., who styles it the first authentic event in the history of alchemy. t De Ortu et Progressu Chemite, p. 12. [HaMffi, 100S. Borrichius* words seem quite explicit: Verba Zosimi, qua? juxta mecum in Manuscripts Biblioth. Eeg. Parisina; exstantia legit, adeoque in notis ad Eusebii Chronica jam ante expressit Scaliger, ita habent.]