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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    Shaw has increased this list to eighty-nine.* But among these we find the names of Hermes, Isis, Horus, Dcmocritus, Cleopatra, Porphyry, Flato, etc.—names which have undoubtedly been affixed to the writings of comparatively modern and obscure authors. The style of these authors, as Borrichius informs us, is barbarous. They are chiefly the production of ecclesiastics, who lived between the fifth and twelfth centuries. In these tracts, the art of which they treat is sometimes called cliemistry (^rjfxaia), sometimes the chemical art (xvuevTiKa), sometimes the holy art, and the philosopher's stone. It is evident from this, that between the fifth century and the taking of Constantinople in the fifteenth century, the Greeks believed in the possibility of making gold and silver artificially, and that the art which professed to teach these processes was called by them chemistry. These opinions passed from the Greeks to the Arabians, when, under the califs of the family of Abassides, they began to turn their attention to science about the beginning of the ninth century; . . . . after which the idea percolated by Spain into Western Europe. In a following paragraph f Dr. Thomson, referring to the opinions respecting the origin of alchemy, again quotes the passage from Zosimus about the fallen angels or demons who revealed to the daughters of men the sublime art of chemistry, or the fabrication of gold and silver, and adds :— It is quite unnecessary to refute this extravagant opinion, obviously founded on a misunderstanding of a passage in the sixth chapter of Genesis, in which there is no mention whatever of angels, or of any information on science com- municated by them to mankind. This is practically all that is said on the subject by the chief British historian of chemistry, and it is eminently unsatisfactory. It is so, because the authors whom he mentions—Borrichius, Boer- haave, and especially Shaw—give a very large amount of informa- tion on the subject, which he might, at least, have quoted more at length, as ho was professedly writing history; because the tone in which the above passages are written exhibits ignorance of the duties •Shaw's Tranxlaliono/Boerhaave's Chemistry, i. 20. [3rd Edit. London, 1753.] t History of Chemistry, i. 8. London, 1830. The story as told by Zosimus is not taken from Genesis, but is similar to that given by Clemens Romanus, who flourished in the second or third century A. D. Sec Homilies, VIII., chap, xi-xiv. (English Translation in the Ante-Nicene Library, vol. xvii., pp. 142, 148), Edinburgh, 1870. And compare also the Recoyniliom of Clemens, Bk. L, chap, xxix. (Antc-Xicene Library, vol. iii., p. HJ.'J), Edinburgh, 1807.