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.

    29/60 (page 13)
    IS Nothing has yet been said of the previous history of these collec- tions. By whom wore they made, at what time, and where 1 These are naturally the last questions which can be answered. Unless some of the MSS. themselves contain distinct indications of their authorship and date, the answers will be got only by sustained critical examination and a comparison with other literature of their supposed time. The indication at present is, that we have none of the first MSS., but only copies of greater or less value, which point to previous collections, either now destroyed or hidden in libraries where their very existence is unknown. The only indication of a compiler is in certain verses found in the Venice and Escurial B. copies, which have been printed by Steph. Bernardus. It is there said that the loftily endowed understanding and the renowned spiritual gifts of an inspired Theodoros combined and arranged in this book the strange collection of all wise thoughts. Who Theodoros was is entirely unknown; and no other compiler is mentioned. As to the time at which the collections were made, Fabricius was of opinion that they are subsequent to the reign of the Emperor Heraklius, who reigned between 610 and 641. The separate treatises may have been composed before that time, and the collections made-at any time prior to the eleventh century. There is nothing but ignorance on these points at present. It is different when we inquire as to the scribes of particular MSS. In some the names are given, for instance—the Paris Codex, 2275, was written in 1467, by Manuel Kosati; No. 3178 (a MS. apparently lost now, but described by Montfaucon), in Crete, in 1478, by Theodoros Pelecanos, who was apparently a professional scribe; and No. 2327 was copied apparently by the same. A Greek scribe, Cornelius of Nauplia, living in Venice between 1560 and [than Suidas, who flourished in the eleventh century]. But of this, as I have never had an opportunity of seeing them, I cannot pretend to judge. So much fiction has been introduced into the history of alchemy, and so many ancient names have been treacherously dragged into the service, that we may be allowed to hesitate, when no evidence is presented sufficient to satisfy a reasonable man. In the first part of this note Thomson declines to judge of a matter of fact upon which he could have acquired more knowledge had he referred to the older authorities. The second part of the note has no connection with the first. That a word is found in writings of a particular date is quite distinct from the question whether or not these belong to their reputed authors. But, apparently, as a plea for not investigating the matter of fact, he advances what could be ascertained only after thorough examination of the whole subject, what has not yet been ascertained, what, therefore, he did not know positively, but was merely his opinion. Had he been reasonable enough to collect and weigh the evidence, it existed almost in as great measure in 1830 as at the present time.