A history of chemistry from earliest times to the present day : being also an introduction to the study of the science / by Ernst von Meyer ; translated with the author's sanction by George M'Gowan.

Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A history of chemistry from earliest times to the present day : being also an introduction to the study of the science / by Ernst von Meyer ; translated with the author's sanction by George M'Gowan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    base metal into gold, but also to prolong life, seems to us incomprehensible when contrasted with the otherwise enlightened views which he held and propagated. This undisguised recognition of miracle-working, and this bias towards the marvellous, are direcl^ly opposed by the fact that Eoger Bacon taught the working out of carefully devised experiments as a special kind of research, by which new data for the knowledge of nature should be acquired. He is to be regarded as the intellectual originator of experimental research, if the departure in thiis direction is to be coupled with any one name—a direction which, followed more and more as time went on, gave to the science its own particular stamp, and ensured its steady development. The most important works of Eoger Bacon are the following :—Opus Majus ; Speculum Alchemice ; and Breve Breviarium cle Bono Dei. He did not ap]Darently do much towards the spread and development of practical chemical knowledge. In the life and work of the two notable alchemists, Arnaldus Villanovanus and Eaymundus Lvillus, the alchem- istic tendencies of their century are clearly reflected, although much uncertainty exists as to many points, especially in the life of the latter, and also with regard to the works ascribed to Lully. Both of them at all events were held in high esteem, not only during their lives, but also in the centuries following. Arnaldus Villanovanus, whose birth- place is uncertain, practised as a physician in Barcelona in the second half of the thirteenth century. His opinions, however, causing great offence to the priests, he was obliged to flee from there, and after vainly endeavouring to escape persecution in Paris and in various towns of Italy, he at last found an asylum in Sicily with King Frederick II. Summoned to Avignon by Pope Clement V., then seriously ill, he lost his life by shipwreck on the way tliither, about the year 1313. In his theoretical views upon the composi- tion of metals he followed the doctrines of Eoger Bacon and Albertus Magnus, and therefore also of Geber; liis con- tributions to practical chemistry aided the medical art not