On the chemistry of the ancient Assyrians / [R.C. Thompson].

  • Reginald Campbell Thompson
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: On the chemistry of the ancient Assyrians / [R.C. Thompson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    39 (Section 14, C ) use our oxide of tin,with which we have identified t u s - k u ? It is a questionwhich cannot be answered definitely. T u t i a is a strange word appearing in Arabic none can t tell whence,and it would be within the bounds uf possibili¬ ty that the word had suffered in being, let us assume, bor¬ rowed by merchants or chemists from the Assyrian t u s k u. Moreover certain parallels can be adduced for such va • ries: 3 and K, for instance, become transposed in the v Arabic form of Alexander, Iskander j .and S with p v merges into 2, as in the Assyrian ha s h u ru ,be- _ v coming the SYriac h a z u r a a]bple,fe Of S into THit would not be necessary to quote examples* Of X from $'r\ (Greek from Persian) under the influence of another X, wo can find an example in Khshyarsha ?Xerxes* v It i s clear that S and K or S and E may play strange tri cks. On the other hand t i n is not reckoned as one of the possible equivalents for t u t i a 4 Yot it must not be for¬ gotten that the earlier classical chemists ware prone to confuse all white metals: cf. Berthelot, (ooll„7 230 ): Tout mdtal ot alliag^ rouge ou jaune , alterable au feu, ssappelait \&}\K o 3 ou aes s tout mdtal ou alii age blanc . fusible ou alterable au feu, s’ appelait a lsorigine pM'mb* plus tard on distingua deux varieties? le plomb noir, qui comprenait notro plomb et , plus raremeny ,notre antimoine, etc, • et. le plomb blanc, qui romp ren ait nothe etain et certaines alliages de plomb ©t . 21.! argent l! , pranchet (98 ) says much the same thing. There is an interesting Idetail quoted by pergusson
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