Treatise on general and industrial inorganic chemistry / by Etore Molinari ; third revised and amplified Italian edition translated by Ernest Feilman.
- Ettore Molinari
- Date:
- 1912
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Treatise on general and industrial inorganic chemistry / by Etore Molinari ; third revised and amplified Italian edition translated by Ernest Feilman. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![on account of tlio black coloni’ of thè soil (thcy c<allc(l thc pnpil of thè cyc by thè same Dame). Therefore thè tìrst ideas of clieniistry in Euro]io caine from E^ypt, inpiorted by t hè Greeks and Roinans, and lator by tlic Arabs, so tliat it is prolialilo that by “ diemistry ” thoy nnderstood thè sciencc and art of thc country of tlio Egyptians (Cliemia)d The Egyptians wcre fnlly awarc of tlic pntrcfactive action of tlic air on cor]iscs, and, therefore, ])rescrved their dead oiit of contact with tlie air. Everybody knows how thc Egyptian nmniinies have been prcscrvcd unaltcrcd down to onr own tiincs. The Egyptians were thc fìrst to constrnet wells lined with masonry in order to obtain good and wholesoine water, M’iiilst thè otlicr early pcoplcs macie use of tlie w’ater of springs or tanks (except tlie Chinese, who already used artesian wells). All thè objects of art of thc early Egyptians (statues, ornaments, tcmples, &c.) in w'ood or stone, were painted in various coloiu’s. Paintings prodiiccd 1000 b.c. show distinctly thè use of tiftecn different coloiirs. White paint was prepared from gypsum mixed with white of cgg or honey ; yellow was obtaincd with naturai arsenic sulphide or ochrc, red with ochrc or cinnabar, bine with lapis laznli (an aqueous pliosphate of aliiminiiim, mag- nesium and fcrrons iron) or with powdered coppcr sulphatc, black with animai charcoa.l ; a little ginn tragacanth was added to thè water used in mixing these colours. The art of design in Egypt datcs from prchistorie times, It became bizarrc bccanse it did not considcr thè pcrspectivc of thè human body. It is found that in design, as a generai mie thè legs and feet are drawai from thè side, thè bust from thc front, thè head in profile, and thè eye from thè front. The manufacture of glass vessels among thc ancicnt Egyptians was verj^ noteworthy. Thcy knew and used soda, potash, alum, nitro, iron, copper, tin, lead, gold, and silver. The scicntific activity of thè Egyptians was concentrated in Alexandria, which was thè most important city in thè world apart from Rome. In Alexandria thè best scicntific and philosophical institutions existed together with thè world’s largest library, containing 700,000 volumes ; but this was completely destroyed in. thè year 641 after thè Arab invasion. INDIAN AND GREEK CIVILISATION. The Egyptian civilisation was closely connected with that of thè Greeks, who obtaincd mudi of their knowledge of nature and philosophy from Egypt. We will oiily refer to those matters related to thè history of cheraistry. But for thè sake of historic accuracy it is wcll to remark that thè fundamcntal concep- tions on thè nature of thè universe, attributed by almost all historians to thè first Greck philosophers, have their reai origin in India. The Tndian civilisation was in some of its manifestations, especially in thè realm of art, supcrior to that of Egypt. It is maintained in various Indiali writings that thc whole world is composed of foiu’ elenients, water, earth, wind, and lire, and that evcrything is produced by their union ; to these thc philo- sophy of thè sect of thè Djainas added a fifth element, thc ether, wliilst Buddha (62.3-543 B.c.) introduced a sixtli, namely, consciousness ; thè Buddhists believed in Nirvana, that is, thè end of all beings and return to nullity, to uni versai emptincss, to imformed nature, and forestalling Schopenhauer and many niodern positivists they cQii- fusedly denied thè existence of niatter, maintaining that everything which exists is nothing more than a collection of subjectivc impressions. In thè Greck civilisation we find, 600 ycars b.c., Thales, one of thè seven wise iiieii of Greece, a contemporary of Solon, who consi dered thè whole of thè universe to be deri veci from one single substance, water. Very soon afterwards wc have Anaximencs, who considered air to bc thè primary material, with thè propcrty of infinite movement ; Hcraclitus (500 b.c.) maintained and prctcndcd to demonstratc that thc cssencc and origin of nature was /ire. Anaxagoras (500 b.c.), on thc contrary, believed that naturo was formed from a single, contiiiuous, and uninterrupted material, infinitely divisible without any interspacc (thè hypothesis of hnmeomeria), and not cndowed with a move- ment of its own, but with movements imparted to it by an immatcrial, supernatural intelligence. All these are vaguc rudimentary conceptions of thè unity of matter to which, after many ' Tho word “ chimica ” was already tisod in witing in tlic timo of Constant ino! he Grcat (.\.D. .'12.'')) in a hook of Julius Firmicus Matcrmis, a writcr of that oiioch, in which, writing on astronomy, he dcclarcs that thc position of thè moon, relativcly to a giveii planct. inlluenccs thè fate of those boni at thc timc, and tliiis when thè moon is near Saturo those horn at that time are destined to stndy “ clicmistry.” But it can be safely maintained that thè word chemistry was wcll known to thè Kmpcror Diocletiah (.\.D. 300), who stateti with pridc that he had caused to be bumt all thè Egyptian books whicli spoke of thè chemistry of gold and silver.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28134187_0035.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
