this is said to be the first place in which the word alchemy is used. But Vossius asserts that we ought, in the place here re. ferred to, instead of alchemia, to read chemiat: be this as it may, we can have no doubt of alchemia being compounded of the Arabic al (the) and chemia, to denote excellence and superiority, as in almanack, al-koran, and other words. Whether the Greeks invent. ed, or received from the Egyptians, the doctrine concerning the transmutation of metals, or whether the Arabians were the first who professed it, is uncertain. To change iron, lead, tin, copper, or quicksilver into gold, seems to be a problem more likely to animate mankind to attempt its solution, than either that of squaring the circle, or of finding out perpetual motion; and as it has never yet been proved, perhaps never can be proved, to be an impossible problem, it ought not to be esteemed a matter of wonder, that the first chemical books we meet with, are almost entirely employed in alchemical inquiries.

Chemistry, with the rest of the sciences, being banished from the other parts of the world, took refuge among the Arabians, Geber, in the seventh, or as some will have it in the eighth, and others in the ninth century, wrote several chemical, or rather alchemical books, in Arabic. In these works of Geber are contained such useful directions concerning the manner of conducting distillation, calcination, sublimation, and other chemical operations; and such pertinent observations respecting various minerals, as justly seem to entitle him to the character, which some have given him, of be. ing the father of chemistry; though, in one of the most celebrated of his works, he modestly acknowledges himself to have done little else than abridge the doctrine of the ancients, concerning the transmutation of metals. Whether he was preceded by Mesue and Rhazes, or followed by them, is not in the present inquiry a matter of much importance to determine; since the forementioned physicians, as well as Avicenna, who, from all accounts, was pos. terior to Geber, speak of many chemical preparations, and thus thoroughly establish the opinion, that medical chemistry, as well as alchemy, was in those dark ages well understood by the Arabians. Towards the beginning of the thirteenth century, Albert the Great, in Germany, and Roger Bacon, in England, began to cul. tivate chemistry with success, excited thereto, probably by the perusal of some Arabic books, which about that time were trans. lated into Latin. These two monks, especially the latter, seem to have as far exceeded the common standard of learning in the age in which they lived, as any philosophers who have appeared in any country, either before their time or since. They were succeeded in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, by a great many eminent men, both of our own country and foreigners, who, in applying themselves to alchemy, made, incidentally, many useful discoveries in various parts of chemistry: such were Arnoldus de Villa Nova, in France; our countryman George Ripley; Raymund Lully, of Majorca, who first introduced, or at least more largely explained, the notion of an universal medicine; and Basile Valentine, whose excellent book, intitled Currus Antimonii Triumphalis, has con. tributed more than any thing else, to the introduction of that most useful mineral into the regular practice of most physicians in Europe; it has given occasion also to a variety of beneficial, as well as a circumstance which might be expected, when so ticklish a mineral fell into the hands of interested empirics), to many per. nicious nostrums. To this, rather than to the arrogant severity with which Basile Valentine treats the physicians, his cotempora. ries, may we attribute the censure of Boerhaave; who, in speak. ing of him, says, "he erred chiefly in this, that he commended every antimonial preparation, than which nothing can be more foolish, fallacious, and dangerous; but this fatal error has infected every medical school from that time to this*."

The attempting to make gold or silver by alchemical processes, had been prohibited by a constitution of Pope John the 22d, who was elevated to the pontificate in the year 1316+; and within about one hundred and twenty years from the death of Friar Bacon, the nobility and gentry of England had become so infatu. ated with the notions of alchemy, and wasted so much of their sub. stance in search of the philosopher's stone, as to render the inter. position of government necessary to restrain their folly. The fol

* Boerh. Ch. vol. 1. p. 18.

+ Kirch. Mun. Sub. 1. xi. sect, iv. c. 1.

B

lowing act of parliament, which Lord Coke calls the shortest he ever met with, was passed 5 H. 4. "None from henceforth shall use to multiply gold or silver, or use the craft of multiplication; and if any the same do, he shall incur the pain of felony." It has been suggested, that the reason of passing this act, was not an apprehension lest men should ruin their fortunes by endeavouring to make gold, but a jealousy lest government should be above asking aid of the subject. "After Raymund Lully, and Sir George Ripley, had so largely multiplied gold, the lords and commons, conceiving some danger that the regency, having such immense treasure at command, would be above asking aid of the sub. ject, and might become too arbitrary and tyrannical, made an act against multiplying gold and silver*." This act, whatever might be the occasion of passing it, though it gave some obstruction to the public exercise of alchemy, yet it did not cure the disposition for it in individuals, nor remove the general credulity; for in the 35 H. 6, Letters patent were granted to several people, by which they were permitted to investigate an universal medicine, and to perform the transmutation of metals into real gold and silver, with a non-obstante of the forementioned statute, which remained in full force till the year 1689, when being conceived to operate to the discouragement of the melting and refining of metals, it was formally repealed t.

The beginning of the sixteenth century was remarkable for a great revolution produced in the European practice of physic, by means of chemistry. Then it was that Paracelsus, following the steps of Basile Valentine, and growing famous for curing the vene. real disease, the leprosy, and other virulent disorders, principally by the means of mercurial and antimonial preparations, wholly rejected the Galenical pharmacy, and substituted in its stead the che. mical. He had a professor's chair given him by the magistracy of Basil, was the first who read public lectures in medicine and che. mistry, and subjected animal and vegetable, as well as mineral sub. stances to an examination by fire.

It seldom happens that a man of but common abilities, and in

* Opera Mineralia explicata, p. 10.

+ Mr. Boyle is said by his interest to have procured the repeal of this singular statute, and to have been probably induced thereto, in consequence of his having been persuaded of the possibility of the transmutation of metals into gold. See his Life, prefixed to the folio edition of his works, p. 83.

the most retired scenes of life, observes such a strict uniformity of conduct, as not to afford prejudice and partiality sufficient materials for drawing his character in different colours; but such a great and irregular genius as Paracelsus, could not fail of becoming alike, the subject of the extremes of panegyric and satire. He has accord. ingly been esteemed by some, a second Esculapius; others have thought that he was possessed of more impudence than merit, and that his reputation was more owing to the brutal singularity of his conduct, than to the cures he performed. He treated the physi. cians of his time with the most sottish vanity and illiberal insolence, telling them, that the very down of his bald pate, had more know. ledge than all their writers; the buckles of his shoes more learning than Galen or Avicenna, and his beard more experience than all their universities*. He revived the extravagant doctrine of Raymund Lully, concerning an universal medicine, and untimely sunk into his grave at the age of forty-seven, whilst he boasted himself to be in possession of secrets able to prolong the present period of human life, to that of the antediluvians.

But in whatever estimation the merit of Paracelsus as a chemist may be held, certain it is, that his fame excited the envy of some, the emulation of others, and the industry of all. Those who attacked, and those who defended his principles, equally promoted the knowledge of chemistry; which from his time, by attracting the notice of physicians, began every where to be systematically treated, and more generally understood.

Soon after the death of Paracelsus, which happened in the year 1541, the arts of mining and fluxing metals, which had been prac. tised in most countries from the earliest times, but had never been explained by any writers in a scientific manner, received great illustration from the works of Georgius Agricola, a German physician. The Greeks and Romans had left no treatises worth men. tioning upon the subject; and though a book or two had appeared in the German language, and one in the Italian, relative to metallurgy, before Agricola published his twelve books De Re Metallica, yet he is justly esteemed the first author of reputation in that branch of chemistry.

Lazarus Erckern (assay-master general of the empire of Ger. many) followed Agricola in the same pursuit. His works were

• Preface to his book entitled Paragranum, where there is more in the same style.

first published at Prague, in 1574, and an English translation of them by Sir John Pettus, came out at London, in 1683. The works of Agricola and Erckern are still highly esteemed, though several others have been published, chiefly in Germany, upon the same subject, since their time. Amongst these we may reckon Schindler's Art of Assaying Ores and Metals; the metallurgic works of Orschall; the works of Henckell; of Schutter; of Cramer; of Lehman; and of Gellert. Germany, indeed, has for a long time been the great school of metallurgy for the rest of Europe; and we, in this country, owe the present flourishing condition of our mines, especially of our copper mines, as well as of our brass manufactory, to the wise policy of Queen Elizabeth, in granting great privileges to Daniel Houghsetter, Christopher Schutz, and other Germans; whom she had invited into England, in order to instruct her subjects in the art of metallurgy.

It was not, however, till towards the middle of the last century, that general chemistry began to be cultivated in a liberal and philosophical manner. So early as the year 1645, several ingenious persons in London, in order to divert their thoughts from the hor. rors of the civil war, which had then broken out, had formed themselves into a society, and held weekly meetings, in which they treated of, what was then called, the new, or experimental philo. sophy. These meetings were continued in London, till the esta. blishment of the Royal Society, in 1662; and before that time, by the removal of some of the original members to Oxford, similar meetings were held there, and those studies brought into repute in that university. Mr. Boyle, who had entered upon his chemical studies about the year 1647, was a principal person in the Oxford meetings; he published at that place, his Sceptical Chemist, in 1661, and by his various writings and experiments, greatly contributed to the introducing into England, a taste for rational chemistry.

Next to Boyle, or perhaps before him as a chemist, stands his cotemporary, the unfortunate Beccher, whose Physica Subter. ranea, justly entitled opus sine pari, was first published in 1669. After having suffered various persecutions in Germany, he came over into England, and died at London, in 1682, at the age of 57. He resided some time before his death in Cornwall, which he calls the mineral school, owning that, from a teacher, he was there be. come a learner. He was the author of many improvements in the manner of working mines, and of fluxing metals; in particular, he