A Short History of Chemistry

"These few names serve to give some idea of the character of the Greek alchemists. ... had been, during this period, the centre of science and philosophy. ...Under Roman rule and depredations it gradually declined, until by the fourth century no buildings of importance were left in it except the Temple of Serapis... the great bulwark of Greek culture and of medical and alchemical study. ...[T]his also was destroyed in the reign of Theodosius... The Serapeum of Memphis and the Temple of Ptah, where the medical laboratories and the workshops of the alchemists were probably to be found, were destroyed at the same time. And thus the learned men of Greece and Egypt were dispersed, suffering a political and a religious persecution."

"The light of science was transferred to , communicated in the sixth and seventh centuries to the Arabians, and by them in turn to their brothers of and Spain."

"The name alchemy, al-embic, al-cohol, etc., are of Greek origin, with the Arabic article prefixed; and they point to the source of the knowledge possessed by the Arabians when Europe was in darkness."

"[T]he ancients... had a sort of practical or technical chemistry. In certain branches of metallurgy, in glass-making, dyeing, and tanning, they attained decided proficiency."

"[A]s to the apparatus used in the work shops... processes used were those requiring the aid of fire; s, furnaces... [T]he treatise of Zosimus, "On Instruments and Furnaces,"... claims to describe the various appliances he saw in the temple at Memphis. These... apparatus were made of gold or bronze or clay-ware. The was a crude form of distilling apparatus, and comes from the Alexandrian period. The water-bath, or '... was said to have been invented by ... The blow-pipe and are both figured among these drawings, as well as on very early Egyptian and other monuments."

"Six metals were well known, — gold, silver, tin, , copper, and . Homer mentions these six, and the Bible does also; so they seem to have been in use from a very early antiquity. Mercury was afterwards added to the list."

"The derivation of the word metal is from the Greek word μεραλλάω, "to search after," and the noun first meant or referred to mines."

"The ancients, especially the Egyptians, were very skilful workers in metals. They made gold wire and leaf, and fine inlaid work, and very beautiful ornaments."

"Gold was the first known of the metals apparently. Its color, lustre, and malleability attracted the attention of the early peoples. Its occurrence free in nature and in a bright pure state would doubtless account for its being utilized first of the metals. Early vessels were made of it; and it was used for coating, or plating, over wood and other materials."

"Silver seems to have been known at very nearly the same time as gold. It also occurs free, and was easily prepared ready for use. Then follow copper, , tin, and ."

"The purification of gold and silver by the process was known before the Christian era, but there was no means of separating gold from silver. The alloy of the two metals, as they are often found together in nature, was regarded as a peculiar metal itself, and was called . The oldest coins we have are made of this electron, or pale gold. This alloy was made artificially out of three parts of gold and one of silver."

"Copper was in use before iron, and was called χαλκός by Homer. From this we get the word and others. The Romans got it first from the Island of Cyprus, and called it aes cyprium; and from this it became cuprum, and in English copper. It was used mainly in alloys."

"Aurichalcum, or golden copper, they called the alloy made from copper and an ore of zinc; and this is known now as brass."

"They were ignorant of the metal in the free state."

"was an alloy of copper and tin, and was known also before metallic tin. This was very strong, and much easier to work into shape than iron, and hence was a substitute for it. Weapons and many utensils were made from it."

"was known in very early times; Lepsius maintaining that the Egyptians used it five thousand years ago in the preparation of the harder instruments which they required for... work, as in building the pyramids, and engraving precious stones. Iron was coined by the Greeks, and in the time of Homer they used it for axes and ploughshares. As it rusts so easily very few early implements have come down to us. The early Egyptians understood how to harden or temper iron."

"Steel was made in India at a very early period. The difficulty of reducing iron from its ores, and the fact that it does not occur free, would account for its not being used more largely and at an earlier time."

"Tin was obtained from India and Spain and afterwards from Britain. It was one of the articles of commerce used in trade by the ns. Mirrors were made of it, and copper vessels were coated over with it. and tin seem to have been regarded as varieties of the same metal, and were called plumbum nigrum and plumbum candidum. Pliny speaks of conveying water in leaden pipes, and Homer makes much earlier mention of the metal. It came mainly from Britain and Spain; and from this latter country mercury was also gotten, and was used, as now, in extracting gold from its ores. The first mention of it was in 300 B.C. Native mercury was called argentum vivum (quicksilver), and mercury distilled from was known as hydrargyrum (ὔδωρ). Various compounds of these metals were known and used."

"The two oxides cuprous oxide & cupric oxide of copper were used in glass-making; was manufactured and put to several uses; was used as a cosmetic by the Athenian ladies, and found further use as a medicine; red lead was used as a paint; stibium, or native antimony sulphide, was used as a paint for the eyelashes, and is still used for that purpose in the East under the name of kohl; black oxide of manganese was used in glass-making, especially for clearing up darkened masses, and so got its name of ; the native carbonate of zinc was also known and used; the sulphides of , and , were well-known pigments."

"According to Sir Humphry Davy, the ancient Greeks and Romans had almost the same colors as those employed by the great Italian masters at the period of the revival of arts in Italy."

"Soda and were both used in washing and whitening clothes, in glass-making, and in saponifying the fats for soap and s."

"Lime was burned and mortar made from it, though the earliest cementing material was bitumen."

"Bitumen and were also used for torches and embalming."

"The art of glass-making is exceedingly old, and apparently originated with the Egyptians. They reached a high degree of proficiency in its preparation, knowing how to color it, and also how to prepare imitation precious stones from it. Clear, transparent, colorless glass was not known by them, however."

"[The Egyptians] were... skilful in the production of clay-wares and pottery. The Egyptians decorated these wares with colored enamels. The Etruscans showed great skill in the ceramic art. From the earliest ruins have been unearthed specimens of pottery. The Chinese, alone of early nations, knew how to make ."

"Dyeing was carried to great perfection. Many vegetable and animal coloring matters were known. s were used, and the effects produced were very beautiful. Paints were also prepared, and applied with brushes. The following mineral colors were known at the time of Pliny : , , , smalt, , , lampblack, , , and ."

"Leather was tanned, at first by means of oil, and later with bark, very much after the manner in use now. The hair was removed by means of lime, as is still done. Some leather, said to have been tanned at the time of Solomon, has been found in modern times fairly well preserved."

"Soap was made by mixing wood ashes with animal fats, thus saponifying them. It was used as a kind of pomatum; s, oils, etc., were rubbed upon the body in the place of soap as used in modern times. Both hard and soft soap were known. Burnt lime was often added in the manufacture."

"Many substances were used as medicaments; some of these might be called chemical preparations, showing an early union between chemistry and pharmacy. Lead plasters were made from and oil, iron rust was used, also alum, soda, and bluestone. The use of sulphur as a disinfectant is mentioned in the well-known passage in Homer, in which he speaks of its being burnt to drive away the evil spirits from a home. It was also used for bleaching purposes. The only acid known was , or vinegar; and its solvent power seems to have been greatly over-estimated."

"About the middle of the eighth century the caliph Al-Mansour... founded the city of Bagdad. ...He founded an academy or university at Bagdad, which became very celebrated. Pupils and professors flocked to it from all quarters, and they numbered at one time as many as six thousand. Hospitals and laboratories were erected, and experimental science began to be properly recognized. ...the successors of Al-Mansour continued his work. Ancient books were collected, and... their store of learning was eagerly saved. For several centuries this great institution of learning flourished."

"At Fez and Morocco academies were founded, but Spain was still more favored. The caliphate of Cordova was probably the most prosperous and splendid of the Moorish possessions, and the University of Cordova became the most celebrated in the world. It was attended by Christian students from all Western Europe, as well as by Moors. Its library contained two hundred and eighty thousand volumes, the catalogue filling forty-four volumes. The university produced one hundred and fifty authors. Other universities and libraries were scattered through Spain during this, its golden age."

"Islamism prohibited magic and all arts of divination, and also all dissection of the human body after death. In the hands of the Arabians, therefore, alchemy was chiefly applied to the preparation of medicines. During this period there were two especially famous authors and workers, Geber and Avicenna."

"Geber (eighth century) was a Sabean of Mesopotamia, of Greek parentage, but a convert to Islam. His name in full was Abou-Moussah-Dschafer-al-Sofi. ...He gathered together all the chemical knowledge attainable, systematized it in a measure, and sought to apply it to medicine."

"Several manuscripts are to be found in the libraries of Europe, purporting to contain his writings. From what source he derived his knowledge we do not know... His works were translated into Latin in 1529, and into English in 1678. There are four treatises : 1. "Of the Search for Perfection;" 2. "Of the Sum of Perfection;" 3. "Of the Invention of Verity;" 4. "Of Furnaces." ...The object of his work seems to have been the discovery of the ...He was especially interested in finding out the properties of substances, and experimenting upon the possibility of putting them to use as medicines. In his works we find various additions ...to the chemical knowledge ...possessed by the ancients."

"He considered all metals as compounds of mercury and sulphur in varying proportions, an opinion which he says he derived from the ancients... Gold and silver were the perfect metals, the others imperfect."

"He frequently made use of sulphur, and knew many of its properties. Geber writes... " Sulphur is a substance, homogeneous, and of a very strong composition. Although it is a fatty substance, it is not possible to distil its oil from it. It is lost on calcining. It is volatile, like a spirit. Every metal calcined with sulphur augments its weight in a palpable manner. All the metals can be combined with this body except gold, which combines with it with difficulty. Mercury produces with sulphur, by way of sublimation, Uzufur or . Sulphur generally blackens the metals. It does not change mercury into gold nor into silver, as has been imagined by some philosophers.""

"As to , [Geber] says: "Arsenic is composed of a subtile matter, and of a nature analogous to that of sulphur. It is fixed by the metals as sulphur; and one prepares it, like the last, by the calcination of minerals.""

"As a proof of the possibility of transmutation, he gives an example of copper being changed into gold. " In copper mines we see a certain water which flows out and carries with it thin scales of copper, which (by a continued and long-continued course) it washes and cleanses. But after such water ceases to flow... in three years' time... digested with the heat of the sun; and among these scales the purest gold is found..." Very plausible reasoning from defective premises, as Thomson observes."

"He understood the purification of bodies by crystallization, solution, and filtration, calling the latter process distillation through a filter. The majority of the chemical processes in use up to the eighteenth century were known to Geber."

"The alkaline carbonates were known to [Geber], and he prepared caustic soda. He knew also saltpetre and sal ammoniac, and evidently made use of the mineral acids, nitric, sulphuric, and . He made use of these as solvents, and thus the wet processes of modern chemistry began to substitute the furnaces of the old."

"Various s or sulphates were spoken of by [Geber], and also and purified common . Certain compounds of mercury were prepared by him; among others, the chloride or corrosive sublimate and the red oxide."

"[Geber's] method of preparing , which he discovered. "Dissolve silver calcined in solutive water (nitric acid)... which being done, coct it in a phial with a long neck, the orifice of which must be left unstopped, for one day only, until a third part of the water be consumed. This being effected, set it with its vessel in a cold place, and then it is converted into small fusible stones, like crystal.""

"His [Geber's] philosophy was not very advanced, as he ascribed the various phenomena he observed to occult causes."

"Avicenna... [exerted] the same influence over medicine that Geber did over chemistry. He was called the Prince of Physicians, and as an authority ranked next to Aristotle and Galen. ...He was the author of the "Canones Medieincœ," a work which was translated into many languages, and was the standard medical authority for several centuries. ...He divided minerals (chemical compounds) into: 1. Infusible minerals; 2. Fusible and malleable (metals); 3. Sulphurous minerals; 4. Salts. There was little that was original in the canons of Avicenna, the matter coming mainly from the works of Galen and Aristotle, but there was a clear and orderly arrangement..."

"Avenzoar (eleventh century), a Spanish physician, is quoted as making some additions to the knowledge of medicinal preparations."

"In the beginning of the twelfth century Averrhoes attained prominence as a physician and chemist."

"From the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries... decadence of the Moorish power in Europe was... rapid. ...The Arabs... were driven from Spain, and Bagdad was conquered by the Mongols. There was a decline, and then almost complete cessation from literary work. Still, for some centuries... [t]heir writings were translated into Latin and other languages, and formed the chief treasures of medical and scientific men. Their modes of thought and work were often imitated by their monkish successors."

"The characteristics of the age were a shameful mental imprisonment and caging of the human reason. Free striving for higher light, or criticism of accepted authorities, was looked upon as high treason to the Holy Church, and punished by the Inquisition. Those who dared to think clearly for themselves, wrote mysteriously for their fellows as a measure of safety."

"Albertus Magnus... was the first eminent German chemist. ...He and his pupil, Thomas Aquinas, are said to have constructed a brazen statue which he animated with his elixir vitœ. It was capable of walking, talking, etc., like a living being, and was very useful as a servant. It was unfortunately very talkative and noisy. It one day so enraged Thomas Aquinas, by constantly interrupting him while he was deeply engaged with mathematical problems, that he took a hammer and broke it in pieces. Of course this is a fanciful account of a noisily creaking automaton, made by these two..."

"Albertus Magnus lectured in , and great numbers of students flocked to hear him. He skilfully managed to escape the persecution which befell so many of his brother monks who dabbled in the occult art, and was high in the odor of sanctity. His principal writings were the following: "De Rebus Metallicis et Mineralibus;" "De Alchymia;" "Secretorum Tractatus;" "Breve Compendium de Ortu Metallorum;" "Concordantia;" "Philosophorum de Lapide." ...He was the first to use the term "affinitas" to designate the cause of the combination of the metals with sulphur and other elements. The term "" was also first used by him. He regarded the transmutation of the metals as an assured possibility. He did not regard the metals as distinctly differing substances, but varieties of the same species. "The metals are all essentially identical; they differ only in form. Now, the form brings out accidental causes, which the experimenter must try to discover and remove, as far as possible. Accidental causes impede the regular union of sulphur and mercury; for every metal is a combination of sulphur and mercury. A diseased womb may give birth to a weakly, leprous child, although the seed was good; the same is true of the metals which are generated in the bowels of the earth, which is a womb for them; any cause whatever, or local trouble, may produce an imperfect metal. When pure sulphur comes in contact with pure mercury, after more or less time, and by the permanent action of nature, gold is produced." His views are in the main those of Geber, though he adds water to mercury and sulphur as one of the constituents of the metals."