The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
Raeburn. pinxt.Dean, sculpt.JOSEPH BLACK, M.D. F.R.S.E.London. Published by Henry Colburn & Richard Bentley. 1830.
THE
HISTORY
OF
CHEMISTRY.
BY
THOMAS THOMSON, M.D. F.R.S.E.
PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON:
HENRY COLBURN, AND RICHARD BENTLEY,
NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
1830.
iC. WHITING, BEAUFORT HOUSE, STRAND.
ii
PREFACE.
It may be proper, perhaps, to state here, in a veryfew words, the objects which the author had in viewin drawing up the following History of Chemistry.Alchymy, or the art of making gold, with which thescience originated, furnishes too curious a portion ofthe aberrations of the human intellect to be passed overin silence. The writings of the alchymists are so voluminousand so mystical, that it would have affordedmaterials for a very long work. But I was preventediiifrom extending this part of the subject to any greaterlength than I have done, by considering the smallquantity of information which could have been gleanedfrom the reveries of these fanatics or impostors; Ithought it sufficient to give a general view of the natureof their pursuits: but in order to put it in thepower of those who feel inclined to prosecute such investigations,I have given a catalogue of the mosteminent of the alchymists and a list of their works, sofar as I am acquainted with them. This cataloguemight have been greatly extended. Indeed it wouldhave been possible to have added several hundrednames. But I think the works which I have quotedare more than almost any reasonable man would thinkit worth his while to peruse; and I can state, from experience,that the information gained by such a perusalwill very seldom repay the trouble.
The account of the chemical arts, with which theancients were acquainted, is necessarily imperfect;because all arts and trades were held in so much contemptby them that they did not think it worth theirwhile to make themselves acquainted with the processes.ivMy chief guide has been Pliny, but many ofhis descriptions are unintelligible, obviously from hisignorance of the arts which he attempts to describe.Thus circumstanced, I thought it better to be shortthan to waste a great deal of paper, as some have done,on hypothesis and conjecture.
The account of the Chemistry of the Arabians isalmost entirely limited to the works of Geber, which Iconsider to be the first book on Chemistry that everwas published, and to constitute, in every point ofview, an exceedingly curious performance. I wasmuch struck with the vast number of facts