Contents.

Chapter I

Introduction - Ancient Science - Origin of Chemistry - Definition of the Name - Definitions of Chemical Science

Chapter II.

Early ideas relative to the formation of the World - Thales of Miletus - Later Beliefs in his Doctrine - Anaximenes - Empedokles - Herakleitos - Anaxagoras - Demokritos - The Atomic Theory - Aristotle - The Ethereal Medium - Transmutation of the Elements - The Four-element Theory - Mode of interpreting it - Cause of the absence of Natural Science among the Ancients

Chapter III.

Practical Chemistry of the Ancients - Metallurgy: Gold, Silver, Electrum, Copper, Bronze, Tin

Chapter IV.

Iron, Lead, Quicksilver - Colors used for Painting and Dyeing - Glass - Certain Minerals known to the Ancients - Miscellaneous Processes

Chapter V.

Association of the seven Metals with the seven greater Heavenly Bodies - Consequent introduction of symbols into the history of Matter

Chapter VI.

The Alchemists - Origin of Alchemy - Hermes Trismegistus - Greek MSS. on Alchemy - Their probable Authorship and Age.

Chapter VII.

Latin and English MSS. on Alchemy - Sources from which the earlier Alchemists acquired knowledge - Arabic learning during the Middle Ages - Geber

Chapter VIII.

Avicenna - Albertus Magnus - S. Thomas Aquinas - Roger Bacon - Raymond Lulli - Arnoldus de Villa Nova - George Ripley - Basil Valentine

Chapter IX.

General Character of Alchemy and the Alchemists - The Pretiosa Margarita Novella - An Alchemistical Allegory - Alchemical Symbols - Paracelsus - Libavius

Chapter X.

Early Ideas concerning the Process of Combustion - Association of Nitre with the Air, so far as the part they play in Combustion is, concerned - Hooke’s Theory of Combustion - Mayow’s Experiments - Early Pneumatic Chemistry - Proof of the Analogy existing between Respiration and Combustion

Chapter XI.

The Theory of Phlogiston - Comparison with Hooke’s Theory of Combustion - Early Ideas regarding Calcination - Stephen Hales - His Pneumatic Experiments - Boerhaave - Conclusion.

Notes

Illustrations

1. • Alchemical Representation of the Transmutation of the Elements
2. • Gold Washing: Fusion and Weighing of the Metal, from early Egyptian Tomb
3. • Furnace and Blow-pipe, from Egyptian Tomb
4. • Egyptian Bellows. Fifteenth Century B.c
5. • Smelting Furnace and Bellows used by Native Indians in the present day.
6. • Crux ansata of the Egyptians; Assyrian Symbol of Astarte; Later Symbol of the planet Venus
7. • Hermes Trismegistus, from the Temple at Pselcis
8. • An Alembic, and Symbols from Greek MSS (manuscripts) on Alchemy
9. • Alchemical MS (manuscript) of the Thirteenth Century. - British Museum
10. • English MS.(manuscript) on Alchemy - Fifteenth Century
11. • Distillation apparatus, from Geber’s works
12. • An Alchemist hermetically Sealing a Flask containing a Solution of Gold
13. • Alchemical Representation of Processes
14. • Alchemical Representation of Processes
15. • Allegorical Representation of Transmutation
16. • Allegorical Representation of Transmutation
17. • Symbols of Lead, from Italian MS. (manuscript) of the Seventeenth Century
18. • Designs from Mangetus (Bibliotheca Chemika Curiosa)
19. • John Mayow from his “Tractatus Quinque Medico-Physici, 1674.”
20. • Early Experiment in Pneumatic Chemistry
21. • Early Experiment in Physiological Chemistry
22. • Hale’s Method of Measuring a Gas
23. • Measurement of the Elastic Force of the Gas produced by Fermenting Peas
24. • Hale’s Pneumatic Experiments