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CHAPTER V
OF THE CHEMISTRY OF TIlE ANCIENTS
1. IF we will be guided by the greatest number of etymologists
the needs no deep research to demonstrate the antiquity of chemistry.
Its name seems to declare its origin. It is agreed almost by all,
that it was first cultivated in Egypt. the country of Cham, of
whom it is supposed to have taken its name, Chemia, sive Chamia,
the science of Cham. In the 105th psalm, Egypt is called, “the
land of Cham." According to Bock-hart, the Coptes still call
themselves Chemia, or Chami; and Plutarch. in his isis and osiris,
speaking of a district of Egypt, names it Chamia, quasi Chimia.
But without entering here into a philological discussion, I shall
content myself with considering whether the ancients were chemists,
and to what degree; and hope to make it appear, that they not
only knew all of that art, which we do, but had such insight in
it, as we have not at present.*
*must be allowed, that the excellent
remarks in this treatise, reflect much light and credit on the
ancients; but it should be borne in mind, that they apply to a
period, which is now itself enrolled with antiquity. Chemistry
particularly, at the time these remarks were made, was a mere
confused jumb1e of experiment and arrangement, and scarce deserved
the dignifying title of art or science. Within a very few years,
the discoveries and improvements, have been so nu
2 The first instance that occurs for ascertaining the antiquity of the
science, is of a very remote date. Nobody, I think, will doubt,
hut Tubal-Cain, and those who with him found out the way of working
in brass and iron, must have been able chemists. It was impossible
to work upon these metals, without knowing the art of digging
them out of the mine, of excavating them, and of refining arid
separating them from the ore, all which are chemical operations,
and must have been at first invented by those who excelled in
the art, however afterward they might be put in practice by the
meanest artizans. Those who are engaged in the working of copper
mines, for instance, and know that the metal must pass above a
dozen times through the fire, before it can acquire its proper
colour and ductility, will easily enter into this sentiment. It
is needless to bring together here all the passages of heathen
historians, which speak of Vulcan, in the same manner as the sacred
author does of Tubal-Cain, and to show the reader from the resemblance,
and as it were identity of names, that all of them relate to one
and the same person. It is enough to observe that those authors
represent Vulcan as skilled in operating upon iron, copper, gold,
silver, and all the other bodies capable of sustaining the action
of lire.
3. I likewise pass over whatever carries in it the air
of fable: such as the story of the golden fleece; the golden apples
that grew in the gardens of the ilesperides ; the reports of Manethon
and Josephus with relation to Seth’s pillars ; and come to
facts real and established: and for the sake of chronology, I
shall still adhere to the sacred text, in contemplating an action
of Moses, who having broken the golden calf, reduced it into powder
to be mingled with water, and given to the Israelites to drink;
in one word, rendered the gold potable : an operation so difficult,
that it is entirely impracticable to most of the chemists of our
days, and owned by Boerhave to be of so exalted a kind, that
it is unknown at present to the most skilful. Yet it must be admitted,
that it hath been looked upon by some able chemists as practicable,
who at the same time acknowledge it to be a most remarkable proof
of Moses’ eminent skill in all the wisdom of Egypt. For how,
without the aid of chemistry, could Moses have dissolved the golden
calf, and that too without applying corrosives, which would have
poisoned all who had afterward drank of the waters? Yet this was
to be done, and in a short time too, though there be but one way
of doing it. Frederick the third, king of Denmark, curious to
put this operation in practice, engaged some able chemists to
attempt it. After many trials they at last succeeded, but it was
in
merous and important, as to give a new character to this department of
science, and exalt it to a degree beyond all comparison with antiquity.
See notes and observations at the end of the volume.
following the method of Moses, by first reducing the
gold into small parts by means of fire, and then pounding in a
mortar, (along with water) till it was so far dissolved, us to
become potable. This fact cannot be called in question, nor has
it any thing supernatural in it We know that Moses was instructed
in all the learning of the Egyptians, among whom the sciences
were cultivated with all manner of success, and from whom the
most eminent philosophers of Greece derived their knowledge.
4. How they formed that cement, which they applied
in rearing those monuments that still subsist, remains a secret
to us ; though it be past all doubt, that they prepared it in
a chemical way, so hidden however to us, that we daily lament
the loss of it. The numberless mummies which still endure, after
so long a course of ages, ought to ascertain to the Egyptians
the glory of having carried chemistry to a degree of perfection
attained but by few. In their mummies alone, there is such a series
of operations, that some of them still remain unknown, notwithstanding
all the attempts of some of the ablest moderns to recover them.
The art of embalming bodies, and preserving them for many ages,
is absolutely lost; and never could have been carried so far as
it was by the Egyptians, without the greatest skill in chemistry.*
All the essays to restore this art, have proved ineffectual, nor
have the reiterated analyses made of mummies, to discover the
ingredients of which they were composed, had any better success.
Some moderns have attempted, by certain preparations, to preserve
dead bodies entire, but to no purpose. The mummies of Lewis de
Bus, who was regarded as eminent in that way, are already in a
state of corruption. There were also in those mummies of Egypt,
many things besides, which full within the verge. of chemistry:
such as their gilding so very fresh, as if it were but of fifty
years standing; and their stained silk, so vivid in its colours,
though after a series of thirty ages. In the museum at London,
there is a mummy covered all over with fillets of granated glass,
various in colour, which shows that this people at that time,
understood not only the making of glass, but could paint it to
their liking, it may be remarked here, that the ornaments of glass
with which that
*The art of making mummies, has been represented by some travellers, as
a mere local advantage of the soil and climate of Egypt, where
the exhalations arising from the surface of the country, constitute
such a body in the atmosphere, as even to prevent the vapours
from forming and descending in rain. The remarks tend to impart
an idea, that these exhalations are so rapid, as to carry off
the humours from a dead body to such a degree, as to prevent putrefaction
taking place. These exhalations are represented to be of a kind
of petrifying quality, whereby the flesh of a dead body is converted
into a kind of stone. home experiments were tried in some of
the desert sands, on the dead bodies of some small animals, which
seemed to confirm the opinion.
mummy is bedecked,
are tinged with the same colours, and set off in the same taste,
as the dyes in which -almost all other mummies are painted; so
that it is probable, this kind of ornaments being very expensive,
was reserved for personages of the first rank only whilst others,
who could not afford this, contented themselves with an imitation
of it in painting.
5.
It would be easy to make a more extensive enumeration of the particulars
of the chemical process, which concurred to the composition of
a mummy ; but I proceed to take notice of their manner of painting
upon linen, which if I mistake not, is still a secret to us. After
having drawn the outlines of their design upon the piece of linen,
they fill each compartment of it with different sorts of gums,
prepared to absorb the various colours; so that none of them could
be distinguished from the whiteness of the cloth. Then they dipped
it for a moment in a caldron full of boiling liquor, proper for
the purpose: and anew it thence painted in all the colours they
intended. And what was remarkable, the colours neither decayed
by time, nor moved in the washing: the caustic, impregnating the
liquor wherein it was dipped, having penetrated and fixed every
colour intimately through the whole contexture of the cloth. This
single instance is sufficient to give us a very high conception
of the progress that chemistry had made among the Egyptians, though
their history affords a thousand others of the kind, not to be
wondered at among a people so very active and industrious, where
even the lame, the blind and the maimed, were in constant employment,
and so little subject to envy, that they inscribed their discoveries
in the arts and sciences, upon pillars reared in holy places,
in order to omit nothing that might contribute to the public utility.
The emperor Adrian attests this first part of their character,
in a letter written to the consul Servianus, upon presenting him
with three very curious cups of glass, which, like a pigeon’s
neck, reflected, on whatever side they were viewed, a variety
of colours representing those of the precious stone called obsidianum,
which some commentators have imagined to be the cat’s-eye,
and others the opal.
6. This
art of imitating precious stones, was not peculiar to the Egyptians;
the Greeks, who indeed derived their knowledge from those great
masters, were also very skilful in this branch of chemistry. They
could give to a composition of chrystal, all the different tints
of any precious stone they wanted to imitate. Pliny, Theophrastus,
and many others, give instances of this; but they most remarkably
excelled in an exact imitation of the ruby, the hyacinth, the
emerald, and the sapphire.
7.
Chemistry being a principal branch of medicine, it will not be
amiss to mention some particulars, wherein the Egyptians have
contributed to the perfection of that science. I set aside the
history of Esculapius, who was instructed by Mercury or Hermes.
Their pharmacy depended much upon chemistry; witness their manner
of extracting oil, and preparing opium, for alleviating of acute
pains or relieving the mind from melancholy thoughts. Homer seems
to have had this last in view, when he introduces Helen as ministering
to Telernachus a medical preparation of this kind. They also made
a composition or preparation of clay or fuller’s earth, adapted
to the relief of many disorders. particularly to render the fleshy
parts dry, and thence to cure the dropsy and the hemorrhoides.
They knew all the different ways of composing salts, nitre, and
alum, sal cyreniac or ammoniac, so called from being found in
the environs of the temple of Jupiter Ammon. They made use of
the litharge of silver, the rust of iron, and calcined alum, in
the cure of ulcers, cuts, biles, deflux ions of the eyes, pains
of the head, &c. and of pitch against the bite of serpents.
They successfully applied caustics. They knew every different
way of preparing plants, or herbs, or grain, whether for medicine
or beverage. Beer in particular, had its origin among them. Their
ungents were of the highest estimation, and most lasting; and
their using remedies, taken from metallic substances, is so manifest
in the writings of Pliny and Dioscorides, that it would be needless
to enter upon them here. Dioscorides often makes mention. of their
metallic preparations, such as burnt lead, ceruse, verdigrise,
and burnt antimony; all which they made use of in their plasters,
and other external applications. It should be observed here, that
I have had nothing in view, but the pharmacy of the Egyptians;
otherwise I might have made mention of the Theriac, that famous
composition of Andromachus the physician of Nero, which has at
all times been in high estimation, and is now in as much repute
as ever. What little I have advanced respecting the medicinal
chemistry of the ancients, must suffice upon this occasion ; the
Greeks and Romans presenting a field too vast to be comprised
in a tract of this kind. Hippocrates especially, the cotemporary
and friend of Democritus was remarkably assiduous in the cultivation
of chemistry. A learned man has composed an entire book on the
extensive comprehension he had of it, whereby it appears, that
he not only understood the general principles of it, but was
an adept in many of its most useful parts. Passages are quoted
from Plato, that are received as axioms in chemistry. Galen knew
that the energy of fire might be applied to many useful purposes,
and that by the instrumentality of it, many secrets in nature
were to be discovered, which otherwise must for ever be hid: and
he gives many instances of this in several places of his works.
Dioscorides had transmitted to us many of the mineral operations
of the ancients, and in particular that of extracting quicksilver
from cinnabar, which is in effect an exact description of distillation.
8. The
merit of the ancients in having arrived at the knowledge of this
important operation of chemistry, has been much called in question;
which makes it requisite to give particular attention to this
passage of Dioscorides, which not only indicates the practice
of distillation among the ancients, but shows that this branch
of chemistry derived from the Greek language the name of its
principal instrument, the alembic. The word ambix, according to
Athenaeus, meant the cover of a pot, or any vessel wherein liquids
were set a boiling, and the Arabs adopted this word in applying
it to the same subject, only adding the syllable alto the beginning
of it, a syllable that enters into the beginning of most of their
words, whence sprung the word alembic. Pliny also gives the same
explanation as Dioscorides does, of the manner of extracting quicksilver
from cinnabar by distillation. And Seneca describes an instrument
exactly resembling the alembic, and which seems to have been applied
to the same use. But there are other indications, besides, full
as sure as those, that distillation had place among the ancients.
For without reckoning that brewing of beer implies the use of
a still, we find Aristotle observes that oil could be extracted
from sea salt; which never could be done without distillation.
Hippocrates describes the process of that operation; talks of
vapours arising from the boiling fluid, which meeting with resistance,
stop and condense till they fall in drops from the body to which
before they clung in the form of vapours. And Zosimus of Panopohis,
not only desires his students to furnish themselves with alembics,
but gives them directions how to use them, and places before their
eyes draughts of such as best deserve to be employed in practice.
9. To proceed to other particulars
of general chemistry; the ancients, among other things were acquainted
with lixivial salt, or sal alcali, one of the prime principles
of bodies. Sal alcali means properly the salt extracted by fire
from the Egyptian plant kali, but as it is extracted also from
other vegetables, though in less quantity. chemists extend the
name to all those salts, which like that of this plant, attract
and imbibe acids, and by their contexture penetrate into them,
and closely unite with them. These salts are termed promiscuously,
lixivial salt, sal alcali, rock salt, &c. It is of them Aristotle
speaks, when he says, that in Umbria the burnt ashes of rushes
and reeds, boiled in water, yield a great quantity of salt. Theophrastus
observes the same of Umbria. Varra relates, that some who dwell
on the borders of the Rhine, having neither sea nor pit salt,
supply themselves with it by means of the saline cinders of burnt
plants. Pliny assures us, that ashes are impregnated with salts,
and speaks in particular of the nitrous ashes of burnt oak; adding
that these salts are used in medicine, and that a dose of lixivial
ashes is an excellent remedy. in short, Hippocrates, Celsus, Dioscorides,
and especially Galen, often recommended the medical use of sal
alcali; and their writings are filled with passages, which show
that they all understood it.
To the mixture of acids and alcali it was, that Plato ascribes
fermentation; and Solomon seems to have known this effect
of them when he brings as an instance of it, vinegar, and the
nitre of Egypt.
10. Another
convincing proof of the ability of the ancients in chemistry,
the experiment with which Cteopatra entertained Marc Antony, in
dissolving before him, in a kind of vinegar, a pearl of very great
value. I say, in a kind of vinegar; for at present we know not
of any that can produce this effect; but as the fact itself is
so well attested, we must thence conclude that the queen added
something to the vinegar, omitted by the historian: and that Phacas,
who was her physician, assisted her at that time with his aid,
enabling her thus to gain the wager which she had laid with Marc
Antony, that she would exceed him in the costliness of her entertainment.
But even the queen herself was a great adept in this art, as appears
from some of her performances, still preserved in the libraries
of Paris, Venice, and the Vatican. And Pliny informs us of the
emperor Caius, that by means of fire he extracted some gold from
a quantity of orpiment.
11. The
method of rendering glass ductile, is a secret still uncomprehended
by us, though formerly well known to the ancients. The authors
who lived at the very time when this was done, speak of it so
circumstantially, that it is impossible to doubt of it. They are
Pliny, Petronius, lbn, Abd Alhokin, John of Salisbury, Isidorus,
and others. Pliny speaks only of the flexibility of glass, which
he says; was found out in the time of Tiberius: but that the emperor
fearing lest gold and silver, those most precious metals, should
thereby fall in their value, so as to become contemptible, ordered
the residence, workhouse, and tools of the ingenious artisan to
be destroyed, and thus cut off this art in its rise. Petronius
goes farther, and says, that in the time of Tiberius there was
an artificer, who made vessels of glass, which were in their composition
and fabric as strong and durable as silver or gold; and that being
introduced into the presence of the emperor, he presented him
with a vase of this kind, such as he thought worthy of his acceptance
; and that meeting with the praise his invention deserved, and
finding his present so favourably received, he, to increase the
admiration of the spectators, and further to ingratiate himself
with the emperor, laid hold on the vase, throwing it with such
violence on the floor, that had it been of brass, it must have
been injured by the blow; that he took it up again whole, but
dimpled a little, which he immediately repaired with a hammer
he took from his breast: and that while he was in expectation
of some very ample reward in recompense of his ingenuity, the
emperor asked him whether any body else was acquainted with this
method of preparing glass, and being assured that no other was,
immediately ordered his head to be cut off, lest gold and silver,
added he, should become as base as the dirt we tread upon. In
these two testimonies, we see how this discovery came so soon
to be lost. if whatever is new, be with so much difficulty established.
notwithstanding every encouragement, how was it possible for this
to endure, when so suddenly surprised by inevitable fate! Dion
Cassius, on this head, confirms the attestations of Pliny and
Pletronius. John of Salisbury and Isidorus, relate this same fact,
in the same way.
As to the Arabian Ibn Abd Aihokin, he speaks of malleable glass as a
thing known in the flourishing times of Egypt; but he himself
is so unknown, that I know not how to rest on his authority. Greaves,
who makes mention of him as a celebrated chronologist among the
Arabians, cites from him the passage, wherein it is said, that
Saurid king of Egypt, who built three pyramids, deposited in them,
among other precious things, malleable glass, &c. I ought
not to leave this subject, without mentioning the attempts made
by the moderns to render glass pliant and malleable. There is
a chemical composition, well known, formed of silver dissolved
in acid spirits, which is called cornu lunae, a transparent body,
easily put into fusion, and very like horn or glass, and which
will bear the hammer. Borrichius makes mention of an experiment
of his own, tending to prove the possibility of rendering glass
ductile; it consisted in composing a pliant and malleable salt,
for the making of which he gives the receipt; concluding from
thence, that as glass for the most part is only a mixture of salt
and sand, and as the salt may be rendered ductile, it ought not
to be looked upon as impossible that glass may be made malleable.
And be imagines, that the Roman artificer, spoken of by Pliny,
and Petronius, may have assumed antimony as the principal ingredient
of his glass. Besides we may observe, that nature bath formed
many bodies, having an analogy to that of glass ; such as the
horns of animals, amber, the Russian talc, and several others,
all which are transparent, and at the same time pliant and malleable.
Descartes also takes notice, that salt may be rendered malleable,
and for that very reason intimates, that it is possible to succeed
in giving the same property to glass. And Morhoff assures us,
that the celebrated Boyle was also of this opinion. In speaking
of glass I may add, that the art of painting, so far as it depends
upon chemistry, was carried formerly to a much higher degree of
perfection, than it is at present. Of this we have striking instances
in the windows of some ancient churches, where paintings present
themselves in the most vivid colours, without detracting from
the transparency of the glass; and which, as Boerhaave observes,
are hardly to be imitated at present, we having
lost the secret to a degree, that there are scarce any hopes of
ever recovering it. The enamelling and mosaic works of the ancients,
yield the same kind of evidence of their skill in chemistry ;
of the former of which many instances occur in the works of Pliny
and others.
12. Having
spoken of the chemistry of the Egyptians, and of that of the Greeks
and Romans. who derived their instructions from these most masters; it would not be pardonable to omit mentioning critus, the
parent of experimental philosophy. This great man, for the sake
of acquiring wisdom, travelled into Egypt, and made his abode
with the priests of the country, as we are informed by Dio genes,
Laertius, Strabo, Clemens Alexandrinus, Eusebius, and Synesius.
Vitruvius tells us, that he wrote many books on natural philosophy,
and was wont to put his seal upon those experiments which he had
tried himself. Diogenes Laertius says the same. Petronius affirms,
that he extracted the juice of every simple, and was so wholly
taken up in experiments, that there was not a quality belonging
to the mineral or vegetable kingdoms that escaped his notice.
and Seneca asserts, that he was the inventor of reverberating
furnaces’ the first who gave a softness to ivory, and imitated
nature in her production of precious stones, particularly the
emerald.
13. I
shall finish this chapter with an assertion, that perhaps will
seem paradoxical: that the ancients knew the use of gunpowder.
Virgil and his commentators Servius, Byginus, Eustathius, La Cerda,
Valerius Flaccus, and many other authors, speak in such a manner
of Salmoneus’ attempts to imitate thunder, as suggest to
us that this prince used for that purpose a composition of the
nature of gunpowder. Eustathius in particular speaks of him on
this occasion, as being so expert in mechanics, that he formed
machines which imitated the noise of thunder: and the writers
of fable, whose surprise in this respect may be compared to that
of the Mexicans when they first beheld the fire arms of the Spaniards,
give out, that Jupiter, incensed at the audacity of this prince,
slew him with lightning as he was employing himself in launching
his thunder. But it is much more natural to suppose, that this
unfortunate prince, the inventor of gunpowder, gave rise to these
fables, by having accidentally fallen a victim to his own experiments.
Dion and Joannes Antiochenus report of Caligula, that this emperor
imitated thunder and lightning by means of certain machines, which
at the same time emitted stones. Themistius informs us, that
the Brachmans encountered one another with thunder and lightning,
which they had the art of launching from on highat a considerable
distance. Agathias, the historian, reports of Anthemius Traliensis,
that having fallen out with his neighbour Zeno the rhetorician,
he set fire to his house with thunder and lightning. Philostratus,
speaking of the Indian sages, says, that when they were attacked
by their enemies, they did not leave their walls to fight them,
but put them to flight by thunder and lightning. And in another
place he relates, that Hercules and Bacchus attempting to assail
them in a fort where they were entrenched, were so roughly received
by reiterated strokes of thunder and lightning, launched upon
them from on high by the besieged, that they were obliged to retire,
leaving behind them an everlasting monument of the rashness of
their enterprise. It appears from all these passages, that the
effects ascribed to these engines of war, especially those of
Caligula, Anthemius, and the Indians, could be only brought about
by gunpowder. And what is still more, we find in Julius Africanus
a receipt for a composition to be thrown upon an enemy, which
very nearly resembles that powder. But what places this beyond
all doubt, is a clear and positive passage of an author called
Marcus Graecus, whose work in manuscript is in the royal library
at Paris, entitled, Liber ignium. Dr. Mead had the same also in
manuscript. The author describes several ways of encountering
an enemy, by launching fire upon him; and among others gives the
following: mix together one pound of live sulphur, two of charcoal
of willow, and six of saltpetre; reducing them to a very fine
powder in a marble mortar. He adds, that a certain quantity of
this is to be put into a long, narrow, and well compacted cover,
and so discharged into the air. Here we have the description of
a rocket. The cover with which thunder is imitated, he represents
as short, thick, but half filled, and strongly bound with packthread;
which is exactly the form of a cracker. He then treats of different
methods of preparing the match, and how one squib may set fire
to another in the air, by having it enclosed within it. In short,
he speaks as clearly of the composition and effects of gunpowder,
as any body in our times could do. I own, I have not yet been
able precisely to determine when this author lived, but probably
it was before the time of the Arabian physician Mesue, who speaks
of him, and who flourished in the beginning of the ninth century.
Nay, there is reason to believe, that he is the same of whom Galen
speaks. We see also by two passages, one of Aristotle, ‘the
other of Pliny, that the art of making steel, and of tempering
it, was known even in their time.
14. It has been sometimes objected to the
facts I produce, that had the state of things been really so,
their own utility would have preserved them from the outrages
of time; our present ignorance therefore is alleged as of sufficient
force, to invalidate whatever has been reported of the acquisitions
of former times. But how frivolous this objection is, appears
not only from the cause assigned of our having lost the secret
of rendering glass malleable, but also from those monuments which
still remain, and are daily before our eyes, of the superiority
of the ancients in many parts of chemistry: such as the Egyptian
mummies, the paintings on glass, the perpetual lamps, &c.
not to mention, that there are now many secrets, practised in
different nations, and unknown in others, such as the Russian
way of preparing leather, that of the Turks in tempering steel,
that of the Chinese in making porcelain, the lacquer of the Japanese,
and the dye of the Gobelins.
Chapter 6
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