career, still manages to keep the road without upsetting either at Paris or Montpellier. What, we may ask, would modern therapeutics be without the opium and mercury of Paracelsus—without the laudanum of his disciple Quercetan, physician to Henry IV., &c.? When this charlatan had substituted for astrological influence a simple parallelism, it was easy for Van Helmont to rid modern science of this simple parallelism. Besides all this, Paracelsus was a real doctor. The death of Erasmus's friend, whom he was attending, did him less harm than the cure of another patient, who was dining with him ninety-nine days after he had been pronounced in extremis; more fatal still was the case of Cornelius de Liechtenfels, who, when cured by him of the gout, refused to pay his benefactor the stipulated price. Paracelsus would not hold his tongue or submit to the magistrates, and in consequence had to resign his professorship at Basle. A double interest attaches to this story; it hastened Paracelsus's death, and it proves that he would never have accepted the vis medicatrix naturæ of Stahl. We have seen that those strange bodies which escaped from the retorts of the masters of the sacred art were called by them souls; their successors, on a closer acquaintance with them, called them spirits. Basil Valentin and Paracelsus, recognising their importance in the trans mutation of bodies, gave to them the name of mercury. Van Helmont studied them more minutely, and invented the name gas. He was acquainted with carbonic acid under the name of woody gas. But his ignorance of the action of the oxygen of the atmosphere prevented him from making the fundamental distinctions between experiments per formed in a closed vessel and in one open to the air. Priest ley, Lavoisier, and Scheele, by the use of the test-tube and the balance (both Van Helmont and Stahl had also turned the balance to good account), weighed and tested the results of ancient alchemy. Hence modern chemistry was born. But we must in justice add that the work had already been begun by men of genius, such as Bernard Palissy, Boyle the eminent critic and experimentalist, Homberg, the two Geoffroys, Margraff, Bergmann, Rouelle the master of Lavoisier, who may be called the Diderot of chemistry. Moreover, the most important discoveries in chemistry have been made by men who combined with chemical experiments a marked taste for alchemic theories. We may instance Glauber, ablest of mystics; Kunkel, who thought he had found in the "shining pills" of his phosphorus mirabilis as efficacious a remedy as the potable gold in which he also believed; Glaser the alchemist, master of Lemery, who has been called the father of chemistry; Robert Fludd, &c.
It is curious to observe that soon after chemistry was established as a science there was a regular deluge of searchers for the philosopher's stone. The limits of this article prevent us from giving a full list of their names. Suffice it to mention, among Frenchmen, De Lisle, who died in the Bastile of the wounds his guardians inflicted on him to extort his secret; among Englishmen, Dr Price, who committed suicide to escape from a public trial of his pretended discovery. As to the theoretical possibility of making gold, the great French chemist Dumas considered that a solution might be found in the doctrine of isomerism; and the great English chemist Sir Humphrey Davy refused to pronounce that the alchemists must be wrong. Before concluding this short sketch of a vast subject, we must give a brief list of titles of the most important authorities on the subject, and enumerate the principal words which alchemy has bequeathed to scientific terminology, or which have passed into the language of common life:—
Authorities. Roger Bacon, Thesaurus Chimicus, 8vo, Francof., 1603; Francis Bacon Lord Verulam, History of Metals, fol., London, 1670; J. J. Becher, Opera Omnia, Francof., 1680; Chymia Philosophica, 8vo, Nuremberg, 1639; John Espagnet, Enchiridion Philosophiæ Hermeticæ, Paris, 1638; Robert Fludd, Clavis Alchimiæ, 2 vols., Francof.; T. R. Glauber, Works, Chimistry, fol., London, 1689; Hermis Trismegisti, Traduction par J. Mesnard, 8vo, Paris (edited by Didier); J. Kunkel, Experiments, 8vo, London, 1705; Paracelsi Opera Omnia (with a remarkable preface by Fred. Bitiski), 2 vols. fol.; J. B. Porta, De Æris Transmutationibus, 4to, Romæ, 1610; Quercetan, Hermetical Physic, 4to, London, 1605; Georgii Ripley, Opera Omnia, 8vo, Cassel, 1649; J. Trithemius, De Lapide Philosophico, 8vo, Par. 1611; Basil Valentin, Last Will, &c., 8vo, London, 1671. Of compilations we may mention—Artis Auriferæ quam Chemiam vocant Duo Volumina (this work includes the Turba Philosophorum), Basileæ, 1610; J. J. Manget, Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa, 2 vols. fol., 1702; Theatrum Chimicum, 6 vols. 8vo, Argent., 1662; The Lives of the Adepts in Alchemystical Philosophy, with a critical catalogue of the books in this science, and a selection of the most celebrated treatises, &c., 8vo, London, 1814; Essai sur la Conservation de la Vie par le Vcte. Le Lapasse, 8vo, Paris. Among the best historical and critical works with which we are acquainted we will mention—Petr. Gregor. Tholozanus Syntaxeōn Artis Mirabilis, 2 vols., Lugduni, 1576; O. Borrichius de Ortu et Progressu Chemiæ, 4to, 1668; The History of Chemistry, by Thomas Thomson, 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1830; Eusebe Salverte, Les Sciences Occultes, 8vo, Paris, 1829; Ferd. Hoefer, Histoire de la Chimie, 2 vols. 8vo, Paris, and an abridgment by the same author; Histoire de la Physique et de la Chimie, 8vo, Paris, 1872; Louis Cruveilhier, Philosophie des Sciences Médicales, Œuvres Choisies, 8vo, Paris, 1862; Fred. Morin, Genèse de la Science (an important work, which we only know from quotations in French reviews and encyclopædias); Dumas, Philosophie Chimique. Lastly, if we wish to trace the transition of alchemy to chemistry we shall find valuable information in Le Dictionnaire de Physique, dedicated to Mons. le Due de Berry, 3 vols. 4to, Avignon, 1761, under the words Alkali, Alum, Chimie, Pierre Philosophale, Homberg. The reader will observe that in this encyclopædia, written with the express purpose of propagating the Newtonian theory in France, the classical science could bring no real arguments against alchemy. He may also consult the remarkable work of La Metherie, which has been undeservedly forgotten—Essai Analytique sur l'Air pur et les Differentes Espèces d'Air, 3 vols. Paris, 1785; and The Birth of Chemistry, by G. F. Rodwell, London, 1874.
Etymology.—The idea that nature must be tortured to make her reveal her secrets is preserved in the word crucible: Fr. creuset, Ital. cruciolo, Span, crisol—all from the Latin crux, a cross. The word matrass, Fr. matras, is probably from the Celtic matara, an arrow, through the old French verb matrasser, to harass. Bain-Marie and amalgam (μάλαγμα) are a legacy of the sacred art. We can trace the two principles, male and female, of the alchemists in the word arsenic (ἀρσενικόν, male). From the Arabs we get alcohol (al kohl), properly anything burnt, then a powder of antimony to darken the eyelids, and lastly, spirits of wine; alkali, ashes; borax, the white substance; lacker, from lac, resin; elixir, from el kesir, essence; alembic, Arab, alanbiq. Potash is obviously the ash of the pot. Germ, potasch; laudanum is a corruption of laudandum. The derivation of tartar, Fr. tartre, is strange. Paracelsus considered tartar to be the cause of the gout, and borrowed the name from the infernal regions (Tartarus). The Spaniards have borrowed from the Arabs, azogue, mercury; azogar, to overlay with quicksilver; azoguero, a worker in mercury; azogamiento, agitation; azogadamente, with agitation. The same Celtic root which gave to Latin the word vertragus, used by Martial for greyhound, and to Greek οὐέρταγος, found in Ælian, from which Dante took the word veltro, has also created a large family of words—the Ital. peltro, tin and mercury; Span. peltre, lead and tin; old Fr. peautre = peltro; Eng. pewter, pewterer, &c. The Place Maubert at Paris derives its name from the fact that Magister Albertus lived there (Maubert = Ma' Albert). From the alchemists we get both the ideas and the words affinity (Albertus Magnus), precipitate (B. Valentin), reduce (Paracelsus), saturation (Van Helmont), distillation, calcination, quintessence, aqua vitæ (brandy was originally only employed as a medicine), aqua regalis, aqua secunda, gas, cobalt, from Kobolds, the genii of mines, &c. (j. a.)
ALCIATI, Andrea, an eminent Italian jurist, born at Alzano, near Milan, on the 12th January 1492, died 1550. He displayed great literary skill in his exposition of the laws, for which De Thou highly praises him. He published many legal works, and some annotations on Tacitus. His Emblems, a collection of moral sayings in Latin verse, has been greatly admired, and translated into French, Italian, and Spanish. Alciati's history of Milan, under the title Rerum Patriæ, seu Historiæ Mediolanensis, libri IV., was published posthumously at Milan in 1625.
