CHEMISTRY Is the science which treats of those events or changes in natural bodies, that are not accompanied by sensible motions. Its object is to ascertain the constituents of bodies, and the laws by which the simple atoms of mat ter unite together and form compounds.
Neither the origin nor primitive meaning of the word Chemistry, in Greek -arras, or vq.ceta, is accurately known. That it was used by the Greeks, at least soon after the commencement of the Christian era, is certain ; and many reasons coincide to render it probable that it was of Egyptian origin.
It is certain, that the xnf.csa or chemistry of the ancients, was the name of au art of some kind or other. Suidas, a Greek writer of the ninth century, mentions this par ticularly in his Lexicon, under the word xvp.tra. lie informs us, that it was an Egyptian art, practised at least as early as the third century : for Dioclesian, he tells us, ordered all the chemical books of the Egyptians to be sought out and burnt, because they had rebelled against him.
A great many circumstances, which it would be tedious to adduce here, render it probable, that the word chemistry, among the Egyptians, was, at a very early period, nearly equivalent to our phrase natural philoso phy in its most extensive sense, and comprehended all the knowledge of natural objects which they possessed. It is well known, that among the Egyptians all science was confined to the priests, who, considering it as a sacred deposit, took every precaution to conceal it from the people. It is possible, that this was uke reason why natural philosophy got from them the name of Chemistry, which, in Plutarch's opinion at least, implied the hidden or secret science.
(if the progress which natural philosophy had made -among the Egyptians, it is impossible for us at this dis tance of time to judge. The secrecy which they obset v ed, precluded their improvements from being fully detail ed by other nations ; and all their genuine records and writings have been lost and destroyed, in the shock of the numerous revolutions to which that hapless nation has been subjected. Some gleanings may indeed be gathered from the writings of Ilerodotus, Plato, 1)iodorus Siculus, Plutarch, and other Grecian philosophers, who were Indebted for their information to the Egyptian priests, and from Eusebius, who has preserved some traces of their writings. From these gleanings, and from the
lamp of philosophy which they kindled in Greece, it is evident that they had made some progress in the ma thematical sciences ; but it cannot be inferred, that they were acquainted with that hranch of science which we at present call chemistry. They were, indeed, acquainted with various chemical facts ; but these had neither been classified nor generalized.
In process of time, the word chemistry, as has been the case with many other terms, (the English word physician, for instance,) seems gradually to have acquir ed a more limited and precise signification ; and instead of implying the whole of natural philosophy. as was originally the case, to have been confined to the art of working metals. This gradual change seems to have been, in a great measure, owing to the great importance attached by the ancients to the art of working metals. The founders and improvers of it were considered as the greatest benefactors of the human race ; statues and temples were dedicated to their honour ; and mankind, in the transports of their gratitude, raised them above the level of humanity, and enrolled them in the number of the gods.
]low long the word chemistry retained this new signification, we do not know with accuracy. But in the time of Dioclesian, as Suidas informs us, it had acquired another and still more limited meaning, namely, the art of making gold and silver. The cause of this new limitation, and tne origin of the opinion that gold can be made by art, are equally unknown. The art ap pears to have been cultivated with considerable eager ness by the Grecian ecclesiastics, to have passed from the Greeks to the Arabians, and by the Arabians to have been brought into the west of Europe. Those who believed in it gradually assumed the form of a sect. under the name of .11chymists, a term which is supposed to be merely the word chemist with the Al abian article a? prefixed. Thus the word chem: try, originally the same with natural philosophy, was at lass, in consequence of a very whimsical revolution, applied solely to the Cr! of making gold.