Arnoldus de Villa Nova lived at the same time with Roger Bacon. He was a physician, and seems to have been born at Villeneuve, a village in Provence, about the year 1240. He travelled through Spain, France, and Italy, and afterwards taught publicly in the university of Montpellier. His reputation as a physician was so great, that his attendance was requested in dangerous cases by different kings, and even by the Popc himself. He was skilled in all the sciences of his time, and was besides a proficient in Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic. When at Paris he studied astrology, and calculating the age of the world, found that it was to terminate in the year 1335. The theologians of Paris exclaimed against this and several of his other opinions, and condemned our astrologer as a heretic. This obliged him to leave France; but the Popc protected him. Ile died in 1313, on his way to visit Pope Clement V. who lay sick at Avignon. He has got the credit, (though, as far as appears, with out deserving it,) of the discovery of spirit of wine and oil of turpentine. lint he seems to have been one of the first that introduced these substances into pharmaceutical preparations. All his life long he was passionately devoted to alchymy. His writings on the subject are numerous. They all treat of the philosopher's stone, and are much more obscure than those of his predecessors ; though it must be acknowledged that sonic important facts now and then occur in them. Perhaps the most curious of his tracts is his Rosarium, which is intended as a compend of all the alchemy of his time. It is divided into two parts : The first, which treats of the theory of the art, is plain enough ; but the second, on the practice, which is subdivided into 32 chapters, and which professes to teach the method of making the philosopher's stone, is in several places unintelligible.
Raymond Lully, who was born at Barcelona in 1235, was a disciple of Arnold, though they were both nearly of the same age, and died almost at the same time. The history of Raymond is very obscure. According to some, he was at first a profound logician, but, being disgusted with the vanity of disputing without end about trifles and absurdities, he turned the whole of his attention to alchy my. Ile afterwards travelled through France, Germany, and England ; and, if some account, are to be •I edited, he was at last stoned to death in Africa for him? Christianity. Ills chemical writings are very mime' ou , but the whole of them are so obscure, and abound much in ridiculous whims and absurditie , than they hardly deserve the labour of a perusal. Ile seems to have been the first who introduced those pictures or symbols, which afterwards appeared in such profusion in the writings of the alehymists. lie wa• however, the discoverer, or at least the first describtl. of some very important chemical agents.
John Isaac Ilollandus, and his countryman of the sanu name, were either two brothers, or a father and son They were horn in Stolk, a village in Ilolland, it is sup posed in the 13th century. They wrote various treatises
on chcmistry, remarkable, considering the time when they lived, for clearness and precision. They describe all their processes with accuracy, and even give figure of the instruments which they employed. This renders their works very intelligible ; and they deserve :mei, lion, because they exhibit the clearest proofs that many of the processes supposed of much more modern date were well known to them.
These are the principal alchymistical writers. It would be tedious and useless to enlarge the catalogue, as the greater number of their writings are remarkable for no ., thing but obscurity and absurdity. They all boast that they arc in possession of the philosopher's stone ; they all profess to communicate the method of making it ; but their language is enigmatical, that only the wise may receive instruction, and that they may assist those adepts alone who arc favoured with illumination from heaven. Their writings, in those benighted ages of ig norance, gained implicit credit, and the covetous were filled with ridiculous desires to enrich themselves by means of their discoveries. This laid the unwary open to the tricks of a set of impostors, who went about the Nvorld pretending that they were in possession of the secret of the philosopher's stone, and offering to com municate it to others for a suitable reward. Thus they contrived to get possession of a sum of money, and afterwards they either made off with their booty, or tired out the patience of their pupils by intolerably tedious, painful, expensive, and ruinous processes. It was against these men that Erasmus directed his well known satire, entitled The -41chymist. The tricks of these impostors gradually exasperated mankind against the whole frater nity of the alehymists. Books appeared against them in all quarters, which the art of printing, just invented, enabled the authors to spread with facility : The wits of the age directed against them the shafts of their ridi cule; mcn of science endeavoured to point out the im possibility, or at least the infinite difficulty, of the art ; men of learning rendered it probable that it never had been understood ; and men in authority endeavoured, by laws and by punishments, to save their subjects from the talons of impostors.
The chemists, of whom we have hitherto spoken. confined their researches chiefly to the metals and to the method of making gold ; throwing out, however, occa sional hints of the importance of their art in medicine. But the first man who formally applied chemistry to me dicine was Basil Valentine. lie is said to have been horn in 1394, and to have been a Benedictine monk at Erford, in Germany. He wrote various treatises on chemistry, in all of which he applies it to medicine.