CHYAUSTRY, Ihrroar OF Chymis. try, as a practical art cormemed with metallurgy, or the extraction of metals from their ores, was of antiquity, for we learn from &rip' tmre that rft1 Gain, the eighth from Adam, was an expert artificer in brass and iron. Various branches of the chymical art, such as the pre. serration of vinous liquors, dyeing, tanning, making glass, and redoes preparations in pharmacy and cooking, were In use at a period : besides the famous Earapren philosopher, called by the Greeks lad the Romans Mercury, is reputed to have beeu versed. in many chymicel arts, and to have been the fodx- of the chymical science, at least in that nation. From the Egyptians, Democrfits, a Greek, learned the art of soft ivory, of plants, and imitatin precious moues, which he communicated to his coimtrynien. After his time we read of many Metallic preparations, as cerise, verdigris, li tharge, cd.c. Dioscarides describes the distil lation of mercury from cinnabar; but their process of distillation consisted in the separa tion of the air, or the more subtle parts of water, from the rest of the matter, which was dime by potting the matter to be distilled into a vessel, the mouth of which was covered with a wet cloth, and by this means the steams of the ascending vapour were condensed, which were afterwards procured by wringing COL the cloth. Such is the definition spoken of by Galen, Orthreins, and Paulus .Eneta. After the conquests of the Saracens in the seventh land eighth centuries, chymical remedies be. to be more enlarged. Geber, Avicenna, and other Arabian physicians, introduced into the matetia medics many preparations both vegetable and mineral; but the knowledge of those thymical agezds, the acids and the alkali. was at that time exceedingly imperfect, fir: 'except the acetous acid and soda, there. is no I mention of these matters until many years lafier. Roger Bacon does not appear to have ;been acquainted with than in the twelfth cen tury, and Raymond Lally only hints at the existence of the marine acid There was one circumstance at this period which contracted more than any ether to the improvement of chymistry, that was the then growing astaclument to the study of and the search after the philosopher's stone,' which, though false in principle, yet led in its results to a more extensive acquaintance with the composition of mineral bodies. After the introduction of this art, which, as its name de notes, was of Arabian origin, we read of alco hol and the newly discovered menstrua, which were powerfully applied to the transmutation of metals into gold. Although the futility of
such pursuits served to bring the science of chymistry for some time into disrepute, yet the knowledge which was acquired of metals and minerals by such repeated operations upon them, was turned to the useful purposes of medicine. To the aichymists we are indebted for the methods of preparing spirits of wine, aquafartis volatile alkali, vitriolic acid, gun powder, &e. In the improvement of medicine by means of chymistry, Basil Valentine stood foremost. In his Currus Triumphelis Anti monii, be communicated to the public a num ber of valuable antimonial medicines. Pa racelsus, another chymical professor, was so sanguine in the application of his favourite Edam, that he opposed himself to the practice of Galen, and endeavoured to cure all disorders by chymical preparations. He was followed by Van Belmont, Glauber, and Lemery, who all applied their lmowl e of chymistry to the service of medicine. The science of me tallurgy at the same time made corresponding advances. Agricola, who was a contemporary with Paracelsus, laid the foundation for a cor rect knowledge of metals. Lazarus Ecker, Schulten, and many other Germans, described the processes of assaying metals. Anthony Neri, Dr. Merret, and Kunkel, the discoverer of the phosphate of urine, have explained the processes of making glass, enamels, &c. but their writings were not entirely free from the akhymical allusions of the day. Kircher and Conryngius, who followed them, succeeded in purifying the science of chymistry from these errors.
Since that time chymistry has assum ed a new and systematic form, to which the writings and discoveries of many distinguish ed .men in the course of the last two centuries have materially contributed, as Lord Bacon, Mr. Boyle, and Sir Isaac Newton in Eng land, Boerhaave in Holland, Geoffroy, Reau. mur, Lavoisier, &c. in France, and Stahl, Hoffman, and Bergman in Germany. To this list might be added the works of Nichol son, Henry, Thomson, Brande, Ure, and others in our own time, who have digested the im provements and corrected or enlarged them by farther experiments. Chymicalinvestigations are also now materially assisted by an improv ed apparatus, the most material parts of which are the furnace, retorts, receivers, alembics, cucurbits, matrasses, crucibles, cupela, air. pumps, pneumatic trough, stills, blowpipes, gasometer, &c.