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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/17753-0.txt b/17753-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..27052c7 --- /dev/null +++ b/17753-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1963 @@ +Project Gutenberg's On the Antiquity of the Chemical Art, by James Mactear + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: On the Antiquity of the Chemical Art + +Author: James Mactear + +Release Date: February 11, 2006 [EBook #17753] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANTIQUITY OF THE CHEMICAL ART *** + + + + +Produced by Louise Hope, R. Cedron and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Transcriber’s Note: +Typographical errors are listed at the end of the file. Misspelled Greek +names were treated as errors; others are noted but not changed.] + + * * * * * + +President’s Opening Address to Chemical Section. + + ON THE ANTIQUITY + OF + THE CHEMICAL ART. + + By JAMES MACTEAR, F.C.S., F.C.I. + + + + +THE PRESIDENT’S OPENING ADDRESS TO THE CHEMICAL SECTION. + +_On the Antiquity of the Chemical Art._ By JAMES MACTEAR, + F.C.S., F.C.I., Member of the International Jury, + Paris, 1878, and Medalist of the Society of Arts. + + [Read before the Section, December 8th, 1879.] + + +The study of the History of Chemistry as an art, or as a science, is one +which possesses peculiar fascination for its votaries. It has been the +subject of deep research and much discussion, much has been written upon +the subject, and many theories have been broached to account for its +origin. We have had laid before us by Professor Ferguson, in his papers +on this subject of Chemical History, very clearly and fully the +generally-accepted position as regards the origin of the science, and in +the last of these papers, entitled “Eleven Centuries of Chemistry,” he +deals with the subject in a most complete manner, tracing back through +its various mutations the development of the science to the time of +Geber, in or about the year A.D. 778. + +Of Geber, as a chemist, Professor Ferguson writes, “He was the +first--because, although he himself speaks of the ancients, meaning +thereby his forerunners, nothing is known of these older chemists.” + +Rodwell, in his “Birth of Chemistry,” after a careful examination of the +question, comes to the conclusion that, “in spite of all that has been +written on the subject, there is no good evidence to prove that alchemy +and chemistry did not originate in Arabia not long prior to the eighth +century, A.D.,” bringing us again to the times of Geber. + +He is not alone in this opinion, and it seems to be generally accepted +that chemistry originated in the Arabian schools about this period. + +In dealing with the question of the antiquity of chemical art, it has +been too much the habit to look at the question with a view of +discovering when and who it was that first brought forth, fully clothed +as a science, the art of chemistry. + +Let us look at the definition of the science given by Boerhæve, about +1732. He describes chemistry as “an art which teaches the manner of +performing certain physical operations, whereby bodies cognizable to the +senses, or capable of being rendered cognizable, and of being contained +in vessels, are so changed by means of proper instruments as to produce +certain determinate effects, and at the same time discover the causes +thereof, for the service of the various arts.” + +Now, it is amply evident that, long before the various known facts could +be collected and welded into one compact whole as a science, there must +have existed great store of intellectual wealth, as well as mere +hereditary practical knowledge of the various chemical facts. + +I do not think it will be disputed that, until comparatively recent +times, technical knowledge has constantly been in advance of theory, and +that it is not too much to conclude that, no matter where we first find +actual records of our science, its natal day must have long before +dawned. Even in our day, when theoretical science, as applied to +chemistry, has made such immense strides, how often do we find that it +is only now that theory comes in to explain facts, known as such long +previous, and those engaged in practical chemical work know how much +technical knowledge is still unwritten, and what may even be called +traditionary. + +I purpose taking up the subject from this point of view, and attempting, +with what little ability I can, to follow back to a still more remote +period than that of Geber and the Arabian school of philosophers the +traces of what has often been called the divine art. + +An aspect of the question that has often presented itself to me is this, +that the history of what we call our world extends over some 4000 years +before Christ and 1878 years since, so that, according to the usually +accepted idea, if chemistry originated in Arabia in the eighth century, +it was not known during say the first 5000 years of the world’s history, +but has advanced to its present high position amongst the sciences in +the last 1000 years. + +I hope to be able to show that, while the Arabian school of philosophy +get the credit of originating most of the sciences, that it is as +undeserved in the case of chemical science as in that of astronomy or +mathematics. At the same time let us not undervalue the services +rendered to science by this school: it is to them we owe the +distribution of the knowledge of most of our sciences, and the Arabic +literature of most of these was widely spread abroad over all the known +world of their time. + +The central portion of Baghdad between the eastern and western portions +of the Old World, and the wise and enlightened policy of its rulers, +which welcomed to its schools, without reference to country or creed, +the wise and learned men of every nation, drew to it as to a centre the +accumulated wisdom and knowledge of both the rising and the setting sun. +Long ere this time, however, we find, as regards the Greeks, that they +constantly travelled eastward in search of learning, while we know that +the expedition of Alexander the Great, about B.C. 327, in which he +traversed a considerable portion of India, had already opened up the +store-houses of Indian lore to the minds of the West. + +In connection with this, the following extract from an old book: called +_The Gunner_, dated 1664, is interesting:-- + +“In the life of Apollonius Tyanæus, written by Philostratus 1500 years +ago, we find, in reference to the Indians called Oxydra: These truly +wise men dwelled between the rivers Hyphasis and Ganges; their country +Alexander the Great never entered, being deterred, not by fear of the +inhabitants, but, as I suppose, by, religious considerations, for had he +passed the Hyphasis, he might doubtless have made himself master of the +country all round him; but their cities he could never have taken, +though he had led a thousand as brave as Achilles or ten thousand such +as Ajax to the assault. For they come not out into the field to fight +those who attack them; but these holy men, beloved of the gods, +overthrow their enemies with tempests and thunder-bolts shot from their +walls. + +“It is said that Egyptian Hercules and Bacchus (Dionysius), when they +overran India, invaded this people also, and having prepared warlike +engines, attempted to conquer them. They made no show of resistance, but +upon the enemy’s near approach to their cities they were repulsed with +storms of lightning and thunder hurled upon them from above.” + +May we not here have the original of the Greek fire, that was in its day +so celebrated and so destructive? + +Beginning then at the period of Geber, about 776 A.D., let us try to +work backwards and trace, if we can, the progress of chemical knowledge +down the stream of time. + +While the Western Roman Empire had fallen, the Eastern still held its +sway as far as the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, and continued the +contest with the Persian power for the supremacy in Asia. At this time +the various creeds and beliefs of the Arabian tribes--which had been +much influenced by the settlement amongst them of Jews who had been +dispersed at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, and many of the +sects of Christians who had been driven from the Roman empire by the +more orthodox--were deeply stirred by the new doctrine of Islam, +preached by Mahomet, A.D. 622, proclaiming the Koran as the rule of +life, and the destruction of the ancient Arabian worship of the stars +and sun and moon. + +The religion of “the one God and Mahomet his prophet” took deep root, +and the injunction to pursue the unbelieving with fire and sword was +followed out with such unrelenting vigour that, within less than a +century from the death of Mahomet, the Arabian power had extended its +sway amongst nearly every tribe and nation that had owned the rule of +the Roman or Persian empires, and had reached from Spain to India, from +Samarcand to the Indian Ocean. + +Egypt and Syria were conquered between A.D. 632-39, and Persia about +A.D. 632-51. Their attempts to take Constantinople by siege failed both +in A.D. 673 and 716. But they were more successful on the African shores +of the Mediterranean, which they swept along till they crossed the +Straits of Gibraltar and entered Spain in A.D. 709. Their further +progress--through France--was stayed by their defeat in a great battle +fought at Tour’s, when the Gauls, under Charles Martel, forced them to +retire ultimately across the Pyrenees. + +Internal dissension had, however, arisen amongst them, and the ruling +dynasty of the Ommiades was overthrown in A.D. 750 by the Abassides, who +established themselves at Damascus; and with them began that cultivation +of the arts and sciences which has thrown such lustre on the Arabian +school. + +One of the princes of the Ommiades who had escaped made his way to Spain +and there re-established the power of his family, with Cordova as a +centre, about A.D. 755. Thus it was that the Saracenic power was divided +into an Eastern and a Western Caliphate. + +It was under the prosperous rule of the Abassides that such an impulse +was given to learning of every kind, and that the Arabian school of +philosophy, which has left behind it such glorious records of its +greatness, was founded. The Caliph Al-Mansour was the first, so far as +we know, who earnestly encouraged the cultivation of learning; but it +was to Haroun Al-Raschid, A.D. 786-808 (?), that the Arabians owed the +establishment of a college of philosophy. He invited learned men to his +kingdom from all nations, and paid them munificently; he employed them +in translating the most famous books of the Greeks and others, and +spread abroad throughout his dominions numerous copies of those works. + +His second son, Al-Mamoon, while governor of the province of Kohrassan, +we are told, formed a college of learned men from every country, and +appointed as the president John Mesue, of Damascus. It is said that his +father, complaining that so great an honour had been conferred on a +Christian, received the reply--“That Mesue had been chosen, not as a +teacher of religion, but as an able preceptor in useful arts and +sciences; and my father well knows that the most learned men and the +most skilful artists in his dominions are Jews and Christians.” + +That this was the case can scarcely be doubted when we consider that the +Jews had always been familiar with many arts and sciences, and that, as +is well known, at the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, when the Jews +were dispersed in every direction, they spread over, not alone the +countries under the Roman rule, but to Greece, Egypt, and the +Mediterranean coast, as well as great part of Asia Minor, carrying with +them, not only their peculiar religious traditions, but also their arts, +which, we know, especially as regards the working of metals, were of no +mean order, and their sciences, of which the so-called magic and +astrology had been assiduously cultivated. + +In Asia the dispersed Jews established patriarchates at Tiberias in the +west, and at Mahalia, and afterwards at Baghdad, for the Jews who were +beyond the Euphrates. + +Seminaries were founded at these centres for the rabbis, and constant +intercourse was kept up between them. It was in these schools that the +Talmud was compiled from the traditionary exposition of the Old +Testament, between A.D. 200 and A.D. 500, when it was completed, and +received as a rule of faith by most of the scattered Jews. + +That the cultivation of science was not neglected we may be sure from +the keen interest taken in all ages by the Jews in magical and +astrological inquiries. We read in Apuleius, in his defence on the +accusation of magic brought against him, that of the “four tutors +appointed to educate the princes of Persia, one had to instruct him +specially in the magic of Zoroaster and Oromazes, which is the worship +of the gods.” Apuleius wrote about 200 A.D., and his works teem with +references to magic and astrology. + +The fact that Jews and Christians were looked on as learned men will not +surprise us, when we find that the Jews had established schools so long +anterior to the foundation of the college of Baghdad. The rapid progress +made by the Arabians, and the wise policy of the Abasside Caliphs, under +whose judicious rule learning was so liberally encouraged, aided by the +position of Baghdad, which formed, as it were, a centre to which the +wisdom of both eastern and western minds gravitated, attracted to their +schools all those of every nation who boasted themselves philosophers. + +The first translations from the Greek authors are supposed to have been +made about A.D. 745, and are known to have been on the subjects of +philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine. These translations are +understood to have been made by Christian or Jewish physicians. + +As we have seen, the Jews had already established themselves at Baghdad, +and had founded schools of their own previous to the formation of the +college under Caliph Al-Mansour; but further than this we find the +Christians spread widely over the countries of Asia Minor, and we are +told, on the authority of Cosmo-Indicopleustes, that so early as A.D. +535 there was in almost every large town in _India_ a Christian Church +under the Bishop of Seleucia. + +With these facts before us--1st, that Christian physicians were the +leaders of the Arabian school in the eighth century; 2nd, that large +numbers of Christian churches were actually in existence in India at +least two hundred years previously to the establishment of the college +at Baghdad; and 3rd, that Baghdad was almost, as it wore, the central +point of the great caravan route which from time immemorial had been the +course of communication between the East and West, can we doubt that an +extensive intercourse must have taken place, and should we not expect to +find some traces, if not the effects, of Indian science on the teaching +of the Arabian school.[1] + + [Footnote 1: As to communication, the case of Saggid Mahmud (given + in Bellew’s _Indus to the Tigris_), who, merely to pray for the + recovery of his sick son, travelled with him from Ghazni by way of + Kandahur and Shikarpur to Bombay, thence by way of sea to Baghdad, + from there to Karbola, and back to Baghdad; and then by Kirmanshah + and Kum to Teheran, on his way home to Ghazni, gives an indication + of the long journeys taken under the most frightful difficulties. + This long journey had occupied six months only, and we read that + in former times twelve years were sometimes taken in trading + journeys.] + +In Vol. VIII. of the Journal of Education we find a notice that +“Professor Dietz, of the University of Königsberg, who had spent five +years of his life in visiting the principal libraries of Germany, Italy, +Switzerland, Spain, France, and England, in search of manuscripts of +Greek, Roman, and Oriental writers on medicine, is now engaged in +publishing his ‘Analecta Medica.’ + +“The work contains several interesting papers on the subject of physical +science among the Indians and Arabians, and communicates several +introductory notices and illustrations from native Eastern writers. +Dietz proves that the late Greek physicians were acquainted with the +medical works of the Hindus, and availed themselves of their +medicaments; but he more particularly shows that the Arabians were +familiar with them, and extolled the healing art, as practised by the +Indians, quite as much as that in use among the Greeks. + +“It appears from Ibn Osaibe’s testimony (from whose biographical work +Dietz has given a long abstract on the lives of Indian physicians), that +a variety of treatises on medical science were translated from the +Sanscrit into Persian and Arabic, particularly the more important +compilations of Charaka and Susruta, which are still held in estimation +in India; and that Manka and Saleh--the former of whom translated a +special treatise on poisons into Persian--even held appointments as +body-physicians at the Court of Harun-al-Raschid.” + +As the age of the medical works of Charaka and Susruta is incontestably +much more ancient than that of any other work on the subject (except the +Ayur Veda)--as we shall see when we come to consider the science of the +Hindoos--this in itself would be sufficient to show that the Arabians +were certainly not the originators of either medical or chemical +science. + +We should not forget that it is only to their own works and their +translations, chiefly by the Greeks, we owe our knowledge of the state +of Arabian science, and that it is only in rare cases that we have given +a list of works consulted, so that we can gather the sources from which +their knowledge was derived. It would scarcely be imagined, from reading +the works of Roger Bacon, or of Newton, that they had derived some, at +least, of their knowledge from Arabian sources; and yet such is known to +have been the case with them both. + +Let us now glance backwards from the Arabians to the Greeks. + +It is supposed that the first translations from the Greek authors were +made for the Caliphs about 745 A.D., and were first translated into +Syriac, and then into Arabic. The works of Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy, +Hippocrates, Galen, and Dioscorides are known to have been translated +under the reign of Al-Mansour. + +Granting for the moment that the first knowledge of the sciences was +obtained by the Arabians from the Greeks, we are at once face to face +with the question. From whence did the Greeks obtain their knowledge? To +any careful reader it will be clear that Grecian science and philosophy, +like Grecian theology, was not of native birth. It is comparatively well +known that the Greeks were indebted to the Egyptians for much of their +theology as well as science. The great truths which really underlay the +mysterious religious rites of Egypt seem to have been altogether lost +when the Greeks wove their complicated system of theology; and we read +that the Egyptian priests looked on the Greeks as children who failed to +understand the great mysteries involved in their religious rites, +disguised as they were in symbolic form. But, besides their indebtedness +to Egypt, we will find that they also owed much to Persia, and through +it again to Indian sources of knowledge. + +There was constant communication between the Grecian and Persian +nations. We learn that it was not uncommon for Grecian generals to take +service under the Persian Satraps, tempted by the liberal recompence +with which their services were rewarded. About the year 356 B.C. this +system of Greeks accepting service under Persian Satraps nearly caused +the outbreak of war between Greece and Persia--Chares, a Grecian +commander, having assisted with his fleet and men, Artabanus, the Satrap +of Propontis, who was then in revolt against the Persian king. But +before this, during the great plague which desolated Athens in 430 B.C., +and which also extended to Persia, Hippocrates was invited to go to the +Persian Court; and it is on record that Ctesias was for seventeen years +physician at the Persian Court about 400 B.C., during which period he +wrote his history of Persia, and an account of India, which Professor +Wilson, in a paper read to the Ashmolean Society of Oxford, has shown to +contain notices of the natural productions of the country, “which, +although often extravagant and absurd, are, nevertheless, founded on +truth.” + +There were, too, Grecian soldiers employed as paid auxiliaries, and a +colony of Greeks who had been taken prisoners of war was founded within +a day’s journey of Susa. + +The great expedition to Persia, and the graphic description of the +retreat of the “ten thousand” Greeks, given by Xenophon in his Anabasis, +must have been well known to Alexander the Great when he set out on his +career of conquest. He overthrew the Persian empire in 331 B.C., having +destroyed Tyre and subdued Egypt in the previous year and carried his +triumphant progress to the banks of the Indus, and there he “held +intercourse with the learned sages of India.” On Alexander’s death +Seleucus succeeded to the throne of Persia in 307 B.C., and not long +after he forced his way beyond the Indus, and ultimately as far as the +sacred river Ganges. He formed an alliance with the Indian king +Sandrocottus (otherwise known as Chandra-gupta), which was maintained +for many years, and it is said, also, that he gave his daughter in +marriage to the Indian king, and aided him with Grecian auxiliaries in +his wars. + +He sent an expedition by sea, under the command of Patrocles his +admiral, who visited the western shores of India, and a little later he +despatched an embassy under Megasthenes and Onesicrates, the former of +whom resided for some years at the “great city” of Palibothra (supposed +to be Patna). + +Not long after Megasthenes was at Palibothra, Ptolemy Philadelphus sent +an expedition overland through Persia to India, and later Ptolemy +Euergetes, who lived between 145-116 B.C., sent a fleet under Eudoxius +on a voyage of discovery to the western shores of India, piloted, as is +said, by an Indian sailor who had been shipwrecked, and who had been +found in a boat on the Red Sea. Eudoxius reached India safely, and +returned to Egypt with a cargo of spices and precious stones. + +The proof of very ancient communication between Greece and India is +quite clear, both by way of Persia and Egypt, and we find that the +Greeks, who were in the habit of calling all other nations barbarians, +speak constantly with respect of the gymnosophists--called “Sapientes +Indi” by Pliny. We read also of the Greek philosophers constantly +travelling eastward in search of knowledge, and on their return setting +up new schools of thought. Thales, it is affirmed, travelled in Egypt +and Asia during the sixth century B.C., and it is said of him that he +returned to Miletus, and transported that vast stock of learning which +he had acquired into his own country. + +He is generally considered as the first of the Greek philosophers. +Strabo says of him that he was the first of the Grecian philosophers who +made inquiry into natural causes and the mathematics. + +The doctrine of Thales, that water was the first elementary principle, +is exactly that of the ancient Hindoos, who held that water was the +first element, and the first work of the creative power. This idea was +not completely exploded even up till the 18th century. We find Van +Helmont affirming that all metals, and even rocks, may be resolved into +water; and Lavoisier, so lately as 1770, thought it worth while to +communicate an elaborate paper “On the nature of water and the +experiments by which it has been attempted to prove the possibility of +converting it into earth.” + +Pythagoras, perhaps the greatest of all Greek philosophers, it is known, +travelled very widely, spending no less than twenty-two years in Egypt. +He also spent some considerable time at Babylon, and was taught the lore +of the Magi. + +In the famous satire of Lucian on the philosophic quackery of his day +(about 120 A.D.), “The Sale of the Philosophers,” we have a most +interesting account of the system of Pythagoras. + +_Scene--A Slave Mart. _Jupiter_, _Mercury_, _philosophers_, in the garb +of slaves, for sale. Audience of buyers._ + +_Jupiter._--Now, you arrange the benches, and get the place ready for +the company. You bring out the goods and set them in a row; but trim +them up a little first, and make them look their best, to attract as +many customers as possible. You, Mercury, must put up the lots, and bid +all comers welcome to the sale. Gentlemen,--We are here going to offer +you philosophical systems of all kinds, and of the most varied and +ingenious description. If any gentleman happens to be short of ready +money he can give his security for the amount, and pay next year. + +_Mercury (to Jupiter)._--There are a great many come; so we had best +begin at once, and not keep them waiting. + +_Jupiter._--Begin the sale, then. + +_Mercury._--Whom shall we put up first? + +_Jupiter._--This fellow with the long hair--the Ionian. He’s rather an +imposing personage. + +_Mercury._--You, Pythagoras, step out, and show yourself to the company. + +_Jupiter._--Put him up. + +_Mercury._--Gentlemen, we here offer you a professor of the very best +and most select description. Who buys? Who wants to be a cut above the +rest of the world? Who wants to understand the harmonies of the universe +and to live two lives? + +_Customer (turning the philosopher round and examining him)._--He’s not +bad to look at. What does he know best? + +_Mercury._--Arithmetic, astronomy, prognostics, geometry, music, and +conjuring. You’ve a first-rate soothsayer before you. + +_Customer._--May one ask him a few questions? + +_Mercury._--Certainly--(_aside_), and much good may the answers do you. + +_Customer._--What country do you come from? + +_Pythagoras._--Samos. + +_Customer._--Where were you educated? + +_Pythagoras._--In Egypt, among the wise men there. + +_Customer._--Suppose I buy you, now, what will you teach me? + +_Pythagoras._--I will teach you nothing--only recall things to your +memory. + +_Customer._--How will you do that? + +_Pythagoras._--First, I will clean out your mind, and wash out all the +rubbish. + +_Customer._--Well, suppose that done, how do you proceed to refresh the +memory? + +_Pythagoras._--First, by long repose and silence, speaking no word for +five whole years. + +_Customer._--Why, look ye, my good fellow, you’d best go teach the dumb +son of Crœsus! I want to talk and not be a dummy. Well--but after this +silence, and these five years? + +_Pythagoras._--You shall learn music and geometry. + +_Customer._--A queer idea, that one must be a fiddler before one can be +a wise man! + +_Pythagoras._--Then you shall learn the science of numbers. + +_Customer._--Thank you, but I know how to count already. + +_Pythagoras._--How do you count? + +_Customer._--One, two, three, four---- + +_Pythagoras._--Ha! what you call four is ten, and the perfect triangle, +and the great oath by which we swear. + +_Customer._--Now, so help me, the great ten and four, I never heard more +divine or more wonderful words! + +_Pythagoras._--And afterwards, stranger, you shall learn about Earth, +and Air, and Water, and Fire--what is their action, and what their form, +and what their motion. + +_Customer._--What! have Fire, Air, or Water bodily shape? + +_Pythagoras._--Surely they have; else, without form and shape, how could +they move! Besides, you shall learn that the Deity consists in Number, +Mind, and Harmony. + +_Customer._--What you say is really wonderful. + +_Pythagoras._--Besides what I have just told you, you shall understand +that you yourself, who seem to be one individual, are really somebody +else. + +_Customer._--What! do you mean to say I’m somebody else, and not myself, +now talking to you? + +_Pythagoras._--Just at this moment you are; but once upon a time you +appeared in another body, and under another name; and hereafter you will +pass again into another shape still. + +(After a little more discussion of this philosopher’s tenets, he is +purchased on behalf of a company of professors from Magna Græca for ten +minæ. The next lot is Diogenes, the Cynic.) + +Apuleius says in the Florida, Section XV., in reference to Pythagoras, +that he went to Egypt to acquire learning, “that he was there taught by +the priests the incredible power of ceremonies, the wonderful +commutations of numbers, and the most ingenious figures of geometry; but +that, not satisfied with these mental accomplishments, he afterwards +visited the Chaldæans and the Brahmins, and amongst the latter the +Gymnosophists. The Chaldæans taught him the stars, the definite orbits +of the planets, and the various effects of both kinds of stars upon the +nativity of men, as also, for much money, _the remedies for human use +derived from the earth, the air, and the sea_ (the elements earth, air, +and water, or all nature). + +“But the Brahmins taught him the greater part of his philosophy--what +are the rules and principles of the understanding; what the functions of +the body; how many the faculties of the soul; how many the mutations of +life; what torments or rewards devolve upon the souls of the dead, +according to their respective deserts.” + +There is ample evidence, therefore, that the Greeks had communication +with, and borrowed the philosophy of, both Persia and India at a very +early date. + +That there was intimate intercourse with India in very ancient times +there can be no doubt. In addition to the classical sources of +information collected chiefly by the officers of Alexander the Great, +Seleucus and the Ptolemies, and which was condensed and reduced to +consistent shape by Diodorus, Strabo, Pliny, and Arrian, within the +first century before and the first century after Christ, we have the +further proof of the fact by the constant finds of innumerable Greek +coins over a large portion of north-western India, and even at Cabul. +These, so far as yet known, commence with the third of the Seleucidæ, +and run on for many centuries, the inscriptions showing that the Greek +characters were used in the provinces of Cabul and the Punjab even so +late as the fourth century A.D. The consideration of these coins of the +Græco-Persian empire of the Seleucidæ naturally leads us to the +consideration of the Persians. + +I have already shown that the Greeks and Persians held intimate +relations with each other as early as the fourth century B.C., and from +the speech of Demosthenes against a proposed war with Persia, delivered +in 354 B.C, we may well believe that they had already had a long and +intimate connection with each other. The passage rends thus:- + +“All Greeks know that, so long as they regarded Persia as their common +enemy, they were at peace with each other, and enjoyed much prosperity, +but since they have looked upon the King (of Persia) as a friend, and +quarrelled about disputes with each other, they have suffered worse +calamities than any one could possibly imprecate upon them.” + +The Persian empire was founded by Cyrus, about B.C. 560, and rapidly +rose to be perhaps the greatest power of the world of that age. The rise +of the Persian empire is not unlike that of the Arabian power in regard +to the wide range of conquest achieved in a very limited period. Its +actual existence, from the foundation of the empire by Cyrus in B.C. 560 +to the death of Darius III., was barely two centuries and a half. + +Previous to the Persian empire there existed three principal powers in +Asia--the Medes, the Chaldæans or Babylonish, and the Lydian. Of these +the Medes and Chaldæans were the most ancient, and their joint power +would seem to have extended eastward as far as the Oxus and Indus. + +Of these nations the Babylonians were the most highly civilized, and, +did time permit, we might find much that would interest and instruct in +examining the various facts relating to the arts and sciences amongst +these nations. We know that arts and sciences must have been diligently +cultivated amongst them, and that magic and astrology were held in high +repute. + +That the Persians were well acquainted with other nations is shown +clearly from the remains of their great city of Persepolis, where the +sculptured figures represent many types of mankind--the negro, with +thick lips and flat nose, and with his crisp, wooly hair, clearly cut; +and the half-naked Indian, with his distinguishing features, being +easily singled out from many others. + +Persia held sway over a huge district of India--the limits of this are +not known; but, in addition, they were well acquainted with a large +portion of the north-western part of India. + +The traditions and historical records of the Persians are contained in +the famous series of writings culled the Zend-avesta. These writings +are, it is thought, of an age even before the Persian dynasty was +established; and it has been shown by the researches of M. Anguetil and +Sir W. Jones that there is indeed a great probability of the Zend having +been a dialect of the ancient Sanscrit language. In the vocabulary +attached to M. Anguetil’s great work on the Zend-avesta no less than 60 +to 70 per cent. of the words are said to be pure Sanscrit. + +As the oldest known language of Persia was Chaldæic, we are again thrown +back on Indian sources for the origin of the great book of the ancient +Persians. Even the name of the priests of the Persian religion of +Zoroaster, Mag or Magi, is of Sanscrit derivation. + +The Persians kept up an enormous army, which was spread through all the +various provinces and Satrapies, and consisted in great part of paid +auxiliaries. In at least the later period of Persian power the Greeks +were preferred to all others, and in the time of Cyrus the Younger they +composed the flower of the Persian army, and were employed in +garrisoning most of the chief cities of Asia Minor. + +The description given by Herodotus of the vast army and fleet prepared +for the expedition of Xerxes against the Greeks gives us an idea of the +extent of the Persian power, and of the wide range of countries and +nations over which they held sway. The review held on the Plain of +Doriscus was perhaps the greatest military spectacle ever beheld either +before or since. Herodotus enumerates no less than 56 different nations, +all of them in their national dress and arms. Besides the Persians there +were “Medes and Bactrians; Libyans in war chariots with four horses; +Arabs on camels; Sagartians, wild huntsmen who employed, instead of the +usual weapons of the time, the lasso; the nomadic tribes of Bucharia and +Mongolia; Ethiopians in lions’ skins, and Indians in cotton robes; +Phœnician sailors, and Greeks from Asia Minor.” All these and many +others were there assembled by the despotic power of the Persian king. + +The system of government employed by the Persians, and the constant +reports and tributes sent from every province to the central court of +the king, were well calculated to bring to it, as to a focus, the +curious lore of the various nations who came in contact with or were +subdued by them. + +The Persians were famed for their knowledge of astronomy and astrology, +and were said “to have anciently known the most wonderful powers of +nature, and to have therefore acquired great fame as magicians and +enchanters.” + +The close relation between the Persian religious traditions and those of +the Hindoos is very striking. According to Mohsan, “The best informed +Persians, who professed the faith of Hu-shang as distinguished from that +of Zeratusht, believes that the first monarch of Iran, and, indeed, of +the whole world, was Mahabad (a word apparently Sanscrit), who divided +the people into four orders,--the religious, the military, the +commercial, and the servile, to which he assigned names unquestionably +the same as those now applied to the four primary classes of the +Hindoos.” + +They added, “that he received from the Creator and promulgated amongst +men a _sacred book in a heavenly language_, to which the Musselman +author gives the _Arabic_ title of _Desatir_, or Regulations, but the +original name of which he has not mentioned; and that _fourteen +Mahabads_ had appeared, or would appear, in human shapes for the +government of this world.” + +“Now when we know that the Hindoos believe in _fourteen Menus_, or +celestial persons with similar functions, the _first_ of whom left a +book of _regulations_, or divine ordinances, which they hold equal to +the _Veda_, and the language of which they believe to be that of the +gods, we can hardly doubt that the first corruption of the purest and +oldest religion was the system of _Indian_ theology invented by the +_Brahmins_ and prevalent in those territories where the book of Mahabad, +or Menu, is at this moment the standard of all religious and moral +duties.” + +Having established, then, the long and intimate nature of the Persian +intercourse with India, let us see how it bears on our more immediate +subject. + +The works on medicine which are known to exist, and to have been written +in Persian, are not very many in number, but they cover a period of time +of nearly 400 years. The oldest of them is of the year 1392 A.D., and in +it and its successors there are long lists of Arabian authors whose +works had been consulted, and also various Indian works. + +Greek physicians were in great request at the Persian court, and when +the daughter of the Emperor Aurelian was sent in marriage to the Persian +monarch, Sapor II., she had a number of Greek physicians in her train. +This king founded a new city called Jondisabour in honour of his Queen, +and owing to the settlement here of a number of Greek physicians, who +had, on account of religious differences, retired into Persia, this city +became celebrated as a medical school. Dr. Friend gives the names of +these as “Damascius the Syrian, Simplicius of Cilicia, Diogenes of +Phænicea, Isidorus of Gaza, and others, the most learned and greatest +philosophers of the age.” It is thought by some authors that many of the +Arabian writers who belonged to the college of Baghdad were educated at +Jondisabour. + +The district of Jondisabour is even yet one of the most nourishing in +Persia, and contains mines which still yield turquoise, salt, lead, +copper, antimony, iron, and marble. + +During the reign of the Persian king Nooshirwan, his physician Barzoueh +made various journeys into India, one of which was specially for the +purpose of obtaining copies of Indian literature, and another to obtain +medicaments and herbs. + +How to account for the strange fact that all schools of medicine which +have risen, flourished, and disappeared, have left some trace in +historical records, with the exception of that of India, is most +difficult, unless under the hypothesis that the language in which the +science and philosophy of India was recorded has been almost a sealed +book to the world, and is even now quite unintelligible to the people of +India itself, generally speaking, and that thus the only way in which +the results of the long ages of philosophic study, which unquestionably +have had a place in India, have only been known by this dark reflection +from the writings of Greek and Arabic writers, which were scattered +broadcast over the ancient world. The Greeks, we know, borrowed their +science largely from the Egyptians, both in respect to theology and +philosophy; and we might, with much profit, pursue the examination of +our subject amongst the records of that highly civilized amongst the +ancient nations. + +Many authors have attempted to show that there is a wonderful +resemblance between the Egyptians and the Hindoos, the sculptures on the +monuments of the former are most wonderfully like those of India, and +the features, dress, and arms are all as like as may be. + +Both nations had the various arts of weaving, dyeing, embroidering, +working in metals, and the manufacture of glass, and practised them with +but little difference in their methods. The fine muslins of India find +their counterparts as “woven wind” in the transparent tissues figured on +the Egyptian temples. The style of building, the sciences of astronomy, +music, and medicine were assiduously cultivated by both nations, and +there was direct intercourse between them, perhaps even before +historical time begins. + +Rameses the Great (III.), called also Sesostris, fitted out not only war +ships but merchant vessels for the purpose of trading with India, in +B.C. 1235, and Wilkinson in his book on the Ancient Egyptians, tells us +that in 2000 B.C. there were no less than 400 ships trading to the +Persian Gulf. There is, after all, nothing surprising in this when we +remember the fact, which is, however, not generally known, I am afraid, +that under the reign of Pharoah Necho, a fleet of his ships safely +circumnavigated Africa, from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, this +being in advance of the celebrated voyage of Diaz and Vasco da Gama by +no less than 2100 years. + +No less than seven centuries before Thales went to study in Egypt, +astronomical calculations were inscribed on the monuments at Thebes, so +that we can see how modern by comparison the Greek philosophy appears. + +In a note Wilkinson says that “The science of Medicine was one of the +earliest cultivated in Egypt. Athothes, the successor of Menes of the +first dynasty, is said to have written on the subject, and five papyri +on the subject have survived. + +“They are of the period of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties. + +“One known as the Papyrus Ebers, from its discoverer, is attributed to +the age of Kherpheres or Bikheres. + +“The second, that of Berlin, found in the reign of Usaphais of the first +dynasty, was completed by Senet or Sethenes of the second line. + +“The third, that of the British Museum, contains a receipt said to have +been mysteriously discovered in the reign of Cheops of the fourth +dynasty. + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + +“The curatives employed were ointments, drinks, plasters, fumigations +and clysters, and the drugs employed were taken from vegetables, +minerals, and animals. + +“Those for each draught were mixed together, pounded, boiled, and +strained through linen. + +“The doctors belonged to the sacred class, and were only permitted to +practice their own particular branch. + +“These were oculists, dentists, those who confined their practice to +diseases of the head, and those again who only attended to internal +diseases; they were paid from the public treasury, and were compelled, +before being permitted to practice, to study the precepts laid down by +their predecessors.” + +Homer, in the Odyssey, describes Egypt “as a country whose fertile soil +produces an infinity of drugs, some salutary and some pernicious, where +each physician possesses knowledge above all other men.” + +The mixing of various drugs and minerals must have produced effects +which could not be lost on such observant men as the doctors must, from +their training, have been, and it would be absurd to suppose that some, +at least, of the simpler chemical decompositions and combinations were +not known to them. + +The manufacture of glass would seem to have been very ancient amongst +the Egyptians, and the insufficiency of the old fable, of its discovery +by the fusing of blocks of stone in the fire is quite clear; besides, +Egyptian glass has been found which contains potash, and nothing is more +probable than that the nitrate of potash, found so plentifully in the +soil of India, was imported for this manufacture. + +Precious stones or amulets with Sanscrit inscriptions have repeatedly +been found in tombs, which must date back to at least B.C. 1400. + +In tracing back the history of Chemistry, we constantly find reference +to Hermes, Trismegistus, who would seem to be the god Thoth, or Taaut of +the Egyptians. The famous inscription of the Emerald table ascribes to +him the possession of three parts of the philosophy of the whole world. +I have been much struck with the resemblance of this god Taaut with the +Menu of the Hindoos, who also was credited with saving from destruction +by the flood the three Vedas, which were supposed to contain all that +was required for man’s direction here below. + +There would appear to have been also other Hermes, but if we look at the +condition of things which obtained in Egypt when the Pyramids of Memphis +are supposed to have been erected, within 300 years of the supposed date +of the deluge, and that the Beni Hassan tombs, about 300 years later, +depict the manners and customs of what we cannot help admitting, was a +highly civilized nation, we must be struck with the fact that the +distance of time between the deluge and the building of these pyramids +and tombs is so short, that it might be represented by a comparison of +our own date with those of Queen Elizabeth and Henry the Third. + +Jackson in his “Antiquities” tells us that, Sanchoniatho states that the +most ancient Phœnician records show that letters were invented soon +after the dispersion of mankind, by Tsaut, the son of Mizor or Misraim, +who was the first Egyptian Hermes or Thoth. He went out of Phœnicia, and +first, with a colony of Mizrites, settled and reigned in Egypt, and, +according to Cicero, gave both laws and letters to the Egyptians. + +This Hermes was born in the second generation after the flood, and was +not only the inventor of letters and writing, but he is also said to +have delineated the sacred characters or symbols of the elements and +planets, viz.,--sun, moon, earth, air, fire, water, &c. + +These symbols are without doubt of very ancient origin, and Boerhæve in +his Theory of Chemistry explains them hieroglyphically as follows:-- + + [Transcriber’s Note: + The listed symbols are included in the “images” directory + accompanying the html version of this file.] + +＋ Denotes anything sharp, gnawing, or corrosive; as vinegar or fire: +being supposed to be stuck around with barbed spikes. + +☉ Denotes a perfect immutable simple body, such as gold, which has +nothing acrimonious or heterogeneous adhering to it. + +☽ Denotes half gold, whose inside, if turned outward, would make it +entire gold, as having nothing foreign or corrosive in it; which the +alchemists observe of silver. + +☿ Denotes the inside to be pure gold, but the outer part of the colour +of silver and a corrosive underneath, which, if taken away, would leave +it mere gold, and this the adepts affirm of mercury. + +♀ Denotes the chief part to be gold; whereto, however, adheres another +large, crude, corrosive part, which, if removed, would leave the rest +possessed with all the properties of gold, and this the adepts affirm of +copper. + +♂ Likewise denotes gold at the bottom, but attended with a great +proportion of a sharp corrosive, sometimes amounting to a half of the +whole, whence half the character expresses acrimony; which, accordingly, +both alchemists and physicians observe of iron, and hence that common +opinion of the adepts that the aurum vivum, or gold of the philosophers, +is contained in iron, and that the universal medicine is rather to be +sought in this metal than in gold itself. + +♃ Denotes half the matter of tin to be silver, the other a crude +corrosive acid, which is accordingly confirmed by the assayers; tin +proving almost as fixed as silver in the cupel, and discovering a large +quantity of crude sulphur well known to the alchemists. + +♄ Denotes almost the whole to be corrosive, but retaining some +resemblance with silver, which the artists very well know holds true of +lead. + +♁ Denotes a chaos--world, or one thing which includes all: this is the +character of antimony, wherein is found gold, with plenty of an +arsenical corrosive. + +The symbols, or at least some of them, may be traced even in the Chinese +characters for gold, silver, &c. + +The connection of Egypt with India shortly after the Christian era is +distinctly indicated in the works of Apuleius. He lived in the early +part of the second century after Christ, and was educated first at +Carthage, then renowned as a school of literature. He then travelled +extensively in Greece, Asia, and Egypt, and became initiated into many +religious fraternities and an adept in their mysteries. He was admitted +a priest of the order of Æsculapius, and describes the ceremony of the +offering of the first-fruits by the priests of Isis, when the navigation +opened in spring. The vessel, which was to be set adrift upon the ocean +freighted with the offering, was splendidly decorated and covered with +hieroglyphics, and after having been “_purified with a lighted torch, an +egg, and sulphur_,” was allowed to sail away into the unknown as a +sacrifice to procure the safety of the convoy of ships which would soon +after start upon their voyage. These rites were of great antiquity. + +He speaks, in his first tale, of a witch who, by means of her magic +charms, made not only her fellow-countrymen love her, but “_the Indians +even_,” and in his initiation into the mysteries of Isis, his robes +“bore pictures of Indian serpents.” + +From what I have now laid before you, in what must necessarily be a very +imperfect manner, you will see that there is good reason to believe that +in the study of science and philosophy the Indian races were much in +advance of the Western nations. The age of science amongst them is very +great; we fail utterly in trying to find its beginning, unless we accept +the tradition which ascribes to Menu, their great lawgiver (who is +supposed to have been Noah), the saving of three out of the four divine +books or Vedas from the deluge. This would carry us back to the +Antediluvian times for the beginning of our investigations; but without +taking any such extreme view of the subject we will find traces of +science clearly marked out for us in the history of the Indian races. + +The picture of the Brahmins, drawn by Apuleius in the second century, +shows how little they have changed in historical times. He says:-- + +“The Indians are a populous nation of vast extent of territory, situated +far from us to the east, near the reflux of the ocean and the rising of +the sun, under the first beams of the stars, and at the extreme verge of +the earth, beyond the learned Egyptians and the superstitious Jews and +the mercantile Nabathæans; and the flowing robed Aracidae, and the +Ityraeans, poor in crops, and the Arabians, rich in perfumes. + +“Now, I do not so much admire the heaps of ivory of the Indians, their +harvests of pepper, their bales of cinnamon, their tempered steel, their +mines of silver, and their golden streams, nor that among them, the +Ganges, the greatest of all rivers, + + ‘Rolls like a monarch on his course, and pours + His eastern waters through a hundred streams, + Mingling with ocean by a hundred mouths,’ + +“nor that these Indians, though situated at the dawn of day, are yet of +the colour of night, nor that among them, immense dragons fight with +enormous elephants, with parity of danger to their mutual destruction, +for they hold them enwrapped in their slippery folds, so that the +elephants cannot disengage their legs or in any way extricate themselves +from the scaly bonds of the tenacious dragons. They are forced to seek +revenge from the fall of their own bulk and to crush their captors by +the mass of their own bodies. + +“There are amongst them various kinds of inhabitants. I will rather +speak of the marvellous things of men than of those of nature. + +“There is among them a race who know nothing but to tend cattle, hence +they are called neatherds; there are races clever in trafficking with +merchandise, and others stout in fight, whether with arrows, or hand to +hand with swords. + +“There is also among them a pre-eminent race called Gymnosophists. + +“These I exceedingly admire, for they are men skilled not in propagating +the vine, nor in grafting trees, nor in tilling the ground. They know +not how to cultivate the fields, nor to wash gold, or to break horses, +or to shear or feed sheep or goats. + +“What is it, then, they know? One thing instead of all these. They +_cultivate wisdom_, both the aged professors and the young students. +Nothing do I so much admire in them as that they hate torpor of mind and +sloth.” + +This does not look as if the Indians had been unknown or unappreciated +in the second century A.D. + +Apuleius is not alone in his respect for the Brahmins. Many of the Greek +writers speak of them under the names of Brahmins or Gymnosophists, but +always with great respect. + +Strabo states, on the authority of Megasthenes (who it will be +remembered was Ambassador from Persia, and lived for some years at +Palibothra, about 307 B.C.), that “there were two classes of +philosophers or priests, the Brachmanes and the Germanes, but the +Brachmanes are best esteemed.” Towards the close of his account of the +“Brachmanes” he says:-- + +“In many things they agree with the Greeks, for they affirm that the +world was produced, and is perishable, and that it is spherical; that +God, governing it as well as framing it, pervades the whole; that the +principles of all things are various, but water is the principle of the +construction of the world; that besides the four elements there is a +fifth, nature--whence heaven and the stars; that the earth is placed in +the centre of all. + +“Such, and many other things are affirmed of reproduction and of the +soul. Like Plato, they devise fables concerning the immortality of the +soul, and the judgment in the infernal regions, and other similar +notions. These things are said of the Brachmanes.” + +Clemens Alexandrinus, after saying that philosophy flourished in ancient +times amongst the barbarians, and afterwards was introduced amongst the +Greeks, instances the prophets of the Egyptians, the Chaldees of the +Assyrians, the Druids of the Gauls (Galatæ), the Samauæans of the +Bactrians, the philosophers of the Celts, the Magi of the Persians, and +the Gymnosophists of the Indians. The Greek authors distinctly speak of +the Brahmins as the chief of the castes or divisions of the Indian +people from the time of Megasthenes, who wrote of them in the fourth +century B.C. + +Sir William Jones, in a paper on the philosophy of the Asiatics, pointed +out that “the old philosophers of Europe had some idea of centripetal +force, and a principle of universal gravitation,” and affirms that “much +of the theology and philosophy of our immortal Newton may be found in +the Vedas.” + +“That _most subtle spirit_ which he suspected to pervade natural bodies, +and lying concealed in them, to cause attraction and repulsion, the +emission, reflection and refraction of light, electricity, calefaction, +sensation, and muscular motion, is described by the Hindus as a _fifth +element_, endowed with these very powers; and the Vedas abound with +allusions to a force universally attractive, which they chiefly ascribe +to the sun, thence called ‘Aditya, or the attractor,’ a name designed by +the mythologists to mean the child of the goddess Aditi. But the most +wonderful passage on the theory of attractions occurs in the charming +allegorical poem of ’Shi’ri’n and Ferhai’d, or the Divine Spirit, and a +human soul disinterestedly pious,’ a work which, from the first verse to +the last, is a blaze of religious and poetical fire. + +“The whole passage appears to me so curious that I make no apology for +giving you a faithful translation of it:-- + +“_There is a strong propensity which dances through every atom, and +attracts the minutest particle to some peculiar object; search this +universe from its base to its summit, from fire to air, from water to +earth (the four elements!), from all below the moon to all above the +celestial spheres, and thou wilt not find a corpuscle destitute of that +natural attractability. The very point of the first thread in this +apparently tangled skein is no other than such a principle of +attraction, and all principles beside are void of a real basis: from +such a propensity arises every motion perceived in heavenly or in +terrestrial bodies; it is a disposition to be attracted which taught +hard steel to rush from its place and rivet itself on the magnet; it is +the same disposition which impels the light straw to attach itself +firmly on amber; it is this quality which gives every substance in +nature a tendency towards another, and an inclination forcibly directed +to a determinate point._” + +In Sir W. Ainslie’s Materia Medica of India the opinion of an old Hindoo +author is given as to the qualifications required in a physician. + +“He must be a person of strict veracity, and of the greatest sobriety +and decorum: he ought to be skilled in all the commentaries on the +‘Ayur-Veda,’ and be otherwise a man of sense and benevolence: his heart +must be charitable, his temper calm, and his constant study how to do +good. + +“Such a man is properly called a good physician, and such a physician +ought still daily to improve his mind by an attentive perusal of +scientific books. + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + +“Should death come upon us while under the care of a person of this +description, it can only be considered as inevitable fate, and not the +consequence of presumptuous ignorance.” + +The knowledge of the Hindoos may be all said to be contained in their +sacred books called the Vedas, which, although perfect as a whole, are +actually divided into four parts, each in itself constituting a separate +Veda under a special title. These are the Rig-Veda, the Yajur-Veda +(white and black), the Sama-Veda, and the Atharva-Veda, or Ayur-Veda. +Although the last is admitted to be as a whole not so ancient as the +other three, still there are portions of it that are probably as old as +any of the others. Even in the oldest epic poems of the Hindoos mention +is made of four Vedas as already in existence and as of great antiquity. +Sir William Jones estimates the date of its compilation as certainly not +after B.C. 1580. + +These Vedas are considered by the Hindoos to contain the groundwork of +all their philosophy, as well as of their arts and sciences, and they +contain treatises on music, medicine, the art of war, and architecture. + +Sir William Jones, in referring to the Ayur-Veda, says that, to his +astonishment, he found in it an entire Upanishad on the internal parts +of the human body, enumerating the nerves, veins, and arteries. + +The Ayur-Veda was considered by the Brahmins to be the work of +Brahma--by him it was communicated to Dacsha, the Prajapati, and by him, +the two Aswins, or sons of Surya--the sun--were instructed in it, and +thus became the medical attendants of the gods. A legend that cannot but +recall to our mind the Greek myth of the two sons of Æsculapius and +their descent from Apollo. + +In the case of immortal gods the practice was confined to surgery, in +treating the wounds received in the conflicts which were constantly +described as occurring amongst the gods themselves, or between the gods +and the demons. Of course they performed many miraculous cures, as would +be expected from their superhuman character. + +Professor Wilson published in the _Oriental Magazine_, in 1823, some +notices on early Hindoo Medicine, and he points out that the tradition +is, that the above “two Aswins instructed Indra in medical and surgical +art, that Indra instructed Dahnwantari; although others make Atreya, +Bharadwaja, and Charaka prior to the latter:--Charaka’s work, which goes +by his name, is extant. Dahnwantari is also styled Kasi-rajah, or Prince +of Kasi, or Benares. His disciple was Susruta, his work also exists.” + +The Ayur-Veda, as the oldest medical writings of the Hindoos are +collectively called, was divided into eight divisions. These are +described by Professor Wilson as follows:-- + +“1st. _Salya._--The art of extracting extraneous substances, violently +or accidentally introduced into the body, with the treatment of the +inflammation and suppuration thereby induced. + +“The word _Salya_ means a dart or arrow, and points clearly to the +origin of this branch of Hindoo science. + +“2nd. _Salakya._--The treatment of external affections or diseases of +the eyes, nose, ears, &c. + +“3rd, _Kayao Chikitsa._--The general application of medicine to the +body, or the science of medicine, as opposed to surgery under the two +first heads. + +“4th. _Bhutavidya_, or demonology: the act of casting out demons, which +we may take to mean the treatment of insanity, such as it was. + +“5th. _Kaumara bhritya_, or the treatment of the diseases of women and +children. + +“6th. _Agada._--The administration of antidotes. + +“We do not appreciate this as an eastern nation would when poison was +only too common an instrument of ambition or revenge. + +“7th. _Rasayana._--Is chemistry, or perhaps it were better to say +alchemy, as its chief aim was the study of combinations of substances +mostly metallurgic, with a view of obtaining the universal medicine or +elixir which was to give immortal life. + +“8th. _Bajikarana._--Was connected with the means of promoting the +increase of the human race.” + +One of the articles of Hindoo medicine was _Kshara_ or alkaline +salts,--these are directed to be obtained by burning different +substances of vegetable origin, boiling the ashes with five or six times +their measure of water and filtering the solution, which was used both +internally and externally. Care is enjoined in their use, and emollient +applications are to be used if the caustic should occasion great pain. + +I have already spoken of the fact of Indian physicians having been at +the Court of Persia, and also at that of Haroun al Raschid, and also +that the ancient writers on medicine were known to the Arabs of the time +of the schools of Baghdad and Cordova. There is no manner of doubt +concerning this fact, as in Serapion’s works we find Charak actually +mentioned by name; under the head _De Mirobalanis_ we find “_Et Xarch +indus dixit;_” and again, in another section “_Xarcha indus;_” there +being no corresponding sound to che in Arabic, there is a slight change +in the name, but it is quite clear what it is intended for. In Avicenna, +again, we find reference to “Scirak indum.” Rhazes, again, who was +previous to Avicenna, has “_Inquit Scarac indianus_,” and again “_Dixit +Sarac;_” in another place an Indian author is quoted, who has not as yet +been traced, “_Sindifar_,” or, as it is in another place, “_Sindichar +indianus._” + +Professor Wilson, in a notice on the medical science of the Hindoos, +published in the _Oriental Magazine_, examines into the distinctive +qualities of the various sorts of leeches, and shows that the +description given in Avicenna, in the section “De Sanguisugis,” is +almost identical with the Hindoo author’s description of the twelve +sorts of leeches, in distinguishing the appearance and properties of the +various sorts. + +That this is more than a mere coincidence is clear from the fact that +Avicenna says “_Indi dixerunt_.” + +I do not think it will be seriously disputed that the Arabs had access +to the Hindoo works of and before their time, and we will find, if we +carefully examine the subject, that the science of medicine as +distinguished from surgery, and of chemistry as a part of that science +of medicine, was much more ancient than we have been prepared to admit. + +It would be incredible to believe that amongst a people so observant and +highly cultured as the Brahmins must have been, that medicine and the +changes occurring in mixtures of various substances should have been +unstudied, and there is no doubt that this subject was far from being +neglected by them. + +Many natural productions of the country, such as nitrate of potash, +borax, carbonate and sulphate of soda, sulphate of iron, alum, common +salt, and sulphur, could scarcely escape the notice of even ordinary +men; but Dr. Ainslie has shown, from the evidence of old Indian medical +works, that they were not only acquainted with ammonia (which they made +by distilling salammoniac one part, and chalk two parts), but that they +prepared sulphuric acid by burning sulphur and nitre together in earthen +pots, calling it _Gunduk Ka Attar_, or “attar of sulphur.” Nitric acid, +which was prepared, not by the process described by Geber, but by mixing +saltpetre, alum, and a portion of a liquor obtained by spreading cloths +over the common gram plant, and leaving them exposed to the dew, when +they were found to absorb the acid salt so abundantly secreted by the +plant on the surface of its leaves, and which, when examined by +Vauquelin, was found to contain both oxalic and acetic acids. + +Muriatic acid was also made by distilling alum and common salt, dried +and pounded with the above acid liquor. + +Arsenic was used by them for the cure of palsy, and also for venereal +diseases, and is still used by them for this purpose, and in +intermittent fevers. + +It would occupy too much time to go further into this subject at the +present time, but there are many chemical compounds which are still made +and sold in the Indian bazaars which have been used from time +immemorial, and which require a knowledge of chemical manipulation in +the arts of subliming, distilling, &c. + +Mr. Rodwell says, “that the distillation of cinnabar with iron, +described by Dioscorides, is the first crude example of distillation, +which afterwards became a principal operation among the alchemists and +chemists for separating the volatile from the fixed.” + +That this is an assumption which has no foundation in fact is evident, +when we find in the Institutes of Menu many enactments against the +drinking of distilled spirits, and these made of various kinds and +distilled from molasses (or sugar-cane juice), rice, and the madhuca +flowers. + +“A soldier or merchant drinking arak, mead, or rum are to be considered +offenders in the highest degree,” and “for drinking spirits are to be +branded on the forehead with a vintner’s flag,” rather a summary way of +treating a drunkard, and one which would indicate that the ill effects +of over-indulgence in spirituous liquors had been long known, when such +severe enactments were made against it. + +The method of distilling described by Mr. Kerr in the Asiatic +Researches, vol. 1, is so simple that it is almost certain that it was +employed in very ancient times for the purpose of distilling spirits, +and also attars of various sorts, which, from time immemorial, would +seem to have been a special production of India. + +“The body of the still is a common large unglazed earthen water jar, +nearly globular, of about 25 inches diameter at the widest part of it, +and 22 inches deep to the neck, which neck rises 2 inches more, and is +11 inches wide in the opening; this was filled about a half with +fermented mâhwah flowers, which swam about in the liquor to be +distilled. + +“This jar they placed in a furnace, not the most artificial, though not +seemingly ill adapted to give a great heat with but very little fuel. +This they made by digging a round hole in the ground, about 20 inches +wide and full 3 feet deep, cutting an opening in the front sloping down +to the bottom, perpendicular at the sides, about 9 inches wide and about +15 inches long, reckoning from the edge of the circle: this is to serve +to throw in the wood and to allow a passage for the air; at the other +side a small opening about 4 inches by 3 inches is made to serve as an +outlet for the smoke, the bottom of the hole thus made was rounded like +a cup. + +“The jar was placed in this as far as it would go, and banked up with +clay all round to about a fifth of its height, except at the two +openings, when all was completed so far as the furnace was concerned. + +“Fully one third of the still or jar was exposed to the heat when +the fire was lighted; the fuel was at least 2 feet from the bottom +of the jar. + +“On to this jar there was now fitted what is called an adkur, this being +made of two earthen pans with their bottoms turned towards each other, +and a hole of about 4 inches diameter in the middle of each of them, the +lower of these pans fitted the hole in the jar, and was luted with clay, +the upper was luted to the lower one, and had a diameter of about 14 +inches, the juncture formed a neck of about 3 inches, the upper pan was +about 4 inches deep, with a rim round the central hole, this formed a +gutter, and by means of a hollow bamboo luted to this, the spirit, as it +condensed, ran off into the receiver. + +“The arrangement was now completed by luting on a small copper pot or +vessel about 5 inches deep, 8 inches wide at mouth, and about 10 inches +at bottom, with its mouth downwards. + +“The cooler was formed by placing on a support at the back of the +furnace an earthen vessel containing a few gallons of water, from which, +by means of a bamboo tube, the water was allowed to run on to the centre +of the copper pot, from where it collected in the clay saucer, and ran +off by a small hole and bamboo tube for use again. + +“In about three hours’ time from lighting the fire, they draw off fully +fifteen bottles of spirits.” + +Comparing this simple form of apparatus with those described by Geber, +we must admit that there is no doubt of the earlier date of this simple +apparatus; and, as we have seen, distilled spirit is expressly mentioned +in the Institutes of Menu, we are bound to admit that distillation was +in use long ere the Arabian times and that of Dioscorides. + +Many such examples might be examined, but I will take one for +illustration--that of the manufacture of common salt. + +Let us take this manufacture as a typical one. + +We find in Jackson’s Antiquities and Chronology of the Chinese that, +2500 B.C., Shin-nong invented the method of obtaining salt from +sea-water. He also gets credit for having composed books on medicine. + +In George Agricola’s De Re Metallica (1561) there is a curious set of +woodcuts representing the manufacture of salt, and in the first, in +which the whole process of evaporating sea-water by the sun’s rays is +shown most completely from the raising of the sluices to allow the water +to flow into the various evaporating ponds, to the packing of the +finished salt in barrels--it is a curious fact that the trees which are +introduced are _palms_, and the figure in the distance is dressed in +_Oriental costume_, while even the ship seems to partake of this +character. + +A more advanced state of things is shown in the third drawing of the +12th book, where a pan is shown, made of iron plates riveted together so +as to form a flat sheet, which forms the bottom of the pan, of which the +sides are composed of thick wood, strengthened with plates of iron at +the corners. + +The bottom of the pan has a series of iron eyes or loops, and these, +when it is fixed over its furnace, are attached to iron rods, which are +hung from a network of wooden bars, so that the whole bottom of the pan +is supported securely at a considerable number of points. + +The furnace is very simple, being simply a wall surrounding an oblong +space, a little smaller than the pan, so that the sides of the latter +may rest on the walls all round, except for a small space in front where +the fuel is introduced, which apparently burns on the ground alone. + +The method of manufacturing salt in Japan is almost identical with that +figured in Agricola. There is the same arrangement of salt garden or +series of ponds and ditches, and the dirty salts mixed with sand are +again lixiviated, and the filtered liquid is boiled down in curiously +formed pans or boilers. + +Of these there are two chief forms, the first being a tank or pan formed +of large pieces of slate, with the joints made with clay, and surrounded +with a mud wall. The whole is covered with an arch or vault and is +filled with the brine, which is then evaporated by surface heat, the +fire being placed at one end and the flue at the other. + +The other form is very curious and interesting, and is almost identical +in its principle of construction with the pan I have referred to as +figured in Agricola, only in this case the materials are very different, +being, instead of wood and iron, nothing more than clay or mud. + +It was described officially by the Japanese, in their publications at +the Philadelphia Exhibition in 1876. The Japanese description of this +apparatus is highly interesting. It is as follows:-- + +A low wall is built, enclosing a space of about 13 feet by 9 feet, the +bottom forming a kind of prismatical depression, 3 feet deep in the +centre line. An ashpit, 3 feet deep, is then excavated, starting from +the front wall, and extending about 4 feet into this depression at its +deepest place; it communicates with the outside by a channel sloping +gradually upwards, and passing underneath the front wall. The ashpit is +covered by a clay vault, with holes in its sides, so as to establish a +communication between the ashpit and the hollow space under the pan. +This vault is used as a fire grate, the fuel (brown coal and small wood) +being inserted by the fire-door in the front wall. The air-draught +necessary for burning the fuel enters partly by the fire-door, partly +through the ashpit and the openings left in the vaulted grate. Through +these same openings the ashes and cinders are from time to time pushed +down into the ashpit, for which purpose small openings are left in the +side-wall of the furnace, through which the rakes may be introduced. A +passage in the back wall supporting the pan leads off the products of +combustion and the hot air into a short flue, sloping upwards, and +ending in a short vertical chimney. At the lower part some iron kettles +are placed in the flue for the purpose of heating the lye before it is +ladled into the evaporating pan. + +With reference to the pan, it is made in a way that requires a great +deal of skill and practice. In the first place, beams reaching from the +one side to the other are laid on the top of the furnace walls, and are +covered with wooden boards, forming a temporary floor. Two or three feet +above this floor a strong horizontal network of poles of wood sustains a +number of straw ropes, with iron hooks hanging down, and of such a +length that the hooks nearly touch the wooden floor. The floor is +thereupon covered with a mixture of clay and small stones, 4 to 5 inches +thick, the workman being careful to incrustate the iron hooks into this +material. It is allowed to dry gradually, and when considered +sufficiently hardened, the wooden beams and flooring are removed with +the necessary precautions. The bottom of the pan remains suspended by +means of the ropes. The open spaces left all round between the bottom +and the top of the furnace walls are then filled up, and the border of +the pan, 9 inches to 10 inches high, is made of a similar mixture. It is +said that this extraordinary construction lasts from 40 to 50 days when +well made, and that it can be filled 16 times in 24 hours, with an +average of 500 litres of concentrated lye at each filling; but the +quantity depends upon the weather, and is less in winter than in summer. +During the cold season one pan yields 140 litres (of salt) each time it +is filled, and in the hot season from 190 to 210 litres. The average +consumpt of fuel is said to be 1500 kilos. in 24 hours. + +In Persia, near Ballakhan, salt is still made, and has been made from +time immemorial, in a very primitive way, which is described by Bellen, +in his description of his journey in 1872 from the Indus to the Tigris, +as follows:-- + +“For several miles our road led over a succession of salt pits and +ovens, and lying about we found several samples of the alimentary salt +prepared here from the soil. It was in fine white granules massed +together in the form of the earthen vessel in which the salt had been +evaporated. The process of collecting the salt is very rough and simple. +A conical pit or basin, 7 or 8 feet deep and about 12 feet in diameter +is dug, and around it are excavated a succession of smaller pits, each +about 2 feet diameter by 1½ feet deep. On one side of the large pit +is a deep excavation, to which the descent from the pit is by a sloping +bank. In this excavation is a domed oven with a couple of fireplaces. At +a little distance off are the piles of earth scraped from the surface +and ready for treatment. And, lastly, circling round each pit is a small +water-cut led off from a larger stream running along the line of pits. + +“Such is the machinery. The process is simply this:--A shovelful of +earth is taken from the heap and washed in the basins (a shovelful to +each) circling the pit. + +“The liquor from these is, whilst yet turbid, run into the great central +pit, by breaking away a channel for it with the fingers. The channel is +then closed with a dab of clay, and a fresh lot of earth washed, and the +liquor run off as before; and so on till the pit is nearly full of +brine. This is allowed to stand till the liquor clears. It is then +ladled out into earthen jars, set on the fire and boiled to evaporation +successively, till the jar is filled with a cake of granular salt. The +jars are then broken, and the mass of salt (which retains its shape) is +ready for conveyance to market. + +“Large quantities of this salt are used by the nomad population, and a +good deal is taken to Kandahar. The quantity turned out here must +annually be very great. The salt pits extend over at least ten miles of +the country we traversed, and we certainly saw some thousands of pits.” + + +From what I have laid before you, it will be seen that I am strongly of +opinion that we must go far beyond the time of Geber or the Arabian +school for the origin of our science. The study of the question of its +antiquity leads up to such remote times that there is little probability +of any date being assigned to its beginning, and to some it may appear +but a waste of time to indulge in researches upon the subject; but it +has a fascination peculiar to itself, and, in addition, brings before +our minds so many phases in the philosophical thought of the world, that +it will no doubt long continue to exercise the minds and attract the +attention of chemists. + +In the course of my own study of the subject, I have felt much +dissatisfied with the derivation of the name chemistry or alchemy, as it +is given in all works to which I have had access. It is said to be +derived from a word meaning dark, hidden, black, and from the ancient +name for Egypt, but to my own mind this is an unsatisfactory +explanation, and seeking for another more consonant with the character +of the science, I think I have found it in quite a different direction. + +It is well known that in the old Hindoo philosophy there were recognized +five elementary bodies or rather types. These were Water, Fire, Ether, +Earth, and Air, and the system of Menu, of which the antiquity is +enormous, recognizes as the greatest conception of the universe-- + + 1st, God. + 2nd, Mind. + 3rd, Consciousness. + 4th, Matras. + 5th, Elements. + +(matras being the invisible types of the visible atoms which compose the +five elements previously named--viz., Water, Fire, Ether, Earth, and +Air). + +Now, these elements, with the sun and moon, composed the attributes of +the dual deity Iswara and Isi, representing the male and female natural +powers, and, applying this to the famous Pythagorean triangle, we find +that the upright symbol or male, which was the number or power 3, when +combined with the female prostrate symbol, which was the number or power +4, gives a product in the Hypotenuse of 5, which is the number of the +typical elements of the oldest known Hindoo philosophy. It is also the +product of the first male and female numbers, and was anciently called +the number of the world--repeated anyhow by an odd multiple it always +reappears. + +If now we consider chemistry as that science which has to deal with the +changes and combinations of the five elements, and if we call it-- + +_The science of the five parts or elements_, should we not, when we find +that the Arabic word for five is _khams_, rather refer the name of our +science to this word khams, and read it as + + _Al-Khams_, + The five-part science? + +I am inclined, however, to go yet a step further, and remembering that +the _fifth_ element or Ether of the most ancient Hindoo philosophy, was +in reality an expression for active force, or, that emanating from the +central sun caused the natural phenomena of attraction and repulsion, +the emission and refraction of light, and other sensible changes of +condition, would read the compound word + + _Al-Khamis_ + (The fifth), + +as the grand and simple title of our ancient science, meaning + + _The force_-- + +that which causes the changes in the elementary types and their +combinations--than which no more descriptive title could be assigned to +it, even in the present enlightened age. + + * * * * * + * * * * + * * * * * + +Errors and Anomalies + +Apollonius Tyanæus [_text reads “Appolonius”_] + +Hercules and Bacchus (Dionysius) [_text reads “Dionsyius”_] + +Ommiades ... Abassides [_standard spellings for this text_] + +Ibn Osaibe’s testimony [_text reads “Ibu”_] + +body-physicians at the Court of Harun-al-Raschid + [_spelling as in original, but elsewhere spelled “Haroun”_] + +Xenophon in his Anabasis [_text reads “Zenophon”_] + +Megasthenes [_text reads “Megesthenes”_] + +the first of the Grecian philosophers [_text reads “philosphers”_] + +the Hindoos believe in _fourteen Menus_ + [_and six further occurrences of “Menu”_] + [_standard spelling in this text: correct form is “Manu”_] + +Libyans in war chariots with four horses [_text reads “Lybians”_] + +under the reign of Pharoah Necho [_spelling as in original_] + +from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean [_text reads “Mediterreanean”_] + +Jackson in his “Antiquities” tells us that, [_comma in original_] + +♁ Denotes a chaos + [_The symbol should look like an inverted “female” or “Venus”-- + a cross above a circle-- but some fonts represent it as a cross + within a circle._] + +Indra instructed Dahnwantari +Dahnwantari is also styled Kasi-rajah + [_correct form is “Dhanwantari”_] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Antiquity of the Chemical Art, by +James Mactear + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANTIQUITY OF THE CHEMICAL ART *** + +***** This file should be named 17753-0.txt or 17753-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/7/5/17753/ + +Produced by Louise Hope, R. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/17753-0.zip b/17753-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..518a8c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/17753-0.zip diff --git a/17753-8.txt b/17753-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dd2fd02 --- /dev/null +++ b/17753-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1958 @@ +Project Gutenberg's On the Antiquity of the Chemical Art, by James Mactear + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: On the Antiquity of the Chemical Art + +Author: James Mactear + +Release Date: February 11, 2006 [EBook #17753] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANTIQUITY OF THE CHEMICAL ART *** + + + + +Produced by Louise Hope, R. Cedron and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Transcriber's Note: +Typographical errors are listed at the end of the file. Misspelled Greek +names were treated as errors; others are noted but not changed.] + + * * * * * + +President's Opening Address to Chemical Section. + + ON THE ANTIQUITY + OF + THE CHEMICAL ART. + + By JAMES MACTEAR, F.C.S., F.C.I. + + + + +THE PRESIDENT'S OPENING ADDRESS TO THE CHEMICAL SECTION. + +_On the Antiquity of the Chemical Art._ By JAMES MACTEAR, + F.C.S., F.C.I., Member of the International Jury, + Paris, 1878, and Medalist of the Society of Arts. + + [Read before the Section, December 8th, 1879.] + + +The study of the History of Chemistry as an art, or as a science, is one +which possesses peculiar fascination for its votaries. It has been the +subject of deep research and much discussion, much has been written upon +the subject, and many theories have been broached to account for its +origin. We have had laid before us by Professor Ferguson, in his papers +on this subject of Chemical History, very clearly and fully the +generally-accepted position as regards the origin of the science, and in +the last of these papers, entitled "Eleven Centuries of Chemistry," he +deals with the subject in a most complete manner, tracing back through +its various mutations the development of the science to the time of +Geber, in or about the year A.D. 778. + +Of Geber, as a chemist, Professor Ferguson writes, "He was the +first--because, although he himself speaks of the ancients, meaning +thereby his forerunners, nothing is known of these older chemists." + +Rodwell, in his "Birth of Chemistry," after a careful examination of the +question, comes to the conclusion that, "in spite of all that has been +written on the subject, there is no good evidence to prove that alchemy +and chemistry did not originate in Arabia not long prior to the eighth +century, A.D.," bringing us again to the times of Geber. + +He is not alone in this opinion, and it seems to be generally accepted +that chemistry originated in the Arabian schools about this period. + +In dealing with the question of the antiquity of chemical art, it has +been too much the habit to look at the question with a view of +discovering when and who it was that first brought forth, fully clothed +as a science, the art of chemistry. + +Let us look at the definition of the science given by Boerhve, about +1732. He describes chemistry as "an art which teaches the manner of +performing certain physical operations, whereby bodies cognizable to the +senses, or capable of being rendered cognizable, and of being contained +in vessels, are so changed by means of proper instruments as to produce +certain determinate effects, and at the same time discover the causes +thereof, for the service of the various arts." + +Now, it is amply evident that, long before the various known facts could +be collected and welded into one compact whole as a science, there must +have existed great store of intellectual wealth, as well as mere +hereditary practical knowledge of the various chemical facts. + +I do not think it will be disputed that, until comparatively recent +times, technical knowledge has constantly been in advance of theory, and +that it is not too much to conclude that, no matter where we first find +actual records of our science, its natal day must have long before +dawned. Even in our day, when theoretical science, as applied to +chemistry, has made such immense strides, how often do we find that it +is only now that theory comes in to explain facts, known as such long +previous, and those engaged in practical chemical work know how much +technical knowledge is still unwritten, and what may even be called +traditionary. + +I purpose taking up the subject from this point of view, and attempting, +with what little ability I can, to follow back to a still more remote +period than that of Geber and the Arabian school of philosophers the +traces of what has often been called the divine art. + +An aspect of the question that has often presented itself to me is this, +that the history of what we call our world extends over some 4000 years +before Christ and 1878 years since, so that, according to the usually +accepted idea, if chemistry originated in Arabia in the eighth century, +it was not known during say the first 5000 years of the world's history, +but has advanced to its present high position amongst the sciences in +the last 1000 years. + +I hope to be able to show that, while the Arabian school of philosophy +get the credit of originating most of the sciences, that it is as +undeserved in the case of chemical science as in that of astronomy or +mathematics. At the same time let us not undervalue the services +rendered to science by this school: it is to them we owe the +distribution of the knowledge of most of our sciences, and the Arabic +literature of most of these was widely spread abroad over all the known +world of their time. + +The central portion of Baghdad between the eastern and western portions +of the Old World, and the wise and enlightened policy of its rulers, +which welcomed to its schools, without reference to country or creed, +the wise and learned men of every nation, drew to it as to a centre the +accumulated wisdom and knowledge of both the rising and the setting sun. +Long ere this time, however, we find, as regards the Greeks, that they +constantly travelled eastward in search of learning, while we know that +the expedition of Alexander the Great, about B.C. 327, in which he +traversed a considerable portion of India, had already opened up the +store-houses of Indian lore to the minds of the West. + +In connection with this, the following extract from an old book: called +_The Gunner_, dated 1664, is interesting:-- + +"In the life of Apollonius Tyanus, written by Philostratus 1500 years +ago, we find, in reference to the Indians called Oxydra: These truly +wise men dwelled between the rivers Hyphasis and Ganges; their country +Alexander the Great never entered, being deterred, not by fear of the +inhabitants, but, as I suppose, by, religious considerations, for had he +passed the Hyphasis, he might doubtless have made himself master of the +country all round him; but their cities he could never have taken, +though he had led a thousand as brave as Achilles or ten thousand such +as Ajax to the assault. For they come not out into the field to fight +those who attack them; but these holy men, beloved of the gods, +overthrow their enemies with tempests and thunder-bolts shot from their +walls. + +"It is said that Egyptian Hercules and Bacchus (Dionysius), when they +overran India, invaded this people also, and having prepared warlike +engines, attempted to conquer them. They made no show of resistance, but +upon the enemy's near approach to their cities they were repulsed with +storms of lightning and thunder hurled upon them from above." + +May we not here have the original of the Greek fire, that was in its day +so celebrated and so destructive? + +Beginning then at the period of Geber, about 776 A.D., let us try to +work backwards and trace, if we can, the progress of chemical knowledge +down the stream of time. + +While the Western Roman Empire had fallen, the Eastern still held its +sway as far as the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, and continued the +contest with the Persian power for the supremacy in Asia. At this time +the various creeds and beliefs of the Arabian tribes--which had been +much influenced by the settlement amongst them of Jews who had been +dispersed at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, and many of the +sects of Christians who had been driven from the Roman empire by the +more orthodox--were deeply stirred by the new doctrine of Islam, +preached by Mahomet, A.D. 622, proclaiming the Koran as the rule of +life, and the destruction of the ancient Arabian worship of the stars +and sun and moon. + +The religion of "the one God and Mahomet his prophet" took deep root, +and the injunction to pursue the unbelieving with fire and sword was +followed out with such unrelenting vigour that, within less than a +century from the death of Mahomet, the Arabian power had extended its +sway amongst nearly every tribe and nation that had owned the rule of +the Roman or Persian empires, and had reached from Spain to India, from +Samarcand to the Indian Ocean. + +Egypt and Syria were conquered between A.D. 632-39, and Persia about +A.D. 632-51. Their attempts to take Constantinople by siege failed both +in A.D. 673 and 716. But they were more successful on the African shores +of the Mediterranean, which they swept along till they crossed the +Straits of Gibraltar and entered Spain in A.D. 709. Their further +progress--through France--was stayed by their defeat in a great battle +fought at Tour's, when the Gauls, under Charles Martel, forced them to +retire ultimately across the Pyrenees. + +Internal dissension had, however, arisen amongst them, and the ruling +dynasty of the Ommiades was overthrown in A.D. 750 by the Abassides, who +established themselves at Damascus; and with them began that cultivation +of the arts and sciences which has thrown such lustre on the Arabian +school. + +One of the princes of the Ommiades who had escaped made his way to Spain +and there re-established the power of his family, with Cordova as a +centre, about A.D. 755. Thus it was that the Saracenic power was divided +into an Eastern and a Western Caliphate. + +It was under the prosperous rule of the Abassides that such an impulse +was given to learning of every kind, and that the Arabian school of +philosophy, which has left behind it such glorious records of its +greatness, was founded. The Caliph Al-Mansour was the first, so far as +we know, who earnestly encouraged the cultivation of learning; but it +was to Haroun Al-Raschid, A.D. 786-808 (?), that the Arabians owed the +establishment of a college of philosophy. He invited learned men to his +kingdom from all nations, and paid them munificently; he employed them +in translating the most famous books of the Greeks and others, and +spread abroad throughout his dominions numerous copies of those works. + +His second son, Al-Mamoon, while governor of the province of Kohrassan, +we are told, formed a college of learned men from every country, and +appointed as the president John Mesue, of Damascus. It is said that his +father, complaining that so great an honour had been conferred on a +Christian, received the reply--"That Mesue had been chosen, not as a +teacher of religion, but as an able preceptor in useful arts and +sciences; and my father well knows that the most learned men and the +most skilful artists in his dominions are Jews and Christians." + +That this was the case can scarcely be doubted when we consider that the +Jews had always been familiar with many arts and sciences, and that, as +is well known, at the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, when the Jews +were dispersed in every direction, they spread over, not alone the +countries under the Roman rule, but to Greece, Egypt, and the +Mediterranean coast, as well as great part of Asia Minor, carrying with +them, not only their peculiar religious traditions, but also their arts, +which, we know, especially as regards the working of metals, were of no +mean order, and their sciences, of which the so-called magic and +astrology had been assiduously cultivated. + +In Asia the dispersed Jews established patriarchates at Tiberias in the +west, and at Mahalia, and afterwards at Baghdad, for the Jews who were +beyond the Euphrates. + +Seminaries were founded at these centres for the rabbis, and constant +intercourse was kept up between them. It was in these schools that the +Talmud was compiled from the traditionary exposition of the Old +Testament, between A.D. 200 and A.D. 500, when it was completed, and +received as a rule of faith by most of the scattered Jews. + +That the cultivation of science was not neglected we may be sure from +the keen interest taken in all ages by the Jews in magical and +astrological inquiries. We read in Apuleius, in his defence on the +accusation of magic brought against him, that of the "four tutors +appointed to educate the princes of Persia, one had to instruct him +specially in the magic of Zoroaster and Oromazes, which is the worship +of the gods." Apuleius wrote about 200 A.D., and his works teem with +references to magic and astrology. + +The fact that Jews and Christians were looked on as learned men will not +surprise us, when we find that the Jews had established schools so long +anterior to the foundation of the college of Baghdad. The rapid progress +made by the Arabians, and the wise policy of the Abasside Caliphs, under +whose judicious rule learning was so liberally encouraged, aided by the +position of Baghdad, which formed, as it were, a centre to which the +wisdom of both eastern and western minds gravitated, attracted to their +schools all those of every nation who boasted themselves philosophers. + +The first translations from the Greek authors are supposed to have been +made about A.D. 745, and are known to have been on the subjects of +philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine. These translations are +understood to have been made by Christian or Jewish physicians. + +As we have seen, the Jews had already established themselves at Baghdad, +and had founded schools of their own previous to the formation of the +college under Caliph Al-Mansour; but further than this we find the +Christians spread widely over the countries of Asia Minor, and we are +told, on the authority of Cosmo-Indicopleustes, that so early as A.D. +535 there was in almost every large town in _India_ a Christian Church +under the Bishop of Seleucia. + +With these facts before us--1st, that Christian physicians were the +leaders of the Arabian school in the eighth century; 2nd, that large +numbers of Christian churches were actually in existence in India at +least two hundred years previously to the establishment of the college +at Baghdad; and 3rd, that Baghdad was almost, as it wore, the central +point of the great caravan route which from time immemorial had been the +course of communication between the East and West, can we doubt that an +extensive intercourse must have taken place, and should we not expect to +find some traces, if not the effects, of Indian science on the teaching +of the Arabian school.[1] + + [Footnote 1: As to communication, the case of Saggid Mahmud (given + in Bellew's _Indus to the Tigris_), who, merely to pray for the + recovery of his sick son, travelled with him from Ghazni by way of + Kandahur and Shikarpur to Bombay, thence by way of sea to Baghdad, + from there to Karbola, and back to Baghdad; and then by Kirmanshah + and Kum to Teheran, on his way home to Ghazni, gives an indication + of the long journeys taken under the most frightful difficulties. + This long journey had occupied six months only, and we read that + in former times twelve years were sometimes taken in trading + journeys.] + +In Vol. VIII. of the Journal of Education we find a notice that +"Professor Dietz, of the University of Knigsberg, who had spent five +years of his life in visiting the principal libraries of Germany, Italy, +Switzerland, Spain, France, and England, in search of manuscripts of +Greek, Roman, and Oriental writers on medicine, is now engaged in +publishing his 'Analecta Medica.' + +"The work contains several interesting papers on the subject of physical +science among the Indians and Arabians, and communicates several +introductory notices and illustrations from native Eastern writers. +Dietz proves that the late Greek physicians were acquainted with the +medical works of the Hindus, and availed themselves of their +medicaments; but he more particularly shows that the Arabians were +familiar with them, and extolled the healing art, as practised by the +Indians, quite as much as that in use among the Greeks. + +"It appears from Ibn Osaibe's testimony (from whose biographical work +Dietz has given a long abstract on the lives of Indian physicians), that +a variety of treatises on medical science were translated from the +Sanscrit into Persian and Arabic, particularly the more important +compilations of Charaka and Susruta, which are still held in estimation +in India; and that Manka and Saleh--the former of whom translated a +special treatise on poisons into Persian--even held appointments as +body-physicians at the Court of Harun-al-Raschid." + +As the age of the medical works of Charaka and Susruta is incontestably +much more ancient than that of any other work on the subject (except the +Ayur Veda)--as we shall see when we come to consider the science of the +Hindoos--this in itself would be sufficient to show that the Arabians +were certainly not the originators of either medical or chemical +science. + +We should not forget that it is only to their own works and their +translations, chiefly by the Greeks, we owe our knowledge of the state +of Arabian science, and that it is only in rare cases that we have given +a list of works consulted, so that we can gather the sources from which +their knowledge was derived. It would scarcely be imagined, from reading +the works of Roger Bacon, or of Newton, that they had derived some, at +least, of their knowledge from Arabian sources; and yet such is known to +have been the case with them both. + +Let us now glance backwards from the Arabians to the Greeks. + +It is supposed that the first translations from the Greek authors were +made for the Caliphs about 745 A.D., and were first translated into +Syriac, and then into Arabic. The works of Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy, +Hippocrates, Galen, and Dioscorides are known to have been translated +under the reign of Al-Mansour. + +Granting for the moment that the first knowledge of the sciences was +obtained by the Arabians from the Greeks, we are at once face to face +with the question. From whence did the Greeks obtain their knowledge? To +any careful reader it will be clear that Grecian science and philosophy, +like Grecian theology, was not of native birth. It is comparatively well +known that the Greeks were indebted to the Egyptians for much of their +theology as well as science. The great truths which really underlay the +mysterious religious rites of Egypt seem to have been altogether lost +when the Greeks wove their complicated system of theology; and we read +that the Egyptian priests looked on the Greeks as children who failed to +understand the great mysteries involved in their religious rites, +disguised as they were in symbolic form. But, besides their indebtedness +to Egypt, we will find that they also owed much to Persia, and through +it again to Indian sources of knowledge. + +There was constant communication between the Grecian and Persian +nations. We learn that it was not uncommon for Grecian generals to take +service under the Persian Satraps, tempted by the liberal recompence +with which their services were rewarded. About the year 356 B.C. this +system of Greeks accepting service under Persian Satraps nearly caused +the outbreak of war between Greece and Persia--Chares, a Grecian +commander, having assisted with his fleet and men, Artabanus, the Satrap +of Propontis, who was then in revolt against the Persian king. But +before this, during the great plague which desolated Athens in 430 B.C., +and which also extended to Persia, Hippocrates was invited to go to the +Persian Court; and it is on record that Ctesias was for seventeen years +physician at the Persian Court about 400 B.C., during which period he +wrote his history of Persia, and an account of India, which Professor +Wilson, in a paper read to the Ashmolean Society of Oxford, has shown to +contain notices of the natural productions of the country, "which, +although often extravagant and absurd, are, nevertheless, founded on +truth." + +There were, too, Grecian soldiers employed as paid auxiliaries, and a +colony of Greeks who had been taken prisoners of war was founded within +a day's journey of Susa. + +The great expedition to Persia, and the graphic description of the +retreat of the "ten thousand" Greeks, given by Xenophon in his Anabasis, +must have been well known to Alexander the Great when he set out on his +career of conquest. He overthrew the Persian empire in 331 B.C., having +destroyed Tyre and subdued Egypt in the previous year and carried his +triumphant progress to the banks of the Indus, and there he "held +intercourse with the learned sages of India." On Alexander's death +Seleucus succeeded to the throne of Persia in 307 B.C., and not long +after he forced his way beyond the Indus, and ultimately as far as the +sacred river Ganges. He formed an alliance with the Indian king +Sandrocottus (otherwise known as Chandra-gupta), which was maintained +for many years, and it is said, also, that he gave his daughter in +marriage to the Indian king, and aided him with Grecian auxiliaries in +his wars. + +He sent an expedition by sea, under the command of Patrocles his +admiral, who visited the western shores of India, and a little later he +despatched an embassy under Megasthenes and Onesicrates, the former of +whom resided for some years at the "great city" of Palibothra (supposed +to be Patna). + +Not long after Megasthenes was at Palibothra, Ptolemy Philadelphus sent +an expedition overland through Persia to India, and later Ptolemy +Euergetes, who lived between 145-116 B.C., sent a fleet under Eudoxius +on a voyage of discovery to the western shores of India, piloted, as is +said, by an Indian sailor who had been shipwrecked, and who had been +found in a boat on the Red Sea. Eudoxius reached India safely, and +returned to Egypt with a cargo of spices and precious stones. + +The proof of very ancient communication between Greece and India is +quite clear, both by way of Persia and Egypt, and we find that the +Greeks, who were in the habit of calling all other nations barbarians, +speak constantly with respect of the gymnosophists--called "Sapientes +Indi" by Pliny. We read also of the Greek philosophers constantly +travelling eastward in search of knowledge, and on their return setting +up new schools of thought. Thales, it is affirmed, travelled in Egypt +and Asia during the sixth century B.C., and it is said of him that he +returned to Miletus, and transported that vast stock of learning which +he had acquired into his own country. + +He is generally considered as the first of the Greek philosophers. +Strabo says of him that he was the first of the Grecian philosophers who +made inquiry into natural causes and the mathematics. + +The doctrine of Thales, that water was the first elementary principle, +is exactly that of the ancient Hindoos, who held that water was the +first element, and the first work of the creative power. This idea was +not completely exploded even up till the 18th century. We find Van +Helmont affirming that all metals, and even rocks, may be resolved into +water; and Lavoisier, so lately as 1770, thought it worth while to +communicate an elaborate paper "On the nature of water and the +experiments by which it has been attempted to prove the possibility of +converting it into earth." + +Pythagoras, perhaps the greatest of all Greek philosophers, it is known, +travelled very widely, spending no less than twenty-two years in Egypt. +He also spent some considerable time at Babylon, and was taught the lore +of the Magi. + +In the famous satire of Lucian on the philosophic quackery of his day +(about 120 A.D.), "The Sale of the Philosophers," we have a most +interesting account of the system of Pythagoras. + +_Scene--A Slave Mart. _Jupiter_, _Mercury_, _philosophers_, in the garb +of slaves, for sale. Audience of buyers._ + +_Jupiter._--Now, you arrange the benches, and get the place ready for +the company. You bring out the goods and set them in a row; but trim +them up a little first, and make them look their best, to attract as +many customers as possible. You, Mercury, must put up the lots, and bid +all comers welcome to the sale. Gentlemen,--We are here going to offer +you philosophical systems of all kinds, and of the most varied and +ingenious description. If any gentleman happens to be short of ready +money he can give his security for the amount, and pay next year. + +_Mercury (to Jupiter)._--There are a great many come; so we had best +begin at once, and not keep them waiting. + +_Jupiter._--Begin the sale, then. + +_Mercury._--Whom shall we put up first? + +_Jupiter._--This fellow with the long hair--the Ionian. He's rather an +imposing personage. + +_Mercury._--You, Pythagoras, step out, and show yourself to the company. + +_Jupiter._--Put him up. + +_Mercury._--Gentlemen, we here offer you a professor of the very best +and most select description. Who buys? Who wants to be a cut above the +rest of the world? Who wants to understand the harmonies of the universe +and to live two lives? + +_Customer (turning the philosopher round and examining him)._--He's not +bad to look at. What does he know best? + +_Mercury._--Arithmetic, astronomy, prognostics, geometry, music, and +conjuring. You've a first-rate soothsayer before you. + +_Customer._--May one ask him a few questions? + +_Mercury._--Certainly--(_aside_), and much good may the answers do you. + +_Customer._--What country do you come from? + +_Pythagoras._--Samos. + +_Customer._--Where were you educated? + +_Pythagoras._--In Egypt, among the wise men there. + +_Customer._--Suppose I buy you, now, what will you teach me? + +_Pythagoras._--I will teach you nothing--only recall things to your +memory. + +_Customer._--How will you do that? + +_Pythagoras._--First, I will clean out your mind, and wash out all the +rubbish. + +_Customer._--Well, suppose that done, how do you proceed to refresh the +memory? + +_Pythagoras._--First, by long repose and silence, speaking no word for +five whole years. + +_Customer._--Why, look ye, my good fellow, you'd best go teach the dumb +son of Croesus! I want to talk and not be a dummy. Well--but after this +silence, and these five years? + +_Pythagoras._--You shall learn music and geometry. + +_Customer._--A queer idea, that one must be a fiddler before one can be +a wise man! + +_Pythagoras._--Then you shall learn the science of numbers. + +_Customer._--Thank you, but I know how to count already. + +_Pythagoras._--How do you count? + +_Customer._--One, two, three, four---- + +_Pythagoras._--Ha! what you call four is ten, and the perfect triangle, +and the great oath by which we swear. + +_Customer._--Now, so help me, the great ten and four, I never heard more +divine or more wonderful words! + +_Pythagoras._--And afterwards, stranger, you shall learn about Earth, +and Air, and Water, and Fire--what is their action, and what their form, +and what their motion. + +_Customer._--What! have Fire, Air, or Water bodily shape? + +_Pythagoras._--Surely they have; else, without form and shape, how could +they move! Besides, you shall learn that the Deity consists in Number, +Mind, and Harmony. + +_Customer._--What you say is really wonderful. + +_Pythagoras._--Besides what I have just told you, you shall understand +that you yourself, who seem to be one individual, are really somebody +else. + +_Customer._--What! do you mean to say I'm somebody else, and not myself, +now talking to you? + +_Pythagoras._--Just at this moment you are; but once upon a time you +appeared in another body, and under another name; and hereafter you will +pass again into another shape still. + +(After a little more discussion of this philosopher's tenets, he is +purchased on behalf of a company of professors from Magna Grca for ten +min. The next lot is Diogenes, the Cynic.) + +Apuleius says in the Florida, Section XV., in reference to Pythagoras, +that he went to Egypt to acquire learning, "that he was there taught by +the priests the incredible power of ceremonies, the wonderful +commutations of numbers, and the most ingenious figures of geometry; but +that, not satisfied with these mental accomplishments, he afterwards +visited the Chaldans and the Brahmins, and amongst the latter the +Gymnosophists. The Chaldans taught him the stars, the definite orbits +of the planets, and the various effects of both kinds of stars upon the +nativity of men, as also, for much money, _the remedies for human use +derived from the earth, the air, and the sea_ (the elements earth, air, +and water, or all nature). + +"But the Brahmins taught him the greater part of his philosophy--what +are the rules and principles of the understanding; what the functions of +the body; how many the faculties of the soul; how many the mutations of +life; what torments or rewards devolve upon the souls of the dead, +according to their respective deserts." + +There is ample evidence, therefore, that the Greeks had communication +with, and borrowed the philosophy of, both Persia and India at a very +early date. + +That there was intimate intercourse with India in very ancient times +there can be no doubt. In addition to the classical sources of +information collected chiefly by the officers of Alexander the Great, +Seleucus and the Ptolemies, and which was condensed and reduced to +consistent shape by Diodorus, Strabo, Pliny, and Arrian, within the +first century before and the first century after Christ, we have the +further proof of the fact by the constant finds of innumerable Greek +coins over a large portion of north-western India, and even at Cabul. +These, so far as yet known, commence with the third of the Seleucid, +and run on for many centuries, the inscriptions showing that the Greek +characters were used in the provinces of Cabul and the Punjab even so +late as the fourth century A.D. The consideration of these coins of the +Grco-Persian empire of the Seleucid naturally leads us to the +consideration of the Persians. + +I have already shown that the Greeks and Persians held intimate +relations with each other as early as the fourth century B.C., and from +the speech of Demosthenes against a proposed war with Persia, delivered +in 354 B.C, we may well believe that they had already had a long and +intimate connection with each other. The passage rends thus:- + +"All Greeks know that, so long as they regarded Persia as their common +enemy, they were at peace with each other, and enjoyed much prosperity, +but since they have looked upon the King (of Persia) as a friend, and +quarrelled about disputes with each other, they have suffered worse +calamities than any one could possibly imprecate upon them." + +The Persian empire was founded by Cyrus, about B.C. 560, and rapidly +rose to be perhaps the greatest power of the world of that age. The rise +of the Persian empire is not unlike that of the Arabian power in regard +to the wide range of conquest achieved in a very limited period. Its +actual existence, from the foundation of the empire by Cyrus in B.C. 560 +to the death of Darius III., was barely two centuries and a half. + +Previous to the Persian empire there existed three principal powers in +Asia--the Medes, the Chaldans or Babylonish, and the Lydian. Of these +the Medes and Chaldans were the most ancient, and their joint power +would seem to have extended eastward as far as the Oxus and Indus. + +Of these nations the Babylonians were the most highly civilized, and, +did time permit, we might find much that would interest and instruct in +examining the various facts relating to the arts and sciences amongst +these nations. We know that arts and sciences must have been diligently +cultivated amongst them, and that magic and astrology were held in high +repute. + +That the Persians were well acquainted with other nations is shown +clearly from the remains of their great city of Persepolis, where the +sculptured figures represent many types of mankind--the negro, with +thick lips and flat nose, and with his crisp, wooly hair, clearly cut; +and the half-naked Indian, with his distinguishing features, being +easily singled out from many others. + +Persia held sway over a huge district of India--the limits of this are +not known; but, in addition, they were well acquainted with a large +portion of the north-western part of India. + +The traditions and historical records of the Persians are contained in +the famous series of writings culled the Zend-avesta. These writings +are, it is thought, of an age even before the Persian dynasty was +established; and it has been shown by the researches of M. Anguetil and +Sir W. Jones that there is indeed a great probability of the Zend having +been a dialect of the ancient Sanscrit language. In the vocabulary +attached to M. Anguetil's great work on the Zend-avesta no less than 60 +to 70 per cent. of the words are said to be pure Sanscrit. + +As the oldest known language of Persia was Chaldic, we are again thrown +back on Indian sources for the origin of the great book of the ancient +Persians. Even the name of the priests of the Persian religion of +Zoroaster, Mag or Magi, is of Sanscrit derivation. + +The Persians kept up an enormous army, which was spread through all the +various provinces and Satrapies, and consisted in great part of paid +auxiliaries. In at least the later period of Persian power the Greeks +were preferred to all others, and in the time of Cyrus the Younger they +composed the flower of the Persian army, and were employed in +garrisoning most of the chief cities of Asia Minor. + +The description given by Herodotus of the vast army and fleet prepared +for the expedition of Xerxes against the Greeks gives us an idea of the +extent of the Persian power, and of the wide range of countries and +nations over which they held sway. The review held on the Plain of +Doriscus was perhaps the greatest military spectacle ever beheld either +before or since. Herodotus enumerates no less than 56 different nations, +all of them in their national dress and arms. Besides the Persians there +were "Medes and Bactrians; Libyans in war chariots with four horses; +Arabs on camels; Sagartians, wild huntsmen who employed, instead of the +usual weapons of the time, the lasso; the nomadic tribes of Bucharia and +Mongolia; Ethiopians in lions' skins, and Indians in cotton robes; +Phoenician sailors, and Greeks from Asia Minor." All these and many +others were there assembled by the despotic power of the Persian king. + +The system of government employed by the Persians, and the constant +reports and tributes sent from every province to the central court of +the king, were well calculated to bring to it, as to a focus, the +curious lore of the various nations who came in contact with or were +subdued by them. + +The Persians were famed for their knowledge of astronomy and astrology, +and were said "to have anciently known the most wonderful powers of +nature, and to have therefore acquired great fame as magicians and +enchanters." + +The close relation between the Persian religious traditions and those of +the Hindoos is very striking. According to Mohsan, "The best informed +Persians, who professed the faith of Hu-shang as distinguished from that +of Zeratusht, believes that the first monarch of Iran, and, indeed, of +the whole world, was Mahabad (a word apparently Sanscrit), who divided +the people into four orders,--the religious, the military, the +commercial, and the servile, to which he assigned names unquestionably +the same as those now applied to the four primary classes of the +Hindoos." + +They added, "that he received from the Creator and promulgated amongst +men a _sacred book in a heavenly language_, to which the Musselman +author gives the _Arabic_ title of _Desatir_, or Regulations, but the +original name of which he has not mentioned; and that _fourteen +Mahabads_ had appeared, or would appear, in human shapes for the +government of this world." + +"Now when we know that the Hindoos believe in _fourteen Menus_, or +celestial persons with similar functions, the _first_ of whom left a +book of _regulations_, or divine ordinances, which they hold equal to +the _Veda_, and the language of which they believe to be that of the +gods, we can hardly doubt that the first corruption of the purest and +oldest religion was the system of _Indian_ theology invented by the +_Brahmins_ and prevalent in those territories where the book of Mahabad, +or Menu, is at this moment the standard of all religious and moral +duties." + +Having established, then, the long and intimate nature of the Persian +intercourse with India, let us see how it bears on our more immediate +subject. + +The works on medicine which are known to exist, and to have been written +in Persian, are not very many in number, but they cover a period of time +of nearly 400 years. The oldest of them is of the year 1392 A.D., and in +it and its successors there are long lists of Arabian authors whose +works had been consulted, and also various Indian works. + +Greek physicians were in great request at the Persian court, and when +the daughter of the Emperor Aurelian was sent in marriage to the Persian +monarch, Sapor II., she had a number of Greek physicians in her train. +This king founded a new city called Jondisabour in honour of his Queen, +and owing to the settlement here of a number of Greek physicians, who +had, on account of religious differences, retired into Persia, this city +became celebrated as a medical school. Dr. Friend gives the names of +these as "Damascius the Syrian, Simplicius of Cilicia, Diogenes of +Phnicea, Isidorus of Gaza, and others, the most learned and greatest +philosophers of the age." It is thought by some authors that many of the +Arabian writers who belonged to the college of Baghdad were educated at +Jondisabour. + +The district of Jondisabour is even yet one of the most nourishing in +Persia, and contains mines which still yield turquoise, salt, lead, +copper, antimony, iron, and marble. + +During the reign of the Persian king Nooshirwan, his physician Barzoueh +made various journeys into India, one of which was specially for the +purpose of obtaining copies of Indian literature, and another to obtain +medicaments and herbs. + +How to account for the strange fact that all schools of medicine which +have risen, flourished, and disappeared, have left some trace in +historical records, with the exception of that of India, is most +difficult, unless under the hypothesis that the language in which the +science and philosophy of India was recorded has been almost a sealed +book to the world, and is even now quite unintelligible to the people of +India itself, generally speaking, and that thus the only way in which +the results of the long ages of philosophic study, which unquestionably +have had a place in India, have only been known by this dark reflection +from the writings of Greek and Arabic writers, which were scattered +broadcast over the ancient world. The Greeks, we know, borrowed their +science largely from the Egyptians, both in respect to theology and +philosophy; and we might, with much profit, pursue the examination of +our subject amongst the records of that highly civilized amongst the +ancient nations. + +Many authors have attempted to show that there is a wonderful +resemblance between the Egyptians and the Hindoos, the sculptures on the +monuments of the former are most wonderfully like those of India, and +the features, dress, and arms are all as like as may be. + +Both nations had the various arts of weaving, dyeing, embroidering, +working in metals, and the manufacture of glass, and practised them with +but little difference in their methods. The fine muslins of India find +their counterparts as "woven wind" in the transparent tissues figured on +the Egyptian temples. The style of building, the sciences of astronomy, +music, and medicine were assiduously cultivated by both nations, and +there was direct intercourse between them, perhaps even before +historical time begins. + +Rameses the Great (III.), called also Sesostris, fitted out not only war +ships but merchant vessels for the purpose of trading with India, in +B.C. 1235, and Wilkinson in his book on the Ancient Egyptians, tells us +that in 2000 B.C. there were no less than 400 ships trading to the +Persian Gulf. There is, after all, nothing surprising in this when we +remember the fact, which is, however, not generally known, I am afraid, +that under the reign of Pharoah Necho, a fleet of his ships safely +circumnavigated Africa, from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, this +being in advance of the celebrated voyage of Diaz and Vasco da Gama by +no less than 2100 years. + +No less than seven centuries before Thales went to study in Egypt, +astronomical calculations were inscribed on the monuments at Thebes, so +that we can see how modern by comparison the Greek philosophy appears. + +In a note Wilkinson says that "The science of Medicine was one of the +earliest cultivated in Egypt. Athothes, the successor of Menes of the +first dynasty, is said to have written on the subject, and five papyri +on the subject have survived. + +"They are of the period of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties. + +"One known as the Papyrus Ebers, from its discoverer, is attributed to +the age of Kherpheres or Bikheres. + +"The second, that of Berlin, found in the reign of Usaphais of the first +dynasty, was completed by Senet or Sethenes of the second line. + +"The third, that of the British Museum, contains a receipt said to have +been mysteriously discovered in the reign of Cheops of the fourth +dynasty. + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + +"The curatives employed were ointments, drinks, plasters, fumigations +and clysters, and the drugs employed were taken from vegetables, +minerals, and animals. + +"Those for each draught were mixed together, pounded, boiled, and +strained through linen. + +"The doctors belonged to the sacred class, and were only permitted to +practice their own particular branch. + +"These were oculists, dentists, those who confined their practice to +diseases of the head, and those again who only attended to internal +diseases; they were paid from the public treasury, and were compelled, +before being permitted to practice, to study the precepts laid down by +their predecessors." + +Homer, in the Odyssey, describes Egypt "as a country whose fertile soil +produces an infinity of drugs, some salutary and some pernicious, where +each physician possesses knowledge above all other men." + +The mixing of various drugs and minerals must have produced effects +which could not be lost on such observant men as the doctors must, from +their training, have been, and it would be absurd to suppose that some, +at least, of the simpler chemical decompositions and combinations were +not known to them. + +The manufacture of glass would seem to have been very ancient amongst +the Egyptians, and the insufficiency of the old fable, of its discovery +by the fusing of blocks of stone in the fire is quite clear; besides, +Egyptian glass has been found which contains potash, and nothing is more +probable than that the nitrate of potash, found so plentifully in the +soil of India, was imported for this manufacture. + +Precious stones or amulets with Sanscrit inscriptions have repeatedly +been found in tombs, which must date back to at least B.C. 1400. + +In tracing back the history of Chemistry, we constantly find reference +to Hermes, Trismegistus, who would seem to be the god Thoth, or Taaut of +the Egyptians. The famous inscription of the Emerald table ascribes to +him the possession of three parts of the philosophy of the whole world. +I have been much struck with the resemblance of this god Taaut with the +Menu of the Hindoos, who also was credited with saving from destruction +by the flood the three Vedas, which were supposed to contain all that +was required for man's direction here below. + +There would appear to have been also other Hermes, but if we look at the +condition of things which obtained in Egypt when the Pyramids of Memphis +are supposed to have been erected, within 300 years of the supposed date +of the deluge, and that the Beni Hassan tombs, about 300 years later, +depict the manners and customs of what we cannot help admitting, was a +highly civilized nation, we must be struck with the fact that the +distance of time between the deluge and the building of these pyramids +and tombs is so short, that it might be represented by a comparison of +our own date with those of Queen Elizabeth and Henry the Third. + +Jackson in his "Antiquities" tells us that, Sanchoniatho states that the +most ancient Phoenician records show that letters were invented soon +after the dispersion of mankind, by Tsaut, the son of Mizor or Misraim, +who was the first Egyptian Hermes or Thoth. He went out of Phoenicia, +and first, with a colony of Mizrites, settled and reigned in Egypt, and, +according to Cicero, gave both laws and letters to the Egyptians. + +This Hermes was born in the second generation after the flood, and was +not only the inventor of letters and writing, but he is also said to +have delineated the sacred characters or symbols of the elements and +planets, viz.,--sun, moon, earth, air, fire, water, &c. + +These symbols are without doubt of very ancient origin, and Boerhve in +his Theory of Chemistry explains them hieroglyphically as follows:-- + + [Transcriber's Note: + The listed symbols are included in the "images" directory + accompanying the html version of this file.] + +[Symbol: plus] Denotes anything sharp, gnawing, or corrosive; as vinegar +or fire: being supposed to be stuck around with barbed spikes. + +[Symbol: sun] Denotes a perfect immutable simple body, such as gold, +which has nothing acrimonious or heterogeneous adhering to it. + +[Symbol: first quarter moon] Denotes half gold, whose inside, if turned +outward, would make it entire gold, as having nothing foreign or +corrosive in it; which the alchemists observe of silver. + +[Symbol: mercury] Denotes the inside to be pure gold, but the outer part +of the colour of silver and a corrosive underneath, which, if taken +away, would leave it mere gold, and this the adepts affirm of mercury. + +[Symbol: female/venus] Denotes the chief part to be gold; whereto, +however, adheres another large, crude, corrosive part, which, if +removed, would leave the rest possessed with all the properties of gold, +and this the adepts affirm of copper. + +[Symbol: male/mars] Likewise denotes gold at the bottom, but attended +with a great proportion of a sharp corrosive, sometimes amounting to a +half of the whole, whence half the character expresses acrimony; which, +accordingly, both alchemists and physicians observe of iron, and hence +that common opinion of the adepts that the aurum vivum, or gold of the +philosophers, is contained in iron, and that the universal medicine is +rather to be sought in this metal than in gold itself. + +[Symbol: jupiter] Denotes half the matter of tin to be silver, the other +a crude corrosive acid, which is accordingly confirmed by the assayers; +tin proving almost as fixed as silver in the cupel, and discovering a +large quantity of crude sulphur well known to the alchemists. + +[Symbol: saturn] Denotes almost the whole to be corrosive, but retaining +some resemblance with silver, which the artists very well know holds +true of lead. + +[Symbol: earth] Denotes a chaos--world, or one thing which includes all: +this is the character of antimony, wherein is found gold, with plenty of +an arsenical corrosive. + +The symbols, or at least some of them, may be traced even in the Chinese +characters for gold, silver, &c. + +The connection of Egypt with India shortly after the Christian era is +distinctly indicated in the works of Apuleius. He lived in the early +part of the second century after Christ, and was educated first at +Carthage, then renowned as a school of literature. He then travelled +extensively in Greece, Asia, and Egypt, and became initiated into many +religious fraternities and an adept in their mysteries. He was admitted +a priest of the order of sculapius, and describes the ceremony of the +offering of the first-fruits by the priests of Isis, when the navigation +opened in spring. The vessel, which was to be set adrift upon the ocean +freighted with the offering, was splendidly decorated and covered with +hieroglyphics, and after having been "_purified with a lighted torch, an +egg, and sulphur_," was allowed to sail away into the unknown as a +sacrifice to procure the safety of the convoy of ships which would soon +after start upon their voyage. These rites were of great antiquity. + +He speaks, in his first tale, of a witch who, by means of her magic +charms, made not only her fellow-countrymen love her, but "_the Indians +even_," and in his initiation into the mysteries of Isis, his robes +"bore pictures of Indian serpents." + +From what I have now laid before you, in what must necessarily be a very +imperfect manner, you will see that there is good reason to believe that +in the study of science and philosophy the Indian races were much in +advance of the Western nations. The age of science amongst them is very +great; we fail utterly in trying to find its beginning, unless we accept +the tradition which ascribes to Menu, their great lawgiver (who is +supposed to have been Noah), the saving of three out of the four divine +books or Vedas from the deluge. This would carry us back to the +Antediluvian times for the beginning of our investigations; but without +taking any such extreme view of the subject we will find traces of +science clearly marked out for us in the history of the Indian races. + +The picture of the Brahmins, drawn by Apuleius in the second century, +shows how little they have changed in historical times. He says:-- + +"The Indians are a populous nation of vast extent of territory, situated +far from us to the east, near the reflux of the ocean and the rising of +the sun, under the first beams of the stars, and at the extreme verge of +the earth, beyond the learned Egyptians and the superstitious Jews and +the mercantile Nabathans; and the flowing robed Aracidae, and the +Ityraeans, poor in crops, and the Arabians, rich in perfumes. + +"Now, I do not so much admire the heaps of ivory of the Indians, their +harvests of pepper, their bales of cinnamon, their tempered steel, their +mines of silver, and their golden streams, nor that among them, the +Ganges, the greatest of all rivers, + + 'Rolls like a monarch on his course, and pours + His eastern waters through a hundred streams, + Mingling with ocean by a hundred mouths,' + +"nor that these Indians, though situated at the dawn of day, are yet of +the colour of night, nor that among them, immense dragons fight with +enormous elephants, with parity of danger to their mutual destruction, +for they hold them enwrapped in their slippery folds, so that the +elephants cannot disengage their legs or in any way extricate themselves +from the scaly bonds of the tenacious dragons. They are forced to seek +revenge from the fall of their own bulk and to crush their captors by +the mass of their own bodies. + +"There are amongst them various kinds of inhabitants. I will rather +speak of the marvellous things of men than of those of nature. + +"There is among them a race who know nothing but to tend cattle, hence +they are called neatherds; there are races clever in trafficking with +merchandise, and others stout in fight, whether with arrows, or hand to +hand with swords. + +"There is also among them a pre-eminent race called Gymnosophists. + +"These I exceedingly admire, for they are men skilled not in propagating +the vine, nor in grafting trees, nor in tilling the ground. They know +not how to cultivate the fields, nor to wash gold, or to break horses, +or to shear or feed sheep or goats. + +"What is it, then, they know? One thing instead of all these. They +_cultivate wisdom_, both the aged professors and the young students. +Nothing do I so much admire in them as that they hate torpor of mind and +sloth." + +This does not look as if the Indians had been unknown or unappreciated +in the second century A.D. + +Apuleius is not alone in his respect for the Brahmins. Many of the Greek +writers speak of them under the names of Brahmins or Gymnosophists, but +always with great respect. + +Strabo states, on the authority of Megasthenes (who it will be +remembered was Ambassador from Persia, and lived for some years at +Palibothra, about 307 B.C.), that "there were two classes of +philosophers or priests, the Brachmanes and the Germanes, but the +Brachmanes are best esteemed." Towards the close of his account of the +"Brachmanes" he says:-- + +"In many things they agree with the Greeks, for they affirm that the +world was produced, and is perishable, and that it is spherical; that +God, governing it as well as framing it, pervades the whole; that the +principles of all things are various, but water is the principle of the +construction of the world; that besides the four elements there is a +fifth, nature--whence heaven and the stars; that the earth is placed in +the centre of all. + +"Such, and many other things are affirmed of reproduction and of the +soul. Like Plato, they devise fables concerning the immortality of the +soul, and the judgment in the infernal regions, and other similar +notions. These things are said of the Brachmanes." + +Clemens Alexandrinus, after saying that philosophy flourished in ancient +times amongst the barbarians, and afterwards was introduced amongst the +Greeks, instances the prophets of the Egyptians, the Chaldees of the +Assyrians, the Druids of the Gauls (Galat), the Samauans of the +Bactrians, the philosophers of the Celts, the Magi of the Persians, and +the Gymnosophists of the Indians. The Greek authors distinctly speak of +the Brahmins as the chief of the castes or divisions of the Indian +people from the time of Megasthenes, who wrote of them in the fourth +century B.C. + +Sir William Jones, in a paper on the philosophy of the Asiatics, pointed +out that "the old philosophers of Europe had some idea of centripetal +force, and a principle of universal gravitation," and affirms that "much +of the theology and philosophy of our immortal Newton may be found in +the Vedas." + +"That _most subtle spirit_ which he suspected to pervade natural bodies, +and lying concealed in them, to cause attraction and repulsion, the +emission, reflection and refraction of light, electricity, calefaction, +sensation, and muscular motion, is described by the Hindus as a _fifth +element_, endowed with these very powers; and the Vedas abound with +allusions to a force universally attractive, which they chiefly ascribe +to the sun, thence called 'Aditya, or the attractor,' a name designed by +the mythologists to mean the child of the goddess Aditi. But the most +wonderful passage on the theory of attractions occurs in the charming +allegorical poem of 'Shi'ri'n and Ferhai'd, or the Divine Spirit, and a +human soul disinterestedly pious,' a work which, from the first verse to +the last, is a blaze of religious and poetical fire. + +"The whole passage appears to me so curious that I make no apology for +giving you a faithful translation of it:-- + +"_There is a strong propensity which dances through every atom, and +attracts the minutest particle to some peculiar object; search this +universe from its base to its summit, from fire to air, from water to +earth (the four elements!), from all below the moon to all above the +celestial spheres, and thou wilt not find a corpuscle destitute of that +natural attractability. The very point of the first thread in this +apparently tangled skein is no other than such a principle of +attraction, and all principles beside are void of a real basis: from +such a propensity arises every motion perceived in heavenly or in +terrestrial bodies; it is a disposition to be attracted which taught +hard steel to rush from its place and rivet itself on the magnet; it is +the same disposition which impels the light straw to attach itself +firmly on amber; it is this quality which gives every substance in +nature a tendency towards another, and an inclination forcibly directed +to a determinate point._" + +In Sir W. Ainslie's Materia Medica of India the opinion of an old Hindoo +author is given as to the qualifications required in a physician. + +"He must be a person of strict veracity, and of the greatest sobriety +and decorum: he ought to be skilled in all the commentaries on the +'Ayur-Veda,' and be otherwise a man of sense and benevolence: his heart +must be charitable, his temper calm, and his constant study how to do +good. + +"Such a man is properly called a good physician, and such a physician +ought still daily to improve his mind by an attentive perusal of +scientific books. + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + +"Should death come upon us while under the care of a person of this +description, it can only be considered as inevitable fate, and not the +consequence of presumptuous ignorance." + +The knowledge of the Hindoos may be all said to be contained in their +sacred books called the Vedas, which, although perfect as a whole, are +actually divided into four parts, each in itself constituting a separate +Veda under a special title. These are the Rig-Veda, the Yajur-Veda +(white and black), the Sama-Veda, and the Atharva-Veda, or Ayur-Veda. +Although the last is admitted to be as a whole not so ancient as the +other three, still there are portions of it that are probably as old as +any of the others. Even in the oldest epic poems of the Hindoos mention +is made of four Vedas as already in existence and as of great antiquity. +Sir William Jones estimates the date of its compilation as certainly not +after B.C. 1580. + +These Vedas are considered by the Hindoos to contain the groundwork of +all their philosophy, as well as of their arts and sciences, and they +contain treatises on music, medicine, the art of war, and architecture. + +Sir William Jones, in referring to the Ayur-Veda, says that, to his +astonishment, he found in it an entire Upanishad on the internal parts +of the human body, enumerating the nerves, veins, and arteries. + +The Ayur-Veda was considered by the Brahmins to be the work of +Brahma--by him it was communicated to Dacsha, the Prajapati, and by him, +the two Aswins, or sons of Surya--the sun--were instructed in it, and +thus became the medical attendants of the gods. A legend that cannot but +recall to our mind the Greek myth of the two sons of sculapius and +their descent from Apollo. + +In the case of immortal gods the practice was confined to surgery, in +treating the wounds received in the conflicts which were constantly +described as occurring amongst the gods themselves, or between the gods +and the demons. Of course they performed many miraculous cures, as would +be expected from their superhuman character. + +Professor Wilson published in the _Oriental Magazine_, in 1823, some +notices on early Hindoo Medicine, and he points out that the tradition +is, that the above "two Aswins instructed Indra in medical and surgical +art, that Indra instructed Dahnwantari; although others make Atreya, +Bharadwaja, and Charaka prior to the latter:--Charaka's work, which goes +by his name, is extant. Dahnwantari is also styled Kasi-rajah, or Prince +of Kasi, or Benares. His disciple was Susruta, his work also exists." + +The Ayur-Veda, as the oldest medical writings of the Hindoos are +collectively called, was divided into eight divisions. These are +described by Professor Wilson as follows:-- + +"1st. _Salya._--The art of extracting extraneous substances, violently +or accidentally introduced into the body, with the treatment of the +inflammation and suppuration thereby induced. + +"The word _Salya_ means a dart or arrow, and points clearly to the +origin of this branch of Hindoo science. + +"2nd. _Salakya._--The treatment of external affections or diseases of +the eyes, nose, ears, &c. + +"3rd, _Kayao Chikitsa._--The general application of medicine to the +body, or the science of medicine, as opposed to surgery under the two +first heads. + +"4th. _Bhutavidya_, or demonology: the act of casting out demons, which +we may take to mean the treatment of insanity, such as it was. + +"5th. _Kaumara bhritya_, or the treatment of the diseases of women and +children. + +"6th. _Agada._--The administration of antidotes. + +"We do not appreciate this as an eastern nation would when poison was +only too common an instrument of ambition or revenge. + +"7th. _Rasayana._--Is chemistry, or perhaps it were better to say +alchemy, as its chief aim was the study of combinations of substances +mostly metallurgic, with a view of obtaining the universal medicine or +elixir which was to give immortal life. + +"8th. _Bajikarana._--Was connected with the means of promoting the +increase of the human race." + +One of the articles of Hindoo medicine was _Kshara_ or alkaline +salts,--these are directed to be obtained by burning different +substances of vegetable origin, boiling the ashes with five or six times +their measure of water and filtering the solution, which was used both +internally and externally. Care is enjoined in their use, and emollient +applications are to be used if the caustic should occasion great pain. + +I have already spoken of the fact of Indian physicians having been at +the Court of Persia, and also at that of Haroun al Raschid, and also +that the ancient writers on medicine were known to the Arabs of the time +of the schools of Baghdad and Cordova. There is no manner of doubt +concerning this fact, as in Serapion's works we find Charak actually +mentioned by name; under the head _De Mirobalanis_ we find "_Et Xarch +indus dixit;_" and again, in another section "_Xarcha indus;_" there +being no corresponding sound to che in Arabic, there is a slight change +in the name, but it is quite clear what it is intended for. In Avicenna, +again, we find reference to "Scirak indum." Rhazes, again, who was +previous to Avicenna, has "_Inquit Scarac indianus_," and again "_Dixit +Sarac;_" in another place an Indian author is quoted, who has not as yet +been traced, "_Sindifar_," or, as it is in another place, "_Sindichar +indianus._" + +Professor Wilson, in a notice on the medical science of the Hindoos, +published in the _Oriental Magazine_, examines into the distinctive +qualities of the various sorts of leeches, and shows that the +description given in Avicenna, in the section "De Sanguisugis," is +almost identical with the Hindoo author's description of the twelve +sorts of leeches, in distinguishing the appearance and properties of the +various sorts. + +That this is more than a mere coincidence is clear from the fact that +Avicenna says "_Indi dixerunt_." + +I do not think it will be seriously disputed that the Arabs had access +to the Hindoo works of and before their time, and we will find, if we +carefully examine the subject, that the science of medicine as +distinguished from surgery, and of chemistry as a part of that science +of medicine, was much more ancient than we have been prepared to admit. + +It would be incredible to believe that amongst a people so observant and +highly cultured as the Brahmins must have been, that medicine and the +changes occurring in mixtures of various substances should have been +unstudied, and there is no doubt that this subject was far from being +neglected by them. + +Many natural productions of the country, such as nitrate of potash, +borax, carbonate and sulphate of soda, sulphate of iron, alum, common +salt, and sulphur, could scarcely escape the notice of even ordinary +men; but Dr. Ainslie has shown, from the evidence of old Indian medical +works, that they were not only acquainted with ammonia (which they made +by distilling salammoniac one part, and chalk two parts), but that they +prepared sulphuric acid by burning sulphur and nitre together in earthen +pots, calling it _Gunduk Ka Attar_, or "attar of sulphur." Nitric acid, +which was prepared, not by the process described by Geber, but by mixing +saltpetre, alum, and a portion of a liquor obtained by spreading cloths +over the common gram plant, and leaving them exposed to the dew, when +they were found to absorb the acid salt so abundantly secreted by the +plant on the surface of its leaves, and which, when examined by +Vauquelin, was found to contain both oxalic and acetic acids. + +Muriatic acid was also made by distilling alum and common salt, dried +and pounded with the above acid liquor. + +Arsenic was used by them for the cure of palsy, and also for venereal +diseases, and is still used by them for this purpose, and in +intermittent fevers. + +It would occupy too much time to go further into this subject at the +present time, but there are many chemical compounds which are still made +and sold in the Indian bazaars which have been used from time +immemorial, and which require a knowledge of chemical manipulation in +the arts of subliming, distilling, &c. + +Mr. Rodwell says, "that the distillation of cinnabar with iron, +described by Dioscorides, is the first crude example of distillation, +which afterwards became a principal operation among the alchemists and +chemists for separating the volatile from the fixed." + +That this is an assumption which has no foundation in fact is evident, +when we find in the Institutes of Menu many enactments against the +drinking of distilled spirits, and these made of various kinds and +distilled from molasses (or sugar-cane juice), rice, and the madhuca +flowers. + +"A soldier or merchant drinking arak, mead, or rum are to be considered +offenders in the highest degree," and "for drinking spirits are to be +branded on the forehead with a vintner's flag," rather a summary way of +treating a drunkard, and one which would indicate that the ill effects +of over-indulgence in spirituous liquors had been long known, when such +severe enactments were made against it. + +The method of distilling described by Mr. Kerr in the Asiatic +Researches, vol. 1, is so simple that it is almost certain that it was +employed in very ancient times for the purpose of distilling spirits, +and also attars of various sorts, which, from time immemorial, would +seem to have been a special production of India. + +"The body of the still is a common large unglazed earthen water jar, +nearly globular, of about 25 inches diameter at the widest part of it, +and 22 inches deep to the neck, which neck rises 2 inches more, and is +11 inches wide in the opening; this was filled about a half with +fermented mhwah flowers, which swam about in the liquor to be +distilled. + +"This jar they placed in a furnace, not the most artificial, though not +seemingly ill adapted to give a great heat with but very little fuel. +This they made by digging a round hole in the ground, about 20 inches +wide and full 3 feet deep, cutting an opening in the front sloping down +to the bottom, perpendicular at the sides, about 9 inches wide and about +15 inches long, reckoning from the edge of the circle: this is to serve +to throw in the wood and to allow a passage for the air; at the other +side a small opening about 4 inches by 3 inches is made to serve as an +outlet for the smoke, the bottom of the hole thus made was rounded like +a cup. + +"The jar was placed in this as far as it would go, and banked up with +clay all round to about a fifth of its height, except at the two +openings, when all was completed so far as the furnace was concerned. + +"Fully one third of the still or jar was exposed to the heat when +the fire was lighted; the fuel was at least 2 feet from the bottom +of the jar. + +"On to this jar there was now fitted what is called an adkur, this being +made of two earthen pans with their bottoms turned towards each other, +and a hole of about 4 inches diameter in the middle of each of them, the +lower of these pans fitted the hole in the jar, and was luted with clay, +the upper was luted to the lower one, and had a diameter of about 14 +inches, the juncture formed a neck of about 3 inches, the upper pan was +about 4 inches deep, with a rim round the central hole, this formed a +gutter, and by means of a hollow bamboo luted to this, the spirit, as it +condensed, ran off into the receiver. + +"The arrangement was now completed by luting on a small copper pot or +vessel about 5 inches deep, 8 inches wide at mouth, and about 10 inches +at bottom, with its mouth downwards. + +"The cooler was formed by placing on a support at the back of the +furnace an earthen vessel containing a few gallons of water, from which, +by means of a bamboo tube, the water was allowed to run on to the centre +of the copper pot, from where it collected in the clay saucer, and ran +off by a small hole and bamboo tube for use again. + +"In about three hours' time from lighting the fire, they draw off fully +fifteen bottles of spirits." + +Comparing this simple form of apparatus with those described by Geber, +we must admit that there is no doubt of the earlier date of this simple +apparatus; and, as we have seen, distilled spirit is expressly mentioned +in the Institutes of Menu, we are bound to admit that distillation was +in use long ere the Arabian times and that of Dioscorides. + +Many such examples might be examined, but I will take one for +illustration--that of the manufacture of common salt. + +Let us take this manufacture as a typical one. + +We find in Jackson's Antiquities and Chronology of the Chinese that, +2500 B.C., Shin-nong invented the method of obtaining salt from +sea-water. He also gets credit for having composed books on medicine. + +In George Agricola's De Re Metallica (1561) there is a curious set of +woodcuts representing the manufacture of salt, and in the first, in +which the whole process of evaporating sea-water by the sun's rays is +shown most completely from the raising of the sluices to allow the water +to flow into the various evaporating ponds, to the packing of the +finished salt in barrels--it is a curious fact that the trees which are +introduced are _palms_, and the figure in the distance is dressed in +_Oriental costume_, while even the ship seems to partake of this +character. + +A more advanced state of things is shown in the third drawing of the +12th book, where a pan is shown, made of iron plates riveted together so +as to form a flat sheet, which forms the bottom of the pan, of which the +sides are composed of thick wood, strengthened with plates of iron at +the corners. + +The bottom of the pan has a series of iron eyes or loops, and these, +when it is fixed over its furnace, are attached to iron rods, which are +hung from a network of wooden bars, so that the whole bottom of the pan +is supported securely at a considerable number of points. + +The furnace is very simple, being simply a wall surrounding an oblong +space, a little smaller than the pan, so that the sides of the latter +may rest on the walls all round, except for a small space in front where +the fuel is introduced, which apparently burns on the ground alone. + +The method of manufacturing salt in Japan is almost identical with that +figured in Agricola. There is the same arrangement of salt garden or +series of ponds and ditches, and the dirty salts mixed with sand are +again lixiviated, and the filtered liquid is boiled down in curiously +formed pans or boilers. + +Of these there are two chief forms, the first being a tank or pan formed +of large pieces of slate, with the joints made with clay, and surrounded +with a mud wall. The whole is covered with an arch or vault and is +filled with the brine, which is then evaporated by surface heat, the +fire being placed at one end and the flue at the other. + +The other form is very curious and interesting, and is almost identical +in its principle of construction with the pan I have referred to as +figured in Agricola, only in this case the materials are very different, +being, instead of wood and iron, nothing more than clay or mud. + +It was described officially by the Japanese, in their publications at +the Philadelphia Exhibition in 1876. The Japanese description of this +apparatus is highly interesting. It is as follows:-- + +A low wall is built, enclosing a space of about 13 feet by 9 feet, the +bottom forming a kind of prismatical depression, 3 feet deep in the +centre line. An ashpit, 3 feet deep, is then excavated, starting from +the front wall, and extending about 4 feet into this depression at its +deepest place; it communicates with the outside by a channel sloping +gradually upwards, and passing underneath the front wall. The ashpit is +covered by a clay vault, with holes in its sides, so as to establish a +communication between the ashpit and the hollow space under the pan. +This vault is used as a fire grate, the fuel (brown coal and small wood) +being inserted by the fire-door in the front wall. The air-draught +necessary for burning the fuel enters partly by the fire-door, partly +through the ashpit and the openings left in the vaulted grate. Through +these same openings the ashes and cinders are from time to time pushed +down into the ashpit, for which purpose small openings are left in the +side-wall of the furnace, through which the rakes may be introduced. A +passage in the back wall supporting the pan leads off the products of +combustion and the hot air into a short flue, sloping upwards, and +ending in a short vertical chimney. At the lower part some iron kettles +are placed in the flue for the purpose of heating the lye before it is +ladled into the evaporating pan. + +With reference to the pan, it is made in a way that requires a great +deal of skill and practice. In the first place, beams reaching from the +one side to the other are laid on the top of the furnace walls, and are +covered with wooden boards, forming a temporary floor. Two or three feet +above this floor a strong horizontal network of poles of wood sustains a +number of straw ropes, with iron hooks hanging down, and of such a +length that the hooks nearly touch the wooden floor. The floor is +thereupon covered with a mixture of clay and small stones, 4 to 5 inches +thick, the workman being careful to incrustate the iron hooks into this +material. It is allowed to dry gradually, and when considered +sufficiently hardened, the wooden beams and flooring are removed with +the necessary precautions. The bottom of the pan remains suspended by +means of the ropes. The open spaces left all round between the bottom +and the top of the furnace walls are then filled up, and the border of +the pan, 9 inches to 10 inches high, is made of a similar mixture. It is +said that this extraordinary construction lasts from 40 to 50 days when +well made, and that it can be filled 16 times in 24 hours, with an +average of 500 litres of concentrated lye at each filling; but the +quantity depends upon the weather, and is less in winter than in summer. +During the cold season one pan yields 140 litres (of salt) each time it +is filled, and in the hot season from 190 to 210 litres. The average +consumpt of fuel is said to be 1500 kilos. in 24 hours. + +In Persia, near Ballakhan, salt is still made, and has been made from +time immemorial, in a very primitive way, which is described by Bellen, +in his description of his journey in 1872 from the Indus to the Tigris, +as follows:-- + +"For several miles our road led over a succession of salt pits and +ovens, and lying about we found several samples of the alimentary salt +prepared here from the soil. It was in fine white granules massed +together in the form of the earthen vessel in which the salt had been +evaporated. The process of collecting the salt is very rough and simple. +A conical pit or basin, 7 or 8 feet deep and about 12 feet in diameter +is dug, and around it are excavated a succession of smaller pits, each +about 2 feet diameter by 1 feet deep. On one side of the large pit +is a deep excavation, to which the descent from the pit is by a sloping +bank. In this excavation is a domed oven with a couple of fireplaces. At +a little distance off are the piles of earth scraped from the surface +and ready for treatment. And, lastly, circling round each pit is a small +water-cut led off from a larger stream running along the line of pits. + +"Such is the machinery. The process is simply this:--A shovelful of +earth is taken from the heap and washed in the basins (a shovelful to +each) circling the pit. + +"The liquor from these is, whilst yet turbid, run into the great central +pit, by breaking away a channel for it with the fingers. The channel is +then closed with a dab of clay, and a fresh lot of earth washed, and the +liquor run off as before; and so on till the pit is nearly full of +brine. This is allowed to stand till the liquor clears. It is then +ladled out into earthen jars, set on the fire and boiled to evaporation +successively, till the jar is filled with a cake of granular salt. The +jars are then broken, and the mass of salt (which retains its shape) is +ready for conveyance to market. + +"Large quantities of this salt are used by the nomad population, and a +good deal is taken to Kandahar. The quantity turned out here must +annually be very great. The salt pits extend over at least ten miles of +the country we traversed, and we certainly saw some thousands of pits." + + +From what I have laid before you, it will be seen that I am strongly of +opinion that we must go far beyond the time of Geber or the Arabian +school for the origin of our science. The study of the question of its +antiquity leads up to such remote times that there is little probability +of any date being assigned to its beginning, and to some it may appear +but a waste of time to indulge in researches upon the subject; but it +has a fascination peculiar to itself, and, in addition, brings before +our minds so many phases in the philosophical thought of the world, that +it will no doubt long continue to exercise the minds and attract the +attention of chemists. + +In the course of my own study of the subject, I have felt much +dissatisfied with the derivation of the name chemistry or alchemy, as it +is given in all works to which I have had access. It is said to be +derived from a word meaning dark, hidden, black, and from the ancient +name for Egypt, but to my own mind this is an unsatisfactory +explanation, and seeking for another more consonant with the character +of the science, I think I have found it in quite a different direction. + +It is well known that in the old Hindoo philosophy there were recognized +five elementary bodies or rather types. These were Water, Fire, Ether, +Earth, and Air, and the system of Menu, of which the antiquity is +enormous, recognizes as the greatest conception of the universe-- + + 1st, God. + 2nd, Mind. + 3rd, Consciousness. + 4th, Matras. + 5th, Elements. + +(matras being the invisible types of the visible atoms which compose the +five elements previously named--viz., Water, Fire, Ether, Earth, and +Air). + +Now, these elements, with the sun and moon, composed the attributes of +the dual deity Iswara and Isi, representing the male and female natural +powers, and, applying this to the famous Pythagorean triangle, we find +that the upright symbol or male, which was the number or power 3, when +combined with the female prostrate symbol, which was the number or power +4, gives a product in the Hypotenuse of 5, which is the number of the +typical elements of the oldest known Hindoo philosophy. It is also the +product of the first male and female numbers, and was anciently called +the number of the world--repeated anyhow by an odd multiple it always +reappears. + +If now we consider chemistry as that science which has to deal with the +changes and combinations of the five elements, and if we call it-- + +_The science of the five parts or elements_, should we not, when we find +that the Arabic word for five is _khams_, rather refer the name of our +science to this word khams, and read it as + + _Al-Khams_, + The five-part science? + +I am inclined, however, to go yet a step further, and remembering that +the _fifth_ element or Ether of the most ancient Hindoo philosophy, was +in reality an expression for active force, or, that emanating from the +central sun caused the natural phenomena of attraction and repulsion, +the emission and refraction of light, and other sensible changes of +condition, would read the compound word + + _Al-Khamis_ + (The fifth), + +as the grand and simple title of our ancient science, meaning + + _The force_-- + +that which causes the changes in the elementary types and their +combinations--than which no more descriptive title could be assigned to +it, even in the present enlightened age. + + * * * * * + * * * * + * * * * * + +Errors and Anomalies + +Apollonius Tyanus [_text reads "Appolonius"_] + +Hercules and Bacchus (Dionysius) [_text reads "Dionsyius"_] + +Ommiades ... Abassides [_standard spellings for this text_] + +Ibn Osaibe's testimony [_text reads "Ibu"_] + +body-physicians at the Court of Harun-al-Raschid + [_spelling as in original, but elsewhere spelled "Haroun"_] + +Xenophon in his Anabasis [_text reads "Zenophon"_] + +Megasthenes [_text reads "Megesthenes"_] + +the first of the Grecian philosophers [_text reads "philosphers"_] + +the Hindoos believe in _fourteen Menus_ + [_and six further occurrences of "Menu"_] + [_standard spelling in this text: correct form is "Manu"_] + +Libyans in war chariots with four horses [_text reads "Lybians"_] + +under the reign of Pharoah Necho [_spelling as in original_] + +from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean [_text reads "Mediterreanean"_] + +Jackson in his "Antiquities" tells us that, [_comma in original_] + +Indra instructed Dahnwantari; +Dahnwantari is also styled Kasi-rajah + [_correct form is "Dhanwantari"_] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Antiquity of the Chemical Art, by +James Mactear + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANTIQUITY OF THE CHEMICAL ART *** + +***** This file should be named 17753-8.txt or 17753-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/7/5/17753/ + +Produced by Louise Hope, R. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: On the Antiquity of the Chemical Art + +Author: James Mactear + +Release Date: February 11, 2006 [EBook #17753] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANTIQUITY OF THE CHEMICAL ART *** + + + + +Produced by Louise Hope, R. Cedron and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class = "mynote"> +A few typographical errors have been corrected. They have been +marked in the text with <ins class = "correction" title = +"like this">mouse-hover popups</ins>. Misspellings in Greek names +were treated as errors; others are noted but not changed. +</div> + +<hr> + +<h5>PRESIDENT’S OPENING ADDRESS TO CHEMICAL SECTION.</h5> + +<hr class = "mid"> + +<h3>ON THE ANTIQUITY</h3> + +<h6>OF</h6> + +<h1>THE CHEMICAL ART.</h1> + +<h4 class = "smallcaps">By JAMES MACTEAR, F.C.S., F.C.I.</h4> + +<br> + +<hr> + +<br> + +<h4>THE PRESIDENT’S OPENING ADDRESS TO THE CHEMICAL SECTION.</h4> + +<div class = "hanging"> +<i>On the Antiquity of the Chemical Art</i>. By <span class = +"smallcaps">James Mactear</span>, F.C.S., F.C.I.,<br> +Member of the International Jury, Paris, 1878,<br> +and Medalist of the Society of Arts.</div> + +<hr class = "tiny"> + +<h6>[Read before the Section, December 8th, 1879.]</h6> + +<hr class = "tiny"> + +<p> +<span class = "smallcaps">The</span> study of the History of Chemistry +as an art, or as a science, is one which possesses peculiar fascination +for its votaries. It has been the subject of deep research and much +discussion, much has been written upon the subject, and many theories +have been broached to account for its origin. We have had laid before us +by Professor Ferguson, in his papers on this subject of Chemical +History, very clearly and fully the generally-accepted position as +regards the origin of the science, and in the last of these papers, +entitled “Eleven Centuries of Chemistry,” he deals with the subject in a +most complete manner, tracing back through its various mutations the +development of the science to the time of Geber, in or about the year +<span class = "smallroman">A.D.</span> 778.</p> + +<p> +Of Geber, as a chemist, Professor Ferguson writes, “He was the +first—because, although he himself speaks of the ancients, meaning +thereby his forerunners, nothing is known of these older chemists.”</p> + +<p> +Rodwell, in his “Birth of Chemistry,” after a careful examination of the +question, comes to the conclusion that, “in spite of all that has been +written on the subject, there is no good evidence to prove that alchemy +and chemistry did not originate in Arabia not long prior to the eighth +century, <span class = "smallroman">A.D.</span>,” bringing us again to +the times of Geber.</p> + +<p> +He is not alone in this opinion, and it seems to be generally accepted +that chemistry originated in the Arabian schools about this period.</p> + +<p> +In dealing with the question of the antiquity of chemical art, it has +been too much the habit to look at the question with a view of +discovering when and who it was that first brought forth, fully clothed +as a science, the art of chemistry.</p> + +<p> +<span class = "pagenum">2</span> +Let us look at the definition of the science given by Boerhæve, about +1732. He describes chemistry as “an art which teaches the manner of +performing certain physical operations, whereby bodies cognizable to the +senses, or capable of being rendered cognizable, and of being contained +in vessels, are so changed by means of proper instruments as to produce +certain determinate effects, and at the same time discover the causes +thereof, for the service of the various arts.”</p> + +<p> +Now, it is amply evident that, long before the various known facts could +be collected and welded into one compact whole as a science, there must +have existed great store of intellectual wealth, as well as mere +hereditary practical knowledge of the various chemical facts.</p> + +<p> +I do not think it will be disputed that, until comparatively recent +times, technical knowledge has constantly been in advance of theory, and +that it is not too much to conclude that, no matter where we first find +actual records of our science, its natal day must have long before +dawned. Even in our day, when theoretical science, as applied to +chemistry, has made such immense strides, how often do we find that it +is only now that theory comes in to explain facts, known as such long +previous, and those engaged in practical chemical work know how much +technical knowledge is still unwritten, and what may even be called +traditionary.</p> + +<p> +I purpose taking up the subject from this point of view, and attempting, +with what little ability I can, to follow back to a still more remote +period than that of Geber and the Arabian school of philosophers the +traces of what has often been called the divine art.</p> + +<p> +An aspect of the question that has often presented itself to me is this, +that the history of what we call our world extends over some 4000 years +before Christ and 1878 years since, so that, according to the usually +accepted idea, if chemistry originated in Arabia in the eighth century, +it was not known during say the first 5000 years of the world’s history, +but has advanced to its present high position amongst the sciences in +the last 1000 years.</p> + +<p> +I hope to be able to show that, while the Arabian school of philosophy +get the credit of originating most of the sciences, that it is as +undeserved in the case of chemical science as in that of astronomy or +mathematics. At the same time let us not undervalue the services +rendered to science by this school: it is to them we owe the +distribution of the knowledge of most of our sciences, +<span class = "pagenum">3</span> +and the Arabic literature of most of these was widely spread abroad over +all the known world of their time.</p> + +<p> +The central portion of Baghdad between the eastern and western portions +of the Old World, and the wise and enlightened policy of its rulers, +which welcomed to its schools, without reference to country or creed, +the wise and learned men of every nation, drew to it as to a centre the +accumulated wisdom and knowledge of both the rising and the setting sun. +Long ere this time, however, we find, as regards the Greeks, that they +constantly travelled eastward in search of learning, while we know that +the expedition of Alexander the Great, about <span class = +"smallroman">B.C.</span> 327, in which he traversed a considerable +portion of India, had already opened up the store-houses of Indian lore +to the minds of the West.</p> + +<p> +In connection with this, the following extract from an old book: called +<i>The Gunner</i>, dated 1664, is interesting:—</p> + +<p> +“In the life of <ins class = "correction" title = +"text reads ‘Appolonius’">Apollonius</ins> Tyanæus, written by +Philostratus 1500 years ago, we find, in reference to the Indians called +Oxydra: These truly wise men dwelled between the rivers Hyphasis and +Ganges; their country Alexander the Great never entered, being deterred, +not by fear of the inhabitants, but, as I suppose, by, religious +considerations, for had he passed the Hyphasis, he might doubtless have +made himself master of the country all round him; but their cities he +could never have taken, though he had led a thousand as brave as +Achilles or ten thousand such as Ajax to the assault. For they come not +out into the field to fight those who attack them; but these holy men, +beloved of the gods, overthrow their enemies with tempests and +thunder-bolts shot from their walls.</p> + +<p> +“It is said that Egyptian Hercules and Bacchus (<ins class = +"correction" title = "text reads ‘Dionsyius’">Dionysius</ins>), when +they overran India, invaded this people also, and having prepared +warlike engines, attempted to conquer them. They made no show of +resistance, but upon the enemy’s near approach to their cities they were +repulsed with storms of lightning and thunder hurled upon them from +above.”</p> + +<p> +May we not here have the original of the Greek fire, that was in its day +so celebrated and so destructive?</p> + +<p> +Beginning then at the period of Geber, about 776 <span class = +"smallroman">A.D.</span>, let us try to work backwards and trace, if we +can, the progress of chemical knowledge down the stream of time.</p> + +<p> +While the Western Roman Empire had fallen, the Eastern still held its +sway as far as the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, and continued +<span class = "pagenum">4</span> +the contest with the Persian power for the supremacy in Asia. At this +time the various creeds and beliefs of the Arabian tribes—which +had been much influenced by the settlement amongst them of Jews who had +been dispersed at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, and many of +the sects of Christians who had been driven from the Roman empire by the +more orthodox—were deeply stirred by the new doctrine of Islam, +preached by Mahomet, <span class = "smallroman">A.D.</span> 622, +proclaiming the Koran as the rule of life, and the destruction of the +ancient Arabian worship of the stars and sun and moon.</p> + +<p> +The religion of “the one God and Mahomet his prophet” took deep root, +and the injunction to pursue the unbelieving with fire and sword was +followed out with such unrelenting vigour that, within less than a +century from the death of Mahomet, the Arabian power had extended its +sway amongst nearly every tribe and nation that had owned the rule of +the Roman or Persian empires, and had reached from Spain to India, from +Samarcand to the Indian Ocean.</p> + +<p> +Egypt and Syria were conquered between <span class = +"smallroman">A.D.</span> 632-39, and Persia about <span class = +"smallroman">A.D.</span> 632-51. Their attempts to take Constantinople +by siege failed both in <span class = "smallroman">A.D.</span> 673 and +716. But they were more successful on the African shores of the +Mediterranean, which they swept along till they crossed the Straits of +Gibraltar and entered Spain in <span class = "smallroman">A.D.</span> +709. Their further progress—through France—was stayed by +their defeat in a great battle fought at Tour’s, when the Gauls, under +Charles Martel, forced them to retire ultimately across the +Pyrenees.</p> + +<p> +Internal dissension had, however, arisen amongst them, and the ruling +dynasty of the Ommiades was overthrown in <span class = +"smallroman">A.D.</span> 750 by the <ins class = "correction" title = +"so in original">Abassides</ins>, who established themselves at +Damascus; and with them began that cultivation of the arts and sciences +which has thrown such lustre on the Arabian school.</p> + +<p> +One of the princes of the Ommiades who had escaped made his way to Spain +and there re-established the power of his family, with Cordova as a +centre, about <span class = "smallroman">A.D.</span> 755. Thus it was +that the Saracenic power was divided into an Eastern and a Western +Caliphate.</p> + +<p> +It was under the prosperous rule of the Abassides that such an impulse +was given to learning of every kind, and that the Arabian school of +philosophy, which has left behind it such glorious records of its +greatness, was founded. The Caliph Al-Mansour was the first, so far as +we know, who earnestly encouraged the cultivation of learning; but it +was to Haroun Al-Raschid, <span class = "smallroman">A.D.</span> 786-808 +(?), that the Arabians owed the establishment of a college of +philosophy. +<span class = "pagenum">5</span> +He invited learned men to his kingdom from all nations, and paid them +munificently; he employed them in translating the most famous books of +the Greeks and others, and spread abroad throughout his dominions +numerous copies of those works.</p> + +<p> +His second son, Al-Mamoon, while governor of the province of Kohrassan, +we are told, formed a college of learned men from every country, and +appointed as the president John Mesue, of Damascus. It is said that his +father, complaining that so great an honour had been conferred on a +Christian, received the reply—“That Mesue had been chosen, not as +a teacher of religion, but as an able preceptor in useful arts and +sciences; and my father well knows that the most learned men and the +most skilful artists in his dominions are Jews and Christians.”</p> + +<p> +That this was the case can scarcely be doubted when we consider that the +Jews had always been familiar with many arts and sciences, and that, as +is well known, at the destruction of Jerusalem in <span class = +"smallroman">A.D.</span> 70, when the Jews were dispersed in every +direction, they spread over, not alone the countries under the Roman +rule, but to Greece, Egypt, and the Mediterranean coast, as well as +great part of Asia Minor, carrying with them, not only their peculiar +religious traditions, but also their arts, which, we know, especially as +regards the working of metals, were of no mean order, and their +sciences, of which the so-called magic and astrology had been +assiduously cultivated.</p> + +<p> +In Asia the dispersed Jews established patriarchates at Tiberias in the +west, and at Mahalia, and afterwards at Baghdad, for the Jews who were +beyond the Euphrates.</p> + +<p> +Seminaries were founded at these centres for the rabbis, and constant +intercourse was kept up between them. It was in these schools that the +Talmud was compiled from the traditionary exposition of the Old +Testament, between <span class = "smallroman">A.D.</span> 200 and <span +class = "smallroman">A.D.</span> 500, when it was completed, and +received as a rule of faith by most of the scattered Jews.</p> + +<p> +That the cultivation of science was not neglected we may be sure from +the keen interest taken in all ages by the Jews in magical and +astrological inquiries. We read in Apuleius, in his defence on the +accusation of magic brought against him, that of the “four tutors +appointed to educate the princes of Persia, one had to instruct him +specially in the magic of Zoroaster and Oromazes, which is the worship +of the gods.” Apuleius wrote about 200 <span class = +"smallroman">A.D.</span>, and his works teem with references to magic +and astrology.</p> + +<p> +<span class = "pagenum">6</span> +The fact that Jews and Christians were looked on as learned men will not +surprise us, when we find that the Jews had established schools so long +anterior to the foundation of the college of Baghdad. The rapid progress +made by the Arabians, and the wise policy of the Abasside Caliphs, under +whose judicious rule learning was so liberally encouraged, aided by the +position of Baghdad, which formed, as it were, a centre to which the +wisdom of both eastern and western minds gravitated, attracted to their +schools all those of every nation who boasted themselves +philosophers.</p> + +<p> +The first translations from the Greek authors are supposed to have been +made about <span class = "smallroman">A.D.</span> 745, and are known to +have been on the subjects of philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and +medicine. These translations are understood to have been made by +Christian or Jewish physicians.</p> + +<p> +As we have seen, the Jews had already established themselves at Baghdad, +and had founded schools of their own previous to the formation of the +college under Caliph Al-Mansour; but further than this we find the +Christians spread widely over the countries of Asia Minor, and we are +told, on the authority of Cosmo-Indicopleustes, that so early as <span +class = "smallroman">A.D.</span> 535 there was in almost every large +town in <i>India</i> a Christian Church under the Bishop of +Seleucia.</p> + +<p> +With these facts before us—1st, that Christian physicians were the +leaders of the Arabian school in the eighth century; 2nd, that large +numbers of Christian churches were actually in existence in India at +least two hundred years previously to the establishment of the college +at Baghdad; and 3rd, that Baghdad was almost, as it wore, the central +point of the great caravan route which from time immemorial had been the +course of communication between the East and West, can we doubt that an +extensive intercourse must have taken place, and should we not expect to +find some traces, if not the effects, of Indian science on the teaching +of the Arabian school.<a class = "tag" name = "tag1" href = +"#note1">1</a></p> + +<p> +<span class = "pagenum">7</span> +In Vol. <span class = "smallroman">VIII.</span> of the Journal of +Education we find a notice that “Professor Dietz, of the University of +Königsberg, who had spent five years of his life in visiting the +principal libraries of Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, France, and +England, in search of manuscripts of Greek, Roman, and Oriental writers +on medicine, is now engaged in publishing his ‘Analecta Medica.’</p> + +<p> +“The work contains several interesting papers on the subject of physical +science among the Indians and Arabians, and communicates several +introductory notices and illustrations from native Eastern writers. +Dietz proves that the late Greek physicians were acquainted with the +medical works of the Hindus, and availed themselves of their +medicaments; but he more particularly shows that the Arabians were +familiar with them, and extolled the healing art, as practised by the +Indians, quite as much as that in use among the Greeks.</p> + +<p> +“It appears from <ins class = "correction" title = +"text reads ‘Ibu’">Ibn</ins> Osaibe’s testimony (from whose +biographical work Dietz has given a long abstract on the lives of +Indian physicians), that a variety of treatises on medical science were +translated from the Sanscrit into Persian and Arabic, particularly the +more important compilations of Charaka and Susruta, which are still held +in estimation in India; and that Manka and Saleh—the former of +whom translated a special treatise on poisons into Persian—even +held appointments as body-physicians at the Court of +<ins class = "correction" title = +"so in original, but ‘Haroun’ elsewhere">Harun</ins>-al-Raschid.”</p> + +<p> +As the age of the medical works of Charaka and Susruta is incontestably +much more ancient than that of any other work on the subject (except the +Ayur Veda)—as we shall see when we come to consider the science of +the Hindoos—this in itself would be sufficient to show that the +Arabians were certainly not the originators of either medical or +chemical science.</p> + +<p> +We should not forget that it is only to their own works and their +translations, chiefly by the Greeks, we owe our knowledge of the state +of Arabian science, and that it is only in rare cases that we have given +a list of works consulted, so that we can gather the sources from which +their knowledge was derived. It would scarcely be imagined, from reading +the works of Roger Bacon, or of Newton, that they had derived some, at +least, of their knowledge from Arabian sources; and yet such is known to +have been the case with them both.</p> + +<p> +Let us now glance backwards from the Arabians to the Greeks.</p> + +<p> +<span class = "pagenum">8</span> +It is supposed that the first translations from the Greek authors were +made for the Caliphs about 745 <span class = "smallroman">A.D.</span>, +and were first translated into Syriac, and then into Arabic. The works +of Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy, Hippocrates, Galen, and Dioscorides are +known to have been translated under the reign of Al-Mansour.</p> + +<p> +Granting for the moment that the first knowledge of the sciences was +obtained by the Arabians from the Greeks, we are at once face to face +with the question. From whence did the Greeks obtain their knowledge? To +any careful reader it will be clear that Grecian science and philosophy, +like Grecian theology, was not of native birth. It is comparatively well +known that the Greeks were indebted to the Egyptians for much of their +theology as well as science. The great truths which really underlay the +mysterious religious rites of Egypt seem to have been altogether lost +when the Greeks wove their complicated system of theology; and we read +that the Egyptian priests looked on the Greeks as children who failed to +understand the great mysteries involved in their religious rites, +disguised as they were in symbolic form. But, besides their indebtedness +to Egypt, we will find that they also owed much to Persia, and through +it again to Indian sources of knowledge.</p> + +<p> +There was constant communication between the Grecian and Persian +nations. We learn that it was not uncommon for Grecian generals to take +service under the Persian Satraps, tempted by the liberal recompence +with which their services were rewarded. About the year 356 <span class += "smallroman">B.C.</span> this system of Greeks accepting service under +Persian Satraps nearly caused the outbreak of war between Greece and +Persia—Chares, a Grecian commander, having assisted with his fleet +and men, Artabanus, the Satrap of Propontis, who was then in revolt +against the Persian king. But before this, during the great plague which +desolated Athens in 430 <span class = "smallroman">B.C.</span>, and +which also extended to Persia, Hippocrates was invited to go to the +Persian Court; and it is on record that Ctesias was for seventeen years +physician at the Persian Court about 400 <span class = +"smallroman">B.C.</span>, during which period he wrote his history of +Persia, and an account of India, which Professor Wilson, in a paper read +to the Ashmolean Society of Oxford, has shown to contain notices of the +natural productions of the country, “which, although often extravagant +and absurd, are, nevertheless, founded on truth.”</p> + +<p> +There were, too, Grecian soldiers employed as paid auxiliaries, and a +colony of Greeks who had been taken prisoners of war was founded within +a day’s journey of Susa.</p> + +<p> +<span class = "pagenum">9</span> +The great expedition to Persia, and the graphic description of the +retreat of the “ten thousand” Greeks, given by <ins class = "correction" +title = "text reads ‘Zenophon’">Xenophon</ins> in his Anabasis, must +have been well known to Alexander the Great when he set out on his +career of conquest. He overthrew the Persian empire in 331 <span class = +"smallroman">B.C.</span>, having destroyed Tyre and subdued Egypt in the +previous year and carried his triumphant progress to the banks of the +Indus, and there he “held intercourse with the learned sages of India.” +On Alexander’s death Seleucus succeeded to the throne of Persia in 307 +<span class = "smallroman">B.C.</span>, and not long after he forced his +way beyond the Indus, and ultimately as far as the sacred river Ganges. +He formed an alliance with the Indian king Sandrocottus (otherwise known +as Chandra-gupta), which was maintained for many years, and it is said, +also, that he gave his daughter in marriage to the Indian king, and +aided him with Grecian auxiliaries in his wars.</p> + +<p> +He sent an expedition by sea, under the command of Patrocles his +admiral, who visited the western shores of India, and a little later he +despatched an embassy under Megasthenes and Onesicrates, the former of +whom resided for some years at the “great city” of Palibothra (supposed +to be Patna).</p> + +<p> +Not long after <ins class = "correction" title = +"text reads ‘Megesthenes’">Megasthenes</ins> was at Palibothra, Ptolemy +Philadelphus sent an expedition overland through Persia to India, and +later Ptolemy Euergetes, who lived between 145-116 <span class = +"smallroman">B.C.</span>, sent a fleet under Eudoxius on a voyage of +discovery to the western shores of India, piloted, as is said, by an +Indian sailor who had been shipwrecked, and who had been found in a boat +on the Red Sea. Eudoxius reached India safely, and returned to Egypt +with a cargo of spices and precious stones.</p> + +<p> +The proof of very ancient communication between Greece and India is +quite clear, both by way of Persia and Egypt, and we find that the +Greeks, who were in the habit of calling all other nations barbarians, +speak constantly with respect of the gymnosophists—called +“Sapientes Indi” by Pliny. We read also of the Greek philosophers +constantly travelling eastward in search of knowledge, and on their +return setting up new schools of thought. Thales, it is affirmed, +travelled in Egypt and Asia during the sixth century <span class = +"smallroman">B.C.</span>, and it is said of him that he returned to +Miletus, and transported that vast stock of learning which he had +acquired into his own country.</p> + +<p> +He is generally considered as the first of the Greek philosophers. +Strabo says of him that he was the first of the Grecian <ins class = +"correction" title = "text reads ‘philosphers’">philosophers</ins> who +made inquiry into natural causes and the mathematics.</p> + +<p> +<span class = "pagenum">10</span> +The doctrine of Thales, that water was the first elementary principle, +is exactly that of the ancient Hindoos, who held that water was the +first element, and the first work of the creative power. This idea was +not completely exploded even up till the 18th century. We find Van +Helmont affirming that all metals, and even rocks, may be resolved into +water; and Lavoisier, so lately as 1770, thought it worth while to +communicate an elaborate paper “On the nature of water and the +experiments by which it has been attempted to prove the possibility of +converting it into earth.”</p> + +<p> +Pythagoras, perhaps the greatest of all Greek philosophers, it is known, +travelled very widely, spending no less than twenty-two years in Egypt. +He also spent some considerable time at Babylon, and was taught the lore +of the Magi.</p> + +<p> +In the famous satire of Lucian on the philosophic quackery of his day +(about 120 <span class = "smallroman">A.D.</span>), “The Sale of the +Philosophers,” we have a most interesting account of the system of +Pythagoras.</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Scene—A Slave Mart. </i>Jupiter<i>, </i>Mercury<i>, +</i>philosophers<i>, in the garb of slaves, for sale. Audience of +buyers.</i></p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Jupiter.</i>—Now, you arrange the benches, and get the place +ready for the company. You bring out the goods and set them in a row; +but trim them up a little first, and make them look their best, to +attract as many customers as possible. You, Mercury, must put up the +lots, and bid all comers welcome to the sale. Gentlemen,—We are +here going to offer you philosophical systems of all kinds, and of the +most varied and ingenious description. If any gentleman happens to be +short of ready money he can give his security for the amount, and pay +next year.</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Mercury (to Jupiter)</i>.—There are a great many come; so we +had best begin at once, and not keep them waiting.</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Jupiter.</i>—Begin the sale, then.</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Mercury.</i>—Whom shall we put up first?</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Jupiter.</i>—This fellow with the long hair—the Ionian. +He’s rather an imposing personage.</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Mercury.</i>—You, Pythagoras, step out, and show yourself to +the company.</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Jupiter.</i>—Put him up.</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Mercury.</i>—Gentlemen, we here offer you a professor of the +very best and most select description. Who buys? Who wants to be a cut +above the rest of the world? Who wants to understand the harmonies of +the universe and to live two lives?</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<span class = "pagenum">11</span> +<i>Customer (turning the philosopher round and examining +him).</i>—He’s not bad to look at. What does he know best?</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Mercury.</i>—Arithmetic, astronomy, prognostics, geometry, +music, and conjuring. You’ve a first-rate soothsayer before you.</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Customer.</i>—May one ask him a few questions?</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Mercury.</i>—Certainly—(<i>aside</i>), and much good may +the answers do you.</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Customer.</i>—What country do you come from?</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Pythagoras.</i>—Samos.</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Customer.</i>—Where were you educated?</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Pythagoras.</i>—In Egypt, among the wise men there.</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Customer.</i>—Suppose I buy you, now, what will you +teach me?</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Pythagoras.</i>—I will teach you nothing—only recall +things to your memory.</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Customer.</i>—How will you do that?</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Pythagoras.</i>—First, I will clean out your mind, and wash out +all the rubbish.</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Customer.</i>—Well, suppose that done, how do you proceed to +refresh the memory?</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Pythagoras.</i>—First, by long repose and silence, speaking no +word for five whole years.</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Customer.</i>—Why, look ye, my good fellow, you’d best go teach +the dumb son of Crœsus! I want to talk and not be a dummy. +Well—but after this silence, and these five years?</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Pythagoras.</i>—You shall learn music and geometry.</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Customer.</i>—A queer idea, that one must be a fiddler before +one can be a wise man!</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Pythagoras.</i>—Then you shall learn the science of +numbers.</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Customer.</i>—Thank you, but I know how to count already.</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Pythagoras.</i>—How do you count?</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Customer.</i>—One, two, three, four——</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Pythagoras.</i>—Ha! what you call four is ten, and the perfect +triangle, and the great oath by which we swear.</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Customer.</i>—Now, so help me, the great ten and four, I never +heard more divine or more wonderful words!</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Pythagoras.</i>—And afterwards, stranger, you shall learn about +Earth, and Air, and Water, and Fire—what is their action, and what +their form, and what their motion.</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Customer.</i>—What! have Fire, Air, or Water bodily shape?</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Pythagoras.</i>—Surely they have; else, without form and shape, +<span class = "pagenum">12</span> +how could they move! Besides, you shall learn that the Deity consists in +Number, Mind, and Harmony.</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Customer.</i>—What you say is really wonderful.</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Pythagoras.</i>—Besides what I have just told you, you shall +understand that you yourself, who seem to be one individual, are really +somebody else.</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Customer.</i>—What! do you mean to say I’m somebody else, and +not myself, now talking to you?</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +<i>Pythagoras.</i>—Just at this moment you are; but once upon a +time you appeared in another body, and under another name; and hereafter +you will pass again into another shape still.</p> + +<p class = "quotation"> +(After a little more discussion of this philosopher’s tenets, he is +purchased on behalf of a company of professors from Magna Græca for ten +minæ. The next lot is Diogenes, the Cynic.)</p> + +<p> +Apuleius says in the Florida, Section <span class = +"smallroman">XV.</span>, in reference to Pythagoras, that he went to +Egypt to acquire learning, “that he was there taught by the priests the +incredible power of ceremonies, the wonderful commutations of numbers, +and the most ingenious figures of geometry; but that, not satisfied with +these mental accomplishments, he afterwards visited the Chaldæans and +the Brahmins, and amongst the latter the Gymnosophists. The Chaldæans +taught him the stars, the definite orbits of the planets, and the +various effects of both kinds of stars upon the nativity of men, as +also, for much money, <i>the remedies for human use derived from the +earth, the air, and the sea</i> (the elements earth, air, and water, or +all nature).</p> + +<p> +“But the Brahmins taught him the greater part of his +philosophy—what are the rules and principles of the understanding; +what the functions of the body; how many the faculties of the soul; how +many the mutations of life; what torments or rewards devolve upon the +souls of the dead, according to their respective deserts.”</p> + +<p> +There is ample evidence, therefore, that the Greeks had communication +with, and borrowed the philosophy of, both Persia and India at a very +early date.</p> + +<p> +That there was intimate intercourse with India in very ancient times +there can be no doubt. In addition to the classical sources of +information collected chiefly by the officers of Alexander the Great, +Seleucus and the Ptolemies, and which was condensed and reduced to +consistent shape by Diodorus, Strabo, Pliny, and Arrian, within the +first century before and the first century after Christ, +<span class = "pagenum">13</span> +we have the further proof of the fact by the constant finds of +innumerable Greek coins over a large portion of north-western India, and +even at Cabul. These, so far as yet known, commence with the third of +the Seleucidæ, and run on for many centuries, the inscriptions showing +that the Greek characters were used in the provinces of Cabul and the +Punjab even so late as the fourth century <span class = +"smallroman">A.D.</span> The consideration of these coins of the +Græco-Persian empire of the Seleucidæ naturally leads us to the +consideration of the Persians.</p> + +<p> +I have already shown that the Greeks and Persians held intimate +relations with each other as early as the fourth century <span class = +"smallroman">B.C.</span>, and from the speech of Demosthenes against a +proposed war with Persia, delivered in 354 B.C, we may well believe that +they had already had a long and intimate connection with each other. The +passage rends thus:-</p> + +<p> +“All Greeks know that, so long as they regarded Persia as their common +enemy, they were at peace with each other, and enjoyed much prosperity, +but since they have looked upon the King (of Persia) as a friend, and +quarrelled about disputes with each other, they have suffered worse +calamities than any one could possibly imprecate upon them.”</p> + +<p> +The Persian empire was founded by Cyrus, about <span class = +"smallroman">B.C.</span> 560, and rapidly rose to be perhaps the +greatest power of the world of that age. The rise of the Persian empire +is not unlike that of the Arabian power in regard to the wide range of +conquest achieved in a very limited period. Its actual existence, from +the foundation of the empire by Cyrus in <span class = +"smallroman">B.C.</span> 560 to the death of Darius III., was barely two +centuries and a half.</p> + +<p> +Previous to the Persian empire there existed three principal powers in +Asia—the Medes, the Chaldæans or Babylonish, and the Lydian. Of +these the Medes and Chaldæans were the most ancient, and their joint +power would seem to have extended eastward as far as the Oxus and +Indus.</p> + +<p> +Of these nations the Babylonians were the most highly civilized, and, +did time permit, we might find much that would interest and instruct in +examining the various facts relating to the arts and sciences amongst +these nations. We know that arts and sciences must have been diligently +cultivated amongst them, and that magic and astrology were held in high +repute.</p> + +<p> +That the Persians were well acquainted with other nations is shown +clearly from the remains of their great city of Persepolis, +<span class = "pagenum">14</span> +where the sculptured figures represent many types of mankind—the +negro, with thick lips and flat nose, and with his crisp, wooly hair, +clearly cut; and the half-naked Indian, with his distinguishing +features, being easily singled out from many others.</p> + +<p> +Persia held sway over a huge district of India—the limits of this +are not known; but, in addition, they were well acquainted with a large +portion of the north-western part of India.</p> + +<p> +The traditions and historical records of the Persians are contained in +the famous series of writings culled the Zend-avesta. These writings +are, it is thought, of an age even before the Persian dynasty was +established; and it has been shown by the researches of M. Anguetil and +Sir W. Jones that there is indeed a great probability of the Zend having +been a dialect of the ancient Sanscrit language. In the vocabulary +attached to M. Anguetil’s great work on the Zend-avesta no less than 60 +to 70 per cent. of the words are said to be pure Sanscrit.</p> + +<p> +As the oldest known language of Persia was Chaldæic, we are again thrown +back on Indian sources for the origin of the great book of the ancient +Persians. Even the name of the priests of the Persian religion of +Zoroaster, Mag or Magi, is of Sanscrit derivation.</p> + +<p> +The Persians kept up an enormous army, which was spread through all the +various provinces and Satrapies, and consisted in great part of paid +auxiliaries. In at least the later period of Persian power the Greeks +were preferred to all others, and in the time of Cyrus the Younger they +composed the flower of the Persian army, and were employed in +garrisoning most of the chief cities of Asia Minor.</p> + +<p> +The description given by Herodotus of the vast army and fleet prepared +for the expedition of Xerxes against the Greeks gives us an idea of the +extent of the Persian power, and of the wide range of countries and +nations over which they held sway. The review held on the Plain of +Doriscus was perhaps the greatest military spectacle ever beheld either +before or since. Herodotus enumerates no less than 56 different nations, +all of them in their national dress and arms. Besides the Persians there +were “Medes and Bactrians; <ins class = "correction" title = +"text reads ‘Lybians’">Libyans</ins> in war chariots with four horses; +Arabs on camels; Sagartians, wild huntsmen who employed, instead of the +usual weapons of the time, the lasso; the nomadic tribes of Bucharia and +Mongolia; Ethiopians in lions’ skins, and Indians in cotton robes; +Phœnician sailors, and Greeks from Asia Minor.” All these and +<span class = "pagenum">15</span> +many others were there assembled by the despotic power of the Persian +king.</p> + +<p> +The system of government employed by the Persians, and the constant +reports and tributes sent from every province to the central court of +the king, were well calculated to bring to it, as to a focus, the +curious lore of the various nations who came in contact with or were +subdued by them.</p> + +<p> +The Persians were famed for their knowledge of astronomy and astrology, +and were said “to have anciently known the most wonderful powers of +nature, and to have therefore acquired great fame as magicians and +enchanters.”</p> + +<p> +The close relation between the Persian religious traditions and those of +the Hindoos is very striking. According to Mohsan, “The best informed +Persians, who professed the faith of Hu-shang as distinguished from that +of Zeratusht, believes that the first monarch of Iran, and, indeed, of +the whole world, was Mahabad (a word apparently Sanscrit), who divided +the people into four orders,—the religious, the military, the +commercial, and the servile, to which he assigned names unquestionably +the same as those now applied to the four primary classes of the +Hindoos.”</p> + +<p> +They added, “that he received from the Creator and promulgated amongst +men a <i>sacred book in a heavenly language</i>, to which the Musselman +author gives the <i>Arabic</i> title of <i>Desatir</i>, or Regulations, +but the original name of which he has not mentioned; and that +<i>fourteen Mahabads</i> had appeared, or would appear, in human shapes +for the government of this world.”</p> + +<p> +“Now when we know that the Hindoos believe in <i>fourteen <ins class = +"correction" title = "so in original: ‘Manus’">Menus</ins></i>, or +celestial persons with similar functions, the <i>first</i> of whom left +a book of <i>regulations</i>, or divine ordinances, which they hold +equal to the <i>Veda</i>, and the language of which they believe to be +that of the gods, we can hardly doubt that the first corruption of the +purest and oldest religion was the system of <i>Indian</i> theology +invented by the <i>Brahmins</i> and prevalent in those territories where +the book of Mahabad, or <ins class = "correction" title = +"so in original: ‘Manu’">Menu</ins>, is at this moment the standard of +all religious and moral duties.”</p> + +<p> +Having established, then, the long and intimate nature of the Persian +intercourse with India, let us see how it bears on our more immediate +subject.</p> + +<p> +The works on medicine which are known to exist, and to have been written +in Persian, are not very many in number, but they cover a period of time +of nearly 400 years. The oldest of them is +<span class = "pagenum">16</span> +of the year 1392 <span class = "smallroman">A.D.</span>, and in it and +its successors there are long lists of Arabian authors whose works had +been consulted, and also various Indian works.</p> + +<p> +Greek physicians were in great request at the Persian court, and when +the daughter of the Emperor Aurelian was sent in marriage to the Persian +monarch, Sapor II., she had a number of Greek physicians in her train. +This king founded a new city called Jondisabour in honour of his Queen, +and owing to the settlement here of a number of Greek physicians, who +had, on account of religious differences, retired into Persia, this city +became celebrated as a medical school. Dr. Friend gives the names of +these as “Damascius the Syrian, Simplicius of Cilicia, Diogenes of +Phænicea, Isidorus of Gaza, and others, the most learned and greatest +philosophers of the age.” It is thought by some authors that many of the +Arabian writers who belonged to the college of Baghdad were educated at +Jondisabour.</p> + +<p> +The district of Jondisabour is even yet one of the most nourishing in +Persia, and contains mines which still yield turquoise, salt, lead, +copper, antimony, iron, and marble.</p> + +<p> +During the reign of the Persian king Nooshirwan, his physician Barzoueh +made various journeys into India, one of which was specially for the +purpose of obtaining copies of Indian literature, and another to obtain +medicaments and herbs.</p> + +<p> +How to account for the strange fact that all schools of medicine which +have risen, flourished, and disappeared, have left some trace in +historical records, with the exception of that of India, is most +difficult, unless under the hypothesis that the language in which the +science and philosophy of India was recorded has been almost a sealed +book to the world, and is even now quite unintelligible to the people of +India itself, generally speaking, and that thus the only way in which +the results of the long ages of philosophic study, which unquestionably +have had a place in India, have only been known by this dark reflection +from the writings of Greek and Arabic writers, which were scattered +broadcast over the ancient world. The Greeks, we know, borrowed their +science largely from the Egyptians, both in respect to theology and +philosophy; and we might, with much profit, pursue the examination of +our subject amongst the records of that highly civilized amongst the +ancient nations.</p> + +<p> +Many authors have attempted to show that there is a wonderful +resemblance between the Egyptians and the Hindoos, the sculptures +<span class = "pagenum">17</span> +on the monuments of the former are most wonderfully like those of India, +and the features, dress, and arms are all as like as may be.</p> + +<p> +Both nations had the various arts of weaving, dyeing, embroidering, +working in metals, and the manufacture of glass, and practised them with +but little difference in their methods. The fine muslins of India find +their counterparts as “woven wind” in the transparent tissues figured on +the Egyptian temples. The style of building, the sciences of astronomy, +music, and medicine were assiduously cultivated by both nations, and +there was direct intercourse between them, perhaps even before +historical time begins.</p> + +<p> +Rameses the Great (III.), called also Sesostris, fitted out not only war +ships but merchant vessels for the purpose of trading with India, in +<span class = "smallroman">B.C.</span> 1235, and Wilkinson in his book +on the Ancient Egyptians, tells us that in 2000 <span class = +"smallroman">B.C.</span> there were no less than 400 ships trading to +the Persian Gulf. There is, after all, nothing surprising in this when +we remember the fact, which is, however, not generally known, I am +afraid, that under the reign of <ins class = "correction" title = +"so in original">Pharoah</ins> Necho, a fleet of his ships safely +circumnavigated Africa, from the Red Sea to the <ins class = +"correction" title = "text reads ‘Mediterreanean’">Mediterranean</ins>, +this being in advance of the celebrated voyage of Diaz and Vasco da Gama +by no less than 2100 years.</p> + +<p> +No less than seven centuries before Thales went to study in Egypt, +astronomical calculations were inscribed on the monuments at Thebes, so +that we can see how modern by comparison the Greek philosophy +appears.</p> + +<p> +In a note Wilkinson says that “The science of Medicine was one of the +earliest cultivated in Egypt. Athothes, the successor of Menes of the +first dynasty, is said to have written on the subject, and five papyri +on the subject have survived.</p> + +<p> +“They are of the period of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties.</p> + +<p> +“One known as the Papyrus Ebers, from its discoverer, is attributed to +the age of Kherpheres or Bikheres.</p> + +<p> +“The second, that of Berlin, found in the reign of Usaphais of the first +dynasty, was completed by Senet or Sethenes of the second line.</p> + +<p> +“The third, that of the British Museum, contains a receipt said to have +been mysteriously discovered in the reign of Cheops of the fourth +dynasty.</p> + +<p class = "spacer"> +*********</p> + +<p> +“The curatives employed were ointments, drinks, plasters, fumigations +<span class = "pagenum">18</span> +and clysters, and the drugs employed were taken from vegetables, +minerals, and animals.</p> + +<p> +“Those for each draught were mixed together, pounded, boiled, and +strained through linen.</p> + +<p> +“The doctors belonged to the sacred class, and were only permitted to +practice their own particular branch.</p> + +<p> +“These were oculists, dentists, those who confined their practice to +diseases of the head, and those again who only attended to internal +diseases; they were paid from the public treasury, and were compelled, +before being permitted to practice, to study the precepts laid down by +their predecessors.”</p> + +<p> +Homer, in the Odyssey, describes Egypt “as a country whose fertile soil +produces an infinity of drugs, some salutary and some pernicious, where +each physician possesses knowledge above all other men.”</p> + +<p> +The mixing of various drugs and minerals must have produced effects +which could not be lost on such observant men as the doctors must, from +their training, have been, and it would be absurd to suppose that some, +at least, of the simpler chemical decompositions and combinations were +not known to them.</p> + +<p> +The manufacture of glass would seem to have been very ancient amongst +the Egyptians, and the insufficiency of the old fable, of its discovery +by the fusing of blocks of stone in the fire is quite clear; besides, +Egyptian glass has been found which contains potash, and nothing is more +probable than that the nitrate of potash, found so plentifully in the +soil of India, was imported for this manufacture.</p> + +<p> +Precious stones or amulets with Sanscrit inscriptions have repeatedly +been found in tombs, which must date back to at least <span class = +"smallroman">B.C.</span> 1400.</p> + +<p> +In tracing back the history of Chemistry, we constantly find reference +to Hermes, Trismegistus, who would seem to be the god Thoth, or Taaut of +the Egyptians. The famous inscription of the Emerald table ascribes to +him the possession of three parts of the philosophy of the whole world. +I have been much struck with the resemblance of this god Taaut with the +<ins class = "correction" title = "so in original: ‘Manu’">Menu</ins> of +the Hindoos, who also was credited with saving from destruction +by the flood the three Vedas, which were supposed to contain all that +was required for man’s direction here below.</p> + +<p> +There would appear to have been also other Hermes, but if we look at the +condition of things which obtained in Egypt when the +<span class = "pagenum">19</span> +Pyramids of Memphis are supposed to have been erected, within 300 years +of the supposed date of the deluge, and that the Beni Hassan tombs, +about 300 years later, depict the manners and customs of what we cannot +help admitting, was a highly civilized nation, we must be struck with +the fact that the distance of time between the deluge and the building +of these pyramids and tombs is so short, that it might be represented by +a comparison of our own date with those of Queen Elizabeth and Henry the +Third.</p> + +<p> +Jackson in his “Antiquities” tells us that<ins class = "correction" +title = "comma in original">, </ins>Sanchoniatho states that the most +ancient Phœnician records show that letters were invented soon after the +dispersion of mankind, by Tsaut, the son of Mizor or Misraim, who was +the first Egyptian Hermes or Thoth. He went out of Phœnicia, and first, +with a colony of Mizrites, settled and reigned in Egypt, and, according +to Cicero, gave both laws and letters to the Egyptians.</p> + +<p> +This Hermes was born in the second generation after the flood, and was +not only the inventor of letters and writing, but he is also said to +have delineated the sacred characters or symbols of the elements and +planets, viz.,—sun, moon, earth, air, fire, water, &c.</p> + +<p> +These symbols are without doubt of very ancient origin, and Boerhæve +in his Theory of Chemistry explains them hieroglyphically as +follows:—</p> + +<div class = "mynote"> +The symbols are shown as images at the end of the file. +</div> + +<p> +＋ Denotes anything sharp, gnawing, or corrosive; as vinegar or fire: +being supposed to be stuck around with barbed spikes.</p> + +<p> +☉ Denotes a perfect immutable simple body, such as gold, which has +nothing acrimonious or heterogeneous adhering to it.</p> + +<p> +☽ Denotes half gold, whose inside, if turned outward, would make it +entire gold, as having nothing foreign or corrosive in it; which the +alchemists observe of silver.</p> + +<p> +☿ Denotes the inside to be pure gold, but the outer part of the colour +of silver and a corrosive underneath, which, if taken away, would leave +it mere gold, and this the adepts affirm of mercury.</p> + +<p> +♀ Denotes the chief part to be gold; whereto, however, adheres another +large, crude, corrosive part, which, if removed, would leave the rest +possessed with all the properties of gold, and this the adepts affirm of +copper.</p> + +<p> +♂ Likewise denotes gold at the bottom, but attended with a great +proportion of a sharp corrosive, sometimes amounting to a half of the +whole, whence half the character expresses acrimony; which, accordingly, +both alchemists and physicians observe of iron, +<span class = "pagenum">20</span> +and hence that common opinion of the adepts that the aurum vivum, or +gold of the philosophers, is contained in iron, and that the universal +medicine is rather to be sought in this metal than in gold itself.</p> + +<p> +♃ Denotes half the matter of tin to be silver, the other a crude +corrosive acid, which is accordingly confirmed by the assayers; tin +proving almost as fixed as silver in the cupel, and discovering a large +quantity of crude sulphur well known to the alchemists.</p> + +<p> +♄ Denotes almost the whole to be corrosive, but retaining some +resemblance with silver, which the artists very well know holds true of +lead.</p> + +<p> +♁ <a class = "tag" name = "tag2" href = "#note2">2</a> Denotes a +chaos—world, or one thing which includes all: this is the +character of antimony, wherein is found gold, with plenty of an +arsenical corrosive.</p> + +<p> +The symbols, or at least some of them, may be traced even in the Chinese +characters for gold, silver, &c.</p> + +<p> +The connection of Egypt with India shortly after the Christian era is +distinctly indicated in the works of Apuleius. He lived in the early +part of the second century after Christ, and was educated first at +Carthage, then renowned as a school of literature. He then travelled +extensively in Greece, Asia, and Egypt, and became initiated into many +religious fraternities and an adept in their mysteries. He was admitted +a priest of the order of Æsculapius, and describes the ceremony of the +offering of the first-fruits by the priests of Isis, when the navigation +opened in spring. The vessel, which was to be set adrift upon the ocean +freighted with the offering, was splendidly decorated and covered with +hieroglyphics, and after having been “<i>purified with a lighted torch, +an egg, and sulphur</i>,” was allowed to sail away into the unknown as a +sacrifice to procure the safety of the convoy of ships which would soon +after start upon their voyage. These rites were of great antiquity.</p> + +<p> +He speaks, in his first tale, of a witch who, by means of her magic +charms, made not only her fellow-countrymen love her, but “<i>the +Indians even</i>,” and in his initiation into the mysteries of Isis, his +robes “bore pictures of Indian serpents.”</p> + +<p> +From what I have now laid before you, in what must necessarily be a very +imperfect manner, you will see that there is good reason to believe that +in the study of science and philosophy the Indian races were much in +advance of the Western nations. The age of science amongst them is very +great; we fail utterly in +<span class = "pagenum">21</span> +trying to find its beginning, unless we accept the tradition which +ascribes to <ins class = "correction" title = +"so in original: ‘Manu’">Menu</ins>, their great lawgiver (who is +supposed to have been Noah), the saving of three out of the four divine +books or Vedas from the deluge. This would carry us back to the +Antediluvian times for the beginning of our investigations; but without +taking any such extreme view of the subject we will find traces of +science clearly marked out for us in the history of the Indian races.</p> + +<p> +The picture of the Brahmins, drawn by Apuleius in the second century, +shows how little they have changed in historical times. He +says:—</p> + +<p> +“The Indians are a populous nation of vast extent of territory, situated +far from us to the east, near the reflux of the ocean and the rising of +the sun, under the first beams of the stars, and at the extreme verge of +the earth, beyond the learned Egyptians and the superstitious Jews and +the mercantile Nabathæans; and the flowing robed Aracidae, and the +Ityraeans, poor in crops, and the Arabians, rich in perfumes.</p> + +<p> +“Now, I do not so much admire the heaps of ivory of the Indians, their +harvests of pepper, their bales of cinnamon, their tempered steel, their +mines of silver, and their golden streams, nor that among them, the +Ganges, the greatest of all rivers,</p> + +<div class = "inset"> +‘Rolls like a monarch on his course, and pours<br> +His eastern waters through a hundred streams,<br> +Mingling with ocean by a hundred mouths,’ +</div> + +<p> +“nor that these Indians, though situated at the dawn of day, are yet of +the colour of night, nor that among them, immense dragons fight with +enormous elephants, with parity of danger to their mutual destruction, +for they hold them enwrapped in their slippery folds, so that the +elephants cannot disengage their legs or in any way extricate themselves +from the scaly bonds of the tenacious dragons. They are forced to seek +revenge from the fall of their own bulk and to crush their captors by +the mass of their own bodies.</p> + +<p> +“There are amongst them various kinds of inhabitants. I will rather +speak of the marvellous things of men than of those of nature.</p> + +<p> +“There is among them a race who know nothing but to tend cattle, hence +they are called neatherds; there are races clever in trafficking with +merchandise, and others stout in fight, whether with arrows, or hand to +hand with swords.</p> + +<p> +<span class = "pagenum">22</span> +“There is also among them a pre-eminent race called Gymnosophists.</p> + +<p> +“These I exceedingly admire, for they are men skilled not in propagating +the vine, nor in grafting trees, nor in tilling the ground. They know +not how to cultivate the fields, nor to wash gold, or to break horses, +or to shear or feed sheep or goats.</p> + +<p> +“What is it, then, they know? One thing instead of all these. They +<i>cultivate wisdom</i>, both the aged professors and the young +students. Nothing do I so much admire in them as that they hate torpor +of mind and sloth.”</p> + +<p> +This does not look as if the Indians had been unknown or unappreciated +in the second century <span class = "smallroman">A.D.</span></p> + +<p> +Apuleius is not alone in his respect for the Brahmins. Many of the Greek +writers speak of them under the names of Brahmins or Gymnosophists, but +always with great respect.</p> + +<p> +Strabo states, on the authority of Megasthenes (who it will be +remembered was Ambassador from Persia, and lived for some years at +Palibothra, about 307 <span class = "smallroman">B.C.</span>), that +“there were two classes of philosophers or priests, the Brachmanes and +the Germanes, but the Brachmanes are best esteemed.” Towards the close +of his account of the “Brachmanes” he says:—</p> + +<p> +“In many things they agree with the Greeks, for they affirm that the +world was produced, and is perishable, and that it is spherical; that +God, governing it as well as framing it, pervades the whole; that the +principles of all things are various, but water is the principle of the +construction of the world; that besides the four elements there is a +fifth, nature—whence heaven and the stars; that the earth is +placed in the centre of all.</p> + +<p> +“Such, and many other things are affirmed of reproduction and of the +soul. Like Plato, they devise fables concerning the immortality of the +soul, and the judgment in the infernal regions, and other similar +notions. These things are said of the Brachmanes.”</p> + +<p> +Clemens Alexandrinus, after saying that philosophy flourished in ancient +times amongst the barbarians, and afterwards was introduced amongst the +Greeks, instances the prophets of the Egyptians, the Chaldees of the +Assyrians, the Druids of the Gauls (Galatæ), the Samauæans of the +Bactrians, the philosophers of the Celts, the Magi of the Persians, and +the Gymnosophists of the Indians. The Greek authors distinctly speak of +the Brahmins as the chief of the castes or divisions of the Indian +people from +<span class = "pagenum">23</span> +the time of Megasthenes, who wrote of them in the fourth century <span +class = "smallroman">B.C.</span></p> + +<p> +Sir William Jones, in a paper on the philosophy of the Asiatics, pointed +out that “the old philosophers of Europe had some idea of centripetal +force, and a principle of universal gravitation,” and affirms that “much +of the theology and philosophy of our immortal Newton may be found in +the Vedas.”</p> + +<p> +“That <i>most subtle spirit</i> which he suspected to pervade natural +bodies, and lying concealed in them, to cause attraction and repulsion, +the emission, reflection and refraction of light, electricity, +calefaction, sensation, and muscular motion, is described by the Hindus +as a <i>fifth element</i>, endowed with these very powers; and the Vedas +abound with allusions to a force universally attractive, which they +chiefly ascribe to the sun, thence called ‘Aditya, or the attractor,’ a +name designed by the mythologists to mean the child of the goddess +Aditi. But the most wonderful passage on the theory of attractions +occurs in the charming allegorical poem of ’Shi’ri’n and Ferhai’d, or +the Divine Spirit, and a human soul disinterestedly pious,’ a work +which, from the first verse to the last, is a blaze of religious and +poetical fire.</p> + +<p> +“The whole passage appears to me so curious that I make no apology for +giving you a faithful translation of it:—</p> + +<p> +“<i>There is a strong propensity which dances through every atom, and +attracts the minutest particle to some peculiar object; search this +universe from its base to its summit, from fire to air, from water to +earth (the four elements!), from all below the moon to all above the +celestial spheres, and thou wilt not find a corpuscle destitute of that +natural attractability. The very point of the first thread in this +apparently tangled skein is no other than such a principle of +attraction, and all principles beside are void of a real basis: from +such a propensity arises every motion perceived in heavenly or in +terrestrial bodies; it is a disposition to be attracted which taught +hard steel to rush from its place and rivet itself on the magnet; it is +the same disposition which impels the light straw to attach itself +firmly on amber; it is this quality which gives every substance in +nature a tendency towards another, and an inclination forcibly directed +to a determinate point.</i>”</p> + +<p> +In Sir W. Ainslie’s Materia Medica of India the opinion of an old Hindoo +author is given as to the qualifications required in a physician.</p> + +<p> +“He must be a person of strict veracity, and of the greatest +<span class = "pagenum">24</span> +sobriety and decorum: he ought to be skilled in all the commentaries on +the ‘Ayur-Veda,’ and be otherwise a man of sense and benevolence: his +heart must be charitable, his temper calm, and his constant study how to +do good.</p> + +<p> +“Such a man is properly called a good physician, and such a physician +ought still daily to improve his mind by an attentive perusal of +scientific books.</p> + +<p class = "spacer"> +*********</p> + +<p> +“Should death come upon us while under the care of a person of this +description, it can only be considered as inevitable fate, and not the +consequence of presumptuous ignorance.”</p> + +<p> +The knowledge of the Hindoos may be all said to be contained in their +sacred books called the Vedas, which, although perfect as a whole, are +actually divided into four parts, each in itself constituting a separate +Veda under a special title. These are the Rig-Veda, the Yajur-Veda +(white and black), the Sama-Veda, and the Atharva-Veda, or Ayur-Veda. +Although the last is admitted to be as a whole not so ancient as the +other three, still there are portions of it that are probably as old as +any of the others. Even in the oldest epic poems of the Hindoos mention +is made of four Vedas as already in existence and as of great antiquity. +Sir William Jones estimates the date of its compilation as certainly not +after <span class = "smallroman">B.C.</span> 1580.</p> + +<p> +These Vedas are considered by the Hindoos to contain the groundwork of +all their philosophy, as well as of their arts and sciences, and they +contain treatises on music, medicine, the art of war, and +architecture.</p> + +<p> +Sir William Jones, in referring to the Ayur-Veda, says that, to his +astonishment, he found in it an entire Upanishad on the internal parts +of the human body, enumerating the nerves, veins, and arteries.</p> + +<p> +The Ayur-Veda was considered by the Brahmins to be the work of +Brahma—by him it was communicated to Dacsha, the Prajapati, and by +him, the two Aswins, or sons of Surya—the sun—were +instructed in it, and thus became the medical attendants of the gods. A +legend that cannot but recall to our mind the Greek myth of the two sons +of Æsculapius and their descent from Apollo.</p> + +<p> +In the case of immortal gods the practice was confined to surgery, in +treating the wounds received in the conflicts which were constantly +described as occurring amongst the gods themselves, or +<span class = "pagenum">25</span> +between the gods and the demons. Of course they performed many +miraculous cures, as would be expected from their superhuman +character.</p> + +<p> +Professor Wilson published in the <i>Oriental Magazine</i>, in 1823, +some notices on early Hindoo Medicine, and he points out that the +tradition is, that the above “two Aswins instructed Indra in medical and +surgical art, that Indra instructed <ins class = "correction" title = +"so in original: ‘Dhanwantari’">Dahnwantari</ins>; +although others make Atreya, Bharadwaja, and Charaka prior to the +latter:—Charaka’s work, which goes by his name, is extant. +Dahnwantari is also styled Kasi-rajah, or Prince of Kasi, or Benares. +His disciple was Susruta, his work also exists.”</p> + +<p> +The Ayur-Veda, as the oldest medical writings of the Hindoos are +collectively called, was divided into eight divisions. These are +described by Professor Wilson as follows:—</p> + +<p> +“1st. <i>Salya.</i>—The art of extracting extraneous substances, +violently or accidentally introduced into the body, with the treatment +of the inflammation and suppuration thereby induced.</p> + +<p> +“The word <i>Salya</i> means a dart or arrow, and points clearly to the +origin of this branch of Hindoo science.</p> + +<p> +“2nd. <i>Salakya.</i>—The treatment of external affections or +diseases of the eyes, nose, ears, &c.</p> + +<p> +“3rd, <i>Kayao Chikitsa.</i>—The general application of medicine +to the body, or the science of medicine, as opposed to surgery under the +two first heads.</p> + +<p> +“4th. <i>Bhutavidya</i>, or demonology: the act of casting out demons, +which we may take to mean the treatment of insanity, such as +it was.</p> + +<p> +“5th. <i>Kaumara bhritya</i>, or the treatment of the diseases of women +and children.</p> + +<p> +“6th. <i>Agada.</i>—The administration of antidotes.</p> + +<p> +“We do not appreciate this as an eastern nation would when poison was +only too common an instrument of ambition or revenge.</p> + +<p> +“7th. <i>Rasayana.</i>—Is chemistry, or perhaps it were better to +say alchemy, as its chief aim was the study of combinations of +substances mostly metallurgic, with a view of obtaining the universal +medicine or elixir which was to give immortal life.</p> + +<p> +“8th. <i>Bajikarana.</i>—Was connected with the means of promoting +the increase of the human race.”</p> + +<p> +One of the articles of Hindoo medicine was <i>Kshara</i> or alkaline +salts,—these are directed to be obtained by burning different +substances +<span class = "pagenum">26</span> +of vegetable origin, boiling the ashes with five or six times their +measure of water and filtering the solution, which was used both +internally and externally. Care is enjoined in their use, and emollient +applications are to be used if the caustic should occasion great +pain.</p> + +<p> +I have already spoken of the fact of Indian physicians having been at +the Court of Persia, and also at that of Haroun al Raschid, and also +that the ancient writers on medicine were known to the Arabs of the time +of the schools of Baghdad and Cordova. There is no manner of doubt +concerning this fact, as in Serapion’s works we find Charak actually +mentioned by name; under the head <i>De Mirobalanis</i> we find “<i>Et +Xarch indus dixit;</i>” and again, in another section “<i>Xarcha +indus;</i>” there being no corresponding sound to che in Arabic, there +is a slight change in the name, but it is quite clear what it is +intended for. In Avicenna, again, we find reference to “Scirak indum.” +Rhazes, again, who was previous to Avicenna, has “<i>Inquit Scarac +indianus</i>,” and again “<i>Dixit Sarac;</i>” in another place an +Indian author is quoted, who has not as yet been traced, +“<i>Sindifar</i>,” or, as it is in another place, “<i>Sindichar +indianus</i>.”</p> + +<p> +Professor Wilson, in a notice on the medical science of the Hindoos, +published in the <i>Oriental Magazine</i>, examines into the distinctive +qualities of the various sorts of leeches, and shows that the +description given in Avicenna, in the section “De Sanguisugis,” is +almost identical with the Hindoo author’s description of the twelve +sorts of leeches, in distinguishing the appearance and properties of the +various sorts.</p> + +<p> +That this is more than a mere coincidence is clear from the fact that +Avicenna says “<i>Indi dixerunt</i>.”</p> + +<p> +I do not think it will be seriously disputed that the Arabs had access +to the Hindoo works of and before their time, and we will find, if we +carefully examine the subject, that the science of medicine as +distinguished from surgery, and of chemistry as a part of that science +of medicine, was much more ancient than we have been prepared to +admit.</p> + +<p> +It would be incredible to believe that amongst a people so observant and +highly cultured as the Brahmins must have been, that medicine and the +changes occurring in mixtures of various substances should have been +unstudied, and there is no doubt that this subject was far from being +neglected by them.</p> + +<p> +Many natural productions of the country, such as nitrate of +<span class = "pagenum">27</span> +potash, borax, carbonate and sulphate of soda, sulphate of iron, alum, +common salt, and sulphur, could scarcely escape the notice of even +ordinary men; but Dr. Ainslie has shown, from the evidence of old Indian +medical works, that they were not only acquainted with ammonia (which +they made by distilling salammoniac one part, and chalk two parts), but +that they prepared sulphuric acid by burning sulphur and nitre together +in earthen pots, calling it <i>Gunduk Ka Attar</i>, or “attar of +sulphur.” Nitric acid, which was prepared, not by the process described +by Geber, but by mixing saltpetre, alum, and a portion of a liquor +obtained by spreading cloths over the common gram plant, and leaving +them exposed to the dew, when they were found to absorb the acid salt so +abundantly secreted by the plant on the surface of its leaves, and +which, when examined by Vauquelin, was found to contain both oxalic and +acetic acids.</p> + +<p> +Muriatic acid was also made by distilling alum and common salt, dried +and pounded with the above acid liquor.</p> + +<p> +Arsenic was used by them for the cure of palsy, and also for venereal +diseases, and is still used by them for this purpose, and in +intermittent fevers.</p> + +<p> +It would occupy too much time to go further into this subject at the +present time, but there are many chemical compounds which are still made +and sold in the Indian bazaars which have been used from time +immemorial, and which require a knowledge of chemical manipulation in +the arts of subliming, distilling, &c.</p> + +<p> +Mr. Rodwell says, “that the distillation of cinnabar with iron, +described by Dioscorides, is the first crude example of distillation, +which afterwards became a principal operation among the alchemists and +chemists for separating the volatile from the fixed.”</p> + +<p> +That this is an assumption which has no foundation in fact is evident, +when we find in the Institutes of <ins class = "correction" title = +"so in original: ‘Manu’">Menu</ins> many enactments against the +drinking of distilled spirits, and these made of various kinds and +distilled from molasses (or sugar-cane juice), rice, and the madhuca +flowers.</p> + +<p> +“A soldier or merchant drinking arak, mead, or rum are to be considered +offenders in the highest degree,” and “for drinking spirits are to be +branded on the forehead with a vintner’s flag,” rather a summary way of +treating a drunkard, and one which would indicate that the ill effects +of over-indulgence in spirituous liquors had been long known, when such +severe enactments were made against it.</p> + +<p> +<span class = "pagenum">28</span> +The method of distilling described by Mr. Kerr in the Asiatic +Researches, vol. 1, is so simple that it is almost certain that it was +employed in very ancient times for the purpose of distilling spirits, +and also attars of various sorts, which, from time immemorial, would +seem to have been a special production of India.</p> + +<p> +“The body of the still is a common large unglazed earthen water jar, +nearly globular, of about 25 inches diameter at the widest part of it, +and 22 inches deep to the neck, which neck rises 2 inches more, and is +11 inches wide in the opening; this was filled about a half with +fermented mâhwah flowers, which swam about in the liquor to be +distilled.</p> + +<p> +“This jar they placed in a furnace, not the most artificial, though not +seemingly ill adapted to give a great heat with but very little fuel. +This they made by digging a round hole in the ground, about 20 inches +wide and full 3 feet deep, cutting an opening in the front sloping down +to the bottom, perpendicular at the sides, about 9 inches wide and about +15 inches long, reckoning from the edge of the circle: this is to serve +to throw in the wood and to allow a passage for the air; at the other +side a small opening about 4 inches by 3 inches is made to serve as an +outlet for the smoke, the bottom of the hole thus made was rounded like +a cup.</p> + +<p> +“The jar was placed in this as far as it would go, and banked up with +clay all round to about a fifth of its height, except at the two +openings, when all was completed so far as the furnace was +concerned.</p> + +<p> +“Fully one third of the still or jar was exposed to the heat when the +fire was lighted; the fuel was at least 2 feet from the bottom of +the jar.</p> + +<p> +“On to this jar there was now fitted what is called an adkur, this being +made of two earthen pans with their bottoms turned towards each other, +and a hole of about 4 inches diameter in the middle of each of them, the +lower of these pans fitted the hole in the jar, and was luted with clay, +the upper was luted to the lower one, and had a diameter of about 14 +inches, the juncture formed a neck of about 3 inches, the upper pan was +about 4 inches deep, with a rim round the central hole, this formed a +gutter, and by means of a hollow bamboo luted to this, the spirit, as it +condensed, ran off into the receiver.</p> + +<p> +“The arrangement was now completed by luting on a small copper pot or +vessel about 5 inches deep, 8 inches wide at mouth, and about 10 inches +at bottom, with its mouth downwards.</p> + +<p> +<span class = "pagenum">29</span> +“The cooler was formed by placing on a support at the back of the +furnace an earthen vessel containing a few gallons of water, from which, +by means of a bamboo tube, the water was allowed to run on to the centre +of the copper pot, from where it collected in the clay saucer, and ran +off by a small hole and bamboo tube for use again.</p> + +<p> +“In about three hours’ time from lighting the fire, they draw off fully +fifteen bottles of spirits.”</p> + +<p> +Comparing this simple form of apparatus with those described by Geber, +we must admit that there is no doubt of the earlier date of this simple +apparatus; and, as we have seen, distilled spirit is expressly mentioned +in the Institutes of <ins class = "correction" title = +"so in original: ‘Manu’">Menu</ins>, we are bound to admit that +distillation was in use long ere the Arabian times and that of +Dioscorides.</p> + +<p> +Many such examples might be examined, but I will take one for +illustration—that of the manufacture of common salt.</p> + +<p> +Let us take this manufacture as a typical one.</p> + +<p> +We find in Jackson’s Antiquities and Chronology of the Chinese that, +2500 <span class = "smallroman">B.C.</span>, Shin-nong invented the +method of obtaining salt from sea-water. He also gets credit for having +composed books on medicine.</p> + +<p> +In George Agricola’s De Re Metallica (1561) there is a curious set of +woodcuts representing the manufacture of salt, and in the first, in +which the whole process of evaporating sea-water by the sun’s rays is +shown most completely from the raising of the sluices to allow the water +to flow into the various evaporating ponds, to the packing of the +finished salt in barrels—it is a curious fact that the trees which +are introduced are <i>palms</i>, and the figure in the distance is +dressed in <i>Oriental costume</i>, while even the ship seems to partake +of this character.</p> + +<p> +A more advanced state of things is shown in the third drawing of the +12th book, where a pan is shown, made of iron plates riveted together so +as to form a flat sheet, which forms the bottom of the pan, of which the +sides are composed of thick wood, strengthened with plates of iron at +the corners.</p> + +<p> +The bottom of the pan has a series of iron eyes or loops, and these, +when it is fixed over its furnace, are attached to iron rods, which are +hung from a network of wooden bars, so that the whole bottom of the pan +is supported securely at a considerable number of points.</p> + +<p> +The furnace is very simple, being simply a wall surrounding an oblong +space, a little smaller than the pan, so that the sides of the +<span class = "pagenum">30</span> +latter may rest on the walls all round, except for a small space in +front where the fuel is introduced, which apparently burns on the ground +alone.</p> + +<p> +The method of manufacturing salt in Japan is almost identical with that +figured in Agricola. There is the same arrangement of salt garden or +series of ponds and ditches, and the dirty salts mixed with sand are +again lixiviated, and the filtered liquid is boiled down in curiously +formed pans or boilers.</p> + +<p> +Of these there are two chief forms, the first being a tank or pan formed +of large pieces of slate, with the joints made with clay, and surrounded +with a mud wall. The whole is covered with an arch or vault and is +filled with the brine, which is then evaporated by surface heat, the +fire being placed at one end and the flue at the other.</p> + +<p> +The other form is very curious and interesting, and is almost identical +in its principle of construction with the pan I have referred to as +figured in Agricola, only in this case the materials are very different, +being, instead of wood and iron, nothing more than clay or mud.</p> + +<p> +It was described officially by the Japanese, in their publications at +the Philadelphia Exhibition in 1876. The Japanese description of this +apparatus is highly interesting. It is as follows:—</p> + +<p> +A low wall is built, enclosing a space of about 13 feet by 9 feet, the +bottom forming a kind of prismatical depression, 3 feet deep in the +centre line. An ashpit, 3 feet deep, is then excavated, starting from +the front wall, and extending about 4 feet into this depression at its +deepest place; it communicates with the outside by a channel sloping +gradually upwards, and passing underneath the front wall. The ashpit is +covered by a clay vault, with holes in its sides, so as to establish a +communication between the ashpit and the hollow space under the pan. +This vault is used as a fire grate, the fuel (brown coal and small wood) +being inserted by the fire-door in the front wall. The air-draught +necessary for burning the fuel enters partly by the fire-door, partly +through the ashpit and the openings left in the vaulted grate. Through +these same openings the ashes and cinders are from time to time pushed +down into the ashpit, for which purpose small openings are left in the +side-wall of the furnace, through which the rakes may be introduced. A +passage in the back wall supporting the pan leads off the products of +combustion and the hot air into a short flue, sloping upwards, and +ending in a short vertical chimney. At the lower +<span class = "pagenum">31</span> +part some iron kettles are placed in the flue for the purpose of heating +the lye before it is ladled into the evaporating pan.</p> + +<p> +With reference to the pan, it is made in a way that requires a great +deal of skill and practice. In the first place, beams reaching from the +one side to the other are laid on the top of the furnace walls, and are +covered with wooden boards, forming a temporary floor. Two or three feet +above this floor a strong horizontal network of poles of wood sustains a +number of straw ropes, with iron hooks hanging down, and of such a +length that the hooks nearly touch the wooden floor. The floor is +thereupon covered with a mixture of clay and small stones, 4 to 5 inches +thick, the workman being careful to incrustate the iron hooks into this +material. It is allowed to dry gradually, and when considered +sufficiently hardened, the wooden beams and flooring are removed with +the necessary precautions. The bottom of the pan remains suspended by +means of the ropes. The open spaces left all round between the bottom +and the top of the furnace walls are then filled up, and the border of +the pan, 9 inches to 10 inches high, is made of a similar mixture. It is +said that this extraordinary construction lasts from 40 to 50 days when +well made, and that it can be filled 16 times in 24 hours, with an +average of 500 litres of concentrated lye at each filling; but the +quantity depends upon the weather, and is less in winter than in summer. +During the cold season one pan yields 140 litres (of salt) each time it +is filled, and in the hot season from 190 to 210 litres. The average +consumpt of fuel is said to be 1500 kilos. in 24 hours.</p> + +<p> +In Persia, near Ballakhan, salt is still made, and has been made from +time immemorial, in a very primitive way, which is described by Bellen, +in his description of his journey in 1872 from the Indus to the Tigris, +as follows:—</p> + +<p> +“For several miles our road led over a succession of salt pits and +ovens, and lying about we found several samples of the alimentary salt +prepared here from the soil. It was in fine white granules massed +together in the form of the earthen vessel in which the salt had been +evaporated. The process of collecting the salt is very rough and simple. +A conical pit or basin, 7 or 8 feet deep and about 12 feet in diameter +is dug, and around it are excavated a succession of smaller pits, each +about 2 feet diameter by 1½ feet deep. On one side of the large pit is a +deep excavation, to which the descent from the pit is by a sloping bank. +In this excavation is a domed oven with a couple of fireplaces. At a +little distance +<span class = "pagenum">32</span> +off are the piles of earth scraped from the surface and ready for +treatment. And, lastly, circling round each pit is a small water-cut led +off from a larger stream running along the line of pits.</p> + +<p> +“Such is the machinery. The process is simply this:—A shovelful of +earth is taken from the heap and washed in the basins (a shovelful to +each) circling the pit.</p> + +<p> +“The liquor from these is, whilst yet turbid, run into the great central +pit, by breaking away a channel for it with the fingers. The channel is +then closed with a dab of clay, and a fresh lot of earth washed, and the +liquor run off as before; and so on till the pit is nearly full of +brine. This is allowed to stand till the liquor clears. It is then +ladled out into earthen jars, set on the fire and boiled to evaporation +successively, till the jar is filled with a cake of granular salt. The +jars are then broken, and the mass of salt (which retains its shape) is +ready for conveyance to market.</p> + +<p> +“Large quantities of this salt are used by the nomad population, and a +good deal is taken to Kandahar. The quantity turned out here must +annually be very great. The salt pits extend over at least ten miles of +the country we traversed, and we certainly saw some thousands of +pits.”</p> + +<br> + +<p> +From what I have laid before you, it will be seen that I am strongly of +opinion that we must go far beyond the time of Geber or the Arabian +school for the origin of our science. The study of the question of its +antiquity leads up to such remote times that there is little probability +of any date being assigned to its beginning, and to some it may appear +but a waste of time to indulge in researches upon the subject; but it +has a fascination peculiar to itself, and, in addition, brings before +our minds so many phases in the philosophical thought of the world, that +it will no doubt long continue to exercise the minds and attract the +attention of chemists.</p> + +<p> +In the course of my own study of the subject, I have felt much +dissatisfied with the derivation of the name chemistry or alchemy, as it +is given in all works to which I have had access. It is said to be +derived from a word meaning dark, hidden, black, and from the ancient +name for Egypt, but to my own mind this is an unsatisfactory +explanation, and seeking for another more consonant with the character +of the science, I think I have found it in quite a different +direction.</p> + +<p> +<span class = "pagenum">33</span> +It is well known that in the old Hindoo philosophy there were recognized +five elementary bodies or rather types. These were Water, Fire, Ether, +Earth, and Air, and the system of <ins class = "correction" title = +"so in original: ‘Manu’">Menu</ins>, of which the antiquity is enormous, +recognizes as the greatest conception of the universe—</p> + +<div class = "inset"> +1st, God.<br> +2nd, Mind.<br> +3rd, Consciousness.<br> +4th, Matras.<br> +5th, Elements. +</div> + +<p> +(matras being the invisible types of the visible atoms which compose the +five elements previously named—viz., Water, Fire, Ether, Earth, +and Air).</p> + +<p> +Now, these elements, with the sun and moon, composed the attributes of +the dual deity Iswara and Isi, representing the male and female natural +powers, and, applying this to the famous Pythagorean triangle, we find +that the upright symbol or male, which was the number or power 3, when +combined with the female prostrate symbol, which was the number or power +4, gives a product in the Hypotenuse of 5, which is the number of the +typical elements of the oldest known Hindoo philosophy. It is also the +product of the first male and female numbers, and was anciently called +the number of the world—repeated anyhow by an odd multiple it +always reappears.</p> + +<p> +If now we consider chemistry as that science which has to deal with the +changes and combinations of the five elements, and if we call +it—</p> + +<p> +<i>The science of the five parts or elements</i>, should we not, when we +find that the Arabic word for five is <i>khams</i>, rather refer the +name of our science to this word khams, and read it as</p> + +<div class = "inset"> +<i>Al-Khams</i>,<br> +The five-part science? +</div> + +<p> +I am inclined, however, to go yet a step further, and remembering that +the <i>fifth</i> element or Ether of the most ancient Hindoo philosophy, +was in reality an expression for active force, or, that emanating from +the central sun caused the natural phenomena of attraction and +repulsion, the emission and refraction of light, and +<span class = "pagenum">34</span> +other sensible changes of condition, would read the compound word</p> + +<div class = "inset"> +<i>Al-Khamis</i><br> +(The fifth), +</div> + +<p> +as the grand and simple title of our ancient science, meaning</p> + +<div class = "inset"> +<i>The force</i>— +</div> + +<p> +that which causes the changes in the elementary types and their +combinations—than which no more descriptive title could be +assigned to it, even in the present enlightened age.</p> + +<hr> + +<h4>Footnotes and Images</h4> + +<div class = "footnote"> +<a name = "note1" href = "#tag1">1.</a> +As to communication, the case of Saggid Mahmud (given in Bellew’s +<i>Indus to the Tigris</i>), who, merely to pray for the recovery of his +sick son, travelled with him from Ghazni by way of Kandahur and +Shikarpur to Bombay, thence by way of sea to Baghdad, from there to +Karbola, and back to Baghdad; and then by Kirmanshah and Kum to Teheran, +on his way home to Ghazni, gives an indication of the long journeys +taken under the most frightful difficulties. This long journey had +occupied six months only, and we read that in former times twelve years +were sometimes taken in trading journeys.</div> + +<div class = "footnote mine"> +<a name = "note2" href = "#tag2">2.</a> +Transcriber’s Footnote:<br> +This symbol should look like an inverted “female” or “Venus”— +a cross above a circle— but some fonts represent it as a cross +<i>within</i> a circle.</div> +<br> +<div class = "mynote"> +The complete set of symbols should appear as follows:</div> + +<table align = "center"> +<tr> +<td class = "symbol"> +<img src = "images/symbol1.gif" alt = "cross"></td> +<td>(cross)</td> +<td class = "symbol"> +<img src = "images/symbol6.gif" alt = "male sign"></td> +<td>“male sign,” Mars</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class = "symbol"> +<img src = "images/symbol2.gif" alt = "Sun symbol"></td> +<td>“sun”</td> +<td class = "symbol"> +<img src = "images/symbol7.gif" alt = "Jupiter symbol"></td> +<td>“Jupiter”</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class = "symbol"> +<img src = "images/symbol3.gif" alt = "left-facing quarter moon"></td> +<td>“first quarter moon”</td> +<td class = "symbol"> +<img src = "images/symbol8.gif" alt = "Saturn symbol"></td> +<td>“Saturn”</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class = "symbol"> +<img src = "images/symbol4.gif" alt = "Mercury symbol"></td> +<td>“Mercury”</td> +<td class = "symbol"> +<img src = "images/symbol9.gif" alt = "Earth"></td> +<td>“Earth”</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class = "symbol"> +<img src = "images/symbol5.gif" alt = "female sign"></td> +<td>“female sign,” Venus</td> +<td></td><td></td> +</tr> +</table> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Antiquity of the Chemical Art, by +James Mactear + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANTIQUITY OF THE CHEMICAL ART *** + +***** This file should be named 17753-h.htm or 17753-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/7/5/17753/ + +Produced by Louise Hope, R. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: On the Antiquity of the Chemical Art + +Author: James Mactear + +Release Date: February 11, 2006 [EBook #17753] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANTIQUITY OF THE CHEMICAL ART *** + + + + +Produced by Louise Hope, R. Cedron and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Transcriber's Note: +Typographical errors are listed at the end of the file. Misspelled Greek +names were treated as errors; others are noted but not changed.] + + * * * * * + +President's Opening Address to Chemical Section. + + ON THE ANTIQUITY + OF + THE CHEMICAL ART. + + By JAMES MACTEAR, F.C.S., F.C.I. + + + + +THE PRESIDENT'S OPENING ADDRESS TO THE CHEMICAL SECTION. + +_On the Antiquity of the Chemical Art._ By JAMES MACTEAR, + F.C.S., F.C.I., Member of the International Jury, + Paris, 1878, and Medalist of the Society of Arts. + + [Read before the Section, December 8th, 1879.] + + +The study of the History of Chemistry as an art, or as a science, is one +which possesses peculiar fascination for its votaries. It has been the +subject of deep research and much discussion, much has been written upon +the subject, and many theories have been broached to account for its +origin. We have had laid before us by Professor Ferguson, in his papers +on this subject of Chemical History, very clearly and fully the +generally-accepted position as regards the origin of the science, and in +the last of these papers, entitled "Eleven Centuries of Chemistry," he +deals with the subject in a most complete manner, tracing back through +its various mutations the development of the science to the time of +Geber, in or about the year A.D. 778. + +Of Geber, as a chemist, Professor Ferguson writes, "He was the +first--because, although he himself speaks of the ancients, meaning +thereby his forerunners, nothing is known of these older chemists." + +Rodwell, in his "Birth of Chemistry," after a careful examination of the +question, comes to the conclusion that, "in spite of all that has been +written on the subject, there is no good evidence to prove that alchemy +and chemistry did not originate in Arabia not long prior to the eighth +century, A.D.," bringing us again to the times of Geber. + +He is not alone in this opinion, and it seems to be generally accepted +that chemistry originated in the Arabian schools about this period. + +In dealing with the question of the antiquity of chemical art, it has +been too much the habit to look at the question with a view of +discovering when and who it was that first brought forth, fully clothed +as a science, the art of chemistry. + +Let us look at the definition of the science given by Boerhaeve, about +1732. He describes chemistry as "an art which teaches the manner of +performing certain physical operations, whereby bodies cognizable to the +senses, or capable of being rendered cognizable, and of being contained +in vessels, are so changed by means of proper instruments as to produce +certain determinate effects, and at the same time discover the causes +thereof, for the service of the various arts." + +Now, it is amply evident that, long before the various known facts could +be collected and welded into one compact whole as a science, there must +have existed great store of intellectual wealth, as well as mere +hereditary practical knowledge of the various chemical facts. + +I do not think it will be disputed that, until comparatively recent +times, technical knowledge has constantly been in advance of theory, and +that it is not too much to conclude that, no matter where we first find +actual records of our science, its natal day must have long before +dawned. Even in our day, when theoretical science, as applied to +chemistry, has made such immense strides, how often do we find that it +is only now that theory comes in to explain facts, known as such long +previous, and those engaged in practical chemical work know how much +technical knowledge is still unwritten, and what may even be called +traditionary. + +I purpose taking up the subject from this point of view, and attempting, +with what little ability I can, to follow back to a still more remote +period than that of Geber and the Arabian school of philosophers the +traces of what has often been called the divine art. + +An aspect of the question that has often presented itself to me is this, +that the history of what we call our world extends over some 4000 years +before Christ and 1878 years since, so that, according to the usually +accepted idea, if chemistry originated in Arabia in the eighth century, +it was not known during say the first 5000 years of the world's history, +but has advanced to its present high position amongst the sciences in +the last 1000 years. + +I hope to be able to show that, while the Arabian school of philosophy +get the credit of originating most of the sciences, that it is as +undeserved in the case of chemical science as in that of astronomy or +mathematics. At the same time let us not undervalue the services +rendered to science by this school: it is to them we owe the +distribution of the knowledge of most of our sciences, and the Arabic +literature of most of these was widely spread abroad over all the known +world of their time. + +The central portion of Baghdad between the eastern and western portions +of the Old World, and the wise and enlightened policy of its rulers, +which welcomed to its schools, without reference to country or creed, +the wise and learned men of every nation, drew to it as to a centre the +accumulated wisdom and knowledge of both the rising and the setting sun. +Long ere this time, however, we find, as regards the Greeks, that they +constantly travelled eastward in search of learning, while we know that +the expedition of Alexander the Great, about B.C. 327, in which he +traversed a considerable portion of India, had already opened up the +store-houses of Indian lore to the minds of the West. + +In connection with this, the following extract from an old book: called +_The Gunner_, dated 1664, is interesting:-- + +"In the life of Apollonius Tyanaeus, written by Philostratus 1500 years +ago, we find, in reference to the Indians called Oxydra: These truly +wise men dwelled between the rivers Hyphasis and Ganges; their country +Alexander the Great never entered, being deterred, not by fear of the +inhabitants, but, as I suppose, by, religious considerations, for had he +passed the Hyphasis, he might doubtless have made himself master of the +country all round him; but their cities he could never have taken, +though he had led a thousand as brave as Achilles or ten thousand such +as Ajax to the assault. For they come not out into the field to fight +those who attack them; but these holy men, beloved of the gods, +overthrow their enemies with tempests and thunder-bolts shot from their +walls. + +"It is said that Egyptian Hercules and Bacchus (Dionysius), when they +overran India, invaded this people also, and having prepared warlike +engines, attempted to conquer them. They made no show of resistance, but +upon the enemy's near approach to their cities they were repulsed with +storms of lightning and thunder hurled upon them from above." + +May we not here have the original of the Greek fire, that was in its day +so celebrated and so destructive? + +Beginning then at the period of Geber, about 776 A.D., let us try to +work backwards and trace, if we can, the progress of chemical knowledge +down the stream of time. + +While the Western Roman Empire had fallen, the Eastern still held its +sway as far as the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, and continued the +contest with the Persian power for the supremacy in Asia. At this time +the various creeds and beliefs of the Arabian tribes--which had been +much influenced by the settlement amongst them of Jews who had been +dispersed at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, and many of the +sects of Christians who had been driven from the Roman empire by the +more orthodox--were deeply stirred by the new doctrine of Islam, +preached by Mahomet, A.D. 622, proclaiming the Koran as the rule of +life, and the destruction of the ancient Arabian worship of the stars +and sun and moon. + +The religion of "the one God and Mahomet his prophet" took deep root, +and the injunction to pursue the unbelieving with fire and sword was +followed out with such unrelenting vigour that, within less than a +century from the death of Mahomet, the Arabian power had extended its +sway amongst nearly every tribe and nation that had owned the rule of +the Roman or Persian empires, and had reached from Spain to India, from +Samarcand to the Indian Ocean. + +Egypt and Syria were conquered between A.D. 632-39, and Persia about +A.D. 632-51. Their attempts to take Constantinople by siege failed both +in A.D. 673 and 716. But they were more successful on the African shores +of the Mediterranean, which they swept along till they crossed the +Straits of Gibraltar and entered Spain in A.D. 709. Their further +progress--through France--was stayed by their defeat in a great battle +fought at Tour's, when the Gauls, under Charles Martel, forced them to +retire ultimately across the Pyrenees. + +Internal dissension had, however, arisen amongst them, and the ruling +dynasty of the Ommiades was overthrown in A.D. 750 by the Abassides, who +established themselves at Damascus; and with them began that cultivation +of the arts and sciences which has thrown such lustre on the Arabian +school. + +One of the princes of the Ommiades who had escaped made his way to Spain +and there re-established the power of his family, with Cordova as a +centre, about A.D. 755. Thus it was that the Saracenic power was divided +into an Eastern and a Western Caliphate. + +It was under the prosperous rule of the Abassides that such an impulse +was given to learning of every kind, and that the Arabian school of +philosophy, which has left behind it such glorious records of its +greatness, was founded. The Caliph Al-Mansour was the first, so far as +we know, who earnestly encouraged the cultivation of learning; but it +was to Haroun Al-Raschid, A.D. 786-808 (?), that the Arabians owed the +establishment of a college of philosophy. He invited learned men to his +kingdom from all nations, and paid them munificently; he employed them +in translating the most famous books of the Greeks and others, and +spread abroad throughout his dominions numerous copies of those works. + +His second son, Al-Mamoon, while governor of the province of Kohrassan, +we are told, formed a college of learned men from every country, and +appointed as the president John Mesue, of Damascus. It is said that his +father, complaining that so great an honour had been conferred on a +Christian, received the reply--"That Mesue had been chosen, not as a +teacher of religion, but as an able preceptor in useful arts and +sciences; and my father well knows that the most learned men and the +most skilful artists in his dominions are Jews and Christians." + +That this was the case can scarcely be doubted when we consider that the +Jews had always been familiar with many arts and sciences, and that, as +is well known, at the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, when the Jews +were dispersed in every direction, they spread over, not alone the +countries under the Roman rule, but to Greece, Egypt, and the +Mediterranean coast, as well as great part of Asia Minor, carrying with +them, not only their peculiar religious traditions, but also their arts, +which, we know, especially as regards the working of metals, were of no +mean order, and their sciences, of which the so-called magic and +astrology had been assiduously cultivated. + +In Asia the dispersed Jews established patriarchates at Tiberias in the +west, and at Mahalia, and afterwards at Baghdad, for the Jews who were +beyond the Euphrates. + +Seminaries were founded at these centres for the rabbis, and constant +intercourse was kept up between them. It was in these schools that the +Talmud was compiled from the traditionary exposition of the Old +Testament, between A.D. 200 and A.D. 500, when it was completed, and +received as a rule of faith by most of the scattered Jews. + +That the cultivation of science was not neglected we may be sure from +the keen interest taken in all ages by the Jews in magical and +astrological inquiries. We read in Apuleius, in his defence on the +accusation of magic brought against him, that of the "four tutors +appointed to educate the princes of Persia, one had to instruct him +specially in the magic of Zoroaster and Oromazes, which is the worship +of the gods." Apuleius wrote about 200 A.D., and his works teem with +references to magic and astrology. + +The fact that Jews and Christians were looked on as learned men will not +surprise us, when we find that the Jews had established schools so long +anterior to the foundation of the college of Baghdad. The rapid progress +made by the Arabians, and the wise policy of the Abasside Caliphs, under +whose judicious rule learning was so liberally encouraged, aided by the +position of Baghdad, which formed, as it were, a centre to which the +wisdom of both eastern and western minds gravitated, attracted to their +schools all those of every nation who boasted themselves philosophers. + +The first translations from the Greek authors are supposed to have been +made about A.D. 745, and are known to have been on the subjects of +philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine. These translations are +understood to have been made by Christian or Jewish physicians. + +As we have seen, the Jews had already established themselves at Baghdad, +and had founded schools of their own previous to the formation of the +college under Caliph Al-Mansour; but further than this we find the +Christians spread widely over the countries of Asia Minor, and we are +told, on the authority of Cosmo-Indicopleustes, that so early as A.D. +535 there was in almost every large town in _India_ a Christian Church +under the Bishop of Seleucia. + +With these facts before us--1st, that Christian physicians were the +leaders of the Arabian school in the eighth century; 2nd, that large +numbers of Christian churches were actually in existence in India at +least two hundred years previously to the establishment of the college +at Baghdad; and 3rd, that Baghdad was almost, as it wore, the central +point of the great caravan route which from time immemorial had been the +course of communication between the East and West, can we doubt that an +extensive intercourse must have taken place, and should we not expect to +find some traces, if not the effects, of Indian science on the teaching +of the Arabian school.[1] + + [Footnote 1: As to communication, the case of Saggid Mahmud (given + in Bellew's _Indus to the Tigris_), who, merely to pray for the + recovery of his sick son, travelled with him from Ghazni by way of + Kandahur and Shikarpur to Bombay, thence by way of sea to Baghdad, + from there to Karbola, and back to Baghdad; and then by Kirmanshah + and Kum to Teheran, on his way home to Ghazni, gives an indication + of the long journeys taken under the most frightful difficulties. + This long journey had occupied six months only, and we read that + in former times twelve years were sometimes taken in trading + journeys.] + +In Vol. VIII. of the Journal of Education we find a notice that +"Professor Dietz, of the University of Koenigsberg, who had spent five +years of his life in visiting the principal libraries of Germany, Italy, +Switzerland, Spain, France, and England, in search of manuscripts of +Greek, Roman, and Oriental writers on medicine, is now engaged in +publishing his 'Analecta Medica.' + +"The work contains several interesting papers on the subject of physical +science among the Indians and Arabians, and communicates several +introductory notices and illustrations from native Eastern writers. +Dietz proves that the late Greek physicians were acquainted with the +medical works of the Hindus, and availed themselves of their +medicaments; but he more particularly shows that the Arabians were +familiar with them, and extolled the healing art, as practised by the +Indians, quite as much as that in use among the Greeks. + +"It appears from Ibn Osaibe's testimony (from whose biographical work +Dietz has given a long abstract on the lives of Indian physicians), that +a variety of treatises on medical science were translated from the +Sanscrit into Persian and Arabic, particularly the more important +compilations of Charaka and Susruta, which are still held in estimation +in India; and that Manka and Saleh--the former of whom translated a +special treatise on poisons into Persian--even held appointments as +body-physicians at the Court of Harun-al-Raschid." + +As the age of the medical works of Charaka and Susruta is incontestably +much more ancient than that of any other work on the subject (except the +Ayur Veda)--as we shall see when we come to consider the science of the +Hindoos--this in itself would be sufficient to show that the Arabians +were certainly not the originators of either medical or chemical +science. + +We should not forget that it is only to their own works and their +translations, chiefly by the Greeks, we owe our knowledge of the state +of Arabian science, and that it is only in rare cases that we have given +a list of works consulted, so that we can gather the sources from which +their knowledge was derived. It would scarcely be imagined, from reading +the works of Roger Bacon, or of Newton, that they had derived some, at +least, of their knowledge from Arabian sources; and yet such is known to +have been the case with them both. + +Let us now glance backwards from the Arabians to the Greeks. + +It is supposed that the first translations from the Greek authors were +made for the Caliphs about 745 A.D., and were first translated into +Syriac, and then into Arabic. The works of Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy, +Hippocrates, Galen, and Dioscorides are known to have been translated +under the reign of Al-Mansour. + +Granting for the moment that the first knowledge of the sciences was +obtained by the Arabians from the Greeks, we are at once face to face +with the question. From whence did the Greeks obtain their knowledge? To +any careful reader it will be clear that Grecian science and philosophy, +like Grecian theology, was not of native birth. It is comparatively well +known that the Greeks were indebted to the Egyptians for much of their +theology as well as science. The great truths which really underlay the +mysterious religious rites of Egypt seem to have been altogether lost +when the Greeks wove their complicated system of theology; and we read +that the Egyptian priests looked on the Greeks as children who failed to +understand the great mysteries involved in their religious rites, +disguised as they were in symbolic form. But, besides their indebtedness +to Egypt, we will find that they also owed much to Persia, and through +it again to Indian sources of knowledge. + +There was constant communication between the Grecian and Persian +nations. We learn that it was not uncommon for Grecian generals to take +service under the Persian Satraps, tempted by the liberal recompence +with which their services were rewarded. About the year 356 B.C. this +system of Greeks accepting service under Persian Satraps nearly caused +the outbreak of war between Greece and Persia--Chares, a Grecian +commander, having assisted with his fleet and men, Artabanus, the Satrap +of Propontis, who was then in revolt against the Persian king. But +before this, during the great plague which desolated Athens in 430 B.C., +and which also extended to Persia, Hippocrates was invited to go to the +Persian Court; and it is on record that Ctesias was for seventeen years +physician at the Persian Court about 400 B.C., during which period he +wrote his history of Persia, and an account of India, which Professor +Wilson, in a paper read to the Ashmolean Society of Oxford, has shown to +contain notices of the natural productions of the country, "which, +although often extravagant and absurd, are, nevertheless, founded on +truth." + +There were, too, Grecian soldiers employed as paid auxiliaries, and a +colony of Greeks who had been taken prisoners of war was founded within +a day's journey of Susa. + +The great expedition to Persia, and the graphic description of the +retreat of the "ten thousand" Greeks, given by Xenophon in his Anabasis, +must have been well known to Alexander the Great when he set out on his +career of conquest. He overthrew the Persian empire in 331 B.C., having +destroyed Tyre and subdued Egypt in the previous year and carried his +triumphant progress to the banks of the Indus, and there he "held +intercourse with the learned sages of India." On Alexander's death +Seleucus succeeded to the throne of Persia in 307 B.C., and not long +after he forced his way beyond the Indus, and ultimately as far as the +sacred river Ganges. He formed an alliance with the Indian king +Sandrocottus (otherwise known as Chandra-gupta), which was maintained +for many years, and it is said, also, that he gave his daughter in +marriage to the Indian king, and aided him with Grecian auxiliaries in +his wars. + +He sent an expedition by sea, under the command of Patrocles his +admiral, who visited the western shores of India, and a little later he +despatched an embassy under Megasthenes and Onesicrates, the former of +whom resided for some years at the "great city" of Palibothra (supposed +to be Patna). + +Not long after Megasthenes was at Palibothra, Ptolemy Philadelphus sent +an expedition overland through Persia to India, and later Ptolemy +Euergetes, who lived between 145-116 B.C., sent a fleet under Eudoxius +on a voyage of discovery to the western shores of India, piloted, as is +said, by an Indian sailor who had been shipwrecked, and who had been +found in a boat on the Red Sea. Eudoxius reached India safely, and +returned to Egypt with a cargo of spices and precious stones. + +The proof of very ancient communication between Greece and India is +quite clear, both by way of Persia and Egypt, and we find that the +Greeks, who were in the habit of calling all other nations barbarians, +speak constantly with respect of the gymnosophists--called "Sapientes +Indi" by Pliny. We read also of the Greek philosophers constantly +travelling eastward in search of knowledge, and on their return setting +up new schools of thought. Thales, it is affirmed, travelled in Egypt +and Asia during the sixth century B.C., and it is said of him that he +returned to Miletus, and transported that vast stock of learning which +he had acquired into his own country. + +He is generally considered as the first of the Greek philosophers. +Strabo says of him that he was the first of the Grecian philosophers who +made inquiry into natural causes and the mathematics. + +The doctrine of Thales, that water was the first elementary principle, +is exactly that of the ancient Hindoos, who held that water was the +first element, and the first work of the creative power. This idea was +not completely exploded even up till the 18th century. We find Van +Helmont affirming that all metals, and even rocks, may be resolved into +water; and Lavoisier, so lately as 1770, thought it worth while to +communicate an elaborate paper "On the nature of water and the +experiments by which it has been attempted to prove the possibility of +converting it into earth." + +Pythagoras, perhaps the greatest of all Greek philosophers, it is known, +travelled very widely, spending no less than twenty-two years in Egypt. +He also spent some considerable time at Babylon, and was taught the lore +of the Magi. + +In the famous satire of Lucian on the philosophic quackery of his day +(about 120 A.D.), "The Sale of the Philosophers," we have a most +interesting account of the system of Pythagoras. + +_Scene--A Slave Mart. _Jupiter_, _Mercury_, _philosophers_, in the garb +of slaves, for sale. Audience of buyers._ + +_Jupiter._--Now, you arrange the benches, and get the place ready for +the company. You bring out the goods and set them in a row; but trim +them up a little first, and make them look their best, to attract as +many customers as possible. You, Mercury, must put up the lots, and bid +all comers welcome to the sale. Gentlemen,--We are here going to offer +you philosophical systems of all kinds, and of the most varied and +ingenious description. If any gentleman happens to be short of ready +money he can give his security for the amount, and pay next year. + +_Mercury (to Jupiter)._--There are a great many come; so we had best +begin at once, and not keep them waiting. + +_Jupiter._--Begin the sale, then. + +_Mercury._--Whom shall we put up first? + +_Jupiter._--This fellow with the long hair--the Ionian. He's rather an +imposing personage. + +_Mercury._--You, Pythagoras, step out, and show yourself to the company. + +_Jupiter._--Put him up. + +_Mercury._--Gentlemen, we here offer you a professor of the very best +and most select description. Who buys? Who wants to be a cut above the +rest of the world? Who wants to understand the harmonies of the universe +and to live two lives? + +_Customer (turning the philosopher round and examining him)._--He's not +bad to look at. What does he know best? + +_Mercury._--Arithmetic, astronomy, prognostics, geometry, music, and +conjuring. You've a first-rate soothsayer before you. + +_Customer._--May one ask him a few questions? + +_Mercury._--Certainly--(_aside_), and much good may the answers do you. + +_Customer._--What country do you come from? + +_Pythagoras._--Samos. + +_Customer._--Where were you educated? + +_Pythagoras._--In Egypt, among the wise men there. + +_Customer._--Suppose I buy you, now, what will you teach me? + +_Pythagoras._--I will teach you nothing--only recall things to your +memory. + +_Customer._--How will you do that? + +_Pythagoras._--First, I will clean out your mind, and wash out all the +rubbish. + +_Customer._--Well, suppose that done, how do you proceed to refresh the +memory? + +_Pythagoras._--First, by long repose and silence, speaking no word for +five whole years. + +_Customer._--Why, look ye, my good fellow, you'd best go teach the dumb +son of Croesus! I want to talk and not be a dummy. Well--but after this +silence, and these five years? + +_Pythagoras._--You shall learn music and geometry. + +_Customer._--A queer idea, that one must be a fiddler before one can be +a wise man! + +_Pythagoras._--Then you shall learn the science of numbers. + +_Customer._--Thank you, but I know how to count already. + +_Pythagoras._--How do you count? + +_Customer._--One, two, three, four---- + +_Pythagoras._--Ha! what you call four is ten, and the perfect triangle, +and the great oath by which we swear. + +_Customer._--Now, so help me, the great ten and four, I never heard more +divine or more wonderful words! + +_Pythagoras._--And afterwards, stranger, you shall learn about Earth, +and Air, and Water, and Fire--what is their action, and what their form, +and what their motion. + +_Customer._--What! have Fire, Air, or Water bodily shape? + +_Pythagoras._--Surely they have; else, without form and shape, how could +they move! Besides, you shall learn that the Deity consists in Number, +Mind, and Harmony. + +_Customer._--What you say is really wonderful. + +_Pythagoras._--Besides what I have just told you, you shall understand +that you yourself, who seem to be one individual, are really somebody +else. + +_Customer._--What! do you mean to say I'm somebody else, and not myself, +now talking to you? + +_Pythagoras._--Just at this moment you are; but once upon a time you +appeared in another body, and under another name; and hereafter you will +pass again into another shape still. + +(After a little more discussion of this philosopher's tenets, he is +purchased on behalf of a company of professors from Magna Graeca for ten +minae. The next lot is Diogenes, the Cynic.) + +Apuleius says in the Florida, Section XV., in reference to Pythagoras, +that he went to Egypt to acquire learning, "that he was there taught by +the priests the incredible power of ceremonies, the wonderful +commutations of numbers, and the most ingenious figures of geometry; but +that, not satisfied with these mental accomplishments, he afterwards +visited the Chaldaeans and the Brahmins, and amongst the latter the +Gymnosophists. The Chaldaeans taught him the stars, the definite orbits +of the planets, and the various effects of both kinds of stars upon the +nativity of men, as also, for much money, _the remedies for human use +derived from the earth, the air, and the sea_ (the elements earth, air, +and water, or all nature). + +"But the Brahmins taught him the greater part of his philosophy--what +are the rules and principles of the understanding; what the functions of +the body; how many the faculties of the soul; how many the mutations of +life; what torments or rewards devolve upon the souls of the dead, +according to their respective deserts." + +There is ample evidence, therefore, that the Greeks had communication +with, and borrowed the philosophy of, both Persia and India at a very +early date. + +That there was intimate intercourse with India in very ancient times +there can be no doubt. In addition to the classical sources of +information collected chiefly by the officers of Alexander the Great, +Seleucus and the Ptolemies, and which was condensed and reduced to +consistent shape by Diodorus, Strabo, Pliny, and Arrian, within the +first century before and the first century after Christ, we have the +further proof of the fact by the constant finds of innumerable Greek +coins over a large portion of north-western India, and even at Cabul. +These, so far as yet known, commence with the third of the Seleucidae, +and run on for many centuries, the inscriptions showing that the Greek +characters were used in the provinces of Cabul and the Punjab even so +late as the fourth century A.D. The consideration of these coins of the +Graeco-Persian empire of the Seleucidae naturally leads us to the +consideration of the Persians. + +I have already shown that the Greeks and Persians held intimate +relations with each other as early as the fourth century B.C., and from +the speech of Demosthenes against a proposed war with Persia, delivered +in 354 B.C, we may well believe that they had already had a long and +intimate connection with each other. The passage rends thus:- + +"All Greeks know that, so long as they regarded Persia as their common +enemy, they were at peace with each other, and enjoyed much prosperity, +but since they have looked upon the King (of Persia) as a friend, and +quarrelled about disputes with each other, they have suffered worse +calamities than any one could possibly imprecate upon them." + +The Persian empire was founded by Cyrus, about B.C. 560, and rapidly +rose to be perhaps the greatest power of the world of that age. The rise +of the Persian empire is not unlike that of the Arabian power in regard +to the wide range of conquest achieved in a very limited period. Its +actual existence, from the foundation of the empire by Cyrus in B.C. 560 +to the death of Darius III., was barely two centuries and a half. + +Previous to the Persian empire there existed three principal powers in +Asia--the Medes, the Chaldaeans or Babylonish, and the Lydian. Of these +the Medes and Chaldaeans were the most ancient, and their joint power +would seem to have extended eastward as far as the Oxus and Indus. + +Of these nations the Babylonians were the most highly civilized, and, +did time permit, we might find much that would interest and instruct in +examining the various facts relating to the arts and sciences amongst +these nations. We know that arts and sciences must have been diligently +cultivated amongst them, and that magic and astrology were held in high +repute. + +That the Persians were well acquainted with other nations is shown +clearly from the remains of their great city of Persepolis, where the +sculptured figures represent many types of mankind--the negro, with +thick lips and flat nose, and with his crisp, wooly hair, clearly cut; +and the half-naked Indian, with his distinguishing features, being +easily singled out from many others. + +Persia held sway over a huge district of India--the limits of this are +not known; but, in addition, they were well acquainted with a large +portion of the north-western part of India. + +The traditions and historical records of the Persians are contained in +the famous series of writings culled the Zend-avesta. These writings +are, it is thought, of an age even before the Persian dynasty was +established; and it has been shown by the researches of M. Anguetil and +Sir W. Jones that there is indeed a great probability of the Zend having +been a dialect of the ancient Sanscrit language. In the vocabulary +attached to M. Anguetil's great work on the Zend-avesta no less than 60 +to 70 per cent. of the words are said to be pure Sanscrit. + +As the oldest known language of Persia was Chaldaeic, we are again thrown +back on Indian sources for the origin of the great book of the ancient +Persians. Even the name of the priests of the Persian religion of +Zoroaster, Mag or Magi, is of Sanscrit derivation. + +The Persians kept up an enormous army, which was spread through all the +various provinces and Satrapies, and consisted in great part of paid +auxiliaries. In at least the later period of Persian power the Greeks +were preferred to all others, and in the time of Cyrus the Younger they +composed the flower of the Persian army, and were employed in +garrisoning most of the chief cities of Asia Minor. + +The description given by Herodotus of the vast army and fleet prepared +for the expedition of Xerxes against the Greeks gives us an idea of the +extent of the Persian power, and of the wide range of countries and +nations over which they held sway. The review held on the Plain of +Doriscus was perhaps the greatest military spectacle ever beheld either +before or since. Herodotus enumerates no less than 56 different nations, +all of them in their national dress and arms. Besides the Persians there +were "Medes and Bactrians; Libyans in war chariots with four horses; +Arabs on camels; Sagartians, wild huntsmen who employed, instead of the +usual weapons of the time, the lasso; the nomadic tribes of Bucharia and +Mongolia; Ethiopians in lions' skins, and Indians in cotton robes; +Phoenician sailors, and Greeks from Asia Minor." All these and many +others were there assembled by the despotic power of the Persian king. + +The system of government employed by the Persians, and the constant +reports and tributes sent from every province to the central court of +the king, were well calculated to bring to it, as to a focus, the +curious lore of the various nations who came in contact with or were +subdued by them. + +The Persians were famed for their knowledge of astronomy and astrology, +and were said "to have anciently known the most wonderful powers of +nature, and to have therefore acquired great fame as magicians and +enchanters." + +The close relation between the Persian religious traditions and those of +the Hindoos is very striking. According to Mohsan, "The best informed +Persians, who professed the faith of Hu-shang as distinguished from that +of Zeratusht, believes that the first monarch of Iran, and, indeed, of +the whole world, was Mahabad (a word apparently Sanscrit), who divided +the people into four orders,--the religious, the military, the +commercial, and the servile, to which he assigned names unquestionably +the same as those now applied to the four primary classes of the +Hindoos." + +They added, "that he received from the Creator and promulgated amongst +men a _sacred book in a heavenly language_, to which the Musselman +author gives the _Arabic_ title of _Desatir_, or Regulations, but the +original name of which he has not mentioned; and that _fourteen +Mahabads_ had appeared, or would appear, in human shapes for the +government of this world." + +"Now when we know that the Hindoos believe in _fourteen Menus_, or +celestial persons with similar functions, the _first_ of whom left a +book of _regulations_, or divine ordinances, which they hold equal to +the _Veda_, and the language of which they believe to be that of the +gods, we can hardly doubt that the first corruption of the purest and +oldest religion was the system of _Indian_ theology invented by the +_Brahmins_ and prevalent in those territories where the book of Mahabad, +or Menu, is at this moment the standard of all religious and moral +duties." + +Having established, then, the long and intimate nature of the Persian +intercourse with India, let us see how it bears on our more immediate +subject. + +The works on medicine which are known to exist, and to have been written +in Persian, are not very many in number, but they cover a period of time +of nearly 400 years. The oldest of them is of the year 1392 A.D., and in +it and its successors there are long lists of Arabian authors whose +works had been consulted, and also various Indian works. + +Greek physicians were in great request at the Persian court, and when +the daughter of the Emperor Aurelian was sent in marriage to the Persian +monarch, Sapor II., she had a number of Greek physicians in her train. +This king founded a new city called Jondisabour in honour of his Queen, +and owing to the settlement here of a number of Greek physicians, who +had, on account of religious differences, retired into Persia, this city +became celebrated as a medical school. Dr. Friend gives the names of +these as "Damascius the Syrian, Simplicius of Cilicia, Diogenes of +Phaenicea, Isidorus of Gaza, and others, the most learned and greatest +philosophers of the age." It is thought by some authors that many of the +Arabian writers who belonged to the college of Baghdad were educated at +Jondisabour. + +The district of Jondisabour is even yet one of the most nourishing in +Persia, and contains mines which still yield turquoise, salt, lead, +copper, antimony, iron, and marble. + +During the reign of the Persian king Nooshirwan, his physician Barzoueh +made various journeys into India, one of which was specially for the +purpose of obtaining copies of Indian literature, and another to obtain +medicaments and herbs. + +How to account for the strange fact that all schools of medicine which +have risen, flourished, and disappeared, have left some trace in +historical records, with the exception of that of India, is most +difficult, unless under the hypothesis that the language in which the +science and philosophy of India was recorded has been almost a sealed +book to the world, and is even now quite unintelligible to the people of +India itself, generally speaking, and that thus the only way in which +the results of the long ages of philosophic study, which unquestionably +have had a place in India, have only been known by this dark reflection +from the writings of Greek and Arabic writers, which were scattered +broadcast over the ancient world. The Greeks, we know, borrowed their +science largely from the Egyptians, both in respect to theology and +philosophy; and we might, with much profit, pursue the examination of +our subject amongst the records of that highly civilized amongst the +ancient nations. + +Many authors have attempted to show that there is a wonderful +resemblance between the Egyptians and the Hindoos, the sculptures on the +monuments of the former are most wonderfully like those of India, and +the features, dress, and arms are all as like as may be. + +Both nations had the various arts of weaving, dyeing, embroidering, +working in metals, and the manufacture of glass, and practised them with +but little difference in their methods. The fine muslins of India find +their counterparts as "woven wind" in the transparent tissues figured on +the Egyptian temples. The style of building, the sciences of astronomy, +music, and medicine were assiduously cultivated by both nations, and +there was direct intercourse between them, perhaps even before +historical time begins. + +Rameses the Great (III.), called also Sesostris, fitted out not only war +ships but merchant vessels for the purpose of trading with India, in +B.C. 1235, and Wilkinson in his book on the Ancient Egyptians, tells us +that in 2000 B.C. there were no less than 400 ships trading to the +Persian Gulf. There is, after all, nothing surprising in this when we +remember the fact, which is, however, not generally known, I am afraid, +that under the reign of Pharoah Necho, a fleet of his ships safely +circumnavigated Africa, from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, this +being in advance of the celebrated voyage of Diaz and Vasco da Gama by +no less than 2100 years. + +No less than seven centuries before Thales went to study in Egypt, +astronomical calculations were inscribed on the monuments at Thebes, so +that we can see how modern by comparison the Greek philosophy appears. + +In a note Wilkinson says that "The science of Medicine was one of the +earliest cultivated in Egypt. Athothes, the successor of Menes of the +first dynasty, is said to have written on the subject, and five papyri +on the subject have survived. + +"They are of the period of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties. + +"One known as the Papyrus Ebers, from its discoverer, is attributed to +the age of Kherpheres or Bikheres. + +"The second, that of Berlin, found in the reign of Usaphais of the first +dynasty, was completed by Senet or Sethenes of the second line. + +"The third, that of the British Museum, contains a receipt said to have +been mysteriously discovered in the reign of Cheops of the fourth +dynasty. + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + +"The curatives employed were ointments, drinks, plasters, fumigations +and clysters, and the drugs employed were taken from vegetables, +minerals, and animals. + +"Those for each draught were mixed together, pounded, boiled, and +strained through linen. + +"The doctors belonged to the sacred class, and were only permitted to +practice their own particular branch. + +"These were oculists, dentists, those who confined their practice to +diseases of the head, and those again who only attended to internal +diseases; they were paid from the public treasury, and were compelled, +before being permitted to practice, to study the precepts laid down by +their predecessors." + +Homer, in the Odyssey, describes Egypt "as a country whose fertile soil +produces an infinity of drugs, some salutary and some pernicious, where +each physician possesses knowledge above all other men." + +The mixing of various drugs and minerals must have produced effects +which could not be lost on such observant men as the doctors must, from +their training, have been, and it would be absurd to suppose that some, +at least, of the simpler chemical decompositions and combinations were +not known to them. + +The manufacture of glass would seem to have been very ancient amongst +the Egyptians, and the insufficiency of the old fable, of its discovery +by the fusing of blocks of stone in the fire is quite clear; besides, +Egyptian glass has been found which contains potash, and nothing is more +probable than that the nitrate of potash, found so plentifully in the +soil of India, was imported for this manufacture. + +Precious stones or amulets with Sanscrit inscriptions have repeatedly +been found in tombs, which must date back to at least B.C. 1400. + +In tracing back the history of Chemistry, we constantly find reference +to Hermes, Trismegistus, who would seem to be the god Thoth, or Taaut of +the Egyptians. The famous inscription of the Emerald table ascribes to +him the possession of three parts of the philosophy of the whole world. +I have been much struck with the resemblance of this god Taaut with the +Menu of the Hindoos, who also was credited with saving from destruction +by the flood the three Vedas, which were supposed to contain all that +was required for man's direction here below. + +There would appear to have been also other Hermes, but if we look at the +condition of things which obtained in Egypt when the Pyramids of Memphis +are supposed to have been erected, within 300 years of the supposed date +of the deluge, and that the Beni Hassan tombs, about 300 years later, +depict the manners and customs of what we cannot help admitting, was a +highly civilized nation, we must be struck with the fact that the +distance of time between the deluge and the building of these pyramids +and tombs is so short, that it might be represented by a comparison of +our own date with those of Queen Elizabeth and Henry the Third. + +Jackson in his "Antiquities" tells us that, Sanchoniatho states that the +most ancient Phoenician records show that letters were invented soon +after the dispersion of mankind, by Tsaut, the son of Mizor or Misraim, +who was the first Egyptian Hermes or Thoth. He went out of Phoenicia, +and first, with a colony of Mizrites, settled and reigned in Egypt, and, +according to Cicero, gave both laws and letters to the Egyptians. + +This Hermes was born in the second generation after the flood, and was +not only the inventor of letters and writing, but he is also said to +have delineated the sacred characters or symbols of the elements and +planets, viz.,--sun, moon, earth, air, fire, water, &c. + +These symbols are without doubt of very ancient origin, and Boerhaeve in +his Theory of Chemistry explains them hieroglyphically as follows:-- + + [Transcriber's Note: + The listed symbols are included in the "images" directory + accompanying the html version of this file.] + +[Symbol: plus] Denotes anything sharp, gnawing, or corrosive; as vinegar +or fire: being supposed to be stuck around with barbed spikes. + +[Symbol: sun] Denotes a perfect immutable simple body, such as gold, +which has nothing acrimonious or heterogeneous adhering to it. + +[Symbol: first quarter moon] Denotes half gold, whose inside, if turned +outward, would make it entire gold, as having nothing foreign or +corrosive in it; which the alchemists observe of silver. + +[Symbol: mercury] Denotes the inside to be pure gold, but the outer part +of the colour of silver and a corrosive underneath, which, if taken +away, would leave it mere gold, and this the adepts affirm of mercury. + +[Symbol: female/venus] Denotes the chief part to be gold; whereto, +however, adheres another large, crude, corrosive part, which, if +removed, would leave the rest possessed with all the properties of gold, +and this the adepts affirm of copper. + +[Symbol: male/mars] Likewise denotes gold at the bottom, but attended +with a great proportion of a sharp corrosive, sometimes amounting to a +half of the whole, whence half the character expresses acrimony; which, +accordingly, both alchemists and physicians observe of iron, and hence +that common opinion of the adepts that the aurum vivum, or gold of the +philosophers, is contained in iron, and that the universal medicine is +rather to be sought in this metal than in gold itself. + +[Symbol: jupiter] Denotes half the matter of tin to be silver, the other +a crude corrosive acid, which is accordingly confirmed by the assayers; +tin proving almost as fixed as silver in the cupel, and discovering a +large quantity of crude sulphur well known to the alchemists. + +[Symbol: saturn] Denotes almost the whole to be corrosive, but retaining +some resemblance with silver, which the artists very well know holds +true of lead. + +[Symbol: earth] Denotes a chaos--world, or one thing which includes all: +this is the character of antimony, wherein is found gold, with plenty of +an arsenical corrosive. + +The symbols, or at least some of them, may be traced even in the Chinese +characters for gold, silver, &c. + +The connection of Egypt with India shortly after the Christian era is +distinctly indicated in the works of Apuleius. He lived in the early +part of the second century after Christ, and was educated first at +Carthage, then renowned as a school of literature. He then travelled +extensively in Greece, Asia, and Egypt, and became initiated into many +religious fraternities and an adept in their mysteries. He was admitted +a priest of the order of AEsculapius, and describes the ceremony of the +offering of the first-fruits by the priests of Isis, when the navigation +opened in spring. The vessel, which was to be set adrift upon the ocean +freighted with the offering, was splendidly decorated and covered with +hieroglyphics, and after having been "_purified with a lighted torch, an +egg, and sulphur_," was allowed to sail away into the unknown as a +sacrifice to procure the safety of the convoy of ships which would soon +after start upon their voyage. These rites were of great antiquity. + +He speaks, in his first tale, of a witch who, by means of her magic +charms, made not only her fellow-countrymen love her, but "_the Indians +even_," and in his initiation into the mysteries of Isis, his robes +"bore pictures of Indian serpents." + +From what I have now laid before you, in what must necessarily be a very +imperfect manner, you will see that there is good reason to believe that +in the study of science and philosophy the Indian races were much in +advance of the Western nations. The age of science amongst them is very +great; we fail utterly in trying to find its beginning, unless we accept +the tradition which ascribes to Menu, their great lawgiver (who is +supposed to have been Noah), the saving of three out of the four divine +books or Vedas from the deluge. This would carry us back to the +Antediluvian times for the beginning of our investigations; but without +taking any such extreme view of the subject we will find traces of +science clearly marked out for us in the history of the Indian races. + +The picture of the Brahmins, drawn by Apuleius in the second century, +shows how little they have changed in historical times. He says:-- + +"The Indians are a populous nation of vast extent of territory, situated +far from us to the east, near the reflux of the ocean and the rising of +the sun, under the first beams of the stars, and at the extreme verge of +the earth, beyond the learned Egyptians and the superstitious Jews and +the mercantile Nabathaeans; and the flowing robed Aracidae, and the +Ityraeans, poor in crops, and the Arabians, rich in perfumes. + +"Now, I do not so much admire the heaps of ivory of the Indians, their +harvests of pepper, their bales of cinnamon, their tempered steel, their +mines of silver, and their golden streams, nor that among them, the +Ganges, the greatest of all rivers, + + 'Rolls like a monarch on his course, and pours + His eastern waters through a hundred streams, + Mingling with ocean by a hundred mouths,' + +"nor that these Indians, though situated at the dawn of day, are yet of +the colour of night, nor that among them, immense dragons fight with +enormous elephants, with parity of danger to their mutual destruction, +for they hold them enwrapped in their slippery folds, so that the +elephants cannot disengage their legs or in any way extricate themselves +from the scaly bonds of the tenacious dragons. They are forced to seek +revenge from the fall of their own bulk and to crush their captors by +the mass of their own bodies. + +"There are amongst them various kinds of inhabitants. I will rather +speak of the marvellous things of men than of those of nature. + +"There is among them a race who know nothing but to tend cattle, hence +they are called neatherds; there are races clever in trafficking with +merchandise, and others stout in fight, whether with arrows, or hand to +hand with swords. + +"There is also among them a pre-eminent race called Gymnosophists. + +"These I exceedingly admire, for they are men skilled not in propagating +the vine, nor in grafting trees, nor in tilling the ground. They know +not how to cultivate the fields, nor to wash gold, or to break horses, +or to shear or feed sheep or goats. + +"What is it, then, they know? One thing instead of all these. They +_cultivate wisdom_, both the aged professors and the young students. +Nothing do I so much admire in them as that they hate torpor of mind and +sloth." + +This does not look as if the Indians had been unknown or unappreciated +in the second century A.D. + +Apuleius is not alone in his respect for the Brahmins. Many of the Greek +writers speak of them under the names of Brahmins or Gymnosophists, but +always with great respect. + +Strabo states, on the authority of Megasthenes (who it will be +remembered was Ambassador from Persia, and lived for some years at +Palibothra, about 307 B.C.), that "there were two classes of +philosophers or priests, the Brachmanes and the Germanes, but the +Brachmanes are best esteemed." Towards the close of his account of the +"Brachmanes" he says:-- + +"In many things they agree with the Greeks, for they affirm that the +world was produced, and is perishable, and that it is spherical; that +God, governing it as well as framing it, pervades the whole; that the +principles of all things are various, but water is the principle of the +construction of the world; that besides the four elements there is a +fifth, nature--whence heaven and the stars; that the earth is placed in +the centre of all. + +"Such, and many other things are affirmed of reproduction and of the +soul. Like Plato, they devise fables concerning the immortality of the +soul, and the judgment in the infernal regions, and other similar +notions. These things are said of the Brachmanes." + +Clemens Alexandrinus, after saying that philosophy flourished in ancient +times amongst the barbarians, and afterwards was introduced amongst the +Greeks, instances the prophets of the Egyptians, the Chaldees of the +Assyrians, the Druids of the Gauls (Galatae), the Samauaeans of the +Bactrians, the philosophers of the Celts, the Magi of the Persians, and +the Gymnosophists of the Indians. The Greek authors distinctly speak of +the Brahmins as the chief of the castes or divisions of the Indian +people from the time of Megasthenes, who wrote of them in the fourth +century B.C. + +Sir William Jones, in a paper on the philosophy of the Asiatics, pointed +out that "the old philosophers of Europe had some idea of centripetal +force, and a principle of universal gravitation," and affirms that "much +of the theology and philosophy of our immortal Newton may be found in +the Vedas." + +"That _most subtle spirit_ which he suspected to pervade natural bodies, +and lying concealed in them, to cause attraction and repulsion, the +emission, reflection and refraction of light, electricity, calefaction, +sensation, and muscular motion, is described by the Hindus as a _fifth +element_, endowed with these very powers; and the Vedas abound with +allusions to a force universally attractive, which they chiefly ascribe +to the sun, thence called 'Aditya, or the attractor,' a name designed by +the mythologists to mean the child of the goddess Aditi. But the most +wonderful passage on the theory of attractions occurs in the charming +allegorical poem of 'Shi'ri'n and Ferhai'd, or the Divine Spirit, and a +human soul disinterestedly pious,' a work which, from the first verse to +the last, is a blaze of religious and poetical fire. + +"The whole passage appears to me so curious that I make no apology for +giving you a faithful translation of it:-- + +"_There is a strong propensity which dances through every atom, and +attracts the minutest particle to some peculiar object; search this +universe from its base to its summit, from fire to air, from water to +earth (the four elements!), from all below the moon to all above the +celestial spheres, and thou wilt not find a corpuscle destitute of that +natural attractability. The very point of the first thread in this +apparently tangled skein is no other than such a principle of +attraction, and all principles beside are void of a real basis: from +such a propensity arises every motion perceived in heavenly or in +terrestrial bodies; it is a disposition to be attracted which taught +hard steel to rush from its place and rivet itself on the magnet; it is +the same disposition which impels the light straw to attach itself +firmly on amber; it is this quality which gives every substance in +nature a tendency towards another, and an inclination forcibly directed +to a determinate point._" + +In Sir W. Ainslie's Materia Medica of India the opinion of an old Hindoo +author is given as to the qualifications required in a physician. + +"He must be a person of strict veracity, and of the greatest sobriety +and decorum: he ought to be skilled in all the commentaries on the +'Ayur-Veda,' and be otherwise a man of sense and benevolence: his heart +must be charitable, his temper calm, and his constant study how to do +good. + +"Such a man is properly called a good physician, and such a physician +ought still daily to improve his mind by an attentive perusal of +scientific books. + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + +"Should death come upon us while under the care of a person of this +description, it can only be considered as inevitable fate, and not the +consequence of presumptuous ignorance." + +The knowledge of the Hindoos may be all said to be contained in their +sacred books called the Vedas, which, although perfect as a whole, are +actually divided into four parts, each in itself constituting a separate +Veda under a special title. These are the Rig-Veda, the Yajur-Veda +(white and black), the Sama-Veda, and the Atharva-Veda, or Ayur-Veda. +Although the last is admitted to be as a whole not so ancient as the +other three, still there are portions of it that are probably as old as +any of the others. Even in the oldest epic poems of the Hindoos mention +is made of four Vedas as already in existence and as of great antiquity. +Sir William Jones estimates the date of its compilation as certainly not +after B.C. 1580. + +These Vedas are considered by the Hindoos to contain the groundwork of +all their philosophy, as well as of their arts and sciences, and they +contain treatises on music, medicine, the art of war, and architecture. + +Sir William Jones, in referring to the Ayur-Veda, says that, to his +astonishment, he found in it an entire Upanishad on the internal parts +of the human body, enumerating the nerves, veins, and arteries. + +The Ayur-Veda was considered by the Brahmins to be the work of +Brahma--by him it was communicated to Dacsha, the Prajapati, and by him, +the two Aswins, or sons of Surya--the sun--were instructed in it, and +thus became the medical attendants of the gods. A legend that cannot but +recall to our mind the Greek myth of the two sons of AEsculapius and +their descent from Apollo. + +In the case of immortal gods the practice was confined to surgery, in +treating the wounds received in the conflicts which were constantly +described as occurring amongst the gods themselves, or between the gods +and the demons. Of course they performed many miraculous cures, as would +be expected from their superhuman character. + +Professor Wilson published in the _Oriental Magazine_, in 1823, some +notices on early Hindoo Medicine, and he points out that the tradition +is, that the above "two Aswins instructed Indra in medical and surgical +art, that Indra instructed Dahnwantari; although others make Atreya, +Bharadwaja, and Charaka prior to the latter:--Charaka's work, which goes +by his name, is extant. Dahnwantari is also styled Kasi-rajah, or Prince +of Kasi, or Benares. His disciple was Susruta, his work also exists." + +The Ayur-Veda, as the oldest medical writings of the Hindoos are +collectively called, was divided into eight divisions. These are +described by Professor Wilson as follows:-- + +"1st. _Salya._--The art of extracting extraneous substances, violently +or accidentally introduced into the body, with the treatment of the +inflammation and suppuration thereby induced. + +"The word _Salya_ means a dart or arrow, and points clearly to the +origin of this branch of Hindoo science. + +"2nd. _Salakya._--The treatment of external affections or diseases of +the eyes, nose, ears, &c. + +"3rd, _Kayao Chikitsa._--The general application of medicine to the +body, or the science of medicine, as opposed to surgery under the two +first heads. + +"4th. _Bhutavidya_, or demonology: the act of casting out demons, which +we may take to mean the treatment of insanity, such as it was. + +"5th. _Kaumara bhritya_, or the treatment of the diseases of women and +children. + +"6th. _Agada._--The administration of antidotes. + +"We do not appreciate this as an eastern nation would when poison was +only too common an instrument of ambition or revenge. + +"7th. _Rasayana._--Is chemistry, or perhaps it were better to say +alchemy, as its chief aim was the study of combinations of substances +mostly metallurgic, with a view of obtaining the universal medicine or +elixir which was to give immortal life. + +"8th. _Bajikarana._--Was connected with the means of promoting the +increase of the human race." + +One of the articles of Hindoo medicine was _Kshara_ or alkaline +salts,--these are directed to be obtained by burning different +substances of vegetable origin, boiling the ashes with five or six times +their measure of water and filtering the solution, which was used both +internally and externally. Care is enjoined in their use, and emollient +applications are to be used if the caustic should occasion great pain. + +I have already spoken of the fact of Indian physicians having been at +the Court of Persia, and also at that of Haroun al Raschid, and also +that the ancient writers on medicine were known to the Arabs of the time +of the schools of Baghdad and Cordova. There is no manner of doubt +concerning this fact, as in Serapion's works we find Charak actually +mentioned by name; under the head _De Mirobalanis_ we find "_Et Xarch +indus dixit;_" and again, in another section "_Xarcha indus;_" there +being no corresponding sound to che in Arabic, there is a slight change +in the name, but it is quite clear what it is intended for. In Avicenna, +again, we find reference to "Scirak indum." Rhazes, again, who was +previous to Avicenna, has "_Inquit Scarac indianus_," and again "_Dixit +Sarac;_" in another place an Indian author is quoted, who has not as yet +been traced, "_Sindifar_," or, as it is in another place, "_Sindichar +indianus._" + +Professor Wilson, in a notice on the medical science of the Hindoos, +published in the _Oriental Magazine_, examines into the distinctive +qualities of the various sorts of leeches, and shows that the +description given in Avicenna, in the section "De Sanguisugis," is +almost identical with the Hindoo author's description of the twelve +sorts of leeches, in distinguishing the appearance and properties of the +various sorts. + +That this is more than a mere coincidence is clear from the fact that +Avicenna says "_Indi dixerunt_." + +I do not think it will be seriously disputed that the Arabs had access +to the Hindoo works of and before their time, and we will find, if we +carefully examine the subject, that the science of medicine as +distinguished from surgery, and of chemistry as a part of that science +of medicine, was much more ancient than we have been prepared to admit. + +It would be incredible to believe that amongst a people so observant and +highly cultured as the Brahmins must have been, that medicine and the +changes occurring in mixtures of various substances should have been +unstudied, and there is no doubt that this subject was far from being +neglected by them. + +Many natural productions of the country, such as nitrate of potash, +borax, carbonate and sulphate of soda, sulphate of iron, alum, common +salt, and sulphur, could scarcely escape the notice of even ordinary +men; but Dr. Ainslie has shown, from the evidence of old Indian medical +works, that they were not only acquainted with ammonia (which they made +by distilling salammoniac one part, and chalk two parts), but that they +prepared sulphuric acid by burning sulphur and nitre together in earthen +pots, calling it _Gunduk Ka Attar_, or "attar of sulphur." Nitric acid, +which was prepared, not by the process described by Geber, but by mixing +saltpetre, alum, and a portion of a liquor obtained by spreading cloths +over the common gram plant, and leaving them exposed to the dew, when +they were found to absorb the acid salt so abundantly secreted by the +plant on the surface of its leaves, and which, when examined by +Vauquelin, was found to contain both oxalic and acetic acids. + +Muriatic acid was also made by distilling alum and common salt, dried +and pounded with the above acid liquor. + +Arsenic was used by them for the cure of palsy, and also for venereal +diseases, and is still used by them for this purpose, and in +intermittent fevers. + +It would occupy too much time to go further into this subject at the +present time, but there are many chemical compounds which are still made +and sold in the Indian bazaars which have been used from time +immemorial, and which require a knowledge of chemical manipulation in +the arts of subliming, distilling, &c. + +Mr. Rodwell says, "that the distillation of cinnabar with iron, +described by Dioscorides, is the first crude example of distillation, +which afterwards became a principal operation among the alchemists and +chemists for separating the volatile from the fixed." + +That this is an assumption which has no foundation in fact is evident, +when we find in the Institutes of Menu many enactments against the +drinking of distilled spirits, and these made of various kinds and +distilled from molasses (or sugar-cane juice), rice, and the madhuca +flowers. + +"A soldier or merchant drinking arak, mead, or rum are to be considered +offenders in the highest degree," and "for drinking spirits are to be +branded on the forehead with a vintner's flag," rather a summary way of +treating a drunkard, and one which would indicate that the ill effects +of over-indulgence in spirituous liquors had been long known, when such +severe enactments were made against it. + +The method of distilling described by Mr. Kerr in the Asiatic +Researches, vol. 1, is so simple that it is almost certain that it was +employed in very ancient times for the purpose of distilling spirits, +and also attars of various sorts, which, from time immemorial, would +seem to have been a special production of India. + +"The body of the still is a common large unglazed earthen water jar, +nearly globular, of about 25 inches diameter at the widest part of it, +and 22 inches deep to the neck, which neck rises 2 inches more, and is +11 inches wide in the opening; this was filled about a half with +fermented mahwah flowers, which swam about in the liquor to be +distilled. + +"This jar they placed in a furnace, not the most artificial, though not +seemingly ill adapted to give a great heat with but very little fuel. +This they made by digging a round hole in the ground, about 20 inches +wide and full 3 feet deep, cutting an opening in the front sloping down +to the bottom, perpendicular at the sides, about 9 inches wide and about +15 inches long, reckoning from the edge of the circle: this is to serve +to throw in the wood and to allow a passage for the air; at the other +side a small opening about 4 inches by 3 inches is made to serve as an +outlet for the smoke, the bottom of the hole thus made was rounded like +a cup. + +"The jar was placed in this as far as it would go, and banked up with +clay all round to about a fifth of its height, except at the two +openings, when all was completed so far as the furnace was concerned. + +"Fully one third of the still or jar was exposed to the heat when +the fire was lighted; the fuel was at least 2 feet from the bottom +of the jar. + +"On to this jar there was now fitted what is called an adkur, this being +made of two earthen pans with their bottoms turned towards each other, +and a hole of about 4 inches diameter in the middle of each of them, the +lower of these pans fitted the hole in the jar, and was luted with clay, +the upper was luted to the lower one, and had a diameter of about 14 +inches, the juncture formed a neck of about 3 inches, the upper pan was +about 4 inches deep, with a rim round the central hole, this formed a +gutter, and by means of a hollow bamboo luted to this, the spirit, as it +condensed, ran off into the receiver. + +"The arrangement was now completed by luting on a small copper pot or +vessel about 5 inches deep, 8 inches wide at mouth, and about 10 inches +at bottom, with its mouth downwards. + +"The cooler was formed by placing on a support at the back of the +furnace an earthen vessel containing a few gallons of water, from which, +by means of a bamboo tube, the water was allowed to run on to the centre +of the copper pot, from where it collected in the clay saucer, and ran +off by a small hole and bamboo tube for use again. + +"In about three hours' time from lighting the fire, they draw off fully +fifteen bottles of spirits." + +Comparing this simple form of apparatus with those described by Geber, +we must admit that there is no doubt of the earlier date of this simple +apparatus; and, as we have seen, distilled spirit is expressly mentioned +in the Institutes of Menu, we are bound to admit that distillation was +in use long ere the Arabian times and that of Dioscorides. + +Many such examples might be examined, but I will take one for +illustration--that of the manufacture of common salt. + +Let us take this manufacture as a typical one. + +We find in Jackson's Antiquities and Chronology of the Chinese that, +2500 B.C., Shin-nong invented the method of obtaining salt from +sea-water. He also gets credit for having composed books on medicine. + +In George Agricola's De Re Metallica (1561) there is a curious set of +woodcuts representing the manufacture of salt, and in the first, in +which the whole process of evaporating sea-water by the sun's rays is +shown most completely from the raising of the sluices to allow the water +to flow into the various evaporating ponds, to the packing of the +finished salt in barrels--it is a curious fact that the trees which are +introduced are _palms_, and the figure in the distance is dressed in +_Oriental costume_, while even the ship seems to partake of this +character. + +A more advanced state of things is shown in the third drawing of the +12th book, where a pan is shown, made of iron plates riveted together so +as to form a flat sheet, which forms the bottom of the pan, of which the +sides are composed of thick wood, strengthened with plates of iron at +the corners. + +The bottom of the pan has a series of iron eyes or loops, and these, +when it is fixed over its furnace, are attached to iron rods, which are +hung from a network of wooden bars, so that the whole bottom of the pan +is supported securely at a considerable number of points. + +The furnace is very simple, being simply a wall surrounding an oblong +space, a little smaller than the pan, so that the sides of the latter +may rest on the walls all round, except for a small space in front where +the fuel is introduced, which apparently burns on the ground alone. + +The method of manufacturing salt in Japan is almost identical with that +figured in Agricola. There is the same arrangement of salt garden or +series of ponds and ditches, and the dirty salts mixed with sand are +again lixiviated, and the filtered liquid is boiled down in curiously +formed pans or boilers. + +Of these there are two chief forms, the first being a tank or pan formed +of large pieces of slate, with the joints made with clay, and surrounded +with a mud wall. The whole is covered with an arch or vault and is +filled with the brine, which is then evaporated by surface heat, the +fire being placed at one end and the flue at the other. + +The other form is very curious and interesting, and is almost identical +in its principle of construction with the pan I have referred to as +figured in Agricola, only in this case the materials are very different, +being, instead of wood and iron, nothing more than clay or mud. + +It was described officially by the Japanese, in their publications at +the Philadelphia Exhibition in 1876. The Japanese description of this +apparatus is highly interesting. It is as follows:-- + +A low wall is built, enclosing a space of about 13 feet by 9 feet, the +bottom forming a kind of prismatical depression, 3 feet deep in the +centre line. An ashpit, 3 feet deep, is then excavated, starting from +the front wall, and extending about 4 feet into this depression at its +deepest place; it communicates with the outside by a channel sloping +gradually upwards, and passing underneath the front wall. The ashpit is +covered by a clay vault, with holes in its sides, so as to establish a +communication between the ashpit and the hollow space under the pan. +This vault is used as a fire grate, the fuel (brown coal and small wood) +being inserted by the fire-door in the front wall. The air-draught +necessary for burning the fuel enters partly by the fire-door, partly +through the ashpit and the openings left in the vaulted grate. Through +these same openings the ashes and cinders are from time to time pushed +down into the ashpit, for which purpose small openings are left in the +side-wall of the furnace, through which the rakes may be introduced. A +passage in the back wall supporting the pan leads off the products of +combustion and the hot air into a short flue, sloping upwards, and +ending in a short vertical chimney. At the lower part some iron kettles +are placed in the flue for the purpose of heating the lye before it is +ladled into the evaporating pan. + +With reference to the pan, it is made in a way that requires a great +deal of skill and practice. In the first place, beams reaching from the +one side to the other are laid on the top of the furnace walls, and are +covered with wooden boards, forming a temporary floor. Two or three feet +above this floor a strong horizontal network of poles of wood sustains a +number of straw ropes, with iron hooks hanging down, and of such a +length that the hooks nearly touch the wooden floor. The floor is +thereupon covered with a mixture of clay and small stones, 4 to 5 inches +thick, the workman being careful to incrustate the iron hooks into this +material. It is allowed to dry gradually, and when considered +sufficiently hardened, the wooden beams and flooring are removed with +the necessary precautions. The bottom of the pan remains suspended by +means of the ropes. The open spaces left all round between the bottom +and the top of the furnace walls are then filled up, and the border of +the pan, 9 inches to 10 inches high, is made of a similar mixture. It is +said that this extraordinary construction lasts from 40 to 50 days when +well made, and that it can be filled 16 times in 24 hours, with an +average of 500 litres of concentrated lye at each filling; but the +quantity depends upon the weather, and is less in winter than in summer. +During the cold season one pan yields 140 litres (of salt) each time it +is filled, and in the hot season from 190 to 210 litres. The average +consumpt of fuel is said to be 1500 kilos. in 24 hours. + +In Persia, near Ballakhan, salt is still made, and has been made from +time immemorial, in a very primitive way, which is described by Bellen, +in his description of his journey in 1872 from the Indus to the Tigris, +as follows:-- + +"For several miles our road led over a succession of salt pits and +ovens, and lying about we found several samples of the alimentary salt +prepared here from the soil. It was in fine white granules massed +together in the form of the earthen vessel in which the salt had been +evaporated. The process of collecting the salt is very rough and simple. +A conical pit or basin, 7 or 8 feet deep and about 12 feet in diameter +is dug, and around it are excavated a succession of smaller pits, each +about 2 feet diameter by 11/2 feet deep. On one side of the large pit +is a deep excavation, to which the descent from the pit is by a sloping +bank. In this excavation is a domed oven with a couple of fireplaces. At +a little distance off are the piles of earth scraped from the surface +and ready for treatment. And, lastly, circling round each pit is a small +water-cut led off from a larger stream running along the line of pits. + +"Such is the machinery. The process is simply this:--A shovelful of +earth is taken from the heap and washed in the basins (a shovelful to +each) circling the pit. + +"The liquor from these is, whilst yet turbid, run into the great central +pit, by breaking away a channel for it with the fingers. The channel is +then closed with a dab of clay, and a fresh lot of earth washed, and the +liquor run off as before; and so on till the pit is nearly full of +brine. This is allowed to stand till the liquor clears. It is then +ladled out into earthen jars, set on the fire and boiled to evaporation +successively, till the jar is filled with a cake of granular salt. The +jars are then broken, and the mass of salt (which retains its shape) is +ready for conveyance to market. + +"Large quantities of this salt are used by the nomad population, and a +good deal is taken to Kandahar. The quantity turned out here must +annually be very great. The salt pits extend over at least ten miles of +the country we traversed, and we certainly saw some thousands of pits." + + +From what I have laid before you, it will be seen that I am strongly of +opinion that we must go far beyond the time of Geber or the Arabian +school for the origin of our science. The study of the question of its +antiquity leads up to such remote times that there is little probability +of any date being assigned to its beginning, and to some it may appear +but a waste of time to indulge in researches upon the subject; but it +has a fascination peculiar to itself, and, in addition, brings before +our minds so many phases in the philosophical thought of the world, that +it will no doubt long continue to exercise the minds and attract the +attention of chemists. + +In the course of my own study of the subject, I have felt much +dissatisfied with the derivation of the name chemistry or alchemy, as it +is given in all works to which I have had access. It is said to be +derived from a word meaning dark, hidden, black, and from the ancient +name for Egypt, but to my own mind this is an unsatisfactory +explanation, and seeking for another more consonant with the character +of the science, I think I have found it in quite a different direction. + +It is well known that in the old Hindoo philosophy there were recognized +five elementary bodies or rather types. These were Water, Fire, Ether, +Earth, and Air, and the system of Menu, of which the antiquity is +enormous, recognizes as the greatest conception of the universe-- + + 1st, God. + 2nd, Mind. + 3rd, Consciousness. + 4th, Matras. + 5th, Elements. + +(matras being the invisible types of the visible atoms which compose the +five elements previously named--viz., Water, Fire, Ether, Earth, and +Air). + +Now, these elements, with the sun and moon, composed the attributes of +the dual deity Iswara and Isi, representing the male and female natural +powers, and, applying this to the famous Pythagorean triangle, we find +that the upright symbol or male, which was the number or power 3, when +combined with the female prostrate symbol, which was the number or power +4, gives a product in the Hypotenuse of 5, which is the number of the +typical elements of the oldest known Hindoo philosophy. It is also the +product of the first male and female numbers, and was anciently called +the number of the world--repeated anyhow by an odd multiple it always +reappears. + +If now we consider chemistry as that science which has to deal with the +changes and combinations of the five elements, and if we call it-- + +_The science of the five parts or elements_, should we not, when we find +that the Arabic word for five is _khams_, rather refer the name of our +science to this word khams, and read it as + + _Al-Khams_, + The five-part science? + +I am inclined, however, to go yet a step further, and remembering that +the _fifth_ element or Ether of the most ancient Hindoo philosophy, was +in reality an expression for active force, or, that emanating from the +central sun caused the natural phenomena of attraction and repulsion, +the emission and refraction of light, and other sensible changes of +condition, would read the compound word + + _Al-Khamis_ + (The fifth), + +as the grand and simple title of our ancient science, meaning + + _The force_-- + +that which causes the changes in the elementary types and their +combinations--than which no more descriptive title could be assigned to +it, even in the present enlightened age. + + * * * * * + * * * * + * * * * * + +Errors and Anomalies + +Apollonius Tyanaeus [_text reads "Appolonius"_] + +Hercules and Bacchus (Dionysius) [_text reads "Dionsyius"_] + +Ommiades ... Abassides [_standard spellings for this text_] + +Ibn Osaibe's testimony [_text reads "Ibu"_] + +body-physicians at the Court of Harun-al-Raschid + [_spelling as in original, but elsewhere spelled "Haroun"_] + +Xenophon in his Anabasis [_text reads "Zenophon"_] + +Megasthenes [_text reads "Megesthenes"_] + +the first of the Grecian philosophers [_text reads "philosphers"_] + +the Hindoos believe in _fourteen Menus_ + [_and six further occurrences of "Menu"_] + [_standard spelling in this text: correct form is "Manu"_] + +Libyans in war chariots with four horses [_text reads "Lybians"_] + +under the reign of Pharoah Necho [_spelling as in original_] + +from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean [_text reads "Mediterreanean"_] + +Jackson in his "Antiquities" tells us that, [_comma in original_] + +Indra instructed Dahnwantari; +Dahnwantari is also styled Kasi-rajah + [_correct form is "Dhanwantari"_] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Antiquity of the Chemical Art, by +James Mactear + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANTIQUITY OF THE CHEMICAL ART *** + +***** This file should be named 17753.txt or 17753.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/7/5/17753/ + +Produced by Louise Hope, R. 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