James Mactear - On the Antiquity of the Chemical Art
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James Mactear >> On the Antiquity of the Chemical Art
[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.]
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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?