James Mactear

“ 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. ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 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, 3 and the Arabic literature of most of these was widely spread abroad over all the known world of their time. ”

“ 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!) ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 27 potash, borax, carbonate and sulphate of soda, sulphate of iron, alum, common salt, and sulphur, could scarcely escape the notice of even ordinary men ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 16 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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.” ”

“ 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 24 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. ”

“ The Greek authors distinctly speak of the Brahmins as the chief of the castes or divisions of the Indian people from 23 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.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”