Project Gutenberg's On the Antiquity of the Chemical Art, by James Mactear

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Title: On the Antiquity of the Chemical Art

Author: James Mactear

Release Date: February 11, 2006 [EBook #17753]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[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