Page:Edward Thorpe — History of Chemistry, Volume I (1909).pdf/32

16 to him. It appears to have been first made by the Gauls, who prepared it from the ashes of the beech and the fat of goats, and used it as a pomatum, as did the jeunesse d’oreé of Rome. Wood ashes, as well as natron, were, however, used by the ancients for their cleansing properties.

Starch, acetic acid, sulphur, alumen or crude sulphate of alumina, beeswax, camphor, bitumen, naphtha, asphalt, nitrum (carbonate of soda), common salt, and lime, were all known to the Egyptians, and were used by them for many of the purposes in which they are employed to-day.

It will be evident from this brief survey that the ancients possessed a considerable acquaintance with many operations of technical chemistry; but, although they must necessarily have accumulated a large amount of knowledge, very little has come down to us concerning the mode in which their processes were conducted, or as to the precautions they employed to ensure uniform results. Their methods were probably jealously guarded and handed down by successive members of the crafts as precious secrets. The experienced masters of these crafts must have met with many strange and perplexing phenomena in the course of their operations, and a spirit of inquiry must thereby at times have been awakened. But, under the conditions in