Page:Repository of Arts, Series 1, Volume 01, 1809, January-June.djvu/24

12 would be unpardonable were we not to notice the outlines of the history of the science, we shall shortly trace the æras of the progressive discoveries which led to the establishment of chemical philosophy.

The Israelites acquired all the information which may be called chemical, in Egypt. It was there that Moses learnt the properties of metals, the art of extracting oils, the preparation of balsams and perfumes, the dying of linen, the making of wine, the art of gilding, the fabrication of pottery, &c.

The Phœnicians arc spoken of as being acquainted with the making of glass, with which they traded. They invented the art of tinging garments with a purple-coloured matter, said to be produced by a species of shellfish. They were also skilled in the working of metals; they made artificial gems, perfumes, and odoriferous balsams; they invented the art of preserving the fruits of vegetables and plants. They first distinguished the metals by the names of the planets, which they retained for many centuries.

Among the Chinese (if we may believe their historians) many chemical arts were known from time immemorial. They were acquainted with nitre, borax, alum, gunpowder, verdigrease, sulphur, and colouring matters; nor were the arts of dying linen and silk, paper-making, manufacturing of porcelain, unknown. They were also skilled in the art of alloying metals, and in the working of ivory and horn.

The Carthaginians, who were a colony of the Phœoenicians, learnt their arts.

Fewer traces of chemistry are found among the Greeks, although they derived their knowledge of many of the arts from the Phœnicians. The ancient philosophers of Greece, as Pythagoras, Thales, and Plato, were more devoted to the cultivation of mathematical and astronomical knowledge, than the physical sciences. It is natural to suppose that the obvious difference or change of bodies that surround us, could not remain unnoticed by a people of so philosophical a turn of mind as the Greeks; hence, both Aristotle and Empedocles taught the doctrine of the four supposed elements, air, fire, earth, and water.

The Corinthian brass has been much celebrated. Tyches knew the art of tanning leather; Plato describes the process of filtration; Hippocrates was acquainted with the (so called) process of calcination; Galen speaks of distillation; Democritus, of Abdera, examined the juices of plants; Aristotle and Theophrastus treated of stones and metals.

The wars in which the Romans were almost constantly engaged, and the spirit of enterprise which prompted them to military affairs, gave them neither time nor taste to cultivate and improve the arts of peace. After having conquered and subjugated almost the whole of the civilized world, they then arduously applied themselves to the arts of their early masters, the Greeks. They understood the art of making excellent wines and spirits; they knew the application of manures; they prepared incombustible cloth, for wrapping up the dead bodies which were destined to be burnt, in order to preserve their ashes distinct from those of the funeral pile; they were acquainted with almost all the metals, and the modes of coining them: they were skilled in the