Three presidential addresses to the Chemical Section of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow : on the study of the history of chemistry, recent inquiries into the early history of chemistry, eleven centuries of chemistry / by John Ferguson.

  • Ferguson, John, 1838-1916.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Three presidential addresses to the Chemical Section of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow : on the study of the history of chemistry, recent inquiries into the early history of chemistry, eleven centuries of chemistry / by John Ferguson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    the MSS. of subsequent centuries must have been copied from that or some other earlier MS. by others. In a few cases the MSS. bear the name of the copyist, the date, and place of writing ; but this is the exception, and for most the date can be ascertained only by the tests applicable to MSS. in general, such as handwriting. The fact of there being copies of different dates introduces another important factor. The value of a MS., from the historical or philo- logical point of view—that is, as regards the purity and primitive form of the text—is not necessarily identical with that from the merely antiquarian one of age; or, the oldest MS. in point of time does not necessarily contain the oldest form of the text, except when the MS. is actually the original. This seems the case with these Greek MSS. The oldest of all is of the eleventh century, and it is preserved in the library of St. Mark's at Yenice. It is of great importance, and it was described, its contents were enumerated, and a few extracts from it -were printed in the year 1745.* But though the oldest and also one of the fullest, for it contains forty-three tracts, it does not appear to contain the oldest form of the text. This is approached more nearly by the Escurial MS. B, containing forty-six tracts, which is of much later date, having been written in the sixteenth century. This has been made probable from the following cir- cumstance :—In both of these MSS., as in some others, there is contained a catalogue of Greek chemical writers which does not always correspond -with the contents of the MSS., either in the order or actual number and description of the separate tracts. It so happens, however, that while the older Venetian MS., which contains this list, in its actual contents differs from it, the later Escurial MS. corresponds with it very closely. It would appear that there had been an original form, or at least an older one than any now known to exist, of which this catalogue is probably the index, and of which the best representative is the comparatively recent Escurial MS. B.+ You can well understand, however, that an elaborate comparison of these two MSS. would be required before it could be said what connection, if any, exists between them, and what clue there may be to the discovery of their true authorship and previous history. * Patktdii de Febribus Concisa Synopsis Grace et Laline cum Nolis Jo. Steph. Bernard. Accedunt Qlossce C'hemictc et Exccrpta ex Poelis Chemkis ex Codice MS. Bibliolli. D. Marci. Lugd. Bat., 1745. Some account of the Greek chemists is given, and reference made to the St. Mark's MS., un bellissimo codice, by Giovanni Anrlres. DeW orirjinc, pror/reasi e stalo altuale di ogni Letteratura, vol. v., p. 205-213, Roma, 1813. t Kopp, Beitrdge, pp. 325, 331, Braunschweig 1860. A 2