The first history of chemistry / by John Ferguson.

  • Ferguson, John, 1838-1916.
Date:
[1886]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The first history 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 questions to be answered by an examination of the manu- scripts, the way of looking at the questions, the manner of answering them—everything is different. The manuscripts are examined and interpreted at the present time, not for the sake of either defending or attacking the truth of alchemy, but for ascer- taining, critically and dispassionately, when this first chemical idea—the idea of transmutation—originated, and what light the manuscripts throw upon its history; and their meaning is illus- trated not by comparison with the results of modern chemistry alone, but also from the researches that have been carried on so long into the history and learning of the ancient world—themes undreamt of in the middle of the sixteenth century. It would have been as impossible for Berthelot to have gone back to the standpoint of Vallensis, as it was certainly impossible for Yallensis to have had any foreknowledge of the aids now at the disposal of the chemical archaeologist and historian. In fact, the archaeology of chemistry, if it has not been actually called into existence, has been stimidated at least, by the progress of archaeology in general. But for the interpretation of the languages of the Egyptians and other ancient peoples, the discovery and editing of papyri, the examination of the multitudinous objects of religion, of art and of everyday life, which have been preserved to us from long bygone times, and the possibility of solving other problems by the help which all these have put within our reach, the early history of chemistry could have advanced very little. Even the disposition of mind to take up so apparently fruitless a topic as the origin of the notion of transmutation was wanting but a little while ago, when foregone conclusions against any subject were quite enough to prevent investigation of it. The comparison of histories of the same subject written at different times, in very different surroundings, by men holding opinions at very different stages of development, thus becomes valuable, not merely for the record of events which they each contain, but also because they illustrate the growth of knowledge of the topics treated of, as well as of the manner in which they are treated. Successive histories form an all-important possession for the elucidation of the rate of progress, and for the consideration of the principles which such a subject as chemistry follows in its growth, and of the conditions under which it moves forward. Before the student of the histories and history of his science are passed in steady renew the relations it bears toother sciences; the mode in which its theories