Show nf 11 I 1 A brief history of Chemi chemistry written b by V W for C the ebaugh mining PIL ph review D i lei J r continued from last issue can the reader recall any character in history the opinions concerning whom were so diverse that by some he was extolled as being almost divine and well worthy of canonization and by others just as heartily anathematized and cursed as a swindler charlatan and thief such a person was philippus aurealus Au reolus Theoph rastus Bomb astus von hohenheit Hohen heim 1493 1541 usually conceded to be the founder of the school of latro or medico chemists born at a little swiss village the son of a respected and learned physician received his early education from his father and when at the age of sixteen entered the university of basel his s love for knowledge and perhaps his love for adventure caused him to take extended journeys into lands but little visited by the men of his age and country it is said that he traveled beyond india was taken prisoner by the tartars and was acquainted with all the civilized countries the endeavor to gather knowledge everywhere was with him a passion lie he was made a professor of medicine in the university of basel but after becoming in more familiar with his theories and experiments peri ments many of them being what our german confreres contreres con freres would call end und or pioneering aal an I 1 epoch making we can hardly wander that his associates in the faculty did not relish the presence of such a tempestuous character in their midst and his expulsion from the faculty followed again the wandering life was resumed and it is said that at last he met death at the hands of hired assassins in the little town of salzburg by some was called the luther of medicine because the reformation which he brought about in the domain of the healing art was quite as great as that which luther effected in theology he believed in the possibility of transmutation but urged that the real object of chemistry should be the seeking out of new remedies and not the chase after that willo will o th ewis the philosophers stone to the human body in its normal healthy condition was a huge chemical complex in a state of chemical equilibrium illness destroyed this state of equilibrium and thus it became the duty of the skilled physician to bring back the required condition by the application of chemicals which were specifics for the unnatural conditions encountered here struck the keynote of cf modern medicine it will be remembered tt that the older medical doctrines claimed that disease was due to an excess or deficiency fici ency of blood bile or phlegm perhaps too of choler hence the most diverse forms of illness were subjected to the same treatment casting off all allegiance to his predecessors boldly declared himself to be the prince of physicians and inspired of god not evidences of an oer modesty it is true in pharmaceutical chemistry made many advances believing in heroic remedies he employed preparations containing the heavy metals the semi metals and sulphur the active principles of medicinal plants were extracted and administered in the form of decoctions decoct ions essences tinctures tinctured tures and extracts it is said that he was the first to employ the alcoholic extract of opium to which he gave the name laudanum hydrogen was first prepared by him by the action of oil of vitriol upon iron A glance at the foregoing facts would lead one to believe that the supporters of were quite justifiable in their inordinate praise of their master but when we turn to the writings of their hero and see how his pen can lash and gash the cen tury old doctrines held by his most reputable contemporaries we are almost ready to transfer dur 0 ur allegiance to those whom he so soundly berates consider as an example the following extract taken from the preface book concerning the tures of the philosophers written against those sophists Sophis ts born since the deluge from the middle of this age thelmon the monarchy of all the arts has been at length derived and conferred on me Theoph rastus 2 prince of philosophy and medicine for this purpose I 1 have been chosen of god to extinguish and blot out all the fantasies of elaborate and false works of delusive and presumptuous words be they the words of aristotle galen Avi cenna or meeva or the dogmas of any among g their followers so then you wormy and lousy sophist since you deem the monarch of arcana a mere ignorant fatuous and prodigal quack now in this mid age I 1 determine in my present treatise to disclose the honorable course of procedure in these malters mailers the virtue and preparation of the celebrated tincture of the philosophers for the use and honor of all who love the truth and in order that all who despise the true arts may be reduced to poverty here are the opinions concerning held by two authors he lived like a pig looked like a drover and found his greatest enjoyment eni cyment in the company of the dissolute and the lowest rabble and throughout his glorious life he was generally drunk probably no physician has grasped his lifes task with a purer en I 1 thusia sm or devoted himself more faithfully to it or more fully maintained the moral worthiness of his calling than did we the reformer of georges agricola was a contemporary and fellow countryman of devoting his time chiefly to metallurgy and industrial chemistry he became an acknowledged authority on these subjects and his book de re Met allica passed through many editions A very great and good work was done for chemistry by Li bavius a german who labored toward the close of the sixteenth century he carefully sorted out the so sd called knowledge of his time and wrote a text book on the science that maintained its high reputation for many years john baptist van helmont was perhaps the leading chemical philosopher of the first half of the seventeenth century to support his claim that water was the primal element he advanced many reasons that are beautiful examples of logical conclusions drawn from false premises for instance he said that fish live on nothing but water yet they are made up of substances similar to those found in land animals to prove that plants also are made from nothing but water he placed a willow of known weight in a known weight of earth and then carefully watered it with rain or distilled water five years later the plant was carefully separated from the earth and the weights of both noted the willow weighed one hundred and sixty four pounds more than it did at th tha beginning of the experiment while tile the earth weighed two ounces less what was more reasonable than to say that the increase in the weight came entirely from the water added from time to time but had van helmont only known about the ocean of gases in which his plant was growing d aw and from which chic h it drew much of its nourishment how different would have been his conclusion johann rudolph glauber 1604 1668 became one of the keenest observers of his time skilled in the knowledge and the practice of chemistry he introduced many industrial improvements especially in glass making ceramics and dyeing he will be remembered chiefly as the discoverer of the curative powers of sodium sulphate or sal mirabile known to us as glaubert Glau bers salt according to the story glauber was taken ill while on his travels and at the advice of some peasants drank the water from a neighboring spring relief followed immediately and with the characteristic desire that belonged to him as a scientist to fathom the secret of his cure he sought out the healing substance in the water sal mirabile rewarded his efforts glauber wrote extended works upon economics in which he urged that germany should seek to manufacture her raw materials into the finished products rather than allow fore foreigners ig n I 1 e rs to do the manufacturing and then charge her high prices for such goods A glance at the period of chemistry so hastily touched upon in this section will show that the main object of the chemists work was no longer gold making the philosophers stone the elixir vitae or the alkahest the physician and chemist were usually blended in one olle person pharmacy received its first great impulse and soon attained the right to exist as an independent science improvements in chemical practice were notable but theory remained in its previous unsatisfactory condition best of all from our point of view the quest of the unattainable had ceased and the quest of the attainable had begun to be continued |