OF GLAUBER, LEMERY, AND SOME OTHER CHEMISTS OF THE END OF THE
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
Hitherto I have treated of the alchymists, or iatro-chemists, and
have brought the history of chemistry down to the beginning of the
eighteenth century. But during the seventeenth century there existed
several laborious chemists, who contributed very materially by their
exertions, either to extend the bounds of the science, or to increase
its popularity and respectability in the eyes of the world. Of some of
the most eminent of these it is my intention to give an account in this
chapter.
Of John Rudolf Glauber, the first of these meritorious men in point of
time, I know very few particulars. He was a German and a medical man,
and spent most of his time at Salzburg, Ritzingen, Frankfort on the
Maine, and at Cologne. Towards the end of his life he went to Holland,
but during the greatest part of his residence in that country he was
confined to a sick-bed. He died at Amsterdam in 1668, after having
reached a very advanced age. Like Paracelsus, whom he held in high
estimation, he was in open hostility with the Galenical physicians of
his time. This led him into various controversies, and induced him
to publish various apologies; most of which still remain among his
writings. One of the most curious of these apologies is the one against
Farmer. To this man Glauber had communicated certain secrets of his
own, which were at that time considered as of great value; Farrner
binding himself not to communicate them to any person. This obligation
he not only broke, but publicly deprecated the skill and integrity of
Glauber, and offered to communicate to others, for stipulated sums,
a set of secrets of his own, which he vaunted of as particularly
valuable. Glauber examines these secrets, and shows that every one
of them possessed of any value, had been communicated by himself to
Farrner, and to put an end to Farrner’s unfair attempt to make money by
selling Glauber’s secrets, he in this apology communicates the whole
processes to the public.
Glauber’s works were published in Amsterdam, partly in Latin, and
partly in the German language. In the year 1689 an English translation
of them was published in London by Mr. Christopher Packe, in one
large folio volume. Glauber was an alchymist and a believer in the
universal medicine. But he did not confine his researches to these
two particulars, but endeavoured to improve medicine and the arts by
the application of chemical processes to them. In his treatise of
_philosophical furnaces_ he does not confine himself to a description
of the method of constructing furnaces, and explaining the use of
them, but gives an account of a vast many processes, and medicinal and
chemical preparations, which he made by means of these furnaces. One of
the most important of these preparations was muriatic acid, which he
obtained by distilling a mixture of common salt, sulphate of iron, and
alum, in one of the furnaces which he describes.
He makes known the method of dissolving most of the metals in muriatic
acid, and the resulting chlorides, which he denominates oils of the
respective metals, constitute in his opinion valuable medicines. He
mentions particularly the chloride of gold, and from the mode of
preparing it, the solution must have been strong. Yet he recommends it
as an internal medicine, which he says may be taken with safety, and
is a sovereign remedy in old ulcers of the mouth, tongue, and throat,
arising from the French pox, leprosy, scorbute, &c. Thus we see the use
of gold as a remedy for the venereal disease did not originate with M.
Chretiens, of Montpelier. This chloride of gold is so violent a poison
that it is remarkable that Glauber does not specify the dose that
patients labouring under the diseases for which he recommends it ought
to take.--The sesqui-chloride of iron he recommends as a most excellent
application to ill-conditioned ulcers and cancers. We see from this
that the use of iron in cancers, lately recommended, is not so new a
remedy as has been supposed.
He mentions the violent action of chloride of mercury (obviously
corrosive sublimate), and says that he saw a woman suddenly killed by
it, being administered internally by a surgeon. Butter of antimony
he first recognised as nothing else than a combination of chlorine
and antimony; before his time it had been always supposed to contain
mercury.
He describes the method of obtaining sulphuric acid by distilling
sulphate of iron; gives an account of the mode of obtaining sulphate
of iron and sulphate of copper, in crystals: the method of obtaining
nitric acid from nitre by means of alum, was much improved by him. He
gives a particular detail of the way of obtaining fulminating gold.
This fulminating gold he says is of little use in medicine; but he
gives a method of preparing from it a red tincture of gold, which he
considers as one of the most useful and efficacious of all medicines:
this tincture is nothing else than chloride of gold. It would take up
too much space to attempt an analysis of all the curious facts and
preparations described in this treatise on philosophical furnaces;
but it will repay the perusal of any person who will take the trouble
to look into it. All the different pharmacopœias of the seventeenth
century borrowed from it largely. The third part of this treatise
is peculiarly interesting. It will be seen that Glauber had already
thought of the peculiar efficacy of applying solutions of sulphur,
&c. to the skin, and had anticipated the various vapour and gaseous
baths which have been introduced in Vienna and other places, during
the course of the present century, and considered as new, and as
constituting an important era in the healing art. In the fourth part
he not only treats of the docimastic processes, so well described by
Agricola and Erckern, but gives us the method of making glass, and
of imitating the precious stones by means of coloured glasses. The
fifth part is peculiarly valuable; in it he treats of the methods of
preparing lutes for glass vessels, of the construction and qualities of
crucibles, and of the vitrification of earthen vessels.
Another of his tracts is called “The Mineral Work;” the object of which
is to show the method of separating gold from flints, sand, clay,
and other minerals, by the spirit of salt (_muriatic acid_), which
otherwise cannot be purged; also a panacea, or universal antimonial
medicine. This panacea was a solution of deutoxide of antimony in
pyrotartaric acid; Glauber gives a most flattering account of its
efficacy in removing the most virulent diseases, particularly all kinds
of cutaneous eruptions. The second and third parts of The Mineral Work
are entirely alchymistical. In the treatise called “Miraculum Mundi,”
his chief object is to write a panegyric on _sulphate of soda_, of
which he was the discoverer, and to which he gave the name of _sal
mirabile_. The high terms in which he speaks of this innocent salt
are highly amusing, and serve well to show the spirit of the age,
and the dreams which still continued to haunt the most laborious and
sober-minded chemists. The _sal mirabile_ was not merely a purgative,
a virtue which it certainly possesses in a high degree, being as mild
a purgative, perhaps the very best, of all the saline preparations
yet tried; but it was a universal medicine, a panacea, a cure for all
diseases: nor was Glauber contented with this, but pointed out many
uses in the various arts and manufactures for which in his opinion
it was admirably fitted. But by far the fullest account of this _sal
mirabile_ is given by him in his treatise on the nature of salts.
I shall satisfy myself with giving the titles of his other tracts.
Every one of them contains facts of considerable importance, not to be
found in any chemical writings that preceded him; but to attempt to
connect these facts into one point of view would be needless, because
they are not such as would be likely to interest the general reader.
1. The Consolation of Navigators. This gives an account of a method by
which sailors may carry with them a great deal of nourishment in very
small bulk. The method consists in evaporating the wort of malt to
dryness, and carrying the dry extract to sea. This method has been had
recourse to in modern times, and has been found to furnish an effectual
remedy against the scurvy. He recommends also the use of muriatic acid
as a remedy for thirst, and a cure for the scurvy.
2. A true and perfect Description of the extracting good Tartar from
the Lees of Wine.
3. The first part of the Prosperity of Germany; in which is treated of
the concentration of wine, corn, and wood, and the more profitable use
of them than has hitherto been.
4. The second part of the Prosperity of Germany; wherein is shown by
what means minerals may be concentrated by nitre, and turned into
metallic and better bodies.
5. The third part of the Prosperity of Germany; in which is delivered
the way of most easily and plentifully extracting saltpetre out of
various subjects, every where obvious and at hand. Together with a
succinct explanation of Paracelsus’s prophecy; that is to say, in what
manner it is to be understood the northern lion will institute or plant
his political or civil monarchy; and that Paracelsus himself will not
abide in his grave; and that a vast quantity of riches will offer
itself. Likewise who the artist Elias is, of whose coming in the last
days, and his disclosing abundance of secrets, Paracelsus and others
have predicted.
6. The fourth part of the Prosperity of Germany; in which are revealed
many excellent, useful secrets, and such as are serviceable to the
country; and withal several preparations of efficacious cates extracted
out of the metals and appointed to physical uses; as also various
confections of golden potions. To which is also adjoined a small
treatise which maketh mention of my laboratory; in which there shall be
taught and demonstrated (for the public good and benefit of mankind)
wonderful secrets, and unto every body most profitable but hitherto
unknown.
7. The fifth part of the Prosperity of Germany; clearly and solidly
demonstrating and as it were showing with the fingers, what alchymy is,
and what benefit may, by the help thereof, be gotten every where and in
most places of Germany. Written and published to the honour of God, the
giver of all good things, primarily; and to the honour of all the great
ones of the country; and for the health, profit, and assistance against
foreign invasions, of all their inhabitants that are by due right and
obedience subject unto them.
8. The sixth and last part of the Prosperity of Germany; in which the
arcanas already revealed in the fifth part, are not only illustrated
and with a clear elucidation, but also such are manifested as are most
highly necessary to be known for the defence of the country against
the Turks. Together with an evident demonstration adjoined, showing,
that both a particular and universal transmutation of the imperfect
metals into more perfect ones by salt and fire, is most true; and
withal, by what means any one, that is endued with but a mean knowledge
in managing the fire, may experimentally try the truth hereof in
twenty-four hours’ space.
9. The first century of Glauber’s wealthy Storehouse of
Treasures.--Many of the processes given in this treatise are mystically
stated, or even concealed.
10. The second, third, fourth, and fifth century of Glauber’s wealthy
Storehouse of Treasures.
11. New chemical Light; being a revelation of a certain new invented
secret, never before manifested to the world.--This was a method of
extracting gold from stones. Probably the gold found by Glauber in his
processes existed in some of the reagents employed; this, at least, is
the most natural way of accounting for the result of Glauber’s trials.
15. The spagyrical Pharmacopœia, or Dispensatory.--In this book he
treats chiefly of medicines peculiarly his own; one of those, on
which he bestows the greatest praise, is _secret sal ammoniac_, or
sulphate of ammonia. He describes the method of preparing this salt, by
saturating sulphuric acid with ammonia. He informs us that it was much
employed by Paracelsus and Van Helmont, who distinguished it by the
name of _alkahest_.
13. Book of Fires.--Full of enigmas.
14. Treatise of the three Principles of Metals; viz. sulphur, mercury,
and salt of philosophers; how they may be profitably used in medicine,
alchymy, and other arts.
15. A short Book of Dialogues. Chiefly relating to alchymy.
16. Proserpine, or the Goddess of Riches.
17. Of Elias the Artist.
18. Of the three most noble Stones generated by three Fires.
19. Of the Purgatory of Philosophers.
20. Of the secret Fire of Philosophers.
21. A Treatise concerning the Animal Stone.
John Kunkel, who acquired a high reputation as a chemist, was born
in the Duchy of Sleswick; in the year 1630: his father was a trading
chemist, or apothecary; and Kunkel himself had, in his younger years,
paid great attention to the business of an apothecary: he had also
diligently studied the different processes of glass-making; and had
paid particular attention to the assaying of metals. In the year 1659,
he was chamberlain, chemist, and superintendent of apothecaries to the
dukes Francis Charles and Julius Henry, of Lauenburg. While in this
situation, he examined many pretended transmutations of metals, and
undertook other researches of importance. From this situation he was
invited, by John George II., Elector of Saxony, on the recommendation
of Dr. Langelott and Counsellor Vogt, as chamberlain and superintendent
of the elector’s laboratory, with a considerable salary. From this
situation he went to Berlin, where he was chemist to the elector
Frederick William; after whose death, his laboratory and glass-house
were accidentally burnt. From Berlin he was invited to Stockholm by
Charles XI., King of Sweden, who gave him the title of counsellor
of metals, and raised him to the rank of a nobleman: here he died,
in 1702, in the seventy-second year of his age. Kunkel’s greatest
discovery was, the method of extracting phosphorus from urine. This
curious substance had been originally discovered by Brandt, a chemist,
of Hamburg, in the year 1669, as he was attempting to extract from
human urine a liquid capable of converting silver into gold. He showed
a specimen of it to Kunkel, with whom he was acquainted: Kunkel
mentioned the fact as a piece of news to one Kraft, a friend of his in
Dresden, where he then resided: Kraft immediately repaired to Hamburg,
and purchased the secret from Brandt for 200 rix-dollars, doubtless
exacting from him, at the same time, a promise not to reveal it to
any other person. Soon after, he exhibited the phosphorus publicly
in Britain and in France; whether for money, or not, does not appear.
Kunkel, who had mentioned to his friend his intention of getting
possession of the process, being vexed at the treacherous conduct of
Kraft, attempted to discover it himself, and, after three or four years
labour, he succeeded, though all that he knew from Brandt was, that
urine was the substance from which the phosphorus was procured. In
consequence of this success, phosphorus was at first distinguished by
the epithet of _Kunkel_ added to the name.
Kunkel published, in 1678, a treatise on phosphorus, in which he
describes the properties of this substance, at that time a subject of
great wonder and curiosity. In this treatise, he proposes phosphorus
as a remedy of some efficacy, and gives a formula for preparing pills
of it, to be taken internally. It is therefore erroneous to suppose,
as has been done, that the introduction of this dangerous remedy into
medicine is a modern discovery. Kunkel appears to have been acquainted
with nitric ether. One of the most valuable of his books, is his
treatise on glass-making, which was translated into French; and which,
till nearly the end of the eighteenth century, constituted by far the
best account of glass-making in existence. The following is a list of
the most important of his works:
1. Observations on fixed and volatile Salts, potable Gold and Silver,
Spiritus Mundi, &c.; also of the colour and smell of metals, minerals,
and bitumens.--This tract was published at Hamburg, in 1678, and has
been several times reprinted since.
2. Chemical Remarks on the chemical Principles, acid, fixed and
volatile alkaline Salts, in the three kingdoms of nature, the mineral,
vegetable, and animal; likewise concerning their colour and smell, &c.;
with a chemical appendix against non-entia chymica.
3. Treatise of the Phosphorus mirabilis, and its wonderful shining
Pills; together with a discourse on what was formerly rightly named
nitre, but is now called the _blood of nature_.
4. An Epistle against Spirit of Wine without an acid.
5. Touchstone de Acido et Urinoso, Sale calido et frigido.
6. Ars Vitraria experimentalis.
7. Collegium Physico-chymicum experimentale, _or_ Laboratorium
chymicum.[176]
[176] I have never seen a copy of this last work; it must have been
valuable, as it was the book from which Scheele derived the first
rudiments of his knowledge.
Nicolas Lemery, the first Frenchman who completely stripped chemistry
of its mysticism, and presented it to the world in all its native
simplicity, deserves our particular attention, in consequence of the
celebrity which he acquired, and the benefits which he conferred on
the science. He was born at Rouen on the 17th of November, 1645. His
father, Julian Lemery, was _procureur_ of the Parliament of Normandy,
and a protestant. His son, when very young, showed a decided partiality
for chemistry, and repaired to an apothecary in Rouen, a relation of
his own, in hopes of being initiated into the science; but finding that
little information could be procured from him, young Lemery left him in
1666, and went to Paris, where he boarded himself with M. Glaser, at
that time demonstrator of chemistry at the Jardin du Roi.
Glaser was a _true chemist_, according to the meaning at that time
affixed to the term--full of obscure notions--unwilling to communicate
what knowledge he possessed--and not at all sociable. In two months
Lemery quitted his house in disgust, and set out with a resolution to
travel through France, and pick up chemical information as he best
could, from those who were capable of giving him information on the
subject. He first went to Montpelier, where he boarded in the house
of M. Vershant, an apothecary in that town. With his situation there
he was so much pleased, that he continued in it for three years:
he employed himself assiduously in the laboratory, and in teaching
chemistry to a number of young students who boarded with his host.
Here his reputation gradually increased so much, that he drew round
him the professors of the faculty of medicine of Montpelier, and all
the curious of the place, to witness his experiments. Here, too, he
practised medicine with considerable success.
After travelling through all France, he returned to Paris in 1672.
Here he frequented the different scientific meetings at that time
held in that capital, and soon distinguished himself by his chemical
knowledge. In a few years he got a laboratory of his own, commenced
apothecary, and began to give public lectures on chemistry, which were
speedily attended by great crowds of students from foreign countries.
For example, we are told that on one occasion forty Scotchmen repaired
to Paris on purpose to hear his lectures, and those of M. Du Verney
on anatomy. The medicines which he prepared in his laboratory became
fashionable, and brought him a great deal of money. The magistery
of bismuth (or pearl-white), which he prepared as a cosmetic, was
sufficient, we are told, to support the whole expense of his house. In
the year 1675 he published his Cours de Chimie, certainly one of the
most successful chemical books that ever appeared; it ran through a
vast number of editions in a few years, and was translated into Latin,
German, Spanish, and English.
In 1681 he began to be troubled in consequence of his religious
opinions. Louis XIV. was at that time in the height of his glory,
entirely under the control of his priests, and zealously bent upon
putting an end to the reformed religion in his dominions. Indeed, from
the infamous conduct of Charles II. of England, and the bigotry of his
successor, a prospect was opened to him, and of which he was anxious to
avail himself, of annihilating the reformed religion altogether, and
of plunging Europe a second time into the darkness of Roman Catholicism.
Lemery found it expedient, in 1683, to pass over into England.
Here he was well received by Charles II.: but England was at that
time convulsed with those religious and political struggles, which
terminated five years afterwards in the revolution. Lemery, in
consequence of this state of things, found it expedient to leave
England, and return to France. He took a doctor’s degree at Caen,
in Normandy; and, returning to Paris, he commenced all at once
practitioner in medicine and surgery, apothecary, and lecturer on
chemistry. The edict of Nantes was revoked in 1685, when James II. had
assured Louis of his intention to overturn the established religion,
and bring Great Britain again under the dominion of the pope. Lemery
was obliged to give up practice and conceal himself, in order to avoid
persecution. Finding his success hopeless, as long as he continued
a protestant, he changed his religion in 1686, and declared himself
a Roman catholic. This step secured his fortune: he was now as much
caressed and protected by the court and the clergy, as he had been
formerly persecuted by them. In 1699 when the Academy of Sciences was
new modelled, he was appointed associated chemist, and, on the death of
Bourdelin, before the end of that year, he became a pensioner. He died
on the 19th of June, 1715, at the age of seventy, in consequence of an
attack of palsy, which terminated in apoplexy.
Besides his System of Chemistry, which has been already mentioned, he
published the following works:
1. Pharmacopée universelle, contenant toutes les Operations de
Pharmacie qui sont en usage dans la Médicine.
2. Traité universelle des Drogues simples mis en ordre alphabétique.
3. Traité de l’Antimoine, contenant l’analyse chimique de ce mineral.
Besides these works, five different papers by Lemery were printed in
the Memoirs of the French Academy, between 1700 and 1709 inclusive.
These are as follow:
1. Explication physique et chimique des Feux souterrains, des
tremblemens de Terre, des Ouragans, des Eclairs et du Tonnere.--This
explanation is founded on the heat and combustion produced by the
mutual action of iron filings and sulphur on each other, when mixed in
large quantities.
2. Du Camphre.
3. Du Miel et de son analyse chimique.
4. De l’Urine de Vache, de ses effets en médicine et de son analyse
chimique.
5. Reflexions et Experiences sur le Sublimé Corrosive.--It appears from
this paper, that in 1709, when Lemery wrote, corrosive sublimate was
considered as a compound of mercury with the sulphuric and muriatic
acids. Lemery’s statement, that he made corrosive sublimate simply
by heating a mixture of mercury and decrepitated salt, is not easily
explained. Probably the salt which he had employed was impure. This is
the more likely, because, from his account of the matter which remained
at the bottom of the matrass after sublimation, it must have either
contained peroxide of iron or peroxide of mercury, for its colour he
says was red.
M. Lemery left a son, who was also a member of the French Academy; an
active chemist, and author of various papers, in which he endeavours to
give a mechanical explanation of chemical phenomena.
Another very active member of the French Academy, at the same time with
Lemery, was M. William Homberg, who was born on the 8th of January,
1652, at Batavia, in the island of Java. His father, John Homberg, was
a Saxon gentleman, who had been stripped of all his property during
the thirty years war. After receiving some education by the care of a
relation, he went into the service of the Dutch East India Company, and
got the command of the arsenal at Batavia. There he married the widow
of an officer, by whom he had four children, of whom William was the
second.
His father quitted the service of the India Company and repaired to
Amsterdam with his family. Young Homberg studied with avidity: he
devoted himself to the law, and in 1674 was admitted advocate of
Magdeburg; but his taste for natural history and science was great.
He collected plants in the neighbourhood, and made himself acquainted
with their names and uses. At night he studied the stars, and learned
the names and positions of the different constellations. Thus he
became a self-taught botanist and astronomer. He constructed a hollow
transparent celestial globe, on which, by means of a light placed
within, the principal fixed stars were seen in the same relative
positions as in the heavens.
Otto Guericke was at that time burgomaster of Magdeburg. His
experiments on a vacuum, and his invention of the air-pump, are
universally known. Homberg attached himself to Otto Guericke, and
this philosopher, though fond of mystery, either explained to him
his secrets, in consequence of his admiration of his genius, or was
unable to conceal them from his penetration. At last Homberg, quite
tired of his profession of advocate, left Magdeburg and went to Italy.
He sojourned for some time at Padua, where he devoted himself to the
study of medicine, anatomy, and botany. At Bologna he examined the
famous Bologna stone, the nature of which had been almost forgotten,
and succeeded in making a pyrophorus out of it. At Rome he associated
particularly with Marc-Antony Celio, famous for the large glasses for
telescopes which he was able to grind. Nor did he neglect painting,
sculpture, and music; pursuits in which, at that time, the Italians
excelled all other nations.
From Italy he went to France, and thence passed into England, where he
wrought for some time in the laboratory of Mr. Boyle, at that time one
of the most eminent schools of science in Europe. He then passed into
Holland, studied anatomy under De Graaf, and after visiting his family,
went to Wittemberg, where he took the degree of doctor of medicine.
After this he visited Baldwin and Kunkel, to get more accurate
information respecting the phosphorus which each had respectively
discovered. He purchased a knowledge of Kunkel’s phosphorus, by giving
in exchange a meteorological toy of Otto Guericke, now familiarly
known, by which the moisture or dryness of the air was indicated--a
little man came out of his house and stood at the door in dry weather,
but retired under cover in moist weather. He next visited the mines
of Saxony, Bohemia, and Hungary: he even went to Sweden, to visit the
copper-mines of that country. At Stockholm he wrought in the chemical
laboratory, lately established by the king, along with Hjerna, and
contributed considerably to the success of that new establishment.
He repaired a second time to France, where he spent some time,
actively engaged with the men of science in Paris. His father strongly
pressed him to return to Holland and settle as a physician: he at
last consented, and the day of his departure was come, when, just as
he was going into his carriage, he was stopped by a message from M.
Colbert on the part of the king. Offers of so advantageous a nature
were made him if he would consent to remain in France, that, after some
consideration, he was induced to embrace them.
In 1682 he changed his religion and became Roman catholic: this
induced his father to disinherit him. In 1688 he went to Rome, where
he practised medicine with considerable success. A few years after
he returned to Paris, where his knowledge and discoveries gave him
a very high reputation. In 1691 he became a member of the Academy
of Sciences, and got the direction of the laboratory belonging to
the academy: this enabled him to devote his undivided attention to
chemical investigations. In 1702 he was taken into the service of the
Duke of Orleans, who gave him a pension, and put him in possession of
the most splendid and complete laboratory that had ever been seen. He
was presented with the celebrated burning-glass of M. Tchirnhaus, by
the Duke of Orleans, and was enabled by means of it to determine many
points that had hitherto been only conjectural.
In 1704 he was made first physician to the Duke of Orleans, who
honoured him with his particular esteem. This appointment obliging him
to reside out of Paris, would have made it necessary for him to resign
his seat in the academy, had not the king made a special exemption in
his favour. In 1708 he married a daughter of the famous M. Dodart, to
whom he had been long attached. Some years after he was attacked by a
dysentery, which was cured, but returned from time to time. In 1715 it
returned with great violence, and Homberg died on the 24th of September.
His knowledge was uncommonly great in almost every department of
science. His chemical papers were very numerous; though there are few
of them, in this advanced period of the science, that are likely to
claim much attention from the chemical world. His pyrophorus, of which
he has given a description in the Mémoires de l’Académie,[177] was made
by mixing together human fæces and alum, and roasting the mixture till
it was reduced to a dry powder. It was then exposed in a matrass to a
red heat, till every thing combustible was driven off. Any combustible
will do as a substitute for human fæces--gum, flour, sugar, charcoal,
may be used. When a little of this phosphorus is poured upon paper, it
speedily catches fire and kindles the paper. Davy first explained the
nature of this phosphorus. The potash of the alum is converted into
potassium, which, by its absorption of oxygen from the atmosphere,
generates heat, and sets fire to the charcoal contained in the powder.
[177] For 1711, p. 238.
Homberg’s papers printed in the Memoirs of the French Academy amount
to thirty-one. They are to be found in the volumes for 1699 to 1714
inclusive.
M. Geoffroy, who was a member of the academy about the same time with
Lemery and Homberg, though he outlived them both, and who was an
active chemist for a considerable number of years, deserves also to be
mentioned here.
Stephen Francis Geoffroy was born in Paris on the 13th of February,
1672, where his father was an apothecary. While a young man, regular
meetings of the most eminent scientific men of Paris were held in his
father’s house, at which he was always present. This contributed very
much to increase his taste for scientific pursuits. After this he
studied botany, chemistry, and anatomy in Paris. In 1692 his father
sent him to Montpelier, to study pharmacy in the house of a skilful
apothecary, who at the same time sent his son to Paris, to acquire the
same art in the house of M. Geoffroy, senior. Here he attended the
different classes in the university, and his name began to be known as
a chemist. After spending some time in Montpelier, he travelled round
the coast to see the principal seaports, and was at St. Malo’s in 1693,
when it was bombarded by the British fleet.
In 1698 Count Tallard being appointed ambassador extraordinary to
London, made choice of M. Geoffroy as his physician, though he had
not taken a medical degree. Here he made many valuable acquaintances,
and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. From London he went to
Holland, and thence into Italy, in 1700, where he went in the capacity
of physician to M. de Louvois. The great object of M. Geoffroy was
always natural history, and materia medica. In 1693 he had subjected
himself to an examination, and he had been declared qualified to act
as an apothecary; but his own object was to be a physician, while that
of his father was that he should succeed himself as an apothecary:
this in some measure regulated his education. At last he declared
his intentions, and his father agreed to them; he became bachelor of
medicine in 1702, and doctor of medicine in 1704.
In 1709 he was made professor of medicine in the Royal College. In 1707
he began to lecture on chemistry, at the Jardin du Roi, in place of M.
Fagan, and continued to teach this important class during the remainder
of his life. In 1726 he was chosen dean of the faculty of medicine;
and, after the two years for which he was elected was finished, he was
again chosen to fill the same situation. There existed at that time a
lawsuit between the physicians and surgeons in Paris; a kind of civil
war very injurious to both; and the mildness and suavity of his manners
fitted him particularly for being at the head of the body of physicians
during its continuance. He became a member of the academy in 1699, and
died on the 6th of January, 1731.
The most important of all his chemical labours, and for which he
will always be remembered in the annals of the science, was the
contrivance which he fell upon, in 1718, of exhibiting the order of
chemical decompositions under the form of a table.[178] This method
was afterwards much enlarged and improved. Such tables are now usually
known by the name of _tables of affinity_; and, though they have been
of late years somewhat neglected, there can be but one opinion of their
importance when properly constructed.
[178] Mem. Paris, 1718, p. 202; and 1720, p. 20.
M. Geoffroy first communicated to the French chemists the mode of
making Prussian blue, as Dr. Woodward did to the English.
Claude Joseph Geoffroy, the younger brother of the preceding, was
also a member of the Academy of Sciences, and a zealous cultivator
of chemistry. Many of his chemical papers are to be found in the
memoirs of the French Academy. He demonstrated the composition of sal
ammoniac, which however was known to Glauber. He made many experiments
upon the combustion of the volatile oils, by pouring nitric acid on
them. He explained the pretended property which certain waters have
of converting iron into copper, by showing that in such cases copper
was held in solution in the water by an acid, and that the iron merely
precipitated the copper, and was dissolved and combined with the acid
in its place. He pointed out the constituents of the three vitriols,
the green, the blue, and the white; showing that the two former were
combinations of sulphuric acid with oxides of iron and copper, and the
latter a solution of lapis calaminaris (_carbonate of zinc_) in the
same acid. He has also a memoir on the emeticity of antimony, tartar
emetic, and kermes mineral; but it is rather medical than chemical.
He determined experimentally the nature of the salt of Seignette, or
Rochelle salt, and showed that it was obtained by saturating cream of
tartar with carbonate of soda, and crystallizing. It is curious that
this discovery was made about the same time by M. Boulduc. I have
noticed only a few of the papers of M. Geoffroy, junior; because,
though they all do him credit, and contributed to the improvement of
chemistry, yet none of them contain any of those great discoveries,
which stand as landmarks in the progress of science, and constitute an
era in the history of mankind. For the same reason I omit several other
names that, in a more minute history of chemistry, would deserve to be
particularized.