[2511] The work is described in HL 30: 567-95. I have not seen the treatise itself. It exists in two different manuscript versions and a third repeatedly printed text for which no corresponding manuscript can be found.
[2512] HL 30: 576 and 593.
[2513] Sloane 121, 15-16th century, fols. 90v-92r.
[2514] The knowledge that sulphur and quicklime will burn when brought into contact with water seems, as Berthelot has pointed out, (1893) I, 95, to antedate Livy who writes (XXXIX, 13), “Matrones Baccharum habitu ... cum ardentibus facibus decurrere ad Tiberim demissasque in aquam faces, quia vivum sulfur cum calce insit, integra flamma efferre.”
[2515] Arundel 251, 14th century, fols. 12-24.
[2516] Possibly there is some connection with the chemical experiments of James Hutton (1726-1797), the geologist, and his discovery of a process for manufacturing sal ammoniac from coal-soot.
[2517] Steinschneider (1905), p. 51, also mentions Alcharius and Alcaus. The catalogue of MSS at Munich gives Alchabitii; in a Bologna MS we read Aichauus.
[2518] Steinschneider (1905), p. 51, notes only four of the following MSS, namely, those starred:
Sloane 1754, 14th century, fol. 30, “De pelle serpentis 12 experimenta et quaedam vera.” No author or translator is mentioned: the treatise immediately follows the Experiments of Nicholas of Poland.
Royal 12-D-XII, late 14th century, fol. 111v.