Oswald Crollius, of Hesse, must also take his station in this honourable fraternity of enthusiasts. He was physician to the Prince of Anhalt, and afterwards a counsellor of the Emperor Rodolphus II. The introduction to his Basilica Chymica, contains a short but exact epitome of the opinions of Paracelsus. It is not worth while to give the reader a notion of his own opinions, which are quite as absurd and unintelligible as those of Paracelsus and his followers. As a preparer of chemical medicines he deserves more credit; antimonium diaphoreticum was a favourite preparation of his, and so was sulphate of potash, which was known at the time by the name of specificum purgans Paracelsi: he knew chloride of silver well, and first gave it the name of luna cornea, or horn silver: fulminating gold was known to him, and called by him aurum volatile.
This is the place to mention Andrew Libavius, of Halle, in Saxony, where he was a physician, and a professor in the gymnasium of Coburg, who was one of the most successful opponents of the school of Paracelsus, and whose writings do him much credit. As a chemist, he deserves perhaps to occupy a higher rank than any of his contemporaries: he was, it is true, a believer in the possibility of transmuting metals, and boasted of the wonderful powers of aurum potabile; but he always distinguishes between rational alchymy and the mental alchymy of Paracelsus. He separated, with great care, chemistry from the reveries of the theosophists, and stands at the head of those who opposed most successfully the progress of superstition and fanaticism, which was making such an overwhelming progress in his time. His writings are very numerous and various, and were collected and published at Frankfort, in 1615, in three folio volumes, under the title of “Opera omnia Medico-chymica.” Libavius himself died in 1616. It would occupy more space than we have room for, to attempt an abstract of his very multifarious works. A few observations will be sufficient: he wrote no fewer than five different tracts to expose the quackery of George Amwald, who had boasted that he was in possession of a panacea, by means of which he was enabled to perform the most wonderful cures, and which he was in the habit of selling to his patients at an enormous price; Libavius showed that this boasted panacea was nothing else than cinnabar, which neither possessed the virtues ascribed to it by Amwald, nor deserved to be purchased at so high a price. He entered also into a controversy with Crollius, and exposed his fanatical and absurd opinions. He engaged likewise in a dispute with Henning Scheunemann, a physician in Bamberg, who was a Rosecrucian, and, like the rest of his brethren, profoundly ignorant not merely of all science, but even of philology. The expressions of Scheunemann are so obscure, that we learn more of his opinions from Libavius than from his own writings. He divides the internal nature of man into seven different degrees, from the seven changes it undergoes: these are, combustion, sublimation, dissolution, putrefaction, distillation, coagulation, and tincture. He gives us likewise an account of ten modifications which the three elements undergo; but as they are quite unintelligible, it is not worth while to state them. Libavius had the patience to analyze and expose all these gallimatias.
Libavius’s system of chemistry, entitled “Alchymia è dispersis passim optimorum auctorum, veterum et recentiorum exemplis potissimum, tum etiam preceptis quibusdam operose collecta, adhibitisque ratione et experientia quanta potuit esse methodo accurate explicata et in integrum corpus redacta. Accesserunt tractati nonnulli physici chymici item methodistici.” Frankfort, 1595, folio, 1597, 4to.—is really an excellent book, considering the period in which it was written, and deserves the attention of every person who is interested in the history of chemistry. I shall notice some of the most remarkable chemical facts which occur in Libavius, and which I have not observed in any preceding writer; who the actual discoverer of these facts really was, it is impossible to say, in consequence of the secrecy which at that time was affected, and the obscure terms in which chemical facts are in general stated.
He was aware that the fumes of sulphur have the property of blackening white lead. He was in the habit of purifying cinnabar by means of arsenic and oxide of lead. He knew the method of giving glass a red colour by means of gold or its oxide, and was aware of the method of making artificial gems, such as ruby, topaz, hyacinth, garnet, balass, by tinging glass by means of metallic oxides. He points out fluor spar as an excellent flux for various metals and their oxides. He knew that when metals were fused along with alkaline bodies, a certain portion of them was converted into slags, and this portion he endeavoured to recover by the addition of iron filings. He was aware of the mode of acidifying sulphur by means of nitric acid. He knew that camphor is soluble in nitric acid, and forms with it a kind of oil. Of the perchloride of tin he was undoubtedly the discoverer, as it has continued ever since his time to pass by his name; namely, fuming liquor of Libavius. He was aware, that alcohol or spirits could be obtained by distilling the fermented juice of a great variety of sweet fruits. He procured sulphuric acid by the distillation of alum and sulphate of iron, as Geber had done long before his time; but he determined the nature of the acid with more care than had been done, and showed, that it was the same as that obtained by the combustion of sulphur along with saltpetre. To him, therefore, in some measure, are we indebted for the process of preparing sulphuric acid which is at present practised by manufacturers.
Libavius found a successor in Angelus Sala, of Vicenza, physician to the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, worthy of his enlightened views and indefatigable exertions to oppose the torrent of fanaticism which threatened to overwhelm all Europe. Sala was still more addicted to chemical remedies than Libavius himself; but he had abjured a multitude of prejudices which had distinguished the school of Paracelsus. He discarded aurum potabile, and considered fulminating gold as the only remedy of that metal that deserved to be prescribed by medical men. He treated the notion of the existence of a universal remedy with contempt. He described sulphuret of gold and glass of antimony with a good deal of precision. He recommended sulphuric acid as an excellent remedy, and showed that it might be formed indifferently from sulphur, or by distilling blue vitriol or green vitriol. He affirmed, that the essential salts obtained from plants had not the same virtues as the plants from which they are obtained. He showed that sal ammoniac is a compound of muriatic acid and ammonia. To him, therefore, we are indebted for the first accurate mention of ammonia. It could not but have been noticed before by chemists, as it is procured with so much ease by the distillation of animal substances; but Sala is the first person who seems to have examined it with attention, and to have recognised its peculiar properties, and the readiness with which it saturates the different acids. He showed that iron has the property of precipitating copper from acid solutions: he pointed out also various precipitations of metals by other metals. He seems to have been acquainted with calomel, and to have been aware of at least some of its medical properties. He says, that fulminating gold loses its fulminating property when mixed with its own weight of sulphur, and the sulphur is burnt off it. Many other curious chemical facts occur in his writings, which it would be too tedious to particularize here. His works were collected and published in a quarto volume at Frankfort, in 1647, under the title of “Opera Medico-chymica, quæ extant omnia.” There was another edition in the same place in 1682, and an edition was published at Rome in 1650.
CHAPTER V.
OF VAN HELMONT AND THE IATRO-CHEMISTS.
Paracelsus first raised the dignity of chemistry, by pointing out the necessity of it for medical men, and by showing the superiority of chemical medicines over the disgusting decoctions of the Galenists. Libavius and Angelus Sala had carefully separated chemistry from the fanatical opinions of the followers of Paracelsus and the Rosecrucians. But matters were not doomed to remain in this state. Chemistry underwent a new revolution at this period, which shook the Spagirical system to its foundation; substituted other principles, and gave to medicine an aspect entirely new. This revolution was in a great measure due to the labours of Van Helmont.
John Baptist Van Helmont was a gentleman of Brabant, and Lord of Merode, of Royenboch, of Oorschot, and of Pellines. He was born in Brussels in 1577, and studied scholastic philosophy in Louvain till the age of seventeen. After having finished his humanity (as it was termed), he ought, according to the usage of the place, to have taken his degree of master of arts; but, having reflected on the futility of these ceremonies, he resolved never to solicit any academical honour. He next associated himself to the Jesuits, who then delivered courses of philosophy at Louvain, to the great displeasure of the professors of that city. One of the most celebrated of the Jesuits, Martin del Rio, even taught him magic. But Van Helmont was disappointed in his expectations: instead of that true wisdom which he hoped to acquire, he met with nothing but scholastic dialectics, with all its usual subtilties. He was no better satisfied with the doctrines of the Stoics, who taught him his own weakness and misery.
At last the works of Thomas à Kempis, and John Taulerus fell into his hands. These sacred books of mysticism attracted his attention: he thought that he perceived that wisdom is the gift of the Supreme Being; that it must be obtained by prayer; and that we must renounce our own will, if we wish to participate in the influence of the divine grace. From this moment he imitated Jesus Christ, in his humility. He abandoned all his property to his sister, renouncing the privileges of his birth, and laying aside the rank which he had hitherto occupied in society. It was not long before he reaped the fruit of these abnegations. A genius appeared to him in all the important circumstances of his life. In the year 1633 his own soul appeared to him under the figure of a resplendent crystal.