(Compiled chiefly from Royle’s Materia Medica.)

Carbonate of Soda is the neter of the Hebrews. It was known to the early Hindus, and is by them called Sajji noon (i.e. Sajji or Soda Salt); it is the Sagimen vitri of Geber. The Natron lakes of Egypt were known to the ancients, and it was early employed in glass making, etc. (Royle). On the shores of the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean, plants of the order ChenopodeÆ are burned to form the ash called Barilla, and from this ash soda is obtained. Carbonate of soda was also formerly prepared on the coasts of Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and Normandy, by burning algÆ or sea-weeds, and the ash so obtained was called kelp. There is no doubt that the process is extremely ancient, and the discovery of the properties of these ashes accidental.

Chloride of Sodium, or common salt, is so universally distributed that it must have been known and used in food from the earliest ages.

Borax is thought to have been the Chrysocolla of Pliny. It is the Sohaga of the Hindus (Sanscrit, Tincana), and is called Booruk by the Arabs. It is abundant on the shores of some of the lakes in Thibet, and was brought into India across the Himalayas (Royle).

Sulphate of Soda, or Glauber’s Salt, is found on the soil in India and other countries, and exists in the ashes of many plants, in mineral springs, and in sea-water.

Lime was known to the Egyptians and Hindus.

Magnesia seems to have been known to the alchemists. Its name occurs in Geber and other writers of the period. The Carbonate of Magnesia was probably first used as a medicine by the Count de Palma at Rome. Hoffmann introduced it into the list of Materia Medica.

Epsom Salts (Sulphate of Magnesia) was first discovered by Dr. Grew in 1675 in a spring at Epsom. It is found in many countries.

Alum is mentioned in Pliny, xxxv. chap. 15, and probably is referred to by Dioscorides (v. chap. 122). Shib was the generic term of alum of various kinds in Arab writings. Egyptians and Hindus must have known of its properties from the earliest ages of their civilization. It was introduced into Europe from Syria by the Genoese.

Green Vitriol or Sulphate of Iron was known to the ancients. It is mentioned, says Dr. Royle, in the Amera Cosha of the Hindus (Hind. Med., p. 44), and it is used by them as by the Romans in the time of Pliny in making ink.

Zinc seems to have been first made known as a metal in Europe by Paracelsus. The Hindus have imported it from China from remote times. The Oxide of Zinc was anciently called tutty, probably from the Tamil Tutanagum. In the East, says Royle, Sulphate of Zinc is called suffed tutia, or white tutia, the Sulphates of Iron and Copper being called green and blue tutia (Hindu Med., p. 100).

Copper was one of the metals most anciently known. It was employed in medicine by the Hindus and Arabs in the form of the Sulphate or Blue-stone. Verdigris, the Diacetate of Copper, must have been known wherever copper vessels were used. It was employed by the Greeks as a medicine, by the Arabs, and probably also by the Egyptians.

Lead was equally well known of old; the carbonate of the metal was one of the most anciently known of the metallic salts. The Middle Ages introduced the acetate of lead commonly known as Sugar of Lead. Extract of Lead, or Extract of Saturn, or Goulard’s Extract, have been known since the time of B. Valentine.

Bismuth was first mentioned by Agricola in 1520.

Sulphur was employed in medicine by the Greeks, Hindus, and Arabs. Geber knew of its solubility in an alkaline solution, and Albertus Magnus taught the method of procuring Sulphuret of Potassium by fusion.

Phosphorus was discovered in 1669, when it was found in the Phosphate of Soda and Ammonia of Urine by Brandt, an alchemist of Hamburgh. Knuckel in Germany and Boyle in England had also the credit of discovering it (Royle, Mat. Med.).

Nitric Acid was known to Geber, and probably also to the Hindus (Royle, Mat. Med.).

Iodine was obtained by M. Courtois in 1812 in the residual liquor of the process for obtaining soda from sea-weed.

Iodide of Potassium was first employed in medicine by Coindet.

Bromine was discovered in 1826 by M. Balard, in bittern, the uncrystallisable residue of sea-water. Bromide of Potassium was first introduced into the London Pharmacopoeia in 1836.

Sal Ammoniac was known to Geber. Avicenna and Serapion mention it by the name Noshadur. Persian writers give Armeena as its Greek synonym. The Sanskrit name is Nuosadur. In Egypt it is made from camel’s dung. It must have been known to the Romans, as Pliny says that one of the kinds of Nitrum gives out a strong smell when mixed with quicklime (Royle, Mat. Med.).

Carbonate of Potash is obtained by the burning of vegetables. It must therefore have been known to primitive nations. “Dioscorides describes it by the name tef?a ???at????, or Cinis sarmentorum, ashes of vine twigs (‘cineris lixivium,’ Pliny, xxxviii. chap. 51). The Arabs are usually supposed to have been the first to make known this alkali (al-kali); but the Hindus, in works from which the Arabs copied, made use of the ashes of plants” (Royle, Mat. Med.).

Tin was the Bedel of Moses. It was used by the Egyptians, who probably procured it from India. The Greeks and Romans obtained it from the Phoenicians.

Antimony was probably discovered by the Alchemists. The sulphuret of the metal, however, is the st?? and stibium of the ancients. In Asia it has been used from time immemorial for painting the eyebrows and eyelids. Several of the Sulphurets of Antimony have long been used in medicine. The Tartarate (Tartar Emetic) is supposed to have been discovered by Mynsicht (Thesaurus, etc., Hamburgh, 1631).

Mercury or Quicksilver was known to the ancients. It was probably first prescribed internally by the Hindus. The Romans and Arabs used it externally. Pliny says that mercury is poisonous, “unless, indeed, it is to be administered in the form of an unction on the belly, when it will stay bloody fluxes.” The Arabs appear to have re-introduced it into the European practice (Royle). The red oxide was known to Geber. Calomel is the subchloride of mercury. It occurs native in Carniola and in Spain. The Hindus from very early times prepared it artificially and prescribed it internally. It was introduced into European practice in 1608. Bichloride of Mercury, or Corrosive Sublimate, is the ruskapoor of the Hindus, to whom, says Royle, it has long been known. It was known also by the Chinese, and was prepared by Geber in the eighth century. The, Ammonio-Chloride of mercury, or White Precipitate, was discovered by Raymond Lully in the thirteenth century. Cinnabar or Vermilion, the Red Sulphuret of Mercury, was known to the Greeks, and was one of the pigments employed by the Egyptians. It has been used by the Chinese and Hindus in medicine from very early times. The ointment of mercury killed with oil or fat was used by the Saracens for killing lice, just as it is used at the present time for the same purpose.

Preparations of Arsenic have long been used in medicine. Dioscorides applies the name Arsenikon (a?se?????) to the yellow Sulphuret of Arsenic.

The Arabs call it zurneekh, which is supposed by Sprengel to be a corruption of Arsenikon. They were familiar with the white oxide which they called sum-al-far, mouse poison or rat’s-bane. The Hindus are well acquainted with the form of arsenic known as orpiment, which they call hurtal; realgar, which is their mansil; and white arsenic, which they name sanchya. Royle thinks it was first prescribed internally by the Hindus, who used it for leprosy and intermittent fevers. It is a remedy of great value in many kinds of skin diseases, and is of great use in agues and in all periodic disorders, for which it is only inferior to quinine.

Silver is supposed to have first been employed in medicine by the Arabs. Gold was employed by the Greeks and Arabs in medicine, but it is not known which were the first to so use it. The Hindus used it long before the alchemists investigated its properties.