A commentator on Aristotle, writing in the 4th century A.D., calls
certain instruments used for fusion and calcination "_chuika organa_,"
that is, instruments for melting and pouring. Hence, probably, came
the adjective _chyic_ or _chymic_, and, at a somewhat later time, the
word _chemia_ as the name of that art which deals with calcinations,
fusions, meltings, and the like. The writer of a treatise on
astrology, in the 5th century, speaking of the influences of the stars
on the dispositions of man, says: "If a man is born under Mercury he
will give himself to astronomy; if Mars, he will follow the profession
of arms; if Saturn, he will devote himself to the science of alchemy
(_Scientia alchemiae_)." The word _alchemia_ which appears in this
treatise, was formed by prefixing the Arabic _al_ (meaning _the_) to
_chemia_, a word, as we have seen, of Greek origin.

It is the growth, development, and transformation into chemistry, of
this _alchemia_ which we have to consider.

Alchemy, that is, _the_ art of melting, pouring, and transforming,
must necessarily pay much attention to working with crucibles,
furnaces, alembics, and other vessels wherein things are fused,
distilled, calcined, and dissolved. The old drawings of alchemical
operations show us men busy calcining, cohobating, distilling,
dissolving, digesting, and performing other processes of like
character to these.

The alchemists could not be accused of laziness or aversion to work in
their laboratories. Paracelsus (16th century) says of them: "They are
not given to idleness, nor go in a proud habit, or plush and velvet
garments, often showing their rings on their fingers, or wearing