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Preface

...they made chemical preparations so notorious that in the year 1566 in Paris, by a decree of Parliament, no preparation of antimonyoriginal: "Antimonium oder Spießglanze." Antimony was a controversial remedy in the 16th century, often used as a powerful emetic (to induce vomiting). was permitted to be used for the sick. Although many physicians soon after came to the defense of chemistry, it was not until 1673 that Johann Matte was appointed the first demonstrator of chemistry in Montpellier *).

When StahlGeorg Ernst Stahl (1659–1734), a central figure in the transition from alchemy to chemistry. transformed metals into calxoriginal: "Kalk." In historical chemistry, "calx" refers to the powdery substance left after a metal has been roasted; we now know this as a metal oxide., and turned this back into metals again, chemists could finally see how much their art depended on not inventing things about nature, but rather seeking through experience that which reason places within nature. Such men, who have worked with their own hands, are to be preferred over all those pharmaceutical chemists who merely theorize.

If only all lovers of alchemy would proceed as did the one who, in the year 1785 in Silesia original: "Schle="; likely "Schlesien" (Silesia), truncated at the page break.

*) original: "Astruc Mémoires pour servir à l'hist. de la Faculté de Médécine de Montpellier; p. 69." Jean Astruc, Memoirs to serve the history of the Faculty of Medicine of Montpellier; p. 69.