“Alchemistische Decknamen”

Abstract

IN their recent paper under the above title (Sitzungsber. d. Phys.-Med. Sozietät, Erlangen, Bd. 56, pp. 17-36, 1924) Profs. Wiedemann and Ruska used (among others) the Dresden MS. 210, which contains a list of “Decknamen” for iron, copper, tin, lead, mercury and sal-ammoniac, twenty-four for each substance. It may be worth recording that a list so similar as to point to a common origin occurs in the British Museum MS. Add. 25724, ff. 15 verso-17 recto. This gives 24 names each for iron, copper, sulphur, tin, lead, mercury and sal-ammoniac, so that it affords a check upon Wiedemann and Ruska's list in the case of the six bodies mentioned, and supplements it with the names of sulphur, which are missing from the Dresden MS. The two MSS. agree in being anonymous, while the caption at the head of the list in the Dresden MS. is identical with that in the Brit. Mus. MS.