Abstract
MY colleague Prof. Earp has directed my attention to an article in the Journal of Hellenic Studies (vol. 1, p. 109; 1930) by F. S. Taylor, entitled “A Survey of Greek Alchemy”, in which the suggestion is made that the apparatus called a ‘water bath’ (bain-marie) by Berthelot (“Introduction à I'étude de la chimie des anciens”, Paris, 1889, p. 146) is really a small charcoal brazier. I had already explained this point in some lectures given three or four years ago in connexion with the course in the history, principles, and method of science in the University of London, and it is quite clearly stated in my book, “Everyday Chemistry”(Macmillan, 1929, p. 68), published in the year preceding Mr. Taylor's paper. The use of the apparatus in the operation of kerotakis is connected with the practice of encaustic painting, in which the four colours, black, white, yellow, and red, were (according to Pliny) the first to be used. These four colours are very important in the theories of Demokritos of Abdera, and reappear in an alchemical sense in the traditions ascribed to Demokritos in the earlier treatises, in which the process of transmutation is closely related to painting and dyeing.
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PARTINGTON, J. Alchemical Apparatus. Nature 128, 118 (1931). https://doi.org/10.1038/128118b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/128118b0
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