Pliny's Chemical Knowledge

Abstract

“IT occurs to one to marvel at the persistent experimenting of humanity,” said Pliny, “which has exempted neither dregs nor foulest residues from the most varied examination.” It did not occur to him—vain though he was—to marvel equally at his own persistent accumulation of the most varied scraps and orts of knowledge. What a contributor, through accident of time, was lost to “Notes and Queries”! So vast is the extent of the “Natural History” that few men, in these rapid days, can have read the whole work; and so heterogeneous is it that probably few men would care to do so. Yet to the historian of chemistry, Pliny must be of paramount importance as a source-book of Roman chemical knowledge, not only because his mass of information is so great, but also because there are so few other sources of any kind. It is therefore with peculiar pleasure and satisfaction that we welcome the second and concluding part of Dr. Kenneth Bailey's book, in which all the important chemical passages not contained in the first part are collected, translated, and very adequately annotated.

The Elder Pliny's Chapters on Chemical Subjects.

Part 2. Edited, with Translation and Notes, by Dr. Kenneth C. Bailey. Pp. 299. (London: Edward Arnold and Co., 1932.) 15s. net.