SECTION III. — HISTORY. 95

Booth, James Curtis and Campbell Morfit.
On Recent Improvements in the Chemical Arts. Smithsonian Report. Washington City, 1852. pp. 216, 8vo.
BoRCH, Ole.
See Borrichius, Olaus.
BoREL, Pierre.
Tresor de recherches et antiquit^s gauloises et fran^oises. Paris, 1655. 4to.
Contains much material pertaining to the history of alchemy, but badly arranged.
Borrichius, Olaus (Ole Borch).
*De ortu et progressu chemiae dissertatio. Hafniae, typis Matthiae Godicchenii, sumptibus Petri Haubold, 1668. pp. [xii]-i5o, 4to. (Reprinted in the Bibliotheca chem. curiosa of Mangetus, vol. i, No. I.)
The author of this celebrated treatise, the most frequently quoted by early historians, was born at Borchen (whence his name), Jutland, in 1626. He was Professor of Philology, Poetry, Chemistry and Botany at the University of Copenhagen, a fact which causes Rodwell to remark that " either professors were difficult to procure in the kingdom of Denmark, or else Olaus Borrichius was an astounding genius." However this may be, he was certainly a man of amazing credulity, and, allowing " the imaginative faculty due to his poetical temperament to exert an undue influence over his sober judgment," he refers the origin of alchemy to the antediluvians, endeavors to prove that Hermes Trismegistus was a real personage, the inventor of all arts, and the father of alchemy, and that the Smaragdine Table was really found by the wife of Abraham, besides accepting the preposterous theories of his contemporaries con- cerning the elixir of life and the philosophers' stone. This dissertation was highly prized by the alchemists of his day on account of its earnest defence of their principles. Its present value is solely that of a curious example of the extravagant credulity of a learned man. For biography of O. B. see in Section IV.
*Hermetis, ^gyptiorum et chemicorum sapientia ab Hermanni Con- ringii animadversionibus vindicata. Deuteronom. xxiii, v. vii. Noli abominari yEgyptium. Hafniae, sumptibus Petri Hauboldi, 1674. pp. [vi]-448-[viii], 4to.
This is a reply to Hermann Conringius' " De hermetica medicina." See Conring, H.
BosTOCK, John.
Account of the History and the present state of Galvanism. London, 1818. 8vo.
96 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHEMISTRY.
BOUANT, E.
Histoire de I'eau. Paris, 1882, 32010. 111.
We have not seen this " History of Water," a subject that we should hardly expect could be treated in a 32mo volume. We suppose cosmogony and the Universal Deluge occupy a portion of the work having so ambitious a title.
150UDET, Felix.
See Leblanc, F. et Dize.
BOULLET, A. F.
* De I'etat des connaissances relatives a I'dectricit^ chez les anciens peuples d'ltalie. Saint-Etienne, 1862. pp. 31, 8vo.
The author claims extensive knowledge of electricity by the ancient Romans, and quotes a passage from Ctesias (Indica, iv.) to prove that lightning- rods were in use 416 B.C. In a note by Dr. Michalowski he shows the resemblance between the Greek electron (amber) and two Hungarian words, EUeuk and tron, which together signify : " He darts forth lightning." The whole treatise is interesting, but imaginative.
Brande, William Thomas.
Dissertation Third : exhibiting a general view of the progress of chemi- cal philosophy, from the early ages to the end of the eighteenth century. [London, 1816.] pp. 79, 4to.
Prefixed to the Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britaunica. An American edition was issued in Boston in 1818. pp. 120, 8vo.
Historia de la quimica, tomada del Manual de Brande. In- troduccion al curso de esta ciencia leido en la Uni- versidad de Caracas por Jose M. Vargas. Publicada por uno de sus discipulos. Caracas, 1864. pp. 55, 8vo.
Branthome.
Ueberblick der Chemie nach ihrem gegenwartigen Zustande. Aus dem franzosischen mit Anmerkungen von Joh. Bartholomaeus Tromms- dorff. Strassburg, 1818. 8vo.
Brendel, J. G.
De instrumentis quibusdam chemicis Boerhaaveanis. Gottingae, 1747. Sm, 4to.
Breneman, a. a.
Historical Summary of the Fixation of Atmospheric Nitrogen. J. Am. Chem. Soc, xi (1889).
Contains bibliographic data.
Breymann und Kirstein.
Das chemische Laboratorium der Universitat Gottingen. Hannover, 1890, 4to. 111.