calculated to masticate, but more grossly, a harder substance than what is submitted to the action of the mandibles of Melolontha F. In a specimen of Areoda I found adhering to this molary plate, a substance resembling the pollen of flowers, which may hence be conjectured to be the food of that genus.*

From this account it seems I think evident, that a modification of the three kinds of teeth of vertebrate animals is to be found in these tribes as well as the Orthoptera, in which Marcelle de Serres detected them; for we find the incisores at the apex of the mandible, the molares at its base, and the laniarii at the apex of the maxillæ; though with respect to these last, I believe their primary use in very many insects is to hold the food for the action of the mandibulæ.

MIMELA CHINENSIS.

Long. corp. lin. 9. Habitat in China. Ex Mus. Dur Crane.

Corpus glaberrimum, luteo-virens, colore sub luce mutabili, subtus cupreo tinctum. Caput supra antice punctis confluentibus rugulosum, postice punctis sparsis conspersum, interque puncta creberrima minutissima, vix sine lente forti conspicua, subtus fulvum. Antennæ fulvæ. Thorax punctis sparsis punctulis minutissimis interjacentibus ut in capite. Elytra subrugosa, puncto-striata: striis intermediis per paria ordinatis, interstitiis punctatis et punctulatissimis ut in thorace, &c. apice gibba.

The insect I shall now describe is of a different order; and though it does not so strikingly assume the characters of another tribe or genus; yet, as it appears to partake of those of both Agrion and Lestes, exhibiting the general appearance and wings of the former, with some diagnostics of the latter, it seems not improperly introduced.

AGRION BRIGHTWELLI.

Nigrum: alis basi, in altero sexu apice macula, sanguineis. Long, corp. unc. 24. Expans. alar. unc. 24. Habitat in Brasilia. Ex. Mus. D. Brightwell.

Corpus nigrum, sub sole splendore obscure metallico subnitens. Caput subpilosum. Truncus brunneo-niger, supra lineis tribus longitudinalibus, intermedio elevato, nigris, sub alis primoribus strigis tribus obliquis, superiori obsoletiori, pallidis. Alæ subhyalinæ, basi læte sanguineæ, posticis apice macula subrotunda ejusdem coloris. Stigma nigrum oblongo-quadratum. Abdomen elongatum, tenue, transversim rugulosum, basi et apice subincrassatum. Forceps analis rectus? inferiori subincurvo.

* Since this paper was written, I met accidentally with a passage in Cuvier's Anatomie Comparée (iii. 321-.), by which it appears that he had observed in the mandibles of the larvæ of the Lucani "vers leur base, une surface molaire plane et striée ;" but he does not appear to have noticed this structure in any perfect insect.

N. B. In quibusdam speciminibus macula rotunda sanguinea alas primores item apice ornat. An sexûs varietas ?

Nomen dedi in honorem D. Brightwell Norvicensis, insectorum collectoris indefessi, felicis; indagatoris acuti, docti.

The upper anal forceps in the specimens of this insect that I have had an opportunity of examining were mutilated; I cannot therefore be positive that it does not approach nearer to Lestes of Dr. Leach, the stigma of which its wings exhibit, than to Agrion; but as these last are not suddenly narrower at their base, as in the former genus, I have considered it as belonging to the latter.

ARTICLE VI.

Some Account of Maier's Symbola Aurea Mensa Duodecim Nationum. By the Rev. J. J. Conybeare, MGS.

(Concluded from p. 247.)

Book V. Arabian School, led by Avicenna.-Maier here arrives at a period when the alchemical art did really flourish. Many of the writers whom he quotes were addicted to its study, and, in all probability, composed the works which pass under their names. One may fairly, however, except the first hero of this section, Mahomet, whom, after some questioning, he determines to have been a philosophus per ignem, upon his favourite grounds, that the possession of those extensive pecuniary resources always necessary for leaders or monarchs, is best accounted for by the supposition that they had the secret. It had been well for mankind if Mahomet, and some other of Maier's alchemical warriors, had possessed no better means than the Hermetic Gold of attaining to that bad eminence for which we usually suspect them to have been indebted rather to the Martial Steel. Of Avicenna nothing very remarkable is stated. He is followed by Geber, the obscurity of whose writings is acknowledged and defended at large, chiefly on the score of the enormities which would follow if the chrysopoetic art were plainly taught, and generally practised. It never seems to have occurred to Maier that if gold were thus multiplied it would become comparatively valueless. Artephius, the next associate of Avicenna, appears to have written on metaphysics and necromancy. Maier, however, contends, that it had all an alchemical meaning. Next follows Rhazes, from one of whose dicta it should appear, that the alchemist's secret lay not so much in the materials with which he operated, as in their respective quantities. Quicunque ignorat pondera, non laboret in nostris libris ; nam philosophi nihil suarum rerum posuerunt, nec aliud occulta

verunt, nisi pondera." A great number of Arabian philosophers are mentioned, and a story quoted from the "Aurora Resurgens" of a Christian captive receiving from his Saracen master his freedom, and a portion of the stone. This was capable not only of transmuting metals, but of healing. "Give the powder (says the adept) to a leper; let him go to bed, and cover himself with a counterpane, or sudary (sudario), and he shall be cured." It seems not improbable that some powerful mercurial, or rather antimonial remedy, was occasionally administered under this mysterious veil. Maier allows throughout this chapter that many soi-disant speculators in the art were no better than imposters. He professes to give some account of the points "in quibus omnes chemici conveniunt." All metals they universally believe to be generated beneath the earth from fumes (which are hot and dry), and vapours which are cold and moist. The rest of his argument seems to amount to this, that these four elements uniting in different proportions to form every known metallic substance, it is possible for art so to readjust those proportions as to convert the baser metals into the more perfect. "Ask (he continues) whether iron be not converted into copper at Goslar and elsewhere,* iron into steel, and lead into mercury." Book VI. The German School, led by Albertus Magnus, the account of whose life contains but little interesting. Maier rejects the traditionary tales of gold found in a human scull, and the vine with golden tendrils, and the golden-toothed Silesian boy. It is singular that he does not contrive to find allegories in them. Albert is followed by Bernhard, of Treves, whose hermetic philosophy is "in manibus omnium et admiratione," and Basil Valentine, whose works "doctorum indoctorumque manibus quotidie terantur." The fame of the latter has survived that of the former.+

Valentine is followed by Alanus de Insulis, better known to English antiquaries as the Expositor of the Prophecies attributed to Merlin. A "Liber Chemiæ " is quoted as his production, and great merit is ascribed to him for applying to the purposes of chemical digestion and evaporation the heat of a dunghill. It seems to have been an object with the artists to obtain a continued and equable heat, lower than that of the furnace, and not supported by any visible fire. R. Lullius for this purpose used a mixture of horse-dung and quicklime. Maier is loud in the praise of this philosophical bath, and even minute in his directions for the choice of its principal ingredient. He shortly after dwells much on the ignis philosophicus, which is

* This transmutation obtained belief so late as a century after our author's day, evenfrom the elder Geoffroy.-(See Le Pluche's History of the Heavens, vol. ii. p. 70.)

See the article Antimony in most of the larger Chemical Systems. His "Currus Triumphalis Antimonii," and "Last Will and Testament," were translated into English towards the end of the 17th century.

not the same with common fire. It burns without flame, and "in summis montibus delitescens non extinguitur." Elsewhere he states, that the philosophical gold, like the philosophical fire, is not the same with vulgar gold; the truest position, I apprehend, in the whole course of his work. The two Hollandi, J. Pontanus, and others, succeed, the merits of each hero being illustrated, as usual, by some reference to a quotation from their principal works. In two secrets ascribed to Greverus, he professes to find the stone Pantaura, and the water of gold of Philostratus. The former he states to be capable of drawing other stones to itself, and to be " re aut certe effectu," the same with the eagle stone. Of the latter, he affirms that it can be held by a metallic vessel only, and that the more compact metals are the fittest for the purpose. Maier gives a long but lame defence of that singular quack Paracelsus, and a somewhat more entertaining account of the Rosicrucians, who are formally invited to join the hermetic circle. Our author writes with the air of one extremely anxious to believe all that was reported of this mysterious fraternity, and, perhaps, to earn by his obsequiousness (like the Jew in Kenilworth) the honour of participating in their secrets. He addresses to them sundry very indifferent specimens of Latin verse. Amid the intentional obscurity and metaphysical trifling of this chapter, it is difficult to find any thing practical, or even intelligible. He mentions the increase of weight which some metals gain in the fire, as a matter altogether unaccountable" aliquid miraculi contingit.'

Book VII. The French School is led by Arnold de Villeneuve, of whose character our author enters into a long defence, rather declamatory than argumentative. The reproaches of his enemies, however, seem (as they are here represented) to have had no better foundation; they turn chiefly on his having attacked the authority of the Papal See. His claims to rank high as an alchymist must be conceded, for his contemporaries esteemed him a conjurer. So far Maier. Arnold was, however, in truth, for his age, no common man; and chemistry, as well as religion, was indebted to his researches. He is said to have discovered the spirits of wine, and of turpentine.† Arnold is followed by Vincent of Beauvais, certainly one of the most laborious and generally informed writers of the Middle Ages. His Speculum Naturale (from which Maier quotes one short sentence apparently in favour of alchemy) is the largest and most interesting

* The well-known geode containing in its hollow a moveable nodule. If this were the Pantaura, it might be among the symbols of the cosmological schools, from which we have seen that the alchemists so largely borrowed." The genuine Pantaura is (says Maier) very scarce; but what, you will ask, has it to do with the work? Is not gold, I answer, generated in the hardest stones, as in pyrites, cadmia, garnet, and lapis lazuli ? ” + See Arnaud de Villeneuve in the Dictionnaire Historique of L'Advocat, &c.; Mosheim Eccl. H. vol. iii. p. 36, and Flacii Testes Veritatis (sub nomine). Bergman mentions him as one of the earliest writers who notice distilled vinous spirits.

Encyclopædia which I know of the philosophy and natural history of that period. It seems to have been laid under contribution pretty largely, if not altogether copied, in a work better known to our own black letter students, "Bartholomæus de propuetatibus rerum." I have now before me what a bibliographer would term a venerable and perfect copy of Vincent's S. N. (Cologne, 1494.) The sixth and seventh books contain much alchemical matter, chiefly extracted from Avicenna, and a work termed Alchemiste. From this latter, the passage quoted by Maier as Vincent's own is taken, and it occurs in the 31st chapter of the 6th book.*

Vocatur (says the alchemist of the great secret) Elixir, et dicitur Lapis, non Lapis. Lapis quia teritur: Non Lapis quia funditur et currit in igne absque evaporatione sicut aurum. Nec est alia rescui proprietas illa conveniat. Can he mean that there is but one substance which fulfils these two conditions of being levigable, and fusible without evaporation? Vincent himself is not, however, answerable for this bold assertion. He seems to have been here as elsewhere merely a transcriber and compiler of others. Nicolas Flamel, well known for his chemical hieroglyphics, follows; and the catalogue is terminated by the notice of some authors living in Maier's own day. One of these, Dionysius Zacharius, is vehemently defended against some nameless writer who had attacked him and his Alchemy. The defence is accompanied by a singular concession, "that the alchemist did not succeed once in a thousand times;" and that there was, therefore, but too much ground for the arguments by which the unskilful endeavoured to deter their friends from the pursuit of the art, and to depreciate its professors.

The next character mentioned as an alchemist affords a singular instance of Maier's blindness or deception. Fernelius, the physician, does not appear to have meddled with alchemy; but in a treatise "de abditis rerum causis," he states that having read in Hippocrates "esse aliquid divini (rodelov) in morbis)," he had applied himself to its discovery. Maier decides peremptorily, that the "divini aliquid" must be the philoso pher's stone, and the diseases those of metals (as he afterwards terms lead aurum leprosum). He abuses accordingly those who could not penetrate, or who blamed, the obscurity of Fernel's work. He now proceeds to give a short statistical account of France (apparently from B. de la Vigenere), enlarging particularly on the revenues of the Gallican church as a proof of the riches and piety of their early kings. The book ends, as usual, with a syllogistic contest.

Book VIII. Contains the Italian School, headed by the certainly better known to the learned world as a theologian than an

* Maier refers for it to the 1st book, where I cannot at the moment find it.