The word _Alchemy_ is mentioned for the first time by the Byzantines. The art of transmuting metals under the name of _Chemia_, is first spoken of by Suidas, who wrote in the tenth century. The Byzantines began to make chemical experiments about the seventh century; all the books they quote were attributed to Hermes. What is known as the Hermetic philosophy was synonymous with alchemy, but the books were really the work of the monks of the period.[724] The earliest works on alchemy which we possess are those of Geber of Seville, who lived probably about the eighth or ninth century. His works were entitled _Of the Search of Perfection_, _Of the Sum of Perfection_, _Of the Invention of Verity_. He divided metals into the more or less perfect, gold the most perfect, silver the next, etc. His aim was to convert inferior metals into gold; that which should turn base metals into gold would be also a universal medicine, would cure or prevent diseases, prolong life, and make the body beautiful and strong. The philosopher’s stone would embrace in itself all perfections. Alchemy led to chemistry; it is even declared by some to have been the mother of chemistry. Some have thought that without the hope of making gold and other precious things, men would never have been inspired to investigate the secrets of nature and sustained in the arduous and often dangerous work of the chemist. But this is to take far too low a view of the scientific mind in all ages. The search for truth, the passion for investigating and interrogating nature has happily never wholly depended upon mercenary motives, and men have devoted their lives as ardently to scientific researches, by which they could never have hoped to gain a single penny, as did those alchemists of old, who bent over their crucibles in the vain search for the perfect magistery.[725] Gibbon says,[726] “The science of chemistry owes its origin and improvement to the industry of the Saracens. They first invented and named the alembic for the purposes of distillation, analysed the substances of the three kingdoms of nature, tried the distinction and affinities of alkalis and acids, and converted the poisonous minerals into soft and salutary medicines.” Gibbon somewhat exaggerates. Analysis and affinity were discovered at a much later period. It was Europeans in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries who advanced chemical science towards its present high position. NONNUS (10th century) wrote “a compendium of the whole art of medicine,” in 290 chapters. It is a mere compilation, and the author is only worthy of remembrance in medical history as the earliest Greek medical writer who mentions distilled rose-water, an article originally derived from the Arabians. CHAPTER IV. RISE OF THE UNIVERSITIES. School of Montpellier.—Divorce of Medicine from Surgery.