Note 11 — HASAN OF BASSORAH.[5]

Arab. Kímiyá, (see vol. i. 305) properly the substance which transmutes metals, the “philosopher’s stone” which, by the by, is not a stone; and comes from χυμεία, χυμός = a fluid, a wet drug, as opposed to Iksír (Al-) ξηρόν, ξήριον, a dry drug. Those who care to see how it is still studied will consult my History of Sindh (chapt. vii) and my experience which pointed only to the use made of it in base coinage. Hence in mod. tongue Kímiyáwi, an alchemist, means a coiner, a smasher. The reader must not suppose that the transmutation of metals is a dead study: I calculate that there are about one hundred workers in London alone.