PRELIMINARY REMARKS ON THE MECHANICAL, PHYSICAL, AND CHEMICAL THEORIES OF THE ANCIENT HINDUS.

My paper on the mechanical, physical, and chemical theories of the ancient Hindus is intended to be a synoptic view of the entire field of Hindu physico-chemical science, insofar as it reached the stage of positive science, as distinguished from the earlier mythological and empirical stages. Because the work in which my paper appears relates to Hindu chemistry, I have elaborated the chemical portions—including the Hindu account of the constitution of fats and oils and organic tissues—in addition to Hindu inorganic chemistry. I have also briefly noted the chief chemical industries of the Hindus, which secured them an easy pre-eminence in manufacturing for a thousand years, and, in the Addenda, I have provided some interesting recipes relating to several matters of chemical technology. Regarding mechanico-physical theories, I have explained the Hindu conception of energy—potential as well as kinetic—and of molecular motion, insofar as they are applied to the elucidation of problems of a physico-chemical nature, namely, the constitution of...