Libavius, Andrew

, a physician and chemist, born at Hall, in Saxony, was professor of history and poetry at Jena, in 1588, but removed to Rothenburg, on the Tauber, in 1591, and to Coburg, in Franconia, in 1605, where he was appointed principal of the college of Casimir, at that place. He died at Coburg in 1616. Libavius obtained a considerable reputation in his time by his chemical works, having pursued that science upon better principles than most of his contemporaries, although he did not altogether escape the delusions of alchemy. Although he employed many chemical preparations in medicine, he avoided the violence of Paracelsus and his disciples, against whom he frequently defends the doctrines of the Galenical school. He left his name long attached, in the laboratories, to a particular preparation of tin with muriatic acid, which was called “the fuming liquor of Libavius.” It is unnecessary to enumerate the titles of his many works, which have now become obsolete, and are almost forgotten. His last work, published at Francfort in 1615, under the title of “Exarnen Philosophise Novae, quae veteri abrogandac opponitur,” folio, is remarkable for the first mention of the transfusion of blood from the vessels of one living animal to those of another, of which he speaks with great confidence, and which once excited great expectations, which have confessedly been disappointed. ¹