Arsenic
Arsénico (As, Z=33)
- Date
- c. 1250 · confidence low
- Place
- Cologne, Germany
- Credited to
- Albertus Magnus
- People
- 👤 Alberto Magno1193–1280
- Field
- Matter & energy
What was discovered
Albertus Magnus is said to have obtained metallic arsenic by heating orpiment with soap; its compounds had been known since antiquity.
The medieval attribution is traditional; Schröder described two methods of production in 1649.
What it led to
- Poisons and forensic toxicology (the Marsh test)
- Salvarsan, the first chemotherapeutic drug
- Gallium arsenide semiconductors
Built on
- Orpiment and realgar
- Medieval alchemy
Made possible
- Salvarsan (arsphenamine)1909–1910
- Marsh test