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270 General History of Europe By knowing a person's temperament one could judge what he ought to do in order to be successful in life, and what he should avoid. For example, if one were born under the influence of Venus he should be on his guard against violent love and should choose for a trade something connected with dress or adornment ; if he were born under Mars he might make armor or horseshoes or become a soldier. Many common words are really astrological terms, such as "ill-starred," "disastrous," "jovial," "saturnine," "mercurial" (derived from the names of the planets). Astrology was taught in the universities because it was supposed to be necessary for physicians to know how to choose times when the stars were favorable for particular kinds of medical treatment. 445. Alchemy. The alchemists experimented in their labora- tories with the hope of finding some way of turning lead and copper into gold and silver. They also tried to discover a sov- ereign remedy or elixir, as they called it, which would prolong life. Even if they did not succeed in their chief aim, they learned a great deal incidentally, and finally our modern chemistry emerged from alchemy. Like astrology, alchemy goes back to ancient times, for the people of the thirteenth century got most of their ideas through the Mohammedans, who had in turn got theirs from the Greek books on the subjects. IV. MEDIEVAL UNIVERSITIES AND STUDIES 446. Origin of the Universities. All European countries now have excellent schools, colleges, and universities. These had their beginning in the later Middle Ages. With the incoming of the barbarian Germans and the break-up of the Roman Empire edu- cation largely disappeared, and for hundreds of years there was nothing in western Europe, outside of Italy and Spain, corre- sponding to our universities and colleges. But by the end of the twelfth century the teachers had be- come so numerous in Paris that they formed a union, or guild. This union of professors was called by the usual name for corporations in the Middle Ages, universitas ; hence our word