In addition to his achievements in medicine and philosophy, the Persian-born Avicenna (“Prince of Physicians,” “Aristotle of the Arabians”) is well known for his studies in mathematics, physics, music, and alchemy. Like Jabir, Avicenna accepted the sulphurmercury theory of the origin of metals in the earth, yet expressed total disbelief in the possibility that the essences of metals could be changed through alchemical transmutation. As we have seen, skepticism about transmutation was not widely shared by other Moslem authorities; nonetheless, Avicenna's position came to be extremely influential, largely as the result of a bibliographical accident. About 1200 the Englishman William of Sareshel translated into Latin a meteorological passage from Avicenna's work, the Kitâb al-Shifâ’ (the Book of the Remedy) and placed it at the end of an earlier translation of Aristotle's Meteorology, where it came to be regarded as the “missing” conclusion to the fourth book. Entitled De Congelatione et Conglutinatione Lapidum or De Mineralibus, this short section was quickly accepted as a genuine Aristotelian work: thus, Avicenna's skeptical attack was launched albeit under the cover of Aristotle's name. The work's authorship remained in question until 1927, when E. J. Holmyard and D. C. Mandeville demonstrated conclusively that De Congelatione was, in fact, “partly a direct translation and partly résumé” (8) of Avicenna's book.