Alchemy

in the history of science, a term applied to medieval chemistry. Quoting from the Century Dictionary, "The doctrines and processes of the early and medieval chemists; in particular, the supposed process, or the search for the process, by which it was hoped to transmute the baser metals into gold." From Encyclopedia Britannica, we add, "Alchemy was, we may say, the sickly but imaginative infancy through which modern chemistry had to pass before it attained its majority, or, in other words, became a positive science." The derivation of the word indicates that alchemy was originally the art of extracting juices from plants for medicinal purposes. In the dawn of science there was little distinction between the different branches now recognized; but alchemy may be said to bear the relation to modern chemistry that astrology sustains to astronomy, and magic to medicine. The medieval students of alchemy are not to be regarded with scorn. They were working in the dark. Without them modern science would have been impossible. This view is maintained ably by Hoefer in his History of Chemistry:

Let us forget for an instant the advances which this science has made since the 5th century. Let us fancy ourselves for a moment transported to the laboratory of one of the great masters of the sacred art, and watch as neophytes some of his operations.

First Experiment.--Some common water is heated in an open vessel. The water boils and changes to an aeriform body (steam), leaving at the bottom of the vessel a white earth in the form of powder. Conclusion--water changes into air and earth. What objection could we make to this inference, if we were wholly ignorant of the substances which the water holds in solution and which are, after evaporation, deposited at the bottom of the vessel?

Second Experiment.--A piece of red-hot iron is put under a bell which rests in a basin full of water. The water diminishes in volume, and a candle being introduced into the bell sets fire at once to the gas inside. Conclusion--water changes into fire. Is not this the natural conclusion which would present itself to any one who was ignorant that water is a composite body, consisting of two gases, one of which, oxygen, is absorbed by the iron, while the other, hydrogen, is ignited by contact with the flame?

Third Experiment.--A piece of lead, or any other metal except gold or silver, is burned (calcined) in contact with the air. It immediately loses its primitive properties, and is transformed into a powder or species of ashes or lime. The ashes, which are the product of the death of the metal, are again taken and heated in a crucible together with some grains of wheat, and the metal is seen rising from its ashes and reassuming its original form and properties. Conclusion--metals are destroyed by fire and revivified by wheat and heat. No objection could be raised against this inference, for the reduction of oxides by means of carbon, such as wheat, was as little known as the phenomenon of the oxidation of metals. It was from this power of resuscitating and reviving dead, i.e., calcined metals, that grains of wheat were made the symbol of the resurrection and life eternal.

Fourth Experiment.--Argentiferous lead is burned in cupels composed of ashes or pulverized bones, the lead disappears, and at the end of the operation there remains in the cupel a nugget of pure silver. Nothing was more natural than to conclude that the lead was transformed into silver; and to build on this and analogous facts, the theory of the transmutation of metals, a theory which, later on, led to the search for the philosopher's stone.

Fifth Experiment.--A strong acid is poured on copper, the metal is acted upon, and in process of time disappears, or rather is transformed into a green transparent liquid. Then a thin plate of iron is plunged into this liquid, and the copper is seen to reappear in its ordinary aspect, while the iron in its turn is dissolved. What more natural than to conclude that iron is transformed into copper? If instead of the solution of copper, a solution of lead, silver, or gold had been employed they would have held that iron was transformed into lead, silver, or gold.

Sixth Experiment.--Mercury is poured in a gentle shower on melted sulphur, and a substance is produced as black as a raven's wing. This substance, when warmed in a closed vessel, is volatilized without changing, and assumes a brilliant red color. Must not this curious phenomenon, which even science in the present day is unable to explain, have struck with amazement the worshippers of the sacred art, the more as in their eyes black and red were nothing less than the symbols of light and darkness, the good and evil principles, and that the union of these two principles represented in the moral order of things their God-universe?

Seventh and last Experiment.--Organic substances are heated in a still, and from the liquids which are removed by distillation and the essences which escape, there remains a solid residuum. Was it not likely that results such as these would go far to establish the theory which made earth, air, fire, and water the four elements of the world?

See Chemistry; Astrology; Elixer; Medicine; Philosopher'S Stone