Lascaris
(Alchemist of the Eighteenth Century.) It is impossible to determine the date at which this mysterious personage was born, or to say, exactly, whence he came and where he chiefly lived. He is commonly supposed to have been active about the beginning of the eighteenth century, while Germany is held to have been the principal scene of his activities; but everything recorded concerning him reads like a romance, and suggests the middle ages rather than the day before yesterday. Sometimes he assured people that he was of Oriental origin, sometimes he maintained that his native land was the Ionian Isles, and that he was a scion of the Greek royal house of Lascaris ; while on other occasions he declared that he was an Laurel archimandrite of a convent in the Island of Mytilene, and that his object in coming to Europe was to solicit alms for the ransom of Christian prisoners in the East. Such was his tale when, about 1700, he commenced wandering in Germany, and, while sojourning at Berlin, he happened to fall ill and sent for medical aid. This appeared shortly in the shape of a young apothecary, Johann Friedrich Bötticher by name, who chanced to be deeply interested in alchemy, so a friendship sprang up between physician and patient and ere Lascaris left the Prussian capital he gave Bötticher a packet of transmuting powder, at the same time instructing him how to use it successfully, yet refraining from telling him how to manufacture the powder itself. Nothing daunted, Bötticher set to work speedily, concocted considerable quantities of gold and silver, grew rich, and was raised to the peerage; while simultaneously he began to find his society, and more especially his services as a scientist, courted by kings and nobles. Meanwhile, however, his supply of the precious powder had run short, and being unable to make more he found his reputation waning apace; while worse still, he had spent his newly-acquired wealth speedily, and now he found himself reduced to penury. Ultimately he was incarcerated, but during his period of durance vile he set himself to the manufacture of porcelain, and by the sale of this he eventually restored his fallen fortunes.
We presume naturally that it was gratitude to his physician which inspired the crafty alchemist to give Bötticher the powder, but why did Lascaris make an analogous present at a later date? The recipient on this occasion being one Schmolz de Dierbach, a lieutenant-colonel in the Polish Army. He, like the German apothecary, succeeded. in making a quantity of gold, and, though we hear no more about him after this transmutation, we learn that a certain Baron de Creux was likewise favoured by Lascaris, the Baron's experiments proving just as successful as those of the others aforesaid. Nor were these the only people on whom our alchemist bestowed his indulgence, for one Domenico Manuel, the son of a Neapolitan mason, was likewise given a packet of transmutatory powder, and, armed thus, he wandered through Spain, Belgium, and Austria, performing operations before princes and noblemen, and reaping wealth accordingly. Pride was the inevitable result of this, and though there is no reason to suppose that any patent of nobility was ever conferred on Domenico, we find him styling himself now Comte Gautano, now Comte di Ruggiero; while in one town he maintained that he was a Prussian major-general, and elsewhere he declared that he was field-marshal of the Bavarian forces. Going to Berlin in the course of his perambulations, he offered to make gold in the presence of the king; but alas! his operation proved utterly futile, and he was hanged as a charlatan in consequence. This was in 1709, and in the same year, according to tradition, Lascaris himself performed some successful transmutations before a German politician named Liebknech, a citizen of Wurtembourg. Nothing further is heard of the mysterious Greek alchemist, however, so it may be assumed that he died soon after these events. His was a curious career indeed: his generosity having scarcely a parallel in the whole history of hermetic philosophy.