Alchemy
3 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Alchemy. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
An Encyclopaedia of Occultism (1920)
The science by aid of which the chemical philosophers of mediæval times attempted to transmute the baser metals into gold and silver. There is considerable divergence of opinion as to the etymology of the word, but it would seem to be derived from the Arabic al=the, and kimya chemistry, which in turn derives from late Greek chemeia chemistry, from chumeia a mingling, or cheein "to pour out," or "mix," Aryan root ghu, to pour, whence the word gush." Mr. A. Wallis Budge in his Egyptian Magic, however, states that it is possible that it may be derived from the Egyptian word khemeia, that is to say the preparation of the black ore," or powder," which was regarded as the active principle in the transmutation of metals. To this name the Arabs affixed the article al, thus giving al-khemeia, or alchemy. History of Alchemy. - From an early period the Egyptians possessed the reputation of being skilful workers in metals, and, according to Greek writers, they were conversant with their transmutation, employing quicksilver in the process of separating gold and silver from the native matrix. The resulting oxide was supposed to possess marvellous powers, and it was thought that there resided within it the individualities of the various metals-that in it their various substances were incorporated. This black powder was mystically identified with the underworld form of the god Osiris, and consequently was credited with magical properties. Thus there grew up in Egypt the belief that magical powers existed in fluxes and alloys. Probably such a belief existed throughout Europe in connection with the bronze-working castes of its several races. (See Shelta Thari .) It was probably in the Byzantium of the fourth century, however, that alchemical scienee received embryonic form. There is little doubt that Egyptian tradition, filtering through Alexandrian Hellenic sources was the foundation upon which the infant science was built, and this is borne out by the circumstance that the art was attributed to Hermes Trismegistus (q.v.) and supposed to be contained in its entirety in his works. The Arabs, after their conquest of Egypt in the seventh century, carried on the researches of the Alexandrian school, and through their instrumentality the art was brought to Morocco and thus in the eighth century to Spain , where it flourished exceedingly. Indeed, Spain from the ninth to the eleventh century became the repository of alchemical science, and the colleges of Seville, Cordova, and Granada were the centres from which this science radiated throughout Europe. The first practical alchemist may be said to have been the Arabian Geber (q.v.), who flourished 720-750. From his Summa Perfectionis, we may be justified in assuming that alchemical science was already matured in his day, and that he drew his inspiration from a still older unbroken line of adepts. He was followed by Avicenna , Mesna and Rhasis (q.v.), and in France by Alain of Lisle, Arnold de Villanova and Jean de Meung (q.v.) the troubadour; in England by Roger Bac n and in Spain itself by Raymond Lully. Later, in French alchemy the most illustrious names are those of Flamel (b. ca. 1330), and Bernard Trévisan (b. ca. 1406) after which the centre of interest changes to Germany and in some measure to England, in which countries Paracelsus, Khunrath (ca. 1560), Maier (ca. 1568), Böhme, Van Helmont, the Brabanter (1553), Ripley, Norton, Dalton, Charnock, and Fludd kept the alchemical flame burning brightly. It is surprising how little alteration we find throughout the period between the seventh and the seventeenth centuries, the heyday of alchemy, in the theory and practice of the art. The same sentiments and processes are found expressed in the later alchemical authorities as in the earliest, and a wonderful unanimity as regards the basic canons of the great art is evinced by the hermetic students of all time. On the introduction of chemistry as a practical art, alchemical science fell into desuetude and disrepute, owing chiefly to the number of charlatans practising it, and by the beginning of the eighteenth century, as a school, it may be said to have become defunct. Here and there, however, a solitary student of the art lingered, and the department of this article on "Modern Alchemy" will demonstrate that the science has to a great extent revived during modern times, although it has never been quite extinct. The Quests of Alchemy. The grand objects of alchemy were (1) the discovery of a process by which the baser metals might be transmuted into gold and silver; (2), the discovery of an elixir by which life might be prolonged indefinitely; and there may perhaps be added (3), the manufacture of an artificial process of human life. (For the latter see "Homunculus.") Alchemy The Theory and Philosophy of Alchemy. The first objects were to be achieved as follows: The transmutation of metals was to be accomplished by a powder, stone, or elixir often called the Philosopher's Stone, the application of which would effect the transmutation of the baser metals into gold or silver, depending upon the length of time of its application. Basing their conclusions on a profound examination of natural processes and research into the secrets of nature, the alchemists arrived at the axiom that nature was divided philosophically into four principal regions, the dry, the moist, the warm, the cold, whence all that exists must be derived. Nature is also divisible into the male and the female. She is the divine breath, the central fire, invisible yet ever active, and is typified by sulphur, which is the mercury of the sages, which slowly fructifies under the genial warmth of nature. The alchemist must be ingenuous, of a truthful disposition, and gifted with patience and prudence, following nature in every alchemical performance. He must recollect that like draws to like, and must know how to obtain the seed of metals, which is produced by the four elements through the will of the Supreme Being and the Imagination of Nature. We are told that the original matter of metals is double in its essence, being a dry heat combined with a warm moisture, and that air is water coagulated by fire, capable of producing a universal dissolvent. These terms the neophyte must be cautious of interpreting in their literal sense. Great confusion exists in alchemical nomenclature, and the gibberish employed by the scores of charlatans who in later times pretended to a knowledge of alchemical matters did not tend to make things any more clear. The beginner must also acquire a thorough knowledge of the manner in which metals grow in the bowels of the earth. These are engendered by sulphur, which is male, and mercury, which is female, and the crux of alchemy is to obtain their seed-a process which the alchemistical philosophers have not described with any degree of clarity. The physical theory of transmutation is based on the composite character of metals, and on the presumed existence of a substance which, applied to matter, exalts and perfects it. This, Eugenius Philalethes and others call The Light." The elements of all metals are similar, differing only in purity and proportion. The entire trend of the metallic kingdom is towards the natural manufacture of gold, and the production of the baser metals is only accidental as the result of an unfavourable environment. The Philosopher's Stone is the combination of the male and female seeds which beget gold. The composition of these is so veiled by symbolism as to make their identification a matter of impossibility. Waite, summarising the alchemical process once the secret of the stone is unveiled, says: " Given the matter of the stone and also the necessary vessel, the processes which must be then undertaken to accomplish the magnum opus are described with moderate perspicuity. There is the calcination or purgation of the stone, in which kind is worked with kind for the space of a philosophical year. There is dissolution which prepares the way for congelation, and which is performed during the black state of the mysterious matter. It is accomplished by water which does not wet the hand. There is the separation of the subtle and the gross, which is to be performed by means of heat. In the conjunction which follows, the elements are duly and scrupulously combined. Putrefaction afterwards takes place, “ 'Without which pole no seed may multiply.' Then, in the subsequent congelation the white colour appears, which is one of the signs of success. It becomes more pronounced in cibation. In sublimation the body is spiritualised, the spirit made corporeal, and again a more glittering whiteness is apparent. Fermentation afterwards fixes together the alchemical earth and water, and causes the mystic medicine to flow like wax. The matter is then augmented with the alchemical spirit of life, and the exaltation of the philosophic earth is accomplished by the natural rectification of its elements. When these processes have been successfully completed, the mystic stone will have passed through three chief stages characterised by different colours, black, white, and red, after which it is capable of infinite multication, and when projected on mercury, it will absolutely transmute it, the resulting gold bearing every test. The base metals made use of must be purified to insure the success of the operation. The process for the manufacture of silver is essentially similar, but the resources of the matter are not carried to so high a degree. According to the Commentary on the Ancient War of the Knights the transmutations performed by the perfect stone are so absolute that no trace remains of the original metal. It cannot, however, destroy gold, nor exalt it into a more perfect metallic substance; it, therefore, transmutes it into a medicine a thousand times superior to any virtues which can be extracted from it in its vulgar state. This medicine becomes a most potent agent in the exaltation of base metals." Mrs. There are not wanting authorities who deny that the transmutation of metals was the grand object of alchemy, and who infer from the alchemistical writings that the end of the art was the spiritual regeneration of man. Atwood, author of A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery, and an American writer named Hitchcock are perhaps the chief protagonists of the belief that by spiritual processes akin to those of the chemical processes of alchemy, the soul of man may be purified and exalted. But both commit the radical error of stating that the alchemical writers did not aver that the transmutation of base metal into gold was their grand end. None of the passages they quote, is inconsistent with the physical object of alchemy, and in a work, The Marrow of Alchemy, stated to be by Eugenius Philalethes, it is laid down that the real quest is for gold. It is constantly impressed upon the reader, however, in the perusal of esteemed alchemical works, that only those who are instructed by God can achieve the grand secret. Others, again, state that a tyro may possibly stumble upon it, but that unless he is guided by an adept he has small chance of achieving the grand arcanum. It will be obvious to the tyro, however, that nothing can ever be achieved by trusting to the alle- ✓gories of the adepts or the many charlatans who crowded the ranks of the art. Gold may have been made, or it may not, but the truth or fallacy of the alchemical method lies with modern chemistry. The transcendental view of alchemy, however, is rapidly gaining ground, and probably originated in the comprehensive nature of the Hermetic theory and the consciousness in the alchemical mind that what might with success be applied to nature could also be applied to man with similar results. Says Mr. Waite: The gold of the philosopher is not a metal, on the other hand, man is a being who possesses within himself the seeds of a perfection which he has never realised, and that he therefore corresponds to those metals which the Hermetic theory supposes to be capable of development. It has been constantly advanced that the conversion of lead into gold was only the assumed object of alchemy, and that it was in reality in search of a process for developing the latent possibilities in the subject man." At the same time, it must be admitted that the cryptic character of alchemical language was probably occasioned by a fear on the part of the alchemical mystic that he might lay himself open through his magical opinions to the rigours of the law. Alchemy The Elixir of Life has been specially treated elsewhere. Records of Alleged Actual Transmutation. Several records of alleged transmutations of base metals into gold are in existence. These were achieved by Nicholas Flamel, Van Helmont, Martini, Richthausen, and Sethon. For a detailed account of the methods employed the reader is referred to the several articles on these hermetists. In nearly every case the transmuting element was a mysterious powder or the Philosophers' Stone." " “ " Modern Alchemy. That alchemy has been studied in modern times there can be no doubt. M. Figuier in his L'Alchimie et les Alchimistes, dealing with the subject of modern alchemy, as expressed by the initiates of the first half of the nineteenth century, states that many French alchemists of his time regarded the discoveries of modern science as merely so many evidences of the truth of the doctrines they embraced. Throughout Europe, he says, the positive alchemical doctrine had many adherents at the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth. Thus a vast association of alchemists," founded in Westphalia in 1790, continued to flourish in the year 1819, under the name of the Hermetic Society." In 1837, an alchemist of Thuringia presented to the Société Industrielle of Weimar a tincture which he averred would effect metallic transmutation. About the same time several French journals announced a public course of lectures on hermetic philosophy by a professor of the University of Munich. He further states that many Hanoverian and Bavarian families pursued in common the search for the grand arcanum. Paris, however, was regarded as the alchemistical Mecca. There dwelt many theoretical alchemists and "empirical adepts." The first pursued the arcanum through the medium of books, the others engaged in practical efforts to effect transmutation. M. Figuier states that in the forties of last century he frequented the laboratory of a certain Monsieur L., which was the rendezvous of the alchemists of Paris. When Monsieur L's pupils left the laboratory for the day the modern adepts dropped in one by one, and Figuier relates how deeply impressed he was by the appearance and costumes of these strange men. In the daytime he frequently encountered them in the public libraries, buried in gigantic folios, and in the evening they might be seen pacing the solitary bridges with eyes fixed in vague contemplation upon the first pale stars of night. A long cloak usually covered their meagre limbs, and their untrimmed beards and matted locks lent them a wild appearance. They walked with a solemn and measured gait, and used the figures of speech employed by the mediæval illuminés. Their expression was generally a mixture of the most ardent hope and a fixed despair. “ Among the adepts who sought the laboratory of Monsieur L., Figuier remarked especially a young man, in whose habits and language he could see nothing in common with those of his strange companions. He confounded the wisdom of the alchemical adept with the tenets of the modern scientist in the most singular fashion, and meeting him one day at the gate of the Observatory, M. Figuier renewed the subject of their last discussion, deploring that a man of his gifts could pursue the semblance of a chimera." Without replying, the young adept led him into the Observatory garden, and proceeded to reveal to him the mysteries of modern alchemical science. The young man proceeded to fix a limit to the researches of the modern alchemists. Gold, he said, according to the ancient authors, has three distinct properties: (Ⅰ) that of resolving the baser metals into itself, and interchanging and metamorphosing all metals into one another; (2) the curing of afflictions and the prolongation of life; (3), as a spiritus mundi to bring mankind into rapport with the supermundane spheres. Modern alchemists, he continued, reject the greater part of these ideas, especially those connected with spiritual contact. The object of modern alchemy might be reduced to the search for a substance having the power to transform and transmute all other substances one into another-in short, to discover that medium so well known to the alchemists of old and lost to us. This was a perfectly feasible proposition. In the four principal substances of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and azote, we have the tetractus of Pythagoras and the tetragram of the Chaldeans and Egyptians. All the sixty elements are referable to these original four. The ancient alchemical theory established the fact that all the metals are the same in their composition, that all are formed from sulphur and mercury, and that the difference between them is according to the proportion of these substances in their composition. Further, all the products of minerals present in their composition complete identity with those substances most opposed to them. Thus fulminating acid contains precisely the same quantity of carbon, oxygen, and azote as cyanic acid, and "cyanhydric" acid does not differ from formate ammoniac. This new property of matter is known as " isomerism." M. Figuier's friend then proceeds to quote in support of his thesis and operations and experiments of M. Dumas, a celebrated French savant, as well as those of Prout, and other English chemists of standing. Passing to consider the possibility of isomerism in elementary as well as in compound substances, he points out to M. Figuier that if the theory of isomerism can apply to such bodies, the transmutation of metals ceases to be a wild, unpractical dream, and becomes a scientific possibility, the transformation being brought about by a molecular rearrangement. Isomerism can be established in the case of compound substances by chemical analysis, showing the identity of their constituent parts. In the case of metals it can be proved by the comparison of the properties of isomeric bodies with the properties of metals, in order to discover whether they have any common characteristics. Such experiments, he continued, had been conducted by M. Dumas, with the result that isomeric substances were found to have equal equivalents, or equivalents which were exact multiples one of another. This characteristic is also a feature of metals. Gold and osmium have identical equivalents, as have platinum and iridium. The equivalent of cobalt is almost the same as that of nickel, and the semi-equivalent of tin is equal to the equivalent of the two preceding metals. M. Dumas, speaking before the British Association, had shown that when three simple bodies displayed great analogies in their properties, such as chlorine, bromide, and iodine, barium, strontium, and calcium, the chemical equivalent of the intermediate body is represented by the arithmetical mean between the equivalents of the other two . Such a statement well showed the isomerism of elementary substances, and proved that metals, however dissimilar in outward appearance, were composed of the same matter differently arranged and proportioned. This theory successfully demolishes the difficulties in the way of transmutation. Again, Dr. Prout says that the chemical equivalents of nearly all elementary substances are the multiples of one among them. Thus, if the equivalent of hydrogen be taken for the unit, the equivalent of every other substance will be an exact multiple of it-carbon will be represented by six, azote by fourteen, oxygen by sixteen, zinc by thirty-two. But, pointed out M. Figuier's friend, if the molecular masses in compound substances have so simple a connection, does it not go to prove that all natural bodies are formed of one principle, differently arranged and condensed to produce all known compounds ? Alchindus If transmutation is thus theoretically possible, it only remains to show by practical experiment that it is strictly in accordance with chemical laws, and by no means inclines to the supernatural. At this juncture the young alchemist proceeded to liken the action of the Philosophers' Stone on metals to that of a ferment on organic matter. When metals are melted and brought to red heat, a molecular change may be produced analogous to fermentation. Just as sugar, under the influence of a ferment, may be changed into lactic acid without altering its constituents, so metals can alter their character under the influence of the Philosophers' Stone. The explanation of the latter case is no more difficult than that of the former. The ferment does not take any part in the chemical changes it brings about, and no satisfactory explanation of its effects can be found either in the laws of affinity or in the forces of electricity, light, or heat. As with the ferment, the required quantity of the Philosophers' Stone is infinitesimal. Medicine, philosophy, every modern science was at one time a source of such errors and extravagances as are associated with mediæval alchemy, but they are not therefore neglected and despised. Wherefore, then, should we be blind to the scientific nature of transmutation ? One of the foundations of alchemical theories was that minerals grew and developed in the earth, like organic things. It was always the aim of nature to produce gold, the most precious metal, but when circumstances were not favourable the baser metals resulted. The desire of the old alchemists was to surprise nature's secrets, and thus attain the ability to do in a short period what nature takes years to accomplish. Nevertheless, the mediæval alchemists appreciated the value of time in their experiments as modern alchemists never do. M. Figuier's friend urged him not to condemn these exponents of the hermetic philosophy for their metaphysical tendencies, for, he said, there are facts in our sciences which can only be explained in that light. If, for instance, copper be placed in air or water, there will be no result, but if a touch of some acid be added, it will oxidise. The explanation is that "the acid provokes oxidation of the metal, because it has an affinity for the oxide which tends to form "-a material fact almost metaphysical in its production, and only explicable thereby. He concluded his argument with an appeal for tolerance towards the medieval alchemists, whose work is underrated because it is not properly understood. (See also Elixir of Life, Homunculus, and the many lives of the alchemists throughout this book.) LITERATURE. Atwood, A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery, 1850; Hitchcock, Remarks on Alchemy and the Alchemists, Boston, 1857; Waite, Lives of the Alchemystical Philosophers, London, 1888; The Occult Sciences, London, 1891; Bacon, Mirror of Alchemy, 1597; The works of the Hon. Robert Boyle; S. le Doux, Dictionnaire Hermetique, 1695; Langlet de Fresnoy, Histoire de la Philosophie Hermetique, 1792; Theatrum Chemicum, (Essays by many great alchemists), 1662; Valentine, Triumphal Chariot of Antimony, 1656; Redgrove, Alchemy Ancient and Modern; Figuier, L'Alchimie et les Alchimistes, Paris, 1857.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a study of nature with three special objects: (1) (1) That of obtaining an alkahest or universal solvent. (2) That of acquiring the ability to transmute all metals into gold or silver, especially the former. (3) That of obtaining an elixir vitæ, or universal medicine, which might cure all diseases and indefinitely prolong human life. The word is derived from the Arabic alkimia, compounded of the Arabic article and a Greek word chemia, used in Diocletian's decree against Egyptian works treating of the chemia (transmutation) of gold and silver. Tradition points to Egypt as the birthplace of the science. Hermes Trismegistus is represented as the father of it; but it should be remembered that the speculations of some of the early Greek philosophers, as of Empedocles, who first named the four elements, pointed in the direction of a rudimentary chemical the- Zosimus the Theban discovered ory. in sulphuric acid a solvent of the metals, and liberated oxygen from the red oxide of mercury. The students of the "sacred art" at Alexandria believed in the transmutation of the four elements. The Roman Emperor Caligula is said to have instituted experiments for producing gold out of orpiment (sulphuret of arsenic); and in the time of Diocletian the passion for this pursuit, conjoined with magical arts, had become so prevalent in the empire that that emperor is said to have ordered all Egyptian works treating of the chemistry of gold and silver to be burned. For at that time multitudes of books on this art appeared, written by Alexandrian monks and by hermits, but bearing famous names of antiquity such as Democritus, Pythagoras, and Hermes. At a later period, the Arabs, who had enthusiastically adopted Aristotle from the Greeks, appropiated the astrology and alchemy of the Persians and the Jews of Mesopotamia and Arabia; and to them. European alchemy is directly traceable. The school of polypharmacy, as it has been called, flourished in Arabia during the caliphates of the Abbassides. They worked with gold and mercury, arsenic and sulphur, salts and acids; and had, in short, become familiar with a large range of what are now called chemicals. Gebir discovered corrosive sublimate, the process of cupellation of gold and silver, and distillation. To the Arab alchemists we owe the terms alcohol, alkali, borax, elixir. From the Arabs, alchemy found its way through Spain into Europe generally, and speedily became entangled with the fantastic subtleties of the scholastic philosophy. In the Middle Ages, the monks occupied themselves with alchemy. Pope John XXII. took great delight in it, but denounced the searchers for gold "who promise more than they can perform, and the art was afterward forbidden by his successor. The earliest authentic works on European alchemy now extant are those of Roger Bacon (1214-1294) and Albertus Magnus (1193-1280). Roger Bacon, who was acquainted with gunpowder, condemns magic necromancy, charms, and all such things, but believes in the convertibility of the inferor metals into gold. Still, he does not profess to have ever effected the conversion. Albertus Magnus had a great mastery of the practical chemistry of his times; he was acquainted with alum, caustic alkali, and the purification of the royal metals by means of lead. In addition to the sulphur-and-mercury theory of the metals, drawn from Gebir, he regarded the element water as still nearer the soul of nature than either of these bodies. He is the first to speak of the affinity of bodies, a term he uses in reference to the action of sulphur on metals. Thomas Aquinas also wrote on alchemy, and was the first to employ the word amalgam. Raymond Lully is another great name in the annals of alchemy. He was the first to introduce the use of chemical symbols, his system consisting of a scheme of arbitrary hieroglyphics. He wrote more than 500 works on alchemy. Basil Valentine introduced antimony into medical use. He, along with some previous alchemists, regarded salt, sulphur, and mercury as the three bodies contained in the metals. His practical knowledge was great; he knew how to precipitate iron from solution by potash, and was acquainted with many similar processes, so that he is ranked as the founder of analytical chemistry. But more famous than all was Paracelsus, in whom alchemy proper may be said to have culminated. He held, with Basil Valentine, that the elements of compound bodies were salt, sulphur and mercury-representing respectively earth, air, and water, fire being already regarded as an imponderable-but these substances were in his system purely representative. All kinds of matter were reducible under one or other of these typical forms; everything was either a salt, a sulphur, or a mercury, or, like the metals, it was a mixed or compound. There was one element, however, com mon to the four; a fifth essence or quintessence of creation; an unknown and only true element, of which the four generic principles were nothing but derivative forms or embodiments: in other words, he inculcated the dogma that there is only one real elementary matter, nobody knows what. This one prime element of things he appears to have considered to be the universal solvent of which the alchemists were in quest, and to express which he introduced the term alkahest. After Paracelsus, the alchemists of Europe became divided into two classes. The one class was composed of men of diligence and sense, who devoted themselves to the discovery of new compounds and reactions. The other class took up the visionary, fantastical side of the older alchemy, and carried it to a degree of extravagance before unknown. Instead of useful work, they compiled mystical trash into books, and fathered them on Hermes, Aristotle, Albertus Magnus, Paracelsus, and other really great men. These visionaries formed themselves into Rosicrucian societies and other secret associations.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
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 2026 Editor's Note: Alchemy's dream of turning lead into gold proved chemically impossible — but physically real: particle accelerators have transmuted one element into another, even made trace gold, at a cost dwarfing the gold's worth. Isaac Newton was a devoted alchemist, and the field's failures nonetheless invented the laboratory methods that became chemistry. (Ed: BR 2026-06-10)