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diff --git a/14218-0.txt b/14218-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..14ed251 --- /dev/null +++ b/14218-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5534 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14218 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 14218-h.htm or 14218-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/2/1/14218/14218-h/14218-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/2/1/14218/14218-h.zip) + + + + + +THE STORY OF ALCHEMY AND THE BEGINNINGS OF CHEMISTRY + +by + +M. M. PATTISON MUIR, M.A. + +Fellow and Formerly Prælector in Chemistry of Gonville and Caius College, +Cambridge + +With Eighteen Illustrations + +New and Enlarged Edition + +Hodder and Stoughton +London, New York, Toronto + + + + + + + + [Illustration: AN ALCHEMICAL LABORATORY] + + + + + "It is neither religious nor wise to judge that + of which you know nothing." + +_A Brief Guide to the Celestial Ruby_, by PHILALETHES (17th century) + + + + * * * * * + +THE USEFUL KNOWLEDGE SERIES + +Cloth, One Shilling net each + +List of the first thirty-four volumes issued in the new style with +Pictorial Wrappers:-- + + WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY. By ALFRED T. STORY. + + A PIECE OF COAL. By K.A. MARTIN, F.G.S. + + ARCHITECTURE. By P.L. WATERHOUSE. + + THE COTTON PLANT. By F. WILKINSON, F.G.S. + + PLANT LIFE. By GRANT ALLEN. + + WILD FLOWERS. By REV. PROF. G. HENSLOW, F.L.S., F.G.S. + + THE SOLAR SYSTEM. By G.F. CHAMBERS, F.R.A.S. + + ECLIPSES. By G.F. CHAMBERS, F.R.A.S. + + THE STARS. By G.F.CHAMBERS, F.R.A.S. + + THE WEATHER. By G.F. CHAMBERS, F.R.A.S. + + ANIMAL LIFE. By B. LINDSAY. + + GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY. By JOSEPH JACOBS. + + THE ATMOSPHERE. By DOUGLAS ARCHIBALD, M.A. + + ALPINE CLIMBING. By FRANCIS GRIBBLE + + FOREST AND STREAM. By JAMES RODWAY, F.L.S. + + FISH LIFE. By W.P. PYCRAFT, F.Z.S. + + BIRD LIFE. By W.P. PYCRAFT, F.Z.S. + + PRIMITIVE MAN. By EDWARD CLODD. + + ANCIENT EGYPT. By ROBINSON SOUTTAR, M.A., D.C.L. + + STORY OF LOCOMOTION. By BECKLES WILLSON. + + THE EARTH IN PAST AGES. By H.G. SEELEY, F.R.S. + + THE EMPIRE. By E. SALMON. + + KING ALFRED. By SIR WALTER BESANT. + + LOST ENGLAND. By BECKLES WILLSON. + + ALCHEMY, OR THE BEGINNINGS OF CHEMISTRY. By M.M. PATTISON MUIR, M.A. + + THE CHEMICAL ELEMENTS. By M.M. PATTISON MUIR, M.A. + + THE WANDERINGS OF ATOMS. By M.M. PATTISON MUIR, M.A. + + GERM LIFE: BACTERIA. By H.W. CONN. + + LIFE IN THE SEAS. By SIDNEY J. HICKSON F.R.S. + + LIFE'S MECHANISM. By H.W. CONN. + + REPTILE LIFE. By W.P. PYCRAFT, F.Z.S. + + THE GRAIN OF WHEAT. By WILLIAM C. EDGAR. + + THE POTTER. By C.F. BINNS. + + * * * * * + + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry is very +interesting in itself. It is also a pregnant example of the contrast +between the scientific and the emotional methods of regarding nature; +and it admirably illustrates the differences between well-grounded, +suggestive, hypotheses, and baseless speculations. + +I have tried to tell the story so that it may be intelligible to the +ordinary reader. + + + M.M. PATTISON MUIR. +CAMBRIDGE, November 1902. + + + * * * * * + + +NOTE TO NEW EDITION. + +A few small changes have been made. The last chapter has been +re-written and considerably enlarged. + + M.M.P.M. +FARNHAM, September 1913. + + * * * * * + + + + +CONTENTS. + +CHAPTER + + I. THE EXPLANATION OF MATERIAL CHANGES GIVEN BY GREEK THINKERS + + II. A SKETCH OF ALCHEMICAL THEORY + + III. THE ALCHEMICAL NOTION OF THE UNITY AND SIMPLICITY OF NATURE + + IV. THE ALCHEMICAL ELEMENTS AND PRINCIPLES + + V. THE ALCHEMICAL ESSENCE + + VI. ALCHEMY AS AN EXPERIMENTAL ART + + VII. THE LANGUAGE OF ALCHEMY + +VIII. THE DEGENERACY OF ALCHEMY + + IX. PARACELSUS, AND SOME OTHER ALCHEMISTS + + X. SUMMARY OF THE ALCHEMICAL DOCTRINE--THE REPLACEMENT OF THE THREE + PRINCIPLES OF THE ALCHEMISTS BY THE SINGLE PRINCIPLE OF PHLOGISTON + + XI. THE EXAMINATION OF THE PHENOMENA OF COMBUSTION + + XII. THE RECOGNITION OF CHEMICAL CHANGES AS THE INTERACTIONS OF + DEFINITE SUBSTANCES + +XIII. THE CHEMICAL ELEMENTS CONTRASTED WITH THE ALCHEMICAL PRINCIPLES + + XIV. THE MODERN FORM OF THE ALCHEMICAL QUEST OF THE ONE THING + + +INDEX + + + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +FIG. + + AN ALCHEMICAL LABORATORY (Frontispiece) + + 1. THE MORTIFICATION OF METALS PRESENTED BY THE IMAGE OF A KING + DEVOURING HIS SON + + 2 and 3. THE MORTIFICATION OF METALS PRESENTED BY IMAGES OF DEATH + AND BURIAL + + 4 and 5. TWO MUST BE CONJOINED TO PRODUCE ONE + + 6. HERMETICALLY SEALING THE NECK OF A GLASS VESSEL + + 7. SEALING BY MEANS OF A MERCURY TRAP + + 8. AN ALCHEMICAL COMMON COLD STILL + + 9. A _BALNEUM MARIÆ_ + +10. ALCHEMICAL DISTILLING APPARATUS + +11. A PELICAN + +12. AN ALCHEMIST WITH A RETORT + +13. AN ALCHEMIST PREPARING OIL OF VITRIOL + +14. ALCHEMICAL APPARATUS FOR RECTIFYING SPIRITS + +15. PURIFYING GOLD PRESENTED BY THE IMAGE OF A SALAMANDER IN THE FIRE + +16. PRIESTLEY'S APPARATUS FOR WORKING WITH GASES + +17. APPARATUS USED BY LAVOISIER IN HIS EXPERIMENTS ON BURNING MERCURY + IN AIR + + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE EXPLANATION OF MATERIAL CHANGES GIVEN BY THE GREEK THINKERS. + + +For thousands of years before men had any accurate and exact knowledge +of the changes of material things, they had thought about these +changes, regarded them as revelations of spiritual truths, built on +them theories of things in heaven and earth (and a good many things in +neither), and used them in manufactures, arts, and handicrafts, +especially in one very curious manufacture wherein not the thousandth +fragment of a grain of the finished article was ever produced. + +The accurate and systematic study of the changes which material things +undergo is called chemistry; we may, perhaps, describe alchemy as the +superficial, and what may be called subjective, examination of these +changes, and the speculative systems, and imaginary arts and +manufactures, founded on that examination. + +We are assured by many old writers that Adam was the first alchemist, +and we are told by one of the initiated that Adam was created on the +sixth day, being the 15th of March, of the first year of the world; +certainly alchemy had a long life, for chemistry did not begin until +about the middle of the 18th century. + +No branch of science has had so long a period of incubation as +chemistry. There must be some extraordinary difficulty in the way of +disentangling the steps of those changes wherein substances of one +kind are produced from substances totally unlike them. To inquire how +those of acute intellects and much learning regarded such occurrences +in the times when man's outlook on the world was very different from +what it is now, ought to be interesting, and the results of that +inquiry must surely be instructive. + +If the reader turns to a modern book on chemistry (for instance, _The +Story of the Chemical Elements_, in this series), he will find, at +first, superficial descriptions of special instances of those +occurrences which are the subject of the chemist's study; he will +learn that only certain parts of such events are dealt with in +chemistry; more accurate descriptions will then be given of changes +which occur in nature, or can be produced by altering the ordinary +conditions, and the reader will be taught to see certain points of +likeness between these changes; he will be shown how to disentangle +chemical occurrences, to find their similarities and differences; and, +gradually, he will feel his way to general statements, which are more +or less rigorous and accurate expressions of what holds good in a +large number of chemical processes; finally, he will discover that +some generalisations have been made which are exact and completely +accurate descriptions applicable to every case of chemical change. + +But if we turn to the writings of the alchemists, we are in a +different world. There is nothing even remotely resembling what one +finds in a modern book on chemistry. + +Here are a few quotations from alchemical writings [1]: + + [1] Most of the quotations from alchemical writings, in this + book, are taken from a series of translations, published in + 1893-94, under the supervision of Mr A.E. Waite. + + + "It is necessary to deprive matter of its qualities in order to + draw out its soul.... Copper is like a man; it has a soul and a + body ... the soul is the most subtile part ... that is to say, the + tinctorial spirit. The body is the ponderable, material, + terrestrial thing, endowed with a shadow.... After a series of + suitable treatments copper becomes without shadow and better than + gold.... The elements grow and are transmuted, because it is their + qualities, not their substances which are contrary." (Stephanus of + Alexandria, about 620 A.D.) + + "If we would elicit our Medecine from the precious metals, we must + destroy the particular metalic form, without impairing its + specific properties. The specific properties of the metal have + their abode in its spiritual part, which resides in homogeneous + water. Thus we must destroy the particular form of gold, and + change it into its generic homogeneous water, in which the spirit + of gold is preserved; this spirit afterwards restores the + consistency of its water, and brings forth a new form (after the + necessary putrefaction) a thousand times more perfect than the + form of gold which it lost by being reincrudated." (Philalethes, + 17th century.) + + "The bodily nature of things is a concealing outward vesture." + (Michael Sendivogius, 17th century.) + + "Nothing of true value is located in the body of a substance, but + in the virtue ... the less there is of body, the more in + proportion is the virtue." (Paracelsus, 16th century.) + + "There are four elements, and each has at its centre another + element which makes it what it is. These are the four pillars of + the world.... It is their contrary action which keeps up the + harmony and equilibrium of the mundane machinery." (Michael + Sendivogius.) + + "Nature cannot work till it has been supplied with a material: the + first matter is furnished by God, the second matter by the sage." + (Michael Sendivogius.) + + "When corruptible elements are united in a certain substance, + their strife must sooner or later bring about its decomposition, + which is, of course, followed by putrefaction; in putrefaction, + the impure is separated from the pure; and if the pure elements + are then once more joined together by the action of natural heat, + a much nobler and higher form of life is produced.... If the + hidden central fire, which during life was in a state of + passivity, obtain the mastery, it attracts to itself all the pure + elements, which are thus separated from the impure, and form the + nucleus of a far purer form of life." (Michael Sendivogius.) + + "Cause that which is above to be below; that which is visible to + be invisible; that which is palpable to become impalpable. Again + let that which is below become that which is above; let the + invisible become visible, and the impalpable become palpable. Here + you see the perfection of our Art, without any defect or + diminution." (Basil Valentine, 15th century.) + + "Think most diligently about this; often bear in mind, observe and + comprehend, that all minerals and metals together, in the same + time, and after the same fashion, and of one and the same + principal matter, are produced and generated. That matter is no + other than a mere vapour, which is extracted from the elementary + earth by the superior stars, or by a sidereal distillation of the + macrocosm; which sidereal hot infusion, with an airy sulphurous + property, descending upon inferiors, so acts and operates as that + there is implanted, spiritually and invisibly, a certain power and + virtue in those metals and minerals; which fume, moreover, + resolves in the earth into a certain water, wherefrom all metals + are thenceforth generated and ripened to their perfection, and + thence proceeds this or that metal or mineral, according as one of + the three principles acquires dominion, and they have much or + little of sulphur and salt, or an unequal mixture of these; whence + some metals are fixed--that is, constant or stable; and some are + volatile and easily changeable, as is seen in gold, silver, + copper, iron, tin, and lead." (Basil Valentine.) + + "To grasp the invisible elements, to attract them by their + material correspondences, to control, purify, and transform them + by the living power of the Spirit--this is true Alchemy." + (Paracelsus.) + + "Destruction perfects that which is good; for the good cannot + appear on account of that which conceals it.... Each one of the + visible metals is a concealment of the other six metals." + (Paracelsus.) + +These sayings read like sentences in a forgotten tongue. + +Humboldt tells of a parrot which had lived with a tribe of American +Indians, and learnt scraps of their language; the tribe totally +disappeared; the parrot alone remained, and babbled words in the +language which no living human being could understand. + +Are the words I have quoted unintelligible, like the parrot's prating? +Perhaps the language may be reconstructed; perhaps it may be found to +embody something worth a hearing. Success is most likely to come by +considering the growth of alchemy; by trying to find the ideas which +were expressed in the strange tongue; by endeavouring to look at our +surroundings as the alchemists looked at theirs. + +Do what we will, we always, more or less, construct our own universe. +The history of science may be described as the history of the +attempts, and the failures, of men "to see things as they are." +"Nothing is harder," said the Latin poet Lucretius, "than to separate +manifest facts from doubtful, what straightway the mind adds on of +itself." + +Observations of the changes which are constantly happening in the sky, +and on the earth, must have prompted men long ago to ask whether there +are any limits to the changes of things around them. And this question +must have become more urgent as working in metals, making colours and +dyes, preparing new kinds of food and drink, producing substances with +smells and tastes unlike those of familiar objects, and other pursuits +like these, made men acquainted with transformations which seemed to +penetrate to the very foundations of things. + +Can one thing be changed into any other thing; or, are there classes +of things within each of which change is possible, while the passage +from one class to another is not possible? Are all the varied +substances seen, tasted, handled, smelt, composed of a limited number +of essentially different things; or, is each fundamentally different +from every other substance? Such questions as these must have pressed +for answers long ago. + +Some of the Greek philosophers who lived four or five hundred years +before Christ formed a theory of the transformations of matter, which +is essentially the theory held by naturalists to-day. + +These philosophers taught that to understand nature we must get +beneath the superficial qualities of things. "According to +convention," said Democritus (born 460 B.C.), "there are a sweet and a +bitter, a hot and a cold, and according to convention there is +colour. In truth there are atoms and a void." Those investigators +attempted to connect all the differences which are observed between +the qualities of things with differences of size, shape, position, and +movement of atoms. They said that all things are formed by the +coalescence of certain unchangeable, indestructible, and impenetrable +particles which they named atoms; the total number of atoms is +constant; not one of them can be destroyed, nor can one be created; +when a substance ceases to exist and another is formed, the process is +not a destruction of matter, it is a re-arrangement of atoms. + +Only fragments of the writings of the founders of the atomic theory +have come to us. The views of these philosophers are preserved, and +doubtless amplified and modified, in a Latin poem, _Concerning the +Nature of Things_, written by Lucretius, who was born a century before +the beginning of our era. Let us consider the picture given in that +poem of the material universe, and the method whereby the picture was +produced.[2] + + [2] The quotations from Lucretius are taken from Munro's + translation (4th Edition, 1886). + +All knowledge, said Lucretius, is based on "the aspect and the law of +nature." True knowledge can be obtained only by the use of the senses; +there is no other method. "From the senses first has proceeded the +knowledge of the true, and the senses cannot be refuted. Shall reason, +founded on false sense, be able to contradict [the senses], wholly +founded as it is on the senses? And if they are not true, then all +reason as well is rendered false." The first principle in nature is +asserted by Lucretius to be that "Nothing is ever gotten out of +nothing." "A thing never returns to nothing, but all things after +disruption go back to the first bodies of matter." If there were not +imperishable seeds of things, atoms, "first-beginnings of solid +singleness," then, Lucretius urges, "infinite time gone by and lapse +of days must have eaten up all things that are of mortal body." + +The first-beginnings, or atoms, of things were thought of by Lucretius +as always moving; "there is no lowest point in the sum of the +universe" where they can rest; they meet, clash, rebound, or sometimes +join together into groups of atoms which move about as wholes. Change, +growth, decay, formation, disruption--these are the marks of all +things. "The war of first-beginnings waged from eternity is carried on +with dubious issue: now here, now there, the life-bringing elements of +things get the mastery, and are o'ermastered in turn; with the funeral +wail blends the cry which babies raise when they enter the borders of +light; and no night ever followed day, nor morning night, that heard +not, mingling with the sickly infant's cries, the attendants' wailings +on death and black funeral." + +Lucretius pictured the atoms of things as like the things perceived by +the senses; he said that atoms of different kinds have different +shapes, but the number of shapes is finite, because there is a limit +to the number of different things we see, smell, taste, and handle; he +implies, although I do not think he definitely asserts, that all atoms +of one kind are identical in every respect. + +We now know that many compounds exist which are formed by the union of +the same quantities by weight of the same elements, and, nevertheless, +differ in properties; modern chemistry explains this fact by saying +that the properties of a substance depend, not only on the kind of +atoms which compose the minute particles of a compound, and the number +of atoms of each kind, but also on the mode of arrangement of the +atoms.[3] The same doctrine was taught by Lucretius, two thousand +years ago. "It often makes a great difference," he said, "with what +things, and in what positions the same first-beginnings are held in +union, and what motions they mutually impart and receive." For +instance, certain atoms may be so arranged at one time as to produce +fire, and, at another time, the arrangement of the same atoms may be +such that the result is a fir-tree. The differences between the +colours of things are said by Lucretius to be due to differences in +the arrangements and motions of atoms. As the colour of the sea when +wind lashes it into foam is different from the colour when the waters +are at rest, so do the colours of things change when the atoms whereof +the things are composed change from one arrangement to another, or +from sluggish movements to rapid and tumultuous motions. + + [3] See the chapter _Molecular Architecture_ in the _Story of + the Chemical Elements_. + +Lucretius pictured a solid substance as a vast number of atoms +squeezed closely together, a liquid as composed of not so many atoms +less tightly packed, and a gas as a comparatively small number of +atoms with considerable freedom of motion. Essentially the same +picture is presented by the molecular theory of to-day. + +To meet the objection that atoms are invisible, and therefore cannot +exist, Lucretius enumerates many things we cannot see although we know +they exist. No one doubts the existence of winds, heat, cold and +smells; yet no one has seen the wind, or heat, or cold, or a smell. +Clothes become moist when hung near the sea, and dry when spread in +the sunshine; but no one has seen the moisture entering or leaving the +clothes. A pavement trodden by many feet is worn away; but the minute +particles are removed without our eyes being able to see them. + +Another objector urges--"You say the atoms are always moving, yet the +things we look at, which you assert to be vast numbers of moving +atoms, are often motionless." Him Lucretius answers by an analogy. +"And herein you need not wonder at this, that though the +first-beginnings of things are all in motion, yet the sum is seen to +rest in supreme repose, unless when a thing exhibits motions with its +individual body. For all the nature of first things lies far away from +our senses, beneath their ken; and, therefore, since they are +themselves beyond what you can see, they must withdraw from sight +their motion as well; and the more so, that the things which we can +see do yet often conceal their motions when a great distance off. +Thus, often, the woolly flocks as they crop the glad pastures on a +hill, creep on whither the grass, jewelled with fresh dew, summons or +invites each, and the lambs, fed to the full, gambol and playfully +butt; all which objects appear to us from a distance to be blended +together, and to rest like a white spot on a green hill. Again, when +mighty legions fill with their movements all parts of the plains, +waging the mimicry of war, the glitter lifts itself up to the sky, and +the whole earth round gleams with brass, and beneath a noise is raised +by the mighty tramplings of men, and the mountains, stricken by the +shouting, echo the voices to the stars of heaven, and horsemen fly +about, and suddenly wheeling, scour across the middle of the plains, +shaking them with the vehemence of their charge. And yet there is some +spot on the high hills, seen from which they appear to stand still and +to rest on the plains as a bright spot." + +The atomic theory of the Greek thinkers was constructed by reasoning +on natural phenomena. Lucretius constantly appeals to observed facts +for confirmation of his theoretical teachings, or refutation of +opinions he thought erroneous. Besides giving a general mental +presentation of the material universe, the theory was applied to many +specific transmutations; but minute descriptions of what are now +called chemical changes could not be given in terms of the theory, +because no searching examination of so much as one such change had +been made, nor, I think, one may say, could be made under the +conditions of Greek life. More than two thousand years passed before +investigators began to make accurate measurements of the quantities of +the substances which take part in those changes wherein certain +things seem to be destroyed and other totally different things to be +produced; until accurate knowledge had been obtained of the quantities +of the definite substances which interact in the transformations of +matter, the atomic theory could not do more than draw the outlines of +a picture of material changes. + +A scientific theory has been described as "the likening of our +imaginings to what we actually observe." So long as we observe only in +the rough, only in a broad and general way, our imaginings must also +be rough, broad, and general. It was the great glory of the Greek +thinkers about natural events that their observations were accurate, +on the whole, and as far as they went, and the theory they formed was +based on no trivial or accidental features of the facts, but on what +has proved to be the very essence of the phenomena they sought to +bring into one point of view; for all the advances made in our own +times in clear knowledge of the transformations of matter have been +made by using, as a guide to experimental inquiries, the conception +that the differences between the qualities of substances are connected +with differences in the weights and movements of minute particles; and +this was the central idea of the atomic theory of the Greek +philosophers. + +The atomic theory was used by the great physicists of the later +Renaissance, by Galileo, Gassendi, Newton and others. Our own +countryman, John Dalton, while trying (in the early years of the 19th +century) to form a mental presentation of the atmosphere in terms of +the theory of atoms, rediscovered the possibility of differences +between the sizes of atoms, applied this idea to the facts concerning +the quantitative compositions of compounds which had been established +by others, developed a method for determining the relative weights of +atoms of different kinds, and started chemistry on the course which it +has followed so successfully. + +Instead of blaming the Greek philosophers for lack of quantitatively +accurate experimental inquiry, we should rather be full of admiring +wonder at the extraordinary acuteness of their mental vision, and the +soundness of their scientific spirit. + +The ancient atomists distinguished the essential properties of things +from their accidental features. The former cannot be removed, +Lucretius said, without "utter destruction accompanying the +severance"; the latter may be altered "while the nature of the thing +remains unharmed." As examples of essential properties, Lucretius +mentions "the weight of a stone, the heat of fire, the fluidity of +water." Such things as liberty, war, slavery, riches, poverty, and the +like, were accounted accidents. Time also was said to be an accident: +it "exists not by itself; but simply from the things which happen, the +sense apprehends what has been done in time past, as well as what is +present, and what is to follow after." + +As our story proceeds, we shall see that the chemists of the middle +ages, the alchemists, founded their theory of material changes on the +difference between a supposed essential substratum of things, and +their qualities which could be taken off, they said, and put on, as +clothes are removed and replaced. + +How different from the clear, harmonious, orderly, Greek scheme, is +any picture we can form, from such quotations as I have given from +their writings, of the alchemists' conception of the world. The Greeks +likened their imaginings of nature to the natural facts they observed; +the alchemists created an imaginary world after their own likeness. + +While Christianity was superseding the old religions, and the +theological system of the Christian Church was replacing the +cosmogonies of the heathen, the contrast between the power of evil and +the power of good was more fully realised than in the days of the +Greeks; a sharper division was drawn between this world and another +world, and that other world was divided into two irreconcilable and +absolutely opposite parts. Man came to be regarded as the centre of a +tremendous and never-ceasing battle, urged between the powers of good +and the powers of evil. The sights and sounds of nature were regarded +as the vestments, or the voices, of the unseen combatants. Life was at +once very real and the mere shadow of a dream. The conditions were +favourable to the growth of magic; for man was regarded as the measure +of the universe, the central figure in an awful tragedy. + +Magic is an attempt, by thinking and speculating about what we +consider must be the order of nature, to discover some means of +penetrating into the secret life of natural things, of realising the +hidden powers and virtues of things, grasping the concealed thread of +unity which is supposed to run through all phenomena however seemingly +diverse, entering into sympathy with the supposed inner oneness of +life, death, the present, past, and future. Magic grows, and gathers +strength, when men are sure their theory of the universe must be the +one true theory, and they see only through the glasses which their +theory supplies. "He who knows himself thoroughly knows God and all +the mysteries of His nature," says a modern writer on magic. That +saying expresses the fundamental hypothesis, and the method, of all +systems of magic and mysticism. Of such systems, alchemy was one. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +A SKETCH OF ALCHEMICAL THEORY. + + +The system which began to be called _alchemy_ in the 6th and 7th +centuries of our era had no special name before that time, but was +known as _the sacred art, the divine science, the occult science, the +art of Hermes_. + +A commentator on Aristotle, writing in the 4th century A.D., calls +certain instruments used for fusion and calcination "_chuika organa_," +that is, instruments for melting and pouring. Hence, probably, came +the adjective _chyic_ or _chymic_, and, at a somewhat later time, the +word _chemia_ as the name of that art which deals with calcinations, +fusions, meltings, and the like. The writer of a treatise on +astrology, in the 5th century, speaking of the influences of the stars +on the dispositions of man, says: "If a man is born under Mercury he +will give himself to astronomy; if Mars, he will follow the profession +of arms; if Saturn, he will devote himself to the science of alchemy +(_Scientia alchemiae_)." The word _alchemia_ which appears in this +treatise, was formed by prefixing the Arabic _al_ (meaning _the_) to +_chemia_, a word, as we have seen, of Greek origin. + +It is the growth, development, and transformation into chemistry, of +this _alchemia_ which we have to consider. + +Alchemy, that is, _the_ art of melting, pouring, and transforming, +must necessarily pay much attention to working with crucibles, +furnaces, alembics, and other vessels wherein things are fused, +distilled, calcined, and dissolved. The old drawings of alchemical +operations show us men busy calcining, cohobating, distilling, +dissolving, digesting, and performing other processes of like +character to these. + +The alchemists could not be accused of laziness or aversion to work in +their laboratories. Paracelsus (16th century) says of them: "They are +not given to idleness, nor go in a proud habit, or plush and velvet +garments, often showing their rings on their fingers, or wearing +swords with silver hilts by their sides, or fine and gay gloves on +their hands; but diligently follow their labours, sweating whole days +and nights by their furnaces. They do not spend their time abroad for +recreation, but take delight in their laboratories. They put their +fingers among coals, into clay and filth, not into gold rings. They +are sooty and black, like smiths and miners, and do not pride +themselves upon clean and beautiful faces." + +In these respects the chemist of to-day faithfully follows the +practice of the alchemists who were his predecessors. You can nose a +chemist in a crowd by the smell of the laboratory which hangs about +him; you can pick him out by the stains on his hands and clothes. He +also "takes delight in his laboratory"; he does not always "pride +himself on a clean and beautiful face"; he "sweats whole days and +nights by his furnace." + +Why does the chemist toil so eagerly? Why did the alchemists so +untiringly pursue their quest? I think it is not unfair to say: the +chemist experiments in order that he "may liken his imaginings to the +facts which he observes"; the alchemist toiled that he might liken the +facts which he observed to his imaginings. The difference may be put +in another way by saying: the chemist's object is to discover "how +changes happen in combinations of the unchanging"; the alchemist's +endeavour was to prove the truth of his fundamental assertion, "that +every substance contains undeveloped resources and potentialities, and +can be brought outward and forward into perfection." + +Looking around him, and observing the changes of things, the alchemist +was deeply impressed by the growth and modification of plants and +animals; he argued that minerals and metals also grow, change, +develop. He said in effect: "Nature is one, there must be unity in all +the diversity I see. When a grain of corn falls into the earth it +dies, but this dying is the first step towards a new life; the dead +seed is changed into the living plant. So it must be with all other +things in nature: the mineral, or the metal, seems dead when it is +buried in the earth, but, in reality, it is growing, changing, and +becoming more perfect." The perfection of the seed is the plant. What +is the perfection of the common metals? "Evidently," the alchemist +replied, "the perfect metal is gold; the common metals are trying to +become gold." "Gold is the intention of Nature in regard to all +metals," said an alchemical writer. Plants are preserved by the +preservation of their seed. "In like manner," the alchemist's argument +proceeded, "there must be a seed in metals which is their essence; if +I can separate the seed and bring it under the proper conditions, I +can cause it to grow into the perfect metal." "Animal life, and human +life also," we may suppose the alchemist saying, "are continued by the +same method as that whereby the life of plants is continued; all life +springs from seed; the seed is fructified by the union of the male and +the female; in metals also there must be the two characters; the union +of these is needed for the production of new metals; the conjoining of +metals must go before the birth of the perfect metal." + +"Now," we may suppose the argument to proceed, "now, the passage from +the imperfect to the more perfect is not easy. It is harder to +practise virtue than to acquiesce in vice; virtue comes not naturally +to man; that he may gain the higher life, he must be helped by grace. +Therefore, the task of exalting the purer metals into the perfect +gold, of developing the lower order into the higher, is not easy. If +Nature does this, she does it slowly and painfully; if the exaltation +of the common metals to a higher plane is to be effected rapidly, it +can be done only by the help of man." + +So far as I can judge from their writings, the argument of the +alchemists may be rendered by some such form as the foregoing. A +careful examination of the alchemical argument shows that it rests on +a (supposed) intimate knowledge of nature's plan of working, and the +certainty that simplicity is the essential mark of that plan. + +That the alchemists were satisfied of the great simplicity of nature, +and their own knowledge of the ways of nature's work, is apparent from +their writings. + +The author of _The New Chemical Light_ (17th century) says: +"Simplicity is the seal of truth.... Nature is wonderfully simple, and +the characteristic mark of a childlike simplicity is stamped upon all +that is true and noble in Nature." In another place the same author +says: "Nature is one, true, simple, self-contained, created of God, +and informed with a certain universal spirit." The same author, +Michael Sendivogius, remarks: "It may be asked how I come to have this +knowledge about heavenly things which are far removed beyond human +ken. My answer is that the sages have been taught by God that this +natural world is only an image and material copy of a heavenly and +spiritual pattern; that the very existence of this world is based upon +the reality of its heavenly archetype.... Thus the sage sees heaven +reflected in Nature as in a mirror, and he pursues this Art, not for +the sake of gold or silver, but for the love of the knowledge which it +reveals." + +The _Only True Way_ advises all who wish to become true alchemists to +leave the circuitous paths of pretended philosophers, and to follow +nature, which is simple; the complicated processes described in books +are said to be the traps laid by the "cunning sophists" to catch the +unwary. + +In _A Catechism of Alchemy_, Paracelsus asks: "What road should the +philosopher follow?" He answers, "That exactly which was followed by +the Great Architect of the Universe in the creation of the world." + +One might suppose it would be easier, and perhaps more profitable, to +examine, observe, and experiment, than to turn one's eyes inwards with +the hope of discovering exactly "the road followed by the Great +Architect of the Universe in the creation of the world." But the +alchemical method found it easier to begin by introspection. The +alchemist spun his universe from his own ideas of order, symmetry, and +simplicity, as the spider spins her web from her own substance. + +A favourite saying of the alchemists was, "What is above is as what is +below." In one of its aspects this saying meant, "processes happen +within the earth like those which occur on the earth; minerals and +metals live, as animals and plants live; all pass through corruption +towards perfection." In another aspect the saying meant "the human +being is the world in miniature; as is the microcosm, so is the +macrocosm; to know oneself is to know all the world." + +Every man knows he ought to try to rise to better things, and many men +endeavour to do what they know they ought to do; therefore, he who +feels sure that all nature is fashioned after the image of man, +projects his own ideas of progress, development, virtue, matter and +spirit, on to nature outside himself; and, as a matter of course, this +kind of naturalist uses the same language when he is speaking of the +changes of material things as he employs to express the changes of his +mental states, his hopes, fears, aspirations, and struggles. + +The language of the alchemists was, therefore, rich in such +expressions as these; "the elements are to be so conjoined that the +nobler and fuller life may be produced"; "our arcanum is gold exalted +to the highest degree of perfection to which the combined action of +nature and art can develop it." + +Such commingling of ethical and physical ideas, such application of +moral conceptions to material phenomena, was characteristic of the +alchemical method of regarding nature. The necessary results were; +great confusion of thought, much mystification of ideas, and a +superabundance of _views_ about natural events. + +When the author of _The Metamorphosis of Metals_ was seeking for an +argument in favour of his view, that water is the source and primal +element of all things, he found what he sought in the Biblical text: +"In the beginning the spirit of God moved upon the face of the +waters." Similarly, the author of _The Sodic Hydrolith_ clenches his +argument in favour of the existence of the Philosopher's Stone, by the +quotation: "Therefore, thus saith the Lord; behold I lay in Zion for a +foundation a Stone, a tried Stone, a precious corner Stone, a sure +foundation. He that has it shall not be confounded." This author works +out in detail an analogy between the functions and virtues of the +_Stone_, and the story of man's fall and redemption, as set forth in +the Old and New Testaments. The same author speaks of "Satan, that +grim pseudo-alchemist." + +That the attribution, by the alchemists, of moral virtues and vices to +natural things was in keeping with some deep-seated tendency of human +nature, is shown by the persistence of some of their methods of +stating the properties of substances: we still speak of "perfect and +imperfect gases," "noble and base metals," "good and bad conductors of +electricity," and "laws governing natural phenomena." + +Convinced of the simplicity of nature, certain that all natural events +follow one course, sure that this course was known to them and was +represented by the growth of plants and animals, the alchemists set +themselves the task, firstly, of proving by observations and +experiments that their view of natural occurrences was correct; and, +secondly, of discovering and gaining possession of the instrument +whereby nature effects her transmutations and perfects her operations. +The mastery of this instrument would give them power to change any +metal into gold, the cure of all diseases, and the happiness which +must come from the practical knowledge of the supreme secret of +nature. + +The central quest of alchemy was the quest of an undefined and +undefinable something wherein was supposed to be contained all the +powers and potencies of life, and whatever makes life worth living. + +The names given to this mystical something were as many as the +properties which were assigned to it. It was called _the one thing, +the essence, the philosopher's stone, the stone of wisdom, the +heavenly balm, the divine water, the virgin water, the carbuncle of +the sun, the old dragon, the lion, the basilisk, the phoenix_; and +many other names were given to it. + +We may come near to expressing the alchemist's view of the essential +character of the object of their search by naming it _the soul of all +things_. "Alchemy," a modern writer says, "is the science of the soul +of all things." + +The essence was supposed to have a material form, an ethereal or +middle nature, and an immaterial or spiritual life. + +No one might hope to make this essence from any one substance, +because, as one of the alchemists says, "It is the attribute of God +alone to make one out of one; you must produce one thing out of two +by natural generation." The alchemists did not pretend to create gold, +but only to produce it from other things. + +The author of _A Brief Guide to the Celestial Ruby_ says: "We do not, +as is sometimes said, profess to create gold and silver, but only to +find an agent which ... is capable of entering into an intimate and +maturing union with the Mercury of the base metals." And again: "Our +Art ... only arrogates to itself the power of developing, through the +removal of all defects and superfluities, the golden nature which the +baser metals possess." Bonus, in his tract on _The New Pearl of Great +Price_ (16th century), says: "The Art of Alchemy ... does not create +metals, or even develop them out of the metallic first-substance; it +only takes up the unfinished handicraft of Nature and completes it.... +Nature has only left a comparatively small thing for the artist to +do--the completion of that which she has already begun." + +If the essence were ever attained, it would be by following the course +which nature follows in producing the perfect plant from the imperfect +seed, by discovering and separating the seed of metals, and bringing +that seed under the conditions which alone are suitable for its +growth. Metals must have seed, the alchemists said, for it would be +absurd to suppose they have none. "What prerogative have vegetables +above metals," exclaims one of them, "that God should give seed to the +one and withhold it from the other? Are not metals as much in His +sight as trees?" + +As metals, then, possess seed, it is evident how this seed is to be +made active; the seed of a plant is quickened by descending into the +earth, therefore the seed of metals must be destroyed before it +becomes life-producing. "The processes of our art must begin with +dissolution of gold; they must terminate in a restoration of the +essential quality of gold." "Gold does not easily give up its nature, +and will fight for its life; but our agent is strong enough to +overcome and kill it, and then it also has power to restore it to +life, and to change the lifeless remains into a new and pure body." + +The application of the doctrine of the existence of seed in metals led +to the performance of many experiments, and, hence, to the +accumulation of a considerable body of facts established by +experimental inquiries. The belief of the alchemists that all natural +events are connected by a hidden thread, that everything has an +influence on other things, that "what is above is as what is below," +constrained them to place stress on the supposed connexion between the +planets and the metals, and to further their metallic transformations +by performing them at times when certain planets were in conjunction. +The seven principal planets and the seven principal metals were called +by the same names: _Sol_ (gold), _Luna_ (silver), _Saturn_ (lead), +_Jupiter_ (tin), _Mars_ (iron), _Venus_ (copper), and _Mercury_ +(mercury). The author of _The New Chemical Light_ taught that one +metal could be propagated from another only in the order of +superiority of the planets. He placed the seven planets in the +following descending order: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus, +Mercury, Luna. "The virtues of the planets descend," he said, "but do +not ascend"; it is easy to change Mars (iron) into Venus (copper), for +instance, but Venus cannot be transformed into Mars. + +Although the alchemists regarded everything as influencing, and +influenced by, other things, they were persuaded that the greatest +effects are produced on a substance by substances of like nature with +itself. Hence, most of them taught that the seed of metals will be +obtained by operations with metals, not by the action on metals of +things of animal or vegetable origin. Each class of substances, they +said, has a life, or spirit (an essential character, we might say) of +its own. "The life of sulphur," Paracelsus said, "is a combustible, +ill-smelling, fatness.... The life of gems and corals is mere +colour.... The life of water is its flowing.... The life of fire is +air." Grant an attraction of like to like, and the reason becomes +apparent for such directions as these: "Nothing heterogeneous must be +introduced into our magistery"; "Everything should be made to act on +that which is like it, and then Nature will perform her duty." + +Although each class of substances was said by the alchemists to have +its own particular character, or life, nevertheless they taught that +there is a deep-seated likeness between all things, inasmuch as the +power of _the essence_, or _the one thing_, is so great that under its +influence different things are produced from the same origin, and +different things are caused to pass into and become the same thing. +In _The New Chemical Light_ it is said: "While the seed of all things +is one, it is made to generate a great variety of things." + +It is not easy now--it could not have been easy at any time--to give +clear and exact meanings to the doctrines of the alchemists, or the +directions they gave for performing the operations necessary for the +production of the object of their search. And the difficulty is much +increased when we are told that "The Sage jealously conceals [his +knowledge] from the sinner and the scornful, lest the mysteries of +heaven should be laid bare to the vulgar gaze." We almost despair when +an alchemical writer assures us that the Sages "Set pen to paper for +the express purpose of concealing their meaning. The sense of a whole +passage is often hopelessly obscured by the addition or omission of +one little word, for instance the addition of the word _not_ in the +wrong place." Another writer says: "The Sages are in the habit of +using words which may convey either a true or a false impression; the +former to their own disciples and children, the latter to the +ignorant, the foolish, and the unworthy." Sometimes, after +descriptions of processes couched in strange and mystical language, +the writer will add, "If you cannot perceive what you ought to +understand herein, you should not devote yourself to the study of +philosophy." Philalethes, in his _Brief Guide to the Celestial Ruby_, +seems to feel some pity for his readers; after describing what he +calls "the generic homogeneous water of gold," he says: "If you wish +for a more particular description of our water, I am impelled by +motives of charity to tell you that it is living, flexible, clear, +nitid, white as snow, hot, humid, airy, vaporous, and digestive." + +Alchemy began by asserting that nature must be simple; it assumed that +a knowledge of the plan and method of natural occurrences is to be +obtained by thinking; and it used analogy as the guide in applying +this knowledge of nature's design to particular events, especially the +analogy, assumed by alchemy to exist, between material phenomena and +human emotions. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE ALCHEMICAL CONCEPTION OF THE UNITY AND SIMPLICITY OF NATURE. + + +In the preceding chapter I have referred to the frequent use made by +the alchemists of their supposition that nature follows the same plan, +or at any rate a very similar plan, in all her processes. If this +supposition is accepted, the primary business of an investigator of +nature is to trace likenesses and analogies between what seem on the +surface to be dissimilar and unconnected events. As this idea, and +this practice, were the foundations whereon the superstructure of +alchemy was raised, I think it is important to amplify them more fully +than I have done already. + +Mention is made in many alchemical writings of a mythical personage +named _Hermes Trismegistus_, who is said to have lived a little later +than the time of Moses. Representations of Hermes Trismegistus are +found on ancient Egyptian monuments. We are told that Alexander the +Great found his tomb near Hebron; and that the tomb contained a slab +of emerald whereon thirteen sentences were written. The eighth +sentence is rendered in many alchemical books as follows: + +"Ascend with the greatest sagacity from the earth to heaven, and then +again descend to the earth, and unite together the powers of things +superior and things inferior. Thus you will obtain the glory of the +whole world, and obscurity will fly away from you." + +This sentence evidently teaches the unity of things in heaven and +things on earth, and asserts the possibility of gaining, not merely a +theoretical, but also a practical, knowledge of the essential +characters of all things. Moreover, the sentence implies that this +fruitful knowledge is to be obtained by examining nature, using as +guide the fundamental similarity supposed to exist between things +above and things beneath. + +The alchemical writers constantly harp on this theme: follow nature; +provided you never lose the clue, which is simplicity and similarity. + +The author of _The Only Way_ (1677) beseeches his readers "to enlist +under the standard of that method which proceeds in strict obedience +to the teaching of nature ... in short, the method which nature +herself pursues in the bowels of the earth." + +The alchemists tell us not to expect much help from books and written +directions. When one of them has said all he can say, he adds--"The +question is whether even this book will convey any information to one +before whom the writings of the Sages and the open book of Nature are +exhibited in vain." Another tells his readers the only thing for them +is "to beseech God to give you the real philosophical temper, and to +open your eyes to the facts of nature; thus alone will you reach the +coveted goal." + +"Follow nature" is sound advice. But, nature was to be followed with +eyes closed save to one vision, and the vision was to be seen before +the following began. + +The alchemists' general conception of nature led them to assign to +every substance a condition or state natural to it, and wherein alone +it could be said to be as it was designed to be. Each substance, they +taught, could be caused to leave its natural state only by violent, or +non-natural, means, and any substance which had been driven from its +natural condition by violence was ready, and even eager, to return to +the condition consonant with its nature. + +Thus Norton, in his _Ordinal of Alchemy_, says: "Metals are generated +in the earth, for above ground they are subject to rust; hence above +ground is the place of corruption of metals, and of their gradual +destruction. The cause which we assign to this fact is that above +ground they are not in their proper element, and an unnatural position +is destructive to natural objects, as we see, for instance, that +fishes die when they are taken out of the water; and as it is natural +for men, beasts, and birds to live in the air, so stones and metals +are naturally generated under the earth." + +In his _New Pearl of Great Price_ (16th century), Bonus says:--"The +object of Nature in all things is to introduce into each substance the +form which properly belongs to it; and this is also the design of our +Art." + +This view assumed the knowledge of the natural conditions of the +substances wherewith experiments were performed. It supposed that man +could act as a guide, to bring back to its natural condition a +substance which had been removed from that condition, either by +violent processes of nature, or by man's device. The alchemist +regarded himself as an arbiter in questions concerning the natural +condition of each substance he dealt with. He thought he could say, +"this substance ought to be thus, or thus," "that substance is +constrained, thwarted, hindered from becoming what nature meant it to +be." + +In Ben Jonson's play called _The Alchemist_, Subtle (who is the +alchemist of the play) says, " ... metals would be gold if they had +time." + +The alchemist not only attributed ethical qualities to material +things, he also became the guardian and guide of the moral practices +of these things. He thought himself able to recall the erring metal to +the path of metalline virtue, to lead the extravagant mineral back to +the moral home-life from which it had been seduced, to show the +doubting and vacillating salt what it was ignorantly seeking, and to +help it to find the unrealised object of its search. The alchemist +acted as a sort of conscience to the metals, minerals, salts, and +other substances he submitted to the processes of his laboratory. He +treated them as a wise physician might treat an ignorant and somewhat +refractory patient. "I know what you want better than you do," he +seems often to be saying to the metals he is calcining, separating, +joining and subliming. + +But the ignorant alchemist was not always thanked for his treatment. +Sometimes the patient rebelled. For instance, Michael Sendivogius, in +his tract, _The New Chemical Light drawn from the Fountain of Nature +and of Manual Experience_ (17th century), recounts _a dialogue between +Mercury, the Alchemist, and Nature_. + +"On a certain bright morning a number of Alchemists met together in a +meadow, and consulted as to the best way of preparing the +Philosopher's Stone.... Most of them agreed that Mercury was the first +substance. Others said, no, it was sulphur, or something else.... Just +as the dispute began to run high, there arose a violent wind, which +dispersed the Alchemists into all the different countries of the +world; and as they had arrived at no conclusion, each one went on +seeking the Philosopher's Stone in his own old way, this one expecting +to find it in one substance, and that in another, so that the search +has continued without intermission even unto this day. One of them, +however, had at least got the idea into his head that Mercury was the +substance of the Stone, and determined to concentrate all his efforts +on the chemical preparation of Mercury.... He took common Mercury and +began to work with it. He placed it in a glass vessel over the fire, +when it, of course, evaporated. So in his ignorance he struck his +wife, and said: 'No one but you has entered my laboratory; you must +have taken my Mercury out of the vessel.' The woman, with tears, +protested her innocence. The Alchemist put some more Mercury into the +vessel.... The Mercury rose to the top of the vessel in vaporous +steam. Then the Alchemist was full of joy, because he remembered that +the first substance of the Stone is described by the Sages as +volatile; and he thought that now at last he _must_ be on the right +track. He now began to subject the Mercury to all sorts of chemical +processes, to sublime it, and to calcine it with all manner of things, +with salts, sulphur, metals, minerals, blood, hair, aqua fortis, +herbs, urine, and vinegar.... Everything he could think of was tried; +but without producing the desired effect." The Alchemist then +despaired; after a dream, wherein an old man came and talked with him +about the "Mercury of the Sages," the Alchemist thought he would charm +the Mercury, and so he used a form of incantation. The Mercury +suddenly began to speak, and asked the Alchemist why he had troubled +him so much, and so on. The Alchemist replied, and questioned the +Mercury. The Mercury makes fun of the philosopher. Then the Alchemist +again torments the Mercury by heating him with all manner of horrible +things. At last Mercury calls in the aid of Nature, who soundly rates +the philosopher, tells him he is grossly ignorant, and ends by saying: +"The best thing you can do is to give yourself up to the king's +officers, who will quickly put an end to you and your philosophy." + +As long as men were fully persuaded that they knew the plan whereon +the world was framed, that it was possible for them to follow exactly +"the road which was followed by the Great Architect of the Universe in +the creation of the world," a real knowledge of natural events was +impossible; for every attempt to penetrate nature's secrets +presupposed a knowledge of the essential characteristics of that which +was to be investigated. But genuine knowledge begins when the +investigator admits that he must learn of nature, not nature of him. +It might be truly said of one who held the alchemical conception of +nature that "his foible was omniscience"; and omniscience negatives +the attainment of knowledge. + +The alchemical notion of a natural state as proper to each substance +was vigorously combated by the Honourable Robert Boyle (born 1626, +died 1691), a man of singularly clear and penetrative intellect. In _A +Paradox of the Natural and Supernatural States of Bodies, Especially +of the Air_, Boyle says:--"I know that not only in living, but even in +inanimate, bodies, of which alone I here discourse, men have +universally admitted the famous distinction between the natural and +preternatural, or violent state of bodies, and do daily, without the +least scruple, found upon it hypotheses and ratiocinations, as if it +were most certain that what they call nature had purposely formed +bodies in such a determinate state, and were always watchful that they +should not by any external violence be put out of it. But +notwithstanding so general a consent of men in this point, I confess, +I cannot yet be satisfied about it in the sense wherein it is wont to +be taken. It is not, that I believe, that there is no sense in which, +or in the account upon which, a body may he said to be in its natural +state; but that I think the common distinction of a natural and +violent state of bodies has not been clearly explained and +considerately settled, and both is not well grounded, and is +oftentimes ill applied. For when I consider that whatever state a body +be put into, or kept in, it obtains or retains that state, assenting +to the catholic laws of nature, I cannot think it fit to deny that in +this sense the body proposed is in a natural state; but then, upon the +same ground, it will he hard to deny but that those bodies which are +said to be in a violent state may also be in a natural one, since the +violence they are presumed to suffer from outward agents is likewise +exercised no otherwise than according to the established laws of +universal nature." + +There must be something very fascinating and comforting in the +alchemical view of nature, as a harmony constructed on one simple +plan, which can be grasped as a whole, and also in its details, by the +introspective processes of the human intellect; for that conception +prevails to-day among those who have not investigated natural +occurrences for themselves. The alchemical view of nature still forms +the foundation of systems of ethics, of philosophy, of art. It appeals +to the innate desire of man to make himself the measure of all +things. It is so easy, so authoritative, apparently so satisfactory. +No amount of thinking and reasoning will ever demonstrate its falsity. +It can be conquered only by a patient, unbiassed, searching +examination of some limited portion of natural events. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE ALCHEMICAL ELEMENTS AND PRINCIPLES. + + +The alchemists were sure that the intention of nature regarding metals +was that they should become gold, for gold was considered to be the +most perfect metal, and nature, they said, evidently strains after +perfection. The alchemist found that metals were worn away, eaten +through, broken, and finally caused to disappear, by many acid and +acrid liquids which he prepared from mineral substances. But gold +resisted the attacks of these liquids; it was not changed by heat, nor +was it affected by sulphur, a substance which changed limpid, running +mercury into an inert, black solid. Hence, gold was more perfect in +the alchemical scale than any other metal. + +Since gold was considered to be the most perfect metal, it was +self-evident to the alchemical mind that nature must form gold slowly +in the earth, must transmute gradually the inferior metals into gold. + +"The only thing that distinguishes one metal from another," writes an +alchemist who went under the name of Philalethes, "is its degree of +maturity, which is, of course, greatest in the most precious metals; +the difference between gold and lead is not one of substance, but of +digestion; in the baser metal the coction has not been such as to +purge out its metallic impurities. If by any means this superfluous +impure matter could be organically removed from the baser metals, they +would become gold and silver. So miners tell us that lead has in many +cases developed into silver in the bowels of the earth, and we contend +that the same effect is produced in a much shorter time by means of +our Art." + +Stories were told about the finding of gold in deserted mines which +had been worked out long before; these stories were supposed to prove +that gold was bred in the earth. The facts that pieces of silver were +found in tin and lead mines, and gold was found in silver mines, were +adduced as proofs that, as the author of _The New Pearl of Great +Price_ says, "Nature is continually at work changing other metals into +gold, because, though in a certain sense they are complete in +themselves, they have not yet reached the highest perfection of which +they are capable, and to which nature has destined them." What nature +did in the earth man could accomplish in the workshop. For is not man +the crown of the world, the masterpiece of nature, the flower of the +universe; was he not given dominion over all things when the world was +created? + +In asserting that the baser metals could be transmuted into gold, and +in attempting to effect this transmutation, the alchemist was not +acting on a vague; haphazard surmise; he was pursuing a policy +dictated by his conception of the order of nature; he was following +the method which he conceived to be that used by nature herself. The +transmutation of metals was part and parcel of a system of natural +philosophy. If this transmutation were impossible, the alchemical +scheme of things would be destroyed, the believer in the transmutation +would be left without a sense of order in the material universe. And, +moreover, the alchemist's conception of an orderly material universe +was so intimately connected with his ideas of morality and religion, +that to disprove the possibility of the great transmutation would be +to remove not only the basis of his system of material things, but the +foundations of his system of ethics also. To take away his belief in +the possibility of changing other metals into gold would be to convert +the alchemist into an atheist. + +How, then, was the transmutation to be accomplished? Evidently by the +method whereby nature brings to perfection other living things; for +the alchemist's belief in the simplicity and unity of nature compelled +him to regard metals as living things. + +Plants are improved by appropriate culture, by digging and enriching +the soil, by judicious selection of seed; animals are improved by +careful breeding. By similar processes metals will be encouraged and +helped towards perfection. The perfect state of gold will not be +reached at a bound; it will be gained gradually. Many partial +purifications will be needed. As _Subtle_ says in _The Alchemist_-- + + 'twere absurd + To think that nature in the earth bred gold + Perfect in the instant; something went before, + There must be remote matter.... + Nature doth first beget the imperfect, then + Proceeds she to the perfect. + +At this stage the alchemical argument becomes very ultra-physical. It +may, perhaps, be rendered somewhat as follows:-- + +Man is the most perfect of animals; in man there is a union of three +parts, these are body, soul, and spirit. Metals also may be said to +have a body, a soul, and a spirit; there is a specific bodily, or +material, form belonging to each metal; there is a metalline soul +characteristic of this or that class of metals; there is a spirit, or +inner immaterial potency, which is the very essence of all metals. + +The soul and spirit of man are clogged by his body. If the spiritual +nature is to become the dominating partner, the body must be +mortified: the alchemists, of course, used this kind of imagery, and +it was very real to them. In like manner the spirit of metals will be +laid bare and enabled to exercise its transforming influences, only +when the material form of the individual metal has been destroyed. The +first thing to do, then, is to strip off and cast aside those +properties of metals which appeal to the senses. + +"It is necessary to deprive matter of its qualities in order to draw +out its soul," said Stephanus of Alexandria in the 7th century; and in +the 17th century Paracelsus said, "Nothing of true value is located in +the body of a substance, but in the virtue ... the less there is of +body the more in proportion is the virtue." + +But the possession of the soul of metals is not the final stage: +mastery of the soul may mean the power of transmuting a metal into +another like itself; it will not suffice for the great transmutation, +for in that process a metal becomes gold, the one and only perfect +metal. Hence the soul also must be removed, in order that the spirit, +the essence, the kernel, may be obtained. + +And as it is with metals, so, the alchemists argued, it is with all +things. There are a few _Principles_ which may be thought of as +conditioning the specific bodily and material forms of things; beneath +these, there are certain _Elements_ which are common to many things +whose principles are not the same; and, hidden by the wrappings of +elements and principles, there is the one _Essence_, the spirit, the +mystic uniting bond, the final goal of the philosopher. + +I propose in this chapter to try to analyse the alchemical conceptions +of Elements and Principles, and in the next chapter to attempt some +kind of description of the Essence. + +In his _Tract Concerning the Great Stone of the Ancient Sages_, Basil +Valentine speaks of the "three Principles," salt, sulphur, and +mercury, the source of which is the Elements. + +"There are four Elements, and each has at its centre another element +which makes it what it is. These are the four pillars of the earth." + +Of the element _Earth_, he says:--"In this element the other three, +especially fire, are latent.... It is gross and porous, specifically +heavy, but naturally light.... It receives all that the other three +project into it, conscientiously conceals what it should hide, and +brings to light that which it should manifest.... Outwardly it is +visible and fixed, inwardly it is invisible and volatile." + +Of the element _Water_, Basil Valentine says:--"Outwardly it is +volatile, inwardly it is fixed, cold, and humid.... It is the solvent +of the world, and exists in three degrees of excellence: the pure, the +purer, and the purest. Of its purest substance the heavens were +created; of that which is less pure the atmospheric air was formed; +that which is simply pure remains in its proper sphere where ... it is +guardian of all subtle substances here below." + +Concerning the element _Air_, he writes:--"The most noble Element of +Air ... is volatile, but may be fixed, and when fixed renders all +bodies penetrable.... It is nobler than Earth or Water.... It +nourishes, impregnates, conserves the other elements." + +Finally, of the element _Fire_:--"Fire is the purest and noblest of +all Elements, full of adhesive unctuous corrosiveness, penetrant, +digestive, inwardly fixed, hot and dry, outwardly visible, and +tempered by the earth.... This Element is the most passive of all, and +resembles a chariot; when it is drawn, it moves; when it is not drawn, +it stands still." + +Basil Valentine then tells his readers that Adam was compounded of the +four pure Elements, but after his expulsion from Paradise he became +subject to the various impurities of the animal creation. "The pure +Elements of his creation were gradually mingled and infected with the +corruptible elements of the outer world, and thus his body became more +and more gross, and liable, through its grossness, to natural decay +and death." The process of degeneration was slow at first, but "as +time went on, the seed out of which men were generated became more and +more infected with perishable elements. The continued use of +corruptible food rendered their bodies more and more gross; and human +life was soon reduced to a very brief span." + +Basil Valentine then deals with the formation of the three +_Principles_ of things, by the mutual action of the four Elements. +Fire acting on Air produced _Sulphur_; Air acting on Water produced +_Mercury_; Water acting on Earth produced _Salt_. Earth having nothing +to act on produced nothing, but became the nurse of the three +Principles. "The three Principles," he says, "are necessary because +they are the immediate substance of metals. The remoter substance of +metals is the four elements, but no one can produce anything out of +them but God; and even God makes nothing of them but these three +Principles." + +To endeavour to obtain the four pure Elements is a hopeless task. But +the Sage has the three Principles at hand. "The artist should +determine which of the three Principles he is seeking, and should +assist it so that it may overcome its contrary." "The art consists in +an even mingling of the virtues of the Elements; in the natural +equilibrium of the hot, the dry, the cold, and the moist." + +The account of the Elements given by Philalethes differs from that of +Basil Valentine. + +Philalethes enumerates three Elements only: Air, Water, and Earth. +Things are not formed by the mixture of these Elements, for +"dissimilar things can never really unite." By analysing the +properties of the three Elements, Philalethes reduced them finally to +one, namely, Water. "Water," he says, "is the first principle of all +things." "Earth is the fundamental Element in which all bodies grow +and are preserved. Air is the medium into which they grow, and by +means of which the celestial virtues are communicated to them." + +According to Philalethes, _Mercury_ is the most important of the three +Principles. Although gold is formed by the aid of Mercury, it is only +when Mercury has been matured, developed, and perfected, that it is +able to transmute inferior metals into gold. The essential thing to do +is, therefore, to find an agent which will bring about the maturing +and perfecting of Mercury. This agent, Philalethes calls "Our divine +Arcanum." + +Although it appears to me impossible to translate the sayings of the +alchemists concerning Elements and Principles into expressions which +shall have definite and exact meanings for us to-day, still we may, +perhaps, get an inkling of the meaning of such sentences as those I +have quoted from Basil Valentine and Philalethes. + +Take the terms _Fire_ and _Water_. In former times all liquid +substances were supposed to be liquid because they possessed something +in common; this hypothetical something was called the _Element, +Water_. Similarly, the view prevailed until comparatively recent +times, that burning substances burn because of the presence in them of +a hypothetical imponderable fluid, called "_Caloric_"; the alchemists +preferred to call this indefinable something an Element, and to name +it _Fire_. + +We are accustomed to-day to use the words _fire_ and _water_ with +different meanings, according to the ideas we wish to express. When we +say "do not touch the fire," or "put your hand into the water," we are +regarding fire and water as material things; when we say "the house is +on fire," or speak of "a diamond of the first water," we are thinking +of the condition or state of a burning body, or of a substance as +transparent as water. When we say "put out the fire," or "his heart +became as water," we are referring to the act of burning, or are using +an image which likens the thing spoken of to a substance in the act of +liquefying. + +As we do to-day, so the alchemists did before us; they used the words +_fire_ and _water_ to express different ideas. + +Such terms as hardness, softness, coldness, toughness, and the like, +are employed for the purpose of bringing together into one point of +view different things which are alike in, at least, one respect. Hard +things may differ in size, weight, shape, colour, texture, &c. A soft +thing may weigh the same as a hard thing; both may have the same +colour or the same size, or be at the same temperature, and so on. By +classing together various things as hard or soft, or smooth or rough, +we eliminate (for the time) all the properties wherein the things +differ, and regard them only as having one property in common. The +words hardness, softness, &c., are useful class-marks. + +Similarly the alchemical Elements and Principles were useful +class-marks. + +We must not suppose that when the alchemists spoke of certain things +as formed from, or by the union of, the same Elements or the same +Principles, they meant that these things contained a common substance. +Their Elements and Principles were not thought of as substances, at +least not in the modern meaning of the expression, _a substance_; they +were qualities only. + +If we think of the alchemical elements earth, air, fire, and water, as +general expressions of what seemed to the alchemists the most +important properties of all substances, we may be able to attach some +kind of meaning to the sayings of Basil Valentine, which I have +quoted. For instance, when that alchemist tells us, "Fire is the most +passive of all elements, and resembles a chariot; when it is drawn, it +moves; when it is not drawn, it stands still"--we may suppose he meant +to express the fact that a vast number of substances can be burnt, and +that combustion does not begin of itself, but requires an external +agency to start it. + +Unfortunately, most of the terms which the alchemists used to +designate their Elements and Principles are terms which are now +employed to designate specific substances. The word _fire_ is still +employed rather as a quality of many things under special conditions, +than as a specific substance; but _earth_, _water_, _air_, _salt_, +_sulphur_, and _mercury_, are to-day the names applied to certain +groups of properties, each of which is different from all other groups +of properties, and is, therefore, called, in ordinary speech, a +definite kind of matter. + +As knowledge became more accurate and more concentrated, the words +_sulphur_, _salt_, _mercury_, &c., began to be applied to distinct +substances, and as these terms were still employed in their alchemical +sense as compendious expressions for certain qualities common to great +classes of substances, much confusion arose. Kunckel, the discoverer +of phosphorus, who lived between 1630 and 1702, complained of the +alchemists' habit of giving different names to the same substance, and +the same name to different substances. "The sulphur of one," he says, +"is not the sulphur of another, to the great injury of science. To +that one replies that everyone is perfectly free to baptise his infant +as he pleases. Granted. You may if you like call an ass an ox, but you +will never make anyone believe that your ox is an ass." Boyle is very +severe on the vague and loose use of words practised by so many +writers of his time. In _The Sceptical Chymist_ (published 1678-9) he +says: "If judicious men, skilled in chymical affairs, shall once agree +to write clearly and plainly of them, and thereby keep men from being +stunned, as it were, or imposed upon by dark and empty words; it is to +be hoped that these [other] men finding, that they can no longer write +impertinently and absurdly, without being laughed at for doing so, +will be reduced either to write nothing, or books that may teach us +something, and not rob men, as formerly, of invaluable time; and so +ceasing to trouble the world with riddles or impertinences, we shall +either by their books receive an advantage, or by their silence escape +an inconvenience." + +Most of the alchemists taught that the elements produced what they +called _seed_, by their mutual reactions, and the principles matured +this seed and brought it to perfection. They supposed that each class, +or kind, of things had its own seed, and that to obtain the seed was +to have the power of producing the things which sprung from that seed. + +Some of them, however, asserted that all things come from a common +seed, and that the nature of the products of this seed is conditioned +by the circumstances under which it is caused to develop. + +Thus Michael Sendivogius writes as follows in _The New Chemical Light, +drawn from the fountain of Nature and of Manual Experience_ (17th +century):-- + + "Wherever there is seed, Nature will work through it, whether it + be good or bad." "The four Elements, by their continued action, + project a constant supply of seed to the centre of the earth, + where it is digested, and whence it proceeds again in generative + motions. Now the centre of the earth is a certain void place where + nothing is at rest, and upon the margin or circumference of this + centre the four Elements project their qualities.... The magnetic + force of our earth-centre attracts to itself as much as is needed + of the cognate seminal substance, while that which cannot be used + for vital generation is thrust forth in the shape of stones and + other rubbish. This is the fountain-head of all things + terrestrial. Let us illustrate the matter by supposing a glass of + water to be set in the middle of a table, round the margin of + which are placed little heaps of salt, and of powders of different + colours. If the water be poured out, it will run all over the + table in divergent rivulets, and will become salt where it touches + the salt, red where it touches the red powder, and so on. The + water does not change the '_places_,' but the several '_places_' + differentiate the water.[4] In the same way, the seed which is the + product of the four Elements is projected in all directions from + the earth-centre, and produces different things, according to the + quality of the different places. Thus, while the seed of all + things is one, it is made to generate a great variety of + things.... So long as Nature's seed remains in the centre it can + indifferently produce a tree or a metal, a herb or a stone, and in + like manner, according to the purity of the place, it will produce + what is less or more pure." + + [4] The author I am quoting had said--"Nature is divided into + four '_places_' in which she brings forth all things that + appear and that are in the shade; and according to the good or + bad quality of the '_place_,' she brings forth good or bad + things.... It is most important for us to know her '_places_' + ... in order that we may join things together according to + Nature." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE ALCHEMICAL ESSENCE. + + +In the last chapter I tried to describe the alchemical view of the +interdependence of different substances. Taking for granted the +tripartite nature of man, the co-existence in him of body, soul, and +spirit (no one of which was defined), the alchemists concluded that +all things are formed as man is formed; that in everything there is a +specific bodily form, some portion of soul, and a dash of spirit. I +considered the term _soul_ to be the alchemical name for the +properties common to a class of substances, and the term _spirit_ to +mean the property which was thought by the alchemists to be common to +all things. + +The alchemists considered it possible to arrange all substances in +four general classes, the marks whereof were expressed by the terms +hot, cold, moist, and dry; they thought of these properties as +typified by what they called the four Elements--fire, air, water, and +earth. Everything, they taught, was produced from the four Elements, +not immediately, but through the mediation of the three +Principles--mercury, sulphur, and salt. These Principles were regarded +as the tools put into the hands of him who desired to effect the +transmutation of one substance into another. The Principles were not +thought of as definite substances, nor as properties of this or that +specified substance; they were considered to be the characteristic +properties of large classes of substances. + +The chemist of to-day places many compounds in the same class because +all are acids, because all react similarly under similar conditions. +It used to be said that every acid possesses more or less of _the +principle of acidity_. Lavoisier changed the language whereby certain +facts concerning acids were expressed. He thought that experiments +proved all acids to be compounds of the element oxygen; and for many +years after Lavoisier, the alchemical expression _the principle of +acidity_ was superseded by the word _oxygen_. Although Lavoisier +recognised that not every compound of oxygen is an acid, he taught +that every acid is a compound of oxygen. We know now that many acids +are not compounds of oxygen, but we have not yet sufficient knowledge +to frame a complete definition of the term _acid_. Nevertheless it is +convenient, indeed it is necessary, to place together many compounds +which react similarly under certain defined conditions, and to give a +common name to them all. The alchemists also classified substances, +but their classification was necessarily more vague than ours; and +they necessarily expressed their reasons for putting different +substances in the same class in a language which arose out of the +general conceptions of natural phenomena which prevailed in their +time. + +The primary classification of substances made by the alchemists was +expressed by saying; these substances are rich in the principle +_sulphur_, those contain much of the principle _mercury_, and this +class is marked by the preponderance of the principle _salt_. The +secondary classification of the alchemists was expressed by saying; +this class is characterised by dryness, that by moisture, another by +coldness, and a fourth by hotness; the dry substances contain much of +the element _Earth_, the moist substances are rich in the element +_Water_, in the cold substances the element _Air_ preponderates, and +the hot substances contain more of the element _Fire_ than of the +other elements. + +The alchemists went a step further in their classification of things. +They asserted that there is One Thing present in all things; that +everything is a vehicle for the more or less perfect exhibition of the +properties of the One Thing; that there is a Primal Element common to +all substances. The final aim of alchemy was to obtain the One Thing, +the Primal Element, the Soul of all Things, so purified, not only from +all specific substances, but also from all admixture of the four +Elements and the three Principles, as to make possible the +accomplishment of any transmutation by the use of it. + +If a person ignorant of its powers were to obtain the Essence, he +might work vast havoc and cause enormous confusion; it was necessary, +therefore, to know the conditions under which the potencies of the +Essence became active. Hence there was need of prolonged study of the +mutual actions of the most seemingly diverse substances, and of minute +and patient examination of the conditions under which nature performs +her marvellous transmutations. The quest of the One Thing was fraught +with peril, and was to be attempted only by those who had served a +long and laborious apprenticeship. + +In _The Chemical Treatise of Thomas Norton, the Englishman, called +Believe-me, or the Ordinal of Alchemy_ (15th century), the adept is +warned not to disclose his secrets to ordinary people. + +"You should carefully test and examine the life, character, and mental +aptitudes of any person who would be initiated in this Art, and then +you should bind him, by a sacred oath, not to let our Magistery be +commonly or vulgarly known. Only when he begins to grow old and +feeble, he may reveal it to one person, but not to more, and that one +man must be virtuous.... If any wicked man should learn to practise +the Art, the event would be fraught with great danger to Christendom. +For such a man would overstep all bounds of moderation, and would +remove from their hereditary thrones those legitimate princes who rule +over the peoples of Christendom." + +The results of the experimental examination of the compositions and +properties of substances, made since the time of the alchemists, have +led to the modern conception of the chemical element, and the +isolation of about seventy or eighty different elements. No substance +now called an element has been produced in the laboratory by uniting +two, or more, distinct substances, nor has any been separated into +two, or more, unlike portions. The only decided change which a +chemical element has been caused to undergo is the combination of it +with some other element or elements, or with a compound or compounds. + +But it is possible that all the chemical elements may be combinations +of different quantities of one primal element. Certain facts make this +supposition tenable; and some chemists expect that the supposition +will be proved to be correct. If the hypothetical primal element +should be isolated, we should have fulfilled the aim of alchemy, and +gained the One Thing; but the fulfilment would not be that whereof the +alchemists dreamed. + +Inasmuch as the alchemical Essence was thought of as the Universal +Spirit to whose presence is due whatever degree of perfection any +specific substance exhibits, it followed that the more perfect a +substance the greater is the quantity of the Essence in it. But even +in the most perfect substance found in nature--which substance, the +alchemists said, is gold--the Essence is hidden by wrappings of +specific properties which prevent the ordinary man from recognising +it. Remove these wrappings from some special substance, and you have +the perfect form of that thing; you have some portion of the Universal +Spirit joined to the one general property of the class of things +whereof the particular substance is a member. Then remove the +class-property, often spoken of by the alchemists as _the life_, of +the substance, and you have the Essence itself. + +The alchemists thought that to every thing, or at any rate to every +class of things, there corresponds a more perfect form than that which +we see and handle; they spoke of gold, and the _gold of the Sages_; +mercury, and the _mercury of the Philosophers_; sulphur, and the +_heavenly sulphur of him whose eyes are opened_. + +To remove the outer wrappings of ordinary properties which present +themselves to the untrained senses, was regarded by the alchemists to +be a difficult task; to tear away the soul (the class-property) of a +substance, and yet retain the Essence which made that substance its +dwelling place, was possible only after vast labour, and by the use of +the proper agent working under the proper conditions. An exceedingly +powerful, delicate, and refined agent was needed; and the mastery of +the agent was to be acquired by bitter experience, and, probably, +after many disappointments. + +"Gold," an alchemist tells us, "does not easily give up its nature, +and will fight for its life; but our agent is strong enough to +overcome and kill it, and then it also has the power to restore it to +life, and to change the lifeless remains into a new and pure body." + +Thomas Norton, the author of _The Ordinal of Alchemy_, writing in the +15th century, says the worker in transmutations is often tempted to be +in a hurry, or to despair, and he is often deceived. His servants will +be either stupid and faithful, or quick-witted and false. He may be +robbed of everything when his work is almost finished. The only +remedies are infinite patience, a sense of virtue, and sound reason. +"In the pursuit of our Art," he says, "you should take care, from time +to time, to unbend your mind from its sterner employments with some +convenient recreation." + +The choice of workmen to aid in the mechanical parts of the quest was +a great trouble to the alchemists. On this subject Norton says--"If +you would be free from all fear over the gross work, follow my +counsel, and never engage married men; for they soon give in and +pretend they are tired out.... Hire your workmen for certain +stipulated wages, and not for longer periods than twenty-four hours at +a time. Give them higher wages than they would receive elsewhere, and +be prompt and ready in your payments." + +Many accounts are given by alchemical writers of the agent, and many +names are bestowed on it. The author of _A Brief Guide to the +Celestial Ruby_ speaks thus of the agent--"It is our doorkeeper, our +balm, our honey, oil, urine, maydew, mother, egg, secret furnace, +oven, true fire, venomous dragon, Theriac, ardent wine, Green Lion, +Bird of Hermes, Goose of Hermogenes, two-edged sword in the hand of +the Cherub that guards the Tree of Life.... It is our true secret +vessel, and the Garden of the Sages in which our sun rises and sets. +It is our Royal Mineral, our triumphant vegetable Saturnia, and the +magic rod of Hermes, by means of which he assumes any shape he likes." + +Sometimes we are told that the agent is mercury, sometimes that it is +gold, but not common mercury or common gold. "Supplement your common +mercury with the inward fire which it needs, and you will soon get rid +of all superfluous dross." "The agent is gold, as highly matured as +natural and artificial digestion can make it, and a thousand times +more perfect than the common metal of that name. Gold, thus exalted, +radically penetrates, tinges, and fixes metals." + +The alchemists generally likened the work to be performed by their +agent to the killing of a living thing. They constantly use the +allegory of death, followed by resurrection, in describing the steps +whereby the Essence was to be obtained, and the processes whereby the +baser metals were to be partially purified. They speak of the +mortification of metals, the dissolution and putrefaction of +substances, as preliminaries to the appearance of the true life of the +things whose outward properties have been destroyed. For instance, +Paracelsus says: "Destruction perfects that which is good; for the +good cannot appear on account of that which conceals it." The same +alchemist speaks of rusting as the mortification of metals; he says: +"The mortification of metals is the removal of their bodily +structure.... The mortification of woods is their being turned into +charcoal or ashes." + +Paracelsus distinguishes natural from artificial mortification, +"Whatever nature consumes," he says, "man cannot restore. But whatever +man destroys man can restore, and break again when restored." Things +which had been mortified by man's device were considered by Paracelsus +not to be really dead. He gives this extraordinary illustration of his +meaning: "You see this is the case with lions, which are all born +dead, and are first vitalised by the horrible noise of their parents, +just as a sleeping person is awakened by a shout." + +The mortification of metals is represented in alchemical books by +various images and allegories. Fig. I. is reduced from a cut in a 16th +century work, _The Book of Lambspring, a noble ancient Philosopher, +concerning the Philosophical Stone_. + +[Illustration: Here the father devours the son; + The soul and spirit flow forth from the body. + FIG. I.] + +The image used to set forth the mortification of metals is a king +swallowing his son. Figs. II. and III. are reduced from Basil +Valentine's _Twelve Keys_. Both of these figures represent the process +of mortification by images connected with death and burial. + +[Illustration: FIG. II.] + +In his explanation (?) of these figures, Basil Valentine says:-- + + "Neither human nor animal bodies can be multiplied or propagated + without decomposition; the grain and all vegetable seed, when cast + into the ground, must decay before it can spring up again; + moreover, putrefaction imparts life to many worms and other + animalculæ.... If bread is placed in honey, and suffered to decay, + ants are generated ... maggots are also developed by the decay of + nuts, apples, and pears. The same thing may be observed in regard + to vegetable life. Nettles and other weeds spring up where no such + seed has ever been sown. This occurs only by putrefaction. The + reason is that the soil in such places is so disposed, and, as it + were, impregnated, that it produces these fruits; which is a + result of the properties of sidereal influences; consequently the + seed is spiritually produced in the earth, and putrefies in the + earth, and by the operation of the elements generates corporeal + matter according to the species of nature. Thus the stars and the + elements may generate new spiritual, and ultimately, new vegetable + seed, by means of putrefaction.... Know that, in like manner, no + metallic seed can develop, or multiply, unless the said seed, by + itself alone, and without the introduction of any foreign + substance, be reduced to a perfect putrefaction." + +[Illustration: FIG. III.] + +The action of the mineral agent in perfecting substances is often +likened by the alchemists to the conjoining of the male and the +female, followed by the production of offspring. They insist on the +need of a union of two things, in order to produce something more +perfect than either. The agent, they say, must work upon something; +alone it is nothing. + +The methods whereby the agent is itself perfected, and the processes +wherein the agent effects the perfecting of the less perfect things, +were divided into stages by the alchemists. They generally spoke of +these stages as _Gates_, and enumerated ten or sometimes twelve of +them. As examples of the alchemical description of these gates, I give +some extracts from _A Brief Guide to the Celestial Ruby_. + +The first gate is _Calcination_, which is "the drying up of the +humours"; by this process the substance "is concocted into a black +powder which is yet unctuous, and retains its radical humour." When +gold passes through this gate, "We observe in it two natures, the +fixed and the volatile, which we liken to two serpents." The fixed +nature is likened to a serpent without wings; the volatile, to a +serpent with wings: calcination unites these two into one. The second +gate, _Dissolution_, is likened to death and burial; but the true +Essence will appear glorious and beautiful when this gate is passed. +The worker is told not to be discouraged by this apparent death. _The +mercury of the sages_ is spoken of by this author as the queen, and +gold as the king. The king dies for love of the queen, but he is +revived by his spouse, who is made fruitful by him and brings forth "a +most royal son." + +Figs. IV. and V. are reduced from _The Book of Lambspring_; they +express the need of the conjunction of two to produce one. + + +[Illustration: Here you behold a great marvel-- + Two Lions are joined into one. + + The spirit and soul must be united in their body. + FIG. IV.] + +After dissolution came _Conjunction_, wherein the separated elements +were combined. Then followed _Putrefaction_, necessary for the +germination of the seed which had been produced by calcination, +dissolution, and conjunction. Putrefaction was followed by +_Congelation_ and _Citation_. The passage through the next gate, +called _Sublimation_, caused the body to become spiritual, and the +spiritual to be made corporal. _Fermentation_ followed, whereby the +substance became soft and flowed like wax. Finally, by _Exaltation_, +the Stone was perfected. + +[Illustration: Here are two birds, great and strong--the body and + spirit; one devours the other. + + Let the body be placed in horse-dung, or a warm bath, + the spirit having been extracted from it. The body has + become white by the process, the spirit red by our art. + All that exists tends towards perfection, and thus is + the Philosopher's Stone prepared. + + FIG. V.] + +The author of _The Open Entrance_ speaks of the various stages in the +perfecting of the agent as _regimens_. The beginning of the heating +of gold with mercury is likened to the king stripping off his golden +garments and descending into the fountain; this is the _regimen of +Mercury_. As the heating is continued, all becomes black; this is the +_regimen of Saturn_. Then is noticed a play of many colours; this is +the _regimen of Jupiter_: if the heat is not regulated properly, "the +young ones of the crow will go back to the nest." About the end of the +fourth month you will see "the sign of the waxing moon," and all +becomes white; this is the _regimen of the Moon_. The white colour +gives place to purple and green; you are now in the _regimen of +Venus_. After that, appear all the colours of the rainbow, or of a +peacock's tail; this is the _regimen of Mars_. Finally the colour +becomes orange and golden; this is the _regimen of the Sun_. + +The reader may wish to have some description of the Essence. The +alchemists could describe it only in contraries. It had a bodily form, +but its method of working was spiritual. In _The Sodic Hydrolith, or +Water Stone of the Wise_ we are told:-- + + "The stone is conceived below the earth, born in the earth, + quickened in heaven, dies in time, and obtains eternal glory.... + It is bluish-grey and green.... It flows like water, yet it makes + no wet; it is of great weight, and is small." + +Philalethes says, in _A Brief Guide to the Celestial Ruby_: "The +Philosopher's Stone is a certain heavenly, spiritual, penetrative, and +fixed substance, which brings all metals to the perfection of gold or +silver (according to the quality of the Medicine), and that by natural +methods, which yet in their effects transcend Nature.... Know then +that it is called a stone, not because it is like a stone, but only +because, by virtue of its fixed nature, it resists the action of fire +as successfully as any stone. In species it is gold, more pure than +the purest; it is fixed and incombustible like a stone, but its +appearance is that of very fine powder, impalpable to the touch, sweet +to the taste, fragrant to the smell, in potency a most penetrative +spirit, apparently dry and yet unctuous, and easily capable of tinging +a plate of metal.... If we say that its nature is spiritual, it would +be no more than the truth; if we described it as corporeal, the +expression would be equally correct." + +The same author says: "There is a substance of a metalline species +which looks so cloudy that the universe will have nothing to do with +it. Its visible form is vile; it defiles metalline bodies, and no one +can readily imagine that the pearly drink of bright Phoebus should +spring from thence. Its components are a most pure and tender mercury, +a dry incarcerate sulphur, which binds it and restrains fluxation.... +Know this subject, it is the sure basis of all our secrets.... To deal +plainly, it is the child of Saturn, of mean price and great venom.... +It is not malleable, though metalline. Its colour is sable, with +intermixed argent which mark the sable fields with veins of glittering +argent." + +In trying to attach definite meanings to the alchemical accounts of +Principles, Elements, and the One Thing, and the directions which the +alchemists give for changing one substance into others, we are very +apt to be misled by the use of such an expression as _the +transmutation of the elements_. To a chemist that phrase means the +change of an element into another element, an element being a definite +substance, which no one has been able to produce by the combination of +two or more substances unlike itself, or to separate into two or more +substances unlike itself. But whatever may have been the alchemical +meaning of the word _element_, it was certainly not that given to the +same word to-day. Nor did the word _transmutation_ mean to the +alchemist what it means to the chemist. + +The facts which are known at present concerning the elements make +unthinkable such a change as that of lead into silver; but new facts +_may_ be discovered which will make possible the separation of lead +into things unlike itself, and the production of silver by the +combination of some of these constituents of lead. The alchemist +supposed he knew such facts as enabled him not only to form a mental +picture of the change of lead into silver, or tin into gold, but also +to assert that such changes must necessarily happen, and to accomplish +them. Although we are quite sure that the alchemist's facts were only +imaginings, we ought not to blame him for his reasoning on what he +took to be facts. + +Every metal is now said to be an element, in the modern meaning of +that word: the alchemist regarded the metals as composite substances; +but he also thought of them as more simple than many other things. +Hence, if he was able to transmute one metal into another, he would +have strong evidence in support of his general conception of the +unity of all things. And, as transmutation meant, to the alchemist, +the bringing of a substance to the condition of greatest perfection +possible for that substance, his view of the unity of nature might be +said to be proved if he succeeded in changing one of the metals, one +of these comparatively simple substances, into the most perfect of all +metals, that is, into gold. + +The transmutation of the baser metals into gold thus came to be the +practical test of the justness of the alchemical scheme of things. + +Some alchemists assert they had themselves performed the great +transmutation; others tell of people who had accomplished the work. +The following story is an example of the accounts given of the making +of gold. It is taken from _John Frederick Helvetius' Golden Calf, +which the world worships and adores_ (17th century):-- + + "On the 27th December 1666, in the forenoon, there came to my + house a certain man, who was a complete stranger to me, but of an + honest grave countenance, and an authoritative mien, clothed in a + simple garb.... He was of middle height, his face was long and + slightly pock-marked, his hair was black and straight, his chin + close-shaven, his age about forty-three or forty-four, and his + native province, as far as I could make out, North Holland. After + we had exchanged salutations, he asked me whether he might have + some conversation with me. He wished to say something to me about + the Pyrotechnic Art, as he had read one of my tracts (directed + against the Sympathetic Powder of Dr Digby), in which I hinted a + suspicion whether the Grand Arcanum of the Sages was not after all + a gigantic hoax. He, therefore, took that opportunity of asking me + whether I could not believe that such a grand mystery might exist + in the nature of things, by means of which a physician could + restore any patient whose vitals were not irreparably destroyed. I + answered, 'Such a medicine would be a most desirable acquisition + for any physician; nor can any man tell how many secrets there may + be hidden in Nature; yet, though I have read much about the truth + of this art, it has never been my good fortune to meet with a real + master of the alchemical science.' ... After some further + conversation, the Artist Elias (for it was he) thus addressed me: + 'Since you have read so much in the works of the alchemists about + this stone, its substance, its colour and its wonderful effects, + may I be allowed the question, whether you have not prepared it + yourself?' On my answering his question in the negative, he took + out of his bag a cunningly-worked ivory box, in which were three + large pieces of substance resembling glass, or pale sulphur, and + informed me that here was enough of the tincture for the + production of twenty tons of gold. When I had held the precious + treasure in my hand for a quarter of an hour (during which time I + listened to a recital of its wonderful curative properties), I was + compelled to restore it to its owner, which I could not help doing + with a certain degree of reluctance.... My request that he would + give me a piece of his stone (though it were no larger than a + coriander seed), he somewhat brusquely refused, adding, in a + milder tone, that he could not give it me for all the wealth I + possessed, and that not on account of its great preciousness, but + for some other reason which it was not lawful for him to + divulge.... Then he inquired whether I could not show him into a + room at the back of the house, where we should be less liable to + the observation of passers-by. On my conducting him into the state + parlour (which he entered without wiping his dirty boots), he + demanded of me a gold coin, and while I was looking for it, he + produced from his breast pocket a green silk handkerchief, in + which were folded up five medals, the gold of which was infinitely + superior to that of my gold piece." Here follows the inscriptions + on the medals. "I was filled with admiration, and asked my visitor + whence he had obtained that wonderful knowledge of the whole + world. He replied that it was a gift freely bestowed on him by a + friend who had stayed a few days at his house." Here follows the + stranger's account of this friend's experiments. "When my strange + visitor had concluded his narrative, I besought him to give me a + proof of his assertion, by performing the transmutatory operation + on some metals in my presence. He answered evasively, that he + could not do so then, but that he would return in three weeks, and + that, if he was then at liberty to do so, he would show me + something that would make me open my eyes. He appeared punctually + to the promised day, and invited me to take a walk with him, in + the course of which we discoursed profoundly on the secrets of + Nature in fire, though I noticed that my companion was very chary + in imparting information about the Grand Arcanum.... At last I + asked him point blank to show me the transmutation of metals. I + besought him to come and dine with me, and to spend the night at + my house; I entreated; I expostulated; but in vain. He remained + firm. I reminded him of his promise. He retorted that his promise + had been conditional upon his being permitted to reveal the secret + to me. At last, however, I prevailed upon him to give me a piece + of his precious stone--a piece no larger than a grain of rape + seed.... He bid me take half an ounce of lead ... and melt it in + the crucible; for the Medicine would certainly not tinge more of + the base metal than it was sufficient for.... He promised to + return at nine o'clock the next morning.... But at the stated hour + on the following day he did not make his appearance; in his stead, + however, there came, a few hours later, a stranger, who told me + that his friend the artist was unavoidably detained, but that he + would call at three o'clock in the afternoon. The afternoon came; + I waited for him till half-past seven o'clock. He did not appear. + Thereupon my wife came and tempted me to try the transmutation + myself. I determined however to wait till the morrow. On the + morrow ... I asked my wife to put the tincture in wax, and I + myself ... prepared six drachms of lead; I then cast the tincture, + enveloped as it was in wax, on the lead; as soon as it was melted, + there was a hissing sound and a slight effervescence, and after a + quarter of an hour I found that the whole mass of lead had been + turned into the finest gold.... We immediately took it to the + goldsmith, who at once declared it the finest gold he had ever + seen, and offered to pay fifty florins an ounce for it." He then + describes various tests which were made to prove the purity of the + gold. "Thus I have unfolded to you the whole story from beginning + to end. The gold I still retain in my possession, but I cannot + tell you what has become of the Artist Elias." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +ALCHEMY AS AN EXPERIMENTAL ART. + + +A modern writer, Mr A.E. Waite, in his _Lives of the Alchemystical +Philosophers_, says: "The physical theory of transmutation is based on +the composite character of the metals, on their generation in the +bowels of the earth, and on the existence in nature of a pure and +penetrating matter which applied to any substance exalts and perfects +it after its own kind." It must he admitted that the alchemists could +cite many instances of transmutations which seemed to lead to the +conclusion, that there is no difference of kind between the metals and +other substances such as water, acids, oils, resins, and wood. We are +able to-day to effect a vast number of transformations wherein one +substance is exchanged for another, or made to take the place of +another. We can give fairly satisfactory descriptions of these +changes; and, by comparing them one with another, we are able to +express their essential features in general terms which can be applied +to each particular instance. The alchemists had no searching knowledge +of what may be called the mechanism of such changes; they gave an +explanation of them which we must call incorrect, in the present state +of our knowledge. But, as Hoefer says in his _Histoire de la Chimie_, +"to jeer at [the alchemical] theory is to commit at once an +anachronism and an injustice.... Unless the world should finish +to-morrow, no one can have the pretension to suppose that our +contemporaries have said the last word of science, and nothing will +remain for our descendants to discover, no errors for them to correct, +no theories for them to set straight." + +[Illustration: FIG. VI. _See p. 90._] + +[Illustration: FIG. VII. _See p. 90._] + +[Illustration: FIG. VIII. _See p. 91._] + +What kind of experimental evidence could an alchemist furnish in +support of his theory of transmutation? In answering this question, I +cannot do better than give a condensed rendering of certain pages in +Hoefer's _Histoire de la Chimie_. + +The reader is supposed to be present at experiments conducted in the +laboratory of a Grand Master of the Sacred Art in the 5th or 6th +century. + +_Experiment_.--Ordinary water is boiled in an open vessel; the water +is changed to a vapour which disappears, and a white powdery earth +remains in the vessel. + +_Conclusion_.--Water is changed into air and earth. + +Did we not know that ordinary water holds certain substances in +solution, and that boiling water acts on the vessel wherein it is +boiled, we should have no objection to urge against this conclusion. + +It only remained to transmute fire that the transmutation of the four +elements might be completed. + +_Experiment._--A piece of red-hot iron is placed in a bell-jar, filled +with water, held over a basin containing water; the volume of the +water decreases, and the air in the bell-jar takes fire when a lighted +taper is brought into it. + +_Conclusion._--Water is changed into fire. + +That interpretation was perfectly reasonable at a time when the fact +was unknown that water is composed of two gaseous substances; that one +of these (oxygen) is absorbed by the iron, and the other (hydrogen) +collects in the bell-jar, and ignites when brought into contact with a +flame. + +_Experiment_.--Lead, or any other metal except gold or silver, is +calcined in the air; the metal loses its characteristic properties, +and is changed into a powdery substance, a kind of cinder or calx. +When this cinder, which was said to be the result of the _death of the +metal_, is heated in a crucible with some grains of wheat, one sees +the metal revive, and resume its original form and properties. + +_Conclusion._--The metal which had been destroyed is revivified by the +grains of wheat and the action of fire. + +Is this not to perform the miracle of the resurrection? + +No objection can he raised to this interpretation, as long as we are +ignorant of the phenomena of oxidation, and the reduction of oxides by +means of carbon, or organic substances rich in carbon, such as sugar, +flour, seeds, etc. Grains of wheat were the symbol of life, and, by +extension, of the resurrection and eternal life. + +[Illustration: FIG. IX. _See p. 91._] + +_Experiment_.--Ordinary lead is calcined in a cupel made of cinders or +powdered bones; the lead is changed to a cinder which disappears into +the cupel, and a button of silver remains. + +_Conclusion_.--The lead has vanished; what more natural than the +conclusion that it has been transformed into silver? It was not known +then that all specimens of lead contain more or less silver. + +[Illustration: FIG. X. _See p. 92._] + +_Experiment._-The vapour of arsenic bleaches copper. This fact gave +rise to many allegories and enigmas concerning the means of +transforming copper into silver. + +Sulphur, which acts on metals and changes many of them into black +substances, was looked on as a very mysterious thing. It was with +sulphur that the coagulation (solidification) of mercury was effected. + +_Experiment_.--Mercury is allowed to fall, in a fine rain, on to +melted sulphur; a black substance is produced; this black substance is +heated in a closed vessel, it is volatilised and transformed into a +beautiful red solid. + +One could scarcely suppose that the black and the red substances are +identical, if one did not know that they are composed of the same +quantities of the same elements, sulphur and mercury. + +How greatly must this phenomenon have affected the imagination of the +chemists of ancient times, always so ready to be affected by +everything that seemed supernatural! + +Black and red were the symbols of darkness and light, of the evil and +the good principle; and the union of these two principles represented +the moral order. At a later time the idea helped to establish the +alchemical doctrine that sulphur and mercury are the Principles of all +things. + +_Experiment._--Various organic substances are analysed by heating in a +distillation-apparatus; the products are, in each case, a solid +residue, liquids which distil off, and certain spirits which are +disengaged. + +The results supported the ancient theory which asserted that _earth_, +_water_, _air_, and _fire_ are the four Elements of the world. The +solid residue represented _earth_; the liquid products of the +distillation, _water_; and the spirituous substances, _air_. _Fire_ +was regarded sometimes as the means of purification, sometimes as the +soul, or invisible part, of all substances. + +_Experiment_.-A strong acid is poured on to copper. The metal is +attacked, and at last disappears, giving place to a green liquid, as +transparent as water. A thin sheet of iron is plunged into the liquid; +the copper re-appears, and the iron vanishes. + +What more simple than to conclude that the iron has been transformed +into copper? + +Had lead, silver, or gold been used in place of copper, one would have +said that the iron was transformed into lead, silver, or gold. + +In their search for "the pure and penetrating matter which applied to +any substance exalts and perfects it after its own kind," the +alchemists necessarily made many inventions, laid the foundation of +many arts and manufactures, and discovered many facts of importance in +the science of chemistry. + +The practitioners of the _Sacred Art_ of Egypt must have been +acquainted with many operations which we now class as belonging to +applied chemistry; witness, their jewellery, pottery, dyes and +pigments, bleaching, glass-making, working in metals and alloys, and +their use of spices, essential oils, and soda in embalming, and for +other purposes. + +During the centuries when alchemy flourished, gunpowder was invented, +the art of printing was established, the compass was brought into use, +the art of painting and staining glass was begun and carried to +perfection, paper was made from rags, practical metallurgy advanced by +leaps and bounds, many new alloys of metals came into use, glass +mirrors were manufactured, and considerable advances were made in +practical medicine and sanitation. + +[Illustration: FIG. XI. _See p. 92._] + +Basil Valentine, who was one of the greatest alchemists of the 16th +century, discovered many of the properties of the metal antimony, and +prepared and examined many compounds of that metal; he made green +vitriol from pyrites, brandy from fermented grape-juice, fulminating +gold, sulphide of potash, and spirits of salt; he made and used baths +of artificial mineral waters, and he prepared various metals by what +are now called _wet methods_, for instance, copper, by immersing +plates of iron in solutions of bluestone. He examined the air of +mines, and suggested practical methods for determining whether the +air in a mine was respirable. Hoefer draws attention to a remarkable +observation recorded by this alchemist. Speaking of the "spirit of +mercury," Basil Valentine says it is "the origin of all the metals; +that spirit is nothing else than an air flying here and there without +wings; it is a moving wind, which, after it has been chased from its +home of Vulcan (that is, fire), returns to the chaos; then it expands +and passes into the region of the air from whence it had come." As +Hoefer remarks, this is perhaps one of the earliest accounts of the +gas discovered by Priestley and studied by Lavoisier, the gas we now +call oxygen, and recognise as of paramount importance in chemical +reactions. + +[Illustration: FIG. XII. _See p. 92._] + +Besides discovering and recording many facts which have become part +and parcel of the science of chemistry, the alchemists invented and +used various pieces of apparatus, and conducted many operations, which +are still employed in chemical laboratories. I shall reproduce +illustrations of some of these processes and pieces of apparatus, and +quote a few of the directions, given in a book, published in 1664, +called _The Art of Distillation_, by John French, Dr. in Physick. + +The method recommended by French for hermetically sealing the neck of +a glass vessel is shown in Fig. VI. p. 80. The neck of the vessel is +surrounded by a tray containing burning coals; when the glass melts it +is cut off by shears, and then closed by tongs, which are made hot +before use. + +Fig. VII. p. 81, represents a method for covering an open vessel, +air-tight, with a receptacle into which a substance may be sublimed +from the lower vessel. The lettering explains the method of using the +apparatus. + +French gives very practical directions and much sound advice for +conducting distillations of various kinds. The following are specimens +of his directions and advice:-- + + "When you put water into a seething Balneum wherein there are + glasses let it be hot, or else thou wilt endanger the breaking of + the glasses. + + "When thou takest any earthen, or glass vessel from the fire, + expose it not to the cold aire too suddenly for fear it should + break. + + "In all your operations diligently observe the processes which you + read, and vary not a little from them, for sometimes a small + mistake or neglect spoils the whole operation, and frustrates your + expectations. + + "Try not at first experiments of great cost, or great difficulty; + for it will be a great discouragement to thee, and thou wilt be + very apt to mistake. + + "If any one would enter upon the practices of Chymistry, let him + apply himself to some expert artist for to be instructed in the + manual operation of things; for by this means he will learn more + in two months, than he can by his practice and study in seven + years, as also avoid much pains and cost, and redeem much time + which else of necessity he will lose." + +Fig. VIII. p. 82, represents a common cold still, and Fig. IX. p. 84, +is a sketch of an apparatus for distilling by the aid of boiling +water. The bath wherein the vessels are placed in Fig. IX. was called +by the alchemists _balneum Mariae_, from Mary the Jewess, who is +mentioned in the older alchemical writings, and is supposed to have +invented an apparatus of this character. Nothing definite is known of +Mary the Jewess. A writer of the 7th century says she was initiated in +the sacred art in the temple of Memphis; a legend prevailed among some +of the alchemists that she was the sister of Moses. + +Fig. X. p. 85, represents methods of distilling with an apparatus for +cooling the volatile products; the lower vessel is an _alembic_, with +a long neck, the upper part of which passes through a vessel +containing cold water. + +[Illustration: Fig XIII. _See p. 94._] + +Fig. XI. p. 88, shows a _pelican_, that is a vessel wherein a liquid +might be heated for a long time, and the volatile products be +constantly returned to the original vessel. + +Fig. XII. p. 89, represents a retort with a receiver. + +Some of the pieces of apparatus for distilling, which are described +by French, are shown in the following figures. Besides describing +apparatus for distilling, subliming, and other processes in the +laboratory, French gives directions for making tinctures, essences, +essential oils, spirits of salt, and pure saltpetre, oil of vitriol, +butter of antimony, calces (or as we now say, oxides) of metals, and +many other substances. He describes processes for making fresh water +from salt, artificial mineral water, medicated hot baths for invalids +(one of the figures represents an apparatus very like those advertised +to-day as "Turkish baths at home"), and artificial precious stones; he +tells how to test minerals, and make alloys, and describes the +preparation of many substances made from gold and silver. He also +gives many curious receipts; for instance, "To make Firre-trees appear +in Turpentine," "To make a Plant grow in two or three hours," "To make +the representation of the whole world in a Glass," "To extract a white +Milkie substance from the raies of the Moon." + +[Illustration: FIG. XIV. _See p. 94._] + +The process of making oil of vitriol, by burning sulphur under a hood +fitted with a side tube for the outflow of the oil of vitriol, is +represented in Fig. XIII. p. 92. + +Fig. XIV. p. 93, is interesting; it is an apparatus for rectifying +spirits, by distilling, and liquefying only the most volatile portions +of the distillate. The spirituous liquor was heated, and the vapours +caused to traverse a long zigzag tube, wherein the less volatile +portions condensed to liquid, which flowed back into the vessel; the +vapour then passed into another vessel, and then through a second +zigzag tube, and was finally cooled by water, and the condensed liquid +collected. This apparatus was the forerunner of that used to-day, for +effecting the separation of liquids which boil at different +temperatures, by the process called _fractional distillation_. + +We should never forget that the alchemists were patient and laborious +workers, their theories were vitally connected with their practice, +and there was a constant action and reaction between their general +scheme of things and many branches of what we now call chemical +manufactures. We may laugh at many of their theories, and regret that +much useless material was accumulated by them; we may agree with Boyle +(end of 17th century) when he likens the "hermetick philosophers," in +their search for truth, to "the navigators of Solomon's Tarshish +fleet, who brought home from their long and tedious voyages, not only +gold, and silver, and ivory, but apes and peacocks too; for so the +writings of several of your hermetick philosophers present us, +together with divers substantial and noble experiments, theories, +which either like peacocks' feathers make a great show but are neither +solid nor useful; or else like apes, if they have some appearance of +being rational, are blemished with some absurdity or other, that, when +they are attentively considered make them appear ridiculous." But +however we may condemn their method, because it rested on their own +conception of what the order of nature must be, we cannot but praise +their assiduity in conducting experiments and gathering facts. + +As Bacon says, in _De Augmentis Scientiarum_: + + "Alchemy may be compared to the man who told his sons that he had + left them gold buried somewhere in his vineyard; where they by + digging found no gold, but by turning up the mould about the roots + of the vines, procured a plentiful vintage. So the search and + endeavours to make gold have brought many useful inventions and + instructive experiments to light." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE LANGUAGE OF ALCHEMY + + +The vagueness of the general conceptions of alchemy, and the +attribution of ethical qualities to material things by the alchemists, +necessarily led to the employment of a language which is inexact, +undescriptive, and unsuggestive to modern ears. The same name was +given to different things, and the same thing went under many names. +In Chapter IV. I endeavoured to analyse two terms which were +constantly used by the alchemists to convey ideas of great importance, +the terms _Element_ and _Principle_. That attempt sufficed, at any +rate, to show the vagueness of the ideas which these terms were +intended to express, and to make evident the inconsistencies between +the meanings given to the words by different alchemical writers. The +story quoted in Chapter III., from Michael Sendivogius, illustrates +the difficulty which the alchemists themselves had in understanding +what they meant by the term _Mercury_; yet there is perhaps no word +more often used by them than that. Some of them evidently took it to +mean the substance then, and now, called mercury; the results of this +literal interpretation were disastrous; others thought of mercury as a +substance which could be obtained, or, at any rate, might be obtained, +by repeatedly distilling ordinary mercury, both alone and when mixed +with other substances; others used the word to mean a hypothetical +something which was liquid but did not wet things, limpid yet capable +of becoming solid, volatile yet able to prevent the volatilisation of +other things, and white, yet ready to cause other white things to +change their colour; they thought of this something, this soul of +mercury, as having properties without itself being tangible, as at +once a substance and not a substance, at once a bodily spirit and a +spiritual body. + +It was impossible to express the alchemical ideas in any language save +that of far-fetched allegory. The alchemical writings abound in such +allegories. Here are two of them. + +The first allegory is taken from _The Twelve Keys_, of Basilius +Valentinus, the Benedictine:-- + + "The eleventh key to the knowledge of the augmentation of our + Stone I will put before you in the form of a parable. + + "There lived in the East a gilded knight, named Orpheus, who was + possessed of immense wealth, and had everything that heart can + wish. He had taken to wife his own sister, Euridice, who did not, + however, bear him any children. This he regarded as the punishment + of his sin in having wedded his own sister, and was instant in + prayer to God both by day and by night, that the curse might be + taken from him. One night when he was buried in a deep sleep, + there came to him a certain winged messenger, named Phoebus, who + touched his feet, which were very hot, and said: 'Thou noble + knight, since thou hast wandered through many cities and kingdoms + and suffered many things at sea, in battle, and in the lists, the + heavenly Father has bidden me make known to thee the following + means of obtaining thy prayer: Take blood from thy right side, and + from the left side of thy spouse. For this blood is the heart's + blood of your parents, and though it may seem to be of two kinds, + yet, in reality, it is only one. Mix the two kinds of blood, and + keep the mixture tightly enclosed in the globe of the seven wise + Masters. Then that which is generated will be nourished with its + own flesh and blood, and will complete its course of development + when the Moon has changed for the eighth time. If thou repeat this + process again and again, thou shalt see children's children, and + the offspring of thy body shall fill the world.' When Phoebus + had thus spoken, he winged his flight heavenward. In the morning + the knight arose and did the bidding of the celestial messenger, + and God gave to him and to his wife many children, who inherited + their father's glory, wealth, and knightly honours from generation + to generation." + +In the "Dedicatory Epistle" to his _Triumphal Chariot of Antimony_, +Basil Valentine addresses his brother alchemists as follows:-- + + "Mercury appeared to me in a dream, and brought me back from my + devious courses to the one way. 'Behold me clad not in the garb of + the vulgar, but in the philosopher's mantle.' So he said, and + straightway began to leap along the road in headlong bounds. Then, + when he was tired, he sat down, and, turning to me, who had + followed him in the spirit, bade me mark that he no longer + possessed that youthful vigour with which he would at the first + have overcome every obstacle, if he had not been allowed a free + course. Encouraged by his friendly salutation, I addressed him in + the following terms: 'Mercury, eloquent scion of Atlas, and father + of all Alchemists, since thou hast guided me hitherto, shew me, I + pray thee, the way to those Blessed Isles, which thou hast + promised to reveal to all thine elect children. 'Dost thou + remember,' he replied, that when I quitted thy laboratory, I left + behind me a garment so thoroughly saturated with my own blood, + that neither the wind could efface it, nor all-devouring time + destroy its indelible essence? Fetch it hither to me, that I may + not catch a chill from the state of perspiration in which I now + am; but let me clothe myself warmly in it, and be closely incited + thereto, so that I may safely reach my bride, who is sick with + love. She has meekly borne many wrongs, being driven through water + and fire, and compelled to ascend and descend times without + number--yet has she been carried through it all by the hope of + entering with me the bridal chamber, wherein we expect to beget a + son adorned from his birth with the royal crown which he may not + share with others. Yet may he bring his friends to the palace, + where sits enthroned the King of Kings, who communicates his + dignity readily and liberally to all that approach him.' + + "I brought him the garment, and it fitted him so closely, that it + looked like an iron skin securing him against all the assaults of + Vulcan. 'Let us proceed,' he then said, and straightway sped + across the open field, while I boldly strove to keep up with my + guide. + + "Thus we reached his bride, whose virtue and constancy were equal + to his own. There I beheld their marvellous conjugal union and + nuptial consummation, whence was born the son crowned with the + royal diadem. When I was about to salute him as King of Kings and + Lord of Lords, my Genius stood by me and warned me not to be + deceived, since this was only the King's forerunner, but not the + King himself whom I sought. + + "When I heard the admonition, I did not know whether to be sad or + joyful. 'Depart,' then said Mercury, 'with this bridal gift, and + when you come to those disciples who have seen the Lord himself, + show them this sign.' And therewith he gave me a gold ring from + his son's finger. 'They know the golden branch which must be + consecrated to Proserpina before you can enter the palace of + Pluto. When he sees this ring, perhaps one will open to you with a + word the door of that chamber, where sits enthroned in his + magnificence the Desire of all Nations, who is known only to the + Sages.' + + "When he had thus spoken, the vision vanished, but the bridal gift + which I still held in my hand shewed me that it had not been a + mere dream. It was of gold, but to me more precious than the most + prized of all metals. Unto you I will shew it when I am permitted + to see your faces, and to converse with you freely. Till that + earnestly wished-for time, I bid you farewell." + +One result of the alchemical modes of expression was, that he who +tried to follow the directions given in alchemical books got into +dire confusion. He did not know what substances to use in his +operations; for when he was told to employ "the homogeneous water of +gold," for example, the expression might mean anything, and in despair +he distilled, and calcined, and cohobated, and tried to decompose +everything he could lay hands on. Those who pretended to know abused +and vilified those who differed from them. + +In _A Demonstration of Nature_, by John A. Mehung (17th century), +Nature addresses the alchemical worker in the following words:-- + + "You break vials, and consume coals, only to soften your brains + still more with the vapours. You also digest alum, salt, orpiment, + and altrament; you melt metals, build small and large furnaces, + and use many vessels; nevertheless I am sick of your folly, and + you suffocate me with your sulphurous smoke.... You would do + better to mind your own business, than to dissolve and distil so + many absurd substances, and then to pass them through alembics, + cucurbits, stills, and pelicans." + +Henry Madathanas, writing in 1622, says:-- + + "Then I understood that their purgations, sublimations, + cementations, distillations, rectifications, circulations, + putrefactions, conjunctions, calcinations, incinerations, + mortifications, revivifications, as also their tripods, athanors, + reverberatory alembics, excrements of horses, ashes, sand, stills, + pelican-viols, retorts, fixations, etc., are mere plausible + impostures and frauds." + +The author of _The Only Way_ (1677) says: + + "Surely every true Artist must look on this elaborate tissue of + baseless operations as the merest folly, and can only wonder that + the eyes of those silly dupes are not at last opened, that they + may see something besides such absurd sophisms, and read something + besides those stupid and deceitful books.... I can speak from + bitter experience, for I, too, toiled for many years ... and + endeavoured to reach the coveted goal by sublimation, + distillation, calcination, circulation, and so forth, and to + fashion the Stone out of substances such as urine, salt, atrament, + alum, etc. I have tried hard to evolve it out of hairs, wine, + eggs, bones, and all manner of herbs; out of arsenic, mercury, and + sulphur, and all the minerals and metals.... I have spent nights + and days in dissolving, coagulating, amalgamating, and + precipitating. Yet from all these things I derived neither profit + nor joy." + +Another writer speaks of many would-be alchemists as "floundering +about in a sea of specious book-learning." + +If alchemists could speak of their own processes and materials as +those authors spoke whom I have quoted, we must expect that the +alchemical language would appear mere jargon to the uninitiated. In +Ben Jonson's play _The Alchemist_, _Surley_, who is the sceptic of the +piece, says to Subtle, who is the alchemist-- + + ... Alchemy is a pretty kind of game, + Somewhat like tricks o' the cards, to cheat a man + With charming ... + What else are all your terms, + Whereon no one of your writers 'grees with other? + Of your elixir, your _lac virginis_, + Your stone, your med'cine, and your chrysosperme, + Your sal, your sulphur, and your mercury, + Your oil of height, your tree of life, your blood, + Your marchesite, your tutie, your magnesia, + Your toad, your crow, your dragon, and your panther; + Your sun, your moon, your firmament, your adrop, + Your lato, azoch, zernich, chibrit, heutarit, + And then your red man, and your white woman, + With all your broths, your menstrues, and materials, + Of lye and egg-shells, women's terms, man's blood, + Hair o' the head, burnt clout, chalk, merds, and clay, + Powder of bones, scalings of iron, glass, + And moulds of other strange ingredients, + Would burst a man to name? + +To which _Subtle_ answers, + + And all these named + Intending but one thing; which art our writers + Used to obscure their art. + Was not all the knowledge + Of the Egyptians writ in mystic symbols? + Speak not the Scriptures oft in parables? + Are not the choicest fables of the poets, + That were the fountains and first springs of wisdom, + Wrapp'd in perplexed allegories? + +The alchemists were very fond of using the names of animals as symbols +of certain mineral substances, and of representing operations in the +laboratory by what may be called animal allegories. The _yellow lion_ +was the alchemical symbol of yellow sulphides, the _red lion_ was +synonymous with cinnabar, and the _green lion_ meant salts of iron and +of copper. Black sulphides were called _eagles_, and sometimes +_crows_. When black sulphide of mercury is strongly heated, a red +sublimate is obtained, which has the same composition as the black +compound; if the temperature is not kept very high, but little of the +red sulphide is produced; the alchemists directed to urge the fire, +"else the black crows will go back to the nest." + +[Illustration: A salamander lives in the fire, which imparts to it a + most glorious hue. + + This is the reiteration, gradation, and amelioration + of the Tincture, or Philosopher's Stone; and the whole + is called its Augmentation. + + FIG. XV.] + +The salamander was called the king of animals, because it was supposed +that he lived and delighted in fire; keeping a strong fire alight +under a salamander was sometimes compared to the purification of gold +by heating it. + +Fig. XV., reduced from _The Book of Lambspring_ represents this +process. + +The alchemists employed many signs, or shorthand expressions, in place +of writing the names of substances. The following are a few of the +signs which were used frequently. + +[Symbol: Saturn] Saturn, also lead; [Symbol: Jupiter] Jupiter, also +tin; [Symbol: Mars-1] and [Symbol: Mars-2] Mars, also iron; [Symbol: +Sun] Sol, also gold; [Symbol: Venus] Venus, also copper; [Symbol: +Mercury-1], [Symbol: Mercury-2] and [Symbol: Mercury-3] Mercury; +[Symbol: Moon] Luna, also silver; [Symbol: Sulphur] Sulphur; [Symbol: +Vitriol] Vitriol; [Symbol: Fire] fire; [Symbol: Air] air; [Symbol: +Water] and [Symbol: Aquarius] water; [Symbol: Earth] earth; [Symbol: +Aqua Fortis] aqua fortis; [Symbol: Aqua Regis] aqua regis; [Symbol: +Aqua Vitæ] aqua vitæ; [Symbol: Day] day; [Symbol: Night] night; +[Symbol: Amalgam] Amalgam; [Symbol: Alembic] Alembic. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE DEGENERACY OF ALCHEMY. + + +I have tried to show that alchemy aimed at giving experimental proof +of a certain theory of the whole system of nature, including humanity. +The practical culmination of the alchemical quest presented a +threefold aspect; the alchemists sought the stone of wisdom, for by +gaining that they gained the control of wealth; they sought the +universal panacea, for that would give them the power of enjoying +wealth and life; they sought the soul of the world, for thereby they +could hold communion with spiritual existences, and enjoy the fruition +of spiritual life. + +The object of their search was to satisfy their material needs, their +intellectual capacities, and their spiritual yearnings. The alchemists +of the nobler sort always made the first of these objects subsidiary +to the other two; they gave as their reason for desiring to make gold, +the hope that gold might become so common that it would cease to be +sought after by mankind. The author of _An Open Substance_ says: +"Would to God ... all men might become adepts in our art, for then +gold, the common idol of mankind, would lose its value, and we should +prize it only for its scientific teaching." + +But the desire to make gold must always have been a very powerful +incentive in determining men to attempt the laborious discipline of +alchemy; and with them, as with all men, the love of money was the +root of much evil. When a man became a student of alchemy merely for +the purpose of making gold, and failed to make it--as he always +did--it was very easy for him to pretend he had succeeded in order +that he might really make gold by cheating other people. Such a man +rapidly degenerated into a charlatan; he used the language of alchemy +to cover his frauds, and with the hope of deluding his dupes by +high-sounding phrases. And, it must be admitted, alchemy lent itself +admirably to imposture. It promised unlimited wealth; it encouraged +the wildest dreams of the seeker after pleasure; and over these dreams +it cast the glamour of great ideas, the idea of the unity of nature, +and the idea of communion with other spheres of life, of calling in +the help of 'inheritors of unfulfilled renown,' and so it seemed to +touch to fine issues the sordidness of unblushing avarice. + +Moreover, the working with strange ingredients and odd-fashioned +instruments, and the employment of mouth-filling phrases, and scraps +of occult learning which seemed to imply unutterable things, gave just +that pleasing dash of would-be wickedness to the process of consulting +the alchemist which acts as a fascination to many people. The earnest +person felt that by using the skill and knowledge of the alchemists, +for what he deemed a good purpose, he was compelling the powers of +evil to work for him and his objects. + +It was impossible that such a system as alchemy should appear to the +plain man of the middle ages, when the whole scheme of life and the +universe rested on a magical basis, to be more than a kind of magic +which hovered between the black magic of the Sorcerer and the white +magic of the Church. Nor is it to be wondered at that a system which +lends itself to imposture so easily as alchemy did, should be thought +of by the plain man of modern times as having been nothing but a +machinery of fraud. + +It is evident from the _Canon's Yeoman's Tale_ in Chaucer, that many +of those who professed to turn the base metals into gold were held in +bad repute as early as the 14th century. The "false chanoun" persuaded +the priest, who was his dupe, to send his servant for quicksilver, +which he promised to make into "as good silver and as fyn, As ther is +any in youre purse or myn"; he then gave the priest a "crosselet," and +bid him put it on the fire, and blow the coals. While the priest was +busy with the fire, + + This false chanoun--the foulè feend hym fecche!-- + Out of his bosom took a bechen cole, + In which ful subtilly was maad an hole, + And therinne put was of silver lemaille + An ounce, and stoppéd was withouten faille + The hole with wex, to kepe the lemaille in. + +The "false chanoun" pretended to be sorry for the priest, who was so +busily blowing the fire:-- + + Ye been right hoot, I se wel how ye swete; + Have heer a clooth, and wipe awey the we't. + And whylès that the preest wipèd his face, + This chanoun took his cole with hardè grace, + And leyde it above, upon the middèward + Of the crosselet, and blew wel afterward. + Til that the colès gonnè fastè brenne. + +As the coal burned the silver fell into the "crosselet." Then the +canon said they would both go together and fetch chalk, and a pail of +water, for he would pour out the silver he had made in the form of an +ingot. They locked the door, and took the key with them. On returning, +the canon formed the chalk into a mould, and poured the contents of +the crucible into it. Then he bade the priest, + + Look what ther is, put in thin hand and grope, + Thow fyndè shalt ther silver, as I hope. + What, devel of hellè! Sholde it ellis be? + Shavyng of silver silver is, _parde!_ + He putte his hand in, and took up a teyne + Of silver fyn, and glad in every veyne + Was this preest, when he saugh that it was so. + +The conclusion of the _Canon's Yeoman's Tale_ shows that, in the 14th +century, there was a general belief in the possibility of finding the +philosopher's stone, and effecting the transmutation, although the +common practitioners of the art were regarded as deceivers. A disciple +of Plato is supposed to ask his master to tell him the "namè of the +privee stoon." Plato gives him certain directions, and tells him he +must use _magnasia_; the disciple asks-- + + 'What is Magnasia, good sire, I yow preye?' + 'It is a water that is maad, I seye, + Of elementés fourè,' quod Plato. + 'Telle me the rootè, good sire,' quod he tho, + Of that water, if it be yourè wille.' + 'Nay, nay,' quod Plato, 'certein that I nylle; + The philosophres sworn were everychoon + That they sholden discovers it unto noon, + Ne in no book it write in no manere, + For unto Crist it is so lief and deere, + That he wol nat that it discovered bee, + But where it liketh to his deitee + Man for tenspire, and eek for to deffende + Whom that hym liketh; lo, this is the ende.' + +The belief in the possibility of alchemy seems to have been general +sometime before Chaucer wrote; but that belief was accompanied by the +conviction that alchemy was an impious pursuit, because the +transmutation of baser metals into gold was regarded as trenching on +the prerogative of the Creator, to whom alone this power rightfully +belonged. In his _Inferno_ (which was probably written about the year +1300), Dante places the alchemists in the eighth circle of hell, not +apparently because they were fraudulent impostors, but because, as one +of them says, "I aped creative nature by my subtle art." + +In later times, some of those who pretended to have the secret and to +perform great wonders by the use of it, became rich and celebrated, +and were much sought after. The most distinguished of these +pseudo-alchemists was he who passed under the name of Cagliostro. His +life bears witness to the eagerness of human beings to be deceived. + +Joseph Balsamo was born in 1743 at Palermo, where his parents were +tradespeople in a good way of business.[5] In the memoir of himself, +which he wrote in prison, Balsamo seeks to surround his birth and +parentage with mystery; he says, "I am ignorant, not only of my +birthplace, but even of the parents who bore me.... My earliest +infancy was passed in the town of Medina, in Arabia, where I was +brought up under the name of Acharat." + + [5] The account of the life of Cagliostro is much condensed + from Mr A.E. Waite's _Lives of the Alchemystical Philosophers_. + +When he was thirteen years of age, Balsamo's parents determined he +should be trained for the priesthood, but he ran away from his school. +He was then confined in a Benedictine monastery. He showed a +remarkable taste for natural history, and acquired considerable +knowledge of the use of drugs; but he soon tired of the discipline and +escaped. For some years he wandered about in different parts of Italy, +living by his wits and by cheating. A goldsmith consulted him about a +hidden treasure; he pretended to invoke the aid of spirits, frightened +the goldsmith, got sixty ounces of gold from him to carry on his +incantations, left him in the lurch, and fled to Messina. In that +town he discovered an aged aunt who was sick; the aunt died, and left +her money to the Church. Balsamo assumed her family name, added a +title of nobility, and was known henceforward as the Count Alessandro +Cagliostro. + +In Messina he met a mysterious person whom he calls Altotas, and from +whom, he says in his Memoir, he learnt much. The following account of +the meeting of Balsamo and the stranger is taken from Waite's book: +"As he was promenading one day near the jetty at the extremity of the +port he encountered an individual singularly habited and possessed of +a most remarkable countenance. This person, aged apparently about +fifty years, seemed to be an Armenian, though, according to other +accounts, he was a Spaniard or Greek. He wore a species of caftan, a +silk bonnet, and the extremities of his breeches were concealed in a +pair of wide boots. In his left hand he held a parasol, and in his +right the end of a cord, to which was attached a graceful Albanian +greyhound.... Cagliostro saluted this grotesque being, who bowed +slightly, but with satisfied dignity. 'You do not reside in Messina, +signor?' he said in Sicilian, but with a marked foreign accent. +Cagliostro replied that he was tarrying for a few days, and they began +to converse on the beauty of the town and on its advantageous +situation, a kind of Oriental imagery individualising the eloquence of +the stranger, whose remarks were, moreover, adroitly adorned with a +few appropriate compliments." + +Although the stranger said he received no one at his house he allowed +Cagliostro to visit him. After various mysterious doings the two went +off to Egypt, and afterwards to Malta, where they performed many +wonderful deeds before the Grand Master, who was much impressed. At +Malta Altotas died, or, at anyrate, vanished. Cagliostro then +travelled for some time, and was well received by noblemen, +ambassadors, and others in high position. At Rome he fell in love with +a young and beautiful lady, Lorenza Feliciani, and married her. + +Cagliostro used his young wife as a decoy to attract rich and foolish +men. He and his wife thrived for a time, and accumulated money and +jewels; but a confederate betrayed them, and they fled to Venice, and +then wandered for several years in Italy, France, and England. They +seem to have made a living by the sale of lotions for the skin, and by +practising skilful deceptions. + +About the year 1770 Cagliostro began to pose as an alchemist. After +another period of wandering he paid a second visit to London and +founded a secret society, based on (supposed) Egyptian rites, mingled +with those of freemasonry. The suggestion of this society is said to +have come from a curious book he picked up on a second-hand stall in +London. The society attracted people by the strangeness of its +initiatory rites, and the promises of happiness and wellbeing made by +its founder to those who joined it. Lodges were established in many +countries, many disciples were obtained, great riches were amassed, +and Cagliostro flourished exceedingly. + +In his _Histoire du Merveilleux dans les Temps modernes_, Figuier, +speaking of Cagliostro about this period of his career, says: + +"He proclaimed himself the bearer of the mysteries of Isis and Anubis +from the far East.... He obtained numerous and distinguished +followers, who on one occasion assembled in great force to hear Joseph +Balsamo expound to them the doctrines of Egyptian freemasonry. At this +solemn convention he is said to have spoken with overpowering +eloquence;... his audience departed in amazement and completely +converted to the regenerated and purified masonry. None doubted that +he was an initiate of the arcana of nature, as preserved in the temple +of Apis at the era when Cambyses belaboured that capricious divinity. +From this moment the initiations into the new masonry were numerous, +albeit they were limited to the aristocracy of society. There are +reasons to believe that the grandees who were deemed worthy of +admission paid exceedingly extravagantly for the honour." + +Cagliostro posed as a physician, and claimed the power of curing +diseases simply by the laying on of hands. He went so far as to assert +he had restored to life the dead child of a nobleman in Paris; the +discovery that the miracle was effected by substituting a living child +for the dead one caused him to flee, laden with spoil, to Warsaw, and +then to Strassburg. + +Cagliostro entered Strassburg in state, amid an admiring crowd, who +regarded him as more than human. Rumour said he had amassed vast +riches by the transmutation of base metals into gold. Some people in +the crowd said he was the wandering Jew, others that he had been +present at the marriage feast of Cana, some asserted he was born +before the deluge, and one supposed he might be the devil. The +goldsmith whom he had cheated of sixty ounces of gold many years +before was in the crowd, and, recognising him, tried to stop the +carriage, shouting: "Joseph Balsamo! It is Joseph! Rogue, where are my +sixty ounces of gold?" "Cagliostro scarcely deigned to glance at the +furious goldsmith; but in the middle of the profound silence which the +incident occasioned among the crowd, a voice, apparently in the +clouds, uttered with great distinctness the following words: 'Remove +this lunatic, who is possessed by infernal spirits.' Some of the +spectators fell on their knees, others seized the unfortunate +goldsmith, and the brilliant cortege passed on" (Waite). + +From Strassburg Cagliostro* went to Paris, where he lived in great +splendour, curing diseases, making gold and diamonds, mystifying and +duping people of all ranks by the splendid ritual and gorgeous +feasting of his secret society, and amassing riches. He got entangled +in the affair of the Diamond Necklace, and left Paris. Trying to +advance his society in Italy he was arrested by the agents of the +Inquisition, and imprisoned, then tried, and condemned to death. The +sentence was commuted to perpetual imprisonment. After two years in +the prison of San Angelo he died at the age of fifty. + + *Transcriber's Note: Original "Cagliosto". + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +PARACELSUS AND SOME OTHER ALCHEMISTS. + + +The accounts which have come to us of the men who followed the pursuit +of the _One Thing_ are vague, scrappy, and confusing. + +Alchemical books abound in quotations from the writings of _Geber_. +Five hundred treatises were attributed to this man during the middle +ages, yet we have no certain knowledge of his name, or of the time or +place of his birth. Hoefer says he probably lived in the middle of the +8th century, was a native of Mesopotamia, and was named _Djabar +Al-Konfi_. Waite calls him _Abou Moussah Djafar al-Sofi_. Some of the +mediæval adepts spoke of him as the King of India, others called him a +Prince of Persia. Most of the Arabian writers on alchemy and medicine, +after the 9th century, refer to Geber as their master. + +All the MSS. of writings attributed to Geber which have been examined +are in Latin, but the library of Leyden is said to possess some works +by him written in Arabic. These MSS. contain directions for preparing +many metals, salts, acids, oils, etc., and for performing such +operations as distillation, cupellation, dissolution, calcination, and +the like. + +Of the other Arabian alchemists, the most celebrated in the middle +ages were _Rhasis_, _Alfarabi_, and _Avicenna_, who are supposed to +have lived in the 9th and 10th centuries. + +The following story of Alfarabi's powers is taken from Waite's _Lives +of the Alchemystical Philosophers_:-- + + "Alfarabi was returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca, when, passing + through Syria, he stopped at the Court of the Sultan, and entered + his presence, while he was surrounded by numerous sage persons, + who were discoursing with the monarch on the sciences. Alfarabi + ... presented himself in his travelling attire, and when the + Sultan desired he should be seated, with astonishing philosophical + freedom he planted himself at the end of the royal sofa. The + Prince, aghast at his boldness, called one of his officers, and in + a tongue generally unknown commanded him to eject the intruder. + The philosopher, however, promptly made answer in the same tongue: + 'Oh, Lord, he who acts hastily is liable to hasty repentance.' The + Prince was equally astounded to find himself understood by the + stranger as by the manner in which the reply was given. Anxious to + know more of his guest he began to question him, and soon + discovered that he was acquainted with seventy languages. Problems + for discussion were then propounded to the philosophers, who had + witnessed the discourteous intrusion with considerable indignation + and disgust, but Alfarabi disputed with so much eloquence and + vivacity that he reduced all the doctors to silence, and they + began writing down his discourse. The Sultan then ordered his + musicians to perform for the diversion of the company. When they + struck up, the philosopher accompanied them on a lute with such + infinite grace and tenderness that he elicited the unmeasured + admiration of the whole distinguished assembly. At the request of + the Sultan he produced a piece of his own composing, sang it, and + accompanied it with great force and spirit to the delight of all + his hearers. The air was so sprightly that even the gravest + philosopher could not resist dancing, but by another tune he as + easily melted them to tears, and then by a soft unobtrusive melody + he lulled the whole company to sleep." + +The most remarkable of the alchemists was he who is generally known as +_Paracelsus_. He was born about 1493, and died about 1540. It is +probable that the place of his birth was Einsiedeln, near Zurich. He +claimed relationship with the noble family of Bombast von Hohenheim; +but some of his biographers doubt whether he really was connected with +that family. His name, or at any rate the name by which he was known, +was Aureolus Philippus Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim. His father +in alchemy, Trimethius, Abbot of Spannheim and then of Wurzburg, who +was a theologian, a poet, an astronomer, and a necromancer, named him +_Paracelsus_; this name is taken by some to be a kind of Græco-Latin +paraphrase of von Hohenheim (of high lineage), and to mean "belonging +to a lofty place"; others say it signifies "greater than Celsus," who +was a celebrated Latin writer on medicine of the 1st century. +Paracelsus studied at the University of Basle; but, getting into +trouble with the authorities, he left the university, and for some +years wandered over Europe, supporting himself, according to one +account, by "psalm-singing, astrological productions, chiromantic +soothsaying, and, it has been said, by necromantic practices." He may +have got as far as Constantinople; as a rumour floated about that he +received the Stone of Wisdom from an adept in that city. He returned +to Basle, and in 1527 delivered lectures with the sanction of the +Rector of the university. He made enemies of the physicians by abusing +their custom of seeking knowledge only from ancient writers and not +from nature; he annoyed the apothecaries by calling their tinctures, +decoctions, and extracts, mere _soup-messes_; and he roused the ire of +all learned people by delivering his lectures in German. He was +attacked publicly and also anonymously. Of the pamphlets published +against him he said, "These vile ribaldries would raise the ire of a +turtle-dove." And Paracelsus was no turtle-dove. The following extract +from (a translation of) the preface to _The Book concerning the +Tinctures of the Philosophers written against those Sophists born +since the Deluge_, shews that his style of writing was abusive, and +his opinion of himself, to say the least, not very humble:-- + + "From the middle of this age the Monarchy of all the Arts has been + at length derived and conferred on me, Theophrastus Paracelsus, + Prince of Philosophy and Medicine. For this purpose I have been + chosen by God to extinguish and blot out all the phantasies of + elaborate and false works, of delusive and presumptuous words, be + they the words of Aristotle, Galen, Avicenna, Mesva, or the + dogmas of any among their followers. My theory, proceeding as it + does from the light of Nature, can never, through its consistency, + pass away or be changed; but in the fifty-eighth year after its + millennium and a half it will then begin to flourish. The practice + at the same time following upon the theory will be proved by + wonderful and incredible signs, so as to be open to mechanics and + common people, and they will thoroughly understand how firm and + immovable is that Paracelsic Art against the triflings of the + Sophists; though meanwhile that sophistical science has to have + its ineptitude propped up and fortified by papal and imperial + privileges.... So then, you wormy and lousy Sophist, since you + deem the monarch of Arcana a mere ignorant, fatuous, and prodigal + quack, now, in this mid age, I determine in my present treatise to + disclose the honourable course of procedure in these matters, the + virtues and preparation of the celebrated Tincture of the + Philosophers for the use and honour of all who love the truth, and + in order that all who despise the true arts may be reduced to + poverty." + +The turbulent and restless spirit of Paracelsus brought him into open +conflict with the authorities of Basle. He fled from that town in +1528, and after many wanderings, he found rest at Salzburg, under the +protection of the archbishop. He died at Salzburg in 1541, in his +forty-eighth year. + +The character and abilities of Paracelsus have been vastly praised by +some, and inordinately abused by others. One author says of him: "He +lived like a pig, looked like a drover, found his greatest enjoyment +in the company of the most dissolute and lowest rabble, and throughout +his glorious life he was generally drunk." Another author says: +"Probably no physician has grasped his life's task with a purer +enthusiasm, or devoted himself more faithfully to it, or more fully +maintained the moral worthiness of his calling than did the reformer +of Einsiedeln." He certainly seems to have been loved and respected by +his pupils and followers, for he is referred to by them as "the noble +and beloved monarch," "the German Hemes," and "our dear Preceptor and +King of Arts." + +There seems no doubt that Paracelsus discovered many facts which +became of great importance in chemistry: he prepared the inflammable +gas we now call hydrogen, by the reaction between iron filings and oil +of vitriol; he distinguished metals from substances which had been +classed with metals but lacked the essential metalline character of +ductility; he made medicinal preparations of mercury, lead and iron, +and introduced many new and powerful drugs, notably laudanum. +Paracelsus insisted that medicine is a branch of chemistry, and that +the restoration of the body of a patient to a condition of chemical +equilibrium is the restoration to health. + +Paracelsus trusted in his method; he was endeavouring to substitute +direct appeal to nature for appeal to the authority of writers about +nature. "After me," he cries, "you Avicenna, Galen, Rhasis, Montagnana +and the others. You after me, not I after you. You of Paris, you of +Montpellier, you of Swabia, of Meissen and Vienna; you who come from +the countries along the Danube and the Rhine; and you, too, from the +Islands of the Ocean. Follow me. It is not for me to follow you, for +mine is the monarchy." But the work was too arduous, the struggle too +unequal. "With few appliances, with no accurate knowledge, with no +help from the work of others, without polished and sharpened weapons, +and without the skill that comes from long handling of instruments of +precision, what could Paracelsus effect in his struggle to wrest her +secrets from nature? Of necessity, he grew weary of the task, and +tried to construct a universe which should be simpler than that most +complex order which refused to yield to his analysis." And so he came +back to the universe which man constructs for himself, and exclaimed-- + + "Each man has ... all the wisdom and power of the world in + himself; he possesses one kind of knowledge as much as another, + and he who does not find that which is in him cannot truly say + that he does not possess it, but only that he was not capable of + successfully seeking for it." + +We leave a great genius, with his own words in our ears: "Have no care +of my misery, reader; let me bear my burden myself. I have two +failings: my poverty and my piety. My poverty was thrown in my face by +a Burgomaster who had perhaps only seen doctors attired in silken +robes, never basking in tattered rags in the sunshine. So it was +decreed I was not a doctor. For my piety I am arraigned by the +parsons, for ... I do not at all love those who teach what they do not +themselves practise." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +SUMMARY OF THE ALCHEMICAL DOCTRINE.--THE REPLACEMENT OF THE THREE +PRINCIPLES OF THE ALCHEMISTS BY THE SINGLE PRINCIPLE OF PHLOGISTON. + + +The _Sacred Art_, which had its origin and home in Egypt, was very +definitely associated with the religious rites, and the theological +teaching, recognised by the state. The Egyptian priests were initiated +into the mysteries of the divine art: and as the initiated claimed to +imitate the work of the deity, the priest was regarded by the ordinary +people as something more than a representative, as a mirror, of the +divinity. The sacred art of Egypt was transmuted into alchemy by +contact with European thought and handicrafts, and the tenets and +mysticism of the Catholic Church; and the conception of nature, which +was the result of this blending, prevailed from about the 9th until +towards the end of the 18th century. + +Like its predecessor, alchemy postulated an orderly universe; but +alchemy was richer in fantastic details, more picturesquely +embroidered, more prodigal of strange fancies, than the sacred art of +Egypt. + +The alchemist constructed his ordered scheme of nature on the basis of +the supposed universality of life. For him, everything lived, and the +life of things was threefold. The alchemist thought he recognised the +manifestation of life in the form, or body, of a thing, in its soul, +and in its spirit. Things might differ much in appearance, in size, +taste, smell, and other outward properties, and yet be intimately +related, because, according to the alchemist, they were produced from +the same principles, they were animated by the same soul. Things might +resemble one another closely in their outward properties and yet +differ widely in essential features, because, according to the +alchemist, they were formed from different elements, in their +spiritual properties they were unlike. The alchemists taught that the +true transformation, in alchemical language the transmutation, of one +thing into another could be effected only by spiritual means acting on +the spirit of the thing, because the transmutation consisted +essentially in raising the substance to the highest perfection whereof +it was capable; the result of this spiritual action might become +apparent in the material form of the substance. In attempting to apply +such vague conceptions as these, alchemy was obliged to use the +language which had been developed for the expression of human emotions +and desires, not only for the explanation of the facts it observed, +but also for the bare recital of these facts. + +The outlook of alchemy on the world outside human beings was +essentially anthropomorphic. In the image of man, the alchemist +created his universe. + +In the times when alchemy was dominant, the divine scheme of creation, +and the place given to man in that scheme, were supposed to be +thoroughly understood. Everything had its place, designed for it from +the beginning, and in that place it remained unless it were forced +from it by violent means. A great part of the business of experimental +alchemy was to discover the natural position, or condition, of each +substance; and the discovery was to be made by interpreting the facts +brought to light by observation and experiment by the aid of +hypotheses deduced from the general scheme of things which had been +formed independently of observation or experiment. Alchemy was a part +of magic; for magic interprets and corrects the knowledge gained by +the senses by the touchstone of generalisations which have been +supplied, partly by the emotions, and partly by extra-human authority, +and accepted as necessarily true. + +The conception of natural order which regulates the life of the savage +is closely related to that which guided the alchemists. The essential +features of both are the notion that everything is alive, and the +persuasion that things can be radically acted on only by using life as +a factor. There is also an intimate connexion between alchemy and +witchcraft. Witches were people who were supposed to make an unlawful +use of the powers of life; alchemists were often thought to pass +beyond what is permitted to the creature, and to encroach on the +prerogative of the Creator. + +The long duration of alchemy shows that it appealed to some +deep-seated want of human beings. Was not that want the necessity for +the realisation of order in the universe? Men were unwilling to wait +until patient examination of the facts of their own nature, and the +facts of nature outside themselves, might lead them to the realisation +of the interdependence of all things. They found it easier to evolve a +scheme of things from a superficial glance at themselves and their +surroundings; naturally they adopted the easier plan. Alchemy was a +part of the plan of nature produced by this method. The extraordinary +dominancy of such a scheme is testified to by the continued belief in +alchemy, although the one experiment, which seems to us to be the +crucial experiment of the system, was never accomplished. But it is +also to be remembered that the alchemists were acquainted with, and +practised, many processes which we should now describe as operations +of manufacturing and technical chemistry; and the practical usefulness +of these processes bore testimony, of the kind which convinces the +plain man, to the justness of their theories. + +I have always regarded two facts as most interesting and instructive: +that the doctrine of the essential unity of all things, and the +simplicity of natural order, was accepted for centuries by many, I +think one may say, by most men, as undoubtedly a true presentation of +the divine scheme of things; and, secondly, that in more recent times +people were quite as certain of the necessary truth of the doctrine, +the exact opposite of the alchemical, that the Creator had divided his +creation into portions each of which was independent of all the +others. Both of these schemes were formed by the same method, by +introspection preceding observation; both were overthrown by the same +method, by observation and experiment proceeding hand in hand with +reasoning. In each case, the humility of science vanquished the +conceit of ignorance. + +The change from alchemy to chemistry is an admirable example of the +change from a theory formed by looking inwards, and then projected on +to external facts, to a theory formed by studying facts, and then +thinking about them. This change proceeded slowly; it is not possible +to name a time when it may be said, here alchemy finishes and +chemistry begins. To adapt a saying of one of the alchemists, quoted +in a former chapter; alchemy would not easily give up its nature, and +fought for its life; but an agent was found strong enough to overcome +and kill it, and then that agent also had the power to change the +lifeless remains into a new and pure body. The agent was the accurate +and imaginative investigation of facts. + +The first great step taken in the path which led from alchemy to +chemistry was the substitution of one Principle, the Principle of +Phlogiston, for the three Principles of salt, sulphur, and mercury. +This step was taken by concentrating attention and investigation, by +replacing the superficial examination of many diverse phenomena by the +more searching study of one class of occurrences. That the field of +study should be widened, it was necessary that it should first be +narrowed. + +Lead, tin, iron, or copper is calcined. The prominent and striking +feature of these events is the disappearance of the metal, and the +formation of something very unlike it. But the original metal is +restored by a second process, which is like the first because it also +is a calcination, but seems to differ from the first operation in that +the burnt metal is calcined with another substance, with grains of +wheat or powdered charcoal. Led thereto by their theory that +destruction must precede re-vivification, death must come before +resurrection, the alchemists confined their attention to one feature +common to all calcinations of metals, and gave a superficial +description of these occurrences by classing them together as +processes of mortification. Sulphur, wood, wax, oil, and many other +things are easily burned: the alchemists said, these things also +undergo mortification, they too are killed; but, as "man can restore +that which man has destroyed," it must be possible to restore to life +the thing which has been mortified. The burnt sulphur, wood, wax, or +oil, is not really dead, the alchemists argued; to use the allegory of +Paracelsus, they are like young lions which are born dead, and are +brought to life by the roaring of their parents: if we make a +sufficiently loud noise, if we use the proper means, we shall bring +life into what seems to be dead material. As it is the roaring of the +parents of the young lions which alone can cause the still-born cubs +to live, so it is only by the spiritual agency of life, proceeded the +alchemical argument, that life can be brought into the mortified +sulphur, wood, wax, and oil. + +The alchemical explanation was superficial, theoretical, in the wrong +meaning of that word, and unworkable. It was superficial because it +overlooked the fact that the primary calcination, the mortification, +of the metals, and the other substances, was effected in the air, that +is to say, in contact with something different from the thing which +was calcined; the explanation was of the kind which people call +theoretical, when they wish to condemn an explanation and put it out +of court, because it was merely a re-statement of the facts in the +language of a theory which had not been deduced from the facts +themselves, or from facts like those to be explained, but from what +were supposed to be facts without proper investigation, and, if facts, +were of a totally different kind from those to which the explanation +applied; and lastly, the explanation was unworkable, because it +suggested no method whereby its accuracy could be tested, no definite +line of investigation which might be pursued. + +That great naturalist, the Honourable Robert Boyle (born in 1626, died +in 1691), very perseveringly besought those who examined processes of +calcination to pay heed to the action of everything which might take +part in the processes. He was especially desirous they should consider +what part the air might play in calcinations; he spoke of the air as a +"menstruum or additament," and said that, in such operations as +calcination, "We may well take the freedom to examine ... whether +there intervene not a coalition of the parts of the body wrought upon +with those of the menstruum, whereby the produced concrete may be +judged to result from the union of both." + +It was by examining the part played by the air in processes of +calcination and burning that men at last became able to give +approximately complete descriptions of these processes. + +Boyle recognised that the air is not a simple or elementary substance; +he spoke of it as "a confused aggregate of effluviums from such +differing bodies, that, though they all agree in constituting by their +minuteness and various motions one great mass of fluid matter, yet +perhaps there is scarce a more heterogeneous body in the world." +Clement of Alexandria who lived in the end of the 2nd, and the early +part of the 3rd, century A.D., seems to have regarded the air as +playing a very important part in combustions; he said--"Airs are +divided into two categories; an air for the divine flame, which is the +soul; and a material air which is the nourisher of sensible fire, and +the basis of combustible matter." Sentences like that I have just +quoted are found here and there in the writings of the earlier and +later alchemists; now and again we also find statements which may be +interpreted, in the light of the fuller knowledge we now have, as +indicating at least suspicions that the atmosphere is a mixture of +different kinds of air, and that only some of these take part in +calcining and burning operations. Those suspicions were confirmed by +experiments on the calcination of metals and other substances, +conducted in the 17th century by Jean Rey a French physician, and by +John Mayow of Oxford. But these observations and the conclusions +founded on them, did not bear much fruit until the time of Lavoisier, +that is, towards the close of the 18th century. They were overshadowed +and put aside by the work of Stahl (1660-1724). Some of the alchemists +of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries taught that combustion and +calcination are processes wherein _the igneous principle_ is +destroyed, using the word "destroyed" in its alchemical meaning. This +description of processes of burning was much more in keeping with the +ideas of the time than that given by Boyle, Rey and Mayow. It was +adopted by Stahl, and made the basis of a general theory of those +changes wherein one substance disappears and another, or others, very +unlike it, are produced. + +That he might bring into one point of view, and compare the various +changes effected by the agency of fire, Stahl invented a new +Principle, which he named _Phlogiston_, and constructed an hypothesis +which is generally known as the phlogistic theory. He explained, and +applied, this hypothesis in various books, especially in one published +at Halle in 1717. + +Stahl observed that many substances which differed much from one +another in various respects were alike in one respect; they were all +combustible. All the combustible substances, he argued, must contain a +common principle; he named this supposed principle, _phlogiston_ (from +the Greek word _phlogistos_ = burnt, or set on fire). Stahl said that +the phlogiston of a combustible thing escapes as the substance burns, +and, becoming apparent to the senses, is named fire or flame. The +phlogiston in a combustible substance was supposed to be so +intimately associated with something else that our senses cannot +perceive it; nevertheless, the theory said, it is there; we can see +only the escaping phlogiston, we can perceive only the phlogiston +which is set free from its combination with other things. The theory +thought of phlogiston as imprisoned in the thing which can be burnt, +and as itself forming part of the prison; that the prisoner should be +set free, the walls of the prison had to be removed; the freeing of +the prisoner destroyed the prison. As escaping, or free, phlogiston +was called fire, or flame, so the phlogiston in a combustible +substance was sometimes called combined fire, or flame in the state of +combination. A peculiarity of the strange thing called phlogiston was +that it preferred to be concealed in something, hidden, imprisoned, +combined; free phlogiston* was supposed to be always ready to become +combined phlogiston. + + *Transcriber's Note: Original "phlogstion". + +The phlogistic theory said that what remains when a substance has been +burnt is the original substance deprived of phlogiston; and, +therefore, to restore the phlogiston to the product of burning is to +re-form the combustible substance. But how is such a restoration of +phlogiston to be accomplished? Evidently by heating the burnt thing +with something which is very ready to burn. Because, according to the +theory, everything which can be burnt contains phlogiston, the more +ready a substance is to burn the richer it is in phlogiston; burning +is the outrush of phlogiston, phlogiston prefers to be combined with +something; therefore, if you mix what remains after burning, with +something which is very combustible, and heat the mixture, you are +bringing the burnt matter under conditions which are very favourable +for the reception of phlogiston by it, for you are bringing it into +intimate contact with something from which freedom-hating phlogiston +is being forced to escape. + +Charcoal, sulphur, phosphorus, oils and fats are easily burnt; these +substances were, therefore, chosen for the purpose of changing things +which had been burnt into things which could again be burnt; these, +and a few other substances like these, were classed together, and +called _phlogisticating agents_. + +Very many of the substances which were dealt with by the experimenters +of the last quarter of the 17th, and the first half of the 18th, +century, were either substances which could be burned, or those which +had been produced by burning; hence the phlogistic theory brought into +one point of view, compared, and emphasised the similarities between, +a great many things which had not been thought of as connected before +that theory was promulgated. Moreover, the theory asserted that all +combustible, or incinerable, things are composed of phlogiston, and +another principle, or, as was often said, another element, which is +different in different kinds of combustible substances. The metals, +for instance, were said to be composed of phlogiston and an earthy +principle or element, which was somewhat different in different +metals. The phlogisteans taught that the earthy principle of a metal +remains in the form of ash, cinders, or calx, when the metal is +calcined, or, as they expressed it, when the metal is deprived of its +phlogiston. + +The phlogistic theory savoured of alchemy; it postulated an undefined, +undefinable, intangible Principle; it said that all combustible +substances are formed by the union of this Principle with another, +which is sometimes of an earthy character, sometimes of a fatty +nature, sometimes highly volatile in habit. Nevertheless, the theory +of Stahl was a step away from purely alchemical conceptions towards +the accurate description of a very important class of changes. The +principle of phlogiston could be recognised by the senses as it was in +the act of escaping from a substance; and the other principle of +combustible things was scarcely a Principle in the alchemical sense, +for, in the case of metals at any rate, it remained when the things +which had contained it were burnt, and could be seen, handled, and +weighed. To say that metals are composed of phlogiston and an earthy +substance, was to express facts in such a language that the expression +might be made the basis of experimental inquiry; it was very different +from the assertion that metals are produced by the spiritual actions +of the three Principles, salt, mercury and sulphur, the first of which +is not salt, the second is not mercury, and the third is not sulphur. +The followers of Stahl often spoke of metals as composed of phlogiston +and an _element_ of an earthy character; this expression also was an +advance, from the hazy notion of _Element_ in purely alchemical +writings, towards accuracy and fulness of description. An element was +now something which could he seen and experimented with; it was no +longer a semi-spiritual existence which could not be grasped by the +senses. + +The phlogistic theory regarded the calcination of a metal as the +separation of it into two things, unlike the metal, and unlike each +other; one of these things was phlogiston, the other was an earth-like +residue. The theory thought of the re-formation of a metal from its +calx, that is, the earthy substance which remains after combustion, as +the combination of two things to produce one, apparently homogeneous, +substance. Metals appeared to the phlogisteans, as they appeared to +the alchemists, to be composite substances. Processes of burning were +regarded by alchemists and phlogisteans alike, as processes of +simplification. + +The fact had been noticed and recorded, during the middle ages, that +the earth-like matter which remains when a metal is calcined is +heavier than the metal itself. From this fact, modern investigators of +natural phenomena would draw the conclusion, that calcination of a +metal is an addition of something to the metal, not a separation of +the metal into different things. It seems impossible to us that a +substance should be separated into portions, and one of these parts +should weigh as much as, or more than, the whole. + +The exact investigation of material changes called chemistry rests on +the statement that _mass_, and mass is practically measured by +_weight_, is the one property of what we call matter, the +determination whereof enables us to decide whether a change is a +combination, or coalescence, of different things, or a separation of +one thing into parts. That any part of a material system can be +removed without the weight of the portion which remains being less +than the original weight of the whole system, is unthinkable, in the +present state of our knowledge of material changes. + +But in the 17th century, and throughout most of the 18th, only a few +of those who examined changes in the properties of substances paid +heed to changes of weight; they had not realised the importance of the +property of mass, as measured by weight. The convinced upholder of the +phlogistic theory had two answers to the argument, that, because the +earth-like product of the calcination of a metal weighs more than the +metal itself, therefore the metal cannot have lost something in the +process; for, if one portion of what is taken away weighs more than +the metal from which it has been separated, it is evident that the +weight of the two portions into which the metal is said to have been +divided must be considerably greater than the weight of the undivided +metal. The upholders of the theory sometimes met the argument by +saying, "Of course the calx weighs more than the metal, because +phlogiston tends to lighten a body which contains it; and therefore +the body weighs more after it has lost phlogiston than it did when the +phlogiston formed part of it;" sometimes, and more often, their answer +was--"loss or gain of weight is an accident, the essential thing is +change of qualities." + +If the argument against the separation of a metal into two +constituents, by calcination, were answered to-day as it was answered +by the upholders of the phlogistic theory, in the middle of the 18th +century, the answers would justly be considered inconsequent and +ridiculous. But it does not follow that the statements were either +far-fetched or absurd at the time they were made. They were expressed +in the phraseology of the time; a phraseology, it is true, sadly +lacking in consistency, clearness, and appropriateness, but the only +language then available for the description of such changes as those +which happen when metals are calcined. One might suppose that it must +always have sounded ridiculous to say that the weight of a thing can +be decreased by adding something to it, that part of a thing weighs +more than the whole of it. But the absurdity disappears if it can be +admitted that mass, which is measured by weight, may be a property +like colour, or taste, or smell; for the colour, taste, or smell of a +thing may certainly be made less by adding something else, and the +colour, taste, or smell of a thing may also be increased by adding +something else. If we did not know that what we call _quantity of +substance_ is measured by the property named _mass_, we might very +well accept the proposition that the entrance of phlogiston into a +substance decreases the quantity, hence the mass, and, therefore, the +weight, of the substance. + +Although Stahl and his followers were emerging from the trammels of +alchemy, they were still bound by many of the conceptions of that +scheme of nature. We have learned, in previous chapters, that the +central idea of alchemy was expressed in the saying: "Matter must be +deprived of its properties in order to draw out its soul." The +properties of substances are everything to the modern chemist--indeed, +such words as iron, copper, water, and gold are to him merely +convenient expressions for certain definable groups of properties--but +the phlogisteans regarded the properties of things, including mass, as +of secondary importance; they were still trying to get beneath the +properties of a thing, to its hypothetical essence, or substance. + +Looking back, we cannot think of phlogiston as a substance, or as a +thing, in the modern meanings of these terms as they are used in +natural science. Nowadays we think, we are obliged to think, of the +sum of the quantities of all the things in the universe as unchanging, +and unchangeable by any agency whereof we have definite knowledge. The +meaning we give to the word _thing_ rests upon the acceptance of this +hypothesis. But the terms _substance_, _thing_, _properties_ were used +very vaguely a couple of centuries ago; and it would be truly absurd +to carry back to that time the meanings which we give to these terms +to-day, and then to brand as ridiculous the attempts of the men who +studied, then, the same problems which we study now, to express the +results of their study in generalisations which employed the terms in +question, in what seems to us a loose, vague, and inexact manner. + +By asserting, and to some extent experimentally proving, the existence +of one principle in many apparently very different substances (or, as +would be said to-day, one property common to many substances), the +phlogistic theory acted as a very useful means for collecting, and +placing in a favourable position for closer inspection, many +substances which would probably have remained scattered and detached +from one another had this theory not been constructed. A single +assumption was made, that all combustible substances are alike in one +respect, namely, in containing combined fire, or phlogiston; by the +help of this assumption, the theory of phlogiston emphasised the +fundamental similarity between all processes of combustion. The theory +of phlogiston was extraordinarily simple, compared with the alchemical +vagaries which preceded it. Hoefer says, in his _Histoire de la +Chimie_, "If it is true that simplicity is the distinctive character +of verity, never was a theory so true as that of Stahl." + +The phlogistic theory did more than serve as a means for bringing +together many apparently disconnected facts. By concentrating the +attention of the students of material changes on one class of events, +and giving descriptions of these events without using either of the +four alchemical Elements, or the three Principles, Stahl, and those +who followed him, did an immense service to the advancement of clear +thinking about natural occurrences. The principle of phlogiston was +more tangible, and more readily used, than the Salt, Sulphur, and +Mercury of the alchemists; and to accustom people to speak of the +material substance which remained when a metal, or other combustible +substance, was calcined or burnt, as one of the _elements_ of the +thing which had been changed, prepared the way for the chemical +conception of an element as a definite substance with certain definite +properties. + +In addition to these advantages, the phlogistic theory was based on +experiments, and led to experiments, the results of which proved that +the capacity to undergo combustion might be conveyed to an +incombustible substance, by causing it to react with some other +substance, itself combustible, under definite conditions. The theory +thus prepared the way for the representation of a chemical change as +an interaction between definite kinds of substances, marked by precise +alterations both of properties and composition. + +The great fault of the theory of phlogiston, considered as a general +conception which brings many facts into one point of view, and leads +the way to new and exact knowledge, was its looseness, its +flexibility. It was very easy to make use of the theory in a broad and +general way; by stretching it here, and modifying it there, it seemed +to cover all the facts concerning combustion and calcination which +were discovered during two generations after the publication of +Stahl's books. But many of the subsidiary hypotheses which were +required to make the theory cover the new facts were contradictory, or +at any rate seemed to be contradictory, of the primary assumptions of +the theory. The addition of this ancillary machinery burdened the +mechanism of the theory, threw it out of order, and finally made it +unworkable. The phlogistic theory was destroyed by its own +cumbersomeness. + +A scientific theory never lasts long if its fundamental assumptions +are stated so loosely that they may be easily modified, expanded, +contracted, and adjusted to meet the requirements of newly discovered +facts. It is true that the theories which have been of the greatest +service in science, as summaries of the relations between established +facts, and suggestions of lines of investigation, have been stated in +terms whose full meaning has gradually unfolded itself. But the +foundations of these theories have been at once so rigidly defined and +clearly stated as to be incapable of essential modification, and so +full of meaning and widely applicable as to cover large classes of +facts which were unknown when the theories were constructed. Of the +founders of the lasting and expansible theories of natural science, it +may be said, that "thoughts beyond their thoughts to those high bards +were given." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE EXAMINATION OF THE PHENOMENA OF COMBUSTION. + + +The alchemists thought that the most effectual method of separating a +complex substance into more simple substances was to subject it to the +action of heat. They were constantly distilling, incinerating, +subliming, heating, in order that the spirit, or inner kernel of +things, might be obtained. They took for granted that the action of +fire was to simplify, and that simplification proceeded whatever might +be the nature of the substance which was subjected to this action. +Boyle insisted that the effect of heating one substance may be, and +often is, essentially different from the effect of heating another +substance; and that the behaviour of the same substance when heated, +sometimes varies when the conditions are changed. He takes the example +of heating sulphur or brimstone: "Exposed to a moderate fire in +subliming pots, it rises all into dry, and almost tasteless, flowers; +whereas being exposed to a naked fire, it affords store of a saline +and fretting liquor." Boyle thought that the action of fire was not +necessarily to separate a thing into its principles or elements, but, +in most cases, was either to rearrange the parts of the thing, so that +new, and it might be, more complex things, were produced, or to form +less simple things by the union of the substance with what he called, +"the matter of fire." When the product of heating a substance, for +example, tin or lead, weighed more than the substance itself, Boyle +supposed that the gain in weight was often caused by the "matter of +fire" adding itself to the substance which was heated. He commended to +the investigation of philosophers this "subtil fluid," which is "able +to pierce into the compact and solid bodies of metals, and add +something to them that has no despicable weight upon the balance, and +is able for a considerable time to continue fixed in the fire." Boyle +also drew attention to the possibility of action taking place between +a substance which is heated and some other substance, wherewith the +original thing may have been mixed. In a word, Boyle showed that the +alchemical assumption--fire simplifies--was too simple; and he taught, +by precept and example, that the only way of discovering what the +action of fire is, on this substance or on that, is to make accurate +experiments. "I consider," he says, "that, generally speaking, to +render a reason of an effect or phenomenon, is to deduce it from +something else in nature more known than itself; and that consequently +there may be divers kinds of degrees of explication of the same +thing." + +Boyle published his experiments and opinions concerning the action of +fire on different substances in the seventies of the 17th century; +Stahl's books, which laid the foundation of the phlogistic theory, and +confirmed the alchemical opinion that the action of fire is +essentially a simplifying action, were published about forty years +later. But fifty years before Boyle, a French physician, named Jean +Rey, had noticed that the calcination of a metal is the production of +a more complex, from a less complex substance; and had assigned the +increase in weight which accompanies that operation to the attachment +of particles of the air to the metal. A few years before the +publication of Boyle's work, from which I have quoted, John Mayow, +student of Oxford, recounted experiments which led to the conclusion +that the air contains two substances, one of which supports combustion +and the breathing of animals, while the other extinguishes fire. Mayow +called the active component of the atmosphere _fiery air_; but he was +unable to say definitely what becomes of this fiery air when a +substance is burnt, although he thought that, in some cases, it +probably attaches itself to the burning substances, by which, +therefore, it may be said to be fixed. Mayow proved that the air +wherein a substance is burnt, or an animal breathes, diminishes in +volume during the burning, or the breathing. He tried, without much +success, to restore to air that part of it which disappears when +combustion, or respiration, proceeds in it. + +What happens when a substance is burnt in the air? The alchemists +answered this question by asserting that the substance is separated or +analysed into things simpler than itself. Boyle said: the process is +not necessarily a simplification; it may be, and certainly sometimes +is, the formation of something more complicated than the original +substance, and when this happens, the process often consists in the +fixation of "the matter of fire" by the burning substance. Rey said: +calcination, of a metal at anyrate, probably consists in the fixation +of particles of air by the substance which is calcined. Mayow answered +the question by asserting, on the ground of the results of his +experiments, that the substance which is being calcined lays hold of a +particular constituent of the air, not the air as a whole. + +Now, it is evident that if Mayow's answer was a true description of +the process of calcination, or combustion, it should be possible to +separate the calcined substance into two different things, one of +which would be the thing which was calcined, and the other would be +that constituent of the air which had united with the burning, or +calcining, substance. It seems clear to us that the one method of +proving the accuracy of Mayow's supposition must be, to weigh a +definite, combustible, substance--say, a metal; to calcine this in a +measured quantity of air; to weigh the product, and to measure the +quantity of air which remains; to separate the product of calcination +into the original metal, and a kind of air or gas; to prove that the +metal thus obtained is the same, and has the same weight, as the metal +which was calcined; and to prove that the air or gas obtained from the +calcined metal is the same, both in quality and quantity, as the air +which disappeared in the process of calcination. + +This proof was not forthcoming until about a century after the +publication of Mayow's work. The experiments which furnished the proof +were rendered possible by a notable discovery made on the 1st of +August 1774, by the celebrated Joseph Priestley. + +Priestley prepared many "airs" of different kinds: by the actions of +acids on metals, by allowing vegetables to decay, by heating beef, +mutton, and other animal substances, and by other methods. He says: +"Having procured a lens of twelve inches diameter and twenty inches +focal distance, I proceeded with great alacrity to examine, by the +help of it, what kind of air a great variety of substances, natural +and factitious, would yield.... With this apparatus, after a variety +of other experiments.... on the 1st of August, 1774, I endeavoured to +extract air from _mercurius calcinatus per se_; and I presently found +that, by means of this lens, air was expelled from it very readily. +Having got about three or four times as much as the bulk of my +materials, I admitted water to it, and found that it was not imbibed +by it. But what surprised me more than I can well express was, that a +candle burned in this air with a remarkably vigorous flame.... I was +utterly at a loss how to account for it." + +[Illustration: FIG. XVI.] + +The apparatus used by Priestley, in his experiments on different kinds +of air, is represented in Fig. XVI., which is reduced from an +illustration in Priestley's book on _Airs_. + +Priestley had made a discovery which was destined to change Alchemy +into Chemistry. But he did not know what his discovery meant. It was +reserved for the greatest of all chemists, Antoine Lavoisier, to use +the fact stumbled on by Priestley. + +After some months Priestley began to think it possible that the new +"air" he had obtained from calcined mercury might be fit for +respiration. To his surprise he found that a mouse lived in this air +much longer than in common air; the new air was evidently better, or +purer, than ordinary air. Priestley measured what he called the +"goodness" of the new air, by a process of his own devising, and +concluded that it was "between four and five times as good as common +air." + +Priestley was a thorough-going phlogistean. He seems to have been able +to describe the results of his experiments only in the language of the +phlogistic theory; just as the results of most of the experiments made +to-day on the changes of compounds of the element carbon cannot be +described by chemists except by making use of the conceptions and the +language of the atomic and molecular theory.[6] + + [6] I have given numerous illustrations of the truth of this + statement in the book, in this series, entitled _The Story of + the Wanderings of Atoms_. + +The upholder of the phlogistic theory could not think of burning as +possible unless there was a suitable receptacle for the phlogiston of +the burning substance: when burning occurred in the air, the part +played by the air, according to the phlogistic chemist, was to receive +the expelled phlogiston; in this sense the air acted as the _pabulum_, +or nourishment, of the burning substance. Inasmuch as substances +burned more vigorously and brilliantly in the new air than in common +air, Priestley argued that the new air was more ready, more eager, +than ordinary air, to receive phlogiston; and, therefore, that the new +air contained less phlogiston than ordinary air, or, perhaps, no +phlogiston. Arguing thus, Priestley, of course, named the new aeriform +substance _dephlogisticated air_, and thought of it as ordinary air +deprived of some, or it might be all, of its phlogiston. + +The breathing of animals and the burning of substances were supposed +to load the atmosphere with phlogiston. Priestley spoke of the +atmosphere as being constantly "vitiated," "rendered noxious," +"depraved," or "corrupted" by processes of respiration and combustion; +he called those processes whereby the atmosphere is restored to its +original condition (or "depurated," as he said), "dephlogisticating +processes." As he had obtained his _dephlogisticated air_ by heating +the calx of mercury, that is the powder produced by calcining mercury +in the air, Priestley was forced to suppose that the calcination of +mercury in the air must be a more complex occurrence than merely the +expulsion of phlogiston from the mercury: for, if the process +consisted only in the expulsion of phlogiston, how could heating what +remained produce exceedingly pure ordinary air? It seemed necessary +to suppose that not only was phlogiston expelled from mercury during +calcination, but that the mercury also imbibed some portion, and that +the purest portion, of the surrounding air. Priestley did not, +however, go so far as this; he was content to suppose that in some +way, which he did not explain, the process of calcination resulted in +the loss of phlogiston by the mercury, and the gain, by the +dephlogisticated mercury, of the property of yielding exceedingly pure +or dephlogisticated air when it was heated very strongly. + +Priestley thought of properties in much the same way as the alchemists +thought of them, as wrappings, or coverings of an essential something, +from which they can be removed and around which they can again be +placed. The protean principle of phlogiston was always at hand, and, +by skilful management, was ready to adapt itself to any facts. Before +the phenomena of combustion could be described accurately, it was +necessary to do two things; to ignore the theory of phlogiston, and to +weigh and measure all the substances which take part in some selected +processes of burning. + +Looking back at the attempts made in the past to describe natural +events, we are often inclined to exclaim, "Why did investigators bind +themselves with the cords of absurd theories; why did they always wear +blinkers; why did they look at nature through the distorting mists +rising from their own imaginations?" We are too ready to forget the +tremendous difficulties which beset the path of him who is seeking +accurate knowledge. + + "To climb steep hills requires slow pace at first." + +Forgetting that the statements wherein the men of science of our own +time describe the relations between natural events are, and must be, +expressed in terms of some general conception, some theory, of these +relations; forgetting that the simplest natural occurrence is so +complicated that our powers of description are incapable of expressing +it completely and accurately; forgetting the uselessness of +disconnected facts; we are inclined to overestimate the importance of +our own views of nature's ways, and to underestimate the usefulness of +the views of our predecessors. Moreover, as naturalists have not been +obliged, in recent times, to make a complete renunciation of any +comprehensive theory wherein they had lived and moved for many years, +we forget the difficulties of breaking loose from a way of looking at +natural events which has become almost as real as the events +themselves, of abandoning a language which has expressed the most +vividly realised conceptions of generations of investigators, of +forming a completely new mental picture of natural occurrences, and +developing a completely new language for the expression of those +conceptions and these occurrences. + +The younger students of natural science of to-day are beginning to +forget what their fathers told them of the fierce battle which had to +be fought, before the upholders of the Darwinian theory of the origin +of species were able to convince those for whom the older view, that +species are, and always have been, absolutely distinct, had become a +matter of supreme scientific, and even ethical, importance. + +A theory which has prevailed for generations in natural science, and +has been accepted and used by everyone, can be replaced by a more +accurate description of the relations between natural facts, only by +the determination, labour, and genius of a man of supreme power. Such +a service to science, and humanity, was rendered by Darwin; a like +service was done, more than three-quarters of a century before Darwin, +by Lavoisier. + +Antoine Laurent Lavoisier was born in Paris in 1743. His father, who +was a merchant in a good position, gave his son the best education +which was then possible, in physical, astronomical, botanical, and +chemical science. At the age of twenty-one, Lavoisier gained the prize +offered by the Government for devising an effective and economical +method of lighting the public streets. From that time until, on the +8th of May 1794, the Government of the Revolution declared, "The +Republic has no need of men of science," and the guillotine ended his +life, Lavoisier continued his researches in chemistry, geology, +physics, and other branches of natural science, and his investigations +into the most suitable methods of using the knowledge gained by +naturalists for advancing the welfare of the community. + +In Chapter VI., I said that when an alchemist boiled water in an open +vessel, and obtained a white earthy solid, in place of the water which +disappeared, he was producing some sort of experimental proof of the +justness of his assertion that water can be changed into earth. +Lavoisier began his work on the transformations of matter by +demonstrating that this alleged transmutation does not happen; and he +did this by weighing the water, the vessel, and the earthy solid. + +Lavoisier had constructed for him a pelican of white glass (see Fig. +XI., p. 88), with a stopper of glass. He cleaned, dried, and weighed +this vessel; then he put into it rain-water which he had distilled +eight times; he heated the vessel, removing the stopper from time to +time to allow the expanding air to escape, then put in the stopper, +allowed the vessel to cool, and weighed very carefully. The difference +between the second and the first weighing was the weight of water in +the vessel. He then fastened the stopper securely with cement, and +kept the apparatus at a temperature about 30° or 40° below that of +boiling water, for a hundred and one days. At the end of that time a +fine white solid had collected on the bottom of the vessel. Lavoisier +removed the cement from the stopper, and weighed the apparatus; the +weight was the same as it had been before the heating began. He +removed the stopper; air rushed in, with a hissing noise. Lavoisier +concluded that air had not penetrated through the apparatus during the +process of heating. He then poured out the water, and the solid which +had formed in the vessel, set them aside, dried, and weighed the +pelican; it had lost 17-4/10 grains. Lavoisier concluded that the +solid which had formed in the water was produced by the solvent action +of the water on the glass vessel. He argued that if this conclusion +was correct, the weight of the solid must be equal to the loss of +weight suffered by the vessel; he therefore separated the solid from +the water in which it was suspended, dried, and weighed it. The solid +weighed 4-9/10 grains. Lavoisier's conclusion seemed to be incorrect; +the weight of the solid, which was supposed to be produced by the +action of the water on the vessel, was 12-1/2 grains less than the weight +of the material removed from the vessel. But some of the material +which was removed from the vessel might have remained dissolved in the +water: Lavoisier distilled the water, which he had separated from the +solid, in a glass vessel, until only a very little remained in the +distilling apparatus; he poured this small quantity into a glass +basin, and boiled until the whole of the water had disappeared as +steam. There remained a white, earthy solid, the weight of which was +15-1/2 grains. Lavoisier had obtained 4-9/10 + 15-1/2 = 20-2/5 grains +of solid; the pelican had lost 17-2/5 grains. The difference between +these weights, namely, 3 grains, was accounted for by Lavoisier as due +to the solvent action of the water on the glass apparatus wherein it +had been distilled, and on the glass basin wherein it had been +evaporated to dryness. + +Lavoisier's experiments proved that when distilled water is heated in +a glass vessel, it dissolves some of the material of the vessel, and +the white, earthy solid which is obtained by boiling down the water is +merely the material which has been removed from the glass vessel. His +experiments also proved that the water does not undergo any change +during the process; that at the end of the operation it is what it was +at the beginning--water, and nothing but water. + +By this investigation Lavoisier destroyed part of the experimental +basis of alchemy, and established the one and only method by which +chemical changes can be investigated; the method wherein constant use +is made of the balance. + +Lavoisier now turned his attention to the calcination of metals, and +particularly the calcination of tin. Boyle supposed that the increase +in weight which accompanies the calcination of a metal is due to the +fixation of "matter of fire" by the calcining metal; Rey regarded the +increase in weight as the result of the combination of the air with +the metal; Mayow thought that the atmosphere contains two different +kinds of "airs," and one of these unites with the heated metal. +Lavoisier proposed to test these suppositions by calcining a weighed +quantity of tin in a closed glass vessel, which had been weighed +before, and should be weighed after, the calcination. If Boyle's view +was correct, the weight of the vessel and the tin would be greater at +the end than it was at the beginning of the operation; for "matter of +fire" would pass through the vessel and unite with the metal. If there +was no change in the total weight of the apparatus and its contents, +and if air rushed in when the vessel was opened after the calcination, +and the total weight was then greater than at the beginning of the +process, it would be necessary to adopt either the supposition of Rey +or that of Mayow. + +Lavoisier made a series of experiments. The results were these: there +was no change in the total weight of the apparatus and its contents; +when the vessel was opened after the calcination was finished, air +rushed in, and the whole apparatus now weighed more than it did before +the vessel was opened; the weight of the air which rushed in was +exactly equal to the increase in the weight of the tin produced by the +calcination, in other words, the weight of the inrushing air was +exactly equal to the difference between the weights of the tin and the +calx formed by calcining the tin. Lavoisier concluded that to calcine +tin is to cause it to combine with a portion of the air wherein it is +calcined. The weighings he made showed that about one-fifth of the +whole weight of air in the closed flask wherein he calcined tin had +disappeared during the operation. + +Other experiments led Lavoisier to suspect that the portion of the air +which had united with the tin was different from the portion which had +not combined with that metal. He, therefore, set himself to discover +whether there are different kinds of "airs" in the atmosphere, and, if +there is more than one kind of "air," what is the nature of that "air" +which combines with a metal in the process of calcination. He proposed +to cause a metallic calx (that is, the substance formed by calcining +a metal in the air) to give up the "air" which had been absorbed in +its formation, and to compare this "air" with atmospheric air. + +About this time Priestley visited Paris, saw Lavoisier, and told him +of the new "air" he had obtained by heating calcined mercury. +Lavoisier saw the great importance of Priestley's discovery; he +repeated Priestley's experiment, and concluded that the air, or gas, +which he refers to in his Laboratory Journal as "l'air dephlogistique +de M. Priestley" was nothing else than the purest portion of the air +we breathe. He prepared this "air" and burned various substances in +it. Finding that very many of the products of these combustions had +the properties of acids, he gave to the new "air" the name _oxygen_, +which means _the acid-producer_. + +At a later time, Lavoisier devised and conducted an experiment which +laid bare the change of composition that happens when mercury is +calcined in the air. He calcined a weighed quantity of mercury for +many days in a measured volume of air, in an apparatus arranged so +that he was able to determine how much of the air disappeared during +the process; he collected and weighed the red solid which formed on +the surface of the heated mercury; finally he heated this red solid to +a high temperature, collected and measured the gas which was given +off, and weighed the mercury which was produced. The sum of the +weights of the mercury and the gas which were produced by heating the +calcined mercury was equal to the weight of the calcined mercury; and +the weight of the gas produced by heating the calcined mercury was +equal to the weight of the portion of the air which had disappeared +during the formation of the calcined mercury. This experiment proved +that the calcination of mercury in the air consists in the combination +of a constituent of the air with the mercury. Fig. XVII. (reduced from +an illustration in Lavoisier's Memoir) represents the apparatus used +by Lavoisier. Mayow's supposition was confirmed. + +[Illustration: FIG. XVII.] + +Lavoisier made many more experiments on combustion, and proved that in +every case the component of the atmosphere which he had named oxygen +combined with the substance, or with some part of the substance, which +was burned. By these experiments the theory of Phlogiston was +destroyed; and with its destruction, the whole alchemical apparatus of +Principles and Elements, Essences and Qualities, Souls and Spirits, +disappeared. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE RECOGNITION OF CHEMICAL CHANGES AS THE INTERACTIONS OF DEFINITE +SUBSTANCES. + + +The experimental study of combustion made by Lavoisier proved the +correctness of that part of Stahl's phlogistic theory which asserted +that all processes of combustion are very similar, but also proved +that this likeness consists in the combination of a distinct gaseous +substance with the material undergoing combustion, and not in the +escape therefrom of the _Principle of fire_, as asserted by the theory +of Stahl. After about the year 1790, it was necessary to think of +combustions in the air as combinations of a particular gas, or _air_, +with the burning substances, or some portions of them. + +This description of processes of burning necessarily led to a +comparison of the gaseous constituent of the atmosphere which played +so important a part in these processes, with the substances which were +burned; it led to the examination of the compositions of many +substances, and made it necessary to devise a language whereby these +compositions could be stated clearly and consistently. + +We have seen, in former chapters, the extreme haziness of the +alchemical views of composition, and the connexions between +composition and properties. Although Boyle[7] had stated very lucidly +what he meant by the composition of a definite substance, about a +century before Lavoisier's work on combustion, nevertheless the views +of chemists concerning composition remained very vague and incapable +of definite expression, until the experimental investigations of +Lavoisier enabled him to form a clear mental picture of chemical +changes as interactions between definite quantities of distinct +substances. + + [7] Boyle said, in 1689, "I mean by elements ... certain + primitive and simple, or perfectly unmixed bodies; which not + being made of any other bodies, or of one another, are the + ingredients of which all those called perfectly mixt bodies are + immediately compounded, and into which they are ultimately + resolved." + +Let us consider some of the work of Lavoisier in this direction. I +select his experimental examination of the interactions of metals and +acids. + +Many experimenters had noticed that gases (or airs, as they were +called up till near the end of the 18th century) are generally +produced when metals are dissolving in acids. Most of those who +noticed this said that the gases came from the dissolving metals; +Lavoisier said they were produced by the decomposition of the acids. +In order to study the interaction of nitric acid and mercury, +Lavoisier caused a weighed quantity of the metal to react with a +weighed quantity of the acid, and collected the gas which was +produced; when all the metal had dissolved, he evaporated the liquid +until a white solid was obtained; he heated this solid until it was +changed to the red substance called, at that time, _red precipitate_, +and collected the gas produced. Finally, Lavoisier strongly heated the +red precipitate; it changed to a gas, which he collected, and mercury, +which he weighed. + +The weight of the mercury obtained by Lavoisier at the end of this +series of changes was the same, less a few grains, as the weight of +the mercury which he had caused to react with the nitric acid. The gas +obtained during the solution of the metal in the acid, and during the +decomposition of the white solid by heat, was the same as a gas which +had been prepared by Priestley and called by him _nitrous air_; and +the gas obtained by heating the red precipitate was found to be +oxygen. Lavoisier then mixed measured volumes of oxygen and "nitrous +air," standing over water; a red gas was formed, and dissolved in the +water, and Lavoisier proved that the water now contained nitric acid. + +The conclusions regarding the composition of nitric acid drawn by +Lavoisier from these experiments was, that "nitric acid is nothing +else than _nitrous air_, combined with almost its own volume of the +purest part of atmospheric air, and a considerable quantity of water." + +Lavoisier supposed that the stages in the complete reaction between +mercury and nitric acid were these: the withdrawal of oxygen from the +acid by the mercury, and the union of the compound of mercury and +oxygen thus formed with the constituents of the acid which remained +when part of its oxygen was taken away. The removal of oxygen from +nitric acid by the mercury produced _nitrous air_; when the product of +the union of the oxide of mercury and the nitric acid deprived of part +of its oxygen was heated, more nitrous air was given off, and oxide of +mercury remained, and was decomposed, at a higher temperature, into +mercury and oxygen. + +Lavoisier thought of these reactions as the tearing asunder, by +mercury, of nitric acid into definite quantities of its three +components, themselves distinct substances, nitrous air, water, and +oxygen; and the combination of the mercury with a certain measurable +quantity of one of these components, namely, oxygen, followed by the +union of this compound of mercury and oxygen with what remained of the +components of nitric acid. + +Lavoisier had formed a clear, consistent, and suggestive mental +picture of chemical changes. He thought of a chemical reaction as +always the same under the same conditions, as an action between a +fixed and measurable quantity of one substance, having definite and +definable properties, with fixed and measurable quantities of other +substances, the properties of each of which were definite and +definable. + +Lavoisier also recognised that certain definite substances could be +divided into things simpler than themselves, but that other substances +refused to undergo simplification by division into two or more unlike +portions. He spoke of the object of chemistry as follows:--[8] "In +submitting to experiments the different substances found in nature, +chemistry seeks to decompose these substances, and to get them into +such conditions that their various components may be examined +separately. Chemistry advances to its end by dividing, sub-dividing, +and again sub-dividing, and we do not know what will be the limits of +such operations. We cannot be certain that what we regard as simple +to-day is indeed simple; all we can say is, that such a substance is +the actual term whereat chemical analysis has arrived, and that with +our present knowledge we cannot sub-divide it." + + [8] I have given a free rendering of Lavoisier's words. + +In these words Lavoisier defines the chemical conception of +_elements_; since his time an element is "the actual term whereat +chemical analysis has arrived," it is that which "with our present +knowledge we cannot sub-divide"; and, as a working hypothesis, the +notion of _element_ has no wider meaning than this. I have already +quoted Boyle's statement that by _elements_ he meant "certain +primitive and simple bodies ... not made of any other bodies, or of +one another." Boyle was still slightly restrained by the alchemical +atmosphere around him; he was still inclined to say, "this _must_ be +the way nature works, she _must_ begin with certain substances which +are absolutely simple." Lavoisier had thrown off all the trammels +which hindered the alchemists from making rigorous experimental +investigations. If one may judge from his writings, he had not +struggled to free himself from these trammels, he had not slowly +emerged from the quagmires of alchemy, and painfully gained firmer +ground; the extraordinary clearness and directness of his mental +vision had led him straight to the very heart of the problems of +chemistry, and enabled him not only calmly to ignore all the machinery +of Elements, Principles, Essences, and the like, which the alchemists +had constructed so laboriously, but also to construct, in place of +that mechanism which hindered inquiry, genuine scientific hypotheses +which directed inquiry, and were themselves altered by the results of +the experiments they had suggested. + +Lavoisier made these great advances by applying himself to the minute +and exhaustive examination of a few cases of chemical change, and +endeavouring to account for everything which took part in the +processes he studied, by weighing or measuring each distinct substance +which was present when the change began, and each which was present +when the change was finished. He did not make haphazard experiments; +he had a method, a system; he used hypotheses, and he used them +rightly. "Systems in physics," Lavoisier writes, "are but the proper +instruments for helping the feebleness of our senses. Properly +speaking, they are methods of approximation which put us on the track +of solving problems; they are the hypotheses which, successively +modified, corrected, and changed, by experience, ought to conduct us, +some day, by the method of exclusions and eliminations, to the +knowledge of the true laws of nature." + +In a memoir wherein he is considering the production of carbonic acid +and alcohol by the fermentation of fruit-juice, Lavoisier says, "It is +evident that we must know the nature and composition of the +substances which can be fermented and the products of fermentation; +for nothing is created, either in the operations of art or in those of +nature; and it may be laid down that the quantity of material present +at the beginning of every operation is the same as the quantity +present at the end, that the quality and quantity of the principles[9] +are the same, and that nothing happens save certain changes, certain +modifications. On this principle is based the whole art of +experimenting in chemistry; in all chemical experiments we must +suppose that there is a true equality between the principles[10] of +the substances which are examined and those which are obtained from +them by analysis." + + [9, 10] Lavoisier uses the word _principle_, here and + elsewhere, to mean a definite homogeneous substance; he uses it + as synonymous with the more modern terms element and compound. + +If Lavoisier's memoirs are examined closely, it is seen that at the +very beginning of his chemical inquiries he assumed the accuracy, and +the universal application, of the generalisation "nothing is created, +either in the operations of art or in those of nature." Naturalists +had been feeling their way for centuries towards such a generalisation +as this; it had been in the air for many generations; sometimes it was +almost realised by this or that investigator, then it escaped for long +periods. Lavoisier seems to have realised, by what we call intuition, +that however great and astonishing may be the changes in the +properties of the substances which mutually react, there is no change +in the total quantity of material. + +Not only did Lavoisier realise and act on this principle, he also +measured quantities of substances by the one practical method, namely, +by weighing; and by doing this he showed chemists the only road along +which they could advance towards a genuine knowledge of material +changes. + +The generalisation expressed by Lavoisier in the words I have quoted +is now known as the _law of the conservation of mass_; it is generally +stated in some such form as this:--the sum of the masses of all the +homogeneous substances which take part in a chemical (or physical) +change does not itself change. The science of chemistry rests on this +law; every quantitative analysis assumes the accuracy, and is a proof +of the validity, of it.[11] + + [11] I have considered the law of the conservation of mass in some + detail in Chapter IV. of _The Story of the Chemical Elements_. + +By accepting the accuracy of this generalisation, and using it in +every experiment, Lavoisier was able to form a clear mental picture of +a chemical change as the separation and combination of homogeneous +substances; for, by using the balance, he was able to follow each +substance through the maze of changes, to determine when it united +with other substances, and when it separated into substances simpler +than itself. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE CHEMICAL ELEMENTS CONTRASTED WITH THE ALCHEMICAL PRINCIPLES. + + +It was known to many observers in the later years of the 17th century +that the product of the calcination of a metal weighs more than the +metal; but it was still possible, at that time, to assert that this +fact is of no importance to one who is seeking to give an accurate +description of the process of calcination. Weight, which measures mass +or quantity of substance, was thought of, in these days, as a property +like colour, taste, or smell, a property which was sometimes +decreased, and sometimes increased, by adding one substance to +another. Students of natural occurrences were, however, feeling their +way towards the recognition of some property of substances which did +not change in the haphazard way wherein most properties seemed to +alter. Lavoisier reached this property at one bound. By his +experimental investigations, he taught that, however greatly the +properties of one substance may be masked, or altered, by adding +another substance to it, yet the property we call mass, and measure by +weight, is not affected by these changes; for Lavoisier showed, that +the mass of the product of the union of two substances is always +exactly the sum of the masses of these two substances, and the sum of +the masses of the substances whereinto one substance is divided is +always exactly equal to that mass of the substance which is divided. + +For the undefined, ever-changing, protean essence, or soul, of a thing +which the alchemists thought of as hidden by wrappings of properties, +the exact investigations of Lavoisier, and those of others who worked +on the same lines as he, substituted this definite, fixed, +unmodifiable property of mass. Lavoisier, and those who followed in +his footsteps, also did away with the alchemical notion of the +existence of an essential substratum, independent of changes in those +properties of a substance which can be observed by the senses. For the +experimental researches of these men obliged naturalists to recognise, +that a change in the properties of a definite, homogeneous substance, +such as pure water, pure chalk, or pure sulphur, is accompanied (or, +as we generally say, is caused) by the formation of a new substance or +substances; and this formation, this apparent creation, of new +material, is effected, either by the addition of something to the +original substance, or by the separation of it into portions which are +unlike it, and unlike one another. If the change is a combination, or +coalescence, of two things into one, then the mass, and hence the +weight, of the product is equal to the sum of those masses, and hence +those weights, of the things which have united to form it; if the +change is a separation of one distinct substance into several +substances, then the sum of the masses, and hence the weights, of the +products is equal to that mass, and hence that weight, of the +substance which has been separated. + +Consider the word _water_, and the substance represented by this word. +In Chapter IV., I gave illustrations of the different meanings which +have been given to this word; it is sometimes used to represent a +material substance, sometimes a quality more or less characteristic of +that substance, and sometimes a process to which that substance, and +many others like it, may be subjected. But when the word _water_ is +used with a definite and exact meaning, it is a succinct expression +for a certain group, or collocation, of measurable properties which +are always found together, and is, therefore, thought of as a distinct +substance. This substance can be separated into two other substances +very unlike it, and can be formed by causing these to unite. One +hundred parts, by weight, of pure water are always formed by the union +of 11.11 parts of hydrogen, and 88.89 parts of oxygen, and can be +separated into these quantities of those substances. When water is +formed by the union of hydrogen and oxygen, in the ratio of 11.11 +parts by weight of the former to 88.89 of the latter, the properties +of the two substances which coalesce to form it disappear, except +their masses. It is customary to say that water _contains_ hydrogen +and oxygen; but this expression is scarcely an accurate description of +the facts. What we call _substances_ are known to us only by their +properties, that is, the ways wherein they act on our senses. Hydrogen +has certain definite properties, oxygen has other definite properties, +and the properties of water are perfectly distinct from those of +either of the substances which it is said to contain. It is, +therefore, somewhat misleading to say that water _contains_ +substances the properties whereof, except their masses, disappeared at +the moment when they united and water was produced. Nevertheless we +are forced to think of water as, in a sense, containing hydrogen and +oxygen. For, one of the properties of hydrogen is its power to +coalesce, or combine, with oxygen to form water, and one of the +properties of oxygen is its ability to unite with hydrogen to form +water; and these properties of those substances cannot be recognised, +or even suspected, unless certain definite quantities of the two +substances are brought together under certain definite conditions. The +properties which characterise hydrogen, and those which characterise +oxygen, when these things are separated from all other substances, can +be determined and measured in terms of the similar properties of some +other substance taken as a standard. These two distinct substances +disappear when they are brought into contact, under the proper +conditions, and something (water) is obtained whose properties are +very unlike those of hydrogen or oxygen; this new thing can be caused +to disappear, and hydrogen and oxygen are again produced. This cycle +of changes can be repeated as often as we please; the quantities of +hydrogen and oxygen which are obtained when we choose to stop the +process are exactly the same as the quantities of those substances +which disappeared in the first operation whereby water was produced. +Hence, water is an intimate union of hydrogen and oxygen; and, in this +sense, water may be said to contain hydrogen and oxygen. + +The alchemist would have said, the properties of hydrogen and oxygen +are destroyed when these things unite to form water, but the essence, +or substratum, of each remains. The chemist says, you cannot discover +all the properties of hydrogen and oxygen by examining these +substances apart from one another, for one of the most important +properties of either is manifested only when the two mutually react: +the formation of water is not the destruction of the properties of +hydrogen and oxygen and the revelation of their essential substrata, +it is rather the manifestation of a property of each which cannot be +discovered except by causing the union of both. + +There was, then, a certain degree of accuracy in the alchemical +description of the processes we now call chemical changes, as being +the removal of the outer properties of the things which react, and the +manifestation of their essential substance. But there is a vast +difference between this description and the chemical presentment of +these processes as reactions between definite and measurable +quantities of elements, or compounds, or both, resulting in the +re-distribution, of the elements, or the separation of the compounds +into their elements, and the formation of new compounds by the +re-combination of these elements. + +Let us contrast the two descriptions somewhat more fully. + +The alchemist wished to effect the transmutation of one substance into +another; he despaired of the possibility of separating the Elements +whereof the substance might be formed, but he thought he could +manipulate what he called the _virtues_ of the Elements by a judicious +use of some or all of the three Principles, which he named Sulphur, +Salt, and Mercury. He could not state in definite language what he +meant by these Principles; they were states, conditions, or qualities, +of classes of substances, which could not be defined. The directions +the alchemist was able to give to those who sought to effect the +change of one thing into another were these. Firstly, to remove those +properties which characterised the thing to be changed, and leave only +the properties which it shared with other things like it; secondly, to +destroy the properties which the thing to be changed possessed in +common with certain other things; thirdly, to commingle the Essence of +the thing with the Essence of something else, in due proportion and +under proper conditions; and, finally, to hope for the best, keep a +clear head, and maintain a sense of virtue. + +If he who was about to attempt the transmutation inquired how he was +to destroy the specific properties, and the class properties, of the +thing he proposed to change, and by what methods he was to obtain its +Essence, and cause that Essence to produce the new thing, he would be +told to travel along "the road which was followed by the Great +Architect of the Universe in the creation of the world." And if he +demanded more detailed directions, he would be informed that the +substance wherewith his experiments began must first be mortified, +then dissolved, then conjoined, then putrefied, then congealed, then +cibated, then sublimed, and fermented, and, finally, exalted. He +would, moreover, be warned that in all these operations he must use, +not things which he could touch, handle, and weigh, but the _virtues_, +the _lives_, the _souls_, of such things. + +When the student of chemistry desires to effect the transformation of +one definite substance into another, he is told to determine, by +quantitative experiments, what are the elements, and what the +quantities of these elements, which compose the compound which he +proposes to change, and the compound into which he proposes to change +it; and he is given working definitions of the words _element_ and +_compound_. If the compound he desires to produce is found to be +composed of elements different from those which form the compound +wherewith his operations begin, he is directed to bring about a +reaction, or a series of reactions, between the compound which is to +be changed, and some other collocation of elements the composition of +which is known to be such that it can supply the new elements which +are needed for the production of the new compound. + +Since Lavoisier realised, for himself, and those who were to come +after him, the meaning of the terms _element_ and _compound_, we may +say that chemists have been able to form a mental picture of the +change from one definite substance to another, which is clear, +suggestive, and consistent, because it is an approximately accurate +description of the facts discovered by careful and penetrative +investigations. This presentment of the change has been substituted +for the alchemical conception, which was an attempt to express what +introspection and reasoning on the results of superficial +investigations, guided by specious analogies, suggested ought to be +the facts. + +Lavoisier was the man who made possible the more accurate, and more +far-reaching, description of the changes which result in the +production of substances very unlike those which are changed; and he +did this by experimentally analysing the conceptions of the element +and the compound, giving definite and workable meanings to these +conceptions, and establishing, on an experimental foundation, the +generalisation that the sum of the quantities of the substances which +take part in any change is itself unchanged. + +A chemical element was thought of by Lavoisier as "the actual term +whereat analysis has arrived," a definite substance "which we cannot +subdivide with our present knowledge," but not necessarily a substance +which will never be divided. A compound was thought of by him as a +definite substance which is always produced by the union of the same +quantities of the same elements, and can be separated into the same +quantities of the same elements. + +These conceptions were amplified and made more full of meaning by the +work of many who came after Lavoisier, notably by John Dalton, who was +born in 1766 and died in 1844. + +In Chapter I., I gave a sketch of the atomic theory of the Greek +thinkers. The founder of that theory, who flourished about 500 B.C., +said that every substance is a collocation of a vast number of minute +particles, which are unchangeable, indestructible, and impenetrable, +and are therefore properly called _atoms_; that the differences which +are observed between the qualities of things are due to differences in +the numbers, sizes, shapes, positions, and movements of atoms, and +that the process which occurs when one substance is apparently +destroyed and another is produced in its place, is nothing more than a +rearrangement of atoms. + +The supposition that changes in the properties of substances are +connected with changes in the numbers, movements, and arrangements of +different kinds of minute particles, was used in a general way by many +naturalists of the 17th and 18th centuries; but Dalton was the first +to show that the data obtained by the analyses of compounds make it +possible to determine the relative weights of the atoms of the +elements. + +Dalton used the word _atom_ to denote the smallest particle of an +element, or a compound, which exhibits the properties characteristic +of that element or compound. He supposed that the atoms of an element +are never divided in any of the reactions of that element, but the +atoms of a compound are often separated into the atoms of the elements +whereof the compound is composed. Apparently without knowing that the +supposition had been made more than two thousand years before his +time, Dalton was led by his study of the composition and properties of +the atmosphere to assume that the atoms of different substances, +whether elements or compounds, are of different sizes and have +different weights. He assumed that when two elements unite to form +only one compound, the atom of that compound has the simplest +possible composition, is formed by the union of a single atom of each +element. Dalton knew only one compound of hydrogen and nitrogen, +namely, ammonia. Analyses of this compound show that it is composed of +one part by weight of hydrogen and 4.66 parts by weight of nitrogen. +Dalton said one atom of hydrogen combines with one atom of nitrogen to +form an atom of ammonia; hence an atom of nitrogen is 4.66 times +heavier than an atom of hydrogen; in other words, if the _atomic +weight_ of hydrogen is taken as unity, the _atomic weight_ of nitrogen +is expressed by the number 4.66. Dalton referred the atomic weights of +the elements to the atomic weight of hydrogen as unity, because +hydrogen is lighter than any other substance; hence the numbers which +tell how much heavier the atoms of the elements are than an atom of +hydrogen are always greater than one, are always positive numbers. + +When two elements unite in different proportions, by weight, to form +more than one compound, Dalton supposed that (in most cases at any +rate) one of the compounds is formed by the union of a single atom of +each element; the next compound is formed by the union of one atom of +the element which is present in smaller quantity with two, three, or +more, atoms of the other element, and the next compound is formed by +the union of one atom of the first element with a larger number +(always, necessarily, a whole number) of atoms of the other element +than is contained in the second compound; and so on. From this +assumption, and the Daltonian conception of the atom, it follows that +the quantities by weight of one element which are found to unite with +one and the same weight of another element must always be expressible +as whole multiples of one number. For if two elements, A and B, form a +compound, that compound is formed, by supposition, of one atom of A +and one atom of B; if more of B is added, at least one atom of B must +be added; however much of B is added the quantity must be a whole +number of atoms; and as every atom of B is the same in all respects as +every other atom of B, the weights of B added to a constant weight of +A must be whole multiples of the atomic weight of B. + +The facts which were available in Dalton's time confirmed this +deduction from the atomic theory within the limits of experimental +errors; and the facts which have been established since Dalton's time +are completely in keeping with the deduction. Take, for instance, +three compounds of the elements nitrogen and oxygen. That one of the +three which contains least oxygen is composed of 63.64 _per cent._ of +nitrogen, and 36.36 _per cent._ of oxygen; if the atomic weight of +nitrogen is taken to be 4.66, which is the weight of nitrogen that +combines with one part by weight of hydrogen, then the weight of +oxygen combined with 4.66 of nitrogen is 2.66 (63.64:36.36 = +4.66:2.66). The weights of oxygen which combine with 4.66 parts by +weight of nitrogen to form the second and third compounds, +respectively, must be whole multiples of 2.66; these weights are 5.32 +and 10.64. Now 5.32 = 2.66 x 2, and 10.64 = 2.66 x 4. Hence, the +quantities by weight of oxygen which combine with one and the same +weight of nitrogen are such that two of these quantities are whole +multiples of the third quantity. + +Dalton's application of the Greek atomic theory to the facts +established by the analyses of compounds enabled him to attach to each +element a number which he called the atomic weight of the element, and +to summarise all the facts concerning the compositions of compounds in +the statement, that the elements combine in the ratios of their atomic +weights, or in the ratios of whole multiples of their atomic weights. +All the investigations which have been made into the compositions of +compounds, since Dalton's time, have confirmed the generalisation +which followed from Dalton's application of the atomic theory. + +Even if the theory of atoms were abandoned, the generalisation would +remain, as an accurate and exact statement of facts which hold good in +every chemical change, that a number can be attached to each element, +and the weights of the elements which combine are in the ratios of +these numbers, or whole multiples of these numbers. + +Since chemists realised the meaning of Dalton's book, published in +1808, and entitled, _A New System of Chemical Philosophy_, elements +have been regarded as distinct and definite substances, which have not +been divided into parts different from themselves, and unite with each +other in definite quantities by weight which can be accurately +expressed as whole multiples of certain fixed quantities; and +compounds have been regarded as distinct and definite substances +which are formed by the union of, and can be separated into, +quantities of various elements which are expressible by certain fixed +numbers or whole multiples thereof. These descriptions of elements and +compounds are expressions of actual facts. They enable chemists to +state the compositions of all the compounds which are, or can be, +formed by the union of any elements. For example, let A, B, C, and D +represent four elements, and also certain definite weights of these +elements, then the compositions of all the compounds which can be +formed by the union of these elements are expressed by the scheme +A_{_n_} B_{_m_} C_{_p_} D_{_q_}, where _m_ _n_ _p_ and _q_ are whole +numbers. + +These descriptions of elements and compounds also enable chemists to +form a clear picture to themselves of any chemical change. They think +of a chemical change as being; (1) a union of those weights of two, or +more, elements which are expressed by the numbers attached to these +elements, or by whole multiples of these numbers; or (2) a union of +such weights of two, or more, compounds as can be expressed by certain +numbers or by whole multiples of these numbers; or (3) a reaction +between elements and compounds, or between compounds and compounds, +resulting in the redistribution of the elements concerned, in such a +way that the complete change of composition can be expressed by using +the numbers, or whole multiples of the numbers, attached to the +elements. + +How different is this conception of a change wherein substances are +formed, entirely unlike those things which react to form them, from +the alchemical presentment of such a process! The alchemist spoke of +stripping off the outer properties of the thing to be changed, and, by +operating spiritually on the soul which was thus laid bare, inducing +the essential virtue of the substance to exhibit its powers of +transmutation. But he was unable to give definite meanings to the +expressions which he used, he was unable to think clearly about the +transformations which he tried to accomplish. The chemist discards the +machinery of virtues, souls, and powers. It is true that he +substitutes a machinery of minute particles; but this machinery is +merely a means of thinking clearly and consistently about the changes +which he studies. The alchemist thought, vaguely, of substance as +something underlying, and independent of, properties; the chemist uses +the expression, this or that substance, as a convenient way of +presenting and reasoning about certain groups of properties. It seems +to me that if we think of _matter_ as something more than properties +recognised by the senses, we are going back on the road which leads to +the confusion of the alchemical times. + +The alchemists expressed their conceptions in what seems to us a +crude, inconsistent, and very undescriptive language. Chemists use a +language which is certainly symbolical, but also intelligible, and on +the whole fairly descriptive of the facts. + +A name is given to each elementary substance, that is, each substance +which has not been decomposed; the name generally expresses some +characteristic property of the substance, or tells something about +its origin or the place of its discovery. The names of compounds are +formed by putting together the names of the elements which combine to +produce them; and the relative quantities of these elements are +indicated either by the use of Latin or Greek prefixes, or by +variations in the terminal syllables of the names of the elements. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE MODERN FORM OF THE ALCHEMICAL QUEST OF THE ONE THING. + + +The study of the properties of the elements shows that these +substances fall into groups, the members of each of which are like one +another, and form compounds which are similar. The examination of the +properties and compositions of compounds has shown that similarity of +properties is always accompanied by similarity of composition. Hence, +the fact that certain elements are very closely allied in their +properties suggests that these elements may also be allied in their +composition. Now, to speak of the composition of an element is to +think of the element as formed by the union of at least two different +substances; it implies the supposition that some elements at any rate +are really compounds. + +The fact that there is a very definite connexion between the values of +the atomic weights, and the properties, of the elements, lends some +support to the hypothesis that the substances we call, and are obliged +at present to call, elements, may have been formed from one, or a few, +distinct substances, by some process of progressive change. If the +elements are considered in the order of increasing atomic weights, +from hydrogen, whose atomic weight is taken as unity because it is the +lightest substance known, to uranium, an atom of which is 240 times +heavier than an atom of hydrogen, it is found that the elements fall +into periods, and the properties of those in one period vary from +element to element, in a way which is, broadly and on the whole, like +the variation of the properties of those in other periods. This fact +suggests the supposition--it might be more accurate to say the +speculation--that the elements mark the stable points in a process of +change, which has not proceeded continuously from a very simple +substance to a very complex one, but has repeated itself, with certain +variations, again and again. If such a process has occurred, we might +reasonably expect to find substances exhibiting only minute +differences in their properties, differences so slight as to make it +impossible to assign the substances, definitely and certainly, either +to the class of elements or to that of compounds. We find exactly such +substances among what are called the _rare earths_. There are +earth-like substances which exhibit no differences of chemical +properties, and yet show minute differences in the characters of the +light which they emit when they are raised to a very high +temperature. + +The results of analysis by the spectroscope of the light emitted by +certain elements at different temperatures may be reasonably +interpreted by supposing that these elements are separated into +simpler substances by the action on them of very large quantities of +thermal energy. The spectrum of the light emitted by glowing iron +heated by a Bunsen flame (say, at 1200° C. = about 2200° F.) shows a +few lines and flutings; when iron is heated in an electric arc (say, +to 3500° C. = about 6300° F.) the spectrum shows some two thousand +lines; at the higher temperature produced by the electric +spark-discharge, the spectrum shows only a few lines. As a guide to +further investigation, we may provisionally infer from these facts +that iron is changed at very high temperatures into substances simpler +than itself. + +Sir Norman Lockyer's study of the spectra of the light from stars has +shown that the light from those stars which are presumably the +hottest, judging by the general character of their spectra, reveals +the presence of a very small number of chemical elements; and that the +number of spectral lines, and, therefore, the number of elements, +increases as we pass from the hottest to cooler stars. At each stage +of the change from the hottest to cooler stars certain substances +disappear and certain other substances take their places. It may be +supposed, as a suggestive hypothesis, that the lowering of stellar +temperature is accompanied by the formation, from simpler forms of +matter, of such elements as iron, calcium, manganese, and other +metals. + +In the year 1896, the French chemist Becquerel discovered the fact +that salts of the metal uranium, the atomic weight of which is 240, +and is greater than that of any other element, emit rays which cause +electrified bodies to lose their electric charges, and act on +photographic plates that are wrapped in sheets of black paper, or in +thin sheets of other substances which stop rays of light. The +_radio-activity_ of salts of uranium was proved not to be increased or +diminished when these salts had been shielded for five years from the +action of light by keeping them in leaden boxes. Shortly after +Becquerel's discovery, experiments proved that salts of the rare metal +thorium are radio-active. This discovery was followed by Madame +Curie's demonstration of the fact that certain specimens of +_pitchblende_, a mineral which contains compounds of uranium and of +many other metals, are extremely radio-active, and by the separation +from pitchblende, by Monsieur and Madame Curie, of new substances much +more radio-active than compounds of uranium or of thorium. The new +substances were proved to be compounds chemically very similar to +salts of barium. Their compositions were determined on the supposition +that they were salts of an unknown metal closely allied to barium. +Because of the great radio-activity of the compounds, the hypothetical +metal of them was named _Radium_. At a later time, radium was isolated +by Madame Curie. It is described by her as a white, hard, metal-like +solid, which reacts with water at the ordinary temperature, as barium +does. + +Since the discovery of radium compounds, many radio-active substances +have been isolated. Only exceedingly minute quantities of any of them +have been obtained. The quantities of substances used in experiments +on radio-activity are so small that they escape the ordinary methods +of measurement, and are scarcely amenable to the ordinary processes of +the chemical laboratory. Fortunately, radio-activity can be detected +and measured by electrical methods of extraordinary fineness, methods +the delicacy of which very much more exceeds that of spectroscopic +methods than the sensitiveness of these surpasses that of ordinary +chemical analysis. + +At the time of the discovery of radio-activity, about seventy-five +substances were called elements; in other words, about seventy-five +different substances were known to chemists, none of which had been +separated into unlike parts, none of which had been made by the +coalescence of unlike substances. Compounds of only two of these +substances, uranium and thorium, are radio-active. Radio-activity is a +very remarkable phenomenon. So far as we know at present, +radio-activity is not a property of the substances which form almost +the whole of the rocks, the waters, and the atmosphere of the earth; +it is not a property of the materials which constitute living +organisms. It is a property of some thirty substances--of course, the +number may be increased--a few of which are found widely distributed +in rocks and waters, but none of which is found anywhere except in +extraordinarily minute quantity. Radium is the most abundant of these +substances; but only a very few grains of radium chloride can be +obtained from a couple of tons of pitchblende. + +In Chapter X. of _The Story of the Chemical Elements_ I have given a +short account of the outstanding phenomena of radio-activity; for the +present purpose it will suffice to state a few facts of fundamental +importance. + +Radio-active substances are stores of energy, some of which is +constantly escaping from them; they are constantly changing without +external compulsion, and are constantly radiating energy: all +explosives are storehouses of energy which, or part of which, can be +obtained from them; but the liberation of their energy must be started +by some kind of external shock. When an explosive substance has +exploded, its existence as an explosive is finished; the products of +the explosion are substances from which energy cannot be obtained: +when a radio-active substance has exploded, it explodes again, and +again, and again; a time comes, sooner or later, when it has changed +into substances that are useless as sources of energy. The +disintegration of an explosive, started by an external force, is +generally completed in a fraction of a second; change of condition +changes the rate of explosion: the "half-life period" of each +radio-active substance is a constant characteristic of it; if a gram +of radium were kept for about 1800 years, half of it would have +changed into radio-inactive substances. Conditions may be arranged so +that an explosive remains unchanged--wet gun-cotton is not exploded by +a shock which would start the explosion of dry gun-cotton--in other +words, the explosion of an explosive can be regulated: the explosive +changes of a radio-active substance, which are accompanied by the +radiation of energy, cannot be regulated; they proceed spontaneously +in a regular and definable manner which is not influenced by any +external conditions--such as great change of temperature, presence or +absence of other substances--so far as these conditions have been made +the subject of experiment: the amount of activity of a radio-active +substance has not been increased or diminished by any process to which +the substance has been subjected. Explosives are manufactured +articles; explosiveness is a property of certain arrangements of +certain quantities of certain elements: so far as experiments have +gone, it has not been found possible to add the property of +radio-activity to an inactive substance, or to remove the property of +radio-activity from an active substance; the cessation of the +radio-activity of an active substance is accompanied by the +disappearance of the substance, and the production of inactive bodies +altogether unlike the original active body. + +Radio-active substances are constantly giving off energy in the form +of heat, sending forth _rays_ which have definite and remarkable +properties, and producing gaseous _emanations_ which are very +unstable, and change, some very rapidly, some less rapidly, into other +substances, and emit _rays_ which are generally the same as the rays +emitted by the parent substance. In briefly considering these three +phenomena, I shall choose radium compounds as representative of the +class of radio-active substances. + +Radium compounds spontaneously give off energy in the form of heat. A +quantity of radium chloride which contains 1 gram of radium +continuously gives out, per hour, a quantity of heat sufficient to +raise the temperature of 1 gram of water through 100° C., or 100 grams +of water through 1° C. The heat given out by 1 gram of radium during +twenty-four hours would raise the temperature of 2400 grams of water +through 1° C.; in one year the temperature of 876,000 grams of water +would be raised through 1° C.; and in 1800 years, which is +approximately the half-life period of radium, the temperature of +1,576,800 _kilograms_ of water would be raised through 1° C. These +results may be expressed by saying that if 1 gram (about 15 grains) of +radium were kept until half of it had changed into inactive +substances, and if the heat spontaneously produced during the changes +which occurred were caused to act on water, that quantity of heat +would raise the temperature of about 15½ tons of water from its +freezing- to its boiling-point. + +Radium compounds send forth three kinds of rays, distinguished as +_alpha_, _beta_, and _gamma_ rays. Experiments have made it extremely +probable that the [alpha]-rays are streams of very minute particles, +somewhat heavier than atoms of hydrogen, moving at the rate of about +18,000 miles per second; and that the [beta]-rays are streams of much +more minute particles, the mass of each of which is about one +one-thousandth of the mass of an atom of hydrogen, moving about ten +times more rapidly than the [alpha]-particles, that is, moving at the +rate of about 180,000 miles per second. The [gamma]-rays are probably +pulsations of the ether, the medium supposed to fill space. The +emission of [alpha]-rays by radium is accompanied by the production of +the inert elementary gas, helium; therefore, the [alpha]-rays are, or +quickly change into, rapidly moving particles of helium. The particles +which constitute the [beta]-rays carry electric charges; these +electrified particles, each approximately a thousand times lighter +than an atom of hydrogen, moving nearly as rapidly as the pulsations +of the ether which we call light, are named _electrons_. The rays from +radium compounds discharge electrified bodies, ionise gases, that is, +cause them to conduct electricity, act on photographic plates, and +produce profound changes in living organisms. + +The radium emanation is a gas about 111 times heavier than hydrogen; +to this gas Sir William Ramsay has given the name _niton_. The gas has +been condensed to a colourless liquid, and frozen to an opaque solid +which glows like a minute arc-light. Radium emanation gives off +[alpha]-particles, that is, very rapidly moving atoms of helium, and +deposits exceedingly minute quantities of a solid, radio-active +substance known as radium A. The change of the emanation into helium +and radium A proceeds fairly rapidly: the half-life period of the +emanation is a little less than four days. This change is attended by +the liberation of much energy. + +The only satisfactory mental picture which the facts allow us to form, +at present, of the emission of [beta]-rays from radium compounds is +that which represents these rays as streams of electrons, that is, +particles, each about a thousand times lighter than an atom of +hydrogen, each carrying an electric charge, and moving at the rate of +about 180,000 miles per second, that is, nearly as rapidly as light. +When an electric discharge is passed from a plate of metal, arranged +as the kathode, to a metallic wire arranged as the anode, both sealed +through the walls of a glass tube or bulb from which almost the whole +of the air has been extracted, rays proceed from the kathode, in a +direction at right angles thereto, and, striking the glass in the +neighbourhood of the anode, produce a green phosphorescence. Facts +have been gradually accumulated which force us to think of these +_kathode rays_ as streams of very rapidly moving electrons, that is, +as streams of extraordinarily minute electrically charged particles +identical with the particles which form the [beta]-rays emitted by +compounds of radium. + +The phenomena of radio-activity, and also the phenomena of the kathode +rays, have obliged us to refine our machinery of minute particles by +including therein particles at least a thousand times lighter than +atoms of hydrogen. The term _electron_ was suggested, a good many +years ago, by Dr Johnstone Stoney, for the unit charge of electricity +which is carried by an atom of hydrogen when hydrogen atoms move in a +liquid or gas under the directing influence of the electric current. +Some chemists speak of the electrons, which are the [beta]-rays from +radium, and the kathode rays produced in almost vacuous tubes, as +non-material particles of electricity. Non-material means devoid of +mass. The method by which approximate determinations have been made of +the charges on electrons consists in measuring the ratio between the +charges and the masses of these particles. If the results of the +determinations are accepted, electrons are not devoid of mass. +Electrons must be thought of as material particles differing from +other minute material particles in the extraordinary smallness of +their masses, in the identity of their properties, including their +mass, in their always carrying electric charges, and in the vast +velocity of their motion. We must think of an electron either as a +unit charge of electricity one property of which is its minute mass, +or as a material particle having an extremely small mass and carrying +a unit charge of electricity: the two mental pictures are almost, if +not quite, identical. + +Electrons are produced by sending an electric discharge through a +glass bulb containing a minute quantity of air or other gas, using +metallic plates or wires as kathode and anode. Experiments have shown +that the electrons are identical in all their properties, whatever +metal is used to form the kathode and anode, and of whatever gas there +is a minute quantity in the bulb. The conclusion must be drawn that +identical electrons are constituents of, or are produced from, very +different kinds of chemical elements. As the facts about kathode rays, +and the facts of radio-activity are (at present) inexplicable except +on the supposition that these phenomena are exhibited by particles of +extraordinary minuteness, and as the smallest particles with which +chemists are concerned in their everyday work are the atoms of the +elements, we seem obliged to think of many kinds of atoms as +structures, not as homogeneous bodies. We seem obliged to think of +atoms as very minute material particles, which either normally are, or +under definite conditions may be, associated with electrically charged +particles very much lighter than themselves, all of which are +identical, whatever be the atoms with which they are associated or +from which they are produced. + +In their study of different kinds of matter, chemists have found it +very helpful to place in one class those substances which they have +not been able to separate into unlike parts. They have distinguished +this class of substances from other substances, and have named them +_elements_. The expression _chemical elements_ is merely a summary of +certain observed facts. For many centuries chemists have worked with a +conceptual machinery based on the notion that matter has a grained +structure. For more than a hundred years they have been accustomed to +think of atoms as the ultimate particles with which they have had to +deal. Working with this order-producing instrument, they have regarded +the properties of elements as properties of the atoms, or of groups of +a few of the atoms, of these substances. That they might think clearly +and suggestively about the properties of elements, and connect these +with other chemical facts, they have translated the language of +sense-perceptions into the language of thought, and, for _properties +of those substances which have not been decomposed_, have used the +more fertile expression _atomic properties_. When a chemist thinks of +an atom, he thinks of the minutest particle of one of the substances +which have the class-mark _have-not-been-decomposed_, and the +class-name _element_. The chemist does not call these substances +elements because he has been forced to regard the minute particles of +them as undivided, much less because he thinks of these particles as +indivisible; his mental picture of their structure as an atomic +structure formed itself from the fact that they had not been +decomposed. The formation of the class _element_ followed necessarily +from observed facts, and has been justified by the usefulness of it as +an instrument for forwarding accurate knowledge. The conception of the +elementary atom as a particle which had not been decomposed followed +from many observed facts besides those concerning elements, and has +been justified by the usefulness of it as an instrument for forwarding +accurate knowledge. Investigations proved radio-activity to be a +property of the very minute particles of certain substances, and each +radio-active substance to have characteristic properties, among which +were certain of those that belong to elements, and to some extent are +characteristic of elements. Evidently, the simplest way for a chemist +to think about radio-activity was to think of it as an atomic +property; hence, as atomic properties had always been regarded, in the +last analysis, as properties of elements, it was natural to place the +radio-active substances in the class _elements_, provided that one +forgot for the time that these substances have not the class-mark +_have-not-been-decomposed_. + +As the facts of radio-activity led to the conclusion that some of the +minute particles of radio-active substances are constantly +disintegrating, and as these substances had been labelled _elements_, +it seemed probable, or at least possible, that the other bodies which +chemists have long called elements are not true elements, but are +merely more stable collocations of particles than the substances which +are classed as compounds. As compounds can be changed into certain +other compounds, although not into any other compounds, a way seemed +to be opening which might lead to the transformation of some elements +into some other elements. + +The probability that one element might be changed into another was +increased by the demonstration of the connexions between uranium and +radium. The metal uranium has been classed with the elements since it +was isolated in 1840. In 1896, Becquerel found that compounds of +uranium, and also the metal itself, are radio-active. In the light of +what is now known about radio-activity, it is necessary to suppose +that some of the minute particles of uranium emit particles lighter +than themselves, and change into some substance, or substances, +different from uranium; in other words, it is necessary to suppose +that some particles of uranium are spontaneously disintegrating. +This supposition is confirmed by the fact, experimentally proved, +that uranium emits [alpha]-rays, that is, atoms of helium, and +produces a substance known as uranium X. Uranium X is itself +radio-active; it emits [beta]-rays, that is, it gives off electrons. +Inasmuch as all minerals which contain compounds of uranium contain +compounds of radium also, it is probable that radium is one of the +disintegration-products of uranium. The rate of decay of radium may be +roughly expressed by saying that, if a quantity of radium were kept +for ten thousand years, only about one per cent. of the original +quantity would then remain unchanged. Even if it were assumed that at +a remote time the earth's crust contained considerable quantities of +radium compounds, it is certain that they would have completely +disappeared long ago, had not compounds of radium been reproduced from +other materials. Again, the most likely hypothesis is that compounds +of radium are being produced from compounds of uranium. + +Uranium is a substance which, after being rightly classed with the +elements for more than half a century, because it had not been +separated into unlike parts, must now be classed with the radium-like +substances which disintegrate spontaneously, although it differs from +other radio-active substances in that its rate of change is almost +infinitively slower than that of any of them, except thorium.[12] +Thorium, a very rare metal, is the second of the seventy-five or +eighty elements known when radio-activity was discovered, which has +been found to undergo spontaneous disintegration with the emission of +rays. The rate of change of thorium is considerably slower than that +of uranium.[13] None of the other substances placed in the class of +elements is radio-active. + + [12] The life-period of uranium is probably about eight + thousand million years. + + [13] The life-period of thorium is possibly about forty + thousand million years. + +On p. 192 I said, that when the radio-active substances had been +labelled _elements_, the facts of radio-activity led some chemists to +the conclusion that the other bodies which had for long been called by +this class-name, or at any rate some of these bodies, are perhaps not +true elements, but are merely more stable collocations of particles +than the substances called compounds. It seems to me that this +reasoning rests on an unscientific use of the term _element_; it rests +on giving to that class-name the meaning, _substances asserted to be +undecomposable_. A line of demarcation is drawn between _elements_, +meaning thereby forms of matter said to be undecomposable but probably +capable of separation into unlike parts, and _true elements_, meaning +thereby groups of identical undecomposable particles. If one names the +radio-active substances _elements_, one is placing in this class +substances which are specially characterised by a property the direct +opposite of that the possession of which by other substances was the +reason for the formation of the class. To do this may be ingenious; it +is certainly not scientific. + +Since the time of Lavoisier, since the last decade of the eighteenth +century, careful chemists have meant by an element a substance which +has not been separated into unlike parts, and they have not meant +more than that. The term _element_ has been used by accurate thinkers +as a useful class-mark which connotes a property--the property of not +having been decomposed--common to all substances placed in the class, +and differentiating them from all other substances. Whenever chemists +have thought of elements as the ultimate kinds of matter with which +the physical world is constructed--and they have occasionally so +thought and written--they have fallen into quagmires of confusion. + +Of course, the elements may, some day, be separated into unlike parts. +The facts of radio-activity certainly suggest some kind of inorganic +evolution. Whether the elements are decomposed is to be determined by +experimental inquiry, remembering always that no number of failures to +simplify them will justify the assertion that they cannot be +simplified. Chemistry neither asserts or denies the decomposability of +the elements. At present, we have to recognise the existence of +extremely small quantities, widely distributed in rocks and waters, of +some thirty substances, the minute particles of which are constantly +emitting streams of more minute, identical particles that carry with +them very large quantities of energy, all of which thirty substances +are characterised, and are differentiated from all other classes of +substances wherewith chemistry is concerned, by their spontaneous +mutability, and each is characterised by its special rate of change +and by the nature of the products of its mutations. We have now to +think of the minute particles of two of the seventy-five or eighty +substances which until the other day had not been decomposed, and were +therefore justly called elements, as very slowly emitting streams of +minuter particles and producing characteristic products of their +disintegration. And we have to think of some eighty substances as +particular kinds of matter, at present properly called elements, +because they are characterised, and differentiated from all other +substances, by the fact that none of them has been separated into +unlike parts. + +The study of radio-activity has introduced into chemistry and physics +a new order of minute particles. Dalton made the atom a beacon-light +which revealed to chemists paths that led them to wider and more +accurate knowledge. Avogadro illuminated chemical, and also physical, +ways by his conception of the molecule as a stable, although +separable, group of atoms with particular properties different from +those of the atoms which constituted it. The work of many +investigators has made the old paths clearer, and has shown to +chemists and physicists ways they had not seen before, by forcing them +to think of, and to make use of, a third kind of material particles +that are endowed with the extraordinary property of radio-activity. +Dalton often said: "Thou knowest thou canst not cut an atom"; but the +fact that he applied the term _atom_ to the small particles of +compounds proves that he had escaped the danger of logically defining +the atom, the danger of thinking of it as a particle which never can +be cut. The molecule of Avogadro has always been a decomposable +particle. The peculiarity of the new kind of particles, the particles +of radio-active bodies, is, not that they can be separated into unlike +parts by the action of external forces, but that they are constantly +separating of their own accord into unlike parts, and that their +spontaneous disintegration is accompanied by the production of energy, +the quantity of which is enormous in comparison with the minuteness of +the material specks which are the carriers of it. + +The continued study of the properties of the minute particles of +radio-active substances--a new name is needed for those most mutable +of material grains--must lead to discoveries of great moment for +chemistry and physics. That study has already thrown much light on the +phenomena of electric conductivity; it has given us the electron, a +particle at least a thousand times lighter than an atom of hydrogen; +it has shown us that identical electrons are given off by, or are +separated from, different kinds of elementary atoms, under definable +conditions; it has revealed unlooked-for sources of energy; it has +opened, and begun the elucidation of, a new department of physical +science; it has suggested a new way of attacking the old problem of +the alchemists, the problem of the transmutation of the elements. + +The minute particles of two of the substances for many years classed +as elements give off electrons; uranium and thorium are radio-active. +Electrons are produced by sending an electric discharge through very +small traces of different gases, using electrodes of different metals. +Electrons are also produced by exposing various metals to the action +of ultra-violet light, and by raising the temperature of various +metals to incandescence. Electrons are always identical, whatever be +their source. Three questions suggest themselves. Can the atoms of all +the elements be caused to give off electrons? Are electrons normal +constituents of all elementary atoms? Are elementary atoms +collocations of electrons? These questions are included in the +demand--Is it possible "to imagine a model which has in it the +potentiality of explaining" radio-activity and other allied phenomena, +as well as all other chemical and physical properties of elements and +compounds? These questions are answerable by experimental +investigation, and only by experimental investigation. If experimental +inquiry leads to affirmative answers to the questions, we shall have +to think of atoms as structures of particles much lighter than +themselves; we shall have to think of the atoms of all kinds of +substances, however much the substances differ chemically and +physically, as collocations of identical particles; we shall have to +think of the properties of atoms as conditioned, in our final +analysis, by the number and the arrangement of their constitutive +electrons. Now, if a large probability were established in favour of +the view that different atoms are collocations of different numbers of +identical particles, or of equal numbers of differently arranged +identical particles, we should have a guide which might lead to +methods whereby one collocation of particles could be formed from +another collocation of the same particles, a guide which might lead +to methods whereby one element could be transformed into another +element. + +To attempt "to imagine a model which has in it the potentiality of +explaining" radio-activity, the production of kathode rays, and the +other chemical and physical properties of elements and compounds, +might indeed seem to be a hopeless undertaking. A beginning has been +made in the mental construction of such a model by Professor Sir J.J. +Thomson. To attempt a description of his reasoning and his results is +beyond the scope of this book.[14] + + [14] The subject is discussed in Sir J.J. Thomson's + _Electricity and Matter_. + +The facts that the emanation from radium compounds spontaneously gives +off very large quantities of energy, and that the emanation can easily +be brought into contact with substances on which it is desired to do +work, suggested to Sir William Ramsay that the transformation of +compounds of one element into compounds of another element might +possibly be effected by enclosing a solution of a compound along with +radium emanation in a sealed tube, and leaving the arrangement to +itself. Under these conditions, the molecules of the compound would be +constantly bombarded by a vast number of electrons shot forth at +enormous velocities from the emanation. The notion was that the +molecules of the compound would break down under the bombardment, and +that the atoms so produced might be knocked into simpler groups of +particles--in other words, changed into other atoms--by the terrific, +silent shocks of the electrons fired at them incessantly by the +disintegrating emanation. Sir William Ramsay regards his experimental +results as establishing a large probability in favour of the assertion +that compounds of copper were transformed into compounds of lithium +and sodium, and compounds of thorium, of cerium, and of certain other +rare metals, into compounds of carbon. The experimental evidence in +favour of this statement has not been accepted by chemists as +conclusive. A way has, however, been opened which may lead to +discoveries of great moment. + +Let us suppose that the transformation of one element into another +element or into other elements has been accomplished. Let us suppose +that the conception of elementary atoms as very stable arrangements of +many identical particles, from about a thousand to about a quarter of +a million times lighter than the atoms, has been justified by crucial +experiments. Let us suppose that the conception of the minute grains +of radio-active substances as particular but constantly changing +arrangements of the same identical particles, stable groups of which +are the atoms of the elements, has been firmly established. One result +of the establishment of the electronic conception of atomic structure +would be an increase of our wonder at the complexity of nature's ways, +and an increase of our wonder that it should be possible to substitute +a simple, almost rigid, mechanical machinery for the ever-changing +flow of experience, and, by the use of that mental mechanism, not +only to explain very many phenomena of vast complexity, but also to +predict occurrences of similar entanglement and to verify these +predictions. + +The results which have been obtained in the examination of +radio-activity, of kathode rays, of spectra at different temperatures, +and of phenomena allied to these, bring again into prominence the +ancient problem of the structure of what we call matter. Is matter +fundamentally homogeneous or heterogeneous? Chemistry studies the +relations between the changes of composition and the changes of +properties which happen simultaneously in material systems. The +burning fire of wood, coal, or gas; the preparation of food to excite +and to satisfy the appetite; the change of minerals into the iron, +steel, copper, brass, lead, tin, lighting burning and lubricating +oils, dye-stuffs and drugs of commerce; the change of the skins, wool, +and hair of animals, and of the seeds and fibres of plants, into +clothing for human beings; the manufacture from rags, grass, or wood +of a material fitted to receive and to preserve the symbols of human +hopes, fears, aspirations, love and hate, pity and aversion; the +strange and most delicate processes which, happening without +cessation, in plants and animals and men, maintain that balanced +equilibrium which we call life; and, when the silver cord is being +loosed and the bowl broken at the cistern, the awful changes which +herald the approach of death; not only the growing grass in midsummer +meadows, not only the coming of autumn "in dyed garments, travelling +in the glory of his apparel," but also the opening buds, the pleasant +scents, the tender colours which stir our hearts in "the spring time, +the only pretty ring time, when birds do sing, ding-a--dong-ding": +these, and a thousand other changes have all their aspects which it is +the business of the chemist to investigate. Confronted with so vast a +multitude of never-ceasing changes, and bidden to find order there, if +he can--bidden, rather compelled by that imperious command which +forces the human mind to seek unity in variety, and, if need be, to +create a cosmos from a chaos; no wonder that the early chemists jumped +at the notion that there must be, that there is, some _One Thing_, +some _Universal Essence_, which binds into an orderly whole the +perplexing phenomena of nature, some _Water of Paradise_ which is for +the healing of all disorder, some "Well at the World's End," a draught +whereof shall bring peace and calm security. + +The alchemists set forth on the quest. Their quest was barren. They +made the great mistake of fashioning _The One Thing, The Essence, The +Water of Paradise_, from their own imaginings of what nature ought to +be. In their own likeness they created their goal, and the road to it. +If we are to understand nature, they cried, her ways must be simple; +therefore, her ways are simple. Chemists are people of a humbler +heart. Their reward has been greater than the alchemists dreamed. By +selecting a few instances of material changes, and studying these with +painful care, they have gradually elaborated a general conception of +all those transformations wherein substances are produced unlike those +by the interaction of which they are formed. That general conception +is now both widening and becoming more definite. To-day, chemists see +a way opening before them which they reasonably hope will lead them to +a finer, a more far-reaching, a more suggestive, at once a more +complex and a simpler conception of material changes than any of those +which have guided them in the past. + + + + +INDEX + + +Air, ancient views regarding, 129. + +---- views of Mayow and Rey regarding, 129. + +Alchemical account of changes contrasted with chemical account, 169. + +---- agent, the, 64. + +---- allegories, examples of, 41, 97. + +---- classification, 59. + +---- doctrine of body, soul, and spirit of things, 48. + +---- doctrine of transmutation, 47, 74, 123, 170. + +---- language, 36, 96, 101, 102. + +---- quest of the One Thing, modern form of, 179. + +---- signs, 105. + +---- theory, general sketch of, 26. + +Alchemists, character of, according to Paracelsus, 25. + +---- made many discoveries, 87. + +---- sketches of lives of some, 115. + +---- their use of fanciful analogies, 31. + +Alchemy, beginnings of, 23. + +---- change of, to chemistry, 126. + +---- contrasted with chemistry, 202. + +---- general remarks on, 123. + +---- lent itself to imposture, 106. + +---- object of, 9, 26, 32, 105. + +---- probable origin of word, 25. + +---- quotations to illustrate aims and methods of, 11-14. + +Alembic, 92. + +Apparatus and operations of alchemists, 90. + +Art, the sacred, 122. + +Atom, meaning given to word by Dalton, 173. + +Atomic theory of Greeks, 16. + +---- additions made to, by Dalton, 21. + +---- as described by Lucretius, 19. + +Atomic weight, 174. + +Atoms and electrons, 190, 198. + + +Bacon's remarks on alchemy, 95. + +Balsamo, Joseph, 110. + +Basil Valentine, his description of the three principles, 51. + +---- his description of the four elements, 49. + +---- some of his discoveries, 88. + +Becquerel, his discovery of radiation of uranium, 181. + +Body, soul, and spirit of things, alchemical doctrine of, 48. + +Boyle, on calcination, 128. + +---- on combustion, 141. + +---- on elements, 161. + +---- on the "hermetick philosophers," 95. + +---- on the language of the alchemists, 55. + +---- on the natural state of bodies, 43. + + +Cagliostro, 110. + +Calcination, 129, 132, 135, 140, 142, 151, 155. + +Chaucer's _Canon's Yeoman's Tale_, 107. + +Chemical conception of material changes, 177. + +Chemistry, aim of, 9, 26, 160. + +---- change from alchemy to, 126. + +---- methods of, 10. + +---- probable origin of word, 24. + +Classification, alchemical methods of, 59. + +Colours, Lucretius' explanation of differences between, 18. + +Combustion, 141. + +Compounds, chemical conception of, 171. + +Conservation of mass, 164. + +Curie, her discovery of radium, 182. + + +Dalton's additions to the Greek atomic theory, 21, 172. + +Democritus, his saying about atoms, 15. + +Dephlogisticated air, 147. + +Destruction, thought by alchemists to precede restoration, 65, 127. + + +Electrons, 187-189, 197, 198. + +Elements, alchemical, contrasted with chemical, 165; + radio-active substances contrasted with, 190-192. + +---- the alchemical, 49, 54, 60. + +---- the chemical, 61, 62, 161. + +---- use of word, by phlogisteans, 133. + +Essence, the alchemical, 32, 35, 49, 58, 72. + + +Fire, different meanings of the word, 53. + + +Gates, the alchemical, 69. + +Gold, considered by alchemists to be the most perfect metal, 40, 45. + +Greek thinkers, their atomic theory, 15. + + +Hermes Trismegistus, 37. + + +Kathode rays, 188. + + +Language of alchemy, 96. + +---- purposely made misleading, 36. + +Lavoisier on calcination, 153, 155. + +---- his use of word _element_, 194. + +---- his use of word _principle_, 163, _note_. + +---- on object of chemistry, 160. + +---- on oxygen, 155. + +---- on systems in science, 163. + +---- on the principle of acidity, 59, 155. + +---- on the reactions of metals with acids, 158. + +---- on the transmutation of water to earth, 152. + +Lockyer, on spectra of elements, 181. + +Lucretius, his theory of nature, 16. + + +Magic, characteristics of, 23, 24. + +Material changes, Greek theory of, 15. + +Metals, alchemical connexion between, and plants, 34. + +---- compared by alchemists with vegetables, 33. + +---- mortification of, 65. + +---- seed of, 34. + +---- their desire to become gold, 40. + +---- transmutation of, 33, 39, 46. + + +Natural state of bodies, 39, 43. + + +Oxygen, 144, 145. + + +Paracelsus, his description of alchemists, 25. + +---- his distinction between natural and artificial mortification, 65. + +---- sketch of life of, 117. + +Pelican, 92. + +Perfection, alchemical teaching regarding, 27, 40. + +Phlogistic theory, 133, 139. + +Phlogiston, 126, 130, 137. + +Priestley, his discovery of oxygen, 144. + +Principles, the alchemical, 49, 51, 54, 60, 133. + +---- Lavoisier's use of the word, 163, _note_. + + +Radio-active substances, are they elements? 191, 194, 195; + properties of, 185-187. + +Radio-activity, characteristics of, 183, 184; + of radium, 186; + of thorium, 193; + of uranium, 193. + +Radium, emanation of, 187; + heat from, 186; + rays from, 186. + +Ramsay, on transmutation of elements, 199. + +Regimens, the alchemical, 72. + + +Sacred art, the, 122. + +Scientific theories, general characters of, 21, 150. + +Seed, alchemical doctrine of, 56. + +Seeds of metals, 34. + +Simplicity, asserted by alchemists to be the mark of nature, 28, 38. + +---- is not necessarily the mark of verity, 138. + +Solids, liquids, and gases, atomic explanation of, 19. + +Stahl, his phlogistic theory, 130. + +Stone, the philosopher's, 32, 35, 49, 58, 72. + + +Thorium, radio-activity of, 183, 193. + +Transmutation, alchemical doctrine of, 47, 74, 123. + +---- character of him who would attempt, 63. + +---- of metals, 33, 39, 46, 74. + +---- of metals into gold, alchemical account of, 75. + +---- of water to earth, 151. + +Transmutations, apparent examples of, 82. + + +Uranium, radio-activity of, 183, 192; + relation of, to radium, 192, 193. + + +Vegetables compared with metals by alchemists, 33. + + +Water contains hydrogen and oxygen, examination of this phrase, 167. + +Water, different meanings of the word, 53, 167. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14218 *** |