writer,

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 chan

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s theory of transmutation? In answering this question, I cannot do better than

ents conducted in the laboratory of a Grand Mas

sel; the water is changed to a vapour which disappe

r is changed int

lution, and that boiling water acts on the vessel wherein it is bo

re that the transmutation of the

er, held over a basin containing water; the volume of the water decreases, a

ater is chang

composed of two gaseous substances; that one of these (oxygen) is absorbed by the iron, and the

nd 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

n destroyed is revivified by the gr

form the miracle o

and the reduction of oxides by means of carbon, or organic substances rich in carbon, such as sugar, flour,

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ders or powdered bones; the lead is changed to a cinder whic

nclusion that it has been transformed into silver? It was not kn

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his fact gave rise to many allegories and enigmas co

ubstances, was looked on as a very mysterious thing. It was with su

hur; a black substance is produced; this black substance is heated in a c

es are identical, if one did not know that they are composed o

ination of the chemists of ancient times, always so rea

the union of these two principles represented the moral order. At a later time the idea helped

istillation-apparatus; the products are, in each case, a solid residu

ld. The solid residue represented earth; the liquid products of the distillation, water; and the spirituous substances, a

st disappears, giving place to a green liquid, as transparent as water. A thin she

nclude that the iron has be

of copper, one would have said that the iro

fects it after its own kind," the alchemists necessarily made many inventions, laid the foundation

belonging to applied chemistry; witness, their jewellery, pottery, dyes and pigments, bleaching, glass-making, wor

t of painting and staining glass was begun and carried to perfection, paper was made from rags, practical metallurgy advanced by leaps and bounds,

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thods, 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

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of apparatus, and conducted many operations, which are still employed in chemical laboratories. I shall reproduce illustrations of some of these processes a

Fig. VI. p. 80. The neck of the vessel is surrounded by a tray containing burning coals; when t

ight, with a receptacle into which a substance may be sublimed from the

dvice for conducting distillations of various kinds. Th

erein there are glasses let it be hot, or else

sel from the fire, expose it not to the col

ad, and vary not a little from them, for sometimes a small mistake or

eat difficulty; for it will be a great discouragem

ed in the manual operation of things; for by this means he will learn more in two months, than he can by his practice a

alled 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 k

ling the volatile products; the lower vessel is an alembic, with a long n

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a liquid might be heated for a long time, and the volati

represents a reto

lces (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, a

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under a hood fitted with a side tube for the outflow of

rse 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 b

y) 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 gre

in De Augment

re they by digging found no gold, but by turning up the mould about the roots of the vines, procured a plentiful vinta