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."