816 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



" silver," some of the pieces of which were described by De Planis 

 Campy as still existing in 1633. They bore his name and the 

 three hearts of his arms. 



Monconis * tells of a merchant of Lubeck who transformed 

 lead into a hundred " gold " livres in the presence of Gustavus 

 Adolphus, King of Sweden ; and who furnished the gold from 

 which ducats were coined, bearing on one side the figure of the 

 prince, and on the other side his arms, associated with alchemic 

 symbols, in recollection of the origin of the metal. The merchant 

 died some years afterward, leaving an enormous fortune, although 

 his trade had been insignificant. 



Christian IV of Denmark, in 1646, appointed as " alchemist to 

 the king " Gaspar Harbach, who made him some " gold," from 

 which were coined medals bearing the inscription " Vide mira Do- 

 mini (' Behold the wonders of the Lord'), 1647," beneath the sign 

 O O, designating mercury. 



An Austrian named Richtausen, in 1648, received as a bequest 

 from one of his friends a casket containing precipitating powder ; 

 with a grain of this powder, the Count de Riitz, director of the 

 mines of the empire at Prague, in the presence of the Emperor 

 Ferdinand III and the absence of Richtausen, transformed three 

 livres or six marks of mercury into five marks of " gold." Rodolph 

 had struck in this " gold " a medal which still existed in the Treas- 

 ury at Vienna in 1797. It represents the god of the sun carrying 

 the caduceus and having wings on his feet all by way of reminder 

 of the formation of "gold" by the aid of mercury, f In 1650 the 

 emperor made a second precipitation at Prague, from lead ; and 

 the medal struck on this occasion bore the inscription " Aurea 

 progenies plumbo prognata parente " ( " Golden progeny of a lead 

 parent "). This medal was still shown in the last century, in the 

 collection of the Chateau d'Ambras (Tyrol). Richtausen received 

 for his discovery the characteristic title of Baron of Chaos. 



General Paykhul, in 1706, made for King Charles XII of Swe- 

 den, with lead and a few grains of his powder, under the sur- 

 veillance of artillery-general Hamilton and the chemist Hieme, a 

 mass of "gold" sufficient for the coinage of one hundred and 

 forty-seven ducats ; a commemorative medal, struck on the occa- 

 sion, from the same " gold," weighed two ducats and bore the in- 

 scription "Hoc aurum arte cliimica conflavit Uolmice- 1706, O. A. 

 V. Paikhull " (" This gold O. A. V. Paikhull produced by chemi- 

 cal art at Holm in 1706 "). 



* " Voyage d'Allemagne." 



f Arsenic (to apcreviniv, the male) was one of the first substances tried for the purpose 

 of transmutation. Its vapors whitened copper (which was considered a female element, 

 was dedicated to Venus, and was represented by the sign s ), forming an arseniuret ; and 

 this change was for a long time regarded as the beginning of transmutation. 



