L ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



stances of this neglect of verification. We meet also an exemplification 

 of the epigram that it is the unexpected that happens. 



Who could have expected that this advance would have brought us 

 again to the old and apparently dead question of alchemy? The name 

 and (the subject had been both handed over long ago to the romancisU, 

 as a legitimate province in which they might work their magic, by in- 

 troducing Hermes Trismegistus, and the Philosopher's Stone, and the 

 " Adepts ", as for example the '• Adept " depicted by Scott in " Kenil- 

 worth." 



Sixteen centuries back, tlje Eoman Emperor Diocletian commanded 

 that all books on Alchemy should be burnt; but he did not thereby kill 

 out man^s greed for gain, or spirit of inquiry. Unbroken ill-success for 

 many ages, however, produced the natural efEect of despair. The his- 

 tcrian Gibbon commenting on the fact says, " Philosophy with the aid 

 " of experience, has at length banished the study." In this he expressed 

 the general opinion that prevailed for more than a century. 



A similar opinion was otherwise indicated by a comparatively recent 

 writer, when, referring to the famous Friar Bacon, who lived nearly 

 seven centuries from the present time, he said " Notwithstanding the 

 " great learning and scientific acquirements of Bacon he was deeply im- 

 '•'bued with the mystery of Alchemy: this is the more remarkable, 

 " because he exposes the absurdity of believing in magic, necromancy or 

 " charms." The vtriter classes alchemy among the " absurdities." The 

 reputation of the celebrated friar will, however, be increased, to-day, in- 

 stead of lessened by his differing opinion. 



The prevailing opinion was not universal. One of the problems of 

 the Alchemists was the transmutation of the baser metals into gold, and 

 we know that l>oth Boyle and JSTewton believed that this was attainable. 



Boyle made experiments, one of which by its apparent approximation 

 t> success so alarmed Newton that he advised concealment. This may 

 have been because of a statute of Henry IV, which forbade " the multi- 

 plying of gold and silver." Certain it is that not long before his death 

 Boyle procured the repeal of the statute in order to remove an obstacle 

 from the path of others. Newton himself continued his experiments to 

 a late period of his life. When he was a young man, about 26 years oi 

 age, he Avrote to a young friend of his own, who was going to the Con- 

 tinent, and asked him particularly to make observations on mines and 

 mining, and " the extracting of metals or minerals out of their ores," 

 to learn if there were any transmutation out of one species into another, 

 such transmutations, he adds, being " the most luciferous and many 

 " times lucriferous experiments, too, in philosophy." 



