24 PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 
It may be remarked incidentally that the term ‘“ Phil- 
osopher’s Stone” does not occur until the seventh century, 
although the idea is much older. 
The pretended translations from Arabic treatises into 
Latin often contain references, to give them an air of 
authority, to mythical persons, and these, by later writers, 
are taken without verification, hence faith in the works of 
Morien, Kalid, Zadith, and others, must be relinquished. 
Jabir, or Geber, was the chief of the Arabic alchemists, 
and is said with Oriental exaggeration to have been the 
author of 500 treatises (six of these are collected and trans- 
lated) ; he had knowledge of the hydrostatic balance, and 
of many minerals, which he ingeniously classified; but he 
makes no mention of the mineral acids, of silver nitrate, 
and other chemicals with which he was supposed to be 
acquainted. 
In his “‘ Book of Mercy” he cynically says, “I saw that 
persons engaged in attempts to manufacture gold and silver 
were working ignorantly, and by wrong methods. I then 
perceived that they were divided into two classes—the 
dupers and the duped. I had pity for both of them.” 
In connection with the foregoing, it may not be amiss 
to refer to the account which Dr. Carrington Bolton gives 
of two American cases of modern alchemy, for it certainly 
‘shows in the latter of the two cases that similar ignorance 
still exists, as in Greek and in medieval times. 
In 1896, Dr. Stephen H. Emmens claimed to have con- 
verted silver into gold, and still claims to be able to make 
the conversion, mainly by ‘the combined effect of impact 
and a very low temperature,” and he states that from 1 
oz. of silver he can obtain $ oz. of gold, by which he makes 
a profit of about 38 dollars, or 12s. wpon each oz. of silver 
employed ; but, as the process is secret, there is no means 
of verifying his statements, which have been running the 
round of newspapers throughout the world. 
