450 Mr. J. Taylor's Lectures on Metallurgy. 



intervals to pursue the glittering phantom. The labours of 

 some alchemists were excessive, and their patience almost be- 

 yond belief: experiments were continued for months and even 

 years, and their repetitions of digestions, sublimations and 

 distillations were almost without end. They supposed that 

 there might be two methods to make gold, — by synthesis or 

 composition, and by transmutation. For the first they la- 

 boured to find out the elements of the metals, which they ima- 

 gined would be some metallic earth, and some essence or spirit 

 which they chose to call sulphur. They held a wonderful 

 opinion of what might be discovered in m.ercurj', which seemed 

 to them likely to possess hidden qualities analogous to what 

 they hoped to find from its volatility, and as they thought spi- 

 ritual nature. 



Another set directed their efforts to the attempt at chan- 

 ging the baser metals into gold, and made their experiments 

 mostly for this piu'pose on lead and copper, attracted, pro- 

 bably, by the weight of the one and the colour of the other. 

 To effect this transmutation, they imagined that it was only 

 necessary to discover the true elixir, or medicine of metals, 

 the tincture, the powder of projection, or philosopher's stone, — 

 for by such names were their preparations called, — which they 

 imagined would puige away the impurities which only caused 

 the differences between the inferior metals and the perfect ones. 

 In all this there may perhaps be less absurdity than has 

 been urged ; the discoveries of modern chemistry have been 

 as wonderful, and might have seemed as improbable, in a 

 former state of knowledge; nor can we be surprised, when 

 they observed, for instance, that lead almost always contains 

 a certain portion of silver, and that all metals were capable of 

 improvement by refining processes, that such expectations 

 were excited. At any rate it is admitted, that from the la- 

 bours of many of these men great progress was made in che- 

 mical research, which was useful in many respects, and par- 

 ticularly enlarged the skill and experience of the metallur- 

 gists, as may be seen in the instance of Agricola, whom I have 

 mentioned. 



Another class of alchemists directed their laboui's to find an 

 elixir of life, by which all disease was to be removed from the 

 human frame, and existence prolonged to an indefinite period : 

 but this subject oiily merits notice here as it is connected with 

 the introduction of metallic preparations into mediciiie, which 

 is another benefit we have derived from these absurd specu- 

 lations. Paracelsus and Van Helmont v.ere the great authors 

 of this branch of the art. 



With 



