14 ESSAYS BIOGRAPHICAL AND CHEMICAL 



quest. The possibility of transmutation has always been 

 associated with speculations concerning the unity of 

 matter. And although there is little evidence as yet to 

 justify the supposition that all substances are ultimately 

 composed of matter of one kind, still the history of our 

 science contains many accounts of attempts to effect 

 transmutation. One such attempt, in modern times, was 

 made by Dr. Samuel Brown, who claimed to have obtained 

 silicon from paracyanogen, a compound consisting of car- 

 bon and nitrogen alone; but subsequent workers failed 

 to substantiate his results. There is, however, no ques- 

 tion as regards the honesty of Dr. Brown's work; the 

 only conclusion is that he must have omitted to take 

 sufficient precautions against contamination of his carbon 

 compounds with silicon. There exist at present in France 

 also secret societies, with such titles as 'L'Ordre de la 

 Rose-Croix,' and ' L' Association alchimique de France,' 

 the latter the successor of one named 'La Societe Her- 

 metique.' One of the latest of their 'researches' was 

 carried out by ' Maitre ' Theodore Tiffereau ; he professed 

 in 1896 to have obtained compounds of carbon ether 

 and acetic acid from the metal aluminium, sealed up 

 with nitric acid in a glass tube, and exposed to the sun's 

 rays for two months. But the attempt to transmute 

 baser materials into gold still holds the field. August 

 Strindberg claims to have produced ' incomplete ' gold 

 from ferrous ammonium sulphate ; and still more recently 

 Emmens, who, however, disclaims the name of alchemist, 

 states that he has converted Mexican silver dollars into 

 gold, or more correctly, increased the small amount of 

 gold actually present in such coins, by hammering the 

 metal exposed to an extremely low temperature. There 

 is reason to suspect the existence of an element which 

 should resemble both gold and silver ; Emmens pro- 

 fesses to have made this element, which he names 



