672 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to officially order an investigation, by three of the mint experts, of 

 a process of transmutation, or " creation," of gold which is singu- 

 larly similar to the old alchemists' plan. 



Basil- Valentine concealed his secret from the common people 

 in the following mystic words : " The king's diadem is made of 

 pure gold, and a chaste bride must be married unto him, where- 

 fore, if ye will work on our bodies take the most ravenous gray 

 wolf, which, by reason of his name, is subject to valorous Mars, 

 but by the genesis of his nativity he is subject to old Saturn ; 

 found in mountains and in valleys of the world ; he is very hun- 

 gry ; cast into him the king's body that he may be nourished by 

 it ; when he hath devoured the king make a great fire, into which 

 cast the wolf that he be quite burned, then will the king be at 

 liberty. When ye have done this thrice, then hath the king over- 

 come the wolf, neither can he find any more of him to feed upon." 



The mysterious language adopted by the alchemists was not 

 always owing to an intention to deceive ; many of these fanatics 

 believed that it was wicked to reveal the hidden secrets of Nature 

 to the common people, and might even cause the death of the 

 author. Thus, Wilhelm von Schroeder, in 1684, wrote a book en- 

 titled Necessary Instructions in the Art of Gold Making, in which 

 he says : " When philosophers speak openly, a deceit lies behind 

 their words ; while when they speak enigmatically, they may be 

 depended upon." 



Reverting to the enigmatical formula of Basil-Valentine, it is 

 said that the key to this mysterious jargon gives the following 

 simple explanation : The ravenous gray wolf is the sulphuret of 

 antimony. The king's body typifies the metal gold. The sul- 

 phuret of antimony is decomposed by iron by the aid of heat, and 

 is thus " subject to valorous Mars." When these elements (anti- 

 mony, sulphur, and iron) are subjected to a great fire in a crucible, 

 the king (gold) imprisoned in the wolf (antimony) is liberated.* 



The modern process which the three mint experts were called 

 upon to investigate, and upon which they have reported nega- 

 tively, was at first shrouded in secrecy ; but the inventor himself 

 has recently given to the public his formula, in a newspaper in- 

 terview, which one of the experts stated at a meeting of the 

 Franklin Institute is substantially correct. His process consists 



* In 1423 Henry VI of England issued a royal proclamation encouraging the art of gold 

 making, and in 1476 Edward IV accorded to a company "a four years' privilege of making 

 gold from quicksilver." The Danish ducats of 1647 were made of gold obtained, as it was 

 believed, from artificial sources, by Caspar Harbach, the alchemist of Christian IV. In 

 1648 a large medal was struck for Emperor Ferdinand II from " artificially prepared gold," 

 and the ducats struck under Landgrave Ernest Lewis, of Hesse-Darmstadt, were supposed 

 to be of artificial gold prepared by the transmutation of lead. In 1700 an alchemical work 

 appeared bearing the appropriate title Chymical Moonshine. 



