CHEMISTRY AND ITS DEVELOPMENT 203 



visionaries that formed themselves into Rosier ucian societies 

 and other secret associations. It was also in connection 

 with this mock alchemy, mixed up astrology and magic, 

 that quackery and imposture so abounded, as is depicted 

 by Scott in the character of Dousterswivel in the Anti- 

 quart/. Designing knaves would, for instance, make up 

 large nails, some of iron and some of gold, and lacquer 

 them so that they appeared to be common nails, and when 

 their credulous and avaricious dupes saw them extract from 

 what seemed to be plain iron an ingot of gold, they were 

 ready to advance any sum that the knaves pretended to be 

 necessary for applying the process on a large scale. It is 

 from this degenerate and effete school that the prevailing 

 notion of alchemy is derived a notion that is unjust to 

 the really meritorious alchemists who paved the way for 

 the modern science of chemistry. 



Priestley, Lavoisier and Scheele by the use of the balance 

 tested the results of alchemy, and hence the fundamental 

 ideas of modern chemistry were born; but the work had 

 already been begun by men of genius, such as Robert 

 Boyle, Bergmann and others. It is interesting to observe 

 that the doctrine of the transmut ability of metals a doc- 

 trine which it was at one time thought that modern chem- 

 istry had utterly exploded receives not a little counte- 

 nance from a variety of facts every day coming to light ; not 

 to speak of the periodic law of the elements, which, while 

 separating the elements as a class from all other chemical 

 substances, seems to indicate the existence of unknown 

 relations between the elements themselves. 1 



ir Tlie literature of alchemy is enormous. Those who desire to read 

 more about it may consult the following works: H. Kopp, Die 

 Alchemie in dlterer und neurer Zeit (1886), see a review of it in this 

 volume; J. von Liebig, Familiar Letters on Chemistry (London, 

 1851) ; F. Hofer, Histoire de la CMmie (Paris, 1869) ; M. Berthelot, 

 Les Origines de I'Alchimie (Paris, 1885); etc. 



