A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



came the basis of the sect known as the Rosicrucians. 

 The name was derived from the teaching of a German 

 philosopher, Rosenkreutz, who, having been healed of 

 a dangerous illness by an Arabian supposed to possess 

 the philosopher's stone, returned home and gathered 

 about him a chosen band of friends, to whom he im- 

 parted the secret. This sect came rapidly into promi- 

 nence, and for a short time at least created a sensation 

 in Europe, and at the time were credited with having 

 "refined and spiritualized" alchemy. But by the end 

 of the seventeenth century their number had dwindled 

 to a mere handful, and henceforth they exerted little 

 influence. 



Another and earlier religious sect was the Aurea- 

 crucians, founded by Jacob Bohme, a shoemaker, born 

 in Prussia in 1575. According to his teachings the 

 philosopher's stone could be discovered by a diligent 

 search of the Old and the New Testaments, and more 

 particularly the Apocalypse, which contained all the 

 secrets of alchemy. This sect found quite a number 

 of followers during the life of Bohme, but gradually 

 died out after his death ; not, however, until many of its 

 members had been tortured for heresy, and one at 

 least, Kuhlmann, of Moscow, burned as a sorcerer. 



The names of the different substances that at various 

 times were thought to contain the large quantities of 

 the "essence" during the many centuries of searching 

 for it, form a list of practically all substances that were 

 known, discovered, or invented during the period. 

 Some believed that acids contained the substance; 

 others sought it in minerals or in animal or vegetable 

 products; while still others looked to find it among 



136 



