TWO PSEUDO-SCIENCES 



the distilled "spirits" the alcoholic liquors and dis- 

 tilled products. On the introduction of alcohol by 

 the Arabs that substance became of all-absorbing in- 

 terest, and for a long time allured the alchemist into 

 believing that through it they were soon to be reward- 

 ed. They rectified and refined it until "sometimes it 

 was so strong that it broke the vessels containing it," 

 but still it failed in its magic power. Later, brandy 

 was substituted for it, and this in turn discarded for 

 more recent discoveries. 



There were always, of course, two classes of alche- 

 mists : serious investigators whose honesty could not be 

 questioned, and clever impostors whose legerdemain 

 was probably largely responsible for the extended be- 

 lief in the existence of the philosopher's stone. Some- 

 times an alchemist practised both, using the profits 

 of his sleight-of-hand to procure the means of carrying 

 on his serious alchemical researches. The impostures 

 of some of these jugglers deceived even the most in- 

 telligent and learned men of the time, and so kept the 

 flame of hope constantly burning. The age of cold 

 investigation had not arrived, and it is easy to under- 

 stand how an unscrupulous mediaeval Hermann or 

 Kellar might completely deceive even the most intel- 

 ligent and thoughtful scholars. In scoffing at the 

 credulity of such an age, it should not be forgotten 

 that the "Keely motor" was a late nineteenth-century 

 illusion. 



But long before the belief in the philosopher's stone 

 had died out, the methods of the legerdemain alchemist 

 had been investigated and reported upon officially by 

 bodies of men appointed to make such investigations, 



