PLANTS, AND INANIMATE MATTER. 91 



mixture. He uses three words in a technical sense, auv^sai^, 

 /"("lif, and xpoiaiq. According to Aristotle's explanation of 

 these words, they respectively mean a mechanical mixture, 

 a compounding of solid bodies so as to produce a body abso- 

 lutely uniform in composition (the solid bodies having been 

 so blended that not even the smallest particle of any of them 

 can be detected), and a compounding of fluids in the same 

 way. He says that, since bodies cannot be divided into 

 indivisible particles, and synthesis and mixis are different, 

 we ought not to say that in mixis the small particles of the 

 mixed bodies preserve their individuality, for the result of 

 the mixis is a homoeomerion. Nothing of this kind would 

 result, he says, from a mixture of indivisible particles, for, if 

 it were possible to examine the mixture with the eye of 

 Lynceus, it would be seen that the mixture was not a mixis, 

 although it might seem to be so to one with ordinary sight.* 

 Aristotle, therefore, had some ideas of what is now 

 called chemical combination, but he held that his elements 

 combined in every conceivable proportion ; his compounds 

 were more like some alloys than chemical compounds. Be- 

 lieving that all bodies were formed from four elements, 

 and that these elements were capable of combining in all 

 proportions, it is not surprising that the alchemists, who 

 were greatly influenced by Aristotle, persisted so long in 

 their efforts to transmute the baser metals into gold.t That 

 Aristotle's ideas were very crude may be seen from the 

 following examples, the first of which is taken from his own 

 writings. In the production of bronze there is usually a 

 rather large loss of tin by oxidation and vaporization, but 

 the rest of the tin alloys with the copper with the production 

 of a bronze which is much harder and of a lighter colour 

 than the copper. According to Aristotle, the tin nearly 

 vanishes during the production of the alloy, its effect being 

 merely to modify the colour of the alloy, because the copper 



-i= De Gener. et Corr. i. c. 10, 328a. 



f Researches on the transmutation of certain elements into other 

 elements have been made durinjj recent years by Sir William Ramsay 

 and others (see Journal of the Chemical Society, 1907, pp. 1593-1606 ; 

 1909, pp. 624-637). Sir William Ramsay says : " The undoubted fact 

 that the well-known helium is a product of the ' degradation ' of radium 

 must be held to be thoroughly established. And in this instance, one 

 certain case of transmutation is sufficient " {Journ. of the Chem. Soc, 

 1909, p. 626). 



It may be of interest to state that there is a Specification for British 

 Letters Patent, No. 26356, a.d. 1910 (Roux), for transmuting iron into 

 silver and gold. 



