914 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 859 



truths, new light into the secrets of nature 

 in order that we may live and work more 

 efficiently. 



It may seem a long step from a consid- 

 eration of human dynamics at the intensity 

 of the present, to the work of the alchem- 

 ists of centuries ago, with all their magic 

 and mysticism, their solitary lives and 

 cherished secrets. But in reality there is 

 something in common between these an- 

 cient investigators and the leaders in mod- 

 ern industry; and in looking ahead as to 

 how we can best utilize the possibilities of 

 the future we may learn something by con- 

 sidering the mistakes of the past. 



The captains of industry and their army 

 of co-workers are still alchemists at heart; 

 they still strive to transmute the base ma- 

 terials of the earth into gold. But where 

 the alchemist was satisfied only with seeing 

 the noble metal glittering in his alembic, 

 the modern business man is content in ob- 

 taining from his still a treasury certificate. 

 It requires no magic philosopher's stone 

 to effect a transmutation of paper into gold 

 when once the former bears the proper 

 inscription. Wherein have modem meth- 

 ods of alchemy changed from those of that 

 eminent scholar who bore the name Phil- 

 lipus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus 

 von Hohenheim, and who lived and worked 

 in the twelfth century and an account of 

 whose checkered career has been handed 

 down to us? 



The spirit of alchemy is well represented 

 in the word itself. It is an Arabic prefix, 

 and the old Latin word for Egypt, mean- 

 ing the dark, secret or hidden. It was the 

 black art of the ancients. Another name 

 sometimes used was ' ' hermetic art, ' ' mean- 

 ing also closed or sealed from view. The 

 goal of those men from the gray of an- 

 tiquity to the monks of the middle ages 

 was the discovery of a way to make gold 

 and silver from the metals already known. 



such as mercury and copper, tin and iron. 

 We can see as we look back over their 

 labors how now and again they received 

 just the encouragement necessary to keep 

 alive the embers of hope which glowed in 

 each one's primitive laboratory. By melt- 

 ing the base metal copper with an earth 

 which we now know carried arsenic, a sil- 

 ver white metal was formed; how easy to 

 believe that this was an impure silver 

 which needed but refining to be the longed- 

 for result. When iron was left in a water 

 solution of blue stone it disappeared and 

 copper was found in its place. Surely this 

 was a transmutation of iron and copper. 

 Why not under proper conditions a fur- 

 ther change of copper into gold? 



But very many patient and able men 

 devoted their lives to this fruitless search 

 without material progress being made. 

 The alchemists of Arabia and early Ger- 

 many were little wiser than their predeces- 

 sors of Egypt many centuries before them. 

 The explanation of this lack of progress is 

 to be seen in the profound secrecy which 

 was at all times maintained. When some 

 enterprising worthy did take it upon him- 

 self to transcribe for future generations 

 his knowledge of the mystic art, his sen- 

 tences were so ambiguous, and his dic- 

 tion so involved, as to make the whole 

 entirely meaningless. Mysterious symbols 

 were employed to render imitation the 

 more difficult. 



There was, therefore, no accumulation 

 of knowledge or experience, and each suc- 

 ceeding investigator continued to grope in 

 the darkness which had ever enveloped his 

 calling, without deriving any benefit from 

 the labor of either his predecessors or his 

 contemporaries. The great and insur- 

 mountable obstacle to progress was nothing 

 more than the jealous secrecy engendered 

 by selfish competition. Both confidence 

 and cooperation were entirely wanting. 



