854 
modern times have written of alchemists 
find in theextravagant views ofa Paracelsus, 
and in the careers of a Flamel, a Sendi- 
vogius, or of a John Dee, more entertain- 
ing materials than in the abstract concep- 
tions of sober philosophers, and conse- 
quently most readers are more familiar 
with the misdeeds of adventurers than with 
the honest beliefs of respectable men of 
science. Before condemning those who 
labored day and night to solve the problems 
of transmutation and the elixir of life we 
should consider their intellectual environ- 
ment; superstitions beliefs of every kind 
prevailed; even the sciences were in 
bondage; astronomy was dominated by 
astrology; medicine was influenced by 
magic; natural history was subject to blind 
belief in authorities, and scientific chemis- 
try was entirely overwhelmed by the 
chimeras of alchemy. Kepler and Tycho 
Brahe, at the Court of Rudolph II., did not 
think it beneath their dignity to cast 
horoscopes for gain and to predict the fu- 
ture by consulting the positions of celestial 
bodies, even while formulating the laws gov- 
erning their motions. Huropean crowned 
heads retained astrologers and alchemists 
as members of their courts. A century later 
Sir Isaac Newton dabbled with furnaces 
and chemicals in true hermetic style; and 
Leibnitz showed the courage of his convic- 
tions by acting as Secretary of an Al- 
chemical Society in Germany. The influ- 
ence of superstition on the mental attitude 
of truly great men decreased with the ad- 
vancement of learning, and when tke 
foundations of scientific chemistry were 
laid by Priestley, Lavoisier, Scheele and 
their contemporaries, the doctrines of 
alchemy were abandoned. And yet not 
wholly abandoned, for there seems to have 
been a small number of persons in all coun- 
tries who have clung to the hope of realiz- 
ing transmutation, a hope sustained by the 
desire to reap the golden reward. This 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Vou. VI. No. 154. 
minority rejected the extravagant belief in 
a life-prolonging elixir, and in the divine 
origin of the profound secrets of the in- 
itiated, and sought to appropriate from the: 
growing sciences such discoveries and 
theories as could be interpreted in favor of 
transmutation. 
The printing press has never ceased to: 
issue works devoted to the subject. Some: 
authors have written of a ‘higher chemis- 
try,’ and others have sought to reconcile: 
the new doctrines of chemists with the an- 
cient theories of alchemists. As recently 
as 1832 a German professor wrote a learned 
volume with the avowed intent of proving 
the verity of transmutation from historical 
sources (Schnieder’s Geschichte der Al- 
chemie, Halle, 1832). The number of re- 
prints of the grotesque writings of reputed 
adepts which have appeared since chemis- 
try has become an exact science is surpris- 
ingly large, and the fact that they find pur- 
chasers indicates a small but zealous class. 
of hermetic students. Soeminent a chem- 
ist as Sir Humphry Davy did not hesitate 
to affirm that some of the doctrines of 
alchemy are not unphilosophical. 
Recent discoveries in physics, chemistry 
and psychology have given the disciples of 
Hermes renewed hopes, and the present 
position of chemical philosophy has given. 
the fundamental doctrine of alchemy a sub- 
stantial impetus ; the favorite theory of a 
prima materia, or primary matter, the basis. 
of all the elementary bodies, has received 
new support by the discoveries of allotrop- 
ism of the elements, isomerism of organic 
compounds, the revelations of the spectro- 
scope, the practical demonstrations by Nor- 
man Lockyer, the experiments on the spe-- 
cific heat of gaseous bodies at a high tem- 
perature by Mallard and Le ChAtelier, the 
discoveries of Sir William Crookes as set 
forth in his monograph on ‘ Meta-elements,” 
the discovery by Carey Lea of several singu- 
lar allotropic forms. of silver, and, most. 
