HISTORY 01 ALCHEMY. 45T 



common things of earth to pure yellow gold. Their knowledge of the law& 

 which govern matter was limited, but their fertile imaginations were un- 

 limited. "Disdaining nature," says Youman, "they retired into the ideal 

 world of pure meditation, and holding that the mind is the measure of the 

 universe." They sought through its agency to work out the all-absorbing 

 problem. They claimed at last to have discovered this power in what they 

 called the "Philosopher's Stone" which they thought, by mere contact, 

 would change the common metals into gold. And further, in the form of a 

 potation, it was to prove a universal medicine, and even change the decrep- 

 itude of age into youth again and j)rolong life indefinitely, thus permitting 

 the holder to enjoy his untold wealth and bask in the sunshine of perennial 

 youth, 



With this delusion before them as an incentive to investigation, we find 

 men in those dark ages laboring day and night, searching and ransacking 

 nature to gain from her the wonderful secret. The object for which they 

 labored was of course never attained ; but in their investigations many 

 valuable discoveries were made, which, in after years, when the delusion 

 was washed away by truth, were left as golden sands, with which was lain 

 the foundation of the most beautiful, interesting and useful of modern 

 sciences, Chemistry. 



This class of men, searching for the jDhilosopher's stone and the elixir of 

 life, were called Alchemists, a term whose origin and primitive meaning is 

 not accurately known. Some authors claim that it was in use among the 

 Greeks soon after the Christian era, while others think there are sufficient 

 reasons for considering it of Egyptian origin. But Prof. Palmer (professor 

 of Arabic), considered it an Arabic term, being made up of the particle al 

 and a word derived from the substantive kyamon, signifying the constitution 

 of a thing. 



There are many similar terms known to have come from the Arabic lan- 

 guage, such as Almanack, Alkoran. Alkali, Alembic, and others, which 

 would furnish at least strong presumptive evidence that this was the true 

 origin of the term. Some have pretended that it is derived from the name 

 Chera or Shem, one of the sons of ISToah, and that to this day the Jews pos- 

 sess the art of making gold — hence their fabulous wealth. 



The leading idea of the Alchemists was transmutation, or the power of 

 changing one kind of matter to another. This idea was based on the in- 

 stability of the properties of matter. They held that there were but four 

 elements — fire, air, earth and water — and that all bodies were either hot or 

 cold, wet or dry. Warmth and drj-ness, they said, produce fire. Warmth 

 and moisture produce air. Cold and drj^ness produce earth, and cold and 

 moisture produce water. These elements, fire, air, earth and water, they 

 claimed could be transmuted into each other, by the mere exchange of prop- 

 erties. . Thus, if dryness is added to water the moisture is destroyed and it 

 is converted into earth. If coldness is added to air, the warmth is de- 

 stroyed and it become water, an example of which was seen when an earthen 



