460 ■ HISTORY 01 ALCHEMY. 



in retirement in their visionary speculations, they at last, either from men- 

 tal derangement or from the want of funds sufficient to disprove their new- 

 theory by exj^eriment, believed themselves to have become acquainted with 

 the mode of forming the philosopher's stone, and composed mystical books 

 to teach the art to others." 



The first certain notices we have of the belief in transmutation was the 

 latter part of the third or the beginning of the fourth century, when the 

 Greek ecclesiastics, it seems, attempted to manufacture gold and silver. 

 Many learned treatises on this subject are said to have been written by them. 



After the Mahommedan conquest and the Arabians became so highly 

 civilized, they cultivated the arts and sciences. In the eighth century this 

 idea reaj^iDeared among them, and here we have really the first authentic 

 mention of Alchemy. The name, as 1 have said before, undoubtedly' origi- 

 nated with this people. 



The Arabian physicians introduced into medicine the mercurial prepa- 

 rations. From their success with these agents they were led into the 

 extravagant notion of a universal, medicine an elixir of life. These ideas 

 seem to have been universally received at that time, and we find illustra- 

 tions among their votaries — Geber, Rhazis and Avicenna. 



During the intellectual darkness of the eleventh and twelfth centuries 

 science almost faded away entirely, and we find but little known of Alchemy 

 "until about the middle of the thirteenth century, when Eoger Bacon and 

 his cotemporaries, Eaymond, Lully, Albertus Magnus and Armand de Vilie- 

 nenne again brought it forward and made it popular, both with the ignorant 

 and the learned. This period of Alchemical history was really the acme of 

 the science. The most extravagant notions were entertained. They now 

 sought for the alchahest or universal solvent, and pretended they had the 

 power of developing the constituent principle of gems. .The discovery of 

 the philosopher's stone they supposed would not only give them the power 

 of forming the precious metals, of curing disease and, prolonging life, but it 

 was to solve some of the most difficult problems in general science, and 

 even in religion itself. The impetus given to the science by these earnest 

 and probably honest alchemists continued it through the tv/o succeeding 

 centuries, and true believers continued their experiments with amazing 

 assiduity. 



About the beginning of the fourteenth century we find Basil Yalentine, 

 a Benedictine monk, who becomes noted as an alchemist. He has the credit 

 of being the first man who "formally applied chemistry to medicine." He 

 discovered the therapeutic properties of antimony, which he celebrated in 

 a treatise entitled his "Currus triumphalis antimonii," and originated the 

 doctrine that all substances were compounds of salt, sulphur and mercury. 



The extravagant doctrines of Eaymond Lully, concerning a universal 

 m.edicine, were again revived and gradually gained ground until they culmi- 

 nated with that noted empiric, Paracelsus. This man, Theophrastis 

 Paracelsus, was called by Nande '-the zenith and rising sun of all the 



