104 PHILOSOPH 
all metals readily into pure gold, by melting them in the 
fire, and calling a little quantity of a certain preparation 
into the fufed matter, upon which the fasces immediately 
retire, are volatilized and burnt, and fo carried off; and 
the reft of the mafs is turned into pure gold. That which 
works this change in the metals is called the philofopher’s 
fcone. (See Transmutation.) Whether this third 
method be poflible or not, is very hard to fay. We have 
fo many teliimonies of it from perfons, who on all other 
occafions fpeak truth, that it is fomewhat hard to fay 
they are guilty of falfehood, even when they fay that 
they have been mailers of the fecret. All required is, 
they fay, to do that by art, which nature does in many 
years and ages: for, as lead and gold do but differ little 
in weight, therefore there is not much in lead befides 
mercury and gold. Now, if I had any body which w'ould 
fo agitate all the parts of lead, as to burn all that is not 
mercury therein; and had alfo fome fulphur to fix the 
mercury ; would not the mafs remaining lie converted 
into gold ? There is nothing in nature fo heavy as lead, 
gold and mercury alone excepted. It is evident, there¬ 
fore, there is fomething in lead that comes very near to 
gold. But in lead there is alfo fome heterogeneous 
matter, different both from mercury and gold. If now 
nineteen ounces of lead be dillolved by the fire, and eight 
ounces be thus deftroyed, they argue that we lhall have 
the reft good gold ; the ratio of lead to gold being as 
eleven to nineteen. If then the philofopher’s Hone can 
purify the mercurial matter in lead, fo as that nothing 
lhall remain but the pure mercurial body, and you can 
fix and coagulate this by means of fulphur, out of nine¬ 
teen ounces of lead you will have eleven of gold. Or, if 
you reduce the lead from eighteen to fourteen, you will 
then have converted it into mercury ; and, if you farther 
purify this mercury to its proper ftandard, you will have 
gold, provided you have but a fulphur with which to fix 
and coagulate it. Such is the foundation of the opinion 
of the philofopher's Jlone ; which the alchemifts contend 
to be a moll fubtile, fixed, concentrated, fire, which, as 
foon as it melts with any metal, does, by a magnetic 
virtue, immediately unite itfelf to the mercurial body of 
the metal, volatilizes and cleanfes off all that is impure 
therein, and leaves nothing but a mafs of pure gold. 
Many frauds and artifices have undoubtedly been prac- 
tifed in this operation ; and there might be political 
reafons why princes and others fhould not encourage 
thofe who pretended a power of furnilhing this inexhaull- 
ible fource of wealth: but it would be wrong to cenfure 
as impoftors, all thofe who have declared themfelves con¬ 
vinced, from their own experiments, of the tranfmutabi- 
iity of bafe metals into gold. However, there are ltrong 
reafons to believe that the authors have been deceived 
themfelves by fallacious appearances. Mr. Boyle gives 
an account of a procefs, by which he imagines part of the 
fubftance of gold to have been tranfmuted into fiiver. 
That, however, would not do us much good. He alfo 
relates a very extraordinary experiment, under the title 
of the degradation of gold by an anti-elixir, which was 
publillied in his own life-time, and fince reprinted in 
1739. Hence many have been led to conclude in favour 
of the alchemical doftrineof the tranfmutability of metals. 
See an account of this experiment, with remarks upon it, 
by Dr. Lewis, in his Commerce of Arts, feft. xii. 
“ The opinion (fays Holt) that one metallic or other 
foreign fubftance might be changed into another, was, it 
feems, at this time (reign of Henry VI. of England) pro¬ 
pagated by certain chemifts, whofe obfervations on the 
furprifing effects and alterations produced in certain fub- 
ftances by the force of heat carried their imaginations 
beyond what found judgment might warrant. The firft 
inilance of which on record is in vol. xi. p. 68. of the 
Fcedera ; wherein Henry VI. grants a licence to John 
Cobbe, freely to work in metals, (thereby liberating him 
from the penalties of the flat. 5 Henry IV. againlt che- 
E R’s STONE. 
mills;) he having, by philofophical art, found out a me¬ 
thod of transferring imperfect metals into perfeft gold 
and fiiver. This pretended fecret, known afterwards by 
the name of the philofopher's Jione, or powder, was en¬ 
couraged by four licences, granted to different projeftors 
during this reign, and at fundry times after, during this 
century particularly, and in fucceeding times, all over 
Europe. The frenzy has not entirely ceafed even to this 
day, although it meets neither public encouragement 
nor countenance from men of foberreafon ; the projeftors 
having yet found nothing from their airy fchemes in this 
mode of fearch but certain ruin to their property.” 
The fame author, when fpeaking of the commerce of 
the kingdom, and the wonderful increafe and riches of 
commercial cities, fpeaks thus : “ This is the true phi¬ 
lofopher’s Hone, fo much fought after in former ages, the 
difcovery of which has been referved to genius, when 
ftudying to improve the mechanic arts. Hence a pound 
of raw materials is converted into (luffs of fifty times its 
original value. And the metals too are not, indeed, 
tranfmuted into gold ; they are more: for the labour of 
man has been able to work the baler metal, by the inge¬ 
nuity of art, fo as to become worth more than many 
times its weight in gold.” Holt’s Charafter.s of the Kings 
and Queens of England. 
In the Britilh Mufeum is a MS. traft of St. Dunftan’s 
on the Philofopher’s Stone ; fo that there appears fome 
foundation for his having been a reputed, though pro¬ 
bably an unfuccefsful, conjuror. 
But we are flattered with a difcovery of far more value 
than that of tranfmuting lead into gold ; namely the 
turning of carbon into diamonds ! A letter from New 
York, dated June 9, 1823, fays, “ If the long-fought-for 
philofopher’s Hone, by which bafer fubftances could be 
tranfmuted into gold, has not yet been found, an inven¬ 
tion of Hill greater importance has at length crowned the 
efforts of American chemifts. It has long been known 
that the diamond, the moll precious of all fubftances, is 
compofed of carbon in its pure Hate. But, although the 
powers of chemical analyfis have been fufficient by repeat¬ 
ed experiments clearly to eftablilh this fa ft, yet the know¬ 
ledge of it was of no praftical importance to the world, 
becaufe the powers of fynthefis failed, and no mode had 
been devifed of imitating nature by uniting the confti- 
tuents of this precious gem. In other words, the philo- 
fopher was able to convert diamonds into carbon, but he 
was ignorant of the art of converting carbon into 
diamonds. If the experiments of Profeffor Silliman can 
be relied on, this defideratum has in part been fupplied. 
The laft number of his Journal of Science contains an ar¬ 
ticle on the philofophical inftrunient called Deflagrator, 
invented by Profeffor Hare, of Philadelphia, by which it 
appears that charcoal, plumbago, and anthracite, have 
been fufed by the power of that inftrument, and tranf¬ 
muted into diamonds. The following extrafts from his 
paper will prove the correftnefs of our affertion. 
“On the end of the prepared charcoalfand occupying an 
area of a quarter of an inch or more in diameter,were found 
numerous globules of perfeftly-melted matter, entirely 
fpherical in their form, having a high vitreous luftre and 
a great degree of beauty. Some of them, and generally 
they were thofe remote from the focus, were of a jet 
black, like the mod perfeft obfidian ; others were brown, 
yellow, and topaz-coloured; others were greyifii-white, 
like pearl-ftones, with the tranflucence and luftre of 
porcelain ; and others Hill limpid, like flint-glafs, or in 
fome cafes like hyalite or precious opal, but without the 
iridefcence of the latter. I detached fome of the globules, 
and, firmly bedding them in a handle of wood, tried their 
hardnefs and firmnefs ; they bore ftrong preffure without 
breaking, and eafily lcratched not only flint glafs but 
w’indow-glafs, and even the hard green variety which 
forms the aquafortis-bottles. The globules which had 
acquired this extraordinary hardnefs were formed from 
plumbago. 
