n6 
Life-History  of  a  Doctrine. 
t  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\      March.  1903. 
The  doctrine  of  the  transmutation  of  metals  played  a  most  impor- 
tant part  in  its  day.  No  one  can  trace  it  to  its  beginning.  It  is, 
however,  clear,  that  it  developed  great  strength  and  controlled  the 
intellectual  activities  of  the  leading  intellectual  men  of  the  world  for 
several  centuries.  It  led  to  the  development  of  chemistry.  The 
alchemists  were  the  working  chemists  of  their  day.  They  taught 
the  world  the  lesson  that  it  is  only  by  contact  with  the  things  of 
this  world  that  we  can  gain  knowledge  of  them.  They  laid  the 
foundations  of  experimental  science.  The  soul  of  alchemy  was 
experiment.  The  fundamental  doctrine  of  alchemy,  transmutation, 
after  a  long  and  active  life  began  to  show  signs  of  weakness ;  and  in 
due  time  it  took  to  its  bed,  and  in  spite  of  admirable  medical  care  it 
died  and  was  buried.  No  chemical  doctrine  has  had  anything  like 
as  long  a  life  as  this.  To  be  sure,  this  could  not  have  been  possi- 
ble, as  the  life-history  of  the  doctrine  of  transmutation  covered  a 
period  longer  than  that  which  had  elapsed  since  its  death,  though 
it  is  difficult  to  fix  the  time  of  its  death  with  accuracy.  It  is  dead 
now  at  all  events,  and  we  may  ask  the  question  :  What  came  after 
death  ?  The  doctrine  accumulated  large  wealth  and  left  the  world  a 
large  estate.  I  need  not  give  you  the  inventory.  Probably  no  one 
can  do  so.  But  we  do  know  that  we  owe  to  the  activities  of  those 
who  were  controlled  by  the  doctrine  of  transmutation  a  long  list  of 
substances  that  are  of  fundamental  importance,  such  as  sulphuric 
acid,  nitric  acid,  phosphorus,  alcohol,  ether,  etc.  This  is  the  mate- 
rial side  of  our  inheritance.  How  about  the  spiritual?  I  have  said 
that  experiment  was  the  soul  of  alchemy.  That  will  live  forever. 
I  should  perhaps  have  said  that  experiment  was  one  of  the  souls  of 
alchemy,  for  I  suppose  it  is  not  objectionable  to  assume  that  a  doc- 
trine may  have  more  than  one  soul.  The  rule  in  regard  to  human 
beings  seems  to  be  perfectly  simple,  and  it  is  generally  accepted,  but 
I  once  heard  of  a  professor,  who,  speaking  of  some  great  disaster, 
said :  "  On  this  occasion  300  souls  perished — counting  one  soul  to 
each  body."  Assuming  that  a  doctrine  may  have  more  than  one 
soul,  1  am  inclined  to  think  that  a  second  soul  of  alchemy  is  to  be 
found  in  the  idea  of  the  relationship  between  the  elements — an  idea 
that  persists  and  keeps  dangling  before  us  the  possibility  of  the 
transmutation,  not  only  of  base  metals  into  gold  or  silver,  but  of  all 
the  elements  one  into  the  other  from  one  end  of  the  list  to  the 
other. 
