THE EARLY DAYS OF SCIENCE

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 37, 13 February 1937, Page 17 (Supplement)

THE EARLY DAYS OF SCIENCE

Secrets of the Ancients

GROUP OF SCIENTISTS and scholars are combining for tbe serious study of alchemy and early chemistry, tays the Xondon “Observer.” Their aim is not to revive the elixir-hunting, metal-changing enthusiasm of tho medieval alchemists, but to investigate much that is unexplained about the origins of chemical science.

“We don’t know,” Dr. Sherwood Taylor explained, “what the early alchemists were doing, but wo do know that, while they were doing it, they invented most of our chemical appara-

Turning the paves of a rare edition of Manget’s “Bibliotheca Clicmica,” in which are collected alchemical treatises from the twelfth to the seventeenth century, he pointed out that tho early illustrations depict, side by side with mystical designs and figures, distillation flasks, water-baths, and other chemical apparatus used to-day.

“Aristotle,” be said, “mentions the method of obtaining fresh water by boiling salt water and catching the steam in a sponge. That is the only mention of distillation before the alchemists of the first century A.D., when perfected distillation apparatus suddenly crops up from nowhere in particular.

“The most ancient alchemists said that their knowledge came from early Egypt. That may be, but we can’t find any trace of it in Egyptian hieroglyphics. The earliest alchemists lived for the most part in Alexandria. After tho Arabs had taken possession of Egypt, the centre of alchemical activity shifted to Byzantium, while at the same time tho Arabs themselves be came enthusiastic students of alchemy.

“Some of the Arab’s knowledge came from Greek writings which were translated into Syriac, and thence into Arabic. Not all the Arab knowledge of alchemy may have come from Greece. Some of it may have come from India, and some from the Sabaeans, who preserved much of the an-

An Argentinean importer refused to pay for a shipment of pencils because they were inferior to sample; the lead was only half-an-lnch long, the rest of the pencil being solid wood. Tbe Japanese manufacturer brought the sample into Court, cut it open, and won the case; it also contained only half an inch of lead.

cient Chaldean learning. The Arable manuscripts were translated by Jew» in Spain into Latin, and these Latin

translations introduced alchemy to medieval Europe.

“The Chinese had a knowledge of alchemy from about 200 B.C. What they wanted was not so much to make gold as to find the elixir of life. They believed that gold was a most potent ingredient of the pill of immortality, and that artificial gold was superior to natural gold. But it isn’t likely that there is any connection between the Chinese and the Greek tradition.

“The main object of the Society for the Study of Alchemy and Early Chemistry is to study the beginnings of chemistry before tbe real science was founded by Robert Boyle in the seventeenth century. Our aim is not to help the modern alchemist, but simply to conduct historical research. Actual* ly there are no alchemists in the labor* atory sense in thi* country, although they are quite common in the East. I have met an Indian student whoso uncle had lost quite a considerable fortune by seeking the help of alchemists.

“Before the seventeenth eentury al* chemy and chemistry arc inseparable* Alchemy wasu’t by any means purely chemistry. Although alchemy was pri* marily the attempted production of gold from base metals, it also became a mystical system.

“The alchemist worked on his own peculiar theory of matter, his idea being that matter had a soul and a body, and that it was possible to oper* ato by methods which we should not nowadays describe as physical. “Theoretically, we might believe to* day that it Is possible to transmute mercury into gold, but there would be no mysticism about the method. It would have to be done by violence, such as the bombardment of matter the alpha particles from radium.

“The old alchemical books don’t ex* plain the full process of transmutation. The alchemist is always led to believe that, if he studies diligently, there will presently appear a stranger who will impart to him the secret which he in turn must reveal to only one other person. There is, however, reason to believe that one early alchemical method was simply that of the goldsmith—to increase the weight of gold by debasing it with other metals.

“But, apart from all that, the study of alchemy is of great interest both from the point of view of mystical thought and chemical practice.**