Alchemy: Ancient and Modern / Being a Brief Account of the Alchemistic Doctrines, and Their Relations, to Mysticism on the One Hand, and to Recent Discoveries in Physical Science on the Other Hand; Together with Some Particulars Regarding the Lives and Teachings of the Most Noted Alchemists
PLATE 1.
PORTRAIT OF PARACELSUS
ALCHEMY: ANCIENT AND MODERN
BEING A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE ALCHEMISTIC DOC- TRINES, AND THEIR RELATIONS, TO MYSTICISM ON THE ONE HAND, AND TO RECENT DISCOVERIES IN PHYSICAL SCIENCE ON THE OTHER HAND; TOGETHER WITH SOME PARTICULARS REGARDING THE LIVES AND TEACHINGS OF THE MOST NOTED ALCHEMISTS
BY H. STANLEY REDGROVE, B.Sc. (Lond.), F.C.S. AUTHOR OF “ON THE CALCULATION OF THERMO-CHEMICAL CONSTANTS,” “MATTER, SPIRIT AND THE COSMOS,” ETC.
WITH 16 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
SECOND AND REVISED EDITION
LONDON WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LTD. 8 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 4 1922
It is exceedingly gratifying to me that a second edition of this book should be called for. But still more welcome is the change in the attitude of the educated world towards the old-time alchemists and their theories which has taken place during the past few years.
These advances in knowledge all point to the possibility of effecting transmutations at will, but so far attempts to achieve this, as I have already indicated, cannot be regarded as altogether satisfactory. Several methods of making gold, or rather elements chemically identical with gold, once the method of controlling radioactive change is discovered (as assuredly it will be) are suggested by Sir Ernest Rutherford’s theory of the nuclear atom. Thus, the expulsion of two α-particles from bismuth or one from thallium would yield the required result. Or lead could be converted into mercury by the expulsion of one α-particle, and this into thallium by the expulsion of one β-particle, yielding gold by the further expulsion of an α-particle. But, as Professor Soddy remarks in his Science and Life just referred to, “if man ever achieves this further control over Nature, it is quite certain that the last thing he would want to do would be to turn lead or mercury into gold— for the sake of gold . The energy that would be liberated, if the control of these sub-atomic processes were as possible as is the control of ordinary chemical changes, such as combustion, would far exceed in importance and value the gold. Rather it would pay to transmute gold into silver or some base metal.”
H. Stanley Redgrove
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ALCHEMY: ANCIENT AND MODERN
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
PREFACE
CONTENTS
LIST OF PLATES
The Aim of Alchemy.
The Transcendental Theory of Alchemy.
Failure of the Transcendental Theory.
The Qualifications of the Adept.
Alchemistic Language.
Alchemists of a Mystical Type.
The Meaning of Alchemy.
Opinions of other Writers.
The Basic Idea of Alchemy.
The Law of Analogy.
The Dual Nature of Alchemy.
“Body, Soul and Spirit.”
Alchemy, Mysticism and Modern Science.
Supposed Proofs of Transmutation.
The Alchemistic Elements.
Aristotle’s Views regarding the Elements.
The Sulphur-Mercury Theory.
The Sulphur-Mercury-Salt Theory.
Alchemistic Elements and Principles.
The Growth of the Metals.
Alchemy and Astrology.
Alchemistic View of the Nature of Gold.
The Philosopher’s Stone.
The Nature of the Philosopher’s Stone.
The Theory of Development.
The Powers of the Philosopher’s Stone.
The Elixir of Life.
The Practical Methods of the Alchemists.
Hermes Trismegistos.
The Smaragdine Table.
Zosimus of Panopolis.
Geber.
Other Arabian Alchemists.
Albertus Magnus (1193-1280).
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274).
Roger Bacon (1214-1294).
Arnold de Villanova (12—?-1310?).
Raymond Lully (1235?-1315).
Peter Bonus (14th Century).
Nicolas Flamel (1330-1418).
“Basil Valentine” and “The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony.”
Isaac of Holland (15th Century).
Bernard Trévisan (1406-1490).
Sir George Ripley (14—?-1490?).
Thomas Norton (15th Century).
Paracelsus (1493-1541.)
Views of Paracelsus.
Iatro-Chemistry.
The Rosicrucian Society.
Thomas Charnock (1524-1581).
Andreas Libavius (1540-1616.)
Edward Kelley (1555-1595) and John Dee (1527-1608.)
Henry Khunrath (1560-1605).
Alexander Sethon (?-1604) and Michael Sendivogius (1566?-1646).
Michael Maier (1568-1622).
Jacob Boehme (1575-1624.)
J. B. van Helmont (1577-1644) and F. M. van Helmont (1618-1699.)
Johann Rudolf Glauber (1604-1668).
Thomas Vaughan (“Eugenius Philalethes”) (1622-1666.)
Did the Alchemists achieve the “Magnum Opus”?
The Testimony of van Helmont.
The Testimony of Helvetius.
Helvetius obtains the Philosopher’s Stone.
Helvetius performs a Transmutation.
Helvetius’s Gold Assayed.
Helvetius’s Gold Further Tested.
The Genesis of Chemistry.
The Degeneracy of Alchemy.
The Birth of Modern Chemistry.
The Phlogiston Theory.
Boyle and the Definition of an Element.
The Stoichiometric Laws.
Dalton’s Atomic Theory.
The Determination of the Atomic Weights of the Elements.
Prout’s Hypothesis.
The “Periodic Law.”
The Corpuscular Theory of Matter.
Proof that the Electrons are not Matter.
The Electronic Theory of Matter.
The Etheric Theory of Matter.
Further Evidence of the Complexity of the Atoms.
Views of Wald and Ostwald.
“Modern Alchemy.”
X-rays and Becquerel rays.
The Discovery of Radium.
Chemical Properties of Radium.
The Radioactivity of Radium.
The Disintegration of the Radium Atom.
“Induced Radioactivity.”
Properties of Uranium and Thorium.
The Radium Emanation.
The Production of Helium from Radium.
Nature of this Change.
Is this Change a true Transmutation?
The Production of Neon from Emanation.
Ramsay’s Experiments on Copper.
Further Experiments on Radium and Copper.
Ramsay’s Experiments on Thorium and allied Metals.
The Possibility of Making Gold.
The Significance of “Allotropy.”
Conclusion.
