The Stone of the Wise
L. Sprague de Camp
Alchemy, which paralleled chemistry much as astrology did astronomy, probably arose in the eastern Mediterranean in Roman times. Later it flowered in the Islamic world and in medieval Europe, but with the scientific revolution it split off from chemistry proper and slowly declined as the great chemical discoveries of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries undermined its position.
Well, just what was alchemy? A philosophy, - an art, and (its practitioners thought) a science. As a philosophy it dealt with the nature of matter; as a science it formulate laws governing the changes in material substances; as an art it was carried on with furnaces, vessels and reagents as was chemistry.
But alchemy differed from chemistry in two ways. First, it was based upon magical concepts of the analogistic universe, full of sympathetic forces and occult connections. Secondly, while chemistry studies the behavior of matter for a vast variety of industrial and medical purposes, alchemy narrowly pursued the secrets of changing base metals into gold and of making the Elixir of Life to confer health and immortality. Some alchemists even sought the alkahest or universal solvent, though the smarter ones asked: what would you put in it if you got it?
To begin operations, the alchemist needed a sample of prima materia or "first matter." This was variously identified with mercury, gold salt, vinegar, air, fire, blood cloud, sea, Venus, dragon moon, shadow, theriac, Goose of Hermogenes, and many other real and fancied substances. An alchemical recipe reminds one of the magical chain Gleipnir of Norse myth forged by the dwarfs out of the breath of fishes, the footfalls of cats, the beards of-women, and other improbable substances.
Then the alchemist undertook his magnum opus, a series of chemical manipulations, usually based upon some biological or mythological analogy. The alchemist who wrote under the name of Morienus taught that to obtain the Philosopher's Stone for transmuting metals there had to be coitus (in a chemical sense), conception, pregnancy, birth, and nutrition
Generations of alchemists tried in all seriousness to stimulate these events. Others believed that to transform a metal into gold, it had to be "killed," "buried," and "resurrected."
Most alchemists used a clay reverbatory oven called an athanor or "philosophical egg," together with retorts and other legitimate chemical apparatus. They paid much attention to changes in color and sought a process that would carry their material through a sequence of three colors: black ("Crow's Head," symbolizing putrefaction) white (indicating the lesser Stone) and red (indicating the perfect Stone).
The Philospher's stone, the objective of all this activity was a substance which, "projected" or sprinkled on molten metal, would turn that metal into silver or, if the Stone were of the highest grade, into gold. The Stone was also called the Tincture the Grand Magisterium. the Quintessence, the Stone of the Wise, the Universal Essence, the Thirnian Stone, the Hyle, or the Carbunculus. Those who claimed to have seen it usually described it as a powder, generally red but sometimes of another color. The power of the Stone to transmute was estimated at as much as a million times its own weight.
Having gotten his Stone, the alchemist could use it to transmute base metals or, by dissolving it in alcohol, to make the elixir vitae, the Elixir of Life, by which he could cure all ills, rejuvenate himself and prolong his life. Elixirs for these purposes have been developed in various societies: a Chinese emperor is said to have died from drinking such a concoction.
Some of the recipes were fantastic to say the least. The early alchemist Theophilus proposed to make gold as follows: Imprison and feed two cocks until they copulate and lay. The resulting eggs must be brooded by toads fed on bread. (Toads do not eat bread. ) These eggs produce normal-looking chicks which are, however, really basilisks and which grow snakes' tails and burrow out of sight unless kept on a stone floor. Put these basilisks in underground brazen vessels for six months, during which time they are nourished by "subtle earth" which enters through the holes in the vessels. Then roast the vessels and mix the remains of the basilisks with vinegar, copper, and human blood to make gold.
A determined alchemist might spend years distilling and redistilling mercury. He thought that to obtain the Philospher's Stone he had to start with the Mercury of the Philosophers, which could only be refined from common mercury by repeated distillation. So he repeated the operation over and over until his funds ran out or the fumes killed him.
Or he might roast molten lead until it all evaporated, leaving a tiny lump of silver to begin with. But the alchemist, not knowing this, would think he had done at least a second-rate transmutation.
Chemistry was slower than most sciences to free itself from pseudo-scientific associations. The reason was that the laws of chemistry are so complex and interdependent that, in formulating these laws, you must hit upon the right scheme almost all at once, instead of proceeding in normal scientific fashion from the simpler problems to the more complex. Moreover chemistry is concerned with the behavior of atoms and molecules and, since you can't see atoms and molecules, you have to infer their existence and behavior from other facts.
Medieval European alchemists believed that alchemy had been invented by Tubal-Cain, Noah, or some such patriarch and passed down by Solomon, Hermes Trismegistus, Osthanes Demokritos, and other adepts, some of whom never lived and the rest of whom had nothing to do with alchemy. Thus Hermes Trismegistus is a combination of the Greek messenger-god Hermes and the ibis-headed Egyptian god of wisdom, Tehuti or Thoth, metagrobolized into a mortal king of Egypt who lived about the time of the Flood and wrote 36, 525 books on alchemy.
Actually, alchemy developed from two main roots: the speculations of Classical philosophers about the nature of matter, and the techniques of Mediterranean metal-smiths and other industrial artisans.
A few Ionians, or Asiatic Greeks, began philosophical speculations about matter in the sixth century B. C. Some of them thought that the universe around them was made of a single primal matter, of which all the familiar substances were modifications. Thales of Miletos suggested that the "first principle" was water; Anaximenes, that it was air; Herakleitos, that it was fire or change; Pythagoras, that it was number.
As these guesses left nobody much the wiser, the next formula "tried was that the universe was made of a few simple substances. Empedokles of Agrigentum, the fifth-century B. C. Siceliot-Greek philosopher, advanced the classical element-theory of antiquity: that there were four elements—earth, water air, and fire,
This Empedokles was a versatile fellow whose accomplishments were exaggerated into legends. Though rich and pompous, he was an influential democratic politician who liberalized the constitution of his city. He wrote plays and poems, and addressed his fellow-townsmen thus:
Modesty was evidently not a vice with him. Anyway, he taught that these four elements, mixed in various proportions, give all the familiar substances:
In the following century Aristotle complicated this picture by adding a fifth element, aither or ether, an imaginary pure high-altitude air. He also analyzed the elements into combinations of four fundamental qualities: heat cold dryness, and wetness. Thus fire was hot and dry, air hot and wet, and water cold and wet. Classical scientist^ spent much' of their time and thought in juggling these qualities, producing a body of theory notable for ingenuity influence, and complete uselessness.