ideas which have struck me in a desultory study of the subject, and to develop these freely from our own point of view; to the intent that it may be seen that, besides their mythological absurdities, Eastern systems contain some philosophic elements. The proper religious aspects of the subject cannot of course be entered on here,

TWELFTH ORDINARY MEETING.

ROYAL INSTITUTION, 6th APRIL, 1868.

J. BIRKBECK NEVINS, M.D., VICE-PRESIDENT, in the Chair.

The routine business of the Society having been transacted, the following Paper was then read:-

ALCHEMY.

BY MR. E. DAVIES, F.C.S.

THERE is great interest in looking back to the origin and early history of any of the sciences, to the study of which we have devoted ourselves. In the light of present knowledge, we see the errors into which our predecessors fell, sometimes with pity, which might be tinged with contempt, but for the remembrance that we are fallible, and that our speculations and theories may provoke a smile in days to come; and sometimes with admiration for the energy and perseverance which those displayed who laid the foundations on which we have built. Thus the astronomer thinks of the Chaldean shepherds and Eastern sages, who, without optic aids, and in spite of false theories, attained such marvellous acquaintance with the motions of the heavenly bodies. He smiles at Astrology, and rejects much that they held true, but he thoroughly admires their devotion to science, and their unwearied efforts to thread the mighty maze of the universe. The student of natural history by no means expects ever to see all the marvellous creatures which Pliny describes, but he can take a lesson from his life-long research into nature, and like him strive to see all that he can, taking warning from him not to believe all that is told by travellers.

Chemistry presents in the past the same mingling of chaff and wheat which is seen in the gatherings of other sciences, but perhaps it was more loaded with error than any of them. This is due to many causes. One was, doubtless, the difficulty of tracing a substance through the protean

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changes of colour and other properties which it undergoes in its various combinations. Whilst, in other sciences, the student has to deal with what he sees, the chemist has generally to deal with what he cannot see. Take iron, for example; who would suspect its presence in the ore, or in its salts, until the knowledge was imparted, either by instruction or by patient experiment? Thus the early chemists often only educed, when they thought that they had produced. The waters of certain mines were supposed to have the power of transforming iron into copper. True, the iron disppeared and copper replaced it, and nothing but a power of analysis, which was not then possessed, could explain that the copper was in the original liquid, and that the iron simply took its place in solution. Another source of error was, the mystical phraseology in which the Alchemists chose to conceal, rather than to reveal, their discoveries. Another, and the greatest, was the setting up as their aim an object far in advance of their abilities. The discovery of a means of transmuting base metals into gold, and of a medicine which should cure all diseases and confer immortality, was the object of their fond aspiration, and with their eyes fixed on these delusive phantoms they overlooked the treasures at their feet. These were truly great ideas, but they were beyond their reach, and in striving for them they spent a life of toil, and died in disappointment.

Many of the useful arts depend on chemical processes, in the sense in which we use the word "chemical" now. Metallurgy, dyeing, the manufacture of porcelain and glass, were all known in the early ages of the world, and are all chemistry in practice. Had mankind simply gone on accumulating facts, leaving theories alone until a foundation was laid for them, we should have heard nothing of Alchemy. As however, this course was not followed, we find the name of Chemistry, xnua, applied to the art of making gold and

silver in the fifth century, in the earliest work known in which the word occurs. This work, entitled, A Faithful Description of the Sacred and Divine Art of making Gold and Silver, by Zosimus, the Panapolite, carries back the art to a far distant period, for it attributes it to the sons of God mentioned in the 6th chapter of Genesis, who, it states, were angels allured from heaven by the charms of women, to whom they imparted the secret of making precious metals. Suidas, in his Lexicon, written in the eleventh century, says, under the word xnusia, "The preparation of silver and gold. χημεία, The books on it were sought after by Diocletian, and burnt, on account of the new attempts made by the Egyptians against him. He treated them with cruelty and harshness, as he sought out the books written by the ancients, on the chemistry of gold and silver, and burnt them. His object was to prevent the Egyptians from becoming rich by the knowledge of this art, lest, emboldened by abundance of wealth, they might be induced afterwards to resist the Romans." It is, however, doubtful whether Alchemy can claim such high antiquity as this; for the silence of Latin authors, especially Pliny, on the subject, would lead us to believe that it took its rise among the Greeks at a later date. The earliest works on the subject are Greek, and a long list, comprising eighty works, is given in Boerhaave's Chemistry, 1753. Many of these evidently bear feigned names, such as Isis, the prophetess, to her son Horus; Moses, the prophet, on chemical composition; Cleopatra, wife of Ptolemy, to whom are attributed four works. They are supposed to have been principally the works of monks, written between the fifth and eighth centuries. They all mean by chemistry the transmutation of imperfect metals into gold or silver.

From the Greeks it passed to the Arabians, amongst whom it obtained its prefix "Al," and, travelling through Spain, in the eleventh century, began to spread over Europe.