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177
The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry
·
M. M. Pattison Muir
70
What
kind
of
experimental
evidence
could
an
alchemist
furnish
in
support
of
his
theory
of
transmutation?
In
answering
this
question,
I
cannot
do
better
than
give
a
condensed
rendering
of
certain
pages
in
Hoefer's
Histoire
de
la
Chimie.
The
reader
is
supposed
to
be
present
at
experiments
conducted
in
the
laboratory
of
a
Grand
Master
of
the
Sacred
Art
in
the
5th
or
6th
century.
Experiment.--Ordinary
water
is
boiled
in
an
open
vessel;
the
water
is
changed
to
a
vapour
which
disappears,
and
a
white
powdery
earth
remains
in
the
vessel.
Conclusion.--Water
is
changed
into
air
and
earth.
Did
we
not
know
that
ordinary
water
holds
certain
substances
in
solution,
and
that
boiling
water
acts
on
the
vessel
wherein
it
is
boiled,
we
should
have
no
objection
to
urge
against
this
conclusion.
It
only
remained
to
transmute
fire
that
the
transmutation
of
the
four
elements
might
be
completed.
Experiment.--A
piece
of
red-hot
iron
is
placed
in
a
bell-jar,
filled
with
water,
held
over
a
basin
containing
water;
the
volume
of
the
water
decreases,
and
the
air
in
the
bell-jar
takes
fire
when
a
lighted
taper
is
brought
into
it.
Conclusion.--Water
is
changed
into
fire.
That
interpretation
was
perfectly
reasonable
at
a
time
when
the
fact
was
unknown
that
water
is
composed
of
two
gaseous
substances;
that
one
of
these
(oxygen)
is
absorbed
by
the
iron,
and
the
other
(hydrogen)
collects
in
the
bell-jar,
and
ignites
when
brought
into
contact
with
a
flame.
Experiment.--Lead,
or
any
other
metal
except
gold
or
silver,
is
calcined
in
the
air;
the
metal
loses
its
characteristic
properties,
and
is
changed
into
a
powdery
substance,
a
kind
of
cinder
or
calx.
When
this
cinder,
which
was
said
to
be
the
result
of
the
death
of
the
metal,
is
heated
in
a
crucible
with
some
grains
of
wheat,
one
sees
the
metal
revive,
and
resume
its
original
form
and
properties.
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