The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry

LOST ENGLAND. By BECKLES WILLSON. ALCHEMY, OR THE BEGINNINGS OF CHEMISTRY. By M.M. PATTISON MUIR, M.A. THE CHEMICAL ELEMENTS. By M.M. PATTISON MUIR, M.A. THE WANDERINGS OF ATOMS. By M.M. PATTISON MUIR, M.A. GERM LIFE: BACTERIA. By H.W. CONN. LIFE IN THE SEAS. By SIDNEY J. HICKSON F.R.S. LIFE'S MECHANISM. By H.W. CONN. REPTILE LIFE. By W.P. PYCRAFT, F.Z.S. THE GRAIN OF WHEAT. By WILLIAM C. EDGAR. THE POTTER. By C.F. BINNS. PREFACE. The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry is very interesting in itself. It is also a pregnant example of the contrast between the scientific and the emotional methods of regarding nature; and it admirably illustrates the differences between well-grounded, suggestive, hypotheses, and baseless speculations. I have tried to tell the story so that it may be intelligible to the ordinary reader. M.M. PATTISON MUIR. CAMBRIDGE, November 1902.