A history of chemistry from earliest times to the present day : being also an introduction to the study of the science / by Ernst von Meyer ; translated with the author's sanction by George M'Gowan.

Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A history of chemistry from earliest times to the present day : being also an introduction to the study of the science / by Ernst von Meyer ; translated with the author's sanction by George M'Gowan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    they appear to owe their origin to those of Geber; still more incomprehensible and hidden in deep mystic darkness , are his recipes for the ennobUng of the metals. Certainly none of the alchemists who preceded him have ascribed to the ]Dhilosopher's stone such powers as he did; for he was able to cry out presumptuously: If the sea were of mercury, I would transform it into gold. And not only gold, but also all precious stones, and that highest good— health, together with long life, were to be obtained through its means. Of the writmgs wliich are attributed to him, the Testamentum, Codicillus seu Vadeviecum, and Experimmia are regarded as genuine. The history of alchemy in the fourteenth and first half of the fifteenth centuries contains no single name wliich will compare in eminence with those of the above-mentioned phHosophers, as the alchemists themselves preferred to be called. This must not be taken as meaning that the supposed art of making gold had died out; on the contrary, it bore its strangest fruit during that ^period. If it be desired to connect specific names with the study of alchemy at that time, then the Frenchman Nicolas Flamel, Isaac HoUandus the elder and the younger, Count Bernardo da Trevigo, and Sir George Eipley may be mentioned as among those who were supposed to be in possession of the wonder-working philosopher's stone. These men did nothing, however, to materially advance the knowledge of chemistry. Alchemy was at this time fostered and protected at many of the European courts, for nothuig appeared to be more simple than to recuperate embarrassed finances by means of artificial gold. Many documents in the history of that century bear record to the frequent disappointments which were certain to come about sooner or later,—decrees against the practice of alchemy, threatenings of those who contravened these with the severest punishments, and accounts of discoveries of the most impudent unpositions. 1 Mare linger em, si mcrcurixis esset.