MODERN ALCHEMISTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20703, 29 April 1929, Page 12

MODERN ALCHEMISTS.

WAS GOLD EVER MADE? ; Ancient alchemy had two objects: the preparation of the philosopher's stone to convert base metals into gold and the discovery of an elixir to confer bodily immortality -upon man. Whatever \Ve may think of the circumstantial 'stories pf success in the first aim, alchemy seems to have been successful in ensuring its own immortality, for there is abundant evidence that this occult art flourishes :as vigorously as ever. The recent story of the plumber who is said to have defrauded Ludendorff and his friends of £ 120,000 by his claims to make gold artificially could be paralleled without difficulty (says a writer in the Manchester Guardian ) The chief tenet of mediaeval alchemy was that metals' are composed of mercury and sulphur, or, rather, of two elusive substances which cannot be isolated but which more or less closely resemble ordinary mercury and sulphur. If these two substances’are both of the highest degree of purity, and if also they arc combined together in exactly the proper proportions, the product is gold. Other metals are formed if tiio mercury and the sulphur are n t pure and are not present in the required latio. In the light of this theory, it is clear, that metals differ from one another merely in purity and in the defect or excess of one of their constituents, and it ought therefore, to be possible to convert a base metal into gold by rectifying its composition or by purifying it. nitli this aim, innumerable methods were suggested, but most alchemists believed that the transmutation could be most easily and effectively brought about by melting the base metal in a crucible and adding to it a small quantity of a mysterious powder known as the philosopher’s .stone. Of this powder, a minute portion was considered to be capable of transmuting an enormous mass of lead, or mercury, or tin into the purest gold. Many are the stories told of successful transmutations. Nicolas Flamel, a poor scribe of Paris, in the fourteenth century, one day bought au old book which taught him the secret. He carried out the work and soon became a very ‘ wealthy man, making large gifts to chanties ands founding several churches. Thomas Norton, who lived at Bristol in the fifteenth century, succeeded in preparing the philosopher’s Istonc, only to have it stolen from him by a woman Who is sometimes stated to have been the wife of the Mayor of the city. In 1018 the celebrated Belgian chemist Van Helmont, famous as. the discoverer of carbon dioxide and inventor of the word gas,’ received from an unknown hand -..quarter of a grain of the “ stone.” With this,he was able to convert eight ounces of mercury into gold. -A similar event occurred at the Hague in 1066 to Helvetia, physician to the Prince of * Orange. ’ r

Even more circumstantial is the tale of a transmutation effected by General Paykhnll, of the army, jn 1706. Paykhull had been convicted-of treason, and, to save, his life, offered to manufacture annually , one million crowns of gold if he were pardoned. Charles XII accepted the offer, and General Hamilton, of tho Royal Artillery, was instructed t» take precautions to prevent fraud. Paykhull . prepared his materials, added the correct weight of philosopher's stone, and the mixture was then melted. A mass or gold resulted, which was coined into 347 ducats. ,A medal -vyas also struck from this alchemical gold bearing the inscription (in Latin) : ‘.‘o. A.,von Paykhull cast this gold by chemical art at Stockholm, 1700.” w . How complete was the ’beiief in the possibility of transmutation at this time will be appreciated when it'is stated that .the great Sir Isaac Newtonwhimself-made experiments on, the subject,: whiqh, of course, affected him closely, iasriie: was Master of the Mint. He had a laboratory at. Cambridge, in “ the space between the road ■ and the college'On the right-hand side on entering ' the Great Gate at Trinity College,”and we are told that for about six weeks in the spring and six in the autumn the furnace in the laboratory, was kept almost constantly alight for the purpose of Newton’s alchemical operations. ; Comin gto more recent- times, there is the remarkable story of James Price, a Guildford doctor of the' end of'the eighteenth century. Price was a rich amateur of chemistry and a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1781 he believed himself to‘have obtained a red powder which would change mercury and silver into gold. Cautious at first, he afterwards became bolder,. 1 and confided his discovery to some of his friends. In 1782 he carried out several " transmutations at his laboratory at Guildford, in the presence of several citizens,'and some of the gold so “produced” he offered as a present fo King George 111, By this time the Royal Society began to feci some concern about the dubious publicity attained by one of its members, and, Price was summoned to repeat his oxperimeats before a committee of the society. His initial refusal to obey the summons, on the ground rihat his stock of the powder was exhausted, aiid that it would take a-long time to make a farther supply, was not accepted, and in 1783 he retired to his laboratory to carry out the necessary work. For six months nothing was heard of him, but at the end of that time ho issued an invitation to the society to come to Guildford and witness a transmutation. Only two or three members troubled to attend, and on fbeir arrival; Price turned comedy into tragedy by committing suicide with prussic acid. -It might be thought that'with the marvellous advance of chemistry, in the nineteenth century alchemy would have died a natural death. Strange to say, the contrary is true, the alchemy has its votaries still in all parts of the world. Particularly in Moslem countries the alchemist yet carries on his coagulations, his coctious. his distillations,, and his projections. In the “ Arabian Nights ” and other popular Arabic stories; the alchemist is almost ‘'always a Persian, and it is perhaps in Persia that most alchemists are found at-tho present day, though India, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia fall very little short. The present writer once had a le’ttcr from an Indian alchemist at Lahore offering the secret of the philosopher’s stone on the following paltry terms:—£2 10s a week, two servants, and a furnished house for a month In all. The alchemist .explained that his father, grandfather, and greatgrandfather had all been successful alchemists, and that the process had been handed down to him, but that howas unable to practise for lack of fundf?. Another Moslem alchemist, a friend of the writer, has been working for years with lead, meroary, copper, sulphur, honey, milk, and a variety of other .substances, to prepare the Great Red Stone —unfortunately without Success. It has, however, recently been stated that a Mrs Ingaleso, of Los Angeles, California,, prepared the philosopher’s stone in- 1920. It is described as a cinnamon-coloured powder of an intensely bitter, taste; among other marvels, it is said to have restored-to life a woman who had been dead for half an-hour, : ') What are we to think cf all these stories? Many . . alchemists deceived themselves; many more, perhaps, set out to deceive others; but was transmutation ever brought about?" All we can say is that, in the light of modern chemistry, transmutation is not inherently impossible ; that mercury is the most likely of all elements to be transmuted into gold ; and that the alleged action of the phifo> sopher's stone' closely resembles that St those substances known as , catalysts. But it seems extremely improbable that the alchemists succeeded where modern .chemists have uniformly, failed.