HOW THE ALCHEMIST BECAME A CHEMIST.
The term alchemy is but a name for medieval chamistry. It was practised usually with the one consuming desire to find the way to transmute baser metals into gold. The world is said to indicate from its derivation that alchemy was originally the art of extracting juices from plants for medical purposes. Many peculiar conclusions were reached by the alchemists. Proceeding from the premise that earth, air, fire and water were the four elements composing the world, the alchemist looked upon chemical changes as transformations of one element into another instead of, as modern chemistry does, viewing a chemical reaction as a dissociation of elements —of which there are many more than are recognised by the alchemist—into different combinations, the new substance having many dissimilar properties from the original form.
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Star (Christchurch), Issue 18900, 26 October 1929, Page 22 (Supplement)
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136HOW THE ALCHEMIST BECAME A CHEMIST. Star (Christchurch), Issue 18900, 26 October 1929, Page 22 (Supplement)
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