Alchemy (redirected from Operative Alchemy)

alchemy (ăl`kəmē), ancient art of obscure origin that sought to transform base metals (e.g., lead) into silver and gold; forerunner of the science of chemistry. Some scholars hold that it was first practiced in early Egypt and others that it arose in China (in the 5th or 3d cent. B.C.) and was carried westward. It consisted chiefly of experiments with metals and other chemical materials. Alchemical apparatus included the alembic (or ambix) for distillation and the kerotakis for sublimation. In its beginnings alchemy was essentially a craft and embraced many kinds of metalwork, including the use of alloys resembling gold and silver. Alexandria is generally considered a center of early alchemy, and the art was influenced by the philosophy of the Hellenistic Greeks; the conversion of base metals into gold (considered the most perfect of metals) was part of a general striving of all things toward perfection. Since the early alchemists were mainly artisans, they tried to conceal the secrets of their work; thus, many of the materials they used were referred to by obscure or astrological names. It is believed that the concept of the philosopher's stone (called also by many other names, including the elixir and the grand magistery) may have originated in Alexandria; this was an imaginary substance thought to be capable of transmuting the less noble metals into gold and also of restoring youth to the aged. Alchemy, strongly tinged with magic, reached the Arabs (perhaps in the 8th cent.) and remained for several centuries under Muslim influence; in the 12th cent. it reached parts of Europe through translations of Arabic writings (the early Greek treatises were not known in Europe in the Middle Ages). Arab alchemy was preserved especially in the works of Jabir, and the earlier Greek alchemy in those of Zosimus and others. The alchemical writings of the Middle Ages continued to be couched in symbolic and cryptic language. The alchemists became obsessed with their quest for the secret of transmutation; some adopted deceptive methods of experimentation, and many gained a livelihood from hopeful patrons. As a result, alchemy fell into disrepute. However, in the searching experimental quests of the alchemists chemistry had its beginnings; indeed, the histories of alchemy and chemistry are closely linked. Transmutation of elements has been accomplished in modern chemistry.

Bibliography

See L. Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science (8 vol., 1923–58); A. J. Hopkins, Alchemy: Child of Greek Philosophy (1943); C. A. Burland, The Arts of the Alchemists (1967); J. Lindsay, The Origins of Alchemy in Graeco-Roman Egypt (1970).

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alchemy

Pseudoscience focused on the attempt to change base metals into gold. Ancient alchemists believed that, under the correct astrological conditions, lead could be “perfected” into gold. They tried to hasten this transformation by heating and refining the metal in a variety of chemical processes, most of which were kept secret. Alchemy was practiced in much of the ancient world, from China and India to Greece. It migrated to Egypt during the Hellenistic period and was later revived in 12th-century Europe through translations of Arabic texts into Latin. Medieval European alchemists made some useful discoveries, including mineral acids and alcohol. The revival led to the development of pharmacology under the influence of Paracelsus and to the rise of modern chemistry. Not until the 19th century were the gold-making processes of alchemists finally discredited.

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alchemy

the pseudoscientific predecessor of chemistry that sought a method of transmuting base metals into gold, an elixir to prolong life indefinitely, a panacea or universal remedy, and an alkahest or universal solvent

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alchemy [′al·kə·mē]

(chemistry)

A speculative chemical system having as its central aims the transmutation of base metals to gold and the discovery of the philosopher's stone.

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Alchemy 

a unique cultural phenomenon especially widespread in Western Europe during the late Middle Ages. The word alchemy is derived from the Arabic al-chimia, which can be traced to the Greek chëmëia; it is related either to chéō, “I pour” or “cast,” which connects alchemy with the art of melting and pouring metals, or to Chēmía (Egypt), which connects alchemy with its place of origin.

The major goal of the alchemists, dating from antiquity, was to transform (“transmute”) base metals into precious metals with the aid of an imaginary object—“the philosopher’s stone.” The period of alchemy, from the fourth to the 16th centuries, is characterized not only by the spread of speculative and “experimental” alchemy but by the simultaneous development of a practical craft-oriented chemistry. But it would be unjust to ascribe the entire increase of real chemical knowledge during this period to the latter; in each of the branches of alchemy it is possible to find beginnings of positive knowledge. It is apparent from the alchemy textbooks still in existence that alchemists had discovered or perfected the means for obtaining valuable mixtures and compounds—for instance, mineral and vegetable dyes and colors, glass, enamel, metallic alloys, acids, alkalies, salts, and medicinal preparations. They also created or improved methods of laboratory work, including distillation, sublimation, and filtration, and invented new laboratory apparatus, such as stoves for prolonged heating and stills.

Sometimes, though very rarely, it appears that alchemists had anticipated later-discovered laws of chemistry. For example, in R. Bacon’s The Mirror of Alchemy there seems to be an unconscious approach to the law of constancy of composition. Speaking about the preparation of the “red elixir” from mercury and sulfur, Bacon writes: “. . . select a material containing pure . . . mercury mixed, uniformly according to a definite rule and in the necessary proportions with sulfur. . . .” The alchemists made speculative generalizations in natural philosophy as well—for example, the idea of the genesis of metals, founded on the material unity of the world and the theoretical possibility of reciprocal transformations of materials. Stated by Bacon, it can be traced, however, to the Arabs, who, in their turn, had modified Aristotle’s views on this question.

Alchemy spread widely: there are strong Greco-Egyptian, Arabic, and Western European alchemic traditions. The achievements of the Chinese and Indian alchemists had no practical influence on the West. In Russia alchemy was not widespread.

The most important successes of the Greco-Egyptian alchemists were obtaining metals from ore and preparing and processing metallic alloys (the Papyrus X of Leiden); the knowledge of chemical processes peculiar to various trades—for instance, distillation, means for assaying, purifying, and alloying metals, amalgamation, glassmaking, and dyeing—was deepened and broadened. Egyptian alchemists in particular were responsible for the discovery of sal ammoniac. Arabic-speaking alchemists—Geber, Avi-cenna, Abu Al-Razi and others—created the first real pharmacy, although their contribution to alchemy itself was not great. As the tenth-century Persian doctor Abu Mansur explains, the Arabs used organic materials, such as sugarcane and vegetable acids, in the preparation of medicines.

Western economic, military, and political ties with the East played an important role in the spread of alchemy. In the period from the ninth to the 15th century European alchemy produced eminent thinkers who left their mark on the history of medieval culture. Among them were Ramón Lull (1235–1315), who wrote Testament Explaining in Two Volumes the General Chemical Art; Arnald de Villanova (1250–1313?), About Poisons; Albertus Magnus (c. 1193–1280), About Metals and Minerals; Fra Bonaventura (1214–74), who established the fact that silver dissolves in nitric acid and gold in aqua regia; and Roger Bacon (c. 1214—c. 1292), The Power of Alchemy, The Mirror of Alchemy —one of the most prominent thinkers of the Middle Ages, who maintained that direct experience was the single criterion for true knowledge.

Empirical alchemy led to the direct scientific experiment consciously and purposefully formulated. The alchemic method of experiment itself was essentially false because it arose from the a priori certainty that “truth”—the key to the transformation of metals into gold or silver—was already given from above and that it could be revealed by magic ritual and mystical revelation as easily as “Open, sesame!”

Western alchemy in particular can be viewed as part of the medieval system of natural scientific knowledge. However, the numerous manuscripts of charlatans must be regarded critically, as must the scholastic manner of thinking peculiar to the Middle Ages and the language of alchemy and its ultimate results, which reflect the reign of magic and mysticism in science. Not until the 16th century, when iat-rochemistry originated, was the impossibility of “transmutation” of metals made clear by experimental methods and careful research; by the turn of the 19th century iat-rochemistry, combined with applied (technical) chemistry, led to the formation of chemistry as a science. For the science of that time the artificial creation of gold or silver was merely a practical problem. The initial theoretical premise of alchemy—the common nature of matter and its universal transmutability—can hardly be considered false.

It would be incorrect to say that alchemy is only a rudimentary form of contemporary chemistry. In alchemy diverse manifestations of the creative activity of medieval man were indissolubly united. When alchemy employed experiments complicated by magic, it used the methodology of rational science even though these methods were not fully developed. When alchemy considered itself an art, a symbolic outlook predominated; thus the symbols drawn by the alchemists were not so much designations of concepts as allegories and images—for example, a reversible chemical reaction was sometimes symbolized by a dragon swallowing its own tail, the seven metals corresponded to the seven planets, mercury and sulfur to the maternal and paternal principles, and so on.

Similarly, the obscurity of language in many of the alchemic tracts can be explained by the fact that they organically merge scientific and artistic representations of the world into an as yet undifferentiated form; the 14th-century alchemistic verses of G. Chaucer are an example. Besides this, alchemy’s philosophical and theological creativity contained both its pagan and Christian sources. It was precisely for this reason that Christianized alchemy (white magic) was legalized by Christian ideology and alchemy in its pre-Christian form (black magic) was regarded as unofficial and therefore a forbidden pursuit. This in many ways explains the tragic fate of several European alchemists, among them Roger Bacon and Alexander Setonius. European alchemy could unite theoretician and experimenter and practical craftsman, poet and artist, scholar and mystic, theologian and philosopher, and black magician and faithful Christian. Such a view presents alchemy as a phenomenon combining many aspects of medieval thought.

REFERENCES

Menshutkin, B. N. Khimiia i puti ee razvitiia. Moscow-Leningrad, 1937.
Morozov, N. A. V Poiskakh filosofskogo kamn’a. St. Petersburg, 1909.
Giua, M. Istoriya khimii. (Translated from Italian.) Moscow, 1966.
Berthelot, M. Les origines de l’alchimie. Paris, 1885.
Lippmann, E. O. Entstehung und Ausbreitung der Alchemie, vols. 1–3. Berlin-Weinheim, 1919–54.
Stillman, J. M. The Story of Alchemy and Early Chemistry. New York, [1960].
Read, J. Through Alchemy to Chemistry. London, 1957.

V. L. RABINOVICH