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The Story of
Alchemy and the
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Chemistry, by M.
M. Pattison Muir
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Title: The Story of Alchemy and the
Beginnings of Chemistry
Author: M. M. Pattison Muir
Release Date: November 30, 2004
[eBook #14218]
Language: English
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AN ALCHEMICAL LABORATORY
THE STORY OF
ALCHEMY AND
THE
BEGINNINGS OF
CHEMISTRY
BY
M. M. PATTISON
MUIR, M.A.
FELLOW AND FORMERLY
PRÆLECTOR IN CHEMISTRY OF
GONVILLE AND CAIUS COLLEGE,
CAMBRIDGE
WITH EIGHTEEN
ILLUSTRATIONS
NEW AND ENLARGED
EDITION
"It is neither religious nor wise to judge that
of which you know nothing."
A Brief Guide to the Celestial Ruby, by
PHILALETHES (17th century)
Hodder and Stoughton
London, New York, Toronto
Click here for Table of Contents
The Useful Knowledge series

Cloth, One Shilling net each
List of the first thirty-four volumes
issued in the new style with Pictorial
Wrappers:—
Wireless Telegraphy. By ALFRED
T. STORY.
A Piece of Coal. By K.A. MARTIN,
F.G.S.
Architecture. By P.L.
WATERHOUSE.
The Cotton Plant. By F.
WILKINSON, F.G.S.
Plant Life. By GRANT ALLEN.
Wild Flowers. By Rev. Prof. G.
HENSLOW, F.L.S., F.G. S.
The Solar System. By G.F.
CHAMBERS, F.R. A.S.
Eclipses. By G.F. CHAMBERS,
F.R.A.S.
The Stars. By G.F.CHAMBERS,
F.R.A.S.
The Weather. By G.F.
CHAMBERS, F.R.A.S.
Animal Life. By B. LINDSAY.
Geographical Discovery. By
JOSEPH JACOBS.
The Atmosphere. By DOUGLAS
ARCHIBALD, M.A.
Alpine Climbing. By FRANCIS
GRIBBLE

Forest and Stream. By JAMES
RODWAY, F.L.S.
Fish Life. By W.P. PYCRAFT,
F.Z.S.
Bird Life. By W.P. PYCRAFT,
F.Z.S.
Primitive Man. By EDWARD
CLODD.
Ancient Egypt. By ROBINSON
SOUTTAR, M.A., D.C.L.
Story of Locomotion. By BECKLES
WILLSON.
The Earth in Past Ages. By H.G.
SEELEY, F.R.S.
The Empire. By E. SALMON.
King Alfred. By Sir WALTER
BESANT.
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.
LONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON
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.
NOTE TO NEW EDITION.
A few small changes have been made. The
last chapter has been re-written and
considerably enlarged.
M.M.P.M.
FARNHAM, September 1913.
CONTENTS.
CHAP.

I.
THE EXPLANATION OF
MATERIAL CHANGES
GIVEN BY GREEK
THINKERS
9
II.
A SKETCH OF
ALCHEMICAL THEORY
21
III.
THE ALCHEMICAL
NOTION OF THE UNITY
AND SIMPLICITY OF
NATURE
37
IV.
THE ALCHEMICAL
ELEMENTS AND
PRINCIPLES
45
V.
THE ALCHEMICAL
ESSENCE
58
VI.
ALCHEMY AS AN
EXPERIMENTAL ART
79
VII.

THE LANGUAGE OF
ALCHEMY
96
VIII.
THE DEGENERACY OF
ALCHEMY
105
IX.
PARACELSUS, AND
SOME OTHER
ALCHEMISTS
115
X.
SUMMARY OF THE
ALCHEMICAL DOCTRINE
—THE REPLACEMENT
OF THE THREE
PRINCIPLES OF THE
ALCHEMISTS BY THE
SINGLE PRINCIPLE OF
122
PHLOGISTON
XI.
THE EXAMINATION OF
THE PHENOMENA OF
COMBUSTION
140
XII.
THE RECOGNITION OF
CHEMICAL CHANGES AS

THE INTERACTIONS OF
DEFINITE SUBSTANCES
157
XIII.
THE CHEMICAL
ELEMENTS
CONTRASTED WITH THE
ALCHEMICAL
PRINCIPLES
165
XIV.
THE MODERN FORM OF
THE ALCHEMICAL
QUEST OF THE ONE
THING
179
INDEX 205
LIST OF
ILLUSTRATIONS
FIG. PAGE
AN ALCHEMICAL
LABORATORY
Frontispiece
1.
THE
MORTIFICATION
OF METALS
PRESENTED BY
THE IMAGE OF A

KING DEVOURING
HIS SON
66
2
THE
MORTIFICATION
and
3.
OF METALS
PRESENTED BY
IMAGES OF DEATH
AND BURIAL
67,68
4
and
5.
TWO MUST BE
CONJOINED TO
PRODUCE ONE
70,71
6.
HERMETICALLY
SEALING THE
NECK OF A GLASS
VESSEL
80
7.
SEALING BY
MEANS OF A
MERCURY TRAP

81
8.
AN ALCHEMICAL
COMMON COLD
STILL
82
9.
A BALNEUM MARIÆ
84
10.
ALCHEMICAL
DISTILLING
APPARATUS
85
11. A PELICAN 88
12.
AN ALCHEMIST
WITH A RETORT
89
13.
AN ALCHEMIST
PREPARING OIL OF
VITRIOL
92
14.
ALCHEMICAL
APPARATUS FOR
RECTIFYING
SPIRITS
93

15.
PURIFYING GOLD
PRESENTED BY
THE IMAGE OF A
SALAMANDER IN
THE FIRE
104
16.
PRIESTLEY'S
APPARATUS FOR
WORKING WITH
GASES
145
17.
APPARATUS USED
BY LAVOISIER IN
HIS EXPERIMENTS
ON BURNING
MERCURY IN AIR
156
THE STORY OF
ALCHEMY
AND
THE
BEGINNINGS OF
CHEMISTRY.
CHAPTER I
THE EXPLANATION OF
MATERIAL CHANGES
GIVEN BY THE GREEK

THINKERS.
For thousands of years before men had any
accurate and exact knowledge of the
changes of material things, they had
thought about these changes, regarded
them as revelations of spiritual truths,
built on them theories of things in heaven
and earth (and a good many things in
neither), and used them in manufactures,
arts, and handicrafts, especially in one
very curious manufacture wherein not the
thousandth fragment of a grain of the
finished article was ever produced.
The accurate and systematic study of the
changes which material things undergo is
called chemistry; we may, perhaps,
describe alchemy as the superficial, and
what may be called subjective,
examination of these changes, and the
speculative systems, and imaginary arts
and manufactures, founded on that
examination.
We are assured by many old writers that
Adam was the first alchemist, and we are
told by one of the initiated that Adam was
created on the sixth day, being the 15th of
March, of the first year of the world;