§ 62. The Testimony of van Helmont.
John Baptist van Helmont (see § 57), who was celebrated
alike for his skill as a physician and chemist and for his nobility of
character, testified in more than one place that he had himself carried
out the transmutation of mercury into gold. But, as we have mentioned
above, the composition of the Stone employed on these occasions was
unknown to him. He says: " . . . For truly, I have divers times seen it
[the Stone of the Philosophers], and handled it with my hands: but it
was of colour, such as is in Saffron in its Powder, yet weighty, and
shining like unto powdered Glass: There was once given unto me one
fourth part of one Grain: But I call a Grain the six hundredth part of
one Ounce: This quarter of one Grain therefore, being rouled up in
Paper, I projected upon eight Ounces of Quick-silver made hot in a
Crucible; and straightway all the Quick-silver, with a certain degree of
Noise, stood still from flowing, and being congealed, setled like unto a
yellow Lump: but after pouring it out, the Bellows blowing, there were
found eight Ounces, and a little less than eleven Grains [eight Ounces
less eleven Grains] of the purest Gold: Therefore one only Grain of
that Powder, had transchanged 19186 [19156] Parts of Quick-silver, equal
to itself, into the best Gold."1
And again: "I am constrained to believe that there is the Stone
which makes Gold, and which makes Silver; because I have at distinct
turns, made projection with my hand, of one grain of the Powder, upon
some thousand grains of hot Quick-silver; and the buisiness{sic}
succeeded in the Fire, even as Books do promise; a Circle of many People
standing by, together with a tickling Admiration of us all.... He who
first gave me the Gold-making Powder, had likewise also, at least as
much of it, as might be sufficient for changing two hundred thousand
Pounds of Gold: . . . For he gave me perhaps half a grain of that
Powder, and nine ounces and three quarters of Quick-silver were thereby
transchanged: But that Gold, a strange man [a stranger], being a Friend
of one evenings acquaintance, gave me."2
