 | ALCHEMY: ANCIENT AND MODERN. Being a brief account of the alchemistic doctrines, and their relations, to mysticism on the one hand, and to recent discoveries in physical science on the other hand; together with some particulars regarding the lives and teachings of the most noted alchemists. |  |
CONTENTS
- CHAPTER 1. THE MEANING OF ALCHEMY. . . . . . . . . . . 1
- § 1. The Aim of Alchemy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
- § 2. The Transcendental Theory of Alchemy. . . . . . 2
- § 3. Failure of the Transcendental Theory. . . . . . 3
- § 4. The Qualifications of the Adept . . . . . . . . 4
- § 5. Alchemistic Language. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
- § 6. Alchemists of a Mystical Type . . . . . . . . . 7
- § 7. The Meaning of Alchemy. . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
- § 8. Opinions of other Writers . . . . . . . . . . . 8
- § 9. The Basic Idea of Alchemy . . . . . . . . . . . 10
- § 10. The Law of Analogy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
- § 11. The Dual Nature of Alchemy . . . . . . . . . . 13
- § 12. "Body, Soul and Spirit". . . . . . . . . . . . 14
- § 13. Alchemy, Mysticism and Modern Science. . . . . 15
- CHAPTER II. THE THEORY OF PHYSICAL ALCHEMY . . . . . . 17
- § 14. Supposed Proofs of Transmutation . . . . . . . 17
- § 15. The Alchemistic Elements . . . . . . . . . . . 18
- § 16. Aristotle's Views regarding the Elements . . . 19
- § 17. The Sulphur Mercury Theory . . . . . . . . . . 20
- § 18. The Sulphur-Mercury Salt Theory. . . . . . . . 22
- § 19. Alchemistic Elements and Principles. . . . . . 23
- § 20. The Growth of the Metals . . . . . . . . . . . 25
- § 21. Alchemy and Astrology. . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
- § 22. Alchemistic View of the Nature of Gold . . . . 27
- § 23. The Philosopher's Stone. . . . . . . . . . . . 29
- § 24. The Nature of the Philosopher's Stone. . . . . 30
- § 25. The Theory of Development. . . . . . . . . . . 32
- § 26. The Powers of the Philosopher's Stone. . . . . 34
- § 27. The Elixir of Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
- § 28. The Practical Methods of the Alchemists. . . . 36
- CHAPTER III. THE ALCHEMISTS (A. BEFORE PARACELSUS) . 39
- § 29. Hermes Trismegistos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
- § 30. The Smaragdine Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
- § 31. Zosimus of Panopolis . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
- § 32. Geber. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
- § 33. Other Arabian Alchemists . . . . . . . . . . . 44
- § 34. Albertus Magnus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
- § 35. Thomas Aquinas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
- § 36. Roger Bacon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
- § 37. Arnold de Villanova. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
- § 38. Raymond Lully. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
- § 39. Peter Bonus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
- § 40. Nicolas Flamel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
- § 41. "Basil Valentine" and the Triumphal Chariot
of Antimony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 - § 42. Isaac of Holland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
- § 43. Bernard Trevisan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
- § 44. Sir George Ripley. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
- § 45. Thomas Norton. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
- CHAPTER IV. THE ALCHEMISTS (B. PARACELSUS
AND AFTER). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 - § 46. Paracelsus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
- § 47. Views of Paracelsus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
- § 48. Iatro-chemistry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
- § 49. The Rosicrucian Society. . . . . . . . . . . . 62
- § 50. Thomas Charnock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
- § 51. Andreas Libavius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
- § 52. Edward Kelley and John Dee . . . . . . . . . . 67
- § 53. Henry Khunrath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
- § 54. Alexander Sethon and Michael Sendivogius . . . 70
- § 55. Michael Maier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
- § 56. Jacob Boehme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
- § 57. J. B. van Helmont and F. M. van Helmont. . . . 75
- § 58. Johann Rudolf Glauber. . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
- § 59. Thomas Vaughan ("Eugenius Philalethes"). . . . 77
- § 60. "Eirenaeus Philalethes" and George Starkey . . 79
- CHAPTER V. THE OUTCOME OF ALCHEMY. . . . . . . . . . 81
- § 61. Did the Alchemists achieve the Magnum Opus? . . . . . . . 81
- § 62. The Testimony of van Helmont . . . . . . . . . . 82
- § 63. The Testimony of Helvetius . . . . . . . . . . . 83
- § 64. Helvetius obtains the Philosopher's Stone. . . . 85
- § 65. Helvetius performs a Transmutation . . . . . . . 87
- § 66. Helvetius's Gold Assayed . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
- § 67. Helvetius's Gold Further Tested. . . . . . . . . 88
- § 68. The Genesis of Chemistry . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
- § 69. The Degeneracy of Alchemy. . . . . . . . . . . . 90
- § 70. "Count Cagliostro" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
- CHAPTER VI. THE AGE OF MODERN CHEMISTRY. . . . . . . 94
- § 71. The Birth of Modern Chemistry. . . . . . . . . . 94
- § 72. The Phlogiston Theory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
- § 73. Boyle and the Definition of an Element . . . . . 96
- § 74. The Stoichiometric Laws. . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
- § 75. Dalton's Atomic Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
- § 76. The Determination of the Atomic Weights of the Elements . . . . . . . .102
- § 77. Prout's Hypothesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
- § 78. The "Periodic Law" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
- § 79. The Corpuscular Theory of Matter . . . . . . . . 109
- § 80. Proof that the Electrons are not Matter. . . . . 110
- § 81. The Electronic Theory of Matter. . . . . . . . . 112
- § 82. The Etheric Theory of Matter . . . . . . . . . . 113
- § 83. Further Evidence of the Complexity of the Atoms. 114
- § 84. Views of Wald and Ostwald. . . . . . . . . . . . 115
- CHAPTER VII. MODERN ALCHEMY. . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
- § 85. "Modern Alchemy" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
- § 86. X-Rays and Becquerel Rays. . . . . . . . . . . . 117
- § 87. The Discovery of Radium. . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
- § 88. Chemical Properties of Radium. . . . . . . . . . 119
- § 89. The Radioactivity of Radium. . . . . . . . . . . 120
- § 90. The Disintegration of the Radium Atom. . . . . . 122
- § 91. "Induced Radioactivity". . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
- § 92. Properties of Uranium and Thorium. . . . . . . . 123
- § 93. The Radium Emanation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
- § 94. The Production of Helium from Emanation. . . . . 125
- § 95. Nature of this Change. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
- § 96. Is this Change a true Transmutation? . . . . . . 128
- § 97. The Production of Neon from Emanation. . . . . . 130
- § 98. Ramsay's Experiments on Copper . . . . . . . . . 132
- § 99. Further Experiments on Radium and Copper . . . . 134
- § 100. Ramsay's Experiments on Thorium and allied
Metals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 - § 101. The Possibility of Making Gold. . . . . . . . . 136
- § 102. The Significance of "Allotropy" . . . . . . . . 136
- § 103. Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
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| ALCHEMY: ANCIENT AND MODERN. Being a brief account of the alchemistic doctrines, and their relations, to mysticism on the one hand, and to recent discoveries in physical science on the other hand; together with some particulars regarding the lives and teachings of the most noted alchemists. | |