A Modern Theory of Alchemy (1)

u If the sea were of mercury,

I could tint it all into gold n.
(RAYMUND
LULL.)
Introductory.

One of the strangest pictures presented to us in the history of

science has been that of the mediaeval alchemist. Working in
ignorance, albeit with 'perseverance and enthusiasm, led on by his
mad belief that he could transmute base metals into isilver and gold,
he was so enthralled that he thought he had succeeded in what we
now know was impossible; an,d, so thinking, he persuaded rich and
poor that he could bring them the blessings of wealth and perpetual
youth. By many a famous painting labelled ( The Alchemist ), by
descriptions in our English literature of the alchemistic charlatan,
even by the early chapters in our histories of chemistry, this false
picture of the earliest alchemist has been deeply impressed upon
our minds. The picture is ,so clear that even now, when we know
that alchemy began, not in Europe but in Egypt, far back in the
early centuries of our era, we are tempted to think of this art as
suddenly appearing, with this strangest of all beliefs fully developed,
with no apparent cause, no background to justify its existence.
History teaches that nothing happens suddenly. There is a cause
for every event, for every advance of human intelligence as well as
for every mi,sconception which may have crept in to block for a time
the wheels of progress. Therefore it is proper to ask what are the
facts in regard to earliest alchemy. Why should that belief in the
tra;nsmutationinto gold have existed ? Why later should alchemy
have continued to control the best intellects of the ancient world for
more than a thousand years - when not a !single ounce of any

(1) Address beforethe Section of History of the American Chemical Society,

April 23, 1924.
 A MODERN THEORY OF ALCHEMY 59

precious metal ever emerged to reward ,the enormous labors of its

devotees ?
It is now about thirty years since I began to ask myself these ques-
tions, attempting to explain thiis apparently unanswerable problem.
The old theory of alchemy offered no ,solution, no answer to these
questions. Its apparent purpose was to leave us staggering with
amazement. Today I hope to present to you an explanation which
seems so simple that the only wonder remaining iis how we who
have rea,d the original manuscripts should have failed to see it.

Early Greek theories.

As an introduction, let us agree that no conception of the alche-
mist's mentality can be obtained without visualizing the conditions-
the mode of thought - the philosophy which ruled in the Greek
colony of Alexandria where alchemy began. The ancient city
- the (( Queen city of the Mediterranean ) - where Christianity
first took rank as a world-religion, where philoisophy, mathe-
matics and ,astronomy reached for a time their climax, where
alchemy began - all has disappeared; the (( moist intellectual, the
richest and wickedest ) city of the old world is sunk ,seven to ten
meters below the desert sands and the harbor waters; and gone are
all traces of the temple laboratories or utensils of which our his-
torians Iseem so certain. Yet we know that Alexandria was essen-
tially Greek and that the whole world, at the beginning of our era,
was controlled intellectually by the teachings of PLATOand ARISTOTLE;
and that, since the decline of Athens, Alexandria in Egypt was then
the world's intellectual center the (( Modern Athens ).
As touching the conception of the material world, there is one
book which preeminently epitomizes the ancient ideas, ideas so dif-
ferent from our own that it is difficult for us to conceive of them
as poissible. That book lis the (( Timaeus )) of PLATO,of which
ARCHER-HIND
lsays

In this dialogue we find, as it were, the focus to which the rays

of PLATO'Sthought converge... that, in fact, the Timaeus, and the
Timaeuis alone, enables us to recognize Platonism as a complete
and coherent scheme of monistic idealism.

Now, in regard to the ancient habit of thought, JOWETT in his

famous preface says (( there iis no principle so apparent in the
 60 ARTHUR JOHN HOPKINS

physics of the Timaeus... as that of continuity .. PLATO'S funda-

mental proposition (( Matteris One imay be taken as the first alche-
mistic tenet (1).
The second important doctrine of the Timaeus, accepted by the
Alexand,rians,is that nothing exists except as it is good.

Everything exists exactly in proportion as it fulfils the end of

being as ip,erfectas possible; for just in that degree it participates
in the idea of the Good, which is the ultimate source o!f all
exis,tence.

To this Ishouldbe added, thirdly, the derived doctrine, really deve-

loped by the later Gnostics, ( All Nature is ,striving towards impro-
vement )).
And, lastly there is that strange belief, born of the ancient love of
analogy - the so-called doctrine of hylozoism - all nature is living.

The interpretation.

These four doctrines, fundamental portions of the ancient popular

beliefs and unquestioned because they carried the hall-marks of the
highest Greek authority, need to be translated into modern language
before we can gain their true significance. We would say today,
if we held these beliefs, that all metals are alike in substance; that
there is no material difference between copper and lead; that no
qualitative analysis is possible. Again, matter is like man. In men,
the body is the same, in one as in another; and is therefore negli-
gible, besides being of the same low nature as the most despi,sed of
the four Greek elements, Earth .. When we wish to distinguish
one man from his fellownman, we think of his higher nature or
( Spirit o, like to the higher elements ( Air ) and ( Fire .. There-
fore when we ispeak of the metals, we distinguish them by their
Qualities - the higher quali,ties aisthe important things. The ancient
philosopher thought lightly of matter. He was ignorant of the mo-
dern doctrine of its indestructibility. Hi,s conception of matter

(1) This is expressed by the alchemists in their well-known motto, attached

O
to the Ouroboros snake", the serpenteatingits owntail, the circleso formed
representingthe circleof the worldor eternity,in the centerof which are the
wordsQvtr6 rdv,or . All is One,.
 A MODERN THEORY OF ALCHEMY 61

was as a necessary universal essence, pervading the isentient world;

but he diid not think it important. On the other hand, qualities he
knew of old. As you can make a man good or bad by changing his
spirit, thus changing his whole nature, so also you can improve the
metals by manipulating their qualities. But since the metals are
supposed to be striving for improvement, the process of the
alchemist should be easy to make them gain more and more the
perfect fire ispirit of gold (1). Individuality in metals is due alone
to the proportion of this fire-quality. So we fin,d that to the alche-
mifsts matter was One and unknowable while qualities were the
actual, practical things. Now the outstanding quality which differ-
entiated Isilver and gold from the base metals, isuch as copper and
lead, was the color, the pure white of silver or the yellow-red of
the alloy which he knew as gold. It seemed feasible to transmute
copper into silver or gold, either by removing the (( Earth ((the
tendency to tarnish) or by increasing the elements ( Air , and
( Fire , i. e. by improving their fire-quality or color. PLATO,fol-
lowing the Indian philosophy of KAND)A, believes that colors are
fire-like, for he speaks of ( Colors which conisist of a flame stream-
ing off from every object ). (Timaeus, LXVII.)
Before we leave this discussion, let us see what the attitude of
the alchemists was towards this subject of 'the hylozoism of the
metals. The following quotations give their exact words.

The ( man of copper ,) has changed color and nature and become
a ( mian of silver )). (PELAGUS.)
HEIMES supposes that man is a microcosm - the image of the
world, as ZOSIMUSrelates. (OLYMPIODORUS.)
Copper is like man. It has a soul and a body. The soul... is the
tinctorial spirit. (STEPHANUS.)
Know that the concentrated and strong material which we have
eulogized and whose secret we have guarded (the elixir) should
be like a microcosm, like man and such beings. It ought to be
capable of marriage and conception, decoimposition and finite
existence; also it ought to have a male and a female and be capable
of education, in order to become the perfect elixir. (GERBER.)
The mass of corporeal things is only the resting place and refuge
of spiritual things. In itself, it (matter) has neither force nor

(1) Nature says ROGER BACON in the , Mirrorof Alchemy, has always
hadfor an endandtriesceaselesslyto reachperfection- that is, gold n.
 62 ARTHUR JOHN HOPKINS

utility when the kinetic force (of spirit) has left it... It has force
only by the spirit. (GEBER.)
The intimate nature of the active living soul prevails over the
intimate nature of the natural body, for the action of the soul on
the body transmutes it and gives to it an immaterial nature like
its own. (GEBER.)

In such quaint language, GEBERand the older authors try to

convey to ius the thought that when dead matter has received the
tinctorial spirit or color-spirit, it becomes spiritualized and that
until that takes place, matter is like the lifeless body of a man.
In order to take the next !step in advance, we have to seek an
origin still further back than PLATO,perhaps further back than
EMPEDOCLESwith his four elements, earth, water, air and fire, each
higher than the preceeding. Perhaps we are led back to the dawn
of philosophy to find the origin of the idea of gradations of qua-
lities. The alchemists believed that as Fire iis higher than Air, so
gold is higher than silver; or, more exactly, the gold color, yellow
or red, is higher than the white color of silver, since the color was
the Spirit of the metal. The metals were graded by color. The base
metals ,showed little color, being ulsually tarnished. Of these copper
and mnercurywere the most brilliant. Silver and gold, the noble
metals, were untarnished oirdinarily,but silver being of a paler light
and capable of taking a bronze color was made sacred to the moon;
and gold whose color never changed was supposed to reflect the
fire-light of the sun. But still a higher color was recognized, violet
or purple, or ( Ios , !
Before this latter color, this alchemistic ideal of colors, can be
explained, it is necessary for us to understand something of the
practical work of transmiutation. It has been shown (1) that, in the
centuries preceeding the Christian era, an industry had risen and was
widespread throughout all the Mediterraneancountries, an industry
which may be collectively called one of imitation. All
things too
expensive for use by the common people were being produced in
facsimile. Imitation pearls were coming in, made from some silici-
ous concretions found in the Indian bamboo. The Papyrus Holmien-
sis contains many recipes for this industry. The
Royal or Tyrian
Purple was so expensive that its use was confined to royalty and the

(1) Cf. HAMMEr-JEBNSEN, Royal Academy of Denmark, Bulletin 1916,

pp. 290-302. (Isis, IV, 523-30.)
 A MODERN THEORY OF ALCHEMY 63o

priesthood. When later a good imitation of this was produced from

vegetable sources, Roman law placed penalties upon its use outside
of the above mentioned two classes. In Gaul, the production of alloys
of many colors, some like silver or like gold, was a profitable industry,
since tin was availabllefrom th:eislands of the Cassiterides and copper
near at hand in the Spanirshpeninsula. Thus, while philosophy was
enteri,ng Alexandria from Greece it was met by a stream of indusitry,
absorbingly interesting to the practical Egyptian people. These two
streams were united and unifiied by those artizans who were later
to call themselves alchemists. In both the Papyrus Leyden and in
the early alchemistic recipes of the pseudo-DEMoCRITus, we find a
union of recipes for making purple dye and for making colored
alloys. It i s probable that the idye interest wais the original (als it
was the more remunerative) industry, since we find evidence that
the technique of dyeing is carried over to the treatiment of the
metals. Especially to be noted is the use of mordant salts necessary
in dyeing, both for fixing and for varying the color. It is probable
that in the preparation of metallic alloys ,some of these salts were
used as fluxes to prevent oxidation; and then the alchemist (if with
his first triumph we may call him thus) made the discovery that
certain colors, some very beautiful, were produced upon. the surface
of the alloys thus prepared and that these colors could be varied by
the use 'of different fluxes, jiust as the colors of fabrics depended on
the mordaints used.
I isuppose that the second,discovery of thiis a,rtizan was what he
called his ferment or yeast. It was known that an alloy of base
metal and gold could be etched (by alum, etc.) so that the surface
(of a ring) lost its base metal and only the gold was in evidence.
A very small percent of gold Wa-s1sufficient. The popular explanation
was that the higher metal, even when present in very small
quantity,
by its more spiritual nature overcame the baseness or earthiness of
the mass, improving it and changing the whole into gold. ZOZIMUS
says :

This water, like yeast, must determine the fermentation destined

to produce the like by means of the like (He means more
of the
spiritual by means of the spirit) in the metal body which is to be
tinctured (i. e. colored). In fact, just as ye,ast, taken in small
quantity, ferments a great mass of dough, so also this little mass
of gold.... makes the whole ferment.
64 ARTHUR JOHN HOPKINS

And again ZozIMus says: (( The mysteryof the gold tincture is

to change'bodiesinto spirits, in order to .tintto spirituality.)
We may note here that the word to color or to tint is in Greek
the word pacrrTiw to baptize or to dip, borrowedfrom the dyeing
industry.
The fermentationtheory was confirmedin a remarkablemanner
during the attemptsof the alchemistsat bronzing i. e. producing
surface colors on the alloys. In modern practice, using the ,same
alloysand the samemordants,it has been found that a color simulat-
ing that of gold could be more easily obtainedif only a small per-
centageof gold is first fused into the alloy. In all 'thesecases, the
alchemiisticinterpretationwas the same as above described: the
higher, more spiritualcolor could only come from the introduction
of the essence or ispiritof gold. Goldbeing yellow has the kinetic
propertyof yellowing; and, as a ferment or ca,talyser,has infected
the whole mass with yellownessand preparedit, on treatment,to
becomereal gold.
But at times, duringthe bronzingprocess,a still highercolor than
yellow was obtained, the color which is called Ios and which we
translateviolet or purple, sometimesappearingeven 'scintillatingor
iridescent. When we recall that the alchemisticrecipes are found
accompaniedby recipes for makingTyrianpurple,it is obvious how
importantthe newly discoveredmetallic purple must have seemed,
made in the same work-shopand rivalling the color permittedto
priests and royalty only. There are indicationsof the belief that
just as gold could, as a ferment,change base metals into gold, so
this color, this higher Ios, could - if obtainablein sufficient quan-
tity to use - changenot metaltsonJybut all things into gold. A drop
of the infinite would (( wash awayall sins ). This was perhapsthe
<(Spirit of Metallicity) or the ( Philosopher'sStone ), the Elixir
for which the later alchemists were always madly seeking.
In orderthat we may not get too far .awayfrom the earlyalchemist,
I am giving here a few quotationsfrom the originalliterature.
The little leaf of gold gives birth to all the yellow of projection
and ferments all things. (ZosIMUS.)
Consider if it becomes clear yellow like the color of gold. If not,
it can not tint into a yellow like the gold color. In fact it is not
golden as to quality for the word quality (WroloTr) is derived from
the word " to do " or , to make , (irottv). The quality becomes gold
.andthen makes gold.
 A MODERN THEORY OF ALCHEMY 65

If then copper is made clear white, it becomes a spiritual body.

(PELAGUS.)
Copper does not tint but it is tinted; and when it has been tinted,
then it tints. (MARY.)
One must proceed in transmutation as one does in changing the
sea-product into true purple dye. In consequence, the Philosopher
says arsenic has a different power... according as to whether it
serves to tint into gold i. e. into purple, or whether it serves to tint
into white i. e. into silver (1). (ZosIMUS.)
When the red is obtained, increase the fire until you obtain the
perfect red in all the content of the vessel and there appears from
the union a color like the rainbow; next you get the royal color
(purple) which is permanent forever. (ZosIMus, (( On the Art ,,,
quoting AGATHODEMON.)
Don't you see that if the dyer puts the alum (mordant) and the
color in the dry state on the fabric, then the color does not per-
meate the parts of the cloth until he uses water. And so it is in
the case with you. (Anonymous, (( Collection of essays ..)
Gold and silver, simply spread as surface paints do not dominate
iron or copper. The metal must be treated with mordants.
(ZosIMus.)
When one yellows, the three become four (etc.)... at last, when
one tints to violet, all the materials come together to unity! (MARY.)
It is the tincture which is produced internally (in the body of
the metal) which is the tincture in violet, which also has been
called the (( Ios of Gold ,. (ZosIMus.)
By operating on gold you will have the ( Coral of Gold ),. (DEMO-
CRITUS.)
Project upon gold the (( Coral of Gold ,; but upon silver, gold.
(SYNESIUS.)

The Process.

In order to insure isuccess in the alchemistic process, four steps

are most frequently indicated. In the first, an alloy was made by
fusing together tin, lead, copper and iron. This alloy was known
as the ( Metal of Magnesia ) or mixed metal, very frequently also as
the ( All ) because each individual metal had thus lost its indivi-
duality and distinguishing properties (except fusibility) and was
supposed to be reduced to the (( Onness )) of PLATO'Sfirst matter.
The alloy was black by oxidation and blackness was considered the

(1) It would seem from this that gold was sometimesdefined as a metal upon
which a purple bronze could be produced.

VOL. VII- 5
 66 ARTHUll JOHN HOPKINS

absenceof all colors. At this stage it was readyto receiveany color

which the artizanwished to impress upon it. The second.stepwas
called the ( Argyropy, or silver makingprocesswhich was accom-
plished by the ( Tincturein white , which might be tin, mercury,
arsenic or antimony. These are especially effective in whitening
copper. The resultingwhite alloy was sometimes,curiously called
goild,, becauseit was so potentially. This is possibly the case in
the LeydenPapyrus. Next, after addinga fermentof gold, the white
alloy was yellowed. This process was called ( Chrysopy, or gold
making,and here the reagentswere sulphur,sulphur-wateror mor-
dant salts. Lastly comes the little defined process called losis ),
or makingof the Ios. Thuswe havethe muchquotedcolor-sequence:

Black - White - Yellow-red - Violet.

At a verymuch later datethe alchemistsdiscoveredthat by mixing
o the opposingelements ), Waterand Fire, as representedby mer-
cury and sulphur, they were able to producethe wonderful scarlet
of artificial orpiment or rouge. It was then that mercury and
sulphur began to be quoted as the fundamentalelements and only
then was the sequenceof colors changedto

Black - White - Red.

Both sequencesare found in the writingsof the fourteenthcentury
and beyond.
Some quotationsmay be helpful on the processand on the color-
sequence.
The property of the white elixir is to change everything black
into a permanent white. (GALDAKY.)
After having formed it (the metal of magnesia) we take a part of
it and add sulphur-water until the color and tone of the correspond-
ing metal (silver or gold) is produced... we cast on this the gold-
ferment compound and also the sulphur-water... and in order that
you may not mistake, whiten first. (ZosIMus.)
The philosophers have divided all the operations of the art into
four steps: Blackening, Whitening, Yellowing and Tinting in violet
(MEXavwatS, XEUKwatq, Eavewoat, Iwaot). (ZOSIMUS.) (GALDAKY.)
Some count five steps in the magisterium : -1, to reduce sub-
stances to their first material; - 2, to change t Our Earth ,, i. e. the
black magnesia, to a matter of sulphur and mercury; -3, to make
sulphur as close as possible to the mineral matter of the Sun and
Moon (gold and silver); --4, to compound from many things
 A MODERN THEORY OF ALCHEMY 67

a white elixir; - 5, to perfectly burn the white elixir to give it the

color of cinnabar and to start from this to make the red elixir.
(ALBERTUSMAGNUS,13th Century.)
How to give an object the gold color: Taking the earth called
ochre, put in on the fire until it reddens; then take and wash it in
water with sal ammoniac. Paste this on the object to be gilded; put
it in the fire and repeat until there comes smoke and the appearance
of color; then put it into water. (BERTHELOT, Trad., p. 311.)
(Note. - Compare this recipe with the following method recently
published in England. Red iron oxide is made into a paste with
water to the consistence of cream and this is pasted over the
article... It is then heated over a fire... at a moderate temperature,
until the paste is thoroughly dry... By means of smoke, a deposit
forms on the article and when this smoke begins to be dissipated
by the heat, the metal is considered to be sufficiently heated...
Cast work was colored a deep gold color.)
The white elixir removes the heat from copper and dyes it white
and trans&nutesit into silver artificially. The red elixir takes away
the coldness from silver and transmutes it into gold artificially.
(GALDAKY.)
Our stone has three colors. It is black at the beginning, white
in the middle, red at the end. (ALBERTUS.)
Increase the fire to the second degree (100?) to make the mate-
rial yellow; immediately raise it to the fourth degree (4000) until
the matter melts like wax and becomes the color of hyacinth. It is
then a noble matter, a royal medicine which promptly cures all
ills. It transmutes every kind of metal into pure gold, better than
natural gold... If you cast this material on one thousand parts of
common mercury, it will be transmuted into fine gold. (LULLY.)
I have seen and handled the philosophers' stone. It had the
color of powdered saffron. It was heavy and brilliant like
powdered glass. (VAN HELMONT.)
Increase the fire until by its force and power the material is
changed into a stone, very red, which the philosophers call Blood
or Purple, Red Coral or Red Sulphur. (ALBERTUS.)
How ought I to understand transmutation? How are Water and
Fire, enemies and contrary to each other, opposed by nature,
reunited in the same body in concord and affection? Oh, unbeliev-
able mixture! Xhence comes this unexpected friendship between
enemies? (OLYMPIODORUS.)
All will become red like the ruby. Then extract the color, as
dyers do, by suspending two days in water. The water receives
the color. Distill off the water and the red remains like honey
or wax. If a small quantity of this is ad,ded to silver or lead, it
will become gold, finer and softer than ordinary gold. (YAHIA
mw BAkR&)
68 ARTHUR JOHN HOPKINS

One thing is significant: the industry which began with the pur-
pose of furnishing the ,people with substitutes for expenrsivearticles
of decorationvouchsafedonly to the wealthy,substitutesfor pearls
and rubies, purple tissues, and gold and silver ornaments, this
industry before its expulsion from Egypt had settled down to a
business of preparing variously colored alloys and superimposing
upon their surfaces highly colored bronzing-effects. The object was
artistic, to furnish the gold and silver threads which were enmeshed
in the purple temple-draperies and the ornamental coverings of the
mummies. From an artistic point of view the effect was the import-
tant thing. The base metals after coloring, became silver; or were
gold. PLATO'S theory was confirmned. Artistically such alloys were
transmuted into the more noble forms.
In the quotations given above, color-words abound for this was a
color industry; but these color-words carry a significance beyond
anything which we can follow with our modern precise method of
definition. Metals are defined by their color or even by the color
which they are capable of receiving. Moreover,colors are agressive,
alchemical gold being capable of imparting yellowness to base metal
alloys; and the Elixir, as infinite goodness in color, being capable
of unlimited color-transmutation.
In order that there shall be no doubt as to the importance and
universality, as well as the significance, of color-words in the lite-
rature, let us refer again to the classic writings:
The useful thing is the tinctorial element. (ZOSIMUS.)
The ancient philosophers have said that all the arts have been
invented for the purpose of gaining something from life. Thus
the art of construction has for essential object the making of a
chair, a box or ia boat by means of the single quality of wooid.
Likewise the tinctorial art has been invented for the production
of a certain tincture and to produce a certain Quality. (PELAGUS.)
The two tinctures do not differ at all from one another... except
in color. (ZosIMus.)
If anyone is able to increase the yellow of gold or the whiteness
of silver, he can transmute by color. (GALDAKY.)
(Note that the significance of ihis (( increase ,, is shown by the
following quotation.)
Common gold does not produce a tincture by which other
metals may be colored, since it contains only sufficient color for
its own body. It contains no surplus tincture. (GALDA.rY.)
Mary has taught that the , Metal of Magnesia )) is the molybdo-
 A MODERN THEORY OF ALCHEMY 69

calc alloy (Pb-Cu) which is black for it has not yet been colored.
It must be tinted in order that the gold may no longer exist poten-
tially but kinetically. (OLYMPIODOR.)
Surely, dear friend, the true substance is a thing which colors;
and if it were not so the operations could not transmit the virtue.
(GEBER.)
Unless the process be regular... metals could indeed be colored,
but with a surface-color which pious and modest men could not
accept, for it could not tint. (GEBER.)
The Red Elixir tends, by similitude, to mingle with the red
color which silver contains internally. (GEBER.)
Scientists take sillver and tin... color and change its matter into
excellent gold. (AENEAS OF GAZA.)
Truly the great secret is in colors. (GEBER.)
.., of the signs, black, white, orange, red and sanguine... colors
appear and show themselves as vapors, as the rainbow in the
clouds. (PARACELSUS.)
Let art learn so much alchemy that it tinctures all metals into
gold. (JEAN DE MEUNG.)

Historical.

Considering the great and lasting influence which alchemy exerted

on the ancient and mediaeval world, its period of life in Egypt, as
related by SUIDAS,seems very short. From its unknown date of
beginning as a simple art up to its expulsion fromi its native soil,
after it had been established as a pseudo,science founded upon and
illustrating ,the philosophy of the Greek fathers, the period of its
duration was probably not greater than three centuries. The expul-
sion occurred in 292 A. D. (1) by order of the emperor DIOCLETIAN
who was then in Egypt.
After the date of this cataclysm, real alchemy ceased to exist. But
we may trace the influence and scattered remnants of the cult under
three heads : the art, the writings and the theory. 1. The art of
preparing alloys and of coloring metals has been the object of a

(1) Doubt has been thrown upon the reliability of this well known story of
SUIDAS, by HAMMER-JENSEN
and recently by THORNDIKB,the best argument
being that a such stories were common-. There is no doubt about the fact
that DIOCLETIAN was persecuting the Egyptians at about this time for the Coptic
church in Egypt at present dates from 284 A. D., the so-called " Year of perse-
cutions w. SUIDAS quotes early authorsand gives the exact wordingof the decree.
 70 ARTHUR JOHN HOPKINS

special historical study by BERTHELOT,

who has shown that it is
possible to trace the direct descent of modernbronzing (excluding
modern electrolytic processes) from the recipes in the Leyden
papyrus and the treatise of the pseudo-DEmocRITus.
Step by step, even
up to recent years, the recipes are the same. Technicalalchemy
survivedindependentlyof theory. 2. Accordingto the reportededict
of the Romanemperor,all the books of the alchemistswere to be
burned. Somemay have been exportedbefore this edict and a few
may have survived,for the busy copyi,stsof Syrianand Moslemaca-
demies have preserved for us a few-- all too few -of the writings.
Most of these came in to Europe trough Moslem Spain but even
there many were destroyed by the Christian conquerorsof that
country. Of the manuscriptswhich have come down to us, the
oldest, that of St. Markin Venice, dates from the eleventh century.
These manuscripts, recently translated by BERTHELOT,
are the isource
of our knowledgeof the writersof the earlycenturies. 3. The theory
of alchemyhas been least fortunateof these three divisions. In so
far as theory was indentical with the philosophy of PLATO and
ARISTOTLE,it lastedcontinuouslythroughRoman,MoslemandChristian
dominationseven up to the time of the Renascence. Appliedtheory
was dependentfor its life upon the preservationof alchemisticlite-
rature. As the latterbecamemoreand more distortedand mutilated,
the theory of the practice of alchemy became more and more misun-
derstood and finally utterly unintelligible. During this period of
misconception, translations of Arabic alchemistic literature began
to drift into WesternEuropeand in consequencethere arose,about
the thirteenthcentury,those writersand adeptsin alchemywhom I
havecalled Pseudo-Alchemists.
With greatenthusiasm,the youngmen of Franceacceptedthe idea
of transmutation- unfortunatelyinterpretedby themin its modern
literal sense. It was arguedthat if ignorantEgyptiansof the olden
time could succeed in changing copper into gold, so much more
shouldalchemybe successfulin enlightenedChristianFrance. There
was no one, alas, to tell them thatthe definitionof gold had
changed!
The Egyptianhad succeededin making what was (( gold )) to him.
But with our ideas of silver and gold already
acquired (1), trans-

(1) Voir BIRTHELOT, , La Chimie au Moyen Age, I. . 304. " The seven
signs *.
 A MODERN THEORY OF ALCHEMY 71

mutation had in the mean time become impossible. At one time,

hundreds of young men, having read the alchemistic manuscripts
recently received from Spain, crowded into Paris to learn the new
secret of transmutation and work in the laboratories where, suppo-
sedly, gold was being produced. At the same time, tempering this
enthusiasm, doubts also appeared. Arguments on the validi,ty of
transmutation had begun even in the earliest Spanish literature.
They are discussed pro and con in that famous book by AVICENNA
(pseudo EBNSINA) Ode A,nima in Arte Alchemiae ?, the book which
is thought to have most strongly aroused the interest of the great
men of Western Europe (1).
These pseudo-alchemists undertook their labors one thousand years
after real alchemy had disappeared. Their writings are valuable to
us because they reproduce the same color-words and in the same
sequence as are found in early alchemy. They possessed the alchem-
istic literature, probably more abun,dantly than we, but of this
they ,understood nothing. Yet it is from the beliefs and activities
of these charlatans that our former conception of alchemy was drawn.
Moreover, we have known for forty years that alchemy began in
Egypt, yet our text-books still reflect the ideas of the mediaeval
( alchemist )). There has been need of a theory of alchemy adapted
to its now well-established date and place of origin.
In order to mirror the more sensible doubts of those who lived
among a people gone mad with this new and unfortunate adventure,
the following quotations have been selected:

Alchemy may be compared to the man who told his sons that he
had left them gold buried somewhere in his vineyard; where they
by digging found no gold, but by turning up the mold about the
roots of the vines, ~procured a plentiful vintage. (BACON.)
Excellent gold is prepared - which one understands in color,
but not in substance. (VINCENT.)
Alchemy can not change metals but can only imitate them, e. g.,
to tint a metal yellow to give it the appearance of gold or to white
to make it look like silver. I have tested alchemistic gold. After

(1) The Spirit (Anima),as appliedto the metals,in the Timaeusand with
the alchemists,had meantthecolorbut in Francethe significancewas theolo.
gical. The bookwas writtenin Spain,but the originalhas ne*r been found.
Four Latin translations ar extant.
72 ARTHUR JOHN HOPKINS

six or seven heatings, it is burned and reduced to ashes.

(ALBERTUS.)
Those who whiten with white tinctures and yellow with yellow
tinctures, without changing the material nature of the metal, are
liars. They make neither true gold nor true silver. (ALBERTUS.)
Yet one can not succeed in making artificial metals identical
with natural metals... The elixir projected on copper to whiten
it does not protect it against reagents which consume copper and
not silver, such as lead, etc. (VINCENT.)
Natural metals can not be transmuted but one can nake imita-
tions, e. g., tinting a metal white or yellow in order to give it the
appearance of gold; to purify lead so that it appears like silver.
Yet the latter always remains lead. But one may give it qualities
so that people will be deceived. (VINCENT.)
SAFEDI continues thus : We concede, says SHEIK REYIS, the possi-
bility of coloring bronze to silver and silver to gold and to remove
from lead a great part of those things which are baseness in it,
but that the philosophic tinctures should in a short time be either
dissolved or be led in from the outside - this appears to me in
the slightest way possible. (FLUGEL'S Lexicon.)

The old theory and the new.

Since a simple people, such as those of old in Egypt, always think

simply, a theory which attempts to explain their role should first
put us in touch with the source of their primitive ideas, the inherited
theory which guided their activity; then any additions or new appli-
cations which they contributed; and finally (in the case of alchemy)
such a theory should make clear why the activities of simple artizans
should have attracted the attention, even ruled the thought of the
highest intelligence of the ancient world for more than ten cen-
turies.
The old theory of alchemy first complimented the alchemist by
assuming that he had an intelligence and a knowledge of the metals
proper for this twentieth century; and secondly insulted hiim by
calling him a liar and a charlatan.
The new theory assumes that the alchemist inherited the ideas of
the ( Oneness of matter ), of the importance of color and, especially,
transmutation. These ideas were born in the blood of the Greeco-
Egyptian of that time. The alchemist did not origiinatethem. Early
alchemy reflects the best ideas of a period when the physical world
appeared as a reflection of man; when also the dark picture of des-
 A MODERN THEORY OF ALCHEMY 73

truction towards which the world was hastening (as taught by many
of the pagan religions) was relieved only by the Gnostic doctrine
that ( all nature was striving towards improvement ).
We can see now that the first interest of the alchemist was in
color-effect and decoration. He who worked in dyes worked also to
produce dye-effects on metals. We know that the salts prescribed
for transmutation are the same as those used for mordants; that the
colors produced on the metals were the same as those now produced
by our modern bronzers (1). The silvering effect of arsenic, anti-
mony or mercury on copper is a matter of common knowledge, as
well as the variety of effects produced on various metals by the
alchemistic invention of ( Sulphur water )), now known as calcium
sulphide.
There is nothing surprising in the supposition that our alchemist,
with his interest in color, should naturally and unhesitatingly have
applied the popular Greek theories to the work of his own hands -
including the personification of the metals. That this should have
appealed of old may seem perhaps less extraordinary when it is born
in upon us that we ourselves at times (when we escape from the
prejudices born of qualitative analysis and our materialistic leanings)
are struck with the almost personal character of the metals, each with
its individual properties and each receptive and responsive in its
own way to the action of reagents!
The reason why we can not follow the alchemistic theory or look
upon those conceptions with sympathy is that the alchemist, like the
artist, was stressing the changeable Aristotelian qualities where we
stress weight and fixed qualities. Beyond the practical discoveries
of the alchemist, his great distinction lies in the fact that he, and
he alone, found in the popular philosophy a theory which neatly
explained the wonderful color-changes which he was able to effect;
at the same time furnishing a practical demonstration of the
appli-
cability of PLATO'Scolor-theory. If PLATOhad realized that his
( sober and sensible amusement ) was ever to be submitted to the
extreme test of laboratory demonstration, how well
might he have
hesitated to publish! Yet in spite of the boldness of PLATO'S thought,

(1) Voir HOPKINS, Chemical News, LXXXV, 1902, 49; Scientific Monthly,
1918, 530. (Isis, t. iI 129.)
74 ARTHUR JOHN HOPKINS

in spite of every handicap,the alchemist fitted theory to practce

and succeededfar beyond the realm of probability. Accordingto
his definition of ( gold ), transmutationwas effected. The alche-
mist obtainedwhat he wanted.
By the old theorywe are taught that the alchemistwas unsuccess-
ful, that the errorof the alchemistis obvious,that metalshavenever
been transmutedinto silver or gold. By the new theory,we can see
how unexpectedlyand amazingly!successfulhe was.
In other lines, also, he succeeded,improving the dye-industry,
inventing reflux distillation out of contact with the air, improving
the materialof the painter, adapting the painter'spalette so as to
obtainsublimationproducts,foundingthe bronzingindustry,besides
bringing forth for the first time an entirely new line of metallic
colors. To be sure, his theory,as we now see it, was faulty; but it
came from the greatmasterand it was the glory of the alchemistthat
he alone made its applicationpossible.

The influence of alchemy.

Just as itinerantChristianityin the third centurybecamea world

religion when,by the Greek-Christian CLEMENT of Alexandria,it was
adapted to meet the needs of Greek philosophy, so it seems probable
that in the same century and in the same place, the Gnostic
ZosIMUS (1) raised the simple art of the ancient technician to the
rankof a world-philosophy, acceptablealike to Greeksand Christians
in Alexandria; and during the following centuries to Persians,
Syriansand Mahomedans.It was not so much alchemy,as alchemy
confirmingthe universallyacceptedGreekphilosophy,alchemyiden-
tified with this phiilosophy,which conmmanded the attention of the
world. It was thus that alchemybecamea world-powerand lasted
until Greekontologyand teleologybegan to recede graduallybefore
the advance of modern experimental science.
When the old literatureof alchemywas brought into France,the
pseudo-alchemistsin their sordid hunt for wealth,knowingnothing
of Egyptian idealism or the ancient yearing for color, claiming to
be able to preparegold,built up for us that false pictureof alchemy

(1) Cf. BIaCTTH:LOT,Traduetion, pp. 90-91.

 A MODERN THEORY OF ALCHEMY 75

to which our historians have mistakenly referred us as true alchemy.

Even today in the Near-East, in Egypt, in Persia aandin Constanti-
nople, the pursuit of the alchemistic secret is istill going on and men
are working behind closed doors, attempting to transmute quicksilver
into gold or even claiming that they have already succeeded in
doing so.
When AVICENNA wrote on the (( Spirit in the Alehemistic Art ),
would that some angel-philologist, hovering near by, had explained
to him ssomeof those common Egyptian expressions, the language of
real alchemy, such as Body, Soul and Spirit; Tincture of the metals;
Baptizing of fabrics; that ancient sequence: Black, White, Yellow
and Violet; the true meaning of Ios and the importance of color I

Conclusion.

The new theory accepts the alchemist as a product of his time,

imbued as he was with the current thought of the ,people. Read
the original manuscripts ! You will find them filled with concep-
tions of the material world identical with the teachings of Greek
philosophy. You will find the writers insisting, on nearly every
page, upon a conception of the metals involving color; - color used
as synonymnouswith the metals (1); color-qualities in grades of
excellence and all qualities as kinetic and self-perpetuating. In thus
reading, one realizes that these conceptions were common to the
thought of the ancient world and one has to seek no further as to
why they should have made a lasting appeal to the minds of the
thoughtful, to the minds of the men who accepted this philosophy
and this practice as simply additional confirmation of what they
already believed.
Therefore, as has been said, the new theory is simple; for the
reason that it involves only principles which are made emphatic in
the literature; and, again, because this conception alone explains the
early sources of alchemy, connecting them with its active life and
practice - 'and, further, with the continued influence of alchemy
after its work in Egypt had ceased.

k1) Cf. BaRTaxi.or, Traduction, p. 66.

76 .ATHU['I JOHN HOPKINS

Moreoverthe new theoryis not an hypothesisbut is confirmedby

statementafter statement,like the blows of a hammer,in which the
old alchemistinsists that we shall see the color-senseof his meaning
--- shall see the truth as he sees it.

(Amherst, Massachusetts.) ARTHUR JOHN HOPKINS.