The Effect Of Alchemy

[The] History of chemistry especially alchemyÐ'... The most lively imagination is not capable of devising a thought which could have acted more powerfully and consistently on the minds and faculties of men, than the very idea of the Philosopher's Stone. Without this idea, chemistry would not now stand in its present perfectionÐ'... [For] in order to know that the Philosopher's Stone did not really exist, it was indispensable that every substance accessibleÐ'... should be observed and examined (Liebig 53).

Justis von Liebig, along with many more today, believed that alchemy was the precursor of chemistry. The idea of alchemy was considered old by 300 BC and it continued to grow throughout the entire world, even if there was no real link between civilizations until the 1800's. The search for riches and immortality was such an awe-inspiring ideal that it called the attention of every great mind from Isaac Newton to Frederic Soddy. It is often compared to the tale where a man told his two sons that he left them gold buried in his vineyard; after digging the sons found no gold, but by turning the soil, a plentiful vintage was produced. One can see how then, that the search for mystical things, especially alchemy, led to technology today.

Most historians accept that alchemy did not derive from one source but arose in most, if not all early civilizations (Brock 3). For example all countries that developed metallurgy, such as Siberia, and Indonesia had mythologies that explained the metals presence and growth (Brock 4). For example it was common belief, in some places, that metals "grew in the womb of nature" (Brock 5). Also there is the fact that people just naturally search for what alchemy provides. Egypt and China, two entirely different civilizations, separated by miles of land, water, and mountains, both thought that by preserving ones body, one would achieve immortality (Ronan 176). This is proves that humans consistently search for what alchemy provides. That constant interest led to discovery.

The Chinese were one of the first to think of the concept of "the elixir of life", which was supposed to be a solution that gave oneself immortality. This idea of immortality was not limited to the elixir of life however, such as the concept that what our bodies lose is what makes us die. That concept led to the discovery of how to extract steroid preparations from urine (Brock 7). Religion was also applied to the idea of immortality. Those who followed the Taoist religion took the phrase "put the body into a state of harmony and perfection" to heart and also started mixing Yin-rich resources and Yang-rich materials together and watching the reactions (Ronan 175). Those reactions then caused the Chinese to create organized empirical studies of different materials. This led to the invention of gunpowder, a mixture of Yin-rich saltpeter and Yang-rich sulfur. Other achievement of the Chinese came from Nai tan- a type of Chinese alchemy that has to do with the body. It encouraged the experimentation with body fluids, and through that the discovery of steroids and the isolation of sex hormones (Brock 8). As for creations, Chinese practices in alchemy made them one of the first to create the still, and through that, they were able to distill alcohol by the 2nd century (Ronan 175).

Greek alchemy was more focused on the transmutation of metals, and theories of matter. The transmutation of metals did not lead to any amazing discoveries, most of them being just dying the metal; however the theories of matter, mainly the one that divides matter into four elements was an accepted theory until the late 1700's. The Pre-Socratic philosophers came up with the idea that all substances came from one matter. Later both Plato and Aristotle had written about this matter, calling it featureless (Brock 12). This matter then could be influenced into being made into one of four elements, water, air, fire, and earth. They defined each by hot, cold, moist, and dry qualities, water being moist and cold, air being moist and hot, fire hot and dry, and earth dry and cold (Brock 12). Through the quality of being moist, the idea of cohesion was formed.

At the expense of workshop practice, for one group of alchemical philosopher's astrology, magic and religious ritual grew. These alchemists started applying religion to the metals, by symbolizing the death, resurrection, and perfection of Christ, using different colored dyes (Brock 17). While this may seem like the wrong way to approach things, as William Brock states, "Ð'... until the 19th century, most scientific activities, were fundamentally, religious ones" (17). This did cause things to be explored that otherwise would not have and many uses came out of it. For example a separate group grew interested in theories of matter and promoted the idea of particles and atoms, known then as minima naturalis (Brock 18).

Arabian alchemy's main achievements were all the work of Jabir. He came up with the idea that metals were generated inside the earth by a mixture of sulfur, a smoky, fiery substance and mercury, a watery principle. This idea lead to the stoic belief that a spirit (mercury) held minerals together and a soul (sulfur) (Ronan 174). He applied the particle theory to this saying that particles of sulfur and mercury would thicken inside the earth until homogeneity occurred. Thus density was explained. Things that were lighter, were lighter because their particles were not packed together enough. So in order to make gold one must pack the particles of substances closer together. This causes a fixation of the sublimation of mercury and creates the clichÐ"© version of the Philosopher's Stone.

Because of all the experimentation of mercury, by the early middle ages alchemy started to generate a bad name for itself for the reason that the mercury had caused negative side affects and because of the fake gold that spread because