ALCHEMY

Derived from the Arabic al-kimia, the Egyptian art that strove to change substances from the known and commonplace to something other in the attempt to uncover universal secrets. It began in ancient China and was practiced in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe for millennia until it gave way to modern science about 400 years ago. It was based originally on the idea that everything was made up of four elements earth, air, fire, and water– -mixed in different proportions in different sub-stances; changing their proportions would change the substance, also known as transmutation. Medieval alchemists searched to uncover the following universal secrets:

1. the elixir of life, which would confer immor-tality;
2. the panacea, which would cure all ills;
3. the philosopher’s stone, which would turn base metals into gold; and
4. the alkahest, which would melt anything and be very useful in experiments and also in war.

Although regarded with some disdain today, the work of the experimental alchemists should not be dismissed lightly. In their searches they heated, pounded, mixed and tested everything they could find and in doing so discovered much about many different materials; they established many of the chemical processes

• distillation,
• fusion,
• calcination,
• solution,
• sublimation,
• putrefaction,
• fermentation
  that we take for granted today. They accumulated expertise and knowledge that formed the basis for much of modern chemistry.

However, there was one striking difference between the new mechanical philosophers and the older alchemists: The mechanical philosophers were opposed in principle to secrecy and increasingly adopted a conception of knowledge as something for the public benefit. They believed that everything should be published and open to public scrutiny. In this way obscurities and mistakes could be exposed and eliminated in critical public discussion. One figure in this story is especially interesting Isaac Newton, perhaps the most famous natural philosopher of the 17th century or any century. His achievements are taken as paradigms of scientific research. His published work was disciplined in method nothing was claimed that had not been argued for by a combination of induction and deduction, the latter modelled on the deductive method of geometry.

• I’m seeing a correlation between alchemist secrecy and modern corporate opacity – lacking transparency.
• inductive vs deductive reasoning in geometry – the former is coming to conclusions based off observations while the latter is coming to conclusions based on pre conceived facts.

In his private life, however, Newton was deeply interested in alchemy. He took copious notes on alchemical books and manuscripts and he carried out prolonged and detailed experimental studies, believing that his own experiments would be most productive if they proceeded in conjunction with the study of records of the ancient past.

As part of his natural philosophy, Newton was interested in the interactions of very small particles, knowledge of which he believed to be hidden in allegorical form in alchemical writings. It was the most mythical alchemical writings that he thought were the most important to study as these were thought to represent the oldest part of alchemy.

Newton’s studies and experiments provided important insights into what was and was not possible by alchemical manipulations. Nevertheless he never published anything directly concerned with alchemy.

Today we tend to regard alchemists as “knaves and impostors,” happily now a thing of the past. However, like Newton and the contemporary mechanical philosophers, we should draw a distinction. There were two distinct groups: the genuine seekers after knowledge to whom today’s scientists are indebted for their contributions to scientific understanding, and the rogues and villains who exploited claims to secret knowledge for their own ends, the pseudoscientists of their day.