ALCHYMY

ALCHYMY, or Alchemy, a higher or more refined kind of Chemistry, employed in the more mysterious Researches of the Art. See CHEMISTRY. The Word is compounded of the Arabic Particle of Augmentation, Al, and the Latin Chymia, Egyptian Kenia, or Greek χυμεία, Chemistry.The Name Alchymy is of no long standing: The first time it occurs, is in Julius Firmicus Maternus, an Author who lived under Constantine the Great, and who in his Mathesis, C. XV. speaking of the Influences of the Heavenly Bodies, affirms, "that if the Moon be in the House of Saturn, at the Time a Child is born, he shall be skilled in Alchymy."The great Objects or Ends pursued by Alchymy, are, 1°, The making of Gold; which is attempted three different ways: by Separation; by Maturation; and by Transmutation; which last is to be effected by means of what they call the Philosopher’s Stone. See GOLD.—See also Transmutation, Philosopher’s Stone, &c.With a View to this End, Alchymy, in some ancient Writers, is also called χρυσοποιητική, Chrysopoetics, i.e., the Art of making Gold——And hence also the Artists themselves are called χρυσοποιοί, Poets, Makers, and χρυσοποιηταί, Gold-makers.



2°, An Universal Medicine, adequate to all Diseases. See ELIXIR. 3°, An Universal Dissolvent, or Alkahest. See ALKAHEST.4°, An Universal Ferment; or a Matter which being applied to any Seed, shall increase its Fecundity to Infinity: e.g., if it be applied to Gold, it changes the Gold into the Philosopher’s Stone of Gold; if to Silver, into the Philosopher’s Stone of Silver, i.e., into a Matter which transmutes everything into Silver; if to a Tree, the Result is the Philosopher’s Stone of the Tree, which transmutes everything it is applied to into Trees, &c.

The Origin and Antiquity of Alchymy are much controverted.—If regard may be had to Legend and Tradition, it must be as old as the Flood; nay, Adam himself is represented by the Alchymists as an Adept. A great part, not only of the Heathen Mythology, but of the Jewish and Christian Revelations, are supposed to refer hereto: Thus, Suidas will have the Secret of the Philosopher’s Stone couched in the Fable of the Argonauts; others find it in the Books of Moses, &c.

But, if the Age of the Art be examined by the Monuments of History; it will lose a deal of this fancied Antiquity.—The learned Daub, Olaus Borrichius, has taken immense Pains to prove it known to the ancient Greeks and Egyptians. Herm. Conringius, on the contrary, with equal Address, undertakes to show its Novelty.

In effect, not one of the ancient Poets, Philosophers, or Physicians, from Homer till 400 Years after Christ, mention any such thing—The first Author who speaks of making Gold, is Zosimus the Panopolitan, who lived towards the Beginning of the Vth Century, and who has an express Treatise, περί της θείας τέχνης ποιήσεως χρυσοῦ καὶ ἀργύρου, Of the divine Art of making Gold and Silver, still extant in Manuscript in the French King’s Library. The next is Æneas Gazaeus, another Greek Writer, towards the Close of the same Century, in whom we have the following Passage: "Such as are skilled in the Ways of Nature, can take Silver and Tin, and changing their Nature, turn them into Gold," The same Writer tells us, he was "wont to style himself χρυσευτής, Gold-finder, and χυμευτής, Chymist." Hence we may gather, there was some such Art in being in that Age; but, as neither of these Authors relate how long it had been known before, their Testimony will not carry us back beyond the Age wherein they lived.

Nor do we find any earlier, plainer Traces of the Universal Medicine: not a Syllable of any such thing in all the Physicians and Naturalists, from Agesilaus to Geber the Arab, who is supposed to have lived in the VIIIth Century. In that Author’s Work, intitled, The Philosopher’s Stone, mention is made of “a Medicine which cures all Leprosies:” This Passage some Authors suppose to have given the first Hint of the Matter; though Geber himself, perhaps, meant no such thing: For, by attending to the Arabic Style and Diction of this Author, which abounds in Allegory, it appears highly probable, that by Araz he means Gold, and by Leprosies or Diseases, the other Metals, which are all impure in comparison of Gold. Suidas accounts for this total Silence of Authors in respect of Alchymy, by observing, that Diocletian procured all the Books of the ancient Egyptians to be burnt; and that it was in these the great Mysteries of Chemistry were contained.

ALCHYMY