Alchemy :: essays research papers

Alchemy, ancient art salutary especially in the Middle Ages, devoted chieflyto discovering a message that would transmute the more common metals intogold or silver and to conclusion a means of indefinitely prolonging human life.Although its purposes and techniques were dubious and often illusory, interpersonal chemistrywas in many ways the predecessor of modern perception, especially the science ofchemistry.The birthplace of alchemy was ancient Egypt, where, in Alexandria, it began toflourish in the classic period simultaneously, a tutor of alchemy wasdeveloping in China. The literature of some of the early Greek philosophers mightbe considered to contain the offset printing chemical theories and the theory advancedin the 5th century BC by Empedoclesthat all things ar composed of air, earth,fire, and waterwas influential in alchemy. The Roman emperor Caligula is saidto have instituted experiments for producing gold from orpiment, a sulfide ofarsenic, and the emperor Diocleti an is said to have orderinged all Egyptian kit and boodleconcerning the chemistry of gold and silver to be burned in order to stop suchexperiments. Zosimus the Theban (about AD 250-300) discovered that sulfuric caustic is a solvent of metals, and he liberated oxygen from the red oxide of mercury.The complete concept of alchemy stemmed from the Aristotelian doctrine thatall things bunk to reach perfection. Because other metals were thought to beless "perfect" than gold, it was fair to assume that nature formed goldout of other metals involved within the earth and that with sufficient skill anddiligence an artisan could mate this process in the workshop. Effortstoward this goal were empirical and practical at first, solely by the 4th centuryAD, astrology, magic, and ritual had begun to gain prominence.A school of pharmacy flourished in Arabia during the caliphates of the Abbasidsfrom 750 to 1258. The earliest known work of this school is the SummaPerfectionis (Summit of Perfection), attributed to the Arabian scientist andphilosopher Geber the work is consequently the oldest book on chemistry properin the world and is a collection of all that was then known and believed. TheArabian alchemists worked with gold and mercury, arsenic and sulfur, and saltsand acids, and they became familiar with a wide range of what are now calledchemical reagents. They believed that metals are compound bodies, made up ofmercury and sulfur in different proportions. Their scientific creed was thepotentiality of transmutation, and their methods were broadly speaking blind gropingsyet, in this way, they found many new substances and invented many recyclableprocesses.>From the Arabs, alchemy generally found its way through Spain into Europe.