Alchemy :: essays research papers

Alchemy, antique art practiced especi in ally in the Middle Ages, devoted principallyto discovering a substance that would transmute the more common metals into money or silver and to finding a means of indefinitely prolonging human life.Although its purposes and techniques were obscure and often illusory, alchemywas in many ways the predecessor of contemporary science, especially the science ofinterpersonal chemistry.The birthplace of alchemy was ancient Egypt, where, in Alexandria, it began to flash in the Hellenistic period simultaneously, a school of alchemy wasontogenesis in China. The writings of some of the early Greek philosophers mightbe considered to contain the first chemical theories and the theory advancedin the fifth century BC by Empedoclesthat all things are composed of air, earth,fire, and water supplywas influential in alchemy. The Roman emperor Caligula is saidto have instituted experiments for producing gold from orpiment, a sulfide ofarsenic, and the empero r Diocletian is said to have ordered all Egyptian usagesconcerning the chemistry of gold and silver to be burned in order to stop suchexperiments. Zosimus the Theban (ab give away AD 250-300) discovered that sulfuricacid is a solvent of metals, and he liberated type O from the red oxide ofmercury.The fundamental concept of alchemy stemmed from the Aristotelian school of thought thatall things tend to reach perfection. Because other metals were thought to beless(prenominal) "perfect" than gold, it was reasonable to assume that nature formed goldout of other metals deep within the earth and that with sufficient skill and coating an artisan could duplicate this process in the workshop. Effortstoward this goal were empirical and mulish at first, but by the 4th centuryAD, astrology, magic, and ritual had begun to pull together 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 consequently known and believed. TheArabian alchemists worked with gold and mercury, arsenic and sulfur, and saltsand acids, and they became familiar with a ample range of what are now calledchemical reagents. They believed that metals are compound bodies, do up ofmercury and sulfur in different proportions. Their scientific gospel truth was thepotentiality of transmutation, and their methods were mostly blind gropingsyet, in this way, they found many recent substances and invented many usefulprocesses.>From the Arabs, alchemy generally found its way through Spain into Europe.