One thousand experiments in chemistry : with illustrations of natural phenomena ; and practical observations on the manufacturing and chemical processes at present pursued in the successful cultivation of the useful arts / by Colin Mackenzie.

Date:
1821
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: One thousand experiments in chemistry : with illustrations of natural phenomena ; and practical observations on the manufacturing and chemical processes at present pursued in the successful cultivation of the useful arts / by Colin Mackenzie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    an oxide of zinc; and that the combination of the zinc with the copper, was a result of the previous decomposition of the oxide. They supposed that the calamine was a sort of earth which purified the copper in the crucible; that is, ex- tracted from it the grosser parts. Modern chemists are aware that the oxide undergoes decomposition, and that the pure zinc, in combining with the copper, forms a new substance of different properties to either the calamine or the copper. Such conjectures as those just mentioned, favoured by the ability acquired in the reduction of ores and oxides, by which, what appeared to be merely gross earths were changed into brilliant metals, were but preludes to some wild conceits of fancy, which, in time, spread their influence over the greater part of Europe, and, at length,—after having, for above a thousand years, led multitudes of men to spend their lives, and exhaust princely fortunes, in the vainest attempts that ever became the objects of the ridicule of mankind laid the basis of modern chemical philosophy. It was of such wild conceits and hallucinations that alchemy* was consti- tuted, and the object of all the toils of its cultivators was the production of the “ Philosopher's Stone” which wras to transmute all other metals into gold,f to arrest the course of bodily infirmity in man, and to prevent, or remedy all dis- eases ; [and it was reported (by Friar Bacon, and others,) and vulgarly credited, that Artephius, by means of this magic arcanum, had lived to the age of 1025 years. In the writings of Athenagoras, who flourished about the middle of the second century of the Christian era, we find the first traces of this pretended science; and the Roman Emperor Caligula is said to have been initiated into its mys- teries,! and to have himself made some efforts to obtain gold * The term Alchemy is Arabic, and formed of al (the) and kemia (excellent) signifying by a little extension of meaning, the supreme art, and hence the ap- pellation, as well as the pursuits of modern chemistry, is evidently derived. Be- fore the introduction of this term into Europe by the Saracens, who were the earliest and most zealous cultivators of chemistry, or rather alchemy, in the middle ages, that art had been called, either in relation to some of its particular processes, chrysopoea, (fabrication of gold), arpyropoea (fabrication of silver,) or, generally, pyrotechnia, (art of fire) and the spagyric science. -f- The alchemist; supposed that gold was the metallic element in the state of perfect purity, and that all other metals differed from it only in their being con- taminated by baser substances. £ The writings of the alchemists consisted for the most part of mysterious ex- pressions, and the names of chemical apparatus were generally conveyed by