Alchemy :: Expository Essays Research Papers

AlchemyThe science by aid of which the chemic philosophers of medieval times attempted to transmute the baser metals into gold or silver. at that place is considerable divergence of opinion as to the etymology of the account book, but it would seem to be derived from the Arabic al=the, and kimya=chemistry, which in turn derives from the late classical chemica=chemistry, from chumeia=a mingling, or cheein, to pour come forth or mix, Aryan root ghu, to pour, whence the word gush. Mr. A. Wallis Budge in his Egyptian Magic, however, states that it is possible that it may be derived from the Egyptian word khemeia, that is to say the preparation of the black ore, or powder, which was regarded as the active principle in the transmutation of metals. To this name the Arabs affixed the member al, thus giving al-khemeia, or alchemy.HISTORY OF ALCHEMY From an early geological period the Egyptians possessed the reputation of being skillful workers in metals and, according to Greek writers, they were conversant with their transmutation, employing quicksilver in the process of separating gold and silver from the endemic matrix. The resulting oxide was supposed to possess marvelous powers, and it was thought that there resided within in the individualities of the various metals, that in it their various substances were incorporated. This black powder was mystically identify with the underworld form of the god Osiris, and consequently was credited with magical properties. consequently there grew up in Egypt the belief that magical powers existed in fluxes and alloys. probably such a belief existed passim Europe in confederacy with the bronze-working castes of its several races. Its was probably in the Byzantium of the fourth light speed, however, that alchemical science get embryonic form. There is little doubt that Egyptian tradition, filtering through Alexandrian Hellenic sources was the foundation upon which the infant science was built, and this is borne out b y the circumstance that the art was attributed to Hermes Trismegistus and supposed to be contained in its total in his works.The Arabs, after their conquest of Egypt in the seventh century, carried on the researches of the Alexandrian school, and through their instrumentality the art was brought to Morocco and thus in the eighth century to Spain, where it flourished exceedingly. Indeed, Spain from the ninth to the eleventh century became the repository of alchemic science, and the colleges of Seville, Cordova and Granada were the centers from which this science radiated throughout Europe.