Part 5 (1/2)

_Conclusion_.--Water is changed into air and earth.

Did we not know that ordinary water holds certain substances in solution, and that boiling water acts on the vessel wherein it is boiled, we should have no objection to urge against this conclusion.

It only remained to trans.m.u.te fire that the trans.m.u.tation of the four elements might be completed.

_Experiment._--A piece of red-hot iron is placed in a bell-jar, filled with water, held over a basin containing water; the volume of the water decreases, and the air in the bell-jar takes fire when a lighted taper is brought into it.

_Conclusion._--Water is changed into fire.

That interpretation was perfectly reasonable at a time when the fact was unknown that water is composed of two gaseous substances; that one of these (oxygen) is absorbed by the iron, and the other (hydrogen) collects in the bell-jar, and ignites when brought into contact with a flame.

_Experiment_.--Lead, or any other metal except gold or silver, is calcined in the air; the metal loses its characteristic properties, and is changed into a powdery substance, a kind of cinder or calx.

When this cinder, which was said to be the result of the _death of the metal_, is heated in a crucible with some grains of wheat, one sees the metal revive, and resume its original form and properties.

_Conclusion._--The metal which had been destroyed is revivified by the grains of wheat and the action of fire.

Is this not to perform the miracle of the resurrection?

No objection can he raised to this interpretation, as long as we are ignorant of the phenomena of oxidation, and the reduction of oxides by means of carbon, or organic substances rich in carbon, such as sugar, flour, seeds, etc. Grains of wheat were the symbol of life, and, by extension, of the resurrection and eternal life.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. IX. _See p. 91._]

_Experiment_.--Ordinary lead is calcined in a cupel made of cinders or powdered bones; the lead is changed to a cinder which disappears into the cupel, and a b.u.t.ton of silver remains.

_Conclusion_.--The lead has vanished; what more natural than the conclusion that it has been transformed into silver? It was not known then that all specimens of lead contain more or less silver.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. X. _See p. 92._]

_Experiment._-The vapour of a.r.s.enic bleaches copper. This fact gave rise to many allegories and enigmas concerning the means of transforming copper into silver.

Sulphur, which acts on metals and changes many of them into black substances, was looked on as a very mysterious thing. It was with sulphur that the coagulation (solidification) of mercury was effected.

_Experiment_.--Mercury is allowed to fall, in a fine rain, on to melted sulphur; a black substance is produced; this black substance is heated in a closed vessel, it is volatilised and transformed into a beautiful red solid.

One could scarcely suppose that the black and the red substances are identical, if one did not know that they are composed of the same quant.i.ties of the same elements, sulphur and mercury.

How greatly must this phenomenon have affected the imagination of the chemists of ancient times, always so ready to be affected by everything that seemed supernatural!

Black and red were the symbols of darkness and light, of the evil and the good principle; and the union of these two principles represented the moral order. At a later time the idea helped to establish the alchemical doctrine that sulphur and mercury are the Principles of all things.

_Experiment._--Various organic substances are a.n.a.lysed by heating in a distillation-apparatus; the products are, in each case, a solid residue, liquids which distil off, and certain spirits which are disengaged.

The results supported the ancient theory which a.s.serted that _earth_, _water_, _air_, and _fire_ are the four Elements of the world. The solid residue represented _earth_; the liquid products of the distillation, _water_; and the spirituous substances, _air_. _Fire_ was regarded sometimes as the means of purification, sometimes as the soul, or invisible part, of all substances.

_Experiment_.-A strong acid is poured on to copper. The metal is attacked, and at last disappears, giving place to a green liquid, as transparent as water. A thin sheet of iron is plunged into the liquid; the copper re-appears, and the iron vanishes.

What more simple than to conclude that the iron has been transformed into copper?

Had lead, silver, or gold been used in place of copper, one would have said that the iron was transformed into lead, silver, or gold.