Alchemy :: Expository Essays Research Papers

chemistryThe science by aid of which the chemical philosophers of medieval times es posit to transmute the baser metals into gold or silver. There is considerable divergence of confidence as to the etymology of the word, but it would seem to be derived from the Arabic al=the, and kimya=chemistry, which in turn derives from the late Greek chemica=chemistry, from chumeia=a mingling, or cheein, to pour out 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 cunningistryicle al, thus giving al-khemeia, or alchemy.HISTORY OF ALCHEMY From an early period the Egyptians possessed the reputation of be 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 native matrix. The resulting oxide was supposed to possess rattling(prenominal) powers, and it was thought that there resided within in the individualities of the sundry(a) metals, that in it their various substances were incorporated. This black powder was mystically identified with the underworld form of the deity Osiris, and consequently was credited with magical properties. Thus there grew up in Egypt the picture that magical powers existed in fluxes and alloys. Probably such a belief existed throughout Europe in connection with the bronze-working castes of its several races. Its was probably in the Byzantium of the fourth degree Celsius, however, that alchemical science received embryonic form. There is itsy-bitsy doubt that Egyptian tradition, filtering through Alexandrian Hellenic sources was the foundation upon which the infant science was built, and this is borne out by th e circumstance that the art was attributed to Hermes Trismegistus and supposed to be contained in its entirety in his works.The Arabs, after their success 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.