A Short History of Chemistry

"[Magnus] was a diligent and successful worker, and added many chemical facts to those known by Geber, as, for instance, the purification of gold, the preparation of arsenic, etc."

"Thomas Aquinas... was a favorite pupil of Albertus Magnus... He was devoted to mathematics and at the same time was a great alchemist. He... wrote several books on alchemy, all of which are obscure and unintelligible. His chief treatise was the "Most Secret Treasure of Alchemy." He wrote on the making of artificial gems, and, according to some, was the first to make use of the term amalgam for alloys containing mercury."

"Roger Bacon['s]... success... brought with it the reputation of being in league with the devil, and he was severely persecuted while at Oxford. He did not in this have the good fortune of Albertus Magnus, or lacked his skill and tact. He replied to his accusers by a strong tract, "De Nullitate Magice" in which he showed that no such thing as magic could exist, and that what his accusers thought were the work of spirits were but ordinary operations of nature. Still, in spite of his arguments, he was imprisoned ten years. ...His chief writings were : — 1. "'." In this his high appreciation is shown of the experimental method and the inductive philosophy, afterwards advocated by his namesake, Francis Bacon. 2. "Speculum Alchymim." 3. "Breve Breviarium de Dono Dei.""

"He [Roger Bacon] collected the facts known to the alchemists before his time, and followed Geber closely in many things. He knew of gun powder, but speaks of it obscurely. According to some he mentions saltpetre and sulphur by name as two constituents, and the third constituent under the anagram luru mone capubre, which is convertible into carbonum pulvere. He probably got this knowledge from some Arabic source. ...Gunpowder was first used by the English at the battle of Crecy, more than fifty years after the death of Bacon."

"Roger Bacon... subjected organic substances to , and noticed that inflammable gases were produced; and he showed that air was necessary for the burning of a lamp. He was an ardent supporter of the belief in the transmutation of the metals, and related some very wonderful things as to the power of the philosopher's stone. ...he drew direct from Albertus Magnus and the Arabians."

"The following quotation from [Roger Bacon's] treatise "Speculum Secretorum" will serve to give his ideas as to the transmutation of the metals : "To wish to transform one kind into the other, as to make silver out of lead, or gold out of copper, is as absurd as to pretend to create anything out of nothing. The true alchemists never held such a pretence. What is the real problem? The problem is, first, by means of art, to remove from a rough, earthy mineral a bright metallic substance, like lead, tin, or copper. But that is only the first step towards perfection; and the chemist's work must not stop there, for, besides that, he must look for some means of getting the other metals, which are always present in the bowels of the earth in an adulterated condition. For example, the most perfect is gold, which one always finds in the native state. Gold is perfect, because in it nature finished her work. It is necessary, then, to imitate nature; but here a grave difficulty presents itself. Nature does not count the cycles which she takes for her work, to which the term of life of a man is but as an hour. It is, then, important to find some means which will permit one to do in a little time that which nature does in a very much longer time. It is this means which the alchemists call, indifferently, the elixir, the philosopher's stone, etc.""