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Home , Basil Valentine, Elixir of life, Frater Albertus, Fulcanelli, James Price (chemist), Leonhard Thurneysser

The Role of in . Part III

George B. Kauffman Department of , California State University, Fresno, California 93740, U.S.A.

Through the centuries gold-making has been alternatelyencouragedandbannedbyrulers and clergy, and the number of alleged transmutations is considerable. Undoubtedly, deliberatefraud or deception was involved although often it cannot be proved from the histoncalaccounts. Withtheadventofmodern nuclearphysicsand chemistrythealchemist's goal oftransmutation hasfinally been realized, althoughtheprocessisfar framcost-effective.

Official Attitudes toward Alchemy Gobbe to transmute imperfect into and gold, while in Through the centuries gold-making bas been alternately April, 1452 he granted a similar licence to John Mistelden, which encouraged and banned by monarchs and the Church. For example, was ratified by Parliament. As gold-making became of importante Diocletian (A.D. 245-316), Emperor of Rome from 284 to 313, to the state, on May 31, 14 56 three alchemists, John Fauceby, John feared that the Egyptians (Egypt was then under the domination Kirkeby and John Rayny, received an exclusive licence to seek the of the Roman Empire) might become rich and powerful through philosopher's stone and the . The impetus for this their knowledge of alchemy, for many alchemists, especially in support of alchemy was the presence of English troops in , , had mastered the art of preparing alloys resembling begun by the invasion of Henry V in 1415. A prescribed portion of gold and silver and were passing off their imitations as genuine all English gold pieces was coined from alchemical gold. Since it was metals (155). Therefore in A.D. 296 he ordered all books and used to pay English troops in France, there was little concern if the manuscripts'which treated of the admirable art of making gold and alchemists' gold did not pass the usual tests. The French troops were silver' to be burned (32, p. 27; 107, p. 123) (Figure 27). paid with similarly debased coins issued by Charles VII's Minister Consequently, only very few Egyptian alchemical works, those saved of Finance, Jacques Coeur (20, pp. 65-67). by chance from the flames, have been preserved. During medieval times European kings and princes supported According to the legend of Khalid (Kháled ben Yezid ibn alchemists and astrologers at their courts (23, pp. 54-61). They Moariia, died in A.D. 708 and described apocryphally as King of usually were motivated by avarice and credulity rather than an Egypt) and Morienus, Khalid obtained an alchemical manuscript interest in science, and their alchemists and astrologers lived a which he was unable to decipher. He offered a great reward to precarious existence sometimes suffering untimely deaths when anyone who could interpret it and perform a successful their efforts proved unsuccessful. Alchemical societies also transmutation, Khalid was soon surrounded by charlatans and flourished. Forexample, in 1654 an Alchemische Gesellschaft was rogues who spent his money and ate his Fig. 27 Roman Emperor Diocletian's soldiers burning Egyptian alchemical books (c.a. A.D. 290). food. After a scholar and adept named After Powell (32) Morienus Romanus had solved the riddle and prepared the philosopher's stone, Khalid ordered theimmediate execution of allthefalsealchemists(32, pp. 24-26; 105, pp. 107-111). In 1404, pointing out that counter- feiting of metals could be carried out under the pretext of alchemical ttansmutation, Henry IV (1366-1413), King of from 1399 to 1413, stringently prohibited the practice of alchemy in his kingdom (20, p. 65). Beginning in 1440, Henry IV's grandson, Henry VI (1421-1471), King of England from 1422 to 1461 and 1470 to 1471, reversed this prohibition by issuing formal concessions to alchemists and alchemical syndicates for the production of artificial gold. Thus injuly, 1444 he gave a special licence and concession to John

GoldBull, 1985, 18, (3) 109 founded in Nurnberg, and two years later the twenty-year-old the iron which Honauer had promised to transmute into gold (32, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) (156), later to achieve fame p. 88). In 1605 he also attempted to have Alexander Seton as a mathematician, metaphysician and scientist, was appointed its extradited from England and had imprisoned registrar and secretary (20, pp. 152-153). (20, pp. 144-148). Charles 11 (1630-1685), Restoration King of Great James IV (1473-1513), King of Scotland from 1488 to 1513, was Britain from 1660 to 1685, practised alchemy, and recent evidence an enlightened scientific amateur learned in medicine, dentistry ( activation analysis of his hair) has been adduced that his and alchemy whose alchemical experiments were an adjunct of his death was due to poisoning (157). In 1782, George III medical interests (145, Chap. 11). In 1603 Christian II (1583-1611), (1738-1820), King of Great Britain from 1760 to 1820, was shown Elector of Saxony (1591-1611) before whom Alexander Seton James Price's alchemically produced gold and offered Price his performed an apparently successful transmutation, was determined congratulations for his success in transmutation (20, pp. 264-266). to learn the secret of his lemon-yellow philosopher's stone, and when Closer to ourown time AdolfHitler, who also believed in , Seton refused to divulge it, he had him tortured on the rack (Figure was said to have kept gold-makers in an attempt to augment Nazi 28) (20, p. 142; 32, p. 92). Frederick I (1557-1608), Duke of 's treasury (36). Wurttemberg (1593-1608), hired alchemists, two or three at a time Bu t of all the European monarchs who supported and dabbled without looking at them, but he also got rid of them mercilessly in alchemy, Rudolf II (1552-1612), Holy Roman Emperor from 1576 whenever it suited him. For example, in the Spring of 1597 he had to 1612, was certainly the most enthusiastic. Eccentric and subject Georg Honauer hanged on a gold-leaf-covered gallows made from to fits of severe depression, he neglected his affairs of state and retired to , where he lived in seclusion, dabbling in the arts and sciences. He made the alchemist, Edward Kelly 'a Baron of the Kingdom of Bohemia' and imprisoned Alexander Seton for life. Rudolf outfitted an alchemical laboratory, and his court alchemists lived nearby in a narrow street in Prague that wound steeply upward from the cloisters of St. George's church toward St. Vitus' cathedral. Today it is still known as Golden Lane or the Street of the Alchemists (23, pp. 56-57; 32, Chap. 5). Since the practice of alchemy in ancient Egypt was in the hands of the priests, it is not surprising that through the years the Church has been concerned with gold-making. Alchemy was sometimes dangerous for monks to practise but at times tolerated, depending upon which particular Pope sat on the throne of St. Peter in Rome or Avignon. In the first year of his papacy Pope John XXII (Jacques Duese, 1244?-1334) issued astringent bull against alchemy, in which alchemists were accused of issuing counterfeit coins from alchemical gold and silver and in which churchmen practising or aiding alchemy were to be deprived of their office (20, pp. 54-55; 68, pp. 120-121). However, the alchemists claimed him as oneof theirown and ascribed to him a treatise on alchemy, 'EFiixir des philosophes, antrement IArt transmutatoire ...', published at Lyons in 1557. They stressed these words in his bull: 'Spondet quas non exhibent, divitias, pauperes alchymistae', maintaining that the prohibition applied only topooralchemists, i.e., false ones. PopeJohn was said

Fig. 28 A gruesorne depiction of an alchemist being tortured by Christian Il, Elector ofSaxony (1591-1611). Alexander Seton underwent a similar ordeal at the hands of Christian who was determined to find out the secret of Seton's apparently successful transtnutation. Only the prospect of thesecret being lostforever in theevent ofSeton's death saved hitn. After Powell (32)

110 GoldBull., 1985, 18, (3) to have had a laboratory at Avignon where he made large quantities of gold. When he died, there were found in his treasuries two hundred bars of gold, weighing in all at least ten tons, supposedly made by transmutation since the papal revenues at Avignon were small and reduced by war and the anti-Pope. Among other personalities in the history of alchemy who were connected with the Church are: ofCyrene (A.D. 370-413), Bishop of Ptolemais, (Libya); Vincent de Beauvais (1190-1264), a Dominican monk; St. (ca. 1200-1280), Bishop of Regensburg; St. Thomas Aquinis (1224-1274), also a Dominican; (ca. 1220-1292), a Franciscan monk; , said to be a Benedictine monk; Sir George Ripley (1415-1490), Canon of Bridlington; Thomas Vaughan (1622-1660), who took holy orders; andJoan Baptista van Helmont (1580-1644), who attended theJesuit school at Louvain (107). High and low orders in the Church practised alchemy, especially in Benedictine monasteries. In his chronicle of the Benedictine Abbey of Hirschau in Wurttemberg, Johannes Trithemius (1462-1516), Abbot of Sponheim and an alchemist, relates a succession of prelates addicted to alchemy, including the Archbishop of Treves, Abbot Bernhard of Northeim, Abbot Andreas of Bam berg, the Prior of the Carthusians at Nurnberg, and the Bishop of Brixen (20, pp. 79-80). After the Reformation, the interest in alchemy persisted among Protestant clergymen. In his 'Canonica' Martin Luther (1483-1546), a friend and patron of alchemy, wrote: 'The Art of Alchemy is rightly and truly the Philosophy of the Sages ofold, with which I am well pleased, not only by reason of its virtue and manifold usefulness, which it hath through Distillation and Sublimation in the metals, herbs, waters, oleities, but also by reason of the noble and beautiful likeness which it hath with the Resurrection of the Dead on the Day ofjudgement' (20, p. 80). Fig. 29 Portrayal of alchemist Leonhard Thurneysser performing an experiment Fraudulent Transmutations in the presence of his patron, the PlectorJohann Georg. Thurneysserwas not above fraud, 'turning' half an iron nail into gold by pre-painting a composite nail of the 'All that glisters is not gold' ('The Merchant of Venice', Act II, Sc. two metals and dissolving the paint in a solvent. 7, Line 65). This well known line of Shakespeare's is adumbrated by earlier authors, who were well aware of the existence of alloys that mimicked gold, e.g. Chaucer's'Hyt is not al gold that glareth' ('The House of 'One powders up gold and into a powder as fine as flour, 2 parts Fame' (1374-1385), Book I, Line 272) or Alanus de Insulis' (ca. of lead for 1 of gold, and having mixed them, works them up with gum. 1128-ca. 1202) 'Non teneas aurum totum quod splendet ut aurum' One covers a copper ring with the mixture; then heats. One repeats several times until the object has taken (Do not hold everything as gold which shines as gold). the colour. it is difficult to detect the fraud, since the touchstone gives the mark of true gold. The heat The ancient Egyptians were adept in the art of 'diplosis' and consumes the lead but not the gold' (159). 'triplosis' of gold or silver, i.e., the doubling and tripling of the quantity ofinetal by adulteration with base metals to produce alloys In 'The Canterbury Tales' (1390s) Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. with the appearance of gold or silver (20, pp. 24-25; 33, pp. 202-203; 1342-1400) discloses a trick of charlatan alchemists, which is not 67a, p. 137; 107, p. 123). For example, adding arsenic to copper recorded elsewhere at the time (18, p. 157; 34, pp. 96-98; 107, p. produced a white copper which appeared to be silver, while asmail 126). In 'The Canon's Yeoman's Tale' the Canon surreptitiously amount of gold dust changed the colour of a base toa brilliant inserts an ounce of silver into a hollow piece of coal, closes the hole yellow, which resembled gold. The famous Leyden Papyrus (17; with wax, and puts it in the furnace. The mercury which was to have 158), a collection of Egyptian recipes written in Greek dating from been transmuted vapourizes, while the wax melts, and the silver ca. A.D. 300, gives the following directions: runs out. In Chaucer's words, the Canon

G6/dBull., 1985, 18, (3) 111 'Out of his bosom took a beechen cole, from Geoffroy's report, read on April 15th, 1722, summarizes most In which ful subtilly was maad an hole, of the current practices: and therein put was of silver lymale 'Since the main intention of the operators is usually to show gold An unce, and stopped was withoute fayle or silver in the place of the minerals which they pretend to transmute, This hole with wex, to keep the lymail in'. they sometimes use double crucibles or cupels, or they put salts of gold orsilver in the bottom of them; they then cover the bottom with a paste (18, pp. Numerous descriptions of the fraudulent practices exist made by mixing crucible-dust with gum-water or wax; doing it so that 156-158; 20, pp. 107-112, 149-150, 244-245; 23, pp. 47-52, 76-77; this false bottom shall seem to be the real bottom. At other times, they 32, p. 15; 33, pp. 202-203; 56, pp. 29-31; 68, pp. 214-216; 147, pp. put gold or silver dust in a hole made in a piece of charcoal; or they 179-180; 159, pp. 35-36). One of the most elaborate hoaxes was saturate charcoal with solutions of those metals and then reduce the mals perpetrated in 1620 at Sedan upon Henri 1(1555-1623), Duke of to a powder, in order to project it upon the substances which they are going to transmute. (1591-1623) (20, pp. 149-150; 23, p. 49). A man who Bouillon 'They use rods with hollowed ends containing in the cavities gold described himself as a Rosicrucian allowed the prince himself to or silver filings, and stopped up with sawdust of the same wood. Stirring prepare 3 ounces offine gold from several ounces of litharge (PbO), their molten matter with these rods, the sticks burn, leaving in the purchased by the prince from a local apothecary, by heating with crucible the metal with which they have been charged .... Salts of gold a red powder. The prince bought all the man's supply of and silver can very easily be mixed with salts of lead, , and mercury. Grains or nuggets of gold and silver can be inclosed in lead. transmuting powder for 20 000 crowns and set out to prepare Gold may be whitened with quicksilver and made to pass for tin. The 300 000 ounces of gold from the 300 000 grains of powder that he collection of gold and silver from the substances with which they have had purchased. The man departed, never to return. The process been mixed may be made to pass for transmutation.... worked fora short while, but Boon failed. The charlatan had bought 'The aqua fort, r or aqua regia which they use is often already charged from the Sedan apothecaries all the litharge that they possessed, with solutions of gold or silver. The papers in which they wrap their chemicals are sometimes loaded with salts of these metals; and the seeded it with a little gold, and then sold it back to the original pasteboards they employ may conceal such salts in their thickness. Glass sellers. When this seeded litharge ran out in the shops, the bas been known to come outfrom furnacescharged with portions ofgold transmuting power of the red powder ceased. which had been admittedly slipped in while it was molten. The practice offraudulent transmutations continued into the 'Some alchemists have imposed on their spectators with nails half 18th century to such an extent that the Academy of Sciences of iron and half of gold or silver. They make believe that they effect a real transmutation of half of these nails by dipping it into a pretended charged the chemist Etienne Francois Geoffroy (the Elder) to tincture .... The nails, which seemed to be all iron, were really in two investigate and demonstrate to the Academy some of these pieces neatly soldered, the gold or silver to the iron, and washed with fraudulent practices (56, p. 30; 147, pp. 179-180; 160). A quotation an iron-coloured wash, that disappeared when they were dipped into a suitable liquid [Figure 291.... of like nature are those half-silver and half-iron nails which I present to this society today. Such also was the knife which a monk once presented to Queen Elizabeth of England, in the earlier years of her reign, the end of the blade of which was gold; as well also those knives, half silver and half iron, which a famous quack scattered a few years ago over Provence.... 'There have been also pieces of money and medals half gold and half silver. Such pieces were said to have been originally all silver, half of which was turned into gold by dipping them half-way into the philosopher's mixture, without the outer form or the engraved designs being essentially changed. I say that no such medal was ever all silver, but that they were in two pieces, one of silver the other of gold, so soldered together as to preserve the proper arrangement of the characters. The thing could be easily done by having several silver medals of the same kind, a little worn, and making moulds of them in sand for casting copies in gold. The sand would not even have to be very fine. Then let the medals be cut exactly to rule, fitted by filing, and the complementary halves soldered together with care, to have the designs precisely correspond.... 'They also took a silver medal, filed down one half of it on eitherside, without touching the other half, till they reduced it to about the thickness of a playing-card. Then, taking half of a medal of gold, they split it, and reducing the two parts in the required proportions, adjusted

Fig. 30 A sample of alchemical gold preserved in the Department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum. After Powell (32)

112 GoldBull., 1985, 18, (3) the outside part over the silvercore, preserving the proper arrangement of the designer. They then had a whole medal, halfsilver and halfgold, but with the gold part stuffed with silver. This, they said, was a silver medal which had not lain long enough in the elixir, and had only been partly transmuted. 'Half of a third medal was superficially gilded with an amalgam of gold, and represented a piece which, having been merely dipped into the elixir, had only begun to turn. 'When this game was played, the golden parts of the three pieces were whitened with mercury, so as to look as if they were all silver. To make the deception more complete, the performer, who should have a knack for conjuring, exhibited three genuine silver pieces that had not been tampered with, and permitted the audience to examine them. Taking them back, he slyly substituted his prepared pieces for them; fixed these in his glasses, poured in as much of his elixir as suited him, and withdrew them at the lapse of the designated intervals of time. He threw them into the fire and left them there long enough to drive away the mercury with which the gold was masked. Then he took them out, looking as if they were half of silver and half of gold; but with the difference that, in cutting the parts that seemed to be of gold, one was merely gilded on thesurface, another was gold filled with silver, and the third was gold all through' (161). Evidence of successful cases of gold-making exists in the many coins and medals cast to commemorate acts of transmutation, especiallyduring the 17th and 18th centuries (25,pp. 123-130; 32, Fig. 31 A medal struck from alchemical gold transmuted before His Highness p. 80; 33, pp. 199-201; 107; 160; 162; 163). Someofthese, alongwith Charles Philip, CountNatineoftheRhinelandon3lstDecember,1716. After Powell specimens of alchemical gold, are preserved in the Department of (32) Coins and Medals at the British Museum (27, p. 181) (Figure 30). Most bear inscriptions in words or symbols testifying to their the king' (25, p. 125; 107; 160). 'alchemical' origin. Of course, in view of the prevalence of the (4) Ferdinand 111 (1608-1657), Holy Roman Emperor (1637-1657), fraudulent practices just discussed, these pieces of numismatic struck several coins of alchemical gold (25, pp. 125-126; 33, p. evidence do not constitute positive proof of successful 200; 160) — (a) a medal from gold transmuted from iron byJ.P. transmutations. These material products of alchemical experiments Hofmann, inscribed 'Tincturae Guttae V Libram', indicating from the distant past may only testify to the credulity of various that five drops of tincture transmuted one pound of base metal, monarchs, some of whom even raised their alchemists to the 1647; (b) a 300-ducat medal from gold transmuted from three nobility. Since each coin or medal bas a long story connected with pounds of mercury by an alchemist named Richthausen, dated it, I shall merely list a few of the better documented cases alongwith Prague, 15 January 1648; (c) a medal from gold transmuted citations to sources which the interested reader may consult for from lead by Ferdinand with Richthausen's powder, inscribed himself. 'Aurea progenies plumbo prognata parente' (A golden (1) Edward II, King ofEngland from 1307 to 1327, orEdward III, daughter born of a leaden parent), 1650 (Figure 31). King of England from 1327 to 1377, supposedly struck rose (5) Leopold 1(1640-1705), son of Ferdinand III and Holy Roman nobles (coins worth 6s. 8d.) from the twenty-two tons of Emperor (1658-1705), had ducats minted in 1675, inscribed: alchemical gold made for him in the Tower of by 'Aus Wenzel Seylers Pulvers Macht Raymond Lully (ca. 1232 -1315) even though these coins were not Bin ich von Zinn zu Gold gemacht' minted until 1465 (25, pp. 123-125; 33, pp. 199-200; 68, pp. (By the power of Wenzel Seyler's powder 116-119). I was made into gold from tin). (2) Gustavus 11 Adolphus (1594-1632), King of Sweden (1611-1632) In 1677 he had a medallion struck from gold produced by and the military hero of Protestant during the Thirty anotherofSeyler's transmutations (Figure 32). Preserved at the Years' War, coined ducats made of gold transmuted from base Imperial Cabinet of Coins in Vienna, it was examined by Henry metal before his eyes by a lubeck merchant (33, p. 199;160, p. 816). Carrington Bolton, the historian and bibliographer of (3) Christian IV (1577-1648), King of Denmark and Norway chemistry, who found its specific gravity to be only 12.67, not (1588-1648), minted ducats in 1644, 1646, and 1647, the last 19.3 aswould be expected ofpure gold (20, pp. 170-193; 25, pp. inscribed 'Vide mira Domini' (Behold the Wondersof the Lord) 126-127). made from gold transmuted by Kaspar Harbach, 'alchemist to (6) Seven 22-carat 'alchemical' .gold pieces were stamped by an

GoldBull., 1985, 18, (3) 113 Fig. 32 A medallion struck on the orders of Leopold 1 in 1677 from alchemical gold transmuted from tin by Wenzel Seyler. After Federmann (28)

made silver (160). Modern Alchemy Today of course, alchemy has declined from its heyday in the 17 th and 18th centuries, when, as we have seen, many monarchs had their own court alchemists. Yet it is far from dead. Whenever I write an article on alchemy, I usually receive inquiries or commendations from modern practitioners of the Hermetic Art who think that because I write about alchemy I necessarily believe in it. Alchemical societies still exist, occult journals (164) still publish articles by believers in alchemy, and I am aware of at least one alchemical college featuring laboratory work in the United States (165). Despite the apparent victory of Lavoisier's chemistry at the end of the 18th century and the development of Dalton's atomic theory shortly thereafter, many respected 19th-century chemists, especially the Englishmen Humphry Davy (166), William Prout (167) and William Crookes (168), suspected that Lavoisier's simple substances were not simple and that Dalton's atoms were compound bodies (169). Like certain modern critics of particle physics, they viewed with scepticism the prevailing belief that nature was so complex as to be composed ofa multitude ofelementary building blocks. Belief in the fundamental simplicity of matter and in Prout's hypothesis that all elements are composed of hydrogen, the lightest element or primary matter (7tp6rri 6Xrl) of the ancients, was given new life by the unexpected discovery of the radioactive disintegration of unknown adept for Georg Stolle, a Lubeck goldsmith in 1704, elements, which seemed to confirm the ideas of both ancient and One of the pieces was given to Augustus I1(1670-1733), King modern alchemists. Thus belief in the possibility of transmutation of (1697-1706), and anotherwas deposited in a collection was well within the realm of normative l9th-century chemistry (152; of medals at Lubeck (25, pp. 128-129; 160). 153e). (7) CharlesXlI(1682-1718), King ofSweden (1697-1718), had 147 Consequently, alchemy experienced something of a renaissance ducats and a 2-ducat medal struck from gold transmuted from in the late 19th century, particularly in fan de siëcle Paris, then the lead by the Swedish General Paykhull in the presence of General centre for occult sciences and the Hermetic Arts. It was there that Hamilton of the British Royal Artillery and a chemist named the Association Alchimique de France was founded, with Francois Hieme (25, p. 129; 160). The medal bore the inscription Jollivet-Castelot (170), Louis Charles Emile Vial, F.C. Barlet, Papus `Hoc aurum arte chimica conflavit Holmiae 1706, O.A.V. Paikhull' (Gérard Encausse) (164), C. Théodore Tiffereau (171), August (O.A.V. Paykhull cast this gold by chemical art at Stockholm, 1706). Strindberg (151-153), Stephen Henry Emmens (1; 67b; 147, pp. (8) In 1710 The Master of the Mint of Lyons coined medals from 224-234; 152; 154; 171) and other so-called `hyperchemists' as gold transmuted in the presence of witnesses from lead byJean members (23, pp. 90-96; 152; 171-173). The association published Ttoins, a Provencal locksmith who called himself the Sieur a monthly review of alchemy called L'Hyperchzmáe, in whïch Delisle. The medals, bearing the inscription 'aurum ex arte alchemical experiments by Strindberg and other `hyperchemists' factum' (Gold made from art), were deposited in the Royal appeared. Cabinet at the museum in Versailles (25, pp. 130-131; 160; 163). Prominent among 20th-century alchemists was Archibald (9) Ernest Louis (1667-1738), Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt Cockren (27, Chap. 13; 32, pp.134-139; 148; 174; 175), arespected (1678-1738) and himself an amateur alchemist, in 1717 struck English osteopath (qualified in 1904) and electro-massage therapist several hundred ducats from gold which he had made from who spent forty years in experimentation before he allegedly lead. He also struck a hundred thalers from his own alchemical ly attained success. Since it was common practice to inject gold salts made silver (160). as a cureforrheumatism and arthritis, Cockren experimented with

I14 GoldBull., 1985, 18, (3) homeopathic methods of healing by using microscopic doses of gold. In his attempts to make solutions of gold compounds, he tried to prepare the 'oil of gold' of the alchemists in his London laboratory. Following the twelve keys of Basil Valentine's 'The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony', he began his alchemical experiments with antimony, then for his maleria prima he switched to another metal, the identity ofwhich he never revealed. He claimed to have obtained the red Elixir Vitae — the Philosopher's Stone — in an explosion. Many persons believed in the healing powers ofhis'oil of gold', and as late as 1965 there were elderly persons in London who still took small doses of Cockren's elixir. Cockren was killed in the bombing of London during World War II and carried his secret to his grave. The French are well represented by 20th-century practitioners of the Hermetic Art. In 1926 there was published in Paris under the nom deplume ofFulcanelli (30, pp. 198-207; 32, pp. 52-53) a book, 'Le Mystère des Cathédrales' (176), which revived the long held view that the Gothic cathedrals ofFrance were secret textbooks ofhidden wisdom and claimed that all the secrets of alchemy can be found in the carvings of the Great Porch ofNotre Dame Cathedral if one can interpret them (Figure 33). 's identity has never been discovered, and although his student, the alchemist and writer Eugène Canseliet claimed in the first edition of Fulcanelli's book Fig. 33 Bas relief from the Great Porch of the cathedral of Notre Dame. This and that'My Master ... is no more', Walter Lang, in the English edition carvings from other Gothic cathedrals in France were thought by the French alchemist (1971) states that Fulcanelli met Canseliet again 'after a lapse of Fulcanelli to hold the secrets of alchetny. After Powell (32) many years'. In 1937Jacques Bergier, research assistant to the French atomic physicist André Heilbronner, was approached by a mysterious stranger who asked him to warn Heilbronner that science Bergier was convinced that the stranger was Fulcanelli. Canseliet was on the brink of manipulating nuclear energy, which had been himselfworked on the preparation of the Philosopher's Stone for accomplished in the distant past with disastrous consequences. more than fifty years but admitted his failure (29, p. 21) (Figure 34).

Fig. 34 Eugène Canseliet, the well-known French alchemist and writer, and student of the mysterious Fulcanelli. After Powell (32)

GoidBull., 1985, 18, (3) 115 although spectral analysis did not reveal the presence of gold. His work, carried out with 1 800 grams of earth, consumed 22 years. Barbault claimed that a few drops of his elixir cured a variety of diseases. The modern alchemist claims that chemistry was the handmaiden of alchemy rather than the reverse (36), and he sharply differentiates alchemical methods from those of natural science. In the words of a contemporary adept: 'The hermetic philosopher does not seek to break up nuclei nor to split atoms like modern physicists, he does not want to provoke reactions in order to study the chemical properties of one or another substance. Instead, he aspires to enter into spiritual communion with Nature, from whom he acquired his own particular prime matter, that he saw and recognised, and that he will, with patience and humility, develop to the highest degree of perfection of which it is capable. Is the alchemist a scientist? No, he is a farmer working to bring his corn to golden ripeness' .... Knowledge of the substances used in the Work is obviously necessary, but it is by no means all that is needed for creating the Philosopher's Stone. This is where alchemy differs from chemistry and from any other science, in which experiments made in given conditions can always be repeated. To put it quite bluntly, this can never be done in alchemy. The Art may more truly he likened to agriculture, in that it aspires to raise a particularsubstance to a higher degree of perfection, to what may be called a certain degree of maturity; and in another way it may be said to need a 'knack', just as two cooks may use the same materials and the same recipe, yet only one of them has the right'touch', and so the results will be different' (30, pp. 210, 215). Scientific Alchemy Many of the goals of the ancient alchemists have now been attained by modern nuclear physicists and chemists (13, p. 657; 19, Chap. VI; 34, pp. 15 8-163; 112, Chap. VII; 177-179). The alchemists were indeed correct in their belief that transmutation occurs in nature. Henri Becquerel's discovery of radioactivity (180) and J J. Fig. 35 Contemporary French alchemist Armand Barbault, an engineer by training, Thomson's discovery of the electron (181) at the end of the 19th in his laboratory. After Powell (32) century led to an understanding of natural transmutation only a few years later. As a result of joint experiments carried out between late 1901 to early 1903 Ernest Rutherford and Frederick Soddy (182, 183) One of the most recent of French alchemists is Armand Barbault, proved that the radioactivity of thorium was the result of a (Figure 35) an engineer whose interest in astrology, encouraged by disintegration or decay process of one element into another. In other his wife, led him to laboratory explorations of the practical words, transmutation had been occurring spontaneously and possibilities of alchemy and the search for a new medicine inexorably in nature from time immemorial completely comparable to potable gold (29, pp. 20-21; 30, pp. 207-210; 31; 32, independently of all physical and chemical conditions. Contrary to pp. 139-142). In his 1969 book 'I:Or du milliême matin', translated the alchemists' beliefs, the process was not one ofperfection but one into English in 1975 (31), Barbault described how after twelve years of decay; , thorium, radium and other radioactive, i.e,, he obtained what he called the 'vegetable gold' or Elixir of the First nuclearly unstable, elements gradually deteriorate into lead. This Degree. He carried out his work only at times determined by transmutation and others to be discovered later were accompanied detailed astrological calculation. Following the example ofwringing by the liberation of tremendous amounts of energy, which Trenn the morning dew out of a canvas to collect it from a late 17th-century calls 'the "gold" of the newer alchemy' (178, pp. 56, 68, 95, 96). book of captionless engravings entitled '' (The Wordless The discovery and understanding of natural radioactivity still did Book), Barbault collected dew every day before sunrise for three not fulfill the alchemists' dream of carrying out transmutation in months (Figure 36). He moistened amixture of earth and plants the laboratory at will. The process of artificial transmutation, with the dew, baked it in an alembic, remoistened it and repeated however, was not long in being attained (178, pp. 66-72). Ramsay the process until he obtained the 'liquorofgold' or 'vegetable gold', and Soddy (182b) had demonstrated that the so-called ci-rays

116 GoidBu11., 1985, 18, (3) Fig.37(a) Fusiontoroids— the modern . An overhead view of the Scyflac controlled thermonuclear experiment at Los Alamos. After Trenn (178)

alchemists' idea of a materia prima and the unity of matter. The next step in transmutation was the production of radioactivity and radioactive change in otherwise stable elements (178, pp. 72-80). This artificial radioactivity was accomplished by FrédéricJoliot and his wife, Madame Curie's daughter, Irène Curie Fig. • 36 o11gcting 'May-13evr for the. Great Work. Front Miutus Libertn (185), who found that, in bombarding aluminium with a-particles &blwrh& Cb'.ern ca Cu iora Mangel,1702. The praetice ofwdinging the morning déiv ffoin canvas sheets was Poliowed by 4rinand 13arbauli. from polonium, the emission of positrons (positive electrons) persists after the removal of the ce-particles. The aluminium had formed unstable radiophosphorus, which then emitted positrons and formed an isotope of silicon: emitted in the course of natural transmutation are charged atoms 27 4 30 30 30 0 Al + He -3 P + 1 n P -3 Si + of the inert gas helium, first discovered spectroscopically on the sun 13 2 15 0 15 14 1^ by the English astronomer Norman I.ockyer. With a small research In the same yearEnrico Fermi etal. (186) used , which group at Manchester University Rutherford in 1909 began a had been discovered by Chadwick in 1932 (187), to activate fluorine, systematic exploration of the structure of atoms by use ofa-particles which then yielded a short-lived beta activity: as probes. On November 9th, 1917 he accomplished the first recorded example of artificial transmutation performed in the 19F + I n -* 20E-3 20Ne + 0^ laboratory by bombarding nitrogen with a-particles, which played 9 0 9 10 - the role of the philosopher's stone, to produce an isotope ofoxygen Thus the neutron joined the ce-particle in the modern alchemist's and protons: arsenal as a philosopher's stone. Fermi and his group found that about47 of the 68 elements that they used were made radioactive

14N + 4 He -* 18F -) 17 0 + 1 H by thermal neutrons (those slowed down to thermal velocities by 7 2 9 8 1 paraffin or some other moderator), the most effective philosopher's The most important feature of this transmutation was the stone then available, discovery that hydrogen is a primary constituent of the atomic In 1938 Hahn and Strassmann (188) bombarded uranium with nucleus, a return to Prout's hypothesis of 1815 (167) and the neutrons and achieved — a new kind of

GoidBuli.., 1985, 18, (3) 117 transmutation in which the heaviest known elements split into the gold from a mercury sample furnished by Miethe and approximately equal parts, releasing secondary neutrons and a great Stammreich to be identical with that of ordinary gold (197.26 amount of energy. This led, as is well known, to nuclear reactors and 0.2), whereas gold formed by the addition of an electron to a the 'atomic' bomb (178, pp. 86-93; 189). Modern alchemy, i.e., mercury nucleus should have had anatomie weight of at least 198 nuclear transmutations, even led to the production of transuranium according to Aston (194). Numerous other workers repeated the elements — new hitherto unknown elements heavier than attempts to prepare gold from, mercury with completely negative uranium, the heaviest element then known (190). It also led to results (195). The more the sources of experimental error were nuclear fusion, i.e., transmutations in which lighter elements, eliminated, the more the amount of the gold was found to decrease especially the heavy isotopes of hydrogen, fuse into compound (195 g). Haber et al. reproduced six experiments of Miethe and nuclei which then explode with the release of even more energy Nagaoka, and by precise measurements they showed that the released by nuclearfrssion (the hydrogen bomb) (191). Trenn calls methods employed did not permit the formation of gold in fusion power reactors 'the modern Ouroboros' (103; 178, pp. analytically detectable amounts (196). In 1941, however, traces of 103-106) (Figure 37). two radioisotopes of gold produced by the bombardment of In short, the transmutations long sought by the alchemists occur mercury with fast neutrons were detected by the mass spectrograph both in nature as natural radioactivity and can be accomplished by (197): man in nuclear reactions by use of a-particles, neutrons and other 198 1 198 1 199 1 199 1 Hg + n— Au + band Hg + n— Au + p sub-atomic particles as the modern philosopher's stone. At the same 80 0 79 80 0 79 1 time, a relatively small number of su b-atomic particles were found In 1980 bismuth was transmuted into one-billionth of one cent's to be common to the atoms of all the elements, corresponding to worth of gold at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory by use of the the alchemist's materiap?ima and fulfilling in a sense his concept high-powered BEUALAC particle accelerator at a cost of $10 000 (198). of the unity of all matter. Soddy's words of 1917 regarding the production of gold by transmutation have proved to be prophetic: Production of Gold by Transmutation 'If man ever achieves this further control over Nature, it is quite certain Since mercury (Atomic Number 80) is next to gold (Atomic that the last thing he would want to do would be to turn lead or mercury into gold —for the sake ofgold. The energy that would be liberated, Number in the periodic table, it is not surprising that numerous 79) if the control of these sub-atomic processes were as possible as is the attempts have been made, particularly in the 1920s, to transmute control of ordinary chemical changes, such as combustion, would far mercury into analytically detectable amounts of gold by electrical exceed in importance and value the gold. Rather it would pay to discharge (192). Some researchers, for example, found traces of gold transmute gold into silver or some base metal' (199). on the order of 0.01 to 0.1 mg in the mercuty of mercury-vapour lamps. Honigschmid and Zinti (193) found the atomic weight of Acknowledgements The author wishes to acknowledge the assistance of the National Endowment for the Humanities (Grant No. RO-20301-82) and Svenska Instituter (The Swedish Institute), He is also indebted to Mary Lou Cancio, Mary McIntyre, Sharon Turner and Robert Michelotti of the California State University, Fresno for technical assistance.

Parts I and II of this review were published in the January and April 1985 issues of this journal (Gold Ball., 1985, 18, (1), 31.44 and GoldBu!!., 1985, 18, (2), 69-78)

Fig. 37 (b) Artist's impression of the fusion toroids of a reactor — the modern Ouroboros. After Trenn (178)

118 GoldBull., 1985, 18, (3) References 155 Egyptiandirectionsforpreparingalloysresemblingsilverandgoldaregivenin 178 TJ. Trenn, 'Transmutation: Natural and Artificial', Heyden & Son, London, ref. 67a Philadelphia, Rheine, 1981 156 G.M. Ross, 'Leibniz', Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1984 179 A. Romer (Editor), 'The Discovery of Radioactivity and Transmutation', Dover 157 J. Lenihan, 'Science in Act.ion, The Institute of Physics, Bristol and Inndon, 1979, Publications, New York, 1964 pp. 179-180 180 H. Becquerel, Compt. rend., 1896, 122,420-421,501-503,689-694. 1086-1088 158 E.R. Caley,J. Chem. Educ., 1926, 3, 1149-1166; 1927, 4, 979-1002 181 J J. Thomson, Electrician, 1897, 39, 104-108; Proc. Roy. lust., 1897, 418-432; 159 J.R. Partington, A Short ', 3rd Ed., Harper & Brothers, New Phil. Mag., 1897, 44, 293 York, 1957, p. 17 182 (a)E. Rutherford and E Soddy,J Chem. 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GoídBu!!, 1985, 18, (3) 119