26. The Powers of the Philosopher's Stone.

The alchemists believed that a most minute proportion of the Stone projected upon
considerable quantities of heated mercury, molten lead, or other "base" metal, would
transmute practically the whole into silver or gold. This claim of the alchemists, that a
most minute quantity of the Stone was sufficient to transmute considerable quantities of
"base" metal, has been the object of much ridicule. Certainly, some of the claims of the
alchemists (understood literally) are out of all reason; but on the other hand, the
disproportion between the quantities of Stone and transmuted metal cannot be advanced
as an priori objection to the alchemists' claims, inasmuch that a class of chemical
reactions (called "catalytic") is known, in which the presence of a small quantity of some
appropriate form of matter --- the catalyst --- brings about a chemical change in an
indefinite quantity of some other form or forms; thus, for example, cane-sugar in aqueous
solution is converted into two other sugars by the action of small quantities of acid; and
sulphur-dioxide and oxygen, which will not combine under ordinary conditions, do so
readily in the presence of a small quantity of platinized asbestos, which is obtained
unaltered after the reaction is completed and may be used over and over again (this
process is actually employed in the manufacture of sulphuric acid or oil of vitriol).
However, whether any such catalytic transmutation of the chemical "elements" is possible
is merely conjecture.

For Distillation
PLATE 5A
ALCHEMISTIC APPARATUS
-- Two forms of the apparatus for Sublimation
PLATE 5B
ALCHEMISTIC APPARATUS (SUBLIMATION)
In plates 5 and 6 we give illustrations of some characteristic pieces of apparatus
employed by the alchemists. Plate 5, fig. A, and plate 6, fig. A, are from a work known as
Alchemiae Gebri (1545); plate 5, fig. B, is from Glauber's work on Furnaces (1651); and
plate 6, fig. B, is from a work by Dr. John French entitled The Art of Distillation (1651).
The first figure shows us a furnace and alembics. The alembic proper is a sort of stillhead which can be luted on to a flask or other vessel, and was much used for distillations.
In the present case, however, the alembics are employed in conjunction with apparatus
for subliming difficultly volatile substances. Plate 5, fig. B, shows another apparatus for
sublimation, consisting of a sort of oven, and three detachable upper chambers, generally
called aludels. In both forms of apparatus the vapours are cooled in the upper part of the
vessel, and the substance is deposited in the solid form, being thereby purified from less
volatile impurities. Plate 6, fig. A, shows an athanor (or digesting furnace) and a couple
of digesting vessels. A vessel of this sort was employed for heating bodies in a closed
space, the top being sealed up when the substances to be operated upon had been put
inside, and the vessel heated in ashes in an athanor, a uniform temperature being
maintained. The pelican, illustrated in plate 6, fig. B, was used for a similar purpose, the
two arms being added in the idea that the vapours would be circulated thereby.

PLATE 6A
ALCHEMISTIC APPARATUS: A. -- An Athanor
PLATE 6B
ALCHEMISTIC APPARATUS: A. -- A Pelican

For Riches
One of these, entitled A Short Tract, or Philosophical Summary, will be found in The
Hermetic Museum. It is a very brief work, supporting the sulphur-mercury theory.

tin tetra-chloride, which he was the first to prepare, is still known by the name of spiritus
fumans Libavii