Chemistry's Lively History Chapter 2

chapter TWO ca. 300 BCE— 600 CE: Alexandria and Alchemy

Alexander expands the Greek empire and hellenized a large region beyond Greece including Egypt, the Mediterranean, and Asia Minor.

He died at age 33 and after much fighting over, Ptolemy took control of Egypt and Sepulcus took control over the other regions

In Alexandria, Egypt, Ptolemy built a center of learning and realized Alexander's goal of "a rich blend of philosophical traditions and practical knowledge"  creating a new philosophic technology "alchemy".

Fast forward a little bit, the word "alchemy" actually had Arabic origins, "al" for "the" and "chymia" for "chemistry".

Alchemy was an offshoot of and developed in parallel along the "technology of artisan".  Beyond the practical tasks of weaving and dyeing, alchemy provided the method for testing hypothesis for explaining and predicting phenomena involving matter, transmutation in particular.

The Practice of Alchemy in Alexandria

A mix of philosophic traditions and practical application, one basis for the many processes of Alexandrian alchemy is the conversion of material to gold, something that looks like gold that even artisans can be fooled, or something close to gold that eventually it can become gold.  A combination of mysticism and technology.  These methods frequently involved many of the chemical techniques that to this day are still employed in typical chemistry labs:  distillation, solvation, calcination (heating something to very high temperatures that often oxidation occurs), fusion, sublimation, filtration, and crystallization.  The main ingredients were mercury and sulfur.

In documents left by early known alchemists (not all left behind or documented their experiments), the following chemical compounds and mixtures are mentioned:

amalgams of mercury, a substance silver in color is achieved but with addition of sulfur, the yellow of gold is formed...The authors continue:

"Also of interest were such corrosive substances as acids, hydroxides, and ammonium chloride, which on heating turns into ammonia and hydrochloric acid and readily attack metals. Because arsenic sublimes like mercury, forms soft alloys like mercury, and has a sulfide that looks like the sulfide of mercury, alchemists regarded arsenic as a kind of mercury, and much use was made of arsenic’s property of coloring metals. Vitriols (copper and iron sulfates) were also of interest to the alchemist, probably because of their colors. Copper sulfate forms beautiful blue crystals and solutions, and iron sulfate is green."

Some of these alchemists who left behind documentation and evidence of alchemical methods and developments include (300-100 BCE):

Pseudo-Democritus who wrote a text on the process of dying and coloring and making gold and silver.

Mary the Jew invented alchemical apparatus:  three-armed still, hot ash bath, a dung bed, and a hot water bath.

Zosimos' writings, notably, conveyed such practical tips as covering ones nose while working with sulfur but also described processes involving filtration, crystallization, sublimation, etc.

Thrice Great Hermes from whom the term "hermetically sealed" originated in reference to the hermetic art of alchemy.

ALEXANDRIAN DECLINE

The practice of alchemy eventually evolved from the experimental ("materials method") to the mystical due to the failure of practitioners to turn base metals into pure gold.  

Around 0 CE (christian era), Ptolemaic Alexandria began its decline with the rise of the Roman empire.  Christianity became the main cult of the Roman empire which sought to and succeeded in destroying pagan artifacts and beliefs and the practice and manuscripts of alchemy.  With this came the death of Hellenistic culture.

The Nestorians escaped to Syria bringing with them important Hellenistic cultural artifacts and documents including those of alchemical practices.  In Syria and later in Persia, they were able to continue the teaching of "sciences" such as astronomy, medicine, and alchemy.

OTHER ALCHEMIES OF THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD: INDIA AND CHINA

In this section, the authors addressed the question of whether alchemy developed in other regions of the world at the same time.  Both China and India fit the requirements that make the development of alchemy possible:  the presence of mercury and the lack of or difficulty of finding gold and motivation.

Alchemy in these two countries developed right around the time of Alexandrian alchemy and, in both cases, motivated by search for producing pure gold either as a source of prolonging life or as an elixir (mainly in India).

Some of the documented key players in the development of alchemy in China include Wei-Po Yand and Ko Hung.

The Chinese philosophical tradition believed in five elements of matter (fire, earth, wood, water, and air) and involved the dualism of yin and yang.

Documents describing the practice of alchemy list a large group of chemical compounds easily familiar to present day chemists:

'The bronze age did not arrive in China until around 1500 BCE, and iron appeared only about 500 BCE, but by the beginning of their alchemical age, around 100 CE, the Chinese had knowledge of zinc and brass (a copper–zinc alloy), mercury, sulfur, and several of the common salts, such as niter. In the 400s BCE an administrator made a list of known materials that included lead oxide, lead carbonate, sulfur, calcium carbonate, hydrated calcium sulfate, ferric oxide, niter, talc or soapstone, hydrated magnesium silicate, potash alum (the double sulfate of potassium and aluminum), malachite (basic copper carbonate), azurite, and others. The Chinese knew of corrosive sublimate (mercuric chloride) and calomel (mercurous chloride), and they could distinguish between them. They used mercury to extract gold and silver by amalgamation, and toward the end of the Alexandrian period, they used a tin- silver amalgam for dental purposes. This material repertoire of China, combined with the philosophic tradition that we examine next, provided fertile ground for alchemy’s growth."

Indian philosophical tradition also believed in four of the five elements as the Chinese with wood being replaced by ether and suggested that "animated atoms of these elements combined to form all things".

There is no good documentation on the practitioners of alchemy in India except for a mention in a Chinese document of a person known as Nagarjuna (a name to conjure with) whose quoted writings included the mention of changing bronze into gold and interchanging silver and gold.

"Information about other chemical technologies comes almost exclusively from medical writings: the Charaka , ca. 100 CE; the Susruta , ca. 200 CE; and the Vagbhata , ca. 600 CE. These writings show that India had an extensive pharmacopoeia (intoxicating plants, laxatives, diuretics), metallurgy (gold, silver, tin, iron, lead, copper, steel, bronze, brass), and a repertoire of other practical chemicals (alcohol, caustic alkalis, chlorides, and sulfates of iron and copper)."