Chapter III: The Alchemists (a. Before Paracelsus) 39

§ 29. Hermes Trismegistos 39
§ 30. The Smaragdine Table 40
§ 31. Zosimus of Panopolis 42
§ 32. Geber 42
§ 33. Other Arabian Alchemists 44
§ 34. Albertus Magnus 44
§ 35. Thomas Aquinas 44
§ 36. Roger Bacon 45
§ 37. Arnold de Villanova 47
§ 38. Raymond Lully 47
§ 39. Peter Bonus 49
§ 40. Nicolas Flamel 51
§ 41. “Basil Valentine” and the _Triumphal Chariot of
Antimony_. 52
§ 42. Isaac of Holland 53
§ 43. Bernard Trévisan 54
§ 44. Sir George Ripley 55
§ 45. Thomas Norton 56

CHAPTER IV. THE ALCHEMISTS (B. PARACELSUS AND AFTER) 58

§ 46. Paracelsus 58
§ 47. Views of Paracelsus 60
§ 48. Iatro-chemistry 61
§ 49. The Rosicrucian Society 62
§ 50. Thomas Charnock 65
§ 51. Andreas Libavius 66
§ 52. Edward Kelley and John Dee 67
§ 53. Henry Khunrath 70
§ 54. Alexander Sethon and Michael Sendivogius 70
§ 55. Michael Maier 72
§ 56. Jacob Boehme 74
§ 57. J. B. van Helmont and F. M. van Helmont 75
§ 58. Johann Rudolf Glauber 77
§ 59. Thomas Vaughan (“Eugenius Philalethes”) 77
§ 60. “Eirenæus Philalethes” and George Starkey 79

CHAPTER V. THE OUTCOME OF ALCHEMY 81

§ 61. Did the Alchemists achieve the _Magnum Opus_? 81
§ 62. The Testimony of van Helmont 82
§ 63. The Testimony of Helvetius 83
§ 64. Helvetius obtains the Philosopher’s Stone 85
§ 65. Helvetius performs a Transmutation 87
§ 66. Helvetius’s Gold Assayed 88
§ 67. Helvetius’s Gold Further Tested 88
§ 68. The Genesis of Chemistry 89
§ 69. The Degeneracy of Alchemy 90
§ 70. “Count Cagliostro” 91

CHAPTER VI. THE AGE OF MODERN CHEMISTRY 94

§ 71. The Birth of Modern Chemistry 94
§ 72. The Phlogiston Theory 94
§ 73. Boyle and the Definition of an Element 96
§ 74. The Stoichiometric Laws 96
§ 75. Dalton’s Atomic Theory 99
§ 76. The Determination of the Atomic Weights of the
Elements 102
§ 77. Prout’s Hypothesis 102
§ 78. The “Periodic Law” 105
§ 79. The Corpuscular Theory of Matter 109
§ 80. Proof that the Electrons are not Matter 110
§ 81. The Electronic Theory of Matter 112
§ 82. The Etheric Theory of Matter 113
§ 83. Further Evidence of the Complexity of the Atoms 114
§ 84. Views of Wald and Ostwald 115