The Philospoher's Stone

When we hear the word alchemy we think of wizards, lizard eyeballs, and magic spells. There is probably some truth to those claims, especially in the very earliest mentions of it. But there is another truth that is less well known and probably a good deal more accurate. Alchemy at least from the 1600's on was considered a true field of research. It was an accepted and legitimate science, practiced by such men as Sir Isaac Newton, Roger Bacon, and Tycho Brahe. In fact Newton wrote more about his study of alchemy than any of his more well known works. It was less mystical by then but no less sought after.
It might seem crazy to us to think someone like Newton would become involved in such folly as trying to turn base metals into gold, but if we take a moment to understand the context which led him to believe it was possible it really doesn't seem so far fetched after all. Let me give you an example.

At the time, there was no such thing as inorganic chemistry. In fact alchemy was the precursor to all study of chemistry. Scientists didn't know about or understand chemical reactions and crystal growth during Newtons time. Many alchemists believed, (Newton included) that gold could grow, like a tree or plant by adding the correct "nutrient" recipe of sulfur, mercury, and among other things a secret ingredient called the philosopher's stone . Why would the brilliant minds of the 17th century think that? Our first instinct is to think they were nuts. But we would be wrong. They thought gold could grow because they observed (correctly) that often times in veins of quarts, gold is found deposited in a dendritic pattern. They also noted (correctly) that most plants have adopted the same morphology, and in fact look strikingly similar. And since plants grow...


If you didn't know answer and someone showed you the above pictures and asked you if they were all made the same way what would you say? They didn't have microscopes that would allow them to see that gold didn't have cells like plants did. And it turns out when they mix mercury with gold it (I don't know the technical aspects of this) it can cause the atoms to re-arange, which the alchemist too optimistically thought was "growth".

Many of the other reasons for thinking that gold could be made out of lesser metals were along these lines. They weren't off the wall mutterings of lunatics (at least not before the mercury poisoning got to them). The arguments were sound at the time, and it was only much later when technology had advanced enough that scientists abandoned the idea. Before then, as far as anyone knew it might still be possible. We might think alchemy is a joke now, but we shouldn't forget it's scientific past. And just because someone somewhere might have tried to make gold out of chicken feet doesn't mean there wasn't (possibly) a good reason for them to think it might work.