Seeds of metals, 34.
Simplicity, asserted by alchemists to be the mark of nature, 28, 38.
—— is not necessarily the mark of verity, 138.
Solids, liquids, and gases, atomic explanation of, 19.
Stahl, his phlogistic theory, 130.
Stone, the philosopher's, 32, 35, 49, 58, 72.
Thorium, radio-activity of, 183, 193.
Transmutation, alchemical doctrine of, 47, 74, 123.
—— character of him who would attempt, 63.
—— of metals into gold, alchemical account of, 75.
—— of water to earth, 151.
Transmutations, apparent examples of, 82.
Uranium, radio-activity of, 183, 192;
relation of, to radium, 192, 193.
Vegetables compared with metals by alchemists, 33.
Water contains hydrogen and oxygen, examination of this phrase, 167.
Water, different meanings of the word, 53, 167.
FOOTNOTES
1 Most of the quotations from alchemical writings, in this book, are taken from a series of translations, published in 1893-94, under the supervision of Mr A.E. Waite.
2 The quotations from Lucretius are taken from Munro's translation (4th Edition, 1886).
3 See the chapter Molecular Architecture in the Story of the Chemical Elements.
4 The author I am quoting had said—"Nature is divided into four 'places' in which she brings forth all things that appear and that are in the shade; and according to the good or bad quality of the 'place,' she brings forth good or bad things.... It is most important for us to know her 'places' ... in order that we may join things together according to Nature."
5 The account of the life of Cagliostro is much condensed from Mr A.E. Waite's Lives of the Alchemystical Philosophers.
6 I have given numerous illustrations of the truth of this statement in the book, in this series, entitled The Story of the Wanderings of Atoms.
7 Boyle said, in 1689, "I mean by elements ... certain primitive and simple, or perfectly unmixed bodies; which not being made of any other bodies, or of one another, are the ingredients of which all those called perfectly mixt bodies are immediately compounded, and into which they are ultimately resolved."
8 I have given a free rendering of Lavoisier's words.
9, 10 Lavoisier uses the word principle, here and elsewhere, to mean a definite homogeneous substance; he uses it as synonymous with the more modern terms element and compound.
11 I have considered the law of the conservation of mass in some detail in Chapter IV. of The Story of the Chemical Elements.
12 The life-period of uranium is probably about eight thousand million years.
13 The life-period of thorium is possibly about forty thousand million years.
14 The subject is discussed in Sir J.J. Thomson's Electricity and Matter.