Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-05-10
Ihe HQSkin Letter o r : 2s:as
ANCIENT AND MODERN ALCHEMY.

| tell his secret to his d~eliverer. In
| stead, he gave Sendivogius an ounce
of transmutation powder. This pow
| der was used to such good effect that
| S~endivogius was credited with cures
of diseases and production of gold.
But eventually the ounce was used up.
| Seton was dead by that time and the
less skillful friend married his widow
! hoping that the Scot had left her the
secret Of mixing. the powder. If she
knew, however, she told her Sec
ond husband.
Some Of the alchemists did entrust
their theories regarding the philoso-
piers stone to friends, and some wrote
needless to say, these published Sec
rets were worthless.
Even when a philosopher was ex-
posed al a fake, the public, from king
to peasants, merely transferred it's
reverence to some other sage and
trustingly waited for him to dazzle
them with his erudition.
The birth of modern science was the
death of alchemy-as the medieval
wise men practiced it. But lately sci
ence has begun to see something more
than humbug and wild guessing in some
of the ideas of the philosophers.
Back To Alchemy
Our scientist has pointed out that
the medieval theory that invisible crea-
lures inhabit the elements, for in
stance, is not so %outlandish as to call
for ridicule. The alchemists said that
salamanders lived in the fire, gnomes
in the earth, sylphs in the air and
nymphs in the water. Whether they
were guessing, prophesying or divin-
r. kL:- z>,k;% knfrLc that TN al
chemists have given a pretty good de-
scription of the heterogeneous that
are so tiny as to be truly invisible to
the naked eye. So far, however, sci
ence finds nothing to justify the al
chemists idea of the salamander.
If the alchemists were on the right
track about one natural mystery, per-
haps they were o altogether wrong
about other things, this scientist adds.
There is a theory considered today
that all metals evolved from n origin
which is precisely the theory on which
the philosophers based the possibility
of transmitting metals and bringing
base metals to gold which they con-
sidered the perfect state.
Another Interesting if true" theory
which is s~uper-modern and yet smacks
of alchemy at its most fantastic has to
10 WILL Inc SuDoLduIC VI Wal~h 6AOStc
are made. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
says that ghosts are composed of &C.
toplasm, a mysterious substance, thick,
vapory and slightly luminous.
The stuff that Sir Arthur's ghosts
are made of can be felt, he says. 1t
has never been analysed because nc
chemist has been able to secure a bot
tie full for laboratory experiment. Some
kind of self protective instinct seems
to cause ghostly ~emanations to depart
hastily when science gets too familiar.
Ectoplasm is the latest sensation of
parlor science, and yet the philosophers
of Prague and Cologne observed this
elusive substance. They regard
ed it as a clue to perpetual life if it
could only be identified and rendered
sufficiently durable for practical use.
Modern science has not tried to bot
tie ectoplasm as a handy prescription
for rejuvenating purposes. Even if it
is decided that mans ultimate destiny
is to turn into ectoplasm, most people
will be willing to wait until the ap-
pointed time to change substances. The
spirit world may be the state of per-
petual youth which the alchemists were
vaguely seeking. If so--if Seton and
the rest are now wearing ectoplasm-I
then the alchemists achieved one Of
their quests.