Discuss the Impact of Alchemy on the Modern Science of Chemistry

Discuss the impact of Alchemy on the modern science of Chemistry.

At the first time human being have found gold - a rare and the most valuable element in the world, people are attracted by its shiny and glowing appearance. They are trying to find different ways turning those ordinary base metals into worthy gold. This kind of transformation process started at the Middle Ages, named as Alchemy, was the initiation of the modern science of Chemistry.

Alchemy is a difficult and complicated subject. It was not only focusing on chemistry stream, but also involving other non-science concepts and theories in the religious and philosophic areas. The history of alchemy has been found all over the world, such as ancient Babylon, Egypt, India, Persia, China, Greek, Rome and so on. No matter western or eastern culture, did all believe that alchemy could improve the quality of life. Other than turning those low-priced metals into gold, another aim of alchemy is trying to produce a special kind of medicine in order to maintain an endless life. That’s why when it comes to the issue of alchemy, we usually regard it was a chemical process as well as a spiritual process. It is because alchemy’s ultimate objective was varied depending on different time frame and places. Historians of alchemy point out that there were no any differences between chemistry and alchemy in the seventeenth century. Up to 19 centuries, people still had a faith in the theory of alchemy. Some famous scientists had done lots of research and experiments on alchemy. Two of the founding fathers of modern science, Boyle and Isaac Newton were both believers in alchemical transmutation, had tried many ways to practice alchemy.

However, modern science of chemistry has stated clearly that alchemy is not a feasible scientific method. Alchemists could never turn other metals into gold. The only thing they did was combining two or more metals into alloy or plating a golden colour on the surface of the metals. Nevertheless, alchemy has created some basic thoughts and fundamental framework of chemistry.

First of all, alchemy theory initiated the development of chemistry. No doubt that alchemy could not escape from its mysterious mask, but the processes in turning one thing into another had created a brand-new idea – things are transformable, in the science area. Experimental methods like crystallization, distillation, fermentation, smelting, dissolving, purifying, etc developed by those alchemists were considered as important characteristics of modern chemistry. They used chemical instruments like mortar and pestle, beaker, funnel, balance to facilitate experiment; they established a number of tests to identify substances; they used analysis and synthesis in order to demonstrate the similarity between substances extracted from nature and substances artificially produced in the laboratory; and they used weight measurements and the balance-sheet method traditionally credited to Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (1743–1794) to determine the identity of substances. Utilizing these chemical techniques, pure metal could be extracted from its ore; different kinds of metal could be classified according to their unique chemical properties. These valuable experiences, careful observations and detailed recorded information providing a steady path for the evolution of modern science of chemistry.

Secondly, alchemy played a major role in enhancing man’s understanding of the world as well as the precursor to the modern science of chemistry. “Alchemy was a philosophy and practice that sought to understand the nature of matter,” said Carolyn Rebbert, the curator of the “Alchemy: Magic, Myth or Science?” exhibition at Bruce Museum. People used to believe the ancient Chinese cosmology concept of the five elements of metal: wood, water, fire, earth, and the Greek philosopher Aristotle’s concept of four elements of earth, air, water and fire. They considered these four or five elements are the basic matters making of the world. Alchemy theory was developed based on these general concepts. In the practices of alchemy, lots of new content had been found. Old concepts were being overthrown. In order to categorizing those newly found matters, alchemists used their secret languages and symbols to represent substances and outline a series of experimental procedures.

However, the modern chemistry has been shown as that there are more than one hundred elements including metal and non-metal exists in the world. When alchemists trying to combining and mixing different metals together, a new kind of matter called alloy had been created. For example, the presence of bronze three thousand years ago was strong evidence showing the result of the transformative reaction by adding tin to copper. Another new chemistry concept has been formed – elements are integrable. During the continuous experimental trial and error, people gradually know more about the chemical and physical properties of each element. Plenty of the elements in the modern periodic table like gold, silver, copper, mercury and lead were already known and named in the past centuries. Thereafter, contemporary scientists attempted to investigate further and look into the molecular structure of the elements. They have found that elements are made of a mass of the same tiny atoms. Different elements have different a number of protons, neutrons and electrons within an atom’s atomic nucleus. Finally, Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev first developed a tabular presentation in 1869 to demonstrating the periodic trends in the properties of the known elements at that time.

Besides alchemy’s ultimate objective, during the transformation process, some by-products generated greatly benefit and lift the standard of our life. The work of the alchemists led to the manufacturing of useful products like porcelain, dyes, perfumes, pigments, gunpowder, acids, medicines and scents as all these products were developed and refined in the alchemists' rudimentary laboratories.

As mentioned above, alchemy certainly made a fatal contribution to the development of the modern science of chemistry. However, many contemporary chemists deny or try to hide the efforts done by the alchemy discipline. They argue that alchemy is chaotic and not a legitimate branch of modern science. It could not be regarded as the same class as chemistry. Modern science is still in its evolving stage, there are bunches of mysterious and unknown areas waiting for us to discover and investigate. No matter alchemy practice is successful or not, we could not erase the achievement credited to alchemy. On the contrary, we would better appreciate alchemy’s cultural and historical development.
Reference:
Chemistry - Alchemy In The Scientific Revolution - Matter, Boyle, Newton, View, Modern, and Substances http://science.jrank.org/pages/8580/Chemistry-Alchemy-in-Scientific-Revolution.html#ixzz1VkvXufn9, viewed at 20 August, 2011

The Magical Origins of Modern Chemistry, Susan Hodara, The New York Times, October 9 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/nyregion/11artct.html, viewed at 21 August, 2011

The Nature and History and the Great Art of Alchemy, Ed Reither, The University of New Orleans 1976, http://www.beezone.com/edwardo/Alchemy/alchemy.htm, viewed at 21 August, 2011