He adds that distillation of ethyl alcohol is important to the history of civilisation. Newman says physicians from The Schola Medica Salernitana in southern Italy (the first and most important medieval medical school of its kind) discovered distillation of alcohol around the 12th century, perhaps earlier. The Islamic world used distillation to make perfume, such as rosewater, but the Arabs did not, as far as modern researchers can tell, discover ethyl alcohol or isolation of alcohol by means of distillation. In the West, distillation of alcohol was possible by the 12th century. But when they did, they had to have decent stills.” “Mysteriously, for some reason, nobody actually tried to isolate ethyl alcohol out of wine or beer until much later. “And once you have good distillation apparatus, lots of things are possible. He attributes these discoveries to Mary the Hebrew. So what is the most important development to emerge from the art of alchemy? Phosphorus? European porcelain? The basis for toxicology?Īccording to Professor William Newman, historian of science and chemistry, it is the ability to distil, or distillation apparatus: “The earliest real distillation apparatus can be identified as something like a still, found in the works of Zosimos of Panopolis. Yet alchemy has played a significant role in the development of modern chemistry and medicine. The remainder of Europe quickly got wind of it and, soon, everybody was trying to make the tincture to create gold and immortal life.Įurope’s alchemists, once they had advanced chemical processes and apparatus for alchemy, split into two groups by the 16th century – one focused on compounds and reactions (chemistry), and the other concentrated on the metaphysical, seeking immortality and manmade gold.Īlchemists had an unfortunate reputation of being pushed by greed and madness in their quest to make gold. The West was introduced to alchemy when the Arabs brought it to Spain in the 8th century. This is seen by some as the origin of the word ‘alchemy’. The Arabs occupied Egypt in the 7th century AD and added ‘al’ to Khemia – al-Khemia means ‘the Black Land’. In India, they also focused on the external and internal to help prolong and purify life, and saw flame colour as significant when identifying metals. In China, Taoist monks were working on alchemy independently, focusing on the ‘outer and inner elixir’ – the outer being plants, minerals and other external products, and the inner being exercise techniques to aid the life force of the body. Greek philosophers got curious about the Egyptian’s ways, and combined their own views on matter forming from the four elements – fire, earth, water and air – with Egyptian science, creating Khemia (Greek for Egypt). One of its principles is that when seeking ‘the Divine’ we must begin with the ‘mysteries of nature’. The Hermetic Corpus texts, said to be written by Hermes, are the basis of Hermeticism – a spiritual, philosophical and magical tradition. Considered by European alchemists as the basis of their work, the tablet supposedly contained the secret of the prima materia (one matter that was the foundation for everything) and its transmutation. It is believed in the West that alchemy was born at the time of Egyptian King Hermes Trismegistus (as named by the Greeks) around 1900BC, with the first document being the famous Emerald Tablet of Hermes. That’s the popular image, but some of the best and brightest alchemists of the past made lasting contributions to science. When you think of an alchemist, what do you see? An old, haggard man, possibly a wizard, stirring a cauldron, throwing goodness knows what into a steaming concoction, his face transfixed with a maddened stare as he attempts to bring about the Philosopher’s Stone and create ‘manmade perfect’ and everlasting life?
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