Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice older book in good condition. 1951 1st edition. Pages in good condition. No notes or highlighting. Some marking due to age but overall an excellent copy. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> THE great and most fruitful science of chemistry is generally known to be derived in some degree from the ancient and obscure practice of alchemy. Yet those who consult the alchemical texts find something very unlike the chemistry of to-day. Alchemy was not merely an imperfect science it was at once a craft and a creed a quest for riches and a work of piety a laboratory research and a mystical system. Until now there has been no single book to do justice to all these aspects let alone to reconcile them. In this book Dr. Sherwood Taylor has established that the central idea of alchemy is the ancient notion that the activity of bodies is a subtle stuff a breath or influence intermediate be- tween matter and mind. The develop- ment of such ideas enables him to resolve the apparent contradictions of alchemy. The book draws upon the whole body of alchemical writings including many unpublished manu- scripts. It is no r?sum? of existing works but an original contribution to the history of science and thought and more specifically to the history of chemistry.