![abdulkasem alchemistry distillation abdulkasem alchemistry distillation](https://www.1001inventions.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/distillation-07.jpg)
The readily available general histories of alchemy in English are all over 50 years old, and while they were excellent resources in their day, they now need updating. Unfortunately, the resources currently available are rather slim. But the subject of alchemy remains evocative and alluring for a broad array of people I have met many who would genuinely like to know more about it. In the wider world the revolution in our knowledge of alchemy might count as one of alchemy’s biggest secrets. Much of this new understanding remains little known outside of a small circle of academic specialists. The work of historians of science continues to reveal the enormous complexity and diversity of alchemy, its important position in human history and culture, and its continuities with what we now call chemistry. Many alchemists expressed (often just implicitly) a strong confidence in the power of human beings to imitate and improve on nature, and their work included the exploration of the relationship of human beings to God and the created universe. Their researches and goals had both commercial and scientific aspects, as well as philosophical and theological ones. But at the same time, they contributed to mining and metallurgy, and pharmacy and medicine, and their achievements and aspirations (as well as failures) inspired artists, playwrights, and poets.
![abdulkasem alchemistry distillation abdulkasem alchemistry distillation](https://mycotopia.net/uploads/monthly_01_2011/post-36426-138193342885.jpg)
Their hope of discovering the secret of preparing the philosophers’ stone-a material supposedly able to transmute base metals into gold-was one powerful incentive for their endeavors. Alchemists developed practical knowledge about matter as well as sophisticated theories about its hidden nature and transformations. Alchemy is now increasingly recognized as a fundamental part of the heritage of chemistry, of continuing human attempts to explore, control, and make use of the natural world. No longer is it dismissed as a waste of time or a fool's quest. Nevertheless, over the past generation scholars have been revealing more and more of its surprising content and importance.
#ABDULKASEM ALCHEMISTRY DISTILLATION FULL#
We asked him to give our readers a taste of his new work, which is aimed at anyone with an interest in the story of chemistry.Īlchemy is full of secrets. His book, The Secrets of Alchemy, was released just as this issue of Chemical Heritage (now Distillations) was completed. He earned his first PhD in chemistry and his second in the history of science. Lawrence Principe is one of the foremost scholars of alchemy in the world.