Presentation of the Research Project “Alchemy as a Reflection of the Middle Ages.” Presentation "Alchemy" in social studies - project, report Presentation of the role of alchemy in the development of chemistry

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Alchemy Challenge

The main task of alchemy was the production of a substance - the "philosopher's stone" - with the help of which one can transform ("transmutate") base metals into noble ones and achieve immortality

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Alchemy laboratory

• Alchemical tools - flasks, baths, ovens, burners; specially prepared substances for chemical interactions; processing of substances - dissolution, filtration, distillation.
• But these are not just substances but also ethereal principles; when gas is not only something air-like, but also a kind of spirit, mysterious, otherworldly.

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In the alchemical laboratory

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Alchemical texts

• The alchemical reagents evaporated; the devices rusted and turned to dust; laboratory glass broke; the masonry of the stoves has weathered. Only medals, an impressive memory of a few alchemical miracles, lie in European museums, with their antique integrity exciting the gullible visitor or causing a respectfully condescending smile.
• But there remains a text that includes not only recipes for preparing the “philosopher’s stone”, but also an aesthetic and mystical description of alchemical actions

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To prepare the elixir of the sages, or the philosopher's stone, take, my son, philosophical mercury and heat it until it turns into a green lion. After that, heat it harder and it will turn into a red lion. Digest this red lion in a sand bath with sour grape spirit, evaporate the liquid, and the mercury will turn into a gummy substance that can be cut with a knife. Place it in a retort coated with clay and slowly distill it. Collect separately the liquids of different nature that appear. You will get tasteless phlegm, alcohol and red drops. The Cimmerian shadows will cover the retort with their dark veil, and you will find a true dragon inside it, for it is devouring its own tail. Take this black dragon, grind it on a stone and touch it with a hot coal. It will light up and, soon taking on a magnificent lemon color, will again reproduce the green lion. Make it eat its tail and distill the product again. Finally, my son, rectify carefully and you will see the appearance of flammable water and human blood

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Or maybe everything is simpler

The previously cited text can be presented in modern scientific language:

• When heated, lead turns into yellow lead oxide PbO, which at temperatures above 500° is oxidized into red lead according to the reaction: 3PbO+ ½ O2 → Pb3O4.
• Minium, at a temperature of about 570°, loses oxygen, turning into lead oxide, which melts at 880° and, upon cooling, solidifies into a reddish-yellow lighthouse.
• Red lion is a litharge that, unlike red lead, is easily soluble in acetic acid. The product of this reaction—saturn salt, lead sugar, or Pb(C2H3O2)2 3H2O—already when heated to 100° completely loses its water of crystallization, or reflux. It must contain an admixture of acetic acid formed as a result of the hydrolysis of lead acetate, a salt of a weak base and a weak acid. Further heating leads to the formation of acetone and lead carbonate.

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The most important alchemical signs

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Alchemical texts

Alchemical texts include not only a preparative part that can be interpreted in modern scientific language, but a mystical, philosophical meaning that reflects the worldview of alchemists.

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Alchemy symbols

The drawn symbols of alchemists are not so much designations of concepts as allegories, images (for example, a reversible chemical reaction was sometimes designated in the form of a dragon swallowing its own tail, seven metals were correlated with seven planets, mercury and sulfur - with the maternal and paternal principles, etc. .).

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And yet - what is alchemy?

• Alchemy is a scientific experiment complicated by magic.
• Alchemy is an art that uses a symbolic worldview.
• The activity of an alchemist is also a philosophical and theological creativity, and one in which both its pagan and Christian origins were manifested. That is why it turned out that where alchemy is Christianized (white magic), this type of activity is legalized by Christian ideology. Where alchemy appears in its pre-Christian quality (black magic), it is recognized as an unofficial, and therefore forbidden, activity.

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Alchemy - a stage in the development of natural science

• Alchemy is the art of improving matter through the transformation of metals into gold and improving man by creating the elixir of life.
• Striving to achieve the most attractive goal for them - the creation of incalculable wealth - alchemists solved many practical problems, discovered many new processes, observed various reactions, contributing to the formation of a new science - chemistry.

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Alchemy

Perhaps modern mystical ideas will be explained in the future and will serve as an impetus for the development of science and civilization.

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History of alchemy

Alchemy is the general name for systems of transformation existing in various cultures of both physical objects (primarily metals) or the human body, and the spiritual world.

Von Franz emphasizes the fact that Western alchemy arose at the same time as Christianity and the roots of alchemy in Greek rational philosophy on the one hand and in the Egyptian practice of handling substances (in connection with a religion focused on life after death) as well as astrology on the other.

Extroverted and introverted tendencies in alchemy, and modern non-Jungian interpretations do not appreciate or understand the introverted aspect. Although the great minds of modern times still have the archetypal quest for the divine at the core of their work (Von Franz, The Alchemical Active Imagination)

Origins of alchemy

II-III century BC Alchemy originated in the east (China) in Egypt and Greece. In the east, the focus was on finding the elixir of longevity, while in Egypt and Greece it was more likely to concentrate on the study of compounds of metals and minerals. The Alexandrian school of alchemy is a combination of Egyptian and Greek traditions, founded by the legendary Hermes Trismegistus + However, many Hermetic texts also remained from the Alexandrian period, which were an attempt at a philosophical and mystical explanation of the transformations of substances, including the famous “Emerald Tablet” of Hermes Trismegistus. Mary of the Jews described alchemical instruments - a flask, a retort, a distillation apparatus. Cleopatra is credited with practicing alchemy and writing the work Chrysopoeia.

Alchemy in the East

V-VI centuries AD alchemy declines. In the east, its development continues cyclically. In the Arab world, where it has survived, it is practiced and developed. In Arab universities, a more precise quantitative approach is practiced in alchemy. Jabir ibn Hayyan also introduced the concept of the philosopher's stone as a certain substance that can change the ratio of mercury and sulfur in any metal and turn it into gold and at the same time heal all diseases and give immortality, as well as the homunculus, developed the doctrine of numerology, connecting Arabic letters with names of substances. During this period, the mercury-sulfur theory, important for alchemy, arose.

Curious facts about alchemy

In the Middle Ages, alchemical coins with images of planets were in circulation along with ordinary coins and were trusted

Many kings kept court alchemists, expecting from them a recipe for obtaining gold.

By-products of the alchemists' searches were the discovery of sulfuric hydrochloric and nitric acids, phosphorus, ammonia, wine alcohol, Prussian blue...

Mendeleev wrote that only thanks to the stock of knowledge accumulated by alchemists, the scientific study of chemical phenomena became possible

Friedrich Kekule admitted that thanks to a dream about ouroboros he discovered the benzene molecule

Alchemical paradoxes

Our gold is not the gold of fools

The philosopher's stone is also not a stone

Aqua permanent - the water of alchemists - both fire and solid base

The black sun of alchemists - the paradox of light shining from blackness itself, lumen natura

The primal matter of alchemists is at the same time the philosopher’s stone

Alchemist proverb: “Beware of the physical in the material”

Every substance described by the alchemists as the purpose of the opus is extremely paradoxical and contradictory - none of them can be discovered in the positivist sense

Substances

Alchemical King (sulphur)

Living Silver, Mercury (mercury)

Red Lion (cinnabar)

Alchemical Sun (Gold)

Lunar metal (silver)

Venus (copper)

Typhon bone, Mars (iron)

Metal of Saturn (lead)

Antimony, open-mouthed wolf, metal eater (antimony)

Hellstone (Silver Nitrate)

Yar – verdigris (copper acetate)

A L H I M I Y Scientists - alchemists What is alchemy?

• Alchemy ( lat. alchimia, alchymia, from Arab.خيمياء‎‎, presumably from the Egyptian “chemi” - black, hence the Greek name Egypt, black soil And lead- “black earth”; other possible options: Old Greekχυμος - “juice”, “essence”, “moisture”, “taste”, Old Greekχυμα - “alloy (of metals)”, “casting”, “flow”, Old Greekχυμευσις - “mixing”, Old GreekΧιμαιρα - “Chimera”) - the general name existing in various cultures systems transformation person based on metaphor chemical transformations and using chemical compounds, as well as those accompanying these systems and probably arising as a result of their vulgarization of attempts to obtain precious metals, drugs, philosopher's stone, universal solvent, drinking gold and others supposedly possessing miraculous properties substances. In alchemy Human or its individual components ( consciousness, spirit, soul, body, individual energies, etc.) are considered as having certain chemical and physical properties substances, and some operations are performed with them, described in the language of chemical transformations. In parallel with the main - chemical - metaphor other symbolic series often develop; European alchemy is especially rich in this regard. Without exception, all alchemical teachings are characterized by mystery and secrecy, which in the course of history has often given rise to their misunderstanding.

Biography of Nicholas Flamel

Nicholas Flamel was born in 1330 near Pontoise into a poor family. It is believed that his parents died when he was young, after their death Nicholas moves to Paris and becomes a public clerk.

After marrying Perrenelle, a woman of mature years and twice a widow, Flamel rents two workshops, one for himself, the other for his apprentices and copyists.

In 1357, Flamel, being the owner of a small bookstore, acquired for her a papyrus known as the “Book of the Jew of Abraham.” For 20 years he has been trying to unravel the “secret meaning” of the book, part of which was written in Aramaic. To translate this part of the book, he visits Jewish communities in Spain under the guise of a pilgrimage (at that time Jews were forbidden to live in France), after which a myth arises that Nicholas Flamel allegedly managed to reveal the secret of the philosopher's stone. The myth was strengthened due to Flamel's long life.

In 1382, Flamel became the owner of about 30 houses and plots of land within a few months. In his old age, Nicholas Flamel became a philanthropist, established several foundations, invested money in the development of art, and financed the construction of chapels and hospitals.

In 1402, Perrenelle, Nicholas's wife, dies. Flamel himself supposedly dies in 1418, having previously purchased a burial place for himself in the church of Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie. Since he had no children, he bequeathed almost all his property to this church.

Nicholas Flamel

After their death, a legend arose that Flamel supposedly predicted his death and carefully prepared for it, that supposedly the funeral was actually staged, and Flamel and his wife went into hiding. The legend continues and more and more often Flamel and his wife are “seen” after death, for example in 1761 at a performance at the Paris Opera.

In 1624, an English translation of his works, “The Secret Description of the Blessed Stone Called the Philosopher’s Stone,” was published.

The house of Nicolas Flamel, built in 1407, which is considered the oldest building in Paris, has been preserved (Rue de Montmorency, 51. Metro Rambuteau)

Until 1789, the hospital held an annual procession to Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie to pray for the soul of Nicholas Flamel. During his lifetime, Flamel made about 40 significant donations to the hospital.

Born in Florence into the family of a local successful jeweler. At the age of 10, he lost his parents, who died during the plague. Due to the lack of relatives, he was taken in by Dominican monks, who, in turn, combining business with pleasure, took over his entire inheritance. At the monastery, Rene learned to read and write, acquired basic knowledge of astrology and, using the permission of the abbot, eagerly studied all kinds of books. Possessing a talent for studying science, he quickly acquired basic medical skills and, helping his brother, a doctor, learned to treat with herbs and minerals. He also showed interest in occult sciences and astrology. A few years later, the monks began to notice that the boy sometimes foresaw certain events, after which Rene began to be suspected of witchcraft. When Rene turned eighteen, he left the monastery and became a student of a local pharmacist, gaining the opportunity to freely study the alchemy he loved.

After some time, the balms made by an unknown young man gained fame as the best in the city, and Rene acquired regular wealthy clients. Later, having acquired the skills of a perfumer, Rene goes to France in search of a better fate, hoping to receive the patronage of the reigning Florentine woman.

Settling down in a modest house on one of the remote streets of Paris, Rene asked for an audience with the Queen Mother, intending to present her with his own perfume. Catherine, who has a weakness for extraordinary and talented people, and was also amazed by the wonderful aroma of the gifted perfume, declared Rene her personal perfumer. From that moment on, Rene Bianchi became Catherine's personal shadow, carrying out her various orders. Having received the patronage of the Queen of France, he was finally able to improve his knowledge and soon, thanks to the patronage of the courtiers, all of Paris learned about him. He had talents in the occult sciences and was an excellent healer and perfumer.

He also had no equal in the production and invention of various poisons. Ladies and gentlemen attacked Rene's Parisian shop, set up on the Changers' Bridge. They crowded there from morning until late evening, constantly replenishing their supplies of “fragrant weapons.” And it was not only in the form of a liquid that was rubbed on the body, sprayed on the hair and underwear. To give the gloves a pleasant smell, the perfumer prepared a special paste. It was used to cover accessories embroidered with gold and stones. For some, according to legend, it cost their lives. In those times full of palace intrigue, the saying “beauty requires sacrifice” received many confirmations in practice. Well, would the mother of the future king of France, Henry IV of Navarre, have died if not for the burning desire to become more beautiful and desirable? By order of the insidious poisoner Catherine de Medici, Master Rene soaked his beautiful gloves in poison. It was not the first time that the Florentine had carried out such delicate chemical research on behalf of his royal mistress.

Of course, the poor victim knew nothing about this. She could not resist the overwhelming combination of beauty and aroma and gladly put the fragrant gloves on her sleek hands. This became her last mistake. And at court it became fashionable to give accessories “with a secret.” He served the Queen Mother faithfully and tried to protect her from all sorts of troubles

Catherine

alchemists

Rudolf II Holy Roman Emperor, King of the Czech Republic BIOGRAPHY OF RUDOLF II

In 1578-1581. The emperor suffered a serious physical and mental illness, after which he became unsociable and withdrawn, began to be burdened by meetings and receptions, stopped appearing at hunts, tournaments and holidays, and in 1583 he completely moved from Vienna to Prague. Over the years, he developed a persecution mania - a panicky fear of poison and damage. Melancholy sometimes gave way to violent fits of rage, when the emperor jumped up from his seat and began to destroy furniture, statues, clocks, tear paintings and break expensive vases. Until the end of his life, he never married, but had a long relationship with the daughter of his pharmacist Jacopo de la Strada, Maria, with whom he had six children. The most famous of them, the emperor's favorite Don Giulio, was mentally ill, committed a brutal murder and died in custody.

Rudolf was openly burdened by state affairs. He was much more interested in the arts and sciences. He understood poetry, painting, mathematics, physics, architecture, chemistry and alchemy, astronomy and astrology, philosophy and the occult, and although he was not a professional in any of these fields, he sought to surround himself with people who were professionals. During his reign, the greatest astronomers of that time lived and worked in Prague - Johannes Kepler and Tycho de Brahe, artists Bartholomew Sprangler and Giuseppe Arcimboldo, sculptor Adrian de Vries and many others. However, along with geniuses of art and luminaries of science, all sorts of adventurers and charlatans - astrologers, alchemists and mystics - came to Prague from all over Europe. A special place among them was occupied by the Englishmen John Dee and Edward Kelly. Rudolph tried in vain to get the secret of getting gold from Kelly, but, tired of waiting for the result, he threw him into prison, where he soon died.

Under Rudolf, the golden age of the Jewish community in Prague began. The mystic emperor worked closely with Kabbalist rabbis. During the reign of Rudolf, there is a legend about the creation of a golem by Rabbi Loew, who was a personal friend of the emperor.

Rudolf's passion for art and science led to the creation of the "Kunstkamera" in Prague - a rich collection of books, manuscripts, paintings, coins and all sorts of rarities. However, in addition to watches and scientific instruments, the Kunstkamera also contained such “rarities” as a nail from Noah’s Ark and a bottle with Adam’s ashes. Rudolph’s collection also included the so-called “Voynich Manuscript” - a manuscript of unknown purpose, which scientists still cannot decipher.

Rudolph's contribution to the decoration of Prague was significant. He encouraged the construction of new houses in the Renaissance style, which shaped the modern appearance of the city. The royal palace was decorated with 3,000 paintings and 2,500 sculptures, the cost of which was expressed at the dizzying sum of 17 million guilders.

In 1598, Rudolf suffered another attack of mental illness. The emperor became even more gloomy, melancholic and suspicious. Outbursts of rage began to alternate with periods of apathy. Rudolf was completely disgusted with state affairs. The emperor locked himself in his palace for a long time, so that even those closest to him did not know whether he was alive or dead.

In 1604, a Protestant uprising broke out in Hungary. However, Rudolf was not at all worried about the threat of the rebellion spreading throughout the country. In 1606, the Habsburgs at a family council decided to consider Rudolph mentally ill and transferred power in Austria and Hungary to his brother Matvey. He hastily recognized the right to freedom of religion for the Hungarian nobles and cities. The emperor refused to recognize this decree, but Matvey moved troops to Prague. Rudolf did not have the strength to repel the aggression, and he was forced to submit. Austria, Hungary and Moravia were officially transferred to Matthew, and in the Czech Republic he was proclaimed Rudolf's heir.

Crown of Rudolf II

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Alchemy - magic or science? Goal: find out whether alchemy is a hoax or a scientific direction

• Goal: find out whether alchemy is a hoax or a scientific direction
• Tasks:
1) explore the study of alchemy at different times and in different countries 2) show the scientific application of the achievements of alchemy 3) find out awareness and opinions on this issue among 8th grade students 4) come to a conclusion about the nature of alchemy

• Alchemy developed in the era of late antiquity (II-VI centuries AD) in the Alexandrian cultural tradition and is a form of art. To a large extent, alchemy is based on the doctrine of the 4 primary elements of Aristotle.
• The main objects of study of Alexandrian chemistry (the term “alchemy” appeared later) were metals.

• 1. tin - Jupiter; 2. lead - Saturn; 3. gold - the Sun; 4. sulfur; 5. mercury - Mercury; 6. silver - Moon; 7. iron - Mars; copper - Venus

• After the fall of the Roman Empire, the center of alchemical research moved to the Arab East, and Arab scientists became the main researchers and custodians of ancient works.
• Arab alchemists made significant contributions to the development of natural science research, for example, by creating a distillation apparatus.
• The center of Arab alchemy became Baghdad, and then the Academy in Cordoba.

The Persian alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan laid the foundations of the mercury-sulfur theory, introduced the concept of the philosopher's stone, as well as the homunculus, and developed the doctrine of numerology, connecting Arabic letters with the names of substances.

Another Persian scientist, Al-Razi, at the end of the 9th century, improved the theory of the original elements, adding another property of metals, the “principle of hardness,” which he associated with salt.

Philosopher's Stone

• Alchemists considered the most important task to be the transformation (transmutation) of base metals into noble (valuable), which was actually the main task of chemistry until the 16th century.
• Alchemists believed that with the help of the philosopher's stone it was possible to speed up the process of “ripening” immature and “healing” diseased metals, which in nature proceed rather slowly. The mythical "philosopher's stone" can be considered a prototype of future enzymes and catalysts.

• The first European alchemist was the Franciscan Roger Bacon (1214-1294), who also laid the foundation for experimental chemistry in Europe.
• He studied the properties of saltpeter and many other substances, and found a method for making black gunpowder.

Among other European alchemists, mention should be made of Arnold of Villanova (1235-1313), Raymond Lull (1235-1313), Basil Valentinus (German monk of the 15th-16th centuries). Already in the first half of the 14th century. Pope John XXII banned alchemy in Italy, thereby starting a “witch hunt” directed against alchemists.

Raymond Lull

"Witch Hunt"

Alchemy in the Renaissance

• In the XIV-XVI centuries. alchemy more and more closely connected its goals with the tasks of practical metallurgy, mining, and medicine.
• The most significant contribution to this period was made by Paracelsus. He pioneered the use of chemicals and minerals in medicine.
• At the same time, the opportunity to obtain gold contributed to the growth of the number of charlatans and scammers who sought to take possession of priceless treasures. In addition, many alchemists (real or imaginary) began to enjoy the support of the authorities. Thus, many kings (Henry VI, Charles VII) kept court alchemists, expecting from them a recipe for obtaining gold.

• The goal of alchemists in all cultures is to carry out qualitative changes within an animate or inanimate object, its “rebirth” and transition “to a new level.”

Alchemist's laboratory. Colorized engraving from G. Hunrath’s book “The Amphitheater of Eternal Wisdom”

Studying alchemy in Russia

• In Russia, alchemy was not widespread: neither the authorities nor the people had confidence in alchemists. Instead of alchemists, there were alchemists in pharmacies and at the royal court. They prepared ordinary medicines, being essentially laboratory chemists.
• Alchemists obtained and purified a variety of substances, mixing them according to the instructions of the pharmacist. Together with the pharmacist, they took part in the analysis and examination (“testing”) of new drugs. In the 18th century, the name of the profession “alchemist” was gradually replaced by “chemist”.

• The “elixir of longevity” was obtained by Peter I’s ally Jacob Bruce (1670-1735), who had a laboratory in Moscow on the Sukharev Tower.
• He was one of the most enlightened people in Russia.

• Historians of chemistry studied the achievements of alchemy, such as M. Berto, M. Jua, A. Ladenburg, G. Kopp, I. Dmitriev, B. Menshutkin, Yu. Musabekov (historian of chemistry of the Soviet period), G. Kaufman, Paul Walden, D. Trifonov

• The idea of ​​alchemy as “primitive chemistry,” which had developed in science by the end of the 19th century, was completely revised in the 20th century. However, it is believed that it was alchemy that gave impetus to the development of modern chemistry.

From the alchemical texts that have come down to us, it is clear that alchemists were responsible for the discovery or improvement of methods for obtaining valuable compounds and mixtures. Alchemists invented furnaces for long-term heating and alembics.

In 1270, the Italian alchemist Cardinal Giovanni Fadanzi, known as Bonaventura, obtained “aqua regia”, capable of dissolving the “king of metals” - gold.

It turned out that aqua regia does not act on glass, ceramics, sea sand (silicon dioxide), tin stone (tin dioxide) and many other substances, and therefore does not have universal properties. Bonaventure abandoned alchemical experiments and began preparing medicines.

Alchemy is an integral part of human culture, the source of chemistry. It can be called science rather than magic, but in fact, in essence, it is neither one nor the other. because it was formed from the practical experience of metallurgy, technology, and medicine accumulated over centuries, already intertwined with magic and cult rituals,

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A presentation on the topic "Alchemy" can be downloaded absolutely free on our website. Project subject: Social studies. Colorful slides and illustrations will help you engage your classmates or audience. To view the content, use the player, or if you want to download the report, click on the corresponding text under the player. The presentation contains 16 slide(s).

Presentation slides

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mystical knowledge or stage of development of science?

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What is alchemy?

a unique cultural phenomenon, especially widespread in Western Europe in the late Middle Ages

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Origin of the word "alchemy"

Chymeia - pouring, infusion. A distant echo of the practice of oriental pharmacists who extracted the juices of medicinal plants. According to another opinion, the root of the word alchemy is khem or kháme, chémi or сhúma, which means both black soil and the Black Country. This was the name of Ancient Egypt, and the art of ore mining priests, metallurgists, and goldsmiths was associated with Egypt. Ancient Greek language layer: humos (χυμός) - juice; khyuma (χύμα) - casting, stream, river; chymeusis (χύμευσις) - mixing. The ancient Chinese word kim means gold. Then alchemy is gold-making. It remains only to say about the untranslatable particle al, the Arabic origin of which is undoubted and which steadily existed as a prefix from approximately the 12th to the 16th centuries, and also to recall the opinion of the Alexandrian Zosimus (IV century), who refers the interested philologist to the name of the biblical Ham.

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Alchemy task:

The main task of alchemy was the production of a substance - the “philosopher's stone” - with the help of which one can transform ("transmutate") base metals into noble ones and achieve immortality

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Alchemy laboratory

Alchemical tools - flasks, baths, ovens, burners; specially prepared substances for chemical interactions; processing of substances - dissolution, filtration, distillation. But these are not just substances but also ethereal principles; when gas is not only something air-like, but also a kind of spirit, mysterious, otherworldly.

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Alchemical texts:

The alchemical reagents evaporated; the devices rusted and turned to dust; laboratory glass broke; the masonry of the stoves has weathered. Only medals, an impressive memory of a few alchemical miracles, lie in European museums, with their antique integrity exciting the gullible visitor or causing a respectfully condescending smile. But there remains a text that includes not only recipes for preparing the “philosopher’s stone”, but also an aesthetic and mystical description of alchemical actions

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To prepare the elixir of the sages, or the philosopher's stone, take, my son, philosophical mercury and heat it until it turns into a green lion. After that, heat it harder and it will turn into a red lion. Digest this red lion in a sand bath with sour grape spirit, evaporate the liquid, and the mercury will turn into a gummy substance that can be cut with a knife. Place it in a retort coated with clay and slowly distill it. Collect separately the liquids of different nature that appear. You will get tasteless phlegm, alcohol and red drops. The Cimmerian shadows will cover the retort with their dark veil, and you will find a true dragon inside it, for it is devouring its own tail. Take this black dragon, grind it on a stone and touch it with a hot coal. It will light up and, soon taking on a magnificent lemon color, will again reproduce the green lion. Make it eat its tail and distill the product again. Finally, my son, rectify carefully and you will see the appearance of flammable water and human blood

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Or maybe it's simpler:

The previously cited text can also be presented in modern scientific language: Lead, when heated, turns into yellow lead oxide PbO, which at temperatures above 500° is oxidized into red lead according to the reaction: 3PbO + ½ O2 → Pb3O4. Minium, at a temperature of about 570°, loses oxygen, turning into lead oxide, which melts at 880° and, when cooled, solidifies into a reddish-yellow litharge. Red lion is a litharge that, unlike red lead, is easily soluble in acetic acid. The product of this reaction - Saturn salt, lead sugar, or Pb(C2H3O2)2 3H2O - already when heated to 100°, it completely loses its water of crystallization, or reflux. It must contain an admixture of acetic acid, formed due to the hydrolysis of lead acetate-salt of a weak base and a weak acid. Further heating leads to the formation of acetone and lead carbonate.

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Alchemy symbols

the drawn symbols of alchemists are not so much designations of concepts as allegories, images (for example, a reversible chemical reaction was sometimes designated in the form of a dragon swallowing its own tail, seven metals were correlated with seven planets, mercury and sulfur - with the maternal and paternal principles, etc. .).

Slide 14

And yet - what is alchemy?

Alchemy is a scientific experiment complicated by magic. Alchemy is itself an art that uses a symbolic worldview. The activity of an alchemist is also a philosophical and theological creativity, and one in which both its pagan and Christian origins were manifested. That is why it turned out that where alchemy is Christianized (white magic), this type of activity is legalized by Christian ideology. Where alchemy appears in its pre-Christian quality (black magic), it is recognized as an unofficial, and therefore forbidden, activity.

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Alchemy - a stage in the development of natural science

Alchemy is the art of improving matter through the transformation of metals into gold and improving man by creating the elixir of life. Striving to achieve the most attractive goal for them - the creation of incalculable wealth - alchemists solved many practical problems, discovered many new processes, observed various reactions, contributing to the formation of a new science - chemistry.

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