Alchemy arsenic

Antimony was known in the days of alchemy (500 BCE to 1600 ce) when it was associated with other metals and minerals such as arsenic, sulfides, and lead used as medications. It is possible that an alchemist, Basilus Valentinus (fi. 1450), knew about antimony and some of its minerals and compounds sometime around the mid-fifteenth century ce. Physicians of this period—and earlier periods—used elements such as mercury and antimony to cure diseases, although they knew that these elements were toxic in larger doses. Antimony was used to treat depression, as a laxative, and as an emetic for over two thousand years. Despite the elements poisonous nature, physicians of that early era considered both mercury and antimony good medicines. 

Jabir introduced a theory, which was to influence much of later alchemy, that metals were mixtures of sulfur, mercury, and arsenic, except for gold, which was made up of sulfur and mercury alone. The sulfur and mercury of which Jabir spoke were not the substances found in nature. They were purified essences which European alchemists later called philosophical sulfur and philosophical mercury. They were supposed to be quite unlike the common substances. For example, it was said that philosophical sulfur didn t burn. According to Jabir, of all the metals, gold contained the most mercury and the least sulfur. Thus other metals could be transformed into gold if ways were found to increase their mercury content. 

The alchemists never succeeded in making gold from base metals, yet their experiments, recorded under a mystical and intentionally obscure terminology, gradually revealed metallic arsenic and antimony. Bismuth was discovered by practical miners. Finally, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, the pale light of phosphorus began to illumine the dark secrets of alchemy and to disclose the steady advance of scientific chemistry. 

Alchemy, development of methods to recover elemental arsenic, and the synthesis of arsenic compounds... 

On the utility of antimony and arsenic in alchemical processes, see Priesner and Figala, Alchemie, s.v. "Antimon" and "Arsen."... 

Antimony has always held a special place in alchemy. Known from very ancient times, other names for antimony are Mestem, Asinat, Stimmi and Stibium from which we get our symbol for the element Sb. Antimony is considered a toxic metal, very similar to arsenic. The fascination with this material led to abuse and scams which caused the death of many who had heard of its healing virtues. This provoked Parliament in 1566 to forbid its use in medicine for about one hundred years. 

Arsenic was first recognized as an element by alchemists. Alchemy was a kind of pre-science that existed from about 500 bce to about the end of the 16th century. People who studied alchemy— alchemists— wanted to find a way of changing lead, iron, and other metals into gold. They were also looking for a way to have eternal life. Alchemy contained too much magic and mysticism to be a real science, but alchemists developed a number of techniques and produced many new materials that were later found to be useful in modern chemistry. 

The mineral galena is the primary source of lead or Saturn. The alchemieal importanee of galena is that it is auriferous (bears gold) and produees eonsiderable amounts of antimony when it is refined. Other impurities inelude eopper, zine, silver, arsenic and selenium. 

The three elements arsenic, antimony and bismuth are dealt with in one chapter (46). This allows many interesting connections to alchemy to be made. Some other elements have been brought together in one chapter owing to their mutual similarity. This holds for... 

The question asked in the 2010 Science paper was provocative Did the extreme environment of Mono Lake force life to build with poisonous elements In particular, could a bacterium in Mono Lake have performed the biochemical alchemy of living on arsenic, turning a poisonous sword into a productive plowshare ... 

Although not known as early as carbon, tin, and lead, the Group 5A elements were all discovered before the founding of the United States. Antimony was known to the ancients and was a protected secret of the alchemists. Similarly, arsenic is mentioned in the mystical literature of alchemy, but its discovery is often attributed to Albertus Magnus because of his definitive descriptions of the element. Phosphorus was isolated by Brandt from human urine for a century before it was discovered in bones and in phosphate rock. Bismuth was probably known well before GeoflFrey described it so thoroughly, but he is usually listed as its discoverer. Nitrogen was discovered by Rutherford. 

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