Gold Geber

As previously indicated, the twelfth-century Latin work De inventions veritatis, attributed to the eighth-century Arabian, Geber, obtained what is now known as aqua regia, and he stated that the liquid will dissolve gold. In the literature of the Middle Ages, frequent reference is made to a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids, or a soln. of a nitrate in hydrochloric acid, or of a chloride in nitric acid as a... 

Geber dealt with corpuscles that could in principle be divided. His mercury could penetrate into metals and modify their inner structure, a step on the way to the transmutative production of gold. 

The process of assaying gold was current from early times and in the thirteenth century it was clearly described in the Summaperfectionis magisterii (ascribed to Geber). This also described the preparation of aqua fortis (nitric acid), which was known to dissolve silver but not gold, and aqua regia, prepared from a mixture of nitric acid with ammonium chloride, which... 

And there was more. In two instances, especially, Aristotle posited the rise of intermediate substances as a result of elemental transformation. The element earth gave rise to a substance referred to as smoky earth when a shift of qualities changed earth into fire. Water, on the other hand, produced an intermediate watery vapor as the exchange of its qualities transformed it into air. The combination of smoky earth and watery vapor yielded, in Aristotle s description, the various metals and minerals of the world. Later, especially in the hands of the Arabic writers Jabir (Geber) and Rhazes, smoky earth was renamed sulphur and watery vapor also got a new name—mercury. The purity of sulphur and mercury in combination accounted for the purity and impurity of the resulting metal. Gold was the purest of all the metals in which sulphur was dominant, silver the purest in which mercury was the cardinal part. 

Having heard that, the boy became even more interested in alchemy. He thought that, with some patience, he d be able to transform everything into gold. He read the lives of the various people who had succeeded in doing so Helvetius, Elias, Fulcanelli, and Geber. They were fascinating stories each of them lived out his destiny to the end. They traveled, spoke with wise men, performed miracles for the incredulous, and owned the Philosopher s Stone and the Elixir of Life. 

Like Boyle, Geber views gold as belonging to a species that is defined by its known qualities—yellowness, heaviness, absence of ringing when struck, brilliance, malleability, fusibility, and ability to withstand decomposition by the assaying tests of cupellation and cementation. If anyone should be able to induce these qualities in a given parcel of matter, then let him call that matter gold. There is no mention here of a substantial form, and the term is similarly absent from the remainder of the Summa perfectionis. 

Geber expanded upon Aristotle s theory of the four elements and qualities. He postulated that the union of two natures with substance produced the four basic elements, as in Aristotelian theory However, Geber held that metals had two internal natures and two external natures, which were the opposites of one another. According to this scheme, gold is hot and moist externally but cold and dry internally. This theory did not prove helpful in explaining the observable properties of metals,... 

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