Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry

AMBIX : VOLUME XLVIII

THOMAS PHILIPOT AND CHEMICAL THEORIES OF THE TIDES IN
SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND
BY ANNA MARIE Roosb

INTRODUCTION

In seventeenth-century England, the ultimate causes of planetary beams
were considered 'occult', an Aristotelian and early modern term utilised
when distinguishing ‘qualities which were evident to the senses from those
which were hidden'.1 After the Restoration, natural philosophers attempted to
rid the world of occult causes and to explain invisible forces like solar and
lunar emanations' via the mechanical philosophy, mathematical, and chemical
systems.2 This examination of occult causes extended to the tides, or the effects
of the sunshine and moonbeams upon the seas.

Scholarly analysis of seventeenth-century tidal theories has primarily
focused on Galilean, Cartesian, and Keplerian ideas, or upon the origins of
Wallis and Newton's gravitational models.3 Tidal theory in early modern
England thus was in a pre-paradigmatic state, evincing a multiplicity of
conflicting arguments. Even after the publication of Newton's Principica
(1687), the periodical The Gentleman's Journal in 1692 listed ten different
explanations of the tides, and complained that competing ideas caused 'th
learned [to be] much puzzled about...the Flux and Reflux of the Sea
Part of the reason for this state of affairs may have been because the lunar
influence on the tides was a phenomenon 'odd enough to count as magical
and bearing properties that eluded the matter-theory that prevailed in Europe
from Aristotle to Descartes'.6 Matter theory for instance did not explain why all
bodies of water do not exhibit tidal behaviour. Despite the multiplicity of
explanations about the occult causes of the tides that existed, no scholarly
research has been done analysing chemical models of the sea's flux and reflux,
in particular those proposed by poet and writer Thomas Philipot (d. 1682).

Thomas Philipot was the son of John Philipot (1589?-1645); John was a
Somerset herald, friend of William Camden, and a historian and archacologist
of Kent. Thomas followed some of John's interests closely, to the point of even
plagiarising some of his father's antiquarian histories. However, Thomas was
best known as a 'tolerable poet' while a student at Cambridge University and
an author of tracts on a variety of subjects ranging from suicide, Aesop 's
Fables, to the history of heraldry.8 By the 1670s, Thomas Philipot's interests hacd
shifted to natural philosophy, and in 1673, he published A Phylosophical Essay,
Treating of the most Probable Cause of that Grand Mystery of Nature, the Flux and
Reflux: or Flowing and Ebbing of the Sea.9 Through an extended chain of logical...

* Assistant Professor, History Department, University of Minnesota Duluth, e-mail:
aroos@dumn.edu… (mais)

AMBIX : VOLUME XXIII

AMBIX Vol. 23, Part 3. November 1976
EARLY TERMS FOR ELIXIR HITHERTO UNRECOGNIZED
IN GREEK ALCHEMY

BY S. МАН DI HASSAN*

UNLIKE science, where phenomena can be confirmed directly, history, by its very nature, is
dependent upon earlier records and in that sense may be regarded as secondhand knowledge
If a single source is not sufficiently informative, then authentic facts may often be gathe
from other sources-hence we see the value of comparative studies.

In the case of alchemy,1 we may regard it as a dual-purpose art: the synthesis of gold
and the prolongation of human life. As an art it depends upon a substance, or Elixir,
which has a dual role- -that of transmuting base metals into gold and preserving man's
eternal youth. In the case of Greek (Hellenistic) alchemy it is generally accepted that the
Elixir concept plays no part, strange as it may seem. Taylor3 maintains that "the principal
feature that is lacking is that of the elixir or philosopher's stone". He states further, "th
idea of the elixir as a medicine prolonging life was present to the Arabs and not to their
Greek-speaking predecessors"4 But we maintain that from the very beginning there is
claimed to be, firstly, an Elixir of Youth; secondly, an Elixir of Longevity and Immortality
and, thirdly, an Elixir of Gold. Often it is not clear whether there are three different
Elixirs, one more potent than the others, or a single substance manifesting three different
properties. Once we penetrate deeply enough to realize the nature of the active principle
attributed to it we can appreciate the range of its mechanical action. The origins of
alchemy were founded in Animism, which postulated the living nature of every entity
possessed of a single soul. Perennial plants, precious stones-such as jade and diamond
and a metal such as gold, possessed "souls" sufficiently powerful to prolong the lives of those
who assimilated them in a physiological sense. With the somewhat later concept of dualism
came the idea that "soul" possessed two elementary aspects. Thus, it could be a mixture of
inferior, or sub-, souls which could separate to produce matching pairs which could fuse, as
male and female opposites, to form an "hermaphrodite" which became an autonomous
entity of ever-increasing potentiality. Such a dualism was to provide the underlying theory
for the use of complex drugs, mixtures of herbs, herbo-metallic compounds and thiomercurial
complexes; the latter two never occurred naturally, yet, in a sense, it is from such as these
that alchemy really arose.

Returning to the term "Elixir": in Arabic there is a synonym, Kimiya, which has a
double significance. Gildemeister points out that "Kimiya (from Which the word 'alchemy'
is derived) is not for the Arabs an abstraction but the name of a substance, by means of
which metallic transmutation is brought about, and thus resembles the Philosopher's
Stone and the preparation derived from it. It is synonymous with Iksir, which likewise
denotes an agent of transformation'". Wiedemann is in full agreement with this. Thus
in Arabic we have the correspondences Kimya-İksir-Elixir. Here we must note that
no-one so far has explained how alchemy can synthesize gold, bring about human immortalit
or shed any light on the two divergent properties of the Elixir.

The easiest way to arrive at a solution of the problem seems to derive from an examination
f the words from which the term "alchemy" may have arisen. Chemeia is the oldest and
its etymology has already been discussed.7 To summarize: Alexandria was founded around...

S.D. 34-Block 1, North Nazimabad, Karachi 33, Pakistan… (mais)

AMBIX : VOLUME XXII

FRANCIS BACON'S SEMI-PARACELSIAN COSMOLOGY
BY GRAHAM REES

IN this article I propose to show that while Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was working on his
ans for the instauration of the sciences,1 he invested considerable energy in a different
and hitherto unrecognized enterprise the construction of a highly speculative system
of the world. We shall see that this system is a hybrid. In bizarre fashion it brings
Aristotle, a dynamical adapted from natural-magical tradition and, above all, a chemico-physical
theory whose origins are to be found in Paracelsian thought. As for the system as a whole
I shall argue that Bacon was engaged in a possibly unique attempt to transform
Paracelsian ideas by bringing them to bear on problems largely alien to Paracelsian thought
together kinematic principles derived from an Arab supporter great importance in the wider
context of early seventeenth-century science

To justify these assertions and unravel the complex strands of Bacon's cosmological
thought, I have divided the following investigation into two parts. The first is concerned
with (a) the Paracelsian background to Bacon's system, (b) the system's chemico-physical
eatures and (e) its particular relation to Paracelsian tradition. The second deals with
a) the kinematic and (b) the dynamical aspects of the system and (c) a major elaboration
which Bacon developed to explain the phenomena of wind and tide. In the second part
I shall try to show how Bacon's cosmology was shaped by astronomical and cosmological
questions which lay beyond the ambit of Paracelsian thought itself.

Ia. THE PARACELSIAN BACKGROUND

Bacon's scientific writings belong to the first quarter of the seventeenth century and
during that period Paracelsian thought was a major intellectual force though not one whose
effects were felt uniformly throughout Europe. On the Continent the iatrochemical,
cosmological and mystical phases of Paracelsian thought all enjoyed considerable prestige
but in England the situation was different. Debus has shown that while Paracelsian
chemotherapy made rapid progress here, the philosophical and cosmological phases were
generally ignored or regarded with suspicion.2 Indeed, in the period I600-25 only two
Englishmen besides Bacon ventured into these less favoured fields: Thomas Tymme (d.1620),
the alchemist and devotional writer, and Robert Fludd (1574-1637), physician and respected
friend of William Harvey.

Wightman has recently described Fludd's philosophy and cosmology as an "anti-instauration",
a compound of precisely those features of Paracelsian and Hermetic thought which
Bacon specifically repudiated. Fludd's heady mixture of cabbalistic, astrological and
numerological materials and his belief that knowledge could be acquired through "the
recovery of the ancient wisdom by submission to the World-Soul" certainly places him in
the tradition of the Renaissance magi.3 However, that did not stop him earning a formidable
reputation on the Continent where his work made such an impression that Mersenne.

* Department of Arts, The Polytechnic, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire.
1 The best modern study of Bacon's method and programme is Paolo Rossi's Francis Bacon:
t Allen G. Debus, The English Paracelsians, London and New York, 1966, 49. 67-70, 80, 154
From
Magic to Scirnce, tr. S. Rabinovitch, London, 1968
w. P. D. Wightman, Science in a Renaissance Society, London, 1972, 162-3… (mais)

AMBIX : VOLUM XXIV

In AMBIX, which appears in March, July and November each year
(3 parts making a volume), the Society publishes scholarly articles and
reviews of books on all aspects of the history of alchemy and chemistry.

Articles, which must be fully documented, should not exceed o,ooo
words. They should be sent to the Editor, Dr. W. H. Brock. Every care
will be taken of typescripts, but no responsibility can be accepted for
accidental loss or damage. Authors receive 25 free offprints.

Books for review should be sent to the Reviews Editor, Dr. W. A
Smeaton. Publishers are asked to notify the prices of books.

Meetings of the Society are held in London, generally twice per year
at which papers on the history of alchemy and chemistry are read and
discussed. Information about meetings, which are open to non
can be obtained from the Hon. Secretary, Dr. G. K. Roberts.

Anyone interested in the history of alchemy or chemistry may
become a member of the Society. The annual subscription of
should be sent to the Hon. Treasurer, Dr. W. A. Smeaton, from whom
further information can be obtained. Members receive the current vol-
ume of Ambix (3 parts) without further payment. All back volumes are
available at £6.0o each.… (mais)