The hunt for red elixir: an early collaboration between Fellows of the Royal Society

The early history of the Royal Society has been depicted as the triumph of Baconian empiricists who tested their observations of nature openly, while their foes were superstitious dogmatists who speculated by conjuring hypotheses in secret. We now appreciate how broad the Royal Society's concep...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Endeavour (New series) 1998-01, Vol.22 (2), p.68-71
Main Author: Dickson, Donald R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chemicals
Chemistry
Clubs
Essays
Experiments
General points
General points and theorical chemistry
History
History of science and technology
History of science in relation to other disciplinary fields
Philosophy
Physical sciences and techniques
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Summary:The early history of the Royal Society has been depicted as the triumph of Baconian empiricists who tested their observations of nature openly, while their foes were superstitious dogmatists who speculated by conjuring hypotheses in secret. We now appreciate how broad the Royal Society's conception of natural philosophy was, especially since so many of its early members had hermetic interests. This essay shows, by examining an early collaborative effort of two fellows, that the actual practice of natural philosophy was broad indeed and hardly revolutionary. Our view of these shadowy figures is usually obscured by the backdrop against which they are set, a backdrop that was created as the category of ‘natural magic’ disappeared, with part becoming science and the rest discarded as superstition. The evidence to be examined includes an alchemical treatise in the British Library and the correspondence discussing it.
ISSN:0160-9327
1873-1929
DOI:10.1016/S0160-9327(98)01124-7