Roberval's discovery
was made before Torricelli's, the latter reached his conclusions
independently.

VI. TWO PSEUDO-SCIENCES--ALCHEMY AND ASTROLOGY

In recent chapters we have seen science come forward with tremendous
strides. A new era is obviously at hand. But we shall misconceive the
spirit of the times if we fail to understand that in the midst of all
this progress there was still room for mediaeval superstition and for
the pursuit of fallacious ideals. Two forms of pseudo-science were
peculiarly prevalent--alchemy and astrology. Neither of these can with
full propriety be called a science, yet both were pursued by many of the
greatest scientific workers of the period. Moreover, the studies of the
alchemist may with some propriety be said to have laid the foundation
for the latter-day science of chemistry; while astrology was closely
allied to astronomy, though its relations to that science are not as
intimate as has sometimes been supposed.

Just when the study of alchemy began is undetermined. It was certainly
of very ancient origin, perhaps Egyptian, but its most flourishing time
was from about the eighth century A.D. to the eighteenth century. The
stories of the Old Testament formed a basis for some of the
strange beliefs regarding the properties of the magic "elixir,"
or "philosopher's stone." Alchemists believed that most of the
antediluvians, perhaps all of them, possessed a knowledge of this stone.
How, otherwise, could they have prolonged their lives to nine and a half
centuries? And Moses was surely a first-rate alchemist, as is proved by
the story of the Golden Calf.(1) After Aaron had made the calf of gold,
Moses performed the much more difficult task of grinding it to powder
and "strewing it upon the waters," thus showing that he had transmuted
it into some lighter substance.

But antediluvians and Biblical characters were not the only persons who
were thought to have discovered the coveted "elixir." Hundreds of aged
mediaeval chemists were credited with having made the discovery, and
were thought to be living on through the centuries by its means. Alaies
de Lisle, for example, who died in 1298, at the age of 110, was alleged
to have been at the point of death at the age of fifty, but just at
this time he made the fortunate discovery of the magic stone, and so
continued to live in health and affluence for sixty years more. And De
Lisle was but one case among hundreds.

An aged and wealthy a