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Alchemy, ancient art practiced especially in the Middle Ages, devoted chiefly
to discovering a substance that would transmute the more common metals into
gold or silver and to finding a means of indefinitely prolonging human life.
Although its purposes and techniques were dubious and often illusory, alchemy
was in many ways the predecessor of modern science, especially the science of
chemistry.
The birthplace of alchemy was ancient Egypt, where, in Alexandria, it began to
flourish in the Hellenistic period; simultaneously, a school of alchemy was
developing in China. The writings of some of the early Greek philosophers might
be considered to contain the first chemical theories; and the theory advanced
in the 5th century BC by Empedocles—that all things are composed of air, earth,
fire, and water—was influential in alchemy. The Roman emperor Caligula is said
to have instituted experiments for producing gold from orpiment, a sulfide of
arsenic, and the emperor......

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