3 ms·

This isn't about pseudo-science as much as about historical oddities. The hoax in this case isn't alchemy (which is a hoax in a way, or maybe a delusion,) it's

• pbhjpbhj 11y ago
  Isn't alchemy the transformation of lead in to gold - that's neither a hoax nor a delusion but instead a performable feat of nuclear physics. Alchemists (like Boyle) almost certainly weren't working to deceive people nor under a delusion, they were attempting to do something that was not then possible and - in part by their efforts - has now become possible for people [to a degree].
  • benbreen 11y ago
    Alchemy is better defined as a broad set of practices and beliefs surrounding what we would now call the fields of pharmacy and chemistry. Alchemists didn't just try to transmute lead into gold, they experimented with magnetism, the action of drugs on mind and body, the transmission and treatment of diseases, the chemistry of the body (urine was a very popular alchemical substance), the translation and interpretation of Greek, Roman and Arabic texts, etc. There was also a strong component of Hermetic and occult magical practice, which blurred into Biblical and Talmudic exegesis as well. Boyle's "The Sceptical Chymist" (1661) was really the beginning of the end for that super expansive approach to alchemy but you're right that he was still working in an early modern alchemical framework (as was Newton).