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Chemistry was alchemy until people realized that if they shared the knowledge that drinking mercury was a bad idea, fewer people would drink mercury.
by rosser 14y ago
Chemistry was alchemy until people realized that if they shared the knowledge that drinking mercury was a bad idea, fewer people would drink mercury.
- shmerl 14y agoExactly. Alchemy means "the chemistry". Alchemists were true experimentalists and researchers and discovered many chemical reactions, elements as well as invented various tools. They focused on mystical application of this knowledge in a sense of drawing parallels between processes in the soul to chemical processes. Only later this distinction between "chemistry" and "alchemy" appeared, when interest in mysticism stopped being part of this field of study.