While these criticisms may have had wide influence in intellectual circles, the ones that finally ‘killed’ alchemy in the 18th century were the old ones about fraud.
I would be interested to know to what extend it has been killed. Given that the involved people seem to like to keep their work secret, how well do we know that it was killed and didn’t just disappear from public attention?
Well, I put ‘killed’ in scarequotes for a reason. Principe himself notes that the Stone (both literal and figurative) still has many seekers, some of whom reside in the academy. But as Principe also explains in chapter seven, alchemy during its golden age had considerable influence on popular culture. It was a topic of public discussion, reverence, and ridicule. This cultural relevance definitely seems to have fallen off significantly. Historical alchemy still has some cultural oomph in fantasy works, but it’s rare to see contemporary alchemy mentioned in fiction or periodicals today.
Moreover, during its golden age alchemy could claim to have people like Issac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz as practitioners or interested spectators. Certainly the number of ‘5 sigma IQs’ as Alan Kay would put it, who are after the stone seems significantly lower than it was in the past. Due to population increases I can’t say for sure the absolute number is any less, but the relative number of highly intelligent people with an interest in chrysopoeia has almost certainly declined very sharply.
I would be interested to know to what extend it has been killed. Given that the involved people seem to like to keep their work secret, how well do we know that it was killed and didn’t just disappear from public attention?
Well, I put ‘killed’ in scarequotes for a reason. Principe himself notes that the Stone (both literal and figurative) still has many seekers, some of whom reside in the academy. But as Principe also explains in chapter seven, alchemy during its golden age had considerable influence on popular culture. It was a topic of public discussion, reverence, and ridicule. This cultural relevance definitely seems to have fallen off significantly. Historical alchemy still has some cultural oomph in fantasy works, but it’s rare to see contemporary alchemy mentioned in fiction or periodicals today.
Moreover, during its golden age alchemy could claim to have people like Issac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz as practitioners or interested spectators. Certainly the number of ‘5 sigma IQs’ as Alan Kay would put it, who are after the stone seems significantly lower than it was in the past. Due to population increases I can’t say for sure the absolute number is any less, but the relative number of highly intelligent people with an interest in chrysopoeia has almost certainly declined very sharply.