The Medieval Period

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or “philosopher’s stone, alchemy’s long sought after prize. The elixir, or stone, was believed to have the power to transform ordinary metal into precious gold. Alchemists also believed that inorganic things were alive. These inorganic things possessed both spirit and matter values. Because of these beliefs alchemy became known as something strange, something like occult since. They referred alchemy to this because it dealt with properties of matter that could not be inferred by senses from humans. Alchemy became very interesting and popular due to the medieval interest in magic and the unknown. Practical chemistry was shunned upon by the general population until the end of the fourteenth century when the belief in magic began to subside, and the want of proof came into effect (Turner 190).
More than just these beliefs came out of Islamic alchemy, the processes of calculation, evaporation, distillation, crystallization, and filtration were neared perfection (Turner 191). ...

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