A review of William R. Newman's new
book.
Among the secrets revealed in this unusual history of alchemy is Leonardo da Vinci's recipe for making artificial pearls "as large as you wish" - take a small genuine pearl, dissolve it in lemon juice, dry the paste into a power, mix it with egg white, let it harden, then grind and polish.
A less appealing recipe might be one the philosopher John Locke proposed for creating a toad or a serpent by using a duck or a goose.
Over the course of a millennium, the annals of alchemy tell of all manner of generation, transmutation and transfiguration.
posted by Prof. Hex at 3:02 AM