PREFACE.
Reading edition
The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry is very interesting in itself. It is also a pregnant example of the contrast between the scientific and the emotional methods of regarding nature; and it admirably illustrates the differences between well-grounded, suggestive, hypotheses, and baseless speculations.
I have tried to tell the story so that it may be intelligible to the ordinary reader.
M.M. PATTISON MUIR.
CAMBRIDGE, November 1902.
NOTE TO NEW EDITION.
A few small changes have been made. The last chapter has been re-written and considerably enlarged.
M.M.P.M.
FARNHAM, September 1913.