Bill+Week+Four+Assignment

Wikipedia defines alchemy as “a philosophy and a practice with an aim of achieving wisdom as well as immortality.” The main goal of alchemists was to convert common metals in to gold or silver, as well as to produce a “panacea”. A “panacea” is a remedy that “cures all diseases and prolongs life indefinitely” (en.wikipedia.org). Before reading William Newman’s article, //Newton and Alchemy//, I believed that the words “Newton” and “alchemy” were antonyms; however, now I know the truth.

There had to have been a reason why Newton would label his 329 alchemical manuscripts “not fit to be printed”. Possibly he thought that people would throw away his theories of gravitation, calculus, and optics if they knew he was an alchemist. This would be unlikely though because there was no fine line between science and alchemy. Richard Westfall, in his biography of Newton, said that “Newton’s interest in alchemy cannot be isolated from his contributions to science.”

Even though Newton practiced alchemy over a thirty year span, one cannot disregard the discoveries he made over that time. I have never heard of someone proving wrong that the gravitational force on earth is 9.8 m/s/s. Also, I haven’t heard a contradiction to F=ma. While reading through one of Newton’s laboratory notebooks online I came across many words in different languages such as Latin and Greek, which I expected, but there were also many alchemical symbols that I could not decipher. However, all of the optical diagrams in the margins did make sense, the beams of refraction and reflection through prisms made sense. This leaves me asking why he believed it was necessary to write, “Not fit to be printed”, at the end of his lab manuscript.