Page "Chemistry" Paragraph 17

The genesis of chemistry can be traced to the widely observed phenomenon of burning that led to metallurgy — the art and science of processing ores to get metals ( e. g. metallurgy in ancient India ).

The greed for gold led to the discovery of the process for its purification, even though the underlying principles were not well understood — it was thought to be a transformation rather than purification.

Many scholars in those days thought it reasonable to believe that there exist means for transforming cheaper ( base ) metals into gold.

This gave way to alchemy and the search for the Philosopher's Stone which was believed to bring about such a transformation by mere touch.