Research Catalog

Title

Modern alchemy : occultism and the emergence of atomic theory / Mark S. Morrisson.

Author

Morrisson, Mark S.

Publication

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, c2007.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

viii, 262 p.; 25 cm.

Summary

• "It has been rarely noted that the birth of atomic science coincided with an efflorescence of occultism and alchemical tropes that attached deep significance to questions about the nature of matter and energy."
• "Mark S. Morrisson explores this brief revival of scientific interest in alchemy and its connections to the emerging subatomic sciences of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He shows that a resurfacing of occult circles and alchemical tropes had a traceable impact upon the science of the day. He reveals unexpected interactions between science and the occult, such as the Alchemical Society in London (1912-1915), the research program of "clairvoyant chemistry," and the attempts of academic chemists, inspired by the alchemy revival, to transmute the elements - even to make gold."
• "Morrisson's research uncovers the story of how this alchemical revival influenced, and was in turn shaped by, conceptions of matter emerging from the new science of radioactivity. Examining scientists' publications, correspondence, talks, and laboratory notebooks as well as the writings of occultists, alchemical tomes, and science-fiction stories, Morrisson argues that as modern nuclear physics was born, the trajectories of science and occultism - usually seen as antithetical - briefly converged."--Jacket.

Uniform Title

University press scholarship online.

Subject

• Geschichte 1850-1950
• Geschichte 1850-1950
• Alchemy > History
• Occultism > History
• Nuclear chemistry
• Alchemy in literature
• Alchemy
• Literature
• Nuclear Physics > history
• Occultism > history

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [235]-251) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction -- From the Golden Dawn to the Alchemical Society -- Occult chemistry, instrumentation, and the theosophical science of direct perception -- Chemistry in the borderland -- Atomic alchemy and the gold standard -- Epilogue.

ISBN

• 9780195306965 (cloth)
• 0195306961 (cloth)

LCCN

^^2006029629

OCLC

71312822

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library