Essay name: Alchemy in India and China
Author:
Vijaya Jayant Deshpande
Affiliation: Panjab University / Department of Chemistry
The thesis "Alchemy in India and China" explores the comparative aspects of alchemy in these two countries, focusing on chemical and protochemical formulations while addressing why modern science developed in the West rather than in India or China. It briefly touches upon internal alchemy in China and the ritualistic tantra in India.
Chapter 5 - Transmission of Alchemical and Chemical ideas
35 (of 39)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
Download the PDF file of the original publication
126
in making dinner-table articles and looked very much like
pure silver. This was named Paktong or Bai-tong (meaning
white copper in Chinese). Its exact nature was not known
until the eighteenth century. Von Engerstrom reported
his analysis of the Paktong ingot in 1776. It contained
equal percentages of copper and zinc with 15.6 percent of
Nickel. Also two of the Nickel-containing alloys are
listed in modern European manuals as "China silver" and
"Chinese silver". They contain only two percent of the
precious metal and one of the alloys contains some cobalt
and the other 19.5 percent tin. Their percentage
composition is given below:
Percentages
Silver Copper
Tin Zinc Nickel Cobalt
of
Ag
Cu
Sn
Zn
Ni
Co
China Silver
2 65
19.5
13.0
Chinese Silver
2 58
17.5
11.5
11 The origin of the above names is not known for
lack of evidence. (But one thing is beyond doubt: that
the names and methods of preparation of the above alloys
must have originated in China, since they have acquired
these names.) Thus we may surmise that ideas regarding
silver-coloured alloys were transmitted from China to other
