* 把自己在微博發(fā)的考據(jù)搬過(guò)來(lái)了。

星銻的姓名很值得說(shuō)一說(shuō)，很多解說(shuō)直接把銻和牛頓聯(lián)系在一起，我認(rèn)為這種省略很多關(guān)鍵環(huán)節(jié)的表達(dá)容易讓讀者誤會(huì)。也看到很多人說(shuō)"牛頓發(fā)現(xiàn)了銻"，"牛頓用Regulus命名了銻"以及"牛頓發(fā)現(xiàn)了Regulus"這種說(shuō)法。我不知道這些說(shuō)法的來(lái)源是哪里，但是根據(jù)我個(gè)人的搜索，我覺得以上說(shuō)法都是不正確的，而且還混淆了很多基本概念，所以會(huì)用一些篇幅來(lái)聊一聊星銻，銻/Antimony，Regulus /軒轅十四 ，regulus 和 star regulus的區(qū)別。

有大篇幅的英文引用，不過(guò)我都提煉出了基本信息，如果有我理解錯(cuò)誤的地方還麻煩糾正我。

先上The Chymistry of Isaac Newton?的定義:

Regulus?: The metallic component refined from an ore. Most often applied by Newton and other chymists to metallic antimony or alloys thereof.[1]

Regulus martis?: Literally, “regulus of Mars,” often called “martial regulus,” the regulus of antimony produced by refining stibnite with iron.[1]

Regulus stellatus: Martial regulus that has been allowed to crystallize slowly under a thick slag, forming a starlike pattern on its surface.[1]

我們可以看到，regulus是一個(gè)核心概念。通過(guò)定義可以得知，regulus是一個(gè)礦石提煉后得出的金屬物質(zhì)。

那么牛頓跟regulus的關(guān)系在哪里呢? 我在[2]里找到這樣一段描述:

“Following years of work Newton claimed to have remarkable success developing a
‘philosophical mercury’ for producing gold, and later an effective ‘philosophical
sulphur’. We find a clue to why he saw these as possible from his attraction to the star
regulus of antimony.”

這里涉及到三個(gè)問(wèn)題:

(1) philosophical mercury 是什么?
(2) star regulus of antimony 是什么?
(3) philosophical mercury和star regulus of antimony 的關(guān)系是什么?

我們先來(lái)看看第一個(gè)問(wèn)題。

那么，這段里面提到的philosophical mercury是什么呢？

“Philosophic mercury was [thought to be] a substance that could be used to break down metals into their constituent parts,” James Voelkel, CHF’s curator of rare books, told Emma Stoye at Chemistry World. “The idea is if you break the metals down, you can then reassemble them and make different metals. [4]”

這段話可以看出，哲學(xué)水銀是用來(lái)分解金屬的。當(dāng)時(shí)的煉金術(shù)士們認(rèn)為，只有先了解了金屬的構(gòu)成，才能夠更好的生成它們。

這種觀點(diǎn)和[3]中對(duì)牛頓的描述不謀而合:

“The dissolution of gold, not its multiplication, is what most interested Isaac Newton.?He measured the magnitude of his supposed achievement against Boyle’s oft-repeated alchemical dictum: “It is easier to make gold than to destroy it.” In other words, once someone has solved the knotty riddle of what a substance is made of, producing that substance should be comparatively easy, a familiar enough notion to the student of modern chemistry.”

這種觀點(diǎn)上的不謀而合使得牛頓在實(shí)踐種大量借鑒George Starkey的經(jīng)驗(yàn)并嘗試解鎖Starkey的實(shí)驗(yàn)步驟:

“Newton’s pursuit of the true philosophical mercury had caused him to draw heavily upon the works of George Starkey. Nine of Starkey’s books graced the shelves of Newton’s library when he died. The mediation of special mercuries were set forth in a manner strikingly similar to those expressed by Newton in the “Clavis” manuscript[3]. “

那么，Starkey和牛頓為什么那么看重哲學(xué)水銀呢? 因?yàn)檎軐W(xué)水銀是制造哲學(xué)家之石的關(guān)鍵成分，而哲學(xué)家之石，就是在煉金術(shù)師眼里能化普通金屬為金的神奇物質(zhì)。

“George Starkey, outlines a recipe for “philosophic mercury” (or “sophick” mercury for short), which was thought to be a key ingredient in the creation of the?Philosopher’s Stone?– a mythical substance believed to have the capacity to?turn lead, iron, mercury, or copper into gold[4].”

解決了第一個(gè)問(wèn)題，再來(lái)看看第二個(gè)問(wèn)題，star regulus of antimony 是什么，為什么牛頓那么執(zhí)著于這個(gè)東西呢?

Antimony是銻元素，那么star regulus指的是什么呢?

“Antimony?is a semimetal, occurring naturally as antimony sulphide, now called stibnite. The?crystals?are long and thin and generally form themselves into patterns like ferns. But?under special conditions, which the alchemists discovered, they form pattern radiating from a centre,?like stars. It was this star of antimony that fascinated Newton.?It was called by alchemists the regulus (‘little king’), probably referring to the star Regulus in the constellation of Leo.?In any case, Newton saw a relation between the ‘regulus of antimony’ and the star Regulus. The alchemist Basilius spoke of the ‘star of antimony’ as having: “a spirit which is its strength, which also invades it invisibly, as the magnetic property pervades the magnet”. It seems that this greatly appealed to Newton, leading him to think that by analogy with celestial gravity it would draw the ‘philosophical mercury’ out of other metals. Traditionally, alchemy is closely tied to astrology, as each planet is ascribed a metal: mercury for Mercury, lead for Saturn, tin for Jupiter, copper for Venus, iron for Mars, silver for the Moon, gold for the Sun.?Newton looked for alchemical relations between substances and certain stars, especially Regulus. [2]”

這段可以看出，star regulus指的是銻的星狀晶體，在煉金術(shù)師眼里被認(rèn)為是極度提純后的結(jié)晶產(chǎn)物。

中間加粗的整句話提到，17世紀(jì)的煉金術(shù)士以獅子座的軒轅十四星來(lái)命名他們發(fā)現(xiàn)的銻晶體(沒有任何一個(gè)描述明確提到了”Newton discovered”，”named by”等等)。

最后一句加粗的話也可以看出，牛頓致力于根據(jù)天體引力的類比尋找恒星和物質(zhì)之間的某種煉金術(shù)關(guān)系，比如某種物質(zhì)和軒轅十四的。

現(xiàn)在只剩下第三個(gè)問(wèn)題了，philosophical mercury和star regulus of antimony 的關(guān)系是什么?
當(dāng)然是因?yàn)閞egulus本身很重要啦，提純后的star regulus就更重要啦。

那么，regulus到底重要在哪里呢?

“When the regulus is poured into the warmed mold the metal sinks down. …?Because the regulus of antimony combines readily with gold (the king of metals) it became important to the process of refining the precious metal and an object of considerable experimental interest to seventeenth-century adepts.?The regulus was also separated from stibnite by the introduction of various metallic reducing agents, in which case it became the regulus of Venus (copper), the regulus of Jupiter (tin), the regulus of Saturn (lead), or most importantly, the regulus of Mars (iron). … It was thought, quite erroneously, that the “seed” of the metal used to reduce the regulus from the ore remained embedded in the regulus itself, thus raising all sorts of tantalizing possibilities in Newton’s mind.what the alchemists called the regulus of antimony[3].”

這段可以看出，銻的regulus可以在煉金術(shù)中和其他的金屬還原劑發(fā)生作用以產(chǎn)生置換反應(yīng)，從而銻的regulus就變成了其他的金屬化合物，比如鐵，錫啊之類的。也就是說(shuō)，為了煉金，我們需要能和金穩(wěn)定結(jié)合的銻的regulus，而要把銻的regulus從銻輝礦中提取出來(lái)，需要在原礦石中加入金屬還原劑以產(chǎn)生置換。但是當(dāng)時(shí)的煉金術(shù)師們有一個(gè)錯(cuò)誤的認(rèn)知，他們認(rèn)為，置換反應(yīng)會(huì)讓金屬和銻的regulus變得難以分離提純，因?yàn)榻饘俚姆N子(那個(gè)”seed”)會(huì)遺留在regulus里。

然后就像下面這段說(shuō)的一樣，煉金術(shù)師們需要找到這顆種子，在孵化器里提純，蒸餾，生成philosopical mercury。

“Seeding can be done with the seed contained in the scoria of the first fusion or with live mercury, with animated cinnabar, with native gold, the black powder, or live sulfur. The seed of course is in the scoria and also in minute quantity in the metals applied in the work. The seed is the sperm of the metals and Newton probably knew that he was to locate this seed and to cultivate it; sew it in the Duplex or animated, philosophic mercury.[3]”

那么問(wèn)題就來(lái)了，star regulus 不過(guò)就是regulus的一種形態(tài)，用regulus 不就行了，非要星形的干什么呢?
嗯，因?yàn)榕ｎD是一個(gè)有追求的科學(xué)家。就像[3]中所說(shuō):

“It was not extracting philosophic mercury from common metals that Isaac Newton was after, but?THE Philosophic Mercury?or amalgam that would make the little trees of tiny crystalline branches grow, the sophic gold, so that he could bathe his gold in it, to multiply it, and animate it, for its magical properties.”

在牛頓的眼里，只有在這種形成了星狀物質(zhì)的貢化合物，才能成為金的培養(yǎng)基。

我們這么一步步看下來(lái)，其實(shí)牛頓對(duì)于regulus, star regulus, philosophic mercury 和 The Philosophic Mercury的追求可以一步步地對(duì)應(yīng)到開篇所提的Starkey的實(shí)驗(yàn)室實(shí)驗(yàn)過(guò)程里:

“Starkey’s laboratory practice, which?Newton wanted to understand and reproduce, consisted?first?of reducing metallic antimony from its ore, stibnite, by heating the ore at high temperature with bits of iron.?Further?refinements would create crystalline “rays” on the surface of the metallic antimony, hence it was called the star-regulus of antimony. Starkey?then?fused the star-regulus with silver or copper, which allowed him to amalgamate the antimony with quicksilver.?Eventually, he produced a “sophic mercury” in which gold could be made to dissolve and “vegetate”—forming tree-like growths. Starkey, and Newton, believed this “vegetation” was evidence that sophic mercury was a key to producing the ultimate agent of transmutation—the philosophers’ stone.[5]”

第一步，從銻輝礦中還原金屬銻; 第二步，提煉呈現(xiàn)星狀射線的銻結(jié)晶; 第三步，金屬置換，使金屬的seed留存于star regulus這個(gè)培養(yǎng)基中; 最后，產(chǎn)生”sophic mercury[6]”。然后，就可以美美地在sophic mercury里面種下金子等它跟樹一樣長(zhǎng)大啦~~~~

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天哪我本來(lái)準(zhǔn)備考據(jù)一下星銻的人設(shè)，沒想到光一個(gè)名字就寫了這么多。

附錄:

1. Alchemical Glossary on The Chymistry of Isaac Newton

2. Good as Gold: Sir Isaac Newton’s Alchemy

3. Newton And Flamel On Star Regulus Of Antimony And Iron

4. ScienceAlert: Isaac Newton’s Recipe For The Mythical ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ Has Just Been Rediscovered

5. A Guide to the Alchemical Manuscript by Bill Newman

6. 因?yàn)椴煌墨I(xiàn)術(shù)語(yǔ)上的混亂，我個(gè)人的理解是，sophic gold = sophic mercury = The Philosophical Mercury