Iatrochemistry is an archaic pre-scientific school of thought that was supplanted by modern chemistry and medicine. Having its roots in alchemy, iatrochemistry sought to provide chemical solutions to diseases and medical ailments.
Frontispiece to Thomas Willis' 1663 book Diatribae duae medico-philosophicae - quarum prior agit de fermentatione, a treatise on fermentation as a mysterious key to transformations (from mash to beer or from health to fevers), engraved and published by Gerbrandus Schagen in Amsterdam
Coelum philosophorum by Philippus Ulstadius, 1527
Alchemy is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first attested in a number of pseudepigraphical texts written in Greco-Roman Egypt during the first few centuries AD.
Depiction of an Ouroboros from the alchemical treatise Aurora consurgens (15th century), Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Switzerland
Ambix, cucurbit and retort of Zosimos, from Marcelin Berthelot, Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs (3 vol., Paris, 1887–1888)
15th-century artistic impression of Jabir ibn Hayyan (Geber), Codici Ashburnhamiani 1166, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence
"An illuminated page from a book on alchemical processes and receipts", ca. 15th century
