Lead unites readily with almost all other metals; hence, and on account of its being used for the extraction of (for instance) silver, its alchemistic name of saturnus.
He visited London and Paris in 1771, selling lovephiltres, elixirs of youth, mixtures for making ugly women beautiful, alchemistic powders, &c., and deriving large profits from his trade.
Other acids became known during the alchemistic period; and the first attempt at a generalized conception of these substances was made by Paracelsus, who supposed them to contain a principle which conferred the properties of sourness and solubility.
