"...It is therefore not surprising that Alchemists should claim that theoretically (and practically, say some of them) it is possible to make gold, that is to extract from other chemical bodies certain atoms and so to group these latter that they shall in fact constitute gold. It would be just as easy artificially to make Iron, Sulfur or Lead, by arriving at the grouping of the atoms of which they are naturally composed."
"...Let us give an example of what we might expect from the bombardment of the atom by means of this formidable voltage. The nucleus of the atom of mercury contains 53 charges, the nucleus of the atom of gold has 52. Therefore it would suffice to extract from the atom of mercury one proton, one nucleus of hydrogen, and it would be transformed into gold."
(Excerpted from The Encyclopedia of Occult Sciences, New York, 1939. This version edited by Daniel J. McAdam, © 1998. All rights reserved. Found at http://www.djmcadam.com/alchemy.htm )
"Deluding the public took a new approach when men sought to make imitations of gold. At first real gold was applied as a covering over inexpensive metals to make imitation solid-gold ornaments. Then a copper alloy having a golden color was developed, but it tarnished badly. For insets that imitated pure gold, both copper and silver might be mingled with gold, or some yellow metallic compound might be used. None of these various imitations fooled the jeweler if he could apply heat to the object. In fact, he knew how to recover all the gold and silver, separated from each other, that were in a coin or ring. He built a crucible from the ash of burned bones and put the object in the bottom of the crucible, which he then filled to the lid with salt mixed through chopped straw. After being heated strongly for some time, the gold would be left as a lump of melted metal. The silver had vanished as a metal and had been absorbed as a white compound in the ash walls of the crucible. He would recover the silver intact by heating the crucible moderately in the open air, causing the silver to run out in molten form. None of the jewelers knew why this method was successful. To them it was chemical magic.
It is easy to see, then, that more and more facts of chemical changes were being discovered in these ancient times, but the explanations for these facts could not be given. Chemistry and the chemical arts were developing; chemical theory was not. But the dishonesty that was being practiced under the name of chemistry was giving the science a bad name. Today we distinguish the good from the fraudulent, as developed in these centuries, by calling the first chemistry, the other alchemy."
(The paragraphs above are a direct quote from: http://www.nidlink.com/~jfromm/history2/chemist1.htm#ALCHEMY Author James R. Fromm (jfromm@3rd1000.com) April 1987 )