The following are a few of the several instances showing in detail the several classifications and preparations contemplated Siddhas works; and these will not convince the re readers of the high proficiency, unparalleled knowledge and uncommon development which the siddhars had attained in this branch of science from very ancient times and even at such a remote period as that when Europe was completely immersed in ignorance and barbarism.
Calx or Calcined Oxide, red-oxide, carbonate, etc., prepared from chemical salts, mercury, sulphur, arsenic zinc, vermilion, corrosive sublimate, sal-ammoniac, bichlorid of mercury, etc.
Cleansing process of metals like lead, copper iron, mercury, etc., and compounds like orpiment, sal-ammoniac, borax, vermilion, corrosive sublimate, sub-chloride of mercury, etc.
The Siddha System which was in vogue in Southern India long before the Aryan period, had fallen into disuse; and consequently a major portion of the Siddha works was either destroyed or last for want of sufficient encouragement. Laser generations could not take it up in right earnest without State aid, as at the time of East India Company, almost all the Indian Chemical Works and factories in various places were ordered to be closed down on the ground that the preparations were crude and dangerous, but really with a view t encourage and promote Western Medicine. Subsequently, the passing of the poisons Act gave the final death-below especially to the siddha system dealing entirely with medicines prepared with metals and metallic poisons and this gave rise t the practice of Ayurveda in South India. It is still more regrettable to note that nor research work was taken up in this direction even during the time of the Asiatic researches or even subsequently.
Countless Chinese priests came to India and studied Tamil Medicine of whom Bogar and Pullippani are to be remembered specially. Ramadevar also learnt the Siddha system of medicine and propagated it in several countries such as Arabia, Egypt and so on.
These chief articles of import in those days from China into India will go to show not only the commercial relations that existed between the two countries, but also the close similarly of and relationship between the two systems of medicines as is apparent from the use of their drugs in India in the preparations of Tamil Medicines, as a substitute for indigenous drugs. That chemical knowledge ought to have been transferred from India to the accidental countries is very plain from the fact that Siddhars like Bogar, Rama Devar alias Jacob and others, had visited Arabia, Turkey, China and other places spreading the knowledge as they went along; one this has already been touched upon before.
Alchemy
That Alchemy has applied to the imagination of Man from Centuries is evident from the prominent part it has played in the ancient science and form legends of the past. In India, unlike other countries, its origin, growth and development are interwoven with a phase of religious activity. It is regarded as a Divine and Sacred Science and Art enveloped in mystery and could only be approached with reference, faith and due piety.
Although no one seems to have ever witnessed any person effecting conversion of inferior metals into gold, still the idea which had taken a firm hold of the imagination of many would never leave them even now, on account of the man's innate avarice and desire to become rich. Many are the families that have been ruined on account of this mad thirst for making gold; and therefore, its has been thought necessary to deal with the subject somewhat elaborately so as to put all on the alert as to the false notions enshrouding the subject. It is a science by which things may be decomposed and recomposed, and their essential nature changed, raised higher or transmuted into one another.