It was merely that the chymists thought alchemy unrespectable.

ECONOMIST: The twisted history of alchemy: Alchemists, ancient and modern | The

Dr Principe can find no essays or papers from the period that attempt to refute the idea of metallic transmutation, and some socially respectable chymists were still looking for the secret of chrysopoeia as late as 1760.

ECONOMIST: The twisted history of alchemy: Alchemists, ancient and modern | The

Over the next few decades, according to Dr Principe's analysis of their letters and publications, chymists in England, France and elsewhere deliberately distanced themselves from the alchemists, casting themselves as intellectuals, the alchemists as charlatans, and the two activities as distinct.

ECONOMIST: The twisted history of alchemy: Alchemists, ancient and modern | The