Homunculi are …
Alchemists in the old days tried to achieve such lofty goals that scientists of our time do not dare to dream of. This is the receipt of a philosopher's stone, the preparation of an elixir of eternal youth and the manufacture of gold from lead, in the same row was the creation of a homunculus - a creature similar to a person, but not born, but grown artificially. XV-XVI centuries - the idea of growing homunculi was very popular among alchemists.
For a long time, the creation of the first homunculus was attributed to Arnaldus de Villanova, who lived in the 13th century. Tried to grow a homunculus and Paracelsus. And according to his statements, he was able to achieve success in this matter, but there is not a single evidence that would confirm this fact. The evidence of one of his followers, Count von Kyuffstein, who allegedly raised a dozen homunculi, is also not very convincing.
Although, there are recognized authorities who take their words on faith. Three centuries after Paracelsus, Johann Goethe writes the drama "Faust", the hero of which was able to create a little man - a homunculus. Why don't we at least ask how you can create a homunculus?
Recipe for creating man
In the treatise "De Natura Rerum" Paracelsus writes: "Human beings can be born without natural parents." He believed that such "creatures" are able to grow and develop, being created without the participation of male and female principles. Paracelsus assured that a person can be created artificially, and this requires only the intervention of an experienced alchemist.
So, for the "creation of man" - a homunculus - you need an airtight bottle, sperm and … horse dung. (Sperm is the main ingredient of this recipe. There is no need for an egg cell, in this case. You need to put the sperm in a bottle, drop it into the manure and … we go for help to a familiar alchemist - you can't do without him, because only he is able to make the substance come to life and start move.
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After 40 days, the organic contents of the bottle begin to take on a human shape and features, however, only an alchemist can see this miracle of transformation, for others - the uninitiated - the “semi-finished product” of the homunculus will be invisible. Don't be upset though. We need to be patient and over the next 40 weeks, the invisibility should be kept at the temperature of the mare's womb and generously nourished with “human life force”, that is, with blood.
As a result, you will see a homunculus in all its glory - a perfect human child, which differs from one born by a woman in its tiny size. And what to do next? As Paracelsus argued, "he can be raised and raised like an ordinary child, until he matures and acquires intelligence and intelligence and is not able to take care of himself."
There were alchemists who claimed that they grew homunculi in a completely different way using the mandrake root, which has a mystical power and resembles a person in shape.
The root had to be plucked at dawn, on Friday morning, then it must be washed and "saturated" with honey and milk. Some of the recipes said that blood should be taken instead of milk. After that, the root will fully develop into a little man who was able to protect and protect its creator.
It's funny to you? Have you listened to more nonsense? That is so, but still do not rush to boo Dr. Hohenheim. Nevertheless, something more important grew out of this "crazy" idea of his - the method of fertilization "in vitro" ("from a test tube"), and thanks to it, many people eventually found a long-awaited child.
Prophetic Spirits
The experiments of Paracelsus, albeit unsuccessful, did not leave many minds indifferent, and he had plenty of followers. 1873 - the book of Dr. Emil Bezetzny "Sphinx" is published in Vienna, in which the interested reader, if desired, could find several interesting descriptions of "spirits" - created in Tyrol by Count Johann Ferdinand von Kuffstein in 1775.
The source of such descriptions is the diary of Jasper Kammerer, who served in the Count's honorary positions as butler and assistant. It is from his revelations that we now know for certain that von Kyuffstein had 10 homunculi in his service, or, as he called them, “prophetic spirits” that lived in bottles with water.
These "spirits" were created in 5 weeks of the combined efforts of Count von Kuffstein himself and the mystic Abbot Geloni from Italy. Each homunculus had its own name - one was called "king", the second - "queen", the third - "knight", the fourth - "monk", the fifth - "nun", sixth - "architect", the seventh - "miner", eighth - "Seraphim". And the 9th and 10th "spirits" were called blue and red.
The blue spirit is beautiful in its face
The bottles that contained the homunculi were closed with bull bubbles and some kind of magical seal. It should be noted that the "spirits" were quite small in stature - only 23 cm, which greatly upset their creator, von Kyuffstein.
Wanting them to grow faster, the Count placed them in large bottles. Then he buried them in a heap of horse manure and almost daily sprinkled it with some kind of liquid with his own hand. After such manipulations, the manure began to ferment and emit steam, as if warmed by an underground fire.
The count decided that it was time to take out the bottles to the light of God, he could not bear to see how his "crumbs" had grown. It turned out that the homunculi actually gained a lot in growth - they grew up to 35 cm, moreover, the beards and nails grew in males.
Abbot Geloni gave all the "spirits" suitable clothing according to their rank and dignity. Only the blue and red "spirit", because of the bodilessness of the garment, did not get it. In general, a simple person could not see them. When the abbot hit the seal on the neck, the water in the bottle turned blue (or, accordingly, red), and the "perfume" showed faces. The face of the blue "spirit" was beautiful, while the face of the red "spirit", on the contrary, made a terrible impression.
Conditions of detention
The count fed his creatures every 4 days with a certain pink substance. Once a week, the bottles were filled with clean rainwater. The change of water was carried out very quickly, because when the "spirits" were in the air, they lost consciousness. The diet of the red "spirit" included a sip of chicken blood, once a week, while the blood disappeared into the water instantly, without even having time to color it a little.
Note that his water changed with enviable regularity - every 2 or 3 days, while every time the bottle was opened, the water in it became dark, cloudy and smelled like rotten eggs. The blue "spirit" could only dream of such treatment - his bottle was always sealed, and therefore he did not eat anything and lived his life in the same water.
A sad fate
Why did the count need homunculi? It's pretty simple. Bottles with "prophetic spirits" were brought into the room where the meetings of the members of the Masonic lodge, of which von Kufftein himself was the chairman, took place. At these meetings, the "spirits" predicted the future, and almost always their predictions came true. They knew the secret, but each of them knew only what related to his title: for example, “king” talked about politics, “monk” - about religion, “miner” - about minerals. But everyone knew blue with a red “spirit”.
By chance, the vessel in which the "monk" was found fell to the floor and shattered. The unfortunate homunculus died after taking several painful breaths, despite all the efforts of the count to save him. An attempt to create the same one, which the count made alone without the help of the abbot (who had left shortly before this), was unsuccessful. The count was only able to create a small creature that looked like a leech, which died in speed.
Probably, in subsequent years, Count von Kuffstein began to worry about saving his soul, the awakened conscience demanded more and more insistently that he get rid of the homunculi, which he did after a short hesitation.
And the impossible is possible
What is true here and what is not - now we do not know. However, the main thing is that the very idea of creating a person outside sex has ceased to be blasphemous. At least in the 19th century, the German chemist Justus Liebig assumed that someday chemistry would necessarily be able to create organic substances in an artificial way. And Jacob Moleschott, the famous German physiologist and philosopher who lived in the same century, went even further: he argued that he could create conditions in which organic forms could be produced.
… In Rome, in one of the squares, today it is possible to find a large stone on which some incomprehensible signs are applied. Rumor has it that these letters are nothing more than an encrypted formula for creating an artificial man - a homunculus.
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