through the Arabic-speaking world.2 Because these two words now carry a host of modern connotations (most often, that chemistry is modern and scientific, while alchemy is outdated and non-scientific), many historians of science have adopted the practice of using the archaic spelling chymistry to refer to the whole range of practices that nowadays would be classed under chemistry and alchemy. This terminology was suggested both to recognize the undifferentiated domain of “alchemy and chemistry” and to transcend the automatic implications prompted nowadays by the words alchemy and chemistry.
