When I was a kid, there was a book in the public library on alchemy. I read half of it before I realized, that in addition to giving the history, it also explained to process, seriously, as if it could be performed -- distilato, putrifacto, the son births the father, all that jazz. Of course, these days, with the New Age resurgence, and the random publishing of anonymous texts on the internet, such an attitude is hardly shocking, but I was pretty stunned, at the time. And yes, that book is still there, but the one I want -- not so much.