A historical example of alternative conceptions
"'I shall find the seed' [Bernard Trevisan, 1406-1490] whispered to himself, 'which will grow into great harvests of gold. For does not a metal grow like a plant? Lead and other metals would be gold if they had time. For 'twere absurd to think that nature in the earth bred gold perfect in the instant; something went before. There must be remoter matter. Nature doth first beget the imperfect, then proceeds she to the perfect. Besides, who doth not see in daily practice art can beget bees, hornets, beetles, wasps out of the carcasses and dung of creatures? And these are living creatures, far more perfect and excellent than metals'."
Bernard Jaffe (1934) Crucibles. The Lives and Achievements of the Great Chemists. Jarrolds Publishers.
Jaffe quotes Trevisan as holding two common misconceptions.
The idea that gold is the final stage of the development of metals in the earth (passing though lead, tin, copper, silver) was widely believed, and part of the underlying basis for the alchemist's quest to find a way to change base metal into gold.
Trevisan explain this by personifying nature ('she' works through stages of perfection)…
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Many examples of personification are included in 'Creative comparisons: Making science familiar through language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.
…and makes an analogy with the commonplace phenomena of creatures being formed form decaying meat or dung (i.e., spontaneous generation, another historical alternative conception!).
Read examples of scientific analogies
Many examples of science analogies are listed in 'Creative comparisons: Making science familiar through language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.
