PANTHEROS. It is probable from the description, given by old writers, that it was a mottled brown Egyptian Jasper Opal. It was said to protect the wearer from enemies, wild animals and fear, which last, according to the healthy philosophy of the Rosicrucians, is the greatest of the vices and the gateway of weakness and failure. PHILOSOPHER’S STONE. The Philosopher’s Stone is also known as Lapis Philosophorum, the Eye of the Philosophers, the Egg of the Philosophers. French writers call it “Pierre Philosophale,” and German writers “Der Stein der Weisen.” In the Rosicrucian mysteries it is known as “The Stone of the Wise,” “The Sacred Stone,” “The Stone of Wisdom,” etc. In spite of the assertions made by over-sanguine critics as to the fallacy of the Philosopher’s Stone on the material plane, scientists—mystic and material—have never ceased to search for a substance so precious. Phillips (Transmutation of Metals, 1702) says that “this transmutation is what the Alchymists call the Grand Operation or Secret of finding the Philosopher’s Stone which they give out to be so curious an Universal seed of all metals. If any metal be liquefied in a vessel, and this ‘Power of Perfection’ be thrown into the mass it will transform it into gold or silver.” Some of the philosophers call it “The Stone,” Noster Lapis, “The Sublime Stone,” “Our Stone.” It is related that King Henry VI granted “4 successive Patents and Commissions” to several knights and Mass Priests to find “The Philosopher’s Stone.” In his recent work on Alchemy, H. Stanley Redgrove, B.Sc., F.C.S., etc., writes: “We must not assume that because we know not the method now, real transmutations have never taken place. Modern research indicates that it may be possible to transmute other metals (more especially silver) into gold, and consequently we must admit the possibility that, amongst the many experiments carried out, a real transmutation was effected.” Timbs (Alchemy and Chemistry) emphasizes the fact that many of the opinions of the alchemists have been vindicated. He specially notes the condition of Allotropism or the quality which certain bodies possess of assuming two marked phases of chemical and physical existence. “This shatters the opinion,” he writes, “on which our absolute repudiation of the doctrine of transmutation was based.” Dr. Colange explains Allotropy as that branch of chemical science which takes account of the different sets of properties possible to one and the same body. Organic solids occur under one of the three conditions, viz., the crystalline, as the diamond; the vitreous, as glass; the amorphous or shapeless, as clay, chalk, etc. But there are many bodies any one of which without undergoing a change in chemical composition may yet appear under one of the above three conditions with striking changes in physical and even chemical properties while still retaining, so to speak, its chemical identity. Thus, ordinary white