ABSTRACT
Herbert Silberer's direct exploration of the alchemists' notion of the homunculus is telling on two levels. First, it further illustrates his belief in the importance of understanding alchemy, even to the point of closely assessing one of its most ambitious goals: creating a miniature human being in a scientific laboratory. Second, it favorably reflects on how open-minded and curious a thinker Silberer actually was: going to great lengths to research and explain this obscure phenomenon and its implicit symbolic meaning. Silberer reports on the fraudulent, criminal activities of a late eighteenth-century Viennese alchemical society that pursued 'star mucus' or 'star slime' supposedly captured from shooting stars in the belief that such substance would be a 'prima materia' – from which gold could be produced, and the homunculus could be created. Silberer notes that its alleged magical powers troubled the religious community, as did its resemblance to male genitalia – rendering it somewhat of a 'phallic amulet'.
