Mary Anne Atwood’s A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery, first published in 1850, is one of the most significant works in the Western alchemical tradition for establishing the interpretation of alchemy, and peripherally the language of the birds. Atwood pioneered the argument that alchemical texts were not solely literal instructions for turning base metals into gold, but rather this wholistic proto-chemistry envisionings represented veiled, symbolic guides for the transformation happening within the flask as well as the transformation occuring within the human soul of the Artist. By treating alchemy as a real vieled process, her work bridged ancient mystical practices with modern esoteric thought, influencing later figures such as Arthur Edward Waite and members of the Theosophical Society. 
The text is equally famous for its unusual history of suppression and mystery. Shortly after its anonymous publication, Atwood and her father, Thomas South, became convinced they had dangerously revealed too many hidden secrets. Fearing the knowledge could be misused, they withdrew and burned almost every copy, making the few survivors highly sought-after artifacts of Victorian occultism. It is unclear whether this was coerced from more knowledgeable figures. Were they threatenned? They were not in a position to fake deaths and disapeer. So they tried to take this book back. But the genie was , in fact, out of the bottle. It was not widely available again until a 1918 reissue, after which it became a foundational reference for students of Hermeticism and remains a primary source for its extensive collation of classical and early modern alchemical philosophers. This is a reprinting of that Original 1850 copy.