The documents comprise papers relating to the 'Louis Rapkine lecture' given in Paris on 17 April 1970 on 'Artisans et Alchimistes en Chine et dans le Monde Hellenistique'; the 'J D Bernal lecture', given at Birbeck College, London, on 'The Refiner's Fire; the Enigma of Alchemy in East and West'.

The lectures were both based on the 'first part of the main introduction to the volume of 'Science and Civilisation in China' on the history of alchemy and early chemistry' (SCC2/193/7).