Transcriber's Notes.
This document includes quotes from very early authors. As such, it's no surprise that there are many spelling and punctuation irregularities. Also the authors were American, but writing for a British journal. In addition, whether "ae" and "oe" appear as ligatures or separate characters seems to be fairly random. Unless there was a clearly preferred spelling choice, variants were kept as is. All changes are explicitly documented below. Noted spelling variants that were preserved include: "aluminum" and "aluminium;" "ampullas" and "ampullae;" "beechwood" and "beech-wood;" "Blütstein" and "Blüt stein;" "brick dust" and "brickdust;" "calcspar," "calc spar" and "calc-spar;" derivatives of "crossbar" and "cross-bar," and similarly for "crosscut," "crosspiece," etc.; (Hans von) "Dechen" and "Decken;" "desulphurizing" and "de-sulphurizing;" "dissension" and "dissention" (and their plurals); "distill" and "distil" (and derivatives); "encrusted" and "incrusted;" "enquire" and "inquire" (and derivatives); "ensure" and "insure;" (Lazarus) "Ercker" and "Erckern;" "flavor" and "flavour;" "fluor-spar" and "fluorspar;" "Flusse" and "Flüsse;" (Rotenburg an der) "Fulda" and "Fulde;" "Gatter" and "Gatterer" may be the same person; "gold workers," "goldworkers" and "gold-workers;" "gray" and "grey" (and derivatives); "grove" and "groove" (English mining term for a shaft); "halitum" and "halitus;" "Henckel" and "Henkel;" "holm oak" and "holmoak;" "homogenous" and "homogeneous;" Daniel "Houghsetter," "Houghstetter" and "Hochstetter;" "Joannes" and "Johannes" (the alchemist); "Johanes" and "Johannes" (Aurelius Augurellus), a.k.a. "John Aurelio Augurello;" "Jüdenstein" and "Jüden stein;" "Kinstock" and "Kinstocke;" "Lautental" and "Lautenthal;" "lawsuit" and "law-suit;" "Leipsic" and "Leipzig;" "Krat" and "Kratt;" "Mosaic" and "Mosaick;" "mineralogic" and "mineralogical;" "Nützlich Bergbüchlin," "Nützliche Bergbüchlin," "Nützlich Bergbüchlein," and "Nützliche Bergbüchlein;" "organisation" and "organization;" (Thomas) "Pennant" and "Pennent;" "Probier Büchlein," "Probierbüchlin," "Probierbüchlein," "Probirbüchlein," and "Probirbüchleyn" (which may be different books in some cases); derivatives of "pulverise" and "pulverize;" "reagent" and "re-agent" (and their plurals); derivatives of "recognise" and "recognize;" "republished" and "re-published;" "salamander har" and "salamanderhar;" "seashore" and "sea-shore;" "semicircle" and "semi-circle" (and derivatives); "shovelful" and "shovel-ful;" "spiesglas," "spiesglass," and "spiesglasz;" "Turkey oak" and "turkey-oak;" "Vannucci," "Vannuccio" and "Vanuccio" (Biringuccio); "Vectarii" and "Vectiarii;" derivatives of "volatilise" and "volatilize."
There appears to be no rule whether punctuation following a quote should be inside or outside the quotation marks. The text was simply left as is.
There appears to be no rule whether Roman numerals have periods after them or not; even references to the same document may differ. The text was simply left as is.
Some footnote numbers are skipped. To avoid confusion with references to the footnotes, none of the footnotes were re-numbered. In particular, Book I does not have footnote 24; Book VI does not have footnote 9; Book VIII does not have footnote 9, 10 or 18; Book IX does not have footnote 24; Book XI does not have footnote 3.
Inserted missing anchor for footnote 1 on page v.
Changed "Albertham" to "Abertham" on page vii: "the God's Gift mine at Abertham."
Changed "honored" to "honoured" on page xi: "most honoured citizens."
Treated the explanatory text on page xxiv as a footnote (number 1) and created its anchor on page xxi.