I might easily (Continues Carneades) enlarge my self on such Considerations, if I were Now Oblig’d to give You my Judgment of the Thalesian, and Helmontian, Hypothesis. But Whether or no we conclude that all things were at first Generated of Water, I may Deduce from what I have try’d Concerning the Growth of Vegetables, nourish’d with water, all that I now propos’d to my Self or need at present to prove, namely that Salt, Spirit, Earth, and ev’n Oyl (though that be thought of all Bodies the most opposite to Water) may be produc’d out of Water; and consequently that a Chymical Principle as well as a Peripatetick Element, may (in some cases) be Generated anew, or obtain’d from such a parcel of Matter as was not endow’d with the form of such a principle or Element before.
And having thus, Eleutherius, Evinc’d that ’tis possible that such Substances as those that Chymists are wont to call their Tria Prima, may be Generated, anew: I must next Endeavour to make it Probable, that the Operation of the Fire does Actually (sometimes) not only divide Compounded Bodies into smal Parts, but Compound those Parts after a new Manner; whence Consequently, for ought we Know, there may Emerge as well Saline and Sulphureous Substances, as Bodies of other Textures. And perhaps it will assist us in our Enquiry after the Effects of the Operations of the Fire upon other Bodies, to Consider a little, what it does to those Mixtures which being Productions of the Art of Man, We best know the Composition of. You may then be pleas’d to take Notice that though Sope is made up by the Sope-Boylers of Oyle or Grease, and Salt, and Water Diligently Incorporated together, yet if You expose the Mass they Constitute to a Graduall Fire in a Retort, You shall then indeed make a Separation, but not of the same Substances that were United into Sope, but of others of a Distant and yet not an Elementary Nature, and especially of an Oyle very sharp and Fætid, and of a very Differing Quality from that which was Employ’d to make the Sope: [fo] if you Mingle in a due Proportion, Sal Armoniack with Quick-Lime, and Distill them by Degrees of Fire, You shall not Divide the Sal Armoniack from the Quick-Lime, though the one be a Volatile, and the other a Fix’d Substance, but that which will ascend will be a Spirit much more Fugitive, Penetrant, and stinking, then Sal Armoniack; and there will remain with the Quick-Lime all or very near all the Sea Salt that concurr’d to make up the Sal Armoniack; concerning which Sea Salt I shall, to satisfie You how well it was United to the Lime, informe You, that I have by making the Fire at length very Vehement, caus’d both the Ingredients to melt in the Retort it self into one Mass and such Masses are apt to Relent in the Moist Air. If it be here Objected, that these Instances are taken from factitious Concretes which are more Compounded then those which Nature produces; I shall reply, that besides that I have Mention’d them as much to Illustrate what I propos’d, as to prove it, it will be Difficult to Evince that Nature her self does not make Decompound Bodies, I mean mingle together such mixt Bodies as are already Compounded of Elementary, or rather of more simple ones. For Vitriol (for Instance) though I have sometimes taken it out of Minerall Earths, where Nature had without any assistance of Art prepar’d it to my Hand, is really, though Chymists are pleas’d to reckon it among Salts, a De-compounded Body Consisting (as I shall have occasion to declare anon) of a Terrestriall Substance, of a Metal, and also of at least one Saline Body, of a peculiar and not Elementary Nature. And we see also in Animals, that their blood may be compos’d of Divers very Differing Mixt Bodies, since we find it observ’d that divers Sea-Fowle tast rank of the Fish on which they ordinarily feed; and Hipocrates himself Observes, that a Child may be purg’d by the Milke of the Nurse, if she have taken Elaterium; which argues that the purging Corpuscles of the Medicament Concurr to make up the Milke of the Nurse; and that white Liquor is generally by Physitians suppos’d to be but blanch’d and alter’d Blood. And I remember I have observ’d, not farr from the Alps, that at a certain time of the Year the Butter of that Country was very Offensive to strangers, by reason of the rank tast of a certain Herb, whereon the Cows were then wont plentifully to feed. But (proceeds Carneades) to give you Instances of another kind, to shew that things may be obtain’d by the Fire from a Mixt Body that were not Pre-existent in it, let Me Remind You, that from many Vegetables there may without any Addition be Obtain’d Glass, a Body, which I presume You will not say was Pre-existent in it, but produc’d by the Fire. To which I shall add but this one Example more, namely that by a certain Artificial way of handling Quicksilver, You may without Addition separate from it at least a 5th. or 4th. part of a clear Liquor, which with an Ordinary Peripatetick would pass for Water, and which a Vulgar Chymist would not scruple to call Phlegme, and which, for ought I have yet seen or heard, is not reducible into Mercury again, and Consequently is more then a Disguise of it. Now besides that divers Chymists will not allow Mercury to have any or at least any Considerable Quantity of either of the Ignoble Ingredients, Earth and Water; Besides this, I say, the great Ponderousness of Quicksilver makes it very unlikely that it can have so much Water in it as may be thus obtain’d from it, since Mercury weighs 12 or 14 times as much as water of the same Bulk. Nay for a further Confirmation of this Argument, I will add this Strange Relation, that two Friends of mine, the one a Physitian, and the other a Mathematician, and both of them Persons of unsuspected Credit, have Solemnly assured me, that after many Tryals they made, to reduce Mercury into Water, in Order to a Philosophicall Work, upon Gold (which yet, by the way, I know prov’d Unsuccesfull) they did once by divers Cohobations reduce a pound of Quicksilver into almost a pound of Water, and this without the Addition of any other Substance, but only by pressing the Mercury by a Skillfully Manag’d Fire in purposely contriv’d Vessels. But of these Experiments our Friend (sayes Carneades, pointing at the Register of this Dialogue) will perhaps give You a more Particular Account then it is necessary for me to do: Since what I have now said may sufficiently evince, that the Fire may sometimes as well alter Bodies as divide them, and by it we may obtain from a Mixt Body what was not Pre-existent in it. And how are we sure that in no other Body what we call Phlegme is barely separated, not Produc’d by the Action of the Fire: Since so many other Mixt Bodies are of a much less Constant, and more alterable Nature, then Mercury, by many Tricks it is wont to put upon Chymists, and by the Experiments I told You of, about an hour since, Appears to be. But because I shall ere long have Occasion to resume into Consideration the Power of the Fire to produce new Concretes, I shall no longer insist on this Argument at present; only I must mind You, that if You will not dis-believe Helmonts Relations, You must confess that the Tria Prima are neither ingenerable nor incorruptible Substances; since by his Alkahest some of them may be produc’d of Bodies that were before of another Denomination; and by the same powerfull Menstruum all of them may be reduc’d into insipid Water.
Here Carneades was about to pass on to his Third Consideration, when Eleutherius being desirous to hear what he could say to clear his second General Consideration from being repugnant to what he seem’d to think the true Theory of Mistion, prevented him by telling him, I somewhat wonder, Carneades, that You, who are in so many Points unsatisfied with the Peripatetick Opinion touching the Elements and Mixt Bodies, should also seem averse to that Notion touching the manner of Mistion, wherein the Chymists (though perhaps without knowing that they do so) agree with most of the Antient Philosophers that preceded Aristotle, and that for Reasons so considerable, that divers Modern Naturalists and Physitians, in other things unfavourable enough to the Spagyrists, do in this case side with them against the common Opinion of the Schools. If you should ask me (continues Eleutherius) what Reasons I mean? I should partly by the Writings of Sennertus and other learned Men, and partly by my own Thoughts, be supply’d with more, then ’twere at present proper for me to Insist largely on. And therefore I shall mention only, and that briefly, three or four. Of these, I shall take the First from the state of the Controversie itself, and the genuine Notion of Mistion, which though much intricated by the Schoolmen, I take in short to be this, Aristotle, at least as many of his Interpreters expound him, and as indeed he Teaches in some places, where he professedly Dissents from the Antients, declares Mistion to be such a mutual Penetration, and perfect Union of the mingl’d Elements, that there is no Portion of the mixt Body, how Minute soever, which does not[(140)] contain All, and Every of the Four Elements, or in which, if you please, all the Elements are not. And I remember, that he reprehends the Mistion taught by the Ancients, as too sleight or gross, for this Reason, that Bodies mixt according to their Hypothesis, though they appear so to humane Eyes, would not appear such to the acute Eyes of a Lynx, whose perfecter Sight would discerne the Elements, if they were no otherwise mingled, than as his Predecessors would have it, to be but Blended, not United; whereas the Antients, though they did not all Agree about what kind of Bodies were Mixt, yet they did almost unanimously hold, that in a compounded Bodie, though the Miscibilia, whether Elements, Principles, or whatever they pleas’d to call them, were associated in such small Parts, and with so much Exactness, that there was no sensible Part of the Mass but seem’d to be of the same Nature with the rest, and with the whole; Yet as to the Atomes, or other Insensible Parcels of Matter, whereof each of the Miscibilia consisted, they retain’d each of them its own Nature, being but by Apposition or Juxta-Position uni[(141)]ted with the rest into one Bodie. So that although by virtue of this composition the mixt Body did perhaps obtain Divers new Qualities, yet still the Ingredients that Compounded it, retaining their own Nature, were by the Destruction of the Compositum separable from each other, the minute Parts disingag’d from those of a differing Nature, and associated with those of their own sort returning to be again, Fire, Earth, or Water, as they were before they chanc’d to be Ingredients of that Compositum. This may be explain’d (Continues Eleutherius,) by a piece of Cloath made of white and black threds interwoven, wherein though the whole piece appear neither white nor black, but of a resulting Colour, that is gray, yet each of the white and black threds that compose it, remains what it was before, as would appear if the threds were pull’d asunder, and sorted each Colour by it self. This (pursues Eleutherius) being, as I understand it, the State of the Controversie, and the Aristotelians after their Master Commonly Defining, that Mistion is Miscibilium alteratorum Unio, that seems to comport much better with the Opinion of the Chymists, then with that of their Adversaries, since according to that as the newly mention’d Example declares, there is but a Juxta-position of separable Corpuscles, retaining each its own Nature, whereas according to the Aristotelians, when what they are pleas’d to call a mixt Body results from the Concourse of the Elements, the Miscibilia cannot so properly be said to be Alter’d, as Destroy’d, since there is no Part in the mixt Body, how small soever, that can be call’d either Fir, or Air, or Water, or Earth.
Nor indeed can I well understand, how Bodies can be mingl’d other wayes then as I have declar’d, or at least how they can be mingl’d, as our Peripateticks would have it. For whereas Aristotle tells us, that if a Drop of Wine be put into ten thousand Measures of Water, the Wine being Overpower’d by so Vast a Quantity of Water will be turn’d into it, he speaks to my Apprehension, very improbably; For though One should add to that Quantity of Water as many Drops of Wine as would a Thousand times exceed it all, yet by his Rule the whole Liquor should not be a Crama, a Mixture of Wine and Water, wherein the Wine would be Predominant, but Water only; Since the Wine being added but by a Drop at a time would still Fall into nothing but Water, and Consequently would be turn’d into it. And if this would hold in Metals too, ’twere a rare secret for Goldsmiths, and Refiners; For by melting a Mass of Gold, or Silver, and by but casting into it Lead or Antimony, Grain after Grain, they might at pleasure, within a reasonable Compass of time, turn what Quantity they desire, of the Ignoble into the Noble Metalls. And indeed since a Pint of wine, and a pint of water, amount to about a Quart of Liquor, it seems manifest to sense, that these Bodies doe not Totally Penetrate one another, as one would have it; but that each retains its own Dimensions; and Consequently, that they are by being Mingl’d only divided into minute Bodies, that do but touch one another with their Surfaces, as do the Grains, of Wheat, Rye, Barley, &c. in a heap of severall sorts of Corn: And unless we say, that as[(144)] when one measure of wheat, for Instance, is Blended with a hundred measures of Barley, there happens only a Juxta-position and Superficial Contact betwixt the Grains of wheat, and as many or thereabouts of the Grains of Barley. So when a Drop of wine is mingl’d with a great deal of water, there is but an Apposition of so many Vinous Corpuscles to a Correspondent Number of Aqueous ones; Unless I say this be said, I see not how that Absurdity will be avoyded, whereunto the Stoical Notion of mistion (namely by [συνχυσις], or Confusion) was Liable, according to which the least Body may be co-extended with the greatest: Since in a mixt Body wherein before the Elements were Mingl’d there was, for Instance, but one pound of water to ten thousand of Earth, yet according to them there must not be the least part of that Compound, that Consisted not as well of Earth, as water. But I insist, Perhaps, too long (sayes Eleutherius) upon the proofs afforded me by the Nature of Mistion: Wherefore I will but name Two or Three other Arguments; whereof the first shall be,[(145)] that according to Aristotle himself, the motion of a mixt Body followes the Nature of the Predominant Element, as those wherein the Earth prevails, tend towards the Centre of heavy Bodies. And since many things make it Evident, that in divers Mixt Bodies the Elementary Qualities are as well Active, though not altogether so much so as in the Elements themselves, it seems not reasonable to deny the actual Existence of the Elements in those Bodies wherein they Operate.
To which I shall add this Convincing Argument, that Experience manifests, and Aristotle Confesses it, that the Miscibilia may be again separated from a mixt Body, as is Obvious in the Chymical Resolutions of Plants and Animalls, which could not be unless they did actually retain their formes in it: For since, according to Aristotle, and I think according to truth, there is but one common Mass of all things, which he has been pleas’d to call Materia Prima; And since tis not therefore the Matter but the Forme that Constitutes and Discriminates Things, to say that the Elements remain not in a Mixt Body, according to their Formes, but according to their Matter, is not to say that they remain there at all; Since although those Portions of Matter were Earth and water, &c. before they concurr’d, yet the resulting Body being once Constituted, may as well be said to be simple as any of the Elements, the Matter being confessedly of the same Nature in all Bodies, and the Elementary Formes being according to this Hypothesis perish’d and abolish’d.
And lastly, and if we will Consult Chymical Experiments, we shall find the Advantages of the Chymical Doctrine above the Peripatetick Title little less then Palpable. For in that Operation that Refiners call Quartation, which they employ to purifie Gold, although three parts of Silver be so exquisitely mingl’d by Fusion with a fourth Part of Gold (whence the Operation is Denominated) that the resulting Mass acquires severall new Qualities, by virtue of the Composition, and that there is scarce any sensible part of it that is not Compos’d of both the metalls; Yet if You cast this mixture into Aqua Fortis, the Silver will be dissolv’d in the Menstruum, and the Gold like a dark or black Powder will fall to the Bottom of it, and either Body may be again reduc’d into such a Metal as it was before, which shews: that it retain’d its Nature, notwithstanding its being mixt per Minima with the other: We likewise see, that though one part of pure Silver be mingled with eight or ten Parts, or more, of Lead, yet the Fire will upon the Cuppel easily and perfectly separate them again. And that which I would have you peculiarly Consider on this Occasion is, that not only in Chymicall Anatomies there is a Separation made of the Elementary Ingredients, but that some Mixt Bodies afford a very much greater Quantity of this or that Element or Principle than of another; as we see, that Turpentine and Amber yield much more Oyl and Sulphur than they do Water, whereas Wine, which is confess’d to be a perfectly mixt Bodie, yields but a little Inflamable Spirit, or Sulphur, and not much more Earth; but affords a vast proportion of Phlegm or water: which could not be, if as the Peripateticks suppose, every, even of the minutest Particles, were of the same nature with the whole, and consequently did contain both Earth and Water, and Aire, and Fire; Wherefore as to what Aristotle principally, and almost only Objects, that unless his Opinion be admitted, there would be no true and perfect Mistion, but onely Aggregates or Heaps of contiguous Corpuscles, which, though the Eye of Man cannot discerne, yet the Eye of a Lynx might perceive not to be of the same Nature with one another and with their Totum, as the Nature of Mistion requires, if he do not beg the Question, and make Mistion to consist in what other Naturalists deny to be requisite to it, yet He at least objects That as a great Inconvenience which I cannot take for such, till he have brought as Considerable Arguments as I have propos’d to prove the contrary, to evince that Nature makes other Mistions than such as I have allowed, wherein the Miscibilia are reduc’d into minute Parts, and United as farr as sense can discerne: which if You will not grant to be sufficient for a true Mistion, he must have the same Quarrel with Nature her self, as with his Adversaries.
Wherefore (Continues Eleutherius) I cannot but somewhat marvail that Carneades should oppose the Doctrine of the Chymist in a Particular, wherein they do as well agree with his old Mistress, Nature, as dissent from his old Adversary, Aristotle.
I must not (replies Carneades) engage my self at present to examine thorowly the Controversies concerning Mistion: And if there were no third thing, but that I were reduc’d to embrace absolutely and unreservedly either the Opinion of Aristotle, or that of the Philosophers that went before him, I should look upon the latter, which the Chymists have adopted, as the more defensible Opinion: But because differing in the Opinions about the Elements from both Parties, I think I can take a middle Course, and Discourse to you of Mistion after a way that does neither perfectly agree, nor perfectly disagree with either, as I will not peremptorily define, whether there be not Cases wherein some Phænomena of Mistion seem to favour the Opinion that the Chymists Patrons borrow’d of the Antients, I shall only endeavour to shew You that there are some cases which may keep the Doubt, which makes up my second General Consideration from being unreasonable.
I shall then freely acknowledge to You (sayes Carneades) that I am not over well satisfi’d with the Doctrine that is ascribed to Aristotle, concerning Mistion, especially since it teaches that the four Elements may again be separated from the mixt Body; whereas if they continu’d not in it, it would not be so much a Separation as a Production. And I think the Ancient Philosophers that Preceded Aristotle, and Chymists who have since receiv’d the same Opinion, do speak of this matter more intelligibly, if not more probably, then the Peripateticks: but though they speak Congruously enough, to their believing, that there are a certain Number of Primogeneal Bodies, by whose Concourse all those we call Mixts are Generated, and which in the Destruction of mixt Bodies do barely part company, and recede from one another, just such as they were when they came together; yet I, who meet with very few Opinions that I can entirely Acquiesce in, must confess to You that I am inclin’d to differ not only from the Aristotelians, but from the old Philosophers and the Chymists, about the Nature of Mistion: And if You will give me leave, I shall Briefly propose to you my present Notion of it, provided you will look upon it, not so much as an Assertion as an Hypothesis; in talking of which I do not now pretend to propose and debate the whole Doctrine of Mistion, but to shew that ’tis not Improbable, that sometimes mingl’d substances may be so strictly united, that it doth not by the usuall Operations of the Fire, by which Chymists are wont to suppose themselves to have made the Analyses of mixt Bodies, sufficiently appear, that in such Bodies the Miscibilia that concurr’d to make them up do each of them retain its own peculiar Nature: and by the Spagyrists Fires may be more easily extricated and Recover’d, than Alter’d, either by a Change of Texture in the Parts of the same Ingredient, or by an Association with some parts of another Ingredient more strict than was that of the parts of this or that Miscibile among themselves. At these words Eleu. having press’d him to do what he propos’d, and promis’d to do what he desir’d;
I consider then (resumes Carneades) that, not to mention those improper Kinds of mistion, wherein Homogeneous Bodies are Joyn’d, as when Water is mingl’d with water, or two Vessels full of the same kind of Wine with one another, the mistion I am now to Discourse of seems, Generally speaking, to be but an Union per Minima of any two or more Bodies of differing Denominations; as when Ashes and Sand are Colliquated into Glass or Antimony, and Iron into Regulus Martis, or Wine and Water are mingl’d, and Sugar is dissolv’d in the Mixture. Now in this general notion of Mistion it does not appear clearly comprehended, that the Miscibilia or Ingredients do in their small Parts so retain their Nature and remain distinct in the Compound, that they may thence by the Fire be again taken asunder: For though I deny not that in some Mistions of certain permanent Bodies this Recovery of the same Ingredients may be made, yet I am not convinc’d that it will hold in all or even in most, or that it is necessarily deducible from Chymicall Experiments, and the true Notion of Mistion. To explain this a little, I assume, that Bodies may be mingl’d, and that very durably, that are not Elementary[ or resolv’d] into Elements or Principles that they may be mingl’d; as is evident in the Regulus of Colliquated Antimony, and Iron newly mention’d; and in Gold Coyne, which lasts so many ages; wherein generally the Gold is alloy’d by the mixture of a quantity, greater or lesser, (in our Mints they use about a 12th. part) of either silver, or Copper, or both. Next, I consider, that there being but one Universal matter of things, as ’tis known that the Aristotelians themselves acknowledge, who call it Materia Prima (about which nevertheless I like not all their Opinions,) the Portions of this matter seem to differ from One Another, but in certain Qualities or Accidents, fewer or more; upon whose Account the Corporeal Substance they belong to receives its Denomination, and is referr’d to this or that particular sort of Bodies; so that if it come to lose, or be depriv’d of those Qualities, though it ceases not to be a body, yet it ceases from being that kind of Body as a Plant, or Animal; or Red, Green, Sweet, Sowre, or the like. I consider that it very often happens that the small parts of Bodies cohere together but by immediate Contact and Rest; and that however, there are few Bodies whose minute Parts stick so close together, to what cause soever their Combination be ascrib’d, but that it is possible to meet with some other Body, whose small Parts may get between them, and so dis-joyn them; or may be fitted to cohere more strongly with some of them, then those some do with the rest; or at least may be combin’d so closely with them, as that neither the Fire, nor the other usual Instruments of Chymical Anatomies will separate them. These things being promis’d, I will not peremptorily deny, but that there may be some Clusters of Particles, wherein the Particles are so minute, and the Coherence so strict, or both, that when Bodies of Differing Denominations, and consisting of such durable Clusters, happen to be mingl’d, though the Compound Body made up of them may be very Differing from either of the Ingredients, yet each of the little Masses or Clusters may so retain its own Nature, as to be again separable, such as it was before. As when Gold and Silver being melted together in a Due Proportion (for in every Proportion, the Refiners will tell You that the Experiment will not succeed) Aqua Fortis will dissolve the Silver, and leave the Gold untoucht; by which means, as you lately noted, both the Metalls may be recover’d from the mixed Mass. But (Continues Carneades) there are other Clusters wherein the Particles stick not so close together, but that they may meet with Corpuscles of another Denomination, which are dispos’d to be more closely United with some of them, then they were among themselves. And in such case, two thus combining Corpuscles losing that Shape, or Size, or Motion, or other Accident, upon whose Account they were endow’d with such a Determinate Quality or Nature, each of them really ceases to be a Corpuscle of the same Denomination it was before; and from the Coalition of these there may emerge a new Body, as really one, as either of the Corpuscles was before they were mingl’d, or, if you please, Confounded: Since this Concretion is really endow’d with its own Distinct qualities, and can no more by the Fire, or any other known way of Analysis, be divided again into the Corpuscles that at first concurr’d to make it, than either of them could by the same means be subdivided into other Particles. But (sayes Eleutherius) to make this more intelligible by particular examples; If you dissolve Copper in Aqua Fortis, or Spirit of Nitre, (for I remember not which I us’d, nor do I think it much Material) You may by Crystalizing the Solution Obtain a goodly Vitriol; which though by Virtue of the Composition it have manifestly diverse Qualities, not to be met with in either of the Ingredients, yet it seems that the Nitrous Spirits, or at least many of them, may in this Compounded Mass retain their former Nature; for having for tryal sake Distill’d this Vitrioll Spirit, there came over store of Red Fumes, which by that Colour, by their peculiar stinke, and by their Sourness, manifested themselves to be, Nitrous Spirits; and that the remaining Calx continu’d Copper, I suppose you’l easily beleeve. But if you dissolve Minium, which is but Lead Powder’d by the Fire, in good Spirit of Vinager, and Crystalize the Solution, you shall not only have a Saccharine Salt exceedingly differing from both its Ingredients; but the Union of some Parts of the Menstruum with some of those of the Metal is so strict, that the Spirit of Vinager seems to be, as such, destroy’d, since the Saline Corpuscles have quite lost that acidity, upon whose Account the Liquor was call’d Spirit of Vinager; nor can any such Acid Parts as were put to the Minium be Separated by any known way from the Saccharum Saturni resulting from them both; for not only there is no Sowrness at all, but an admirable Sweetness to be tasted in the Concretion; and not only I found not that Spirit of Wine, which otherwise will immediately hiss when mingl’d with strong Spirit of Vinager, would hiss being pour’d upon Saccharum Saturni, wherein yet the Acid Salt of Vinager, did it Survive, may seem to be concentrated; but upon the Distillation of Saccharum Saturni by its Self I found indeed a Liquor very Penetrant, but not at all Acid, and differing as well in smell and other Qualities, as in tast, from the Spirit of Vinager; which likewise seem’d to have left some of its Parts very firmly united to the Caput Mortuum, which though of a Leaden Nature was in smell, Colour, &c. differing from Minium; which brings into my mind, that though two Powders, the one Blew, and the other Yellow, may appear a Green mixture, without either of them losing its own Colour, as a good Microscope has sometimes inform’d me; yet having mingl’d Minium and Sal Armoniack in a requisite Proportion, and expos’d them in a Glass Vessel to the Fire, the whole Mass became White, and the Red Corpuscles were destroy’d; for though the Calcin’d Lead was separable from the Salt, yet you’l easily beleeve it did not part from it in the Forme of a Red Powder, such as was the Minium, when it was put to the Sal Armoniack. I leave it also to be consider’d, whether in Blood, and divers other Bodies, it be probable, that each of the Corpuscles that concurr to make a Compound Body doth, though some of them in some Cases may, retain its own Nature in it, so that Chymsts may Extricate each sort of them from all the others, wherewith it concurr’d to make a Body of one Denomination.