Opticks : $b or, A treatise of the reflections, refractions, inflections and colours of lightNewton, Isaac
Science
Opticks : $b or, A treatise of the reflections, refractions, inflections and colours of light
Newton, Isaac
Optics -- Early works to 1800
When Arsenick with Soap gives a Regulus, and with Mercury sublimate a
volatile fusible Salt, like Butter of Antimony, doth not this shew that
Arsenick, which is a Substance totally volatile, is compounded of fix'd
and volatile Parts, strongly cohering by a mutual Attraction, so that
the volatile will not ascend without carrying up the fixed? And so, when
an equal weight of Spirit of Wine and Oil of Vitriol are digested
together, and in Distillation yield two fragrant and volatile Spirits
which will not mix with one another, and a fix'd black Earth remains
behind; doth not this shew that Oil of Vitriol is composed of volatile
and fix'd Parts strongly united by Attraction, so as to ascend together
in form of a volatile, acid, fluid Salt, until the Spirit of Wine
attracts and separates the volatile Parts from the fixed? And therefore,
since Oil of Sulphur _per Campanam_ is of the same Nature with Oil of
Vitriol, may it not be inferred, that Sulphur is also a mixture of
volatile and fix'd Parts so strongly cohering by Attraction, as to
ascend together in Sublimation. By dissolving Flowers of Sulphur in Oil
of Turpentine, and distilling the Solution, it is found that Sulphur is
composed of an inflamable thick Oil or fat Bitumen, an acid Salt, a very
fix'd Earth, and a little Metal. The three first were found not much
unequal to one another, the fourth in so small a quantity as scarce to
be worth considering. The acid Salt dissolved in Water, is the same with
Oil of Sulphur _per Campanam_, and abounding much in the Bowels of the
Earth, and particularly in Markasites, unites it self to the other
Ingredients of the Markasite, which are, Bitumen, Iron, Copper, and
Earth, and with them compounds Allum, Vitriol, and Sulphur. With the
Earth alone it compounds Allum; with the Metal alone, or Metal and
Earth together, it compounds Vitriol; and with the Bitumen and Earth it
compounds Sulphur. Whence it comes to pass that Markasites abound with
those three Minerals. And is it not from the mutual Attraction of the
Ingredients that they stick together for compounding these Minerals, and
that the Bitumen carries up the other Ingredients of the Sulphur, which
without it would not sublime? And the same Question may be put
concerning all, or almost all the gross Bodies in Nature. For all the
Parts of Animals and Vegetables are composed of Substances volatile and
fix'd, fluid and solid, as appears by their Analysis; and so are Salts
and Minerals, so far as Chymists have been hitherto able to examine
their Composition.
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