Thus the fact, that calces are heavier than the metals from which they are formed, in reality overturned the whole doctrine of phlogiston; and the only reason why the doctrine continued to be admitted after the fact was known is, that in these early days of chemistry, the balance was scarcely ever employed in experimenting: hence alterations in weight were little attended to or entirely overlooked. We shall see afterwards, that when Lavoisier introduced a more accurate mode of experimenting, and rendered it necessary to compare the original weights of the substances employed, with the weights of the products, he made use of this very experiment of Boyle, and a similar one made with mercury, to overturn the whole doctrine of phlogiston. The phlogistic school being thus founded by Stahl, in Berlin, a race of chemists succeeded him in that capital, who contributed in no ordinary degree to the improvement of the science. The most deservedly celebrated of these were Neumann, Pott, Margraaf, and Eller. Caspar Neumann was born at Zullichau, in Germany, in 1682. He was early received into favour by the King of Prussia, and travelled at the expense of that monarch into Holland, England, France, and Italy. During these travels he had an opportunity of making a personal acquaintance with the most eminent men of science in all the different countries which he visited. On his return home, in 1724, he was appointed professor of chemistry in the Royal College of Physic and Surgery at Berlin, where he delivered a course of lectures annually. During the remainder of his life he enjoyed the situation of superintendent of the Royal Laboratory, and apothecary to the King of Prussia. He died in 1737. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and several papers of his appeared in the Transactions of that learned body. The following is a list of these papers, all of which were written in Latin: 1. Disquisitio de camphora. 2. De experimento probandi spiritum vini Gallici, per quam usitato, sed revera falso et fallaci. Some merchants in Holland, England, Hamburg, and Dantzic, were in possession of what they considered an infallible test to distinguish French brandy from every other kind of spirit. It was a dusky yellowish liquid. When one or two drops of it were let fall into a glass of French brandy, a beautiful blue colour appeared at the bottom of the glass, and when the brandy is stirred, the whole liquid becomes azure. But if the spirit tried be malt spirit, no such colour appears in the glass. Neumann ascertained that the test liquid was merely a solution of sulphate of iron in water, and that the blue colour was the consequence of the brandy having been kept in oak casks, and thus having dissolved a portion of tannin. Every spirit will exhibit the same colour, if it has been kept in oak casks. 3. De salibus alkalino-fixis. 4. De camphora thymi. 5. De ambragrysea. His other papers, published in Germany, are the following: In the Ephemerides.