The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-Physical Doubts & Paradoxes, Touching the Spagyrist's Principles Commonly call'd Hypostatical; As they are wont to be Propos'd and Defended by the Generality of Alchymists. Whereunto is præmis'd Part of another Discourse relating to the same Subject.Boyle, Robert
Philosophy
The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-Physical Doubts & Paradoxes, Touching the Spagyrist's Principles Commonly call'd Hypostatical; As they are wont to be Propos'd and Defended by the Generality of Alchymists. Whereunto is præmis'd Part of another Discourse relating to the same Subject.
Boyle, Robert
Chemistry -- Early works to 1800
Divers Learned Men that pretend no small skill in Chymistry, that at
least no mixt Body can be brought over the Helme, but by corrosive
Salts, I am ready to shew You, when You please, among other wayes of
bringing over Flowers of Brimstone (perhaps I might add even Mineral
Sulphurs) some, wherein I employ none but Oleaginous bodies to make
Volatile Liquors, in which not only the colour, but (which is a much
surer mark) the smell and some Operations manifest that there is
brought over a Sulphur that makes part of the Liquor.
One thing more there is, _Eleutherius_, sayes _Carneades_, which is so
pertinent to my present purpose, that though I have touch'd upon it
before, I cannot but on this occasion take notice of it. And it is
this, That the Qualities or Accidents, upon whose account Chymists are
wont to call a portion of Matter by the name of Mercury or some other
of their Principles, are not such but that 'tis possible as Great (and
therefore why not the like?) may be produc'd by such changes of
Texture, and other Alterations, as the Fire may make in the small
Parts of a Body. I have already prov'd, when I discours'd of the
second General Consideration, by what happens to plants nourish'd only
with fair water, and Eggs hatch'd into Chickens, that by changing the
disposition of the component parts of a Body, Nature is able to effect
as great Changes in a parcell of Matter reputed similar, as those
requisite to Denominate one of the _Tria Prima_. And though _Helmont_
do somewhere wittily call the Fire the Destructor and the Artificial
Death of Things; And although another Eminent Chymist and Physitian be
pleas'd to build upon this, That Fire can never generate any thing but
Fire; Yet You will, I doubt not, be of another mind, If You consider
how many new sorts of mixt Bodies Chymists themselves have produc'd by
means of the Fire: And particularly, if You consider how that Noble
and Permanent Body, Glass, is not only manifestly produc'd by the
violent action of the Fire, but has never, for ought we know, been
produc'd any other way. And indeed it seems but an inconsiderate
Assertion of some _Helmontians_, that every sort of Body of a
Peculiar Denomination must be produc'd by some Seminal power; as I
think I could evince, if I thought it so necessary, as it is for me to
hasten to what I have further to discourse. Nor need it much move us,
that there are some who look upon whatsoever the Fire is employ'd to
produce, not as upon Natural but Artificial Bodies. For there is not
alwaies such a difference as many imagine betwixt the one and the
other: Nor is it so easy as they think, clearly to assigne that which
Properly, Constantly, and Sufficiently, Discriminates them. But not to
engage my self in so nice a Disquisition, it may now suffice to
observe, that a thing is commonly termed Artificial, when a parcel of
matter is by the Artificers hand, or Tools, or both, brought to such a
shape or Form, as he Design'd before-hand in his Mind: Whereas in many
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