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
And I remmember to our present purpose, that _Helmont_,[15] amongst
other Medicines that he commends, has a short processe, wherein,
though the Directions for Practice are but obscurely intimated; yet I
have some reason not to Dis-believe the Process, without affirming or
denying any thing about the vertues of the remedy to be made by it.
_Quando_ (sayes he) _oleum cinnamomi &c. suo sali alkali miscetur
absque omni aqua, trium mensium artificiosa occultaque circulatione,
totum in salem volatilem commutatum est, vere essentiam sui simplicis
in nobis exprimit, & usque in prima nostri constitutivasese ingerit._
A not unlike Processe he delivers in another place; from whence, if we
suppose him to say true, I may argue, that since by the Fire there may
be produc'd a substance that is as well Saline and volatile as the
Salt of Harts-horn, blood, &c. which pass for Elementary; and since
that this Volatile Salt is really compounded of a Chymical Oyle and a
fixt Salt, the one made Volatile by the other, and both associated by
the fire, it may well be suspected that other Substances, emerging
upon the Dissipation of Bodies by the Fire, may be new sorts of Mixts,
and consist of Substances of differing natures; and particularly, I
have sometimes suspected, that since the Volatile Salts of Blood,
Harts-horn, &c. are figitive [Errata: fugitive] and endow'd with an
exceeding strong smell, either that Chymists do Erroneously ascribe
all odours to sulphurs, or that such Salts consist of some oyly parts
well incorporated with the Saline ones. And the like conjecture I have
also made concerning Spirit of Vinager, which, though the Chymists
think one of the Principles of that Body, and though being an Acid
Spirit it seems to be much less of kin then Volatile Salts to
sulphurs; yet, not to mention its piercing smell; which I know not
with what congruity the Chymist will deduce from Salt, I wonder they
have not taken notice of what their own _Tyrocinium Chymicum_ teach us
concerning the Destillation of _Saccharum Saturni_; out of which
_Beguinus_[16] assures Us, that he distill'd, besides a very fine
spirit, no lesse then two Oyles, the one blood-red and ponderous, but
the other swimming upon the top of the Spirit, and of a yellow colour;
of which he sayes that he kept then some by him, to verify what he
delivers. And though I remember not that I have had two distinct Oyles
from Sugar of Lead, yet that it will though distill'd without addition
yield some Oyle, disagrees not with my Experience. I know the Chymists
will be apt to pretend, that these Oyls are but the volatiliz'd
sulphur of the lead; and will perhaps argue it from what _Beguinus_
relates, that when the Distillation is ended, you'l find a _Caput
Mortuum_ extreamly black, and (as he speaks) _nullius momenti_, as if
the Body, or at least the chief part of the Metal it self were by the
distillation carried over the Helme. But since you know as well as I
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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