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
he that shall but wet his tongue with Chymical Oyle of Cinnamon, or of
Cloves, or even of Turpentine, may quickly find, to his smart. And not
only I never try'd any Chymical Oyles whose tast was not very
manifest and strong; but a skilful and inquisitive person who made it
his business by elaborate operations to depurate Chymical Oyles, and
reduce them to an Elementary simplicity, Informes us, that he never
was able to make them at all Tastless; whence I might inferr, that the
proof Chymists confidently give us of a bodies being saline, is so far
from demonstrating the Predominancy, that it does not clearly Evince
so much as the presence of the saline Principle in it. But I will not
(pursues _Carneades_) remind you, that the Volatile salt of
Harts-horn, Amber, Blood, &c. are exceeding strongly scented,
notwithstanding that most Chymists deduce Odours from Sulphur, and
from them argue the Predominancy of that Principle in the Odorous
body, because I must not so much as add any new Examples of the
incompetency of this sort of Chymical arguments; since having already
detain'd You but too long in those generals that appertain to my
fourth consideration, 'tis time that I proceed to the particulars
themselves, to which I thought fit they should be previous:
These Generals (continues _Carneades_) being thus premis'd, we might
the better survey the Unlikeness that an attentive and unprepossess'd
observer may take notice of in each sort of Bodies which the Chymists
are wont to call the salts or sulphurs or Mercuries of the Concretes
that yield Them, as if they had all a simplicity, and Identity of
Nature: whereas salts if they were all Elementary would as little
differ as do the Drops of pure and simple Water. 'Tis known that both
Chymists and Physitians ascribe to the fixt salts of calcin'd Bodies
the vertues of their concretes; and consequently very differing
Operations. So we find the _Alkali_ of Wormwood much commended in
distempers of the stomach; that of Eyebright for those that have a
weak sight; and that of _Guaiacum_ (of which a great Quantity yields
but a very little salt) is not only much commended in Venereal
Diseases, but is believed to have a peculiar purgative vertue, which
yet I have not had occasion to try. And though, I confess, I have long
thought, that these _Alkalizate_ salts are, for the most part, very
neer of kin, and retain very little of the properties of the
Concretes whence they were separated; Yet being minded to Observe
watchfully whether I could meet with any Exceptions to this General
Observation, I observ'd at the Glasse-house, that sometimes the Metal
(as the Workmen call it) or Masse of colliquated Ingredients, which by
Blowing they fashion into Vessels of divers shapes, did sometimes
prove of a very differing colour, and a somewhat differing Texture,
from what was usuall. And having enquired whether the cause of such
Accidents might not be derived from the peculiar Nature of the fixt
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