Part 10

I shall then freely acknowledge to You (sayes _Carneades_) that I am not over well satisfi'd with the Doctrine that is ascribed to _Aristotle_, concerning Mistion, especially since it teaches that the four Elements may again be separated from the mixt Body; whereas if they continu'd not in it, it would not be so much a Separation as a Production. And I think the Ancient Philosophers that Preceded _Aristotle_, and Chymists who have since receiv'd the same Opinion, do speak of this matter more intelligibly, if not more probably, then the Peripateticks: but though they speak Congruously enough, to their believing, that there are a certain Number of Primogeneal Bodies, by whose Concourse all those we call Mixts are Generated, and which in the Destruction of mixt Bodies do barely part company, and recede from one another, just such as they were when they came together; yet I, who meet with very few Opinions that I can entirely Acquiesce in, must confess to You that I am inclin'd to differ not only from the _Aristotelians_, but from the old Philosophers and the Chymists, about the Nature of Mistion: And if You will give me leave, I shall Briefly propose to you my present Notion of it, provided you will look upon it, not so much as an Assertion as an _Hypothesis_; in talking of which I do not now pretend to propose and debate the whole Doctrine of Mistion, but to shew that 'tis not Improbable, that sometimes mingl'd substances may be so strictly united, that it doth not by the usuall Operations of the Fire, by which Chymists are wont to suppose themselves to have made the _Analyses_ of mixt Bodies, sufficiently appear, that in such Bodies the _Miscibilia_ that concurr'd to make them up do each of them retain its own peculiar Nature: and by the _Spagyrists_ Fires may be more easily extricated and Recover'd, than Alter'd, either by a Change of Texture in the Parts of the same Ingredient, or by an Association with some parts of another Ingredient more strict than was that of the parts of this or that _Miscibile_ among themselves. At these words _Eleu._ having press'd him to do what he propos'd, and promis'd to do what he desir'd;

I consider then (resumes _Carneades_) that, not to mention those improper Kinds of mistion, wherein _Homogeneous_ Bodies are Joyn'd, as when Water is mingl'd with water, or two Vessels full of the same kind of Wine with one another, the mistion I am now to Discourse of seems, Generally speaking, to be but an Union _per Minima_ of any two or more Bodies of differing Denominations; as when Ashes and Sand are Colliquated into Glass or Antimony, and Iron into _Regulus Martis_, or Wine and Water are mingl'd, and Sugar is dissolv'd in the Mixture. Now in this general notion of Mistion it does not appear clearly comprehended, that the _Miscibilia_ or Ingredients do in their small Parts so retain their Nature and remain distinct in the Compound, that they may thence by the Fire be again taken asunder: For though I deny not that in some Mistions of certain permanent Bodies this Recovery of the same Ingredients may be made, yet I am not convinc'd that it will hold in all or even in most, or that it is necessarily deducible from Chymicall Experiments, and the true Notion of Mistion. To explain this a little, I assume, that Bodies may be mingl'd, and that very durably, that are not Elementary or resolv'd [Errata: nor have been resolved] into Elements or Principles that they may be mingl'd; as is evident in the _Regulus_ of Colliquated Antimony, and Iron newly mention'd; and in Gold Coyne, which lasts so many ages; wherein generally the Gold is alloy'd by the mixture of a quantity, greater or lesser, (in our Mints they use about a 12th. part) of either silver, or Copper, or both. Next, I consider, that there being but one Universal matter of things, as 'tis known that the _Aristotelians_ themselves acknowledge, who call it _Materia Prima_ (about which nevertheless I like not all their Opinions,) the Portions of this matter seem to differ from One Another, but in certain Qualities or Accidents, fewer or more; upon whose Account the Corporeal Substance they belong to receives its Denomination, and is referr'd to this or that particular sort of Bodies; so that if it come to lose, or be depriv'd of those Qualities, though it ceases not to be a body, yet it ceases from being that kind of Body as a Plant, or Animal; or Red, Green, Sweet, Sowre, or the like. I consider that it very often happens that the small parts of Bodies cohere together but by immediate Contact and Rest; and that however, there are few Bodies whose minute Parts stick so close together, to what cause soever their Combination be ascrib'd, but that it is possible to meet with some other Body, whose small Parts may get between them, and so dis-joyn them; or may be fitted to cohere more strongly with some of them, then those some do with the rest; or at least may be combin'd so closely with them, as that neither the Fire, nor the other usual Instruments of Chymical Anatomies will separate them. These things being promis'd, I will not peremptorily deny, but that there may be some Clusters of Particles, wherein the Particles are so minute, and the Coherence so strict, or both, that when Bodies of Differing Denominations, and consisting of such durable Clusters, happen to be mingl'd, though the Compound Body made up of them may be very Differing from either of the Ingredients, yet each of the little Masses or Clusters may so retain its own Nature, as to be again separable, such as it was before. As when Gold and Silver being melted together in a Due Proportion (for in every Proportion, the Refiners will tell You that the Experiment will not succeed) _Aqua Fortis_ will dissolve the Silver, and leave the Gold untoucht; by which means, as you lately noted, both the Metalls may be recover'd from the mixed Mass. But (Continues _Carneades_) there are other Clusters wherein the Particles stick not so close together, but that they may meet with Corpuscles of another Denomination, which are dispos'd to be more closely United with some of them, then they were among themselves. And in such case, two thus combining Corpuscles losing that Shape, or Size, or Motion, or other Accident, upon whose Account they were endow'd with such a Determinate Quality or Nature, each of them really ceases to be a Corpuscle of the same Denomination it was before; and from the Coalition of these there may emerge a new Body, as really one, as either of the Corpuscles was before they were mingl'd, or, if you please, Confounded: Since this Concretion is really endow'd with its own Distinct qualities, and can no more by the Fire, or any other known way of _Analysis_, be divided again into the Corpuscles that at first concurr'd to make it, than either of them could by the same means be subdivided into other Particles. But (sayes _Eleutherius_) to make this more intelligible by particular examples; If you dissolve Copper in _Aqua Fortis_, or Spirit of Nitre, (for I remember not which I us'd, nor do I think it much Material) You may by Crystalizing the Solution Obtain a goodly Vitriol; which though by Virtue of the Composition it have manifestly diverse Qualities, not to be met with in either of the Ingredients, yet it seems that the Nitrous Spirits, or at least many of them, may in this Compounded Mass retain their former Nature; for having for tryal sake Distill'd this Vitrioll Spirit, there came over store of Red Fumes, which by that Colour, by their peculiar stinke, and by their Sourness, manifested themselves to be, Nitrous Spirits; and that the remaining Calx continu'd Copper, I suppose you'l easily beleeve. But if you dissolve _Minium_, which is but Lead Powder'd by the Fire, in good Spirit of Vinager, and Crystalize the Solution, you shall not only have a Saccharine Salt exceedingly differing from both its Ingredients; but the Union of some Parts of the _Menstruum_ with some of those of the Metal is so strict, that the Spirit of Vinager seems to be, as such, destroy'd, since the Saline Corpuscles have quite lost that acidity, upon whose Account the Liquor was call'd Spirit of Vinager; nor can any such Acid Parts as were put to the _Minium_ be Separated by any known way from the _Saccharum Saturni_ resulting from them both; for not only there is no Sowrness at all, but an admirable Sweetness to be tasted in the Concretion; and not only I found not that Spirit of Wine, which otherwise will immediately hiss when mingl'd with strong Spirit of Vinager, would hiss being pour'd upon _Saccharum Saturni_, wherein yet the Acid Salt of Vinager, did it Survive, may seem to be concentrated; but upon the Distillation of _Saccharum Saturni_ by its Self I found indeed a Liquor very Penetrant, but not at all Acid, and differing as well in smell and other Qualities, as in tast, from the Spirit of Vinager; which likewise seem'd to have left some of its Parts very firmly united to the _Caput Mortuum_, which though of a Leaden Nature was in smell, Colour, &c. differing from _Minium_; which brings into my mind, that though two Powders, the one Blew, and the other Yellow, may appear a Green mixture, without either of them losing its own Colour, as a good Microscope has sometimes inform'd me; yet having mingl'd _Minium_ and _Sal Armoniack_ in a requisite Proportion, and expos'd them in a Glass Vessel to the Fire, the whole Mass became White, and the Red Corpuscles were destroy'd; for though the Calcin'd Lead was separable from the Salt, yet you'l easily beleeve it did not part from it in the Forme of a Red Powder, such as was the _Minium_, when it was put to the _Sal Armoniack_. I leave it also to be consider'd, whether in Blood, and divers other Bodies, it be probable, that each of the Corpuscles that concurr to make a Compound Body doth, though some of them in some Cases may, retain its own Nature in it, so that Chymsts [Transcriber's Note: Chymists] may Extricate each sort of them from all the others, wherewith it concurr'd to make a Body of one Denomination.

I know there may be a Distinction betwixt Matter _Immanent_, when the material Parts remain and retain their own Nature in the things materiated, as some of the Schoolmen speak, (in which sence Wood, Stones and Lime are the matter of a House,) and _Transient_, which in the materiated thing is so alter'd, as to receive a new Forme, without being capable of re-admitting again the Old. In which sence the Friends of this Distinction say, that _Chyle_ is the matter of Blood, and Blood that of a Humane Body, of all whose Parts 'tis presum'd to be the Aliment. I know also that it may be said, that of material Principles, some are _common_ to all mixt Bodies, as _Aristotles_ four Elements, or the Chymists _Tria Prima_; others _Peculiar_, which belong to this or that sort of Bodies; as Butter and a kind of whey may be said to be the Proper Principles of Cream: and I deny not, but that these Distinctions may in some Cases be of Use; but partly by what I have said already, and partly by what I am to say, You may easily enough guess in what sence I admit them, and discerne that in such a sence they will either illustrate some of my Opinions, or at least will not overthrow any of them.

To prosecute then what I was saying before, I will add to this purpose, That since the Major part of Chymists Credit, what those they call Philosophers affirme of their Stone, I may represent to them, that though when Common Gold and Lead are mingled Together, the Lead may be sever'd almost un-alter'd from the Gold; yet if instead of Gold a _Tantillum_ of the Red _Elixir_ be mingled with the Saturn, their Union will be so indissoluble in the perfect Gold that will be produc'd by it, that there is no known, nor perhaps no possible way of separating the diffus'd _Elixir_ from the fixed Lead, but they both Constitute a most permanent Body, wherein the Saturne seems to have quite lost its Properties that made it be call'd Lead, and to have been rather transmuted by the _Elixir_, then barely associated to it. So that it seems not alwayes necessary, that the Bodies that are put together _per minima_, should each retain its own Nature; So as when the Mass it Self is dissipated by the Fire, to be more dispos'd to re-appear in its Pristine Forme, then in any new one, which by a stricter association of its Parts with those of some of the other Ingredients of the _Compositum_, then with one another, it may have acquired.

And if it be objected, that unless the _Hypothesis_ I oppose be admitted, in such Cases as I have proposed there would not be an Union but a Destruction of mingled Bodies, which seems all one as to say, that of such Bodies there is no mistion at all; I answer, that _though_ the Substances that are mingl'd remain, only their Accidents are Destroy'd, and _though_ we may with tollerable Congruity call them _Miscibilia_, because they are Distinct Bodies before they are put together, however afterwards they are so Confounded that I should rather call them Concretions, or Resulting Bodies, than mixt ones; and _though_, perhaps, some other and better Account may be propos'd, upon which the name of mistion may remain; yet if what I have said be thought Reason, I shall not wrangle about Words, though I think it fitter to alter a Terme of Art, then reject a new Truth, because it suits not with it. If it be also Objected that this Notion of mine, concerning mixtion, though it may be allow'd, when Bodies already Compounded are put to be mingl'd, yet it is not applicable to those mixtions that are immediately made of the Elements, or Principles themselves; I Answer in the first place, that I here Consider the Nature of mixtion somewhat more Generally, then the Chymists, who yet cannot deny that there are oftentimes Mixtures, and those very durable ones, made of Bodies that are not Elementary. And in the next place, that though it may be probably pretended that in those Mixtures that are made immediately of the Bodies that are call'd Principles or Elements, the mingl'd Ingredients may better retain their own Nature in the Compounded Mass, and be more easily separated from thence; yet, besides that it may be doubted, whether there be any such Primary Bodies, I see not why the reason I alleadg'd, of the destructibility of the Ingredients of Bodies in General, may not sometimes be Applicable to Salt Sulphur or Mercury; 'till it be shewn upon what account we are to believe them Priviledged. And however, (if you please but to recall to mind, to what purpose I told you at First, I meant to speak of Mistion at this Time) you will perhaps allow that what I have hitherto Discoursed about it may not only give some Light to the Nature of it in general (especially when I shall have an Opportunity to Declare to you my thoughts on that subject more fully) but may on some Occasions also be Serviceable to me in the Insuing Part of this Discourse.

But, to look back Now to that part of our Discourse, whence this Excursion concerning Mistion has so long diverted us, though we there Deduc'd, from the differing Substances obtained from a Plant nourished only with Water, and from some other things, that it was not necessary that nature should alwaies compound a Body at first of all such differing bodies as the fire could afterwards make it afford; yet this is not all that may be collected from those Experiments. For from them there seems also Deducible something that Subverts an other Foundation of the Chymical Doctrine. For since that (as we have seen) out of fair Water alone, not only Spirit, but Oyle, and Salt, and Earth may be Produced; It will follow that Salt and Sulphur are not Primogeneal Bodies, and principles, since they are every Day made out of plain Water by the Texture which the Seed or Seminal principle of plants puts it into. And this would not perhaps seem so strange, if through pride, or negligence, We were not Wont to Overlook the Obvious and Familiar Workings of Nature; For if We consider what slight Qualities they are that serve to denominate one of the _Tria Prima_, We shall find that Nature do's frequently enough work as great Alterations in divers parcells of matter: For to be readily dissoluble in water, is enough to make the body that is so, passe for a Salt. And yet I see not why from a new shufling and Disposition of the Component Particles of a body, it should be much harder for Nature to compose a body dissoluble in Water, of a portion of Water that was not so before, then of the Liquid substance of an Egg, which will easily mix with Water, to produce by the bare warmth of a hatching Hen, Membrans, Feathers, Tendons, and other parts, that are not dissoluble in Water as that Liquid Substance was: Nor is the Hardness and Brittleness of Salt more difficult for Nature to introduce into such a yielding body as Water, then it is for her to make the Bones of a Chick out of the tender Substance of the Liquors of an Egg. But instead of prosecuting this consideration, as I easily might, I will proceed, as soon as I have taken notice of an objection that lies in my Way. For I easily foresee it will be alledged, that the above mentioned Examples are all taken from Plants, and Animals, in whom the Matter is Fashioned by the Plastick power of the seed, or something analogous thereunto. Whereas the Fire do's not act like any of the Seminal Principles, but destroyes them all, when they come within its Reach. But to this I shall need at present to make but this easy Answer, That whether it be a Seminal Principle, or any other which fashions that Matter after those various manners I have mentioned to You, yet 'tis Evident, that either by the Plastick principle Alone, or that and Heat Together, or by some Other cause capable to contex the matter, it is yet possible that the matter may be Anew contriv'd into such Bodies. And 'tis only for the Possibility of this that I am now contending.

THE

SCEPTICAL CHYMIST.

_The Third Part._

What I have hitherto Discours'd, _Eleutherius_, (sayes his Friend to Him) has, I presume, shew'n You, that a Considering Man may very well question the Truth of those very Suppositions which Chymists as well as Peripateticks, without proving, take for granted; and upon which Depends the Validity of the Inferences they draw from their Experiments. Wherefore having dispach't that, which though a Chymist Perhaps will not, yet I do, look upon as the most Important, as well as Difficult, part of my Task, it will now be Seasonable for me to proceed to the Consideration of the Experiments themselves, wherein they are wont so much to Triumph and Glory. And these will the rather deserve a serious Examination, because those that Alledge them are wont to do it with so much Confidence and Ostentation, that they have hitherto impos'd upon almost all Persons, without excepting Philosophers and Physitians themselves, who have read their Books, or heard them talk. For some learned Men have been content rather to beleeve what they so boldly Affirm, then be at the trouble and charge, to try whether or no it be True. Others again, who have Curiosity enough to Examine the Truth of what is Averr'd, want Skill and Opportunity to do what they Desire. And the Generality even of Learned Men, seeing the Chymists (not contenting themselves with the Schools to amuse the World with empty words) Actually Perform'd divers strange things, and, among those Resolve Compound Bodies into several Substances not known by former Philosophers to be contain'd in them: Men I say, seeing these Things, and Hearing with what Confidence Chymists Averr the Substances Obtain'd from Compound Bodies by the Fire to be the True Elements, or, (as they speak) Hypostaticall Principles of them, are forward to think it but Just as well as Modest, that according to the _Logicians_ Rule, the Skilfull _Artists_ should be Credited in their own Art; Especially when those things whose Nature they so Confidently take upon them to teach others are not only Productions of their own Skill, but such as others Know not else what to make of.

But though (Continues _Carneades_) the Chymists have been able upon some or other of the mention'd Acounts, not only to Delight but Amaze, and almost to bewitch even Learned Men; yet such as You and I, who are not unpractis'd in the Trade, must not suffer our Selves to be impos'd upon by hard Names, or bold Assertions; nor to be dazl'd by that Light which should but assist us to discern things the more clearly. It is one thing to be able to help Nature to produce things, and another thing to Understand well the Nature of the things produc'd. As we see, that many Persons that can beget Children, are for all that as Ignorant of the Number and Nature of the parts, especially the internal ones, that Constitute a Childs Body, as they that never were Parents. Nor do I Doubt, but you'l excuse me, if as I thank the Chymists for the things their _Analysis_ shews me, so I take the Liberty to consider how many, and what they are, without being astonish'd at them; as if, whosoever hath Skill enough to shew men some new thing of his own making, had the Right to make them believe whatsoever he pleases to tell them concerning it.

Wherefore I will now proceed to my Third General Consideration, which is, That it does not appear, that _Three_ is precisely and Universally the Number of the Distinct Substances or Elements, whereinto mixt Bodies are resoluble by the Fire; I mean that 'tis not prov'd by Chymists, that all the Compound Bodies, which are granted to be perfectly mixt, are upon their Chymical _Analysis_ divisible each of them into just Three Distinct Substances, neither more nor less, which are wont to be lookt upon as Elementary, or may as well be reputed so as those that are so reputed. Which last Clause I subjoyne, to prevent your Objecting, that some of the Substances I may have occasion to mention by and by, are not perfectly Homogeneous, nor Consequently worthy of the name of Principles. For that which I am now to consider, is, into how many Differing Substances, that may plausibly pass for the Elementary Ingredients of a mix'd Body, it may be Analyz'd by the Fire; but whether each of these be un-compounded, I reserve to examine, when I shall come to the next General Consideration; where I hope to evince, that the Substances which the Chymists not only allow, but assert to be the Component Principles of the Body resolv'd into them, are not wont to be uncompounded.