Robert Boyle

“ For what can a naked Fire do to Analyze a mixt Bodie, if its component Principles be so minute, and so strictly united, that the Corpuscles of it need less heat to carry them up, than is requisite to divide them into their Principles. So that of some Bodies the Fire cannot in close Vessels make any Analysis at all, and others will in the open Air fly away in the Forms of Flowers or Liquors, before the Heat can prove able to divide them into their Principles. ”

“ For since we have lately seen, that Nature can successefully employ other Instruments than the Fire to separate distinct Substances from mixt Bodies, how know we, but that Nature has made, or Art may make, some such Substance as may be a fit Instrument to Analyze mixt Bodies, or that some such Method may be found by Humane Industry or Luck, by whose means compound Bodies may be resolv’d into other Substances, than such as they are wont to be divided into by the Fire. ”

“ We see that the Inflamable Spirit, or as the Chymists esteem it, the Sulphur of Wine, may not only be separated from it by the gentle heat of a Bath, but may be distill’d either by the help of the Sun-Beams, or even of a Dunghill, being indeed of so Fugitive a Nature, that it is not easy to keep it from flying away, even without the Application of external heat. ”

“ For it is nothing near so easy as many seem to think, to determine distinctly the Effects of Heat, as I could easily manifest, if I had leasure to shew you how much the Operations of Fire may be diversify’d by Circumstances. But not wholly to pass by a matter of this Importance, I will first take notice to you, that Guajacum ( for Instance ) burnt with an open Fire in a Chimney, is sequestred into Ashes and Soot, whereas the same Wood distill’d in a Retort does yield far other Heterogeneities, ( to use the Helmontian expression ) and is resolv’d into Oyl, Spirit, Vinager, Water and Charcoal ”

“ I consider then that Gold will mix and be colliquated not only with Silver, Copper, Tin and Lead, but with Antimony, Regulus Martis and many other Minerals, with which it will compose Bodies very differing both from Gold, and the other Ingredients of the resulting Concretes. And the same Gold will also by common Aqua Regis, and ( I speak it knowingly ) by divers other Menstruums be reduc’d into a seeming Liquor, in so much that the Corpuscles of Gold will, with those of the Menstruum, pass through Cap-Paper, and with them also coagulate into a Crystalline Salt. ”

“ We finde in other Mineral Bodies of a less permanent nature than Silver, that the Fire may divide them into such minute parts, as to be able to carry them away with its self, without at all destroying their Nature. ”

“ And then, whereas the Saline parts of the Spirits of Guajacum, &c. appear upon distillation sluggish enough, the Salt of Soot seems to be one of the most volatile Bodies in all Nature ; and if it be well made will readily ascend with the milde heat of a Furnace, warm’d only by the single Wieck of a Lamp, to the top of the highest Glass Vessels that are commonly made use of for Distillation : and besides all this, the taste and smell of the Salt of Soot are exceeding differing from those of the Spirits of Guajacum, &c. ”

“ For when ever any Menstruum or other Additament is Employ’d, together with the Fire to Obtain a Sulphur or a Salt from 84a Body, We may well take the Freedom to Examine, whether or no That Menstruum do barely Help to Separate the Principle Obtain’d by It, or whether there Intervene not a Coalition of the Parts of the Body Wrought upon with Those of the Menstruum, whereby the Produc’d Concrete may be Judg’d to Result from the Union of Both. ”

“ And accordingly if we Expose a Heap of Mony Consisting of Gold, Silver and Copper Coynes, or any other Bodies of Differing Natures, which are Destitute of Aqueous Moisture, Capable of Congelation, to never so intense a Cold, we find not that these Differing Bodies are at all thereby so much as Compacted, much less United together ”

“ Our Author tells us, that by his way he could Distill over all Concretes without any Caput mortuum, and consequently could make those parts of the Concrete volatile, which in the Vulgar Analysis would have 78been fixt. So that if our Chymists will not reject the solemn and repeated Testimony of a Person, who cannot but be acknowledg’d for one of the greatest Spagyrists that they can boast of, they must not deny that there is to be found in Nature another Agent able to Analyze compound Bodies less violently, and both more genuinely and more universally than the Fire. ”

“ For if the Artificer can so firmly unite such comparative gross Particles as those of Earth and Salt that make up common Ashes, into a Body indissoluble by Fire ; why may not Nature associate in divers Bodies the more minute Elementary Corpuscles she has at hand too firmly to 62let them be separable by the Fire ? And on this Occasion, Eleutherius, give me leave to mention to you two or three sleight Experiments, which will, I hope, be found more pertinent to our present Discourse, than at first perhaps they will appear. ”

“ For some Bodies being of such a Texture that the Fire can drive them into the cooler and less hot part of the Vessels wherein they are included, and if need be, remove them from place 64to place to fly the greatest heat, more easily than it can divorce their Elements ( especially without the Assistance of the Air ) we see that our Chymists cannot Analyze them in close Vessels, and of other compound Bodies the open Fire can as little separate the Elements. ”

“ And I have heard from very credible Eye-witnesses some things, and seen some others my self, which argue so strongly, that a circulated Salt, or a Menstruum 79 ( such as it may be ) may by being abstracted from compound Bodies, whether Mineral, Animal, or Vegetable, leave them more unlockt than a wary Naturalist would easily beleeve, that I dare not confidently measure the Power of Nature and Art by that of the Menstruums, and other Instruments that eminent Chymists themselves are as yet wont to Empoly about the Analyzing of Bodies ”

“ But the Quantity of Sulphur we obtain’d by Digestion was much too great to have been latent in the Oyl of Vitriol. And that Vitriolate Spirits are not necessary to the Constitution of such a Sulphur as ours, I could easily manifest, if I would acquaint you with the several wayes by which I have obtain’d, though not in such plenty, a Sulphur of Antimony, colour’d and combustible like common Brimstone. ”

“ For Fire can no more with the Assistance of Water than without it Separate any of the Three Principles, either from Gold, Silver, Mercury, or some Others of the Concretes named Above.
Hence We may Inferre, That Fire is not an Universal Analyzer of all Mixt Bodies, since of Metals and Minerals, wherein Chymists have most Exercis’d Themselves, there Appear scarce Any which they are able to Analyze by Fire, 83Nay, from which they can Unquestionably Separate so much as any One of their Hypostatical Principles ”

“ And to these two I shall add but this obvious and known Observation, that common Sulphur ( if it be pure and freed from its Vinager ) being leasurely sublim’d in close Vessels, rises into dry Flowers, which may be presently melted into a Bodie of the same Nature with that which afforded them. Though if Brimstone be burnt in the open Air it gives, you know, a penetrating Fume, which being caught in a Glass-Bell condenses into that acid Liquor called Oyl of Sulphur per Campanam. ”

“ The first is, that, having ( for Tryals sake ) put a quantity of that Fugitive Concrete, Camphire, into a Glass Vessel, and plac’d it in a gentle Heat, I found it ( not leaving behinde, according to my Estimate, not so much as one Grain ) to sublime to the Top of the Vessel into Flowers : which in Whiteness, Smell, &c. seem’d not to differ from the Camphire it self. Another Experiment is that of Helmont, who in several places affirms, That a Coal kept in a Glass exactly clos’d will never be calcin’d to Ashes, though kept never so long in a strong Fire. ”

“ For the Fire meeting with some Bodies exceedingly and almost equally Fixt, instead of making a Separation, makes an Union so strict, that it self, alone, is unable to Dissolve it ; As we see, when an Alca92lizate Salt and the Terrestrial Residue of the Ashes are Incorporated with pure Sand, and by Vitrification made one permanent Body, ( I mean the course or greenish sort of Glass ) that mocks the greatest Violence of the Fire, which though able to Marry the Ingredients of it, yet is not able to Divorce them. ”

“ But in our present case being allow’d to deduce compound Bodies from four very differently qualified sorts of matter, he who shall but consider what you freshly took notice of concerning the new Concretes resulting from the mixture of incorporated Minerals, will scarce doubt but that the four Elements mannag’d by Natures Skill may afford a multitude of differing Compounds. ”

“ Assigne them. Thus in the Distillation ( for Instance ) of Man’s Blood, the Fire do’s First begin to Dissolve the Nexus or Cement of the Body ; and then the Water, being the most 87Volatile, and Easy to be Extracted, is either by the Igneous Atomes, or the Agitation they are put into by the Fire, first carried up, till Forsaken by what carried it up, its Weight sinks it down into the Receiver : but all this while the other Principles of the Concrete Remain Unsever’d, and Require a stronger Degree of Heat to make a Separation of its more Fixt Elements ”

“ Nor is it only the fixedst of Metals, but the most fugitive, that I may employ in favour of our Proposition : for Quicksilver will with divers Metals compose an Amalgam, with divers Menstruums it seems to be turn’d into a Liquor, with Aqua fortis will be brought into either a red or white Powder or precipitate, with Oyl of Vitriol into a pale Yellow one, with Sulphur it will compose a blood-red and volatile Cinaber, with some Saline Bodies it will ascend in form of a Salt which will be dissoluble in water ”

“ And I have also Observ’d, that some kind of Fire-stone it Self, having been employ’d in Furnaces wherein it was expos’d to very strong and lasting Fires, has had all its Fixt Parts so Wrought on by the Fire, as to be Perfectly Vitrifi’d, which I have try’d by Forcing from it Pretty large Pieces of Perfect and Transparent Glass. And lest You might think, Eleutherius, that the Question’d Definition of Heat may be Demonstrated, by the Definition which is wont to be given and Acquiesc’d in, of its contrary Quality, Cold, whose property is taught to be tam Homogenea, quam Heterogenea congregare ”

“ And, besides Camphire, there are divers other Bodies ( that I elsewhere name ) in which the heat in close Vessels is not wont to make any separation of Heterogeneities, but only a comminution of Parts, those that rise first being Homogeneal with the others, though subdivided into smaller Particles : whence Sublimations have been stiled, The Pestles of the Chymists. But not here 51to mention what I elsewhere take notice of, concerning common Brimstone once or twice sublim’d, that expos’d to a moderate Fire in Subliming-Pots, it rises all into dry, and almost tastless, Flowers ”

“ And that there does also intervene a various local Motion of such small Bodies, will scarce be denied ; whether we chuse to grant the Origine of Concretions assign’d by Epicurus, or that related by Moses. For the first, as you well know, supposes not only all 38mixt Bodies, but all others to be produc’d by the various and casual occursions of Atomes, moving themselves to and fro by an internal Principle in the Immense or rather Infinite Vacuum. ”

“ For besides that which happens in the Generation, Corruption, Nutrition, and wasting of Bodies, that which we discover partly by our Microscopes of the extream littlenesse of even the scarce sensible parts of Concretes ; and partly by the Chymical Resolutions of mixt Bodies, and by divers other Operations of Spagyrical Fires upon them, seems sufficiently to manifest their consisting of parts very minute and of differing Figures. ”

“ I might add to these Instances, that whereas Sublimate, consisting, as you know, of Salts & Quicksilver combin’d and carried up together by Heat, may be Sublim’d, I know not how often, by a like degree of Fire, without suffering any divorce of the component Bodies, the Mercury may be ea72sily sever’d from the adhering Salts, if the Sublimate be distill’d from Salt of Tartar, Quick Lime, or such Alcalizate Bodies. But I will rather observe to you, Eleutherius, what divers ingenious men have thought somewhat strange ”

“ And that the Fire doth oftentimes divide Bodies, upon the account that some 89of their Parts are more Fixt, and some more Volatile, how far soever either of these Two may be from a pure Elementary Nature is Obvious enough, if Men would but heed it in the Burning of Wood, which the Fire Dissipates into Smoake and Ashes : For not only the latter of these is Confessedly made up of two such Differing Bodies as Earth and Salt ”

“ For we see for Instance that in the Urine of 94Healthy Men, when the Liquor has been Suffer’d a while to stand, the Cold makes a Separation of the Thinner Part from the Grosser, which Subsides to the Bottom, and Growes Opacous there ”