Earth, _or_ from the Excrements of Animalls, _or_ from the putrify'd
Bodies, either of living Creatures or Vegetables, _or_ from other
Substances of a Compounded Nature; If, I say, we consider this, it may
seem probable, that there may be among the Works of Nature (not to
mention those of Art) a greater Number of De-compound Bodies, then men
take Notice of; And indeed, as I have formerly also observ'd, it does
not at all appear, that all Mixtures must be of Elementary Bodies; but
it seems farr more probable, that there are divers sorts of compound
Bodies, even in regard of all or some of their Ingredients, consider'd
Antecedently to their Mixture. For though some seem to be made up by
the immediate Coalitions of the Elements, or Principles themselves,
and therefore may be call'd _Prima Mista_, or _Mista Primaria_; yet it
seems that many other Bodies are mingl'd (if I may so speak) at the
second hand, their immediate Ingredients being not Elementary, but
these primary Mixts newly spoken of; And from divers of these
Secondary sort of Mixts may result, by a further Composition, a Third
sort, and so onwards. Nor is it improbable, that some Bodies are made
up of Mixt Bodies, not all of the same Order, but of several; as (for
Instance) a Concrete may consist of Ingredients, whereof the one may
have been a primary, the other a Secondary Mixt Body; (as I have in
Native Cinnaber, by my way of Resolving it, found both that Courser
the [Errata: delete "the"] part that seems more properly to be Oar,
and a Combustible Sulphur, and a Running Mercury:) or perhaps without
any Ingredient of this latter sort, it may be compos'd of Mixt Bodies,
some of them of the first, and some of the third Kind; And this may
perhaps be somewhat Illustrated by reflecting upon what happens in
some Chymical Preparations of those Medicines which they call their
_Bezoardicum's_. For first, they take Antimony and Iron, which may be
look'd upon as _Prima Mista_; of these they compound a Starry
_Regulus_, and to this they add according to their Intention, either
Gold, or Silver, which makes with it a new and further Composition. To
this they add Sublimate, which is it self a De-compound body,
(consisting of common Quicksilver, and divers Salts United by
Sublimation into a Crystalline Substance) and from this Sublimate, and
the other Metalline Mixtures, they draw a Liquor, which may be allow'd
to be of a yet more Compounded Nature. If it be true, as Chymists
affirm it, that by this Art some of the Gold or Silver mingl'd with
the _Regulus_ may be carry'd over the Helme with it by the Sublimate;
as indeed a Skilfull and Candid person complain'd to me a while since,
That an experienc'd Friend of His and mine, having by such a way
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