conclude that the Sulphur and Mercury, as they call them, that
Chymists are wont to obtain from compound Bodies by the Fire, may
possibly in many Cases be the productions of it; since if the same
bodies had been wrought upon by the Agents employ'd by _Helmont_, they
would have yielded neither Sulphur nor Mercury; and those portions of
them which the Fire would have presented Us in the forme of
Sulphureous and Mercurial Bodies would have, by _Helmonts_ method,
been exhibited to us in the form of Salt.
But though (sayes _Eleutherius_) You have alledg'd very plausible
Arguments against the _tria Prima_, yet I see not how it will be
possible for you to avoid acknowledging that Earth and Water are
Elementary Ingredients, though not of Mineral Concretes, yet of all
Animal and Vegetable Bodies; Since if any of these of what sort soever
be committed to Distillation, there is regularly and constantly
separated from it a phlegme or aqueous part and a _Caput Mortuum_ or
Earth.
I readily acknowledged (answers _Carneades_) it is not so easy to
reject Water and Earth (and especially the former) as 'tis to reject
the _Tria Prima_, from being the Elements of mixt Bodies; but 'tis not
every difficult thing that is impossible.
I consider then, as to Water, that the chief Qualities which make men
give that name to any visible Substance, are, that it is Fluid or
Liquid, and that it is insipid and inodorous. Now as for the tast of
these qualities, I think you have never seen any of those separated
substances that the Chymists call Phlegme which was perfectly devoyd
both of Tast and Smell: and if you object, that yet it may be
reasonably suppos'd, that since the whole Body is Liquid, the mass is
nothing but Elementary Water faintly imbu'd with some of the Saline or
Sulphureous parts of the same Concrete, which it retain'd with it
upon its Separation from the Other Ingredients. To this I answer, That
this Objection would not appear so stong [Transcriber's Note: strong]
as it is plausible, if Chymists understood the Nature of Fluidity and
Compactnesse; and that, as I formerly observ'd, to a Bodies being
Fluid there is nothing necessary, but that it be divided into parts
small enough; and that these parts be put into such a motion among
themselves as to glide some this way and some that way, along each
others Surfaces. So that, although a Concrete were never so dry, and
179