have occasion to declare anon) of a Terrestriall Substance, of a
Metal, and also of at least one Saline Body, of a peculiar and not
Elementary Nature. And we see also in Animals, that their blood may
be compos'd of Divers very Differing Mixt Bodies, since we find it
observ'd that divers Sea-Fowle tast rank of the Fish on which they
ordinarily feed; and _Hipocrates_ himself Observes, that a Child may
be purg'd by the Milke of the Nurse, if she have taken _Elaterium_;
which argues that the purging Corpuscles of the Medicament Concurr to
make up the Milke of the Nurse; and that white Liquor is generally by
Physitians suppos'd to be but blanch'd and alter'd Blood. And I
remember I have observ'd, not farr from the _Alps_, that at a certain
time of the Year the Butter of that Country was very Offensive to
strangers, by reason of the rank tast of a certain Herb, whereon the
Cows were then wont plentifully to feed. But (proceeds _Carneades_) to
give you Instances of another kind, to shew that things may be
obtain'd by the Fire from a Mixt Body that were not Pre-existent in
it, let Me Remind You, that from many Vegetables there may without any
Addition be Obtain'd Glass, a Body, which I presume You will not say
was Pre-existent in it, but produc'd by the Fire. To which I shall
add but this one Example more, namely that by a certain Artificial way
of handling Quicksilver, You may without Addition separate from it at
least a 5th. or 4th. part of a clear Liquor, which with an Ordinary
Peripatetick would pass for Water, and which a Vulgar Chymist would
not scruple to call Phlegme, and which, for ought I have yet seen or
heard, is not reducible into Mercury again, and Consequently is more
then a Disguise of it. Now besides that divers Chymists will not allow
Mercury to have any or at least any Considerable Quantity of either of
the Ignoble Ingredients, Earth and Water; Besides this, I say, the
great Ponderousness of Quicksilver makes it very unlikely that it can
have so much Water in it as may be thus obtain'd from it, since
Mercury weighs 12 or 14 times as much as water of the same Bulk. Nay
for a further Confirmation of this Argument, I will add this Strange
Relation, that two Friends of mine, the one a Physitian, and the other
a Mathematician, and both of them Persons of unsuspected Credit, have
Solemnly assured me, that after many Tryals they made, to reduce
Mercury into Water, in Order to a Philosophicall Work, upon Gold
(which yet, by the way, I know prov'd Unsuccesfull) they did once by
divers Cohobations reduce a pound of Quicksilver into almost a pound
of Water, and this without the Addition of any other Substance, but
only by pressing the Mercury by a Skillfully Manag'd Fire in purposely
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