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
80