The Sceptical Chymist Part 8

_FINIS._

The Authors constant Absence from the Presse, whilst the former Treatise was Printing, and the Nature of the Subject it self, wherewith ordinary Composers are not wont to be at all acquainted, will, 'tis hop'd, procure the Readers Excuse, till the next Edition, if the _Errata_ be somewhat numerous, and if among them there want not some grosser mistakes, which yet are not the only Blemishes these lines must take notice of and acknowledg; For the Author now perceives that through the fault of those to whom he had committed the former Treatise in loose Sheets, some Papers that belonged to it, have altogether miscarryed. And though it have luckily enough happen'd, for the most part, that the Omission of them does not marr the Cohaerence of the rest; yet till the next design'd Edition afford an _opportunity_ of inserting them, it is thought fit that the Printer give notice of one Omission at the End of the first Dialogue; and that to these _Errata_ there be annex'd the ensuing sheet of Paper, that was casually lost, or forgotten by him that should have put it into the Presse; where it ought to have been inserted, in the 187. printed Page, at the break, betwixt the words, [_Nature_] in the 13th. line, and [_But_] in the next line after. Though it is to be noted here, that by the mistake of the Printer, in some Books, the number of 187 is placed at the top of two somewhat distant pages; and in such copies the following addition ought to be inserted in the latter of the two, as followeth.

And on this occasion I cannot but take notice, that whereas the great Argument which the Chymists are wont to employ to vilify Earth and Water, and make them be look'd upon as useless and unworthy to be reckon'd among the Principles of Mixt Bodies, is, that they are not endow'd with Specifick Properties, but only with Elementary qualities; of which they use to speak very sleightingly, as of qualities contemptible and unactive: I see no sufficient Reason for this Practice of the Chymists: For 'tis confess'd that Heat is an Elementary Quality, and yet that an almost innumerable company of considerable Things are perform'd by Heat, is manifest to them that duly consider the various _Phaenomena_ wherein it intervenes as a princ.i.p.all Actor; and none ought less to ignore or distrust this Truth then a Chymist. Since almost all the operations and Productions of his Art are performed chiefly by the means of Heat. And as for Cold it self, upon whose account they so despise the Earth and Water, if they please to read in the Voyages of our English and Dutch Navigators in _Nova Zembla_ and other Northern Regions what stupendious Things may be effected by Cold, they would not perhaps think it so despicable. And not to repeat what I lately recited to You out of _Paracelsus_ himself, who by the help of an intense Cold teaches to separate the Quintessence of Wine; I will only now observe to You, that the Conservation of the Texture of many Bodies both animate and inanimate do's so much depend upon the convenient motion both of their own Fluid and Looser Parts, and of the ambient Bodies, whether Air, Water, &c. that not only in humane Bodies we see that the immoderate or unseasonable coldness of the Air (especially when it finds such Bodies overheated) do's very frequently discompose the _Oeconomie_ of them, and occasion variety of Diseases; but in the solid and durable Body of Iron it self, in which one would not expect that suddain Cold should produce any notable change, it may have so great an operation, that if you take a Wire, or other slender piece of steel, and having brought it in the fire to a white heat, You suffer it afterwards to cool leasurely in the Air, it will when it is cold be much of the same hardnesse it was of before: Whereas if as soon as You remove it from the fire, you plunge it into cold water, it will upon the sudden Refrigeration acquire a very much greater hardness then it had before; Nay, and will become manifestly brittle. And that you may not impute this to any peculiar Quality in the Water, or other Liquor, or Unctuous matter, wherein such heated steel is wont to be quenched that it may be temper'd; I know a very skillful Tradesman, that divers times hardens steel by suddenly cooling it in a Body that is neither a liquor, nor so much as moist. A tryal of that Nature I remember I have seen made. And however by the operation that Water has upon steel quenched in it, whether upon the Account of its coldness and moisture, or upon that of any other of its qualities, it appears, that water is not alwaies so inefficacious and contemptible a Body, as our Chymists would have it pa.s.se for. And what I have said of the Efficacy of Cold and Heat, might perhaps be easily enough carried further by other considerations and experiments; were it not that having been mention'd only upon the Bye, I must not insist on it, but proceed to another Subject.

_ERRATA._

Pag. 5. line. 6. read _so qualify'd_, 15. 19. _Ratiocinations_, 25.

15. _for a_, 33. 17. in a parenth. (_that is no more_), 51. 24.

_besides another Caput_, 79. 10. _employ_, 86. 13. _structure_, 97.

13. _Sack_, ibid. 22. _Sack_, 104. 29. instead of _appear it, will_, leg. _appear, it will_, 118. 20. _leasure_, ibid. _princ.i.p.al_, 126.

20. _and till it suffer_, 129. 3. leg. in parenth. (_notwithstanding, &c._ 131. 15. _so_, 144. 15. [Greek: Synchysis], 151. 5. _nor have been resolved_, 180. 25. _Magistram_, 185. 15. _lately_, 188. 15.

_tunned_, 200. 1. _intolerable_, ibid. 2. _in_, 209. 21. _tegularum_, 210. 7. _distill'd from_, 215. 25. dele _the_, 220. 1. _bodies_, 228.

11. [Transcriber's Note: 21.] _fugitive_, 231. 17. instead of _all_ lege _a pound_, 237. 6. _Chymist_, 248. 18. _Ashes off_, 251. 23.

_Deopilative)_, 259. 6. _it self_, 269. 10. [Greek: ousia a.n.a.logos], _ibid._ [Greek: astron stoicheio], 276. 25. make a parenth. at the words, _by the_, and shut it after the words in the 27. line _at all_, 280. 11. _Corals_, 288. 6. _ascribes_, 294. 22. _porosity_, ibid. 28.

_noted_, 296. 1. _Bodies_, 305. 8. _(attended_, 307. 12. dele _to_, 308. 12. _devisers_, 312. 14. _and_, 313. 3. _too_, 314. 24.

_fugitivenesse_, 333. 13. _origine_, ibid. 24. _contrivance of_, 339.

1. _Nay, Barthias_, 142. [Transcriber's Note: 342.] 3. _in; I will_, 350. 26. _absurd_, 356. 11. [Transcriber's Note: 21.] _Goutieres_, 358. 6. _antea_, 360. 1. _compertissimum_, ibid. 18. _Joachimica_, ibid. 19 _graminis_, ibid. 23. _sua_ [Transcriber's Note: this appears to be correct on the original page 360], 362. 6. _Dutch account_, 363.

2. _diggers)_, ibid. 11. and 12. lin. read _damp as the Englishmen also call it_, 366. 25. _a height_, 368. 19. _in use_, 370. 9.

_latter; And_, ibid. 24. _Water; I_, 377. 22. _Rest_, ibid. 25.

_know)_, 378. 23. after _Aggregate_ insert _or complex_, ibid. 27.

dele ), ibid. 28. dele ), 379. 4. before _as_ begin a parenth. which ends lin. 9. at _Gold_, ibid. instead of _Which_, put _This_, ibid.

12. with the word _Texture_ should be connected the next line, _Though_, and this word _Though_ is to have put before it a parenthesis, which is to end at the word _Fluid_ in the 16th. line, 383. 3. _Regulus Martis Stellatus_, 382. 3. _Relations_, ibid. 9.

_Chymist_, 386. 29. _confesse by teaching it_, 391. 8. _and yet may_, 392. 1. _an_, ibid. 12. _of_, 393. [Transcriber's Note: line 5]

_distinct Tasts_, 397. 13. _Talck_, 398. 18. _Earth_, 399. 18.

_parts_, 404. 8. _sal-petrae_, 419. 20. after _it_ put in _Sal_.

_The Publisher doth advertise the Redaer [Transcriber's Note: Reader], that seeing there are divers Experiments related in this Treatise, which the Author is not unwilling to submit to the consideration also of Forraign Philosophers, he believes this piece will be very soon translated into Latin._

END.