SOME
EXPERIMENTS
CONCERNING
MERCURY.
[Price One Shilling.]
SOME
EXPERIMENTS
CONCERNING
MERCURY.
By J. H. Boerhaave, Professor
of Physick at Leyden.
Translated from the Latin, communicated by the
Author to the ROYAL SOCIETY.
LONDON:
Printed for J. Roberts, near the Oxford-Arms,
in Warwick-Lane. Mdccxxxiv.
They who by Experimentshave most diligently enquiredinto the Origin ofBodies, and their peculiarPowers and Properties,are the only Men who have discoveredsure Methods of acquiring a[6]true Knowledge of these Things:And whenever the Lovers of naturalKnowledge enumerate the Instrumentsof this Science, they universallyagree that Chemistry has donethe greatest Service, in most industriouslypromoting such Discoveries:And when they come carefully toexamine the most celebrated Writersin this Art, they plainly perceive, thatthe most ancient Alchemists far surpassedthe rest in their Accounts ofthe Nature of Things. Of this Geberis an Instance, and the Writers nearestto him; for they are content to describe,in the plainest manner, suchThings only as they had discoveredby their Art; to improve which wastheir great Application, having noother Design in view. And indeedno other Men whatever have so strictlyand obstinately labour’d in the Searchafter natural Things, or have takensuch great Pains to turn Matter, thro’all the various Modes of Enquiry, as[7]the Alchemists. This is what willbe readily granted by all those whoread the Hermetic Writers, when theyopenly relate common Discoveries:But, on the contrary, when these Writerstreat of the Grand Arcanum (orSecret of the Wise) they are accusedof making a bad Use of their Knowledge,out of a Desire to conceal it,as if they intended, on that Occasion,n