The Sceptical Chymist, by Robert Boyle

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Sceptical Chymist, by Robert BoyleThis eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You maycopy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook oronline at www.gutenberg.orgTitle: The Sceptical Chymist or Chymico-Physical Doubts & Paradoxes, Touching the Spagyrist's PrinciplesCommonly call'd Hypostatical; As they are wont to be Propos'd and Defended by the Generality of Alchymists. Whereunto is præmis'd Part of another Discourse relating to the same Subject.Author: Robert Boyle

The Sceptical Chymist, by Robert Boyle1

Release Date: October 8, 2007 [eBook #22914]Language: EnglishCharacter set encoding: ISO-8859-1***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SCEPTICAL CHYMIST***E-text prepared by Robert Shimmin, Linda Cantoni, and the Project Gutenberg Online DistributedProofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net). Color title-page images were generously provided by theUniversity of Pennsylvania Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text & Image(http://dewey.library.upenn.edu/sceti).Transcriber's Notes:This e-book was prepared from a facsimile of the 1661 first edition and contains spelling, capitalization, andpunctuation inconsistencies typical of the era. These have been preserved as they appear in the original.Printer errors have also been preserved. Those mentioned in the Errata at the end of the book are noted with[Errata: corrected text]. Other obvious printer errors are noted with [Transcriber's Note: corrected text] wherethe meaning might be unclear without the correction. See also the printer's note preceding the Errata, whichcontains material omitted from the text (the place where it should be inserted is marked in the text with aTranscriber's Note).There are a number of sidenotes in this book, most of which function as footnotes (e.g., citations to otherworks) and some of which function as true sidenotes. For the sake of clarity, sidenotes functioning asfootnotes have been converted to numbered footnotes, with number markers at appropriate places in the text.A character with a macron is represented by an equal sign. E.g., [=a] indicates "a" with macron.A table of contents has been provided for the reader's convenience.THESCEPTICAL CHYMIST:ORCHYMICO-PHYSICALDoubts & Paradoxes,Touching theSPAGYRIST'S PRINCIPLESCommonly call'dHYPOSTATICAL,As they are wont to be Propos'd and Defended by the Generality of

The Sceptical Chymist, by Robert Boyle2

ALCHYMISTS.Whereunto is præmis'd Part of another Discourse relating to the same Subject.BYThe Honourable

ROBERT BOYLE

, Esq;

LONDON,

Printed by

J. Cadwell

for

J. Crooke

, and are to be Sold at the

Ship

in St.

Paul's

Church-Yard.

MDCLXI.

CONTENTSA Præface IntroductoryPhysiological ConsiderationsThe First PartThe Second PartThe Third PartThe Fourth PartThe Fifth PartThe Sixth PartThe ConclusionPrinter's NoteErrataAPRÆFACEINTRODUCTORY

To the following Treatise.To give the Reader an account, Why the following Treatise is suffer'd to pass abroad so maim'd and imperfect, I must inform him that 'tis now long since, that to gratify an ingenious Gentleman, I set down some of the Reasons that kept me from fully acquiescing either in the Peripatetical, or in the Chymical Doctrine, of the Material Principles of mixt Bodies. This Discourse some years after falling into the hands of some Learned men, had the good luck to be so favourably receiv'd, and advantageously spoken of by them, that having had more then ordinary Invitations given me to make it publick, I thought fit to review it, that I might retrench