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 contriv’d Vessels.
But of these Experiments our Friend (sayes Carneades, pointing at the Register of this Dialogue) will perhaps give You a more Particular Account then it is necessary for me to do: Since what I have now said may sufficiently evince, that the Fire may sometimes as well alter Bodies as divide them, and by it we may obtain from a Mixt Body what was not Pre-existent in it.
And how are we sure that in no other Body what we call Phlegme is barely separated, not Produc’d by the Action of the Fire: Since so many other Mixt Bodies are of a much less Constant, and more alterable Nature, then Mercury, by many Tricks it is wont to put upon Chymists, and by the Experiments I told You of, about an hour since, Appears to be.
Pero como dentro de poco tendré ocasión de volver a considerar el poder del fuego para producir nuevos cuerpos concretos, no insistiré más en este argumento por ahora; solo debo recordarle que, si no quiere dejar de creer en los relatos de Helmont, debe confesar que los Tria Prima no son sustancias ni inengendrables ni incorruptibles; ya que mediante su Alkahest algunas de ellas pueden producirse a partir de cuerpos que antes eran de otra denominación; y mediante el mismo y poderoso menstruo todas ellas pueden reducirse a agua insípida.