and encrease by converting into their own Nature one part of the Earth thereunto dispos’d; they were solid and heavy. And by this truly Demonstrative Science, namely Chymistry, I found that they were compos’d of much Salt, little Sulphur, and less Mercury.*
But (sayes Carneades) I have some Suspitions concerning this strange Relation, which make me unwilling to Declare an Opinion of it, unless I were satisfied concerning divers Material Circumstances that our Author has left unmentioned; though as for the Generation of Living Creatures, both Vegetable and Sensitive, it needs not seem Incredible, since we finde that our common water (which indeed is often Impregnated with Variety of Seminal Principles and Rudiments) being long kept in a quiet place will putrifie and stink, and then perhaps too produce Moss and little Worms, or other Insects, according to the nature of the Seeds that were lurking in it. I must likewise desire you to take Notice, that as Helmont gives us no Instance of the Production of Minerals out of Water, so the main Argument that he employ’s to prove that they and other Bodies may be resolv’d into water, is drawn from the Operations of his Alkahest, and consequently cannot be satisfactorily Examin’d by You and Me.
Yet certainly (sayes Eleutherius) You cannot but have somewhat wonder’d as well as I, to observe how great a share of Water goes to the making up of Divers Bodies, whose Disguises promise nothing neere so much. The Distillation of Eeles, though it yielded me some Oyle, and Spirit, and Volatile Salt, besides the Caput mortuum, yet were all these so disproportionate to the Phlegm that came from them (and in which at first they boyl’d as in a Pot of Water) that they seem’d to have bin nothing but coagulated Phlegm, which does likewise strangely abound in Vipers, though they are esteem’d very hot in Operation, and will in a Convenient Aire survive some dayes the loss of their Heads and Hearts, so vigorous is their Vivacity. Mans Bloud it self as Spirituous, and as Elaborate a Liquor as ’tis reputed, does so abound in Phlegm, that, the other Day, Distilling some of