"The most general and most probable opinion is, that as only one kind of fire, of air, and of water, so only one kind of simple elementary earth, exists. Alchemists chiefly have endeavoured to discover this primary earth, not with an intention to ascertain its properties, but because they imagined that as gold is the purest of metals, the earth of which it is partly composed must be also the most pure; they have, therefore, searched every where for this earth, which they call pure earth and virgin earth. They have endeavoured to obtain it from dew, rain, the air, ashes of vegetables, animals, and several minerals: but it was impossible to find it in compound bodies; for we shall see that when once this element makes part of a compound body, it cannot be disengaged from the substances with which it has united."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Earth_(historical_chemistry)
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Earth (historical chemistry)
50 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Earth (historical chemistry) →
Related Quotes
"Pliny recorded processes involving metals, salts, , glass, mortar, soot, ash, and a large variety of s, earths, and s…"
"The Earths are white, inodorous, tasteless, and uninflammable substances—non-conductors of electricity, insoluble in …"
"What made silica so interesting was that... it did not seem to follow the established rules of chemical combination. …"
"Earth is one of the four simple substances called elements, or primitive principles; because they are indeed the most…"
"These general considerations are sufficient to convince us, that in nature a substance exists whose properties are di…"
"Earth is not found so pure as the other elements, fire, air, and water, which, though not entirely free from mixture,…"
"But we cannot say the same of earth; for a considerable number of substances are called earths, because they possess …"
"Some of the best philosophical chemists have rather chose to admit different kinds of elementary earths, than to inve…"
"Mr. Pott, examining the principal natural earths, divides them into four kinds, the vitrifiable, the , the argillaceo…"
"By 3000 BCE the Sumerians, perhaps while heating copper to make it more malleable, had discovered that more copper co…"