Physicians From France

"Sir,—Wishing a few days since, to calcine some tin, I weighed out two pounds six ounces of the finest sort, from England, put it into an iron vessel fitted to an open furnace, and keeping it continually stirred over a strong fire, without adding any thing, I converted it in six hours, into a very white . I weighed it to ascertain the loss, and found there were two pounds thirteen ounces of it. This occasioned me incredible astonishment, not being able to imagine, from whence the seven ounces of increase could be derived. I made the same trial with lead, of which I calcined six pounds, but in this I found a loss of six ounces. I have inquired the cause of many learned men, particularly of Dr. N. but no one has been able to declare it."

"Your ingenuity which, when it pleases, soars beyond the common flight, when it pleases, will here find matter of occupation, and I beseech you most earnestly to inquire into the cause of so rare an effect, and so far to oblige me that, by your means, I may be enlightened in regard to this miracle."

"The eleventh of Rey's essays... argues... air may be distilled a thickened air being left as residue."

"The sixteenth essay... he writes, "...this increase of weight comes from the air thickened and made heavy and in some degree rendered adhesive in the vessel by the violent and long continued heat of the furnace, ...""

"Ignorance of the history of science is the cause why we frequently look back with a kind of contempt also on the second period of chemistry, namely, the phlogistic period, and regard it as insignificant. Our self-esteem deems it inconceivable that the experiments of John Rey, on the increase of weight in metals during the operation called calcination, remained unregarded; and that, while these experiments existed, the idea of phlogiston could be developed and obtain a footing. But all the efforts of that age were directed to the arrangement of that which was ascertained, and which waited only for arrangement. Rey's observations had no influence whatever on that period, because they were not yet brought into connection with the process of combustion generally; for there were many bodies which, by combustion, became lighter, or disappeared to the senses. The object of the labours of Becker and Stahl and their followers was the discovery of these phenomena which belonged to the same class and were produced by the same cause."

"The train of reasoning which induced him to propound the theory... may be stated... Air has weight; air most nearly approaches the nature of a liquid, and may therefore be supposed to act like one; liquids may, by the action of heat, be caused to separate into a heavier and a lighter part; therefore air may, by the action of heat, be caused to separate into a heavier and a lighter part; the heavier part approaches more nearly to the nature of a liquid than air; it is the "dregs" of air, and it has changed its fluidity for a "viscid grossness;" this matter attaches itself to the ashes of bodies during calcination as water attaches itself to sand, and renders such of them as possess much ash heavier than they were before calcination."

"The great merit of Rey was, that he regarded air in the light of a ponderable liquid; that which holds good for a liquid, he assumed, holds equally good for air. He thus became able to grapple with an intangible body, and to reason on that which had hitherto from its subtlety eluded the grasp of the philosophers of all previous ages."

"Rey's theory was, indeed, fallacious; still, it was a great step in advance of all that had been done in former ages; there is impressed upon it a stamp of a great and energetic intellect. We must not judge of it by what has been done since; we must think of what was done before; we must think of it as the work of a man removed from a great centre of learning; from the converse of scientific men; from every external source of knowledge; compelled to work alone, to think alone. Let it be remembered, moreover, that experimental science had not yet left its cradle; middle age superstition was still very rife; philosophy founded on reasoning had not given way to philosophy founded on experiment; the syllogism had not yielded its place to induction; the Church was still dominant—still condemned all that was contrary to the philosophy of Aristotle, and thus cramped and curbed the human intellect; the "Novum Organum" had but just appeared; and the "Dialoghi" of Galileo were as yet unknown to the world."

"Plants too ought to become heavy by death, the celestial heat being expelled: but the contrary is evident to all. As to the increased weight of animals by death, the true cause, far remote from that which increases the weight of lead when calcined, is this: in the living animal its natural heat subtilizes, dilates, and augments the dimensions of the humours, the flesh, and every thing in it capable of dilatation—but losing this heat by death, the whole on this becoming cold, contracts and diminishes, whence the increase of weight, as I have often said already. What is there like this in lead?"

"The claims of Rey have never been sufficiently acknowledged. Let all honor be given to him; science ought to venerate such a man—a true philosopher, working for her, and loving her for herself alone."

"Moreover, all the world is agreed, that from death to life there is no return. Yet the chemists assure us, if we moisten the calx of lead, and mix it with water in which samphire (salicot) has been dissolved, then, having dried it, put it in a crucible with a small vent, and heat strongly and quickly, that we shall reduce it to its original state."

"Thus the opinion of Cardan appears so frivolous, that I am grieved that a great man, and one who is justly esteemed by all the world, should have lately declared to me that he inclines towards it."

"In the year 1629, Brun, an apothecary residing in the town of Bergerac, in France, melted two pounds six ounces of tin, and in six hours, the whole was converted into a calx, which weighed seven ounces more than the tin employed. Brun astonished at this circumstance, (for it was not then known that metals experienced an encrease of weight during their calcination,) communicated it to John Rey, a physician of Perigord, who, in 1630, published a tract upon the subject, in which he justly refers the encrease of weight to the absorption of air. "Thus," says Rey, in the fanciful language of the period, "have I succeeded in liberating this surprising truth from the dark dungeons of obscurity; which was vainly, but laboriously, sought after by Cardan, Scaliger, [Augustus Henricus] Faschius [or Augustin Heinrich Fasch], Cœsalpinus, and Libavius. Others may search for it, but in vain, unless they pursue the royal road which I have cleared. The labour has been mine—the profit is the reader's—the glory is from above!""

"On this account I have been obliged to shew, that air is possessed of weight; that it is proved by other investigation than that of the balance; and that even by that instrument, a portion previously altered and thickened, may make its weight manifest."

"I have now made the preparation; laid as it were the foundations of my answer to the Sieur Burn's [or Brun's] demand; namely, that having put two pounds six ounces of fine English tin into an iron vessel, and heated it strongly on an open fire for six hours, stirring it continually, without having added anything, he obtained two pounds thirteen ounces of a white ; which at first occasioned him great surprise, and the desire to ascertain whence these seven ounces of increase were derived."

"[T]wo ingots one... of gold, and the other of iron, which appear by the balance to be equal, are nevertheless not so—for the iron is as much heavier than the gold, according to reason, as the air which it displaces is heavier than that displaced by the gold..."

"[W]e must not only inquire whence these seven ounces are derived, but, moreover, whence that which has replaced the loss of weight, necessarily arising from the enlargement of volume of the tin, by its conversion into calx, and from the vapours and exhalations that have escaped."

"Cardan is the first, who in his fifth book, De Subtilitate, says, that , by conversion into ceruse, or by , gains one-thirteenth part in weight, and gives this reason for it—The lead dies, for the celestial heart, which was its soul, vanishes; whose presence gives it life, and renders it light; as its absence occasions its death, and makes it heavy."

"I answer, and proudly maintain, "That this increase of weight comes from the air, thickened and made heavy, and in some measure rendered adhesive in the vessel by the violent and long—continued heat of the furnace—which air mixes with the calx (its union being assisted by the continual stirring), and attaches itself to its smallest particles—no otherwise than as water, when sand is thrown into it, makes it heavier by moistening it, and adhering to its smallest grains.""

"I imagine there are many persons who would have been startled (effarouchées) at the mere statement of this answer, had I given it in the outset, that will now receive it willingly, being, as I may say, tamed (apprivoisées) and rendered tractable, by the evident truth of the preceding essays. For doubtless they whose minds were preoccupied with the opinion that air is absolutely light, would have rushed to the encounter, exclaiming, Why do we not extract heat from cold, white from black, light from darkness, if from air, a thing absolutely light, we can extract so much weight? And they, who might have given credit to the weight of air, would have been unable to persuade themselves, that it could ever increase the weight of a substance balanced in itself."

"[N]othing gains weight but by the addition of matter, nor loses it but by its subtraction—so inseparably are matter and weight united, as has been shewn above in the sixth essay."

"This opinion is defective, to say no worse of it, in many respects. First, in attributing life to lead. Secondly, in supposing that the presence of the celestial heat makes it light, and its absence heavy. Thirdly, because it assigns the same reason for the increased weight of lead by calcination, and of animals by death. There is nothing of the kind. For as to life, how can lead possess it, since it is a homogeneous body, without difference of parts, without organs, and without any vital effect or action? If it move downwards, so does ceruse, which is only its corpse; if it be cooling (rafraischit), so is ceruse. Then how could it preserve this life, under a million of forms, that it may be made to assume and to cast off, yet always continuing to be lead? How, in the furnace (which would be a much greater wonder), where it may be kept in fusion a day, a month, or a whole year? It must have a very tenacious soul to undergo so much without being dislodged!"

"With regard to the celestial heat making bodies light, Scaliger very properly objects that the heavens, which abound in this heat, as being the source of it, must be light (feut leger) and consequently univocal (univoque) with the other bodies, which is absurd."

"Neither can the loss of this heat render them heavy, for I have already proved that nothing increases in weight but by the addition of matter, or by diminution of volume; but here there is nothing of the kind; so that the disappearance of the heat cannot add any thing, and as to its bulk, it is visibly enlarged; the compact and solid substance of the lead being reduced (amenuisée) to so many small parcels, that their number is almost infinite."

"Having thus vanished levity, and its upward motion, from all the boundaries of nature, we aver anew, that the elements of air and fire, which alone come into the dispute, are endowed with gravity."

"Sir, I did not know about the book of John Rey until after I published through your Journal, the second part of my experiments on mercurial lime. So I could not talk about it in the very brief enumeration that I then made of the different opinions on the cause of the increase in gravity of metallic lime. My fault, however involuntary it may have been, must be repaired and, in order to do so, I hasten to do justice to an Author who, by the depth of his speculations, has succeeded in pointing out the real cause of this increase. Might you, Sir, work with me to make known the excellent work of Jean Rey? Your Journal is read throughout France and is recognized in foreign countries. If you wanted to insert the attached leaflet into it, chemists in all countries would know in a short time that it was a Frenchman who, by the force of his genius and his reflections, was the first to guess the cause of the increase in weight which certain metals undergo when, on exposing them to the action of fire, they are converted into lime, and that this cause is precisely the same as that the truth of which has just been demonstrated by the experiments which M. Lavoisier has read at the last public meeting of the Academy of Sciences."

"But if we investigate the subject by the balance, a case occurs in which, without any addition or subtraction of matter, a substance will appear more or less heavy; namely, by its contraction or expansion."

"The re-print contains an Avertissement, parts of which I have thought worth inserting, as well as a letter of M. Bayen to the Abbé Rozier.—The first gives a short account of Rey, and mentions some facts which shew his work to have been well known and highly esteemed by Professor [Jakob Reinbold] Spielman of Strasbourg, as late as the year 1766, and to have been honourably spoken of by M. de Bordeu, circumstances which make Lavoisier's ignorance of its existence still more extraordinary."

"The chemists furnish us with a pretty representation of this, by taking pulverized black enamel, liquor of tartar, brandy tinged blue with litmus, and spirit of turpentine reddened by alkanet, and shaking the whole together in a phial, till it forms one confused mixture. The vessel being then left at rest, it is pleasant to see the clearing off of the confusion. The enamel gains the lowest station, representing earth; the liquor of tartar settles close by it, representing water; the brandy, like the air, occupies the third place; and spirit of turpentine, to shew the nature of fire, arranges itself above them all. All this is effected by the influence of weight, according as it is largely or sparingly distributed amongst these bodies. In the same manner the elements acknowledge no other cause that arranges and disposes each in its proper place, it being needless to introduce levity, which our predecessors vainly devised for that purpose."

"Now casting a look on all that moves, I see nothing that ascends by its own proper motion. Water, indeed, rises in a glass, if we throw earth into it; but all will allow, that it is not from any levity that is in the water, but rather, that the earth, by falling to the bottom, makes the water ascend. Now, if water does not acknowledge levity as the cause of this motion upwards, why should air confess it, which ascends in like manner when pressed on by water? Why fire, which does the same? It will be said, I doubt not, that if the upward motion of the elements be not natural to them, it must be violent; whence this absurdity follows, that each obtains its place in the universe by force. To this I answer, that the elements not having the cause of these motions in themselves, they may, so far, be called violent; but that this violence is gentle, and nowise ruinous."

"Hammer a piece of cold iron for a considerable time; you will unite its parts and diminish its bulk, and then it will appear heavier when put into the balance."

"This he confirms by the example of animals, which become heavier after death, from the extinction of the celestial heat, the soul, (as he thinks), both of animals and all other mixed and compound bodies."

"The original edition of Rey's Essays, of which there is a copy in the library of the , was published at , a town about thirty miles S.E. of , in the year 1630. In 1777, it was reprinted with notes, by M. Gobet, at Paris, and published by Ruault, Rue-de-la-Harpe. The copies of this reprint disappeared in a very sudden and remarkable manner, and the work was so little known in this country, that Doctor James Curry, at the sale of whose library, in 1820, I purchased a copy of it, states in a note at the beginning of the work, apparently in his own hand-writing, that he had sought it, in vain, for more than ten years, in every bookseller's catalogue in London, till, at last, the present copy rewarded his trouble, and he adds, that he had seen but one other copy since. The suppression of this edition, almost immediately after its publication, which took place in about three years from the promulgation of Lavoisier's first experiments would naturally lead to the suspicion, that it was effected by that celebrated philosopher or his friends, to avoid the imputation of plagiarism, which might sully the brilliancy of his recent discoveries, and this imputation is, in the opinion of many, but too probable."

"We will not paralyse the economic and social life of the country. When the epidemic is here, it is above all a question of organising the emergency and care systems, and ensuring the continuity of state services, without preventing citizens from living."

"Bouvart went to see one of the lords of the old Court, who was seriously ill for a fortnight. As he entered, Good day, Mr. Bouvart, said the patient. I am happy to see you. I feel much better; I think I no longer have a fever. Look! — I am certain of it, says the doctor; I noticed it at your first word. — How is that? — Oh! Nothing simpler. In the first days of your illness, and as long as you were in danger, I was your dear friend; you called me nothing else. The last time, when you were somewhat better, I was just your dear Bouvart. Today, I am Mr. Bouvard. It is clear that you are cured."

"We know that, in Paris, fashion imposes its dictates on medicine just as it does with everything else. Well, at one time, pyramidal elm bark had a great reputation; it was taken as a powder, as an extract, as an elixir, even in baths. It was good for the nerves, the chest, the stomach — what can I say? — it was a true panacea. At the peak of the fad, one of Bouvard’s [sic] patients asked him if it might not be a good idea to take some: "Take it, Madame", he replied, "and hurry up while it [still] cures." [dépêchez-vous pendant qu’elle guérit]"

"Mr. *** was being tried for a dishonorable matter; he got sick, and died. Bouvard [sic] was his doctor, and said: I got him off the hook. It was said of the same person: He is truly sick, he can't take any more [presumably medicine]."

"It is said that he replied to Cardinal ***, a not very regular prelate (some say Abbot Terray), who was complaining of suffering like a damned person: "What! Already, monseigneur?" In my opinion, he might well have said this about one of his patients, but not to his face; manners would not allow that."

"Religion as a whole is but a form of loyalty to the interests of English property."

"There is no compulsion for man to accept the truth. But it is certainly a shame upon the human intellect when man is not even interested in finding out as to what is the truth! Islam teaches that Go"

"Why should we be surprised at this when we know that, for Islam, religion and science have always been considered the twin sisters? From the very beginning Islam directed people to cultivate science; the application of this precept brought with it the prodigious strides in science taken during the great era of Islamic civilization, from which, before the Renaissance, the West itself benefited."

"I wanted to make it quite clear in the very beginning that even before I learnt the first letter of Bismillah, I was convinced that God was unique and all- powerful and when God guided me to undertake a study of the Quran, my inner soul cried out that Al- Quran was the Word of God revealed to his Last Prophet Mohammed (S.A.W.). In my book "Quran, Bible and Science," I have mentioned these facts and the book has met with instant success in the entire Christian world. In this book I have devoted myself to discuss all problems from purely academic angle, rather than that of faith or belief which would have revealed only my personal convictions. This was because I desired to be treated by the world as an academician rather than a theologian. About my faith and belief, God knows what is in one's heart. I am convinced that if I identify myself with any creed, people will invariably dub me as one belonging to such and such group and feel that whatever I say or do, I do so from only the angle of such and such creed group. I know my fellow beings very well and understand their mentality only too well. I wanted to assure them that all my pronouncements are based on scientific knowledge and not on any religious dogmas. https://islamicbulletin.org/en/newsletters/IB_6/10/index.html"

"Thus the human element in the Old Testament is seen to be quite considerable. It is not difficult to understand why from version to version, and translation to translation, with all the corrections inevitably resulting, it was possible for the original text to have been transformed during the course of more than two thousand years."

"[After commenting disapprovingly on 'strange' Hindu beliefs and rituals regarding eclipses, Bernier remarks:] The Great Mogol, though a Mahometan, permits these ancient and superstitious practices; not wishing, or not daring, to disturb the Gentiles in the free exercises of their religion."

"Begum Sahib, the elder daughter of Shah Jahan was very handsome... Rumour has it that his attachment reached a point which it is difficult to believe, the justification of which he rested on the decision of the Mullas, or doctors of their law. According to them it would have been unjust to deny the king the privilege of gathering fruit from the tree he himself had planted."

"They [the Mughals] do not, indeed, forbid it (') by a positive law, because it is a part of their policy to leave the idolatrous population, which is so much more numerous than their own, in the free exercise of its religion ; but the practice is checked by indirect means."

"The unfortunate peasants who were incapable of discharging the demand of their rapacious lords, were bereft of their children who were carried away as slaves."

"Bernier says that the Rajput “Rajas never mount (guard) within a (Mughal) fortress, but invariably without the walls, under their own tents… and always refusing to enter any fortress unless well attended, and by men determined to sacrifice their lives for their leaders. This self devotion has been sufficiently proved when attempts have been made to deal treacherously with a Raja.”"

"…grandees pay for a work of art considerably under its value, and according to their own caprice. … When an Omrah or Mansabdar requires the services of an artisan, he sends to the bazar for him, employing force, if necessary, to make the poor man work; and after the task is finished, the unfeeling lord pays, not according to the value- of the labour, but agreeably to his own standard of fair remuneration; the artisan having reason to congratulate himself if the Korrah has not been given in part payment."

"Writing about one or two of Jahan Ara’s amorous affairs, Bernier observes: ‘(I write because) Love adventures are not attended with the same danger in Europe as in Asia. In France they excite only merriment; they create a laugh, and are forgotten; but in this part of the world, few are the instances in which they are not followed by some dreadful and tragical catastrophe.’”"