"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!""
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Sholto & Reuben Percy, The Percy Anecdotes (1823) Vol. VI. Science and Literature, "Calcination" p. 65.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Rey
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John Rey
1583 – 1645
John Rey (1583–1645) (or, in French) Jean Rey, was a physician of , France who in 1630 published a tract on , or of metals, after being notified by Brun, an apothecary of Bergerac, France, of Brun's experiments (as early as 1629) on the calcination of tin. Brun had melted 2 pounds six ounces of tin, and after 6 hours the resulting calx weighed seven ounces more than the original tin. More than one hundred and forty years before Antoine Lavoisier, John Rey recognized that in the calcination of le
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