"But I will not... trouble you with what I have largely discoursed in the Sceptical Chymist, to call in question the grounds on which Chymists assert, that all mixt bodies are compounded of Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury. For it may suffice me now to tell you that, whatsoever they may be able to obtain from other bodies, it does not appear by Experience, which is the grand, if not the onely, Argument they rely on, that all mixt bodies that have Qualities consist of their tria prima, since they have not been able, that we know, truly, and without new Compositions, to resolve into those three, either Gold, or Silver, or Crystal, or Venetian Talck, or some other bodies, that I elsewhere name; & yet these bodies are endowed with divers Qualities, as the two former with Fusibleness and Malleability, and all of them with Weight and Fixity; so that in these and the like bodies, whence Chymisats have not made it yet appear, that their Salt, Sulphur and Mercury, can be truly and adequately separated, 'twill scarce be other than precarious to derive the malleableness, colour, and other Qualities of such bodies from those Principles."
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/Tria_prima
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Tria prima
34 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Tria prima →
Related Quotes
"Van Helmont adds a... criticism to the Paracelsian theory. The tria prima play no role in disease, as they cannot be …"
"Tria Prima. The three elements of the alchemists, their salt, sulphur, and mercury: the first of which appears to hav…"
"Alchemical theory was essentially static throughout the medieval period. ...Paracelsus was the herald of a new era, a…"
"Since a great part of those Learned Men, especially Physicians who have discerned the defects of the vulgar Philosoph…"
"Now a man need not be very conversant in the writings of Chymists to observe, in how Laxe, Indefinite, and almost Arb…"
"And first the Doctrine that all their Theory is grounded on, seems to me Inevident and undemonstrated, not to say pre…"
"It is somewhat strange to me, that neither the Spagyrists themselves, nor yet their Adversaries, should have taken no…"
"The doctrine of the four elements seems to have continued undisputed till the time of the alchemists. These men, bett…"
"The alchemists seem to have attached only a very indefinite meaning to the terms salt, sulphur, and mercury: since by…"
"At a still later date [post-16th century] it was argued that exact and natural sciences proceed by induction and dedu…"