"materia prima" of metals.'*' From this "materia 

 prima," various metals may be produced," according 

 to the particular humor and the specificating nature 

 of the place of condensation. '■' The purest condensa- 

 tion is iron: "In iron is earth in its true and genuine 

 nature.""^ In other metals, we have instead of earth, 

 "condensed and fixed salts, which are efflorescences 

 of the earth." " If the conden.sed exhalation is 

 mixed in the vein with forci;?n earths already present, 

 it forms ores that must be smelted to free the original 

 metal from dross by fire.^* If these exhalations should 

 happen to pass into the open air, instead of being 

 condensed in the earth, they may return to the earth 

 in a (meteoric) shower of iron.^' 



Gilbert was indeed wriiina; a new physiolosjv, both 

 in the ancient sense of the word and the modern. 

 The process of the formation of metals had many 

 biological overtones, for it was a kind of metallic 

 epigene.sis.^" "Within the globe are hidden the prin- 

 ciples of metals and stones, as at the earth's surface 

 are hidden the principles of herbs and plants."^ In 

 ail cases, the "spiritus" acts as semen and blood that 

 inform and feed the proper womb in the generation 

 of animals.™ "The brother uterine of iron,"*" the 

 loadstone, is formed in this manner. .Xs the embryo 

 of a certain species is the result of the specificating 

 nature of the womb in which the generic seed has 

 been placed, so the kind of metal is the result of a 

 certain humor condensing in a particular \ein in the 

 body of the earth. 



Gilbert developed this biological analogy further 

 by ascribing to metals a process of decay after reaching 



^ M: pp. 35, 36, 38, 69; sec, however, pp. 42 43: "Iron ore, 

 therefore, as also manufactured iron. Is a metal slightly different 

 from the homogenic telluric body because of the metallic 

 humor it has imbibed . . ." 



^1 M: pp. 19, 34, 36, 37, 42, 69. 



" M: pp. 35, 36, 37, 38. 



^ M: pp. 38, 63, 69, 84; on p. 34 he says that iron is "more 

 truly the child of the earth than any other metal"; it is the 

 hardest because of "the strong concretion of the more earthy 

 substance." 



5* M: pp. 21, 35, 37, 38. 



" M: pp. 35, 63. 



" M: pp. 45, 46. 



" Gilbert's terminology strongly suggests that he was familiar 

 with alchemical literature, as well as that of medical chemistry. 

 He has been credited as being highly skilled in chemistry. See 

 Sir Walter Langdon-Brown, "William Gilbert: his place in 

 the medical world," .Valure, vol. 154, pp. 136-139, 1944. 



58 Ibid., p. 37. 



»» M: pp. 35, 36, 53, 59. Sec also Galen, op. cit. (footnote 1 5) 

 bk 2, ch. 3. 



«>M: pp. 16, 59. 



maturity. Once these solid materials have been 

 formed, they will degenerate unle.ss protected, forming 

 earths of various kinds as a result." The "rind of the 

 earth"'- is produced by this process of growth and 

 decay. If these earths are soaked with humors, 

 transparent materials are formed." 



As we shall sec below, the ultimate cause of this 

 internal and superficial life is the motion of the earth, 

 which animation is the expression of the magnetic 

 soul of this sphere."' .As the life of animals results 

 from the constant working of the heart and arteries," 

 -SO the daily motion of the earth results in a constant 

 generation of mineral life within the earth. In con- 

 trast to .\ristode's ** making the motion of the 

 heavens the cause of continuous change, Gilljert 

 made that of the earth the remote cause.'" However, 

 unlike the constant cyclical transmutation of sub- 

 stances in Aristotle, there is only generation and 

 decay. 



Gilbert iTiade a number of successive generaliza- 

 tions in order to arrive at the induction that the form 

 of the loadstone is a microcosmic "anima" of that 

 of the earth. "^ After comparing the properties of the 

 loadstone and of iron, his first step in this induction 

 was that the two materials, found everywhere,'' are 

 consanguineous:'* "These two associated bodies 

 possess the true, strict form of one species, thousrh 

 because of the outwardly different aspect and the 

 inequality of the selfsame innate potency, they have 

 hitherto been held to be different . . ." Good iron 

 and good loadstone are more similar than a good and 

 a poor loadstone, or a good and a poor iron ore."' 

 Moreover, they have the same potency."- for the 

 innate potency of one can be pas.sed to the other:"' 

 "The stronger invigorates the weaker, not as if it 

 imparted of its own substances or parted with aught 



«' M: pp. 20, 21, 32, 61, 63, 66, 70. 



•2 M: p. 59. 



a M: p. 84. 



•* M: pp. 310, 311, 312. 



" M: p. 338. \ somewhat different opinion, although not 

 necessarily inconsistent is expressed on p. 66, where he says 

 the surface is due to the action of the atmosphere, the waters, 

 and the radiations and other influences of heavenly bodies. 



"• .Xristotle, op. cil. (footnote 45), Dt gennaliune <l coirupliont, 

 bk. 2, ch. 10. 



«■• M: pp. 311, 334, 338. 



*- M: pp. xlvii, 309, 328. 



»' M: pp. 18, 20, 44, 46, 69. 



■" M: pp. 59, 61, 63. 



■' M: pp. 60, 63. 



■- M: p. 110. 



^ M: pp. 60, 61. 



PAPER 8: N.\TUR.\L PIIIIOSOPIIV OF WII.LI.AM GILBERT 

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131 



