Appndix. ^^g 



apply to alchemy. It is as I have faid before, highly 

 probable that the old alchemilb either meant to deceive 

 their readers, or were deceived themfelves : but after the 

 folemn proteftations which many of them have made (with- 

 out any apparent motive to deceive) of their having fuc- 

 ceeded in the co^/edio lapidis ; after the high praifes given 

 to their fidelity in other refpefts by Boerhaave, and his 

 caution on this fubjeft in particular;* after the hefitation of 

 the illuftrious Bergman himfelf ; f and the poffible conclu- 

 fions deduciblefrom the modern dodrine of metallic acids, 

 and the coagulating and metallizing portions of phloglfton^ 

 and after the inexplicable faft (among others) of the fixa- 

 tion of mercury in the experiments of the late unfortunate 

 Dr. Price,! a chemift even in the prefent ftate of know- 

 ledge may fay without ridicule concerning fome of the 

 alchemical aflertions on this fubjeft, J'ignore. But what- 

 ever might have been the good or ill fuccefs of the 

 alchemifts in their purfuit after the grand arcanum, the 

 expeaation of fuccefs, joined with the novelty of the phe- 

 nomena that occurred in the courfe of their experiments. 



feems 



• Boerh. Chem. part II. feft. « On the ufefulnefs of chemlftry f„ alche- 

 my:" which contains the beft general fummary of the doftrines of the 

 alchemifts that I recolleft to have feen. 



t Hift. Chem. Med. ^Evi. § 2. 



nrr "m<" !<"T/ °^^°r "P^^'^^"'^ °" sold, filver, and mercury, made 

 at Gu.ldford ,n May ,78^, in the laboratory of James Price, M. D - I taki 

 for granted the truth of the/.fl. as there related, which indeed cannot be 

 d.fputed connderlng the refpedlability of the perfons prefent, without the 

 moft gratuitous fcepticifm : and on that fuppofition, whether the gold 

 and filver were formed, or whether they were n^erely precipitated from 

 the mercury, the exhibition of thefe two former metals under the clrcum- 

 fiances, ranks among the moft curious, the moft inexplicable fails of 

 ancent or modern chemiftry. The gratuitous, unfounded, and I may 

 fay ungenerous fuppofition, that a perfon of Dr. Price's knowledge, rank 

 andcharadlerrhould fo abfurdly be guilty of wilful and puerile charlata- 

 nery, ,s to me full as inconceiveable as any explanation of the matter 



"Ot. 11I< f\ tr 



^ S hitherto 



