PHYSIOLOGICAL REMAINS. 209 



but with ease return. The next is when it will fly 

 upwards over the helm by a kind of exsufflation with 

 out vapouring. The next is when it will melt though 

 not rise. The next is when it will soften though no t 

 melt. Of all these diligent inquiry is to be made in 

 several metals, especially of the more extreme degrees. 

 For transmutation or version. If it be real and 

 true, it is the farthest part of art, and would be well 

 distinguished from extraction, from restitution, and 

 from adulteration. I hear much of turning iron into 

 copper ; I hear also of the growth of lead in weight, 

 which cannot be without a conversion of some body 

 into lead : but whatsoever is of this kind, and well 

 expressed, is diligently to be inquired and set down. 



Dr. Meverer* answers to the foregoing questions, con 

 cerning the variation of metals and minerals. 



1. FOR tinctures, there are none that I know, 

 but that rich variety which springs from mixture of 

 metals with metals, or imperfect minerals. 



2. The imperfect metals are subject to rust, all 

 of them except mercury, which is made into ver 

 milion by solution, or calcination. The rest are 

 rusted by any salt, sour, or acid water. Lead into 

 a white body called cerussa. Iron into a pale red 

 called ferrugo. Copper is turned into green, 

 named aerugo, ses viride. Tin into white: but 

 this is not in use, neither hath it obtained a name. 



The Scriptures mention the rust of gold, but that 

 is in regard of the allay. 



VOL. vi r. P 



