i 4 o THE HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY, 



year 1707; fame circumflanccs in it nrc men- 

 tioned by Dr. U. UU-rne *, formerly the King's 

 phylician, which, though different from any 

 in the former accounts, do not altogether ex- 

 clude fufpicion. There is no doubt, that 

 Colonel Hamilton faw the preparation of the 

 powder to be employed in giving the necef- 

 'iary colour, and that, -unknown to Pay k nil, he 

 had made it from materials he purchafcd him- 

 iclf, and which he was certain contained no 

 old ; but the colouring powder was thrown in 

 by Paykull; and it does not appear that the 

 crucible was ever carefully examined, in which 

 gold might have been concealed in various ways, 

 ik'lides, the very circumftance of the weight 

 occafions doubts. For, fuppofing that the whole 

 of the fix drachms of lead, and one of the co- 

 louring powder was converted into gold, how 

 are we to underftand, that the weight of the gold 

 iliould exceed that of the materials in the cru- 

 cible more than twenty times, without uflum- 

 ing the power of the Almighty, who alone L 

 equal to the talk of creation? Arnoldus of Vil- 

 la Nova, at Rome, is reported to have tranfinu- 

 ted iron into gold. The fame Ls faid of R. Lul- 

 iius, who performed this change before King 

 Edward at London, who ordered fome rofe- 

 nobles to be coined from the metal. And we 

 read of L. Thurnciferus exhibiting in 1587, be- 

 fore 



* Su. Magaz. part i, p. 220. 2:7. 



