ahd fruitfull in thefe changes , the hope of the Phi- 

 lofophers ftone,or peffe&ing medicine requiring this 

 bcleife : Yet I am perfwaded that in many of their 

 tfitng&s they rather feparate , arid bring to apparence 

 a latent miner all, than produce it by the tranfmutdtion 

 of another into that nature. Sennertm recants thofe 

 writtings of his,that affirmed iron to hive been turned 

 into copper by hatura]l,ahd aftificiaH waters of Vitri- 

 oll. Iheeftecloniyin his fe -©nd , and more ma- 

 ture judgment being the feparation of a copper be- 

 fore latent in the V irrioll , and the precipitation of 

 it by the parts of the iron : and I hive feen fome ex- 

 periments made by the honorable Perion,for whom 1 

 am now writing, that have added ftrength to my for- 

 mer perfivafion , particularly the fuppofed tranfmu- 

 tation of quickhlver into lead,publifbed as real by the 

 learned Vntz.erus and others , and to be made by difi 

 folving the quickiilver in acjua fortis, & precipitating 

 it by the tincture of Miriium,proved but fophiflicall, 

 the Lead, produced that way being indeed not made 

 of the Mercury, but only reduced out of the tincture 

 of Minium, wherein it lurck't, as that Gentleman 

 doth more circumfbntially fet down in his own pa- 

 pers, and others of the like nature., ; which it were 

 nor proper here further to infift oil. 



Itisaqueltion , whether there be any reall trans- 

 mutation , from the vegetable to the minerall king- 

 dome, in petrifaction of any fort of wood: thofe petri- 

 factions , which I hnve feen in England , are made 

 thus, fome particles of (lone, that impregnate the bo- 

 dy of water , make a cruft about the flick that is to 

 be petrified , and enter into the pores thereof, as fait 

 as they are layed open by the water , wafhing through 

 the flick, wherein there mcerceeds , noe change o£ 

 * the 



