PALINGENESY IO? 



nomenon to Christina, Queen of Sweden, who was highly 

 delighted with it. Unfortunately he left this valuable 

 curiosity one cold day in his window and it was entirely 

 destroyed by the frost. Father Schott also asserts that 

 he saw this chemical wonder which, according to his ac- 

 count, was a rose revived from its ashes. And he adds 

 that a certain prince having requested Kircher to make 

 him one of the same kind, he chose rather to give up his 

 own than to repeat the operation. 



Even the celebrated Boyle, though not very favorable to 

 palingenesy, relates that having dissolved in water some 

 verdigris, which, as is well known, is produced by combin- 

 ing copper with the acid of vinegar, and having caused this 

 water to congeal, by means of artificial cold, he observed, at 

 the surface of the ice, small figures which had an exact 

 resemblance to vines. 



In this connection it is well to bear in mind that in 

 Boyle's time almost all vinegar was really what its name 

 implies sour wine (vin aigre) and verdegris or copper 

 acetate was generally prepared by exposing copper plates 

 to the action of refuse grapes which had been allowed to 

 ferment and become sour. Therefore to him it might not 

 have seemed so very improbable that the green crystals 

 which appeared on the surface of the ice were, in reality, 

 minute resuscitated grape-vines. 



The explanation of these facts given by Father Kircher 

 is worthy of the science of the times. He tells us that 

 the seminal virtue of each mixture is contained in its salts 

 and these salts, unalterable by their nature, when put in 

 motion by heat, rise in the vessel through the liquor in 

 which they are diffused. Being then at liberty to arrange 

 themselves at pleasure, they place themselves in that order 



