PHLOGISTIC THEORY. 135 



alike processes of combustion. Hence the metal 

 was supposed to consist of an earth, and of some- 

 thing which, in the process of combustion, was 

 separated from it; and, in like manner, sulphur 

 was supposed to consist of the sulphuric acid, which 

 remained after its combustion, and of the com- 

 bustible part or true sulphur, which flew off in 

 the burning. Beccher insists very distinctly upon 

 this difference between his element sulphur and the 

 " sulphur " of his Paracelsian predecessors. 



It must be considered as indicating great know- 

 ledge and talent in Stahl, that he perceived so 

 clearly what part of the views of Beccher was of 

 general truth and permanent value. Though he 1 

 everywhere gives to Beccher the credit of the the- 

 oretical opinions which he promulgates, (" Bec- 

 cheriana sunt quse profero,") it seems certain that 

 he had the merit, not only of proving them more 

 completely, and applying them more widely than 

 his forerunner, but also of conceiving them with a 

 distinctness which Beccher did not attain. In 1697, 

 appeared Stahl's Zymotechnia Fundamentalis (the 

 Doctrine of Fermentation), "simulque experimen- 

 tum novum sulphur verum arte producendi." In 

 this work (besides other tenets which the author 

 considered as very important), the opinion pub- 

 lished by Beccher was now maintained in a very 

 distinct form ; namely, that the process of forming 

 sulphur from sulphuric acid, and of restoring the 



1 Stahl, Prcef, ad Specim. Beech. 1703. 



