T R 



TEA 



the cinnabar, bein^ bruifed grofsly, 13 ftratified in a crucible 

 with granulated filver, and the crucible placed in a great 

 fire; and, after a due time for calcination, taken off; then 

 the matter being poured out, is found to be cinnabar turned 

 into real filver, though the filver grains appear in the fame 

 number and form as when they were put into the crucible ; 

 but the mifchief is, coming to handb the grains of filver, 

 you find them nothing but light friable bladders, which will 

 crumble to pieces between the fingers. 



Mr. Boyle, in his Sceptical Chemift, tells us, that two 

 friends of Iiis did, by urging mercury ii: a ficilfully managed 

 fire, turn it, almofl v.'eight for weight, into water ; but lie 

 does not fay what was the fpecific gravity of the produced 

 water, nor of the remaining untranfmuted mafs of mercury. 

 He hkewife aflures us, that rain-water, being diddled and 

 re-diftilled, by a friend of his, nero-ly two hundred times, did, 

 after diftillation, leave at the bottom of the glafs body, a 

 confiderable quantity of a white earth ; and that more plen- 

 tifully in the latter diftillations, than the former. 



This he believed to be a certain quantity of water aftually 

 r^.nfmuted into earth, adding, that it was above twice as 

 ,,i'jvy fpecifically as common water, and ot (o fixed a 

 nature, that it lay a confiderable time, in a red-hot crucible, 

 V, ithout lofing any thing of its weight, or even emitting any 

 (moke. 



For the tranfmutation of iron into copper, fee Copper 

 and VlTHIOL. 



Transmutation, in Geometry, denotes the redudtion or 

 change of one figure or body into another ot the fame area 

 or folidity, but of a different form ; as a triangle into a 

 fquare, a pyramid into a parallelepiped, &c. 



Transmutation, in the Higher Geometry, is ufed for the 

 converting of a figure into another of the fame kind and 

 order, whofe refpeftive parts rife to the fame dimenfions 

 111 .".a equation, admit the fame tangents, &c. 



If a reftilinear figure be to be tranfniuted into another, 

 t is fufficient that the interfeftions of the lines which com- 

 ■lofe it be transferred, and lines drawn tiirough the fame in 

 ihe new figure. 



If the figure to be tranfmiited be curvilinear, the points, 

 tangents, and other right lines, by means of which the 

 curved line is to be defined, muft be transferred. 



Transmutation of Colours. The change of colour of 

 1 decoftion of the nephritic wood, according to the differ- 

 ent lights it was viewed in, long perplexed thofe who at- 

 tempted to account for it ; but Wolfius has carried the ex- 

 periments on this decoftion much farther, and found a way 

 of giving it its colours again, after taking them wholly 

 away. If this dccoftion be held between the eye and the 

 light; it appears of a blue colour ; but if the eye be placed 

 between it and the light, it appears then of a yellowith or a 

 red colour. If a few drops of oil of vitriol be dropped into 

 it, it will appear of a gold yellow in whatever fight it is 

 viewed; but if too much of this oil be added, the whole 

 becomes fotil and obfcure ; and if a few drops do not pro- 

 duce the effeft, it is a fign that the decoftion is too flrong, 

 and that it muft be diluted with water. See Colours. 



Oil of vitriol has the fame effeft upon many other decoc- 

 tions of the woods, particularly on that of Brazil wood, 

 which is of a fine red, but immediately becomes yellow on 

 dropping a fmall quantity of this acid into it. And as in 

 the other inftance, fo in this, it is neceffary to the fuccefs of 

 the experiment, that the tinfture be not over flrong. A few 

 drops of oil of tartar added to this yellow liquor tiurn it red 

 again as at firft ; and if more oil of tartar be added, the 

 colour becomes blueifh, with a tinge of red, much ftronger 

 than the colcur of the nephritic wood at Aril, when held 



between the eye and the light. In all experiments of this 

 kind, the weaknefs of the tinfture produces the greateft 

 beauty 5 and therefore it is belt, inftead of making a decoc- 

 tion, to make only a cold infufion, by putting a fmall quan- 

 tity of the chips of the wood into water, and letting this 

 ftand cold for fome time. 



A tinifture of red rofes, made with common water and 

 oil of vitriol, is well known to be of a very beautiful red 

 colour, yet wlien the water has flood ever fo long on the 

 rofes ?.:one, it has fcarcely any colour ; if it be ftrained off hx 

 this colourlefs ftate, and the oil of vitriol then added, the red 

 colcur is produced as ftrongly as if this acid had been 

 dropped into the water, while the rofes were yet in it. 

 When the liquor is of this fine red colour, a fmall quantity 

 of oil of tartar makes it immediately green ; and if more chI 

 of vitriol be added to this green liquor, it becomes red 

 again, but is muddy, and not fo well coloured as before. 

 If a few drops of a folution of corrofive fublimate be added 

 to this, it does not at all change colour ; and on adding more 

 water, with fait of tartar diffolved in it, the liquor became 

 red again, but of a very different red from what it was before 

 in its muddy ftate, being now clear and deeper. When the 

 tinfture of rofes has fcarcely any colour, a fmall quantity of 

 fait of tartar makes it green, but a large quantity makes it 

 yellow. A few drops of oil of vitriol added to this yellovj 

 liquor, turned it to a pale red, ;md this could never be made 

 green again by oil of tartar. Alum-water, added to a fo- 

 lution of fait of tartar, makes a white and opaque fluic, 

 though they are both feparately pellucid. 



What is moft obfervable in thefe experiments on the in- 

 fufion of woods is, that oil of tartar, and a folution of fait 

 of tartar in water, have a very different effeft. Thus an in- 

 fufion of Brazil wood is red, and on dropping into it a> few 

 drops of oil of vitriol, it becomes yellow. If oil of tartar 

 be added to this liquor, it only makes it yet more yellow ; 

 but if a folution of fait of tartar in water be added to this, 

 it makes it red again. Aft. Erudit. ann. 17 18. p. 322. 



The folution of verdigris, which is green, becomes co- 

 lourlefs by the affufion of fpirit of nitre or fpirit of vitriol, 

 and by the affufion of the oil of tartar it becomes green 

 again. The fpirit of fal ammoniac gives it a purple colour, 

 and oil of vitriol makes it pellucid. The folution of galls 

 with vitriol gives black, the affufion of oil of vitriol deftroys 

 the blacknefs, and it becomes pellucid as before. 



M. Mufchenbroeck thought it to b'' univerfally true, that 

 yellow vegetables, diffolved in fpirit of wine, gave yellow 

 dnftures, which are either not at all, or very little changed 

 by acid, alkaline, or any other faks ; but he thought there 

 were fome exceptions, and fays, that when oil of vdtriol is 

 put to yellow paint, called jrleon, it becomes of a beautiful 

 blue, which is deftroyed by water or any fait. A fmall 

 quantity of an aftringent fubftance, with iron, gives a black 

 colour ; a greater quantity of the aftringent produces blue, 

 more of it makes a violet, and more ftill produces purple. 



There are fome tinftures, the colours of which depend, 

 upon the external air : fuch is the red rinfture made of 

 Canarian lichen, called orfeille, and water, a diluted fpirit of 

 wine, with lime and an urinous fait. For, if this tin£lure 

 be put into a glafs tube, hermetically fealed, in a few days it 

 becomes colourlefs ; and when tlie tube is opened the colour 

 returns. The abbi Nollet made a variety of experiments, 

 with this tinfture. To the fame clafs may be referred the 

 fympathetic inks. 



Colours may be produced in hquors which originally have 

 no colour : thus, fpirit of wine with red rofes, upon which, 

 whilft it is yet white, any faline acid fpirit is poured, in fo 

 fmall a quantity that the acid ^ssi hardly be perceived, pro- 

 duces 



