tn the Pyrites. 217 



t would not here be underftood as depreciating 

 the following proportions, viz. (1.) That a perfect, 

 or, if you rather choofe it, a ripe metal, may be 

 made from an im perfect metal. (2.) That fome 

 pyritte are not entirely without fome fmall fliare of 

 gold. The firft the experience of every one may 

 affirm, in the leaft converfant in the bufinefs of 

 minerals and metals, with any care and attention; 

 though the thing cannot be reduced to any certain 

 theory or rule, to be depended on at all times. But 

 in all thefe proofs, where, for inftance, copper and 

 iron particles are tranfmuted or converted to gold, 

 as alfo fome particles of lead, tin, regulus, &c. to 

 filver, it by no means follows, that iron and cop- 

 per are an immature gold, or lead, tin, and regu- 

 lu5, an immature filver. 



For, though I might call fuch a converfion a 

 maturation, and though there were inftances there- 

 of, yet it ftill remains a queftion, whether other, 

 nay, all eductions of the nobler metals, where a 

 formal tincture is not employed (and fuch procef- 

 fes may, in fome meafure, be called 'particular) are 

 only produclv,ns, arifing, as a third thing, from the 

 running and mixing together of two or three forts 

 of particles, and not, in effect and propriety, educ- 

 tions, not always to be denominated maturations, 

 or tranfmutations. 



It is one thing to tranfmute a fait, for inftance, 

 to volatilife common fait per fe, which is certainly 

 practicable -, another, to educe a fait by the addi- 

 tion of a fecond and third matter, as an oleum vi- 

 tridi duke, by means of quicklime, or a lixivious 

 fait, as is a well known cafe, 



Metals, 



