tn the P y R i t e s. 223 



bitude and fitnefs to its fubject body, mews fome- 

 thing more than a bare inftrumentality ; or, at lead 

 the aqua regis, and the precipitant employed for 

 difcharging out of it again the earth fwallowed up 

 by it : I fay, not reckoning thefe, the deftructions 

 of mineral bodies in general, and of ores in parti- 

 cular, not only cauie feparations, but transforma- 

 tions alfo -, not only exhibiting to view what they 

 contain, but alfo fome new mixt, a third body ; 

 and that for this reafon, namely, that they are ge- 

 nerally decompounds and /up er decompounds : and not 

 only compounds, but mixts, nay, fimple particles 

 themfelves, which, when brought, either by the 

 fire or air, into a ftate of motion, activity, and 

 conception, operate upon each other. 



By means of deftruction, the parts of the whole 

 feparate in one part, and again unite in another, 

 or let go fome of their mixtion, that others may 

 combine the clofer -, and thefe new combinations 

 happen in the very act and inftant of the fepara- 

 tions thernfelves ; as in the cafe of vitriol, which 

 is not actually contained in, but generated from 

 pyrites-, as is evident, that in the production of it, 

 the entire body of the fulphur is excluded from 

 communicating but a part, namely, its acid fait 5 

 fo that its own proper fubfiftence, as a fulphur, 

 mutt needs be deftroyed. The parts forming the 

 new production are often already in the fubject, 

 and only a new cohefion or texture procured ; fre- 

 quently they are fetched from fome other quarter, 

 either apart, or together, and often arife from the 

 destruction and mutual action of the parts, once 

 fet loofe and rubbing againft each other. The 

 vitriol-acid, and the metallic-earth, are both con- 

 tained in the pyrites, and that in a large propor- 

 tion, only not in a vitriolic mixtion j but the for- 

 mer 



