C 1 
the water ; the refuit of which I beg leave to prefent 
you with, hoping it may afford you fome fatisfaCtion 
in explaining that procefs, of which you fo juftly 
doubted the account given by fome credulous authors, 
who miftook it for a real tranfmutation ; a ridiculous 
doCtrine, which deftroys the effential qualities of bo- 
dies, which were impreffed by the Great Creator on 
all material fubfrances, in order to diffinguifli them 
from each other, and therefore are intranfmutable. 
As the hiftory of this difeovery has already been 
accurately related, in feveral papers read before the 
Royal Society, of which you have the honour of be- 
ing a worthy member, I fhall endeavour to avoid re- 
petition, and confine myfelf to the chemical analyfis 
of the water, which, I am told, has been hitherto 
omitted. 
This water flows from a rich copper mine, and is 
of a flharp acid tafte, and light-blue colour. It is re- 
ceived and collected in pits, wherein iron bars are 
put, which, after lying in the water about three 
months, are intirely confumed, and at the bottom of 
the pits, a quantity of copper, greater than that of 
the iron is found, in the form of coarfe fand. This 
faCt is confirmed by profitable experiments, often re- 
peated fince the difeovery, the honour of which is 
due to Mr. Matthew Johndon, a worthy old gentle- 
man, and one of the proprietors of the mine, who 
firft propofed this method of collecting the copper. 
As this effedt is certainly produced by fome aCtive 
principle in the water, I fhall firft inquire, what this 
principle is, and mention particularly the experiments, 
which I made with this view, that you may the bet- 
ter judge of the inferences deduced from them. 
2 Experiment 
