OF CORNWALL. 165 
To adroit and exadt a mixture of any principles in the bowels of 
the earth, as to conFitute one peculiar metal unalterably remaining 
itfelf, and not tranfmutable into any other, feems to me inconceiveable, 
if not impofiible ; the con Fancy, and immutability of metals, muft 
be irrefragable arguments of their being created bodies fui generis , 
diFinct from each other, and from all other bodies of the univerfe, 
and of their growing only by juxta portion. However, learned 
men are of various opinions, and thofe more efpecially whofe pro- 
fefiion it is to refolve bodies into their original principles, and de- 
termine the number, forts, and quantity of the ingredients wdnch 
compofe them m . It is true all bodies which come under our obfer- 
vation are compounded, but, not to range beyond the fubjedt of 
our prefent enquiry, every metal has its peculiar charadteriftick 
from which it will not depart, nor change into any other metal ; 
each therefore has fome diftindt principle which others have not ; 
for if all metals are but mixtures of the fame principles in different 
portions and different degrees of refinement, why will they not by 
any Subtraction of fire or folvents, or addition made to any one 
principle, become a lefs refined and inferiour, an intermediate or 
new, or a more refined and more valuable metal ? In other words, 
why will not tin become lead or filver, and gold become copper, 
and vice verfdf 
Having now considered the Several Fates and Ftuations in which sect. viii. 
tin is found, it muF be obferved, that tin does not appear fo fre- Several ways 
quently in either or all of them together, but that people are per- 
petually Searching after more, and endeavouring to make frefh covering tin. 
difeoveries. 
To fay nothing of dreams and fires by night, motives equally 
illufive, though prevalent Fill among the vulgar, few of the C01- 
nifh have ever heard of the virgula divinatoria y and its virtue in 
difeovering metallic lodes ", neither are they often (perhaps not fo 
often as they Should be) directed by the taFe and colour of waters: 
the run of a lode is Sometimes difeovered by the barrennefs of the 
Surface and want or weaknefs of grafs in a particular furrow ; thus 
in the tenement of Trenethick, in St. Agnes parifh, though the 
field is cultivated equally in every part, you can diFinguifh the 
courfe of the lode, by the unequal growth of the grafs; this 
muF be owin^ to one of thefe two caufes, either there is fo much 
mineral fait below the foil, that the roots of plants are parched, 
m See Agricola de re met. lib. v. cline its upper twigs, (by admitting into it’s pores 
the mineral fteam ) in cafe it paffes over any 
” The virgula divinatoria is a fmall forked metallic vein. Some perfons in Germany are 
hazel wand, which, being carried flowly over any hill credulous enough to be fond of thefe magical 
area of ground, will bend, it is fuppofed, and in- inveftigations. 
U u 
or 
