The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-Physical Doubts & Paradoxes, Touching the Spagyrist's Principles Commonly call'd Hypostatical; As they are wont to be Propos'd and Defended by the Generality of Alchymists. Whereunto is præmis'd Part of another Disco

University of Pennsylvania Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text & Image ( http://dewey.library.upenn.edu/sceti ). Transcriber’s Notes This e-book was prepared from a facsimile of the 1661 first edition and contains spelling, capitalization, and punctuation inconsistencies typical of the era. These have been preserved as they appear in the original. Printer errors have also been preserved. Those mentioned in the Errata at the end of the book are hyperlinked to that section. Other obvious printer errors, where the meaning might be unclear without correction, are marked with red dotted underlining; hover the mouse over the underlined word to see a pop-up transcriber’s note . See also the printer’s note containing material omitted from page 191 . Some of the page numbers in the original are misnumbered, though the text itself is in the proper order. The original page numbers have been preserved, and incorrect numbers are marked with red dotted underlining and a mouse-hover pop-up with the correct number. This e-text contains some Greek and Hebrew characters, which may not display properly in all browsers. Diacriticals have been omitted. Hover the mouse over the characters to see a pop-up transliteration, e.g., βιβλος . A table of contents has been provided for the reader’s convenience. THE SCEPTICAL CHYMIST: OR CHYMICO-PHYSICAL Doubts & Paradoxes, Touching the SPAGYRIST’S PRINCIPLES Commonly call’d HYPOSTATICAL , As they are wont to be Propos’d and Defended by the Generality of ALCHYMISTS . Whereunto is præmis’d Part of another Discourse relating to the same Subject. BY The Honourable ROBERT BOYLE , Esq; LONDON, Printed by J. Cadwell for J. Crooke , and are to be Sold at the Ship in St. Paul’s Church-Yard. MDCLXI . CONTENTS A Præface Introductory Physiological Considerations The First Part The Second Part The Third Part The Fourth Part The Fifth Part The Sixth Part The Conclusion Printer’s Note Errata A PRÆFACE INTRODUCTORY To the following Treatise. O give the Reader an account, Why the following Treatise is suffer’d to pass abroad so maim’d and imperfect, I must inform him that ’tis now long since, that to gratify an ingenious Gentleman, I set down some of the Reasons that kept me from fully acquiescing either in the Peripatetical, or in the Chymical Doctrine, of the Material Principles of mixt Bodies. This Discourse some years after falling into the hands of some Learned men, had the good luck to be so favourably receiv’d,