...nevertheless, once cooled, they do acquire hardness, but not their own proper form. E

Opinions of authors regarding the form of metals.

Regarding the form of metals, Callisthenes believed that all metals receive the same substantial form; in this matter, metals should differ from one another specifically and substantially, while agreeing accidentally. No one supports this opinion, for the affections and diverse properties of metals seem to indicate the exact opposite: indeed, individual metals enjoy individual and varied affections, by which their natures are variously manifested. Hermes and others wished that in any given metal, several species and forms are so placed that some are hidden and others manifest, some internal and others external, some contained in the innermost parts and others in the outermost parts of any metal. Indeed, the Rabillientes a sect of alchemists asserted more confidently that the inner parts of lead are golden, and the surface parts leaden, and conversely, that the exterior parts of gold are golden and the interior parts leaden; and they believe the same must be confirmed for copper and silver. However, I am vehemently ashamed of this opinion, since a homogeneous thing demands that all its parts be constituted of the same nature: yet all authors proclaim metals to be homogeneous; therefore we must depart from their opinion. Furthermore, gold is not consumed by fire, whereas lead F is utterly consumed by the violence of fire, and especially when sprinkled with sulphur; nevertheless, the gold, which according to their mind lies hidden in the innermost parts of the lead, ought to remain intact. But since this conflicts with experiments, we must necessarily accede to the opinion of Albertus Magnus, who assigned to each metal its own substantial form. It does not hinder the argument that we have often experienced that from a pound of lead such a quantity of silver was extracted as weighs one scruple and four grains, because in that case, the silver is hidden under the form of lead. We affirm, however, that such an experiment is not in use, because the cost outweighs the gain. Book 3. on Minerals, tract 1. chap. 7. Silver is in lead.

THE GENERATION OF METALS.

Book on Admiration.

Some authors, not of the common sort, share a few things concerning the origin of metals, though worthy of admiration, while they assign to them some seminal generation and insinuate, in the words of the fissi a reference to the "De Mirabilibus Auscultationibus" attributed to Aristotle, sometimes called the "Book of Wonders" of Aristotle, that metals can be produced in the manner of plants. For Aristotle himself reports that in Cyprus, near what is called Tirrha, copper is generated, which, when cut into small fragments, is sown, and then, augmented by many rains, is gathered. He testifies, on the faith of others, that the same is true regarding the metals of Philippi in Macedonia, whose fragments increase and produce gold. Indeed, he mentions a certain quantity of gold dug up in Pieria of Macedonia, which grew to the size of a palm. The matter truly seems comical and worthy of laughter, but we should not be held by any admiration, since the cited book of Aristotle, according to the opinion of the most learned men, is held to be spurious and falsely attributed to him. However, no less ridiculous is the opinion of those who thought that from the beginning of the world all metals and stones were created in the same way they are extracted from mines in our age, and are in no way generated daily. Yet the thing itself manifests the exact opposite; for we now observe the tunnels of ancient mines, made quite large by miners, to have been reduced to such a narrow state that they admit no passage at all. This cannot depend on any other cause than the increase of the matter from which stones and metals are generated. Moreover, writers report that on the island of Ilva, metal removed from mines is reborn shortly after. Metals die. H Metal is reborn in Ilva.

Hermes Trismegistus assigned to the birth of fossils the heaven as a father and the earth as a mother; indeed, he proclaimed the fixed stars as the parents of gems, and the wandering stars the planets as those of metals, moved by this reason especially: that gems are solidified by a firmer nature, but metals, as if inconsistent, sometimes flow melted and sometimes harden frozen. Wherefore, if offspring ought to reflect the character of their parents, he pronounced that gems necessarily take their origin from the fixed stars, and metals from the wanderers. Encellius published another opinion, namely, that just as God the Best and Greatest constituted the beginnings of animals as male and female, whose union would produce offspring, he seems to have established the same in metallic matters, while he destined sulphur as the father for all metals and quicksilver mercury as the mother; from... Book 1. on this metal, chap. 1.