Preface

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and finds described clearly; but
one also reads the most sensible
conclusions and observations re-
garding many occurrences which
follow after the operations Operations: In 17th-century chemistry, an "operation" refers to a specific manual process or experiment, such as distillation, calcination, or sublimation..
To this end, I divide my book
into three main sections,
whereby I treat minerals in the
first, plants in the second, and
animals in the third:
to each operation, however, I
attach such notes as I have
deemed necessary: And
nowhere do I allow myself to
be captivated by an opinion
which is not founded upon
experience Experience: This refers to "Erfahrung" or empirical evidence—the idea that knowledge should come from direct observation and testing rather than just repeating old books.. I live thus in the