Subterranean Physics

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

...of chemical philosophies, which continue to sprout a new harvest every day, I would dare to ask for the immediate reason why nitrous aqua fortis nitric acid bursts forth from vitriol sulfates, such as iron or copper sulfate and nitre saltpeter? Why does the same earth help to drive out the spirit of salt hydrochloric acid or nitre nitric acid only once, and no more? How do tartar vitriolate potassium sulfate, Ludovicus’s vitriolated nitre, Glaser’s polychrest salt a medicinal salt made of nitre and sulfur, and even the arcanum duplicatum another name for potassium sulfate, or finally—heaven forbid—the Holstein Panacea a famous chemical remedy of the era, etc., differ from one another?

There are vast heaps of these things everywhere; but I will not call them vanities. Rather, the truths of them—presented briefly as affirmative or negative, demonstrative theses or hypotheses—are nowhere to be found, except perhaps in one corner or another. In those cases, the matter is certainly no longer intact if one anxiously tries to hide the source from which such disagreements, defenses, and aids were drawn—not from others, but from oneself.

Our author [Becher], thus abandoned—and indeed, here and there among our fellow Germans, even disparaged—I have resolved to follow, without any prejudice of authority or affection. Since I have never seen or known either him or anyone related to him, Experience alone has been my guide and author in following the solid science, reasoning, and demonstration of this man.

I have pursued this path until now, and I insist upon it today as much as possible. And since, out of the frank and liberal spirit God has granted me, I despise envy rather than fear it; I dare to challenge anyone who can show me, in experimental chemical theories from whatever principles, not only those deductions but also the experimental instructions—or as the common folk call them, inventions—which I have partly produced, partly connected, and deduced from one another based on Becherian foundations, with reason and experience assisting, and the true God blessing.

I certainly do not claim these for myself, as sterile taunts would have it, but I credit them to this Author [Becher] and his solid method of philosophizing in Physics. And just as some of these things lead toward the honest delight of a clever mind and spirit, some toward the promotion of common science, and some even toward practical utility; so I can lean with a much more secure conscience upon the sober and well-defined praise, illustration, and propagation of these matters.

Whoever, therefore, in this Becherian Subterranean Physics, decides to not just seek but to grasp and perceive the science—or rather, the rational experience—of metallic mixture, in a simple rather than a flashy sense and interpretation, he shall not be frustrated in his hope; provided he remembers...