inferred, that Sulphur is also a mixture of
volatile and fix'd Parts so strongly cohering by Attraction, as to
ascend together in Sublimation. By dissolving Flowers of Sulphur in Oil
of Turpentine, and distilling the Solution, it is found that Sulphur is
composed of an inflamable thick Oil or fat Bitumen, an acid Salt, a very
fix'd Earth, and a little Metal. The three first were found not much
unequal to one another, the fourth in so small a quantity as scarce to
be worth considering. The acid Salt dissolved in Water, is the same with
Oil of Sulphur _per Campanam_, and abounding much in the Bowels of the
Earth, and particularly in Markasites, unites it self to the other
Ingredients of the Markasite, which are, Bitumen, Iron, Copper, and
Earth, and with them compounds Allum, Vitriol, and Sulphur. With the
Earth alone it compounds Allum; with the Metal alone, or Metal and
Earth together, it compounds Vitriol; and with the Bitumen and Earth it
compounds Sulphur. Whence it comes to pass that Markasites abound with
those three Minerals. And is it not from the mutual Attraction of the
Ingredients that they stick together for compounding these Minerals, and
that the Bitumen carries up the other Ingredients of the Sulphur, which
without it would not sublime? And the same Question may be put
concerning all, or almost all the gross Bodies in Nature. For all the
Parts of Animals and Vegetables are composed of Substances volatile and
fix'd, fluid and solid, as appears by their Analysis; and so are Salts
and Minerals, so far as Chymists have been hitherto able to examine
their Composition.

When Mercury sublimate is re-sublimed with fresh Mercury, and becomes
_Mercurius Dulcis_, which is a white tasteless Earth scarce dissolvable
in Water, and _Mercurius Dulcis_ re-sublimed with Spirit of Salt returns
into Mercury sublimate; and when Metals corroded with a little acid turn
into rust, which is an Earth tasteless and indissolvable in Water, and
this Earth imbibed with more acid becomes a metallick Salt; and when
some Stones, as Spar of Lead, dissolved in proper _Menstruums_ become
Salts; do not these things shew that Salts are dry Earth and watry Acid
united by Attraction, and that the Earth will not become a Salt without
so much acid as makes it dissolvable in Water? Do not the sharp and
pungent Tastes of Acids arise from the strong Attraction whereby the
acid Particles rush upon and agitate the Particles of the Tongue? And
when Meta