ral Work may be brought to light and perfected by an
intent and studious Operator."

This book, though the title might seem to indicate it, is not devoted
entirely to the study of antimony, but contains many important additions
to the chemistry of the time. For instance, Basil Valentine explains in
this work how what he calls the spirit of salt might be obtained. He
succeeded in manufacturing this material by treating common salt with
oil of vitriol and heat. From the description of the uses to which he
put the end product of his chemical manipulation, it is evident that
under the name of spirit of salt he is describing what we now know as
hydrochloric acid. This is said to be the first definite mention of it
in the history of science, and the method suggested for its preparation
is not very different from that employed even at the present time. He
also suggests in his volume how alcohol may be obtained in high
strengths. He distilled the spirit obtained from wine over carbonate of
potassium, and thus succeeded in depriving it of a great proportion of
its water. We have said that he was deeply interested in the
philosopher's stone. Naturally this turned his attention to the study of
metals, and so it is not surprising to find that he succeeded in
formulating a method by which metallic copper could be obtained. The
material used for the purpose was copper pyrites, which was changed to
an impure sulphate of copper by the action of oil of vitriol and moist
air. The sulphate of copper occurred in solution, and the copper could
be precipitated from it by plunging an iron bar into it. Basil Valentine
recognized the presence of this peculiar yellow metal, and studied some
of its qualities. He does not seem to have been quite sure, however,
whether the phenomenon that he witnessed was not really a transmutation
of at least some of the iron into copper as a consequence of the other
chemicals present. There are some observations on chemical physiology,
and especially with regard to respiration, in the book on antimony which
show their author to have anticipated the true explanation of the theory
of respiration. He states that animals breathe because air is needed to
support their life, and that all the animals exhibit the phenomenon of
respiration. He even insists that the fishes, though living in water,
breathe air, and he adduces in support of this idea the fact that
whenever a river is entirely frozen the fishes die. The r