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177
The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry
·
M. M. Pattison Muir
113
If
the
argument
against
the
separation
of
a
metal
into
two
constituents,
by
calcination,
were
answered
to-day
as
it
was
answered
by
the
upholders
of
the
phlogistic
theory,
in
the
middle
of
the
18th
century,
the
answers
would
justly
be
considered
inconsequent
and
ridiculous.
But
it
does
not
follow
that
the
statements
were
either
far-fetched
or
absurd
at
the
time
they
were
made.
They
were
expressed
in
the
phraseology
of
the
time;
a
phraseology,
it
is
true,
sadly
lacking
in
consistency,
clearness,
and
appropriateness,
but
the
only
language
then
available
for
the
description
of
such
changes
as
those
which
happen
when
metals
are
calcined.
One
might
suppose
that
it
must
always
have
sounded
ridiculous
to
say
that
the
weight
of
a
thing
can
be
decreased
by
adding
something
to
it,
that
part
of
a
thing
weighs
more
than
the
whole
of
it.
But
the
absurdity
disappears
if
it
can
be
admitted
that
mass,
which
is
measured
by
weight,
may
be
a
property
like
colour,
or
taste,
or
smell;
for
the
colour,
taste,
or
smell
of
a
thing
may
certainly
be
made
less
by
adding
something
else,
and
the
colour,
taste,
or
smell
of
a
thing
may
also
be
increased
by
adding
something
else.
If
we
did
not
know
that
what
we
call
quantity
of
substance
is
measured
by
the
property
named
mass,
we
might
very
well
accept
the
proposition
that
the
entrance
of
phlogiston
into
a
substance
decreases
the
quantity,
hence
the
mass,
and,
therefore,
the
weight,
of
the
substance.
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