the act of changing one sub- ftance into another.

Nature, fays Sir Isaac Newton, is delighted with tranf- mutation: water, which is a fluid, volatile, taftefles, falt, is, by heat, tranfmuted into vapour, which is a kind of air; and by cold into ice, which is a cold, tranfpafparent, brittle ftone, eafily diffolvable; and this ftone is convertible again into water by heat, as vapour is by cold.—Earth, by heat, becomes fire, and, by cold, is turned into earth again: denfe bodies, by fermentation, are rarefied into various kinds of air; and that air, by fermentation allo, and fometimes without it, reverts into grofs bodies. All bodies, beafts, fishes, insects, plants, &c. with all their various parts, grow and increafe out of water and aqueous and falfine tinctures and, by putrefaction, all of them revert into water, or an aqueous liquor again.

alchemy, denotes the act of chang- ing imperfect metals into gold or silver. This is also called the grand operation; and, they fay, it is to be effected with the philosopher's ftone.

The trick of tranfmuting cinnabar into silver is thus: the cinnabar, being bruifed grofsly, is tranfmited in a crucible with granulated filver, and the crucible placed in a great fire; and, after due time for calcination, taken off; then the matter, being poured out, is found to be cinnabar tran- fmited into real filver, though the filver grains appear in the fame number and form as when they were put into the cru- cible; but the miilchief is, coming to handle the grains of filver, you find them nothing but light friable bladders, which will crumble to pieces between the fingers.

The tranfmutability of water into earth seems to have been believed by Mr Boyle; and Bishop Watton thinks that it has not yet been difproved. See his Chemical Essays.

Transmutation of Acids. See Chemistry-Index.

Transmutation of Metals. See Chemistry-Index.