Catalogue Entry: ALCH00015

Memorandum by Newton (1696).

Author: Isaac Newton

Metadata: Not yet dated, in English , c. 700 words, 3 pp.

Source: Keynes Ms. 26, King's College, Cambridge, UK

[Normalized Text (at Chymistry of Isaac Newton)]

Custodial History

Bought at the Sotheby sale by Keynes for £13.

Sotheby Lot

SL45

Contents

Begins: 'On Munday March 2^d or Tuesday March 3 1695/6, A Londoner acquainted w^th M^r. Boyle & D^r. Dickinson making me a visit, affirmed that in the work of Iodochus a Rhe w^th [vitriol] twas not necessary that the [vitriol] should be purified but the oyle or spirit might be taken as sold in shops', and goes on to record the mystery visitor's account of his method of 'subliming' vitriol to produce a 'menstruum' that dissolves all metals.

Related Material

Printed with an introduction in D. Geoghegan, 'Some indications of Newton's attitude towards alchemy', Ambix 6 (1957), 102-6 (Newton's text on 105-6); text also in NC, 4: 196-9. Cf. the variant version in SL46 (Joseph Halle Schaffner Collection, Chicago), and excerpts from Edmund Dickinson in Harry Ransom Research Center, University of Texas. See also Keynes Ms. 50 and Yahuda Ms. Var.259.