Note 403 — Chapter XXII · Declining Years of Boulton and Watt—Bereavements—Gregory Watt—Death of Boulton.

One of these, thrown out in a letter to Watt, may be mentioned—a speculation since revived by the late Dr. S. Brown of Edinburgh,—the transmutation of bodies. “These are wonderful steps,” said he, “which are every day making in chemical analysis. The analysis of the alkalis and alkaline earths by Guyton, by Henry, and others, will presently lead, I think, to the doctrine of a reciprocal convertibility of all things into all. It brings to mind a minister lecturing on the first chapter of one of the Gospels, when, after reading, ‘Adam begat Abel, and Abel begat,’ &c.,—to save himself the trouble of so many cramp names, he said, ‘and so they all begat one another to the 15th verse.’ I expect to see alchemy revive, and be as universally studied as ever.”