Ficheru:Sceptical chymist 1661 Boyle Title page AQ18 (3).jpg

English: Title page from The sceptical chymist : or Chymico-physical doubts and paradoxes, touching the spagyrist's principles commonly call'd hypostatical, as they are wont to be propos'd and defended by the generality of alchymists. Whereunto is praemis'd part of another discourse relating to the same subject / by the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq. by Robert Boyle, 1627-1691. London : Printed by J. Cadwell for J. Crooke, 1661. Robert Boyle directed his skepticism at the gaggle of common chemists who hawked medicines and deliberately obfuscated their writings. But he worked untiringly on the problem of transmutation and believed there was an alchemical elite who could instruct him. This book is in part an attempt to silence the former and prompt the latter to reveal themselves.