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Footnote: Caspar Neumann, Chemical Works, 140-141, 145. What Neumann, Macquer, Cavendish, and... contemporaries called "arsenic" is... arsenious oxide... a common by-product of roasting metallic ores. Another name... is "white arsenic," the calx of regulus of arsenic, the white, shiny semimetal.
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At the time Cavendish made his study of arsenic compounds, chemists still had not been able to "determine what it /arsenic/ really is, or to what class of bodies it belongs." ...[A]rsenic behaves as a metal in some states, and like a salt in other states. ...[L]ike every metallic calx, arsenic [could be] changed into a metallic form... "regulus of arsenic"... [by combining] with "phlogiston." ...[L]ike salts, arsenic is soluble in water. ...[N]either acidic nor alkaline, yet Macquer claimed, behaving as if it were an acid. ...In other ways ...arsenic differs from other... calces: it is volatile with a strong smell, it is fusible, it unites with metals and semimetals—the difference that Macquer and Cavendish picked up on—it decomposes nitre when distilled with it. From the standpoint of affinities... arsenic is exceptional too.

— Footnote:

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "At the time Cavendish made his study of arsenic compounds, chemists still had not been able to "determine what it /arsenic/ really is, or to what class of bodies it belongs." ...[A]rsenic behaves as a metal in some states, and like a salt in other states. ...[L]ike every metallic calx, arsenic [could be] changed into a metallic form... "regulus of arsenic"... [by combining] with "phlogiston." ...[L]ike salts, arsenic is soluble in water. ...[N]either acidic nor alkaline, yet Macquer claimed, behaving as if it were an acid. ...In other ways ...arsenic differs from other... calces: it is volatile with a strong smell, it is fusible, it unites with metals and semimetals—the difference that Macquer and Cavendish picked up on—it decomposes nitre when distilled with it. From the standpoint of affinities... arsenic is exceptional too." in the context of "Footnote: Caspar Neumann, Chemical Works, 140-141, 145. What Neumann, Macquer, Cavendish, and... contemporaries called "arsenic" is... arsenious oxide... a common by-product of roasting metallic ores. Another name... is "white arsenic," the calx of regulus of arsenic, the white, shiny semimetal." to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Henry Cavendish" (Quotes about Cavendish, Cavendish (1996): by Christa Jungnickel, ‎Russell McCormmach, pp. 146-147.) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

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#Henry Cavendish#arsenic#cavendish#metallic#macquer#states#what#semimetalsthe#exceptional#phlogiston#difference#decomposes
Henry Cavendish

About Henry Cavendish

Henry Cavendish FRS (10 October 1731 – 24 February 1810) was a British scientist noted for his discovery of hydrogen or what he called "inflammable air". Cavendish is also known for the Cavendish experiment, his measurement of the Earth's density, and early research into electricity.