ABSTRACT
Corpuscular motion was for Duclos, as for Huygens or Boyle, a physical phenomenon occasioning changes at the physical level. In the context of Newton's distinction between the mechanical and the vegetal and between the vulgar-chymical and the vegetal-chymical, distillation is associated with vulgar chymistry. Boyle's physico-chymical compromise stripped chymistry of its explanatory prowess in both the inanimate and the animate realms. The controversy on gravity lasted from August to late November and included contributions from five mathematicians and a few natural philosophers. On 7 August, mathematician Gilles Personne de Roberval raised the general question concerning the possible causes of gravity. Newton had grappled throughout his life with questions concerning the relations between matter and activity, and between long-range and short-range forces. The controversy on the causes of coagulation peaked in July-August 1669, at which time Duclos, Mariotte, Huygens, and Perrault presented their theoretical reports.
