Section 5: Quicksilver, pages 279-335 Summary

In 1673, in the Grand Salon of Gunfleet House, Boyle and Comstock debate autopsying Wilkins at a Royal Society Meeting. When they decide to overlook Wilkins' recent ventures into politics because the pain medications affected his judgment, Daniel runs to the garden, unable to stand anymore. Roger Comstock follows him, bragging about the money he made by supplying intelligence to the Angleseys, but he is interrupted by Leibniz lamenting that his mathematical proofs were proved barbarously a year earlier by a Scotsman. Roger Comstock follows Daniel into St. James' Fields to offer his patronage if Daniel will design and oversee a larger house on a parcel of land he bought from the Waterhouses. After Daniel agrees to consider the offer of patronage, they walk toward a coffeehouse in the theatre district where Roger is meeting Leibniz. On the...