Previous attempts to date the five editions of Isaac Newton’s Index Chemicus found in Keynes MS 30 (King’s College Library, Cambridge University) have relied on an incomplete examination of the citations Newton provides for his references. This study shows that a full examination of all Newton’s citations provides a more accurate method of dating, and thus pushes the timeline of production for all versions forward several years from the early 1680s to the early 1690s. It also proves that authors previously thought to be unimportant to Newton’s late alchemical writings, such as Robert Boyle, played a larger role than once recognised. Finally, Newton’s use of a text received from Fatio de Duillier for the later versions of the Index Chemicus suggests that the final versions may have been the product of a collaboration between the two.

中文翻译：

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重温艾萨克·牛顿的 Index Chemicus：对 Richard S. Westfall 的回应

以前尝试对凯恩斯 MS 30（剑桥大学国王学院图书馆）中发现的艾萨克牛顿索引化学的五个版本进行日期计算依赖于对牛顿提供的参考文献的不完整检查。这项研究表明，对牛顿所有引用的全面检查提供了一种更准确的测年方法，从而将所有版本的生产时间表从 1680 年代初到 1690 年代初提前了几年。这也证明了以前被认为对牛顿晚期炼金术著作不重要的作者，例如罗伯特·博伊尔，发挥了比以往认识到的更大的作用。最后，牛顿使用从 Fatio de Duillier 收到的文本用于 Index Chemicus 的后期版本表明最终版本可能是两者合作的产物。