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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47242	An appendix to The unlearned alchimist wherein is contained the true receipt of that excellent diaphoretick and diuretick pill, purging by sweat and urine, commonly known by the name of Matthew's pill : with the exact manner of preparing and making of it, and the particular nature and virtue of the several ingredients, as also of the pill / by G. Kendall ...	Kendall, George, 1610-1663.; Mathews, Richard, d. 1661. Unlearned alchymist.	1664 (1664)	Wing K283; ESTC R8493	25,129	66

weeks ere you use it and it is fit for use Onely the older it is the better it will be Comparing this and the former receipt we shall not stand in need of a judge endued with the wisedom of Solomon to decide who is the true Father of the child one of a meaner capacity may determine the controversie and if any shall still doubt I shall desire them to read seriously Mr. Starkey's Pyrotechny-asserted and he shall there though in more obscure termes see the foundation and ground of it It will be needless to say any thing for the explaining this Receipt having spoken already to all the ingredients But here you may see some variety in the Alkali The way prescribed to purisie the Salt is worth your serious consideration The Tartar cannot be brought to so pure a Salt by burning but you shall have some feculency adhering to it which by this means is taken away The Art and manner of the composition is of singular concernment The Opium whereof that which comes from the Streights is best cannot be cleansed without dissolution in the doing whereof not any of the vertue is diminished and if it be done with spirit of wine it rather helps to the correcting of it The severall moistenings and dryings of the Pill is of excellent use by this means the Sulphureous part of the Opium in which the malignity consists is exceedingly wasted and totally subdued And now whosoever thou art that shalt undertake the making of this Pill see that thou beest very cautious Thou dealest with dangerous subjects It is not a work for a raw or careless youth Two or three things are much feared in the publishing this Receipt The one lest that the making of this Pill be adventured on by indiscreet persons that want judgment or careless and rash persons that shall without due caution and circumspection mixe these things together and they not being brought to maturity may retain their noxious qualityes and so have dangerous consequences I have severall times heard Mr. Mathews say that he durst not trust bis people in this for if his eye was not on them they were very subject to do amiss an evident experience of whose carelesness was seen in the last preparation for the Pills he made before his death but let such persons consider that this Receipt is not made authentick by being inserted in the dispensatories therefore if any miscary by it through want of due preparation they must not expect to have their fault buried in the Grave without being questioned as is too usuall in those miscariages that are by authorised Physicians The second thing feared is lest this falling into the hands of mercenary men who mind their own gain more then other mens good this medicine may be spoiled and rendred inefficatious and that either by making use of decayed drugs which have lost their virtue or such as are adulterated as much of the Opium which is brought from the Jndies is if credit be to be given to that excellent Herbarist Mr. John Parkinson Or it may be spoiled with additionall mixtures that are either of little value or of a contrary nature either of which may so clog the due ingredients that they shall not be able to put forth their true vertue This hath been the lot of many excellent medicaments which have been reported to be of admirable efficacy in their first Originall and rise but now they are become contemptible and destitute of that power and virtue they at first appeared endued withall The Epithites of Sophisticate and adulterated are not more commonly than truly given to many medicines that are usually sold I will instance only in the Oyle of Amber a thing of singular vertues if rightly prepared from the pure and simple amber many authors have written very highly of the praise thereof and my own experience with the relations I have had from severall persons who have had of this from me hath confirmed the truth of their writings For farther satisfaction you may read what Mr. Mathews affirms of it in several places of his book principally in that part which gives directions how to draw it But this Oyle of Amber that is commonly sold by the Druggists and Apothecaryes is by some of them that are more candid and ingenuous than others acknowledged to be a great part of it Oyle of Turpentine or at the best Oyle of Spike only the Amber over ruling in giving it the sent and tincture for say they were it pure and simple without mixture it could not be afforded at that low price it is sold at How weak and inconsiderate are those persons that having occasion to make use of that Oyl or other the like things will to save a little in the price buy trash to put into their bodys or for outward applications which is likely to afford them little or no releif and how Sordid are those practitioners that will obtrude it upon their patients or direct them to the use of such debilitated and invallid medicaments The third thing feared is lest the very names of the Opium and Hellebores do so affright weak and timerous persons that they shall not dare to make use of it and truly this is the bugbear that doctors do labour to deter people from the use of it by Take heed say they what you do there is Opium in it and Opium will be Opium when all is done to it that can be done whereas this Opium is a principall ingredient in many of their prime medicines as I have formerly shewed and to use Mr. Parkinson's own words It is an ingredient of much respect in those great compositions of Therica Mithridaetum c. the like may be said of the Hellebores But let such persons consider that as the onely wise God placed Cherubims with a flaming sword to keep the way of the Tree of Life so he hath fenced and armed those simples which have most virtue in them for the recovery of mans lost health with some venome that must by wisedom and diligence be destroyed by them that would enjoy the benefit of them The bush that beareth the fragrant Rose hath its sharp prickles and the Bee that affordeth the sweetest hony is armed with a sting which he that will gather the honey must take heed of And if it be lawful to compare temporal things with spiritual I may say true Chymical preparations do somewhat resemble the work of the All-powerful God in the mystery of Regeneration wherein he makes choice of the worst of men many times to make of them the most active instruments for the propagating his Truth and glory Saul the greatest of sinners is made by him the chiefest of the Apostles and one that laboured more abundantly than all the rest in the work of the Ministry where true mortification and renovation passes upon such as have been the most deadly enemies to the Church and cause of Christ they become the most glorious

thou as blind as bayard cry out of the strong poyson of the subjects viz. Poppy and black Hellebore thou snarling fool cease and first learn the power of Salt of Tartar and do not bewray thy folly and ignorance till thou have proved it's power lest thou give occasion of perpetual laughter unto those whom experience hath taught and informed Sal sapit Omnia Salt makes all things savoury Every one knowes it's vertue in preserving things from putrefaction and amongst all fixed Salts there is none so powerful as that of Tartar which Van Helmont calls Sua inter alcalia respublica Diascorides affirms it to be cleansing heating binding eating drying It purifieth the blood and purgeth the body saith Mullerus in the most deplorable diseases It maketh Medicines of it self of excellent vertues according to the severall wayes of preparing of it and mixed with other ingredients it corrects the venome and exceedingly exalts the virtue of the simples to which it is joyned It is of singular use in the extracting the tincture and essence of Vegetables Neither is the Salt Peter though it be here cheifly used for the burning of the Tartar without singular vertue as may be abundantly seen in the writings of several who have treated of it It resists putrefactions quencheth thirst incideth the Tartareous humours in the body resolveth coagulated blood and easeth pain and therefore is frequently used in Feavers and those the most malignant the Collect Plurisie peripneumony stone of the Reins and Bladder and obstruction of the Liver and mesereum for these and other distempers it is variously prepared The Lapis Prunellae the mineral Saccharat Christal the Corallate Niter sweet Salt Panacaea Duplicata or Duplicate Arcanum of Minsicht the Spirit of Niter the flowers and tincture with other excellent medicines highly cryed up by many authors have this for theire Basis But all salts per se are of a sharpe and corrosive nature which is taken a way by the addition of and fermentation with essential Oyles til they be saciated with them and become one body and so they may be made an excellent Balsome Now among all essential Oyles there is not any in the vegetable family doth excel the Oyl or Spirit of Terebinth or Turpentine which is admirably Diuretick and Abstersive healing both outwardly and inwardly as it is very well known to experienced Physicians and Chirurgeons It is hot emollient discutient opening purging Beguinus saith it helpeth the Cough and ptysick it resisteth pestilent Poyson purgeth the Stomach provoketh Urine expels the Stone helpeth the Strangury and Ulcers of the Bladder it openeth and strengtheneth the Nervous-parts dissolveth coagulated blood and helpeth the Matrix Large are the encomiums that by many are given of it and it is plentifully to be had without danger of being adulterated With this Oyl the Salts are to be so long digested till being fully opened they drink up thrice their quantity in weight which you shall in the operation see them after some time greedily as it were thirsting for with which they are to be supplyed till they are fully satisfied neither as yet is there a firm union for after this the Salt will cast forth all the Oyl again and betake it self to the bottom and then become obdurate like a coy Lover that hath taken offence seeming hard to be reconciled yet after this with many sollicitations and much patience it wil yeild to entertain and embrace the Oyl again and to have the Gordian knot knit which cannot be losed This is a six-months work at least yea I have by experience found it in some above a twelve-month before it hath been brought to perfection and if some may have a more speedy way and can facilitate their work yet knowing the proverb difficilia quae pulchra I shall with the poet say Accipe tu facilem Da miht Dificilem This is the corrector of all Vegetables yea the most truculent and virulent stripping them of all their Poysonous and hurt ful qualities and making them safe and excellently medicinable This doth ripen the crudities separate the Gummousnes correct the venome and exalt the vertue of all simples and makes them truly diffusive of their vertue through all the parts of the body where as if they be taken crude or according to the Galenical way of preparation they onely disturb the stomack irritate the Archeus of nature which being enraged may cast forth what is in the stomack and bowels so that which is bad being cast out with the good some benefit may by accident be obtained by them yet not without prejudice to the patient the Faeces of the drugs remaning behind which after leave dangerous consequences Let him that prepares this be sure there be an intire union between the Oyl the Salt and a transmutation of the Oyly Sulphur into a saline nature which may be known by this as by a sure sign viz. if they will dissolve in any liquor without separating any Oylynes swiming on the toppe and then is it made truly volatile and may by an experienced hand be dissolved and distilled of it a Spirit made of farre more excellent vertue The vegetables of which this Pill is composed come next in place to be treated of whose properties are in every Herbal set forth yet in regard every one that shall desire to make vse of this Pill may not be furnished with those Books I conceive it will be of use to give you a breif account of what Authors have writ of them The Opium and the two Hellebores have admirable vertues in them though in regard of a venemous quality connatural to them they have Nol●me tangere writ upon them without a due correction but when that virulency is by a due correction extinguished they prove admirably efficacious for releife in and the cure of many not onely ordinary distempers but astonishing and desperate diseases And first for the Opium it is a great Narcotick and therefore cryed down as a Stupefactive Lethal ingredient by many physicians and yet it is a cheif ingredient in many of their principal Antidotes witness Mitridate Diascordium Venice and London treacle Philonium Laudanum and other medicines of which he that peruses their Dispensatoryes may furnish himself with a catalogue what they correct the malignity of the Opium with in those medicines let the makers of them seriously consider I am confident there is no way proposed in those Dispensatoryes that is sufficient to do it except the multiplicity of ingredients do drown in part their virulency together with part of their vertue The Stupefactive venome of Opium consists in the Sulphureous part of it which by often made factions with this correctour and drying again is exhaled and then it becomes amicable to nature and doth powerfully put forth the following vertues 1. There is an anodinous vertue eminently appearing in the operation of it whereby it quietly asswages pain in a pleasing and almost insensible way driving out

to have it come to the charge of an Apothecarys bill or as a Doctors visit I never yet knew any that had patience to take so much as comes to the ordinary price of a single potion but have thought their Mony well bestowed My first acquaintance with this Pill arose upon my being visited with the gout my pain was very great and my lameness such that I could not walk in my chamber without crutches The first Pil I took wrought some mitigation of the pain but I continued it a good space before I had a perfect cure I first cast away one crutch and after a while the other neither left I the use of the Pill but as often as I either felt or feared the fit approaching I made use of the Pill again and so with the diligent use of it my disease is totally eradicated and blessed be God I have not had a fit of it for some years past My wife also being sorely afflicted with the Meagrim and extream pain in her head seeing the benefit I had reaped by it was perswaded to the use of it and though at first or second Pill she found little amendment yet at 7 or 8 times taking of it she had a full cure And whereas it is the fear of some that the frequent use of them will beget such a habit in the body that they cannot live healthfully without them as it is with those that accustomed themselves to Tobacco my own experience can evince the contrary for I may safely say that neither I or my wife take the quantity of a quarter of an ounce in a year such is the goodness of God to us that we enjoy far more health then we have done for a long time formerly and never have recourse to these except when some cold or other distemper ceases upon us The great objection against this Pill is that it generally bindes the body though some are loosened by it for your satisfaction in that particular I refer you to Mr. Mathewes Book in the 76 and 77 sections or Paragraph This by the variation of some of the ingredients as by a skilful hand may be done may be amended If more particular directions for the use of this Pil be desired I refer you to the rules and examples laid down by Mr. Mathews in his Book to which in what I write I desire to be serviceable not destructive it being his request to us in his sickness that we should publish this Receipt with his Book This therefore may be adjoined to it as an Appendix and will do more service to the publick than the Dunghill there intruded which being according to its name it is high time the Scavenger should carry it out from amongst the habitations of civil people And now as a cloze I shall give you the copy of the Receipt as it was given to me by the first author of it Mr. George Starkey Rec. The best Tartar and Salt-Peter equally ballanced Pulverised and mixt of each a pound or at pleasure put the ingredients in an iron kettle that is clean fire them with a coal and they will burn with an impetuous noise after the flushing is over stir the Mass with an iron rod diligently till the redness cease and the Mass will become a very white Salt of the nature both of the Tartar and Salt Niter which is a noble Salt and gives a very efficacious Alkali Or if you rather desire the Alkali of Tartar alone take of it what quantity you please and send it either to the Glass-house or Pot-house to calcine and it will become a white cake of Salt But in my Pyrotechny asserted I gave reason why Tartar calcined with Saltpeter is no less inferiour to in some cases excelling the Salt of Tartar Per●se by bare concremation To make which the more effectual as to its Alkalisate strength take of this Tartar so calcined by Niter and in a strong crusible let it flow in a wind Furnace pour it out when it is fully melted and you shall have an Alkalisate mass of a blewish colour like potash easily melting in the air of a most excellent Alkalisate sharpness which Salt so prepared is recommended to the studious Artist This or the Calcinate of bare Tartar let the Artist take as he pleaseth and dissolve in boyling water which after agitation twice or thrice being settled and decanted clear let it be boiled up to a driness which is the fixt Salt or Alkali of Tartar purified To make it clear and white as Christal Having dissoived the Lixivium from the Alkali of either the Salt of Tartar single or as was taught with Salt Niter by Concremation and Fusion Let then an infusion of quick-lime be made of which being settled let equal part in respect to the Lixivium be added and the mixture let stand about ten or fourteen daies covered with a cloth from dust then decant all the liquor which will be clear like to running water and the Salt when dry being boyled in a clean vessel from which it shal take no tincture will be white as the purest Cristal Of this Salt made very dry take a pound or what quantity you please of Oyl of Tererebinth or any other distilled Oyl three pound put the Salt into a vessel that is firm and broad pour on so much Oyl as will cover the Salt from the air let it stand and with a pestle stir the mass daily twice or thrice so will the the Oyl gradually be drunk up of the Salt which must again be renewed and daily stirred and ground together till the whole three pound in respect to one of Salt be imbibed the whole will become a white Cream by the union of the Salt and Oyl together This is at least six months work In this union of the Oyl and Salt the Alkalisate corrosiveness of the one is allaied by the unctuosity of the other and both made temperate to the correcting of the malignity and venome of the most truculent vegetables Your Cream or Corrector made as before is taught and having stood its time till it will dissolve in any liquor without separating the least oyliness at the top which is a sure sign of an intire union of both and a transmutation of the oylie Sulphur into a Saline nature Take of your best Opium if very pure if not dissolved filtred and by evaporation drawn to the consistency of a Rob one pound or what you please of white Hellebore pondered and finely searc'd two parts to one of the Opium of the Cream as much as will serve to bring it to the consistency of a Pill beat them well together and dry them in a dish covered from dust cut if you will the mass into thin slices and so moisten it again beating it up still and repeating this till the mass when dried weigh double in respect to the Species then with oyl of Turpentine alone beat it up to the consistency of a Pill and keep it about three