likewise Precipitate what an alkali hath dissolved as we see in the Operation of the Magistery of Sulphur and this because the acid having dissolved and separated the parts of the alkali makes it let go its hold and the body precipitates by its own weight When Milk coagulates by the means of an acid it is because it contains a great deal of Cheese into which the acid enters and losing its motion weighs it down whence it comes to pass that the Coagulum which is made with a weak acid precipitates much less than that which is made with a greater quantity of acid but if you should in curiosity pour a great deal of acid upon the precipitated Coagulum you would find it dissolve by degrees The fermentation of Dough and other matters of the same nature does proceed from this that the natural salts having been put into motion by trituration or some other cause do rarifie and dissolve as much as they can whatsoever resists their motion but because these acid salts do exert their activity by little and little and do meet with much resistance the solution is made slowly and the division of some parts is with difficulty enough And this is that which causes the matter to swell as it does and to take up greater room than it had before Leaven does encrease the fermentation in dough because it self being a paste whereof the salts are become free to act by means of a long fermentation these salts do easily join with those of the other paste or dough and do help them to rarifie and dissolve the whole The same may be likewise said of other acid matters which cause a fermentation But when the acids have rarified the matter as much as they are able they lose their motion in it and then the matter coagulates that is to say returns into the same extension as before There is still one effect of acids which seems different from those I have now spoken of that they do preserve certain bodies which are put into them as salt keeps or preserves meat Thus when young Cucumbers Samphire or Capers are steeped in Vinegar there is no fermentation with them and consequently no corruption The reason of which is that the parts of Cucumbers and other like things being very viscuous and sluggish the acids do insinuate to dissolve them but they have not there their motion free enough to make their jostles and to divide the parts minutely so that the acids of the Vinegar do only fix in the pores of these matters and coagulate in them It is this coagulation which hinders the Cucumbers from corrupting for these acids do shut their pores and serve for so many little pegs wherewith to sustain their parts firm and quiet Sea-salt which is an acid does preserve meat and many other matters for the same reason I have already spoken of that in my Remarks upon the Principles The Coagulation then which acids do cause may justly be said to be an imperfect dissolution of bodies and I could here relate a great many other Examples to prove what I have asserted But I shall content my self with those already said And now let us see whether this discourse can furnish us with any thing that illustrates the digestion of Aliments in the Stomach Most of our modern Philosophers have not spared the notion of acid when they have endeavoured to explicate digestion they have conceived the Membranes of the Stomach to be all impregnated with it and many of them not contented with this liquor alone have brought some more of it from the Spleen and Pancreas but if all these acids were really in the Stomach the aliments would not escape coagulating and consequently an Indigestion as uses to happen after taking too many acids at Meals for conceive never so great a quantity of them either there would not be enough to dissolve the Aliments or else the Membranes of the Stomach would be attenuated and concocted too as well as that which they contain which nevertheless doth not happen in the natural temper of the body There is no need of seeking after these imaginary acids to cause digestion the spittle which mixes with the Aliments as they receive their first Trituration between the Teeth will furnish us with enough to actuate the Fermentation in the Stomach there is but little acid requisite to set the parts in motion but when once they are moved they do contain enough Salts and Spirits of the same nature which being quickned by the heat of this viscus will break all their Chains and find a vent out whence does infallibly follow an attenuation of the Aliment into a Chylous substance It will be said without doubt that the irritation in the Stomach which is called Hunger cannot be produced by any thing but an acid which finding no more Aliments to work upon uses to act upon the Membranes themselves But I think I shall explicate this Irritation better according to my own opinion than that of these men for I may with reason enough say that the spittle finding the stomach empty of all nourishment ferments alone and creates this Irritation seeing that spittle as every body must grant is loaded with a Salt but as for them they must make an acid to come from the membranes which nevertheless doth not irritate them but only when it meets with nothing else in the Stomach to exercise upon which is a thing hard enough to comprehend I know very well that some of them to avoid this difficulty will say that the acid is generated in the stomach from the remainder of that which is eaten which continuing some time in the stomach produces a Leaven after the same manner as Dough but then they must explain to me what the Ferment did consist of which served to digest the first Aliments that the Infant took Another Objection may be made to what I have said touching digestion it is that whereas I have maintained that acids do dissolve when they abound and Coagulate when they are but few in a great deal of matter it should happen that Spittle should then be apter to Coagulate the Aliments in the stomach and cause indigestion than would a greater quantity of acids for it seems according to my discourse the more acids are found in a matter the more liable it must be to dissolve To resolve this difficulty which seems to be very considerable we must observe that the natural acids of Aliments taken into the stomach are sufficient to rarifie and dissolve those bodies which hinder their motion when it has been begun by Mastication or by some salt of the spittle which serves as a Leaven to them much after the same manner as the salts of meal do rarifie the Paste when they have been actuated before by Trituration and Leaven together but now if there happens to be too much acid in the Aliments that are taken into the stomach they will have the same effects as Cucumbers
length and bigness one from another and this diversity must be attributed to the keener or blunter edges of the different sorts of acids and so likewise this difference of the points in subtilty is the cause that one acid can penetrate and dissolve well one sort of mixt that another can't rarifie at all thus Vinegar dissolves Lead which aqua fortis can't Aqua fortis dissolves Quick-silver which Vinegar will not touch Aqua Regalis dissolves Gold whenas Aqua fortis cannot meddle with it on the contrary Aqua fortis dissolves Silver but can do nothing with Gold and so of the rest As for Alkali's they are soon known by pouring an acid upon them for presently or soon after there rises a violent Ebullition which remains until the acid finds no more bodies to rarifie This effect may make us reasonably conjecture that an Alkali is a terrestrious and solid matter whose pores are figured after such a manner that the acid points entring into them do strike and divide whatsoever opposes their motion and according as the parts of which the Alkali is compounded are more or less solid the acids finding more or less resistance do cause a stronger or weaker Ebullition So we see the Effervescency that happens in the dissolution of Coral is very much milder than that in the dissolution of Silver There are as many different Alkali's as there are bodies that have different pores and this is the reason why an acid will Ferment with one strongly and with another not at all for there must be a due proportion between the acid points and the pores of the Alkali The nature of Alkali's being thus established there will be no need of flying to an imaginary salt in Plants for explication of the Effervescency and 't will be easily conceived that if an Alkali salt is full of a terrestrious matter that renders it porous like other Alkali's it must cause an Ebullition That which I said speaking of Volatile salts may here be added that the Igneous particles breaking in through the Pores of the Alkali salt wherein they became imprisoned by the Calcination do much contribute to the raising this Effervescency And really when the Acid Spirit of Vitriol or Aqua fortis is cast upon an Alkali salt there happens as strong an Ebullition as when this liquor is flung into the fire it self Acid Salts do rarely cause any effervescency with Acid liquors because their pores being very small the common acids are not able to pierce into them but we do sometimes meet with Acids whose points are so fine and so proportioned to the pores of the Salts that they will find an entrance even into the exceeding little pores of these Acid Salts and thereby cause a commotion And then these Salts although they be Acid yet may be called Alkali's in respect of such keen Acids This does happen to Sea-salt which is an Acid for though it will make no Ebullition neither with Spirit of salt nor with Spirit of Niter nor with Spirit of Alom nor with Spirit of Vitriol yet if you mix it with the strongest Oil of Vitriol there will rise an Effervescency Wherefore it may be said that one Acid Salt is an Alkali in respect of another because there being few bodies without some pores few of them will prove to be impenetrable when they meet with Acids of an extraordinary subtlety The Fermentation that happens to Dow to new Wine and such like things differs from that I now spoke of in that it is more gentle and slow this is caused by the Natural Acid salt contained in them which expanding and exalting it self by its motion does rarifie and raise up the grosser and sulphureous part which endeavours to allay its motion from whence it comes that the matter swells up The reason why an Acid does not make Sulphureous things Ferment with so much noise and suddenness as Alkali's is because that Oyls consist of pliant parts that yield and make no resistance to the points of Acids as a piece of Wool or Cotton will yield and give way to needles that are thrust into it Thus methinks two sorts of Fermentations may be admitted of the one of an Acid with an Alkali which may be called Ebullition and the other when an Acid does by little and little rarifie some softish matter as Dow or clear and Sulphureous as Muste Syder and all other juices of Plants This last sort may rather be called Fermentation It is further remarkable that the Acid and Alkali do so destroy one another in their conflict that when as much Acid has been by degrees poured as is necessary to penetrate the Alkali in all its parts it is then no more an Alkali nor can it be so again though you wash it to carry off the Acid because it has no longer that disposition of Pores which is requisite in an Alkali and the Acid breaks and loses its points in the contest especially when the Alkali is pretty compact and solid so that if you would recover your Acid again you 'l find it has in a manner lost all its acidity and retains only a sharpness But the Sulphur or Oyl consisting of supple yielding parts does only receive some Acid impression and no such close union so that it can be drawn from Sulphureous bodies much the same as when it was mixt Animals do yield us two sorts of Salt the one Volatile and the other Fixt of the first sort they yield greater quantity than of the second because they do abound much in Spirits which by their continual circulation do Volatilize it This Salt differs but little from the Volatile salt of Seeds and Fruits both which are drawn in a Retort they have the same kind of smell taste and other virtues The Volatile salt of Animals keeps dry a longer time than the others because it carries away with it more fixt salt than those others As for fixt salt animals do yield but a very little of it and in some animals you shall find none at all it is drawn as the fixt salt of Plants they are both Alkali's There is no salt that can be called alkali to be found in the parts or humors of Animals until they have passed the fire a Saline serosity may be observed in them but that salt is acid and it proceeds doubtless from the Aliments that are taken for nourishment Now as I have shewn that there is only an acid salt in Earths and Vegetables so I may say the same of Animals and the rather because no other kind of Salt can be found in them in their Natural state the alkali salts that are drawn from them are only several mutations of an acid salt made by fire which mingles with them earthy particles after the manner I have spoken of treating of the Alkali's of Plants But it is observable that whereas there is a greater proportion of Spirits in Animals than Seeds these Spirits do serve to exalt all the Salt which is
the reason that less fixt salt is to be found in Animals than Plants As for what many do say that Choler causes an Effervescency like an Alkali when an acid is cast upon it 't is a mistake through want of right Observation for no Ebullition at all happens for some time Nevertheless I will not say that an acid produces no Fermentation in Choler Bloud and other parts of the body for it does very often really do that but that is no more than uses to be done in new Wine Beer and other liquors of the like nature I have already explicated this sort of Fermentation We ought not to omit speaking of the Coagulation that 's made in Milk after a Fermentation caused either by Heat or some Acid put into it Methinks here is no need at all of supposing an Alkali salt that ferments with the Acid of this liquor as many suppose for explicating this Effect since if we consider but the natural composition of Milk we shall find it to be nothing but a Creamy substance swimming on the Serum and mixed only superficially with it by the intermixture of some salt so that it is in a fitting state of separation as soon as the salt gains a little more motion than it had whether it be by Fermentation or by encreasing its activity by an acid of its own nature Thus when the heat of the Summer or fire has stirred up the acid that is in the Milk or else some acid is poured into it the edges of the acid do cut and divide the Creamy part to gain a free motion in the Serum and separate into Curd all the Butter and Cheese Now there 's nothing strange in the Precipitation of the Curd especially when an acid has been poured upon the Milk for besides the weight it gains by thickning some part of the acids do mix with it and encrease its weight for according as the acid that was mingled is stronger or weaker the Curd does Precipitate more or less Perhaps some will say for as much as acid is always the cause of Coagulation in Milk there 's no great likelihood that a salt of the same nature should be the instrument of uniting the several parts of Milk But it must be considered that although there is an acid in Milk as no body can doubt seeing it sowres of it self when stale this acid is as it were imbodied in the ramous parts of the Oyl so that there is loses all its motion and cannot come to action but by rarifying the Oyl and making it fit to mix with the serous part it is the due proportion of this salt Oyl and serum that makes the Butter and Cheesy part of Milk Now I hope I have said enough to establish what I have affirmed that there 's no salt in nature besides the acid out of which all other Salts are made and that the Alkali salt has no Natural existence in mixt bodies My discourse will be the better relished when I speak of the Operations of Chymistry and you 'l find that by this Principle which I may call the most Natural and impartial of all that have been laid till now I shall be able to give account of many Phaenomena's that have never been explicated by common Principles Of Chymical Furnaces and Vessels It is not my design to relate here exactly all the kinds of Vessels and Furnaces that Artists have invented to use in Chymistry I shall describe only those with which you will be able to perform all Operations and send curious persons who would be more particularly instructed in them into the Laboratories where they may learn more on this subject than ever they will be able to do by consulting all the Books in the world These then are the principal The Furnace which is most in use among Chymists is that which is called the Reverberatory it must be large enough to hold a great Retort for the Distillation of acid Spirits and other things This Furnace must be fixt and made of Brick joyned together with a Lute compounded of one part of Potters earth so much Horse-dung and twice as much Sand the whole kneaded together in Water let it be two Bricks breadth that the Furnace being the thicker the heat may be retained the longer let the Ash-hole be a Foot high and the Door contrived if possible on the side that the air comes that when you have a mind to open it the Fire may be lighted or encreased the more easily the fire room need not be quite so high you must lay a-cross it two Iron-bars of the bigness of your thumb which will serve you to set your Retort upon and the Furnace must be still raised near about a Foot higher to cover the Retort fit to it a Dome or Cover that may have a hole in the middle with its stopple and a small Chimny a foot high for to place upon this hole when the stopple is taken out and when you would raise a great heat for the flame preserving its self by means of this little Chimney it reverberates the more strongly upon the Retort This Cover may be made of the same Paste that I shall presently describe speaking of Portable Furnaces It will be necessary to have several Furnaces of this same fashion but they must be of different sizes to work conveniently according to the bigness of the Vessel you would place in it For that the Fire may act more vehemently upon the Retort there must be left but only the space of a fingers breadth all round between the Furnace and the Retort These Furnaces may also serve for Distilling by the Refrigeratory in the Sea-Bath the Vaporous and the Sand-bath for you may place the Copper body upon the Iron bars when you would distil by the Refrigeratory It is easie to do the same with the Balneum Mariae As for the Sand-bath lay an iron or earthen pan on the bars and put sand enough into it for to cover the bottom and sides of the Vessel you desire to heat As for Fusions you must build a Furnace of the same matter and form as those spoken of before only you must forbear laying the two Iron bars in it that you did in the others for support of the Vessel Moveable Furnaces are made of a paste that consists of three parts of broken pots in powder and two parts of clay temper'd together with Water Their structure is just like that of the An Explication of the FIGURES of the FIRST TABLE A Great Reverberatory Furnace a The Ash-hole b The Fire-room c A Retort supported on two Iron bars d The Dome or Cover e The Receiver f A little Chimny g The Dome taken off the Furnace h A Retort i A small Reverberatory Furnace ready to work with k A fixed little Furnace for Fusions l An Iron pot to hold the sand m The Fire-place n The Ash-room o A Furnace in which is placed a great Copper Body p The Copper Body
this reason will not hold when 't is considered that this Augmentation comes to pass as well when Lead is Calcin'd with Coals as Wood for Coals contain only a fixt Salt that rises not at all 'T is better therefore to refer this effect to the disposition of the pores of Lead in such a manner that part of the fire insinuating into them does there remain imbodied and can't get forth again whence the weight comes to be encreased If you would revive this Calx of Lead by way of Fusion its parts do squeez and express the igneous particles that were inclosed and the Lead does thereby weigh less than it did when reduced into a Calx for by this means the Sulphureous parts are separated and lost Salt of Saturn This Operation is a Lead penetrated and reduced into the form of Salt by the acidity of Vinegar Take three or four pounds of one of these Preparations or Calcinations of Lead for example the Cerusse powder it and put it in a large Glass or Earthen vessel pour upon it distill'd Vinegar four fingers high an Ebullition will follow without any sensible heat Put it in Digestion in hot Sand for two or three days stirring about the Matter ever now and then then let it settle and separate the Liquor by Inclination Pour new distill'd Vinegar upon the Cerusse that remains in the Vessel and proceed as before continuing to pour on distill'd Vinegar and to separate it by Inclination until you have dissolved about half the Matter Mix all your Impregnations together in an earthen or glass Vessel Evaporate in a Sand-fire with a gentle heat about two thirds of the moisture or 'till there rises a little skin over it Then transfer your Vessel into a Celler or some such cool place without jogging it there will appear white Crystals which you must separate and Evaporate the Liquor as before and set it again in the Cellar Continue your Evaporations and Crystallizations 'till you have gotten all your Salt Dry it in the Sun and keep it in a Glass If you would make it exceeding white you must dissolve it in equal quantities of distill'd Vinegar and common water then Filter it and Crystallize it as I said before This Purification may be repeated three or four times It is commonly used in Pomatums for Tettars and Inflammations the Impregnation of Saturn is also used chiefly for Diseases of the skin when it is mixed with a great deal of Water it makes a Milk that is called Virgins Milk The Salt of Saturn taken inwardly is esteemed very good for the Quinsie to stop the flowing of the Menses and Hemorrhoids and for the Bloudy Flux The Dose is from two grains to four in Knot-grass or Plantain water or mixt in Gargâ—es Remarks I do commonly use Cerusse for preparing the Salt of Saturn because I find it to be more open and easier to dissolve than the other Preparations of Lead by reason of the Vinegar it is already impregnated with The Ebullition that is observed doth proceed from the violent entrance of the acids which do forcibly separate the parts of the Matter But it is remarkable that the Effervescency which happens upon pouring a like quantity of acids on any other preparation of Lead is a great deal stronger because when the acid meets with a body not so open as Cerusse it must use greater endeavour to enter into it and consequently raises up the Matter higher In these Effervescences as well as many others you cannot perceive the least Degree of Heat nay some presume to assert that Cold is increased in them Vinegar loses all its force in the penetration of Lead and acquires a kind of sweet or sugar'd taste You must not imagine that a true Salt of Lead can be drawn It is nothing but a dissolution of its substance by acids which do very closely unite with it to form a kind of Salt For if by distillation you should draw off the humidity of the Dissolution you 'd find it to be nothing but an Insipid water and consequently deprived of all its acids I shall prove that better hereafter when we come to revive our Salt into Lead This Salt called Sugar by reason of its sweetness is good for many Diseases that are caused by acid or sharp humors because it asswages them and mitigates their keenness This is particularly observed in Quinzies whose cause doth ordinarily proceed from a saline or acid serosity which falling too abundantly on the Muscles of the Larynx raises a fermentation that dilates their fibers and causes the Inflammation we see Thus whatsoever is able to dull the edge of Acids is good for the cure of this Disease Menstrual Purgations Flux of the Hemorrhoids and Dysenteries are usually caused by sharp corrosive Salts which fall into the Vessels Wherefore the Salt of Saturn as all other matters that absorb Acids do serve to cure these distempers for take away the cause of a disease and the effect will soon cease The sweetness of Salt of Saturn cannot be better explicated than by the Sulphureous or softish substanee of the particles of Lead which being actuated by the Salt of Vinegar do delightfully tickle the Nerve of the tongue when it is tasted Vinegar impregnated with some preparation of Lead is called Vinegar of Saturn If it be well tempered with Oil of Roses or some other Oil beating them together in a mortar it makes an unguent that is called Nutritum or otherwise Butter of Saturn it is good for Tettars and other disfigurations of the skin Magistery of Saturn This Operation is a Lead dissolved and precipitated Dissolve two or three ounces of the Salt of Saturn well purified as I said before in a sufficient quantity of Water and distill'd Vinegar filter the dissolution and pour upon it drop by drop the Oil of Tartar made per Deliquium it will first turn into a Milk then a kind of Coagulum that will precipitate to the bottom of the Vessel in a white Powder Boil it a little and pour it into a Tunnel lined with a Coffin of brown Paper the Liquor will pass through as clear as Water and the Powder remain in it Wash it several times with Water to carry off all the impression of Vinegar Then dry it and you 'l have a very white Magistery that is used for a Fucus like the Bismuth It is likewise mixed in Pomatums for Tettars c. Remarks When good store of Water is poured upon the Impregnation of Saturn it turns white like Milk and is commonly called Virgins milk it is used in Inflammations and to Pimples in the face if you let this Milk settle it becomes as clear as Water and a White powder sinks down to the bottom this Powder does proceed from the particles of Lead which were held up by the acidity of the Vinegar and were made let go their hold by the access of Water diluting the acid This Magistery being well washt may serve like the other
which weighs nine ounces It is a good Escharotick it eats proud flesh it is used for the laying open of Chancres mixt with burnt Alom AEgyptiacum and the common Suppurative Some do give it inwardly to four grains for to raise a Flux with but this is dangerous unless rectified Spirit of Wine be burnt two or three times upon it Remarks This Preparation is improperly called Precipitate here being no Precipitation at all Many Authors have thought they could much encrease the redness of this Precipitate by Cohobating it or distilling Spirit of Niter three times upon the white mass but I have found by experience both ways that these Circumstances are of no use The white Mass which remains after Evaporation of the humidity is a mixture of Mercury with a great many acid Spirits for it weighs three ounces more than the Mercury did which was dissolved it is extreme Corrosive and fiery if applied to the flesh but according as it is Calcined in order to make it red the edges of the Spirit of Niter which caused the Corrosion do strike off and fly into the Air whence it comes to pass that the more we desire to encrease its redness by Calcination the less it weighs and the less it corrodes Some Chirurgeons observing this effect do choose the Precipitate that is not so red as usual when they would make an Eschar quickly If you still continue the fire some hours under the red mass it will sublime and still retain its colour this sublimate is not so Corrosive as the other which makes me think that the points of Spirit of Salt are necessary to make a sublimate very Corrosive The reason why it sublimes is because the Mercury being delivered from a great many acid Spirits which did fix it has power to rise with those that remain But because these remaining Spirits do moderate a little its volatility it makes a stop in the middle of the Viol. Some do put red Precipitate into an Earthen Pot and pour upon it Spirit of Wine well rectified then fire it and when the Spirit is consumed they add more and burn it as before they repeat the adding Spirit of Wine and burning it six times and then call this Preparation Arcanum Corallinum The Spirit of Wine by burning does carry off some edges of the Precipitate and joyns it self to the rest so that this Precipitate is sweetned and rendred fit to be taken inwardly If by way of curiosity you pour Spirit of Vitriol upon common red Precipitate such as I have described a dissolution will soon follow because Spirit of Vitriol joyning with the Spirit of Niter that remained in the Precipitate an Aqua fortis must happen from their union which is able to dissolve imperceptibly the parts of Mercury but this dissolution will happen without any Ebullition because the Mercury has been already rarified by an acid so that the Spirit of Vitriol does only dissolve them without making any commotion The solution is clear like other solutions of Mercury without any appearance of redness and the same Preparations may be made with it as are used to be by the solution of Quicksilver in Aqua fortis If instead of Spirit of Vitriol you pour Spirit of Salt upon the red Precipitate it turns presently into a curious white because the Spirit of Salt does break the force of the Spirit of Niter that was in the red Precipitate and the same thing must happen here as does when Spirit of Salt is poured upon the solution of Quicksilver for although red Precipitate be a dry body yet it is nothing else but a mixture of Quicksilver and Spirit of Niter I have given the reason why Spirit of Salt comes to weaken Spirit of Niter in my Remarks upon white Precipitate As for the sudden change of colour it is indeed somewhat strange that a matter which is grown red by Calcination should in a minutes time turn so exceeding white This Effect can be attributed only to the dislocation which the acid spirit of Salt does cause in the parts of red Precipitate and to the disposition it puts them anew into so that their Superficies is put into a capacity of reflecting the light in a right line to our eyes to give the appearance of a white colour for if by means of another sort of liquor or else by fire and some alkali body the disposition of the parts of your Precipitate is again changed it will obtain some other colour or else it will return and revive into Quicksilver If you pour the volatile spirit of Sal Armoniack upon red Precipitate it turns into a grey powder but if you throw a great deal of water upon it it becomes a milk though none of the whitest The same thing happens when you drop Spirit of Sal Armoniack into the solution of Quicksilver made with Spirit of Niter for soon after the effervescency is over a grey powder is seen to Precipitate and if you add to it water it becomes a milk of the same whiteness as the other Common red Precipitate then is subject to the same alterations as the solution of Mercury the red colour giving no particular impression to it which truly is a good proof that colour is no real thing but wholly depends upon the modification of parts Turbith Mineral or Yellow Precipitate This Preparation is a Mercury impregnated with the acidity of Oil of Vitriol Put four ounces of Quick-silver revived from Cinnabar into a glass Retort and pour upon it sixteen ounces of Oil of Vitriol set your Retort in Sand and when the Mercury is dissolved put fire underneath and distil the humidity make the fire strong enough toward the end for to drive out some of the last Spirits of all afterwards break your Retort and powder in a glass Mortar a white Mass you find within it which weighs five ounces and a half pour warm water upon it and the matter will presently change into a yellow powder which you must dulcifie by a great many repeated Lotions then dry it in the shade you 'l have three ounces and two drachms of it It purges strongly both by vomit and stool it is given in Venereal maladies the dose is from two grains unto six in Pills Remarks Though that which is improperly called Oil of Vitriol be the strongest and most Caustick acid of this Mineral Salt it is nevertheless much weaker than Spirit of Niter and so requires a greater quantity of it and longer time to dissolve the Mercury in for there 's much a-do to dispatch the solution in ten hours That which is distilled is exceeding weak because the Mercury retains the greatest part of the acid Spirits and they are the things that purge so strongly although many of them be carried off by the Lotions All these Preparations are nothing but so many different shapes of Mercury made by acid Spirits which according to their different adhesions do cause such different effects All these Precipitates and
and for heating the lowermost When its bottom is red-hot cast into it a small spoonful of Antimony in powder through the hole and stir the matter at the bottom of the pot with an Iron Spatule crooked a little on purpose to do it the better draw out your Spatule and stop the hole the flowers will rise and stick in the upper pots Continue a great fire that the pot may still remain red-hot and when you see nothing more sublime cast in so much more Antimony observing to do what I have said Repeat the casting it in through the hole till you have flowers enough Then let the fire go out and when the vessels are cold unlute them you 'l find flowers all about the three upper pots and the head gather them together with a Feather and keep them in a Viol. It is a powerful Emetick it is given in Quartan Agues and other Intermittent Feavers and also in the Epilepsie the dose is from two grains to six in Lozenges or Broth. Remarks In this preparation as in the former you must leave room enough otherwise the flowers of Antimony being driven fiercely by the fire would be apt to break the vessel for want of room to move in And this is the reason why many pots are here placed one upon another There 's no need of any Receiver because there is no liquor to fall into it so that a blind head may serve At the bottom of the pot which contained the matter there remains a mass of the more terrestrious part of Antimony that must be flung away as being good for nothing If the Flowers of Antimony do happen to be of different colours it is because the fire was not managed equally strong these Flowers are more Vomitive than the former because they have no Salt-peter in them Red Flowers of Antimony These Flowers are the more sulphureous part of Antimony rarefied and exalted by fire Powder and mix well together four pounds of common glass with one pound of Antimony put this mixture into an earthen or glass Retort luted whose half is empty set it in a Reverberatory Furnace and fit to it a large Receiver lute the junctures lightly and give a little fire at first to warm the Retort then augment it by degrees and you 'l see Red flowers come forth into the Receiver continue the fire until no more can come which you 'l know as you unlute the junctures and taking off the Receiver gather your Flowers and keep them for use They are more Vomitive than the former and are given to the same intents the dose is from two grains to four in a Lozenge or some appropriate liquor Remarks That which makes these Flowers more Vomitive than the former is the more terrestrious or fixt part of Antimony's being kept from rising by the glass so that what is exalted by the fire is more Sulphureous and consequently more Emetick The red colour of these Flowers doth proceed from the abundance of Sulphurs they are impregnated with and it may be said that glass which is an alkali acting on this Sulphur gives it this colour after the same manner as Quick-lime or the alkali Salt of Tartar makes common Sulphur turn red when they are boiled together in water The time that you take these Flowers of Antimony you must often drink broth both to facilitate the vomiting and dull the great activity of this Remedy for it is one of the strongest vomits that is in Physick But because it sometimes happens that this Powder sticking in the membranes of the stomach or some of its folds doth cause a continual vomiting notwithstanding the frequent use of broths you must then add the Cream of Tartar and dissolve it in the broth and so take some spoonful every quarter of an hour This Cream of Tartar stops the vomiting because it joyns with the Sulphurs of Antimony and fixes them so that they precipitate by stool Butter or Icy Oil of Antimony This preparation is an Antimony rendred caustick by acids Powder and mix six ounces of the Regulus of Antimony with a pound of Sublimate Corrosive put this mixture into a glass Retort whose half remains empty set your Retort in Sand and after having fitted to it a Receiver and luted the conjunctions you must first make a small fire under it and there will distil a clear oil after that augment the fire a little and there will come forth a white thick liquor like Butter which would stop the neck of the Retort and break it if you did not take care to set live Coals near it that it may melt and run into the Receiver Continue the fire until you see a red vapour come forth Then take away the Receiver and put another in its place filled with water Encrease the fire by degrees to make the Retort red-hot and the Mercury will run into the water dry it and keep it for use as other Mercury The Butter of Antimony is a Caustick it eats proud flesh and cleanses Ulcers the Powder of Algarot is made of it as I shall shew hereafter Remarks This Butter of Antimony is nothing but a mixture of the acid Spirits of Sublimate Corrosive with the Regulus of Antimony and those Spirits are they that render it Caustick The spirits of Salt and Vitriol in this operation do leave the Mercury to adhere unto the Antimony which is more porous insomuch that the Mercury being divested of that which kept it in a Crystalline form and being driven by a strong fire rarefies into vapours which pass through the neck of the Retort into the Receiver filled with water wherein it condenses into Quick-silver by means of the coolness I doubt not but some will find difficulty in conceiving how the acids that adhered to the solid body of Mercury should strike off to joyn with the Antimony but it may be said to that that the acids being so many edges fastned at one end in the body of Mercury may by t'other end be separated and drawn off by the soft and ramous parts of the Antimony that are in greater motion than the Mercury Instead of Regulus the Liver or Glass of Antimony might serve if you please Butter of Antimony together with its Cinnabar The first of these preparations is an Antimony opened and rendred caustick by the acids of Sublimate Corrosive and the second is a mixture of the Mercury that was in the sublimate and of the Sulphurs of Antimony sublimed together Fill a Retort half full with Sublimate Corrosive and Antimony powdered and mixed well together Set your Retort in Sand in a small Furnace and fitting a Receiver to it and luting the junctures proceed in the distillation the way I shewed in the preceding operation with Regulus observing the same circumstances When the red vapours begin to appear take away the Receiver and put another in its place without luting the junctures encrease the fire by little and little till you make the Retort red-hot continue
that by the conjunction of these two spirits the Aqua fortis is compelled to abandon the metal that it had dissolved is nothing at all to the clearing of the question unless a man will needs give an intelligence to these spirits Wherefore we must still have recourse to the agitation and jostles for the true reason It is also remarkable that the effervescency which happens when Spirit of Salt is cast into the solution of some bodies by Aqua fortis is different from that which happens when some alkali is cast into it the former being much more gentle than the latter The Spirit of Salt dissolves leaf gold which Aqua fortis is not able to do When this Spirit is dulcified it is mixed with Spirit of Wine which being a Sulphur doth take off the edges of the acid and in part hinders their motion whence it comes to pass that this Spirit is milder by this addition than if water had been used instead of Spirit of Wine The Spirit of Salt may be made with Salt Decrepitated after the same manner CHAP. XVI Of Niter or Salt-peter IT is probable that the Niter of the antients was either the Aegyptian Natron or a salt that is found in the earth in a gray compact mass or else the natural Borax or the salt which is drawn from the water of the river Nilus and many other rivers And it may be that all these salts are divers kinds of their Niter but the Niter of the moderns is nothing else but Salt-peter and this is that of which I intend to speak Niter is a Salt impregnated with abundance of Spirits out of the air which do render it volatile it is taken from among the stones and earths of old ruined buildings Some of it is likewise to be found in Cellars and several other moist places because the air doth condense it in those places and easily unites with the stones Salt-peter is also sometimes made by the Urine of Animals falling upon stones and earths Nay some have thought that all Salt-peter comes from that cause whereas we see every day that some of it is taken out of places where there never came any Urine at all This salt is half volatile and half like unto Sal Gemme as I shall prove hereafter The great and violent flame which happens so soon as Salt-peter is flung upon the coals and the red vapours which it uses to yield when reduced into a spirit have induced the Chymists generally to believe that this salt is inflammable and consequently fully loaded with Sulphur because Sulphur is the only Principle that flames but if they had suspended their judgments herein until they had got more experience on this Subject they would not only have known that Salt-peter is not at all inflammable in its nature but they would e'en have doubted whether or no any Sulphur does enter into the natural composition of this salt for if Salt-peter were inflammable of it self like Sulphur it would burn where there is no Sulphur for example in a Crucible heated red-hot in the fire but it will never flame therein use what quantity of it you please and let the fire be never so great It is true indeeed if you throw Salt-peter upon kindled coals it makes a great flame but this is only through the sulphureous Fuliginosities of the coals which are violently raised and rarefied by the volatile nature of Niter as I shall prove in the Operation upon fixt Niter As for any Sulphur that is thought to be contained in Salt-peter it can't be demonstrated by any Operation whatever for the red vapours that come from it are no more inflammable than the Niter when they are not mixt with some Sulphureous matter and it is far more probable that this salt contains no Sulphur if we consider its cleanness transparency acidity and cooling quality which have no manner of affinity with the effects of Sulphur which are commonly to make a body opake to take off acidity and to heat Purification of Salt-peter To purifie Salt-peter is to deprive it of part of its fixt salt and of a little bituminous earth which it contains Dissolve ten or twelve pounds of Salt-peter in a sufficient quantity of water let the dissolution settle and filtrate it then evaporate it in a glass or earthen vessel to the diminution of half or until there begins to appear a little skin upon it then remove your vessel into a cool place stirring it as little as may be and leave it there till the morrow you 'l find Crystals which you must separate from the liquor evaporate this liquor again to a skin and set the vessel in a cool place to get new Crystals repeat the evaporations and Crystallizations until you have drawn all your Salt-peter Note that in the last Crystallizations you 'l have a Salt altogether like unto sea-salt or Sal Gemme keep it apart it may serve to season meat with The first Crystals are the pure Salt-peter You may if you please dissolve and purifie Salt-peter several other times in water observing every time what I said before for to render it more white and purifie it from its Sea-salt Salt-peter purified is a great aperitive it cools the body by fixing the humours that are in too much motion and drives them by Urine It is given in Feavers in Gonorrheas and many other diseases the dose is from ten grains to a drachm in Broth or some appropriate liquor Remarks The first Purification that is given to Salt-peter is this the stones and earths that contain it are grosly powdered they are boiled in a great deal of water to dissolve the Salt-peter the dissolution is filtred and then poured upon ashes to make a Lixivium after it hath been poured upon the ashes several times it is evaporated and Crystallized The salt of the ashes which does mix with the Salt-peter increases its fixt part but that which is made without ashes is the better to make Aqua fortis with The earth from whence Salt-peter hath been drawn being set in the open air and stirred about from time to time doth re-impregnate with a kind of Salt The long Crystals that we see Salt-peter shoot into do proceed from its volatile part for that which is Crystallized last is fixt like sea-salt and looks just like it Salt-peter can never be purified so well but it will still contain a salt like unto Sal Gemme or sea-salt but in less quantity than before When Salt-peter is boiled a long time in water and over a great fire some part of the Spirits do fly away and there remains at last nothing but a salt like unto sea-salt or Sal Gemme which serves to prove that Salt-peter is only a Sal Gemme fuller of Spirits than the other as I said speaking of the Principles When you would Crystallize a Salt you must dissolve it in a convenient proportion of water for if there should be too much the salt would be weakned too much and
my Machine You must leave an empty space between the brims of the Bell and the Pan that the Fire may have air enough to keep it lighted but besides that the Fire is apt to go out every moment use never so much precaution a very poor quantity of Spirit is drawn this way Authors do recommend this Operation to be done when the weather 's wet and to moisten the Bell before-hand but I have found by experience that these circumstances signified nothing at all With the Machine that I have described I can draw a good handsom quantity of Spirit and I am not forced to fire the Sulphur several times because the hole at top gives vent to the air and hinders the fires going out Again the more Phlegmatick part evaporates that way but the acid Spirit not being able to rise so high condenses against the sides of the tunnel and then falls down under the little pan that is turned upside down to raise the other higher that contains the Sulphur You may use a Crucible instead of a pan to put the Sulphur in The greenish Sulphur is better than the other for this Operation because it has more Vitriol in it and consequently more Spirit for this Spirit is nothing but a Vitriolick Salt dissolved that differs little from the Spirit of Vitriol besides in the Taste which is not so Empyreumatical as not having undergone so violent a Fire The Vitriolick salt which is in the Sulphur does not rise until the more volatile parts are spent for which reason the Spirit does not distil until towards the end and the drops begin then to appear in the middle of the Tunnel Forasmuch as Sulphur is good for diseases of the Lungs and Breast many do think that the Spirit which is drawn from it ought to have the same virtues but they do not consider that this Spirit being deprived of the fat or most sulphureous part of Sulphur hath also lost the virtue that accompanies it and that it must produce effects altogether different from those of Sulphur after the manner as the acid Spirits which are drawn from Sugar Vitriol and many other matters have very different virtues from those of the mixts themselves And the reason of it is very plain for whereas the Sulphur by its ramous parts can sweeten the acrimonious humours which fall upon the Lungs and so help the Cough the Spirit of Sulphur which is an acid does prick the Fibres of the Larynx and cause a Coughing as all other acids do Salt of Sulphur The Salt of Sulphur is a Sal Polychrestum impregnated with Spirit of Sulphur Put four ounces of Sal Polychrestum prepared as I have said into an earthen pan or a glass vessel and pour upon it two ounces of Spirit of Sulphur set your vessel in sand and evaporate all the liquor over a gentle fire there will remain four ounces and six drachms of an acid salt most agreeable to the taste keep it in a bottle well stopt It is a good medicine for to open all Obstructions and to work by Urine and sometimes it works also by stool the dose is from ten grains to two scruples in broth It is dissolved from half a drachm to two drachms in a quart of water for a drink in Feavers Remarks This Salt is improperly called Salt of Sulphur for it is nothing but a Sal Polychrestum impregnated with an acid Spirit Many great descriptions have been given of Salt of Sulphur which being well examined do all come to the same thing as this it is called by many Authors a Febrifugous salt The true Salt of Sulphur truly so called should be a little of the fixed Vitriol which remains in the earth of Sulphur after that the flowers have been drawn from it and should be separated from the earth by a Lixivium as other fixed salts are made but such a Salt would not have the same qualities as this Some have written that when Spirit of Sulphur is poured upon Sal Polychrestum dissolved in water there is made a great effervescency as well as when the same Spirit is thrown upon Salt-peter but without doubt they little examined the matter for there is no ebullition made neither with the Sal Polychrestum nor with Salt-peter they being both of them acid salts The union of acid Spirits with acid Salts is very different from that between acids and alkalis for the acid Spirits not being able to open the insensible parts of acid Salts they do lose nothing of their strength and their keenness remains the same but it is not so in respect of acids mixed with alkalis for such a penetration is made into the alkalis that the acid loses its strength in them And for the reason that I have now given the Salt of Sulphur is very acid and tartarum vitriolatum is hardly at all acid although there is imployed proportionably as much more acid Spirit for the making tartarum vitriolatum than there is for the making Salt of Sulphur The Salt of Sulphur is good in Tertians and continued Feavers and on all occasions where there is need of calming the too great motion of the humours because the acid serves to fixe the volatile Salts or Sulphurs which are most commonly the principal cause of these diseases CHAP. XXI Of Succinum or Ambar THere is found in small currents near the Baltick Sea in the Dutchy of Prussia a certain coagulated Bitumen which because it seems to be a juice of the earth is called Succinum and Carabè because it will attract straws it is likewise called Electrum Glessum Ambra Citrina vulgarly Yellow Ambar This Bitumen being soft and viscous several little Animals such as Flies and Ants do stick to it and are buried in it Ambar is of different colours such as White Yellow and Black The White is most esteemed though it be no better than the Yellow The Black hath the least virtue of all Ambar serves to stop spitting of bloud the Bloudy-flux the immoderate flux of the Hemorrhoids Terms and Gonorrheas the dose is from ten grains to half a drachm It is likewise used to stop a little the violence of Catarrhs by receiving the fume of it at the Nose Some do think that Petroleum or Oil of Peter is a liquor drawn from Ambar by the means of Subterranean fires which make a distillation of it and that Jet and coals are the remainders of this distillation This opinion would have probability enough in it if the places from whence this sort of drogues does come were not so far asunder the one from the other for Petroleum is not commonly found but in Italy in Sicily and Provence This Oil distils through the clefts of rocks and it is very likely to be the Oil of some Bitumen which the subterranean fires have raised Tincture of Ambar This Operation is a solution of some oily parts of Ambar made in Spirit of wine Reduce into an impalpable powder five or six ounces of yellow
soluble part of the other Divers little Objections have likewise been made me on this subject for want of duly examining what I have established Wherefore I do not desire to enlarge in the relation of them for I do aim as much as I can to avoid Repetitions as being good for nothing but to swell a Book and tire the Reader Wine diminishes the appetite as saith Hippocrates and the cause may be because the Sulphureous Spirits it is charged with do dull and oppress the Ferment of the Stomach which by its irritation caused hunger Vinous liquors may be made of all Fruits and many other things by means of Fermentation as from Apples Pears Honey and Hopps In like manner Berries Seeds Leaves and Flowers may be made to Ferment but because several of these things are naturally too dry to ferment easily they must be wetted with water after they are beaten and to quicken their Fermentation a little Yest is to be added and by this means liquors are made whence burning Spirits may be drawn as well as from Wine That which happens in the fermentation of Wines may serve very well to explicate many diseases but especially the Small Pox for it is very probable that in this disease the bloud does boil and ferment in the vessels much after the manner as Wine ferments in a vessel The little pustules of the Small Pox are a Tartar which is separated from the bloud to the skin after the same manner as the Tartar separates from the Wine to the sides of the vessel and indeed they have the same effect as salt in corroding the skin Infants are more subject to this disease than elder persons because their bloud is more like to Muste and consequently is more subject to ferment The Small-pox does usually happen but once in a mans life just as Muste does ferment also but once Distillation of Wine into Brandy Fill with Wine half a large Copper body cover it with its Moors head bordered with its Refrigeratory and fit to it a Receiver lute well the junctures with a wet Bladder and distil with a gentle fire about a quarter of the Liquor or else until the liquor which distils doth not burn when fire is put to it that which is in the Receiver is called Brandy and in French Aqua vitae Remarks Brandy is a Spirit of wine loaded with phlegm that it hath carried with it in the distillation these Spirits do always rise first and so it is known that there remain no more in the Cucurbite when the liquor that distils is no longer inflammable Brandy may be drawn from all sorts of Wines but more of it may be drawn in some Countries than others For example the Wines that are made about Orleans and Paris do yield greater plenty of Brandy than many others which seem to be stronger and the reason is that those Wines which appear stronger being loaded with a great deal of Tartar have their Spirits as it were fixed whereas the others containing but a convenient portion of this Tartar do leave their Spirits at greater liberty When Wine has been drunk there is made a separation of Spirits in the body much resembling that which is made by distillation for the heat of the bowels warming it causes the Spirituous parts to spread on all sides through the pores and some part of them to mix with the bloud and rarefie it from whence it comes to rejoyce the heart and encrease the vigour of the whole body but because these Spirits do always tend upwards the greatest part flies into the brain where it quickens its motion and produces a certain gaiety of mind that is wont to furnish us with many excellent thoughts But now if wine moderately taken is so profitable for the Functions of the body it likewise causes many mischiefs when it is excessively used for the Spirituous parts rising in great abundance do circulate in the brain with so much celerity that they soon confound the whole Oeconomy And then the objects will appear double and the walls of the place where one is seem to have changed their ordinary situation This Confusion remains until the Spirits having some good time dissolved the phlegm do in part condense with it and in part spend through the pores It likewise then happens that a man is prone to sleep because the Pituita being attenuated either by the Spirits of wine or by the phlegm they have drawn along with them glides into the small passages of the brain and retards the Circulation of the Animal Spirits by gluing them together for after the same manner as the motion of the Spirits in the Brain doth beget watchfulness so their repose or condensation produces sleep But I shall speak more amply of this subject hereafter when I come to treat of the effects of Opium The sleep which is caused through excess of Wine doth usually remain until the Animal Spirits have rarefied this phlegm and opened a free passage Those who are intoxicated with Beer Sider or some such like liquor do remain in their Drunkenness a longer time and sleep more after it than those who are drunk with Wine because the Spirit of these liquors carrying along with it a viscous phlegm into the brain remains a longer time in the disengaging it self and passing through the pores Again it is the viscosity of this phlegm which entring into the Sinus of the brain does cause so long a sleep because it is so hard to rarefie Those Accidents that I have related to proceed from the immoderate use of Wine are but the first and the less grievous though indeed they are but little to be desired every body knows that a continuation of frequent debauches doth at last render a man dull and stupid and this by reason the Spirits of Wine do not only trouble the Natural Spirits in their functions and render them Phlegmatick but likewise by rarefying them do ever carry off and lose some store of them These Persons are likewise subject to a continual spitting or else they are molested with defluxions Catarrhs and Gout because the Pituita being rendred more liquid by the Spirits and phlegm of vinous liquors is forced to descend through the Lymphatick vessels but if there happens to be the least obstacle in these vessels it takes its course with the Nerves and falls upon all the parts of the body Lastly when excess of wine does occasion falling into the Apoplexy and Palsie it is by reason the Pituita is rendred too liquid by the Spirits and Phlegm of wine and causes Obstructions in the head and hinders the natural course of the Spirits into the Nerves Many other sad effects of wine-debauches might be here mentioned but this digression is too long Let us return to our Operation After the wine hath been deprived of these Sulphureous Spirits there remains in the body a Tartareous liquor which being exposed a good while to the Sun in a Cask without its stopple turns
in it it would not turn red This Tincture doth not proceed from a fixt sulphur contained in the Salt of Tartar as many have pretended it is only an exaltation of this salt in Spirit of Wine for if by way of curiosity you should distil this Tincture you would recover only a Spirit of Wine and yet nevertheless there will remain at bottom but a small quantity of Salt of Tartar with its usual whiteness which shews sufficiently that this colour did only proceed from the exact mixture of the Spirit of Wine with the Salt of Tartar seeing upon their separation the colour disappears The Tincture of the Salt of Tartar loses its red colour as it grows old by reason that the more subtile part of the Spirit of wine is lost through the pores of the glass and there remains only a Spirit which has not strength enough to keep the Salt of Tartar in its exalted condition Magistery of Tartar or Tartarum Vitriolatum This Operation is a Salt of Tartar impregnated with the acidity of Spirit of Vitriol Put into a glass body what quantity you please of Oil of Tartar made per Deliquium pour upon it by little and little rectified Spirit of Vitriol there will be a great effervescency continue to drop more in till there 's no further Ebullition then place your Cucurbite in Sand and evaporate the Spirit with a little fire there will remain a very white salt keep it in a Viol well stopt It is a good Aperitive and is also a little Purgative it is given in hypochondriacal cases in Quartans Kings-evil and all other diseases wherein it is necessary to open Obstructions and to work by Urine The dose is from ten to thirty grains in some proper liquor Remarks Tartarum Vitriolatum may be made with the Salt of Tartar as well as with the Oil the Ebullition proceeds from this that the acid of Vitriol piercing the Alkali Salt of Tartar doth violently separate its parts and gives vent to igneous Bodies which were there imprisoned and this Effervescency comes to pass as often as an Alkali meets with an acid and remains until the acid can find nothing more to encounter in the alkali salt Then there follows a Coagulum at the bottom of the vessel because the acid and alkali clasping together do lose their motion and by their united weight do precipitate to the bottom And this causes the liquor to be much less acrimonious than the Oil of Tartar was before though at least an equal quantity of Spirit of Vitriol was mixed with it You must evaporate it gently and especially toward the end for fear the acid should rise withal This Salt is whiter than common Salt of Tartar as having been subtilized by Acids after the same manner as we see several other white things encrease in their colour as they are beaten into a fine powder If you do use two ounces of Salt of Tartar in this Operation you 'l draw two ounces and a half of Tartarum Vitriolatum This Augmentation comes from the more heavy and strong part of the Vitriol for that which is evaporated is very phlegmatick You may here use the Rectified Oil of Vitriol instead of the Spirit and then the less is requir'd because it is a stronger acid but the Tartarum Vitriolatum will not be so white as when Spirit of Vitriol is used by reason of some Tincture that always remains with the Oil of Vitriol rectifie it as much as you please Though some have written that if Tartarum Vitriolatum were put into a Retort and distilled one might draw Spirit of Vitriol as good as it was at first nevertheless it is certain that it will not be so strong a Spirit for it has lost the most subtile part of its acidity by encountring with the alkali which may be easily judged both by the taste and the effects If by way of curiosity you would search a little narrowly into this Operation and observe what happens during the ebullition of the acid and the alkali you would find that a great many little dashes of water do fly about especially if the vessel is not placed too low and you hold a lighted Candle near it for they will be apt to put it out This effect can have no other cause than the violent separation of the parts of the alkali by the acid which makes the watry part of this liquor to sparkle upwards being on all sides violently driven If you use Oil of Vitriol the ebullition is the greater and the heat the more considerable because its acid being stronger it separates the parts of the alkali body more easily Now considering the ebullition which happens between acid and alkali I have the less opinion of a method that some do follow which is to bathe a little the bodies that are to be embalmed with Spirit of salt and then to put Salt of Tartar into the embalming powder for it is very likely that this Spirit of Salt which is an acid by mixing with the alkali salt of Tartar may produce a Fermentation which may stir up the remaining humidity of the Carkass and make it to mix with the Ingredients of the powder and so instead of preserving the dead body we have reason to fear lest this Fermentation should rather hasten a dissolution of its parts Acids do sometimes dissolve and rarifie and at other times coagulate and precipitate as may be seen by the Operations which have been described These different actions do seem very strange for it is hard to conceive how one and the same liquor should produce contrary effects but I 'le give you an explication of this Phaenomenon which because it is built upon experience may perhaps meet with some Approbation An Acid proves always a dissolvent when good store of it is poured upon the matter that is to be dissolved but it makes a Coagulum as often when being in too small a quantity its points are fixed in the pores of the matter and have not power enough to get out and this is plainly perceived when Spirit of Vitriol is poured upon the liquor of Salt of Tartar for if you should mix but so much as is requisite to penetrate the Salt the acids do remain sheathed in it and bear it down whence a Coagulation and Precipitation happens but if now so much more or a greater quantity of Spirit of Vitriol should be still added to the liquor the Coagulum will disappear by reason that the little bodies which being gathered together maintained their part against the acid and hindred its motion will be then scattered and dissolved by the acid that is now grown the stronger The same thing may be remarked in all other bodies which can be dissolved by acids for if you take a little of any of those and pour a little acid upon it there is made a great effervescency and after that a Coagulum but if you add more acid the matter will all dissolve An acid can
when the Phosphorus is not so hot as in the first Experiment and when it is not altogether so cold as in the second the alteration of the least circumstance quite alters the Experiment but the same things always happens in proportion with those already described We made another Experiment thus we put a little piece of the solid Phosphorus into a crystal vessel and we poured upon it a very fixt acid liquor I think it was Oil of Vitriol a great fume arose from the mixture we stopt the bottle with paper and stirred the matter several times after having left it some hours in digestion We lookt upon it in the dark and it appeared luminous though it were stopt and it has still been alike luminous from about two months ago until the present Indeed the light of it is not so great as is that of the Phosphorus but it keeps a much longer time That which is surprizing in these Experiments is that the air does sometimes make the Phosphorus shine and sometimes not Now to explicate this difficulty I do say that in the first Experiment the greatest part of the luminous matter of the Phosphorus did fly out of the bottle into the receiver and that that which remained in the bottle after it was separated from the receiver being deprived of its most subtle sulphurs was not able to give so great a light as before nevertheless the matter still retaining a little warmth there did rise from it enough particles to give a light when the bottle was unstopt but because by the cold the little bodies do condense and lose very much of their motion this Phosphorus likewise loses much of its strength and gives but a languid or weak light When the air was drawn out of the bottle the matter lookt very light and when the air was let to it again it went out the reason whereof is that the light being weak could not preserve its self but with a convenient proportion of air and there was some remaining still in the bottle for though the air be never so much pumped out of the vessel there will still remain a little behind The Phosphorus loses its light by the usual great quantity of air as a little candle will be put out by being exposed to the wide air or a small fire will soon go out when too great a wind blows strongly upon it So long as the Phosphorus sends forth a great many vapours a good deal of air is requisite to make it appear luminous and a little air will not be sufficient Wherefore when the Phosphorus was hot it would not shine until the bottle was unstopt but when it was cold it sent forth only weak vapors wherefore then a very little air sufficed to make it shine and when it received too much it was thereby suffocated The last Experiment made in the little Crystal bottle does further very well prove my explication the fixt acid liquor which was poured upon the Phosphorus did slacken the motion of its parts so that from that time they could not display their light with so much vigour as they did wherefore a very little sufficed to continue its light so that the paper-stopple served to give it sufficient air but when the bottle was stopt closely with its Crystal stopple no more light was seen for some time afterwards because that stopple did wholly hinder the entrance of air It is likewise the fixing of the Volatile parts of the Phosphorus which preserves the light so long for the matter having now less motion than before it was fixed its parts do come to be dissipated with the more leasure But you will tell me that the great fume which exhaled from it when the acid liquor was poured upon the Phosphorus is rather a sign of a greater than less dissipation of parts I grant that when this acid acts upon the matter there is at that time a considerable exaltation of parts but I say also that when this great motion is once over that which remains is in much less agitation than it was and you must observe that the strong acids such as Oil of Vitriol and Spirit of Niter upon being mixed with Spirit of Wine do cause a much like fume as this and yet afterwards the Spirit of Wine is much less volatile than it was Again the light of the Phosphorus which is in the little crystal bottle that is stopt may be said to be partly caused by an air which is produced by a kind of fermentation for doubtless there is some little action between the acid and the matter I find therefore that there is a parity of reason in the explication of the light which appeared in the viol after the air was pumped out of it and that which is seen in the little crystal bottle stop'd It is further remarkable that this same Phosphorus which went quite out when air was let into it by means of the Pneumatick Engine yet did not altogether lose its light when it received the air the common way that is to say meerly by unstopping the bottle whereof the reason is this the air that is communicated from the Air-pump comes in with a great force and violence through the pipe and so may very well put out the light of the Phosphorus which the air that has its ordinary motion is not able to do after the same manner as a candle lighted is much sooner put out when exposed to a blast of wind than when it is set in a place where the air is quiet From considering all the kinds of Phosphorus both Natural and Artificial and the Experiments that have been made upon them I cannot but conclude that the general cause of the light they give does proceed from a very great agitation of insensible parts and whereas it is very probable that fire is only a very violent motion of little bodies round their center the parts of our Phosphorus may be said to have received the same determination by the fermentations it has undergone for Wood never shines in the dark until it is become rotten that is to say until it has undergone a sufficient fermentation to make its most subtile parts move nimbly round their center The Bolonian stone is not luminous until it has been calcined a certain time in order to excite a motion of its parts The Viper being irritated darts forth its tongue with so much quickness that it appears all on fire Many little creatures such as some kinds of Caterpillars and Woodlice do shine in the night because they have a matter so exceeding subtile towards their tail that it produces a sort of fire and it is for the same reason of the motion of parts that Vrine does become luminous That which gave occasion to the working upon Vrine for the making of the Phosphorus was that in some little holes of the earth wherein there had been standing-puddles of Vrine a light had been observed to be seen at nights But you
Colcothar the Natural 330 And the Artificial 333 339 Colophone 490 Colour what it is 194 195 228 Variety of colours 199 344 345 and the reason of them 201 Coppel 77 Copper 118 Coral 270 The ebullition it causes with Vinegar in its dissolution thought to be a cold ebullition 273 The solution of Pearl and other alkali matters perform'd as that of Coral 274 Coral prepared 272 much better than the Magistery 275 Cornachine powder 225 Crocus Martis its best preparation of all 132 133 Crocus metallorum how often the same will serve to make the Emetick wine 221 D Depart 62 79 That Digestion owes more to the saliva than to acids 456 E Earthquakes their nature explicated 140 Ebullition without the encounter of acid and alkali 302 342 Elosaccharum 391 Elixir proprietatis 479 Emetick Syrop 215 Emetick wine 218 222 Extracts of greater virtue than waters 406 Extractum Panchymagogum 484 F Feavers their nature and their principal symptoms explicated 459 460 The regularity of their fits explicated 461 A Febrifugous salt 321 Fermentation 26 Fire how it alters the nature of bodies 20 21 25 26 251 How the substance of fire does increase the weight of some medicines 107 116 208 228 229 What Fire is 303 Flints how generated 263 Fulminant powder 71 Furnaces and vessels 31 G Gold 48 The wicked cheats which Alchymists do use in pretending to make it 49 c. The improbability of making Gold fairly represented 56 57 Whether it be a Cordial 58 59 That it can be volatilized 60 Purified by an operation called the Depart 62 Purified by Cementation 63 Its Precipitation 68 Its Fulmination from whence 70 Why it spreads under the hammer better than Sylver 315 Gravelled ashes 256 Guaiacum 383 its Oil why so good for the tooth-ach 385 Gumm Armoniack its best Purification 497 Other Gumms how Purified 498 H Hair distilled 518 Harts-horn distilled 516 Honey 542 Hunger from what cause 457 Hydragogues why they do work more on watery humours than the others 358 Hysterical vapors why allaied by ill smells 367 368 I Jalap 373 That all its Purgative virtue consists in the Rosine 373 Inks called sympathetical 258 330 Iron 130 How made Steel 131 Preferred before Steel for Physical uses ib. 132 133 c. That it opens obstructions by its salt 133 When mixed with Sulphur and wetted with water it grows extraordinary hot of it self which serves to explain the nature of Earthquakes and hot baths 140 141 Ivory distilled 517 L Lead 105 That it purifies Gold and Sylver as the white of an Egg clarifies a Syrop ib. increased in weight by Calcination 107 increased in weight by Distillation 116 how to be Revived 115 118 Lignum sanctum 383 Lime water 254 Litharge 76 Lutes 37 M Mace 425 Magnesia Opalina 219 Marcassite 101 Mercury 154 Why it remains fluid and why it so easily volatilizes by fire ib. it s ill effects 160 and its good effects 161 especially in Venereal Maladies ib. the raising a Flux by Mercury ingeniously and at large explicated 162 163 c. proved to be an alkali 167 168 why it requires less Spirit to dissolve it than other metals 172 in what form to be taken inwardly 185 Mercurius vitae 236 Mercurial water 190 191 Metals seven 46 Milk its coagulation explicated 29 454 Virgins Milk 493 Minerals their formation and growth 45 Minium 106 Mountebanks their cheat in taking Poisons 182 Myrrhe 500 N Niter see Salt-peter Nutritum or Butter of Saturn 111 Nutmegs 401 O Oleum Philosophorum or Oil of Bricks why so called 270 Opium and Meconium 467 how its narcotick quality is best to be preserved in the Extract 469 That it ought not to be Torrified 470 how it is that Opium causes sleep more than other things 471 Reason given why it allaies pains takes off deliriums and cures fluxes 473 The Turks taking such quantities of it descanted upon 474 Why Sudorifick 476 P Paper both antient and modern how made 386 Perpetual Pills 204 not good in the Iliaca passio but good in the Colick 207 Whether they do lose their virtue by frequent use 206 Perspiration insensible two sorts 72 That more is Perspired in the heat and drought of a Feaver than in the violent sweat ib. Petrification how 264 Petroleum 363 364 Peruvian Bark 393 The greatest Specifick ever known in Agues ib. The different manner of giving it heretofore and at present ib. The body to be well Purged before the Bark is given 394 The ill effects of taking it irregularly ib. To be avoided by such who have an Abscess ib. How it comes to remove the fit ib. 395 Its febrifugous virtue lost by distillation 398 Phagedenick water 171 Philosophers Stone or Powder of Projection a miserable cheat 51 c. Phosphorus the solid 523 and the Liquid 525 Its Inventors 526 Experiments made upon the Phosphorus 528 529 c. Baldwin 's Phosphorus 538 Plumbum ustum 106 Poison what it is 179 The difference between Coagulative or cold Poisons and the Corrosive or hot 179 How different the Remedies proper to each of them be 180 181 Principles of Chymistry 2 That they are not first Principles 5 How much they are indebted to fire in their production 6 c. The five Principles not to be found in Minerals 9 Pulvis Cornachinus 225 Purgative medicines their different operation explicated 487 Purgative virtue of mixt bodies wherein it consists 381 382 Pus how it becomes white 356 Q Quicklime how made 251 Fiery bodies proved to cause its corrosion and ebullition with water 252 253 No salt to be drawn from it 253 That Acids will give it a new ebullition after it is slak't 254 but will make no ebullition with Lime-water ib. R Rhubarb commended as it deserves 379 Rosines how distilled 490 S Salivation explicated 162 163 c. Sal Armoniack the Natural and the Artificial 310 Its Purification ib. Its Flowers Chalybeated 312 Sal Gemme its origine 13 277 Sal Prunellae often counterfeited 295 Salt one chief of which all the rest are compounded 12 Three sorts of it drawn from Vegetables 19 That it becomes Alkali by fire 23 24 Alkali Salts how made exceeding white 446 Common Salt 277 its origine 13 That made by evaporation not so strong as that by crystallization 278 The manner of making Salt at Rochel 279 Its Spirit drawn without addition of earth 284 New Spirits drawn several times from the same matter exposed to the air after distillation 285 Salt decrepitated must be newly made for use 282 Salt-peter or Niter of the antients different from ours 289 its origine 15 289 That it is not inflammable in it self nor sulphureous 290 308 That it is a Sal Gemme impregnated with greater store of Spirits 292 Salt-peter Purified judged better for use than Sal prunellae 295 Sanguification explicated 356 Sea-sickness its cause 278 Small-pox ingeniously compared to the fermentation of Wines 416 Vniversal Spirit 2 Steel how made 131 Stones how generated