those formerly mentioned to have been afforded us by Serum and Urine Experiment X. HAving found by Tryal that divers Salts some that are Volatile and some that are not being put in Powder into water will whilst they are dissolving sensibly refrigerate it and on the other side that some very subtil Spirits actually cold being put into cold Water will quickly produce in it a sensible warmth I thought it would not be amiss to try what Spirit of Humane Blood would do when employed after the same manner Having therefore placed a sealed Thermoscope in an open mouthed glass furnished with as much distilled water as would cover the Ball of the Instrument we left it there for a while to bring the internal Liquor and the external to the same degree of Coldness Then we poured upon the immersed Ball two or three spoonfuls of Spirit of Humane Blood which was all we could spare for this Tryal but perceived very little alteration to ensue in the Thermoscope only that it seemed the Spirit of Wine in the stem did a little and but a very little subside which effect tho it had been much more manifest I should not have been surpriz'd at partly because I found Spirit of Urine to have a like or somewhat more considerable effect and partly because I remembred what I elsewhere relate about the Operation of the pure Salt of Humane Blood upon Distill'd Water which Liquor I therefore make use of in these and many other Experiments because in our common Pump-Water or Well-Water and in most other common Waters I have observed a kind of common Salt which tho in very small quantity makes it apt to coagulate with or precipitate some kind of Saline Corpuscles whether more simple or more compounded But before I quite dismiss the lately recited Experiment I must acknowledge that I dare not acquiesce in it Since probably the effect of the Spirit of Blood would have been more considerable if I had been furnish'd with a sufficient quantity of it to pour into the Water Experiment XI INto a slender Cylindrical Vial we put Filings of Copper more than enough to cover the bottom and then pouring on some Spirit of Humane Blood till it reach'd about an Inch above the Filings we stopt the Glass close and as we expected the Menstruum dissolved some of the Metal and acquired upon it a deep ceruleous colour which by keeping the Vessel in a quiet place for some days did by degrees disappear and left the Liquor like Water And then the Glass being unstopt there did as was expected appear a fine Blew surface on the confines of the Air and the Liquor in a Minute of an hour or less and this fine colour extending it self downwards was in no long time diffus'd through the whole Body of the Liquor and that so plentifully as to render it almost opacous But tho I kept the Glass many days after well stopt yet whether it were that there was too much Air left in the Vial or for some other reason the colour did not disappear as was expected but continued very intense This may confirm and diversifie an Experiment related in the thirteenth Title of the Fourth Part of the Memoirs Experiment XII IT is not only upon Copper in its perfect Metalline form but by Nature it self Embryonated in or blended with stony matter that our Spirit of Humane Blood did manifestly work for having pour'd some upon well powdered Lapis Armenus the Liquor did even in the cold and in no long time for it exceeded not a few hours acquire a deep and lovely Blew almost like the solution of Filings of Crude Copper made with the same Menstruum THE CONCLUSION ANd here Sir I shall at length dismiss a Subject about which I now perceive I have already entertained you much longer than at first I imagined And yet if I prevail with you your trouble is not quite at an end since I must exhort you to take the pains for your own satisfaction and mine to try over again such of the foregoing Experiments as you shall judge likely to be of a contingent Nature For tho I hope you 'l do me the right to believe that I have as faithfully as plainly delivered Matters of Fact without being biassed by Hypotheses or aiming at Elegance yet my Exhortation may be reasonable For I have observ'd Humane Blood to be a thing so diversifyable by various Circumstances and especially by the Habitual Constitution of the person that bleeds and his present condition at the very time of Phlebotomy that I dare not undertake that every repeater of the like Experiments with mine will always find the Events to be just such as I have recited mine to have had Nay I dare not promise my self an exact uniformity of successes even when I my self shall reiterate some of the nicer of my own Tryals especially if I can do it as I desire with greater Quantities of Blood than for want of them the first were made with To the Particulars already deliver'd in order to the History of Humane Blood I could now Sir add some others if Time and Discretion would permit me to do it For as little cultivated as the Subject has been I found it not so barren but that whilst I was delivering some Tryals concerning it the consideration of those and of the Nature of the thing suggested new ones to me But 't is high time I should break off an Appendix that being but a Rhapsody of the Notes and other things that have occur'd to me since the Memoirs were written may I fear seem already too prolixe as well as confused I do not forget that the two last Subordinate Titles of the Fourth Part of the Memoirs concern the External and Internal use of the Spirit of Blood in Physick and that therefore perchance it may be expected that I should here add some Experiments or Observations relating to those Titles But I hope the lately mentioned Reasons and my just backwardenss to part with some of them because they are not yet finished will make you easily excuse my laying them aside which I am like to do long unless you and your Learned Friends shall peremptorily require them of me in a fitter season than this in which some occasions that I cannot dispense with call me off to other Employments and oblige me to leave a further inquiry into this Subject to your self and those able profess'd Physicians who have as well more Obligation as more Ability than I to pursue it effectually This I may well hope that you and they will do since upon a cursory review of a part only of what I have written so many things sprang up even in my thoughts as Original Tryals if I may so call them or as other things fit to be further consider'd that I perceived 't would not be difficult to encrease the Appendix by two sorts of particulars the one made up of designed Experiments that is such as have not yet
either by immersing into it a Solid Body heavier than it self or by weighing the whole Blood in Water the former way being opposed by the fibrous part of the Blood and the latter by the Serum And upon the same account it is somewhat though not so much difficult to compare with any accurateness the weight of Blood with that of water in a Glass as also for other reasons which he that shall considerately go about to try it will quickly find But however since it may be a thing of considerable use to have some tolerable Estimate though nor an exact one of the difference in Gravity between Water and Humane Blood by which so many parts of the Body consistent as well as fluid are by various changes of Texture both constituted and nourished I shall subjoyn a Tryal that this consideration invited me to make as well as I could We took the Blood of a sound man emitted all at one time and put the whole mass of it as well the Serous as the Fibrous part into an oblong Glass of the fittest size and shape we could light on amongst several And haveing suffered the Blood to rest till all was setled and the many Bubbles vanished we carefully mark'd with a Diamond that narrower part of the Glass which the upper surface of the Blood reach'd to Then we weighed the Glass and the Blood in a very good Ballance and having poured out the Blood for other uses and washed the Glass it was filled with common Water to the lately mentioned Mark and then weighed again in the same Ballance afterwards the Water being poured out the Glass alone was Counterpoised in the same scales and its weight being deducted from each of the two formerly mentioned weights the Water was found to have weighed â„¥ ix Ê’vi 50. Gr. And the Blood equal to it in bulk to have weigh'd â„¥ x. Ê’ij 4. Gr. So that the difference between them being Ê’iij 14. gr the Blood was beavier than so much Water but about the 25th part for I omit the Fraction of its own weight But this Experiment for the Reasons above intimated deserves to be reiterated more than once To the XI Title OF THE HISTORY THough rectified Spirit of Wine be a Menstruum consisting of very subtil parts and upon that account be a good Dissolvent of divers Vegetable Substances and as Experience has assured me of some Metalline ones too that seem to be more solid than the Fibrous part of Humane Blood yet looking upon this Body as of a very differing texture from those I thought Spirit of Wine might have a very differing Operation upon it And accordingly having separated from the Serum a clot of Blood that was coagulated but soft enough as the Fibrous part uses to be before 't is dryd I kept it for divers hours in a very well dephlegmed Vinous Spirit from whence I afterwards took it out as hard as if it had been well dry'd by the fire To the XIX Title OF THE HISTORY Experiment 1. THe Volatile Salt of Humane Blood as fugitive as 't is is yet so fusible that if it be dextrously handled one part of it may be brought to melt and as I have tryed even to boil whilst the rest is flying away The like I have tryed with some other Volatile Salts and I presume the Observation will hold in most if not all of them To the same Title Experiment 2. THough the Volatile Salt of Humane Blood when 't is by sublimation made white and clean seems to be a very homogeneous Substance and according to the Principles of the Chymists ought to be so yet I am apt to suspect either that its Substance is not altogether Similar or that the Corpuscles that compose it are of sizes if not also of shapes differing enough For having weighed out some Grains of a resublimed Salt of Humane Blood that seemed very pure the Odour was so strong and diffusive that one would have expected the whole Salt being but six Grains should in a few hours evaporate away especially being left in a South Window exposed to the Air in a flat piece of Glass And yet several days after if I mistake not seven or eight I found the Salt so little diminish'd as to its sensible bulk for I did not think fit to weigh it that it seemed to have wasted but little and yet what remained had scarce any odour at all that I whose Organs of smelling are acute enough could well perceive notwithstanding which this White Body retain'd a saline Tast and a little of it being for tryals sake put upon a solution of common Sublimate in fair Water readily turned it White So that it seemed that the penetrant and diffusive Odour of the Volatile Salt of Blood proceeded from some Particles much more subtile and fugitive than the other parts that composed it But this Experiment ought to be reiterated with differing Quantities of Salt by which means perhaps a heedful observer may discover whether the comparative Fixity of the Salt that remains after the Odorous Particles are at least for the most part flown away may not arise from their Coalition with some Acid Corpuscles that are wont to rove up and down in the Air and adhere to Bodies disposed to admit their Action To the same Title Experiment 3. A dram of Volatile Salt of Humane Blood sublim'd in a lamp furnace was put into as much common Water as in a narrow Cylindrical Glass served to cover the whole Ball of our Standard or gag'd Thermoscope and when after this had stood a while in the Water to be brought to its temper we put in the above mentioned Salt the tincted Spirit of Wine manifestly subsided about two tenth parts of an Inch and probably would have fallen lower if there had been more water in the vessel to make a seasonable solution of the Salt whereof a considerable part lay undissolved at the bottom To the same Title Experiment 4. WHen we perceived the Liquor to subside no more we put to it by degrees some strong spirit of Nitre till it would no longer make any manifest conflict with the dissolved Salt The event of which Tryal was that the Liquor in the Thermoscope began presently to mount and continued to do so as long as the conflict lasted at the end of which we found by measure that it had ascended more than three Inches and a half above the Station it rested at when the Ebullition began To the same Title Experiment 5. THe figuration of the Volatile Salt of Humane Blood may be considered either in regard of the Single Grains or of that Aggregate of them which when they are made to ascend to the top of the Glass may be called its Sublimate The latter of these may be best observed when the Saline Exhalations first ascend and fasten themselves to the inside of the blind head or other Glass that is set to receive them For though towards the end of the Operation
purposely caus'd to be made for weighing Liquors nicely in which when Common Water weighed 253 grains an equal bulk of Serum weighed 302. And because I suppos'd that all Serums of Humane Blood would not be of equal Specific Gravity I thought fit to try that of the Blood of another person in the same Instrument and found it to weigh two grains less that is 300 grains in all 4. We once employ'd some Serum that could not be or at least was not pour'd off so clear but that it appear'd of a reddish colour and thô we filter'd it through Cap-paper yet a good number of the tinging Corpuscles were so throughly mingled with it that the Liquor passd through the Filtre of a Yellow Colour 5. To try whether Acids would coagulate our Serum as I had found they would some other Animal Liquors I dropt into it some Spirit of Salt which did immediately produce with it some white Concretions that quickly subsided to the bottom and there when there was a pretty quantity of them appear'd like a very light and tender Cheese-Curd The like Operation but more powerful had Oyl of Vitriol upon another parcel of our Serum 6. We dropt into some of our Liquor good Spirit of Sal-Armoniac which as we expected rather made it more Fluid than did appear to coagulate it as the Acid Liquors had done 7. To try whether these Precipitations did not more proceed from the Coalition and Texture of the Acid Salts and the Serum than barely from the peculiar action of those Salts as Acids we dropt into another portion of our Serum a strong Alcalisate Salt viz. Oyl of Tartar per deliquium which instantly produc'd a White Curd as the Spirit of Salt had done but not as it seem'd to us so copiously 8. We pour'd also upon some Serum highly rectifi'd Spirit of Wine which as we expected did presently coagulate some part of it into a White Curd that was copious enough but appear'd much lighter than either of the former since it would not like them subside but kept at the top of the Liquor 9. To try also what a Salt compounded with a Metal would do upon our Serum we put to it a little strong Solution of Sublimate with which it presently afforded a white and curdled substance We put some of our Serum upon some Filings of Mars but by reason of the colour of the Liquor it self we could not satisfie our selves about the Event And thô we afterwards put another parcel of Serum upon Filings of the same Metal yet neither did this give us satisfaction in regard the Vial having been mislaid was not look'd upon again till many days after at which time the Liquor was grown so thick and muddy that we could not well discern any more of the colour than that it was somewhat dark but not either black or blackish yet by a Tryal or two that we made with a little of this Liquor it seem'd to have made a Solution of some part of the Steel For putting it to some fresh Infusion of Galls made with Water it presently afforded a copious Precipitate but this was so far from being Inky that it was not so much as dark colour'd but rather whitish at which some analogous Experiments mentioned in another Treatise that I formerly made kept me from wondering Yet I shall not omit to add on this occasion that having mix'd with some of our impregnated Serum a convenient quantity of Infusion of Galls made in a highly rectifi'd Vinous Spirit the two Liquors did not only afford a kind of Coagulum or Precipitate but being left together for some hours associated into a Consistent Body wherein the Eye discover'd no distinct Liquor at all 10. But expecting more clear success by putting some of our Liquor upon Filings of Copper which when wrought upon by Bodys that have in them any thing of Urinous Salt are wont to give a conspicuous Tincture we accordingly found that the Metal had in a very few hours discolour'd the Menstruum and afterwards the Vial being left unstopt that the Air might have Access to the Liquor it began by degrees to grow more and more Blew and within a day after was of a deep Ceruleous Colour 11. And to be confirm'd in our Conjecture that this Tincture proceeded from some Particles of Volatile Salt latent in the Liquor we mix'd some of it with a convenient quantity of Syrup of Violets and thereby obtain'd what we look'd for namely a colour which by reason of the action of those Particles upon the Syrup appear'd of a fine Green 12. The Blew Tincture or Solution of Copper mention'd number the 10th I thought fit to keep for some time to try whether the Metalline Particles would as it were embalm the Serum they were dispers'd through and preserve the Liquor from Putrefaction And in Effect thô the Vial was left unstopt in a window in my Bed-Chamber for many weeks yet I whose Organs of smelling are very tender and who did often put the Vial to my Nose did not perceive the Liquor to grow at all stinking 13. About ℥ ij by guess of Serum of Humane Blood were left in an unstop'd vial which they more then half fill'd for Twenty days or Three weeks and though the Glass usually stood in a South Window and in the month of July yet somewhat to our wonder the Serum did not by the smell appear putrefy'd and yet had let fall a considerable quantity of Whitish Sediment But within Three or Four days after this the Liquor was found to stink offensively Wherefore we tryed whether this more then incipient Putrefaction was accompanyed with any Acidity but could not perceive that it was since it would not so much as take off the blew colour of the infusion of Lignum Nephriticum or our Succedaneum to it When it was in this state we put it to distill in a low Cucurbite with a gentle fire to try if from this faetid Liquor as is usual from putrefy'd Urine the Spirit would first ascend But we found the Liquor that first came over to be so little Spirituous or Saline that it would not in an hours time turn Syrup of Violets green But yet we judg'd it not quite destitute of Volatile Alcaly because having let fell some of it into a good solution of Sublimate it presently made at White Precipitate 14. We took some Ounces of Serum of Humane Blood filtred through Cap Paper to free it from all concreted Substance and having committed it to Distillation in a small Retort place'd in a Sand Furnace we obtained only a few large drops of a Darkish red Oyl some of which subsided to the bottom of the other Liquor but the greater part swam upon it We obtain'd in this first Distillation no Volatile Salt in a dry form but after a pretty deal of insipid Phlegm had been drawn off there came over a good proportion of Spirituous Liquor which smell'd almost like the Spirit of Blood and
Blood did in this Liquor retain a not inconsiderable degree of their brisk and penetrant Tast The other way I thought of to Aromatise our Spirit of Blood was by employing a Medium to unite it with Essential Oyls For which purpose in a Vinous Spirit so Dephlegm'd that in a Silver spoon it would totally burn away we dissolv'd by shaking a convenient proportion as an eighth part or a far less according to the strength of the Oyl of an Essential Oyl of Anise-seeds for instance and to this solution we added an equal quantity or some other convenient one of our Rectifyed Spirit of Blood and having by shaking mix'd them as well as we could we suffer'd the expected Coagulum which was soft and not uniform to rest for some time after which it appear'd that some of the Oyl was reviv'd and swam in drops distinct from the other Liquor which consisted of a Mixture of the two Spirits impregnated with the Particles of the Oyl they had intercepted and detain'd This Liquor abounded with little concretions made by the concoagulation of the Sanguineous and Vinous Spirits And these with a very gentle heat sublim'd in the form of a Volatile Salt to the upper part of the Glass Which Salt seem'd to have a much less penetrating odour then the meer Volatile Salt of Humane Blood but had quite lost its stink and yet retain'd a considerable Quickness and somewhat of the scent of the Anise Seeds the remaining Liquor also was depriv'd of its ill smell and moderately imbued with that of the Oyl I thought it worth trying whether there would be any Affinity between our Spirit which I perceiv'd contain'd in it many latent Particles of an Oleaginous nature and the highly rectifyed Oyl of Petroleum which is a Mineral Bitumen and having shaken together a Convenient quantity of these two Liquors in a new Vial they presently turn'd into a White Mixture And tho after it had for many hours been left to settle the greater part of the Oyl swam above the Spirit yet there appear'd betwixt the two Liquors a good quantity of a whitish Matter which seem'd to be something that had been produc'd by the Precipitation or Union of many Particles of the Spirit and Oyl that were more dispos'd than the rest to combine with one another The XIII Secondary Title Of the Relation between Spirit of Humane Blood and the Air. THat the Contact of the Air has a speedy and a manifest operation upon Humane Blood is elsewhere shewn by some Experiments of an Italian Virtuoso Signior and some of mine But whether after Humane Blood has had its Texture so much alter'd as it uses to be by Distillation it will retain any peculiar Relation to the Air I have not been able to make Tryals enough to determine but however it will not be amiss to set down the chief Experiments I made on this occasion because they may be considerable as parts of our History tho they should not be so as Arguments decisive of our controversy The first Experiment was quickly made by thinly spreading upon a piece of White Paper which ought to be close that it may not soak up the Liquor some small Filings of Copper and wetting them well without covering them quite over with a few drops of good Spirit of Blood for by this means being very much expos'd to the free Air the Action of the Liquor was so much promoted that within a Minute or two it did even in the cold begin to acquire a blewish colour and in fewer Minutes than one would have expected that colour was so heightened as to become Ceruleous But when I put another parcel of the same Filings into a Vial and cover'd them with Spirit of Blood and then stopt the Vial to keep it from intercourse with the external Air the Liquor would not in some Hours acquire so deep a colour The other Experiment we made in order to the lately propos'd enquiry was the same for substance that I had formerly made and have elsewhere at large deliver'd with the Spirit of Urine and with that of Sal-Armoniac save that to spare our Spirit of Blood we employ'd a far less quantity of it then we did of either of the foremention'd Liquors For having in a clear Cylindrical Vial of about an Inch Diameter put more Filings of Copper than were requisite to cover the bottom we pour'd upon it but so much Spirit of Humane Blood as serv'd to swim a Fingers breadth or about an Inch above them This Liquor because of the quantity of Air that was contain'd in the Vial did within few Hours acquire a rich Blew colour and this after a day or two began to grow more faint and continued to do so more and more till it came to be almost lost but yet the Liquor was not altogether Lympid or colourless as I have often had it with Spirit of Urine or of Sal-Armoniac which remains of blewishness I was apt to attribute to the great quantity of Air that was included in the Vial with so small a quantity of Liquor And tho I thought it not impossible but that length of time might destroy these Remains of blewishness also yet not having leisure to wait so long I unstopt the Vial and perceiv'd as I expected that in a very short time perhaps about two Minutes of an hour the Surface of the Liquor where it was touch'd by the newly enter'd Air became Ceruleous and in a short time after perhaps less than a quarter of an hour the whole Body of the Liquor had attain'd a deeper colour than that of the Sky which colour the Vial being seasonably and carefully stop't began in two or three days to grow paler again These Experiments would I question not to many seem manifestly to infer a great Cognation or Affinity for I know not well what name to give it between the Spirit of Humane Blood and the Air. But tho I shall not deny the Conclusion as 't is an Assertion I dare not rely on the validity of the Inference because I have for curiosities sake made the like Experiments succeed with other Spirits abounding with Volatile Salt I foresee it may very speciously be pretended that those Tryals succeeded upon the account of some Spirituous parts of the Blood since Spirit of Urine is made of a Liquor separated from the Blood and that tho the Sal-Armoniack that is made in the East may consist in great part of Camels Urine yet that which is made in Europe where Camels are rarities and is commonly sold in our Shops is made of Mans Urine and consequently its Spirit may well be presum'd to be impregnated with Spirit of Humane Blood And I confess that when this consideration came first into my mind it appear'd so probable that I should perhaps have acquiesced in it if it were not for what I am going to subjoyn namely That I found by Tryal carefully made that with another Volatile Spirit made without any