Salt in it and therefore yields more Spirits you may learn in the Chapter of Crystal-Mineral how Niter is purified and that in its purifying it is devested of its fixt Salt Obs 4. and 5. That the Retort must be of Glass and filled up to the neck for the reasons alledged in the precedent Operation Obs 6. That the Phlegm which comes first in the distillation is in a very small quantity and cannot be separated from the Spirit by rectification because this Spirit is so Volatil that it comes of a sudden conjointly with the Phlegm and so the rectification would be unnecessary the Phlegm being in so small a proportion to the Spirit as not to be able to make the last lose any thing of its activity and energy Its Vertues and use This Spirit is Corrosive not only applyed to Warts rotten Flesh and the Gangreen but it corrodes and dissolves Mercury and the other Metals it is often to be preferr'd to Aqua fortis for these two uses or it is not so burning in its action upon the flesh as Aqua fortis and it is much fitter for the dissolutions which are made by it of Mercury and other Metals and Minerals in order to the preparing of some remedy to be taken inwardly as well because pure Niter is an acid aperitive and pure Vitriol is an acid vometive as because Niter being a Sulphureous Salt drawn from temperate Animals and Vitriol a terrestrious Salt drawn from Minerals by their union in the composition of Aqua fortis is produced a malignous quality Nay it is fitter than Aqua fortis for the dissolution of Minerals in order to make Fucuses for the face because the Spirit of Niter applyed to the skin leaves but a little yellow spot which may be easily taken away whereas Aqua fortis leaves a deep orange-spot so sticking and adhering that it can never be taken out but with the loss of the skin from whence we may infer that a Fucus prepared with Aqua fortis should rather black than whiten the skin The marks to distinguish this Spirit are these 1. That it is of the same colour and transparency as the Spirit of Salt 2. That it is very vaporous and stinking coming near the stinking smell of Aqua fortis 3. It is too corrosive and biting to be tasted upon the Tongue but to try its goodness pour out some drops upon a Brass half-peny and if it be right it will presently boil and makes the half-peny stir it produces a blew colour in the said half-peny 4. It corrodes and makes its Linen-stopple look yellow as Aqua fortis uses to do sometimes the Spirits of Vitriol and Sulphur are sophisticated by putting a little Spirit of Niter or a little Aqua fortis into common Water till there result an acid taste which is not caustick but you shall perceive this cheat if having rubbed a Paper with the Spirits of Vitriol and Sulphur in one place and the Spirit of Niter and common Water in another place you present the said Paper to the fire for then the place rubb'd with the Spirits of Vitriol and Sulphur will grow black and break and the place rubb'd with Spirit of Niter in common Water will only grow yellow and not break The Spirit and black Oyl of Vitriol TAke an Earthen-pot unglazed of the Earth they make Crucibles of fill it up to the brim with good green Vitriol set this pot upon a Salt-seller in a great Circulatory fire in two hours time or there abouts your Vitriol having first dissolved into a Liquor will be dryed deflegmated and at last coagulated into a grayish lump then take out your pot let it cool and when cold put your matter into a Brass or Iron Mortar and powder it Take a Glass Retort well luted up to half the neck fill it with the said Vitriol and place it according to Art in a great Reverberatory fire fitting to it a great Receiver Give your fire by degrees coming as soon as you can to the last which continue till you perceive in the top and sides of your Receiver a kind of black Veins that trickle down to the bottom these are the black Oyl which begins to distil Then unlute your Receiver from its Retort and separate by inclination the acid Spirit of Vitriol which hitherto has been distilled and which is of a white and transparent colour like Water and which entered your Receiver in the form of a white Vapour By this time your Vitriol will be calcin'd into a red colour and brought to be a Colcothar which yet retains its black Oyl Which to extract you must again fit the Receiver to its Retort without lute for else the neck of the Retort being exceeding hot would presently break by the approach of the cold and moist Lute continue then your fire and give it in the highest degree for the space of six or eight hours till your Receiver be cold though the fire be vehement under the Retort by that you 'll perceive that the contain'd matter has yielded all its black and thick Oyl Let your fire go out then take out your Retort which by the long violence of the fire will seem somewhat sunk and straitned and in it will remain a Colcothar devested of its phlegm its Spirit and its black Oyl but yet containing the fixed Salt of Vitriol and therefore is not so sharp and acrimonious as the first Colcothar 'T is out of this second Colcothar that you may extract the Caput mortuum of Vitriol by making a Lexivium of the said Colcothar to extract it s fixed Salt Out of one pound of green Vitriol you 'll have nine or ten ounces of Spirit with its Phlegm and half an ounce of black Oyl The acid Spirit of Vitriol contains much Phlegm which came first with it therefore if you desire to have a purified Spirit you must evaporate the Phlegm by putting this Spirit Inflegmated into a Matrass not luted which set upon a Salt-seller in a small Circulatory fire till the whole substance be half diminished and begin to look a little yellowish if you continue this Evaporation any longer your Spirit will become blackish drawing near the colour and acidity of your Oyl of Colcothar If reciprocally with the said black Oyl of Colcothar you desire to make a white acid Spirit do but mingle in a Matrass one dragm of the said Oyl with an ounce of common water then you shall see that the said Oyl will presently go to the bottom and will so heat the neck of the Matrass that you will scarce be able to hold it in your hand Mingle them well by agitation till the water grow blackish then through Paper filtrate the said liquor and there will come a clear acid Spirit as yellow as Gold which will have the same force and virtue as the common Spirit of Vitriol the Paper retaining the black and thick faeces From whence we may conclude that this clear Liquor which we call
up to half its neck lest it should break towards the end of the Operation fill it up to the neck with Guaiacum cut either into pieces or shavings place it upon the hollow part of the cover of an Earthen Pot full of ashes which must be set upon the two Iron Barrs that are in a small Reverberatory Furnace lute and stop the gap of the Furnace which is above the neck of the Retort till you have made it even with the top of the Furnace then fit to the neck of your Retort a great Glass Receiver or an Earthen one if you will or a great Pitcher which is easilier made clean because you may put your hand into it even to the bottom lute the said Recipient to the Retort cover the Furnace with its top that is an Earthen Pan turned the inside downwards and with a hole in its middle big enough to pass an Egg through or else with two or three rounds of Bricks as has been described in the great Reverberatory Furnace then put some lighted Coals into your Furnace and give your fire by degrees adding to it after a little while three or four Faggot-sticks yet have a care you do not over-heat your Vessel lest your Receiver break by the violence of the vapours which also may lose themselves through the luted conjunction of both the Vessels the true mark of a fit heat will be if you can endure to lay your hand a pretty while upon the Receiver this distillation is to last eighteen or twenty hours without interruption the Spirit comes first alone and in a Glass Receiver appears in the form of white vapours then the Oyl with the rest of the Spirits comes forth in the same form also and does dissolve into a brown blackish liquor which goes to the bottom of the Receiver for all Spirits and all Oyls do distil in forms of white vapours except Spirit of Niter and Aqua-fortis made with Niter which therefore are called the flying Dragon as well because of their redness as of their malignity The mark that the distillation is ended will be if your Receiver be cold though there be an excessive heat in the Furnace for that is a sign that there comes nothing more into the Receiver When all is cool then unlute the Receiver by wetting the lute with a wet cloath and pour out your Oyl and Spirit of Guaiac together into a glass Tunnel and by one of these two ways separate the Spirit from the Oyl First take a glass Tunnel which hold with one hand and with a finger of the same hand stop its lower orifice then pour in your Liquor the Oyl will presently go to the bottom the Spirit will swim above and upon the surface of the Spirit will swim some black drops of Volatil Oyl of Guaiac Then set a glass Vial under the neck of your Tunnel and let go half your finger which stops the said orifice and so the Oyl will pass into your Viol and when you see that it is almost all passed then stop the orifice again with your finger and pour the flegm or Spirit into another Vial. Do thus by all the spirit and Oyl you have in your Receiver but by this way you will never separate the Oyl from the flegm so well but there will be some in it still Therefore use this second method which will do it entirely and infallibly Take a Coffin of brown Paper wet it with common water or with Spirit of Guaiacum if you have any place it upon a Glass Tunnel and pour into it the Oyl and the spirit together the Spirit being watrish will pass and filtrate through the said Coffin of Paper and the Oyl will remain which afterwards you may easily convey into another Vial by breaking the bottom of your Paper Coffin with a little stick if you do not wet throughly the said Coffin of Paper before you pour into it the Oyl and Spirit the Oyl will stick to the Paper and hinder the filtration of the flegm If your Oyl do not come kindly out of your Receiver because it may be it is cold and so condensed present your Receiver to the fire to dissolve your Oyl will be black and stinking as the Oyl of Jet and your spirit will be of a brown colour Out of one pound of Guaiacum you 'l draw about one ounce and a half of Oyl and ten ounces of Spirit and there will remain about four ounces of Coals in your Retort you may kindle this Coal and burn it to ashes and of these ashes make a Lixivium and out of this Lixivium draw the Salt of Guaiacum to the same uses and purposes as the Oyl and Extract If you desire to have a Spirit of Guaiacum purified from the greatest part of its flegm and corrected of its stench you must rectifie it in a stone Cucurbite or glazed one with a glass head in a Sand furnace the insipid flegm will come first that you may throw away then the Spirit will come very acid which keep for those uses which we shall speak of anon To make the Extract of Guaiacum put some Oyl of Guaiacum to evaporate and thicken into the form of an Extract into a Cup or a Sand-fire or else draw the tincture of the Oyl of Guaiacum with Spirit of Wine and so evaporate it to the consistence of an Extract Obs 1. That for this Distillation we use a stone Retort because it is not necessary to use a glass one which would be dearer and the Spirit is not corrosive enough to corrode this Stone-Metal as the Spirits of Niter Salt or Vitriol would do besides that the necks of your glass Retorts are so narrow that the chips of Guaiacum can hardly be got into them Obs 2. That if you use pieces of the heart of the Wood which are hardest and by consequent fuller of Oyl you will obtain more Oyl than from the shaving and there is no danger in filling the belly of your Retort with them because it is not a body apt to swell and run over Obs 3. That Guaiacum yields a good deal of Oyl and Spirit because it is full of Sulphur and Mercury the Wood yields better than the Bark and the Wood in little pieces yields more than in shavings or great cuts for by their thickness they retain more of Sulphur and Mercury This Oyl and Spirit are very Salt and therefore the Wood is heavie for the Salts give the heaviness to Mixtes The Oyl is black and foetid because it has been distilled in a naked Fire without any intermedium and it is heavie because of its Salt as also sharp for the same reason The Heart of the Wood yields more Oyl than that part which is near the Bark which you may perceive by the eye for the heart is blackish and the other is yellowish like Box which is the European Guaiacum It s Vse and Vertues The Spirit is somewhat drying and detersive it is excellent for Burnings and old
therefore serves to ripen and Suppurate wounds being mingled with the ordinary digestive it hinders the Gangrene being mingled with the Aegyptiac or other like unguent it stinks extremely and therefore being smelt to helps the suffocations of the Matrix The Oyls of Mastick Oblibanum Storax Benjamin and all other Gumms except Camphire are made in the same way and method and without intermedium as the Oyl of Myrrha The Oyl of Bricks or of the Philosophers PUt five pound of powder'd Brick into a Glass Retort well luted then pour into it one pound of Oyl of Olives either with a Tunnel or a Paper Coffin in case the neck of your Retort be so straight that you cannot pour into it otherwise without spilling Do not fill above two parts of your Retort left the oyl in boyling should run out in its proper substance and carry the Brick along with it before it distill Place your Retort upon a Round hollow Earthen Pan in a circulary fire and fit to it a Receiver Give the Fire by little and little and have a care you do not put your Coals near the Retort before the flegm be entirely distilled off which you will know when you shall hear that your matter makes no more noise in the Retort then encrease the fire and lay your kindled Coals near the Retort and at last give a fire of suppression by covering your Retort with kindled live Coals There will come two Oyls one red and the other black and stinking the distillation ought to be performed drop by drop and besides these drops there come fumes that is a sign that the fire is too strong therefore lessen it This distillation will last four or five hours out of one pound of Oyl of Olives and five pound of Bricks you will have about four ounces of Oyl and half an ounce of flegm separate by a glass Tunnel the flegm that will go to the bottom from the Oyl which swims upon the top if you rectifie this Oyl in a little glass Retort in a sand-sand-fire it will become yellowish and less stinking Obs 1. That we use a glass and not a stone Retort because the Oyl would penetrate the last and cannot penetrate the first Obs 2. That we give an intermedium to the Oyl of Olives because it can never be distilled alone and would sooner break the Retort than distill and this intermedium is rather powderd Brick then any thing else because it being a spongious porous substance it is sooner imbib'd and then having little flegm because it has been baked it is fitter for this Operation where much flegm would be prejudicial and would go near to break the Retort by its combat with Oyl Some quench pieces of Bricks red hot in Oyl then powder and distill them but they have a very small quantity of Oyl and yet they must use a great Retort and a great Reverberatory fire Obs 3. That the Oyl of Bricks is nothing buâ— Oyl of Olives distilled having acquired by distillation a Tenuity and Thinness of substance which makes it very penetrative and warming and also very stinking the Brick communicates no vertue to it and is only an intermedium It s Vse and Vertues This Oyl is very penetrating inciding and resolving and therefore is most Soveraign for the pains and swellings that come from cold humours as in the Sciatica and also for contusions and blows The Oyl of yellow Wax TAke five parts of Clay or powder'd Bricks put them into an Earthen glazed Pan and pour upon them one part of yellow Wax melted incorporate them well together and make little Balls and Cylinders to put easily into a glass Retort well luted fill it up to the neck place it upon a round hollow Earthen Pan in a circulary Fire fit and lute to it a Receiver give the fire by degrees as in the Oyl of Bricks your matter being once hot the flegm begins to boyl and make a noise and comes out first in form of a white Vapour then the Oyl also in the same form of white vapours which are condensed into a very red stinking Oyl which when cold congeals into butter as yellow as Gold This Operation will last four or five hours For a pound of Wax out of which you will have fourteen ounces of Oyl or Butter and half an ounce of flegm If you rectifie this Oyl divers times in a little glass Retort by a sand fire it will become as white and as clear as whites of Eggs and will not stink so much Observe That there are no other observations to be made upon this process than what has been already observed in the making of the Oyl of Bricks It s Use and Vertues are likewise the same but besides it is most excellent for the clefts of the Breasts in women The Oyl of Yolks of Eggs. PUt twenty or thirty Eggs into a Kettle of cold water set your Kettle upon the fire and boyl your Eggs till they be hard then scale them and take out the Yolks put all these Yolks together into a frying-Pan which set upon a Trevet and make a good flaming fire under the Pan then crumble all your yolks with an Iron Spoon and so turn them now and then continue thus doing till almost all your yolks be reduced to a black Oyl and that there remains but a few burnt black Faeces pour this Oyl into a little Earthen Pot keeping with your spoon the Faeces from going in with it this Oyl does not congeal because it has been drawn with a great Fire and you may use it without any other preparation but if you desire to have it clearer and more penetrating then rectifie it in a glass Retort in a sand-fire it will become as yellow as Gold and will congeal like Butter If you rectifie it in a naked fire it will not be so yellow but it will congeal a little for by both of these rectifications by a gentle heat the stinking Sulphur remains in the Retort and if was this Sulphur that made it stink and kept it from congealing which is proved by this following experience which is another way of clarifying the said Oyl viz. Put the said Oyl into a double Matrass for a month over a gentle fire or in a Lamp Furnace or ashes or in Horse-dung the Oyl will clarifie its self most perfectly because it s Faeces will go to the bottom and then you may easily separate the clarified Oyl from its Faeces Obs 1. That if you put your Eggs into the water when it boyles that they will scarce be hard enough and therefore will not be fit to yield their Oyl beeause they retain while they are not hard somthing of a superfluous humidity and in the Pan they would crackle and sparkle and hardly afford any Oyl Obs 2. That this Oyl though when it comes from the Pan be blackish has not nevertheless any ill taste nor smell but when it is rectified it becomes sharp and stinking It s Vse
and Vertues It is a most excellent Balsamum drâ—wn from Volatils it is anodyne astringent agglutinative and mundificative and therefore most excellent for all burnings and fresh wounds as also for the cleavings of womens breasts and likewise for the descent of the bowels by anointing the part then applying a bandage or truss There is another way of making this Oyl viz to heat your yolkes in the Pan till they begin to grow red and to burn then put them into a coorse linnen cloth Oyl'd with Oyl of Almonds and so put this cloth under a press and press out the Oyl but this Oyl has not the force of the other drawn by the method we have already set down The Oyl of Karabe and the Ambred Spirit of Wine REduce into a gross powder some yellow Amber you may make use of the pieces which the workmen that work in Amber pare off and you shall have it cheaper than at the Droguists put four ounces of it in a glass Retort well luted and pour upon it eight ounces of Spirit of wine so as your Retort be not above half full set your Retort on a Round hollow earthen Pan in the circulary Furnace and fit to it a good ample glass receiver which you must not lute to the Retort lest the vapours of the spirit of wine which cannot be contained in the Receiver should break it but be careful in luting the gap of the furnace about the neck of the Retort lest the flame should reach the Receiver and there set on fire the vapours of the Spirit of Wine and from thence the flame would get into the Retort If such a thing should happen the remedy would be to stop presently the mouth of the Retort with some Lute to choak the flame Encrease your Fire by degrees and when you perceive that the Receiver is not very warm then encrease your Fire more and give a Fire of Suppression to the end you may drive out the Oyl of Amber together with the Spirit of Wine continue your Fire till you perceive no more clouds in your Receiver for that is a sign that all the Oyl is extracted and distilled from the Amber you will find two ounces of black Oyl of Carabe or Amber and eight ounces of Spirit of Wine impregnated with the red Tincture of the said Karabe separate by a glass Tunnel the Oyl from the Spirit Obs 1. That we distil Amber with Spirit of Wine to the end we may have the vertue of the Amber in a higher degree for penetration and less stinking It may be distilled all alone and without intermedium because that though it be a bituminous Body nevertheless it is so dry that it does not swell in the Retort but when it is distilled alone its Oyl is as black as Jet and much of a worse smell and cannot become yellow but by reiterated rectifications Obs 2. That if upon the said Oyl of Amber you put Spirit of Wine it will presently be tinged with it and will have the same vertue as the Spirit of Wine that has been distilled with Amber Obs 3. That Amber is a bitumen so oylous that it is almost all Oyl and contains but very few faeces since out of one pound of Amber you may draw fourteen ounces of a black Oyl insomuch that it is nothing but a bituminous Oyl congealed by a little terrestrial substance It s Vse and Vertues The Oyl of Amber is very bitter and stinking and therefore excellent in the suffocations of the Matrix either taken inwardly in the quantity of three of four drops in some appropriated water or else smelt to or anointed upon the Temples it is most excellent in old Wounds and particularly of the nervous parts because of its detersive balsamick vertue The Spirit of Wine ambred or tinged by yellow Amber is likewise a most excellent Remedy taken in the same way for the suffocations of the Mother and for the falling Sickness It is besides a most excellent exteriour Remedy for the Palsie the Sciatica the Cold Gout all cold Fluxions and all bruises of the Nerves And this because of the great tenuity and penetration of its substance and its resolutive and balsamick vertue but when you do rub any affected part with this Remedy before the Fire have a care you come not too near lest the Fire should catch hold of and burn the party The Oyl of Camphire PUt two ounces of Camphire slightly powdered into a Matrass of an ordinary size and pour upon it four ounces of spirit of Niter shake your Vessel gently for half a quarter of an hour to the end that this agitation may whet the Spirit and make it operate the sooner upon the said Camphire then let them stand together far from the Fire within two hours the Spirit will dissolve the Camphire without any sensible ebullition or smoak and there will swim upon the Spirit a clear transparent Oyl Separate by the glass Tunnel the said Spirit which will be at the bottom and will have lost a good part of its caustick Acrimony keep your Oyl in a glass Vial well stopped Obs 1. That this Oyl of Camphire is nothing but Camphire dissolv'd by Spirit of Niter for if you throw a little Water upon this Oyl the Camphire will presently be coagulated into its first white consistence and smell because that the water by weakning the Spirit of Niter which kept the Camphire in dissolution makes it lose its hold and so the Camphire precipitates to the bottom Obs 2. That of all the Gums and Rosins none but Camphire does melt into Oyl in its dissolution by Spirit of Niter which may extract the tincture of the other Gums but cannot dissolve them It s Vse and Vertues are to exfoliate the Rot of the Bones by the strong penetration and dryness of both the Spirit of Niter and the Camphire therefore is it most excellent wherewith to touch the Nerves that are bare and naked in wounds for it consumes gently the sharp humour which falls upon them and makes the said wounds most grievous and by its own â—nodyne and mollifying vertue of the Camphire it takes away a great deal of the pain of the said Nerves The Spirit of Wine Campherised PUt as much Camphire as you please into a Matrass pour upon it Spirit of VVine till it be four fingers above your matter fit to this Matrass another little one and so make a double vessel lute them well together with slices of Paper place your Vessel in a Sand-Furnace and there let it stand till the Camphire be entirely dissolved in the Spirit of VVine the Spirit will then be clear and transparent as before and the Camphire will have a pleasant smell There is nothing to be said about the dissolution of Camphire by Spirit of VVine since Camphire is a kind of Gum-Rosin and that Spirit of VVine has the vertue of dissolving all Gums by the homogeneity of its substance and the tenuity of its parts It
Draconis all well powdered of each a dragm place your Vessel in a Sand-fire to make your Gums dissolve which will be done in two or three hours time then add to them as much of the dry Flowers of Saint John's Wort as you can take up with your thumb and four fingers the Spirit of Wine though it have dissolved the Gums will yet extract the Balsamick Tincture of the said Flowers next day take off your Vessel out of the Sand and strain all your matter through a Linnen Cloath by pressing it while it is warm then dissolve in it half an ounce of Venice Turpentine by setting your matter for half an hour upon a sand-Sand-fire thus you will have a red unctuous and mucilaginous Balsam Observe That if you had extracted the Tincture of your Flowers before the Tincture of the Gums the Spirit would have been weakned because it would not only have been loaden with the oyly part of them but also with the flegm and therefore would not have been able to dissolve the said Gums It s Vse and Vertues It is a most excellent Balsam for all green Wounds Contusions and for the Sciatica The Corrosive Sublimate YOu must have two Pans of Potters-Earth unglaz'd which must be turned up-side down one upon the other and be so exactly fit as to make but one Pan in this situation and therefore they must have been baked together in a Potters Oven in the uppermost must be a hole big enough to put an Egg into then take Quicksilver and good refin'd Niter deflegmated of each a pound common Salt well decrepitated and green Vitriol well calcin'd into red of each half a pound powder your Salts and incorporate with them your Quicksilver by beating them together in a Marble Mortar with a Wooden Pestle and sprinkling distill'd Vinegar upon them till you have reduced them to a kind of paste put this paste by pieces into the Pan by the hole left in the top and then stop it with Lute so as to leave only a vent of the bigness of a good big Pin place your undermost Pan up to the brim in the Furnace of the Fire of great Reverberation taking care to leave in your Furnace three gaps to give the Fire Air viz. one over against the Fire-room and one of each side for else your Pan being set so deep into the Furnace would go near to suffocate and put out your Fire give at first a strong Fire and when you have brought it to the highest and last degree continue it twelve hours While the Operation lasts you must have a care to keep open the little vent that is left in the Lute you may therefore with a Wire gently open it from time to time that so your matter may send forth freely its most fiery vapours which else would break your Vessel and in the breaking spread such a malignity by their abundance and sudden eruption as would go near to infect you After twelve hours let your Fire go out and when your Pan is cold break the uppermost part of it and you will find a loaf two or three fingers thick sticking to the sides of the lowermost part as white as Snow icy in its circumference and crystalliz'd in its middle Obs 1. That in France we do not make much of this Sublimate because we can have it six times cheaper from Venice where common Salt Mercury and Vitriol are very cheap because they are not far from the Mines and near the Sea The Hollanders do also bring some to Paris but they sophisticate it commonly with white Arsenick We have taught to discern this cheat in the Chapter of the dulcified Sublimate Obs 2. That the Corrosive Sublimate is nothing but Quicksilver calcin'd and incorporated with Niter and the Spirits of common Salt and Vitriol by the Fire which sublimes all these Volatils into one lump The common Salt and Vitriol remain in the bottom of the lowermost Pan almost as heavy as when they were put in because that they are naturally fix'd the fix'd Substance of the common Salt and deflegmated Vitriol serve to hinder the melting of the Niter and the Spirits of these two serve to corrode the Mercury and make it strongly corrosive by the conjunction of all these Salts together It s Vse and Vertues 'T is the strongest Corrosive of all it serves to make the dulcified Mercury the Emetick Powder the Phagedenick Water and that Unguent which for the violence of its inflaming and burning Operation is called The Devil's Vnguent It is the poison we call Rats-bane and kills Rats and Mice by burning their entrals as if they had live coals in them producing the same effect in all Animals and men too if they swallow any of it The Antidote of it is not any Theriaca or Victan or other Cordial there is nothing but Water in abundance that by humecting and wetting the Salts is able to take away their Acrimony though Oyl be very good too for Oyl and Grease because they cannot dissolve and melt these Salts make them at least remain without force upon those parts which are oyled or greased as we may see in the operation of Cauteries applied to a very fat man for as soon as they have corroded the skin they are fain to stay there and shew their caustick vertue no further because they meet with the Panicula Carnosa or Adiposa which stays their action there is nothing but a waterish humidity which by melting of these Salts gives them leave to work The Balsam of Sulphur drawn by the Oyly Spirit of Turpentine PUt into a Matrass four ounces of Flowers of Brimstone or else Brimstone powder'd very fine and one pound of Spirit of Turpentine incorporated with its Oyl such as the Merchants send from Provence to Paris let your Matrass be but half full place it in a sand-Sand-fire and fit to it another Matrass and so make a double Vessel In this heat the Spirit will begin to simper and presently after the Brimstone will melt and dye the Spirit of a fine colour as red as a Pomegranate govern your Fire so as to hinder your Spirit from boyling in one or two hours the Operation will be done Then take off your Vessel and pour out your Dissolution while it is warm into a stone Vessel or of glaz'd Earth in it the Sulphur as it grows cold will go to the bottom and congeal in a yellow lump and the Tincture will remain above when your Tincture is cold and clear by the falling down of the Brimstone pour it off by inclination and keep it in a glass Vial. Obs 1. That this Spirit of Turpentine has drawn not only the red Tincture but also the ill smell of the Brimstone so as to lose its own odour Obs 2. That the Brimstone which you find after the Operation done weighs almost as much as when you put it in having communicated to the Spirit of Turpentine little besides the colour and smell of Brimstone It s
Vse and Vertues It is a most excellent Anodinum and Ripener for the wounds of the nervous parts and is very good for pains in the ears by putting some drops of it into them The Essence of Musk and Ambergreece drawn by Spirit of Wine PUt into a small Matrass one dragm of Ambergreece and half a dragm of Musk well powder'd before hand pour upon them five ounces of Spirit of Wine seal up your Matrass hermetically and put it into a little earthen Pan full of Sand up to half the belly set it in the Sun for forty days in the hottest time of the year from eight of the clock in the morning till seven at night keeping behind your Matrass a Tin Leaf to receive the Sun-beams and reverberate them upon the glass The Musk and Ambergreece will be almost quite dissolved in the Spirit of Wine and will dye it of a red colour like a Ruby break the neck of your Glass and pour out your Essence into a glass Vial well stopp'd and waxed and above the stopple put a piece of an oyled bladder Obs 1. That Ambergreece being a kind of Bitumen and Musk being of an oyly nature they may easily be dissolved in Spirit of Wine and communicate to it their Tincture It s Vse and Vertues One drop of this Essence perfumes for ever whatsoever it touches that can imbibe it and is much more pleasant with a double quantity of Ambergreece than with equal parts of Musk and Ambergreece because the odour of the Ambergreece is sweeter and that of the Must stronger The Tincture of Tartar or Spirit of Wine clarified TAke as much as you please of Tartar calcin'd to whiteness properly called Salt of Tartar or of Ashes made of burnt Lees of Wine call'd Gravell'd Ashes put either of them into a Crucible or unglaz'd stone Pot place it in a Wind-Furnace till your matter be blew like Vitriol of Cyprus which may be done in an hours time take off your Pot and with a brass Spoon take out your matter and powder it while it is hot in a brass Mortar and then put it into a Matrass which you must stir and shake in your hand to the end the heat of the matter may extend its self equally to all the parts of the Glass and not break one by over-heating it Let your Matrass have two parts empty pour into your matter Spirit of Wine till your Glass be half full place this Vessel in a Sand-Furnace giving an ordinary Fire according to Art let it stand till the Spirit of Wine become as red as a Ruby then pour off by inclination this Tincture pour on more Spirit upon the Faeces and reiterate this as long as the Faeces will yield any Tincture there will remain a good quantity of the said Faeces which you may re-calcine and use as other Salt of Tartar keep your Tincture Observe That Tartar being a sulphureous and inflameable Salt may take the colour of blew and communicate a red Tincture to the Spirit of Wine It s Vse and Vertues It is the most powerful and penetrating Desopilative that is it produces its effect strongly and gently so that for the obstructions of the Spleen the Pancreas the Mesentery and the Mesaraick Veins there is not the like remedy amongst Chymists nor Galenists for by the Spirit of Wine it dissolves all the most tenacious Viscosities in the little Veins and pores of the Belly and by the Salt of Tartar it carries away all the impurities of the said parts so that no Soap can cleanse more than this Tincture It s use is to be dissolved from ten to thirty drops in some Broth or appropriated Water to take every morning fasting for some days The Spirit and foetid Oyl of Tartar TAke a glass Retort luted up to half its neck if you do make but a little of this Remedy or if you make a great deal take a Stone one fill it up to the neck with good Tartar of Montpellier either red or white beaten to a fine powder place your Retort upon a Pot-cover full of Ashes in the small reverberatory Furnace if you use but two or three pounds or in an Earthen Bowl in a great circulatory Fire if you use but half a pound fit a Receiver and give your Fire by degrees there will soon come forth a white dark vapour which will continue all the time of the Operation the Flegm comes first then the Tartar takes fire in the Retort and is in a flame and from the smoak of this flame come the Spirit and Oyl Continue your fire till there come no more out of the Retort and till your Receiver be clear and cold though the Fire be violent under the Retort out of one pound of Tartar you will draw about ten ounces of Spirit with its Flegm and two ounces of Oyl in the Retort will remain four ounces of a black Salt which you must dissolve in Water then filtrate and coagulate to use as the true Salt of Tartar being entirely devested of its Flegm Spirit and Oyl and so being a pure Salt for the Tartar contains but very little Faeces or Earth Observe That in this Operation we perceive that Tartar is a very sulphureous Salt since it takes fire in the Retort and there comes from it a blackish Oyl stinking and inflameable and that the Faeces do remain black and burnt in the Retort It s Vse and Vertues This Oyl is indifferently stinking and caustick it serves for Ring-worms and exfoliation of Bones or for Farsey in Horses the Spirit is acid when rectified and is good against the Stone and Gravel The Spirit and Aromatick Oyl of Juniper Berries Put fresh Juniper Berries into a Brass Vesica till it be half full fill one third more of the Vesica with common cold water let them infuse twenty four hours in the Vesica with a gentle fire to extract afterwards the better the oyly Essence of your Berries having all this while stopt the mouth of your Vesica with a Linnen-cloth take out this cloth and fit to your Brass body its Mores-head border'd with a refrigeratory and a moveable Pipe and do as has been taught in the distillation of the waters of Plants that which will first come will be the Aromatick Balsamick Essence or Oyl of Juniper Bays together with a little flegm or inflegmated Spirit and then the rest of the flegm will follow Out of a peck of Berries you will not have above two ounces of Essence or Oyl all the rest will be flegm or Spirit inflegmatized Obs 1. That because we can draw but a very small quantity of Oyl or Essence not only out of Juniper Berries but also out of all Balsamick and Aromatick Leaves Flowers Rinds Barks Roots Woods Berries and Seeds therefore we have found the way of using Spirit of Turpentine separated by three or four Rectifications from its red Oyl putting three or four ounces upon every peck of Berries to the end that being incorporated
Furnace of a Circulary Fire and Suppression till your pot be full then encrease your fire stirring your matter from time to time with a stick which you must not put to the bottom till all be melted then take off your pot and when it is cold break it you will find in the bottom the Regulus and the Faeces on the top Of it is made Vinum Emeticum everlasting Pills and Cups and the Diaphoretick its Faeces serves to make the Golden Sulphur Diaphoretick Of the Liver of Antimony of which is made the Crocus Metallorum MIngle one pound of Male or Female Antimony with half a pound of common Niter powdered put them by spoonfuls into a Crucible or pot of the same Earth heated red-hot in a Furnace of a Circulary Fire and Suppression covering your pot at each spoonful then encrease your fire and stir incessantly your matter with a stick till it be in Fusion take off your pot and pour into a Mortar the melted Liquor retaining the Faeces from going in with it your matter being cold is called Liver of Antimony and being powdered is called The Saffron of Metals or Crocus Metallorum Of it is made the Vinum Emeticum The Dose is one ounce in a pint of VVine of which take one or two ounces inwardly and four or five ounces in a Clyster The Spirit and Oyl of Guaiacum FIll up to the neck a great earthen Retort well luted with shavings or little pieces of the VVood of Guiacum place it in a small Reverberatory Furnace fitting to it a stone Receiver or a glass one and covering your Furnace with an earthen Pan that has a hole in the bottom then by a moderate heat of twelve sixteen or twenty hours you will have the Spirit and Oyl together which separate either by a glass Tunnel or by a coffin of brown Paper wet with ordinary VVater Of the Ashes or Coals re-calcin'd you may make a Lixivium and extract the Salt This Oyl is good for old Ulcers for the Gangrene and Rot and two or three drops in Cinnamon-water is good for the Colick the Spirit is good for Burnings Ulcers and for the Pox in a Decoction of Guaiacum Crystal Mineral THrow fine Niter powdered into a Pot set in a Furnace of a Circulary Fire and Suppression and let it be quite full at first being melted throw into it four or five times at each time a spoonful of powder'd Brimstone then pour out by little and little your melted Niter into a Brass Kettle shaking the Kettle and dipping it into cold Water dissolve your Niter thus prepar'd in warm Water filter it through a brown Paper and evaporate it to a Pellicule then setting it cool you will have fair Crystals which are the true Crystal Mineral or Sal Prunellae It cools opens and resists Corruption taken inwardly from a scruple to a dragm and in a Clyster from a dragm to half an ounce The Spirit and Oyl of Box ARe made as the Spirit and Oyl of Guaiacum only this Wood yields much Spirit but little Oyl the Oyl is good for the putrefaction and pain of the Teeth for Contusions and Ulcers Of the Regulus of Mars POwder and mingle two pounds of Male Antimony with one pound of Tartar and one of common Niter six ounces of filings of Steel and two ounces of powder'd Charcoal It is made as the Regulus of Antimony and there results of it a Regulus containing seven ounces of Antimony with the six ounces of filings It purges by stool and vomit in powder or in vessel with Wine and serves to make an excellent Diaphoretick which never provokes vomit The Spirit of Salt TAke one part of common Salt and five of Potters Earth dried and powdered fill with it a glass Retort well luted place it in a Furnace of a great Reverberatory Fire give the fire by degrees and continue the last degree for twenty hours It s vertue is Diuretick it drives away Gravel and breaks little britle Stones whitens the Teeth and preserves from the Plague and all Corruption Of the Red Precipitate of Mercury PUt four ounces of Mercury and six ounces of Aqua fortis in a Matrass of glass luted up to half its Body place it in a Furnace of a moderate Circulary Fire till the Aqua fortis be evaporated then give a Fire of Suppression till there rise a yellow vapour upon the brim of the Matrass then take it off and when cold break your Vessel and you will find in the bottom a Red Precipitate of an Orange colour Of Spirit of Niter PUt one part of fine Niter to four parts of dried Potters-Earth fill a glass Retort well luted then distil it in a great Reverberatory Fire and have a care of its vapours in distilling it It s Vse and Vertues Are to dissolve Mercury Camphire and Metals and is better for interior Remedies than Aqua fortis Of Turbith Mineral PUt two ounces of Mercury and three ounces of Spirit of Niter into a glass Retort luted up to half its neck place it in a Furnace of a Circulary fire giving a gentle fire till the Mercury be dissolved and dried then take off your vessel and let it cool then pour upon it one ounce of Oyl or Spirit of Sulphur and evaporate it by the same fire reiterating this three or four times then burn upon it Spirit of Wine break your Vessel and you will have a white lump which powder and wash in warm Water till the Water come away insipid Dry this matter in a Sand-fire and burn upon it Spirit of Wine three or four times it will make your Mercury as yellow as Gold then give it a melting fire which it will endure very well without losing any thing because of the fixedness it has acquired by the Spirit of Sulphur Of the white Precipitate PUt eight ounces of Mercury and one pound of Aqua fortis into an ample glass Retort with a long neck shake your vessel and heat it a little upon warm Ashes till your Mercury be dissolved then pour your Dissolution into a glass Bell and pour upon it a quart of Sea-water to precipitate your Mercury separate your Sea-water and sweeten your Precipitate with common Water then dry it in a coffin of white Paper It is used with Pomatum to rub Ring-worms withall It s internal Use is To purge in the Pox from three to eight grains Of the golden Diaphoretick Sulphur BOyl in common Water in a Kettle the Faeces of Regule of Antimony or Regule of Mars filter their Lixivium through a brown Paper pour two or three spoonfuls of Vinegar or of some acid Spirit upon all this Lixivium it will curdle grow yellow and stink then pouring Water upon it precipitate your Tincture thus curdled into a powder of the colour of Saffron which you must edulcorate or sweeten to take away the ill smell then dry it in a coffin of Paper It s Vse is to provoke the Monthly Courses from eight to twelve
it till your water come away insipid then filter your Magistery and dry it in the shade The Use of it is That it is a powerful Diuretick and Diaphoretick against Venereal Diseases the Small Pox and all long Distempers The Dose is from ten to twenty grains and more Boyl four ounces of Venice Turpentine into the consistence of Colophone in a kettle full of Water and mingle with it while it is warm an ounce of Diaphoretick Antimony half an ounce of Niter sulphurated and as much Cream of Tartar form of it Pills which will be excellent for old Gonorrhaea's Of the binding Saffron of Mars PUt two parts of filings of Steel and one part of powder'd Brimstone all at once into a Crucible heated red-hot in a fire of Suppression till the Brimstone be consumed and an hour after take off your Crucible and powder presently your matter spread this powder that is now of the colour of Violets upon Tiles and it will become brown It is good in bloody and Hepatick Fluxes in the weight of a dragm It augments the binding vertue of Plasters The opening Saffron of Mars SPrinkle the binding Saffron of Mars in a stone pan with Spirit of Vitriol or Brimstone two fingers above the matter which in two or three days will be a kind of paste with which fill a large Crucible and set it in a Reverberatory Fire for eight hours then powder it while warm and searce it The Vse This Saffron is good against the Yellow Jaundice it provokes the Monthly Courses and opens the Spleen from half a dragm to two Of the Spirit of Sulphur PLace a stone Cup half full of Sand upon a little Pot placed in the middle of a great earthen Pan a quarter full of Water put into it a spoonful of powder'd Brimstone and with a red Cart-nail set it on fire put presently a glass Bell over the Pan the Brimstone will burn the Spirit will impregnate the Water and the Flowers will produce a little skin reiterate all that till you have thus consumed four pound of Brimstone then mingle your Flowers and your impregnated Water in a Matrass with a short neck and evaporate in a Circulary Fire the Flegm till your Brimstone be dissolved and that your Spirit grows black pour it all into a stone or White-ware Vessel while it is warm the Brimstone will be congealed in the bottom and you shall have half an ounce of black Oyl or Spirit of Brimstone It cools purifies the Blood preserves from the Plague fixes Mercury dissolves Pearls and Coral and cures Cancers and Warts Of the Spirit of Vitriol and Oyl of Colcothar FIll a glass Retort throughly luted with green Vitriol calcin'd to a grey colour in a great Crucible in a Circulary Fire and of Suppression place it in a Furnace of great Reverberation till there appear black spots upon the Receiver then pour off your Spirit of Vitriol which is as clear as Water encrease your fire you shall have a black Oyl very acid and there will remain a Colcothar in the Retort The Use of both is To cool and resist Corruption against all Distempers of the Liver Kidneys against burning and pestilential Feavers it serves also to dissolve Pearls Coral Crabs Eyes Egg-shells c. but it is not strong enough to dissolve Metals Of the Oyl of Myrrha FIll with Myrrha in pieces a glass Retort luted place it in a Circulary Fire fitting to it a great Receiver there will come out a Flegm and an Oyl both together separate them one from another with a glass Tunnel The Use of the Oyl is Against Fits of the Mother by smelling to it it cleanses and ripens Wounds being mingled with the Digestivum and hinders the Gangrene being mingled with the Egyptiacum Of Cauteries SLack half a pound of Quick-lime in a stone Pan by pouring Water upon it by little and little till it become like pap in the mean time heat in a Crucible in a Fire of Suppression two pounds of gravell'd Ashes and throw them hot into the said pap then pour upon it sufficient quantity of Water to dissolve your Salts after twelve hours infusing pour your Lixivium into a brass Basin and evaporate it till it be dry and thus as it is you may use it as people do other Cauteries If you melt this matter you may mould Cauteries upon a Marble The Use is To cauterize when they are moulded they are dryer and must be well wet before their application Of the Red acid oyl of Antimony POwder and mingle fine Niter Brimstone and Antimony of each a pound set fire to your matters by little and little in an earthen pan under a glass Bell as you do the Spirit of Brimstone then evaporate it in a Matrass of a short neck till your Brimstone be melted and your Niter exhaled and that your Oyl appears red and thick taking care that your matter in boyling do not run over pour all your matter into a little stone pot or of White-ware and when it is cold it will congeal into a fair reddish Sulphur The Use of the Oyl is To cure by touching the Ulcers and Cancres of the Pox it purges without provoking vomit from eight to eighteen drops Of Besoard Mineral MElt some butter of Antimony and pour it into a glass Bell and add to it drop by drop and at divers times Spirit of Niter in equal quantity for fear of too great an ebullition when the smoak and boyling cease pour to it a pint of Sea-water filtred and cold there will be produced a white Precipitate after twelve hours pour off this Water sweeten your Precipitate with common Water then filter the remainder through a coffin of Paper and keep your powder well stop'd It s Use is To be an excellent Sudorifick for malignant Feavers and the Pox. The Precipitate of Bismuth PUt four ounces of powder'd Bismuth into a glass Bell and pour upon it by little and little eight ounces of Spirit of Niter having a care of too great an ebullition and of the venomous vapours of the said Spirit The ebullition being ceas'd and the dissolution perform'd and cold it will crystallize Pour upon it Sea-water to precipitate the Magistery pour off your Sea-water and pour on common Water to sweeten it filter the remainder through a Paper coffin and let it dry in the shade The Use is To dry Ulcers and to be a Fucus being mingled with Pomatum The spirit and oyl of Turpentine FIll a glass Retort luted with the waterish Spirit of Turpentine with its Oyl distil it in a Circulary Fire till three parts of four come away which will be the Spirit and there will remain in the Retort a thick red Oyl rectifie your Spirit so often till there remain no Oyl in it The Oyl is a good Anodynum for wounds of the nervous parts the Spirit is a good Diuretick dissolves Gums extracts Tinctures of Aromatick Plants and serves to make the Balsam of Sulphur Of the sulphurated Niter call'd Sal Antifebrile or the salt against Feavers TAke four ounces of Brimstone or its Flowers and mingle them with eight ounces of fine Niter fire this mixtion by degrees in an earthen Cup set in a stone Pan in which is a quart of Spirit of Urine covering the pot with a Bell then take the Faeces of the calcin'd Brimstone and powder them and mingle them with the Spirit of Urine impregnated with the Spirits of Niter and Sulphur let them infuse twelve hours in this stone Pot till they be dissolved filter the Dissolution and evaporate it in a short necked Matrass in a Circulary Fire till it come to a white scum then diminish the Fire and evaporate it till it cease boyling and have a care that the too much boyling do not break your Vessel pour this matter while warm into a White-ware Dish and it will congeal like Crystal Mineral To mould it you must melt it and then pour it into a Vial or melt in the Vial and then break your Vial by cold Water and take away all the Glass with the point of a Knife The Use 'T is a powerful Diuretick and cooler it resists Corruption it drives Gravel cures Feavers softens Metals The Dose is from twenty to thirty Grains FINIS
a Retort and open fire nevertheless to speak properly the name of Oyl is not due to either of them because they are neither Sulphurous nor inflamable substances If after you have made the Salt of Tartar you are in haste to have the Oyl you may presently compass your end by throwing eight ounces of common Water upon four ounces of this Salt of Tartar for then it will all dissolve into Liquor Obs 1. That you chuse good Tartar for that is all Salt whereas the grosser sort of Tartar has much of faeces and terrestreity in it which would spoil this Operation in which we pretend to dissolve all the Salt into Water Obs 2. That your Niter be well devested of all its fixt Salt because we desire here a pure Salt of Tartar without the mixtion of any other therefore your Niter must be entirely volatil and exhale all in the flagration Obs 3. That they both be well powder'd and mingled together that so the Niter penetrating the Tartar do throughly calcine it and it is for this reason that we use an equal quantity of Niter By this method the Tartar is far better and easilier calcin'd than by the naked fire without any Intermedium Obs 4. That we make use here of an earthen glazed Pan without any fear that the Niter should corrode the Lead of the Vernish because its flame is not retained but is at liberty to exhale An unglazed or stone-Pan would be unfit for the Operation because it would presently break by the Inflammation of the Niter The Virtues and Use of the Salt 'T is a great Aperitive Deopilative and Diuretick the dose is from one to two dragms in some Broth or any other appropriated Liquor The Tartar Vitriolated because of the grateful acidity which it borroweth from the Vitriol is much more pleasant to take than this Salt This Salt in the quantity of half a scruple will extract in a quarter of an hour the virtue and tincture of half an ounce of Senna in a glass of cold water and at the same time proves a good Corrective to the noisom smell and taste of the Senna giving it also the virtue of penetrating into all the Veins The Oyl of Tartar is very scouring and drying and is therefore excellent to rub all Scabs Itch and Tetters as also to take away Spots and Sun-burns upon the Hands and Face It is useful to precipitate the dissolutions of Metals and Half-metals or Marcasites And pray by the By take notice That all Acids as Sea-water distilled Vinegar Oyl of Tartar Spirit and black Oyl of Sulphur and Vitriol Spirit of Niter and Aqua fortis serve to precipitate the dissolutions of Minerals but that ordinary common Water serves to precipitate the Distillations and Calcinations of Minerals as also the Dissolutions of Vegetables made in Spirit of Wine for the Reasons which hereafter we shall alledge Crystal Mineral or Lapis Prunellae TAke a Pot of the same Earth that Crucibles are made of of the bigness of a Chamber-pot and like it in Figure with a handle set it upon two Bricks in a great Circulatory Fire of Suppression before the Pot be heated throw into it as much pure Salt-peter in powder as will fill it up to the brim the Salt-peter will melt and as soon as it is melted throw into it a spoonfull of Brimstone in powder which immediately will take fire and be consumed when the flame ceases throw in as much more and so do three or four times This Brimstone does not communicate any virtue to the Niter only serves to purifie it by precipitating its Faeces to the bottom of the Pot till it become so transparent that after these Projections and Flagrations you may see the bottom of the Pot through the melted Niter This done pour a little of this melted Niter into a Brass-tinn'd-Kettle and presently set your Pot upon the fire again having taken away a good part of the Coals round about it then stir your Kettle so as to make the Niter spread it self all over the bottom of your Vessel which done set it in a bigger Vessel full of cold Water that so you may hinder the Niter from burning and adhering too strongly to the bottom of your Kettle separate then at last this white Crust which is as thin and as brittle as Glass and as white as Alabaster and is by some called Crystal Mineral After this take more melted Niter out of your Pot pour it into your Kettle and do all things as before continuing till there be nothing left in the Pot but the Faeces of the Niter which you may throw away Then gather all these thin Crystals together and put them into a Kettle of Water upon the Fire there to dissolve by a gentle ebullition and if all dissolve not it is a sign there is not Water enough When all is dissolved take off your Kettle and filter this Liquor presently while it is warm through a brown Paper over an earthen unglaz'd Cucurbite Then set the said Cucurbite in a Sand-heat there to evaporate till there appear upon the Superficies a thin skin then take it off let it cool the Niter will crystallize into Needles of a sexangulary Figure white clear and transparent as any Rock-Crystal but as brittle as Glass and of a pleasant and grateful acidity And then it is properly called Crystal Mineral because of its resemblance with Crystal Some call it Lapis Prunellae and that is because it is sharp and sowre like your wild Prunes or Plums Obs 1. That we make use of a Pot of the same Earth that the Crucibles are made of and not of an ordinary earthen-glaz'd Pot because the Niter being once melted would also dissolve the ledding of the Pot and being incorporated with it would lose much of its whiteness Obs 2. That we fill the Pot full up to the brim that we may make at once a great quantity of Crystal Mineral and because the Niter melted will take up but half the room it did before being no ways subject to rise and run over Obs 3. That you must beat to powder your Niter for so a greater quantity will be contained in the Pot and also be easilier melted Obs 4. That you must not stay till your Pot be warm before you put in your Niter because the Pot being very hot and the flegm of the Niter coming to be dissolved first would be broke infallibly Therefore put in your Niter at first and so by degrees as your Pot warms your Niter will be deflegmated and yet observe That if you throw a spoonful of Niter into a pot red-hot it will not break because there is too little flegm for so much heat Obs 5. That the Niter being hot enough melts and is deflegmated it melts by the means of its flegm for it is the flegm that puts all Salts into fusion And whensoever Salts are entirely calcined or deflegmated they cannot be melted except they be wet anew by
luted to half the neck leaving a gap to look through at place it upon a Round in a small circulary Furnace keeping the neck of your Retort streight and not leaning on one side till your Mercury be dissolved in the Spirit of Niter which you will easily perceive through the gap you left when you luted your Glass When your Mercury is quite dissolved then to go the shorter way to work evaporate the Spirit of Niter your Retort being in the same posture still but if you mean to draw off the said Spirit of Niter then set your Retort in a distilling posture and fit to it a Recipient continuing your fire in the same degree as before When the exsiccation or drying of your Mercury shall be thus performed take off your Vessel and let it cool then pour into it an ounce of Oyl of Sulphur upon the white matter which remains in the bottom and then set it again upon the same fire till all the Oyl of Sulphur be likewise evaporated reiterate three or four times this cohobation or rectification with the same proportion of Oyl of Sulphur to the end that at last it may fire the Mercury This done break your vessel and in the bottom you will find a white lump which reduce to powder and upon this powder pour warm water which incontinent will become yellow reiterate this dulcoration or sweetning till at last your water come away as insipid as it was poured on then separate by inclination the water which will not be tinged as the other was and after dry your matter gently in a sand heat and there will remain at last a powder as yellow as Gold upon this pour some spponfuls of Spirit of Wine and set it on fire doing thus three or four times to sweeten your Mercury the more It will be as yellow and as bright as Gold and of no taste and so fix that being put into a Crucible and melted in a Wine Furnace it will still keep the consistence of a yellow powder without losing but very little of its weight which is a sign that it is well fixt Obs 1. That your Mercury for this Operation must be well purified because the intention is to fix it which could scarce be done if it were impure and mingled with Lead besides that being designed for a purgative in a very small Dose it would scarce answer your intention you will be able to judge if it be well purified or no by putting some of it into a Stone-cup for if when you put a finger into it it does not hang and make a long thred as a syrup would do but is short then it is good If it be impure you may purifie it by straining it through the Leather called Chamy for the Lead if there be any will remain in the leather or else distill your Mercury in a Glass Retort luted in a fire of suppression and the Mercury will remain in the bottom of the Retort Obs 2. That we use Spirit of Niter and not Aqua fortis to dissolve the Mercury because the said Spirit being less harmful and corrosive than Aqua fortis ought to be imployed in all preparations of Remedies that are to be taken inwardly besides that if we had employed Aqua fortis then the Mercury must necessarily after its dissolution have become red as it shall be taught in the Chapter of the Red Precipitate hereafter and no other Spirit would be corrosive enough to dissolve the Mercury but Spirit of Niter Obs 3. That we use a greater quantity of Spirit of Niter than of Mercury because experience teaches us that the dissolvant must be in greater quantity to dissolve such a dose of Mercury Obs 4. That the said dissolution requires no other than a small circulary fire for if the heat were greater the Spirit would evaporate and be gone in stead of doing its work and for the same reason we keep the Retort with its neck upwards that so if the Spirit be raised yet it may fall down again and dissolve the Mercury Obs 5. That if you draw off by distillation that said Spirit of Niter it may be useful to you in frictions for the Itch the Scab and such like diseases having lost its force which would have consum'd proud flesh excrescences c. Obs 6. That the Mercury being dissolved and calcin'd Philosophically by the Spirit of Niter after the exsiccation and evaporation of the said Spirit the Calx of the Mercury is white because the Niter being also white by nature cannot with a small fire colour any body that is dissolved in it but the Aqua fortis makes the bodies grow red because of the Vitriol which is in it Obs 7. That upon the Calx of Mercury we pour Spirit of Sulphur divers times that so we may intirely fix the said Mercury because the spirit of Sulphur is of it self fix and farr from evaporating when it is put in a Matrass upon the fire it fixes part of it into a very pricking sharp Salt and therefore this Spirit has power to fix all Metals The black Spirit of Vitriol is not proper to fix because it is of its nature volatil and would evaporate all away as for its salt at least and there would remain nothing but a Caput mortuum and observe by the by that Mercury passes here through two the noblest Operations of Chymistry for first it is dissolved by the Spirit of Niter and then coagulated by the Spirit of Sulphur Obs 8. That by pouring warm water upon this calx it presently grows yellow because the Oyl of Sulphur has communicated to it the Sulphureous yellow colour and the water being actually warm dissolves and extracts the Salts who were incorporated in the said Calx Obs 9. That by burning Spirit of Wine over the said Mercury you dulcifie and sweeten it and make its purgative vertue gentler because the burning Spirit of Wine penetrating the said Mercury carries away with it in the burning all the Venemous volatil Salt that could be left Obs 10. That Turbith Mineral is nothing but Mercury dissolved and calcin'd by the Spirit of Niter then fixt by the Spirit of Sulphur then devested of the salts of its dissolvants by reiterated lotions and freed from its malignous Sulphur by the flagrations of the Spirit of Wine It s Vse and Vertue It purges strongly and often provokes Vomit from three to six grains it cures the Pox without fluxing because being fixt it cannot rise to the mouth as all other preparations of Mercury that have not been fixt do It is nevertheless very violent because it is not so fixt but there yet remains a little un-fixt mercurial Salt and Sulphur who are sharpened by the Spirits of Niter and Brimstone and indeed if all of it were fixt then nothing of it could be dissolved in the stomach and so would produce no other effect than as much Gold in powder also being not altogether Volatil its Vertue is less harmful The White
Ulcers washing them with some Lint dipped in it besides if you put five or six drops of it in a bottle of Sudorifick Decoction it will work a greater effect than if there were a great quantity of Guaiacum in the said Decoction because this Spirit has the force of the Guaiacum and besides much more activity and penetration by the tenuity of its Spirituous substance The Oyl of Guaiacum is very drying detersive and cleansing it therefore cures rarely well old putrid hard Ulcers the Gangrene and the Caries or Rot of the Bones Besides you may give by the Mouth two or three drops of it in a spoonful of Cinamon Water for a windy or bilious Colick The Extract of Guaiacum is very drying and Sudorifick and it is given in form of Pils for Veneral Diseases The Spirit of Box. The Oyl of Ash c. THe Spirit and Oyl of the Wood of Box of the Wood and Bark of Ash as likewise of all other Woods and Aromatick Barks are drawn in the same way as the Spirit and Oyl of Guaiacum The Wood of Box yields more Spirits a great deal than the Wood of Guaiacum but it yields so inconsiderable a proportion of Oyl that out of four pound of Wood you will have but one ounce of Oyl though four pound of Spirit of Flegm because this Wood is fuller of Sulphur than Guaicum but is not so heavie nor so Salt It s Spirit has almost the same vertues as the Spirit of Guaiacum the Oyl likewise has the same vertues with the Oyl of Guaiacum but is most particularly excellent for all Contusions Ulcers pain and rottenness of the Teeth The Wood of Ash yields about as much Spirit and Oyl as Box its Bark yields but little Spirit and no Oyl at all It s Spirit is an excellent topical Remedy for deafness and tingling of the Ears because it does incide and resolve the humours and flatuosities which lie in the Meatus auditorius and in the first concavity of the Ear. It s Oyl is also most excellent for the Rot or Caries of the Bones and for the pain of the Teeth it appeases the pain of the Kidneys and Spleen if the said parts be anointed with it The stinking or foetide Oyl of Cloves TAke Cloves whose tincture has been already extracted by Spirit of Wine for it would be ill Husbandry to use others and so lose their Aromatick tincture particularly since when they have yielded their tincture they are never the worse for this Operation put what quantity you please of them into a glass Retort well luted place it upon a Round hollow earthen Pan in the Furnace of a great circulatory Fire fitting to it a great glass Receiver give at first a very strong violent Fire and continue it till there appear no more vapours in the Receiver these vapours are white and do turn into black caustick stinking Oyl Out of one pound of Cloves you may have about two ounces of Oyl and eight ounces of Flegm Obs 1. That we use here a glass Retort luted because that stone Retorts are too big for the small quantity of Cloves which is ordinarily us'd in this process Obs 2. That you need not care if you fill your Retort with Cloves because they do not swell no more than Woods or Barks you may also fill it half full Obs 3. That Cloves contain much Sulphur and sharp Salt from whence it comes that they yield much Oyl and that very sharp and caustick It s Vse and Vertues This Oyl being very sharp and biting is most excellent for Ulcers in the Pox and all other putrid and venemous ones as also it is good to exfoliate or open the superficies of rotten Bones and for the Gangrene It s Spirit is acid and very good in Tettars or Ring-worms The Oyl of Jet TAke some pieces of Jet put them into a glass Retort well luted filling it up to the neck place it upon a Round hollow earthen Pan in a circulatory Fire and fit to it a great Receiver which lute well to the neck of the Retort give at first a small circulary Fire then the great circulary Fire and then a Fire of Suppression there will appear in the Receiver an abundance of white vapours which will dissolve into Spirit and Oyl This Operation must last ten or twelve hours with a continual Fire and four pound of Jet in your Retort out of one pound you will have about two ounces of Oyl and ten of Spirit Separate by a glass Tunnel the Oyl that goes to the bottom from the Spirit which will swim above and keep them apart in two glass Vials upon the Spirit you will perceive swimming divers thick drops of Volatil Oyl of Jet which you may leave with the said Spirit Obs 1. That we use here a Glass Retort luted for the same reason alledged in the Chapter of the Oyl of Cloves Obs 2. That we fill the Retort without any intermedium because Jet is a dry substance which does not swell no more than other Woods and Roots Obs 3. That Jet is a Rocky Stone which is drawn in great quantities out of some Quarrys near Tholous in France and this Stone is very bituminous having much Sulphur a good deal of Salt and very little flegm from whence it proceeds that it yields a good deal of Oyl moderately sharp and heavy It s Vse and Vertues The Oyl is most excellent for the suffocations of the Matrix because of its extraordinary ill smell being much more stinking than the Oyl of Guaiac or Karabe it serves also to dissolve all bruises and contusions of the feet proceeding from walking too much the flegm has the same but less vertue than the Oyl The Oyl of Mirrha and other Gums TAke a glass Retort well luted fill it half full of Mirrha broken into lumps place it in the Furnace of a circulatory fire Fit to it a great Receiver of Glass and give the fire by degrees there will rise an abundance of white vapours which in the Receiver will dissolve into a flegm and an Oyl this Operation will last five or six hours Out of one pound of Mirrha you will have seven or eight ounces of Oyl and five or six of flegm separate by a Glass Tunnel the Oyl from the flegm Obs 1. That we use here a Glass Retort well luted for the reasons alledged in the distillation of the stinking Oyl of Cloves Obs 2. That we fill the Retort but half full because that the Myrrha does swell a little being heated and so if the Retort were full might run over in substance yet because it is a rosinous dry Gum it is not necessary to give it any intermedium Obs 3. That Mirrha is a Gumme Rosin having much Salt Sulphur and flegm and therefore yields a good deal of Oyl which is very bitter and heavy as also a great deal of flegm It s Vse and Vertues This Oyl is very detersive because of its great bitterness and
It is most excellent in dissolving those fleshly Excrescences and Ulcers called Wolfes The Extract of Hellebore PUt half a pound of the Roots of black Hellebore cut into little bits into a capacious Matrass pour on Spirit of Wine four fingers above your matter fit to it another little Matrass to make a double Vessel place it in a Sand-Furnace and there let it stand in digestion three or four days and let not the belly of your Matrass be above a quarter-way in the Sand nor do not make your fire so great as to make your Spirit of Wine boyl for then part of your Spirits would exhale and be gone yet let there be heat enough to extract the red Tincture of the Roots Separate this Tincture by Inclination or if there be any Faeces filtrate it through a Coffin of brown Paper pour this Tincture into a glass Body which set in the same Sand-Furnace and fit to it a glass Head and Receiver and so draw off by Distillation as much Spirit of Wine as you poured on which will serve you for other uses then take off the Head and evaporate your matter to the consistence of an Extract like Honey In the mean time boyl the Roots left in the Matrass in a quantity of common Water to make a Decoction which strain through a course Linnen then clarifie it with Whites and Shells of Eggs and evaporate it in a stone or glaz'd earthen Pan to the consistence of an Extract which you may mingle with the precedent if you think good We draw these two Extracts separately and with different menstruums because that the Spirit of VVine extracts only the gummy rosinous part and cannot extract the saltish and the common Water does quite contrary It s Vse and Vertues It purges Melancholy most commonly with a loathing and sometimes with vomiting An Essence for the Tooth-ach PUt of the Spirit of Wine campherized of the Tincture of Cloves of the Oyl of Box of the Oyl of Guaiacum of the black Oyl of Sulphur and if you will of the Tincture of Opium of each an equal part there will result an oily red transparent Liquor which you must keep in a glass Vial well stop'd It s Vse and Vertues It is a most excellent Remedy to appease the Tooth-ach and draw off the sharp humour that falls on the Teeth you must pour some of it into a glass and then dip a little Cotton of which make a Pellet as big as a Pea and apply it to the Tooth or in its hollow part if there be any there will presently distil from it a good deal of Water and the pain will cease Turpentine Pills PUt four ounces of clear transparent Turpentine of Venice into a glaz'd Disn pour upon it three times as much water boyl them together with a gentle heat till your Turpentine look white and not yellow as before then take out a little of it upon the point of a Knife and let fall a drop or two upon a pewter Plate if you see that the drop when cold does not stick to your fingers then it is boyl'd enough to make Pills of so take it off and pour cold Water into your Pan that will precipitate the Turpentine in a white Paste take this Paste and knead it with your hand to wring the Water out you may wipe your Turpentine with some Linnen but you must do it gently lest while it is warm the Linnen should stick to it then add to it one ounce of a Diaphoretick Antimony half an ounce of Salt of Sulphur and as much of Cremor Tartari incorporate them together into a lump which will soon grow hard but will easily grow soft again being handled before the fire Keep this Mass for Pills in a Hogs bladder well oyl'd with Sallet Oyl It s Vse and Vertues These Pills do dry up and stop Gonorrhaea's when they have flow'd enough by giving half an ounce for Dosis for the space of a fortnight or three weeks For those that cannot swallow Pills you must boyl your Turpentine a little more till it grow so hard upon the Plate as to be broken in pieces powder this in a mortar and add to it the same Druggs as above The Dosis mentioned will be the same here and must be dissolv'd in white Wine or in Broth or in some Decoction or appropriated Water The distilled Water of Plants PUt a good Hand-basket full of leaves for Example of Plantane new gather'd and fresh into the Brass Vesica add to them about four quarts of Water to the end the Herb may boyl during the distillation and that in boyling the said Water may extract and be impregnated with the vertue of the plant yet let not your Vesica be above three quarters full lest the Water in boyling should carry the substance and not the vapours into the Moors-head You need not put any sponges into the neck of the Vesica as you do in the distillation of the Spirit of Wine because these sponges would hinder the passage of your vapours fit to your Vesica its Moors-head bordered with its Refrigeratory and make use also of the second Refrigeratory that is of the two Hogsheads full of Water as has been taught in the distillation of Spirit of Wine this will further the distillation of your Water very much Give at first a good Fire of Coals and two or three Fagot-sticks continue this Fire and moderate your Distillation so as to make a little stream of Water come always into your Receiver into which it will not fall perpendicularly as the Spirit of Wine does but a little arch-wise As soon as with this little stream you perceive that there come vapours into the Receiver lessen your Fire to hinder the loss of these vapours which spend themselves in vain If your Distillation be performed but slowly and drop by drop or in a very little stream falling perpendicularly then encrease the Fire that you may not lose your time by an unnecessary protraction of the Distillation From time to time empty your Receiver and immediately pour it through a glass Tunnel into a stone Pitcher As soon as you perceive that there comes into your Receiver a muddy Water then be sure that all the good part of your Operation is at an end because this muddy VVater proceeds from the burning of the Plants which begins to send forth its Spirit and stinking Oyl therefore give over distilling put out your Fire take out the Grounds of the Herbs left in the bottom and throw away the muddy Water that you shall find there with them after which begin a new Distillation with new Herbs and new Water When you have gathered all your Water into stone Pitchers put into them some Saltpeter well purified and crystallized half a dragm to every pound of Water Obs 1. That you must not put your Water into an earthen Vessel unglazed because at last it would lose its self entirely through the pores of the Potters-Earth which is
their Discovery that they might give credit to their new Science they made use of the Cabalistique Cloak of covering all things with a Mystery The Modern Professors indeed have given a better Foundation to their Art and so good an one as hath shaken that of the old Philosophy but withal either for want of skill or maliciously they have encumbred their processes with so many and such impertinent Circumstances lengthening both them and the expences that very few and indeed none but very sharp-sighted Physitians have been able to see through the Cloud and both receive and communicate the benefit of the light there hidden This consideration has moved me in this my VVork to keep within the limits of Chymistry neglecting any Speculations beside my purpose and withal to endeavour to free my processes from all those Obscurities Difficulties and Protractions which Experience and Reason have convinced me to be either superfluous or prejudicial to them If I have not executed my design to thy mind I must confess Courteous Reader that it is much a harder thing to perform well than to project A TABLE OF The Matters contained in this BOOK A ACids serve to precipitate the dissolution of Minerals Page 55 Advice to the Artist 99 Alembick open its parts and composition 20 Blind Alembick 21 Alembick twins their description ibid. Amber distilled with Spirit of Wine 153 Essence of Ambergreece 183 Antimony Mineral preferrable to all others for the Philosophers Stone 101 Is the most malignant of all for the use of Physick ibid. Antimony diaphoretick 98 What Antimony is best for its preparation ibid. The way of forming it into Trochisks 100 Observations on the matter of this Remedy ibid. How to hinder it from being vomitive 101 What it is properly 102 Its Vse and Vertues ibid. Antimony revived 263 Antimony its differences 85 Red Acid Oyl of Antimony 276 Its Vse ibid. Aqua fortis dissolves Silver in equal quantity 127 What effects if your Silver be mingled with Copper ibid. Aqua fortis how made 41 Aqua Regalis how made 42 Aqua fortis with purified Niter and Alom 233 Arcanum Corallinum what it is 84 Its Vse and Vertues ibid. Gravelled Ashes what 132 B BAlsom of Brimstone 182 Its Vertues 183 Balsam of St. Johns-wort 178 Its matter and preparation ibid. Its Vertues ibid. Balneum Maris what 27 A Glass Bell what kind of vessel 24 Benjamin its preparation into flowers 213 Its qualities 215 The vertue of the Flowers ibid. The Virginal Milk of Benjamin and Storax 231 The use of this Milk 232 Bezoard Mineral 110 276 Its matter and preparation 111 What it is 112 Its vertues ibid. Bismuth a kind of Marcassit 133 Ought not to be dissolved in Aqua fortis 136 Its preparation 133 134 The Magistery of Bismuth what 137 Is a good Fucus ibid. The Precipitate of Bismuth 277 Its use ibid. Bricks use in Chymistry their Figure 4 The manner of making and drying them 5 Box is the Guaiac of Europe 142 Yields much Spirit and little Oyl 143 Vertues of its Spirit and Oyl 143 144 Butter of Antimony 105 It s different names ibid. It s matter and preparation 106 The Dosis 110 Its vertues ibid. Butter of Saturn 265 Its vertues 266 C CAlcination of Lead 202 The use of Calcin'd Lead 263 Calcination of Venice Talc 210 The use of calcin'd Talc 211 Calx of Egg-shells 207 Its Vse and Vertues 209 Calx of Lead 113 Its preparation and vertues 113 114 Calx of Mercury 75 Grows yellow by pouring warm water upon it ibid. Calx of Oyster-shells 305 Calx of Silver how reduced to a Metallic Nature 126 Camphire melts into Oyl in its dissolution 156 Cauteries how made and of what 130 274 How moulded 131 Their use 133 Cinnaber of Antimony 107 Colcothar of Vitriol Its vertues 40 274 Coals serving to the Chymical fire their conditions 26 Colophone what 50 Conserve liquid of Roses 171 Conserve of all sorts of flowers and leaves 169 170 Coral its Salt and Magistery 175 176 177 Cream of Saturn Vid. Butter Cream of Tartar 225 Its vertues 229 Cream of Steeled Tartar ibid. Crocus Martis astringent 245 Crocus Martis opening 272 Chrystal what it is 213 The matter it is made of ibid. Crystal how prepared to endure a violent fire 235 Crystals of Mars 243 Their preparation 244 Their colour and vertues 245 Crystal Mineral 255 Its Dosis and Vertues 256 Sweet Crystals of Saturn 115 Their preparation 115 116 Crystal of Tartar 225 Crystals of Venus 49 Crystals of Venus 239 Their preparation and vertues 243 Crystal Mineral 55 Remarks 57 Its vertues 60 Purging Cup of Antimony 92 D DIstillation per discensum 28 Flying Dragon what 33 139 E WHite Eagle what it is 68 Essence against the Tooth-ach 164 Extracts of Berries Leaves Flowers c. how made 193 Extract of Guaiac 141 Its vertues 142 Extract of Hellebore 163 Its vertues 164 Extract of Juniper 192 Its vertues ibid. F CHymical Fire what to be considered in it 26 Its degrees 29 Circulary Fire 28 Fire of half Suppression and whole Suppression 28 sand-Sand-Fire ibid. Flowers of Antimony 216 Their vertues 218 Flowers of Brimstone 44 Their preparation 219 Their vertues 221 Chymical Furnaces 6 Their Figure Division and Sub-division ibid. Furnace of Balneum Maris 7 Furnace with a Sand-Fire 9 Furnace with a naked circulary Fire 10 Furnace with a naked fire and small Reverberatory 12 Furnace with a naked fire and great Reverberatory 13 Furnace with a little circulatory Fire 15 Furnace with a great circulatory Fire ibid. Furnace with a circulary Fire of Suppression without chink 15 Furnace with a Fire of Suppression and chink 16 Furnace with a melting Fire or a mind Furnace 17 G GVaiac yields much Oyl and Spirit 142 Cup or Goblet of Antimony that purges 92 Gold is not to be calcin'd alone 237 Its dissolvant 236 Is not potable but in its dissolvant 238 Glass Tunnel its description 24 H HOny its Spirit and Tinctures 160 I INstruments of Chymistry their number 2 3 Infernal Stone 125 Its vertues 129 Dyes the Beard black ibid. L CHymical Laboratory its definition it conditions 1 2 Lamp for Chymical Operations 27 Laudanum its matter and preparation 193 Its Vse and Vertues 196 Lead calcin'd by Brimstone 113 Lime contains two Salts 131 Liver of Antimony 85 Its vertues and dose 87 Lute Chymical its composition and use 3 4 Observations how to Lute well 5 M MAgistery of Bismuth 133 Its vertues 137 Magistery of Crabs-eyes Bezoard Mother of Pearl how made 176 Magistery of Coral 174 Its vertues 177 Magistery of Egg-shells 207 Its vertues 209 Magistery of Jalap Vid. Rosin Magistery of Pearls 201 Is a great Cordial 204 And also a Fucus Magistery of Saturn 115 How used against sore eyes 121 Magistery of Silver 233 Its use 234 Mars uncalcin'd its qualities 123 Matras its description 22 Milk of Brimstone 198 Its vertues 201 Virginal Milk 121 Milk of Benjamin and Storax 231 Minium
Lead the top of it rises in form of a point the bottom is broad and proportioned to the body In its lower part it hath a brim inwards on which the Vapours that rise in it fall and gently distil to the Nose of the Pipe which is of half a foot long and conveys the liquors into the Receiver These two Vessels fitted one to another serve to distil and rectifie in a sand-sand-fire per assensum the waters of Plants Aqua vitae Spirit of Wine the phlegm Oyl and Spirit of Vegetables and Animals and to rectifie the Phlegm and Spirit of Minerals Before you put your Cucurbit into the sand you must lute two or three slices of white Paper upon the neck of your body that so you may even it and make it fit for the head which must fit close upon these slices of Paper round about the Glass-body tye a pack-thread with a loose knot then with more Paper lute together the head and its body over this pack-thread the use of which will be to undo easily these Vessels one from another by drawing the pack-thread and so breaking the Papers when the Operation shall be ended If you expect not a considerable quantity of liquor from your matter then make use of a small Receiver which you may hang to the Nose of the Limbick by a pack-thread fastned to the little button that is on the top of its head but if it be big and you hope for much liquor then place it carefully upon a little Stool or upon Bricks laid one upon another Blind Limbicks are made of a Cucurbit and its head sealed hermetically to it of the bigness of ones fist in the top of the head there is a little hole fit to receive the small end of a Tunnel by which the Liquors are poured into this Vessel and in the lower part of the head there is a nose by which the Liquors distil It s use is to rectifie the acid Spirits of Minerals Vegetables and Animals so that nothing be lost nor exhale from them and therefore you must carefully stop the hole by which you put in your matter with a Glass or Cork-stopple Twins or Pelicans are two blind Limbicks whose noses are reciprocally inserted into the Bodies of one another they must both have a hole in the top for the use mentioned in the other they serve to fix and circulate the Oyls and Spirits with their Salts of Animals Vegetables and Minerals The Retort is a glass made up of a great belly or ball and a long bending neck which near the belly is six or eight inches wide but diminishing still grows less till its end be but wide enough to put your finger in it serves to distil by the side of the Furnace and ordinarily in a naked circulatory fire the black Oyls and Spirits of Minerals and Metals and the stinking Oyls of Vegetables and Animals The Iron or Earthen Retort is like the Glass-one only the neck is three inches diameter near the belly and two inches in its extremity to the end that gross and heavy ingredients may the easilier be put in it serves to distil the Spirit and stinking Oyls of Woods Barks Roots and Berries The Matrass or Bolt-head is always of Glass and may be of different sizes it consists of a round bowl convex in its bottom with a neck half a foot long or thereabouts according to the bigness of the body the neck is every where an inch wide it serves to sublime Mercury and divers Salts The Recipient is a Matrass of any bigness whose neck must be broken off four fingers breadth near the belly to the end that the extremity of the neck of the Retort may enter into the middle of the body of the Receiver it serves to receive Waters Essences Oyls and Spirits of Animals Vegetables Minerals and Metals The way to make a Recipient of a Matrass is this Heat the neck in that part where you intend to cut it off and when it is very hot wet it and so knock it with a hammer and it will break there where it has been wet if it be not very even you may with a key even it by little and little The Stone or Earthen Receiver is of the same figure with the Glass one only it has a wider neck to receive the Nose of the Earthen Retort you may use an Earthen Pitcher if you cannot get a fit Receiver so the neck of the Pitcher be straight and the belly big and wide taking care to lute it close with the Retort but these Earthen Receivers are seldom used except it be to receive the Spirits and stinking Oyls of Wood Rinds Roots Barks and Berries The double Vessel in form of a Matrass is a Matrass with a long neck into which is inserted the neck of another Matrass of the same bulk in the ball though its neck be a little less and may if you will also be shorter and go but half way into the first Matrass you must lute with three or four slices of Paper the Junction of these two Vessels that nothing may exhale it serves to extract by Infusion in a Sand-heat all sorts of Tinctures The double Vessel in form of a Cucurbit or Body is a Cucurbite of Glass or Earth upon whose mouth you place a Cup like your Cupping-Glasses with the mouth downwards it having a little brim by which it is suspended upon the top of the Cucurbite these two Vessels must be close luted together The best Lute will be of Flower or Starch in form of a hasty Pudding This Vessel serves to extract by infusion the tincture of Aromatick Flowers that so nothing may be lost of their Spirit and is fitter than the Pitcher ordinarily used to this purpose The Bell is a great Glass-Vessel like the Bell Gardiners use to cover Melons withal The use of this is to draw the Spirit and Oyl of Sulphur of Salt Armoniack of Antimony and Mars or Iron by covering with it an Earthen Pan and if you turn it with the mouth upwards it serves for precipitations and washings or lotions The Glass-Tunnel though it be open at both ends yet we reckon it among the Vessels as well because sometimes by stopping the little end it is really one and contains Liquors as because there is something worth observation in its Fabrick or making it must have a straight long neck because being used in the blind Alimbeck it must reach as far as within the Body and not spill upon the inward brim of it it must not have so large a belly as the Tin-Tunnels lest when you separate your distilled Oyl from their Phlegm and Spirit much of the Oyls be lost by sticking to the large sides of your Tunnel It serves to separate the Oyl from the acid Phlegm distilled with it which is done by letting these two Liquors settle in the Tunnel and then taking away your finger which stopped it and giving leave to that Liquor which is lowermost to run
fourth 4. When you have augmented the fire by degrees and are come to the last which you maintain the space of some hours as it is done in the distillation of the black Oyl of Vitriol or Colcothar The Spirit of Salt TAke a quantity of Potters-Earth cut it into slices of the length breadth and thickness of a finger and set them in order upon a Grid-iron which you shall set upon red Coals in a hot Oven after the bread is drawn when they are dry on one side turn them on the other then take them out and powder them in a Mortar and keep this Earth thus dried and powdered as well for this Operation as for divers others Mingle five parts of this Earth thus prepared with one part of common Salt beaten to powder but not decrepitated with this matter fill a Glass-Retort of an ordinary size which must be luted up to half the neck set it in a close Reverberatory and fit it to a large and capacious Glass-Receiver Give your fire by degrees coming as soon as you can to the last degree which continue twenty four hours or till your Recipient seem cold though the Retort be violently hot from whence you may infer that your matter hath sent out all its Spirits out of one pound of Salt by this method you 'll draw nine or ten ounces of Spirits Observe 1. This Earth is given to the Salt as an intermedium to hinder its fusion for Salt melts in a great fire and being once melted becomes so fix as there is no raising of its Spirits to distil them Observe 2. That we rather make use of a Glass than of an Earthen Retort because the Spirits of Salt being very acid and something corrosive might so penetrate the Earth of the Retort as to lose something of their virtue and dull their activity therefore you must also keep your Spirit of Salt in Glass not in Earthen Vessels Observe 3. That the Salt must not be decrepitated that is separated from its Phlegm nor the Clay absolutely dried or heat red in the fire for it is necessary that there should remain some watrish humidity in both to the end that this phlegm coming first in distillation may help the acid Spirits and be as a Vehicle to them otherwise were your fire never so violent if there were no Phlegm you would never obtain any acid Spirits Observe 4. That your Retort must be filled up to the neck because the Spirits in their first rising and separating themselves from their grosser parts would if there were any Vacuum presently re-impregnate themselves and be so fix'd as that no power of fire would be able to raise them again and make them Volatil whereas the Vapours raised meeting with no empty room in the Retort are not able to condense there but by the fire are forced into the Recipient into which they enter in form of a white Vapour which by little and little cools and condenses and at last dissolves into a Liquor white and clear as water Observe 5. That that Phlegm which first comes is little in quantity and if you will have your Spirit strong and pure you may deflegmate and rectifie it in a sand-heat It s vertue and use is It resists all corruption taken interiourly and outwardly applied and for this reason in venomous and malign Feavers we mingle three or four drops of it with a Cordial Julip and for a preservation against the Plague we put a spoonful of it into a quart of Oxycrate and so rub the body all over before a good fire It whitens the Teeth admirably being mingled with a little Water or some syrup it 's a powerful diuretick against suppressions of Urine caused by the oppilation of the conducts thorow which it should pass it drives the Gravel out of the Kidneys and Bladder and so is specifick to break the Stone of the Kidneys and Bladder that if you put a Stone cut out of a humane Bladder into a quantity of Spirit of Salt it will dissolve immediately without fire or any addition of any thing though it were never so hard it is used to dissolve Gold and make it Potable if you do whet its Vertue by putting to it a little Salt decrepitated before you put your Gold in it alone it dissolves Pearls and Coral The marks whereby you may know and distinguish this Spirit from others are these 1. That it is clear and white drawing to a citrine transparent colour 2. Being newly made it is Vaporous and seizes the nose presently but without stink and being old it has no odour at all 3. That upon your tongue it is of an acid biting faltish taste 4. It neither corrodes nor tinges of any colour its cork-stopple Spirit of Niter MIngle one part of fine and well purified Niter with four or five parts of Potters Earth prepared as in the Chapter of Spirit of Salt fill with this a Glass-Retort well luted up to its neck place it in a close Reverberatory Furnace fitting to it a large and capacious Recipient give your fire by degrees till you come to the highest which continue twenty four hours The Phlegm will come first and in small quantity and also with a little Spirit which will appear in the Recipient in form of a White Vapour a little after the pure Spirit will come appearing in form of red Vapours which will make your Recipient bright and red as a Ruby Out of one pound of Niter thus distilled you may have four ounces of Spirit Obs 1. That you must be very exact in luting your Retort close with your Recipient lest many of your Vapours should exhale and however the Artist must have a care of coming too near at that time lest the Sulphureous and Malign Vapours of the Niter which our Authors call the flying Dragon should offend his Brain and Nerves and make him Paralytick by the fusion and resolution of the humours of the Brain which at that time borrowing from the subtle Nitrous Vapours an extraordinary thinness and penetration would easily insinuate themselves into the nerves and by their abundance cause a total Obstruction Obs 2. That we give the Potters Earth to Niter as we do to Salt to hinder its fusion now Niter is very easily melted because it is the Body which helps other Bodies to be so too by reason of its great thinness the abundance of its Sulphureous substance and its penetration but when once it has been melted it becomes so fix that having lost all its Sulphur it can neither evaporate nor be inflamed though you put it into the fire Then therefore it is called Salt of Niter being fix as Salts whereas before its fusion it was so strangely Volatil that when you did but put a Coal into it it presently was in such a flame that it was almost quite consumed Obs 3. That for this Operation we make use of very fine purified Niter because the purer it is the less it hath of fixed
Spirit of Vitriol is nothing but a small portion of the true Spirit mingled with a great deal of Phlegm and that this black Liquor which we call Oyl is indeed a pure Spirit of Vitriol entirely dephlegmated but because of its Sulphureous blackness and thickness it is improperly called Oyl being somewhat unctuous to the feeling though it be not at all inflameable as all true Oyls are Obs 1. That you must dephlegmate the Vitriol and powder it well before you put it into your Retort else you would not draw off the Spirit but the Phlegm alone for the matter would coagulate in the bottom of the Vessel into a lump which sticking close to the sides of the Retort would so retain all the Spirits that a strong fire of forty hours lasting would scarce be able to reduce this mass to powder therefore it is better to dephlegmate and reduce to powder your Vitriol before it be put into the Retort Obs 2. That we give no Intermedium to Vitriol as we do to Salt and Niter because being a terrestrious Salt it cannot be melted and by consequent cannot fix and retain its Spirits within its self so that provided it be dephlegmated the Spirits are easily raised and distilled by the violence of the fire Obs 3. That you need not fill your Retort up to the neck with your matter because the Spirit of Vitriol having not so much tenuity as the Spirits of Salt and Niter is not in danger of re-impregnating and fixing its self in its own masse Obs 4. That the Retort must be of Glass for the reason alledged in the Spirit of Salt Obs 5. That you chuse good Vitriol not too dry for it will yield more Spirit and Oyl therefore that which comes from Germany and the Low Countries is better than the Roman Vitriol for this effect It s virtue and effects Both the white Spirit and the black Oyls are Acids which pleasantly and excellently do cool desopilate and resist all corruption and therefore they are frequently and with good success made use of for the Liver and Kidneys in burning and Pestilentious Feavers The dose is five or six drops of the Spirit two or three of the Oyl either in Water Broth or White Wine It serves for the dissolution of Metals and in Surgery it is used either pure or mingled with a little water or Mel rosatum to touch the ulcers of the mouth The first and second Colcothar are both an excellent Astringent given in violent Diarrhoea's Dysenteries and Hepatick Fluxes or mingled with some unguents it stops bleeding Wounds The Marks to distinguish the Oyl of Vitriol from other are these 1. It is very black 2. It is not only acid but caustick 3. It is very heavy 4. It seizes the nose with a strong Vapour when new made and in all these four conditions it is like the Oyl of Sulphur As for the Spirit it is known by its pleasant acidity by its yellowish colour and because being old it yields no smell no more than Spirit of Sulphur neither doth it corrode or make its stopple yellow the Spirits of Niter and Aqua fortis are distinguished from it by their smell and because they corrode and change the colour of their stopples Spirit of Salt is known from it because it has a brackish taste and smells strong when new being much more intolerable and unpleasant than Spirit of Vitriol Aqua Fortis TAke a Glass-Retort luted up to half its neck put in it equal parts of common Niter and green Vitriol not dephlegmated but they must be beaten to powder in an Iron Mortar before fill but two thirds of your Retort leaving a third empty for else the Vitriol being melted by the Niter would it may be rise and run in substance into the Recipient before the distillation of the Aqua fortis could be begun Set your Retort in a little Reverberatory or in a little Circulatory fire a great Reverberatory being not so necessary here because the Niter is of it self so volatil and having melted the Vitriol it makes it likewise capable of yielding its Spirits without a very violent degree of heat Give your fire by degrees continuing the first degree till the phlegm which will appear in a white vapour in the Recipient be distilled otherwise if at first you did give a great heat the Niter and Vitriol together would boil over your Vessel and in their own substance run into the Recipient When your Recipient begins to fill with red Vapours which is the sign of the Spirit 's coming forth augment your fire and cover your Retort with Coals if it be in a Circulatory fire continue this heat till your Recipient begin to lose something of the brightness of its red colour and till it become cold though the fire be vehement under the Retort then the matter has sent forth all its Spirits and you shall find these red Vapours dissolved all into a white clear Liquor as water Out of one pound of common Niter and as much of green Vitriol undephlegmated you may have sixteen ounces of Aqua fortis Obs 1. That though the Spirit of Vitriol cannot be drawn from Vitriol undephlegmated yet Aqua fortis may because being in company with the Niter it cannot after the distillation of its Phlegm coagulate in a lump which might fix and retain its Spirits the Niter by its opening Sulphur keeping the Vitriol porous and vaporous Obs 2. That Aqua fortis may be very well made with dephlegmated Vitriol and fine Niter and then it is so strong and corrosive that it is Aqua regalis and can dissolve Gold and Silver but because we do not ordinarily need in Chymistry so strong a dissolvent for the frequent dissolutions we make of Mercury of Tin of Bismuth and of Silver we are content with Aqua fortis prepared as has been taught It s virtue and use This is a very caustick burning water some do touch Warts and Corns with it but it is dangerous so to do and our Chymistry will afford us gentler and fitter remedies which I shall set down hereafter It serves to dissolve your Metals and Minerals the Dyers use it to give a strength and penetration to their Colours The Marks to distinguish it are 1. It is yellowish 2. Stinks very much 3. It yellows and corrodes its stopple and the bladder and pack-thread that are employed about the stopping of it 4. If you pour a drop or two of it upon a Brass-half-peny it makes it stir and look green The Spirit and black Oyl of Sulphur TAke a great Stone or unglazed Earthen Pan put it into a pound of common water in the middle of this Pan set a little Stone-pot and upon this Pot place a little flat Earthen Cup full of sand in the mean time reduce into powder four pound of Brimstone and of this put one spoonful into the middle of the sand then take a great Coach-wheel Nail and heat it red hot and with a pair of
Precipitate TAke of pure Mercury eight ounces and of Aqua fortis sixteen put them into an unluted long necked Matrass and of such a size as it be not half full lest when the Mercury and Aqua fortis are in dissolution there should be so great an ebullition as to cause the matter to run over stir a little your Matrass with your hands to heat the Aqua fortis then set your vessel on warm ashes to help a little more your Aqua fortis in its action upon the Mercury but have a care you give not a greater heat than is necessary for a gentle ebullition for if your Aqua fortis be over-heated and opened it will tinge by the means of its Vitriol your Mercury in a yellow colour as soon as your Mercury is entirely dissolved which may be done in half an hour pour your dissolution into an earthen Stone Pan or glass Bell the glazed earth being unfit because the Aqua fortis would dissolve the Vernish then pour upon your matter cold sea-water well filtrated and impregnated with common Salt undecrepitated you may use about a quart of this Water till your dissolved Mercury be all precipitated to the bottom of your Vessel in a white powder And take notice that if you had used common water you would not have precipitated your Mercury but turned your dissolution into a white Liquor which would have discharged it self of a white sharp powder because that common water having no salt cannot fight with the salts of the Aqua fortis but if it be impregnated with a contrary salt there arises a conflict during which the Mercury scrapes and falls to the bottom leaving behind him a good part of his salts This done separate by Inclination your sea-water and pour a great quantity of common water upon your matter to take away the Acrimony which the Aqua fortis by its Niter and Vitriol has communicated to the Mercury and continue this till your water come off insipid Then having pour'd off your last water filtrate the remainder in a brown or rather white Paper to preserve the colour and dry your Precipitate in the shade for if you do it in the Sun or by the Fire it will lose much of its whiteness when it is very dry keep it in a close Vial well stopped and covered with an oyl'd Bladder Obs 1. That though this Remedy be taken inwards yet we use Aqua fortis and not Spirit of Niter because Aqua fortis costs less and is sooner made than Spirit of Niter which undoubtedly without this reason of sparing would be much fitter for this Operation yet we think that the great Lotions that are made do dulcifie it as if it had been prepared with Spirit of Niter Obs 2. That we take as much again of Aqua fortis as of Niter as well because the dissolvant must be stronger than the thing dissolv'd as because that Experience teaches that such a Dose of Aqua fortis is necessary to dissolve the Mercury entirely Obs 3. That the Matrass must be long necked that the Aqua fortis rais'd by the heat to the middle of the neck may cool be condensed and fall down again for in this Operation we pretend to nothing but to dissolve and calcine Philosophically and lightly the Mercury without penetrating its Body and opening it by the Salts of the Aqua fortis as we mean to do in the Red Precipitate and thence it comes that this Mercury after its precipitation retains its white colour and the nature of Quicksilver Obs 4. That if you pour hot Sea-water on your Dissolutions then you will not be able to precipitate entirely your Mercury because that the salt Sea-water being sharpened by an actual heat would penetrate and dissolve a part of the said Mercury in stead of precipitating it Obs 5. That to make Sea-water you must not take decrepitated Salt because it would be to no end to take away the flegm since you are to put it into Water and as for purifying it filtration will do that Obs 6. That the White Precipitate is nothing but Mercury opened and calcined by the Aqua fortis and retaining but very little of the Salts of the said Aqua fortis the rest being carried away by the dulcorations It s Vse and Vertue It is the gentlest of all the Purgatives drawn from Mercury though it be dissolved by Aqua fortis because it has been sweetned by Lotions It purges nevertheless more violently than the sweet Sublimate and its Dose is less For to Children it is from three to six Grains and for Aged persons it is from six to fifteen It cures the Pox taken interiourly and being dissolved with Oyl it may be exteriourly used by Frictions to cure the Itch c. This Remedy fluxes as easily as the sweet Sublimate because the Mercury being unfix'd in these Preparations has his wings left him wherewith he presently flies upwards in stead of purging by Stools The Red Precipitate of Mercury PUt four ounces of good Quicksilver and six ounces of Aqua fortis into a Matrass luted from its bottom to half the belly set your Matrass on a Round in a small circulary Fire give a gentle heat at first lest you should cause too great an ebullition then encrease it by little and little till your Aqua fortis be evaporated and you will know if your Aqua fortis be evaporated by laying upon the mouth of your Matrass a piece of Brass or any other Metal for if it be not wet then it is a sign that all the humidity proceeding from the Aqua fortis is evaporated then encrease the Fire putting live Coals round about the Glass as high as the Lute goes and continue the Fire till your Mercury rise upon the brim of the Matrass in form of a yellow Soot and that a piece of yellow Metal set over this vapour do grow white by rubbing of it and that is a sign that the Operation is ended therefore take off your Glass with all speed else your Mercury would all vanish away in this smoak Your Matrass being cold must be broken a little above the matter and you shall find in the bottom an Orange-colour lump the same in weight as the crude Mercury you used at first and this is it which we call a Red Precipitate Obs 1. That if perchance the middle of this lump were of a whitish colour then that is a sign that the Operation is not perfect and therefore you must reduce it to powder in an Iron Mortar and reverberate it in a Crucible with a Fire of Suppression till it become right Orange-colour Obs 2. That you must not give the Fire so long till your lump be red because than your Mercury would lose all its corrosive Salts and therefore would be disabled from consuming proud flesh which is its principal Vertue Obs 3. That we use here Aqua fortis to calcine Mercury because the Remedy which we intend is a Topick exteriour
one to corrode and consume all superfluous fleshly Excrescences and it is necessary that it should be in greater quantity than the Mercury to dissolve it entirely Moreover calcin'd Mercury does not retain its natural whiteness because the Vitriol of the Aqua fortis communicates this tincture and because that the Fire here is much more violent than that which is us'd in the preparation of the Remedy call'd Turbith Mineral The dissolvant being also much more over-heated and penetrating by the help of the Fire communicates a sulphureous colour Obs 4. That the Precipitate is found to be equal in weight to the Mercury that was dissolved because though in this Operation it have lost something of its volatil part yet it hath impregnated it self with some of the Salts of the Aqua fortis as much as to make up the weight and these Salts it will keep till it be reviv'd and made Cuicksilver again Obs 5. That the Red Precipitate of Mercury is a Mercury dissolv'd and calcin'd by Aqua fortis and then charg'd with the sharpest part of the Salts of the said Aqua fortis It s Vse and Vertue It is lightly caustick and escarotick or consumptive and therefore eats away all proud flesh and excrescences and to mollifie it a little it is mingled with some Unguent as the Basilicum c. It is good to cleanse Ulcers it is useful likewise in the preparation of the Arcanum Corallinum Arcanum Corallinum PUt as much Red Precipitate as you please into a glass Bell pour upon it a good quantity of warm Water not too hot for fear of breaking your Vessel and do this often till at last your Water come away sweet and insipid then having poured off your last Water put your Precipitate into a little glass Cucurbite and twice as much Spirit of Salt in weight as there is Precipitate set your Cucurbite in a Sand-fire with its Head and glass Receiver fitted to it to draw off by distillation the flegm of the Spirit of Salt in the mean time the volatil Salt of the common Salt which composes the Spirit of Salt will remain in the bottom and be incorporated with the Precipitate of Mercury and so fix it as to make it able to endure a reverberatory Fire without evaporation on the top of this Mercury there is a white Crust which is the grossest part of the Spirit of Salt that is corporified Pour upon all this some cold Water as soon as your vessel is cool to the end you may dissolve this grosser Salt and draw it off from the Mercury reiterating thus your Lotions till your Water come off insipid then put your Mercury which is of a dark yellow into a Crucible and reverberate it in a small reverberatory Furnace till it become as red as Corral and in this reverberation the Salts of the common Salt which were incorporated in the Mercury do evaporate and leave the Mercury in the same weight it had before its first Lotion and nevertheless the Mercury is fix'd by that little of these Salts which it enjoys This done put the said Mercury into a Dish of Earth glazed and pour upon it good Spirit of Wine two or three Fingers deep which set on fire till it be consumed and so reiterate once more the said Flagration to the end that the purgative and vomitive Vertues of the Mercury be milder by the evaporation of the volatil and venomous part of the said Mercury and its Salts Obs 1. That we wash the Red Precipitate with luke-warm Water to the end that all the sharp Salts that are in the said Precipitate be dissolv'd the better and by these reiterated Lotions it becomes at last as sweet as if it had been prepar'd with Spirit of Niter in stead of Aqua fortis Obs 2. That the Spirit of Salt as well as the Spirit of Sulphur has the vertue of fixing Mercury because the Mercury it self too is naturally fix'd being therefore opened and intimately penetrated by the Spirit of Salt the said Spirit communicates to it its fixative vertue and is it self fixed in the Mercury And observe that the Spirit of Salt has un-dyed the Red Precipitate and made it of a dark yellow because the common Salt being by its nature all white and coming to mingle with the Orange-colour must needs clear it and give it this yellow Obs 3. That the Arcanum Corallinum is nothing but Mercury calcin'd and dissolv'd Philosophically by Aqua fortis then fix'd by Spirit of Salt and devested by washings from the most malignous part of its Salts and of the volatilest part of its substance by reiterated flagrations of Spirit of Wine It s Vse and Vertue It purges and sometimes procures a Vomit gently opening and unstopping at the same time the passages and dissolving all the hardnesses of the schirrous parts alone it cures the Pox without fluxing because it is fix'd The Dose is from three to six grains The Crocus Metallorum or Liver of Antimony TAke of Female Antimony one pound and half a pound of common impure Niter powder them and mingle them together in the mean time heat red-hot upon two Bricks in a great Fire of Suppression a large and capacious Crucible or Camion throw into this with a great Iron Ladle a quantity of your matter and cover presently your Crucible keeping it covered till all the smoak cease continue this Projection and Flagration till all your matter be consumed This done encrease the Fire and stir with a stick your matter continually till it be all melted then take it off from the Fire and pour it into a Brass or Iron Mortar hindring as much as you can the Faeces which swim upon the top from going into the Mortar this liquor will congeal into a lump which when it is cold you may break into many pieces as glistring and shining as Steel or as burn'd Liver then if you powder them they will change into a Saffron-colour'd powder not unlike a diseas'd bilious Liver and thence it is call'd the Saffron of Metals As for the Faeces remaining in the Crucible you must throw them away as useless Obs 1. That you must take Female Antimony as being the worst and you may know it by its long bright white Needles as also because it is much more brittle than either the Male or Mineral Antimony The Male is better than the Female and is known by its little blue yellow green Needles diversified in colours like a Rainbow The Mineral Antimony is worst of all because not having been melted it has not lost any of its volatil substance in which consists all its malignity It is distinguished easily for it is full of the Rock out of which it is drawn When you melt Mineral Antimony the Male goes to the bottom In this Operation of the Crocus Metallorum Female Antimony is good enough because the Remedy resulting from it is none of the best of Chymistry you may use the Male if you will but have a
care you do not use the Mineral because being loaded with Earth and Rock it would not melt with so small a quantity of Niter Obs 2. That you must take common Niter not purified but such as comes from the first washing because it is good enough to put the Antimony in fusion and because its Faeces being to be mingled with the Faeces of the said Antimony in the melting it would have been superfluous to have purified the Niter before-hand yet if you will be at the charge purified Niter will do no harm it will rather be better Obs 3. That you must powder your Antimony and Niter and mingle them well together that so they may the easilier take fire Obs 4. That you must not use a glaz'd Pot or Crucible lest the enflamed matter should corrode and melt the Lead of the Pot. Obs 5. That you must not throw your matter into your Crucible till it be red-hot else your Niter would not take fire and so would not be able to put your Antimony in fusion Obs 6. That you must not throw all your matter at a time into the Crucible for then the fusion of your Antimony would not be well performed because the Niter by so great a flagration would exhale and be gone before it had melted the Antimony Obs 7. That after every Projection you must cover your Crucible very close to the end you may keep in the enflamed vapours of the Niter who by their circulations do the better contribute to the melting of the Antimony Obs 8. That after all your matter is consumed yet you must encrease the fire because the Antimony is but half melted by the said flagrations but being already opened by the Niter it soon melts if the fire be encreased and in the mean time you stir it well that so the Antimonial Liquor may go to the bottom and be free from its Faeces and therefore we use a stick and not any thing of Iron because the said Liquor would corrode the Iron as we may perceive in the Regulus of Mars where the Antimony dissolves and eats the filings of Iron that are added to it Besides you may freely put the said stick to the bottom of your Crucible because you do not mean to hinder the Faeces of the Antimony from going to the bottom and therefore both melting together descend likewise together and only the Faeces of the Niter swim on the top of the melted Antimony Obs 9. That the Liver of Antimony or Crocus Metallorum is nothing but Antimony opened and melted by Niter and not devested of its terrestreity but full of its malignant purgative and vomitive Sulphur therefore we have used but half the quantity of Niter to a double proportion of Antimony and we have let it stand no longer upon the Fire than was necessary to melt it with the fixt Salt of the Niter remaining in the Crucible It s Vse and Vertues We seldom or never use the Liver of Antimony till we have made it Crocus metallorum by pulverisation It is a Moderate vomitive betwixt violent and gentle and purges too at the same time This powder serves ordinarily to make the Vinum emeticum or emetick Wine by putting one ounce of it to infuse in a quart of white Wine Sack Beer Cider c. the Dosis of this drink will be from one to two ounces to take at the mouth and from four to six ounces in an emollient decoction in a Clyster without dissolving in it any thing else The Regule of Antimony TAke three pound of male Antimony one pound and a half of common Niter one pound and a half of Tartar and four ounces of Wood Coals in the mean time heat red hot a great Crucible in a great circulary fire of suppression then throw in your matter by parcels with an Iron or wooden-ladle and cover your Pot or Crucible at every time till the smoak be past then when your Crucible is almost full encrease your fire and with a stick stir your matter from time to time that so the purest part of the Antimony may go to the bottom but do not put your stick to the bottom of the pot lest the Regule which is in the bottom should be mingled with its Faeces that swim on the top continue doing thus till all your matter be melted which will be in half an hour or thereabouts Then if you have any of your first matter left for which there was not room in the Crucible you may make an end of it and put it to this observing the same circumstances when all is melted give a violent fire for a quarter of an hour to the end that the most harmful part of the Antimony may exhale After this take off your Crucible set it upon a hot brick for a cold one would go near to break it because of its humidity your Crucible being cold break it with a hammer and in the bottom you will find your Regulus congealed in a lump of the proportion of the bottom of the pot as white as silver very smooth underneath and sometimes starred above in its superficies on the top of this Silvery lump are the grayish Faeces dry and spongious and in good quantity and marked also with the Star but when the Star fails the Regulus is as good as if it had not fail'd for the Star is produced but by a long fusion which straightning it does also diminish something of its purgative and emetick vertues by the too great evaporation of the flowers and volatil Salt of the said Antimony Obs 1. That you must preserve the Faeces of your Regulus for out of it you must draw the Golden Diaphoretick Sulphur as shall be said hereafter Obs 2. That we use here the Male Antimony as best because here we aim at a more excellent remedy than the Crocus Metallorum Obs 3. That we use here common Niter unpurified for the reason alleadged in the Chapter of the Liver of Antimony Obs 4. That we here make use of Niter to open and set in fusion the body of Antimony though we do also imploy the Tartar to hinder a too great ebullition of the said Antimony because the Niter being somewhat busie in calcining the Tartar cannot employ all its force upon the Antimony besides the Tartar being not inflameable by its nature hinders the Niter from causing this ebullition and being withall a gentle Salt it purifies cleanses and whitens the Antimony Then we use Wood-Coals in powder for the same end and because also the Coals being spongious are apt to draw to themselves and retain the Faeces of the Antimony Now it is very necessary in this Operation to prevent the ebullition lest the Antimony should run over the pot and be lost we use also but one proportion of Niter to two of Antimony for fear the flagration should be too quick and we keep all the matter longer upon the fire than we do the Crocus metallorum to give the
Algarot is nothing but a good quantity of Mercury made volatil by a less quantity of Antimony by the means of the fire and the volatil Salts that are in the corrosive sublimate then devested of the said Salts and sweetned by Lotions The vertue and use of the powder is known by its name which speaks it to be a vomitive and that it performs much more gently than the Crocus metallorum because the Antimony we employ is purer and in less quantity and because that the great washings have carried away the venomous Salts Its Dose in persons grown up is five Grains you may give eight in some Conserve or the yolk of an Egg or in any Liquor appropriated The Vse and Vertues of the Butter of Antimony 'T is a powerful Corrosive it eats away Warts and burns pocky Cancers in a moment but if it be applyed to any nervous part it causes an inflamation for four and twenty hours it is excellent for the exfoliation of Bones and for the Gangrene The Vse and Vertues of the Pontick water It is excellent for Ulcers Itch Scabs the Gangrene you may use it in stead of Spirit of Vitriol by mingling three or four drops in a Julip in putrid and burning Feavers The Vse and Vertues of the Cinnaber of Antimony It is a great Sudorifick in the Pox. The Dosis is from eight to fifteen Grains Bezoard Mineral TAke as much as you will of Butter of Antimony melt it gently before the Fire then pour it into a glass Bell or Cucurbite set it in a Chimney lest the vapours which you must raise should offend you Pour upon it some Spirit of Niter drop by drop for else the ebullition would be such and the red vapours so strong that the matter would run out of the Vessels and the vapours hurt your Brain Continue this Injection till the Mercury and Antimony which are in form of Butter be absolutely dissolved by the said Spirit which you shall know by pouring on some new Spirit of Niter for if there be no ebullition nor smoaking then the dissolution is performed you must pour as much Spirit of Niter in weight as you have used Butter of Antimony your dissolution will appear all along of a yellow colour As soon as it is done pour upon it all at once a quart of Sea-water actually cold this Precipitant will presently make all your Liquor of a milky colour and will precipitate your Butter to the bottom into a very white powder if you let it stand ten or twelve hours to the end your Magistery have more time to precipitate entirely then separate by inclination your Sea-water impregnated with the Spirit of Niter which was the dissolvant and pour on common Water till it come away sweet and insipid filter the rest through a white Paper dry your powder and keep it in a glass Vial well stopped Obs 1. That if instead of Sea-water you had made use of common Water for your Precipitation you would have turn'd your Dissolution into a white Liquor but you would never have precipitated your powder because that though common Water does much weaken the dissolvant yet it does not do it so much as Sea-water which because of its Salt contrary to the Salt of Niter does fight with the said Niter and in the conflict causes the sharpest and most active part of the Niter to evaporate and so to forsake its hold as to let the Butter of Antimony fall and precipitate to the bottom in form of a white powder Obs 2. That that which we call Sea-water is made thus Take four ounces of common Salt boyl it to dissolution in a quart of Water in a brass Kettle then filtrate it through the brown Paper Obs 3. That in the great ebullition and effumation caused by the Spirit of Niter all the emetick and purgative vertue which was in the said butter of Antimony is evaporated and at last carried away by reiterated Lotions Obs 4. That Bezoard Mineral is nothing else but a Magistery or Precipitate compounded of a good quantity of Mercury and a small quantity of Antimony both being calcin'd and opened by the Salts of the corrosive Mercury then devested of the said Salts by the Spirit of Niter so that there remains in this Magistery no other but a Cordial Bezoardick Sudorifick vertue It s Vse and Vertue 'T is an excellent Sudorifick against the Pox the Scurvy all putrid and venomous Feavors The Dose is from eight to twelve Grains in some Conserve but observe that if you mingle it with Conserve of Red Roses it becomes immediately green for the Reasons that we shall alledge hereafter The Calcination or Calx of Lead TAke Lead beat it into fine thin plates and take also of powder'd Brimstone as much lay them stratum super stratum in a glaz'd Pot which set upon two Bricks in the Furnace of a great wheel Fire and half Suppression there leave it till the Brimstone which of its self by the heat of the Pot will take fire be quite out and have a care you do not let it stand longer for fear of melting your Lead and so reducing it to its first metallick consistence therefore take off your Pot and with an Iron Spatula stir your calcin'd matter to hinder it from getting into a lump then take it out and powder it in a Morter then searce it in a silken Sieve till it be reduced to an impalpable powder Obs 1. That we use brimstone to calcine Lead because nothing but Brimstone will take Fire all alone and burn a good while Niter would not take fire all alone with Lead and indeed never is inflamable but when he is joyned with some combustible Body as Tartar Antimony Charcoal or Brimstone and if we did use here Niter with some of these Bodies its flame would be too swift to calcine Lead Obs 2 That we use a vernish'd Pot for this Calcination because our Calx is of the same Nature with the Lead of the Pot and therefore is not in danger of being spoyled and besides the vernish will not be corroded by the Sulphur because it is not a dissolvant powerful enough to corrode a glazing so dried and fastned for if the Lead which you will calcine were not beaten into very thin plates and Sulphur mingled with it every where it would hardly be calcin'd Obs 3. That the Calx of Lead thus calcin'd is nothing but Lead opened and dissolved by the Spirit and Salt of Sulphur and the said Lead will remain in the nature of a Calx but as long as there will be some of the Spirit and Salt of Sulphur incorporated with it therefore if you continue your Fire any time after the Calcination you will evaporate this Spirit and Salt and so your Lead devested of them both will return to its first metallick Nature It s Vse and Vertues It serves to dry and cicatrize old Ulcers when they are cleansed before and almost fill'd with flesh by mingling it
searce it and keep it close and well stopped Obs 1 That the Spirit of Sulphur or Vitrial with which we wet the said Saffron of Mars which is already aperitive serves to open it more and calcine it Philosophically and that the great Fire does it more perfectly Obs 2 That this second aperitive Saffron of Mars is nothing but Mars opened by four Keys viz. By filing and powdering and then by three calcinations of which the first is done by the flagration of the Brimstone the second by the pouring on of the acid Spirit and the third by a Reverberatory Fire of eight hours Now it becomes opening because its Salt is set at liberty by these Agents It s Vse and Vertues It is a powerful desopilative it serves against the yellow Jaundice the Green Sickness it provokes the Courses of Maids and Women and it opens the Spleen and Mesentery taken from half a dragm to two either in the yolk of an Egg or in a little Conserve of Roses or some proper Syrup The Infernal Stone Take a little Matrass with a straight long neck let the belly of it be luted half way put into it two parts of Aqua-fortis and one of Silver of the purest cut or beaten into thin long Plates so that they may go into the neck of the Matrass and be the easilier dissolved by the Aqua-fortis fill but one third part of the belly of your Vessel set it upon a Round covered with Sand in the little Wheel-Fire Furnace giving a small Fire to help the dissolution of the Silver and to consume the Dissolvant so as after a gentle boyling your matter may dry and change into a black scum not unlike a Pumice Stone then encrease your Fire to melt this scurn half petrified and continue your Fire till the boyling cease and that there rise no more vapours which will be a sign that your matter is in fusion then without any delay pour out your matter into little Brass or Iron Moulds prepared on purpose for if you delay the pouring of it out or if you let it cool in the Matrass off from the Fire your matter will be reduced to a white powder which is the Calx of the Moon that is of Silver and this will thus come to pass by the almost total consumption of your Aqua-fortis and therefore it is necessary to retain some of it in the said calcined Silver to the end it may keep the consistence of a Stone if to this Calx of silver you give a violent Fire and add to it half a spoonful of Borax it will return to its first metallick Nature and appear like Silver in hardness and consistence because that the great Fire and the Borax together carry away even the least drop of Aqua-fortis which did keep the said Silver in the nature and consistence of a Calx Obs 1. That the Matrass which we use here must be but little because we do not ordinarily prepare much of this at a time then your Fire being small the matter cannot run out particularly where you leave two thirds of your Vessel empty The Matrass must have a long strait neck for the greater convenience in pouring out your matter into its Moulds This Matrass must also be of a strong Glass such as comes from Lorrain and besides must be luted in its bottom half way lest a naked Fire drying up the matter should break the Glass Obs 2. That we use here a double quantity of Aqua-fortis to the Silver not that it is necessary to double the Dose of the Agent to dissolve the Patient but because we desire to make the greater quantity of this Infernal Stone which will be softer and less black for Silver may be certainly dissolved with an equal Dose of Aqua-fortis and in this case the Stone would be harder and blacker and in less quantity It contains not so much Salt is sooner consumed and the Aqua-fortis has not had time to calcine the Silver throughly from whence the Calx remains blacker harder and heavier which you will easily perceive if you take notice that the same thing happens in the making of the ordinary Lime for there you shall see some stones that have not been well calcin'd look black be hard heavy and crumble less than the others that have been well calcin'd Obs 3. That we may make this Infernal Stone of Niter instead of Aqua-fortis and then it will be whitish and less caustick and instead of blacking the Skin and Teeth which it touches it will only make them look yellow because it is the Vitriol that blacks in the Aqua-fortis and whets the corrosive virtue of Niter and take notice here that none of the other acids and corrosives can corrode Silver nor by consequence serve in this Composition Obs 4. That to make a good Infernal Stone either white greyish or black you must use Coppel Silver for if you make it with Silver where there is a mixtion of Copper your Stone will be green and soft will easily melt of it self from whence you may conclude that there is no making of it with Lead or Tin which yet are softer than Brass and as for Iron it can never be dissolved and brought into a potable Liquor because of its great driness and terrestreity And as for Gold you may easily make of it an Infernal Stone of the same vertue by dissolving it in excellent Aqua-fortis or in Spirit of Salt whet by Salt decrepitated but then you would have your Labour for your pains for Coppel-Gold or Leaf-Gold is too dear And as for the Marcassites or half Metals they are not fit for this Operation because that their dissolution evaporated and reduced to a Calx cannot keep in consistence of a Stone but remains in powder Obs 5. That to give to the Infernal Stone that firm compact consistence which is necessary for it to be of use it is not enough to dry your dissolution with a moderate heat to the consistence a scum half petrified but you must when you are gone so far encrease your fire and melt the said scum then in the same instant pour out your matter for if you let it cool in the Matrass the rest of the Aqua-fortis would evaporate in the cooling and so there not remaining enough to corporifie the said Calx it would fall into a powder which would be the Calx of the Moon Obs 6. That to make little Moulds of Lattin you must hold it a little time over the fire then it will be maniable and flexible and not apt to break then cut off a piece and roll it about a stick as thick as a quill and as long as your finger and so tye it close remembring to turn up the bottom so as nothing may go through then daub it with our Lute letting it dry then when you will use it take out the stick and in its place pour your matter which will be condensed into petrified Cylenders which you will easily get out by
s Vse and Vertue It is a most excellent anodynum to appease the Tooth-ach by putting a litle Cotton dipp'd in the said Spirit of Wine to the pain'd Tooth and it is good to help the paines in the Ears by dipping in it some black Wool cut off of the Stones of a black Ram and so put into the Ear. The Aromatick tincture of Cloves PUt of whole Cloves what quantity you please into a Matrass and pour on well rectfied Spirit of Wine to the height of four fingers above your matter make a double Vessel with another small Matrass fitted to the first and well luted together place this vessel in a Sand-heat and there let it stand till the Spirit of Wine be dyed of a red-blackish colour separate by inclination this tincture and keep it in a glass Vial well stopp'd Of this tincture may be made a Syrup by putting to it a sufficient quantity of Sugar and so boyling of it to the consistence of a Syrup or you may make of the said tincture an Extract by evaporating your tincture to the consistence of an Extract The Vse and Vertues of the Tincture Syrup and Extract are to comfort and strengthen the Stomach by consuming cold superfluous humours take away the pains of the Colick it is excellent against all Faintings of the Heart and kills worms in the body The Dosis is a spoonful of the Tincture or Syrup and a Pill of the Extract or else you apply Linnen dipt in the said Tincture upon the Stomach Belly and Navel Cinnamon Water PUt four ounces of whole Cinnamon not powdered two pound of White-wine or Sack into a Glass or Stone Cucurbite place it in a Sand Furnace with a glass Head and Receiver there will be distilled a Water very clear and full of Spirits which from time to time you must take and pour out of your Receiver to the end it be not mingled with the gross flegm which will come at last of a whitish muddy colour Obs 1. That you must not distil Cinnamon-water in a Cucurbite of glazed Earth lest the Cinamon should whet the Spirit of Wine and make it corrode the Lead of the Vernish and so being impregnated with the Saturn alter its own vertue Obs 2. That the Water of Cinnamon is nothing but the purest part of the Wine impregnated with the Volatil Aromatick Salt of Cinamon It s Vse and Vertues It is a good Cordial fortifies the Stomach facilitates and helps the delivery of Women in Child-bed the flegm of this Water is fitter to make the Syrup of Cinnamon than common VVater by infusing in it some new Cinnamon and aftâ—r the straining dissolve in it a sufficient quantity of Sugar and so boyl it up to a Syrup This flegm contains a little Spirit of Wine in it with a little of the Volatil Salt of the first Cinnamon and so is fitter to open penetrate and extract the substance of new Cinnamon than simple common water The Spiritus Ardens or burning Spirit of Honey The sweet Tincture of Honey The stinking or faecid Oyl and Spirit of Honey The stinking Tincture of Honey PUt into a Glass or Stone or glazed Earth Cucurbit one pound of good Honey and two pound of white-wine place your Cucurbite in a Sand-Furnace and set it half way into the Sand fitting to it a glass Head and Receiver give a good Fire and continue it till all be distilled and that you hear nothing boyl in the Body then there will remain a very black thick Honey keep the distilled Liquor which will be of two sorts the first will be clear and transparent and in a small quantity and in this is the burning Spirit of-Honey and the Spirit of Wine The second will be of an Orange colour and more in quantity and contains the flegm of the Wine with the sulphureous Tincture of the Honey Take the Faeces of the said Distillation put them into a Stone Retort well luted and put to them alike quantity of River-pibble-stones calcin'd place your Retort in a Reverberatory Furnace fit to it a great glass Receiver and give your Fire from the first to the last degree for the space of some hours till there come out of the Retort neither vapour nor liquor then you will have in your Receiver a Spirit and stinking Oyl of Honey and there will yet remain some Faeces in your Retort If upon these Faeces you pour Spirit of Wine till it be four or five fingers above your matter you may have by digestion in a Matrass or double Vessel in a Sand-Furnace a foetid Tincture of Honey as red as Claret VVine The Vse and Vertues of all these Tinctures Spirits and Oyls Are to make the Hair grow stiffer and thicker upon Bald-heads The Vinegar of Saturn The Butter or Balsamum of Saturn BOyl some distilled Vinegar in a Brass or Tin Skillet or in a glaz'd Pipkin pour it out boyling hot upon Minium or Seruse or Lytharge of Gold or Silver reduc'd to powder or upon calcin'd Lead let your matter be in a glaz'd Pan and you must have so much Vinegar as may be four or five fingers deep over your matter Stir it a little with a wooden Spatula not with an Iron one for it would black both your Liquor and the Salt to be extracted out of it in an hours time your distilled Vinegar will become sweet and sugar'd and impregnated with the Salt of Saturn To make the Butter or Balsamum of Saturn melt one ounce of white Wax in a little glaz'd Pan then put to it four ounces of Oyl of Olives mingle them well with a wooden Spatula pour this mixtion immediately into a Brass Mortar and upon it a glass full of the Vinegar of Saturn stir them well together with a Brass Pestle till the Oyl and Wax be both impregnated with the Salt of Saturn contain'd in the said Vinegar and that all the Composition be thick and white as the soft Ointment of white Roses It s Vse and Vertues This Vinegar serves to appease inflammations and pains being applied outwardly to any part by Linnen dipp'd in Virgins Milk made of one spoonful of this Vinegar and a glass of Water it may also be useful in Injections in recent and fresh Gonorrhaea's to appease the violence of the pain And observe That this Vinegar pour'd upon any distill'd Water does not whiten it nor make it like Milk The Butter or Balsamum of Saturn serves to cool and appease the ardour of inflammations as well of the Stones as of the Hemorrhoides and other parts as also it produces the same effect in Erisypelases The Plaister of Saturn PUt one pound of Oyl of Olives into a vernish'd Pan add to it four ounces of well powder'd Minium or Mine-Lead and so boyl them together stirring them sometimes with an Iron Spatula till they be reduced to the consistence of a Plaister as black as Jet you may add to it a little Wax to give it a Body It s Vse and Vertues
hindring your whites of Eggs from coming away with the Tincture into the stone Pan you receive it in then evaporate it gently in a Sand-Furnace to the consistence of an Extract a stone Pan is fitter than a glazed Earthen one because the stone one is much thinner in the bottom and every where than a glazed one and may therefore be sooner penetrated by a sand heat It s Vse and Vertues This extract is called the â—ermans Treacle because that in Germany they â—se it frequently as we do here Treacle and it is â—ndeed a great preservative against the Plague â—nd a rare Antidote against poisons it strengthens the stomach the dose is from a scruple to two dragms All extracts of Berries Leaves and Flowers are made the same way The Laudanum TAke four ounces of good Opium and if it be soft cut it into pieces with a Knife or if it be dry powder it in a Mortar and have a care that the powder rising do not at last work upon you the same effect that a double Dose of pills of Opium would do Put this Opium without any other preparation into a Matrass and pour upon it Spirit of Wine till it be four or five fingers above your matter and that your Matrass have a third part empty lest your menstruum in stead of extracting the Tincture should evaporate and be gone Place your Vessel in a sand Furnace up to half the belly in the sand fit to it another little Matrass and so form a double Vessel lute them well together with Paper and Glew that so nothing may exhale make a good fire and let your Vessel stand a whole day the next day separate your Tincture from its Faeces and pour new Spirit of Wine to them which also must stand a day and then be poured off then for a third time put new Spirit of Wine to extract the remainder of the Tincture which done put all your Tinctures together into a stone Pan. Place this Pan either in a sand Furnace or in a Balneum Mariae if it happen that you are then distilling of Spirit of Wine in the Brass Vesica you may place your Pan upon the Moors-head which may serve in stead of a Balneum Mariae evaporate gently your Tinctures to the consistence of an extract If you desire to draw off most of your Spirit of Wine put your Tinctures at first into a glass Cucurbit and distil them in a Sand-fire till they begin to grow thick and then pour them into a stone Pan and evaporate them as hath been said Obs 1. That all those preparations practised upon Opium ordinarily do rather cleanse it and purifie it from its Faeces than free it from any venomous substance or malignous quality therefore if you take of that Opium which is in little even Cakes neatly environed with Leaves you may give it without any other preparation at all only beat it warm in a Mortar and so form Pills of it Obs 2. That in the belief that most have that the thin Volatil substance of Opium is that which causes its malignity they have studied all ways imaginable whereby to devest it of this Volatil substance as by drying it over the fire and so causing this Sulphureous subtile substance to evaporate but it is not against reason to believe that in this exsiccation or drying the flegm alone which is innocent enough is the thing exhal'd and that Opium in its whole substance is of a subtle Volatil Narcotick nature and in that consists its Malignity Obs 3. That we use Spirit of Wine for a dissolvant because it draws much more perfectly this Tincture than any other liquor would because that Opium is of a thick glutinous juicy nature and Spirit of Wine is the best Dissolver of all Gums besides the design being to benumb the senses the Spirit of Wine which has the same faculty is most proper and being a cordial is a rare corrective of that malignity which we suppose in Opium Some are of opinion that distilled Vinegar would be a fitter menstruum because they pretend by it to fix a little the Volatil nature of the Opium and hinder the fumes which make it to arise to the head To which I answer with this distinction That if the design be to appease the Head-ach and correct Insomniums then Laudanum prepared with Spirit of Wine is best but if it be to stop a Diarrhaea or Dysentery or asswage the pains of the Colick then Laudanum prepared with Vinegar is fittest because the Spirit of Wine carries one to the Head and the Vinegar keeps the other down in the Belly but we must have one of these menstruums if we will extract the Tincture of Opium well for pure Vinegar smells too much of Vinegar common Water is not strong enough because of the viscosity of the Opium which requires a penetrating dissolvant Obs 4. That if your Opium be very clean and without Ordure it will turn almost all of it into Tincture and leave but very few Faeces and so the extract of Opium is but a purified Opium delivered from all mixture of other things and devested of some of its own indissolvable terrestreity Obs 5. That in Authors you meet with an infinite number of descriptions of Laudanum and all the variety is produced from nothing but from a different mixtion of ingredients but certainly the best Laudanum is the simplest and such as we have described it Saffron Pearls Corral Treacle Musk Ambergrease and other ingredients which are added serving for nothing but to take up more room and often are quite opposite and contrary to the design intended by giving Opium so far they are from augmenting the vertue of it It s Vse and Vertues are to make those sleep that are troubled with continual waking and intolerable Insomniums not to be overcome by ordinary Somniferous remedies to asswage great head-ach to thicken and soften all sharp humours flowing to the breast to stay loosnesses dysenteries and help pains in bilious colicks and dysenteries But have a care you give not Laudanum while the body is full and has not been evacuated sufficiently by Blood-letting Clysters and a moderate diet nor when there is a copious Fluxion upon the breast caused by a thick humour nor when there is pain and stopping of breath nor when the patient is very weak and has but little natural heat The dose is from one grain to two or three or four at most and you must never give the highest dose without having given the first and second without effect it is ordinarily given in form of a little Pill The Tincture of Roses PUt into a Brass Pot or into an earthen glazed Pan four pound or two quarts of water set it upon a Furnace in a naked fire till it begin to simper and then put into it two or three spoonfuls of Spirit of Sulphur or Vitriol and stir it with a woodden Spatula to the bottom then throw into it a good handful
Tinctures to draw out of them and precipitate either the Rosin or the Magistery If you will be content to lose your Dissolvant and so convert all your Tinctures into Rosin pour them into a great glass Bell full of cold water and presently your Tincture will precipitate to the bottom in the consistence of a white Rosin separate all the liquor that swims above it and loosen and take away your Rosin which did begin to stick to the bottom of the Vessel put it into a glass either whole or in pieces which being cold will grow as hard as Rosin or Colophone If you will draw off your dissolvant and change your Tinctures into a Magistery put them all into a glass Cucurbit of such a proportion as not to be above half full with them place it in a Balneum Mariae and fit to it a head Give the fire by degrees and draw off by distillation about half the Spirit of Wine to use in other such uses then pour the remainder while it is warm into a glass Bell full of cold water and presently the Tincture of your dissolvant will be precipitated not into a Rosin but into a white Curd which by little and little in half a quarter of an hours time will be converted into a white Rosinous powder Separate by inclination the water and pour two or three times cold water upon this powder to separate it well from its dissolvant then filter the remainder through a Coffin of white Paper and dry it in the shade keep this powder or Magistery in a Vial well stopt Obs 1. That we take Jalap very well cleansed from its ordures that we may have a fairer Rosin and more of it and that it is first dried in the Sun to the end that its waterish humidity being gone it may not dull the action of the dissolvant and so it will be able to extract easilier the Resinous Tincture of Jalap Obs 2. That common cold water precipitates your Tincture into a Rosin or a Rosinous powder because that weakening the Spirit of Wine by its quantity it makes it lose its hold and so let fall to the bottom that substance which it had seized upon in the dissolving it Obs 3. That the precipitate of Jalap is more properly called a Rosin than a Gum because it would dissolve better in oyly liquors as Rosins do than in waterish liquors as Gums do Obs 4. That when your Tincture is thrown into cold water before it be evaporated half away it then precipitates in consistence of a Rosin but when it is evaporated half away then it is precipitated in consistence of a Curd which comes to a Powder Obs 5. That the Rosin or Magistery of Jalap is nothing but the Rosinous part of Jalap separated from all the terrestrial part which remains in the Matrass and from its volatil Salt which has been dissolved in the Dissolvant or in the Precipitant It s Vse and Vertue It purges by stools without procuring Vomit it has a gentler way of operating than pure Jalap taken in substance because it is devested of its Volatil Salt which is its sharpest part The Dose is from six to twelve grains or thereabouts in form of Pills or Bolus with some Conserve or some such thing The Rosin or Magistery of Scammony TAke good clean Scammony powder it then fasten a leaf upon a little woodden Square or Frame upon the Paper spread your powder place it over the vapour of Brimstone which you must throw from time to time into a Chasing-dish full of Coals and in the mean time stir continually your powder with a woodden Spatula and do not approach it too near the Fire lest it should melt and so become a lump as before for if such a thing should happen you would not be able to make the flegm and the volatil and sulphureous malignant salts of the Scammony to evaporate which is the thing you aim at Your Scammony being thus prepared you shall extract out of it a Tincture as red as blood in a glass double-Matrass with Spirit of Wine of which Tincture make the Rosin or Magistery in the same way that you make the Rosin or Magistery of Jalap It s Vse and Vertues The Rosin of Scammony purges gentlier than Scammony in substance because it is devested of a great deal of its sulphureous volatil Salt by the burning vapour of the Brimstone The Spirit of Wine and common Water have set at liberty and dissolved the rest of the volatil Salt and the terrestrial part or Faeces remain in a small quantity in your Matrass The Dose is from ten to twenty grains The Cremor Tartari TAke four pound of white Tartar of Montpellier in great lumps wash them well in common cold Water and then dry them upon boards in the Sun this done beat them in a brass Mortar and searce them to a very fine powder In the mean time let there be a pale of Water boyling in a Brass or Copper Kettle and into it throw your Tartar by spoonfuls and so let it boyl for two hours stirring it continually with a woodden Spatula then take off your Kettle from the fire and filter your Dissolution while it is warm through divers Coffins of brown Paper evaporate your filtrations in earthen glaz'd Pans over a naked fire till by their boyling there appear a kind of a skin upon the surface of the said Decoction then take off your Pans place them in your Cellar and in three or four days there will be congealed to the bottom and sides of your Pans great quantity of Crystals as white as Snow and of a triangular and square Figure Pour out the Water that remains in your Pans if it look dirty keep it and boyl it again to a consistence of a skin then congeal it in your Cellar and so draw out all the Crystals left in it dry your Crystals either in the Sun or in a dry place then gather them and put them into glass Vials well stop'd and thus you have that which Chymists call Cremor Tartari or Crystal of Tartar Out of one pound of Tartar you have foor ounces of Crystals and twelve of Faeces Obs 1. That for this Operation we chuse Tartar of Montpellier because it is much salter than the Tartar of any other part of France because that at Montpellier they use great Hogsheads or rather Tuns that serve twenty or thirty years so that there gather to the sides of them a Tartar three or four fingers thick and by consequent very saltish besides that the strength of the Wine of those parts makes their Tartar better and at last we chuse white Tartar because it contains more Salt than the red Obs 2. That we wash well the lumps of Tartar before we powder them to the end we may cleanse them from a kind of terrestrial dreggs which remain upon the said Tartar in form of a powder by washing part of this powder goes to the bottom
smell most perfectly pour off this Tincture and keep it in a glass Vial for your use when you intend to make of it Virginal Milk put about a spoonful of this Tincture into a precipitatory Vessel as a glass Bell c. and pour on it about a pint of cold Water your Tincture and VVater will be both as white as Snow and your Tincture will be incorporated with the VVater without precipitating to the bottom Obs 1. That the Benjamin and Storax containing but very little of terrestrial impurities do dissolve almost totally in Spirit of VVine which by the thinness penetration and evenness of its substance dissolves easily and without heat the said Rosins Obs 2. That the red Tincture is turn'd as white as Milk when it is dissolv'd in three or four times its quantity of VVater because that the common VVater does force the Spirit of VVine which was impregnated with these Bodies to let go its hold and so it does to all Dissolvants It s Vse and Vertues This Virginal Milk serves to refresh and whiten the skin it is excellent against all rednesses inflammation and Eresypela's The Precipitate or Magistery of Silver or Luna TAke one ounce of the purest Silver beaten into Plates as thin as Paper then cut it into little bits and put it into a Matrass with a long neck pour upon it three ounces of Aqua fortis made with Niter and Alom and so let your Silver dissolve in it without heat pour out your Dissolution into a glass Bell and pour upon it a quart of Sea-water the Silver will presently turn into white Curds which in a small time by little and little will precipitate into a powder as white as Snow and as shining as pieces of Diamonds separate by inclination your Sea-water impregnated with the Aqua fortis and pour on more cold common VVater so often till at last it come away without any saltish taste which is a sign that your powder is dulcorated filter the remainder through a Coffin of white Paper and let it dry in the shade you will have a Calx Precipitate or Magistery of Luna most admirably fair and white and glittering put it into a glass Bottle well stop'd and keep it for your use Obs 1. That you must take the finest purest Silver for if there were the least mixtion of Venus or Copper in it the Magistery instead of being white would be green like Vitriol Obs 2. That you must take Aqua fortis made on purpose with pure Niter and Alom for the Spirit of Niter alone would be too sharp and your Magistery would hardly be sweetned from all Acrimony which might if there remain'd any corrode and spoil the face it is laid upon As for common Aqua fortis made with Niter and Vitriol it would be worse not only because it is sharper than Spirit of Niter but also because of its having Vitriol amongst it which would make your Magistery black Alom is much fitter to be added to Niter because it has little Acrimony and great quantity of Flegm insomuch that Alom is nothing but a part of Virginal saltish Earth and a great deal of Water congealed and crystallized together Obs 3. That Sea-Water precipitates the Calx of Silver for the Reasons which we have said in the Chapter of the Magistery of Bismuth Obs 4. That the Magistery of Silver or the Moon is nothing but a Philosophical calcination of Silver by the means of Aqua fortis precipitated by Sea-Water and sweetened by frequent Lotions It s Vse and Vertues It is the best of all Fucuses according to the esteem and opinion of Ladies because of the choice of the matter and of the Dissolvant and also because it is dearer than the others the great price of things serving often to create an esteem for them The Tincture of Gold or Aurum Potabile TAke a hollow branch of Crystal as thick as your finger and two or three foot long thrust it half way into warm Ashes to heat a little and so dispose it to endure a greater heat without flying then present it by little and little to the fire of a reverberatory Furnace then put it quite into the Furnace and hold it in the middle of the flame to make it grow red and soft there must be over against the Fire-room-door a hole by which another must put in the end of a little Crystal Twig made as small as a thread which he must heat likewise and soften and when it is soft he must fasten it to the end of the great branch which you hold then let him draw this Rod or Twig to himself and the branch will follow and stretch like Paste and you may make as many Rods and as small as you please of it Having made divers little Rods of Crystal by this method you must guild them one after another with Ducket Gold in Leaves buy therefore a Book containing six and twenty Leaves of Ducket Gold take one of these Leaves and spread it upon a Cushion made of Calves Leather and with a sharp Knife cut it into little slices of half a fingers breadth then wet with spittle one end of your Crystal Rods and apply it to one of these slices turning it upon the Cushion to make the Gold stick then continue wetting it a little higher and apply it to another slice of Gold and do so till you have guilded all your Crystal Rods one after another using a little white Cotton to press your Gold and make it stick This done put them to dry in an Oven after the Bread is taken out when they are dry apply another lay of Gold to them and then dry them do thus seven times so that each Crystal Rod be covered with seven lays of Gold Then powder grosly all of them guilded and dried and put them into a Crucible which set in a VVind-Furnace give a great fire and continue it till your matter be melted then take it out and powder it it will look yellow let your powder be very fine Put this powder into a long-necked Matrass and put to it a dragm of the Salt called the Salt Anatron or the Salt of Glass it is the fix'd Salt which sticks to the bottom of the Kettles where Salt-peter is boyled if you can come by none of this Salt Anatron put in common Sea-Salt decrepitated and pour upon it also Spirit of Salt well rectified and devested of its flegm four or five fingers above the matter this Spirit being whet and sharpened by the addition of the Salt Anatron or common Salt will corrode and dissolve the said Gold in three or four hours without fire and in this action will lose its force so that it will have no Acrimony left but only a pleasant acidity and it will be impregnated with the Tincture of Gold in the mean timâ— it will not operate at all upon the Crystal which will remain in the bottom of your Vessel in its own substance fit for other
it is impossible to extract the Salt of any Body before it be calcin'd and as for Metals they cannot be calcin'd otherwise than Philosophically that is by the corrosion of some acid Spirits for fire though never so violent can but melt them and evaporate some part of them Obs 2. That we use here distilled Vinegar to dissolve Verdigreece and extract its Tincture and Salt because it contains but little of a tartareous Salt or Salt of Tartar which being joined with the Salt of Venus cannot hurt but Aqua fortis Aqua regalis the Spirit of Niter Brimstone or Vitriol contain a great deal of corrosive Salt which would alter the Salt of Venus and make it corrosive being joyned with it for it cannot crystallize without them Obs 3. That you must use here glass and stone Vessels and not of vernish'd or glaz'd Potters Earth because that the sharpness of the Verdigreece would corrode the glazing and impregnating its self with Lead would spoil the brightness of your Crystals and if your Vessel were unglazed then the Verdigreece having by its dissolution in distill'd Vinegar acquired a singular sharpness and penetration would insinuate and lose its self in the pores of the Vessel Obs 4. That we distil and evaporate the Tincture of Verdigreece in a gentle heat of Balneum Mariae lest in a greater heat the sulphureous part and volatil Salt of Venus should exhale and be gone since it is in that sulphureous part that consists the greatest vertue of this Remedy and it is it that contributes most to the crystallization Obs 5. That the Crystals of Venus change their blew dark colour into a green transparent one by the means of reiterated dissolutions and crystallizations which Operations do purifie these Crystals from their blew terrestreity and that the true colour of the purified Salt of Venus is to be as green as an Emerald Obs 6. That the Crystals of Venus are nothing else but the Salt of Venus extracted from the Calx of Venus which is Verdigreece by a gentle Dissolvant which is distilled Vinegar then after evaporation of half of the Dissolvant crystallized in a cool place It s Vse and Vertues It is a powerful Diuretick and Desiccative and therefore most excellent against Gonorrhaea's It s Dosis is from three to six grains in a Pill of Turpentine that has been boyl'd to a consistence of Colophone continuing to take of it three days together There may be also drawn out of it a Spirit fit to precipitate all sorts of Dissolutions The Crystals or Salt or Vitriol of Mars TAke five or six pound of the opening Saffron of Mars called commonly Crocus Martis aperitivus as it has been described in this Book powder it in a Mortar and searce it through a silken Sieve then throw it by spoonfuls into a Kettle of ten or twelve quarts of boyling Water stirring it continually for two hours together with a Ladle or Spatula of Iron till the Water be half boyled away then take off your Kettle and filtrate your Liquor while it is warm through a brown Paper evaporate your Filtration in a sand-Sand-fire to the Pellicule in stone or glass Vessels and afterwards set them in the Cellar in two days there will be a good many green transparent Crystals sticking to the sides and bottom of your Pans Pour off by inclination the Water that is not congealed and evaporate it again and crystallize it then gather all your Crystals together and put them into a glass Vial well stopp'd As for the powder of Mars devested of its Salt which will remain in your Coffins of brown Paper after filtration dry it and keep it to make the Astringent or binding Saffron of Mars Obs 1. That to extract the Salt of Mars we take the opening Saffron of Mars because it is nothing but Mars calcin'd by the means of Brimstone and a Reverberatory fire Now it is not possible to have the Salt of Mars if it have not been first calcin'd and it cannot be calcin'd by fire alone which would only melt it as it does other Metals you must therefore calcine it Philosophically with Brimstone whose Salt and Spirit corrodes and calcines Mars Obs 2. That to extract the Salt of the Crocus Martis aperitivus it is enough to powder and searce it and throw it into a great quantity of boiling Water which has force enough to draw to it the Salt of the Calx of Mars or Croous Martis aperitivus Obs 3. That the Crystals of Mars are of a green transparent colour because that Mars is drawn out of a vitriolick Earth which indeed does contain nothing but pure Vitriol which by the violence of fire is changed into a metallick Body the hardest and blackest of all Metals and being opened by the Agents and Dissolvants of Chymistry doth communicate this colour Obs 4. That if you do not keep these Crystals in a Vial well stopp'd as soon as the Air comes to them they will be covered with a kind of white Meal which will spoil their transparency and greenness and that Mars being a very dry Metal and for this reason the hardest and less flexible of all the Metals it easily dries and is converted into this white mealy substance Obs 5. That these Crystals of Mars are nothing but the Salt of Mars extracted out of the opening Calx of Mars by the sweetest of all Dissolvants which is common Water boiling hot then evaporated and crystallized It s Vse and Vertues It is an opener or aperitive much stronger than the opening Saffron of Mars because it is the pure Salt of Mars separated from its terrestrial indissolvable part and is therefore excellent against the Green Sickness the Yellow Jaundice and to provoke the Monthly Courses The Dose is from a scruple to a dragm in Broth or some Syrup you may add to it a dragm of the Extract of Savin to augment its vertue The Astringent or binding Saffron of Mars TAke the powder of Crocus Martis aperitivus which remains in the Coffin of brown Paper after you have filtred the Dissolution of the said Crocus Martis aperitivus in common Water which powder will be then devested of all its Salt of Mars fill with it a Pot of Potters Earth unglazed place this Pot in the Furnace of the great Reverberatory Fire and give the Fire for eight and forty hours then take off your Pot and break it and while it is hot powder your matter in a Brass Mortar and then set it in the air upon a Board or upon a Marble Stone when it is quite cold searce it through a silk Sieve and keep it in wooden or glass Vessels Obs 1. That though the said powder of Mars be devested of its Salt yet we reverberate it a great while that so all its Salt may evaporate and the Remedy be the more Astringent which is the only intention it is to answer Obs 2. That we use not a glaz'd Pot lest in the reverberation the glazing
should melt by the violent heat of the Fire and mingle with the Mars Obs 3. That we powder the said Mars while it is warm that we may powder it easilier and make a finer powder of it Obs 4. That we searce it through a Silk Sieve that so we may make it so impalpable as that in passing through the Stomach it leaves no hard gravelous substance that might offend the Coats of the Stomach or Intestines Obs 5. That the Astringent Saffron of Mars is nothing but Mars calcin'd Philosophically by Fire and Brimstone devested of its Salt by its dissolution in common Water then reverberated powdered and searsed to be reduced to an impalpable powder It s Vse and Vertues It is a powerful Astringent inwardly taken and exteriourly applied it stops the Bloody Flux the Hepatick Flux and all Diarrhaea's Its Dose is from half a dragm to two in some Conserve or Preserve or Bolus It stops likewise bleeding of the Nose by powdering some Cotton with this powder and filling the Nostrils with the Cotton thus powdered A Little TREATISE OF CHYMISTRY OR An Abridgement of the precedent TREATISE Of the Hermetick Lute TAke of Potters Earth Sand and Horse-dung equal quantity of each and knead them together with a little Water or Whites of Eggs to a soft lump this serves to make Bricks in a Mould to cement your Bricks in the structure of your Furnaces to lute your Vessels and to fill up the holes chinks and cracks of your Furnaces and Vessels Of Hermetick Furnaces AFurnace to distil with the Vesica covered with its Refrigeratory Waters Aromatick Essences and Spirit of Wine it has an Ash-hole a Fire-room and a Laboratory the Laboratory must be as high as the Vesica and half a finger in its circumference wider than the Vesica you must put Wood and Coals into the Fire-room A Furnace for a violent Reverberatory Fire serving to draw the Spirits and Oyls of Minerals and Metals in a glass or stone Retort luted or in an iron one it is like the precedent only the Laboratory must be of the height of the Retort and that there must be a gap to put the neck of the Retort out at and must have an inch in circumference more than the Retort then in the Operation you must add to it three Layes or Rounds of Bricks lesser still towards the top and fill the holes with pieces of Brick or Iron Wood and Coals are the materials of your Fire A Furnace for a Circulatory Fire and of Suppression serving to distil the Flegm Spirit and Oyl of Seeds Berries Woods Barks Roots c. in a stone or glass Retort luted it is built like the precedent only the Ash-hole and Fire-room are not separated from one another and that you must cover the top of your Furnace with an earthen Pan that has a hole in its middle Wood and Coals are your fuel A furnace for a Wheel Fire serving to sublime the Salts of Minerals and Metals in a Matrass of Glass luted it is made of two Rounds of Bricks without Cement or Lute leaving a little space between the Bricks You must put an earthen Bowl in the middle to set your Matrass on and kindled Coals round about it A Furnace for a Circulatory Fire and of Suppression serving to calcine and melt Minerals and Metals and to calcine Vegetables and Animals in Crucibles or great Pots of the same Earth It is made of two Rounds of unluted Bricks set at a little distance one from the other that the air may come in it is enough to make it two fingers above the Crucible when set in its earthen Bowl you must lay round about as high as the Vessel kindled Coals A Furnace for a Circulary Fire and of Suppression serving to distil Oyls acid Spirits and Flegms of Gums Rosins VVax in a glass Retort luted It is built as the precedent only there must be a place for the neck of the Retort to come out at The same Materials of VVood and Coals for your Fire A Furnace to distil in a Balneum Maris or Mariae or vaporous Bath all sorts of Liquors to evaporate the Extract of Salts and for all other Operations It is made of divers Layes of Bricks luted together there is in it an Ash-hole a Fire-room and a Laboratory and in the top of the Laboratory three little gaps to give a passage to the Flame You must put your Coals in the Fire-room and a Kettle with a brim in your Laboratory A Furnace for the Fire of Ashes or Sand wet or dry serving to distil and rectifie all sorts of Liquors and for Infusion Digestion Tinctures Evaporation c. It is made of an Oval Lay of Tiles and three other Oval Layes of crooked Bricks cemented with our Lute Plaster of Paris and Water so that the Oval Rounds grow wider as they rise higher and that there be in one end of the Oval a double door for the Ash-hole and Fire-room then building a square about the said Oval with broken Tiles and Mortar add one perfect Round of Bricks leaving a little gap over against the Fire-room-door then apply your iron plate and add two or three Rounds of Bricks more to make the Laboratory at last put upon the said iron Plate Ashes or Sand an inch thick A Wind-Furnace for violent Fusions is made by building a Furnace of a Circulary Fire and Suppression upon the bottom of a Hogshead in which bottom there is a hole as big as ones head which is covered with a Grate well cemented with Lute and Plaster The Hogshead must be knocked out at the lower end and elevated from the ground about half a foot Of Spirit of Wine TAke as much Brandy as you please put it into the Copper Vesica placed in its proper Furnace fit to it its cover or Moors-head bordered with its Refrigeratory then fit to the nose or pipe of the said cover and to the pipe of Copper that passes through two Hogsheads full of Water a little moveable pipe to joyn them together Light the Fire in the Furnace that serves to distil Aromatick Essences the Spirit will come in a stream This Spirit of Wine is not good to be taken inwardly if it be not rectified in a glass Cucurbite and Alembick the first is excellent for burnings the second is proper to dissolve Gums and Rofins to take inwardly and to draw their Tinctures and Extracts Of Salt of Tartar TAke of Tartar and Niter powdered equal parts mingle them and having put them into a glaz'd earthen Pan set fire to them with a red hot Iron stirring them continually till the Niter be consumed and the Tartar calcined It is aperitive and diuretick The Dose is from one to two dragms The Regulus of Antimony MIngle three pound of Male Antimony with one pound and an half of common Niter as much of Tartar four ounces and an half of powdered Charcoal put this mixtion by spoonfuls into a pot heated red-hot in a