Salts I have imploy'd as the Solution of Salt of Tartar of Pot-ashes of common Wood-ashes Lime-water c. will immediately change the Blew Syrrup into a perfect Green And by the same way to hint that upon the by I elsewhere show you both the changes that Nature and Time produce in the more Saline parts of some Bodies may be discover'd and also how ev'n such Chymically prepar'd Bodies as belong not either to the Animal Kingdome or to the Tribe of Alcali's may have their new and superinduc'd Nature successfully Examin'd In this place I shall only add that not alone the Changing the Colour of the Syrrup requires that the Changing Body be more strong of the Acid or other sort of Salt that is Predominant in it than is requisite for the working upon the Tincture of Lignum Nephriticum but that in this also the Operation of the formerly mention'd Salts upon our Syrrup differs from their Operation upon our Tinctures that in this Liquor if the Caeruleous Colour be Destroy'd by an Acid Salt it may be Restor'd by one that is either Volatile or Lixiviate whereas in Syrrup of Violets though one of these contrary Salts will destroy the Action of the other yet neither of them will restore the Syrrup to its native Blew but each of them will Change it into the Colour which it self doth if I may so speak affect as we shall have Occasion to show in the Notes on the twenty fifth Experiment EXPERIMENT XXI There is a Weed more known to Plowmen than belov'd by them whose Flowers from their Colour are commonly call'd Blew-bottles and Corn-weed from their Growing among Corn. These Flowers some Ladies do upon the account of their Lovely Colour think worth the being Candied which when they are they will long retain so fair a Colour as makes them a very fine Sallad in the Winter But I have try'd that when they are freshly gather'd they will afford a Juice which when newly express'd for in some cases 't will soon enough degenerate affords a very deep and pleasant Blew Now to draw this to our present Scope by dropping on this fresh Juice a little Spirit of Salt that being the Acid Spirit I had then at hand it immediately turn'd as I predicted into a Red. And if instead of the Sowr Spirit I mingled with it a little strong Solution of an Alcalizate Salt it did presently disclose a lovely Green the same Changes being by those differing sorts of Saline Liquors producible in this Natural juice that we lately mention'd to have happen'd to that factitious Mixture the Syrrup of Violets And I remember that finding this Blew Liquor when freshly made to be capable of serving in a Pen for an Ink of that Colour I attempted by moistning one part of a piece of White Paper with the Spirit of Salt I have been mentioning and another with some Alcalizate or Volatile Liquor to draw a Line on the leisurely dry'd Paper that should e'vn before the Ink was dry appear partly Blew partly Red and partly Green But though the latter part of the Experiment succeeded not well whether because Volatile Salts are too Fugitive to be retain'd in the Paper and Alcalizate ones are too Unctuous or so apt to draw Moisture from the Air that they keep the Paper from drying well yet the former Part succeeded well enough the Blew and Red being Conspicuous enough to afford a surprizing Spectacle to those I acquaint not with what I willingly allow you to call the Trick Annotation upon the one and twentieth Experiment But lest you should be tempted to think Pyrophilus that Volatile or Alcalizate Salts change Blews into Green rather upon the score of the easie Transition of the former Colour into the latter than upon the account of the Texture wherein most Vegetables that afford a Blew seem though otherwise differing to be Allied I will add that when I purposely dissolv'd Blew Vitriol in fair Water and thereby imbu'd sufficiently that Liquor with that Colour a Lixiviate Liquor and a Urinous Salt being Copiously pour'd upon distinct Parcels of it did each of them though perhaps with some Difference turn the Liquor not Green but of a deep Yellowish Colour almost like that of Yellow Oker which Colour the Precipitated Corpuscles retain'd when they had Leisurely subsided to the Bottom What this Precipitated Substance is it is not needfull now to Enquire in this place and in another I have shown you that notwithstanding its Colour and its being Obtainable from an Acid Menstruum by the help of Salt of Tartar it is yet far enough from being the true Sulphur of Vitriol EXPERIMENT XXII Our next Experiment Pyrophilus will perhaps seem to be of a contrary Nature to the two former made upon Syrrup of Violets and Juice of Blew-bottles For as in them by the Affusion of Oyl of Tartar a Blewish Liquor is made Green so in this by the sole Mixture of the same Oyl a Greenish Liquor becomes Blew The hint of this Experiment was given us by the practice of some Italian Painters who being wont to Counterfeit Ultra-marine Azure as they call it by Grinding Verdigrease with Sal-Armoniack and some other Saline Ingredients and letting them Rot as they imagine for a good while together in a Dunghill we suppos'd that the change of Colour wrought in the Verdigrease by this way of Preparation must proceed from the Action of certain Volatile and Alcalizate Salts abounding in some of the mingled Concretes and brought to make a further Dissolution of the Copper abounding in the Verdigrease and therefore we Conjectur'd that if both the Verdigrease and such Salts were dissolv'd in fair Water the small Parts of both being therein more subdivided and set at liberty would have better access to each other and thereby Incorporate much the more suddenly And accordingly we found that if upon a strong Solution of good French Verdigrease for 't is that we are wont to imploy as the best you pour a just quantity of Oyl of Tartar and shake them well together you shall immediately see a notable Change of Colour and the Mixture will grow thick and not transparent but if you stay a while till the Grosser part be Precipitated to and setled in the Bottom you may obtain a clear Liquor of a very lovely Colour and exceeding delightfull to the Eye But you must have a care to drop in a competent Quantity of Oyl of Tartar for else the Colour will not be so Deep and Rich and if instead of this Oyl you imploy a clear Lixivium of Pot-ashes you may have an Azure somewhat Lighter or Paler than and therefore differing from the former And if instead of either of these Liquors you make use of Spirit of Urine or of Harts-horn you may according to the Quantity and Quality of the Spirit you pour in obtain some further Variety though scarce considerable of Caeruleous Liquors And yet lately by the help of this Urinous Spirit we made
with Blacks has this passage The Children in this Countrey are Born White and change their Colour in two dayes to a Perfect Black As for Example The Portugalls which dwell in the Kingdome of Longo have sometimes Children by the Negroe women and many times the Fathers are deceived thinking when the Child is Born that it is theirs and within two dayes it proves the Son or Daughter of a Negroe which the Portugalls greatly grieve at And the same person has elsewhere a Relation which if he have made no use at all of the liberty of a Traveller is very well worth our Notice since this together with that we have formerly mention'd of Seminal Impressions shews a possibility that a Race of Negroes might be begun though none of the Sons of Adam for many Precedent Generations were of that Complexion For I see not why it should not be at least as possible that White Parents may sometimes have Black Children as that African Negroes should sometimes have lastingly White ones especially since concurrent causes may easily more befriend the Productions of the Former kind than under the scorching Heat of Africa those of the Latter And I remember on the occasion of what he delivers that of the White Raven formerly mention'd the Possessor affirm'd to me that in the Nest out of which he was taken VVhite they found with him but one other Young one and that he was of as Jetty a Black as any common Raven But let us hear our Author himself Here are sayes he speaking of the formerly mention'd Regions Born in this Countrey white Children which is very rare among them for their Parents are Negroes And when any of them are Born they are presented to the King and are call'd Dondos These are as White as any White Men. These are the Kings Witches and are brought up in Witchcraft and alwayes wait on the King There is no man that dare meddle with these Dondos if they go to the Market they may take what they list for all Men stand in awe of them The King of Longo hath four of them And yet this Countrey in our Globes is plac'd almost in the midst of the Torrid Zone four or five Degrees Southward of the Line And our Author elsewhere tells us of the Inhabitants that they are so fond of their Blackness that they will not suffer any that is not of that Colour as the Portugalls that come to Trade thither to be so much as Buri'd in their Land of which he annexes a particular example that may be seen in his Voyage preserv'd by our Industrious Countreyman Mr. Purchas But it is high time for me to dismiss Observations and go on with Experiments EXPERIMENT XII The way Pyrophilus of producing Whiteness by Chymical Praecipitations is very well worth our observing for thereby Bodyes of very Differing Colours as well as Natures though dissolv'd in Several Liquors are all brought into Calces or Powders that are White Thus we find that not only Crabs-eyes that are of themselves White and Pearls that are almost so but Coral and Minium that are Red being dissolv'd in Spirit of Vinegar may be uniformly Praecipitated by Oyl of Tartar into White Powders Thus Silver and Tin separately dissolv'd in Aqua Fortis will the one Praecipitate it self and the other be Praecipitated by common Salt-water into a White Calx and so will Crude Lead and Quicksilver first dissolv'd likewise in Aqua Fortis The like Calx will be afforded as I have try'd by a Solution of that shining Mineral Tinglass dissolv'd in Aqua Fortis and Praecipitated out of it and divers of these Calces may be made at least as Fair and White if not better Colour'd if instead of Oyl of Tartar they were Praecipitated with Oyl of Vitriol or with another Liquor I could Name Nay that Black Mineral Antimony it self being reduc'd by and with the Salts that concurr to the Composition of common Sublimate into that Cleer though Unctuous Liquor that Chymists commonly call Rectifi'd Butter of Antimony will by the bare affusion of store of Fair Water be struck down into that Snow-white Powder which when the adhering Saltness is well wash'd off Chymists are pleas'd to call Mercurius Vitae though the like Powder may be made of Antimony without the addition of any Mercury at all And this Lactescence if I may so call it does also commonly ensue when Spirit of Wine being Impregnated with those parts of Gums or other Vegetable Concretions that are suppos'd to abound with Sulphureous Corpuscles fair Water is suddenly pour'd upon the Tincture or Solution And I remember that very lately I did for Tryal sake on a Tincture of Benjamin drawn with Spirit of Wine and brought to be as Red as Blood pour some fair Water which presently mingling with the Liquor immediately turn'd the whole Mixture White But if such Seeming Milks be suffer'd to stand unstirr'd for a convenient while they are wont to let fall to the bottome a Resinous Substance which the Spirit of Wine Diluted and VVeakned by the Water pour'd in it was unable to support any longer And something of Kin to this change of Colour in Vegetables is that which Chymists are wont to observe upon the pouring of Acid Spirits upon the Red Solution of Sulphur dissolv'd in an Infusion of Pot-ashes or in some other sharp Lixivium the Praecipitated Sulphur before it subsides immediately turning the Red Liquor into a White one And other Examples might be added of this way of producing Whiteness in Bodyes by Praecipitating them out of the Liquors wherein they have been Dissolv'd but I think it may be more usefull to admonish you Pyrophilus that this observation admits of Restrictions and is not so Universal as by this time perhaps you have begun to think it For though most Praecipitated Bodyes are White yet I know some that are not For Gold Dissolv'd in Aqua Regis whether you Praecipitate it with Oyl of Tartar or with Spirit of Sal Armoniack will not afford a White but a Yellow Calx Mercury also though reduc'd into Sublimate and Praecipitated with Liquors abounding with Volatile Salts as the Spirits drawn from Urine Harts-horn and other Animal substances yet will afford as we Noted in our first Experiment about Whiteness and Blackness a VVhite Praecipitate yet with the Solution of Pot-ashes and other Lixiviate Salts it will let fall an Orange-Tawny Powder And so will Crude Antimony if being dissolv'd in a strong Lye you pour as farr as I remember any Acid Liquor upon the Solution newly Filtrated whilst it is yet Warm And if upon the Filtrated Solution of Vitriol you pour a Solution of one of these fix'd Salts there will subside a Copious substance very farr from having any Whiteness which the Chymists are pleas'd to call how properly I have elsewhere examin'd the Sulphur of Vitriol So that most Dissolv'd Bodyes being by Praecipitation brought to White Powders and yet some affording Praecipitates of
crude Antimony I concluded it to be easie to Precipitate the Antimony dissolv'd as was lately mention'd with the Acid Oyl of Vitriol and though common Sulphur yields a White Precipitate which the Chymists call Lac Sulphuris yet I suppos'd the Precipitated Antimony would be of a deep Yellow Colour as well if made with Oyl of Vitriol as if made only by Refrigeration and length of Time From this 't was easie to deduce this Experiment that if you put into one Glass some of the freshly Impregnated and Filtrated Solution of Antimony and into another some of the Orange-Colour'd Mixture which I formerly shew'd you how to make with a Mercurial Solution and Oyl of Tartar a few drops of Oyl of Vitriol dropp'd into the last mention'd Glass would as I told you before turn the Deep Yellow mixture into a Cleer Liquor whereas a little of the same Oyl dropp'd out of the same Viol into the other Glass would presently but not without some ill sent turn the moderately cleer Solution into a Deep Yellow Substance But this as I said succeeds not well unless you employ a Lixivium that has but newly dissolv'd Antimony and has not yet let it fall But yet in Summer time if your Lixivium have been duly Impregnated and well Filtred after it is quite cold it will for some dayes perhaps much longer than I had occasion to try retain Antimony enough to exhibit upon the Affusion of the Corrosive Oyl as much of a good Yellow Substance as is necessary to satisfie the Beholders of the Possibility of the Experiment Reflections upon the X L. Experiment Compared with the X. and XX. The Knowledge of the Distinction of Salts which we have propos'd whereby they are discriminated into Acid Volatile or Salsuginous if I may for Distinction sake so call the Fugitive Salts of Animal Substances and fix d or Alcalizate may possibly by that little part which we have already deliver'd of what we could say of its Applicableness appear of so much Use in Natural Philosophy especially in the Practick part of it that I doubt not but it will be no Unwelcome Corollary of the Preceding Experiment if by the help of it I teach you to distinguish which of those Salts is Predominant in Chymical Liquors as well as whether any of them be so or not For though in our Notes upon the X. and XX. Experiments I have shown you a way by means of the Tincture of Lignum Nephriticum or of Syrrup of Violets to discover whether a propounded Salt be Acid or not yet you can thereby only find in general that such and such Salts belong not to the Tribe of Acids but cannot determine whether they belong to the Tribe of Urinous Salts under which for distinction sake I comprehend all those Volatile Salts of Animal or other Substances that are contrary to Acids or to that of Alcalies For as well the one as the other of these Salino-Sulphurous Salts will restore the Caeruleous Colour to the Tincture of Lignum Nephriticum and turn that of Syrrup of Violets into Green Wherefore this XL. Experiment does opportunely supply the deficiency of those For being sollicitous to find out some ready wayes of discriminating the Tribes of Chymical Salts I found that all those I thought fit to make Tryal of would if they were of a Lixiviate Nature make with Sublimate dissolv'd in Fair Water an Orange Tawny Precipitate whereas if they were of an Urinous Nature the Precipitate would be White and Milky So that having alwayes by me some Syrrup of Violets and some Solution of Sublimate I can by the help of the first of those Liquors discover in a trice whether the propounded Salt or Saline Body be of an Acid Nature or no if it be I need you know inquire no further but if it be not I can very easily and as readily distinguish between the other two kinds of Salts by the White or Orange-Colour that is immediately produc'd by letting fall a few Drops or Grains of the Salt to be examin'd into a spoonfull of the cleer Solution of Sublimate For Example it has been suppos'd by some eminently Learned That when Sal Armoniack being mingled with an Alcaly is forc'd from it by the Fire in close Vessels the Volatile Salt that will thereby be obtain'd if the Operation be skilfully perform'd is but a more fine and subtile sort of Sal Armoniack which 't is presum'd this Operation do's but more exquisitely purifie than common Solutions Filtrations and Coagulations But this Opinion may be easily thown to be Erroneous as by other Arguments so particularly by the lately deliver'd Method of distinguishing the Tribes of Salts For the Saline Spirit of Sal Armoniack as it is in many other manifest Qualities very like the Spirit of Urine so like that it will in a trice make Syrrup of Violets of a Lovely Green turn a Solution of good Verdigrease into an Excellent Azure and make the Solution of a Sublimate yield a White Precipitate insomuch that in most for I say not all of the Experiments where I Aim onely at producing a sudden change of Colour I scruple not to use Spirit of Sal Armoniack when it is at hand instead of Spirit of Urine as indeed it seems chiefly to consist besides the flegm that helps to make it fluid of the Volatile Urinous Salt yet not excluding that of Soot that abounds in the Sal Armoniack and is set at liberty from the Sea Salt wherewith it was formerly associated and clogg'd by the Operation of the Alcaly that divides the Ingredients of Sal Armoniack and retains that Sea Salt with it self What use may be made of the like way of exploration in that inquiry which puzzles so many Modern Naturalists whether the Rich Pigment which we have often had occasion to mention belongs to the Vegetable or Animal Kingdome you may find in another place where I give you some account of what I try'd about Cocheneel But I think it needless to exemplifie here our Method by any other Instances many such being to be met with in divers parts of this Treatise but I will rather advertise you that by this way of examining Chymical Liquors you may not onely in most Cases conclude Affirmatively but in some Cases Negatively As since Spirit of Wine and as far as I have try'd those Chymical Oyles which Artists call Essential did not when I us'd them as I had us'd the several Families of Salts upon that Syrrup turn Syrrup of Violets Red or Green nor the Solution of Sublimate White or Yellow I inferr'd it may thence be probably argued that either they are destitute of Salt or have such as belongs not to either of the three Grand families already often mention'd When I went to examine the Spirit of Oak or of such like Concretes forced over through a Retort I found by this means amongst others that as I elsewhere show those Chymists are much mistaken in it that account it a simple