the coral it hath corroded and how those saline Liquors by working upon certain Bodies degenerate into Salts of another nature as we have sometimes observ'd in Oyl of Vitriol working upon the fourth part of its weight of Quick-silver and how the contrariety of acid and sulphureous Salts makes them sometimes disarm sometimes after some ebullition precipitate each other and sometimes unite into a third substance of a differing nature from either of those from whose coalition it results as we see in Tartarū Vitriolatū and as I have observ'd in a Salt I sometimes make to emerge from a due proportion of Oyl of Vitriol and Spirit of Urine freed after conjunction from their aqueous moisture And He in a word that hath carefully analiz'd and made tryals on many parts both of the Macrocosm and Microcosm and heedfully applyed his Experiments made on the former to the illustration of the changes observable in the latter shall be likely to explicate divers particulars in Pathology more intelligibly then he that is a stranger to Chymistry And though I am very unwilling to meddle with Medical Controversies and am apt to think that Chymists are wont to speak somewhat too slightingly of the humors of the humane Body and allow them too little a share in the production of Diseases yet to skip other reasons the strange stories related by Skenkius and other eminent Physitians of the corrosiveness of some Juices which rejected by Urine or Vomits have been able to boyl on Brass fret Linnen and stain Silver together with some odde Observations of this nature our selves have had opportunity to make do very much incline us to believe That the generality of former Physitians have ascrib'd too much to the Humors under the notion of their being hot and dry cold and moist or endowed with such other Elementary Qualities and have taken a great deal too little notice of the saline if I may so speak and Sulphureous Properties of things And in this Opinion I am not a little confirmed by the authority of Hippocrates himself both in other passages and especially where he says Non calidum frigidum humidum aut siccum esse quod magnam agendi vim habet verum amarum salsum dulce acidum insipidum acerbum c. are the things which though inoffensive to the Body whilst they duly allay each other prove hurtful to it and distemper it when any of them comes to sever it self from the rest and grow predominant And indeed if the Juices of the Body were more Chymically examin'd especially by a Naturalist that knows the ways of making fix'd Bodies volatile and volatile fix'd and knows the power of the open Air in promoting the former of those Operations it is not improbable that both many things relating to the nature of the Humors and to the ways of sweetning acuating and otherwise altering them may be detected and the importance of such Discoveries may be discern'd And perhaps it would adde to the usefulnesse of such an examination if it were extended to the noxious Juices in distemper'd bodies such as the rotten Phlegme spit up by those whose Lungs are disaffected the slimy excretions voided in the Lyantery and the liquor that distends the abdomen in the Dropsy and Ascites concerning which to tell you that upon the by I found that it was of a differing nature from either Water or Urine For a paracentecis being made in the abdomen of one dangerously sick of this sort of Dropsie I found that the Liquor would keep a pretty while without putrefaction nor did the Patient's body when I afterwards saw it open'd smell almost at all though the inside of the abdomen lookt well neer as black as if it had been sphacelated and having steam'd away some of it whilst it was pretty fresh over a somewhat slow fire it first coagulated into a substance like Whites of Eggs and by a little farther evaporation turn'd to such a glutinous substance as tradesmen are wont to call Size and being kept longer on the fire grew to be hard like fish glew but more brittle and transparent enough but with a little tincture of a greenish yellow and some of the forementioned liquor being distill'd in a Retort did towards the end of the operation so darken the vessell with a thick blackish oyle as hindred me from discerning what else perhaps I might have seen And I suppose it may prove a usefull instance to the former purpose if I somewhat circumstantially annex here what occurr'd to me when I was accidentally considering of the Calculus humanus Having therefore obtein'd of a skilfull Lithotomist of my acquaintance divers Stones which he had cut out of mens bladders I chose a couple of them which were whitish almost of equall bignesse and figure which was neer ovall and which together weighed about two ounces and an halfe these with the help of a strong knife I carefully open'd to find whether or no either of them consisted of an entire and uniforme matter as most other stones and even some calculi humani do and I found that each of them was made up of severall shells as it were successively involving one another like the rinds of an Onion and such shels but more soft and more of a colour we likewise observed in a great stone taken a while since out of an Oxe's Gall and sent us for a present and though all of these were of an almost stony hardnesse yet that hardnesse was not equall in them all and in one of the stones we observed one of the rinds to make use of that expression to be of a differing colour both frm that which immediatly imbraced it and from that which it immediately imbrac'd some of these rinds equalled in thicknesse the length of a barley corne and others were somewhat thinner Though they did closely imbrace one another yet they were actually separable as well as visibly distinguishable And proceeding very warily in the breaking one of these stones we found that in the center of it there lay a small and soft ovall stone as it were the kernell of those conglomerated shells and this kernell lay so loose that with a little industry and patience we picked it out of the shell and kept it by us as a rarity This done being desirous to know whither Chymicall tortures would force these Concreats to a further confession of their nature we caused them to be finely powdred and put into a small but strongly coated glasse Retort whereunto luting a much larger Retort for a Receiver we found that these two ounces and halfe of powder being distilled for some hours in a naked fire afforded us great store of volatile Salt partly grey and partly white which almost coverd the inside of the Receiver and a pretty quantity of reddish spirit which in the Receiver it selfe soon coagulated into Salt and having severed our vessels we found in the neck of the Receiver a very little darkish oyle
did me the favor to tell me by word of mouth as a thing himself had also made was in short this That the Remedy was made by precipitating Quick-silver with good Oyl of Vitriol and so making a Turbith which is afterwards to be dulcified by abstracting twenty or twenty five times from it pure Spirit of Wine of which fresh must be taken at every abstraction But I would not advise you to recommend so furious a Powder to any that is not a very skilful Chymist and Physitian too till you know the exact Preparation and particular uses of it the reason of my mentioning it here being but that which I expressed at the entrance upon this Narrative CHAP. XX. YOu will perchance wonder Pyrophilus that having had so fair an opportunity as the subject of this Essay afforded me of discoursing to you about the Universal Medicine which many Paracelsians Helmontians and other Chymists talk of so confidently I have said nothing concerning the existence or so much as the possibility of it But till I be better satisfied about those Particulars then yet I have been I am unwilling either to seem to believe what I am not yet convinced of or to assert any thing that may tend to discourage Humane Industry and therefore I shall onely venture to adde on this occasion That I fear we do somewhat too much confine our hopes when we think that one generous Remedy can scarce be effectual in several Diseases if their causes be supposed to be a little differing For the Theory of Diseases is not I fear so accurate and certain as to make it fit for us to neglect the manifest or hopeful Vertues of noble Remedies where ever we cannot reconcile them to that Theory He that considers what not unfrequently happens in distempered Bodies by the Metastasis of the Morbifique matter as for instance how that which in the Lungs caused a violent cough removed up to the head may produce as we have observed a quick decay of Memory and Ratiocination and a Palsie in the Hands and other Limbs may enough discerne that Diseases that appear very differing may easily be produced by a peccant matter of the same nature only variously determined in its operations by the constitution of the parts of the body where it setleth and consequently it may seem probable to him that the same searching Medicine being endowed with qualities destructive to the texture of that Morbifique matter where ever it finds it may be able to cure either all or the greatest part of the Diseases which the various translation of such a Matter haâ—h been observed to beget Moreover it oftentimes happens that Diseases that seem of a contrary nature may proceed from the same cause variously circumstantiated or if you please that of divers Diseases that may both seem primary the one is but Symptomatical or at most Secundary in relation to the other as a Dropsy and a slow Feaver may to unskilfull men seem Diseases of a quite contrary nature the one being reputed a hot and dry the other a cold and moist Distemper though expert Physitians know they may both proceed from the same Cause and be cured by the same Remedy And in women experience manifests that a great variety of differing Distempers which by unskilful Physitians have been adjudged distinct and primary Diseases and have been as such unsuccessfully dealt with by them may really be but disguised Symptomes of the distempers of the Mother or Genus Nervosum and may by Remedies reputed Antihysterical be happily removed To which purpose I might tell you Pyro That I not long since knew a Practitioner that with great success used the same Remedies which were chiefly Volatile and Resolving Salts in Dropsies and in not Symptomatical but Essential Feavers And our selves have lately made some Experiments of not much unlike nature with a preparation of Harts-horn of equal use in Feavers and Coughs both of them primary I might on this occasion recur to divers of the Remedies formerly mentioned in several places of this Essay since divers of them have been found effectual against Diseases which according to our common Theory seem to be little of kin one to another And by telling you what I have observed concerning the various operations of Helmont's Laudanum of our Ens Veneris and even of a Medicine devised by a Woman the Lady Kents Powder I might illustrate what I have lately delivered But it is high time for me to pass on to another Subject and therefore I shall rather desire you in general to consider whether or no several Differing Diseases and ev'n some commonly supposed to be of contrary natures be not yearly cured by the Spaa waters in Germany And to assist you in this Enquiry I shall address you to the rare Observations of the famous and experienc'd Henricus ab Heer and to his Spadacrene in the 8 â—h Chapter of which he reckons among the Diseases which those Waters cure Catarrhs and the Distempers which according to him spring from thence as the Palsie Trembling of the Joints and other Diseases of kin to these Convulsions Cephalalgiae I name them in the order wherein I finde them set down Hemicraniae Vertigo Redness of the Eyes of the Face the Erysipelata Ructus continui Vomitus Singultus Obstructions and even Scyrhus's if not inveterate of the Liver and Spleen and the Diseases springing thence the Yellow Jaundise Melancholia flatulenta seu Hypochondriaca Dropsies Gravel Ulcers of the Kidnies and Carunculae in meatu urinario Gonorrhoeas and resembling affections Elephantiasis or the Leprosie fluor albus mulierum Cancers and Scyrrhus's of the Womb Fluxes and even Dysenteries the Worms though very obstinate and sometimes so copious as to be voided in his presence even with the Urine Sterility and not onely the Scabies in the Body and Neck of the Bladder and clammy pituitous Matter collected therein besides Ulcers in the Sphyncter of it but he relates upon the repeated Testimony of an eminent Person that he names and one whom he stiles Vir omni fide dignissimus That this Party being troubled with a very great Stone in his Bladder and having had it search'd by divers Lythotomists before he came to the Spaa did by very copiously drinking these Waters finde by a second search made by those Artists that his Stone was much diminâ—shed the first Year and by the same way of tryal that it was so the second Year And of the Cures of these Diseases the Physitian mentions in the same Chapter as to many of them particular and remarkable Instances and in the beginning of the next Chapter having told his Readers that he expects they should scarce believe these Waters can have such variety of Vertues Caeterum saith he si in Spaa maturè constantibus naturalibus vitalibusque facultatibus venerint aquasque quo dicemus modo biberint indubiè quae dixi vera esse fatebuntur And though we be not bound to believe nor doth he â—ffirm
knowing what else to do applied to the part affected an Oyntment consisting onely of Aurum fulminans prepared and fixed by a slight and familiar way which you may command and made up with a little Oyle of sweet Almonds into a requisite consistence and though presently upon the application of the Remedy the pain for a quarter of an Houre hugely increased yet soon after it abated and the Hemorrhoids the next day were closed and the day after went away Nor has the Patient ever since that is for some Years been troubled with any thing of Relapse And the same Physician assures me that with the like Remedy he has found a strange effect in Venereal Ulcers And perhaps to this may be referred what has been found by some friends of mine that Phlegm of Vitriol and Saccharum Saturni which not only inwardly given are said much to cool the Blood but outwardly applied are good for Burns and hot Humours do yet potently discusse cold Tumours But least you should say that this diversity may proceed at least in part from the Corpuscles of differing Natures that may be imagined in the forementioned Medicines I shall return to what I was discoursing of before and take notice of the Efficacy of some other external Remedies Since the beginning of this ESSAY I saw a lusty and very sprightful Boy Child to a Famous Chymical Writer who as his Father assuâ—'d me and others being by some Enemies of this Physitians when he was yet an Infant so bewitcht that he constantly lay in miserable torment and still refusing the Breast was reduc'd by pain and want of food to a desperate condition the experienc'd Relater of the Story remembring that Helmont attributes to the Electum Minerale immaturum Paracelsi the Vertue of relieving those whose distempers come from Witchcraft did according to Helmonts prescription hang a piece of this Noble Mineral about the Infants Neck so that it might touch the Pit of the Stomack whereupon presently the Child that could not rest in I know not how many Daies and Nights before fell for a while a sleep and waking well cry'd for the Teat which he greedily suck'd from thenceforth hastily recovering to the great wonder both of his Parents and several others that were astonish'd at so great and quick a change And though I am not forward to impute all those Diseases to Witchcraft which even Learned Men Father upon it yet it s considerable in our present case that whatsoever were the cause of the Disease the Distemper was very great and almost hopeless and the cure suddenly perform'd by an outward application and that of a Mineral in which compacted sort of Bodies the finer parts are thought to be more lock'd up Among the proofs of the efficacy of appended Remedies we must not pretermit the memorable Examples that are deliver'd by the Judicious Boëtius de Boot concerning the Vertues of that sort of Jasper which is blood red throughout the whole Body of the Stone not being mingled with any Colour Testari possum saies he me qui alias lapidibus geminis tantas vires quantas vulgus solet non tribuo credibile vix de Jaspidis viribus observasse Nam cum ancilla fluxu menstruorum ita laborasset per aliquot dies ut nullo modo sisti posset Jaspidem rubram impolitam rudem femori alligari jussi Alius in eadem Domo cum in pede vulneratus esset nec sanguinis fluxus cohiberi posset admoto lapide extemplo impeditus fuit licet vulnus non tegeretur To these he adjoynes a much more memorable Example of a Maid he cur'd at Prague who had been for six Years sick of an Hemorrhagy so vehement that there scarce ever pass'd a Week in which she did not several times Bleed neither could she be reliev'd by any Remedies though she had long us'd them till she was quite tired with them wherefore our Author setting them all aside lent her a Jasper of whose Vertues in such cases he had made good trial to hang about her Neck which when she did the flux of Blood presently ceas'd and she afterwards for curiosity sake oftentimes laying aside the Stone and as often as she needed it applying it again observ'd That whereas the flux of Blood did not presently return upon the absence of the Jasper but after divers Weeks yet upon the hanging it on again it would presently be stopt so that she could not ascribe the relief to any thing but the Stone by which our Author tells us that at length she was quite cur'd And speaking of the praises given by others to Green Iasper speckled with Red he concludes Sed ego quod multoties expertus sum refero But amongst the Operations of outwardly appended Medicines I have scarce met with a stranger then that which the Experienc'd Henricus ab Heer mentions in the fourteenth of those Observations which he truely stiles Rare namely That a Woman who had by an unskilful Mid-wife the Bladder Lacerated and thereby been subject to a perpetual Incontinentia Vrinae and had been reduc'd constantly to wear a Silver Pipe was perfectly help'd by wearing as a Gypsie had taught her a little Bag hung about her Neck containing the Powder made of a live Toad burnt in a New Pot Which relation I the rather mention not only because the Author having try'd the Remedy upon a Merchant to whom an unskilful Lythotomist had left the like Disease found it presently to succeed But because having been very desirous to have further trial made of so odd a Remedy by a curious Physitian he lately gave me this Account of it that though in one or two it had fail'd yet having given some of the powder to an inquisitive Person known to us both he assur'd him it had succeeded in two or three and the Disease is too unfrequent to give occasion to have the Remedy often tried And the Physitian adds that one of those Patiens tels him the Physitian That though her infirmity were occasion'd by a Laceratio Vesicae yet the yet the Remedy helps her as long as she wears it about her in case she renew the Powder when the Vertue of it begins to decay but that which is remarkable to our present purpose if she leaves it off awhile she findes the Disease return The same Henricus ab Heer among his freshly commended Observations hath another of a little Lady whom he concludes to have been cast into the strange and terrible Dâ—stemper which he there pâ—rticularly Records by Witchcraft Upon so severe an examination of the Symptoms made by himself in his own House that if notwithstanding his solemn Professions of veracity he mis-relate them not I cannot wonder he should confidently impute so prodigious a Disease to some supernatural cause But though the Observation with its various Circumstances be very well worth your perusing yet that for which I here take notice of it is what he adds about the end
many other processes of which it appears not that the prescribers made trial that when I had distilled some of those Sulphurs divers expert Chymists were very desirous to have a sight of them to satisfy themselves that such Liquors could be so prepared The way of making the common Balsam or Ruby of Sulphur is too well known to need to be long insisted on Onely because there is some little variety used by several in the preparation it will not perhaps be amiss to inform you that we are wont to make it by mixing about three parts of Oyl of Turpentine with two of good Flower of Brimstone and setting them in a strong Urinal slightly stopt in an heat of Sand only great enough to make the Liquor with a little crackling noise whencesoever that proceeds work upon the Sulphur till it be all perfectly resolved into a Bloud-red Balsam which will be performed in six eight or ten Houâ—es according to the quantity of the Ingredients to be unite 〈◊〉 this Balsam which is indeed in some cases no despicable Remedie is by vulgar Chymists according to their custome very highly extolled and sometimes employed in Distempers and Constitutions wherein instead of performing the wonders by them expected its Heat doth more harm then its drying and Balsamick properties do good but yet apparent it will be by what we shall say anon that by this preparation the Body of the Sulphur is somewhat opened and therefore as we said in some cases the Ruby of Sulphur may prove no ineffectual Remedie which may probably be improved if it be prepared by bare Digestion in a very gentle heat by which course we have prosperously prepar'd it though not in so short a time when we made it not in order to some other Medicine To Volatilize the Sulphur thus Resolved we took the Balsam made the former way in a few Houres and putting it in a Retort either with or without fair Water which is supposed to help to carry up the superfluous Oyl we placed the Vessel in a Sand Furnace and with a gentle heat drawing off as much of the Oyl of Turpentine as would in that heat come over we shifted the Receiver and carefully luted on the new one and lastly giving Fire by degrees we forced over a Liquor of a deep and darkish Red extreamly penetrant but of a smell so sulphureous and diffusive of it self that it was scarce to be restrained by Corks and was by great odds stronger then that of the Rubie before distillation The like Experiment we tryed in a Glasse head and body placed in Sand and through that way likewise we obtained a Volatile Balsam of Sulphur yet we found it too inconvenient to be equallable wâ—th the former what long Digestions of this Liquor will do to take away or lessen its Empyreumatical and oâ—â—ensive Odour we have not yet been by experience satisfieâ— no more then of its medical Vertues though probably the â—reat penetrancy of the Liquor considered they will not be languid Authors also prescribe the making a volatile Balsam of Sulphur by driving over after the above mentioned manner a Solution of Flower of Brimstone in Linseed Oyl and this Remedy they highly extoll but though it may probably prove a good Medicine yet since they commend it but by conjecture and not upon Experience I see no great reason why it should be preferable to the other for we find that express'd Oyles are much more apt to receive an offensive Empyreuma then Oyl of Turpentine which being much more volatile then they requires nothing neer so violent a heat to make it ascend and unless it be found that the Sulphureous particles are able to mitigate the corrosive ones the distilled Liquor of an express'd Oyl may prove noxious in the Body For by purposely for trials sake distilling Oyl Olive by it self though not in a naked Fire we obtained a Liqâ—or of that exceeding sharpness that it would takes inwardly probably corrode or fret either the Stomach or some other of the internal Parts There is another way of preparing a Sulphureous Balsam to which Penotus no ignoble Chymist ascribes such stupendous Vertues that though I have not yet made trial of it in Diseases yet I dare not leave it altogether unmentioned the process being briefly but this Take good Balsam of Sulphur made with Spirit or Oyl of Turpentine and having freed it from its superfluous Oyliness pour on it well deplegm'd Spirit of Wine and therewith draw by affusion of new Spirit as often as need requires a sufficient quantity of a Red Tincture which by filtration and abstraction in Balneo must be reduced to a Balsamick consistence this Liquor you may if you please by degrees of Fire drive through a Retort placed in Sand and thereby obtain a volatile Balsam of very great penetrancy and probably of no small efficacy but the Trial I have made of this process gives me occasion to advertise You 1. That unlesse your Balsam be reduced to a stiffe thicknese and almost to drinesse it self the Operation will hardly succeed we having fruitlesly digested for some months Spirit of Wine upon Balsam whose consistence was somewhat too Liquid 2. That as soon as the Spirit of Wine is sufficiently Tincted it ought to be Decanted and succeeded by new left by too long digestion instead of heightning its Tincture it let fall that which it hath already acquired 3. That upon a very slow abstraction of most of the Tincted Spirit in a digesting furnace we once found the remaining Liquor not to be in the forme of a Balsam but to consist partly of Spirit of Wine and partly of a seeming distinct Oyl whereinto the Sulphureous Tincture was reduced The Balsam of Sulphur thus made without Distillation seems likely to be an innocenter and nobler Medicine then the common Ruby of Sulphur made with a hot and ill scented Oyl of Turpentine and by this preparation may also appeare the truth of what we formerly said when we told you that the body of the Sulphur was opened by Solution in Oleaginous Liquors for out of the common thickned Balsam as you may be informed by this processe well Rectified Spirit of Wine will in a short time extract a blood red Tincture whereas by long digestion of Spirit of Wine alone upon pure but undissolved flowres of Brimstone we could not discerne any change of colour in the Menstruum though I dare not deny the possibility of what some Authors affirme who write that Spirit of Wine very excellently Dephlegm'd will in time of it selfe draw a Tincture from flowers of Sulphur which Tincture they yet pretend not to make of a higher then a Lemmon colour And by the way let mee tell you that our red tincture formerly mentioned is if it be well made so strong of the Sulphur that probably it would make a very penetrant and effectuall outward remedy in Aches and divers other cold distempers of the nervous parts for it hath been already found
that good Spirit of Wine alone is one of the powerfullest Fomentations in divers cases of that nature insomuch that it hath been sometimes found to arrest the spreading Mortification of Gangrenes and therefore being so richly impregnated with Sulphur which is even without the assistance of so subtle a vehicle very available in many dissaffections of the Genus Nervosum 't is probable that the skilfull association of two such active remedies may produce considerable Effects Take of pure flowers of Sulphur one part of the best Oyl-Olive foure or five parts mixe them well together in a strong earthen pot able to contain a much greater quantity of the ingredients then is to be put in it set this vessel over a moderate fire of Charcoales throughly kindled till the Oyl though slowly have perfectly dissolved all the Flowers of Sulphur which will if you worke it well be perform'd in about halfe an houre or an houre according to the quantity of your Materials But you must have a great care during the whole Operation first that the Oyl catch not fire whereby it would not only be lost it selfe but perhaps endanger the firing of the house and next that the Mixture be kept nimbly and constantly stirring from the first beginning of the Oyl 's action on the Sulphur till the Solution be fully made and the Pot having been taken off the fire be grown cold again The chiefe Signes whereby you may perceive that you have not erred in the Operations are First if the Sulphur be perfectly dissolved in the Oyl which you must often try before you take it from the fire by taking up with the tip of a stick a drop or two of the Liquor yet in Preparation and letting it coole on white paper or on your naile whereby you may discerne when the Solution is perfectly made by the deep Redness and Transparency of the Liquor and by its containing no more in it any undissolved Fowers of the Brimstone Next by the Consistency of the Balsam which ought to be neither too Liquid as you will find it if it hath not staid its due time on the fire nor too thick as it is apt to become if you remove it not seasonably from the fire but of the consistence of somewhat thin Hony and lastly by the smell which ought to be strong of the Sulphur but not of the fire for though the Sulphureous Stink is in this Remedy to be expected that Empyreumaticall one which proceeds from burning and by skilfull nostrils may be easily discerned is very possible to be avoided The Dosis of this Balsam when it is to be inwardly used may be from two to fifteen or twenty drops according as the greatnesse of the distemper and chiefly the strength and Constitution of the Patient shall require and bear It may be given upon a fasting Stomack either alone or brought to the Consistence of Pills or of a Bolus with powdered Sugar Liquorice c. or else dissolved in any convenient Vehicle wherewith its Oleaginous nature will permit it to mingle Outwardly it may be administred either by bare Inunction of the part affected or else by incorporating it with any other convenient Oyntment or Playster after which we are wont to prescribe to have an application made to the part of two or three little Bags fill'd with Sand as warme as the Patient can easily endure it and shifted as soon as either of them begins to cool that by this meanes the Pores being open'd the Vertue of the Balsam by being made more penetrant may reach the farther I have been thus particular Pyrophilus in the mention of this Remedy because though it seem but a slight and triviall Preparation yet Experience hath given us better opinion of it then I feare the slightnesse of the Preparation will as yet allow You. And indeed its Vertues I am apt to thinke more then I have yet had occasion to observe and therefore must referre you to Rulandus his Centuries where they are often mentioned but outwardly in Straines old Aches Bruises and the like it is wont to be very effectuall in the beginning of Fâ—ts of the Gout it hath severall times though not constantly been prosperously applyed both to Mr B. B and divers other persons and sometimes it hath been found not ineffectuall even in the Sciatica it selfe And as for Paralyticall distempers I have had by a skilfull Physitian an account sent me of scarce credible things which it hath therein performed to which I shall onely adde that a while since I had great thankes returned mee on the behalfe of a faire young Lady to whom I prosperously prescribed it against a great Tumor in her neck which was supposed to be the beginning of the Kings-evill But this Tumor was recent enough which circumstance I thinke fit to specifie because I feare that if the Scrophulous Tumor had been inveterate the successe would not have been so good Inwardly the chiefe Use we made of it hath been in Coughs and Distempers allyed thereunto but its Balsamicall nature making it both healing and resistive if I may so speake of Putrefaction makes it probable that its Vertues may be more extensive to which purpose I remember that a while since a friend of mine tryed it with wonderfull success in mictu sanguinis ferè deplorato having first by a gentle heat reduced it to such a Consistence as allow'd him to make it up into Pills But of the particular Cases wherein our Remedy hath been succesfull no more at present We shall rather subjoyn That though this have been the way which we have the oftenest employ'd in the making of the Balsam yet we must not conceal from You that we have divers times met with Accidents which frustrated our endeavours and expectations For if the fire administred be too languid the Solution of the Sulphur by the Oyl proceeds not well and on the otherside have found that not only a strong heat is apt to burne the matter or to make the Oyl boyl over and perhaps take fire but even that upon a very little excesse in the degree of heat the Oyl and Sulphur would before it could be expected degenerate together into a heavy and viscous Lump almost of the colour of the liver of an Animall which coagulated Matter prov'd afterwards exceeding difficult to be by the affusion of fresh Oyl dissolved and reduced to a due consistence Wherefore we tryed to prepare this Balsam by putting the proportion of Ingredients formerly mention'd into a strong Urinall which we placed in Sand and making under it no more fire then was sufficient to make it slowly worke upon the Flowers which did often during their Solution make a crackling noise we continued the Operation for divers perhaps many houres at the end of which we found the Sulphur dissolv'd and the mixture reduced to a Balsamick colour and consistence So that if you distrust your dexterity to prepare this Balsam by the former way with a naked