gentle sand-heat It is esteemed better than t'other to be taken inwardly because it is less Corrosive being corrected by the Spirit of Wine the dose is from four to twelve drops in some liquor appropriate to the disease Remarks The Potters earth is mixed with the Salt to divide it into particles that the fire may the more easily be able to rarefie it for the parts which Salt consists of are so strictly united that the utmost force of fire is not able to disengage them until they are separated by some Intermedium The preparation that I give unto Salt before it is put into the Retort is longer than the common sort but I have observed that the Spirit comes forth with less difficulty when the matter is prepared according to this form You must leave a vacuity in the Retort and fit to it a large Receiver for giving liberty to the spirit to circulate before it dissolves otherwise it would break them both Likewise the fire must be encreased by little and little because the first Spirits do break out with a mighty violence when they are driven too hard Some ways of drawing the Spirit of Salt without addition have been much sought after but that is not yet well discovered It is true indeed Monsieur Seignette an Apothecary of Rochell among other excellent discoveries that he hath made on Salts to the knowledge of which he hath particularly applied himself brought me hither a sea-salt in the year 1672 that we distilled without addition of any thing else by a very moderate fire and in two hours time we drew three ounces and a half of very good Spirit out of six ounces of salt that we put into the Retort After this we broke the Retort and having powdered the Salt that remained in it to the weight of two ounces and a half we exposed it to the air in a pan for a fortnight and we found it reimpregnated with Spirits we distilled it once more and with the same ease as before we drew half its weight in Spirit of the same force as the former The matter remaining in the Retort being again exposed to the air recovered new Spirits Monsieur Seignette did assure me that he had thus drawn Spirit from the same matter nine several times which is a thing worth our admiration and shews us very well that the air contains a spirit which forms divers things according to the different disposition of the subjects that it enters into This salt is particular to him that shewed it me and he prepares it himself some way that he is unwilling to discover Since I writ of Monsieur Seignette's particular way of drawing spirit of salt some have Printed that if common salt well decrepitated and kept a good while over the fire were exposed to the air for some dayes and distilled without addition of any thing to it it would yield a spirit much like that I have spoken of and in full as great a quantity But if we examine the sharp liquor which is drawn this way we shall find it of so weak a nature that it may more reasonably be called phlegm than spirit and the salt remains entire in the Retort whereas M. Seignette's spirit of salt is full as strong as common spirit of salt and has the very same qualities nay I conceive it somewhat better as not having so great an impression from fire as the other Again some say it does not deserve the name of spirit of sea-salt nor ought this preparation to be look't upon as any great mystery because the same incorporation and augmentation happens to divers other salts exposed to the air after drawing off their spirit I grant this augmentation proceeds from the spirit of the air and I conceive it is the same spirit which produces all manner of things according to the Matrixes or different pores of the earth it uses to meet with as I have explicated in my Remarks upon the Principles But because this spirit of the air has met with pores in our matter ready disposed to make a salt much like unto common salt and a spirit is drawn from it much like unto that which is drawn from common salt I see no reason to doubt why this spirit should not be a true spirit of salt all the difference is this the salt I now speak of is not so throughly united to its earthy part as common salt is and therefore its spirits do separate with more ease for they are drawn without addition of any thing else and with a gentle fire whereas those of common salt are so fixt that they can't be driven out without mixing a great deal of earth in order to separate all its parts and without a very great fire As for the augmentation which happens to many other bodies exposed to the air after their spirits are drawn off I don't question the matter of fact nor that these same substances do return into what they were before by impregnating again with spirits of the air in some considerable time but it is rarely found that any of them do yield so strong spirits and so easily as our salt and herein lies the mystery It is observable that the acids which are drawn by so violent a fire do very much differ from those that are made naturally such as the Vinegars of Beer Wine Cider the acid of Citron c. The Spirit of salt among others hath some particular difference from the rest because it will precipitate that which Aqua fortis hath dissolved This acid according as may be judged by its effects is compounded of stronger and more weighty points than the rest but they are not so sharp and piercing And this is the reason that it jogs so effectually those of Aqua fortis loaded with some bodies they have dissolved and that shaking them about it makes them let go their hold Some have writ that this precipitation must not be imputed either to the weight or the strength no more than to the agitation which spirit of salt may have given to the Aqua fortis or to matters dissolved but rather to the conjunction of the acidity of this spirit with the volatile and sulphureous alkali of Aqua fortis or Spirit of Niter which does by that means constrain this last to abandon the metal which it had dissolved But this is the way to explicate as they say one obscure thing by another that is much more obscure for what likelihood is there that the volatile spirit of Aqua fortis is an alkali and pray how comes it to remain in so great a motion with the fixed acid spirit of this same water without destroying or losing its nature this is a thing that can never be conceived very easily But furthermore supposing this spirit were an alkali it would be still necessary to explicate mechanically for what reason this alkali does quit the body of the metal to betake itself to the Spirit of salt for to say meerly
that by the conjunction of these two spirits the Aqua fortis is compelled to abandon the metal that it had dissolved is nothing at all to the clearing of the question unless a man will needs give an intelligence to these spirits Wherefore we must still have recourse to the agitation and jostles for the true reason It is also remarkable that the effervescency which happens when Spirit of Salt is cast into the solution of some bodies by Aqua fortis is different from that which happens when some alkali is cast into it the former being much more gentle than the latter The Spirit of Salt dissolves leaf gold which Aqua fortis is not able to do When this Spirit is dulcified it is mixed with Spirit of Wine which being a Sulphur doth take off the edges of the acid and in part hinders their motion whence it comes to pass that this Spirit is milder by this addition than if water had been used instead of Spirit of Wine The Spirit of Salt may be made with Salt Decrepitated after the same manner CHAP. XVI Of Niter or Salt-peter IT is probable that the Niter of the antients was either the Aegyptian Natron or a salt that is found in the earth in a gray compact mass or else the natural Borax or the salt which is drawn from the water of the river Nilus and many other rivers And it may be that all these salts are divers kinds of their Niter but the Niter of the moderns is nothing else but Salt-peter and this is that of which I intend to speak Niter is a Salt impregnated with abundance of Spirits out of the air which do render it volatile it is taken from among the stones and earths of old ruined buildings Some of it is likewise to be found in Cellars and several other moist places because the air doth condense it in those places and easily unites with the stones Salt-peter is also sometimes made by the Urine of Animals falling upon stones and earths Nay some have thought that all Salt-peter comes from that cause whereas we see every day that some of it is taken out of places where there never came any Urine at all This salt is half volatile and half like unto Sal Gemme as I shall prove hereafter The great and violent flame which happens so soon as Salt-peter is flung upon the coals and the red vapours which it uses to yield when reduced into a spirit have induced the Chymists generally to believe that this salt is inflammable and consequently fully loaded with Sulphur because Sulphur is the only Principle that flames but if they had suspended their judgments herein until they had got more experience on this Subject they would not only have known that Salt-peter is not at all inflammable in its nature but they would e'en have doubted whether or no any Sulphur does enter into the natural composition of this salt for if Salt-peter were inflammable of it self like Sulphur it would burn where there is no Sulphur for example in a Crucible heated red-hot in the fire but it will never flame therein use what quantity of it you please and let the fire be never so great It is true indeeed if you throw Salt-peter upon kindled coals it makes a great flame but this is only through the sulphureous Fuliginosities of the coals which are violently raised and rarefied by the volatile nature of Niter as I shall prove in the Operation upon fixt Niter As for any Sulphur that is thought to be contained in Salt-peter it can't be demonstrated by any Operation whatever for the red vapours that come from it are no more inflammable than the Niter when they are not mixt with some Sulphureous matter and it is far more probable that this salt contains no Sulphur if we consider its cleanness transparency acidity and cooling quality which have no manner of affinity with the effects of Sulphur which are commonly to make a body opake to take off acidity and to heat Purification of Salt-peter To purifie Salt-peter is to deprive it of part of its fixt salt and of a little bituminous earth which it contains Dissolve ten or twelve pounds of Salt-peter in a sufficient quantity of water let the dissolution settle and filtrate it then evaporate it in a glass or earthen vessel to the diminution of half or until there begins to appear a little skin upon it then remove your vessel into a cool place stirring it as little as may be and leave it there till the morrow you 'l find Crystals which you must separate from the liquor evaporate this liquor again to a skin and set the vessel in a cool place to get new Crystals repeat the evaporations and Crystallizations until you have drawn all your Salt-peter Note that in the last Crystallizations you 'l have a Salt altogether like unto sea-salt or Sal Gemme keep it apart it may serve to season meat with The first Crystals are the pure Salt-peter You may if you please dissolve and purifie Salt-peter several other times in water observing every time what I said before for to render it more white and purifie it from its Sea-salt Salt-peter purified is a great aperitive it cools the body by fixing the humours that are in too much motion and drives them by Urine It is given in Feavers in Gonorrheas and many other diseases the dose is from ten grains to a drachm in Broth or some appropriate liquor Remarks The first Purification that is given to Salt-peter is this the stones and earths that contain it are grosly powdered they are boiled in a great deal of water to dissolve the Salt-peter the dissolution is filtred and then poured upon ashes to make a Lixivium after it hath been poured upon the ashes several times it is evaporated and Crystallized The salt of the ashes which does mix with the Salt-peter increases its fixt part but that which is made without ashes is the better to make Aqua fortis with The earth from whence Salt-peter hath been drawn being set in the open air and stirred about from time to time doth re-impregnate with a kind of Salt The long Crystals that we see Salt-peter shoot into do proceed from its volatile part for that which is Crystallized last is fixt like sea-salt and looks just like it Salt-peter can never be purified so well but it will still contain a salt like unto Sal Gemme or sea-salt but in less quantity than before When Salt-peter is boiled a long time in water and over a great fire some part of the Spirits do fly away and there remains at last nothing but a salt like unto sea-salt or Sal Gemme which serves to prove that Salt-peter is only a Sal Gemme fuller of Spirits than the other as I said speaking of the Principles When you would Crystallize a Salt you must dissolve it in a convenient proportion of water for if there should be too much the salt would be weakned too much and
fire-coal flung into water would do Besides it heated the water very much and much more than common Oil of Vitriol could I kept this congealed Spirit about six months after which time it dissolved into a liquor which I used as Oil of Vitriol for it was in effect the same thing And in my opinion this operation does sufficiently evince that Oil of Vitriol contains fiery parts It hapned to me another time that having rectified the Spirit of Vitriol to separate it from its Oil by an Alembick some part of the distilled Spirit was turned into fair and transparent Crystals in the bolt-head or Receiver which Crystals had the same acrimony and strength with the mass I now spoke of If you pour some drops of Spirit or Oil of Vitriol into a quart of hot water in which you shall infuse a pugil of dried red Roses the liquor will in a little time become as red as Claret and this effect must not so much be attributed to the Spirit of Vitriol's sharpning the water and so thereby drawing out the Tincture of Roses as to this that the acid Spirit does rarefie and separate the particles of the Rose which the water had dissolved and made to appear better than before for if you strain the Infusion and separate the Roses before you pour to it your Spirit of Vitriol although the liquor so strained be yet but little raised in colour it will nevertheless turn to as high a red after the Spirit is dropt into it as if the Roses remained still in the liquor We must say the same thing of other Tinctures that are drawn by acids as also of such as are made by an Alkali salt If you fill a glass Viol with the decoction of Nephritick wood clarified and look on it turning toward the light it will appear yellow but if you turn your back to the light it will appear blue if you mix with it some drops of Spirit of Vitriol it will appear yellow on every side but if you again add about as much more Oil of Tartar it will return unto its first colour If you take a Blue or Violet tincture made in water such as is drawn out of the Sun-flower or Violet flowers and pour upon it some drops of Spirit of Vitriol it will presently turn red but if you throw into it some Alkali salt it will recover again its former colour On the contrary if you pour an Alkali liquor such as volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack or the Oil of Tartar upon the blue Tincture it will presently turn green and if you again pour upon it a little Spirit of Vitriol it will change this colour into an obscure red The decoction of Indian wood is very red if you drop into it a little Spirit of Vitriol it will turn yellow and if you still add some volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack it will become black If you infuse three or four hours a piece of Indian wood in some clear juice of Citron and take out your wood the liquor will have received no alteration of colour but if you add to it some drops of Oil of Tartar made per deliquium it will take a brown colour and if you add to it a little Spirit of Vitriol it will resume its colour again If you pour some drops of Oil of Tartar upon Claret it will become greenish and if you add to it a little Spirit of Vitriol it will return to its former colour All these changes of colour which the Spirit of Vitriol or other acids and Alkali's do make proceed only from the different position of bodies dissolved in the liquor and from its disposition to modifie the light different ways Styptick Water This water is a solution of Vitriol and other ingredients to stop bleedings Take Colcothar or the red Vitriol that remains in the Retort after the spirit is drawn out Burnt-alom and Sugar-candy of each half a drachm the Urine of a young person and Rose-water of each half an ounce Plantain-water two ounces stir them all together a good while in a mortar then pour the mixture into a Viol and when you use it separate it by Inclination If you apply a Bolster dipt in this water to an opened Artery and hold your hand a while upon it it stops the bloud In like manner you may wet a little Pledget in it and thrust it into the Nose when an Hemorrhage continues too long taken inwardly it cures spitting of bloud bloudy flux and the immoderate flux of the Hemorrhoids or Terms the dose is from half a drachm to two drachms in Knot-grass water Remarks When the bloud gushes forth too fast you must redouble the first Bolster that was put upon the wound and assist it a little with your fingers for half an hour The Basis of this water is Colcothar Having used this water with good success upon several occasions I was willing to insert it in this Book and I believe if any body please to experiment it as I have done they will easily acknowledge it to be an excellent Remedy in many Distempers Lapis Medicamentosus Powder and mix together Colcothar or the red Vitriol that remains in the Retort after distillation or in want of it Vitriol Calcined to a redness two ounces Litharge Alom and Bole-Armenick of each four ounces put this mixture into a glazed pot and pour upon it good Vinegar enough to cover the matter two fingers high cover the pot and leave it two days in digestion then add to it eight ounces of Niter two ounces of Sal Armoniack set the pot over the fire and evaporate all the moisture Calcine the mass that remains about half an hour in a strong fire and keep it for use It is a good Remedy to stop Gonorrheas a drachm of it is dissolved in eight ounces of Plantain water or Smith's water to make an Injection into the Yard it is likewise good to cleanse the eyes in the small pox seven or eight grains of it must be dissolved in four ounces of Plantain or eye-bright water it is also good to stop bloud applied outwardly to a wound It may be dissolved in Knot-grass water and will go near to have the same effects as the styptick water Remarks This stone is called Medicamentosus by way of excellence by reason of the good effects it produces The Colcothar that remains in the Retort after the distillation of Vitriol must be better than the others for this Operation because being deprived of the greatest part of its Spirits it is the more Astringent Litharge which is a Lead Calcined Alom and Bole-Armenick are so many considerable Astringents that do no hurt in this composition Vinegar is put in to incorporate the ingredients together and set them a Fermenting after which the Niter and Sal Armoniack do easily mix among the rest The Calcination which is given to it at the end is done to carry off some part of the acid and to augment the Astriction It
made without coming near the fire and though there is no appearance of Alkali contending with Acid to cause the aforesaid tumult see the Remarks on Spirit of Niter Dulcified p. 302 303. The same thing happens upon mixing Oil of Vitriol another Corrosive Acid with Oil of Turpentine which is no Alkali the mixture grows so hot through the Fire contained in the Acid that it sometimes breaks the Viol and often produces a considerable ebullition see p. 342. He observes that water thrown upon Tartar newly Calcined does heat and cause ebullition after the manner as it does with Quicklime the Fire that was entred into it making a violent eruption He is the first perhaps who has taken such particular notice what an augmentation of weight is added to many Preparations by the concurrence and incorporation of the substance of Fire into their composition as you may see in the Calcination of Lead p. 107. in the Distillation of Spirit of Saturn from the Salt of Saturn p. 116. in the Calcination of Regulus of Antimony p. 208. and even in the Calcination of Antimony by the heat of the Sun with a burning-glass p. 228. which few instances may possibly lead the way to Inquisitive persons to discover the same augmentation in divers other Preparations His addiction to Chymistry has not heated his head with fond and groundless hopes of attaining Projection nor led him to abuse the world with Counterfeiting the Nobler Metals but he has candidly exposed the impostures of Alchymists at large in the Chapter of Gold p. 49 c. I shall say nothing of his description of the Phosphorus and divers other new matters delivered in this Edition I dare presume the Judicious Reader will not dislike many things in the Book when he has a little considered them Therefore although we may possibly be overstockt with Books that pretend to Chymistry yet I hope the discerning Reader will think it no dis-service that I become an instrument of adding one more good Book of this kind to the number of our bad ones the kind reception which the former Edition met with when comparatively short and imperfect has already in some measure bespoke the welcom which this may reasonably hope for being revised and very much inlarged by the ingenious Author and when compared with the former Edition will be found to bear the proportion of a Man in his full strength and vigor to that of a growing hopeful Youth I will not detain you from the work it self only would advise young Students for whose instruction it is principally designed not to be too bold in the use of such Medicins as have undergone great Fires nor to be over-credulous in believing the strange wonders and most mighty Cures which too many other Chymists have extravagantly boasted and most solemnly but groundlesly assured us The wise Hippocrates will acquaint them that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Galen frequently teaches that Nature is abundantly wiser in her works than Art can be and that the Works of Nature are far above our greatest praises and deserve our highest admiration as may be seen more at large in his 7. and 11. Books of that excellent Tract de usu partium A good Physician must have studied Art and Nature too And a Chymist of the first rank will find himself never the worse an Artist by his being likewise a skilful Naturalist A TABLE OF THE CHAPTERS OF Chymistry in general Page 1 Of the Principles of Chymistry 2 Remarks upon the Principles 5 Of Chymical Vessels and Furnaces 31 The Figures or Cutts 32 Of Lutes 37 Of the Degrees of Fire 38 Explication of many Terms that are used in Chymistry 40 FIRST PART Of Minerals 45 Chap. I. OF Gold 48 Purification of Gold 61 Amalgamation of Gold with Mercury and its reduction into an impalpable Powder 65 Aurum Fulminans called the Saffron of Gold 66 Chap. II. Of Silver 74 Purification of Silver 75 Crystals of Silver called Vitriol of the Moon 80 Infernal Stone or perpetual Caustick 83 Tincture of the Moon 85 Diana's Tree 89 Chap. III. Of Tinn 92 Pulverisation of Tinn ib. Calcination of Tinn 93 Salt of Jupiter or Tinn 94 Sublimation of Tinn 96 Magistery of Jupiter or Tinn 97 Flowers of Jupiter or Tinn 98 Chap. IV. Of Bismuth called Tinn-glass 101 Flowers of Bismuth 102 Magistery of Bismuth ib. Chap. V. Of Lead 105 Calcination of Lead 106 Salt of Saturn 108 Magistery of Saturn 111 Balsom or Oil of Saturn 113 Burning Spirit of Saturn 114 Chap. VI. of Copper 118 Calcination of Copper 122 Purification of Copper 123 Vitriol of Venus or Copper 124 Other Crystals of Venus 126 Spirit of Venus 128 Chap. VII Of Iron 130 Opening Saffron of Mars 132 Another Opening Saffron of Mars 138 Another Opening Saffron of Mars 139 Binding Saffron of Mars 142 Salt or Vitriol of Mars 143 Another Vitriol of Mars 145 Tincture of Mars with Tartar 147 Opening Extract of Mars 148 Binding Extract of Mars 150 Mars Diaphoretick 152 Chap. VIII Of Mercury 154 Artificial Cinnabar 156 Reviving of Cinnabar into Quick-silver 158 Sublimate Corrosive 170 Sweet Sublimate or Mercurius dulcis 183 White Precipitate 186 Red Precipitate 191 Turbith Mineral or Yellow Precipitate 195 Oil or Liquor of Mercury 196 Another Oil of Mercury 197 Other Precipitates of Mercury 198 Chap. IX Of Antimony 202 Common Regulus of Antimony 204 Golden Sulphur of Antimony 209 Regulus of Antimony with Mars 210 Glass of Antimony 214 Crocus Metallorum or Liver of Antimony 217 Antimonium Diaphoreticum 222 Another Antimonium Diaphoreticum 225 Flowers of Antimony 229 Red Flowers of Antimony 230 Butter or Icy Oil of Antimony 231 Butter of Antimony together with its Cinnabar 233 The Emetick Powder of Algarot or Mercurius vitae 236 Bezoar Mineral 238 Caustick Oil of Antimony 240 Another Oil of Antimony 242 Chap. X. Of Arsenick 244 Regulus of Arsenick 245 Sublimate of Arsenick 246 Caustick Arsenick 248 Corrosive Oil of Arsenick 249 Chap. XI Of Quick-lime 251 Phagedenick water 254 Caustick Stones or Cauteries 255 Sympathetical Inks. 258 Chap. XII Of Flints 263 Calcination of Flints 264 Tincture of Flints 265 Liquor of Flints 266 Chap. XIII Oil of Bricks 268 Chap. XIV Of Coral 270 Dissolution of Coral 272 Magistery of Coral 274 Salt of Coral 276 Chap. XV. Of Common Salt 277 Calcination of Common Salt 281 Spirit of Salt 282 Chap. XVI Of Niter or Salt-peter 289 Purification of Salt-peter 291 Crystal Mineral called Sal Prunellae 293 Sal Polycrestum 296 Spirit of Niter 298 Spirit of Niter dulcified 300 Aqua Fortis 304 Fixation of Salt-peter into an Alkali Salt 306 Chap. XVII Of Sal Armoniack 310 Flowers of Sal Armoniack 311 Aqua Regalis 312 Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack 317 Another Preparation of the Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack together with its Flowers and Fixt Salt against Fevers 321 Acid Spirit of Sal Armoniack 328 Chap. XVIII Of Vitriol 329 Gilla Vitrioli or Vomitive Vitriol 331
Calcination of Vitriol 332 Distillation of Vitriol 338 Styptick Water 346 Lapis Medicamentosus 347 Salt of Vitriol 348 Chap. XIX Of Roche-Alom and its Purification 350 Distillation of Alom ibid. Chap. XX. Of Sulphur 353 Flower of Sulphur ib. Magistery of Sulphur 355 Balsom of Sulphur 357 Spirit of Sulphur 358 Salt of Sulphur 361 Chap. XXI Of Succinum or Ambar 363 Tincture of Ambar 364 Distillation of Ambar and the Rectification of its Oil and Spirit 365 Volatile Salt of Ambar 370 Chap. XXII of Ambar-grease 372 Essence of Ambar-grease 373 SECOND PART Of Vegetables Chap. I. OF Jalap 375 Rosin or Magistery of Jalap ib. Chap. II. Of Rhubarb 379 Extract of Rhubarb 380 Chap. III. Of the Wood Guaiacum 383 Distillation of Guaiacum ib. Chap. IV. Of Paper 386 Oil and Spirit of Paper 387 Chap. V. Of Cinnamon 389 Oil or Essence of Cinnamon and its Celestial water 390 Tincture of Cinnamon 392 Chap. VI. Of the Bark of Peru. 393 Tincture of the Peruvian Bark 395 Extract of Peruvian Bark 397 Chap. VII Of Cloves 399 Oil of Cloves per Descensum ib. Chap. VIII Of Nutmegs 401 Oil of Nutmegs 402 Chap. IX Distillation of an odoriferous Plant such as Balm its Extract and Fixt Salt 404 Chap. X. Distillation of a Plant that is not Odoriferous such as Carduus Benedictus and its Essential Salt 406 Chap. XI Of Sugar 408 Spirit of Sugar 410 Chap. XII Of Wine 412 Distillation of Wine into Brandy 417 Spirit of Wine 421 Spirit of Wine Tartarised 425 Queen of Hungary's Water 427 Chap. XIII Of Vinegar 429 Distillation of Vinegar 430 Chap. XIV Of Tartar 433 Crystals of Tartar ib. Soluble Tartar 435 Chalybeated Crystals of Tartar 437 Chalybeated Soluble Tartar 438 Soluble Emetick Tartar 439 Another Soluble Emetick Tartar 441 Distillation of Tartar 441 Fixt Salt of Tartar and its Liquor called Oil of Tartar per Deliquium 444 Tincture of Salt of Tartar 447 Magistery of Tartar or Tartarum Vitriolatum 450 Volatile Salt of Tartar 462 Chap. XV. Of Opium 467 Extract of Opium called Laudanum 468 Chap. XVI Of Aloes 477 Extract of Aloes 478 Chap. XVII Elixir Proprietatis 479 Chap. XVIII Of Tabaco 481 Distillation of Tabaco 482 Chap. XIX Extractum Panchymagogum 484 Chap. XX. Of Turpentine 488 Distillation of Turpentine 489 Chap. XXI Of Benjamin 491 Flowers of Benjamin and its Oil 492 Tincture of Benjamin 493 Chap. XXII Of Camphire 494 Oil of Camphire 495 Chap. XXIII Of Gumm Ammoniack 497 Distillation of Gumm Ammoniack 498 Chap. XXIV Of Myrrhe 500 Tincture of Myrrhe 501 Oil of Myrrhe per deliquium 502 THIRD PART Of Animals Chap. I. OF the Viper 505 Distillation of Vipers 512 Chap. II. Distillation of Vrine and its Volatile Salt 520 The PHOSPHORUS 523 The Hermetick PHOSPHORUS of Baldwinus 538 Chap. III. Of Honey 542 Distillation of Honey 543 Chap. IV. Distillation of Wax 545 A COURSE OF CHYMISTRY Of Chymistry in General THE Word Chymistry is derived from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Juyce or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to melt because it teaches us to separate the purer substances of Mixt bodies which are sometimes called Juices and because it shews us how to melt things that are of the most solid nature The Chymists have added the Arabian particle Al in the word Alchymy intending to give it a sublime signification as particularly when the Transmutation of Metals is understood by it though otherwise Alchymy signifies no more than Chymistry It is called the Spagirick Art from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to separate and to gather together because it teaches how to separate the useful parts of a body from the unuseful and how to joyn them together again 'T is called the Hermetick Art from Hermes one of the first Inventors of it Lastly it has been called Pyrotechnia from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying the Art of Fire for in effect it is by Fire that we bring all Chymical Operations to pass Other names have been given to this Art but because the knowledge of them is to no great purpose we will be contented with having related some of the chief Chymistry is an Art that teaches how to separate the different substances which are found in Mixt bodies I mean by a Mixt body those things that naturally grow and increase such as Minerals Vegetables and Animals Under the name of Minerals I comprehend the Seven Metals Minerals Stones and Earths under Vegetables I understand Plants Gumms Rosins Fruits the several sorts of Fungus Seeds Juyces Flowers Mosses and whatsoever else comes from them Among these also I reckon Manna Honey and those that are called imperfect Mixts And under Animals I contain both the Animals themselves and whatsoever belongs to them as their parts and excrements But before I begin to speak particularly of all these things I believe it will be convenient to say something of the Principles of Chymistry and give a general Idea of Furnaces Lutes the degrees of Fire and Terms that may occasion any obscurity Of the Principles of Chymistry The First Principle that can be admitted for the composition of Mixts is an Vniversal Spirit which being diffused through all the world produces different things according to the different Matrixes or Pores of the earth in which it settles But because this Principle is a little Metaphysical and falls not under our senses it will be fit to establish some sensible ones wherefore I shall relate those that are commonly held Whereas the Chymists in making the Analysis of Mixt bodies have met with five sorts of Substances they therefore concluded that there were five Principles of Natural things Water Spirit Oil Salt and Earth Of these five three of them are Active the Spirit Oil and Salt and two Passive Water and Earth They called them active by reason they do cause all manner of action and the others passive because being in repose themselves they only serve to stop and hinder the quick motion of the actives The Spirit which is called Mercury is the first of the Active principles that appears to us when we make the Anatomy of a mixt body 'T is a subtile piercing light substance that is more in motion than any of the others It is this which causes all Bodies to grow in more or less time according as it abounds in them more or less But it happens that the Bodies wherein it abounds are more liable to corruption by reason of its too great motion and this is observ'd in Animals and Vegetables On the contrary the greatest part of Minerals as containing but a very small quantity of it do seem to be incorruptible It cannot be drawn pure no more than the others I am going to speak of But either it is involv'd in a little Oil that it carries along with it and then may be called a Volatile Spirit such as the Spirit of Wine of Roses of Rosemary of Juniper or else is
detained by some Salts which check its Volatility and then may be called a fixt Spirit as the Acid Spirits of Vitriol Alum Salt c. The Oil which is called Sulphur by reason of its inflammability is a sweet subtile unctuous substance that rises after the Spirit This is said to cause the diversity of Colours and Smells according to its disposition in Bodies this gives them their Beauty and Deformity uniting together the other Principles this also sweetens the acrimony of Salts and by shutting up the Pores of a mixt hinders it from corrupting either through too much moisture or cold Wherefore many Trees and Plants that have a great deal of Oil are wont to last green much longer than others and can resist the extremity of ill weathers It is always drawn impure For either it is mixt with Spirits as the Oils of Rosemary of Lavender which swim above the water or else it is fill'd with Salts that it draws along with it in the distillation as the Oil of Box Guaiacum Cloves which do precipitate to the bottom of the water by reason of their weight Salt is the last of the Active Principles which remains disguised in the Earth after the other Principles are extracted It is drawn by pouring water upon the earth to imbibe its Salt then filtring the dissolution and evaporating all the moisture a Salt is found at the bottom of the Vessel It is a fixt incombustible substance that gives Bodies their consistence and preserves them from corruption This causes the diversity of tasts according as it is diversly mixed There are three different Salts as the Fixt Volatile and Essential The Fixt Salt is that which remains after Calcination the Volatile is that which easily riseth as the Salt of Animals And Essential Salt is that which is obtained from the Juyce of Plants by Crystallization This last is between the Fixt and Volatile Water which is called Phlegm is the first of the Passive Principles it comes in distillation before the Spirits when they are fixt or after them when they are volatile It is never drawn pure but always receives some impression from the Active Principles And this causes it to have a more detersive virtue in it than common Water It serves to separate the Active Principles and to bridle their motion The Earth which is called Caput Mortuum or Terra Damnata is the last of the Passive Principles and can no more be separated pure than the rest but will still retain some Spirits in it and if after you have depriv'd it of them as much as you are able you leave it a good while exposed to the Air it will recover new Spirits again Remarks upon the Principles The word Principle in Chymistry must not be understood in too nice a sense for the substances which are so called are only Principles in respect of us and as we can advance no farther in the division of bodies but we well know that they may be still divided into abundance of other parts which may more justly claim in propriety of speech the name of Principles wherefore such substances are to be understood by Chymical Principles as are separated and divided so far as we are capable of doing it by our weak imperfect powers And because Chymistry is an Art that demonstrates what it does it receives for fundamental only such things as are palpable and demonstrable It is in truth a great advantage to us that we have Principles so sensible as they are and whereof we can have so reasonable an assurance The fond conceits of other Philosophers concerning Natural Principles do only puff up the mind with grand Idea's but they prove or demonstrate nothing And this is the reason that going to discover their Principles we find some of them do frame one Systeme and others another But if we would come as near as may be to the true Principles of Nature we cannot take a more certain course than that of Chymistry which will serve us as a Ladder to them and this division of substances though it may seem a little gross will give us a very great Idea of Nature and the figure of the first small particles which have entred into the composition of mixt bodies Some modern Philosophers would perswade us that it is altogether uncertain whether the substances which are separated from bodies and are called Chymical Principles do effectually exist and are naturally residing in the body before these do tell us that the fire by rarifying the matter in time of distillation is capable of bestowing upon it such an alteration as is quite different from what it had before and so of forming the Salt Oil and other things which are drawn from it This objection does at first seem to have much weight and reason in it because it is certain as hereafter shall be shewn that the Fire does give a very considerable impression to the preparations and that very often it does put such a new face upon things that they are very hardly to be known when compar'd with what they were before But it is easie to shew that though the Fire does so diversifie and alter substances yet it does not make those Principles for we see them and smell them in many bodies before ever we bring them to undergo the Fire For example it cannot be denied but that there was existent Oyl in Olives in Almonds in Nuts and in many other fruits and seeds because it is drawn only by beating and pressing them Turpentine which is a thickned Oyl and many other fat or unctuous liquors are drawn by meer incision into the trunk or root of trees and what else I pray is the fat of animals but an Oyl or Sulphur coagulated Nor can it be denied but that there is salt actually in mixt bodies since that by bruising a Plant and making expression to draw out its juyce and then leaving the juyce to settle in some cool place for a few daies a salt will be found fixt about the vessel in form of little Crystals I know that some doubting Scepticks who make it their business to doubt of every thing will still say that by beating the Almonds and then pressing them and by making incision into Trees the parts which compose the plant are agitated and put in motion after such a manner as they are by Fire and that this agitation of parts is capable of ranging them so as to make the Oyl and Salt But such reasonings as these do destroy themselves by too much niceness and there is no sober understanding man but easily perceives the falshood for can a man well perceive that meer trituration or incision are able to make Salt Oyl Earth it is abundantly more probable nay and it may be sufficiently demonstrated that those substances did exist in the bodies before and that by incision and trituration the gate has only been opened to let them come freely out Others again do attack the Principles of Chymistry after
another manner a little differing from this these do acknowledge that the foresaid substances are naturally in the Mixts much as we draw them by Art but they assert that we have no proof that the Mixts are compounded of these same substances called Principles and that they are not drawn from the juyce of the earth in such a form that Salt Sulphur c. may indeed have been formed in the natural Fermentations and other elaborations which happen in the Mixt during its growth and therefore they conclude that those substances cannot properly be called Principles because we do not know sufficiently whether the Mixt was composed of them at first But since we are satisfied that the earths which serve for a matrix to Mixt bodies are impregnated with Salt Sulphur and other substances of the nature of those which we do find in the bodies and since we can perceive nothing else which can contribute to their composition it remains beyond all doubt that they are even compounded of them It must be granted that the Fermentations or other Elaborations which come to pass in mixt bodies have given the Principles a certain order of parts or some dispositions they had not before but they do by no means form or compose them The five Principles are easily found in Animals and Vegetables but not so easily in Minerals Nay there are some Minerals out of which you cannot possibly draw so much as two nor make any separation at all as Gold and Silver whatsoever they talk who search with so much pains for the Salts Sulphurs and Mercuries of these metals I can believe that all the Principles do indeed enter into the composition of these Bodies but it does not follow that they must remain in their former condition or can be drawn as they were before for it may be these substances which are called Principles are so strictly involved one within another as to suffer no separation any other way than by breaking their Figure Now it is by reason of their Figure that they are called Salts Sulphurs and Spirits For example if you mix an Acid Spirit with the Salt of Tartar or some other Alkali the edges of the Acid will so insinuate into the pores of the Salt that if by distillation you would separate the Acid Spirit again from the Salt you 'l never be able to effect it the Acid will have lost almost all its strength because the edges of these Spirits are so far destroyed or changed that they no longer preserve their former Figure Every body knows that glass is made of Salt but because the Fire hath wrought so great a change upon its Texture or Figure it can do nothing at all that Salt is used to do nay and it is in a manner impossible to draw any true Salt from it by Chymistry There are three sorts of Liquors that are qualified with the name of Spirit in Chymistry the Spirit of Animals the Burning spirit of Vegetables and the Acid spirit The first of them as the spirit of Harts-horn is nothing but a Volatile salt dissolved by a little Phlegm as I shall shew when I treat of Animals The second as the Spirit of Wine the Spirit of Juniper and the Spirit of Rosemary is an exalted Oyl as I shall shew speaking of Wines And the last as the Spirit of Vinegar Tartar and Vitriol is an Acid Essential salt dissolved and put in fusion by the fire as I shall prove when I speak of Vinegar and the distillation of Tartar this last is called a Fluid salt These three sorts of liquors comprehending all that can any way be called Spirit this may pass for one Principle very well for seeing that the Spirit which is drawn from Animals is nothing but a Salt dissolved by a little Phlegm that Spirit of Wine is only an Oyl exalted and that the Acid Spirit is a Salt become fluid we can observe nothing in these liquors but an Oyl Salts of a different nature and water Wherefore it must be concluded that the Spirit or Mercury which Chymists have talk'd of is a meer Chimaera that serves only to confound mens minds and render Chymistry unintelligible for men might if they would have called these liquors by more proper names thus what hindred them from calling the Spirit of Animals by the name of a Volatile salt dissolv'd the liquors which come from Oyls might have been called an exalted Oyl and the Acid spirits a Fluid salt and hereby we should not have been troubled about an imaginary Principle and Chymistry would have been better understood But it is impossible to change a name that has been so long fixt and appropriated to these liquors All that I can do is to explicate as I have done what is meant by the word Spirit in order to avoid Equivocations Nothing but the Oyl can properly be said to be Inflammable and the Oyl is so much the more so as the Salts with which it is closely united have been more or less spiritualized For that which I call Spirit in the Oyl is nothing but an Essential or Volatile Salt this Salt is not of it self Inflammable but serves to Rarifie and Exalt the parts of the Oyl to render them the more susceptible of Motion and consequently of Flagration after the same manner as when Salt-peter is put to mix with some Oily substance this Oily matter fires much more easily than when it is alone though Salt-peter of it self is not at all Inflammable as I shall prove hereafter We have examples of the truth of what I say in Spirit of Wine Oyl of Turpentine and all other Inflammable Liquors for they are only Oyls subtilized and refined by the Volatile Salts they contain Vegetables have a great deal of Salt much like to Salt-peter this Salt being straitly united with their Oyl makes them the more apt to flame than if they had been deprived of it The Fat of Animals as well as their other parts is full of a Volatile Acid salt Wax Rosine and all other matters that are inflammable are impregnated with an Acid Salt Essential or Volatile I say the Salt which causes the flagration of Oyls must be either Volatile or Essential for if it were a fixt Salt 't would have a contrary effect it would allay in some measure the quick motion of the parts of an Inflammable body and this we see happens when Sea-salt is flung into the fire it serves to put it out Common Sulphur yields us another instance of the same kind consisting of one part Sulphureous or Oily and another Saline or Acid fixt which plainly appears in the opening of it the Oily part fires and would soon rise like other Oils into a great white flame but that the Acid part being a load to its activity hinders it from rising and so forces it to cast but only a small blue flame and a proof of what I affirm may be had from mixing Salt-peter with Sulphur for the Volatile salt of Salt-peter
does Volatilize the Salts of Sulphur and causes a white flame to burn violently as I shall shew hereafter in the Operation of Salt Polychrest Many things are called Oils very improperly as the Oyl of Tartar made per Deliquium the Oyl of Vitriol and the Oyl of Antimony The first is nothing else but a Salt dissolved the second is the strongest and most caustick part of the spirit of Vitriol and the last is a mixture of Acid Spirit and Antimony As for Salt I am apt to think that there is one chief of which all the rest are compounded and do conceive it to be made of an Acid liquor sliding through the veins of the Earth which doth insensibly insinuate and incorporate in the Pores of stones which it does dilate and attenuate afterwards by a long fermentation and concoction of several years a Salt comes to be formed that is called Fossile and this Opinion is the more likely to be true because from the mixture of Acids with some Alkali matter we always draw a substance very like unto Salt Now stones are an Alkali I add that the long fermentation and concoction which is made in the stone serves to digest and perfectly unite the Acid with the stony parts for the making of Salt This Fossile salt which is called Gemma by reason of its transparency is found in many high Mountains of Europe such as those in Poland Catalonia and Persia and in the Indies it is altogether like that we use for nourishment which is called Sea salt insomuch that the Waters of the Sea may be said to receive their saltishness from nothing else but this Salt dissolved in them Is it not likely enough that the bottom of the Sea or its shores may be much like the surface of the Earth we inhabit and that there may be Mountains Rocks different sorts of earth and consequently inexhaustible Mountains of Salt in a Million of places at the bottom of the Sea whence it receives its brackishness And it may be there are Waters which after taking Salt from several earths do at last discharge themselves into the Sea through an infinite number of subterranean channels which do much contribute likewise to making Sea-water salt That which confirms me in this opinion is because there are Lakes in Italy Germany Egypt the Indies and many other places which are as Salt as the Sea and can have no other cause but that their waters have hapned to run through Mines of Salt I doubt not but many will be apt to object against my opinion that the Sea being of so prodigious boundless an extent all the Salt I have spoken of would not be able to salt it as it is but if they please to consider that this great extent of the Ocean may meet with Mines of Salt in abundance of places and that what is once dissolv'd can never be separated from it I am perswaded their doubt will soon vanish Add to what is said that Sea water does not contain so great a quantity of Salt as is commonly imagined and this is easily prov'd if you take the pains to evaporate some of it over the fire or dissolve salt in that water for it will receive a considerable quantity into it which is a certain sign that the water was not so salt before as it might have been for if it had been impregnated with as much as it could it would have dissolv'd no more Therefore we have good reason to believe that the Sea which may be called a large Lake becomes salt through the Mines that are therein and the Salt Currents that in several places empty into it Some Fountains are also seen to yield a Salt like this because their waters having passed through places fill'd with this Salt have dissolved and carried along with them some of it Salt-peter differs from these salts I speak of in that it contains more spirit so that when you take the pains to exalt a part of it what remains is like unto Sal Gemme It may be objected that Salt peter is found in places where no Acid liquor can be thought to come but no body can doubt but that there is an Acid in the Air which though a very insensible body is able enough to enter into Stones and Earths the truth whereof is seen every day in Earths that have lost their Salt as much as could be drawn by Art which upon being exposed some time to the open air get new additions of Salt and encrease their weight considerably Now the liquor that I speak of which runs in some places of the earth receives its Acidity from this Acid Spirit of the Air which condenses in some places better than in others by reason of the coolness or some other disposition it finds there I conceive therefore that Salt peter is form'd in Stones and Earths by the Acid spirit of the Air after the same manner as Sal Gemme in Mines by an Acid liquor and that this Aerial acid entring insensibly into the body of stones produces a Salt at first much like Sal Gemme but afterwards new Acid spirits still coming and mixing with it makes it of a middle nature between Volatile and fixt And it is for this reason that a great deal of Salt peter is taken from old ruined buildings for the stones there continuing a long time exposed to the air receive greater quantity of spirits than other stones it is likewise to be found in Cellers and other places where the Sun casts no heat because the spirit of the air does there easily condense by reason of the coolness and moisture But I shall discourse more amply of that when I come to treat of the Preparations that are made upon Salt peter Vitriols Alums and all other Salts that are naturally found in the Earth may be explicated upon the same Principle for according as Acid liquors do meet with different earths they produce different Salts All Earths being impregnated with an Acid Salt as I have said it is not hard to conceive how that the salt of Vegetables is communicated to them from the earth wherein they grew Their growth must needs have proceeded from a Saline juice of the earth they grew in which having opened the Seed through the Fermentation it caused insinuates and filtrates into the Fibres that constitute the Plant and the leaving grounds fallow some years is in order to preserve and retain the Salt that is continually encreased in them by the Acid spirit of the air Likewise Dung and other matters which are said to fatten and fructifie Lands do so by nothing else but their Salt Neither need we wonder at the barrenness of sandy and stony soils for that the Acid spirit of the Air cannot unite and fix with them in sufficient quantity to render them fertile Nevertheless it is worth observation that there are Lands which remain barren through too great an abundance of Salt they contain and for this reason in Egypt
they are forced to temper their grounds with Sand after the ebbing of the River Nile to make them Fertile because the earth till that is done is so full of Salt that its Pores are quite choaked up with it So that instead of causing any Fermentation in the Seed the Salt fixes and depresses it so that it can't have its motion free enough to rarifie and raise a stalk but now when Sand is mingled with it it is able to divide and separate the Salt which not having then such power of fixing the Seed it Ferments and rises into a Plant. Whence it may be seen that too much Salt is at least as Offensive to the earths fertility as too little and that it is the same thing with other Fermentable matters as it is with Earths they come to ferment by means of a moderate quantity of Salt mixed with them for if you add too much the Fermentation will be spoil'd Again every kind of Salt is not fit to fertilize lands it must be a Volatile Salt or approaching to the nature of Salt-peter to serve for Vegetation a Salt too fixt would rather spoil it and it has been observ'd that places which should fructifie have brought forth nothing when Sea-salt has been sprinkled upon them the reason of which is for that this fixt Salt hinders the Fermentation that was necessary to fertilize Nevertheless it sometimes happens that the Ashes of Vegetables though full of a fixt salt do serve to fertilize and this Countrey-men are well acquainted with who in some places where they find their Lands too poor and barren to yield any thing without assistance of Art do use at certain seasons of the year to burn Fern and Turfs upon them and spread about the ashes Now it is by reason of a Lixivious salt in the ashes that the Lands are hereby improv'd But this happens for the same reason as I said before for the fixt Salt of Vegetables that lies in the ashes is very porous as I shall prove hereafter and so does very well mix with the Spirits or acid Salts of the Air and turns easily into Salt-peter as when Spirit of Salt-peter is mixt with an Alkali salt it makes a good Salt-peter As for sea-salt possibly it might happen that if it were left in the Earth for some considerable time it would impregnate with the Spirit of the Air and so being at length Volatilized would render a place fertile But because it is a very compact body and its parts closely united the Volatilizing of it would be a tedious business and so the present requisite Fermentation failing the place would remain barren too long to gratifie our expectations It is very likely that the Volatile or Nitrous salt meets in the Earth with some Sulphureous or fat matter that is continually raised by the subterranean heat toward the surface of the Earth and unites with it This mixture of a Volatile salt and Sulphur together may much contribute towards explicating the manner of Vegetation for just as the mixture of Sulphur and Salt-peter does excellently dispose to an Exaltation by heat which will not happen while they are separated so the Bituminous or fat part of the earth mixing with Salt-peter which all Earths have the subterranean heat exalts them much more easily than if the Salt were alone And now let us see what happens from this Exaltation to the production of Plants Some part of this Sulphureous salt meeting with seed in the earth proper to grow does enter into the seed and cause a Fermentation that is to say suppling the parts of the seed disposes it to open it self Now 't is very certain and what has been sensibly demonstrated by Microscopes that each grain of seed contains in little the whole Plant with all its parts Wherefore this opening the body of the seed is by reason that the sulphureous salts entring at the pores of the root of this small Plant and by their Volatile quality insinuating along the Fibres which constitute the Plant do orderly display before us what was before but very confused in respect of us These salts do never enter at the head of the Plant and so descend to the Root though often the Root of the Seed lies uppermost and the head or stalk downwards because the Pores of the stalk are not of such a Figure as is proper to receive them whereas those of the Root have a proper contexture The Volatility of these Salts does also cause the stalk though seated downwards to rise upwards and follow their tendency which is always up and this is that which by extending and enlarging the Fibres of the Plant makes it grow to that height which their nature requires 'T is probable that this fat part of earth insinuating with the salt as I have said does make the Oyl of a mixt body for we find that those matters which help best to fertilize are full of Volatile Salt and Oyl as Dung Vrine and Plants corrupted 'T is fit to observe here that the salt does act after another-guise manner than the Oyl in hindring the Fermentation or corruption of the matter it is mixed with for it does not only stop the pores and hinder the air from entring but fixes it likewise by its hooked parts that it can neither have motion nor rarefaction for which reason it is that meat is salted in order to keep it sweet and does thereby remain firm and compact for some time Three kinds of salt are drawn from Vegetables an Acid salt called Essential a Volatile and a Fixt salt The first is sometimes like Salt-peter and sometimes like Tartar according as it contains more or less earth this salt is drawn from the juice of the Plant as I said before for after expression and purifying this juice it is set in a vessel in some cool place a few daies without stirring and the salt shoots into Crystals every way This Acid salt may be said to be the true salt that was in the Plant because the means that are used in drawing it are Natural and such as cannot change its nature but this can't be said of those others because the violent fires that are used about them make impressions of another nature and their effects are very different so that the fire seems to alter and disguise them as I shall shew in the following discourse The second salt or the Volatile salt of Plants is usually drawn from seeds or fruits Fermented While it remains in the Vegetable it differs from the Essential salt only in this that being driven up higher by Spirits it becomes more Volatile The Fermentation that is caused in fruits by beating and bruising them does very much assist us in Volatilizing the salt for it sets the particles at work and disposes them for an easier separation but it happens that in the great circulation or continual motion this salt is in it unites so strongly with the Oyl which Fruits and Seeds are full of that they
length and bigness one from another and this diversity must be attributed to the keener or blunter edges of the different sorts of acids and so likewise this difference of the points in subtilty is the cause that one acid can penetrate and dissolve well one sort of mixt that another can't rarifie at all thus Vinegar dissolves Lead which aqua fortis can't Aqua fortis dissolves Quick-silver which Vinegar will not touch Aqua Regalis dissolves Gold whenas Aqua fortis cannot meddle with it on the contrary Aqua fortis dissolves Silver but can do nothing with Gold and so of the rest As for Alkali's they are soon known by pouring an acid upon them for presently or soon after there rises a violent Ebullition which remains until the acid finds no more bodies to rarifie This effect may make us reasonably conjecture that an Alkali is a terrestrious and solid matter whose pores are figured after such a manner that the acid points entring into them do strike and divide whatsoever opposes their motion and according as the parts of which the Alkali is compounded are more or less solid the acids finding more or less resistance do cause a stronger or weaker Ebullition So we see the Effervescency that happens in the dissolution of Coral is very much milder than that in the dissolution of Silver There are as many different Alkali's as there are bodies that have different pores and this is the reason why an acid will Ferment with one strongly and with another not at all for there must be a due proportion between the acid points and the pores of the Alkali The nature of Alkali's being thus established there will be no need of flying to an imaginary salt in Plants for explication of the Effervescency and 't will be easily conceived that if an Alkali salt is full of a terrestrious matter that renders it porous like other Alkali's it must cause an Ebullition That which I said speaking of Volatile salts may here be added that the Igneous particles breaking in through the Pores of the Alkali salt wherein they became imprisoned by the Calcination do much contribute to the raising this Effervescency And really when the Acid Spirit of Vitriol or Aqua fortis is cast upon an Alkali salt there happens as strong an Ebullition as when this liquor is flung into the fire it self Acid Salts do rarely cause any effervescency with Acid liquors because their pores being very small the common acids are not able to pierce into them but we do sometimes meet with Acids whose points are so fine and so proportioned to the pores of the Salts that they will find an entrance even into the exceeding little pores of these Acid Salts and thereby cause a commotion And then these Salts although they be Acid yet may be called Alkali's in respect of such keen Acids This does happen to Sea-salt which is an Acid for though it will make no Ebullition neither with Spirit of salt nor with Spirit of Niter nor with Spirit of Alom nor with Spirit of Vitriol yet if you mix it with the strongest Oil of Vitriol there will rise an Effervescency Wherefore it may be said that one Acid Salt is an Alkali in respect of another because there being few bodies without some pores few of them will prove to be impenetrable when they meet with Acids of an extraordinary subtlety The Fermentation that happens to Dow to new Wine and such like things differs from that I now spoke of in that it is more gentle and slow this is caused by the Natural Acid salt contained in them which expanding and exalting it self by its motion does rarifie and raise up the grosser and sulphureous part which endeavours to allay its motion from whence it comes that the matter swells up The reason why an Acid does not make Sulphureous things Ferment with so much noise and suddenness as Alkali's is because that Oyls consist of pliant parts that yield and make no resistance to the points of Acids as a piece of Wool or Cotton will yield and give way to needles that are thrust into it Thus methinks two sorts of Fermentations may be admitted of the one of an Acid with an Alkali which may be called Ebullition and the other when an Acid does by little and little rarifie some softish matter as Dow or clear and Sulphureous as Muste Syder and all other juices of Plants This last sort may rather be called Fermentation It is further remarkable that the Acid and Alkali do so destroy one another in their conflict that when as much Acid has been by degrees poured as is necessary to penetrate the Alkali in all its parts it is then no more an Alkali nor can it be so again though you wash it to carry off the Acid because it has no longer that disposition of Pores which is requisite in an Alkali and the Acid breaks and loses its points in the contest especially when the Alkali is pretty compact and solid so that if you would recover your Acid again you 'l find it has in a manner lost all its acidity and retains only a sharpness But the Sulphur or Oyl consisting of supple yielding parts does only receive some Acid impression and no such close union so that it can be drawn from Sulphureous bodies much the same as when it was mixt Animals do yield us two sorts of Salt the one Volatile and the other Fixt of the first sort they yield greater quantity than of the second because they do abound much in Spirits which by their continual circulation do Volatilize it This Salt differs but little from the Volatile salt of Seeds and Fruits both which are drawn in a Retort they have the same kind of smell taste and other virtues The Volatile salt of Animals keeps dry a longer time than the others because it carries away with it more fixt salt than those others As for fixt salt animals do yield but a very little of it and in some animals you shall find none at all it is drawn as the fixt salt of Plants they are both Alkali's There is no salt that can be called alkali to be found in the parts or humors of Animals until they have passed the fire a Saline serosity may be observed in them but that salt is acid and it proceeds doubtless from the Aliments that are taken for nourishment Now as I have shewn that there is only an acid salt in Earths and Vegetables so I may say the same of Animals and the rather because no other kind of Salt can be found in them in their Natural state the alkali salts that are drawn from them are only several mutations of an acid salt made by fire which mingles with them earthy particles after the manner I have spoken of treating of the Alkali's of Plants But it is observable that whereas there is a greater proportion of Spirits in Animals than Seeds these Spirits do serve to exalt all the Salt which is
and its reduction into an impalpable Powder To Amalgamate Gold is to mix it with Quicksilver Take a Drachm of the Regule of Gold beat it into very thin little Plates which you must heat in a Crucible red hot in a large Fire then pour upon it an ounce of Quicksilver revived from Cinnaber as I shall shew hereafter stir the matter with a little Iron-rod and when you find it begin to raise a fume which quickly happens cast your mixture into an Earthen Pan fill'd with Water it will coagulate and become tractable wash it several times to take away its blackness thus you have an Amalgame from which you must separate the Mercury that you find not united by pressing it a little between your fingers in a linnen cloth The Gold retains about thrice its weight in Mercury Now to reduce this Gold into Powder you must put this Amalgame into a Crucible over a gentle fire the Mercury will evaporate into the Air and leave the Gold at bottom in an impalpable Powder Remarks Mercury doth easily penetrate Gold and insinuating into its Pores makes a soft matter that is called Amalgame it doth the same with other Metals too except Iron and Copper which are too ill digested to receive its impression The Amalgamation of Gold is useful to Gilders for so it is easily extended upon their works Aurum Fulminans called Saffron of Gold This Operation is a Gold impregnated with some Spirits which cause it to give a loud crack when it is set over the Fire Take what quantity you please of Gold beaten into thin plates put it into a Viol or Matrass and pour upon it by little and little three or four times as much Aqua Regalis compounded after the manner I shall shew in its proper place Set the Matrass upon Sand a little heated until the Aqua Regalis has dissolved as much of the Gold as it is able to contain which you will know by the ceasing of the ebullitions pour your solution into a Glass-vessel of five or six times as much common Water Afterwards drop into this mixture by degrees the Volatile Spirit of Salt Armoniack or the Oyl of Tartar made by Deliquium or Solution you 'l find the Gold precipitate to the bottom of the Glass Let it alone a good while to settle that all the Gold may fall down then pouring off the Water by Inclination wash your powder with warm Water till it grows insipid and so dry it in Paper at a gentle fire because it is apt to fire and the Powder would fly away with a terrible noise If you use one drachm of Gold you will obtain four scruples of Aurum Fulminans well dried Aurum Fulminans causes sweat and drives out ill humors by Transpiration It may be given in the Small Pox from two to six grains in a Lozenge or Electuary It stops Vomiting and is also good to moderate the activity of Mercury Remarks The Plates of Gold are made use of in this Operation that its dissolution may be more easily performed You must pour the Aqua Regalis by little and little to avoid the great effervescency that might be able to drive it out of the Matrass The effervescency proceeds from the violent division of the particles of Gold by the Aqua Regalis for when it finds no more bodies to act upon having divided the Gold into as many parts as 't is possible the ebullition ceases and though the Gold doth all remain in the Aqua Regalis it becomes so imperceptible to us as it seems the Water hath not changed from what it was before it appears so very clear and transparent Indeed the solution has received a Golden colour and becomes yellow The dissolution of Gold is a suspension of this metal in Phlegm made by the edges of Aqua Regalis For it is not enough that the Aqua Regalis does divide the Gold into subtle parts but it is further requisite that its edges do hold up the Gold as if it were like so many Finns otherwise it would always fall to the bottom in a powder though it were never so subtle Now 't is objected that the particles of Gold should fall to the bottom of the liquor because they being joined to the points of the Aqua Regalis they are become more heavy than they were before for the union or adhaesion of two bodies does cause a greater weight than when the two bodies were separated one from the other I answer that we ought to conceive the particles of Gold being suspended or held up in the Phlegm by the acid points much after the manner as we do conceive very well that a small piece of metal fixed to a staff or a plank will swim with the wood in the water for although the small piece of metal sinks to the bottom when it is alone yet it swims when it is affixed to the wood the acid edges are bodies exceeding light in comparison with the particles of Gold and they have likewise their superficies more extended and consequently do take up more room in the phlegm this is that which holds them up and causes them to swim The Oyl of Tartar or the Spirit of Salt Armoniack is used for the Precipitation of Gold because both those Liquors do contain an Alkali Salt which being mixed with Acids must cause a Fermentation Now in this Fermentation the parts of Aqua Regalis that held up the particles of Gold do grow weak and having no more force to retain them longer they must needs precipitate by their own weight Perhaps some may find a difficulty in comprehending how the Volatile Spirit of Salt Armoniack should come to weaken the Aqua Regalis that is it self compounded of Salt Armoniack but there will be no difficulty at all when they shall consider that the force of the Aqua Regalis doth not so much depend on the volatile part of the Salt Armoniack as on the Sea-salt that is in good store in it united with the Aqua Fortis for Sea-salt or Sal Gemma may be substituted very well in the place of Salt Armoniack for making Aqua Regalis as I shall observe hereafter speaking of the composition of this Water It may be also enquired here why the Dissolvents do quit the bodies they held before in Dissolution to betake themselves to some other for example why the Aqua Regalis leaves the Gold it was impregnated with to give way to the Alkali Salt This question is one of the most difficult to resolve well of any in Natural Philosophy Nevertheless I 'le give you my opinion of what can be said most sensibly on this Subject I do suppose that when the Aqua Regalis hath acted upon the Gold so as to dissolve it the points or edges that enabled it to do so are fixed in the particles of Gold But seeing that these little bodies are very hard and consequently hard to penetrate these points do enter but very superficially yet far
the Head and to the top of the Body that are nothing else but some parts of Tinn raised up by the Sal Armoniack and at the bottom of the Body you 'l find some Tinn Revived Magistery of Jupiter or Tinn This Operation is only a Tinn dissolved by an acid and precipitated by an Alkali salt Dissolve the Flowers of Tinn in a sufficient quantity of water Filtrate the Dissolution and pour upon it drop by drop the Spirit of Sal Armoniack or the Oil of Tartar made per Deliquium there will Precipitate a very White Powder You must Edulcorate it by washing it several times with warm water and afterwards dry it It serves for Paint for being mixed with Pomatum it makes a very curious White Remarks It is to be considered in both these Preparations that the Dissolution of Tinn is performed only by an acid Salt which the Sal Armoniack is impregnated with and this is the reason why the Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack doth serve to Precipitate it for being an Alkali as well as the Oil of Tartar it breaks the force of the acid which therefore le ts go what it held dissolved That being granted there will be no longer difficulty in conceiving how the Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack doth often Precipitate what Sal Armoniack had dissolved Flowers of Jupiter or Tinn This Operation is a Tinn Volatilized and raised in form of Meal by the means of a Volatile Salt Take an unglazed earthen Pot with a hole in the middle of its height and a stopple to it place the Pot in a Furnace of a just proportion wherein the pot may enter only as high as the hole and with Bricks and Lute take care that the fire may not transpire fit upon this pot three Aludels or open pots of the same earth without any bottoms and fit a Head to the uppermost with a Receiver to the Head lute well all the junctures and light a good fire in the Furnace to make red-hot that part of the pot which lies within it then mix a pound of Tinn and two pounds of purified Salt-peter throw a spoonful of this mixture through the hole of the pot and stop it a detonation soon follows which when it is over throw in another spoonful and so continue to do until all the mixture be spent let the vessels cool and unlute them and you 'l find in the receiver a little Spirit of Niter and in and round about the Aludels very white Flowers of Tinn gather them together with a feather then wash them divers times with fountain water and when you have dried them on paper in the shade keep them in a Viol they serve for Paint and they make a curious White when mixed in Pomatums or in some liquor You 'l find in the bottom of the Pot a Calx of Tinn mixed with the fixt part of Salt-peter boil it in water wash and dry it and it may be used in desiccative unguents Remarks It is a plain sign that Tinn does contain a Sulphur because being mixed with Salt-peter and put into the pot that 's heated red-hot it will flame for you must not imagine that the detonation can proceed from the Salt-peter alone this salt being never able to flame without the mixture of some Sulphureous matter as I shall prove in its own place But because the Sulphur of Tinn is lockt up in other substances it remains quiet for some time to unite with the Salt-peter before it raises a detonation Nevertheless if you be in haste to dispatch the detonation may be expedited by introducing a small cole lighted into the hole of the pot to fire the matter These Flowers do proceed from the part of Tinn which is easiest to rarifie and which the Volatile salt of Salt-peter and the Sulphur of Tinn had raised You must take care when you would make Detonations to proportion the Salt-peter with the Sulphur for otherwise they will not endure so long as they should either there being too much Sulphur it will not meet with enough Volatile parts of Salt-peter to raise it all up or else the Salt-peter being in too great a quantity for the Sulphur it causes but a Sublimation in part because the great quantity of this salt which remains at bottom without firing does fix some part of the Sulphur Wherefore there was but little reason to believe that three parts of Salt-peter to one of Tinn would raise more Flowers than when there are but two according to my description For then there being too much Salt-peter for the quantity of Tinn the Detonation will prove imperfect and almost all the Salt-peter will remain at bottom and will only serve to check some part of the Sulphurs of Tinn hindring them from Subliming into so many Flowers as would otherwise rise Three Aludels and one Head are used in this Operation that the Vapours which rise in the time of Detonation may have room enough for otherwise they would burst the Vessels notwithstanding the casting in of the matter but little at a time The Flowers of Tinn are washt in order to deprive them of a Volatile Salt derived from the Salt-peter which was mixed with it and the salt dissolves in the water leaving the Flowers in their purity You must dry them in the shade for both the Sun and fire do render them black and this because they do re-unite the particles of Tinn which owe all their whiteness to the fineness of Pulverization which gives them another Superficies than they had to reflect the light with CHAP. IV. Of Bismuth called Tinn-Glass BIsmuth is a Sulphureous Marcassite that is found in the Tinn Mines many do think it is an imperfect Tinn which partakes of good store of Arsenick its pores are disposed in another manner than those of Tinn which is evident enough because the Menstruum which dissolves Bismuth cannot intirely dissolve Tinn There is another sort of Marcassite called Zinch that much resembles Bismuth and on which the same preparations may be made that I am going to describe Marcassite is nothing else but the excrement of a Metal or an Earth impregnated with Metallick parts The Pewterers do mix Bismuth and Zinch in their Tinn to make it sound the better Flowers of Bismuth This Operation is nothing but a portion of Tinn-glass raised up in form of meal by Volatile salts Calcine Bismuth as you do Lead then mixing it with an equal part of Sal Armoniack proceed to its sublimation as you did in that of Tinn Thus you have Flowers which you may dissolve in Water and Precipitate with the Spirit of Sal Armoniack or Oil of Tartar This Magistery or Precipitate serves for the same use as that which follows Magistery of Bismuth Magistery of Bismuth is a Tinn-glass dissolved and precipitated in a very white powder Dissolve in a Matrass an ounce of Bismuth grosly powdered with three ounces of Spirit of Niter Pour the Dissolution into a clean White-ware Vessel and pour
making the subtiler part of it perspire away or that by being Alkali's they do absorb some part of it For this reason some do use to give their Patients the Volatile Salt of Vipers several mornings together but these Alkali's are in truth of too weak a nature to carry off such an Acidity after they are impregnated with it as Mercury is able to do without losing its nature They are Nets of too fine a make to catch such keen and active bodies if these Salts do destroy some part of the Acidity they destroy themselves likewise in the conflict so that they can have no further operation wherefore there 's need of a more powerful Volatile Alkali than these Salts are to eradicate the Acidity of the Venereal poison As for Fixt Salts and Alkali bodies as Pearl Coral Crabs-eyes whereas they have no Volatile quality in them and their tendency is wholly downwards it is very uncertain whether ever they reach to Venereal tumours which commonly rise in the Joints by reason of the long way they have to pass thither and the Juices they have to encounter with in their passage which may in all likelihood change their nature but suppose they were carried to those Tumors with the same qualifications with which they were taken they would only serve to weaken a little this Acidity without being able to carry it off and so they would only give a little ease without removing Radically the Ferment of the Distemper as Mercury is able to do It may be further asked why Sublimate does not fill the substance of the Brain with Vlcers as well as it does the mouth I Answer that this Sublimate being in the Brain finds it self so clog'd with a Mucilaginous moisture that it is fain to lose there some part of its Acidity so that it can do nothing else but cause a Fermentation which makes the Phlegm purge away through the Salivating vessels and this it is that causes the Spittle of those who have a Flux to be so sharp and stinking This sharp Phlegm may also as it passes in the mouth encrease the number of Vlcers for the mouth is as it were the sink of the whole body upon this occasion Sublimate Corrosive Sublimate Corrosive is a Mercury impregnated with acids and raised by fire to the top of the vessel Put a pound of Mercury revived from Cinnabar into a Matrass pour upon it Eighteen ounces of Spirit of Niter Set your Matrass in Sand a little warm and leave it there till it be all dissolved pour your dissolution which will be clear as water into a glass vessel or earthen pan and evaporate the Liquor gently in Sand until there remains a white Mass which you must powder in a glass mortar and mix with a pound of Vitriol Calcined white and so much Salt decrepitated put this mixture into a Matrass whose two thirds at least remain empty place your Matrass in Sand and begin with giving a small fire which you must continue so for three hours then encrease it with coals to a pretty good strength there will arise a Sublimate to the top of the Matrass the Operation must be ended in six or seven hours let the Matrass cool then break it avoiding a kind of Farine or light powder that flies into the air when the matter is stirred you 'l have a pound of very good Sublimate Corrosive keep it for use The red Scories that are found at the bottom must be flung away as useless This Sublimate is a powerful Escharotick it eats proud flesh and cleanses old Ulcers very well If half a drachm of it be dissolved in a pound of Lime-water it turns Yellow and makes that which is called Phagedenick Water Remarks There needs not half the Spirit of Niter for dissolving a pound of Mercury as there does for the same weight of Bismuth although the pores of this last be much the larger and the parts more disposed for separation the reason of which is that the Mercury being Volatile and very disunited in its parts it will divide almost of it self and is held up more easily by Acid Spirits than another body can be whose parts are more united and whose tendency is downwards such as Bismuth is When the dissolution of mercury is a making there appears a great ebullition in the Matrass accompanied with Red vapours also the heat is so very strong that a man cannot endure his hand upon it all this great stir proceeds from the Acids which meet with resistance in their penetration of this body for jostling one against another they heat the liquor and cause some part of the Spirit of Niter to evaporate away in red clouds as it uses always to do when it rarifies When the mercury is all dissolved the dissolution clears up and cools because the edges of the Spirits are all sheathed in the mercury whence their motion comes to be interrupted and cease and this is a thing so true that if you should by way of curiosity distil this dissolution you would draw off only a weak acid for the greatest part of the edges do remain involved with the mercury in a white mass That which proves this Remark is this that the white mass which is drawn from the Solution of sixteen ounces of Quicksilver in eighten ounces of Spirit of Niter does weigh at least two and twenty ounces that is to say six ounces more than the weight of the Quicksilver Now this augmentation cannot proceed from any thing else but the acid Spirits This mass is exceeding Corrosive by means of the same acid Spirits which become very active whereever they are met with If instead of Spirit of Niter we should use Aqua fortis to dissolve the Mercury the Solution would become clear like the other but there would be this difference between them that when we have evaporated about a fourth part of the liquor in a glass-body in Sand the remainder would be as red as Claret wine and if we should let the liquor cool there would appear in it white Crystals in form of long needles and the liquor would still retain its red colour I conceive that the Solution acquires this colour from the Sulphurs which remain in the Aqua fortis for the Sulphureous parts being in great motion may often turn and whirl about the insensible parts of Mercury round their center Now it is easie to Remark by abundance of Experiments that the red colour is a consequence of the great attenuation or disposition to circulary motion which the matter has received But the Solution which is made with Spirit of Niter does not become red because there is no Sulphur in this Spirit or else there is not enough to do it You might perform this Operation by only mixing crude Mercury with Salt and Vitriol without taking the pains to dissolve it with Spirit of Niter but you would be an intolerable while incorporating them together so as to make the Quicksilver imperceptible Moreover
there rises up a dust to the Nose that is very unwholsom that which we aim at therefore by dissolving it and reducing it into a white Mass is only to prepare it for an easier mixture In the Sublimation I have described the Mercury loads it self with as many Acid Spirits as it is able to contain these Spirits are a kind of load to it and restrain its great Volatility so that it doth not evaporate quite away as it would do if there were nothing to withhold it but it only Sublimes to the upper part of the Vessel in fair white Crystals that are called Sublimate Corrosive the Mass that remains at the bottom of the Matrass is nothing but a mixture of the Terrestrious parts of Salt and Vitriol it weighs eight and twenty ounces Some will needs blame this preparation of Sublimate Corrosive by saying that when it is used to the making Mercurius dulcis the Spirit of Niter ought to be suspected by reason of its acrimony and particularly its Saline Sulphureous parts But by performing this Operation the way that I have described there will be no need of retaining any scruple upon this account because the Sublimate can't be made without an evaporation of many red vapours through the entrance of the Matrass for three hours time at the least and these vapours can be nothing else but the Spirits of Niter for so small a fire is not able to separate and raise so high the Spirits of Salt and Vitriol Thus there is no need of fearing these Saline Sulphureous Spirits with which Spirit of Niter is thought to be well stored because they being of a Volatile nature must necessarily come before the others But supposing that Spirit of Niter did still remain in the Sublimate Corrosive of which we make our Mercurius dulcis I see no reason why we should apprehend more hurt from their acrimony than from the other Corrosive Spirits because few men scruple to give this Spirit itself inwardly in potions for the Colick and other diseases and they give divers Preparations made with this dissolvent such as white Precipitate and many Precipitates of Gold and Silver without any visible harm But that which is most remarkable is that even those who cry out upon this Preparation for being made with Spirit of Niter do nevertheless themselves recommend and use much a Mercurius dulcis which they make by Subliming white Precipitate that is prepared with Spirit of Niter The Corrosion of Sublimate does proceed from the edged Acids which do fix in the body of Mercury and it may be said with great probability that this metal always retaining a round figure let it be divided never so subtily does rarifie by the heat of fire into an abundance of little balls which the acid Spirits do fix into on all sides and so interlace themselves in it that they hinder its rising higher and do together make one body that is called Sublimate But when this Sublimate is applied to flesh the heat and moisture of it do set in motion the Mercurial parts and the motion of the little balls being once raised they rowl about with great fury and tear the flesh with the edges they contain which are like so many little knives cutting whereever they touch from whence it comes to pass that if the Sublimate should be taken inwardly it kills in a very little time the humidity which does always accompany and soften our flesh gives it a greater hold than otherwise it would have which is the reason why Sublimate does act with that celerity it does upon a soft moist part rather than a dry nay it is often wetted with a little water to make it work the more quickly By this Remark may be explicated why the Lapis infernalis which is a Silver filled with the edges of Spirit of Niter has not so violent an effect as Sublimate Corrosive because the parts of Silver have no such aptitude to rowl to and fro and to rise as those of Mercury have for which reason it is likewise that it does not make so great an Eschar as the Sublimate although it does contain at least as much Spirit of Niter as the other And thus a reason may be given why even six grains of Crystals of Silver may be given by mouth without any danger whenas not two grains of Sublimate can be given without a manifest danger because the Crystals of the Moon have not that circulary motion in their parts as Sublimate has all their tendency is only downwards and all that they can do is to purge by their Acidity When Sublimate Corrosive is dissolved in Lime-water the water presently turns yellow as is seen in the Phagedenick water and it loses so much of its Corrosive quality that it may be given inwardly after that without fear of poisoning and the reason of this is that the greatest part of the acid points strike off from the Sublimate to enter into the alkali of Lime which is a more porous body so that the Mercury losing some of its most keen acids becomes the less Corrosive It will not be amiss to acquaint you here that you 'l often meet in the Shops of Druggists with a Sublimate Corrosive made of Arsenick Now to know the truth of it you must only rub it with a little Salt of Tartar and if it turns black there is Arsenick infallibly in it on the contrary if it turns yellow it is good Those who have thought fit to Criticize upon what I have said about the effects of Mercury would methinks have spoken more to the purpose than they have done if they had objected to me one difficulty that I have made my self since the first Edition of my Book and which has seemed to me to be the greatest that can be made on this subject It is this If the Mercury that is given in order to raise a Flux does joyn with the acid salt of our humors and so does make a Sublimate Corrosive after the same manner as it does in the Matrass when it is mixt with Salt and Vitriol this Sublimate of the body cannot be well made so long as there is any watry humor in the part wherein the Mercury is mixt with the acids just as none of it can be made in a Matrass until all the Phlegm that 's in it is evaporated away Now it is not to be conceived that there should ever happen such a Desiccation of humours to the body for it would be Corroded by the Mercury so loaded with acids before it could Sublime To answer this Objection I say That although I have made a comparison between the Sublimation of Mercury that 's made in the body and that which is done in a Matrass nevertheless there is this difference between them that the first is not only made with Salts extremely volatile but is likewise assisted or carried on by the motion of the humours with all their humidity up to the head whereas this other is made
in order to try the virtue of their remedies as they pretend to do all the Mithridate they have would never be able to save them And supposing they did not understand their Legerdemain tricks well enough but should be constrained to swallow such poisons as these you must not think them such fools as to keep to the remedy they recommend which would be sure to do nothing else but increase their misery by its acrimonious heat They would have recourse to the Oil and other fat substances to avoid death which otherwise would certainly follow Sweet Sublimate or Mercurius dulcis Sweet Sublimate is a Mercury reduced to a white mass by some broken edges of acids Powder sixteen ounces of Sublimate Corrosive in a marble or glass mortar mix with it by little and little twelve ounces of Mercury revived from Cinnabar stir this mixture with a wooden Pestle until all the Quicksilver becomes imperceptible then put this gray powder into several Viols or into a Matrass whose two thirds do remain empty place your vessel in Sand and give but a little fire at first then augment it unto the third degree continue it in this condition until your Sublimate is made which usually happens in four or five hours Break your Viols and fling away a little light earth that 's found at bottom separate also that which sticks to the neck of the Viols or the Matrass and keep it for Unguents against the Itch but gather up carefully all that is in the middle which is very white and having powdered it resublime it in Viols or a Matrass as before separate once more the matter in the middle and resublime it in other Viols as before this third time lastly separate the terrestrious matter at the bottom and the Fuliginous that lies in the neck of the Viols and keep the Sublimate that is in the middle for it is sufficiently dulcified It s use is for all sorts of Venereal diseases it opens obstructions and kills the Worms the Dose is from six unto thirty grains in Pills it purges gently by Stool Remarks You must observe never to powder Sublimate Corrosive in a mortar made of metal because it would corrode it and carry off some part which would spoil the operation glass marble and stone mortars are more convenient because they can communicate no ill impression to the matter Many have written that we should use equal parts of Sublimate and Mercury but they did not consider that so great a quantity of Mercury could not be here used and that when the Sublimate hath received near about the quantity I have appointed the rest will remain unmixed When a matrass is used for this operation half its neck must be cut off before-hand for when it is performed in common matrasses a great part of the Fuliginous matter not being able to rise high enough falls down again on the Sublimate and hinders it from becoming sweet because this Fuliginosity contains the more acrimonious part whereas it will easily fly out of Viols or matrasses with a short neck Two thirds of each vessel must remain empty otherwise the Mercury which rarefies like a Spirit would be apt to break them That which sticks to the neck of the Viols being too acrimonious to be used inwardly may serve for Ointments against the Itch and Tettars Sweet Sublimate rises more easily than the Corrosive because it is less loaded with acids The Sublimate that is made in a matrass loses half an ounce each sublimation so that an ounce and a half is lost in three times when the operation is done Six drachms of Scories and light earth are found at bottom and consequently there is but two drachms of matter carried off each Sublimation But if you try this operation in Viols the sublimate loses half an ounce more as having a larger aperture to fly out at than in a matrass or long neck It seems a little strange at first that so strong a Poyson as Sublimate Corrosive should be reduced into so mild a remedy by the addition of nothing but Mercury But you ought to wonder no longer when you consider that those Spirits which caused the Corrosion were then shut up in a strait room but being now divided and enlarging their quarters cannot in reason act with such force besides that by the repeated action of fire the subtler part of their points is blunted against the body of Mercury The Purgative quality of sweet Sublimate does consist in the acids that remain wherefore if you should sublime it twice or thrice more the Sublimate would not be at all Purgative but only Sudorifick And it is then more proper to raise a Flux with than it was before for having lost those salts which by irritating the stomach and guts did render it Purgative it is the more disposed for rarefaction in the body and so to joyn with the ferment of Venereal Tumors Mercury prepared any way whatsoever ought to be taken inwardly no other way than in Pills but by no means in potion for fear it should stick in the Gums and so spoil and loosen the Teeth White Precipitate White Precipitate is a Mercury dissolved by Spirit of Niter and precipitated by salt into a white powder Dissolve in a Glass-Cucurbite sixteen ounces of Mercury revived from Cinnabar with eighteen or twenty ounces of Spirit of Niter when the dissolution is made pour upon it salt-water filtrated made of ten ounces of sea-salt in two quarts of water add unto this about half an ounce of the volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack there will Precipitate a very white powder that you must leave for a sufficient time to settle then having poured off the water by Inclination wash it several times with Fountain water and dry it in the shade It is used to raise a Flux with the Dose is from four to fifteen grains in Pills It is also used in Pomatums for Tettars and the Itch from half a drachm to two drachms for an ounce of Pomatum Remarks Although I do recommend eighteen or twenty ounces of Spirit of Niter for the solution of sixteen ounces of Mercury yet you must know that it is not very necessary to keep too strictly to this same quantity You may use either a little more or a little less according to the strength of the Spirit or according as it is more or less dephlegmated I my self do commonly use but an equal weight of it with the Quick-silver because the Spirit of Niter I do use is exactly dephlegmated You might likewise use Aqua fortis instead of Spirit of Niter The Dose of white Precipitate must be less than that of sweet Sublimate because it retains more acid Spirits but if you would Sublime this Precipitate alone in a matrass in a gradual fire you 'd obtain a Sublimate as sweet as the other because the fire having acted upon it breaks most of its points and then it may be given in as great a Dose as ordinary Mercurius Dulcis If
you desire to make this Precipitate exceeding white you must dissolve the Mercury in a vessel whose mouth is very large that so the red vapour of the Spirit of Niter may sly out the more easily When the dissolution is made without the help of fire the Precipitate is the whiter The Precipitation of Mercury may be made with the Spirit of Salt as well as the salt in substance This is not so easily made as that of Bismuth because the pores of Mercury being smaller than those of Bismuth do retain with more force the acids which are fixt into it Moreover Quick-silver being of a volatile nature does remain suspended in the liquor more easily than Bismuth which is a body altogether fixt It may well seem strange that an acid salt such as sea-salt should be able to precipitate that which the acidity of Spirit of Niter had dissolved To resolve this difficulty you must know that though our Senses tell us that acids do all perform the same effect which is to prick and to pierce yet nevertheless they all do differ in the figure of their points for according as they have received more or less fermentation they have also consequently their points more subtile sharp and light and this is attested not only by taste but the sight also for if you should Crystallize the same body by dissolving several parts of it in several vessels by Spirit of Salt Spirit of Niter Spirit of Vitriol Spirit of Alom and by Vinegar you 'l observe so many kinds of Crystals different in figure as there were different dissolutions The Crystals made by Vinegar will be more sharp than those prepared by Spirit of Niter those made by Spirit of Niter will be sharper than those by the Spirit of Vitriol those made by Spirit of Vitriol will be sharper than those by the Spirit of Alom but of all these Crystals none will be found to have grosser parts than those prepared by the Spirit of Salt for these Crystals do all retain the figure of their constituent parts This now being supposed it will be an easie matter to explicate our Precipitation for the salt or its spirit containing points more gross or less delicate than those of Spirit of Niter and falling on this dissolution do move jostle and easily break the points impregnated with the body of Mercury and so do make them let go their hold whence it comes that Mercury precipitates by its own weight The same Principle may serve to explicate why Lead dissolved in Vinegar precipitates by means of the Spirit of Vitriol or Salt You must observe not to make the water too salt for then the great quantity of salt would hinder the Mercury from precipitating The Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack containing an alkali salt does much help the Precipitation for its agility carries it into every recess of the liquor where the sea-salt whose parts are not of so active a nature was not able to go which is proved from hence that if you use only sea-salt dissolved in water to make this Precipitation with it will then happen that if after pouring off the clear liquor which swims upon the Precipitate into another vessel you drop the Spirit of Sal Armoniack into the liquor there falls a considerable quantity of Mercurial Precipitate which may serve like the other If instead of the volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack you 'd use the Oil of Tartar made per Deliquium the Pricipitate would then be reddish Two objections have been made against my manner of explicating the Precipitation of such matters as Spirit of Niter had dissolved made by Sea-Salt First they say it is not proper to make the jostles and encounter of salt-water with Spirit of Niter loaded with bodies which it had dissolved to be the cause of its precipitation whenas the most violent jogs that can be given to the solution either from an arm or with matters much more heavy and solid than sea-salt are not able to cause the precipitation This Objection will raise no difficulty to any that are a little skill'd in Natural Philosophy for although I have said that by reason the edges of sea-salt are grosser than those of Spirit of Niter the sea-salt does precipitate what Spirit of Niter had dissolved and suspended I never meant that if these edges were as big as a mans arm they would do it the better It is sufficiently known that there must be a proportionable subtilty of parts between the dissolvent and that which does precipitate and that the edges of an acid must be otherwise treated than with a cuff of the fist in order to make them let go their hold But I intended to make it appear that if sea-salt does jog and shake the edges of Spirit of Niter it does it by dividing into very minute parts and thereby entring into the pores of the phlegm which in would not be able to do if these parts were as big as a mans arm or were like the solid heavy matters now spoken of Secondly if the grossness of the edges of sea-salt or the shock they give did make the precipitation of substances dissolved by Spirit of Niter we should expect afterwards to find the first with its gross edges separated from those of Spirit of Niter whereas upon evaporating and crystallizing the liquor their edges are indeed reciprocally confounded the one with the other making together a new body I answer that the shock and jostle which the edges of sea-salt do give to Spirit of Niter when loaded with some bodies does not hinder the edges of Spirit of Niter remaining after the precipitation from uniting with the sea-salt by which union the Crystals do become confused I shall here add one preparation more that is very proper to raise a Salivation with Take an ounce of the solution of Mercury made in Spirit of Niter put it into a glass-vessel and pour upon it three or four and twenty ounces of water all the liquor will turn white let it settle until it becomes clear filtrate the liquor and keep it for use This water may be given from half an ounce to an ounce in a glass of Ptisan or broth It vomits gently and provokes a Salivation some do drink half an ounce of it to cure the itch but they ought to be purged and bled before-hand Red Precipitate This preparation is a Mercury impregnated with Spirit of Niter and calcined by fire Take eight ounces of Mercury revived from Cinnabar dissolve it in a sufficient quantity of Spirit of Niter which is eight or nine ounces pour the dissolution into a Viol or Matrass with a short neck set it in Sand and evaporate all the moisture with a gentle heat until there remains a white Mass then quicken the fire by little and little to the third degree and keep it in this condition till all your matter is turned red then take it off the fire let the Viol cool and break it to obtain your Precipitate
observed as near as may be the opposite place to your writing rub the last leaf of the Book with Cotton dipt in the liquor made of Quick-lime and Orpin nay and leave the Cotton on the place clap a folded paper presently upon it and shutting the book quickly strike upon it with your hand four or five good strokes then turn the book and clap it into a press for half a quarter of an hour take it out and open it you 'l find the place appear black where you had writ with the Invisible Ink. The same thing might be done through a wall if you could provide something to lay on both sides that might hinder the evaporation of the Spirits Remarks These Operations are indeed of no use but because they are somewhat surprizing I hope the curious will not take it ill that I make this small digression It is a hard matter to explicate well the effects I have now related nevertheless I shall endeavour to illustrate them a little without having recourse to Sympathy and Antipathy which are general terms and do explicate nothing at all but before I begin we must remark several things The first is that it is an essential point to quench the coal of Cork in Aqua vitae that the visible Ink may become black with it Secondly that the blackness of this Ink does proceed from the fuliginosity or sooty part of the coal of the Cork which is exceeding porous and light and that this fuliginosity is nothing but an oil very much rarefied Thirdly that the Impregnation of Saturn which makes the invisible Ink is only a Lead dissolved and held up imperceptibly in an acid liquor as I have said when I spoke of this metal Fourthly that the first of these liquors is a mixture of the alkali and igneous parts of Quick-lime with the sulphureous substance of Arsenick for the Orpin is a sort of Arsenick as I said before All this being granted as no body can reasonably think otherwise I now affirm that the reason why the visible Ink does disappear when the defacing liquor is rubbed upon it is that this liquor consisting of an alkali salt and parts that are oily and penetrating this mixture does make a kind of soap which is able to dissolve any fuliginous substance such as burnt Cork especially when it has been already rarefied and disposed for dissolution by Aqua vitae after the same manner as common soap which is compounded of oil and an alkali salt is able to take away or make disappear spots made by grease But it may be demanded why after the dissolution the blackness does disappear I answer that the fuliginous parts have been so divided and lockt up in the sulphureous alkali of the liquor that they are become invisible and we see every day that very exact solutions do render the thing dissolved imperceptible and without colour The little alkali salt which is in the burnt Cork may also the better serve to joyn with the alkali of the quick-lime and to help the dissolution As for the invisible Ink it is easie to apprehend how that appears black when the same liquor which serves to deface the other is used upon it For whereas the impregnation of Saturn is only a Lead suspended by the edges of the acid liquor this Lead must needs revive and resume its black colour when that which held it rarefied is intirely destroyed so the alkali of Quick-lime being filled with the sulphurs of Arsenick becomes very proper to break and destroy the acids and to agglutinate together the particles of Lead It happens then that the visible Ink does disappear by reason that the parts which did render it black have been dissolved and the invisible Ink does also appear because the dissolved parts have been revived Quick-lime and Orpiment being mixed and digested together in water do yield a smell much like that which happens when common sulphur is boiled in a Lixivium of Tartar This here is the stronger because the sulphur of Arsenick is loaded with certain Salts that make a stronger impression on the smell Quick-lime is an alkali that operates in this much like the Salt of Tartar in the other Operation you must not leave the matrass open because the force of this water doth consist in a Volatile The Lime retains the more fixt part of the Arsenick and the Sulphurs that come forth are so much the more subtile as they are separated from what did fix them before and this appears to be so because the Sulphurs must of necessity pass through all the book to make a writing of a clear and invisible liquor appear black and visible and to facilitate this penetration the book is strook and then turned about because the Spirits or Volatile Sulphurs do always tend upwards you must likewise clap it into a press that these Sulphurs may not be dispersed in the air I have found that if these circumstances are not observed the business fails Furthermore that which perswades me that the Sulphurs do pass through the book and not take a circuit to slip in by the sides as many do imagine is that after the book is taken out of the press all the inside is found to be scented with the smell of this liquor There is one thing more to be observed which is that the infusion of Quick-lime and Orpin be newly made because otherwise it will not have force enough to penetrate The three liquors should be made in different places too for if they should approach near one another they would be spoiled This last effect does likewise proceed from the defacing liquor for because upon the digestion of Quick-lime and Orpin it is a thing impossible but some of the particles will exalt stop the vessel as close as you will the air impregnated with these little bodies does mix with and alter the Inks insomuch that the visible Ink does thereby become the less black and the invisible Ink does also acquire a little blackness CHAP. XII Of Flints FLints as all other stones are made by different Salts or by acid liquors which do penetrate and incorporate with earth which is an alkali so that from their mixture there does result a Coagulum which by little and little does harden by means of the subterranean heat or else do petrifie by the cold Now you must observe that according to the quantity of earth which incounters with this acid liquor there are made such different sorts of stones Thus precious stones and Crystals do obtain their hardness and transparency from a just proportion such as is needful to make an exact penetration and a strict union of the acid with the earth There are found some waters in several places which falling upon stones do soon petrifie as particularly in a Grot at Arsi in Burgundy The reason that may be given of this petrification is that these waters do contain an acid which in passing through earths do dissolve some part of
stupefaction of the Nerves and nauseousness of the stomach If you used sixteen ounces of purified Salt-peter and so much sulphur in this operation you 'l have at last but three ounces and a half of Sal Polychrestum very fine but if you use common Salt-peter instead of purified you 'l have five ounces of Polychrestum as white as the other This difference of weight proceeds from common Salt-peters containing more fixt salt than purified Salt-peter Sal Polychrestum may be Crystallized like Salt-peter and other salts Its Crystals are very small and much like those of sea-salt but only they are keener Monsieur Seignette an Apothecary of Rochell whom I have spoke of before hath put in use a certain Sal Polychrestum which seems at first to be like unto this but when it comes to be examined there 's found a notable difference as well in the Crystallizations and when it is thrown into the fire as in the effects for whereas six drachms of this sort taken as I have said do cause gripes in pricking the membranes of the stomach that of Monsieur Seignette in the same quantity doth purge very gently without any gripes at all as he proves in a little Treatise that he hath made touching the uses of this Polychrestum And the truth of it I have found my self in several persons The composition of this salt is known to none but himself who having given it a reputation in the chiefest Towns of France hath left some quantity of it with me to distribute and make use of here at Paris Spirit of Niter Spirit of Niter is a liquor very acid and corrosive drawn from Salt-peter by distillation Powder and mix well together two pounds of fine Salt-peter and six pounds of Potters earth dried put this mixture into a large Retort either of earth or glass luted set it in a close Reverberatory Furnace fit to it a great capacious Balon or Receiver and give a very little fire to it for four or five hours to make all the Phlegm come forth which will distil out drop by drop When you perceive there will distil no more throw the Phlegm away that is found in the Receiver and having refitted it lute the junctures and encrease the fire by little and little to the second degree there will come forth Spirits which will fill the Receiver with white clouds then keep the fire two hours in the same degree after that encrease it to the greatest violence you can give it and so the vapours will come red continue the greatest fire till there come no more the operation will be ended in fourteen hours When the vessels are cold unlute the junctures and pour your Spirit of Niter into an earthen bottle which you must stop with Wax Spirit of Niter is used for the dissolution of metals it is the best Aqua fortis that is and the corrosive virtue of other waters of this nature doth chiefly proceed from the Niter that enters into their composition Remarks You might as some do mix four parts of Potters earth with one part of Niter when you would draw its Spirit but you will succeed better and with less difficulty by observing my description for whereas the earth does here serve only as an intermedium to separate the parts of this salt to the end that the fire operating more easily upon it may draw its Spirits it is a very needless business to use more of the earth than is necessary towards this effect Besides this over great quantity of earth may serve to weaken the Spirits and by taking up too much room may hinder the drawing so much as otherwise you would with the same Retort I fling away the Phlegm because it only serves to weaken the Spirit The white vapours do proceed from the volatile part of Salt-peter and are a weaker sort of Spirit but the red ones do come from the fixt part and are the strongest Spirit for which reason the fire is made so very violent towards the latter end This fixt Spirit is commonly called Salamanders bloud Of all Salts Niter is the only one that yields red vapours When you use here the best Salt-peter there remains nothing in the Retort but only earth I have boiled several times in water a good while the earth that remained after the distillation of the Spirit of Niter and after evaporation of the filtrated decoction I could find no salt at bottom I have likewise observed that out of two pounds of purified Niter a pound and fourteen ounces of liquor in Phlegm and Spirit may be drawn A third part of the Retort wherein the operation is performed must remain empty and the Receiver must be very large for otherwise these Spirits coming hastily forth would break all to pieces for room to move in Spirit of Niter Dulcified This oparation is a Spirit of Niter whose more subtile edges have been broken or evaporated Put into a large Bolt-head eight ounces of good spirit of Niter and so much spirit of Wine well dephlegmated set your Bolthead in the Chimney upon a round of straw the liquor will grow hot without coming near the fire and half an hour or an hour afterwards it will boil very much have a care of the red vapours that come out a-pace at the neck of the Bolthead and when the ebullition is over you 'l find your liquor clear at bottom and to have lost half what it was pour it into a Viol and keep it this is the sweet spirit of Niter It is good for the wind Colick and the Nephritick for Hysterical distempers and for all Obstructions its dose is from four to eight drops in broth or some other convenient liquor Remarks You must leave the Bolthead open for the vapours would either carry away the stopple if there were one or else they would break the vessel the Bolt-head is so hot during the ebullition that one can't endure ones hand upon it The heat and ebullition begins sooner or later according as the Spirits that are used have been more or less dephlegmated or else according as the season in which it is made is either hotter or colder for in the winter you must warm the liquor in a gentle sand-heat and when it grows a little hot you must take it off and shake it thus it will come to boil This effect is very strange for spirit of Niter being a strong acid and spirit of Wine a sulphur it can't be said that there is here any alkali to cause the ebullition with acid according to the common maxim And this operation shews us that every thing can't be explicated by the sole Principles of acid and alkali as some do pretend This operation has much resemblance with that which happens when oil of Turpentine is put into a bottle with oil of Vitriol for the mixture of these liquors does heat and boil much alike I shall say something of this last mixture hereafter There is this difference notwithstanding that spirit
of Niter being more volatile than oil of Vitriol causes a greater effervescency In order therefore to explicate this ebullition two things must be considered First that spirit of Niter contains a great many fiery parts lock't up in its acidity but which do still retain some evident motion for it is they that make the spirit of Niter to Fume as it does The second is that spirit of Niter is more Inflammable than salt-peter when mixed with any sulphureous body and the reason thereof is that it is more rarefied than salt-peter Thus when this acid spirit is mixt with spirit of Wine which is a sulphur very much exalted and very susceptible of motion the volatile part of the spirit of Niter joyns itself to this sulphur and the mixture becomes very ready to take flame likewise after this mixture the fiery bodies that were in spirit of Niter do by striving to mount upwards put the liquor into so great a motion that it e'en almost flames and would without all question quite flame if there were not some phlegm always mixed with these spirits let them be drawn never so pure which serves to allay the activity of the fiery particles so that there must needs follow a very great ebullition This effervescency therefore proceeds from this that spirit of wine and spirit of Niter which are as it were a salt-peter and sulphur highly exalted have been almost kindled into a flame by the fiery bodies that were in spirit of Niter and that which further proves this conception is a noise or kind of detonation during the effervescency which is much like that which happens when sulphur and salt-peter are burnt together But because there may be some difficulty in conceiving what is meant by little fiery bodies I do understand by them a subtile matter which having been put into a very rapid motion does still retain the aptitude of moving with impetuosity even when it is inclosed in grosser matters and when it finds some bodies which by their texture or figure are apt to be put into motion it drives them about so strongly that their parts rubbing violently the one against the other heat is thereby produced Now the sulphureous parts of spirit of Wine and the volatile acids of spirit of Niter being mixed and being very aptly disposed for motion of themselves they must needs be easily put into it by these fiery bodies insomuch that their parts often rubbing or striking the one against the other they must cause a heat after the same manner as when a stone is strook hard against a piece of Iron a heat and fire do follow The great diminution of the liquor proceeds from the evaporation of the more volatile parts of the Spirits of Wine and Niter through the neck of the Bolt-head during the ebullition That which remains is a well sweetned spirit of Niter for not only its edges are very much blunted in the ebullition but the spirit of Wine being a sulphur does unite and imbody with those that remain so that they have no longer any Corrosive quality Aqua Fortis This preparation is a mixture of the Spirits of Niter and Vitriol drawn by fire to dissolve metals Powder and mix Salt-peter purified Vitriol Calcined white as I shall shew hereafter and Potters earth or clay dried of each two and thirty ounces put this mixture into an earthen Retort or glass one luted whose third part is to remain empty place your Retort in a close Reverberatory Furnace and fitting to it a capacious Receiver Lute well the junctures then begin by giving a little fire to warm gently the Retort and encrease it by little and little but when you perceive the Spirits to come forth into the Receiver in red clouds continue it for fifteen or sixteen hours in the same degree then drive it to the last extremity until there do appear white clouds instead of red Then let the vessels cool and unlute them you 'l find in the Receiver an Aqua fortis which you must keep in an earthen bottle well stopt It serves for the dissolution of metals Remarks I do use to Calcine the Vitriol to a whiteness that the Aqua fortis may not be weakned with an insipid water The mixture of Vitriol and Salt-peter has quickly some smell of Aqua fortis because Vitriol contains a great deal of Sulphur which easily insinuates into the volatile part of Salt-peter and exalts some little of it which causes the smell it is this Sulphur in Vitriol which by volatilizing the red spirit of Niter makes it come forth faster and with a less fire than when Salt-peter is distilled with Clay alone The greatest Corrosion of Aqua fortis proceeds from the Niter for the Vitriol doth yield but very weak Spirits in comparison with the other I do acknowledge indeed that the Oil of Vitriol is exceeding Corrosive but eighteen or twenty hours are not able to drive that out for it doth not use to come until after three days continual distillation The Vitriol then and the Clay do serve here only for a matter to separate the Salt-peter that it may by the means of fire the better rarefie into Spirits Although there does not enter into this preparation so much terrestrial matter as there does into that of Spirit of Niter nevertheless it proves very well because the Sulphurs of Vitriol do help the Spirits to rise If you would keep on the fire five days and nights together the Receiver would be still full of clouds because the Vitriol would yield some Spirits during all that time Sometimes Alom and Arsenick are added to the composition of Aqua fortis but the description which I have given you is the best of all There remains in the Retort a red mass which may be used like Colcothar for an Astringent This mass may be obtained without breaking the Retort Fixation of Salt-peter into an Alkali Salt by the means of Coals This operation is a Salt-peter rendred porous by Calcination and by the ashes of coals which are mixed with it Melt sixteen ounces of Salt-peter in a strong and large Crucible among burning coals throw into it a spoonful of coals grosly powdered and there will rise a flame and detonation which being over throw so much more and continue to do so until the matter flames no longer but remains fixt in the bottom of the Crucible then pour it into a warm mortar and when it is cold powder it and dissolve it in a sufficient quantity of water filtrate the dissolution through brown paper and evaporate all the water in an earthen pan in sand there will remain a very white salt which you must keep in a Viol well stopt This Salt hath a taste like to that of Salt of Tartar and they differ but little in virtue it opens Obstructions and works by Urine and sometimes by Stool the dose is from sixteen to thirty grains in some convenient liquor It may be used to assist in drawing forth the
the same virtue as Sal Armoniack but are given in a little less dose as from four to fifteen grains Remarks This operation is performed to the end the Sal Armoniack may be volatilized by checking some part of its fixt salt by the addition of Salt decrepitated thus these Flowers are a little more active than the Sal Armoniack though they are both compounded of the same Salts Iron or Steel powdered may be used instead of Sea-salt as Schroder describes it and then the Flowers do become of a Yellow colour because the Salts do take the Tincture of Mars And these last Flowers are a little more penetrating than the others Aqua Regalis This water is a solution of Sal Armoniack in Spirit of Niter Powder four ounces of Sal Armoniack and put them into a matrass or other glass vessel of a good bigness pour upon it sixteen ounces of Spirit of Niter place the vessel in sand a little warm until the Sal Armoniack is all dissolved then pour the dissolution into a bottle and stop it with wax this is Aqua Regalis you will have seventeen ounces of it Remarks This water is called Regalis or Royal because it dissolves Gold which is the King of metals It is likewise called Aqua Stygia or Chrysulca The vessel in which it is made must be of a sufficient bigness because in the dissolution the Spirits do rarefie with so great violence that they would break it if they had not room to circulate in when a great deal of this water is preparing at a time you must take care to remove the vessel from the fire so soon as the dissolution begins Aqua Regalis may be likewise made with equal quantities of Salt-peter and Sal Gemme by mixing these Salts with thrice as much Potters-earth powdered and the distillation of it is made after the same manner as I shewed to draw the Spirit of Niter It is somewhat difficult to conceive how Aqua Regalis is able to dissolve Gold which is a most solid Metal and cannot dissolve Silver which is a much less solid body Some Chymists endeavouring to resolve this difficulty have said that Gold being a Metal fuller of Sulphur than Silver did therefore require a sulphureous dissolvent such as Aqua Regalis compounded of the volatile sulphureous salts of Sal Armoniack but this explication destroys itself for if Gold did contain more Sulphurs than Silver it would consequently be less weighty for Sulphur is one of the lightest Principles in Chymistry I know the Alchymists will tell me that their Sulphur is quite of a different nature from the common sort and that they do conceive in Gold a Fixt and consequently a heavy sulphur But besides that a fixt sulphur is a thing meerly imaginary it can never be so heavy as the other principles which they pretend to be in Gold and which they are forced to think as fixed as the Sulphur Moreover if we examine what happens in the composition of the dissolvent of Gold it will be no difficult matter to contradict this opinion for we see that as soon as ever the Spirit of Niter begins to work upon the Sal Armoniack the acid salt joyns with it and quits the volatile salts which finding themselves disingaged from the bodies that held them in a manner fixed do rise up with violence but because these salts which are alkalies do meet in their passage with some acids of the Spirit of Niter the great effervescency happens which is always wont at the meeting of alkali salts and acids This effervescency being over our Aqua Regalis remains in the vessel it is properly nothing else but an acid sea-salt dissolved in Spirit of Niter the volatile salts being either exalted or destroyed by Acids and that which confirms this opinion is that Aqua Regalis is as well made with sea-salt in which there are no volatiles at all as with Sal Armoniack according as I have said It is not then by discourses of this nature that this Phanomenon can be clearly explicated I am apt to believe with more likelihood that if Aqua Regalis be not able to dissolve Silver the reason of it is because the edges of the Spirit of Niter being magnified by the addition of Salt do slide over the pores of Silver not being capable to enter into them by reason of the disproportion of their figures whereas they easily enter into Gold whose pores are larger to make their divisions On the contrary if the Spirit of Niter dissolves Silver it is because its points are very subtle and fitly proportioned to enter into the small pores of this metal and by their motion to divide its parts These same points may likewise enter into the large pores of Gold but they are too small and pliable to act upon this body There 's need of stronger and keener knives which by filling its pores more advantageously may have force enough to divide it I do easily foresee it will be objected that Gold being heavier than Silver should have lesser pores and not greater because the weight of a body doth only consist in the proximity of parts but it is easie to solve this difficulty by considering each metal with a good Microscope for the pores of Gold are seen to be much larger than those of Silver though indeed there are much fewer and that will explicate very well why Gold is heavier than Silver though its pores are greater for seeing they are at a good distance the one from the other there 's a very compact matter as it were intercepted which causes all the weight but the pores of Silver being very near one another and of a much greater number do intercept less solid matter and consequently it must be lighter I 'le use a familiar example to make my self more plainly understood If you take two vessels of the same size and bigness and fill one with small hail-shot and the other with large bullets that which holds the bullets will be much heavier than that which is full of shot and yet notwithstanding the vacuities between the bullets are much larger than those between the shot According to this Hypothesis reason may be likewise given why Gold is cut in pieces more easily than Silver for the greater the pores of a body are the easier entrance will a pair of Sheers meet with Gold spreads under the hammer more than Silver because having larger pores the hammer makes a greater impression into it and dilates the parts the more easily It is objected that if there be any heavy matter as it were intercepted between the pores of Gold it must needs precipitate of itself after the action of Aqua Regalis upon this metal which is a thing that does not happen I answer that if the parts of Gold are heavy the dissolvent nevertheless is a gross body and very well proportioned to hold up those heavy parts and to hinder them from precipitating Others have opposed this explication and have
writ that if Aqua Regalis dissolves Gold and cannot dissolve Silver the reason of it is that the gross points of spirit of Niter or Aqua fortis are subtilized by the mixture of sal Armoniack and are rendred fit to enter into the small pores of Gold whereas the delicate Fabrick of these same points does not leave them the necessary strength nor motion to divide the parts of Silver whose pores are a great deal bigger But this way of arguing does not agree with experience for what likelihood is there that the points of spirit of Niter are so subtilized by the penetration and division of the parts of sal Armoniack or where shall we find any example that after a considerable effervescency of two salts met together in conflict the acidity grows sharper than it was before this is a thing that can never be proved On the contrary every body knows well enough that no effervescency happens but the acid is in part blunted or broken thereby Moreover the Argument supposes that spirit of Niter does break its subtilest points in violently contending with the Sal Armoniack since also that in sal Armoniack there are alkali salts whose property it is to destroy acids I could further add here that the conjunction of salt with spirit of Niter should of necessity render its points more gross than they were and that the Crystals which are drawn by aqua Regalis have their shape not so keen as those that are drawn by aqua Fortis But that which I have said is so probable in itself and so easie to be convinced of if a man takes never so little pains to consider it that I should but amuse my Reader to little purpose if I should offer to give any proofs of it Neither do I find it convenient to make a long discourse in explicating how Silver which has lesser pores is more susceptible of the impressions of Air and Fire than Gold which has larger seeing I have already supposed that the matter intercepted between the pores of Gold is more compact and consequently more hard to separate than that of Silver Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack This preparation is a volatile salt raised from sal Armoniack by the means of Quick-lime and dissolved into a liquor Take eight ounces of sal Armoniack and four and twenty ounces of Quick-lime powder them apart and when you haved mixed them in a mortar pour upon them four ounces of water and put it quickly into a Retort whose half must remain empty Set your Retort in a sand Furnace and fitting to it a great Receiver and luting the junctures exactly begin the distillation without fire for a quarter of an hour afterwards increasing it by little and little unto the second degree continue it until nothing more comes forth take off your Receiver and pour out the Spirit immediately into a Viol turning away your head as much as may be to avoid a very subtile vapour that continually rises from it Stop the bottle close with wax to keep the Spirit in you will have of it five ounces and six drachms It is an excellent Remedy for all diseases that proceed from Obstructions and corruption of humours such as Malignant feavers the Epilepsie Palsie Plague Small-pox c. It drives by perspiration or by Urine the dose is from six drops to twenty in a glass of Balm or Carduus water Remarks Quick-lime which is an alkali destroys the strength of the acid Sea-salt which in a manner bound up the volatile salts in the Sal Armoniack whence it comes to pass that as soon as Lime and Sal Armoniack are mixed together there exhales an unsufferable smell of Urine for the volatile salts coming forth abundantly do so fill the Nose and Mouth of the Artist that he would never be able to put the mixture into the Retort if he did not take good care to turn away his head while his hands are at work Water is added to it to liquifie these volatile salts for if there were nothing to moisten them they would suddenly sublime to the neck of the Retort and stopping it all together would break it to pieces You must stop the Retort with your hand so soon as you have poured the water into it and shaking it one minute you must hasten all you can to fit to it the Receiver and to lute well the junctures for the Quick-lime does presently grow hot so soon as its body is opened and this heat which is very considerable would spend the more volatile of the salts if there were no care taken to preserve them The Quick-lime being wetted does swell and take up a great deal of room wherefore the Retort must be filled but half full that there may remain room enough for the Spirits to rarefie in you must also use a large Receiver in which the vapours that rise in abundance may be able to circulate with ease This Spirit is nothing but a solution of volatile salts in water if you would sublime and separate it from the water you must put the liquor into a matrass with its head and proceed as I shall shew when I describe the volatile salt of Vipers but this salt being dry flies away more easily than when it continues dissolved in water so that it were better keep it as it is This is a stronger Spirit than that which is prepared with Salt of Tartar because the little fiery bodies of the Quick-lime which are mixed with it have quickned the motion of the volatile salts likewise these fiery particles are they that do hinder the coagulation of this Spirit with spirit of Wine when they are mixed together for there must be a cohaesion and repose of parts in order to make a Coagulum You must also have a care when you remove the Receiver not to hold your head over it for this volatile salt suffering a greater separation than before enters the Nose immmediately and hinders Respiration insomuch that several persons have been seen to fall in a swound by that means alone Now to avoid this accident you had best have ready a wet cloth to stop the Receiver with so soon as it is unluted This Spirit is an excellent Menstruum to make precipitations with it destroys acids exceeding well as do all other volatile alkalis it is used to precipitate Gold after it is dissolved It is good in those diseases I named because it opens the pores and drives the humours by perspiration or by Urine according to the disposition of bodies moreover as it is an alkali it destroys the acids which caused these diseases Again it sometimes causes sleep because it dulls the keenness of acid salts which entring into the little conduits of the Brain do cause perpetual watchings It is better give volatile Spirits in Sudorifick waters than broth because the broth being taken hot the heat would evaporate the better part of the volatile Spirits before a man could reach the Porringer to his mouth You
will find in the Retort thirty ounces of a white matter which you must throw away as useless it is the fixt salt of sal Armoniack mixed with the Quick-lime Another Preparation of the Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack together with its Flowers and Fixt Salt against Feavers Powder and mix together eight ounces of Sal Armoniack and so much Salt of Tartar put this mixture quickly into a glass body and sprinkle it with three ounces of Rain-water set a head upon it and after fitting the Receiver and luting the junctures close with a wet bladder place your vessel in sand with a gentle fire at first to warm the Retort by little and little and distil the Spirit drop by drop but when you perceive there will distil no more take away the Receiver and stop it close then encrease the fire to the third degree and continue it about two hours there will sublime the white Flowers of Sal Armoniack which will stick about the bottom of the head like meal The Spirit hath the same strength and virtues as the former you will have seven ounces of it and a half Gather up the Flowers with a Feather and use them as you would those I described before the Preparation you 'l have of them ten drachms and a half There remains at the bottom of the Cucurbite nine ounces and three drachms of a white fixt mass You must dissolve it in sufficient water then filter the dissolution and evaporate it until it is dry you 'l have a very white Salt that may be reckoned a good Remedy for intermittent Feavers the dose is from eight grains to thirty in the small Centaury water or some other convenient liquor Remarks The Salt of Tartar serves in this Operation as the Quick-lime did in the other but because it is a more powerful Alkali than Quick-lime you must not use so great a quantity of it The fixt Salt of Niter might be substituted in its place or any other Alkali that you will When the fire begins to heat the matter there do rise up into the head store of volatile Salts in a fine delicate Crystalline form but the moist vapours coming upon them do dissolve them into Spirit The Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack is then a dissolution of Volatile salt in water and if there be not phlegm sufficient to dissolue all the Volatile salt there will remain some part of it at bottom of the Receiver and that may likewise be turn'd into Spirit by only adding enough water to dissolve it Thus the Spirit becomes as strong as it can be made for the pores of the water being filled with as much salt as they can contain it can receive no more But if there happens to be more water than the proportion of Volatile Salt requires then the Spirit proves weak and must be given in a larger dose This Spirit is Sudorifick but you may perceive more sensibly the effect of Sal armoniack to cause Sweat by dissolving six or eight grains of this salt and the same quantity of Salt of Tartar each separately in two small doses of some proper liquor and giving them to a Patient one presently after the other for the salt of Tartar working upon the Sal Armoniack in the stomach after the same manner as it does when they are mixt together in a Mortar the Spirits do separate from the latter with the more force and act more powerfully than when they were mixed before they were given for the little violence that the Volatile Spirits do use in their separation from sea-salt does leave them the more activity and disposes them the better to pass through the pores Again it is probable that in the former effort which these Spirits made in their separation from the fixt part when Sal Armoniack was mixt with salt of Tartar in a mortar the more subtile part might fly away first and be lost now it is this subtile portion that is most proper to rarefie the humours and to drive them forth by Transpiration The flowers do proceed from some part of the Sal Armoniack which the salt of Tartar had not sufficiently opened The Febrifugous salt is nothing but a mixture of salt of Tartar and the fixt and acid part of Sal Armoniack it works by Urine and but seldom by Sweat by reason that being fixed it precipitates more easily than it rarefies and it is by this means that it opens obstructions which are often the first cause of Feavers If you mix in a Viol equal quantities of Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack Spirit of Wine and shake them a little together they will cause a Coagulum This Coagulation proceeds from hence that the Spirit of Wine which is a rarefied Oil does unite with the Spirit of Sal Armoniack which is a saline liquor and it is but the same thing which happens from stirring Oil and some salt liquor in a mortar in order to make an Unguent called Nutritum By this incorporation together the salt is involved in the ramous parts of the sulphur and these same sulphureous parts are checkt or as it were fixed by the salt so that neither of them have any more freedom of motion and from this repose of these parts does result the Coagulum It may be likewise said that the conjunction of the acid that is in Spirit of Wine with the volatile Armoniack alkali does contribute much to this Coagulation The Spirit of Sal Armoniack prepared with Quick-lime does not at all coagulate with Spirit of Wine by reason of fiery parts that it contains The Salt of Tartar too may have mixed some fiery bodies in the Spirit of Sal Armoniack but there are not enough of them in it to hinder its adunation with Spirit of Wine Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack dulcified This Operation is a volatile Armoniack salt mixed and dissolved in Spirit of Wine Take Sal Armoniack and Salt of Tartar of each four ounces powder them separately and mix them well in a glass or marble mortar put this mixture into a glass body pour upon it ten ounces of rectified Spirit of Wine stir it all together with a wooden Spatule and fit to the body a head and Receiver lute well the junctures place the vessel in a Sand-furnace and give it a very little fire to warm the body The volatile salt will rise and stick to the head and neck of the receiver Increase the fire a little and continue it until there distils nothing more the operation is ended in four or five hours Let the vessels cool and unlute them You will find a volatile salt stuck to the head and a spirit in the receiver Put quickly both the one and the other into a Retort in sand and after having fitted another Retort to it to serve for a Receiver and having luted the junctures distil the whole with a small fire Cohobate it again three times then keep what you have distilled in a bottle well stopt almost all the
volatile salt will be dissolved in the Spirit of Wine and that which remains undissolved will receive a perfect dissolution in the bottle It is a very good Medicin for the Lethargy the Palsy the Scurvy Malignant feavers and Hysterical maladies it may be given instead of Spirit of Sal Armoniack before described And it is not so repugnant to the taste It works by Sweat or by insensible Transpiration the dose is from twelve drops to thirty in some proper liquor it is likewise good outwardly applied for the Palsie and for cold pains Remarks So soon as the Sal Armoniack is mixed with the salt of Tartar Volatile salts do rise from them which would very much incommode the Artist if he should hold his nose over it You must lose no time in putting the mixture into the body and then stopping it for these first salts are the most subtile of all The salts must be separately powdered by reason of the loss which would be made of the volatile salts in the mixing of the Sal Armoniack with the salt of Tartar In the making this mixture you must not use any mortar made of metal because that in the conflict of the two salts it would be corroded and that which were corroded from it would be apt to spoil the operation The body must be filled but half way when the whole is in The volatile salt is lighter than the spirit of Wine for it rises first When the Spirit of Wine is well rectified it will not dissolve any of the volatile salt at first but on the contrary it hinders this salt from dissolving in a liquor because the ramous parts of the wine do stop the entrance of the air but if there be any phlegm in the Spirit of Wine it dissolves the salt according to the proportion that there is of it Those who had rather use the volatile Sal Armoniack dry then in liquor may keep it dry in a bottle well stopt and use it for the same purposes as the spirit the dose of it must be a little less it is very white and pure this keeps better than that which is drawn with water because an impression of Spirit of Wine which remains in it does serve to retain the salts in some measure You need not wonder that there happens no Coagulum when Spirit of Wine and this volatile salt are stirred together in a bottle as there does by the mixture of Spirit of Wine and Spirit of Sal Armoniack for this salt having all its parts intirely united cannot so well mix with the sulphur of spirit of wine but if you add water enough to dissolve the salt then there will be a coagulum because the parts of the salt will be disunited and by the help of water will enter into the pores of Spirit of wine I have explicated this coagulum in the Remarks of the Chapter preceding The volatile Sal Armoniack does dissolve well with waterish liquors and spirit of Sal Armoniack may be made of them together by only mixing water enough to dissolve the salt But if you would mix or dissolve it in Spirit of wine you will find a great deal of trouble in the doing it if you should only infuse it in spirit of wine it would none of it dissolve on the contrary that is a way to keep and preserve the salt therefore you must distil it over several times that the saline parts may rarefie and unite with the spirit of wine That which remains undissolved in the Receiver has been very much rarefied by repeated distillations for which reason it also dissolves some days afterwards Spirit of wine in this operation hath so wrought upon the volatile salts that they are no longer so disagreeable to the taste or the smell as they were before and it is by that means that it sweetens them for sulphurs do contemperate the acrimony of salts as I have said speaking of the Principles Acid Spirit of Sal Armoniack This Spirit is a fixed Sal Armoniack dissolved into a liquor with a great fire Take what quantity you please of the fixt Febrifugous salt that I have spoken of powder it and mix it well with thrice as much Potters-earth powdered put this mixture into a Retort whose third part remains empty place it in a close Reverberatory Furnace and fit to it a large capacious Receiver Lute the junctures close and proceed in the method I spoke of to make the Spirit of Salt you 'l find in the Receiver an acid spirit which is a very good diuretick It is esteemed to be specifick for Malignant diseases the dose is to an agreeable acidity in Juleps and broths Remarks This acid Spirit proceeds from the fixt part of the Sal Armoniack for the Alkali contributes not one drop of it Although the Salt of Tartar has weakned the strength of Sea-salt which was mixed with the volatile salts in Sal Armoniack as I have said this same sea-salt nevertheless will yield a very acid spirit upon distillation because the parts of sea-salt though they have suffered a strong conflict with the other yet do contain a Spirit as well as they do otherwise intire after the same manner as when sea-salt is reduced into a very fine powder it continues as full of Spirits as when it was in larger pieces for you must not imagine that Sal Armoniack does contain the acidity of sea-salt separate from its earth for if it could remain in it in such a state it would quietly divide the parts of the Alkali salt with which it is mixed and would be destroyed it self but this salt remains in it in its substance intire CHAP. XVIII Of Vitriol VItriol is a Mineral compounded of an Acid Salt and Sulphureous Earth there are four sorts of it the Blue the White the Green and the Red. The Blue is found near the Mines of Copper in Hungary and the Isle of Cyprus from whence it is brought to us in fair Crystals which keep the name of the Country and are called Vitriol of Hungary or Cyprus it partakes very much of the nature of Copper which renders it a little Caustick it is never used but in outward applications such as Collyriums or waters for the eyes and to consume proud flesh White Vitriol is found near unto Fountains it is the most of all depurated from a Metallick mixture it may be taken inwardly to give a vomit it is likewise used in Collyriums There are three sorts of Green Vitriol the German English and the Roman That of Germany draws near unto the blue and contains a little Copper it is better than the rest for the preparation of Aqua fortis That of England partakes of Iron and is proper to make the Spirit of Vitriol The Roman is much like the English Vitriol excepting that it is not so easie to dissolve Red Vitriol was brought among us a few years ago out of Germany it is called Natural Colcothar and is esteemed to be a Green Vitriol
Calcined by some subterranean heat It is the least common of them all it stops Bloud being applied to Hemorrhagies If you dissolve a little white or green Vitriol in water and write with the dissolution the writing will not be seen but if you rub the paper with a little Cotton dipt in the decoction of Galls it will appear legible then if you wet a little more Cotton in Spirit of Vitriol and pass it gently over the paper the Ink will disappear again and yet at last if you rub the place with a little more Cotton dipt in Oil of Tartar made per Deliquium it will again appear legible but of a Yellowish colour The reason that I can give for these effects is this the Spirit of Vitriol dissolves a certain Coagulum which is made of Vitriol and Galls but the Oil of Tartar breaking the force of this acid Spirit the Coagulum recovers it self and appears again but because it now contains Oil of Tartar too it acquires a new colour If you throw the dissolution of Vitriol or Vitriol only powdered into a strong decoction of dried Roses it will turn as black as common Ink if you pour some drops of spirit of Vitriol into it this Ink will turn red and if you add to it a little volatile spirit of Sal Armoniack it will turn gray These changes of colour do proceed from the spirit of Vitriol's dissolving the Coagulum which the Vitriol it self had made and rendring it invisible the liquor recovers a fresher red colour than it had before the Vitriol was put into it because the same spirit does separate the parts of the Rose which were dissolved in the liquor and renders them more visible The volatile spirit of Sal Armoniack which is an alkali does partly break the acid edges of the spirit of Vitriol so that the parts of the Rose having nothing more to keep them rarefied do close together and consequently the liquor changes colour By this experiment may be seen that the dried Rose may serve to make Ink with as well as Galls Indian wood and divers other things will do the same Gilla Vitrioli or Vomitive Vitriol This operation is only a purification of white Vitriol Dissolve what quantity you please of white Vitriol in as much Phlegm of Vitriol as is needful to dissolve it filtrate the dissolution and evaporate two thirds of the moisture in an earthen pan Put the rest into a cool place for three days time there will shoot out Crystals which you must separate then evaporate a third part of the liquor that remains and set the vessel again in a Cellar there will shoot new Crystals continue thus evaporating and crystallizing until you have gotten all you can dry these Crystals in the Sun and keep them for use the dose is from twelve grains to a drachm in Broth or some other liquor Remarks This is only a Purification of Vitriol that serves to separate a little earth from it All the liquor may be evaporated without any Crystallization the Gilla Vitrioli will remain at bottom in a white powder White Vitriol is used in this operation rather than Green because it is milder The other Vitriols may be purified after the same manner After taking this vomit a man sometimes voids by stool a black matter like Ink because it frequently happens that some part of the Vitriol descending into the Guts meets a saline matter that it joyns with and so causes a blackness as it uses to do when Vitriol is mixed with Galls Calcination of Vitriol Put what quantity you please of Green Vitriol into an earthen pot unglazed set the pot over the fire and the Vitriol will dissolve into water boil it to the consumption of the moisture or else until the matter turn into a grayish mass drawing towards white this is called Vitriol Calcined to whiteness If you should Calcine this gray Vitriol a good while over a strong fire it would turn as red as bloud It is called Colcothar and is good to stop bloud being applied to a wound Remarks You must not Calcine the Vitriol in a glazed pot for fear of dissolving the Vernish which would change the nature of the Vitriol It may be Calcined or rather dryed in the Sun until it becomes white this Calcination deserves to be preferr'd before the other but only it is longer a doing The Vitriol may be likewise spread about a Furnace heated a little and so dried until it turns white If you should resolve to dry as exactly as you can sixteen pounds of green Vitriol there would remain but seven pounds of white Vitriol But in order to do this you must powder the white mass of Calcined Vitriol after you have broke the pot and stir it a long time in an earthen pan over a little fire until there rises no more fume from it or until there remains in it no more phlegm If you should Calcine this white Vitriol to a redness you 'd have five pounds and a half of Colcothar The sulphur of Vitriol is lost during this last Calcination you must do it in the Chimney for the fume would be very injurious to the breast This sulphur has the same smell as ordinary sulphur Some have writ that the red colour which appears after a long Calcination of English Vitriol was an undoubted proof that there was Copper in it after the same manner as the red colour which happens to Verdigreese calcined is a certain proof that it contains in it some particles of Copper But that which is here said to pass for a thing undeniable is no proof at all for first of all those Vitriols which are thought most to partake of Copper do give no greater redness in their Calcination than the others which partake the least of it Secondly let Copper be prepared which way you please you can never make it redder than the Colcothar of English Vitriol whose redness must be thought to proceed from some particles of this metal contained in it And thirdly we see plainly that Iron Lead Mercury and divers mineral bodies do acquire a red colour in their Calcining without containing any Copper The Sympathetical powder that has made so much noise is nothing but white Vitriol opened prepared divers ways according to mens different conceptions about it The Roman Vitriol is better esteemed than the other for this operation The common method of preparing this Powder is to expose it to the heat of the Sun whilst the Sun is in Leo that is in July in order to dry it and to open it And men think that Sign does bestow particular influences on the preparation Though in truth it undergoes drying better in that season than another by reason of the great heat then of the Sun And it may be the parts of the Vitriol do become more volatile by this heat but for what is said of Influence it is meerly imaginary Many do only pulverize the ordinary Vitriol in order to make the
my Machine You must leave an empty space between the brims of the Bell and the Pan that the Fire may have air enough to keep it lighted but besides that the Fire is apt to go out every moment use never so much precaution a very poor quantity of Spirit is drawn this way Authors do recommend this Operation to be done when the weather 's wet and to moisten the Bell before-hand but I have found by experience that these circumstances signified nothing at all With the Machine that I have described I can draw a good handsom quantity of Spirit and I am not forced to fire the Sulphur several times because the hole at top gives vent to the air and hinders the fires going out Again the more Phlegmatick part evaporates that way but the acid Spirit not being able to rise so high condenses against the sides of the tunnel and then falls down under the little pan that is turned upside down to raise the other higher that contains the Sulphur You may use a Crucible instead of a pan to put the Sulphur in The greenish Sulphur is better than the other for this Operation because it has more Vitriol in it and consequently more Spirit for this Spirit is nothing but a Vitriolick Salt dissolved that differs little from the Spirit of Vitriol besides in the Taste which is not so Empyreumatical as not having undergone so violent a Fire The Vitriolick salt which is in the Sulphur does not rise until the more volatile parts are spent for which reason the Spirit does not distil until towards the end and the drops begin then to appear in the middle of the Tunnel Forasmuch as Sulphur is good for diseases of the Lungs and Breast many do think that the Spirit which is drawn from it ought to have the same virtues but they do not consider that this Spirit being deprived of the fat or most sulphureous part of Sulphur hath also lost the virtue that accompanies it and that it must produce effects altogether different from those of Sulphur after the manner as the acid Spirits which are drawn from Sugar Vitriol and many other matters have very different virtues from those of the mixts themselves And the reason of it is very plain for whereas the Sulphur by its ramous parts can sweeten the acrimonious humours which fall upon the Lungs and so help the Cough the Spirit of Sulphur which is an acid does prick the Fibres of the Larynx and cause a Coughing as all other acids do Salt of Sulphur The Salt of Sulphur is a Sal Polychrestum impregnated with Spirit of Sulphur Put four ounces of Sal Polychrestum prepared as I have said into an earthen pan or a glass vessel and pour upon it two ounces of Spirit of Sulphur set your vessel in sand and evaporate all the liquor over a gentle fire there will remain four ounces and six drachms of an acid salt most agreeable to the taste keep it in a bottle well stopt It is a good medicine for to open all Obstructions and to work by Urine and sometimes it works also by stool the dose is from ten grains to two scruples in broth It is dissolved from half a drachm to two drachms in a quart of water for a drink in Feavers Remarks This Salt is improperly called Salt of Sulphur for it is nothing but a Sal Polychrestum impregnated with an acid Spirit Many great descriptions have been given of Salt of Sulphur which being well examined do all come to the same thing as this it is called by many Authors a Febrifugous salt The true Salt of Sulphur truly so called should be a little of the fixed Vitriol which remains in the earth of Sulphur after that the flowers have been drawn from it and should be separated from the earth by a Lixivium as other fixed salts are made but such a Salt would not have the same qualities as this Some have written that when Spirit of Sulphur is poured upon Sal Polychrestum dissolved in water there is made a great effervescency as well as when the same Spirit is thrown upon Salt-peter but without doubt they little examined the matter for there is no ebullition made neither with the Sal Polychrestum nor with Salt-peter they being both of them acid salts The union of acid Spirits with acid Salts is very different from that between acids and alkalis for the acid Spirits not being able to open the insensible parts of acid Salts they do lose nothing of their strength and their keenness remains the same but it is not so in respect of acids mixed with alkalis for such a penetration is made into the alkalis that the acid loses its strength in them And for the reason that I have now given the Salt of Sulphur is very acid and tartarum vitriolatum is hardly at all acid although there is imployed proportionably as much more acid Spirit for the making tartarum vitriolatum than there is for the making Salt of Sulphur The Salt of Sulphur is good in Tertians and continued Feavers and on all occasions where there is need of calming the too great motion of the humours because the acid serves to fixe the volatile Salts or Sulphurs which are most commonly the principal cause of these diseases CHAP. XXI Of Succinum or Ambar THere is found in small currents near the Baltick Sea in the Dutchy of Prussia a certain coagulated Bitumen which because it seems to be a juice of the earth is called Succinum and Carabè because it will attract straws it is likewise called Electrum Glessum Ambra Citrina vulgarly Yellow Ambar This Bitumen being soft and viscous several little Animals such as Flies and Ants do stick to it and are buried in it Ambar is of different colours such as White Yellow and Black The White is most esteemed though it be no better than the Yellow The Black hath the least virtue of all Ambar serves to stop spitting of bloud the Bloudy-flux the immoderate flux of the Hemorrhoids Terms and Gonorrheas the dose is from ten grains to half a drachm It is likewise used to stop a little the violence of Catarrhs by receiving the fume of it at the Nose Some do think that Petroleum or Oil of Peter is a liquor drawn from Ambar by the means of Subterranean fires which make a distillation of it and that Jet and coals are the remainders of this distillation This opinion would have probability enough in it if the places from whence this sort of drogues does come were not so far asunder the one from the other for Petroleum is not commonly found but in Italy in Sicily and Provence This Oil distils through the clefts of rocks and it is very likely to be the Oil of some Bitumen which the subterranean fires have raised Tincture of Ambar This Operation is a solution of some oily parts of Ambar made in Spirit of wine Reduce into an impalpable powder five or six ounces of yellow
Ambar and put it into a bolt-head pour upon it Spirit of wine to the height of four fingers stop this bolthead with another to make a double vessel and having exactly luted the junctures with a wet bladder place it in digestion in hot sand and leave it there five or six dayes or until the Spirit of wine is sufficiently tinged with the Ambar colour decant this Tincture and put more Spirit of wine to the matter you must digest it as before then having separated the impregnation mix it with the other Filtrate them and distil from them in an Alembick with a very little fire about half the Spirit of wine which may serve you as before keep the Tincture that you will find at the bottom of the Alembick in a Viol well stopt It is good for the Apoplexy Palsie Epilepsie and for Hysterical women the dose is from ten drops to a drachm in some proper liquor Remarks You must powder the Ambar finely that the menstruum may open its body the better this Tincture is nothing but the Sulphureous or oily part of Ambar which Spirit of wine a Sulphur does become impregnated with a liquor that were not sulphureous would perhaps dissolve the Ambar but that which is dissolved by it would be the more impure wherefore you must always use such a dissolvent as is of the same nature with the substance that you would dissolve Half the Spirit of wine is drawn off to make the Tincture the stronger Distillation of Ambar and the Rectification of its Oil and Spirit Fill with Ambar grosly beaten two thirds of an earthen Retort or glass one luted place it in a Furnace on two iron bars fit to it a large Receiver and luting the junctures close give under it a small Fire to warm the Retort and drive out the Phlegm Afterwards augment it by little and little there will come forth a Spirit and an Oil continue the Fire until there comes no more then let the vessels cool and unlute them Pour about a pint of warm water into the Receiver and stirring it soundly about for to dissolve some volatile Salt that often sticks to the sides of the Receiver pour all the liquor into a glass Alembeck fit to it a Receiver and luting well the junctures make a small Fire to heat the vessel then augment it a little the water and Spirit will rise and carry with them a little white Oil continue the Fire until there rises no more and the thick Oil remains at bottom of the Cucurbite without boiling separate the white Oil that swims above the Spirit and Phlegm and keep it in a Viol well stopt it is given inwardly in Hysterical Distempers in the Palsie Apoplexy and Epilepsie the dose is from one drop to four in some appropriate liquor it may be mixed with a little yelk of an Egg to dissolve it easily in water or broth The water and Spirit do remain mixed confusedly together now to separate them you must pour this mixture into an earthen or glass dish and evaporate over a very gentle Fire two thirds of it that which remains is the Spirit of Ambar keep it in a Viol well stopt It is an excellent Aperitive and is given in the Jaundise stoppage of Urine Ulcers of the neck of the bladder and in the Scurvy the dose is from ten to four and twenty drops in some convenient liquor The Black Oil which remains in the Cucurbite may be kept apart for outward uses to chafe the Nose and Wrists of women in Hysterical maladies If you would rectifie it you must mix it with so much sand as is necessary to make it into a Paste and put it into a Retort and placing it in a Furnace in a naked Fire distil all the Oil the first that comes forth will be red but exceeding clear keep it by it self It may serve instead of the white The Oil of Jet may be drawn as the Oil of Ambar but because Jet is more terrestrious it requires a stronger Fire Remarks The Oils of Ambar and Jet do work in Hysterical cases chiefly by their ill smell for we see that whatsoever is ungrateful to the smell does commonly allay symptoms in diseases of the matrix and that good smells do increase them The reason of these effects is not very easie to find seeing that all that has been hitherto said for explication of them has only come to this that the matrix sympathizing with the brain does rise upwards to share in the good smells of the brain and sinks downwards when the nose is offended with that which is unpleasant Nay some have thought the matrix to be a little animal by reason of the many motions that have been observed in it These kinds of discourses are indeed very proper to leave people in the same doubts they were in before and I don't think any body has received any satisfaction from them Therefore let us try whether we can say any thing more to the purpose When a woman receives an agreeable smell the tickling pleasure which this smell produces in the brain by means of the olfactive nerve does move the Spirits and determinate them to run into the vessels in a greater abundance and with more agility than they did before Then also is perceived if she minds it a certain titillation of the parts and all the senses do seem willing to partake of this good smell All this is common to men as well as women But because the vessels which go from the brain to the matrix do swell with this affluence of Spirits they must of necessity be abbreviated in their length as a cord is found to swell and to shorten when it is wetted or as the Fibres of a glove do shrink when the humidity that is within them is rarefied by the Fire These vessels being thus shortned they must needs give shocks and receive like returns from the matrix And then likewise it is perceived to rise and to move upwards But because this viscus does commonly contain a gross bloud and humors very easie to ferment which are actuated by these shocks there do rise from it gross vapours which oppress the diaphragm and do cause that which is called the suffocation of the matrix These distempers do likewise very often happen to women who have no ways been offended with sweet smells but that which causes the same symptoms does work after the same manner As for ill smells they must produce a quite contrary effect for by striking offensively the nerve of the nose the Spirits do retire back to their places and consequently the vessels and the matrix do resume their ordinary disposition But you will say perhaps that a grain of Musk or Civet is often applyed to the Navil to settle the mother and to lay the vapours This has been practised indeed by some but without any proof that ever it did any good or that it gave any ease Civet is put into the middle of
Galbanum Plaisters or the Oxycroceum which is applied to the Navil but there is more reason to attribute the effects which come from this remedy rather to the Plaisters than to the Civet And besides it cannot be said that this Civet or this Musk thus applied do yield any good smell Many men are likewise very subject to vapours and among others those that are of a Melancholick temper do seem to feel the same symptoms as women upon any sweet smells This comes from obstructions in the vessels which have communication with the brain for these humors which do cause the obstruction being thereby moved may produce these effects That which is called Spirit of Ambar is only a volatile salt dissolved in a little Phlegm Some Authors pretend that putting this Spirit into a matrass with its blind-head they can sublime a volatile salt from it as from Animals but I could never find experience answer their pretences for after having followed them several times in this Operation I could never gain one jot of that salt which hath given me occasion to examine this Spirit and to enquire what kind of salt it might contain I found this Salt was acid and like unto that of Plants which is called Essential whereof I have spoken in the Principles This Salt being less volatile than that of Animals cannot rise so high besides that it is heavier than the Phlegm which must rise first Wherefore to separate it you must evaporate about a third part of the Spirit over a very gentle fire and then put the remainder into a cool place and leave it there ten or twelve days without stirring it you 'l find little Crystals which you may take and keep in a Viol well stopt This Salt hath the same virtues as the Spirit the dose is from eight grains to sixteen in Raddish or Pellitory water but it is better to keep it in the Spirit for besides that it is more easily preserved so there always flies away some part of it with the Phlegm in the evaporation let the fire be never so moderate But now I shall give you a preparation of the volatile salt of Ambar that may be easily made and may keep dry The Volatile Salt of Ambar Put two pounds of Ambar powdered into a large glass or earthen Cucurbite let it be filled but the fourth part set this Cucurbite in sand and after you have fitted a head to it and a small Receiver lute well the junctures and light a little fire under it for about an hour then when the Cucurbite is grown hot encrease the fire by little and little to the third degree and there will distil first of all a phlegm and Spirit then the volatile salt will rise and stick to the head in little Crystals afterwards there distils an Oil first white and then red but clear when you see the vapours rise no longer you must put out the fire and when the vessels are cold unlute them Gather the volatile salt with a Feather and because it will be but impure as yet by reason of a little Oil that is mixed with it you must put it into a Viol big enough that the salt may fill only the fourth part of it place the Viol in sand after you have stopt it only with paper and by means of a little fire you 'l sublime the pure salt in fair Crystals to the top of the Viol. When you perceive the Oil begin to rise you must then take your Viol off the fire and letting it cool break it to separate the salt keep it in a Viol well stopt you 'l have half an ounce This salt is a very good aperitive and may be given from eight grains to sixteen in some opening liquor for the Jaundies for Ischuries Vlcers in the Bladder the Scurvy Fits of the Mother and upon all occasions where there is any need of removing obstructions and opening by way of Urine The Spirit and Oil have the same virtues as those I have spoken of If you would distil in a Retort the mass which remains in the Cucurbite until there comes away nothing more you 'l have a Black Oil which might serve women to smell to in fits Remarks The Cucurbite must be sure to be large enough for otherwise it will break while the vapours are a rising You will have five ounces and a half of a clear Oil and one ounce and a half of Spirit two ounces and a half of a black oil are drawn from the mass by the Retort and that which remains weighs two ounces it is a black rarefied matter which burns like coals by reason of the fuliginosities that fall upon it A clear Oil may be drawn from Ambar in the first distillation by mixing the Ambar with an equal weight of sea-salt and distilling it in a Retort the usual way there will remain likewise some volatile salt in the neck of the Retort which may be rectified by subliming it in a Viol as I have said CHAP. XXII Of Ambar-Grease AMbar-Grease is a Bitumen found in many places on the Sea-shore but especially in the Indies it grows hard in the Sun-beams The best is that which is very gray and dry and easily softens in the heat when it is wet it appears blackish Men have thought it is found no where else but in the Oriental seas though some of it has been known to be sometimes met with upon the English Coast and in several other places of Europe most of it is brought from the Coast of Melinda and especially at the mouth of the River that is called Rio di Sena Ambar-grease is an excellent Corroborative it is given in some liquor or in Electuary to increase Seed the dose is from one grain to four Essence of Ambar-Grease This operation is an extract of the more oily parts of Ambar-grease Musk and Civet in Spirit of wine Take two drachms of good Ambar-grease so much Sugar Candy half a drachm of Musk and two grains of Civet beat them small together and put the mixture into a Viol pour upon it four ounces of Spirit of Wine well Alcoholized Stop the Viol close and set it in Digestion in horse-dung four days then taking it out separate that which is clear while it is warm for it will congeal when cold This Essence works more strongly than Ambar-grease in substance the dose is from six to twelve drops in some convenient liquor Remarks Ambar-grease alone hath scarce any smell at all but when its parts are put in motion by Fermentation Sulphurs do rise from it which tickle the sense of smelling with a great deal of pleasure the addition of Musk and Civet have a good effect as for the Sugar Candy it serves only to separate the rest that they may be the more easily powdered and dissolved for this Tincture is only a dissolution of these sulphureous matters in Spirit of wine The terrestrious part which remains at bottom may be used in sweet Powders THE SECOND PART Of Vegetables
matter fit to it another matrass in order to make a double vessel lute well the junctures and place your vessel to digest in horse-dung or in a vaporous Bath four days stir it from time to time the Spirit of wine will load it self with a red colour unlute the vessels filtrate the Tincture through brown paper and keep it in a viol well stopt It is a Febrifuge to be given in Agues three or four times a day at a distance from the fitt and to be continued for a fortnight the dose is from ten drops to a drachm in some proper liquor such as Centaury water or Juniper or Wormwood water or wine If you put new Spirit of wine to the matter which remains in the matrass and set it in digestion as before you will draw more Tincture but it will not be so strong as the other wherefore you must give it in a little larger dose Remarks This Tincture works like the Infusion I now spoke of it is a more convenient preparation than the other in this that it can keep as long as you will whereas the other does sowr in a little time Again those who do not love wine will like it better but I should prefer the Infusion before the Tincture because wine is a more proper menstruum wherewith to draw the saline and sulphureous substance of a mixt then Spirit of wine You may steep a few Coriander seeds or a little Cinnamon in the wine or water and after it is strained off dissolve some sugar in it and in this you may mix the Tincture of the Bark and so make a kind of Febrifugous Rossoli which Infants may be easily made to take of Extract of Peruvian Bark This Operation is a separation of the more substantial parts of the Bark Put to infuse warm four and twenty hours eight ounces of Peruvian Bark in a sufficient quantity of distilled water of Nuts afterwards boil the Infusion gently and strain it make a strong expression of the residence put it to infuse in new water of Nuts boil and strain it as before mix together what you have strained and let them settle decant the clear liquor and evaporate it in a glass or earthen vessel set in a sand-heat unto the consistence of thick honey It is a Febrifuge that has the same virtues as the former the dose is from twelve grains to half a drachm in Pills or dissolved in wine Remarks The Wine and Spirit of wine are very proper to draw forth the Tincture of the Bark but they are by no means good to make the Extract with because in the evaporation the Spirit carries away with it the more subtile parts of the mixt The water of Nuts is much more convenient for besides that it loses less of the volatile substance it is a little febrifugous itself Instead of this water you might use those of Juniper-berries the lesser Centaury or Wormwood-water The Extract is convenient for those who cannot endure the taste of remedies for it may be given in Pills wrapped up in a wafer without partaking of the taste But I should prefer the Infusion or the Bark in substance before this preparation because it is impossible to avoid the evaporation of the more subtile parts in the ebullition of it use what precaution you will to preserve them You may draw the fixt salt from the residence that remains after you have drawn the Extract or the Tincture You must dry it and burn and calcine the ashes in a crucible then steep them in hot water ten or twelve hours boil them an hour and then filtrate this lixivium and evaporate the water in an earthen pan or glass vessel in sand there will remain a salt at bottom which you must keep in a bottle well stopt This salt is an alkali as are all other fixed salts drawn from plants it is aperitive it may be given for a quartan Ague the dose is from ten grains to a scruple in some proper liquor You must not think that this salt retains all the virtues of the Bark they are rather all destroyed in the calcination Nor may we think to separate the Febrifugous virtue of this Bark by distilling it dry in a Retort for on the contrary this would destroy it by breaking the natural harmony and union of its parts and you would get only a stinking Spirit and a burnt oil which would be of no great use CHAP. VII Of Cloves CLoves are the fruit of a Tree as big as the Laurel Tree its Bark is very much like Cinnamon but tasts like the fruit Cloves it grows in many places in the Indies it is an admirable stomachick held in the mouth it preserves from the contagion of ill air Oil of Cloves per Descensum Take several large drinking glasses cover them with a Linnen-cloth and tie it round each of them leaving a cavity in each Cloth to put the powdered Cloves into set a small earthen Cup upon each glass of these Cloves let it stop so fitly that it may suffer no air to enter between its brim and that of the glass fill these Cups with hot ashes to warm the Cloves and distil down to the bottom of the glass first a little phlegm and Spirit and after that a clear and white oil continue the fire until there falls no more separate the oil in a Tunnel lined with a cornet of brown paper and keep it in a Viol well stopt Some drops of it are with Cotton put into aking Teeth it is likewise good in Malignant Feavers and the Plague the dose is two or three drops in Balm-water or some appropriate liquor You must mix it with a little Sugar-candy or a little yelk of an egg before you drop it into water otherwise it will not dissolve in the water Remarks I have given you this Preparation to serve upon an emergence when you want in haste the Oil of Cloves you must only use hot ashes to warm the Cloves if you desire to have a white Oil for if you give a greater heat the Oil turns red and loses a good part of it You must also take care to lift up the Cup from time to time to stir about the powder of Cloves The Oil of Cloves may be likewise drawn if you please like that of Cinnamon If you use a pound of Cloves to distil per descensum according to the description I have given you 'l draw an ounce and two drachms of white Oil and an ounce of Spirit there will remain thirteen ounces and two drachms of matter from whence might still be drawn a little red Oil. It is likely that the Oil of Cloves works in easing the tooth-ach much after the same manner as I said the Oil of Guaiacum did But this Oil having an agreeable smell with it there is no difficulty in admitting the application of this as there was in the other Some do dissolve Opium in Oil of Cloves and do use this dissolution for the tooth-ach
dropsie it is good to stop diarrhea's and dysenteries with it may be dropt into the Tincture of Roses instead of other acid Spirits Some do think it good for diseases of the breast the dose is eight or ten drops or to an agreeable acidity in some proper liquor That which remains in the body after the rectification is a foetid oil which may be outwardly used to cleanse old ulcers Remarks The Spirit of common Sugar is made without addition of any thing in the preparation it is an acid Spirit but is not so strong nor has so great virtues as that which I have now described It is thought good for diseases of the breast by reason of the Sugar which indeed is good for them but so strong an acid is apt to give a Cough The body must be big enough in order to give room to the vapours to circulate in as they do rise A very little Oil of Sugar can be drawn in this operation for that which remains after the rectification is not a pure oil but a remainder of the Spirit tinged with some drops of oil insomuch that it would be very hard to get one drachm of pure Oil. CHAP. XII Of Wine WIne is nothing else but the Muste or juice of ripe Grapes whose Spirituous parts are set at liberty in the Fermentation This Wine is more or less gross according as it abounds more or less with Tartar In the making of White-wine the Muste of white Grapes is left to Ferment all alone but Claret must Ferment with the Faeces of the Grapes whence it comes to pass that the Red is loaded with more Tartar than the White and remains longer in the body after it is drunk The wines of hot Countrys do commonly more abound with Tartar than others by reason of the abundance of Salts which they attract from the earth Muscat and Spanish Wines do not endure a Fermentation until good part of the Phlegm is evaporated either by the heat of the Sun or by fire and this is the reason they become so glutinous as they do almost like Syrup Lastly there may be made as many different Wines as there can be different Fermentations to the Muste Now let us consider what it is that happens in these Fermentations Muste is a sweet liquor that sends no vapours to the head to Intoxicate though one drinks never so much If you distil it there will rise first of all good store of Insipid water after that a fetid Oil with a few weak Spirits which are nothing but an Essential Salt dissolved and lastly there will remain a terrestrious mass out of which may be drawn some quantity of fixt salt by making a Lixivium as we draw other alkali salts but among all these substances we find none of those Spirits that use to make Brandy and yet nevertheless when Muste hath Fermented for some time it turns into Wine from whence you may draw a considerable quantity of Inflammable Spirits Now to explicate this effect you must know that Muste doth contain a great deal of Essential Salt this Salt like a volatile making an effort in the Fermentation to deliver it self from the oily parts with which it was before incumbred does open and divide them until by its subtile and keen points it hath rarified them into Spirit this effort of the salt does cause the Ebullition which happens to wine and which at the same time does help to purifie it for it separates the grosser parts of the wine in form of a scum of which some part does stick to and petrifie on the sides of the vessel and another part precipitates to the bottom the first is called Tartar the last the Lees of wine The inflammable Spirit of Wine then is nothing but an Oil exalted by Salts and this is an indubitable proof of what I establish that there was nothing but oil in the Muste which was capable of taking fire these same salts also being a little freed from the cover they were wrapt in are they that change the wallowish sweetness of Muste into an agreeable Tartness such as we perceive in our French Wines It is likewise remarkable that a sufficient quantity of Phlegm is requisite for the better separation of the Salts in their Fermentation and an Exaltation of the Oil for otherwise several changes are apt to happen for example when Muscat and Spanish wine are made a great deal of Phlegm is separated from them for the Muscat Grape is left to dry in the Sun upon the Branches before it is gathered to put into the press and some part of the liquor of the Muste with which Spanish wine is made is Evaporated before it is suffered to Ferment which is the cause that the Salts not having liberty to expatiate and to rarifie the Oil as much as they would do if they had room do make but an imperfect Fermentation The Oil being thus half exalted hath still strength enough to hinder the Tartness of the salt and therefore only tickling the Nerves of the tongue makes us perceive in these liquors a sweet taste And this is also the reason why fewer Spirits are drawn from Muscat and Spanish wines than from French wines for whereas the Spirit of Wine doth consist in a rarified Oil there must needs be fewer Spirits in those than in French wines But much more of a gross Oil is drawn by distillation from those half fermented Wines If on the contrary the Muste should be loaded with too much phlegm as it happens often enough there follows another imperfect Fermentation because the Salts being too much weakned by it are not able sufficiently to cut and exalt the parts of Oil whence it comes to pass that these Wines are subject to turn aigre or to sowre The Wines of Languedoc and Provence being extreamly loaded with Tartar are grosser than the Wines of Burgundy and Champaigne because their Spirits are incumbred with abundance of Salt and Earth Wherefore the goodness of Wine may be said to proceed from a convenient proportion of phlegm and Tartar It is objected to this last discourse that the Tartareous part being in a natural way separated from the Wine should in no wise diminish the quantity nor the strength of the Spirituous and inflammable part But when I asserted that the Spirits of divers Wines are extreamly loaded with Tartar I did not mean that Tartar which petrifies at the sides of the vessels for that is at quiet and does not hinder the Exaltation of Spirits but I intended a Tartar that still remains mixt in the Wine after the Fermentation and which according as it abounds more or less does render the Wines more or less thick and gross It is easy to see this Tartar I speak of if you Evaporate the aqueous part of Wine for it will remain at bottom in form of Lees. Nevertheless there is no need of establishing two sorts of Tartar in one kind of Wine for the former is only the more
into good Vinegar It may be some such thing happens in the Bodies of those who accustom to drink too much wine for whereas the volatile parts which ascend to the Brain and Heart by an agitation of the Spirits do beget Joy so on the contrary the Tartareous parts by fixing the humors about the Hypochondria do cause by little and little that which is called Melancholy which proceeds from an acid whence it comes to pass that many men making a debauch upon wine with design to pass away their Melancholy do afterwards find they have encreased it when the debauch hath had its effect If you would by way of curiosity make an exact Analysis of wine you must take that which remains in the body after distillation of the Brandy and distil off all the phlegm there will remain a Matter like unto Rosine put it into a Retort and placing it in a Furnace distil away more phlegm in a small fire until it begins to come sharp Then fit a large Receiver to the Retort and luting well the junctures strengthen the fire by degrees to drive forth acid Spirits and a little fetid Oil continue the fire until there comes no more The Oil is separated from the Spirit in a Tunnel lined with brown paper for the Spirit will pass through and the Oil being too thick will remain But it is here remarkable that more of this Spirit and Oil is drawn from Muste than wine which sufficiently proves the Remark I made before touching the origine of the volatile Spirit of wine for seeing good store of the Oil of Muste hath contributed to the making volatile Spirit of Wine there must needs remain but very little Oyl in the liquor that Brandy is drawn from The acid Spirit of wine and the Black Oil are like to those of Tartar which I shall describe anon And an alkali salt wholly resembling that of Tartar may be drawn by a Lixivium from the mass that remains in the Retort Spirit of Wine Spirit of Wine is the oily part of wine rarefied by acid Salts Fill a large bolt-head with a long neck half full with Brandy and fitting a head and Receiver lute close the junctures set your bolthead upon a pot half filled with water to distil in a vaporous Bath the Spirit which separates from the phlegm and rises pure continue this degree of fire until nothing more distils thus you 'l have a dephlegmated Spirit of Wine in the very first distillation It serves for a Menstruum to a great many things in Chymistry half a spoonful of it is given to Apoplectical and Lethargical persons to make them come to themselves likewise their Wrists Breast and Face are rubbed with it 'T is a good Remedy for Burnings if applied so soon as they happen and it is good for cold pains for the Palsie Contusions and other Maladies wherein it is requisite to discuss and to open the pores Remarks The usual way of making Spirit of Wine is by distilling Brandy in a Limbeck so many times over until it comes pure and to do this about half the Brandy is drawn by distillation and the phlegm that remains at bottom accounted of no use Again half the Spirit which was distilled is anew drawn off and the phlegm thrown away these Rectifications are continued until you find by firing a spoonful of the Spirit that every drop burns and there remains not the least Phlegm but because this Operation is very tedious and it is a hard matter thus to get a Spirit of Wine wholly free from Phlegm even after nine or ten times repeating these distillations let the fire be never so small Artists have invented a long Machine which they call the Serpent by reason of the circumvolutions which it makes It is fitted to the Cucurbite containing the Brandy and the top made like a Tunnel receives the head to which a Receiver is fitted and the junctures well luted and the vessel placed in a small fire the Spirits of Wine do rise by this gentle heat but the phlegm being too heavy cannot ascend so high so that thus a Spirit of Wine deprived of its phlegm is had the very first time But because this Machine is hard to carry into the country and other places where one would desire to make Spirit of Wine and besides that it is subject to loosen in the joints through the violence of the Spirits I have thought that the way I delivered for making Spirit of Wine was more commodious for provided you have but a matrass and a head it will be an easie matter to draw as good Spirit of Wine as that by the Serpent and there 's no need to fear the Spirits breaking any way out of the vessel if you do but lute well the junctures as I have said The matrass must have a very long neck that no phlegm may be able to rise into the Receiver The vaporous Bath is fitter than any other to perform this Operation in because a most moderate heat is requisite to raise up the Spirits all alone now the vapour of water warms very insensibly You must continue the same degree of fire until there comes nothing more Some persons do endeavour to reject the method that I have described for drawing Spirit of Wine because say they a long time is required to draw a little Spirit and by reason of the difficulty they conceive in procuring such vessels well made at Paris and much more so in the Country But it is likely these Gentlemen do blame this method because they never tried it for if they had but taken the pains to make Experiment of it they would have found that with two or three of these vessels they might have drawn as much Spirit of Wine as they could be able to do with their great Machine and that this Spirit is not liable to the impression which might be communicated to it from Copper or Tin vessels As for the difficulty that there is pretended of getting such glass vessels there is none at all that I know of but only for such as will not take the pains to visit the Glass-houses for there they would find enough for their turn and though I use a great many of them in my Courses of Chymistry I never was to seek for any yet But suppose there were none to be found ready made methinks they might as easily bespeak them and have them made at the Glass-houses as well as bespeak those grand Copper or Tin Machines that are commonly used I know that such as are better pleased with making a Fair shew than with the effects of things and who measure the goodness of an Operation by the trouble it gives one and by the greatness of vessels and Furnaces will find here but little to their satisfaction But I am very little concerned at such mens exceptions I never endeavoured to follow their Track My design is simply to facilitate the means of working in Chymistry and to take away
as much as lies in my power those things which render it mysterious and dark Spirit of Wine is good for Lethargical and Apoplectical persons because it puts the Spirits into a greater motion than they were in before Now because according to all appearance these Diseases are caused by Obstructions which hinder the course of the Spirits into the Brain this Spirit serves to give them a new vigour to dissolve and rarefie these Tartareous viscosities which shut up their passage It likewise discusses Tumors and Defluxions because it not only opens the pores and gives vent to the subtler part of the humor to perspire but likewise dissolves and rarefies the grosser part so as to render it fit to circulate with the blood The Spirit of Wine is excellent for Burnings provided it be used so soon as they happen for then it opens a passage for the igneous particles to come out at and if there should remain any within the part it unites with them as it uses to do when mixed with an Acid. Spirit of Wine Tartarised This preparation is a Spirit of Wine that has carried with it some portion of Salt of Tartar Put a Pound of Salt of Tartar into a long glass-body pour upon it four pounds of Spirit of Wine prepared as I said before place your vessel in Sand and cover it with a head to which fit a Receiver lute well the junctures with a wet Bladder and give it a gradual fire which continue until three parts of the Spirit of Wine are risen then remove the fire and keep this Spirit in a Viol well stopt it hath the same virtues as the other but is more subtile The liquor that remains in the body may be evaporated and a Salt of Tartar got as good as before Remarks This Operation is only a Rectification of the Spirit of Wine to render it more subtile than it was before because the Salt of Tartar becomes impregnated with the Phlegmatick parts and hinders them from rising The Spirit of Wine doth likewise volatilize and carry along with it some portion of the Salt of Tartar which gives it a very agreeable smell and renders it a good Remedy for Obstructions A sign that the Spirit of Wine has carried along with it some of the Salt of Tartar is this if you dry gently the Salt of Tartar that remains in the Body and weigh it you 'l find it diminished an ounce and a half You may again put this Spirit of Wine Tartarized to half a pound of more Salt of Tartar and distil it as before but I have found that it is never a-whit the better for it This way of Tartarizing Spirit of Wine is the very best and shortest of all that have been invented whether you desire to make it pure or to impregnate it with Salt of Tartar and I may venture to say that all the many long and tedious descriptions that have been given of this Operation have been only invented to cast a dust into the eyes of Novices for it is easie for any to observe who give themselves a little to examine things that after all their long turnings and windings and circumstances to no purpose the Spirit of Wine is not so well Tartarized as by the plain method that I have described Queen of Hungary's Water This Operation is a Spirit of Wine impregnated with the more essential part of Rosemary flowers Fill a glass or earthen cucurbite half full with Rosemary Flowers gathered when they are at their best pour upon it Spirit of Wine sufficient to infuse the Flowers in set your Cucurbite in a Balneum and joyning its head and Receiver lute close the junctures and give it a digesting fire for three days after which unlute them and pour into the Cucurbite that which may have been distilled Refit your Alembick and encrease the fire strong enough to make the liquor distil so as one drop may immediately follow another and when you shall have drawn about two thirds of it and put out the fire let the vessels cool and unlute them you 'l find in the Receiver a very good Water of the Queen of Hungary keep it in a Viol well stopt It is good in the Palsie Lethargy Apoplexy and Hysterical Maladies The Dose is from one drachm to two It is likewise used outwardly for Burnings Tumors Cold pains Contusions Palsie and all other occasions wherein it is requisite to revive the Spirits Ladies do use to mix half an ounce of it with six ounces of Lily-water or Bean-flower water and wash their Face with it to clear their complexion Remarks You must distil this water in a Fire that is strong enough for otherwise the Spirit of Wine would rise alone or else draw along with it but very little Essence as I have observed in the working upon it The Oyl or Essence of Rosemary may be made as the Oyl of Cinnamon and some drops of it mixed in the Spirit of Wine and hereby you have a Queen of Hungary's water made upon the spot The Water of the Queen of Hungary sometimes gives ease to the Tooth-ach being snufft at the Nose or applied to the Gums with a little Cotton Some thinking to Criticize a little do say it is altogether useless to digest Rosemary flowers with Spirit of Wine because their substance being of a very Volatile nature it easily dissolves in the Spirit without any digestion But this Circumstance is very necessary if we desire to have a Water well impregnated with the Essence of the Flowers for although there is a Volatile substance in Rosemary yet good part of the Oil in which consists principally the Smell is involved in the other Principles and cannot be well rarefied mixed and exalted but only by a digestion and thus we have a very good effect from it CHAP. XIII Of Vinegar WInes like all other liquors that use to Ferment do grow sowr by the dissolution of their Tartar in a second Fermentation This dissolution is commonly made when upon the Wines going to decay some of the more subtile Spirits are lost for the Tartar taking their place fixes the rest of the Spirits which remain in the Wine so that they can act no longer This fixation is the cause that when the Wine turns sowr very little quantity of it is diminished and very little Tartar is found in the vessels wherein Vinegar is made To the end that Wine may quickly sowr you must set the Vessel that contains it in some hot place and mix the Lees from time to time for this Tartar will easily dissolve when heat comes to act upon it Perhaps it will be objected that Wine deprived of Tartar and Lees does grow sowr when kept a long time in a vessel without any dissolution of Tartar But we must consider that Wine let it be as clear and pure as may be does always retain the more saline and subtile part of Tartar which exalts and easily smells when by Fermentation it gets the predominancy
as the Spirit of Vrine by reason of some impression it has of the Acid sal Armoniack with which it was mixt insomuch that the Crystals of Tartar whose acid is not separated from the Earth has points too gross and too unactive to insinuate into the pores of this salt and separate its parts so easily as those of the salt that is contained in Spirit of Vrine whose pores are bigger Some part of the Glass of Antimony dissolves in the boiling and gives the Emetick quality to the powder It is a very gentle Vomit because the Tartar fixes and in some measure hinders the activity of the Sulphurs of Antimony If instead of making the aforesaid evaporation you should take the vessel off the fire when there is but two thirds of the liquor consumed and let it settle without stirring it in four and twenty hours the soluble Tartar will crystallize at the bottom and on the sides but it will be never a whit the better When you would make this Crystallization you must use a flat vessel let it be of earth that the Crystals may display themselves the better The liquor is to be decanted and the Crystals to be taken and dryed The evaporations and crystallizations are to be continued until you have obtained all your salt Another sort of Soluble Emetick Tartar may be made by boiling in water an ounce of the Glass of Antimony powdered with four ounces of Soluble Tartar for seven or eight hours then upon filtring and evaporating the liquor there will remain a grey powder of the same virtues as the other and to be given in the same dose Distillation of Tartar This Operation is a separation of the Phlegm the Spirit and the Oil of Tartar Fill two thirds of a Retort with Tartar grosly powdered place your Retort in a Reverberatory Furnace and fitting to it a large capacious Receiver begin the distillation with a very small fire for three hours only to warm the Retort and drive out the Phlegm drop by drop throw away this insipid water and refitting the Receiver Lute closely the joints encrease the fire by little and little and you 'l see Spirits fill the Receiver with Clouds continue it that the Oil may likewise come forth then when there will come no more let the vessels cool and unlute them pour that which is in the receiver into a Tunnel lined with brown paper that the Spirit may filtrate and separate from the thick black Oil that remains in the filter keep this Oil in a Viol it is good to smell to in Hysterical vapours it would be good to rub Paralytical parts with and for cold pains but by reason of its abominable smell it is not used Pour the Spirit into a glass Cucurbite and rectifie it by distilling it in sand it is good against the Palsie Asthma and Scurvy it works by Urine and by Sweat It is used in Hysterical maladies and for the Epilepsie the dose is from one drachm to three in some appropriate liquor You will find in the Retort a black mass from which a Salt may be drawn as I shall shew hereafter Remarks If you have used three pounds of Tartar of sixteen ounces to the pound in this Operation you will draw four ounces of Phlegm eight ounces of Spirit and three ounces of Oil the black mass which remains in the Retort after distillation will weigh two pounds or two and thirty ounces and you will draw from that mass twelve ounces of salt Almost all Authors who have spoke of Tartar have asserted that two sorts of Spirits could be drawn from it by distillation the one very Volatile the other fixt and acid wherefore after all had mixed confusedly in the Receiver they separated the Oil and added some Alkali such as Coral or Crabs-eyes to that which remained then they poured it into a Cucurbite and distilled about half the liquor which they pretended to be a Volatile Spirit for the acid Spirit remained absorb'd by the Alkali with the Phlegm in the bottom of the body But having vowed never to be led by any Authority which is not founded upon Experience I have examined the nature of Tartar as strictly as possible and after a great many distillations of it I could never perceive this Volatile Spirit which hath been obtruded upon us all that I could ever find is this that Tartar contains good store of Essential salt which renders it acid and that this Salt coming forth by distillation and mixing with phlegm doth make all the Spirit that can be drawn from Tartar So that the Spirit of Tartar according to the description of these men is only the more Phlegmatick part of the liquor that is to say the most deprived of this Essential Salt because almost all of it doth adhere unto the Alkali body of Coral or Crabs-eyes which were added to it But according to the way I have set down the Spirit may be drawn as pure as may be because I do not leave it to mix with the phlegm which comes out first If we do rectifie the Spirit it is done to purifie it from some Terrestrious parts which it might have carried along with it in the distillation Some thinking to do better than those who rectifie Spirit of Tartar on alkali matters do instead of those alkalis use biscuit powdered but they attain their end never the better for the biscuit does sweeten the acid Spirit of Tartar as much as Coral or Crabs-eyes A very volatile and alkali Spirit is drawn from the Lees of wine I shall speak of it in the Chapter of the Volatile Salt of Tartar and perhaps it is this very Spirit that Paracelsus and Van Helmont do boast so much of and which has occasioned many Authors to write that the Tartar does contain a most volatile Spirit Fixt Salt of Tartar and its liquor called Oil per Deliquium Break the Retort which served you for distillation of Tartar and take the black mass you find in it Calcine it until it becomes white then put it into a great deal of hot water and make a Lixivium filtrate it and pour it into a glass or earthen vessel evaporate in a sand-heat all the water and there will remain a white salt which is called the Alkali Salt of Tartar This Salt is Aperitive it is used for to draw forth the Tincture of Vegetables and is given for Obstructions the dose is from ten to thirty drops in broth or Laxative Infusions If you expose for some days in a Cellar this Salt of Tartar in a wide glass vessel it will dissolve into a liquor that is improperly called Oil of Tartar per Deliquium It is used for Tettars and to discuss Tumors the Ladies do mix it in Lilly-water to clear their complexion and hands Remarks In these two last Operations I have given you the means of obtaining all that can be got from Tartar but those who have no need of the Spirit or Oil and would only desire the
this condition and when you perceive the Receiver to cool raise the fire to the utmost extremity and continue it so until there rise no more vapours When the vessels are cold unlute the Receiver and shaking it about to make the Volatile salt which sticks to it fall to the bottom pour it all into a Bolt-head fit to it a Head with a small Receiver lute well the junctures and placing it in sand give a litttle fire under it and the Volatile salt will rise and stick to the head and the top of the Bolt-head take off your head and set on another in its place gather your salt and stop it up quickly for it easily dissolves into a liquor continue the fire and take care to gather the salt according as you see it appear but when there rises no more salt a liquor will distil of which you must draw about three ounces and then put out the fire This salt is in great request for to purifie the bloud by sweat or urine it may be given in the Palsie Apoplexy Epilepsie Quartan and Tertian Agues and to open Obstructions the dose is from six grains to fifteen in some proper liquor The distilled liquor is a Volatile salt that is risen with the phlegm it is called the Volatile Spirit of Tartar and has the same virtues as the salt its dose is from eight to four and twenty drops After this same manner the Volatile salt of Beans Soot and divers Fruits and Seeds may be prepared Remarks The Lees of Wine being incomparably more Fermented than the Tartar which is found in the sides of vessels we need not wonder if its salt is more Volatile This salt is sublimed in a Bolt-head to the end the phlegm which is too heavy to rise easily so high may not mix with it but it is extraordinary hard to keep this salt dry it easily humects and dissolves into a liquor wherefore it were much better to draw it in a Spirit and less of the Volatile part would be lost being detained by the phlegm Nevertheless because there are several persons who are as well pleased with the sight of things as their effects this liquefied salt might then be mixt with a sufficient quantity of Calcined bones powdered to make thereof a Paste which might be made into little Pellets to be put into a Bolt-head and fitting to it a Blind-head this salt may be sublimed or rectified as before and this pure salt must be kept in Viols well stopt The difficulty there is in keeping this Volatile salt dry as well as that of other Vegetables does proceed from this that only the more essencial part is volatilized for there remains much sixt salt with the earth in the Retort This volatile salt becomes alkali by the means of fire as other volatile salts do whereof I have already spoken in my Remarks upon the Principles and there is no manner of probability that it should have been of this nature either in the Plant or in the Lees for the reasons that I have shewn in the same Remarks I shall add here that if the alkali salt did exist in the Lees but is not able to expand it self and get the predominancy of acids but only by a long Fermentation as the Chymists will have it who follow the common way of discoursing of these things it would then necessarily follow that the more Lees do ferment the more they must lose of their acidity because the alkali would destroy it Nevertheless the contrary to this happens for Lees do sowr as they grow stale those who make Vinegar do know well enough how to use the Lees and to make them ferment with their wine when they would make Vinegar quickly It seems to me from the consideration of this effect that there is little reason to follow the Sentiments of some who have writ that the Lees of wine abounding in volatile salt and a sulphureous spirit do contain but very little acid for it is as plain as may be that this volatile salt is acid in the Lees and is the same that makes the acid spirit of Vinegar being more volatile than many other acids to volatilize with its phlegm in the distillation It is true that salt of Tartar drawn by the Retort does rise more easily than Spirit of Vinegar but this is from its being volatilized by the violent heat of fire Another mark that all the salt of Lees is acid is this that the Tartar does all dissolve in the wine and turns into Vinegar for very little or no Lees or other Tartar is to be found in the vessels wherein Vinegar is made although there was some naturally before or though some more were added to it as I have said in the Chapter of Vinegar Perhaps it will be objected that Lees are sometimes added to wines grown ropy and mucilaginous to make them good again and yet those wines are not sowred by the Lees. But this effect happens when the former Fermentation becoming imperfect through the too great quantity of phlegm for the little proportion of salt that was in the wines the salt of the Lees does rarifie exalt and conjoin with the Oily parts of the liquor that the Spirit of wine is made of as I have said in the Chapter of Wine For the wine does not sowr so long as the salt finds Oil to act upon but it does so when this salt finds nothing to hinder it from expanding itself The volatile salt of Tartar produces much the same effects as that of Beans and other seeds and though many will needs give it sublime and extraordinary virtues in comparison with other volatile salts I do'nt see any reason for such high conceits nor that effects do answer their pretences Volatile salts have a good use when they find the pores humors disposed for perspiration but they are full as dangerous when the humors are not at all prepared for by their volatility they do put the humors into so great a motion that oftentimes the Feaver is encreased by them and a translation made to the Brain wherefore you must consider well the Temper and present state of your Patient before you presume to give them That which remains in the Bolt-head after the volatile salt and spirit are drawn off is a black and stinking Oil mixt with the more phlegmatick part of the liquor you must separate this Oil in a Tunnel lined with brown paper it is good for the Palsie for Cold pains and for Hysterical women to smell to A Lee or Tartar Calcined is found in the Retort out of which you may draw a fixt alkali salt as out of common Tartar but in a much less quantity for that the greatest part of the salt of Lees is volatilized CHAP. XV. Of Opium OPium is a Tear which distils of itself or by Incision of the heads of Poppies found very frequently in Greece in the Kingdom of Cambaia and the territories of Grand-Cairo in Egypt there are
three sorts of it the Black the White and the Yellow The Inhabitants of those Countries do keep this Opium for their own use and do send us only the Meconium which is nothing else but the Juyce of these same Poppy-heads drawn by expression and then thickned and wrapt up in leaves to transport the better It is this Drug that we improperly call Opium and always use for want of the true but being more impure than the true it hath not the same activity and strength A Meconium may be made after the same manner with the heads of those Poppies that grow in Italy Languedoc and Provence but it will prove much weaker than the former The Opium which comes from Thebes or else from Grand-Cairo is accounted the best you must choose it Black Inflammable bitter to the taste and a little acrimonious its smell must be disagreeable and stupefactive Extract of Opium called Laudanum This Operation is the purer part of Opium drawn in water and Spirit of wine and reduced to the consistence of an extract Cut into slices four ounces of good Opium and put it into a bolt-head pour upon it a quart of Rain-water well filtred stop the bolt-head and setting it in sand give your fire by degrees then increase it to make the liquor boil for two hours strain it warm and pour it into a bottle Take the Opium which remains undissolved in the Rain-water dry it in an earthen pan over a small fire and putting it into a Matrass pour upon it Spirit of wine to the height of four fingers stop the Matrass and digest the matter twelve hours in hot Ashes afterwards strain the liquor and there will remain a glutinous earth which is to be flung away Evaporate both these dissolutions of Opium separately in earthen or glass vessels in a Sand-heat to the consistence of honey then mix them and finish the drying this mixture with a very gentle heat to give it the consistence of Pills or a solid Extract It is the most certain Soporifick that we have in Physick it allays all pains which proceed from too great an activity of the humors it is good for the Tooth-ach applied to the tooth or else to the Temple-artery in a plaister it is used for to stop spitting of bloud the bloudy-flux the flux of the menses and hemorrhoids for the colick for hot defluxions on the eyes and to quiet all sorts of griping pains the dose of it is from half a grain to three in some convenient Conserve or else dissolved in a Julep Remarks Opium is compounded of a Spirituous part and a gross terrestrious Rosine the Spirituous part may be easily dissolv'd in water but the Resinous requires a more convenient Menstruum such as Spirit of Wine You must dry the Opium after the first dissolution least the Spirit of Wine be too much weakned by the watry part that remains which would hinder the solution from being done so well as it should be Distilled Vinegar dissolves Opium but the acids may diminish its virtue by destroying or fixing its volatile part which serves for a vehicle to the other Spirit of wine alone might be used to dissolve both parts of the Opium but it might be feared it would carry away with it the volatile part in the Evaporation All that is in the Opium is preserved by my description for the Resinous part dissolved in the Spirit of Wine cannot evaporate with it because it is the heavier and the other part which I call Volatile in comparison with the first is mixt with a little Rosine that keeps it back while the water evaporates The truth of this I have found by experience and any body else may try as well as I have done by distilling these liqours Lastly it is hard to use any greater precaution than this for the preservation of all the pure parts of Opium and fewer Menstruums can be used that are more convenient If in curiosity you weigh the glutinous earth after it is dried you will find it to be half an ounce Almost all Authors have appointed to torrifie Opium before it be dissolved to the end a certain malignity which they say is in it may be evaporated but that which they call malignity is nothing but the Spirits or Sulphurs that are most volatile whereof I spoke but now so that by the Torrefaction they deprive it of its more active part They do further add to the Extract commonly drawn with Spirit of Wine Coral Pearl Treacle Extract of Saffron Cordial Confections Hysterical ingredients and other things which may resist a cold malignity in the fourth degree which they pretend to be in Opium But experience convinces us that it is not so dangerous when given in the foresaid dose so that there is no need at all of losing its volatile part by Torrefaction nor of mixing it with other ingredients which may hinder its operation or retard its effect It belongs to the Physician when he thinks fit to give it to judge whether there be any need of an Hysterick or Cordial which he may appoint to be mixed upon the spot I shall not stay to examine here whether Opium is cold or hot they who have made the Anatomy of this mixt do know very well that it is almost all of it Sulphur I shall endeavour to explicate its effects the most sensibly I can according to the Rules of Chymistry The virtue of Opium consists in causing sleep and that by calming the motion of the Spirits for since watchfulness does proceed from the motion of the Spirits which by rarifying the humors in the little passages of the Brain do augment their Circulation it may surely be said with probability enough that sleep is caused by some condensation of the humors which happens from a repose of the Spirits in the Brain According to this Principle then there must be contained in Opium and all other Soporificks a certain substance that inviscates the Spirits and hinders them for some time from Circulating so fast as they did before Let us examine now whether any such thing can probably be found in Opium by the Analysis I have made of it first of all I have observed a Spirituous part but after that hath been drawn out by means of Rain-water there remains a gummous and terrestrious matter and this is the substance that I find so proper to produce this effect For nothing in Physick is so fit to thicken the bloud and other humors as things that are Mucilaginous Milk and the Emulsions which are drawn from divers seeds the Water-Lily Lettice nay and all temperate Aliments do frequently incline to sleep because they are impregnated with a gummous substance which mixing in the bloud does serve to agglutinate the Spirits and to moderate the quickness of their motion this now being supposed it is easie to conceive how Opium makes one sleep seeing it is loaded with Mucilaginous parts which may be conveighed into the vessels But without doubt
it will be here objected that Opium is full of subtile parts which on the contrary instead of condensing the Spirits must needs rarifie them and further that according to my discourse all sorts of Gummous matters should incline to sleep as well Opium which is a thing manifestly false In the first place I answer that the Spirits of Opium being actuated by the heat of the Stomach do serve to raise the Gummous part and to conduct it into the little passages of the Brain but having there introduced them they either fly away through their volatile nature or else condense with the moisture of the Brain The same thing happens after drinking any Spirituous liquor such as Wine Cyder or Beer for the Sulphureous Spirits of these liquors carrying along with them some phlegmatick parts do conduct them into the little vessels of the Brain or else do cause some Coagulation there whence it comes to pass that a man who is drunk commonly sleeps until the Spirits of the liquor he is intoxicated with are in part spent or evaporated out of his Brain In the second place I say that all Gummous or viscous things are not able to cause a sleepiness as Opium does because they have not equally the same proportion of volatile Spirits to convey them into the Brain They may indeed by giving more consistence to the bloud moderate its motion a little and excite some disposition to sleeping but it will not be done so quickly as by the means of Opium and they likewise do it with a great deal less force If you should mix volatile Spirits with the Gummous matters I now spoke of it would not follow that they would prove narcotick as Opium is because the Spirits not being capable of so strict an union with those matters as the Spirituous part of Opium has received with its viscous substance they would soon separate from one another in the stomach and the gummous matter would want a vehicle to convey it into the channels of the brain as would be requisite in order to cause sleep The viscous parts of Opium insinuating into the small channels of the brain do there produce a condensation or inspissation of the humors until by little and little new Spirits do draw together which by dissolving and rarifying this glue do carry it along with the bloud or other humors And then it is that the sleeping ceases a man finds himself awake as before Reason may be given why pains in many places are asswaged after the effect of Laudanum for these pains being caused by an agitation of the Spirits when these Spirits are condensed the pain consequently ceases And this Opium does perform exceeding well as I have said Those who fall into Deliriums in a continued Feaver do find themselves strangely relieved by the use of Opium by reason that the principal cause of this accident is an acrimonious salt which is got into the Brain and irritates its membranes Now Laudanum which is a viscous substance unites with these salts by means of its Sulphur and takes away their Acrimony It likewise stops the Dysentery the Flux of the menses and other Hemorrhagies by sweetning the acrimonious Salts which fomented them Lastly Opium may be said to be one of the greatest Remedies that we have when it is properly administred and in a reasonable dose but when it is given in too great a quantity it so thickens and glues the humors in the brain by its viscous parts that the Spirits which come afterwards to succour not being able to dissolve this viscosity are forced to stop and congeal likewise by little and little until at last they lose all their motion whence it comes to pass that many do dye upon the taking of Opium It is remarkable that many do so accustom themselves to the use of Opium that at last it is scarce able to make them sleep except when they take three or four times as much as is commonly given There are some men in France who can venture to take to a drachm and this quantity does no more in them than two grains in another It is well known that the Turks will take of it to the bigness of a hazle nut to fortifie themselves when they are going to fight The reason that they can do so is that Opium passing a great many times into the small vessels of the Brain hath in great measure dilated them So that finding the passages very large it makes little or no stop unless taken in a greater quantity than before for the Turks do not only accustom themselves to the taking of Opium by little and little but being of a hotter Temperament than we they supply more Spirits to the Brain for rarefaction of the humors which Opium might there have condensed If the Turks do find themselves fortified so soon as they have taken Opium it is by reason of these volatile Spirits which work in them much the same effect as the Spirits of Wine use to do with us Some have writ in opposition to what I have establish'd on this subject and say that if we have regard to the quantity of Narcotick vapours that may arise from a small dose of Opium it ought not to be imagined that those vapours should be able to shut the channels of the Spirits and humors which make a defluxion upon some part but that we should rather conclude the mitigation of pains and stopping of defluxions to proceed from a just proportion of the salt and sulphur of Opium and from the secret ferment they contain But this Objection will give us little trouble to answer when we consider that although the vapours caused by it are but few yet the vessels of the Brain in which the Animal Spirits do move are exceeding delicate and easie to be obstructed and that the too great activity of the Spirits which often fly into the diseased parts being thus abated by the viscous nature of Opium there must needs follow thereupon some ease and comfort without any need at all of admitting a stoppage of the vessels which contain the humors As for the proportion of salt and sulphur in Opium and the secret Ferment they pretend to acquaint us with in order to explicate this matter I know they are high terms indeed but illustrate the matter very little for though they say these salts and sulphurs do unite with Homogeneous particles that they meet with and destroy such as are the cause of the distemper yet we can never by this means obtain any clear Idea of that which makes Opium to be soporiferous Besides the virtue which Opium has to cause sleep I have observed that it is often Sudorifick I conceive this effect must not be attributed only to the volatile parts of this mixt which may be thought to operate this way after they are disingaged from its viscosity but rather to this that during sleep the inward vessels being as it were obstructed or in some manner coagulated and
the Spirits finding resistance in their passage do reflect or bend their motion to the outward parts and draw along with them some moisture through the pores That which confirms me in this opinion is the consideration that divers persons do use always to sweat when they are asleep though they have not taken any Opium at all Now it may happen that in the operation of Opium the Spirits finding more resistance within than they are wont may tend outwards with the more force and consequently incline to sweat more than in natural sleep Some prejudiced Chymist may not relish perhaps this my explication because I do not season it with salt enough and Sulphur and other principles but although the five principles which may be drawn from Vegetables may also be drawn from Opium I never use them but when they are necessary to explicate some effect for whensoever I find they cannot satisfie my reason nothing shall hinder me from pursuing my thoughts farther and searching otherwhere for some better explication In fine the Beauty of Chymistry does not consist in suiting our opinions to those of ordinary Chymists who resolving to explicate all the Events of nature by their Principles which they manage according to their own fashion do reject as ridiculous whatsoever does not agree with their Sentiments but it rather consists in examining and imitating what is done Naturally and so searching for reasons that are most probable and such as may be said to come nearest to truth though a man be fain to forsake the way that others have trod in CHAP. XVI Of Aloes ALoes is the thickned Juice of a Plant bearing the same name it grows in many Countries especially in Egypt whence it is brought to us the best is that which is called Hepatick and Succotrine because it bears the colour of a Liver and a great deal of it is brought from an Island of Persia called Soccotra the Hepatick is drawn by Incisions made on the Plant it is friable of an offensive smell and very bitter taste There is another sort of Aloes which doth not differ from the former but only in that being drawn by expression many Impurities are mixed with it it is compact heavy and smells not so strong as the other It is called Aloes Caballina because Farriers do use it most for their horses Aloes is not only used inwardly as I shall shew speaking of its Extract but it is also used outwardly in many Unguents and Plaisters that are detersive and discutient It s Tincture is also drawn with Spirit of Wine by the same method as I shall describe that of Myrrhe it is discutient detersive good against Gangrenes and to Incarnate it is used in Injections to dissolve gypsous humors and to cleanse wounds and old ulcers Extract of Aloes This Operation is an Aloes depurated from some feculencies which it contained Dissolve eight ounces of Aloes Succotrina in a sufficient quantity of Juice of Roses or a strong decoction of Violet Flowers let the dissolution settle five or six hours then decant it and when you have filtred it evaporate the liquor gently until the matter remains in the consistence of an Extract keep it in a pot 'T is a good Remedy to purge the stomach fortifying it withal the dose is from fifteen grains to a drachm in Pills it is likewise good to bring down the menstrua Remarks This Preparation is nothing but a Purification of Aloes into an Hepatick liquor Pills are made of this Extract and are called Pills of Frankfort and some do add to them Mastich Rhubarb and other Stomachick Ingredients it is the Basis of the Angelical Pills Aloetick Pills may be taken at meat or a little before meals they seldom purge till the next day Wherefore they have been called Pilulae ante cibum They bring the Hemorrhoids and Terms in that Aloes do rarefie the bloud by its Fermentative Salt and stimulates it out of the veins with great force The Extract of Aloes taken alone is pungent upon the stomach It is given immediately before meat that the aliments by their viscous quality may dull the keen operation of this remedy and so may serve as a Corrective to it CHAP. XVII Elixir Proprietatis THIS Operation is a Tincture of Myrrhe Aloes and Saffron drawn in the Spirits of wine and Sulphur Powder grosly and mix together two ounces of good Myrrhe the same of Aloes Succotrina and one ounce of good Saffron put this mixture into a Bolt-head and pour upon it Spirit of wine a fingers heighth above it stop well the bolt-head and let them digest two days then open it and add to it Spirit of sulphur until the liquor is four fingers above the matter shake it all well together and having fitted another bolt-head to the former in order to make a Circulating vessel set it in digestion in horse dung or such like heat the space of four days Then decant the liquor and strain it keep it in a bottle well stopt It is a very good remedy to fortifie the heart it purifies the bloud and works by sweat it is likewise good to help digestion to bring down the menses and in hysterical vapours the dose is from seven to twelve drops in some proper liquor Remarks The name Elixir has been given to many Infusions or Tinctures of spirituous bodies prepared in spirituous menstruum's They would express by this word a very pretious liquor or a Quintessence Paracelsus was the first who described this preparation Many others since him have changed some circumstances relating to it but all have tended to the same end which is to draw forth the Tincture of those three ingredients I have used but one ounce of Saffron because this little flower is very light and takes up a great deal of room Though we should use more of it the menstruum would receive no more than it does for there is as much in that quantity as is sufficient to fill the pores of the menstruum I do leave the ingredients to infuse two days in Spirit of wine all alone that only their more sulphureous part may be drawn by this Spirit The acid Spirit which is mixed afterwards being sweetned by the ramous parts of the Spirit of wine has only force remaining to load itself with the Tincture This mixture of Spirit of wine and Spirit of sulphur do give the Tincture a very pleasant smell and they have some cordial quality besides Wherefore I would not advise the changing this menstruum as some do by substituting in their place Spirit of Harts-horn If you would you might draw more Tincture from that which remains in the bolt-head but it will not be so strong nor so good as the first because it has already parted with its more volatile parts CHAP. XVIII Of Tabaco TAbaco called Nicotiana or Petum is a Plant with broad Leaves that grows abundantly in many places of America as Brazile and Peru but the best that is brought into France
and there will distil a liquor to the bottom of the vessel which you may take out and keep for use This is called the Oil of Myrrhe it is good to take away spots and blemishes in the face applied outwardly Remarks Though this liquor improperly called Oil is only the more soluble part of Myrrhe humected with the moisture of whites of Eggs and the Cellar together yet it is the best of any that have been invented whether you should draw it in Spirit of wine or distill this Gumm in a Retort for by Spirit of wine the more volatile part of Myrrhe is lost either by Distillation or Evaporation and it is so torrified in a Retort that it loses its best virtues whereas per Deliquium what volatile this Gumm contains is preserved in its natural being for the wet that mixes with it is no ways capable of destroying or altering its nature THE THIRD PART Of Animals CHAP. I. Of the Viper PAssing by the fabulous Stories that the Ancients have left us concerning the Birth of the Viper I shall say it is a sort of Serpent that comes into the world by eating through the belly of her Dam and killing her whence she is called Vipera quòd vi pariat This Animal is very common in Dauphiné and Poictou from whence it is carried all over France While it is in the field it feeds upon several little Animals but when taken and shut up in any place it may be kept a whole Summer without eating any thing at all provided it hath Air enough to breath in The reason why they can live so long without eating is doubtless that the pores of their skin being so exceeding narrow as they do appear to be upon examination very few of their Spirits do come to be lost wherefore they have little need of successive nourishment to beget new ones as other animals have who spend abundance of Spirits 'T is good to take Vipers in the Spring or Autumn because then they are fattest and in greatest vigour The Cold kills ' em They differ from other Serpents in that they never grow so much they have two Teeth on the sides of their Jaws and those very long in comparison with a great many little ones that are round about and the Gum of each of those long Teeth is full of a Yellowish Juyce in which many do think their venom consists now Serpents have none of those long Teeth but only little ones Again they differ in that being taken up by the Tails they can't wind themselves like Serpents to make such circumvolutions about the Arm or thing that holds them and this by reason of the different connexion of their Vertebra's When the Viper is irritated it shoots out a forked tongue which looks like a little fire-brand by reason of the vigorous motion of its Spirits those who never had seen the teeth of the Viper do think this is that which causes all the mischief but the tongue is not at all venomous Some do save the tongue to wear about their neck instead of an Amulet in order to preserve them from the effects of ill airs Serpents do likewise thrust out their tongues as the Viper does But here it may be good to advertise you by the by that those things which are brought to us from Maltha for the tongues of petrified Serpents are nothing but the teeth of a fish which that Countrey affords The biting of Vipers is more dangerous than that of other Serpents but the most quick and assured Remedy that can be used upon it is to crush the head of the Animal and lay it on the wound because by opening of the pores it lets out the venomous Spirits that were got in The bit person may likewise take the volatile salt of Vipers as I shall shew hereafter It is not yet sufficiently known wherein consists the venom of Vipers nor can any good substantial reason be given of the accidents which happen after the biting Most men think this malignity consists in the enraged spirits And this is the opinion of Van Helmont and Poterius according to the relation of Zwelfer in his Remarks upon the Augustan Dispensatory where he treats of the Troches of Vipers He saith there have been a great many eminent men who have confirmed this opinion with curious observations on the bitings of enraged Animals particularly of Man of the Cat Wolf Horse Dog Weasil c. And among others Fabritius Hildanus in his Chirurgical Operations to whose proofs he thinks nothing further can be added to confirm the truth of this opinion If accidents saith he do happen that are sometimes more severe and sometimes less they must be attributed only to more or less provocation and anger or sometimes to a more profound or slighter biting of these Animals This opinion seems likewise to have been confirmed by some experiments which Monsieur Charas relates in his book of Vipers where he shews not only that the enraged Spirits are the sole poison of the Viper but also pretends that the Yellow Juice which is found in the hollow part of the Jaw wherein the great tooth is fastned and was supposed to be the venom of this Animal is no such matter for having poured some of this liquor on the wounds of several beasts not one of them died nay further that those persons who had ventured to taste it never found any inconvenience from it Nevertheless Monsieur Redy in a particular Treatise on the Viper will not grant the truth of these experiments On the contrary he maintains that having put some of this Yellow juice into the wounds of divers sorts of Animals they soon died upon it and thence concludes that the venom of Vipers consists in the Yellow juice and not in the enraged Spirits only as the others have thought he taking this cause alone to be too Metaphysical And in truth who would believe that the Idea which this Animal forms when he finds himself provoked should be able to imprint on the Spirits qualities so malignant Now in so great an opposition of Opinions and Experiments a certain great man of these times found a way to reconcile them by affirming that the Yellow juice of Vipers did produce different effects according to the several places where these Animals lived so that Monsieur Redy might have found the Yellow juice to be venomous in Italy whereas in France where the Climate is not so hot this juice doth not produce any poisonous quality unless it be quickned by the Angry Spirits of the Viper which gives it a sufficient penetration Others do confidently assure us they have seen several Animals in France die soon after they had put some of this Yellow liquor into the wounds they had made for that purpose which very much favours the assertion of Monsieur Redy Furthermore as for what is related that in France people have ventured to taste this Yellow liquor without any harm I find this not to be a convincing proof
that it is no poison for although Spirit of Vitriol for example or some other acid does not prove mortal when taken inwardly nevertheless if the same quantity should be syringed into the veins the Animal falls presently into Convulsions and dies Now as that which caused the Spirit of Vitriol taken inwardly not to be Poison was this the acids do become weak through the mixture of the Saliva and before ever they come to mix in the Mass of bloud their parts do receive so great an alteration from the ferment of the places they must pass through that they are able to do nothing else at most but cool the Body so the same may be said of the Yellow liquor of the Viper when it is tasted of that besides its mixture with the liquors of the mouth and stomach it receives divers alterations from the ferments of the places it must pass through before it enters into the mass of bloud Many do likewise think that the venom of Vipers hath its chief seat in the Gall and thence is easily transported to the Gums when they are angry nevertheless in the Anatomy of this Animal there 's no passage found capable of such a translation I know very well that the pores of living bodies may be said to be so open that all manner of liquors may be presumed to pass through them but yet no mischievous effect is discovered to proceed from the Viper's Gall when given inwardly for it only causes sweat Lastly others will have the Viper's venom to be dispersed over all its body And those who think thus do advise us to whip these Animals in a warm bason to drive their venom into the extremities of the body before we cut as is usually done their heads two fingers below and their tails two fingers above after that to flea off the skin and take out the bowels and then boil the body in water wherein are added Salt and Dill to correct as they say the remaining malignity When the flesh is tender it is to be separated from the bones then to eight ounces of this flesh beaten into a Paste in a marble mortar are added two ounces of bread dried and powdered and Troches made of it which being dried are kept for use But this long preparation is seldom used since Experience hath taught us that no part of a dead Viper is at all poisonous The Head and Tail dried and powdered may be taken instead of a Cordial as well as the rest of the body I can likewise assure you upon my own experience that the Tooth of a dead Viper is no ways venomous having by chance been prickt my self till the bloud came whilst I was a handling the heads of Vipers newly kill'd that I had a mind to dry and there did not follow the least ill accident from it Furthermore by this Coction the Vipers flesh is deprived of its volatile salts which gave its greatest virtue for they dissolve in the broth which is flung away and only the Faeces remain wherein there hardly rests so much Cordial virtue as there does in the bread which is mixed for a Corrective But there is no need I should enlarge my self further on this subject because these Observations are sufficiently delivered in the Augustan Pharmacopoeia Wherefore I do conceive it to be much better to use the Powder of Vipers newly made than the Troches To make this Powder well it is good to chuse Vipers when they are in the prime of their strength the Females that are full of Eggs or young ones are not so good as the others their heads are to be cut off their skins thrown by and their bowels taken out and so they are set a drying in the shade to be afterwards powdered in a mortar But because this Powder is hard to keep in that worms do breed in it it will be good to make it into a Paste with a sufficient quantity of the mucilage of Gum Tragacanth so form it into Troches to dry them and powder them when there is occasion to use them and thus it keeps good a long time This Powder is given in the Small pox Malignant Feavers and all other maladies where Alexipharmicks are required and the humors are to be purified by Perspiration the dose is from eight grains to thirty in broth or some other convenient liquor The Heart and Liver are dried in the Sun and powdered together and this Powder called Animal Bezoar hath the same virtues as the body of the Viper only it is given in a little lesser dose The Gall of Vipers provokes Sweat the dose is a drop or two in Carduus water The fat that is found in them is melted then strained for to separate it from the membranes it sticks to it is as clear as Oil. Several Countries do use it in the Small-pox and in Feavers The dose is from one drop to six in broth or some other convenient liquor It likewise enters into the composition of some Plaisters and into discutient unguents Distillation of Vipers This Operation is a separation of the phlegm the volatile salt and the Oil of Vipers from its earth Take twelve dozen of Vipers dried in the shade as I said before put them into an earthen Retort or glass one Coated place it in a Reverberatory furnace fit to it a great capacious Receiver and luting the joints close begin the distillation with a small fire to warm the Retort gently and drive out a phlegmatick water drop by drop when you see no more drops to fall encrease the fire a little and Spirits will come forth which will fill the Receiver with white Clouds you will see at last a black oil come and the volatile salt stick to the sides of the Receiver Continue the fire until there comes no more after which let the vessels cool and unlute them Shake about the Receiver a little to loosen the volatile salt from the sides and pour it all into a Bolt-head fit to it a head and a small Receiver and lute the joints with a wet bladder you must set your vessel in Sand and with a gentle fire under it the volatile salt will sublime and stick to the head and uppermost part of the bolt-head separate it and keep it in a viol well stopt It is one of the best medicins we have in Physick it is good in Malignant Feavers and Agues the Pox Apoplexy Epilepsie Palsie Hysterical Maladies and the bitings of all venomous Beasts the dose is from six to sixteen grains in some proper Liquor Pour that which remains in the bolt-head into a Tunnel lined with brown paper the Spirit and phlegm will pass through and the stinking Oil remain behind Hysterical women may smell to this last to allay vapours and Paralytical parts may be anointed therewith but its smell is so offensive that it is hard to endure it Pour the Spirit and Phlegm mixed confusedly together into an Alembeck and distil in a vaporous Bath about half
the liquor you 'l have a Spirit that must be kept well stopt it hath the same virtues as the Salt the dose is from ten to thirty drops The Phlegm must be flung away If that which remains in the Retort is Calcined in an open fire and a Lixivium made of it as I said concerning fixt Alkali Salts a small quantity of fixt Salt will remain which nevertheless hath no more virtue than other Alkali Salts I spoke of before The volatile salts of Harts-horn the bloud Skull Nails Hair and other parts of Animals may be drawn after the same manner Remarks The Receiver must be sure to be large enough that the Spirits may circulate with greater ease the fire must likewise be well managed for these Spirits being forced out too fast do rush forth violently and break the Receiver or else are lost through the joints The Phlegm comes before the other Principles in the first distillation but in the Rectification the Volatile Salt rises first because it is at liberty and is lighter than the Phlegm The Spirit which is drawn from Animals by Chymistry is nothing but a volatile salt dissolved in Phlegm Your vessel for sublimation must be very high that the Volatile Salt may rise without any Phlegm for when the vessel is short the Phlegm riseth with the Volatile salt liquifies it and turns it into Spirit A bolt-head or a long body with its head may serve for this Operation because the Phlegm being too heavy cannot mount so high and therefore leaves the Volatile Salt to sublime alone which may nevertheless be Rectified to become more pure you must mix it with the distilled Spirit and repeat the Sublimation according as I have said but because this Salt always carries along with it a small quantity of Oil a few days afterwards it loses its whiteness and turns Yellowish now to avoid that you must pour upon it when it is in the bottle Spirit of Wine Tartarised one fingers height and so keep it well stopt This Spirit of Wine hinders the salt from dissolving its self and the Oil it contained so that after some days it turns red and the salt grows white when it is to be used the Spirit is decanted from it and the Salt left alone by means of this Lotion it loses a little of its former smell but care must be taken that the Spirit of Wine be well Rectified for if there remained any the least Phlegm the Salt would dissolve in it You may also sublime it again as before after having well washt it in Spirit of Wine it will be dry and very fair There is another way of Rectifying the Volatile salt which is by mixing it with four or five times as much bones or horns burnt white and putting the mixture into a glass or earthen body then fitting to it a blind-head or such a one whose Nose has not been opened after that luting well the joints then setting the vessel in sand and with a gentle fire the Volatile salt will rise and stick to the head you must continue the fire until there rises no more This salt is hereby purified from a great deal of its Oil which remains in the powder of Bones wherefore it becomes whiter than it was and pleasanter to the palate It may again be mixt with other Calcined bones and sublimed as before to render it purer still and take away more of its loathsome smell that 's caused partly by the Empyreumatical oyl that it draws along with it in the distillation The Volatile salt dissolved in a little water Crystallizes like Sugar-Candy and then it is easier to keep than before There can be drawn from Animals but a very little quantity of fixt salt because the Spirits which abound in them do volatilize their salt for which reason this volatile salt keeps dry longer than that of Vegetables The virtue of Animals doth principally consist in their Volatile salt it is that which gives meat its savour that makes Broths strong and turns them into a Gelly according as they do abound more or less The Juscula Consummata which are made with a small fire are better than those that are boiled quick because a strong fire carries away good part of the Volatile salts Volatile Salts do rarifie the humors of the body both by reason of their piercing nature and also in that being Alkalis they do dull the strength of Acids which keep the humors condensed after which the bloud being in greater motion than before doth the more easily purifie it self either by perspiration or by Urine from heterogeneous bodies which were there gathered together This Operation may serve to shew how the Volatile Salt of all Animals or any part of them may be drawn When the Volatile Salt of Bloud is to be drawn that of the best colour must be taken and dried in the Sun or else with a very little fire and so distilled like Vipers If you distil two and thirty ounces of shavings of Harts-horn you 'l draw thirteen ounces of liquor and Volatile salt and there will remain in the Retort nineteen ounces of matter as black as Coal You 'l draw from the liquor an ounce and a half of Volatile salt six ounces of Spirit and two ounces of Black oil The black matter being grinded on a Marble is good for Painters use if you Calcine it the fuliginous parts which make it black will fly away and leave the Harts-horn very white you 'l have sixteen ounces of it and this is called burnt Harts-horn It is accounted a Cordial but indeed has no other virtue than to destroy acids as all other alkali matters do Some do stratifie Harts-horn with Bricks and Calcining it that way they call it Harts-horn prepared Philosophically they account it more Cordial than it was before but they are egregiously mistaken for the Volatile salt and oil which were the things that should render it Cardiacal were carried away in the Calcination and there remains only a Terrestrious matter that may be called a Caput mortuum Notwithstanding it is an alkali which may serve as Crabs-eyes Coral and divers other matters of the like nature which absorb acids the Bricks bestow no virtue at all to it If you distil forty ounces of Ivory you will draw thirteen ounces of liquor and volatile salt and there will remain in the Retort six and twenty ounces of a matter as black as Coal Afterwards by the Rectification you will get two ounces and a drachm of Volatile salt one ounce and five drachms of a stinking black oil five ounces of Spirit and four ounces two drachms of phlegm If you Calcine the black pieces which remain in the Retort in an open fire the soot will leave them and they will burn white this is called burnt Ivory or Spodium it has the same virtues as burnt Harts-horn you will have at least twenty ounces of it It is here remarkable that Ivory does contain much more earth than Harts-horn and
doubtless that is the reason why it is the whiter If you distil twelve ounces of Hair you will obtain eight ounces of liquor and volatile salt There will remain in the Retort three ounces and a half of a black matter very spongy and earthy from which no fixed salt can be drawn And by Rectification you will raise into the Head an ounce and seven drachms of a very fine volatile salt separate by a filter three ounces of a black and very fetid oil and by distillation of that which is filtrated you 'l have two ounces of Spirit and nine drachms of phlegm All Volatile salts have much resemblance in their figure smell and taste but that of Vipers is accounted the most active and proper against Poisons those of Harts-horn and Mans Skull are thought to be better than others for the Epilepsie that of mans bloud to purifie the bloud and so of the rest When you Rectifie the Spirit of Vipers or man's Skull or Harts-horn or hair in order to purifie them from their phlegm if you should let the liquor continue distilling longer than is fitting the phlegm will rise after the Spirit but then it separates from the Spirit as water separates from oil the Spirit will be uppermost and a little troubled and whitish but if you keep these two liquors together for a month the whole will mix together and there will be no longer any separation of them at all These effects do happen from this that the Spirit in rising does carry with it some small quantity of Oil which was dissolved in the liquor by reason of salts that it contains This Oil is very volatile it rises with the Spirit and by rendring the Spirit a little oily it hinders at first the phlegm from mixing with it It is likewise this little quantity of oil which makes the Spirit look a little troubled and whitish but when the Spirit and phlegm are kept a good while together they mix and the whole appears like a homogeneous liquor because there being but little oil in the Spirit the phlegm insensibly enters into and incorporates with it wherefore you must take care to separate the Spirit from the phlegm so soon as ever you take the Receiver from the nose of the head in case you have suffered the liquor to distil too long What I have now spoken of does not happen in the Rectification of the Spirit of Ivory and without doubt the reason is that the Ivory does not contain so much Oil as the other parts of Animals Some do prepare a Sudorifick water with Vipers after this manner They do put the Vipers alive into a great earthen body they fit to it a head with its Receiver they lute the joints and distil in a Balneum all that will rise from it but you must take care that the head be well fastned to the body for when the Vipers begin to be heated they leap and fling about with so much violence that they would otherwise throw it down and get out of their stove And then the Artist must have a care of himself and not be too bold for these creatures being irritated would fling about on every side and a bite of theirs at that time would be twice as dangerous as at another This water which rises whilest the Vipers are in their greatest fury is Sudorifick because some Volatile salts have risen and mixed with it You may give of it from a drachm to half an ounce in some proper liquor But to avoid the forementioned danger you might cut the Vipers in pieces before you put them into the body and because these pieces of them do retain life a long time the water will be little the worse for their not being intire When you have drawn as much water from them as you can by the heat of a Balneum you must put the remainder of the Vipers into a Retort and distil it as I have shewn before you will thereby have the Volatile salt the Spirit and the Oyl CHAP. II. Distillation of Vrine and its Volatile Salt THIS Operation is a separation of the Spirit the Volatile Salt and the Oil of Vrine from the phlegm and the earth which it contains Take ten or twelve quarts of Vrine newly made by sound young men evaporate it in an earthen or glass Cucurbite in a Sand-heat until it remains in the consistence of Honey then fit a head with its Receiver and luting the junctures close continue a small fire to distil the rest of the phlegm after which encrease it by little and little and the Spirits will rise in Clouds carrying with them a little Oil and after that the Volatile salt which will stick to the head like Butter-flies continue the fire until there comes no more then unlute the Vessels and separating the Volatile salt put it into a bolt-head pour likewise into it the Spirit that is in the Receiver and fit a blind-head to the bolt-head lute the junctures with a wet bladder and setting your bolt-head in Sand sublime with a small fire all the Volatile salt as I have shewed concerning that of Vipers separate this Salt and keep it in a Viol well stopt It is a good Remedy for Quartan Agues and Malignant Feavers it opens all Obstructions and works both by Vrine and Sweat the dose is from six to sixteen grains in some convenient liquor filtrate that which remains in the bolt-head the Spirit will pass through the Filter whilst a small quantity of black and extraordinary stinking Oil remains which is good to discuss cold Tumors and to give to Hysterical women to smell to You may distil the Spirit in a Sand-heat to separate it from a thick matter that remains at bottom it hath the same virtues as the Salt it is given from eight to twenty drops in some proper vehicle Two drachms of it are mixed with two ounces of Spirit of Wine to rub Paralytical parts with it is likewise used for cold pains and for the Sciatica If the Mass that remains in the Cucurbite should be Calcined and a Lixivium made of it with water a very small quantity of fixt Alkali salt might be gotten from evaporating the water and it hath the same virtues as other Alkali salts Remarks The Vrine of young men is to be prefer'd before others because it contains more Salt It must be newly made and evaporated with a gentle fire that the Fermentation or too much heat may not cause the Volatile Salts to rise with the phlegm The Spirit is only a Volatile salt dissolved in a little phlegm this Volatile salt works more by Vrine than any of the rest but its smell is more offensive This Remedy must never be given in Broth for Broth being to be taken hot the heat evaporates some of the volatile salts before it can well be taken A Volatile salt may be drawn from Vrine after setting it some months Fermenting in a Vessel close stopt and then a third part of the Liquor
must be distilled with a gentle fire it is in this distilled Vrine that the Volatile salt will be found exalted by the Fermentation Rectifie this liquor again three or four times throwing away each Distillation the Phlegm that remains at the bottom of the Cucurbite then putting your Spirit of Vrine into a Matrass with its head sublime the Volatile Salt as I shewed before Some do add to it Salt-peter This Salt is of a more penetrating nature than the other but a great deal of time is required to make it The Phosphorus It is a luminous matter distilled from Vrine that has been fermented Take a good quantity of humane urine let it ferment or putrifie in the air in an open vessel three or four months then pour it into earthen pans and evaporate it over the fire until the remaining matter comes to the consistence of thick honey put this matter into an earthen body that can endure the fire and is big enough to be left at least half empty place your body in a furnace fit to it a glass head with its receiver and having well luted the joints give it a little fire for two or three hours to distil some phlegmatick Spirits which still remained in the matter after which you must encrease the fire by little and little to the third degree there will rise some small quantity of Volatile Salt which will stick to the head and some black oil which will fall into the receiver continue a good coal fire until there comes no more Oil let the vessels cool and having taken off the receiver pour the liquor you find in it into a Tunnel lined with brown paper the Spirit and phlegm will pass through and the oil will remain in the filter put the oil into an earthen pan and in a mild sand-heat dry it until it comes to be as thick as an ointment take off the head and you will find in the body a black spongey mass which you are to separate from the solid compact matter which remains at bottom powder your spongey matter and mix it with the dried black oyl put it into an earthen retort set it in a Reverberatory furnace fit to it a large capacious receiver and luting well the joints give it a small fire to heat insensibly the Retort then increase it by little and little a Volatile salt will come forth which will stick to the sides of the receiver and a little oil with it increase the fire to the last degree of violence and you will perceive a white Fume which after it has circulated in the receiver will likewise stick to the receiver and will be of a yellow colour this is the PHOSPHORVS continue the fire in its greatest vigour four or five hours or until no more will come into the retort Let the vessels grow cold then unlute them throw water into the receiver and having shook it sufficiently about to loosen that which was glu'd to its sides pour it all into a large glass vessel and leave it to settle the volatile salt will dissolve in the water but the matter of the Phosphorus and the oil will precipitate to the bottom decant the water and having gathered the matter together put it into a little glass vessel add to it a little water and place the vessel in sand give it a digestive heat and stir the matter gently with a wooden spatule the Phosphorus will separate from the oil and sink to the bottom you may make it up into little sticks whilst it is hot by putting of it into the neck of a very little bolt-head and taking it out when it is cold then keep it stopt in a little bottle filled with water for without water to preserve it it would spend it self and be lost in fumes To make PHOSPHORVS liquid you must scrape or break off a piece of it put it into a viol and pour upon it the clear Essence of Cloves to the height of one finger stop the viol close and set it two days in digestion in horse-dung stirring it from time to time to help the solution of the matter after that take your viol and keep it you have in it the liquid PHOSPHORVS All the matter will not have dissolved some part of it will remain at bottom Remarks The word Phosphorus comes from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Lucifer or the Morning-Star Of them there are the Natural and the Artificial the Natural are such as Glow-worms Rotten wood and many others The Artificial are made with the Bolonian stone with chalk with urine with bloud and with divers other sulphureous matters The Bolonian stone was one of the first Artificial Phosphorus that has been known it takes its name from the Town in Italy where it was made he that did prepare it is dead without leaving the knowledge of his Secret insomuch that no body 'till the present has been able sufficiently to imitate it he did calcine it for a certain time and perhaps after such a manner as we are still ignorant of then exposing it to the air it yielded a great light in the dark which by little and little grew weaker and weaker This Stone is bituminous and full of Sulphur which is the thing that gives it this disposition to shine in the dark but because its sulphur is spent by little and little it comes at length to be opake like another stone When it has not been calcined enough it yields no light at all because the sulphureous parts have not been put into sufficient motion and when it is calcined too much these sulphureous parts are thereby lost therefore a medium is to be observed which no body has yet been able to hit The Germans being very curious and industrious in Chymical concerns have found out several kinds of Phosphorus and I do not doubt but upon working further upon this subject much may still be done Among those who have particularly applied themselves to it Balduinus a German has invented a sort of Phosphorus whose description I shall give anon Kunkelius a Saxon has written very well upon it and workt to good effect Daniel Kraff a German Chymist is the first inventor of the Phosphorus which is drawn from Urine he gives it the consistence of a paste or of a liquor as he pleases and the Honourable Mr. Boyle of London to whom all the ingenious have so much obligation put forth a Treatise in English about three or four years ago called Noctiluca Aeria full of abundance of Experiments and most Curious Remarks which he has made upon this Phosphorus he likewise found the way to give it a solid consistence and a little while since he put forth the same Treatise in Latin enlarged above half with new Experiments and Observations on the same subject You must provide a great quantity of Urine for this Operation for a great deal is necessary to draw a little luminous matter from The vessel in which it is put to
when the Phosphorus is not so hot as in the first Experiment and when it is not altogether so cold as in the second the alteration of the least circumstance quite alters the Experiment but the same things always happens in proportion with those already described We made another Experiment thus we put a little piece of the solid Phosphorus into a crystal vessel and we poured upon it a very fixt acid liquor I think it was Oil of Vitriol a great fume arose from the mixture we stopt the bottle with paper and stirred the matter several times after having left it some hours in digestion We lookt upon it in the dark and it appeared luminous though it were stopt and it has still been alike luminous from about two months ago until the present Indeed the light of it is not so great as is that of the Phosphorus but it keeps a much longer time That which is surprizing in these Experiments is that the air does sometimes make the Phosphorus shine and sometimes not Now to explicate this difficulty I do say that in the first Experiment the greatest part of the luminous matter of the Phosphorus did fly out of the bottle into the receiver and that that which remained in the bottle after it was separated from the receiver being deprived of its most subtle sulphurs was not able to give so great a light as before nevertheless the matter still retaining a little warmth there did rise from it enough particles to give a light when the bottle was unstopt but because by the cold the little bodies do condense and lose very much of their motion this Phosphorus likewise loses much of its strength and gives but a languid or weak light When the air was drawn out of the bottle the matter lookt very light and when the air was let to it again it went out the reason whereof is that the light being weak could not preserve its self but with a convenient proportion of air and there was some remaining still in the bottle for though the air be never so much pumped out of the vessel there will still remain a little behind The Phosphorus loses its light by the usual great quantity of air as a little candle will be put out by being exposed to the wide air or a small fire will soon go out when too great a wind blows strongly upon it So long as the Phosphorus sends forth a great many vapours a good deal of air is requisite to make it appear luminous and a little air will not be sufficient Wherefore when the Phosphorus was hot it would not shine until the bottle was unstopt but when it was cold it sent forth only weak vapors wherefore then a very little air sufficed to make it shine and when it received too much it was thereby suffocated The last Experiment made in the little Crystal bottle does further very well prove my explication the fixt acid liquor which was poured upon the Phosphorus did slacken the motion of its parts so that from that time they could not display their light with so much vigour as they did wherefore a very little sufficed to continue its light so that the paper-stopple served to give it sufficient air but when the bottle was stopt closely with its Crystal stopple no more light was seen for some time afterwards because that stopple did wholly hinder the entrance of air It is likewise the fixing of the Volatile parts of the Phosphorus which preserves the light so long for the matter having now less motion than before it was fixed its parts do come to be dissipated with the more leasure But you will tell me that the great fume which exhaled from it when the acid liquor was poured upon the Phosphorus is rather a sign of a greater than less dissipation of parts I grant that when this acid acts upon the matter there is at that time a considerable exaltation of parts but I say also that when this great motion is once over that which remains is in much less agitation than it was and you must observe that the strong acids such as Oil of Vitriol and Spirit of Niter upon being mixed with Spirit of Wine do cause a much like fume as this and yet afterwards the Spirit of Wine is much less volatile than it was Again the light of the Phosphorus which is in the little crystal bottle that is stopt may be said to be partly caused by an air which is produced by a kind of fermentation for doubtless there is some little action between the acid and the matter I find therefore that there is a parity of reason in the explication of the light which appeared in the viol after the air was pumped out of it and that which is seen in the little crystal bottle stop'd It is further remarkable that this same Phosphorus which went quite out when air was let into it by means of the Pneumatick Engine yet did not altogether lose its light when it received the air the common way that is to say meerly by unstopping the bottle whereof the reason is this the air that is communicated from the Air-pump comes in with a great force and violence through the pipe and so may very well put out the light of the Phosphorus which the air that has its ordinary motion is not able to do after the same manner as a candle lighted is much sooner put out when exposed to a blast of wind than when it is set in a place where the air is quiet From considering all the kinds of Phosphorus both Natural and Artificial and the Experiments that have been made upon them I cannot but conclude that the general cause of the light they give does proceed from a very great agitation of insensible parts and whereas it is very probable that fire is only a very violent motion of little bodies round their center the parts of our Phosphorus may be said to have received the same determination by the fermentations it has undergone for Wood never shines in the dark until it is become rotten that is to say until it has undergone a sufficient fermentation to make its most subtile parts move nimbly round their center The Bolonian stone is not luminous until it has been calcined a certain time in order to excite a motion of its parts The Viper being irritated darts forth its tongue with so much quickness that it appears all on fire Many little creatures such as some kinds of Caterpillars and Woodlice do shine in the night because they have a matter so exceeding subtile towards their tail that it produces a sort of fire and it is for the same reason of the motion of parts that Vrine does become luminous That which gave occasion to the working upon Vrine for the making of the Phosphorus was that in some little holes of the earth wherein there had been standing-puddles of Vrine a light had been observed to be seen at nights But you
more effectual Sometimes a little Wax is found in the receiver which came with the Spirit from the Honey in the distillation CHAP. IV. Distillation of Wax THIS Operation is a separation of the Oil of Wax from the Phlegm and Salt Melt two pounds of Yellow Wax in an earthen pan and mix with it three or four pounds of potters earth powdered or so much as is requisite to make a Paste of it form it into little pellets and put them into an earthen Retort or glass one Coated a third of which remains empty place this Retort in a Reverberatory Furnace fit to it a Receiver and luting the joints give a small fire at first and there will come forth Phlegm then a Spirit encrease the fire a little and a liquor will distil that congeals in the Receiver like Butter continue the fire till nothing more comes forth then unlute the joints separate the Spirit mixed with Phlegm from the Butter and keep it in a Viol well stopt It is a good opener the dose is from ten drops to twenty in raddish water or some other appropriate liquor Some do use the Butter of Wax to discuss tumors rather than the Oil that I am going to describe Melt the Butter of Wax in an earthen pan and make a paste of it with sufficient quantity of potters-earth powdered form this paste into little pellets put them into a glass retort set your retort in a Sand-heat fit to it a Receiver and luting the joints begin the distillation with a small fire a great many Spirits will come forth mixed with Phlegm after which encrease it a little and a clear yellow Oil will come having distil'd about three ounces of it change the Receiver for that which comes at last is as thick as Butter It may be Rectified with other clay or potters-earth and it will change into as transparent an Oil as the other Separate the Oil from the Spirit and keep it in a Viol. It is a good discutient for Tumors and Cold pains it is mixed in Unguents and Oils for that purpose The Oil of Wax may be rectified several other times to make it still clearer than before Remarks The solid consistence of Wax doth proceed from a proportionate mixture of Water Volatile Salt and Oil united and incorporated together wherefore its solidity comes to be destroyed according as the Principles do suffer a separation and this is easily observed in the Rectifications for in every distillation that is made some considerable quantity of water is separated and the Oil does likewise become clearer The Clay serves only to separate the parts of Wax and to rarifie it the more If by way of curiosity you desire to know exactly what quantity of liquor or Spirit can be drawn from Wax you must dry your Clay as much as you can or else use in its place broken pots or Bricks powdered which are not at all wet out of three and twenty ounces of Wax you 'l draw in the first distillation just the same weight of liquor to wit twelve ounces of Phlegmatick Spirit and the rest is a Butter in the second and third distillation you 'l draw fourteen ounces of Spirit and six ounces of clear Oil. Spirit of Wax is only a small quantity of acid Volatile salt dissolved in Phlegm but you must not believe what some have written that having distilled a considerable quantity of Wax and put that which was drawn into a Bolt-head they could sublime the Volatile salt like others of that nature For this salt though it be indeed Volatile yet it is not Volatile enough to rise before the Phlegm it is an acid salt much like unto that of Ambar but is not of the nature of Volatile alkali's which are known to sublime so easily it were better therefore to keep this Spirit as it is or else to evaporate about half of it with a very mild heat that it may be the stronger The Volatile salts of many sulphureous matters are drawn acid as they are in the mixt because being clothed with soft and ramous parts which give way easily to their motion they do not break their natural keenness by endeavouring to separate when they are forced to it by fire and so they do not receive so much terrestrious and firy matter as is requisite to make them porous like Volatile alkali's This Operation and that of the Distillation of Ambar which I have described do much confirm what I said before in my Remarks upon the Principle that all the salt of mixt bodies is naturally acid and that alkali is nothing else but an alteration of the Natural Salt made by fire Besides all sorts of Experiments do seem to me to confirm and establish this opinion but yet I am not so peremptory in the vindication of it but that I would gladly give place to another if I could be shewed that it is better than mine for I seek after nothing so much as to discover truth FINIS THE INDEX A ACID what Page 24 How different Crystals are drawn with different acids 188 That acids drawn by violent fires do much differ from the natural 287 How they do become able both to dissolve and to coagulate 453 That they will preserve bodies from corruption 455 That Digestion and Hunger are not so mnch beholding to acids as is commonly thought 456 457 Acid and Alkali not the only cause of ebullition 302 342 Aes ustum 123 Alchymy well defined 58 Alkaest 309 Alkali whence so called 22 What it is 25 Aloes 477 Roch-Alom 350 Alom-water 352 Alumen Saccharinum 350 Burnt-Alom 351 Amalgamation of Gold 65 Ambar 363 Ambargrease 372 Antimony 202 What renders it emetick 203 206 Its emetick quality drawn better in wine than other liquors 207 The violence of Antimonial vomits to be conquered with Cream of Tartar 231 Antimony Calcined in the Sun increases in weight 228 229 Antimonial Cup 205 Antimonium Diaphoreticum whether sudorifick 224 That it is not an alkali 225 Cinnaber of Antimony 234 Regulus of Antimony increased in weight by Calcination 208 What gives the form of a star to its Martial Regulus 212 Glass of Antimony why more emetick than its other preparations 217 How it may be corrected ib. What gives it vitrification 216 Sulphur of Antimony 236 Our Golden Sulphur of Antimony different from that of the antients 210 Aqua Regalis why it dissolves Gold and cannot dissolve Sylver 313 c. Aqua secunda 77 Arcanum Corallinum 193 Arsenick 244 What to be done when this poison happens to be taken 2inwardly 246 B Balm distilled 404 Balsom of Sulphur anisated 357 Bath-waters their heat explicated 140 Benjamin 491 Animal Bezoar 511 Bismuth 101 Bolonian stone 525 Butter of Saturn 111 C Camphire 494 How it comes to be an Amulet in Agues ib. Carduus Benedictus distilled 406 Chylification explicated 356 Cerusse 106 Cineres Clavellati 433 Cinnaber of Antimony 234 Anatomized 235 Cinnamon 389 how it differs from Cassia lignea 390 Cloves 399
263 how possibly they grow in our bodies 268 Succinum or Ambar 363 Sublimate Corrosive often counterfeited and how to be discovered 177 Its Corrosion much greater than that of Arsenick 182 How from so great a Poison it comes to be so mild as it is in Mercurius dulcis 185 Suffocation of the Matrix explicated 368 Sugar whence its sweetness is derived 243 410 how made 408 Sugar-candy how made 409 Sulphur 353 Its Flowers how made white 354 Its Milk 355 That half the quantity of its Milk or Magistery is as effectual as double the quantity of its Flowers 357 Its Spirit suspected in diseases of the breast 360 Its Salt why so much more acid then tartarum vitriolatum 362 Sulphur vivum 353 Sylver 74 how made or counterfeited by Alchymists 55 The difference between Plate-sylver and Coppel sylver 79 Its Crystals how Revived 82 Its Calx how Revived 86 Sympathetical powder its preparation and use and its operation explicated 334 335 336 The authors candid judgment of it 337 Syrop of Mars 148 T Tabaco 481 An Experiment made upon its Oil 483 Tartar 433 Its Cream and Crystals 434 Why its Crystals will not dissolve in cold water 435 No true Volatile Salt to be drawn from it 443 A quick way of making its Salt 445 That water thrown upon Tartar newly Calcined gives it a heat and ebullition like Quicklime 445 How its Salt mixed with distilled waters will make them look green 447 That its Salt will cause a flame after the manner as does Salt-peter when thrown upon kindled coals 449 Chymical Terms explicated 40 Tinctures how made 501 Turpentine 488 Tynn 92 V Venereal disease its venom proved to be an Acid 168 169 Verdigrease how made 127 Vermilion 157 Vinegar how made 429 That common Vinegar keeps its strength longer than the distilled Spirit 431 Good against the Plague ib. Vinegar of Saturn 111 Vipers when taken can live a whole Summer without eating if they have but air 505 How the Viper differs from Serpents 506 The quickest remedy for the biting of a Viper 507 Wherein her venom does consist 507 c. A Sudorifick water of Vipers 519 Virgins Milk 112 Vitriol its several sorts 329 330 The English how to be distinguished from the German 339 Its Spirit how Revived into Vitriol 341 That its strong Oil causes heat and ebullition with divers liquors that are not alkali 342 A remarkable instance of its Caustick Oil 343 Volatile Salts how Rectified 514 515 When to be used and when not 466 Why they become foetid and are alkalis 21 22 Vomiting when excessive through the taking Antimonial preparations is to be stopt with Cream of Tartar 231 232 W Wax 546 Wine 412 analyzed 420 Why Claret lies longer in the body and abounds more with Tartar than White-wine 412 Its Muste anatomised 413 No inflammable Spirit in the Muste ib. It s Spirit what ib. Why Muscat and Spanish wines are so sweet as they are and why they yield fewer Spirits than French wines 414 The Small-pox ingeniously compared with the fermentation of Wines 416 Its good and bad effects 418 419 How it causes so profound a sleep 419 The drawing Spirit of Wine by the Serpent rejected and another instrument preferred 421 422 c. What causes Wine to turn egre and what will hinder it 466 FINIS BOOKS Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in S. Paul's Church-yard THO. Sydenhami M.D. Opera Universa oct Lister de fontibus medicatis Angliae oct Jones de Febribus intermittentibus oct Mayow Tractat. quinq è med de sal nitro c. oct Charletoni Inquisitio physica de Causis catamenionum uteri Rheumatismo oct Entii Apologia pro Circuitione sanguinis contra Parisanum Edit altera auct accuratior oct Lossii Observationes Medicae oct R. Grovii Carmen de Circuitione sanguinis quart Dr. Charleton's three Anatomick Lectures 1. Of the motion of the Bloud 2. Of the Organick structure of the Heart 3. Of the efficient causes of the Hearts Pulsation quart Dr. Webster's History of Metals quart Grew's Anatomy of Trunks oct 's Anatomy of Plants fol. Dr. Goodall's Royal College of Physicians of London founded and established by Law as appears by Letters Patents Acts of Parl. c. quart Dr. Smith's Portraicture of Old Age oct Burnetii Telluris Theoria Sacra quart Mr. Burnets Theory of the Earth fol. Dr. Hicks's Jovian in Answer to Julian oct Plato's Daemon or the State Physician unmask'd in Answer to Plato Redivivus by T. Goddard Esq Dr. More 's Exposition on Daniel quart Exposition on the Apocalypse quart Answer to several Remarks on his Exposition on Daniel and the Revel by S.E. quart Dr. More 's Answer to Dr. Butler about Judicial Astrology quart 's Reply to the Answer to his Antidote against Idolatry with his Appendix oct 's Remarks on Judge Hales about fluid bodies c. oct Dr. Falkner's Libertas Ecclesiastica oct 's Christian Loyalty oct 's Vindication of Liturgies oct Dr. Sherlocks Discourse of the knowledge of Jesus Christ with his Defence oct Dr. Scott's Christian Life first and second part Dr. Fowler 's Libertas Evangelica in pursuance of his Design of Christianity oct Mr. Kidder's Discourse of Christian fortitude oct Mr. Hesketh's serious exhortation to frequent Communion oct Piety the best Rule of Orthodoxy oct Dr. Worthington's great Duty of Self-Resignation oct Mr. Needhams six Sermons at Cambridge oct Mr. Grails Sermons at Norwich oct Mr. Long 's History of the Donatists oct 's Character of a Separatist oct Against Hales of Schism with Mr. Baxter's Arguments for Conformity oct 's Nonconformists plea for Peace impleaded against Mr. Baxter oct Mr. W. Allens Works in 4 Vol. oct Mr. Lamb's stop to the Course of Separation oct 's Fresh suit against Independency oct Dr. Charleton's Harmony of Nat. and Positive Divine Laws oct
soluble part of the other Divers little Objections have likewise been made me on this subject for want of duly examining what I have established Wherefore I do not desire to enlarge in the relation of them for I do aim as much as I can to avoid Repetitions as being good for nothing but to swell a Book and tire the Reader Wine diminishes the appetite as saith Hippocrates and the cause may be because the Sulphureous Spirits it is charged with do dull and oppress the Ferment of the Stomach which by its irritation caused hunger Vinous liquors may be made of all Fruits and many other things by means of Fermentation as from Apples Pears Honey and Hopps In like manner Berries Seeds Leaves and Flowers may be made to Ferment but because several of these things are naturally too dry to ferment easily they must be wetted with water after they are beaten and to quicken their Fermentation a little Yest is to be added and by this means liquors are made whence burning Spirits may be drawn as well as from Wine That which happens in the fermentation of Wines may serve very well to explicate many diseases but especially the Small Pox for it is very probable that in this disease the bloud does boil and ferment in the vessels much after the manner as Wine ferments in a vessel The little pustules of the Small Pox are a Tartar which is separated from the bloud to the skin after the same manner as the Tartar separates from the Wine to the sides of the vessel and indeed they have the same effect as salt in corroding the skin Infants are more subject to this disease than elder persons because their bloud is more like to Muste and consequently is more subject to ferment The Small-pox does usually happen but once in a mans life just as Muste does ferment also but once Distillation of Wine into Brandy Fill with Wine half a large Copper body cover it with its Moors head bordered with its Refrigeratory and fit to it a Receiver lute well the junctures with a wet Bladder and distil with a gentle fire about a quarter of the Liquor or else until the liquor which distils doth not burn when fire is put to it that which is in the Receiver is called Brandy and in French Aqua vitae Remarks Brandy is a Spirit of wine loaded with phlegm that it hath carried with it in the distillation these Spirits do always rise first and so it is known that there remain no more in the Cucurbite when the liquor that distils is no longer inflammable Brandy may be drawn from all sorts of Wines but more of it may be drawn in some Countries than others For example the Wines that are made about Orleans and Paris do yield greater plenty of Brandy than many others which seem to be stronger and the reason is that those Wines which appear stronger being loaded with a great deal of Tartar have their Spirits as it were fixed whereas the others containing but a convenient portion of this Tartar do leave their Spirits at greater liberty When Wine has been drunk there is made a separation of Spirits in the body much resembling that which is made by distillation for the heat of the bowels warming it causes the Spirituous parts to spread on all sides through the pores and some part of them to mix with the bloud and rarefie it from whence it comes to rejoyce the heart and encrease the vigour of the whole body but because these Spirits do always tend upwards the greatest part flies into the brain where it quickens its motion and produces a certain gaiety of mind that is wont to furnish us with many excellent thoughts But now if wine moderately taken is so profitable for the Functions of the body it likewise causes many mischiefs when it is excessively used for the Spirituous parts rising in great abundance do circulate in the brain with so much celerity that they soon confound the whole Oeconomy And then the objects will appear double and the walls of the place where one is seem to have changed their ordinary situation This Confusion remains until the Spirits having some good time dissolved the phlegm do in part condense with it and in part spend through the pores It likewise then happens that a man is prone to sleep because the Pituita being attenuated either by the Spirits of wine or by the phlegm they have drawn along with them glides into the small passages of the brain and retards the Circulation of the Animal Spirits by gluing them together for after the same manner as the motion of the Spirits in the Brain doth beget watchfulness so their repose or condensation produces sleep But I shall speak more amply of this subject hereafter when I come to treat of the effects of Opium The sleep which is caused through excess of Wine doth usually remain until the Animal Spirits have rarefied this phlegm and opened a free passage Those who are intoxicated with Beer Sider or some such like liquor do remain in their Drunkenness a longer time and sleep more after it than those who are drunk with Wine because the Spirit of these liquors carrying along with it a viscous phlegm into the brain remains a longer time in the disengaging it self and passing through the pores Again it is the viscosity of this phlegm which entring into the Sinus of the brain does cause so long a sleep because it is so hard to rarefie Those Accidents that I have related to proceed from the immoderate use of Wine are but the first and the less grievous though indeed they are but little to be desired every body knows that a continuation of frequent debauches doth at last render a man dull and stupid and this by reason the Spirits of Wine do not only trouble the Natural Spirits in their functions and render them Phlegmatick but likewise by rarefying them do ever carry off and lose some store of them These Persons are likewise subject to a continual spitting or else they are molested with defluxions Catarrhs and Gout because the Pituita being rendred more liquid by the Spirits and phlegm of vinous liquors is forced to descend through the Lymphatick vessels but if there happens to be the least obstacle in these vessels it takes its course with the Nerves and falls upon all the parts of the body Lastly when excess of wine does occasion falling into the Apoplexy and Palsie it is by reason the Pituita is rendred too liquid by the Spirits and Phlegm of wine and causes Obstructions in the head and hinders the natural course of the Spirits into the Nerves Many other sad effects of wine-debauches might be here mentioned but this digression is too long Let us return to our Operation After the wine hath been deprived of these Sulphureous Spirits there remains in the body a Tartareous liquor which being exposed a good while to the Sun in a Cask without its stopple turns