are Arodyne Mucilages with Astringency have their Taste from the different parts of Plants as in Plantane-Seeds the Husk is Astringent the Pulpy part of the Seed Mucilaginous CHAP. IV. Concerning Acid in Plants THE Third Principle our Senses discover in Plants is Acid perceivable by Taste and Smell in Sorrel c. This seems to affect the Taste with a cool Sharpness not unlike the Spirit of Sulphur and is probably supplied Vide Sulph from the Mineral Kingdom This Acid has not the Bitterishness of Nitre nor the Saltness of common Salt nor a Vitriolate Relish from any Mineral but is pure cool Acid. The Crystals of Tartar are sowre Vide Tartar amongst Salts Crystals of Wood-Sorrel are also sowre like Tartar The Essential Salts of Plants differ not from Tartar. Vinegar is more Spirituous than the former being a Winy Subacid Liquor The Acid is obvious in the most bitter Plants as in Extracts of Worm-wood and Horehound and in all Extracts In the Plant they are not perceived because of the Strength of the Bitterness that affects the Palat most though the Acids temper the Bitter and the Bitter the Acid. Acids are never alter'd in the Plant so as to lose their Nature though they undergo divers Mixtures but when they are reduc'd into Volatile Salts by being compounded with Oyl and Earth Acids mixt with much Water are the purest Acids Acids mixt with a little Water and much Earth produce an Astringent Taste Acids with Water and Earth more loosly mixt produce a rough Taste as in Sloes which is a greater degree of Astringency And in this Taste the Acid and Earth are in equal quantity The Fourth Acid Composition is Acid Oleose as in Terebinthinates and these always have an Astringency joyn'd to the Bitterness which arises from the Oyl and Acid in Turpentine Dr. Grew asserts That many stillatitious Oyls digested with any strong Acid will acquire a bitter Taste And therefore Myrrhe Gentian and all bitter Gums distilled yield Acid Liquors I shall hereafter deduce the Bitterness of Plants immediately from Turpentine but remotely from the mixture of Oyl and Acid. Acid-Acrid as in Rosa Solis In these the Volatile and Acid combine And since Rosa Solis is accounted a Caustick 't is probable other Caustick Plants may have the same mixture These are proper for Treacle-Water to cool by their Acid and sweat with their hot Parts or to provoke Vrine Mixed Salts and hot Herbs tempered by the mixture of Acid are profitable in Fevers Acid sweet such as in all Ripe Fruits as Cherries ripe Grapes these make the Acid more easie to the Stomach and less fretting as in Spiritus Salis Dulcis These excite Appetite and cool the Blood. Acid and Bitter these promote Vrine as in Alkakengi-berries and Quicky-berries and have an Anti-Febrile vertue from Acid and Bitter as in Bezoardick mixtures which are Bitter-Acid The Effects of Acids in the Body are to coagulate and fix Choler and the Volatile Salts in the Blood by uniting with the Salt and rendring them like common Sal Ammoniack and so Acids become Diuretick as also by dissolving the gritty Matter of the Stone and mixing with it by coagulating the Serum of the Blood as Serum Sanguinis turns white by the mixture of the Spirit of Nitre and by thickning its Consistence which is a less degree of Coagulation Acids hinder the rarefaction of the Blood and its Extravasation as also all Heats and Sweats Cholerick Loosenesses and Thirsts Rough Astringents do the same thing but more weakly having the Acid obtunded by the Earthy Parts but by that they are more proper for Loosenesses and Fevers Acids do also excite the Appetite by stimulating and hinder the over-quick Fermentation of the Chyle and separation of its Spirituous parts in Windy Exhalations And for that reason we mix Vinegar with Hot Meats and Herbs and eat cool Fruits after Meat Vinegar is the best Antidote against any Poyson from Acrid Herbs CHAP. V. Concerning Astringents ASTRINGENTS are Either Watry-Astringents in which Water is most plentiful which are convenient in hot Diseases with Fluxes of Blood or Stools as Plantane Knot-Grass I distill'd the Roots of Flaggs in an open Fire and had a great deal of Acid and very little Fetid Oyl and much Caput mortuum This was like the distill'd Liquor of Woods Bitter-Astringents where the Astringency is mitigated by the Bitterness which depends on a crude Turpentine These by their Bitterness make the Astringent Faculty more agreeable to the Stomach and Blood By their Bitterness they help and preserve the mixture of the Blood and by their Astringency which is an Acid in potentia precipitate some Feverish parts which are separated from the mixture of the Blood so Jesuits Powder works and Tormentil-Roots have been us'd for the same purpose and so may the Barks of That taste 'T is manifest that upon giving the Jesuits Powder a sharpness of Vrine is sometimes observable and when it succeeds the Water which at first look'd like Strong Beer high colour'd and reddish turns after a while muddy the separable Feverish Sediment is precipitated and the top of the Vrine is thin and clear by the separation of Parts So that after the use of the Jesuits Powder whose Vertues are evident to the Taste being bitter Astringent the prevailing Bitterness preserves the mixture of the Blood and the Astringency separates some easily-separable Parts which not continuing in their right equal Mixture with the rest of the Blood cause the Fever as being Heterogeneous and raise a Fermentative Commotion for their Segregation And it is usual with Practisers to guess and assert the Alterations in the Blood to correspond to those observable in the Water It may be our Country cannot afford such an exact Mixture of Bitter and Astringent as in the Jesuits Bark but I believe it does It may be we cannot mix Bitter and Astringent Tastes in the same Proportion as Nature has done in the Cortex However it 's evident that these Qualities of Bitter-Astringent are in the Cortex and we cannot imagine any other so probable to work those Effects which it does for Tormentil-Root and Cinquefoyl have been tryed and approv'd in putting off Agues Sweetish Astringents or the Fern-Tastes which have a slight Bitterness also These Ferns are good Vulneraries stop Fluxes and abate the Fermentation of the Blood in Hypochondriack Scurveys by their Crudity and Astringency So Chalybeats as Vitriol of Mars taste sweet Astringent the Sweetness is most perceptible in the Polypody-Root In the Female Fern the Mucilage is great the Astringency is evident in the Male and in Lonchitis but in the Leaves of Osmunda the Mucilage in the Root the Astringency Bitterness and Orris Smell Maiden-Hair is Sweet-Astringent which seems to me the true Character of a Fern-Taste though some Varieties are observable as I have noted The Aromatick-Astringent must be consider'd amongst the Aromaticks CHAP. VI. Concerning Bitterness in Plants THe Fourth Principle our Senses
produce these Fetors by Separation of a Volatile Oyl and Salt from the Acids and Earthy Parts of the Plants So Spirit of Soot has an Oyly Salt and the Fetid Oyly Salt is easily separated from Vrine and Blood after Putrefaction Many Acrid Plants are Fetid so Sophia Chirurgorum and the Pouches of Aron are abominable Cotula Faetida Nettles Garlick and Onyons have an Acrid Taste and are very Fetid So is Galbanum Assa Faetida and Sagapenum Divers Bitters are Fetid as stinking Horehound and all Elder-Smells as Scrophularia are Bitter-Fetid So the stinking Gums are Bitter as well as Acrid and Fetid The Mucilaginous are also Fetid as in Atriplex olida That there is but a Difference in degree betwixt Aromatick and Fetid Plants appears by many Instances as Galeopsis smells Fetid at first handling afterwards Aromatick The Flowers of Valerian are very strong and offensive at first getting after a little drying they are Aromatick So in the Preparations of Musk and Civet if in a great quantity or while fresh they stink afterwards in a small quantity they are more grateful So the Leaves of Coriander stink but the Seed is Aromatick Elder-Leaves are Fetid yet the Flowers are very Fragrant so are the Flowers of Saponaria though the Leaves resemble Elder The Blossoms of most Trees are Fragrant though the Leaves smell Crude From the afore-mention'd Instances Fetids are 1. Bitter 2. Acrid 3. Mucilaginous which are generally Narcoticks From the afore-mention'd it may be inferr'd that Fetids inwardly are of a very hot Nature discussing Tumors outwardly and opening the Pores Inwardly Fetids by their Volatile Parts do pierce the Channels of the Nerves mend the Crudity of their Nervous Juyce and by their Faetor they excite a different Motion from that in Hysterick Fits and in Convulsions and do remove the Cause of that tumultuous Motion in the Spirits by correcting Acidities and Stagnation in the Succus Nervosus which is disposed to them as all other Glandulous Liquors be Narcoticks have all of them an heavy offensive Smell like Poppies or Solanum or have a sweet heady Smell like Roots of Bears-Ears Milky-Narcoticks taste Mucilaginous Bitter and Acrid as Poppies and Lettice The Milky Juyce is an Argument of an Oyl and the Acrid of a Volatile Salt adjoyned Opium is a Bitter-Acrid has a Resin and Gum inflammable Though it 's easily extracted by the Spirit of Wine yet the Bitterness and Acrid in which its Vertue is founded is most corrected by Spirit of Vinegar Juyce of Lemons Juyce of Quinces or any other Acid as well as by drying it and evaporating some Part of the Narcotick Fume The Second Class may be of Bitterish Sub-acrid Mucilaginous Narcoticks as Solanum Lethale Bacciferum Stramonium Cynoglossum Besides the Pungency Solanum Lignosum has a Bitterness The Roots of Cynogloss boyl'd smell like Spirit of Harts-Horn Fresh Tabaco smells Narcotick about the Flowers and is Bitter Mucilaginous and Acrid It much resembles Henbane by its Figure Oyl and Clamminess to the Touch but by its Bitterness and Pungency Solanum Lignosum The Third Class of Opiates is Sweetish Acrid and Fetid differing from Poppy smell as Cicutaria Napellus The Roots of Henbane are very sweet These produce Giddiness with a stupor and their best Antidote are Acids as Vinegar The Fourth Class has a Bitterish Acrid Taste as Cowslips and these have also a Fragrancy very heady being of a low degree amongst Opiates The Roots of Cowslips are very Acrid and Bitterish By the afore-mentioned Instances it appears that Opiates have very hot Effluviums which offend the Smell By the same Opiates inwardly produce Sweat in so small a quantity as one or two grains and are very Fetid by their Oyly Acrid Salt which runs through all the Classes of Opiates The Bitterness and Sweetness in some Opiates no way conduce to encrease their Soporifick quality but are different in many Opiates Narcoticks taken inwardly immediately affect the Nerves in the Stomach and produce an heaviness there which I have been sensible of in tasting the Solanum and Poppies and they cannot pass a Digestion and Separation nor by a circulation arrive at the Brain so soon as their effects are produced therein Therefore Narcotick Fumes must pass through the Pores of the Nerves and begin to fix the Spirits in the Membranes and Nerves of the Stomach by which a stupor is communicated to the rest Something of the Opiates passes a Digestion and afterwards a Circulation through the Blood where it makes no alteration by its Narcotick quality but being Bitter and Acrid it produces a Diaphoresis as others of that Taste do In the Nerves these Narcotick Fumes weaken the brisk expansion of the Spirits which causes waking and their too great Agitation which causes pain and likewise stops their Tumultuous motion in Convulsions and the violent motion of the Heart and Pulse as well as any Flux of Humors whatsoever by abating the violent contractions of the irritated Fibres Humors that are Acid are corrected by the Acrid Taste and Bitterness but Choler can no other ways be helped but by abating the Acid combined with it and making it corrosive as well as by stopping the motion and evacuation of it From the Symptoms allayed by Narcoticks I argue That they work not as Oyls and Volatile Salts though they have them for they rather produce an expansion agitation and tumult in the Spirits And I also conjecture that the Narcotick Faculty is best deducible from such a combination of the Volatile Oyl and Salt with a Mucilage as to gain thereby a particular Figure Motion or Texture by reason of which it weakens the motion of the Spirits and in too great a quantity destroys their fluidity Burnt Alum mixt with Gun-Powder destroys its Elastick force and weakens the burst of a Gun. Water loses its fluidity by the small Particles of Cold And Mercury is made Solid by the Fumes of Lead Nothing can be more easily fixt by divers additions of other things though in it self it has a greater Agitation of parts than other fluids which being stopt in their internal motion become Solids and if Opiates do weaken or deprive the Nervous Juyce of its Internal Agitation from thence all their Phaenomena may be explain'd All Narcoticks have offensive Smells by which we are taught by Nature to avoid them and this Antipathy can proceed from nothing but the disagreeable Texture and Motion of the Narcotick Fumes to our Spirits Opiates cause not Sleep unless in great quantity in Consumptive Bodies for in them a little quantity troubles the Head and disturbs the Spirits with Giddiness because their Spirits are very hot and fiery and their motion for want of a serose Vehicle very violent but it seems not probable as some conjecture that one grain of Opium should force so much Serum to flow to the glandules of the Brain as to fill them and produce Sleep by too much diluting the Spirits Whereas we frequently drink a full Gallon
is very nauseously Sweet and Manna Gummy It is the Gum of a Tree and by the very sweet Gummosity it is Purging It also contains a very Acid Spirit by which it is injurious to the Hypochondriacal and good for the Cholerick Acids are given with it to abate the luscious Sweetness Honey By the Sweetness it is Diuretick Mel. and Pectoral It is partly Vegetable and has an Animal Digestion In Distillation it yields an Acid Spirit by which it is offensive to the Hypochondriacal Honey contains also an Oyly Spirit by which it is Vinous in Liquors after Fermentation and by the Acid outwardly cleanses Vlcers It seems to partake of the Nature both of Watry and Turpentine Gums Sugar is a Salt very Sweet and Oleous Saccharum and therefore inflammable It melts without Water at the Fire mixes with Oyl and by Fermentation yields a burning Brandy Spirit Therefore the use of it is very inflaming to the Blood by the Oyly Part and by the Acid corrosive which it yields in a strong Fire It is like the Acid of Tartar as all Essential Salts be which are more or less mixt with the Oyl of the Vegetable From this great Quantity of Oyl mixt with the Acid the Sweetness arises And because Sugar is dissolvible in Water as the Gums be and may easily be turn'd into a Gummy Consistence as happens in boyling of Sugar with Acids I think it fit to place it here amongst Gums whose Taste it resembles more than the Tartarous Salt of Vegetables CHAP. II. Of Fetid Gums FEtid Gums were originally Milky Liquors They are strongly Bitter or Bitter-Acrid and have a Mucilage whereby they soften and a Volatile Oyly Salt whereby they discuss By an Acid the Mucilage is coagulated into a Watry Gum and the Oyly Volatile Salt which gives the Foetor is coagulated into something of a Resin whence the Gum is dissolvible into a Milky Liquor by Water and the Oyly Salt is best extracted by Spirit of Wine Tartariz'd These Gums are frequently dissolv'd in Wine or Vinegar and put into discussing Emollient Plasters but the Vinegar abates their Acrimony Opopanax is from the Root of Panax Opopanax and tastes Gummy very Acrid and Bitter and smells like Garlick It is Emollient and discussive outwardly inwardly it is Carminative loosening the Belly Pectoral and Diuretick Sagapenum smells Rank and tastes Biting Sagapenum like Garlick and is of the Nature of Opopanax Bdellium is Biting very Bitter and Bdellium Gummy and of the same Vertue with the former Opium is very Bitter Acrid and Gummose Opium and of a Poppy-Smell It is Inflammable and Resinous and is the greatest Opiate It is Diuretick Venereal Diaphoretick and sometimes it vomits and purges Euphorbium is very Burning and Exulcerating Euphorbium in Taste and of a Fetid piercing Smell not to be us'd inwardly but externally in drawing Plasters and for Carious Bones The Acrimony may be corrected by Acids It is said to be a Tithymal and all Tithymals have the same Vertue Euphorbium is the Gum of a Milky Plant purging violently and sneezing strongly Gum-Ivy is of an offensive Smell and Gum. Hederae very Biting and Exulcerating in Taste Camphore is a Gum out of a Tree like Camphora Poplar It has a strong Smell and tastes Bitterish Acrid Hot and Pungent It is an Antihysterick inwardly and outwardly it opens the Pores in Inflammations and so cools It is us'd as an Alexipharmack It dissolves in Spirit of Wine or Oyl having a great deal of Oyl and Volatile Salt in it A good Tincture is made of it with the Spirit of Wine Tartariz'd Assa Foetida is the most offensive Fetid Assa Foetida like Garlick and very nauseously Bitter It is therefore the greatest Antihysterick Galbanum is very Fetid and smells like Galbanum Garlick It is very Gummy Bitter and Sub-Acrid and therefore very Emollient and Discussing and inwardly Antihysterick It burns like Resin and is Soft and Gummy like Wax Gum-Ammoniack is a Gum of a Ferula Ammoniacum It smells strong and but little like Castor It is very Gummy and Bitter by which it opens all Obstructions cures the Asthma and Fits of the Mother and by the Gumminess and Bitterness is Laxative and Carminative Outwardly by the same it discusses and softens Scirrhous Tumors Soot I place it here because it has Fuligo a Smoaky Fetidness of Burnt Wood and an Oyl and an Acid in it by which it is manifestly Bitter and Acrid It is very Sudorifick inwardly and seems a State of Vegetable Principles betwixt Bitter and Salt. A great Quantity of Earth rises with the Oyly Acid Particles by a stricter Union whereof a Volatile Salt is produced from Soot in Distillation I could not find much Difference in the Taste of Soot of Wood from that of Coals The Last is more Fetid and Saltish the First more Acid. Wood distilled yields a Fetid Oyl and Smoaky Acid The same separated by a Fire from Wood carries Earthy Ashes with it and constitutes Soot which is not very Bitter The Soot of Coal and Wood being almost the same I suppose the Oyl and Acid in the Principles of Vegetables and Minerals are nearly related CHAP. III. Of Turpentine Gum-Resins REsins melt with Heat burn with a Flame and will be easily dried to Powder They dissolve in Oyl or Spirit of Wine They generally taste Brittle and smell of Turpentine or else are more Aromatick or Fetid And some have a Gum joyn'd to the Resin and are call'd Gum Resins Resins are Oyls and Volatile Salts coagulated by an Acid which all Resins yield in Distillation They are Acid-Oleous Liquors at first being originally Turpentines Dr. Grew Fine Frankincense tastes Gummy Hot Olibanum and Bitterish and smells of Turpentine It stops Rheums by the Gumminess and is Diuretick by the Turpentine-Smell and by the Heat dries much and provokes Sweat in a Peripneumonia Mastich has a Turpentine-Smell and Mastiche tastes Hot Gummy and Brittle It is us'd as an Astringent By the Gumminess it stops Rheums The Mastich-Wood is Bitterish and Styptick This is a Terebinthinate-Tree Common Resin tastes Brittle and is of a Resina Turpentine-Smell Resin Mastich and Olibanum have no quantity of a Fixt Salt but yield a Salso-Acrid Spirit or Salt as Succinum Colophonia is Resin of the Firr-Tree boiled Colophonia Resins digest by their moderate Heat and agglutinate by their Gumminess Gum-Juniper is a Gum-Resin of a sort Gum Juniperi of Cedar and smells strong of Turpentine Pitch is of the Nature of Resin Pix CHAP. IV. Of Gum-Resins MYrrh is of a very bitter Taste Myrrha Gummy and Resinous It dissolves best in Spirit of Wine It agglutinates and cleanses in Vlcers Inwardly it is an Vterine Pectoral and Antifebrifick It is the best cleansing Vterine given to half a Scruple Amber tastes Brittle and Resinous and Succinum
which I have observ'd viz. 1. A Slimy Oyl which is express'd from Linseed and other Mucilaginous Seeds 2. A Sweet Slimy Oyl such as is observable in Oyl of Almonds Walnuts and other Nuts and is the Product of an higher Digestion 3. A Bitter Oyl as in Liquid Turpentines or express'd Oyl of Pistache-Nuts and Seeds of St. John's wort and the Oyls of some Kernels as Bitter-Almonds and Peach-Kernels These differ from the former by having the Texture of the Oyl and Acid alter'd by which Alteration Sweet becomes Bitter through an higher Digestion 4. Aromatick-Acrid Oyls such as are express'd out of Nutmeg Mace and Anniseed In these a Volatile Pungency joyns with the Oyl and renders it Aromatick 5. A Fetid Oyl is expressible from Fetid Seeds and is evident in Leguminous Plants 6. A Coagulated Oyl in Resins or else mixt with a Gumminess in Gum-Resins None can rationally suppose Vegetables to have so many sorts of Oyls essentially different but only distinguished by the several Mixtures of the Principles by Digestion differing in one Plant from another Vegetables receive not only their Acid but also Oyl from Minerals CHAP. VII Of Wine and Fermentation FRom Water and Earth mixt and an outward Heat digesting them no Fermentation can be produced but the Water is evaporated and the Earth powder'd Therefore we must examine the other Two Principles of Vegetables and from them we may deduce all the Phaenomena of Vegetation Fermentation and also the particular Vertues produced by them It is a known Experiment That Oyl of Turpentine and Vitriol will effervesce and continue the Heat produced by that Ebullition for a long time Spirit of Nitre and Spirit of Wine also produce a great Heat From these Experiments a Contrariety betwixt Oyl and Acid is very manifest and this is not so soon over as the Ebullition betwixt Alkalies and Acids I shall endeavour to explain all the Effects above-mention'd from these Two Oyl and Acid and their Effervescence and I do wholly reject the Effervescence of Alkalies and Acids because That soon ceases by an Union of both into a Salt which is not found to happen upon Fermentation And we could never yet find that a Spirit or Salt could be separated by any gentle Distillation from New Wine or New Ale unfermented A great Acid put to Fermenting Liquors hinders the Fermentation of them And also a Fixt Salt is found to hinder their Fermentation From these Reasons mention'd I am convinced that Alkali Volatiles are no ways the Efficient Causes of Fermentation but only the Products of it by a Composition of Oyl Acid and Earth The Seeds of Plants are very full of an Oyl which differs only from the Oyl in Turpentine by a different Digestion For Turpentine has a Mucilage or Gumminess in it which chiefly appears in Mucilaginous Plants Those Trees which yield a Watry Gum have a bitterish Bark which therefore resemble Turpentines by both Tastes The Seeds of Alder have the Figure of Pine-Apples and the Leaves a Gumminess from whence I thought it had a sort of Turpentine The bitter Milks of Vegetables are only like dissolv'd Turpentine and they dry into a Gum or Resin The Laurel-Bitters such as Almonds and Peaches have a Bitterness and also a Gumminess like Turpentine And those Trees have a lasting Greenness like Turpentine-Trees as Firr and Pine. The number of plain Turpentine-Trees and Plants are very great That Plants of a sweet Taste have their Oyl from Turpentine is not improbable because we find a great Sweetness in the Taste of Ripe Ivy-Berries and Juniper-Berries which are manifestly Turpentine-Trees And the Roots of Fennil have a Balsam and taste Sweet That all Aromatick Oyls and Resins in Aromaticks are pure Turpentines I suppose is evident enough by comparing them together and for the Reasons I have mention'd in the First Part. And for the same Reason all Fetids are likewise Turpentines which are Fetid as well as Aromatick I cannot but believe that all Effluviums in Vegetables which produce a Smell have their Volatility by which they are carried from the Vegetable and act on the Sense of Smelling from some Oyliness Hence Earths are smelt by a Sulphur in them Acids have also an Oyl mixt with them as in Tartar and Vinegar Sweet Tastes smell Mellowy from an Oyl and Acid digested with Water and Earth And Terebinthinate-Smells are from Turpentine Particles evaporating And all Aromaticks and Fetids from Resins For the clearer Proof of which I shall mention what Dr. Lister writes Illustre exemplum de ligno Cedrino Bermudensi olim dedimus scilicet id apud me multos annos nec jam desinere resinam suam totâ substantiâ vaporare And I cannot believe that Salts could give any Smell but from their Oyly Part which is one of their Ingredients Therefore Vegetables affect the Sense of Smelling by Oyl joyn'd with Earth or Acid and with Acid and Earth in Salt or Resins All which act on the Organ in the Form of Effluviums And this Sense is therefore Quaedam tactus species as well as Taste And from this Likeness of Impression and also the Likeness of the Object we often find Tastes and Smells very much alike the Plant tasting as it smells I did omit this about the Nature of Smells in the First Part and therefore have here added it as not very impertinent because Smells are the Effects of Fermentation and are most observable and also deducible from Turpentines And I also forgot There to observe That many Smells are compounded as Bitter and Sweet Tastes are frequently in the same Plant joyn'd because Sweet easily become Bitter So Fetids and Aromaticks are frequently joyn'd in Smells as Galeopsis Valerian Pulegium and Nepeta have both Fetid and Aromatick Smells From whence I argue That they differ but in Degree as Sweet and Bitter do I have taken notice in the First Part That the Acid of Vegetables tastes like Acids of Sulphur and from thence it will appear that it arises in the Discourse which I shall annex about Minerals I shall here only observe That Tartar is Inflammable like Brimstone and when it is distill'd it is very Fetid and an Oyl is separated from it Such is the Composition of Sulphur and Acid. An Oyly Part is closely lock't up in it as in common Tartar. Upon the Mixture of Oyl of Sulphur per Campanam with Oyl of Turpentine a Redness was immediately precipitated as it happen'd in the Mixture of the same with Oyl of Vitriol Spirit of Salt only turn'd Yellow Sweet Spirit of Nitre did not change From these Instances it appears That an Oyliness is lodg'd in Sulphur and Tartar So that the Ingredients which compound the Acid of Sulphur and Tartar which is the Acid of Plants are very much alike as well as the Taste of both the Pungency of the Acid in Vinegar depends on the Oyl of Wine and the Pungency in Spirit of Sulphur on the Sulphur latent in the Acid The Roughness in Acerb
are that very Thing by which we are nourished so without a Paradox every Vegetable may be said to be a Mineral as being nourished by something Mineral And a Treatise of Minerals may very aptly be joyn'd to One of Vegetables without any Fault in Coherence or Absurdity in Method For Vegetables receive their Earth Oyl and Acid from Minerals And I must further observe That the Soyl from which Vegetables receive their immediate Juyce is a Congeries of Mineral Bodies viz. Sand which looks like Gems in a Microscope Clay Marle Chalk Flints Lime-stone and divers other sorts of Earths in Distillation yielding an Acid Spirit which is the Product of some Sulphur in them And the same Sulphur gives an Oyly Fatness to many Earths as Marle Clay Bole c. It is observ'd that Salt-Petre abounds in all Fertile Earths and has a mineral-Mineral-Acid in it So that if it any ways conduce to the Production of Plants it must be allowed that in the Production Vegetables receive some Acid from it Sulphureous Damps are most evident in some particular Places arising from the Superficies of the Earth and Boggy Grounds have always an offensive Air which is not vitiated by the Water only but also by some Sulphureous Effluviums which upon standing Water shoot into a bluish Cream like that on standing Vitriolate Waters I cannot but mention those Bodies which have a middle State betwixt Minerals and Vegetables from whence I inferr a great Analogy betwixt their Principles and a gradual Transmutation of Mineral Principles into Vegetable Oyls Acids and Earths Water is a common Vehicle necessary for the Mixture of those Principles in both Kingdoms and it may be the Earthy Part is the same in both Vegetables are changed towards Minerals sometimes Coral grows as a Plant and afterwards has the Hardness of a Stone when full grown to which the Astringent Liquor observ'd in it conduces for from a drop of it new Coral is said to spring So in other Vegetables some Seed-Cases become Stony which lie in the middle of an Acid Pulp as in Cherries Plumbs c. Gromwel-Seed is Stony though it have no exterior Acid Pulp and the Seeds of Apples and Lemons which have an exterior Acid Pulp are not Stony Pears have a Stonyness in them Patrification in Vegetables depends on an Acerb Juyce in which the Acid and Earth are mixt in a certain Proportion for all Acids will not produce it for want of the due Proportion of Earth to them and of that particular Texture of both which is necessary for Stones So that when Coral and the Cases of Fruits become Stones there is no Change of the Principles but the Vegetable Acid and Earth acquire a new Texture The Bitumens in the Mineral Kingdom are in a middle State betwixt Minerals and Vegetables They are produc'd from Mineral Principles otherwise mixt than in Minerals and in a near Disposition to become Vegetable For the Bitumens in Minerals and Turpentines in Vegetables are very like in Smell and Taste and yield the same Chymical Principles in Distillation The Soot of Coal is of a smoaky Smell and tastes Bitter and Acrid in which it is like to the Soot of Wood and also both of them yield the same Volatile Salt and Oyl The Narcotick Quality of Sulphur Anodyn Vitrioli resembles the Fetid Narcoticks in Vegetables The Ashes of Minerals and Plants may be Vitrified alike by a strong Fire and therefore there is no great Difference betwixt them The Fixt Salts of Plants have the Nature of Mineral Salts as appears in Lime-Water which tastes salt and both are the Product of Fire for neither Minerals nor Vegetables have any Natural Fixt Salt. It is not improbable that these Fixt Salts of both Kingdoms agree in the Figure of their Crystals and both may be Cubical as Common Salt or of some Irregular Figure near to a Cube The Reason why all Minerals cannot be calcin'd into Salts as Plants be is the indissolvible Texture of their Parts which not being perfectly destroyed by the Fire they cannot thereby acquire New Mixtures as it happens in Plants for the Production of Fixt Salts But this Dissolution of Principles and Re-mixture happens in Lime in the Production of the Fixt Salt evident in Lime-Water I have mention'd the most known Bodies which have their Rise from Minerals and afterwards become Vegetables as Bitumen and those which from Vegetables become Minerals as Coral and the Stones of Fruits And I might here add the Petrification of Vegetables by petrifying Waters which contain a Nitrum Calcarium as the ingenious Dr. Lister has evidently prov'd by which Plants are petrified having the Nitrous Lime-Stone Particles closely united with their Earthy Parts I shall have a further Occasion of comparing the Nitrum Calcarium with the Tartarous Earth in Plants by both which Plants are petrified by the last Naturally and by the former Artificially and Externally Minerals are produc'd out of Juyces like Vegetables which sometimes grow into Figures resembling perfect Plants and have Branches and Joynts like them as if they had been petrified Plants but are really Natural Stones From this Likeness of Stones and Plants it is not improbable that there is a great Similitude in Principles and a propensity to change from one to the other In the Discourse about Fermentation I have more fully compared the Oyls and Acids of Minerals with Vegetables Vide. CHAP. II. Of the Similitude betwixt Mineral Principles and those of Vegetables THE Principles of Minerals are of the same Kind and Number as those of Vegetables Water is distilled from Salts and Mineral Earths and is necessary for the mixing of the other Principles Therefore Liquors are found in Mineral Stones and Stones had at first a Liquid Form. Water is the same in all Bodies but if extracted by Distillation it retains some Tincture from that particular Body from whence it is distill'd An Oyly Principle is manifest in Sulphureous Bodies as Antimony which may be reduc'd into a Butyrose Form by Distillation And all the Mineral Sulphurs may be easily extracted by Oyl of Turpentine with which they readily mix because of the Similitude of Oleous Parts The Oyliness of Mineral Sulphurs is more evident in the Distillation of Coal which yields a black Oyl Fetid like Harts-horn and as black and smoaky The Bitumens which have the Nature of Turpentine do most clearly convince us of the Oyliness of Mineral Sulphurs So that I need add no more to prove this Principle of Minerals The Third Principle of Minerals is an Acid which is acknowledg'd by all being evident in the Distillation of Sulphur and the Clyssus of Antimony This Acid adheres to the Oyly Sulphur in Minerals and locks it up thereby making it appear in a dry Form and therefore this may be compar'd to the Tartar in Vegetables which has always some Oyl in it By means of this Acid the Oyly Sulphur and the Earthy Parts are readily united in Mineral Bodies and therefore This is that
divers Plates is made the Gem. This is the Opinion of the Honourable Mr. Boyle This Salt which Compounds Gems seems like to Cream of Tartar in Vegetables which consists of Acids and Earthy Parts tasting Gritty and shooting into Crystals So in Minerals the Sulphur Acid joyns with a Stony Grit and constitutes the Nitrum Calcarium which if Crystalized by it self constitutes Transparent Stones which may during its Crystallization receive the Fumes of some Mineral or else the Sulphur in the Acid appears when the Acid is fixed on an Earth and gives it a colour Such is the colour of Red Precipitate from the Red Sulphur in Nitre Vid. Lapides pretiosi Crystallus c. Common Stones have the same Principles Lapides Communes as the former and besides a great deal of Mineral Earth or Bole with them which hinder the regular shooting of the Nitrum Calcarium and the Transparency and from those Mixtures Stones have their Colours Lime Marble Alabaster and Shells of Animals have a great deal of Earth and Acid and not much Sulphur They are easily Calcined into Salt by reason of their dissolvible Texture So Astringent Mucilaginous and Bitter Plants have much Acid and Earth little Oyl and yield much Salt. But those Stones which have much Sulphur and a close Texture yield little Salt like Resins in Vegetables but by addition of Salt these Stones are fusible into Glass such is the Nature of Osteocolla and Flints Those Stones which have an indissolvible Mixture of Oyl Acid and Earth and probably an equal proportion are very easily fused as Metals be as in Spar and Mineral Stones Lime-stone cannot turn into Glass because its Sulphur is separated by the Fire and the Acid of the Stone joyns with some Earthy Particles upon the wetting of the Stone from whence the Effervescence in Lime proceeds Aetites is a Flint and so is Lapis Bubonius by which we may be assured no Vertues can be expected from them Vitriols are made by Metalline Bodies Vitriola Compounded with a Sulphureous Acid. From Copper a Blue Vitriol From Iron a Green. From Silver a White From Lead a White Sugar of Lead From Mercury an Aluminous Brass-savoured Vitriol Quaere The Colour and Taste of the Vitriols of Tinn and Gold A Fire Stone or Marcasite It consists Pyrites of a Stone Mineral Ocher and Sulphureous Acid. Out of the Marcasite both Vitriol and Sulphur may be made There are as many Marcasites as sorts of Metals These they add to the Metals to make them more fusible which Spar and all other Sulphureous Stones do The Fire-stone which was sent to me from Wedgebury was black on the outside and Silver-coloured within This I put into a Glass of Fair Water which after a little time had a Vitriolate Taste and the Water turned Purple with Galls but after a long standing it turned Green again From such sorts of Stones Chalybeat-Waters receive their Imperfect Vitriol There appeared a Blue and Yellow Scum on the top of the Water in which the Fire-stone was put as there does in all Chalybeat-Waters when they stand a while I burnt some Grey Iron-stone with a Sulphur-role in a Crucible some edges of it melted I put that part of the Iron-stone which looked black and was not melted into some Fair Water with Galls and thence arose a Purple Colour and a Sulphur Scum. From whence I infer That Chalybeat-Waters have their Vertue both from Sulphur and Iron The Fetids in Vegetables are of agreeable Principles and Vertues to Marcasites being like the Fetid Gums which are contained in Plants and like them are used outwardly in Plasters in which Powdered Pyrites is good for the Sciatica Common Brimstone is a Compounded Sulphur vivum body of an Oyly part and an Acid both which in the Burning of Brimstone strike the Nose with a Pungency like Volatile Salts Nothing is Volatile in Minerals but Sulphur and this gives the Volatility to Quicksilver where I can compare nothing in Minerals to Pungent Volatile Salts but Sulphur-Fumes which in distillation of Pit-Coal compounds a Volatile Salt. And a Volatile Salt is made out of Soot which is a compounded Body of Oyl and Acid as Brimstone is I have tryed some Flowre of Brimstone gathered from the Fires in Wedgebury Coal-Pit which differ not from Ordinary Flowres of Brimstone for it burns Blue and looks and smells like ordinary Sulphur but something stronger it being the Sulphur of Coal Common Brimstone given inwardly with Milk purges very conveniently in the Piles and dryes them Vid. fl Sulph infra Sp. Sulph per Campanam Vid. Antimony infra Arsenic is like common Sulphur the Arsenicum Soot of Metals and is compounded like it of an Oyly part which in Arsenic is more piercing and an Acid and it is naturally joyned with a Mineral from which it is separated by Sublimation The best Orpiment is of a yellow Colour and smells strong of Sulphur but by putting it into a Pot over the Fire it becomes a Sandaraca Arsenic sublimes like Sulphur and may be changed into a Butter by Sublimate which shews its Oyly part Arsenic given inwardly Vomits violently corrodes the Stomach causes Thirst Heat Faintings Convulsions and at last Death The Sulphur in Arsenic may be fixt by Spirit of Nitre and Salt of Tartar alters its Corrosiveness by imbibing its Acid therefore the Corrosiveness depends not wholly on either Acid or Sulphur but on a Proportion and Texture of both which makes it a strong Caustick outwardly for eating Proud Flesh Acids have pointed Figures by which they are Pungent and corrode and when they are Compounded with Sulphur they are Figured into pointed Particles which by reason of the Activity of Sulphur tear and corrode stronger than when they are compounded with Minerals or Earths The Poysonous Acrids of Napellus and Aconite and the Caustick Milks in Vegetables may be compared with Arsenic for its Poysoning quality which is its Corrosiveness The Principles of Minerals cannot so easily be united into Volatile Salts as Vegetables are but the Oyl and Acid in Sulphur want only an Earth to give them the nature of a Salt and they sometimes may acquire that Texture as appears in the Volatile Salt of Coal The high degree of Acrimony in Mineral Sulphurs makes a Poyson tho' a lower degree makes only a Purger as appears in Antimonial Medicines which have their Stimulus from the like Texture of Sulphur and Acid and in many sorts of Vitriols which purge especially in Copper-Medicines in which is manifestly a Sulphur and an Acid and from the mixture of Copper or Arsenic which is mixt with the Mineral of Silver the Preparations of Silver purge so violently Common Sulphur is not corrosive because there is too great a quantity of Acid mixt with the Oyly part in it self by which means the Oyly part is less Volatile In Antimony the Acid is less than in Sulphur and therefore the Sulphur Oyl is more Volatile and purges In Arsenic
like Nature and Production Salt of Ash I tasted it in the Shops Sal Fraxini cool and saltish but I believe it was altered by the long keeping of it in the Air the fresh being very Corrosive Salt of Wormwoood unpurified tastes Sal Absynthii Cool Saltish Pungent and Bitterish Salts unpurified taste of the Oyl of the Vegetables and therefore are better than clear Salt. Salt of Scurvy-Grass tastes only very Sal Cochleariae Saltish All Fixt Salts are of a Salt Taste but those Plants in which is most Acrid give the strongest Saltness but this may be altered by the dryness of the Plant and the degrees of Fire or quantity of Oyl joyn'd with Acid and Earth By the Acid in the Air Fixt Salts turn Nitrose and get a cool Taste Sea-Salt tastes Salt Sub-acid and Pungent Sal Marinum it hinders Putrefaction by the Acid and is Diuretick helps Digestion but is not altered by it Spirit of Salt put to an Alkaly produces a Sea-Salt Dr. Grew says That the Marine Salts of Plants taste like Sea-Salt and have a Cubick Figure The Nitrose Salts of Plants he says taste Bitter and have Figures a little corresponding to their Nitrose Taste Salt of Amber tastes Saltish and Pungent Sal Succini and smells of Amber Spirit of Vitriol will not Ferment with it but Spirit of Sal-Ammoniack will. All Gums Resins and Bitumens yield a great deal of Acid and some Volatile Salt mixt with it by which this Salt is Diuretick and by the Smell like Amber It is also Cephalick A Volatile Salt may be distilled out of the Salt of Amber by an addition of a Fixt Salt. Vitriol tastes Sweet and Styptick White Vitriolum Vitriol gives a pale Blue with Galls and Water It is used in Distempers of the Eyes and inwardly for a Vomit Blue Vitriol gives a Purple colour with Galls and Water Green Vitriol gives a deep Purple with Galls and Water The Stypticity of Vitriols makes it good for the Itch and for Proud Flesh in Vlcers Some Vitriols have an Acritude in the Taste besides the sweet Astringency says Dr. Grew This Acrimony is from the Sulphureous Acid. Irish Slate This put into fair Water Lapis Hibernicus with Galls gives a Purple Colour The Taste of it is Vitriolick Rough and Acid It is therefore most proper to stop Bleeding and Overflowings but not to cleanse Child-Bed Women as the Midwives use it and thereby occasion a Stoppage and Fever Tartar tastes Sowre and Gritty It is Tartarus precipitated from the Wine by the Earthy parts adhering to the Acid by which it is Cooling and Diuretick All Acids in Vegetables are of this nature and are called the Essential Salts Some of which are thought to be Nitrose because of a Bitterness which is produced by the Oyl of the Plant adhering to the Acid. Tartar and Essential Salts distilled yield a Volatile Salt which is a little Acid and such a mixt Spirit is the Spirit of all Woods A Fetid Oyl arises with this mixt Spirit of Tartar and the Caput Mortuum has a Fixt Salt the Acid of the Tartar being wholly destroyed part fluxing with the Earth produces a Fixt Salt part of it ascending with the Oyl carries some Earthy Parts with it by its Acidity and produces a Volatile Salt and Sub-acid Spirit of Tartar The rest of the Acidity adheres to the Fetid Oyl which yields a further Volatile Salt by addition of Salt of Tartar which affords new Earth to the Oyly Acid for production of a Volatile Vrinous Salt. The same is produced by an addition of Burnt Alum or Lime The Salt of the Juyce of Wood-Sorrel Sal Essentiale Acetosetae tastes Sowre like Tartar and has a Gritt or White Vitrious Earth with which the Fixt Parts of the Acid being melted in the Fire produces a Fixt Salt. The Acid of Vegetables contains an Oyl in it but very Fixt This Acid in the ripening of Fruits and in Fermentation of Acid Juyces fixes upon some Earthy Parts and then the Oyl appears which by vertue of a little Acid mixt with the most Volatile Oyl fixes on some Gritt or Vitrious Earth and produces a Volatile Oleose Salt which being much diluted by Water a Spirituous Liquor is produced Wood-Sorrel yields most Essential Salt by which it 's inferred that all of them are pure Tartar. Vitriolated Tartar tastes Gritty and Tartarus Vitriolatus Saltish and is Diuretick both by the Acid and Fixt Salt It will not Coagulate any Liquor It is an Aperitive without any Heat Oyl of Nitrated Tartar made by Deliquium Oleum Tartari Nitrati per deliquium curdles Choler and Milk and is Diuretick as a mixt Salt and tastes Salt and Sub-acid like Nitre Spirit of Vitriol tastes Sowre and Rough Spiritus Vitrioli by which it cools and is a good Astringent The Oyl of Vitriol is strongest but has an offensive burning Heat upon the Tongue from the Fire The Spirit is best in Fevers and Hemorrhages Spirit of Nitre tastes Sowre very Pungent Spiritus Nitri and Rough The Sowre and Rough are less in this than other Acid Spirits It fixes Mineral Sulphurs and therefore condenses all Animal flatuosities The great Pungency makes it Diuretick and fitter to dissolve as a Menstruum Spirit of Salt tastes Sowre Saltish and Spiritus Salis. Pungent from the Sea-Salt and differs only from it by being more Acid and Cooling It is an opening Diuretick and Stomachick Vertue and good against the Putrefaction of the Gums Spirit of Salt from the Pungency is Aperitive and it has a Roughness to strengthen as well as Sowreness to cool Spirit of Sulphur tastes Sowre and a little Spiritus Sulphuris per Campanam sharp for so I think it most proper to call the Pungency of Acids for the better distinguishing of it from the biting of Acrids The Acid of Sulphur is more agreeable to the Stomach than any other Mineral Acids There is also a Roughness in Spirit of Sulphur but less than in Vitriol Vinegar tastes Sowre Sharp and Winy Acetum and is of a Sharp Winy Smell by which it appears to be a mixt body of the Volatile Spirit of Wine and the Tartareous Acids of the same When Acid Liquors are decayed they taste flat without Pungency but yet Sowre therefore the Pungency is from the Oyl and not the Figure only Saccharum Saturni tastes Sweet and Saccharum Saturni Styptick by which it Cools Repels and Cicatrizes Vlcers This Sweetness is from the Winy Spirit in Vinegar for Chalk with Vinegar gives the same Taste and a Vinous Spirit may be distilled from the Sugar of Lead The Acid of the Vinegar fixing on an Alkaly le ts the Oyly Parts of the Wine loose on which the Sweetness depends and not on the Lead So the Bitterness in the Pilulae Lunares depends on the Sulphur in the Nitre which appears most when the Nitrous Acids are
fixt in the Silver so that in the Spirit of Vitriol mixt with the Oyl of Tartar some Authors have observed a Bitter The Oyly Acid in Saccharum Saturni has a Smoothness of Parts produced by the fixing of the Acids in the Lead and the Bitterness in the Crystals of Silver come from a Rough Texture of the Compounded Parts resembling the Texture of Bitters The Acid in the Composition of Saccharum Saturni makes it cooling CHAP. VII Of Minerals and Mineral Earths and Stones FLowres of Sulphur taste Dry Sub-acid Fl. Sulphuris and smell strongly Fetid There is a great Acid in Sulphur and an Oyly Part By the Acid it cures the Itch corrodes Minerals and fixes Volatile Salts By the Oyly Part it is a Balsamick Pectoral and cures the Acid stagnating Lympha Oyl of Turpentine and Oyl of Vitriol mixt and distill'd yield a Sulphur vivum And being the Bitumens and Petroleum are so like Turpentine in Taste and Smell I thence argue That there is a great Agreeableness in Sulphur and Turpentine which last seems to be only the Oyly Part of Sulphur depriv'd of much of its Acidity and therefore less coagulate by it Which Opinion I shall farther confirm by observing that Turpentine is compos'd of the same Principles as Sulphur of an Oyly Part and an Acid and besides has a great deal of Water to make it fluid Sulphur easily mixes with the Oyl of Turpentine both are Inflammable have the same Physical Vertues and are the Causes of all Smells the One in Minerals and the Other in Vegetables Ettmullerus says Anthrax distill'd yields an Oyl like Petroleum therefore out of Sulphur Turpentine-Bitumens are produc'd And I have instanc'd above that out of Turpentine Sulphur may be produc'd Which are convincing Experiments that Turpentine and Sulphur have the same Oyl and Acid only in different States and Mixtures From hence it is evident that Chymists speak not much amiss when they call the Oyl of Vegetables their Sulphur but I do not think it proper to explain the Nature of Vegetables by Mineral Principles though Galen calls all Bitter Plants Nitrose because they resemble the Bitterness of Nitre and not for having any Nitre in them For the same reason I might call Acerb Tastes Aluminous because they resemble that Taste but none will allow that any Alum is in the Plants of that Taste I will give an Instance of Sulphur's Fertility in producing all the Salts in the Earth as well as the Acids in Vegetables which I have above intimated the Sulphur-Acid being one Part of the Composition of Mineral-Salts Vitriol is known to be the Product of the Fumes of Sulphur which corrode Iron into an imperfect Vitriol But the perfect Vitriol is only made in the Air out of a Pyrites Spirit of Sulphur put upon Iron produces a Vitriol and so does the melting of Brimstone with it and likewise the mixing of Flowre of Brimstone with Filings of Iron and sprinkling them with Water this put into fair Water with Galls turns Purple Alum is produc'd from the Acid Fumes of Sulphur dissolving some Stony Matter for Spirit of Sulphur will with Chalk constitute an Alum and Alum-Stones are full of Sulphur as Dr. Lyster informs us and where there is most Vitriol and Sulphur bred Alum abounds most Sea-Salt is compounded of an Alcalizate Body or Vitrious Earth and a Sulphureous Acid Hence Flowres of Sulphur are sometimes gather'd in the Neck of the Retort in distillation of Spirit of Salt as Ettmullerus intimates Spirit of Salt being re-affus'd upon an Alkaly becomes perfect Sea-Salt again and shoots into Cubes after the distillation of Sal-Ammoniack with Salt of Tartar. All Sulphureous Waters have a Sea-Salt in them which is an Argument of the Acidity of Sea-Salts being the same as Sulphur-Acid which coagulates with a Stony Matter into a Fixt Salt. Sea-Salt will be fused in a strong Fire by reason of the Alkaly Nitre consists of a very Sulphureous Acid which in Places impregnated with the Vrines or Dungs of Animals has a Volatile Salt for its Alkaly In Old Walls and Stony Places Nitre has some of the Stone or Lime for the Alkaly In the Springs of the Earth the Sulphureous Acid fixes on Sea-Salt whence after the burning of Nitre a Sea-Salt remains Cinnabar corrects Acids by the Sulphur Cinnabaris Nativa and Quick-silver of which it is made It smells Sulphureous and tastes Gritty The Acid of the Sulphur fixes the Mercury which happens also in the making of all Amalgamas in which the Quick-silver is fixt by the Sulphur of the Metal Cinnabar is given inwardly for all Distempers depending on Acids and outwardly dries Vlcers and cicatrizes Antimony is compounded of much Sulphureous Antimonium Acid and Vitreous Earth Antimonial Medicines have either Sulphur-Flowres in them of which the Tincture plainly smells or else an Acid in them most manifest in the Clyssus from a mixture of both the Flowres and Acid of Antimony the Vomitory Faculty arises For Sulphur in Minerals answers the Resin in Vegetables having both an Oyly Pungency and both may be produc'd from the Oyl of Turpentine and Oyl of Vitriol Verdegrease is very Corrosive good for Aerugo stopping Putrefaction in Vlcers and for cleansing them and is produc'd from the Acid of Grapes corroding and giving a Green Colour The Vrine added in the Preparation gives a Blue Colour and helps the Dissolution of Copper Ettmuller Lapis Lazuli Armenus They partake Lapis Lazuli Armenus of the Nature of Copper and very little of Silver by which they are purging The Sulphur-Acid in Copper being offensive to an Animal Body and most of the Preparations of Silver which are purging have their Vertue from Copper mixt with it Lapis Lazuli besides the Copper contains some Gold. Ettmuller says They have their Earthy Part from Marble and are found in Copper-Mines and Gold-Mines Tutia and Pompholyx are the Products Tutia Pompholyx of Copper and very drying in Vlcers They are the Soot of Copper Lapis Medicamentosus is of a Salt Astringent Lapis Medicamentosus Taste by which it cleanses and heals Vlcers The Pumice-Stone burnt and quenched Pumex in Vinegar is a good Dentrifice The vertue of Stones that have neither Taste nor Smell are only absorbent of Acids and drying in Vlcers But Pumice yields a Green Tincture with Spirit of Vinegar and therefore contains Copper Lime-Water tastes Saltish and is of a Calx mixt nature partly Alkaline because it gives a Volatility to Sal-Ammoniack which is a Salso-Acid and it precipitates Minerals dissolved by Acids But it has also an Acidity and coagulates Oyls into Butter So Oyl of Roses grows Thick and Butyrose if mixt with Lime-Water Spirit of Salt distilled from Lime yields a Volatile Vrinous Salt like Spirit of Vrine which shews the little difference betwixt Volatile and Fixt Salts and that an Acid is an Ingredient of both sorts An excellent and useful Salt may be drawn from the
which yield those curious Noctilucas which differ nothing from Sulphur by their Smell and Burning A Nidorose Ructus resembles the Foetor produc'd by the Sulphur of Iron in its Dissolution by an Acid And Steel prepared with Volatile Salts has the Smell of Marigolds Saffron and consequently the Menses An Epileptical Person complained to me of an Aluminous Taste in the Spittle after every Fit. I have been often sensible of a Vitriolick sweet Taste in my Mouth by the spitting of Blood from the Head and Gums which made me think I had tasted Vitriolum Martis or some Steel-Medicine And by that Taste I perceiv'd the return of that Scorbutick Spitting of Blood. I cannot understand whence this Sweet Taste proceeds unless from an Acid corroding the Teeth I have observ'd divers Hysterical Women who have vomited an Acid which would corrode Metals and set their Teeth on edge like Vitriol I have mention'd a Volatile Salt distill'd from Coals and a Fetid Oyl like that of Harts-Horn The Earth of Animals will indure Fire beyond Minerals and therefore Cupels are made of burnt Bones And Becherus mentions the Vitrifying of Animals as well as Minerals I shall mention but one thing more from which the Congruity of Principles is suppos'd which is That many Mineral Stones have the Figures of Animals in them and some resemble Bones and the Brain and other Parts of the Body Which argues the Similitude of Nature as the Salts of Plants resemble the Figure of the Plants from whence they are produc'd and the Salts of Vipers shoot into like Figures and the Salts of Harts-Horn into Figures like Horns The Spirits of Animals I have compared to the Smells of Vegetables and if they rise from the Oyly Acid Florid Part of the Blood which I have compar'd to Resins because the red Part does not dissolve in the Serum it must be acknowledg'd that the Spirits of Animals are Inflammable like Sulphur From whence arise the Flashings before Fits of Convulsions the Sparkles appearing in the Eyes and the Flashings observable in Plethorick Bodies upon the pulling off their Stockings and Cloaths Nitre and Sulphur are the Cause of all the Explosions Fires and Earthquakes amongst Minerals and such is the Mixture of the Spirits in Animals From whence strange and great Motions are produc'd CHAP. III. The Tastes and Odors of particular Animal Medicines NAtural Salt of Animals The natural Sal Ammoniacum Animalium Salt in the Blood and Vrine is a mixt Salt of Volatile and Acid like common Sal-Ammoniack the same mixt Salt is in an imperfect state in the Dung of Animals from which exposed to the Air Nitre is bred by addition of a Sulphureous Aerial Acid And from this Salt Blood Vrine and Dungs have their Vertue and Saltness If the Sulphureous Acid of the Air did by Inspiration of the Air mix with the Blood as Authors affirm the Salt of the Blood would be purely Nitrose which is not apparent to the Taste Vrine smells strongly Lixivious and by the addition of Calx viva easily in distillation yields a Volatile Salt the Acid thereby being loosed from the Volatile Salt as well as by Fermentation in which the Acids of Vrine fix upon the Earthy Parts and give liberty to the Volatile Salt. The higher any Animal Humors are fermented the stronger is the Salt as in Salt of Vipers Flesh Blood Vrine Choler and of all Fetid Animals The Volatile Salts of Insects are most penetrant and their Bodies smell strongly Fetid The Oyl of Animals Chymically Prepared is very Fetid and Anti-hysterick Vrinous Spirits and Oyls of Animals are externally good Discussers in Scrophulous Tumors and allay Arthritick Pains Chymical Volatile Salts of Animals Sal Volatile Animalium When Spirit of Hartshorn is distilled it wants many Rectifications to clear it from that Acid which is naturally mixt with Animal Humours Our Dyet being of Fruits Herbs Liquors Bread and Milk they all afford a great quantity of Acid the Animal Acid being the same which is in Vegetables from whence they receive their Sulphur Acid. All Stomachs of Animals being opened smell something of Acid In an Acid Ructus it is more evident and also in Acid Vrine and Rheums and also in Sub-acid Spittle yet we can meet with no Humour naturally and purely Acid in Animals the most purely Animal Acid appears in Butter-milk which is therefore very cooling in Fevers The Oyly Part of the Chyle in Animals mixes with the Acid and obscures it as in Milk. And the Volatile Salts in the Blood absorb the Acid as appears by the Fixedness of the Salt in Vrine and Blood being Salso-acid All Volatile Salts as well as Fixt retain some Acid from whence they have their Salt Taste They are also easily united with Oyls as is manifest in the Oyls of Vegetables and Animals none of which are free from a Salt and some Acidity adhering to the Oyl In a production of a Fixt Salt by Fire the crude Acid of a Plant joyns with some Vitrious Earth and unites into a Salt. So in the production of a Volatile Salt the Oyly Acid of the Plant carries with it some Earth and unites into a Volatile Vrinous Salt. Sulphurs and Oyls being of themselves naturally Volatile piercing and Sub-acid want only an Earthy Part to give them a Salt Taste Such a mixture is made in the production of a Volatile Salt from Antimony Nitre Tartar and Flints and in the Soot of Woods which yields a great Acid Fume by which it is offensive to the Eyes And a Volatile Salt is produced by that Acid and Vegetable Oyl and some light Earthy Parts mixt with them A Volatile Salt may be distilled from Oyl of Turpentine by addition of the Salt of Tartar. Volatile Salts are either produced by a violent Fire by which a mixture of Oyly Acid is made with Earth or else they are produced by Putrefaction So from Blood and Vrine Putrefyed a greater quantity of Volatile Salt and Oyl may be drawn than can be by a violent Fire without Putrefaction A Volatile Vrinous Salt may be distilled from Vegetables Putrefied as Mint Wormwood Scurvy-Grass c. And these Vegetable Vrinous Salts are much of the same nature and differ as Animal Salts do by their Fetid Oyl Milk It is Sweetish in Taste and is Lac. that Chyle out of which the Serum of the Blood is immediately made It consists of much Water to dilute the Blood and to supply the defect of the Lympha in Hectical and Scorbutick Persons and also of much Oyly Butter which lubricates all passages and supplies Fat for the Animal and also of Caseous Fibers which are the immediate nourishment of the Solid Parts Asses Milk is the thinnest Goats is the next Cows has the most Butter and Caseous Parts Womens is most agreeable to our Nature having had a like Digestion and past a Circulation with the Blood most like to our Natures Cheese smells like Sweat tastes Clammy Caseus and
Mesentery This Sweetness of Chyle is evident in the Blood which is spit from a broken Vein in the Lungs and from hence is the Sweet Taste of Blood. This Sweetness is tasted in the Saliva and the Milk of the Breasts and therefore these and all other Sweet Slimes arise from the Chyle The colour of the Chyle was White and Reddish or Rosie in the Chyliduct of the Buttery Oyl of Chyle becoming Red by the mixture of the Acrid of Choler which produces the Saltness So Salt of Tartar by digestion with Milk turns it Red And a mixture of Crabs-Eyes Vinegar and White-Wine looks Reddish Hence I infer That the Acrid of Choler helps Sanguification by turning the Chyle of a colour mixt of Red and White it becoming wholly Red upon a perfect Sanguification From the different parts of Chyle all the several parts of Blood and other Humors are prepared and therefore all the parts of Animals have the principles of Chyle only altered by a higher Digestion and new Mixtures and different Textures And therefore I think it very impertinent for Physicians to look after any other Principles of Animal Bodies than what occur to our Senses in Chyle and Milk for these are sufficient to explain all the Phaenomena observable in Animal Humors without any Supposition of the Mathematical qualities of Atoms or the Products of the Fire by Chymistry these are the curious Thoughts and Experiments of Philosophers but the Physician needs none other Notion but what occurs by an obvious deduction from sensible objects neither need we assert any other Principle than a Serose a Viscid an Oyly and an Acid Principle in Animal Humors These are easily understood and we need not consider the farther Resolution of these Integral Parts which I call sensible Principles what sort of Atoms compose them And what their insensible Motion is Nor whether all these may be resolved into one Principle For in these particulars every Philosopher has a different Hypothesis and asserts what he pleases 3. The Saliva resembles thin Milk well diluted and tastes Sweetish like Milk. Milk is most like Chyle and thicker and sweeter than the Saliva therefore it is the first Humor separated from Chyle for the Nourishment of Nurses after Eating immediately goes to the Breasts The Saliva is increased by the use of Milk-Meats and is therefore of the same Nature with it 4. The Milky Slime of the Glandulous Coats of the Wind-Pipe and Nose This returns out of the Bladders of the Lungs into the Thoracick ductus of the Chyle And with this Lympha I think it very probable that the Air passes into the Chyle-Vessels for the better mixing of it with the Blood and this is the only way I think the Air can pass into the Blood-Vessel 5. The Glandulous Milky Slime of the Thymus seems to be of the nature of the Saliva and is evacuated either into the Oesophagus or Chyliferous Vessels of the Embryo for the supply of a sufficient Lympha for the Chyle Secondly Animal Sweet Slimes of a Fetid Smell arising from Chyle highly digested 1. The Male-Seed which is Milky Spumose Viscid and full of Volatile Fetid Oyly Particles which are the Spirits of Animals All the Seeds of Plants are Oyly with a Slime adjoyned these ferment the Bituminous Juices which are imbibed by their Coats out of the Earth into the Nature of each particular Seed for the Growth and Increase of the Plantula Seminalis contained in the Pulpy part of the Seed So Impregnation of the Female is by the Seminal Ferment which alters the new Chyle in the Veins of the Female into an albuminous Nature fit for the Nourishment of the Embryo contained in the Female Egg. 2. The Glandulous Slimy Lympha of the Vagina and the Womb and of the Female Testicles all which resemble the White of an Egg This is the Female Semen it becomes Milky by boyling like the White of an Egg if the White be hard boyled it smells very Sulphureous These Sulphureous Particles are the active Ferment of the White of an Egg which ferments both Bread and Milk which it thickens and curdles but swells and rarefies Bread or Puddings The Seminal Milks of both Sexes are Fetid like putrid Fish and therefore have a greater quantity of Animal Fetid Particles fit for the nature of a Ferment which is generally in Animals a Slime in which Fetid Particles are lodged Stum which is the greatest of our Vegetable Ferments has a Slimy Sweetness and also a Sulphureous Smell and Taste on which its great Activity depends as a Ferment The two Masculine and Female Slimes mix in the Vagina or Womb the Spirituous Male Seed alters the Female Slime into that digestion which is peculiar and fit for preparing the Nourishment of the Egg to be Impregnated and for the Embryo contained in the Cicatricula The Impregnate Slime passes through the Lymphaticks of the Womb into the Females Blood and by acting on the Slimy Chyle therein it prepares a fit Nourishment for the Foetus in the Egg That Nourishment is determined to the Ovarium by the Act of Coition which heats the Back and opens the Passages to the Eggs and determines the motion of the Blood and Spirits to those parts The Sperm of a Pearl dropt into Vinegar is presently Coagulated hence may be explained how Acids hinder Impregnation when given for Medicine or abounding in the Female Blood for it is necessary that she have a sufficient Chylose Matter for the nourishment of the Egg and that also of a sweet nutritive temper neither too Salt or Acid which destroys the Male Ferment or the Embryo's Nutriment 3. The Glandulous Milky thin Slime of the Brain-Glands being full of Fetid Oyly Particles for the Brain tastes Oyly and Slimy and of the Animal Fetid from whence I suppose a Liquor is separated of the same Taste for all the Glands have a Taste of their Lympha's The Animal Fetid Particles being very high digested and of an Oyly Nature are the Animal Spirits diluted in the purest pellucid Lympha which can be separated from Chyle This Lymphatick Slime preserves the Spirits as our Noctiluca's are preserved in Water and I suppose the Spirits to be like them having a lucid Nature by the admission of Air through the Nervous Canals of the Nose as that Phosphorus which is made of Blood by pulling out the Stopple and admitting Air it becomes an innocent Flame And the different tempers and motions of the Spirits may most intelligibly be explained by comparing them with different sorts of Flame Blood it self is very Inflammable and burns like Resin with a yellow Flame from the different tempers of the Blood a different Luminosity in the Spirits is produced Light is a thin Flame and that is produced naturally in Animal Bodies by Putrefaction as in the shining Shells of Lobsters And this is the ultimate Resolution or Rarefaction of the Animal Oyl which like Sulphur becomes more lucid by being cleared from its Acid. Acids
Martis and Saccharum Saturni for which reason the haematites is supposed to partake of both Metals and its Vertue lies in the Astringency The Magnet is used in Wounds and all Martial Medicines but neither this nor the haematites nor the Ore of Iron ferment with Acids Amber and other Bitumens attract by their Sulphureous Steams for rubbing increases their Electrical Vertue by exciting the motion of the Sulphureous Effluviums The Load-stone being Iron must attract by its Sulphur Effluvia of which Iron smells strongly And those circulate through the Stony matter with some respect to the Poles to which the Materia subtilis determines it The Pyrites tastes Vitriolick and smells Sulphureous It is the Mysy Diascoridis The Copper-stones are of a Sulphureous burning heat and Vitriolick Taste Lapis Lazuli and Armeni are Vitriolick Purgers and vomit sometimes They are washed to abate their Acrimony They are sensible of Acids and Urinous Spirits extract a blue colour by which it appears That Copper may be dissolved in the Stomach and thereby those Stones purge Smiris contains Iron and its Tincture turns black with Galls Mr. Boyle Pumex is a soft Stone but out of it a Copper Tincture may be extracted whereby it dries and cicatrises 4. Stones of a Bituminous Smell as Gagates Lithanthrax The white Belearnites is mentioned to smell like Amber but the Ash coloured like Cows-Horn as Dr. Grew observed Lapis Lyncis tastes Fetid and smells Sulphureous and therefore is not fit for inward use as a Diuretick It is described of an Electrical Vertue There are some Stones indissolvable by Acids neither melt by the Fire and therefore they consist of an Earthy Principle alone without the mixture of Oyl or Acids as Talc and Selenites or Specular Stone both are used only as Cosmeticks Burnt Minerals and Stones retain the Particles of Fire whereby their weight is increased and they acquire a heating and drying Faculty Magisteries of Stones ferment neither with Alkalin or Acid and therefore are little esteemed Stones dissolved by Acids are Styptick and Coral Austere The Tincture of Coral is binding and rough in Taste and no other Vertue can be expected from a petrified Substance in Tincture though the Chymists unjustly boast of it and have writ so much about its Tincture Lead-spar burnt yields a Lixivial Salt as Dr. Grew affirms The Powder of it unburnt is good for the Stone and Gravel as I have observed all gritty Powders pass by Vrine as Crabs-Eyes c. These are the chief parts of Salt to which an Oyly Acid joyns it self for compounding a Salt. Of the Tastes and Smells of Metals and Metallick Bodies and their products as Vitriols Calces Sulphurs and Bitumens ALL Metals taste something Vitriolick by reason of their Sulphureous Acid. In their Composition there is little Water much Earth and Sulphur which last is compounded of an Oyl and Acid. All Metals have the same Principles but in different proportions and mixtures of them And we may evidently smell the Sulphur in all Metals except in Gold which does not smell Sulphureous Metals have little Taste or Vertue of themselves but by their Preparation First Of Vitriols 1. Of the Taste and Vertue of Gold Medicines Le Mort in his Pharmacia Rationalis gives the taste of the Tincture of Gold and says It is a little Styptick and afterward very Sweet the sweetness following the Vitriolick Taste This Vitriolick sweet Taste agrees exactly with the Steel-Taste of Blood and therefore may be a great Medicine for the strengthning of the Blood as all Steel Medicines be which have also a sweet Vitriolick Taste Mr. Molt an Ingenious Chymist informs me That his Tincture of Gold tastes like Spiritus nitri dulcis therefore this Preparation is different from the former The Volatile Alkali which extracts the Tincture acquires the nature of an Ammoniac Salt by mixing with some of the Acid Menstruum adhering to the Calx of Gold and that Salt may render the Tincture Diuretick and Sudorifick There is in the Blood an Ammoniac Salt besides the Vitriolick Taste And in all these the Tincture of Gold and the Flowers of Sal Ammoniac Martiale agree with the natural Taste of Blood and therefore very much help its digestion and the sanguification of Chyle The Sulphur of Gold cannot be extracted but may produce some effects like Sulphur so the Sulphur of Flint and Iron may appear burning by striking both together which excites a brisk motion And Iron looks of different colours by different degrees of Heat The detonation of Metal their smell of Sulphur and also their burning are plainly effects of their extraverted Sulphur though that cannot be divided from the other Principles Aurum fulminans has a Vitriolick Taste and purges if unwashed and colours the Stools black It yields a purple Sublimate like the solution of Gold this colour proceeds from its Sulphur but that is not separable from the Earthy parts for the Tincture of Gold may be reduced into Gold again The fulminating Vertue depends on a new Nitre regenerated by a mixture of the Salt of Tartar with the Menstruum and this is lodged in the Pores of the Gold and thence exploded 2. Silver Medicines The Crystals which are the Vitriol of Silver are accounted very Bitter In the Pil. Lunares they purge violently The blue Tincture of Silver tastes Bitterish by which and the Volatile Alkali of its Menstruum it is Antiepileptick and it tastes also Styptick for which it is used in the Gonorrhoea 3. Copper Medicines are Vitriolick Bitterish of a Brass-savour Taste very Nauseous The Roman Vitriol is most Acrid Copper Ore and all Copper Medicines have a strong Sulphureous Smell by which they discuss and deterge and eat proud Flesh as Aerugo does but the Vitriolick Taste cicatrizes Galen mentions the Acrimony of Copper Vitriol with a suffocating Smell Spirit of Verdigriese has a strong Acid pungent Taste by which it is a great dissolvent and smells of a quick Acid. Sal Vitrioli vomits by its Brass-savored nauseous Vitriol-Taste White Vitriol will not coagulate the Serum of the Blood neither will burnt Vitriol I mixed both with it but Roman Vitriol curdles it Aes ustum must be drying and Astringent in Taste Sulphur Vitrioli narcoticum tastes Vitriolick The Sulphur in all Vitriols when it is precipitated from the Acid smells Fetid as in Oyl of Vitriol and thereby it becomes Narcotick or Anodyne Copper has a very strong Sulphur whereby it becomes inflammable and very prejudicial to the Miners A Copper-Farthing swallowed by a Child caused a large Salivation The Lunar Caustick tastes of a Brass-savored burning Vitriol as a Chirurgeon informs me Burnt Alum and Lime have also a burning Stypticity and are thereby also very Corrosive Common Verdigriese coagulates the Serum of the Blood into which I put some of it and therefore it acts the same on the Succus nutritius which is bred from the Serum and flows from Vlcers and therefore by this Vitriolick coagulative Vertue
it dries and cicatâ—â—zes stopping the Vessels and coagulating the Serum Burnt Alum coagulates the Serum very much and therefore is very drying It tastes extreamly Styptick with some Heat and Acid. 4. Iron Medicines They taste all Vitriolick Sweet and Iron smells Sulphureous the Vertue depends on the Vitriol and also on the Fetid Sulphur Iron may be dissolved into a Crocus by Spirit of Hartshorn but it will not taste so Vitriolick as other Preparations Sal Chalybis calcined tastes Aluminous and very Styptick and then is most fit for outward use Sal Chalybis will not coagulate the Serum of the Blood nor Choler 5. Lead Medicines are Vitriol Sweet and Styptick Aluminous The great Stypticity of Lead makes all its Preparations Offensive to the Guts and Stomach where Lead leaves an indelible nauseousness as Wedelius informs us Borellus assures us That the Salt of Lead produced the Palsie Bonetus affirms That the Fumes of Lead produce pains in the Bowels stoppage in the Belly and trembling of the Limbs pains in the Head and blackness of Teeth I have often observed the dry Cough and shortness of Breath which he mentions in the Miners These affects are deducible from the Stypticity acting on different parts and most particularly on the Nervous Juice Since the Fumes of Quicksilver and Lead affect us after the same manner I have supposed them to have some similitude in their natures For these Symptoms Bonetus commends Oyly Medicines which have a contrary effect to Stypticks as Sperma Ceti Soap Milk after Evacuation and fresh Butter used prevent any ill effects of Lead-Medicines Tinctura Antiphthisica which is made of Saccharum Saturni and Vitriolum Martis tastes extreamly Styptick by which it heals the Ulceration of the Lungs stops the putrefaction of the Blood and prevents Loosnesses but Stypticks make the Breath of Hectical Persons very short and strait as I have oft observed by use of Stypticks after Spitting of Blood. Cerussa is Styptick and Cooling being Lead corroded by Vinegar 5. Tin Medicines The Vitriols of Tin are described as Insipid and Rough. Mr. George Molt communicated these Tastes to me Sal Jovis is sweet on the Tongue at first and goes off with a Rough unpleasantness at last The Sulphur of Jovial Medicines make them Anti-hystericks And Tin smells very Sulphureous and burns The Stypticity of Jovial Medicines outwardly heals all Vlcers and Tetters if they be mixed with Pomatum 6. Mercurial Medicines Mercurial Vitriols are of a Brass-savored Taste and Aluminous Styptick Divers Persons have complained of that Taste after Purging with Mercurius dulcis by this Aluminous Vitriol they cicatrize and resist putrefaction and then coagulate the Serum of the Blood to produce a Salivation And Alum it self does coagulate it The Fumes of Mercury produce the Palsie and Giddiness by coagulating the Nervous Juice Fumus Mercurii ob aciditatem hostilem laryngem statim praecludit constringit This is Doleus's Observation So that Mercury unprepared has as evident qualities as other Metals That Mercurial Fumes pass through the Nerves into the Brain is not improbable and also all other Smells act immediately upon the Spirits and not on the Membranes or Fibrillae nervosae This may be proved by the effects of Charcoal Fumes which kill by their Fetid Oyly Acids And new Aqua Fortis will strike them down who smell to it and cause a Giddiness These Mercurial Fumes which get into the Blood acquire some Vitriolick Acid thence and thereby are more Vitriolated to coagulate the Serum and produce a Salivation Turbith Mineral seems of little Taste at first but leaves after a few Minutes an exceeding Roughness with much Spitting by which Tastes it salivates and vomits Mercurius dulcis and Praecipitatus albus dulcis leave a Vitriolick Taste a little Brass-savored but Sublimate has the strongest Styptick curdling the Serum of the Blood. Red Precipitate is a corrosive Styptick but it would not curdle the Serum of the Blood though I stirred it with it Mercurius vitae after some time tastes Rough and leaves a Brass-savored Vitriolick Taste The Antimonial Sulphureous Acid makes it vomitive especially being joyned with a Brass-savored Taste which this as well as all other Mercurial Purgers leave after their Operations Salt of Tartar imbibes the Acid and makes it milder Spirits that are Acid correct the Antimonial Sulphurs and take away its violence A scruple of Diaphoretick Antimony does well correct all Poysonous effects by Quicksilver ill prepared and so does Salt of Tartar and Lime-water Mercury has some Acid in it whereby it corrodes Iron the Teeth and offends Worms Spirit of Sal Ammoniac makes Mercurius dulcis black by separating some Sulphur from the Acid Salts Mercury dissolved in Aqua Fortis and precipitated by Lime-Water is of a yellow colour Salt Water precipitates it into a white Vrine to an Incarnate colour as Oyl of Tartar to a Milky but if Sublimate be precipitated the colours vary as at Pag. 19. Second Part of the Pharmaco-Basanos 7. Antimonial Vitriols which consist most of Sulphur but in Antimony some Lead is supposed to be from whence it has its Alkali which combining with the Acid is commonly added in the preparation of Antimony It thence receives its Vitriolate Astriction which is perceived by the Taste as my Ingenious Friend Dr. Edward Betts has intimated to me And he also informed me That Crocus MetalloruÌ„ had some Taste like Vitriolum album Common Cinnabar has the Ceruss of Lead mixed with it and therefore is noxious Le Mort. Secondly The Taste of the Mineral Calces These dry Earthy Calces imbibe Acids and they are Diaphoretick by retaining something of their Mineral Sulphurs for diaphoretick Antimony becomes again Vomitive if long kept for the activity of the Aerial Acid dissolves the Sulphur out of it as other Acid Spirits will do This Instance is sufficient to shew that in Mineral Calces some Sulphur is contained as well as some Oyliness in the Fixt Salt of Plants Antimonium Diaphoreticum Antihecticum Bezoardicum Solare Lunare Joviale Minerale are pure Calces having some heat from the Sulphur or the Fire or the Spirit of Wine burnt on them Bezoardicum Minerale stirreth not with the Alkalies or Acids and therefore acts chiefly by the latent Sulphur and these Calces may be given in Milk. The Antihecticum has the Calces of Antimony Steel and Tin to absorb the Animal Acids and some of each Mineral Sulphur adheres to their Calx and therefore it Vomits and is given till it becomes nauseous by increasing the Dose It corrects all Acids in Lues Venerea in Vlcers and the Hectick but I must honestly confess I could never observe any Cure to be done by it in Consumptive Cases in which I have often tryed it The Acid in the Stomach may give these Calces either a Saline Taste or else a Stypticity and so advance their Vertues and help the separation of their Sulphur which was before locked up with the Alkali as appears
of Water or other Liquors which supply a greater quantity of Serum without causing Sleep Opiates by their sharp Acrid Salt stimulate as Venereals and by their Bitter Sliminess and Acrimony they purge A slimy Mucilage attends Opiates which outwardly has a good effect to temper Heat in Inflammations whilst the Effluviums that are Narcotick abate the Agitation of Spirits By their Mucilage Opiates may repel and also inwardly given by the same they allay sharpness of Coughs and corrosive Salts whilst their Narcotick Fumes fix the motion of Humors by robbing the Spirits of their Activity by their Bitter-Acrid they discuss and by their Mucilages mollifie Tumors as inwardly their Bitter-Acrid corrects the Acid the Mucilage tempers the Choler and for this end the Poppy-Syrups and Waters are the best having more Mucilage than Acrid or Bitter But Opium more Bitter and Acrid than Mucilage wherefore it is more convenient in Acid Humors CHAP. IX Of Volatile Salts and the Tastes and Vertues depending on them IN many Plants there is a Volatile Salt discernable by the Acrid Pungency produced on the Tongue as in Aron-Roots That this Pungency is a Volatile Salt though it has no Saltish Taste appears by the following Experiment I distilled some Mustard-seed in a Retort which afforded both Oyl and Spirit which being rectified turned Syrup of Violets green though this Salt in its natural state will not so readily turn Syrup of Violets as Animal Salts do The Infusion of Aron-Roots in Water did a little green the Syrup of Violets after some time Spirit of Scurvy-Grass or Aqua Raphani composita would not turn Syrup of Violets nor Horse-Radish-Roots infused in Water tho' the leaves bottled with Water turned the Syrup after some time Juyce of Aron-Roots would not turn it the Leek-Roots sliced into Water mixt with Syrup of Violets turned it after a long time The mixture of other Principles with the Salt hinder its greenning of the Syrup of Violets So a Decoction of Harts-Horn for the same reason will not do what the Spirit does in turning the Colour It 's well known that Vinegar and other Acids as Lemmon Citron Sorrel do best correct the Pungent Acrimony of the Vegetable Salts and therefore Vinegar is used in Sallets Oyl is used for the securing of the Stomach from their corrosive Acrimony Yet the Acrid Salt of Vegetables will not ferment with Acids as the Animal Salts do Juyce of Aron-Roots and Spirit of Scurvy-Grass will not ferment with Oyl of Vitriol These different Classes I have observed in the Volatile Salts of Plants The Watry-Acrid having a pungent Smell like Mustard or Scurvy-Grass and the Cresses These have a tolerable Pungency and but a little Oyl with their pungent Salt. The Vertue of these Cress-tasted Plants is first from their Salts which excite Appetite and volatilize the Acid Ferment in the Stomach and therefore are Stomachicks In the Blood they amend the coagulating Acids open Obstructions in the Spleen and Brain and all the Glandules and therefore are Antiscorbutick Splenetick Diuretick and Sudorifick outwardly they discuss and have the Virtues of Volatile Salts in Pains and Scald-Heads and Scorbutick Spots By the Watry crude Parts adjoyned they temper their own Acrimony and make it more agreeable to hot Bloods as in Brooklime I distilled Colewort-Roots which tasted like Horse-Radish and had an Acid mixt with Pungency which would not turn Syrup of Violets this distillation was in Sand in a glass Retort There are many degrees of Pungency in this Class so that choice may be made for particular Constitutions There is a Bitterness in many of this Class which helps the Operation of the Acrid if the Acrid prevails they belong to this Class if the Bitter they are referrible to the Bitters with Acrimony The second Class of Volatile Salts is in rank Tastes and smells like Garlick and Onyons whose Smells are rank Fetid and their Tastes very pungent Hot. From Horse-Radish Leaves bottled up with Water two Months and from their smelling like Garlick as well as from their pungent Taste and quick flying up the Nose and Eyes like Sal-Ammoniack I conclude that the Cepaceous kind would very properly constitute a second degree of Volatile Salts and a much stronger than the former They correct Acids and Phlegm in the Stomach and excite Appetite by their Pungency they attenuate the Phlegm in the Lungs and open Obstructions there by their Volatile Salt and therefore are good Pectorals and Stomachicks They alter the Blood as Volatile Salts and are good against Infection and the Scurvy and as Diureticks by their Salts they are good for the Dropsie outwardly they discuss more than the former Class and their Mucilaginous Roots are emollient and ripen Apostumes and by their Salt they draw forcibly and discuss and attenuate Thlaspi tastes like Horse-Radish and smells like Garlick The third and highest degree of Vegetable Acrid-Salt is in the Exulcerators Vesicatories or Corrosive Tastes These have an Acrimony that destroys the Organ of Tasting as among Animals a fierce Volatile Salt is in Cantharides which is Vesicatory And strong Spirit of Sal-Ammoniack blisters the Tongue So in the first Class of Exulcerators there is a very Acrid Taste and quick pungent Scent depending on the Salt only the Plant being Watry having no strong Oyly Smell and these may be called Watry Exulcerators as the Ranunculus Anemone Aron Dragons Ranunculus flammeus Vesicatories pierce the Pores and by their pungent Acrimony irritate the Glandules in the Cutis to send forth their Serum and separate the Cuticula into a Blister The Corrosives have a higher degree of Acrimony they pierce the Cuticula and Cutis with Pain they alter and tear their Pores drive out their Serum and thereby induce an Vlcer and corrosion of the Cutis Note That the first Class is Vesicatory or Corrosive Watry The second Class is where the Volatile Salt is mixt with a hot fiery Oyl as in Euphorbium Ivy-Gum and these Plants have a strong Smell with an Acrid Taste The Milky or Resinous Exulcerators have an Oyl more fixt joyned to an Acid-Acrid Salt as Tithymalus and Esula and these smell Acid rather than of any hot Scent Mezereon and Laureola have a faint Lily-Smell in these the Oyl is not much conducing to any Corrosiveness But that depends on the Volatile Salt alone made more Volatile by addition of some Oyl The third Class of Corrosives is in the Acrid-Acid as Rosa Solis which is accounted Vesicatory but very mild the Acid being contrary to Volatility Acids mixt with Minerals as in Crystals of Silver and Aqua Regia become Corrosive and divers other Minerals which are not in themselves very sharp by their mixture become Corrosive as appears by Sublimate Lime has a mixed Salt. This sort of Corrosiveness happens in the fixt Salt of some Plants as in the Salt of Ash-Tree Acids become Corrosive in the Fire by their separation from Earthy Parts as in Salt-Peter Spirit Oyl of Vitriol Aqua Fortis
Plants depends on Earthy Parts mixt with the Acid and the Roughness in the Acid of Sulphur from some Mineral Earth joyn'd with the Acid. I find it confidently affirm'd That one Acid will correct another which I believe a Mistake For Spirit of Vitriol and Nitre make a stronger Menstruum than either of them alone and so does Spirit of Salt and Nitre mixt which make an Aqua Regia So far are these from correcting one another But the ground of this Opinion I suppose is from the Effervescence caus'd by mixing of Acid Spirits which happens by reason of some Earth or Mineral joyn'd to every different sort of Acid Spirit from whence the difference of Acid Spirits is deducible Hence some Acid Spirits mixt dispossess one the other from the Earths or Minerals joyned with their Acid and from thence comes the Conflict and Effervescence For the same reason Spirit of Vitriol is mixed with Calcined Salt to seize on the Earthy part of Salt and to make the Acid of Salt loose from it and fitter for Distillation I think I have here said enough to prove that the Oyl of Vegetables is like Oyl of Turpentine and the Acid of Vegetables like Sulphur which differs nothing from Vitriol but by being Impregnated with a Mineral it becomes a vitriolate Acid. So that from the Experiments about the contrariety of Oyl and Acid above-mentioned I may conclude that there may happen the same kind of Effervescence in Vegetables which we call Fermentation When a Seed is placed in the Earth the Oyliness of it is agitated or moved by the Acid Watry Juyce soaking into it thro' its Coats by the Effervescence of both Vegetation is begun and the Coats burst and the Vessels of the Plant inlarged for receiving new Nourishment This consists of an Oyliness from the Bitumen and Sulphur and also an Acid from the same and also a Water and Earth mixt and digested together in the Pores of the Earth All which concur to produce a Nutriment for Plants This is not promiscuously admitted thro' the Glandulous Parenchyma of the Root of the Plant but it is probable that each Parenchyma has differently figured Pores for the admittance of Oyly parts chiefly or Watry parts or Earthy parts or Acid chiefly which may be very probable because Oyly parts are thought Ramose Acid Angular Watry Round and Earthy very Irregular We may very easily believe that the Seeds of Plants and their Roots have Pores suited for the admittance of one two or more of these And these are pressed into the Seed by the force of the Airs Spring when a Plant begins to swell by the rarefying of its own Juyces thro' the Effervescence of its own Oyl and Acid which is much promoted by the External Heat of the Sun or an hot Bed and the admittance of an Acid from the Earth This Fermentation is very slow and never highly raised in Earthy Acid and Mucilaginous Plants and therefore in such the Oyl Acid Earth and Water are never much separated but in sweet Tastes the Fermentation separates a little and loosens the Oyl and Acid from the Watry and Earthy Particles In Bitters the same are more separated in Aromaticks the Oyl is most rarefied in Acrids the Oyl and Acid compound a Salt with an Earthy part From these Instances we find that by Digestion the Principles of Plants are separated and now Compounded into Salts Resins Gums and Turpentines This Digestion differs not from the Effervescence betwixt Oyl and Acid which differs according to the several Oyls which are contained in the Seeds of Plants One Oyl ferments with Acid more than another and each Oyl in the Seed produces that which is most suitable to the nature of the Plant to be produced From the Rarefaction of this Juyce of Plants by the Effervescence of Oyl and Acid the rise of the Sap and the shootings of Plants may be deduced And the wonderful force mentioned by Mr. Boyle in lifting up a great Weight by Fermenting Beans and from hence Wines burst their Vessels So that the force of Fermentation equals that of Explosion If we consider the many Compound Tastes of Plants we cannot believe that they can rise from the same kind of Fermentation Some Plants taste Rough and very Acrid as Chelidonium minus Others Slimy and Acrid and Bitter as Leucoium And there is a different Taste in many parts of Plants which proceeds from the different Digestion of the Juyce in different parts So in Cherries the Taste of the Bark is Bitter Astringent The Leaf differs from it by a Sliminess In the Fruit there is a Slimy Sweet Sub-acid Taste without any Bitterness or Astringency The same difference is observable in the Odors of Plants The Leaves of Elder are Fetid but the Flowers Fragrant which is a sign of a different Digestion There are the same Varieties of Tastes and Odors in Animals tho' Choler be separated by the same sort of Glandules yet it has a Bitter Sweet Sliminess The Serum of the Blood has serose parts and Watriness and a Saltness The Semen has a thin and also a viscid part The Liquor Nervosus has an Oyly Salt dissolved in a Lympha The diversity of Tastes in Choler does not depend on different Strainers but different Digestions of Chyle and the new supply of it which flows continually into the Veins From hence it will fall out that one part is perfectly Digested and another less and therefore some part of the Choler tastes Sweet and another part Bitter and a crude Lympha is the Vehicle of both to help their separation these being mixt together give the Variety of Tastes observable in Choler The same thing happens in Plants which during their growth receive fresh Nourishment which is differently Digested and therefore gives those Varieties of Tastes observable in the same Vessels and the same Liquor as in Milks Turpentines and Fetid Gums But I cannot well understand how such Particular Liquors as Milk Gums Turpentines and Lympha's can be produced and kept in particular Vessels which are really different from the crude Juyce of the same Plants without allowing such parts in Plants as Glandules in Animals which separate the Milk Semen Spirits Choler and Lympha from the Blood. I therefore cannot think it improbable that the Parenchyma of Plants is wholly Glandulous and the Woody Fibres are Vessels some of which are Lacteals Lymphaticks Muciducts Gums or Balsam-Vessels An Animal Body is composed of Vessels and Glands The Vessels are branched into the different parts of both alike and receive a prepared Juyce from the Glandulous Parenchyma and the same may be the preparation and distribution of the Juyces in Vegetables because the same Tastes and Odors are observable in both Kingdoms And Vegetables digested by an Animal undergo the same Separation and Preparation as is manifest in Animals When one Tree is grafted on anothers Stock the Fruit is the same as the Branch Ingrafted The Juyce in the Glandules of it giving
latitude for one thing may be like another in Taste but yet have some difference but not 〈…〉 VIII By the Taste we observe the Alterations made by Fire in Chymical Preparations and those made in Vegetables by ripening of Fruits Though by Chymistry we extract the Principles of Bodies yet the Taste only or chiefly shews their Figures Motions and Effects on the Body and also that which we can no otherwise observe the Figures Motions and Effects which depend on the mixtures of the Principles therefore it is not sufficient to observe the Acid in Oyl of Vitriol or Sulphur and the hardness in Steel but we must observe the Vitriolick Taste produced by their mixture and dissolution Therefore Chymists ought after every Preparation and Mixture to examine their new Products by their Tastes and Smells and from thence and the Tastes or Smells of the Ingredients together with due reflections on the manner and nature of their Operations to give their Rationale of the Vertues of their new Medicine Whereas at present we have too much Hyperbole in the Descriptions of Chymical Medicines and their Vertues and no Taste IX I shall affirm That it is very necessary for the making of an Experiment on any Medicine for before we try any thing on the Body of a Man we ought to take the best Information our Senses can give us about the Taste and Smell of it by which we shall know the consistence of the Medicine the Figures and Motions of its Particles the quantity of its Dose the Preparation of the Medicine the agreement with other Medicines of the same Taste the Tastes of its Chymical Principles and their alteration by Mixtures and its suitableness to the Digestion Temper Tastes and Principles of some particular Humour of an Animal which indicate peculiar Tastes for their Preservation in Health or alteration in Sickness X. By the Tastes we shall more fully understand the Ancient Authors of our Faculty as Galen who quotes the number of Tastes out of Plato Dioscorides mentions many Tastes of Plants and Galen transcribed them from him Hippocrates has grounded his Aphorisms on Tastes And Galen uses them in his Methodus Medendi and gives an account of some Medicines from them so that it is impossible to understand either Hippocrates Dioscorides or Galen without a full information about the Tastes of Plants Hippocrates gives us these general Rules about Tastes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Hot Acrid and Fragrant Herbs are more Diuretick than Purgative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sweet Acrid Salt Bitter Austere such are here meant as the Laurel-Bitter Astringents and Fleshy Fruits such as Oyly Nuts do Heat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Acerb and Austere Plants are Binding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acids extenuate and are Diuretick These Instances from Hippocrates are sufficient to prove That the Tasting of Medicines is no novel Design nor thought unuseful by the best of Physicians in the purest Ages of Physick when the knowledge of Medicines and Animal Humors was deduced from sensible Qualities XI By the Taste we may distinguish Plants into Classes as I have done and also remark some defect in the Classes of our Plant-Anatomists and also observe the difference of the Specifick Juices in Plants and the difference also of their Vessels in which the different Tastes are lodged I. In Vegetables 1. We taste the Woody part and that may be called a ligneous dry hard Taste 2. The Juices of Vegetables which taste humid and these are either the Watry Juices which lye in the Bladders of Plants or else the Juices of Plants which are well digested and I call them the Oyly Specifick proper Juices lodged in the Turpentine Vessels of Plants If we describe both the Watry and Oyly Juices of Plants we may easily discern the Vertues of the Medicines The Smell very much conduces to the discovery of the particular degree of Digestion which each Specifick Juice of Vegetables has by the Effluviums they emit Galen advises us to Taste each particular part of a Plant for in the Root is not the most crude Juice of a Plant as is vulgarly believed He says The Leaves are less Acrid in Aron Dragons Squills than the Roots and that Althaea-Roots discuss Tumors by a latent Acrimony which the Leaves do not and Garlick Onion and Radish-Roots are most Acrid We must taste Vegetables in the Soyl in which they naturally grow in their perfect state some best while fresh but others dryed juiced or in decoction and observe not to Taste many at one time Some Plants are best smelt when bruised or rubbed but if they be very Odoriferous I only draw them through my Hand I believe that all the Criticisms about the Tastes of Vegetables cannot be settled in the space of half an Age therefore I hope for Pardon where I have erred or omitted some Modes and beg the Assistance of all my Profession in this useful design for this design must be undertaken by Physicians and not Herbalists who cannot judge truly of the Vertues without the assistance of our Art and the knowledge of the Humors of our Bodies II. In Animals we taste 1. The toughness or tenderness of the Muscular Fibres and Viscera 2. The Serose Juice which is the Bloody Gravy with an Animal savour of Fetid and also a Smell resembling the same Taste So in Rabbits Flesh we taste and smell a strong Rankness In the hard Parts of Animals we smell a Foetor as in Horns and Hoofs from whence they have their Vertue and this Foetor differs not from the Spirits of Animals which being collected in the liquor of the Nervous it becomes lucid hence it is that Fetid Sulphurs Animals and Vegetables are Nervines being strong or fetid like the Spirits I will here only give a Scheme of Animal Humors that the Taster may observe what is to be Tasted in Animals Chyle is the first and original Humor prepared in Animals From Chyle all the other Humors arise either by Digestion or Percolation mediately or immediately First From Chyle is prepared I. By Digestion 1. The Serum of the Blood and from thence the Fibrous Cake or Part. II. By Percolation from Chyle 1. The Fat which is the Butyrose part of Chyle 2. The Milky Lympha glandularum conglomeratarum like Spittle and the Pancreatick Juice and that of the Stomach and Guts 3. The Semen which is also Milky Slimy and Fetid 4. The Milk of the Breasts From the Fat returning into the Veins is chiefly produced the red part of the Blood. From the red part 1. Choler 2. The Spirits of Animals From the Serum of the Blood by Percolation 1. The Sweat. 2. The Urine 3. The Lympha serosa Glandularum conglomeratarum which is observed in the Lymphaticks All these I have more fully described in the ensuing Book together with the original of Saltness and Acidity in Animal Humors The Taste of Infects is also to be observed for in Millepedes is an Acrid Taste in Chermes a
Bitter Astringency like the Ilex on which they are bred So that it is probable that Insects taste of the Plants on which they are bred each Plant having its particular Insects and Galls and I believe the Acid in Pismires is from some Vegetable on which they feed And I must here remark that Insects have their Acrid and also the Choler of Animals which is pungent both like the Acrimony of Vegetables and not of a Salt Taste III. In Minerals we must observe 1. The dry gritt in Stones and Metals and their Calces 2. The saltness in Mineral Salts of divers kinds and in the Salt of Lime 3. An Acidity in the Acid Spirits and Sulphurs 4. A Vitriolick Astringent Taste in all the Vitriols of Minerals and some Earths as Bole c. 5. A sweetness in Sugar of Lead and other Vitriols 6. A bitterness in Nitre and North-hall-Waters and the Crystals of Silver 7. A burning Corrosive Acid in Arsenick and Calx viva Tastes burning with a Saltness from whence the Corrosiveness depends By the Smell we observe the Sulphurs of Minerals and some Authors mention the Odoriferous Smells of the Preparations of Antimony as Ettmuller and in Bonetus we find this Arcanum Vitrioli nocte intempesta instar Carbunculi lucet cujusque odor omnia alia odorifera antecellit Tilingius The different Pungency of the Sulphur-Smells must be observed but these are sometimes so lockt up by the preparation and addition of Acids as not in that state to give a manifest Taste but by being in the Stomach the Acid is taken off and the Sulphur becomes Pungent Vomitive or Diaphoretick therefore in judging of some Antimonial Preparations we consider the Taste and Smell during the Preparation and when we find a Sulphur evident in that we must allow that some of it sticks to the Calces and from thence we must deduce part of the Vertue of the Mineral Calces So the Oyls of lants are not perfectly separated from the Fixt Salts from whence they have their different Vertues If we reflect on the Actions of our other Senses they may be imposed on as well as our Tastes and not discern that object in one state which they did in another so we both See and Feel Salts and Sugar when dry but if they be dissolved in Water we shall only perceive them by our Tastes therefore we use the testimony of all our other Senses to supply the defect in any one We may rationally infer from the sulphureous Smells in the Preparation as well as the effects in the Stomach that Sulphur abounds in Antimonial Vomitories and it is enough that both Taste and Smell can discern the Antimonial Sulphur which is not unlike common Sulphur in more loose Preparations wherein it is more separated from the Earthy Particles as in Sulphur Antimonii combustibile the Clyssus and Tinctures Vegetables and Animals are the most proper objects of Taste but most of the Mineral Sulphurs are better Smelt than Tasted and in the judging of our Medicines we must consult both Taste and Smell It is necessary to prepare some Bodies that they may give their Smells so Pearls and other pretious Stones must be long ground in a Mortar before they will give their fragrant smells which by D. Olaus Borichius is observed to be like Violets he mentions other Stones struck with a Hammer smelling like Musk others like burnt Horns or the Excrements of Animals And our Flints and common Stones smell like Sulphur being struck against one another These varieties of Smells in Stones sufficiently evidence that their Vertues are no occult qualities I must confess that some Medicines acquire new Vertues in the Stomach from the Animal Acid so Boles are made Aluminous Salts Vitriolated and the Testaceous Medicines made Salt and Styptick by it therefore we must allow those the same Vertues as if they had been prepared by an Acid and thence deduce them Mercury and other Minerals acquire a Vitriolick Taste in the Body as they do by Preparation with Acids without this alteration Mercury crude can have no considerable Vertue as other Minerals have not I have tryed Mercury decoctions in Water and put Worms into it but found it not to kill them whence I may justly doubt of its Vertue Half an Ounce of crude Mercury injected into the Veins made no alteration in a Dogg neither by Vomiting Purging or Salivation Bonetus Two or three pounds of crude Mercury are given sometimes inwardly and pass through the Guts without Injury These Instances suffice to shew the small Vertue as well as Taste of crude Mercury but the Fumes of Mercury taste sweet as the Gilders inform me And Doleus mentions the Stypticity of the Fumes of Mercury in the Throat During the long neglect of the Press in publishing this second Volume I added the Appendix which contains a more exact Method being a Scheme both of Minerals and Animals according to their Tastes and many particular Tastes were added which were omitted in the other Parts Many Errata's have been committed for the Correcting whereof I have affixed the Errata's observed by my self and desire the Reader to consult them Errata in Vol. I. PRef p. 6. l. 8. r. Ray's Methodus 57. for Daffadils r. Pseudonarcissus p. 276. l. 4. Acid. 282. l. ult dele of both 292. l. 23. Sulphur an Oyl and Acid is closely lockt up 293. l. 7. both The. 296. l. 6. new 303. l. 10. an Efflorescence 310. l. 7. so neither is it in Errata in Vol. II. PAg. 4. l. 20. 125. l. 1. Acid. 17. l. 18. Volatility it 24. l. 9. Lapis bufon p. 41. l. 1. Nitre inflammable Spirit p. 58. l. 14. Sponge distilled 124. l. 5. Aloes is Bitter l. 6. dele Aloes 161. l. 10 Sweet Acrid 166. l. 15. set Mastiche close to Olibanum 171. l. 3. § 1. Hot Cephalicks 176. l. 13. after juglandium add Faeculae bryoniae pulvis de gutteta which dele in l. 20. 190. l. 19. for Corallina r. Carlina 193. l. 16. dele nummulariae 195 set pulv Cornathin close to Scammonii 205. l. 3. dele 6. Bitter-Acrids 239. l. 25. Animal-bitter 281. l. 12. Plants Anato 294. l. 27. and sub-acid 301. Fraxinus bubula is omitted before this 304. l. 21. has an 316. l. 21. Ballatis r. Battatos 317. Opium r. Apium 343. l. 2. or without 349. l. 24. of a Perch 352. l. 21. These 353. l. 27. conglomerated 354. l. 20. r. Colon. 362. l. 13. red l. ult it unites readily 369. l. 10. the Acrid 373. l. 1. Spleen-Acid 378. l. 10. Aluminous 384. l. 23. â— wiped 390. l. 2. Peat-Turfs 394. l. 10. r. are not Nitre ΦΑΡΜΑΚΟ-ΒΑΣΑÎΟΣ OR THE Touch-stone of Medicines c. The Second Volume OF THE Tastes and Vertues OF MINERALS An Appendix to the Third Part of VOL. I. Of Vegetables c. CHAP. I. Of the Principles of Vegetables which are deducible from Minerals AS the best of Physicians speaking of Man the Principal of the Animal Kingdom says We
the Chymists call the Mercury of Minerals when they distinguish it from Mercurius Corporum and common Quick-Silver The Fourth Principle of Minerals is an Earthy Part which in perfect Minerals is a Lime-Stone or Spar which adheres to the Ore of Metals The Mineral Fumes coming from the lower Parts of the Earth fix in such Stones and are intimately united with them into the Nature of a Metal These Mineral Fumes are Sulphureous and Acid which readily fix and combine with Earthy Parts which the Chymists call the Alkaly of Minerals From the number of Principles I have excluded both Volatile and Fixt Salts they being the Products of other Principles combin'd by Nature or Art. The Volatile Salts in Vegetables being evident to our Senses and produc'd naturally I did in the First Part call them one of the Principles evident to our Senses but because they are compounded of the other Principles I cannot think they deserve the name of a Principle From the different Proportions and perfect Mixture of all the former Principles all the perfect Metals are produc'd and from a different imperfect Mixture all other Minerals arise as Earths Bitumens Regular and Irregular Stones Gems Salts Vitriols c. In Vegetables Trees have a Mixture of the Principles analogous to Metals which their Solidity Weight and Aptness to be petrified sooner than Herbs sufficiently manifests The Texture of Gums Resins Turpentines Mucilages and Stones of Fruits agrees with the imperfect Minerals above-mention'd as will appear by a particular Analogy observ'd betwixt the Products of both Kingdoms which differ only by their several Digestions and Mixtures but yet manifestly agree as the Chymists speak in radice that is in their Principles CHAP. III. Of the Principles Tastes and Vertues of Metals and their Preparation GOLD has the Sulphur and Acid Aurum most digested and intimately mixt with some Stony-Earth like Flint or Spar such as visibly adheres to Gold-Ore In this the Sulphur-Fumes which are Sub-acid intimately fix themselves with that Stone which is fittest for a strict Union with them Some Stones are not moved by Acids and others very violently And hence does happen so small a quantity of Gold and other Metals in a great quantity of Ore. Fire cannot diminish the Weight nor separate the Principles of Gold because of their perfect Union Gold will not rust nor colour the Fingers unless mixt with other Metals and then the Rust is Blue The Vapor of Sulphur colours it and therefore Tartar Salt and warm Water cleanse it Aqua Regia dissolves it which is compounded of Salt and Nitre whose Spirits have the greatest Pungency of any Acids and the least Roughness and Sowreness and also a strong Pungent Smell By the united Pungency of both Spirits the Body of Gold is broken or corroded into small Parts which joyning with the Menstruum produces a Vitriol by the Precipitation of which Aurum Fulminans is prepared which therefore Purges and Vomits and gives Blackness of Stools as other Vitriols do The Tincture and Flowres are said to have some Sulphur in them at least they may have somewhat of a Vitriol which being alter'd by Addition of Salts does not Purge but sometimes Vomit And they have the Effects like Tincture of Steel in Curing Acids which is also the Vertue of Crocus Solis which in the quantity of a few Grains may correct a considerable quantity of Acid since one Grain of Gold may be extended into above Fifty Inches square in Leaf-Gold Gold may be best compar'd to Aromatick Trees which have an Oyly Salt of the same Cordial Vertue that Chymists allot to the pure Sulphur of Gold of which Gold has more than other perfect Minerals So these Aromatick Trees agree with Gold in their Principles by having more Oyl and that better digested than other Trees Silver has the Sulphureous Acid in Argentum smaller quantity than Gold and that not so highly digested as in Gold yet so closely united that the Principles can neither be separated by Fire nor Spirit of Nitre which only breaks the Silver into small Particles and therewith constitutes a Bitter-Acrid Vitriol Purging and Vomiting violently The Blue Colour of the Tincture of Silver is from Copper and vomits but the true Tincture is Purple as Ettmuller affirms and it has some considerable Virtue as containing the Sulphureous parts of its Vitriol or rather of the Acid Menstruum which made the Vitriol The Crystals of Silver are very Caustick the Acid becoming more Corrosive by being fixt in the Mineral Silver may be compared to those Plants which are Purging abounding with Earth Acid and Oyl united into an Acrid Salt to which is joyned a Bitter Taste Such is the Taste of Hellebore and Colocynthis which are Bitter-Acrid Purgers Silver is easily mixt with Copper and is scarce separable from it to which its Purging Virtue is much attributed by many Authors Copper is called a crude Silver for in Cuprum this the Sulphur and Acid are not so strongly united to the Earthy parts as in the former but are easily dissolvible by Volatile Salts Spirit of Sal-Ammoniack dissolves it into a Green Tincture Spirit of Sulphur into a Blue Vitriol which is the most purging of any Mineral Vitriol because of its Sulphureous parts easily separated and making it Corrosive Copper melted smells most of Brimstone and a Preparation of Copper is made by Mr. Boyle which is inflammable The Acrid Purgative Resins of Plants may be best compared to Copper for their equal Purging Faculty and their most remarkable Principles Oyls and Acid which in Plants produce a Salt and also in some Preparations of Copper which Becher mentions Copper has an Acid Sulphur in it which makes it easily extracted by Spirit of Sal-Ammoniack and Copper is easily turned into a Vitriol which will vomit by Stimulation of the Membranes as Aqua Fortis does From the Nauseous Brass-savour Taste the Purging and Vomiting quality proceeds Tinn has much Sulphur in it whence Stannum Jovial Medicines have a Purple Colour It will not so easily dissolve by Acids as Lead and therefore not so much used for Medicine neither have I observed its Taste nor any Virtue proper to it It is easily melted and it burns with Nitre both which argue a Sulphureous Nature in it Lead is something of the Nature of Plumbum Silver for Silver is mixt in all Lead Tinn differs from Lead by having more Sulphur Lead-Fumes give Colicks Palsies and Shortness of Breath to the Miners They say The Smoak of melting Lead smells Sweet The Preparations of Lead do outwardly cool because of its Density and Weight It has the least Internal Agitation of any Metal and will vitrifie Red-Lead is Calcined Lead to a Red Minium Colour very Cooling and Drying in Vlcers White-Lead is Prepared by the Fumes Cerussa of Vinegar by which it is made White and the Cooling quality increased by the Vinegar Burnt-Lead turns Black by the Fumes Plumbum
ustum of Sulphur and some Salt is produced by it which makes it drying All these Preparations may be reduced into Lead again so that it cannot be reduced into its Principles no more than Silver Gold or Tinn Lead may be compared to the Austere Plants which cool much and have little Oyl but much Acid and Earth So Lead has little Sulphur but much Acid and Earth Iron abounds with Sulphur and gives Ferrum Fetid Fumes in melting The Sulphur is extracted by Volatile Salts where it is turned into Steel by Horns with which it is Calcined but because of that Sulphur Iron is preferible to Steel for by that Sulphur and the Earthy parts Iron cures the Animal Acids and thereby removes Obstructions Salt of Iron is made by the Acid of Sal Martis Vitriol dissolving the Iron It tastes Sweet and Rough the Roughness is from the Mineral mixt with the Acid as Astringency is produced in Plants the Sweetness is from the Sulphur and the Acid Menstruum as the Oyl and an Acid produce Sweetness in Plants This Salt may be precipitated into a Crocus Martis and that melted into Iron and therefore this Salt is no Principle of Iron but a Composition betwixt an Acid and the Particles of Iron and it will absorb Acids and also acts as a Salt by its Figure and by its Roughness cooling the Blood and stopping all Fluxes in the same manner as the Sweet Astringent Ferns do and both of them are accounted Splenetick The Tincture of Steel tastes Vitriolick Sweet as also the Preparation with Tartar and Sulphur Ens Veneris smells like Spirit of Salt and tastes Rough and not Sweet like Iron but is a Composition of Iron and Salt it has not any Taste of Copper The Loadstone hath the nature of Iron and so hath Smiris which is used for Polishing Gems Iron may be compared to the Fetid Plants by its Sulphur-Smell and also by its Vterine Vertue Common Quicksilver is very fluid from Mercurius the roundness of its parts by reason of its Volatility It contains Sulphur in it for it is usually found in Gold and Silver Mines mixt with Sulphur in the form of Cinnabar from whence it is distilled We observe the Acidity of Quick-silver in corroding the Teeth and Iron and by its Salivation And we prepare it with more Acids to make it salivate in a smaller quantity Quicksilver seems to be a fluid Amalgama of some Metal and looks like melted Lead The Chymists seem most confident of their Extraction of Quicksilver out of Lead and Quicksilver is easily mixt with it and fixt by it and equals its great Weight and both soften the Metal they are mixt with Quicksilver seems compounded of a Metallick Sulphur Acid and Lead The Sulphur contained in Quicksilver seems Arsenical because Quicksilver is found in Silver Mines in which Arsenick is found also Arsenick colours other Metals White as well as Quicksilver both of them are very Corrosive and of a White Colour and easily sublimed It may be observed in Minerals and other Bodies That Nature often decompounds a Mineral with one of its Principles or two So Vitriols are compounded of Acid and a perfect Metal Sulphur and Mineral Stones in Marchasites And sometimes two Compounds are re-compounded as in Cinnabar which contains Quicksilver and Sulphur Quicksilver easily coagulates by Acids as Lead is dissolved by them by reason of its Sulphur and Earth but these cannot destroy it but it revives again All Metals by their Sulphur fix it Spittle by its Sub-acid Salt kills it and so Turpentine and Oyls by their latent Acid destroy its fluidity A Solution of Mercury Precipitated By Spirit of Sal-Ammoniack is White Oyl of Tartar is Red. Lime-Water is Yellow Mercurial Medicines have the Nature of Alkaly but in Preparations are disguised by Acids and by them made very Noxious and Corrosive The Mercurial Particles tho' without an Acid if only by an Vnguent or Fume they pierce through the Pores of the Skin into the Blood there they imbibe the Acid Salts and from their Mixture act like Sublimate coagulating the Serum of the Blood and by that means produce Salivation the thin parts of the coagulate Serum running off by the Glandules of the Mouth The Ammoniack Salt of Animals may dispose the Mercurial Particles into Corrosive pointed Figures as the Acid of Common Salt does in the Preparation of Sublimate Sublimate has the Acid of Spirit of Mercurius Sublimatus Salt joyned with it by Sublimation and I believe something of a Vitriol Taste is produced by the Mixture for Sublimate has a Brass-savour Taste which is very Nauseous and also a Roughness by which it coagulates the Blood and outwardly repels strongly and resists Putrefaction in Gangrenes and Vlcers Sublimate is a kind of Vitriol produced by the Acids and Mercury And by its Brass-savour Taste purges and vomits violently Spirit of Vitriol distilled from Quicksilver tastes Aluminous Turbith Mineral is a Mercurial Vitriol produced by Oyl of Vitriol and Vomits violently and also Salivates Mercurius Vitae after the use of it a Vitriolate Mercurius Vitae Taste is in the Mouth like Copper from whence its Vomitive Vertue arises from the Quicksilver as well as Antimony Mercury is Precipitated from its Solution by Lime-Water and is thereby rendred Sweet and Innoxious Therefore Fixt Salts are good when any Body is Poysoned by Sublimate White Precipitate Purges gently as well as Mercurius Dulcis both are of a mild Vitriolick Nature having less Acid in them Red Precipitate is Corrosive by the Spirit of Nitre by which the Quicksilver is Vitriolated CHAP. IV. Of Imperfect Mineral Principles and their Tastes and Vertues THE Principles of Minerals appear most evidently in these following Minerals in which one Principle appears more evidently than in others and sometimes two Principles are Compounded as in Sulphur and sometimes the three Principles are very loosely mixt as in Antimony and Marcasites in others most closely united by Fire as in Salts and the last sort is a Composition of Acid and a perfect Mineral as in Vitriols Mineral Earths are Compounded of a Terrae Minerales greater quantity of Earthy Parts Impregnate with Fumes from a particular Mineral by which it obtains the Vertue of that Mineral whose Fumes it receives and becomes Astringent by the Acid of the Sulphur joyned to the Earthy Parts and the Oyly Part of the Sulphur gives it a Fat Oyliness and also a strong Earthy Smell Fat Earths are like the Mucilages of Vegetables Cooling and also Astringent Vid. Bolus Armena c. Gems have their Originals in Mines Lapides Pretiosi and their Colour from Minerals The Green Colour of Smaragdus is from Iron Rubines Granates and Hyacinths have their Colour from Gold. The Blue of Lapis Armenus and Lazuli is from Copper Topasius and Chrysolithus have their Tellowness from Iron Gems are at first in the form of Liquors and then shoot into Plates like Salts and of
Slimy and Sub-acrid Colocynthis one pound which is extreamly Bitter and Acrid yields one ounce which is more than any Plant except Sea Scurvy-Grass Of Ash-Bark one pound yields thirty two grains this Bark is Bitterish and Rough. And Bark of Black-Thorn yields one scruple and five grains I have transcribed the Instances mentioned to confirm my Hypothesis about the Nature of Salt That it is a composition of Oyl Acid and Earth in different proportions in Volatile and Fixt Salts in the latter of which the Fire makes the Composition And these Plants which have a due proportion of Oyl Acid and Earth yield the most Fixt Salt therefore Sea Scurvy-Grass yields the most Volatile and Fixed Salts and all other of the Cress-Taste and also amongst Gums Euphorbium and Opium Bitters have less Oyl and more fixt by the Acid and Earth therefore Mint Agrimony Mugwort and Rosemary have less Salt than the Acrids above-mention'd But where there is an Acrid joyn'd with a strong Bitter as in Coloquintida those have more Fixt Salts than pure Bitters Mucilaginous Plants as Mallows yield a Proportion not inferior to Bitters because of a great Quantity of Oyl Acid and Earth And these Principles in Mucilages are not suddenly driven into Smoak but are united in the Fire into Salt. Sweet Astringent and Acid Tastes yield least Salt for want of a due Proportion of Oyl for its Composition And Watry Gums have little Salt for the same Reason Marjoram and Anniseeds have too little Acid for producing a Fixt Salt. Resins want Earths for the Composition of Salt and the Oyl and Acid burns away too soon The various Figures of Salts Marine and Essential but I cannot allow it that Name because it 's made by the Fire are described by Dr. Grew and Fracassatus in his Epistle to Malpighius of which variety of Figures we cannot give any probable Reasons but from the various Proportions of Oyls Acids and Earths in Plants and the re-mixtures of them in the Fire for the compounding of a Fixt Salt. The change of a Lixivial Salt by the Air is an undeniable Argument of the Composition for it will turn from a Salt Lixivial to Nitrose and Marine Salt and at the same time precipitate an Earth The Separation of the Oyl from the Acid and Earth gives this Nitrose Salt a Bitterness but after the Evaporation of that Oyl the Acid and pure Earth remain and make a Marine Salt Which I think may be the clearest Solution of this great Experiment I find this Experiment in Dr. Willis That Volatile Salts though very white turn into a red Liquor by being expos'd to the Air and then taste not very salt but smell smoaky from the Oyl which is loosened from the mixture with the Acid and Earth Since therefore the Fixt and Volatile Salts may be resolv'd by the Air into Oyls Acid and Earth I do conclude That they are Bodies mixt in the Fire by Distillation and Calcination only which makes Fixt Salts But I cannot omit the Modes of Tastes in Salts for from the Acids which are pungent the Volatile Salts have their Pungency and from the Volatility of distill'd Oyls the Volatile Salts have a Volatility and smoaky Smell The Fixt Salts have their Pungency from the Acid and a Lixivious Smell from the Oyl and from the Earth both Salts have a dry Taste very considerable in Salts We find many Alkalies mixt with an Acid as Crabs-Eyes and Vinegar which taste Salt. So that from many Experiments and likewise from the Taste I affirm That Salts are Compounded Bodies CHAP. VI. Of the Tastes of Salts ALVM is of a rough Acid Taste Alumen by which it coagulates Milk Serose Humors and Choler and therefore it becomes a good Febrifuge and stops all Hemorrhages from the Kidneys and Womb by giving an Astriction to the Fibres of the Membranes as well as by the Coagulation of Humors and checking the Fermentation Outwardly it cools repels and cicatrizes In Suppositories the Acid stimulates and given inwardly in a great quantity it purges and vomits Out of a black calcin'd Slate is made a Lee of which is made Alum The Alum is precipitated by a Lixivium and Vrine So that Alum has a Composition of Salts besides the Acid and Earthy Parts The Alum-Stone in the Air produces a Copperas Alum has not so much Acid as Vitriol and therefore is more Rough. Nitre is Cool Bitterish Pungent and Nitrum Saltish in Taste It is Inflammable and seems to be a mixt Salt having a great Acid by which it cools and has the Effects of an Acid but it will not curdle Milk or Choler neither the Blood nor Serum but the Spirit of it will coagulate all these Liquors The Bitterness argues some Oyly Sulphur in it and the Saltness the mixture of some either Volatile or Lixivious Salt with it and therefore it is Diuretick Spirit of Nitre joyn'd to an Alkaly becomes a new Nitre Inflammable Spirit of Nitre fixes Volatile Salts most and is the strongest Acid in dissolving Minerals and Stones and therefore a great Acid-Diuretick Sweet Spirit of Nitre is made more Sp. Nitri dulcis grateful to the Stomach by the Spirit of Wine Spirituous Acids being more agreeable than sowre Tastes or Acid-rough The Sweet Spirit of Nitre is us'd in Colicks Windiness Tympany and all hot Inflammations the Acid of the Nitre coagulating with the hot Volatile Oyls and Salts in Animals Spirit of Nitre distill'd from Nitre and Lime turned the Serum of the Blood black as in black Vomits and Stools Sal Prunellae tastes Cool Nitrous Acid Sal Prunellae Saltish and a little Sharp or Pungent by which it cools Thirst and Heat and is Diuretick It will not Ferment by the addition of any Acid nor curdle Milk or Choler Borax tastes Cool like Nitre and Saltish-pungent Borax having a Fixt Salt added to it to purifie it If it be Factitious it is mixt of a Volatile Salt and Nitre It is most us'd as a Diuretick and for Vlcers of the Mouth it seems not to be very Aperitive nor proper for forcing Labour otherwise than as a Diuretick Sal-Ammoniack is Salt Pungent Sub-acid Sal Ammoniacum and a good Diuretick being compos'd of a Volatile and Acid Salt. By grinding it with an Alkaly it flies quick into the Nose Sal-Ammoniack is also us'd as an Antifebrifick An artificial Sal-Ammoniack may be produced by mixing Volatile Salt with Spirit of Salt and is a good Medicine Volatile Salt of Hartshorn tastes Cool Sal Volatile Cornu Cervi Saltish Pungent with an Urinous quick smoaky Smell It corrects Acids and gives a quick Motion to stagnating Spirits and Blood. It is a good Diaphoretick and Diuretick and preserves the mixture of the Blood. Fixt Salt tastes Salt Pungent and Sal Fixum smells weakly Urinous it corrects Acids and is Digestive and Diuretick I observe that Fixt Salts agree in Smell and Taste with Volatile and therefore are of a
it which is distilled and separated into Animal Spirits as it becomes more Rancid or Fetid which also returning from the Nerves into the Blood it gives the Animal Fetid to each Humor separated from the Blood and this constitutes the active Fetids in all the Animal Slimes This Animal Fetid circulating from the Blood into the Nervous Juice and returning with that into the Blood again becomes more Volatile Fetid and at last Inflammable and Lucid. All Vegetable and Mineral Fetids increase this Animal Fetid Spirit and also help the production and motion of the Fetid Animal Spirits as all Antimonial Sulphurs and Fetid Gums as Assa foetida lbi of Blood yields by distillation â„¥ iss of Oyl and the Oyl of Blood is both Mr. Boyl History of Blood. red and yellow by distillation Spirit of Wine extracts a yellow Tincture as it does from some Resins but Volatile Spirits a red Volatile and fixed Salt dropt on Blood increases the Floridity and so does Choler which is very Acrid and also the Acrid Juice of Scurvy-Grass but Vineger Juice of Lemmons and all Acid Spirits abate the Florid and coagulate the Blood. The Florid part of the Blood separates from the Serum unless it be long stirred with it as some Watry Gums do as Aloes Opium c. From these Experiments I conclude That the red part of the Blood is Oyly and Gummose for these dissolve by Spirit of Wine and Salts but are coagulated by Acids The red colour remains after the Evaporation of the Serum in the dryed Cake and this redness is not lodged in a Volatile Oyl but is fixed by an Acid as the Oyls in Gum-Resins The Animal Fetid may be distilled in the cold Still and therefore is Volatile It vomits readily with Oyls which argues its nature to be from the red Oyliness of the Blood. The Spirit of Blood by Fermentation is very Fetid and therefore a good Anti-hysterick It is also Salt correcting the Acids of the Glands and stagnation of Humors It is Diuretick and Diaphoretick as all Salts be The Cake of Blood in a healthful Person exceeds the Serum as I have often observed by weighing of both in ordinary Scales VI. Animal Humors of a Bitter Sweet Acrid and Slimy Taste as Choler THE sweetness in Choler shews its original Rise from Chyle and sweet Chyle becomes bitter by a farther digestion The red part of the Blood may become yellow by digestion And out of Blood an Oyl may be distilled of both Colours I have observed Choler of a red yellow green and blue Colour in different Animals so we may observe in the same Animals a diversity of Colour when the Choler comes into the Stomach and is there mixed with Acids The same varieties of colour we observe in Turpentines a green Oyl may be distilled from Turpentine-Trees and a red and yellow Oyl from Turpentine there is a bluish Turpentine in the middle of the Flowers of Flos Solis which like the Conyza's is a Turpentine Plant. Since Turpentine varies its colour like Choler and has the tastes of Choler as Bitter Slimy Sub-acrid I think it an excellent Hepatick and it is also Cleansing and Laxative like Choler The Acrid Pungency of Choler is the ground and one of the parts of the Animal Salt for when it is united with the Tartareous Acid produced by digestion in the Stomach and also with the natural Acid of the Glandulous Slimes and that of the Lympha of the Pancreas the first Ammoniac Salt is produced for if we taste the Chyle strained from the Contents we may taste it Salso-acid in the Lacteals This Acrid in Choler like the Acrid in Plants after a perfect Putrefaction turns into a Volatile Urinous Salt as is evidently proved by Wedelius in the Preparation of Woad which tastes Acrid and without any Fire it sublimes a Volatile Urinous Salt in its Preparation by Putrefaction yet the fresh Woad tastes only Acrid and not Salt but the Fermentation turns it to Salt. The Slime of Choler is from the Spleen and the different Colour is from a diversity of digestion of the Oyl in each Animal and the diversity of the Spleen-Acid joyned with the Choler The Juice of the Spleen is Vitriolick and Slimy the black Colour of the Spleen is a true sign of the Acidity of its Juice for all Acids give a blackness to the Blood. The colour of the Spleen is more florid Red in young Creatures and blacker in the old by reason of a greater quantity of the Vitriolick Slime produced in them which blackens the Blood and that gives the Colour to the Spleen VII Animal Humors of a Sal-Ammoniac Taste being Salso-Acid THis Sal-Ammoniac shoots into Feathers in frozen Blood and may be easily observed like the Teeth of Combs Dr. Grew mentions the Figure of the Animal Salt like Crosses but I can more certainly describe any Salts by my Taste than by any Glasses and their Nature and Vertue will more clearly be apprehended by their manner of affecting the Organ of Taste than by consulting their Figures tho' these may explain the Modes of Taste and the operation of the Salt on our Humors 1. The Serum of the Blood being only the Whey part of the Chyle dissolves most of the Animal Salt This is the Vehicle of the thick Mass of Blood rendring it diluted and fluid In the Serum there is little Oyl but much of the Viscid and Cheesie Particles These may be observed by Inspissating the Serum by the Fire and by curdling of it by Acid Spirits or Alum Vineger whitens the Serum and Oyl of Vitriol but Spirit of Nitre throughly coagulates it into a white Curd like Alum If we let the Blood run from an opened Vein into a Dish containing Spirit of Salt it will presently coagulate look black and it will have no Serum Spirit of Sal-Ammoniac makes the Serum more clear and therefore we may suppose the Salt of the Blood promotes its fluidity If the Blood be received in a Dish in which Spirit of Sal-Ammoniac is put it will not coagulate This shews the effects of Volatil Salts on the Blood. I mixt Oyl of Turpentine and Oyl of Aniseed did the same with some fresh Blood but it looked more black and not more florid as I expected and common Oyl made the Florid rather darker which I could not well explain there being no Acid nor Volatile Salt in the Oyl Olive tho' there be in Oyl of Aniseeds and Turpentine Mr. Boyle and Bonetus affirm That the fixt Chymical Salt of Blood made by Calcination tastes more like Sea-Salt than a Lixivial but by its Precipitation after the manner of Lixivials and not like Sea-Salt it is a Lixivial made from the Tartar or Vitriolick Acid of the Blood in which there is a mixture of Earth Oyl and Acid these by being united more closely by the Fire become a fixt Salt. But this is the product of Art by the Fire and is not naturally found in the Humors of
Vessels of Plants should become fit Vessels for Animals for the Plant-Anatomists have described those Vessels of Plants to be as curiously wrought as any in Animals And we observe the Vessels of Plants and Animals shoot into Mould upon Putrefaction which therefore alters both Vessels and the Juices in Plants And if Mould which is described like a Plant can grow out of Animals we cannot believe it unreasonable to assert That Animals should grow out of Plants from whence they are constantly nourished Malpighius gives an Instance of Plants growing out of the dried Serum taken out of Hydropical Tumors Minimae Plantulae quasi pulmonariae vel coralloides eleganter attolluntur De struct gland conglobat pag. 15. We find that a Plant of a different nature may grow out of another Plant without a Seed as is evident in Misletoe Mosses Mushroms Hypocystis Orobanche why may not an Insect of another Species grow out of the living and dead Bodies of the Erucas without the insertion of an Egg The Worms in Animals are very different from all the other Insects in the World. It is impossible that Insects should insert their Eggs into the Horns Guts Liver and Bones of Animals in which Insects have been observed I have taken the broad Worm out of the Guts of the Embryo upon the dissection of a Cow with Calf I am sure it is highly improbable that any Insects Egg should be conveyed thither The Ingenious Dr. Tyson has observed a difference betwixt the long Worm in Animals and the ordinary Earth-worm and therefore they are not of the same nature Insects are not only superficially changed but many also of their Internal parts are changed also they alter their Diet for the Eruca and Papilio have different Food and Actions These changes from one Species of Insects to another shew the change from the Fibrous parts of a Plant to the first Lineaments of an Insect not to be improbable The Tastes and Smells of some Insects 1. Insects of a slimy Taste as Snails the Slime of Snails supplies the Milky Slime being like the Saliva The threds of Spiders and Silkworms is bred of a slimy viscid Humor which is used to stop Bleeding as viscid Gums be Frogs have a cool Slime for Oyntments and their slimy Spawn yields a cool Water which may be given to cool the glandulous Juice of the Womb. I have taken an hundred of Grass-snails in a Morning and swallowed them whole in May after they are mixed in a Napkin Other Snails are better boyled in Milk for Hecticks for distillation destroys their Slime 2. An Acid Odor is observed in Ants and an Acid Spirit is distilled from them 3. An Acrid Taste may be observed by chewing live Millepedes with a savor of the rotten Wood on which they feed This Acrid passes by Vrine and makes them Diuretick and also Hepatick and Cephalick The dryed Millepedes are Fetid and thereby discuss Scrophulous Tumors 4. There is a bitter Astringency in the Kermes which is the Nest or Gall of the Insect The Insect is supposed to be Fragrant and Acrid from whence its Cordial Vertue may depend And its Antifebrile Vertue from the taste of Galls which resemble the taste of the Cortex Peruvianus and therefore the Cortex of the Ilex coccifera ought to be tryed for the Jesuits-Bark it grows in Italy Spain and France and is described as having green Leaves like the Laurel-Bitters Coccus Polonicus grows on the Roots of Polygonum It contains a Worm which turns into a Fly and that leaves a Skin which smells of Musk It is used for Convulsions Bonetus The Syrup of Kermes has a Fragrancy from the Juice of Apples and Rose-water 5. The Cimices smell Fetid The Insects bred in the Body of the Willow are said bircum olere 6. A corrosive Taste is in Cantharides Their Acrid Salt affects the Kidnies and Bladder and they offend the Nose by pounding as Acrids do And if they be ground to Powder they turn Syrup of Violets green 7. Of a Salt Taste This is observed in the Venomous sting of a Bee And the Venome of a Scorpion is Guttula aquae candidae as Redi informs us The same corrosive Acrid or salt Ferment is in all Venoms A burning Coal applyed to the Bite or Sting immediately prevents all Mischief And Volatile Salts most successfully prevent the coagulations of the Blood by poysonous Bites A TABLE of Mineral Tastes I. Gritty Tastes of Earth Stones Minerals and their hot Calces II. Styptick fat greasie Earths III. Vitriolick Tastes 1. Acerb Aluminous of Alum and Quick-silver 2. Sweet Vitriolick in Steel Gold Tin and Lead Vitriols 3. Bitter Vitriolick in Silver-Crystals 4. Nauseous Brass-savored Vitriols in Copper IV. Bituminous bitterish Tastes either Fetid Aromatick or Terebinthinate V. Fetid sulphureous Tastes VI. Acid Tastes of Spirit of Sulphur Vitriol Salt Nitre VII Salt Tastes Volatile or Fixed or Vitriolated or Ammoniack VIII Marine Salso-acids as Sal Gemmae or else Nitrose cool Salts IX Caustick burning Tastes and Styptick The First CLASS The Tastes and Smells of Earths WE call those Mineral Earths which dissolve or soften by Water and taste and smell Earthy 1. Earths of a sandy or gritty Taste such as common Earth and of a smell of Mould This common Earth is produced from the minute Particles of Stones worn off by Rain the current of Springs Rivers and the Sea where Sandiness most abounds or else by the Airs motion or the sulphureous Acid in it arising from the hot central parts of the Earth With this the common Earth seems to be Impregnate and not to be the pure Element of Earth which I suppose to be like Glass or Ashes since most Bodies are reducible by Fire into one of them And that solid part in Minerals which is Alkalizate and serments with Acids seems to me the true Element of Earth and this also yields the Alkalizate parts both to Plants and Animals I distilled in an Earthen Retort and an open Fire some common dry Earth and sifted it clean from Vegetables It was taken half a Foot or more deep under the green Turf It yielded a great deal of Water and I observed a burnt Smell of Smoak I mixed Syrup of Violets with the Water and it turned it green From this Experiment I suppose I may conclude That the common Earth contains Water and some Oyl and Volatile Salt is made out of it By the Fire the Caput mortuum turned white like burnt Ashes All gritty Earths ferment with Acids as Chalk 2. Earths of a Styptick Taste sticking to the Tongue and feeling Unctuous with a sulphureous Earthy Smell These are Metallick Earths taken from Mines and their Vitriolick Stypticity is from the Metal Bole has its Stypticity and colour from Iron because it yields a green Tincture with Spirit of Salt and is Aluminous by mixing with Spirit of Nitre Terra sigillata contains some Particles of Gold and ferments with Acids but Bole does not it becomes Aluminous
in the Glass of Antimony and other Calces which vomit Thirdly The Taste of Mineral Sulphurs 1. Sulphureous Acid as in common Sulphur which is evidently both Acid and Sulphureous upon burning it and pierces the Nose strongly Ens primum Sulphuris smells strongly of Sulphur and tastes much of the Acid by which it cools Hectical Blood and coagulates Choler in the Colick Sulphur is a good Preservative against all Infectious Fevers and especially the Small-Pox and all Epidemical Distempers depending on the Air and as a Fetid it is Antihysterick The Flowers taste both Fetid and something Vitriolick and dry the Piles in Pills or Lozenges 2 Stronger Sulphurs and less Acid. In the Clyssus of Antimony the Acid is small but the Sulphur is stronger than the smell of Sp. of Sal Ammoniack which makes it an excellent Antihysterick being strongly Fetid Emetick Tartar has a pleasing Acidity but the Sulphur of the Antimony vomits Sal Antimonii has the taste of a dulcified Acid. Ettmuller mentions a Salt Clyssus of Antimony as a good Diuretick And he affirms That Antimonial Sulphur may be prepared to smell like Musk. Dr. Needham says Antimonial Sulphur smells and burns like Brimstone Cinnabar of Antimony smells Sulphureous 3. Sulphureous hot burning or Corrosive Acids Arsenick tastes of a burning heat and is also Acid. So the Butter of Antimony which is Corrosive smells strong of Sulphur and has an Acid in it Oleum Stanni is very Corrosive and Acid and is not to be distinguished from Butyrum Antimonii but by its continual Smoaking both being very Corrosive This Corrosive quality in Minerals depends on a Volatile active burning Sulphur edged with an Acid. Arsenick did not mix with the Serum of the Blood nor curdle it Neither would common Sulphur Flowers either mix or increase its Floridity The Mineral of Arsenick causes shortness of Breath and Palsies in the Miners by its great Foetor The Spirits like the Flame of a Candle are wholly extinguished by Sulphureous Damps Crocus Metallorum dissolves well in the Serum of the Blood it gives it a yellow colour but does not coagulate it and therefore works more on the Membranes than Humors The chief Vertue of Antimony lies in the Sulphur which may be strongly smelt by rubbing two pieces together and by this Sulphur Antimony discusses and dries in common drying Decoctions but I must confess Sulphurs are much more evident to the Smell than the Taste in all Minerals and therefore by that Sense are most to be observed Fourthly The Tastes or Smells of the Bitumens 1. Bitumens taste Bitter like Turpentines as Petroleum and smell like it with addition of some Earthy Fetid Asphaltum tastes like Pitch as I am informed and it burns into a Cinder 2. Some are Bitter and Fetid as Succinum the Tincture of Amber tastes Bitterish and is Antiepileptick like other Fetids 3. It is not improbable that Amber-griese is a Bitumen and of a fragrant Smell very Cordial It yields the same Principles as Amber by distillation both Oyl and Salt. If the consistence of the Bitumens be considered they are like Oyls Turpentines or Resins Ebenum fossile is said to be of a sweet scent Cordial An Account of the Tar-Bitumen in Shropshire A Bitumen is called by the Famous Kircher Sulphur liquidum and Sulphur Bitumen fixum This is plainly proved by some Bitumens which smell plainly of Brimstone as the Tar-Bitumen or Pici-Bitumen and have also a Tar Smell for by both these Smells a Sulphur and a Turpentine Bitumen are evidently known to be nearly related or compounded I received this Bitumen from my Worthy and Ingenious Friend Mr. G. Plaxton of Sheriff-Hales in Shropshire And these following Observations were made at Aston in Warwick-shire in the Laboratory of my ever Honoured and Learned Friend Sir Charles Holt Baronet The smell of the Bitumen was like a mixture of Tar and Brimstone which shews the middle state Bitumens have betwixt Minerals and Vegetables This Bitumen tastes Bitterish and Smoaky swims on a Spring which rises about the middle of a Hill in a Wood near to Rowton in the Parish of Brosely in Shropshire We mixed this Tar-like Bitumen with Sand and distilled it in a Sand Furnace out of a Retort At first a Phlegmatick Water came over then a black Oyl which we rectified with Water and then it appeared like a yellow Oyl in Colour Smell and Taste like Oyl of Amber and therefore I believe it to be of the same nature By this Experiment it appears That Amber is no Vegetable product as a Gum Resin but truly a Mineral Bitumen which is in some places dug out of the Earth and that this Tar is a Petroleum or liquid Amber It seems probable to me That this Tar is the Oyl of Coal for such an Oyly substance sweats from our Pit-Coal in burning and also comes from it by distillation and also the Sulphur-smell in this Tar appears to be like Coal smoke Many other Bitumens have a mixt smell of a Terebinthinate and Smoaky or Sulphureous Smell The taste of Petroleum is Bitterish and it smells of a mixt smell of Turpentine and Fetid Sulphur by which it discusses Tumors and the Country People cure Vlcers and Swellings in their Cattle by this Tar. All Bitumens are discussing by their Fetid Smell Conglutinative by their Gumminess and Detergent by their Bitter Taste North-hall Water tastes Bitterish and smells of a Sulphureous Smell upon keeping it seems therefore to have something Bituminous The Sediment after Evaporation tasted very burning and hot and that Taste continued long on my Tongue By this Acrimony it is Purgative and Diuretick Spirit of Harts-Horn precipitated the Water white like Alum-water and it curdles Milk like that As an alterative it has the Vertue of Alum in curing Itch Scab and all Fermentations and fixes the Volatile Salts and Oyls and coagulates the Lympha's and Serum of the Blood which may sometimes occasion Rheumatick Pains as I have observed it in some Persons Of the Tastes of Salts I. SAlts properly so called of a salt hot pungent Taste and a Lixivial Smell as all fixt Salts these feel Unctuous to the Fingers from some Oyl adhering to them and these are strong Diureticks and Sudorificks II. Volatile Alkalies these are of a burning pungent salt Taste with a smoaky urinous Smell the smoakiness and burning is from the Oyly Particles in Salts By the addition of an Acid the Heat and Burning and Fetids are abated for Acids correct all Oyls and fix them III. An Acid sulphureous Salt for so we improperly call all Figured Bodies though they have no salt Taste and Acids are the principal Ingredients of all other Salts This sulphureous Acid is the aerial Salt which mixes with all Fluids and then fixes in the Earthy Particles by which it is made evident to the Taste It cannot be tasted in Snow or Ice for want of an Alkali All Acids we taste have a roughness and therefore an Earthy part to make them act on our Taste is necessary This aerial sulphureous Acid rises from the sulphureous Fumes of the Earth or the sulphureous lucid matter of the Sun. IV. Mixt Salts tasting Salso-acid 1. Urinous Salso-acids made of a Volatile and Acid mixt as Sal Ammoniack which most resembles the salt of the Blood being Diuretick and Sudorifick 2. Vitriolated Salts consisting of a Fixt and an Acid. 3. Nitrous Salts consisting of a sulphureous Acid and a Volatile Salt tasting Cool and Saltish Arcanum duplicatum is esteemed as a mixt Salt and Ettmuller says It is Bitterish it is Diuretick a Digestive and a Febrifuge Spirit of Nitre ferments with the Sand in the Vrine and is esteemed the best Lithontriptick by Dr. Grew V. Salts compounded from some Acid and Mineral 1. Aluminous Tastes tasting Acerb or Acid-rough Burnt-Alum tastes Sweetish Sub-acid Hot and very Styptick whereby it coagulated the Serum of the Blood and stops its extravasation in Vlcers but it did not change the florid of the Blood as Vineger does 2. Vitriolick Salts so called from their shooting into particular edged Figures like Salts and they have a Styptick Taste 3. Marine Salts as Sea-Salt Sal-Gem are Salso-acid Sal Anaticum is of a Salso-acid Taste and is used for Eye-Medicines to supply the saltness of the Tears to cleanse the viscid Lympha in the corrosive Acidity We use Tutty and Calaminary Stone to absorb the Acid for they ferment with them VI. Of a burning corrosive salt Taste as in the Lixivium of Soap-ashes It tastes burning and smells of Lime I put some of it into the Serum of Blood and it turned it higher coloured but did not coagulate it Alumen scissile urit instar urticarum Ettmuller FINIS