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
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
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
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
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
Leaves are Sweet and Mucilaginous The Juyce of them is Snuffed into the Nose with Milk. The Juyce of the Root with equal quantity of the Juyce of Marjoram put into the Nose with a Thimble purges the Head strongly and by Irritation in the Throat Salivates and helps the Kings-Evil Primrose has a Mucilaginous and Acrid Taste and a strong tho' pleasing Smell by which it operates in causing Sleep Self-Heal The Leaves taste Watry Prunella and Mucilaginous by which it cools the Mouth in Gargarisms Quaere Whether Lysimachia Purpurea be of the same kind and both be Lamiums It is Bitterish Sub-astringent Slimy and good in Hecticks It is also Vulnerary Sloe-Tree The Leaves and Bark are Prunus Sylvestris very Rough and Bitter by which they stop Fluxes The Syrup is most used made of the Sloes to stop any Evacuation and for Gargarisms The Flowers smell like Orange-Flowers and taste Bitterish They will make a Purging Syrup and yield an Aromatick Water very Cordial Cockle It is a little Biting and of the Pseudomelanthium lychnis segetum Ptarmica Vertues of Nigella Sneezewort is Bitterish very Acrid and Aromatick like Millefoile in the Scent and therefore a good Cephalick It promotes Sneesing and chewed it draws forth Rheums like Pellitory Penny-Royal is Bitterish Hot Acrid Pulegium and Aromatick flying quick into the Nose having in it a Volatile Oyly Salt as all Cephalicks have by which it is good in Hysterick-Fits Obstructions of the Womb and Convulsive Coughs in Syrup and in Hoarseness made as Thea. The Smell of it is mixt of Aromatick and Fetid as many other Hysterick Medicines be as Matricaria c. Spotted Lung-wort is Watry and Mucilaginous Pulmonaria macu-losa like Burrage or Bugloss and is a little Bitterish like them It cools Hectical Heats and Thirst and supplies a cool Lympha Pasque-Flower is Burning like other Pulsatilla Crow-foots The Root is said to be Sweet Pear-Tree The Bark and Leaves are Pyrus very Rough therefore great Astringents Burgamo-Pears are Sweet Sub-acid and Slimy and the outward Rind Styptick R. CRowfoot The greatest part of Ranunculus Crowfeet are Exulcerating and Blistering the Tongue I boyled the Common-Crowfoot in Hoggs-Grease but it would not blister without Cantharides The dryed Roots promote Sneezing It cures Marks of the Skin and Warts by raising a Blister and afterwards a Crust and therefore hath a Caustick virtue The round Root of Crowfoot rubbed flyes quick up into the Nose like Spirit of Sal-Ammoniack which shews the Corrosiveness to be in Volatile Salt And the Crowfeet smell a little like Scurvy-Grass Quaere Whether any Sweetness be in Ranunculus besides the Acrimony because the Root of Ranunculus Bulbosus tastes Sweet after drying And there is a kind of Ranunculus called Pratensis erectus dulcis which may be eaten Spear-wort is very Caustick if bruised Ranunculus Flammeus and put upon the Skin with a Walnut-shell where the pain of the Gout is or where any pain of the Head lyes in a small compass by letting out some of the Stagnating Serum Quaere Whether any Bitterness be in it I did not taste any Bitter Horse-Radish The Leaves Seeds Raphanuss Rusticanu and Roots are of a very Biting Cress-Taste and Vertue and therefore Diuretick Antiscorbutick Stomachick Splenetick and Antihydropick The Leaves may be used in Medicines as well as the Roots or Seeds being Bitterish and very Acrid The Lymphaeducts have a Sweet Juyce Dr. Grew And a Sweetness may be tasted as well as a Bitterish-Acrid in the dryed Root when used in Diet. Chadlock is of a Cress-Taste and Vertue Rapistrum like Mustard Turnep The Seeds and Leaves taste Rapum sativum Acrid The Root boyled is Sweet and Mucilaginous The old Root is Bitterish It is of the same kind as Sinapi or Cresses and therefore has a Volatile Salt in it which makes it Diuretick Pectoral and Antiscorbutick But it is Windy from the Mucilage and Volatile Salt combined together as in Garlick Leeks c. The Roots being roasted are used in drawing Pultesses for Scorbutick Tumors the Scrophulae Swelled Breasts and Gout The Green-Leaves smell when rubbed Acrid like Horse-Radish or Cresses The Seeds of the Wild-Turnep yield Rape-Oyl which with Sugar cures the Aphthae in Children Syrup of Turneps is very Sweet and has a strong Smell by which it is an excellent Pectoral in Pleurisies The Broth of Turneps sweetned with Sugar is a pleasanter Medicine than Rape-Oyl for the Aphthae Rampions It is a Milky Plant Sweet Rapunculus and Sub-acrid It is good for Diet And as Physical it is Pectoral and Diuretick by the Acrimony Sheeps-Scabious The Taste is Sweet Rapunculus Scabiosae capitulo and Hot both in Leaves and Root It has a Smell a little Mellowy Buckthorn The Berries taste Sweet at Rhamnus catharticus first then Mucilaginous Bitter and Rough. The unripe Berries in Alum-water colour Yellow when ripe Green. The Syrup made in B. M. so that the Colour and Vertue in the Skin may be Extracted looks of a Red colour and purges very strongly from one Spoonful to four The new Syrup purges violently and loses of the strength after two Months It gripes least if made of Ripe Berries The Berries are taken from Fifteen to Twenty-Five to Purge The Bark of the Tree is a little Rough Bitter and Mucilaginous and may be put into Diet-Drinks with Dwarf-Elder Roots and Orris to purge to which add Daucus Juniper-Berries and Wormwood The Bark smells something Fragrant The Syrup is proper for Hydropical Persons Sun-Dew The Taste is Rough Acid Ros Solis and Acrid and has a Sorrel-Smell The Acrid is not tasted till after a while If applied outwardly it exulcerates like Ranunculus It is put into Cordial-Waters gives a Yellow colour and has an Anti-Pestilential Vertue The dryed Ros Solis tastes very Acid like Sorrel and Rough for which reason some may give it in Spitting of Blood but the latent Acrimony is to be suspected which makes it to be a Crowfoot Eglantine-Rose tastes as the Dogg-Rose Rosa Sylvestris odora but smells more Sweet and Fainty Dogg-Rose The Flowers are Bitterish Rosa Sylvestris canina Slimy and Astringent If they be boyled in Whey they will purge as Damask-Roses The Fruit tastes Acid and so does the Conserve which therefore will quench Thirst and cool the Cholerick Blood. I have distilled a very Fragrant Spirit from the Fruit after Fermentation The Dogg-Rose transplanted into Gardens loses the Smell The Fruit must lye and putrefie before the Conserve be made The boyling in Water takes away the Acid from it The taste of the Spongy Excrescency is Bitterish and Astringent it smells like the Rose is Pungent or Warm and is given in Spitting of Blood. The Root is very Bitter and Astringent and may cure the Biting of Mad-Doggs by those qualities All the Rose-Roots are Bitterish and Astringent but the White seems
This Spirit is produced by Fermentation and therefore can be no Cause of it as is ordinarily supposed Spirit of Wine is by reason of its Resinous Composition agreeable to the Red part of the Blood and is a familiar Specifick to supply its Defect and excite its brisk motion whereby it is Cordial Refreshing and supplying new Spirits by its Similitude of Texture The long use of it brings a Phthisis by too much rarefying the Blood into Salts or a Dropsie thickning the Serum of the Blood whereby the Viscera are obstructed and Sanguification destroyed by the unaptness for mixture with the new Chyle Spirit of Wine tastes Sweet very Hot and Pungent the Sweetness is from the Oyl and the hot Pungency from a Volatile Salt. Leaven smells strong of Dough and Fermentum panificum tastes Salt and Sowrish by the addition of common Salt to Dough the Oyly parts of the Meal are loosened from the mixture for the Acid of Salt is Pungent whereby it breaks the Texture of the Farinaceous parts and sets the Oyl more free by combining with the Earthy Particles with which all Acids readily mix When the Oyl is loosened from its mixture with Earthy Particles by the Acid of the Ferment it is easily agitated by the Air and by the Contrariety of parts the Oyl and Acid act on one another and cause a Heat and make the whole mixture swell as it happens in Electuaries in which Contraries ferment Leaven is kept a good while whereby it is made more Sowre and thereby fitter to begin a Fermentation in other Dough. The Oyl of the Leaven being more loosened by Fermentation is moderately Hot and also Salt and Sowre which temper the Heat And Leaven is used outwardly in drawing Plasters Wheat and Barley considered in their perfect State as Vegetables taste Sweet and Slimy when prepared for Bread or Beer they are reduced into Meal which still has the Principles unaltered which in both were an Oyly Acid with a Slime which is a more fixt Oyl When these Plants are fermented the Mixture of these Principles must be destroyed the Oyl must be rarefied and the Acid freed from Earthy parts whereby its Pungency may give a quickness to the Liquor The Sliminess is attenuated by the Oyl and Acids commotion and by that the Oyl and Acid are dissolved in the Liquor or else huff the Farinaceous Mass in the making of Bread. Barme is the fine part of the Farina Flos Cerevisiae decocted which wants room in the Fermenting Liquor and therefore by the Agitation of parts during the Fermentation is displaced and by its lightness is carried to the top of the Liquor and it tastes Slimy without any manifest Acidity By the Bubbles it is probable that some Spirituous parts are mixed with it which consist of an Oyly Acid and therefore it is used to excite a new Fermentation in other Liquors Such frothy Bubbles are observable in Bottled Liquors from a Windy Spirit flying up to the top of the Liquor which is inclosed with Froth Sugar Ferments all Liquors and Electuaries Saccharum It consists of an Oyl and Acid which being dissolved in Water ferment together and obtain a looser Texture whereby a Windy Spirit is produced And from this Instance it appears that an Oyl and Acid are sufficient to produce a Fermentation which must be continued by the same by which it was produced that is by the Agitation of an Oyl and Acid and the effect of Fermentation is a looser Texture of the Oyl and Acid of the Body which is Fermented which Oyl and Acid give the Winy Taste to Liquors Fermented The Contrariety of an Oyl and Acid may more evidently appear by the mixture of Sulphur which contains an Oyl and Acid and for that reason is the immediate matter of Fire The Oyl and Resins of Vegetables and Fat 's of Animals burn as readily as Sulphur and have the same disturbed Flame From whence a Contrariety of parts and an Agitation depending on that Contrariety may be inferr'd which is yet more manifest in the detonation made betwixt Sulphur and Nitre and the explosion by the mixture of both with an Alkali If Oyl and Acid produce a Flame by a violent motion given them by Fire it seems probable that the same having a gentler Agitation from the parts of a Ferment or the external heat of Fire or the Sun produce in Vegetable Juyces a brisk Agitation of parts which Agitation is promoted by the Contrariety of parts in Oyl and Acid As Acids help the production of Flame from Oyls and make it burn with some noyse so in Fermentation the Oyl and Acid of Vegetables as soon as the Sliminess natural to Oyls is dissolved in Water are set free and are the chief active Principles which may easily be agitated by a Ferment whose parts have been put into motion by a former Fermentation whose effects viz. an Oyl and Acid it also contains The great force of Vegetation and the breaking of Bottles and Vessels by Fermented Liquors can no way be explained but by some Effervescence which comes near the nature of Explosion Such is the Contrariety of Oyl and Acid briskly agitated by an External Heat The effects of Sulphur and Oyl are contrary to Acids and correct them and Acids fix Sulphurs and coagulate Volatile Oyls and therefore they act one on the other and are contrary I do not affirm That all Oyls and Acids mixt will presently ferment but there must be an actual-Heat given them by External Fire or Internal Fiery Particles lodged in Oyl of Vitriol or by a Ferment in Artificial Fermentations or the Sun in Vegetation of Plants which grow not till an External Heat excites the Motion of the Oyl and Acid natural to all Plants and in the mixtures I have mentioned the Heat is not immediately perceived but after some time so in Fermentation immediately produced by a Ferment but in some space of time CHAP. VIII Of the Preparation of Vegetables SInce the Vertues of Vegetables may be known by their Tastes and Odors I may also affirm That the truest way of judging what Preparations are the fittest for each Vegetable is by the Taste and Smell and that is the best Preparation in which the Taste and Smell is preserved Nature it self has Prepared our Medicines by Mixtures Strainings and Digestions and given to each Plant a particular Composition of Tastes and sometimes Compounded Odors designedly suited and fitted for the particular vitiated Humors in Animals For Plants were not only designed for our Nourishment but likewise for our Physick and those that were for Food are found out by their pleasant Sweet Taste and grateful Odor but those for Medicine by the Offensive or Nauseous Taste and Smell If we should torture our Nourishment by the same degrees of Fire as Medicines are Prepared we should destroy that natural Sweetness of our Food which is a fitter Taste for Aliments than those of Spirits Oyls Salts Tinctures
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
incrassating Rad. Symphyti Albumen Ovi Gum. Arabicum Limaces Lac Bolus Armena 2. Acids Coagulating the Blood Serum and Lympha and fixing Acrid Salts Tinctura Rosarum cum Sp. Vitrioli Succ. Limonum Lac ebutyratum Sp. Salis Dulcis c. 3. Watry Bitterish Astringents and Acid Astringents Fol. Plantag Polygoni Succ. Acaciae Hypocistidis Rad. Bistort Tormentill c. II. Outwardly 1. Acids and Cool Astringents applied as Frontals Oxycratum 2. Fetid Smells Stercus Porcinum Muscus Terrestris Opium 3. Amulets causing Fear Bufo exiccatus usnea ex Cranio To those must be added Revulsions by Bleeding Cupping in the Neck Purging Compression of the Arteries near to the Bleeding 4. Causticks put upon Tents Colcothar Crepitus lupi Fungus Quercinus Gypsum ustum Alumen ustum Lapis infernalis 5. Vitriolicks applied with Tents Atramentum Fuligo Cacabi aenei Vitriolum Caeruleum solutum 6. Powdered Gums which help the thickning of the Blood and therewith stop the Orifices Terra Sigillata Thus Mastiche Aloe Telae Aranearum Pili Leporini Ossa Lintea calcinata Amylum Resina Of Poysoned Wounds by Animals I. THe Venemous Poyson must be extracted and destroyed First It is destroyed by 1. Fire or actual Cautery which is applied to the Bites of Serpents 2. By Medicines contrary to Fermentation and Putrefaction 1. Acids as Spongia aceto madida 2. Mixt Salts Sal commune Halec 3. Oyls Ol. Scorpionum Succini Caryophyllorum 4. Bitters Gentiana Aristolochia Centaurium Verbena Ruta Theriaca Mithridatium Myrrha Aloe 5. Acrids Cepe Allium Sinapi Piper Secondly It is drawn out 1. By Cupping-Glasses 2. By the Oyls mentioned with which all Oyly Acrids as the small active Particles of Poysons seem to be easily mix 3. By Vinous Spirits which easily imbibe such Particles Sp. Vini Sp. Rorismarini Aq. Vitae 4. By some parts of the Animal applyed with which the Poyson readily mixes Pulvis Serpentum calcinatorum Bilis Serpentum Capita 5. By Fomentations of Cephalicks The Wound after the Poyson is removed is to be treated as in Ordinary Wounds but because internal Antidotes are necessary and they cannot be known without some general Notions of Poysons I shall next discourse of Poysons Of POYSONS THere is observed to be Poysonous Minerals and Animals as well as Vegetables Poysons either corrode the Stomach or coagulate the Serum of the Blood or putrefie the whole Mass or else act most on the Spirits I. I will mention Mineral Poysons first which taken inwardly corrode the Stomach and gripe vomit and cause Hiccoughs and Faintings and at last gangrene it and give a blackness to it 1. Arsenic is corrosive by a particular Texture of Sulphureous Particles and Acids The proper Antidotes for it are those which destroy its Texture as Fixt Salts and Acids as Nitre But first we must endeavour its Evacuation and the securing of the Stomach as is hereafter prescribed against corrosive Poysons 2. Antimony is less corrosive by a particular Texture of Sulphureous parts and Acid and produces violent Evacuations with Convulsions This Texture is also destroyed by Acids which fix the Sulphur and Fixt Salts which take off the Pungent Acid. 3. Mercury sublimate is corrosive by a particular Texture made by the particles of Quicksilver dissolved by an Acid And this vomits corrodes and produces Convulsions but this going into the Blood coagulates it and produces Salivation This Acid is absorbed by Fixt and Volatile Salts and so the corrosive Texture is destroyed 4. Aqua Fortis corrodes and vomits by its Acid pungent Figures The Acid must be altered by Absorbents as Earths Steel Alkalizate Salts And the same serve for Oyl of Vitriol Spirit of Salt and Nitre and for all other Mineral Preparations made by Acids as Vitriol which corrodes and vomits Aes Viride Squama Aeris which is vitriolated in the Stomach The particular Texture of all these is altered by Absorbers and Precipitaters of Acid but the Brasssavour taste is best cured by Spirit of Salt. 5. Calx viva and Gypsum are corrosive to the Stomach by a fiery Fixt Salt which is corrosive and produces Pain Thirst and a Dysentery Acids temper the fieriness of Fixt Salts and Fat Earths Mucilages and Slimy Oyls do the same Ale will not cause Lime to effervesce 6. Lead Ceruss Red-Lead and Litharge produce Pains Gripes and Dysenteries and Litharge binds the Belly The Sulphureous parts in Lead being corrosive these are best cured by fixing them with Acids and the dryness of the Lead is corrected by Oyls Lead is turned into a Salt by Spirit of Vinegar which will more easily pass off the Stomach to which that is also observed to be very hurtful causing Nauseousness by its Sweetness 7. Glass and Diamonds are only Poyson by their sharp edges which fret the Guts and these cannot be altered wherefore they are very dangerous Poysons II. Minerals are Poysonous by their Fumes which pass through the Organ of Smelling and immediately act on the Spirits as the Fumes of Arsenic and Antimony which kill suddenly by destroying and fixing the Spirits Or Quicksilver Fumes which cause Palsies by coagulating the Succus Nervosus Or the Fumes of Lead which smell sweet and produce a Convulsive Asthma and also dry the Lungs Oyls Mucilages and Watry Medicines are used to cure this Asthma II. Vegetable POYSONS First VEgetable Poysons corrosive I. The pure Acrid Volatile Salt in the Cress-Tastes are a little corrosive by their pointed Figures but in the differing kinds of true Corrosives there is some difference in the Figures of the Volatile Salt which is given it by a particular Texture of Oyl and Acid which are Ingredients in the making of this Salt of a hooked Figure 1. This Corrosive Salt is mixed with much Water in Ranunculus c. These cause Vomitings Gripes and Pains in the Stomach 2. This Corrosive Salt is mixt with a well-digested Oyl in Clematis and other Fragrant Corrosives and this also burns blisters and vomits 3. This Corrosive Salt is mixt with a little Sliminess and Elder-smell in Hellebor Colchicum 4. This Corrosive Salt is mixt with much Water and a Resinous Oyl as in Spurge they burn blister purge and vomit violently as Spurge Cambogia c. 5. If this Corrosive Salt is joyned with a great Foetor it produces a Venemous Plant as in Aconitum Napellus Cicuta Nature has marked these Plants by the black Roots and given them a considerable Foetor to offend our Smelling and thereby cause an Aversion These last produce Giddiness Delirium burnings in the Stomach Inflations of the Body and Fever They first corrode the Stomach then pass into the Blood and at last affect the Spirits Acids change and fix this Corrosive Salt and Fetid Smell 6. Because Fetid differs but in degree from Aromaticks therefore there are some Corrosive Poysons of a Smell mixt of Aromatick and Fetid as Cicutaria Madnep and Coriander and these have a strong heady Smell Sweet and Offensive with sweet Roots by which their Acrimony is allayed
are also Diuretick and if it be given in a great Dose it vomits I could wish That a few proper Vertues were allowed to each Plant which it most eminently and constantly produces by its peculiar Taste and that other Vertues were rejected which are more certainly produced by Plants of a more Specifick Taste The Third Objection may be That the same Plant growing in the Garden differs in Taste from the same growing in the Field and its native Soyl as in Scurvy-Grass Wormwood and all the Poysonous Plants is most evident To this I Answer That the Tastes differ in the Wild and Field Plants only in Degree and not in the Kind or Species of Taste so Sea and Garden Scurvy-Grass have the same Cress-Acrid but the Sea is strongest The Wild Hemlock poysons in a higher degree than the Garden but both have the same Fetid Acrimony The fat Soyl in the Garden gives a greater Magnitude and alters the crude Juices towards a sweetness in the Bladders as appears in Carrots In some Plants the Smells do plainly Characterize the Class or Species as in Aromaticks Fetids and Narcoticks there is a Bitter Smell also though Galen denies it for we may plainly smell a Peach-Bitter or Laurel-Bitter in the rubbing of the Flowers of Peaches and Cherries And in the green Leaves of Laurel and Walnut we smell a Bitterness which may be a note of the Laurel-Class but the Species of Plants is not to be multiplyed where they have the same Taste though some alteration happen in the Smell for we may observe various Smells in the different parts of Plants and in some Plants a compounded Smell I have not excluded the external Figure from any consideration in the Classing of Plants but allow it no farther than as marks of distinction of the several Individuals under the same Taste and a great help for the better sorting of Plants where the Taste is obscure I observed That many Plants had Leaves of other Plants which agree with one another in Tast as Pulsatilla Anemones facie Quinquefolium Tormentillae facie and by such similitudes of parts I was directed to compare their Tastes and Vertues I have Classed all the Plants I have mentioned according to such Tastes as I have observed my self or borrowed from Galen Mr. Ray and others I hope the Reader will not expect any exact Methodizing of Plants but will correct all those Mistakes I am guilty of in this Design in which all I pretend to is To have proposed a useful and rational Method for distinguishing Plants but this I shall leave to be perfected by Time and those who have a better Skill in the general Botanicks than I can pretend to who live so far distant from any of our Famous Gardens where I might upon any doubt of a Taste or Smell consult the Plant it self And I cannot desert the Imployment of Physick to prosecute throughly this pleasing Study of the Tastes and Smells of the Juices in Plants which renders Botanicks very useful to a Physician The End of the Sixth Part. AN APPENDIX TO THE Second Part OF THE 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Containing Two Parts I. A TABLE of the Tastes of Animal Humors in their Natural States With many Observations omitted in the Second Part. II. The Tastes and Smells of many Minerals in their several Classes which were not fully described in the Second Part. LONDON Printed in the Year 1690. A TABLE of Animal Tastes I. Animal Humors of a Sweet Milky Taste these are Chyle Milk and the Milky Lympha's II. Animal Humors of a Slimy Sub-acid Tartareous Taste as the Slimes of the Stomach and Guts III. Animal Humors of a Sweet Vitriolick Taste as Blood and Spleen-Juice IV. Of a Fetid Animal Taste as Spirits V. Of a Fat Greasie or Unctuous Taste as Suet Fat Marrow VI. Of a Bitter Acrid Slimy Taste as Choler VII Of a Salso-acid Taste like common Sal-Ammoniack as the Serum of the Blood and Salt Lympha's and Sweat and Vrine An APPENDIX to the Second Part c. I. Animal Humors of a Sweet Milky Taste are either First Of a Milky Smell or of no considerable Smell Secondly Of a Fetid Smell First THE Humors of a Milky Smell and Milky Taste without any Smell considerable 1. The Milk of the Breasts which is not different from Chyle but by its being depurated from Saltness by the Glandules of the Breasts Milk has the Smell of the Animal from whom it is drawn and therefore the stronger the Blood and Smell of each Animal is the more offensive is the Milk that Animal Savor of Milk is the Volatile Oyly part and may be called the Spirit of Milk which is more Fetid in Goats Asses and Mares than in Cows but that of Women has the most agreeable Animal Smell being most like the natural Temper of those of the same kind The Sweetness of Milk shews that it is very capable of Fermentation in the Stomach of Animals And Rennet curdles it by Fermentation and not by its Acidity In Milk we distinguish Four Parts 1. The Serose Whey 2. The Buttery or Oyly Part. 3. The Cheesie or Viscid Part. 4. The Acidity evident in Butter-Milk These several Parts of Milk have their uses in Physick The Serose or Whey Parts are useful in diluting of Animal Humors but especially the distilled Milk Waters The Buttery Part of Milk by its Oyliness allays the Acid sharpness of Humors and by its Viscidity and Sliminess it tempers the Acrids whence Milk is Anodyne in Clysters Eye-Medicines and all Injections Butter is emollient by its Oyliness and is something Hot or Discussing The Oyl of Animals being the Matter of Heat The Cheesie Part in Milk which Hippocrates calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is very nourishing and by reason of its Gummy Viscidity it conglutinates Wounds The Acidity in Butter-Milk is cooling as all Tartar-Acids be and it is like the Sowreness of Vegetables 2. The Chyle in the Thoracick-Vessels tastes of a Milky Sweetness with a manifest Saltness and a strong savor of that particular Animal which I call the Animal Taste and Smell Tho' Dr. Glisson affirms That Chyle has neither the Bitterness nor the Savor of the Guts nor the Saltness yet I find the Judicious Dr. Lower affirms its Saltness I tasted the Chyle of a Dog Fed with Flesh before it came to the Receptacle by cutting one of the Lacteals near the Guts and I found the Chyle Sweet and Saltish and of an Animal Savor The same was the Taste of the Chyle in the Thoracick ductus There is the same Parts in Chyle as in Milk. 1. A Buttery Oyl 2. A Serose Whey 3. A Cheesie Viscid 4. A Saltish-Acid and Tartar-Acid The Slimy Sweetness of Chyle shews it to agree with Milk as well in Nature as in Taste This Sweetness of Chyle is tasted in the Urine in a Diabetes where Chyle either wants its Sanguification or else is diverted by some unknown Lymphaeductus to the Kidnies from the Glands of the
are the most Injurious to the Nerves because they are prejudicial to the Light or Flame of the Animal Spirits and hence I suppose the Spirits to be of an Oyly Nature and Fetid as all the Noctiluca's be 4. The Lympid Humors of the Eyes are not improbably the Lympha of the Nerves especially the Vitreous Humor which is next to the Optick Nerve The Aqueous Humor probably is derived from the Glands about the Eye and if it be emptied by puncture it fills up again and is a Serose Lympha This Vitreous Humor tastes Slimy and so does the Crystalline and these two only differ in Consistence The Vitreous Humor becomes more Limpid by beating it in a Spoon and then it has some little Saltness which did after some time turn Syrup of Violets green as all Animal Humors do in which there is a Salt. This Vitreous Humor did not turn thick by Oyl of Vitriol nor altered with Spirit of Harts-Horn but it becomes White by boyling and a little White by the Acid. It appears very pellucid like Crystal and in it seems to be lodged the furious hot Spirits of Dogs Cats and Lyons which appear lucid in the dark for which reason I suppose it to be the Nervine Lympha and the hollow of the Eye to be the dilatation of the Nerve whose Membranes and Fibres are manifestly spread in the hollow of the Eye and therefore the Humors of the Eye flow from the Nervose Fibrillae The external Light which is reflected from an Object cannot move the Fibrillae to cause Vision but more probably it acts on the Luminous Spirits of an Animal modifying them into the same Figure and Motion which they have from the Object II. Animal Humors of a Slimy Sub-acid Taste and Viscid Consistence THese have little Sweetness but only the Slimy part of the Chyle and the Tartar-acid of it which remain after the Spirituous Sweetness is separated by the Brain-Glands c. or digested into other Tastes 1. The Mucous Sub-acid Slime of the Glands of the Stomach and Guts 2. The Lympha of the Pancreas is of the same Nature Slimy and Sub-acid and designed for the same use as the Lympha of the Guts viz. The Fermentation of our Meat Those Slimy Viscid and Sub-acid Humors arise from the Chyle which is long digested with the Blood till it becomes Viscid and Sub-acid like the Tartar-acid of Butter-Milk All Ferments are Slimy as Barme and Rennet they have also hot strong or fetid Particles lodged in the Slime and preserved by it These Fetids are the active Principles of Fermentation in Rennet and likewise in all Animal Ferments as in the Semen and the Slimy Lympha's of the Stomach and Guts which ferment the Nourishment received into the Stomach This Fetid in the Slimy Lympha of the Stomach is communicated from the Nerves and is that I call the Animal Fetid The Sub-acid helps the Oyly-Fetid in its Fermentation as Nitre helps Sulphureous Minerals in their Conflagration and Explosions I could not coagulate this Slimy Lympha by the Acid of Spirit of Salt or by the Fire I gathered it by two Ligatures made in the Guts of a Rabbet and emptied the space betwixt them for the reception of the Slime 3. The Slimy Sub-acid Humor separated by the Spleen which helps the separation of Choler by the Liver This is the Vitriolick Acid of the Blood which joyning with the Bitterness of Choler produces the Acrid observable in it So by the mixture of Bitter and Acid in Plants a Salt taste is produced And from Acrid Plants as Horse-radish I have distilled an Acid Liquor Note That all the Conglomerating Glands look white like their Milky Slimes And though some of their Lympha's be Sweet yet these last mentioned are less Sweet and are either naturally Sub-acid or else turn so immediately upon Stagnation in the Stomach All the Slimy Sweet Lympha's are properly supplyed by sweetish Slimes or Milk Diet when they are deficient These Slimes being naturally produced from Chyle which is Sweetish and like Milk. The Slimy Sub-acid Humors are best supplied by Tartar-Acids which quicken the Appetite and help Digestion especially the well digested Acids of ripe Fruits and Wine it self which is Sub-acid There is a Volatile Acidity in the Contents of the Stomach for all digested Vegetables smell and taste Acid with a mixture of Fetid such is the Smell of the same Vegetable if it be artificially digested And the Acidity is generally more evident to the Smell than the Taste which is a sign of its being fermented When the Spirituous Oyly Particles of Chyle are carried off into the Lacteals the remaining contents have the Acidity of Vineger in the Coloâ—â— and therefore the Ascarides are bred there which resemble the Eels in Vineger This Acid has a putrid Savor joyned with it which is produced by a precedent Fermentation This Acid is produced from the Tartar of Vegetables which being Fermented or Distilled it appears Acid Oleose The Contents of the Jejunum are Bitter from Choler of the Duodenum Salt the Choler being turned to Salt by the mixture of the Acid Contents of the Stomach and the Excrements have the Colour but not the Bitter of Choler III. Animal Humors of a Sweet Vitriolick Taste THE Blood of all Animals taste naturally Sweet Vitriolick with a Saltness and a savor of the Animal Fetid I observed this Vitriolick Taste in the Blood of a Carp and in that of a Chicken and in the Blood of a healthful Woman And I have often found this Observation confirmed by the Tryals made by divers other Persons to whom I communicated it both Physicians and Chirurgeons who agree with me in asserting the Steel Taste of Blood. This Vitriolick Stypticity in Blood probably arises from the Tartar-Acid of Chyle fixing on the Terreous or Osseous parts of the Succus nutritius swimming in the Blood after its full digestion for all Stypticity arises from the mixture of an Earthy part and an Acid. If we mix common Tartar and Steel Filings a strong Vitriolick Salt is produced like the Taste of Blood. I did not perceive any Steel Taste in Chyle neither will Chyle turn Syrup of Violets green as the Serum of the Blood does and therefore I believe the Vitriolick Taste is produced in the Blood but the sweetness in the Blood is from the Chyle mixt with it The use of this Vitriolick Stypticity is very evident and necessary to the Blood. 1. From the effervescence of this Vitriolick Acid with the red Oyly part of the Blood the Heat of the Blood depends So by the mixture of the Oyl of Human Blood with the Oyl of Vitriol Mr. Boyle produced a lasting and burning Heat 2. This Animal Vitriol may be called the proper peculiar Acid or Tartar of the Blood. This supplies the Acidity for the Spleen whose substance tastes Slimy Vitriolick and abates the high Ebullitions of Blood as other Stypticks do and thereby preserves the Consistence of it and precipitates the