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
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
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
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
such a particular Fermentation to the Juyce of the Stock as to alter it into the nature of the Graft and if the Seed be a perfect Plant there may lodge such an Original Juyce in each part of the Plant as may change the nature of the same Juyce in the several parts So in Chelidonium minus the Acrimony is very manifest in the Stalk but neither in the Leaves or Root but I rather believe that if the Juyce of a Plant is the same in the whole Plant different alterations of the same Juyce may happen by a higher degree of Fermentation So the Roots of Wormwood are Sweet-Aromatick The Leaves very Bitter-Aromatick The Bark of Ash is Bitter-Rough The Flowers have also an Acrid These Alterations happen by a higher degree of Fermentation in the same Juyce So Fermented Liquors acquire a Ripeness by long keeping and by the difference of Vessels in which they are kept Upon this account the Juyce in Roots is kept more cool But in the Leaves the Stalks more exposed to the Agitation of the Air and Heat of the Sun whence will arise a difference of Tastes and Digestion It is most probable that the difference of the Digestion happens not only by Original different Juyces in Plantulâ Seminali but also by the difference of Vessels which seems very evident in Seeds and Fruits where without an addition of a Ferment the same Fruit becomes Sweet Sub-acid and Slimy which at first was Acid and very Rough. And Nuts become Sweet and Oyly which were at first Austere The Root of Vines tastes Bitterish and Rough The Leaves Acerb The Ripe Grape Sweet Sub-acid and Slimy The Seed Austere as the Root So that these different Tastes shew the Alterations which happen in the Juyce of the Vine From Austere it comes to an Acerbity in the Leaves and from thence to a Sweet Sub-acid in Grapes but the Stone or Seed returns to the Austerity of the Root Wine is made out of the Sweet Sub-Acid Vinum Juyce of the Grape And the same is the nature of all the Juyces of Berries of the same Taste The Acid is evident to the Sense and an Oyl produces the Sweetness This is the Taste of New-Drink Metheglin and Sugar dissolved in Water and most other Liquors usually Fermented and this Sweetness is a certain sign of an Oyl and Acid for these may be distilled out of Honey Sugar New-Wine and Beer by a strong Fire And there is no other eminent Principles in Sweet Tastes but these Therefore from them the Fermentation of these Liquors must be deduced The Acid of Fermenting Liquors cannot produce the heat of the Liquor by acting on the Earthy parts because they are already mixt with the Acid and kept fluid by it otherwise the Earth would wholly precipitate But this Heat proceeds from the Effervescence made betwixt the Oyl and Acid which will cause a considerable Heat as is manifest by the Artificial mixture mentioned All Fluids have an Internal Agitation of parts which produces their Fluidity which being supposed and also a contrariety of particular Figures betwixt Oyl and Acids the first being Ramose and the last Angular It may easily be conceived that a difference of Motion will be natural to these two Principles which two Motions meeting give a disturbance to their natural Tendencies and from thence proceeds the Effervescence which is always promoted by some external Heat as of the Sun or else the Liquors are boyled before Fermentation as in Metheglin Beer and some Wines The effect of a great deal of Acid upon Oyl is to coagulate it but a smaller quantity Fermented with it expands opens and rarefies the Oyl This is evidently done in the Butter of Antimony where the Acids of Sublimate open the close Texture of the Sulphur and gives it the form of Butter The same is the effect of Fermentation the Acid acts on the Oyl by degrees and mixes with it and because their mixture happens in a Fluid the Water is also intermixt with them and thereby the Oyl is dissolved in the Liquor and produces a Winy Spirit which diluted in much Water is called a Wine and if it be distilled from it a Brandy Spirit which is Inflammable like Oyl If the greatest quantity of Oyl be evaporated out of Wine a Vinegar is produced by the remaining and prevailing Acid which has its Pungency from some Oyly parts which are still mixt with the Tartar of Vinegar and which will yield a burning Spirit if Vinegar be distilled from Saccharum Saturni The Agitation which happens from the Effervescence of these two Principles in Fermentation shakes all the parts of the Liquor Fermenting whereby the most Feculent parts in Wine and the greater Farinaceous parts in Beer subside but the more light rise to the top of the Liquor in an Effervescence These Heterogeneous parts being separated the remaining Liquor is clear and consists of a Winy Juyce in which the Oyl is most prevalent and has also an Acid mixed with it And in Beer the Farinaceous parts are much rarefied having their Oyl very much loosened and sharpened by the Acid and from hence proceeds the quickness and briskness of Liquors Dr. Willis in his Pharmaceutice mentions a way of distilling an Oyl from Spirit of Wine by means of a strong Spirit of Vitriol Therefore Acids help the Separation of Oyls from the mixture in Plants For this end we put Tartar or Salt into the Vesica with Seeds which are to be distilled for the separation of the Oyl is thereby promoted The Oyl of Wines is sufficiently proved by Dr. Willis's Experiment and the Acid by Tartar but it 's not improbable that some Salt is also produced by this mixture of Oyl and Acid with a little Earth Which is most clearly proved by the Salts which are described by Mr. Lewenhock in many sorts of Wine which as I remember differ not much from the Salts of Vinegar The Oyl Acid an the Volatile Salt united in Spirit of Wine are much of the nature of a dissolved Resin having the same Principles and therefore easily Extract Resins and Oyls of Vegetables and turn Milky if put to a Watry Vehicle By the means of an Acid in the Spirit of Wine Spirit of Sal Ammoniack coagulates with Spirit of Wine into an Offa Alba. A Slimy Oyl such as is in the Yelk of an Egg makes distilled Oyls to dissolve easily in Watry Liquors and therefore there is found a Mucilage or Gumminess attending most Vegetable Oyls whereby the Oyls are mixed with their Juyces Sugar is an Oyly Acid like Tartar with this a distilled Oyl easily mixes and is by this means dissolved in Water The Spirit of Vegetable Liquors Fermented and Distilled is nothing but an Oyl rarefied and loosened from the mixture of the Juyce by means of the Acid and by their mixture also some Volatile Salt is produced therefore these Spirits are Inflammable like Resins and they are no Simple Principles but compounded of others
c. So it happens in Medicines when we distill Oyls Ferment the Juyces into Spirits and make Tinctures we make new Mixtures and destroy the natural Tastes and Vertues of Vegetables This appears evidently in Gentian and Myrrhe which are strong Bitters and correct Acids If they be distilled in Retorts they yield a great deal of Acid and a Nauseous Oyl neither of which can have the effects of Gentian nor the Taste which is Bitter Slimy and Sub-acrid I may instance in Purgers as Rhubarb which will yield a fixt Salt by Calcination but that will not purge and the greatest of Vegetable Medicines Cortex Peruvianus will not have so good and certain effect in Extract and Infusion as in Powder but its Vertue is perfectly destroyed by Chymistry which dissolves its Texture and alters its Taste Acid of Tartar or Vegetables distill'd yields a Fetid Oyl and becomes of a Smoaky Taste less agreeable to the Stomach of an Animal than the Tartness of Fruits and the Juyces of Sowre Vegetables The Foetor is inseparable from it which is very disagreeable where Acids are necessary Spirit of Tartar has not the nature of an Acid but in mixt of Acid and Volatile and therefore neither the Sowreness nor Vertue of Tartar remains in the Spirit but a new Texture of its Principles is produced and new Vertues If from Aromatick Plants as Wormwood or Mint we distill an Oyl that will have the Bitterness and Acrimony of the Plant but will want the Astringency of it and besides the Empyreuma which makes it very Burning inwardly the Oyly Salt is more Burning and Hot than our Humors Spirits and Membranes can indure therefore when it is thus Prepared we find it necessary to remix it with gritty Powders and take them in a cool Vehicle These distilled Oyls are not therefore much used unless for outward Applications I cannot deny that some Preparations are necessary for Medicine as well as Food but these must be suited to the nature of each particular so that thereby the natural Taste be not destroyed These Preparations seem rather necessary upon the account of being put into a more convenient Form or Dose than for the Improvement of the Medicine or separation of noxious parts from it A Resin is extracted or dissolved out of its Vessels by a Menstruum but this alters not its Nature nor Taste it has a stronger Irritation if it be a Purger than four times the weight of the Plant it is drawn from In Resin the Dose is less but it seems very doubtful Whether the Vertue of the Resin equals the Root of Jalap which tastes Gummy and not Brittle as Resin This also smells Sowre and the Root Acrid if fresh It is certain that the Extract of Rhubarb works not so much as the Powder and the Resin will not work on some Persons whom the Powder of Jalap purges very well The most natural Preparations are Decoctions Infusions Juyces Syrups Powders Expressed Oyls from the Seeds Emulsions and Conserves In all these the Taste is preserved which depends on certain Principles and by preserving the Taste we are sure of that Texture of Principles on which the Vertue depends But if any Preparation seperate the Principles it destroys the Texture on which both the Taste and Vertue depend Tinctures Distilled Waters Chymical Spirits Oyls Extracts and Mucilages contain but some of the Vertues of Plants and not the whole Taste and Smell Tinctures have the Resins Distilled-Water the Odoriferous Resins Spirits have the Oyly Salt diluted in Water In Oyls there is most Oyl and less Salt. In Extracts a little Oyl and a great quantity of Tartar and much Earth Digestion alters the nature of the Plant a little but Putrefaction most Fermentation in a way betwixt both Calcination perfectly destroys a Vegetable Taste and Vertue These Preparations are most genuine in which the whole Composition of Tastes and Smells is evident The next is to be esteemed good which has one Principle or more or some Compound Juyce as Milks Resins Tartar Gums and Turpentines well Extracted Those are of least note which destroy the nature of a Plant as Putrefaction Calcination for these do not improve or extract its Vertue but produce new mixtures which may be useful but they have not the Vertue of the Plant. A Catalogue of Tastes of Vegetables which are best Preserved in the Preparations following Gritty Tastes are best preserved in Powder If any Acid be added they lose their Taste and Vertue Woody Tastes are fittest for Decoctions and are destroyed by Distillation in a Retort And also for Powders Watry Mucilages are well Prepared by Decoction Infusion Expression of the Juyce and indifferently by cool Distillation for Borrage-Water is Slimy The Mealy Mucilages may be powdered Acids yield a good and most Essential Salt or Tartar They are best used in Juyce Syrup and Quiddany Distillation and Fermentation alters the Taste and makes it Spirituous Stypticks are good in Powder Decoction and Syrup Distillation carries off no Vertue if it be in cool Stills if in an open Fire it changes them into Acids Sweet Tastes appear most in Powder Juyces Syrups and Decoction and but little in Distillation Watry Bitters are fittest for Juyce and Decoction and yield an insipid Water by Distillation Strong Bitters are fit for Decoction Extract Infusion and Powder but yield little in Distillation Bitter-Acids and Bitter-Aromaticks yield their Volatile Acrid and Smell only in the distilled Water but the Bitter by the ways mentioned The Terebinthinates give their Turpentines in distillation and their Bitter-Astringency in Powder or Decoction but a close Infusion extracts all Acrids are fittest for Distillation and Infusion but are lost by Powdering and Boyling All Compound Tastes are to be Prepared according to the several Tastes but because these will not admit many times of the same Preparations we ought to take that Preparation in which the fewest Tastes are altered or else mix different proper Preparations of the same Medicines which are contrived according to their several Tastes Aromaticks are good in Powder Infusion and distilled Water but lose much by Decoction The Odoriferous Smells of Plants is best obtained in Distilled-Water Infusions and in Oyls The Narcotick Smell of Plants rises in Poppy-Water And we extracted by Spirit of Wine Opium very well The Hysterick mixt Fetids yield good Water and all other Fetids By the particular Instances I have given it does appear necessary that before we prepare any Medicine we ought to taste it because if we find the same Taste in the Medicine when prepared we may conclude that it has the whole Vertues of the Plant This is therefore the most rational way whereby all our Simple Medicines ought to be examined and for this reason Compounds ought to be rejected for tho' we know the Vertues of the Simples yet the resulting Taste of Compositions is not certain and therefore the Vertues of all great Compositions is very uncertain and only found out by Experience which
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
Volatile Acid in the Stomach is a Volatile Tartar like the Spirit of Vinegar This is the effect of Fermentation in all Acid Vegetables and is a combination of Oyl and Acid. 3. The Vitriolick Acid in the Blood which is a Sulphureous Acid. 4. The Acid in the Ammoniac Salt of Animals like the Spirit of Salt. The Acid in the salt Taste of Chyle is from the sowre Tartar of Chyle but the Acid adhering to the Volatile Salt produced in the Blood by putrefaction must needs be from the Vitriolick Acid of the Blood. III. The Viscid Principle has these Successive Changes naturally 1. It is a Slime in the Meat but a caseous Viscid in the Chyle 2. It is like Glew in the Serum when inspissate by the Fire 3. It is like Jelly in the salt Lympha's 4. It is Fibrous in the Mass of Blood. 5. It is Bony or Calculous or Sandy upon its last resolution by a long circulation or digestion IV. The Water is only altered into a thinner Consistence and much rarefied to pass the several Glands and to dilute the several Humors Many other Tastes might be added to these but they are the effects of a preternatural state of Humors 1. An Albuminous Styptick Taste in the Spittle of the Convulsive 2. A corrosive Acidity in Colicks Heart-Burnings and Vlcers This is Oleose-acid like Acid-acrid in Rosa Solis and Bellis minor 3. The corrosive Saltness such as is that of Lime-Salt being burning and Salso-acid 4. A viscid Taste is produced by the Inspissation of the milky Slimes such is the vitreous Pituita in the Lungs and the white Skin or Pleuritick Blood. 5. A nauseous Taste in the Saliva by Choler and by that Mixture a bitter sweet and slimy Taste is produced which is nauseous 6. A Fetid nauseous Taste from some putredinous Fetid communicated from a stagnating Humor or the nidorose Contents of the Stomach like rotten Eggs or the Womb in a dead Child or the putrid Gums in the Scurvy But these Observations belong to the preternatural state of Animal Humors A Scheme of Animal Smells naturally observable in Animal Humors or the solid Parts 1. The smell of Milk in the Flesh of young Creatures and in Milk it self 2. The stronger Spirits any Animal has the stronger is the Smell of that Animal so that by the Animal Smell we discern the height of the digestion in each Animal for the Spirits give the particular Smell to each Animal and the Spirits are the high digested Oyly parts 3. There is a Nitro-Sulphureous Foetor in the Guts I cannot observe any Nitrous Taste or Smell in any other parts of an Animal but in the primae viae where it is evident after over-digestion by this Smell 4. A putrid Smell of Cheese may be observed in Sweat and in the Pisle of a Sea-Horse scraped and in Horns 5. A Lixivial piercing Smell is in the Vrine 6. A smell of Marigolds is in the Menses 7. A virose ranck Smell is in the Semen like putrid Fish 8. A high degree of Fetid is in the Hoofs and in the old Bones and Nails 9. A Fetid Oyly offensive Savor is in melted Fat or Grease 10. An Acid piercing Smell mixt with Fetid in the Stomachs of Animals after the digestion of their Meat Preternatural Smells 1. A Sowreness in the Stomachs of Children when they vomit Milk and in their Stools 2. A Nidorose Sulphureous Smell in the over-digestion of some Meats 3. A putredinous Smell in some Fevers and in the Small-Pox 4. A higher degree of the putrid Smell in Gangrenes and foul Vlcers like Carrion and in the Scurvy 5. An Earthy Smell in dying Bodies Of the similitude betwixt Plants and Animals The great similitude betwixt the natures of Plants and Animals and the transmigration of Principles from Plants to Animals might be the cause why Democritus and Plato attributed Sense to Plants And Anaxagoras esteemed them sensible of Pleasure and Pain The similitude of their Principles is evident and the number is the same 1. Water distilled from Milk and Blood if considered without the smatch of the Oyl is very little or nothing different from the water of Vegetables as to their Physical use 2. The sowreness of Buttermilk exactly resembles that of Tartar. The Sulphureous Acid of Minerals with the Earth of Plants turns to a pure Tartar but with the Oyl and Earth of Animals it produces a Vitriolick Acid as from the Acid of Sulphur we produce a Vitriol from Steel 3. The Oyl of Animals is the matter of Heat and ferments with an Acid like that of Vegetables and it like Resins yields all the varieties of Animal Smells when it is associated with the Volatile Salt and there is as great a variety of Animal Tastes and Smells as there is in Vegetables I have Instanced in the similitude of the tastes of Animal Humors and their Vegetable Medicines The pungent Acrimony in Choler and the Cress-Tastes in Plants is very much alike and some Marine Plants as Sponges yield a Volatile Urinous Salt by distillation and also a fixt one like that of Plants The sweet Tastes in Plants contain much Oyl and feed much by supplying Chyle the Vegetable Oyl turning into an Animal Fat. I have compared the Fat Marrow and Suets of Animals to the Vegetable Balsams Oyls Resins and Turpentines And we usually find Oyls of Vegetables and the Axungias to mix well together as being of a like nature Though the Ingenious Writers upon Insects have given us many Instances of their production from Eggs which former Ages esteemed to proceed from Putrefaction for they demonstrate how Insects insert their Eggs into Stalks Roots Fruits and the Leaves of Plants and also into putrid Substances of Animals and into the Bodies of other Insects yet there remain so many particulars which they have not solved that I cannot but approve the ancient Opinion which affirms That Insects are produced both from Plants and putrefied Animals There is necessary for the ordinary production of Creatures 1. A fit nourishment prepared for the Embryo 2. The first rudiments of it produced from the Vessels of Parents Vegetable Juices by putrefaction may be changed into the nature of Animal Humors and when they are digested in the Stomach they change their Vegetable nature and if we artificially putrefie Vegetables they will yield a Volatile Salt which is of an Animal nature In putrid Vegetables Insects are always observed The contrary opinion allows That putrid Bodies are fit nourishment for the young Insect And I may probably affirm therefore it is fit for its original constitution at first as Eggs serve other Animals for Food as well as the production of the Foetus And if the Juices of Vegetables turn into the nature of Animal Humors it is also probable that these may also cause the Vessels of Vegetables to shoot and branch themselves into some Animal Vessels necessary for the constitution of the Embryo's solid parts It seems not improbable that the
like a Plant and branches it self in the Earth and has a chalky Pith It is esteemed a petrified Marle Dr. Grew observes That a fat putrid Substance like rotten Wood is found with it which he thinks the Mother of it Lapis Judaicus is Flinty but by rubbing it looks like Chalk It ferments with Spirit of Nitre and is of the nature of Chalk being used as a Diuretick 2. Stones of a greater hardness as Lime-stone Marble Alabaster all which burnt yield a Lime I have seen a Lime-stone finely polished which in its coloured Veins resembled Marble and is plentifully found in Hereford-shire and there Lime is made of it I burnt a piece of building Stone into Lime which is used in many places both for Stone and Lime Gypsum ustum is Styptick and dries Vlcers in the Mouth and is used for sore Horse backs Calx viva has a Styptick burning and corrosive Taste From the common Lime-stone a Sulphureous Acid may be distilled The Lime-stone is burnt half away in the Fire and an Oyl is observed to sweat out of it in burning This Sulphureous Oyly Acid unites with the Earth into a Salt and gives the Stypticity to burnt Lime These Experiments shew the natural composition of Stones that they have both Oyl and Acid in their Bodies Spirit of Vitriol makes Lime-water Bitterish by separating the Oyl from the Earthy part with which it unites From this mixture evaporated by addition of Salt of Tartar a Volatile Salt may be distilled which smells Urinous This Experiment shews the Volatility of the Salt of Lime and hence it has its Urinous Smell and some of it passes over in the distillation of Sal Ammoniac which makes it somewhat Corrosive This Volatile Earth of Lime seems to be the terrene part necessary in the composition of Salt by the addition of an Oyly Acid And this may be the Alkalizate part in all Plants The Ashes of Plants and Calx of Lime agree in their Saltness and both are used for the Improvement of Land. 2. The Second Species of Stones is of those glassy Stones which have the hardness and nature of Flints These being ground to Powder have angular edges like broken Glass whereby they cleanse and scowre the Kidnies from Sandy coagulations Sand is of the nature of Flints and seems to be the product of Sea-Salt being plentifully produced in the making of Salt. And Le Mort observes that Arenae masticatae salsum blandum gustum linguae communicant And Sand is also produced from the Animal Salts coagulated in the Kidnies Black Sand is from Iron yellow from Ocher green from Copper golden from Gold intermixt with it in its coagulation The Nitrum calcarium is the chief part of Flints which coagulates either with the Lime-stone Particles in common Sand or else with some Mineral in coloured Flints The gritty Stones used for Building is nothing but a congeries of Sand. This grows soft in the Fire but will not burn into Lime the Clay which unites the Sand is dryed by the Fire No flinty Stones will burn into Lime Lapis Nephriticus is flinty and ragged like the Stones of the Kidnies it looks Oyly without and is of a pale green colour It is a kind of Jaspis having its Tincture from Iron and all its Vertue is to be deduced thence Common Flints and common Pebbles which are Flints smell Sulphureous if knocked together and strike Fire by a brisk agitation of the Sulphureous Particles When they are burnt in the Fire and quenched in Water they crack and give a Sulphureous Taste to it The Water will not ferment by an Acid neither would it turn with Galls though the Water tasted very much of Steel Flints and Pebbles have divers Metals mixed with them as Iron Gold Silver Copper c. and sometimes divers Earths or Boles which colour the Stones Gems seem not to differ from Flints in which Diamonds are bred Crystal is the softest It is used in Powder to abate the Acid in Colicks and the poyson of Sublimate which is a corrosive Vitriol I cannot believe that Gems can be dissolved in the Stomach because Pebbles pass through the Guts of Hens undissolved and also Fruit-stones which are less hard The coloured Gems are coloured Flints Rubines Granates Hyacinth have their Tincture from Gold and likewise their Vertue Aq. Regis extracts the Tincture from Granates like that of Gold to which a Cordial Vertue is attributed because it is made like a Vitriol by dissolution by a Menstruum and that raises the Fermentation of the Blood but it is impossible that the Liquors in the Stomach should dissolve Gold and therefore they cannot extract a Tincture from these Stones The Smaragdus and Jaspis have their green colour from Iron and that Astringency and Chalybeate Faculty which is attributed to them in Bleeding and Fluxes but a little powder of Steel is more efficacious for though Iron is dissolvable by Acids yet Iron Ore such as is in the Stones cannot yield to them Saphires have their Sky-colour from Copper and are used as Vitriol in Eye-Medicines Topazes have their Vertue and Saffron-colour from Iron The Salts of precious Stones are only a composition of the Acid and the Stone Some precious Stones are said to smell fragrant when ground but I could not observe the Fragrancy in some which had been long powdered I will mention what I find in the Illustrious Kircher Geodes Misenus violae odorem refert It has the Vertue of Aetites and is a Stone of the same nature Lapis Marieburgicus moschum olet serpilli Kircher Mundus subter de lapidibus odorem Turingicus musti odorem ophites vinum olet echites lac galactites sulphuris odorem marchasitae silices succinum gagates resinae odorem The Sulphur in some precious Stones is like a Flame and shines in the dark by rubbing or warm Water as some Diamonds These are the natural Mineral Noctiluca's which like those made of Animal Humors are shining and Sulphureous This Sulphur gives the Violet Fragrancy in some Stones and thence some effects may be produced on Animal Spirits 3. Stones of a Metalline hardness and something Vitriolick from the Metals they contain All Metals are fixed in some Stony Mineral as Spar Lime-stone or such like I distilled some Iron-stone in an Earthen Retort it yielded a Phlegm which smelt Sulphureous and tasted Vitriolick Sweet and turned Syrup of Violets green This Iron-stone burnt in the Furnace was a pure Flint This I had from my Worthy Friend Mr. Humphry Jennings's Furnace in Warwick-shire near Aston Lapis haematites I distilled a red Liquor from Lapis haematites and Sal Ammoniac of an Aluminous Taste fit for Fluxes and of a Saffron Smell and therefore called Aroma Philosoph by Zwelfer The Tincture made of Vitriolum Martis and Saccharum Saturni looks of the same colour and is an extraordinary Styptick in Fluxes and is called the Tinct Antiphthisica An artificial Blood-stone is produced by the Sublimation of Vitriol
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
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
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
Both Sweat and Vrine have Fetid and Lixivial Smells The Salt is from the Serum of the Blood of a Salso-acid nature like common Sal-Ammoniac The Vrine yields a Spirit less Oyly than any other Humor of an Animal The Contents in the Vrine are the superfluous parts of the Succus Nutritius which turn the Vrine muddy by Cold. The Vrine will effervesce with the Oyl of Vitriol which is a sign of its Volatile Salt. Vrine long kept is said to burn like Brandy and to colour Silver yellow as Brimstone does And also it certainly conduces to the production of Nitre By these Instances I may confirm my former assertion That the Principles of Animals do naturally return into a Mineral State and produce real Sulphurs Salts as Nitre and Stones The colour of Vrine is from the Contents and also from Choler which readily passes by Vrine and dissolves readily upon mixture with it The Salt of Vrine is produced by the mixture of the Volatile Acid of digested Meat and the Bitter Acrid of Choler which is the reason why Chyle tastes not Acid Bitter or Acrid for the Acid corrects the Bitter Acrid of Choler and curdles Choler and both unite into the Animal Salt which is evident in Chyle The bitterness in Choler is produced by the Spleen Acid mixing and uniting with the red Oyly part of the Blood which it precipitates from the Blood and thereby prepares it for its separation through the Liver I dropt some Oyl of Vitriol into the Blood about the Liver and found it to look yellow like Choler By the Acid of the Spleen the red colour of Blood may be turned yellow The red Hepar Sulphuris has less Acid than the yellow Flowers I must also observe That Bitter in Animals must have the same Principles as Bitterness in Plants which have much Earth and Acid and Oyl digested into a rough ungrateful Texture I have transcribed these Remarks about Animal Humors from a larger account in a Discourse about the tastes of Diet And I have grounded some Assertions on Experiments I have mentioned in those Papers but I think these Observations sufficient to explain the Operations of Medicines by their Tastes on Animal Humors and to justifie that Assertion I have made as a general Rule That all Medicines and Meats which have the same Taste and Smell as the Humors of Animals do increase digest prepare and help the Secretion of those Humors they resemble And for that reason such Medicines may be called the Friendly Specificks but the contrary Tastes to them may be used as Alteratives in the diseased state of the Humors The Slimy the Acid or Styptick Tastes are the crudest Animal Tastes and are produced by the lowest digestion The Sweet and Oyly Tastes are most Temperate and Nutritive and therefore have a natural moderate digestion But the Bitter the Acrid the Salt and Sulphureous Vitriolick Acid are the Hot Animal Tastes and are produced by the highest digestion of Humors in Animals I cannot observe naturally any Fermentation of Humors in any part of the Animal but in the Stomach where the first preparation of our Diet is made And there it was necessary to turn the Vegetable Principles into an Animal nature and to change the slimy sweet Juices of the Aliment into a sweet milky Chyle From the sweet Chyle all other Juices in an Animal are prepared by digestion mixture or secretion without the help of any Ferment So we observe the tastes of Plants to alter The Sweet becomes Bitter the Bitter Acrid the Acrid Salt and the Salt Corrosive All these Tastes are produced successively by a degree of a higher digestion by which only the Texture of Principles is altered into a new one So in Cheese which is an Animal Product we observe a sweet Gumminess or Slime whilst new in the old a Bitterness and a biting Acrimony which alteration happens without any new Ferment The Glandules separate each Humor when they have acquired that Taste and Texture which is suitable to the Pores of each Gland and there is no need of a particular Ferment in each Gland for their Secretion Animal Humors are circulated and have also an Internal motion from the activity of their Particles they have also an Effervescence betwixt contraries but neither these Ebullitions nor the external Motion are properly Fermentations for that requires a slimy fetid Ferment in Animals And all Fermentation tends to a very great change of a Liquor which has once been fermented as we observe in Wine which becomes Vinegar by a new ferment And in Animal Humors a Fermentation in the Blood excites a Fever or produces the Scurvy All Animal Humors given inwardly retain something of their original Textures till they arrive at the Blood whereby they readily pass their original Glands so Vrine is a great Diuretick Milk breeds Chyle and the milky Lympha's The Gall of Animals is a good Hepatick and opens the Liver The Decoction of the Spleen is used for Spleen-Obstructions and seems to be useful where the Juice is defective The Menses are given by some absurd Practisers they produce the Menses but also a great Anxiety at the Stomach and a Phrensie as is observed by Vanderwiel The Lungs afford a milky Slime in distillation for Hecticks wherein that is continually evacuated The Fetid Parts of Animals as the Horns Hoofs Volatile Chymical Oyls and Salts readily pass into the Nerves where those high Fetids are bred The Liver tastes like Choler and helps its separation by that Taste The Heart has much of the Animal Fetid in it and therefore the decoction of it is used for a Cordial The Stones are fit nourishment to supply the Semen The Grits of Animals are used for the Stone as Crabs-Eyes Jellies are used to supply the Succus Nutritius I cannot observe any necessity of using more Principles in this Discourse of Animals than those four I have mentioned In Vegetables I call them a Water an Oyl an Acid and an Earth In Minerals they may be called an Earthy a Bituminous Oyly an Acid and a Watry Principle But in the explication of Animal Humors I will not use the Names of the Principles of either Vegetables or Minerals but I have described them by a viscid or caseous part an Acid or Sowre an Oyly or Fat Principle and a Water or Lympha These Principles are the same in all the Parts and Humors of Animals but in different Proportions and Digestions I. Oyl is capable of these different States in Animal Humors 1. In Slimes it is crudest as in the Vegetable Mucilages 2. It is like Butter in Chyle which is Sweet 3. It is Oyly in Fat and Red upon longer digestion in the Blood and yellow in Choler and Bitter 4. It is Fetid in the Spirits II. The Acid of Animal Humors has these different States naturally 1. In milky Chyle it is Sowre like Tartar as is evident in Butter-Milk and the sowreness is somewhat perceptible in the milky Lympha's 2. The
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