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
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
Plants depends on Earthy Parts mixt with the Acid and the Roughness in the Acid of Sulphur from some Mineral Earth joyn'd with the Acid. I find it confidently affirm'd That one Acid will correct another which I believe a Mistake For Spirit of Vitriol and Nitre make a stronger Menstruum than either of them alone and so does Spirit of Salt and Nitre mixt which make an Aqua Regia So far are these from correcting one another But the ground of this Opinion I suppose is from the Effervescence caus'd by mixing of Acid Spirits which happens by reason of some Earth or Mineral joyn'd to every different sort of Acid Spirit from whence the difference of Acid Spirits is deducible Hence some Acid Spirits mixt dispossess one the other from the Earths or Minerals joyned with their Acid and from thence comes the Conflict and Effervescence For the same reason Spirit of Vitriol is mixed with Calcined Salt to seize on the Earthy part of Salt and to make the Acid of Salt loose from it and fitter for Distillation I think I have here said enough to prove that the Oyl of Vegetables is like Oyl of Turpentine and the Acid of Vegetables like Sulphur which differs nothing from Vitriol but by being Impregnated with a Mineral it becomes a vitriolate Acid. So that from the Experiments about the contrariety of Oyl and Acid above-mentioned I may conclude that there may happen the same kind of Effervescence in Vegetables which we call Fermentation When a Seed is placed in the Earth the Oyliness of it is agitated or moved by the Acid Watry Juyce soaking into it thro' its Coats by the Effervescence of both Vegetation is begun and the Coats burst and the Vessels of the Plant inlarged for receiving new Nourishment This consists of an Oyliness from the Bitumen and Sulphur and also an Acid from the same and also a Water and Earth mixt and digested together in the Pores of the Earth All which concur to produce a Nutriment for Plants This is not promiscuously admitted thro' the Glandulous Parenchyma of the Root of the Plant but it is probable that each Parenchyma has differently figured Pores for the admittance of Oyly parts chiefly or Watry parts or Earthy parts or Acid chiefly which may be very probable because Oyly parts are thought Ramose Acid Angular Watry Round and Earthy very Irregular We may very easily believe that the Seeds of Plants and their Roots have Pores suited for the admittance of one two or more of these And these are pressed into the Seed by the force of the Airs Spring when a Plant begins to swell by the rarefying of its own Juyces thro' the Effervescence of its own Oyl and Acid which is much promoted by the External Heat of the Sun or an hot Bed and the admittance of an Acid from the Earth This Fermentation is very slow and never highly raised in Earthy Acid and Mucilaginous Plants and therefore in such the Oyl Acid Earth and Water are never much separated but in sweet Tastes the Fermentation separates a little and loosens the Oyl and Acid from the Watry and Earthy Particles In Bitters the same are more separated in Aromaticks the Oyl is most rarefied in Acrids the Oyl and Acid compound a Salt with an Earthy part From these Instances we find that by Digestion the Principles of Plants are separated and now Compounded into Salts Resins Gums and Turpentines This Digestion differs not from the Effervescence betwixt Oyl and Acid which differs according to the several Oyls which are contained in the Seeds of Plants One Oyl ferments with Acid more than another and each Oyl in the Seed produces that which is most suitable to the nature of the Plant to be produced From the Rarefaction of this Juyce of Plants by the Effervescence of Oyl and Acid the rise of the Sap and the shootings of Plants may be deduced And the wonderful force mentioned by Mr. Boyle in lifting up a great Weight by Fermenting Beans and from hence Wines burst their Vessels So that the force of Fermentation equals that of Explosion If we consider the many Compound Tastes of Plants we cannot believe that they can rise from the same kind of Fermentation Some Plants taste Rough and very Acrid as Chelidonium minus Others Slimy and Acrid and Bitter as Leucoium And there is a different Taste in many parts of Plants which proceeds from the different Digestion of the Juyce in different parts So in Cherries the Taste of the Bark is Bitter Astringent The Leaf differs from it by a Sliminess In the Fruit there is a Slimy Sweet Sub-acid Taste without any Bitterness or Astringency The same difference is observable in the Odors of Plants The Leaves of Elder are Fetid but the Flowers Fragrant which is a sign of a different Digestion There are the same Varieties of Tastes and Odors in Animals tho' Choler be separated by the same sort of Glandules yet it has a Bitter Sweet Sliminess The Serum of the Blood has serose parts and Watriness and a Saltness The Semen has a thin and also a viscid part The Liquor Nervosus has an Oyly Salt dissolved in a Lympha The diversity of Tastes in Choler does not depend on different Strainers but different Digestions of Chyle and the new supply of it which flows continually into the Veins From hence it will fall out that one part is perfectly Digested and another less and therefore some part of the Choler tastes Sweet and another part Bitter and a crude Lympha is the Vehicle of both to help their separation these being mixt together give the Variety of Tastes observable in Choler The same thing happens in Plants which during their growth receive fresh Nourishment which is differently Digested and therefore gives those Varieties of Tastes observable in the same Vessels and the same Liquor as in Milks Turpentines and Fetid Gums But I cannot well understand how such Particular Liquors as Milk Gums Turpentines and Lympha's can be produced and kept in particular Vessels which are really different from the crude Juyce of the same Plants without allowing such parts in Plants as Glandules in Animals which separate the Milk Semen Spirits Choler and Lympha from the Blood. I therefore cannot think it improbable that the Parenchyma of Plants is wholly Glandulous and the Woody Fibres are Vessels some of which are Lacteals Lymphaticks Muciducts Gums or Balsam-Vessels An Animal Body is composed of Vessels and Glands The Vessels are branched into the different parts of both alike and receive a prepared Juyce from the Glandulous Parenchyma and the same may be the preparation and distribution of the Juyces in Vegetables because the same Tastes and Odors are observable in both Kingdoms And Vegetables digested by an Animal undergo the same Separation and Preparation as is manifest in Animals When one Tree is grafted on anothers Stock the Fruit is the same as the Branch Ingrafted The Juyce in the Glandules of it giving
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
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
like Nature and Production Salt of Ash I tasted it in the Shops Sal Fraxini cool and saltish but I believe it was altered by the long keeping of it in the Air the fresh being very Corrosive Salt of Wormwoood unpurified tastes Sal Absynthii Cool Saltish Pungent and Bitterish Salts unpurified taste of the Oyl of the Vegetables and therefore are better than clear Salt. Salt of Scurvy-Grass tastes only very Sal Cochleariae Saltish All Fixt Salts are of a Salt Taste but those Plants in which is most Acrid give the strongest Saltness but this may be altered by the dryness of the Plant and the degrees of Fire or quantity of Oyl joyn'd with Acid and Earth By the Acid in the Air Fixt Salts turn Nitrose and get a cool Taste Sea-Salt tastes Salt Sub-acid and Pungent Sal Marinum it hinders Putrefaction by the Acid and is Diuretick helps Digestion but is not altered by it Spirit of Salt put to an Alkaly produces a Sea-Salt Dr. Grew says That the Marine Salts of Plants taste like Sea-Salt and have a Cubick Figure The Nitrose Salts of Plants he says taste Bitter and have Figures a little corresponding to their Nitrose Taste Salt of Amber tastes Saltish and Pungent Sal Succini and smells of Amber Spirit of Vitriol will not Ferment with it but Spirit of Sal-Ammoniack will. All Gums Resins and Bitumens yield a great deal of Acid and some Volatile Salt mixt with it by which this Salt is Diuretick and by the Smell like Amber It is also Cephalick A Volatile Salt may be distilled out of the Salt of Amber by an addition of a Fixt Salt. Vitriol tastes Sweet and Styptick White Vitriolum Vitriol gives a pale Blue with Galls and Water It is used in Distempers of the Eyes and inwardly for a Vomit Blue Vitriol gives a Purple colour with Galls and Water Green Vitriol gives a deep Purple with Galls and Water The Stypticity of Vitriols makes it good for the Itch and for Proud Flesh in Vlcers Some Vitriols have an Acritude in the Taste besides the sweet Astringency says Dr. Grew This Acrimony is from the Sulphureous Acid. Irish Slate This put into fair Water Lapis Hibernicus with Galls gives a Purple Colour The Taste of it is Vitriolick Rough and Acid It is therefore most proper to stop Bleeding and Overflowings but not to cleanse Child-Bed Women as the Midwives use it and thereby occasion a Stoppage and Fever Tartar tastes Sowre and Gritty It is Tartarus precipitated from the Wine by the Earthy parts adhering to the Acid by which it is Cooling and Diuretick All Acids in Vegetables are of this nature and are called the Essential Salts Some of which are thought to be Nitrose because of a Bitterness which is produced by the Oyl of the Plant adhering to the Acid. Tartar and Essential Salts distilled yield a Volatile Salt which is a little Acid and such a mixt Spirit is the Spirit of all Woods A Fetid Oyl arises with this mixt Spirit of Tartar and the Caput Mortuum has a Fixt Salt the Acid of the Tartar being wholly destroyed part fluxing with the Earth produces a Fixt Salt part of it ascending with the Oyl carries some Earthy Parts with it by its Acidity and produces a Volatile Salt and Sub-acid Spirit of Tartar The rest of the Acidity adheres to the Fetid Oyl which yields a further Volatile Salt by addition of Salt of Tartar which affords new Earth to the Oyly Acid for production of a Volatile Vrinous Salt. The same is produced by an addition of Burnt Alum or Lime The Salt of the Juyce of Wood-Sorrel Sal Essentiale Acetosetae tastes Sowre like Tartar and has a Gritt or White Vitrious Earth with which the Fixt Parts of the Acid being melted in the Fire produces a Fixt Salt. The Acid of Vegetables contains an Oyl in it but very Fixt This Acid in the ripening of Fruits and in Fermentation of Acid Juyces fixes upon some Earthy Parts and then the Oyl appears which by vertue of a little Acid mixt with the most Volatile Oyl fixes on some Gritt or Vitrious Earth and produces a Volatile Oleose Salt which being much diluted by Water a Spirituous Liquor is produced Wood-Sorrel yields most Essential Salt by which it 's inferred that all of them are pure Tartar. Vitriolated Tartar tastes Gritty and Tartarus Vitriolatus Saltish and is Diuretick both by the Acid and Fixt Salt It will not Coagulate any Liquor It is an Aperitive without any Heat Oyl of Nitrated Tartar made by Deliquium Oleum Tartari Nitrati per deliquium curdles Choler and Milk and is Diuretick as a mixt Salt and tastes Salt and Sub-acid like Nitre Spirit of Vitriol tastes Sowre and Rough Spiritus Vitrioli by which it cools and is a good Astringent The Oyl of Vitriol is strongest but has an offensive burning Heat upon the Tongue from the Fire The Spirit is best in Fevers and Hemorrhages Spirit of Nitre tastes Sowre very Pungent Spiritus Nitri and Rough The Sowre and Rough are less in this than other Acid Spirits It fixes Mineral Sulphurs and therefore condenses all Animal flatuosities The great Pungency makes it Diuretick and fitter to dissolve as a Menstruum Spirit of Salt tastes Sowre Saltish and Spiritus Salis. Pungent from the Sea-Salt and differs only from it by being more Acid and Cooling It is an opening Diuretick and Stomachick Vertue and good against the Putrefaction of the Gums Spirit of Salt from the Pungency is Aperitive and it has a Roughness to strengthen as well as Sowreness to cool Spirit of Sulphur tastes Sowre and a little Spiritus Sulphuris per Campanam sharp for so I think it most proper to call the Pungency of Acids for the better distinguishing of it from the biting of Acrids The Acid of Sulphur is more agreeable to the Stomach than any other Mineral Acids There is also a Roughness in Spirit of Sulphur but less than in Vitriol Vinegar tastes Sowre Sharp and Winy Acetum and is of a Sharp Winy Smell by which it appears to be a mixt body of the Volatile Spirit of Wine and the Tartareous Acids of the same When Acid Liquors are decayed they taste flat without Pungency but yet Sowre therefore the Pungency is from the Oyl and not the Figure only Saccharum Saturni tastes Sweet and Saccharum Saturni Styptick by which it Cools Repels and Cicatrizes Vlcers This Sweetness is from the Winy Spirit in Vinegar for Chalk with Vinegar gives the same Taste and a Vinous Spirit may be distilled from the Sugar of Lead The Acid of the Vinegar fixing on an Alkaly le ts the Oyly Parts of the Wine loose on which the Sweetness depends and not on the Lead So the Bitterness in the Pilulae Lunares depends on the Sulphur in the Nitre which appears most when the Nitrous Acids are
fixt in the Silver so that in the Spirit of Vitriol mixt with the Oyl of Tartar some Authors have observed a Bitter The Oyly Acid in Saccharum Saturni has a Smoothness of Parts produced by the fixing of the Acids in the Lead and the Bitterness in the Crystals of Silver come from a Rough Texture of the Compounded Parts resembling the Texture of Bitters The Acid in the Composition of Saccharum Saturni makes it cooling CHAP. VII Of Minerals and Mineral Earths and Stones FLowres of Sulphur taste Dry Sub-acid Fl. Sulphuris and smell strongly Fetid There is a great Acid in Sulphur and an Oyly Part By the Acid it cures the Itch corrodes Minerals and fixes Volatile Salts By the Oyly Part it is a Balsamick Pectoral and cures the Acid stagnating Lympha Oyl of Turpentine and Oyl of Vitriol mixt and distill'd yield a Sulphur vivum And being the Bitumens and Petroleum are so like Turpentine in Taste and Smell I thence argue That there is a great Agreeableness in Sulphur and Turpentine which last seems to be only the Oyly Part of Sulphur depriv'd of much of its Acidity and therefore less coagulate by it Which Opinion I shall farther confirm by observing that Turpentine is compos'd of the same Principles as Sulphur of an Oyly Part and an Acid and besides has a great deal of Water to make it fluid Sulphur easily mixes with the Oyl of Turpentine both are Inflammable have the same Physical Vertues and are the Causes of all Smells the One in Minerals and the Other in Vegetables Ettmullerus says Anthrax distill'd yields an Oyl like Petroleum therefore out of Sulphur Turpentine-Bitumens are produc'd And I have instanc'd above that out of Turpentine Sulphur may be produc'd Which are convincing Experiments that Turpentine and Sulphur have the same Oyl and Acid only in different States and Mixtures From hence it is evident that Chymists speak not much amiss when they call the Oyl of Vegetables their Sulphur but I do not think it proper to explain the Nature of Vegetables by Mineral Principles though Galen calls all Bitter Plants Nitrose because they resemble the Bitterness of Nitre and not for having any Nitre in them For the same reason I might call Acerb Tastes Aluminous because they resemble that Taste but none will allow that any Alum is in the Plants of that Taste I will give an Instance of Sulphur's Fertility in producing all the Salts in the Earth as well as the Acids in Vegetables which I have above intimated the Sulphur-Acid being one Part of the Composition of Mineral-Salts Vitriol is known to be the Product of the Fumes of Sulphur which corrode Iron into an imperfect Vitriol But the perfect Vitriol is only made in the Air out of a Pyrites Spirit of Sulphur put upon Iron produces a Vitriol and so does the melting of Brimstone with it and likewise the mixing of Flowre of Brimstone with Filings of Iron and sprinkling them with Water this put into fair Water with Galls turns Purple Alum is produc'd from the Acid Fumes of Sulphur dissolving some Stony Matter for Spirit of Sulphur will with Chalk constitute an Alum and Alum-Stones are full of Sulphur as Dr. Lyster informs us and where there is most Vitriol and Sulphur bred Alum abounds most sea-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
incrassating Rad. Symphyti Albumen Ovi Gum. Arabicum Limaces Lac Bolus Armena 2. Acids Coagulating the Blood Serum and Lympha and fixing Acrid Salts Tinctura Rosarum cum Sp. Vitrioli Succ. Limonum Lac ebutyratum Sp. Salis Dulcis c. 3. Watry Bitterish Astringents and Acid Astringents Fol. Plantag Polygoni Succ. Acaciae Hypocistidis Rad. Bistort Tormentill c. II. Outwardly 1. Acids and Cool Astringents applied as Frontals Oxycratum 2. Fetid Smells Stercus Porcinum Muscus Terrestris Opium 3. Amulets causing Fear Bufo exiccatus usnea ex Cranio To those must be added Revulsions by Bleeding Cupping in the Neck Purging Compression of the Arteries near to the Bleeding 4. Causticks put upon Tents Colcothar Crepitus lupi Fungus Quercinus Gypsum ustum Alumen ustum Lapis infernalis 5. Vitriolicks applied with Tents Atramentum Fuligo Cacabi aenei Vitriolum Caeruleum solutum 6. Powdered Gums which help the thickning of the Blood and therewith stop the Orifices Terra Sigillata Thus Mastiche Aloe Telae Aranearum Pili Leporini Ossa Lintea calcinata Amylum Resina Of Poysoned Wounds by Animals I. THe Venemous Poyson must be extracted and destroyed First It is destroyed by 1. Fire or actual Cautery which is applied to the Bites of Serpents 2. By Medicines contrary to Fermentation and Putrefaction 1. Acids as Spongia aceto madida 2. Mixt Salts Sal commune Halec 3. Oyls Ol. Scorpionum Succini Caryophyllorum 4. Bitters Gentiana Aristolochia Centaurium Verbena Ruta Theriaca Mithridatium Myrrha Aloe 5. Acrids Cepe Allium Sinapi Piper Secondly It is drawn out 1. By Cupping-Glasses 2. By the Oyls mentioned with which all Oyly Acrids as the small active Particles of Poysons seem to be easily mix 3. By Vinous Spirits which easily imbibe such Particles Sp. Vini Sp. Rorismarini Aq. Vitae 4. By some parts of the Animal applyed with which the Poyson readily mixes Pulvis Serpentum calcinatorum Bilis Serpentum Capita 5. By Fomentations of Cephalicks The Wound after the Poyson is removed is to be treated as in Ordinary Wounds but because internal Antidotes are necessary and they cannot be known without some general Notions of Poysons I shall next discourse of Poysons Of POYSONS THere is observed to be Poysonous Minerals and Animals as well as Vegetables Poysons either corrode the Stomach or coagulate the Serum of the Blood or putrefie the whole Mass or else act most on the Spirits I. I will mention Mineral Poysons first which taken inwardly corrode the Stomach and gripe vomit and cause Hiccoughs and Faintings and at last gangrene it and give a blackness to it 1. Arsenic is corrosive by a particular Texture of Sulphureous Particles and Acids The proper Antidotes for it are those which destroy its Texture as Fixt Salts and Acids as Nitre But first we must endeavour its Evacuation and the securing of the Stomach as is hereafter prescribed against corrosive Poysons 2. Antimony is less corrosive by a particular Texture of Sulphureous parts and Acid and produces violent Evacuations with Convulsions This Texture is also destroyed by Acids which fix the Sulphur and Fixt Salts which take off the Pungent Acid. 3. Mercury sublimate is corrosive by a particular Texture made by the particles of Quicksilver dissolved by an Acid And this vomits corrodes and produces Convulsions but this going into the Blood coagulates it and produces Salivation This Acid is absorbed by Fixt and Volatile Salts and so the corrosive Texture is destroyed 4. Aqua Fortis corrodes and vomits by its Acid pungent Figures The Acid must be altered by Absorbents as Earths Steel Alkalizate Salts And the same serve for Oyl of Vitriol Spirit of Salt and Nitre and for all other Mineral Preparations made by Acids as Vitriol which corrodes and vomits Aes Viride Squama Aeris which is vitriolated in the Stomach The particular Texture of all these is altered by Absorbers and Precipitaters of Acid but the Brasssavour taste is best cured by Spirit of Salt. 5. Calx viva and Gypsum are corrosive to the Stomach by a fiery Fixt Salt which is corrosive and produces Pain Thirst and a Dysentery Acids temper the fieriness of Fixt Salts and Fat Earths Mucilages and Slimy Oyls do the same Ale will not cause Lime to effervesce 6. Lead Ceruss Red-Lead and Litharge produce Pains Gripes and Dysenteries and Litharge binds the Belly The Sulphureous parts in Lead being corrosive these are best cured by fixing them with Acids and the dryness of the Lead is corrected by Oyls Lead is turned into a Salt by Spirit of Vinegar which will more easily pass off the Stomach to which that is also observed to be very hurtful causing Nauseousness by its Sweetness 7. Glass and Diamonds are only Poyson by their sharp edges which fret the Guts and these cannot be altered wherefore they are very dangerous Poysons II. Minerals are Poysonous by their Fumes which pass through the Organ of Smelling and immediately act on the Spirits as the Fumes of Arsenic and Antimony which kill suddenly by destroying and fixing the Spirits Or Quicksilver Fumes which cause Palsies by coagulating the Succus Nervosus Or the Fumes of Lead which smell sweet and produce a Convulsive Asthma and also dry the Lungs Oyls Mucilages and Watry Medicines are used to cure this Asthma II. Vegetable POYSONS First VEgetable Poysons corrosive I. The pure Acrid Volatile Salt in the Cress-Tastes are a little corrosive by their pointed Figures but in the differing kinds of true Corrosives there is some difference in the Figures of the Volatile Salt which is given it by a particular Texture of Oyl and Acid which are Ingredients in the making of this Salt of a hooked Figure 1. This Corrosive Salt is mixed with much Water in Ranunculus c. These cause Vomitings Gripes and Pains in the Stomach 2. This Corrosive Salt is mixt with a well-digested Oyl in Clematis and other Fragrant Corrosives and this also burns blisters and vomits 3. This Corrosive Salt is mixt with a little Sliminess and Elder-smell in Hellebor Colchicum 4. This Corrosive Salt is mixt with much Water and a Resinous Oyl as in Spurge they burn blister purge and vomit violently as Spurge Cambogia c. 5. If this Corrosive Salt is joyned with a great Foetor it produces a Venemous Plant as in Aconitum Napellus Cicuta Nature has marked these Plants by the black Roots and given them a considerable Foetor to offend our Smelling and thereby cause an Aversion These last produce Giddiness Delirium burnings in the Stomach Inflations of the Body and Fever They first corrode the Stomach then pass into the Blood and at last affect the Spirits Acids change and fix this Corrosive Salt and Fetid Smell 6. Because Fetid differs but in degree from Aromaticks therefore there are some Corrosive Poysons of a Smell mixt of Aromatick and Fetid as Cicutaria Madnep and Coriander and these have a strong heady Smell Sweet and Offensive with sweet Roots by which their Acrimony is allayed
it which is distilled and separated into Animal Spirits as it becomes more Rancid or Fetid which also returning from the Nerves into the Blood it gives the Animal Fetid to each Humor separated from the Blood and this constitutes the active Fetids in all the Animal Slimes This Animal Fetid circulating from the Blood into the Nervous Juice and returning with that into the Blood again becomes more Volatile Fetid and at last Inflammable and Lucid. All Vegetable and Mineral Fetids increase this Animal Fetid Spirit and also help the production and motion of the Fetid Animal Spirits as all Antimonial Sulphurs and Fetid Gums as Assa foetida lbi of Blood yields by distillation â„¥ iss of Oyl and the Oyl of Blood is both Mr. Boyl History of Blood. red and yellow by distillation Spirit of Wine extracts a yellow Tincture as it does from some Resins but Volatile Spirits a red Volatile and fixed Salt dropt on Blood increases the Floridity and so does Choler which is very Acrid and also the Acrid Juice of Scurvy-Grass but Vineger Juice of Lemmons and all Acid Spirits abate the Florid and coagulate the Blood. The Florid part of the Blood separates from the Serum unless it be long stirred with it as some Watry Gums do as Aloes Opium c. From these Experiments I conclude That the red part of the Blood is Oyly and Gummose for these dissolve by Spirit of Wine and Salts but are coagulated by Acids The red colour remains after the Evaporation of the Serum in the dryed Cake and this redness is not lodged in a Volatile Oyl but is fixed by an Acid as the Oyls in Gum-Resins The Animal Fetid may be distilled in the cold Still and therefore is Volatile It vomits readily with Oyls which argues its nature to be from the red Oyliness of the Blood. The Spirit of Blood by Fermentation is very Fetid and therefore a good Anti-hysterick It is also Salt correcting the Acids of the Glands and stagnation of Humors It is Diuretick and Diaphoretick as all Salts be The Cake of Blood in a healthful Person exceeds the Serum as I have often observed by weighing of both in ordinary Scales VI. Animal Humors of a Bitter Sweet Acrid and Slimy Taste as Choler THE sweetness in Choler shews its original Rise from Chyle and sweet Chyle becomes bitter by a farther digestion The red part of the Blood may become yellow by digestion And out of Blood an Oyl may be distilled of both Colours I have observed Choler of a red yellow green and blue Colour in different Animals so we may observe in the same Animals a diversity of Colour when the Choler comes into the Stomach and is there mixed with Acids The same varieties of colour we observe in Turpentines a green Oyl may be distilled from Turpentine-Trees and a red and yellow Oyl from Turpentine there is a bluish Turpentine in the middle of the Flowers of Flos Solis which like the Conyza's is a Turpentine Plant. Since Turpentine varies its colour like Choler and has the tastes of Choler as Bitter Slimy Sub-acrid I think it an excellent Hepatick and it is also Cleansing and Laxative like Choler The Acrid Pungency of Choler is the ground and one of the parts of the Animal Salt for when it is united with the Tartareous Acid produced by digestion in the Stomach and also with the natural Acid of the Glandulous Slimes and that of the Lympha of the Pancreas the first Ammoniac Salt is produced for if we taste the Chyle strained from the Contents we may taste it Salso-acid in the Lacteals This Acrid in Choler like the Acrid in Plants after a perfect Putrefaction turns into a Volatile Urinous Salt as is evidently proved by Wedelius in the Preparation of Woad which tastes Acrid and without any Fire it sublimes a Volatile Urinous Salt in its Preparation by Putrefaction yet the fresh Woad tastes only Acrid and not Salt but the Fermentation turns it to Salt. The Slime of Choler is from the Spleen and the different Colour is from a diversity of digestion of the Oyl in each Animal and the diversity of the Spleen-Acid joyned with the Choler The Juice of the Spleen is Vitriolick and Slimy the black Colour of the Spleen is a true sign of the Acidity of its Juice for all Acids give a blackness to the Blood. The colour of the Spleen is more florid Red in young Creatures and blacker in the old by reason of a greater quantity of the Vitriolick Slime produced in them which blackens the Blood and that gives the Colour to the Spleen VII Animal Humors of a Sal-Ammoniac Taste being Salso-Acid THis Sal-Ammoniac shoots into Feathers in frozen Blood and may be easily observed like the Teeth of Combs Dr. Grew mentions the Figure of the Animal Salt like Crosses but I can more certainly describe any Salts by my Taste than by any Glasses and their Nature and Vertue will more clearly be apprehended by their manner of affecting the Organ of Taste than by consulting their Figures tho' these may explain the Modes of Taste and the operation of the Salt on our Humors 1. The Serum of the Blood being only the Whey part of the Chyle dissolves most of the Animal Salt This is the Vehicle of the thick Mass of Blood rendring it diluted and fluid In the Serum there is little Oyl but much of the Viscid and Cheesie Particles These may be observed by Inspissating the Serum by the Fire and by curdling of it by Acid Spirits or Alum Vineger whitens the Serum and Oyl of Vitriol but Spirit of Nitre throughly coagulates it into a white Curd like Alum If we let the Blood run from an opened Vein into a Dish containing Spirit of Salt it will presently coagulate look black and it will have no Serum Spirit of Sal-Ammoniac makes the Serum more clear and therefore we may suppose the Salt of the Blood promotes its fluidity If the Blood be received in a Dish in which Spirit of Sal-Ammoniac is put it will not coagulate This shews the effects of Volatil Salts on the Blood. I mixt Oyl of Turpentine and Oyl of Aniseed did the same with some fresh Blood but it looked more black and not more florid as I expected and common Oyl made the Florid rather darker which I could not well explain there being no Acid nor Volatile Salt in the Oyl Olive tho' there be in Oyl of Aniseeds and Turpentine Mr. Boyle and Bonetus affirm That the fixt Chymical Salt of Blood made by Calcination tastes more like Sea-Salt than a Lixivial but by its Precipitation after the manner of Lixivials and not like Sea-Salt it is a Lixivial made from the Tartar or Vitriolick Acid of the Blood in which there is a mixture of Earth Oyl and Acid these by being united more closely by the Fire become a fixt Salt. But this is the product of Art by the Fire and is not naturally found in the Humors of
Vessels of Plants should become fit Vessels for Animals for the Plant-Anatomists have described those Vessels of Plants to be as curiously wrought as any in Animals And we observe the Vessels of Plants and Animals shoot into Mould upon Putrefaction which therefore alters both Vessels and the Juices in Plants And if Mould which is described like a Plant can grow out of Animals we cannot believe it unreasonable to assert That Animals should grow out of Plants from whence they are constantly nourished Malpighius gives an Instance of Plants growing out of the dried Serum taken out of Hydropical Tumors Minimae Plantulae quasi pulmonariae vel coralloides eleganter attolluntur De struct gland conglobat pag. 15. We find that a Plant of a different nature may grow out of another Plant without a Seed as is evident in Misletoe Mosses Mushroms Hypocystis Orobanche why may not an Insect of another Species grow out of the living and dead Bodies of the Erucas without the insertion of an Egg The Worms in Animals are very different from all the other Insects in the World. It is impossible that Insects should insert their Eggs into the Horns Guts Liver and Bones of Animals in which Insects have been observed I have taken the broad Worm out of the Guts of the Embryo upon the dissection of a Cow with Calf I am sure it is highly improbable that any Insects Egg should be conveyed thither The Ingenious Dr. Tyson has observed a difference betwixt the long Worm in Animals and the ordinary Earth-worm and therefore they are not of the same nature Insects are not only superficially changed but many also of their Internal parts are changed also they alter their Diet for the Eruca and Papilio have different Food and Actions These changes from one Species of Insects to another shew the change from the Fibrous parts of a Plant to the first Lineaments of an Insect not to be improbable The Tastes and Smells of some Insects 1. Insects of a slimy Taste as Snails the Slime of Snails supplies the Milky Slime being like the Saliva The threds of Spiders and Silkworms is bred of a slimy viscid Humor which is used to stop Bleeding as viscid Gums be Frogs have a cool Slime for Oyntments and their slimy Spawn yields a cool Water which may be given to cool the glandulous Juice of the Womb. I have taken an hundred of Grass-snails in a Morning and swallowed them whole in May after they are mixed in a Napkin Other Snails are better boyled in Milk for Hecticks for distillation destroys their Slime 2. An Acid Odor is observed in Ants and an Acid Spirit is distilled from them 3. An Acrid Taste may be observed by chewing live Millepedes with a savor of the rotten Wood on which they feed This Acrid passes by Vrine and makes them Diuretick and also Hepatick and Cephalick The dryed Millepedes are Fetid and thereby discuss Scrophulous Tumors 4. There is a bitter Astringency in the Kermes which is the Nest or Gall of the Insect The Insect is supposed to be Fragrant and Acrid from whence its Cordial Vertue may depend And its Antifebrile Vertue from the taste of Galls which resemble the taste of the Cortex Peruvianus and therefore the Cortex of the Ilex coccifera ought to be tryed for the Jesuits-Bark it grows in Italy Spain and France and is described as having green Leaves like the Laurel-Bitters Coccus Polonicus grows on the Roots of Polygonum It contains a Worm which turns into a Fly and that leaves a Skin which smells of Musk It is used for Convulsions Bonetus The Syrup of Kermes has a Fragrancy from the Juice of Apples and Rose-water 5. The Cimices smell Fetid The Insects bred in the Body of the Willow are said bircum olere 6. A corrosive Taste is in Cantharides Their Acrid Salt affects the Kidnies and Bladder and they offend the Nose by pounding as Acrids do And if they be ground to Powder they turn Syrup of Violets green 7. Of a Salt Taste This is observed in the Venomous sting of a Bee And the Venome of a Scorpion is Guttula aquae candidae as Redi informs us The same corrosive Acrid or salt Ferment is in all Venoms A burning Coal applyed to the Bite or Sting immediately prevents all Mischief And Volatile Salts most successfully prevent the coagulations of the Blood by poysonous Bites A TABLE of Mineral Tastes I. Gritty Tastes of Earth Stones Minerals and their hot Calces II. Styptick fat greasie Earths III. Vitriolick Tastes 1. Acerb Aluminous of Alum and Quick-silver 2. Sweet Vitriolick in Steel Gold Tin and Lead Vitriols 3. Bitter Vitriolick in Silver-Crystals 4. Nauseous Brass-savored Vitriols in Copper IV. Bituminous bitterish Tastes either Fetid Aromatick or Terebinthinate V. Fetid sulphureous Tastes VI. Acid Tastes of Spirit of Sulphur Vitriol Salt Nitre VII Salt Tastes Volatile or Fixed or Vitriolated or Ammoniack VIII Marine Salso-acids as Sal Gemmae or else Nitrose cool Salts IX Caustick burning Tastes and Styptick The First CLASS The Tastes and Smells of Earths WE call those Mineral Earths which dissolve or soften by Water and taste and smell Earthy 1. Earths of a sandy or gritty Taste such as common Earth and of a smell of Mould This common Earth is produced from the minute Particles of Stones worn off by Rain the current of Springs Rivers and the Sea where Sandiness most abounds or else by the Airs motion or the sulphureous Acid in it arising from the hot central parts of the Earth With this the common Earth seems to be Impregnate and not to be the pure Element of Earth which I suppose to be like Glass or Ashes since most Bodies are reducible by Fire into one of them And that solid part in Minerals which is Alkalizate and serments with Acids seems to me the true Element of Earth and this also yields the Alkalizate parts both to Plants and Animals I distilled in an Earthen Retort and an open Fire some common dry Earth and sifted it clean from Vegetables It was taken half a Foot or more deep under the green Turf It yielded a great deal of Water and I observed a burnt Smell of Smoak I mixed Syrup of Violets with the Water and it turned it green From this Experiment I suppose I may conclude That the common Earth contains Water and some Oyl and Volatile Salt is made out of it By the Fire the Caput mortuum turned white like burnt Ashes All gritty Earths ferment with Acids as Chalk 2. Earths of a Styptick Taste sticking to the Tongue and feeling Unctuous with a sulphureous Earthy Smell These are Metallick Earths taken from Mines and their Vitriolick Stypticity is from the Metal Bole has its Stypticity and colour from Iron because it yields a green Tincture with Spirit of Salt and is Aluminous by mixing with Spirit of Nitre Terra sigillata contains some Particles of Gold and ferments with Acids but Bole does not it becomes Aluminous
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
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
and Spirit of Vinegar but this way I know no Plants Corrosive The Acid of Plants cannot be so attenuated by Digestion in the Plant as that of Minerals is in the Fire Fixt Salts in Soap-Ashes by being united in a solid form act all together and so corrode So a Vesicatory is made out of Ashes of Ash-Tree but this way cannot happen in Plants because there is naturally no fixt Salt in them but what is made by Fire Oyls of themselves cannot be Corrosive they pierce by their tenuity but cannot corrode their Pungency is from the Salt only though their Heat and Smell is from the Oyl but generally the Corrosives have no Smell or inconsiderable where it would not happen if the Oyl were Corrosive whence I conclude that such a Taste depends on the Volatile Salt diluted with Water or sharpned by the addition of Oyl though crude as in Tithymalus but especially by a Volatile Oyl as in Euphorbium CHAP. X. Of Sweet Tastes THIS Taste depends on an equal Mixture of the Principles of Plants The Acerb Austere Woody Fruits become Sweet Fragrant and Spirituous when ripen'd by the Heat of the Sun like a Chymical Digestion that separates the Principles and produces a looser Mixture and the Sweet Fruits by Distillation afford a Spirit so that an Acid from the Crudity and Spirituous Oyl and Salt from the Ripeness are evident in Sweet Tastes A Mucilage appears in Liquorish and an Oyly Smell in the Flowers of the Pea-Taste Sugar has both Oyl and Acid So that from different Sweet Tastes you will find all the Principles of Plants to be latent in a Sweet Taste which will appear from the Classes of Sweet Tastes 1. Sweet-Watry-Crude in Grass and Corn. 2. Sweet-Aromaticks in Carrotts and Parsneps 3. Sweet-Acrid in Rapunculus 4. Sweet-Mucilaginous in Figgs or Oleose as in Nuts 5. Sweet-Subacid in Strawberries and Grapes 6. Bitter-Sweet in Aloes 7. The Pea-Taste in Fitches c. Pea-Tastes are either 1. Sweet and Rough 2. Sweet and Bitterish or 3. Sweet and compounded with a Bitter-Acrid and sometimes a Mucilage The Watry-Crude are Cooling in distill'd Waters and Decoctions The Sweet-Aromaticks are Nourishing and very grateful to the Stomach Sweet-Acrid are also Esculent and Diuretick by their Acrimony and Sweetness they are Pectoral lenifying sharp Rheums and opening the Breast Sweet-Mucilaginous are both Pectorals and Diureticks defending the Membranes both by their Sweetness and Mucilage and making them more slippy for Phlegm and Gravel as well as allaying the Sharpness of Saline Humors by the Mucilage Sweet-Subacid are cooling Cordials Bitter-Sweets are Nauseous Purgers Pea-Tastes are of a crude Juyce hindring the Fermentation of the Blood dulling its Salts especially if a Mucilage be adjoyned If Astringency they bind also If Bitter or Acrid or Both they are opening and outwardly discussing as in Melilot CHAP. XI Concerning the Smells of Vegetables their Differences and the Vertues depending upon them THE Smells of Plants are either Cool Temperate or Hot. §. I. Of Cool Smells in Plants Earthy which smell of Earth with which is joyn'd a Mucilage as in Mushromes Or else they are dry Plants as Mosses And this Smell of Earth must needs argue a Crude Plant. Sorrel-Smells or Acid or Sowre These shew the Acid to abound in a Plant and the Vertues depending thereon as in Sorrel c. A Crude or Grassy-Smell resulting from III. an indigested Mixture of Acid and Earth and Water as in Plantane A Crude Smell indicates a cooling Quality fit for inflamed Blood and over-fermented Humors And outwardly these Plants are repelling and of a cooling Quality In the Plants which have the Smells above-mentioned there is not so great a Digestion of their Juyce as to attenuate it and rarefie it so far as to emit brisk Particles to affect the Senses like Oyl or Volatile Salts of Plants §. II. Of Temperate Smells Temperate Smells of Plants are mixt of Hot and Cold being Mellowy-Sweet such as is in Ripe Fruits as in Apples c. This Smell arises from an higher Digestion of the Crude Juyce in Fruits by the Heat of the Sun which produces that equal Mixture of Principles which is most agreeable to the Body of Animals for their Food and by this Smell and the Aromatick they choose it naturally Most Fruits may by a farther Fermentation be prepar'd to yield an inflammable Spirit and therefore Fruits fermented in the Stomach yield a brisk Spirit to the Blood. And by their Acid which appears to the Taste and Smell after Fermentation they cool the Blood and Choler and excite Appetite A grateful Acid may be smelt in the Stomachs of Birds which feed on Hips from which I have made a very grateful Spirit by Fermentation In Surfeits of Fruits the Fermentation of them is carried on to a Putrefaction which happens frequently when Fruit is eaten by any Person when he is very hot or else the Fruit lies in the Stomach crude and unfermented very Acid and Griping as it happens to cold Stomachs §. III. Of Hot Smells Hot Smells are either Agreeable or Offensive Agreeable Hot Smells are 1. Terebinthinates in which the Oyl of Plants is more rarefy'd than in any other of the former Smells but yet it is mixt with and fixt by an Acid And this Smell indicates a Vulnerary Quality by resembling the Smell of Turpentine A Balsamick Smell depends on a State of the Oyl of Plants betwixt a Turpentine and Aromatick Smell as in Botrys Ladanum segetum c. 2. Aromaticks in which the Oyl is less fixt than in the former there being less Acid mixt with it which appears in the Aromatick Astringent In Aromaticks there is a Bitterness or Sweetness with an Acrimony All Aromaticks are Cordial 3. Fragrant Smells in which the Sense of Smelling is highly pleas'd by the Odor depending on the highest rarefy'd Oyl of Plants and therefore very little affects the Taste the Oyl not being fixt in the Juyce of the Plant so much as in the former by an Acid as in Jassemin-Flowers Orange-Flowers c. These Plants afford the best Cordial-Water and are only an higher Degree of Aromaticks Hot Offensive Smells are 1. A Quick Pungent Smell which is in Horse-Radish or Mustard-Seed or Ranunculus These Plants have a Volatile Salt and the Vertues depending on it The proper Smell of Vegetable Salts is a quick Pungency Animal Salts have also a Smoaky or Urinous Smell by which they differ 2. Fetid Smells which arise from a Salt and Oyl very Volatile and therefore have outwardly a most discussive Quality and inwardly an Anti-Hysterick Quality 1. Fetid like Elder and those Plants have the same Vertue as Scrophularia 2. Rank like Garlick as Onions and Leeks and these have the same Vertue as Garlick 3. A Rancid Oyly Smell which many of the Pea-Taste have as Goss-Flowers c. and these are fit for Oyls and Oyntments 4. Narcotick Smells like Poppy and all these Plants have an Opiate Faculty 5. Nauseous Smells such
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
Bitter Astringency like the Ilex on which they are bred So that it is probable that Insects taste of the Plants on which they are bred each Plant having its particular Insects and Galls and I believe the Acid in Pismires is from some Vegetable on which they feed And I must here remark that Insects have their Acrid and also the Choler of Animals which is pungent both like the Acrimony of Vegetables and not of a Salt Taste III. In Minerals we must observe 1. The dry gritt in Stones and Metals and their Calces 2. The saltness in Mineral Salts of divers kinds and in the Salt of Lime 3. An Acidity in the Acid Spirits and Sulphurs 4. A Vitriolick Astringent Taste in all the Vitriols of Minerals and some Earths as Bole c. 5. A sweetness in Sugar of Lead and other Vitriols 6. A bitterness in Nitre and North-hall-Waters and the Crystals of Silver 7. A burning Corrosive Acid in Arsenick and Calx viva Tastes burning with a Saltness from whence the Corrosiveness depends By the Smell we observe the Sulphurs of Minerals and some Authors mention the Odoriferous Smells of the Preparations of Antimony as Ettmuller and in Bonetus we find this Arcanum Vitrioli nocte intempesta instar Carbunculi lucet cujusque odor omnia alia odorifera antecellit Tilingius The different Pungency of the Sulphur-Smells must be observed but these are sometimes so lockt up by the preparation and addition of Acids as not in that state to give a manifest Taste but by being in the Stomach the Acid is taken off and the Sulphur becomes Pungent Vomitive or Diaphoretick therefore in judging of some Antimonial Preparations we consider the Taste and Smell during the Preparation and when we find a Sulphur evident in that we must allow that some of it sticks to the Calces and from thence we must deduce part of the Vertue of the Mineral Calces So the Oyls of lants are not perfectly separated from the Fixt Salts from whence they have their different Vertues If we reflect on the Actions of our other Senses they may be imposed on as well as our Tastes and not discern that object in one state which they did in another so we both See and Feel Salts and Sugar when dry but if they be dissolved in Water we shall only perceive them by our Tastes therefore we use the testimony of all our other Senses to supply the defect in any one We may rationally infer from the sulphureous Smells in the Preparation as well as the effects in the Stomach that Sulphur abounds in Antimonial Vomitories and it is enough that both Taste and Smell can discern the Antimonial Sulphur which is not unlike common Sulphur in more loose Preparations wherein it is more separated from the Earthy Particles as in Sulphur Antimonii combustibile the Clyssus and Tinctures Vegetables and Animals are the most proper objects of Taste but most of the Mineral Sulphurs are better Smelt than Tasted and in the judging of our Medicines we must consult both Taste and Smell It is necessary to prepare some Bodies that they may give their Smells so Pearls and other pretious Stones must be long ground in a Mortar before they will give their fragrant smells which by D. Olaus Borichius is observed to be like Violets he mentions other Stones struck with a Hammer smelling like Musk others like burnt Horns or the Excrements of Animals And our Flints and common Stones smell like Sulphur being struck against one another These varieties of Smells in Stones sufficiently evidence that their Vertues are no occult qualities I must confess that some Medicines acquire new Vertues in the Stomach from the Animal Acid so Boles are made Aluminous Salts Vitriolated and the Testaceous Medicines made Salt and Styptick by it therefore we must allow those the same Vertues as if they had been prepared by an Acid and thence deduce them Mercury and other Minerals acquire a Vitriolick Taste in the Body as they do by Preparation with Acids without this alteration Mercury crude can have no considerable Vertue as other Minerals have not I have tryed Mercury decoctions in Water and put Worms into it but found it not to kill them whence I may justly doubt of its Vertue Half an Ounce of crude Mercury injected into the Veins made no alteration in a Dogg neither by Vomiting Purging or Salivation Bonetus Two or three pounds of crude Mercury are given sometimes inwardly and pass through the Guts without Injury These Instances suffice to shew the small Vertue as well as Taste of crude Mercury but the Fumes of Mercury taste sweet as the Gilders inform me And Doleus mentions the Stypticity of the Fumes of Mercury in the Throat During the long neglect of the Press in publishing this second Volume I added the Appendix which contains a more exact Method being a Scheme both of Minerals and Animals according to their Tastes and many particular Tastes were added which were omitted in the other Parts Many Errata's have been committed for the Correcting whereof I have affixed the Errata's observed by my self and desire the Reader to consult them Errata in Vol. I. PRef p. 6. l. 8. r. Ray's Methodus 57. for Daffadils r. Pseudonarcissus p. 276. l. 4. Acid. 282. l. ult dele of both 292. l. 23. Sulphur an Oyl and Acid is closely lockt up 293. l. 7. both The. 296. l. 6. new 303. l. 10. an Efflorescence 310. l. 7. so neither is it in Errata in Vol. II. PAg. 4. l. 20. 125. l. 1. Acid. 17. l. 18. Volatility it 24. l. 9. Lapis bufon p. 41. l. 1. Nitre inflammable Spirit p. 58. l. 14. Sponge distilled 124. l. 5. Aloes is Bitter l. 6. dele Aloes 161. l. 10 Sweet Acrid 166. l. 15. set Mastiche close to Olibanum 171. l. 3. § 1. Hot Cephalicks 176. l. 13. after juglandium add Faeculae bryoniae pulvis de gutteta which dele in l. 20. 190. l. 19. for Corallina r. Carlina 193. l. 16. dele nummulariae 195 set pulv Cornathin close to Scammonii 205. l. 3. dele 6. Bitter-Acrids 239. l. 25. Animal-bitter 281. l. 12. Plants Anato 294. l. 27. and sub-acid 301. Fraxinus bubula is omitted before this 304. l. 21. has an 316. l. 21. Ballatis r. Battatos 317. Opium r. Apium 343. l. 2. or without 349. l. 24. of a Perch 352. l. 21. These 353. l. 27. conglomerated 354. l. 20. r. Colon. 362. l. 13. red l. ult it unites readily 369. l. 10. the Acrid 373. l. 1. Spleen-Acid 378. l. 10. Aluminous 384. l. 23. â— wiped 390. l. 2. Peat-Turfs 394. l. 10. r. are not Nitre ΦΑΡΜΑΚΟ-ΒΑΣΑÎΟΣ OR THE Touch-stone of Medicines c. The Second Volume OF THE Tastes and Vertues OF MINERALS An Appendix to the Third Part of VOL. I. Of Vegetables c. CHAP. I. Of the Principles of Vegetables which are deducible from Minerals AS the best of Physicians speaking of Man the Principal of the Animal Kingdom says We
the Chymists call the Mercury of Minerals when they distinguish it from Mercurius Corporum and common Quick-Silver The Fourth Principle of Minerals is an Earthy Part which in perfect Minerals is a Lime-Stone or Spar which adheres to the Ore of Metals The Mineral Fumes coming from the lower Parts of the Earth fix in such Stones and are intimately united with them into the Nature of a Metal These Mineral Fumes are Sulphureous and Acid which readily fix and combine with Earthy Parts which the Chymists call the Alkaly of Minerals From the number of Principles I have excluded both Volatile and Fixt Salts they being the Products of other Principles combin'd by Nature or Art. The Volatile Salts in Vegetables being evident to our Senses and produc'd naturally I did in the First Part call them one of the Principles evident to our Senses but because they are compounded of the other Principles I cannot think they deserve the name of a Principle From the different Proportions and perfect Mixture of all the former Principles all the perfect Metals are produc'd and from a different imperfect Mixture all other Minerals arise as Earths Bitumens Regular and Irregular Stones Gems Salts Vitriols c. In Vegetables Trees have a Mixture of the Principles analogous to Metals which their Solidity Weight and Aptness to be petrified sooner than Herbs sufficiently manifests The Texture of Gums Resins Turpentines Mucilages and Stones of Fruits agrees with the imperfect Minerals above-mention'd as will appear by a particular Analogy observ'd betwixt the Products of both Kingdoms which differ only by their several Digestions and Mixtures but yet manifestly agree as the Chymists speak in radice that is in their Principles CHAP. III. Of the Principles Tastes and Vertues of Metals and their Preparation GOLD has the Sulphur and Acid Aurum most digested and intimately mixt with some Stony-Earth like Flint or Spar such as visibly adheres to Gold-Ore In this the Sulphur-Fumes which are Sub-acid intimately fix themselves with that Stone which is fittest for a strict Union with them Some Stones are not moved by Acids and others very violently And hence does happen so small a quantity of Gold and other Metals in a great quantity of Ore. Fire cannot diminish the Weight nor separate the Principles of Gold because of their perfect Union Gold will not rust nor colour the Fingers unless mixt with other Metals and then the Rust is Blue The Vapor of Sulphur colours it and therefore Tartar Salt and warm Water cleanse it Aqua Regia dissolves it which is compounded of Salt and Nitre whose Spirits have the greatest Pungency of any Acids and the least Roughness and Sowreness and also a strong Pungent Smell By the united Pungency of both Spirits the Body of Gold is broken or corroded into small Parts which joyning with the Menstruum produces a Vitriol by the Precipitation of which Aurum Fulminans is prepared which therefore Purges and Vomits and gives Blackness of Stools as other Vitriols do The Tincture and Flowres are said to have some Sulphur in them at least they may have somewhat of a Vitriol which being alter'd by Addition of Salts does not Purge but sometimes Vomit And they have the Effects like Tincture of Steel in Curing Acids which is also the Vertue of Crocus Solis which in the quantity of a few Grains may correct a considerable quantity of Acid since one Grain of Gold may be extended into above Fifty Inches square in Leaf-Gold Gold may be best compar'd to Aromatick Trees which have an Oyly Salt of the same Cordial Vertue that Chymists allot to the pure Sulphur of Gold of which Gold has more than other perfect Minerals So these Aromatick Trees agree with Gold in their Principles by having more Oyl and that better digested than other Trees Silver has the Sulphureous Acid in Argentum smaller quantity than Gold and that not so highly digested as in Gold yet so closely united that the Principles can neither be separated by Fire nor Spirit of Nitre which only breaks the Silver into small Particles and therewith constitutes a Bitter-Acrid Vitriol Purging and Vomiting violently The Blue Colour of the Tincture of Silver is from Copper and vomits but the true Tincture is Purple as Ettmuller affirms and it has some considerable Virtue as containing the Sulphureous parts of its Vitriol or rather of the Acid Menstruum which made the Vitriol The Crystals of Silver are very Caustick the Acid becoming more Corrosive by being fixt in the Mineral Silver may be compared to those Plants which are Purging abounding with Earth Acid and Oyl united into an Acrid Salt to which is joyned a Bitter Taste Such is the Taste of Hellebore and Colocynthis which are Bitter-Acrid Purgers Silver is easily mixt with Copper and is scarce separable from it to which its Purging Virtue is much attributed by many Authors Copper is called a crude Silver for in Cuprum this the Sulphur and Acid are not so strongly united to the Earthy parts as in the former but are easily dissolvible by Volatile Salts Spirit of Sal-Ammoniack dissolves it into a Green Tincture Spirit of Sulphur into a Blue Vitriol which is the most purging of any Mineral Vitriol because of its Sulphureous parts easily separated and making it Corrosive Copper melted smells most of Brimstone and a Preparation of Copper is made by Mr. Boyle which is inflammable The Acrid Purgative Resins of Plants may be best compared to Copper for their equal Purging Faculty and their most remarkable Principles Oyls and Acid which in Plants produce a Salt and also in some Preparations of Copper which Becher mentions Copper has an Acid Sulphur in it which makes it easily extracted by Spirit of Sal-Ammoniack and Copper is easily turned into a Vitriol which will vomit by Stimulation of the Membranes as Aqua Fortis does From the Nauseous Brass-savour Taste the Purging and Vomiting quality proceeds Tinn has much Sulphur in it whence Stannum Jovial Medicines have a Purple Colour It will not so easily dissolve by Acids as Lead and therefore not so much used for Medicine neither have I observed its Taste nor any Virtue proper to it It is easily melted and it burns with Nitre both which argue a Sulphureous Nature in it Lead is something of the Nature of Plumbum Silver for Silver is mixt in all Lead Tinn differs from Lead by having more Sulphur Lead-Fumes give Colicks Palsies and Shortness of Breath to the Miners They say The Smoak of melting Lead smells Sweet The Preparations of Lead do outwardly cool because of its Density and Weight It has the least Internal Agitation of any Metal and will vitrifie Red-Lead is Calcined Lead to a Red Minium Colour very Cooling and Drying in Vlcers White-Lead is Prepared by the Fumes Cerussa of Vinegar by which it is made White and the Cooling quality increased by the Vinegar Burnt-Lead turns Black by the Fumes Plumbum
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
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