in themselves a small Treacle and are replenished with many rare virtues which adorn our Cordial and augment its forces and Operation The fifth Classis of Vegetables contains the Barks of which there is but that of Sassafras wood required in the Receipt We have been counselled to adde to it the Cinnamon the Limon-pill and that of Oranges by reason that there is nothing that doth so suddenly rejoyce the Heart and the Brains and that more resists Poisons and Corruption then these noble Barks or Rinds when they are well chosen and employ'd before they have lost that excellent smell which resides in their superficial skin which is nothing but an Oil and a volatil Salt glewed together with a little moisture in the Limon and Orange but the Cinnamon has nothing but its pure aethereal Spirit animated with a Sulphur and a Salt that have not their like amongst all the Aromaticks by reason of their subtilty and sphear of activity of their odour and virtue which has with justice acquired to them the right of entring in this Great Cordial since that the Author himself wills that the Syrup of Juice of Limons be added to it to help its preservation and consistence As for what concerns the Sassafras and its Bark I am of opinion to put its Wood in also by reason that the Bark furnishes not sufficiently alone for I have made the anatomy of this Wood by distillation and found that the Wood did yield a spirituous Water and an Oil far more abounding and more excellent then the Bark alone which has lost upon the Sea that which it had of most subtil and best in lieu that the rest of the virtue hath preserved and concentred it self in the Wood. The sixth Classis yields us the Woods of Aloes and of Sassafras which we have newly mentioned we shall have but two words to say in this place in praise of the virtues of the Wood of Aloes by reason of its scarcity since there are many hundreds of Apothecaries which have never handled any and that know it but by hear-say and by the reading of their Dispensatory But I confess that it is more common here in London then in many other places and that it is had here a great deal better and better qualified and especially at Mr. Box's a Drugster in Cheapside in whose Shop I have always found what there is of most rare and most precious in Druggistry The Arabians and the Germans call it Paradise-wood by reason of its Excellency It grows in Zeilan Malaca Sumatra and through all the Coast of Choromandel where the Indians prize it and rate it equal with Gold and Silver according to its divers degrees of goodness This Wood abounds in an oleaginous and gummy substance which is almost of the same nature with a sort of Benzamin but much more Cordial Stomachical Cephalick for it generally strengthens all the Viscera and especially the Brain it rejoices and re-animates the spirits of the Heart and those of the Womb it remedies the Syncopes and Languishings and has the property of killing all sorts of Worms which engender in the body by the abundance of its bitter volatil Salt It is put in the Cephalick powders to be applied outwardly and in the Epithemes that are applied upon the Heart and upon the Pulses of the Temple-Arteries and those of the Arms because that it recreates the Senses by the excellency of its smell which is the reason that our Excellent Author hath put it in good quantity in his Cordial by the knowledge he had of its rare properties and admirable virtues We have as yet two other matters to speak of which are taken from the Vegetables that enter in our Remedy and help toward its preparation which are Sugar and the Spirit of Wine The first serves as a body to receive and retain the dry things and the extractions which compose this Cordial and to preserve its virtue as we shall say hereafter and the second serves for that Liquor that the Chymists call Menstruum to extract the virtue of all the parts of the Vegetables which compound it We shall not speak of it in this place but in general terms because that we reserve to speak of it with more advantage when we shall treat of the Preparation Sugar is come to be at present one of the greatest delights of the Table and truly it is not without reason since that this sweet Salt which doth so suddenly vegetate and that is found shut up in its time and place within a Reed or Cane participates of abundance of rare Proprieties for we daily experiment that this Indian Salt is capable of receiving in its self the odor the taste and the colour of Fruits and of preserving them from one year to another and longer as is very well known by those that excel in the Art of Preserving But if the Sugar produces so rare an effect for pleasure what doth it not doe also in the Pharmacie for the useful part whenas the Apothecary cannot make any Conserves Syrups Trochisks Electuaries Confections and many other things which are most necessary for the sick without that pleasant Medium which preserves and receives the virtue of all the species that Art entrusts to its custody The choice is of that which is the most purified and that retains less of the greaziness and gross viscosity which does accompany it in its origine before its preparation Therefore our Author hath commanded to take the white Sugar-candy whose lucid and clear Crystallization proves evidently the purity thereof It is of an incisive attenuating detersive virtue it lenifies the harshness of the Throat and of the Trache-artery gently consumes the slimes and viscosities of the Stomach cleanses the Breast and the Lungs and appeases the painful insultations of the Cough These are the Motives which have driven Sir Walter Rawleigh to render this delightful Salt the depository of the substance and virtue of that which makes the making up of his Great Cordial The Aqua-vitae or Spirit of Wine is nothing else but the spirituous and aethereal part of that charming Liquor which is prest from the Grapes of the Vine and that has been exalted by the means of fermentation There have been several names given to this admirable Spirit by reason of its excellency and wonderful effects for it has been dignified with that of most Subtil and Incorruptible Essence not forgetting that of Water of Life that all the world attributes to it of Spirit of Wine Celestial Sulphur Bezoardical vegetable Sulphur The Celestial Menstruum Heavenly Water The Heaven of Raymondus Lully The Key of the Philosophers An Aethereal Body compounded of Fire and Water Universal Balsam or Liquor The Life of the great Vegetable and different other Nominations which sufficiently prove with those we have already named that this Spirit is the fittest Liquor of all those which are either Natural or Artificial that is capable of extracting the virtues of that which
which torments them very frequently In the fourth place the Excellency of this Remedy appears in that it is not onely proper and specifick to drive away the venom that causes the already-produced Diseases but also especially because it is sufficient to maintain that beautiful and admirable Harmony that causes Health since it is capable to correct and remedy all the faults of Indigestions and ill Fermentations which are made in the Stomach that are in us the Causes the Spring and the Beginning of the worst Diseases And we shall conclude this Discourse with the exposition of the Dose the time and method of using it with benefit For all the world knows that the Abuse and the Excess of the best things do commonly produce the most perillous and surprising Effects We have said heretofore that Sir Rawleigh's Great Cordial contain'd in it self the choice and Epitome of what is of greatest Excellencie amongst all the simple Cordials which the three Natural Families of Animals Vegetables and Minerals furnish us with of which we must make the deduction and the representation to the eyes of the Reader 's understanding to insinuate more and more into them that this admirable Genius could make a most worthy choice of the Matters which compose his Remedy which do possess every one in particular a great deal of Spirit and volatil sulphureous Salt in their Centre from whence do result all those rare Effects that it daily produces as much towards the healthful as towards the sick Now we shall begin the description of all these things by the Order of Nobleness and Excellency of those that have possess'd the Animal Life we shall continue by those that have had the Vegetable Life and we shall end by the last that have enjoyed but a more obscure and imperfect Life which is the Mineral Life The Hart's Horn enters into our Noble Cordial and that for many reasons for there are but few Animals that can equal the Hart for length of life since he lives whole Ages This Animal is most swift which betokens a fine Harmony and a good disposition of the inward and outward parts which furnish sufficient Vigour and by consequence Spirits to hold out to the length of the Course that serves for delight and divertisement to the greatest Monarchs But is there any thing that proves so well the abundance of Spirits and Salt which reside in this Beast as the shedding and re-production of its Horns which it lays down at the beginning of Winter by reason the Aliments of which it did live had no longer in them that Balsamie Spirit and Salt which serves for Oil to the Lamp of the Radical Moisture and that maintains the Natural Heat But as soon as the Spring furnishes the Hart with the first blade of the herbs and the buds of the trees he draws from the middle Life of those things a renewed being so efficacious and powerful that it re-produceth in him a most extraordinary heat and chearfulness which causeth him to lay down his useless arms to produce new ones which are all living and juicy and which at last digest and harden themselves to furnish us in its proper time a Horn replenish'd with a great abundance of volatil Salt The thing remarkable in the choice of this Horn for its excellency is that it must be taken from an Animal of a middle age and that has been chaced because the Course heats the Animal and makes it to drive all its vigour and spirits from the Centre to the Circumference which is remarked by the weight and closing of the parts The true time to take the Hart's Horn for Physical use is between the fifteenth of August and the twentieth of September The general virtues of the Hart's Horn are to resist the corruption and putrefaction of the Humours which constitute humane bodies and their malignancy to provoke Sweat to strengthen and augment the natural Balsam of life which gives us to understand that it is with a great deal of judgment that our Author hath given it place in his Great Cordial The second thing which comes from an Animal and makes one of the best parts of this Remedy is the Stone of the Oriental Bezoar an Animal that partakes of the Hart and the Goat The best is found in Persia and the East-Indies although that which comes from America is not to be slighted if the Dose be augmented It is a Stony Concretion which forms and engenders it self by the property of the volatil saline portion which is in the Plants of which these Animals live and which coagulates it self in their second Ventricle where it augments it self yearly bed upon bed and shell upon shell by the magnetick attraction that the first kernel makes of what is analogical to its substance in the half-digested aliment which is in the stomach of that Beast as is seen and proved by the straws and the remainder of chewed herbs which are found in the Centre of the true Oriental and Occidental Bezoar which without doubt hath been the first occasional cause of the Concretion of the Stone Now the Indians and Persians say that this Animal lives particularly of a Plant which hath of it self a great deal of virtue But as this Stone is a true natural Magistery which comes from the animal and vegetable substances which unite together by the digestion in the Animal's second Ventricle so must we believe that the Bezoar-stone contains more eminently the virtue from them produced The principal are to strengthen to provoke Sweat to combat Poisons the Plague and malignant Fevers it remedies the Faintness of the Heart and its Palpitation it kills the Worms 't is good against the Epilepsie against the Jaundise the Stone the Dysentery the retention of the Menstrua and finally it facilitates and accelerates Child-birth So that we conclude that it is one of the principal Pillars of our Incomparable Cordial Musk is the third thing that the Animal furnishes to our Cordial which digests and bakes it self in an abscess which forms it self and makes eruption about the navil of a Beast like unto a Goat which is found in many Kingdoms of the East-Indies and specially in those of Cathay and Pegu. It is to be observed that Nature doth not work about this precious Drug but when the Animal is in his heat and Rutting-time so that this eruption being made by an effect of natural Heat and by an Effervescency of the mass of Bloud and of the Spirits which are driven towards the Emunctories destinated to them their heat makes attraction and causes pain which causes this Animal to rub his belly against the Stones and against the bodies of Trees to open the Impostume and make the matter issue out which the Sun doth throughly concoct and digest that which in fine produces to us the Parent and Soul of all the most excellent and most agreeable Perfumes Which is a thing most worthy the speculation of a Naturalist and a Chymical Artist
since that this change of a corrupted matter into a substance of a sweet favour and of great efficacy inwardly and outwardly teacheth Art to follow Nature's tracks for the bettering and correcting of things But we shall speak more fully of this when we shall reason of the beauty of the perfection of our Sovereign Remedy We shall here content our selves to relate in general the virtues of Musk which have oblig'd our Author to give it place in his Composition It heats gently it dries attenuates and dissipates what there is of gross and malignant in the body it is Cordial Alexitery and Cephalick it is specifick against all the Affections of the Heart and specially against the Palpitations it maintains recreates and restores the animal and vital Spirits it excites to Love and re-furnisheth the natural Heat it recreates the Senses and strengthens Memory which shews that it is most worthy of our Great Cordial The counsel and approbation of Sir Kenelm Digby and Sir Alexander Fraiser his Majesty's chief Physician hath made us adde to the number of the Ingredients of this Remedy the Flesh the Heart and the Liver of Vipers though the first prescription doth not mention them But this Reptil is replenished with so many rare virtues and possesses a volatil Salt so much an enemy to Poisons which attach the Heart and the Brains that it is with most just reason that it has been added The Viper is a kind of Serpent the most venomous of all which heats and irritates it self easily so that in a moment or the twinkling of an eye it drives from the Vesicle or Bladder of its gall to the gums a Poison so spirituous and so subtil by an almost imperceptible Chanel when it is angry which insinuates and communicates it self so suddenly to our Spirits and to the natural Heat that it as suddenly stupifies the part that has been bit which communicates it self immediately to the Heart and from thence to the Brain by the means of the Circulation But if this venom is astonishing and surprising the remedy which is had from the same Animal is as it were divine and miraculous which doth not onely combat its proper Poison but beats off and enervates the strength and efficacy of all the other venoms that both the Families of Vegetables and Minerals do furnish provided it be well prepared and administred in time and place We must give notice by the bye that Vipers glide and thrust themselves between stones and in holes of the Earth yearly in the end of Autumn whenas their pasture fails them there to abide till the beginning of the Spring and that then they are stupid and languishing by reason of the thickness and hardness of their skin but as soon as they have relished and digested the blades of Herbs and the Sun and Air have furnished them with heat and aliment they slide and rub themselves against rugged places to strip off their old skin which is no sooner off but that this Animal is presently possest with the pride thereof for it crawls nimbler then before and signifies by its gaiety by the quickness of its motions and by the beautious colours of its new skin that it is really renew'd and that the remedy which it yields may also produce in us Renewing Principles and Faculties The general and principal virtues which the Viper possesses are to combat strongly the Venoms and above all that of the Plague and of all the malignant and venomous diseases it is good against Leprosie and the Venereal disease against Consumptions and the Hectick Fever and finally against the Scurvy by reason that the volatil Salt of this Animal drives out powerfully the malignant Serosities which infect the mass of the Bloud and which are the cause and maintenance of this popular disease which makes such strange wastes in all the maritime Countries and especially in England so that it is lawfully placed in this Cordial We are now come to the Pearls which constitute another part of this Great Cordial and that augment really its rare qualities We shall mention in this place nothing but their origine their choice and their virtue to speak of them more exactly when we shall reason upon the Preparation Pearls are nothing else but the concretion into a Stone of the purest substance of the muscilaginous slime that the Oyster or Fish that inhabits two shells which he hath appropriated and formed for his abode and for his conservation ingenders Now this Animal draws to himself for his maintenance the purest part of the Sea-water which contains the embryonated Salt which is the balsam of Nature and as it were the principle of all generations which is found impregnated and replenish'd with the light of the Sun and of the Stars which is communicated to it by means of the Air. It seems also as if this poor Fish had drain'd himself of the purest portion of his life and natural balsam when he has ingendred several Pearls since that this precious Jewel is found but in the rugged and unequal Shells whose inward Fish is languishing and flabby by reason that he is deprived of that sweet sulphureous milk and of that volatil insipid and inodorous Salt which make together the coagulation of that beautiful object of Luxury and Curiosity but which is much more considerable for its fine Physical Properties which it incloses in it self Since that both the ancients and moderns acknowledge Pearls for one of the noblest Cordials which is capable of freeing the natural Balsam from oppression to re-establish the dissipated and abated strength to rejoyce the Spirits augment Courage resist Poisons the Plague and the corruption of the Humors and finally to wipe out and abolish the evil Characters both of the fix'd and running Gout by reason that they kill by the sweetness of their Milk and Sulphur the ill Impressions of the sharp Pontick and saline Serosities which prick and irritate the membranous and nervous parts that serve for sensibility and motion which they perform by the resolution of their bodies communicating then that virtue which sweetens and wipes out the acid sharpness that did cause those diseases which thing they also efficaciously produce in Rheumatisms and the Scurvy It is this defective and dead-seeming Power and Efficacy that Paracelsus speaks of in the sixth Book of his Archidoxes We have thought fit to put the Amber-griece next to the Pearls both because it comes from the Sea and that we can place it neither in the Classis of Animals nor in that of Vegetables no more then in that of Minerals because it seems as it were a roving Individual which cannot be lawfully comprised in either of these three Categories For Amber-griece is nothing else but the most precious of Bitumens that come from the bottom of the Sea where according to some it is liquid but hardens digests and concocts it self both by the coagulative facultie of the maritime Salt and by the action of the heat of the
until it over-tops it the breadth of four fingers then close the Vessel and place it in the vaporous Bath until all be united by dissolution then it must be filtrated through Cotton into a glass Vial and as soon as it is cooled those three Bodies united together make a Butter or Cream which is most delicious and pleasing which unites it self to all sorts of Liquors and which of it self is already a great Cordial And thus the Amber-griece must be prepared for our Operation All the sorts of Vegetables which enter in this Cordial are almost of the same nature since they are almost all endow'd with some pleasant and aromatick smell which together with their bitter and piercing taste prove that they participate of a good quantity of sulphureous volatil Salt therefore we must have recourse unto some Menstruum which may be of power to extract this Salt and disunite the mucilaginous Balsamick and Resinous Juice which retains and preserves the virtue of the different parts of the Plants even after their Exsiccation This Menstruum can be nothing else then Aqua-vitae or Spirit of Wine which burthens it self most easily with the essential tinctures of Vegetables Therefore all this different gathering must be put into a gross pouder if the materials are drie or if green cut them very small with a pair of Shears and cast it all in a great vessel of Glass with a narrow mouth and pour upon it for the first time some Spirit of Wine very well rectifi'd that it may load it self with the chief virtue and with the proper Balsamick Tincture of the Ingredient It must be digested in Mary's Bath in a moderate heat during two natural days Then it must be strained and prest cold and the residue of the Expression be put in the Glass-vessel again then the Spirit of Wine must be extracted from the Tinctures in the vaporous Bath until it have acquired the consistence of an Extract somewhat liquid Then pour upon the Expression the Spirit which has been drawn off so digest and extract as before and thus continue till the Species afford no more Tincture Then the rest must be boiled in a good quantity of water in a Still and distill it that in case there were some remnant of volatil virtue it might be received in the Receiver And when the distilled water comes forth without smell and taste cease the fire for it is a sign that there is nothing left but what is fix which concentres it self in the Decoction left behind in the Still This Decoction must be strained and pressed warm then evaporate the Decoction in a brass Pan upon an open fire to the consistence of an Extract somewhat liquid and it will be found filled with a salted bitterness which shews that the water has dissolved and extracted by the violence of the Ebullition all the fixed Salt which was in the Vegetables Which thing hath appeared to be very true in this Operation for whereas our celebrated Author requires but the Extraction with Spirit of Wine he doth also desire that the rest should be calcined and the fix Salt extracted out of it to be joyned to the Extract that he might have the whole virtue of those things which he imploys in his Remedy But if he had known the Vegetables very well and understood also that the Sulphur being once separated by the Spirit of Wine there were nothing left that could hinder the dissolution of the fix Salt by means of the water he had most assuredly acted in the same manner we have done for after the Exsiccation and Calcination of the remainders we have made a Lye of the Ashes and there was not a scruple of Salt remaining which is twenty grains out of all that great heap of Vegetables because that it was all passed into the Extract with the water This gross Extract being finished it must be mixed with the first and put them both together in a body or a great Bottle and pour over them to the height of twelve inches of that Spirit which served in the Extraction and digest and circulate them together in the gentle heat of the vaporous Bath during four and twenty hours then filtre the Liquor and put the Lees into the Vessel again and thus continue to digest circulate extract and filtrate until the rest of the Extract communicate nor give any more colour to the Menstruum After this all the filtrated Tincture must be put in a body and draw off the Spirit from it in Mary's Bath in a very mild heat so that the head do not heat and this for two reasons The first is That the Spirit that mounts is thereby the more subtil and the other That the same Spirit should not carry away with it self by means of a more vigorous heat the best part of the Sulphur and volatil Salt of the Extract which is kept down by virtue of the fix Salt which has joyned and united it self with them by means of digestion and circulation with the Menstruum which has been the uniting means of it This Extract made after this manner is the Basis or Foundation of our Cordial and it containeth radically the Essence of all the Vegetables which have been imployed to make it We want nothing more now but to make a necessary remark upon the Preparation and Extraction of the Wood of Aloes and Aromaticks which abound in a volatil Salt Oleaginous Sulphureous Balsamick and Resinous which cannot be extracted out of Bodies of this nature but by the means of a pure and subtil Spirit such as that which has been drawn off from the course Extracts for this Spirit will dissolve by its subtil and penetrating faculty the Rosins of this said Wood and Aromatick So that to perform it well there needs but to proceed simply on in the same manner as has been done before in the digestion and filtration of the last Extract There is nothing left then unspoken but a Caution which must be given concerning the Mixture of this Resinous Extract with the Sugar the Extracts the Pouders and the Syrups which must be performed by dissolving it gently with some of its proper Spirit in a Pan and thus unite it gently with some Syrup before it be joyned to the rest otherwise it would remain in lumps and would not dissolve in the Stomach with ease enough to communicate the rays of its virtue as it is necessary it should be citò tutò jucundè when it is necessary to cause a Counter-poison or Cordial to operate We have but the third Classis of our Materials which are the Minerals upon which we have to treat of the order and dignity of their Preparation which are the Bole the Coral the Gold the Sealed Earth But we shall speak here but of the Bole and of the Sealed Earth which go hand in hand in their preparations which are done both the same way Then we shall speak also of Gold the principal subject which will make
appear how much Art helps Nature For we shall say nothing of the Coral's preparation because that we should to that effect hint on that we have already said in the Classis of Animals or of their parts when we have discours'd of Pearls and of their preparations We shall not mention any thing in this place concerning the nature of these Earths since we have treated of it heretofore we shall onely say that there must be had some of the first liquid Extraction of those Vegetables which enter in our Great Cordial and with it water these two Earths in a glass body till they be reduced into a liquid pap then draw off again this Liquor by Distillation with the gentle heat of a vaporous Bath and thus continue for seven times or rather till the Artist can find out by the taste of these Earths that they are sufficiently impregnated with the savour and virtue of the sulphureous volatil Salt of the Cordial Plants and then it is time to leave off drying what is in the Vessel in the same degree of heat till there appeareth no more moisture in the head of the Lembick nor a drop of liquor pass through the neck of the Lembick These Earths thus impregnated must afterwards be put in a Glass Vial which must be stopped very well to enter them afterwards in our Composition This operation is to separate and open the compact and close parts of those Earths and to imbibe and replenish with an Alexitery virtue the Atomes which constitute them that they may the sooner be reduced from power to act by the action of the Stomach when it is necessary to make use of the Remedies Before we begin to speak of the Preparation of Gold it seems to be necessary to speak two words before-hand to give to understand that this Metall may be so well opened by the means of Chymistry as to be capable of producing some virtue in us although it might be reduced again to its first metallick body for there are many which are of opinion that though this fix Body be dissolved and altered by Preparation nevertheless it is reducible into its body and by consequence not capable to produce in us that virtue which the Ancients and Moderns do attribute to it But we must clear this business by the demonstration of the dissolution of other Metalls into Salt or rather into Vitriol as Silver Copper Tin Lead and Iron which nevertheless are most commonly capable of being reduced again into Metall which hinders not but that the most skilful Physicians make of it daily more and more by reason that their study and experience makes them discover those rare virtues which these open'd Metalls produce in Chronical diseases which are the most rooted and stubborn Now all these Metallick Vitriols have different tastes and colours as also they have all some specifick virtues as it appears by their effects Which obliges us to say that since Gold though of a fix nature can be so prepared and opened by the means of certain things which are daily used both as Aliments and Medicaments and that it can be reduc'd into a vitriolick Salt which hath its colour and its specifick taste and virtue why should it be deprived of being put in use because of its reducibility into Metall Not but that we believe with the wisest that if this noble Metall was once so opened and radically dissolved in such wise that it could never be reduced into Metall again by any Chymical artifice I say we should believe that Gold thus uncorporified and volatilized would acquire a far more ample sphere of activity and virtue but notwithstanding all this we do not omit to attribute to the other Preparation that virtue which has been known by redoubled experiences first having been well and duly prepared and moreover first imbu'd impregnated and fill'd with the internal and central Sulphur of Antimony which is had in the true tincture of the Glass of that Mineral extracted according to Basilius Valentinus And it is of this Preparation of Gold which we have disposed in one part of this Great Cordial to render it accomplish'd in all respects We shall now lay down some of those Remarks which are necessary to this operation which may very well pass for one of the most pleasant and most considerable of all the rare Chymical Pharmacie The Artist therefore must chuse the purest Gold which yet ought to have in it something of allay and therefore he must pass it or melt it down with Antimony whose Sulphur consumes all which is heterogeneal to it as its great sweetness ductibility high colour and splendour does evidently testifie after it has passed this Examination But he must not stop there for this metallick Body is too fix and compact to be dissolved without the help of the most corroding Spirits which we will not use He must therefore open and separate that strong union of this Body and reduce it into a spongeous and penetrable Body whose atomes may be penetrated and dissolved by means of common water enriched or endowed with ordinary Salts which cannot be done but by the amalgaming with crude Mercury and reiterated Calcination with the common Sulphur which dilate the Gold and render it so spongeous and open'd that one Ounce of this Metall so prepared makes a greater quantity then half a Pound of Gold in an Ingot or Wedge Gold being brought to this pass must be dissolved with that amiable and familiar Dissolvent by a simple digestion and a light Ebullition towards the end in a Glass body in Sand and there will not remain a grain undissolved The Liquor must be filtrated and if any be desirous to make a fine Crocus of Gold or a Pouder of Gold impalpable and subtil let them take one part of this filtrated Liquor and precipitate it with volatil Spirit of Wine and the Liquor that was yellow will change it self into a green colour and the Gold will precipitate it self to the bottom of the Vessel into a brown Pouder which must be edulcorated by several reiterated lotions until it become insipid and afterwards it must be digested by three natural days in tartarized Spirit of Wine in a gentle heat of Mary's Bath and lastly it must be kept during three days in Rose Cinnamon-water then filtrate and drie it This Pouder thus prepared is a great Sudorifick and Cordial but what we are going to mention is far better The remainder of the filtrated Liquor which contains the dissolved Gold must be evaporated in a Glass vessel of a flat and large form until all the Salts be very drie then they must be put in pouder and thrown in a Glass circulatory then pour over them to the height of four fingers of Tartarized Alkohol of Wine place the Vessel in a heat of Bath and this Spirit will attract to it self all the dissolution of the Gold and invest it self with a gilded yellow very pleasant which must be separated from the
that all Salt is nothing but a close Spirit as also all Spirit but an open'd Salt For all the Seminal powers and all the chiefest virtues of Animals and of their parts proceeds from Light as from the Father from the Air as from the Medium and from the Salt as from the Son and all three together concur to the Generation of the Products of Nature We have advanced all this onely to make it appear the better that it is needless if not without reason that all the ancient Dogmatists and Sir Walter Rawleigh after them have introduced the burn'd Harts-horn in almost all Cordials Now what we have newly said makes appear that the Cordial virtue is no longer there and therefore cannot be imploy'd in them but as an astringent Earth and a spongeous body rarefi'd and drie the better to retain and preserve the volatil spirituous sulphureous and saline matters which are extracted out of other Ingredients It may be also objected that the calcined Harts-horn is not incapable of virtue since it can alter the ill Fermentations of the Stomach cure the Diarrhoea's and also stay the Bloudy-fluxes but she produces these effects onely by reason that she kills and mortifies the Sharpness and Acidities which proceed from the Indigestions and base Fermentations in the same manner that she quells the Acidity of Saline and Vitriolick Spirits and that of Vinegar when they have been digested together and drawn off again by distillation as insipid as water by reason that this rarefi'd dry and spongeous body is deprived of all Saltness and desire of re-furnishing it self with that Salt which did make the Acidity in those Liquors It is therefore for this onely reason that it has been put in the Composition of this Cordial But since that the volatil Salt of Harts-horn is Alexitery and Cordial and that it most powerfully contributes to the rare virtues of this Cordial we have also added to it some Harts-horn Philosophically Calcined in the Vapours of the Digestions Extractions Distillations and Circulations of Spirit of Wine which serves for Menstruum to extract the virtue of the parts of the Vegetables which compose it in which place this Horn softens it self by little and little swells and dilates by the moist and spirituous subtility which penetrates it and renders it friable and capable of being put in pouder with ease with the preservation of its cordial virtue But whereas there are some that think that the greatest part of the volatil Salt is gone out of it and has communicated it self to the Spirit of Wine which is very likely it has been thought necessary to adde to it the pouder of Harts-horn rasp'd without any other preparation that the volatil Salt which is the true Counterpoison and the true Cordial should not be wanting Not but that one might adde to it the volatil Salt of Harts-horn drawn by distillation but it was not put in by reason of its Empyreumatick and most ungrateful taste The Author of our Great Cordial and those that after him have work'd in the composition of this Remedy have almost always added the prepared Pearls to this Cordial and also sometimes they have open'd and dissolved the bodies of the Pearls by means of fixed Acides as distilled Vinegar juice of Limons Spirit of Sulphur and that of Vitriol and did pretend to have reduced by these means the Pearls into a Salt or into a dissoluble Magistery which were more capable of making their virtue appear But all those Liquors that are endow'd with a fixed Acidity do intimately joyn themselves unto the Bodies of the dissolved Pearls and their Salt remains which augments the weight of the dissolved Body by a fourth part and better which thing makes it appear that it is not a true Cordial Magistery Therefore we have thought fit to proceed in another manner which is to dissolve the Pearls with a Menstruum which may be drawn off again with the same taste and the same dissolving virtue that it had before And whereas this Spirit leaves behind it its odour and taste in the Magistery of Pearls it must be dissolved again in equal parts of Cinnamon and Rose-water which must be drawn off again in Mary's Bath and thus reiterate the same with new waters until the Magistery have lost the smell and taste of the volatil Spirit of Venus which is that admirable Menstruum onely capable of furnishing to Physick dissoluble pleasant and subtil Magisteries capable of penetrating unto the very last Digestions and carrying along with them the virtue of those Cordials to which they are associated And it is in this manner that we have prepared the Pearls for the composition of this Great Cordial We have no other observation touching the Vipers but onely that they must be stript of their skins and put to drie with the Hearts and Livers in a Glass bottom in Mary's Bath until they be fit to be poudered We say they must be thus used because that this kind of drying takes little or nothing of their volatil Salt from them and that in case there were any thing exhaled from them the Chymical Apothecary may retrive it in the water which drops from the head that covers the Body But when the Vipers are dried in an Oven there scarce remains any virtue in the flesh which remains tough like Hemp and almost insipid whereas that which has been dried in Mary's Bath is easily put in pouder and has a taste which declares that its Salt is still in it Part of it is put with the Vegetables to be extracted and there is some of it added also to the Pouders to give a Body and augment the virtue of the Remedy as we have already mentioned in the discourse concerning Harts-horn The Musk now remains which ought to be put in pouder with some white Sugar-candy in a marble Mortar the better to disunite its parts and afterwards open it by digestion and circulation in a vaporous Bath with Spirit of Wine in a Pelican then the Spirit must be drawn off again with a most gentle heat of the same Bath unto the consistency of a thick Syrup or half Extract which after must be mixed with the other things As concerning Amber-griece it must also be pouder'd in a Stone-Mortar with some white Sugar-candy and that so long till there be as it were a perfect union of those two substances which are not without great trouble allied together without a good uniting Medium by reason that Sugar is a vegetable Salt which can be dissolved and inseparably joyn'd with water which thing cannot be done with Amber-griece because it is a fat and melting Bitumen which has more connexion and analogie with Oils Now this Medium can be nothing else but the subtil and fiery Oil of rectified Wine and thrice passed over most pure Salt of Tartar in Mary's Bath Therefore this mixture of Sugar and Amber-griece must be put in a Glass Bottle and pour over it of this noble Menstruum
enters in this Cordial without any loss of their seminal faculties and without leaving behind in the substance of the vegetable things which compound it any remnant of their middle life's virtue as we shall prove it with more Energie when we shall treat of its Preparation We shall content our selves for the present to make known that its virtues have oblig'd our Author to make use of it to that purpose All those that know this Spirit well say that it has a most piercing virtue but that it is not quite so hot as the vulgar imagines since that it resolves the hottest Tumors and appeases the pains of Burning It s incorruptible nature renders it recommendable both because it preserves it self and that it preserves also all other animate or inanimate Beings for it resists Rottenness Corruption and the simple Alteration since that it preserves also the tenderest and moistest Fruits from that disunion that is next and infallible to them It hinders the Coagulation of the Bloud in Sprains and Contusions if it be suddenly appli'd and resolves with ease that which was already coagulated if its application has been too long retarded It dissipates and volatilizes that which is most gross hardest which is called Schirrous and that which is most running and material without borrowing of any other assistance then its proper virtue So that we may lawfully conclude that the Spirit of Wine is a mere Epitome of what there is of most excellent and virtuous in all the Vegetable Reign and that it is for that same reason that our Excellent Author hath made use of it for the Extractions of this Great and Rare Remedy Having ended the description of the Vegetables we must also give that of the Minerals that enter in this Celebrated Remedy which are five namely the Oriental Bole the Coral the Unicornu minerale the Gold and the Sealed Earth There are some Descriptions of this Cordial in which Gold doth not enter but that Description which is lawfully attributed to our Author contains a preparation of Gold which is the reason we would not omit it since that what we shall say concerning this noble Metall will make appear that it ought absolutely to enter in this Composition We have also added to it the Mineral Unicorn for those Reasons that we shall produce hereafter when we shall mention it And because that there is found such a numerous difference of Species of Sealed Earth we have thought fit to associate some Oriental Bole well chosen to that Earth which will have been found to be the best to the end that the virtue of the one should rather be augmented then fail in any of the points of the exact proportion that the one and the other may contribute to our Great Cordial The Oriental Bole or the Bole of Armenia is a kind of pale reddish Earth impregnated with Mineral Solar and Martial Vapours from whence are derived to it its principal· Faculties and its most excellent Operations by reason of the nobility of the embryonated Sulphur which this Earth contains The best is that which doth not participate of Sand but that melts down easily like quick Lime when Water is cast on it or that resolves and melts like to a fat substance when it is once moistned in the mouth It dries much it is astringent it strengthens therefore it is happily used to stop a Flux of what nature soever it be to thicken and fix the liquid and fluid Humours to resist Corruption and to beat back the strengths and attaches of Poison All that has been said of it is the reason why it is employ'd so usefully against the Diarrhoea against the Dysentery the immoderate Flux of Women Catarrhs the spitting of Bloud and against the flux of Bloud both of the Nostrils and Wounds And whereas the Sealed Earth is but a sort of Bole reduced into little Pellets or small Cakes which are marked with some figure or character that which is had in the Island of Lemnos which we have by the commerce of Constantinople of a reddish or grayish colour is chosen to be the best The Reddish is named by some the Fat or Greace of the Sun or Gold by reason of the portion of the embryonate Solar Sulphur of which it participates and the Grayish is named the Fat or Greace of the Moon or Silver because of the embryonate Lunary Sulphur which communicates its virtue to it The first is consecrated to the Heart and the second to the Liver and Brains Besides all the virtues that they have in common with the Oriental Bole they have over and above that of being truly Cordial of driving out Poisons to resolve the curded Bloud strengthen the Heart the Brains and the Ventricle dilate and clarifie the mass of Bloud and to provoke Sweat Insomuch that its principal uses are against the Plague against malignant Fevers against the biting of venomous Animals and to take away the venomous impression of Wounds which proves invincibly that it is not one of the smallest pieces of this Great Cordial We shall not idlely spend our time here in relating the frivolous opinions of those that have thought or yet believe that Coral is soft in the bottom of the Sea since that we are most certain of the contrary by the relation of those that dive for it The Coral therefore is nothing else but a stony vegetation which degenerates into a Tree The most excellent is the Red although there be some White and some Black and also of other colours as may be seen in the Closets of the Curious One must chuse that which is of the deepest colour esteemed to be the Male as the White is called the Female The virtues of Coral are to drie to cool it is astringent to strengthen especially the Heart and then the Ventricle and the Liver it purifies the Bloud it is by consequence excellent and specifick against the Plague against Poisons and against all sorts of malignant Fevers It rejoices Man it stops and appeases all Fluxes either of the Belly the Womb or of the other parts which are dedicated for generation It is reported also that if ten grains of it be given in Woman's Milk to a Child newly born that it is a precaution against the Epilepsie and Convulsion There are many Naturalists and amongst the rest Paracelsus that say that the red Coral hung about the Neck prevails against Frights against Witchcraft Inchantments Poisons the Epilepsie Melancholy the insultations and attaches of Daemons and against Thunder It is for certain in the Red Coral that a Solar Tincture is to be found since that all the rare effects that it produces cannot be had else-where but from that Sulphur mineral and embryonated which the Gold communicates to it in abundance which renders it most worthy to be in our Great Remedy and causes those brave lights which our Author did possess to be the more remarked Gold is without contradiction the most desirable and the most precious
portion of Metalls which are the fruits of the Mineral predestination It is doubtless the most perfect of those Children of the Earth It is most solid yellow compact and close in it self and is compounded with principles that are digested in the most sovereign degree and which are by consequence fix'd and permanent as its Incorruptibility proves The Chymists give it the name of the Sun because that they believe it hath some correspondency and harmonical relation not onely with the Celestial Sun of the Great world but also by reason that it has a sympathetical affinity with the Sun of the Little world which is the Heart of Man They call it also the King of Metalls because it is their Prince as that which is the most pure and most fix as also that which possesses the most eminent and most necessary virtues since that it is wholly dedicated to the Heart which is the King of the noblest Functions of Life For Gold is held for the most sovereign Cordial because it re-establishes and augments the radical Moisture and the natural Heat which have their principal seat in the Heart which is the reason that it may be given with success in all diseases in which the Spirits are dissipated and the strength weakned It purifies also the mass of the Bloud since that it dissipates and drives out by sensible and insensible Inspiration that which there was of naught and corrupted in that which is called the Humours and which are to speak properly nothing else but those things which result from the diversity of the alterations of the Bloud that tends by this ill disposition to Corruption and Rottenness and by consequence to the destruction of the Subject which it nourishes and vivifies But this noble Metall must be so prepared and decorporated that it may doe the Emanation of the rays of the virtue of its Central Sulphur as we shall reason upon it when we shall discourse of the Preparation The last we are to treat of is the Unicornu Minerale otherwise called White Load-stone and some would have it to be the Unicorn's Horn. But we must speak but merely of its generation and virtues in no wise medling with that diversity of opinions that the most eminent Authors have had concerning this Subject For the most skilfull and best knowing have thought it fit that this Mineral production should be added to the Great Cordial though it was not inserted in the first Descriptions notwithstanding those wonderful properties it is endow'd with render it most worthy This wonderful Mineral Drug is nothing else but the Concretion or Petrifaction of a fluid milky substance which contains in it self the congealing and lapidifying ferment which slides and insinuates it self in the Cavities of the womb of the Earth where it invests it self with the figure odour colour and consistence according to the nature of the things that it finds there as it is proved by the Collections that the most curious observers of Nature have made of it as also by the experience of its rare virtues which are equal with those of the Oriental Bole and those of the Sealed Earth since the Grandees are agreed that it resists Poisons the Plague and malignant Fevers insomuch that a Physician of this Age did make the pouder of this mixt pass for a Specifick against all Fevers and got repute in the City of Paris by several rare effects We shall speak no more of it to prevent tedious repetitions and so pass from the description of all the Ingredients of our Remedy to what we have promised to say concerning its General and Particular Preparation If we have had hitherto just cause to praise Sir Walter Rawleigh for having caus'd so many good things and which possess so many virtues to enter into his Cordial we must nevertheless confess that we have far more reason to augment his Elogies by reason of the Science and Experience which he hath shewn in the Preparation and perfecting of this grand Remedy But considering that it is composed of things which are of different natures and that are more or less fix or volatil it has been necessary to work with a great deal of Art and with a most exact reflexion upon all that composes this Remedy to preserve that which ought to be of good in the most subtil and withall to extract the essential virtue which was concentred in the grossest Now we have said heretofore that there were three Classes in this Composition which contain the Animal the Vegetable and the Mineral We must also now make appear those reasons which have oblig'd our celebrated Author to prepare them in that manner to which we shall adde also the Meditations and Thoughts that we have had on this Subject for the better preserving the volatil and to open the most fix that the union of the virtue of the productions of these three Families should be made with all the exactness therein required according to his Majesty's Command and the Intentions of those Illustrious Persons which we have formerly named Whereas no intire Animals do enter into our Cordial therefore we shall not speak here but of the parts of those Animals which contribute to this brave and sovereign Composition We shall treat therefore of the preparation of Harts-horns of that of Vipers of that of Musk and Pearls and in fine of that of Amber-griece We shall not say any thing concerning the Bezoar-stone since we have already said that it is a Magisterium perfected in the Ventricle of that Animal which produces it and that besides this Stone has no need of any other preparation then to be reduced into an impalpable Pouder for this Operation Now whereas the Receipt of this Remedy requires Harts-Horn burn'd or calcin'd to whiteness we cannot wonder enough at this way of proceeding since that those of the least capacity know that the Calcination carrieth away the volatil Salt from the calcined body and that by consequence it strips it from all its cordial virtue which cannot be contain'd but in this Sulphureous and volatil Salt For the most skilful Naturalists and the most experienced of all Artists who have grown old in the meditation and in the labour to make the Anatomy of Natural things thereby to know the better the virtue say all with one voice That the Soul and Virtue of all these sublunary Mixts resides properly and perfectly in what they contain of volatil Salt and that it is particularly and chiefly in the Animals that this is found since the proof of it is clearly evident in their Distillations which furnish a great abundance of Spirit Oil and volatil Salt and which leave behind nothing in the bottom of the Retort after the last action of Fire but that which may be called legitimately a mere Caput mortuum or dead Earth since that this calcined body contains nothing that participates of the Saline nature which is the Foundation and the Centre of all the powers and virtues by reason