Spirit of Vitriol is nothing but a small portion of the true Spirit mingled with a great deal of Phlegm and that this black Liquor which we call Oyl is indeed a pure Spirit of Vitriol entirely dephlegmated but because of its Sulphureous blackness and thickness it is improperly called Oyl being somewhat unctuous to the feeling though it be not at all inflameable as all true Oyls are Obs 1. That you must dephlegmate the Vitriol and powder it well before you put it into your Retort else you would not draw off the Spirit but the Phlegm alone for the matter would coagulate in the bottom of the Vessel into a lump which sticking close to the sides of the Retort would so retain all the Spirits that a strong fire of forty hours lasting would scarce be able to reduce this mass to powder therefore it is better to dephlegmate and reduce to powder your Vitriol before it be put into the Retort Obs 2. That we give no Intermedium to Vitriol as we do to Salt and Niter because being a terrestrious Salt it cannot be melted and by consequent cannot fix and retain its Spirits within its self so that provided it be dephlegmated the Spirits are easily raised and distilled by the violence of the fire Obs 3. That you need not fill your Retort up to the neck with your matter because the Spirit of Vitriol having not so much tenuity as the Spirits of Salt and Niter is not in danger of re-impregnating and fixing its self in its own masse Obs 4. That the Retort must be of Glass for the reason alledged in the Spirit of Salt Obs 5. That you chuse good Vitriol not too dry for it will yield more Spirit and Oyl therefore that which comes from Germany and the Low Countries is better than the Roman Vitriol for this effect It s virtue and effects Both the white Spirit and the black Oyls are Acids which pleasantly and excellently do cool desopilate and resist all corruption and therefore they are frequently and with good success made use of for the Liver and Kidneys in burning and Pestilentious Feavers The dose is five or six drops of the Spirit two or three of the Oyl either in Water Broth or White Wine It serves for the dissolution of Metals and in Surgery it is used either pure or mingled with a little water or Mel rosatum to touch the ulcers of the mouth The first and second Colcothar are both an excellent Astringent given in violent Diarrhoea's Dysenteries and Hepatick Fluxes or mingled with some unguents it stops bleeding Wounds The Marks to distinguish the Oyl of Vitriol from other are these 1. It is very black 2. It is not only acid but caustick 3. It is very heavy 4. It seizes the nose with a strong Vapour when new made and in all these four conditions it is like the Oyl of Sulphur As for the Spirit it is known by its pleasant acidity by its yellowish colour and because being old it yields no smell no more than Spirit of Sulphur neither doth it corrode or make its stopple yellow the Spirits of Niter and Aqua fortis are distinguished from it by their smell and because they corrode and change the colour of their stopples Spirit of Salt is known from it because it has a brackish taste and smells strong when new being much more intolerable and unpleasant than Spirit of Vitriol Aqua Fortis TAke a Glass-Retort luted up to half its neck put in it equal parts of common Niter and green Vitriol not dephlegmated but they must be beaten to powder in an Iron Mortar before fill but two thirds of your Retort leaving a third empty for else the Vitriol being melted by the Niter would it may be rise and run in substance into the Recipient before the distillation of the Aqua fortis could be begun Set your Retort in a little Reverberatory or in a little Circulatory fire a great Reverberatory being not so necessary here because the Niter is of it self so volatil and having melted the Vitriol it makes it likewise capable of yielding its Spirits without a very violent degree of heat Give your fire by degrees continuing the first degree till the phlegm which will appear in a white vapour in the Recipient be distilled otherwise if at first you did give a great heat the Niter and Vitriol together would boil over your Vessel and in their own substance run into the Recipient When your Recipient begins to fill with red Vapours which is the sign of the Spirit 's coming forth augment your fire and cover your Retort with Coals if it be in a Circulatory fire continue this heat till your Recipient begin to lose something of the brightness of its red colour and till it become cold though the fire be vehement under the Retort then the matter has sent forth all its Spirits and you shall find these red Vapours dissolved all into a white clear Liquor as water Out of one pound of common Niter and as much of green Vitriol undephlegmated you may have sixteen ounces of Aqua fortis Obs 1. That though the Spirit of Vitriol cannot be drawn from Vitriol undephlegmated yet Aqua fortis may because being in company with the Niter it cannot after the distillation of its Phlegm coagulate in a lump which might fix and retain its Spirits the Niter by its opening Sulphur keeping the Vitriol porous and vaporous Obs 2. That Aqua fortis may be very well made with dephlegmated Vitriol and fine Niter and then it is so strong and corrosive that it is Aqua regalis and can dissolve Gold and Silver but because we do not ordinarily need in Chymistry so strong a dissolvent for the frequent dissolutions we make of Mercury of Tin of Bismuth and of Silver we are content with Aqua fortis prepared as has been taught It s virtue and use This is a very caustick burning water some do touch Warts and Corns with it but it is dangerous so to do and our Chymistry will afford us gentler and fitter remedies which I shall set down hereafter It serves to dissolve your Metals and Minerals the Dyers use it to give a strength and penetration to their Colours The Marks to distinguish it are 1. It is yellowish 2. Stinks very much 3. It yellows and corrodes its stopple and the bladder and pack-thread that are employed about the stopping of it 4. If you pour a drop or two of it upon a Brass-half-peny it makes it stir and look green The Spirit and black Oyl of Sulphur TAke a great Stone or unglazed Earthen Pan put it into a pound of common water in the middle of this Pan set a little Stone-pot and upon this Pot place a little flat Earthen Cup full of sand in the mean time reduce into powder four pound of Brimstone and of this put one spoonful into the middle of the sand then take a great Coach-wheel Nail and heat it red hot and with a pair of
Tinctures to draw out of them and precipitate either the Rosin or the Magistery If you will be content to lose your Dissolvant and so convert all your Tinctures into Rosin pour them into a great glass Bell full of cold water and presently your Tincture will precipitate to the bottom in the consistence of a white Rosin separate all the liquor that swims above it and loosen and take away your Rosin which did begin to stick to the bottom of the Vessel put it into a glass either whole or in pieces which being cold will grow as hard as Rosin or Colophone If you will draw off your dissolvant and change your Tinctures into a Magistery put them all into a glass Cucurbit of such a proportion as not to be above half full with them place it in a Balneum Mariae and fit to it a head Give the fire by degrees and draw off by distillation about half the Spirit of Wine to use in other such uses then pour the remainder while it is warm into a glass Bell full of cold water and presently the Tincture of your dissolvant will be precipitated not into a Rosin but into a white Curd which by little and little in half a quarter of an hours time will be converted into a white Rosinous powder Separate by inclination the water and pour two or three times cold water upon this powder to separate it well from its dissolvant then filter the remainder through a Coffin of white Paper and dry it in the shade keep this powder or Magistery in a Vial well stopt Obs 1. That we take Jalap very well cleansed from its ordures that we may have a fairer Rosin and more of it and that it is first dried in the Sun to the end that its waterish humidity being gone it may not dull the action of the dissolvant and so it will be able to extract easilier the Resinous Tincture of Jalap Obs 2. That common cold water precipitates your Tincture into a Rosin or a Rosinous powder because that weakening the Spirit of Wine by its quantity it makes it lose its hold and so let fall to the bottom that substance which it had seized upon in the dissolving it Obs 3. That the precipitate of Jalap is more properly called a Rosin than a Gum because it would dissolve better in oyly liquors as Rosins do than in waterish liquors as Gums do Obs 4. That when your Tincture is thrown into cold water before it be evaporated half away it then precipitates in consistence of a Rosin but when it is evaporated half away then it is precipitated in consistence of a Curd which comes to a Powder Obs 5. That the Rosin or Magistery of Jalap is nothing but the Rosinous part of Jalap separated from all the terrestrial part which remains in the Matrass and from its volatil Salt which has been dissolved in the Dissolvant or in the Precipitant It s Vse and Vertue It purges by stools without procuring Vomit it has a gentler way of operating than pure Jalap taken in substance because it is devested of its Volatil Salt which is its sharpest part The Dose is from six to twelve grains or thereabouts in form of Pills or Bolus with some Conserve or some such thing The Rosin or Magistery of Scammony TAke good clean Scammony powder it then fasten a leaf upon a little woodden Square or Frame upon the Paper spread your powder place it over the vapour of Brimstone which you must throw from time to time into a Chasing-dish full of Coals and in the mean time stir continually your powder with a woodden Spatula and do not approach it too near the Fire lest it should melt and so become a lump as before for if such a thing should happen you would not be able to make the flegm and the volatil and sulphureous malignant salts of the Scammony to evaporate which is the thing you aim at Your Scammony being thus prepared you shall extract out of it a Tincture as red as blood in a glass double-Matrass with Spirit of Wine of which Tincture make the Rosin or Magistery in the same way that you make the Rosin or Magistery of Jalap It s Vse and Vertues The Rosin of Scammony purges gentlier than Scammony in substance because it is devested of a great deal of its sulphureous volatil Salt by the burning vapour of the Brimstone The Spirit of Wine and common Water have set at liberty and dissolved the rest of the volatil Salt and the terrestrial part or Faeces remain in a small quantity in your Matrass The Dose is from ten to twenty grains The Cremor Tartari TAke four pound of white Tartar of Montpellier in great lumps wash them well in common cold Water and then dry them upon boards in the Sun this done beat them in a brass Mortar and searce them to a very fine powder In the mean time let there be a pale of Water boyling in a Brass or Copper Kettle and into it throw your Tartar by spoonfuls and so let it boyl for two hours stirring it continually with a woodden Spatula then take off your Kettle from the fire and filter your Dissolution while it is warm through divers Coffins of brown Paper evaporate your filtrations in earthen glaz'd Pans over a naked fire till by their boyling there appear a kind of a skin upon the surface of the said Decoction then take off your Pans place them in your Cellar and in three or four days there will be congealed to the bottom and sides of your Pans great quantity of Crystals as white as Snow and of a triangular and square Figure Pour out the Water that remains in your Pans if it look dirty keep it and boyl it again to a consistence of a skin then congeal it in your Cellar and so draw out all the Crystals left in it dry your Crystals either in the Sun or in a dry place then gather them and put them into glass Vials well stop'd and thus you have that which Chymists call Cremor Tartari or Crystal of Tartar Out of one pound of Tartar you have foor ounces of Crystals and twelve of Faeces Obs 1. That for this Operation we chuse Tartar of Montpellier because it is much salter than the Tartar of any other part of France because that at Montpellier they use great Hogsheads or rather Tuns that serve twenty or thirty years so that there gather to the sides of them a Tartar three or four fingers thick and by consequent very saltish besides that the strength of the Wine of those parts makes their Tartar better and at last we chuse white Tartar because it contains more Salt than the red Obs 2. That we wash well the lumps of Tartar before we powder them to the end we may cleanse them from a kind of terrestrial dreggs which remain upon the said Tartar in form of a powder by washing part of this powder goes to the bottom
smell most perfectly pour off this Tincture and keep it in a glass Vial for your use when you intend to make of it Virginal Milk put about a spoonful of this Tincture into a precipitatory Vessel as a glass Bell c. and pour on it about a pint of cold Water your Tincture and VVater will be both as white as Snow and your Tincture will be incorporated with the VVater without precipitating to the bottom Obs 1. That the Benjamin and Storax containing but very little of terrestrial impurities do dissolve almost totally in Spirit of VVine which by the thinness penetration and evenness of its substance dissolves easily and without heat the said Rosins Obs 2. That the red Tincture is turn'd as white as Milk when it is dissolv'd in three or four times its quantity of VVater because that the common VVater does force the Spirit of VVine which was impregnated with these Bodies to let go its hold and so it does to all Dissolvants It s Vse and Vertues This Virginal Milk serves to refresh and whiten the skin it is excellent against all rednesses inflammation and Eresypela's The Precipitate or Magistery of Silver or Luna TAke one ounce of the purest Silver beaten into Plates as thin as Paper then cut it into little bits and put it into a Matrass with a long neck pour upon it three ounces of Aqua fortis made with Niter and Alom and so let your Silver dissolve in it without heat pour out your Dissolution into a glass Bell and pour upon it a quart of Sea-water the Silver will presently turn into white Curds which in a small time by little and little will precipitate into a powder as white as Snow and as shining as pieces of Diamonds separate by inclination your Sea-water impregnated with the Aqua fortis and pour on more cold common VVater so often till at last it come away without any saltish taste which is a sign that your powder is dulcorated filter the remainder through a Coffin of white Paper and let it dry in the shade you will have a Calx Precipitate or Magistery of Luna most admirably fair and white and glittering put it into a glass Bottle well stop'd and keep it for your use Obs 1. That you must take the finest purest Silver for if there were the least mixtion of Venus or Copper in it the Magistery instead of being white would be green like Vitriol Obs 2. That you must take Aqua fortis made on purpose with pure Niter and Alom for the Spirit of Niter alone would be too sharp and your Magistery would hardly be sweetned from all Acrimony which might if there remain'd any corrode and spoil the face it is laid upon As for common Aqua fortis made with Niter and Vitriol it would be worse not only because it is sharper than Spirit of Niter but also because of its having Vitriol amongst it which would make your Magistery black Alom is much fitter to be added to Niter because it has little Acrimony and great quantity of Flegm insomuch that Alom is nothing but a part of Virginal saltish Earth and a great deal of Water congealed and crystallized together Obs 3. That Sea-Water precipitates the Calx of Silver for the Reasons which we have said in the Chapter of the Magistery of Bismuth Obs 4. That the Magistery of Silver or the Moon is nothing but a Philosophical calcination of Silver by the means of Aqua fortis precipitated by Sea-Water and sweetened by frequent Lotions It s Vse and Vertues It is the best of all Fucuses according to the esteem and opinion of Ladies because of the choice of the matter and of the Dissolvant and also because it is dearer than the others the great price of things serving often to create an esteem for them The Tincture of Gold or Aurum Potabile TAke a hollow branch of Crystal as thick as your finger and two or three foot long thrust it half way into warm Ashes to heat a little and so dispose it to endure a greater heat without flying then present it by little and little to the fire of a reverberatory Furnace then put it quite into the Furnace and hold it in the middle of the flame to make it grow red and soft there must be over against the Fire-room-door a hole by which another must put in the end of a little Crystal Twig made as small as a thread which he must heat likewise and soften and when it is soft he must fasten it to the end of the great branch which you hold then let him draw this Rod or Twig to himself and the branch will follow and stretch like Paste and you may make as many Rods and as small as you please of it Having made divers little Rods of Crystal by this method you must guild them one after another with Ducket Gold in Leaves buy therefore a Book containing six and twenty Leaves of Ducket Gold take one of these Leaves and spread it upon a Cushion made of Calves Leather and with a sharp Knife cut it into little slices of half a fingers breadth then wet with spittle one end of your Crystal Rods and apply it to one of these slices turning it upon the Cushion to make the Gold stick then continue wetting it a little higher and apply it to another slice of Gold and do so till you have guilded all your Crystal Rods one after another using a little white Cotton to press your Gold and make it stick This done put them to dry in an Oven after the Bread is taken out when they are dry apply another lay of Gold to them and then dry them do thus seven times so that each Crystal Rod be covered with seven lays of Gold Then powder grosly all of them guilded and dried and put them into a Crucible which set in a VVind-Furnace give a great fire and continue it till your matter be melted then take it out and powder it it will look yellow let your powder be very fine Put this powder into a long-necked Matrass and put to it a dragm of the Salt called the Salt Anatron or the Salt of Glass it is the fix'd Salt which sticks to the bottom of the Kettles where Salt-peter is boyled if you can come by none of this Salt Anatron put in common Sea-Salt decrepitated and pour upon it also Spirit of Salt well rectified and devested of its flegm four or five fingers above the matter this Spirit being whet and sharpened by the addition of the Salt Anatron or common Salt will corrode and dissolve the said Gold in three or four hours without fire and in this action will lose its force so that it will have no Acrimony left but only a pleasant acidity and it will be impregnated with the Tincture of Gold in the mean timâ— it will not operate at all upon the Crystal which will remain in the bottom of your Vessel in its own substance fit for other
uses as we shall teach hereafter VVhen you see your Spirit well tinged with the colour of Gold then pour it off and put to your matter the like quantity of the Salt Anatron or of Sea-Salt decrepitated in its place and as much rectified Spirit of Salt to draw off another Tincture and do so as long as your Spirit does draw any Tincture and till it come away as sharp as it went in Put your Tinctures together they will make a Potable Gold as yellow as a Topaz and of no taste If you put them into a small glass Body with a Head of the same in a Lamp-fire and draw off by Distillation half your Dissolvant there will remain a Tincture of Gold more lively and acid and also potable Obs 1. That we use Crystal as an intermedium for Gold which without any intermedium could not be calcin'd but would melt and if it be not calcin'd then it will not dissolve in so gentle a Dissolvant as Spirit of Salt Now there is no intermedium better than Crystal for all other Metals would melt and mingle with Gold Minerals besides their metallick qualities would also impart to the Gold the Corrosion and Acrimony of their Salts but Crystal containing but a very little Salt and a great deal of Earth it does not mingle nor communicate to the Gold any Acrimony and yet by the driness of its substance it hinders the melting of Gold and so furthers its calcination Obs 2. That the Gold and Crystal being calcin'd are powder'd because that so the Gold is easier to be dissolved by so gentle a Dissolvant as Spirit of Salt Obs 3. That we use Spirit of Salt to dissolve Gold already calcin'd because that though there be more powerful Dissolvants as Aqua fortis made with fine Niter and deflegmated Vitriol or Colcothar as also Aqua regalis which is made with Niter Vitriol and Salt Armoniack yet these Dissolvants are too corrosive before and after the dissolution of the Gold to be potable and the Spirits of Vitriol or Sulphur are not sharp enough so that the Spirit of Salt alone has force enough to dissolve Gold and make it potable after its dissolution and yet this Spirit must be rectified too and whet and sharpened by the addition of Salt Anatron or common Salt decrepitated Obs 4. That the Crystal which remains in the Matrass after the dissolution must be well dulcorated or sweetened and then may serve for a Dentrifice or cleanse Teeth by wetting a corner of a Towel in common Water and then putting it into the said powder and with it rub your Teeth or it may serve to make the Salt of Crystal as we have said already Obs 5. That the Gold is potable but as long as it remains dissolved in the said Spirit of Salt and that you must not mingle it with any Liquor whatsoever for if you do it will precipitate your Gold into a yellow powder and so you will lose your Tincture Obs 6. That potable Gold is nothing but Leaves of Gold calcin'd with Crystal and dissolved in rectified Spirit of Salt It s Vse and Vertues It cannot be doubted but that this Potable Gold has the vertues of Spirit of Salt that is it is excellent against pestilential and putrid Feavers to purifie the Blood drive out Gravel whiten the Teeth and also it may be said to have the vertue of the Water of Pearls and being thus prepared consumes all sharp humors in the Body as Pearls thus prepared do so that it is not without reason that this Remedy is esteemed as good against Cancres and venomous Ulcers and pestilential Feavers The Dose is six or eight drops in some Broth or appropriated Water and for the Teeth you may put a spoonful of it in two spoonfuls of Rose-Water or Flower of Orange or Jasmin It has likewise the vertue of preserving your Wine in your Cellar for many years by putting about half a pound of this Potable Gold into a Hogshead of Wine but except it be very rare Wine indeed and that you desire to have it of many years it would cost you more than it would be worth The Salt of Vitriol or the Crystals of Venus TAke Verdigreece or Spanish Green as much as you please powder it in a Brass Mortar and stop your Nose close left the venomous vapours should poyson you put it into an ample Matrass with a long neck so that it be three quarters empty pour upon it good distilled Vinegar so that your Matrass be almost quite full place it in a Sand-fire and by fitting to it another Matrass make a double Vessel of it in twelve hours time you will have a blew Tincture like true Turquoises pour off this Tincture into a stone Pan pour on more distilled Vinegar upon the Faeces to extract a new Tincture and do this till there remain nothing but brown Faeces in the bottom of your Matrass then take a glass Cucurbite and apply to the bottom of it a leaden or iron Ring tied to it by four pack-threads which are fastened to a pack-thread tied about the body of the Cucurbite put all your Tinctures into this Cucurbite which set in a Kettle full of Water where it cannot swim nor lean more on one side than the other because of the weight it has at the bottom draw off the distilled Vinegar till you see that there is a thin skin begun to be formed upon your Tincture then take out your Cucurbite and set it in a cool place as a Cellar in three or four days there will be in the bottom and upon the sides of your Vessel divers Crystals of a lovely blew-like Turquoises This done pour off by inclination all the Water that is not congealed and evaporate it in a Cucurbite in a Balneum Mariae as has been said already reiterating the evaporation and crystallization of the said Water or Tincture till there remain very little of it Then put together all your Crystals into another Matrass pour upon them distilled Vinegar enough to dissolve them you may make use of that Vinegar which you drew off from your first Tincture place your Matrass in a Sand-fire and make a double Vessel of it in three or four hours time the dissolution of your Crystals being done filter it while it is warm through a brown Paper and receive your filtration in a stone Pan there will congeal in this Pan great quantities of Crystals which will change their blew colour into a green one like Emeralds and half transparent Pour off by inclination the Water that shall not congeal then set your Crystals in the Sun to dry them well and when they are well dryed take them out of the Pan and put them into a glass Vial well stopp'd to keep for your use Obs 1. That to extract the Salt of Venus or Copper we use Verdigreece because that Verdigreece is nothing but Venus dissolv'd extracted and calcin'd Philosophically by the acid Spirit of Wine Now
Salt in it and therefore yields more Spirits you may learn in the Chapter of Crystal-Mineral how Niter is purified and that in its purifying it is devested of its fixt Salt Obs 4. and 5. That the Retort must be of Glass and filled up to the neck for the reasons alledged in the precedent Operation Obs 6. That the Phlegm which comes first in the distillation is in a very small quantity and cannot be separated from the Spirit by rectification because this Spirit is so Volatil that it comes of a sudden conjointly with the Phlegm and so the rectification would be unnecessary the Phlegm being in so small a proportion to the Spirit as not to be able to make the last lose any thing of its activity and energy Its Vertues and use This Spirit is Corrosive not only applyed to Warts rotten Flesh and the Gangreen but it corrodes and dissolves Mercury and the other Metals it is often to be preferr'd to Aqua fortis for these two uses or it is not so burning in its action upon the flesh as Aqua fortis and it is much fitter for the dissolutions which are made by it of Mercury and other Metals and Minerals in order to the preparing of some remedy to be taken inwardly as well because pure Niter is an acid aperitive and pure Vitriol is an acid vometive as because Niter being a Sulphureous Salt drawn from temperate Animals and Vitriol a terrestrious Salt drawn from Minerals by their union in the composition of Aqua fortis is produced a malignous quality Nay it is fitter than Aqua fortis for the dissolution of Minerals in order to make Fucuses for the face because the Spirit of Niter applyed to the skin leaves but a little yellow spot which may be easily taken away whereas Aqua fortis leaves a deep orange-spot so sticking and adhering that it can never be taken out but with the loss of the skin from whence we may infer that a Fucus prepared with Aqua fortis should rather black than whiten the skin The marks to distinguish this Spirit are these 1. That it is of the same colour and transparency as the Spirit of Salt 2. That it is very vaporous and stinking coming near the stinking smell of Aqua fortis 3. It is too corrosive and biting to be tasted upon the Tongue but to try its goodness pour out some drops upon a Brass half-peny and if it be right it will presently boil and makes the half-peny stir it produces a blew colour in the said half-peny 4. It corrodes and makes its Linen-stopple look yellow as Aqua fortis uses to do sometimes the Spirits of Vitriol and Sulphur are sophisticated by putting a little Spirit of Niter or a little Aqua fortis into common Water till there result an acid taste which is not caustick but you shall perceive this cheat if having rubbed a Paper with the Spirits of Vitriol and Sulphur in one place and the Spirit of Niter and common Water in another place you present the said Paper to the fire for then the place rubb'd with the Spirits of Vitriol and Sulphur will grow black and break and the place rubb'd with Spirit of Niter in common Water will only grow yellow and not break The Spirit and black Oyl of Vitriol TAke an Earthen-pot unglazed of the Earth they make Crucibles of fill it up to the brim with good green Vitriol set this pot upon a Salt-seller in a great Circulatory fire in two hours time or there abouts your Vitriol having first dissolved into a Liquor will be dryed deflegmated and at last coagulated into a grayish lump then take out your pot let it cool and when cold put your matter into a Brass or Iron Mortar and powder it Take a Glass Retort well luted up to half the neck fill it with the said Vitriol and place it according to Art in a great Reverberatory fire fitting to it a great Receiver Give your fire by degrees coming as soon as you can to the last which continue till you perceive in the top and sides of your Receiver a kind of black Veins that trickle down to the bottom these are the black Oyl which begins to distil Then unlute your Receiver from its Retort and separate by inclination the acid Spirit of Vitriol which hitherto has been distilled and which is of a white and transparent colour like Water and which entered your Receiver in the form of a white Vapour By this time your Vitriol will be calcin'd into a red colour and brought to be a Colcothar which yet retains its black Oyl Which to extract you must again fit the Receiver to its Retort without lute for else the neck of the Retort being exceeding hot would presently break by the approach of the cold and moist Lute continue then your fire and give it in the highest degree for the space of six or eight hours till your Receiver be cold though the fire be vehement under the Retort by that you 'll perceive that the contain'd matter has yielded all its black and thick Oyl Let your fire go out then take out your Retort which by the long violence of the fire will seem somewhat sunk and straitned and in it will remain a Colcothar devested of its phlegm its Spirit and its black Oyl but yet containing the fixed Salt of Vitriol and therefore is not so sharp and acrimonious as the first Colcothar 'T is out of this second Colcothar that you may extract the Caput mortuum of Vitriol by making a Lexivium of the said Colcothar to extract it s fixed Salt Out of one pound of green Vitriol you 'll have nine or ten ounces of Spirit with its Phlegm and half an ounce of black Oyl The acid Spirit of Vitriol contains much Phlegm which came first with it therefore if you desire to have a purified Spirit you must evaporate the Phlegm by putting this Spirit Inflegmated into a Matrass not luted which set upon a Salt-seller in a small Circulatory fire till the whole substance be half diminished and begin to look a little yellowish if you continue this Evaporation any longer your Spirit will become blackish drawing near the colour and acidity of your Oyl of Colcothar If reciprocally with the said black Oyl of Colcothar you desire to make a white acid Spirit do but mingle in a Matrass one dragm of the said Oyl with an ounce of common water then you shall see that the said Oyl will presently go to the bottom and will so heat the neck of the Matrass that you will scarce be able to hold it in your hand Mingle them well by agitation till the water grow blackish then through Paper filtrate the said liquor and there will come a clear acid Spirit as yellow as Gold which will have the same force and virtue as the common Spirit of Vitriol the Paper retaining the black and thick faeces From whence we may conclude that this clear Liquor which we call
Spirit is very pure and very good The last Spirit that comes is not good as well because it brings phlegm with it as because it smells of the Empyreuma or burning and having been long in the Vesica is somewhat impregnated with the substance and qualities of the Copper Therefore set it aside to be used exteriourly or in Mechanicks or else rectifie it again with new Brandy Whensoever your perceive that there comes some muddy whitish drops which make the clear Spirit which was in the Receiver change its colour then know that it is time to make an end of the Operation for these drops are the flegm which produces this effect upon the pure Spirit for if you put two or three drops of Water into good Spirit of Wine it will do the same thing There will remain in the Vesica twelve quarts of flegm muddy and greenish from the Copper this tincture is to be thrown away This Spirit of Wine does also contain in it self something of the Copper nevertheless it may be taken safely by the mouth because that Copper extracted by this Spirit is not so dangerous as Verdigreece extracted out of Copper by Vinegar Nay the Copper does contribute much to the preservation of this Spirit in its force But if in a Glass Alembick you will take the pains to rectifie it and reduce your eighteen quarts to fifteen then you may without scruple use it in all manners and in the bottom of your Cucurbit there will remain a green tincture which is a flegm impregnated with the Salt and Sulphur of Venus or Copper Which tincture evaporated congeals into blew Crystals then powdred and dissolved in common Water filtred and then evaporated a second time will again in a cold Cellar congeal into blew transparent Crystals of Venus It s virtue and use Spirit of Wine is a powerful Dissolver for all sorts of Gums and Rosins as well for the use of Physick as to make China-Vernish it is good for Burnings Contusions Gangreens Palsie cold Fluxions particularly if it be circulated with Salt of Tartar it serves to extract perfectly the tincture of all Barks Rinds Woods Berries Aromatick Balsamick and Resinous as also of Opium to make of them Magisteries Extracts Essences and Syrops The Phlegm Spirit and Oyl of Turpentine FIll half the fourth part of a Brass Vesica with clear Venice Turpentine pour upon it common Water till the Vessel be but half full lest if it were fuller the Turpentine should boil up and run in its own substance into the Receiver Fit to the Vesica the Moors-head bordered with its Refrigeratory omitting the sponges in the neck because the Liquor here is not spiritous enough to pass through them Give your fire and govern your Operation altogether as has been taught in the Chapter of Spirit of Wine The Flegm Spirit and Oyl will come altogether but the Flegm will sink to the bottom of your Receiver whereas the Spirit and Oyl will swim above There will remain in the Vesica a thick substance called Colophon Separate your Flegm by a Glass-Tunnel and keep the Spirit and Oyl incorporated together This Oyly Spirit is sold by Druggists in Paris under the name of Spirit of Turpentine they have it from Provence and afford it us at a much cheaper rate than we could make it at Paris How to separate entirely the Spirit from the Oyl Fill a Glass-Retort half full your Retort must be luted only there must be upon the neck a long empty space left to see into it that so you may perceive towards the end of the Operation of what colour your Oyl is set your Retort upon a Round in the little Circulatory fire and distil your matter till you have three parts of Spirit out of it and that in the bottom of your Retort you see a thick red Oyl almost of the colour of a Pomgranate Take then your Retort off from the fire and pour out this hot Oyl into an Earthen Pan of white ware As for the Spirit which you have in the Receiver rectifie it again in the same Retort and by the same sort of fire so as to distil three quarters and an half in Spirit and the rest remain in form of a thick red Oyl which done pour out the said Oyl to that which you have already Then rectifie your Spirit again doing thus as long as you can extract any Oyl out of it then your Spirit will be right and pure devested of its Oyl and without smell but it will still have its force and acrimony The Use and Virtues of the Spirit 'T is a powerful Diuretick and makes the Gonorrhaea's flow abundantly by melting and inciding those tough and clammy humours which stop the passages of Sperm and Urine It dissolves the soft Stones which are not yet strongly petrified It dissolves all Gums better than Spirit of Wine and that without any additional heat either of Fire or Sun Therefore it is used in making the best Vernish it dissolves with a small heat Brimstone and makes a better Balsam of it than that which is made with the oyly Spirit of Turpentine bought at the Druggists The Provencals who are great Drawers of Essences use it in all their Operations either upon Flowers or Woods Barks Leaves or Berries both Aromatick and Balsamick because this Spirit being naturally unctuous is easily impregnated with the oyly Essence of these Druggs and because it has no smell of its own it easily takes the Aromatick or Balsamick Odour of any of those that are infused in it and then distil it in the Vesica as we do Spirit of Wine For do not think that their Essences are pure and drawn from their Druggs alone no they are nothing but Spirit of Turpentine impregnated with the Essence of them So that this Spirit has a double use for it extracts the Essence and multiplies it considerably The Virtues and Use of the red Oyl It is a Sovereign Anodynum for the wounds of nervous parts because it has lost all its Acrimony which consisted in its Spirits The Salt of Tartar of which is made the Oyl of Tartar by solution of the Salt TAke equal parts of pure Nitar and good Tartar either white or red powder them apart very fine then mingle them in a glazed earthen Pan then with a red hot Iron stir all this masse until the Niter be entirely consumed and evaporated which you shall know by the ceasing of flagration or burning Thus your Tartar being perfectly calcin'd will afford you a Salt as white as Snow and the same in weight with that which you mingled with the Niter at first whence you may conclude that Tartar is all Salt The Oyl of Tartar is made thus Set this Salt in a very wet air such as the air of a Celler there it will melt and dissolve into a white viscous Liquor which we call Oyl of Tartar by solution to distinguish it from the black stinking Oyl which is drawn by distillation in
a Retort and open fire nevertheless to speak properly the name of Oyl is not due to either of them because they are neither Sulphurous nor inflamable substances If after you have made the Salt of Tartar you are in haste to have the Oyl you may presently compass your end by throwing eight ounces of common Water upon four ounces of this Salt of Tartar for then it will all dissolve into Liquor Obs 1. That you chuse good Tartar for that is all Salt whereas the grosser sort of Tartar has much of faeces and terrestreity in it which would spoil this Operation in which we pretend to dissolve all the Salt into Water Obs 2. That your Niter be well devested of all its fixt Salt because we desire here a pure Salt of Tartar without the mixtion of any other therefore your Niter must be entirely volatil and exhale all in the flagration Obs 3. That they both be well powder'd and mingled together that so the Niter penetrating the Tartar do throughly calcine it and it is for this reason that we use an equal quantity of Niter By this method the Tartar is far better and easilier calcin'd than by the naked fire without any Intermedium Obs 4. That we make use here of an earthen glazed Pan without any fear that the Niter should corrode the Lead of the Vernish because its flame is not retained but is at liberty to exhale An unglazed or stone-Pan would be unfit for the Operation because it would presently break by the Inflammation of the Niter The Virtues and Use of the Salt 'T is a great Aperitive Deopilative and Diuretick the dose is from one to two dragms in some Broth or any other appropriated Liquor The Tartar Vitriolated because of the grateful acidity which it borroweth from the Vitriol is much more pleasant to take than this Salt This Salt in the quantity of half a scruple will extract in a quarter of an hour the virtue and tincture of half an ounce of Senna in a glass of cold water and at the same time proves a good Corrective to the noisom smell and taste of the Senna giving it also the virtue of penetrating into all the Veins The Oyl of Tartar is very scouring and drying and is therefore excellent to rub all Scabs Itch and Tetters as also to take away Spots and Sun-burns upon the Hands and Face It is useful to precipitate the dissolutions of Metals and Half-metals or Marcasites And pray by the By take notice That all Acids as Sea-water distilled Vinegar Oyl of Tartar Spirit and black Oyl of Sulphur and Vitriol Spirit of Niter and Aqua fortis serve to precipitate the dissolutions of Minerals but that ordinary common Water serves to precipitate the Distillations and Calcinations of Minerals as also the Dissolutions of Vegetables made in Spirit of Wine for the Reasons which hereafter we shall alledge Crystal Mineral or Lapis Prunellae TAke a Pot of the same Earth that Crucibles are made of of the bigness of a Chamber-pot and like it in Figure with a handle set it upon two Bricks in a great Circulatory Fire of Suppression before the Pot be heated throw into it as much pure Salt-peter in powder as will fill it up to the brim the Salt-peter will melt and as soon as it is melted throw into it a spoonfull of Brimstone in powder which immediately will take fire and be consumed when the flame ceases throw in as much more and so do three or four times This Brimstone does not communicate any virtue to the Niter only serves to purifie it by precipitating its Faeces to the bottom of the Pot till it become so transparent that after these Projections and Flagrations you may see the bottom of the Pot through the melted Niter This done pour a little of this melted Niter into a Brass-tinn'd-Kettle and presently set your Pot upon the fire again having taken away a good part of the Coals round about it then stir your Kettle so as to make the Niter spread it self all over the bottom of your Vessel which done set it in a bigger Vessel full of cold Water that so you may hinder the Niter from burning and adhering too strongly to the bottom of your Kettle separate then at last this white Crust which is as thin and as brittle as Glass and as white as Alabaster and is by some called Crystal Mineral After this take more melted Niter out of your Pot pour it into your Kettle and do all things as before continuing till there be nothing left in the Pot but the Faeces of the Niter which you may throw away Then gather all these thin Crystals together and put them into a Kettle of Water upon the Fire there to dissolve by a gentle ebullition and if all dissolve not it is a sign there is not Water enough When all is dissolved take off your Kettle and filter this Liquor presently while it is warm through a brown Paper over an earthen unglaz'd Cucurbite Then set the said Cucurbite in a Sand-heat there to evaporate till there appear upon the Superficies a thin skin then take it off let it cool the Niter will crystallize into Needles of a sexangulary Figure white clear and transparent as any Rock-Crystal but as brittle as Glass and of a pleasant and grateful acidity And then it is properly called Crystal Mineral because of its resemblance with Crystal Some call it Lapis Prunellae and that is because it is sharp and sowre like your wild Prunes or Plums Obs 1. That we make use of a Pot of the same Earth that the Crucibles are made of and not of an ordinary earthen-glaz'd Pot because the Niter being once melted would also dissolve the ledding of the Pot and being incorporated with it would lose much of its whiteness Obs 2. That we fill the Pot full up to the brim that we may make at once a great quantity of Crystal Mineral and because the Niter melted will take up but half the room it did before being no ways subject to rise and run over Obs 3. That you must beat to powder your Niter for so a greater quantity will be contained in the Pot and also be easilier melted Obs 4. That you must not stay till your Pot be warm before you put in your Niter because the Pot being very hot and the flegm of the Niter coming to be dissolved first would be broke infallibly Therefore put in your Niter at first and so by degrees as your Pot warms your Niter will be deflegmated and yet observe That if you throw a spoonful of Niter into a pot red-hot it will not break because there is too little flegm for so much heat Obs 5. That the Niter being hot enough melts and is deflegmated it melts by the means of its flegm for it is the flegm that puts all Salts into fusion And whensoever Salts are entirely calcined or deflegmated they cannot be melted except they be wet anew by
boil and run over by breaking the Glass Set your Matrass upon a Round in a small Circulatory Fire hindring all sorts of Coals either kindled or not from coming near your Glass for fear of breaking it Continue a good equal Fire till you perceive after a long boiling a kind of white scum upon your matter then lessen the Fire and let your matter evaporate gently till it be of a clear milky colour and cease to boil and make a noise Then augment the heat that so in a small time you may evaporate the nitrous red Spirits still remaining then if with this augmentation of heat your matter does not boil take it off from the fire and pour it very hot into a stone-Pan stirring and turning your Pan so as to make your liquor congeal and spread it self all over equally in the form of a Crust as white as Alabaster but as brittle as Glass This second Operation thus performed you must begin a third which is to mould this Salt into the Figure of Glass-Vials This third Operation does indeed add nothing to the virtue of the remedy but is only an ingenious beautifying of it which is thus performed Fill little Glass-Vials half full with these white Crusts place a Vial upon the ground and surround it with live Coals the Salt will presently melt when it is melted take away your Vial and shake it that the Salt may stick to the sides of it and so take the shape of the Glass then wet your Vial with cold Water and it will break into a thousand pieces which will nevertheless cleave to the Salt These you must loosen with the point of a knife and when you have taken away all the bits of Glass there will remain a Vial of Salt as white as Alabaster and which may be so preserved till you need it Obs 1. That to make the Salt of Brimstone you must calcine the Brimstone and that nothing can calcine it so well as Niter which by firing the Brimstone raises its volatile part or Spirits and leaves in the Cup the Calx of Brimstone containing but few Faeces and a great deal of fixed Salt and the Niter being pure burns all away and remains not in the said Calx but because here Niter is the Agent therefore we use here as much again of it as of Sulphur which is the Patient The reddish Flowers of Brimstone are also calcined by the said Niter Obs 2. That we use here Spirit of Urine as well because that if there were no Liquor the acid Spirits of Niter and Brimstone would be lost in the pores of the earthen Pan as because that the said Spirit of Urine is a powerful Diuretick and does therefore augment the virtue of our Remedy Obs 3. That the hardest thing in this Operation is to deflegmate the dissolution of Brimstone in the Spirit of Sulphur and there is a great deal of danger that the Matrass will break towards the end of your Operation when the matter rises and boils high therefore be diligent moderate your heat Experience makes a good Artist Obs 4. That after you have happily evaporated your Dissolution that you may conclude your process and chuse whether you will mould your Salt into the Figure of Glass-Vials or no but pour out your Dissolution into an earthen Dish and so keep it Obs 5. That this nitrous Salt of Brimstone is nothing but the Flowers of Brimstone calcined by the Salt of Niter then impregnated with the Spirits of Brimstone and Niter and at last coagulated into a white Salt If after the evaporation of the Spirit of Niter which was incorporated with this Salt you take of it and Sal Armoniac equal parts and sublime them together you will have a lovely sublim'd Salt white and so strong that it will melt in Paper and break a Box if you put it into it It s Vse and Vertues 'T is a powerful cooler and Diuretick it purifies the Blood resists Corruption is most excellent in Feavers both continual and intermittent it drives the Gravel of the Kidneys and cures the Running of the Reins the Dose is from ten to thirty Grains in Wine Broth Syrop Ptisane Distilled Water or Decoction answerable to the Indication and sometimes in a Purgative Powder or Bolus Dulcified Sublimate TAke of good Corrosive Sublimate of Venice as much as you please eight ounces if you will powder it to a fine Powder in a white earthen Dish pretty deep and very even with a glass or earthen Pestle and be careful to stop your Nose with a Handkerchief tyed behind your Head for fear the vapours of the Sublimate should make your Head ake or cause some worse effect Then put to it the same weight of Quicksilver and by trituration or beating incorporate them together when they are half incorporated add to them a spoonful of distilled Vinegar or rather just as much as is necessary to reduce your Mass into a wet powder and not into a paste if you put too much Vinegar you will have the trouble afterwards of evaporating it by the fire side and then all the purgative vertue of the Mercury will go near to fly away with the superfluous humidity of the distilled Vinegar Put this powder into a small Matrass long and straight-necked and unluted that you may see to the bottom let a good part of the Matrass be empty that there may be room for the sublimation and that it may be performed in a shorter time with a small heat pose your Matrass upon a Round in the small circulary Fire and presently you will perceive some humid vapours which rise from the Vinegar and when they cease then 't is a sign that all the Vinegar is evaporated then stop your Matrass with a Paper-stopple the better to keep in the Spirits of the Mercury and the Salts of the Sublimate Corrosive continue your Fire equally till all the matter be raised and sublimed from the bottom of the Vessel then your first Sublimation is perfected therefore take off your Matrass let it cool and then break it below the Sublimate take out the said Sublimate which will be all in a lump like a Mushrome and of a Pearl-colour separating the Quicksilver if any which you shall find swimming on the top and which has not been well incorporated with the rest if there be any spot of blackness about it you must also scrape it with a Knife gently and above all you must take out by inclination that is by pouring the Quicksilver that will be got as high as the orifice of the Matrass as also scrape away a kind of greyish powder which will be in good quantity in the neck of your Matrass set aside this scraping and this powder to use it in those Unguents in which Mercury is required because this black scraping would in a second Sublimation stain the whiteness of your Sublimate and the greyish powder would communicate a venomous quality to the remedy because in it are enclosed
Algarot is nothing but a good quantity of Mercury made volatil by a less quantity of Antimony by the means of the fire and the volatil Salts that are in the corrosive sublimate then devested of the said Salts and sweetned by Lotions The vertue and use of the powder is known by its name which speaks it to be a vomitive and that it performs much more gently than the Crocus metallorum because the Antimony we employ is purer and in less quantity and because that the great washings have carried away the venomous Salts Its Dose in persons grown up is five Grains you may give eight in some Conserve or the yolk of an Egg or in any Liquor appropriated The Vse and Vertues of the Butter of Antimony 'T is a powerful Corrosive it eats away Warts and burns pocky Cancers in a moment but if it be applyed to any nervous part it causes an inflamation for four and twenty hours it is excellent for the exfoliation of Bones and for the Gangrene The Vse and Vertues of the Pontick water It is excellent for Ulcers Itch Scabs the Gangrene you may use it in stead of Spirit of Vitriol by mingling three or four drops in a Julip in putrid and burning Feavers The Vse and Vertues of the Cinnaber of Antimony It is a great Sudorifick in the Pox. The Dosis is from eight to fifteen Grains Bezoard Mineral TAke as much as you will of Butter of Antimony melt it gently before the Fire then pour it into a glass Bell or Cucurbite set it in a Chimney lest the vapours which you must raise should offend you Pour upon it some Spirit of Niter drop by drop for else the ebullition would be such and the red vapours so strong that the matter would run out of the Vessels and the vapours hurt your Brain Continue this Injection till the Mercury and Antimony which are in form of Butter be absolutely dissolved by the said Spirit which you shall know by pouring on some new Spirit of Niter for if there be no ebullition nor smoaking then the dissolution is performed you must pour as much Spirit of Niter in weight as you have used Butter of Antimony your dissolution will appear all along of a yellow colour As soon as it is done pour upon it all at once a quart of Sea-water actually cold this Precipitant will presently make all your Liquor of a milky colour and will precipitate your Butter to the bottom into a very white powder if you let it stand ten or twelve hours to the end your Magistery have more time to precipitate entirely then separate by inclination your Sea-water impregnated with the Spirit of Niter which was the dissolvant and pour on common Water till it come away sweet and insipid filter the rest through a white Paper dry your powder and keep it in a glass Vial well stopped Obs 1. That if instead of Sea-water you had made use of common Water for your Precipitation you would have turn'd your Dissolution into a white Liquor but you would never have precipitated your powder because that though common Water does much weaken the dissolvant yet it does not do it so much as Sea-water which because of its Salt contrary to the Salt of Niter does fight with the said Niter and in the conflict causes the sharpest and most active part of the Niter to evaporate and so to forsake its hold as to let the Butter of Antimony fall and precipitate to the bottom in form of a white powder Obs 2. That that which we call Sea-water is made thus Take four ounces of common Salt boyl it to dissolution in a quart of Water in a brass Kettle then filtrate it through the brown Paper Obs 3. That in the great ebullition and effumation caused by the Spirit of Niter all the emetick and purgative vertue which was in the said butter of Antimony is evaporated and at last carried away by reiterated Lotions Obs 4. That Bezoard Mineral is nothing else but a Magistery or Precipitate compounded of a good quantity of Mercury and a small quantity of Antimony both being calcin'd and opened by the Salts of the corrosive Mercury then devested of the said Salts by the Spirit of Niter so that there remains in this Magistery no other but a Cordial Bezoardick Sudorifick vertue It s Vse and Vertue 'T is an excellent Sudorifick against the Pox the Scurvy all putrid and venomous Feavors The Dose is from eight to twelve Grains in some Conserve but observe that if you mingle it with Conserve of Red Roses it becomes immediately green for the Reasons that we shall alledge hereafter The Calcination or Calx of Lead TAke Lead beat it into fine thin plates and take also of powder'd Brimstone as much lay them stratum super stratum in a glaz'd Pot which set upon two Bricks in the Furnace of a great wheel Fire and half Suppression there leave it till the Brimstone which of its self by the heat of the Pot will take fire be quite out and have a care you do not let it stand longer for fear of melting your Lead and so reducing it to its first metallick consistence therefore take off your Pot and with an Iron Spatula stir your calcin'd matter to hinder it from getting into a lump then take it out and powder it in a Morter then searce it in a silken Sieve till it be reduced to an impalpable powder Obs 1. That we use brimstone to calcine Lead because nothing but Brimstone will take Fire all alone and burn a good while Niter would not take fire all alone with Lead and indeed never is inflamable but when he is joyned with some combustible Body as Tartar Antimony Charcoal or Brimstone and if we did use here Niter with some of these Bodies its flame would be too swift to calcine Lead Obs 2 That we use a vernish'd Pot for this Calcination because our Calx is of the same Nature with the Lead of the Pot and therefore is not in danger of being spoyled and besides the vernish will not be corroded by the Sulphur because it is not a dissolvant powerful enough to corrode a glazing so dried and fastned for if the Lead which you will calcine were not beaten into very thin plates and Sulphur mingled with it every where it would hardly be calcin'd Obs 3. That the Calx of Lead thus calcin'd is nothing but Lead opened and dissolved by the Spirit and Salt of Sulphur and the said Lead will remain in the nature of a Calx but as long as there will be some of the Spirit and Salt of Sulphur incorporated with it therefore if you continue your Fire any time after the Calcination you will evaporate this Spirit and Salt and so your Lead devested of them both will return to its first metallick Nature It s Vse and Vertues It serves to dry and cicatrize old Ulcers when they are cleansed before and almost fill'd with flesh by mingling it
enough it is always dry if it be kept well stopp'd in a glass Vial but if it be too dry it cannot dissolve upon the skin therefore while you prepare all things for its application put it to soak in a spoonful of water The Magistery or Precipitate of Bismuth SEt a Cucurbit Glass Bell or Head upon any thing within a Chimney that so the infectious vapours may not poyson the room and offend by their stench the Artist and Spectators put into your Vessel four ounces of Bismuth well powdered in a Brass Mortar pour upon it one or two spoonfuls of Spirit of Nitar which presently will produce an ebullition and a stinking infectious smoak when they are past pour on again a like quantity of Spirit of Niter which will cause the same effect continue this till you have spent eight ounces of Spirit of Niter if you pour on too much at a time your ebullition will be so violent that all your matter will run over your Vessel and be lost and the smoak will be so thick that by its stinking red vapours it will go near to do you some mischief When you have thus spent all your Spirit of Niter though after the last Projection all your Bismuth be not dissolved and devour'd by the said Spirit nevertheless separate by inclination your dissolution while it is warm from that part of the Bismuth which remains undissolv'd in the bottom of your Vessel and you must pour this Dissolution into a precipitatory Vessel of Glass or white-ware and there it will be congealed into a thousand little transparent white Cristals In the mean time pour by little and little and at divers times some new Spirit upon the Bismuth left in your vessel to the end you may dissolve all the pure and good Bismuth that is left in this lump for there will remain at last a few black Faeces which cannot be dissolved Separate by inclination this second Dissolution in another Glass or white-ware Vessel and there let it Crystallize as the former then take all your Crystals and mingle them together in a Glass Bell and there melt them with a gentle heat and when they are melted pour upon them a quart of Sea-water actually cold which will precipitate them into a white Curd which Curd will by little and little dissolve into a white powder then separate by inclination this first Water pour on more and so continue till your powder be entirely sweetned nay do it three or four times after that your water comes away insipid for if there did remain the least Acrimony in this powder it would wrinkle the Face which it ought to whiten filtrate this powder through a white Paper and let it dry upon the said Paper in the shade taking care to cover it lest the dust should come at it and do not dry it by the Fires side or in the Sun-beams for then it would return to brown-blackish colour When it is very dry put it into a glass Vial well stopped and you have the true Magistery or precipitate of of Bismuth Obs That Bismuth is a kind of Marcassite of Silver and that therefore it is almost as good as Silver to make by its calcination a good Fucus or Cosmetick for it is certain that the Precipitate of Silver made in the same way as this does much excel the Precipitate of Bismuth Obs 2. That to make the Dissolution of Bismuth in Spirit of Niter you must take a Vessel very broad towards the top and therefore a glass Bell is the fittest to the end that the venemous vapours that rise out of the matter may the sooner and the easilier be gone therefore in a Matrass these vapours being streightned would re-impregnate themselves and make your matter yellow instead of white Then your vessel must be Glass or White-ware for in an earthen glaz'd Vessel your powder would grow black because it would dissolve the Lead of the Vernish and a stone or unglazed one be less fit because the Spirit of Niter might lose and insinuate it self in the pores of the said Earth Obs 3. That though Aqua-fortis can dissolve Bismuth yet we use it not because by its Vitriol the Calx of the Bismuth would be so blacked as to be useless in the design of whitening the skin Obs 4. That your dissolution being poured into a glass or white ware vessel does there congeal into a thousand little white Chrystals transparent and saltish because that the Spirit of Niter being loaden with the quantity of a Metalick body Christallises as Metals use to do after their dissolution These Crystals are white because that the Bismuth is as white as Silver and they melt by a gentle fire because they were congealed by cold Obs 5. That Sea water does precipitate dissolved Bismuth in a white curd and white powder because that the Sea-salt which makes the Sea-water being contrary to the Salt which makes the Spirit of Niter attakes and fights with it and so the Niter being weakned because that in this conflict its sharpest part evaporates away le ts go the Bismuth which it had seized upon and immediately the said Bismuth falls into a white curd and powder 'T is true that the common water by moistening the Spirit of Niter does much weaken it but if in this water there had not been some Sea-salt the Calx of Bismuth would never have been well separated from its dissolvant neither would it have been precipitated to the bottom of the Vessel Obs 6. That you must dry this Magistery in the shade by little and little and not in haste or by the fire side or in the Sun-beams lest it recover its brown dark colour for the actual heat either of the Fire or the Sun would revive in it a black burned Sulphur which sticks to the surface of this remedy from whence Ladies that use it may learn that they must by a double reason keep it in the shade as well to conserve their own natural beauty as the artificial beauty which they borrow from this Magistery Obs 7. That the Precipitate or Magistery of Bismuth is nothing but a Calx of Bismuth calcin'd Philosophically by the Spirit of Niter and then precipitated by the contrariety of the Sea-water and sweetned by reiterated Lotions It s Vse and Vertues It is in Physick an excellent desicative for Ulcers as well as the Magistery of Saturn and it is likewise a most excellent Cosmetick or Fucus to make the face and hands white and fair either by rubbing them with the powder alone which insinuates its self into the pores of the skin or else by applying a Pomatum made of one dragm of the said precipitate and two dragms of Vnguentum Pomatum which you may prepare if you will with one ounce of white Virgin Wax and four ounces of Oyl of sweet Almonds or Acorns or of Beans or of the four cold seeds The Spirit Oyl and Extract of Guaiacum TAke a great Stone Retort lute it every where
up to half its neck lest it should break towards the end of the Operation fill it up to the neck with Guaiacum cut either into pieces or shavings place it upon the hollow part of the cover of an Earthen Pot full of ashes which must be set upon the two Iron Barrs that are in a small Reverberatory Furnace lute and stop the gap of the Furnace which is above the neck of the Retort till you have made it even with the top of the Furnace then fit to the neck of your Retort a great Glass Receiver or an Earthen one if you will or a great Pitcher which is easilier made clean because you may put your hand into it even to the bottom lute the said Recipient to the Retort cover the Furnace with its top that is an Earthen Pan turned the inside downwards and with a hole in its middle big enough to pass an Egg through or else with two or three rounds of Bricks as has been described in the great Reverberatory Furnace then put some lighted Coals into your Furnace and give your fire by degrees adding to it after a little while three or four Faggot-sticks yet have a care you do not over-heat your Vessel lest your Receiver break by the violence of the vapours which also may lose themselves through the luted conjunction of both the Vessels the true mark of a fit heat will be if you can endure to lay your hand a pretty while upon the Receiver this distillation is to last eighteen or twenty hours without interruption the Spirit comes first alone and in a Glass Receiver appears in the form of white vapours then the Oyl with the rest of the Spirits comes forth in the same form also and does dissolve into a brown blackish liquor which goes to the bottom of the Receiver for all Spirits and all Oyls do distil in forms of white vapours except Spirit of Niter and Aqua-fortis made with Niter which therefore are called the flying Dragon as well because of their redness as of their malignity The mark that the distillation is ended will be if your Receiver be cold though there be an excessive heat in the Furnace for that is a sign that there comes nothing more into the Receiver When all is cool then unlute the Receiver by wetting the lute with a wet cloath and pour out your Oyl and Spirit of Guaiac together into a glass Tunnel and by one of these two ways separate the Spirit from the Oyl First take a glass Tunnel which hold with one hand and with a finger of the same hand stop its lower orifice then pour in your Liquor the Oyl will presently go to the bottom the Spirit will swim above and upon the surface of the Spirit will swim some black drops of Volatil Oyl of Guaiac Then set a glass Vial under the neck of your Tunnel and let go half your finger which stops the said orifice and so the Oyl will pass into your Viol and when you see that it is almost all passed then stop the orifice again with your finger and pour the flegm or Spirit into another Vial. Do thus by all the spirit and Oyl you have in your Receiver but by this way you will never separate the Oyl from the flegm so well but there will be some in it still Therefore use this second method which will do it entirely and infallibly Take a Coffin of brown Paper wet it with common water or with Spirit of Guaiacum if you have any place it upon a Glass Tunnel and pour into it the Oyl and the spirit together the Spirit being watrish will pass and filtrate through the said Coffin of Paper and the Oyl will remain which afterwards you may easily convey into another Vial by breaking the bottom of your Paper Coffin with a little stick if you do not wet throughly the said Coffin of Paper before you pour into it the Oyl and Spirit the Oyl will stick to the Paper and hinder the filtration of the flegm If your Oyl do not come kindly out of your Receiver because it may be it is cold and so condensed present your Receiver to the fire to dissolve your Oyl will be black and stinking as the Oyl of Jet and your spirit will be of a brown colour Out of one pound of Guaiacum you 'l draw about one ounce and a half of Oyl and ten ounces of Spirit and there will remain about four ounces of Coals in your Retort you may kindle this Coal and burn it to ashes and of these ashes make a Lixivium and out of this Lixivium draw the Salt of Guaiacum to the same uses and purposes as the Oyl and Extract If you desire to have a Spirit of Guaiacum purified from the greatest part of its flegm and corrected of its stench you must rectifie it in a stone Cucurbite or glazed one with a glass head in a Sand furnace the insipid flegm will come first that you may throw away then the Spirit will come very acid which keep for those uses which we shall speak of anon To make the Extract of Guaiacum put some Oyl of Guaiacum to evaporate and thicken into the form of an Extract into a Cup or a Sand-fire or else draw the tincture of the Oyl of Guaiacum with Spirit of Wine and so evaporate it to the consistence of an Extract Obs 1. That for this Distillation we use a stone Retort because it is not necessary to use a glass one which would be dearer and the Spirit is not corrosive enough to corrode this Stone-Metal as the Spirits of Niter Salt or Vitriol would do besides that the necks of your glass Retorts are so narrow that the chips of Guaiacum can hardly be got into them Obs 2. That if you use pieces of the heart of the Wood which are hardest and by consequent fuller of Oyl you will obtain more Oyl than from the shaving and there is no danger in filling the belly of your Retort with them because it is not a body apt to swell and run over Obs 3. That Guaiacum yields a good deal of Oyl and Spirit because it is full of Sulphur and Mercury the Wood yields better than the Bark and the Wood in little pieces yields more than in shavings or great cuts for by their thickness they retain more of Sulphur and Mercury This Oyl and Spirit are very Salt and therefore the Wood is heavie for the Salts give the heaviness to Mixtes The Oyl is black and foetid because it has been distilled in a naked Fire without any intermedium and it is heavie because of its Salt as also sharp for the same reason The Heart of the Wood yields more Oyl than that part which is near the Bark which you may perceive by the eye for the heart is blackish and the other is yellowish like Box which is the European Guaiacum It s Vse and Vertues The Spirit is somewhat drying and detersive it is excellent for Burnings and old
Ulcers washing them with some Lint dipped in it besides if you put five or six drops of it in a bottle of Sudorifick Decoction it will work a greater effect than if there were a great quantity of Guaiacum in the said Decoction because this Spirit has the force of the Guaiacum and besides much more activity and penetration by the tenuity of its Spirituous substance The Oyl of Guaiacum is very drying detersive and cleansing it therefore cures rarely well old putrid hard Ulcers the Gangrene and the Caries or Rot of the Bones Besides you may give by the Mouth two or three drops of it in a spoonful of Cinamon Water for a windy or bilious Colick The Extract of Guaiacum is very drying and Sudorifick and it is given in form of Pils for Veneral Diseases The Spirit of Box. The Oyl of Ash c. THe Spirit and Oyl of the Wood of Box of the Wood and Bark of Ash as likewise of all other Woods and Aromatick Barks are drawn in the same way as the Spirit and Oyl of Guaiacum The Wood of Box yields more Spirits a great deal than the Wood of Guaiacum but it yields so inconsiderable a proportion of Oyl that out of four pound of Wood you will have but one ounce of Oyl though four pound of Spirit of Flegm because this Wood is fuller of Sulphur than Guaicum but is not so heavie nor so Salt It s Spirit has almost the same vertues as the Spirit of Guaiacum the Oyl likewise has the same vertues with the Oyl of Guaiacum but is most particularly excellent for all Contusions Ulcers pain and rottenness of the Teeth The Wood of Ash yields about as much Spirit and Oyl as Box its Bark yields but little Spirit and no Oyl at all It s Spirit is an excellent topical Remedy for deafness and tingling of the Ears because it does incide and resolve the humours and flatuosities which lie in the Meatus auditorius and in the first concavity of the Ear. It s Oyl is also most excellent for the Rot or Caries of the Bones and for the pain of the Teeth it appeases the pain of the Kidneys and Spleen if the said parts be anointed with it The stinking or foetide Oyl of Cloves TAke Cloves whose tincture has been already extracted by Spirit of Wine for it would be ill Husbandry to use others and so lose their Aromatick tincture particularly since when they have yielded their tincture they are never the worse for this Operation put what quantity you please of them into a glass Retort well luted place it upon a Round hollow earthen Pan in the Furnace of a great circulatory Fire fitting to it a great glass Receiver give at first a very strong violent Fire and continue it till there appear no more vapours in the Receiver these vapours are white and do turn into black caustick stinking Oyl Out of one pound of Cloves you may have about two ounces of Oyl and eight ounces of Flegm Obs 1. That we use here a glass Retort luted because that stone Retorts are too big for the small quantity of Cloves which is ordinarily us'd in this process Obs 2. That you need not care if you fill your Retort with Cloves because they do not swell no more than Woods or Barks you may also fill it half full Obs 3. That Cloves contain much Sulphur and sharp Salt from whence it comes that they yield much Oyl and that very sharp and caustick It s Vse and Vertues This Oyl being very sharp and biting is most excellent for Ulcers in the Pox and all other putrid and venemous ones as also it is good to exfoliate or open the superficies of rotten Bones and for the Gangrene It s Spirit is acid and very good in Tettars or Ring-worms The Oyl of Jet TAke some pieces of Jet put them into a glass Retort well luted filling it up to the neck place it upon a Round hollow earthen Pan in a circulatory Fire and fit to it a great Receiver which lute well to the neck of the Retort give at first a small circulary Fire then the great circulary Fire and then a Fire of Suppression there will appear in the Receiver an abundance of white vapours which will dissolve into Spirit and Oyl This Operation must last ten or twelve hours with a continual Fire and four pound of Jet in your Retort out of one pound you will have about two ounces of Oyl and ten of Spirit Separate by a glass Tunnel the Oyl that goes to the bottom from the Spirit which will swim above and keep them apart in two glass Vials upon the Spirit you will perceive swimming divers thick drops of Volatil Oyl of Jet which you may leave with the said Spirit Obs 1. That we use here a Glass Retort luted for the same reason alledged in the Chapter of the Oyl of Cloves Obs 2. That we fill the Retort without any intermedium because Jet is a dry substance which does not swell no more than other Woods and Roots Obs 3. That Jet is a Rocky Stone which is drawn in great quantities out of some Quarrys near Tholous in France and this Stone is very bituminous having much Sulphur a good deal of Salt and very little flegm from whence it proceeds that it yields a good deal of Oyl moderately sharp and heavy It s Vse and Vertues The Oyl is most excellent for the suffocations of the Matrix because of its extraordinary ill smell being much more stinking than the Oyl of Guaiac or Karabe it serves also to dissolve all bruises and contusions of the feet proceeding from walking too much the flegm has the same but less vertue than the Oyl The Oyl of Mirrha and other Gums TAke a glass Retort well luted fill it half full of Mirrha broken into lumps place it in the Furnace of a circulatory fire Fit to it a great Receiver of Glass and give the fire by degrees there will rise an abundance of white vapours which in the Receiver will dissolve into a flegm and an Oyl this Operation will last five or six hours Out of one pound of Mirrha you will have seven or eight ounces of Oyl and five or six of flegm separate by a Glass Tunnel the Oyl from the flegm Obs 1. That we use here a Glass Retort well luted for the reasons alledged in the distillation of the stinking Oyl of Cloves Obs 2. That we fill the Retort but half full because that the Myrrha does swell a little being heated and so if the Retort were full might run over in substance yet because it is a rosinous dry Gum it is not necessary to give it any intermedium Obs 3. That Mirrha is a Gumme Rosin having much Salt Sulphur and flegm and therefore yields a good deal of Oyl which is very bitter and heavy as also a great deal of flegm It s Vse and Vertues This Oyl is very detersive because of its great bitterness and
humours in Ulcers resists corruption drys them and cicatrises them It serves also for mealy Ring-worms for the Itch Scales and Erisypelases for Inflammations but you must have a care to make it more or less sharp according to the nature of the distemper and the sensibility of the part you intend to apply it to which to do you need only put more or less common water according as you will have it more or less acrimonious for the force of this water is in its Salt which you cannot sweeten but by encreasing the dose of common water and diminishing that of the Salt Therefore it is but trifling to make two or three Lime waters one after another upon the same Lime To make the Phagedenick water put two pound of the said Quick-lime Water into a Glass Bell or an Earthen white Ware Pan and put to it from half a dragm to a dragm of Corrosive Sublimate well powdered in an Earthen white Ware Dish with an Earthen Pestle This Water and the Sublimate after the first stirring of them together will become presently of an Orange colour the Sublimate will go to the bottom and is called the Orange-Sublimate If you have a desire to make your Phagedenick Water weaker pour upon it two pounds more of Lime Water then the water and the Sublimate will change their Orange colour into a Lemmon keep this water together with its Sublimate in a Glass Vial well stopped for your use Obs 2. That the Sublimate from white becomes yellow or orange colour when mixt with the Lime water because that those Sulphureous Salts of which the Corrosive Sublimate is not devested being to engage with the Salt of the Lime are quickened and so revive their colour in the conflict so much as to communicate their tincture to the VVater and Sublimate It s Vse and Vertues In this VVater we dip Linnen and apply it to old rotten Ulcers full of frothy flesh to consume the ill flesh correct the putrefaction cleanse and produce better flesh and at last dry them and bring them to cicatrize The Magistery of Coral The Salt of Coral TAke as much as you please of red Coral that which is in little branches is the best beat it to a fine powder in a Brass Mortar and put it into a Glass Stone or VVhite-ware Vessel pour upon it Spirit of Sulphur two or three fingers high above your Matter let them stand together far from the fire and there the Coral will dissolve while it dissolves there will be an ebullition with a little noise which ceasing marks to you that the Spirit is loaden with as much of the Coral as it is able to dissolve and it has lost its great acidity and sharpness Pour off by inclination this dissolution and put it into a Vessel apart then pour new Spirit upon the Faeces and continue so doing till you have dissolved all the Coral This done put all your dissolutions together into a Glass Bell and pour upon them cold water in such quantity and so often till at last your water come away without any taste filterate that which remains through a Coffin of white Paper upon which let it dry or make Trochisks of it as has been taught in the Chapter of the Diaphoretick Antimony Obs 1. That to make your dissolutions you must not take an earthen glazed Pan lest your Spirit of Sulphur should spend its force upon the glazing and black and spoyl your Magistery nor you must not take a Vessel of potters earth unglazed because that this earth being porous would imbibe and consume the Spirit in its porosities now your Stone Vessels are of a thick compact Matter and your White-ware is a kind of glass Obs 2. That instead of Spirit of Sulphur you may use Spirit of Vitriol but because Vitriol naturally blacks all it comes near your Magistery will not be so white you may also make use of distilled Vinegar or juyce of four Lemmons but we do not because we should need too great a a quantity and so it would prove dearer and your Operation would only be longer but not better Obs 3. That the Magisteries of Crabs eyes Pearls Bezoard mother of Pearl are all made the same way as the Magistery of Coral yet we shall give a description of some of them by another method Obs 4. That both the Magistery and the Salt of Coral are nothing but a Calx of Coral or a Philosophick calcination of it by the corrosion of the Spirit of Sulphur all the difference that is between the Magistery and the Sulphur is that the Magistery is a Calx slackened washed and sweetened by common water and so freed from the acrimony of the Salt of Sulphur whereas the Salt of Coral is a Calx yet impregnated with some rest of Spirit of Sulphur incorporated in it by crystallization or not driven away by the fire in the drying from whénce it proceeds that the Magistery is infipid but the Salt of Coral is acid and biting upon the Tongue and from thence it has the name of Salt though in effect it be no salt for it is not to be dissolved in water and is properly a Stone salted by the impregnation with the Spirit of Sulphur for if you go about to dissolve it there will be in the water nothing but some Spirit of Sulphur so that if you continue sweetning this Salt you will at last make the Magistery of Coral of it It s Vse and Vertues The Magistery and Salt of Coral have the same vertues with pure Coral but they are exalted because the body of Coral being opened is more penetrating and so fitter to carry its astringent corroborative faculty to the remotest parts of the body yet it is certain that there where the design is only to take away the Acrimony of those humours which do corrode the Stomach and Intestines there I say ordinary Coral well powdered is better than its Magistery because that the Chymical Operation will be performed in the body with more benefit by those corrosive sharp humours which meeting with the Coral fall to dissolving of it and so dull their own Acrimony which is the most malignous thing in the body We see nevertheless by experience too that if upon the Magistery of Coral you pour new Spirit of Sulphur or of some other Acid there will be a more sudden and stronger ebullition though it last not so long as in the first dissolution of Coral and therefore the serous sharp Humours of the body may produce the same effect upon the Magistery But the Dissolvant meeting not with so much resistance in Coral already opened and calcin'd as in natural Coral does not work with so much force and therefore dulls not its activity nor loses so much of its Acrimony after the dissolution The Balsam of Saint John 's Wort compounded drawn by the Spirit of Wine Put into a Matrass five or six ounces of Spirit of Wine put to it Myrrhe Aloes and Sanguis
Vse and Vertues It is a most excellent Anodinum and Ripener for the wounds of the nervous parts and is very good for pains in the ears by putting some drops of it into them The Essence of Musk and Ambergreece drawn by Spirit of Wine PUt into a small Matrass one dragm of Ambergreece and half a dragm of Musk well powder'd before hand pour upon them five ounces of Spirit of Wine seal up your Matrass hermetically and put it into a little earthen Pan full of Sand up to half the belly set it in the Sun for forty days in the hottest time of the year from eight of the clock in the morning till seven at night keeping behind your Matrass a Tin Leaf to receive the Sun-beams and reverberate them upon the glass The Musk and Ambergreece will be almost quite dissolved in the Spirit of Wine and will dye it of a red colour like a Ruby break the neck of your Glass and pour out your Essence into a glass Vial well stopp'd and waxed and above the stopple put a piece of an oyled bladder Obs 1. That Ambergreece being a kind of Bitumen and Musk being of an oyly nature they may easily be dissolved in Spirit of Wine and communicate to it their Tincture It s Vse and Vertues One drop of this Essence perfumes for ever whatsoever it touches that can imbibe it and is much more pleasant with a double quantity of Ambergreece than with equal parts of Musk and Ambergreece because the odour of the Ambergreece is sweeter and that of the Must stronger The Tincture of Tartar or Spirit of Wine clarified TAke as much as you please of Tartar calcin'd to whiteness properly called Salt of Tartar or of Ashes made of burnt Lees of Wine call'd Gravell'd Ashes put either of them into a Crucible or unglaz'd stone Pot place it in a Wind-Furnace till your matter be blew like Vitriol of Cyprus which may be done in an hours time take off your Pot and with a brass Spoon take out your matter and powder it while it is hot in a brass Mortar and then put it into a Matrass which you must stir and shake in your hand to the end the heat of the matter may extend its self equally to all the parts of the Glass and not break one by over-heating it Let your Matrass have two parts empty pour into your matter Spirit of Wine till your Glass be half full place this Vessel in a Sand-Furnace giving an ordinary Fire according to Art let it stand till the Spirit of Wine become as red as a Ruby then pour off by inclination this Tincture pour on more Spirit upon the Faeces and reiterate this as long as the Faeces will yield any Tincture there will remain a good quantity of the said Faeces which you may re-calcine and use as other Salt of Tartar keep your Tincture Observe That Tartar being a sulphureous and inflameable Salt may take the colour of blew and communicate a red Tincture to the Spirit of Wine It s Vse and Vertues It is the most powerful and penetrating Desopilative that is it produces its effect strongly and gently so that for the obstructions of the Spleen the Pancreas the Mesentery and the Mesaraick Veins there is not the like remedy amongst Chymists nor Galenists for by the Spirit of Wine it dissolves all the most tenacious Viscosities in the little Veins and pores of the Belly and by the Salt of Tartar it carries away all the impurities of the said parts so that no Soap can cleanse more than this Tincture It s use is to be dissolved from ten to thirty drops in some Broth or appropriated Water to take every morning fasting for some days The Spirit and foetid Oyl of Tartar TAke a glass Retort luted up to half its neck if you do make but a little of this Remedy or if you make a great deal take a Stone one fill it up to the neck with good Tartar of Montpellier either red or white beaten to a fine powder place your Retort upon a Pot-cover full of Ashes in the small reverberatory Furnace if you use but two or three pounds or in an Earthen Bowl in a great circulatory Fire if you use but half a pound fit a Receiver and give your Fire by degrees there will soon come forth a white dark vapour which will continue all the time of the Operation the Flegm comes first then the Tartar takes fire in the Retort and is in a flame and from the smoak of this flame come the Spirit and Oyl Continue your fire till there come no more out of the Retort and till your Receiver be clear and cold though the Fire be violent under the Retort out of one pound of Tartar you will draw about ten ounces of Spirit with its Flegm and two ounces of Oyl in the Retort will remain four ounces of a black Salt which you must dissolve in Water then filtrate and coagulate to use as the true Salt of Tartar being entirely devested of its Flegm Spirit and Oyl and so being a pure Salt for the Tartar contains but very little Faeces or Earth Observe That in this Operation we perceive that Tartar is a very sulphureous Salt since it takes fire in the Retort and there comes from it a blackish Oyl stinking and inflameable and that the Faeces do remain black and burnt in the Retort It s Vse and Vertues This Oyl is indifferently stinking and caustick it serves for Ring-worms and exfoliation of Bones or for Farsey in Horses the Spirit is acid when rectified and is good against the Stone and Gravel The Spirit and Aromatick Oyl of Juniper Berries Put fresh Juniper Berries into a Brass Vesica till it be half full fill one third more of the Vesica with common cold water let them infuse twenty four hours in the Vesica with a gentle fire to extract afterwards the better the oyly Essence of your Berries having all this while stopt the mouth of your Vesica with a Linnen-cloth take out this cloth and fit to your Brass body its Mores-head border'd with a refrigeratory and a moveable Pipe and do as has been taught in the distillation of the waters of Plants that which will first come will be the Aromatick Balsamick Essence or Oyl of Juniper Bays together with a little flegm or inflegmated Spirit and then the rest of the flegm will follow Out of a peck of Berries you will not have above two ounces of Essence or Oyl all the rest will be flegm or Spirit inflegmatized Obs 1. That because we can draw but a very small quantity of Oyl or Essence not only out of Juniper Berries but also out of all Balsamick and Aromatick Leaves Flowers Rinds Barks Roots Woods Berries and Seeds therefore we have found the way of using Spirit of Turpentine separated by three or four Rectifications from its red Oyl putting three or four ounces upon every peck of Berries to the end that being incorporated
and pour to it Spirit of Sulphur or distilled Vinegar or juice of Lemmons four or five fingers high above the matter there will presently be caused a little simpring or boiling which ended stir your matter with a stick then suffering it to settle a little pour off your Dissolvant which will be loaded with some part of the said powder of Pearls and will be as white as Milk Pour more Dissolvant upon the matter left and do as at first continuing this Operation till all your powder be dissolved then gather together all your Dissolutions in the same precipitatory Vessel or in another if you will and pour upon them great quantity of common Water divers times to sweeten and wash the said Dissolution and continue this till the Water have carried away all the Acrimony of the Dissolvant After you have poured out the last Water your matter will remain like Pap which put into a paper Coffin and there let it dry in the shade upon a Sieve you will have the Magistery of Pearls as white as Snow in little mis-shapen pieces which you may keep as they are or else powder them or if you please you may at first before your matter be dry form them into Trochisks as has been taught Obs 1. That we reduce the Pearls to a fine powder that they may be easilier dissolved by a less quantity of Dissolvant in the powdering of them the Mortar is covered because that Pearls being small and round and hard would in beating be apt to leap out of the Mortar and be lost if it were not covered Obs 2. That we rather use here Spirit of Sulphur than distill'd Vinegar or juice of Lemmon because it dissolves them easilier than either of the other insomuch that one pound of Spirit of Sulphur will sooner dissolve an ounce of Pearls than twelve pound of distill'd Vinegar or juice of Lemmons besides that the Spirit of Sulphur is more cordial and pectoral than either of them Obs 3. That the Spirits of Salt Niter and Vitriol are not proper for this Operation because of their too great corrosive faculties which would go near to rest in the Magistery and then we should be obliged to sweeten it so long till at last the Water of the Lotion would carry away with it a good part of the Magistery We may say as much of the Oyl of Tartar made per deliquium in a wet place or by the dissolution of the Salt of Tartar in common Water besides the Spirit of Vitriol would black the whiteness of the Magistery and the Oyl of Tartar would make it rough to the feeling Obs 4. That common Water is sufficient to precipitate the said Magistery and weaken the Spirit of Sulphur so as to make it lose its hold because that the dissolution of Pearls by the said Spirit having been performed without the help of an external heat and without any great penetration there is no need of any strong fight between the Dissolvant and the Precipitant Obs 5. That the Water of the first sweetning has a little smell of Ambergreece if the dissolution be with the Spirit of Sulphur for Pearls opened by this Spirit have such a smell It s Vse and Vertues This Magistery is a great Cordial against all venomous Feavers the Small Pox in Children the pains of the Spleen it is likewise good for Consumptive persons and against Loathings and desires to vomit caused by sharp serosities The Dose is from a scruple to a dragm It is also a Fucus being mingled with some proper Pomatum Some brag with ostentation of a Water of Pearls but it can be nothing else but this Magistery mingled with some Cordial Water which if stirred becomes as white as Milk for as for the true Milk of Pearls which is the Dissolution of Pearls in the Spirit of Brimstone it cannot properly be called Water of Pearls because that by reason of its sharpness it is not potable The Water of the first Lotion of your Magistery is excellent to scour and whiten the hands The Calx of Oyster-shells TAke of the uppermost part of Oyster-shells what quantity you please wash them and cleanse them in warm Water and let them dry upon a Lettice in the Sun Then take six or eight Tiles made in the form of a half-Circle of such a proportion as that two of them join'd together may fill the inward Round of the Laboratory of a Reverberatory Furnace leaving the space of an inch empty between the sides of the Furnace and the said Tiles to give the fire play round about and betwixt the said Tiles for there must be also in two or three places of their Circumference a Brim of an inch deep to let the flame in to calcine those matters that shall be set upon them Place two of these Tiles upon the Iron Bars of the Laboratory and upon them place three or four other rows of Tiles loaden with Oyster-shells one upon another so as there be half a foot left empty of the top of the Laboratory then cover your Laboratory with an earthen Pan turn'd upside down in whose bottom is a hole give a great Fire at first with Wood and Coals and when it is come to the last degree continue that twelve hours the flame passing upon your Oyster-shells will calcine them and reduce them into Calx as white as Snow and so brittle as to fall into powder if you touch it Obs 1. That we take only the upper part of the Oyster-shells because that part is whiter and thinner and easier to calcine than the lower part Obs 2. That we wash them in warm Water before we calcine them that we may scour them and cleanse them from a certain mucilaginous ordure which in the calcining would leave a blackness and spoil the beauty of your Calx If you desire to scour your Oyster-shells a better way after you have washed them in warm Water put them into a stone Pan and pour upon them distilled Vinegar one finger high over the matter and so let them soak one day then take them out and dry them in the Sun before you calcine them Obs 3. That the Calx of Oyster-shells is very Salt so that by the same method that we draw the Salt of Vegetables and Animals we may likewise draw this Salt in good quantity that is by dissolution in common Water filtration and evaporation of your Lixivium till it be dry This Calx is composed of two substances viz. of a good deal of white Virginal Earth and of a good deal of Salt both fix and volatil by means of which the said Oyster-shells are naturally heavy It s Vse and Vertues This Calx is most excellent for the Gravel because of its Salt it is very opening and dries up by means of the two substances it is composed of all superfluous humidities of the Body The Dose is from twenty to thirty Grains in some Conserve Preserve or Syrup The Magistery and Calx of Egg-shells TAke a good
it is impossible to extract the Salt of any Body before it be calcin'd and as for Metals they cannot be calcin'd otherwise than Philosophically that is by the corrosion of some acid Spirits for fire though never so violent can but melt them and evaporate some part of them Obs 2. That we use here distilled Vinegar to dissolve Verdigreece and extract its Tincture and Salt because it contains but little of a tartareous Salt or Salt of Tartar which being joined with the Salt of Venus cannot hurt but Aqua fortis Aqua regalis the Spirit of Niter Brimstone or Vitriol contain a great deal of corrosive Salt which would alter the Salt of Venus and make it corrosive being joyned with it for it cannot crystallize without them Obs 3. That you must use here glass and stone Vessels and not of vernish'd or glaz'd Potters Earth because that the sharpness of the Verdigreece would corrode the glazing and impregnating its self with Lead would spoil the brightness of your Crystals and if your Vessel were unglazed then the Verdigreece having by its dissolution in distill'd Vinegar acquired a singular sharpness and penetration would insinuate and lose its self in the pores of the Vessel Obs 4. That we distil and evaporate the Tincture of Verdigreece in a gentle heat of Balneum Mariae lest in a greater heat the sulphureous part and volatil Salt of Venus should exhale and be gone since it is in that sulphureous part that consists the greatest vertue of this Remedy and it is it that contributes most to the crystallization Obs 5. That the Crystals of Venus change their blew dark colour into a green transparent one by the means of reiterated dissolutions and crystallizations which Operations do purifie these Crystals from their blew terrestreity and that the true colour of the purified Salt of Venus is to be as green as an Emerald Obs 6. That the Crystals of Venus are nothing else but the Salt of Venus extracted from the Calx of Venus which is Verdigreece by a gentle Dissolvant which is distilled Vinegar then after evaporation of half of the Dissolvant crystallized in a cool place It s Vse and Vertues It is a powerful Diuretick and Desiccative and therefore most excellent against Gonorrhaea's It s Dosis is from three to six grains in a Pill of Turpentine that has been boyl'd to a consistence of Colophone continuing to take of it three days together There may be also drawn out of it a Spirit fit to precipitate all sorts of Dissolutions The Crystals or Salt or Vitriol of Mars TAke five or six pound of the opening Saffron of Mars called commonly Crocus Martis aperitivus as it has been described in this Book powder it in a Mortar and searce it through a silken Sieve then throw it by spoonfuls into a Kettle of ten or twelve quarts of boyling Water stirring it continually for two hours together with a Ladle or Spatula of Iron till the Water be half boyled away then take off your Kettle and filtrate your Liquor while it is warm through a brown Paper evaporate your Filtration in a Sand-fire to the Pellicule in stone or glass Vessels and afterwards set them in the Cellar in two days there will be a good many green transparent Crystals sticking to the sides and bottom of your Pans Pour off by inclination the Water that is not congealed and evaporate it again and crystallize it then gather all your Crystals together and put them into a glass Vial well stopp'd As for the powder of Mars devested of its Salt which will remain in your Coffins of brown Paper after filtration dry it and keep it to make the Astringent or binding Saffron of Mars Obs 1. That to extract the Salt of Mars we take the opening Saffron of Mars because it is nothing but Mars calcin'd by the means of Brimstone and a Reverberatory fire Now it is not possible to have the Salt of Mars if it have not been first calcin'd and it cannot be calcin'd by fire alone which would only melt it as it does other Metals you must therefore calcine it Philosophically with Brimstone whose Salt and Spirit corrodes and calcines Mars Obs 2. That to extract the Salt of the Crocus Martis aperitivus it is enough to powder and searce it and throw it into a great quantity of boiling Water which has force enough to draw to it the Salt of the Calx of Mars or Croous Martis aperitivus Obs 3. That the Crystals of Mars are of a green transparent colour because that Mars is drawn out of a vitriolick Earth which indeed does contain nothing but pure Vitriol which by the violence of fire is changed into a metallick Body the hardest and blackest of all Metals and being opened by the Agents and Dissolvants of Chymistry doth communicate this colour Obs 4. That if you do not keep these Crystals in a Vial well stopp'd as soon as the Air comes to them they will be covered with a kind of white Meal which will spoil their transparency and greenness and that Mars being a very dry Metal and for this reason the hardest and less flexible of all the Metals it easily dries and is converted into this white mealy substance Obs 5. That these Crystals of Mars are nothing but the Salt of Mars extracted out of the opening Calx of Mars by the sweetest of all Dissolvants which is common Water boiling hot then evaporated and crystallized It s Vse and Vertues It is an opener or aperitive much stronger than the opening Saffron of Mars because it is the pure Salt of Mars separated from its terrestrial indissolvable part and is therefore excellent against the Green Sickness the Yellow Jaundice and to provoke the Monthly Courses The Dose is from a scruple to a dragm in Broth or some Syrup you may add to it a dragm of the Extract of Savin to augment its vertue The Astringent or binding Saffron of Mars TAke the powder of Crocus Martis aperitivus which remains in the Coffin of brown Paper after you have filtred the Dissolution of the said Crocus Martis aperitivus in common Water which powder will be then devested of all its Salt of Mars fill with it a Pot of Potters Earth unglazed place this Pot in the Furnace of the great Reverberatory Fire and give the Fire for eight and forty hours then take off your Pot and break it and while it is hot powder your matter in a Brass Mortar and then set it in the air upon a Board or upon a Marble Stone when it is quite cold searce it through a silk Sieve and keep it in wooden or glass Vessels Obs 1. That though the said powder of Mars be devested of its Salt yet we reverberate it a great while that so all its Salt may evaporate and the Remedy be the more Astringent which is the only intention it is to answer Obs 2. That we use not a glaz'd Pot lest in the reverberation the glazing
Furnace of a Circulary Fire and Suppression till your pot be full then encrease your fire stirring your matter from time to time with a stick which you must not put to the bottom till all be melted then take off your pot and when it is cold break it you will find in the bottom the Regulus and the Faeces on the top Of it is made Vinum Emeticum everlasting Pills and Cups and the Diaphoretick its Faeces serves to make the Golden Sulphur Diaphoretick Of the Liver of Antimony of which is made the Crocus Metallorum MIngle one pound of Male or Female Antimony with half a pound of common Niter powdered put them by spoonfuls into a Crucible or pot of the same Earth heated red-hot in a Furnace of a Circulary Fire and Suppression covering your pot at each spoonful then encrease your fire and stir incessantly your matter with a stick till it be in Fusion take off your pot and pour into a Mortar the melted Liquor retaining the Faeces from going in with it your matter being cold is called Liver of Antimony and being powdered is called The Saffron of Metals or Crocus Metallorum Of it is made the Vinum Emeticum The Dose is one ounce in a pint of VVine of which take one or two ounces inwardly and four or five ounces in a Clyster The Spirit and Oyl of Guaiacum FIll up to the neck a great earthen Retort well luted with shavings or little pieces of the VVood of Guiacum place it in a small Reverberatory Furnace fitting to it a stone Receiver or a glass one and covering your Furnace with an earthen Pan that has a hole in the bottom then by a moderate heat of twelve sixteen or twenty hours you will have the Spirit and Oyl together which separate either by a glass Tunnel or by a coffin of brown Paper wet with ordinary VVater Of the Ashes or Coals re-calcin'd you may make a Lixivium and extract the Salt This Oyl is good for old Ulcers for the Gangrene and Rot and two or three drops in Cinnamon-water is good for the Colick the Spirit is good for Burnings Ulcers and for the Pox in a Decoction of Guaiacum Crystal Mineral THrow fine Niter powdered into a Pot set in a Furnace of a Circulary Fire and Suppression and let it be quite full at first being melted throw into it four or five times at each time a spoonful of powder'd Brimstone then pour out by little and little your melted Niter into a Brass Kettle shaking the Kettle and dipping it into cold Water dissolve your Niter thus prepar'd in warm Water filter it through a brown Paper and evaporate it to a Pellicule then setting it cool you will have fair Crystals which are the true Crystal Mineral or Sal Prunellae It cools opens and resists Corruption taken inwardly from a scruple to a dragm and in a Clyster from a dragm to half an ounce The Spirit and Oyl of Box ARe made as the Spirit and Oyl of Guaiacum only this Wood yields much Spirit but little Oyl the Oyl is good for the putrefaction and pain of the Teeth for Contusions and Ulcers Of the Regulus of Mars POwder and mingle two pounds of Male Antimony with one pound of Tartar and one of common Niter six ounces of filings of Steel and two ounces of powder'd Charcoal It is made as the Regulus of Antimony and there results of it a Regulus containing seven ounces of Antimony with the six ounces of filings It purges by stool and vomit in powder or in vessel with Wine and serves to make an excellent Diaphoretick which never provokes vomit The Spirit of Salt TAke one part of common Salt and five of Potters Earth dried and powdered fill with it a glass Retort well luted place it in a Furnace of a great Reverberatory Fire give the fire by degrees and continue the last degree for twenty hours It s vertue is Diuretick it drives away Gravel and breaks little britle Stones whitens the Teeth and preserves from the Plague and all Corruption Of the Red Precipitate of Mercury PUt four ounces of Mercury and six ounces of Aqua fortis in a Matrass of glass luted up to half its Body place it in a Furnace of a moderate Circulary Fire till the Aqua fortis be evaporated then give a Fire of Suppression till there rise a yellow vapour upon the brim of the Matrass then take it off and when cold break your Vessel and you will find in the bottom a Red Precipitate of an Orange colour Of Spirit of Niter PUt one part of fine Niter to four parts of dried Potters-Earth fill a glass Retort well luted then distil it in a great Reverberatory Fire and have a care of its vapours in distilling it It s Vse and Vertues Are to dissolve Mercury Camphire and Metals and is better for interior Remedies than Aqua fortis Of Turbith Mineral PUt two ounces of Mercury and three ounces of Spirit of Niter into a glass Retort luted up to half its neck place it in a Furnace of a Circulary fire giving a gentle fire till the Mercury be dissolved and dried then take off your vessel and let it cool then pour upon it one ounce of Oyl or Spirit of Sulphur and evaporate it by the same fire reiterating this three or four times then burn upon it Spirit of Wine break your Vessel and you will have a white lump which powder and wash in warm Water till the Water come away insipid Dry this matter in a Sand-fire and burn upon it Spirit of Wine three or four times it will make your Mercury as yellow as Gold then give it a melting fire which it will endure very well without losing any thing because of the fixedness it has acquired by the Spirit of Sulphur Of the white Precipitate PUt eight ounces of Mercury and one pound of Aqua fortis into an ample glass Retort with a long neck shake your vessel and heat it a little upon warm Ashes till your Mercury be dissolved then pour your Dissolution into a glass Bell and pour upon it a quart of Sea-water to precipitate your Mercury separate your Sea-water and sweeten your Precipitate with common Water then dry it in a coffin of white Paper It is used with Pomatum to rub Ring-worms withall It s internal Use is To purge in the Pox from three to eight grains Of the golden Diaphoretick Sulphur BOyl in common Water in a Kettle the Faeces of Regule of Antimony or Regule of Mars filter their Lixivium through a brown Paper pour two or three spoonfuls of Vinegar or of some acid Spirit upon all this Lixivium it will curdle grow yellow and stink then pouring Water upon it precipitate your Tincture thus curdled into a powder of the colour of Saffron which you must edulcorate or sweeten to take away the ill smell then dry it in a coffin of Paper It s Vse is to provoke the Monthly Courses from eight to twelve
it till your water come away insipid then filter your Magistery and dry it in the shade The Use of it is That it is a powerful Diuretick and Diaphoretick against Venereal Diseases the Small Pox and all long Distempers The Dose is from ten to twenty grains and more Boyl four ounces of Venice Turpentine into the consistence of Colophone in a kettle full of Water and mingle with it while it is warm an ounce of Diaphoretick Antimony half an ounce of Niter sulphurated and as much Cream of Tartar form of it Pills which will be excellent for old Gonorrhaea's Of the binding Saffron of Mars PUt two parts of filings of Steel and one part of powder'd Brimstone all at once into a Crucible heated red-hot in a fire of Suppression till the Brimstone be consumed and an hour after take off your Crucible and powder presently your matter spread this powder that is now of the colour of Violets upon Tiles and it will become brown It is good in bloody and Hepatick Fluxes in the weight of a dragm It augments the binding vertue of Plasters The opening Saffron of Mars SPrinkle the binding Saffron of Mars in a stone pan with Spirit of Vitriol or Brimstone two fingers above the matter which in two or three days will be a kind of paste with which fill a large Crucible and set it in a Reverberatory Fire for eight hours then powder it while warm and searce it The Vse This Saffron is good against the Yellow Jaundice it provokes the Monthly Courses and opens the Spleen from half a dragm to two Of the Spirit of Sulphur PLace a stone Cup half full of Sand upon a little Pot placed in the middle of a great earthen Pan a quarter full of Water put into it a spoonful of powder'd Brimstone and with a red Cart-nail set it on fire put presently a glass Bell over the Pan the Brimstone will burn the Spirit will impregnate the Water and the Flowers will produce a little skin reiterate all that till you have thus consumed four pound of Brimstone then mingle your Flowers and your impregnated Water in a Matrass with a short neck and evaporate in a Circulary Fire the Flegm till your Brimstone be dissolved and that your Spirit grows black pour it all into a stone or White-ware Vessel while it is warm the Brimstone will be congealed in the bottom and you shall have half an ounce of black Oyl or Spirit of Brimstone It cools purifies the Blood preserves from the Plague fixes Mercury dissolves Pearls and Coral and cures Cancers and Warts Of the Spirit of Vitriol and Oyl of Colcothar FIll a glass Retort throughly luted with green Vitriol calcin'd to a grey colour in a great Crucible in a Circulary Fire and of Suppression place it in a Furnace of great Reverberation till there appear black spots upon the Receiver then pour off your Spirit of Vitriol which is as clear as Water encrease your fire you shall have a black Oyl very acid and there will remain a Colcothar in the Retort The Use of both is To cool and resist Corruption against all Distempers of the Liver Kidneys against burning and pestilential Feavers it serves also to dissolve Pearls Coral Crabs Eyes Egg-shells c. but it is not strong enough to dissolve Metals Of the Oyl of Myrrha FIll with Myrrha in pieces a glass Retort luted place it in a Circulary Fire fitting to it a great Receiver there will come out a Flegm and an Oyl both together separate them one from another with a glass Tunnel The Use of the Oyl is Against Fits of the Mother by smelling to it it cleanses and ripens Wounds being mingled with the Digestivum and hinders the Gangrene being mingled with the Egyptiacum Of Cauteries SLack half a pound of Quick-lime in a stone Pan by pouring Water upon it by little and little till it become like pap in the mean time heat in a Crucible in a Fire of Suppression two pounds of gravell'd Ashes and throw them hot into the said pap then pour upon it sufficient quantity of Water to dissolve your Salts after twelve hours infusing pour your Lixivium into a brass Basin and evaporate it till it be dry and thus as it is you may use it as people do other Cauteries If you melt this matter you may mould Cauteries upon a Marble The Use is To cauterize when they are moulded they are dryer and must be well wet before their application Of the Red acid oyl of Antimony POwder and mingle fine Niter Brimstone and Antimony of each a pound set fire to your matters by little and little in an earthen pan under a glass Bell as you do the Spirit of Brimstone then evaporate it in a Matrass of a short neck till your Brimstone be melted and your Niter exhaled and that your Oyl appears red and thick taking care that your matter in boyling do not run over pour all your matter into a little stone pot or of White-ware and when it is cold it will congeal into a fair reddish Sulphur The Use of the Oyl is To cure by touching the Ulcers and Cancres of the Pox it purges without provoking vomit from eight to eighteen drops Of Besoard Mineral MElt some butter of Antimony and pour it into a glass Bell and add to it drop by drop and at divers times Spirit of Niter in equal quantity for fear of too great an ebullition when the smoak and boyling cease pour to it a pint of Sea-water filtred and cold there will be produced a white Precipitate after twelve hours pour off this Water sweeten your Precipitate with common Water then filter the remainder through a coffin of Paper and keep your powder well stop'd It s Use is To be an excellent Sudorifick for malignant Feavers and the Pox. The Precipitate of Bismuth PUt four ounces of powder'd Bismuth into a glass Bell and pour upon it by little and little eight ounces of Spirit of Niter having a care of too great an ebullition and of the venomous vapours of the said Spirit The ebullition being ceas'd and the dissolution perform'd and cold it will crystallize Pour upon it Sea-water to precipitate the Magistery pour off your Sea-water and pour on common Water to sweeten it filter the remainder through a Paper coffin and let it dry in the shade The Use is To dry Ulcers and to be a Fucus being mingled with Pomatum The spirit and oyl of Turpentine FIll a glass Retort luted with the waterish Spirit of Turpentine with its Oyl distil it in a Circulary Fire till three parts of four come away which will be the Spirit and there will remain in the Retort a thick red Oyl rectifie your Spirit so often till there remain no Oyl in it The Oyl is a good Anodynum for wounds of the nervous parts the Spirit is a good Diuretick dissolves Gums extracts Tinctures of Aromatick Plants and serves to make the Balsam of Sulphur Of the sulphurated Niter call'd Sal Antifebrile or the salt against Feavers TAke four ounces of Brimstone or its Flowers and mingle them with eight ounces of fine Niter fire this mixtion by degrees in an earthen Cup set in a stone Pan in which is a quart of Spirit of Urine covering the pot with a Bell then take the Faeces of the calcin'd Brimstone and powder them and mingle them with the Spirit of Urine impregnated with the Spirits of Niter and Sulphur let them infuse twelve hours in this stone Pot till they be dissolved filter the Dissolution and evaporate it in a short necked Matrass in a Circulary Fire till it come to a white scum then diminish the Fire and evaporate it till it cease boyling and have a care that the too much boyling do not break your Vessel pour this matter while warm into a White-ware Dish and it will congeal like Crystal Mineral To mould it you must melt it and then pour it into a Vial or melt in the Vial and then break your Vial by cold Water and take away all the Glass with the point of a Knife The Use 'T is a powerful Diuretick and cooler it resists Corruption it drives Gravel cures Feavers softens Metals The Dose is from twenty to thirty Grains FINIS
THE ART OF Chymistry As it is now Practised Written in French By P. THIBAVT Chymist to the French King And now Translated into English BY A Fellow of the Royal Society LONDON Printed for John Starkey at the Miter near Temple-Bar in Fleetstreet 1675. Licensed Roger L'Estrange The Author's PREFACE I Have Courteous Reader but two things to say to thee the first is To deliver my Opinion concerning Chymistry and the other is To set down my Way and Method of proceeding in Operations Chymistry as I take it is a Liberal Art which though it have the same Object and the same End as Vulgar Pharmacy does nevertheless compose it by Nobler and more Ingenious Means and more to the advantage of Physick In ancient times even long before Hippocrates Physitians neither knew nor made use of any more than four ways of preparing their Remedies for either they pressed the Juice out of their Ingredients or beat them to powder or they boiled them or else they infused them in Water or some other Liquor and so gave them to their Patients Some Ages after and particularly since Mesue and those other famous Arabians till the time of Paracelsus Physitians continually invented so many new Preparations and put so many Disguises upon their Remedies that they were fain to give over doing of it themselves and to assign that care to those whom we now call Apothecaries But if we give a Judicious Curiosity leave to pry into these manifold Disguises we shall soon be convinced that they are indeed nothing but the four first Simple Preparations with the addition of Sugar or Honey and some differences of Colour and Consistency for the most part heaping great quantities of Simples one upon another to the end their Patients might swallow them with less distaste Paracelsus and his Followers having particularly wrought upon Minerals found out some excellent Remedies and being encouraged by their rich Discoveries they continued them with such eagerness that in a short time with Inventions equally ingenious and laborious they did almost subdue the three Kingdoms of Vegetables Animals and Minerals and came to the possession of most rich and hitherto unknown Secrets insomuch as one may say that even from the beginning of the World to their times the Vertues of those excellent Remedies lay buried in their own Bodies as in a Grave This may be clearly seen in Crude Antimony of which a pound either in powder or in Infusion or Decoction works no other effect in the Body than if we had swallowed as much Saw-dust But if you know how to open its Body by the Keys of Chymistry then for interiour Remedies you shall have an Emetick a Purgative a Sudorifick a Diaphoretick a Diuretick and a Cordial which you need only give in a different proportion of so many Grains And for exteriour Applications you may out of the same Antimony have a Desiccative a Mundificative a Consumptive or Escarotick with other rare Remedies as we shall hereafter set down at large If we consider Mercury they that work in the Mines in Spain teach us by their Theft that more than a pound of it may be taken inwards without harm for a little before they give over working they swallow a good quantity of it which when they are at liberty they ease themselves of by Stool and so keep it to sell in secret And this the Overseers having discovered do now force every Workman to stay there a considerable time after his giving over working that these Mercurial Thieves may be so forced to leave their theft behind them But if by the vertue of Chymical Dissolvants you open the body of Quicksilver it will produce in very small Doses such various and wonderful effects that out of it alone may be had Remedies to answer all the Indications of Physick Is there any thing more contemptible than Niter in the hands of the Vulgar Pharmacy But is there any thing more admirable than the self-same Niter handled by Chymistry for with it we make now a pleasant and cooling Acid now a hot and burning Corrosive sometimes it revives the Emetick and Purgative vertue of Antimony sometimes it kills the Emetick and revives only the Purgative and sometimes it destroys both Emetick and Purgative and quickens either the Diuretick or Diaphoretick and in a word it produces so many wonderful effects upon all the other Minerals that we may justly call it the Vniversal Agent of Chymistry Who would think that a quantity of Silver no bigger than a Pea Chymically prepared were able to heal by once touching any Ulcers of the Mouth and by two or three touchings soften and heal the hardest and most inveterate Ulcers and even the Gangrene it self in any part of the Body and that incomparably better than any Remedy of the Old Pharmacy Would any body believe that out of Common Salt which is generally reputed so prejudicial to those that are subject to the Stone or Gravel Chymists should extract a pleasant Spirit which drives out all Gravel breaks the Stone in the Kidneys and Bladder and dissolves entirely in the palm of the hand a Stone cut out of a humane Bladder I should be tedious in setting out all the other VVonders of this Art only this I 'll say to prove its excellency That whereas in its birth and even in its growth when it was either not known at all or ill known by Physitians almost every body had an aversion and a prejudice against it now quite contrary being highly esteemed and throughly known by the Learned and Experienced Professors of this Art it has gained the Reputation of being the best Instrument of the excellent Cures they perform But if in requital of the kind Reception it now meets withal in the world Chymistry hath any acknowledgments to pay it is particularly to Monsieur Vallot who having been long the Physitian of the greatest Practice in Paris is now the Physitian of his Most Christian Majesty in which place by his profound Learning and the excellent choice of Remedies borrowed for the most part from Chymistry he still performs wonderful and most singular Cures So famous an Example makes me apt to believe that if there be any persons obstinate in their old errour against Chymistry they will by little and little forsake it as those have been forced to do who for a long time stubbornly opposed the new Discovery of the Vessels that carry the Chyle from the Stomach to the Heart without coming at the Liver only because they had not seen or at least not well observed this new conveyance Now for my Method it all runs upon two principles First To find out and set down solid and pertinent Reasons of all the Circumstances which accompany our Operations The Second to discover the best easiest and shortest way of performing the said Operations These were no easie things to be found out for the first Chymists happened upon abundance of excellent Secrets but being ignorant of the true Reasons of
All these five Furnaces are with a naked fire The Furnace with the heat of Balneum maris or the vaporous Bath is necessary for the gentle distilling of all sorts of aery or sulphureous liquors in glass-bodies placed in a Cauldron full of water and withal it serves to evaporate and dry by its gentle heating vapour all extracts and salts in little earthen glaz'd dishes which are set upon the Overtures made in the cover of the said Kettle or Cauldron so that the remedies thus dryed have no odour not taste of Empyreume or burning For the building of this Furnace do thus lay one Round of our Bricks of such a compass as may be proportionate to the greatness of the Kettle you intend for your Balneum leaving an empty place before four or five inches broad for the ashes-hole then lay another entire Round of Bricks upon which place your Grate then upon this lay two Rounds more leaving before an empty space for your fire-door as you did for your ash-hole and then add four entire Rounds for your Laboratory leaving in the upper most of them three little jams or gaps each an inch wide to let in the air viz. one before above the fire-door another behind over against to this first and a third on the side which shall be opposite to that where the Receiver is placed lest if there were one on that side the flame might sometimes break the Nose of the Limbeck Now for your Kettle or Cauldron it must have a brim of an inch broad whereby it may be scituated and equally suspended upon the brims of your Furnace leaving betwixt it and the Furnace-sides an orbicular space of an inch to give the fire play round about it that so it may heat equally the matter contained within it In the Fabrick of this Furnace as likewise in the structure of the four following observe 1. That you must not forget to put a sufficient quantity of Lute under above and betwixt your Bricks that they may be strongly cemented together 2. That you must not place your Bricks just one upon another if so your Furnace will not be firm and stable but by the operation of the fire will soon cleave asunder Do therefore as expert Brick-layers and interlace your Bricks one with another The Furnace with the fire or heat or sand or ashes is useful for the distillation and rectification of all sorts of liquors drawn from Vegetals Animals or Minerals in glass or earthen bodies glazed with their glass heads and also for all infusions extinctions tinctures evaporations c. made in Cucurbits Matrasses dishes pans of glass or glazed earthen ware This is the hardest to be well built of all our Furnaces and for the building of it do thus first make a sufficient quantity of Mortar consisting of our Lute Water and Plaster of Paris in powder then with little Tiles make upon a floor an Oval of one foot in length and of eight inches in breadth cement your Tiles well together with this Mortar which because of the Plaster will render your Furnace more firm and durable raise this first Oval Lay of Tiles to the heighth of two inches leaving a space for your ash-hole then add one Lay of our Bricks not filling up the space left for the ash-hole because it must be almost as high as the space to be left for the fire-room upon this lay of Bricks place your Iron-bars for a Grate in the same distance as they are set in chafing-dishes placing one little bar upon the ash-hole door not forgetting to bestow good store of Mortar both above under and betwixt your Bricks and Bars then upon so much of this Furnace as is already built place small Tiles cementing of them together in such an order as may make this Furnace acquire a square figure outwardly which will make it more solid and firm and by adding to it a considerable thickness fit it for the conserving of an equal heat with a few Coals Upon this first lay of Bricks which have in the inside an oval figure though the Tiles hanging over on the outside form a square one place another Lay of Bricks leaving a convenient space for the fire-room which must be something higher than it is broad but observe that in this Oval lay must be employed more Bricks than in the other because your Furnace by little and little must acquire a greater circumference towards the top then build up with little Tiles and Mortar your square outside to the heighth of your Bricks so continuing as you build up your Furnace upon the top of the fire-room lay a little Iron bar then add another entire round of Bricks without any overture only a little chinck in the backside of your Furnace over against the fire-room of two fingers breadth to give the fire air and this Circle must be in circumference wider by two inches than the last smoothing with mortar the inside of this round that the fire may be carried more evenly upwards this done place on this last Round a square Iron plate all of a piece or of two pieces if you will sawdering them well one upon another the place must not be thicker than a shilling that so the fire may the easilier penetrate and give a moderate heat to the sand then with our Mortar raise on the inside a Square of an inch thick to all the four sides of the Furnace to make a place to put your sand in or ashes if you will ashes give not so great a heat as sand whensoever you desire to moderate the heat of either you may wet them with a little water The Furnace with a naked fire and circular heat serves to distil Aqua vitae spirit of Wine Aromatick and Balsamick ossences and also the waters of all Plants in the Brass-vessel called Vesica with its Helm or Moors head borded with a refrigeratory of the same metal making use also of a long pipe of the same matter which passes through one or two great Hogs-heads full of water near the Furnace and which are in stead of a second and more powerful refrigeratory For the building of this Furnace do thus First take your Brass Vesica set it upon the ground where you intend to erect your Furnace then lay a Round of Bricks well cemented with our Lute so that there be half a fingers breadth left betwixt your Vesica and the Bricks and an Overture for the ash-hole then taking out your Vesica add another Round of Bricks leaving still room for the ash-hole which will be about half a foot high upon these two lays place a Grate of divers little Iron-Bars then add an entire Round of Bricks to which add two more but not entire leaving a space empty for the fire-room perpendicularly over the ash-hole then add one circle of Bricks entire without any Overture upon which place two little Iron-Bars to uphold the bottom of your Vesica And in this place is terminated the heighth of
your fire-room which is once again as high as your ash-hole After this raise by Rounds your Furnace till you have brought it as high as the neck of the Vesica which that you may the better do place your Vesica upon its two Bars and so it will serve for a measure to the elevation your Furnace ought to have Observe that this Furnace is not to have any chink on any side whatsoever but every where and particularly in the Laboratory there ought to be circularly half a fingers breadth left empty that so the air compassing the Vessel may draw the heat upwards in all the circumference of the Vesica And this environing heat carries the Spirits from the bottom of the Vessel to its neck from whence they are raised all together to the top of the cover or Moors head and if above you stop this empty circumference your fire will be apt to go out if it be not excessive great which also would be inconvenient because it would consume in vain great quantity of fewel The Furnace with a naked fire and small reverberatory serves to distil the Phlegm the Spirit and the foetide Oyl of Berries Woods Barks and Roots in an earthen or glass Retort well luted lest it should break in the fire For the building of this Furnace you must first consider of the bigness of the Retorts you ordinarily intend to make use of and make the circuit of your Furnace so wide as there may be a fingers breadth left betwixt it and your Retort Lay then four or five Rounds of Bricks in the said proportion leaving an empty space for your ash-hole and fire-room they being not to be separated in this Furnace by a Grate because else the air coming in at the ash-hole and meeting with the fire upon a Grate would kindle it too violently and so great a fire is not requisite for these substances to be distilled Then add an entire Round of Bricks upon which place two Iron bars upon which you must put the cover of a Pipkin turned with its hollow part upwards which must be filled with sand to receive the bottom of the Retort then with divers Rounds of Brick raise your Furnace to the heighth of the Retort or higher taking care to leave an overture or open space to pass the neck of the Retort which chink you must afterwards with our Lute repair under the neck of your Retort to hinder the flame from passing that way and endangering the breaking of the Vessels Having fitted a Recipient to it you must lute both their necks together very close to the end that nothing of the spirits exhale and scape that way in the distillation Last of all you must have an earthen Pan of the capacity of your Furnace which may cover the top of it and reverberate the rising flame upon the Retort and this Pan must be of glazed earth else it would fly in pieces in the heat besides it must have a hole in the middle of its bottom of the bigness of an Egg and this to give the fire air which else would be stifled and go out The Furnace with a naked fire and great Reverberatory serves to distil the acid and corrosive spirits the acid black and corrosive Oyls in a glass or earthen luted Retort or in an iron one To build this Furnace you must consider of the bigness of the Retorts you mean to employ and do as above in the little Reverberatory-Furnace then make an ash-hole covered with a Grate and a fire-room covered with its two Iron bars and at last a Laboratory of the elevation of the belly of your Retort as has been said already only you must on the top of the Laboratory leave a chink on one side of the ash-hole and fire-room of two Bricks in heighth to pass the neck of the Retort Before you place your Retort upon the Iron-Bars you must provide a little earthen cover with ashes as has been said in the first Furnace of this kind Then place your Retort and fit to it a large Recipient which must be also setled with great care upon a little Joint-stool and under it must be either Paper or Linen or some soft thing that it may rest gently and surely upon Then with our Lute fill up the space you left for the neck of the Retort for the reason alledged in the precedent Furnace luting also the conjunction of the Retort and its Receiver together this being done there remains to make a Reverberatory which may reflect and beat back the rising heat upon the Retort and to this effect lay five Rounds of moveable Bricks that is without Mortar or Lute only one upon another in such a manner as your Rounds go always in diminishing so that in the first you employ half a Brick less than in the last cemented Round and in the second a whole Brick less than in the first moveable Round and in the third you must employ two Bricks less than in the second leaving a hole in this last Round which you shall fill up with pieces of Iron of such a bigness as shall not slip betwixt the space that is left between the Retort and the Wall of the Furnace The reason why I put Iron rather than Bricks or Stone or any other solid thing is because at the end of the Operation you 'll find an excellent Crocus astringens of Mars red as Scarlet and which will stick to the superficies of all your pieces of Iron The Furnace with a little circulatory fire or Ignis rotae parvus serves to evaporate the dissolutions of Minerals as also of Animals and Vegetals by a gentle ready heat in a Matrass either luted or not luted This Furnace is made of one only Round of our Bricks close set together without any Lute or Mortar you must place a Round or Salt-seller of Lute in the middle of this Furnace and upon this Salt-seller filled with sand or ashes place your Matrass straight leaving a circumference of two inches between your Matrass and the Furnace sides then put your Coal ready kindled into this space approaching your fire nearer to the Furnace than to the Matrass The Furnace with a great circulatory fire serves to sublime all salts drawn from Metals and Minerals in a luted glass Matrass This Furnace is made of two equal Rounds of our Bricks so set together without Lute that there is a little distance betwixt them to the end that the Air entering at these small Overtures may serve to keep the fire alive place your Salt-seller and upon it your Matrass then your Coals as we have said in the precedent Furnace The Furnace with a circulary fire and of suppression without any chink is useful to calcine and melt down all sorts of Minerals as also those Animals and Vegetables that require Calcination either in a Crucible or a Pot of Earth unglazed To build this Furnace lay first upon the ground either a large Salt-seller of our Lute or
Lead the top of it rises in form of a point the bottom is broad and proportioned to the body In its lower part it hath a brim inwards on which the Vapours that rise in it fall and gently distil to the Nose of the Pipe which is of half a foot long and conveys the liquors into the Receiver These two Vessels fitted one to another serve to distil and rectifie in a sand-fire per assensum the waters of Plants Aqua vitae Spirit of Wine the phlegm Oyl and Spirit of Vegetables and Animals and to rectifie the Phlegm and Spirit of Minerals Before you put your Cucurbit into the sand you must lute two or three slices of white Paper upon the neck of your body that so you may even it and make it fit for the head which must fit close upon these slices of Paper round about the Glass-body tye a pack-thread with a loose knot then with more Paper lute together the head and its body over this pack-thread the use of which will be to undo easily these Vessels one from another by drawing the pack-thread and so breaking the Papers when the Operation shall be ended If you expect not a considerable quantity of liquor from your matter then make use of a small Receiver which you may hang to the Nose of the Limbick by a pack-thread fastned to the little button that is on the top of its head but if it be big and you hope for much liquor then place it carefully upon a little Stool or upon Bricks laid one upon another Blind Limbicks are made of a Cucurbit and its head sealed hermetically to it of the bigness of ones fist in the top of the head there is a little hole fit to receive the small end of a Tunnel by which the Liquors are poured into this Vessel and in the lower part of the head there is a nose by which the Liquors distil It s use is to rectifie the acid Spirits of Minerals Vegetables and Animals so that nothing be lost nor exhale from them and therefore you must carefully stop the hole by which you put in your matter with a Glass or Cork-stopple Twins or Pelicans are two blind Limbicks whose noses are reciprocally inserted into the Bodies of one another they must both have a hole in the top for the use mentioned in the other they serve to fix and circulate the Oyls and Spirits with their Salts of Animals Vegetables and Minerals The Retort is a glass made up of a great belly or ball and a long bending neck which near the belly is six or eight inches wide but diminishing still grows less till its end be but wide enough to put your finger in it serves to distil by the side of the Furnace and ordinarily in a naked circulatory fire the black Oyls and Spirits of Minerals and Metals and the stinking Oyls of Vegetables and Animals The Iron or Earthen Retort is like the Glass-one only the neck is three inches diameter near the belly and two inches in its extremity to the end that gross and heavy ingredients may the easilier be put in it serves to distil the Spirit and stinking Oyls of Woods Barks Roots and Berries The Matrass or Bolt-head is always of Glass and may be of different sizes it consists of a round bowl convex in its bottom with a neck half a foot long or thereabouts according to the bigness of the body the neck is every where an inch wide it serves to sublime Mercury and divers Salts The Recipient is a Matrass of any bigness whose neck must be broken off four fingers breadth near the belly to the end that the extremity of the neck of the Retort may enter into the middle of the body of the Receiver it serves to receive Waters Essences Oyls and Spirits of Animals Vegetables Minerals and Metals The way to make a Recipient of a Matrass is this Heat the neck in that part where you intend to cut it off and when it is very hot wet it and so knock it with a hammer and it will break there where it has been wet if it be not very even you may with a key even it by little and little The Stone or Earthen Receiver is of the same figure with the Glass one only it has a wider neck to receive the Nose of the Earthen Retort you may use an Earthen Pitcher if you cannot get a fit Receiver so the neck of the Pitcher be straight and the belly big and wide taking care to lute it close with the Retort but these Earthen Receivers are seldom used except it be to receive the Spirits and stinking Oyls of Wood Rinds Roots Barks and Berries The double Vessel in form of a Matrass is a Matrass with a long neck into which is inserted the neck of another Matrass of the same bulk in the ball though its neck be a little less and may if you will also be shorter and go but half way into the first Matrass you must lute with three or four slices of Paper the Junction of these two Vessels that nothing may exhale it serves to extract by Infusion in a Sand-heat all sorts of Tinctures The double Vessel in form of a Cucurbit or Body is a Cucurbite of Glass or Earth upon whose mouth you place a Cup like your Cupping-Glasses with the mouth downwards it having a little brim by which it is suspended upon the top of the Cucurbite these two Vessels must be close luted together The best Lute will be of Flower or Starch in form of a hasty Pudding This Vessel serves to extract by infusion the tincture of Aromatick Flowers that so nothing may be lost of their Spirit and is fitter than the Pitcher ordinarily used to this purpose The Bell is a great Glass-Vessel like the Bell Gardiners use to cover Melons withal The use of this is to draw the Spirit and Oyl of Sulphur of Salt Armoniack of Antimony and Mars or Iron by covering with it an Earthen Pan and if you turn it with the mouth upwards it serves for precipitations and washings or lotions The Glass-Tunnel though it be open at both ends yet we reckon it among the Vessels as well because sometimes by stopping the little end it is really one and contains Liquors as because there is something worth observation in its Fabrick or making it must have a straight long neck because being used in the blind Alimbeck it must reach as far as within the Body and not spill upon the inward brim of it it must not have so large a belly as the Tin-Tunnels lest when you separate your distilled Oyl from their Phlegm and Spirit much of the Oyls be lost by sticking to the large sides of your Tunnel It serves to separate the Oyl from the acid Phlegm distilled with it which is done by letting these two Liquors settle in the Tunnel and then taking away your finger which stopped it and giving leave to that Liquor which is lowermost to run
fourth 4. When you have augmented the fire by degrees and are come to the last which you maintain the space of some hours as it is done in the distillation of the black Oyl of Vitriol or Colcothar The Spirit of Salt TAke a quantity of Potters-Earth cut it into slices of the length breadth and thickness of a finger and set them in order upon a Grid-iron which you shall set upon red Coals in a hot Oven after the bread is drawn when they are dry on one side turn them on the other then take them out and powder them in a Mortar and keep this Earth thus dried and powdered as well for this Operation as for divers others Mingle five parts of this Earth thus prepared with one part of common Salt beaten to powder but not decrepitated with this matter fill a Glass-Retort of an ordinary size which must be luted up to half the neck set it in a close Reverberatory and fit it to a large and capacious Glass-Receiver Give your fire by degrees coming as soon as you can to the last degree which continue twenty four hours or till your Recipient seem cold though the Retort be violently hot from whence you may infer that your matter hath sent out all its Spirits out of one pound of Salt by this method you 'll draw nine or ten ounces of Spirits Observe 1. This Earth is given to the Salt as an intermedium to hinder its fusion for Salt melts in a great fire and being once melted becomes so fix as there is no raising of its Spirits to distil them Observe 2. That we rather make use of a Glass than of an Earthen Retort because the Spirits of Salt being very acid and something corrosive might so penetrate the Earth of the Retort as to lose something of their virtue and dull their activity therefore you must also keep your Spirit of Salt in Glass not in Earthen Vessels Observe 3. That the Salt must not be decrepitated that is separated from its Phlegm nor the Clay absolutely dried or heat red in the fire for it is necessary that there should remain some watrish humidity in both to the end that this phlegm coming first in distillation may help the acid Spirits and be as a Vehicle to them otherwise were your fire never so violent if there were no Phlegm you would never obtain any acid Spirits Observe 4. That your Retort must be filled up to the neck because the Spirits in their first rising and separating themselves from their grosser parts would if there were any Vacuum presently re-impregnate themselves and be so fix'd as that no power of fire would be able to raise them again and make them Volatil whereas the Vapours raised meeting with no empty room in the Retort are not able to condense there but by the fire are forced into the Recipient into which they enter in form of a white Vapour which by little and little cools and condenses and at last dissolves into a Liquor white and clear as water Observe 5. That that Phlegm which first comes is little in quantity and if you will have your Spirit strong and pure you may deflegmate and rectifie it in a sand-heat It s vertue and use is It resists all corruption taken interiourly and outwardly applied and for this reason in venomous and malign Feavers we mingle three or four drops of it with a Cordial Julip and for a preservation against the Plague we put a spoonful of it into a quart of Oxycrate and so rub the body all over before a good fire It whitens the Teeth admirably being mingled with a little Water or some syrup it 's a powerful diuretick against suppressions of Urine caused by the oppilation of the conducts thorow which it should pass it drives the Gravel out of the Kidneys and Bladder and so is specifick to break the Stone of the Kidneys and Bladder that if you put a Stone cut out of a humane Bladder into a quantity of Spirit of Salt it will dissolve immediately without fire or any addition of any thing though it were never so hard it is used to dissolve Gold and make it Potable if you do whet its Vertue by putting to it a little Salt decrepitated before you put your Gold in it alone it dissolves Pearls and Coral The marks whereby you may know and distinguish this Spirit from others are these 1. That it is clear and white drawing to a citrine transparent colour 2. Being newly made it is Vaporous and seizes the nose presently but without stink and being old it has no odour at all 3. That upon your tongue it is of an acid biting faltish taste 4. It neither corrodes nor tinges of any colour its cork-stopple Spirit of Niter MIngle one part of fine and well purified Niter with four or five parts of Potters Earth prepared as in the Chapter of Spirit of Salt fill with this a Glass-Retort well luted up to its neck place it in a close Reverberatory Furnace fitting to it a large and capacious Recipient give your fire by degrees till you come to the highest which continue twenty four hours The Phlegm will come first and in small quantity and also with a little Spirit which will appear in the Recipient in form of a White Vapour a little after the pure Spirit will come appearing in form of red Vapours which will make your Recipient bright and red as a Ruby Out of one pound of Niter thus distilled you may have four ounces of Spirit Obs 1. That you must be very exact in luting your Retort close with your Recipient lest many of your Vapours should exhale and however the Artist must have a care of coming too near at that time lest the Sulphureous and Malign Vapours of the Niter which our Authors call the flying Dragon should offend his Brain and Nerves and make him Paralytick by the fusion and resolution of the humours of the Brain which at that time borrowing from the subtle Nitrous Vapours an extraordinary thinness and penetration would easily insinuate themselves into the nerves and by their abundance cause a total Obstruction Obs 2. That we give the Potters Earth to Niter as we do to Salt to hinder its fusion now Niter is very easily melted because it is the Body which helps other Bodies to be so too by reason of its great thinness the abundance of its Sulphureous substance and its penetration but when once it has been melted it becomes so fix that having lost all its Sulphur it can neither evaporate nor be inflamed though you put it into the fire Then therefore it is called Salt of Niter being fix as Salts whereas before its fusion it was so strangely Volatil that when you did but put a Coal into it it presently was in such a flame that it was almost quite consumed Obs 3. That for this Operation we make use of very fine purified Niter because the purer it is the less it hath of fixed
some washings and then they grow whiter Obs 6. That if while the Niter is deflegmatizing there chance to fall into it any small live Coal then it will all be in a flame till the Coal be consumed and to extinguish this flame there is no way but to take out the said Coal and to cover the pot Obs 7. That if after the melting of your Niter and the purifying of it by the different injections of Brimstone you do not take off your pot or take away some Coals and the two first rounds of Bricks of your Furnace that then your Niter will break the pot though it were of Iron and then the fire will inflame your Niter which inflamed will all exhale and vanish away The reason why the pot will be broken is because that then the Spirits of the Niter being strongly heated fly out of their body and so corrode and break the pot Obs 8. That the Niter does not take fire in the pot because that though a spoonful of Niter cast into a pot red-hot will presently be in a flame and vanish all away in smoak yet a great quantity of Niter even after its deflegmations cannot be set a-fire but by a red-hot Coal unless you use a fire of Suppression and so penetrate the pot as to make it fire the Niter And that cannot be done because in such an Operation an Earthen or Iron Pot or Crucible would break and a Glass one would melt down Obs 9. That the Niter being melted is not afterwards coagulated into a lump upon the fire as Vitriol and Alum use to do because they are gross terrestrious Salts which Niter is not Obs 10. That you must take well purified Niter that so there be less of fix'd Salt in it for the fix'd Salt is easily dissolved into Water and therefore your Niter being clear of it will make your Crystals whiter and drier if you use ordinary unrefin'd Niter your Crystals will be apt to dissolve into Water Obs 11. That the Brimstone takes fire in the melted Niter and yet inflames not the Niter because the oyly substance of the Brimstone is dryer than the Niter and because that the Niter can scarce ever be well deflegmated for its Spirits by reason of their great thinness are subject to evaporate and be gone with the flegm as also because no Vessel can long contain melted Niter without breaking or melting Obs 12. That the Brimstone purifies the Niter because that the grosser part of the Brimstone which has not been a-fire mingling its self with the melted Niter hurries along with it to the bottom all the Faeces of the Niter Obs 13. That Crystal Mineral is nothing but a well-purified Niter that is well devested 1. Of its Flegm 2. Of its fix'd Salt 3. Of its black Faeces which it had contracted in those Vessels in which Niter is grosly prepared at first and so you see unless you filtrate it and then crystallize it it is not sufficiently purified When once it has been crystallized then you may dissolve it again and reduce it into a white Crust which is called Lapis Prunellae Now the Crystal Mineral loses its flegm by the melting of the Niter it is devested of it s Smoot by the flagrations of the Brimstone and by the filtration and it loses its fix'd Salt by the crystallization The Vse and Virtues It cools very much resists Corruption and is Diuretick It may be taken inwards from half a scruple to a drachm and in a Clyster from two drachms to half an ounce The Niter sulphurated or the nitrous Salt of Sulphur TAke four ounces of Flowers of Brimstone and eight ounces of very fine purified Niter reduce them into a very fine Powder separately and then mingle them together Then pour into a great stone-Pan a pint of Spirit of Urine drawn from fresh Urine in a Glass-Alimbeck and Sand-fire in the middle of this Pan set a little stone-Pot upon which set also a little Cup of the same Earth Then begin to make the flagrations of the said Brimstone and Niter together and for this effect put a spoonful of these two powders mingled together into the little Cup then put into them a red-hot Iron your matter will be immediately in a flame therefore cover your Pan with a Glass-Bell whereby you may receive the red Vapours of the flaming matter These Vapours will dissolve into three different Substances viz. into Spirits of Niter and Spirits of Sulphur which fall together and are incorporated with the Spirit of Urine in the bottom of the Pan and into nitrous flowers of Brimstone which will be found sticking partly to the sides of the Bell and partly to the sides of the Pan and part of them will be spread in form of a Pellicula or little skin upon the superficies of the Spirit of Urine Take notice That in this first flagration your Cup breaks infallibly because it is not lined or fenced with any thing that can hinder the Niter from exrcising its activity upon it In a quarter of an hour or thereabouts the Vapours will be passed and dissolved into the three Substances I have spoken of which done break that little reddish skin upon the superficies of the Spirit of Urine to the end that in the following flagrations the Spirit of Urine may be impregnated with the acid Spirits of the Sulphur and Niter which could not be if that skin remained entire then take away your broken Cup in which you will find a whitish Crust left After the first flagration powder this and put it into a new stone Cup and it will keep it from breaking as the first did Then put another spoonful of water into this Cup fire it and in a word observe all the circumstances of the Operation already described continuing it till all your Sulphur and Niter be consumed This done take the calcined Faeces of Niter and Brimstone which remain in the bottom of your Cup and reduce them into a fine powder in an Iron Mortar then mingle them with all that is contained in your Earthen Pan taking care to scrape off from the sides into the Pan all those Flowers that stick either to the Bell or Pan Let this stand and infuse the space of twelve hours to the end that the acid of the Niter and Sulphur may entirely dissolve all the said Faeces and Flowers filtrate this Dissolution through a brown Paper over a glass Pan or Dish and there will remain in the Paper some grey Faeces of the Flowers of Sulphur which you may throw away Then begin your second Operation that is the deflegmation or evaporation of your Dissolution To this purpose put your Dissolution into a Matrass which must not be luted because towards the end of the Operation you are to see what passes in the Vessel Your Matrass must be short-necked to the end the evaporation may be quicker and it must not be above three quarters full lest the matter should
luted to half the neck leaving a gap to look through at place it upon a Round in a small circulary Furnace keeping the neck of your Retort streight and not leaning on one side till your Mercury be dissolved in the Spirit of Niter which you will easily perceive through the gap you left when you luted your Glass When your Mercury is quite dissolved then to go the shorter way to work evaporate the Spirit of Niter your Retort being in the same posture still but if you mean to draw off the said Spirit of Niter then set your Retort in a distilling posture and fit to it a Recipient continuing your fire in the same degree as before When the exsiccation or drying of your Mercury shall be thus performed take off your Vessel and let it cool then pour into it an ounce of Oyl of Sulphur upon the white matter which remains in the bottom and then set it again upon the same fire till all the Oyl of Sulphur be likewise evaporated reiterate three or four times this cohobation or rectification with the same proportion of Oyl of Sulphur to the end that at last it may fire the Mercury This done break your vessel and in the bottom you will find a white lump which reduce to powder and upon this powder pour warm water which incontinent will become yellow reiterate this dulcoration or sweetning till at last your water come away as insipid as it was poured on then separate by inclination the water which will not be tinged as the other was and after dry your matter gently in a sand heat and there will remain at last a powder as yellow as Gold upon this pour some spponfuls of Spirit of Wine and set it on fire doing thus three or four times to sweeten your Mercury the more It will be as yellow and as bright as Gold and of no taste and so fix that being put into a Crucible and melted in a Wine Furnace it will still keep the consistence of a yellow powder without losing but very little of its weight which is a sign that it is well fixt Obs 1. That your Mercury for this Operation must be well purified because the intention is to fix it which could scarce be done if it were impure and mingled with Lead besides that being designed for a purgative in a very small Dose it would scarce answer your intention you will be able to judge if it be well purified or no by putting some of it into a Stone-cup for if when you put a finger into it it does not hang and make a long thred as a syrup would do but is short then it is good If it be impure you may purifie it by straining it through the Leather called Chamy for the Lead if there be any will remain in the leather or else distill your Mercury in a Glass Retort luted in a fire of suppression and the Mercury will remain in the bottom of the Retort Obs 2. That we use Spirit of Niter and not Aqua fortis to dissolve the Mercury because the said Spirit being less harmful and corrosive than Aqua fortis ought to be imployed in all preparations of Remedies that are to be taken inwardly besides that if we had employed Aqua fortis then the Mercury must necessarily after its dissolution have become red as it shall be taught in the Chapter of the Red Precipitate hereafter and no other Spirit would be corrosive enough to dissolve the Mercury but Spirit of Niter Obs 3. That we use a greater quantity of Spirit of Niter than of Mercury because experience teaches us that the dissolvant must be in greater quantity to dissolve such a dose of Mercury Obs 4. That the said dissolution requires no other than a small circulary fire for if the heat were greater the Spirit would evaporate and be gone in stead of doing its work and for the same reason we keep the Retort with its neck upwards that so if the Spirit be raised yet it may fall down again and dissolve the Mercury Obs 5. That if you draw off by distillation that said Spirit of Niter it may be useful to you in frictions for the Itch the Scab and such like diseases having lost its force which would have consum'd proud flesh excrescences c. Obs 6. That the Mercury being dissolved and calcin'd Philosophically by the Spirit of Niter after the exsiccation and evaporation of the said Spirit the Calx of the Mercury is white because the Niter being also white by nature cannot with a small fire colour any body that is dissolved in it but the Aqua fortis makes the bodies grow red because of the Vitriol which is in it Obs 7. That upon the Calx of Mercury we pour Spirit of Sulphur divers times that so we may intirely fix the said Mercury because the spirit of Sulphur is of it self fix and farr from evaporating when it is put in a Matrass upon the fire it fixes part of it into a very pricking sharp Salt and therefore this Spirit has power to fix all Metals The black Spirit of Vitriol is not proper to fix because it is of its nature volatil and would evaporate all away as for its salt at least and there would remain nothing but a Caput mortuum and observe by the by that Mercury passes here through two the noblest Operations of Chymistry for first it is dissolved by the Spirit of Niter and then coagulated by the Spirit of Sulphur Obs 8. That by pouring warm water upon this calx it presently grows yellow because the Oyl of Sulphur has communicated to it the Sulphureous yellow colour and the water being actually warm dissolves and extracts the Salts who were incorporated in the said Calx Obs 9. That by burning Spirit of Wine over the said Mercury you dulcifie and sweeten it and make its purgative vertue gentler because the burning Spirit of Wine penetrating the said Mercury carries away with it in the burning all the Venemous volatil Salt that could be left Obs 10. That Turbith Mineral is nothing but Mercury dissolved and calcin'd by the Spirit of Niter then fixt by the Spirit of Sulphur then devested of the salts of its dissolvants by reiterated lotions and freed from its malignous Sulphur by the flagrations of the Spirit of Wine It s Vse and Vertue It purges strongly and often provokes Vomit from three to six grains it cures the Pox without fluxing because being fixt it cannot rise to the mouth as all other preparations of Mercury that have not been fixt do It is nevertheless very violent because it is not so fixt but there yet remains a little un-fixt mercurial Salt and Sulphur who are sharpened by the Spirits of Niter and Brimstone and indeed if all of it were fixt then nothing of it could be dissolved in the stomach and so would produce no other effect than as much Gold in powder also being not altogether Volatil its Vertue is less harmful The White
Precipitate TAke of pure Mercury eight ounces and of Aqua fortis sixteen put them into an unluted long necked Matrass and of such a size as it be not half full lest when the Mercury and Aqua fortis are in dissolution there should be so great an ebullition as to cause the matter to run over stir a little your Matrass with your hands to heat the Aqua fortis then set your vessel on warm ashes to help a little more your Aqua fortis in its action upon the Mercury but have a care you give not a greater heat than is necessary for a gentle ebullition for if your Aqua fortis be over-heated and opened it will tinge by the means of its Vitriol your Mercury in a yellow colour as soon as your Mercury is entirely dissolved which may be done in half an hour pour your dissolution into an earthen Stone Pan or glass Bell the glazed earth being unfit because the Aqua fortis would dissolve the Vernish then pour upon your matter cold sea-water well filtrated and impregnated with common Salt undecrepitated you may use about a quart of this Water till your dissolved Mercury be all precipitated to the bottom of your Vessel in a white powder And take notice that if you had used common water you would not have precipitated your Mercury but turned your dissolution into a white Liquor which would have discharged it self of a white sharp powder because that common water having no salt cannot fight with the salts of the Aqua fortis but if it be impregnated with a contrary salt there arises a conflict during which the Mercury scrapes and falls to the bottom leaving behind him a good part of his salts This done separate by Inclination your sea-water and pour a great quantity of common water upon your matter to take away the Acrimony which the Aqua fortis by its Niter and Vitriol has communicated to the Mercury and continue this till your water come off insipid Then having pour'd off your last water filtrate the remainder in a brown or rather white Paper to preserve the colour and dry your Precipitate in the shade for if you do it in the Sun or by the Fire it will lose much of its whiteness when it is very dry keep it in a close Vial well stopped and covered with an oyl'd Bladder Obs 1. That though this Remedy be taken inwards yet we use Aqua fortis and not Spirit of Niter because Aqua fortis costs less and is sooner made than Spirit of Niter which undoubtedly without this reason of sparing would be much fitter for this Operation yet we think that the great Lotions that are made do dulcifie it as if it had been prepared with Spirit of Niter Obs 2. That we take as much again of Aqua fortis as of Niter as well because the dissolvant must be stronger than the thing dissolv'd as because that Experience teaches that such a Dose of Aqua fortis is necessary to dissolve the Mercury entirely Obs 3. That the Matrass must be long necked that the Aqua fortis rais'd by the heat to the middle of the neck may cool be condensed and fall down again for in this Operation we pretend to nothing but to dissolve and calcine Philosophically and lightly the Mercury without penetrating its Body and opening it by the Salts of the Aqua fortis as we mean to do in the Red Precipitate and thence it comes that this Mercury after its precipitation retains its white colour and the nature of Quicksilver Obs 4. That if you pour hot Sea-water on your Dissolutions then you will not be able to precipitate entirely your Mercury because that the salt Sea-water being sharpened by an actual heat would penetrate and dissolve a part of the said Mercury in stead of precipitating it Obs 5. That to make Sea-water you must not take decrepitated Salt because it would be to no end to take away the flegm since you are to put it into Water and as for purifying it filtration will do that Obs 6. That the White Precipitate is nothing but Mercury opened and calcined by the Aqua fortis and retaining but very little of the Salts of the said Aqua fortis the rest being carried away by the dulcorations It s Vse and Vertue It is the gentlest of all the Purgatives drawn from Mercury though it be dissolved by Aqua fortis because it has been sweetned by Lotions It purges nevertheless more violently than the sweet Sublimate and its Dose is less For to Children it is from three to six Grains and for Aged persons it is from six to fifteen It cures the Pox taken interiourly and being dissolved with Oyl it may be exteriourly used by Frictions to cure the Itch c. This Remedy fluxes as easily as the sweet Sublimate because the Mercury being unfix'd in these Preparations has his wings left him wherewith he presently flies upwards in stead of purging by Stools The Red Precipitate of Mercury PUt four ounces of good Quicksilver and six ounces of Aqua fortis into a Matrass luted from its bottom to half the belly set your Matrass on a Round in a small circulary Fire give a gentle heat at first lest you should cause too great an ebullition then encrease it by little and little till your Aqua fortis be evaporated and you will know if your Aqua fortis be evaporated by laying upon the mouth of your Matrass a piece of Brass or any other Metal for if it be not wet then it is a sign that all the humidity proceeding from the Aqua fortis is evaporated then encrease the Fire putting live Coals round about the Glass as high as the Lute goes and continue the Fire till your Mercury rise upon the brim of the Matrass in form of a yellow Soot and that a piece of yellow Metal set over this vapour do grow white by rubbing of it and that is a sign that the Operation is ended therefore take off your Glass with all speed else your Mercury would all vanish away in this smoak Your Matrass being cold must be broken a little above the matter and you shall find in the bottom an Orange-colour lump the same in weight as the crude Mercury you used at first and this is it which we call a Red Precipitate Obs 1. That if perchance the middle of this lump were of a whitish colour then that is a sign that the Operation is not perfect and therefore you must reduce it to powder in an Iron Mortar and reverberate it in a Crucible with a Fire of Suppression till it become right Orange-colour Obs 2. That you must not give the Fire so long till your lump be red because than your Mercury would lose all its corrosive Salts and therefore would be disabled from consuming proud flesh which is its principal Vertue Obs 3. That we use here Aqua fortis to calcine Mercury because the Remedy which we intend is a Topick exteriour
one to corrode and consume all superfluous fleshly Excrescences and it is necessary that it should be in greater quantity than the Mercury to dissolve it entirely Moreover calcin'd Mercury does not retain its natural whiteness because the Vitriol of the Aqua fortis communicates this tincture and because that the Fire here is much more violent than that which is us'd in the preparation of the Remedy call'd Turbith Mineral The dissolvant being also much more over-heated and penetrating by the help of the Fire communicates a sulphureous colour Obs 4. That the Precipitate is found to be equal in weight to the Mercury that was dissolved because though in this Operation it have lost something of its volatil part yet it hath impregnated it self with some of the Salts of the Aqua fortis as much as to make up the weight and these Salts it will keep till it be reviv'd and made Cuicksilver again Obs 5. That the Red Precipitate of Mercury is a Mercury dissolv'd and calcin'd by Aqua fortis and then charg'd with the sharpest part of the Salts of the said Aqua fortis It s Vse and Vertue It is lightly caustick and escarotick or consumptive and therefore eats away all proud flesh and excrescences and to mollifie it a little it is mingled with some Unguent as the Basilicum c. It is good to cleanse Ulcers it is useful likewise in the preparation of the Arcanum Corallinum Arcanum Corallinum PUt as much Red Precipitate as you please into a glass Bell pour upon it a good quantity of warm Water not too hot for fear of breaking your Vessel and do this often till at last your Water come away sweet and insipid then having poured off your last Water put your Precipitate into a little glass Cucurbite and twice as much Spirit of Salt in weight as there is Precipitate set your Cucurbite in a Sand-fire with its Head and glass Receiver fitted to it to draw off by distillation the flegm of the Spirit of Salt in the mean time the volatil Salt of the common Salt which composes the Spirit of Salt will remain in the bottom and be incorporated with the Precipitate of Mercury and so fix it as to make it able to endure a reverberatory Fire without evaporation on the top of this Mercury there is a white Crust which is the grossest part of the Spirit of Salt that is corporified Pour upon all this some cold Water as soon as your vessel is cool to the end you may dissolve this grosser Salt and draw it off from the Mercury reiterating thus your Lotions till your Water come off insipid then put your Mercury which is of a dark yellow into a Crucible and reverberate it in a small reverberatory Furnace till it become as red as Corral and in this reverberation the Salts of the common Salt which were incorporated in the Mercury do evaporate and leave the Mercury in the same weight it had before its first Lotion and nevertheless the Mercury is fix'd by that little of these Salts which it enjoys This done put the said Mercury into a Dish of Earth glazed and pour upon it good Spirit of Wine two or three Fingers deep which set on fire till it be consumed and so reiterate once more the said Flagration to the end that the purgative and vomitive Vertues of the Mercury be milder by the evaporation of the volatil and venomous part of the said Mercury and its Salts Obs 1. That we wash the Red Precipitate with luke-warm Water to the end that all the sharp Salts that are in the said Precipitate be dissolv'd the better and by these reiterated Lotions it becomes at last as sweet as if it had been prepar'd with Spirit of Niter in stead of Aqua fortis Obs 2. That the Spirit of Salt as well as the Spirit of Sulphur has the vertue of fixing Mercury because the Mercury it self too is naturally fix'd being therefore opened and intimately penetrated by the Spirit of Salt the said Spirit communicates to it its fixative vertue and is it self fixed in the Mercury And observe that the Spirit of Salt has un-dyed the Red Precipitate and made it of a dark yellow because the common Salt being by its nature all white and coming to mingle with the Orange-colour must needs clear it and give it this yellow Obs 3. That the Arcanum Corallinum is nothing but Mercury calcin'd and dissolv'd Philosophically by Aqua fortis then fix'd by Spirit of Salt and devested by washings from the most malignous part of its Salts and of the volatilest part of its substance by reiterated flagrations of Spirit of Wine It s Vse and Vertue It purges and sometimes procures a Vomit gently opening and unstopping at the same time the passages and dissolving all the hardnesses of the schirrous parts alone it cures the Pox without fluxing because it is fix'd The Dose is from three to six grains The Crocus Metallorum or Liver of Antimony TAke of Female Antimony one pound and half a pound of common impure Niter powder them and mingle them together in the mean time heat red-hot upon two Bricks in a great Fire of Suppression a large and capacious Crucible or Camion throw into this with a great Iron Ladle a quantity of your matter and cover presently your Crucible keeping it covered till all the smoak cease continue this Projection and Flagration till all your matter be consumed This done encrease the Fire and stir with a stick your matter continually till it be all melted then take it off from the Fire and pour it into a Brass or Iron Mortar hindring as much as you can the Faeces which swim upon the top from going into the Mortar this liquor will congeal into a lump which when it is cold you may break into many pieces as glistring and shining as Steel or as burn'd Liver then if you powder them they will change into a Saffron-colour'd powder not unlike a diseas'd bilious Liver and thence it is call'd the Saffron of Metals As for the Faeces remaining in the Crucible you must throw them away as useless Obs 1. That you must take Female Antimony as being the worst and you may know it by its long bright white Needles as also because it is much more brittle than either the Male or Mineral Antimony The Male is better than the Female and is known by its little blue yellow green Needles diversified in colours like a Rainbow The Mineral Antimony is worst of all because not having been melted it has not lost any of its volatil substance in which consists all its malignity It is distinguished easily for it is full of the Rock out of which it is drawn When you melt Mineral Antimony the Male goes to the bottom In this Operation of the Crocus Metallorum Female Antimony is good enough because the Remedy resulting from it is none of the best of Chymistry you may use the Male if you will but have a
with some Unguent as the Diapompholixa with Hogs grease reducing it to the consistence of a Plaister Out of it also is drawn the Salt of Saturn instead of Lytharge Ceruse or Minium The sweet Chrystals of Saturn the sweet Salt of Saturn not Crystallized The Oyl of Saturn the Magistery or Precipitate of Saturn PUt as much distill'd Vinegar as you please into a glazed earthen Pan set it upon a trefoot making under a Fire of Coals and dry Wood till it begin to simper and boyl slightly then put into it by little and little as much as you please of Lytharge of Gold or of Silver powder'd stirring it continually with a wooden Spatula after it has boyled a little take off your Pan and let your Vinegar which is impregnated with the Lytharge settle a while then pour off the said Vinegar while it is warm this done pour more Vinegar upon the Lytharge left in the Pan boyl it stir it separate it and then put more doing so till all the Lytharge be gone then filtrate your Dissolutions while they are warm through a Coffin of brown Paper over a glass Cucurbit which set in a Sand-fire up to the neck in the Sand and evaporate all your Filtrations till they become as red as Bloud and are covered with a little skin or Pellicule then pour them out into little white Dishes and there let them cool when they are cold you shall see that a great part of the Liquor is congealed into Crystals or white Christalline Needles as sweet as Sugar to the taste and as thin as the Needles of Male Antimony then gently pour out of these same Dishes a red Oyl with a Sugar of Saturn left in the bottom un-crystallized then take out your Crystals and keep them in a glass Viol well stopped with Cork else they will fall into a Calx and in another Viol keep the said Oyl of Saturn whâ—â—h is nothing but the tincture of Saturn drawn by the Vinegar If by chance in evaporating your Dissolutions you were gone beyond the Pellicule so as your matter begins to look thick and glutinous then there would be no crystallizing of it and therefore evaporate it to a driness to make the Salt of Saturn not crystallized or make the Magisterie of Saturn Which is made thus Take the said red glutinous Oyl of Saturn or the Dissolution of Saturn evaporated to the Pellicule and pour on three or four ounces of either of them three or four spoonfuls of Spirit of Sulphur which presently will cause the Dissolution of Suturn to curdle into white Curds which by little and little will precipitate to the bottom into a white powder This done pour on common water to take away the acidity both of the Vinegar and Spirit of Sulphur but pour on Water but once else all your powder would be spent in a second Water because this powder of Saturn being half calcin'd is made dissolvable in Water by that little Vinegar which remains incorporated with it separate by Inclination this first Water and filtrate the rest through a Coffin of white Paper or make Trochisks of it through a glass Tunnel as has been taught in the Chapter of the Diaphoretick Antimony Obs 1. That you must take a glazed earthen Pan not a Stone or Glass one because there is no fear the Vinegar should corrode the Lead of the Vernish for having been baked in an Oven it sticks so fast to the earth that the Vinegar cannot corrode it neither if it did were it amiss since it is here used but for Saturn a stone one would be unfit for it would fly and break and that happens to all vessels of this Ware except to Retorts for there the fire circulating equally on all sides hinders its breaking which is not the like case in Pans for there the bottom only being heated and the rest cold they easily break because of their great driness For they are made of one part of a stone powder'd which is as dry and as brittle as Glass and of one part of lean earth which is not unctuous at all a Brass Basin would not be proper for the distilled Vinegar would spend its force in extracting the Salt of the Verdigreece which mingled with that of Saturn would make it look green Ob. 2. That in this Operation we make use of Lytharge rather than of Ceruse or Minium because the Lytharge having passed the fire of Coppel is a more Spongeous open body and therefore more penetrable by the distilled Vinegar and so will yield a greater quantity of Salt and Ceruce which has a closer body because it has been opened only by distilled Vinegar which extracts the Ceruse from the Lead and for the Minium though it be Ceruse made red in a Reverberatory fire yet its body is not so open as the body of Lytharge because it is so re-united that it is almost recondensed into its Metallick nature Obs 3. That before we put the Lytharge into the Vinegar we make the said Vinegar boil a little to the end it may the easilier penetrate and dissolve so much of the Saturn as it can load it self withal and we let the said Lytharge boyl but a little time because no more is required for the Vinegar to impregnate it self with Saturn and if it should stand any longer on the fire the evaporation would be begun which ought not to be till all your dissolutions are together Obs 4. That we use here distilled Vinegar for a dissolvant because it is not necessary to have a more powerful corrosive to dissolve Lead which is a soft penetrable Metal yet simple Vinegar would not be so fit as the distilled as well because it is not so penetrating as because it is not separated from its flegm besides if it were red it might spoil the white colour of your Crystals or Magisterie Obs 5. That all your Lytharge is dissolved at last by reiterated additions of Vinegar because that Lytharge is all Lead and if there should remain any part of it un-dissolved it would be because you have not poured Vinegar enough on Obs 6. That you must stir with a Wooden patule this dissolution of Saturn and not with an iron one because the iron would black it whereas your design is to preserve the whiteness of the Salt which you are to draw from it and iron blacks as well by its self as by its Vitriol Obs 7. That all your dissolutions being put together you must evaporate them to the consumption of three parts and till there appear a saltish skin or Pellicule upon the surface of the Liquor else they would not congeal into Crystals when cold For having too much flegm that salt Spirit of the Vinegar which hath dissolved Saturn remains dissolved its self in the flegm but when by a gentle ebullition and evaporation of the said flegm the Salt Spirit remains alone then it Chrystalises easily in a cold place since it begins to do it already in a hot
one as you see it does by its Pellicule Obs 8 That we pour this dissolution thus evaporated into white ware dishes because being warm it would break a stone or Glass one and in an earthen glazed one the Crystals because of the glasing would spoil their whiteness Obs 9. That these Crystals are in figure like to needles and somewhat triangular Some are small and those are in the bottom others are greater and those are upon the brims and have more of a triangular figure they are white because they are a Calx or Philosophick calcination of Saturn made by a dissolvant which cannot alter their colour and they are in taste a little acid and very sweet or sugarins acid because of the Vinegar sweet because that Lead being the sweetest of all Metals has likewise a very sweet Salt and thus the Salt of Lead is amongst the Salts of Metals the same that the Salt of the Indian Canes is almost the Salts of vegetables Obs 10. That when you pour two or three spoonfuls of Spirit of Sulphur upon your dissolution then this acid being of a contrary nature to the acid of the Vinegar fights with it and weakens it so as to make it lose its hold and so your Lead presently curdles and is precipitated into a white powder Obs 11 That the Spirit of Sulphur is fitter for this precipitation than any other acid because it makes whiter sweeter and more pleasant not only this but all Magisteries The Spirit of Vitriol blacks the Oyl of Tarter has an unpleasant taste of Urin the Spirit of Salt would be apt to fix with this Magistery and the Spirit of Niter is too sharp Obs 12 That the Crystals of Saturn are nothing but Lead dissolved and calcin'd Philosophically in distilled Vinegar then coagulated into Crystals by the evaporation of the flegm and part of the sharpest Spirits of the Vinegar and so yet retaining a good part of the acid of the said Vinegar And as for the Magistery it is likewise Lead dissolved and calcin'd by Vinegar then evaporated then precipitated into a white powder by the Spirit of Sulphur or some other acid and at last devested by lotions of the acid and sharp part of the Vinegar and the said Spirit of Sulphur The Use and Virtue of the dissolution of Saturn before its evaporation into Crystals or into the Magistery is to cool and appease the pain and and hardness of Inflamations take away redness of the face and Eresipilae's the affected part being washed with lint dip'd in it This mixtion is of a milky colour and therefore is called Virgina's milk The Crystals and Magistery have the same vertue to cool and appease the pain take away redness soften hardness caused by inflamation and attenuate and resolve Tumours for this purpose you put five or six grains of them and as much white Vitriol into a Glass of Rose water and Plantin mingled and then in it we dip a thin slice of raw Veal and lay it upon your Eyes inflam'd and full of pain and redness The same water may serve for the redness of the face and Erisipelas dipping in it Linnen and so applying it to the part affected as for the oyl of Saturn it may be mingled with some of your cooling unguents as the Cerat of Gallen or the unguentum rosatum or Populeum to mollifie soften and take away the redness of all inflamed parts and if you have not this Oyl you make use of the Salt of Saturn in its place for the same end The Crocus Martis aperitivus TAke of filings of Steel or Iron two parts and of powder'd Brimstone one mingle them together and put them into an unglazed Earthen Pot set it upon two bricks in a Furnace of Reverberation and Suppression there let it stand till all the flame of your Brimstone be spent and after that give the fire continually for an hour then take off your pot break it while it is hot and presently put the matter into an iron or Brass Morter and powder it while it is warm then spread this powder which then will be of a colour of Violets upon a Marble the air will change the colour to brown then powder it again and searce it very fine and keep it in a glass well stopt Obs 1. That we use Brimstone to open and calcine the body of Steel or Iron but that we put half as much Brimstone as Iron because we intend here but a slight calcination and the more you put the stronger will be the calcination and your Mars will be the more aperitive or opening they are powder'd together that they may the better penetrate one another Obs 2. That this calcination ought not to be done in an earthen glaz'd Pot lest by the violence of the fire the Lead of the Vernish should melt and mingle with your Steel by the activity and flagration of your Brimstone Obs 3. That you must powder your calcin'd Mars while it is hot for when it is cold it grows hard and so would not be so easily reduced to powder For even Mars not calcin'd being actually hot is soft and malleable and therefore if calcin'd it is more but both when cold do fall to their natural hardness Obs 4. That the filings of Steel or Iron from black that they were do become purple by this half calcination and pulverisation being impregnated with this colour by the Brimstone which naturally makes a blew flame and at last this Purple colour being exposed to the air becomes brownish because the fine Sulphureous part evaporating leaves your Mars to its natural colour Obs 5. That this Crocus Mortis Aperitivus or opening Saffron of Mars is nothing but the filings of Steel or iron half calcin'd and opened by the Brimstone This name of Saffron does not fit it well except you mean a burnt saffron for this powder is not red as Saffron is It s Vse and Vertues It has the same Vertues as the aperitive Saffron of Mars following and besides it serves to make the second Saffron of Mars and also to make the Christalised Salt of Mars and the astringent Saffron of Mars Another Crocus Martis aperitivus TAke the Saffron of Mars prepared above put it into a stone Dish or Pan and pour upon it Spirit of Vitriol or of Sulphur to the height of two fingers above your matter letting it imbibe and impregnate it self for three or four days then put your matter which will be in form of Paste into a great Crucible and fill it up to the brim to the end the heat may work more upon it set this Crucible upon two Bricks in a reverberatory Furnace giving at First and all along for the space of eight hours the greatest Fire you can then take off your Crucible break it with a Hammer take out your matter and while it is hot powder it in a Brass or Iron Morter then let it cool in the Air upon a Marble and it will become red as Saffron
searce it and keep it close and well stopped Obs 1 That the Spirit of Sulphur or Vitrial with which we wet the said Saffron of Mars which is already aperitive serves to open it more and calcine it Philosophically and that the great Fire does it more perfectly Obs 2 That this second aperitive Saffron of Mars is nothing but Mars opened by four Keys viz. By filing and powdering and then by three calcinations of which the first is done by the flagration of the Brimstone the second by the pouring on of the acid Spirit and the third by a Reverberatory Fire of eight hours Now it becomes opening because its Salt is set at liberty by these Agents It s Vse and Vertues It is a powerful desopilative it serves against the yellow Jaundice the Green Sickness it provokes the Courses of Maids and Women and it opens the Spleen and Mesentery taken from half a dragm to two either in the yolk of an Egg or in a little Conserve of Roses or some proper Syrup The Infernal Stone Take a little Matrass with a straight long neck let the belly of it be luted half way put into it two parts of Aqua-fortis and one of Silver of the purest cut or beaten into thin long Plates so that they may go into the neck of the Matrass and be the easilier dissolved by the Aqua-fortis fill but one third part of the belly of your Vessel set it upon a Round covered with Sand in the little Wheel-Fire Furnace giving a small Fire to help the dissolution of the Silver and to consume the Dissolvant so as after a gentle boyling your matter may dry and change into a black scum not unlike a Pumice Stone then encrease your Fire to melt this scurn half petrified and continue your Fire till the boyling cease and that there rise no more vapours which will be a sign that your matter is in fusion then without any delay pour out your matter into little Brass or Iron Moulds prepared on purpose for if you delay the pouring of it out or if you let it cool in the Matrass off from the Fire your matter will be reduced to a white powder which is the Calx of the Moon that is of Silver and this will thus come to pass by the almost total consumption of your Aqua-fortis and therefore it is necessary to retain some of it in the said calcined Silver to the end it may keep the consistence of a Stone if to this Calx of silver you give a violent Fire and add to it half a spoonful of Borax it will return to its first metallick Nature and appear like Silver in hardness and consistence because that the great Fire and the Borax together carry away even the least drop of Aqua-fortis which did keep the said Silver in the nature and consistence of a Calx Obs 1. That the Matrass which we use here must be but little because we do not ordinarily prepare much of this at a time then your Fire being small the matter cannot run out particularly where you leave two thirds of your Vessel empty The Matrass must have a long strait neck for the greater convenience in pouring out your matter into its Moulds This Matrass must also be of a strong Glass such as comes from Lorrain and besides must be luted in its bottom half way lest a naked Fire drying up the matter should break the Glass Obs 2. That we use here a double quantity of Aqua-fortis to the Silver not that it is necessary to double the Dose of the Agent to dissolve the Patient but because we desire to make the greater quantity of this Infernal Stone which will be softer and less black for Silver may be certainly dissolved with an equal Dose of Aqua-fortis and in this case the Stone would be harder and blacker and in less quantity It contains not so much Salt is sooner consumed and the Aqua-fortis has not had time to calcine the Silver throughly from whence the Calx remains blacker harder and heavier which you will easily perceive if you take notice that the same thing happens in the making of the ordinary Lime for there you shall see some stones that have not been well calcin'd look black be hard heavy and crumble less than the others that have been well calcin'd Obs 3. That we may make this Infernal Stone of Niter instead of Aqua-fortis and then it will be whitish and less caustick and instead of blacking the Skin and Teeth which it touches it will only make them look yellow because it is the Vitriol that blacks in the Aqua-fortis and whets the corrosive virtue of Niter and take notice here that none of the other acids and corrosives can corrode Silver nor by consequence serve in this Composition Obs 4. That to make a good Infernal Stone either white greyish or black you must use Coppel Silver for if you make it with Silver where there is a mixtion of Copper your Stone will be green and soft will easily melt of it self from whence you may conclude that there is no making of it with Lead or Tin which yet are softer than Brass and as for Iron it can never be dissolved and brought into a potable Liquor because of its great driness and terrestreity And as for Gold you may easily make of it an Infernal Stone of the same vertue by dissolving it in excellent Aqua-fortis or in Spirit of Salt whet by Salt decrepitated but then you would have your Labour for your pains for Coppel-Gold or Leaf-Gold is too dear And as for the Marcassites or half Metals they are not fit for this Operation because that their dissolution evaporated and reduced to a Calx cannot keep in consistence of a Stone but remains in powder Obs 5. That to give to the Infernal Stone that firm compact consistence which is necessary for it to be of use it is not enough to dry your dissolution with a moderate heat to the consistence a scum half petrified but you must when you are gone so far encrease your fire and melt the said scum then in the same instant pour out your matter for if you let it cool in the Matrass the rest of the Aqua-fortis would evaporate in the cooling and so there not remaining enough to corporifie the said Calx it would fall into a powder which would be the Calx of the Moon Obs 6. That to make little Moulds of Lattin you must hold it a little time over the fire then it will be maniable and flexible and not apt to break then cut off a piece and roll it about a stick as thick as a quill and as long as your finger and so tye it close remembring to turn up the bottom so as nothing may go through then daub it with our Lute letting it dry then when you will use it take out the stick and in its place pour your matter which will be condensed into petrified Cylenders which you will easily get out by
s Vse and Vertue It is a most excellent anodynum to appease the Tooth-ach by putting a litle Cotton dipp'd in the said Spirit of Wine to the pain'd Tooth and it is good to help the paines in the Ears by dipping in it some black Wool cut off of the Stones of a black Ram and so put into the Ear. The Aromatick tincture of Cloves PUt of whole Cloves what quantity you please into a Matrass and pour on well rectfied Spirit of Wine to the height of four fingers above your matter make a double Vessel with another small Matrass fitted to the first and well luted together place this vessel in a Sand-heat and there let it stand till the Spirit of Wine be dyed of a red-blackish colour separate by inclination this tincture and keep it in a glass Vial well stopp'd Of this tincture may be made a Syrup by putting to it a sufficient quantity of Sugar and so boyling of it to the consistence of a Syrup or you may make of the said tincture an Extract by evaporating your tincture to the consistence of an Extract The Vse and Vertues of the Tincture Syrup and Extract are to comfort and strengthen the Stomach by consuming cold superfluous humours take away the pains of the Colick it is excellent against all Faintings of the Heart and kills worms in the body The Dosis is a spoonful of the Tincture or Syrup and a Pill of the Extract or else you apply Linnen dipt in the said Tincture upon the Stomach Belly and Navel Cinnamon Water PUt four ounces of whole Cinnamon not powdered two pound of White-wine or Sack into a Glass or Stone Cucurbite place it in a Sand Furnace with a glass Head and Receiver there will be distilled a Water very clear and full of Spirits which from time to time you must take and pour out of your Receiver to the end it be not mingled with the gross flegm which will come at last of a whitish muddy colour Obs 1. That you must not distil Cinnamon-water in a Cucurbite of glazed Earth lest the Cinamon should whet the Spirit of Wine and make it corrode the Lead of the Vernish and so being impregnated with the Saturn alter its own vertue Obs 2. That the Water of Cinnamon is nothing but the purest part of the Wine impregnated with the Volatil Aromatick Salt of Cinamon It s Vse and Vertues It is a good Cordial fortifies the Stomach facilitates and helps the delivery of Women in Child-bed the flegm of this Water is fitter to make the Syrup of Cinnamon than common VVater by infusing in it some new Cinnamon and aftâ—r the straining dissolve in it a sufficient quantity of Sugar and so boyl it up to a Syrup This flegm contains a little Spirit of Wine in it with a little of the Volatil Salt of the first Cinnamon and so is fitter to open penetrate and extract the substance of new Cinnamon than simple common water The Spiritus Ardens or burning Spirit of Honey The sweet Tincture of Honey The stinking or faecid Oyl and Spirit of Honey The stinking Tincture of Honey PUt into a Glass or Stone or glazed Earth Cucurbit one pound of good Honey and two pound of white-wine place your Cucurbite in a Sand-Furnace and set it half way into the Sand fitting to it a glass Head and Receiver give a good Fire and continue it till all be distilled and that you hear nothing boyl in the Body then there will remain a very black thick Honey keep the distilled Liquor which will be of two sorts the first will be clear and transparent and in a small quantity and in this is the burning Spirit of-Honey and the Spirit of Wine The second will be of an Orange colour and more in quantity and contains the flegm of the Wine with the sulphureous Tincture of the Honey Take the Faeces of the said Distillation put them into a Stone Retort well luted and put to them alike quantity of River-pibble-stones calcin'd place your Retort in a Reverberatory Furnace fit to it a great glass Receiver and give your Fire from the first to the last degree for the space of some hours till there come out of the Retort neither vapour nor liquor then you will have in your Receiver a Spirit and stinking Oyl of Honey and there will yet remain some Faeces in your Retort If upon these Faeces you pour Spirit of Wine till it be four or five fingers above your matter you may have by digestion in a Matrass or double Vessel in a Sand-Furnace a foetid Tincture of Honey as red as Claret VVine The Vse and Vertues of all these Tinctures Spirits and Oyls Are to make the Hair grow stiffer and thicker upon Bald-heads The Vinegar of Saturn The Butter or Balsamum of Saturn BOyl some distilled Vinegar in a Brass or Tin Skillet or in a glaz'd Pipkin pour it out boyling hot upon Minium or Seruse or Lytharge of Gold or Silver reduc'd to powder or upon calcin'd Lead let your matter be in a glaz'd Pan and you must have so much Vinegar as may be four or five fingers deep over your matter Stir it a little with a wooden Spatula not with an Iron one for it would black both your Liquor and the Salt to be extracted out of it in an hours time your distilled Vinegar will become sweet and sugar'd and impregnated with the Salt of Saturn To make the Butter or Balsamum of Saturn melt one ounce of white Wax in a little glaz'd Pan then put to it four ounces of Oyl of Olives mingle them well with a wooden Spatula pour this mixtion immediately into a Brass Mortar and upon it a glass full of the Vinegar of Saturn stir them well together with a Brass Pestle till the Oyl and Wax be both impregnated with the Salt of Saturn contain'd in the said Vinegar and that all the Composition be thick and white as the soft Ointment of white Roses It s Vse and Vertues This Vinegar serves to appease inflammations and pains being applied outwardly to any part by Linnen dipp'd in Virgins Milk made of one spoonful of this Vinegar and a glass of Water it may also be useful in Injections in recent and fresh Gonorrhaea's to appease the violence of the pain And observe That this Vinegar pour'd upon any distill'd Water does not whiten it nor make it like Milk The Butter or Balsamum of Saturn serves to cool and appease the ardour of inflammations as well of the Stones as of the Hemorrhoides and other parts as also it produces the same effect in Erisypelases The Plaister of Saturn PUt one pound of Oyl of Olives into a vernish'd Pan add to it four ounces of well powder'd Minium or Mine-Lead and so boyl them together stirring them sometimes with an Iron Spatula till they be reduced to the consistence of a Plaister as black as Jet you may add to it a little Wax to give it a Body It s Vse and Vertues
It is most excellent in dissolving those fleshly Excrescences and Ulcers called Wolfes The Extract of Hellebore PUt half a pound of the Roots of black Hellebore cut into little bits into a capacious Matrass pour on Spirit of Wine four fingers above your matter fit to it another little Matrass to make a double Vessel place it in a Sand-Furnace and there let it stand in digestion three or four days and let not the belly of your Matrass be above a quarter-way in the Sand nor do not make your fire so great as to make your Spirit of Wine boyl for then part of your Spirits would exhale and be gone yet let there be heat enough to extract the red Tincture of the Roots Separate this Tincture by Inclination or if there be any Faeces filtrate it through a Coffin of brown Paper pour this Tincture into a glass Body which set in the same Sand-Furnace and fit to it a glass Head and Receiver and so draw off by Distillation as much Spirit of Wine as you poured on which will serve you for other uses then take off the Head and evaporate your matter to the consistence of an Extract like Honey In the mean time boyl the Roots left in the Matrass in a quantity of common Water to make a Decoction which strain through a course Linnen then clarifie it with Whites and Shells of Eggs and evaporate it in a stone or glaz'd earthen Pan to the consistence of an Extract which you may mingle with the precedent if you think good We draw these two Extracts separately and with different menstruums because that the Spirit of VVine extracts only the gummy rosinous part and cannot extract the saltish and the common Water does quite contrary It s Vse and Vertues It purges Melancholy most commonly with a loathing and sometimes with vomiting An Essence for the Tooth-ach PUt of the Spirit of Wine campherized of the Tincture of Cloves of the Oyl of Box of the Oyl of Guaiacum of the black Oyl of Sulphur and if you will of the Tincture of Opium of each an equal part there will result an oily red transparent Liquor which you must keep in a glass Vial well stop'd It s Vse and Vertues It is a most excellent Remedy to appease the Tooth-ach and draw off the sharp humour that falls on the Teeth you must pour some of it into a glass and then dip a little Cotton of which make a Pellet as big as a Pea and apply it to the Tooth or in its hollow part if there be any there will presently distil from it a good deal of Water and the pain will cease Turpentine Pills PUt four ounces of clear transparent Turpentine of Venice into a glaz'd Disn pour upon it three times as much water boyl them together with a gentle heat till your Turpentine look white and not yellow as before then take out a little of it upon the point of a Knife and let fall a drop or two upon a pewter Plate if you see that the drop when cold does not stick to your fingers then it is boyl'd enough to make Pills of so take it off and pour cold Water into your Pan that will precipitate the Turpentine in a white Paste take this Paste and knead it with your hand to wring the Water out you may wipe your Turpentine with some Linnen but you must do it gently lest while it is warm the Linnen should stick to it then add to it one ounce of a Diaphoretick Antimony half an ounce of Salt of Sulphur and as much of Cremor Tartari incorporate them together into a lump which will soon grow hard but will easily grow soft again being handled before the fire Keep this Mass for Pills in a Hogs bladder well oyl'd with Sallet Oyl It s Vse and Vertues These Pills do dry up and stop Gonorrhaea's when they have flow'd enough by giving half an ounce for Dosis for the space of a fortnight or three weeks For those that cannot swallow Pills you must boyl your Turpentine a little more till it grow so hard upon the Plate as to be broken in pieces powder this in a mortar and add to it the same Druggs as above The Dosis mentioned will be the same here and must be dissolv'd in white Wine or in Broth or in some Decoction or appropriated Water The distilled Water of Plants PUt a good Hand-basket full of leaves for Example of Plantane new gather'd and fresh into the Brass Vesica add to them about four quarts of Water to the end the Herb may boyl during the distillation and that in boyling the said Water may extract and be impregnated with the vertue of the plant yet let not your Vesica be above three quarters full lest the Water in boyling should carry the substance and not the vapours into the Moors-head You need not put any sponges into the neck of the Vesica as you do in the distillation of the Spirit of Wine because these sponges would hinder the passage of your vapours fit to your Vesica its Moors-head bordered with its Refrigeratory and make use also of the second Refrigeratory that is of the two Hogsheads full of Water as has been taught in the distillation of Spirit of Wine this will further the distillation of your Water very much Give at first a good Fire of Coals and two or three Fagot-sticks continue this Fire and moderate your Distillation so as to make a little stream of Water come always into your Receiver into which it will not fall perpendicularly as the Spirit of Wine does but a little arch-wise As soon as with this little stream you perceive that there come vapours into the Receiver lessen your Fire to hinder the loss of these vapours which spend themselves in vain If your Distillation be performed but slowly and drop by drop or in a very little stream falling perpendicularly then encrease the Fire that you may not lose your time by an unnecessary protraction of the Distillation From time to time empty your Receiver and immediately pour it through a glass Tunnel into a stone Pitcher As soon as you perceive that there comes into your Receiver a muddy Water then be sure that all the good part of your Operation is at an end because this muddy VVater proceeds from the burning of the Plants which begins to send forth its Spirit and stinking Oyl therefore give over distilling put out your Fire take out the Grounds of the Herbs left in the bottom and throw away the muddy Water that you shall find there with them after which begin a new Distillation with new Herbs and new Water When you have gathered all your Water into stone Pitchers put into them some Saltpeter well purified and crystallized half a dragm to every pound of Water Obs 1. That you must not put your Water into an earthen Vessel unglazed because at last it would lose its self entirely through the pores of the Potters-Earth which is
Draconis all well powdered of each a dragm place your Vessel in a Sand-fire to make your Gums dissolve which will be done in two or three hours time then add to them as much of the dry Flowers of Saint John's Wort as you can take up with your thumb and four fingers the Spirit of Wine though it have dissolved the Gums will yet extract the Balsamick Tincture of the said Flowers next day take off your Vessel out of the Sand and strain all your matter through a Linnen Cloath by pressing it while it is warm then dissolve in it half an ounce of Venice Turpentine by setting your matter for half an hour upon a Sand-fire thus you will have a red unctuous and mucilaginous Balsam Observe That if you had extracted the Tincture of your Flowers before the Tincture of the Gums the Spirit would have been weakned because it would not only have been loaden with the oyly part of them but also with the flegm and therefore would not have been able to dissolve the said Gums It s Vse and Vertues It is a most excellent Balsam for all green Wounds Contusions and for the Sciatica The Corrosive Sublimate YOu must have two Pans of Potters-Earth unglaz'd which must be turned up-side down one upon the other and be so exactly fit as to make but one Pan in this situation and therefore they must have been baked together in a Potters Oven in the uppermost must be a hole big enough to put an Egg into then take Quicksilver and good refin'd Niter deflegmated of each a pound common Salt well decrepitated and green Vitriol well calcin'd into red of each half a pound powder your Salts and incorporate with them your Quicksilver by beating them together in a Marble Mortar with a Wooden Pestle and sprinkling distill'd Vinegar upon them till you have reduced them to a kind of paste put this paste by pieces into the Pan by the hole left in the top and then stop it with Lute so as to leave only a vent of the bigness of a good big Pin place your undermost Pan up to the brim in the Furnace of the Fire of great Reverberation taking care to leave in your Furnace three gaps to give the Fire Air viz. one over against the Fire-room and one of each side for else your Pan being set so deep into the Furnace would go near to suffocate and put out your Fire give at first a strong Fire and when you have brought it to the highest and last degree continue it twelve hours While the Operation lasts you must have a care to keep open the little vent that is left in the Lute you may therefore with a Wire gently open it from time to time that so your matter may send forth freely its most fiery vapours which else would break your Vessel and in the breaking spread such a malignity by their abundance and sudden eruption as would go near to infect you After twelve hours let your Fire go out and when your Pan is cold break the uppermost part of it and you will find a loaf two or three fingers thick sticking to the sides of the lowermost part as white as Snow icy in its circumference and crystalliz'd in its middle Obs 1. That in France we do not make much of this Sublimate because we can have it six times cheaper from Venice where common Salt Mercury and Vitriol are very cheap because they are not far from the Mines and near the Sea The Hollanders do also bring some to Paris but they sophisticate it commonly with white Arsenick We have taught to discern this cheat in the Chapter of the dulcified Sublimate Obs 2. That the Corrosive Sublimate is nothing but Quicksilver calcin'd and incorporated with Niter and the Spirits of common Salt and Vitriol by the Fire which sublimes all these Volatils into one lump The common Salt and Vitriol remain in the bottom of the lowermost Pan almost as heavy as when they were put in because that they are naturally fix'd the fix'd Substance of the common Salt and deflegmated Vitriol serve to hinder the melting of the Niter and the Spirits of these two serve to corrode the Mercury and make it strongly corrosive by the conjunction of all these Salts together It s Vse and Vertues 'T is the strongest Corrosive of all it serves to make the dulcified Mercury the Emetick Powder the Phagedenick Water and that Unguent which for the violence of its inflaming and burning Operation is called The Devil's Vnguent It is the poison we call Rats-bane and kills Rats and Mice by burning their entrals as if they had live coals in them producing the same effect in all Animals and men too if they swallow any of it The Antidote of it is not any Theriaca or Victan or other Cordial there is nothing but Water in abundance that by humecting and wetting the Salts is able to take away their Acrimony though Oyl be very good too for Oyl and Grease because they cannot dissolve and melt these Salts make them at least remain without force upon those parts which are oyled or greased as we may see in the operation of Cauteries applied to a very fat man for as soon as they have corroded the skin they are fain to stay there and shew their caustick vertue no further because they meet with the Panicula Carnosa or Adiposa which stays their action there is nothing but a waterish humidity which by melting of these Salts gives them leave to work The Balsam of Sulphur drawn by the Oyly Spirit of Turpentine PUt into a Matrass four ounces of Flowers of Brimstone or else Brimstone powder'd very fine and one pound of Spirit of Turpentine incorporated with its Oyl such as the Merchants send from Provence to Paris let your Matrass be but half full place it in a Sand-fire and fit to it another Matrass and so make a double Vessel In this heat the Spirit will begin to simper and presently after the Brimstone will melt and dye the Spirit of a fine colour as red as a Pomegranate govern your Fire so as to hinder your Spirit from boyling in one or two hours the Operation will be done Then take off your Vessel and pour out your Dissolution while it is warm into a stone Vessel or of glaz'd Earth in it the Sulphur as it grows cold will go to the bottom and congeal in a yellow lump and the Tincture will remain above when your Tincture is cold and clear by the falling down of the Brimstone pour it off by inclination and keep it in a glass Vial. Obs 1. That this Spirit of Turpentine has drawn not only the red Tincture but also the ill smell of the Brimstone so as to lose its own odour Obs 2. That the Brimstone which you find after the Operation done weighs almost as much as when you put it in having communicated to the Spirit of Turpentine little besides the colour and smell of Brimstone It s
with the Essence of Juniper it may augment and encrease the quantity of the said Essence and yet not change its qualities but if you should put more than three or four ounces of this Spirit on a peck of Berries the smell of the Turpentine would predominate and so spoil your Essence thus the Provensals prepare and multiply their Essences and by affording them cheap make them become common But I could wish that they would leave off sophisticating them and sell them as dear as they stand them in and are really worth particularly those Essences that are to be taken inwardly but the covetousness of those that sell and the sparing way of the buyers will never give way to this Observe That when you have put to your Berries the Spirit of Turpentine well rectified the first liquor that comes is the said Spirit impregnated with the oyly Essence of your Juniper Berries Obs 2. That there are two ways to separate the oyly Essence from its flegm The first is by a glass Tunnel or a Coffin of brown Paper wet before hand with common water or with the Spirit of your Berries as it has been said before only observe that most of the Essences do swim upon their flegm and therefore that in separating them by the glass Tunnel the first thing that runs out must be the flegm and by the Coffin 't is also the flegm that goes through the Oyl remains which you draw out by making a hole in your Paper Coffin towards the bottom and holding a glass Vial under to receive your Oyl The second way is to put into a glass Matrass with a short neck all the flegm with which the Oyl is distilled and then make a rowl of Cotton like the Wick of a Candle of which put one end into your Matrass to make it touch the said Essence and let the other end hang into a glass Vial tied with a pack-thred to the neck of the Matrass your Essence will by little and little imbibe the Cotton and at last run quite through it till it come out at the other end and fall by drops into your Vial. Obs 3. That the Balsamick and Aromatick Essence or Oyl of Juniper as of all other Balsamicks and Aromaticks is nothing but the subtlest part of its Sulphur and Volatil Salt because of its Sulphur it retains the smell of the Berries and the yellow colour of their Tincture and because of its volatil Salt it retains the taste and Acrimony of the said Berries in these two the Salt and Sulphur consists the excellence of this simple but because the Oyl of Juniper has but little Salt therefore it swims upon its flegm and having been drawn by common water it has preserved the natural smell savour and tincture of the Berries and thus it happens to all drogues of this nature for if you distil them in a naked fire without water there will come from them a stinking caustick Oyl as we have taught in the Chapter of the distillation of the stinking Oyl of Cloves But before this stinking Oyl we do ordinarily draw from Aromatick drogues by the intermedium of water all their Essence and Balsamick Oyl which is a kind of Virgin Oyl being the purest part of them After its extraction there remains yet in the Faeces a thick gross terrestrial saltish Oyl which we draw without intermedium by distillation ad latus in a glass Retort luted in a naked fire and because this Oyl is drawn without intermedium in a naked fire and by the combustion and flagration of the said Drugs therefore it is black and stinking and of an ill taste and much more caustick than the Aromatick Oyl which contains less of the Volatil Salt the flegm having shared a good part of the said Salt with the Oyl but in the foetid Oyl the Volatil Salt is as it were shut in and not carried away by its flegm whereof it has very little If you rectifie your Essence of Juniper in a little glass Retort in a Sand-fire there will come off a Spirit which is the Spirit of Turpentine which you had added to it and there will remain in the Retort a pure Essence of Juniper as yellow as Gold and as thick as true Balsam It s Vse and Vertues The Essence of Juniper Berries helps the Tooth-ach Deafness the Rot of the Bones the Colick and the Gravel It s flegm or Spirit serves to prepare the extract of Juniper as we shall teach hereafter The Aromatick Essence of Cloves Cinnamon Pepper Aniseed Fennel seed Rosmary-leaves Thyme Marjorum Savin Jesmin-Flowers Orange-Flowers Orange and Lemmon Peels and generally of all Roots Barks Rinds Woods Berries Seeds Leaves and Aromatick Flowers whose oyly Tincture may be easily extracted in water are drawn the same way as that of Juniper Berries but those Woods Roots and Barks that are of a thicker and more compact substance and which will not easily yield their oyly Tincture in water must be used without water in a Retort and naked fire to extract their Oyl which by consequent must be black stinking and caustick as the Oyl of the Wood and Bark of Guiac c. The stinking and black Oyl of Juniper FIll a Stone or Glass Retort luted with the Berries of Juniper that have already yielded their Aromatick Oyl Place it upon an earthen Bowl full of ashes in a small Reverberatory Furnace there will come abundance of white Vapours which in the Receiver will dissolve some into an acid Spirit and some into a Black Oyl stinking and caustick Out of a pound of Berries you will have about two ounces of this Oyl and twelve of acid Spirit and if you use fresh Berries that have not served you will have the double of stinking Oyl separate by a glass Tunnel the Oyl from the Spirit It s Vse and Vertues The Oyl is good for Ring-worms for the Tooth-ach the Rot of the Bones and all old Ulcers The Extract of Juniper PUt into the Brass Vesica or double glass â—â—â—sel a peck of Juniper Berries fresh gatherâ— and pour upon them distilled water of Junipâ—â— three or four fingers high above them if yoâ— have not enough of the said Water you may suply your want with common Water Place yoâ—â— Vesica in a circulary fire or in any of the Reveâ—beratory Furnaces with a small fire or if you 〈◊〉 a double glass Vessel set it in a sand Furnace wiâ—â— a good fire there let it stand twenty four hourâ— till the tincture be extracted which pour oâ— gently into a Brass Basin or into an Eartheâ— Pan place it upon a little Furnace over a nakeâ— fire and make it boil as soon as you can wheâ— it boils throw into it five or six whites of Eggs with the Egg-shells and so continue to make it boil till your whites of Eggs be hard and loaden with the Faeces of the Tincture then pour off this clarified Tincture from its dregs and strain it through a Linnen or Flannel-strainer
of red dry Roses of the year you are in and stir all together again with your Spatula and so let them stand till the water begin to boil then take off your Vessel cover it and when the matter is cold strain your Tincture through a Cloth or a Coffin of brown Paper it will be as red as a Ruby and will keep four or five months without danger of corruption Obs 1. That if you did put your Roses into the water before the Spirit of Sulphur or Vitriol you would lose your Spirit afterwards in the Roses without effect but the water being sharpned first is fit to extract and revive the Tincture of the Roses It s Vse and Vertues It is a very pleasant cooler being Cordial and strengthening and most excellent for the Liver the Kidneys and the Stomach The Milk or Precipitate or Magistery of Brimstone TAke four ounces of Flowers of Brimstone and sixteen ounces of common Salt decrepitated and powdered mingle them well together which that you may the better do put a spoonful of each at a time upon a Marble stone and there grind them to an impalpable powder wet this powder drop by drop with distilled Vinegar till you have reduced all into the consistence of Pap or hasty Pudding then scrape it together with a piece of Horn and continue doing thus till all your matter be grown'd and thus prepared in the mean time boil six pound or three quarts of common water in a Brass Kettle and when the water boils throw in all this lump of Matter and after it has boil'd a little add to it half an ounce of white Roch-Alom in powder and stir it with a Woodden Spatula keeping your Kettle on the fire till all be dissolved in the water which then will be of reddish muddy colour and this will happen in half an hours time then take off the Kettle let your dissolution cool in cooling the Brimstone will precipitate to the bottom in a whitish colour when it is all precipitated pour off gently the Water which will be impregnated with the common Salt and Alom pour common Water upon your whitish Matter to sweeten it and do so till the Water come away insipid and that the Matter be entirely freed from the Acrimony of the Vinegar Alom and common Salt filtrate that which remains through a Coffin of white Paper or through a glass Tunnel as has been taught heretofore and you have the Precipitate or Magistery of Brimstone Obs 1. That our design being here to open and whiten the body of Brimstone we use the Flowers of Brimstone because that by reason of their impalpability which they have contracted in their sublimation they are fitter to be incorporated with common Salt and to become whiter than common Brimstone would be which would be very hard to be powdered so fine as the flowers of Brimstone are already Obs 2. That we use common Salt to open calcine and whiten the body of Brimstone and we use it decrepitated and three times as much in quantity as the flowers of Brimstone to the end it may do its work the better for the furthering of which we also add distilled Vinegar which quickens the common Salt by incorporating it with the Sulphur Obs 3. That for this incorporation we use not a Brass Mortar because it might black the powder by the attraction of the Tincture of the Metal but we use a Marble and Stone one where the finest things may be easily made finer so that a hair might be broken upon it Obs 4. That Brimstone alone would never dissolve in water though never so exactly powder'd because that being exteriourly of a greasie oleaginous nature and its Salt being altogether buried in its own substance all the ways of being dissolv'd are taken away from it But if you add to it common Salt by means of the distilled Vinegar and the Levigation of it then all being one body it happens that the Salt and Vinegar in their dissolution do engage the Brimstone to dissolve at the same time but then it is necessary that your water should boil some time to hasten the dissolution of these bodies and so the Sulphur being a little opened and calcin'd by the common Salt and Vinegar does at last afford its Tincture to the said water Obs 5. During the ebullition of the common Salt and Brimstone in the common water we add a little Alom to whiten and scowre the Brimstone for Alom is a very dry white Salt and Brimstone quite contrary is a very oyly mucilaginous one we do not use Roman Alom because that it is red and would communicate its colour to the Magistery of Brimstone which ought to be white by reason of the common Salt Obs 6. That the Brimstone is precipitated all alone without any Precipitant as soon as the water grows cold because its dissolution in water was not perfect and the strength of the Salts being dulled by the coldness of the water they can no longer retain the Brimstone above water Obs 7. That the Precipitate or Magistery of Brimstone is but Brimstone Philosophically calcin'd by common Salt and distilled Vinegar and scoured by Alom then sweetened by washings and so whitened in form of a powder It s Vse and Vertues 'T is an excellent dryer or dissicative for all Ulcers and therefore is fitter to make the Balsam of Brimstone either with Spirit of Turpentine or with Walnut-Oyl than ordinary Brimstone or the Flowers of Brimstone It is particularly good against all Ulcers of the Lungs to ripen the Fluxions that fall from the Breast and help the Expectoration of Flegms and also to dry away the humours which flow that way It may be taken either in a spoonful of Syrup or in some Conserve or you powder with it a Toast spread with fresh Butter or Oyl The Dosis is from half a dragm to a dragm And if at the same time you will strengthen the Stomach and gently loosen the Belly you add half a dragm of Rhubarb in powder upon your Toast you may put it into a spoonful of some pectoral Water but it is not so easie this way because by its lightness it swims upon the Water and that so in stead of swallowing it a good deal will remain in your mouth You may likewise use it in a Pomatum against the Itch and Scabs because that this Brimstone hath acquired not only a singular whiteness but has also lost all its ill smell which makes all the Unguents and Balsams of Sulphur so stinking and unpleasant but it would be a dear Unguent because you can hardly prepare much of this Magistery at once nor without great pains and cost The Magistery of Pearls TAke one ounce of Oriental Pearls which are better and much dearer than the Occidental reduce them to a fine powder in a Brass Mortar which must be covered with a Leather Cover in which is a hole to put your Pestle in put this powder into a Glass precipitatory Vessel
full of the said Vinegar of Saturn stir it till it be in a consistence of Butter or Balsamum The Use of this Balsam is To cool and asswage pain and extinguish Inflammations to dissipate and ease the Hemorrhoids The Use of the Vinegar of Saturn being dissolved in a small quantity in Water is To appease Inflammations and to serve for Injection in Gonorrhaea's being mingled with a little Water of Barley Of the Oyl of Bricks or the Philosophers Oyl PUt five parts of powdered Bricks and one part of Oyl of Olives into a glass Retort luted and bigger than needs for so much matter place it in a Circulary Fire which by little and little you must bring to the highest degree or Fire of Suppression the Flegm will come first then a stinking thick red Oyl which being rectified will become yellow clearer and less stinking The Use of this Oyl is For Contusions the Sciatica and cold Defluxions The Oyl of yellow Wax POur one part of yellow Wax melted upon five parts of powder'd Bricks make with it little Balls and with them fill a glass Retort luted up to the neck give the same Fire as in the Oyl of Bricks the Flegm will come first then a red stinking Oyl which will congeal into a yellow Butter which being rectified will become clear and white and less stinking The Use of it is the same as of the Oyl of Bricks Of the Extract of Hellebore PUt half a pound of the Roots of black Hellebore and upon it as much Spirit of Wine as will cover it three fingers high into a double Matrass draw the Tincture in a Sand-fire for three or four days evaporate the said Tincture in a glass Cucurbite in a Sand-fire to a consistence of Honey The Use is To purge Melancholy it causes Loathing and Vomiting The Dose is from ten grains to a scruple Of Aqua fortis PUt into a glass Retort common Niter undeflegmated Vitriol in powder and leaving third part of your Vessel empty distil them in a Fire of Reverberation or Suppression giving it by degrees A little Flegm will come first then the Spirit in red vapours The Use is To dissolve Minerals and Metals and to give force and penetration to Dyings or Tinctures Of the Infernal Stone PUt two parts of Aqua fortis to one part of Coppel Silver cut into little pieces in a small Matrass half luted evaporate the Aqua fortis in a Circulary Fire till your matter be dry with a black scum upon it then give a melting fire till there rise no more vapours then take off your Matrass and let your matter cool or else pour it into little moulds The Use is To consume Warts and proud Flesh to cure Cancres the Ulcers of the Mouth and the Gangrene by touching them with this Stone Of the burning Spirit of Honey PUt one pound of Honey and a pint of White Wine into a glass Cucurbite or an earthen one distil them in a Sand-fire till you hear that it boyls no longer and that there remains nothing but a black Honey in the bottom The Use is To dye the Beard and Hair Of the Arcanum Corallinum POur warm Water upon the Red Precipitate of Mercury till at last your Water come away insipid then pour upon it Spirit of Salt in a glass Cucurbite dry it in a Sand-fire that will fix the Mercury then sweeten with cold Water the said Mercury fixed till the Water come away insipid then reverberate it in a Crucible it will become as red as Coral then burn upon it Spirit of VVine two or three times The Use of it is To purge and provoke vomiting gently and cure the Pox. The Dose is from three to six grains Cinnamon-Water PUt four ounces of Cinnamon and a quart of White Wine into a glass or stone Cucurbite fit to it a Head and Receiver of Glass distil them in a Sand-fire there will come at first a clear Water and toward the end a whitish muddy one The Use of the first Water is To fortifie the Stomach and comfort the Heart and to facilitate and further the delivery of Women in Child-bed The second Water may serve in the confection of the Syrup of Cinnamon by infusing the Cinnamon before you dissolve your Sugar in it Of the sweet Sublimate TAke of Corrosive Sublimate and Quicksilver of each a like quantity powder your Sublimate in a white Dish with a Pestle of VVhite-ware stopping your nose close then add to it the Quicksilver and when they are half incorporated together add a little distilled Vinegar to make a wet powder put this mixtion into an unluted Matrass with a straight neck place it in a Circulary Fire after the evaporation of the Vinegar stop the Matrass with a Paper stopple continue your fire till your matter be elevated from the bottom of the Matrass take off your Matrass break it and take out the Sublimate which cleanse every where powder it and put it into a greater Matrass half luted to be sublim'd a second time in the same fire which you must encrease towards the end of the Operation till there remain little or nothing in the bottom of the Matrass Take off your Matrass and break it and keep this Sublimate in a glass Vessel well stop'd It s Use is To purge gently from twenty to forty grains it fluxes in four or five Doses one after another Of the Salt of Saturn PUt as much distilled Vinegar as you please into a glaz'd Pan which set upon a Trevet over a fire of Wood and Coals and add to it as much as you please of powder'd Lytharge stirring it with a wooden Spatula then after it has boyled a little let it cool pour off the distilled Vinegar impregnated and pour on more reiterate the boyling till there remain no Lytharge filter your Dissolutions and evaporate them in a Sand-fire in a glass Cucurbite till your matter become as red as Blood then put it into VVhite-VVare Dishes to congeal into white Crystals as sweet as Sugar and there will remain a red Oyl sweet also which has the same vertue as the Salt It is a Collyrium for the Eyes in Ophthalmies it is good to inject in Gonorrhaea's and it is excellent for redness of the Face or Erysipelases in VVater or Vnguentum Rosatum Of the Diaphoretick Antimony TAke one pound of Mineral Antimony or the Regule of Antimony or Mars four pound of fine Niter powder them and mingle them together and put them in fâ—agration and fusion by spoonfuls in a great Pot of the Crucible Earth heated red-hot in a fire of Suppression covering at each time the Pot continue the fire till the vapours cease then take it off and with a Lattin Ladle pour out the matter gently into an earthen pan full of VVater bruise between your hands the matter thus quenched Pour off the white milky Dissolution within 2 or 3 hours pour off the VVater of that which is precipitated to the bottom and sweeten
purest part of the Antimony Obs 2. That the Flowers of Antimony are of three colours the white do contain nothing of the venomous Sulphur of Antimony and are therefore coloured of the colour of the Volatil Salt of Antimony the yellow do contain a little of the said Sulphur and are therefore somewhat tinged but the red do abound with the said Sulphur and are therefore highly dyed Obs 3. That we fit divers Pots one upon another to receive all these Flowers of different colours the white in the first the yellow in the second and the red in the last we leave a hole in the uppermost Pot to give the vapours a little air but it is not so big as in the lowermost pots lest the finest flower should be lost through so wide a hole Obs 4. That we give at first a great fire and continue it forty eight hours to keep always the Regule or Antimony infusion and effumation else it would yield no flowers Obs 5. That you must not use stone pots for the violence of the fire would break them nor Earthen glazed pots of potters earth because that the glazing would melt and fix the Antimony but you must use strong pots of potters earth unglazed Obs 6. That the Flowers of Antimony are nothing but the Regulus of Antimony or the purest part of the Antimony made Volatil and sublimed into dry vapours by the strength of the fire and so converted into a fine impalpable powder called Flowers The white contain only a part of the body of the Regulus and a good deal of the Volatil Salt of Antimony the yellow contain a part of the body of the Regulus and little of the Volatil Salt and so do the red with a good deal of the malignant Sulphur of Antimony It s Vse and Vertues The white Flowers provoke sweat and sometimes vomiting and are very good against pestilential Feavers the yellow do provoke vomiting with violence and the red much more and with convulsions therefore there is no use of them only they enter in the composition of the Plaster of Paracelsus or of some others as you shall find in Authors the dose is from three to seven grains The Flowers of Brimstone PUt a great Earthen glazed Cucurbit into a small Reverberatory Furnace so that between it and the Furnace sides there be the thickness of a Crown piece left empty and the body of your Cucurbit must not be above half sunk into the Laboratory Then stop with Lute all the upper circumference left empty betwixt the Furnace and your Vessel leaving only three little holes equally distant from one another to give the fire vent Then line the neck of your Cucurbit without with slices of Paper covered with starch as if it were to fit a head to it and in stead of a head fit an Earthen glazed pan not turn'd upside down but having a hole in its bottom of such a capacity as to receive the neck of the Cucurbit Lute them well together with slices of Paper starched both above and under the junction of the Pan with the neck of the Cucurbit fill this Cucurbit with yellow Brimstone in powder till it be half full and then fit to this earthen pan another of the same metal which must be whole and turned upside down upon the first so as its bottom be half a foot distant from the neck of the Cucurbit there must be in the bottom of this second Pan a little vent hole of the bigness of the point of a bodkin to give air to the vapours of your Brimstone which else would make your Pan fly about your ears give your fire by degrees and continue a pretty good fire till there come no more fumes out of the little hole which for a pound of Brimstone will happen in three quarters of an hours time Then put out your fire and let your Vessels cool when they are cold separate them one from the other they will be lin'd with a thick crust yellow and light and which being bruised between your fingers is easily reduced to an impalpable powder scrape off this crust with a knife and you have the Flowers of Brimstone out of each pound you will have twelves ounces of Flowers by this method Obs 1. That we use here yellow Brimstone that is in great rowls because that it is the purest and best separated from its Mineral Earth and therefore will yield more and fairer Flowers the green or gray Brimstone show by their colour that they are not so pure and by consequent not so fit for this Operation Obs 2. That we use here a glazed Pan as well because that Brimstone has not force enough to corrode the glazing as because that being glazed the Pans are smoother and so it is easier to scrape off your Flowers a stone Cucurbit would break and you would hardly scrape off all your Flowers in a stone Pan whose surface is uneven Obs 3. That a great Reverberatory fire is not necessary in this Operation because that the Brimstone is easily melted and when melted is easily raised in Flowers Obs 4. That the Flowers of Brimstone are nothing but Brimstone purified from its Faeces and sublim'd in dry vapours by the means of the fire which has melted it then converted into impalpable yellow Flowers in the sublimatory Vessels It s Vse and Vertues These Flowers have the same but a more exalted Vertue than ordinary Brimstone because of the Thinness and Tenuity of their substance interiourly they are used for the same end as the Magistery or Milk of Brimstone and exteriourly they are used in Unguents for the Itch and Scab and for the Farcy in Horses incorporating it with Oyl of Olives and fresh Butter But you must be careful to use first general remedies for Brimstone is so drying that it presently dries up not only the Itch and Scab but also so parches the skin as to make it incapable of receiving the impurities of the body and of being transpirable from which are caused many violent diseases if the said impurities be not emptied by general remedies both before and after the use of Brimstone The Rosin or Magistery of Jalap TAke as much Jalap as you please well cleansed from its ordures and dried in the Sun then powdered and put into a Matrass Pour upon it good Spirit of Wine four or five fingers above your Matter and let your Matrass have a third part empty fit to it another Matrass to make a double vessel place it in a sand fire and there let it stand twelve hours in which time your spirit will acquire a Tincture as red as Claret Wine pour off that and pour on more spirit to the Faeces in twelve hours it will have extracted a new Tincture which pour off also If you will you may pour on more spirit but if your second Tincture be not high colour'd it will not be worth your pains and cost to pour on more Spirit of Wine gather together your