many Diseases proceeding from these two general Causes And though I dare not deny that divers of those Praises may be well enough deserv'd by the Remedies to which they are ascribed yet I am not apt to think them much superior to the generality of volatile Salts And even the Spirit and Salt of Sheeps-blood it self did by their penetrancy of taste and fugitiveness in gentle heats promise little else Efficacy then those others so much celebrated Medicines 10. Nor is it onely by being administred it self that one of this sulphureous and subtle kinde of Spirits may become a good Remedy but also by its being made a Menstruum to prepare other Bodies For it will extract Tinctures out of several sulphureous and resinous Concretes whose finer parts by being associated with so piercing a Vehicle may probably gain a more intimate admission into the Body and have their Vertues conveyed further then otherwise they would reach And a Learned Doctor to whom I recommended such kinde of Remedies confessed to me That by the bare extractions of appropriated Vegetables themselves with Spirit of Urine he perform'd no small matter But one difficulty You may meet with in drawing the Tincture of Minerals and other very compact Bodies even with good Spirit of Urine for that I account to be the cheapest of these volatile Menstruum and the most easie to be obtain'd in good quantities For we have found but with a little heat the more fugitive Particles to ascend to the upper parts of the Glass and there fasten themselves in the form of a Salt by whose recess the debilitated Liquor was disabled from drawing the Tincture so powerfully as was expected wherefore we were reduc'd to make our Extractions in short neck'd Glass-Eggs or Vials exquisitely stop'd which may also be plac'd stooping in the Sand and when we perceiv'd much to be lodg'd in the necks of the Vessels by barely inverting them the hot Liquor soon reimbib'd the Salt and was fit to be plac'd again in Sand so that notwithstanding this difficulty we were able by this means in no long time to impregnate the Spirit of Urine or of Haâ—ts horn for I do not perfectly remember which it was with the Tincture of Flowers of Sulphur which may probably prove a noble Medâ—cine in divers affections of the Lungs since in them these volatile Liquors alone have been found very effectual And I remember I have sometimes made a much shorter and more odde Preparation which at any time You may command of Crude Sulphur whereby in not many hours I have by the means of Salts brought over such a sulphureous Liquor or Tincture as even in the Receiver was of a red Colour as well as of a strongly sulphureous Scent To the Page 164 165 c. where Ens Veneris is treated of BUt before I enter upon Particulars I think it will not be amiss to tell You how this Preparation first occur'd to Us because by that Information Your happyer Genius may peradventure hereafter be prompted to improve this Remedy or to devise one more approaching to the Nature and Excellency of that which we endeavor'd but with very imperfect success to light on or equal by our Ens Veneris I must then tell You that an Industrious Chymist of our Acquaintance and I chancing to Read one day together that odde Treatise of Helmont which he calls Butler when we had attentively perus'd what he delivers of the Nature as well as scarce credible Vertues of the Lapis Butleri he there mentions we fell into very serious Thoughts what might be the matter of so admirable a Medicine and the hopefullest manner of preparing that matter And having freely propos'd to one another our Conjectures and examin'd them by what is deliver'd by Helmont concerning the Preparation of Butlers Stone or some emulous Remedy we at length concurr'd in concluding that either the Lapis Butleri as our Author calls it or at least some Medicine of an approaching Efficacy might if Helmont did not mis-inform us be prepar'd by destroying as far as we could by calcination the body of Copper and then subliming it with Sal Armoniack And because the Body of Venus seems lesse lock'd up in good Vitriol then in its metalline form we concluded that it was best to calcine rather the Vitriol then the Copper it self and having freed the Colcothar from its separable Salts so to force it up with Sal Armoniack But the Person I discours'd with seeming somewhat diffident of this Process by his unwillingness to attempt it I desir'd and easily perswaded him at least to put himself to the trouble of trying it with the requisites to the work which I undertook to provide being at that time unable to prosecute it my self for want of a fit furnace in the Place where I then chanc'd to lodge And though at first we did not hit upon the best and most compendious way yet during the Sublimation he being suddenly surpris'd as both himself and his Domesticks two daies after told me with a fit of sickness attended with very horrid and seemingly Pestilential Symptomes was reduc'd to take some of this Medicine out of the Vessels before the due time and upon the use of it found as he told me an almost immediate Cessation of those dreadfull symptoms bâ—t not of the Palenesse they had produc'd This first prosperous Experiment emboldned us to give our Remedy the Title of Primum ens Veneris which for brevities sake is wont to be call'd Ens Veneris though I am far from thinking that it is the admirable Medicine to which Helmont gives that name at least if his Ens Veneris did really deserve half the praises by him ascrib'd to it But such as Ours is I shall now as time and my yet incompleat Trials will permit acquaint you with that Process of it which among some others we are most wont to employ as the most easie simple and genuine Take then of the best Hungarian or if you cannot procure that of the best Dantzick or other good Venereal Vitriol what quantity you please Calcine it in a strong fire till it be of a dark Red Dulcifie it by such frequent affusions of hot Water that at length the Water that hath pass'd through it appear full as tastless as when it was pour'd on it Let this thus exquisitely dulcified Colcothar when it is thorowly dry be very diligently ground with about an equal weight of good Sal Armoniack and let this mixture be put into a Glass Retort and either in as strong a heat as can conveniently be given in Sand or els in a naked fire force up as much of it as you can to the Top or Neck of the Retort and this Sublimation being ended out of the broken Retort laying the Caput Mortuum aside take all the Sublimate and grind it well again that if in any part the Sal Armoniack appear sublim'd by it self it may be reincorporated with the Colcothar Resublime this Mixture
Entireness Plumpness and Freshness as if it were but newly dead And that which concurs to make me hope that some nobler wâ—y may be yet found out for the preservation of dead Bodies is that I am not convinc'd that nothing can powerfully resist Putrefaction in such Bodies but things that are either saline and corrosive or else hot nor that the Embalming Substances cannot be effectually apply'd without ripping open the Body to be preserv'd by them For Josephus Acosta a sober Writer relates That in certain American Mountains Men and the Beasts they ride on sometimes are kill'd with the Winds which yet preserve them from putrefaction without any other help So insensible a quantity of Matter such as it may be may without Incision made into the Body both pervade it and as it were Embalm it I know also a very experienc'd and sober Gentleman who is much talk'd off for curing of Cancers in Womens Breasts by the outward Application of an Indolent Powder some of which he also gave me but I have not yet had the opportunity to make tryal of it And I shall anon tell you that I have seen a Liquor which without being at all either acid or caustick is in some Bodies far moâ—e effectual against Putrefaction then any of the corrosive Spirits of Nitre Vitriol Salt c. and then any of the other saline Liquors that are yet in use We have also try'd a way of preserving Flesh with Musk whose effects seem'd not despicable to us but must not here be insisted on Nor were it amiss that diligent Tryal were made what use might be made of Spirit of Wine for the Preservation of a humane Body For this Liquor being very limpid and not greasy leaves a clear prospect of the Bodies immers'd in it and though it do not fret them as Brine and other sharp things commonly employ'd to preserve Flesh are wont to do yet it hath a notable Balsamick Faculty and powerfully resists Putrefaction not onely in living Bodies in which though but outwardly apply'd it hath been found of late one of the potentest Remedies against Gangrens but also in dead ones And I remember that I have sometimes preserv'd in it some very soft parts of a Body for many Moneths and perhaps I might had done it for divers Years had I had opportunity without finding that the consistence or shape was lost much less that they were either putrifi'd or dry'd up We have also by mixing with it Spirit of Wine very long preserv'd a good quantity of Blood so sweet and fluid that 't was wondered at by those that saw the Experiment Nay we have for curiosity sake with this Spirit preserv'd from further stinking a portion of Fish so stale that it shin'd very vividly in the dark in which Experiment we also aim'd at discovering whether this resplendent quality of the decaying Fish would be either cherish'd or impair'd by the Spirit of Wine whose operations in this tryal we elsewhere inform you of and it would be no very difficult matter for us to improve by some easie way this Balsamical Virtue of Spirit of Wine in case you shâ—ll think it worth while But not to anticipate what I may more properly mention to you elsewhere I shall at present say no more touching the Conservation of Bodies since probably by all these and some other Particulars we may be induc'd to hope so well of humane Industry as not to dispair that in time some such way of preserving the Bodies of Men and other Animals will be found out as may very much Facilitate and Advance too Anatomicall Knowledg Neither is it only by advancing This that the Naturalist may promote the Physiologicall Part of Physick for since the Body consists not only of firme and consistent Parts as the Bones Muscles Heart Liver c. but of fluid ones as the Blood Serum Gall and other Juices And since consequently to the compleat Knowledge of the use of all the Parts we should investigate not only the Structure of the Solid ones but the Nature of the Fluid ones the Naturalist may do much more then hath yet been done towards the perfecting of this Kowledge not only by better explicating what it is in generall makes Bodies either Consistent or Fluid but by examining particularly and especially in a Pyrotechnicall way the Nature of the severall Juices of the Body and by illustrating the Alterations that those Juices and the Aliments they are made of receive in the Stomach Heart Liver Kidneys and other Viscera For although a humane Body being the most admirable Corporeall Piece of Woâ—kmanship of the Omniscient Architect it is scarce to be hop'd but that even among the things that happen ordinarily and regularly in it there will be many which we shall scarce be able to reach with our Understanding much lesse to imitate with our Hands Yet paradventure if Chymicall Experiments and Mechanicall Contrivances were industriously and judiciously associated by a Naturalist profoundly skill'd in both and who would make it his Businesse to explain the Phaenomena of a Humane Body not only many more of them then at first one would think might be made more intelligible then as yet they have been but diverse of them especially those relating to the motions of the Limbs and Blood might be by artificiall Engines consisting as the Patterne not only of Solid but Liquid and Spirituous Parts not ill represented to our very Senses since a humane Body it selfe seems to be but an Engine wherein almost if not more then almost all the Actions common to Men with other Animals are perform'd Mechanically But of the difference of these living Engines from others I may elsewhere have a fitter opportunity to discourse to You. For at present Pyro I have employ'd so much of the little time my Occasions will allow me to spend upon the Treatise I am now writing in making out to you the Usefulnesse of Naturall Philosophy to the Physiologicall Part of Physick that I must not only not prosecute this Subject but must both hasten to mention and to mention the more cursorily its serviceablenesse to the four remaining Parts of the Physitians Art ESSAY II. Offering some Particulars relating to the Pathologicall Part of Physick AND to say something in the next place of Pathology that the Naturalists knowledge may assist the Physitian to discover the nature and causes of severall Diseases may appear by the light of this Consideration that though divers Paracelsians taught as they tell us by their Master do but erroniously suppose that Man is so properly a Microcosme that of all the sorts of Creatures whereof the Macrocosme or Universe is made up he really consists yet certaine it is that there are many Productions Operations and Changes of things which being as well to be met with in the great as in the little world and diverse of them disclosing their natures more discernably in the former then in the latter the knowledge of the nature of
or good Spirit of Salt pour'd into the same simple Solution did immediately turn it into a fine red and so it would do to the muddy Mixture lately mention'd if it were put to it in a far greater quantity I observ'd also that with a very strong though clear and well filtrated Lixivium of Pot-ashes I could precipitate some paâ—ts of the Infusion or Decoction of red Roses which grosser parts when the Mixture was filtrated through Cap-paper remain'd like a dirty colour'd though somewhat greenish Mud in the Filtre the fluid and finer part of the Mixture passing through in the form of a Liquor high coloured almost like Muscadine And on this occasion I remember that as Galls a very stiptick Vegetable excrescence will yield a Decoction with which and Copper is the common Ink is made so divers other Plants of notably astringent parts may be employed to the like use For by casting Vitriol into a Decoction either of Oaken Bark or red Roses or even a bare Infusion of either Log-wood or Sumach to name now no other Plants of the like nature I have presently made a Mixture that might make a shift to serve for Writing Ink but whether all stiptick Plants or they onely will with Vitriol make an Ink I refer to further Enquiry And as a Solution of Vitriol and the Decoction of the above-mention'd Plants do precipitate each other to make Ink so I remember I have try'd that by dissolving the Crystals of pure Silver made the common way with Aqua fortis or Spirit of Nitre in a good quantity of fair Water that the Liquor having no colour of its own the colours it produceth in other Bodies may be the better observ'd I found that I could with this Liquor precipitate out of the Infusions alone of several Vegetables Substances differingly colour'd according to their respective dispositions And so I have found with less cost that Saccharum Saturni which seems to be a kinde of Vitriol of Lead whilst it lyes dissolved in the same Spirit of Vinager which extracted it from the Metal being put to the bare Infusion of Log-wood Lignum Nephriticum red Roses to name those I now remembeâ— I made tryal of they will precipitate each other I might farther adde That I have try'd that sulphureous Salts such as Oyl of Tartar made per Deliquium being drop'd into the expressed Juices of divers Vegetables will in a moment turn them into a lovely Green though the Vegetables were of colours differing from that and from one another as I remember one of those Vegetables in which I expected and found that change was of a fine Carnation And I could tell you that though it be disputed whether Quick-lime have any Salt dissoluble in Water and of what sort it is the Examen of that Question may be much furthered by trying as I have done that the Water of Quick-Lime well made will precipitate a Solution of sublimate made in fair Water and will presently turn Syrup of Violets which is Blew if well mix'd with it into a fair Green Experiments I say of this nature I might easily annex but having already set down divers of them in what I have written concerning colours I shall refer you thither And now onely adde this Observation that the Investigation of divers Medical Qualities even of Animal Substances may be much assisted by the Naturalist especially a Chymist as we elsewhere have by the Distillation of the Calculus humanus shewn how much it differs from the Stones that are found in the Earth And if you take those hard Concretions found at certain times in the Heads of Craw-Fishes that are wont to be call'd Lapides Cancrorum and commit some of them to Distillation and infuse some in Vinager and others in old Rhenish-Wine or strong White-Wine you will probably discover some thing of peculiar in the nature of this Concrete of which I may possibly elsewhere make further mention to you And not onely so but in some Animal Substances you may by fit Experiments discover notable Changes to be made and their Qualities to be much heighten'd when the Eye scarce perceiveth any Change at all as I have purposely observ'd in keeping Urine in close Glasses and a moderate heat for many Weeks For at the end of that time the Virtues that depend upon its volatile Salt will be so heighten'd that whereas upon putting Spirit of Salt to fresh Urine the two Liquors readily and quietly mix'd droping the same Spirit upon digested Urine there would presently ensue a Hissing and Ebullition and the volatile and acid Salts would after a while concoagulate into a third Substance somewhat of the nature of Sal Armoniack And whereas the Syrup of Violets formerly mention'd being dissolv'd in a little fresh Urine seem'd to be but diluted thereby a few drops of the fermented Urine temper'd with it did presently turn it into a deep Green And the same digested Urine being drop'd upon a Solution of Sublimate made in fair Water presently turn'd it white by precipitating the dissolved Mercury With what various success we have likewise made upon some other parts of a humane Body as well consistent as fluid some Tryals analogous to what we have recited of Urine I may elsewhere perchance take notice to you But of such kinde of Observations I must give you but this Hint at present CHAP. III. SEcondly By these and other ways of investigating the Medicinal Qualities of Bodies the Naturalist may be enabled to adde much to the Materia Medica And that two several ways For he may by his several ways of tryal and by his Chymical preparations discover that divers Bodies especially of a Mineral nature that are as yet not at all employed by Physitians at least internally may be brought into use by them and that others that are naturally so dangerous as to be us'd but in very few and for the most part extream cases may with safety be more freely employ'd Some Modern Chymists as particularly Glauberus have of late pâ—epar'd Remedies not unuseful out of Zinck or Spelter And I have already mention'd unto you an excellent Medical use of Silver of which prepared as is there intimated I have now this to adde That since I began to write of it to you I met with a considerable Person who assures me That she her self was by the use of it in a short time cured of the Dropsie though by reason of her having a Body very corpulent and full of humors she have been thought more then ordinarily in danger of that stubborn Disease I have sometimes wondered that there hath been so little care taken by Physitians and even by Chymists to investigate the Qualities of Mineral Earths and those other resembling Bodies that are or may be plentifully enough digg'd up in most Countries though not the self-same in all for however Men are pleas'd to pass them slightly over as if they were but Elementary Earth a little stain'd or otherwise lightly altered
of the chief Ingredients may be rather impaired then improved As we see that crude Mercury crude Nitre and crude Salt may be either of them safely enough taken into the Body in a good quantity whereas of sublimate consisting of those three Ingredients a few Grains may be rank Poyson As for those fam'd Compositions of Mithridate Treacle and the like though I cannot well for the mention'd Reasons commend the skill of those that first devised them and though I think that when one or two Simples may answer the same Indications they may for the same Reasons be more safely employed Yet I would by no means discommend the use of those Mixtures because long experience hath manifested them to be good Medicines in several cases But 't is one thing to employ one of these Compositions when tryal hath evinced it to be a lucky one and another thing to think it fit to rely on a huddle of Ingredients before any tryal hath manifested what kinde of Compound they will constitute And in a word though I had not the respect I have for Matthiolus and other famous Doctors that devised the Compositions whereinto Ingredients are thrown by scores if not by hundreds yet however I should not reject an effectual Remedy because I thought that it proved so rather by chance then any skill in the Contriver And I think a wise Man may use a Remedy that scarce any but a Fool would have devis'd Another thing upon whose account the Naturalist whom we here suppose an expert Chymist may assist a Physitian to lessen the expensiveness of his Prescriptions is by shewing That in very many Compositions several of the Ingredients and oftentimes the most chargeable whether they be proper or no foâ— the Disease are unfit for the way of management prescrib'd and consequently ought to be left out I need not tell you that since Chymistry began to flourish amongst us very many of the Medicines prepared in Apothecaries Shops and commonly the most chargeable are distill'd Waters Spirits and other Liquors And he that shall survey the Books and Bills of Physitians shall finde that very few perhaps excepted the most usual Prescription is to take such and such Ingredients for the most part numerous enough and pouring on them either Water or Wine if any Liquor at all to distil them in Balneo rarely in Ashes or Sand. But I confess I have not without wonder and something of indignation seen in the Prescriptions of Physitians otherwise eminently Learned Men and even in the publick Dispensatories I know not how many things ordered to be distill'd with others in Balneo which in that degree of heat will yield either nothing at all as the fragments of Precious Stones Leaves of Gold prepar'd Pearl c. Or if they do yield any thing for that hath not been yet that I know of evinced do probably yield but a little nauseous Phlegm or at least some few loose parts far less efficacious then those that require a stronger heat to drive them up such are Sugar Raysins and other sweet Fruit Bread Harts-horn Flesh prepar'd by Coction c. which though wont to be thrown away with the Caput Mortuum oftentimes there retain their pristine Texture aâ—d Nature or at least are almost as much more considerable then that which they yielded in Distillation as a boyl'd Capon is then the Liquor that sticks to the Cover of the Pot. And though as to some of these Ingredients it may be thought that they may yield even in Balneo some of their useful parts yet this can with any probability be suppos'd but of some of such Ingredients And even as to them it is but suppos'd that they may yield Something in so milde a heat and how that Something will be qualified is but presum'd at least by the Analogy of the Experiments vulgarly made there seems so small cause to exspect that these more fix'd Ingredients will adde half so much to the vertue of the Medicines as they will to the cost especially since though it could be prov'd or were probable that fix'd Substances may communicate their vertues to Wine or Water yet it would not follow that those impregnated Liquors distilled in Balneo will carry those vertues with them over the Helm All which I have more largely prov'd in another Discourse where I shew both that the nobler parts of many Ingredients wont to be distill'd in Balneo do commonly remain in the Caput Mortuum and that 't is very unsafe to conclude always the Vertues of distill'd Liquors from those of the Concrets that afforded them But there is another way of putting unfit Ingredients into Medicines by confounding those in one Composition which though perhaps they might apart be properly enough employed do when mixed destroy or lock up the Vertues of one another and of this fault even famous Chymists themselves are but too often guilty I know not how many Processes I have met with wherein saline Substances of contrary natures are prescrib'd to be mingled as if because they were all of them saline they must be fit to be associated whereas 't is evident to any Man â—hat considers as well as employs the Operations of Chymistry that there are scarce any Bodies in the World betwixt which there is a greater contrariety then betwixt acid Salts and as well those that the Chymists call volatile as the Spirits and Salts of Harts-horn Blood Flesh and the like as those others which are made of Incineration as Salt of Tartar and of all burnt Vegetables So that oftentimes it happens that by an unskilful Mixture two good Ingredients are spoil'd as when Vinegar Juice of Lemmons Juice of Barberies and the like are prescrib'd to be distill'd with other Ingredients whereof the Salt of Wormwood or some other Plant makes one for then the acid and alcalizate Salts working upon one another grow more fix'd and yield in Balneo but a Flegm and so Spirit or Urine which is highly volatile and Spirit of Salt which is also a distill'd Liquor being mingled together will by their mutual Operation constitute a new thing which in such a heat as that of a Bath will yield a Flegm leaving behinde the nobler and active Parts concoagulated into a far more fix'd Substance much of the nature of Sal Armoniack And indeed where Salts especially active ones are made Ingredients of Mixtures unless they be skilfully and judiciously compounded it often happens that they spoil one another and degenerate into a new thing if they do not also spoil the whole Composition and of divers useful Ingredients compose one bad Medicine CHAP. V. ANother way by which the Naturalist skill'd in Chymistry may help to lessen the chargeableness of Cures is by shewing that as to divers costly Ingredients wont to be employ'd in Physick there hath not yet been sufficient proof given of their having any Medical Vertues at all or that at least as they are wont to be exhibited either crude or but
but pale which usually happens for want of an exact commistion of the Ingredients it may be return'd to the residue mingled better with it again and subliâ—'d once more The yellow or reddish Sublimate may be sublim'd a second time not from the Caput Mortuum but by it self but if you re-sublime it oftner you may though you will think that strange impair the Colour and the Sublimate instead of improving them The Dose is from two or three Grains to ten or twelve in some Bodies it may be encreas'd to twenty or thirty without danger in distill'd Water or small Beer or other convenient Vehicles It may be given at any time upon an empty Stomack but I most commonly give it at Bed-time It works when it works sensibly by Sweat and somewhat by Urine That it is a potent Specifick for the Rickets I think I scarce need tell â—ou Pyroph whose excellent Mother and Aunt together with some Physitians to whom I also gave it ready prepar'd have cur'd perhaps a hundred or more Children of that Disease divers of whom were look'd upon as in a desperate condition I give it also in Feavors and other Distempers to procure sleep which it usually doth where 't is wanting In the Head ache likewise in which if the Disease be inveterate the Remedy must be long continued with the like admonition it hath done Wonders in suppressione Mensium obstinata In the Worms it hath sometimes done strange things and for provoking of Appetite I remember not that I have either taken or given it without success And though I seldom take for I often give more above two or three Grains of it at a time yet in that small Dose it usually proves Diaphoretical to me the next Morning But the Experiments we have had of the several Vertues and Efficacy of this Medicine would be here too tedious to recite and therefore I shall now pass them by though if you require it I shall not be backward to set you down by way of observations most of the cases wherein I or my Friends have given it and of the principal Cures that have been performed by it In the mean time because this exalted Colcothar being given in so small a Dose may prove if it be rightly and dexterously prepar'd what Helmont saith of his imitation of Butlers Drif A Medicine for the Poor and yet requires more care not to say skill to Prepare it well then upon the bare reading of the Process you will imagin I shall to gratify your Charity annex to the end of this Essay for to insert them here would make too prolix a Digression as many of the Particulars relating to the Preparation of it as I can readily meet with among my loose Notes And least you should think me a Mountebanck for want of knowing in what sense it is that I commend this and the other particular Medicins I shall likewise to those Observations subjoyn a Declaration of my meaning in such particulars and of the sense wherein I desire you should understand what you meet with in the Praise of Remedies either in this Essay or any other of my Writings which I hope it will be sufficient to give you this Advertisment of once for all The next Medicine I am to mention to you is the Balsamum Sulphuris which being made but with gross Oyls drawn by Expression may be called Crassum to distinguish it from the common and thinner Balsom of Sulphur that is made with the Distil'd Oyl or Spirit of Turpentine This Balsom is made in an Houre or less without a Furnace onely by taking to one part of good Flower of Brimstone foure or five times as much in weight of good expressed Oyl either of Olives or Nuts or Poppey-seeds and boyling the former in the latter in a Pipkin half fill'd with both till it be perfectly Dissolv'd into a Blood-red Balsom But as easy as this Preparation seems and indeed is to them that have often made it it will not at first be so easie to make it right For the Fire which ought to be of well kindled Coals must be kept pretty quick and yet not over-quick least the Oyl boyle over or doe not well Dissolve the Flowers of Sulphur but turn them with its self into a Clotted and almost Liver-colour'd Masse And to avoid these Inconveniencies and the adustion of the Matter speciall care must be had to keep it constantly stirring not only whil'st the Pot is over the Fire but after it is taken off till it be quite Cold. You may if you think fit Dissolve this simple Balsom in Chymicall Oyl of Anny-seeds or any other Essential Oyl like to advance its Efficacy in this or that particular Distemper But those Oyls being generally very hot I most commonly Prescribe the Balsom without those Additions especially if long Digestion have somwhat lessened the Offensiveness of the smell which though no peculiar fault of this Preparation being common to Sulphureous Medicins is yet the chief Inconvenience of it I will not too resolutly affirme that this is the very Balsamum Sulphuris Rulandi of which that Author relates such wonderful things in his Centuries but if it be not the same t is so like it and so good that I doubt not but by perusing those Centuries you may find divers uses of it that I have not made tryall off And in Coughs old Strains Bruises Aches and sometimes the Incipcent fits of the Gout it self and especially Tumors some of your friends can inform you that it doth much greater things then most Men would expect from so slight and easy a Preparation And indeed greater then I have seen done by very costly and commended Balsoms and Oyntments sold in Apothecaries Shops And in those Observations I lately told you you might command you will find that this Balsom outwardly applyed hath cured such obstinate Tumours as Men either knew not what to make off or what to doe with them of which skilful Physitians to whom I gave it to make tryal off in difficult cases can bear me witness Though it ought sufficiently to endear this Balsam to us both that it was the Meanes of rescuing your Fair and Vertuous Sister E from a dangerous Consumption In outward Applications it is to be well warm'd and to be chafâ—'d into the part affected which should be afterwards kept very warme or else Lint dipped in it may be kept upon the place Inwardly some drops of it may be given at any time when the Stomach is not full either rol'd up with Sugar or mingl'd with any convenient Vehicle But as for the Particulars that concern the Preparation of this Balsam you will find those I can readily meet with among my loose Papers annex'd with the Notes concerning Ens Veneris to the end of this Essay And therefore I shall now proceed to mention the third Medicine which you have often heard off under the name of Essence of Harts-horn but which is indeed onely the Simple but
long and equal as a thing of much greater moment both as to Physick and Philosophy then Chymists are wont to think the powerful effects of constant and temporate heats being as yet known to few save those that have made tryal of them And with Lamp Furnaces well ordered divers things may be done in imitation of nature some friends of mine having as several of them assure me in such Furnaces brought Hens egges to manifest Animation That also Furnaces may be so built as to save much of the Laborants wonted attendance on them may appeare by the obvious invention of Athanors or Furnaces with Towers wherein the Fire is for many Hours perhaps for twenty-foure or forty-eight supply'd with a competent proportion of Coales without being able to burne much faster then it should And that in many cases the labour of Blowing may be well spar'd and the annoyance of Mineral fumes in great pâ—rt avoyded by an easie contrivance is evident by those Furnaces which are blown by the help of a Pipe drawing the Air as they commonly speak either at the top as in Glaubers fourth Furnace or at the bottom as for want of room upwards I have sometimes tryed To which may be added that the casting of the Matters â—o be prepar'd upon quick Coals as Glauber prescribes in that which he calls his first Furnace is in some cases a cheap and expeditious way of preparing some Minerals though his method of making Spirit of Salt in that Furnace would not succeed according to his promise with me and some of my acquaintance And there are other more commodious Contrivances by casting some things upon the naked Fire which invites me to expect That there will be several good Expedients of employing the Fire to Chymical operations that are not yet made use of nor perhaps so much as dream'd of And as Furnaces so the Vessels that more immedâ—ately contain the Thing to be prepar'd are questionless capable of being made more durable and of being better contriv'd then commonly they are Good use may be made of those Earthen Retoâ—ts that are commonly call'd Glauber's second Furnaces in case they be made of Earth that will well endure strong Fires and in case there be a better way to keep in the Fumes then that he proposes of melted Lead which I hâ—ve therefore often declin'd for another as having found it lyable to such inconveniences as I elsewhere declare But for Materials that are cheap and to be distill'd in quantity as Woods Harts-horn c. the way is not to be despis'd and is as we may elsewhere have occasion to shew capable of improvement though in many cases this kinde of Vessel is inferior to those tubulated Retorts that were of old in use and mentioned by Basilius Valentinus and from which Glauber probably desum'd that which we have been speaking of The utility of the way of sealing Glasses hermetically and of the Invention that now begins to be in request of stopping the Bottles that contain corrosive and subtle Liquors with Glass-stopples ground fit to their Necks instead of Corks together with some other things not now to be mention'd keep me that I scarce doubt but that if we could prevail with the Glass-men and the Potters to make Vessels of Glass and Earth exactly according to directions many things in Chymistry might be done better and cheaper then they now are and some things might be then done that with the forms of Vessels now in use cannot be done at all And if that be true which we finde related in Pliny and with some other Circumstances in Dion Cassius of a more ingenious then fortunate Man who about his time was put to death for having made malleable Glass as the truth of that Story if granted would shew the retriving that Invention a thing not to be despair'd of So he that could now Chymistry is so cultivated finde again the way of making Glass malleable would be in my Opinion a very great Benefactor to Man-kinde and would enable the Virtuosi as well as the Chymists to make several Experiments which at present are scarce practicable And some Chymists would perhaps think this attempt more hopeful if I tell them first that I remember Raymund Lully expresly reckons it among three or four of the principal Vertues he ascribes to the Philosophers Stone that it makes Glass malleable and then that an expert Chymist seriously affirm'd to me that he met with an Adeptus who among other strange things shew'd him a piece of Glass which the Relator found would endure and yield to the Hammer But what my own Opinion is concerning this matter and what are the uncommon Inducements I have to be of it I must not here declare And on this occasion I remember I have seen an Instrument of Tin or Pewter for the drawing of Spirit of Wine which you know is one of the chargeablest things that belong to Chymistry so contriv'd that whereas in the ordinary way much time and many rectifications are requisite to dephlegm Spirit of Wine one distillation in this Vessel will bring it over from Wine it self so pure and flegmless as to burn all away And I remember that the ancient French Chymist in whose Laboratory I first saw one of these Instruments told me That 't was invented not by any great Alchymist or Mathematician but by a needy Parisian Chyrurgion And now I speak of Spirit of Wine I shall adde That as the charges of Chymistry would be very much lessned if such ardent Spirits could be had in plenty and cheap so I think it not improbable that in divers places there may be found by Persons well skil'd in the Nature of Fermentation other Vegetable Substances far cheaper then Wine from which an inflammable and saline Sulphureous Spirit of the like vertue for dissolving resinous Bodies drawing Tinctures c. may be copiously obtain'd For not only 't is known that Sydar Perry and other Juyces of Fruits will afford such a Spirit and that most Graineâ— not very unctuous as Barley Wheat c. will do the like but other Berries that grow wild as those of Elder will yield a Vinous Liquor And in the Barbada's they make a kind of Wine even of Roots I mean their Mobby which they make of Potatos as I have also for curiosity sake made Bread of the same Roots nay even from some sorts of Leaves such a Liquor may be obtain'd For I have observed Roses well fermented to yield a good Spirit very strongly tasted as well as inflammable And as to the Preparing of pure Spirit of Wine it self I know wayes and one of them cheap that may exceedingly shorten the time and pains of dephlegming it but that being to be done otherwise then by any peculiar contrivance of Furnaces or Glasses I reserve it for a fitter place in one of the following Essays And as more expedient and thrifty wayes then the vulgar ones of making Chymicall Furnaces and Vessels may be devis'd so
consequently the weight that presses the lowermost parts close together is considerable But further in divers operations where an actual Fire is requisite it may be hop'd that Knowing Men may discover waies of saving much of the Fire and making Skill perform a great part of the wonted office of heat To obtain the Spirit of fresh Urine you must Distil away near nine parts of ten which will be but Flegm before the Spirit or Volatile Salt will and that scarce without a pretty strong heat regularly rise And there are several Chymist's that to this day make use of no better way of Distiling Urine But he that knows how Putrefaction opens many Bodies may easily save himself the expence of so much Fire For if you let Urine stand well stop'd for eight or ten Weeks the Saline and Spirituous parts will so extricate themselves that the Spirits that before staied behind the Flegm will now even with the gentlest heat rise up first and leave the Flegm behind And on this occasion I shall teach you what I do not know to have been mention'd by any Writer namely That even of fresh Urine without Digestion or Putrefaction I can by a very cheap and easie way make a subtle and penetrant Spirit ascend first even in a gentle heat And I am wont to do it only by pouring Urine how fresh soever upon Quick-lime till it swim some Fingers breadth above it and then distilling it assoon as I please But I did not find upon many trials that this Spirit though even without Rectification very strong and subtle would Coagulate Spirit of Wine like that of putrified and fermented Urine though perhaps for divers other purposes it may be more powerful And here I shall advertise You that whereas I just now took notice that there was a pretty strong Fire requisite to force up the Salt of unfermented Urine out of that part which after the abstraction of the Phlegm remains of the consistance of Honey trial hath inform'd me That the volatile Salt may out of the thick Liquor be obtain'd better and more pure with ease and with a scarce credibly smal heat barely by tempering the Urinous extract with a convenient quantity of good Wood Ashes whereby for a reason elswhere to be consider'd the volatile part of the Salt of Urine is so free'd from the grosser Substance that with strange facility it will ascend fine and white to the top of very tall Glasses But of the differing Preparation of Urine more perhaps elswhere I now proceed to tell you that I think it not unlikely that even Bodies which are more gross and sluggish may by the affusion of such Menstruums as humane Industrie may find out be far more easily either volatiliz'd or unlockt then common Chymists are wont to think For I know a Liquor not very rare among Chymist's by whose help I have often enough distill'd Spirit of Nitre whose distillation requires much about the same violence of Fire with that of Aqua-Fortis even in a moderate heâ—t of Sand and without a naked Fire This Spirit may easily enough be brought over even in a Head and Body and for a Wager I could obtain a little of it without any Fire or outward heat at all And I remember also That having once digested a certain Menstruum for a very short time upon crude Antimony and abstracted it in a very gentle heat of Sand the Liquor not only brought over some of the Antimony in the form of red Flowers swiming in it and united other parts of the Mineral with it self in the transparent Liquor but the gentle heat raised to the top of the Retort divers little Masses of a substance that were very transparent like Amber which were inflammable and smelt and burnt blew just like common Sulphur And yet the Menstruum which was easily again recoverable from the Antimony was no strong Corrosive tasting before it was pour'd on not much unlike good Vinager But besides all the wayes above mentioned of saving the Chymist either Time or Fire or Labour I dispair noâ— that divers others yet unthought on will be in time found out by the Industry of skilful Men taking notice of the nature of things and applying them to Chymical uses as we see that by Amalgamations with Mercury the calcination of Gold and Silver may be much easyer perform'd then by a long violence of Fire And if it be true what Helmont and Paracelsus tell us of their immortal Liquor Alkahest Medicines far nobler and otherwise more difficult to make then those hitherto in use among the Chymist's may be Prepar'd with greater ease and expedition and with far less expense of Fire then the nature of the Mettals and other Concretes to be open'd by it would let a vulgar Chymist suspect However I see no great cause to doubt that there may be Menstruum's found that will much facilitate difficult Operations since not to mention again the Liquor I lately told you would work such a change on Nitre and I might have added on some other compact Bodies 't is very like there may be Menstruum's found that will not be so spoyl'd by a single Operation made with them as our vulgar saline Spirits are wont to be For I have try'd that a Menstruum made by the bare distillation of good Verdigrease will not only draw as I have formerly told you a Tincture of Glass of Antimony or perform some other like Operation for once but being drawn off from the dissolved body or the extraction will again serve more then once for the like Operation upon fresh Materials The fifth and last way Pyrophilus that I intend to mention of lessening Chymical expenses is That the Naturalists may probably find out wayes of preserving some Chymical Medicins either longer or better then those wayes that are usual But of this preservation of Bodies being like as I formerly intimated to have elsewhere further occasion to Treat I shall now only say That the purified Juyces liquid Extracts Robs and other soft Medicaments made of Plants may be Conserv'd far cheaper aswel as better then with Sugar which clogs most Mens Stomacks and otherwise disagrees with many Constitutions in case Helmont say true where he tells us That for a small piece of Money he can for I know not how long preserve whole Barrels of Liquor And a way he intimates of fuming liquors with Sulphur I have allready told you is a very good way of keeping them uncorrupted provided that though he prescribes it not they be six or seven several times seldomer or oftner according to the quantity or nature of the Liquor well impregnated with that embalming Smoak to which purpose it is convenient to have two Vessels to poure from one to the other that whil'st the Liquor is shaking in the one the other may be well fill'd with Smoak whereto I shall only subjoyn this secret which a friend of mine practises in preserving the fumigated Juyces of Herbs as I elswhere
most advisable to substitute the Wood Ashes which in the Receipt it self towards the close of it are appointed for a Succedaneum To the One Hundred and Twentieth Page Where the Vertues of the Pilulae Lunares are toucht at THe great benefit that has redounded to many patients from the use of the Silver Pils here briefly mention'd and commended invites me to communicate as a considerable thing the preparation of them of which I do not pretend to be the Inventer having divers years since learnt it by discoursing with a very Ancient and experienc'd Chymist whose name that I do not mention will perhaps seem somewhat strange to those Readers that have observ'd me not to be backward in acknowledging my Benefactors in point of Experiments and therefore I hold it not amiss to take this opportunity of declaring once for all that t were oftentimes more prejudicial then grateful to one that makes an advantage by the Practise of Physick to annex in his life time his name to some of his Receipts or Processes because that when a Man has once got a repute for having a Specifick in any particular Disease or Case his Patients and their Friends will hardly forbear to apply themselves to him for that Medicine though the same Medicine but not known to be the same should be made use of by a stranger or divulged in a Printed Book Most Patients being not apt to rely upon Medicines that come onely that way recommended whereas if it were known that the Printed Receipt is the self same which the Physitian employs not only other Physitians would quickly make as much advantage of it as he but many Patients would think themselves by that discovery dispens'd with in point of good husbandry from going to any Physitian at all as knowing before hand the best prescription they are like to receive from him The Process of the Pilulae Lunares is this Take of the best refined Silver as much as You please dissolve it in a sufficient quantity of cleans'd spirit of Nitre or Aquafortis then evaporating away the superfluous moysture let the rest shoot into thin Chrystals these you may in some open mouth'd Glass place in sand and keep in such a degree of Heat that by the help of very frequently stirring them the greatest part of the more loose and stinking Spirits of the Menstruum may be driven away and yet the remaining Chrystals not be brought to Flow These Chrystals of Silver you must counterpoise with an equal weight of Chrystals of Nitre and first dissolving each of them apart in distill'd Rain-water You must afterwards mingle the Solutions and abstract or steam away the superfluous moysture till the remaining Mass be dry which you must keep in an open Glass expos'd to such a temperate heat of Sand that the Matter may not melt which you must be very careful of and that yet the adhering corrosive Spirits of the Menstruum might be driven away And to both these ends You must from time to time stir the Mass that new parts of it may be expos'd to the Heat and new ones to the Air till you cannot descry in the remaining white Powder any offensive scent of the Spirit of Nitre or of the Aqua-Fortis And lastly You must take the Crum of good White-bread made with a little moysture into a stiff Past and exactly mingle with the newly mention'd Magistery or Powder as much of this Past as is necessary to give it the consistence of a Mass of Pills which you may thence form at pleasure and preserve in a well stopp'd Glass for use NB. First the Silver employ'd in this Operation ought to be very pure and more exquisitely refin'd then much of that is wont to be which here in England is bought for fine Silver for if the Copper wherewith Silver-Coyns are wont to be alloy'd be not carefully separated upon the Cupel it may being turn'd by the Acid Menstruum into a kind of Vitriol when it is taken into the Body either provoke Vomits or otherwise discompose it 2ly The Spirit of Nitre or which in our case comes almost to one the Aqua-fortis that is us'd about this Medicine ought to be clear'd as our Refiners phrase it before the Silver be put in for as I elsewhere Note in Salt Peter there is oftentimes an undiscerned Mixture of Sea-salt whose Spirit coming over in Distillation with that of the Nitre is apt to precipitate the Silver which the Spirit of Nitre has dissolv'd This I take to be the Reason of that practise of the best Refiners to purifie their Aqua-fortis by casting in some small piece of Silver that they may afterwards securely put into it greater Quantities of the same Mettal to be dissolv'd For the Saline Spirits fall to the bottome together with the corroded Silver which they precipitate as long as there is any of these Saline Spirits left in the Menstruum which after this may be decanted clear and though you had put a little more Silver then needed to it it neither does harm nor is lost the Aqua fortis preserving none unprecipitated but what there were no more Sâ—line Spirits to work upon so that the superfluous Silver put in is already dissolv'd to Your hand 3dly The dry Mixture obtain'd from the Solutions of Chrystals of Nitre and Chrystals of Silver must be often stirr'd and kept longer in the Sand before all the offensive Spirits will be driven away then till Experience had inform'd me I did imagine Fourthly If the Chrystals of Silver be considerably Blew or Green 't is a sign the Silver was not sufficiently purg'd from Copper else the Mixture we have been speaking of will look of a White good enough And possibly 't was by reason of the not being careful to take sufficiently Refin'd Silver and of the not knowing how to improve the Chrystals of Silver by the addition of those of Nitre and especially how to free them from the stinking and Corrosive Spirits of Aqua-fortis that it is come to pass that though there be in some Chymical Writers Processes not very unlike this yet the Chrystals of Silver have been censur'd and laid aside as not alwaies safe even by those who otherwise much magnifie the Efficacy of those they us'd Fifthly When You are about to make up this Mixture with the Crum of Bread into a Mass and so into Pills 't will not be amiss to dispatch that work at once for usually it leaves an ugly Blackness on the Fingers that cannot under divers daies be gotten off Sixthly In taking of the Pills care must be had that they be sufficiently lapp'd up either in a Wafer wetted with Milk or the Pulp of a Roasted Apple or some such thing that they may not touch the Palat or the Throat because of the extreme and disgusting bitterness which is to be met with in the Chrystals of Silver and which is not the least thing that with nicer Persons does Blemish these Pills Seventhly The Dose is somewhat
one ounce of White Vitriol four ounces Boyl the Camphire and the Vitriol together in a little Black Earthen Pot till they become thin stirring them together till they become hard in setling then Bruise them in a Mortar to Powder and Beat the Bole-Armoniack it self to Powder and then mingle them together and keep the Powder in a Bladder till such time You use it then take a pottle of Running Water and set it on the Fire till it begin to Seeth then take it from the Fire and put in three good Spoonfuls of the Powder into that Water whilst it is hot and after put the Water and Powder into a Glasse and shake it twice a day to make the Water strong But before You use it let it be well setled and very Clear and apply it as hot as the Patient can well suffer it and lay a clean Linnen Cloath four double to the Sore it being wet in that Water and bind it fast with a Rowler to keep it warm do it Morning and Evening till it be whole This Water must be put into an Oyster-shel not in a Sawcer when you dress the Sore for the Pewter will suck it up Remember You put three as good Spoonfuls of the Powder as you can presse into the Spoon Take heed no one Drink of this Water for it is Poyson To make it stronger beat an ounce of Alom to Powder and mingle it with the other Powders Take of Bole-armoniack half an ounce White Vitriol one ounce of Camphire 2 ounces make them all into Powder then take a Pottle of Smiths-water and as much Spring-water and mingling them set thew upon the Fire assoon as it begins to Seeth put in the Powder very softly stirring it all the while assoon as the Powder is in take it off the Fire and dresse the wound with it twice a day laying a Cloath folded four times and wetted in the Water it being very Hot and so apply'd to the Wound N B. This is the Receipt Verbatim as I find it among my old Papers but I am not sure that among those I cannot now come by there may not be something concerning a way of making a small pliable Tent that may accommodate it self to the crooked Figure of the Cavity of many Fistula's For methinks I remember that the Chirurgion prescrib'd the conveying his Medicine by the means of such a flexible tent a great way into the cavity if not to the bottom of the Fistula which was thereby to be cleansed To the One Hundred fifty first Page VVhere Soot is mentioned SOot Pyrophilus is a Production of the Fire whose Nature is almost as Singular as is the manner of its being produc'd for it is if I may so call it a kind of volatile Extract of the Wood it proceeds from made instead of a Menstruum by the Fire which hastily dissipating the parts of the Body it acts on hath time enough to sever it into smaller Particles but not leisure and aptitude to reduce it into such differing substâ—nces as pass for Chymical or Peripatetick Elements but hastily carries up the more volatile pâ—rts which being not yet sufficiently free'd from the more fixt ones take them up along with them in their sudden flight and so the Aqueous Spirituous Saline Oleaginous and Terrestrial parts ascending confusedly together do fasten themselves to the sides of the Chimney in that loose and irregular Form of Concretion which we call Sooâ— An enquiry into whose Nature as it may be consider'd in the Survey of the distinctions of Salts must be elsewhere look'd for Our mentioning it at present being only to take occasion to tell You that as ill scented and despis'd a Body as it is Hartman one of the most experienc'd and hâ—ppy of Chymical Writers scruples not to reckon the Spirit and Oyle of it among the Noblest Confortantia such as prepar'd Pearl Coral Ambergreese and other eminent Cherishers of Nature His preparation is for substance this Take of the best Soot such as adheres to the lower part of the Chimney and shines almost like Jet what quantity you please and with it fill up to the Neck a very well coated Glass Retort or an Earthen one and luting on a capacious Receiver distil the matter in an open fire intended by degrees whereby you will drive over the Phlegm the whitish Spirits and the Oyl first of a Yellow Colour and then of a Red separate the Phlegme and for a while digest the Spirit and Oyle together on which afterwards put half the quantity of Spirit of Wine and Distil them several times whereby you will obtain together with the Spirit of Wine the Spirit of Soot and also a very depurated Oyl smelling like Camphire Out of the Calcin'd Caput mortuum after the common way extract a Salt which Hartman commends as a most excellent curer of exulcerated Cancers This Salt saith He is drawn with Vinegar in which Liquor in a Cold moist place it is again Dissolv'd and therewith the Cancerous Ulcers being once or twice anointed the venenosity will be visibly drawn out like a Vapour and then the foremention'd Oyl being lightly sprinkl'd upon the place will breed on it a kind of Crust like a skin which Spontaneously coming off in five or six Days will by its falling off argue the Consolidation of the Ulcer What this so extoll'd Remedy will perform I know not having never made trial of it nor thinking it very likely that a bare Alcalizate Salt should have such Specifick Vertues nor is it requisite I should insist on it being here to discourse to You of the distill'd Liquors of Soot in prosecution of which design let me tell You that Hartman prescribes the administring of the Spirit from six to ten Grains of the Oyl from two to three drops in Wine or any other convenient Vehicle and concerning the Oyl he adds That if three Drops of it be given in Vinegar to an almost gasping Man he will be thereby wonderfully refesh'd and as it were reviv'd to which he annexeth this Prognostick that if the Remedy produceth Copious Sweats it will recover the Taker but if not he will Die That this spirit of Soot describ'd by Hartman may be a very good Medicine I am very apt to think but because 't is not a meer spirit of Soot but a mixt one of Spirit of Wine and spirit of Soot we have rather chosen to proceed with the Soot of Wood without addition both as to the distillation of it and the ordering of the Distill'd Liquors after the manners to be mention'd ere long when we shall acquaint You with our preparations of Blood and Harts-horn which if You please to apply to Soot You may save Your self and me the labour of Repetitions Yet it may be not amiss to advertise You here of two things the one that if You employ very good and fat Soot and fill up the Retort with it to the Neck You must be very careful to encrease the Fire
perfectly separated and they leave no faces The Oyl also may be rectified two or three times from its own Caput Mortuum calcin'd or else from Salt of Tartar to deprive it of its muddiness The Distempers wherein this Arcanum or Spirit of Man's blood is proper are divers but chiefely Astmah's Epilepsies acute Feavers Plurisies and Consumptions But to comply with my present haste I shall advertise You in the general as to the use of this and the other Remedies to be sâ—bsequently mention'd that for Them I must refer you to the particular Narratives which I shall scarce if You seasonably desire them refuse You And in the mean time because these volatile Remedies are near enough of kin to each other I shall adde to this first Process which is at least one of the noblest of them some Observations of a more general nature that they being applicable to divers other Preparations we may both of us avoid the trouble of needless Repetitions Observations 1. I ignore not that there are extant in Burgravius Beguinus and divers other Chymical Authors very pompous and promising Processes of the Essence of Mâ—ns Blood to which they ascribe such stupendous Faculties as I should not onely wonder to finde true but admire that they can hope the Reader should believe them so But of these Preparations some being as that of Burgravius in his Biolychnium very mystical and unlikely and others like Beguinus his Q. E. Sanguinis humani exceedingly laborious and not so clear I have never put my self to the trouble of making them but shall be very forward to acknowledge their excellency if any Man shall vouchsafe me an Experimental Conviction of it For though I think the present Preparation of Blood no bad one yet I am far from daring to affirm there cannot be a better 2. He that intends to have any considerable quantity of this Spirit and Salt must provide himself of a large proportion of Blood or else he is like to fall far short of his expectation because as full of Spirits as Blood is supposed to be it yields commonly at least the best I have hitherto met with no less then two thirds or more of Phâ—egm bâ—siâ—es a not despicable quantity of terrestrial and unserviceaâ—le Mattâ—r 3. It is requisite both that the Retort wherein the dryed Blood is distilled be pretty large and strong and that the Fiâ—e be very carefully and gradually administred least either the copious Fumes break the too narrow Vessels or the Matter too hastily urged boil over into the neck of the Retort or the Receiver both which dangers this Advertisement may help you to avoid at a cheaper rate then I who hâ—ve not been forewarn'd of them but by unwelcome Experience 4. There is a Friend of mine an excellent Chymist whose rare Cures first gave me a value for Remedies made of Blood who usâ—th as himself assureth me to mingle with the Spirit that other Liquor drawn over at first in a Head and Boâ—y and twice or thrice rectified by it self But that Liquor consisting almost totally of the Spirit of Wine and the not over-grateful Phlegm of the Blood though there may peâ—haps be passed into it some of the more fugitive Particles of the volatile Salt Yet they being so few as are scarce discernable this Liquor seems fitter to be made a Vehicle then an associate of our Spirit and perhaps too is not in all cases the most proper Vehicle in which it may be administred though if it were not for the Spirit of Wine I should somewhat suspect that the Phlegm though so destitute of the more active Ingredients as to be fit to be kept separated fâ—om them mâ—y not it self be quite devoid of specifick Vertues But my esteem of the Artist I have mentioned doth make me think it fit to acquaint You with his Practise notwithstanding that hitherto his authority be the chief thing that recommends it to me 5. Divers ways may be propos'd of purifying this Spiâ—it and Salt we are discoursing of but having try'd several thâ—t which I now use is this that follows I put the Salt Phlegm and Spirit together in one of the highest and slenderest Bodies I can get that the Phlegm might not be able to ascend easily into the Head and that the volatile Salt may be the better separated Then in a very gentle heat I most use that of a Lamp Furnace there will ascend a pure white and volatile Salt adhering to the cheeks and nose of the Glass-head which if I desire by it self I sweep it away before the Spirit begins to rise but most commonly I suffer the Distillation to proceed and the ascending Spirit to carry down part of the volatile Salt into the Receiver and so I continue the same degree of heat till there arise so weak a Spirit that it plainly begins to dissolve the volatile Salt Then shifting the Receiver I reserve the strong Spirit and volatile Salt by themselves and take the succeeding weaker spirit by it self also to which if I please to fortifie it I adde as much of the volatile salt formerly reserved as it is able to dissolve In the bottom of the Cucurbit or Vial there will remain a phlegmatick kinde of Liquor which usually contains some of the salt or spirit and sometimes too which is somewhat odde some of the oleaginous part of the Blood which did not before appear to have been associated with the spirit and to have passed through the Filtre with it This nauseous Liquor may be kept by it self till you have a sufficient quantity of it to be worth the trouble of severing from it the nobler parts The spirit and salt above-mentioned may be again rectifyed per se with the like gentle heat as before so often till they leave behinde them no faeces nor Phlegm at all But this is requisite to be done onely when to master some stubborn Disease the Medicine is to be exalted either to its supreme or at least to some approaching degree of Purity and Efficacy for otherwise so exquisite a Depuration is not always necessary 6. As for the Oleaginous part which the Fire forceth out of Blood my Observations of it hitherto have so little agreed that I dare as yet speak but haesitantly concerning it For sometimes but one Oyl hath been drawn over sometimes two And I remember last Year a parcel of Blood that was kept in a Dung-hill for many Moneths yielded us a blackish and muddy Oyl a purely red one and another of pale Amber colour which would not mingle with the darker of each of which sorts I yet reserve some by me This difference may possibly proceed partly from the previous preparation or unpreparedness of the Blood and partly from the various administration of the Fire employed to distil it But for the most part we find these Animal Substances if the degrees of Fire be orderly administred and the heat sufficiently intended towards the close of the Distillation to yield a
double Oyl the one more light and pure which swims upon the Spirit the other more muddy adust and ponderous which sinks to the bottom of it The use of these Oyls hath by reason of their Fetidness been by most Authors absolutely rejected and even those few that do not altogether reject them forbid their inward use and allow them to be but externally employed But considering Pyrophilus how much of the efficacy both of Plants and Animals is observed to reside in their oleaginous part it seem'd not improbable to me that these Oyls might deserve a better usage then either to be wholly thrown away or confin'd to outward services and therefore having not long since given a Friend of mine some pure yellow Oyl of Man's Blood dissolved in Spirit of Wine to try upon a Patient of his sick of a Hectick Feaver in which Disease I had seen the Spirit of Blood very successful within a few days he brought me woâ—d of the unexpected recovery of his Patient to whom he administred our Medicine that I may not conceal from you that Circumstance in Balsamus Samech made with spirit of Vinegar instead of spirit of Wine the remaining part of this yellow mingled Oyl I keep yet by me to make further tryals with it And that such Oyls may not be lost I have been attempting for I am yet upon my tryals several ways to make them serviceable Some of them that are of a more pure and defecated nature I have which is not unworthy your noting found capable of readily uniting with Spirit of Wine with which they may be allayed at pleasure In others I have separated the finer and more volatile part by drawing them over with a very gentle heat in a Retort half full of Water which will carry over the lighter part of the Oyl with it into the Receiver wherein the Oyl will swim upon it and may be afterwards sever'd from it by a Separating Glass or any other convenient way but I fear that this method though it finely clarifie Oyls may rob them of the best part of the Efficacy they may perchance derive from the latent admixtion of somewhat of the volatile Salt at the bottom of the Retort there will remain a dark and thick substance whose nature I have not yet had opportunity to enquire into Out of some Oyls drawn from unprepared Materials which would not dissolve in spirit of Wine I have by digestion with spirit of Wine drawn much of the scent and taste the spirit probably imbibing some of the finer parts of the Oyl or else associating to it self some volatile salt that yet lay lurking in it For sometimes I have observed Oyls after long keeping to let fall a volatile salt undiscerned in them before Having also sometimes mingled the heavier and lighter Oyls of the same Body with dephlegmated spirit of Wine and in a low Retort drawn over what will rise in a very gentle heat inferiour to that of a Balneum I have found the Spirit of Wine to carry over with it so many of the more subtle and active parts of the Oyl that it was more richly impregnated therewith then you will be apt to expect But of what use this oleaginous Spirit may be in Physick I have not yet had time to consult Experience which I hope will ere long teach me better ways of improving the rejected Oyls we have been speaking of then are those almost obvious ones hitherto mentioned wherein I am very far from acquiescing especially since I cannot but suspect that such active Parts of such Concretes would be found very capable of a great Improvement if we were as skilful to give it them 7. The Terrestrial Substance that remains after the Liquors are drawn of if the Blood have been duely prepared affords but so inconsiderable a quantity of fix'd Salt that unless the Caput mortuum be exceeding copious the Alkali will hardly be worth extracting Besides that if it could be obtain'd in a not despicable quantity I should what ever is pretended very much doubt whether it would be endowed with very extraordinary Vertues the violence of the Fire usually depriving fix'd Salts of the specifick Qualities of their Concretes and even in the first Salt of Serpents themselves I have not discerned other Then the wonted Properties of Alkalizate Salts 8. Because you may sometimes not have the leisure to wait six Weeks for the Preparation of Blood and because oftentimes the occasion of using the Medicines we have been describing may be so hasty and urgent that unless some speedy course to relieve them be taken before the Physick can be prepared the Patients will be dead I think it not amiss Pyrophilus to advertise You That though without any previous Preparation of Blood you should immediately distil it provided an orderly gradation of heat be carefully observed it will yield you a reddish Spirit and besides an Oyl or two a volatile Salt which being rectified are so little inferiour in any Properties discernable by the smell or taste to the Salt and Spirit of predigested Blood that 't is very probable their Efficacy will emulate though not altogether equal that of the more laboriously prepared 9. And because it is difficult to get the Blood of healthy Men and perhaps not so safe to use that of unsound Persons and because many have a strong Aversion and some an Insuperable though groundless abhorrency from Medicines made of Mans Blood I have thought it not amiss to try whether that of some other Animals prepared the same way might not afford us as hopeful Medicines And because the Blood of Deer is chiefly and perhaps not causlely commended by Authors we have handled it according to the foregoing Process and thereby obtained of it a Spirit and Salt and Oyl whose penetrancy and other resemblances makes us hope that they may prove good Succedanea in the defect of those Analogous Remedies drawn from humane Materials which we have been treating of And to this let me Pyrophilus on this occasion annex this Advertisement That though in these Papers and what I have further written of Preparations of this nature I name not any great number of Concretes as having drawn their volatile Salts and Spirits yet I have endeavored in these Discourses to give You in the Instances I insist on so much variety of Examples that either by the Processes therein set down or by Analogy to them You may I suppose be directed with the help of a few tryals to obtain the volatile Salts and Spirits of most Concretes that belong to the Animal Kingdom and that are capable of affording any For by the method we prescribe a little vary according to the exigencies of particular Bodies to be distill'd we have drawn the Spirits Salts and Oyls of Sheeps-blood Eels Vipers c. the latter of which yield a Salt and Liquor which in Italy by divers Learned Men is superlatively extoll'd against Obstructions foulness of the Blood and I know not how
Wine the latter of which may possibly in divers cases rather impair then improve the vertue of the former For Spirit of Harts-horn by reason of its opening and resolving as well as Cordial Vertues is safely and successfully given in Feavers wherein it is not observed to inflame the Blood whereas Spirit of Wine in such cases is counted dangerous And this brings into my thoughts a very questionable Preparation of the Experienc'd and Ingenious Hartman who much extolls for the Worms in the Stomach Spirit of Harts-horn in general but especially that which he is pleased to call Essensificated that is as himself expounds it with which its own fix'd Salt extracted with some convenient Water and its volatile duely depurated have been dissolved and united For first The fix'd Salt of Harts-horn hath been perhaps never yet prepared by any Man and if Harts-horn doth yield a fix'd Salt as I dare not absolutely deny but that out of many Pounds a few Grains may be extracted it may well be doubted whether that Salt be endowed with specifical Vertues And next The Spirit of Harts-horn if it be well dephlegm'd will not for ought I could ever finde dissolve its own Salt unless assisted by the External warmth of the Ambient Air Insomuch that I usually keep the Spirit and Salt in the same Vial where they remain unmix'd and the Spirit that will dissolve any of its owne Salt I account not sufficiently dephlegm'd but to have yet an Aqueous alloy whereby the Salt is imbibed And I remember that having once exquisitely rectified some Spirit of Harts-horne and closed it up in a Viall after divers months it let fall a considerable quantity of Volatile Salt so far was it from being able without the help of some peculiar way to have dissolved more had I cast more into it I deny not that the Spirit of Harts-horn may by the mediation of heat be brought to take in some of the Salt of the same Body but of what use this violent Impregnation of the liquor can be unlesse it be quickly administred I do not yet understand having often seen the Spirit let fall againe in the cold the volatile Salt it had dissolved by the assistance of heat And having thus Pyrophilus laid before you the difficulties we have met with in the above-mentioned waies of making of Spirit of Harts-horne proposed by Authors neither of which we would yet have you altogether reject I must acquaint you with our having attempted a fourth way which when the matter to be distilled is not very much I choose rather to practise then any of the other as hitherto seeming more safe and free from inconveniences Take then for Instance two pounds of Harts horne broken on an Anvill into pieces each of about the bignesse of ones finger for if it be rasped there is danger that it should emit its fumes too plentifully at once and put it into a strong glasse Retort uncoated big enough to containe at least twice as much matter Set this in Sand and fit to it a pretty large and strong either single or double Receiver then give a slow fire for three foure or six houres to send away first the Phlegme and more fugitive parts of the Spirit then encreasing the fire but warily and gradually for divers houres drive over the Spirit which is wont to drop downe somewhat tincted and the more volatile parts of the Salt and at length intend your fire till the bottom of the Retort be glowing hot and heap also at last quick coals upon the sand round about the Retort to give as it were a fire of Suppression and so force over the more sluggish remaining parts of the Salt and with it the Oyl all which are to be afterwards proceeded with according to the Directions given concerning the Spirit Salt and Oyl of Mans Blood which having bin sufficiently insisted on before will not I suppose need to be repeated now Only it may not be impertinent to advertise you 1. That we have more then once had the bottom of the Retort melted yet not broken the melted glasse being supported by the substrated sand 2. That sometimes in Filtration some of the thinner parts of the Oyl have unperceivedly passed through the paper with the Spirit and Salt and have not been discovered but by Rectification wherein I have almost admired to see the Oyl with a gentle heat of a Lamp ascend to the top of a very tall head and body touching which circumstance it may yet be further enquired whether it proceed barely from the volatilnesse of the Oyl it selfe or also from its being carryed up by the Salt and Spirit wherewith it was associated 3. That by this way of distillation we usually have out of a pound of Harts-horne between foure and five ounces seldome or never so little as foure and often nearer five of volatile Salt Spiritâ— Oyl and Flegme of the last of which if the Harts-horne be not recent there will be no great quantity and when we distill'd two pound of the matter at a time we found the operation to succeed altogether as well and to yeeld us a fully proportionable quantity of Liquor The vertues of the Spirit and Salt of Harts-horne which differ not much in Dose or Efficacie are probably very great in divers distempers wherein we have yet made no tryall of them For they are considerable in resisting Putrefaction comforting nature opening Obstructions mortifying the the Acidities it meets with in the blood and by rendring that volatile promoting its Circulation we have knowne considerable effects of it in Feavers Plurisies Obstructions of the Mesentery and Spleen and chiefly which perhaps you will think strange in Coughs and Distempers of the braine and nervous parts in so much that I have by Gods blessing sometimes stopt very violent but not inveterate Coughs with this medicine in a few houres And prescribing it to one who was almost daily assaulted with Epilepticall fits a few Doses of it did in a pretty while at first make his fits come but seldome and after not at all But whether he be perfectly cured not having heard of him of late nor having had oportunity to make further tryall of the medicine in that disease I am not certain Wee prescribed it likewise not long since to a Person who had long lain both distracted and almost bed-rid and was in a short time strangely reliev'd by the use of it though not perfectly cur'd perhaps because the Patient tooke but little of the medicine we being then not well stored with it and on some that have been by Feavers rendred stupid it hath had very eminent Operations but for a further account of its vertues I must referre you to the particular Narratives I may when wee meet give you by word of mouth and till then it may suffice to tell you that it workes chiefly by Sweat and somewhat by Urine without being observed to leave behind it such heat as divers Sudorificks are
wont to do only there must be care not to administer it when the Primae viae and passages are too much stuff'd and choaked up by grosse Humours lest by agitating the blood and putting it into a nimble Motion it occasion greater Obstructions The Dose is from five drops or graines to a drachme ten or fifteene drops are wont to make mee sweat in Wine Carduus Benedictus water or any vehicle appropriated to the disease onely taking care that nothing acid be administred with it because Acid and Sulphureous Salts mortifie and disarme one another Hartman commends it against the wormes of the stomacke against which it may very probably be available by reason of its penetrant and saline nature and its emnity to Putrefaction Glauber writes that the Oyl rectified from Salt of Tartar cares Quartanes and inward wounds and cures the paines produced by Falls Contusions c. being administred from six to twenty drops to a patient placed in his bed to sweat after it but of this my Experience will not enable mee to say any thing And I feare Pyrophilus that I have already too long entertained you about Harts-Horne and yet I feare too that you expect that before I forsake this Subject I should say something to you concerning a much controverted particular relating thereunto The Inquiry is Whether or no when it is distill'd the Salt dispose it selfe in the Receiver into the figures of Harts-horne the Affirmative is maintained by many Chymists and a friend of mine who is very severe and not at all credulous having assured mee that he himselfe had observed the inside of his Receiver over-laid with such figures or hornes I dare not deny but that accidentally the particles of the volatile Salt may sometimes represent as well the shape of Harts-hornes as of divers other things But for our parts having severall wayes and not unfrequently distilled that matter we could never see the pretended Saline Harts-hornes so clearely as we thought wee saw cause to esteeme that those who affirm'd they constantly saw them so distinctly lookt through the spectacles of prepossest Imagination not to mention that it is the usuall method of nature in Salts to make the bigger Concretions of the same figures with the smaller graines as we observe in Nitre Rock-allum c. And the graines of the Salt of Harts-horne though I have attentively enough consider'd their shapes I remember not ever to have observed of a figure like that of the hornes they came from but it is the nature of volatile Salts to fasten themselves to the Receiver in various figures according as the degree of fire that urges them up and other concurrent circumstances do chance to exact and consonantly hereunto we have often observed the volatile Salt of the same Harts-horne to be very variously figured in the same Receiver and I remember that not long since subliming some volatile Salt of Urine it adher'd to the upper part of the vessell in figures much liker Harts-hornes then ever I had seene their volatile Salt make up so that unlesse wee will merrily say that the man whose urine was distill'd had hornes given him by his wife wee must acknowledge that nature seemes to give her selfe liberty to play in the Configuration of volatile Salts and that casualities have no unusuall influence on them or to speake more properly that the various degree of Fire the differing copiousness of the Fumes and many other intervening accidents do keep those Configurations from being constantly regular and I remember that a while since filtring through Cap-paper a Tincture of glasse of Antimony made with Spirit of Vinegar and Spirit of Wine almost according to Basilius the matter which remained in the paper which was placed in a glasse funnell and was of the same shape did of it selfe when it began to grow dry cleave into the figures of trees whose trunkes greater boughs and smaller branches were both for their shape and proportion as lively represented as if they had been drawne by the curious pensill of some skilfull Painter which paper I shewed to some persons that beheld it not without wonder and for ought I know I am yet able to shew it you nor is this the only instance I could give you if need were if I had not trifled too long allready to manifest at present that now and then Chance may make Nature seem to emulate Art But as long as I have dwelt Pyrophilus on this Subject before I passe to another I must not forget to advertise you that in case Stags Horns cannot be procured for the preparation of the above mention'd Remedies you may without much disadvantage substitute Bucks-horns in their stead for almost all the trialls we have had opportunity to make of the Medicines we have been lately discoursing of have been made with Remedies whereto Buck-hornes afforded Materialls I had almost forgot Pyrophilus to tell you That to keep the rectify'd Spirit of Harts-horn Blood or the like is more uneasie then any thing but trial would make one think and yet to keep the Volatile Salt is more difficult then to preserve the Spirit for more then once when I have kept these fugitive animal Salts by themselves they have penetrated the Corks and scarce left me in the well stopp'd Glasses any footsteps of their having been there and therefore those Chymists that are not strangers to these Salts have taken much pains to no great purpose to keep them from Avolation some of the recentest and ingeniousest are wont that they may moderate their uncurb'd wildness to pour on them as much of some such Acid Spirit as that of Salt of Vitriol c. as will produce any manifest conflict with the Volatile Salt never considering that as this course doth indeed devest them of their fugacity so it doth in effect devest them of a great part of their Nature and consequently of their peculiar Vertues For I have elswhere shewn that the Saline Corpuscles obteinable by the Fire from Urine being united with a sufficient proportion of Spirit of Salt will cease to be what they were and with the Saline parts of the Acid Liquor will make up a kind of Sal-Armoniack But 't is easier for me in this our case to shew that another mans Expedient is not good then to substitute a good one especially in this place where for some Reasons I must not set down the way that I the best approve of onely I shall tell You that my way long was nor do I yet despise it to preserve volatile Salts in their own rectify'd Spirit which swimming over them kept them from the immediate contact of the Air and preserv'd them so well that by this means I have secur'd even small parcels of the fugitive Salt of humane Blood for many Years But since the Spirit and Salt even of this sort of Horns will not I fear â—e found so easie for every Man especially if he be a Novice in Chymistry to procure in any considerable
in the Receiver a very strong and yellowish Spirit so exceedingly penetrant and stinking that 't was not easie to hold ones nose to the open mouth of the Vial wherin 't was kept without danger of being struck downe or for a while disabled to take breath by the plenty and violence of the exhaling Spirits But the Liquor forced over by this method though exceeding vigorous as to its Qualities was inconsiderable as to its Quantity and therefore wee now chuse to vary a little this way of proceeding and and let the Quick-lime ly abroad in the open Air but protected from all other moisture except that of the Aire for divers dayes in which time the imbib'd humidity of the ambient Air would in some degrees slake it and make it somewhat brittler then it was before and the Lime thus prepared being mingled with Salt-Armoniack and distilled in all circumstances after the former manner afforded us a Liquor so copious and yet so strong that we hitherto acquiesce in this way of distilling this wild Salt as the best we have yet met with But note that we used towards the latter end to encrease the fire to that degree by heaping up Coales on the upper part of the Retort that the mixture in the Retort hath been brought to flow Note also that though even the Spirit thus drawne persevered long in the forme of a Liquor yet yesterday coming to looke upon a Viall of it which we reserved to try what effect time would have on it we found that about a fourth or fifth part of it had spontaneously coagulated it selfe into exactly figured graines of a Chrystalline Salt the Liquor swimming above it retaining neverthelesse a very strange subtlety Which Observation concording with divers others makes mee apt to doubt whether or no this so celebrated Spirit of Salt-Armoniack be really much if at all other then the resolved Salt of Urine and Sâ—ot of which that body consists of somewhat subtiliated by the fire and freed from the clogging Society of the Sea-salt to which they were formerly associated and united though I confesse it seemeth not improbable by the great Energy which may be observed in this Spirit when it is dextrously drawne that the entire Concrete and the Quick-lime may afford it something that it could not receive from either of the Ingredients whence the Mixture did result as we see in Aqua Regiâ— which dissolves crude gold though neither the Salt-Armoniack nor the Peter nor the Vitrioll alone affords by the usuall wayes Spirit capable of producing that effect The great vertues and uses of Salt-Armoniack especially in Physick I cannot now stay to treat of but you will find them largely enough set downe by Glauber whose Encomiums neverthelesse must not be all adopted by mee who in this place mention the Spirit of Sal-Armoniack but as a Medicine that is neer of kin and may serve for a Succedaneum to the Spirits of Harts-horne Urine Blood c. But although the last mentioned way Pyrophilus be the least imperfect one we have hitherto met with of distilling Salt-Armoniack yet because you may sometimes need a Spirituous liquor impregnated with the activest parts of that noble concrete when you want either Retorts to distill in or Furnaces capable of giving strong fires I dare not omit to inform you that we have sometimes drawne over such a liquor of Salt-Armoniack after the following manner Dissolve pure Salt-Armoniack in a small quantity of faire water then in a Cucurbit put such a quantity of strong Quick-lime powder'd as may fill up a fifth or sixth part of the vessell and water it very well by degrees with the former Solution of the Salt-Armoniack and immediately clap an Alembick on the Cucurbit and fasten a Receiver to the Alembick closing the joynts very acurately and from this mixture by the gentle heat of a Bath or a Lamp you may obtaine a Liquor that smels much like Spirit of Urine and seemes to be much of the same nature and this volatile liquor being once or twice rectified per se with a very mild heat growes exceeding fugitive and penetrant and workes by Sweat and a little perhaps by Urine and I remember that when I first made it having been induced by some Analogicall Experiments I had formerly made to give it to one that had a patient troubled with an extreamly violent Cough I had an account quickly brought me that he not slowly but wonderfully mended upon the very first or second Dose and indeed the tryalls that have hitherto been made of it make mee hope that it will prove little inferiour in efficacy to the other above mentioned more costly Spirits scarce any of which being preparable by so safe and compendious a way if this Medicine emulate them in vertue the Easinesse of the preparation wherein little time needs be spent and lesse danger of breaking vessels incurr'd will much endear it to me But Pyrophilus because I would assist You to make variety of Experiments about Volatile Salts and because diverse tryals may be more conveniently made when the Saline Corpuscles are in a dry form then when they are in that of a Liquor I will take this occasion to mention to You a way by whose Intervention a change on the fixt body employ'd about the newly mentioned Experiment hath sometimes afforded mee store of volatile Salt This way was only to mingle exquisitly a quantity of Sal-Armoniack with about thrice its weight of strong Wood-ashes For the Spirit that we this way drave out of a Retort plac'd in Sand did quickly in the Receiver Coagulate into a Salt and this Method was again experimented with like successe And the Salt thus made we found so extreamly subtile and volatile that it seem'd to be much of the same Nature with that of Urine and if it be indeed as probably 't is onely the Volatile Salts of the Urine and perhaps also of the Soot whereof the Sal-Armoniack consists this may passe for a more compendious way of obtaining such Salts then others that are hitherto wont to be practis'd amongst Chymists But I will not undertake that this way of obtaining rather Salt then Spirit shall constantly succeed Yet if you find it do not I shall not perchance refuse You a better way But if you could devise a Method which possibly is not unattainable of bringing over into a Spirit not the bare Urinous and fuliginous Ingredients of Sal-Armoniack but the whole Body it may be you would have a Menstruum that would make good if not surpass even Renanus's and Glaubers Elogies of the Spirit of Sal-Armoniack The affinity betwixt Volatile Salts and Sulphurs doth Pyrophilus as well as your Curiosity invite me to acquaint you with some of the Trials we have made about the Preparations of Sulphureous Fetid Liquors which I am the more inclined to do because though I find mention made of some of them in Chymical Books yet they are there delivered with so little Incouragement amongst
many other processes of which it appears not that the prescribers made trial that when I had distilled some of those Sulphurs divers expert Chymists were very desirous to have a sight of them to satisfy themselves that such Liquors could be so prepared The way of making the common Balsam or Ruby of Sulphur is too well known to need to be long insisted on Onely because there is some little variety used by several in the preparation it will not perhaps be amiss to inform you that we are wont to make it by mixing about three parts of Oyl of Turpentine with two of good Flower of Brimstone and setting them in a strong Urinal slightly stopt in an heat of Sand only great enough to make the Liquor with a little crackling noise whencesoever that proceeds work upon the Sulphur till it be all perfectly resolved into a Bloud-red Balsam which will be performed in six eight or ten Houâ—es according to the quantity of the Ingredients to be unite 〈◊〉 this Balsam which is indeed in some cases no despicable Remedie is by vulgar Chymists according to their custome very highly extolled and sometimes employed in Distempers and Constitutions wherein instead of performing the wonders by them expected its Heat doth more harm then its drying and Balsamick properties do good but yet apparent it will be by what we shall say anon that by this preparation the Body of the Sulphur is somewhat opened and therefore as we said in some cases the Ruby of Sulphur may prove no ineffectual Remedie which may probably be improved if it be prepared by bare Digestion in a very gentle heat by which course we have prosperously prepar'd it though not in so short a time when we made it not in order to some other Medicine To Volatilize the Sulphur thus Resolved we took the Balsam made the former way in a few Houres and putting it in a Retort either with or without fair Water which is supposed to help to carry up the superfluous Oyl we placed the Vessel in a Sand Furnace and with a gentle heat drawing off as much of the Oyl of Turpentine as would in that heat come over we shifted the Receiver and carefully luted on the new one and lastly giving Fire by degrees we forced over a Liquor of a deep and darkish Red extreamly penetrant but of a smell so sulphureous and diffusive of it self that it was scarce to be restrained by Corks and was by great odds stronger then that of the Rubie before distillation The like Experiment we tryed in a Glasse head and body placed in Sand and through that way likewise we obtained a Volatile Balsam of Sulphur yet we found it too inconvenient to be equallable wâ—th the former what long Digestions of this Liquor will do to take away or lessen its Empyreumatical and oâ—â—ensive Odour we have not yet been by experience satisfieâ— no more then of its medical Vertues though probably the â—reat penetrancy of the Liquor considered they will not be languid Authors also prescribe the making a volatile Balsam of Sulphur by driving over after the above mentioned manner a Solution of Flower of Brimstone in Linseed Oyl and this Remedy they highly extoll but though it may probably prove a good Medicine yet since they commend it but by conjecture and not upon Experience I see no great reason why it should be preferable to the other for we find that express'd Oyles are much more apt to receive an offensive Empyreuma then Oyl of Turpentine which being much more volatile then they requires nothing neer so violent a heat to make it ascend and unless it be found that the Sulphureous particles are able to mitigate the corrosive ones the distilled Liquor of an express'd Oyl may prove noxious in the Body For by purposely for trials sake distilling Oyl Olive by it self though not in a naked Fire we obtained a Liqâ—or of that exceeding sharpness that it would takes inwardly probably corrode or fret either the Stomach or some other of the internal Parts There is another way of preparing a Sulphureous Balsam to which Penotus no ignoble Chymist ascribes such stupendous Vertues that though I have not yet made trial of it in Diseases yet I dare not leave it altogether unmentioned the process being briefly but this Take good Balsam of Sulphur made with Spirit or Oyl of Turpentine and having freed it from its superfluous Oyliness pour on it well deplegm'd Spirit of Wine and therewith draw by affusion of new Spirit as often as need requires a sufficient quantity of a Red Tincture which by filtration and abstraction in Balneo must be reduced to a Balsamick consistence this Liquor you may if you please by degrees of Fire drive through a Retort placed in Sand and thereby obtain a volatile Balsam of very great penetrancy and probably of no small efficacy but the Trial I have made of this process gives me occasion to advertise You 1. That unlesse your Balsam be reduced to a stiffe thicknese and almost to drinesse it self the Operation will hardly succeed we having fruitlesly digested for some months Spirit of Wine upon Balsam whose consistence was somewhat too Liquid 2. That as soon as the Spirit of Wine is sufficiently Tincted it ought to be Decanted and succeeded by new left by too long digestion instead of heightning its Tincture it let fall that which it hath already acquired 3. That upon a very slow abstraction of most of the Tincted Spirit in a digesting furnace we once found the remaining Liquor not to be in the forme of a Balsam but to consist partly of Spirit of Wine and partly of a seeming distinct Oyl whereinto the Sulphureous Tincture was reduced The Balsam of Sulphur thus made without Distillation seems likely to be an innocenter and nobler Medicine then the common Ruby of Sulphur made with a hot and ill scented Oyl of Turpentine and by this preparation may also appeare the truth of what we formerly said when we told you that the body of the Sulphur was opened by Solution in Oleaginous Liquors for out of the common thickned Balsam as you may be informed by this processe well Rectified Spirit of Wine will in a short time extract a blood red Tincture whereas by long digestion of Spirit of Wine alone upon pure but undissolved flowres of Brimstone we could not discerne any change of colour in the Menstruum though I dare not deny the possibility of what some Authors affirme who write that Spirit of Wine very excellently Dephlegm'd will in time of it selfe draw a Tincture from flowers of Sulphur which Tincture they yet pretend not to make of a higher then a Lemmon colour And by the way let mee tell you that our red tincture formerly mentioned is if it be well made so strong of the Sulphur that probably it would make a very penetrant and effectuall outward remedy in Aches and divers other cold distempers of the nervous parts for it hath been already found
Your Curiosity to know my thoughts of the Urinous and Sulphureous Remedies it hath hitherto made me treat of were it not that there yet remaines something to be said without which all that hath been said will scarce signify very much towards the effectuall recommending of those medicines to Your esteem and practise For I do not ignore Pyrophilus that not only the Generality of the Galenicall Physitians but divers of the more eminent and judicious of the Chymists themselves have been pleas'd to condemne the internall use of Liquors driven through a Retort by the violence of fire upon the scores of their being offensively Empyreumaticall and Stinking among which sort of Liquors I cannot expect that our Spirits of Blood Harts-horne c. will escape the being reckon'd But forasmuch as the prosperous Effects I have had oportunity to see of divers Remedies of that Nature have given mee for them rather an esteem then either a detestation or contempt I suppose it may prove no unseasonable piece of Justice to the Spirit of Blood and the other Noble though fetid Remedies I have been setting you down nor no unserviceable piece of Charity to Men if in this place and once for all I spend some lines in endeavouring to rescue these criminated Medicines from the great Prejudice they suffer under and from a reputation which whilst it renders them more odious then even their smell can do is likely to make men deny themselves the benefit of them I might here on this Occasion call in Question whether not only Galenists but even many Chymists themselves be not somewhat more afraid then they need be of what they call Empyreuma But I will suspend a while that Question and at present confess to You that I have sometimes doubted whether or no that stink which is generally call'd by the newly mention'd name do alwayes and necessarily proceed from the Impressions of a violent fire For to make a pure Spirit and Salt of Urine there needs nothing but to let it in a well stopt vessel putrifie for a competent time as we elsewhere teach in a Dunghill or any resembling warmth and that it selfe perhaps is not necessary to its Putrefaction and then to draw off an eight or tenth part of the Liquor that first ascends by the gentle heat of a Bath By which or by the yet milder warmth of a Lamp-furnace it may be sufficiently rectified and brought to yield besides the Spirit good store of Salt And since the Spirit thus made differs so little in Smell or Tast from those of Blood and Harts-horne that most mens Noses are not criticall enough to distinguish them and We have sometimes taken pleasure to make Chymists themselves to mistake the one of those Liquors for the other It seems worth considering whether or no the fetid and urinous Tast and Smell which in these Spirits is said to be Empyreumaticall and to proceed from the Adustion of the fire be not the Genuine Tast and Odour of the Spirituous and Saline particles of the mixed Bodies themselves which they would manifest if they were copiously extricated to speakin the Kings language separated from the other Principles or Ingredients associated into one Body though without the violence of the Fire For to distill the Spirit of putrified Urine wherein the like Smell and Tast are eminent there needs as we said no greater heat then that of a Lamp-furnace or of Hors-dung since in the latter of these only Urine too long kept and but negligently stopt hath been observ'd to have lost its volatile Salt and Spirit before it was taken out of the Hors-dung And such a Hâ—at seems not great enough to impress an Empyrema upon such a Liquor For we see thâ—t most things distâ—ll'd in the gâ—eater heat of a Bath are commended by Physitians and Chymists for their beeing free from Empyreume And what Activity may be acquired by the subtle parts of a mixed Body by the convening if I may so speak of such Spirituous Particles disengag'd from those other parts which clogg'd or imprison'd them without any Empyreumaticall Impression from any violent externall Heat may appear by the Chymicall Oyles of Spices For though though they be usually drawn by Chymists and Apothecaries by the help of Water in Limbecks and though they have by us been drawn after another manner which we may elswhere teach You with a much gentler heat sometimes not not exceeding that of an ordinary Balneum yet these well Dephlegm'd Liquors retaining so well the Genuine Taste and Smell of the Concretes they were drawn from that they pass unaccus'd of Empyreume are some of them much stronger and hotter then the Spirit or Salt of Mans Blood or of Harts-horn As may appear especially by the Oyl of Cinnamon which if pure is more penetrant and fretting then any thing but tryall could easily have perswaded mee And lest you should object that the Fire doth considerably contribute to the strength of these Liquors otherwise then by disengaging the Particles they consist of from the unactive parts of the Concrete and assembling them together I must advertise You that I have observ'd little less Heat Penetrancy then in diverse of these in some Liquors separated without the assistance of Distillation As for Instance in the purer sort of the true Peruvian Balsam and in another kind of natural Balsam almost of an Amber colour which belonged to an Eastern Prince who carried it up and down with him as a Jewel whose Domesticks at his death sold it whereby I came to procure some of it and found cause to wonder at its strength both upon the tongue and in its Operation But granting Pyrophilus that the Volatile Remedies treated of in these Papers may have their offensive Smell and Taste imputed to the Fire yet perhaps Physitians would more slowly and more tenderly censure the Rememedies in question for their Empyreumaticall stink if they did but consider that they themselves scruple not to use to name those among many others Senna and Scammony though the former be wont to gripe the Guts and the latter have an Acrimony Heat and Mordacity so unkind to to the Bowels that a few grains exceeded in the Dose turnes it into poyson because the ill Qualities of these Medicines may by proper Correctives be somewhat mitigated and the Good they doe doth more then countervaile the Inconveniencies that attend the use of them For the very same Considerations Pyrophilus will be applicable to the excuse of those fetid Medicines for which we Apologize For though the Empyreuma or Impression of the fire for which they are rejected be the Quality whose absence from them were very desirable yet may that Empyreuma by dextrous Preparations be in some measure corrected insomuch that I have known highly rectified Spirits of Urine by being digested for divers months in an exquisitely stopt Glasse brought to be of a Scent which to mee seem'd scarce at all stinking and to others even pleasant and the
Lamp furnace or some other wherein You may give a very moderate heat for that will suffice to elevate to the neck and upper part of the Vessell the pure white Salt of Soot imbued at the second time if not at the first with the Scent of the Odoriferous Oyl which You imploy'd about the Preparation This Experiment Pyrophilus may prove of that Use in Physick that it may deserve as well for its Nobleness as the watchfulnesse which is requisite in him that makes it to be illustrated by the ensuing Observations 1. Then it is requisite that the Spirit of Wine be very good For that which is not sufficiently Dephlegm'd will not â—eadily and perfectly receive into it self the odoriferous Oyl wherewith it is to be perfum'd Nor would every Chymical Oyl although it were well scented be fit for this Preparation for divers of them as Oyl of Turpentine and Oyl of Amber will not sufficiently mingle with Spirit of Wine unlesse they be previously subtiliz'd after a peculiar manner 2. The Proportion betwixt the Spirit of Wine and the Oyl that it is to be dissolv'd in 't is not easie to determine for a lesser Quantity will suffice of some Oyl 's then of other And the Proportion of them must be vary'd according as You would have the sublim'd Salt to participate more or lesse of their Odour and other Qualities 3. Great diligence must be us'd in closing the top of the Glass because of the great fugacity and subtilty of the Salt whose Avolation is to be prevented But then much greater care is to be had that the Heat be not too stoong but as equal as may be and much inferiour to the Moderate heat of an ordinary Chymicall Balneum For 't is scarce Credible how easily this unruly Salt will be excited either to make an escape at the mouth of the Glass or to break it in pieces And I remember among such other Accidents which have befallen us in the Preparation of this Odoriferous Salt that having once set some of it to sublime from a perfum'd Chymicall Oyl though though we administred so gentle a heat that we thought the Vessel out of all danger of being broken or found open Yet in a short time the fugitive Salt did with a great noise blow out the Cork that was waxed to the top of the Vessel leaving in the bottom not a limpid Oyl but a Liquor of a red colour and a Balsamick Consistence But if the Glass be wide enough to allow these fumes competent Roome and if the heat be warily administred the Sublimation may be well enough perform'd Of the Medicinall Qualitiy of this Aromaticall Salt Pyrophilus we have not yet had opportunity to make tryall but some esteem may be made of them by calling to mind the Vertues of the simple Salt of Soot and considering the Nature of the Liquors from which in this Our Preparation it hath been Sublim'd The Principall if not the only thing that seems to be fear'd is that the Salt of Soot being it selfe hot and Chymicall Oyles being for the most part eminently so too our Salt may prove unfit for Men of Hot and Cholerick Complexions and in such distempers as proceed from Excesse of Heat But then it may be considered in the first place that the Salt of Soot being of an extreamly apertive resolving and Volatile Nature and carrying up with it in Sublimation only the more fugitive parts of the Liquor from which it is sublim'd It is very likely that the heat produc'd by a Medicine which by reason of its fugacity would stay but a very short time in the Body will not be so lasting as that of ordinary Sudorificks which are neverthelesse often administred with good Success even in hot Diseases Secondly That there are divers Bodies and Distempers wherein Remedies may be the more proper for their being somewhat hot and Experience shewes that in Dropsies to mention now no other Diseases these Volatile Saline Remedies that set the Blood a whirling and powerfully promote its Circulation may prove very availeable Thirdly The Heat that may be fear'd upon the use of our Salt may be either prevented or at least moderated by the seasonable use of such cooling Remedies as may be no Enemies to the Operation of this Salt and yet no friends to the Distemper against which it is administred And Lastly Supposing that the inconveniencies proceeding from this Heat were not to be altogether avoided yet the advantageous efficacy of so powerful and searching a Remedy may very much outweigh that Inconvenience And therâ—fore Riverius as we formerly told You commends the Spirit of Soot though that seem at least as hot as the Salt in Pleurisies and in the same hot sicknesse we have as we elswhere relate successfully administred the Spirit of Harts-horn whose Qualities are very near of kin to those of Salt of Soot Other instances of this Nature You may meet wâ—th dispers'd in other passages of my Chymical Papers to which I must adde that upon the Consideration above mention'd the Methodists themselves make no dâ—fficulty in Pills and other Medicines to use the Chymical Oyl either of Cloves or of Nutmegs or even of Cinnamon And some of our eminentest English Doctors as I lately noted have not scrupled of late Years to use the strong and fetid Chymical Oyles of Amber and of Guajacum and the latter of these in large Doses whereas in our Preparation onely the finest and most Aromatick parts of the Oyls seem to be associated with the fuliginous Salt since the Oyl remaining after the Sublimation has been observ'd to be thick and ropy almost like a Syrrup But whether or no this Aromatick Salt be a safe Medicine in all Hot Bodies and Diseases it seems very probable that it will prove a very powerful Remedy in those Distempers for which it it proper For first whereas Spagyrists have with much study but without much success endeavour'd to emak Oyls capable of being mixt with other Liquors by depriving them of their oleaginous form in which Helmont himself complains that they are offensive we have by our Preparation their finest parts associated with the penetrant and volatile Salt by whose assistance they are not only fit to communicate their Vertues to Liquors but assisted to penetrate exceedingly and perchance also thereby to obtain such an accesse to the innermost parts of the Body as is seldome allow'd to Vegetable Medicines Secondly We may have by this Preparation one of the most noble and volatile Salts of the World not onely free'd from its stink but imbu'd with the Odour and perhaps divers of the Vertues of what Chymical Oyls we please And since these Chymical Oyls are by Chymists and Naturalists thought to contain the most noble and active parts of the Vegetables whence they have been destill'd And since also the Salt of Soot sublim'd from them carries up with it the finest parts of these Oyls why may it not be hop'd that no small number of
Presenting some things relating to the Hygieinal Part of Physick That the Knowledg of Fermentation is useful to make our Drincks wholesome for Aliment 95 How much Simples may be alter'd by Preparation exemplified by the Indians making Cassavy out of the poisonous Plant Mandioca 96. Odd unhandsome wayes of their making Drinck from the same Root ib. Of making Drink from sorts of course Bread 97 The Drinks in use in China 98 Of Cherry-wine ib. Of Excellent Ciders 99 Of Hydromel ib. Of Sugar Wines 100 Of other Brafilian and Barbada VVines 100 The way to make VVine of Raisons 101 Of Wines from the dropping or Weeping of wounded Vegetables ib. Of the Tears of the Walnut-tree 102 The Vse of the Teares of Birch with some other Ingredients for the Stone 102 The wayes to preserve these Liquors 103 The use of the Teares of Birch in hot distempers of the Liver and hot Catarrhs 103 The use of Daucus Ale and proportion of the Seed to the Liquor 104 Of The or Te. ib. Of Animal Drinks 105 The use of Brandy-Wine in hot Climates 105 The use of Natural Philosophy to meliorate Meats 106 Of preserving Bisket from putrefaction 107 Of preserving Fruits ib. Of preserving Meats roasted for long Voyages 108 Of preserving Raw meats 109 Of salting Neats tongues with Salt-peter ib. Of preserving Flesh in spirit of Wine ib. Of conserving by Sugar and making Sugar of other Concretes besides the Cane 110 111 112 That the Naturalist may find out new wayes to investigate the wholsomness or insalubrity of Aliments proved by Instances out of Sanctorius his Medicina Statica 113 The difference in transpiration betwixt the times after ordinary Diet and after Excess tryed by the weighing of Man's body 114 Difference in the weight of Waters ib. That Chymical Experiments may discover other qualities in Waters 115 That the Naturalist may discover the qualities of particular Airs 116 ESSAY V. Proposing some Particulars wherein Natural Philosophy may be useful to the Therapeutical part of Physick The Introduction 117 118 That the Naturalist may invent Medicines Chymically prepared more pleasant then the ordinary Galenical Ones 119 An Instance in Resin of Jalap Mineral waters and the Author's Pil Lunares 120 That the Naturalist may find out inward Medicines able to do Chirurgical Cures proved by divers Instances 121 122 Sr. Rawleigh's Cordial 123 What great use the Indians make of the Juice of Tobacco 124 Chap. II. That the Search of Nature by Chymistry in particular discovers the Qualities of Medicines 124 c. Of the Nitro-tartareous Salt in some Vegetables 126 Difference in Operation between Acid and Alcalizate Salts ib. Of Ink made by the Decoction of divers astringent Plants with a little Vitrol 127 Of some Metalline Precipitations ib. That Sulphureous Salts turn the expressed Juices of Vegetables into a Green colour 1â—8 Of the Destillation of the Calculus Hâ—manus and of the Concretions that are called Lapides Cancrorum 128 The changes in Animal Substances made by Fermentation only in Vrine 129 Of the mixture of Sp. of Salt with digested Urine 129 Chap. III. That this search of Nature adds much to the Materia Medica 130. by employing Bodies hitherto not employed ib. Of Remedies newly prepar'd out of Zinck ib. The Cure of the Dropsy by the Pil Lunares ib. Of the use of divers Medical Earths 131. Instances of Gold and divers Menstruums drawn out of them 132 Of Medicines out of Arsenick 133. and out of Bismutum 134 Of the correction of Poisonous Medicines 134 135 The Preparation of Asarum turns it from being Emetick to be notably Diureticall 136 Instances in some of the secret Menstruums ib. That the Preparation of Asarum is only the Boyling it in common water 137. That the boyling it in Wine alters not its violence ib. That the Emetick and Cathartick properties of Antimony are destroy'd by Calcination with Salt-Peter and Mercury sublimate may be depriv'd of its Corrosivenesse by bare resublimations with fresh Mercury 137 Chap. IV. A strang correction of the Flowers of Antimony 138 That the Naturalist may assist the Physitian to make his Cures lesse chargeable ib. Inconveniencies of stuffing Receipts with a multitude of Ingredients 139 140 141 142 143 144. That Acid and Alcalizate Salts being mixed grow thereby more fixed and yield in Balneo but but a Phlegme â—45 The same is observ'd of the Mixture of Spirit Urin by it self highly Volatile and Spirit of Salt ib. Chap. V. That the Naturalist discovers the Mis-application and Use of Gems and divers other costly Ingredients 145 146. A difference between the fixednesse of a Gem and of Glass of Antimony ib. Concerning Autum Potabile 147 148. Examples of great Medicines drawn from unpromising Bodies 149 The D. of Holstein's Panacea duplicata is made of the vulgarly despised Caput Mortuum of Aqua-fortis ib. Flores Colcotharini are made of the Caput Mortuum of Vitriol 150 A Comparison between the Bezar's Stone and the Stone cut out of Mans Bladder ib. Medicines out of Soot 151 The use of Horse dung 152 An Arcanum of Ivy Berries ib. Medicines out of Mans Vrin. 153 Medicines out of Blood 154 The great Effects of Millepedes in the Stone ib. In Suffusions of the Eyes 155. And real Cataracts 156. In sore Breasts and Fistulas ib. Chap. VI. That the Naturalist discovers how much of the cost and labour in making many Chymical Remedies may be spared 157 A Comparison of Chymical Remedies with Galenical ones in point of Cheapnesse 158 Of the use and commendation of Simples even by the most able Chymists ib. Powder of Pearlmore Operative then Magistery 159. So crude Harts-horn then Magistery 160 An excellent Simple Medicine to stanch Blood ib. Another like Medicine for spitting and vomiting of Blood 161 That many times Chymists by their tedious and injudicious preparations alter the Medicine and make it worse 162 So the dissolving the Salts of Vegetables in Aqua-fortis to make them pure and Chrystalline alters their vertues and makes them inflammable as Salt-Peter 162 163 The Preparation and vertues of Ens Veneris 164 165 The Preparation and vertues of the Balsamum Sulphuris Crassum 166 167 The Preparation and vertues of Essence of Harts-horn 168 169 Chap. VII That Mechanicks and other Experimental Learning may teach how to lessen the charge of Cures by making more convenient furnaces demonstrated in divers particulars 170 171 172 173 174 Glasse-stopples fittest for corrosive Liquors 173 174 That inflammable saline Sulphureous spirits may be drawn from other substances cheaper then Wine 175 Instances in divers particulars how the Naturalist may find cheaper wayes of Heating the Chymists Furnaces 176 Of charring Coles so that while it charres it gives an intense heat fit to melt or calcine Minerals 177 Of Charring Peat ib. Of Digestion and Distillations without Fire 178 179 Wayes of Distilling spirit of Urine 180. Of Distilling it with Lime without Fermentation ib That so distill'd it doth not coagulate spirit of Wine as in
the Usual Distillation ib. Of the power of good Menstruums in facilitating Distillation 181 That the calcination of Gold is facilitated by Amalgamation with Mercury 182 The power of Verdigreas distilled in drawing Tinctures of Glass of Antimony c. ib. That the Naturalist may find out wayes to preserve Medicines longer and better then is usual 183 Of fuming Liquors with Sulphur ib. And adding a little of the white Coagulum made of the pure spirits of Wine and Urin. ib. That the most principal way of lessening the charge of Cures would be the finding out New and more effectual Remedies 184 An History of a radicated Epilepsie that was cured by the Powder of Misselto of the Oak 185 Chap. VIII Other proofs that the Naturalists skill may improve the Pharmaceutical preparation of simples 186 Of the best waies to correct Opium 187 Of the best way of correcting Mercurius vitae 188 An Excellent Medicine made of those churlish Minerals Quicksilver and Antimony ib. Waies to take away the Vomitive faculty of Antimonial Glass 189 190 A New and excellent way to get the Primum Ens or Essence of some Vegetables 191 The influence of these Prima Entia to cause renovation or rejuvenescence 192 193 Of Helmonts Via Media of Elixir Propâ—ietatis â—94 And the perfuming it by cohobations with Musk and Amber ib. A Commendation of Helmont's Medicines 195 Of the power of Chymistry 196 Of the power of Noble Menstruums particularly 196 â—97 The power of Sal-Taltari Volatized 198 Of the possibility of Volatizing it 199 That there may be other Menstruums besides such as are Acid Urinous or Alcalizate 200 How these severally disarm and destroy one another and that what an Acid Menstruum dissolves an Vrinous or Alcalizate doth precipitate ib. Of a Menstruum unlike to all these ib. Chap. IX That Chymistry it self much more Physiology is capable of affording a New and better Methodus Medendi 201 202 203 Instances to prove that the unusual efficacies of New Remedies may alter and make the method of Curing more compendious 204. In the Kings-Evil ib. In Plurisies 205. In the Rickets ib. Chap. X. That great Cures may be done by outward Applications 207 Of the efficacy of Lapis Nephriticus and divers other Appensa 208 209 The Cures of the Dropsy and Schyrrhus Lienis by the external application of Spunges dipt in Lime water 210 Of strange Cures perform'd neer Rome in the Serpentine Grotta ib. Of the Operations of Suphur Cantharides and Quicksilver and Tobacco externally applied 211 Instances in divers Medicines which have differing effects inwardly given and outwardly applied 212 213 That preparation may much improve Simples which are outwardly applied ib. Instances in divers preparations of Gold ib. An Oyntment made of Aurum fulminans for the Haemorrhoides and Veneral Ulcers ib. The Cure of a Person esteem'd bewitcht by an appended Mineral 214 Of the power of Jasper to stanch Blood 215 The Incontinentia Urinae Cured by the powder of a Toad burnt alive and hung about the neck 216 Effects ascribed to Witchcraft cured Per appensa 217 Paracelsus cured Quartan's by a Plaister 218 Diseases Cured by Frights 219 Physick now in China in a good condition without Phlebotomy Potions or Issues 2â—0 Where practitioners of Physick are illiterate there Specificks may be best met with 221 The usefulnesse of the knowledg of the Medicines of Barbarous Nations 221 222 223 A Comparison of this Empirick part of Physick with the Rational 224 Chap. XI Of other Extraordinary Medicines which work by Magnetisme Transplantation c. 225 The Cure of an Vlcer in the Bladder by the Sympathetick Powder 226 The effects of the Weapon-salve and other Magnetical Remedies 227 228 Observations of the Transplantation of Diseases 229 230 231 The sometimes not succeeding of Magnetical Medicines no sufficient cause to abandon their Vse 232 Chap. XII Instances of divers Cures upon Bruits and how these are appliable to men 233 234 235 Chap. XIII That the handling of Physical Matters was anciently thought to belong to the Naturalist 236 That the rejecting Specificks because they make no visible Evacuation is irrational 237 That great changes may be made only by displacing without any Evacuation of the parts 238 The making of Vinegers is an Instance of this truth especially in the Indies ib. Instances in Sura and the Iuice of Mandioca 239 In the Effects of Thunder and Earthquakes ib. Divers Instances to prove that invisible Corpuscles may passe from Amulets and cause great alterations in the Iuices of a Mans Body 240 Galens Example of Peiony-Root c. 240 241 242 Of Purging by the Odor of Potions 243 Of the Purging and Vomiting Quality of the Air of the Mountain Pariacaca 243.244 The power of Steams seen in the Infectious Effluvia 244 Of alterations made by the Passions of the mind 245 Chap. XIV Divers Instances of the power of Imagination 246 An Instance of the Hair of the Head chang'd in Colour upon a sudden Fear 247 How the Authors discourse concerning the power of Effluvia ought to be understood 248 That the particular State of disposition of the Engine of humane Body is considerable as to the effects of these Impressions 249 250 251 252 The effects of the Moss growing on Humane skill in stanching Blood 253 Burnt Feathers or the Smoak of Tobacco remove Hysterical fits ib. Cures of Dysenteries by Fumesi 254. And by sitting on a hot Anvil ib. Cures of the Colick by Clysters of the Smoke of Tobacco ib. Of other Cures done by Smoak 255 Of the sudden ceasing of the Plague at Grand Cayro in June 256 257 Chap. XV. That Humane Body may be alter'd by such Motions as Act in a Grosse and meerly Mechanical manner prov'd by divers Instances 258 259 The Instance of the Cure of the biting of the Tarantula by Musick particularly modified 260 261 Chap. XVI Divers instances of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Peculiar aversion of particular persons from particular things and of the commotions made in the Body thereby 262 263 That since the Body receives such alterations from such unlikely things there is no just arguing against Specificks because they operate not by any Obvious Quality 264 Of the Operations of Poysons and Antidotes 265 266 267 What is to be done when the Specifick seems likely to increase the Disease 268 Chap. XVIII A Disquisition concerning the Ordinary Method of Physick 268 269 270 271 Instances of some Medicines condemn'd for Noxious which yet have prov'd Useful 272 Of the Use of Guajacum for Consumptions and Mercury for Palsies 273 That there are divers Concretes as to sense similar whose different parts have contrary Qualities as Rhubarb and Oyl Olive 274 Of improbable Cures viz. of a Plurisy by a Laudanum Opiatum 275 Of curing Coughs and Consumptions by Saline Medicines 276 Of the Curing Phtisical Consumptions by the Acid Smoak of Sulphur 277 The Use of the Livers and Galls of Eeles in expediting the hard labour of