making the subtiler part of it perspire away or that by being Alkali's they do absorb some part of it For this reason some do use to give their Patients the Volatile Salt of Vipers several mornings together but these Alkali's are in truth of too weak a nature to carry off such an Acidity after they are impregnated with it as Mercury is able to do without losing its nature They are Nets of too fine a make to catch such keen and active bodies if these Salts do destroy some part of the Acidity they destroy themselves likewise in the conflict so that they can have no further operation wherefore there 's need of a more powerful Volatile Alkali than these Salts are to eradicate the Acidity of the Venereal poison As for Fixt Salts and Alkali bodies as Pearl Coral Crabs-eyes whereas they have no Volatile quality in them and their tendency is wholly downwards it is very uncertain whether ever they reach to Venereal tumours which commonly rise in the Joints by reason of the long way they have to pass thither and the Juices they have to encounter with in their passage which may in all likelihood change their nature but suppose they were carried to those Tumors with the same qualifications with which they were taken they would only serve to weaken a little this Acidity without being able to carry it off and so they would only give a little ease without removing Radically the Ferment of the Distemper as Mercury is able to do It may be further asked why Sublimate does not fill the substance of the Brain with Vlcers as well as it does the mouth I Answer that this Sublimate being in the Brain finds it self so clog'd with a Mucilaginous moisture that it is fain to lose there some part of its Acidity so that it can do nothing else but cause a Fermentation which makes the Phlegm purge away through the Salivating vessels and this it is that causes the Spittle of those who have a Flux to be so sharp and stinking This sharp Phlegm may also as it passes in the mouth encrease the number of Vlcers for the mouth is as it were the sink of the whole body upon this occasion Sublimate Corrosive Sublimate Corrosive is a Mercury impregnated with acids and raised by fire to the top of the vessel Put a pound of Mercury revived from Cinnabar into a Matrass pour upon it Eighteen ounces of Spirit of Niter Set your Matrass in Sand a little warm and leave it there till it be all dissolved pour your dissolution which will be clear as water into a glass vessel or earthen pan and evaporate the Liquor gently in Sand until there remains a white Mass which you must powder in a glass mortar and mix with a pound of Vitriol Calcined white and so much Salt decrepitated put this mixture into a Matrass whose two thirds at least remain empty place your Matrass in Sand and begin with giving a small fire which you must continue so for three hours then encrease it with coals to a pretty good strength there will arise a Sublimate to the top of the Matrass the Operation must be ended in six or seven hours let the Matrass cool then break it avoiding a kind of Farine or light powder that flies into the air when the matter is stirred you 'l have a pound of very good Sublimate Corrosive keep it for use The red Scories that are found at the bottom must be flung away as useless This Sublimate is a powerful Escharotick it eats proud flesh and cleanses old Ulcers very well If half a drachm of it be dissolved in a pound of Lime-water it turns Yellow and makes that which is called Phagedenick Water Remarks There needs not half the Spirit of Niter for dissolving a pound of Mercury as there does for the same weight of Bismuth although the pores of this last be much the larger and the parts more disposed for separation the reason of which is that the Mercury being Volatile and very disunited in its parts it will divide almost of it self and is held up more easily by Acid Spirits than another body can be whose parts are more united and whose tendency is downwards such as Bismuth is When the dissolution of mercury is a making there appears a great ebullition in the Matrass accompanied with Red vapours also the heat is so very strong that a man cannot endure his hand upon it all this great stir proceeds from the Acids which meet with resistance in their penetration of this body for jostling one against another they heat the liquor and cause some part of the Spirit of Niter to evaporate away in red clouds as it uses always to do when it rarifies When the mercury is all dissolved the dissolution clears up and cools because the edges of the Spirits are all sheathed in the mercury whence their motion comes to be interrupted and cease and this is a thing so true that if you should by way of curiosity distil this dissolution you would draw off only a weak acid for the greatest part of the edges do remain involved with the mercury in a white mass That which proves this Remark is this that the white mass which is drawn from the Solution of sixteen ounces of Quicksilver in eighten ounces of Spirit of Niter does weigh at least two and twenty ounces that is to say six ounces more than the weight of the Quicksilver Now this augmentation cannot proceed from any thing else but the acid Spirits This mass is exceeding Corrosive by means of the same acid Spirits which become very active whereever they are met with If instead of Spirit of Niter we should use Aqua fortis to dissolve the Mercury the Solution would become clear like the other but there would be this difference between them that when we have evaporated about a fourth part of the liquor in a glass-body in Sand the remainder would be as red as Claret wine and if we should let the liquor cool there would appear in it white Crystals in form of long needles and the liquor would still retain its red colour I conceive that the Solution acquires this colour from the Sulphurs which remain in the Aqua fortis for the Sulphureous parts being in great motion may often turn and whirl about the insensible parts of Mercury round their center Now it is easie to Remark by abundance of Experiments that the red colour is a consequence of the great attenuation or disposition to circulary motion which the matter has received But the Solution which is made with Spirit of Niter does not become red because there is no Sulphur in this Spirit or else there is not enough to do it You might perform this Operation by only mixing crude Mercury with Salt and Vitriol without taking the pains to dissolve it with Spirit of Niter but you would be an intolerable while incorporating them together so as to make the Quicksilver imperceptible Moreover
in order to try the virtue of their remedies as they pretend to do all the Mithridate they have would never be able to save them And supposing they did not understand their Legerdemain tricks well enough but should be constrained to swallow such poisons as these you must not think them such fools as to keep to the remedy they recommend which would be sure to do nothing else but increase their misery by its acrimonious heat They would have recourse to the Oil and other fat substances to avoid death which otherwise would certainly follow Sweet Sublimate or Mercurius dulcis Sweet Sublimate is a Mercury reduced to a white mass by some broken edges of acids Powder sixteen ounces of Sublimate Corrosive in a marble or glass mortar mix with it by little and little twelve ounces of Mercury revived from Cinnabar stir this mixture with a wooden Pestle until all the Quicksilver becomes imperceptible then put this gray powder into several Viols or into a Matrass whose two thirds do remain empty place your vessel in Sand and give but a little fire at first then augment it unto the third degree continue it in this condition until your Sublimate is made which usually happens in four or five hours Break your Viols and fling away a little light earth that 's found at bottom separate also that which sticks to the neck of the Viols or the Matrass and keep it for Unguents against the Itch but gather up carefully all that is in the middle which is very white and having powdered it resublime it in Viols or a Matrass as before separate once more the matter in the middle and resublime it in other Viols as before this third time lastly separate the terrestrious matter at the bottom and the Fuliginous that lies in the neck of the Viols and keep the Sublimate that is in the middle for it is sufficiently dulcified It s use is for all sorts of Venereal diseases it opens obstructions and kills the Worms the Dose is from six unto thirty grains in Pills it purges gently by Stool Remarks You must observe never to powder Sublimate Corrosive in a mortar made of metal because it would corrode it and carry off some part which would spoil the operation glass marble and stone mortars are more convenient because they can communicate no ill impression to the matter Many have written that we should use equal parts of Sublimate and Mercury but they did not consider that so great a quantity of Mercury could not be here used and that when the Sublimate hath received near about the quantity I have appointed the rest will remain unmixed When a matrass is used for this operation half its neck must be cut off before-hand for when it is performed in common matrasses a great part of the Fuliginous matter not being able to rise high enough falls down again on the Sublimate and hinders it from becoming sweet because this Fuliginosity contains the more acrimonious part whereas it will easily fly out of Viols or matrasses with a short neck Two thirds of each vessel must remain empty otherwise the Mercury which rarefies like a Spirit would be apt to break them That which sticks to the neck of the Viols being too acrimonious to be used inwardly may serve for Ointments against the Itch and Tettars Sweet Sublimate rises more easily than the Corrosive because it is less loaded with acids The Sublimate that is made in a matrass loses half an ounce each sublimation so that an ounce and a half is lost in three times when the operation is done Six drachms of Scories and light earth are found at bottom and consequently there is but two drachms of matter carried off each Sublimation But if you try this operation in Viols the sublimate loses half an ounce more as having a larger aperture to fly out at than in a matrass or long neck It seems a little strange at first that so strong a Poyson as Sublimate Corrosive should be reduced into so mild a remedy by the addition of nothing but Mercury But you ought to wonder no longer when you consider that those Spirits which caused the Corrosion were then shut up in a strait room but being now divided and enlarging their quarters cannot in reason act with such force besides that by the repeated action of fire the subtler part of their points is blunted against the body of Mercury The Purgative quality of sweet Sublimate does consist in the acids that remain wherefore if you should sublime it twice or thrice more the Sublimate would not be at all Purgative but only Sudorifick And it is then more proper to raise a Flux with than it was before for having lost those salts which by irritating the stomach and guts did render it Purgative it is the more disposed for rarefaction in the body and so to joyn with the ferment of Venereal Tumors Mercury prepared any way whatsoever ought to be taken inwardly no other way than in Pills but by no means in potion for fear it should stick in the Gums and so spoil and loosen the Teeth White Precipitate White Precipitate is a Mercury dissolved by Spirit of Niter and precipitated by salt into a white powder Dissolve in a Glass-Cucurbite sixteen ounces of Mercury revived from Cinnabar with eighteen or twenty ounces of Spirit of Niter when the dissolution is made pour upon it salt-water filtrated made of ten ounces of sea-salt in two quarts of water add unto this about half an ounce of the volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack there will Precipitate a very white powder that you must leave for a sufficient time to settle then having poured off the water by Inclination wash it several times with Fountain water and dry it in the shade It is used to raise a Flux with the Dose is from four to fifteen grains in Pills It is also used in Pomatums for Tettars and the Itch from half a drachm to two drachms for an ounce of Pomatum Remarks Although I do recommend eighteen or twenty ounces of Spirit of Niter for the solution of sixteen ounces of Mercury yet you must know that it is not very necessary to keep too strictly to this same quantity You may use either a little more or a little less according to the strength of the Spirit or according as it is more or less dephlegmated I my self do commonly use but an equal weight of it with the Quick-silver because the Spirit of Niter I do use is exactly dephlegmated You might likewise use Aqua fortis instead of Spirit of Niter The Dose of white Precipitate must be less than that of sweet Sublimate because it retains more acid Spirits but if you would Sublime this Precipitate alone in a matrass in a gradual fire you 'd obtain a Sublimate as sweet as the other because the fire having acted upon it breaks most of its points and then it may be given in as great a Dose as ordinary Mercurius Dulcis If
submit to think so both because many Authors have written so and because the heat of the body may possibly separate some of its Sulphurs which not being strong enough to make one Vomit may only drive by Transpiration sensible or insensible according as the pores are more or less open Others do think Antimonium Diaphoreticum is meerly an alkali that is good for nothing but to destroy acids and on this principle do give it for the same ends as Coral Perle Calcined Harts-horn and such like things as do absorb sharp or acid humours which abounding too much in the body do cause divers diseases but without doubt they that follow these principles have not built them on Experience for pour any kind of acid on Antimonium Diaphoreticum it will never dissolve at all and take away the acid after a very long Infusion it will be as strong as ever which proves it to be no alkali and therefore not to produce the effects that are pretended The Cornachine Powder is made of equal parts of Antimonium Diaphoreticum Diagryde and Cream of Tartar The dose is from 20 to 45 grains Another Antimonium Diaphoreticum This preparation is a Calcination of Antimony by which it is fixed and rendred sudorifick without losing the volatile part which sublimes from it Take a good earthen pot unglazed able to resist the fire with a hole in the middle of its height and a stopple to it set it in a Furnace of an equal proportion and fit to it three pots more of the same earth all three open at the bottom and fit a glass head to the uppermost pot with a little Viol for a Receiver Lute the junctures well and by the means of some Bricks and Lute together let the fire transpire only through some little holes and be but strong enough to warm the bottom of the lowermost pot then give your fire by degrees to heat this pot by little and little red-hot In the mean time mix three parts of Salt-peter with one of Antimony in powder cast a spoonful of it into the red-hot pot through the hole and stop it again quickly you 'l perceive a great detonation and after it is over cast in another spoonful and continue to do so until all your matter is spent Then encrease the fire to the utmost for half an hours time and so let it go out Unlute the vessels as soon as they are coid you 'l find a little Spirit of Niter in the Receiver white flowers in the three upper pots and a white mass in the lowermost which may be washed as the other Antimonium Diaphoreticum and so dried This Mineral Diaphoretick is as good as the former you must wash the flowers several times with warm water and then dry them They are not so Emetick as those I shall describe hereafter the dose is from two to six grains Remarks In this preparation the volatile or Sulphureous parts of Antimony do stick to the sides of the pots like flower if you don't wash them they will not be so Vomitive because the Salt-peter that rises with them hinders their activity The acid spirit which is found in the Recipient may be used in the Colick the dose is from four to eight drops in Broth or some appropriate liquor If you use in this operation five ounces of Antimony and fifteen ounces of Salt-peter you will draw half an ounce of Spirit of Niter two drachms of flowers of Antimony washt and dried and five ounces of very white Antimonium diaphoreticum after that it is well washt and dried and if you evaporate and crystallize the lotions you will find ten ounces of Salt which will be a Salt-peter half fixed and which will flame being thrown upon the coals insomuch that there will be lost in the whole of the mixture four ounces and two drachms This diminution comes from what loses through the hole of the pot during the detonation for stop it as well as you can there will always vent out a great deal of fume which will incommode the Artist unless he takes care to turn away his head from the steam The purified Salt-peter loses no more than the other because the sulphur of Antimony can take of the volatile parts of Salt-peter but such a proportion as it requires to raise it So that in fifteen ounces of Salt-peter whether it be the purified sort or the common there are much more volatile parts than are necessary in order to joyn with the sulphur of five ounces of Antimony Although there do rise a great many parts of Antimony with the volatile portion of Salt-peter in the detonation yet we find that the Antimonium diaphoreticum which remains does weigh as much as the Antimony which was imployed in the operation the reason of which is that in place of the part of Antimony that exhales a great deal of Salt-peter does as it were inseparably join with the remainder and this is that which fixes it and hinders it from being vomitive as I have said Again although Antimony is naturally black it becomes altogether white when it has been well rarefied for all that we see in this operation is a pure white as well the volatile as the fixt which shews very well that colours have no real being An Antimonium diaphoreticum may be prepared and at the same time likewise a sulphur of Antimony after the following manner Dissolve within the chimney what quantity you please of crude Antimony with three times as much Aqua Regalis in a glass body there will appear a strong ebullition with red vapours which must be avoided as being very injurious to the breast when the dissolution is over pour upon it a great quantity of water in order to weaken the Aqua Regalis upon which the whole turns into a milk and then a Precipitate in a white powder falls to the bottom of the vessel You will likewise see a kind of gray scum swim upon the liquor which you must gather up with a Spatule or with a wooden spoon and dry it in the shade it is a sulphur which fires like common sulphur and is good for nothing else You must decant the water from the body and washing the precipitated powder divers times and drying it you will have an Antimonium diaphoreticum that may be used as the former this preparation indeed is not much in use but many do prefer it before all the others When Antimony is Calcined by the heat of the Sun as through a Burning-Glass instead of losing its weight as one would think it should by reason of the evaporation of Sulphureous parts it does increase in weight which shews that some more ponderous bodies have succeeded in the place of those that are gone Flowers of Antimony This preparation is the more volatile part of Antimony raised by fire Fit the same pots I spoke of in the last Operation one upon another set them in the same Furnace and observe the same circumstances for their situation
it so three or four hours then let the Retort cool and break it you 'l find a Cinnabar sublimed and adhering to the neck separate it and keep it it is a good Remedy for the Pox and the Epilepsie it purges by sweat the dose is from six to fifteen grains in Pills or Bolus with some proper Conserve This Butter of Antimony is Caustick like the other I now spoke of It may be rectified by distilling it anew in a glass Retort Remarks In the Receiver are found little crystals sticking to its sides which do curiously represent the branches of trees these figures do proceed from the acid spirits of sublimate mixed with Antimony If you have used five ounces of Sublimate Corrosive and the same of Antimony you 'l draw two ounces and a half of very good Butter of Antimony three ounces and six drachms of Cinnabar of Antimony and half an ounce of Quick-silver The mass which remains in the Retort does weigh two ounces and a half Thus the matter has lost six drachms which loss happened whilst the Cinnabar was rising The Quick-silver is found in the neck of the retort with the Cinnabar and in the last receiver Sometimes a kind of mossey substance is found at the end of the neck of the retort which does represent many little figures it is the more rarefied Cinnabar The mass which is found at bottom of the retort is the more terrestrious part of the Antimony and is to be flung away In the preceding operation the Mercury did not find sulphurs enough to adhere to whence it hapned that it came forth flowing but in this operation wherein crude Antimony is used which hath all its sulphur whilst the Corrosive spirits sticking to the Antimony come forth in Butter the Mercury joyns with the sulphur and by the action of fire sublimes afterwards into Cinnabar in the neck of the retort for to make Cinnabar Sulphur and Mercury must be sublimed together Now if you have the curiosity to anatomise Cinnabar you must powder it and mix it with a double quantity of Salt of Tartar then putting it into a Retort distil with a great fire the Mercury into a Receiver filled with water the Sulphur will remain in the Retort with the Salt of Tartar but may be separated from it by boiling it in water Filtrate the Decoction and then pour upon it distilled Vinegar a gray powder will precipitate which may be washed with water and dried thus you have the Sulphur of Antimony which is much esteemed for diseases of the Breast six or eight grains of it are given for a dose in some liquor appropriate to the disease If you mix Butter of Antimony with double its weight of oil or spirit of Sulphur prepared according to my description you will have a liquor that is good for foul bones and for venereal ulcers and Chancres it is applied on pledgets and works much like the oil or liquor of Mercury that I have described The Emetick powder of Algarot or Mercurius vitae It is a Precipitate of Antimony or Butter of Antimony washed Melt in hot sand the first butter of Antimony I described with Regulus and pour it into as earthen pan wherein are two or three quarts of warm water a white powder will precipitate that must be sweetned with many lotions and so kept it is improperly called Mercurius vitae It purges upwards and downwards it is given in Quartans and Intermitting feavours and all the maladies wherein it is required to purge strongly the dose is from two grains to eight in Broth or some other convenient liquor If you joyn all the lotions together and evaporate about two thirds or until the liquor becomes very acid you 'l have a Philosophick spirit of Vitriol that may be used like common spirit of Vitriol in Juleps to give them an agreeable acidity Remarks I have said before that the Butter or Icy Oil of Antimony was nothing but a mixture of the spirits of Salt and Vitriol with the Regulus of Antimony This last operation confirms this opinion because when this Butter is cast into warm water these spirits render the liquor very acid letting the Regulus of Antimony fall down to the bottom so that the powder of Algarot is an Antimony transmuted much like the white flowers I spoke of before The water does separate or take off very well the acid spirits from the Butter of Antimony because they cannot have a good hold in the pores of this softish and sulphureous mineral but it was not able to separate those same acids from the Sublimate Corrosive because the pores of Mercury being of a closer fabrick than those of Antimony they do retain what they once receive into them with greater strength The powder of Algarot may be made after the same manner as the Butter that may be drawn from crude Antimony or else with the Liver or Glass but that which is made with crude Antimony is not so white as the rest If you do use four ounces of Butter of Antimony you will draw an ounce and six drachms of Mercurius vitae after it is well washed and dried insomuch that four ounces of this Butter do contain two ounces and two drachms of acid spirit in which its corrosion does consist The acid liquor called Philosophick spirit of Vitriol does grow in a manner insipid in length of time because its acidity has been volatilized by the Mercury and afterwards by the Antimony Bezoar Mineral This preparation is an Antimony fixed by spirit of Niter and rendred sudorifick Melt in hot ashes two ounces of the Butter of Antimony and pour it into a Viol or a Bolthead drop into it good spirit of Niter until the matter is perfectly dissolved commonly so much spirit of Niter is requisite as there is Butter of Antimony during the dissolution there will rise up vapours that you must have a care of and therefore will do well to place the vessel in the Chimney Pour your solution into a glass body or an earthen dish and evaporate it in a gentle sand-fire until it is dry there will remain a white mass which you must let cool and then pour upon it two ounces of spirit of Niter set the vessel again in sand and evaporate the liquor as before once more pour two ounces of spirit of Niter on the white mass and having evaporated the humidity encrease the fire a little and Calcine the matter for half an hours time then take it off the fire and you have a white powder which you must keep in a Viol well stopt It is sudorifick and serves for the same uses as Antimonium Diaphoreticum the dose is from six to twenty grains in broth or some appropriate liquor Remarks The Spirits of Vitriol and Salt were not strong enough nor in quantity enough to make an entire dissolution of the Antimony they only made a light adhesion to it but when they are joyned with spirit of Niter they act with
will find in the Retort thirty ounces of a white matter which you must throw away as useless it is the fixt salt of sal Armoniack mixed with the Quick-lime Another Preparation of the Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack together with its Flowers and Fixt Salt against Feavers Powder and mix together eight ounces of Sal Armoniack and so much Salt of Tartar put this mixture quickly into a glass body and sprinkle it with three ounces of Rain-water set a head upon it and after fitting the Receiver and luting the junctures close with a wet bladder place your vessel in sand with a gentle fire at first to warm the Retort by little and little and distil the Spirit drop by drop but when you perceive there will distil no more take away the Receiver and stop it close then encrease the fire to the third degree and continue it about two hours there will sublime the white Flowers of Sal Armoniack which will stick about the bottom of the head like meal The Spirit hath the same strength and virtues as the former you will have seven ounces of it and a half Gather up the Flowers with a Feather and use them as you would those I described before the Preparation you 'l have of them ten drachms and a half There remains at the bottom of the Cucurbite nine ounces and three drachms of a white fixt mass You must dissolve it in sufficient water then filter the dissolution and evaporate it until it is dry you 'l have a very white Salt that may be reckoned a good Remedy for intermittent Feavers the dose is from eight grains to thirty in the small Centaury water or some other convenient liquor Remarks The Salt of Tartar serves in this Operation as the Quick-lime did in the other but because it is a more powerful Alkali than Quick-lime you must not use so great a quantity of it The fixt Salt of Niter might be substituted in its place or any other Alkali that you will When the fire begins to heat the matter there do rise up into the head store of volatile Salts in a fine delicate Crystalline form but the moist vapours coming upon them do dissolve them into Spirit The Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack is then a dissolution of Volatile salt in water and if there be not phlegm sufficient to dissolue all the Volatile salt there will remain some part of it at bottom of the Receiver and that may likewise be turn'd into Spirit by only adding enough water to dissolve it Thus the Spirit becomes as strong as it can be made for the pores of the water being filled with as much salt as they can contain it can receive no more But if there happens to be more water than the proportion of Volatile Salt requires then the Spirit proves weak and must be given in a larger dose This Spirit is Sudorifick but you may perceive more sensibly the effect of Sal armoniack to cause Sweat by dissolving six or eight grains of this salt and the same quantity of Salt of Tartar each separately in two small doses of some proper liquor and giving them to a Patient one presently after the other for the salt of Tartar working upon the Sal Armoniack in the stomach after the same manner as it does when they are mixt together in a Mortar the Spirits do separate from the latter with the more force and act more powerfully than when they were mixed before they were given for the little violence that the Volatile Spirits do use in their separation from sea-salt does leave them the more activity and disposes them the better to pass through the pores Again it is probable that in the former effort which these Spirits made in their separation from the fixt part when Sal Armoniack was mixt with salt of Tartar in a mortar the more subtile part might fly away first and be lost now it is this subtile portion that is most proper to rarefie the humours and to drive them forth by Transpiration The flowers do proceed from some part of the Sal Armoniack which the salt of Tartar had not sufficiently opened The Febrifugous salt is nothing but a mixture of salt of Tartar and the fixt and acid part of Sal Armoniack it works by Urine and but seldom by Sweat by reason that being fixed it precipitates more easily than it rarefies and it is by this means that it opens obstructions which are often the first cause of Feavers If you mix in a Viol equal quantities of Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack Spirit of Wine and shake them a little together they will cause a Coagulum This Coagulation proceeds from hence that the Spirit of Wine which is a rarefied Oil does unite with the Spirit of Sal Armoniack which is a saline liquor and it is but the same thing which happens from stirring Oil and some salt liquor in a mortar in order to make an Unguent called Nutritum By this incorporation together the salt is involved in the ramous parts of the sulphur and these same sulphureous parts are checkt or as it were fixed by the salt so that neither of them have any more freedom of motion and from this repose of these parts does result the Coagulum It may be likewise said that the conjunction of the acid that is in Spirit of Wine with the volatile Armoniack alkali does contribute much to this Coagulation The Spirit of Sal Armoniack prepared with Quick-lime does not at all coagulate with Spirit of Wine by reason of fiery parts that it contains The Salt of Tartar too may have mixed some fiery bodies in the Spirit of Sal Armoniack but there are not enough of them in it to hinder its adunation with Spirit of Wine Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack dulcified This Operation is a volatile Armoniack salt mixed and dissolved in Spirit of Wine Take Sal Armoniack and Salt of Tartar of each four ounces powder them separately and mix them well in a glass or marble mortar put this mixture into a glass body pour upon it ten ounces of rectified Spirit of Wine stir it all together with a wooden Spatule and fit to the body a head and Receiver lute well the junctures place the vessel in a Sand-furnace and give it a very little fire to warm the body The volatile salt will rise and stick to the head and neck of the receiver Increase the fire a little and continue it until there distils nothing more the operation is ended in four or five hours Let the vessels cool and unlute them You will find a volatile salt stuck to the head and a spirit in the receiver Put quickly both the one and the other into a Retort in sand and after having fitted another Retort to it to serve for a Receiver and having luted the junctures distil the whole with a small fire Cohobate it again three times then keep what you have distilled in a bottle well stopt almost all the
my Machine You must leave an empty space between the brims of the Bell and the Pan that the Fire may have air enough to keep it lighted but besides that the Fire is apt to go out every moment use never so much precaution a very poor quantity of Spirit is drawn this way Authors do recommend this Operation to be done when the weather 's wet and to moisten the Bell before-hand but I have found by experience that these circumstances signified nothing at all With the Machine that I have described I can draw a good handsom quantity of Spirit and I am not forced to fire the Sulphur several times because the hole at top gives vent to the air and hinders the fires going out Again the more Phlegmatick part evaporates that way but the acid Spirit not being able to rise so high condenses against the sides of the tunnel and then falls down under the little pan that is turned upside down to raise the other higher that contains the Sulphur You may use a Crucible instead of a pan to put the Sulphur in The greenish Sulphur is better than the other for this Operation because it has more Vitriol in it and consequently more Spirit for this Spirit is nothing but a Vitriolick Salt dissolved that differs little from the Spirit of Vitriol besides in the Taste which is not so Empyreumatical as not having undergone so violent a Fire The Vitriolick salt which is in the Sulphur does not rise until the more volatile parts are spent for which reason the Spirit does not distil until towards the end and the drops begin then to appear in the middle of the Tunnel Forasmuch as Sulphur is good for diseases of the Lungs and Breast many do think that the Spirit which is drawn from it ought to have the same virtues but they do not consider that this Spirit being deprived of the fat or most sulphureous part of Sulphur hath also lost the virtue that accompanies it and that it must produce effects altogether different from those of Sulphur after the manner as the acid Spirits which are drawn from Sugar Vitriol and many other matters have very different virtues from those of the mixts themselves And the reason of it is very plain for whereas the Sulphur by its ramous parts can sweeten the acrimonious humours which fall upon the Lungs and so help the Cough the Spirit of Sulphur which is an acid does prick the Fibres of the Larynx and cause a Coughing as all other acids do Salt of Sulphur The Salt of Sulphur is a Sal Polychrestum impregnated with Spirit of Sulphur Put four ounces of Sal Polychrestum prepared as I have said into an earthen pan or a glass vessel and pour upon it two ounces of Spirit of Sulphur set your vessel in sand and evaporate all the liquor over a gentle fire there will remain four ounces and six drachms of an acid salt most agreeable to the taste keep it in a bottle well stopt It is a good medicine for to open all Obstructions and to work by Urine and sometimes it works also by stool the dose is from ten grains to two scruples in broth It is dissolved from half a drachm to two drachms in a quart of water for a drink in Feavers Remarks This Salt is improperly called Salt of Sulphur for it is nothing but a Sal Polychrestum impregnated with an acid Spirit Many great descriptions have been given of Salt of Sulphur which being well examined do all come to the same thing as this it is called by many Authors a Febrifugous salt The true Salt of Sulphur truly so called should be a little of the fixed Vitriol which remains in the earth of Sulphur after that the flowers have been drawn from it and should be separated from the earth by a Lixivium as other fixed salts are made but such a Salt would not have the same qualities as this Some have written that when Spirit of Sulphur is poured upon Sal Polychrestum dissolved in water there is made a great effervescency as well as when the same Spirit is thrown upon Salt-peter but without doubt they little examined the matter for there is no ebullition made neither with the Sal Polychrestum nor with Salt-peter they being both of them acid salts The union of acid Spirits with acid Salts is very different from that between acids and alkalis for the acid Spirits not being able to open the insensible parts of acid Salts they do lose nothing of their strength and their keenness remains the same but it is not so in respect of acids mixed with alkalis for such a penetration is made into the alkalis that the acid loses its strength in them And for the reason that I have now given the Salt of Sulphur is very acid and tartarum vitriolatum is hardly at all acid although there is imployed proportionably as much more acid Spirit for the making tartarum vitriolatum than there is for the making Salt of Sulphur The Salt of Sulphur is good in Tertians and continued Feavers and on all occasions where there is need of calming the too great motion of the humours because the acid serves to fixe the volatile Salts or Sulphurs which are most commonly the principal cause of these diseases CHAP. XXI Of Succinum or Ambar THere is found in small currents near the Baltick Sea in the Dutchy of Prussia a certain coagulated Bitumen which because it seems to be a juice of the earth is called Succinum and Carabè because it will attract straws it is likewise called Electrum Glessum Ambra Citrina vulgarly Yellow Ambar This Bitumen being soft and viscous several little Animals such as Flies and Ants do stick to it and are buried in it Ambar is of different colours such as White Yellow and Black The White is most esteemed though it be no better than the Yellow The Black hath the least virtue of all Ambar serves to stop spitting of bloud the Bloudy-flux the immoderate flux of the Hemorrhoids Terms and Gonorrheas the dose is from ten grains to half a drachm It is likewise used to stop a little the violence of Catarrhs by receiving the fume of it at the Nose Some do think that Petroleum or Oil of Peter is a liquor drawn from Ambar by the means of Subterranean fires which make a distillation of it and that Jet and coals are the remainders of this distillation This opinion would have probability enough in it if the places from whence this sort of drogues does come were not so far asunder the one from the other for Petroleum is not commonly found but in Italy in Sicily and Provence This Oil distils through the clefts of rocks and it is very likely to be the Oil of some Bitumen which the subterranean fires have raised Tincture of Ambar This Operation is a solution of some oily parts of Ambar made in Spirit of wine Reduce into an impalpable powder five or six ounces of yellow
Galbanum Plaisters or the Oxycroceum which is applied to the Navil but there is more reason to attribute the effects which come from this remedy rather to the Plaisters than to the Civet And besides it cannot be said that this Civet or this Musk thus applied do yield any good smell Many men are likewise very subject to vapours and among others those that are of a Melancholick temper do seem to feel the same symptoms as women upon any sweet smells This comes from obstructions in the vessels which have communication with the brain for these humors which do cause the obstruction being thereby moved may produce these effects That which is called Spirit of Ambar is only a volatile salt dissolved in a little Phlegm Some Authors pretend that putting this Spirit into a matrass with its blind-head they can sublime a volatile salt from it as from Animals but I could never find experience answer their pretences for after having followed them several times in this Operation I could never gain one jot of that salt which hath given me occasion to examine this Spirit and to enquire what kind of salt it might contain I found this Salt was acid and like unto that of Plants which is called Essential whereof I have spoken in the Principles This Salt being less volatile than that of Animals cannot rise so high besides that it is heavier than the Phlegm which must rise first Wherefore to separate it you must evaporate about a third part of the Spirit over a very gentle fire and then put the remainder into a cool place and leave it there ten or twelve days without stirring it you 'l find little Crystals which you may take and keep in a Viol well stopt This Salt hath the same virtues as the Spirit the dose is from eight grains to sixteen in Raddish or Pellitory water but it is better to keep it in the Spirit for besides that it is more easily preserved so there always flies away some part of it with the Phlegm in the evaporation let the fire be never so moderate But now I shall give you a preparation of the volatile salt of Ambar that may be easily made and may keep dry The Volatile Salt of Ambar Put two pounds of Ambar powdered into a large glass or earthen Cucurbite let it be filled but the fourth part set this Cucurbite in sand and after you have fitted a head to it and a small Receiver lute well the junctures and light a little fire under it for about an hour then when the Cucurbite is grown hot encrease the fire by little and little to the third degree and there will distil first of all a phlegm and Spirit then the volatile salt will rise and stick to the head in little Crystals afterwards there distils an Oil first white and then red but clear when you see the vapours rise no longer you must put out the fire and when the vessels are cold unlute them Gather the volatile salt with a Feather and because it will be but impure as yet by reason of a little Oil that is mixed with it you must put it into a Viol big enough that the salt may fill only the fourth part of it place the Viol in sand after you have stopt it only with paper and by means of a little fire you 'l sublime the pure salt in fair Crystals to the top of the Viol. When you perceive the Oil begin to rise you must then take your Viol off the fire and letting it cool break it to separate the salt keep it in a Viol well stopt you 'l have half an ounce This salt is a very good aperitive and may be given from eight grains to sixteen in some opening liquor for the Jaundies for Ischuries Vlcers in the Bladder the Scurvy Fits of the Mother and upon all occasions where there is any need of removing obstructions and opening by way of Urine The Spirit and Oil have the same virtues as those I have spoken of If you would distil in a Retort the mass which remains in the Cucurbite until there comes away nothing more you 'l have a Black Oil which might serve women to smell to in fits Remarks The Cucurbite must be sure to be large enough for otherwise it will break while the vapours are a rising You will have five ounces and a half of a clear Oil and one ounce and a half of Spirit two ounces and a half of a black oil are drawn from the mass by the Retort and that which remains weighs two ounces it is a black rarefied matter which burns like coals by reason of the fuliginosities that fall upon it A clear Oil may be drawn from Ambar in the first distillation by mixing the Ambar with an equal weight of sea-salt and distilling it in a Retort the usual way there will remain likewise some volatile salt in the neck of the Retort which may be rectified by subliming it in a Viol as I have said CHAP. XXII Of Ambar-Grease AMbar-Grease is a Bitumen found in many places on the Sea-shore but especially in the Indies it grows hard in the Sun-beams The best is that which is very gray and dry and easily softens in the heat when it is wet it appears blackish Men have thought it is found no where else but in the Oriental seas though some of it has been known to be sometimes met with upon the English Coast and in several other places of Europe most of it is brought from the Coast of Melinda and especially at the mouth of the River that is called Rio di Sena Ambar-grease is an excellent Corroborative it is given in some liquor or in Electuary to increase Seed the dose is from one grain to four Essence of Ambar-Grease This operation is an extract of the more oily parts of Ambar-grease Musk and Civet in Spirit of wine Take two drachms of good Ambar-grease so much Sugar Candy half a drachm of Musk and two grains of Civet beat them small together and put the mixture into a Viol pour upon it four ounces of Spirit of Wine well Alcoholized Stop the Viol close and set it in Digestion in horse-dung four days then taking it out separate that which is clear while it is warm for it will congeal when cold This Essence works more strongly than Ambar-grease in substance the dose is from six to twelve drops in some convenient liquor Remarks Ambar-grease alone hath scarce any smell at all but when its parts are put in motion by Fermentation Sulphurs do rise from it which tickle the sense of smelling with a great deal of pleasure the addition of Musk and Civet have a good effect as for the Sugar Candy it serves only to separate the rest that they may be the more easily powdered and dissolved for this Tincture is only a dissolution of these sulphureous matters in Spirit of wine The terrestrious part which remains at bottom may be used in sweet Powders THE SECOND PART Of Vegetables
Receiver Though the Guaiacum that is used be a very dry body yet abundance of liquor is drawn from it for if you put into the Retort four pounds of this Wood at sixteen ounces to the pound you 'l draw nine and thirty ounces of Spirit and Phlegm and five ounces and a half of Oil there will remain in the Retort nineteen ounces of coals from which you may draw half an ounce or six drachms of an Alkali salt The Oil of Guaiacum is acrimonious by reason of the Salts it has carried along with it and it is the gravity of these salts that does precipitate it to the bottom of the water The Oil of Box and most others that are drawn this same way do the like These sorts of Oil are good for the Tooth-ach because they stop the nerve with their ramous parts hindring thereby the air from entring Moreover by means of the acrimonious salts which they contain they do dissipate a phlegm which uses to get within the gum and causes the pain but yet by reason of their fetid smell men have much ado to take them into their mouth That which is called Spirit of Guaiacum is nothing but a dissolution of the Essential salt of the Plant in a little phlegm The fixt salt is an Alkali that works much like others of that kind nevertheless it is very probable that the fixt salts of Vegetables let them be never so much Calcined do always retain some particular virtue of the Plant they were drawn from If one would take the pains to Calcine the earth that remains he would obtain a salt though but very little of it CHAP. IV. Of Paper THE Papyrus of the Antients which gave the name to our PAPER was a tree growing in Aegypt near the river Nilus The bark of this tree was prepared and men did write upon it but our Paper is made of old rags or clouts which are beaten exceeding fine in Paper-mills and then put into the press in order to make Paper with them This Paper has some use in Physick pieces of it are lighted in a room and Hysterical women are made to receive the fume of it they are commonly relieved with this disagreeable smell as by many others of the like nature Oil and Spirit of Paper Fold white paper into little pellets and fill a great earthen Retort or glass one luted with them place your Retort in a Reverberatory furnace Fit to it a large capacious Receiver lute well the junctures give it a very little fire for two hours only to heat the Retort increase it with two or three coals and continue it so for two or three hours then quicken it to the third degree The Receiver will be filled with white clouds put out the fire when no more will come forth the operation will be ended in seven or eight hours When the vessels are cold unlute them pour what you find in the Receiver into a Tunnel lined with a coffin of brown paper the Spirit will pass through the filter and a thick black and ill-scented oil will remain within it keep the oil for use in a Viol. It is a very good remedy in deafness some drops of it are put into the ear with a little cotton from time to time it quiets the noise of the ear it is also good for Tettars and for the Itch the parts being anointed a little with it it cures the tooth-ach much like the Oil of Guaiacum it is good likewise to repress hysterical vapours women so affected are to smell to it You must rectifie the Spirit by distilling it in sand It is an Aperitive and may be given where there is occasion for a diuretick the dose is from six drops to twenty in some proper liquor Remarks The Vitriol and other drogues which are in Ink might alter the virtue of the Oil and Spirit of paper wherefore it is better to use clean than written paper The receiver must be large in order to give room to the vapours to circulate in for they come forth with that force that they would break the vessel if they had not room enough to play in you must manage the fire with prudence for if you make it too great the first hours the Spirits will break the Retort If you have used in this operation four and twenty ounces of paper you will draw two ounces and two drachms of Oil and thirteen ounces and a half of Spirit there will remain in the Retort seven ounces and a half of coals The Oil does not pass with the Spirit through the coffin in the tunnel because it is too thick its black colour and its ill smell do come from the fire It is good for deafness because that disease is often caused by a thick or phlegmatick humor which dries and hardens in the ear so as to stop the auditory nerve Now this Oil dissolves and rarefies this humor and disposes it the better to come out And this is the reason that it dissipates the noises in the ears for they were caused by winds which this humor had shut in The Spirit is very acid in comparison with other Spirits of Vegetables because it comes from an essential salt which has been put into a very considerable motion Again it is probable that by the many different forms which the flax and canvas have received in order to make cloth and afterwards Paper and by the fermentations which they may have received their fixed salt may be volatilized and become of the nature of that which is called Essential Now in the distillation all this salt has been dissolved into a liquor by the phlegm and turned into that which is called Spirit that which confirms me in this sentiment is that there can be hardly any fixed salt at all drawn from the coal which remains in the Retort wherefore the coal is thrown away as useless it takes fire exceeding easily by reason of a light soot that is fallen upon it and which gave it the black colour CHAP. V. Of Cinnamon CInnamon is the Bark of a Tree as large as an Olive Tree it grows in the East-Indies and is much like that which the Cassia Lignea is taken from but it is not the very same as some will needs think the best Cinnamon is that which has the strongest smell is quick upon the taste and of a reddish colour The Cassia Lignea differs from Cinnamon in that it is not so biting to the taste smells not so strong and becomes mucilaginous in the mouth when it is chewed which Cinnamon doth not do Both Cinnamon and Cassia Lignea are good to fortifie the stomach to help perspiration of gross humors to strengthen and rejoice the heart and in hysterical cases Oil or Essence of Cinnamon and its Aethereal water Bruise four pounds of good Cinnamon and infuse it in six quarts of hot water leave it in digestion in an earthen vessel well stopt two days pour the Infusion into a large Copper
matter fit to it another matrass in order to make a double vessel lute well the junctures and place your vessel to digest in horse-dung or in a vaporous Bath four days stir it from time to time the Spirit of wine will load it self with a red colour unlute the vessels filtrate the Tincture through brown paper and keep it in a viol well stopt It is a Febrifuge to be given in Agues three or four times a day at a distance from the fitt and to be continued for a fortnight the dose is from ten drops to a drachm in some proper liquor such as Centaury water or Juniper or Wormwood water or wine If you put new Spirit of wine to the matter which remains in the matrass and set it in digestion as before you will draw more Tincture but it will not be so strong as the other wherefore you must give it in a little larger dose Remarks This Tincture works like the Infusion I now spoke of it is a more convenient preparation than the other in this that it can keep as long as you will whereas the other does sowr in a little time Again those who do not love wine will like it better but I should prefer the Infusion before the Tincture because wine is a more proper menstruum wherewith to draw the saline and sulphureous substance of a mixt then Spirit of wine You may steep a few Coriander seeds or a little Cinnamon in the wine or water and after it is strained off dissolve some sugar in it and in this you may mix the Tincture of the Bark and so make a kind of Febrifugous Rossoli which Infants may be easily made to take of Extract of Peruvian Bark This Operation is a separation of the more substantial parts of the Bark Put to infuse warm four and twenty hours eight ounces of Peruvian Bark in a sufficient quantity of distilled water of Nuts afterwards boil the Infusion gently and strain it make a strong expression of the residence put it to infuse in new water of Nuts boil and strain it as before mix together what you have strained and let them settle decant the clear liquor and evaporate it in a glass or earthen vessel set in a sand-heat unto the consistence of thick honey It is a Febrifuge that has the same virtues as the former the dose is from twelve grains to half a drachm in Pills or dissolved in wine Remarks The Wine and Spirit of wine are very proper to draw forth the Tincture of the Bark but they are by no means good to make the Extract with because in the evaporation the Spirit carries away with it the more subtile parts of the mixt The water of Nuts is much more convenient for besides that it loses less of the volatile substance it is a little febrifugous itself Instead of this water you might use those of Juniper-berries the lesser Centaury or Wormwood-water The Extract is convenient for those who cannot endure the taste of remedies for it may be given in Pills wrapped up in a wafer without partaking of the taste But I should prefer the Infusion or the Bark in substance before this preparation because it is impossible to avoid the evaporation of the more subtile parts in the ebullition of it use what precaution you will to preserve them You may draw the fixt salt from the residence that remains after you have drawn the Extract or the Tincture You must dry it and burn and calcine the ashes in a crucible then steep them in hot water ten or twelve hours boil them an hour and then filtrate this lixivium and evaporate the water in an earthen pan or glass vessel in sand there will remain a salt at bottom which you must keep in a bottle well stopt This salt is an alkali as are all other fixed salts drawn from plants it is aperitive it may be given for a quartan Ague the dose is from ten grains to a scruple in some proper liquor You must not think that this salt retains all the virtues of the Bark they are rather all destroyed in the calcination Nor may we think to separate the Febrifugous virtue of this Bark by distilling it dry in a Retort for on the contrary this would destroy it by breaking the natural harmony and union of its parts and you would get only a stinking Spirit and a burnt oil which would be of no great use CHAP. VII Of Cloves CLoves are the fruit of a Tree as big as the Laurel Tree its Bark is very much like Cinnamon but tasts like the fruit Cloves it grows in many places in the Indies it is an admirable stomachick held in the mouth it preserves from the contagion of ill air Oil of Cloves per Descensum Take several large drinking glasses cover them with a Linnen-cloth and tie it round each of them leaving a cavity in each Cloth to put the powdered Cloves into set a small earthen Cup upon each glass of these Cloves let it stop so fitly that it may suffer no air to enter between its brim and that of the glass fill these Cups with hot ashes to warm the Cloves and distil down to the bottom of the glass first a little phlegm and Spirit and after that a clear and white oil continue the fire until there falls no more separate the oil in a Tunnel lined with a cornet of brown paper and keep it in a Viol well stopt Some drops of it are with Cotton put into aking Teeth it is likewise good in Malignant Feavers and the Plague the dose is two or three drops in Balm-water or some appropriate liquor You must mix it with a little Sugar-candy or a little yelk of an egg before you drop it into water otherwise it will not dissolve in the water Remarks I have given you this Preparation to serve upon an emergence when you want in haste the Oil of Cloves you must only use hot ashes to warm the Cloves if you desire to have a white Oil for if you give a greater heat the Oil turns red and loses a good part of it You must also take care to lift up the Cup from time to time to stir about the powder of Cloves The Oil of Cloves may be likewise drawn if you please like that of Cinnamon If you use a pound of Cloves to distil per descensum according to the description I have given you 'l draw an ounce and two drachms of white Oil and an ounce of Spirit there will remain thirteen ounces and two drachms of matter from whence might still be drawn a little red Oil. It is likely that the Oil of Cloves works in easing the tooth-ach much after the same manner as I said the Oil of Guaiacum did But this Oil having an agreeable smell with it there is no difficulty in admitting the application of this as there was in the other Some do dissolve Opium in Oil of Cloves and do use this dissolution for the tooth-ach
as much as lies in my power those things which render it mysterious and dark Spirit of Wine is good for Lethargical and Apoplectical persons because it puts the Spirits into a greater motion than they were in before Now because according to all appearance these Diseases are caused by Obstructions which hinder the course of the Spirits into the Brain this Spirit serves to give them a new vigour to dissolve and rarefie these Tartareous viscosities which shut up their passage It likewise discusses Tumors and Defluxions because it not only opens the pores and gives vent to the subtler part of the humor to perspire but likewise dissolves and rarefies the grosser part so as to render it fit to circulate with the blood The Spirit of Wine is excellent for Burnings provided it be used so soon as they happen for then it opens a passage for the igneous particles to come out at and if there should remain any within the part it unites with them as it uses to do when mixed with an Acid. Spirit of Wine Tartarised This preparation is a Spirit of Wine that has carried with it some portion of Salt of Tartar Put a Pound of Salt of Tartar into a long glass-body pour upon it four pounds of Spirit of Wine prepared as I said before place your vessel in Sand and cover it with a head to which fit a Receiver lute well the junctures with a wet Bladder and give it a gradual fire which continue until three parts of the Spirit of Wine are risen then remove the fire and keep this Spirit in a Viol well stopt it hath the same virtues as the other but is more subtile The liquor that remains in the body may be evaporated and a Salt of Tartar got as good as before Remarks This Operation is only a Rectification of the Spirit of Wine to render it more subtile than it was before because the Salt of Tartar becomes impregnated with the Phlegmatick parts and hinders them from rising The Spirit of Wine doth likewise volatilize and carry along with it some portion of the Salt of Tartar which gives it a very agreeable smell and renders it a good Remedy for Obstructions A sign that the Spirit of Wine has carried along with it some of the Salt of Tartar is this if you dry gently the Salt of Tartar that remains in the Body and weigh it you 'l find it diminished an ounce and a half You may again put this Spirit of Wine Tartarized to half a pound of more Salt of Tartar and distil it as before but I have found that it is never a-whit the better for it This way of Tartarizing Spirit of Wine is the very best and shortest of all that have been invented whether you desire to make it pure or to impregnate it with Salt of Tartar and I may venture to say that all the many long and tedious descriptions that have been given of this Operation have been only invented to cast a dust into the eyes of Novices for it is easie for any to observe who give themselves a little to examine things that after all their long turnings and windings and circumstances to no purpose the Spirit of Wine is not so well Tartarized as by the plain method that I have described Queen of Hungary's Water This Operation is a Spirit of Wine impregnated with the more essential part of Rosemary flowers Fill a glass or earthen cucurbite half full with Rosemary Flowers gathered when they are at their best pour upon it Spirit of Wine sufficient to infuse the Flowers in set your Cucurbite in a Balneum and joyning its head and Receiver lute close the junctures and give it a digesting fire for three days after which unlute them and pour into the Cucurbite that which may have been distilled Refit your Alembick and encrease the fire strong enough to make the liquor distil so as one drop may immediately follow another and when you shall have drawn about two thirds of it and put out the fire let the vessels cool and unlute them you 'l find in the Receiver a very good Water of the Queen of Hungary keep it in a Viol well stopt It is good in the Palsie Lethargy Apoplexy and Hysterical Maladies The Dose is from one drachm to two It is likewise used outwardly for Burnings Tumors Cold pains Contusions Palsie and all other occasions wherein it is requisite to revive the Spirits Ladies do use to mix half an ounce of it with six ounces of Lily-water or Bean-flower water and wash their Face with it to clear their complexion Remarks You must distil this water in a Fire that is strong enough for otherwise the Spirit of Wine would rise alone or else draw along with it but very little Essence as I have observed in the working upon it The Oyl or Essence of Rosemary may be made as the Oyl of Cinnamon and some drops of it mixed in the Spirit of Wine and hereby you have a Queen of Hungary's water made upon the spot The Water of the Queen of Hungary sometimes gives ease to the Tooth-ach being snufft at the Nose or applied to the Gums with a little Cotton Some thinking to Criticize a little do say it is altogether useless to digest Rosemary flowers with Spirit of Wine because their substance being of a very Volatile nature it easily dissolves in the Spirit without any digestion But this Circumstance is very necessary if we desire to have a Water well impregnated with the Essence of the Flowers for although there is a Volatile substance in Rosemary yet good part of the Oil in which consists principally the Smell is involved in the other Principles and cannot be well rarefied mixed and exalted but only by a digestion and thus we have a very good effect from it CHAP. XIII Of Vinegar WInes like all other liquors that use to Ferment do grow sowr by the dissolution of their Tartar in a second Fermentation This dissolution is commonly made when upon the Wines going to decay some of the more subtile Spirits are lost for the Tartar taking their place fixes the rest of the Spirits which remain in the Wine so that they can act no longer This fixation is the cause that when the Wine turns sowr very little quantity of it is diminished and very little Tartar is found in the vessels wherein Vinegar is made To the end that Wine may quickly sowr you must set the Vessel that contains it in some hot place and mix the Lees from time to time for this Tartar will easily dissolve when heat comes to act upon it Perhaps it will be objected that Wine deprived of Tartar and Lees does grow sowr when kept a long time in a vessel without any dissolution of Tartar But we must consider that Wine let it be as clear and pure as may be does always retain the more saline and subtile part of Tartar which exalts and easily smells when by Fermentation it gets the predominancy
of the moisture pour the rest as it is hot into a good German Crucible that must be large enough by reason of the Ebullitions that are made in it Place it over a gentle fire and let it alone till the boiling matter sinks quietly to the bottom of the Crucible Then encrease your fire a little and it will come to be like Oyl pour it out into an Iron mould a little oil'd and heated it will presently coagulate or harden after which you may keep it in a Viol well stopt It is a Caustick that will remain for ever provided you don 't let it be expos'd to the Air. This Stone may be made of Copper instead of Silver but will not keep so well because the Copper being very porous doth suffer the Air to enter easily and dissolve it If you use an ounce of Silver you 'l obtain an ounce and five drachms of the Infernal stone Remarks The Effect of this Stone proceeds from the Corrosive Spirits of Niter which do remain incorporated with the Silver It is more Caustick than the Crystals I now spoke of though compounded of the same ingredients The reason of it is that in the Evaporation of the Spirit of Niter the sharpest part remains at last and it is that which gives this strength to the Infernal stone But in the Crystal there 's a much weaker Spirit as being impregnated with watry parts When you boil the solution of Silver you must take care to keep but a gentle fire for the matter easily rarifies and rises over into the fire or else it spirts some drops upon the hand of the Artist which make it smart grievously and fetches off the skin because this liquor is not only very corrosive in it self but has the assistance of fire to make it the more burning You must likewise often cast your eye into the Crucible especially towards the end that so soon as the matter is observed to cease boiling and gets the form of an Oyl you be ready to cast it into the mould for if you should then leave it longer in the fire the strongest Spirits would evaporate and the stone would not be so corrosive If you would melt the Crystals of the Moon in a Crucible and boil the Liquor till it come into the consistence of Oyl and afterwards cast it into the Iron mould you would have an Infernal stone like this I have described When Plate silver is used to the making the Infernal stone an ounce of Silver gains but three drachms in augmentation but using fine Coppel-silver you 'l get five drachms This augmentation of weight does proceed from the sharp acids of Spirit of Niter adhering to the body of silver but the difference of the increase lies in this that the Coppel-silver having narrower pores than the other does retain the acids better and the stone is thereby the stronger as I have found by experience Tincture of the Moon The Tincture of the Moon is a dissolution of some of the more rarified parts of Silver made in Spirit of Wine whetted by Alkali salts Dissolve in a Matrass upon Sand a little warm two ounces of Silver with six ounces of Spirit of Niter Pour the dissolution into a Cucurbit or other Glass-vessel wherein you shall have put a quart of Salt-water well Filter'd the Silver will presently precipitate in a very white powder Let it lye a while that all the Powder may fall and then pour off the water by Inclination Wash your Powder several times with Fountain-water to take away the Acrimony of the Salts dry it upon paper and put it into a Matrass Pour upon it an Ounce of the Volatile Salt of Urine and four and twenty Ounces of the Spirit of Wine Rectified with the Salt of Tartar after the manner I shall shew hereafter Stop this Matrass with another that is to say let the mouth of the one enter into the neck of the other and this is that which is called a Double-Vessel Lute well the junctures with a wet bladder and digest the Matter in horse-dung or some such gentle heat for a Fortnight during which time the Spirit of Wine will have got a bright Sky-colour Unlute your Matrass and Filtrate the Liquor through a Coffin of Brown paper and so keep it in a Viol well stopt You may use this Tincture for the Epilepsie Palsie Apoplexy and other diseases of the Head It is also used in Malignant Feavers and all other Diseases wherein it is requisite to drive out the humours by Perspiration The Dose is from six to sixteen drops in a convenient Vehicle There will remain at the bottom of the Matrass a Calx of Silver that may again be revived by means of the following Salts Take Eight ounces of Niter Two ounces of Crystal powdered according as I shall shew hereafter so much Tartar and half an ounce of coals Powder them all and put it by little and little into a Crucible heated red-hot a great Detonation will happen after which you 'l find the matter melted pour it into a warm Mortar and let it cool you 'l have a Mass that you must powder and mix an equal weight of it with so much Calx of Silver Melt this mixture in a Crucible over a strong fire and the Calx will revive into Silver take your Crucible out of the fire and break it when it is cold then separate your Silver from the salts Remarks This Operation seems at first to favour the opinion of those who hold there can be a separation of the Principles of Silver for say they what is it can give this blue colour after that the Silver hath been a long time digested with the Volatile Salt of Urine and the spirit of Wine Alcoholized but an inward sulphur of the Silver that separates from it by the means of this sulphureous Liquor and mixes with it much after the same manner as we find these sorts of Menstruums usually dissolve the sulphur of Vegetables Animals and Minerals and let alone their terrestrious and saline parts But when we consider this Tincture a little nearer we shall find it to be nothing but a dissolution of some part of the Silver it self that hath been volatilized by the salt of Urine and afterwards united with the spirit of Wine so that if you draw off or revive this dissolved Silver there will remain no longer a Tincture and this is the way for you to do it Pour your Tincture of the Moon into a Glass Body cover it with its head and fit a Receiver to it lute the junctures close and distil in a Vaporous Bath about half the moisture and you 'l have a Liquor as clear as spirit of Wine Put your Cucurbit into a cool place and leave it there two days without stirring it you 'l find little Crystals on the sides pour off the Liquor gently which hath now lost much of its Sky-colour Gather your Crystals and continue to distil and crystalize the rest of the
unto Air. But if there were not enough the fermentation which happens at the meeting of Iron and Brimstone may be able to raise the earth in some places and to burst it a-sunder The great heat of many Mineral waters may likewise easily be explicated by the means of these Subterranean Fires and how they came to receive those Sulphurs which we see are wont to be separated on the sides of the Bath when the water is not disturbed It is because those waters do pass immediately over or else through the midst of some of these burning earths wherein they are heated as they pass and do imbibe the Sulphur But when they are arrived to the place of the Baths and have there a-while setled this Sulphur being a fatt body cannot so intimately mix with the water but that it will separate to the sides of the Bath It may be also that some Mineral waters do owe their heat to a natural Quick-lime they may meet withal in their passage through the bowels of the earth but this Quick-lime is only a stone calcined by the Subterranean Fires of which I have spoken And now to return to our Operation You must observe to make this Calcination rather in an earthen Pan than Pot or Crucible and to stir it continually with a Spatula that the Sulphur may exhale the more easily I have sometimes tried to do it in a Crucible but the matter still remained black though I persisted in calcining and stirring it for above twelve hours together If you have used a Pound of Mars you 'l get at least a pound and four ounces of Crocus which proves the acids of Sulphur or some igneous bodies to incorporate in the pores of the Iron and augment its weight The red colour proceeds from Vitriol that Mars is full off which being calcined grows red like Colcothar Many other Preparations of Opening Saffron of Mars have been invented but these three are sufficient as being the best Binding Saffron of Mars This Preparation is the filings of Iron deprived of their more Saline part Take what quantity you please of the last Aperitive Saffron of Mars wash it five or six times with strong Vinegar leaving it to steep an hour at a time then calcine it in a Pot or upon a Tile in a great Fire five or six hours after that let it cool and keep it for use It stops the Diarrhoea the immoderate flowing of the Hemorrhoids and Terms the Dose is from fifteen grains to a drachm in Lozenges or else in Pills Remarks Because Mars is an impure Vitriol the more it is Calcined the more astringent it is But seeing that which renders it Aperitive is its Salt or more soluble part I intend by washing it several times with Vinegar to deprive it of much of its Salt Afterwards I Calcine the matter to carry off by Fire what Aperitive parts might remain Not that I expect by this means to separate intirely all that is Aperitive in Mars from that which is astringent that is a thing in a manner impossible by reason of the strict union of its Salt and earth in the Mine but I do believe it very probable to say that if there be any thing astringent in this metal as it cannot be denied it must needs be the more terrestrious part I may likewise say that if the astringent Mars has sometimes the effect of opening it is by the remaining Salt that it opens but when this Salt has done acting the terrestrious part never fails to bind Lastly I further say that I do not believe any Preparation of Mars to be absolutely astringent and that all we can do is to render it less incisive and less penetrating than before by depriving it of some part of its Salts Several other Preparations for making the Astringent Saffron of Mars are taught but this one may suffice Salt or Vitriol of Mars This Preparation is an Iron opened and reduced into the form of Salt by an acid liquor Take a clean Frying-pan and pour into it an equal weight of Spirit of Wine and Oil of Vitriol set it for some time in the Sun and then in the shade without stirring it you 'l find all the Liquor incorporated with the Mars and turned into a Salt that you must dry and then separate from the Pan and keep in a Viol well stopt It is an admirable Remedy for all Diseases that proceed from Obstructions the Dose is from four to twelve grains in Broth or some appropriate Liquor Remarks The Spirit of Wine serves here to moderate the too great force of the Oil of Vitriol which if alone would indeed in a little time penetrate all the parts of the Iron and cause a very impure Salt but the spirit of Wine hinders its so quick dissolution so that nothing but the more soluble part incorporates with the Oil to make a Salt or Vitriol A Frying-pan is more proper for this Operation than another vessel less flat because the liquor spreads it self about and incorporates the better you must use a Pan that is new If you use two ounces of Spirit of Wine and the same quantity of Oil of Vitriol in a small Frying-pan you 'l obtain five ounces of Mars You may put your liquor a thumbs height in the Pan and leave it there a day and a half or two days without stirring it The Oil of Vitriol is improperly called Oil being nothing but the more caustick Spirit as I shall prove in its proper place Riverius in his Practice gives a way of preparing the Salt of Mars like unto this excepting that he puts more Spirit of Wine than Oil of Vitriol but it is better to put equal parts as I have done It s virtue is greater than that of the Crocus because it is whetted by the Oil of Vitriol and therefore is given in a less dose you must observe that sometimes it causes a nauseousness as all Vitriols do If you put this Salt or Vitriol of Mars to dissolve in a cold place you 'l have a liquor that is called improperly Oil of Mars Another Vitriol of Mars This Vitriol of Mars is an Iron dissolved and reduced into the form of Salt by Spirit of Vitriol Put eight ounces of clean filings of Iron into a large Matrass and pour upon it two pounds of common water heated a little add unto it a pound of good Spirit of Vitriol stir it and set your Matrass in hot Sand leave it in Digestion four and twenty hours during which time the purest part of the Iron will dissolve separate the Liquor by Inclination and fling away the earthy part that remains in a small quantity at the bottom Filtrate this Liquor and evaporate it in a Glass-Cucurbite unto a Skin in a Sand-fire then set your vessel in a cool place and you 'l find green Crystals which you may take out after having gently poured off the Liquor Then evaporate again this Liquor unto a Skin and Crystallize it as before
you desire to make this Precipitate exceeding white you must dissolve the Mercury in a vessel whose mouth is very large that so the red vapour of the Spirit of Niter may sly out the more easily When the dissolution is made without the help of fire the Precipitate is the whiter The Precipitation of Mercury may be made with the Spirit of Salt as well as the salt in substance This is not so easily made as that of Bismuth because the pores of Mercury being smaller than those of Bismuth do retain with more force the acids which are fixt into it Moreover Quick-silver being of a volatile nature does remain suspended in the liquor more easily than Bismuth which is a body altogether fixt It may well seem strange that an acid salt such as sea-salt should be able to precipitate that which the acidity of Spirit of Niter had dissolved To resolve this difficulty you must know that though our Senses tell us that acids do all perform the same effect which is to prick and to pierce yet nevertheless they all do differ in the figure of their points for according as they have received more or less fermentation they have also consequently their points more subtile sharp and light and this is attested not only by taste but the sight also for if you should Crystallize the same body by dissolving several parts of it in several vessels by Spirit of Salt Spirit of Niter Spirit of Vitriol Spirit of Alom and by Vinegar you 'l observe so many kinds of Crystals different in figure as there were different dissolutions The Crystals made by Vinegar will be more sharp than those prepared by Spirit of Niter those made by Spirit of Niter will be sharper than those by the Spirit of Vitriol those made by Spirit of Vitriol will be sharper than those by the Spirit of Alom but of all these Crystals none will be found to have grosser parts than those prepared by the Spirit of Salt for these Crystals do all retain the figure of their constituent parts This now being supposed it will be an easie matter to explicate our Precipitation for the salt or its spirit containing points more gross or less delicate than those of Spirit of Niter and falling on this dissolution do move jostle and easily break the points impregnated with the body of Mercury and so do make them let go their hold whence it comes that Mercury precipitates by its own weight The same Principle may serve to explicate why Lead dissolved in Vinegar precipitates by means of the Spirit of Vitriol or Salt You must observe not to make the water too salt for then the great quantity of salt would hinder the Mercury from precipitating The Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack containing an alkali salt does much help the Precipitation for its agility carries it into every recess of the liquor where the sea-salt whose parts are not of so active a nature was not able to go which is proved from hence that if you use only sea-salt dissolved in water to make this Precipitation with it will then happen that if after pouring off the clear liquor which swims upon the Precipitate into another vessel you drop the Spirit of Sal Armoniack into the liquor there falls a considerable quantity of Mercurial Precipitate which may serve like the other If instead of the volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack you 'd use the Oil of Tartar made per Deliquium the Pricipitate would then be reddish Two objections have been made against my manner of explicating the Precipitation of such matters as Spirit of Niter had dissolved made by Sea-Salt First they say it is not proper to make the jostles and encounter of salt-water with Spirit of Niter loaded with bodies which it had dissolved to be the cause of its precipitation whenas the most violent jogs that can be given to the solution either from an arm or with matters much more heavy and solid than sea-salt are not able to cause the precipitation This Objection will raise no difficulty to any that are a little skill'd in Natural Philosophy for although I have said that by reason the edges of sea-salt are grosser than those of Spirit of Niter the sea-salt does precipitate what Spirit of Niter had dissolved and suspended I never meant that if these edges were as big as a mans arm they would do it the better It is sufficiently known that there must be a proportionable subtilty of parts between the dissolvent and that which does precipitate and that the edges of an acid must be otherwise treated than with a cuff of the fist in order to make them let go their hold But I intended to make it appear that if sea-salt does jog and shake the edges of Spirit of Niter it does it by dividing into very minute parts and thereby entring into the pores of the phlegm which in would not be able to do if these parts were as big as a mans arm or were like the solid heavy matters now spoken of Secondly if the grossness of the edges of sea-salt or the shock they give did make the precipitation of substances dissolved by Spirit of Niter we should expect afterwards to find the first with its gross edges separated from those of Spirit of Niter whereas upon evaporating and crystallizing the liquor their edges are indeed reciprocally confounded the one with the other making together a new body I answer that the shock and jostle which the edges of sea-salt do give to Spirit of Niter when loaded with some bodies does not hinder the edges of Spirit of Niter remaining after the precipitation from uniting with the sea-salt by which union the Crystals do become confused I shall here add one preparation more that is very proper to raise a Salivation with Take an ounce of the solution of Mercury made in Spirit of Niter put it into a glass-vessel and pour upon it three or four and twenty ounces of water all the liquor will turn white let it settle until it becomes clear filtrate the liquor and keep it for use This water may be given from half an ounce to an ounce in a glass of Ptisan or broth It vomits gently and provokes a Salivation some do drink half an ounce of it to cure the itch but they ought to be purged and bled before-hand Red Precipitate This preparation is a Mercury impregnated with Spirit of Niter and calcined by fire Take eight ounces of Mercury revived from Cinnabar dissolve it in a sufficient quantity of Spirit of Niter which is eight or nine ounces pour the dissolution into a Viol or Matrass with a short neck set it in Sand and evaporate all the moisture with a gentle heat until there remains a white Mass then quicken the fire by little and little to the third degree and keep it in this condition till all your matter is turned red then take it off the fire let the Viol cool and break it to obtain your Precipitate
which weighs nine ounces It is a good Escharotick it eats proud flesh it is used for the laying open of Chancres mixt with burnt Alom AEgyptiacum and the common Suppurative Some do give it inwardly to four grains for to raise a Flux with but this is dangerous unless rectified Spirit of Wine be burnt two or three times upon it Remarks This Preparation is improperly called Precipitate here being no Precipitation at all Many Authors have thought they could much encrease the redness of this Precipitate by Cohobating it or distilling Spirit of Niter three times upon the white mass but I have found by experience both ways that these Circumstances are of no use The white Mass which remains after Evaporation of the humidity is a mixture of Mercury with a great many acid Spirits for it weighs three ounces more than the Mercury did which was dissolved it is extreme Corrosive and fiery if applied to the flesh but according as it is Calcined in order to make it red the edges of the Spirit of Niter which caused the Corrosion do strike off and fly into the Air whence it comes to pass that the more we desire to encrease its redness by Calcination the less it weighs and the less it corrodes Some Chirurgeons observing this effect do choose the Precipitate that is not so red as usual when they would make an Eschar quickly If you still continue the fire some hours under the red mass it will sublime and still retain its colour this sublimate is not so Corrosive as the other which makes me think that the points of Spirit of Salt are necessary to make a sublimate very Corrosive The reason why it sublimes is because the Mercury being delivered from a great many acid Spirits which did fix it has power to rise with those that remain But because these remaining Spirits do moderate a little its volatility it makes a stop in the middle of the Viol. Some do put red Precipitate into an Earthen Pot and pour upon it Spirit of Wine well rectified then fire it and when the Spirit is consumed they add more and burn it as before they repeat the adding Spirit of Wine and burning it six times and then call this Preparation Arcanum Corallinum The Spirit of Wine by burning does carry off some edges of the Precipitate and joyns it self to the rest so that this Precipitate is sweetned and rendred fit to be taken inwardly If by way of curiosity you pour Spirit of Vitriol upon common red Precipitate such as I have described a dissolution will soon follow because Spirit of Vitriol joyning with the Spirit of Niter that remained in the Precipitate an Aqua fortis must happen from their union which is able to dissolve imperceptibly the parts of Mercury but this dissolution will happen without any Ebullition because the Mercury has been already rarified by an acid so that the Spirit of Vitriol does only dissolve them without making any commotion The solution is clear like other solutions of Mercury without any appearance of redness and the same Preparations may be made with it as are used to be by the solution of Quicksilver in Aqua fortis If instead of Spirit of Vitriol you pour Spirit of Salt upon the red Precipitate it turns presently into a curious white because the Spirit of Salt does break the force of the Spirit of Niter that was in the red Precipitate and the same thing must happen here as does when Spirit of Salt is poured upon the solution of Quicksilver for although red Precipitate be a dry body yet it is nothing else but a mixture of Quicksilver and Spirit of Niter I have given the reason why Spirit of Salt comes to weaken Spirit of Niter in my Remarks upon white Precipitate As for the sudden change of colour it is indeed somewhat strange that a matter which is grown red by Calcination should in a minutes time turn so exceeding white This Effect can be attributed only to the dislocation which the acid spirit of Salt does cause in the parts of red Precipitate and to the disposition it puts them anew into so that their Superficies is put into a capacity of reflecting the light in a right line to our eyes to give the appearance of a white colour for if by means of another sort of liquor or else by fire and some alkali body the disposition of the parts of your Precipitate is again changed it will obtain some other colour or else it will return and revive into Quicksilver If you pour the volatile spirit of Sal Armoniack upon red Precipitate it turns into a grey powder but if you throw a great deal of water upon it it becomes a milk though none of the whitest The same thing happens when you drop Spirit of Sal Armoniack into the solution of Quicksilver made with Spirit of Niter for soon after the effervescency is over a grey powder is seen to Precipitate and if you add to it water it becomes a milk of the same whiteness as the other Common red Precipitate then is subject to the same alterations as the solution of Mercury the red colour giving no particular impression to it which truly is a good proof that colour is no real thing but wholly depends upon the modification of parts Turbith Mineral or Yellow Precipitate This Preparation is a Mercury impregnated with the acidity of Oil of Vitriol Put four ounces of Quick-silver revived from Cinnabar into a glass Retort and pour upon it sixteen ounces of Oil of Vitriol set your Retort in Sand and when the Mercury is dissolved put fire underneath and distil the humidity make the fire strong enough toward the end for to drive out some of the last Spirits of all afterwards break your Retort and powder in a glass Mortar a white Mass you find within it which weighs five ounces and a half pour warm water upon it and the matter will presently change into a yellow powder which you must dulcifie by a great many repeated Lotions then dry it in the shade you 'l have three ounces and two drachms of it It purges strongly both by vomit and stool it is given in Venereal maladies the dose is from two grains unto six in Pills Remarks Though that which is improperly called Oil of Vitriol be the strongest and most Caustick acid of this Mineral Salt it is nevertheless much weaker than Spirit of Niter and so requires a greater quantity of it and longer time to dissolve the Mercury in for there 's much a-do to dispatch the solution in ten hours That which is distilled is exceeding weak because the Mercury retains the greatest part of the acid Spirits and they are the things that purge so strongly although many of them be carried off by the Lotions All these Preparations are nothing but so many different shapes of Mercury made by acid Spirits which according to their different adhesions do cause such different effects All these Precipitates and
gentle sand-heat It is esteemed better than t'other to be taken inwardly because it is less Corrosive being corrected by the Spirit of Wine the dose is from four to twelve drops in some liquor appropriate to the disease Remarks The Potters earth is mixed with the Salt to divide it into particles that the fire may the more easily be able to rarefie it for the parts which Salt consists of are so strictly united that the utmost force of fire is not able to disengage them until they are separated by some Intermedium The preparation that I give unto Salt before it is put into the Retort is longer than the common sort but I have observed that the Spirit comes forth with less difficulty when the matter is prepared according to this form You must leave a vacuity in the Retort and fit to it a large Receiver for giving liberty to the spirit to circulate before it dissolves otherwise it would break them both Likewise the fire must be encreased by little and little because the first Spirits do break out with a mighty violence when they are driven too hard Some ways of drawing the Spirit of Salt without addition have been much sought after but that is not yet well discovered It is true indeed Monsieur Seignette an Apothecary of Rochell among other excellent discoveries that he hath made on Salts to the knowledge of which he hath particularly applied himself brought me hither a sea-salt in the year 1672 that we distilled without addition of any thing else by a very moderate fire and in two hours time we drew three ounces and a half of very good Spirit out of six ounces of salt that we put into the Retort After this we broke the Retort and having powdered the Salt that remained in it to the weight of two ounces and a half we exposed it to the air in a pan for a fortnight and we found it reimpregnated with Spirits we distilled it once more and with the same ease as before we drew half its weight in Spirit of the same force as the former The matter remaining in the Retort being again exposed to the air recovered new Spirits Monsieur Seignette did assure me that he had thus drawn Spirit from the same matter nine several times which is a thing worth our admiration and shews us very well that the air contains a spirit which forms divers things according to the different disposition of the subjects that it enters into This salt is particular to him that shewed it me and he prepares it himself some way that he is unwilling to discover Since I writ of Monsieur Seignette's particular way of drawing spirit of salt some have Printed that if common salt well decrepitated and kept a good while over the fire were exposed to the air for some dayes and distilled without addition of any thing to it it would yield a spirit much like that I have spoken of and in full as great a quantity But if we examine the sharp liquor which is drawn this way we shall find it of so weak a nature that it may more reasonably be called phlegm than spirit and the salt remains entire in the Retort whereas M. Seignette's spirit of salt is full as strong as common spirit of salt and has the very same qualities nay I conceive it somewhat better as not having so great an impression from fire as the other Again some say it does not deserve the name of spirit of sea-salt nor ought this preparation to be look't upon as any great mystery because the same incorporation and augmentation happens to divers other salts exposed to the air after drawing off their spirit I grant this augmentation proceeds from the spirit of the air and I conceive it is the same spirit which produces all manner of things according to the Matrixes or different pores of the earth it uses to meet with as I have explicated in my Remarks upon the Principles But because this spirit of the air has met with pores in our matter ready disposed to make a salt much like unto common salt and a spirit is drawn from it much like unto that which is drawn from common salt I see no reason to doubt why this spirit should not be a true spirit of salt all the difference is this the salt I now speak of is not so throughly united to its earthy part as common salt is and therefore its spirits do separate with more ease for they are drawn without addition of any thing else and with a gentle fire whereas those of common salt are so fixt that they can't be driven out without mixing a great deal of earth in order to separate all its parts and without a very great fire As for the augmentation which happens to many other bodies exposed to the air after their spirits are drawn off I don't question the matter of fact nor that these same substances do return into what they were before by impregnating again with spirits of the air in some considerable time but it is rarely found that any of them do yield so strong spirits and so easily as our salt and herein lies the mystery It is observable that the acids which are drawn by so violent a fire do very much differ from those that are made naturally such as the Vinegars of Beer Wine Cider the acid of Citron c. The Spirit of salt among others hath some particular difference from the rest because it will precipitate that which Aqua fortis hath dissolved This acid according as may be judged by its effects is compounded of stronger and more weighty points than the rest but they are not so sharp and piercing And this is the reason that it jogs so effectually those of Aqua fortis loaded with some bodies they have dissolved and that shaking them about it makes them let go their hold Some have writ that this precipitation must not be imputed either to the weight or the strength no more than to the agitation which spirit of salt may have given to the Aqua fortis or to matters dissolved but rather to the conjunction of the acidity of this spirit with the volatile and sulphureous alkali of Aqua fortis or Spirit of Niter which does by that means constrain this last to abandon the metal which it had dissolved But this is the way to explicate as they say one obscure thing by another that is much more obscure for what likelihood is there that the volatile spirit of Aqua fortis is an alkali and pray how comes it to remain in so great a motion with the fixed acid spirit of this same water without destroying or losing its nature this is a thing that can never be conceived very easily But furthermore supposing this spirit were an alkali it would be still necessary to explicate mechanically for what reason this alkali does quit the body of the metal to betake itself to the Spirit of salt for to say meerly
to an agreeable acidity That which remains in the body is the most acid part of the Vitriol and is improperly called Oil. It may be used like the acid Spirit for continued Feavers and other distempers that are accompanied with a violent heat This Oil is likewise used for the dissolution of metals You 'l find in the Retort a Colcothar which hath the same virtues with that I spoke of before Remarks To make the Spirit of Vitriol you must take green English Vitriol such as being rubbed upon Iron doth not at all change colour which shews it doth not partake of Copper as the German does that looks a little blueish and is more acrimonious You must Calcine it as I have said to the end it being deprived of the greatest part of its Phlegm the distillation may be dispatched the sooner A third part of the Retort is left empty that the Spirits may have room to rarefie in when they come forth There distils also a great deal of Phlegm into the Receiver and all of it is known to have come when there drops no more Those who don't care for the sulphurcous spirit do let it come forth and mix together with the Phlegm before the junctures are luted but you must be sure to govern the fire discreetly at that time for these Spirits come with a great deal of violence and use to break the Retort when they are driven too furiously When they are out you must augment the fire to the last degree of all for the acid Spirit will not part with its earth until it is forced by an extraordinary heat If you distil eight pounds of white Vitriol at sixteen ounces to the pound you 'l draw off seventeen ounces of Phlegm and two and twenty ounces and a half both of the Sulphureous and the Acid spirit of Vitriol Of these two and twenty ounces and a half there will be five ounces of Sulphureous spirit You 'l find in the Retort five pounds five ounces of Colcothar Use all the care you can possible to preserve all the liquors which come from Vitriol yet it will be impossible for you to hinder it from losing some through the junctures during the distillation If you should use German instead of English Vitriol you 'd draw off a little more spirit than the quantity I have named but it would have some smell of Aqua fortis and the matter which remains in the Retort would be of a brown colour drawing towards black This colour proceeds from sulphureous Fuliginosities which rise more from this Vitriol than the other because it partakes of Copper for this Sooty vapour finding no vent to get out at falls down again upon the matter and blackens it The Furnace in which this operation is performed must be very thick that the heat of the fire being none of it lost through the Pores may the better act upon the Retort These Spirits do rarefie into white vapours in the Receiver which must be provided large enough to give them free liberty to circulate in before they condense into a liquor at bottom The fire is usually continued four or five days together but if after that you should change the Receiver and continue the fire three or four days longer there would come forth an Oil of Vitriol congealed and caustick which is nothing but the more fixt part of the Sprit of Vitriol And this Congelation hath given this liquor the name of Oil of Vitriol though improperly Vitriol contains earth enough wherefore none is added to it as is necessarily done in the distillation of Niter Acid Spirits are Salts become fluid by the force of fire which hath disingaged them from their more terrestrious part and they may be revived again by pouring them upon some Alkali for example the Spirit of Vitriol remaining some time upon Iron doth reincorporate into Vitriol and the Spirit of Niter poured upon Salt of Tartar makes a Salt-peter There is one thing happens about the Oil of Vitriol when it is very strong which is strange indeed it is that if you mix it with its Acid Spirit or with water or else with an Ethereal Oil such as the Oil of Turpentine this mixture grows hot to that degree that sometimes it breaks the Viol it was put into and often it produces a considerable Ebullition I could quickly give an account of this heat and Ebullition if I would suppose an Alkali to be in the Oil of Vitriol as those do who pretend to explicate every thing that happens by the notions of acid and alkali but not comprehending how an alkali should be able to remain so long a time with so strong an acid as is the Oil of Vitriol without being destroyed I had rather give a reason that seems to me abundantly more probable I conceive therefore that if water or Spirit of Vitriol or the Ethereal Oil of Turpentine do come to heat the Oil of Vitriol it is by setting in motion a great many fiery particles which the Oil of Vitriol had drawn with it in the distillation for these little fiery bodies being environ'd with salts that are exceeding heavy and hard to rarefie they drive about with vehemence whatsoever stands in their way and when they have caused an Ebullition and find they can't get out at the top of the Viol they break it to pieces with the bussle they make at bottom and on the sides Perhaps it will be said I do here suppose gratis that the Oil of Vitriol does contain fiery particles but if we consider the great violence of fire and the time that is spent in drawing this acid it will be no such hard matter to grant me this supposition Besides it will be hard to explicate the great and burning Corrosion of Oil of Vitriol without admitting these fiery parts for the Vitriol contains nothing in it self of this Caustick nature it is true indeed that it contains Phlegm Sulphur and Earth but it is a thing impossible but this acid should discover it self more than it does if it were as Corrosive in the Vitriol as it is in the Oil. Once it hapned to me that putting into my Furnace a Retort whose two thirds were filled with German Vitriol dried in order to draw off its Spirits I distilled first of all the Phlegm and sulphureous spirit which I took out of the Receiver I then fitted it again to the Retort and by a great fire continued three days and three nights I distilled off the acid Spirit as we are used to do When the vessels were cold I admired to find in my Receiver nothing but a mass of Salt or Congealed Oil of Vitriol This Salt was so exceeding Caustick and burning that if I offer'd to touch the smallest part of it with my finger I presently felt an insufferable scalding and was fain to put my hand immediately into water it continued to fume still and when a little of it was thrown into water it made the same hissing noise as a
likewise fixes the stone the more and makes it fitter to keep It is one of the best Remedies I ever met with for stopping Gonorrheas when it is a proper time to stop them by Injections Salt of Vitriol This Operation is the more fixed Salt of Vitriol that remains after distillation Take two or three pounds of the Colcothar that remains in the Retort after distillation of Vitriol let it infuse in eight or ten pints of warm water for ten or twelve hours boil it a little while and then let it settle separate the water by Inclination and pour new water upon the matter proceed as before and mixing your Impregnations evaporate all the moisture in a sand-heat in a glass or earthen vessel there will remain a salt at bottom It is used as the Gilla Vitrioli to give a Vomit the dose is from ten to thirty grains Remarks This salt is that part of the Vitriol that the fire is not able to rarefie into Spirit Some Authors say that it Vomits just after the same manner as Gilla Vitrioli taken in a smaller dose but I have observed that its effect was much less and on the contrary there was need of giving it in a larger dose than the Gilla to procure a Vomit for having given of it several times a drachm at a dose the person had no Inclination at all to Vomit and truly I am apt to believe that a fixt salt of Vitriol divested of its Sulphur doth rather tend to precipitate downwards than mount upwards for Vomiting is caused by Saline Sulphurs which prick the Fibers of the Stomach whence follows a Convulsion to this part That which remains indissoluble is called Caput Mortuum it is used for Astringents If you expose it to the Air for a year or a year and half it returns into Vitriol again CHAP. XIX Of Roche-Alom and of its Purification ROche-Alom is a very Styptick Mineral Salt found in the veins of the earth in many places of Europe it is taken up in great transparent pieces the best is that which is reddish for the white contains fewer Spirits Alom is purified after the same manner as Vitriol it is used to cleanse the teeth it is a good Diuretick a drachm of it is dissolved in a quart of water and a glass of it is given now and then Many things are likewise called by the name of Alom as the Saccharinum which resembles Sugar it is nothing but a mixture of Roche-Alom Rose-water and the white of an Egg. Plume-Alom which some call Lapis Amianthus is a kind of Talk Distillation of Alom Put five pounds of Roche-Alom into a glass or earthen body and fitting to it a head with its Receiver distil in sand as much as will rise you will have a Phlegm of Alom that is used for distempers of the eyes for Quinsies and to cleanse wounds unlute the vessels break the body and powder the white mass that remains in it put it into an earthen Retort half empty place your Retort in a Reverberatory furnace and fitting to it a large Receiver lute the junctures close and light a very small fire the first three hours only to warm the Retort afterwards increase it every hour to the utmost violence and these Spirits will come forth and fill the Receiver with white Clouds continue the fire in this condition three days together then let the vessels cool you 'l find in the Receiver an acid Spirit which you may rectifie by distilling it in a glass Alembick in sand in order to make it the clearer This acid is more disagreeable than that of Vitriol it is used in Juleps for continued Feavers and Tertian Agues the dose is from four to eight drops it is likewise good to cure the Aphtha or little Chancres in the mouth Break the Retort and you 'l find in it a white mass very much rarefied and light it is called Burnt Alom or Calcined Alom it is used for to eat carnous excrescences or proud flesh Remarks The Distillation of Alom must be performed like that of Vitriol that is to say without addition of earth because these Salts do contain enough themselves The Body into which you put your Alom must be sure to be large enough because it rarefies extreamly The Phlegm is known to be all come forth when there distils no more for these Spirits being very weighty do require a greater heat than that of sand to raise them Some have written that Alom yields but very little acid yet if they take the pains to keep a strong fire under it for three days together they 'l find that this Spirit does not give place in strength or quantity to that of Vitriol Nor are we at all obliged to distinguish as they would have us the Acrimonious Corrosive salt of Alom from its acid seeing that there is nothing either Acrimonious or Corosive in this Mineral salt which will not turn into an acid Spirit when it is strongly urged by fire If a Drachm of Alom be dissolved in six ounces of this Phlegm you make an excellent Alom water to cleanse wounds and ulcers with The mass that remains in the Cucurbite or Dephlegmated Alom is more Escarotick than that which hath lost its Spirits Chirurgeons are wont to Calcine Alom in a Frying pan but the Iron dulls the greatest part of its vertue as absorbing its Spirits wherein consists the corrosion of Alom the Retort must be filled but half full because there happen Ebullitions which do require room CHAP. XX. Of Sulphur SVlphur is a kind of Bitumen that is found in many places in Italy and Spain There is brought among us both a Natural and an Artificial the Natural is greyish and called Sulphur Vivum the other is Yellow and is nothing but the Natural melted purified from its grosser earth and formed into Rowls which we do commonly use Some think that Sulphur is a Vitriol sublimed in the earth because these mixts are very often found near one another that there is a great deal of Sulphur in the mass of Mineral Vitriol and that the acid Spirits which are drawn from them both are wholly alike Flower of Sulphur This preparation is an exaltation of Sulphur Put about half a pound of Sulphur grosly powdered into a glass body place it in a small open fire and cover it with a pot or another Cucurbite turned upside down one that is unglazed so as that the neck of the one may enter into the neck of the other Change the upper Cucurbite every half hour fitting another in its place add likewise new Sulphur gather your Flowers which you find stuck in the Cucurbite and continue to do thus until you have got as much as you desire Then put out the fire and let the vessels cool there will remain at bottom only a little light insignificant earth The Flower of Sulphur is used in Diseases of the Lungs and Breast the dose is from ten to thirty grains in Lozenges or in Electuary It
CHAP. I. Of Jalap JAlap is a grayish root brought out of America cut into slices and dried it grows in the Province of Mechoacan and in several other places the best is that which is most compact and filled with Resinous veins It purges watery humors very well and is therefore usually given in the Dropsie and Gout the dose is from ten grains to a drachm in broth or White-wine Rosine or Magistery of Jalap This Operation is a solution of the oily or resinous part of Jalap made in Spirit of wine and precipitated by common water Put a pound of good Jalap grosly powdered into a large matrass pour upon it Spirit of wine Alcoholized until it be four fingers above the matter stop the matrass with another whose neck enters into it and luting the junctures with a wet bladder digest it three days in a sand-heat the Spirit of wine will receive a red Tincture decant it and then pour more upon the Jalap proceed as before and mixing your dissolutions filtrate them through brown paper Put that which you have filtred into a glass Cucurbite and distil in a vaporous bath two thirds of the Spirit of wine which may serve you another time for the same Operation Pour that which remains at the bottom of the Cucurbite into a large earthen Pan filled with water and it will turn into a milk which you must leave a day to settle and then separate the water by Inclination you 'l find the Rosine at bottom like unto Turpentine Wash it several times with water and dry it in the Sun it will grow hard like common Rosine powder it fine and it will become white Keep it in a Viol it purges Serosities It is given in Dropsies and for all Obstructions the dose is from four to twelve grains mixt in Electuary or else in Pills The Rosines of Turbith Scammony and Benjamin may be drawn after the same manner Remarks The Spirit of wine which is a Sulphur is likewise a very convenient Menstruum to extract Rosines which are gross Sulphurs you must use enough Spirit to dissolve all the Rosine and give it a sufficient time to open all the body of the Jalap after which a good part of the Spirit of wine is drawn off and may serve for the same use again provided you distil it with a very gentle fire for if you let it be too strong it will carry along with it good part of the Rosine A great deal of water is poured upon it to weaken the Spirit of wine which held the Rosine dissolved and then it revives again and its parts approaching one another there is made a kind of milk which clears up according as the Rosine precipitates If you have used sixteen ounces of Jalap you will draw an ounce and six drachms of Rosine well washed and dried From six ounces of good Scammony you draw five ounces of Rosine by the like preparation Some do evaporate the Spirit of wine and without using any Precipitation they find their Rosine in an Extract at the bottom of the vessel but then it becomes black like pitch All the Purgative virtue of the Jalap consists in the Rosine an Alkali salt may be drawn from the remainder but in a very small quantity You must observe to give the Rosine of Jalap always mixt with something else that may separate its parts for if it be taken alone it will be apt to adhere to the inward membrane of the Intestines and so cause Ulcers by its acrimonious quality Moreover Apothecaries should observe to mix it in a little yolk of an Egg when they would dissolve it in a Potion for it sticks to the mortar like Turpentine when it is humected by any aqueous liquor It may be likewise incorporated with some Electuary and then it easily dissolves Twelve grains of this Rosine work the same effect as a drachm of Jalap in substance It is not yet sufficiently known wherein the Purgative virtue of mixts doth consist to give it a right explication It is easily conceived that these effects do follow the Fermentation that the Remedy hath caused but no body can find what it is that makes this Remedy be Purgative rather than several others which seem to have as great a disposition as this to cause such Fermentation wherefore I shall not pretend to clear the knowledge of this Phaenomenon I shall only endeavour to give some reason for a very considerable difficulty which is to know how Hydragogues do work in our bodies and why they rather purge water than other humors A general reason that may be given of it is that all Hydragogue Remedies have more acrimony than other Purgatives and consequently they are better able to open the Lymphatick vessels But it may be further said that these Remedies do so cut and attenuate the Viscosities which are found in bodies that they make them be like water and there is no difficulty in conceiving this last reason when it is considered that these Remedies which do purge water are all of them Resinous or else salts for after the same manner as we see Sulphurs or Liquified salts dissolve Sulphureous bodies so do Rosines which are Sulphurs and salts dissolve Viscosities in the body which are compounded of a great deal of Sulphur But there is this difference between the effects of Salt and of Rosines that the Salt passing quick and making but little impression doth dissolve only that which is found in what is called the first Region of the body wherefore it purges but mildly whereas the Rosine by reason of its viscous hooked parts remains a longer time in the body and leasurely causes a Fermentation not only about the parts where it immediately works but operates on the brain and other remote places from whence it forces Phlegm to discharge it self into the Belly and this is that which causes Rosinous Hydragogues to purge more than Salts CHAP. II. Of Rhubarb RHubarb is a Purgative root brought from China It takes its name from Barbary where it hath grown in abundance it is likewise called Rheum The best sort is that which being broke appears of a Nutmeg colour within Its virtues are so many and so great that if they were sufficiently known and men could generally use it without that nauseousness which too commonly attends it mankind would have infinitely less need than they have of the Art of Physick in most cases and men might perhaps preserve themselves from most diseases without any other help Extract of Rhubarb This Extract is a separation of the purer parts of Rhubarb from the terrestrious Bruise six or eight ounces of good Rhubarb and steep it twelve hours warm in a sufficient quantity of Succory water so as the water may be four fingers above the Rhubarb let it just boil and pass the liquor through a cloth infuse the remainder in so much more Succory water as before then strain the Infusion and express it strongly mix your Impregnations or
Limbeck and fitting a Receiver to it and luting close the junctures with a wet bladder distil with a pretty good fire three or four pints of the liquor then unlute the Limbeck and pour into it by Inclination the distilled water you 'l find at bottom a little oil which you must pour into a Viol and stop it close Distil the liquor as before then returning the water into the Limbeck take the Oil you find at bottom of the Receiver and mix it with the first Repeat this Cohobation until there rises no more Oil then take away the fire and distil the water that remains in the Receiver the same way I shall shew hereafter to rectifie Spirit of wine you 'l have an excellent spirituous Cinnamon water The Oil of Cinnamon is an admirable Corroborative it strengthens the stomach and assists nature in her evacuations It is given to make women have an easie delivery and to bring their Terms it likewise encreases Seed a drop of it is commonly mixed in a little Sugar-Candy to make the Eleo-saccharum which is easily dissolved in Cordial or Hysterical waters The spirituous water of Cinnamon hath the same virtues but two or three drachms are requisite for a dose After this manner almost all the Oils of Odoriferous Vegetables may be drawn such as those of Box Roses Rosemary Lavender Juniper Cloves and Anis-seed which do either swim above the water or fall to the bottom according as they are more or less loaded with Salts Remarks You must make the fire strong enough for if there be not a sufficient heat the Oil will not rise The Cohobation serves to open the Body the more that the Oil may compleat its separation Cinnamon yields less Oil than other woods or Barks and it is very difficult to draw six drachms of it out of four pounds let it be never so good The Spirituous water of Cinnamon is nothing but a rarefied Oil whose parts are separated in the water by Fermentation so as they become imperceptible they do make what is called a volatile Spirit which easily mixes with all sorts of liquors as doth the Eleo-saccharum for the Eleo-saccharum is properly an Oil whose parts being separated in the Sugar do easily mix in waters Tincture of Cinnamon This operation is an exaltation of the more oily parts of Cinnamon in Spirit of wine Take what quantity of bruised Cinnamon you please put it into a Matrass and pour upon it Spirit of wine one finger above it stop your matrass close and set it in Digestion in horse-dung four or five days the Spirit of wine will be impregnated with the Tincture of Cinnamon and become red separate it from the Cinnamon and after it is filtrated keep this Tincture in a viol well stopt it is an admirable Cardiack it fortifies the stomach and rejoices all the vital parts it may be used like Cinnamon water in a little smaller dose After this manner the Tincture of all Odoriferous Vegetables may be drawn CHAP. VI. Of the Bark of Peru. THE Peruvian Bark called Quinquina or Kina Kina by the French is a Bark that has been brought into these parts some years since from Peru it retains the name of the Tree from which it is taken the Spaniards do call it Palo de Calenturas or the wood against Feavers There are two kinds of this Tree the one is cultivated and the other grows wild the cultivated is much better than the other you must choose it of a compact substance bitter to the taste and of a reddish colour It is the most certain remedy that ever yet was known to hinder the fits of Agues The manner of using it for a great while past has been to give the patient the powder from half a drachm to two drachms with a little white-wine at the coming of the fit But this method has been quite changed in our days for at present we do infuse an ounce of the powder in two quarts of wine eight and forty hours in a Balneum the infusion is then strained and the patient is made to drink every day three or four little glasses of it at some distance from the Paroxysm The use of this remedy is continued a fortnight at least Some do frequently add to the infusion of this Bark the lesser Centaury Wormwood Chervil Juniper-berries the bark of the Alder-tree Sassafras Salt of Tartar and divers other ingredients thought to be Febrifuges But the basis of all is the Bark of Peru the rest of the ingredients do no great good Some do likewise mix with it a little Opium but that ought not to be done without a great deal of precaution You must observe to purge your patient well before you give him the Bark because this remedy shuts up the humors for some time and when they come to ferment a-new they do sometimes cause more dangerous maladies than he had before such as Asthma's dropsies rheumatisms dysenteries suppression of the menses in women and many others which have too too often succeeded Cures by this Bark For which reason many diseased persons have again wished for their Ague that were cured by this remedy The Bark is likewise very ill for those who have any Abscess in their body for it fixes and hardens the humor for some time which afterwards ferments and causes a gangrene in the part You must forbear the use of Milk and aliments of that nature when you take this remedy by reason of their cheesie part which would lie heavy upon the stomach and be apt to corrupt in the vessels It is probable that the Bark does check the humor of the Feaver much after the manner as an Alkali does stop the motion of an acid salt that is to say it unites with it and makes together a kind of Coagulum this humor does commonly remain quiet a fortnight and the person cured does find himself a little swelled and heavy especially if he were not purged before he took it Afterwards the Ague returns because the feaverish humor having been agitated by the Spirits or else being joyned with other humors of the same nature which have been preparing in the body during the fornights respite it gets quit from the Bark and ferments as it did before But sometimes and that especially when the body of one in an Ague has been well cleansed if you should persist in continuing the use of the Bark you will so fix the humor that you will dispose it to precipitate and be evacuated either by stool or urine or by insensible perspiration and the Ague returns no more for the Spirits in our body do by their motion push outwards as much as they are able whatsoever molests the oeconomy of the parts Tincture of the Peruvian Bark This Operation is an extraction of the more oily and separable parts of the Bark by Spirit of wine Put into a Bolt-head four ounces of good Peruvian Bark grosly powdered pour upon it Spirit of wine four fingers height above the
chuse it clean friable and full of white spots and that sort is called Amygdaloides Flowers of Benjamin and its Oil. This is an exaltation of the volatile salts of Benjamin and a separation of its Oil by distillation Take an earthen pot high and narrow with a little border round it put into it three or four ounces of clean Benjamin grosly powdered cover the pot with a Coffin of paper and tye it round about under the border set the pot into hot ashes and when the Benjamin is heated the Flowers will sublime take off the Coffin every two hours and fix another in its place stop up quickly in a glass the Flowers you find in the Coffins and when those which afterwards sublime do begin to appear Oily take the pot off the fire put that which remains into a little glass Retort and fitting a Receiver to it distil in a Sand-heat a thick and fragrant Oil until nothing more comes forth there will remain in the Retort nothing but a very spongy earth The Flowers are good for Asthmatical persons and to fortifie the stomach the dose is from two grains to five in an Egg or in Lozenges The Oil is a Balsom for wounds and ulcers Remarks Benjamin being full of a great many volatile parts easily sublimes over the smallest fire the Flowers do rise in little needles that are very white but if you give never so little fire more than should be they carry along with them a small quantity of Oil which makes them to be yellow and impure You must therefore perform the Operation in hot Ashes or in Sand to have the Flowers fair The Flowers of Benjamin have a very pleasant acidity Tincture of Benjamin Take three ounces of Benjamin and half an ounce of Storax powder them grosly and put them into a bottle or matrass half empty pour upon them a pint of Spirit of wine stop your vessel close and set it in warm horse-dung leave it in digestion for a Fortnight after which filtrate the liquor and keep it in a Viol well stopt some do add to it five or six drops of Balsom of Peru to give it a better smell it is good to take away spots in the face a drachm of it is put into four ounces of water and it whitens like milk this water serves for a wash and is called Virgin 's Milk Remarks This Tincture is a dissolution of the Rosine of Benjamin made in Spirit of Wine When it is mixed in a great deal of water it makes a Milk because water weakens the Spirit of Wine and makes it quit what it held up dissolved If you let this Milk settle the Rosine precipi 〈…〉 to the bottom of the vessel and the water becomes clear The Storax is added to this Tincture to encrease the goodness of the smell CHAP. XXII Of Camphire CAmphire is a Rosine that distils drop by drop from a great Tree that is much like to a Walnut-tree in the Island Borneo in Asia Little Cakes of it are likewise brought out of China but that is not so good it must be chosen white transparent clean friable without spot and such as is hard to quench when once lighted Camphire is compounded of a Sulphur and Salt so exceeding volatile that it is very hard to keep it any time and it always loses something let it be never so closely stopt It is an excellent remedy for the Fits of the mother it is not only smelt to by women in this condition and used in their Clysters but also taken inwardly for it is lighted and then quenched five or six times in some water proper to the Distemper and so the water is given to drink it is likewise good for intermittent Feavers being hung about the neck because in its evaporating away it insensibly enters through the pores and causes a rarefaction and transpiration of the humor which caused the disease and for the same reason it is that several Druggs applied to the Wrists and other places have often cured diseases but you must observe that this sort of Remedies is always of a very Spirituous nature Camphire is dissolved in Spirit of Wine and this dissolution is called Spirit of Wine Camphorized it is good in the Apoplexy and in Hysterical maladies it is also found to be of excellent use in the Tooth-ach a little Cotton is dipt into it and put into the aking Tooth Oil of Camphire This Operation is a Camphire impregnated with Spirit of Niter which converts it into a liquor Powder grosly three or four ounces of good Camphire put it into a matrass and pour upon it twice as much Spirit of Niter stop your vessel close and set it over a pot half full of water a little heated stir it ever now and then to help forward the dissolution which will be finished in two or three hours and then you 'l find the Camphire turned into a clear Oil which swims above the Spirit separate it and keep it in a Viol well stopt It is used for the Caries of bones and to touch Nerves that are uncovered in wounds Remarks This Oil is nothing but a dissolution of Camphire in Spirit of Niter for if you pour water upon it to destroy the force of the Spirit it returns into Camphire as before Of all the Rosines this is the only one that can dissolve with Spirit of Niter This dissolution is made without Ebullition or sensible heat because the Camphire consisting of thin disunited parts the acids do enter among them and make an easie separation again acids mixing with sulphurs do never raise any ebullition because they find those bodies too pliant and yielding to make sufficient resistance If you have used three ounces of Camphire in this operation you will obtain four ounces of Oil and the Spirit of Niter will have lost an ounce this last will likewise have lost much of its acrimony Some have censured this operation by reason say they of the violent impression which the corrosive Spirit does give to the Camphire in its dissolution and that therefore the acrimony of the medicine renders it of a dangerous use But seeing this Oil is not wont to be given inwardly methinks there is very little reason for this scruple there are medecins which are much more acrimonious than this which nevertheless are not esteemed dangerous to be used Again there is occasion for this acrimony in the use that is made of this Oil for the Spirit of Niter which is mixed with it does very much help the Camphire to deterge wounds and to cleanse rotten bones CHAP. XXIII Of Gumm Ammoniack GVmm Ammoniack is so called because it distils from a sort of Ferula or Fennil-gyant that grows near the place where the Oracle of Jupiter Ammon stood heretofore the best is in large yellowish tears and white within It is given inwardly in Deoppilative Electuaries for Schirrhous Tumors of the Liver Spleen and Mesentery it is used in Emollient and Attractive Plaisters The
way to Purifie it is to dissolve it in Vinegar then passing it through a cloth all the moisture is evaporated away over the fire by this means it is cleansed from some straws or other little impurities that it contained But some part of its Volatile Spirits are evaporated at the same time and in them consists its greatest virtue while some others are fixed by the acid which always hinders the motion of Volatiles Wherefore I would never advise this Purification to be made I would rather after chusing it as clean as may be only powder it in a Mortar to mix it with what may be thought fit for though there should be some little straws in it that would never be able to alter the nature of the Remedy or diminish its virtue so much as doth the destruction of its Volatile salts by the Vinegar The same thing may be considered in the use of all other Gumms if some of them as Galbanum and Opopanax are too moist to be powdered you may cut them into little slices dry them in the Sun Distillation of Gumm Ammoniack This is a separation of the Oil and Spirit of Gumm Ammoniack from its earthy part Put a pound of Gumm Ammoniack into an earthen Retort or glass one luted great enough for two thirds to remain empty place this Retort in a Reverberatory Furnace and fitting to it a Receiver begin the distillation with a very little fire to warm gently the Retort and drive forth drop by drop a little Phlegmatick water When the vapours begin to appear throw out that which is in the Receiver and refitting it and luting close the joints encrease the fire by degrees and continue it until all is come forth Then let the vessels cool and unlute them pour out that which is in the Receiver into a Tunnel lined with brown paper the Spirit will pass through and leave the thick black Oil in the filter keep it in a Viol it is good for the Palsie and Hysterical diseases the diseased parts are rub'd with it and it is given to women to smell to Put the Spirit into a glass Alembeck and Rectifie it by distilling it in Sand. 'T is a good Remedy against the Plague and all sorts of malignant diseases it is used in the Scurvy and all manner of Obstructions the dose is from eight to sixteen drops in some proper liquor The Spirit of all other Gumms may be drawn after the same manner Remarks Two thirds of the Retort must remain empty because the Gumm rarifies exceedingly as it heats and would be apt to come forth in substance if it had not room enough There is no need of adding alkali's for the Rectification of this Spirit as many Authors would perswade us this circumstance doth rather more hurt than good because alkalies do spoil these sorts of Spirits as I have said when I treated of the Rectification of the Spirit of Tartar The phlegm is taken out of the receiver before the Spirits come forth in order to their being the purer You will have six drachms of phlegm three ounces and seven drachms of Spirit six ounces of a black stinking oil and there remains in the retort four ounces six drachms of a black light and very spongious matter which is to be flung away It is likewise a little inflammable by reason of fuliginosities which have fallen upon it And this is that which gave it the black colour a great deal of the ashes of this matter is requisite to make a little salt for the salt of Gumms being commonly more volatile than fixed it comes forth almost all of it in acid Spirit CHAP. XXIV Of Myrrhe MYrrhe is a Gummy juice that distils from a thorny Tree of a middle height by Incisions that are made into it this Tree grows commonly in Ethiopia and Arabia and because the Inhabitants of those countries are thought to feed on Serpents the Myrrhe that is brought thence is called Troglodytick The Antients were wont to collect from the same Tree a liquor that fell from it without Incision which was called Stacten it is only a liquid Gum but I am apt to think it should have more virtue than common Myrrhe because it was the more spirituous part which filtrated through the pores of the Bark of this Tree You must chuse such Myrrhe as is friable light odoriferous clear and such as is in small pieces of a yellowish colour and bitter to the taste it is aperitive and discutient it is much esteemed for obstructions of the Vterus and to bring the menstrua and to quicken womens Labour it also resists malignity of humors it is used in Corroborative remedies and discutient Plaisters Tincture of Myrrhe This Operation is a solution of the oily parts of Myrrhe in Spirit of wine Put what quantity you please of good Myrrhe powdered into a Bolt-head and pour upon it Spirit of wine four fingers high stir the matter and set it in digestion in warm sand two or three days or until the Spirit of wine is loaded with the Tincture of Myrrhe then separate the liquor by Inclination and keep it in a Viol well stopt It may be used to expedite womens Labour to bring down the menstrua and in the Palsie Apoplexy Lethargy and all diseases that proceed from Corruption of humors it is Sudorifick and Aperitive the dose is from six drops to fifteen in some proper liquor it is commonly used in outward applications or mixed with the Tincture of Aloes to discuss cold Tumors and to dissolve gypsous humors by way of Injection and in the Gangrene After this manner may be made the Tinctures of Castor and Saffron which are much esteemed in hysterical cases the dose of them is from four to twelve drops in balm or mugwort water Remarks Though Tinctures of Myrrhe are daily drawn in wine yet the best that can be prepared is with Spirit of wine because this menstruum receives the more Oily or Balsamick part of the Myrrhe whereas the phlegm of wine does cause it to dissolve and impregnate with the more terrestrious part of the Gumm as well as with the Oily Some do use to evaporate this Tincture to the consistence of an Extract but because thereby they are fain to lose the more volatile part of the Myrrhe with the Spirit of wine I do conceive it better to use the Tincture it self as I have described it The Tincture of Castor makes the water white into which you drop it by reason of a Rosine which it contains which is the same I have said speaking of the Rosine of Jalap Oil of Myrrhe per Deliquium This preparation is a solution of the more separable parts of Myrrhe made with whites of Eggs. Boil Eggs until they are hard then cutting them in two separate the Yelk and fill the White with Myrrhe powdered set them on little sticks placed conveniently on purpose in a plate or earthen pan in a Cellar or some such moist place
the liquor you 'l have a Spirit that must be kept well stopt it hath the same virtues as the Salt the dose is from ten to thirty drops The Phlegm must be flung away If that which remains in the Retort is Calcined in an open fire and a Lixivium made of it as I said concerning fixt Alkali Salts a small quantity of fixt Salt will remain which nevertheless hath no more virtue than other Alkali Salts I spoke of before The volatile salts of Harts-horn the bloud Skull Nails Hair and other parts of Animals may be drawn after the same manner Remarks The Receiver must be sure to be large enough that the Spirits may circulate with greater ease the fire must likewise be well managed for these Spirits being forced out too fast do rush forth violently and break the Receiver or else are lost through the joints The Phlegm comes before the other Principles in the first distillation but in the Rectification the Volatile Salt rises first because it is at liberty and is lighter than the Phlegm The Spirit which is drawn from Animals by Chymistry is nothing but a volatile salt dissolved in Phlegm Your vessel for sublimation must be very high that the Volatile Salt may rise without any Phlegm for when the vessel is short the Phlegm riseth with the Volatile salt liquifies it and turns it into Spirit A bolt-head or a long body with its head may serve for this Operation because the Phlegm being too heavy cannot mount so high and therefore leaves the Volatile Salt to sublime alone which may nevertheless be Rectified to become more pure you must mix it with the distilled Spirit and repeat the Sublimation according as I have said but because this Salt always carries along with it a small quantity of Oil a few days afterwards it loses its whiteness and turns Yellowish now to avoid that you must pour upon it when it is in the bottle Spirit of Wine Tartarised one fingers height and so keep it well stopt This Spirit of Wine hinders the salt from dissolving its self and the Oil it contained so that after some days it turns red and the salt grows white when it is to be used the Spirit is decanted from it and the Salt left alone by means of this Lotion it loses a little of its former smell but care must be taken that the Spirit of Wine be well Rectified for if there remained any the least Phlegm the Salt would dissolve in it You may also sublime it again as before after having well washt it in Spirit of Wine it will be dry and very fair There is another way of Rectifying the Volatile salt which is by mixing it with four or five times as much bones or horns burnt white and putting the mixture into a glass or earthen body then fitting to it a blind-head or such a one whose Nose has not been opened after that luting well the joints then setting the vessel in sand and with a gentle fire the Volatile salt will rise and stick to the head you must continue the fire until there rises no more This salt is hereby purified from a great deal of its Oil which remains in the powder of Bones wherefore it becomes whiter than it was and pleasanter to the palate It may again be mixt with other Calcined bones and sublimed as before to render it purer still and take away more of its loathsome smell that 's caused partly by the Empyreumatical oyl that it draws along with it in the distillation The Volatile salt dissolved in a little water Crystallizes like Sugar-Candy and then it is easier to keep than before There can be drawn from Animals but a very little quantity of fixt salt because the Spirits which abound in them do volatilize their salt for which reason this volatile salt keeps dry longer than that of Vegetables The virtue of Animals doth principally consist in their Volatile salt it is that which gives meat its savour that makes Broths strong and turns them into a Gelly according as they do abound more or less The Juscula Consummata which are made with a small fire are better than those that are boiled quick because a strong fire carries away good part of the Volatile salts Volatile Salts do rarifie the humors of the body both by reason of their piercing nature and also in that being Alkalis they do dull the strength of Acids which keep the humors condensed after which the bloud being in greater motion than before doth the more easily purifie it self either by perspiration or by Urine from heterogeneous bodies which were there gathered together This Operation may serve to shew how the Volatile Salt of all Animals or any part of them may be drawn When the Volatile Salt of Bloud is to be drawn that of the best colour must be taken and dried in the Sun or else with a very little fire and so distilled like Vipers If you distil two and thirty ounces of shavings of Harts-horn you 'l draw thirteen ounces of liquor and Volatile salt and there will remain in the Retort nineteen ounces of matter as black as Coal You 'l draw from the liquor an ounce and a half of Volatile salt six ounces of Spirit and two ounces of Black oil The black matter being grinded on a Marble is good for Painters use if you Calcine it the fuliginous parts which make it black will fly away and leave the Harts-horn very white you 'l have sixteen ounces of it and this is called burnt Harts-horn It is accounted a Cordial but indeed has no other virtue than to destroy acids as all other alkali matters do Some do stratifie Harts-horn with Bricks and Calcining it that way they call it Harts-horn prepared Philosophically they account it more Cordial than it was before but they are egregiously mistaken for the Volatile salt and oil which were the things that should render it Cardiacal were carried away in the Calcination and there remains only a Terrestrious matter that may be called a Caput mortuum Notwithstanding it is an alkali which may serve as Crabs-eyes Coral and divers other matters of the like nature which absorb acids the Bricks bestow no virtue at all to it If you distil forty ounces of Ivory you will draw thirteen ounces of liquor and volatile salt and there will remain in the Retort six and twenty ounces of a matter as black as Coal Afterwards by the Rectification you will get two ounces and a drachm of Volatile salt one ounce and five drachms of a stinking black oil five ounces of Spirit and four ounces two drachms of phlegm If you Calcine the black pieces which remain in the Retort in an open fire the soot will leave them and they will burn white this is called burnt Ivory or Spodium it has the same virtues as burnt Harts-horn you will have at least twenty ounces of it It is here remarkable that Ivory does contain much more earth than Harts-horn and
doubtless that is the reason why it is the whiter If you distil twelve ounces of Hair you will obtain eight ounces of liquor and volatile salt There will remain in the Retort three ounces and a half of a black matter very spongy and earthy from which no fixed salt can be drawn And by Rectification you will raise into the Head an ounce and seven drachms of a very fine volatile salt separate by a filter three ounces of a black and very fetid oil and by distillation of that which is filtrated you 'l have two ounces of Spirit and nine drachms of phlegm All Volatile salts have much resemblance in their figure smell and taste but that of Vipers is accounted the most active and proper against Poisons those of Harts-horn and Mans Skull are thought to be better than others for the Epilepsie that of mans bloud to purifie the bloud and so of the rest When you Rectifie the Spirit of Vipers or man's Skull or Harts-horn or hair in order to purifie them from their phlegm if you should let the liquor continue distilling longer than is fitting the phlegm will rise after the Spirit but then it separates from the Spirit as water separates from oil the Spirit will be uppermost and a little troubled and whitish but if you keep these two liquors together for a month the whole will mix together and there will be no longer any separation of them at all These effects do happen from this that the Spirit in rising does carry with it some small quantity of Oil which was dissolved in the liquor by reason of salts that it contains This Oil is very volatile it rises with the Spirit and by rendring the Spirit a little oily it hinders at first the phlegm from mixing with it It is likewise this little quantity of oil which makes the Spirit look a little troubled and whitish but when the Spirit and phlegm are kept a good while together they mix and the whole appears like a homogeneous liquor because there being but little oil in the Spirit the phlegm insensibly enters into and incorporates with it wherefore you must take care to separate the Spirit from the phlegm so soon as ever you take the Receiver from the nose of the head in case you have suffered the liquor to distil too long What I have now spoken of does not happen in the Rectification of the Spirit of Ivory and without doubt the reason is that the Ivory does not contain so much Oil as the other parts of Animals Some do prepare a Sudorifick water with Vipers after this manner They do put the Vipers alive into a great earthen body they fit to it a head with its Receiver they lute the joints and distil in a Balneum all that will rise from it but you must take care that the head be well fastned to the body for when the Vipers begin to be heated they leap and fling about with so much violence that they would otherwise throw it down and get out of their stove And then the Artist must have a care of himself and not be too bold for these creatures being irritated would fling about on every side and a bite of theirs at that time would be twice as dangerous as at another This water which rises whilest the Vipers are in their greatest fury is Sudorifick because some Volatile salts have risen and mixed with it You may give of it from a drachm to half an ounce in some proper liquor But to avoid the forementioned danger you might cut the Vipers in pieces before you put them into the body and because these pieces of them do retain life a long time the water will be little the worse for their not being intire When you have drawn as much water from them as you can by the heat of a Balneum you must put the remainder of the Vipers into a Retort and distil it as I have shewn before you will thereby have the Volatile salt the Spirit and the Oyl CHAP. II. Distillation of Vrine and its Volatile Salt THIS Operation is a separation of the Spirit the Volatile Salt and the Oil of Vrine from the phlegm and the earth which it contains Take ten or twelve quarts of Vrine newly made by sound young men evaporate it in an earthen or glass Cucurbite in a Sand-heat until it remains in the consistence of Honey then fit a head with its Receiver and luting the junctures close continue a small fire to distil the rest of the phlegm after which encrease it by little and little and the Spirits will rise in Clouds carrying with them a little Oil and after that the Volatile salt which will stick to the head like Butter-flies continue the fire until there comes no more then unlute the Vessels and separating the Volatile salt put it into a bolt-head pour likewise into it the Spirit that is in the Receiver and fit a blind-head to the bolt-head lute the junctures with a wet bladder and setting your bolt-head in Sand sublime with a small fire all the Volatile salt as I have shewed concerning that of Vipers separate this Salt and keep it in a Viol well stopt It is a good Remedy for Quartan Agues and Malignant Feavers it opens all Obstructions and works both by Vrine and Sweat the dose is from six to sixteen grains in some convenient liquor filtrate that which remains in the bolt-head the Spirit will pass through the Filter whilst a small quantity of black and extraordinary stinking Oil remains which is good to discuss cold Tumors and to give to Hysterical women to smell to You may distil the Spirit in a Sand-heat to separate it from a thick matter that remains at bottom it hath the same virtues as the Salt it is given from eight to twenty drops in some proper vehicle Two drachms of it are mixed with two ounces of Spirit of Wine to rub Paralytical parts with it is likewise used for cold pains and for the Sciatica If the Mass that remains in the Cucurbite should be Calcined and a Lixivium made of it with water a very small quantity of fixt Alkali salt might be gotten from evaporating the water and it hath the same virtues as other Alkali salts Remarks The Vrine of young men is to be prefer'd before others because it contains more Salt It must be newly made and evaporated with a gentle fire that the Fermentation or too much heat may not cause the Volatile Salts to rise with the phlegm The Spirit is only a Volatile salt dissolved in a little phlegm this Volatile salt works more by Vrine than any of the rest but its smell is more offensive This Remedy must never be given in Broth for Broth being to be taken hot the heat evaporates some of the volatile salts before it can well be taken A Volatile salt may be drawn from Vrine after setting it some months Fermenting in a Vessel close stopt and then a third part of the Liquor
neck of one Matrass is put into the neck of another they are called a double vessel and this is done when we desire to circulate Spirits but then the junctures must be very well luted You must also provide many large capacious Recipients for the Distillation of Acid Spirits by a Retort They must be so very large that the Spirits may have room to Circulate the better Lingots are Iron molds of divers shapes into which melted Metals are wont to be poured in order to harden in the form that we would have them That which is used for the making Lapis infernalis must consist of two pieces joined together with two little Iron rings and the melted matter is poured into the upper part of it See its figure in the second Table Coppels are porous vessels made in form of a cup to be used for the trying and purifying of Gold and Silver They are made of Ashes well washt or of bones calcined See their figure in the second Table Ashes deprived of their salts are rather used than others for the composition of this sort of vessels that they may be made the more porous by such deprivation See the Chapter concerning Purification of Silver by the Coppel and the Remarks upon it Many glass Funnels great and small Viols of glass Crucibles Pans Mortars of glass or stone or Marble or Iron must not be forgotten Aludels must also have a place there they are Pots without a bottom joyned together and are placed over another Pot with a whole in the middle to serve for Sublimations Of Lutes The Fire is often raised to so high a degree as will melt glass Retorts in a Reverberatory Furnace wherefore it will be convenient to coat them over with such a Lute as when dry is able to preserve and contain the matter that is put into them to be distill'd This Lute may be made after the manner which follows Take Sand the dross of Iron Potters earth in powder of each five pounds horse-dung cut small a pound glass beaten into powder and Sea-salt of each four ounces mix them all and with a sufficient quantity of water make a Paste or Lute with which you must coat the Retort all round to half its neck and so set it a drying This same Lute will serve to stop close the junctures of the neck of the Retort with the Recipient but because when it dries it grows exceeding hard and it proves difficult to unlute it it is needful to wet it with wet clothes when you would take the Retort asunder from the Receiver The Lute that I commonly use my self for such occasions is compounded only of two parts of Sand and one of clay tempered together with water As for the conjunction of Limbecks ordinary Glue upon paper will serve turn but when something very spirituous is distilled such as the Spirit of Wine use a wet Bladder which carries a Glue along with it that sticks very well But if the bladder happens to be eaten or corroded by the Spirits have recourse to the following Glue Take Flower and Lime slackt of each an ounce Potters-earth in powder half an ounce mix them and make a moist Paste with a sufficient quantity of the Whites of Eggs well beaten before hand with a little water This Paste may likewise serve to stop the cracks that happen in glass vessels there must be three lays of the Paste bound on with paper To Seal Hermetically is to stop the mouth or neck of a Glass-Vessel with a pair of Pincers heated red hot To do this the neck is heated by little and little with burning coals and the fire is encreased and continued until the Glass is ready to melt This way of sealing a Vessel is used when you have put some matter within it that is easie to be exalted and you have a mind to make it Circulate Of the Degrees of Fire To make a Fire of the First Degree two or three coals lighted will suffice to raise a most gentle heat For the Fire of the second degree three or four coals will serve to give such a heat as is able sensibly to warm the Vessel but so as a hand may be able to endure it for some time For the Fire of the Third degree you must cause heat enough to make a Pot boil that is fill'd with five or six quarts of water For the Fourth Degree you must use Coals and Wood together enough to give the most extream heat of all The Fire of Sand of the filings of Iron and of Ashes is made when the Vessel that contains the matter that is to be heated is covered underneath and on all sides with Sand or the filings of Iron or with Ashes this is done to heat the Vessel the more gently All these Fires have their Degrees but the Ash-fire is the mildest because the Ashes cannot contain so great a heat as the others The Reverberatory Fire is made in a close Furnace that the heat or flame which always tends upwards may reverberate or return upon the Vessel which is placed on two Iron bars This fire hath its Degrees but may be raised to a greater violence than the rest The Wheel fire for Fusion is made when with lighted coals you encompass all round a Crucible that holds the matter you desire to melt The Balneum Mariae is when an Alembick containing the matter that is to be heated is placed in a Vessel filled with Water under which the Fire is made thus the water growing hot heats the matter contained in the Alembick The Vaporous Bath is when a Glass vessel containing some Matter is heated by the vapour of hot water Explication of many Terms that are used in Chymistry To Alcoholize or reduce into Alcohol signifies to Subtilize as when a Mixt is beaten into an impalpable powder This word is also used to express a very pure Spirit thus the Spirit of Wine well rectified is called the Alcohol of Wine Amalgamate is to mix Mercury with some melted Metal this Operation serves to render the Metal fit to be extended on some Works as Gold or else to reduce it into a very subtile powder which is done by putting the Amalgame into a Crucible over the Fire for the Mercury subliming into the Air leaves the Metal in an impalpable powder neither Iron nor Copper can by any means be Amalgamated Cement is a manner of purifying Gold 'T is done by stratification with a hard paste made of one part of Salt Armoniack two of common Salt and four of Potters earth or Bricks powdered the whole having been moistned with a sufficient quantity of Urine this Composition is called Royal Cement Circulation is a motion given to liquors contained in a double vessel excited by fire and causing the vapours to ascend and descend to and fro This operation tends either to subtilize the liquors or to open some hard body that is mixed with them Coagulate is to give a consistence to liquids by
enough to suspend the particles of Gold and hinder them from precipitating Wherefore if you would add never so much Gold more when these points have seized upon as much as they are able to joyn with they cannot possibly dissolve one grain more and it is this suspension that renders the particles of Gold imperceptible But now if you add some body that by its motion and figure is able to engage the acids enough to break them the particles of Gold being left at liberty will precipitate by their own weight And this is what I conceive the Oyl of Tartar and Volatile Alkali Spirits are able to do They are impregnated with very Active Salts which finding bodies at rest do presently move them and by the quickness of their motion do shake them so violently as to break the points by which they were suspended these fragments of little points being thus disengaged from the Gold are still keen enough to act and they have action enough remaining to pierce and divide violently the parts of Alkali Salts which are much more soluble in their nature than Gold and this occasions the Ebullition which presently happens when these Spirits are poured upon the Dissolution These edges then being thus broken two things must follow thereupon The first is that the remaining Aqua Regalis is rendred uncapable of dissolving any more Gold because it hath no more power left of making a penetration The second is that the precipitated Powder of Gold is impregnated with some part of the Dissolvent by reason that the sharpest part of these edges remains within it Experience teaches us both the one and the other to wit the force of the Aqua Regalis is quite destroyed for dissolving any more Gold and the precipitated Powder hath drawn along with it some Spirits that are so closely lockt up that though it be several times washt in warm Water they cannot possibly be disengaged from their hold And this is evident when it is put upon the Fire for the great Detonation or noise that it makes cannot proceed from any thing else but the inclosed Spirits which violently divide the most compact body of Gold to get out quickly when they are forced to it by the action of Fire I can here explicate by the by after the same manner the action of a certain Powder consisting of three parts of Niter two parts of Salt of Tartar and one part of Sulphur This Powder being heated in a Spoon to the weight of a Drachm gives as Thundering a noise as a Cannon it self Now the fixt Salt of Tartar causes in this Powder what the Gold did in the other that is to say it retains the Spirits of Niter and Sulphur so lockt up that they cannot be separated without violently breaking their Prison and this is that which makes such a noise Aurum Fulminans taken inwardly causes sweat because the heat of the Body volatilises it and drives it through the Pores Now if the Pores are very open it will only cause an insensible transpiration but if they are closed up by the coldness of the weather so that it must remain some time before it passes the vaporous humidity which bears it company dissolves upon the skin into what we call sweat Some think the Gold contributes nothing at all to these transpirations and that the spirit of Niter alone being forced by the heat of the body to pass through its Pores causes all the action But I conceive it is more likely that these spirits do carry along with them some parts of the Gold with which they are so intimately mixed And by this explication may be better comprehended how so small a quantity of spirits is able to produce sweat for suppose there passes through the Pores one grain of Gold and two grains of spirits these spirits being as I may so say armed with the grosser parts of Gold will be better able to conquer the resistance that shall oppose their passage than if they were separate after the same manner as a good piece of Timber that is driven along by the stream of a River will strike with much more violence against the Arch of a Bridge and endanger it much more than a single Wave would be able to do though never so swift There are two sorts of insensible Transpirations one hapening at all times as well in health as sickness and the other in a Burning Feaver or else sometimes upon the taking a Sudorifick The first Transpiration is insensible because the vapour which passes continually through the pores is yet in so small a quantity that though it does dissolve in a moisture upon the skin it is not perceived at all The other is caused by a great motion of the Spirits which drive the humours through the pores of the body after a rapid manner and whereas at that time the pores become very open and the skin is heated more than ordinarily the vapour passes away through the skin without condensing upon it But if once the rapid motion of humours begins to slacken then the sweat appears and begins to be felt and this does happen in Agues for during the great heat of the Ague men do not sweat at all but only in the declination of the fit because then the skin somewhat cools the vapour condenses into a moisture which we call sweat wherefore sweat may be said to issue from a middle degree of heat between the first insensible Transpiration and the second Most men think that there goes out more moisture in the time of the sweat than by the insensible Transpiration which is made during the height of the hot fit but they seem to be mistaken very likely for it may easily be conceived that there should be a greater disposition in the vigour of the fit than afterwards in the declination by reason that at that time the heat is greater and so more able to impel forth effluviums Distillation in a Retort will confirm what is here maintained For if you make only a moderate fire under the Retort the moisture which rises out of the matter will distil drop by drop because the vapours cooling and condensing in the neck of the Retort do resolve into a liquor but if you make a great fire in the Furnace so that the neck of the Retort comes to be heated too much all the moisture is driven in a meer vapour and there appears not the least humidity in the neck of the Retort I have already said that Gold doth repress the violence of Mercury because it doth Amalgamate with it but Aurum Fulminans doth it much better for being Volatile it is more easily carried through all the body and fails not to find out the Mercury wheresoever it lies We need not fear lest Aurum Fulminans taken inwardly and heated by the stomach should cause such a Detonation there as it does when set over the fire in a spoon for so much the more moisture as comes to it so much
Fusion of Metals The flame is made to Reverberate on the Silver to drive all Heterogeneous substances towards the sides That which is called a Caratt in Gold is a Denier or penny weight in Silver and thus an ounce of Silver well purified is of four and twenty penny weight which make 24 times 24 grains Now this ounce of Silver must lose nothing at all upon trial but if it should lose one penny weight in the Coppel the Silver then is said to be that of 23 penny weight and if it loses two scruples or penny weight it is but of 22 Deniers and so of the rest There is no Silver to be had of 24 deniers no more than Gold of 24 Caratts because there is always some mixture with it use what diligence and application you please in its purification Plate-silver contains one part of Copper to 24 parts of Silver and the Coppel-silver contains but a quarter of a part of Copper to four and twenty parts of Silver The Depart or parting of Metals is when a Dissolvent quits the Metal it had dissolved to betake it self unto another Thus when Copper is put into the Dissolution of Silver the Aqua fortis leaves the Silver to fall upon Dissolving the Copper and the reason of this is because the Copper-particles do so stir and shake the edges of the Dissolvent as to make them let go their hold Iron precipitates Copper Lapis Calaminaris precipitates Iron and the Liquor of fixt Niter doth so to the Lapis Calaminaris for the same reason but you must observe that Iron does not precipitate all the Copper nor the Calaminaris all the Iron no more than the Copper did precipitate all the Silver and the reason of this is that the points of the Aqua fortis having entred more deeply into the great pores of Copper and Iron are much the harder to be broken by bodies of this nature but because the liquor of fixt Niter does contain an Alkali much more active than the others it precipitates all the Lapis Calaminaris and all the Iron and Copper which did remain dissolved I shall in the sequel of this Book describe the manner of preparing the Liquor of fixt Niter the Salt that it contains reunites with the Volatile Spirits of Salt-peter that were in the Aqua fortis insomuch that the Salt-peter revives again Crystals of Silver called Vitriol of the Moon This Operation is a Silver opened and reduced into the form of Salt by the acid points of Spirit of Niter Dissolve one or two ounces of Coppel-silver in three times as much Spirit of Niter pour forth your dissolution into a Glass-Cucurbite set in a gentle Sand-fire evaporate about the fourth part of the moisture and so let the rest cool without stirring it it will turn into Crystals which you must separate from the Liquor and after you have dried them keep them in a Viol well stopt You may again fall to Evaporating half the remaining Liquor and set it a Crystallizing as before You may repeat these Evaporations and Crystallizations till all your Silver has turned into Crystals This Vitriol of the Moon is used to make an Eschar by touching the part with it It is also given inwardly for Dropsies and for Diseases of the Head from two unto six Grains in some Specifick Water it purges gently These Crystals might be prepared with Oyl of Vitriol instead of Spirit of Niter for inward use Remarks You must put your Silver purified by the Coppel into a Viol or Matrass large enough and pour upon it only as much Spirit of Niter as will serve to Dissolve it now that comes to about three times its weight Indeed you may use Aqua fortis instead of Spirit of Niter if you please in this Operation but I rather chuse Spirit of Niter because it is found to act with more celerity than Aqua fortis You may read in their proper places the description I have given you of them both and the Remarks I have made upon them Place your Vessel in Ashes or Sand a little warm for to hasten the Dissolution When the acid Spirits begin to work upon the Silver an Ebullition presently rises accompanied with a very considerable heat because these sharp edges do break those obstacles that hindred their entrance and violently force their passage It is this great motion and impetuous dispersion of parts that produces the heat and ebullition and by rarefaction of the Spirit of Niter sends forth through the neck of the Vessel a Red fume or vapour that you must be very careful to avoid as a thing very unwholsom and prejudicial to the Breast The Smoke and Ebullition do remain until the Silver is all of it dissolved after which the Liquor becomes clear and transparent but a little bluish If the Silver which is dissolved were perfectly purified from Copper the solution would no more be tinged than Spirit of Niter but because there is none to be found so perfectly pure it always tinges a little The solution of Plate-silver is much bluer than that of Silver purified by the Coppel because the Plate-silver contains more Copper than the other as I said before So that the purer the Silver is the less blue is the solution A little of it is evaporated that the rest may Crystallize the easier for that which evaporates is little better than a kind of insipid water the Silver still retaining the Acid fixt Spirits Now you must observe in all Crystallizations not to leave too much moisture for fear of weakning too much the Salts and so hindring their Coagulation Nor must you leave too little moisture for the Crystals not finding room enough to extend themselves in would confusedly fall one upon another These Crystals can be dissolved in Water like Salt their strength depends on the Spirits of Niter that are incorporated with them wherefore they weigh more than the Silver did that was employed and it is these Spirits which pierce and gnaw the flesh on which these Crystals are applied when an Eschar is to be made It is likewise they which cause that Fermentation of humours by which they purge when these Crystals are given inwardly The Liquor in which they are dissolved to be taken and the moisture of the Stomach do serve to correct their acrimony If you have a mind to revive these Crystals into Silver again you must only put them into hot Water and lay therein a plate of Copper They will then dissolve and the Silver precipitate to the bottom in a White powder that is to be washed and dried afterwards melting it in a Crucible with a little Salt-peter it will return into Ingots of the same weight as before Infernal Stone or perpetual Caustick The Infernal stone is a Silver rendred Caustick by the Salts of Spirit of Niter Dissolve in a Viol what quantity of Silver you please with three times as much Spirit of Niter set your Viol in a Sand fire and evaporate about two thirds
Liquor till you have recovered all that is in it Mix all your Crystals dry them and weigh them and if you have half an ounce of them powder them and mix them with six drachms of the matter I described for reviving the Calx of Silver remaining in the Matrass put this mixture into a Crucible and covering it with a tile light a strong fire about it to put the matter into fusion then taking it off the fire and letting it cool break the Crucible you 'l find the Silver at the bottom which will be fit for the same Operation again when you please Note that all the Liquor which was drawn by Distillation is as clear as common water wherefore I conclude that the Colour did consist in the dissolution of Silver it self and not of its sulphurs as some have thought You must cut the Silver into little pieces or plates that it may dissolve the more easily The Salt-water must be made of an ounce and a half of Salt dissolved in a quart of water this salt precipitates the Silver because it engages the points of the dissolvent and shaking them violently about makes them let go the hold they had with other bodies I shall speak more at large concerning these kinds of Precipitations in the Remarks which I shall make upon White Precipitate and shall then explicate the reason why Sea-salt which is an acid does precipitate that which another acid had dissolved I shall likewise answer the objections which have been raised on this subject Silver may be also precipitated by means of a Copper-plate as I have said already It is very indifferent which way you please to Precipitate it for it is done for no other end but to reduce the Silver into a very fine powder for an easier dissolution The Precipitate of Silver made with salt or Copper waxes brown in the drying and though dried in the shade which doubtless is by reason of some small proportion of Copper that it contains If you have dissolved an ounce of Coppel-silver and precipitate it with Salt or Copper you 'l draw an ounce and three drachms of Precipitate well washt and dried this augmentation does proceed from a remainder of the points which were broken in pieces and yet do still remain in the pores of the metal for these pores being very small they do but hardly let go what they have received into them There is no need of distilling a part of the Liquor that the Tincture may be the stronger as some have presumed to write for on the contrary it causes a Crystallization which diminishes both its colour and strength for the reason I have given before The effect of this Tincture for Diseases must rather be attributed to the Salt of Urine and spirit of Wine than to the Silver for they are not only able to fly into the Head and open obstructions there but assisted with the Natural heat do open the pores of all the body and drive out ill humours by transpiration The portion of Silver which remains at the bottom of the Matrass being impregnated with volatile parts would fly into the Air if it were melted alone without the addition of something else wherefore the abovementioned matter is added to it that being of a very fixt nature may weigh it down and hinder it from flying away Diana's Tree Take an ounce of Silver and dissolve it in three ounces of spirit of Niter pour your dissolution into a Matrass wherein you shall have put eighteen or twenty ounces of water and two ounces of Quick-silver Your Matrass must be fill'd up to the neck let it lye still upon a little round of straw in some convenient place for forty days together during which time you 'l find a Tree spread forth its branches and little balls at the end which represent their fruit This Operation is of no use at all in Physick I have here described it only to please the Curious Remarks These branches do proceed from the spirit of Niter which being incorporated with the Silver and Mercury do form divers Figures according to the room and moisture it hath to expatiate it self in For if you should put to it but ten or twelve ounces of water nothing but a kind of Crystals in great confusion would be able to appear On the contrary if you should use too much water nothing would then be seen besides a little precipitated powder You must let the mixture lye still for forty days together because the spirit of Niter being very much weakned by common water is able to work but very slowly If the matter should happen to be removed the figure would quickly fall into confusion but would recover it self again if you let it lye still long enough This Preparation is best performed in a cool place being properly a Crystallization This Operation may be fitly compared with the manner of Generation and Nourishment of Plants in the Earth for if the seed abounds with too much moisture the spirits which serve to ferment and dilate its parts will be rendred so weak as not to be able to act and so nothing can be produced if on the contrary there should prove too little moisture the spirits not finding room enough to expatiate in would either continue imprisoned or evaporate into Air and so be ineffectual But when there happens to be a fit proportion of water in the Earth then the spirits gently moving about do insensibly expatiate themselves and do rarifie and sublime along with them the substance of the seed from whence Vegetation doth proceed But to return unto our Operation If you should desire to separate the Silver from the Mercury shake the whole together and having poured it out into an earthen Vessel make it boil for half a quarter of an hour then let it cool a little till it becomes little more than luke-warm pour upon it a quart of water by little and little in which you have dissolved two ounces of Sea-salt and a white Precipitate will fall down pour off the water by Inclination and dry the Powder Then put it in a Retort placed in a Sand-furnace and having fitted to it a Receiver fill'd with water give a small fire at first then encrease it by degrees till the Retort grows red-hot and your Quick-silver will distil drop by drop into the water continue the fire till nothing more will distil let the Vessels cool pour the water out of the Receiver and having washt the Mercury dry it with linnen or the crum of bread and keep it for use You 'l find your Silver in the Retort which you may reduce into an Ingot by melting it in a Crucible with a little Salt-peter in a great Circular fire CHAP. III. Of Tinn TInn is a Metal that comes near unto Silver in colour but differs very much in the figure of its Pores and in the solidity and weight The name of the Planet Jupiter is given unto it and it is thought to receive its
the Head and to the top of the Body that are nothing else but some parts of Tinn raised up by the Sal Armoniack and at the bottom of the Body you 'l find some Tinn Revived Magistery of Jupiter or Tinn This Operation is only a Tinn dissolved by an acid and precipitated by an Alkali salt Dissolve the Flowers of Tinn in a sufficient quantity of water Filtrate the Dissolution and pour upon it drop by drop the Spirit of Sal Armoniack or the Oil of Tartar made per Deliquium there will Precipitate a very White Powder You must Edulcorate it by washing it several times with warm water and afterwards dry it It serves for Paint for being mixed with Pomatum it makes a very curious White Remarks It is to be considered in both these Preparations that the Dissolution of Tinn is performed only by an acid Salt which the Sal Armoniack is impregnated with and this is the reason why the Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack doth serve to Precipitate it for being an Alkali as well as the Oil of Tartar it breaks the force of the acid which therefore le ts go what it held dissolved That being granted there will be no longer difficulty in conceiving how the Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack doth often Precipitate what Sal Armoniack had dissolved Flowers of Jupiter or Tinn This Operation is a Tinn Volatilized and raised in form of Meal by the means of a Volatile Salt Take an unglazed earthen Pot with a hole in the middle of its height and a stopple to it place the Pot in a Furnace of a just proportion wherein the pot may enter only as high as the hole and with Bricks and Lute take care that the fire may not transpire fit upon this pot three Aludels or open pots of the same earth without any bottoms and fit a Head to the uppermost with a Receiver to the Head lute well all the junctures and light a good fire in the Furnace to make red-hot that part of the pot which lies within it then mix a pound of Tinn and two pounds of purified Salt-peter throw a spoonful of this mixture through the hole of the pot and stop it a detonation soon follows which when it is over throw in another spoonful and so continue to do until all the mixture be spent let the vessels cool and unlute them and you 'l find in the receiver a little Spirit of Niter and in and round about the Aludels very white Flowers of Tinn gather them together with a feather then wash them divers times with fountain water and when you have dried them on paper in the shade keep them in a Viol they serve for Paint and they make a curious White when mixed in Pomatums or in some liquor You 'l find in the bottom of the Pot a Calx of Tinn mixed with the fixt part of Salt-peter boil it in water wash and dry it and it may be used in desiccative unguents Remarks It is a plain sign that Tinn does contain a Sulphur because being mixed with Salt-peter and put into the pot that 's heated red-hot it will flame for you must not imagine that the detonation can proceed from the Salt-peter alone this salt being never able to flame without the mixture of some Sulphureous matter as I shall prove in its own place But because the Sulphur of Tinn is lockt up in other substances it remains quiet for some time to unite with the Salt-peter before it raises a detonation Nevertheless if you be in haste to dispatch the detonation may be expedited by introducing a small cole lighted into the hole of the pot to fire the matter These Flowers do proceed from the part of Tinn which is easiest to rarifie and which the Volatile salt of Salt-peter and the Sulphur of Tinn had raised You must take care when you would make Detonations to proportion the Salt-peter with the Sulphur for otherwise they will not endure so long as they should either there being too much Sulphur it will not meet with enough Volatile parts of Salt-peter to raise it all up or else the Salt-peter being in too great a quantity for the Sulphur it causes but a Sublimation in part because the great quantity of this salt which remains at bottom without firing does fix some part of the Sulphur Wherefore there was but little reason to believe that three parts of Salt-peter to one of Tinn would raise more Flowers than when there are but two according to my description For then there being too much Salt-peter for the quantity of Tinn the Detonation will prove imperfect and almost all the Salt-peter will remain at bottom and will only serve to check some part of the Sulphurs of Tinn hindring them from Subliming into so many Flowers as would otherwise rise Three Aludels and one Head are used in this Operation that the Vapours which rise in the time of Detonation may have room enough for otherwise they would burst the Vessels notwithstanding the casting in of the matter but little at a time The Flowers of Tinn are washt in order to deprive them of a Volatile Salt derived from the Salt-peter which was mixed with it and the salt dissolves in the water leaving the Flowers in their purity You must dry them in the shade for both the Sun and fire do render them black and this because they do re-unite the particles of Tinn which owe all their whiteness to the fineness of Pulverization which gives them another Superficies than they had to reflect the light with CHAP. IV. Of Bismuth called Tinn-Glass BIsmuth is a Sulphureous Marcassite that is found in the Tinn Mines many do think it is an imperfect Tinn which partakes of good store of Arsenick its pores are disposed in another manner than those of Tinn which is evident enough because the Menstruum which dissolves Bismuth cannot intirely dissolve Tinn There is another sort of Marcassite called Zinch that much resembles Bismuth and on which the same preparations may be made that I am going to describe Marcassite is nothing else but the excrement of a Metal or an Earth impregnated with Metallick parts The Pewterers do mix Bismuth and Zinch in their Tinn to make it sound the better Flowers of Bismuth This Operation is nothing but a portion of Tinn-glass raised up in form of meal by Volatile salts Calcine Bismuth as you do Lead then mixing it with an equal part of Sal Armoniack proceed to its sublimation as you did in that of Tinn Thus you have Flowers which you may dissolve in Water and Precipitate with the Spirit of Sal Armoniack or Oil of Tartar This Magistery or Precipitate serves for the same use as that which follows Magistery of Bismuth Magistery of Bismuth is a Tinn-glass dissolved and precipitated in a very white powder Dissolve in a Matrass an ounce of Bismuth grosly powdered with three ounces of Spirit of Niter Pour the Dissolution into a clean White-ware Vessel and pour
upon it five or six pints of Fountain-water in which you shall have dissolved before-hand an Ounce of Sea-salt you 'l see a White powder Precipitate to the bottom Pour off the Water by Inclination and wash this Magistery several times then dry it in the shade It is an excellent Cosmetick called Spanish White that serves to whiten the complexion It is either mixed in Pomatum or Lilie-water Remarks You must use a large Bolt-head to dissolve the Bismuth in because the great Ebullition that happens as soon as Spirit of Niter is cast upon it requires room to move in You must likewise have a care as much as you can of receiving the Vapours at your Nose or Mouth for they are very offensive to the breast This quick and violent Ebullition proceeds from the acids immediate penetration of the large pores of Bismuth so soon as thrown upon it and the acid violently divides all that opposes its motion It happens also that the Bolt-head grows so hot that a man can't endure his hand upon it because the points of the Menstruum do chafe against the solid body of Bismuth with such force that you may observe from thence much the same heat as when two solid bodies are rub'd against one another Add to this that the great store of igneous particles contained in Spirit of Niter may much increase this heat If the Dissolution becomes turbid through some impurities in the Bismuth you must pour into it about twice as much Water and filter it for if you should go to filter it without water it would coagulate like salt in the Filter and not pass through This Coagulation proceeds from the acid spirits of Niter that are included in the particles of Bismuth which finding too little liquor to swim in and disperse do gather together into Crystals when the dissolution is cold The impurity which commonly swims upon the solution of Bismuth is a fat or bituminous matter which will not dissolve in the spirit of Niter This Magistery may be made by pouring in great quantity of Fountain water without any salt into the dissolution but it is made the quicker when you use salt and the Precipitation is the better because salt does encounter and break some of the acids that water alone was not able to weaken sufficiently Now some difficulty appears in conceiving how plain water alone comes to precipitate Bismuth Lead Antimony which the acid had dissolved and yet can do nothing at all to the precipitating Gold Silver or Mercury without the assistance of some salt or other body I do imagine that the former having large Pores the acids cannot stick so close in them but that water is able to force them out but Gold Silver and Mercury having finer pores in comparison than the other do retain the acids so very closely that the weak impulses of water alone can make no separation some more active body is requisite to do it The Augmentation which happens to Bismuth when made into a Magistery does proceed from some part of the Spirit of Niter that remains still in it notwithstanding the Precipitation and Lotion Commonly one Drachm of this Magistery or Precipitate is mixed with Four ounces of Water or in an ounce of Pomatum It softens the skin very much and is also good against the Itch because it feeds upon those acids or Salts which cherish this Disease CHAP. V. Of Lead LEad is a Metal fill'd with Sulphur or a Bituminous earth that renders it very supple and pliant It is probable that it contains some Mercury It hath Pores very like those of Tinn it is called Saturn by reason of the influence it is thought to receive from the Planet of that name Those who work upon Lead are subject to Colicks and to become Paralytick whether it be that there rises out of it a Mercury which obstructs the Nerves or else that the very substance of Lead does act upon them after the manner of Mercury Lead is extremely cold and for that reason is proper to asswage the heats of Venus being applied to the Perinaeum and it may be the heat of the skin causes it to lose some particles which insinuating through the pores do some way fix the Spirits and qualifie their motion from whence the part waxes cold it is also applied on many Tumours caused by too great an Ebullition of the Bloud Lead serves to Purifie Gold and Silver and may be said to act in the Coppel much after the same manner as the white of an Egg does in Clarifying a Syrop that 's boil'd in a Bason for as the gross and terrestrious impurities of a Syrop do stick to the white of an Egg by reason of its glutinous nature and are driven to the sides of the Bason in the stirring so do the Heterogeneous parts that were mixt with Gold and Silver stick unto the Lead and by the fire are driven to the sides of the Coppel like unto a Scum Calcination of Lead Melt Lead in an earthen Pan unglazed and stir it over the Fire with a Spatule 'till it is reduced to a powder If you increase the Fire and still Calcine the Matter for an hour or two it will be more open and fit to be penetrated by acids If you put this Powder to Calcine in a Reverberatory Fire for three or four hours it will be of a red colour and is that which is called Minium Lead is also prepared into Cerusse or White-Lead by the means of Vinegar whose vapour it is made to imbibe for it turns into a White Rust that is gather'd up and little Cakes made of it Two parts of Lead may be melted in a Pot or Crucible and one part of Sulphur added to it when the Sulphur is burnt out you 'l find the matter turned into a black powder which is called Plumbum ustum All these Preparations of Lead are of a drying nature they may be mixed with unguents and plaisters they unite with oils or fat substances in the boiling and they do give them a solid consistence and the greatest part of our plaisters do derive their hardness from it I spoke of the way of reducing Lead into Litharge when I treated of the Purification of Silver by the Coppel and it is thither I desire my Reader to return Remarks There happens an observation in the Calcination of Lead as well as several other things which very well deserves some reflection 'T is that although the Sulphureous or Volatile parts of Lead do fly away in the Calcination which loss should indeed make it weigh the less nevertheless after a long Calcining 't is found that instead of losing it increases in weight Some trying to explicate this Phaenomenon do say that as long as the violence of the flame does open and divide the parts of the Calx of Lead the acid of the Wood or other matter that burns does insinuate into tha pores of this Calx where 't is stopt or fixt by the Alkali but
that I now described but because Water alone has not strength enough to destroy the acid so as to make it quit every particle that it held dissolved some part of the Lead still remains indiscernable in the liquor and does not precipitate Wherefore it is better to follow my description in the making Magistery of Saturn You must use an equal quantity of Water and Vinegar to dissolve the Salt of Saturn for if you should use Water alone it would rather cause a precipitation than dissolution The Oil of Tartar or rather the Salt of Tartar dissolved being an Alkali destroys the edges of the Vinegar that suspended the Lead whence it comes to precipitate for finding nothing in the Liquor that is able to hold it up it falls down by its own weight Now in this Operation there happens no effervescency at all because the edges of the Vinegar being broken the fragments of them which remain have not activity and are not keen enough to enter into the pores of Salt of Tartar with a sufficient penetration And it is the same thing with all other precipitations of matters which have been dissolved by Vinegar but when the solution has been performed with stronger acids the precipitations are made with ebullition for the reason that I gave in my Remarks upon Aurum Fulminans This Powder being washt and dried is nothing but a Cerusse rendred exceeding fine It is used for Paint but this Cosmetick as well as all others that are made of Metallick substances such as Tinn and Bismuth do often black the skin after having whitened it because the heat of the flesh doth gather together these Metallick Particles which owed all their whiteness to an exact Alkoholisation and losing that do often Revive Balsam or Oil of Saturn The Balsam of Saturn is a solution of Salt of Saturn made in Oil of Turpentine Put eight ounces of Salt of Saturn powdered into a Matrass and pour upon it Spirit of Turpentine four fingers above it place the Matrass in a small Sand heat digesting for a day you 'l have a red Tincture decant the Liquor and pour more Spirit of Turpentine on the Matter that remains in the bottom of the Matrass leave it in digestion as before then separate again the Liquor which remains still a little coloured and there will remain at the bottom nothing but a little Matter that you may Revive into Lead in a Crucible Pour your dissolutions into a Glass-Retort place it in Sand and fitting to it a Receiver distil over a gentle fire about two thirds of the Liquor which will be Spirit of Turpentine quench the fire and when the Retort is cold pour that which is in it into a Viol and keep it for use This is the Balsam of Saturn excellent for cleansing and cicatrizing of Ulcers You may touch Chancres with it though they be never so bad for it mightily resists putrefaction Remarks The Spirit of Turpentine to speak properly is an exalted Oil. It dissolves Lead and easily unites with it because it is very sulphureous If you should still persist in putting new Spirit of Turpentine on the remaining matter all the Salt of Saturn would at last dissolve Some do use to distil away all the Liquor and keep that for Oil which comes forth last But it is a great deal better to follow my description for when all the Liquor is distilled there will hardly have risen any Particle of Saturn and therefore it cannot be so good Burning Spirit of Saturn Spirit of Saturn is an inflammable liquor which is drawn from Salt of Saturn Fill two thirds of an earthen Retort or a glass one luted with Salt of Saturn place it in a Furnace over a very gentle fire both for gently heating the Retort and driving out a Phlegmatick Water continue this degree of Fire until the drops begin to have some taste then fit to the Retort a large Recipient lute well the junctures and encrease the fire by degrees a Spirit will come forth that will fill the Recipient with Clouds When nothing more will come let the Vessels cool and having unluted them pour what you find in the Recipient into a Glass-Cucurbite and rectifie in a very gentle Sand-fire about half the Liquor which will be the inflammable Spirit of Saturn burning like Spirit of Wine and of a sowr taste This Spirit is very good to resist putrefaction of humours It is also given in the Hypochondriack Melancholy from eight unto sixteen drops in Broth or some Liquor peculiar to the Disease and the use of it is continued every Morning for a Fortnight The other moyety of the liquor that remains in the Alembick is called improperly Oil of Saturn it is good to cleanse the eyes of horses If you take out the blackish matter that remains in the Retort and put it in a Crucible upon burning Coals it will reassume the form of Lead Remarks You must remember not to fill above two thirds of the Retort with the Salt and to joyn a Receiver large enough because these Volatile Spirits flying out with violence might be apt to break the Vessels if they had not room to play in If you use six ounces of Salt of Saturn in your Distillation you 'l draw an Ounce and six drachms of liquor and there will remain in the Retort six ounces and six drachms of a blackish and yellow matter and if you put this matter into a Crucible setting it in the fire 't will melt and you 'l regain four ounces of Lead and half an ounce or it may be six drachms of a yellow earth coloured like Litharge of Gold It is evident from this Operation that an ounce and six drachms of the more Acid parts of Vinegar are sufficient to impregnate four ounces and two drachms of Lead to reduce it into Salt but the strangest thing that happens to it is the great change that acids do give it insomuch that it is not to be known again in the least The Augmentation that the Lead in the Retort does here receive is as evident as may be for six drachms are taken out of it at last more than were put in of Salt of Saturn besides an ounce and six drachms of liquor that were drawn out So that we must necessarily conclude that the four ounces and two drachms of Lead are encreased two ounces and an half It is probable enough that the more rarified the Lead becomes the more capable it will be of igneous particles for although the Salt of Saturn is not suffer'd to remain long in the fire yet the Lead encreases apace Possibly it may be that as fast as the acids go out of it igneous bodies enter in their place and open likewise the Pores of Lead by their nimble motion but these Pores must needs be so disposed as to shut again like valvules and hinder the return back of those fiery parts When this Calx is Calcined in an open fire in a Crucible without stirring
it the parts of Lead close together and expel the fiery particles so that the Lead revives as it was before and recovers its Natural gravity The matter when shut up in the Retort would never be able to revive let the fire be made never so strong because the igneous particles would have no liberty to get out The Yellow earth that 's found in the Crucible seems to be of a Golden colour it is a terrestrious and bituminous impurity that the Lead is purified from There should be indeed but two drachms of it because four ounces of Lead are recovered wherefore the Augmentation must needs be from the fiery parts that remained in it as in a Calx Spirit of Saturn becomes inflammable from its containing in it some spirit of Wine that remains still involved in the Vinegar and was carried away with the acids into the Pores of Lead when the Salt of Saturn was made for if you quicken the Fire to distil this Salt the acids break in pieces and leave the Spirit of Wine at liberty insomuch that the Spirit of Saturn hath no acid taste The matter that remains in the Retort after the Operation may be easily revived into Lead as being deprived of the acids which gave it the form of Salt The Salt of Saturn may be likewise revived into Lead by mixing it with an Alkali Salt melted in a Crucible with a good fire because this last Salt destroys the acids that kept the Lead thus disguised but you must observe that it will flame before it revives by reason of the Spirit of Wine that I said was included in the dissolution of Cerusse made by Vinegar CHAP. VI. Of Copper COpper is a Metal that abounds in Vitriol and Sulphur it is called Venus because this Planet was thought to govern it particularly and bestow its Influences upon it and for this reason there hath been attributed unto it the virtue of encreasing seed and curing the diseases of those parts that serve for Generation But because Copper contains in it a Corrosive quality I would advise no body to use it inwardly Copper takes Rust very easily for if you leave but a drop of Water some hours upon a piece of it it makes a Verdegreese Have a care of drinking water that has lain in Copper vessels for it always dissolves some portion of it which appears easily from the taste it leaves in it It will not be altogether amiss to make mention here of an effect that is no less strange than usual 'T is that Water or any other liquor that 's heated or boil'd in a Copper vessel for a whole day together savours not at all or not so much of the Copper provided that it be not removed off the fire all that time as other water warm'd in a like vessel and put from the fire but an hour for whereas water alone can dissolve something of the Copper it would seem that being aided with the heat of fire it should partake of its nature the more Now in my opinion this is the most rational explication that can be given of this matter Every body may perceive that when the water begins to heat in a Copper vessel that 's set over the fire little Atoms do rise at bottom like the stirring of a powder and these Atoms do encrease according as the water receives more heat so that at length they make it boil on high these little Atoms can have no other cause than the fiery particles which passing through the vessel do drive the water upwards apace and rarifie its parts for this reason it is that the water is not able to dissolve any of the Copper for being continually raised upwards it can make no impression upon the bottom of the vessel Perhaps some will tell me that the liquor might take the impression of the Copper at the sides of the Bason but it is easie to imagine that though there don't pass through the sides so many fiery particles as do at the bottom there do pass nevertheless enough to hinder the liquor from sticking to or dissolving any particles of the vessel But now on the contrary the vessel being remov'd from off the fire and the motion of the igneous particles being quite ceased the liquor partakes easily of the Copper and so much the more easily as the fire has rarified the metal and rendred it more proper for dissolution Every thing seems to confirm this Opinion for if any liquor is put to boil over a strong fire in a Copper vessel it will not impregnate in the least but if you place it upon a small fire and leave it so for some time then because there will not pass enough fiery particles to cover all the surface of the vessel and raise up the liquor it will take some taste of the Copper but this taste will not be so strong as if you had left it the same length of time in such a vessel off the fire after it had been warm'd Liquors that are full of Salts do take the impression of Copper much more easily than those that are not Thus Confectioners do observe what I have mentioned for though they boil their Confections in vessels of Copper for a considerable time they find them taste nothing of the Copper but they know that if they should leave them but half an hour in the vessel taken off the fire they would be tainted with a most loathsom Copper taste We may learn from this Discourse not to use a Copper vessel when we have a mind to boil or heat a liquor gently and when we do think fit to use it to be sure to keep a good brisk fire underneath and not to let what we have boil'd cool afterwards in a vessel of this nature Another difficulty does here offer it self on this subject and it is to know why a Kettle that has been taken off the fire is not so hot at bottom as at the sides so that as soon as it is removed from off the fire one may touch it at bottom without burning ones finger which can't be done at the sides without present scalding The reason of which is that the fiery particles tending upwards through the bottom of the kettle which is flat in a direct line don't make any stop in passing through having but a little distance to conquer before they come into the liquor but those that rise on the sides finding a longer space to make upon the kettle do many of them stop in the Pores of the Copper It is not the same thing in vessels that are made in another form whose bottom is Globular because the fiery particles rising up in an indirect line do find more to do to pass through it than in a flat bottom and so by conference more of them do stop But it is objected that if igneous bodies do pass through the bottom of the kettle without any stop they would not be able to heat it any more when it is empty
than when it is filled with water nevertheless it is plain that when an empty vessel is set over the fire the bottom does heat and grow red-hot especially if left so a good while I answer to this that when the kettle which was set in a great fire is full of liquor the fiery parts having passed through the bottom in a strait line as I said are in a manner absorbed by the liquor and have no more strength or action left to reflect again upon the bottom of the vessel and so to beat it but now when it is empty the fiery parts which pass through the bottom finding nothing to drown them and check their motion many of them do return back upon the bottom and that way heat it so much as they do And the same reason holds why an empty Tinn or Leaden vessel being set in the fire does quickly melt but when filled with liquor they will not melt make what fire under them you please for the fiery parts finding nothing that is able to hinder their activity in an empty vessel do pass to and fro through its pores often enough to melt it But these same fiery parts finding moisture to engage them in a full vessel they cannot return upon the bottom so as to melt it Copper does not melt so easily as many other matters because it contains more terrestrious parts than those others Brass or Yellow Copper is a mixture of Lapis Calaminaris and Copper and vessels that are made of it give less impression to liquors than the others Calcination of Copper To Calcine Copper is to purifie it from its more Volatile parts by the means of common Sulphur and fire in order to render it the more compact Stratifie plates of Copper with powder'd Sulphur in a large Crucible cover the Crucible with a Cover that hath a hole in the middle to give the Vapours vent Place your Crucible in a Wind-furnace and light a very strong fire about it until there rise no more vapours then draw off your Plates as they are hot and separate them this is the Aes ustum that is used in outward remedies to deterge Remarks In the making of this stratification we begin with a bed of Sulphur and lay over it a bed of Copper-plates then another bed of Sulphur and another of Plates We continue to do so till the Crucible is quite full but you must be sure to let the first and last bed be of Sulphur This Calcination is thus performed that the common Sulphur by its burning may cleanse the Copper of its superficial Sulphur but it will be much better purified by the following Operation Purification of Copper This second Purification of Copper is to render it fair to the eye and of a high colour Take what quantity you please of Calcined Copper heat it red-hot in a Crucible placed among burning coals and cast it red-hot into a Pot wherein you shall have put enough Oil of Linseed to swim above it four fingers cover the Pot presently for otherwise the Oil would take fire let the Copper steep till the Oil is grown pretty cool separate it and put it to heat again in the Crucible then cast it into Oil of Linseed continue to made it red-hot and quench it in the Oil nine several times You must change your Oil every third time and you 'l have a Copper well purified and of its former colour If you Calcine it once again to consume the Oil and powder it you 'l have a Crocus of Copper that is detersive and good to eat the proud flesh of Wounds and Ulcers Vitriol of Copper or Venus This Operation is a Copper opened and transformed into a Vitriol by Spirit of Niter Dissolve two ounces of Copper cut into little pieces in five or six ounces of Spirit of Niter pour the dissolution into a Glass-Cucurbite and evaporate in Sand about the fourth part of the Liquor put that which remains into a Cellar or some other cool place and let it lye there five or six Hours you 'l find Blue Crystals separate them and continue to evaporate and crystallize till you have drawn them all dry these Crystals and keep them in a Viol well stopt They are Caustick and are used to consume superfluous or proud flesh If you leave these Crystals in a Pan uncover'd they will turn into liquor that may serve for the same use Remarks You must put the Copper into a large body placed within the Chimney and pour to it by little and little the Spirit of Niter there does presently rise a great effervescency and a red cloud from it which would be very mischievous to the breast if it were not avoided Then the vessel grows so hot that a man cannot keep his hand upon it and the heat continues until the solution be finished for then the liquor clears up and becomes of a fair blue colour The great effervescency that happens does proceed from the sutable Pores of Copper to the edges of Spirit of Niter so that they can make their entrance and jostles with a good force for when these edges which did before swim with all liberty in a liquid do find their motion checkt in the body of the metal they do strive to disengage themselves and do thereby separate the parts of the Copper It is this violent separation which causes the ebullition and heat for the acid edges striking strongly against the solid parts of Copper do cause a great agitation in the liquor and by that means do excite a heat much after the manner as when two solid bodies are beaten against one another violently they grow so hot as even to strike fire The red cloud is derived from the Spirit of Niter which upon rarefaction does always acquire that same colour When the Copper is but half dissolved it is green but when it is all dissolved it assumes a blue colour if you will separate the acids again from the Copper dissolved and reunite the parts by the help of fire it recovers its red colour After that the acids have divided the parts of Copper as much as they are able they stick fast to them and suspend them in the liquor Some part of the liquor is evaporated that the rest may crystallize the more easily That which flies away in time of the solution is the more phlegmatick part Vitriol of Copper is nothing but the acids of Spirit of Niter incorporated in the Copper and it is these Spirits that cause all the Corrosion for they are like so many little knives fastned to the Body of the Copper which do tear and gnaw the flesh on which they are applied This Vitriol dissolves into Liquor because the Copper having large Pores the moisture doth easily insinuate into them Other Crystals of Venus These Crystals of Venus are the acid part of the Vinegar incorporated into Copper Take what quantity you please of Verdegrease in powder put it into a large Matrass and pour upon it distilled
Sublimates may be revived again into flowing Mercury by mixing them with Lime and distilling them as I have said iâ— the reviving of Cinnabar into Quick-silver because the alkali of Lime destroys those acids thaâ— disguised the Quick-silver Oil or Liquor of Mercury This preparation is an acid liquor loaded with Mercury Put the lotions of the white mass that Turbiâ—â— Mineral was made of into an earthen pan oâ— glass vessel evaporate in Sand all the liquor until there remains at bottom a matter in form oâ— salt which weighs two ounces and a drachm puâ— the pan in a cellar or other cool place and then leave it until this matter be almost all dissolveâ— into liquor It is used for the laying open Venereal Shancres and eating the flesh Pledgets being dipt into it Remarks This liquor is nothing but Mercury so penetrated and divided by the acid Spirits of Vitriol that it can dissolve like a Salt now for that it contains these corrosive Spirits it eats and corrodes where-ever it touches like unto a Sublimate Corrosive This liquor may be made with spirit of Niter and then it will be more violent in its Operation but because it would then pierce too much and cause dangerous accidents I would rather choose to prepare it with Oil of Vitriol If you drop a few drops of the Oil of Tartar made per Deliquium into this liquor there will fall immediately a Mercurial Precipitate because the alkali of Tartar will break the edges that held up the Mercury dissolved Another Oil of Mercury This preparation is a Sublimate Corrosive dissolved in spirit of Wine Powder well an ounce of Sublimate Corrosive and put it into a Bolthead pour upon it four ounces of Spirit of Wine well rectified upon salt of Tartar stop well your Bolthead and let it infuse cold six or seven hours the Sublimate will dissolve but if any sediment remains at bottom decant the liquor from it and pouring upon the sediment a little more Spirit of Wine infuse it as before to finish the solution mix your solutions and keep them in a Viol well stopt This is an Oil of Mercury milder than the former it is good in Venereal Shancres especially when there is any fear of a Gangrene you may use it with pledgets like the former Remarks Spirit of Wine well rectified can dissolve sublimate corrosive but it is not able to dissolve Quick-silver nor even Mercurius dulcis the reason of which is that the Sublimate being a Mercury extremely rarified and already as it were suspended by acids the Spirit of Wine insinuates into it by little and little and dissolves its parts but Quick-silver and Mercurius dulcis consisting of parts too close and compact the Spirit of Wine which is a rarified Sulphur cannot give shakes strong enough to disjoyn or separate them This liquor is milder than the former because Spirit of Wine which is a Sulphur does so blunt the acid edges of Sublimate Corrosive that they cannot act with that strength they did when they were at liberty Other Precipitates of Mercury These preparations are only Sublimate Corrosive dissolved and precipitated into powders of different colours Mix 7 or 8 ounces of Sublimate Corrosive powdered in a glass or marble Mortar with 16 or 18 ounces of warm water stir them about for half an hour then let the liquor settle and pour it off by Inclination filter it and divide it into three parts to be put into so many Viols Pour into one of these Viols some drops of the Oil of Tartar made per Deliquium there falls immediately a red Precipitate Drop into another of these Viols some volatile spirit of Sal Armoniack and you have a white Precipitate Pour into the last of these Viols about a spoonful of Lime-water you have a yellow water that is called Phagaedenick-water or a water for Ulcers because it is good to cleanse and heal Ulcers the Chirurgeons do frequently use it especially in Hospitals if you let the liquor settle it will let fall a yellow precipitate To obtain these three Precipitates you have only to pour off the clear water by Inclination wash them and dry them apart Red precipitate may be used like that I described before but it is not so strong it is the truest red precipitate of any The white precipitate has the same virtues as the other Yellow precipitate may be used in Pomatums for the Itch half a drachm or a drachm of it is to be mixed with an ounce of Pomatum The Sublimate which remains at the bottom of the Mortar being dried may be used in Pomatums for the Itch like yellow precipitate Remarks Sublimate being a Mercury loaded with acids common water is able to dissolve some of it because these acids do rarefie it and make a kind of salt of it but because there are not acids enough in it to dissolve all the Mercury the most compact part of it remains at bottom the liquor is filtrated to clear and purifie it the more it is as clear and transparent as Fountain water If by way of Curiosity you should drop into the Viol of red precipitate that I now described some spirit of Sal Armoniack and would shake the liquor a little it would presently turn white and your precipitate would be white but if instead of spirit of Sal Armoniack you would use spirit of Vitriol an Ebullition would rise in it and the red liquor would become clear and transparent as common water Because the Oil of Tartar is an alkali salt dissolved it breaks the edges of the acid which held up the Mercury imperceptible and serv'd as Finns to make it swim in the water so that this Mercury having nothing left to bear it up must needs precipitate by its own weight The same thing happens when spirit of Sal Armoniack is thrown upon the other part of the solution of sublimate Corrosive For this spirit being in like manner an alkali produces the same effect as the Oil of Tartar But although alkali's do all agree in this that they break and destroy acids nevertheless there is always some difference in their action And this evidently appears in those differently coloured precipitates for this diversity can be attributed only to this that they having in several manners wrought upon acids do dispose and modifie the parts of the precipitated body so as they may be capable of making different Refractions of Light These precipitates are no longer poisons though they come from sublimate Corrosive and there 's the same reason for it as there is for the precipitations for seeing that which gave the Corrosion was an acid when this acid is destroyed by such powerful alkali's as are spirit of Sal Armoniack and Oil of Tartar that which remains must become sweet When spirit of Vitriol is thrown upon the liquor of red precipitate there rises an Ebullition because the acid does penetrate the alkali salt of the Oil of Tartar and this alkali being destroyed the acid dissolves
stomach by pricking its Fibres with some salts that they carry along with them If you mix this Emetick with an Infusion of Senna or some such purgative it works as much by stool as by vomit because these Remedies do precipitate with them some part of the Sulphurs When a man swallows the Perpetual Pill it passes by its own weight and purges downwards it is washt and given again as before and so on perpetually Almost all Chymists have written that this Pill loses nothing at all of its weight though taken several times 'T is true indeed the diminution is but very small yet nevertheless it would not be hard to remark it in some measure It may be said also that in place of the Sulphureous parts which do exhale to cause the vomiting some extraneous bodies do succeed in their place as it happens when Antimony is Calcined in the Sun When this Pill hath been taken and voided twenty or thirty times it purges not so much as it did at first as well because the more soluble parts of the Sulphur are gone as that what remains doth pass without any great effect The same doth happen to Cups or Gobelets which can't make the wine so Emetick as before after they have been filled twenty or thirty times Some do prescribe the Perpetual Pill in the disease called Miserere but this practice is not without danger because the ball stopping sometime in the Intestines which are knotted or twisted together in this disease may cause an Inflammation and so exulcerate the part It is given in the Colick and then it does well Wine draws out the Emetick virtue of the Regulus much better than water or spirit of Wine or vinegar can do the reason of which is that this virtue does consist in a saline sulphur which water could not penetrate spirit of Wine indeed does dissolve some of the more sulphureous part of it but does not take enough of the salt the vinegar by its acidity does fix too much what it has dissolved but Wine contains a sulphureous spirit and a saline Tartar which do make a most convenient Menstruum to dissolve and to preserve the saline and sulphureous part of the prepared Antimony Upon considering the different ways of evacuation caused by Antimony and many other Medicins I do find it very probable that Emeticks do work as they do because their operation being quick is exerted in the stomach before the medicin had time to descend more downwards and then this viscus is very sensible when irritated and undergoes commotions sufficiently violent to make rise what is within it But if the medicin proves slow in its operation and descends into the gutts before it raises a purgative fermentation it then forces downwards whence it comes to pass that those who do not vomit upon taking emeticks are commonly purged by stool Thus Vomits and Purges do differ only in this that the first do work in the stomach the others in the gutts Oil and lukewarm water do vomit by relaxing the fibres of the stomach and changing the motion of the spirits which do then act only by shaking or turning the stomach to a discharge upwards If by way of curiosity you would Calcine four ounces of the Regulus of Antimony powdered in an earthen cup unglazed set in a small fire stirring it all the while with a Spatule there will rise up a vapour for an hour and a halfs time or there-abouts and when the matter fumes no longer it turns into a grey powder that weighs two drachms and a half more than the Regulus did at first This augmentation of quantity is the stranger for that the fume which ascended from it during the Calcination should seem rather to have diminished its weight It must be therefore granted that a great many fiery particles have entred into it in the room of that which fum'd away This Fume proceeds from some grosser Sulphur that remained in the Regulus and indeed it smells strong of the sulphur Golden Sulphur of Antimony This preparation is the sulphureous part of Antimony dissolved by Alkali salts and precipitated by an acid Take the dross of the Regulus of Antimony powder and boil them with common water in an earthen pot half an hour strain the liquor and pour vinegar into the expression there will precipitate a red powder filtrate and separate your precipitate dry it and keep it you will obtain twelve ounces and two drachms of it it is called the Golden Sulphur of Antimony and is an Emetick the dose is from two grains unto six in broth or in Pills Remarks You must put about sixteen pints of water to boil with the fifteen ounces of the dross of Regulus of Antimony though the liquor does coagulate like a Jelly when it is cold by reason of the salts and sulphurs joyning together for the dross of the Regulus is nothing but a mixture of the fixt parts of Salt-peter and Tartar that have retained with them some of the more impure Sulphur of Antimony Now seeing that these salts do become Alkali by means of Calcination the acid which is poured upon them does break or destroy their strength and makes them quit the sulphur which they held dissolved from whence the precipitation of the Golden Sulphur of Antimony does proceed So soon as vinegar is poured on the dissolution of the dross volatile sulphurs do arise which are very disagreeable to the smell the precipitate which is afterwards made is like to a Coagulum or curd in great quantity This Sulphur does operate much like to the Crocus metallorum of which I shall soon speak The Chymists have called it Golden sulphur by reason of its colour which is near like unto that of Gold but it is probable that the Antients did understand by the Golden Sulphur of Antimony some other sulphur than this because almost all of them have writ that there was a gross superficial sulphur in Antimony like unto common sulphur which is this of which our present preparation is made and another more fixt and like unto that of Gold which they held to be Sudorifick You must not imagine that our Golden Vomitive Sulphur is altogether Pure it is still loaded with a great deal of earth and salt which it has still retained in the precipitation and it is this salt which by rarefying its parts does give it this colour Regulus of Antimony with Mars This preparation is a mixture of the more fixed parts of Antimony and some portion of Iron Put eight ounces of small Nails into a great Crucible cover it and set it on a grate in a Furnace surround it above and below with a good fire and when the Nails are red hot throw into them a pound of Antimony in powder cover again the Crucible and continue a great fire when the Antimony shall be in perfect Fusion cast into it by little and little three ounces of Salt-peter a detonation will happen and the nails will melt and when
much more force for they penetrate and divide every particle and do render them imperceptible and uncapable of receiving a more exact dissolution Now in this penetration as in the solution of Mercury there happens a great effervescency for which reason I advise to pour the spirit of Niter by little and little for fear the matter should rise above the vessel This effervescency doth proceed from the resistance that the edges of the spirits do meet with when they enter into the pores of the Antimony for so soon as the dissolution is ended there is no further Ebullition Afterwards the humidity is evaporated and new spirit of Niter poured twice more on the fixt mass as I have said after which the Butter of Antimony that was so great a Caustick and Emetick becomes one of the mildest medicins we have and near approaching the preparation of Antimony that is called Diaphoretick This great change may well make us wonder at it and it is hard to conceive how an acid Corrosive spirit such as spirit of Niter should be able to to sweeten a matter that became Caustick only for being impregnated with acid spirits To give this difficulty some solution it may be said that the Butter of Antimony became Caustick for that the acids which it contained did but superficially adhere and were so adapted that the motion of the Antimonial parts did serve them for a vehicle to distribute their keenness as they did but that after the solution the acids being in great quantity do fix the Antimony and not only destroy its aptitude to motion but do so sheath or lock themselves in the pliant sulphureous parts of this mixt that they lose thereby all their corrosion In the evaporation abundance of the sulphurs which were in the Butter of Antimony are lost This powder is called Bezoar Mineral because it causes Sweat like the Bezoar stone You must know that these preparations are nothing but so many transformations of the Regulus of Antimony made by acid spirits or by fire so that by Fusion or by the means of some reductive salt they may be recovered into Regulus again by destroying those salts which kept them under this form Caustick Oil of Antimony This preparation is a portion of Antimony dissolved in the acid spirits of salt and vitriol Put into a glass retort six ounces of Antimony finely powdered pour upon it four ounces of good spirit of salt and the same quantity of the Caustick Oil of Vitriol shake and mingle them all together and stopping the retort set it in sand with the nose upwards give it a small digesting fire for four and twenty hours then turn the nose downward and when you have unstopt it fit to it a glass receiver lute the junctures with a wet bladder make a little fire gradually to the second degree and there will distil a whitish liquor increase it a little at last and continue it until nothing more comes forth into the receiver Let the vessels cool and unlute them keep what you find in the receiver well stopt in a bottle It is an Escharotick liquor and will serve to open Venereal Shancres to eat proud flesh to cleanse old ulcers to use in carious bones and in the gangrene Remarks The Retort must be big enough for at least half to remain empty that the vapours may find room enough for their rarefactio 〈…〉 I put the whole in digestion four and twenty hours that the acids may have time to open the Antimony If I should add unto this mixture eight or ten ounces of spirit of Niter the Antimony would dissolve with a great ebullition because those three sorts of acid spirits would together make an Aqua Regalis with which Antimony is easily dissolved but there is no need of making so exact a dissolution for this operation This liquor is improperly called oil for it is nothing but a solution of Antimony by acid spirits It differs from the Icy Oil of Antimony only in this that it contains more phlegm for the acids of sublimate corrosive have no aqueous moisture to dilute them as there is in the acids we do here use With this Oil may be made the powder of Algarot after the same manner as with the Butter but only then it would not be so white This liquor might be likewise used for the making Bezoar Mineral Spirit of Niter being poured upon it there rises an ebullition as when it is poured on Butter of Antimony This Oil of Antimony is not so Escharotick as the butter because it contains more phlegm It is also more easie to use by reason of its liquidity Another Oil of Antimony This preparation is a solution of some parts of Antimony by the acid spirit and oil of Sugar Take equal parts of Antimtny and Sugar Candy powder them and mix them put this mixture into a glass retort large â—â—â—ugh for the matter to fill but a third part or it set your retort in sand and fit a receiver to it give a gentle fire for the first hours to distil off a phlegmatick water and when red drops begin to come forth fling away that which is fall'n into the receiver then refitting it lute the conjunctions and make the fire a little stronger but manage it prudently for otherwise the matter will rarefie and run into the receiver in substance so that you 'l be forced to begin the Operation anew continue the fire until nothing more comes forth and when the vessels are cold take and keep what you find in the receiver This liquor is Oil of Antimony It is proper to cleanse Ulcers with and for Tettars and Itchings which infect the skin If it proves too sharp you may temper and qualifie it with the water of honey Remarks The Sugar contains an essential acid salt and an oil which being mixed with a portion of the sulphurs of Antimony do make an oily liquor The sweet taste of Sugar does proceed from a natural mixture of this acid with the oil for if you separate these two substances one from the other neither of the two will prove at all sweet The Oil all alone is insipid upon the tongue because it makes little or no impression on the nerve that serves for tasting but when the acid is intirely mixed with it the edges of this acid do serve for a vehicle to the oil to make it penetrate and tickle superficially the nerve whereby the sense of tasting is produced The acids therefore being alone do become incisive and prick the tongue by their edges but when they are dulled and blunted by the ramous parts of the Oil then they have another sort of determination and can no longer pierce the nerve of tasting but with a great deal of tenderness and gentleness CHAP. X. Of Arsenick ARsenick is a Mineral Body consisting of much Sulphur and some Caustick salts There are three sorts of it the White that keeps the name of Arsenick the Yellow called Auripigmentum or Yellow
them which is capable to make them petrifie but the great agitation they are in whilst they run with rapidity down mountains does hinder their coagulation for that can never happen until these waters have fallen into some place fit for them to repose and lye still in Calcination of Flints This operation shews the way to open the bodies of Flints and Crystal so that thereby they may be easily reduced into a powder Heat red-hot some Flints in the fire and quench them in water repeat heating and quenching them three or four times or until they are friable and can be finely powdered you must chuse River-Flints that are full of veins of several colours Crystal is Calcined after the same manner but it is more easily made friable than Flints A liquor and Tincture may be likewise drawn from it the same way I am going to shew for Flints their virtues likewise are both alike Tincture of Flints This operation is an exaltation of some parts of Flints and salt of Tartar in spirit of wine Mix well four ounces of Calcined Flints finely powdered with four and twenty ounces of Calcined Tartar put this mixture into a large Crucible cover it and place it in a wind-furnace light a fire about it by little and little to warm it gently and then encrease it to the last degree Continue it in this condition for five hours that the matter may all the while remain in Fusion Thrust a Spatule into it and see if your matter begins to grow diaphanous like glass If it doth so pour it into a warm Iron mortar and it will presently congeal into a hard mass which you must powder while it is hot and put into a matrass very dry and hot pour upon it Spirit of Wine Alcoholized four fingers above the matter stop your matrass close with another whose neck may be received into that which contains the matter Lute the conjunctions well with a wet bladder and set it in sand give a fire under it that is strong enough to make the Spirit of Wine simper for two days together it will turn of a red colour unlute your matrasses and separating them a-sunder decant the Tincture into a bottle put new Spirit of Wine to that which remains and digest it as before separate the liquor that is turned red and mingling it with the former pour it all together into a glass body and cover it with a head fit to it a Receiver and lute the junctures distil in a vaporous bath two thirds of the Spirit of Wine that may serve for use as before then take your vessel off the fire and keep that which remains in the bottom of the body in a Viol well stopt This Tincture is said to be a good remedy to open obstructions they use it for the Scurvy and in Hypochondriacal cases the dose is from ten to thirty drops in some proper liquor Remarks The Calx of Flints doth so strictly incorporate with the Salt of Tartar by the Calcination that they may be said to be converted into a Salt and this I shall shew in the following operation You must use the Spirit of Wine highly Alcoholized otherwise you will not gain the Tincture you must likewise observe to infuse the powdered matter while it is as hot as may be two thirds of the Spirit of Wine are distilled off that what remains may be the redder and stronger Almost all Chymists will needs make this red colour to proceed from the Sulphur of Flints extracted by the Spirit of Wine but it is more probable that this colour proceeds from an exaltation of the alkali salt in Spirit of Wine because a like Tincture is made on Salt of Tartar Liquor of Flints This operation is a solution of Flints into a liquor by the means of Salt of Tartar Take the other part of your Flints Calcined with Tartar and set it in a Cellar in a glass-pan it will dissolve into as clear a liquor as water Filtrate and so keep it This liquor is said to be Diuretick it is given from six to five and twenty drops in some convenient liquor If you mix an equal part of this liquor with some acid Corrosive Spirit you 'l presently turn it into a stone Remarks The Salt of Tartar or the gravell'd Ashes have so attenuated the Flint that it becomes as soluble as they and we see the truth of this in the operation for the moisture of the Cellar entring into the pores of our Calcined matter dissolves it imperceptibly and if this dissolution should be evaporated an alkali Salt is found at bottom When this liquor is mixed with an acid Spirit an Ebullition presently happens from the acid Spirits piercing the alkali and afterwards a stronger Coagulation is made then when an acid Spirit is poured on the Oil of Tartar because this same alkali contains more earth than does the Salt of Tartar This liquor may dissolve some Sulphureous obstructions that now and then happen and then it provokes Urine but if it meets with an acid humour it causes a Coagulation that may turn into a stone wherefore I would not advise any body to use this Remedy no more than the former Tincture which works only by its Salt that is mixed with the spirit of Wine From the Coagulation of these liquors may be sensibly explicated how stones come to be formed in several parts of our bodies seeing acid liquors and alkalis do so aften meet within us The Tincture of Flints is used to extract the Sulphur of many Minerals Alchymists have given it no less than the name of Alkahest CHAP. XIII Oil of Bricks THis preparation is Bricks impregnated with Oil of Olives and afterwards distilled Heat red-hot among burning Coals pieces of Brick and quench them in a pan filled half full with Oil of Olives but take care to cover it immediately for the Oil will else take fire Leave them in Infusion ten or twelve hours or until the Oil hath sufficiently penetrated the Bricks after that separate them and when you have grosly powdered the Bricks imbibed with the Oil put it into an earthen Retort or glass one luted large enough for a third part to remain empty place it in a Reverberatory furnace and fit to it a large capacious Receiver lute well the conjunctions and give a little fire at first to warm the Retort then encrease it by degrees until you see vapours come forth then continue it in this condition till there comes no more unlute the conjunctions and take away the Receiver there remains in the Retort all the Brick which you must fling away as useless Mix the Oil that remains in the Receiver with a sufficient quantity of other Brick dried and powdered and make a paste of it form several little pellets and put them into a glass Retort set the Retort in Sand and fitting to it a large Receiver and luting them together give a fire by degrees to rectifie all the Oil pour it into a
stupefaction of the Nerves and nauseousness of the stomach If you used sixteen ounces of purified Salt-peter and so much sulphur in this operation you 'l have at last but three ounces and a half of Sal Polychrestum very fine but if you use common Salt-peter instead of purified you 'l have five ounces of Polychrestum as white as the other This difference of weight proceeds from common Salt-peters containing more fixt salt than purified Salt-peter Sal Polychrestum may be Crystallized like Salt-peter and other salts Its Crystals are very small and much like those of sea-salt but only they are keener Monsieur Seignette an Apothecary of Rochell whom I have spoke of before hath put in use a certain Sal Polychrestum which seems at first to be like unto this but when it comes to be examined there 's found a notable difference as well in the Crystallizations and when it is thrown into the fire as in the effects for whereas six drachms of this sort taken as I have said do cause gripes in pricking the membranes of the stomach that of Monsieur Seignette in the same quantity doth purge very gently without any gripes at all as he proves in a little Treatise that he hath made touching the uses of this Polychrestum And the truth of it I have found my self in several persons The composition of this salt is known to none but himself who having given it a reputation in the chiefest Towns of France hath left some quantity of it with me to distribute and make use of here at Paris Spirit of Niter Spirit of Niter is a liquor very acid and corrosive drawn from Salt-peter by distillation Powder and mix well together two pounds of fine Salt-peter and six pounds of Potters earth dried put this mixture into a large Retort either of earth or glass luted set it in a close Reverberatory Furnace fit to it a great capacious Balon or Receiver and give a very little fire to it for four or five hours to make all the Phlegm come forth which will distil out drop by drop When you perceive there will distil no more throw the Phlegm away that is found in the Receiver and having refitted it lute the junctures and encrease the fire by little and little to the second degree there will come forth Spirits which will fill the Receiver with white clouds then keep the fire two hours in the same degree after that encrease it to the greatest violence you can give it and so the vapours will come red continue the greatest fire till there come no more the operation will be ended in fourteen hours When the vessels are cold unlute the junctures and pour your Spirit of Niter into an earthen bottle which you must stop with Wax Spirit of Niter is used for the dissolution of metals it is the best Aqua fortis that is and the corrosive virtue of other waters of this nature doth chiefly proceed from the Niter that enters into their composition Remarks You might as some do mix four parts of Potters earth with one part of Niter when you would draw its Spirit but you will succeed better and with less difficulty by observing my description for whereas the earth does here serve only as an intermedium to separate the parts of this salt to the end that the fire operating more easily upon it may draw its Spirits it is a very needless business to use more of the earth than is necessary towards this effect Besides this over great quantity of earth may serve to weaken the Spirits and by taking up too much room may hinder the drawing so much as otherwise you would with the same Retort I fling away the Phlegm because it only serves to weaken the Spirit The white vapours do proceed from the volatile part of Salt-peter and are a weaker sort of Spirit but the red ones do come from the fixt part and are the strongest Spirit for which reason the fire is made so very violent towards the latter end This fixt Spirit is commonly called Salamanders bloud Of all Salts Niter is the only one that yields red vapours When you use here the best Salt-peter there remains nothing in the Retort but only earth I have boiled several times in water a good while the earth that remained after the distillation of the Spirit of Niter and after evaporation of the filtrated decoction I could find no salt at bottom I have likewise observed that out of two pounds of purified Niter a pound and fourteen ounces of liquor in Phlegm and Spirit may be drawn A third part of the Retort wherein the operation is performed must remain empty and the Receiver must be very large for otherwise these Spirits coming hastily forth would break all to pieces for room to move in Spirit of Niter Dulcified This oparation is a Spirit of Niter whose more subtile edges have been broken or evaporated Put into a large Bolt-head eight ounces of good spirit of Niter and so much spirit of Wine well dephlegmated set your Bolthead in the Chimney upon a round of straw the liquor will grow hot without coming near the fire and half an hour or an hour afterwards it will boil very much have a care of the red vapours that come out a-pace at the neck of the Bolthead and when the ebullition is over you 'l find your liquor clear at bottom and to have lost half what it was pour it into a Viol and keep it this is the sweet spirit of Niter It is good for the wind Colick and the Nephritick for Hysterical distempers and for all Obstructions its dose is from four to eight drops in broth or some other convenient liquor Remarks You must leave the Bolthead open for the vapours would either carry away the stopple if there were one or else they would break the vessel the Bolt-head is so hot during the ebullition that one can't endure ones hand upon it The heat and ebullition begins sooner or later according as the Spirits that are used have been more or less dephlegmated or else according as the season in which it is made is either hotter or colder for in the winter you must warm the liquor in a gentle sand-heat and when it grows a little hot you must take it off and shake it thus it will come to boil This effect is very strange for spirit of Niter being a strong acid and spirit of Wine a sulphur it can't be said that there is here any alkali to cause the ebullition with acid according to the common maxim And this operation shews us that every thing can't be explicated by the sole Principles of acid and alkali as some do pretend This operation has much resemblance with that which happens when oil of Turpentine is put into a bottle with oil of Vitriol for the mixture of these liquors does heat and boil much alike I shall say something of this last mixture hereafter There is this difference notwithstanding that spirit
of Niter being more volatile than oil of Vitriol causes a greater effervescency In order therefore to explicate this ebullition two things must be considered First that spirit of Niter contains a great many fiery parts lock't up in its acidity but which do still retain some evident motion for it is they that make the spirit of Niter to Fume as it does The second is that spirit of Niter is more Inflammable than salt-peter when mixed with any sulphureous body and the reason thereof is that it is more rarefied than salt-peter Thus when this acid spirit is mixt with spirit of Wine which is a sulphur very much exalted and very susceptible of motion the volatile part of the spirit of Niter joyns itself to this sulphur and the mixture becomes very ready to take flame likewise after this mixture the fiery bodies that were in spirit of Niter do by striving to mount upwards put the liquor into so great a motion that it e'en almost flames and would without all question quite flame if there were not some phlegm always mixed with these spirits let them be drawn never so pure which serves to allay the activity of the fiery particles so that there must needs follow a very great ebullition This effervescency therefore proceeds from this that spirit of wine and spirit of Niter which are as it were a salt-peter and sulphur highly exalted have been almost kindled into a flame by the fiery bodies that were in spirit of Niter and that which further proves this conception is a noise or kind of detonation during the effervescency which is much like that which happens when sulphur and salt-peter are burnt together But because there may be some difficulty in conceiving what is meant by little fiery bodies I do understand by them a subtile matter which having been put into a very rapid motion does still retain the aptitude of moving with impetuosity even when it is inclosed in grosser matters and when it finds some bodies which by their texture or figure are apt to be put into motion it drives them about so strongly that their parts rubbing violently the one against the other heat is thereby produced Now the sulphureous parts of spirit of Wine and the volatile acids of spirit of Niter being mixed and being very aptly disposed for motion of themselves they must needs be easily put into it by these fiery bodies insomuch that their parts often rubbing or striking the one against the other they must cause a heat after the same manner as when a stone is strook hard against a piece of Iron a heat and fire do follow The great diminution of the liquor proceeds from the evaporation of the more volatile parts of the Spirits of Wine and Niter through the neck of the Bolt-head during the ebullition That which remains is a well sweetned spirit of Niter for not only its edges are very much blunted in the ebullition but the spirit of Wine being a sulphur does unite and imbody with those that remain so that they have no longer any Corrosive quality Aqua Fortis This preparation is a mixture of the Spirits of Niter and Vitriol drawn by fire to dissolve metals Powder and mix Salt-peter purified Vitriol Calcined white as I shall shew hereafter and Potters earth or clay dried of each two and thirty ounces put this mixture into an earthen Retort or glass one luted whose third part is to remain empty place your Retort in a close Reverberatory Furnace and fitting to it a capacious Receiver Lute well the junctures then begin by giving a little fire to warm gently the Retort and encrease it by little and little but when you perceive the Spirits to come forth into the Receiver in red clouds continue it for fifteen or sixteen hours in the same degree then drive it to the last extremity until there do appear white clouds instead of red Then let the vessels cool and unlute them you 'l find in the Receiver an Aqua fortis which you must keep in an earthen bottle well stopt It serves for the dissolution of metals Remarks I do use to Calcine the Vitriol to a whiteness that the Aqua fortis may not be weakned with an insipid water The mixture of Vitriol and Salt-peter has quickly some smell of Aqua fortis because Vitriol contains a great deal of Sulphur which easily insinuates into the volatile part of Salt-peter and exalts some little of it which causes the smell it is this Sulphur in Vitriol which by volatilizing the red spirit of Niter makes it come forth faster and with a less fire than when Salt-peter is distilled with Clay alone The greatest Corrosion of Aqua fortis proceeds from the Niter for the Vitriol doth yield but very weak Spirits in comparison with the other I do acknowledge indeed that the Oil of Vitriol is exceeding Corrosive but eighteen or twenty hours are not able to drive that out for it doth not use to come until after three days continual distillation The Vitriol then and the Clay do serve here only for a matter to separate the Salt-peter that it may by the means of fire the better rarefie into Spirits Although there does not enter into this preparation so much terrestrial matter as there does into that of Spirit of Niter nevertheless it proves very well because the Sulphurs of Vitriol do help the Spirits to rise If you would keep on the fire five days and nights together the Receiver would be still full of clouds because the Vitriol would yield some Spirits during all that time Sometimes Alom and Arsenick are added to the composition of Aqua fortis but the description which I have given you is the best of all There remains in the Retort a red mass which may be used like Colcothar for an Astringent This mass may be obtained without breaking the Retort Fixation of Salt-peter into an Alkali Salt by the means of Coals This operation is a Salt-peter rendred porous by Calcination and by the ashes of coals which are mixed with it Melt sixteen ounces of Salt-peter in a strong and large Crucible among burning coals throw into it a spoonful of coals grosly powdered and there will rise a flame and detonation which being over throw so much more and continue to do so until the matter flames no longer but remains fixt in the bottom of the Crucible then pour it into a warm mortar and when it is cold powder it and dissolve it in a sufficient quantity of water filtrate the dissolution through brown paper and evaporate all the water in an earthen pan in sand there will remain a very white salt which you must keep in a Viol well stopt This Salt hath a taste like to that of Salt of Tartar and they differ but little in virtue it opens Obstructions and works by Urine and sometimes by Stool the dose is from sixteen to thirty grains in some convenient liquor It may be used to assist in drawing forth the
the same virtue as Sal Armoniack but are given in a little less dose as from four to fifteen grains Remarks This operation is performed to the end the Sal Armoniack may be volatilized by checking some part of its fixt salt by the addition of Salt decrepitated thus these Flowers are a little more active than the Sal Armoniack though they are both compounded of the same Salts Iron or Steel powdered may be used instead of Sea-salt as Schroder describes it and then the Flowers do become of a Yellow colour because the Salts do take the Tincture of Mars And these last Flowers are a little more penetrating than the others Aqua Regalis This water is a solution of Sal Armoniack in Spirit of Niter Powder four ounces of Sal Armoniack and put them into a matrass or other glass vessel of a good bigness pour upon it sixteen ounces of Spirit of Niter place the vessel in sand a little warm until the Sal Armoniack is all dissolved then pour the dissolution into a bottle and stop it with wax this is Aqua Regalis you will have seventeen ounces of it Remarks This water is called Regalis or Royal because it dissolves Gold which is the King of metals It is likewise called Aqua Stygia or Chrysulca The vessel in which it is made must be of a sufficient bigness because in the dissolution the Spirits do rarefie with so great violence that they would break it if they had not room to circulate in when a great deal of this water is preparing at a time you must take care to remove the vessel from the fire so soon as the dissolution begins Aqua Regalis may be likewise made with equal quantities of Salt-peter and Sal Gemme by mixing these Salts with thrice as much Potters-earth powdered and the distillation of it is made after the same manner as I shewed to draw the Spirit of Niter It is somewhat difficult to conceive how Aqua Regalis is able to dissolve Gold which is a most solid Metal and cannot dissolve Silver which is a much less solid body Some Chymists endeavouring to resolve this difficulty have said that Gold being a Metal fuller of Sulphur than Silver did therefore require a sulphureous dissolvent such as Aqua Regalis compounded of the volatile sulphureous salts of Sal Armoniack but this explication destroys itself for if Gold did contain more Sulphurs than Silver it would consequently be less weighty for Sulphur is one of the lightest Principles in Chymistry I know the Alchymists will tell me that their Sulphur is quite of a different nature from the common sort and that they do conceive in Gold a Fixt and consequently a heavy sulphur But besides that a fixt sulphur is a thing meerly imaginary it can never be so heavy as the other principles which they pretend to be in Gold and which they are forced to think as fixed as the Sulphur Moreover if we examine what happens in the composition of the dissolvent of Gold it will be no difficult matter to contradict this opinion for we see that as soon as ever the Spirit of Niter begins to work upon the Sal Armoniack the acid salt joyns with it and quits the volatile salts which finding themselves disingaged from the bodies that held them in a manner fixed do rise up with violence but because these salts which are alkalies do meet in their passage with some acids of the Spirit of Niter the great effervescency happens which is always wont at the meeting of alkali salts and acids This effervescency being over our Aqua Regalis remains in the vessel it is properly nothing else but an acid sea-salt dissolved in Spirit of Niter the volatile salts being either exalted or destroyed by Acids and that which confirms this opinion is that Aqua Regalis is as well made with sea-salt in which there are no volatiles at all as with Sal Armoniack according as I have said It is not then by discourses of this nature that this Phanomenon can be clearly explicated I am apt to believe with more likelihood that if Aqua Regalis be not able to dissolve Silver the reason of it is because the edges of the Spirit of Niter being magnified by the addition of Salt do slide over the pores of Silver not being capable to enter into them by reason of the disproportion of their figures whereas they easily enter into Gold whose pores are larger to make their divisions On the contrary if the Spirit of Niter dissolves Silver it is because its points are very subtle and fitly proportioned to enter into the small pores of this metal and by their motion to divide its parts These same points may likewise enter into the large pores of Gold but they are too small and pliable to act upon this body There 's need of stronger and keener knives which by filling its pores more advantageously may have force enough to divide it I do easily foresee it will be objected that Gold being heavier than Silver should have lesser pores and not greater because the weight of a body doth only consist in the proximity of parts but it is easie to solve this difficulty by considering each metal with a good Microscope for the pores of Gold are seen to be much larger than those of Silver though indeed there are much fewer and that will explicate very well why Gold is heavier than Silver though its pores are greater for seeing they are at a good distance the one from the other there 's a very compact matter as it were intercepted which causes all the weight but the pores of Silver being very near one another and of a much greater number do intercept less solid matter and consequently it must be lighter I 'le use a familiar example to make my self more plainly understood If you take two vessels of the same size and bigness and fill one with small hail-shot and the other with large bullets that which holds the bullets will be much heavier than that which is full of shot and yet notwithstanding the vacuities between the bullets are much larger than those between the shot According to this Hypothesis reason may be likewise given why Gold is cut in pieces more easily than Silver for the greater the pores of a body are the easier entrance will a pair of Sheers meet with Gold spreads under the hammer more than Silver because having larger pores the hammer makes a greater impression into it and dilates the parts the more easily It is objected that if there be any heavy matter as it were intercepted between the pores of Gold it must needs precipitate of itself after the action of Aqua Regalis upon this metal which is a thing that does not happen I answer that if the parts of Gold are heavy the dissolvent nevertheless is a gross body and very well proportioned to hold up those heavy parts and to hinder them from precipitating Others have opposed this explication and have
writ that if Aqua Regalis dissolves Gold and cannot dissolve Silver the reason of it is that the gross points of spirit of Niter or Aqua fortis are subtilized by the mixture of sal Armoniack and are rendred fit to enter into the small pores of Gold whereas the delicate Fabrick of these same points does not leave them the necessary strength nor motion to divide the parts of Silver whose pores are a great deal bigger But this way of arguing does not agree with experience for what likelihood is there that the points of spirit of Niter are so subtilized by the penetration and division of the parts of sal Armoniack or where shall we find any example that after a considerable effervescency of two salts met together in conflict the acidity grows sharper than it was before this is a thing that can never be proved On the contrary every body knows well enough that no effervescency happens but the acid is in part blunted or broken thereby Moreover the Argument supposes that spirit of Niter does break its subtilest points in violently contending with the Sal Armoniack since also that in sal Armoniack there are alkali salts whose property it is to destroy acids I could further add here that the conjunction of salt with spirit of Niter should of necessity render its points more gross than they were and that the Crystals which are drawn by aqua Regalis have their shape not so keen as those that are drawn by aqua Fortis But that which I have said is so probable in itself and so easie to be convinced of if a man takes never so little pains to consider it that I should but amuse my Reader to little purpose if I should offer to give any proofs of it Neither do I find it convenient to make a long discourse in explicating how Silver which has lesser pores is more susceptible of the impressions of Air and Fire than Gold which has larger seeing I have already supposed that the matter intercepted between the pores of Gold is more compact and consequently more hard to separate than that of Silver Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack This preparation is a volatile salt raised from sal Armoniack by the means of Quick-lime and dissolved into a liquor Take eight ounces of sal Armoniack and four and twenty ounces of Quick-lime powder them apart and when you haved mixed them in a mortar pour upon them four ounces of water and put it quickly into a Retort whose half must remain empty Set your Retort in a sand Furnace and fitting to it a great Receiver and luting the junctures exactly begin the distillation without fire for a quarter of an hour afterwards increasing it by little and little unto the second degree continue it until nothing more comes forth take off your Receiver and pour out the Spirit immediately into a Viol turning away your head as much as may be to avoid a very subtile vapour that continually rises from it Stop the bottle close with wax to keep the Spirit in you will have of it five ounces and six drachms It is an excellent Remedy for all diseases that proceed from Obstructions and corruption of humours such as Malignant feavers the Epilepsie Palsie Plague Small-pox c. It drives by perspiration or by Urine the dose is from six drops to twenty in a glass of Balm or Carduus water Remarks Quick-lime which is an alkali destroys the strength of the acid Sea-salt which in a manner bound up the volatile salts in the Sal Armoniack whence it comes to pass that as soon as Lime and Sal Armoniack are mixed together there exhales an unsufferable smell of Urine for the volatile salts coming forth abundantly do so fill the Nose and Mouth of the Artist that he would never be able to put the mixture into the Retort if he did not take good care to turn away his head while his hands are at work Water is added to it to liquifie these volatile salts for if there were nothing to moisten them they would suddenly sublime to the neck of the Retort and stopping it all together would break it to pieces You must stop the Retort with your hand so soon as you have poured the water into it and shaking it one minute you must hasten all you can to fit to it the Receiver and to lute well the junctures for the Quick-lime does presently grow hot so soon as its body is opened and this heat which is very considerable would spend the more volatile of the salts if there were no care taken to preserve them The Quick-lime being wetted does swell and take up a great deal of room wherefore the Retort must be filled but half full that there may remain room enough for the Spirits to rarefie in you must also use a large Receiver in which the vapours that rise in abundance may be able to circulate with ease This Spirit is nothing but a solution of volatile salts in water if you would sublime and separate it from the water you must put the liquor into a matrass with its head and proceed as I shall shew when I describe the volatile salt of Vipers but this salt being dry flies away more easily than when it continues dissolved in water so that it were better keep it as it is This is a stronger Spirit than that which is prepared with Salt of Tartar because the little fiery bodies of the Quick-lime which are mixed with it have quickned the motion of the volatile salts likewise these fiery particles are they that do hinder the coagulation of this Spirit with spirit of Wine when they are mixed together for there must be a cohaesion and repose of parts in order to make a Coagulum You must also have a care when you remove the Receiver not to hold your head over it for this volatile salt suffering a greater separation than before enters the Nose immmediately and hinders Respiration insomuch that several persons have been seen to fall in a swound by that means alone Now to avoid this accident you had best have ready a wet cloth to stop the Receiver with so soon as it is unluted This Spirit is an excellent Menstruum to make precipitations with it destroys acids exceeding well as do all other volatile alkalis it is used to precipitate Gold after it is dissolved It is good in those diseases I named because it opens the pores and drives the humours by perspiration or by Urine according to the disposition of bodies moreover as it is an alkali it destroys the acids which caused these diseases Again it sometimes causes sleep because it dulls the keenness of acid salts which entring into the little conduits of the Brain do cause perpetual watchings It is better give volatile Spirits in Sudorifick waters than broth because the broth being taken hot the heat would evaporate the better part of the volatile Spirits before a man could reach the Porringer to his mouth You
Sympathetical powder When you would use this powder you are to take the bloud of a wound upon a linnen cloth and to sprinkle some of it upon the bloud It is pretended that though the bloudy linnen were ten miles off from the Patient when the Sympathetical powder is applied to it the wound would presently heal But the experience of several persons who have tried it and others may do the same does evince that men have had a great faith when they have talked of the effects of this powder for if it be not applied to a cloth newly blouded and even in the chamber of the Patient you will certainly find no effect from it Nay where such precautions have been used it performs no great matter and sometimes does nothing at all Now to explicate the action of Vitriol called Sympathy you must know that there does continually exhale into the air little bodies from this mineral salt and to convince you of it you need only to put the several Vitriols of different colours pretty near one another in the same place you will find after 12 or 15 daies that they have all changed colour a little in their superficies The white will become yellow the green whitish the blue greenish the red grayish These changes of colour cannot proceed but from little bodies which being separated from each kind of Vitriol and mixing in the air some part of them do fall confusedly on the matter And it must not be said that these changes are caused by the air which does open and rarefie these salts for if you put them into places separate or distant from one another this effect will in no wise happen You must also observe that the bloud to which the Vitriolick powder is applied retaining some heat still may thereby increase the activity and number of the little bodies which do arise from the Vitriol And these Vitriolick bodies dispersing themselves in the air are they that cause all the Sympathy for they do mix in the wound of the patient and because the virtue of Vitriol is to stop the bloud and to dry it you need not wonder if the volatile parts which come from it do perform the same effect But it may be objected that the volatile parts of Vitriol have no more determination naturally to go find out the wound of a person than other parts of the body and other places of the chamber Nay on the contrary that a wound being commonly covered with a plaister and somewhat thick bandage is not so likely to receive those bodies I answer that there is no need of giving any other determination to these volatile parts of Vitriol than is given to other volatile salts which are dispersed in the air but because wounds are always of a glutinous temper it is easie to conceive that these little bodies will adhere to them in greater quantity than to others as any downy substance which flies about a room wherein there is Glue or Turpentine will more easily stick in them than in other places As for the Bandage and Plaster used to wounds you must know that those who do use the Sympathetical powder do apply none of them But when it happens which is very rare that a mans wound has been cured by this Powder although there was a Plaister and bandage also laid upon it this effect can never be attributed to any thing else but the penetration of Vitriol for there are wounds that a very little quantity of Vitriol is capable of drying Thus I have given you the most rational explication that can be of an effect which has hitherto passed for a thing altogether inexplicable To conclude I would not advise any wounded person to insist or depend too much on a remedy of this nature for to one who ever received considerable good there 's a hundred who never perceived any effect from it and the cause of it has been that the volatile parts of the Vitriol have hapned to be diverted from the wound by some wind or else because the greatest part of people have their bloud too subtile and too active to be fixed by so little a quantity of Vitriol Nevertheless those whose heads are filled with the Sympathetical Powder do speak of it as of a never failing medicine And if a man offers to convince them by an experiment to the contrary as it is not hard to do they presently cry out that the reason it fails is because it is ill prepared but it is easie to convince them if they desire a serious satisfaction in it for the powder of their own preparation that they so much magnifie though it be successful in one will be found to fail in a great many others Many Authors have also written a great many falshoods in defence of the Sympathy as for example that if the urine of an Infant were cast into the fire so soon as it is made it would cause a heat of urine that if the excrements of an animal were thrown into the fire or among Nettles there would be an Inflammation in the guts of the same creature and many the like stories which a thousand experiments will prove not to be true Distillation of Vitriol This Spirit is an acid salt of Vitriol dissolved into a liquor by a great fire Fill two thirds of a large earthen Retort or glass one luted with Vitriol Calcined to whiteness place it in a close Reverberatory furnace and fitting to it a great Balon or Receiver give a very small fire to warm the Retort and make the water come forth that might still remain in the Vitriol and when there will distil no more pour the water out of the Receiver into a Bottle this is called Phlegm of Vitriol it is used in Inflammations of the eyes to wash them with refit the Receiver to the neck of the Retort and luting the junctures exactly encrease the fire by degrees and when you perceive Clouds to come forth into the Receiver continue it in the same condition until the Receiver grows cold then strengthen the fire with wood to an extream violence until the flame rises through the Tunnel of the Reverberatory as big as ones arm The Receiver will fill again with white Clouds continue the fire after this manner for three days and so many nights then put it out unlute the junctures when the vessels are cold and pour the Spirit into a glass body set it in sand and fit to it quickly a Head with its Receiver lute the junctures close with a wet Bladder and distil with a very gentle fire about four ounces of it this is the Sulphureous spirit of Vitriol keep it in a viol well stopt It is good for the Asthma Palsie and diseases of the Lungs the dose is from four drops to ten in some convenient liquor Change the Receiver and augmenting the fire distil about half the liquor that remains in the body this is called the Acid Spirit of Vitriol it is mixed in Juleps
fire-coal flung into water would do Besides it heated the water very much and much more than common Oil of Vitriol could I kept this congealed Spirit about six months after which time it dissolved into a liquor which I used as Oil of Vitriol for it was in effect the same thing And in my opinion this operation does sufficiently evince that Oil of Vitriol contains fiery parts It hapned to me another time that having rectified the Spirit of Vitriol to separate it from its Oil by an Alembick some part of the distilled Spirit was turned into fair and transparent Crystals in the bolt-head or Receiver which Crystals had the same acrimony and strength with the mass I now spoke of If you pour some drops of Spirit or Oil of Vitriol into a quart of hot water in which you shall infuse a pugil of dried red Roses the liquor will in a little time become as red as Claret and this effect must not so much be attributed to the Spirit of Vitriol's sharpning the water and so thereby drawing out the Tincture of Roses as to this that the acid Spirit does rarefie and separate the particles of the Rose which the water had dissolved and made to appear better than before for if you strain the Infusion and separate the Roses before you pour to it your Spirit of Vitriol although the liquor so strained be yet but little raised in colour it will nevertheless turn to as high a red after the Spirit is dropt into it as if the Roses remained still in the liquor We must say the same thing of other Tinctures that are drawn by acids as also of such as are made by an Alkali salt If you fill a glass Viol with the decoction of Nephritick wood clarified and look on it turning toward the light it will appear yellow but if you turn your back to the light it will appear blue if you mix with it some drops of Spirit of Vitriol it will appear yellow on every side but if you again add about as much more Oil of Tartar it will return unto its first colour If you take a Blue or Violet tincture made in water such as is drawn out of the Sun-flower or Violet flowers and pour upon it some drops of Spirit of Vitriol it will presently turn red but if you throw into it some Alkali salt it will recover again its former colour On the contrary if you pour an Alkali liquor such as volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack or the Oil of Tartar upon the blue Tincture it will presently turn green and if you again pour upon it a little Spirit of Vitriol it will change this colour into an obscure red The decoction of Indian wood is very red if you drop into it a little Spirit of Vitriol it will turn yellow and if you still add some volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack it will become black If you infuse three or four hours a piece of Indian wood in some clear juice of Citron and take out your wood the liquor will have received no alteration of colour but if you add to it some drops of Oil of Tartar made per deliquium it will take a brown colour and if you add to it a little Spirit of Vitriol it will resume its colour again If you pour some drops of Oil of Tartar upon Claret it will become greenish and if you add to it a little Spirit of Vitriol it will return to its former colour All these changes of colour which the Spirit of Vitriol or other acids and Alkali's do make proceed only from the different position of bodies dissolved in the liquor and from its disposition to modifie the light different ways Styptick Water This water is a solution of Vitriol and other ingredients to stop bleedings Take Colcothar or the red Vitriol that remains in the Retort after the spirit is drawn out Burnt-alom and Sugar-candy of each half a drachm the Urine of a young person and Rose-water of each half an ounce Plantain-water two ounces stir them all together a good while in a mortar then pour the mixture into a Viol and when you use it separate it by Inclination If you apply a Bolster dipt in this water to an opened Artery and hold your hand a while upon it it stops the bloud In like manner you may wet a little Pledget in it and thrust it into the Nose when an Hemorrhage continues too long taken inwardly it cures spitting of bloud bloudy flux and the immoderate flux of the Hemorrhoids or Terms the dose is from half a drachm to two drachms in Knot-grass water Remarks When the bloud gushes forth too fast you must redouble the first Bolster that was put upon the wound and assist it a little with your fingers for half an hour The Basis of this water is Colcothar Having used this water with good success upon several occasions I was willing to insert it in this Book and I believe if any body please to experiment it as I have done they will easily acknowledge it to be an excellent Remedy in many Distempers Lapis Medicamentosus Powder and mix together Colcothar or the red Vitriol that remains in the Retort after distillation or in want of it Vitriol Calcined to a redness two ounces Litharge Alom and Bole-Armenick of each four ounces put this mixture into a glazed pot and pour upon it good Vinegar enough to cover the matter two fingers high cover the pot and leave it two days in digestion then add to it eight ounces of Niter two ounces of Sal Armoniack set the pot over the fire and evaporate all the moisture Calcine the mass that remains about half an hour in a strong fire and keep it for use It is a good Remedy to stop Gonorrheas a drachm of it is dissolved in eight ounces of Plantain water or Smith's water to make an Injection into the Yard it is likewise good to cleanse the eyes in the small pox seven or eight grains of it must be dissolved in four ounces of Plantain or eye-bright water it is also good to stop bloud applied outwardly to a wound It may be dissolved in Knot-grass water and will go near to have the same effects as the styptick water Remarks This stone is called Medicamentosus by way of excellence by reason of the good effects it produces The Colcothar that remains in the Retort after the distillation of Vitriol must be better than the others for this Operation because being deprived of the greatest part of its Spirits it is the more Astringent Litharge which is a Lead Calcined Alom and Bole-Armenick are so many considerable Astringents that do no hurt in this composition Vinegar is put in to incorporate the ingredients together and set them a Fermenting after which the Niter and Sal Armoniack do easily mix among the rest The Calcination which is given to it at the end is done to carry off some part of the acid and to augment the Astriction It
Ambar and put it into a bolt-head pour upon it Spirit of wine to the height of four fingers stop this bolthead with another to make a double vessel and having exactly luted the junctures with a wet bladder place it in digestion in hot sand and leave it there five or six dayes or until the Spirit of wine is sufficiently tinged with the Ambar colour decant this Tincture and put more Spirit of wine to the matter you must digest it as before then having separated the impregnation mix it with the other Filtrate them and distil from them in an Alembick with a very little fire about half the Spirit of wine which may serve you as before keep the Tincture that you will find at the bottom of the Alembick in a Viol well stopt It is good for the Apoplexy Palsie Epilepsie and for Hysterical women the dose is from ten drops to a drachm in some proper liquor Remarks You must powder the Ambar finely that the menstruum may open its body the better this Tincture is nothing but the Sulphureous or oily part of Ambar which Spirit of wine a Sulphur does become impregnated with a liquor that were not sulphureous would perhaps dissolve the Ambar but that which is dissolved by it would be the more impure wherefore you must always use such a dissolvent as is of the same nature with the substance that you would dissolve Half the Spirit of wine is drawn off to make the Tincture the stronger Distillation of Ambar and the Rectification of its Oil and Spirit Fill with Ambar grosly beaten two thirds of an earthen Retort or glass one luted place it in a Furnace on two iron bars fit to it a large Receiver and luting the junctures close give under it a small Fire to warm the Retort and drive out the Phlegm Afterwards augment it by little and little there will come forth a Spirit and an Oil continue the Fire until there comes no more then let the vessels cool and unlute them Pour about a pint of warm water into the Receiver and stirring it soundly about for to dissolve some volatile Salt that often sticks to the sides of the Receiver pour all the liquor into a glass Alembeck fit to it a Receiver and luting well the junctures make a small Fire to heat the vessel then augment it a little the water and Spirit will rise and carry with them a little white Oil continue the Fire until there rises no more and the thick Oil remains at bottom of the Cucurbite without boiling separate the white Oil that swims above the Spirit and Phlegm and keep it in a Viol well stopt it is given inwardly in Hysterical Distempers in the Palsie Apoplexy and Epilepsie the dose is from one drop to four in some appropriate liquor it may be mixed with a little yelk of an Egg to dissolve it easily in water or broth The water and Spirit do remain mixed confusedly together now to separate them you must pour this mixture into an earthen or glass dish and evaporate over a very gentle Fire two thirds of it that which remains is the Spirit of Ambar keep it in a Viol well stopt It is an excellent Aperitive and is given in the Jaundise stoppage of Urine Ulcers of the neck of the bladder and in the Scurvy the dose is from ten to four and twenty drops in some convenient liquor The Black Oil which remains in the Cucurbite may be kept apart for outward uses to chafe the Nose and Wrists of women in Hysterical maladies If you would rectifie it you must mix it with so much sand as is necessary to make it into a Paste and put it into a Retort and placing it in a Furnace in a naked Fire distil all the Oil the first that comes forth will be red but exceeding clear keep it by it self It may serve instead of the white The Oil of Jet may be drawn as the Oil of Ambar but because Jet is more terrestrious it requires a stronger Fire Remarks The Oils of Ambar and Jet do work in Hysterical cases chiefly by their ill smell for we see that whatsoever is ungrateful to the smell does commonly allay symptoms in diseases of the matrix and that good smells do increase them The reason of these effects is not very easie to find seeing that all that has been hitherto said for explication of them has only come to this that the matrix sympathizing with the brain does rise upwards to share in the good smells of the brain and sinks downwards when the nose is offended with that which is unpleasant Nay some have thought the matrix to be a little animal by reason of the many motions that have been observed in it These kinds of discourses are indeed very proper to leave people in the same doubts they were in before and I don't think any body has received any satisfaction from them Therefore let us try whether we can say any thing more to the purpose When a woman receives an agreeable smell the tickling pleasure which this smell produces in the brain by means of the olfactive nerve does move the Spirits and determinate them to run into the vessels in a greater abundance and with more agility than they did before Then also is perceived if she minds it a certain titillation of the parts and all the senses do seem willing to partake of this good smell All this is common to men as well as women But because the vessels which go from the brain to the matrix do swell with this affluence of Spirits they must of necessity be abbreviated in their length as a cord is found to swell and to shorten when it is wetted or as the Fibres of a glove do shrink when the humidity that is within them is rarefied by the Fire These vessels being thus shortned they must needs give shocks and receive like returns from the matrix And then likewise it is perceived to rise and to move upwards But because this viscus does commonly contain a gross bloud and humors very easie to ferment which are actuated by these shocks there do rise from it gross vapours which oppress the diaphragm and do cause that which is called the suffocation of the matrix These distempers do likewise very often happen to women who have no ways been offended with sweet smells but that which causes the same symptoms does work after the same manner As for ill smells they must produce a quite contrary effect for by striking offensively the nerve of the nose the Spirits do retire back to their places and consequently the vessels and the matrix do resume their ordinary disposition But you will say perhaps that a grain of Musk or Civet is often applyed to the Navil to settle the mother and to lay the vapours This has been practised indeed by some but without any proof that ever it did any good or that it gave any ease Civet is put into the middle of
Sun their spirituous parts that were condensed in the Phlegm do display themselves and exert their activity for which reason it is that the water becomes fragrant which was not so before The Extract doth contain almost all the Essential Salt of the Plant wherefore it is of greater virtue than the water you must take care to Evaporate the liquor with a mild heat for fear too much should carry off this salt which is but too volatile of its own nature for it is in the salt that the principal virtue of the Plant doth consist CHAP. X. Distillation of a Plant that is not Odoriferous such as Carduus Benedictus and its Essential Salt TAke a good quantity of Carduus when it is in its prime pound it in a Mortar and fill with it two thirds of a Limbeck draw by expression a sufficient quantity of the Juyce of other Carduus and pour it into the Limbeck that the herbs swimming in the Juyce may incur no danger of sticking to the bottom during the distillation distil with a fire of the second degree about half as much water as you used juyce this water is Sudorifick It is used to drive out the Small-Pox and in the Plague Express through a cloth that which remains in the Limbeck let the juyce settle and after it is filtred Evaporate with a small fire about two thirds of the liquor in an earthen or glass vessel set this vessel in a cool place and leave it there eight or ten days there will shoot out Crystals round about the vessel separate them and keep them in a Viol well stopt These Crystals are called the Essential salt it is Sudorifick the dose is from six to sixteen grains in its proper distilled water The Extract of Carduus may be likewise made the same way that I described for Balm Remarks Succory Fumitory Sorrel Scabious Cresses and all other Plants that are not Odoriferous which yield good store of Juice must be distilled like the Carduus Benedictus and this method may serve to draw the Essential Salt out of any plant whatsoever The hot Plants have much more of this Salt than others Lettice contains less than Succory Succory less than Sorrel and so of the rest Seeing it is in the Salt that the virtue of the plant consists I would advise rather to use the decoction of Plants than their distilled water when the Plants are in season and when they are out then to have recourse to distilled waters and mix with them a little of their Essential Salt or Extract The fixt Alkali Salt may be drawn from the remainder of the Plant in like manner as I have shewed to draw that of Guaiacum CHAP. XI Of Sugar SVgar is the essential salt of a reed or cane that grows in many places and especially in the Western Islands The pulp in the trunk of this plant is taken and washed and then steeped in hot water this water is strained and evaporated and the Sugar remains at bottom heretofore it was called Mel arundinaceum or the Cane-honey but since it has been called Zucharum or Saccharum The first elaboration that is given to Sugar is to purifie it by dissolving it in water filtrating and evaporating the liquor after which it is made up into Loaves or else it is sent in Casks or Chests and is called Cassonnade or Castonnade There are of it the red the brown and the white Sugar according as it has been more or less purified it differs in colour The name Castonnade may have been derived from the Casks in which it is brought called Cast by the Germans When the Sugar has been refined no more then abovesaid it is a little fat now to refine it farther it is dissolved in Lime-water it is boiled and the scum taken off when it is sufficiently boiled it is cast into molds of a Pyramidal form which have a hole at bottom to let the more glutionous part run through and separate It is still farther refined by boiling it with the whites of eggs in water for the glutinous quality of the whites of eggs does help to receive and take away the impurities which might remain in the Sugar and the boiling of it serving to drive them all to the sides of the vessel in a scum the liquor is passed through a cloth and then evaporated to a due consistence Sugar-Candy is only a Sugar crystallized the way to make it is to boil refined Sugar in water to the consistence of a thick Syrop it is then poured into pots wherein little sticks have been laid in order it is left in a still place some days without stirring and you have the Sugar-Candy sticking to those sticks Red Sugar-Candy is made after the same manner Sugar is good for infirmities of the breast and lungs because it does attenuate and cut the phlegm which sometimes oppresses the fibres of these parts but you must use it as little as may be in hysterical cases by reason that it raises vapours Red-Sugar is sometimes mixed with detersive Clysters It s sweetness does proceed from an essential acid salt mixed with some oily parts of which it consists as I have already explicated in the Remarks upon Oil of Antimony prepared with Sugar The Cassonnade or Cask-sugar makes a sweeter impression upon the tongue than our finer Sugar because it contains more viscous or fat parts which do remain the longer upon the nerve of the tongue and this makes us sometimes prefer the first as to use before the other And for the same reason the finer a Sugar is the quicker it passes off the taste Sugar-candy is better for Rheums than common Sugar because being harder it requires a longer time to melt in the mouth and besides it keeps the breast moister than the common Sugar Spirit of Sugar This Spirit is a mixture of the acid part of Sugar with the Flowers of Sal Armoniack Powder and mix eight ounces of white Sugar-candy with four ounces of Sal Armoniack put this mixture into a glass or earthen body whose third only is thereby filled fit a head to the body and place it in a sand-furnace joyn a receiver to it and lute well the junctures with a wet bladder give it a small fire for an hour only to heat the vessel then increase it to the second degree there will distil a liquor drop by drop and towards the end there will rise white vapours into the head increase your fire still more until nothing more comes forth let the vessels cool and unlute them you will find in the receiver seven ounces of a brown liquor that has but an ill smell and a little black oil stuck to the sides pour it all together into a glass-body and having fitted to it a head and receiver and luted the joints distil in sand six ounces of a very acid spirit that is clear and agreeable to the taste and without any smell of Empyreum It is a good aperitive against the gravel and the
into a Bolus with some liquid substance or else you may boil them in some liquor but you must take the liquor very hot otherwise the Crystals will fall to the bottom of the cup you drink out of If you should boil these Crystals in common water or in broth and then let it stand to be cold they will return into the same form they were in before both at the bottom and on the sides of the vessel but the liquor will remain a little sharp through the solution of some part of the salt of Tartar into it I see no reason so much to wonder as some do why Tartar will not dissolve in cold water for although it does contain a great deal of salt this salt is involved in Earth and Oil which must needs hinder the dissolution and there is no need of having recourse for an explication of this to a proportionable Union of Volatile salts and acids Soluble Tartar Powder and mix together eight ounces of Crystals of Tartar and four ounces of the fixt salt of Tartar put this mixture into a glazed earthen pot and pouring upon it three pints of common water boil the matter gently for half an hour then letting it cool filtrate and evaporate the liquor until it is dry and there will remain at bottom eleven ounces six drachms of a white salt keep it in a Viol it is both a good Aperitive and Laxative it is good for Cachexies Dropsies and all diseases that proceed from Obstructions the dose is from ten grains to two scruples in broth or some proper liquor Remarks This Operation is nothing but a dissolution that the Salt of Tartar has made of Cream of Tartar so that it can dissolve in cold water which it could not do alone the Cream of Tartar also being an acid insinuates into the pores of the Alkali salt and sweetens it If you boil Cream of Tartar in water and put into it some salt of Tartar there will happen an Effervescency between them but if you mix these two ingredients together in cold water there will be no Effervescency the reason of which is that the acid Spirits of Cream of Tartar being involved in other principles can have no active power to open the Alkali unless they be actuated by fire I use to filter the dissolution in order to separate some terrestrious part of the Cream of Tartar which could not dissolve this salt comes near in virtue to Tartar vitriolated some do call it a Vegetable salt Chalybeated or Martial Crystals of Tartar This Preparation is a Crystal of Tartar impregnated with the more soluble part of Iron Powder and mix a pound of good white Tartar and three ounces of Rust of Iron boil this mixture in an Iron pot with five or six quarts of water for half an hour or so much time as is requisite to dissolve the Tartar pass the liquor hot through a warm cloth then let it settle in an Iron or earthen pot ten or twelve hours it will shoot into brown Crystals at the sides and bottom of the pot pour off the liquor by Inclination and gather the Crystals then evaporate about half the liquor in the same pot let the remainder settle and take out the Crystals as before continue these Evaporations and Crystallizations until you have drawn all your Tartar dry the Crystals in the Sun and so keep them They are a good remedy for Obstructions of the Liver Mesentery Spleen they are given in Cachexies and for Melancholy and the Quartan Ague the dose is from fifteen grains to two Scruples in broth or some other liquor proper to the distemper Remarks This Preparation is boil'd but little that the Tartar may dissolve only the more Saline part of Iron the liquor is made to pass through a cloth to free it from the Impurities of the Tartar and Iron which could not dissolve but you must pass it very hot for if it were a little cool the Tartar would Coagulate in the cloth and so none of the liquor would pass Instead of Crystallizing the dissolved Tartar you may evaporate all the liquor and so obtain a brown powder which has the same virtues as the Crystals When you would exhibite this Chalybeated Crystal of Tartar you must make it just boil in the liquor you give it in for otherwise it will not dissolve and you must be sure to give it as hot as they can take it for fear it should Crystallize at the bottom of the Cup. Soluble Tartar Chalybeated Put into an earthen pan or glass vessel four ounces of Soluble Tartar and sixteen ounces of Tincture of Mars prepared according to the description that I have given set the vessel in sand and with a small fire evaporate the liquor until there remains a black powder shut it in a viol well stopt and keep it you 'l have eight ounces This Martial Tartar has the same virtues as the Tincture of Tartar it is good to remove all Obstructions wherefore it is very properly used in Cachexies Dropsies retention of the Menses in Nephritick Colicks and in difficulties of Urine the dose is from ten grains to half a drachm in broth or some proper liquor or else made into Lozenges Remarks This Preparation of Chalybeate or Martial Tartar is not only more convenient for use than the former in that it dissolves or mixes in a cold liquor but has much more virtue in it for the Tincture of Mars contains only the more saline part of Tartar Soluble Emetick Tartar This Preparation is a soluble Tartar impregnated with some portion of Glass of Antimony which renders it Emetick Put into a glass vessel four ounces of Crystals of Tartar powdered pour upon it Spirit of Vrine until it be two fingers above the matter there will happen a small ebullition because the Cream of Tartar will dissolve in the Spirit of Vrine when the dissolution is finished add to it an ounce of the glass of Antimony finely powdered and eight or ten ounces of water boil it all in a sand-heat seven or eight hours and take care to put more hot water into the vessel as the liquor consumes after that filtrate and evaporate gently in sand all the liquor and there will remain three ounces of a greyish powder drawing towards white keep it in a Viol well stopt It is an Emetick that works with little violence the dose is from four to fifteen grains in broth Remarks The Ebullition which happens in this Operation proceeds from the Cream of Tartars meeting with the Volatile and Alkali Salt of Urine for the Acid of Tartar piercing the Salt of Urine divides its parts and gives vent to igneous bodies which were contained in it and which now finding themselves free do break forth in great haste Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack may be used instead of that of Vrine but then there will be no sensible Ebullition the reason of which is because the salt of this Spirit is not an Alkali so open
as the Spirit of Vrine by reason of some impression it has of the Acid sal Armoniack with which it was mixt insomuch that the Crystals of Tartar whose acid is not separated from the Earth has points too gross and too unactive to insinuate into the pores of this salt and separate its parts so easily as those of the salt that is contained in Spirit of Vrine whose pores are bigger Some part of the Glass of Antimony dissolves in the boiling and gives the Emetick quality to the powder It is a very gentle Vomit because the Tartar fixes and in some measure hinders the activity of the Sulphurs of Antimony If instead of making the aforesaid evaporation you should take the vessel off the fire when there is but two thirds of the liquor consumed and let it settle without stirring it in four and twenty hours the soluble Tartar will crystallize at the bottom and on the sides but it will be never a whit the better When you would make this Crystallization you must use a flat vessel let it be of earth that the Crystals may display themselves the better The liquor is to be decanted and the Crystals to be taken and dryed The evaporations and crystallizations are to be continued until you have obtained all your salt Another sort of Soluble Emetick Tartar may be made by boiling in water an ounce of the Glass of Antimony powdered with four ounces of Soluble Tartar for seven or eight hours then upon filtring and evaporating the liquor there will remain a grey powder of the same virtues as the other and to be given in the same dose Distillation of Tartar This Operation is a separation of the Phlegm the Spirit and the Oil of Tartar Fill two thirds of a Retort with Tartar grosly powdered place your Retort in a Reverberatory Furnace and fitting to it a large capacious Receiver begin the distillation with a very small fire for three hours only to warm the Retort and drive out the Phlegm drop by drop throw away this insipid water and refitting the Receiver Lute closely the joints encrease the fire by little and little and you 'l see Spirits fill the Receiver with Clouds continue it that the Oil may likewise come forth then when there will come no more let the vessels cool and unlute them pour that which is in the receiver into a Tunnel lined with brown paper that the Spirit may filtrate and separate from the thick black Oil that remains in the filter keep this Oil in a Viol it is good to smell to in Hysterical vapours it would be good to rub Paralytical parts with and for cold pains but by reason of its abominable smell it is not used Pour the Spirit into a glass Cucurbite and rectifie it by distilling it in sand it is good against the Palsie Asthma and Scurvy it works by Urine and by Sweat It is used in Hysterical maladies and for the Epilepsie the dose is from one drachm to three in some appropriate liquor You will find in the Retort a black mass from which a Salt may be drawn as I shall shew hereafter Remarks If you have used three pounds of Tartar of sixteen ounces to the pound in this Operation you will draw four ounces of Phlegm eight ounces of Spirit and three ounces of Oil the black mass which remains in the Retort after distillation will weigh two pounds or two and thirty ounces and you will draw from that mass twelve ounces of salt Almost all Authors who have spoke of Tartar have asserted that two sorts of Spirits could be drawn from it by distillation the one very Volatile the other fixt and acid wherefore after all had mixed confusedly in the Receiver they separated the Oil and added some Alkali such as Coral or Crabs-eyes to that which remained then they poured it into a Cucurbite and distilled about half the liquor which they pretended to be a Volatile Spirit for the acid Spirit remained absorb'd by the Alkali with the Phlegm in the bottom of the body But having vowed never to be led by any Authority which is not founded upon Experience I have examined the nature of Tartar as strictly as possible and after a great many distillations of it I could never perceive this Volatile Spirit which hath been obtruded upon us all that I could ever find is this that Tartar contains good store of Essential salt which renders it acid and that this Salt coming forth by distillation and mixing with phlegm doth make all the Spirit that can be drawn from Tartar So that the Spirit of Tartar according to the description of these men is only the more Phlegmatick part of the liquor that is to say the most deprived of this Essential Salt because almost all of it doth adhere unto the Alkali body of Coral or Crabs-eyes which were added to it But according to the way I have set down the Spirit may be drawn as pure as may be because I do not leave it to mix with the phlegm which comes out first If we do rectifie the Spirit it is done to purifie it from some Terrestrious parts which it might have carried along with it in the distillation Some thinking to do better than those who rectifie Spirit of Tartar on alkali matters do instead of those alkalis use biscuit powdered but they attain their end never the better for the biscuit does sweeten the acid Spirit of Tartar as much as Coral or Crabs-eyes A very volatile and alkali Spirit is drawn from the Lees of wine I shall speak of it in the Chapter of the Volatile Salt of Tartar and perhaps it is this very Spirit that Paracelsus and Van Helmont do boast so much of and which has occasioned many Authors to write that the Tartar does contain a most volatile Spirit Fixt Salt of Tartar and its liquor called Oil per Deliquium Break the Retort which served you for distillation of Tartar and take the black mass you find in it Calcine it until it becomes white then put it into a great deal of hot water and make a Lixivium filtrate it and pour it into a glass or earthen vessel evaporate in a sand-heat all the water and there will remain a white salt which is called the Alkali Salt of Tartar This Salt is Aperitive it is used for to draw forth the Tincture of Vegetables and is given for Obstructions the dose is from ten to thirty drops in broth or Laxative Infusions If you expose for some days in a Cellar this Salt of Tartar in a wide glass vessel it will dissolve into a liquor that is improperly called Oil of Tartar per Deliquium It is used for Tettars and to discuss Tumors the Ladies do mix it in Lilly-water to clear their complexion and hands Remarks In these two last Operations I have given you the means of obtaining all that can be got from Tartar but those who have no need of the Spirit or Oil and would only desire the
Salt may bruise the Crude Tartar and wrapping it up in paper may Calcine it until it turns into a white mass after which they may draw the salt by a Lixivium as I said before I do commonly draw this way four ounces of very white and well purified salt of Tartar from each pound of red Tartar a little more may be drawn from white Tartar but it is no better than the other I have observed that when water is thrown upon the mass of Tartar newly Calcined it heats much like unslack'd Lime when wetted the reason of which is the same that I have given to explicate the Ebullition of Quick-lime in water all the difference is this that Tartar Calcined containing a great deal of Salt does more easily imbibe water than Quick-lime Some do Calcine salt of Tartar with a little sulphur to hinder it from dissolving so easily by the air and to render it the whiter but this is no good practice because the acid Spirit of sulphur destroys some part of the Alkali and this does come to happen by reason that the pores of this Salt by being thus Calcined are not so open as they were and the air therefore cannot so easily melt it If you would make Salt of Tartar and other Alkali fixt salts very white indeed you must Calcine them all alone in a great fire until they become white and then purifie them by Dissolution Filtration and Coagulation As for their proneness to dissolve this is natural to Alkali salts and cannot be taken from them but by destroying their nature Nor can I approve the addition of any quantity of Niter to the Calcination of Tartar as some do because the volatile parts of Niter being exalted the fixt do remain and by their acidity do diminish the virtue of Salt of Tartar Although the Salt of Tartar be tolerably white after the first purification yet if you do calcine threescore and four ounces of it and filtrate it as I have said you will draw still abundance of earthy matter and if in curiosity you should dry this earth you would find three ounces and a half of it Alkali salts are Aperitive in that they dissolve those slimy humors which caused Obstructions and it is for the same reason that Salt of Tartar does correct Senna and hinders it from griping for the substance of Senna being viscous this does rarefie it and make it work the quicker it may also serve to dissolve some viscous phlegm that sticks in the guts which as it is going off causes griping pains The liquor or Oil made per Deliquium is only a Salt of Tartar dissolved by the moisture of the Cellar If you would make it quickly you must dissolve the Salt of Tartar in as much Rain water well filtrated as is needful to turn it into a liquor It may be used like the former it cures Tettars and discusses Tumors because being an Alkali it sweetens the keen Salts which fomented these distempers When Salt of Tartar or its liquor is dissolved in water newly distilled from some green plant the water will turn green and the greener the plant is from which the water was distilled this salt does make the water so much the greener The water of Night-shade turns greener with it than Balm-water Balm-water greener than Eye-bright-water and so of the rest The reason of this effect proceeds from this that the Alkali salt of Tartar does rarefie and make appear many little parts of the plant which did rise with the water in the distillation and did not till then appear But the water must be sure to be distilled with a fire sufficiently great for if it should have been distilled in a Balneum or such like heat there would not appear the least shew of green though an Alkali salt were mixed with it Cherry-water Rose-water and many other distilled waters of fruits or flowers do give no colour by the addition of Salt of Tartar Tincture of Salt of Tartar This Operation is an exaltation of some parts of Salt of Tartar in Spirit of wine Melt in a good Crucible twenty ounces of Salt of Tartar in great fire and when it is in Fusion cover it with a Tile and put coals round it blow about it so as to raise a greater heat than if you were melting Gold continue this degree of fire about six hours or until your Salt of Tartar is of a red marble colour which you may know by thrusting the end of a Spatula into the Crucible for when it is drawn out you may look upon a little matter that is stuck to it then take out the Crucible with a pair of tongs and turn it upside down into a warm mortar the matter will coagulate in a little time powder it presently and put it into a matrass warmed before-hand pour upon it Spirit of wine Tartarized until it swims four fingers above the matter stop the matrass with another to make a double-vessel lute the junctures close with a wet bladder set your matrass in Sand and heat it with a gradual fire to make the Spirit of wine boil seven or eight hours during which time it will assume a red colour After that let the vessels cool and unlute them separate by Inclination this most fragrant Tincture and keep it in a Viol well stopt You may pour more Spirit of Wine on the remaining Salt of Tartar and proceed as before as long as it will draw out any Tincture The Tincture of the Salt of Tartar is an excellent Aperitive it purifies the bloud and resists malignity of humors It is used in the Scurvy the dose is from ten to thirty drops in some convenient liquor Remarks You must place the Crucible in the furnace upon a Tile for fear lest the wind which comes through the doors of the Ash-hole and fire-room might be apt to cool the bottom and hinder the Fusion of the Salt The Salt of Tartar having been a good while melted in the Crucible does flame when thrown upon lighted coals as easily as Salt-peter does This effect proceeds only from this that the fire has attenuated and volatilized the parts of this fixt salt so as to render them fit to exalt with the sulphur of coals Many have writ that it is sufficient to Calcine the Salt of Tartar two hours in a violent fire or until the Salt of Tartar becomes blewish but after having tried several times to make the Tincture according to this description I could never be able to do it it is true the Spirit of Wine will be a little Tinctured but it comes not near that which is necessary to call it the Tincture of Salt of Tartar for it should be red like wine and to make it so it is requisite to Calcine it as I have said and good store of it should be put into the Crucible because it diminishes exceedingly You must likewise take care to use Spirit of wine well rectified for if there should be any phlegm
three sorts of it the Black the White and the Yellow The Inhabitants of those Countries do keep this Opium for their own use and do send us only the Meconium which is nothing else but the Juyce of these same Poppy-heads drawn by expression and then thickned and wrapt up in leaves to transport the better It is this Drug that we improperly call Opium and always use for want of the true but being more impure than the true it hath not the same activity and strength A Meconium may be made after the same manner with the heads of those Poppies that grow in Italy Languedoc and Provence but it will prove much weaker than the former The Opium which comes from Thebes or else from Grand-Cairo is accounted the best you must choose it Black Inflammable bitter to the taste and a little acrimonious its smell must be disagreeable and stupefactive Extract of Opium called Laudanum This Operation is the purer part of Opium drawn in water and Spirit of wine and reduced to the consistence of an extract Cut into slices four ounces of good Opium and put it into a bolt-head pour upon it a quart of Rain-water well filtred stop the bolt-head and setting it in sand give your fire by degrees then increase it to make the liquor boil for two hours strain it warm and pour it into a bottle Take the Opium which remains undissolved in the Rain-water dry it in an earthen pan over a small fire and putting it into a Matrass pour upon it Spirit of wine to the height of four fingers stop the Matrass and digest the matter twelve hours in hot Ashes afterwards strain the liquor and there will remain a glutinous earth which is to be flung away Evaporate both these dissolutions of Opium separately in earthen or glass vessels in a Sand-heat to the consistence of honey then mix them and finish the drying this mixture with a very gentle heat to give it the consistence of Pills or a solid Extract It is the most certain Soporifick that we have in Physick it allays all pains which proceed from too great an activity of the humors it is good for the Tooth-ach applied to the tooth or else to the Temple-artery in a plaister it is used for to stop spitting of bloud the bloudy-flux the flux of the menses and hemorrhoids for the colick for hot defluxions on the eyes and to quiet all sorts of griping pains the dose of it is from half a grain to three in some convenient Conserve or else dissolved in a Julep Remarks Opium is compounded of a Spirituous part and a gross terrestrious Rosine the Spirituous part may be easily dissolv'd in water but the Resinous requires a more convenient Menstruum such as Spirit of Wine You must dry the Opium after the first dissolution least the Spirit of Wine be too much weakned by the watry part that remains which would hinder the solution from being done so well as it should be Distilled Vinegar dissolves Opium but the acids may diminish its virtue by destroying or fixing its volatile part which serves for a vehicle to the other Spirit of wine alone might be used to dissolve both parts of the Opium but it might be feared it would carry away with it the volatile part in the Evaporation All that is in the Opium is preserved by my description for the Resinous part dissolved in the Spirit of Wine cannot evaporate with it because it is the heavier and the other part which I call Volatile in comparison with the first is mixt with a little Rosine that keeps it back while the water evaporates The truth of this I have found by experience and any body else may try as well as I have done by distilling these liqours Lastly it is hard to use any greater precaution than this for the preservation of all the pure parts of Opium and fewer Menstruums can be used that are more convenient If in curiosity you weigh the glutinous earth after it is dried you will find it to be half an ounce Almost all Authors have appointed to torrifie Opium before it be dissolved to the end a certain malignity which they say is in it may be evaporated but that which they call malignity is nothing but the Spirits or Sulphurs that are most volatile whereof I spoke but now so that by the Torrefaction they deprive it of its more active part They do further add to the Extract commonly drawn with Spirit of Wine Coral Pearl Treacle Extract of Saffron Cordial Confections Hysterical ingredients and other things which may resist a cold malignity in the fourth degree which they pretend to be in Opium But experience convinces us that it is not so dangerous when given in the foresaid dose so that there is no need at all of losing its volatile part by Torrefaction nor of mixing it with other ingredients which may hinder its operation or retard its effect It belongs to the Physician when he thinks fit to give it to judge whether there be any need of an Hysterick or Cordial which he may appoint to be mixed upon the spot I shall not stay to examine here whether Opium is cold or hot they who have made the Anatomy of this mixt do know very well that it is almost all of it Sulphur I shall endeavour to explicate its effects the most sensibly I can according to the Rules of Chymistry The virtue of Opium consists in causing sleep and that by calming the motion of the Spirits for since watchfulness does proceed from the motion of the Spirits which by rarifying the humors in the little passages of the Brain do augment their Circulation it may surely be said with probability enough that sleep is caused by some condensation of the humors which happens from a repose of the Spirits in the Brain According to this Principle then there must be contained in Opium and all other Soporificks a certain substance that inviscates the Spirits and hinders them for some time from Circulating so fast as they did before Let us examine now whether any such thing can probably be found in Opium by the Analysis I have made of it first of all I have observed a Spirituous part but after that hath been drawn out by means of Rain-water there remains a gummous and terrestrious matter and this is the substance that I find so proper to produce this effect For nothing in Physick is so fit to thicken the bloud and other humors as things that are Mucilaginous Milk and the Emulsions which are drawn from divers seeds the Water-Lily Lettice nay and all temperate Aliments do frequently incline to sleep because they are impregnated with a gummous substance which mixing in the bloud does serve to agglutinate the Spirits and to moderate the quickness of their motion this now being supposed it is easie to conceive how Opium makes one sleep seeing it is loaded with Mucilaginous parts which may be conveighed into the vessels But without doubt
the Spirits finding resistance in their passage do reflect or bend their motion to the outward parts and draw along with them some moisture through the pores That which confirms me in this opinion is the consideration that divers persons do use always to sweat when they are asleep though they have not taken any Opium at all Now it may happen that in the operation of Opium the Spirits finding more resistance within than they are wont may tend outwards with the more force and consequently incline to sweat more than in natural sleep Some prejudiced Chymist may not relish perhaps this my explication because I do not season it with salt enough and Sulphur and other principles but although the five principles which may be drawn from Vegetables may also be drawn from Opium I never use them but when they are necessary to explicate some effect for whensoever I find they cannot satisfie my reason nothing shall hinder me from pursuing my thoughts farther and searching otherwhere for some better explication In fine the Beauty of Chymistry does not consist in suiting our opinions to those of ordinary Chymists who resolving to explicate all the Events of nature by their Principles which they manage according to their own fashion do reject as ridiculous whatsoever does not agree with their Sentiments but it rather consists in examining and imitating what is done Naturally and so searching for reasons that are most probable and such as may be said to come nearest to truth though a man be fain to forsake the way that others have trod in CHAP. XVI Of Aloes ALoes is the thickned Juice of a Plant bearing the same name it grows in many Countries especially in Egypt whence it is brought to us the best is that which is called Hepatick and Succotrine because it bears the colour of a Liver and a great deal of it is brought from an Island of Persia called Soccotra the Hepatick is drawn by Incisions made on the Plant it is friable of an offensive smell and very bitter taste There is another sort of Aloes which doth not differ from the former but only in that being drawn by expression many Impurities are mixed with it it is compact heavy and smells not so strong as the other It is called Aloes Caballina because Farriers do use it most for their horses Aloes is not only used inwardly as I shall shew speaking of its Extract but it is also used outwardly in many Unguents and Plaisters that are detersive and discutient It s Tincture is also drawn with Spirit of Wine by the same method as I shall describe that of Myrrhe it is discutient detersive good against Gangrenes and to Incarnate it is used in Injections to dissolve gypsous humors and to cleanse wounds and old ulcers Extract of Aloes This Operation is an Aloes depurated from some feculencies which it contained Dissolve eight ounces of Aloes Succotrina in a sufficient quantity of Juice of Roses or a strong decoction of Violet Flowers let the dissolution settle five or six hours then decant it and when you have filtred it evaporate the liquor gently until the matter remains in the consistence of an Extract keep it in a pot 'T is a good Remedy to purge the stomach fortifying it withal the dose is from fifteen grains to a drachm in Pills it is likewise good to bring down the menstrua Remarks This Preparation is nothing but a Purification of Aloes into an Hepatick liquor Pills are made of this Extract and are called Pills of Frankfort and some do add to them Mastich Rhubarb and other Stomachick Ingredients it is the Basis of the Angelical Pills Aloetick Pills may be taken at meat or a little before meals they seldom purge till the next day Wherefore they have been called Pilulae ante cibum They bring the Hemorrhoids and Terms in that Aloes do rarefie the bloud by its Fermentative Salt and stimulates it out of the veins with great force The Extract of Aloes taken alone is pungent upon the stomach It is given immediately before meat that the aliments by their viscous quality may dull the keen operation of this remedy and so may serve as a Corrective to it CHAP. XVII Elixir Proprietatis THIS Operation is a Tincture of Myrrhe Aloes and Saffron drawn in the Spirits of wine and Sulphur Powder grosly and mix together two ounces of good Myrrhe the same of Aloes Succotrina and one ounce of good Saffron put this mixture into a Bolt-head and pour upon it Spirit of wine a fingers heighth above it stop well the bolt-head and let them digest two days then open it and add to it Spirit of sulphur until the liquor is four fingers above the matter shake it all well together and having fitted another bolt-head to the former in order to make a Circulating vessel set it in digestion in horse dung or such like heat the space of four days Then decant the liquor and strain it keep it in a bottle well stopt It is a very good remedy to fortifie the heart it purifies the bloud and works by sweat it is likewise good to help digestion to bring down the menses and in hysterical vapours the dose is from seven to twelve drops in some proper liquor Remarks The name Elixir has been given to many Infusions or Tinctures of spirituous bodies prepared in spirituous menstruum's They would express by this word a very pretious liquor or a Quintessence Paracelsus was the first who described this preparation Many others since him have changed some circumstances relating to it but all have tended to the same end which is to draw forth the Tincture of those three ingredients I have used but one ounce of Saffron because this little flower is very light and takes up a great deal of room Though we should use more of it the menstruum would receive no more than it does for there is as much in that quantity as is sufficient to fill the pores of the menstruum I do leave the ingredients to infuse two days in Spirit of wine all alone that only their more sulphureous part may be drawn by this Spirit The acid Spirit which is mixed afterwards being sweetned by the ramous parts of the Spirit of wine has only force remaining to load itself with the Tincture This mixture of Spirit of wine and Spirit of sulphur do give the Tincture a very pleasant smell and they have some cordial quality besides Wherefore I would not advise the changing this menstruum as some do by substituting in their place Spirit of Harts-horn If you would you might draw more Tincture from that which remains in the bolt-head but it will not be so strong nor so good as the first because it has already parted with its more volatile parts CHAP. XVIII Of Tabaco TAbaco called Nicotiana or Petum is a Plant with broad Leaves that grows abundantly in many places of America as Brazile and Peru but the best that is brought into France
lid so soon as that appears you must take your vessel off the fire and having covered it with an earthen lid without holes instead of that with holes suffer it to cool You will find on the sides of your vessel a border of yellow matter which is sometimes to the thickness of a finger this is the Phosphorus take it and keep it in a box well stopt in some dark place When you would have it appear lucid in the dark you must expose it about a quarter of an hour to the light without which it will not shine in the dark Remarks Chalk is a bituminous earth called in Latin Creta from the Isle of Crete where there is abundance of it It likewise abounds in many other Countries Some Authors do recount three sorts of it the white the greenish and the black but that which we use in this operation is the common the white It is calcined in order to make its Sulphur more active than it was before the more volatile part of it flies away but there is still enough remaining to make the PHOSPHORVS Although Chalk be bituminous nevertheless it is an alkali because the Sulphurs which it contains in small quantity are not capable to shut the pores of it and besides the calcination opens them more and disposes this earth to receive more easily the impression of acids which plainly shews it self by the strong ebullition that happens when it is thrown into the Aqua fortis The body must be large and the Chalk must be thrown into it by little and little to hinder the matter from boiling over The Chalk does all of it dissolve perfectly in the Aqua fortis and more is still to be added until there be no further ebullition for that is the sign that the acid spirits have rarefied the matter as much as they were able and that being as it were sheathed or locked up in the matter they could not possibly dissolve any more of it if therefore you should still add more in superfluity the overplus would precipitate to the bottom When the Aqua fortis you use is good it dissolves very near its weight in Chalk the solution of it is yellow That which is evaporated is the more phlegmatick part of Aqua fortis and the acid Spirits being incorporated with the Chalk do make a kind of austere salt this salt might very easily be dissolved into a liquor in the air It is fit that it should be very dry when it is put into the Coppel that the operation may be done the sooner the vessel is covered that the matter may be the more easily melted but the cover must needs have holes in it to give vent to the vapours which rise from it and that we may see when the vapours do come yellow that we may then immediately take the vessel off the fire for these yellow vapours are they that make the Phosphorus lucid After Calcination you find at bottom of the pan or coppel a terrestrious matter which must be flung away as useless In order to preserve this Phosphorus the better you may leave it as it is in the vessel wherein it was Calcined but you must stop it close in a box with a glass lid It is to be kept in a shady place that its parts being thereby the more condensed they may spend the more slowly and when you would have it to shine in the dark you must expose it to the air about a quarter of an hour because the air does put its parts into a motion This Phosphorus is in its effects very like to the Bolonian stone but that takes the air much sooner than this stone because it contains abundantly more salt its light does not endure so long as that of the Phosphorus which I described before CHAP. III. Of Honey HOney is compounded of the most Balsamick substance of several Flowers which the Bees do separate and carry into their Hives for nourishment They do gather up and order this Honey most artificially as if they took special care to make provision against Winter and thereby they make way for the Fermentation which sends to the sides the grosser part which is like to a Tartar and called Wax the Honey being found in the middle the best to the taste is the White but for Physick the Yellow is the better as containing more Spirits than the other it must be of a moderate consistence that is to say neither too hard nor too clear A Hydromel is prepared with it for Diseases of the Breast A Vinous Hydromel is made of water and clarified Honey then the liquor is put to Ferment in a vessel in the Sun until it is grown as strong as Spanish wine a Spirit may be drawn from it and Hydromel will grow as sowr as wine Distillation of Honey This preparation is a separation of the Water the Spirit and the Oil of Honey from its terrestrious part Put four pounds of good Honey into a large earthen body and distil the water in a moderate Sand-heat until acid drops begin to come then take away the fire and keep this Water in a bottle it is good to make the hair grow you must either wet your Comb with it every day or else dip a piece of Spunge into it and therewith soak the roots of the hair Take that which remains in the Body put it into an earthen Retort or glass one Coated but one that 's large enough for two thirds to remain empty and place your Retort in a Reverberatory Furnace then fitting a large Receiver and luting the joints begin the distillation with a small fire for three hours only to warm the Retort then encrease it by little and little Spirits will come forth with a little black Oil and fill the Receiver with Clouds continue the fire until all is come out that will unlute the vessels and separate the Spirit from the black and stinking Oil in a Tunnel lined with brown paper there is but very little Oil keep them both in Viols you will have twelve ounces of Spirit The Spirit is an excellent Aperitive some of it may be dropt into Juleps to give them an agreeable acidity The Spirit may be Rectified by distilling it in Sand in a glass Body and that which rises last may be kept apart as the strongest of all it is used for to cleanse old Ulcers and to eat proud flesh The Oil is good to be used in caries of bones You will have in the retort six and twenty ounces of a black very spongy matter which is inflammable by reason of a soot that remains in it when it is burnt it yields but very few ashes out of which nothing can be drawn Remarks The Vessels must be exceeding large for the Distillation of Honey because a great vacuity is requisite for it to rarifie in The Water of Honey makes the Hair to grow because it opens the Pores some do mix it with the Juice of Onion to render it the
more effectual Sometimes a little Wax is found in the receiver which came with the Spirit from the Honey in the distillation CHAP. IV. Distillation of Wax THIS Operation is a separation of the Oil of Wax from the Phlegm and Salt Melt two pounds of Yellow Wax in an earthen pan and mix with it three or four pounds of potters earth powdered or so much as is requisite to make a Paste of it form it into little pellets and put them into an earthen Retort or glass one Coated a third of which remains empty place this Retort in a Reverberatory Furnace fit to it a Receiver and luting the joints give a small fire at first and there will come forth Phlegm then a Spirit encrease the fire a little and a liquor will distil that congeals in the Receiver like Butter continue the fire till nothing more comes forth then unlute the joints separate the Spirit mixed with Phlegm from the Butter and keep it in a Viol well stopt It is a good opener the dose is from ten drops to twenty in raddish water or some other appropriate liquor Some do use the Butter of Wax to discuss tumors rather than the Oil that I am going to describe Melt the Butter of Wax in an earthen pan and make a paste of it with sufficient quantity of potters-earth powdered form this paste into little pellets put them into a glass retort set your retort in a Sand-heat fit to it a Receiver and luting the joints begin the distillation with a small fire a great many Spirits will come forth mixed with Phlegm after which encrease it a little and a clear yellow Oil will come having distil'd about three ounces of it change the Receiver for that which comes at last is as thick as Butter It may be Rectified with other clay or potters-earth and it will change into as transparent an Oil as the other Separate the Oil from the Spirit and keep it in a Viol. It is a good discutient for Tumors and Cold pains it is mixed in Unguents and Oils for that purpose The Oil of Wax may be rectified several other times to make it still clearer than before Remarks The solid consistence of Wax doth proceed from a proportionate mixture of Water Volatile Salt and Oil united and incorporated together wherefore its solidity comes to be destroyed according as the Principles do suffer a separation and this is easily observed in the Rectifications for in every distillation that is made some considerable quantity of water is separated and the Oil does likewise become clearer The Clay serves only to separate the parts of Wax and to rarifie it the more If by way of curiosity you desire to know exactly what quantity of liquor or Spirit can be drawn from Wax you must dry your Clay as much as you can or else use in its place broken pots or Bricks powdered which are not at all wet out of three and twenty ounces of Wax you 'l draw in the first distillation just the same weight of liquor to wit twelve ounces of Phlegmatick Spirit and the rest is a Butter in the second and third distillation you 'l draw fourteen ounces of Spirit and six ounces of clear Oil. Spirit of Wax is only a small quantity of acid Volatile salt dissolved in Phlegm but you must not believe what some have written that having distilled a considerable quantity of Wax and put that which was drawn into a Bolt-head they could sublime the Volatile salt like others of that nature For this salt though it be indeed Volatile yet it is not Volatile enough to rise before the Phlegm it is an acid salt much like unto that of Ambar but is not of the nature of Volatile alkali's which are known to sublime so easily it were better therefore to keep this Spirit as it is or else to evaporate about half of it with a very mild heat that it may be the stronger The Volatile salts of many sulphureous matters are drawn acid as they are in the mixt because being clothed with soft and ramous parts which give way easily to their motion they do not break their natural keenness by endeavouring to separate when they are forced to it by fire and so they do not receive so much terrestrious and firy matter as is requisite to make them porous like Volatile alkali's This Operation and that of the Distillation of Ambar which I have described do much confirm what I said before in my Remarks upon the Principle that all the salt of mixt bodies is naturally acid and that alkali is nothing else but an alteration of the Natural Salt made by fire Besides all sorts of Experiments do seem to me to confirm and establish this opinion but yet I am not so peremptory in the vindication of it but that I would gladly give place to another if I could be shewed that it is better than mine for I seek after nothing so much as to discover truth FINIS THE INDEX A ACID what Page 24 How different Crystals are drawn with different acids 188 That acids drawn by violent fires do much differ from the natural 287 How they do become able both to dissolve and to coagulate 453 That they will preserve bodies from corruption 455 That Digestion and Hunger are not so mnch beholding to acids as is commonly thought 456 457 Acid and Alkali not the only cause of ebullition 302 342 Aes ustum 123 Alchymy well defined 58 Alkaest 309 Alkali whence so called 22 What it is 25 Aloes 477 Roch-Alom 350 Alom-water 352 Alumen Saccharinum 350 Burnt-Alom 351 Amalgamation of Gold 65 Ambar 363 Ambargrease 372 Antimony 202 What renders it emetick 203 206 Its emetick quality drawn better in wine than other liquors 207 The violence of Antimonial vomits to be conquered with Cream of Tartar 231 Antimony Calcined in the Sun increases in weight 228 229 Antimonial Cup 205 Antimonium Diaphoreticum whether sudorifick 224 That it is not an alkali 225 Cinnaber of Antimony 234 Regulus of Antimony increased in weight by Calcination 208 What gives the form of a star to its Martial Regulus 212 Glass of Antimony why more emetick than its other preparations 217 How it may be corrected ib. What gives it vitrification 216 Sulphur of Antimony 236 Our Golden Sulphur of Antimony different from that of the antients 210 Aqua Regalis why it dissolves Gold and cannot dissolve Sylver 313 c. Aqua secunda 77 Arcanum Corallinum 193 Arsenick 244 What to be done when this poison happens to be taken 2inwardly 246 B Balm distilled 404 Balsom of Sulphur anisated 357 Bath-waters their heat explicated 140 Benjamin 491 Animal Bezoar 511 Bismuth 101 Bolonian stone 525 Butter of Saturn 111 C Camphire 494 How it comes to be an Amulet in Agues ib. Carduus Benedictus distilled 406 Chylification explicated 356 Cerusse 106 Cineres Clavellati 433 Cinnaber of Antimony 234 Anatomized 235 Cinnamon 389 how it differs from Cassia lignea 390 Cloves 399