to be imputed to them It is a great Resolvent and on that score fit to open Obstructions that produce more than a few Diseases It is both Diaphoretick and Diuretick and on both these accounts fit to assist Nature to discharge divers Noxious Salts and expel divers Contagious or Malignant Corpuscles that offend her It resists Putrefaction and Coagulation of the Blood gives it a briskness and Spirituosity that promotes the free Circulation of the Blood to which it is Congeneal by which means tho not perhaps by these only it becomes a good Cordial and probably against some Poysons an Antidote And which is none of the least nor least extensive Vertues it is very friendly to the Genus Nervosum and upon that account is like to be very proper in Fits of the Mother as they are call'd Convulsions some sorts of Head aches Palseys Incipient Apoplexies some sort of Asthmas c. It is also Balsamical in some Circumstances and may have divers other Vertues that have not yet been observ'd For a Medicine that does not weaken not cause great Evacuations nor clog the Stomach nor is blemish'd with the excess of any manifest Quality but has in it self a Complex of so many useful Powers may reasonably be suppos'd likely to be available in more than a few Diseases since a good part of those that Humane Bodies are lyable to may be powerfully oppugn'd by some of those excellent Qualities one or more whose Confluence may be found in the Spirit of Humane Blood I presume therefore that one may rationally propose it as likely to be a good Remedy in many Distempers especially wherein either Spirit of Urine or the Urinous Spirit of Sal-Armoniac have been found successful Medicines such as Hysterical Fits Pleurisies Coughs some Scorbutick Distempers Convulsions Apoplexies some kinds of Feavers Head-aches the Jaundise c. But I formerly prepar'd you not to expect that I should say much of the Virtues of the Spirit of Humane Blood inwardly given upon my own personal experience And therefore I shall not scruple to tell you that Helmont himself as little as he is apt to praise other than his own or the Paracelsian Arcana more than once commends the Spirit of Cruor though that be in his sense of the Word not yet fully elaborated Humane Blood against the Epilepsy which he says it will cure even in adult persons which is a Vertue he expresly denies to the Spirit of Urine And a famous Writer about the Hermetick Physick but if I mistake not better vers'd in divers other parts of Learning than in Chymical Arcana tho he so far depretiates Spagyrical Preparations as to commend the Utility but of a very few of them is pleas'd to put the Distill'd Liquor of Blood into the number of those very few that he vouchsafes a good Character to I am the more inclin'd to give Credit to these praises of Spirit of Blood because as I remember this was the Medicine that I made use of in the following Case A young Lady in whose family the Consumption was an hereditary disease was molested with a Violent and Stubborn Cough that was judg'd consumptive and look'd upon by those that gave her Physick as not to be cured by any other way then a seasonable remove from London into the French Air but she was already so far gone and weakened and there remain'd so much of the Winter that 't was judg'd she would die before the season would make it any way fit for her to undertake so long and troublesome a journey but if she could be kept alive till the end of the Spring there would be some hopes she might in France recover On this occasion being solicited by some friends of hers and mine to try what I could do to preserve her I sent her some Spirit of Humane Blood very carefully prepar'd and rectify'd to which I gave some name that I do not well remember upon the use of which she manifestly mended notwithstanding the unfriendliness of the Season insomuch that about the end of February she had gain'd relief and strength enough to venture to cross the Seas and make a journey to Montpellier whence in Autumn she brought home good looks and recovery If I much misremember not the same Spirit of Blood made very pure and subtile by the help of a Lamp Furnace was the Medicine that I put into the Hands of an Ingenious and Successful Physician who complain'd to me that he had a Patient that had quite puzzled him as well as baffled the endeavours of other eminent Doctors whom the difficulty of the case had invited at several times to try their skill upon him This man was frequently Obnoxious to such violent and tormenting fits of the Head-ach that he could not endure the light and was offended with almost every noise or motion that reach'd his Ears insomuch that he was forc'd to give over his Profession which was that of a Taylor But upon the constant use of the before mentioned Spirit of Blood for the other Medicines he took were much inferior to it and had not before been available he received such relief as made him with great joy and thankfulness return to the exercise of his Trade and the Physician to whom I gave the remedy for him told me one circumstance too considerable to be here omitted Namely That the Patient having by our famous Harvey's advice been us'd to bleed once in two or three Months the Physician counsell'd him notwithstanding his recovery not abruptly to break off his ancient custom and the Patient thereupon sent for the same Chyrurgeon that had been formerly wont to let him Blood and to complain of the great badness of his Blood but when this Chyrurgeon who knew not what had been done to the Patient came to open a Vein again and perceived what kind of Blood it afforded he was so surpriz'd that he stop'd the operation and asked the man with wonder how he came by such Florid Blood adding that 't was pitty to deprive him of so well conditioned a Liquor The Medicinal Vertues hitherto mentioned belong to the Spirit of Humane Blood as 't is pure and simple But 't is not improbable that it may acquire other and perhaps nobler Faculties if it be dexterously corrected diversified or united with fit Ingredients that is in a word skilfully altered or compounded These things may be performed several ways For they may be done either by uniting as well as one can by long digestion or frequent Cohobations the Spirit of Humane Blood with the Oyls Salt and if need be Phlegm of the same Concrete into such a kind of Mixture as some Chymists call Clyssus Or 2. By uniting the Spirit of Blood with Acids as with Spirit of Nitre Spirit of Vinegar Spirit of Verdegrease Oyl of Vitriol c. and employing these mixtures either in their Liquid form or reduced by Evaporation into Chrystals or other Salts and making use of these either as
I am content at least till I shall have had sufficient Quantities of distill'd Blood for making the requisite Tryals to leave as a Problem And this the rather because I am not sure but that by frequent Distillations some Particles of the Fire may from time to time Substantially be associated with those of the Liquor nor yet but that even in the first Distillation of Humane Blood The Fire may have either separated or produc'd a Liquor that though almost strengthless and not justly referable to either of the receiv'd Principles or Ingredients Oyl Salt and Earth is not yet Phlegm truly so call'd but a Liquor as yet Anonymous as I have elsewhere shewn that Woods and many other Bodies afford by Distillation a Liquor that is not an Oyl and is neither Acid nor Alcalisate and yet is no true Phlegm but as I have there styled it an Adiaphorous Spirit It will probably be thought Material if on this occasion I add in favour of the Opinion or Conjecture to which I lately own'd my self inclin'd That considering that the knowledge of the Composition of a Body may be sometimes as well if not better investigated by the way of generating or producing of it as by that of Analysing or Resolving it I made for Tryals sake the following Experiment We dissolv'd in distilled Water as much Volatile Salt of Humane Blood as the Liquor would take up and then having carefully distill'd it in a conveniently shap'd Vessel with a regulated degree of Heat the Distillation afforded us such a Liquor as was desir'd namely one that by Smell Tast and divers Operations appear'd to be a good brisk Spirit of Humane Blood This Experiment for the main was made another time with the like success The III Secondary Title Of the Species of Saline Bodies to which the Spirit of Humane Blood is to be refer'd I need not spend much time to declare a thing that is now so well known to many Physicians and Chymists of this and some of the neighbouring Countries as 't is that of late years Saline Spirits obtain'd by Distillation have been observ'd to be of two sorts But because there are many even of the Learned especially in the remoter parts of Europe that are not well acquainted with this Distinction lest some to whom you may shew this Paper should chance to be of that number it may not be amiss to intimate in two or three Words that the Saline Spirits that ascend in Distillation are some of them Acid in Tast as Spirit of Nitre Spirit of Vitriol c. And some others have Tasts very differing from that being rather somewhat like Common Salt or like Lixiviate Salts And the difference is greater in their operations than in their Tasts For being put together there will presently ensue a manifest Conflict between them and usually for I have not found it to hold in all cases the one will Precipitate the Bodies that the other hath Dissolved And 't is necessary to add that among the Salts called Alcalies some are Fixt in considerable degrees of Fire and others not for which reason divers modern Spagyrists and Physicians that take Acid and Alcaly for the true Principles of Mixt Bodies call the one Fixt and the other Volatile Alcalies And though I have elsewhere questioned this Doctrine and given my Reasons why I approve neither it nor the Appellations newly mention'd and often call the Salts made by Combustion simply Alcalies or else Lixiviate Salts and those that ascend sometimes Vrinous and sometimes Volatile Salts and Spirits yet since the Names of Fixt Alcalies and Volatile ones are now much in request I shall comply with custom oftentimes though not always make use of them in the sense of those that employ them These things being premis'd I may now seasonably propound this important Question To what Species of Saline Bodies the Spirit of Humane Blood is to be referr'd I say of Saline Bodies because though the Spirit of Blood be a Liquor yet it s more efficacious Operations seem almost if not more then almost totally to depend upon the Fugitive Salt wherewith it abounds The ground of the foregoing Question may be twofold the one that I have elsewhere prov'd against the general supposition that some Volatile Salts that arise even in a dry form may not be of an Alcalisate but Acid nature and the other that not only Helmont and his Disciples but a great part of the Modern Chymists and Physicians too ascribe Digestion to an Acid Ferment or Menstruum in the Stomach Whence one may suspect that store of Acid Corpuscles may pass into the Mass of Blood impregnate it as I elsewhere shew that Particles of differing Natures may be even by the senses discovered to do But notwithstanding this I shall not scruple to say in answer to the propounded Question that as far as I have hitherto been able to observe the Spirit of Humane Blood is manifestly referable to that Classis that many call Volatile Alcalies and I often call Vrinous Spirits for I find Spirit of Blood capable of doing those things the performance of which has been looked on almost ever since I publickly propos'd them as the Touchstone to know Volatile Alcalies and distinguish them from the other sorts of Saline Bodies For the Spirit of Humane Blood will make a great conflict with divers Acid Spirits as Spirit of Salt Aqua fortis c. It will immediately turn Syrup of Violets from its Blew Colour into a fair Green 't will Precipitate a Solution of Sublimate in common Water into a White Powder and in short I found it to perform those other things that may be expected from Volatile Alcalies as such as often as I had occasion to make Tryal of it sometimes on one Body and sometimes on another If I were sure as for Reasons elsewhere declar'd I am not that the Digestion of Aliments were made by an Acid Ferment or Juice whencesoever the Stomach is furnish'd with it I should be prone to suspect that some Acid Particles may be mingled with the Blood But however that would not hinder me from referring the Spirit of Humane Blood to Volatile Alcalies because so few Acid Particles would be either destroy'd by the Alcalisate ones that are so abundant in the Spirit or at least these would be so very much predominant as to allow us very warrantably to give on their account a Denomination to the Mixture As if a few drops of Spirit of Vinegar were mix'd with some Pints or Pounds of stale Vrine they would either be depriv'd of their Acidity by some Corpuscles of a contrary nature that they would meet with in the Liquor or they would be so obscur'd and overpower'd by the Fugitive Salts it abounds with that the Acetous Corpuscles would not hinder the Spirituous Liquor drawn from the Mixture by distillation to be justly referable to the Classis of Volatile Vrinous Salts The IV. Secondary Title Whether Spirit of Humane Blood
contain'd a pretty deal of Volatile Alcaly so that it would readily turn Syrup of Violets Green and make a White Precipitate in the solution of Sublimate and a great Ebullition with Spirit of Salt This Spirit being rectifyed in a small Head and Body there was left in the bottom of the Glass a greater quantity than was expected of a substance thick like Honey and which was for the most part of a dark Red and seem'd to contain more Oyl than appeared upon the first Distillation The Liquor that came over the Helm seem'd more pure but not very much stronger than the first Spirit Yet having put it into a Glass Egg with a slender neck and given the vessel a convenient situation in hot Sand we obtain'd a Volatile Alcaly that sublim'd into the neck in the form of a White Salt If this Tryal be reiterated with a success like that I have now recited 't will seem to argue that the Serous or Fluid part of the Blood affords the same Elementary Principles or Similar Substances both as to number and kind that the Fibrous and Consistent part does though not as to quantity that of the Oyl and dry Salt being less in a determinate portion of Serum than they would be in a like quantity or weight of the concreted part of the Blood Having long since observ'd that though the Spirituous parts of Mans Urine are wont to require that the Liquor be digested or putrefy'd about Six weeks to loosen them from the more sluggish parts and make them ascend before the Phlegm yet if fresh Urine be pour'd upon a due proportion of Quick-lime a good part of the Spirit will presently be untyed and made capable of ascending in Distillation I thought it worth while to try what would be afforded by the Serum of Humane Blood if it were put upon Quick-lime before we distill'd it In pursuit of this Enquiry we put these two Bodies together upon whose commixture there ensued but not presently a sensible but transient heat This compounded Body being committed to distillation afforded first a kind of Phlegm in a gentle fire and then in a stronger a moderate quantity of Liquor that was thought to smell manifestly of the Lime but had not a brisk tast This was accompany'd with somewhat more of high coloured faetid Oil than was expected The other Liquor being slowly rectify'd the Spirit that first came over had a strong and piercing smell but less rank than that of Humane Blood drawn the ordinary way It s tast also was not only quick but somewhat fiery Being dropt upon Syrup of Violets it presently turn'd it green with a strong Solution of Sublimate in Water and another of Quick-silver in Aqua Fortis it immediately made two White Precipitates And being mingled with some good Spirit of Sea-Salt though upon their being confounded there appear'd a thick but whitish Smoke there was not produc'd any visible conflict or Bubbles Yet the Colour of the Spirit of Salt appear'd much heightn'd by this Operation But here I must though not in due place take notice that having put the lately mentioned mixture of the Spirit of Serum and of Salt to evaporate that we might observe whether it would afford a Salt much figur'd like Sal-armoniac we found that it did not bot that the Colour produc'd in the Mixture whilst fluid was so heightned in the concretion we speak of that it appeared of a Blood-red Colour but for the shape it was so confus'd that we could not reduce it to any known kind of Salt By all which Phoenomena this Spirit of the Serous part of Blood seems to be very near of kin to that of the concreted part of Blood elsewhere by us described Because Quick-lime is wont to be suspected by Physicians by reason of its Caustick and Fretting Quality I thought fit to try whether the Fixt Salt of Pota-shes which is a Lixiviate Alcaly as well as Lime being substituted in the Room of it would in Distillation have the same Effect upon Serum of Humane Blood Wherefore to Four parts of the Liquor we put one of the Salt and having Distill'd them slowly in a Glass Head and Body we obtain'd good store of a Liquor which was not judg'd any thing near so strong as that formerly mention'd to have been drawn off from Quick-lime And having put this weak Liquor afforded by our Serum to rectify with a gentle heat we found that even the two spoonfuls of Liquor that first ascended were not Spirituous but very Phlegmatick Nor would it well turn Syrup of Violets Green though it afforded some little and light Precipitate when it was put upon a Solution of Sublimate This may seem somewhat the more remarkable if I add on this occasion an Experiment that may be sometimes of Practical use especially in Physick and may afford much Light to those that are studious to know the Nature and Preparations of so very useful a Subject as Humane Vrine We took three parts of fresh Urine that was not many hours old and having put into it one part of Salt of Pot-ashes because that was at hand for else I presume the fixt Salt of Tartar or even of Common Wood ashes would have served the turn and having slowly distill'd them in a Head and Body there first ascended a Liquor Spirituous enough which being set aside We continued the Distillation after having poured the Mixture into a Retort till the Remains appeared dry In this operation it is to be noted that we obtain'd not one drop of Oyl and that perhaps for that reason this Spirit of Urine was not near so faetid as being made the Common way 't is wont to be and that the Liquor that came over toward the latter end of the Distillation was so unlike that which the Serum of Blood afforded us that it was not only considerably strong and manifestly stronger than that which first ascended but had a penetrating and fiery Tast which left a lasting Impression upon the Tongue and with good Spirit of Salt made a notable Ebullition which I remember not that upon Tryals purposely made I found the Spirit of Urine drawn from Quicklime to have done And whereas with this last mentioned Liquor I never that I remember found any Volatile Salt to ascend in a dry form in the operation made by the help of Salt of Pot-ashes there came up without Rectification divers Grains of Volatile Salt one of which was Crystalline and considerably large so that we could with pleasure observe it to be like a Plate curiously figur'd but because of some lesser Corns of Salt that hid one part of it I could not clearly discern whether it were Hexagonal or Octogonal But here I must not conceal that having for greater certainty reiterated this Experiment it had not so good success the Liquor that came over appearing much more Phlegmatick than that which the former Tryal afforded us tho we both times employ'd Salt of Pot-ashes taken out of the
before much if not before any Phlegm These two Considerations as I was intimating may keep that from being thought a groundless Question which has been above propos'd And thô I more incline to the Negative than to the Affirmative at least as to the first part or member of the Question yet I thought it well deserv'd to be determin'd if it may be by Experiment But for want of a sufficient quantity of Blood and good luck in making Tryals with that I could procure I must suspend my Judgment till further Experience resolve me one way or other By what I have yet try'd I am not much encourag'd to expect from Humane Blood a Vinous or Ardent Spirit thô that be the usual product of Fermentation in Liquors and I am the less encourag'd to expect this because I am not sure that there is any Fermentation truly properly so call'd in Humane Blood either within or out of the Body having never yet found any thing in the Blood or Urine that convinc'd me that either of those Liquors would afford an ardent Spirit I remember I once kept Humane Blood for a year together in a Glass very carefully and if I mistake not Hermetically clos'd with a purpose to try whether any Spirits would first ascend But when the Blood came to be expos'd to the contact of the Air the stink was so great and offensive especially to some Ladies that liv'd in the house that we were fain to have it hastily thrown away Another time having caus'd some Sheeps Blood to be digested in a pretty large Vial Hermetically sealed after it had continued a good while in the Digestive Furnace upon a sudden thô no Body touched it it broke with a surprizing noise and blew off the long neck of the Vial. Two or three almost like mischances I had with Attempts made on Humane Blood which I was the more troubled at because I thought it not very improbable that by Putrefaction the Texture of Blood like that of Urine may be so loosen'd or otherwise alter'd that a Volatile Salt or Spirit may in a slow distillation ascend before the Phlegm But as I said before 't is only from further Experience that I must expect Satisfaction in these Enquiries Yet in the mean time I shall add on this occasion That the ill success I had in my Attempts to draw a Spirit from entire Portions of Blood without separating any part from it or adding any foreign Body to it did not hinder but rather invite me to try whether I could not make some Experiment of affinity to those above mentioned upon whose success I might ground some kind of Conjecture what would have been the Events of those Tryals in case they had not miscarryed Wherefore looking upon the Serum of Blood as the likelyest part of it as well as much more likely than the entire Blood to concur to a Fermentation properly so call'd we took some Ounces of this Serum and put to it about a fourth part of Raisins of the Sun well bruis'd and kept them in a Glass whereof a considerable part was left empty and having clos'd the Vessel we kept it in a warm room for many days The Event of this Tryal was that within few days the Raisins began to emerge and afterwards continued to float and there was produc'd or extricated a considerable quantity of permanent and Springy Air as by a certain Contrivance described in another Paper did manifestly appear Both which Phaenomena seem'd plainly to argue that there had been some degree of Fermentation produc'd in the mixture But yet when we came to distill the thus alter'd Serum thô it did not stink as if it had putrefied it would have done yet the Liquor that first ascended even with a gentle heat did not tast or smell like a Vinous Spirit thô it was differing from meer Phlegm If I had been furnished with a greater quantity of Serum perhaps the reiterated Experiment would have given more satisfaction and in making it I would have been careful to observe whether the produc'd Fermentation might not be suspected to proceed not so much from the whole Serum as such as from the Aqueous Particles in distinction from the others that concur'd with them to compose it As for the Second Question intimated in this present First Title namely whether Blood will by Digestion or Putrefaction be so opened as that when it is distill'd the Spirit will ascend before the Phelgm I likewise endeavour'd to try That with the Serous part of the Blood pour'd off from the Fibrous or Coagulated as supposing it in this separated state more proper for our Tryal than the entire Blood and having kept a pretty quantity of this Serum above four times as long as I had observ'd to have been sufficient to make Urine in Distillation part with its Spirit before its Phlegm we distill'd this long kept Liquor with a very gentle sire that few or none besides the fugitive parts might at first ascend But we found the Liquor that came over to have but little strength either as to smell or Tast nor would it readily turn Syrup of violets Green I say readily because after they had been some hours together it would But yet as a Volatile Alcaly it would presently turn a strong solution made of common Sublimate in fair Water into a White Opacous and almost Milky Liquor The II. Secondary Title Whether Spirit of Humane Blood be really any thing but the Volatile Salt and Phlegm well commix'd SInce the Question mov'd in this Title may be also propounded concerning other Alcalisate Spirits as those of Urine Harts-horn Soot c. It is upon that account the more important And for this Reason as well as for the difficulty of determining it by cogent Proofs I may think my self oblig'd to forbear taking upon me to decide it peremptorily till further Experience shall have furnish'd me with fuller Information So that for the present about this difficult Question I shall venture to say no more than this that what has hitherto occurr'd to me inclines me to think that the Spirit of Humane Blood is totally compos'd of Volatile Salt and Phlegm if by Phlegm we understand not Simple or Elementary Water but a Liquor that althô it pass among Chymists for Phlegm and deserves that name better than any other Liquor afforded by Humane Blood yet in the strictest acception it is not That for when the Spirit Volatile Salt and Oil are separated from it by Distillation and Sublimation as far as they are wont to be in Chymical Preparations of Volatile Alcalies the remaining Liquor which passes for Phlegm will yet be impregnated with some Particles of Oyl and perhaps also with some few of volatile Salt that are too minute to be distinguishable by the naked Eye But whether frequent Rectifications may so accurately separate these Heterogeneous parts as perfectly to free the Aqueous ones from them and thereby reduce the Phlegm to Simple or Elementary Water
be differing from Spirit of Vrine and other Spirits that are call'd Volatile Alcalies THe Question Whether there be any difference beâ—ween the Spirit of Humane Blood and other volatile Alcalies As Spirit of Urine Harts-horn c. seems to me very difficult to be decided because two Bodies may agree in many Qualities and perhaps in all of those that are the most obvious and yet may on some third Body or in some Cases manifest distinct Powers and have their peculiar Operations Nor do I yet see any certain way by which the Affirmative part of the Question thô it should be true can be clearly demonstrated Therefore leaving the peremptory Decision of this Question to those that shall think themselves qualify'd to make it I shall at least till I be further inform'd content my self to make a Couple of Remarks in reference to the propos'd Enquiry And first I think there may be a great difference between Volatile Salts or Spirits as they are ordinarily prepar'd for medicinal uses and as they may by reiterated Rectifications and otherways of Depuration be brought to as great a simplicity or Purity as a dextrous Chymist can bring them to I thus express my self because as to an Exquisite or Elementary Simplicity thô some eminent Artists pretend to it I am not sure that Chymists can attain it especially considering what I elsewhere shew of the unheeded Commixtures that may at least sometimes be made by the Corpuscles of the Fire with those of the Bodies it works on My other Remark is that whether or no if the Spirit of Humane Blood and other Liquors abounding like it in Volatile Alcalies were reduc'd to as great a purity as they can by Art be brought to they would be altogether alike in their Nature and Qualities yet if we consider them as men use to do in that state wherein they are wont to be thought pure enough for medicinal uses and are accordingly employ'd by Physicians and Chymists I think it very probable that there is some difference between the Spirit of Humane Blood and some other Volatile Alcalies and particularly those afforded by Urine and by Harts-horn For thô to me the bad smells of all these Liquors seem to be much alike yet divers Ladies and those of very differing Ages affirm they find a manifest difference between these smells and do abhor the odour of Spirit of Blood as a stink though they will with pleasure hold their noses a great while over the Sp. of Harts-horn and even that of vulgar or European Sal-armoniac which is in effect a Sp. of Mans Urine and affirm themselves to be much refresh'd by it And whereas with Spirit of Urine or of Sal-armoniac joyn'd in a due proportion with Spirit of Salt I have usually as I have long since noted in another Paper been able to make a Salt that shoots into the peculiar Figure of Sal-Armoniac which figure is very differing from that of Sea Salt Nitre c. I have seldom if ever obtain'd at least in any quantity a Salt of that shape by the commixture of the Spirit of Humane Blood with that of common Salt for though their Saline Corpuscles upon the Evaporation of the Superfluous moisture would coagulate together yet the concretion seem'd confus'd and either all or a great part of it was destitute of that neat and distinct shape that I had several times observ'd in concretions made by the mixture of the Spirit of Sea-Salt with Urinous Spirits And as to the Medicinal vertues of Spirit of Blood though I have not had opportunity to make comparisons experimentally and therefore shall forbear to affirm any thing my self yet if we credit the famous Helmont there is a considerable difference between the Sp. of Humane Blood that of Humane Urine since he somewhere expressly notes though I remember not the place nor have his Book at hand that the Spirit of Humane Blood cures Epilepsies which is a thing the Spirit of Urine will not do The V. Secondary Title Of the Quantity of Spirit contain'd in Humane Blood whether accompany'd with its Serum or dry'd 'T Is not easy to determine the exact proportion of that Liquor which when by Distillation obtain'd from Humane Blood the Chymists call its Spirit in reference to the other Principles or Ingredients whereof the Blood consists For some Mens Blood may be much more Phlegmatick or serous than that of others which it self may be more or less Spirituous according to the Complexion Age Sex c. of the person that bleeds But to make some Estimate that will not probably much recede from what may be ordinarily found I shall inform you that Twelve Ounces of healthy Humane Blood afforded us seven Ounces and a half of Phlegm and consequently about Four Ounces and a half of dry stuff And then I shall add that having committed to Distillation in a Retort in a Sand Furnace seven Ounces of well dry'd but not scorch'd Blood we obtain'd about seven Drams that is about an Eighth part of Spirit to which thô it were not rectified that Name may well enough be given because it was so very rich in Spirituous and Saline parts that it left in the Receiver and in the Vial I kept it in a good deal of Volatile Salt undissolv'd which a Phlegmatick Liquor would not have done And if that be admitted for a truth that was above propos'd as a very likely Conjecture namely that Spirit of Blood is but Salt and Phlegm united we may well suppose that Humane Blood yields a far greater proportion of Spirit than this since from the seven Ounces of dry'd Blood last mentioned we obtain'd about Five Drams of Volatile Salt which if we had by Distillations united with a fit quantity of Phlegm would probably have afforded us near Two Ounces more of a Liquor deserving the name of Spirit The VI. Secondary Title Of the Consistence and Specifick Gravity of the Spirit of Humane Blood TO the Consistence of the Spirit of Humane Blood taken in the more laxe sense of the word Consistence one may refer its Specifick Gravity as that is usually proportionate to the Density of Bodies the greater or lesser degree of Fluidity that belongs to the Liquor as a Mass and the greater or lesser Subtilty of the Minute Parts whereof it is compos'd or wherein it abounds And as to the first of the Three Attributes we have noted to be referrable to the Consistence of our Spirit Gravity is a Quality that is so radicated if I may so speak in the nature of Visible Fluids or Liquors and does so obstinately accompany them that I durst not omit to examine the Specifick Gravity that is the Gravity in proportion to the Bulk of Spirit of Humane Blood though by reason of the small quantity I had of it I could not make use of the same Instruments that I was wont to employ in Hydrostatical Tryals where I was not so stinted in the Liquor to be examined But
however I made a shift to make a Tryal of this kind by which I found that a compact body weighing fifty eight Grains in the Air and in Water six Grains and three fourth parts weighed in Rectified Spirit of Humane Blood but five Grains and one fourth part And on this occasion I shall tell you what I presume you did not expect which is that notwithstanding the Volatility of our Spirit of Blood I found that a pretty large piece of Amber being put into it did not as most men would confidently expect fall to the bottom of the Liquor but kept itself floating at the upper part of it and if plung'd into it would emerge The next Quality we refer'd to the Consistence of our Spirit of Blood is the Degree of its Fluidity or if you please it s greater or lesser Immunity from Tenaciousness or Viscosity which some Modern Philosophers whose Opinion needs not here be discuss'd think to belong to all Liquors as such Now one may be the more inclin'd to expect a manifest Degree of Tenacity in the Spirit of Humane Blood because among many Modern Chymists it passes for an Alcaly and we know that divers other Alcalisate Liquors as Oyl of Tartar per deliquium Fix'd Nitre resolv'd the same way Solution of Pot-ashes c. are sensibly unctuous and but languidly Fluid But yet I did not observe that some rectified Spirit of Humane Blood that I purposely try'd between my Fingers did feel more unctuous than Common Water And whereas those that sell Brandy or Spirit of Wine are wont to shake it till it afford some Froth and then by the stay this makes on the Surface to judge of the Tenacity or Tenuity of the Liquor esteeming that to be the most Vnctuous whereon the Bubbles make the longest stay and that the finest on which they soonest disappear I thought fit by the same Method to examine Spirit of Humane Blood and found that the Froth would last very little on the Surface of it the bubbles breaking or vanishing almost if not quite as nimbly as if the Liquor had been good Spirit of Wine And I likewise observ'd that when I warily let fall some of our well rectify'd Spirit of Blood upon some other body it seemed to me that the single drops were manifestly smaller than those of Water and of several other Liquors would have been which will be much confirm'd by one passage of what I have to say about the third Quality referrable to the Consistence of the Spirit we treat of Because it may be a thing of some Importance as well as Curiosity to know how subtil the active parts of Spirit of Humane Blood are and how disposed and fitted to disperse or diffuse themselves through other Liquors of convenient Textures to make a visible discovery of this I bethought my self of a Method that having formerly devised for several purposes I thought fitly applicable to my present Design For having looked upon it as a great defect that men have lazily contented themselves to say in general that such a Body is of subtile or of very subtile Parts without troubling themselves to find out any way of making more particular and less indeterminate Estimates of that subtilty I was invited to find out and practise a way that might on divers occasions somewhat supply that defect But having delivered this easy method in another Paper I shall forbear to repeat a tedious account of it in this since it may here suffice to tell you in short what will perhaps surprize you namely That according to the forementioned way we so prepar'd Common Water by Infusions made in it without heat that by putting one single drop of our rectified Spirit of Humane Blood into ℥ iv + ℈ iv which make 2000 grains of the prepar'd Water and lightly shaking the Vial there appeared throughout the Liquor a manifest Colour whereof no degree at all was discernible in it just before Which sufficiently argues a wonderful subtilty of Parts in the Spirit we employ'd since that a single drop of it could disperse its Corpuscles so as to diffuse it self through and mingle with two thousand times as much Water and yet retain so much Activity as to make their presence not only sensible but conspicuous by a manifest change of Colour they produc'd I confess this computation is made upon supposition that a drop of Water weighs about a grain and that a drop of our Spirit of Blood was of the same weight with a drop of Water The former supposition is commonly made and though I have not found it to be exactly true but that a drop of Water weigh'd a Tantillum more than a Grain yet that difference is much more than recompens'd by that which we found between the weight of a drop of Water and the weight of one of Spirit of Humane Blood For having in a very good and carefully adjusted Ballance let fall ten drops of Common Water and as many of our Rectified Spirit of Humane Blood as judging it a safer way to make an Estimate by comparing so many drops of each Liquor than one alone we found as we might well expect that a drop of this last nam'd Liquor as it was manifestly lesser so it was far lighter than a drop of Water in so much that the whole ten drops did not amount to four Grains So that we may safely judge the drop of Spirit to have manifestly diffused it self and acted upon above 4000 times so much Water in weight and perhaps in bulk too since indeed the proportion extended a good way towards that of one to 5000 and so may be said to be as that of one to between 4000 and 5000 which tho it may seem incredible to those that are unacquainted with the great subtilty of Nature and Art in the Comminutions they can make of Bodies yet I can by repeating the Experiment easily convince a doubter in less than a quarter of an hour And this Subtilty of the Parts of Blood will appear yet greater if it be consider'd what I think I can evince that no contemptible part of the single drop I employ'd was Phlegm useless to the change produc'd the operation being due to the Energy of the Saline Spirits of the little drop The VII Secondary Title Of the Odour Taste Colour and Transparence of the Spirit of Humane Blood THose Qualities that in my Opinion more generally than deservedly are call'd first do not any of them belong to the Spirit of Humane Blood in such manner as to oblige me to say any thing of them in relation to it And therefore I shall content my self to have made this transient mention of them to keep it from being thought that through forgetfulness I had overlook'd them Yet something there is that may not inconveniently be refer'd to the heat or coldness of Spirit of Humane Blood in regard that Physicians as well as Philosophers distinguish these Qualities into Actual and Potential For it seems
that the Spirit of Humane Blood is in reference to some Liquors potentially cold since it refrigerates them and in reference to some others potentially hot since being mingled with them the mixture becomes actually hot Of this last I shall here set down the ensuing Instance Into a slender Cylindrical Glass we put the lower part of an Hermetically Seal'd Thermoscope which in this Paper and elsewhere I usually call the gag'd one because it was adjusted according to the standard of such Instruments kept at Gresham Colledge Into this Cylindrical Glass we pour'd as much moderately strong Spirit of Blood as would cover the Ball of the Thermometer and then drop'd on that Liquor some good Spirit of Salt upon whose mingling with it there was produc'd a Conflict accompany'd with noise and bubbles and a heat which nimbly enough made the Spirit of Wine ascend above two inches and a half This Experiment is therefore the more considerable because there are divers Volatile Alcalies that being confounded with Acid Spirits tho they seem to make a true Effervescence yet do really produce a notable degree of Coldness And that which to me seem'd considerable on this occasion was that whereas I had several times found by Tryal that the Spirit of Verdegrease which some call the Spirit of Venus would with the Volatile Salt of Sal Armoniack or of Urine produce a seeming Effervescence but a real coldness this Spirit of Verdegrease it self being mix'd in the forementioned small Cylindrical Glass with but moderately strong Spirit of Blood did not only produce a hissing noise and store of bubbles but an actual heat whereby the Spirit of Wine in the Thermoscope was made quickly to ascend above an inch and a half tho the Liquors employ'd amounted not both together to two spoonfuls The VIII Secundary Title Of the Dissolutive Power of Spirit of Humane Blood IT will not only serve to manifest the Subtilty and Penetrancy of the Spirit of Human Blood but it may be also of some use to Physicians if it be made appear by Experiments that this Spirit is by itself not only a good Medicine for several diseases as will be hereafter shewn but may be also employ'd as a Menstruum to dissolve several Bodies and even some Metalline ones And because these last mention'd are the most unlikely to be readily dissoluble by a substance belonging to the Animal Kingdom as Chymists speak I shall subjoyn two Tryals that I made to evince this Dissolutive Power of the Spirit of Blood And first we took Crude Copper in Filings which if they be very small are so much the fitter for our purpose and having pour'd on them some highly rectify'd Spirit of Human Blood we shook them together and in about a quarter of an hour or less perceiv'd the Menstruum to begin to look a little Blewish which argu'd its operation to have already begun And this colour grew higher and higher till after some hours the Menstruum had dissolved Copper enough to make it deeply Ceruleous Some other and somewhat differing Tryals on the same Metal will be met with in their proper place In the mean time I shall here take notice that in some Circumstances the Spirit of Blood has such an operation upon Copper whose quickness is surprising For having made a coin'd piece of that Metal clean and bright that no grease or foulness might hinder the effect of the Liquor and put a drop or two of our Spirit upon it within about half a Minute of an Hour observ'd by a watch that shew'd Seconds the verge of the moistned part of the Surface appear'd blewish and almost presently after the rest of the wetted part acquir'd a fine Azure Colour We also took filings of Zink or as in the shops they call it Spelter and having pour'd on them very well rectified Spirit of Blood we observ'd that even in the cold it quickly began to work manifestly thô not vigorously But being assisted with a little heat it dissolv'd the Zink briskly and not without producing store of bubbles being also a little discolour'd by the operation of this Experiment some use is made in another place and therefore need not be deliver'd in this On this occasion I shall add that for curiosities sake I took a piece of Coagulated Blood but not dry'd somewhat bigger than a large Pea having a care to take it from the lower part of the lump of Blood that it might be black the superficial part of Fibrous Blood that lies next the Air being usually Red. This clot of Blood we put into a slender Vial of clear Glass that the colour might be the better discern'd and then pour'd on it a little Rectified Spirit of Humane Blood and shook the Glass alittle whereupon in a trice the colour of at least the Superficial part of the Blood was as I had conjectur'd manifestly chang'd the blackness quite disappearing and being succeeded by a very florid colour like that of fine Scarlet The Liquor also was ting'd but not with near so deep or so fair a Red and by the little bubbles that from time to time past out of the Clod into it it seem'd to work somewhat like a Menstruum And yet soon after coming to look upon this lump of Blood again I found it to have much degenerated from its former colour to one less fair and more dark We took also another Clot of Blood like the former save that one part of it which had lain next the Air was not black and having in a Vial like the former pour'd on it some Spirit of Blood taken out of the same Vial whence I took the first parcel the Reddish colour seem'd presently to be much improv'd and made more fair and like true Scarlet But the black was not so alter'd as to be depriv'd of its blackness but retain'd a dark and dirty colour So that this second Experiment requires a further Tryal when there shall be conveniency to make it and it will the rather deserve one because what has been already recited of the Operation of the Spirit upon the two parcels of Blood may suggest uncommon Reflections to Speculative Wits And here on this occasion it will be proper to relate to you that having a confus'd remembrance that I had a great while before put up some Humane Blood with a certain quantity of Volatile Spirit to keep it fluid and preserve it without distinctly remembring what Volatile Alcaly I had employ'd I found among other Glasses that had been laid aside one Bolt-head with a long Neck to which was ty'd a Label importing that at such a time twelve Drams of Humane Blood were put up with two Drams of Spirit of Humane Blood By the date of this Paper it appear'd that this Blood had been preserv'd much above a whole twelve Month and yet it appear'd through the Glass of a fine Florid Colour and seem'd to be little less than totally Fluid And indeed when we came to open the Vessel
which was carefully stopt with a good Cork and hard Sealing Wax we found no ill scent or other sign of Putrefaction in the Mixture and but a very small Portion of Blood lightly clotted at the bottom the rest passing readily through a Rag. So that the Spirit of Humane Blood seems to have a great embalming Vertue since 't was able so long and well to preserve six times its weight of a Body so apt to Concrete and Putrefie as Humane Blood is known to be and probably would have preserv'd it much longer if we had thought fit to prosecute the Experiment To this account of our Trial I know not whether it will be worth while to add that having broken it off that we might distill the above mentioned Mixture with a very gentle heat the first Liquor that ascended was not a Spirit but a kind of Phlegm thô afterwards there came up besides a Spirituous Liquor a Volatile Salt in a dry form On this occasion I shall subjoyn the following Tryal long since made with a Spirit that I supposed to have been weaker than that with which the lately mentioned Experiments were made In order to a design that need not here be mentioned I caus'd some Filings of Mars to be purposely made that being presently employ'd they might not contract any Rust whereby the operation of our Liquor might be made doubtful On these we poured some of our Spirit and having kept them together a while in Digestion we found as we expected that the Liquor had wrought on the Metal and produc'd a considerable quantity of a light substance in colour almost like Crocus but something paler And we also found more than we expected for there appeared in the Liquor good store of thin Plates like a kind of Terra Foliata as the Chymists speak which after a very slight agitation being held against the Sunbeams exhibited the Colours of the Rain-bow in so vivid a manner as did not a little delight as well as surprize the Spectators but I did not perceive that the tast of the Liquor was considerably Martial The IX Secondary Title Of the Tinctures that may be drawn with Spirit of Humane Blood MOst of those Extractions the Chymists call Tinctures being as I have elsewhere shewn partial Solutions of the Bodies from which they are obtain'd 't will I presume be easily granted that since the Spirit of Blood is able as in the foregoing Title it has appear'd to be to dissolve Copper and Zink that are Solid and Metalline Bodies 't will be able to extract Tinctures out of divers others But that this power of our Menstruum may be rather prov'd than supposed it will not be amiss to add a few Instances of it Spirit of Blood being put upon English Saffron did soon acquire upon it a fine Yellow Colour Spirit of Blood being put upon Powder'd Curcuma or as Tradesmen are wont to call it Turmerick did in the cold Extract from it a lovely Tincture like a rich solution of Gold which probably to intimate that upon the by may prove a good de-obstruent Medicine particularly in the Jaundise in which disease Turmerick that is taken to be a kind of East Indian Saffron is upon experience commended and in this our Tincture is united with Spirit of Humane Blood which is very near of kin to Spirit of Urine and probably at least as efficacious with which Liquor when well rectify'd I have had more than ordinary success in the Jaundise To make some Trial of the Extracting Power of the Spirit of Blood upon substances that have belong'd to Animals I thought it might particularly conduce to some Medical purposes to try what it would do upon the solid part of Humane Blood it self slowly dry'd so as not to be burn'd but only to be reducible with some pains to fine Powder Accordingly upon this well sifted Powder of Blood we put some moderately strong Spirit of the same subject on which the Liquor began very soon to colour it self even in the cold and within no long time after it appear'd as Red as ordinary French Claret Wine This Extraction made me suspect that the Phlegm that was not carefully separated from the Spirit I then employ'd might hasten the coloration of the Menstruum For which reason I put upon another Portion of the same Powder some rectify'd Spirit of Blood so well deflegmed that it would not dissolve a grain of the Volatile Salt of Blood And I found indeed as I suspected that this Menstruum did not any thing near so soon draw a Tincture as the other had done for after divers hours the colour it had obtain'd was but brown but after some hours longer the colour appear'd to be heightned into Redness but yet manifestly inferiour to that of the somewhat Phlegmatick Spirit above mentioned whereto it did yet in a longer time grow almost equal By this means we may not only disguise the Spirit of Blood but impregnate it with the finer parts of the unanalys'd solid Body which may possibly make the Spirit a Remedy more proper for some Diseases or Constitutions and this Medicine I sometimes call the entire Tincture of Humane Blood because it consists of nothing else but such Blood To shew at length that the Spirit of Humane Blood may extract Tinctures out of some of the hardest Bodies I made the following Experiment We took some choice Filings of Steel for such are those that are saved by the Needlemakers and having put them into a small Egg we pour'd on them some highly rectify'd Spirit of Blood and kept them all Night in digestion in a moderate heat The next day but not early we found the Menstruum turn'd of a Brownish Red colour that was deep enough And some of the Filings that chanc'd to stick to the sides of the Glass but were higher than the Liquor could reach in its gross body seem'd to have been either by Exhalations from the Menstruum or perhaps by the Transient Contact of it as it was pouring in turn'd into a kind of Yellow Crocus Martis I must not here forget that having kept the Menstruum and the Filings together in the forementioned Egg for some days longer the colour was grown opacous and appear'd to be black when it was look'd on in any considerable bulk this last expression I employ because it had another appearance when it was somewhat thinly spread upon White Paper Perhaps it may be a Remark not altogether useless to Physicians among many of whom Chaly beate Remedies are in very great request if I add that for reasons not needful to be mentioned here having a suspicion that our Spirit would work upon Steel in another manner than the Acid Solvents wont to be used by Chymists and Physicians we pour'd some of our Tincture drawn from Filings of Steel upon a freshly drawn Tincture of Galls infus'd in Common Water and did not find that this Liquor would with the Infusion make any Inky mixture nor that the Precipitate
that was quickly produc'd was of a black much less of a true Inky colour Though I have found means to produce in a trice a black mixture with other Martial Solutions and Tinctures which for curiosities sake I sometimes made Green sometimes Red sometimes Yellow and sometimes if I mistake not of neither of those colours I have been the more express in setting down the Particulars above delivered because I hope they may be somewhat helpful to Rectify the Judgment of divers very ingenious modern Physicians especially among the Cultivaters of Chymistry who build much upon a supposition which though I deny not to be specious I doubt is not solid and I fear may be of ill consequence For by the above recited Tryals it may appear that 't is unsafe either to suppose that if Chalybeates be dissolv'd in the body it must be by some Acid Juice or to conclude that if Steel be dissolv'd by the Liquors of the Body it must be ex praedominio as they speak Alcalisate since a Liquor that exercises a great Hostility against Acids dissolves it and by parity of reason one may probably infer the quite contrary of what they suppose in regard that Steel in our Experiment was partially at least dissolv'd by what they call an Alcaly and consequently ought to be ex praedominio of an Acid nature But of this Hypothesis we elsewhere purposely discourse and therefore shall here add nothing concerning it but leave it to be consider'd whether it would not be requisite to seek out some other way than Physicians have hitherto pitch'd on to explicate the manner of operation of Chalybeate Medicines in the Humane Body and whether some use may not be made in Medicine of Martial Remedies prepar'd by Volatile Alcalies instead of Acids I put some Spirit of Humane Blood upon powder'd Amber sifted through a fine Sieve and kept it in Digestion for some days giving it a pretty degree of heat but we obtain'd not hereby any Tincture at all considerable whether it was that the Spirit was not yet highly enough rectify'd or that the Amber which was of a finer sort of white Amber was not so proper to yield its Tincture as I have several times found courser but deeper colour'd Amber to be To this IX Title may be refer'd the event that followed upon our having put some Spirit of Humane Blood upon that sort of Gum-Laccae that comes out of the East Indies in Grains and for that reason is commonly call'd Seed-Lac For the Spirit we put upon this tho this be a resinous Gum and of no easy Solution soon became tincted which I expected it should because I conjectur'd that the Redness wont to appear in many of the Seed-like Grains is but superficial and proceeds from some adhering Blood of the little winged Insects that by their bitings occasion the production of this Gum upon the Twigs of the Tree where the Lac is found on which Twigs I have more than once seen store of these Gummous Grains So that the Tincture seems not to be drawn from the Lac it self but rather to be afforded by the Blood of these little Animals which the Spirit of Humane Blood that will draw Tinctures from dry'd Mans Blood dissolves and this Tincture may probably be a good Medicine since most of the Insects us'd in Physick as Millepedes Lice Bees Aunts c. Even in our colder Climates afford Medicines of very subtle and pierceing parts and of considerable efficacy The X. Secondary Title Of the coagulating Power of the Spirit of Humane Blood THough the Spirit of Humane Blood have such a dissolving power as we have mention'd in reference to some Bodies yet upon some others it seems to have a quite contrary Operation I say seems because it may be question'd and I am not now minded to dispute it whether the effect I am going to speak of be a Coagulation properly so call'd that one Body makes of another or a Coalition of Particles fitted when they chance to meet one another in a convenient manner to stick together But whatever name ought to be properly given to the thing I am about to speak of I have found by Tryal purposely made that the highly rectifyed Spirit of Humane Blood being well mingled by shaking with a convenient quantity which should be at least equal of Vinous Spirits that will burn all away for if either of the Liquors be Phlegmatick the Experiment succeeds either not at all or not so well there will presently ensue a Coagulation or concretion either of the whole Mixture or a great portion of it into Corpuscles of a Saline form that cohering loosly together make up a Mass that has consistence enough not to be fluid though it be very soft and in this form it may remain as far as I have yet tryed for a good while perhaps several weeks or months at least if it be kept in a cool place The XI Secondary Title Of the Precipitating Power of Spirit of Humane Blood OF the Precipitating Power of Spirit of Humane Blood I have yet observ'd nothing that is peculiar and therefore it may suffice to say in general that as far as I have had occasion to try it has in common with those other Volatile Spirits which I elsewhere call Vrinous a Power of Precipitating most Bodies that are dissolv'd in Acid Menstruums I say most because as I have elsewhere more fully shewn it is an Error though a vulgar one to suppose as Chymists and Physicians are wont to do that whatever is dissolv'd by an Acid will be Precipitated by an Alcali as such whether Fixt or Volatile which latter sort they take the spirits of Urine Blood c. to be of For there is no Necessity this Rule should hold when the Body is of such a nature that it may be dissolv'd as well by an Alcaly as by an Acid. And though the Hypothesis of Alcali and Acidum allowed them not to think there were any such Bodies yet I have in another Paper Experimentally evinc'd that there are so And it may be prov'd without going very far since we lately observ'd that good Spirit of Humane Blood Would in the cold dissolve both Copper Zink which are Bodies that will each of them be readily dissolv'd by Aqua fortis and some other Acid Menstruums Bating such Bodies as those I have been speaking of I have not found but that Spirit of Humane Blood Precipitates other Bodies dissolv'd in Acid Menstruums much after the same manner that Spirit of Urine and other such Volatile Alcalies are wont to do Of this among other Instances I remember that I made Tryal upon Red-lead or Minium dissolv'd in the Acid Salt of Vinegar Silver in Aqua fortis Gold in Aqua Regia and Tin dissolv'd in an appropriated Menstruum I also with our Spirit Precipitated the Solutions of divers other Bodies which need not here be nam'd But in regard of the great and frequent use that men make
of Sea Salt in preserving and seasoning what they eat it may not be amiss particularly to mention that out of a solution of common Salt made in common Water we could readily Precipitate with the Spirit of Blood a substance that looked like a White Earth and such a substance I obtain'd in far greater quantity from that which the Salt-makers call Bittern which usually remains in their Salt pans after they have taken out as much or near as much Salt as would Coagulate in figured grains The Spirit of Humane Blood does also make a Precipitation of Dantsick Vitriol dissolv'd in Water but not that I have observ'd a total one which you need not wonder at because it will dissolve Copper which is one of the Ingredients of Blew Vitriol The XII secondary Title Of the Affinity between Spirit of Humane Blood and some Chymical Oyls and Vinous Spirits THough in another Paper I declare my self for Reasons there express'd dissatisfy'd with the Vulgar Notions of Sympathy Antipathy Friendship Affinity Hostility c. that are presum'd to be found among Inanimate Bodies yet in this place nothing forbids to employ the Terms Affinity Cognation and Hostility in the laxe and popular sense wherein they are us'd not only by the Vulgar but by School Philosophers and Chymists It seems then according to this acception of the Word Affinity that there is such a thing between Rectifyed Spirit of Humane Blood and pure Spirit of Wine since we have formerly under the Tenth Title observ'd that being put together they will readily Concoagulate and continue united a long time It is very probable that the like Association may be also made with other Ardent Spirits prepar'd by Fermentation We have likewise formerly noted that our Spirit will make a Solution of the finer parts of Humane Blood well dry'd which Instance I mention on this occasion because it seems to be the Effect of some Affinity or Cognation as most men would call what I would call Mechanical Congruity between the Spirit and the Body it works on in regard I found by more than one Tryal purposely made that a highly Rectifyed Vinous Spirit for if it be Phlegmatick the Water may dissolve some of the Blood would not at least in divers hours that my Tryals lasted draw any Tincture from it With Lixiviate Liquors such as are made of Salt of Tartar fix'd Nitre c. resolv'd in the Air or otherwise the Chymist will expect that the Spirit of Blood should have an Affinity since they esteem all these Liquors Alcalies though this be Volatile and those be fix'd But though these Liquors comport well with one another yet we find not that they strictly Associate by Concoagulation as we lately observ'd the Spirit of Blood to do with Spirit of Wine The same Spirit of Blood mingles readily with that Spirit of Vegetables that I have elsewhere given a large account of under the Title of Adiaphorous Spirit which argues that there is some Affinity between them or rather that there is not any manifest Hostility or contrariety The like Relation may be found between Spirit of Blood and many other Liquors which it were needless and tedious to enumerate It may better deserve the consideration of a Chymist that though there is manifestly a near Cognation between the Spirit of Humane Blood and the Oyl since they both proceed immediately from the same Body yet even dephlegm'd Spirit of Blood being shaken and thereby confounded with its Oyl will quickly separate again from it though with Spirit of Wine which is according to the Chymists a Liquid Sulphur as well as the Oyl it will permanently unite notwithstanding that these two Liquors do to speak in their Language belong even to differing Kingdoms the one to the Animal and the other to the Vegetable With the Essential Oyls as Chymists call them of Aromatick Vegetables or at least with some of them the well Rectifyed Spirit of H. Blood seems to have a greater Affinity For having taken a dram of this Liquor and an equal weight of Oyl of Anise-seeds drawn in a Lembick per vesicam and shaken them well together they made a soft or semifluid White Coagulum that continu'd in that form for a day or two and probably would have longer done so if I had not had occasion to proceed further with it It may not be impertinent on this occasion to take notice that because I presum'd that though Spirit of Blood would not totally mix with Essential Oyls as Chymists call them it might either communicate some Saline parts to them or work a change in them I digested a while in a Glass with a long neck some Rectifyed Spirit of Humane Blood with a convenient quantity of Oyl of Anise-seeds drawn in a Lembick and found as I expected that the Oyl grew colour'd of a high Yellow and afterwards attain'd to a Redness which Experiment I the rather mention because it may possibly afford you a hint about the Cause of some Changes of Colour that are produc'd in some of the Liquors of the Body Upon the foremention'd Affinity or congruity of the Spirit of Blood with that of Wine and with some Essential Oyls I founded a way of taking off the offensive smell of Spirit of Humane Blood which is the only thing that is likely to keep the more delicate sort of Patients from employing so useful a Medicine as this will hereafter appear to be But to deal with a Philosophical candor I must not conceal from you that till Experience shall be duly consulted I shall retain a Doubt whether the way employ'd to deprive our Spirit of its stink will not also deprive it of part of its Efficacy But on the other side I consider it as a thing probable enough that these Aromatis'd Spirits may by being impregnated with many of the finer parts of the Oyls employ'd to correct their Odour be likewise endow'd with the vertues of those Oyls which are Liquors that Chymists not improbably believe to consist of the noblest parts of the Vegetables that afford them To Aromatise the Spirit of Humane Blood we employ'd two differing ways the first whereof was this we took a convenient quantity of well Rectifyed Spirit of Blood and having put it into a Glass Egg we added to it as much or what may in many Cases more than suffice half as much Essential Oyl of Anise-seeds for instance And having shaken these Liquors together to mingle them very well we plac'd the Glass in a sit posture in a Furnace where it should not have too great a heat by which means the slight Texture of the Coagulum being dissolv'd part of the Oyl sometimes a great portion of it appear'd by it self floating at the top of the Spirit Whence being separated by a Tunnel or otherwise the remaining Liquor was Whitish and without any stink the smell predominant in it being that of the Anise-seeds of which it tasted strongly though the Saline Spirituous parts of the
Blood did in this Liquor retain a not inconsiderable degree of their brisk and penetrant Tast The other way I thought of to Aromatise our Spirit of Blood was by employing a Medium to unite it with Essential Oyls For which purpose in a Vinous Spirit so Dephlegm'd that in a Silver spoon it would totally burn away we dissolv'd by shaking a convenient proportion as an eighth part or a far less according to the strength of the Oyl of an Essential Oyl of Anise-seeds for instance and to this solution we added an equal quantity or some other convenient one of our Rectifyed Spirit of Blood and having by shaking mix'd them as well as we could we suffer'd the expected Coagulum which was soft and not uniform to rest for some time after which it appear'd that some of the Oyl was reviv'd and swam in drops distinct from the other Liquor which consisted of a Mixture of the two Spirits impregnated with the Particles of the Oyl they had intercepted and detain'd This Liquor abounded with little concretions made by the concoagulation of the Sanguineous and Vinous Spirits And these with a very gentle heat sublim'd in the form of a Volatile Salt to the upper part of the Glass Which Salt seem'd to have a much less penetrating odour then the meer Volatile Salt of Humane Blood but had quite lost its stink and yet retain'd a considerable Quickness and somewhat of the scent of the Anise Seeds the remaining Liquor also was depriv'd of its ill smell and moderately imbued with that of the Oyl I thought it worth trying whether there would be any Affinity between our Spirit which I perceiv'd contain'd in it many latent Particles of an Oleaginous nature and the highly rectifyed Oyl of Petroleum which is a Mineral Bitumen and having shaken together a Convenient quantity of these two Liquors in a new Vial they presently turn'd into a White Mixture And tho after it had for many hours been left to settle the greater part of the Oyl swam above the Spirit yet there appear'd betwixt the two Liquors a good quantity of a whitish Matter which seem'd to be something that had been produc'd by the Precipitation or Union of many Particles of the Spirit and Oyl that were more dispos'd than the rest to combine with one another The XIII Secondary Title Of the Relation between Spirit of Humane Blood and the Air. THat the Contact of the Air has a speedy and a manifest operation upon Humane Blood is elsewhere shewn by some Experiments of an Italian Virtuoso Signior and some of mine But whether after Humane Blood has had its Texture so much alter'd as it uses to be by Distillation it will retain any peculiar Relation to the Air I have not been able to make Tryals enough to determine but however it will not be amiss to set down the chief Experiments I made on this occasion because they may be considerable as parts of our History tho they should not be so as Arguments decisive of our controversy The first Experiment was quickly made by thinly spreading upon a piece of White Paper which ought to be close that it may not soak up the Liquor some small Filings of Copper and wetting them well without covering them quite over with a few drops of good Spirit of Blood for by this means being very much expos'd to the free Air the Action of the Liquor was so much promoted that within a Minute or two it did even in the cold begin to acquire a blewish colour and in fewer Minutes than one would have expected that colour was so heightened as to become Ceruleous But when I put another parcel of the same Filings into a Vial and cover'd them with Spirit of Blood and then stopt the Vial to keep it from intercourse with the external Air the Liquor would not in some Hours acquire so deep a colour The other Experiment we made in order to the lately propos'd enquiry was the same for substance that I had formerly made and have elsewhere at large deliver'd with the Spirit of Urine and with that of Sal-Armoniac save that to spare our Spirit of Blood we employ'd a far less quantity of it then we did of either of the foremention'd Liquors For having in a clear Cylindrical Vial of about an Inch Diameter put more Filings of Copper than were requisite to cover the bottom we pour'd upon it but so much Spirit of Humane Blood as serv'd to swim a Fingers breadth or about an Inch above them This Liquor because of the quantity of Air that was contain'd in the Vial did within few Hours acquire a rich Blew colour and this after a day or two began to grow more faint and continued to do so more and more till it came to be almost lost but yet the Liquor was not altogether Lympid or colourless as I have often had it with Spirit of Urine or of Sal-Armoniac which remains of blewishness I was apt to attribute to the great quantity of Air that was included in the Vial with so small a quantity of Liquor And tho I thought it not impossible but that length of time might destroy these Remains of blewishness also yet not having leisure to wait so long I unstopt the Vial and perceiv'd as I expected that in a very short time perhaps about two Minutes of an hour the Surface of the Liquor where it was touch'd by the newly enter'd Air became Ceruleous and in a short time after perhaps less than a quarter of an hour the whole Body of the Liquor had attain'd a deeper colour than that of the Sky which colour the Vial being seasonably and carefully stop't began in two or three days to grow paler again These Experiments would I question not to many seem manifestly to infer a great Cognation or Affinity for I know not well what name to give it between the Spirit of Humane Blood and the Air. But tho I shall not deny the Conclusion as 't is an Assertion I dare not rely on the validity of the Inference because I have for curiosities sake made the like Experiments succeed with other Spirits abounding with Volatile Salt I foresee it may very speciously be pretended that those Tryals succeeded upon the account of some Spirituous parts of the Blood since Spirit of Urine is made of a Liquor separated from the Blood and that tho the Sal-Armoniack that is made in the East may consist in great part of Camels Urine yet that which is made in Europe where Camels are rarities and is commonly sold in our Shops is made of Mans Urine and consequently its Spirit may well be presum'd to be impregnated with Spirit of Humane Blood And I confess that when this consideration came first into my mind it appear'd so probable that I should perhaps have acquiesced in it if it were not for what I am going to subjoyn namely That I found by Tryal carefully made that with another Volatile Spirit made without any
substance that is afforded by the body of Man I could with Filings of Copper make an Experiment very analogous to that above related But because in this Tryal the reiterated contact of the Air produc'd in the Liquor not a Ceruleous but a Green colour I am willing to suspend my Judgment about the Problem lately propos'd till experience shall have further inform'd me I know not whether it will be worth while to relate that having in an unstopt Glass put some Spirit of Humane Blood into a Receiver plac'd upon our Pneumatick Engine and withdrawn the incumbent Air by pumping the Spirit of Blood seem'd to afford lesser and fewer Aereal Bubbles than such a quantity of Common Water it self would probably have done But as I lately intimated I know not whether this observation be considerable because being not willing to weaken by exposing it a fresh parcel of Spirit I know not whether the paucity of Air observ'd in that lately mentioned were accidental or not The XIV Secondary Title Of the Hostility of the Spirit of Humane Blood to Acids whether they be in the form of Liquors or Fumes THat there is in the Spirit of Humane Blood such a thing as a Chymist or a vulgar Philosopher would call Hostility or an Antipathy in reference to Acids has been plainly enough tho very briefly intimated in a Passage belonging to the third of the precedent Titles But yet it may not be impertinent to add in this place that our Spirit of Humane Blood exercises this Hostility against more than one sort of Acid Spirits tho perhaps they differ not a little from one another as Spirit of Salt Spirit of Nitre Spirit and Oyl of Vitriol Aqua Fortis Aqua Regia c. and not only against Factitious Acids but against Natural ones too the Spirit of Humane Blood may discover a manifest Hostility as I found by the conflict it would make with newly express'd Juice of Lemmons which it would put into a confus'd agitation accompany'd with bubbles And this was yet the more evident when I employ'd the Volatile Salt of Blood that is the Spirit in a dry form for having squeez'd upon a parcel of this some Juice of Lemmons there was presently excited a great commotion accompany'd not only with froth but with noise But to return to the strongly Acid Liquors made by Distillation whether the great commotion and froth and hissing noise that usually follows upon the mixing of Spirit of Humane Blood with any of these Menstruums do proceed from a true Hostility or an Antipathy deservedly so call'd or else be a motion to Coalescence or Union or an effect of the disturb'd motions proper to the differing but now confounded Liquors or lastly a consequent of some Impediment which the new Texture of the mingled Liquors gives to the free passage of some Aethereal or other suttle Permeating Matter or Fluid I shall not take upon me to determine but rather to what I lately told you of the at least seeming contrariety of the Spirit of Humane Blood to Acid Spirits I shall add what perhaps you did not expect that this Hostility extends even to the invisible Effluvia or Emanations of these Liquors as may be readily seen by the following way that I long since pitch'd upon to make it not only visible but manifest This is easily done by putting any strong Acid Spirit as of Salt or of Nitre c. into a Vial somewhat wide-mouth'd and some well dephlegm'd Spirit of Blood into another for when I purposely inclin'd these Glasses so towards one another that their Lips did almost touch and their respective Liquors were ready to run out tho neither of the Liquors did at all visibly fume whilst they were kept asunder tho the Glasses were unstopt yet as soon as the Liquors came to be approached in the way just now mention'd the Fumes meeting each other in the Air would make little Coalitions which would be manifestly visible in the form of ascending Smoke which was wont at first to surprize the delighted Spectators and this production of Smoke would continue a good while if the Vials were not sever'd to make it cease which upon their remove it would presently do I have divers times practis'd a more easy way of making these Fumes conspicuous but it belongs more to another Paper and what has been now deliver'd may suffice for my present purpose Yet it may not be improper to take this occasion to acquaint you with an Experiment that I made to observe what the contrary Salts that abound in our Spirit of Blood and in some Acid Liquors would produce when they were combin'd and brought into a dry form I shall therefore annex a Transcript of the Experiment I speak of as I find it registred in one of my Note Books We took some pure Volatile Salt of Humane Blood and having just satiated it with Spirit of Nitre we slowly evaporated away the superfluous moisture that the Acid and Urinous Salts might be united into a dry Concretion from which my design was to separate them again the Salt of Blood in its Pristine form and the Spirit of Nitre in the form of Salt-peter To effect this we put the compounded Salt into a small Bolt-head with a long and slender neck and then added to it a convenient quantity of Salt of Tartar and as much distill'd Water as would suffice to make the Mixture somewhat Liquid to promote the Action of the contrary Salts upon one another By which mutual Actions we suppos'd that the Saline Spirits of Nitre being more congruous to the fix'd Salt than to the Volatile would forsake the Salt of Blood which it detain'd before from flying away and give it leave to sublime and accordingly having kept the Glass wherein the mixture was made for a competent time in a convenient heat we obtain'd what we look'd for since a good proportion of fine Volatile Salt ascended in a dry form into the Neck Having put to some of the Spirit of Humane Blood a small quantity of exceeding strong Spirit of Nitre there was upon the conflict of the two Liquors excited so great a quantity of thick white Fumes that I could not but wonder at it having never seen any thing of that kind comparable to it And these Fumes Circulating long in the Cavity of the Glass whereof perhaps a tenth part was full of Liquor did many of them tho the Vessel were wide-mouth'd fall back and run down the sides of the Glass into the stagnant mixture as if they had compos'd streams of a Milky Liquor And when at length after these Fumes had disappear'd we dropt in a little more of the same smoaking Spirit of Nitre the like strange plenty of white Exhalations did presently ensue and continue to Circulate a great while in the open Glass the Mixture in the mean while appearing reddish Being settled and seeming to have been so discolour'd by a fattish substance we put to it a little Rain
or Distill'd Water and having by Filtration separated it from the Faeces and slowly evaporated the thus Clarified Liquor the Saline parts shot into Crystals much of the shape and crossing one another much after the manner of Stiriae of Salt-peter but their colour after a while appear'd Yellow as if some Oyly substance were yet mix'd with them N. B. Tho on several occasions the Spirit of Blood appear'd thus Oily yet I remember I had not long since some Distill'd from another parcel of Blood which after having been kept a year was limpid and colourless like an ordinary Vegetable Spirit Some of the forementioned Crystalls being put upon well kindled Charcoals did presently melt and burn away with a noise not unlike Salt-peter but the flame seem'd not quite so halituous and was more differing in colour being not at all Blew but very Yellow After the deflagration was quite past I was curious to see if any fixt substance was left upon the Coals and found it to be somewhat odd for it was not of a light colour nor of an incoherent Body like Ashes but a little lump of a dirty colour'd matter in which I could not perceive an Alcalisate tast and indeed scarce any at all And this brittle substance for such it was being held in the flame became red hot without appearing destroy'd by that Ignition no more than afterwards it did by being a good while kept upon a glowing Coal The XV. Secondary Title Of the Medicinal Vertues of Spirit of Humane Blood outwardly apply'd HAving resided for many years last past in a place so well furnished with learned Physicians as London is I was careful to decline the occasions of entrenching upon their profession And tho that care did not always secure me quiet yet it did it so far as that you to whom my circumstances are not unknown will not I hope expect that I should say much upon my own experience of the Medicinal Vertues of Spirit of Humane Blood yet since I had some few opportunities to get Tryals made by practitioners in Physick who were pleas'd very willingly to make them for me that I may not leave this Subject wholly untouch'd I will subjoyn what occurs either to my Memory or to my Thoughts about it When I consider that as far as I have observ'd we do not meet regularly with any Acid Substance except perhaps in the Succus Pancreaticus in a sound Humane Body For the fixt Salt of Blood does it self much resemble Sea-salt whether its Spirit be Acid or no whereas the several parts of it whether Solid as Bones or Liquid as Blood afford in Distillation store of Liquor impregnated with Volatile Salt I am induc'd to think it probable that the Spirit of Humane Blood wherein such a Salt abounds and whereof it is the main and predominant Ingredient is like to have notable operations upon the Humane Body and afford Medicines of great Efficacy in many of its Diseases And tho against most of these it is to be internally given yet there are some against which it may be successful when but Externally administred For as well rectified Spirit of Humane Blood abounds with very subtile Particles which in point of Tast Odour Diffusiveness and Penetrancy do much resemble those of strong Spirits of Urine of Harts-horn and of Sal-Armoniack so one may very probably expect to find the same vertues in the Spirit of Blood that Experience has manifested to belong to those other Spirituous Liquors I have seldom if ever seen any Medicine operate so nimbly in Fits of the Mother as a well dephlegm'd Spirit of Sal-Armoniac which as I formerly noted is in effect mainly a Spirit of Urine which it self is granted to be a Liquor separated from Blood for this Spirit being held to the Noses of Hysterical Women has often in a trice to the wonder of the By-standers fetch'd them out of their Fits Nor is this the considerablest effect that I have had of this Spirit for sometimes it has with a strange quickness brought to themselves Patients that were fallen to the ground and either really were or were judg'd to be Epileptical And even in Agonizing Persons where it could not recover them it would frequently for the time bring them out of their swoons and make them know and understand the Assistants and perhaps speak to them too of which if it were needful I could give more then one instance But I shall rather add that if nature be not quite spent and the case wholly desperate this may be of great advantage because it allows the Physician some tho perhaps but little time and a good opportunity to administer other Remedies which the Patient unless excited and brought to himself would not be made to take Of which I shall give you a memorable instance in a Patient of the very learned Dr. Willis's who being in the Fitt of an Apoplexy when he was necessitated to go from her out of the Town and leave her in that Condition he Committed her to the care of a very Ingenious Physician who whether by his direction or no I remember not came to me to acquaint me with it complaining that they could not hope for any success of their Remedies in regard she was so stupid and had shut her mouth so that they could not get any down whereupon I gave him and told him the use of a very subtile Spirit that I had by me for such cases tho I remember not whether it were of Sal-armoniac or some other Volatile and Liquid Alcaly by applying which to her Nose the Physician found he could presently make her open her Eyes and in part come to her self but then she would again when the Glass was remov'd soon relapse into her former Condition Wherefore having by those frequent Vicissitudes gain'd some time and got a Medicine for his purpose he then held the glass to her Nose for a good while together by which means she so recovered her senses that she knew the By-standers and being exhorted to take a Medicine that was offered her which they told her would do her much good she understood them and swallowed it and tho afterwards upon the removal of the Vial she relaps'd into a senseless state yet by the help of the Urinous Spirit they kept her alive till the very brisk Medicine she had taken began to act its part and make a Copious Evacuation which did not only rouse her but little by little relieve her So that in a short time she happily escap'd a danger that was judg'd to be very hardly if at all superable by any Medicines But here I must give you notice that in such difficult and desperate Cases I am not content that a Vial with a somewhat long neck be held to the nose but sometimes order that little Pellets of Lint or Cotton or of thin rags be dipt into the Spirit and thrust up into the Nostrils And the same thing I would advise if need should require
least in number the Vertues of Spirit of Humane Blood And because it requires some skill and not seldom a pretty deal of time to draw this Tincture from Crude Amber tho finely powder'd I bethought my self of the following way to draw speedily a strong Tincture from the Oyl it self for tho this Oyl will not even by long shaking dissolve throughly in Spirit of Wine as the Aromatick and other Oyls lately mentioned will do yet I found that by well shaking those two Liquors together and leaving them to settle at leisure tho they would separate into distinct Masses yet the Spirit of Wine would even in the cold extract from the Oyl a fine Tincture of a high Yellow colour little if at all different from that of the Oyl it self Of which Tincture I afterwards mix'd as much with Spirit of Blood as suffic'd to obscure the Urinous smell and make that of the Oyl of Amber somewhat predominant and as we judg'd more subtile and brisk than it was before Three things more I have to intimate concerning the external use of our Spirit of Blood The first is that by what has been said of the good effects it may have when after it has been by the lately mentioned or other preparations imbu'd with Chymical Oyls it is smelt to I would by no means be thought to deny that it is after these changes fit to be also inwardly employ'd as I shall have ere long occasion more particularly to declare My second Admonition shall be that whereas in some mixtures it will be hard to hit upon the proportion of the Chymicall Oyl or other things employ'd to correct the smell of the Spirit of Blood so exactly but that after the mixture has had some time to settle a separation of some oleaginous parts will be made The bulk of the mixture may be freed from it by pouring all into a Glass Tunnel somewhat sharp at the bottom after the manner us'd among Chymists to separate Oyls from other Liquors and then the mixture that will run through before the Oyl may be kept close stopt in a Vial by it self and the fragrant Oyl unless it be of Cinnamon or Cloves reserv'd for other uses And whereas frequently if not most commonly if the Vinous Spirit were sufficiently Rectified there will by the Concoagulation of the Saline and Urinous Particles be produc'd a kind of Salt you may either pour the Liquid part from it into another Vial and use each of them separately without more ado or else without thus separating them you may sublime with a very gentle warmth as much as will ascend from the rest of the Mixture in a dry form And this Sal Volatile Oleosum of Spirit of Blood when it was duly prepar'd I found to be depriv'd of its former bad scent and perhaps endow'd with a fragrant one and yet to have an Odour more subtile brisk and piercing than I had thought it reasonable to expect The third and last thing I would advertise is that besides those Medicinal uses that may be made of the Odours of Spirit of Blood Simple or Compounded it may have considerable Vertues apply'd in substance as a Liquor by way of Fomentation or otherwise which I think the more likely because the Spirit of Sal-Armoniac has been much commended for mitigating the sharp pains of the Gout and is said to have been successfully us'd in the Erysipelas And when I consider that our Liquor is very Spirituous and Penetrating and so fit to strengthen and resolve and also of an Alcalisate nature which fits it to mortify Acidities it seems very probable that by vertue of these and other friendly Qualities it may by being apply'd in its Liquid form prove good in divers cases where the Chyrurgions or the Physicians help is wont to be requir'd But 't is high time for me to proceed from the External to the Internal uses of the Spirit of Humane Blood The XVI Secondary Title Of the Medicinal Vertues of Spirit of Humane Blood inwardly us'd I Have long been prone to think that 't is not necessary the number of specifically different Morbific Matters as Physicians call actually noxious Humours or other substances in the Humane Body should be near so great as that of the Diseases 't is obnoxious to and consequently that every Disease that has a distinct Name assign'd to it does not always require a distinct sort of Peccant Matter to produce it but that the same hurtful Humour or other Agent may produce sicknesses that pass for differing ones and accordingly have distinct Denominations only as the same Morbific Agents bad effects are diversify'd partly by its own greater or lesser quantity and more or less active Qualities and partly and indeed chiefly by the particular Natures or Structures and Situations of the parts that it invades To this Opinion I have been led by divers Inducements that I shall not now stay to set down especially since the probability of it may be easily deduc'd from what frequently enough occurs among sick persons of the Metastases of Morbific Matters the same Acid or Sharp Humour for instance producing sometimes a Colic sometimes after that a Palsey sometimes a Cough sometimes a Flux of the Belly sometimes an Ophthalmiâ— sometimes a violent Head-ach sometimes Convulsions and sometimes other Distempers as the Peccant Humour or other Noxious Matter happens primarily to invade or afterwards to be translated to this or that particular part of the Body And to the hitherto propos'd Notion 't is very agreeable that one Remedy by being capable victoriously to oppugn one or two of the principal kinds of Morbific Matter may be able to cure differing Diseases especially if it be endow'd with any variety of active Vertues And upon this ground I am apt to think that the Spirit of Humane Blood skilfully Prepar'd and Administred may be a good Remedy in no small number of Internal Affections of the Humane Body And indeed Volatile Alcalies in general have been in England so prosperously made use of in Physick since the year 1656 about which time I had the good fortune to contribute so to introduce them as to bring them by degrees into request by divulging easy ways of making them as well as by declaring their Vertues that I see small cause to doubt but that they will hereafter be more generally esteem'd and employ'd than yet they are and will little by little invite Physicians to prefer them to a great many vulgar Remedies that for want of better are yet in common use tho they clog or weaken the Patient and want divers advantageous Qualities that may be found in Volatile Alcalies For to apply what has been said to our present Subject as an instance that may serve for other Urinous Spirits the Spirit of Humane Blood is endowed with divers Qualities that are both Active and Medicinal For it mortifies Acid Salts which are the causes of several Diseases and if I mistake not of some that are not wont
they are or after a kind of Analysis of them Or 3. By uniting our Spirit with Metalline Solutions as of Gold Silver Mercury and with solution of Minium made with Spirit of Vinegar by mixture of which Liquor with Spirit of Blood and a slow Evaporation of them I remember I have had pretty store of finely figured Chrystals Or 4. By dissolving in Spirit of Blood carefully Dephlegm'd Sulphur opened with Salt of Tartar Or else By dissolving in it some Metalline Bodies as Copper Zink and Iron which last will afford a Martial Liquor that differing much from other preparations of Steel that are wont to be made with Acids may probably have some Vertues distinct from those of the known Remedies made of that Metal But I cannot stay to enumerate the several ways whereby the Spirit of Humane Blood may be made serviceable to the Medicinal Art Yet one Preparation there is which tho I have already taken notice of in the foregoing Title and therefore can scarce mention without some repetition yet I think I ought not to preâ—ermit it on this occasion partly because whereas it was formerly propos'd with respect only to the outward uses of it I shall now consider it with reference to the inward and partly because by this way of proceeding we may at once correct diversifie and compound our Spirit of Blood This Operation may be perform'd two ways whereof the former is more simple than the latter The first is to add to well Rectify'd Spirit of Blood a double weight or about an equal one as the Liquors especially the Volatile Alcaly are more or less strong of Alcohole of Wine For these Liquors being well shaken together will in very great part coagulate into Salt which with a very gentle heat will sublime in a dry form + in which I found it to have lost almost all its offensive smell And tho against this way of proceeding I know it may be objected as was formerly intimated that the efficacy of the Medicine may as well as the Urinous smell be much weakned by this Preparation yet I found this Salt to retain a considerable degree of Quickness and Penetrancy which its Volatility kept me from thinking strange And experience has perswaded me that divers of these compounded or if I may so stile them Resulting Salts which some Chymists call Salia Enixa for all agree not in the Sense of that name tho they seem to have their Activity clog'd may have considerable operations both in Chymistry and Physick And why the Emergent Salt we speak of may not be of that number I see no sufficient cause N. B. especially since such a kind of Mixture tho made with another Urinous Spirit has had such effects in Feavers as I thought extraordinary Nor is the Liquor that our Compounded Salt leaves behind to be thrown away since if it be Dephlegmed it may afford a not Despicable Liquor both for Medical and Mechanical uses of which it may here suffice to have given you in general this hint And if the more simple way of altering the Spirit of Humane Blood be carry'd on a little further by dissolving in the Alcohole of Wine before the conjunction of the two Spirits be made a convenient proportion as perhaps a Twentyeth or Twenty-fourth part of an Essential Chymical Oyl as of Cloves Anise-seeds Marjoram c. the Volatile Salt that will be sublim'd from this Mixture will not only be depriv'd of its stink but endow'd with the smell and the Relish of the Oyl which by being thus united with a Salt very subtile and friendly to nature will less overpower and offend the Brain and Stomach than meer Chymical Oyls are wont to do and being associated with such Agile and penetrating Corpuscles will with them gain admission into the more inward Recesses of the Body and there exercise the Vertues that belong to the Vegetables that afforded the Oyls or at least to the Oyls themselves In these odoriferous Aromatick Mixtures the Oleaginous Particles are by the intervention of the Saline ones brought to mix readily with other Liquors and even with Aqueous Vehicles and to continue long enough mix'd for the Patient to take them commodiously And thus by this one method there may be a multitude of Salia Volatilia Oleosa that is of pleasing subtile and efficacious Remedies for inward uses prepar'd even as many as the Physician or Chymist shall please to make Essential Oyls or others that will dissolve in Alcohole of Wine and if these be drawn from Cephalick Plants as Marjoram Rosemary Lavender c. or from Cephalick Spices as Nutmegs Cinnamon c. they will probably afford very brisk and grateful Medicines to relieve and comfort the Brain and Spirits as they may the Heart Liver and other Viscera if in the sublimation the Saline Particles of Blood be associated with those of Oyls drawn from Vegetables whose Vertues do peculiarly respect those parts Other ways might be here propos'd of making Remedies whereof the Spirit of Blood should be the main ingredient But I willingly leave that work to your self and those of your profession if you think fit to prosecute it since my present task does not require that I should write like what I am not a profess'd Physician but like what I endeavour to be a Diligent Natural Historian And for the same reason I purposely forbear to insert here some Chymical processes that I have met with of Remedies that admit of Distill'd Blood tho I have also declin'd the mention of them for two other Reasons one that the Authors do not recommend them upon their own Experience and the other that these Medicines being much more compounded than those I lately propos'd wherein our Spirit is mingled but with some one Chymical Oyl or other diluted with Alcohole of Wine their preparations are less fit for my Design which leads me to consider the Effects of Humane Blood upon Patients less as they are Sanative than as they are Signs of Qualities whose knowledge tends to the discovery of the Nature of Spirit of Humane Blood and so of that of Blood it self And this Sir it may suffice to have at present set down touching the History of the Spirit of Humane Blood of which and of the other parts constituting that Red Body or obtainable from it I might have given you a far less incomplete Account if I had had more leisure and if for want of Materials to make Experiments upon the entire Liquor and the Concreted and Serous Parts of it distinctly and especially to afford a sufficient quantity of the Spirit I had not been so straitned that I was fain to leave many things untry'd and to try some others in much less quantities and much more unaccurately than otherwise should have been done by Sir your c. AN APPENDIX TO THE MEMOIRS FOR THE HISTORY OF Humane Blood HAving elsewhere mentioned the Reasons that mov'd me to think it fit to subjoyn an Appendix to each of the
was a small portion that sunk in the Spirit the rest swimming upon it The above mentioned Spirit being put into a small Head and Body was set into a Digestive Furnace to Rectify at leisure with a very gentle heat and the Receiver was three or four times shifted that we might observe what difference if any there would be betwixt the successively ascending Portions of Liquor The first Spirit that came over did not smell near so rank as that is wont to do that is distill'd per se This Observation belongs also to the three or four succeeding Portions of Liquor probably because the Lime had better freed the Spirit of the first Distillation from the Faetid Oyl many of whose Particles are wont tho unperceivedly to mingle with it when it is drawn over without Additament The Rectify'd Spirit which was clear and colourless had a tast much stronger than its smell for a small drop of it upon the Tongue had something of Fieryness that was surprizing and lasted longer than one would wish which made me doubt whether the Spirituous part of the Blood had not carry'd up with it some of the Fiery parts of the Quick-lime which doubt if future Tryals resolve in the Affirmative one may expect some uncommon effects from such a Spirit which in this case would be enriched with a kind of Volatilis'd Alcaly a thing much desir'd by many Chymists and Physicians Upon occasion of this suspition we dropt a little of it into a strong solution of Sublimate in fair Water and it seemed at the first contact to make a Precipitate a little enclining to Yellow as I have observed the Saline parts of Quicklime to do in a greater measure tho afterwards the Precipitate appeared white like that made with ordinary Volatile Liquors of an Urinous Nature But because I expected that our Alcalisate Spirit of Blood if I may so call it would have some peculiar Qualities discriminating it from the Spirit drawn without addition I thought fit to make a few Tryals with it whose event justify'd my conjectures For having put into a Glass Egg with a slender neck some of our well rectify'd Spirit it did not then afford any Volatile Salt in a dry form tho afterwards if I mistook not by another Tryal we at length obtain'd a little and having continued the Tryal somewhat obstinately we found the Spirit to have by the action of the Fire lost its Limpidness and to have been made muddy or troubled Having mingled another portion of it with a highly rectify'd ardent Spirit and kept them all night in the cold no coagulation ensued nor could we perceive any after it had been kept divers hours in a moderate heat But the Mixture acquired a Yellow colour and let fall somewhat to our surprize a pretty deal of darkish Powder tho not enough to invite us to make any Tryals upon it We put to another parcel of our Spirit some good Spirit of Salt but tho they smok'd much at their meeting yet we observ'd no noise nor bubbles upon their commixture And having mingled another Portion with Oyl of Vitriol tho there was produc'd a very great smoke and besides that an intense degree of Heat the quantity of the matter considered yet there was no visible Ebullition nor any noise or bubbles produc'd but the colour of the Oyl of Vitriol was very much heightned the mixture growing almost red From these and the like Phaenomena one may gather that our Alcalisate Spirit of Blood is in several things differing from the simple Whether this disparity will make it a more potent Medicine or make it by too much participation of the fiery parts of the Lime a less safe Remedy future Experience must discover But it seems not improbable that either as a Medicine or as a Menstruum if not in both capacities it may be a not Inconsiderable Liquor For which reason I have made my account of it the more Circumstantial Experiment II. WE tooke â„¥ ij of Tartar Calcined to whiteness by equal weight of kindled Nitre and mingled this Alcaly with â„¥ ij of dry'd and powder'd Humane Blood This mixture being distill'd in a Retort in a Sand Furnace made it appear by its Productions that Quicklime on these occasions acts otherwise upon the Blood than other Alcalies do For whereas the Distillation wherein Lime was employ'd afforded us as has been noted a Spirit that before Rectification was very strong and unaccompanied with dry Salt the Calcinatum of Nitre and Tartar afforded us at the very first Distillation a Spirit less strong but withal so much Volatile Salt as cover'd almost all the inside of the Receiver not now to mention the difference of their respective Caput Mortuums And tho the strong Saline Spirit of Blood made with Quicklime did not as we lately noted make an Effervescence with Acid Spirits yet this Volatile Salt readily did it upon the affusion of Spirit of Salt Experiment III. BEsides the fixt Alcalisate Additaments with which I distill'd the dry'd Blood of Men I thought fit to add to it a very Acid Additament viz. Oyl of Vitriol and this the rather because I had long since found by Tryal and if I misremember not have elsewhere related that this Liquor being mix'd with some other Bodies particularly with some belonging to the Animal Kingdom did in an odd manner mingle its own substances for I take it not to be a simple body with them and notably diversify the Products of the Distillation We put therefore upon â„¥ iij. of powder'd Humane Blood an equal weight of Oyl of Vitriol and left them for some time together to try if by the action of this Corrosive Menstruum tho upon a Body not of a Mineral Nature some heat would not be excited and accordingly we found that after a while tho not at the very first the mixture grew sensibly warm Then we removed the Retort into a Sand Furnace and distilling it by degrees of Fire we had a Spirit which was preceded by a pretty deal of Phlegmatick Liquor of an odd sulphureous smell but so strong and lasting that I could not but wonder at it The Caput Mortuum I was fain to let alone because I had some Inducements to suppose that it was of so compounded a nature that I should not in my present Circumstances have the opportunity to examine it throughly But it seemed remarkable that notwithstanding the great Acidity of Oyl of Vitriol and the fixative power it exercises on many Bodies wherewith it is committed to Distillation our Experiment afforded us a pretty quantity of Volatile matter in the form of a white Salt But indeed the smell and tast of it were so uncommon that I was troubled I had not then conveniency to examine it carefully much less to try whether it had any peculiar Vertues or Operations in Physick tho I had then by me a Glass Instrument that I purposely provided to obviate the great inconvenience that is usually met with and
has been often complain'd of by me as well as others in the way Chymists are wont to imploy when they are put to make repeated Sublimations of Volatile Salts whether alone or with Additaments of this Instrument I cannot now stay to give you an account but if it continue to appear as usefull as expeditious I may hereafter do it by presenting you one ready made Experiment I. TO some Naturalists and Physicians that delight to frame Hypotheses perhaps it may not be unwelcome to know that for curiosities sake we attempted to make Aurum fulminans by Precipitating a solution of Gold made in Aqua Regia with Spirit of Humane Blood by dulcifying the Precipitate with Common water and then drying it leisurely and that by this means we succeeded in the attempt Experiment II. HAving into a wide-mouth'd glass put as much Spirit of Blood as would more than cover the Ball of a small seal'd Weather-glass and suffer'd this Instrument to stay a while that the Ambient Liquor and the Included might be reduc'd to the same temper as to Heat and Cold we pour'd on some Spirit of Verdegreece made per se and observ'd that tho this Spirit with some other Volatile Saline Liquors had a very differing operation yet working on our Spirit of Blood with which it made a conflict and excited Bubbles there was produc'd in the Mixture a degree of Warmth that was not insensible on the outside of the glass but was much more sensible in the Thermoscope whose Liquor being hereby rarified ascended to a considerable height above the former station towards which when the conflict of the two Liquors was over it began tho but slowly to return Experiment III. HAving by degrees mix'd our Spirit of Blood with as much good Spirit of Nitre as it would manifestly work on there was not without noise produc'd great store of Bubbles by their mutual conflict which being kept in a quiet place till after the Liquors had quite ceased to work on one another it began to appear that notwithstanding all our care to free the Spirit of Blood from Oyl something of Oleaginous that had been concealed in it had been manifested and partly separated by this Operation since not only a somewhat red Colour was produced by it but after a while the surface of the Liquor was covered with a film such as I have often observed in Saline Liquors copiously impregnated with Antimony or other Sulphureous Bodies And this thin Membrane had its Superficies so disposed that looking upon it with Eyes placed Conveniently in reference to it and the Light it did to me and other Persons that did not at all look on it from the same place appear adorned with vivid Colours of the Rainbow as Red Yellow Blew and Green and as I remember in the same order that these Colours are to be seen in the Clouds Experiment IV. HAving unexpectedly found amongst some other long neglected Glasses a Vial that was written upon above twelve years before and inscrib'd Spirit of Humane Blood it appear'd to have been by I know not what Accident very loosely stopt and yet not so as to give me cause to think that the Liquor was much wasted But notwithstanding this and that the Liquor had acquired a deep Colour almost like that of Red Wine yet it was so dispirited and strengthless that it appear'd to be very little other than nauseous Phlegm Which Observation I therefore think not unworthy to be preserv'd because by it we may guess how little a portion of the noble and genuine Spirit or Salt may suffice to make a Liquor pass for Spirit of Humane Blood Experiment V. IN a Frosty season we expos'd late at night two or three spoonfulls by guess of Spirit of Humane Blood that was not of the best being at the utmost but moderately strong And tho the Cold of that season had throughly frozen a Vial almost full of Oyl of Vitriol and the night wherein our Spirit was exposed was at least moderately Frosty yet the next morning we did not find so much as any Superficial Ice upon it But having remov'd the Vial into a mixture of Powder'd Ice and Common Salt we found in no very long time that most part of the Spirit was turn'd into thin Plates of Ice which joyn'd close together and had their edges upwards like those of the Leaves of a Book when it is held with its back downwards Experiment VI. TO make a further Tryal of that imperfect one mentioned in the Subordinate Title we took a Clot of Humane Blood of the bigness of a Bean or thereabouts and having put it into a Vial in such manner that that part which before was contiguous to the Air and for that reason was florid was now the undermost and the other which was blackish lay now uppermost we made haste to pour upon it as much Spirit of Humane Blood as was more than sufficient to cover it and perceiv'd that the contact of it presently began to lessen the blackness of the surface of the Blood and bring it to a considerable degree of Floridness and to try whether that would continue we stopt the Vial and set it by till the next morning for it was then night when looking upon it we found the Superficial Colour not to be Black but still Red. Experiment VII UPon the Powder of dry'd Humane Blood we put in a small Vial some of the rectify'd Spirit of Humane Blood which quickly dissolv'd part of it and acquired a deep and pleasant Colour But highly rectified Spirit of Wine being put upon some of the same Powder in a like glass did not in many hours acquire any manifest Tincture and got but a pale Yellow one even after having been for a longer time kept in a moderate heat And yet Common water being put upon another portion of the same Powder did quickly enough appear by the Colour it acquir'd to have dissolv'd a pretty deal of it Experiment VIII SOme of our Spirit of Humane Blood being put upon some curious Vitriol that I had as a Rarity if I mistake not from the East Indies part whereof was in lumps and part beaten to Powder that Liquor which was put upon the former being able to dissolve it but slowly made little or no Froth but the Spirit that was put upon the latter by hastily working on it produc'd a manifest one And the Solutions made of both parcels of Vitriol were of a deeper and more lovely Blew than the Mineral it self had been nor did I observe in them any Precipitate of a dark Colour as I have done upon the Mixture of Spirit of Urine and Ordinary Vitriol Experiment IX HAving with a clean Pen drawn some Letters upon white Paper with Spirit of Humane Blood and as soon as 't was dry mov'd the unwritten side over the Flame of a Candle we found that this Liquor may for a need be imployed as an invisible Ink that seemed to be somewhat better than
purposely caus'd to be made for weighing Liquors nicely in which when Common Water weighed 253 grains an equal bulk of Serum weighed 302. And because I suppos'd that all Serums of Humane Blood would not be of equal Specific Gravity I thought fit to try that of the Blood of another person in the same Instrument and found it to weigh two grains less that is 300 grains in all 4. We once employ'd some Serum that could not be or at least was not pour'd off so clear but that it appear'd of a reddish colour and thô we filter'd it through Cap-paper yet a good number of the tinging Corpuscles were so throughly mingled with it that the Liquor passd through the Filtre of a Yellow Colour 5. To try whether Acids would coagulate our Serum as I had found they would some other Animal Liquors I dropt into it some Spirit of Salt which did immediately produce with it some white Concretions that quickly subsided to the bottom and there when there was a pretty quantity of them appear'd like a very light and tender Cheese-Curd The like Operation but more powerful had Oyl of Vitriol upon another parcel of our Serum 6. We dropt into some of our Liquor good Spirit of Sal-Armoniac which as we expected rather made it more Fluid than did appear to coagulate it as the Acid Liquors had done 7. To try whether these Precipitations did not more proceed from the Coalition and Texture of the Acid Salts and the Serum than barely from the peculiar action of those Salts as Acids we dropt into another portion of our Serum a strong Alcalisate Salt viz. Oyl of Tartar per deliquium which instantly produc'd a White Curd as the Spirit of Salt had done but not as it seem'd to us so copiously 8. We pour'd also upon some Serum highly rectifi'd Spirit of Wine which as we expected did presently coagulate some part of it into a White Curd that was copious enough but appear'd much lighter than either of the former since it would not like them subside but kept at the top of the Liquor 9. To try also what a Salt compounded with a Metal would do upon our Serum we put to it a little strong Solution of Sublimate with which it presently afforded a white and curdled substance We put some of our Serum upon some Filings of Mars but by reason of the colour of the Liquor it self we could not satisfie our selves about the Event And thô we afterwards put another parcel of Serum upon Filings of the same Metal yet neither did this give us satisfaction in regard the Vial having been mislaid was not look'd upon again till many days after at which time the Liquor was grown so thick and muddy that we could not well discern any more of the colour than that it was somewhat dark but not either black or blackish yet by a Tryal or two that we made with a little of this Liquor it seem'd to have made a Solution of some part of the Steel For putting it to some fresh Infusion of Galls made with Water it presently afforded a copious Precipitate but this was so far from being Inky that it was not so much as dark colour'd but rather whitish at which some analogous Experiments mentioned in another Treatise that I formerly made kept me from wondering Yet I shall not omit to add on this occasion that having mix'd with some of our impregnated Serum a convenient quantity of Infusion of Galls made in a highly rectifi'd Vinous Spirit the two Liquors did not only afford a kind of Coagulum or Precipitate but being left together for some hours associated into a Consistent Body wherein the Eye discover'd no distinct Liquor at all 10. But expecting more clear success by putting some of our Liquor upon Filings of Copper which when wrought upon by Bodys that have in them any thing of Urinous Salt are wont to give a conspicuous Tincture we accordingly found that the Metal had in a very few hours discolour'd the Menstruum and afterwards the Vial being left unstopt that the Air might have Access to the Liquor it began by degrees to grow more and more Blew and within a day after was of a deep Ceruleous Colour 11. And to be confirm'd in our Conjecture that this Tincture proceeded from some Particles of Volatile Salt latent in the Liquor we mix'd some of it with a convenient quantity of Syrup of Violets and thereby obtain'd what we look'd for namely a colour which by reason of the action of those Particles upon the Syrup appear'd of a fine Green 12. The Blew Tincture or Solution of Copper mention'd number the 10th I thought fit to keep for some time to try whether the Metalline Particles would as it were embalm the Serum they were dispers'd through and preserve the Liquor from Putrefaction And in Effect thô the Vial was left unstopt in a window in my Bed-Chamber for many weeks yet I whose Organs of smelling are very tender and who did often put the Vial to my Nose did not perceive the Liquor to grow at all stinking 13. About ℥ ij by guess of Serum of Humane Blood were left in an unstop'd vial which they more then half fill'd for Twenty days or Three weeks and though the Glass usually stood in a South Window and in the month of July yet somewhat to our wonder the Serum did not by the smell appear putrefy'd and yet had let fall a considerable quantity of Whitish Sediment But within Three or Four days after this the Liquor was found to stink offensively Wherefore we tryed whether this more then incipient Putrefaction was accompanyed with any Acidity but could not perceive that it was since it would not so much as take off the blew colour of the infusion of Lignum Nephriticum or our Succedaneum to it When it was in this state we put it to distill in a low Cucurbite with a gentle fire to try if from this faetid Liquor as is usual from putrefy'd Urine the Spirit would first ascend But we found the Liquor that first came over to be so little Spirituous or Saline that it would not in an hours time turn Syrup of Violets green But yet we judg'd it not quite destitute of Volatile Alcaly because having let fell some of it into a good solution of Sublimate it presently made at White Precipitate 14. We took some Ounces of Serum of Humane Blood filtred through Cap Paper to free it from all concreted Substance and having committed it to Distillation in a small Retort place'd in a Sand Furnace we obtained only a few large drops of a Darkish red Oyl some of which subsided to the bottom of the other Liquor but the greater part swam upon it We obtain'd in this first Distillation no Volatile Salt in a dry form but after a pretty deal of insipid Phlegm had been drawn off there came over a good proportion of Spirituous Liquor which smell'd almost like the Spirit of Blood and