a Blew Liquor which not a few Ingenious Persons and among them some whose Profession makes them very Conversant with Colours have looked upon with some wonder But these Azure Colour'd Liquors should be freed from the Subsiding matter which the Salts of Tartar or Urine precipitate out of them rather by being Decanted than by Filtration For by the latter of these ways we have sometimes found the Colour of them very much Impair'd and little Superiour to that of the grosser Substance that it left in the Filtre EXPERIMENT XXIII That Roses held over the Fume of Sulphur may quickly by it be depriv'd of their Colour and have as much of their Leaves as the Fume works upon burn'd pale is an Experiment that divers others have tried as well as I. But Pyrophilus it may seem somewhat strange to one that has never consider'd the Compounded nature of Brimstone That whereas the Fume of Sulphur will as we have said Whiten the Leaves of Roses That Liquor which is commonly call'd Oyl of Sulphur per Campanam because it is suppos'd to be made by the Condensation of these Fumes in Glasses shap't like Bells into a Liquor does powerfully heighten the Tincture of Red Roses and make it more Red and Vivid as we have easily tried by putting some Red-Rose Leaves that had been long dried and so had lost much of their Colour into a Vial of fair Water For a while after the Affusion of a convenient Quantity of the Liquor we are speaking of both the Leaves themselves and the Water they were Steep'd in discover'd a very fresh and lovely Colour EXPERIMENT XXIV It may Pyrophilus somewhat serve to Illustrate not only the Doctrine of Pigments and of Colours but divers other Parts of the Corpuscular Philosophy as that explicates Odours and many other things not as the Schools by Aery Qualities but by Real though extremely Minute Bodies to examine how much of a Colourless Liquor a very small Parcel of a Pigment may Imbue with a discernable Colour And though there be scarce any thing of Preciseness to be expected from such Trials yet I presum'd that at least I should be able to show a much further Subdivision of the Parts of Matter into Visible Particles than I have hitherto found taken notice of and than most men would imagine no Body that I know of having yet attempted to reduce this Matter to any Measure The Bodies the most promising for such a purpose might seem to be the Metalls especially Gold because of the Multitude and Minuteness of its Parts which might be argu'd from the incomparable Closeness of its Texture But though we tried a Solution of Gold made in Aqua Regia first and then in fair Water yet in regard we were to determine the Pigment we imploy'd not by Bulk but Weight and because also that the Yellow Colour of Gold is but a faint one in Comparison of the deep Còlour of Cochineel we rather chose this to make our Trials with But among divers of these it will suffice to set down one which was carefully made in Vessels conveniently Shap'd and that in the presence of a Witness and an Assistant the Sum whereof I find among my Adversaria Registred in the following Words To which I shall only premise to lessen the wonder of so strange a diffusion of the Pigment That Cochineel will be better Dissolv'd and have its Colour far more heightn'd by Spirit of Urine than I say not by common Water but by Rectify'd Spirit of Wine it self The Note I spoke off is this One Grain of Cochineel dissolv'd in a pretty Quantity of Spirit of Urine and then dissolv'd further by degrees in fair Water imparted a discernable though but a very faint Colour to about six Glass-fulls of Water each of them containing about forty three Ounces and an half which amounts to above a hundred twenty five thousand times its own Weight EXPERIMENT XXV It may afford a considerable Hint Pyrophilus to him that would improve the Art of Dying to know what change of Colours may be produc'd by the three several sorts of Salts already often mention'd some or other of which may be procur'd in Quantity at reasonable Rates in the Juices Decoctions Infusions and in a word the more soluble parts of Vegetables And though the design of this Discourse be the Improvement of Knowledge not of Trades yet thus much I shall not scruple to intimate here That the Blew Liquors mention'd in the twentieth and one and twentieth Experiments are fat from being the only Vegetable Substances upon which Acid Urinous and Alcalizate Salts have the like Operations to those recited in those two Experiments For Ripe Privet Berries for instance being crush'd upon White Paper though they stain it with a Purplish Colour yet if we let fall on some part of it two or three drops of Spirit of Salt and on the other part a little more of the strong Solution of Pot-ashes the former Liquor immediately turn'd that part of the Thick Juice or Pulp on which it fell into a lovely Red and the latter turn'd the other part of it into a delightfull Green Though I will not undertake that those Colours in that Substance shall not be much more Orient than Lasting and though Pyrophilus this Experiment may seem to be almost the same with those already deliver'd concerning Syrrup of Violets and the Juice of Blew-bottles yet I think it not amiss to take this Occasion to inform you that this Experiment reaches much farther than perhaps you yet imagine and may be of good Use to those whom it concerns to know how Dying Stuffs may be wrought upon by Saline Liquors For I have found this Experiment to succeed in so many Various Berries Flowers Blossoms and other finer Parts of Vegetables that neither my Memory nor my Leisure serves me to enumerate them And it is somewhat surprizing to see by how Differingly-colour'd Flowers or Blossoms for example the Paper being stain'd will by an Acid Spirit be immediately turn'd Red and by any Alcaly or any Urinous Spirit turn'd Green insomuch that ev'n the crush'd Blossoms of Meserion which I gather'd in Winter and frosty Weather and those of Pease crush'd upon White Paper how remote soever their Colours be from Green would in a moment pass into a deep Degree of that Colour upon the Touch of an Alcalizate Liquor To which let us add That either of those new Pigments if I may so call them may by the Affusion of enough of a contrary Liquor be presently chang'd from Red into Green and from Green into Red which Observation will hold also in Syrrup of Violets Juices of Blew-bottles c. Annotation After what I have formerly deliver'd to evince That there are many Instances wherein new Colours are produc'd or acquir'd by Bodies which Chymists are wont to think destitute of Salt or to whose change of Colours no new Accession of Saline Particles does appear to contribute I think we may safely enough
as far as I can judge by what I have tried be able to make it a Yellow Liquor Insomuch that a Single drop of a rich Solution of Cochineel in Spirit of Urine being Diluted with above an Ounce of fair Water exhibited no Yellowishness at all but a fair though somewhat faint Pinck or Carnation and even when Cochineel was by degrees Diluted much beyond the newly mention'd Colour by the way formerly related to you in the twenty fourth Experiment I remember not that there appear'd in the whole Trial any Yellow But if you take Balsom of Sulphur for Instance though it may appear in a Glass where it has a good Thickness to be of a deep Red yet if you shake the Glass or pour a few drops on a sheet of White Paper spreading them on it with your Finger the Balsom that falls back along the sides of the Glass and that which stains the Paper will appear Yellow not Red. And there are divers Tinctures such as that of Amber made with Spirit of Wine to name now no more that will appear either Yellow or Red according as the Vessels that they fill are Slender or Broad EXPERIMENT XXXIII But to proceed to the Experiments I was about to deliver First Oyl or Spirit of Turpentine though clear as fair Water being Digested upon the purely White Sugar of Lead has in a short time afforded us a high Red Tincture that some Artists are pleas'd to call the Balsom of Saturn which they very much and probably not altogether without cause extoll as an excellent Medicine in divers Outward affections EXPERIMENT XXXIV Next take of common Brimstone finely powdred five Ounces of Sal-Armoniack likewise pulveriz'd an equal weight of beaten Quick-lime six Ounces mix these Powders exquisitely and Distill them through a Retort plac'd in Sand by degrees of Fire giving at length as intense a Heat as you well can in Sand there will come over if you have wrought well a Volatile Tincture of Sulphur which may probably prove an excellent Medicine and should have been mention'd among the other Preparations of Sulphur which we have elsewhere imparted to you but that it is very pertinent to our present Subject The change of Colours For though none of the Ingredients be Red the Distill'd Liquor will be so and this Liquor if it be well Drawn will upon a little Agitation of the Vial first unstop'd especially if it be held in a Warmer hand send forth a copious Fume not Red like that of Nitre but White And sometimes this Liquor may be so Drawn that I remember not long since I took pleasure to observe in a parcel of it that Ingredients not Red did not only yield by Distillation a Volatile Spirit that was Red but though that Liquor did upon the bare opening of the Bottle it was kept in drive us away with the plenty and Sulphureous sent of a White steam which it sent forth yet the Liquor it self being touch'd by our Fingers did immediately Dye them Black EXPERIMENT XXXV The third and last Experiment I shall now mention to shew how prone Bodies abounding in Sulphureous parts are to afford a Red Colour is one wherein by the Operation of a Saline Spirit upon a White or Whitish Body which according to the Chymists should be altogether Sulphureous a Redness may be produc'd not as in the former Experiments slowly but in the twinkling of an Eye We took then of the Essential Oyl of Anniseeds which has this Peculiarity that in Cold weather it loses its Fluidity and the greatest part of its Transparency and looks like a White or Whitish Oyntment and near at hand seems to consist of a Multitude of little soft Scales Of this Coagulated Stuff we spread a little with a Knife upon a piece of White Paper and letting fall on it and mixing with it a drop or two of Oyl of Vitriol immediately as we fore-saw there emerg'd together with some Heat and Smoak a Blood-Red Colour which therefore was in a trice produc'd by two Bodies whereof the one had but a Whitish Colour and the other if carefully rectify'd had no Colour at all EXPERIMENT XXXVI But on this Occasion Pyrophilus we must add once for all that in many of the above-recited Experiments though the changes of Colour happen'd as we have mention'd them yet the emergent or produc'd Colour is oft times very subject to Degenerate both quickly and much Notwithstanding which since the Changes we have set down do happen presently upon the Operation of the Bodies upon each other or at the times by us specify'd that is sufficient both to justifie our Veracity and to shew what we Intend it not being Essential to the Genuineness of a Colour to be Durable For a fading Leaf that is ready to Rot and moulder into Dust may have as true a Yellow as a Wedge of Gold which so obstinately resists both Time and Fire And the reason why I take occasion from the former Experiment to subjoyn this general Advertisement is that I have several times observ'd that the Mixture resulting from the Oyls of Vitriol and of Anniseeds though it acquire a thicker consistence than either of the Ingredients had has quickly lost its Colour turning in a very short time into a dirty Gray at least in the Superficial parts where 't is expos'd to the Air which last Circumstance I therefore mention because that though it seem probable that this Degeneration of Colours may oft times and in divers cases proceed from the further Action of the Saline Corpuscles and the other Ingredients upon one another yet in many cases much of the Quick change of Colours seems ascribeable to the Air as may be made probable by several reason The first whereof may be fetcht from the newly recited Example of the two Oyls The next may be that we have sometimes observ'd long Window-Curtains of light Colours to have that part of them which was expos'd to the Air when the Window was open of one Colour and the lower part that was sheltred from the Air by the Wall of another Colour And the third Argument may be fetch'd from divers Observations both of others and our own For of that Pigment so well known in Painters Shops by the name of Turnso our Industrious Parkinson in the particular account he gives of the Plant that bears it tells us also That the Berries when they are at their full Maturity have within them between the outer Skin and the inward Kirnel or Seed a certain Juice or Moisture which being rubb'd upon Paper or Cloath at the first appears of a fresh and lovely Green Colour but presently changeth into a kind of Blewish Purple upon the Cloath or Paper and the same Cloath afterwards wet in Water and wrung forth will Colour the Water into a Claret Wine Colour and these concludes he are those Raggs of Cloath which are usually call'd Turnsol in the Druggists or Grocers Shops And to this Observation of our Botanist we
come to be Lodg'd or Harbour'd in the Pores that admit them the Surface of the Body will for the most part have its Asperity alter'd and the Incident Light that meets with a Grosser Liquor in the little Cavities that before contain'd nothing but Air or some yet Subtiler Fluid will have its Beams either Refracted or Imbib'd or else Reflected more or less Interruptedly than they would be if the Body had been Unmoistned as we see that even fair Water falling on white Paper or Linnen and divers other Bodies apt to soak it in will for some such Reasons as those newly mention'd immediately alter the Colour of them and for the most part make it Sadder than that of the Unwetted Parts of the same Bodies And so you may see that when in the Summer the High-ways are Dry and Dusty if there falls store of Rain they will quickly appear of a much Darker Colour than they did before and if a Drop of Oyl be let fall upon a Sheet of White Paper that part of it which by the Imbibition of the Liquor acquires a greater Continuity and some Transparency will appear much Darker than the rest many of the Incident Beams of Light being now Transmitted that otherwise would be Reflected towards the Beholders Eyes 20. Secondly A Liquor may alter the Colour of a Body by freeing it from those things that hindred it from appearing in its Genuine Colour and though this may be said to be rather a Restauration of a Body to its own Colour or a Retection of its native Colour than a Change yet still there Intervenes in it a change of the Colour which the Body appear'd to be of before this Operation And such a change a Liquor may work either by Dissolving or Corroding or by some such way of carrying off that Matter which either Veil'd or Disguis'd the Colour that afterwards appears Thus we restore Old pieces of Dirty Gold to a clean and nitid Yellow by putting them into the Fire and into Aqua-fortis which take off the adventitious Filth that made that pure Metall look of a Dirty Colour And there is also an easie way to restore Silver Coyns to their due Lustre by fetching off that which Discolour'd them And I know a Chymical Liquor which I employ'd to restore pieces of Cloath spotted with Grease to their proper Colour by Imbibing the Spotted part with this Liquor which Incorporating with the Grease and yet being of a very Volatile Nature does easily carry it away with it Self And I have sometimes try'd that by Rubbing upon a good Touch-stone a certain Metalline mixture so Compounded that the Impression it left upon the Stone appear'd of a very differing Colour from that of Gold yet a little of Aqua-fortis would in a Trice make the Golden Colour disclose it self by Dissolving the other Metalline Corpuscles that conceal'd those of the Gold which you know that Menstruum will leave Untouch'd 21. Thirdly A Liquor may alter the Colour of a Body by making a Comminution of its Parts and that principally two ways the first by Disjoyning and Dissipating those Clusters of Particles if I may so call them which stuck more Loosely together being fastned only by some more easily Dissoluble Ciment which seems to be the Case of some of the following Experiments where you 'l find the Colour of many Corpuscles brought to cohere by having been Precipitated together Destroy'd by the Affusion of very peircing and incisive Liquors The other of the two ways I was speaking of is by Dividing the Grosser and more Solid Particles into Minute ones which will be always Lesser and for the most part otherwise Shap'd than the Entire Corpuscle so Divided as it will happen in a piece of Wood reduc'd into Splinters or Chips or as when a piece of Chrystal heated red Hot and quench'd in Cold water is crack'd into a multitude of little Fragments which though they fall not asunder alter the Disposition of the Body of the Chrystal as to its manner of Reflecting the Light as we shall have Occasion to shew hereafter 22. There is a fourth way contrary to the third whereby a Liquor may change the Colour of another Body especially of another Fluid and that is by procuring the Coalition of several Particles that before lay too Scatter'd and Dispers'd to exhibit the Colour that afterwards appears Thus sometimes when I have had a Solution of Gold so Dilated that I doubted whether the Liquor had really Imbib'd any true Gold or no by pouring in a little Mercury I have been quickly able to satisfie my Self that the Liquor contain'd Gold that Mettall after a little while Cloathing the Surface of the Quick-silver with a Thin Film of its own Livery And chiefly though not only by this way of bringing the Minute parts of Bodies together in such Numbers as to make them become Notorious to the Eye many of these Colours seem to be Generated which are produc'd by Precipitations especially by such as are wont to be made with fair Water as when Resinous Gumms dissolv'd in Spirit of Wine are let fall again if the Spirit be Copiously diluted with that weakning Liquor And so out of the Rectify'd and Transparent Butter of Antimony by the bare Mixture of fair Water there will be plentifully Precipitated that Milk-white Substance which by having its Looser Salts well wash'd off is turn'd into that Medicine which Vulgar Chymists are pleas'd to call Mercurius Vitae 23. A fifth way by which a Liquor may change the Colour of a Body is by Dislocating the Parts and putting them out of their former Order into another and perhaps also altering the Posture of the single Corpuscles as well as their Order or Situation in respect of one another What certain Kinds of Commotion or Dislocation of the Parts of a Body may do towards the Changing its Colour is not only evident in the Mutations of Colour observable in Quick-silver and some other Concretes long kept by Chymists in a Convenient Heat though in close Vessels but in the Obvious Degenerations of Colour which every Body may take notice of in Bruis'd Cherries and other Fruit by comparing after a while the Colour of the Injur'd with that of the Sound part of the same Fruit. And that also such Liquors as we have been speaking of may greatly Discompose the Textures of many Bodies and thereby alter the Disposition of their Superficial parts the great Commotion made in Metalls and several other Bodies by Aqua-fortis Oyl of Vitriol and other Saline Menstruums may easily perswade us and what such Vary'd Situations of Parts may do towards the Diversifying of the manner of their Reflecting the Light may be Guess'd in some Measure by the Beating of Transparent Glass into a White Powder but farr better by the Experiments lately Pointed at and hereafter Deliver'd as the Producing and Destroying Colours by the means of subtil Saline Liquors by whose Affusion the Parts of other Liquors are manifestly both Agitated and
endeavour to shew both by the making of Specular bodies White and the making of a White body Specular 10. In the Fifth place then I will inform You that not to repeat what Gassendus observes concerning Water I have for Curiosity sake Distill'd Quick-silver in a Cucurbit fitted with a Capacious Glass-head and observ'd that when the Operation was perform'd by the Degrees of Fire requisite for my purpose there would stick to the Inside of the Alembick a multitude of Little round drops of Mercury And as you know that Mercury is a Specular Body so each of these Little drops was a small round Looking-glass and a Multitude of them lying Thick and Near one another they did both in my Judgment and that of those I Invited to see it make the Glass they were fastened to appear manifestly a White Body And yet as I said this Whiteness depended upon the Minuteness and Nearness of the Little Mercurial Globuli the Convexity of whose Surfaces fitted them to represent in a Narrow compass a Multitude of Little Lucid Images to differingly situated Beholders And here let me observe a thing that seems much to countenance the Notion I have been recommending namely that whereas divers parts of the Sky and especially the Milky-way do to the naked Eye appear White as the name it self imports yet the Galaxie look'd upon through the Telescope does not shew White but appears to be made up of a Vast multitude of Little Starrs so that a Multitude of Lucid Bodies if they be so Small that they cannot Singly or apart be discern'd by the Eye and if they be sufficiently Thick set by one another may by their confus'd beams appear to the Eye One White Body And why it is not possible that the like may be done when a Multitude of Bright and Little Corpuscles being crowded together are made to send together Vivid beams to the Eye though they Shine but as the Planets by a Borrow'd Light 11. But to return to our Experiments We may take notice That the White of an Egg though in part Transparent yet by its power of Reflecting some Incident Rays of Light is in some measure a Natural Speculum being long agitated with a Whisk or Spoon loses its Transparency and becomes very White by being turn'd into Froth that is into an Aggregate of Numerous small Bubbles whose Convex Superficies fits them to Reflect the Light every way Outwards And 't is worth Noting that when Water for instance is Agitated into Froth if the Bubbles be Great and Few the Whiteness will be but Faint because the number of Specula within a Narrow compass is but Small and they are not Thick set enough to Reflect so Many Little Images or Beams of the Lucid Body as are requisite to produce a Vigorous Sensation of Whiteness And partly least it should be said that the Whiteness of such Globulous Particles proceeds from the Air Included in the Froth which to make good it should be prov'd that the Air it self is White and partly to illustrate the better the Notion we have propos'd of Whiteness I shall add that I purposely made this Experiment I took a quantity Fair water put to it in a clear Glass phial a convenient quantity of Oyl or Spirit of Turpentine because that Liquor will not Incorporate with Water and yet is almost as Clear and Colourless as it these being Gently Shaken together the Agitation breaks the Oyl which as I said is Indispos'd to Mix like Wine or Milk per minima with the Water into a Multitude of Little Globes which each of them Reflecting Outwards a Lucid Image make the Imperfect Mixture of the two Liquors appear Whitish but if by Vehemently Shaking the Glass for a competent time you make a further Comminution of the Oyl into far more Numerous and Smaller Globuli and thereby confound it also better with the Water the Mixture will appear of a Much greater Whiteness and almost like Milk whereas if the Glass be a while let alone the Colour will by degrees Impair as the Oyly globes grow Fewer and Bigger and at length will quite Vanish leaving both the Liquors Distinct and Diaphanous as before And such a Tryal hath not ill succeeded when insteed of the Colourless Oyl of Turpentine I took a Yellow Mixture made of a good Proportion of Crude Turpentine dissolv'd in that Liquor and if I mis-remember not it also succeeded better than one would expect when I employ'd an Oyl brought by Filings of Copper infused in it to a deep Green And this by the way may be the Reason why often times when the Oyls of some Spices and of Anniseeds c. are Distilled in a Limbec with Water the Water as I have several times observ'd comes over Whitish and will perhaps continue so for a good while because if the Fire be made too Strong the subtile Chymical Oyl is thereby much Agitated and Broken and Blended with the Water in such Numerous and Minute Globules as cannot easily in a short time Emerge to the Top of the Water and whilst they Remain in it make it for the Reason newly intimated look Whitish and perhaps upon the same Ground a cause may be rendred why Hot water is observ'd to be usually more Opacous and Whitish than the same Water Cold the Agitation turning the more Spirituous or otherwise Conveniently Dispos'd Particles of the Water into Vapours thereby Producing in the Body of the Liquor a Multitude of Small Bubbles which interrupt the Free passage that the Beams of Light would else have Every way and from the Innermost parts of the Water Reflect many of them Outwards These and the like Examples Pyrophilus have induc'd me to Suspect that the Superficial Particles of White bodies may for the Most part be as well Convex as Smooth I content my self to say Suspect and for the most part because it seems not Easie to prove that when Diaphanous bodies as we shall see by and by are reduc'd into White Powders each Corpuscle must needs be of a Convex Superficies since perhaps it may Suffice that Specular Surfaces look severally ways For as we have seen when a Diaphanous Body comes to be reduc'd to very Minute parts it thereby requires a Multitude of Little Surfaces within a Narrow compass And though each of these should not be of a Figure Convenient to Reflect a Round Image of the Sun yet even from such an Inconveniently Figur'd body there may be Reflected some either Streight or Crooked Physical Line of Light which Line I call Physical because it has some Breadth in it and in which Line in many cases some Refraction of the Light falling upon the Body it depends on may contribute to the Brightness as if a Slender Wire or Solid Cylinder of Glass be expos'd to the Light you shall see in some part of it a vivid Line of Light and if we were able to draw out and lay together a Multitude of these Little Wires or
with Blacks has this passage The Children in this Countrey are Born White and change their Colour in two dayes to a Perfect Black As for Example The Portugalls which dwell in the Kingdome of Longo have sometimes Children by the Negroe women and many times the Fathers are deceived thinking when the Child is Born that it is theirs and within two dayes it proves the Son or Daughter of a Negroe which the Portugalls greatly grieve at And the same person has elsewhere a Relation which if he have made no use at all of the liberty of a Traveller is very well worth our Notice since this together with that we have formerly mention'd of Seminal Impressions shews a possibility that a Race of Negroes might be begun though none of the Sons of Adam for many Precedent Generations were of that Complexion For I see not why it should not be at least as possible that White Parents may sometimes have Black Children as that African Negroes should sometimes have lastingly White ones especially since concurrent causes may easily more befriend the Productions of the Former kind than under the scorching Heat of Africa those of the Latter And I remember on the occasion of what he delivers that of the White Raven formerly mention'd the Possessor affirm'd to me that in the Nest out of which he was taken VVhite they found with him but one other Young one and that he was of as Jetty a Black as any common Raven But let us hear our Author himself Here are sayes he speaking of the formerly mention'd Regions Born in this Countrey white Children which is very rare among them for their Parents are Negroes And when any of them are Born they are presented to the King and are call'd Dondos These are as White as any White Men. These are the Kings Witches and are brought up in Witchcraft and alwayes wait on the King There is no man that dare meddle with these Dondos if they go to the Market they may take what they list for all Men stand in awe of them The King of Longo hath four of them And yet this Countrey in our Globes is plac'd almost in the midst of the Torrid Zone four or five Degrees Southward of the Line And our Author elsewhere tells us of the Inhabitants that they are so fond of their Blackness that they will not suffer any that is not of that Colour as the Portugalls that come to Trade thither to be so much as Buri'd in their Land of which he annexes a particular example that may be seen in his Voyage preserv'd by our Industrious Countreyman Mr. Purchas But it is high time for me to dismiss Observations and go on with Experiments EXPERIMENT XII The way Pyrophilus of producing Whiteness by Chymical Praecipitations is very well worth our observing for thereby Bodyes of very Differing Colours as well as Natures though dissolv'd in Several Liquors are all brought into Calces or Powders that are White Thus we find that not only Crabs-eyes that are of themselves White and Pearls that are almost so but Coral and Minium that are Red being dissolv'd in Spirit of Vinegar may be uniformly Praecipitated by Oyl of Tartar into White Powders Thus Silver and Tin separately dissolv'd in Aqua Fortis will the one Praecipitate it self and the other be Praecipitated by common salt-Salt-water into a White Calx and so will Crude Lead and Quicksilver first dissolv'd likewise in Aqua Fortis The like Calx will be afforded as I have try'd by a Solution of that shining Mineral Tinglass dissolv'd in Aqua Fortis and Praecipitated out of it and divers of these Calces may be made at least as Fair and White if not better Colour'd if instead of Oyl of Tartar they were Praecipitated with Oyl of Vitriol or with another Liquor I could Name Nay that Black Mineral Antimony it self being reduc'd by and with the Salts that concurr to the Composition of common Sublimate into that Cleer though Unctuous Liquor that Chymists commonly call Rectifi'd Butter of Antimony will by the bare affusion of store of Fair Water be struck down into that Snow-white Powder which when the adhering Saltness is well wash'd off Chymists are pleas'd to call Mercurius Vitae though the like Powder may be made of Antimony without the addition of any Mercury at all And this Lactescence if I may so call it does also commonly ensue when Spirit of Wine being Impregnated with those parts of Gums or other Vegetable Concretions that are suppos'd to abound with Sulphureous Corpuscles fair Water is suddenly pour'd upon the Tincture or Solution And I remember that very lately I did for Tryal sake on a Tincture of Benjamin drawn with Spirit of Wine and brought to be as Red as Blood pour some fair Water which presently mingling with the Liquor immediately turn'd the whole Mixture White But if such Seeming Milks be suffer'd to stand unstirr'd for a convenient while they are wont to let fall to the bottome a Resinous Substance which the Spirit of Wine Diluted and VVeakned by the Water pour'd in it was unable to support any longer And something of Kin to this change of Colour in Vegetables is that which Chymists are wont to observe upon the pouring of Acid Spirits upon the Red Solution of Sulphur dissolv'd in an Infusion of Pot-ashes or in some other sharp Lixivium the Praecipitated Sulphur before it subsides immediately turning the Red Liquor into a White one And other Examples might be added of this way of producing Whiteness in Bodyes by Praecipitating them out of the Liquors wherein they have been Dissolv'd but I think it may be more usefull to admonish you Pyrophilus that this observation admits of Restrictions and is not so Universal as by this time perhaps you have begun to think it For though most Praecipitated Bodyes are White yet I know some that are not For Gold Dissolv'd in Aqua Regis whether you Praecipitate it with Oyl of Tartar or with Spirit of Sal Armoniack will not afford a White but a Yellow Calx Mercury also though reduc'd into Sublimate and Praecipitated with Liquors abounding with Volatile Salts as the Spirits drawn from Urine Harts-horn and other Animal substances yet will afford as we Noted in our first Experiment about Whiteness and Blackness a VVhite Praecipitate yet with the Solution of Pot-ashes and other Lixiviate Salts it will let fall an Orange-Tawny Powder And so will Crude Antimony if being dissolv'd in a strong Lye you pour as farr as I remember any Acid Liquor upon the Solution newly Filtrated whilst it is yet Warm And if upon the Filtrated Solution of Vitriol you pour a Solution of one of these fix'd Salts there will subside a Copious substance very farr from having any Whiteness which the Chymists are pleas'd to call how properly I have elsewhere examin'd the Sulphur of Vitriol So that most Dissolv'd Bodyes being by Praecipitation brought to White Powders and yet some affording Praecipitates of
some Liquors which though Colourless themselves when they come to be Elevated and Dispers'd into Exhalations exhibit a conspicuous Colour which they lose again when they come to be Reconjoyn'd into a Liquor as good Spirit of Nitre or upon its account strong Aqua-fortis though devoid of all appearance of Redness whilst they continue in the form of a Liquor if a little Heat chance to turn the Minute parts of them into Vapours the Steam will appear of a Reddish or deep Yellow Colour which will Vanish when those Exhalations come to resume the form of a Liquor And not only if you look upon a Glass half full of Aqua-fortis or Spirit of Nitre and half full of Nitrous steams proceeding from it you will see the Upper part of the Glass of the Colour freshly mention'd if through it you look upon the Light But which is much more considerable I have tried that putting Aqua-fortis in a long clear Glass and adding a little Copper or some such open Metall to it to excite Heat and Fumes the Light trajected through those Fumes and cast upon a sheet of White Paper did upon that appear of the Colour that the Fumes did when directly Look'd upon as if the Light were as well Ting'd in its passage through these Fumes as it would have been by passing through some Glass or Liquor in which the same Colour was Inherent To which I shall further add that having sometimes had the Curiosity to observe whether the Beams of the Sun near the Horizon trajected through a very Red Sky would not though such Rednesses are taken to be but Emphatical Colours exhibit the like Colour I found that the Beams falling within a Room upon a very White Object plac'd directly opposite to the Sun disclos'd a manifest Redness as if they had pass'd through a Colour'd Medium EXPERIMENT XVII The emergency Pyrophilus of Colours upon the Coalition of the Particles of such Bodies as were neither of them of the Colour of that Mixture whereof they are the Ingredients is very well worth our attentive Observation as being of good use both Speculative and Practical For much of the Mechanical use of Colours among Painters and Dyers doth depend upon the Knowledge of what Colours may be produc'd by the Mixtures of Pigments so and so Colour'd And as we lately intimated 't is of advantage to the contemplative Naturalist to know how many and which Colours are Primitive if I may so call them and Simple because it both eases his Labour by confining his most sollicitious Enquiry to a small Number of Colours upon which the rest depend and assists him to judge of the nature of particular compounded Colours by shewing him from the Mixture of what more Simple ones and of what Proportions of them to one another the particular Colour to be consider'd does result But because to insist on the Proportions the Manner and the Effects of such Mixtures would oblige me to consider a greater part of the Painters Art and Dyers Trade than I am well acquainted with I confin'd my self to make Trial of several ways to produce Green by the composition of Blew and Yellow And shall in this place both Recapitulate most of the things I have Dispersedly deliver'd already concerning that Subject and Recruit them And first whereas Painters as I noted above are wont to make Green by tempering Blew and Yellow both of them made into a soft Consistence with either Water or Oyl or some Liquor of Kin to one of those two according as the Picture is to be Drawn with those they call Water Colours or those they term Oyl Colours I found that by choosing fit Ingredients and mixing them in the form of Dry Powders I could do what I could not if the Ingredients were temper'd up with a Liquor But the Blew and Yellow Powders must not only be finely Ground but such as that the Corpuscles of the one may not be too unequal to those of the other lest by their Disproportionate Minuteness the Smaller cover and hide the Greater We us'd with good success a slight Mixture of the fine Powder of Bise with that of Orpiment or that of good Yellow Oker I say a slight Mixture because we found that an exquisite Mixture did not do so well but by lightly mingling the two Pigments in several little Parcels those of them in which the Proportion and Manner of Mixture was more Lucky afforded us a good Green 2. We also learn'd in the Dye-houses that Cloth being Dy'd Blew with Woad is afterwards by the Yellow Decoction of Luteola or Wood-wax Dy'd into a Green Colour 3. You may also remember what we above Related where we intimated that having in a Darkn'd Room taken two Bodies a Blew and a Yellow and cast the Light Reflected from the one upon the other we likewise obtain'd a Green 4. And you may remember that we observ'd a Green to be produc'd when in the same Darkn'd Room we look'd at the Hole at which alone the Light enter'd through the Green and Yellow parts of a sheet of Marbl'd Paper laid over one another 5. We found too that the Beams of the Sun being trajected through two pieces of Glass the one Blew and the other Yellow laid over one another did upon a sheet of White paper on which they were made to fall exhibit a lovely Green 6. I hope also that you have not already forgot what was so lately deliver'd concerning the composition of a Green with a Blew and Yellow of which most Authors would call the one a Real and the other an Emphatical 7. And I presume you may have yet fresh in your memory what the fourteenth Experiment informs you concerning the exhibiting of a Green by the help of a Blew and Yellow that were both of them Emphatical 8. Wherefore we will proceed to take notice that we also devis'd a way of trying whether or no Metalline Solutions though one of them at least had its Colour Adventitious by the mixture of the Menstruum employ'd to dissolve it might not be made to compound a Green after the manner of other Bodies And though this seem'd not easie to be perform'd by reason of the Difficulty of finding Metalline Solutions of the Colour requisite that would mix without Praecipitating each other yet after a while having consider'd the matter the first Tryal afforded me the following Experiment I took a High Yellow Solution of good Gold in Aqua-Regis made of Aqua-fortis and as I remember half its weight of Spirit of Salt To this I put a due Proportion of a deep and lovely Blew Solution of Crude Copper which I have elsewhere taught to be readily Dissoluble in strong Spirit of Urine and these two Liquors though at first they seem'd a little to Curdle one another yet being throughly mingl'd by Shaking they presently as had been Conjectur'd united into a Transparent Green Liquor which continu'd so for divers days that I kept it in a small Glass wherein 't
will add an Experiment of our own made before we met with That which though in many Circumstances very differing serves to prove the same thing for having taken of the deeply Red Juice of Buckthorn Berries which I bought of the Man that uses to sell it to the Apothecaries to make their Syrrup de Spina Cervina I let some of it drop upon a piece of White Paper and having left it there for many hours till the Paper was grown dry again I found what I was inclin'd to suspect namely That this Juice was degenerated from a deep Red to a dirty kind of Greyish Colour which in a great part of the stain'd Paper seem'd not to have so much as an Eye of Red Though a little Spirit of Salt or dissolv'd Alcaly would turn this unpleasant Colour as formerly I told you it would change the not yet alter'd Juice into a Red or Green And to satisfie my self that this Degeneration of Colour did not proceed from the Paper I drop'd some of the deep Red or Crimson Juice upon a White glaz'd Tile and suffering it to dry on there I found that ev'n in that Body on which it could not Soak and by which it could not be Wrought it nevertheless lost its Colour And these Instances Pyrophilus I am the more carefull to mention to you that you may not be much Surpris'd or Discourag'd if you should sometimes miss of performing punctually what I affirm my self to have done in point of changing Colours since in these Experiments the over-sight or neglect of such little Circumstances as in many others would not be perhaps considerable may occasion the mis-carrying of a Trial. And I was willing also to take this occasion of Advertising you in the repeating of the Experiments mention'd in this Treatise to make use of the Juices of Vegetables and other things prepar'd for your Trials as soon as ever they are ready lest one or other of them grow less fit if not quite unfit by delay and to estimate the Event of the Trials by the Change that is produc'd presently upon the due and sufficient Application of Actives to Passives as they speak because in many cases the effects of such Mixtures may not be lasting and the newly produc'd Colour may in a little time degenerate But Pyrophilus I forgot to add to the two former Observations lately made about Vegetables a third of the same Import made in Mineral substances by telling you That the better to satisfie a Friend or two in this particular I sometimes made according to some Conjectures of mine this Experiment That having dissolv'd good Silver in Aqua-fortis and Precipitated it with Spirit of Salt upon the first Decanting of the Liquor the remaining Matter would be purely White but after it had lain a while uncover'd that part of it that was Contiguous to the Air would not only lose its Whiteness but appear of a very Dark and almost Blackish Colour I say that part that was Contiguous to the Air because if that were gently taken off the Subjacent part of the same Mass would appear very White till that also having continu'd a while expos'd to the Air would likewise Degenerate Now whether the Air perform these things by the means of a Subtile Salt which we elswhere show it not to be destitute of or by a peircing Moisture that is apt easily to insinuate it self into the Pores of some Bodies and thereby change their Texture and so their Colour Or by solliciting the Avolation of certain parts of the Bodies to which 't is Contiguous or by some other way which possibly I may elsewhere propose and consider I have not now the leisure to discourse And for the same reason though I could add many other Instances of what I formerly noted touching the emergency of Redness upon the Digestion of many Bodies insomuch that I have often seen upon the Borders of France and probably we may have the like in England a sort of Pears which digested for some time with a little Wine in a Vessel exactly clos'd will in not many hours appear throughout of a deep Red Colour as also that of the Juice wherein they are Stew'd becomes but ev'n on pure and white Salt of Tartar pure Spirit of Wine as clear as rock-Rock-water will as we elsewhere declare by long Digestion acquire a Redness Though I say such Instances might be Multiply'd and though there be some other Obvious changes of Colours which happen so frequently that they cannot but be as well Considerable as Notorious such as is the Blackness of almost all Bodies burn'd in the open Air yet our haste invites us to resign you the Exercise of enquiring into the Causes of these Changes And certainly the reason both why the Soots of such differing Bodies are almost all of them all Black why so much the greater part of Vegetables should be rather Green than of any other Colour and particularly which more directly concerns this place why gentle Heats do so frequently in Chymical Operations produce rather a Redness than another Colour in digested Menstruums not only Sulphureous as Spirit of Wine but Saline as Spirit of Vinegar may be very well worth a serious Inquiry which I shall therefore recommend to Pyrophilus and his Ingenious Friends EXPERIMENT XXXVII It may seem somewhat strange that if you take the Crimson Solution of Cochineel or the Juice of Black Cherries and of some other Vegetables that afford the like Colour which because many take but for a deep Red we do with them sometimes call it so and let some of it fall upon a piece of Paper a drop or two of an Acid Spirit such as Spirit of Salt or Aqua-fortis will immediately turn it into a fair Red. Whereas if you make an Infusion of Brazil in fair Water and drop a little Spirit of Salt or Aqua-fortis into it that will destroy its Redness and leave the Liquor of a Yellow sometimes Pale I might perhaps plausibly enough say on this occasion that if we consider the case a little more attentively we may take notice that the action of the Acid Spirit seems in both cases but to weaken the Colour of the Liquor on which it falls And so though it destroy Redness in the Tincture of Brazil as well as produce Red in the Tincture of Chochineel its Operations may be Uniform enough since as Crimson seems to be little else than a very deep Red with perhaps an Eye of Blew so some kinds of Red seem as I have lately noted to be little else than heightned Yellow And consequently in such Bodies the Yellow seems to be but a diluted Red. And accordingly Alcalizate Solutions and Urinous Spirits which seem dispos'd to Deepen the Colours of the Juices and Liquors of most Vegetables will not only restore the Solution of Cochineel and the Infusion of Brazil to the Crimson whence the Spirit of Salt had chang'd them into a truer Red but will also as I lately told you not
a competent quantity of the above-mention'd Spirit of Urine Annotation This Experiment may bring some Light to and receive some from a couple of other Experiments that I remember I have met with in the Ingenious Gassendus's Animadversions upon Epicurus's Philosophy whilst I was turning over the Leaves of those Learned Commentaries my Eyes being too weak to let me read such Voluminous Books quite thorough And I the less scruple notwithstanding my contrary Custom in this Treatise to set down these Experiments of another because I shall a little improve the latter of them and because by comparing there with that which I have last recited we may be assisted to Conjecture upon what account it is that Oyl of Vitriol heightens the Tincture of Red-rose Leaves since Spirit of Salt which is a highly Acid Menstruum but otherwise differing enough from Oyl of Vitriol does the same thing Our Authors Experiments then as we made them are these We took about a Glass-full of luke-warm Water and in it immerg'd a quantity of the Leaves of Senna and presently upon the Immersion there did not appear any Redness in the Water but dropping into it a little Oyl of Tartar the Liquor soon discover'd a Redness to the watchfull Eye whereas by a little of that Acid Liquor of Vitriol which is like the former undeservedly called Oyl such a Colour would not be extracted from the infused Senna On the other side we took some Red-rose Leaves dry'd and having shaken them into a Glass of fair Water they imparted to it no Redness but upon the affusion of a little Oyl of Vitriol the Water was immediately turn'd Red which it would not have been if instead of Oyl of Vitriol we had imployed Oyl of Tartar to produce that Colour That these were Gassendus his Experiments I partly remember and was assur'd by a Friend who lately Transcribed them out of Gassendus his Book which I therefore add because I have not now that Book at hand And the design of Gassendus in these Experiments our Friend affirms to be to prove that of things not Red a Redness may be made only by Mixture and the Varied position of parts wherein the Doctrine of that Subtil Philosopher doth not a little Authorize what we have formerly delivered concerning the Emergency and Change of Colours But the instances that we have out of him set down seem not to be the most Eminent that may be produced of this truth For our next Experiment will shew the production of several Colours out of Liquors which have not any of them any such Colour nor indeed any discernable one at all and whereas though our Author tells us that there was no Redness either in the Water or the Leaves of Senna or the Oyl of Tartar And though it be true that the Predominant Colour of the Leaves of Senna be another than Red yet we have try'd that by steeping that Plant a Night even in Cold water it would afford a very deep Yellow or Reddish Tincture without the help of the Oyl of Tartar which seems to do little more than assist the Water to extract more nimbly a plenty of that Red Tincture wherewith the Leaves of Senna do of themselves abound and having taken off the Tincture of Senna made only with fair Water before it grew to be Reddish and Decanted it from the Leaves we could not perceive that by dropping some Oyl of Tartar into it that Colour was considerable though it were a little heightned into a Redness which might have been expected if the particles of the Oyl did eminently Co-operate otherwise than we have expressed to the production of this Redness And as for the Experiment with Red-rose Leaves the same thing may be alleged for we found that such Leaves by bare Infusion for a Night and Day in fair Water did afford us a Tincture bordering at least upon Redness and that Colour being conspicuous in the Leaves themselves would not by some seem so much to be produc'd as to be extracted by the affusion of Oyl of Vitriol And the Experiment try'd with the dry'd Leaves of Damask-roses succeeded but imperfectly but that is indeed observable to our Authors purpose that Oyl of Tartar will not perform in this Experiment what Oyl of Vitriol doth but because this last named Liquor is not so easily to be had give me leave to Advertise you that the Experiment will succeed if Instead of it you imploy Aqua-fortis And though some Trials of our own formerly made and others easily deducible from what we have already deliver'd about the different Families and Operations of Salt might enable us to present you an Experiment upon Red-rose Leaves more accommodated to our Authors purpose than that which he hath given us yet our Reverence to so Candid a Philosopher invites us rather to improve his Experiment than substitute another in its place Take therefore of the Tincture of Red-rose Leaves for with Damask-rose Leaves the Experiment succeedeth not well made as before hath been taught with a little Oyl of Vitriol and a good quantity of fair Water pour off this Liquor into a clear Vial half fill'd with Limpid water till the Water held against the Light have acquir d a competent Redness without losing its Transparency into this Tincture drop leisurely a little good Spirit of Urine and shaking the Vial which you must still hold against the Light you shall see the Red Liquor immediately turn'd into a fine Greenish Blew which Colour was not to be found in any of the Bodies upon whose Mixture it emerg'd and this Change is the more observable because in many Bodies the Degenerating of Blew into Red is usual enough but the turning of Red into Blew is very unfrequent If at every drop of Spirit of Urine you shake the Vial containing the Red Tincture you may delightfully observe a pretty variety of Colours in the passage of that Tincture from a Red to a Blew and sometimes we have this way hit upon such a Liquor as being look't upon against and from the Light did seem faintly to emulate the above-mention'd Tincture of Lignum Nephriticum And if you make the Tincture of Red-roses very high and without Diluting it with fair Water pour on the Spirit of Urine you may have a Blew so deep as to make the Liquor Opacous but being dropt upon White Paper the Colour will soon disclose it self Also having made the Red and consequently the Blew Tincture very Transparent and suffer'd it to rest in a small open Vial for a Day or two we found according to our Conjecture that not only the Blew but the Red Colour also was Vanish'd the clear Liquor being of a bright Amber Colour at the bottom of which subsided a Light but Copious feculency of almost the same Colour which seems to be nothing but the Tincted parts of the Rose Leaves drawn out by the Acid Spirits of the Oyl of Vitriol and Precipitated by the Volatile Salt of the Spirit
of Urine which makes it the more probable that the Redness drawn by the Oyl of Vitriol was at least as well an extraction of the Tinging parts of the Roses as a production of Redness and lastly if you be destitute of Spirit of Urine you may change the Colour of the Tincture of Roses with many other Sulphureous Salts as a strong Solution of Pot-ashes Oyl of Tartar c. which yet are seldome so free from Feculency as the Spirituous parts of Urine becomes by repeated Distillation Annotation On this occasion I call to mind that I found a way of producing though not the same kind of Blew as I have been mentioning yet a Colour near of Kin to it namely a fair Purple by imploying a Liquor not made Red by Art instead of the Tincture of Red-roses made with an Acid Spirit And my way was only to take Log-wood a Wood very well known to Dyers having by Infusion the Powder of it a while in fair Water made that Liquor Red I dropt into it a Tantillum of an Urinous Spirit as that of Sal-Armoniack and I have done the same thing with an Alcali by which the Colour was in a moment turn'd into a Rich and lovely Purple But care must be had that you let not fall into a Spoonfull above two or three Drops left the Colour become so deep as to make the Liquor too Opacous And to answer the other part of Gassendus his Experiment if instead of fair Water I infus'd the Log-wood in Water made somewhat sowr by the Acid Spirit of Salt I should obtain neither a Purple Liquor nor a Red but only a Yellow one EXPERIMENT XL. The Experiment I am now to mention to you Pyrophilus is that which both you and all the other Virtuosi that have seen it have been pleas'd to think very strange and indeed of all the Experiments of Colours I have yet met with it seems to be the fittest to recommend the Doctrine propos'd in this Treatise and to shew that we need not suppose that all Colours must necessarily be Inherent Qualities flowing from the Substantial Forms of the Bodies they are said to belong to since by a bare Mechanical change of Texture in the Minute parts of Bodies two Colours may in a moment be Generated quite De novo and utterly Destroy'd For there is this difference betwixt the following Experiment and most of the others deliver'd in these Papers that in this the Colour that a Body already had is not chang'd into another but betwixt two Bodies each of them apart devoid of Colour there is in a moment generated a very deep Colour and which if it were let alone would be permanent and yet by a very small Parcel of a third Body that has no Colour of its own lest some may pretend I know not what Antipathy betwixt Colours this otherwise permanent Colour will be in another trice so quite Destroy'd that there will remain no foot-stepts either of it or of any other Colour in the whole Mixture The Experiment is very easie and it is thus perform'd Take good common Sublimate and fully satiate with it what quantity of Water you please Filtre the Solution carefully through clean and close Paper that it may drop down as Clear and Colourless as Fountain water Then when you 'l shew the Experiment put of it about a Spoonfull into a small Wine-glass or any other convenient Vessel made of clear Glass and droping in three or four drops of good Oyl of Tartar per Deliquium well Filtred that it may likewise be without Colour these two Limpid Liquors will in the twinkling of an Eye turn into an Opacous mixture of a deep Orange Colour which by keeping the Glass continually shaking in your hand you must preserve from setling too soon to the Bottom And when the Spectators have a little beheld this first Change then you must presently drop in about four or five drops of Oyl of Vitriol and continuing to shake the Glass pretty strongly that it may the Nimbler diffuse it self the whole Colour if you have gone Skilfully to work will immediately disappear and all the Liquor in the Glass will be Clear and Colourless as before without so much as a Sediment at the Bottom But for the more gracefull Trial of this Experiment 't will not be amiss to observe First That there should not be taken too much of the Solution of Sublimate nor too much of the Oyl of Tartar drop'd in to avoid the necessity of putting in so much Oyl of Vitriol as may make an Ebullition and perhaps run over the Glass Secondly That 't is convenient to keep the Glass always a little shaking both for the better mixing of the Liquors and to keep the Yellow Substance from Subsiding which else it would in a short time do though when 't is subsided it will retain its Colour and also be capable of being depriv'd of it by the Oyl newly mention'd Thirdly That if any Yellow matter stick at the sides of the Glass 't is but inclining the Glass till the clarify'd Liquor can wash alongst it and the Liquor will presently imbibe it and deprive it of its Colour Many have somewhat wondred how I came to light upon this Experiment but the Notions or Conjectures I have about the differing Natures of the several Tribes of Salts having led me to devise the Experiment it will not be difficult for me to give you the Chymical Reason if I may so speak of the Phaenomenon Having then observ'd that Mercury being dissolv'd in some Menstruums would yield a dark Yellow Precipitate and supposing that as to this common Water and the Salts that stick to the Mercury would be equivalent to those Acid Menstruums which work upon the Quick-silver upon the account of their Saline particles I substituted a Solution of Sublimate in fair Water instead of a Solution of Mercury in Aqua-fortis or Spirit of Nitre that simple Solution being both clearer and free from that very offensive smell which accompanies the Solutions of Mercury made with those other corrosive Liquors then I consider'd that That which makes the Yellow Colour is indeed but a Precipitate made by the means of the Oyl of Tartar which we drop in and which as Chymists know does generally precipitate Metalline Bodies corroded by Acid Salts so that the Colour in our case results from the Coalition of the Mercurial particles with the Saline ones wherewith they were formerly associated and with the Alcalizate particles of the Salt of Tartar that swim up and down in the Oyl Wherefore considering also that very many of the effects of Lixiviate Liquors upon the Solutions of other Bodies may be destroy'd by Acid Menstruums as I elsewhere more particularly declare I concluded that if I chose a very potently Acid Liquor which by its Incisive power might undo the work of the Oyl of Tartar and disperse again those Particles which the other had by Precipitation associated into such minute
strong and heavy Solution of Pot-ashes whose weight would quickly carry it to the sharp bottome of the Glass there would soon appear four very pleasant and distinct Colours Namely a Bright but Dilute Colour at the picked bottome of the Glass a Purple a little higher a deep and glorious Crimson which Crimson seem'd to terminate the operation of the Salt upward in the confines betwixt the Purple and the Yellow and an Excellent Yellow the same that before enobled the whole Liquor reaching from thence to the top of the Glass And if I pleas'd to pour very gently a little Spirit of Sal Armoniack upon the upper part of this Yellow there would also be a Purple or a Crimson or both generated there so that the unalter'd part of the Yellow Liquor appear'd intercepted betwixt the two Neighbouring Colours My scope in this 3d. Experiment Pyrophilus is manifold as first to invite you to be wary in judging of the Colour of Liquors in such Glasses as are therein recommended to you and consequently as much if not more when you imploy other Glasses Secondly That you may not think it strange that I often content my self to rub upon a piece of White paper the Juice of Bodies I would examine since not onely I could not easily procure a sufficient Quantity of the juices of divers of them but in several Cases the Tryals of the quantities of such Juices in Glasses would make us more lyable to mistakes than the way that in those cases I have made use of Thirdly I hope you will by these and divers other particulars deliver'd in this Treatise be easily induc'd to think that I may have set down many Phoenomena very faithfully and just as they appear'd to me and yet by reason of some unheeded circumstance in the conditions of the matter and in the degree of Light or the manner of trying the Experiment you may find some things to vary from the Relations I make of them Lastly I design'd to give you an opportunity to free your self from the amazement which possesses most Men at the Tricks of those Mountebancks that are commonly call'd Water-drinkers For though not only the vulgar but ev'n many persons that are far above that Rank have so much admir'd to see a man after having drunk a great deal of fair water to spurt it out again in the form of Claret Wine Sack and Milk that they have suspected the intervening of Magick or some forbidden means to effect what they conceived above the power of Art yet having once by chance had occasion to oblige a Wanderer that made profession of that and other Jugling Tricks I was easily confirm'd by his Ingenious confession to me That this so much Admir'd Art indeed consisted rather in a few Tricks than in any great Skill in altering the Nature and Colours of things And I am easy to be perswaded that there may be a great deal of Truth in a little Pamphlet Printed divers years ago in English wherein the Author undertakes to discover and that if I mistake not by the confession of some of the Complices themselves That a famous Water-drinker then much Admir'd in England perform'd his pretended Transmutations of Liquors by the help of two or three inconsiderable preparations and mixtures of not unobvious Liquors and chiefly of an Infusion of Brazil variously diluted and made Pale or Yellowish and otherwise alter'd with Vinegar the rest of their work being perform'd by the shape of the Glasses by Craft and Legerdemane And for my part that which I marvel at in this business is the Drinkers being able to take down so much Water and spout it out with that violence though Custome and a Vomit seasonably taken before hand may in some of them much facilitate the work But as for the changes made in the Liquors they were but few and slight in comparison of those that the being conversant in Chymical Experiments and dextrous in applying them to the Transmuting of Colours may easily enough enable a man to make as ev'n what has been newly deliver'd in this and the foregoing Experiment especially if we add to it the things contained in the XX the XXXIX and the XL. Experiments may perhaps have already perswaded You. EXPERIMENT XLV You may I presume Pyrophilus have taken notice that in this whole Treatise I purposely decline as far as I well can the mentioning of Elaborate Chymical Experiments for fear of frighting you by their tediousness and difficulty but yet in confirmation of what I have been newly telling you about the possibility of Varying the Colours of Liquors better than the Water-drinkers are wont to do I shall add that Helmont used to make a preparation of Steel which a very Ingenious Chymist his Sons Friend whom you know sometimes employes for a succedaneum to the Spaw-waters by Diluting this Essentia Martis Liquida as he calls it with a due proportion of Water Now that for which I mention to you this preparation which as he communicated to me I know he will not refuse to Pyrophilus is this that though the Liquor as I can shew you when you please be almost of the Colour of a German not an Oriental Amethyst and consequently remote enough from Green yet a very few drops being let fall into a Large proportion of good Rhenish or in want of that White Wine which yet do's not quite so well immediately turn'd the Liquor into a lovely Green as I have not without delight shown several curious Persons By which Phoenomenon you may learn among other things how requisite it is in Experiments about the changes of Colours heedfully to mind the Circumstances of them for Water will not as I have purposely try'd concurr to the production of any such Green nor did it give that Colour to moderate Spirit of Wine wherein I purposely dissolv'd it and Wine it self is a Liquor that few would suspect of being able to work suddenly any such change in a Metalline preparation of this Nature and to satisfie my self that this new Colour proceeds rather from the peculiar Texture of the Wine than from any greater Acidity that Rhenish or White-wine for that may not absurdly be suspected has in comparison of Water I purposely sharpen'd the Solution of this Essence in fair Water with a good quantity of Spirit of Salt notwithstanding which the mixture acquir'd no Greenness And to vary the Experiment a little I try'd that if into a Glass of Rhenish Wine made Green by this Essence I dropp'd an Alcalizate Solution or Urinous Spirit the Wine would presently grow Turbid and of an odd Dirty Colour But if instead of dissolving the Essence in Wine I dissolv'd it in fair Water sharpen'd perhaps with a little Spirit of Salt then either the Urinious Spirit of Sal Armoniack or the Solution of the fix'd Salt of Pot-ashes would immediately turn it of a Yellowish Colour the fix'd or Urinous Salt Precipitating the Vitriolate substance contain'd in the Essence But
But when I purposely prepar'd a Menstruum that would dissolve it as Aqua-fortis dissolves Silver and not barely Corrode it and quickly let it fall again I remember not that I took notice of any particular Colour in the Solution as if the more Whitish Metalls did not much Tinge their Menstruums though the conspicuously Colour'd Metalls as Gold and Copper do For Lead dissolv'd in Spirit of Vinegar or Aqua-fortis gives a Solution cleer enough and if the Menstruum be abstracted appears either Diaphanous or White Of the Colour of Iron we have elsewhere said something And 't is worth noting that though if that Metall be dissolv'd in oyl of Vitriol diluted with water it affords a Salt or Magistery so like in colour as well as some other Qualities to other green Vitriol that Chymists do not improperly call it Vitriolum Martis yet I have purposely try'd that by changing the Menstruum and pouring upon the filings of Steel instead of oyl of Vitriol Aqua Fortis whereof as I remember I us'd 4 parts to one of the Metall I obtain'd not a Green but a Saffron Colour Solution or rather a thick Liquor of a deep but yellowish Red. Common Silver such as is to be met with in Coines being dissolv'd in Aqua fortis yields a Solution tincted like that of Copper which is not to be wondred at because in the coining of Silver they are wont as we elsewhere particularly inform you to give it an Allay of Copper and that which is sold in shops for refined silver is not so far as we have tryed so perfectly free from that ignobler Metall but that a Solution of It in Aqua fortis will give a Venereal Tincture to the Menstruum But we could not observe upon the solution of some Silver which was perfectly refin'd such as some that we have from which 8 or 10 times its weight of Lead has been blown off that the Menstruum though held against the Light in a Crystal Vial did manifestly disclose any Tincture only it seem'd sometimes not to be quite destitute of a little but very faint Blewishness But here I must take notice that of all the Metalls there is not any which doth so easily and constantly disclose its unobvious colour as Copper doth For not only in acid Menstruums as Aqua Fortis and Spirit of Vinegar it gives a Blewish green solution but if it be almost any way corroded it appears of one of those two colours as may be observ'd in Verdigreese made several wayes in that odd preparation of Venus which we elsewhere teach you to make with Sublimate and in the common Vitriols of Venus deliver'd by Chymists and so constant is the disposition of Copper notwithstanding the disguise Artists put upon it to disclose the colour we have been mentioning that we have by forcing it up with Sal Armoniack obtain'd a Sublimate of a Blewish Colour Nay a famous Spagyrist affirms that the very Mercury of it is green but till he teach us an intelligible way of making such a Mercury we must content our selves to inform you that we have had a Cupreous Body that was Praecipitated out of a distill'd Liquor that seem'd to be the Sulphur of Venus and seem'd even when flaming of a Greenish Colour And indeed Copper is a Metall so easily wrought upon by Liquors of several kinds that I should tell you I know not any Mineral that will concurr to the production of such a variety of Colours as Copper dissolv'd in several Menstruums as Spirit of Vinegar Aqua fortis Aqua Regis Spirit of Nitre of Urine of Soot Oyls of several kinds and I know not how many other Liquors if the variety of somewhat differing colours that Copper will be made to assume as it is wrought upon by several Liquors where not comprehended within the Limits of Greenish Blew or Blewish Green And yet I must advertise you Pyrophilus that being desirous to try if I could not make with crude Copper a Green Solution without the Blewishness that is wont to accompany its Vulgar Solutions I bethought my self of using two Menstruums which I had not known imploy'd to work on this Metall and which I had certain Reasons to make Tryal of as I successfully did The one of these Liquors if I much misremember not was Spirit of Sugar distill'd in a Retort which must be warily done if you will avoid breaking your glasses and the other Oyl or Spirit of Turpentine which affords a fine Green Solution that is useful to me on several occasions And yet to shew that the adventitious colour may result as well from the true and permanent Copper it self as the Salts wherewith 't is corroded I shall add that if you take a piece of good Dantzick Copperis or any other Vitriol wherein Venus is praedominant and having moistened it in your Mouth or with fair water rubb it upon a whetted knife or any other bright piece of Steel or Iron it will as we have formerly told you presently stain the Steel with a Reddish colour like that of Copper the reason of which we must not now stay to inquire Annotation I. I presume you may have taken notice Pyrophilus that I have borrowed some of the Instances mention'd in this 47th Experiment from the Laboratories of Chymists and because in some though very few other passages of this Essay I have likewise made use of Experiments mention'd also by some Spagyrical Writers I think it not amiss to represent to you on this Occasion once for all some things besides those which I intimated in the praeamble of this present Experiment For besides that 't is very allowable for a Writer to repeat an Experiment which he invented not in case he improve it And besides that many Experiments familiar to Chymists are unknown to the generality of Learned Men who either never read Chymical processes or never understood their meaning or never durst believe them besides these things I say I shall represent That as to the few Experiments I have borrowed from the Chymists if they be very Vulgar 't would perhaps be difficult to ascribe each of them its own Author and 't is more than the generality of Chymists themselves can do and if they be not of very known and familiar practise among them unless the Authors wherein I found them had given me cause to believe themselves had try'd them I know not why I might not set them down as a part of the Phaenomena of Colours which I present you Many things unanimously enough deliver'd as matters of fact by I know not how many Chymical Writers being not to be rely'd on upon the single Authority of such Authors For Instance as some Spagyrists deliver perhaps amongst several deceitful processes that Saccarum Saturni with Spirit of Turpentine will afford a Balsom so Beguinus and many more tell us that the same Concrete Saccaram Saturni will yield an incomparably fragrant Spirit and a pretty Quantity of two several Oyles and
making Lakes we have tryed not only with Turmerick but also with Madder which yielded us a Red Lake and with Rue which afforded us an extract of almost if not altogether the same Colour with that of the leaves But in regard that 't is Principally the Alcalizate Salt of the Pot-ashes which enables the water to Extract so powerfully the Tincture of the Decocted Vegetables I fear that our Author may be mistaken by supposing that the Decoction will alwayes be of the very same Colour with the Vegetable it is made off For Lixiviate Salts to which Pot-ashes eminently belong though by peircing and opening the Bodies of Vegetables they prepare and dispose them to part readily with their Tincture yet some Tinctures they do not only draw out but likewise alter them as may be easily made appear by many of the Experiments already set down in this Treatise and though Allom being of an Acid Nature its Solutions may in some Cases destroy the Adventitious Colours produc'd by the Alcaly and restore the former yet besides that Allom is not as I have lately shown a meer Acid Salt but a mixt Body and besides that its operations are languid in comparison of the activity of Salts freed by Distillation or by Incineration and Dissolution from the most of their Earthy parts we have seen already Examples that in divers Cases an Acid Salt will not restore a Vegetable substance to the Colour of which an Alcalizate one had depriv'd it but makes it assume a third very differing from both as we formerly told you that if Syrrup of Violets were by an Alcaly turn'd Green which Colour as I have try'd may be the same way produc'd in the Violet-leaves themselves without any Relation to a Syrrup an Acid Salt would not make it Blew again but Red. And though I have by this way of making Lakes made Magisteries for such they seem to be of Brazil and as I remember of Cochinele it self and of other things Red Yellow or Green which Lakes were enobled with a Rich Colour and others had no bad one yet in some the colour of the Lake seem'd rather inferiour than otherwise to that of the Plant and in others it seem'd both very differing and much worse but Writing this in a time and place where I cannot provide my self of Flowres and other Vegetables to prosecute such Tryals in a competent variety of Subjects I am content not to be positive in delivering a judgment of this way of Lakes till Experience or You Pyrophilus shall have afforded me a fuller and more particular Information Annotation III. And on this occasion Pyrophilus I must here having forgot to do it sooner advertise you once for all that having written several of the foregoing Experiments not only in haste but at seasons of the year and in places wherein I could not furnish my self with such Instruments and such a variety of Materials as the design of giving you an Introduction into the History of Colours requir'd it can scarce be otherwise but that divers of the Experiments that I have set down may afford you some matter of new Tryals if you think fit to supply the deficiencies of some of them especially the freshly mention'd about Lakes and those that concern Emphatical Colours which deficiencies for want of being befriended with accommodations I could better discern than avoid Annotation IV. The use of Allom is very great as well as familiar in the Dyers Trade and I have not been ill pleas'd with the use I have been able to make of it in preparing other pigments than those they imploy with Vegetable Juices But the Lucriferous practises of Dyers and other Tradesmen I do for Reasons that you may know when you please purposely forbear in this Essay though not strictly from pointing at yet from making it a part of my present work explicitly and circumstantially to deliver especially since I now find though late and not without some Blushes at my prolixity that what I intended but for a short Essay is already swell'd into almost a Volume EXPERIMENT L. Yet here Pyrophilus I must take leave to insert an Experiment though perhaps you 'l think its coming in here an Intrusion For I confess its more proper place would have been among those Experiments that were brought as proofs and applications of our Notions concerning the differences of Salts but not having remembred to insert it in its fittest place I had rather take notice of it in this than leave it quite unmention'd partly because it doth somewhat differ from the rest of our Experiments about Colours in the way whereby 't is made and partly because the grounds upon which I devis'd it may hint to you somewhat of the Method I use in Designing and Varying Experiments about Colours and upon this account I shall inform you not only What I did but Why I did it I consider'd then that the work of the former Experiments was either to change the Colour of a Body into another or quite to destroy it without giving it a successor but I had a mind to give you also a way whereby to turn a Body endued with one Colour into two Bodies of Colours as well as consistencies very distinct from each other and that by the help of a Body that had it self no Colour at all In order to this I remembered that finding the Acidity of Spirit of Vinegar to be wholly destory'd by its working upon Minium or calcin'd Lead whereby the Salin particles of the Menstruum have their Taste and Nature quite alter'd I had among other Conjectures I had built upon that change rightly concluded that the Solution of Lead in Spirit of Vinegar would alter the Colour of the Juices and Infusions of several Plants much after the like manner that I had found Oyl of Tartar to do and accordingly I was quickly satisfied upon Tryal that the Infusion of Rose-leaves would by a small quantity of this Solution well mingl'd with it be immediately turn'd into a somewhat sad Green And further I had often found that Oyl of Vitriol though a potently Acid Menstruum will yet Praecipitate many Bodies both Mineral and others dissolv'd not onely in Aqua fortis as some Chymists have observ'd but particularly in Spirit of Vinegar and I have further found that the Calces or Powders Praecipitated by this Liquor were usually fair and White Laying these things together 't was not difficult to conclude that if upon a good Tincture of Red Rose-leaves made with fair Water I dropp'd a pretty quantity of a strong and sweet Solution of Minium the Liquor would be turn'd into the like muddy Green Substance as I have formerly intimated to You that Oyl of Tartar would reduce it to and that if then I added a convenient quantity of good Oyl of Vitriol this last nam'd Liquor would have two distinct operations upon the Mixture the one that it would Praecipitate that resolv'd Lead in the form of a White Powder the other
that it would Clarifie the muddy Mixture and both restore and exceedingly heighten the Redness of the Infusion of Roses which vvas the most copious Ingredient of the Green composition and accordingly trying the Experiment in a Wine glass sharp at the bottom like an inverted Cone that the subsiding Powder might seem to take up the more room and be the more conspicuous I found that when I had shaken the Green Mixture that the colour'd Liquor might be the more equally dispersed a few drops of the rectifi'd Oyl of Vitriol did presently turn the opacous Liquor into one that was cleer and Red almost like a Rubie and threw down good store of a Powder which when 't was settl'd would have appear'd very White if some interspers'd Particles of the red Liquor had not a little Allay'd the Purity though not blemish'd the Beauty of the Colour And to shew you Pyrophilus that these Effects do not flow from the Oyl of Vitriol as it is such but as it is a strongly Acid Menstruum that has the property both to Praecipitate Lead as well as some other Concretes out of Spirit of Vinegar and to heighten the Colour of Red Rose-leaves I add that I have done the same thing though perhaps not quite so well with Spirit of Salt and that I could not do it with Aqua-sortis because though that potent Menstruum does as well as the others heighthen the Redness of Roses yet it would not like them Precipitate Lead out of Spirit of Vinegar but would rather have dissolv'd it if it had not found it dissolv'd already And as by this way we have produc'd a Red Liquor and a White Precipitate out of a Dirty Green magistery of Rose-leaves so by the same Method you may produce a fair Yellow and sometimes a Red Liquor and the like Precipitate out of an Infusion of a curious Purple Colour For you may call to mind that in the Annotation upon the 39th Experiment I intimated to you that I had with a few drops of an Alcaly turn'd the Infusion of Logg-wood into a lovely Purple Now if instead of this Alcaly I substituted a very strong and well Filtrated Solution of Minium made with Spirit of Vinegar and put about half as much of this Liquor as there was of the Infusion of Logg-wood that the mixture might afford a pretty deal of Precipitate the affusion of a conventent proportion of Spirit of Salt would if the Liquors were well and nimbly stirr'd together presently strike down a Precipitate like that formerly mention'd and turn the Liquor that swam above it for the most part into a lovely Yellow But for the advancing of this Experiment a little further I consider'd that in case I first turn'd a spoonfull of the infusion of Logg-wood Purple by a convenient proportion of the Solution of Minium the Affusion of Spirit of Sal Armoniack would Precipitate the Corpuscles of Lead conceal'd in the Solution of Minium and yet not destory the Purple colour of the Liquor whereupon I thus proceeded I took about a spoonfull of the fresh Tincture of Logg-wood for I found that if it were stale the Experiment would not alwayes succeed and having put to it a convenient proportion of the Solution of Minium to turn it into a deep and almost opacous Purple I then drop'd in as much Spirit of Sal Armoniack as I guess'd would Precipitate about half or more but not all of the Lead and immediately stirring the mixture well together I mingled the Precipitated parts with the others so that they fell to the bottom partly in the form of a Powder and partly in the form of a Curdled Substance that by reason of the Predominancy of the Ting'd Corpuscles over the White retain'd as well as the Supernatant Liquor a Blewish Purple colour sufficiently Deep and then instantly but yet Warily pouring on a pretty Quantity of Spirit of Salt the matter first Precipitated was by the above specifi'd figure of the bottome of the Glass preserv'd from being reach'd by the Spirituous Salt which hastily Precipitated upon it a new Bed if I may so call it of White Powder being the remaining Corpuscles of the Lead that the Urinous Spirit had not struck down So that there appear'd in the Glass three distinct and very differingly colour'd Substances a Purple or Violet-colour'd Precipitate at the bottom a White and Carnation sometimes a Variously colour'd Precipitate over That and at the Top of all a Transparent Liquor of a lovely Yellow or Red. Thus you see Pyrophilus that though to some I may have seem'd to have lighted on this 50th Experiment by chance and though others may imagine that to have excogitated it must have proceeded from some extraordinary insight into the nature of Colours yet indeed the devising of it need not be look'd upon as any great matter especially to one that is a little vers'd in the notions I have in these and other Papers hinted concerning the differences of Salts And perhaps I might add upon more than conjecture that these very notions and some particulars scatteringly deliver'd in this Treatise being skilfully put together may suggest divers matters at least about Colours that will not be altogether Despicable But those hinted Pyrophilus I must now leave such as You to prosecute having already spent farr more time than I intended to allow my self in acquainting You with particular Experiments and Observations concerning the changes of Colour to which I might have added many more but that I hope I may have presented You with a competent number to make out in some measure what I have at the beginning of this Essay either propos'd as my Design in this Tract or deliver'd as my Conjectures concerning these matters And it not being my present Designe as I have more than once Declar'd to deliver any Positive Hypothesis or solemn Theory of Colours but only to furnish You with some Experiments towards the framing of such a Theory I shall add nothing to what I have said already but a request that you would not be forward to think I have been mistaken in any thing I have deliver'd as matter of Fact concerning the changes of Colours in case you should not every time you trye it find it exactly to succeed For besides the Contingencies to which we have elsewhere shewn some other Experiments to be obnoxious the omission or variation of a seemingly unconsiderable circumstance may hinder the success of an Experiment wherein no other fault has been committed Of which truth I shall only give you that single and almost obvious but yet illustrious instance of the Art of Dying Scarlets for though you should see every Ingredient that is us'd about it though I should particularly inform You of the weight of each and though you should be present at the kindling of the fire and at the increasing and remitting of it when ever the degree of Heat is to be alter'd and though in a word you should see every thing done so