Aqua fortis sets upon it whereby a strong Fermentation is presently raised which wanting room breaks all in pieces before it Thus Thirdly by pouring Aqua regia upon Antimony or the Spirit of Nitre upon butirum Antimonij put into Glasses or the strongest of Vessells and close stopt up would break them though never so strong into many pieces and that from the foresaid Fermentation which happens from the acidum in the menstruum and the Sulphur either in crude Antimony or the Butter thereof many more of which sort of experiments we further illustrate in our Halologia Chymica Thus also from the aforesaid experiments may without any more ado an account be given of many subterraneous Eruptions for I have by them at once given a sufficient demonstration as I think both of the reasons and causes of Earth-quakes and also of Eruptions inasmuch as that Fermentation from mineral juices made in straight meanders of the Earth when it cannot find vent if moderately strong they only cause terra tremor but if very violent even nigh an actual flagration then the greater the weight of Earth Rocks or other matter is which lieth upon it the stronger and more hideous are the Eruptions breaking in pieces all before it So that I suppose all Eruptions and subterraneal belchings to proceed from one of these two causes viz. either from subterraneal fires of Sulphurous minerals actually but accidentally kindled witness those Vulcano's of Aetna Visuvius Strongilo c. of which we have discoursed in our Hydrological Essayes or else from subterraneal Fermentations amongst which some may possibly rise so high and strong from the great plenty of Sulphur and Acids set into an actual Ebullition as that they may by the air which may probably reach them through some small crevices actually take fire and burn Thus besides the foresaid instances if Spirit of Wine be mixed with Spirit of Nitre or be added to a mixture of Oyle of Vitriol and Spirit of Nitre maketh an exceeding strong Fermentation even almost into an actual flame and the Glass will be intensely fiery hot as that ones hand may as long endure a hot cole as it which if pent up would for want of room to expand it self in its Elastick power would I say by its explosive force break all before it In the next place we shall endeavour to demonstrate how from the premised Doctrine of mineral Fermentations may also not onely Brimstone or other mineral concrete Sulphurs be generated de novo in some parts of the Earth but likewise how many of the fontes acidi may thence take their original As to the generation of concrete Sulphurs we suppose it thus viz. when or where a strong Fermentation happens from mineral juices whilst in Embrio and that there is no immediate current of water to carry off the looser part of the principles as they ferment as happens in all hot Baths as we have before sufficiently declared which not being pent up as happens in the most usual Earth-quakes and Eruptions as aforesaid but finding room enough in the most potent places of the Earth percolates some more loose bed of Earth and thereby leaves that Sulphur which was carryed up along with the fermenting steam as it were in the filter For that the acidum being prevalent in the foresaid Fermentation may in those steams it ariseth with the Sulphur in some peculiar colanders of the Earth desert its former companion may somewhat appear to us by pouring Oyle of Vitriol upon Antimony or the minera thereof and distilling it thence The Sulphur in the Oyle after Fermentation becomes separated and as it were percolated by the body of the Antimony while the acidum ariseth more simple leaving the Sulphur behind which afterward by a stronger fire is carryed up in the form of Brimstone taking along with it through the congenialness of parts some of the Sulphur of Antimony Next to which how many of the fontes acidi may from the foresaid Fermentation of mineral juices take their original we shall thus explain viz. by supposing that in some mineral Fermentations whilst in Embrio and where no current of waters nor strait passages happen for causes aforesaid the Ebullition from their Acidum and Sulphur may be so intense as that thereby a fresh acidum may be ingendred or the former multiplyed vires acquirit eundo with deserting Sulphur its companion in the colander of some Earths may be sublim'd and carryed in steams as a thinner and more subtile acidum at a great distance from the Source where afterwards touching upon and irroreating some Earth or some Stammina of the mineral beds of Iron or Alom-stone impregnates them to further uses So that where a current of water toucheth either upon that Earth and afterwards upon either of the foresaid minera's or doth touch upon those minera's impregnated with the aforesaid acidity I say either way are made vitriolin or aluminous waters or spaws Now that an acid may after the foresaid manner thus ascend from fermenting juices barely from the Ebullition of the principles even without any extrinsick heat will appear from this following mechanical experiment viz. I poured six Ounces of rectified Spirit of Wine upon half a pound of Spirit of Nitre which I put into a double bolt head with a pretty long neck after a while as soon as the vinous Sulphur in the Spirit of Wine had set the Acidum and Sulphur of the Spirit of Nitre a work they caused such a furious Fermentation that it drive up the stopple and forc'd it self forth up to the top of the Room whereby a great part was lost whereas if the Glass had been very close stopt it would without doubt have broke the Glass into shivers to what was sav'd I added of the same ingredients of each four Ounces it began after a while to fall into a strong fermenting Ebullition so boyl'd and bubled forth very fiercely and sent forth a strong fume which heated the Glass so intensely as I could not hold the very top of it in my hand then I set a small Glass-head over the Glass to condence some of the fumes which I found gave a very smart acid Spirit not but that there are other causes of some of the foresaid acidulate spaw-Spaw-waters concerning which we have at large discoursed in our two books of Hydrologia Chymica and its Vindication And now that I have laid down my Hypothesis of the causes of hot Baths branch'd into many sorts subterraneal Damps Earthquakes Eruptions Regeneration of some Sulphurous concretes and of the original of some of the fontes acidi all from the Fermentation of mineral juices as aforesaid which how well grounded and how further improveable I shall leave to the unbyassed reader to examin and judge as also to consider whether from the same Hypothesis or supposition of causes may and that not impertinently be solved the Phoenomena of the diversity of Winds the vicissitudes of heat and cold the reasons of
Oyle by bare infusions and distillations in ordinary water is now by the comminution of previous Fermentation so divided sub-divided and volatiz'd as that these vegitable Sulphurs will not only arise by the gentlest heat but will also easily dissolve in any water or common vehicle As we plainly see that any vinous Spirit made from vegitables by Fermentation will easily mix with ordinary water which the oyles of those vegitables separated before Fermentation would not do So likewise the effects of those sensible at least by their heat Fermentations in mineral Fermentative juices is no other then the comminution and volatization of their otherwise crude Sulphurs For what is it would I ask that can render Sulphur and bituminous juices capable of incorporating with Spring-water Seeing that neither fire which what that is in a true Physiological sense according to our Hypothesis we may elsewhere declare in the vulgar notion thereof nor Salts I mean fixed or volatile can alone perform that work For by fire if in open Vessels Brimstone being burnt it ariseth with a fume condensible into an acid Sulphurous Liquor witness the oyle of Sulphur per Campanam made by flag ration and in close Vessels it makes no alteration arising only in Flowers which are nothing else but the entire body of Brimston unaltered or opened and as to fixt vegitable Salts those indeed open the body of Common Sulphur or Sulphur of any of the minerals so as to make them more capable of dissolving in those congenial menstrua's of Oyle or vinous Spirits but do not at all procure their solution in common water for water being poured to any of the foresaid solutions of Sulphur made either with Oyles or vinous Spirits by fixt Salts do forthwith lactescere causing a precipitation of the very body of Sulphur in a milkie form call'd lac Sulphuris So that it remains that nothing else short of acid juices can perform this great work of dissolving mineral Sulphurs so as to make them mingable with water which is performed one of these three ways viz. either by bare solution distillation or Fermentation in all which the acidum must have the preheminence before such sort of alteration upon Sulphur can be made thus as it is ex intuitu Sulphuris that all metals are dissolvable in the Stiâ—ian or other proper menstrua which being taken in pieces by acids together with their congenial Sulphurs the mercurial and other parts complicated in the texture of that body doth colliquescere So likewise it is ex intuitu acidorum that all mineral Sulphurs or Sulphurous Concretes do either dissolve in water or are capable of distillation into Liquors or lastly do undergo Fermentation and the products thereof First As to solution in water thus vitriol or vitriolin marcasites which contain plenty of Sulphur do either per se or expos'd to the air become capable of dissolving most what in water and that from the prevalency of their acids above their Sulphurous principle whereby the Sulphur lurks under the mask of the acid Secondly As to their distillation I mean of Sulphurs in the form of Liquors that happens also from the powerfulness of their acids assisted by the acidum of fire us'd in such distillations whereby the Acidum and Sulphur do colliquescere into a corrosive Liquor as appears in Oyle of Vitriol And Lastly This Acido-Sulphurous-Liquor and others of the like nature prepared as aforesaid by distillation if diluted by the addition of a little water or of any oylie Liquor or vinous Spirit be mixed therewith the Sulphur is presently set upon by the acid from whose mutual assaults ariseth a strong Fermentation making the Glass intensely hot and thereby sometimes comes near to an actual flagration So that it is the acidum variously treating the Sulphur whence all these varieties of operations proceed And by this last work of Fermentation the Sulphur is more comminuted volatiz'd and altered then by either of the two former It s true indeed that fixt alcalies or Calx vive being analogous to the former doth so work upon the body of common Sulphur or Sulphur of some minerals and thereby opens it so as meeting with an acid juice may make a resemblance of some Sulphur waters as we have elsewhere largely discourst in our Hydrologia Chymica concerning the Sulphur-well at Knarsbrough which is without doubt I mean the precipitation by the supervening acid the cause of the strong smell of this and some other the like waters Amongst the causes assigned by divers Authors of the heat in natural Baths those of subterraneal fires are not the least which because we have by sufficient arguments at large exploded in our Hydrologia Chymica shall now therefore wave But the great and most authentick opinion is that of Dr. Jordens in his book of natural Baths which by many learned persons hath and that not unworthily the kind acceptance and the most general applause which is grounded upon a Fermentation from a seminary Spirit of minerals in the bowels of the earth meeting with convenient matter from which Spirit acting upon the matter in generation of minerals is caused that heat which perpetuates hot Baths It would be too tedious a task for this intended short tract now to wade into a deep examination of the Hypothesis of this learned man I shall only say leaving the rest of that doctrine in its own worth that had that judicious person been better acquainted with the understanding of the true and genuine sense of Fermentation would no doubt have polish'd his notions much better then we find them and would have told us wherever Fermentation was found in whichsoever of the triplicity of natures Kingdoms that there necessarily must concur the principles of Fermentation and that Sulphur or Bituminous matter being a kin to Sulphur must be one of those principles as to the mineral Kingdom and consequently be an indispensible ingredient in all hot Baths For Fermentation can no more exist without its own principles then fire can without combustible matter or the principles of firing nor then animal bodies can be sustained without their peculiar Ferments which what analogy these viz. vegitable and animal juices in their Fermentations as to their constituent principles bear to those of minerals we may elsewhere give an account Onely here we shall take occasion to answer that grand objection the foresaid ingenuous Author makes against Sulphur being the cause of heat in Baths For though we do not assert that Sulphur singly considered is the cause of Fermentation or Heat but that it is one of the principles of Fermentation yet we judge that objection toucheth upon the Verge of our Hypothesis and therefore worthy our solution The Objection is That if Sulphur can give actual heat to our Baths it must burn the like he saith of bitumen that unless it be kindled it can yeild no heat to our Baths I answer That hereby it is obvious that the foresaid Author did not throughly understand the
Or Secondly These Fermentations are to be considered in the further progress and closer interweavings of the principles whereby they become to be more quick and high the Sulphur gradually softening and sweetning their connate acids and thence the bodies wherein those Fermentations happen becomes more pregnant with Spirits being now more plentifully ingendred and more easily set at liberty by the power of Fermentation then before And this is evident in all things brought on to maturity and becomes sensibly apparent chiefly in all odorous Plants and Fruits Or Lastly They are to be considered in the more sensible brisk conflicts of the principles even after the bodies they work in are brought to maturity one dulcifying the other by the concurring causes of solar heat c. the principles I say being yet kept on in motion in all fermentable juices and grains do produce the greatest plenty of Spirits which being set at liberty are all those we call vinous Spirits in animals those we call animal Spirits the genuine product of vital and animal Fermentations and in minerals their Spirits in some places after heating transient waters for hot Baths appear in volatiz'd Sulphurs otherwhere in subtile acids as the causes of some aciduloe and elsewhere in apporrhea steams c. as elsewhere we have shewed Thus in all fruits brought on to maturity and all grains ripened for the harvest the principles in their mutual Collisions are so pregnant as that by being put nearer together which happens by their being juiced or malted they are thereby set a work into a sensible Fermentation as appears in all fermentable juices and malted grains the immediate result of both which are vinous Spirits Thus in all natural animal Fermentations of their juices requisite for circulation of the blood nourishment of the body and for the performing other functions peculiar thereto the animal principles are so pregnant as in their continual wrestlings and inward collisions incessantly to produce such a stock of Spirits a being rightly disposed and carryed in their proper Conduits the Nerves are sufficient to thâ— absolving the functions of sense and motion And the like in their kind may be said of minerals concerning which viz. the origin of animal Spirits from the foresaid Fermentation we may elsewhere largely discourse We shall only say at present that as the natural Fermentations in animal bodies are produced from the intestine collisions and inward struglings betwixt the native acid of the Stomack fortified perhaps by some connatural acidum in the aliment and the acquired Sulphur of nutritive concretes separating Hetrogenities and graduating themselves by successive depurations till they in their proper juices perform those circulations requisite to the peculiar funcitons of the body So likewise from the Catastrophe of the natural and superinduction of other not congenial acids may be made such mortifications precipitations and depravations of the genuine ferments and such new complications betwixt the recent acid and the Sulphur in the otherwise natural fermenting juices as to lay a foundation of new spurious Fermentations the causes of Feavers of all sorts Not to say here how most yea for ought I know all sorts of Feavers are nothing else but spurious Fermentations of the blood and other juices of the body distinguishable or if I may say specificated by variety of acids not congeneal but wholly disagreeable gradually heightening the natural and otherwise slow pac'd genuine Fermentations whose various degrees of Feavers are most what differenced or specificated from the low or high slower or quicker degrees of spurious Fermentation or to speak in a more plain dialect how Feavers are various sorts or different degrees of inflamations of the blood and other juices For an inflamation according to our Hypothesis is nothing else but a heightening of Fermentation from a more strong collision of the principles whereby from their mutual wrestlings they arrive to the height of causticks which as we shew elsewhere differ from corrosives onely from the difference of their acids such I mean as in a lower degree pleurising from an inflamatory transposition of the fiery particles of the blood upon the pleura and in a higher degree as are the plague and pestilential Feavers which are Feavers in their highest inflamatory and siery degree witness the Anthrases Carbuncles and other pestilential badges which shew perfect Eschars upon the skin as if perform'd by cauteries Lixivial or fiery which are with due caution to be cured by such ways and methods as allay that furious fiery Ebullition by Phlebotomy and gentle breathing Sweats but here we must cut short intending as this finds acceptance a fuller and more free discourse of the nature of Feavers how essentially specificated and what methods accordingly they best yield too concerning which we may Deo dante treat in another place Onely this by the by we would observe that amongst animal juices those from vegitables made by animal Ferments suppose Milk by the various actions of the innate or adventitious acids upon their inbred Sulphurs happen different products First therefore as to the coagulations and alterations to be made from the inbred acidum thereof Thus Milk while in an equal temperature of its constituent ingredients undergoes no separation of parts remaining in an uniform Liquor but being expos'd to the Air after a while the innate acidum of the Milk being acuated by that of the Air makes a spontaneous separation of a cremor from the more thin part which Cream having some acidum in it as we elsewhere prove that all Cremors Oyles Fatts Axungia's c. are but different disguises of animal Sulphurs have their implanted acids by keeping grows more sour this by concussion of the parts in that motion we call Churming undergoes a Fermentation of its kind from whence happens another sort of separation viz. into Butter which is Sulphur in another form then before and a more serous part call'd Butter-milk And as Milk after the separation of Cream by longer standing comes to a thick and almost gellyed consistence by Countrey people call'd Loppard and by a little heat splits into Curd and Whey so Butter-milk if kept long will come to the like consistence but if heated the acidum presently coagulates the Curdy part if that coagulation be made in heat after the mixture of New-Milk the acidum in the Butter-milk coagulates both the Curdy parts of its own as also Butirous and Curdy parts of the New-milk into that sort of sour coagulum call'd hatted Milk which is more or less sour according to the prevalency of the acidum or more or less affusion of New-Milk And Lastly As the foresaid alterations are made from the various coagulations of Milk from its implanted acid So likewise other sorts of coagulations thereof are produced from additional acids Thus any Fermentative potable Liquor as Wine Ale Beer Syder c. mixed with Milk the acidum in such Liquors coagulates the Sulphurous parts into a Curd separable from the serus Liquor the like will
Wine the noblest of vegetable Fermentable juices The like may be said of all other vegitable Fermentative Liquors such as are Ale Beer Syder c. If the efferuescence of Wines prove strong either from the too brisk assaults of the inbred Acidum and Sulphur as sometimes happens in new Wines or from the reimbibition of the formerly deposited Tartar or rejected rich Lee or Faeces both well Saturate with the foresaid principles or from too great agitation or immoderate warmth or some heterogeneous Acids as of different sort of Grapes prest into one mustum or from the addition of Mercury sublimate wherewith sometimes it is adulterated or the like if I say from any of the foresaid ways Wines be set into a Fermentative motion de novo and put into a high efferuescence the remedy chiefly consists either in the racking it oft whereby the contracted fervour is to be abated and future imbibitions are to be prevented or by precipitations of the foresaid Tartarous particles or extraneous bodies which is to be performed by affusion of plenty of Milk or such sort of Liquors by which not only such kind of precipitations are well performed but also doth help to allay those Fermentations too much exalted from agitation by Carriage or which happens from immoderate heat by attempering and softening inordinate exaestuations And as this is to be done in Wines whose principles are too active so on the contrary in the great impoverishment of Wines from the depressed state of the principles somewhat of a like Ferment should be added such I mean as may not only acuate the dormant principles but also may inspire a new sort of Ferment congenial to the former of which kind is a well impregnated Tartar or stong Lee to be put thereto or a Fermental Syrup compos'd from a generous Wine Sugar or some Aromacticks to bring on a fresh Fermentation or a little Fermenting Wine freshly working upon its Lees if in Ale which wants a due Fermentation either a little fresh Ferment I mean the flores Cerevisiae call'd Yest or Barn or a little new working Ale is to be added especially after a cohobation of fresh Malt or upon Malt once by infusion extracted or some dust of Malt and some sliced Ginger or Eggs well beat but to return Yet some of these will not easily Ferment per se but require an additional Ferment to excite their implanted Acidum and Sulphur into a brisk motion or strugling which we call Fermentation Thus in the making Ale or Beer from the infusion or juice of Malt a congenial Ferment viz. Yest or Barn which is flos Cerevifiae or the seedling of its Fermentation able from its Symbolical principle to propagate ad infinitum of which more elsewhere is to be added to rouze up the like principles of Acid and Sulphur in the foresaid juice to a Fermentative motion Thus also in the preparing the potable Liquor from Sugar which if done with Birch-water makes it the more medicinal a Ferment of Yest or the like is to be added which sets the foresaid principles in the Sugar into a Fermental motion whereby it becomes a good potable Liquor bearing some resemblance to Wine Now that there is Acidum and Sulphur in Sugars Grapes Apples Berries Cherries and other Fruits and Grains is very obvious First As to their Acids those are plainly discoverable both by the facile degenerating of Liquors or Juices hence made into Acids or Vinegars if I may so call them thus Sugar-Canes laid by in Troughs becomes very Acid and so of the rest As also by their distillation as appears in the distillation of the Floors of Wheat Wrye c. which give an acid Spirit so all Fruits Sugars Honey c. which by Fermentation are capable of becoming potable Liquors by distillation yield an acidum witness the acid Spirit of Sugar Wheat Honey c. Your Bread distilled yields an acid Liquor chiefly from the added Ferment which sets the Acidum of the Corn more at liberty from both which proceeds that acid menstruum taken notice of by the honourable Boyle which will draw a tincture from Stybium as we have try'd And as to Sulphurs they are demonstrable to be in all the foresaid Fruits Sugars Grains c. First By their Vinegars in all which lurk an Oyle separable by Art two or three ways as we shew in our Lithologia and Halologia For when the Acid prevails it dissolves the Sulphur per minima and hides it in it self under the mask of an Acetum 2ly By Distillation as when urg'd by stress of Fire they give besides their acid Spirit an Oyle which from the forcible actings of the Acid upon the Sulphur and some terrestrial parts by the violence of Fire makes it become Empyrhumatical as in our Halologia we further inlarge 3ly By putrifaction and Distillation they give an Cyle 4ly By Fermentation and Distillation whereby they become vinous Spirits whose Sulphur is discernable from their flagrablity And Lastly to omit what might probably be done in order to the separating genuine Oyles from some of them by bare Distillations in water by their â—â—â—perations of their juices and extractions by vinous Spirits whereby their tinctures are drawn which are nothing else but specimens of their Sulphurs As to Corn suppose Wheat or any other Grain the same principles of Fermentation are evident for when wrought into a masse with water and the addition of a little vegetable Ferment suppose Yest this by the congruity and congenialness of its parts to the similer Ferments implanted in that Grain sets it into motion for all additional Ferments do no more but excite the principles of Fermentation native to the body or Liquor to be Fermented for neither Yest put to water nor Old Leaven put to powder of Stone mixt with water will cause either of them to work for want of Symbolical principles Yet this last Paragraph we are to ballance with this following consideration and that is to illustrate the reason why Corn for instance Wheat sprouted by overmuch wet in the reaping or moisture by bad laying up will not make good Bread at least other sorts of Table Food because hereby the vegetative principles of Acid and Sulphur are excited which should either go on in order to propagation by vegetation or germination or that design of nature being perverted by artificial malting might thence be used for preparing a Fermentable and afterwards potable Liquor but being imploy'd for other purposes from the activity of the principles already set into a vegitative Fermental motion as soon as they feel the Heat retaining their vegitative sprouting motion break the Prison doors and in short if the heat was answerable would Sprout and Grow but because the heat is stronger then is required for such purposes it onely makes the Mass Fat or become more Florid and thence it is that such paste bakes not solid and firm but falls and runs in the Oven as being more fit for making Malt then
retrograde motion which is that we vulgarly call putrefaction are all other sorts produc'd and so of the rest which we shall not now enlarge upon and as to what results from mineral Fermentation we have elsewhere discourst That moisture or water the former of which is but the latter rarified is absolutely necessary both to the setting the principles of Fermentation a work as also to the keeping them afoot even in all such motions from the very lowest degree of vegetable Fermentation to the highest of actual flagration is evident in most things throughout the series of natures triplicity thus Vegitables necessarily require moisture not onely to set but also to keep their principles of Fermentation in a constant Spring Thus the Ferments of our Stomacks do really need the pouring down of Water Wine Ale Beer or other potable Liquors for the perpetuating and invigorating their active principles And hence for ought we know may be the reason why a Glass of Water taken after a plentiful repast is found to help the digestion by setting the Fermentation awork which otherwise by the glut of Food might be interrupted and that too by diluting the assum'd aliment and so setting the Acidum of the Stomack and Sulphur of the food into a mutual collision even as a little water poured to the thick Oyle of Vitriol by diluting sets the inward principles of Acidum and Sulphur into a Fermentation thence producing a considerable heat as we elsewhere further treat So likewise do the principles of mineral Ferments in their source no less require the continual afflux of Water in order to the heightening their heat and making of hot Baths Thus also Brass Lumps which are a sort of vitriolin marcasite laid in heaps do from the moisture of the Air or sprinkling of water suffer their principles of Acid and Sulphur by their mutual collisions to be set awork which are invigorated to that height as to rise to an actual flagration The same will Metal-Coals Mines of Tin-Glass Alom c. do and that from the identity of causes with the former So likewise moist Hay Corn in Green or Moist Sheafs Corn Steeped or otherwise Moistened do all of them from the same heightening of the action of their principles by moisture conceive heat yea take fire too as is abovesaid So that wherever Fermentation happens and that there is plenty of moisture or water there the Fermentation is considerably heightened as may be illustrated by all the foresaid instances And wherever there is heat proceeding from the same principles of Acidum and Sulphur if these by the addition of moisture become sufficiently intended will certainly cause Fire Yea perhaps fire it self I mean the culinary made up and fed with combustible concretes doth as necessarily require a moisture in the Air to the performing its quick rapid Fermentation of ignition and flagration so as to make 〈◊〉 principles liquid in the very act of flagration 〈◊〉 that mineral corrofive Fires do require the addition of moisture or water upon no other account then for the dissolving and putting into Fermentation their corrosive Acids and Sulphurs is evident not only in the Oyle of Vitriol but also in the Stigian waters viz. Spirit of Nitre Aqua fortis and Aqua regia the two former of which being the same thing as made from the same principles of Acid and Sulphur dissolv'd by the help of fire in water as we further declare in our Halologia all which are corroding menstrua's or liquid burning fretting fires which while in the form of dry Salts or Sulphurs separated are not at all apt to make such corrosions of Metals Minera s c. For according to our Hypothesis corrosive menstrua are not made from Salts in fluor nor are they bare acetous Liquors or Saline particles driven by force of fire from the imbraces of their own Earth as the learned Dr. Willis would have them but are an Acid and Sulphur brought over in a Liquid form That they are all Acids needs no proof and that they have all Sulphurs may very easily be made to appear by the resinous oylie or other Sulphurous separations to be made from all of them even from the leanest I mean distilled Vinegar as we demonstrate in our Lythologia Physica and Halologia so that Acidum and Sulphur by stress of Fire raising up some Liquid or watery parts fall into a fluor and thereby become corrosive menstrua For mineral Salts never become corrosives till their Sulphurs and Acids colliquate and that they do either by distillation from stress of fire the acidum of the fire assisting their colliquations as is evident in the making of the Stygian and other corrosive menstrua or by Fermentation as appears in the mixture of Mercury sublimate and crude Antimony or regulus of Antimony where the acidum of the Salts catch hold of the Sulphur in the crude or reguline Antimony and cause a Fermentation colliquating together or rather by their colliquations cause a Fermentation which you will for we see upon the Fermentation the mass of Salts and Antimony flow together appearing in a liquid although thick form which Colliquation and Fermentation is perform'd without the least specimen of any alcali or quid alcali analogum to which many ingenious persons for want of a true Basis and right Ariadnes Thred to extricate them from difficulties are driven to take Shelter in the solving these and the like Phaenomena And not onely corrosives but causticks also we suppose according to our Hypothesis to consist both of them chiefly in the vigour of Acids raised to the height of Fermentation and to differ onely in this that causticks are made from the acidum of Fire and that either as in its own rapid motion of Fermentation happening betwixt the Acidum and Sulphur of the combustible concrete or as its Acidum is fixt inter cremandum upon such sort of bodies as can grasp hold of and detain it in its intrails of which are all sorts of fixt Alcalies as they are call'd minium calx vivae c. whereas Corrosives are made from the acids of Minerals complicated with their Sulphurs and heightened by Fire which by the medium of an ingeint moisture or by a colliquation betwixt themselves become liquid corrosive Menstrua of which more elsewhere And of whose manner of workings in the solution of Metals we have above given a short account according to our deposited Thesis Yea and that some Acids and Sulphurs will colliquescere even without the help of Fire in distillation and in that colliquation will cause a strong Fermentation and intense heat is evident from the mixture of Antimony or the regulus of Antimony and mercury sublimate with dry powders will melt being mixed as if fused in a crucible We shall not here say how by the Fermentations of our foresaid principles all vegetable and animal concretes for the texture of whose bodies water as a material principle is absolutely requisite and which is
in the concretions and maturations of Fruits but in the Fermentations of potable Liquors Thus as to the First Fruits while upon the Trees by the help of the Sun have their vegetative Fermentations compleated by the Sulphurs sweetening and maturating their Acids the like is done though nothing nigh so well in Fruits taken off the Trees before they be ripe and laid by in Straw Hay or the like whereby the warmth of the Air there formerly begun Fermentation is in some measure carryed on to maturation whereas if exposed to a more warmth or a greater degree of heat if done in Water they are Codled if before the Fire they are Roasted In both which although somewhat sweetened from what they were yet are far short of the pleasant gust and delicate colour they arrive at by their more natural and gentle maturating heat Thus if any Grain suppose Barley c. be steeped and afterwards laid in heaps till it contract a spontaneous heat this very heat transcending that which is peculiar to its own vegetative Fermentation suspends or rather indeed perverts the intention of nature whereby it will never so vegetate afterwards as to go on to a propagation by Seed but onely if permitted by neglect of turning will shoot forth a spurious branch call'd vulgarly an Acrespire Thus as to the last Fermentative Liquors if they have any other heat but what results from the collisions of their own active principles or at least in degree is congenial thereto then the intention of nature is perverted by the dissipations of the principles of Fermentation or at least by the graduations of the Acid above the Sulphur as appears in heating the Fermentative Liquor too much or in putting it up too warm in the Vessels the like happens I mean a dissipation of the Fermentative agents or an exorbitancy of the Acidum in hot seasons or with the percussions of the Air by the noise of Guns or Thunder or from insolation or the like In all which the crasis of Fermentable Liquors are perverted and the Acidum by overpowering the Sulphur grows exorbitant subverting the temperature of the whole CHAP. IX HAving thus sleightly for brevities sake run through the reasons and causes of Fermentation from the lowest to the highest degree thereof in all natural productions throughout the threefold kingdom of Nature and shewed those from the genuine causes and natural principles to be the fountain of Heat in and amongst bodies Now come we to consider of some other sorts of Heat that seem to arise either from other manner of Fermentations or from other causes of which are all Fermentations or Ebullitions made betwixt Acids and all kinds of Alcalies whether lixivial or alcalizate fixed or volatile the Fermentation and Heat obvious in quicklime made by the affusion of water heat also caus'd from the collision and attrition of solid bodies For indeed from a due examination I find there is no Heat produc'd amongst bodies I mean from their own intestine principles what sort soever it be but what is referable of one of these two viz. either Acids and Sulphurs or to Acids and Alcalies The first is the natural cause of Heat as thence springing from its genuine source which admits of degrees even to actual flagration The other is artificial and never arrives to the height of the former I found therefore upon due consideration that the foresaid Fermentations and Heat reckoned amongst those which arise betwixt Acids and some sorts of Alcalies might be soly'd from one of these two causes viz. either from our deposited principles of Acid and Sulphur or from a mutual fretting betwixt Acids and urinous Spirits Thus we suppose and elsewhere in our Lithologio Physica illustrate in all Petrifick concretions somewhat of a Sulphurous principle lockt up in the strickt texture of the petrifying native Alcaly which when an acid menstruum comes to terebrate finding the Sulphur its proper object closeth therewith and from their mutual struglings happens the solution of the body thence proceeds the Ebullition and consequently in some where it is strong Warmth For we suppose a Sulphur or Sulphurous principle to be as a cement to bind up the petrifick Alcali in all or most of stony concretions Thus also we suppose in all fixt lixivial Alcalies or fixt Salts as they are vulgarly called a Sulphurous principle to be close shut up in the texture thereof and that every fixt lixivial Alcali is a new compage of the same prae-existent principles produc'd and bound up by the Acidum of Fire where the Acidum and Sulphur are so interwoven with a volatile urinous Spirit or Salt as that by force of Fire they do colliquescere melt down into a body dissolvable per deliquium which is generally esteemed a simple Salt but having discourst largely thereof in our Halologia shall now wave it and onely say that these fixt Alcalies vulgarly reputed solitary Salts being new textures of the intrinsick principles do by that neutrality of Essence they are wrought into by the Fire from new complications I say do make different assaults upon Acids then before Hence it is that upon a double account as I said that Acids mixed with these Alcalies may cause an effervescence viz. either as meeting with the Sulphur close bound up with the Acid and urinous Spirit or Salt in the compage of the Alcali and so to cause an Ebullition and Heat according to our foresaid principles or as meeting with the volatile urinous Salt close rivetted with the Sulphur and Acid may either way cause an effervescence Onely this difference which is considerable is to be noted betwixt these Fermentations made between Acids and Sulphurs as they happen in petrifick concretions and fixt lixivial Alcalies from those which happen in the general course of nature inasmuch as Fermentations which are set awork amongst animals vegetables yea and many minerals do produce a quite different effect from those lately cited as appears in animal Fermentations their effects are the production of animal Spirits c. In vegetable Fermentations their effects are either such which immediately result from the slow pac'd motion of the principles viz. Vegetation Volatization of their Sulphurs Odours c. or are the effects of the more sensible Fermentations in all vegetable juices in order to potable Liquors which are vinous Spirits or the effects of mineral Fermentations which if done in the bowels of the Earth where no current of water happens are the productions of mineral concretes c. If where waters have their Channels in their great circulation their effects are hot Baths c. Or Lastly if the Fermentation be from mineral bodies and corrosive menstrua the effects are stifling fumes c. All which in their different classes happen from the looseness of the compage of their Sulphurs and from their facile inclination to volatization But in the late cited effervescences betwixt Acids and Alcalies whether in Petrifick or lixivial Salts their Sulphurs being naturally
fixed as in Stony concretions and are made so in lixivial alcalies So that although Acids may touch upon them and cause a little fretting effervescence yet cannot volatize them therefore upon their collision and Ebullition we find no different hogo to smite our Nostrils the usual products of other Fermentations And then as to volatile Alcalies which put to Acids cause a fretting heat they do consist of an Acid and an urinous Spirit as in our Halologia we further demonstrate which being complicated together retains so much of the Acidum as is sufficient to its concretion into a saline form and yet is so much subjugated by the Vrinous Spirit as to be overpowered thereby and from the neutrality of their nature to cause the foresaid effervescence being mixed with Acids In the next place as to the reasons of Fermentation contracted in quick-lime from the affusion of water in short thus we suppose and think to demonstrate that heat to proceed from a Fermentation betwixt Salts of a different nature which upon the affusion of water are dissolv'd and thereby set into an actual strugling These different Salts are an Alcali and an Acidum Now that fixt alcalizate Alcalies not lixivial of Plants are disseminated in the bowels of the Earth to which petrisick concretions chiefly owe their original we at large shew in our Lithologia Physica and that such a sort of Alcali is implanted in calx vive which in the calcination required to the making thereof becomes yet heightened is evident First by its mortifying and sweetening Acids witness its being put to water acidulated with Spirit of Salt Nitre c. the acidity will presently be altered and mortified next by its closing Acids wrapt up in the texture of another body as appears by its mixture with Sal armoniack where its Alcali for it can be no other catcheth hold of the Acidum of Sal marine and so breaks the compage of the Armoniack Salt setting the volatile Vrinous Spirit at liberty Thirdly by the heat it makes after extinction by affusion of water with an acid Spirit as when Spirit of Vitriol is poured upon extinguish'd Lime a heat is thence caused Lastly By the observing that the water of its extinction will serve to open the body of mineral Sulphur by boiling them together which it will do almost as well as if the water had been acuated with fixt lixivial Salts both which work upon mineral Sulphurs by their Acids as we shall demonstrate more clearly afterwards And as to the Acidum in quick-lime we say it owes its original to no other then to that of Fire contracted in the calcination of the Stone and that it was not pre-existent before calcination Now that Fire in the actual flagration of combustable bodies doth in that violent Fermentation of its principles fix its acidum while the Sulphurous principle wheels off into the Air upon some bodies it meets withall suitable for the reception thereof and how that from the difference of Acids in several combustable concretes by flagration intangling themselves with and fixing upon other bodies different effects are produced I might confirm by many instances The former is evident amongst the rest in the reverberatory calcination of Lead in its preparation into minium where the Acidum in the flame of Wood centers and fixeth it self upon the Lead and gives considerable increase of weight thereto So in like manner to come nearer to our purpose the Acidum of Cole in the calcination of Lime-stone doth by a continued reverberation fix it self in the cranies and inward recesses thereof Thus in the calcination of Vitriol by the rayes of the Sun in the preparation of the Sympathetick powder the pondus thereby becomes increased And then as to the latter viz. the different effect upon bodies from the variety of Acids in actual ignition or flagration either fixing themselves thereon or at least by some sleighter intrusions shewing a different operation we could demonstrate from our observations upon burning of Bricks hardening of Iron or Steel calcinations of minerals and metals various reverberations and many other mechanical operations solely owing their original to the difference of the foresaid Acid nor to say here how amongst other Phoenomena the difference of colours amongst minerals and metals contracted by calcinations and reverberations owe their original to this source of varieties of Acids in different sorts of Fires which for brevity sake we now omit referring to a further discourse thereof in another place By the power of the foresaid Acidum in quick-lime communicated thereto by Fire in the calcination thereof it is that the water of Lime will perform what other more usual Acids cannot for instance That Lime-water mixed with any volatile Vrinous Salt and distilled therefrom fixeth yea turns the Salt into an insipid powder or indissolvable calx concerning which the ingenuous Zuelfer well notes quin etiam saith he speaking of this very thing huic aquae recenti salia volatilia jungerem moxque vidi effectum sc salium dictorum totalem destructionem eorum in calcem vel pulverem insipidum indissolubilem omni odore sapore privatum ignisque violentiam in posterum strenue sustinentem conversionum The like probably would minium do to the same volatile Salts if mixed therewith and that from the same cause viz. the Acidum contracted by the Fire and from the same Acidum it is also that water of Lime cast plentifully upon boiling Milk will curdle it And from these two viz. the Alcali and Acidum which we have demonstrated to be in quick-Lime put into a strugling fretting motion by their solution in water is according to our Hypothesis the very cause of heat obvious in quick-Lime For unless these two be dissolved no Fermentation happens and consequently no heat Hence it is that although rectified Spirit of Wine Spirit of Turpentine or other such like Sulphurous Liquors be added yet cause no heat because they are not competent menstrua nor suitable Liquors for the dissolving the foresaid Alcali and Acidum from whose solution and combating motion proceeds the heat But we have at large discourst upon that subject in our Lithologia Physica to which I refer the Reader therefore shall now forbear further to insist thereon CHAP. X. LAstly as to heat and sometimes ignition which is caused from the collisions and attritions of hard solid bodies we may without any difficulty solve from our formerly deposited principles As for instance that heat and ignition which proceed from the attritions and percussions of Flint and Steel the attritions of Steele and Wood of Steel and Pyrites or any other Gritt or Free-stone The attritions of either sappy or dry wood as happens in the violent motion of the Axis or Wheels of Coaches Chariots Wagons or Mills all which Phoenomena we can well and we think rationally charge to the account of our former Hypothesis viz. That they are performed no other way then by a quick and sudden excitation of
are seen to cleave to the tops of Maine Masts and at the Sterns of Ships by the Ancients call'd Castor and Pollux by our English-men corpus-Ants and very probably is the same with that meteor we call ignis fatuus of which as also concerning the Light seen upon the impressions of footings in the Sand upon Sea-shores we shall shortly speak more All which give Light in the Dark viz. in the Air not illuminated by any Light from the Sun so that we may say of things that occur to our sight that they carry Fire and Light in their Bellies and that by an excitation of their intrinsick Ferments their inside tapores are set above board It remains therefore that we try these Lights and examine whether all or most of them may not according to our Hypothesis be solv'd from various degrees of Fermentation grounded upon our principles of Acidum and Sulphur from various causes differently excited We shall begin with that which is most obvious viz. culinary Fire and examine how Light is produced therefrom no sooner are the inbred Acidum and Sulphur of any combustable concrete set into a violent Fermentation kindled by the Fire or symbolical Fermentation already in actual motion put to it but forthwith by the help of the Air the principles are set into a rapid intestine motion which yet more and more being sharpened by the Air ariseth by degrees to that pitch as to fall into an actual ignition and from thence being yet more thin'd by the interweavings of the Air breaks forth into flagration or ignition with Flame Fire and Flame seem to differ only in this that in the struglings of the principles and thereby in the rejecting the heterogenites the Air is more complicated in making Flame then in bare ignition Flame being but Fire rarified by the intertexture of Air which by such rarifaction of a dark cloudy smoke or fume makes a diaphanous Flame Air is necessary for ignition and flagration upon a double account First from its moisture brought into it from the grand Fermentation and Circulation of other Bodies whereby the principles of Firing become more liquid and thence fall into a more intensly furious and colliquating Fermentation according to that of Silenus the Epicurean brought in by Virgil semina terrarum c. Et liquidi simul ignis next by its own peculiarly plyable penetrative and circulating nature whereby it insinuates into every of the principles actings keeping them in a constant agitation thereby maintaining their wheel of motion as long as any combustable matter remains and is well put together So that by the first qualification Air by its spongy nature imbibes moisture wheeling off from other bodies in their incessant Fermentation and thereby becomes qualified for keeping other Fermentations afoot and then by its other qualification of penetration and being as a Fan to blow off the loose Corns as I may say or heterogenious matter ingendred by the foresaid rapid Fermentation And by both it becomes truly capable of assisting the principles of Acidum and Sulphur in their furious combating as thereby to turn vast bulkie bodies of combustable matter first into Fire and Flame and at last by winding off into water leaving some few Ashes wherein remain some Salt and in some vegetable concretes the seedling of the former body For all combustable bodies are by this agitation of the innate Acidum and Sulphur with the co-operation of the Air in that double foresaid respect reduced after a little rotation into the Air to water again And although Fire moistens no bodies put thereto yet doth it really go off not onely in a liquid but humid form witness the condenc'd steams of mineral Sulphur or Brimstone burning under a Glass campane is sav'd in an acid Liquor also Spirit of Wine fired and condensed by such an artifice appears in an infipid water yea for ought I know the like might happen with some small variation to most combustable bodies if their fumes were condenced by such a contrivance however the Air at the long run condenceth all those steams Fire wheeleth off in into water This being premis'd we say that the highest degree of Fermentation whereby the principles are put into a rapid motion maketh Fire and that is done by the help of Air as aforesaid which Fire of ignition gives Light by a continual winding off in luminous rayes springing from the foresaid Fermentation and that by the further complications of Air interwoven in the texture of Fire whereby the otherwise gross fumes gains a more Aethereal liquidity is that we call Flame which is yet more luminous then bare ignition Not here to insist whether Light either of the Sun or other luminous bodies be made any other way then by refraction for although the rayes of the Sun make their exit in right lines from the source of their Fermentative motion yet being to wade through a fluid medium I mean our Atmosphere where ever and anon hitting upon liquid particles of rarified water born up by a Columne of the same extended perhaps as far as the surface of the Earth and may be further must needs have their Lines broke their Files disordered and their Rayes much altered being put into oblique motions amongst such a Sea of watery atoms Notwithstanding which refraction a luminous body may not undergo any sensible variation as to locality and that because our Eye is plac'd in the same medium with the luminous body if such as represented to us here below And as to the Sun perhaps that may be the very reason of the difference betwixt the apparent and real place thereof whereas an object so scituate as to have the reflecting luminous rayes to pass through two mediums of different textures must need sustain a greater difference as to the locality thereof witness an oar part immerst in water part out or a piece of Silver in a Bason of water But a luminous body becoming such by having its principles of Acid and Sulphur heightened by a furious Fermentation and being plac'd in the same medium with our Eye the luminous rayes continually winding off in that rapid motion of the combating principles although I say they make their Exit in right Lines from the Source of their motion viz. the body they issue from yet must they be continually hitting upon watery Atoms they meet with in the Air which are many times back'd with strong Cylinders of the same whence they are distorted from their right Lines and become refracted from each of the adjacent watery bulla's whereby for ought we know the rayes of such bodies in their illuminating motion may become the more intended then if they should have reach'd the Eye in right Lines directly from the object For hereby those watery particles may become as so many minute apake Specula's by which each of these luminous rayes being once broke from its direct line becomes by various reflections and refractions multiplyed first hitting upon one then slanting off another
natures works I saw that she perform'd the fa e solutions of mineral Sulphurs in some parts of the bowels of the Earth by her own menstrua of Acids prepared by her dextrous Art of Chymistry the very foundation and exemplar of all we call Artificial as she did in other actions reputed amongst most Authors Heteroclites and was the same in the latter as the former and from hence I saw that reputed causticks I mean fixt lixivial Alcalies were no other then Acids viz. of the Fire fixt upon bodies so that I found nature symbolical in all her actions and always consonant to her own principles And that I might improve this notion the better not taken notice of by any other Author I know I began to make a strict scrutiny into the nature of fixt Alcalies I considered First That the more Fire they endured and the higher they were calcin'd and the sooner us'd after calcination the stronger and more fiery Causticks they were 2. That they would never calcine to a strong Salt unless perform'd in open Vessels or Crucibles where the Fire might more immediately touch upon them and concentre its own acidum 3. That if after they were cold and kept from the Air and then Spirit of Wine or Water was put thereto thence a heat was presently produc'd which as I conceive was from no other cause then this viz. That either of those Liquors sets the acidum contracted from the Fire and the Sulphur or volatile Alcaly in the Salt into a sudden Fermentation dissolving and so putting them into an intestine collision 4. And fourthly I considered That the longer these Salts were expos'd to the Air even to a solution per deliquium the more mild and soft in operation they become loosing thereby gradually their Acids imbibed from the Fire insomuch as by often solution per deliquium the compage of that Salt from the vinculum of the fiery Acid is taken off as that the whole may thence be reduc'd into an insipid Water and Earth and no Arcauum neither Lastly That although these fixt lixivial Salts do make strong Ebullitions with Acids put to them yet that happens either betwixt the additional acid and the Sulphur in the Salt or betwixt it and the volatile alcaly bound up in the artificial concretion That there are Sulphurs in those Salts or new textures of Plants appears from their lixivial or saponary property and that there are also volatile alcalies is evident from their precipitating faculty and from their intestine strugling with acids To which may be added this observation that after fixt alcalies have lost the acidum contracted from Fire which they do by keeping and sometimes exposing to the air together with the addition of somewhat which dints the foresaid Acidum may then by Art be made to split into Oyle and urinous Spirit or volatile Salt As to that great objection against the acidity of fixt lixivial Alcalies viz. the precipitation of such solutions made with Alcalies by Acids inasmuch as it is generally observ'd that what solutions Alcalies make are most promptly precipitated by Acids I answer First That although what more simple I mean volatile Alcalies do dissolve are precipitated very readily by Acids vice versa yet where Alcalies are more complicated and interwoven with other essential parts there the precipitation by Acids of what those already have dissolv'd are in no wise wholly ascribable to them as alcalies but equally compitible to other parts in the concretion And in the next place I answer that even some acids are capable of precipitating what others have dissolv'd to prove and illustrate which I try'd this following instance viz. I took a clear solution of saccharum Saturni which I had prepared with distilled Vinegar which no man will deny to be an Acid upon which I poured a pretty smart Spirit of Vitriol whereupon it presently became Milkie and caus'd a precipitation of a pure white calx of Saturn which precipitation may also be done with Spirit of Salt The same likewise will Spirit of Salt do poured upon a solution of refin'd Silver made in double its weight of Aqua fortis in preparing that admirable anomolous neutral concretion call'd Luna Cornea mentioned by the honorable Boyle in his origin of forms and not onely Spirit of Salt but also Oyle of Vitriol will cause the like precipitation Whence its obvious to any eye that what some Acids dissolve others may precipitate from the congenealness of the solvend to one solvend more then another For both those wherein the solutions of the metals were made viz. Spirit of Vinegar and Aqua-fortis are as undoubtedly acids as those which cause the precipitations viz. Spirit of Vitriol and Spirit of Salt So that the precipitation of bodies depend not upon acid or alcalizate Liquors as such but upon the consanguinity if I may so say of bodies or solvends to liquors or solvents viz. whilst an acid having dissolv'd one body meeting with another akin thereto le ts the former fall and from an abstruce affinity of parts dissolves the latter From whence it need not seem heterodox although to the most it may as yet a paradox to say that fixt Alcalies open the bodies of mineral Sulphurs as they are acido-Sulphurous Salts and that chiefly as they partake of the acidum of Fire assum'd by calcination and that precipitations of the same folutions may be perform'd and that too without the least absurdity in Philosophy by other supervening Acids as we have even now demonstrated As I observ'd all fixt Alcalies made out of Vegetables to work upon Mineral Sulphurs on the account of their being Acido-Sulphurous-Salts so I could not otherwise whilst I look'd upon the matter with a very intent eye judge of calx vive whose manner of operation in opening the bodies of Brimstone and other Mineral Sulphurs I could not charge to any other then its Acid which it had contracted from the Fire in the very calcination of that sort of Stone call'd Lapis calcarius viz. Free-stone or Lime-stone which that it chiefly partakes of the Acidum of Fire and thereby performs not only that but various other effects we have already in short demonstrated and shall further in Lithologia Physica From the premisses it will easily appear in eonfirmation of our former Doctrine that all solutions of Mineral Sulphurs in the bowels of the Earth are made by their peculiar Acids and that other solutions made by Art are but from the same principles under other disguises Therefore that which opens the body of Sulphur in these Mineral Marcasites through which this water we treat of runs must of necessity be an Acidum which afterwards is precipitated by another Acid of the Alom-bed through which at last it passeth As to that experiment we gave to illustrate the cause and manner of making that water by opening those vitriolin Marcasites with quick-lime in our Hydrological Essays although we there imputed it to the alcali yet now from second and