detained by some Salts which check its Volatility and then may be called a fixt Spirit as the Acid Spirits of Vitriol Alum Salt c. The Oil which is called Sulphur by reason of its inflammability is a sweet subtile unctuous substance that rises after the Spirit This is said to cause the diversity of Colours and Smells according to its disposition in Bodies this gives them their Beauty and Deformity uniting together the other Principles this also sweetens the acrimony of Salts and by shutting up the Pores of a mixt hinders it from corrupting either through too much moisture or cold Wherefore many Trees and Plants that have a great deal of Oil are wont to last green much longer than others and can resist the extremity of ill weathers It is always drawn impure For either it is mixt with Spirits as the Oils of Rosemary of Lavender which swim above the water or else it is fill'd with Salts that it draws along with it in the distillation as the Oil of Box Guaiacum Cloves which do precipitate to the bottom of the water by reason of their weight Salt is the last of the Active Principles which remains disguised in the Earth after the other Principles are extracted It is drawn by pouring water upon the earth to imbibe its Salt then filtring the dissolution and evaporating all the moisture a Salt is found at the bottom of the Vessel It is a fixt incombustible substance that gives Bodies their consistence and preserves them from corruption This causes the diversity of tasts according as it is diversly mixed There are three different Salts as the Fixt Volatile and Essential The Fixt Salt is that which remains after Calcination the Volatile is that which easily riseth as the Salt of Animals And Essential Salt is that which is obtained from the Juyce of Plants by Crystallization This last is between the Fixt and Volatile Water which is called Phlegm is the first of the Passive Principles it comes in distillation before the Spirits when they are fixt or after them when they are volatile It is never drawn pure but always receives some impression from the Active Principles And this causes it to have a more detersive virtue in it than common Water It serves to separate the Active Principles and to bridle their motion The Earth which is called Caput Mortuum or Terra Damnata is the last of the Passive Principles and can no more be separated pure than the rest but will still retain some Spirits in it and if after you have depriv'd it of them as much as you are able you leave it a good while exposed to the Air it will recover new Spirits again Remarks upon the Principles The word Principle in Chymistry must not be understood in too nice a sense for the substances which are so called are only Principles in respect of us and as we can advance no farther in the division of bodies but we well know that they may be still divided into abundance of other parts which may more justly claim in propriety of speech the name of Principles wherefore such substances are to be understood by Chymical Principles as are separated and divided so far as we are capable of doing it by our weak imperfect powers And because Chymistry is an Art that demonstrates what it does it receives for fundamental only such things as are palpable and demonstrable It is in truth a great advantage to us that we have Principles so sensible as they are and whereof we can have so reasonable an assurance The fond conceits of other Philosophers concerning Natural Principles do only puff up the mind with grand Idea's but they prove or demonstrate nothing And this is the reason that going to discover their Principles we find some of them do frame one Systeme and others another But if we would come as near as may be to the true Principles of Nature we cannot take a more certain course than that of Chymistry which will serve us as a Ladder to them and this division of substances though it may seem a little gross will give us a very great Idea of Nature and the figure of the first small particles which have entred into the composition of mixt bodies Some modern Philosophers would perswade us that it is altogether uncertain whether the substances which are separated from bodies and are called Chymical Principles do effectually exist and are naturally residing in the body before these do tell us that the fire by rarifying the matter in time of distillation is capable of bestowing upon it such an alteration as is quite different from what it had before and so of forming the Salt Oil and other things which are drawn from it This objection does at first seem to have much weight and reason in it because it is certain as hereafter shall be shewn that the Fire does give a very considerable impression to the preparations and that very often it does put such a new face upon things that they are very hardly to be known when compar'd with what they were before But it is easie to shew that though the Fire does so diversifie and alter substances yet it does not make those Principles for we see them and smell them in many bodies before ever we bring them to undergo the Fire For example it cannot be denied but that there was existent Oyl in Olives in Almonds in Nuts and in many other fruits and seeds because it is drawn only by beating and pressing them Turpentine which is a thickned Oyl and many other fat or unctuous liquors are drawn by meer incision into the trunk or root of trees and what else I pray is the fat of animals but an Oyl or Sulphur coagulated Nor can it be denied but that there is salt actually in mixt bodies since that by bruising a Plant and making expression to draw out its juyce and then leaving the juyce to settle in some cool place for a few daies a salt will be found fixt about the vessel in form of little Crystals I know that some doubting Scepticks who make it their business to doubt of every thing will still say that by beating the Almonds and then pressing them and by making incision into Trees the parts which compose the plant are agitated and put in motion after such a manner as they are by Fire and that this agitation of parts is capable of ranging them so as to make the Oyl and Salt But such reasonings as these do destroy themselves by too much niceness and there is no sober understanding man but easily perceives the falshood for can a man well perceive that meer trituration or incision are able to make Salt Oyl Earth it is abundantly more probable nay and it may be sufficiently demonstrated that those substances did exist in the bodies before and that by incision and trituration the gate has only been opened to let them come freely out Others again do attack the Principles of Chymistry after
three sorts of it the Black the White and the Yellow The Inhabitants of those Countries do keep this Opium for their own use and do send us only the Meconium which is nothing else but the Juyce of these same Poppy-heads drawn by expression and then thickned and wrapt up in leaves to transport the better It is this Drug that we improperly call Opium and always use for want of the true but being more impure than the true it hath not the same activity and strength A Meconium may be made after the same manner with the heads of those Poppies that grow in Italy Languedoc and Provence but it will prove much weaker than the former The Opium which comes from Thebes or else from Grand-Cairo is accounted the best you must choose it Black Inflammable bitter to the taste and a little acrimonious its smell must be disagreeable and stupefactive Extract of Opium called Laudanum This Operation is the purer part of Opium drawn in water and Spirit of wine and reduced to the consistence of an extract Cut into slices four ounces of good Opium and put it into a bolt-head pour upon it a quart of Rain-water well filtred stop the bolt-head and setting it in sand give your fire by degrees then increase it to make the liquor boil for two hours strain it warm and pour it into a bottle Take the Opium which remains undissolved in the Rain-water dry it in an earthen pan over a small fire and putting it into a Matrass pour upon it Spirit of wine to the height of four fingers stop the Matrass and digest the matter twelve hours in hot Ashes afterwards strain the liquor and there will remain a glutinous earth which is to be flung away Evaporate both these dissolutions of Opium separately in earthen or glass vessels in a Sand-heat to the consistence of honey then mix them and finish the drying this mixture with a very gentle heat to give it the consistence of Pills or a solid Extract It is the most certain Soporifick that we have in Physick it allays all pains which proceed from too great an activity of the humors it is good for the Tooth-ach applied to the tooth or else to the Temple-artery in a plaister it is used for to stop spitting of bloud the bloudy-flux the flux of the menses and hemorrhoids for the colick for hot defluxions on the eyes and to quiet all sorts of griping pains the dose of it is from half a grain to three in some convenient Conserve or else dissolved in a Julep Remarks Opium is compounded of a Spirituous part and a gross terrestrious Rosine the Spirituous part may be easily dissolv'd in water but the Resinous requires a more convenient Menstruum such as Spirit of Wine You must dry the Opium after the first dissolution least the Spirit of Wine be too much weakned by the watry part that remains which would hinder the solution from being done so well as it should be Distilled Vinegar dissolves Opium but the acids may diminish its virtue by destroying or fixing its volatile part which serves for a vehicle to the other Spirit of wine alone might be used to dissolve both parts of the Opium but it might be feared it would carry away with it the volatile part in the Evaporation All that is in the Opium is preserved by my description for the Resinous part dissolved in the Spirit of Wine cannot evaporate with it because it is the heavier and the other part which I call Volatile in comparison with the first is mixt with a little Rosine that keeps it back while the water evaporates The truth of this I have found by experience and any body else may try as well as I have done by distilling these liqours Lastly it is hard to use any greater precaution than this for the preservation of all the pure parts of Opium and fewer Menstruums can be used that are more convenient If in curiosity you weigh the glutinous earth after it is dried you will find it to be half an ounce Almost all Authors have appointed to torrifie Opium before it be dissolved to the end a certain malignity which they say is in it may be evaporated but that which they call malignity is nothing but the Spirits or Sulphurs that are most volatile whereof I spoke but now so that by the Torrefaction they deprive it of its more active part They do further add to the Extract commonly drawn with Spirit of Wine Coral Pearl Treacle Extract of Saffron Cordial Confections Hysterical ingredients and other things which may resist a cold malignity in the fourth degree which they pretend to be in Opium But experience convinces us that it is not so dangerous when given in the foresaid dose so that there is no need at all of losing its volatile part by Torrefaction nor of mixing it with other ingredients which may hinder its operation or retard its effect It belongs to the Physician when he thinks fit to give it to judge whether there be any need of an Hysterick or Cordial which he may appoint to be mixed upon the spot I shall not stay to examine here whether Opium is cold or hot they who have made the Anatomy of this mixt do know very well that it is almost all of it Sulphur I shall endeavour to explicate its effects the most sensibly I can according to the Rules of Chymistry The virtue of Opium consists in causing sleep and that by calming the motion of the Spirits for since watchfulness does proceed from the motion of the Spirits which by rarifying the humors in the little passages of the Brain do augment their Circulation it may surely be said with probability enough that sleep is caused by some condensation of the humors which happens from a repose of the Spirits in the Brain According to this Principle then there must be contained in Opium and all other Soporificks a certain substance that inviscates the Spirits and hinders them for some time from Circulating so fast as they did before Let us examine now whether any such thing can probably be found in Opium by the Analysis I have made of it first of all I have observed a Spirituous part but after that hath been drawn out by means of Rain-water there remains a gummous and terrestrious matter and this is the substance that I find so proper to produce this effect For nothing in Physick is so fit to thicken the bloud and other humors as things that are Mucilaginous Milk and the Emulsions which are drawn from divers seeds the Water-Lily Lettice nay and all temperate Aliments do frequently incline to sleep because they are impregnated with a gummous substance which mixing in the bloud does serve to agglutinate the Spirits and to moderate the quickness of their motion this now being supposed it is easie to conceive how Opium makes one sleep seeing it is loaded with Mucilaginous parts which may be conveighed into the vessels But without doubt
and there will distil a liquor to the bottom of the vessel which you may take out and keep for use This is called the Oil of Myrrhe it is good to take away spots and blemishes in the face applied outwardly Remarks Though this liquor improperly called Oil is only the more soluble part of Myrrhe humected with the moisture of whites of Eggs and the Cellar together yet it is the best of any that have been invented whether you should draw it in Spirit of wine or distill this Gumm in a Retort for by Spirit of wine the more volatile part of Myrrhe is lost either by Distillation or Evaporation and it is so torrified in a Retort that it loses its best virtues whereas per Deliquium what volatile this Gumm contains is preserved in its natural being for the wet that mixes with it is no ways capable of destroying or altering its nature THE THIRD PART Of Animals CHAP. I. Of the Viper PAssing by the fabulous Stories that the Ancients have left us concerning the Birth of the Viper I shall say it is a sort of Serpent that comes into the world by eating through the belly of her Dam and killing her whence she is called Vipera quòd vi pariat This Animal is very common in Dauphiné and Poictou from whence it is carried all over France While it is in the field it feeds upon several little Animals but when taken and shut up in any place it may be kept a whole Summer without eating any thing at all provided it hath Air enough to breath in The reason why they can live so long without eating is doubtless that the pores of their skin being so exceeding narrow as they do appear to be upon examination very few of their Spirits do come to be lost wherefore they have little need of successive nourishment to beget new ones as other animals have who spend abundance of Spirits 'T is good to take Vipers in the Spring or Autumn because then they are fattest and in greatest vigour The Cold kills ' em They differ from other Serpents in that they never grow so much they have two Teeth on the sides of their Jaws and those very long in comparison with a great many little ones that are round about and the Gum of each of those long Teeth is full of a Yellowish Juyce in which many do think their venom consists now Serpents have none of those long Teeth but only little ones Again they differ in that being taken up by the Tails they can't wind themselves like Serpents to make such circumvolutions about the Arm or thing that holds them and this by reason of the different connexion of their Vertebra's When the Viper is irritated it shoots out a forked tongue which looks like a little fire-brand by reason of the vigorous motion of its Spirits those who never had seen the teeth of the Viper do think this is that which causes all the mischief but the tongue is not at all venomous Some do save the tongue to wear about their neck instead of an Amulet in order to preserve them from the effects of ill airs Serpents do likewise thrust out their tongues as the Viper does But here it may be good to advertise you by the by that those things which are brought to us from Maltha for the tongues of petrified Serpents are nothing but the teeth of a fish which that Countrey affords The biting of Vipers is more dangerous than that of other Serpents but the most quick and assured Remedy that can be used upon it is to crush the head of the Animal and lay it on the wound because by opening of the pores it lets out the venomous Spirits that were got in The bit person may likewise take the volatile salt of Vipers as I shall shew hereafter It is not yet sufficiently known wherein consists the venom of Vipers nor can any good substantial reason be given of the accidents which happen after the biting Most men think this malignity consists in the enraged spirits And this is the opinion of Van Helmont and Poterius according to the relation of Zwelfer in his Remarks upon the Augustan Dispensatory where he treats of the Troches of Vipers He saith there have been a great many eminent men who have confirmed this opinion with curious observations on the bitings of enraged Animals particularly of Man of the Cat Wolf Horse Dog Weasil c. And among others Fabritius Hildanus in his Chirurgical Operations to whose proofs he thinks nothing further can be added to confirm the truth of this opinion If accidents saith he do happen that are sometimes more severe and sometimes less they must be attributed only to more or less provocation and anger or sometimes to a more profound or slighter biting of these Animals This opinion seems likewise to have been confirmed by some experiments which Monsieur Charas relates in his book of Vipers where he shews not only that the enraged Spirits are the sole poison of the Viper but also pretends that the Yellow Juice which is found in the hollow part of the Jaw wherein the great tooth is fastned and was supposed to be the venom of this Animal is no such matter for having poured some of this liquor on the wounds of several beasts not one of them died nay further that those persons who had ventured to taste it never found any inconvenience from it Nevertheless Monsieur Redy in a particular Treatise on the Viper will not grant the truth of these experiments On the contrary he maintains that having put some of this Yellow juice into the wounds of divers sorts of Animals they soon died upon it and thence concludes that the venom of Vipers consists in the Yellow juice and not in the enraged Spirits only as the others have thought he taking this cause alone to be too Metaphysical And in truth who would believe that the Idea which this Animal forms when he finds himself provoked should be able to imprint on the Spirits qualities so malignant Now in so great an opposition of Opinions and Experiments a certain great man of these times found a way to reconcile them by affirming that the Yellow juice of Vipers did produce different effects according to the several places where these Animals lived so that Monsieur Redy might have found the Yellow juice to be venomous in Italy whereas in France where the Climate is not so hot this juice doth not produce any poisonous quality unless it be quickned by the Angry Spirits of the Viper which gives it a sufficient penetration Others do confidently assure us they have seen several Animals in France die soon after they had put some of this Yellow liquor into the wounds they had made for that purpose which very much favours the assertion of Monsieur Redy Furthermore as for what is related that in France people have ventured to taste this Yellow liquor without any harm I find this not to be a convincing proof
another manner a little differing from this these do acknowledge that the foresaid substances are naturally in the Mixts much as we draw them by Art but they assert that we have no proof that the Mixts are compounded of these same substances called Principles and that they are not drawn from the juyce of the earth in such a form that Salt Sulphur c. may indeed have been formed in the natural Fermentations and other elaborations which happen in the Mixt during its growth and therefore they conclude that those substances cannot properly be called Principles because we do not know sufficiently whether the Mixt was composed of them at first But since we are satisfied that the earths which serve for a matrix to Mixt bodies are impregnated with Salt Sulphur and other substances of the nature of those which we do find in the bodies and since we can perceive nothing else which can contribute to their composition it remains beyond all doubt that they are even compounded of them It must be granted that the Fermentations or other Elaborations which come to pass in mixt bodies have given the Principles a certain order of parts or some dispositions they had not before but they do by no means form or compose them The five Principles are easily found in Animals and Vegetables but not so easily in Minerals Nay there are some Minerals out of which you cannot possibly draw so much as two nor make any separation at all as Gold and Silver whatsoever they talk who search with so much pains for the Salts Sulphurs and Mercuries of these metals I can believe that all the Principles do indeed enter into the composition of these Bodies but it does not follow that they must remain in their former condition or can be drawn as they were before for it may be these substances which are called Principles are so strictly involved one within another as to suffer no separation any other way than by breaking their Figure Now it is by reason of their Figure that they are called Salts Sulphurs and Spirits For example if you mix an Acid Spirit with the Salt of Tartar or some other Alkali the edges of the Acid will so insinuate into the pores of the Salt that if by distillation you would separate the Acid Spirit again from the Salt you 'l never be able to effect it the Acid will have lost almost all its strength because the edges of these Spirits are so far destroyed or changed that they no longer preserve their former Figure Every body knows that glass is made of Salt but because the Fire hath wrought so great a change upon its Texture or Figure it can do nothing at all that Salt is used to do nay and it is in a manner impossible to draw any true Salt from it by Chymistry There are three sorts of Liquors that are qualified with the name of Spirit in Chymistry the Spirit of Animals the Burning spirit of Vegetables and the Acid spirit The first of them as the spirit of Harts-horn is nothing but a Volatile salt dissolved by a little Phlegm as I shall shew when I treat of Animals The second as the Spirit of Wine the Spirit of Juniper and the Spirit of Rosemary is an exalted Oyl as I shall shew speaking of Wines And the last as the Spirit of Vinegar Tartar and Vitriol is an Acid Essential salt dissolved and put in fusion by the fire as I shall prove when I speak of Vinegar and the distillation of Tartar this last is called a Fluid salt These three sorts of liquors comprehending all that can any way be called Spirit this may pass for one Principle very well for seeing that the Spirit which is drawn from Animals is nothing but a Salt dissolved by a little Phlegm that Spirit of Wine is only an Oyl exalted and that the Acid Spirit is a Salt become fluid we can observe nothing in these liquors but an Oyl Salts of a different nature and water Wherefore it must be concluded that the Spirit or Mercury which Chymists have talk'd of is a meer Chimaera that serves only to confound mens minds and render Chymistry unintelligible for men might if they would have called these liquors by more proper names thus what hindred them from calling the Spirit of Animals by the name of a Volatile salt dissolv'd the liquors which come from Oyls might have been called an exalted Oyl and the Acid spirits a Fluid salt and hereby we should not have been troubled about an imaginary Principle and Chymistry would have been better understood But it is impossible to change a name that has been so long fixt and appropriated to these liquors All that I can do is to explicate as I have done what is meant by the word Spirit in order to avoid Equivocations Nothing but the Oyl can properly be said to be Inflammable and the Oyl is so much the more so as the Salts with which it is closely united have been more or less spiritualized For that which I call Spirit in the Oyl is nothing but an Essential or Volatile Salt this Salt is not of it self Inflammable but serves to Rarifie and Exalt the parts of the Oyl to render them the more susceptible of Motion and consequently of Flagration after the same manner as when Salt-peter is put to mix with some Oily substance this Oily matter fires much more easily than when it is alone though Salt-peter of it self is not at all Inflammable as I shall prove hereafter We have examples of the truth of what I say in Spirit of Wine Oyl of Turpentine and all other Inflammable Liquors for they are only Oyls subtilized and refined by the Volatile Salts they contain Vegetables have a great deal of Salt much like to Salt-peter this Salt being straitly united with their Oyl makes them the more apt to flame than if they had been deprived of it The Fat of Animals as well as their other parts is full of a Volatile Acid salt Wax Rosine and all other matters that are inflammable are impregnated with an Acid Salt Essential or Volatile I say the Salt which causes the flagration of Oyls must be either Volatile or Essential for if it were a fixt Salt 't would have a contrary effect it would allay in some measure the quick motion of the parts of an Inflammable body and this we see happens when Sea-salt is flung into the fire it serves to put it out Common Sulphur yields us another instance of the same kind consisting of one part Sulphureous or Oily and another Saline or Acid fixt which plainly appears in the opening of it the Oily part fires and would soon rise like other Oils into a great white flame but that the Acid part being a load to its activity hinders it from rising and so forces it to cast but only a small blue flame and a proof of what I affirm may be had from mixing Salt-peter with Sulphur for the Volatile salt of Salt-peter
Viol and keep it for use it is called the Oil of Philosophers It is a good Remedy applyed outwardly to discuss the Tumours of the Spleen for the Palsie Phthisick and suffocations of the mother It may be given inwardly from two to four drops in wine or some appropriate liquor Some drops of it are instilled into the Ear to dissipate the flatulent humours that are there inclosed Remarks This operation serves only to exalt the Oil of Olives that being more opened by the fire it may rarefie and dissolve humours more easily for you must not imagine that the Brick doth communicate any great virtue it is a dry body and wanting all active principles You must make a very moderate fire in this distillation that the Oil may come forth in vapours for if it should come out drop by drop it would not be so open nor would it produce so good effects Some do rectifie the Oil of Bricks with Colcothar instead of Bricks or else with the mass that remains after the distillation of Aqua fortis Antient Chymists have given the epithete Philosophick to all preparations wherein they have used Brick The reason that can be given for it is that because they call themselves the only True Philosophers or Philosophers by way of excellence they thought they were obliged to confer some influences of this mighty name upon Bricks because they are the materials wherewith they build their Furnaces to work at the high and mighty operation or the Philosophers stone for they pretend it is by this Operation alone that True Philosophy can be obtained CHAP. XIV Of Coral COral is a petrified plant that grows under deep hollow Rocks in many places of the Mediterranean Sea where the Sea is deep or rather it is a certain shoot from a Rock that hath received the form of a Plant. It is not true that it is taken out of the Sea soft as some have said There are of them of several colours as the White the Red and the Black now and then there are found some of two colours as Red and Black The Red is the most common and most in use it is chosen of a deep colour the White is more rare than the Red. A certain white stone very spungy that is like unto Coral is brought among us which is mistaken for true white Coral by those that don't know it but the true is not at all spungy it is rather very compact and as white as Ivory Black Coral is the greatest rarity of them all If you put the branches of Red Coral to infuse a day or two in melted white Wax upon hot embers the Coral will lose its former colour and become white and the wax will assume a yellow colour The Wax must be a fingers breadth above the Coral If you should put other red Coral to steep in the same Wax it would turn brown If again the third time you should put red Coral to steep in the same wax the wax would then become red The wax dissolves a little of the bituminous matter that is upon the Coral and which did render it red this operation is done only for curiosity Many persons do hang red Coral about the neck in order to stop Haemorrhagies to purifie the bloud and to fortifie the heart I believe that which gave occasion to think it has such excellent virtues was its Red colour which is like to that of the bloud and the heart but experience does no way confirm that outwardly applied it has any such effects Coral is prepared by beating it on a Marble into a most fine powder that it may the more easily be dissolved and this prepared Coral is given to stop Dysenteries Diarrheas Flux of the Haemorrhoids and Terms Haemorrhagies and all other distempers that are caused by an acrimony of humours this being an alkali that destroys them the dose is from ten grains to a drachm in Knot-grass water or some other appropriate liquor Dissolution of Coral Take what quantity you please of Coral finely powdered on a Marble put it into a large matrafs and pour upon it distilled Vinegar enough to cover the matter four fingers high there will happen a great effervescency which being over set your matter in digestion in warm sand for two days stirring the matrass from time to time Leave the Coral to settle at bottom and decant the clear liquor into a bottle Pour again so much distilled Vinegar on the remainder as before and leave it two days in digestion separate the clear liquor and continue to add more distilled Vinegar and to draw off the Impregnation until all the Coral is in a manner dissolved Then mix your dissolutions and pour them into a glass Cucurbite or else into an earthen one evaporate in sand two thirds of the liquor or until there appears upon it a very fine skin Filtrate this Impregnation and keep it in order to make the Salt and Magistery as I shall shew hereafter It may be given for the same purposes as the Salt the dose is from ten to twenty drops in some appropriate liquor Remarks Red Coral is generally used because it is thought to have more virtue than the rest by reason of its Tincture The effervescency which happens when Vinegar doth penetrate Coral is reckoned among cold effervescencies if there be any such for my part I cannot say that I ever perceived any coldness in it In truth it is very strange that so great an Ebullition or motion of the parts should not produce any sensible heat but you must consider that Coral having large pores may be easily dissolved and so the acids need not jostle it very much which would be requisite to produce any considerable heat Some do use in this operation the acid Lotion of Butter of Antimony or pure Spirit of Vitriol instead of Vinegar but because these spirits do leave too great an acidity in the Preparations of Coral I conceive it better to use distilled Vinegar Coral being an alkali the acid points do stick in it and suspending its parts do render them imperceptible and this is the reason that the Vinegar doth lose all its acidity because the acidity did only consist in the activity of its points which do now sheath themselves in the alkali If you would by way of curiosity distil this dissolution instead of Evaporating it as I have said you 'd gain nothing but an insipid water because the acid is fixt with the Coral This water is evaporated away because it would serve for nothing and would only weaken the impregnation The dissolution of Perle Crabs-eyes burnt Harts-horn and all other alkali matters is performed after the same manner their Salts and Magisteries may be likewise made as those of Coral which I am going to describe It is here remarkable that the solution of this sort of alkalies in distilled Vinegar smells much like spirit of Wine and that some quantity of it may be drawn with a very gentle fire the
Calcined by some subterranean heat It is the least common of them all it stops Bloud being applied to Hemorrhagies If you dissolve a little white or green Vitriol in water and write with the dissolution the writing will not be seen but if you rub the paper with a little Cotton dipt in the decoction of Galls it will appear legible then if you wet a little more Cotton in Spirit of Vitriol and pass it gently over the paper the Ink will disappear again and yet at last if you rub the place with a little more Cotton dipt in Oil of Tartar made per Deliquium it will again appear legible but of a Yellowish colour The reason that I can give for these effects is this the Spirit of Vitriol dissolves a certain Coagulum which is made of Vitriol and Galls but the Oil of Tartar breaking the force of this acid Spirit the Coagulum recovers it self and appears again but because it now contains Oil of Tartar too it acquires a new colour If you throw the dissolution of Vitriol or Vitriol only powdered into a strong decoction of dried Roses it will turn as black as common Ink if you pour some drops of spirit of Vitriol into it this Ink will turn red and if you add to it a little volatile spirit of Sal Armoniack it will turn gray These changes of colour do proceed from the spirit of Vitriol's dissolving the Coagulum which the Vitriol it self had made and rendring it invisible the liquor recovers a fresher red colour than it had before the Vitriol was put into it because the same spirit does separate the parts of the Rose which were dissolved in the liquor and renders them more visible The volatile spirit of Sal Armoniack which is an alkali does partly break the acid edges of the spirit of Vitriol so that the parts of the Rose having nothing more to keep them rarefied do close together and consequently the liquor changes colour By this experiment may be seen that the dried Rose may serve to make Ink with as well as Galls Indian wood and divers other things will do the same Gilla Vitrioli or Vomitive Vitriol This operation is only a purification of white Vitriol Dissolve what quantity you please of white Vitriol in as much Phlegm of Vitriol as is needful to dissolve it filtrate the dissolution and evaporate two thirds of the moisture in an earthen pan Put the rest into a cool place for three days time there will shoot out Crystals which you must separate then evaporate a third part of the liquor that remains and set the vessel again in a Cellar there will shoot new Crystals continue thus evaporating and crystallizing until you have gotten all you can dry these Crystals in the Sun and keep them for use the dose is from twelve grains to a drachm in Broth or some other liquor Remarks This is only a Purification of Vitriol that serves to separate a little earth from it All the liquor may be evaporated without any Crystallization the Gilla Vitrioli will remain at bottom in a white powder White Vitriol is used in this operation rather than Green because it is milder The other Vitriols may be purified after the same manner After taking this vomit a man sometimes voids by stool a black matter like Ink because it frequently happens that some part of the Vitriol descending into the Guts meets a saline matter that it joyns with and so causes a blackness as it uses to do when Vitriol is mixed with Galls Calcination of Vitriol Put what quantity you please of Green Vitriol into an earthen pot unglazed set the pot over the fire and the Vitriol will dissolve into water boil it to the consumption of the moisture or else until the matter turn into a grayish mass drawing towards white this is called Vitriol Calcined to whiteness If you should Calcine this gray Vitriol a good while over a strong fire it would turn as red as bloud It is called Colcothar and is good to stop bloud being applied to a wound Remarks You must not Calcine the Vitriol in a glazed pot for fear of dissolving the Vernish which would change the nature of the Vitriol It may be Calcined or rather dryed in the Sun until it becomes white this Calcination deserves to be preferr'd before the other but only it is longer a doing The Vitriol may be likewise spread about a Furnace heated a little and so dried until it turns white If you should resolve to dry as exactly as you can sixteen pounds of green Vitriol there would remain but seven pounds of white Vitriol But in order to do this you must powder the white mass of Calcined Vitriol after you have broke the pot and stir it a long time in an earthen pan over a little fire until there rises no more fume from it or until there remains in it no more phlegm If you should Calcine this white Vitriol to a redness you 'd have five pounds and a half of Colcothar The sulphur of Vitriol is lost during this last Calcination you must do it in the Chimney for the fume would be very injurious to the breast This sulphur has the same smell as ordinary sulphur Some have writ that the red colour which appears after a long Calcination of English Vitriol was an undoubted proof that there was Copper in it after the same manner as the red colour which happens to Verdigreese calcined is a certain proof that it contains in it some particles of Copper But that which is here said to pass for a thing undeniable is no proof at all for first of all those Vitriols which are thought most to partake of Copper do give no greater redness in their Calcination than the others which partake the least of it Secondly let Copper be prepared which way you please you can never make it redder than the Colcothar of English Vitriol whose redness must be thought to proceed from some particles of this metal contained in it And thirdly we see plainly that Iron Lead Mercury and divers mineral bodies do acquire a red colour in their Calcining without containing any Copper The Sympathetical powder that has made so much noise is nothing but white Vitriol opened prepared divers ways according to mens different conceptions about it The Roman Vitriol is better esteemed than the other for this operation The common method of preparing this Powder is to expose it to the heat of the Sun whilst the Sun is in Leo that is in July in order to dry it and to open it And men think that Sign does bestow particular influences on the preparation Though in truth it undergoes drying better in that season than another by reason of the great heat then of the Sun And it may be the parts of the Vitriol do become more volatile by this heat but for what is said of Influence it is meerly imaginary Many do only pulverize the ordinary Vitriol in order to make the