length and bigness one from another and this diversity must be attributed to the keener or blunter edges of the different sorts of acids and so likewise this difference of the points in subtilty is the cause that one acid can penetrate and dissolve well one sort of mixt that another can't rarifie at all thus Vinegar dissolves Lead which aqua fortis can't Aqua fortis dissolves Quick-silver which Vinegar will not touch Aqua Regalis dissolves Gold whenas Aqua fortis cannot meddle with it on the contrary Aqua fortis dissolves Silver but can do nothing with Gold and so of the rest As for Alkali's they are soon known by pouring an acid upon them for presently or soon after there rises a violent Ebullition which remains until the acid finds no more bodies to rarifie This effect may make us reasonably conjecture that an Alkali is a terrestrious and solid matter whose pores are figured after such a manner that the acid points entring into them do strike and divide whatsoever opposes their motion and according as the parts of which the Alkali is compounded are more or less solid the acids finding more or less resistance do cause a stronger or weaker Ebullition So we see the Effervescency that happens in the dissolution of Coral is very much milder than that in the dissolution of Silver There are as many different Alkali's as there are bodies that have different pores and this is the reason why an acid will Ferment with one strongly and with another not at all for there must be a due proportion between the acid points and the pores of the Alkali The nature of Alkali's being thus established there will be no need of flying to an imaginary salt in Plants for explication of the Effervescency and 't will be easily conceived that if an Alkali salt is full of a terrestrious matter that renders it porous like other Alkali's it must cause an Ebullition That which I said speaking of Volatile salts may here be added that the Igneous particles breaking in through the Pores of the Alkali salt wherein they became imprisoned by the Calcination do much contribute to the raising this Effervescency And really when the Acid Spirit of Vitriol or Aqua fortis is cast upon an Alkali salt there happens as strong an Ebullition as when this liquor is flung into the fire it self Acid Salts do rarely cause any effervescency with Acid liquors because their pores being very small the common acids are not able to pierce into them but we do sometimes meet with Acids whose points are so fine and so proportioned to the pores of the Salts that they will find an entrance even into the exceeding little pores of these Acid Salts and thereby cause a commotion And then these Salts although they be Acid yet may be called Alkali's in respect of such keen Acids This does happen to Sea-salt which is an Acid for though it will make no Ebullition neither with Spirit of salt nor with Spirit of Niter nor with Spirit of Alom nor with Spirit of Vitriol yet if you mix it with the strongest Oil of Vitriol there will rise an Effervescency Wherefore it may be said that one Acid Salt is an Alkali in respect of another because there being few bodies without some pores few of them will prove to be impenetrable when they meet with Acids of an extraordinary subtlety The Fermentation that happens to Dow to new Wine and such like things differs from that I now spoke of in that it is more gentle and slow this is caused by the Natural Acid salt contained in them which expanding and exalting it self by its motion does rarifie and raise up the grosser and sulphureous part which endeavours to allay its motion from whence it comes that the matter swells up The reason why an Acid does not make Sulphureous things Ferment with so much noise and suddenness as Alkali's is because that Oyls consist of pliant parts that yield and make no resistance to the points of Acids as a piece of Wool or Cotton will yield and give way to needles that are thrust into it Thus methinks two sorts of Fermentations may be admitted of the one of an Acid with an Alkali which may be called Ebullition and the other when an Acid does by little and little rarifie some softish matter as Dow or clear and Sulphureous as Muste Syder and all other juices of Plants This last sort may rather be called Fermentation It is further remarkable that the Acid and Alkali do so destroy one another in their conflict that when as much Acid has been by degrees poured as is necessary to penetrate the Alkali in all its parts it is then no more an Alkali nor can it be so again though you wash it to carry off the Acid because it has no longer that disposition of Pores which is requisite in an Alkali and the Acid breaks and loses its points in the contest especially when the Alkali is pretty compact and solid so that if you would recover your Acid again you 'l find it has in a manner lost all its acidity and retains only a sharpness But the Sulphur or Oyl consisting of supple yielding parts does only receive some Acid impression and no such close union so that it can be drawn from Sulphureous bodies much the same as when it was mixt Animals do yield us two sorts of Salt the one Volatile and the other Fixt of the first sort they yield greater quantity than of the second because they do abound much in Spirits which by their continual circulation do Volatilize it This Salt differs but little from the Volatile salt of Seeds and Fruits both which are drawn in a Retort they have the same kind of smell taste and other virtues The Volatile salt of Animals keeps dry a longer time than the others because it carries away with it more fixt salt than those others As for fixt salt animals do yield but a very little of it and in some animals you shall find none at all it is drawn as the fixt salt of Plants they are both Alkali's There is no salt that can be called alkali to be found in the parts or humors of Animals until they have passed the fire a Saline serosity may be observed in them but that salt is acid and it proceeds doubtless from the Aliments that are taken for nourishment Now as I have shewn that there is only an acid salt in Earths and Vegetables so I may say the same of Animals and the rather because no other kind of Salt can be found in them in their Natural state the alkali salts that are drawn from them are only several mutations of an acid salt made by fire which mingles with them earthy particles after the manner I have spoken of treating of the Alkali's of Plants But it is observable that whereas there is a greater proportion of Spirits in Animals than Seeds these Spirits do serve to exalt all the Salt which is
Galbanum Plaisters or the Oxycroceum which is applied to the Navil but there is more reason to attribute the effects which come from this remedy rather to the Plaisters than to the Civet And besides it cannot be said that this Civet or this Musk thus applied do yield any good smell Many men are likewise very subject to vapours and among others those that are of a Melancholick temper do seem to feel the same symptoms as women upon any sweet smells This comes from obstructions in the vessels which have communication with the brain for these humors which do cause the obstruction being thereby moved may produce these effects That which is called Spirit of Ambar is only a volatile salt dissolved in a little Phlegm Some Authors pretend that putting this Spirit into a matrass with its blind-head they can sublime a volatile salt from it as from Animals but I could never find experience answer their pretences for after having followed them several times in this Operation I could never gain one jot of that salt which hath given me occasion to examine this Spirit and to enquire what kind of salt it might contain I found this Salt was acid and like unto that of Plants which is called Essential whereof I have spoken in the Principles This Salt being less volatile than that of Animals cannot rise so high besides that it is heavier than the Phlegm which must rise first Wherefore to separate it you must evaporate about a third part of the Spirit over a very gentle fire and then put the remainder into a cool place and leave it there ten or twelve days without stirring it you 'l find little Crystals which you may take and keep in a Viol well stopt This Salt hath the same virtues as the Spirit the dose is from eight grains to sixteen in Raddish or Pellitory water but it is better to keep it in the Spirit for besides that it is more easily preserved so there always flies away some part of it with the Phlegm in the evaporation let the fire be never so moderate But now I shall give you a preparation of the volatile salt of Ambar that may be easily made and may keep dry The Volatile Salt of Ambar Put two pounds of Ambar powdered into a large glass or earthen Cucurbite let it be filled but the fourth part set this Cucurbite in sand and after you have fitted a head to it and a small Receiver lute well the junctures and light a little fire under it for about an hour then when the Cucurbite is grown hot encrease the fire by little and little to the third degree and there will distil first of all a phlegm and Spirit then the volatile salt will rise and stick to the head in little Crystals afterwards there distils an Oil first white and then red but clear when you see the vapours rise no longer you must put out the fire and when the vessels are cold unlute them Gather the volatile salt with a Feather and because it will be but impure as yet by reason of a little Oil that is mixed with it you must put it into a Viol big enough that the salt may fill only the fourth part of it place the Viol in sand after you have stopt it only with paper and by means of a little fire you 'l sublime the pure salt in fair Crystals to the top of the Viol. When you perceive the Oil begin to rise you must then take your Viol off the fire and letting it cool break it to separate the salt keep it in a Viol well stopt you 'l have half an ounce This salt is a very good aperitive and may be given from eight grains to sixteen in some opening liquor for the Jaundies for Ischuries Vlcers in the Bladder the Scurvy Fits of the Mother and upon all occasions where there is any need of removing obstructions and opening by way of Urine The Spirit and Oil have the same virtues as those I have spoken of If you would distil in a Retort the mass which remains in the Cucurbite until there comes away nothing more you 'l have a Black Oil which might serve women to smell to in fits Remarks The Cucurbite must be sure to be large enough for otherwise it will break while the vapours are a rising You will have five ounces and a half of a clear Oil and one ounce and a half of Spirit two ounces and a half of a black oil are drawn from the mass by the Retort and that which remains weighs two ounces it is a black rarefied matter which burns like coals by reason of the fuliginosities that fall upon it A clear Oil may be drawn from Ambar in the first distillation by mixing the Ambar with an equal weight of sea-salt and distilling it in a Retort the usual way there will remain likewise some volatile salt in the neck of the Retort which may be rectified by subliming it in a Viol as I have said CHAP. XXII Of Ambar-Grease AMbar-Grease is a Bitumen found in many places on the Sea-shore but especially in the Indies it grows hard in the Sun-beams The best is that which is very gray and dry and easily softens in the heat when it is wet it appears blackish Men have thought it is found no where else but in the Oriental seas though some of it has been known to be sometimes met with upon the English Coast and in several other places of Europe most of it is brought from the Coast of Melinda and especially at the mouth of the River that is called Rio di Sena Ambar-grease is an excellent Corroborative it is given in some liquor or in Electuary to increase Seed the dose is from one grain to four Essence of Ambar-Grease This operation is an extract of the more oily parts of Ambar-grease Musk and Civet in Spirit of wine Take two drachms of good Ambar-grease so much Sugar Candy half a drachm of Musk and two grains of Civet beat them small together and put the mixture into a Viol pour upon it four ounces of Spirit of Wine well Alcoholized Stop the Viol close and set it in Digestion in horse-dung four days then taking it out separate that which is clear while it is warm for it will congeal when cold This Essence works more strongly than Ambar-grease in substance the dose is from six to twelve drops in some convenient liquor Remarks Ambar-grease alone hath scarce any smell at all but when its parts are put in motion by Fermentation Sulphurs do rise from it which tickle the sense of smelling with a great deal of pleasure the addition of Musk and Civet have a good effect as for the Sugar Candy it serves only to separate the rest that they may be the more easily powdered and dissolved for this Tincture is only a dissolution of these sulphureous matters in Spirit of wine The terrestrious part which remains at bottom may be used in sweet Powders THE SECOND PART Of Vegetables
this condition and when you perceive the Receiver to cool raise the fire to the utmost extremity and continue it so until there rise no more vapours When the vessels are cold unlute the Receiver and shaking it about to make the Volatile salt which sticks to it fall to the bottom pour it all into a Bolt-head fit to it a Head with a small Receiver lute well the junctures and placing it in sand give a litttle fire under it and the Volatile salt will rise and stick to the head and the top of the Bolt-head take off your head and set on another in its place gather your salt and stop it up quickly for it easily dissolves into a liquor continue the fire and take care to gather the salt according as you see it appear but when there rises no more salt a liquor will distil of which you must draw about three ounces and then put out the fire This salt is in great request for to purifie the bloud by sweat or urine it may be given in the Palsie Apoplexy Epilepsie Quartan and Tertian Agues and to open Obstructions the dose is from six grains to fifteen in some proper liquor The distilled liquor is a Volatile salt that is risen with the phlegm it is called the Volatile Spirit of Tartar and has the same virtues as the salt its dose is from eight to four and twenty drops After this same manner the Volatile salt of Beans Soot and divers Fruits and Seeds may be prepared Remarks The Lees of Wine being incomparably more Fermented than the Tartar which is found in the sides of vessels we need not wonder if its salt is more Volatile This salt is sublimed in a Bolt-head to the end the phlegm which is too heavy to rise easily so high may not mix with it but it is extraordinary hard to keep this salt dry it easily humects and dissolves into a liquor wherefore it were much better to draw it in a Spirit and less of the Volatile part would be lost being detained by the phlegm Nevertheless because there are several persons who are as well pleased with the sight of things as their effects this liquefied salt might then be mixt with a sufficient quantity of Calcined bones powdered to make thereof a Paste which might be made into little Pellets to be put into a Bolt-head and fitting to it a Blind-head this salt may be sublimed or rectified as before and this pure salt must be kept in Viols well stopt The difficulty there is in keeping this Volatile salt dry as well as that of other Vegetables does proceed from this that only the more essencial part is volatilized for there remains much sixt salt with the earth in the Retort This volatile salt becomes alkali by the means of fire as other volatile salts do whereof I have already spoken in my Remarks upon the Principles and there is no manner of probability that it should have been of this nature either in the Plant or in the Lees for the reasons that I have shewn in the same Remarks I shall add here that if the alkali salt did exist in the Lees but is not able to expand it self and get the predominancy of acids but only by a long Fermentation as the Chymists will have it who follow the common way of discoursing of these things it would then necessarily follow that the more Lees do ferment the more they must lose of their acidity because the alkali would destroy it Nevertheless the contrary to this happens for Lees do sowr as they grow stale those who make Vinegar do know well enough how to use the Lees and to make them ferment with their wine when they would make Vinegar quickly It seems to me from the consideration of this effect that there is little reason to follow the Sentiments of some who have writ that the Lees of wine abounding in volatile salt and a sulphureous spirit do contain but very little acid for it is as plain as may be that this volatile salt is acid in the Lees and is the same that makes the acid spirit of Vinegar being more volatile than many other acids to volatilize with its phlegm in the distillation It is true that salt of Tartar drawn by the Retort does rise more easily than Spirit of Vinegar but this is from its being volatilized by the violent heat of fire Another mark that all the salt of Lees is acid is this that the Tartar does all dissolve in the wine and turns into Vinegar for very little or no Lees or other Tartar is to be found in the vessels wherein Vinegar is made although there was some naturally before or though some more were added to it as I have said in the Chapter of Vinegar Perhaps it will be objected that Lees are sometimes added to wines grown ropy and mucilaginous to make them good again and yet those wines are not sowred by the Lees. But this effect happens when the former Fermentation becoming imperfect through the too great quantity of phlegm for the little proportion of salt that was in the wines the salt of the Lees does rarifie exalt and conjoin with the Oily parts of the liquor that the Spirit of wine is made of as I have said in the Chapter of Wine For the wine does not sowr so long as the salt finds Oil to act upon but it does so when this salt finds nothing to hinder it from expanding itself The volatile salt of Tartar produces much the same effects as that of Beans and other seeds and though many will needs give it sublime and extraordinary virtues in comparison with other volatile salts I do'nt see any reason for such high conceits nor that effects do answer their pretences Volatile salts have a good use when they find the pores humors disposed for perspiration but they are full as dangerous when the humors are not at all prepared for by their volatility they do put the humors into so great a motion that oftentimes the Feaver is encreased by them and a translation made to the Brain wherefore you must consider well the Temper and present state of your Patient before you presume to give them That which remains in the Bolt-head after the volatile salt and spirit are drawn off is a black and stinking Oil mixt with the more phlegmatick part of the liquor you must separate this Oil in a Tunnel lined with brown paper it is good for the Palsie for Cold pains and for Hysterical women to smell to A Lee or Tartar Calcined is found in the Retort out of which you may draw a fixt alkali salt as out of common Tartar but in a much less quantity for that the greatest part of the salt of Lees is volatilized CHAP. XV. Of Opium OPium is a Tear which distils of itself or by Incision of the heads of Poppies found very frequently in Greece in the Kingdom of Cambaia and the territories of Grand-Cairo in Egypt there are
the liquor you 'l have a Spirit that must be kept well stopt it hath the same virtues as the Salt the dose is from ten to thirty drops The Phlegm must be flung away If that which remains in the Retort is Calcined in an open fire and a Lixivium made of it as I said concerning fixt Alkali Salts a small quantity of fixt Salt will remain which nevertheless hath no more virtue than other Alkali Salts I spoke of before The volatile salts of Harts-horn the bloud Skull Nails Hair and other parts of Animals may be drawn after the same manner Remarks The Receiver must be sure to be large enough that the Spirits may circulate with greater ease the fire must likewise be well managed for these Spirits being forced out too fast do rush forth violently and break the Receiver or else are lost through the joints The Phlegm comes before the other Principles in the first distillation but in the Rectification the Volatile Salt rises first because it is at liberty and is lighter than the Phlegm The Spirit which is drawn from Animals by Chymistry is nothing but a volatile salt dissolved in Phlegm Your vessel for sublimation must be very high that the Volatile Salt may rise without any Phlegm for when the vessel is short the Phlegm riseth with the Volatile salt liquifies it and turns it into Spirit A bolt-head or a long body with its head may serve for this Operation because the Phlegm being too heavy cannot mount so high and therefore leaves the Volatile Salt to sublime alone which may nevertheless be Rectified to become more pure you must mix it with the distilled Spirit and repeat the Sublimation according as I have said but because this Salt always carries along with it a small quantity of Oil a few days afterwards it loses its whiteness and turns Yellowish now to avoid that you must pour upon it when it is in the bottle Spirit of Wine Tartarised one fingers height and so keep it well stopt This Spirit of Wine hinders the salt from dissolving its self and the Oil it contained so that after some days it turns red and the salt grows white when it is to be used the Spirit is decanted from it and the Salt left alone by means of this Lotion it loses a little of its former smell but care must be taken that the Spirit of Wine be well Rectified for if there remained any the least Phlegm the Salt would dissolve in it You may also sublime it again as before after having well washt it in Spirit of Wine it will be dry and very fair There is another way of Rectifying the Volatile salt which is by mixing it with four or five times as much bones or horns burnt white and putting the mixture into a glass or earthen body then fitting to it a blind-head or such a one whose Nose has not been opened after that luting well the joints then setting the vessel in sand and with a gentle fire the Volatile salt will rise and stick to the head you must continue the fire until there rises no more This salt is hereby purified from a great deal of its Oil which remains in the powder of Bones wherefore it becomes whiter than it was and pleasanter to the palate It may again be mixt with other Calcined bones and sublimed as before to render it purer still and take away more of its loathsome smell that 's caused partly by the Empyreumatical oyl that it draws along with it in the distillation The Volatile salt dissolved in a little water Crystallizes like Sugar-Candy and then it is easier to keep than before There can be drawn from Animals but a very little quantity of fixt salt because the Spirits which abound in them do volatilize their salt for which reason this volatile salt keeps dry longer than that of Vegetables The virtue of Animals doth principally consist in their Volatile salt it is that which gives meat its savour that makes Broths strong and turns them into a Gelly according as they do abound more or less The Juscula Consummata which are made with a small fire are better than those that are boiled quick because a strong fire carries away good part of the Volatile salts Volatile Salts do rarifie the humors of the body both by reason of their piercing nature and also in that being Alkalis they do dull the strength of Acids which keep the humors condensed after which the bloud being in greater motion than before doth the more easily purifie it self either by perspiration or by Urine from heterogeneous bodies which were there gathered together This Operation may serve to shew how the Volatile Salt of all Animals or any part of them may be drawn When the Volatile Salt of Bloud is to be drawn that of the best colour must be taken and dried in the Sun or else with a very little fire and so distilled like Vipers If you distil two and thirty ounces of shavings of Harts-horn you 'l draw thirteen ounces of liquor and Volatile salt and there will remain in the Retort nineteen ounces of matter as black as Coal You 'l draw from the liquor an ounce and a half of Volatile salt six ounces of Spirit and two ounces of Black oil The black matter being grinded on a Marble is good for Painters use if you Calcine it the fuliginous parts which make it black will fly away and leave the Harts-horn very white you 'l have sixteen ounces of it and this is called burnt Harts-horn It is accounted a Cordial but indeed has no other virtue than to destroy acids as all other alkali matters do Some do stratifie Harts-horn with Bricks and Calcining it that way they call it Harts-horn prepared Philosophically they account it more Cordial than it was before but they are egregiously mistaken for the Volatile salt and oil which were the things that should render it Cardiacal were carried away in the Calcination and there remains only a Terrestrious matter that may be called a Caput mortuum Notwithstanding it is an alkali which may serve as Crabs-eyes Coral and divers other matters of the like nature which absorb acids the Bricks bestow no virtue at all to it If you distil forty ounces of Ivory you will draw thirteen ounces of liquor and volatile salt and there will remain in the Retort six and twenty ounces of a matter as black as Coal Afterwards by the Rectification you will get two ounces and a drachm of Volatile salt one ounce and five drachms of a stinking black oil five ounces of Spirit and four ounces two drachms of phlegm If you Calcine the black pieces which remain in the Retort in an open fire the soot will leave them and they will burn white this is called burnt Ivory or Spodium it has the same virtues as burnt Harts-horn you will have at least twenty ounces of it It is here remarkable that Ivory does contain much more earth than Harts-horn and
doubtless that is the reason why it is the whiter If you distil twelve ounces of Hair you will obtain eight ounces of liquor and volatile salt There will remain in the Retort three ounces and a half of a black matter very spongy and earthy from which no fixed salt can be drawn And by Rectification you will raise into the Head an ounce and seven drachms of a very fine volatile salt separate by a filter three ounces of a black and very fetid oil and by distillation of that which is filtrated you 'l have two ounces of Spirit and nine drachms of phlegm All Volatile salts have much resemblance in their figure smell and taste but that of Vipers is accounted the most active and proper against Poisons those of Harts-horn and Mans Skull are thought to be better than others for the Epilepsie that of mans bloud to purifie the bloud and so of the rest When you Rectifie the Spirit of Vipers or man's Skull or Harts-horn or hair in order to purifie them from their phlegm if you should let the liquor continue distilling longer than is fitting the phlegm will rise after the Spirit but then it separates from the Spirit as water separates from oil the Spirit will be uppermost and a little troubled and whitish but if you keep these two liquors together for a month the whole will mix together and there will be no longer any separation of them at all These effects do happen from this that the Spirit in rising does carry with it some small quantity of Oil which was dissolved in the liquor by reason of salts that it contains This Oil is very volatile it rises with the Spirit and by rendring the Spirit a little oily it hinders at first the phlegm from mixing with it It is likewise this little quantity of oil which makes the Spirit look a little troubled and whitish but when the Spirit and phlegm are kept a good while together they mix and the whole appears like a homogeneous liquor because there being but little oil in the Spirit the phlegm insensibly enters into and incorporates with it wherefore you must take care to separate the Spirit from the phlegm so soon as ever you take the Receiver from the nose of the head in case you have suffered the liquor to distil too long What I have now spoken of does not happen in the Rectification of the Spirit of Ivory and without doubt the reason is that the Ivory does not contain so much Oil as the other parts of Animals Some do prepare a Sudorifick water with Vipers after this manner They do put the Vipers alive into a great earthen body they fit to it a head with its Receiver they lute the joints and distil in a Balneum all that will rise from it but you must take care that the head be well fastned to the body for when the Vipers begin to be heated they leap and fling about with so much violence that they would otherwise throw it down and get out of their stove And then the Artist must have a care of himself and not be too bold for these creatures being irritated would fling about on every side and a bite of theirs at that time would be twice as dangerous as at another This water which rises whilest the Vipers are in their greatest fury is Sudorifick because some Volatile salts have risen and mixed with it You may give of it from a drachm to half an ounce in some proper liquor But to avoid the forementioned danger you might cut the Vipers in pieces before you put them into the body and because these pieces of them do retain life a long time the water will be little the worse for their not being intire When you have drawn as much water from them as you can by the heat of a Balneum you must put the remainder of the Vipers into a Retort and distil it as I have shewn before you will thereby have the Volatile salt the Spirit and the Oyl CHAP. II. Distillation of Vrine and its Volatile Salt THIS Operation is a separation of the Spirit the Volatile Salt and the Oil of Vrine from the phlegm and the earth which it contains Take ten or twelve quarts of Vrine newly made by sound young men evaporate it in an earthen or glass Cucurbite in a Sand-heat until it remains in the consistence of Honey then fit a head with its Receiver and luting the junctures close continue a small fire to distil the rest of the phlegm after which encrease it by little and little and the Spirits will rise in Clouds carrying with them a little Oil and after that the Volatile salt which will stick to the head like Butter-flies continue the fire until there comes no more then unlute the Vessels and separating the Volatile salt put it into a bolt-head pour likewise into it the Spirit that is in the Receiver and fit a blind-head to the bolt-head lute the junctures with a wet bladder and setting your bolt-head in Sand sublime with a small fire all the Volatile salt as I have shewed concerning that of Vipers separate this Salt and keep it in a Viol well stopt It is a good Remedy for Quartan Agues and Malignant Feavers it opens all Obstructions and works both by Vrine and Sweat the dose is from six to sixteen grains in some convenient liquor filtrate that which remains in the bolt-head the Spirit will pass through the Filter whilst a small quantity of black and extraordinary stinking Oil remains which is good to discuss cold Tumors and to give to Hysterical women to smell to You may distil the Spirit in a Sand-heat to separate it from a thick matter that remains at bottom it hath the same virtues as the Salt it is given from eight to twenty drops in some proper vehicle Two drachms of it are mixed with two ounces of Spirit of Wine to rub Paralytical parts with it is likewise used for cold pains and for the Sciatica If the Mass that remains in the Cucurbite should be Calcined and a Lixivium made of it with water a very small quantity of fixt Alkali salt might be gotten from evaporating the water and it hath the same virtues as other Alkali salts Remarks The Vrine of young men is to be prefer'd before others because it contains more Salt It must be newly made and evaporated with a gentle fire that the Fermentation or too much heat may not cause the Volatile Salts to rise with the phlegm The Spirit is only a Volatile salt dissolved in a little phlegm this Volatile salt works more by Vrine than any of the rest but its smell is more offensive This Remedy must never be given in Broth for Broth being to be taken hot the heat evaporates some of the volatile salts before it can well be taken A Volatile salt may be drawn from Vrine after setting it some months Fermenting in a Vessel close stopt and then a third part of the Liquor
unto Air. But if there were not enough the fermentation which happens at the meeting of Iron and Brimstone may be able to raise the earth in some places and to burst it a-sunder The great heat of many Mineral waters may likewise easily be explicated by the means of these Subterranean Fires and how they came to receive those Sulphurs which we see are wont to be separated on the sides of the Bath when the water is not disturbed It is because those waters do pass immediately over or else through the midst of some of these burning earths wherein they are heated as they pass and do imbibe the Sulphur But when they are arrived to the place of the Baths and have there a-while setled this Sulphur being a fatt body cannot so intimately mix with the water but that it will separate to the sides of the Bath It may be also that some Mineral waters do owe their heat to a natural Quick-lime they may meet withal in their passage through the bowels of the earth but this Quick-lime is only a stone calcined by the Subterranean Fires of which I have spoken And now to return to our Operation You must observe to make this Calcination rather in an earthen Pan than Pot or Crucible and to stir it continually with a Spatula that the Sulphur may exhale the more easily I have sometimes tried to do it in a Crucible but the matter still remained black though I persisted in calcining and stirring it for above twelve hours together If you have used a Pound of Mars you 'l get at least a pound and four ounces of Crocus which proves the acids of Sulphur or some igneous bodies to incorporate in the pores of the Iron and augment its weight The red colour proceeds from Vitriol that Mars is full off which being calcined grows red like Colcothar Many other Preparations of Opening Saffron of Mars have been invented but these three are sufficient as being the best Binding Saffron of Mars This Preparation is the filings of Iron deprived of their more Saline part Take what quantity you please of the last Aperitive Saffron of Mars wash it five or six times with strong Vinegar leaving it to steep an hour at a time then calcine it in a Pot or upon a Tile in a great Fire five or six hours after that let it cool and keep it for use It stops the Diarrhoea the immoderate flowing of the Hemorrhoids and Terms the Dose is from fifteen grains to a drachm in Lozenges or else in Pills Remarks Because Mars is an impure Vitriol the more it is Calcined the more astringent it is But seeing that which renders it Aperitive is its Salt or more soluble part I intend by washing it several times with Vinegar to deprive it of much of its Salt Afterwards I Calcine the matter to carry off by Fire what Aperitive parts might remain Not that I expect by this means to separate intirely all that is Aperitive in Mars from that which is astringent that is a thing in a manner impossible by reason of the strict union of its Salt and earth in the Mine but I do believe it very probable to say that if there be any thing astringent in this metal as it cannot be denied it must needs be the more terrestrious part I may likewise say that if the astringent Mars has sometimes the effect of opening it is by the remaining Salt that it opens but when this Salt has done acting the terrestrious part never fails to bind Lastly I further say that I do not believe any Preparation of Mars to be absolutely astringent and that all we can do is to render it less incisive and less penetrating than before by depriving it of some part of its Salts Several other Preparations for making the Astringent Saffron of Mars are taught but this one may suffice Salt or Vitriol of Mars This Preparation is an Iron opened and reduced into the form of Salt by an acid liquor Take a clean Frying-pan and pour into it an equal weight of Spirit of Wine and Oil of Vitriol set it for some time in the Sun and then in the shade without stirring it you 'l find all the Liquor incorporated with the Mars and turned into a Salt that you must dry and then separate from the Pan and keep in a Viol well stopt It is an admirable Remedy for all Diseases that proceed from Obstructions the Dose is from four to twelve grains in Broth or some appropriate Liquor Remarks The Spirit of Wine serves here to moderate the too great force of the Oil of Vitriol which if alone would indeed in a little time penetrate all the parts of the Iron and cause a very impure Salt but the spirit of Wine hinders its so quick dissolution so that nothing but the more soluble part incorporates with the Oil to make a Salt or Vitriol A Frying-pan is more proper for this Operation than another vessel less flat because the liquor spreads it self about and incorporates the better you must use a Pan that is new If you use two ounces of Spirit of Wine and the same quantity of Oil of Vitriol in a small Frying-pan you 'l obtain five ounces of Mars You may put your liquor a thumbs height in the Pan and leave it there a day and a half or two days without stirring it The Oil of Vitriol is improperly called Oil being nothing but the more caustick Spirit as I shall prove in its proper place Riverius in his Practice gives a way of preparing the Salt of Mars like unto this excepting that he puts more Spirit of Wine than Oil of Vitriol but it is better to put equal parts as I have done It s virtue is greater than that of the Crocus because it is whetted by the Oil of Vitriol and therefore is given in a less dose you must observe that sometimes it causes a nauseousness as all Vitriols do If you put this Salt or Vitriol of Mars to dissolve in a cold place you 'l have a liquor that is called improperly Oil of Mars Another Vitriol of Mars This Vitriol of Mars is an Iron dissolved and reduced into the form of Salt by Spirit of Vitriol Put eight ounces of clean filings of Iron into a large Matrass and pour upon it two pounds of common water heated a little add unto it a pound of good Spirit of Vitriol stir it and set your Matrass in hot Sand leave it in Digestion four and twenty hours during which time the purest part of the Iron will dissolve separate the Liquor by Inclination and fling away the earthy part that remains in a small quantity at the bottom Filtrate this Liquor and evaporate it in a Glass-Cucurbite unto a Skin in a Sand-fire then set your vessel in a cool place and you 'l find green Crystals which you may take out after having gently poured off the Liquor Then evaporate again this Liquor unto a Skin and Crystallize it as before
repeat these evaporations and Crystallizations until you have got all your Crystals then dry them and keep them in a Glass bottle well stopt This Vitriol of Mars hath the same virtues as the former and must be given in the same Dose Remarks The Spirit of Vitriol is weakned by the Water to the end that it may be incapable of dissolving but only the purer part of Mars Moreover if it were used alone it would incorporate with the very substance of Mars but would not be able to dissolve any of it because there would be wanting sufficient moisture to separate its parts During the dissolution the liquor heats and boils considerably because the acidity of Spirit of Vitriol doth violently enter the body of this metal and makes a separation of its parts To Evaporate unto a Pellicle doth signifie to consume the Liquor until a kind of thin skin is perceived to swim upon it which always happens when some part of the moisture being evaporated there remains but little more than is necessary to hold the Salt in Fusion An Acid Spirit may be drawn from this Vitriol of Mars by distilling it in a Retort in a Reverberatory fire like common Vitriol this Spirit hath been thought to have the same virtues as ordinary Spirit of Vitriol but it can't be near so good because it hath much blunted or broken some part of its edges against the body of Mars in the dissolution and distillation That which remains in the Retort after distillation is that part of Mars which the Spirit of Vitriol had dissolved It may be used like an aperitive Crocus Martis Those who do attribute the aperitive effect of Mars only to its sweetning as an Alkali the acid juices which do too plentifully abound in mens bodies will find it hard to explicate how these two last preparations do come to be esteemed the best aperitives which are made upon Mars for the acid does so far predominate in their composition that the Alkali is able to do little or nothing Tincture of Mars with Tartar This Preparation is a dissolution of Iron performed by the acid of Tartar Take Twelve ounces of the Rust of Iron and Two pounds of White Tartar of Montpelier powder and mix them together then boil them in a great Iron pot or Cauldron with Twelve or Fifteen pints of Rain-water for Twelve hours time stir the matter with an Iron Slice from time to time and take care to put more boiling water into the Cauldron according as it consumes afterwards leave it a while to settle and you 'l have a black Liquor Filtrate and evaporate it in an Earthen Pan over a Sand-fire to the consistence of a Syrup or till there rises a Pellicle upon it It is a very great Aperitive it opens the most inveterate Obstructions and is given in Cachexies Dropsies Obstruction of the Terms and other Diseases that proceed from Oppilations the Dose is from a Drachm to half an ounce in Broth or some appropriate Liquor Remarks Water alone would not be able enough to penetrate the Iron for to make a Tincture though you should boil it a Month together But when it is impregnated with Tartar it dissolves it very easily Nevertheless you must not think that this Tincture is a perfect solution of Mars for if there were an intire solution of it there would appear no more Tincture than there does in the solution of it with Spirit of Vitriol and water but because the soluble part of Tartar which is the agent in this Operation is only an impure acid Salt it can but grosly rarify the Mars and after mixing with it keep it suspended in the water After the Tincture is drawn there remains a whitish matter that you must fling away as good for nothing it is a mixture of the grosser parts of Tartar and Mars This Tincture is called Syrup of Mars by reason of a certain sweetness that is perceived in its Taste It is reduced into the consistence of a Syrup to keep the better As for its virtues it is a very great Aperitive because the force of Mars is assisted by the Tartar that serves to be its Vehicle Opening Extract of Mars This Preparation is a solution of the more open parts of Iron by aperitive juices and reduced into a solid consistence by fire Take Eight ounces of the Rust of Iron prepared in the Morning Dew put it in an Iron pot and pour upon it three pounds of the Water of Honey and four pounds of Must or the juice of White grapes perfectly ripe Add to it four ounces of juice of Lemons cover it with an Iron Cover and set it in a Furnace over a little fire leave the Matter in Digestion three days then boil the Matter gently three or four hours uncovering the Pot ever now and then to stir up the bottom with an Iron slice then cover it again that the moisture may not evaporate too fast When you perceive the Liquor to be black you must take away the fire and leave it a while to settle pass warm through a cloth that which is clear and evaporate the liquor in a Sand fire in an Earthen pan or Glass vessel to the consistence of an Extract 'T is a very good aperitive it hath the same virtues as the Tincture for Obstructions of the Liver Spleen and Mesentery it delivers the Lymphatick vessels admirably well of what may hinder the current of Serum The Dose is from Ten grains to two Scruples in Pills or else dissolved in some proper Liquor That which remains in the bottom of the Iron pot is the more Earthy part of Mars that is good for nothing Remarks This Extract doth not receive its consistence only from the Iron but from the Tartareous juices of the Grapes and Lemons with which it is mixed its virtue is augmented by the Essential Salts and the Spirit of Honey that leaves in it a very good impression The mixture is left in digestion for the better Dissolution of the Mars but seeing the Menstruum is not very sharp or corrosive it dissolves only the more Saline and soluble parts This Description is not common but may be preferred before many others Every body grants that Mars is as excellent a Remedy as any in all Physick for opening Obstructions and restoring a good complexion to those that want it by reason of Obstructions but you must not be contented with giving it once or twice but for a fortnight together some intervals may be observed that nature may not be troubled too much In hot climes such as Languedoc and Provence where are more Oppilations than in other Countries they make no difficulty to take it sometimes every day for a month together after a due Preparation and it is the best Remedy that hath been known for that Distemper Binding Extract of Mars This Preparation is a solution of Iron made with an astringent Wine and reduced into a thick consistence by fire Take Eight ounces of the
likewise fixes the stone the more and makes it fitter to keep It is one of the best Remedies I ever met with for stopping Gonorrheas when it is a proper time to stop them by Injections Salt of Vitriol This Operation is the more fixed Salt of Vitriol that remains after distillation Take two or three pounds of the Colcothar that remains in the Retort after distillation of Vitriol let it infuse in eight or ten pints of warm water for ten or twelve hours boil it a little while and then let it settle separate the water by Inclination and pour new water upon the matter proceed as before and mixing your Impregnations evaporate all the moisture in a sand-heat in a glass or earthen vessel there will remain a salt at bottom It is used as the Gilla Vitrioli to give a Vomit the dose is from ten to thirty grains Remarks This salt is that part of the Vitriol that the fire is not able to rarefie into Spirit Some Authors say that it Vomits just after the same manner as Gilla Vitrioli taken in a smaller dose but I have observed that its effect was much less and on the contrary there was need of giving it in a larger dose than the Gilla to procure a Vomit for having given of it several times a drachm at a dose the person had no Inclination at all to Vomit and truly I am apt to believe that a fixt salt of Vitriol divested of its Sulphur doth rather tend to precipitate downwards than mount upwards for Vomiting is caused by Saline Sulphurs which prick the Fibers of the Stomach whence follows a Convulsion to this part That which remains indissoluble is called Caput Mortuum it is used for Astringents If you expose it to the Air for a year or a year and half it returns into Vitriol again CHAP. XIX Of Roche-Alom and of its Purification ROche-Alom is a very Styptick Mineral Salt found in the veins of the earth in many places of Europe it is taken up in great transparent pieces the best is that which is reddish for the white contains fewer Spirits Alom is purified after the same manner as Vitriol it is used to cleanse the teeth it is a good Diuretick a drachm of it is dissolved in a quart of water and a glass of it is given now and then Many things are likewise called by the name of Alom as the Saccharinum which resembles Sugar it is nothing but a mixture of Roche-Alom Rose-water and the white of an Egg. Plume-Alom which some call Lapis Amianthus is a kind of Talk Distillation of Alom Put five pounds of Roche-Alom into a glass or earthen body and fitting to it a head with its Receiver distil in sand as much as will rise you will have a Phlegm of Alom that is used for distempers of the eyes for Quinsies and to cleanse wounds unlute the vessels break the body and powder the white mass that remains in it put it into an earthen Retort half empty place your Retort in a Reverberatory furnace and fitting to it a large Receiver lute the junctures close and light a very small fire the first three hours only to warm the Retort afterwards increase it every hour to the utmost violence and these Spirits will come forth and fill the Receiver with white Clouds continue the fire in this condition three days together then let the vessels cool you 'l find in the Receiver an acid Spirit which you may rectifie by distilling it in a glass Alembick in sand in order to make it the clearer This acid is more disagreeable than that of Vitriol it is used in Juleps for continued Feavers and Tertian Agues the dose is from four to eight drops it is likewise good to cure the Aphtha or little Chancres in the mouth Break the Retort and you 'l find in it a white mass very much rarefied and light it is called Burnt Alom or Calcined Alom it is used for to eat carnous excrescences or proud flesh Remarks The Distillation of Alom must be performed like that of Vitriol that is to say without addition of earth because these Salts do contain enough themselves The Body into which you put your Alom must be sure to be large enough because it rarefies extreamly The Phlegm is known to be all come forth when there distils no more for these Spirits being very weighty do require a greater heat than that of sand to raise them Some have written that Alom yields but very little acid yet if they take the pains to keep a strong fire under it for three days together they 'l find that this Spirit does not give place in strength or quantity to that of Vitriol Nor are we at all obliged to distinguish as they would have us the Acrimonious Corrosive salt of Alom from its acid seeing that there is nothing either Acrimonious or Corosive in this Mineral salt which will not turn into an acid Spirit when it is strongly urged by fire If a Drachm of Alom be dissolved in six ounces of this Phlegm you make an excellent Alom water to cleanse wounds and ulcers with The mass that remains in the Cucurbite or Dephlegmated Alom is more Escarotick than that which hath lost its Spirits Chirurgeons are wont to Calcine Alom in a Frying pan but the Iron dulls the greatest part of its vertue as absorbing its Spirits wherein consists the corrosion of Alom the Retort must be filled but half full because there happen Ebullitions which do require room CHAP. XX. Of Sulphur SVlphur is a kind of Bitumen that is found in many places in Italy and Spain There is brought among us both a Natural and an Artificial the Natural is greyish and called Sulphur Vivum the other is Yellow and is nothing but the Natural melted purified from its grosser earth and formed into Rowls which we do commonly use Some think that Sulphur is a Vitriol sublimed in the earth because these mixts are very often found near one another that there is a great deal of Sulphur in the mass of Mineral Vitriol and that the acid Spirits which are drawn from them both are wholly alike Flower of Sulphur This preparation is an exaltation of Sulphur Put about half a pound of Sulphur grosly powdered into a glass body place it in a small open fire and cover it with a pot or another Cucurbite turned upside down one that is unglazed so as that the neck of the one may enter into the neck of the other Change the upper Cucurbite every half hour fitting another in its place add likewise new Sulphur gather your Flowers which you find stuck in the Cucurbite and continue to do thus until you have got as much as you desire Then put out the fire and let the vessels cool there will remain at bottom only a little light insignificant earth The Flower of Sulphur is used in Diseases of the Lungs and Breast the dose is from ten to thirty grains in Lozenges or in Electuary It
my Machine You must leave an empty space between the brims of the Bell and the Pan that the Fire may have air enough to keep it lighted but besides that the Fire is apt to go out every moment use never so much precaution a very poor quantity of Spirit is drawn this way Authors do recommend this Operation to be done when the weather 's wet and to moisten the Bell before-hand but I have found by experience that these circumstances signified nothing at all With the Machine that I have described I can draw a good handsom quantity of Spirit and I am not forced to fire the Sulphur several times because the hole at top gives vent to the air and hinders the fires going out Again the more Phlegmatick part evaporates that way but the acid Spirit not being able to rise so high condenses against the sides of the tunnel and then falls down under the little pan that is turned upside down to raise the other higher that contains the Sulphur You may use a Crucible instead of a pan to put the Sulphur in The greenish Sulphur is better than the other for this Operation because it has more Vitriol in it and consequently more Spirit for this Spirit is nothing but a Vitriolick Salt dissolved that differs little from the Spirit of Vitriol besides in the Taste which is not so Empyreumatical as not having undergone so violent a Fire The Vitriolick salt which is in the Sulphur does not rise until the more volatile parts are spent for which reason the Spirit does not distil until towards the end and the drops begin then to appear in the middle of the Tunnel Forasmuch as Sulphur is good for diseases of the Lungs and Breast many do think that the Spirit which is drawn from it ought to have the same virtues but they do not consider that this Spirit being deprived of the fat or most sulphureous part of Sulphur hath also lost the virtue that accompanies it and that it must produce effects altogether different from those of Sulphur after the manner as the acid Spirits which are drawn from Sugar Vitriol and many other matters have very different virtues from those of the mixts themselves And the reason of it is very plain for whereas the Sulphur by its ramous parts can sweeten the acrimonious humours which fall upon the Lungs and so help the Cough the Spirit of Sulphur which is an acid does prick the Fibres of the Larynx and cause a Coughing as all other acids do Salt of Sulphur The Salt of Sulphur is a Sal Polychrestum impregnated with Spirit of Sulphur Put four ounces of Sal Polychrestum prepared as I have said into an earthen pan or a glass vessel and pour upon it two ounces of Spirit of Sulphur set your vessel in sand and evaporate all the liquor over a gentle fire there will remain four ounces and six drachms of an acid salt most agreeable to the taste keep it in a bottle well stopt It is a good medicine for to open all Obstructions and to work by Urine and sometimes it works also by stool the dose is from ten grains to two scruples in broth It is dissolved from half a drachm to two drachms in a quart of water for a drink in Feavers Remarks This Salt is improperly called Salt of Sulphur for it is nothing but a Sal Polychrestum impregnated with an acid Spirit Many great descriptions have been given of Salt of Sulphur which being well examined do all come to the same thing as this it is called by many Authors a Febrifugous salt The true Salt of Sulphur truly so called should be a little of the fixed Vitriol which remains in the earth of Sulphur after that the flowers have been drawn from it and should be separated from the earth by a Lixivium as other fixed salts are made but such a Salt would not have the same qualities as this Some have written that when Spirit of Sulphur is poured upon Sal Polychrestum dissolved in water there is made a great effervescency as well as when the same Spirit is thrown upon Salt-peter but without doubt they little examined the matter for there is no ebullition made neither with the Sal Polychrestum nor with Salt-peter they being both of them acid salts The union of acid Spirits with acid Salts is very different from that between acids and alkalis for the acid Spirits not being able to open the insensible parts of acid Salts they do lose nothing of their strength and their keenness remains the same but it is not so in respect of acids mixed with alkalis for such a penetration is made into the alkalis that the acid loses its strength in them And for the reason that I have now given the Salt of Sulphur is very acid and tartarum vitriolatum is hardly at all acid although there is imployed proportionably as much more acid Spirit for the making tartarum vitriolatum than there is for the making Salt of Sulphur The Salt of Sulphur is good in Tertians and continued Feavers and on all occasions where there is need of calming the too great motion of the humours because the acid serves to fixe the volatile Salts or Sulphurs which are most commonly the principal cause of these diseases CHAP. XXI Of Succinum or Ambar THere is found in small currents near the Baltick Sea in the Dutchy of Prussia a certain coagulated Bitumen which because it seems to be a juice of the earth is called Succinum and Carabè because it will attract straws it is likewise called Electrum Glessum Ambra Citrina vulgarly Yellow Ambar This Bitumen being soft and viscous several little Animals such as Flies and Ants do stick to it and are buried in it Ambar is of different colours such as White Yellow and Black The White is most esteemed though it be no better than the Yellow The Black hath the least virtue of all Ambar serves to stop spitting of bloud the Bloudy-flux the immoderate flux of the Hemorrhoids Terms and Gonorrheas the dose is from ten grains to half a drachm It is likewise used to stop a little the violence of Catarrhs by receiving the fume of it at the Nose Some do think that Petroleum or Oil of Peter is a liquor drawn from Ambar by the means of Subterranean fires which make a distillation of it and that Jet and coals are the remainders of this distillation This opinion would have probability enough in it if the places from whence this sort of drogues does come were not so far asunder the one from the other for Petroleum is not commonly found but in Italy in Sicily and Provence This Oil distils through the clefts of rocks and it is very likely to be the Oil of some Bitumen which the subterranean fires have raised Tincture of Ambar This Operation is a solution of some oily parts of Ambar made in Spirit of wine Reduce into an impalpable powder five or six ounces of yellow
Sun their spirituous parts that were condensed in the Phlegm do display themselves and exert their activity for which reason it is that the water becomes fragrant which was not so before The Extract doth contain almost all the Essential Salt of the Plant wherefore it is of greater virtue than the water you must take care to Evaporate the liquor with a mild heat for fear too much should carry off this salt which is but too volatile of its own nature for it is in the salt that the principal virtue of the Plant doth consist CHAP. X. Distillation of a Plant that is not Odoriferous such as Carduus Benedictus and its Essential Salt TAke a good quantity of Carduus when it is in its prime pound it in a Mortar and fill with it two thirds of a Limbeck draw by expression a sufficient quantity of the Juyce of other Carduus and pour it into the Limbeck that the herbs swimming in the Juyce may incur no danger of sticking to the bottom during the distillation distil with a fire of the second degree about half as much water as you used juyce this water is Sudorifick It is used to drive out the Small-Pox and in the Plague Express through a cloth that which remains in the Limbeck let the juyce settle and after it is filtred Evaporate with a small fire about two thirds of the liquor in an earthen or glass vessel set this vessel in a cool place and leave it there eight or ten days there will shoot out Crystals round about the vessel separate them and keep them in a Viol well stopt These Crystals are called the Essential salt it is Sudorifick the dose is from six to sixteen grains in its proper distilled water The Extract of Carduus may be likewise made the same way that I described for Balm Remarks Succory Fumitory Sorrel Scabious Cresses and all other Plants that are not Odoriferous which yield good store of Juice must be distilled like the Carduus Benedictus and this method may serve to draw the Essential Salt out of any plant whatsoever The hot Plants have much more of this Salt than others Lettice contains less than Succory Succory less than Sorrel and so of the rest Seeing it is in the Salt that the virtue of the plant consists I would advise rather to use the decoction of Plants than their distilled water when the Plants are in season and when they are out then to have recourse to distilled waters and mix with them a little of their Essential Salt or Extract The fixt Alkali Salt may be drawn from the remainder of the Plant in like manner as I have shewed to draw that of Guaiacum CHAP. XI Of Sugar SVgar is the essential salt of a reed or cane that grows in many places and especially in the Western Islands The pulp in the trunk of this plant is taken and washed and then steeped in hot water this water is strained and evaporated and the Sugar remains at bottom heretofore it was called Mel arundinaceum or the Cane-honey but since it has been called Zucharum or Saccharum The first elaboration that is given to Sugar is to purifie it by dissolving it in water filtrating and evaporating the liquor after which it is made up into Loaves or else it is sent in Casks or Chests and is called Cassonnade or Castonnade There are of it the red the brown and the white Sugar according as it has been more or less purified it differs in colour The name Castonnade may have been derived from the Casks in which it is brought called Cast by the Germans When the Sugar has been refined no more then abovesaid it is a little fat now to refine it farther it is dissolved in Lime-water it is boiled and the scum taken off when it is sufficiently boiled it is cast into molds of a Pyramidal form which have a hole at bottom to let the more glutionous part run through and separate It is still farther refined by boiling it with the whites of eggs in water for the glutinous quality of the whites of eggs does help to receive and take away the impurities which might remain in the Sugar and the boiling of it serving to drive them all to the sides of the vessel in a scum the liquor is passed through a cloth and then evaporated to a due consistence Sugar-Candy is only a Sugar crystallized the way to make it is to boil refined Sugar in water to the consistence of a thick Syrop it is then poured into pots wherein little sticks have been laid in order it is left in a still place some days without stirring and you have the Sugar-Candy sticking to those sticks Red Sugar-Candy is made after the same manner Sugar is good for infirmities of the breast and lungs because it does attenuate and cut the phlegm which sometimes oppresses the fibres of these parts but you must use it as little as may be in hysterical cases by reason that it raises vapours Red-Sugar is sometimes mixed with detersive Clysters It s sweetness does proceed from an essential acid salt mixed with some oily parts of which it consists as I have already explicated in the Remarks upon Oil of Antimony prepared with Sugar The Cassonnade or Cask-sugar makes a sweeter impression upon the tongue than our finer Sugar because it contains more viscous or fat parts which do remain the longer upon the nerve of the tongue and this makes us sometimes prefer the first as to use before the other And for the same reason the finer a Sugar is the quicker it passes off the taste Sugar-candy is better for Rheums than common Sugar because being harder it requires a longer time to melt in the mouth and besides it keeps the breast moister than the common Sugar Spirit of Sugar This Spirit is a mixture of the acid part of Sugar with the Flowers of Sal Armoniack Powder and mix eight ounces of white Sugar-candy with four ounces of Sal Armoniack put this mixture into a glass or earthen body whose third only is thereby filled fit a head to the body and place it in a sand-furnace joyn a receiver to it and lute well the junctures with a wet bladder give it a small fire for an hour only to heat the vessel then increase it to the second degree there will distil a liquor drop by drop and towards the end there will rise white vapours into the head increase your fire still more until nothing more comes forth let the vessels cool and unlute them you will find in the receiver seven ounces of a brown liquor that has but an ill smell and a little black oil stuck to the sides pour it all together into a glass-body and having fitted to it a head and receiver and luted the joints distil in sand six ounces of a very acid spirit that is clear and agreeable to the taste and without any smell of Empyreum It is a good aperitive against the gravel and the
into a Bolus with some liquid substance or else you may boil them in some liquor but you must take the liquor very hot otherwise the Crystals will fall to the bottom of the cup you drink out of If you should boil these Crystals in common water or in broth and then let it stand to be cold they will return into the same form they were in before both at the bottom and on the sides of the vessel but the liquor will remain a little sharp through the solution of some part of the salt of Tartar into it I see no reason so much to wonder as some do why Tartar will not dissolve in cold water for although it does contain a great deal of salt this salt is involved in Earth and Oil which must needs hinder the dissolution and there is no need of having recourse for an explication of this to a proportionable Union of Volatile salts and acids Soluble Tartar Powder and mix together eight ounces of Crystals of Tartar and four ounces of the fixt salt of Tartar put this mixture into a glazed earthen pot and pouring upon it three pints of common water boil the matter gently for half an hour then letting it cool filtrate and evaporate the liquor until it is dry and there will remain at bottom eleven ounces six drachms of a white salt keep it in a Viol it is both a good Aperitive and Laxative it is good for Cachexies Dropsies and all diseases that proceed from Obstructions the dose is from ten grains to two scruples in broth or some proper liquor Remarks This Operation is nothing but a dissolution that the Salt of Tartar has made of Cream of Tartar so that it can dissolve in cold water which it could not do alone the Cream of Tartar also being an acid insinuates into the pores of the Alkali salt and sweetens it If you boil Cream of Tartar in water and put into it some salt of Tartar there will happen an Effervescency between them but if you mix these two ingredients together in cold water there will be no Effervescency the reason of which is that the acid Spirits of Cream of Tartar being involved in other principles can have no active power to open the Alkali unless they be actuated by fire I use to filter the dissolution in order to separate some terrestrious part of the Cream of Tartar which could not dissolve this salt comes near in virtue to Tartar vitriolated some do call it a Vegetable salt Chalybeated or Martial Crystals of Tartar This Preparation is a Crystal of Tartar impregnated with the more soluble part of Iron Powder and mix a pound of good white Tartar and three ounces of Rust of Iron boil this mixture in an Iron pot with five or six quarts of water for half an hour or so much time as is requisite to dissolve the Tartar pass the liquor hot through a warm cloth then let it settle in an Iron or earthen pot ten or twelve hours it will shoot into brown Crystals at the sides and bottom of the pot pour off the liquor by Inclination and gather the Crystals then evaporate about half the liquor in the same pot let the remainder settle and take out the Crystals as before continue these Evaporations and Crystallizations until you have drawn all your Tartar dry the Crystals in the Sun and so keep them They are a good remedy for Obstructions of the Liver Mesentery Spleen they are given in Cachexies and for Melancholy and the Quartan Ague the dose is from fifteen grains to two Scruples in broth or some other liquor proper to the distemper Remarks This Preparation is boil'd but little that the Tartar may dissolve only the more Saline part of Iron the liquor is made to pass through a cloth to free it from the Impurities of the Tartar and Iron which could not dissolve but you must pass it very hot for if it were a little cool the Tartar would Coagulate in the cloth and so none of the liquor would pass Instead of Crystallizing the dissolved Tartar you may evaporate all the liquor and so obtain a brown powder which has the same virtues as the Crystals When you would exhibite this Chalybeated Crystal of Tartar you must make it just boil in the liquor you give it in for otherwise it will not dissolve and you must be sure to give it as hot as they can take it for fear it should Crystallize at the bottom of the Cup. Soluble Tartar Chalybeated Put into an earthen pan or glass vessel four ounces of Soluble Tartar and sixteen ounces of Tincture of Mars prepared according to the description that I have given set the vessel in sand and with a small fire evaporate the liquor until there remains a black powder shut it in a viol well stopt and keep it you 'l have eight ounces This Martial Tartar has the same virtues as the Tincture of Tartar it is good to remove all Obstructions wherefore it is very properly used in Cachexies Dropsies retention of the Menses in Nephritick Colicks and in difficulties of Urine the dose is from ten grains to half a drachm in broth or some proper liquor or else made into Lozenges Remarks This Preparation of Chalybeate or Martial Tartar is not only more convenient for use than the former in that it dissolves or mixes in a cold liquor but has much more virtue in it for the Tincture of Mars contains only the more saline part of Tartar Soluble Emetick Tartar This Preparation is a soluble Tartar impregnated with some portion of Glass of Antimony which renders it Emetick Put into a glass vessel four ounces of Crystals of Tartar powdered pour upon it Spirit of Vrine until it be two fingers above the matter there will happen a small ebullition because the Cream of Tartar will dissolve in the Spirit of Vrine when the dissolution is finished add to it an ounce of the glass of Antimony finely powdered and eight or ten ounces of water boil it all in a sand-heat seven or eight hours and take care to put more hot water into the vessel as the liquor consumes after that filtrate and evaporate gently in sand all the liquor and there will remain three ounces of a greyish powder drawing towards white keep it in a Viol well stopt It is an Emetick that works with little violence the dose is from four to fifteen grains in broth Remarks The Ebullition which happens in this Operation proceeds from the Cream of Tartars meeting with the Volatile and Alkali Salt of Urine for the Acid of Tartar piercing the Salt of Urine divides its parts and gives vent to igneous bodies which were contained in it and which now finding themselves free do break forth in great haste Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack may be used instead of that of Vrine but then there will be no sensible Ebullition the reason of which is because the salt of this Spirit is not an Alkali so open
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
it will be here objected that Opium is full of subtile parts which on the contrary instead of condensing the Spirits must needs rarifie them and further that according to my discourse all sorts of Gummous matters should incline to sleep as well Opium which is a thing manifestly false In the first place I answer that the Spirits of Opium being actuated by the heat of the Stomach do serve to raise the Gummous part and to conduct it into the little passages of the Brain but having there introduced them they either fly away through their volatile nature or else condense with the moisture of the Brain The same thing happens after drinking any Spirituous liquor such as Wine Cyder or Beer for the Sulphureous Spirits of these liquors carrying along with them some phlegmatick parts do conduct them into the little vessels of the Brain or else do cause some Coagulation there whence it comes to pass that a man who is drunk commonly sleeps until the Spirits of the liquor he is intoxicated with are in part spent or evaporated out of his Brain In the second place I say that all Gummous or viscous things are not able to cause a sleepiness as Opium does because they have not equally the same proportion of volatile Spirits to convey them into the Brain They may indeed by giving more consistence to the bloud moderate its motion a little and excite some disposition to sleeping but it will not be done so quickly as by the means of Opium and they likewise do it with a great deal less force If you should mix volatile Spirits with the Gummous matters I now spoke of it would not follow that they would prove narcotick as Opium is because the Spirits not being capable of so strict an union with those matters as the Spirituous part of Opium has received with its viscous substance they would soon separate from one another in the stomach and the gummous matter would want a vehicle to convey it into the channels of the brain as would be requisite in order to cause sleep The viscous parts of Opium insinuating into the small channels of the brain do there produce a condensation or inspissation of the humors until by little and little new Spirits do draw together which by dissolving and rarifying this glue do carry it along with the bloud or other humors And then it is that the sleeping ceases a man finds himself awake as before Reason may be given why pains in many places are asswaged after the effect of Laudanum for these pains being caused by an agitation of the Spirits when these Spirits are condensed the pain consequently ceases And this Opium does perform exceeding well as I have said Those who fall into Deliriums in a continued Feaver do find themselves strangely relieved by the use of Opium by reason that the principal cause of this accident is an acrimonious salt which is got into the Brain and irritates its membranes Now Laudanum which is a viscous substance unites with these salts by means of its Sulphur and takes away their Acrimony It likewise stops the Dysentery the Flux of the menses and other Hemorrhagies by sweetning the acrimonious Salts which fomented them Lastly Opium may be said to be one of the greatest Remedies that we have when it is properly administred and in a reasonable dose but when it is given in too great a quantity it so thickens and glues the humors in the brain by its viscous parts that the Spirits which come afterwards to succour not being able to dissolve this viscosity are forced to stop and congeal likewise by little and little until at last they lose all their motion whence it comes to pass that many do dye upon the taking of Opium It is remarkable that many do so accustom themselves to the use of Opium that at last it is scarce able to make them sleep except when they take three or four times as much as is commonly given There are some men in France who can venture to take to a drachm and this quantity does no more in them than two grains in another It is well known that the Turks will take of it to the bigness of a hazle nut to fortifie themselves when they are going to fight The reason that they can do so is that Opium passing a great many times into the small vessels of the Brain hath in great measure dilated them So that finding the passages very large it makes little or no stop unless taken in a greater quantity than before for the Turks do not only accustom themselves to the taking of Opium by little and little but being of a hotter Temperament than we they supply more Spirits to the Brain for rarefaction of the humors which Opium might there have condensed If the Turks do find themselves fortified so soon as they have taken Opium it is by reason of these volatile Spirits which work in them much the same effect as the Spirits of Wine use to do with us Some have writ in opposition to what I have establish'd on this subject and say that if we have regard to the quantity of Narcotick vapours that may arise from a small dose of Opium it ought not to be imagined that those vapours should be able to shut the channels of the Spirits and humors which make a defluxion upon some part but that we should rather conclude the mitigation of pains and stopping of defluxions to proceed from a just proportion of the salt and sulphur of Opium and from the secret ferment they contain But this Objection will give us little trouble to answer when we consider that although the vapours caused by it are but few yet the vessels of the Brain in which the Animal Spirits do move are exceeding delicate and easie to be obstructed and that the too great activity of the Spirits which often fly into the diseased parts being thus abated by the viscous nature of Opium there must needs follow thereupon some ease and comfort without any need at all of admitting a stoppage of the vessels which contain the humors As for the proportion of salt and sulphur in Opium and the secret Ferment they pretend to acquaint us with in order to explicate this matter I know they are high terms indeed but illustrate the matter very little for though they say these salts and sulphurs do unite with Homogeneous particles that they meet with and destroy such as are the cause of the distemper yet we can never by this means obtain any clear Idea of that which makes Opium to be soporiferous Besides the virtue which Opium has to cause sleep I have observed that it is often Sudorifick I conceive this effect must not be attributed only to the volatile parts of this mixt which may be thought to operate this way after they are disingaged from its viscosity but rather to this that during sleep the inward vessels being as it were obstructed or in some manner coagulated and
is from Florida it hath been transplanted among us but our Countrey not being hot enough that which grows here is not so strong as the Tabaco that is brought out of America Tabaco either chewed or smoked now and then makes a great discharge of humors from the Head but if it be used too immoderately it is apt to cause several Diseases such as the Palsie and Apoplexy It is beaten and applied to tumors to discuss them it being full of Spirits which do rarifie them and open the pores It is likewise infused in common water and Tettars and other Itchings of the Skin are washed with this Infusion but you must have a care that the water be not too much charged with it for fear of giving a vomit Tabaco kills Serpents Vipers Lizards and such like Animals if you open a hole in their flesh and thrust a little bit into it or if you should smoke them with it Distillation of Tabaco Put into a Glass-Cucurbite eight ounces of good Tabaco cut small pour upon it about an equal weight of Phlegm of Vitriol cover the Cucurbite with its head and digest the matter in sand for a day fit to it a Receiver and distil about five ounces of liquor in a small fire keep it in a viol It is a powerful vomit the dose is from two drachms to six in some proper liquor it is likewise good for Tettars and the Itch being rubbed lightly with it Put that which remains in the Cucurbite into an earthen Retort or Glass one luted place it in a Furnace and fit to it a great Receiver and luting close the joints begin with a small fire to raise all the phlegm augment it by little and little and the Spirits will come forth confusedly with a black Oil continue the fire until there comes no more then let the vessels cool and unlute them pour that which you find in the Receiver into a Tunnel lined with brown paper the watry part will pass through while the black and fetid Oil remains in the filter keep it in a viol a drachm of it may be mixed with two ounces of Hogs-grease it is a good Remedy for the itch and for Tettars An Alkali salt may be drawn from the Coals that remain in the Retort after the same manner as the Salt of Guaiacum This salt is a Sudorifick the dose is from four grains to ten in some convenient liquor Remarks Tabaco is full of such piercing sulphurs and volatile salts that so soon as ever it is in the stomach it falls a pricking the Fibers and moving to vomit The Oil of Tabaco is so great a vomit that if one should but hold ones Nose a little over the Viol in which it is kept it would make one vomit One day I made a small Incision in the skin of a dog's thigh and thrusting in a little tent dipt in the Oil of Tabaco the dog immediately purged both upwards and downwards with a great deal of violence The fixt salt of Tabaco may be made as I have said but if you would have any quantity of it you must join a great deal of other Tabaco with it for receiving so little matter out of the Retort it would be hard to get a drachm of Salt CHAP. XIX Extractum Panchymagogum THIS Extract is a farrago of the purer substances of divers purgative and cordial medicines Take an ounce and a half of the Pulp of Coloquintida one ounce of the Pulvis Diarrhodon Abbatis so much good Agarick and two ounces of black Hellebore powder them all grosly and put them into a matrass pour upon it rain-water distilled four fingers above the mixture Stop the matrass close and set it in digestion in hot sand or in horse dung three or four days and shake the vessel ever now and then After this pass your infusion through a cloth pour upon the residence a like quantity of the same liquor let it infuse as before then strain and express it strongly mix your infusions and let them settle until they become clear decant them and evaporate the liquor in an earthen pan in a sand-heat with a little fire to the consistence of a Syrop then mix with them half an ounce of Rosine of Scammony and two ounces of Extract of Aloes evaporate the whole to the consistence of an Extract It purges all the humors well the dose is from one scruple to two in Pills Remarks The flesh or pulp of Coloquintida is nothing but the apple it self cleansed from its Seeds It purges the Brain the best is that which is whitest and lightest The powder Diarrhodon Abbatis is Cordial and resists the malignity of humors it takes its name from the Rose which is its Basis The Agarick is a Rosinous Mushrom that grows on the Larix the best is the whiter lighter and most friable it is used for to purge the brain The root of black Hellebore is a very strong purger of Melancholy wherefore it is given to Hypochondriacal persons and even to the Maniacal it gives a vomit when taken alone but with this mixture it fixes downwards the white is a poison taken inwardly it is never used but for sneezing powders Scammony is a very Purgative resinous juyce the best is most friable and which being powdered hath a grey colour drawing towards white its Rosine is drawn from it as that of Jalap Aloes is said to purge Choler I have spoken of its virtues sufficiently already when I described its Extract Spirit of Wine is commonly used to make this Extract and it may seem to be so much the purer being drawn by this dissolvent rather than by a watry Menstruum for spirit of wine dissolves only the more Balsamick and purer part of mixt bodies but nevertheless I chuse rather to prefer the use of Dew or else Rain-water nay and even common water before Spirit of wine for several reasons First because in the evaporation of the liquidity of the Extract drawn by Spirit of wine a great many of the more subtile parts are lost which this dissolvent had volatilized And indeed it cannot be denied but some useful parts will evaporate let us use what dissolvent we please but it is plain there is no such great loss when watry menstruums are used as when Spirit of wine Now we should always prefer such menstruums as are best able to preserve the virtue of the mixt whose Extract we intend to draw The second is because Spirit of wine does always leave some impression of heat and acrimony in the Extracts it draws which the liquors that I use do not do The third is because Spirit of wine is not so convenient a menstruum to dissolve the salts which the Ingredients we use are full of and it is in this salt that their greatest virtue does consist Wherefore we ought to chuse such dissolvents as can best preserve the virtue of mixt bodies and such as are familiar to our nature We must use Spirit of wine to extract
that it is no poison for although Spirit of Vitriol for example or some other acid does not prove mortal when taken inwardly nevertheless if the same quantity should be syringed into the veins the Animal falls presently into Convulsions and dies Now as that which caused the Spirit of Vitriol taken inwardly not to be Poison was this the acids do become weak through the mixture of the Saliva and before ever they come to mix in the Mass of bloud their parts do receive so great an alteration from the ferment of the places they must pass through that they are able to do nothing else at most but cool the Body so the same may be said of the Yellow liquor of the Viper when it is tasted of that besides its mixture with the liquors of the mouth and stomach it receives divers alterations from the ferments of the places it must pass through before it enters into the mass of bloud Many do likewise think that the venom of Vipers hath its chief seat in the Gall and thence is easily transported to the Gums when they are angry nevertheless in the Anatomy of this Animal there 's no passage found capable of such a translation I know very well that the pores of living bodies may be said to be so open that all manner of liquors may be presumed to pass through them but yet no mischievous effect is discovered to proceed from the Viper's Gall when given inwardly for it only causes sweat Lastly others will have the Viper's venom to be dispersed over all its body And those who think thus do advise us to whip these Animals in a warm bason to drive their venom into the extremities of the body before we cut as is usually done their heads two fingers below and their tails two fingers above after that to flea off the skin and take out the bowels and then boil the body in water wherein are added Salt and Dill to correct as they say the remaining malignity When the flesh is tender it is to be separated from the bones then to eight ounces of this flesh beaten into a Paste in a marble mortar are added two ounces of bread dried and powdered and Troches made of it which being dried are kept for use But this long preparation is seldom used since Experience hath taught us that no part of a dead Viper is at all poisonous The Head and Tail dried and powdered may be taken instead of a Cordial as well as the rest of the body I can likewise assure you upon my own experience that the Tooth of a dead Viper is no ways venomous having by chance been prickt my self till the bloud came whilst I was a handling the heads of Vipers newly kill'd that I had a mind to dry and there did not follow the least ill accident from it Furthermore by this Coction the Vipers flesh is deprived of its volatile salts which gave its greatest virtue for they dissolve in the broth which is flung away and only the Faeces remain wherein there hardly rests so much Cordial virtue as there does in the bread which is mixed for a Corrective But there is no need I should enlarge my self further on this subject because these Observations are sufficiently delivered in the Augustan Pharmacopoeia Wherefore I do conceive it to be much better to use the Powder of Vipers newly made than the Troches To make this Powder well it is good to chuse Vipers when they are in the prime of their strength the Females that are full of Eggs or young ones are not so good as the others their heads are to be cut off their skins thrown by and their bowels taken out and so they are set a drying in the shade to be afterwards powdered in a mortar But because this Powder is hard to keep in that worms do breed in it it will be good to make it into a Paste with a sufficient quantity of the mucilage of Gum Tragacanth so form it into Troches to dry them and powder them when there is occasion to use them and thus it keeps good a long time This Powder is given in the Small pox Malignant Feavers and all other maladies where Alexipharmicks are required and the humors are to be purified by Perspiration the dose is from eight grains to thirty in broth or some other convenient liquor The Heart and Liver are dried in the Sun and powdered together and this Powder called Animal Bezoar hath the same virtues as the body of the Viper only it is given in a little lesser dose The Gall of Vipers provokes Sweat the dose is a drop or two in Carduus water The fat that is found in them is melted then strained for to separate it from the membranes it sticks to it is as clear as Oil. Several Countries do use it in the Small-pox and in Feavers The dose is from one drop to six in broth or some other convenient liquor It likewise enters into the composition of some Plaisters and into discutient unguents Distillation of Vipers This Operation is a separation of the phlegm the volatile salt and the Oil of Vipers from its earth Take twelve dozen of Vipers dried in the shade as I said before put them into an earthen Retort or glass one Coated place it in a Reverberatory furnace fit to it a great capacious Receiver and luting the joints close begin the distillation with a small fire to warm the Retort gently and drive out a phlegmatick water drop by drop when you see no more drops to fall encrease the fire a little and Spirits will come forth which will fill the Receiver with white Clouds you will see at last a black oil come and the volatile salt stick to the sides of the Receiver Continue the fire until there comes no more after which let the vessels cool and unlute them Shake about the Receiver a little to loosen the volatile salt from the sides and pour it all into a Bolt-head fit to it a head and a small Receiver and lute the joints with a wet bladder you must set your vessel in Sand and with a gentle fire under it the volatile salt will sublime and stick to the head and uppermost part of the bolt-head separate it and keep it in a viol well stopt It is one of the best medicins we have in Physick it is good in Malignant Feavers and Agues the Pox Apoplexy Epilepsie Palsie Hysterical Maladies and the bitings of all venomous Beasts the dose is from six to sixteen grains in some proper Liquor Pour that which remains in the bolt-head into a Tunnel lined with brown paper the Spirit and phlegm will pass through and the stinking Oil remain behind Hysterical women may smell to this last to allay vapours and Paralytical parts may be anointed therewith but its smell is so offensive that it is hard to endure it Pour the Spirit and Phlegm mixed confusedly together into an Alembeck and distil in a vaporous Bath about half
Principles it is sufficient for a body to be called an Alkali if it has its Pores so disposed as that the Acids may be able through their motion violently to separate whatsoever stands in their way Mars is almost always Astringent by Stool by reason of its Terrestrious parts and Aperitive by Vrine not only by reason of its piercing Salt but also because when the body is bound the humidities do more easily filter by way of Vrine Opening Saffron of Mars This Preparation is only a Rust of Iron contracted in the Dew Wash well several Iron Plates and expose them to the Dew for a good while they will rust and you must gather up this rust Set the same Plates again to receive the Dew and gather the Rust as before Continue to do so till you have gotten enough This Rust is really better than all the Preparations of Iron that are called Crocus It is excellent for Obstructions of the Liver Pancreas Spleen and Mesentery It is used very successfully for the Green-Sickness stopping of the Terms Dropsies and other Diseases that proceed from Oppilations The Dose is from two grains unto two Scruples in Lozenges or Pills Many do give Mars with Purgatives which is a good Practice Remarks The Chymists have called Calcin'd Steel Crocus by reason of its red colour and they have given this name to many other Preparations for the same reason Though Steel hath been always used in the Chymical Preparations that are used in Physick and is preferred before Iron for the Cure of Diseases it is certain nevertheless that Iron is fitter for that intent than Steel because it is more Soluble for if the action of Iron proceeds from nothing but its Salt as there is no reason to doubt the Salt of Iron must be much more easily separated in the stomach than that of Steel because as I have shewn before the Pores of Steel are more close than those of Iron and therefore this must have quicker effects besides that Steel being harder to be dissolved doth sometimes pass away with the excrements without bestowing any impression on the Chyle The reason that hath induced People to believe that Steel is better for use than Iron was its being thought to be deprived of many impurities by Calcination but that which is called Impurity is the more open part of the Iron and consequently the more wholesome This Preparation of the Saffron of Mars is out of the common road and longer a doing than the others but it is the best of all that ever were invented The Dew is impregnated with a Dissolvent that opens very much the Pores of Iron and incorporating with it renders it more active and soluble than it was before Iron doth open Obstructions by its salt which being assisted with the solid parts of the Metal penetrates further than other Salts But you must always purge and moisten the Person you give it to with broths before you presume to give it because if it should find the passages of the small Vessels filled and obstructed with gross matters it stops and sometimes causes Inflammations that create pains like to those of the Colick Many do use the filings of Steel without any Preparation at all Iron doth frequently open Obstructions by absorbing as an Alkali the Acid that fomented them Seeing that some persons have indeavoured to contradict the Remarks I have made upon the Effects of Mars and particularly concerning the preference I have given Iron to Steel for Physical uses I have thought it not convenient to end this Chapter before I have laid down and Answered their Objections First then they say that because the different substances of Mars cannot be separated as those of Animals and Vegetables can it is in vain that an Aperitive virtue is attributed to its Salt Answer I grant all the substances of Mars can't be separated so easily as those of Animals and Vegetables but because we find Salts to be Aperitive and commonly Remedies that are so are full of Salts and that water in which rust of Iron has steeped for some time is proper to open by way of Vrine it seems to me rational enough to attribute this effect of Mars principally to its Salt for if the water has carried off any taste or penetrating quality from Iron there 's nothing at all in Mars that is able to contribute such a virtue to it besides the Salt therein dissolved Secondly they say the Earth and Salt of Mars being united and in a manner become inseparable cannot act but by consent of both and receive together joyntly the good or bad impressions that may happen to them I Answer there 's no reason to think the Salt of Mars absolutely inseparable from the Earth for the water in which this Metal has steeped or boiled after Filtration does contain a Vitriolick taste and Aperitive quality Now it is the effect of Salt to dissolve imperceptibly in Water and drive by Vrine as I have said but if any body would take the pains to steep and boil gently the rust of Iron a good while in water then Filter it and Evaporate the liquor over a small fire to a Pellicle he 'l by Crystallization or by an entire evaporation of the humidity gain a small quantity of Salt and it is probable enough that there was much more in the water as may be collected from the strong taste it had of Mars but it being something of a Volatile nature it fum'd away in the Evaporation I do not say nevertheless that the close connexion of Earth with the Salt of Mars is altogether unuseful for this effect on the contrary I do conceive that this Earth rendring the Salt more heavy than otherwise it would be does help to drive it forwards and causes the Mars sometimes to penetrate as much by its gravity as by its Salt but we must attribute the principal virtue to the Vehicle which is Salt since without that the Earth would be a dead matter and would have no more action than other Earths bereaved of their Salts Thirdly They say that in all probability Mars does act only according to the preparations which the different juices it meets with in the stomach do make for these acid juices not failing to encounter with and to dissolve it there results from this dissolution a liberty to the parts of the body on which these juices did act and consequently their restauration a-new I am willing to believe that sometimes Mars may act in the body like an Alkali by absorbing and sweetning the acid humour which it meets with as it does absorb and sweeten the acid liquors which are poured upon it but it must not be concluded from hence that its Aperitive faculty does always consist in this effect because as I before hinted the water in which Mars has been put to boil is Aperitive and yet there is no Alkali in it to sweeten the acids of the body when it is drunk Fourthly They object that we must
wherefore the Liver of Antimony where it is used is in lesser quantity The Liver of Antimony that 's made with common salt-peter is the redder and comes nearer to the colour of an Animals Liver than that which is made with purified salt-peter this happens through the fixt salt which is in this preparation more than in the other for common salt-peter contains much fixt salt as I shall shew in its proper place this salt does likewise make the matter the heavier As for the virtues of these Livers of Antimony the difference is not very great but only that which is made with purified salt-peter is a little more Emetick than the other I cannot pass by here the false imagination of some men who think that preparation of the Liver of Antimony of which half a drachm or two scruples may be given is much better than that whereof 3 or 4 grains perform the same effect for there is no doubt but the taking so great a quantity of Antimony will give an impression to the stomach that a lesser quantity is not able to do Furthermore whereas these kind of preparations do commonly open the Antimony but little or but half-fix the saline sulphurs it is to be feared lest some salt they may meet with in the stomach should open them too much or volatilize them and so cause most unhappy accidents When the Liver of Antimony is washed with warm water some part of the fixt Niter that remained in it is separated Many have believed that the more violent part of the Emetick was carried off by this Lotion but on the contrary this fixt part is more capable of mitigating than augmenting its violence for the reasons I have spoke already You must observe that if you should put four ounces of prepared Antimony into a quart of wine the wine will not be more Vomitive than if you should put but an ounce because being loaded with as much of the substance of it as it is able to contain the rest remains at bottom and cannot be dissolved unless more wine be added Now an ounce of Crocus Metallorum or Liver of Antimony is according to experience capable of impregnating not only one quart of wine but after having poured off the liquor by Inclination if you put as much more wine to the matter that remains and leave it in digestion two or three days together you 'l have an Infusion as Emetick as the first You may if you please renew the wine that is poured upon it to be infused nine several times and it will always prove Emetick after which if you Calcine your matter a quarter of an hour in an earthen pot unglazed over a small fire stirring the matter continually with an Iron Spatule you may infuse it again as before and it will render the wine Emetick That Emetick wine which is made with the Crocus Metallorum is most in use it is likewise prepared with the Regulus and glass as I have said speaking of them You might likewise make another sort of it by infusing warm some days crude Antimony in white-wine for the tartarous salts of the wine do open the Antimony but it would not prove so vomitive as the other The Emetick wine is given alone or mixed with Purgatives that convey it partly by stool When you find an Inclination to vomit you must be provided of broth a little fat and take some spoonfuls to facilitate the Vomiting and hinder the great efforts which sometimes break vessels and cause mortal Hemorrhagies to follow You must also consider that those who have their breasts strait and bodies thin are much harder to vomit than others But let us leave those particulars to the wisdom of Physicians Antimonium Diaphoreticum This preparation is an Antimony whose sulphurs are fixed by Salt-peter and are thereby hindred from working otherwise than by sweat Powder and mix well together one part of Antimony with three parts of purified Salt-peter and having heated a Crucible red-hot in the Coals cast into it a spoonful of your mixture you 'l hear a noise or detonation after that 's over cast in another spoonful and continue to do so 'till all your powder is in the Crucible Leave a great fire about it two hours then throw your matter which will be white into an earthen pan almost filled with Fountain-water and leave it a steeping warm ten or twelve hours that the fixt Salt-peter may dissolve in it separate the liquor by Inclination wash the white powder that remains at bottom five or six times with warm water and dry it This is called Antimonium Diaphoreticum or mineral Diaphoretick or the Calx of Antimony This Preparation is esteemed good to procure Sweat and to resist Poison and consequently is good in Malignant Feavers the small Pox the Plague and other Contagious diseases The dose is from six grains to thirty in some appropriate liquor All the Lotions may be evaporated and a fixt Salt-peter will be found at the bottom of the vessel which works much like the Sal Polychrestum Remarks In this preparation three pounds of Salt-peter are used for one pound of Antimony that after sublimation of the volatile parts there may remain store of fixt Niter which unites with the Antimony and hinders it from being Vomitive It is observable that three parts of Niter with one of Antimony do not cause so strong a detonation nor so great a diminution of the parts of Antimony as when there are but equal quantities And the reason of it is that there 's too little sulphur of Antimony for the quantity of Niter and that some part of the sulphur does remain unactive in the fixt Niter which admits not of flagration for the volatile part of Salt-peter does not burn but according to the proportion of sulphur with which it is mixed And this is a proof of my assertion in this matter that if you throw upon lighted coals a little of that Salt-peter which you shall have drawn from the lotions of Antimonium Diaphoreticum it will still cause a flame to arise by reason of new sulphur which it meets with in the coals which sulphur does joyn together with the volatile part of Salt-peter that remained I shall speak more at large of the flagration of Salt-peter in the Chapter of this Salt You must put the mixture into the Crucible spoonful after spoonful that the Calcination may be done the better When it is ended the matter is washed for to separate the Salt-peter that is unuseful But let there be never so many lotions they can never wash away a certain inveloping or cover that is given to the Antimony by the fixt Salt-peter for each particle of Antimony is so closely united that it cannot any way be separated without recourse to some reductive Salt and this is it that makes this preparation of Antimony to be not at all Vomitive Many do say it is Sudorifick but I could never observe any such effect sensibly Nevertheless I would
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
reason of it is that in the making of Vinegar the acids had in a manner fixed this sulphureous Spirit but when they do enter into the pores of Coral they are forced to quit it and so let it recover its volatility Magistery of Coral Take what quantity you please of the impregnation of Coral either red or white made with distilled Vinegar as I have said before pour it it into a Viol or matrass and drop into it the liquor of the Salt of Tartar made per deliquium a Curd will appear which will precipitate to the bottom in a very white powder decant the clear liquor and washing your powder five or six times with water dry it it is that which is called the Magistery of Coral Great virtues are attributed to it such as to revive and fortifie the heart resist poison stop the bloody Flux and all other Haemorrhagies The dose is from ten to thirty grains in some liquor appropriate to the disease Remarks The name of Magistery is given only to Precipitates and they are so called to express something more exquisite than ordinary The liquor of Tartar which is an alkali salt dissolved encountring the acid makes it let go the particles of Coral that it held suspended and so they precipitate by their own weight this precipitate is nothing else but a Coral finely powdered by means of acids which do easily divide into abundance of parts things that otherwise would seem indivisible But you must observe here that these preparations instead of rendring Coral more effectual as is pretended do indeed render it almost good for nothing which is a thing easie enough to prove if we consider that Coral works in our bodies by nothing else but by absorbing acids or sharp and salt humours which do continually occasion divers diseases for example it stops Haemorrhagies only by sweetning the keen salts which corroded the membranes of the veins or else raised great effervescencies in the bloud so as to make it extravasate it stops Diarrheas by destroying the acrimony of the Choler or other humors lastly if it cures the falling down of the Vvula and does remedy many other accidents it is done by nothing else but by breaking the force of the ferments which do cause them after the same manner as it destroys the acidity of Vinegar or some other liquor this being so as there is great reason to believe it it were far better to take Coral without any other preparation than that which is made on the marble then to dissolve it by an acid and precipitate it into a Magistery for the acid or sharp humors that this Magistery is to encounter in our bodies finding nothing in the medicine that is able to blunt their edges will continue their former activity and so no effect at all will follow In this Precipitation there does not appear any effervescency because the edges of the Vinegar being broken it has neither strength nor motion enough left to penetrate and to separate the parts of salt of Tartar but if the dissolution of Coral had been made with some stronger dissolvent than Vinegar such as Spirit of Vitriol there would be an ebullition in the time of the Precipitation because there would remain still action enough to the broken edges of that spirit for to enter into the pores of the alkali salt and to rarefie it Salt of Coral This operation is a Coral rarefied and opened by the Spirit of Vinegar Take what quantity you please of the dissolution of Coral made by distilled Vinegar as I said before pour it into a glass Cucurbite or earthen pan and evaporate in sand all the moisture there will remain at bottom a Salt of Coral keep it in a Viol well stopt it is given for the same reasons as the Magistery the dose of it is less being from five to fifteen grains Remarks In this Evaporation there come forth only the watry parts and the acids adhering to the Coral do form a kind of Salt If you should put this Salt of Coral into a Retort and distil it in sand you would obtain a liquor that is only styptick without any considerable acidity which shews that the acids are destroyed and do not come forth of the alkali as they entred in CHAP. XV. Of Common Salt THere are three sorts of Common Salt the Fossile Salt the Fountain Salt and the Sea Salt the first is called Sal Gemme by reason of its transparency and smoothness like to a precious stone it is that of which whole mountains are found full in Poland and other places the second is drawn by evaporation of the waters of some Fountains and the last from Sea-water by Crystallization or Evaporation these three salts are of the same nature and have almost the same effect they are used not only in Aliments but sometimes in Remedies too such as Clysters when they should be made very Carminative It is here observable that Sal Gemme is a little more penetrating than Sea salt that is drawn by Crystallization and that the Sea salt which is drawn by Crystallization is more penetrating than that which is made by Evaporation of the waters The reason that may be given for the piercing quality of Sal Gemme is this that having never been dissolved in water it never lost any of its keenness whereas the others do lose their more subtle edges in the waters and this chiefly when those waters are in strong agitation as are those of the Sea It is very probable that the violent Vomiting which does so much annoy those who take a voyage to Sea does proceed from these same subtile parts of salt which being volatilized do fill the sea-air for this vomiting does happen only to such who have not been used to breath a salt air and who besides are sufficiently shook by the motion of the Sea The Sea salt which is made in Normandy by evaporation of Sea-water over the fire is not so strong as that which is made at Rochell by Crystallization because in the evaporation many of the subtler parts of the Salt are lost and a mark of that is that if Sea-water is distilled over a fire â—ever so small it will not fail to carry with it some volatilized salt which will alter its virtue as experience hath testified several times But it doth not happen thus to Sea-salt Crystallized for it fixes of it self when the Salt-waters have setled for some time in places fit for their reception I have delivered my thoughts sufficiently touching the Origine of these three sorts of Salt in the Remarks I made on the principles wherefore there 's no need of repeating what I then said Sea-salt is made at Rochell in salt marshes which are places that must be of a lower situation than the sea and the ground must be Clayie for otherwise they would not be able to retain the salt-water that has been let into them Thus all places near the sea are not alike proper to make salt
not able to coagulate and if on the contrary there should be too little the Crystals would be confused Therefore to make them fair you must take your vessel off the fire when you perceive a little skin upon the liquor which is a mark to shew that there remains a little less liquor than is convenient to keep all the salt dissolved and thus when it comes to be set in a cool place it will not fail to fix Acid salts and among them the volatile do Crystallize in much less time than others Salt-peter cools the body by reason that being an acid it depresses the humours which by their too great motion did heat the body and so precipitates them by Urine for the volatile salts and sulphurs that all bodies are full of are easily fixed and quieted by acids Crystal Mineral called Sal Prunellae This operation is a Salt-peter from which some of the volatile part hath been separated by the means of Sulphur and fire Bruise two and thirty ounces of Purified Salt-peter and put it into a Crucible which you must set in a furnace among burning coals When the Salt-peter is melted throw into it an ounce of flower of Sulphur a spoonful at a time the matter will presently flame and the more volatile spirits of Salt-peter fly away when the flame is over the matter will remain in a very clear fusion Take the Crucible out with a pair of tongs and turn it upside down into a brass bason very clean and a little warmed before-hand to dry up the moisture that might be upon it shake about the bason to spread the matter while it is cooling and this is called Sal Prunellae If you desire to have it very pure you must dissolve it in a sufficient quantity of water filtrate the dissolution and crystallize it as I have said in the Purification of Salt-peter It is accounted better than purified Salt-peter for Physical uses because the Sulphur is thought to have corrected it It is given to cool and to work by Urine in burning Feavers in Quinseys Gonorrheas and other diseases that proceed from heat and obstruction the dose is from ten grains to a drachm in Broth or some other liquor appropriate to the distemper Remarks This Preparation is called Sal or Lapis prunellae either because the essential salt which is drawn from prunella or Self heal hath near upon the matter the same virtue and figure as Crystal Mineral or else because it is given in hot Feavers whose heat is compared to that of a burning coal called Pruna The Germans do give it the form of a Sloe after having coloured it red with Roses The Antients have thought it necessary to throw Flowers of Sulphur on melted Salt-peter to the end it might be made the more Aperitive but thereby it is deprived of the more opening spirits which the Sulphur carries away along with it thus instead of rendring it more open and effectual the better part of it is lost It is easie to perceive that this abuse is one of those that hath insensibly gained upon men and diminishes very much from the benefits that might be received from Chymical Physick for want of applying themselves to examine well the constituent parts of natural things before proposing of correctives I shall rather advise them to use simple purified Salt-peter or purified from its fixt salt three or four several times so as I have described and I am confident after the experience that I have often made of it that it will better satisfie the intensions of those who use it than when it shall have been prepared with Sulphur The diminution which is made of the Salt-peter is not only of the volatile parts which are carried off with the Sulphur but it is likewise of the watry part which this salt does always contain and which does hereby evaporate Crystal Mineral is often counterfeited by mixing Roche-alom with it during the fusion and if those men do use a Salt-peter that is not very pure this Alom does serve to purifie it by causing a thick scum to separate to the sides of the Crucible and so the Crystal Mineral becomes much the whiter This adulteration may be known in that the Crystal Mineral made this way is more glittering than the other and it is the Alom which gives it this colour Those who carry about this Crystal Mineral to the shops do easily enough vend it for its outward excellency and for the cheapness they sell it at for Alom costs but little but this sort wants a great deal of having so good effects as the other Sal Polychrestum This operation is a Salt-peter fixed by Sulphur and by fire Powder and mix equal parts of Salt-peter and common Sulphur throw about an ounce of this mixture into a good Crucible which you shall have heated red-hot before-hand there will rise a great flame which being over throw into it as much more of the matter and continue to do so until all your mixture is used Let the fire continue four or five hours so as to keep the Crucible all the while red-hot then pour out the matter into a copper well dried by the fire and when it is cold powder it and dissolve it in a sufficient quantity of water filtrate the dissolution and evaporate it in an earthen pan or a glass vessel in sand until it is dry You must fling away as insignificant that which remains in the filter If the Salt be not altogether so white as we would have it it is because it still retains some Sulphur therefore you must calcine it in a strong fire in a Crucible stirring it about with a Spatule three or four hours or until it becomes very white then repeat your dissolution in water your filtration and evaporation thus you have a Sal Polychrestum exceeding pure Sal Polychrestum purges serous humors by stool and sometimes by Urine the dose is from half a drachm to six drachms in some proper liquor Remarks This Salt is properly a Salt-peter divested of its volatile part by Sulphur it is called Polychrestum from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say good for several uses because it is used not only to purge by stool but by urine too being taken to the weight of one or two drachms in a quart of water in the morning like a Mineral water It is commonly used in Infusions of Senna from one scruple to four as well to increase the strength of the Purgative as to draw out more strongly the Tincture of Senna Some do give it to six drachms in a pint or a quart of water to purge strongly but I would not advise any body to use this Purgative all alone by reason of the vellications that it gives in passing through the stomach Sal Polychrestum must by no means be used until it is made very white and very pure for when there remains any gross portion of Sulphur it is apt to cause Vertigoes
of Niter being more volatile than oil of Vitriol causes a greater effervescency In order therefore to explicate this ebullition two things must be considered First that spirit of Niter contains a great many fiery parts lock't up in its acidity but which do still retain some evident motion for it is they that make the spirit of Niter to Fume as it does The second is that spirit of Niter is more Inflammable than salt-peter when mixed with any sulphureous body and the reason thereof is that it is more rarefied than salt-peter Thus when this acid spirit is mixt with spirit of Wine which is a sulphur very much exalted and very susceptible of motion the volatile part of the spirit of Niter joyns itself to this sulphur and the mixture becomes very ready to take flame likewise after this mixture the fiery bodies that were in spirit of Niter do by striving to mount upwards put the liquor into so great a motion that it e'en almost flames and would without all question quite flame if there were not some phlegm always mixed with these spirits let them be drawn never so pure which serves to allay the activity of the fiery particles so that there must needs follow a very great ebullition This effervescency therefore proceeds from this that spirit of wine and spirit of Niter which are as it were a salt-peter and sulphur highly exalted have been almost kindled into a flame by the fiery bodies that were in spirit of Niter and that which further proves this conception is a noise or kind of detonation during the effervescency which is much like that which happens when sulphur and salt-peter are burnt together But because there may be some difficulty in conceiving what is meant by little fiery bodies I do understand by them a subtile matter which having been put into a very rapid motion does still retain the aptitude of moving with impetuosity even when it is inclosed in grosser matters and when it finds some bodies which by their texture or figure are apt to be put into motion it drives them about so strongly that their parts rubbing violently the one against the other heat is thereby produced Now the sulphureous parts of spirit of Wine and the volatile acids of spirit of Niter being mixed and being very aptly disposed for motion of themselves they must needs be easily put into it by these fiery bodies insomuch that their parts often rubbing or striking the one against the other they must cause a heat after the same manner as when a stone is strook hard against a piece of Iron a heat and fire do follow The great diminution of the liquor proceeds from the evaporation of the more volatile parts of the Spirits of Wine and Niter through the neck of the Bolt-head during the ebullition That which remains is a well sweetned spirit of Niter for not only its edges are very much blunted in the ebullition but the spirit of Wine being a sulphur does unite and imbody with those that remain so that they have no longer any Corrosive quality Aqua Fortis This preparation is a mixture of the Spirits of Niter and Vitriol drawn by fire to dissolve metals Powder and mix Salt-peter purified Vitriol Calcined white as I shall shew hereafter and Potters earth or clay dried of each two and thirty ounces put this mixture into an earthen Retort or glass one luted whose third part is to remain empty place your Retort in a close Reverberatory Furnace and fitting to it a capacious Receiver Lute well the junctures then begin by giving a little fire to warm gently the Retort and encrease it by little and little but when you perceive the Spirits to come forth into the Receiver in red clouds continue it for fifteen or sixteen hours in the same degree then drive it to the last extremity until there do appear white clouds instead of red Then let the vessels cool and unlute them you 'l find in the Receiver an Aqua fortis which you must keep in an earthen bottle well stopt It serves for the dissolution of metals Remarks I do use to Calcine the Vitriol to a whiteness that the Aqua fortis may not be weakned with an insipid water The mixture of Vitriol and Salt-peter has quickly some smell of Aqua fortis because Vitriol contains a great deal of Sulphur which easily insinuates into the volatile part of Salt-peter and exalts some little of it which causes the smell it is this Sulphur in Vitriol which by volatilizing the red spirit of Niter makes it come forth faster and with a less fire than when Salt-peter is distilled with Clay alone The greatest Corrosion of Aqua fortis proceeds from the Niter for the Vitriol doth yield but very weak Spirits in comparison with the other I do acknowledge indeed that the Oil of Vitriol is exceeding Corrosive but eighteen or twenty hours are not able to drive that out for it doth not use to come until after three days continual distillation The Vitriol then and the Clay do serve here only for a matter to separate the Salt-peter that it may by the means of fire the better rarefie into Spirits Although there does not enter into this preparation so much terrestrial matter as there does into that of Spirit of Niter nevertheless it proves very well because the Sulphurs of Vitriol do help the Spirits to rise If you would keep on the fire five days and nights together the Receiver would be still full of clouds because the Vitriol would yield some Spirits during all that time Sometimes Alom and Arsenick are added to the composition of Aqua fortis but the description which I have given you is the best of all There remains in the Retort a red mass which may be used like Colcothar for an Astringent This mass may be obtained without breaking the Retort Fixation of Salt-peter into an Alkali Salt by the means of Coals This operation is a Salt-peter rendred porous by Calcination and by the ashes of coals which are mixed with it Melt sixteen ounces of Salt-peter in a strong and large Crucible among burning coals throw into it a spoonful of coals grosly powdered and there will rise a flame and detonation which being over throw so much more and continue to do so until the matter flames no longer but remains fixt in the bottom of the Crucible then pour it into a warm mortar and when it is cold powder it and dissolve it in a sufficient quantity of water filtrate the dissolution through brown paper and evaporate all the water in an earthen pan in sand there will remain a very white salt which you must keep in a Viol well stopt This Salt hath a taste like to that of Salt of Tartar and they differ but little in virtue it opens Obstructions and works by Urine and sometimes by Stool the dose is from sixteen to thirty grains in some convenient liquor It may be used to assist in drawing forth the
Sympathetical powder When you would use this powder you are to take the bloud of a wound upon a linnen cloth and to sprinkle some of it upon the bloud It is pretended that though the bloudy linnen were ten miles off from the Patient when the Sympathetical powder is applied to it the wound would presently heal But the experience of several persons who have tried it and others may do the same does evince that men have had a great faith when they have talked of the effects of this powder for if it be not applied to a cloth newly blouded and even in the chamber of the Patient you will certainly find no effect from it Nay where such precautions have been used it performs no great matter and sometimes does nothing at all Now to explicate the action of Vitriol called Sympathy you must know that there does continually exhale into the air little bodies from this mineral salt and to convince you of it you need only to put the several Vitriols of different colours pretty near one another in the same place you will find after 12 or 15 daies that they have all changed colour a little in their superficies The white will become yellow the green whitish the blue greenish the red grayish These changes of colour cannot proceed but from little bodies which being separated from each kind of Vitriol and mixing in the air some part of them do fall confusedly on the matter And it must not be said that these changes are caused by the air which does open and rarefie these salts for if you put them into places separate or distant from one another this effect will in no wise happen You must also observe that the bloud to which the Vitriolick powder is applied retaining some heat still may thereby increase the activity and number of the little bodies which do arise from the Vitriol And these Vitriolick bodies dispersing themselves in the air are they that cause all the Sympathy for they do mix in the wound of the patient and because the virtue of Vitriol is to stop the bloud and to dry it you need not wonder if the volatile parts which come from it do perform the same effect But it may be objected that the volatile parts of Vitriol have no more determination naturally to go find out the wound of a person than other parts of the body and other places of the chamber Nay on the contrary that a wound being commonly covered with a plaister and somewhat thick bandage is not so likely to receive those bodies I answer that there is no need of giving any other determination to these volatile parts of Vitriol than is given to other volatile salts which are dispersed in the air but because wounds are always of a glutinous temper it is easie to conceive that these little bodies will adhere to them in greater quantity than to others as any downy substance which flies about a room wherein there is Glue or Turpentine will more easily stick in them than in other places As for the Bandage and Plaster used to wounds you must know that those who do use the Sympathetical powder do apply none of them But when it happens which is very rare that a mans wound has been cured by this Powder although there was a Plaister and bandage also laid upon it this effect can never be attributed to any thing else but the penetration of Vitriol for there are wounds that a very little quantity of Vitriol is capable of drying Thus I have given you the most rational explication that can be of an effect which has hitherto passed for a thing altogether inexplicable To conclude I would not advise any wounded person to insist or depend too much on a remedy of this nature for to one who ever received considerable good there 's a hundred who never perceived any effect from it and the cause of it has been that the volatile parts of the Vitriol have hapned to be diverted from the wound by some wind or else because the greatest part of people have their bloud too subtile and too active to be fixed by so little a quantity of Vitriol Nevertheless those whose heads are filled with the Sympathetical Powder do speak of it as of a never failing medicine And if a man offers to convince them by an experiment to the contrary as it is not hard to do they presently cry out that the reason it fails is because it is ill prepared but it is easie to convince them if they desire a serious satisfaction in it for the powder of their own preparation that they so much magnifie though it be successful in one will be found to fail in a great many others Many Authors have also written a great many falshoods in defence of the Sympathy as for example that if the urine of an Infant were cast into the fire so soon as it is made it would cause a heat of urine that if the excrements of an animal were thrown into the fire or among Nettles there would be an Inflammation in the guts of the same creature and many the like stories which a thousand experiments will prove not to be true Distillation of Vitriol This Spirit is an acid salt of Vitriol dissolved into a liquor by a great fire Fill two thirds of a large earthen Retort or glass one luted with Vitriol Calcined to whiteness place it in a close Reverberatory furnace and fitting to it a great Balon or Receiver give a very small fire to warm the Retort and make the water come forth that might still remain in the Vitriol and when there will distil no more pour the water out of the Receiver into a Bottle this is called Phlegm of Vitriol it is used in Inflammations of the eyes to wash them with refit the Receiver to the neck of the Retort and luting the junctures exactly encrease the fire by degrees and when you perceive Clouds to come forth into the Receiver continue it in the same condition until the Receiver grows cold then strengthen the fire with wood to an extream violence until the flame rises through the Tunnel of the Reverberatory as big as ones arm The Receiver will fill again with white Clouds continue the fire after this manner for three days and so many nights then put it out unlute the junctures when the vessels are cold and pour the Spirit into a glass body set it in sand and fit to it quickly a Head with its Receiver lute the junctures close with a wet Bladder and distil with a very gentle fire about four ounces of it this is the Sulphureous spirit of Vitriol keep it in a viol well stopt It is good for the Asthma Palsie and diseases of the Lungs the dose is from four drops to ten in some convenient liquor Change the Receiver and augmenting the fire distil about half the liquor that remains in the body this is called the Acid Spirit of Vitriol it is mixed in Juleps
CHAP. I. Of Jalap JAlap is a grayish root brought out of America cut into slices and dried it grows in the Province of Mechoacan and in several other places the best is that which is most compact and filled with Resinous veins It purges watery humors very well and is therefore usually given in the Dropsie and Gout the dose is from ten grains to a drachm in broth or White-wine Rosine or Magistery of Jalap This Operation is a solution of the oily or resinous part of Jalap made in Spirit of wine and precipitated by common water Put a pound of good Jalap grosly powdered into a large matrass pour upon it Spirit of wine Alcoholized until it be four fingers above the matter stop the matrass with another whose neck enters into it and luting the junctures with a wet bladder digest it three days in a sand-heat the Spirit of wine will receive a red Tincture decant it and then pour more upon the Jalap proceed as before and mixing your dissolutions filtrate them through brown paper Put that which you have filtred into a glass Cucurbite and distil in a vaporous bath two thirds of the Spirit of wine which may serve you another time for the same Operation Pour that which remains at the bottom of the Cucurbite into a large earthen Pan filled with water and it will turn into a milk which you must leave a day to settle and then separate the water by Inclination you 'l find the Rosine at bottom like unto Turpentine Wash it several times with water and dry it in the Sun it will grow hard like common Rosine powder it fine and it will become white Keep it in a Viol it purges Serosities It is given in Dropsies and for all Obstructions the dose is from four to twelve grains mixt in Electuary or else in Pills The Rosines of Turbith Scammony and Benjamin may be drawn after the same manner Remarks The Spirit of wine which is a Sulphur is likewise a very convenient Menstruum to extract Rosines which are gross Sulphurs you must use enough Spirit to dissolve all the Rosine and give it a sufficient time to open all the body of the Jalap after which a good part of the Spirit of wine is drawn off and may serve for the same use again provided you distil it with a very gentle fire for if you let it be too strong it will carry along with it good part of the Rosine A great deal of water is poured upon it to weaken the Spirit of wine which held the Rosine dissolved and then it revives again and its parts approaching one another there is made a kind of milk which clears up according as the Rosine precipitates If you have used sixteen ounces of Jalap you will draw an ounce and six drachms of Rosine well washed and dried From six ounces of good Scammony you draw five ounces of Rosine by the like preparation Some do evaporate the Spirit of wine and without using any Precipitation they find their Rosine in an Extract at the bottom of the vessel but then it becomes black like pitch All the Purgative virtue of the Jalap consists in the Rosine an Alkali salt may be drawn from the remainder but in a very small quantity You must observe to give the Rosine of Jalap always mixt with something else that may separate its parts for if it be taken alone it will be apt to adhere to the inward membrane of the Intestines and so cause Ulcers by its acrimonious quality Moreover Apothecaries should observe to mix it in a little yolk of an Egg when they would dissolve it in a Potion for it sticks to the mortar like Turpentine when it is humected by any aqueous liquor It may be likewise incorporated with some Electuary and then it easily dissolves Twelve grains of this Rosine work the same effect as a drachm of Jalap in substance It is not yet sufficiently known wherein the Purgative virtue of mixts doth consist to give it a right explication It is easily conceived that these effects do follow the Fermentation that the Remedy hath caused but no body can find what it is that makes this Remedy be Purgative rather than several others which seem to have as great a disposition as this to cause such Fermentation wherefore I shall not pretend to clear the knowledge of this Phaenomenon I shall only endeavour to give some reason for a very considerable difficulty which is to know how Hydragogues do work in our bodies and why they rather purge water than other humors A general reason that may be given of it is that all Hydragogue Remedies have more acrimony than other Purgatives and consequently they are better able to open the Lymphatick vessels But it may be further said that these Remedies do so cut and attenuate the Viscosities which are found in bodies that they make them be like water and there is no difficulty in conceiving this last reason when it is considered that these Remedies which do purge water are all of them Resinous or else salts for after the same manner as we see Sulphurs or Liquified salts dissolve Sulphureous bodies so do Rosines which are Sulphurs and salts dissolve Viscosities in the body which are compounded of a great deal of Sulphur But there is this difference between the effects of Salt and of Rosines that the Salt passing quick and making but little impression doth dissolve only that which is found in what is called the first Region of the body wherefore it purges but mildly whereas the Rosine by reason of its viscous hooked parts remains a longer time in the body and leasurely causes a Fermentation not only about the parts where it immediately works but operates on the brain and other remote places from whence it forces Phlegm to discharge it self into the Belly and this is that which causes Rosinous Hydragogues to purge more than Salts CHAP. II. Of Rhubarb RHubarb is a Purgative root brought from China It takes its name from Barbary where it hath grown in abundance it is likewise called Rheum The best sort is that which being broke appears of a Nutmeg colour within Its virtues are so many and so great that if they were sufficiently known and men could generally use it without that nauseousness which too commonly attends it mankind would have infinitely less need than they have of the Art of Physick in most cases and men might perhaps preserve themselves from most diseases without any other help Extract of Rhubarb This Extract is a separation of the purer parts of Rhubarb from the terrestrious Bruise six or eight ounces of good Rhubarb and steep it twelve hours warm in a sufficient quantity of Succory water so as the water may be four fingers above the Rhubarb let it just boil and pass the liquor through a cloth infuse the remainder in so much more Succory water as before then strain the Infusion and express it strongly mix your Impregnations or
Tinctures and let them settle filtrate them and evaporate the liquor in a glass vessel over a very gentle fire until there remains a matter that hath the consistence of thick honey this is called Extract of Rhubarb keep it in a Pot. The dose is from ten grains to two Scruples in Pills or dissolved in Succory water for diseases of the Liver and Spleen it binds after the purgeing The Extracts of Vegetables are made after the same manner except the Resinous whereof I have spoken Likewise waters may be used for Menstruums that are appropriated to the virtue of the mixt whose Extract you intend to draw When you draw the Extract of Aromaticks such as Roses and Cinnamon the liquor may be distilled rather than evaporated whereby you gain a fragrant water Remarks Though the name of Extract ought to be very general in Physick it is confined only to one sort of Preparation that is reduced to the consistence of an Electuary it is nothing else but a Purification that is made to cleanse a mixt from its more Terrestrious parts that being more open and free it may work with the greater strength Now this operation is good for mixts that are not Odoriferous but not so for those that are for by evaporation their best part is lost which consists in a volatile So that I would by no means advise to make the Extract of Aromaticks Nature is a very good Artist to perform this Operation within our bodies when the Principles are easie to separate as in these sorts of mixts There has been a great contest among Chymists heretofore in which of the Principles it is that the Purgative virtue of many medicins doth consist Some have maintained it to be in the Salt others in the Sulphur and others again in the Mercury But when every party had very diligently separated each their Principle and came to try it they found after all that none of them was Purgative which hath perswaded many of them to think that this Purgative principle was of so subtile and penetrating a nature that glass it self was not able to preserve it from being lost For my part I cannot grant any such indiscernable Purgative I rather am apt to believe that the Purgative virtue of a mixt consists in nothing else but such a different mixture of Principles as is requisite to produce certain Fermentations in our bodies So that when once we separate the Sulphur Mercury or Salt the position of parts or proportion of Principles being changed there remains no longer any Purgative effect because the Principles being separated can no more produce that Fermentation which they did while they were mixed and united together some kind of way that Art is ignorant how to imitate Perhaps some who think themselves good Criticks will say this Chapter contradicts the former for I there maintained that the Rosine of Jalap which is a Sulphur doth contain all the Purgative virtue of Jalap but though I did call the Rosine of Jalap a Sulphur I did not mean it was a pure Sulphur it is a substance out of which all the five Principles may be still drawn but by reason it doth contain great store of Sulphur this name may be given to it as it often is to others of the like nature And thus Salt may be said to be Purgative too but it doth not follow from thence that the Salt alone must be thought to contain all the Purgative virtue of mixt bodies seeing many plants such as Guaiacum Box Carduus and Wormwood do contain as much or more Salt than Senna and Rhubarb and yet nevertheless do not purge at all CHAP. III. Of the Wood Guaiacum GVaiacum called Lignum Sanctum is the Wood of a large Tree that grows in a great many places in the West Indies It is likewise cultivated here in Europe in Languedoc is good store but that which is brought out of the hot Countries is best esteemed this Wood is very much in use in Sudorifick Decoctions the Bark is also used and the Gum that runs from it the best Guaiacum is that which is most compact Distillation of Guaiacum This operation is a separation of the liquid parts of Guaiacum from its terrestrious matter Take the shavings of Guaiacum fill a large Retort with them three quarters full place it in a Reverberatory Furnace and joyn to it a great capacious Receiver Begin the distillation with a fire of the first degree to warm the Retort gently and to distil the water which is called Phlegm continue it in this condition until there come no more drops which is a sign that all the Phlegm is distilled Throw away that which you find in the Receiver and fitting it again to the neck of the Retort lute well the junctures You must afterwards encrease the fire by degrees and the Spirits and Oyl will come forth in white clouds continue the fire until there comes no more let the vessels cool and unlute them pour that which is in the Receiver into a Tunnel lined with brown paper set upon a bottle or some other vessel the Spirit will pass through and leave the black thick and very fetid Oil in the Tunnel pour it into a viol and keep it for use it is an excellent Remedy for rottenness of bones for the Tooth-ach and to cleanse old Ulcers It may be rectified as I said of the Oil of Ambar and may be used inwardly in the Epilepsie Palsie and to drive forth the after-birth the dose is from two drops to six The Spirit of Guaiacum may be rectified by distilling it by an Alembeck for to separate a little impurity that might have passed with it it works by perspiration and by Urine the dose is from half a drachm to a drachm and a half It is likewise used mixt with the water of honey to cleanse inveterate Ulcers You 'l find in the Retort the coals of Guaiacum which you may turn into ashes by putting fire to them which they will sooner take than other coals Calcine these ashes some hours in a Potters furnace then make a Lixivium of them with water which being filtred evaporate it in a glass or earthen vessel in sand there will remain the Salt of Guaiacum which you may make white by Calcining it in a Crucible in a strong fire This Salt is Aperitive and Sudorifick it may serve as all other Alkalis to draw the Tincture of Vegetables the dose is from ten grains to half a drachm in some convenient liquor The earth called Caput Mortuum is good for nothing After this manner the five substances of all Vegetables may be drawn but because the fire doth give them a loathsome Empyreumatical smell other ways have been invented to draw the Oil of Aromaticks I shall describe them in the sequel Remarks During the distillation of Spirits you must not make the fire too strong for they coming forth with a great deal of violence would else be apt to break either the Retort or the
Receiver Though the Guaiacum that is used be a very dry body yet abundance of liquor is drawn from it for if you put into the Retort four pounds of this Wood at sixteen ounces to the pound you 'l draw nine and thirty ounces of Spirit and Phlegm and five ounces and a half of Oil there will remain in the Retort nineteen ounces of coals from which you may draw half an ounce or six drachms of an Alkali salt The Oil of Guaiacum is acrimonious by reason of the Salts it has carried along with it and it is the gravity of these salts that does precipitate it to the bottom of the water The Oil of Box and most others that are drawn this same way do the like These sorts of Oil are good for the Tooth-ach because they stop the nerve with their ramous parts hindring thereby the air from entring Moreover by means of the acrimonious salts which they contain they do dissipate a phlegm which uses to get within the gum and causes the pain but yet by reason of their fetid smell men have much ado to take them into their mouth That which is called Spirit of Guaiacum is nothing but a dissolution of the Essential salt of the Plant in a little phlegm The fixt salt is an Alkali that works much like others of that kind nevertheless it is very probable that the fixt salts of Vegetables let them be never so much Calcined do always retain some particular virtue of the Plant they were drawn from If one would take the pains to Calcine the earth that remains he would obtain a salt though but very little of it CHAP. IV. Of Paper THE Papyrus of the Antients which gave the name to our PAPER was a tree growing in Aegypt near the river Nilus The bark of this tree was prepared and men did write upon it but our Paper is made of old rags or clouts which are beaten exceeding fine in Paper-mills and then put into the press in order to make Paper with them This Paper has some use in Physick pieces of it are lighted in a room and Hysterical women are made to receive the fume of it they are commonly relieved with this disagreeable smell as by many others of the like nature Oil and Spirit of Paper Fold white paper into little pellets and fill a great earthen Retort or glass one luted with them place your Retort in a Reverberatory furnace Fit to it a large capacious Receiver lute well the junctures give it a very little fire for two hours only to heat the Retort increase it with two or three coals and continue it so for two or three hours then quicken it to the third degree The Receiver will be filled with white clouds put out the fire when no more will come forth the operation will be ended in seven or eight hours When the vessels are cold unlute them pour what you find in the Receiver into a Tunnel lined with a coffin of brown paper the Spirit will pass through the filter and a thick black and ill-scented oil will remain within it keep the oil for use in a Viol. It is a very good remedy in deafness some drops of it are put into the ear with a little cotton from time to time it quiets the noise of the ear it is also good for Tettars and for the Itch the parts being anointed a little with it it cures the tooth-ach much like the Oil of Guaiacum it is good likewise to repress hysterical vapours women so affected are to smell to it You must rectifie the Spirit by distilling it in sand It is an Aperitive and may be given where there is occasion for a diuretick the dose is from six drops to twenty in some proper liquor Remarks The Vitriol and other drogues which are in Ink might alter the virtue of the Oil and Spirit of paper wherefore it is better to use clean than written paper The receiver must be large in order to give room to the vapours to circulate in for they come forth with that force that they would break the vessel if they had not room enough to play in you must manage the fire with prudence for if you make it too great the first hours the Spirits will break the Retort If you have used in this operation four and twenty ounces of paper you will draw two ounces and two drachms of Oil and thirteen ounces and a half of Spirit there will remain in the Retort seven ounces and a half of coals The Oil does not pass with the Spirit through the coffin in the tunnel because it is too thick its black colour and its ill smell do come from the fire It is good for deafness because that disease is often caused by a thick or phlegmatick humor which dries and hardens in the ear so as to stop the auditory nerve Now this Oil dissolves and rarefies this humor and disposes it the better to come out And this is the reason that it dissipates the noises in the ears for they were caused by winds which this humor had shut in The Spirit is very acid in comparison with other Spirits of Vegetables because it comes from an essential salt which has been put into a very considerable motion Again it is probable that by the many different forms which the flax and canvas have received in order to make cloth and afterwards Paper and by the fermentations which they may have received their fixed salt may be volatilized and become of the nature of that which is called Essential Now in the distillation all this salt has been dissolved into a liquor by the phlegm and turned into that which is called Spirit that which confirms me in this sentiment is that there can be hardly any fixed salt at all drawn from the coal which remains in the Retort wherefore the coal is thrown away as useless it takes fire exceeding easily by reason of a light soot that is fallen upon it and which gave it the black colour CHAP. V. Of Cinnamon CInnamon is the Bark of a Tree as large as an Olive Tree it grows in the East-Indies and is much like that which the Cassia Lignea is taken from but it is not the very same as some will needs think the best Cinnamon is that which has the strongest smell is quick upon the taste and of a reddish colour The Cassia Lignea differs from Cinnamon in that it is not so biting to the taste smells not so strong and becomes mucilaginous in the mouth when it is chewed which Cinnamon doth not do Both Cinnamon and Cassia Lignea are good to fortifie the stomach to help perspiration of gross humors to strengthen and rejoice the heart and in hysterical cases Oil or Essence of Cinnamon and its Aethereal water Bruise four pounds of good Cinnamon and infuse it in six quarts of hot water leave it in digestion in an earthen vessel well stopt two days pour the Infusion into a large Copper
matter fit to it another matrass in order to make a double vessel lute well the junctures and place your vessel to digest in horse-dung or in a vaporous Bath four days stir it from time to time the Spirit of wine will load it self with a red colour unlute the vessels filtrate the Tincture through brown paper and keep it in a viol well stopt It is a Febrifuge to be given in Agues three or four times a day at a distance from the fitt and to be continued for a fortnight the dose is from ten drops to a drachm in some proper liquor such as Centaury water or Juniper or Wormwood water or wine If you put new Spirit of wine to the matter which remains in the matrass and set it in digestion as before you will draw more Tincture but it will not be so strong as the other wherefore you must give it in a little larger dose Remarks This Tincture works like the Infusion I now spoke of it is a more convenient preparation than the other in this that it can keep as long as you will whereas the other does sowr in a little time Again those who do not love wine will like it better but I should prefer the Infusion before the Tincture because wine is a more proper menstruum wherewith to draw the saline and sulphureous substance of a mixt then Spirit of wine You may steep a few Coriander seeds or a little Cinnamon in the wine or water and after it is strained off dissolve some sugar in it and in this you may mix the Tincture of the Bark and so make a kind of Febrifugous Rossoli which Infants may be easily made to take of Extract of Peruvian Bark This Operation is a separation of the more substantial parts of the Bark Put to infuse warm four and twenty hours eight ounces of Peruvian Bark in a sufficient quantity of distilled water of Nuts afterwards boil the Infusion gently and strain it make a strong expression of the residence put it to infuse in new water of Nuts boil and strain it as before mix together what you have strained and let them settle decant the clear liquor and evaporate it in a glass or earthen vessel set in a sand-heat unto the consistence of thick honey It is a Febrifuge that has the same virtues as the former the dose is from twelve grains to half a drachm in Pills or dissolved in wine Remarks The Wine and Spirit of wine are very proper to draw forth the Tincture of the Bark but they are by no means good to make the Extract with because in the evaporation the Spirit carries away with it the more subtile parts of the mixt The water of Nuts is much more convenient for besides that it loses less of the volatile substance it is a little febrifugous itself Instead of this water you might use those of Juniper-berries the lesser Centaury or Wormwood-water The Extract is convenient for those who cannot endure the taste of remedies for it may be given in Pills wrapped up in a wafer without partaking of the taste But I should prefer the Infusion or the Bark in substance before this preparation because it is impossible to avoid the evaporation of the more subtile parts in the ebullition of it use what precaution you will to preserve them You may draw the fixt salt from the residence that remains after you have drawn the Extract or the Tincture You must dry it and burn and calcine the ashes in a crucible then steep them in hot water ten or twelve hours boil them an hour and then filtrate this lixivium and evaporate the water in an earthen pan or glass vessel in sand there will remain a salt at bottom which you must keep in a bottle well stopt This salt is an alkali as are all other fixed salts drawn from plants it is aperitive it may be given for a quartan Ague the dose is from ten grains to a scruple in some proper liquor You must not think that this salt retains all the virtues of the Bark they are rather all destroyed in the calcination Nor may we think to separate the Febrifugous virtue of this Bark by distilling it dry in a Retort for on the contrary this would destroy it by breaking the natural harmony and union of its parts and you would get only a stinking Spirit and a burnt oil which would be of no great use CHAP. VII Of Cloves CLoves are the fruit of a Tree as big as the Laurel Tree its Bark is very much like Cinnamon but tasts like the fruit Cloves it grows in many places in the Indies it is an admirable stomachick held in the mouth it preserves from the contagion of ill air Oil of Cloves per Descensum Take several large drinking glasses cover them with a Linnen-cloth and tie it round each of them leaving a cavity in each Cloth to put the powdered Cloves into set a small earthen Cup upon each glass of these Cloves let it stop so fitly that it may suffer no air to enter between its brim and that of the glass fill these Cups with hot ashes to warm the Cloves and distil down to the bottom of the glass first a little phlegm and Spirit and after that a clear and white oil continue the fire until there falls no more separate the oil in a Tunnel lined with a cornet of brown paper and keep it in a Viol well stopt Some drops of it are with Cotton put into aking Teeth it is likewise good in Malignant Feavers and the Plague the dose is two or three drops in Balm-water or some appropriate liquor You must mix it with a little Sugar-candy or a little yelk of an egg before you drop it into water otherwise it will not dissolve in the water Remarks I have given you this Preparation to serve upon an emergence when you want in haste the Oil of Cloves you must only use hot ashes to warm the Cloves if you desire to have a white Oil for if you give a greater heat the Oil turns red and loses a good part of it You must also take care to lift up the Cup from time to time to stir about the powder of Cloves The Oil of Cloves may be likewise drawn if you please like that of Cinnamon If you use a pound of Cloves to distil per descensum according to the description I have given you 'l draw an ounce and two drachms of white Oil and an ounce of Spirit there will remain thirteen ounces and two drachms of matter from whence might still be drawn a little red Oil. It is likely that the Oil of Cloves works in easing the tooth-ach much after the same manner as I said the Oil of Guaiacum did But this Oil having an agreeable smell with it there is no difficulty in admitting the application of this as there was in the other Some do dissolve Opium in Oil of Cloves and do use this dissolution for the tooth-ach
as the Spirit of Vrine by reason of some impression it has of the Acid sal Armoniack with which it was mixt insomuch that the Crystals of Tartar whose acid is not separated from the Earth has points too gross and too unactive to insinuate into the pores of this salt and separate its parts so easily as those of the salt that is contained in Spirit of Vrine whose pores are bigger Some part of the Glass of Antimony dissolves in the boiling and gives the Emetick quality to the powder It is a very gentle Vomit because the Tartar fixes and in some measure hinders the activity of the Sulphurs of Antimony If instead of making the aforesaid evaporation you should take the vessel off the fire when there is but two thirds of the liquor consumed and let it settle without stirring it in four and twenty hours the soluble Tartar will crystallize at the bottom and on the sides but it will be never a whit the better When you would make this Crystallization you must use a flat vessel let it be of earth that the Crystals may display themselves the better The liquor is to be decanted and the Crystals to be taken and dryed The evaporations and crystallizations are to be continued until you have obtained all your salt Another sort of Soluble Emetick Tartar may be made by boiling in water an ounce of the Glass of Antimony powdered with four ounces of Soluble Tartar for seven or eight hours then upon filtring and evaporating the liquor there will remain a grey powder of the same virtues as the other and to be given in the same dose Distillation of Tartar This Operation is a separation of the Phlegm the Spirit and the Oil of Tartar Fill two thirds of a Retort with Tartar grosly powdered place your Retort in a Reverberatory Furnace and fitting to it a large capacious Receiver begin the distillation with a very small fire for three hours only to warm the Retort and drive out the Phlegm drop by drop throw away this insipid water and refitting the Receiver Lute closely the joints encrease the fire by little and little and you 'l see Spirits fill the Receiver with Clouds continue it that the Oil may likewise come forth then when there will come no more let the vessels cool and unlute them pour that which is in the receiver into a Tunnel lined with brown paper that the Spirit may filtrate and separate from the thick black Oil that remains in the filter keep this Oil in a Viol it is good to smell to in Hysterical vapours it would be good to rub Paralytical parts with and for cold pains but by reason of its abominable smell it is not used Pour the Spirit into a glass Cucurbite and rectifie it by distilling it in sand it is good against the Palsie Asthma and Scurvy it works by Urine and by Sweat It is used in Hysterical maladies and for the Epilepsie the dose is from one drachm to three in some appropriate liquor You will find in the Retort a black mass from which a Salt may be drawn as I shall shew hereafter Remarks If you have used three pounds of Tartar of sixteen ounces to the pound in this Operation you will draw four ounces of Phlegm eight ounces of Spirit and three ounces of Oil the black mass which remains in the Retort after distillation will weigh two pounds or two and thirty ounces and you will draw from that mass twelve ounces of salt Almost all Authors who have spoke of Tartar have asserted that two sorts of Spirits could be drawn from it by distillation the one very Volatile the other fixt and acid wherefore after all had mixed confusedly in the Receiver they separated the Oil and added some Alkali such as Coral or Crabs-eyes to that which remained then they poured it into a Cucurbite and distilled about half the liquor which they pretended to be a Volatile Spirit for the acid Spirit remained absorb'd by the Alkali with the Phlegm in the bottom of the body But having vowed never to be led by any Authority which is not founded upon Experience I have examined the nature of Tartar as strictly as possible and after a great many distillations of it I could never perceive this Volatile Spirit which hath been obtruded upon us all that I could ever find is this that Tartar contains good store of Essential salt which renders it acid and that this Salt coming forth by distillation and mixing with phlegm doth make all the Spirit that can be drawn from Tartar So that the Spirit of Tartar according to the description of these men is only the more Phlegmatick part of the liquor that is to say the most deprived of this Essential Salt because almost all of it doth adhere unto the Alkali body of Coral or Crabs-eyes which were added to it But according to the way I have set down the Spirit may be drawn as pure as may be because I do not leave it to mix with the phlegm which comes out first If we do rectifie the Spirit it is done to purifie it from some Terrestrious parts which it might have carried along with it in the distillation Some thinking to do better than those who rectifie Spirit of Tartar on alkali matters do instead of those alkalis use biscuit powdered but they attain their end never the better for the biscuit does sweeten the acid Spirit of Tartar as much as Coral or Crabs-eyes A very volatile and alkali Spirit is drawn from the Lees of wine I shall speak of it in the Chapter of the Volatile Salt of Tartar and perhaps it is this very Spirit that Paracelsus and Van Helmont do boast so much of and which has occasioned many Authors to write that the Tartar does contain a most volatile Spirit Fixt Salt of Tartar and its liquor called Oil per Deliquium Break the Retort which served you for distillation of Tartar and take the black mass you find in it Calcine it until it becomes white then put it into a great deal of hot water and make a Lixivium filtrate it and pour it into a glass or earthen vessel evaporate in a sand-heat all the water and there will remain a white salt which is called the Alkali Salt of Tartar This Salt is Aperitive it is used for to draw forth the Tincture of Vegetables and is given for Obstructions the dose is from ten to thirty drops in broth or Laxative Infusions If you expose for some days in a Cellar this Salt of Tartar in a wide glass vessel it will dissolve into a liquor that is improperly called Oil of Tartar per Deliquium It is used for Tettars and to discuss Tumors the Ladies do mix it in Lilly-water to clear their complexion and hands Remarks In these two last Operations I have given you the means of obtaining all that can be got from Tartar but those who have no need of the Spirit or Oil and would only desire the
Salt may bruise the Crude Tartar and wrapping it up in paper may Calcine it until it turns into a white mass after which they may draw the salt by a Lixivium as I said before I do commonly draw this way four ounces of very white and well purified salt of Tartar from each pound of red Tartar a little more may be drawn from white Tartar but it is no better than the other I have observed that when water is thrown upon the mass of Tartar newly Calcined it heats much like unslack'd Lime when wetted the reason of which is the same that I have given to explicate the Ebullition of Quick-lime in water all the difference is this that Tartar Calcined containing a great deal of Salt does more easily imbibe water than Quick-lime Some do Calcine salt of Tartar with a little sulphur to hinder it from dissolving so easily by the air and to render it the whiter but this is no good practice because the acid Spirit of sulphur destroys some part of the Alkali and this does come to happen by reason that the pores of this Salt by being thus Calcined are not so open as they were and the air therefore cannot so easily melt it If you would make Salt of Tartar and other Alkali fixt salts very white indeed you must Calcine them all alone in a great fire until they become white and then purifie them by Dissolution Filtration and Coagulation As for their proneness to dissolve this is natural to Alkali salts and cannot be taken from them but by destroying their nature Nor can I approve the addition of any quantity of Niter to the Calcination of Tartar as some do because the volatile parts of Niter being exalted the fixt do remain and by their acidity do diminish the virtue of Salt of Tartar Although the Salt of Tartar be tolerably white after the first purification yet if you do calcine threescore and four ounces of it and filtrate it as I have said you will draw still abundance of earthy matter and if in curiosity you should dry this earth you would find three ounces and a half of it Alkali salts are Aperitive in that they dissolve those slimy humors which caused Obstructions and it is for the same reason that Salt of Tartar does correct Senna and hinders it from griping for the substance of Senna being viscous this does rarefie it and make it work the quicker it may also serve to dissolve some viscous phlegm that sticks in the guts which as it is going off causes griping pains The liquor or Oil made per Deliquium is only a Salt of Tartar dissolved by the moisture of the Cellar If you would make it quickly you must dissolve the Salt of Tartar in as much Rain water well filtrated as is needful to turn it into a liquor It may be used like the former it cures Tettars and discusses Tumors because being an Alkali it sweetens the keen Salts which fomented these distempers When Salt of Tartar or its liquor is dissolved in water newly distilled from some green plant the water will turn green and the greener the plant is from which the water was distilled this salt does make the water so much the greener The water of Night-shade turns greener with it than Balm-water Balm-water greener than Eye-bright-water and so of the rest The reason of this effect proceeds from this that the Alkali salt of Tartar does rarefie and make appear many little parts of the plant which did rise with the water in the distillation and did not till then appear But the water must be sure to be distilled with a fire sufficiently great for if it should have been distilled in a Balneum or such like heat there would not appear the least shew of green though an Alkali salt were mixed with it Cherry-water Rose-water and many other distilled waters of fruits or flowers do give no colour by the addition of Salt of Tartar Tincture of Salt of Tartar This Operation is an exaltation of some parts of Salt of Tartar in Spirit of wine Melt in a good Crucible twenty ounces of Salt of Tartar in great fire and when it is in Fusion cover it with a Tile and put coals round it blow about it so as to raise a greater heat than if you were melting Gold continue this degree of fire about six hours or until your Salt of Tartar is of a red marble colour which you may know by thrusting the end of a Spatula into the Crucible for when it is drawn out you may look upon a little matter that is stuck to it then take out the Crucible with a pair of tongs and turn it upside down into a warm mortar the matter will coagulate in a little time powder it presently and put it into a matrass warmed before-hand pour upon it Spirit of wine Tartarized until it swims four fingers above the matter stop the matrass with another to make a double-vessel lute the junctures close with a wet bladder set your matrass in Sand and heat it with a gradual fire to make the Spirit of wine boil seven or eight hours during which time it will assume a red colour After that let the vessels cool and unlute them separate by Inclination this most fragrant Tincture and keep it in a Viol well stopt You may pour more Spirit of Wine on the remaining Salt of Tartar and proceed as before as long as it will draw out any Tincture The Tincture of the Salt of Tartar is an excellent Aperitive it purifies the bloud and resists malignity of humors It is used in the Scurvy the dose is from ten to thirty drops in some convenient liquor Remarks You must place the Crucible in the furnace upon a Tile for fear lest the wind which comes through the doors of the Ash-hole and fire-room might be apt to cool the bottom and hinder the Fusion of the Salt The Salt of Tartar having been a good while melted in the Crucible does flame when thrown upon lighted coals as easily as Salt-peter does This effect proceeds only from this that the fire has attenuated and volatilized the parts of this fixt salt so as to render them fit to exalt with the sulphur of coals Many have writ that it is sufficient to Calcine the Salt of Tartar two hours in a violent fire or until the Salt of Tartar becomes blewish but after having tried several times to make the Tincture according to this description I could never be able to do it it is true the Spirit of Wine will be a little Tinctured but it comes not near that which is necessary to call it the Tincture of Salt of Tartar for it should be red like wine and to make it so it is requisite to Calcine it as I have said and good store of it should be put into the Crucible because it diminishes exceedingly You must likewise take care to use Spirit of wine well rectified for if there should be any phlegm
way to Purifie it is to dissolve it in Vinegar then passing it through a cloth all the moisture is evaporated away over the fire by this means it is cleansed from some straws or other little impurities that it contained But some part of its Volatile Spirits are evaporated at the same time and in them consists its greatest virtue while some others are fixed by the acid which always hinders the motion of Volatiles Wherefore I would never advise this Purification to be made I would rather after chusing it as clean as may be only powder it in a Mortar to mix it with what may be thought fit for though there should be some little straws in it that would never be able to alter the nature of the Remedy or diminish its virtue so much as doth the destruction of its Volatile salts by the Vinegar The same thing may be considered in the use of all other Gumms if some of them as Galbanum and Opopanax are too moist to be powdered you may cut them into little slices dry them in the Sun Distillation of Gumm Ammoniack This is a separation of the Oil and Spirit of Gumm Ammoniack from its earthy part Put a pound of Gumm Ammoniack into an earthen Retort or glass one luted great enough for two thirds to remain empty place this Retort in a Reverberatory Furnace and fitting to it a Receiver begin the distillation with a very little fire to warm gently the Retort and drive forth drop by drop a little Phlegmatick water When the vapours begin to appear throw out that which is in the Receiver and refitting it and luting close the joints encrease the fire by degrees and continue it until all is come forth Then let the vessels cool and unlute them pour out that which is in the Receiver into a Tunnel lined with brown paper the Spirit will pass through and leave the thick black Oil in the filter keep it in a Viol it is good for the Palsie and Hysterical diseases the diseased parts are rub'd with it and it is given to women to smell to Put the Spirit into a glass Alembeck and Rectifie it by distilling it in Sand. 'T is a good Remedy against the Plague and all sorts of malignant diseases it is used in the Scurvy and all manner of Obstructions the dose is from eight to sixteen drops in some proper liquor The Spirit of all other Gumms may be drawn after the same manner Remarks Two thirds of the Retort must remain empty because the Gumm rarifies exceedingly as it heats and would be apt to come forth in substance if it had not room enough There is no need of adding alkali's for the Rectification of this Spirit as many Authors would perswade us this circumstance doth rather more hurt than good because alkalies do spoil these sorts of Spirits as I have said when I treated of the Rectification of the Spirit of Tartar The phlegm is taken out of the receiver before the Spirits come forth in order to their being the purer You will have six drachms of phlegm three ounces and seven drachms of Spirit six ounces of a black stinking oil and there remains in the retort four ounces six drachms of a black light and very spongious matter which is to be flung away It is likewise a little inflammable by reason of fuliginosities which have fallen upon it And this is that which gave it the black colour a great deal of the ashes of this matter is requisite to make a little salt for the salt of Gumms being commonly more volatile than fixed it comes forth almost all of it in acid Spirit CHAP. XXIV Of Myrrhe MYrrhe is a Gummy juice that distils from a thorny Tree of a middle height by Incisions that are made into it this Tree grows commonly in Ethiopia and Arabia and because the Inhabitants of those countries are thought to feed on Serpents the Myrrhe that is brought thence is called Troglodytick The Antients were wont to collect from the same Tree a liquor that fell from it without Incision which was called Stacten it is only a liquid Gum but I am apt to think it should have more virtue than common Myrrhe because it was the more spirituous part which filtrated through the pores of the Bark of this Tree You must chuse such Myrrhe as is friable light odoriferous clear and such as is in small pieces of a yellowish colour and bitter to the taste it is aperitive and discutient it is much esteemed for obstructions of the Vterus and to bring the menstrua and to quicken womens Labour it also resists malignity of humors it is used in Corroborative remedies and discutient Plaisters Tincture of Myrrhe This Operation is a solution of the oily parts of Myrrhe in Spirit of wine Put what quantity you please of good Myrrhe powdered into a Bolt-head and pour upon it Spirit of wine four fingers high stir the matter and set it in digestion in warm sand two or three days or until the Spirit of wine is loaded with the Tincture of Myrrhe then separate the liquor by Inclination and keep it in a Viol well stopt It may be used to expedite womens Labour to bring down the menstrua and in the Palsie Apoplexy Lethargy and all diseases that proceed from Corruption of humors it is Sudorifick and Aperitive the dose is from six drops to fifteen in some proper liquor it is commonly used in outward applications or mixed with the Tincture of Aloes to discuss cold Tumors and to dissolve gypsous humors by way of Injection and in the Gangrene After this manner may be made the Tinctures of Castor and Saffron which are much esteemed in hysterical cases the dose of them is from four to twelve drops in balm or mugwort water Remarks Though Tinctures of Myrrhe are daily drawn in wine yet the best that can be prepared is with Spirit of wine because this menstruum receives the more Oily or Balsamick part of the Myrrhe whereas the phlegm of wine does cause it to dissolve and impregnate with the more terrestrious part of the Gumm as well as with the Oily Some do use to evaporate this Tincture to the consistence of an Extract but because thereby they are fain to lose the more volatile part of the Myrrhe with the Spirit of wine I do conceive it better to use the Tincture it self as I have described it The Tincture of Castor makes the water white into which you drop it by reason of a Rosine which it contains which is the same I have said speaking of the Rosine of Jalap Oil of Myrrhe per Deliquium This preparation is a solution of the more separable parts of Myrrhe made with whites of Eggs. Boil Eggs until they are hard then cutting them in two separate the Yelk and fill the White with Myrrhe powdered set them on little sticks placed conveniently on purpose in a plate or earthen pan in a Cellar or some such moist place
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