Sun which resolves into vapours what there is in it of most subtil and that works and concludes the reduction of the Amber-griece to that condition it is found in on the surface of the Sea-water in the East-Indies and sometimes also in America It is with a great deal of knowledge and light that our Author hath inserted this noble Bitumen in his Great Cordial since it is one of its principal Ingredients and that its virtues are to heat to dry up and resolve to strengthen the Heart and the Brains to recall re-establish and augment the vital and animal Spirits by the sweet and pleasant exhalation of its volatil and sulphureous Salt which communicates joyns and unites it self mildly and immediately to our nature and that penetrates into the very last digestions by the Organs of Respiration and by those of the Circulation of the bloud and spirits It is the true comforter of the Viscera and is very useful to facilitate Generation since it is capable to correct those defects which happen by that subject both in male and female because it heats strengthens and rejoyces the one and that it dries the moistures and ordinary superfluities of the other when it is well and duly prepared and administred with an exact knowledge Let us come to the parts of the Vegetables which help to the fabrick and virtue of our Great Cordial and begin with the Roots which we shall name in particular and we shall not speak of their virtues but in general except there be some remarkable thing worthy reflexion which will oblige us to regard it to render by that means this Remedy and its Author the more recommendable to those at present living and to posterity hereafter We have ten Roots that enter this Composition which are the Angelica the round Birth-wort the Fraxinella or white Dittany the Carline the Contra-Yerva the Gentian the Serpentary of Virginia the Tormentil the Valerian and the Zedoary One may boldly say that these few Roots contain what there can be of virtue in almost all the others and especially in what concerns the Cordial virtue and the Counter-poison for they all together and every one in particular tend to the Author's aim by their efficacy for they are Bezoardic and Cordial in the highest degree because they abound in Spirit in Salt and in Sulphur which are volatil and piercing as their smells and bitterness witness They provoke Sweat they are Vulneraries they open the Obstructions of the Womb cause the dead Child to issue out and appease its Irritations and Suffocations they are good against all Poisons and admirable against all malignant Diseases and especially against the Plague they are excellent against the bitings of mad Dogs and kill universally all sorts of Worms that ill Nourishment or want of Digestion may breed in us Above all we may admire the strength and virtue of three Roots which have been added to this Remedy which are the Carline the Contra-Yerva and the Serpentary of Virginia according to the sense and approbation of two excellent persons here above mentioned For the Carline is a real gift from Heaven against the Plague and malignant Diseases It serves also as a Philtre and Loadstone to attract the strength of those that suck in the Air which is fill'd with the odour and vitious atoms which those that have eaten some of it breath forth The Contra-Yerva is not less considerable since it beareth this Spanish name which signifies Counter-poison but for the excellency of its virtues and of the wonderful effects it doth produce Monardes a Portuguez Physician says to its commendation that it is not onely useful to drive away all manner of Poisons Corrosive sublimate onely excepted and hinder their malignity but moreover that this Root is able to unbind and root up the charm and tie of the amorous Philtre We cannot well specifie the virtue of the Serpentary of Virginia because it has not as yet been written and that Experiments have not been made of all its faculties it sufficeth that its odour and taste do sufficiently manifest its virtues besides those which have been found by those that have put it in practice or them that have learn'd it viva voce from the Inhabitants of the American Islands amongst whom it is in great request against Poisons and Fevers but especially against the bitings of venomous and malignant Serpents in which these Islands abound The time for gathering the Roots we have here is in the beginning of the Spring when they are as it were big with the Idea of all the Plant which they then contain with all its principal virtues it sufficeth then to know them by a little bud proceeding from the Earth The second Classis of the Plants which make part of this Remedy are six in number namely the Betony the Carduus Benedictus the Dittany of Creet the Marjoram the Mints and the Water-Germander All these Plants are chosen for this Cordial with an exquisite judgment for there is not one of them but hath some specifick virtue besides what they possess of Cordial and Alexitery in common with the others For the Betony is Vulnerary and particularly dedicated to the Wounds of the Head although it be Hepatick as also Splenetick and Hysterick because it opens Obstructions and drives out by Urines what is gross and impure The surname of holy or blessed that has been given to the Carduus that enters in this Remedy witnesses enough how much it is recommendable amongst the Physicians and with the vulgar and chiefly in Germany where the common people imploy it with very great success against most part of those Diseases which assault them taking it in powder in warm wine which provokes very much Sweat and Urine But I find that the English people do use it also very efficaciously in those drinks which they call Possets In fine its bitterness doth witness the abundance of its essential Salt when as yet it is juicy and the quantity of its volatil Salt when it is grown up and that this Plant is between its flowers and seed for it is properly from thence that it derives its cordial sudorifick antivenomous virtue which is particular and specifick to it There are but few Poets and Rhetoricians that have not made use of the virtues of the Dittany and of the Hart's instinct in seeking it after he is wounded by which to make some rich Comparison for we must acknowledge that it is an admirable Plant in its effects since there is attributed to it that of attracting and driving the strange bodies out of Wounds of being a great Counter-poison of hastning the difficult delivery in Child-birth and being a remedy against the Insultations of the Womb. It was not in the first Receit no more then the white Dittany or Fraxinella root but these two Simples have been added to it upon counsel by reason of their specifick Excellencies and Proprieties The agreeable odour of the Marjoram which pleases equally all those
some Concussions of the Brain as Experience shews by the rare Effects which that admirable Water of the Queen of Hungaria produces every day which is nothing else but Spirit of Wine alkoholizated digested and distilled three or four times upon Rosemary-flowers We have put the Ros Solis among the Flowers although its leaves do enter also in this Composition and make the best part thereof It seems as if that pretty little Plant were more beloved of the Sun then many others since that he never dries her up in his most violent heats but on the contrary it is seen that every particle of that Down which covers its leaves and that is as it were the beams of them is loaden with small drops of a subtil piercing and spiritual dew and this during the highest rage of the Dog-star and at high Noon when all the other Plants languish and faint it tricks up it self and grows proud with the splendour of that beautiful Planet whose name it bears And its virtues are so considerable that many great Philosophers and amongst the rest Isaac of Holland have treated of it as of a little Miracle worthy the meditation of the most skilful This Plant is Vulnerary Cordial and Hepatick It is believed that it is an assured specifick against the Consumption of the Lungs and against the other diseases of the Breast it is a preservative against the Plague and serves also to cure it in fine it is as many certifie a Planetary and Magnetick Plant which produces many surprizing effects by merely wearing it about one Saffron is one of the richest and most necessary morsels of our dish and that is absolutely necessary to our Great Cordial by reason of those admirable virtues that this Flower hides in it self For it must needs be that Saffron has something above the other Drugs since that after it hath been dried by Art it seems as if it had some inward magnetick virtue which recalls to it self the Balsam of the Air which gives it again the same weight the same vivacity of colour and the same activity of odour which is a thing worthy enough consideration It is a sovereign Cordial and esteemed to be the soul of the Lungs by whose action the virtue of this Flower is carried unto the last Digestions by the Circulation and Respiration It appeases pains and gently procures Sleep it cleanses the Womb helps Child-birth and purges the Woman in fine it is a little Panacea against the Plague and against all other malignant diseases it is also most happily used against the Jaundise The Marigold which is a Solar Flower and very Cordial and Alexitery was not to be forgotten This Plant seems to be a friend to almost all the seasons of the year since there are but few months wherein she produces not her flowers which have the virtue of helping the Lunary Purgations to cause Delivery to provoke Sweat and succour them them that are afflicted with the Jaundise There remains the Elder-flower the last that enters in our fine Medicament's dispensation It is of a subtil and penetrating virtue as its odour testifies which makes that it resolves and dissipates the gross matters by Sweats it is also anodyne and apertive and though it has many other Properties inwardly and outwardly we will be silent because it has them in common with the other things of which we have spoken heretofore We have no more to say of the Flowers but onely to inform of the true time of their gathering and two words more to prove that they ought not to be dried for this Cordial although the Receipt commands it And whereas these Flowers appear in divers months of the Spring Summer and Fall I desire no other observation but that those that would have them good ought always to take the first and cause them to be gathered in dry and serene weather just at Sun-rising provided that it hath not rain'd the day before for it is to be noted that the first production of the Plant brings forth always the best-coloured and most odoriferous Flowers and moreover one must have a care that the Sun may have had the necessary time to wipe off and digest the superfluous moisture that the Rain may have furnished the Earth and the Plant withall and by consequence the Flower also But whereas all these Flowers are odoriferous and subtil and that their virtue resides in a volatil sulphureous and balsamick Salt which exhalates easily by the exiccation in the shade as it may easily be perceived by those that come into a place in which they are inclosed I am of opinion with the counsel of the wisest and best-knowing to put these Flowers in Spirit of Wine in a Vessel close stopp'd with another as fast as nature and the season furnishes them since that the subtil and gross extraction of them must be made as we shall shew more fully when we shall reason of the Preparation of all that composes our Cordial The fourth Classis of Vegetables are the Fruits the Berries and the Aromatick Seeds which are but six namely the Cardamome the Cubebes the Kermes-berries the Juniper-berries the Cloves and the Nutmeg We shall not here repeat needlesly the virtues that these Aromaticks have in common with the other parts of Plants of which we have already made the description we shall onely say two words by the bye concerning dry'd Kermes-berry which the Author causes to enter in this Remedy which is found to be all worm-eaten insipid inodorous which witnesses that it is deprived of all the virtue that is attributed to it therefore we have taken in its place the fresh Juice of the Kermes-berries as it comes from Montpellier which is also called the Syrup of Kermes and which serves throughout all Europe for to make up the Confection Alkermes which is so renowned for its cordial virtue which without doubt ought to yield to that of our Great Cordial though the virtue of the Kermes-berry helps Women in labour re-establishes the Vital Spirits dissipates the ill Vapours serves to remedy the wounded Nerves and brings forth the Small-pox We are furthermore to give notice that we have added Cloves to this Cordial as one of the best foundations of its Cordial being of a Stomachical and Alexitery virtue which we have not done but with the knowledge and consent of the most Renowned in the Art Now since we have not the conveniency of gathering the Fruits and the Aromatick Seeds we must content our selves with the choice we can make of them at the Drugsters that sell them and we cannot judge of their age and goodness but by the Taste and by the Smell and sometimes also by the Colour and by the Weight But as for the Juniper-berries they must be chosen black and shining and having inwardly a malaginous viscosity sweet in the beginning of their taste but which degenerates afterwards into a balsamick and bitter savour These remarks are necessary because that these Berries contain
in themselves a small Treacle and are replenished with many rare virtues which adorn our Cordial and augment its forces and Operation The fifth Classis of Vegetables contains the Barks of which there is but that of Sassafras wood required in the Receipt We have been counselled to adde to it the Cinnamon the Limon-pill and that of Oranges by reason that there is nothing that doth so suddenly rejoyce the Heart and the Brains and that more resists Poisons and Corruption then these noble Barks or Rinds when they are well chosen and employ'd before they have lost that excellent smell which resides in their superficial skin which is nothing but an Oil and a volatil Salt glewed together with a little moisture in the Limon and Orange but the Cinnamon has nothing but its pure aethereal Spirit animated with a Sulphur and a Salt that have not their like amongst all the Aromaticks by reason of their subtilty and sphear of activity of their odour and virtue which has with justice acquired to them the right of entring in this Great Cordial since that the Author himself wills that the Syrup of Juice of Limons be added to it to help its preservation and consistence As for what concerns the Sassafras and its Bark I am of opinion to put its Wood in also by reason that the Bark furnishes not sufficiently alone for I have made the anatomy of this Wood by distillation and found that the Wood did yield a spirituous Water and an Oil far more abounding and more excellent then the Bark alone which has lost upon the Sea that which it had of most subtil and best in lieu that the rest of the virtue hath preserved and concentred it self in the Wood. The sixth Classis yields us the Woods of Aloes and of Sassafras which we have newly mentioned we shall have but two words to say in this place in praise of the virtues of the Wood of Aloes by reason of its scarcity since there are many hundreds of Apothecaries which have never handled any and that know it but by hear-say and by the reading of their Dispensatory But I confess that it is more common here in London then in many other places and that it is had here a great deal better and better qualified and especially at Mr. Box's a Drugster in Cheapside in whose Shop I have always found what there is of most rare and most precious in Druggistry The Arabians and the Germans call it Paradise-wood by reason of its Excellency It grows in Zeilan Malaca Sumatra and through all the Coast of Choromandel where the Indians prize it and rate it equal with Gold and Silver according to its divers degrees of goodness This Wood abounds in an oleaginous and gummy substance which is almost of the same nature with a sort of Benzamin but much more Cordial Stomachical Cephalick for it generally strengthens all the Viscera and especially the Brain it rejoices and re-animates the spirits of the Heart and those of the Womb it remedies the Syncopes and Languishings and has the property of killing all sorts of Worms which engender in the body by the abundance of its bitter volatil Salt It is put in the Cephalick powders to be applied outwardly and in the Epithemes that are applied upon the Heart and upon the Pulses of the Temple-Arteries and those of the Arms because that it recreates the Senses by the excellency of its smell which is the reason that our Excellent Author hath put it in good quantity in his Cordial by the knowledge he had of its rare properties and admirable virtues We have as yet two other matters to speak of which are taken from the Vegetables that enter in our Remedy and help toward its preparation which are Sugar and the Spirit of Wine The first serves as a body to receive and retain the dry things and the extractions which compose this Cordial and to preserve its virtue as we shall say hereafter and the second serves for that Liquor that the Chymists call Menstruum to extract the virtue of all the parts of the Vegetables which compound it We shall not speak of it in this place but in general terms because that we reserve to speak of it with more advantage when we shall treat of the Preparation Sugar is come to be at present one of the greatest delights of the Table and truly it is not without reason since that this sweet Salt which doth so suddenly vegetate and that is found shut up in its time and place within a Reed or Cane participates of abundance of rare Proprieties for we daily experiment that this Indian Salt is capable of receiving in its self the odor the taste and the colour of Fruits and of preserving them from one year to another and longer as is very well known by those that excel in the Art of Preserving But if the Sugar produces so rare an effect for pleasure what doth it not doe also in the Pharmacie for the useful part whenas the Apothecary cannot make any Conserves Syrups Trochisks Electuaries Confections and many other things which are most necessary for the sick without that pleasant Medium which preserves and receives the virtue of all the species that Art entrusts to its custody The choice is of that which is the most purified and that retains less of the greaziness and gross viscosity which does accompany it in its origine before its preparation Therefore our Author hath commanded to take the white Sugar-candy whose lucid and clear Crystallization proves evidently the purity thereof It is of an incisive attenuating detersive virtue it lenifies the harshness of the Throat and of the Trache-artery gently consumes the slimes and viscosities of the Stomach cleanses the Breast and the Lungs and appeases the painful insultations of the Cough These are the Motives which have driven Sir Walter Rawleigh to render this delightful Salt the depository of the substance and virtue of that which makes the making up of his Great Cordial The Aqua-vitae or Spirit of Wine is nothing else but the spirituous and aethereal part of that charming Liquor which is prest from the Grapes of the Vine and that has been exalted by the means of fermentation There have been several names given to this admirable Spirit by reason of its excellency and wonderful effects for it has been dignified with that of most Subtil and Incorruptible Essence not forgetting that of Water of Life that all the world attributes to it of Spirit of Wine Celestial Sulphur Bezoardical vegetable Sulphur The Celestial Menstruum Heavenly Water The Heaven of Raymondus Lully The Key of the Philosophers An Aethereal Body compounded of Fire and Water Universal Balsam or Liquor The Life of the great Vegetable and different other Nominations which sufficiently prove with those we have already named that this Spirit is the fittest Liquor of all those which are either Natural or Artificial that is capable of extracting the virtues of that which
portion of Metalls which are the fruits of the Mineral predestination It is doubtless the most perfect of those Children of the Earth It is most solid yellow compact and close in it self and is compounded with principles that are digested in the most sovereign degree and which are by consequence fix'd and permanent as its Incorruptibility proves The Chymists give it the name of the Sun because that they believe it hath some correspondency and harmonical relation not onely with the Celestial Sun of the Great world but also by reason that it has a sympathetical affinity with the Sun of the Little world which is the Heart of Man They call it also the King of Metalls because it is their Prince as that which is the most pure and most fix as also that which possesses the most eminent and most necessary virtues since that it is wholly dedicated to the Heart which is the King of the noblest Functions of Life For Gold is held for the most sovereign Cordial because it re-establishes and augments the radical Moisture and the natural Heat which have their principal seat in the Heart which is the reason that it may be given with success in all diseases in which the Spirits are dissipated and the strength weakned It purifies also the mass of the Bloud since that it dissipates and drives out by sensible and insensible Inspiration that which there was of naught and corrupted in that which is called the Humours and which are to speak properly nothing else but those things which result from the diversity of the alterations of the Bloud that tends by this ill disposition to Corruption and Rottenness and by consequence to the destruction of the Subject which it nourishes and vivifies But this noble Metall must be so prepared and decorporated that it may doe the Emanation of the rays of the virtue of its Central Sulphur as we shall reason upon it when we shall discourse of the Preparation The last we are to treat of is the Unicornu Minerale otherwise called White Load-stone and some would have it to be the Unicorn's Horn. But we must speak but merely of its generation and virtues in no wise medling with that diversity of opinions that the most eminent Authors have had concerning this Subject For the most skilfull and best knowing have thought it fit that this Mineral production should be added to the Great Cordial though it was not inserted in the first Descriptions notwithstanding those wonderful properties it is endow'd with render it most worthy This wonderful Mineral Drug is nothing else but the Concretion or Petrifaction of a fluid milky substance which contains in it self the congealing and lapidifying ferment which slides and insinuates it self in the Cavities of the womb of the Earth where it invests it self with the figure odour colour and consistence according to the nature of the things that it finds there as it is proved by the Collections that the most curious observers of Nature have made of it as also by the experience of its rare virtues which are equal with those of the Oriental Bole and those of the Sealed Earth since the Grandees are agreed that it resists Poisons the Plague and malignant Fevers insomuch that a Physician of this Age did make the pouder of this mixt pass for a Specifick against all Fevers and got repute in the City of Paris by several rare effects We shall speak no more of it to prevent tedious repetitions and so pass from the description of all the Ingredients of our Remedy to what we have promised to say concerning its General and Particular Preparation If we have had hitherto just cause to praise Sir Walter Rawleigh for having caus'd so many good things and which possess so many virtues to enter into his Cordial we must nevertheless confess that we have far more reason to augment his Elogies by reason of the Science and Experience which he hath shewn in the Preparation and perfecting of this grand Remedy But considering that it is composed of things which are of different natures and that are more or less fix or volatil it has been necessary to work with a great deal of Art and with a most exact reflexion upon all that composes this Remedy to preserve that which ought to be of good in the most subtil and withall to extract the essential virtue which was concentred in the grossest Now we have said heretofore that there were three Classes in this Composition which contain the Animal the Vegetable and the Mineral We must also now make appear those reasons which have oblig'd our celebrated Author to prepare them in that manner to which we shall adde also the Meditations and Thoughts that we have had on this Subject for the better preserving the volatil and to open the most fix that the union of the virtue of the productions of these three Families should be made with all the exactness therein required according to his Majesty's Command and the Intentions of those Illustrious Persons which we have formerly named Whereas no intire Animals do enter into our Cordial therefore we shall not speak here but of the parts of those Animals which contribute to this brave and sovereign Composition We shall treat therefore of the preparation of Harts-horns of that of Vipers of that of Musk and Pearls and in fine of that of Amber-griece We shall not say any thing concerning the Bezoar-stone since we have already said that it is a Magisterium perfected in the Ventricle of that Animal which produces it and that besides this Stone has no need of any other preparation then to be reduced into an impalpable Pouder for this Operation Now whereas the Receipt of this Remedy requires Harts-Horn burn'd or calcin'd to whiteness we cannot wonder enough at this way of proceeding since that those of the least capacity know that the Calcination carrieth away the volatil Salt from the calcined body and that by consequence it strips it from all its cordial virtue which cannot be contain'd but in this Sulphureous and volatil Salt For the most skilful Naturalists and the most experienced of all Artists who have grown old in the meditation and in the labour to make the Anatomy of Natural things thereby to know the better the virtue say all with one voice That the Soul and Virtue of all these sublunary Mixts resides properly and perfectly in what they contain of volatil Salt and that it is particularly and chiefly in the Animals that this is found since the proof of it is clearly evident in their Distillations which furnish a great abundance of Spirit Oil and volatil Salt and which leave behind nothing in the bottom of the Retort after the last action of Fire but that which may be called legitimately a mere Caput mortuum or dead Earth since that this calcined body contains nothing that participates of the Saline nature which is the Foundation and the Centre of all the powers and virtues by reason
that all Salt is nothing but a close Spirit as also all Spirit but an open'd Salt For all the Seminal powers and all the chiefest virtues of Animals and of their parts proceeds from Light as from the Father from the Air as from the Medium and from the Salt as from the Son and all three together concur to the Generation of the Products of Nature We have advanced all this onely to make it appear the better that it is needless if not without reason that all the ancient Dogmatists and Sir Walter Rawleigh after them have introduced the burn'd Harts-horn in almost all Cordials Now what we have newly said makes appear that the Cordial virtue is no longer there and therefore cannot be imploy'd in them but as an astringent Earth and a spongeous body rarefi'd and drie the better to retain and preserve the volatil spirituous sulphureous and saline matters which are extracted out of other Ingredients It may be also objected that the calcined Harts-horn is not incapable of virtue since it can alter the ill Fermentations of the Stomach cure the Diarrhoea's and also stay the Bloudy-fluxes but she produces these effects onely by reason that she kills and mortifies the Sharpness and Acidities which proceed from the Indigestions and base Fermentations in the same manner that she quells the Acidity of Saline and Vitriolick Spirits and that of Vinegar when they have been digested together and drawn off again by distillation as insipid as water by reason that this rarefi'd dry and spongeous body is deprived of all Saltness and desire of re-furnishing it self with that Salt which did make the Acidity in those Liquors It is therefore for this onely reason that it has been put in the Composition of this Cordial But since that the volatil Salt of Harts-horn is Alexitery and Cordial and that it most powerfully contributes to the rare virtues of this Cordial we have also added to it some Harts-horn Philosophically Calcined in the Vapours of the Digestions Extractions Distillations and Circulations of Spirit of Wine which serves for Menstruum to extract the virtue of the parts of the Vegetables which compose it in which place this Horn softens it self by little and little swells and dilates by the moist and spirituous subtility which penetrates it and renders it friable and capable of being put in pouder with ease with the preservation of its cordial virtue But whereas there are some that think that the greatest part of the volatil Salt is gone out of it and has communicated it self to the Spirit of Wine which is very likely it has been thought necessary to adde to it the pouder of Harts-horn rasp'd without any other preparation that the volatil Salt which is the true Counterpoison and the true Cordial should not be wanting Not but that one might adde to it the volatil Salt of Harts-horn drawn by distillation but it was not put in by reason of its Empyreumatick and most ungrateful taste The Author of our Great Cordial and those that after him have work'd in the composition of this Remedy have almost always added the prepared Pearls to this Cordial and also sometimes they have open'd and dissolved the bodies of the Pearls by means of fixed Acides as distilled Vinegar juice of Limons Spirit of Sulphur and that of Vitriol and did pretend to have reduced by these means the Pearls into a Salt or into a dissoluble Magistery which were more capable of making their virtue appear But all those Liquors that are endow'd with a fixed Acidity do intimately joyn themselves unto the Bodies of the dissolved Pearls and their Salt remains which augments the weight of the dissolved Body by a fourth part and better which thing makes it appear that it is not a true Cordial Magistery Therefore we have thought fit to proceed in another manner which is to dissolve the Pearls with a Menstruum which may be drawn off again with the same taste and the same dissolving virtue that it had before And whereas this Spirit leaves behind it its odour and taste in the Magistery of Pearls it must be dissolved again in equal parts of Cinnamon and Rose-water which must be drawn off again in Mary's Bath and thus reiterate the same with new waters until the Magistery have lost the smell and taste of the volatil Spirit of Venus which is that admirable Menstruum onely capable of furnishing to Physick dissoluble pleasant and subtil Magisteries capable of penetrating unto the very last Digestions and carrying along with them the virtue of those Cordials to which they are associated And it is in this manner that we have prepared the Pearls for the composition of this Great Cordial We have no other observation touching the Vipers but onely that they must be stript of their skins and put to drie with the Hearts and Livers in a Glass bottom in Mary's Bath until they be fit to be poudered We say they must be thus used because that this kind of drying takes little or nothing of their volatil Salt from them and that in case there were any thing exhaled from them the Chymical Apothecary may retrive it in the water which drops from the head that covers the Body But when the Vipers are dried in an Oven there scarce remains any virtue in the flesh which remains tough like Hemp and almost insipid whereas that which has been dried in Mary's Bath is easily put in pouder and has a taste which declares that its Salt is still in it Part of it is put with the Vegetables to be extracted and there is some of it added also to the Pouders to give a Body and augment the virtue of the Remedy as we have already mentioned in the discourse concerning Harts-horn The Musk now remains which ought to be put in pouder with some white Sugar-candy in a marble Mortar the better to disunite its parts and afterwards open it by digestion and circulation in a vaporous Bath with Spirit of Wine in a Pelican then the Spirit must be drawn off again with a most gentle heat of the same Bath unto the consistency of a thick Syrup or half Extract which after must be mixed with the other things As concerning Amber-griece it must also be pouder'd in a Stone-Mortar with some white Sugar-candy and that so long till there be as it were a perfect union of those two substances which are not without great trouble allied together without a good uniting Medium by reason that Sugar is a vegetable Salt which can be dissolved and inseparably joyn'd with water which thing cannot be done with Amber-griece because it is a fat and melting Bitumen which has more connexion and analogie with Oils Now this Medium can be nothing else but the subtil and fiery Oil of rectified Wine and thrice passed over most pure Salt of Tartar in Mary's Bath Therefore this mixture of Sugar and Amber-griece must be put in a Glass Bottle and pour over it of this noble Menstruum
that smell it clearly witnesses that our Spirits attract from it some Sulphur and subtil Spirit which recreates them and whereas the functions of the Spirits are made by the means of the membranous and nervous Organs which have some relation and sympathy with the Brain the Stomach and the Womb it is particularly to those parts that the subtil portion of its volatil sulphureous Salt is consecrated which strengthens unburthens and recreates them There is no Nation which cultivates the Mints with greater care and that makes better use thereof then the English For as it is subject to Indigestions either by the weakness or by the over-burthening of their stomach so have they their principal refuge to this specifick stomachical Vegetable which they use in their Broths or Possets and their Burnt-wine Therefore we shall mention nothing more to recommend it since that its virtues and effects are sufficiently known of all We must now say something of the Scordium or Germander which is really a Plant that ought to enter in a great Cordial and Counter-poison therefore our Author hath not omitted it This Plant is famous in all the good Antidotes and above all in that excellent Remedy called Diascordium Fracastorii of which the Physicians of England make daily frequent use with most happy success And we must needs confess that this good Vegetable has but few that can be compared to it for since that it keeps the dead bodies from corruption as Galen relates with much more reason ought it to be capable of keeping those that are living which are healthy and contribute to the Cure of them when they are sick We shall not particularize any thing of its virtues but onely say that it is one of the principal and most excellent Counter-poisons and Sudorificks that the vegetable reign possesses These above-named Plants ought to be gathered in their full estate that is to say when that they are in their flowers below and that the top or end of the stalk begins to make an embryonated seed to appear for then it is that they contain all the accomplishment of their virtue and if they were gathered before that time they would abound in an herbal and indigested Juice which is not as yet exalted to an essential Salt somewhat volatil and half sulphurated and if one should stay longer then the said time all the virtues of the Plant would abandon the stalk to re-unite and re-inclose themselves in the seed and then it would be too concentred and could not be so soon reduced from power to act by our natural heat Furthermore these Plants must be gathered in that time which Paracelsus commands Balsamico tempore which is a little after Sun-rising and in a dry and serene day and not after Rain The third Classis is that of Flowers which are also most worthy of the Cordial and of the choice that amongst the rest its Author has made of them for it seems as if he had pick'd out from that beautiful Enamel all which did possess the principal Cordial and Balsamick virtue which is the Flower of Borrage and that of Bugloss the Clove-July-flower the Mace the red Rose the Rosemary-flowers the Ros Solis the Saffron the Marigold and the Elder-flowers There is then first of all the Flowers of Borrage and Bugloss which would not seem worthy of this Cordial by reason that they have no smell at all but whosoever shall consider more narrowly the Plants that bear those Flowers will find that they abound in a nitro-tartarous Juice which communicates to them the virtue of purifying the venal and arterial bloud and of rooting and wiping out the melancholy and black Ideas that the spirit of Life had suckt from the Spleen and Hypochondres so that their blew flowers recreate the Sight and the Heart which is the reason that they have been inserted by all in the number of Cordial flowers We could wish that other Nations did know as well as the English the worthy virtue of the Clove-July-flowers without doubt they would also receive the same benefit from it for this Flower is replenished with a Sulphur and Mercury which are so friendly to our Spirits that they restore and re-establish the principal functions of the Heart and of the Brain since that their virtue prevails against the Syncopes the weaknesses and palpitations of the Heart and remedies the giddiness and swimming of the Head the Apoplexy the Falling-sickness or Epilepsie and several other defects of the Nerves and of the Brains their origine The Flower of Nutmeg or Mace and its Fruits is one of the most precious and most healthful Aromaticks that the East-Indies furnish us with and I wonder that they were forgot in this Cordial since that this Nation knows and esteems them so much Nevertheless their rare virtues have obliged us to joyn them to it by the counsel of the wisest and most experienced For Mace and Nutmegs are stomachical and they are relatively Cephalic and Hysterical they drive out the Wind help Digestion correct the ill smell of the mouth rejoyce and strengthen the Child in the Mother's womb take away the swelling of the Spleen appease Loosness and remedy the faintness and palpitations of the Heart 'T is all those things which render them really worthy our Great Cordial We have inserted the red Rose among the Flowers which compose this Cordial because that our Author requires the Syrup of dried red Roses to help to the consistence of this Composition and that with much reason since that the virtue of the red Rose cannot but very much augment its rare qualities for this Queen of Flowers recreates and strengthens the Senses and the Spirits and is useful many ways against many diseases both within and without which seem to be indifferent according to the several Indications that are taken from it by the Learned Doctors in Physick Further it is to be noted that there is not one Simple in all Physick which furnishes us with a greater number of Compositions for the Shop all which bear its name for they amount to the number of thirty seven which do not onely serve as Ornaments but may also be imployed to many different good Uses If the Rose addes any thing that is good to our Cordial assuredly the Rosemary-flower does not contribute little to it since that its odour and faculties give it among the Greeks the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one should say a Flower by excellency One may sincerely say that this Flower and the leaves of the Plant that bears it are a Balsamical Epitome since that they are most specifick remedies against the diseases of the Brain and Nerves that are derived from it that they strengthen the Stomach and correct the stench of the Breath resolve and open the Obstructions of the Liver the Spleen the Womb the Mesentery and of the Pancreas in fine they are sovereign remedies against Contusions and above all to prevent the accidents that happen after
until it over-tops it the breadth of four fingers then close the Vessel and place it in the vaporous Bath until all be united by dissolution then it must be filtrated through Cotton into a glass Vial and as soon as it is cooled those three Bodies united together make a Butter or Cream which is most delicious and pleasing which unites it self to all sorts of Liquors and which of it self is already a great Cordial And thus the Amber-griece must be prepared for our Operation All the sorts of Vegetables which enter in this Cordial are almost of the same nature since they are almost all endow'd with some pleasant and aromatick smell which together with their bitter and piercing taste prove that they participate of a good quantity of sulphureous volatil Salt therefore we must have recourse unto some Menstruum which may be of power to extract this Salt and disunite the mucilaginous Balsamick and Resinous Juice which retains and preserves the virtue of the different parts of the Plants even after their Exsiccation This Menstruum can be nothing else then Aqua-vitae or Spirit of Wine which burthens it self most easily with the essential tinctures of Vegetables Therefore all this different gathering must be put into a gross pouder if the materials are drie or if green cut them very small with a pair of Shears and cast it all in a great vessel of Glass with a narrow mouth and pour upon it for the first time some Spirit of Wine very well rectifi'd that it may load it self with the chief virtue and with the proper Balsamick Tincture of the Ingredient It must be digested in Mary's Bath in a moderate heat during two natural days Then it must be strained and prest cold and the residue of the Expression be put in the Glass-vessel again then the Spirit of Wine must be extracted from the Tinctures in the vaporous Bath until it have acquired the consistence of an Extract somewhat liquid Then pour upon the Expression the Spirit which has been drawn off so digest and extract as before and thus continue till the Species afford no more Tincture Then the rest must be boiled in a good quantity of water in a Still and distill it that in case there were some remnant of volatil virtue it might be received in the Receiver And when the distilled water comes forth without smell and taste cease the fire for it is a sign that there is nothing left but what is fix which concentres it self in the Decoction left behind in the Still This Decoction must be strained and pressed warm then evaporate the Decoction in a brass Pan upon an open fire to the consistence of an Extract somewhat liquid and it will be found filled with a salted bitterness which shews that the water has dissolved and extracted by the violence of the Ebullition all the fixed Salt which was in the Vegetables Which thing hath appeared to be very true in this Operation for whereas our celebrated Author requires but the Extraction with Spirit of Wine he doth also desire that the rest should be calcined and the fix Salt extracted out of it to be joyned to the Extract that he might have the whole virtue of those things which he imploys in his Remedy But if he had known the Vegetables very well and understood also that the Sulphur being once separated by the Spirit of Wine there were nothing left that could hinder the dissolution of the fix Salt by means of the water he had most assuredly acted in the same manner we have done for after the Exsiccation and Calcination of the remainders we have made a Lye of the Ashes and there was not a scruple of Salt remaining which is twenty grains out of all that great heap of Vegetables because that it was all passed into the Extract with the water This gross Extract being finished it must be mixed with the first and put them both together in a body or a great Bottle and pour over them to the height of twelve inches of that Spirit which served in the Extraction and digest and circulate them together in the gentle heat of the vaporous Bath during four and twenty hours then filtre the Liquor and put the Lees into the Vessel again and thus continue to digest circulate extract and filtrate until the rest of the Extract communicate nor give any more colour to the Menstruum After this all the filtrated Tincture must be put in a body and draw off the Spirit from it in Mary's Bath in a very mild heat so that the head do not heat and this for two reasons The first is That the Spirit that mounts is thereby the more subtil and the other That the same Spirit should not carry away with it self by means of a more vigorous heat the best part of the Sulphur and volatil Salt of the Extract which is kept down by virtue of the fix Salt which has joyned and united it self with them by means of digestion and circulation with the Menstruum which has been the uniting means of it This Extract made after this manner is the Basis or Foundation of our Cordial and it containeth radically the Essence of all the Vegetables which have been imployed to make it We want nothing more now but to make a necessary remark upon the Preparation and Extraction of the Wood of Aloes and Aromaticks which abound in a volatil Salt Oleaginous Sulphureous Balsamick and Resinous which cannot be extracted out of Bodies of this nature but by the means of a pure and subtil Spirit such as that which has been drawn off from the course Extracts for this Spirit will dissolve by its subtil and penetrating faculty the Rosins of this said Wood and Aromatick So that to perform it well there needs but to proceed simply on in the same manner as has been done before in the digestion and filtration of the last Extract There is nothing left then unspoken but a Caution which must be given concerning the Mixture of this Resinous Extract with the Sugar the Extracts the Pouders and the Syrups which must be performed by dissolving it gently with some of its proper Spirit in a Pan and thus unite it gently with some Syrup before it be joyned to the rest otherwise it would remain in lumps and would not dissolve in the Stomach with ease enough to communicate the rays of its virtue as it is necessary it should be citò tutò jucundè when it is necessary to cause a Counter-poison or Cordial to operate We have but the third Classis of our Materials which are the Minerals upon which we have to treat of the order and dignity of their Preparation which are the Bole the Coral the Gold the Sealed Earth But we shall speak here but of the Bole and of the Sealed Earth which go hand in hand in their preparations which are done both the same way Then we shall speak also of Gold the principal subject which will make
appear how much Art helps Nature For we shall say nothing of the Coral's preparation because that we should to that effect hint on that we have already said in the Classis of Animals or of their parts when we have discours'd of Pearls and of their preparations We shall not mention any thing in this place concerning the nature of these Earths since we have treated of it heretofore we shall onely say that there must be had some of the first liquid Extraction of those Vegetables which enter in our Great Cordial and with it water these two Earths in a glass body till they be reduced into a liquid pap then draw off again this Liquor by Distillation with the gentle heat of a vaporous Bath and thus continue for seven times or rather till the Artist can find out by the taste of these Earths that they are sufficiently impregnated with the savour and virtue of the sulphureous volatil Salt of the Cordial Plants and then it is time to leave off drying what is in the Vessel in the same degree of heat till there appeareth no more moisture in the head of the Lembick nor a drop of liquor pass through the neck of the Lembick These Earths thus impregnated must afterwards be put in a Glass Vial which must be stopped very well to enter them afterwards in our Composition This operation is to separate and open the compact and close parts of those Earths and to imbibe and replenish with an Alexitery virtue the Atomes which constitute them that they may the sooner be reduced from power to act by the action of the Stomach when it is necessary to make use of the Remedies Before we begin to speak of the Preparation of Gold it seems to be necessary to speak two words before-hand to give to understand that this Metall may be so well opened by the means of Chymistry as to be capable of producing some virtue in us although it might be reduced again to its first metallick body for there are many which are of opinion that though this fix Body be dissolved and altered by Preparation nevertheless it is reducible into its body and by consequence not capable to produce in us that virtue which the Ancients and Moderns do attribute to it But we must clear this business by the demonstration of the dissolution of other Metalls into Salt or rather into Vitriol as Silver Copper Tin Lead and Iron which nevertheless are most commonly capable of being reduced again into Metall which hinders not but that the most skilful Physicians make of it daily more and more by reason that their study and experience makes them discover those rare virtues which these open'd Metalls produce in Chronical diseases which are the most rooted and stubborn Now all these Metallick Vitriols have different tastes and colours as also they have all some specifick virtues as it appears by their effects Which obliges us to say that since Gold though of a fix nature can be so prepared and opened by the means of certain things which are daily used both as Aliments and Medicaments and that it can be reduc'd into a vitriolick Salt which hath its colour and its specifick taste and virtue why should it be deprived of being put in use because of its reducibility into Metall Not but that we believe with the wisest that if this noble Metall was once so opened and radically dissolved in such wise that it could never be reduced into Metall again by any Chymical artifice I say we should believe that Gold thus uncorporified and volatilized would acquire a far more ample sphere of activity and virtue but notwithstanding all this we do not omit to attribute to the other Preparation that virtue which has been known by redoubled experiences first having been well and duly prepared and moreover first imbu'd impregnated and fill'd with the internal and central Sulphur of Antimony which is had in the true tincture of the Glass of that Mineral extracted according to Basilius Valentinus And it is of this Preparation of Gold which we have disposed in one part of this Great Cordial to render it accomplish'd in all respects We shall now lay down some of those Remarks which are necessary to this operation which may very well pass for one of the most pleasant and most considerable of all the rare Chymical Pharmacie The Artist therefore must chuse the purest Gold which yet ought to have in it something of allay and therefore he must pass it or melt it down with Antimony whose Sulphur consumes all which is heterogeneal to it as its great sweetness ductibility high colour and splendour does evidently testifie after it has passed this Examination But he must not stop there for this metallick Body is too fix and compact to be dissolved without the help of the most corroding Spirits which we will not use He must therefore open and separate that strong union of this Body and reduce it into a spongeous and penetrable Body whose atomes may be penetrated and dissolved by means of common water enriched or endowed with ordinary Salts which cannot be done but by the amalgaming with crude Mercury and reiterated Calcination with the common Sulphur which dilate the Gold and render it so spongeous and open'd that one Ounce of this Metall so prepared makes a greater quantity then half a Pound of Gold in an Ingot or Wedge Gold being brought to this pass must be dissolved with that amiable and familiar Dissolvent by a simple digestion and a light Ebullition towards the end in a Glass body in Sand and there will not remain a grain undissolved The Liquor must be filtrated and if any be desirous to make a fine Crocus of Gold or a Pouder of Gold impalpable and subtil let them take one part of this filtrated Liquor and precipitate it with volatil Spirit of Wine and the Liquor that was yellow will change it self into a green colour and the Gold will precipitate it self to the bottom of the Vessel into a brown Pouder which must be edulcorated by several reiterated lotions until it become insipid and afterwards it must be digested by three natural days in tartarized Spirit of Wine in a gentle heat of Mary's Bath and lastly it must be kept during three days in Rose Cinnamon-water then filtrate and drie it This Pouder thus prepared is a great Sudorifick and Cordial but what we are going to mention is far better The remainder of the filtrated Liquor which contains the dissolved Gold must be evaporated in a Glass vessel of a flat and large form until all the Salts be very drie then they must be put in pouder and thrown in a Glass circulatory then pour over them to the height of four fingers of Tartarized Alkohol of Wine place the Vessel in a heat of Bath and this Spirit will attract to it self all the dissolution of the Gold and invest it self with a gilded yellow very pleasant which must be separated from the
A DISCOURSE Upon Sr RAWLEIGH's Great Cordial BY N. le FEBVRE Royal Professor in Chymistry and Apothecary in Ordinary to his MAIESTY's most Honourable Houshold Rendred into English by PETER BELON Student in Chymistry LONDON Printed by J. F. for Octavian Pulleyn Junior and are to be sold at the Sign of the Bible in S. Paul's Church-yard near the little North door 1664. TO THE KING'S Most Excellent MAJESTY SIR I Have elaborated according to Your MAJESTY's order the Preparation of Sr Rawleigh's Great Cordial with so much circumspection and with such exact and serious meditation on all that enters in the Composition of this precious Remedy that I thought it my duty to present to Your MAJESTY what I have gathered out of most particular in this my Labour and to give accordingly the reasons which prove the great advantages that the modern Pharmacie carrieth legitimately above the ancient by reason that it is enlightned with the glorious lights of Chymistry And indeed SIR that onely is capable to separate exactly the pure from the impure to preserve the virtue of whatsoever it works upon without any loss of its volatil parts and to draw out of the very centre of the most fix'd things 〈◊〉 Nature hath therein implanted most essential and most specifick Your MAJESTY knoweth so well this difference and reasoneth so justly on all the Productions of Nature and Art that one may say with a real and sincere truth That You unfold with an incomparable Neatness of Judgment the profoundest Questions of the Naturalists and Chymists in the Royal Laboratory with as much facility as Your MAJESTY untangles in all Your Counsels the Intrigues of the most refined Policy I shall continue SIR to work as I have done with the same zeal and the same activity that I may contribute what is of my Art and Study to effect those Sublime and Royal Intentions which Your MAJESTY hath for the common good of Your Subjects whom Your Royal Bounty desires should be eased and delivered from their Diseases and Evils Wherefore I do present and dedicate to Your MAJESTY with humility and all submissive respects the Discourse which I have made on this Great Cordial and humbly beseech Your MAJESTY to protect it since it was brought forth under Your MAJESTY's Shelter and Command being now as I will be all the rest of my life inviolably SIR Your MAJESTY's most dutiful most humble and most faithful Servant N. le Febvre Alterations with some Mistakes in Printing PAge 8. l. 17. reade at the latter end of l. 20. r. Balsamick pag. 12. l. 12. r. which is formed p. 15. l. 11. dele as l. 13. r. and which p. 17. l. ult r. Preparation thereof p. 24. l. 15. r. virtuous p. 39. l. 7. dele them l. 15. r. â—peritive p. 42. l. 21. r. this Cordial p. 43. l. 11. r. mellaginous p. 59. l. 23. r. Transpiration p. 61. l. 3. r. Petrification p. 97. l. 12. r. this Great Imprimatur JOH HALL R. P. D. Episc Lond. à Sacr. Domest Apr. 23. 1664. A DISCOURSE Upon Sr RAWLEIGH's Great Cordial MANY Praises have been given in all Ages not onely to the Remedies worthy of the Closets of Kings and Princes but to those also that have been capable of indifferent use to all persons which compose the Civil Society We have examples thereof both in the Treatises of the ancient and modern Physick as also in History where we observe that those which have been the most recommended in this Art and that had a Science more distinct then others have endeavour'd with all their possibility to give the Publick those good Remedies which they had attain'd to by Practice and Experience Thus the great Mithridates King of Pontus and Bithynia hath consecrated his Name to Posterity by that excellent Opiate which bears it Theriaca puts us incessantly in mind of Andromachus who is the Author of it And the celebrated Andrew Matthiolus hath made himself famous by his Antidote which all Germany admires Raymondus Lully Basil Valentine Paracelsus Arnoldus de Villa nova Quercetan Zwelferus and many others which I omit have rendred themselves illustrious by Panacea's Elixirs Tinctures Magisteries and Essences so that it seems as if the old and new Physick as well as both the Pharmacies had been in Emulation to out-doe one another to make appear to their off-spring those Knowledges and Lights which they have attained to by the Seeking and Anatomy that each of those delicate and worthy Professions had made of the preparation of Natural things and of the virtue they conceal and hide in their Interiour parts as in a Central Point whose Exteriour to speak properly is but the Circumference of no other use but as a place of abode its Bark or Shell which hides and covers from us the Wonders that this Celestial and Luminous point contains for as the great Paracelsus says Domus est semper mortua sed eam Inhabitants vivit Of all those that have made themselves worthily famous amongst the Moderns by gathering together that which Nature furnishes of Best and most useful to Man for his Health I find none more worthy of praise then this Illustrious Knight Sir Walter Rawleigh because that he hath not onely made choice of what is most precious and full of virtue in the three Families of Animals Vegetables and Minerals but hath also made appear so much Art and so much Experience for the preparation of this great and admirable Cordial which doth immortalize him that I have thought I should give to his honour and glory those Elogies which he hath more then deserved by the noble labour and beautiful study that hath made him attain to the sublime Knowledge he had of all he hath inserted in this Incomparable Remedy And whereas the King did command me to apply my self wholly to its preparation in the beginning of the last year's Spring I thought I ow'd to the Learned Curiosity of this great Monarch the Meditations and Notes which my study and the work have made me do with all the necessary reflexions to the clearing and to the recommendation of a Medicine so useful to the publick good of the People of his Kingdoms And because that Order and Method do establish and make those things one undertakes to discourse of to be the better known and that Confusion on the contrary is the ruine of it we therefore must give also to this Discourse the Essential Parts which will discover the most evidently and the most clearly we can possibly all that this wonderful Cordial hath of Excellency First by the Choice or Election of the Materials that compound it Secondly by the most studied and most exquisite Preparation of this Composition above all those which ever did precede it Which will also shew how much Art helps Nature In the third place we will make appear by proofs and reasons that this Remedy is absolutely proper and useful to the Nations bordering on the Seas by reason of the Scurvy
since that this change of a corrupted matter into a substance of a sweet favour and of great efficacy inwardly and outwardly teacheth Art to follow Nature's tracks for the bettering and correcting of things But we shall speak more fully of this when we shall reason of the beauty of the perfection of our Sovereign Remedy We shall here content our selves to relate in general the virtues of Musk which have oblig'd our Author to give it place in his Composition It heats gently it dries attenuates and dissipates what there is of gross and malignant in the body it is Cordial Alexitery and Cephalick it is specifick against all the Affections of the Heart and specially against the Palpitations it maintains recreates and restores the animal and vital Spirits it excites to Love and re-furnisheth the natural Heat it recreates the Senses and strengthens Memory which shews that it is most worthy of our Great Cordial The counsel and approbation of Sir Kenelm Digby and Sir Alexander Fraiser his Majesty's chief Physician hath made us adde to the number of the Ingredients of this Remedy the Flesh the Heart and the Liver of Vipers though the first prescription doth not mention them But this Reptil is replenished with so many rare virtues and possesses a volatil Salt so much an enemy to Poisons which attach the Heart and the Brains that it is with most just reason that it has been added The Viper is a kind of Serpent the most venomous of all which heats and irritates it self easily so that in a moment or the twinkling of an eye it drives from the Vesicle or Bladder of its gall to the gums a Poison so spirituous and so subtil by an almost imperceptible Chanel when it is angry which insinuates and communicates it self so suddenly to our Spirits and to the natural Heat that it as suddenly stupifies the part that has been bit which communicates it self immediately to the Heart and from thence to the Brain by the means of the Circulation But if this venom is astonishing and surprising the remedy which is had from the same Animal is as it were divine and miraculous which doth not onely combat its proper Poison but beats off and enervates the strength and efficacy of all the other venoms that both the Families of Vegetables and Minerals do furnish provided it be well prepared and administred in time and place We must give notice by the bye that Vipers glide and thrust themselves between stones and in holes of the Earth yearly in the end of Autumn whenas their pasture fails them there to abide till the beginning of the Spring and that then they are stupid and languishing by reason of the thickness and hardness of their skin but as soon as they have relished and digested the blades of Herbs and the Sun and Air have furnished them with heat and aliment they slide and rub themselves against rugged places to strip off their old skin which is no sooner off but that this Animal is presently possest with the pride thereof for it crawls nimbler then before and signifies by its gaiety by the quickness of its motions and by the beautious colours of its new skin that it is really renew'd and that the remedy which it yields may also produce in us Renewing Principles and Faculties The general and principal virtues which the Viper possesses are to combat strongly the Venoms and above all that of the Plague and of all the malignant and venomous diseases it is good against Leprosie and the Venereal disease against Consumptions and the Hectick Fever and finally against the Scurvy by reason that the volatil Salt of this Animal drives out powerfully the malignant Serosities which infect the mass of the Bloud and which are the cause and maintenance of this popular disease which makes such strange wastes in all the maritime Countries and especially in England so that it is lawfully placed in this Cordial We are now come to the Pearls which constitute another part of this Great Cordial and that augment really its rare qualities We shall mention in this place nothing but their origine their choice and their virtue to speak of them more exactly when we shall reason upon the Preparation Pearls are nothing else but the concretion into a Stone of the purest substance of the muscilaginous slime that the Oyster or Fish that inhabits two shells which he hath appropriated and formed for his abode and for his conservation ingenders Now this Animal draws to himself for his maintenance the purest part of the Sea-water which contains the embryonated Salt which is the balsam of Nature and as it were the principle of all generations which is found impregnated and replenish'd with the light of the Sun and of the Stars which is communicated to it by means of the Air. It seems also as if this poor Fish had drain'd himself of the purest portion of his life and natural balsam when he has ingendred several Pearls since that this precious Jewel is found but in the rugged and unequal Shells whose inward Fish is languishing and flabby by reason that he is deprived of that sweet sulphureous milk and of that volatil insipid and inodorous Salt which make together the coagulation of that beautiful object of Luxury and Curiosity but which is much more considerable for its fine Physical Properties which it incloses in it self Since that both the ancients and moderns acknowledge Pearls for one of the noblest Cordials which is capable of freeing the natural Balsam from oppression to re-establish the dissipated and abated strength to rejoyce the Spirits augment Courage resist Poisons the Plague and the corruption of the Humors and finally to wipe out and abolish the evil Characters both of the fix'd and running Gout by reason that they kill by the sweetness of their Milk and Sulphur the ill Impressions of the sharp Pontick and saline Serosities which prick and irritate the membranous and nervous parts that serve for sensibility and motion which they perform by the resolution of their bodies communicating then that virtue which sweetens and wipes out the acid sharpness that did cause those diseases which thing they also efficaciously produce in Rheumatisms and the Scurvy It is this defective and dead-seeming Power and Efficacy that Paracelsus speaks of in the sixth Book of his Archidoxes We have thought fit to put the Amber-griece next to the Pearls both because it comes from the Sea and that we can place it neither in the Classis of Animals nor in that of Vegetables no more then in that of Minerals because it seems as it were a roving Individual which cannot be lawfully comprised in either of these three Categories For Amber-griece is nothing else but the most precious of Bitumens that come from the bottom of the Sea where according to some it is liquid but hardens digests and concocts it self both by the coagulative facultie of the maritime Salt and by the action of the heat of the
Salts by Inclination or Filtration and pour upon them some new Spirit and digest extract and filtrate so often that the Menstruum be no more tinctured Then must all the Liquors be mixed together and draw off the superfluous Spirit in Mary's Bath in a most gentle heat and there will remain in the bottom of the Vessel a yellow Tincture of a high colour imbu'd with the vitriolick Salt of the Gold as its crabbed and bitter taste doth witness clearly And I durst say that those who have made use of this rare Remedy have always seen and taken notice of its most surprising effects For sometimes this noble Medicament purgeth by Stools sometimes by Vomits and sometimes it doth neither but powerfully provokes Urines and Sweats and most commonly it acts by no sensible operation at all but its virtue must be taken notice of in augmenting the strength of the sick and thus Natura corroborata est omnium morborum medicatrix Those that understand the Fixedness of Gold will wonder it may be at the dissolving of this Metall in common water and with corporal Salts but they are far more wonderfully surprised that the Spirit of Wine which in no wise acts upon the Salts doth nevertheless attract to it self all that Gold which they had dissolved and which render it capable of being mixed with the Drinks and all the poor sick person 's other Remedies in whose bodie it penetrates and insinuates it self to the extremities thereby to correct what might be there of hurtful and by that means re-establish Health And if this simple Preparation produces such rare effects what may not be expected from those noble and high Operations which volatilize Gold in such a manner that it is impossible to bring it to a Body again But this being beside our present subject we shall mention it no farther But we cannot conclude without giving notice that it is with little benefit that in several places Gold in Leaf is used in Confections and in Cordial Powders without any foregoing Preparation which augments rather their price then their virtue Except some would say that there are found in the Stomach such strange fermentations and alterations that they produce Liquors that are capable of acting upon this Metall in Leaf and reduce it from power to act But that is too far forth and we want proofs of these pretended effects We believe that what we have newly said justifies in some manner our Author or those that have added Gold well prepared to this noble Remedy of which we treat And all that we have said concerning the Preparation both of the Animal Vegetable and Mineral doth evidently shew how much Alt is capable of helping Nature since there are things in these three Reigns which constitute her which cannot communicate their virtue nor make the Irradiation of their inward powers if they have not first been opened by the Keys of Chymical Operations with the preservation of their Seeds and Power and especially in what concerns the Minerals and Metalls Let us now come to our third Proof which is to shew that this Great Cordial is absolutely necessary to the Maritime and Northerly Nations and especially to the inhabitants of Islands which we must establish by Reasoning in general and by Demonstration in particular What we have to say in general is That the Sea-bordering and Northerly Countries and above all Islands are exposed to an inconstancy of Winds which agitate the Air in so many different manners that it is impossible for the Heat of the Sun to act with all the reach of its power for the production of Vegetables in general which is the allotted aliment for Animals both Rational and Irrational which is prov'd in that those Countries produce no Grapes ripe enough to make Wine withall which is the Juice that participates most of a volatil sulphureous Spirit This is proved also by reason that the Climate is not capable of giving time necessary for the ripening of the best Fruits and specially those which ought to have some high Relish some kind of Perfume and exquisite Smell which are nothing else but the results and true tokens of the Exaltation of the Salt and Sulphur and of the perfect ripening of those Fruits that do languish in those cold Countries and that are replenished but with a superfluous and excremental Moisture which cannot be dissipated much less digested by reason of the weakness and little durance of the heat of the Day and by reason also chiefly of the coldness moistness and freshness of the Night Now if we have demonstrated that the Vegetables cannot be perfect by reason of the imperfection of their volatil Salt and embryonated Sulphur we may also say the same of the Brutes which are ingendred in the compass of those Regions and which are nourished and entertained with those Vegetables that grow there for although those Animals be fat and tender yet do they not contain a nourishing juice having the taste and virtue to nourish and maintain as those of the more Easterly Countries therefore their flesh is more flabby more viscous and fuller of Moisture it is sooner corrupted by reason that it is not furnished sufficiently with this Balm of life which is that volatil sulphureous Salt proceeding from Light and Heat which could not be concentred in them by reason of the situation of their native Soil There are also to be considered in general the qualities of most part of those Waters which water those Countries and which serve for nourishment to the Plants and Animals for whereas they are not enlightned and purified by a lively light of the Sun and by a serenity of the Heavens by reason of the almost continual opposition of the Vapours arising from the freshness and moisture both of the Territory and Seas that compass it round they also are not furnished with that subtilizing igneous Celestial and vital Spirit which is the radical Balsam of Nature in general and of every individual in particular which is the reason that they are more crazie and weightier and replenished with a dull and hurtful Salt since they are not deprived of the bad impressions and evil ferments which the Indigestion Alteration and the Corruption of those matters which are daily consumed have printed in them and of which they cannot be deprived but by a competent degree of heat Now if the Water is ill qualified there is no doubt but that the Air is also less pure then else-where since that as it is the Medium between the Seat and the purifying heat proceeding from Heaven it is also fill'd in reference to the Climes with so many gross and indigested Vapours that this heat hath not power enough to dissipate and rectifie during the fairest day those sluggish gross and viscous Vapours which are furnished by the cloudier days as also by the night which hinder that brave and excellent action of Heat which is absolutely necessary to produce the goodness and purity in Beings This