either by immersing into it a Solid Body heavier than it self or by weighing the whole Blood in Water the former way being opposed by the fibrous part of the Blood and the latter by the Serum And upon the same account it is somewhat though not so much difficult to compare with any accurateness the weight of Blood with that of water in a Glass as also for other reasons which he that shall considerately go about to try it will quickly find But however since it may be a thing of considerable use to have some tolerable Estimate though nor an exact one of the difference in Gravity between Water and Humane Blood by which so many parts of the Body consistent as well as fluid are by various changes of Texture both constituted and nourished I shall subjoyn a Tryal that this consideration invited me to make as well as I could We took the Blood of a sound man emitted all at one time and put the whole mass of it as well the Serous as the Fibrous part into an oblong Glass of the fittest size and shape we could light on amongst several And haveing suffered the Blood to rest till all was setled and the many Bubbles vanished we carefully mark'd with a Diamond that narrower part of the Glass which the upper surface of the Blood reach'd to Then we weighed the Glass and the Blood in a very good Ballance and having poured out the Blood for other uses and washed the Glass it was filled with common Water to the lately mentioned Mark and then weighed again in the same Ballance afterwards the Water being poured out the Glass alone was Counterpoised in the same scales and its weight being deducted from each of the two formerly mentioned weights the Water was found to have weighed â„¥ ix Ê’vi 50. Gr. And the Blood equal to it in bulk to have weigh'd â„¥ x. Ê’ij 4. Gr. So that the difference between them being Ê’iij 14. gr the Blood was beavier than so much Water but about the 25th part for I omit the Fraction of its own weight But this Experiment for the Reasons above intimated deserves to be reiterated more than once To the XI Title OF THE HISTORY THough rectified Spirit of Wine be a Menstruum consisting of very subtil parts and upon that account be a good Dissolvent of divers Vegetable Substances and as Experience has assured me of some Metalline ones too that seem to be more solid than the Fibrous part of Humane Blood yet looking upon this Body as of a very differing texture from those I thought Spirit of Wine might have a very differing Operation upon it And accordingly having separated from the Serum a clot of Blood that was coagulated but soft enough as the Fibrous part uses to be before 't is dryd I kept it for divers hours in a very well dephlegmed Vinous Spirit from whence I afterwards took it out as hard as if it had been well dry'd by the fire To the XIX Title OF THE HISTORY Experiment 1. THe Volatile Salt of Humane Blood as fugitive as 't is is yet so fusible that if it be dextrously handled one part of it may be brought to melt and as I have tryed even to boil whilst the rest is flying away The like I have tryed with some other Volatile Salts and I presume the Observation will hold in most if not all of them To the same Title Experiment 2. THough the Volatile Salt of Humane Blood when 't is by sublimation made white and clean seems to be a very homogeneous Substance and according to the Principles of the Chymists ought to be so yet I am apt to suspect either that its Substance is not altogether Similar or that the Corpuscles that compose it are of sizes if not also of shapes differing enough For having weighed out some Grains of a resublimed Salt of Humane Blood that seemed very pure the Odour was so strong and diffusive that one would have expected the whole Salt being but six Grains should in a few hours evaporate away especially being left in a South Window exposed to the Air in a flat piece of Glass And yet several days after if I mistake not seven or eight I found the Salt so little diminish'd as to its sensible bulk for I did not think fit to weigh it that it seemed to have wasted but little and yet what remained had scarce any odour at all that I whose Organs of smelling are acute enough could well perceive notwithstanding which this White Body retain'd a saline Tast and a little of it being for tryals sake put upon a solution of common Sublimate in fair Water readily turned it White So that it seemed that the penetrant and diffusive Odour of the Volatile Salt of Blood proceeded from some Particles much more subtile and fugitive than the other parts that composed it But this Experiment ought to be reiterated with differing Quantities of Salt by which means perhaps a heedful observer may discover whether the comparative Fixity of the Salt that remains after the Odorous Particles are at least for the most part flown away may not arise from their Coalition with some Acid Corpuscles that are wont to rove up and down in the Air and adhere to Bodies disposed to admit their Action To the same Title Experiment 3. A dram of Volatile Salt of Humane Blood sublim'd in a lamp furnace was put into as much common Water as in a narrow Cylindrical Glass served to cover the whole Ball of our Standard or gag'd Thermoscope and when after this had stood a while in the Water to be brought to its temper we put in the above mentioned Salt the tincted Spirit of Wine manifestly subsided about two tenth parts of an Inch and probably would have fallen lower if there had been more water in the vessel to make a seasonable solution of the Salt whereof a considerable part lay undissolved at the bottom To the same Title Experiment 4. WHen we perceived the Liquor to subside no more we put to it by degrees some strong spirit of Nitre till it would no longer make any manifest conflict with the dissolved Salt The event of which Tryal was that the Liquor in the Thermoscope began presently to mount and continued to do so as long as the conflict lasted at the end of which we found by measure that it had ascended more than three Inches and a half above the Station it rested at when the Ebullition began To the same Title Experiment 5. THe figuration of the Volatile Salt of Humane Blood may be considered either in regard of the Single Grains or of that Aggregate of them which when they are made to ascend to the top of the Glass may be called its Sublimate The latter of these may be best observed when the Saline Exhalations first ascend and fasten themselves to the inside of the blind head or other Glass that is set to receive them For though towards the end of the Operation
however I made a shift to make a Tryal of this kind by which I found that a compact body weighing fifty eight Grains in the Air and in Water six Grains and three fourth parts weighed in Rectified Spirit of Humane Blood but five Grains and one fourth part And on this occasion I shall tell you what I presume you did not expect which is that notwithstanding the Volatility of our Spirit of Blood I found that a pretty large piece of Amber being put into it did not as most men would confidently expect fall to the bottom of the Liquor but kept itself floating at the upper part of it and if plung'd into it would emerge The next Quality we refer'd to the Consistence of our Spirit of Blood is the Degree of its Fluidity or if you please it s greater or lesser Immunity from Tenaciousness or Viscosity which some Modern Philosophers whose Opinion needs not here be discuss'd think to belong to all Liquors as such Now one may be the more inclin'd to expect a manifest Degree of Tenacity in the Spirit of Humane Blood because among many Modern Chymists it passes for an Alcaly and we know that divers other Alcalisate Liquors as Oyl of Tartar per deliquium Fix'd Nitre resolv'd the same way Solution of Pot-ashes c. are sensibly unctuous and but languidly Fluid But yet I did not observe that some rectified Spirit of Humane Blood that I purposely try'd between my Fingers did feel more unctuous than Common Water And whereas those that sell Brandy or Spirit of Wine are wont to shake it till it afford some Froth and then by the stay this makes on the Surface to judge of the Tenacity or Tenuity of the Liquor esteeming that to be the most Vnctuous whereon the Bubbles make the longest stay and that the finest on which they soonest disappear I thought fit by the same Method to examine Spirit of Humane Blood and found that the Froth would last very little on the Surface of it the bubbles breaking or vanishing almost if not quite as nimbly as if the Liquor had been good Spirit of Wine And I likewise observ'd that when I warily let fall some of our well rectify'd Spirit of Blood upon some other body it seemed to me that the single drops were manifestly smaller than those of Water and of several other Liquors would have been which will be much confirm'd by one passage of what I have to say about the third Quality referrable to the Consistence of the Spirit we treat of Because it may be a thing of some Importance as well as Curiosity to know how subtil the active parts of Spirit of Humane Blood are and how disposed and fitted to disperse or diffuse themselves through other Liquors of convenient Textures to make a visible discovery of this I bethought my self of a Method that having formerly devised for several purposes I thought fitly applicable to my present Design For having looked upon it as a great defect that men have lazily contented themselves to say in general that such a Body is of subtile or of very subtile Parts without troubling themselves to find out any way of making more particular and less indeterminate Estimates of that subtilty I was invited to find out and practise a way that might on divers occasions somewhat supply that defect But having delivered this easy method in another Paper I shall forbear to repeat a tedious account of it in this since it may here suffice to tell you in short what will perhaps surprize you namely That according to the forementioned way we so prepar'd Common Water by Infusions made in it without heat that by putting one single drop of our rectified Spirit of Humane Blood into ℥ iv + ℈ iv which make 2000 grains of the prepar'd Water and lightly shaking the Vial there appeared throughout the Liquor a manifest Colour whereof no degree at all was discernible in it just before Which sufficiently argues a wonderful subtilty of Parts in the Spirit we employ'd since that a single drop of it could disperse its Corpuscles so as to diffuse it self through and mingle with two thousand times as much Water and yet retain so much Activity as to make their presence not only sensible but conspicuous by a manifest change of Colour they produc'd I confess this computation is made upon supposition that a drop of Water weighs about a grain and that a drop of our Spirit of Blood was of the same weight with a drop of Water The former supposition is commonly made and though I have not found it to be exactly true but that a drop of Water weigh'd a Tantillum more than a Grain yet that difference is much more than recompens'd by that which we found between the weight of a drop of Water and the weight of one of Spirit of Humane Blood For having in a very good and carefully adjusted Ballance let fall ten drops of Common Water and as many of our Rectified Spirit of Humane Blood as judging it a safer way to make an Estimate by comparing so many drops of each Liquor than one alone we found as we might well expect that a drop of this last nam'd Liquor as it was manifestly lesser so it was far lighter than a drop of Water in so much that the whole ten drops did not amount to four Grains So that we may safely judge the drop of Spirit to have manifestly diffused it self and acted upon above 4000 times so much Water in weight and perhaps in bulk too since indeed the proportion extended a good way towards that of one to 5000 and so may be said to be as that of one to between 4000 and 5000 which tho it may seem incredible to those that are unacquainted with the great subtilty of Nature and Art in the Comminutions they can make of Bodies yet I can by repeating the Experiment easily convince a doubter in less than a quarter of an hour And this Subtilty of the Parts of Blood will appear yet greater if it be consider'd what I think I can evince that no contemptible part of the single drop I employ'd was Phlegm useless to the change produc'd the operation being due to the Energy of the Saline Spirits of the little drop The VII Secondary Title Of the Odour Taste Colour and Transparence of the Spirit of Humane Blood THose Qualities that in my Opinion more generally than deservedly are call'd first do not any of them belong to the Spirit of Humane Blood in such manner as to oblige me to say any thing of them in relation to it And therefore I shall content my self to have made this transient mention of them to keep it from being thought that through forgetfulness I had overlook'd them Yet something there is that may not inconveniently be refer'd to the heat or coldness of Spirit of Humane Blood in regard that Physicians as well as Philosophers distinguish these Qualities into Actual and Potential For it seems
I am content at least till I shall have had sufficient Quantities of distill'd Blood for making the requisite Tryals to leave as a Problem And this the rather because I am not sure but that by frequent Distillations some Particles of the Fire may from time to time Substantially be associated with those of the Liquor nor yet but that even in the first Distillation of Humane Blood The Fire may have either separated or produc'd a Liquor that though almost strengthless and not justly referable to either of the receiv'd Principles or Ingredients Oyl Salt and Earth is not yet Phlegm truly so call'd but a Liquor as yet Anonymous as I have elsewhere shewn that Woods and many other Bodies afford by Distillation a Liquor that is not an Oyl and is neither Acid nor Alcalisate and yet is no true Phlegm but as I have there styled it an Adiaphorous Spirit It will probably be thought Material if on this occasion I add in favour of the Opinion or Conjecture to which I lately own'd my self inclin'd That considering that the knowledge of the Composition of a Body may be sometimes as well if not better investigated by the way of generating or producing of it as by that of Analysing or Resolving it I made for Tryals sake the following Experiment We dissolv'd in distilled Water as much Volatile Salt of Humane Blood as the Liquor would take up and then having carefully distill'd it in a conveniently shap'd Vessel with a regulated degree of Heat the Distillation afforded us such a Liquor as was desir'd namely one that by Smell Tast and divers Operations appear'd to be a good brisk Spirit of Humane Blood This Experiment for the main was made another time with the like success The III Secondary Title Of the Species of Saline Bodies to which the Spirit of Humane Blood is to be refer'd I need not spend much time to declare a thing that is now so well known to many Physicians and Chymists of this and some of the neighbouring Countries as 't is that of late years Saline Spirits obtain'd by Distillation have been observ'd to be of two sorts But because there are many even of the Learned especially in the remoter parts of Europe that are not well acquainted with this Distinction lest some to whom you may shew this Paper should chance to be of that number it may not be amiss to intimate in two or three Words that the Saline Spirits that ascend in Distillation are some of them Acid in Tast as Spirit of Nitre Spirit of Vitriol c. And some others have Tasts very differing from that being rather somewhat like Common Salt or like Lixiviate Salts And the difference is greater in their operations than in their Tasts For being put together there will presently ensue a manifest Conflict between them and usually for I have not found it to hold in all cases the one will Precipitate the Bodies that the other hath Dissolved And 't is necessary to add that among the Salts called Alcalies some are Fixt in considerable degrees of Fire and others not for which reason divers modern Spagyrists and Physicians that take Acid and Alcaly for the true Principles of Mixt Bodies call the one Fixt and the other Volatile Alcalies And though I have elsewhere questioned this Doctrine and given my Reasons why I approve neither it nor the Appellations newly mention'd and often call the Salts made by Combustion simply Alcalies or else Lixiviate Salts and those that ascend sometimes Vrinous and sometimes Volatile Salts and Spirits yet since the Names of Fixt Alcalies and Volatile ones are now much in request I shall comply with custom oftentimes though not always make use of them in the sense of those that employ them These things being premis'd I may now seasonably propound this important Question To what Species of Saline Bodies the Spirit of Humane Blood is to be referr'd I say of Saline Bodies because though the Spirit of Blood be a Liquor yet it s more efficacious Operations seem almost if not more then almost totally to depend upon the Fugitive Salt wherewith it abounds The ground of the foregoing Question may be twofold the one that I have elsewhere prov'd against the general supposition that some Volatile Salts that arise even in a dry form may not be of an Alcalisate but Acid nature and the other that not only Helmont and his Disciples but a great part of the Modern Chymists and Physicians too ascribe Digestion to an Acid Ferment or Menstruum in the Stomach Whence one may suspect that store of Acid Corpuscles may pass into the Mass of Blood impregnate it as I elsewhere shew that Particles of differing Natures may be even by the senses discovered to do But notwithstanding this I shall not scruple to say in answer to the propounded Question that as far as I have hitherto been able to observe the Spirit of Humane Blood is manifestly referable to that Classis that many call Volatile Alcalies and I often call Vrinous Spirits for I find Spirit of Blood capable of doing those things the performance of which has been looked on almost ever since I publickly propos'd them as the Touchstone to know Volatile Alcalies and distinguish them from the other sorts of Saline Bodies For the Spirit of Humane Blood will make a great conflict with divers Acid Spirits as Spirit of Salt Aqua fortis c. It will immediately turn Syrup of Violets from its Blew Colour into a fair Green 't will Precipitate a Solution of Sublimate in common Water into a White Powder and in short I found it to perform those other things that may be expected from Volatile Alcalies as such as often as I had occasion to make Tryal of it sometimes on one Body and sometimes on another If I were sure as for Reasons elsewhere declar'd I am not that the Digestion of Aliments were made by an Acid Ferment or Juice whencesoever the Stomach is furnish'd with it I should be prone to suspect that some Acid Particles may be mingled with the Blood But however that would not hinder me from referring the Spirit of Humane Blood to Volatile Alcalies because so few Acid Particles would be either destroy'd by the Alcalisate ones that are so abundant in the Spirit or at least these would be so very much predominant as to allow us very warrantably to give on their account a Denomination to the Mixture As if a few drops of Spirit of Vinegar were mix'd with some Pints or Pounds of stale Vrine they would either be depriv'd of their Acidity by some Corpuscles of a contrary nature that they would meet with in the Liquor or they would be so obscur'd and overpower'd by the Fugitive Salts it abounds with that the Acetous Corpuscles would not hinder the Spirituous Liquor drawn from the Mixture by distillation to be justly referable to the Classis of Volatile Vrinous Salts The IV. Secondary Title Whether Spirit of Humane Blood
of Sea Salt in preserving and seasoning what they eat it may not be amiss particularly to mention that out of a solution of common Salt made in common Water we could readily Precipitate with the Spirit of Blood a substance that looked like a White Earth and such a substance I obtain'd in far greater quantity from that which the Salt-makers call Bittern which usually remains in their Salt pans after they have taken out as much or near as much Salt as would Coagulate in figured grains The Spirit of Humane Blood does also make a Precipitation of Dantsick Vitriol dissolv'd in Water but not that I have observ'd a total one which you need not wonder at because it will dissolve Copper which is one of the Ingredients of Blew Vitriol The XII secondary Title Of the Affinity between Spirit of Humane Blood and some Chymical Oyls and Vinous Spirits THough in another Paper I declare my self for Reasons there express'd dissatisfy'd with the Vulgar Notions of Sympathy Antipathy Friendship Affinity Hostility c. that are presum'd to be found among Inanimate Bodies yet in this place nothing forbids to employ the Terms Affinity Cognation and Hostility in the laxe and popular sense wherein they are us'd not only by the Vulgar but by School Philosophers and Chymists It seems then according to this acception of the Word Affinity that there is such a thing between Rectifyed Spirit of Humane Blood and pure Spirit of Wine since we have formerly under the Tenth Title observ'd that being put together they will readily Concoagulate and continue united a long time It is very probable that the like Association may be also made with other Ardent Spirits prepar'd by Fermentation We have likewise formerly noted that our Spirit will make a Solution of the finer parts of Humane Blood well dry'd which Instance I mention on this occasion because it seems to be the Effect of some Affinity or Cognation as most men would call what I would call Mechanical Congruity between the Spirit and the Body it works on in regard I found by more than one Tryal purposely made that a highly Rectifyed Vinous Spirit for if it be Phlegmatick the Water may dissolve some of the Blood would not at least in divers hours that my Tryals lasted draw any Tincture from it With Lixiviate Liquors such as are made of Salt of Tartar fix'd Nitre c. resolv'd in the Air or otherwise the Chymist will expect that the Spirit of Blood should have an Affinity since they esteem all these Liquors Alcalies though this be Volatile and those be fix'd But though these Liquors comport well with one another yet we find not that they strictly Associate by Concoagulation as we lately observ'd the Spirit of Blood to do with Spirit of Wine The same Spirit of Blood mingles readily with that Spirit of Vegetables that I have elsewhere given a large account of under the Title of Adiaphorous Spirit which argues that there is some Affinity between them or rather that there is not any manifest Hostility or contrariety The like Relation may be found between Spirit of Blood and many other Liquors which it were needless and tedious to enumerate It may better deserve the consideration of a Chymist that though there is manifestly a near Cognation between the Spirit of Humane Blood and the Oyl since they both proceed immediately from the same Body yet even dephlegm'd Spirit of Blood being shaken and thereby confounded with its Oyl will quickly separate again from it though with Spirit of Wine which is according to the Chymists a Liquid Sulphur as well as the Oyl it will permanently unite notwithstanding that these two Liquors do to speak in their Language belong even to differing Kingdoms the one to the Animal and the other to the Vegetable With the Essential Oyls as Chymists call them of Aromatick Vegetables or at least with some of them the well Rectifyed Spirit of H. Blood seems to have a greater Affinity For having taken a dram of this Liquor and an equal weight of Oyl of Anise-seeds drawn in a Lembick per vesicam and shaken them well together they made a soft or semifluid White Coagulum that continu'd in that form for a day or two and probably would have longer done so if I had not had occasion to proceed further with it It may not be impertinent on this occasion to take notice that because I presum'd that though Spirit of Blood would not totally mix with Essential Oyls as Chymists call them it might either communicate some Saline parts to them or work a change in them I digested a while in a Glass with a long neck some Rectifyed Spirit of Humane Blood with a convenient quantity of Oyl of Anise-seeds drawn in a Lembick and found as I expected that the Oyl grew colour'd of a high Yellow and afterwards attain'd to a Redness which Experiment I the rather mention because it may possibly afford you a hint about the Cause of some Changes of Colour that are produc'd in some of the Liquors of the Body Upon the foremention'd Affinity or congruity of the Spirit of Blood with that of Wine and with some Essential Oyls I founded a way of taking off the offensive smell of Spirit of Humane Blood which is the only thing that is likely to keep the more delicate sort of Patients from employing so useful a Medicine as this will hereafter appear to be But to deal with a Philosophical candor I must not conceal from you that till Experience shall be duly consulted I shall retain a Doubt whether the way employ'd to deprive our Spirit of its stink will not also deprive it of part of its Efficacy But on the other side I consider it as a thing probable enough that these Aromatis'd Spirits may by being impregnated with many of the finer parts of the Oyls employ'd to correct their Odour be likewise endow'd with the vertues of those Oyls which are Liquors that Chymists not improbably believe to consist of the noblest parts of the Vegetables that afford them To Aromatise the Spirit of Humane Blood we employ'd two differing ways the first whereof was this we took a convenient quantity of well Rectifyed Spirit of Blood and having put it into a Glass Egg we added to it as much or what may in many Cases more than suffice half as much Essential Oyl of Anise-seeds for instance And having shaken these Liquors together to mingle them very well we plac'd the Glass in a sit posture in a Furnace where it should not have too great a heat by which means the slight Texture of the Coagulum being dissolv'd part of the Oyl sometimes a great portion of it appear'd by it self floating at the top of the Spirit Whence being separated by a Tunnel or otherwise the remaining Liquor was Whitish and without any stink the smell predominant in it being that of the Anise-seeds of which it tasted strongly though the Saline Spirituous parts of the
Natural Histories that I drew up or design'd of particular Subjects it would be needless to trouble you with them in this place where it may therefore suffice to advertise you that the following Particulars I have thrown together as they occur'd to me to be annexed to the foregoing History of Humane Blood are made up of two sorts Some which through haste or otherwise were Praetermitted when they should have been rang'd under one or other of the foregoing Titles and so are answerable to those that in the First Part of these Memoirs were call'd Paralipomena and others that are for the most part of kin to those that are there stil'd Addenda tho some of them may be judg'd to deserve better the name of Supernumerary which yet I thought fit to let pass among the rest because tho they do not directly belong to any of the distinct Titles of our History yet they may obliquely be refer'd to one or other of them or are at least capable of being made some way subservient to the general Design of the History it self But the paucity of the particulars that I am at present furnished with makes me fear it may favour of Ostentation if in so much penury of matter I should curiously refer the Particulars that now occur to me to the differing Titles Primary and Subordinate that have been enumerated in the Schemes of our intended Histories And therefore till I be better stock'd with materials I shall forbear to make Scrupulous References of them or so much as constantly distinguish the Paralipomena from the other Addenda contenting my self to refer some of them in a general way and in the order they Chance to come to hand to that part of the Memoirs whether the Second the Third or the Fourth to which they respectively seem most to belong 'T is hop'd that neither Connection nor style will be expected in loose Notes hastily set down at several times to secure the Matters of fact then fresh in Memory from being as to any necessary Circumstances forgotten Some Tryals may seem to have been made extravagantly and quite at random which perhaps would be otherwise thought of but that I judg'd it not worth while especially writing in haste to spend time in setting down the Inducements I had to make them or the Aims I had in them I am well aware that some few of the following Tryals may seem but Repetitions of others recited in the Body of the History But these were added on purpose that where the Event of both Tryals was the same they might confirm one another which where the subject has lain uncultivated is oftentimes a desireable thing and where they disagree in any considerable Circumstances their Difference may occasion further Tryals and in the mean time keep us from building Dogmatical Conclusions upon the Circumstances wherein they differ Particulars referable to the Second Part of the History Experiment I. THe Proportion of the substances obtainable from dry'd Humane Blood being as I formerly noted very difficult to be determin'd because of that Difficulty and the Importance of the Inquiry I thought fit to employ some Blood that I made a shift to collect since the writing of the Second Part of the foregoing History in making another Experiment that we may make the nearer and safer estimate of the Quantities of the distinct substances sought after For this end I caus'd Twelve Ounces of dry'd Blood to be carefully distill'd by an expert Laborant well admonished of the Difficulty of his Task and the exactness he was to aim at in performing it The Distillation being ended the substances obtain'd were brought me with this note of their Quantities Twelve Ounces of dry'd Humane Blood yielded of Volatile Salt and Spirit together five Ounces of which we pour'd off from the wet Salt Ê’xiij+ 54. gr So that their remain'd â„¥ xiij+ Ê’ij+ 6. gr Of Volatile Salt of foetid Oyl there were two Ounces of Caput Mortuum four Ounces and two Drams So that in spite of all his care there was lost by sticking to the Retorts and other Glasses which I presum'd retain'd little else than the more viscous Oyl and phlegm and by avolation of some more subtil parts especially upon pouring the Liquors from Vessel to Vessel about Six Drams The four Ounces and two Drams of Caput Mortuum being diligently calcin'd afforded but Six Drams and a half of Ashes Of which very great Decrement the Accension and Consumption of the more fixed Oleaginous Part seems to be the cause And if it be so we may suppose that there is a far greater portion of Oyl in Humane Blood than has been hitherto taken notice of These Ashes were not white or Gray as those of other Bodies use to be but of a Reddish Colour much like that of Bricks and yet the watchful Laborant affirm'd he could easily know them to be true Ashes because that whilst there remain'd any thing Oily or Combustible in the Caput Mortuum it would look like a throughly kindled Charcoal which it would continue to do far longer than one would expect But when that Combustible substance was quite wasted the remaining Caput Mortuum would look in the fire like dead and ordinary Ashes tho when they were Cold they appear'd and continued Red. These Ashes being carefully Elixiviated afforded five Scruples of White-fixt Salt besides a little which being casually got into the Contiguous sand and thence recover'd by water and reduc'd to the like White Salt amounted to about a Scruple more So that their remained for the Terra damnata Fourteen Scruples about a half that is a good deal above twice the weight of the Salt whence it appears that according to this Analysis the pure fixt Salt of Humane Blood is but between the 57th and 58th part even of dry'd Blood and therefore probably amounts but to the 150th or perhaps the 170th part in weight of Blood as it flows from the Vein opened by a lancet and the Fixt Earth or Terra damnata is to the dry'd Blood that affords it as 19. and about a half to 1. Experiment II. IN regard the foregoing Experiment and another of the like nature formerly mentioned were made with dried and pulverable Blood of several Persons put together though I knew it would be scarce possible in so small a quantity of Blood as I could obtain at once from one Person to find out with any accurateness the quantities of the several substances it was capable of affording yet to be able to make some tolerable estimate grounded upon experience I was invited to make a tryal whose success though in one part of it unlucky was registred as follows An entire parcel of Humane Blood weighing ten ounces and 73 gr being slowly distilled to dryness in a Head and Body on a digestive Furnace afforded of phlegmatick Liquor â„¥ vij+ Ê’ij+ 47. gr and of Caput Mortuum or rather of dry substance â„¥ ij+ Ê’ij This pulverable matter being beaten and
put into a Retort and distill'd in sand by degrees of Fire afforded Ê’ij+ 48. gr of Oyl But there happen'd an unlucky mistake about the Salt and Spirit for after the latter was poured off which weighed but 48. gr the wet Salt which stuck in good quantity to the lateral and upper parts of the Receiver instead of haveing been wash'd out as it should have been with the phlegm of the same Blood was wash'd out with distill'd water whence we obtained by sublimation into the neck of a glass Egg Ê’j+ 5. gr of dry Salt But by the tast of the distill'd Water whence it was sublim'd it appear'd that all the Salt had not been raised which invited me to put to it as much good Spirit of Salt as I supposed to be at least sufficient to satiate it with design to try whether by evaporating this Mixture to dryness and subliming Salt by the help of an Alcaly we might not recover all or almost all the Volatile Salt that had been somewhat fix'd by the Acid Spirit The Retort being cut that the Caput Mortuum might be taken out it was found to weigh Ê’vj+ 12. gr which being carefully calcined yielded but two Scruples and four grains of Ashes which the Laborant said were Red. These being Elixiviated afforded eighteen grains of Salt besides the remaining Earth or Terrestrial substance which I keep by me because notwithstanding all the violence of fire it has undergone 't is of a Red Colour which seems to some to have an Eye of Purple in it Experiments belonging to the Primary Title of the Natural History of Humane Blood Experiment III. SPirit of Vinegar being put upon the florid Superficies of a parcel of Humane Blood did very quickly deprive it of its fresh Scarlet Colour and make it of a dark or dirty Colour Experiment IV. THe Juice of a Lemmon squeez'd upon the Florid Surface of Blood did presently somewhat impair the colour but did not appear to alter it any thing near so much as the Spirit of Vinegar had done Experiment V. JUice of Orange chang'd the Colour of the Florid Surface of Blood less than Juice of Lemmons had done Experiment VI. THe Black or lower part of a Portion of Humane Blood being turn'd uppermost and thereby expos'd to the Air within half or three quarters of an hour somewhat more or less acquired by the Contact of it a pleasant and florid colour Experiment VII BUt if upon the Black Surface of the Blood some good Urinous Spirit as that of Sal-Armoniack were dropt there would be an alteration produced in a trice and a pleasant Red colour tho perhaps somewhat inferiour to that produc'd by the contact of the Air would presently appear on the Surface of the Blood Experiment VIII FIxt Alcalies or Lixiviate Salts resolv'd Per deliquium did likewise alter the Black Superficies of the Blood to a Red colour but not so Florid or Pleasant as that produced by the Urinous Spirit above mentioned Experiment IX THe freshly drawn Juice of the Leaves of Scurvygrass being dropt upon the Black Superficies of a lump of Humane Blood seemed presently to make some change in the colour of it making us judge it somewhat Reddish and inclinable to Floridness The seven foregoing Notes suppose it to be already known that when healthy Blood is suffered to settle in a Porringer that Surface of the Concreted Part which is expos'd to the Air will be adorned with a fine Red colour and if the same Mass be turned upside down that which before was the lower Surface of it will appear of a very dark and blackish colour Experiment X. HAving for tryals sake almost filled a Vial capable of containing by guess near a pound of Humane Blood with a mixture of that Liquor and some rectify'd Spirit of Wine whose proportion I cannot remember but guess it was a fourth or eighth part At the end of above three years looking upon the same Glass stop'd with nothing but a Cork we found it coagulated or to speak more warily in a consistent form And the Vessel being unstop'd there appeared no sign of Putrefaction in the Blood and having smelt to it we could not perceive that it did at all stink So Balsamick a Vertue has Dephlegmed Spirit of Wine to preserve Humane Blood Experiment XI WE took a piece of Fibrous or Concreted Blood of the bigness of a large Bean or thereabouts and having put it into a small Glass Vessel with a flattish bottom we poured on it as much highly rectify'd Vinous Spirit as might serve to cover it tho it had been twice thicker than it was then we lightly cover'd this Open-mouth'd glass with another and set the Vessel in a quiet place that the Vinous Spirit might have leisure to imbibe the serous or aqueous parts of the Blood and thereby harden that yet soft substance and in effect it quickly seemed to have gain'd a superficial Crust but the internal parts continuing yet soft we left the Liquor upon the Blood for a day or two longer and then we found that the action of the Liquor had quite penetrated the lump of Blood and made it moderately hard and friable This Experiment having been made in the cold may much confirm a Tryal elsewhere mentioned to have been made to the same purpose and both of them together induc'd me to fear that two or three ingenious Writers that in their Chymical Receipts prescribe Solutions and Tinctures of Concreted Blood in Spirit of Wine have set down the Pompous Processes wherein these Operations are prescrib'd rather according to Conjectures than Experience Experiment XII IT may be of some use to the Speculative to know how much Volatile Salt of Blood is dissoluble in Water or Phlegm and therefore having caused an ounce of Distilled Water for common Water because of some Saltishness that usually accompanies it would not have been so proper on this occasion to be carefully weigh'd out we put into it little by little some dry and white Volatile Salt of Blood and shook it well into the Liquor to make it disperse the better we allow'd it also a competent time for solution and by this means we found that â„¥ i. of Water would dissolve at least Ê’ij that is a fourth part of its weight of dry Salt and that in the cold For afterwards by the help of heat we made the same Liquor dissolve near five and twenty Grains more In which last part of the Experiment I had a further aim which was to try whether upon the Refrigeration of the Liquor the dissolv'd Salt would not shoot into Crystals of observable Figures But the event answered not at that time my desire yet left me not without some intention to reiterate the Experiment if I shall get another opportunity POST-SCRIPT Experiment XIII WE put the above mentioned Solution into a Retort to be drawn off with a pretty quick heat which on this occasion we prefer'd to a much slower one and thereby obtain'd a
Urine External and Internal An Appendix containing 1 PAralipomena relating to the History of Humane Urine 2. Promiscuous Observations Experiments and Inquiries about Humane Urine To be added to the History of it The II. Part. Containing Miscellaneous Experiments and Observations about Humane Blood IF I were furnished with all the former Experiments Observations and Papers that at several times I made and wrote about Humane Blood or were supplyed with Materials and Opportunities to repair the want of them as possibly God assisting I may hereafter be this Second Part of our Work would perhaps appear much less maimed and jejune than it will now be found But I am so sensible of the disadvantage that the want of those requisite helps must have brought to this Rapsody of unconnected Notes written at differing times and on differing occasions that I was more than once inclin'd totally to omit it And 't is the importance of the Subject upon which even mean Experiments may sometimes prove of good use that keeps me from suppressing it Which I thus early give notice of that nothing more than loose Experiments and those referable but to some of the Titles of the History of Humane Blood divers others being left untouch'd may in the Second Part of our Memoirs be expected To the IV. Primary Title OF THE History of Humane Blood Experiment I. HAving for some reasons that need not here be mention'd been induc'd to enquire of more than one person that has us'd to let many men Blood whether they did not observe that some persons found a manifest and considerable change in the heat of the Blood as it came to issue out first or last I was answered Affirmatively and told that several persons that had no Feaver said that after their Blood had run out a while they found it come sensibly hotter than before and some of them complain'd that it came with a degree of Heat that was troublesom and as they fancy'd ready to scald them To the same Title OF THE History of Humane Blood Experiment II. I Got a Chirurgeon to put a seal'd Weather-glass adjusted by the Standard of Gresham Colledge into the Porringer wherein he was going to bleed a young Gentlewoman that as the Blood ran out of the open Vein it might fall upon the Ball of the Instrument in which the Liquor was made by the warmth to ascend a good way but not much if at all nearer than about an Inch to the smaller upper Ball of the Thermoscope To the same Title Experiment 3. BUt within less than an hour before this time having procured a man of middle age that seemed healthy enough and was let blood in the same Shop by the same Chirurgeon to bleed upon the same Weather-glass the tincted Spirit of Wine ascended above all the Marks belonging to the Stem and from the top of the stem expanded it self to a considerable quantity in the small upper Ball of the Stem for the Chirurgeon told me it was a fourth part of the height of the Ball so that though we could not determine how high it would have risen if the Stem had been long enough yet it seem'd manifest that the Warmth that made it rise did considerably exceed the usual Warmth of the Air in the Dog-days these gag'd Thermoscopes being wont to be so fram'd as to keep the Liquor in the Stem all the year long without sinking quite into the greater Ball in Winter or ascending into the lesser in Summer We employed also when a young Woman was blooded a sealed Thermometer that was not gag'd but was much shorter than the other and in this the tincted Spirit was raised almost to the top which argued no inconsiderable degree of Heat To the same Title Experiment 4. I know not whether it may be worth while to take notice on this occasion that a Porringer whereinto a healthy man had been let blood having been brought from the Chirurgeons house to my Lodging though the Blood was already Coagulated yet when I thrust into it the Ball of the forementioned gag'd Thermoscope it appeared to have retained Warmth enough to make the Spirit of Urine ascend by my guess at least Three or Four fingers breadth above its former station To the V. Title OF THE HISTORY SInce Humane Blood does in Distillation afford a not inconsiderable quantity of Oyl one may well suppose it to be a Combustible Body but every one will not think it so Inflammable as upon Tryal purposely made I found it to be For having taken a piece of Humane Blood dryed till it was almost pulverable and held it in the flame of a Candle it would take fire and afford a Flame much like that which excited it burning with a crackling noise much like that of Sea Salt cast into the Fire and here and there melting But the Inflammableness of such dryed Blood did much better appear when putting together 4 or 5 throughly kindled Coals we laid on them a piece of dry'd Blood of the bigness of a small Nutmeg or thereabouts for this yielded a copious and very yellow Flame and if it were seasonably and warily blown from time to time as the Effluvia degenerated into smoak it would by these frequent re-accensions continue to yield clear and Yellow Flames of no contemptible bigness in proportion to the Body that yielded them much longer than one would expect And during a good part of this Deflagration the Blood appeared as it were to fry upon the Coals and in good part to melt into a Black substance almost like Pitch There was also a crackling noise produc'd like that which Chymists observe when they decrepitate common Salt These Experiments for the substance were repeated But I shewed another Instance of the Inflammableness of Blood that was somewhat surprising For having caus'd some Humane Blood being part of the same that was made use of in the foregoing Tryals to be so far dry'd that it was reducible to fine Powder I took some of this Powder that had past through a fine Search and casting it through the Flame of a good Candle the grains in their quick Passage through it took fire and the Powder flash'd not without noise as if it had been Rosin This Experiment was reiterated with success To the VII Title OF THE HISTORY THE specific Gravity of Humane Blood is more difficult to be â—etermin'd than one would readily â—magine For the Gravity of Blood may differ sensibly in several persons according to their Sex Age Constitution c. And in the same person it may be varyed by the time of the year and of the day and by being drawn at a greater or lesser distance from a Meal and by divers other Circumstances But besides all these things there is a Mechanical difficulty if I may so call it that attends the work we are speaking of For the Blood begins to coagulate so soon after it is emitted that 't is scarce a practicable thing to weigh it hydrostatically
that was quickly produc'd was of a black much less of a true Inky colour Though I have found means to produce in a trice a black mixture with other Martial Solutions and Tinctures which for curiosities sake I sometimes made Green sometimes Red sometimes Yellow and sometimes if I mistake not of neither of those colours I have been the more express in setting down the Particulars above delivered because I hope they may be somewhat helpful to Rectify the Judgment of divers very ingenious modern Physicians especially among the Cultivaters of Chymistry who build much upon a supposition which though I deny not to be specious I doubt is not solid and I fear may be of ill consequence For by the above recited Tryals it may appear that 't is unsafe either to suppose that if Chalybeates be dissolv'd in the body it must be by some Acid Juice or to conclude that if Steel be dissolv'd by the Liquors of the Body it must be ex praedominio as they speak Alcalisate since a Liquor that exercises a great Hostility against Acids dissolves it and by parity of reason one may probably infer the quite contrary of what they suppose in regard that Steel in our Experiment was partially at least dissolv'd by what they call an Alcaly and consequently ought to be ex praedominio of an Acid nature But of this Hypothesis we elsewhere purposely discourse and therefore shall here add nothing concerning it but leave it to be consider'd whether it would not be requisite to seek out some other way than Physicians have hitherto pitch'd on to explicate the manner of operation of Chalybeate Medicines in the Humane Body and whether some use may not be made in Medicine of Martial Remedies prepar'd by Volatile Alcalies instead of Acids I put some Spirit of Humane Blood upon powder'd Amber sifted through a fine Sieve and kept it in Digestion for some days giving it a pretty degree of heat but we obtain'd not hereby any Tincture at all considerable whether it was that the Spirit was not yet highly enough rectify'd or that the Amber which was of a finer sort of white Amber was not so proper to yield its Tincture as I have several times found courser but deeper colour'd Amber to be To this IX Title may be refer'd the event that followed upon our having put some Spirit of Humane Blood upon that sort of Gum-Laccae that comes out of the East Indies in Grains and for that reason is commonly call'd Seed-Lac For the Spirit we put upon this tho this be a resinous Gum and of no easy Solution soon became tincted which I expected it should because I conjectur'd that the Redness wont to appear in many of the Seed-like Grains is but superficial and proceeds from some adhering Blood of the little winged Insects that by their bitings occasion the production of this Gum upon the Twigs of the Tree where the Lac is found on which Twigs I have more than once seen store of these Gummous Grains So that the Tincture seems not to be drawn from the Lac it self but rather to be afforded by the Blood of these little Animals which the Spirit of Humane Blood that will draw Tinctures from dry'd Mans Blood dissolves and this Tincture may probably be a good Medicine since most of the Insects us'd in Physick as Millepedes Lice Bees Aunts c. Even in our colder Climates afford Medicines of very subtle and pierceing parts and of considerable efficacy The X. Secondary Title Of the coagulating Power of the Spirit of Humane Blood THough the Spirit of Humane Blood have such a dissolving power as we have mention'd in reference to some Bodies yet upon some others it seems to have a quite contrary Operation I say seems because it may be question'd and I am not now minded to dispute it whether the effect I am going to speak of be a Coagulation properly so call'd that one Body makes of another or a Coalition of Particles fitted when they chance to meet one another in a convenient manner to stick together But whatever name ought to be properly given to the thing I am about to speak of I have found by Tryal purposely made that the highly rectifyed Spirit of Humane Blood being well mingled by shaking with a convenient quantity which should be at least equal of Vinous Spirits that will burn all away for if either of the Liquors be Phlegmatick the Experiment succeeds either not at all or not so well there will presently ensue a Coagulation or concretion either of the whole Mixture or a great portion of it into Corpuscles of a Saline form that cohering loosly together make up a Mass that has consistence enough not to be fluid though it be very soft and in this form it may remain as far as I have yet tryed for a good while perhaps several weeks or months at least if it be kept in a cool place The XI Secondary Title Of the Precipitating Power of Spirit of Humane Blood OF the Precipitating Power of Spirit of Humane Blood I have yet observ'd nothing that is peculiar and therefore it may suffice to say in general that as far as I have had occasion to try it has in common with those other Volatile Spirits which I elsewhere call Vrinous a Power of Precipitating most Bodies that are dissolv'd in Acid Menstruums I say most because as I have elsewhere more fully shewn it is an Error though a vulgar one to suppose as Chymists and Physicians are wont to do that whatever is dissolv'd by an Acid will be Precipitated by an Alcali as such whether Fixt or Volatile which latter sort they take the spirits of Urine Blood c. to be of For there is no Necessity this Rule should hold when the Body is of such a nature that it may be dissolv'd as well by an Alcaly as by an Acid. And though the Hypothesis of Alcali and Acidum allowed them not to think there were any such Bodies yet I have in another Paper Experimentally evinc'd that there are so And it may be prov'd without going very far since we lately observ'd that good Spirit of Humane Blood Would in the cold dissolve both Copper Zink which are Bodies that will each of them be readily dissolv'd by Aqua fortis and some other Acid Menstruums Bating such Bodies as those I have been speaking of I have not found but that Spirit of Humane Blood Precipitates other Bodies dissolv'd in Acid Menstruums much after the same manner that Spirit of Urine and other such Volatile Alcalies are wont to do Of this among other Instances I remember that I made Tryal upon Red-lead or Minium dissolv'd in the Acid Salt of Vinegar Silver in Aqua fortis Gold in Aqua Regia and Tin dissolv'd in an appropriated Menstruum I also with our Spirit Precipitated the Solutions of divers other Bodies which need not here be nam'd But in regard of the great and frequent use that men make