Regulus time to separate from its Faeces Obs 5. That you must powder and mingle together the said matters that you must not make use of a glazed pot that you must not put in your matter till your pot be red hot that you must not put it in all at a time but by little and little and that presently after every projection you must cover the Pot with its cover That you must stir your matter with a stick for the reasons alledged in our observations upon the Liver of Antimony Obs 6. That the Regulus of Antimony is nothing but an Antimony opened and melted by the Niter somewhat more intimately than the Liver of Antimony because of the addition that is made here of the Tartar and Charcoal and also by reason of the continuation of the fire which devests it of its terrestreity and of a good part of its venomous Sulphur and flowers but yet it is endowed with a great emetick and purgative vertue Therefore we have not used here much Niter and though the fire has been more violent than in the Liver of Antimony yet it has not been strong enough to banish all the vomitive and purgative vertue as shall be done in the Diaphoretick Antimony The Vertues and Vse It is a milder vomative and a gentler purgative than the Crocus metallorum and it is used in three different ways 1. It may be powder'd and infus'd and so make a Vinum emeticum as has been said in the Crocus metallorum 2. We make of it eternal Pills 3. We make Cups of it in which Wine infus'd becomes purgative and emetick 4. It serves also to make the Diaphoretick by calcining it with Niter either in a fire of suppression or in the Sun-beams by a burning-glass To make the everlasting Pills you must have a Mould for leaden Bullets of the bigness of an ordinary pill lute with our Lute the lower parts and all the sides of your Mould to the end that your melted liquor being thereby kept in may be fitly and handsomly shaped into the form of Pills then take as much as you please of your Regulus and put it into an iron melting spoon with a long handle which set upon a great fire of suppression or in a wind Furnace cover the said spoon with a dry Tyle not a wet one lest it should fly then pour coals upon your spoon thus covered and give a melting fire till your matter be red hot and perfectly melted and as shining and bright as quicksilver then pour gently your matter into your mould and when it is cold take out your Pills which stick all one to another separate them and with a knife even them so as they may have no unequal parts which might hurt the throat esophage the Maw the Guts or the Fundament One of these Pills may serve you for ever taking it out of the close-stool and then making it clean for another time for one Pill of dragm has the same effect as the ordinary dose of Vinum emeticum and works as well as if you took three or four of these Pills at a time As for the mould of the Cup it must be of sand and can serve you but once your Cup must be as thick as a Crown piece you must make your addresses to those that cast Bells to make you a mould you may make one of Brass but it will cost you too much and yet will not do so well as one of sand The Regulus of Mars TAke two pound of Male Antimony one pound of Tartar and as much of Common Niter two ounces of Charcoal and six ounces of filings of steel or iron powder all these and mingle them well together and operate in the same manner as you did in making the Regulus of Antimony The Operation done will produce you thirteen ounces of Regulus proceeding from Seven ounces of Antimony and six of filings whereby you may perceive that the Antimony loses much of its smooty Sulphur and its sulphureous malignant flowers Obs 1. That we add here the filings to the end we may fix the vomative quality of Antimony but you must not put above three ounces to each pound of Antimony lest it should be so fixt as to lose its purgative vertue and contract the nature of a metal Obs 2. That we employ not so much Charcoal in this Regulus of Mars as in the precedent Regulus of Antimony in recompense whereof we put the filings which produce the same effect Obs 3. That out of the Faeces of this Regulus is also made the golden Diaphoretick Sulphur Obs 4. That the Regulus of Mars is nothing but Antimony perfectly opened by Niter and devested of its venemous qualities by a long fusion though not long enough to evaporate all its purgative Sulphur It s Emetick vertue is fixt by the Addition of Mars It s Vse and Vertue It purges gently by stool without provoking to vomit if it be infused in white Wine or if you make of it everlasting Pills or Cups in the same dosis and methods we have described in the Regulus of Antimony Nay more if you powder one pound of it and tye it up loosely in a coorse linnen and then let it infuse in a quart of the decoction of sudorifick Woods and Roots you may cure the Pox without fluxing by Mercurial remedies There is also made with the Regulus of Antimony and Niter calcin'd together an excellent Diaphoretick Antimony but observe that that which is made either with crude Antimony or with the Regulus of Antimony provokes vomiting except it be very well washed whereas that which is made with the Regulus of Mars never incites to vomit The golden Diaphoretick Sulphur TAke of the Faeces of Regulus Antimony or of the Regulus of Mars and boil them a quarter of an hour in common water in a Brass kettle to make thereof a dark yellow Lexivium which filtrate through a brown Paper Gather together all your filtrations and put them into a glass or stone vessel but not into a glazed earthen then one lest the Salts of your matter should corrode the Lead or Vernish and so black your powder then pour upon them two or three spoonfuls of Vinegar or Spirit of Niter Vitriol or Sulphur or some other acid the stronger it is the higher will be the colour of your Precipitate for these acid Spirits do much more vivifie colours than Vinegar does You will see presently that your Faeces will curdle become yellowish and stink your Curd being setled pour away the Liquor which you may keep to wash your Bedsteds withal to keep them clean from Punaises then upon your Curds throw common Water and you shall see them precipitate into a powder of a Saffron-colour Pour away this first Water and pour on some more in great quantity that you may at once sweeten your powder and take away from it its ill smell and its emetick vertue then having poured away this last Water filtrate the residue through a
s Vse and Vertue It is a most excellent anodynum to appease the Tooth-ach by putting a litle Cotton dipp'd in the said Spirit of Wine to the pain'd Tooth and it is good to help the paines in the Ears by dipping in it some black Wool cut off of the Stones of a black Ram and so put into the Ear. The Aromatick tincture of Cloves PUt of whole Cloves what quantity you please into a Matrass and pour on well rectfied Spirit of Wine to the height of four fingers above your matter make a double Vessel with another small Matrass fitted to the first and well luted together place this vessel in a Sand-heat and there let it stand till the Spirit of Wine be dyed of a red-blackish colour separate by inclination this tincture and keep it in a glass Vial well stopp'd Of this tincture may be made a Syrup by putting to it a sufficient quantity of Sugar and so boyling of it to the consistence of a Syrup or you may make of the said tincture an Extract by evaporating your tincture to the consistence of an Extract The Vse and Vertues of the Tincture Syrup and Extract are to comfort and strengthen the Stomach by consuming cold superfluous humours take away the pains of the Colick it is excellent against all Faintings of the Heart and kills worms in the body The Dosis is a spoonful of the Tincture or Syrup and a Pill of the Extract or else you apply Linnen dipt in the said Tincture upon the Stomach Belly and Navel Cinnamon Water PUt four ounces of whole Cinnamon not powdered two pound of White-wine or Sack into a Glass or Stone Cucurbite place it in a Sand Furnace with a glass Head and Receiver there will be distilled a Water very clear and full of Spirits which from time to time you must take and pour out of your Receiver to the end it be not mingled with the gross flegm which will come at last of a whitish muddy colour Obs 1. That you must not distil Cinnamon-water in a Cucurbite of glazed Earth lest the Cinamon should whet the Spirit of Wine and make it corrode the Lead of the Vernish and so being impregnated with the Saturn alter its own vertue Obs 2. That the Water of Cinnamon is nothing but the purest part of the Wine impregnated with the Volatil Aromatick Salt of Cinamon It s Vse and Vertues It is a good Cordial fortifies the Stomach facilitates and helps the delivery of Women in Child-bed the flegm of this Water is fitter to make the Syrup of Cinnamon than common VVater by infusing in it some new Cinnamon and aftâ—r the straining dissolve in it a sufficient quantity of Sugar and so boyl it up to a Syrup This flegm contains a little Spirit of Wine in it with a little of the Volatil Salt of the first Cinnamon and so is fitter to open penetrate and extract the substance of new Cinnamon than simple common water The Spiritus Ardens or burning Spirit of Honey The sweet Tincture of Honey The stinking or faecid Oyl and Spirit of Honey The stinking Tincture of Honey PUt into a Glass or Stone or glazed Earth Cucurbit one pound of good Honey and two pound of white-wine place your Cucurbite in a Sand-Furnace and set it half way into the Sand fitting to it a glass Head and Receiver give a good Fire and continue it till all be distilled and that you hear nothing boyl in the Body then there will remain a very black thick Honey keep the distilled Liquor which will be of two sorts the first will be clear and transparent and in a small quantity and in this is the burning Spirit of-Honey and the Spirit of Wine The second will be of an Orange colour and more in quantity and contains the flegm of the Wine with the sulphureous Tincture of the Honey Take the Faeces of the said Distillation put them into a Stone Retort well luted and put to them alike quantity of River-pibble-stones calcin'd place your Retort in a Reverberatory Furnace fit to it a great glass Receiver and give your Fire from the first to the last degree for the space of some hours till there come out of the Retort neither vapour nor liquor then you will have in your Receiver a Spirit and stinking Oyl of Honey and there will yet remain some Faeces in your Retort If upon these Faeces you pour Spirit of Wine till it be four or five fingers above your matter you may have by digestion in a Matrass or double Vessel in a Sand-Furnace a foetid Tincture of Honey as red as Claret VVine The Vse and Vertues of all these Tinctures Spirits and Oyls Are to make the Hair grow stiffer and thicker upon Bald-heads The Vinegar of Saturn The Butter or Balsamum of Saturn BOyl some distilled Vinegar in a Brass or Tin Skillet or in a glaz'd Pipkin pour it out boyling hot upon Minium or Seruse or Lytharge of Gold or Silver reduc'd to powder or upon calcin'd Lead let your matter be in a glaz'd Pan and you must have so much Vinegar as may be four or five fingers deep over your matter Stir it a little with a wooden Spatula not with an Iron one for it would black both your Liquor and the Salt to be extracted out of it in an hours time your distilled Vinegar will become sweet and sugar'd and impregnated with the Salt of Saturn To make the Butter or Balsamum of Saturn melt one ounce of white Wax in a little glaz'd Pan then put to it four ounces of Oyl of Olives mingle them well with a wooden Spatula pour this mixtion immediately into a Brass Mortar and upon it a glass full of the Vinegar of Saturn stir them well together with a Brass Pestle till the Oyl and Wax be both impregnated with the Salt of Saturn contain'd in the said Vinegar and that all the Composition be thick and white as the soft Ointment of white Roses It s Vse and Vertues This Vinegar serves to appease inflammations and pains being applied outwardly to any part by Linnen dipp'd in Virgins Milk made of one spoonful of this Vinegar and a glass of Water it may also be useful in Injections in recent and fresh Gonorrhaea's to appease the violence of the pain And observe That this Vinegar pour'd upon any distill'd Water does not whiten it nor make it like Milk The Butter or Balsamum of Saturn serves to cool and appease the ardour of inflammations as well of the Stones as of the Hemorrhoides and other parts as also it produces the same effect in Erisypelases The Plaister of Saturn PUt one pound of Oyl of Olives into a vernish'd Pan add to it four ounces of well powder'd Minium or Mine-Lead and so boyl them together stirring them sometimes with an Iron Spatula till they be reduced to the consistence of a Plaister as black as Jet you may add to it a little Wax to give it a Body It s Vse and Vertues
of red dry Roses of the year you are in and stir all together again with your Spatula and so let them stand till the water begin to boil then take off your Vessel cover it and when the matter is cold strain your Tincture through a Cloth or a Coffin of brown Paper it will be as red as a Ruby and will keep four or five months without danger of corruption Obs 1. That if you did put your Roses into the water before the Spirit of Sulphur or Vitriol you would lose your Spirit afterwards in the Roses without effect but the water being sharpned first is fit to extract and revive the Tincture of the Roses It s Vse and Vertues It is a very pleasant cooler being Cordial and strengthening and most excellent for the Liver the Kidneys and the Stomach The Milk or Precipitate or Magistery of Brimstone TAke four ounces of Flowers of Brimstone and sixteen ounces of common Salt decrepitated and powdered mingle them well together which that you may the better do put a spoonful of each at a time upon a Marble stone and there grind them to an impalpable powder wet this powder drop by drop with distilled Vinegar till you have reduced all into the consistence of Pap or hasty Pudding then scrape it together with a piece of Horn and continue doing thus till all your matter be grown'd and thus prepared in the mean time boil six pound or three quarts of common water in a Brass Kettle and when the water boils throw in all this lump of Matter and after it has boil'd a little add to it half an ounce of white Roch-Alom in powder and stir it with a Woodden Spatula keeping your Kettle on the fire till all be dissolved in the water which then will be of reddish muddy colour and this will happen in half an hours time then take off the Kettle let your dissolution cool in cooling the Brimstone will precipitate to the bottom in a whitish colour when it is all precipitated pour off gently the Water which will be impregnated with the common Salt and Alom pour common Water upon your whitish Matter to sweeten it and do so till the Water come away insipid and that the Matter be entirely freed from the Acrimony of the Vinegar Alom and common Salt filtrate that which remains through a Coffin of white Paper or through a glass Tunnel as has been taught heretofore and you have the Precipitate or Magistery of Brimstone Obs 1. That our design being here to open and whiten the body of Brimstone we use the Flowers of Brimstone because that by reason of their impalpability which they have contracted in their sublimation they are fitter to be incorporated with common Salt and to become whiter than common Brimstone would be which would be very hard to be powdered so fine as the flowers of Brimstone are already Obs 2. That we use common Salt to open calcine and whiten the body of Brimstone and we use it decrepitated and three times as much in quantity as the flowers of Brimstone to the end it may do its work the better for the furthering of which we also add distilled Vinegar which quickens the common Salt by incorporating it with the Sulphur Obs 3. That for this incorporation we use not a Brass Mortar because it might black the powder by the attraction of the Tincture of the Metal but we use a Marble and Stone one where the finest things may be easily made finer so that a hair might be broken upon it Obs 4. That Brimstone alone would never dissolve in water though never so exactly powder'd because that being exteriourly of a greasie oleaginous nature and its Salt being altogether buried in its own substance all the ways of being dissolv'd are taken away from it But if you add to it common Salt by means of the distilled Vinegar and the Levigation of it then all being one body it happens that the Salt and Vinegar in their dissolution do engage the Brimstone to dissolve at the same time but then it is necessary that your water should boil some time to hasten the dissolution of these bodies and so the Sulphur being a little opened and calcin'd by the common Salt and Vinegar does at last afford its Tincture to the said water Obs 5. During the ebullition of the common Salt and Brimstone in the common water we add a little Alom to whiten and scowre the Brimstone for Alom is a very dry white Salt and Brimstone quite contrary is a very oyly mucilaginous one we do not use Roman Alom because that it is red and would communicate its colour to the Magistery of Brimstone which ought to be white by reason of the common Salt Obs 6. That the Brimstone is precipitated all alone without any Precipitant as soon as the water grows cold because its dissolution in water was not perfect and the strength of the Salts being dulled by the coldness of the water they can no longer retain the Brimstone above water Obs 7. That the Precipitate or Magistery of Brimstone is but Brimstone Philosophically calcin'd by common Salt and distilled Vinegar and scoured by Alom then sweetened by washings and so whitened in form of a powder It s Vse and Vertues 'T is an excellent dryer or dissicative for all Ulcers and therefore is fitter to make the Balsam of Brimstone either with Spirit of Turpentine or with Walnut-Oyl than ordinary Brimstone or the Flowers of Brimstone It is particularly good against all Ulcers of the Lungs to ripen the Fluxions that fall from the Breast and help the Expectoration of Flegms and also to dry away the humours which flow that way It may be taken either in a spoonful of Syrup or in some Conserve or you powder with it a Toast spread with fresh Butter or Oyl The Dosis is from half a dragm to a dragm And if at the same time you will strengthen the Stomach and gently loosen the Belly you add half a dragm of Rhubarb in powder upon your Toast you may put it into a spoonful of some pectoral Water but it is not so easie this way because by its lightness it swims upon the Water and that so in stead of swallowing it a good deal will remain in your mouth You may likewise use it in a Pomatum against the Itch and Scabs because that this Brimstone hath acquired not only a singular whiteness but has also lost all its ill smell which makes all the Unguents and Balsams of Sulphur so stinking and unpleasant but it would be a dear Unguent because you can hardly prepare much of this Magistery at once nor without great pains and cost The Magistery of Pearls TAke one ounce of Oriental Pearls which are better and much dearer than the Occidental reduce them to a fine powder in a Brass Mortar which must be covered with a Leather Cover in which is a hole to put your Pestle in put this powder into a Glass precipitatory Vessel
Algarot is nothing but a good quantity of Mercury made volatil by a less quantity of Antimony by the means of the fire and the volatil Salts that are in the corrosive sublimate then devested of the said Salts and sweetned by Lotions The vertue and use of the powder is known by its name which speaks it to be a vomitive and that it performs much more gently than the Crocus metallorum because the Antimony we employ is purer and in less quantity and because that the great washings have carried away the venomous Salts Its Dose in persons grown up is five Grains you may give eight in some Conserve or the yolk of an Egg or in any Liquor appropriated The Vse and Vertues of the Butter of Antimony 'T is a powerful Corrosive it eats away Warts and burns pocky Cancers in a moment but if it be applyed to any nervous part it causes an inflamation for four and twenty hours it is excellent for the exfoliation of Bones and for the Gangrene The Vse and Vertues of the Pontick water It is excellent for Ulcers Itch Scabs the Gangrene you may use it in stead of Spirit of Vitriol by mingling three or four drops in a Julip in putrid and burning Feavers The Vse and Vertues of the Cinnaber of Antimony It is a great Sudorifick in the Pox. The Dosis is from eight to fifteen Grains Bezoard Mineral TAke as much as you will of Butter of Antimony melt it gently before the Fire then pour it into a glass Bell or Cucurbite set it in a Chimney lest the vapours which you must raise should offend you Pour upon it some Spirit of Niter drop by drop for else the ebullition would be such and the red vapours so strong that the matter would run out of the Vessels and the vapours hurt your Brain Continue this Injection till the Mercury and Antimony which are in form of Butter be absolutely dissolved by the said Spirit which you shall know by pouring on some new Spirit of Niter for if there be no ebullition nor smoaking then the dissolution is performed you must pour as much Spirit of Niter in weight as you have used Butter of Antimony your dissolution will appear all along of a yellow colour As soon as it is done pour upon it all at once a quart of Sea-water actually cold this Precipitant will presently make all your Liquor of a milky colour and will precipitate your Butter to the bottom into a very white powder if you let it stand ten or twelve hours to the end your Magistery have more time to precipitate entirely then separate by inclination your Sea-water impregnated with the Spirit of Niter which was the dissolvant and pour on common Water till it come away sweet and insipid filter the rest through a white Paper dry your powder and keep it in a glass Vial well stopped Obs 1. That if instead of Sea-water you had made use of common Water for your Precipitation you would have turn'd your Dissolution into a white Liquor but you would never have precipitated your powder because that though common Water does much weaken the dissolvant yet it does not do it so much as Sea-water which because of its Salt contrary to the Salt of Niter does fight with the said Niter and in the conflict causes the sharpest and most active part of the Niter to evaporate and so to forsake its hold as to let the Butter of Antimony fall and precipitate to the bottom in form of a white powder Obs 2. That that which we call Sea-water is made thus Take four ounces of common Salt boyl it to dissolution in a quart of Water in a brass Kettle then filtrate it through the brown Paper Obs 3. That in the great ebullition and effumation caused by the Spirit of Niter all the emetick and purgative vertue which was in the said butter of Antimony is evaporated and at last carried away by reiterated Lotions Obs 4. That Bezoard Mineral is nothing else but a Magistery or Precipitate compounded of a good quantity of Mercury and a small quantity of Antimony both being calcin'd and opened by the Salts of the corrosive Mercury then devested of the said Salts by the Spirit of Niter so that there remains in this Magistery no other but a Cordial Bezoardick Sudorifick vertue It s Vse and Vertue 'T is an excellent Sudorifick against the Pox the Scurvy all putrid and venomous Feavors The Dose is from eight to twelve Grains in some Conserve but observe that if you mingle it with Conserve of Red Roses it becomes immediately green for the Reasons that we shall alledge hereafter The Calcination or Calx of Lead TAke Lead beat it into fine thin plates and take also of powder'd Brimstone as much lay them stratum super stratum in a glaz'd Pot which set upon two Bricks in the Furnace of a great wheel Fire and half Suppression there leave it till the Brimstone which of its self by the heat of the Pot will take fire be quite out and have a care you do not let it stand longer for fear of melting your Lead and so reducing it to its first metallick consistence therefore take off your Pot and with an Iron Spatula stir your calcin'd matter to hinder it from getting into a lump then take it out and powder it in a Morter then searce it in a silken Sieve till it be reduced to an impalpable powder Obs 1. That we use brimstone to calcine Lead because nothing but Brimstone will take Fire all alone and burn a good while Niter would not take fire all alone with Lead and indeed never is inflamable but when he is joyned with some combustible Body as Tartar Antimony Charcoal or Brimstone and if we did use here Niter with some of these Bodies its flame would be too swift to calcine Lead Obs 2 That we use a vernish'd Pot for this Calcination because our Calx is of the same Nature with the Lead of the Pot and therefore is not in danger of being spoyled and besides the vernish will not be corroded by the Sulphur because it is not a dissolvant powerful enough to corrode a glazing so dried and fastned for if the Lead which you will calcine were not beaten into very thin plates and Sulphur mingled with it every where it would hardly be calcin'd Obs 3. That the Calx of Lead thus calcin'd is nothing but Lead opened and dissolved by the Spirit and Salt of Sulphur and the said Lead will remain in the nature of a Calx but as long as there will be some of the Spirit and Salt of Sulphur incorporated with it therefore if you continue your Fire any time after the Calcination you will evaporate this Spirit and Salt and so your Lead devested of them both will return to its first metallick Nature It s Vse and Vertues It serves to dry and cicatrize old Ulcers when they are cleansed before and almost fill'd with flesh by mingling it
and pour to it Spirit of Sulphur or distilled Vinegar or juice of Lemmons four or five fingers high above the matter there will presently be caused a little simpring or boiling which ended stir your matter with a stick then suffering it to settle a little pour off your Dissolvant which will be loaded with some part of the said powder of Pearls and will be as white as Milk Pour more Dissolvant upon the matter left and do as at first continuing this Operation till all your powder be dissolved then gather together all your Dissolutions in the same precipitatory Vessel or in another if you will and pour upon them great quantity of common Water divers times to sweeten and wash the said Dissolution and continue this till the Water have carried away all the Acrimony of the Dissolvant After you have poured out the last Water your matter will remain like Pap which put into a paper Coffin and there let it dry in the shade upon a Sieve you will have the Magistery of Pearls as white as Snow in little mis-shapen pieces which you may keep as they are or else powder them or if you please you may at first before your matter be dry form them into Trochisks as has been taught Obs 1. That we reduce the Pearls to a fine powder that they may be easilier dissolved by a less quantity of Dissolvant in the powdering of them the Mortar is covered because that Pearls being small and round and hard would in beating be apt to leap out of the Mortar and be lost if it were not covered Obs 2. That we rather use here Spirit of Sulphur than distill'd Vinegar or juice of Lemmon because it dissolves them easilier than either of the other insomuch that one pound of Spirit of Sulphur will sooner dissolve an ounce of Pearls than twelve pound of distill'd Vinegar or juice of Lemmons besides that the Spirit of Sulphur is more cordial and pectoral than either of them Obs 3. That the Spirits of Salt Niter and Vitriol are not proper for this Operation because of their too great corrosive faculties which would go near to rest in the Magistery and then we should be obliged to sweeten it so long till at last the Water of the Lotion would carry away with it a good part of the Magistery We may say as much of the Oyl of Tartar made per deliquium in a wet place or by the dissolution of the Salt of Tartar in common Water besides the Spirit of Vitriol would black the whiteness of the Magistery and the Oyl of Tartar would make it rough to the feeling Obs 4. That common Water is sufficient to precipitate the said Magistery and weaken the Spirit of Sulphur so as to make it lose its hold because that the dissolution of Pearls by the said Spirit having been performed without the help of an external heat and without any great penetration there is no need of any strong fight between the Dissolvant and the Precipitant Obs 5. That the Water of the first sweetning has a little smell of Ambergreece if the dissolution be with the Spirit of Sulphur for Pearls opened by this Spirit have such a smell It s Vse and Vertues This Magistery is a great Cordial against all venomous Feavers the Small Pox in Children the pains of the Spleen it is likewise good for Consumptive persons and against Loathings and desires to vomit caused by sharp serosities The Dose is from a scruple to a dragm It is also a Fucus being mingled with some proper Pomatum Some brag with ostentation of a Water of Pearls but it can be nothing else but this Magistery mingled with some Cordial Water which if stirred becomes as white as Milk for as for the true Milk of Pearls which is the Dissolution of Pearls in the Spirit of Brimstone it cannot properly be called Water of Pearls because that by reason of its sharpness it is not potable The Water of the first Lotion of your Magistery is excellent to scour and whiten the hands The Calx of Oyster-shells TAke of the uppermost part of Oyster-shells what quantity you please wash them and cleanse them in warm Water and let them dry upon a Lettice in the Sun Then take six or eight Tiles made in the form of a half-Circle of such a proportion as that two of them join'd together may fill the inward Round of the Laboratory of a Reverberatory Furnace leaving the space of an inch empty between the sides of the Furnace and the said Tiles to give the fire play round about and betwixt the said Tiles for there must be also in two or three places of their Circumference a Brim of an inch deep to let the flame in to calcine those matters that shall be set upon them Place two of these Tiles upon the Iron Bars of the Laboratory and upon them place three or four other rows of Tiles loaden with Oyster-shells one upon another so as there be half a foot left empty of the top of the Laboratory then cover your Laboratory with an earthen Pan turn'd upside down in whose bottom is a hole give a great Fire at first with Wood and Coals and when it is come to the last degree continue that twelve hours the flame passing upon your Oyster-shells will calcine them and reduce them into Calx as white as Snow and so brittle as to fall into powder if you touch it Obs 1. That we take only the upper part of the Oyster-shells because that part is whiter and thinner and easier to calcine than the lower part Obs 2. That we wash them in warm Water before we calcine them that we may scour them and cleanse them from a certain mucilaginous ordure which in the calcining would leave a blackness and spoil the beauty of your Calx If you desire to scour your Oyster-shells a better way after you have washed them in warm Water put them into a stone Pan and pour upon them distilled Vinegar one finger high over the matter and so let them soak one day then take them out and dry them in the Sun before you calcine them Obs 3. That the Calx of Oyster-shells is very Salt so that by the same method that we draw the Salt of Vegetables and Animals we may likewise draw this Salt in good quantity that is by dissolution in common Water filtration and evaporation of your Lixivium till it be dry This Calx is composed of two substances viz. of a good deal of white Virginal Earth and of a good deal of Salt both fix and volatil by means of which the said Oyster-shells are naturally heavy It s Vse and Vertues This Calx is most excellent for the Gravel because of its Salt it is very opening and dries up by means of the two substances it is composed of all superfluous humidities of the Body The Dose is from twenty to thirty Grains in some Conserve Preserve or Syrup The Magistery and Calx of Egg-shells TAke a good
and part of it makes the Water look muddy Obs 3. That we powder and searce it that we may extract easilier and more abundantly the said Crystal of Tartar Obs 4. That we boyl it in a great quantity of Water and that a good while that we may extract all its saltish substance Obs 5. That it is thrown in by spoonfuls and not altogether that so the dissolution of its Salt be the better performed and sooner and for the same reason the Water is not cold but boyling hot Obs 6. That we stir it continually with a Spatula else it would remain in the bottom of the Kettle in a lump and so being touched by the Water but on one side it would not so easily dissolve Now your Spatula must be of Wood and not of Iron lest the blackness of the Iron by the acidity of the Tartar come off and spoil the beauty of your Crystals Obs 7. That we boyl our Tartar with Water in Brass or Copper Kettles and in earthen Pans because that the Salt of Tartar is not sharp enough to corrode Brass Copper or the glazing of Lead and therefore there is no danger it should be loaden or impregnated with their substance and particularly if it be uncalcin'd Tartar and dissolved in Water Obs 8. That your Tartar having sufficiently boyl'd in Water and the Water being impregnated with all its Salt we filter this dissolution through a brown Paper-coffin that so we may separate all the terrestrial indissolvable part of it which will remain in the Coffin of brown Paper this filtration is performed while the Dissolution is warm that so the Salt may pass with it which would go to the bottom in form of a white powder if the Dissolution were cold Obs 9. That to crystallize the Salt of Tartar uncalcin'd and dissolv'd in Water you must evaporate above half of your Water till your Salt begin to coagulate which you observe by that little skin that gathers upon the surface of your Water then by taking off your Vessels and placing them in a cold place as the Cellar the Salt is formed into Crystals and is freed from the Water which kept it in dissolution If you had continued your evaporation till your matter had been dry there would have remained in the bottom of your Vessel a white Salt in powder but it is much more pleasant to have it in the form of Crystals Obs 10. That the Crystal of Tartar or Cremor Tartari is nothing but Tartar scoured and whitened by Lotion pulverisation boyling in the Water filtration evaporation and coagulation or crystallization made in the Cellar It is composed of two substances one is saltish the other is terrestrial The first dissolves in any Water the second only in warm Water and as soon as the Water is cold the Crystal frees its self from it and coagulates in the bottom in form of a white powder if there be a good deal of Water but if there be but a small quantity of Water it coagulates into white Crystals sticking to the sides of the Vessel It s Vse and Vertues It is a great Aperitive Desopilative and Diuretick It purges gently sometimes but its principal effect is always by way of Urine The Dose is from half a dragm to two taken inwardly in broth It is often mingled with Opiates and also with purgative Potions but then you must swallow them more than luke-warm else it would coagulate and remain in the bottom of the Cup or Glass some also do dissolve of it in Clysters to the weight of two dragms or half an ounce The Cremor Tartari Calybeatus or the Steel'd Crystal of Tartar TAke four pound of white Tartar of Montpellier wash'd dry'd powder'd and searc'd as has been said in the precedent Chapter Mingle with it two ounces of the Crocus or Saffron Aperitive of Mars or Iron throw this mixtion by spoonfuls into a Kettle full of boyling Water stir it continually with a wooden Spatula and boyl your Water half away then take off your Kettle filtrate the rest while it is warm put your Filtration into earthen Pans unglazed and evaporate it in a gentle fire to the Pellicule as you do in the Salt of Saturn then set it in a Cellar to congeal and in three or four days there will strike to the bottom and sides of your Pans a good many clear Crystals of a fine green colour round in figure and a little sharp separate by inclination the remainder of the Liquor of the Pans and evaporate it again and set it to crystallize as the first set your Crystals in the Sun by placing your Pans on one side that all the Liquor may run from them when your Crystals are very dry loosen them with the point of a Knife and put them into Vials to keep let them be well stop'd for if the air come at them they will dissolve again or at least grow wet and lose their colour Obs 1. That you must take the Crocus Martis aperitivus or opening and not the astringent because that the Astringent is devested of its Salt Now here we pretend to the proper Salt of Mars and to mingle it with the Salt of Tartar By this Mixtion the Crystal of Tartar acquires the green colour of the vitriolick Salt of Mars and the faculty of dissolving in cold Water If instead of the Saffron of Mars you had added the Salt of Tartar calcin'd you would have made Chrystals of white Tartar dissolvable in cold Water for either of those two Salts of Mars or calcin'd Tartar would prove a Corrective to the terrestrial and indissolvable substance of the Cremor Tartari Obs 2. That we evaporate the Dissolution of these two Salts by a gentle fire that we may keep in their volatil Salts which by their mixtion do whet and attenuate one another and so are disposed to fly away which if they did then your Crystals would not so easily crystallize Obs 3. That the Steel'd Cremor Tartari is nothing but the Cremor Tartari incorporated with the vitriolick Salt of Mars by their dissolution in Water the evaporation to a Pellicule or skin and the crystallization in a cold Cellar It s Vse and Vertues 'T is a more powerful opener and desopilative than the Cremor Tartari It is most excellent against the Yellow Jaundice the Green Sickness and to provoke the Monthly Courses if stopped The Dose is from half a dragm to a dragm in some Broth or appropriated Water The Virginal Milk of Benjamin and Storax TAke of Benjamin and Storax of each two ounces reduce them to a fine powder and put them into a Matrass pour on Spirit of Wine so as the matter be covered four or five fingers deep with the said Spirit let your Vessel stand in a cool place for two or three days in this time the Gums will be dissolv'd and will colour the Dissolvant with a red transparent colour like a Ruby and withal will communicate to the Dissolvant their
Furnace of a Circulary Fire and Suppression till your pot be full then encrease your fire stirring your matter from time to time with a stick which you must not put to the bottom till all be melted then take off your pot and when it is cold break it you will find in the bottom the Regulus and the Faeces on the top Of it is made Vinum Emeticum everlasting Pills and Cups and the Diaphoretick its Faeces serves to make the Golden Sulphur Diaphoretick Of the Liver of Antimony of which is made the Crocus Metallorum MIngle one pound of Male or Female Antimony with half a pound of common Niter powdered put them by spoonfuls into a Crucible or pot of the same Earth heated red-hot in a Furnace of a Circulary Fire and Suppression covering your pot at each spoonful then encrease your fire and stir incessantly your matter with a stick till it be in Fusion take off your pot and pour into a Mortar the melted Liquor retaining the Faeces from going in with it your matter being cold is called Liver of Antimony and being powdered is called The Saffron of Metals or Crocus Metallorum Of it is made the Vinum Emeticum The Dose is one ounce in a pint of VVine of which take one or two ounces inwardly and four or five ounces in a Clyster The Spirit and Oyl of Guaiacum FIll up to the neck a great earthen Retort well luted with shavings or little pieces of the VVood of Guiacum place it in a small Reverberatory Furnace fitting to it a stone Receiver or a glass one and covering your Furnace with an earthen Pan that has a hole in the bottom then by a moderate heat of twelve sixteen or twenty hours you will have the Spirit and Oyl together which separate either by a glass Tunnel or by a coffin of brown Paper wet with ordinary VVater Of the Ashes or Coals re-calcin'd you may make a Lixivium and extract the Salt This Oyl is good for old Ulcers for the Gangrene and Rot and two or three drops in Cinnamon-water is good for the Colick the Spirit is good for Burnings Ulcers and for the Pox in a Decoction of Guaiacum Crystal Mineral THrow fine Niter powdered into a Pot set in a Furnace of a Circulary Fire and Suppression and let it be quite full at first being melted throw into it four or five times at each time a spoonful of powder'd Brimstone then pour out by little and little your melted Niter into a Brass Kettle shaking the Kettle and dipping it into cold Water dissolve your Niter thus prepar'd in warm Water filter it through a brown Paper and evaporate it to a Pellicule then setting it cool you will have fair Crystals which are the true Crystal Mineral or Sal Prunellae It cools opens and resists Corruption taken inwardly from a scruple to a dragm and in a Clyster from a dragm to half an ounce The Spirit and Oyl of Box ARe made as the Spirit and Oyl of Guaiacum only this Wood yields much Spirit but little Oyl the Oyl is good for the putrefaction and pain of the Teeth for Contusions and Ulcers Of the Regulus of Mars POwder and mingle two pounds of Male Antimony with one pound of Tartar and one of common Niter six ounces of filings of Steel and two ounces of powder'd Charcoal It is made as the Regulus of Antimony and there results of it a Regulus containing seven ounces of Antimony with the six ounces of filings It purges by stool and vomit in powder or in vessel with Wine and serves to make an excellent Diaphoretick which never provokes vomit The Spirit of Salt TAke one part of common Salt and five of Potters Earth dried and powdered fill with it a glass Retort well luted place it in a Furnace of a great Reverberatory Fire give the fire by degrees and continue the last degree for twenty hours It s vertue is Diuretick it drives away Gravel and breaks little britle Stones whitens the Teeth and preserves from the Plague and all Corruption Of the Red Precipitate of Mercury PUt four ounces of Mercury and six ounces of Aqua fortis in a Matrass of glass luted up to half its Body place it in a Furnace of a moderate Circulary Fire till the Aqua fortis be evaporated then give a Fire of Suppression till there rise a yellow vapour upon the brim of the Matrass then take it off and when cold break your Vessel and you will find in the bottom a Red Precipitate of an Orange colour Of Spirit of Niter PUt one part of fine Niter to four parts of dried Potters-Earth fill a glass Retort well luted then distil it in a great Reverberatory Fire and have a care of its vapours in distilling it It s Vse and Vertues Are to dissolve Mercury Camphire and Metals and is better for interior Remedies than Aqua fortis Of Turbith Mineral PUt two ounces of Mercury and three ounces of Spirit of Niter into a glass Retort luted up to half its neck place it in a Furnace of a Circulary fire giving a gentle fire till the Mercury be dissolved and dried then take off your vessel and let it cool then pour upon it one ounce of Oyl or Spirit of Sulphur and evaporate it by the same fire reiterating this three or four times then burn upon it Spirit of Wine break your Vessel and you will have a white lump which powder and wash in warm Water till the Water come away insipid Dry this matter in a Sand-fire and burn upon it Spirit of Wine three or four times it will make your Mercury as yellow as Gold then give it a melting fire which it will endure very well without losing any thing because of the fixedness it has acquired by the Spirit of Sulphur Of the white Precipitate PUt eight ounces of Mercury and one pound of Aqua fortis into an ample glass Retort with a long neck shake your vessel and heat it a little upon warm Ashes till your Mercury be dissolved then pour your Dissolution into a glass Bell and pour upon it a quart of Sea-water to precipitate your Mercury separate your Sea-water and sweeten your Precipitate with common Water then dry it in a coffin of white Paper It is used with Pomatum to rub Ring-worms withall It s internal Use is To purge in the Pox from three to eight grains Of the golden Diaphoretick Sulphur BOyl in common Water in a Kettle the Faeces of Regule of Antimony or Regule of Mars filter their Lixivium through a brown Paper pour two or three spoonfuls of Vinegar or of some acid Spirit upon all this Lixivium it will curdle grow yellow and stink then pouring Water upon it precipitate your Tincture thus curdled into a powder of the colour of Saffron which you must edulcorate or sweeten to take away the ill smell then dry it in a coffin of Paper It s Vse is to provoke the Monthly Courses from eight to twelve
grains by whetting its vertue with twice or thrice as much of Sena Saffron and Savin or by receiving the vapour of the Lixivium in sitting over a Close-stool Of the Oyl of Eggs. PUt twenty or thirty Eggs into a Kettle of cold Water boyl it till your Eggs be hard take out the hard Yolks and put them into a Frying-pan over a flaming fire bruise them and turn them often with an iron Ladle till they be almost all turn'd into Oyl which separate from its Faeces while it is warm you may rectifie it if you please in a glass Retort in a Circulary Fire or rather in a Sand-fire which will make it yellow and incapable of congealing It s Vse is That it is a very good Balsam for green Wounds Burnings Ruptures or falling of the Guts into the Scrotum and for Wounds in the Nerves Ligaments and Membranes which are uncovered Of the Oyl and Spirit of Ash-wood THey are drawn as the Spirit and Oyl of Box and this wood yields but very little Oyl It s Vertue is For pains in the Kidneys Spleen Teeth and for the rotting of Bones applied outwardly Of distilled Vinegar TAke a glass stone or glaz'd earthen Cucurbite fill it half full with good Vinegar place it in a Sand-heat fitting to it its Head and Receiver give at first a great fire stop the Registers and Doors of your Ash-hole and Fire-room continuing your fire till you have drawn off within half a pint all the Vinegar you put in you may rectifie it upon its Faeces and separate the Flegm which will come first from the acid Spirit which will come last half in half or thereabouts It s Vse is To dissolve Pearls Corals Fish-shels to make of them Magisteries and to extract the Salt of Metals Oyl of Camphire PUt into a Matrass or Vial two ounces of Camphire and four ounces of Spirit of Niter shake them together and let them stand till the Camphire be dissolved separate by a glass Tunnel the Oyl which will swim upon the Spirit It s Vse is To moderate the pains of the Nerves that are naked and uncovered in a Wound and to exfoliate rotten Bones Of Spirit of Wine campherized PUt as much Camphire as you please into a Matrass and pour to it as much Spirit of Wine as shall be three or four fingers above it fit to it another Matrass and make a double Vessel place it in a Sand-heat till your Camphire be dissolved The Vse is For the Tooth-ach and for Deafness applied to the Tooth in a little Cotton and put into the hollow of the Ear with a little Wool cut off from the Stones of a black Ram. Of the Aromatick Tincture of Cloves PUt into a Matrass as many Cloves as you please and pour upon them Spirit of Wine to the height of three or four fingers above the matter place it in a Sand-heat till the Spirit be died of a blackish red separate your Tincture and make of it either an Extract or a Syrup The Vse of the Tincture Is to fortifie the Stomach and Heart ease the pains of the Colick kill VVorms taken inwardly and applied outwardly inform of an Epithema The calcination of Lead TAke Lead beaten into thin plates and Brimstone powder'd of each equal parts make Stratum superstratum in a glaz'd earthen Pot place it in a Circulary Fire and of Suppression till your inflamed and burning Sulphur be consumed take it off from the fire and stir it with an Iron Rod then powder it and searce it It s Vse is To dry up old Ulcers and Scabs being incorporated with Grease or Diapompholix and also from it is drawn the Sugar of Saturn The stinking Oyl of Cloves PUt of Cloves what quantity you will into a glass Retort luted place it in a Circulary Fire there will come into the glass Receiver white fumes which will congeal into a black Oyl stinking and caustick It serves to exfoliate rotten Bones it cures the Gangrene and pocky Ulcers Of the Oyl and Butter of Antimony of which is made the Mercury of Life or Emetick Powder or of Algarot Of the Cinnaber of Antimony Of Mercury and Antimony revived PUt Corrosive Sublimate and Mineral Antimony in Powder of each four ounces into a glass Retort luted leaving a gap to look in at place it in a small Circulary Fire till all the Oyl be distilled into a glass Receiver and that you see in the bottom of your Retort a bright melted lump then give a fire of Suppression till your Retort begin to grow soft and be half melted break it there will come out of the neck Mercury half quick and revived and half in a blackish powder In the entry of the neck you will find a greyish Crust and in the bottom a lump of Antimony reviv'd and made crude again Then put your Oyl of Antimony which being congealed is called Butter of Antimony into a little Retort to be rectified once only in a small Circulary Fire throw it into some Water which being impregnated with the Mercurial Salts is called the Philosophical Vinegar pour off this acid Water and sweeten your white powder with other water till it come away insipid This powder is called Mercury of Life The use of the Emetick powder is To cause vomiting and to purge gently in intermittent Feavers and Dropsies the Philosophick Water is good for the Itch Scabs Ring-worms and Lice the Cinnaber of Antimony is a Sudorifick for the Pox. Of the Oyl and Tincture of Karabe FIll a glass Retort luted up to the neck with Karabe powdered pour upon it Spirit of Wine up to the neck too place it in a Circulary Fire and fit to it a large glass Receiver give your fire by degrees till you come to a fire of Suppression and that there appears no more vapours in the Receiver separate the Oyl that goes to the bottom from the Spirit that swims on the top The Use of the Tincture of Karabe is For the Palsie the Sciatica the cold Gout all cold Fluxions and bruises of the Nerves The Oyl is good against the suffocations of the Mother and old Wounds Of the Oyl of Jet FIll a Retort of glass well luted with Jet in pieces up to the neck place it in a Circulary Fire and fit to it a glass Receiver giving the fire by degrees as in the Oyl of Karabe and separate the Oyl from the Spirit that will swim on the top The Use of the Oyl is for the Suffocation or Fits of the Mother for all Contusions and Bruises Of the Butter Cream or Nutritum of Saturn PUt into an earthen glaz'd Pan Minium or Lytharge or Ceruse or calcin'd Lead as much as you please pour upon it boyled distill'd Vinegar five or six fingers above the matter stir it with a wooden Spatula an hour after melt an ounce of white Wax in an earthen glaz'd Pan and add to it four ounces of Oyl pour this mixtion into a Mortar and upon it a glass
THE ART OF Chymistry As it is now Practised Written in French By P. THIBAVT Chymist to the French King And now Translated into English BY A Fellow of the Royal Society LONDON Printed for John Starkey at the Miter near Temple-Bar in Fleetstreet 1675. Licensed Roger L'Estrange The Author's PREFACE I Have Courteous Reader but two things to say to thee the first is To deliver my Opinion concerning Chymistry and the other is To set down my Way and Method of proceeding in Operations Chymistry as I take it is a Liberal Art which though it have the same Object and the same End as Vulgar Pharmacy does nevertheless compose it by Nobler and more Ingenious Means and more to the advantage of Physick In ancient times even long before Hippocrates Physitians neither knew nor made use of any more than four ways of preparing their Remedies for either they pressed the Juice out of their Ingredients or beat them to powder or they boiled them or else they infused them in Water or some other Liquor and so gave them to their Patients Some Ages after and particularly since Mesue and those other famous Arabians till the time of Paracelsus Physitians continually invented so many new Preparations and put so many Disguises upon their Remedies that they were fain to give over doing of it themselves and to assign that care to those whom we now call Apothecaries But if we give a Judicious Curiosity leave to pry into these manifold Disguises we shall soon be convinced that they are indeed nothing but the four first Simple Preparations with the addition of Sugar or Honey and some differences of Colour and Consistency for the most part heaping great quantities of Simples one upon another to the end their Patients might swallow them with less distaste Paracelsus and his Followers having particularly wrought upon Minerals found out some excellent Remedies and being encouraged by their rich Discoveries they continued them with such eagerness that in a short time with Inventions equally ingenious and laborious they did almost subdue the three Kingdoms of Vegetables Animals and Minerals and came to the possession of most rich and hitherto unknown Secrets insomuch as one may say that even from the beginning of the World to their times the Vertues of those excellent Remedies lay buried in their own Bodies as in a Grave This may be clearly seen in Crude Antimony of which a pound either in powder or in Infusion or Decoction works no other effect in the Body than if we had swallowed as much Saw-dust But if you know how to open its Body by the Keys of Chymistry then for interiour Remedies you shall have an Emetick a Purgative a Sudorifick a Diaphoretick a Diuretick and a Cordial which you need only give in a different proportion of so many Grains And for exteriour Applications you may out of the same Antimony have a Desiccative a Mundificative a Consumptive or Escarotick with other rare Remedies as we shall hereafter set down at large If we consider Mercury they that work in the Mines in Spain teach us by their Theft that more than a pound of it may be taken inwards without harm for a little before they give over working they swallow a good quantity of it which when they are at liberty they ease themselves of by Stool and so keep it to sell in secret And this the Overseers having discovered do now force every Workman to stay there a considerable time after his giving over working that these Mercurial Thieves may be so forced to leave their theft behind them But if by the vertue of Chymical Dissolvants you open the body of Quicksilver it will produce in very small Doses such various and wonderful effects that out of it alone may be had Remedies to answer all the Indications of Physick Is there any thing more contemptible than Niter in the hands of the Vulgar Pharmacy But is there any thing more admirable than the self-same Niter handled by Chymistry for with it we make now a pleasant and cooling Acid now a hot and burning Corrosive sometimes it revives the Emetick and Purgative vertue of Antimony sometimes it kills the Emetick and revives only the Purgative and sometimes it destroys both Emetick and Purgative and quickens either the Diuretick or Diaphoretick and in a word it produces so many wonderful effects upon all the other Minerals that we may justly call it the Vniversal Agent of Chymistry Who would think that a quantity of Silver no bigger than a Pea Chymically prepared were able to heal by once touching any Ulcers of the Mouth and by two or three touchings soften and heal the hardest and most inveterate Ulcers and even the Gangrene it self in any part of the Body and that incomparably better than any Remedy of the Old Pharmacy Would any body believe that out of Common Salt which is generally reputed so prejudicial to those that are subject to the Stone or Gravel Chymists should extract a pleasant Spirit which drives out all Gravel breaks the Stone in the Kidneys and Bladder and dissolves entirely in the palm of the hand a Stone cut out of a humane Bladder I should be tedious in setting out all the other VVonders of this Art only this I 'll say to prove its excellency That whereas in its birth and even in its growth when it was either not known at all or ill known by Physitians almost every body had an aversion and a prejudice against it now quite contrary being highly esteemed and throughly known by the Learned and Experienced Professors of this Art it has gained the Reputation of being the best Instrument of the excellent Cures they perform But if in requital of the kind Reception it now meets withal in the world Chymistry hath any acknowledgments to pay it is particularly to Monsieur Vallot who having been long the Physitian of the greatest Practice in Paris is now the Physitian of his Most Christian Majesty in which place by his profound Learning and the excellent choice of Remedies borrowed for the most part from Chymistry he still performs wonderful and most singular Cures So famous an Example makes me apt to believe that if there be any persons obstinate in their old errour against Chymistry they will by little and little forsake it as those have been forced to do who for a long time stubbornly opposed the new Discovery of the Vessels that carry the Chyle from the Stomach to the Heart without coming at the Liver only because they had not seen or at least not well observed this new conveyance Now for my Method it all runs upon two principles First To find out and set down solid and pertinent Reasons of all the Circumstances which accompany our Operations The Second to discover the best easiest and shortest way of performing the said Operations These were no easie things to be found out for the first Chymists happened upon abundance of excellent Secrets but being ignorant of the true Reasons of
a Retort and open fire nevertheless to speak properly the name of Oyl is not due to either of them because they are neither Sulphurous nor inflamable substances If after you have made the Salt of Tartar you are in haste to have the Oyl you may presently compass your end by throwing eight ounces of common Water upon four ounces of this Salt of Tartar for then it will all dissolve into Liquor Obs 1. That you chuse good Tartar for that is all Salt whereas the grosser sort of Tartar has much of faeces and terrestreity in it which would spoil this Operation in which we pretend to dissolve all the Salt into Water Obs 2. That your Niter be well devested of all its fixt Salt because we desire here a pure Salt of Tartar without the mixtion of any other therefore your Niter must be entirely volatil and exhale all in the flagration Obs 3. That they both be well powder'd and mingled together that so the Niter penetrating the Tartar do throughly calcine it and it is for this reason that we use an equal quantity of Niter By this method the Tartar is far better and easilier calcin'd than by the naked fire without any Intermedium Obs 4. That we make use here of an earthen glazed Pan without any fear that the Niter should corrode the Lead of the Vernish because its flame is not retained but is at liberty to exhale An unglazed or stone-Pan would be unfit for the Operation because it would presently break by the Inflammation of the Niter The Virtues and Use of the Salt 'T is a great Aperitive Deopilative and Diuretick the dose is from one to two dragms in some Broth or any other appropriated Liquor The Tartar Vitriolated because of the grateful acidity which it borroweth from the Vitriol is much more pleasant to take than this Salt This Salt in the quantity of half a scruple will extract in a quarter of an hour the virtue and tincture of half an ounce of Senna in a glass of cold water and at the same time proves a good Corrective to the noisom smell and taste of the Senna giving it also the virtue of penetrating into all the Veins The Oyl of Tartar is very scouring and drying and is therefore excellent to rub all Scabs Itch and Tetters as also to take away Spots and Sun-burns upon the Hands and Face It is useful to precipitate the dissolutions of Metals and Half-metals or Marcasites And pray by the By take notice That all Acids as sea-Sea-water distilled Vinegar Oyl of Tartar Spirit and black Oyl of Sulphur and Vitriol Spirit of Niter and Aqua fortis serve to precipitate the dissolutions of Minerals but that ordinary common Water serves to precipitate the Distillations and Calcinations of Minerals as also the Dissolutions of Vegetables made in Spirit of Wine for the Reasons which hereafter we shall alledge Crystal Mineral or Lapis Prunellae TAke a Pot of the same Earth that Crucibles are made of of the bigness of a Chamber-pot and like it in Figure with a handle set it upon two Bricks in a great Circulatory Fire of Suppression before the Pot be heated throw into it as much pure Salt-peter in powder as will fill it up to the brim the Salt-peter will melt and as soon as it is melted throw into it a spoonfull of Brimstone in powder which immediately will take fire and be consumed when the flame ceases throw in as much more and so do three or four times This Brimstone does not communicate any virtue to the Niter only serves to purifie it by precipitating its Faeces to the bottom of the Pot till it become so transparent that after these Projections and Flagrations you may see the bottom of the Pot through the melted Niter This done pour a little of this melted Niter into a Brass-tinn'd-Kettle and presently set your Pot upon the fire again having taken away a good part of the Coals round about it then stir your Kettle so as to make the Niter spread it self all over the bottom of your Vessel which done set it in a bigger Vessel full of cold Water that so you may hinder the Niter from burning and adhering too strongly to the bottom of your Kettle separate then at last this white Crust which is as thin and as brittle as Glass and as white as Alabaster and is by some called Crystal Mineral After this take more melted Niter out of your Pot pour it into your Kettle and do all things as before continuing till there be nothing left in the Pot but the Faeces of the Niter which you may throw away Then gather all these thin Crystals together and put them into a Kettle of Water upon the Fire there to dissolve by a gentle ebullition and if all dissolve not it is a sign there is not Water enough When all is dissolved take off your Kettle and filter this Liquor presently while it is warm through a brown Paper over an earthen unglaz'd Cucurbite Then set the said Cucurbite in a Sand-heat there to evaporate till there appear upon the Superficies a thin skin then take it off let it cool the Niter will crystallize into Needles of a sexangulary Figure white clear and transparent as any Rock-Crystal but as brittle as Glass and of a pleasant and grateful acidity And then it is properly called Crystal Mineral because of its resemblance with Crystal Some call it Lapis Prunellae and that is because it is sharp and sowre like your wild Prunes or Plums Obs 1. That we make use of a Pot of the same Earth that the Crucibles are made of and not of an ordinary earthen-glaz'd Pot because the Niter being once melted would also dissolve the ledding of the Pot and being incorporated with it would lose much of its whiteness Obs 2. That we fill the Pot full up to the brim that we may make at once a great quantity of Crystal Mineral and because the Niter melted will take up but half the room it did before being no ways subject to rise and run over Obs 3. That you must beat to powder your Niter for so a greater quantity will be contained in the Pot and also be easilier melted Obs 4. That you must not stay till your Pot be warm before you put in your Niter because the Pot being very hot and the flegm of the Niter coming to be dissolved first would be broke infallibly Therefore put in your Niter at first and so by degrees as your Pot warms your Niter will be deflegmated and yet observe That if you throw a spoonful of Niter into a pot red-hot it will not break because there is too little flegm for so much heat Obs 5. That the Niter being hot enough melts and is deflegmated it melts by the means of its flegm for it is the flegm that puts all Salts into fusion And whensoever Salts are entirely calcined or deflegmated they cannot be melted except they be wet anew by
with some Unguent as the Diapompholixa with Hogs grease reducing it to the consistence of a Plaister Out of it also is drawn the Salt of Saturn instead of Lytharge Ceruse or Minium The sweet Chrystals of Saturn the sweet Salt of Saturn not Crystallized The Oyl of Saturn the Magistery or Precipitate of Saturn PUt as much distill'd Vinegar as you please into a glazed earthen Pan set it upon a trefoot making under a Fire of Coals and dry Wood till it begin to simper and boyl slightly then put into it by little and little as much as you please of Lytharge of Gold or of Silver powder'd stirring it continually with a wooden Spatula after it has boyled a little take off your Pan and let your Vinegar which is impregnated with the Lytharge settle a while then pour off the said Vinegar while it is warm this done pour more Vinegar upon the Lytharge left in the Pan boyl it stir it separate it and then put more doing so till all the Lytharge be gone then filtrate your Dissolutions while they are warm through a Coffin of brown Paper over a glass Cucurbit which set in a Sand-fire up to the neck in the Sand and evaporate all your Filtrations till they become as red as Bloud and are covered with a little skin or Pellicule then pour them out into little white Dishes and there let them cool when they are cold you shall see that a great part of the Liquor is congealed into Crystals or white Christalline Needles as sweet as Sugar to the taste and as thin as the Needles of Male Antimony then gently pour out of these same Dishes a red Oyl with a Sugar of Saturn left in the bottom un-crystallized then take out your Crystals and keep them in a glass Viol well stopped with Cork else they will fall into a Calx and in another Viol keep the said Oyl of Saturn whâ—â—h is nothing but the tincture of Saturn drawn by the Vinegar If by chance in evaporating your Dissolutions you were gone beyond the Pellicule so as your matter begins to look thick and glutinous then there would be no crystallizing of it and therefore evaporate it to a driness to make the Salt of Saturn not crystallized or make the Magisterie of Saturn Which is made thus Take the said red glutinous Oyl of Saturn or the Dissolution of Saturn evaporated to the Pellicule and pour on three or four ounces of either of them three or four spoonfuls of Spirit of Sulphur which presently will cause the Dissolution of Suturn to curdle into white Curds which by little and little will precipitate to the bottom into a white powder This done pour on common water to take away the acidity both of the Vinegar and Spirit of Sulphur but pour on Water but once else all your powder would be spent in a second Water because this powder of Saturn being half calcin'd is made dissolvable in Water by that little Vinegar which remains incorporated with it separate by Inclination this first Water and filtrate the rest through a Coffin of white Paper or make Trochisks of it through a glass Tunnel as has been taught in the Chapter of the Diaphoretick Antimony Obs 1. That you must take a glazed earthen Pan not a Stone or Glass one because there is no fear the Vinegar should corrode the Lead of the Vernish for having been baked in an Oven it sticks so fast to the earth that the Vinegar cannot corrode it neither if it did were it amiss since it is here used but for Saturn a stone one would be unfit for it would fly and break and that happens to all vessels of this Ware except to Retorts for there the fire circulating equally on all sides hinders its breaking which is not the like case in Pans for there the bottom only being heated and the rest cold they easily break because of their great driness For they are made of one part of a stone powder'd which is as dry and as brittle as Glass and of one part of lean earth which is not unctuous at all a Brass Basin would not be proper for the distilled Vinegar would spend its force in extracting the Salt of the Verdigreece which mingled with that of Saturn would make it look green Ob. 2. That in this Operation we make use of Lytharge rather than of Ceruse or Minium because the Lytharge having passed the fire of Coppel is a more Spongeous open body and therefore more penetrable by the distilled Vinegar and so will yield a greater quantity of Salt and Ceruce which has a closer body because it has been opened only by distilled Vinegar which extracts the Ceruse from the Lead and for the Minium though it be Ceruse made red in a Reverberatory fire yet its body is not so open as the body of Lytharge because it is so re-united that it is almost recondensed into its Metallick nature Obs 3. That before we put the Lytharge into the Vinegar we make the said Vinegar boil a little to the end it may the easilier penetrate and dissolve so much of the Saturn as it can load it self withal and we let the said Lytharge boyl but a little time because no more is required for the Vinegar to impregnate it self with Saturn and if it should stand any longer on the fire the evaporation would be begun which ought not to be till all your dissolutions are together Obs 4. That we use here distilled Vinegar for a dissolvant because it is not necessary to have a more powerful corrosive to dissolve Lead which is a soft penetrable Metal yet simple Vinegar would not be so fit as the distilled as well because it is not so penetrating as because it is not separated from its flegm besides if it were red it might spoil the white colour of your Crystals or Magisterie Obs 5. That all your Lytharge is dissolved at last by reiterated additions of Vinegar because that Lytharge is all Lead and if there should remain any part of it un-dissolved it would be because you have not poured Vinegar enough on Obs 6. That you must stir with a Wooden patule this dissolution of Saturn and not with an iron one because the iron would black it whereas your design is to preserve the whiteness of the Salt which you are to draw from it and iron blacks as well by its self as by its Vitriol Obs 7. That all your dissolutions being put together you must evaporate them to the consumption of three parts and till there appear a saltish skin or Pellicule upon the surface of the Liquor else they would not congeal into Crystals when cold For having too much flegm that salt Spirit of the Vinegar which hath dissolved Saturn remains dissolved its self in the flegm but when by a gentle ebullition and evaporation of the said flegm the Salt Spirit remains alone then it Chrystalises easily in a cold place since it begins to do it already in a hot
It is most excellent in dissolving those fleshly Excrescences and Ulcers called Wolfes The Extract of Hellebore PUt half a pound of the Roots of black Hellebore cut into little bits into a capacious Matrass pour on Spirit of Wine four fingers above your matter fit to it another little Matrass to make a double Vessel place it in a Sand-Furnace and there let it stand in digestion three or four days and let not the belly of your Matrass be above a quarter-way in the Sand nor do not make your fire so great as to make your Spirit of Wine boyl for then part of your Spirits would exhale and be gone yet let there be heat enough to extract the red Tincture of the Roots Separate this Tincture by Inclination or if there be any Faeces filtrate it through a Coffin of brown Paper pour this Tincture into a glass Body which set in the same Sand-Furnace and fit to it a glass Head and Receiver and so draw off by Distillation as much Spirit of Wine as you poured on which will serve you for other uses then take off the Head and evaporate your matter to the consistence of an Extract like Honey In the mean time boyl the Roots left in the Matrass in a quantity of common Water to make a Decoction which strain through a course Linnen then clarifie it with Whites and Shells of Eggs and evaporate it in a stone or glaz'd earthen Pan to the consistence of an Extract which you may mingle with the precedent if you think good We draw these two Extracts separately and with different menstruums because that the Spirit of VVine extracts only the gummy rosinous part and cannot extract the saltish and the common Water does quite contrary It s Vse and Vertues It purges Melancholy most commonly with a loathing and sometimes with vomiting An Essence for the Tooth-ach PUt of the Spirit of Wine campherized of the Tincture of Cloves of the Oyl of Box of the Oyl of Guaiacum of the black Oyl of Sulphur and if you will of the Tincture of Opium of each an equal part there will result an oily red transparent Liquor which you must keep in a glass Vial well stop'd It s Vse and Vertues It is a most excellent Remedy to appease the Tooth-ach and draw off the sharp humour that falls on the Teeth you must pour some of it into a glass and then dip a little Cotton of which make a Pellet as big as a Pea and apply it to the Tooth or in its hollow part if there be any there will presently distil from it a good deal of Water and the pain will cease Turpentine Pills PUt four ounces of clear transparent Turpentine of Venice into a glaz'd Disn pour upon it three times as much water boyl them together with a gentle heat till your Turpentine look white and not yellow as before then take out a little of it upon the point of a Knife and let fall a drop or two upon a pewter Plate if you see that the drop when cold does not stick to your fingers then it is boyl'd enough to make Pills of so take it off and pour cold Water into your Pan that will precipitate the Turpentine in a white Paste take this Paste and knead it with your hand to wring the Water out you may wipe your Turpentine with some Linnen but you must do it gently lest while it is warm the Linnen should stick to it then add to it one ounce of a Diaphoretick Antimony half an ounce of Salt of Sulphur and as much of Cremor Tartari incorporate them together into a lump which will soon grow hard but will easily grow soft again being handled before the fire Keep this Mass for Pills in a Hogs bladder well oyl'd with Sallet Oyl It s Vse and Vertues These Pills do dry up and stop Gonorrhaea's when they have flow'd enough by giving half an ounce for Dosis for the space of a fortnight or three weeks For those that cannot swallow Pills you must boyl your Turpentine a little more till it grow so hard upon the Plate as to be broken in pieces powder this in a mortar and add to it the same Druggs as above The Dosis mentioned will be the same here and must be dissolv'd in white Wine or in Broth or in some Decoction or appropriated Water The distilled Water of Plants PUt a good Hand-basket full of leaves for Example of Plantane new gather'd and fresh into the Brass Vesica add to them about four quarts of Water to the end the Herb may boyl during the distillation and that in boyling the said Water may extract and be impregnated with the vertue of the plant yet let not your Vesica be above three quarters full lest the Water in boyling should carry the substance and not the vapours into the Moors-head You need not put any sponges into the neck of the Vesica as you do in the distillation of the Spirit of Wine because these sponges would hinder the passage of your vapours fit to your Vesica its Moors-head bordered with its Refrigeratory and make use also of the second Refrigeratory that is of the two Hogsheads full of Water as has been taught in the distillation of Spirit of Wine this will further the distillation of your Water very much Give at first a good Fire of Coals and two or three Fagot-sticks continue this Fire and moderate your Distillation so as to make a little stream of Water come always into your Receiver into which it will not fall perpendicularly as the Spirit of Wine does but a little arch-wise As soon as with this little stream you perceive that there come vapours into the Receiver lessen your Fire to hinder the loss of these vapours which spend themselves in vain If your Distillation be performed but slowly and drop by drop or in a very little stream falling perpendicularly then encrease the Fire that you may not lose your time by an unnecessary protraction of the Distillation From time to time empty your Receiver and immediately pour it through a glass Tunnel into a stone Pitcher As soon as you perceive that there comes into your Receiver a muddy Water then be sure that all the good part of your Operation is at an end because this muddy VVater proceeds from the burning of the Plants which begins to send forth its Spirit and stinking Oyl therefore give over distilling put out your Fire take out the Grounds of the Herbs left in the bottom and throw away the muddy Water that you shall find there with them after which begin a new Distillation with new Herbs and new Water When you have gathered all your Water into stone Pitchers put into them some Saltpeter well purified and crystallized half a dragm to every pound of Water Obs 1. That you must not put your Water into an earthen Vessel unglazed because at last it would lose its self entirely through the pores of the Potters-Earth which is
very porous and spongious therefore always put it in Glass White-ware or glaz'd Vessels or Stone because that these are very dry and thick and there is no danger in glaz'd Pots because your VVater has no Acrimony wherewith to corrode the glazing all the danger is that the Frost should break them for preventing of which inconvenience you must keep your Vessels in a warm deep Cellar or in a Box full of Hay Obs 2. That the refin'd crystalliz'd Niter which you put in your Water serves to preserve it for many years and that Niter is fitter for this purpose than the fix'd Salt of the Plant which would be very tedious to extract by drying and burning of the Faeces then infusing the Ashes then filtrating this Lixivium then evaporating it to the consistence of a Salt Obs 3. That you must presently stop your stone Pitchers with a Cork stopple and it is not necessary to expose them to the Sun-beams Obs 4. That to make Rose-water it is better to put pale Roses well picked into a great earthen glazed Pan and add to them water and common Salt for example upon six pounds of Roses as many quarts of water and one pound of common Salt and so let them macerate and ferment two or three days then put them into the Vesica and distil them observe that during the distillation and after it is done the Rose water does smell but very little of the Roses but if you will quicken the smell it is but setting your Pitchers some days in the Sun covered only with a white Paper then take them and stop them close with a cork stopple and set them up Its Vse and Vertue It is the same with the vertue of the Plant it is distilled from The soft Conserve of Leaves and Flowers TAke a deep large Pan set it in such a Furnace as the great Reverberatory Furnace throw a handful or two of sand into your Pan then place in it a stone Pitcher of a quart five quarters full of water fill up your pan with sand so as to bury the belly of the pitcher in sand Then put into the mouth of the Pitcher a Glass or Tin Pipe as big as your little finger and a foot long being bended in its middle angular-wise one end of it must be so streight that a drop of water may not go through in substance the other end must be pretty wide put the wide end lapt about with a little Linnen into your pitcher and then make a fire in your Furnace and cause your water to boyl as soon as it boyls there will come out with violence at the little end of the Pipe a moist burning vapour which will stream above half a foot beyond the Pitcher and yet not a drop of water with it set under this vapour a pan full of Leaves or Flowers newly gathered and fresh having before hand sprinkled upon them two or three spoonfuls of Spirit or Flegm or Vitriol or Sulphur these Leaves or Flowers will fade by little and little as they receive this penetrating vapour In the mean time you must turn them continually till they become like a thick hasty pudding which will be in half a quarter of an hour then take out these Flowers thus prepared put in more continuing so till you have prepared all your Leaves and Flowers then put them all together into an Earthen Pan and add to them double their weight of fine Sugar well powdered and searced incorporate them well together with your Spatula and thus you will have a very pleasant good conserve which will keep as long as that which is made by beating the herbs in a Mortar keep it in white ware pots Obs 1. That we have filled our Pitcher but three quarters full to the end that the water in boyling should not come out through the little end of the Pipe in its own substance but in Vapour Obs 2. That the Spirit of Vitriol or Sulphur with which we sprinkle the said Leaves or Flowers serves for two ends First it revives and quickens their natural colour preserves it nay and re-cals it if it were a decaying Secondly it is as a Salt to these Leaves or Flowers to preserve them from corruption Obs 3. That in all seasons even in winter you may by this method make a soft or Liquid Conserve of Roses with dry Roses whose dying yellowish colour you may this way revive and make them of a lovely red But the Operation will be somewhat tedious for it will last an hour but also the Conserve will last and keep longer than if it had been made of fresh Roses Obs 4. That if you take a straight Pipe half a foot long and put the wide end of it into the nose of the cover of the Brass Vesica which must be half full of water then the Sulphur that shall come out of the streight end of the said Pipe will do the same effect as the Engine described already Obs 5. That if you sprinkle the Conserve of Flowers of wild Popies with Oyl of Tartar made per deliquium or by dissolution of its Salt and then stir the said conserve it will become of the colour of Violets like Syrup of Violets and if you sprinkle the conserve of Roses with the said Oyl of Tartar and then stir it it will become as green as growing grass The Lime Water and Phagedenick Water TAke four or five pound of quick-Lime in stones and not in powder and choose such stones as are very well calcin'd put them into a barrel knocked out at one end or into a great stone Pot throw upon it at once two pale fulls of water and then stir it with a stick reiterating the agitation from time to time there will be a very great ebullition smoak in which the volatil Salt of the Quick-lime will evaporate in two hours or thereabouts the boyling will cease and the Quick-lime will fall to the bottom upon the surface of the Water there will remain a thin transparent white Ice which is the essential Crystallized Salt of the Quick-lime let this water stand for some days stirring it from time to time that it may be well impregnated with the Salt of the Lime or else at first you may separate it by inclination from the Lime that is in the bottom and then filtrate it through a brown Coffin of Paper and so keep it in great Glass or white Ware Bottels or Stone ones if you will provided they be all well stopped with Cork stopples Obs 1. That here we quench or slack the Quick-lime on a sudden all at once and so by a great ebullition and evaporation the volatil Salt of the Lime is dissipated for in this remedy we do not need the volatil Salt as we do in our Cauteries it is enough here that the Water be impregnated with the fixt Salt of the Quick-lime to be fit to cleanse and dry Ulcers It s Vse and Vertues It consumes the superfluous
sufficient quantity of the shells of Hens Eggs new-laid and clean wash them in fair Water and then dry them as we do Oyster-shells put them into a stone Pan or a glass Bell and pour upon them Spirit of Vinegar that is distilled Vinegar separated from its Flegm five or six fingers above the matter it will presently begin to simper and will dissolve the Egg-shells as soon as it has done and that by laying your Ear to you perceive no more noise then your Egg-shells are dissolved and the Dissolvant is loaden with its proportion of the dissolved substance and has lost its Acrimony and sharpness in the combat This done stir your matter with a woodden Spatula and by this agitation your Dissolution will be turned into white Curds Let it settle and then pour off this curdled Dissolution into a stone Glass or White-ware Vessel after which pour on more Vinegar and do as at first till all your matter be dissolved Having put all your Dissolutions into one Vessel pour upon them a great quantity of clear cold Water stirring them with a woodden Spatula the Water will become at first as white as Milk and the Magistery will precipitate to the bottom then the Water will be clear and sowrish pour off this Water and pour on more till you have entirely sweetened your Magistery and that your Water come away insipid put the remainder into a Coffin of white Paper through which the Water that remains will filtrate and you will have remaining the Magistery of Egg-shells which you must dry in the shade upon the bottom of a Sieve To make the Simple Calx of Egg-shells Take a good quantity of the newest and cleanest well washed and dried bruise them between your hands and fill them with an earthen Pot unglazed which set in a Potters Oven for nine days and you will have a Calx as white as Snow Obs 1. That you must take new and clean Egg-shells to the end that being free from all soiling and dirt the Spirit of Vinegar may the easilier corrode them for all smoot and ordure in a thing does dull the action of a Dissolvant and if you should calcine them with this ordure upon them they would grow black and spoil your Calx Obs 2. That you must use the Egg-shells of Hens and not of Ducks Geese or Turkeys because that Hens Egg-shells are easilier calcin'd being thinner by reason that a Hen is a more temperate Animal Water-fowl are hotter and by reason of their heat do concoct and harden their Egg-shells more than other Fowl and from thence comes that you must have a greater quantity of your Dissolvant employ more heat and spend more time to calcine the Eggs of Water-fowl than of Hens whose Egg-shells do also produce a whiter Calx than any of the others Obs 3. That we use here Spirit of Vinegar deflegmated to dissolve the said Egg-shells for if it were undeflegmated it would not be strong enough to corrode the hardness of the Egg-shells you might use Spirit of Sulphur but it is too dear and Egg-shells are not so hard but that they may be dissolved by a weaker Dissolvant than Spirit of Sulphur or Spirit of Niter which would do well and produce a very white Calx but for Spirit of Vitriol and Aqua fortis they would altogether spoil your Operation by communicating a blackness to your Calx which ought to be extream white Obs 4. That the Magistery of Egg-shells is nothing but Egg-shells Philosophically calcin'd by their dissolution in Spirit of Vinegar then precipitated by the cold Water into a white Calx and sweetened by reiterated Lotions then filtred and dried in the shade As for the simple Calx of Egg-shells it is a calcination of them made by a strong fire of nine days so as to be reduced into a substance containing much of white Virginal Earth and a little Salt If you wash this Calx you take from it all its Salt and sharpness and there will remain an insipid Virginal Earth of the nature of the Magistery It s Vse and Vertues It is a good desiccative which dries up Ulcers without corrosion therefore it is very good for these Ulcers that affect that Coat of the Eye called Cornea it is also a very good Fucus for if you rub your hand and face with it without mingling it with any Pomatum it will so insinuate its self into the pores as to produce a rare whiteness The Calcination of Venice Tale. TAke four ounces of Venice Talc which crumble between your fingers then take four pound of whole River-pibbles not of the biggest nor of the least size put into a white Leather Bag gather'd at each end both your Pibble-stones and your Talc and then shake it as the Pin-makers do when they whiten their Pins do this for an hour then take out your Talc and put it into a Silken Sieve and searce it take that which could not pass through and put into the Bag and so shake it again as at first then searce it and do thus till all your Talc be reduced to a white impalpable powder like Meal-dust Obs 1. That we use here a Bag of Sheeps-skin white and clean and well dressed because that a Bag of black Leather would black your powder and so would it do if it were not very clean and well dressed a Linnen Bag would not be fit because that the finest part of the powder would go through it besides the danger of its breaking or wearing out in this agitation Obs 2. That we use River-pibbles and not Mountain ones because that the River ones are whiter harder and smoother than other and therefore fitter for this Operation Obs 3. That Venice Talc is improperly said to be calcin'd by this Operation for it is nothing but Talc very well powder'd by this ingenious method which reduces it into a finer and whiter substance than could be done by a Pestle in a Brass Mortar or by a violent fire and tedious calcination It s Vse and Vertues It is the finest of all Fucuses to apply without Pomatum to the skin penetrating the pores and sticking to them by its unctuosity or oyliness more than any other It may be useful other ways too The Salt of Crystal Venice TAke one pound of the transparentest Crystal put it into a Crucible of a reasonable size and set it in a great reverberatory Furnace for eight hours till it be melted down then take off your Crucible and when it is cold break it and take out your matter which in a Brass Mortar you must reduce to an impalpable powder mingle this powder with its weight of Nitar well purified and reduced to powder put them in a Crucible which set in the same Furnace and cover it with a little earthen cover continue a reverberatory Fire for six and thirty hours together or till the matter yields no more fumes then take off your Crucible and presently break it and powder your matter in a
Brass Mortar while it is warm then throw it by spoonfuls into a Kettle full of boiling water and there let it boil till your Water be half consumed away filter the said dissolution while it is warm through a coffin of brown Paper evaporate your filtration by a good fire either in the same Kettle or in an earthen-glaz'd Pan till there remain nothing but a powder as white as flower in the bottom of the Vessel taking care to stir the said powder with an iron Spatula lest by so great a fire it should melt again Obs 1. That we take here Venice Crystal because it is the best Obs 2. That we calcine first the Crystal in a great reverberatory fire till it be melted to the end we may so open it as to be able to reduce it to an impalpable powder and so make it fit to be calcined by the Niter Obs 3. That we calcine a second time the said Crystal with fine Niter to open its body better and so the Niter may communicate to it its fix'd Salt and that of the body of the Crystal and of the body of the fix'd Salt of Niter there result one body and one Calx Obs 4. That we dissolve this Calx of niter'd Crystal in hot Water and afterwards we filter it and then evaporate it to a dry powder to the end that by this dissolution and filtration the Salt of Niter be whiter Obs 5. That this Salt of Crystal is nothing but Crystal incorporated with the fix'd Salt of Niter so that it is more properly a Calx than a pure Salt The Crystal communicates nothing but its Virginal Earth and the Niter nothing but its fixt Salt and therefore Crystal containing in its self no Salt at all this Remedy ought more properly to be called Crystal niter'd Crystal is a clear transparent Glass and Glass is a Crystal less clear and transparent the only subject matter of both of them made by Art is a congealed Virginal Earth hardened under the form of Pibble Stones and Crystalline River Sand. This matter cannot be melted and purified but by the Salts both of Vegetables and Minerals and after the fusion and vitrification of the said Sand and Pibble Stones all the Salt is separated and comes away from it so as there remains not any in either Glass or Crystal It s Vse and Vertues It is a powerful Diuretick it drives away Gravel and breaks the britle Stones of the Kidney it dryes up Gonorrhaea's The Salts of Corals Pearls fragment of Rubies Topaz Stones Emeralds Diamonds and other precious Stones are to be prepared in the same way and have the same vertues with the Salt of Crystal by reason of their calcination and also the Diuretick and Lithontriptick or Stone-breaking vertue of the fix'd Salt of Niter The Flowers of Benjamin Here is the Figure of your Iron Round Obs 1. That we apply the said earthen Coffin to the brim of the Furnace and not to the brim of the Crucible lest the heat striking the outside of the Coffin should make the Flowers once sublim'd melt and resolve into their first nature Obs 2. That we use here an earthen Coffin and not a Paper one as most Chymists do because with an earthen one of the mentioned breadth we gather a greater quantity of flowers besides an earthen Coffin may always serve whereas you must change your Paper one and in that interval you lose many vapours that might have been converted into flowers Obs 3. That the flowers of Benjamin are Benjamin its self melted in a Crucible then elevated in dry vapours under the form of a white snowy powder as the flowers of Sal Armoniac for Benjamin is a Rosinous Gum very dry and totally volatil and from thence proceeds that as soon as it is hot it rises in vapours which being dry are converted into a very white flower or Snow In this Operation Benjamin loses its red colour and acquires a very white one because that of what colour soever the body that is converted into flowers be the flowers still must be white because it is their volatil Salt which predominates over them and which by consequent must invest them with that colour which is natural to all and particularly to volatil Salts The red colour of Benjamin consists in a little gross heavy Sulphur which cannot be raised but by the violence of the fire which is not needful in the sublimation of the flowers but only in the distillation of the Oyl of Benjamin Their Vse and Vertues These flowers are most excellent to ripen old coughs and to help out flegms because that they are all Volatil and Balsamick Salt The Flowers of Antimony POwder one pound of Crude Antimony or rather of Regulus put it to an Earthen Cucurbit unglazed place it upon the two Iron Bars that are in the great Reverberatory Furnace so that the neck of the Cucurbit be four fingers higher than the top of the Furnace Lute your Vessel round about to the Furnace and fit to this Cucurbit an Earthen Pot turn'd upside down so that the brim of your Cucurbit enter within the said Pot a little This Pot must have in its bottom an hole as big as an Egg. Lute well the conjunction of these two Vessels and to the uppermost of them fit another Pot a little less having also a hole in its bottom and then put upon this another yet less and having a hole of the same bigness and so fit as that its brim must go into the brim of the inferiour Pot then fit to this another less still and having a hole also and at last fit another and fifth pot having a hole of the bigness of your little finger and having its brim inserted into the brim of the Pot under it They must be thus less and less by degrees as the Pyramide grows higher and have a care that you lute well all the conjunctions of these several Pots Give at first a violent fire and continue it to the highest degree for forty eight hours and all the while keep the little uppermost hole well stopt with some of our Lute your Antimony will be melted in your Cucurbit and then it will rise and be sublim'd in dry vapours which will stick to the sides of the said Pots in the form of flowers as white as Snow In the first Pot they are yellow in the second red and in the third white your Operation having lasted out the time prescribed put out your fire and as soon as your Pots are cold unlute them neatly and with a feather scrape away all the said flowers putting white to white red to red yellow to yellow Obs 1. That for this Operation the Regulus of Antimony is fitter than Crude Antimony because that the Regulus being already separated from its Faeces is all sublimed and so makes a greater quantity of flowers both better and purer for Crude Antimony contains four times as much Faeces as it does Regulus which is the
uses as we shall teach hereafter VVhen you see your Spirit well tinged with the colour of Gold then pour it off and put to your matter the like quantity of the Salt Anatron or of Sea-Salt decrepitated in its place and as much rectified Spirit of Salt to draw off another Tincture and do so as long as your Spirit does draw any Tincture and till it come away as sharp as it went in Put your Tinctures together they will make a Potable Gold as yellow as a Topaz and of no taste If you put them into a small glass Body with a Head of the same in a Lamp-fire and draw off by Distillation half your Dissolvant there will remain a Tincture of Gold more lively and acid and also potable Obs 1. That we use Crystal as an intermedium for Gold which without any intermedium could not be calcin'd but would melt and if it be not calcin'd then it will not dissolve in so gentle a Dissolvant as Spirit of Salt Now there is no intermedium better than Crystal for all other Metals would melt and mingle with Gold Minerals besides their metallick qualities would also impart to the Gold the Corrosion and Acrimony of their Salts but Crystal containing but a very little Salt and a great deal of Earth it does not mingle nor communicate to the Gold any Acrimony and yet by the driness of its substance it hinders the melting of Gold and so furthers its calcination Obs 2. That the Gold and Crystal being calcin'd are powder'd because that so the Gold is easier to be dissolved by so gentle a Dissolvant as Spirit of Salt Obs 3. That we use Spirit of Salt to dissolve Gold already calcin'd because that though there be more powerful Dissolvants as Aqua fortis made with fine Niter and deflegmated Vitriol or Colcothar as also Aqua regalis which is made with Niter Vitriol and Salt Armoniack yet these Dissolvants are too corrosive before and after the dissolution of the Gold to be potable and the Spirits of Vitriol or Sulphur are not sharp enough so that the Spirit of Salt alone has force enough to dissolve Gold and make it potable after its dissolution and yet this Spirit must be rectified too and whet and sharpened by the addition of Salt Anatron or common Salt decrepitated Obs 4. That the Crystal which remains in the Matrass after the dissolution must be well dulcorated or sweetened and then may serve for a Dentrifice or cleanse Teeth by wetting a corner of a Towel in common Water and then putting it into the said powder and with it rub your Teeth or it may serve to make the Salt of Crystal as we have said already Obs 5. That the Gold is potable but as long as it remains dissolved in the said Spirit of Salt and that you must not mingle it with any Liquor whatsoever for if you do it will precipitate your Gold into a yellow powder and so you will lose your Tincture Obs 6. That potable Gold is nothing but Leaves of Gold calcin'd with Crystal and dissolved in rectified Spirit of Salt It s Vse and Vertues It cannot be doubted but that this Potable Gold has the vertues of Spirit of Salt that is it is excellent against pestilential and putrid Feavers to purifie the Blood drive out Gravel whiten the Teeth and also it may be said to have the vertue of the Water of Pearls and being thus prepared consumes all sharp humors in the Body as Pearls thus prepared do so that it is not without reason that this Remedy is esteemed as good against Cancres and venomous Ulcers and pestilential Feavers The Dose is six or eight drops in some Broth or appropriated Water and for the Teeth you may put a spoonful of it in two spoonfuls of Rose-Water or Flower of Orange or Jasmin It has likewise the vertue of preserving your Wine in your Cellar for many years by putting about half a pound of this Potable Gold into a Hogshead of Wine but except it be very rare Wine indeed and that you desire to have it of many years it would cost you more than it would be worth The Salt of Vitriol or the Crystals of Venus TAke Verdigreece or Spanish Green as much as you please powder it in a Brass Mortar and stop your Nose close left the venomous vapours should poyson you put it into an ample Matrass with a long neck so that it be three quarters empty pour upon it good distilled Vinegar so that your Matrass be almost quite full place it in a Sand-fire and by fitting to it another Matrass make a double Vessel of it in twelve hours time you will have a blew Tincture like true Turquoises pour off this Tincture into a stone Pan pour on more distilled Vinegar upon the Faeces to extract a new Tincture and do this till there remain nothing but brown Faeces in the bottom of your Matrass then take a glass Cucurbite and apply to the bottom of it a leaden or iron Ring tied to it by four pack-threads which are fastened to a pack-thread tied about the body of the Cucurbite put all your Tinctures into this Cucurbite which set in a Kettle full of Water where it cannot swim nor lean more on one side than the other because of the weight it has at the bottom draw off the distilled Vinegar till you see that there is a thin skin begun to be formed upon your Tincture then take out your Cucurbite and set it in a cool place as a Cellar in three or four days there will be in the bottom and upon the sides of your Vessel divers Crystals of a lovely blew-like Turquoises This done pour off by inclination all the Water that is not congealed and evaporate it in a Cucurbite in a Balneum Mariae as has been said already reiterating the evaporation and crystallization of the said Water or Tincture till there remain very little of it Then put together all your Crystals into another Matrass pour upon them distilled Vinegar enough to dissolve them you may make use of that Vinegar which you drew off from your first Tincture place your Matrass in a Sand-fire and make a double Vessel of it in three or four hours time the dissolution of your Crystals being done filter it while it is warm through a brown Paper and receive your filtration in a stone Pan there will congeal in this Pan great quantities of Crystals which will change their blew colour into a green one like Emeralds and half transparent Pour off by inclination the Water that shall not congeal then set your Crystals in the Sun to dry them well and when they are well dryed take them out of the Pan and put them into a glass Vial well stopp'd to keep for your use Obs 1. That to extract the Salt of Venus or Copper we use Verdigreece because that Verdigreece is nothing but Venus dissolv'd extracted and calcin'd Philosophically by the acid Spirit of Wine Now
full of the said Vinegar of Saturn stir it till it be in a consistence of Butter or Balsamum The Use of this Balsam is To cool and asswage pain and extinguish Inflammations to dissipate and ease the Hemorrhoids The Use of the Vinegar of Saturn being dissolved in a small quantity in Water is To appease Inflammations and to serve for Injection in Gonorrhaea's being mingled with a little Water of Barley Of the Oyl of Bricks or the Philosophers Oyl PUt five parts of powdered Bricks and one part of Oyl of Olives into a glass Retort luted and bigger than needs for so much matter place it in a Circulary Fire which by little and little you must bring to the highest degree or Fire of Suppression the Flegm will come first then a stinking thick red Oyl which being rectified will become yellow clearer and less stinking The Use of this Oyl is For Contusions the Sciatica and cold Defluxions The Oyl of yellow Wax POur one part of yellow Wax melted upon five parts of powder'd Bricks make with it little Balls and with them fill a glass Retort luted up to the neck give the same Fire as in the Oyl of Bricks the Flegm will come first then a red stinking Oyl which will congeal into a yellow Butter which being rectified will become clear and white and less stinking The Use of it is the same as of the Oyl of Bricks Of the Extract of Hellebore PUt half a pound of the Roots of black Hellebore and upon it as much Spirit of Wine as will cover it three fingers high into a double Matrass draw the Tincture in a Sand-fire for three or four days evaporate the said Tincture in a glass Cucurbite in a Sand-fire to a consistence of Honey The Use is To purge Melancholy it causes Loathing and Vomiting The Dose is from ten grains to a scruple Of Aqua fortis PUt into a glass Retort common Niter undeflegmated Vitriol in powder and leaving third part of your Vessel empty distil them in a Fire of Reverberation or Suppression giving it by degrees A little Flegm will come first then the Spirit in red vapours The Use is To dissolve Minerals and Metals and to give force and penetration to Dyings or Tinctures Of the Infernal Stone PUt two parts of Aqua fortis to one part of Coppel Silver cut into little pieces in a small Matrass half luted evaporate the Aqua fortis in a Circulary Fire till your matter be dry with a black scum upon it then give a melting fire till there rise no more vapours then take off your Matrass and let your matter cool or else pour it into little moulds The Use is To consume Warts and proud Flesh to cure Cancres the Ulcers of the Mouth and the Gangrene by touching them with this Stone Of the burning Spirit of Honey PUt one pound of Honey and a pint of White Wine into a glass Cucurbite or an earthen one distil them in a Sand-fire till you hear that it boyls no longer and that there remains nothing but a black Honey in the bottom The Use is To dye the Beard and Hair Of the Arcanum Corallinum POur warm Water upon the Red Precipitate of Mercury till at last your Water come away insipid then pour upon it Spirit of Salt in a glass Cucurbite dry it in a Sand-fire that will fix the Mercury then sweeten with cold Water the said Mercury fixed till the Water come away insipid then reverberate it in a Crucible it will become as red as Coral then burn upon it Spirit of VVine two or three times The Use of it is To purge and provoke vomiting gently and cure the Pox. The Dose is from three to six grains Cinnamon-Water PUt four ounces of Cinnamon and a quart of White Wine into a glass or stone Cucurbite fit to it a Head and Receiver of Glass distil them in a Sand-fire there will come at first a clear Water and toward the end a whitish muddy one The Use of the first Water is To fortifie the Stomach and comfort the Heart and to facilitate and further the delivery of Women in Child-bed The second Water may serve in the confection of the Syrup of Cinnamon by infusing the Cinnamon before you dissolve your Sugar in it Of the sweet Sublimate TAke of Corrosive Sublimate and Quicksilver of each a like quantity powder your Sublimate in a white Dish with a Pestle of VVhite-ware stopping your nose close then add to it the Quicksilver and when they are half incorporated together add a little distilled Vinegar to make a wet powder put this mixtion into an unluted Matrass with a straight neck place it in a Circulary Fire after the evaporation of the Vinegar stop the Matrass with a Paper stopple continue your fire till your matter be elevated from the bottom of the Matrass take off your Matrass break it and take out the Sublimate which cleanse every where powder it and put it into a greater Matrass half luted to be sublim'd a second time in the same fire which you must encrease towards the end of the Operation till there remain little or nothing in the bottom of the Matrass Take off your Matrass and break it and keep this Sublimate in a glass Vessel well stop'd It s Use is To purge gently from twenty to forty grains it fluxes in four or five Doses one after another Of the Salt of Saturn PUt as much distilled Vinegar as you please into a glaz'd Pan which set upon a Trevet over a fire of Wood and Coals and add to it as much as you please of powder'd Lytharge stirring it with a wooden Spatula then after it has boyled a little let it cool pour off the distilled Vinegar impregnated and pour on more reiterate the boyling till there remain no Lytharge filter your Dissolutions and evaporate them in a Sand-fire in a glass Cucurbite till your matter become as red as Blood then put it into VVhite-VVare Dishes to congeal into white Crystals as sweet as Sugar and there will remain a red Oyl sweet also which has the same vertue as the Salt It is a Collyrium for the Eyes in Ophthalmies it is good to inject in Gonorrhaea's and it is excellent for redness of the Face or Erysipelases in VVater or Vnguentum Rosatum Of the Diaphoretick Antimony TAke one pound of Mineral Antimony or the Regule of Antimony or Mars four pound of fine Niter powder them and mingle them together and put them in fâ—agration and fusion by spoonfuls in a great Pot of the Crucible Earth heated red-hot in a fire of Suppression covering at each time the Pot continue the fire till the vapours cease then take it off and with a Lattin Ladle pour out the matter gently into an earthen pan full of VVater bruise between your hands the matter thus quenched Pour off the white milky Dissolution within 2 or 3 hours pour off the VVater of that which is precipitated to the bottom and sweeten