does Volatilize the Salts of Sulphur and causes a white flame to burn violently as I shall shew hereafter in the Operation of Salt Polychrest Many things are called Oils very improperly as the Oyl of Tartar made per Deliquium the Oyl of Vitriol and the Oyl of Antimony The first is nothing else but a Salt dissolved the second is the strongest and most caustick part of the spirit of Vitriol and the last is a mixture of Acid Spirit and Antimony As for Salt I am apt to think that there is one chief of which all the rest are compounded and do conceive it to be made of an Acid liquor sliding through the veins of the Earth which doth insensibly insinuate and incorporate in the Pores of stones which it does dilate and attenuate afterwards by a long fermentation and concoction of several years a Salt comes to be formed that is called Fossile and this Opinion is the more likely to be true because from the mixture of Acids with some Alkali matter we always draw a substance very like unto Salt Now stones are an Alkali I add that the long fermentation and concoction which is made in the stone serves to digest and perfectly unite the Acid with the stony parts for the making of Salt This Fossile salt which is called Gemma by reason of its transparency is found in many high Mountains of Europe such as those in Poland Catalonia and Persia and in the Indies it is altogether like that we use for nourishment which is called Sea salt insomuch that the Waters of the Sea may be said to receive their saltishness from nothing else but this Salt dissolved in them Is it not likely enough that the bottom of the Sea or its shores may be much like the surface of the Earth we inhabit and that there may be Mountains Rocks different sorts of earth and consequently inexhaustible Mountains of Salt in a Million of places at the bottom of the Sea whence it receives its brackishness And it may be there are Waters which after taking Salt from several earths do at last discharge themselves into the Sea through an infinite number of subterranean channels which do much contribute likewise to making Sea-water salt That which confirms me in this opinion is because there are Lakes in Italy Germany Egypt the Indies and many other places which are as Salt as the Sea and can have no other cause but that their waters have hapned to run through Mines of Salt I doubt not but many will be apt to object against my opinion that the Sea being of so prodigious boundless an extent all the Salt I have spoken of would not be able to salt it as it is but if they please to consider that this great extent of the Ocean may meet with Mines of Salt in abundance of places and that what is once dissolv'd can never be separated from it I am perswaded their doubt will soon vanish Add to what is said that Sea water does not contain so great a quantity of Salt as is commonly imagined and this is easily prov'd if you take the pains to evaporate some of it over the fire or dissolve salt in that water for it will receive a considerable quantity into it which is a certain sign that the water was not so salt before as it might have been for if it had been impregnated with as much as it could it would have dissolv'd no more Therefore we have good reason to believe that the Sea which may be called a large Lake becomes salt through the Mines that are therein and the Salt Currents that in several places empty into it Some Fountains are also seen to yield a Salt like this because their waters having passed through places fill'd with this Salt have dissolved and carried along with them some of it Salt-peter differs from these salts I speak of in that it contains more spirit so that when you take the pains to exalt a part of it what remains is like unto Sal Gemme It may be objected that Salt peter is found in places where no Acid liquor can be thought to come but no body can doubt but that there is an Acid in the Air which though a very insensible body is able enough to enter into Stones and Earths the truth whereof is seen every day in Earths that have lost their Salt as much as could be drawn by Art which upon being exposed some time to the open air get new additions of Salt and encrease their weight considerably Now the liquor that I speak of which runs in some places of the earth receives its Acidity from this Acid Spirit of the Air which condenses in some places better than in others by reason of the coolness or some other disposition it finds there I conceive therefore that Salt peter is form'd in Stones and Earths by the Acid spirit of the Air after the same manner as Sal Gemme in Mines by an Acid liquor and that this Aerial acid entring insensibly into the body of stones produces a Salt at first much like Sal Gemme but afterwards new Acid spirits still coming and mixing with it makes it of a middle nature between Volatile and fixt And it is for this reason that a great deal of Salt peter is taken from old ruined buildings for the stones there continuing a long time exposed to the air receive greater quantity of spirits than other stones it is likewise to be found in Cellers and other places where the Sun casts no heat because the spirit of the air does there easily condense by reason of the coolness and moisture But I shall discourse more amply of that when I come to treat of the Preparations that are made upon Salt peter Vitriols Alums and all other Salts that are naturally found in the Earth may be explicated upon the same Principle for according as Acid liquors do meet with different earths they produce different Salts All Earths being impregnated with an Acid Salt as I have said it is not hard to conceive how that the salt of Vegetables is communicated to them from the earth wherein they grew Their growth must needs have proceeded from a Saline juice of the earth they grew in which having opened the Seed through the Fermentation it caused insinuates and filtrates into the Fibres that constitute the Plant and the leaving grounds fallow some years is in order to preserve and retain the Salt that is continually encreased in them by the Acid spirit of the air Likewise Dung and other matters which are said to fatten and fructifie Lands do so by nothing else but their Salt Neither need we wonder at the barrenness of sandy and stony soils for that the Acid spirit of the Air cannot unite and fix with them in sufficient quantity to render them fertile Nevertheless it is worth observation that there are Lands which remain barren through too great an abundance of Salt they contain and for this reason in Egypt
evaporating some part of them over the fire or else by mixing liquors together that are of a different nature Cohobate signifies to repeat the Distillation of the same liquor having poured it again upon the matter that remains in the Vessel This Operation is used to open Bodies or to Volatilize the Spirits Congele is to let some matter that is melted fix or grow into a consistence as when we let a metal cool after it has been melted in a Crucible or else it is when wax fat butter or the like are taken from the fire and set to cool Detonation is a noise that is made when the Volatile parts of any mixture do rush forth with impetuosity it is also called Fulmination Digestion is when some body is put to steep or infuse in a convenient menstruum over a very gentle heat Dissolve is to turn some hard matter out of a hard into a liquid form by means of a certain liquor To Distil per ascensum is when fire is put under the Vessel that contains the matter which is to be heated To Distil per descensum is when fire is placed over the matter that is to be heated for then the moist parts being rarified and the vapour which rises from them not being able to arise away upwards as it would do if not hindred it precipitates and distils at the bottom of the vessel Edulcorate is to sweeten some matter that is impregnated with Salts by means of common water Extract is to separate the purer part from the grosser Fermentation is an ebullition raised by the Spirits that endeavour to get out of a Body for meeting with gross earthy parts that oppose their passage they swell and rarifie the liquour until they find their way out Now in this separation of parts the Spirits do divide subtilize and separate the principles so as to make the matter be of another nature than it was before Filtrate is to purifie a Liquor by passing it through a Coffin of brown paper Fumigate is to make one Body receive the Fume of another Granulate is to pour a melted Metal drop by drop into cold water that it may congeal into grains Levigate is to reduce a hard Body into an impalpable powder upon a marble Mortifie is to change the outward form of a Mixt as is done in Mercury Also Spirits are said to be Mortified when they are mixed with others that hinder or destroy their strength Precipitate is to separate a matter that is dissolved so as to make it fall or settle at the bottom Rectifie is to Distil Spirits for the separation of what Heterogeneous parts might have been drawn along with them Reverberate is to cause the flame of the Wood or coals that 's lighted in the Furnace to beat back upon the Vessel by means of a Dome placed over it Revive is to restore a Mixt to its former condition that lies disguised by Salts or Sulphurs Thus Cinnabar and the other preparations of Mercury are Revived into Quick-silver Stratifie is to lay different matters bed upon bed This operation is performed when we would Calcine a Mineral or Metal with a Salt or some other matter Sublime is to raise by Fire any Volatile matter to the top of the Cucurbit or into its Head THE FIRST PART Of Minerals WHatsoever is found Petrified in the Earth or upon the Earth is called Mineral Petrification is made by a Coagulation of acid or salt waters that are found in the pores of the Earth This Petrification differs according to the divers dispositions or different nature of the Earth and according to the time that Nature uses in its perfection The growth of Minerals proceeds from an accumulation or from several veins of congeled Waters that do as it were glue together and these veins are the cause that all the adjacent parts have their Sinus and meetings a travers one another and not running directly downwards These Sinus like so many joints are of great help to Labourers to cut in the Quarries for by those cavities the stones are in great measure separated before hand whereas 't would be extream hard working them out if nature had not so concurred The growth of Minerals is very different from that of Vegetables and Animals for whereas the former does happen through an agglutination of congeled waters as I have said the latter is performed by means of juices that insinuate and spread in the vessels and fibres that Animals and Plants do consist of Metals do differ from other Minerals in being malleable which the others are not They are counted seven Gold Silver Iron Tinn Copper Lead and Quicksilver this last is not malleable of it self but is so mingled with the others and because this is thought to be the Seed of Metals it is numbred with the rest Astrologers have conceited that there was so great an affinity and correspondence between the Seven Metals before named and the seven Planets that nothing hapned to the one but the others shared in it they made this correspondence to happen through an infinite number of little bodies that pass to and from each of them and they suppose these corpuscles to be so figured that they can easily pass through the pores of the Planet and Metal they represent but cannot enter into other bodies because their pores are not figured properly to receive them or else if they do chance to get admittance into other bodies they can't fix and stay there to contribute any nourishment for they do imagine that the Metal is nourished and perfected by the Influence that comes from its Planet and so the Planet again the same from the Metal For these reasons they have given these seven Metals the name of the seven Planets each accordingly as they are governed and so have called Gold the Sun Silver the Moon Iron Mars Quicksilver Mercury Tinn Jupiter Copper Venus and Lead Saturn They have likewise fancied that each of these Planets has his day apart to distribute liberally his Influence on our Hemisphere and so they tell us that if we work upon Silver on Munday Iron on Tuesday and so of the rest we shall attain our end much better than on other days Again they have taught us that the seven Planets do every one govern some particular principal part of our bodies and because the Metals do represent the Planets they must needs be mighty specifick in curing the distempers of those parts and keeping them in good plight Thus they have assigned the Heart to Gold the Head to Silver the Liver to Iron the Lungs to Tinn the Reins to Copper and the Spleen to Lead Thus you see in short what some of the most sober Astrologers do fancy concerning Metals and they draw consequences from hence which 't would be too long here to relate I have told you what the soberest among them say for nothing can be so absurd as what some of them would have us believe 'T is no hard matter to disprove these
conceits and shew how groundless they are for no body ever yet got near enough to the Planets to satisfie himself whether they are really of the same nature with Metals or whither any Effluviums of bodies do fall from them to us Nevertheless if we could be satisfied that Experience did confirm what these persons have offered to maintain we might then have some reason to think there were some likelihood in their doctrine although their principles were found to be altogether false but in truth there 's nothing to confirm their Opinion and we find it every day plain enough that the Faculties and Virtues are utterly false which they do attribute to the Planets and Metals the Metals indeed are of good use in Physick and excellent Remedies may be drawn from them but their effects may better be explicated by Causes nearer at hand than the Stars CHAP. I. Of Gold GOLD is most esteemed among the seven Metals because it is more perfect more weighty and is thought to receive the influence of the most glorious body among the Stars which is the Sun It is also called the King of Metals for the same reason it is a matter the most compact of any malleable unequal in its parts insomuch that Pores of different figures are observed in it when it is viewed with a good Microscope Gold is found in Mines in several places both in Europe and other parts of the world it is usually attended with Water and very hard stones such as are extream hard to dig there are likewise with several stones that contain particles of Gold such as are called Golden Marcassites the Lapis Lazuli and Lapis Armenus Gold will spread under the hammer more than any other Metall it is beaten into leaves exceeding fine for the use of Gilders and to be used occasionally in Physick they will easily mix in compositions and with powders Covetousness that has always prevailed on the minds of mankind has not left the Chymists without continual hopes of making Gold by their Art they have conceited that the production of Gold was the End that Nature always aims at in all her Mines and that she 's hindred in her design as oft as she produces other Metals which are called Imperfect And upon this fancy they have spared no time nor pains nor cost in exalting and perfecting these other Metals and turning them into Gold this is that which they call the Grand Operation of all or the search after the Philosophers stone Some of them to compass their end do make a mixture of these metals with such other matters as serve to purifie them from their grosser parts and work their Preparations with great fires others do put them a Digesting in Spirituous liquors in imitation of Nature that always uses a gentle Heat in her Operations and so do reduce them into a state of Corruption to draw thereby their Mercury which they think to have the aptest disposition to make Gold Others again do search after the seed of Gold in Gold it self and these make no doubt to find it there as the seed of a Vegetable is more likely to be found in the Vegetable it self than otherwhere in order to this they open the body of Gold by proper Dissolvents then set it a digesting either by a Lamp-fire or the heat of the Sun or that of Dung or some other degree of Fire to be kept all along at an equal height and such as is nearest to a Natural heat and this to draw out the Mercury of Gold for they are perswaded that if they could once obtain this same Mercury sowing it in the Earth it would bring forth Gold as certainly as a seed does a Plant. Another sort of these men do take wonderful pains to find out the seed of Gold in Minerals as in Antimony for example thinking there 's a sulphur and Mercury in it as like to those in Gold as can be Others hope to find it out in Vegetables and things that come from them as in Honey Manna Sugar Wine Rosa solis Rosemary Spleenwort And others pursue after it in Animals and in their Gums Bloud Urin. But the most Curious and delicate of all who think all the rest but Fools in comparison with them do hunt after the seed of Gold in the Sun and in the Dew for the wisdom of Astrologers has found out that the Sun is a Body all of Gold melted in the Center of the World and Coppel'd by the fire of the stars that environ it about nay they dare affirm that this same Gold when it was a purifying did sparkle as Gold does in the Coppel I should never make an end of this subject if I should speak of the labours and pains watchings vexations and frettings and especially the cost these unfortunate men do plunge themselves into in following their several fancies they are so extremely prepossessed with the conceit of becoming Rich all of a sudden that they are altogether uncapable of any sober admonition and they shut their ears to any thing that can be said to disabuse them so that all other Philosophers that are not besotted with their fantastical opinions are by them thought and called Prophane reserving to themselves the name of the only True Philosophers or Philosophers paramount But the saddest consideration of all is to see a great many of them who have spent all the flower of their years in this desperate concern in which nevertheless they pertinaciously run on and consume all they have at last instead of recompence for their miserable fatigues reduced to the lowest degree of poverty Penotus will serve us for an instance of this nature among thousands of others he died a hundred years old wanting but two in the Hospital of Yverdon in Switzerland and he used to say before he died having spent his whole life in vainly searching after the Philosophers stone that if he had a mortal Enemy he did not dare to encounter openly he would advise him above all things to give up himself to the Study and Practice of Alchymy This man did indeed at last perceive his error and folly and did acknowledge that he had spent his time most unfortunately and idly but there are few men who prove so ingenuous as to do so for they think that their honour is concerned in maintaining whatever error they have once openly defended and they are quite ashamed to have it believed that they had laboured in vain so long and spent their substance in an enterprize that had not good probability of success Many of them to avoid such reproaches and to make the world believe that they have found out some realities and especially to engage some particular person they have designs upon to joyn with them in the pursuit of their projects have contrived a great many cheating Legerdemain tricks some with the pretended Powder of Projection others with their Aurum Potabile some by fixing Mercury with Copper or Verdegreese lastly others with
enough to suspend the particles of Gold and hinder them from precipitating Wherefore if you would add never so much Gold more when these points have seized upon as much as they are able to joyn with they cannot possibly dissolve one grain more and it is this suspension that renders the particles of Gold imperceptible But now if you add some body that by its motion and figure is able to engage the acids enough to break them the particles of Gold being left at liberty will precipitate by their own weight And this is what I conceive the Oyl of Tartar and Volatile Alkali Spirits are able to do They are impregnated with very Active Salts which finding bodies at rest do presently move them and by the quickness of their motion do shake them so violently as to break the points by which they were suspended these fragments of little points being thus disengaged from the Gold are still keen enough to act and they have action enough remaining to pierce and divide violently the parts of Alkali Salts which are much more soluble in their nature than Gold and this occasions the Ebullition which presently happens when these Spirits are poured upon the Dissolution These edges then being thus broken two things must follow thereupon The first is that the remaining Aqua Regalis is rendred uncapable of dissolving any more Gold because it hath no more power left of making a penetration The second is that the precipitated Powder of Gold is impregnated with some part of the Dissolvent by reason that the sharpest part of these edges remains within it Experience teaches us both the one and the other to wit the force of the Aqua Regalis is quite destroyed for dissolving any more Gold and the precipitated Powder hath drawn along with it some Spirits that are so closely lockt up that though it be several times washt in warm Water they cannot possibly be disengaged from their hold And this is evident when it is put upon the Fire for the great Detonation or noise that it makes cannot proceed from any thing else but the inclosed Spirits which violently divide the most compact body of Gold to get out quickly when they are forced to it by the action of Fire I can here explicate by the by after the same manner the action of a certain Powder consisting of three parts of Niter two parts of Salt of Tartar and one part of Sulphur This Powder being heated in a Spoon to the weight of a Drachm gives as Thundering a noise as a Cannon it self Now the fixt Salt of Tartar causes in this Powder what the Gold did in the other that is to say it retains the Spirits of Niter and Sulphur so lockt up that they cannot be separated without violently breaking their Prison and this is that which makes such a noise Aurum Fulminans taken inwardly causes sweat because the heat of the Body volatilises it and drives it through the Pores Now if the Pores are very open it will only cause an insensible transpiration but if they are closed up by the coldness of the weather so that it must remain some time before it passes the vaporous humidity which bears it company dissolves upon the skin into what we call sweat Some think the Gold contributes nothing at all to these transpirations and that the spirit of Niter alone being forced by the heat of the body to pass through its Pores causes all the action But I conceive it is more likely that these spirits do carry along with them some parts of the Gold with which they are so intimately mixed And by this explication may be better comprehended how so small a quantity of spirits is able to produce sweat for suppose there passes through the Pores one grain of Gold and two grains of spirits these spirits being as I may so say armed with the grosser parts of Gold will be better able to conquer the resistance that shall oppose their passage than if they were separate after the same manner as a good piece of Timber that is driven along by the stream of a River will strike with much more violence against the Arch of a Bridge and endanger it much more than a single Wave would be able to do though never so swift There are two sorts of insensible Transpirations one hapening at all times as well in health as sickness and the other in a Burning Feaver or else sometimes upon the taking a Sudorifick The first Transpiration is insensible because the vapour which passes continually through the pores is yet in so small a quantity that though it does dissolve in a moisture upon the skin it is not perceived at all The other is caused by a great motion of the Spirits which drive the humours through the pores of the body after a rapid manner and whereas at that time the pores become very open and the skin is heated more than ordinarily the vapour passes away through the skin without condensing upon it But if once the rapid motion of humours begins to slacken then the sweat appears and begins to be felt and this does happen in Agues for during the great heat of the Ague men do not sweat at all but only in the declination of the fit because then the skin somewhat cools the vapour condenses into a moisture which we call sweat wherefore sweat may be said to issue from a middle degree of heat between the first insensible Transpiration and the second Most men think that there goes out more moisture in the time of the sweat than by the insensible Transpiration which is made during the height of the hot fit but they seem to be mistaken very likely for it may easily be conceived that there should be a greater disposition in the vigour of the fit than afterwards in the declination by reason that at that time the heat is greater and so more able to impel forth effluviums Distillation in a Retort will confirm what is here maintained For if you make only a moderate fire under the Retort the moisture which rises out of the matter will distil drop by drop because the vapours cooling and condensing in the neck of the Retort do resolve into a liquor but if you make a great fire in the Furnace so that the neck of the Retort comes to be heated too much all the moisture is driven in a meer vapour and there appears not the least humidity in the neck of the Retort I have already said that Gold doth repress the violence of Mercury because it doth Amalgamate with it but Aurum Fulminans doth it much better for being Volatile it is more easily carried through all the body and fails not to find out the Mercury wheresoever it lies We need not fear lest Aurum Fulminans taken inwardly and heated by the stomach should cause such a Detonation there as it does when set over the fire in a spoon for so much the more moisture as comes to it so much
any ebullition or precipitation by the mixing acids with Lime-water Phagedenick Water This water is a mixture of Sublimate and Lime-water Put a pound of Quick-lime into a large earthen pan and quench it with seven or eight pints of hot water after the Lime hath infused five or six hours and is sunk to the bottom pour off the water by Inclination and Filtrate it this is called Lime-water To each pint of this water are added fifteen or twenty grains of Sublimate Corrosive in powder and the water presently turns yellow they are stirred together a good while in a glass or marble mortar and this water is used for cleansing old Ulcers it eats proud flesh and is likewise used in the Gangreen by adding Spirit of Wine to it and sometimes Spirit of Vitriol Remarks Lime-water changes the colour of Sublimate Corrosive because being an alkali it destroys some part of the acids which according as they are diversly mixed with the Mercury do give it different colours The precipitate of the Phagedenick water being washed and dried is esteemed by some to be a good Purgative in Venereal cases It is given in Pills for fear of blacking the Teeth the dose is from one grain to three it purges upward and downward and works much like Turbith mineral Caustick stones or Cauteries This operation is the salt of Gravelled ashes or the Lees of wine Calcined rendred more corrosive than it was before by the igneous parts of Quick-lime Put into a great earthen pan one part of Quick-lime and two parts of Gravelled ashes or Calcined Tartar powder and mix them pour good store of hot water upon your matter and leaving it in infusion five or six hours boil it a little afterwards pass that which is clear through brown paper and evaporate it in a Copper basin or earthen pan there will remain at bottom a salt which you must put over the fire in a Crucible it will dissolve and boil untill all the remaining humidity is evaporated When you find it at the bottom like to an Oil cast it into a basin and cut it into pieces while it is warm put these Cauteries quickly into a strong glass bottle stop it with wax and a bladder for the air would easily dissolve it into a liquor you must also take care to keep it in a dry place These Cauteries are the strongest of all that are made and they are but half an hour in making Remarks Gravelled ashes are only a Calcined Tartar for they are made by burning the Lees of wine but because these Lees by reason of their liquidity have fermented more than common Tartar the salt which is drawn from them is of a more penetrating nature than other Tartar and consequently is fitter to make Causticks with The Quick-lime does also help to make them much the stronger for the igneous parts which it contains do mix with this salt and make it the more active and corrosive You must not powder the Quick-lime for the little fiery bodies would then fly away before they could be received into the water When you Filtrate the solution you must put a cloth under the brown paper to support it otherwise it would be presently corroded Ten or twelve ounces of salt would be drawn from the Gravelled ashes alone but the slakt Lime retains a great deal of it If you have used in this operation sixteen ounces of gravelled ashes and eight ounces of quick-lime you will have eight ounces of your Causticks If you would have the Causticks in edges you must put a hot Iron Spatule into the Crucible whilst the matter is in Fusion and form the edges in a flat bason This Caustick salt is very easily dissolved and in the making of it you must not stay till it appears dry at the bottom of the vessel as you do for other salts for it remains still fluid though all the humidity of it be gone therefore you must put a little of it to cool that you may see whether it be in its due consistence The reason why it thus remains in Fusion is because it is full of little fiery bodies which it has taken from the Quick-lime and which have so disposed its parts to penetration for all solid bodies which are put in Fusion by fire do receive this liquid form for no other reason but because the little fiery bodies are become mixed with their parts and have set them into a great agitation If you should use lime that is slakt the Causticks would not so easily melt and if you draw the salt from Gravelled ashes alone it will coagulate in drying much as other salts do wherefore this Fusion of the Causticks must needs proceed from the fiery bodies which were contained in the Quick-lime Causticks may likewise be made divers other ways but this description will deserve a preference before others when you would have them be of a quick operation Inks called Sympathetical These operations are liquors of a different nature which do destroy one another the first is an infusion of Quick-lime and Orpin the second a water turned black by means of burned Cork and the third is a vinegar impregnated with Saturn Take an ounce of Quick-lime and half an ounce of Orpin powder and mix them put your mixture into a matrass and pour upon it five or six ounces of water that the water may be three fingers breadth above the powder stop your matrass with Cork Wax and a Bladder set it in digestion in a mild sand-heat ten or twelve hours shaking the matrass from time to time then let it settle the liquor becomes clear like common water Burn Cork and quench it in Aqua vitae then dissolve it in a sufficient quantity of water wherein you shall have melted a little Gumm Arabick in order to make an Ink as black as common Ink. You must separate the Cork that can't dissolve and if the Ink be not black enough add more Cork as before Get the Impregnation of Saturn made with Vinegar distil'd as I have shewn before or else dissolve so much salt of Saturn as a quantity of water is able to receive write on Paper with a new Pen dipt in this liquor take notice of the place where you writ and let it dry nothing at all will appear Write upon the invisible writing with the Ink made of burnt Cork and let it dry that which you had writ will appear as if it had been done with common Ink. Dip a little Cotton in the first liquor made of Lime and Orpin but the liquor must be first setled and clear rub the place you writ upon with this Cotton and that which appeared will presently disappear and that which was not seen will appear Another Experiment Take a Book four fingers breadth in bigness or bigger if you will write on the first leaf with your Impregnation of Saturn or else put a paper that you have writ upon between the leaves turn to t'other side of the Book and having
marshes When the Season of the year begins to grow hot which commonly happens in May all the water is emptied that was let into the marshes for the better preserving them during the winter then the sluces are opened to let in as much salt-salt-water as they think fit it is made to pass through a great many different Channels wherein it purifies and heats and then is let into places that are made flat smooth and fit to Crystallize the salt The salt is made only during the great heats of Summer the Sun does first evaporate some part of the water and because after the great heat a small wind does use to blow as is usual near the sea the coolness of this wind does condense and Crystallize the salt But if it happens to rain but two hours during the hot weather there can no salt be made for a fortnight afterwards because the marshes must be again emptied of all the water to let in more in its place so that if it chances to rain but once again in the next fortnight they can make no salt Salt is purified by dissolving it in water then filtrating the solution through brown paper and afterwards evaporating the water in an earthen pan until a very white salt does remain But besides the purification of salt by evaporation it may be further purified if instead of evaporation of the humidity you set some of it a Crystallizing in a cool place for very pure salt is found at bottom of the vessel which salt may be separated from the water and dried and you may then evaporate again some part of the salt liquor and set it in a Celler a Crystallizing and so continue your evaporations and Crystallizations but at last you must be fain to evaporate all the liquor because at last it will Crystallize no longer the reason whereof is that the remaining salt is full of a fat bituminous matter which is in a manner inseparable from it and this it is that hinders the Crystallizing at last It is probable that this fat matter may come from the earth of those marshes that were spoken of The first Crystallized salt being put into Oil of Tartar or some other alkali salt dissolved does mix with it without making any Ebullition because although sea salt is acid yet its points are too gross and have too little motion to separate the parts of the alkali The last salt being dried over the fire and mixed with some alkali salt rendred liquid such as Oil of Tartar makes a Coagulation and precipitation of a substance that appears saline and oily this Coagulation does proceed from the mixture and adhesion of some Bituminous earth with the sea-salt and the Tartar for the salts do easily unite with oily substances and in them lose their activity Many acid Bituminous salts which are drawn by the Evaporation of certain Mineral waters such as those of Baleruc in Languedoc and Digne in Provence do perform the same effects when they are mixed with Oil of Tartar This Coagulum does not dissolve in water as well by reason of the different nature of the salts it is compounded of as the oily earth that holds them together but it will dissolve in distilled Vinegar and several other acid liquors and then happens an effervescency because the acid does penetrate the salt of Tartar whose parts the sea-salt had no power to separate Calcination of Common Salt Heat a pot that 's unglazed red-hot throw into it about an ounce of sea-salt then cover it and it will crackle and so fall into powder this noise is called Decrepitation when it is over put so much more salt into the pot and continue to do so till you have enough The pot must be sure to be red-hot all the while when the crackling is over take the pot out of the fire and when it is cold put the salt into a bottle and stop it well to hinder the air from entring in to moisten it anew Bags full of it are applied behind the neck warm to consume too great a a moisture of the Brain by opening of the pores It is used likewise in several Chymical operations Remarks That which makes the Salt crackle when it is in the fire is an inwardly contained moisture which upon its being rarefied doth force its way out with impetuosity and finding the pores too closely shut to suffer an easie escape doth break through the parts and open a passage Now every thing else that hath close compact pores will make such a noise too in the Calcination as do glass and shells If you have occasion to use Salt decrepitated it is convenient to have it newly Calcined because the moisture of the air does return again what the fire had driven away But if you would keep it any time let it be in a glass bottle well stopt For as much as this Salt is deprived of all humidity by its Calcination it will absorb serosities much better than common salt It is laid hot behind the neck to the end that opening the pores it may facilitate transpiration A little Salt of Tartar may be mixed with it to render it the more active Spirit of Salt This Spirit is a very acid liquor drawn from Salt by distillation Dry Salt over a little fire or else in the Sun then powder finely two pounds of it mix it well with six pounds of Potters earth powdered make up a hard paste of this mixture with as much rain-water as is needful form out of it little pellets of the bigness of a Nut and set them in the Sun a good while a drying when they are perfectly dry put them into a large earthen Retort or glass one luted whereof a third part remains empty place this Retort in a Reverberatory Furnace and fit to it a large capacious Receiver without luting the junctures give a very moderate heat at first to warm the Retort and make an insipid water come forth drop by drop when you perceive some white clouds succeed these drops pour out that which is in the Receiver and having refitted it lute the junctures close encrease the fire by degrees to the last degree of all and continue it in this condition twelve or fifteen hours all this while the Receiver will be hot and full of white clouds but when it grows cold and the clouds do disappear the Operation is at an end unlute the junctures and you 'l find the Spirit of Salt in the Receiver pour it into an earthen or glass bottle and stop it well with wax it is an Aperitive and is used in Juleps to an agreeable acidity for such as are subject to the Gravel It is likewise used for cleansing the Teeth being temper'd with a little water and to consume the rottenness of bones To make the dulcified Spirit of Salt of Basilius Valentinus you must mix equal parts of Spirit of Salt and Wine and set them in digestion two or three days in a double Vessel in a
the same virtue as Sal Armoniack but are given in a little less dose as from four to fifteen grains Remarks This operation is performed to the end the Sal Armoniack may be volatilized by checking some part of its fixt salt by the addition of Salt decrepitated thus these Flowers are a little more active than the Sal Armoniack though they are both compounded of the same Salts Iron or Steel powdered may be used instead of Sea-salt as Schroder describes it and then the Flowers do become of a Yellow colour because the Salts do take the Tincture of Mars And these last Flowers are a little more penetrating than the others Aqua Regalis This water is a solution of Sal Armoniack in Spirit of Niter Powder four ounces of Sal Armoniack and put them into a matrass or other glass vessel of a good bigness pour upon it sixteen ounces of Spirit of Niter place the vessel in sand a little warm until the Sal Armoniack is all dissolved then pour the dissolution into a bottle and stop it with wax this is Aqua Regalis you will have seventeen ounces of it Remarks This water is called Regalis or Royal because it dissolves Gold which is the King of metals It is likewise called Aqua Stygia or Chrysulca The vessel in which it is made must be of a sufficient bigness because in the dissolution the Spirits do rarefie with so great violence that they would break it if they had not room to circulate in when a great deal of this water is preparing at a time you must take care to remove the vessel from the fire so soon as the dissolution begins Aqua Regalis may be likewise made with equal quantities of Salt-peter and Sal Gemme by mixing these Salts with thrice as much Potters-earth powdered and the distillation of it is made after the same manner as I shewed to draw the Spirit of Niter It is somewhat difficult to conceive how Aqua Regalis is able to dissolve Gold which is a most solid Metal and cannot dissolve Silver which is a much less solid body Some Chymists endeavouring to resolve this difficulty have said that Gold being a Metal fuller of Sulphur than Silver did therefore require a sulphureous dissolvent such as Aqua Regalis compounded of the volatile sulphureous salts of Sal Armoniack but this explication destroys itself for if Gold did contain more Sulphurs than Silver it would consequently be less weighty for Sulphur is one of the lightest Principles in Chymistry I know the Alchymists will tell me that their Sulphur is quite of a different nature from the common sort and that they do conceive in Gold a Fixt and consequently a heavy sulphur But besides that a fixt sulphur is a thing meerly imaginary it can never be so heavy as the other principles which they pretend to be in Gold and which they are forced to think as fixed as the Sulphur Moreover if we examine what happens in the composition of the dissolvent of Gold it will be no difficult matter to contradict this opinion for we see that as soon as ever the Spirit of Niter begins to work upon the Sal Armoniack the acid salt joyns with it and quits the volatile salts which finding themselves disingaged from the bodies that held them in a manner fixed do rise up with violence but because these salts which are alkalies do meet in their passage with some acids of the Spirit of Niter the great effervescency happens which is always wont at the meeting of alkali salts and acids This effervescency being over our Aqua Regalis remains in the vessel it is properly nothing else but an acid sea-salt dissolved in Spirit of Niter the volatile salts being either exalted or destroyed by Acids and that which confirms this opinion is that Aqua Regalis is as well made with sea-salt in which there are no volatiles at all as with Sal Armoniack according as I have said It is not then by discourses of this nature that this Phanomenon can be clearly explicated I am apt to believe with more likelihood that if Aqua Regalis be not able to dissolve Silver the reason of it is because the edges of the Spirit of Niter being magnified by the addition of Salt do slide over the pores of Silver not being capable to enter into them by reason of the disproportion of their figures whereas they easily enter into Gold whose pores are larger to make their divisions On the contrary if the Spirit of Niter dissolves Silver it is because its points are very subtle and fitly proportioned to enter into the small pores of this metal and by their motion to divide its parts These same points may likewise enter into the large pores of Gold but they are too small and pliable to act upon this body There 's need of stronger and keener knives which by filling its pores more advantageously may have force enough to divide it I do easily foresee it will be objected that Gold being heavier than Silver should have lesser pores and not greater because the weight of a body doth only consist in the proximity of parts but it is easie to solve this difficulty by considering each metal with a good Microscope for the pores of Gold are seen to be much larger than those of Silver though indeed there are much fewer and that will explicate very well why Gold is heavier than Silver though its pores are greater for seeing they are at a good distance the one from the other there 's a very compact matter as it were intercepted which causes all the weight but the pores of Silver being very near one another and of a much greater number do intercept less solid matter and consequently it must be lighter I 'le use a familiar example to make my self more plainly understood If you take two vessels of the same size and bigness and fill one with small hail-shot and the other with large bullets that which holds the bullets will be much heavier than that which is full of shot and yet notwithstanding the vacuities between the bullets are much larger than those between the shot According to this Hypothesis reason may be likewise given why Gold is cut in pieces more easily than Silver for the greater the pores of a body are the easier entrance will a pair of Sheers meet with Gold spreads under the hammer more than Silver because having larger pores the hammer makes a greater impression into it and dilates the parts the more easily It is objected that if there be any heavy matter as it were intercepted between the pores of Gold it must needs precipitate of itself after the action of Aqua Regalis upon this metal which is a thing that does not happen I answer that if the parts of Gold are heavy the dissolvent nevertheless is a gross body and very well proportioned to hold up those heavy parts and to hinder them from precipitating Others have opposed this explication and have
fire-coal flung into water would do Besides it heated the water very much and much more than common Oil of Vitriol could I kept this congealed Spirit about six months after which time it dissolved into a liquor which I used as Oil of Vitriol for it was in effect the same thing And in my opinion this operation does sufficiently evince that Oil of Vitriol contains fiery parts It hapned to me another time that having rectified the Spirit of Vitriol to separate it from its Oil by an Alembick some part of the distilled Spirit was turned into fair and transparent Crystals in the bolt-head or Receiver which Crystals had the same acrimony and strength with the mass I now spoke of If you pour some drops of Spirit or Oil of Vitriol into a quart of hot water in which you shall infuse a pugil of dried red Roses the liquor will in a little time become as red as Claret and this effect must not so much be attributed to the Spirit of Vitriol's sharpning the water and so thereby drawing out the Tincture of Roses as to this that the acid Spirit does rarefie and separate the particles of the Rose which the water had dissolved and made to appear better than before for if you strain the Infusion and separate the Roses before you pour to it your Spirit of Vitriol although the liquor so strained be yet but little raised in colour it will nevertheless turn to as high a red after the Spirit is dropt into it as if the Roses remained still in the liquor We must say the same thing of other Tinctures that are drawn by acids as also of such as are made by an Alkali salt If you fill a glass Viol with the decoction of Nephritick wood clarified and look on it turning toward the light it will appear yellow but if you turn your back to the light it will appear blue if you mix with it some drops of Spirit of Vitriol it will appear yellow on every side but if you again add about as much more Oil of Tartar it will return unto its first colour If you take a Blue or Violet tincture made in water such as is drawn out of the Sun-flower or Violet flowers and pour upon it some drops of Spirit of Vitriol it will presently turn red but if you throw into it some Alkali salt it will recover again its former colour On the contrary if you pour an Alkali liquor such as volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack or the Oil of Tartar upon the blue Tincture it will presently turn green and if you again pour upon it a little Spirit of Vitriol it will change this colour into an obscure red The decoction of Indian wood is very red if you drop into it a little Spirit of Vitriol it will turn yellow and if you still add some volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack it will become black If you infuse three or four hours a piece of Indian wood in some clear juice of Citron and take out your wood the liquor will have received no alteration of colour but if you add to it some drops of Oil of Tartar made per deliquium it will take a brown colour and if you add to it a little Spirit of Vitriol it will resume its colour again If you pour some drops of Oil of Tartar upon Claret it will become greenish and if you add to it a little Spirit of Vitriol it will return to its former colour All these changes of colour which the Spirit of Vitriol or other acids and Alkali's do make proceed only from the different position of bodies dissolved in the liquor and from its disposition to modifie the light different ways Styptick Water This water is a solution of Vitriol and other ingredients to stop bleedings Take Colcothar or the red Vitriol that remains in the Retort after the spirit is drawn out Burnt-alom and Sugar-candy of each half a drachm the Urine of a young person and Rose-water of each half an ounce Plantain-water two ounces stir them all together a good while in a mortar then pour the mixture into a Viol and when you use it separate it by Inclination If you apply a Bolster dipt in this water to an opened Artery and hold your hand a while upon it it stops the bloud In like manner you may wet a little Pledget in it and thrust it into the Nose when an Hemorrhage continues too long taken inwardly it cures spitting of bloud bloudy flux and the immoderate flux of the Hemorrhoids or Terms the dose is from half a drachm to two drachms in Knot-grass water Remarks When the bloud gushes forth too fast you must redouble the first Bolster that was put upon the wound and assist it a little with your fingers for half an hour The Basis of this water is Colcothar Having used this water with good success upon several occasions I was willing to insert it in this Book and I believe if any body please to experiment it as I have done they will easily acknowledge it to be an excellent Remedy in many Distempers Lapis Medicamentosus Powder and mix together Colcothar or the red Vitriol that remains in the Retort after distillation or in want of it Vitriol Calcined to a redness two ounces Litharge Alom and Bole-Armenick of each four ounces put this mixture into a glazed pot and pour upon it good Vinegar enough to cover the matter two fingers high cover the pot and leave it two days in digestion then add to it eight ounces of Niter two ounces of Sal Armoniack set the pot over the fire and evaporate all the moisture Calcine the mass that remains about half an hour in a strong fire and keep it for use It is a good Remedy to stop Gonorrheas a drachm of it is dissolved in eight ounces of Plantain water or Smith's water to make an Injection into the Yard it is likewise good to cleanse the eyes in the small pox seven or eight grains of it must be dissolved in four ounces of Plantain or eye-bright water it is also good to stop bloud applied outwardly to a wound It may be dissolved in Knot-grass water and will go near to have the same effects as the styptick water Remarks This stone is called Medicamentosus by way of excellence by reason of the good effects it produces The Colcothar that remains in the Retort after the distillation of Vitriol must be better than the others for this Operation because being deprived of the greatest part of its Spirits it is the more Astringent Litharge which is a Lead Calcined Alom and Bole-Armenick are so many considerable Astringents that do no hurt in this composition Vinegar is put in to incorporate the ingredients together and set them a Fermenting after which the Niter and Sal Armoniack do easily mix among the rest The Calcination which is given to it at the end is done to carry off some part of the acid and to augment the Astriction It
detained by some Salts which check its Volatility and then may be called a fixt Spirit as the Acid Spirits of Vitriol Alum Salt c. The Oil which is called Sulphur by reason of its inflammability is a sweet subtile unctuous substance that rises after the Spirit This is said to cause the diversity of Colours and Smells according to its disposition in Bodies this gives them their Beauty and Deformity uniting together the other Principles this also sweetens the acrimony of Salts and by shutting up the Pores of a mixt hinders it from corrupting either through too much moisture or cold Wherefore many Trees and Plants that have a great deal of Oil are wont to last green much longer than others and can resist the extremity of ill weathers It is always drawn impure For either it is mixt with Spirits as the Oils of Rosemary of Lavender which swim above the water or else it is fill'd with Salts that it draws along with it in the distillation as the Oil of Box Guaiacum Cloves which do precipitate to the bottom of the water by reason of their weight Salt is the last of the Active Principles which remains disguised in the Earth after the other Principles are extracted It is drawn by pouring water upon the earth to imbibe its Salt then filtring the dissolution and evaporating all the moisture a Salt is found at the bottom of the Vessel It is a fixt incombustible substance that gives Bodies their consistence and preserves them from corruption This causes the diversity of tasts according as it is diversly mixed There are three different Salts as the Fixt Volatile and Essential The Fixt Salt is that which remains after Calcination the Volatile is that which easily riseth as the Salt of Animals And Essential Salt is that which is obtained from the Juyce of Plants by Crystallization This last is between the Fixt and Volatile Water which is called Phlegm is the first of the Passive Principles it comes in distillation before the Spirits when they are fixt or after them when they are volatile It is never drawn pure but always receives some impression from the Active Principles And this causes it to have a more detersive virtue in it than common Water It serves to separate the Active Principles and to bridle their motion The Earth which is called Caput Mortuum or Terra Damnata is the last of the Passive Principles and can no more be separated pure than the rest but will still retain some Spirits in it and if after you have depriv'd it of them as much as you are able you leave it a good while exposed to the Air it will recover new Spirits again Remarks upon the Principles The word Principle in Chymistry must not be understood in too nice a sense for the substances which are so called are only Principles in respect of us and as we can advance no farther in the division of bodies but we well know that they may be still divided into abundance of other parts which may more justly claim in propriety of speech the name of Principles wherefore such substances are to be understood by Chymical Principles as are separated and divided so far as we are capable of doing it by our weak imperfect powers And because Chymistry is an Art that demonstrates what it does it receives for fundamental only such things as are palpable and demonstrable It is in truth a great advantage to us that we have Principles so sensible as they are and whereof we can have so reasonable an assurance The fond conceits of other Philosophers concerning Natural Principles do only puff up the mind with grand Idea's but they prove or demonstrate nothing And this is the reason that going to discover their Principles we find some of them do frame one Systeme and others another But if we would come as near as may be to the true Principles of Nature we cannot take a more certain course than that of Chymistry which will serve us as a Ladder to them and this division of substances though it may seem a little gross will give us a very great Idea of Nature and the figure of the first small particles which have entred into the composition of mixt bodies Some modern Philosophers would perswade us that it is altogether uncertain whether the substances which are separated from bodies and are called Chymical Principles do effectually exist and are naturally residing in the body before these do tell us that the fire by rarifying the matter in time of distillation is capable of bestowing upon it such an alteration as is quite different from what it had before and so of forming the Salt Oil and other things which are drawn from it This objection does at first seem to have much weight and reason in it because it is certain as hereafter shall be shewn that the Fire does give a very considerable impression to the preparations and that very often it does put such a new face upon things that they are very hardly to be known when compar'd with what they were before But it is easie to shew that though the Fire does so diversifie and alter substances yet it does not make those Principles for we see them and smell them in many bodies before ever we bring them to undergo the Fire For example it cannot be denied but that there was existent Oyl in Olives in Almonds in Nuts and in many other fruits and seeds because it is drawn only by beating and pressing them Turpentine which is a thickned Oyl and many other fat or unctuous liquors are drawn by meer incision into the trunk or root of trees and what else I pray is the fat of animals but an Oyl or Sulphur coagulated Nor can it be denied but that there is salt actually in mixt bodies since that by bruising a Plant and making expression to draw out its juyce and then leaving the juyce to settle in some cool place for a few daies a salt will be found fixt about the vessel in form of little Crystals I know that some doubting Scepticks who make it their business to doubt of every thing will still say that by beating the Almonds and then pressing them and by making incision into Trees the parts which compose the plant are agitated and put in motion after such a manner as they are by Fire and that this agitation of parts is capable of ranging them so as to make the Oyl and Salt But such reasonings as these do destroy themselves by too much niceness and there is no sober understanding man but easily perceives the falshood for can a man well perceive that meer trituration or incision are able to make Salt Oyl Earth it is abundantly more probable nay and it may be sufficiently demonstrated that those substances did exist in the bodies before and that by incision and trituration the gate has only been opened to let them come freely out Others again do attack the Principles of Chymistry after
another manner a little differing from this these do acknowledge that the foresaid substances are naturally in the Mixts much as we draw them by Art but they assert that we have no proof that the Mixts are compounded of these same substances called Principles and that they are not drawn from the juyce of the earth in such a form that Salt Sulphur c. may indeed have been formed in the natural Fermentations and other elaborations which happen in the Mixt during its growth and therefore they conclude that those substances cannot properly be called Principles because we do not know sufficiently whether the Mixt was composed of them at first But since we are satisfied that the earths which serve for a matrix to Mixt bodies are impregnated with Salt Sulphur and other substances of the nature of those which we do find in the bodies and since we can perceive nothing else which can contribute to their composition it remains beyond all doubt that they are even compounded of them It must be granted that the Fermentations or other Elaborations which come to pass in mixt bodies have given the Principles a certain order of parts or some dispositions they had not before but they do by no means form or compose them The five Principles are easily found in Animals and Vegetables but not so easily in Minerals Nay there are some Minerals out of which you cannot possibly draw so much as two nor make any separation at all as Gold and Silver whatsoever they talk who search with so much pains for the Salts Sulphurs and Mercuries of these metals I can believe that all the Principles do indeed enter into the composition of these Bodies but it does not follow that they must remain in their former condition or can be drawn as they were before for it may be these substances which are called Principles are so strictly involved one within another as to suffer no separation any other way than by breaking their Figure Now it is by reason of their Figure that they are called Salts Sulphurs and Spirits For example if you mix an Acid Spirit with the Salt of Tartar or some other Alkali the edges of the Acid will so insinuate into the pores of the Salt that if by distillation you would separate the Acid Spirit again from the Salt you 'l never be able to effect it the Acid will have lost almost all its strength because the edges of these Spirits are so far destroyed or changed that they no longer preserve their former Figure Every body knows that glass is made of Salt but because the Fire hath wrought so great a change upon its Texture or Figure it can do nothing at all that Salt is used to do nay and it is in a manner impossible to draw any true Salt from it by Chymistry There are three sorts of Liquors that are qualified with the name of Spirit in Chymistry the Spirit of Animals the Burning spirit of Vegetables and the Acid spirit The first of them as the spirit of Harts-horn is nothing but a Volatile salt dissolved by a little Phlegm as I shall shew when I treat of Animals The second as the Spirit of Wine the Spirit of Juniper and the Spirit of Rosemary is an exalted Oyl as I shall shew speaking of Wines And the last as the Spirit of Vinegar Tartar and Vitriol is an Acid Essential salt dissolved and put in fusion by the fire as I shall prove when I speak of Vinegar and the distillation of Tartar this last is called a Fluid salt These three sorts of liquors comprehending all that can any way be called Spirit this may pass for one Principle very well for seeing that the Spirit which is drawn from Animals is nothing but a Salt dissolved by a little Phlegm that Spirit of Wine is only an Oyl exalted and that the Acid Spirit is a Salt become fluid we can observe nothing in these liquors but an Oyl Salts of a different nature and water Wherefore it must be concluded that the Spirit or Mercury which Chymists have talk'd of is a meer Chimaera that serves only to confound mens minds and render Chymistry unintelligible for men might if they would have called these liquors by more proper names thus what hindred them from calling the Spirit of Animals by the name of a Volatile salt dissolv'd the liquors which come from Oyls might have been called an exalted Oyl and the Acid spirits a Fluid salt and hereby we should not have been troubled about an imaginary Principle and Chymistry would have been better understood But it is impossible to change a name that has been so long fixt and appropriated to these liquors All that I can do is to explicate as I have done what is meant by the word Spirit in order to avoid Equivocations Nothing but the Oyl can properly be said to be Inflammable and the Oyl is so much the more so as the Salts with which it is closely united have been more or less spiritualized For that which I call Spirit in the Oyl is nothing but an Essential or Volatile Salt this Salt is not of it self Inflammable but serves to Rarifie and Exalt the parts of the Oyl to render them the more susceptible of Motion and consequently of Flagration after the same manner as when Salt-peter is put to mix with some Oily substance this Oily matter fires much more easily than when it is alone though Salt-peter of it self is not at all Inflammable as I shall prove hereafter We have examples of the truth of what I say in Spirit of Wine Oyl of Turpentine and all other Inflammable Liquors for they are only Oyls subtilized and refined by the Volatile Salts they contain Vegetables have a great deal of Salt much like to Salt-peter this Salt being straitly united with their Oyl makes them the more apt to flame than if they had been deprived of it The Fat of Animals as well as their other parts is full of a Volatile Acid salt Wax Rosine and all other matters that are inflammable are impregnated with an Acid Salt Essential or Volatile I say the Salt which causes the flagration of Oyls must be either Volatile or Essential for if it were a fixt Salt 't would have a contrary effect it would allay in some measure the quick motion of the parts of an Inflammable body and this we see happens when Sea-salt is flung into the fire it serves to put it out Common Sulphur yields us another instance of the same kind consisting of one part Sulphureous or Oily and another Saline or Acid fixt which plainly appears in the opening of it the Oily part fires and would soon rise like other Oils into a great white flame but that the Acid part being a load to its activity hinders it from rising and so forces it to cast but only a small blue flame and a proof of what I affirm may be had from mixing Salt-peter with Sulphur for the Volatile salt of Salt-peter
the reason that less fixt salt is to be found in Animals than Plants As for what many do say that Choler causes an Effervescency like an Alkali when an acid is cast upon it 't is a mistake through want of right Observation for no Ebullition at all happens for some time Nevertheless I will not say that an acid produces no Fermentation in Choler Bloud and other parts of the body for it does very often really do that but that is no more than uses to be done in new Wine Beer and other liquors of the like nature I have already explicated this sort of Fermentation We ought not to omit speaking of the Coagulation that 's made in Milk after a Fermentation caused either by Heat or some Acid put into it Methinks here is no need at all of supposing an Alkali salt that ferments with the Acid of this liquor as many suppose for explicating this Effect since if we consider but the natural composition of Milk we shall find it to be nothing but a Creamy substance swimming on the Serum and mixed only superficially with it by the intermixture of some salt so that it is in a fitting state of separation as soon as the salt gains a little more motion than it had whether it be by Fermentation or by encreasing its activity by an acid of its own nature Thus when the heat of the Summer or fire has stirred up the acid that is in the Milk or else some acid is poured into it the edges of the acid do cut and divide the Creamy part to gain a free motion in the Serum and separate into Curd all the Butter and Cheese Now there 's nothing strange in the Precipitation of the Curd especially when an acid has been poured upon the Milk for besides the weight it gains by thickning some part of the acids do mix with it and encrease its weight for according as the acid that was mingled is stronger or weaker the Curd does Precipitate more or less Perhaps some will say for as much as acid is always the cause of Coagulation in Milk there 's no great likelihood that a salt of the same nature should be the instrument of uniting the several parts of Milk But it must be considered that although there is an acid in Milk as no body can doubt seeing it sowres of it self when stale this acid is as it were imbodied in the ramous parts of the Oyl so that there is loses all its motion and cannot come to action but by rarifying the Oyl and making it fit to mix with the serous part it is the due proportion of this salt Oyl and serum that makes the Butter and Cheesy part of Milk Now I hope I have said enough to establish what I have affirmed that there 's no salt in nature besides the acid out of which all other Salts are made and that the Alkali salt has no Natural existence in mixt bodies My discourse will be the better relished when I speak of the Operations of Chymistry and you 'l find that by this Principle which I may call the most Natural and impartial of all that have been laid till now I shall be able to give account of many Phaenomena's that have never been explicated by common Principles Of Chymical Furnaces and Vessels It is not my design to relate here exactly all the kinds of Vessels and Furnaces that Artists have invented to use in Chymistry I shall describe only those with which you will be able to perform all Operations and send curious persons who would be more particularly instructed in them into the Laboratories where they may learn more on this subject than ever they will be able to do by consulting all the Books in the world These then are the principal The Furnace which is most in use among Chymists is that which is called the Reverberatory it must be large enough to hold a great Retort for the Distillation of acid Spirits and other things This Furnace must be fixt and made of Brick joyned together with a Lute compounded of one part of Potters earth so much Horse-dung and twice as much Sand the whole kneaded together in Water let it be two Bricks breadth that the Furnace being the thicker the heat may be retained the longer let the Ash-hole be a Foot high and the Door contrived if possible on the side that the air comes that when you have a mind to open it the Fire may be lighted or encreased the more easily the fire room need not be quite so high you must lay a-cross it two Iron-bars of the bigness of your thumb which will serve you to set your Retort upon and the Furnace must be still raised near about a Foot higher to cover the Retort fit to it a Dome or Cover that may have a hole in the middle with its stopple and a small Chimny a foot high for to place upon this hole when the stopple is taken out and when you would raise a great heat for the flame preserving its self by means of this little Chimney it reverberates the more strongly upon the Retort This Cover may be made of the same Paste that I shall presently describe speaking of Portable Furnaces It will be necessary to have several Furnaces of this same fashion but they must be of different sizes to work conveniently according to the bigness of the Vessel you would place in it For that the Fire may act more vehemently upon the Retort there must be left but only the space of a fingers breadth all round between the Furnace and the Retort These Furnaces may also serve for Distilling by the Refrigeratory in the Sea-Bath the Vaporous and the Sand-bath for you may place the Copper body upon the Iron bars when you would distil by the Refrigeratory It is easie to do the same with the Balneum Mariae As for the Sand-bath lay an iron or earthen pan on the bars and put sand enough into it for to cover the bottom and sides of the Vessel you desire to heat As for Fusions you must build a Furnace of the same matter and form as those spoken of before only you must forbear laying the two Iron bars in it that you did in the others for support of the Vessel Moveable Furnaces are made of a paste that consists of three parts of broken pots in powder and two parts of clay temper'd together with Water Their structure is just like that of the An Explication of the FIGURES of the FIRST TABLE A Great Reverberatory Furnace a The Ash-hole b The Fire-room c A Retort supported on two Iron bars d The Dome or Cover e The Receiver f A little Chimny g The Dome taken off the Furnace h A Retort i A small Reverberatory Furnace ready to work with k A fixed little Furnace for Fusions l An Iron pot to hold the sand m The Fire-place n The Ash-room o A Furnace in which is placed a great Copper Body p The Copper Body
Liquor till you have recovered all that is in it Mix all your Crystals dry them and weigh them and if you have half an ounce of them powder them and mix them with six drachms of the matter I described for reviving the Calx of Silver remaining in the Matrass put this mixture into a Crucible and covering it with a tile light a strong fire about it to put the matter into fusion then taking it off the fire and letting it cool break the Crucible you 'l find the Silver at the bottom which will be fit for the same Operation again when you please Note that all the Liquor which was drawn by Distillation is as clear as common water wherefore I conclude that the Colour did consist in the dissolution of Silver it self and not of its sulphurs as some have thought You must cut the Silver into little pieces or plates that it may dissolve the more easily The Salt-water must be made of an ounce and a half of Salt dissolved in a quart of water this salt precipitates the Silver because it engages the points of the dissolvent and shaking them violently about makes them let go the hold they had with other bodies I shall speak more at large concerning these kinds of Precipitations in the Remarks which I shall make upon White Precipitate and shall then explicate the reason why Sea-salt which is an acid does precipitate that which another acid had dissolved I shall likewise answer the objections which have been raised on this subject Silver may be also precipitated by means of a Copper-plate as I have said already It is very indifferent which way you please to Precipitate it for it is done for no other end but to reduce the Silver into a very fine powder for an easier dissolution The Precipitate of Silver made with salt or Copper waxes brown in the drying and though dried in the shade which doubtless is by reason of some small proportion of Copper that it contains If you have dissolved an ounce of Coppel-silver and precipitate it with Salt or Copper you 'l draw an ounce and three drachms of Precipitate well washt and dried this augmentation does proceed from a remainder of the points which were broken in pieces and yet do still remain in the pores of the metal for these pores being very small they do but hardly let go what they have received into them There is no need of distilling a part of the Liquor that the Tincture may be the stronger as some have presumed to write for on the contrary it causes a Crystallization which diminishes both its colour and strength for the reason I have given before The effect of this Tincture for Diseases must rather be attributed to the Salt of Urine and spirit of Wine than to the Silver for they are not only able to fly into the Head and open obstructions there but assisted with the Natural heat do open the pores of all the body and drive out ill humours by transpiration The portion of Silver which remains at the bottom of the Matrass being impregnated with volatile parts would fly into the Air if it were melted alone without the addition of something else wherefore the abovementioned matter is added to it that being of a very fixt nature may weigh it down and hinder it from flying away Diana's Tree Take an ounce of Silver and dissolve it in three ounces of spirit of Niter pour your dissolution into a Matrass wherein you shall have put eighteen or twenty ounces of water and two ounces of Quick-silver Your Matrass must be fill'd up to the neck let it lye still upon a little round of straw in some convenient place for forty days together during which time you 'l find a Tree spread forth its branches and little balls at the end which represent their fruit This Operation is of no use at all in Physick I have here described it only to please the Curious Remarks These branches do proceed from the spirit of Niter which being incorporated with the Silver and Mercury do form divers Figures according to the room and moisture it hath to expatiate it self in For if you should put to it but ten or twelve ounces of water nothing but a kind of Crystals in great confusion would be able to appear On the contrary if you should use too much water nothing would then be seen besides a little precipitated powder You must let the mixture lye still for forty days together because the spirit of Niter being very much weakned by common water is able to work but very slowly If the matter should happen to be removed the figure would quickly fall into confusion but would recover it self again if you let it lye still long enough This Preparation is best performed in a cool place being properly a Crystallization This Operation may be fitly compared with the manner of Generation and Nourishment of Plants in the Earth for if the seed abounds with too much moisture the spirits which serve to ferment and dilate its parts will be rendred so weak as not to be able to act and so nothing can be produced if on the contrary there should prove too little moisture the spirits not finding room enough to expatiate in would either continue imprisoned or evaporate into Air and so be ineffectual But when there happens to be a fit proportion of water in the Earth then the spirits gently moving about do insensibly expatiate themselves and do rarifie and sublime along with them the substance of the seed from whence Vegetation doth proceed But to return unto our Operation If you should desire to separate the Silver from the Mercury shake the whole together and having poured it out into an earthen Vessel make it boil for half a quarter of an hour then let it cool a little till it becomes little more than luke-warm pour upon it a quart of water by little and little in which you have dissolved two ounces of Sea-salt and a white Precipitate will fall down pour off the water by Inclination and dry the Powder Then put it in a Retort placed in a Sand-furnace and having fitted to it a Receiver fill'd with water give a small fire at first then encrease it by degrees till the Retort grows red-hot and your Quick-silver will distil drop by drop into the water continue the fire till nothing more will distil let the Vessels cool pour the water out of the Receiver and having washt the Mercury dry it with linnen or the crum of bread and keep it for use You 'l find your Silver in the Retort which you may reduce into an Ingot by melting it in a Crucible with a little Salt-peter in a great Circular fire CHAP. III. Of Tinn TInn is a Metal that comes near unto Silver in colour but differs very much in the figure of its Pores and in the solidity and weight The name of the Planet Jupiter is given unto it and it is thought to receive its
upon it five or six pints of Fountain-water in which you shall have dissolved before-hand an Ounce of Sea-salt you 'l see a White powder Precipitate to the bottom Pour off the Water by Inclination and wash this Magistery several times then dry it in the shade It is an excellent Cosmetick called Spanish White that serves to whiten the complexion It is either mixed in Pomatum or lilie-Lilie-water Remarks You must use a large Bolt-head to dissolve the Bismuth in because the great Ebullition that happens as soon as Spirit of Niter is cast upon it requires room to move in You must likewise have a care as much as you can of receiving the Vapours at your Nose or Mouth for they are very offensive to the breast This quick and violent Ebullition proceeds from the acids immediate penetration of the large pores of Bismuth so soon as thrown upon it and the acid violently divides all that opposes its motion It happens also that the Bolt-head grows so hot that a man can't endure his hand upon it because the points of the Menstruum do chafe against the solid body of Bismuth with such force that you may observe from thence much the same heat as when two solid bodies are rub'd against one another Add to this that the great store of igneous particles contained in Spirit of Niter may much increase this heat If the Dissolution becomes turbid through some impurities in the Bismuth you must pour into it about twice as much Water and filter it for if you should go to filter it without water it would coagulate like salt in the Filter and not pass through This Coagulation proceeds from the acid spirits of Niter that are included in the particles of Bismuth which finding too little liquor to swim in and disperse do gather together into Crystals when the dissolution is cold The impurity which commonly swims upon the solution of Bismuth is a fat or bituminous matter which will not dissolve in the spirit of Niter This Magistery may be made by pouring in great quantity of Fountain water without any salt into the dissolution but it is made the quicker when you use salt and the Precipitation is the better because salt does encounter and break some of the acids that water alone was not able to weaken sufficiently Now some difficulty appears in conceiving how plain water alone comes to precipitate Bismuth Lead Antimony which the acid had dissolved and yet can do nothing at all to the precipitating Gold Silver or Mercury without the assistance of some salt or other body I do imagine that the former having large Pores the acids cannot stick so close in them but that water is able to force them out but Gold Silver and Mercury having finer pores in comparison than the other do retain the acids so very closely that the weak impulses of water alone can make no separation some more active body is requisite to do it The Augmentation which happens to Bismuth when made into a Magistery does proceed from some part of the Spirit of Niter that remains still in it notwithstanding the Precipitation and Lotion Commonly one Drachm of this Magistery or Precipitate is mixed with Four ounces of Water or in an ounce of Pomatum It softens the skin very much and is also good against the Itch because it feeds upon those acids or Salts which cherish this Disease CHAP. V. Of Lead LEad is a Metal fill'd with Sulphur or a Bituminous earth that renders it very supple and pliant It is probable that it contains some Mercury It hath Pores very like those of Tinn it is called Saturn by reason of the influence it is thought to receive from the Planet of that name Those who work upon Lead are subject to Colicks and to become Paralytick whether it be that there rises out of it a Mercury which obstructs the Nerves or else that the very substance of Lead does act upon them after the manner of Mercury Lead is extremely cold and for that reason is proper to asswage the heats of Venus being applied to the Perinaeum and it may be the heat of the skin causes it to lose some particles which insinuating through the pores do some way fix the Spirits and qualifie their motion from whence the part waxes cold it is also applied on many Tumours caused by too great an Ebullition of the Bloud Lead serves to Purifie Gold and Silver and may be said to act in the Coppel much after the same manner as the white of an Egg does in Clarifying a Syrop that 's boil'd in a Bason for as the gross and terrestrious impurities of a Syrop do stick to the white of an Egg by reason of its glutinous nature and are driven to the sides of the Bason in the stirring so do the Heterogeneous parts that were mixt with Gold and Silver stick unto the Lead and by the fire are driven to the sides of the Coppel like unto a Scum Calcination of Lead Melt Lead in an earthen Pan unglazed and stir it over the Fire with a Spatule 'till it is reduced to a powder If you increase the Fire and still Calcine the Matter for an hour or two it will be more open and fit to be penetrated by acids If you put this Powder to Calcine in a Reverberatory Fire for three or four hours it will be of a red colour and is that which is called Minium Lead is also prepared into Cerusse or White-Lead by the means of Vinegar whose vapour it is made to imbibe for it turns into a White Rust that is gather'd up and little Cakes made of it Two parts of Lead may be melted in a Pot or Crucible and one part of Sulphur added to it when the Sulphur is burnt out you 'l find the matter turned into a black powder which is called Plumbum ustum All these Preparations of Lead are of a drying nature they may be mixed with unguents and plaisters they unite with oils or fat substances in the boiling and they do give them a solid consistence and the greatest part of our plaisters do derive their hardness from it I spoke of the way of reducing Lead into Litharge when I treated of the Purification of Silver by the Coppel and it is thither I desire my Reader to return Remarks There happens an observation in the Calcination of Lead as well as several other things which very well deserves some reflection 'T is that although the Sulphureous or Volatile parts of Lead do fly away in the Calcination which loss should indeed make it weigh the less nevertheless after a long Calcining 't is found that instead of losing it increases in weight Some trying to explicate this Phaenomenon do say that as long as the violence of the flame does open and divide the parts of the Calx of Lead the acid of the Wood or other matter that burns does insinuate into tha pores of this Calx where 't is stopt or fixt by the Alkali but
this reason will not hold when 't is considered that this Augmentation comes to pass as well when Lead is Calcin'd with Coals as Wood for Coals contain only a fixt Salt that rises not at all 'T is better therefore to refer this effect to the disposition of the pores of Lead in such a manner that part of the fire insinuating into them does there remain imbodied and can't get forth again whence the weight comes to be encreased If you would revive this Calx of Lead by way of Fusion its parts do squeez and express the igneous particles that were inclosed and the Lead does thereby weigh less than it did when reduced into a Calx for by this means the Sulphureous parts are separated and lost Salt of Saturn This Operation is a Lead penetrated and reduced into the form of Salt by the acidity of Vinegar Take three or four pounds of one of these Preparations or Calcinations of Lead for example the Cerusse powder it and put it in a large Glass or Earthen vessel pour upon it distill'd Vinegar four fingers high an Ebullition will follow without any sensible heat Put it in Digestion in hot Sand for two or three days stirring about the Matter ever now and then then let it settle and separate the Liquor by Inclination Pour new distill'd Vinegar upon the Cerusse that remains in the Vessel and proceed as before continuing to pour on distill'd Vinegar and to separate it by Inclination until you have dissolved about half the Matter Mix all your Impregnations together in an earthen or glass Vessel Evaporate in a Sand-fire with a gentle heat about two thirds of the moisture or 'till there rises a little skin over it Then transfer your Vessel into a Celler or some such cool place without jogging it there will appear white Crystals which you must separate and Evaporate the Liquor as before and set it again in the Cellar Continue your Evaporations and Crystallizations 'till you have gotten all your Salt Dry it in the Sun and keep it in a Glass If you would make it exceeding white you must dissolve it in equal quantities of distill'd Vinegar and common water then Filter it and Crystallize it as I said before This Purification may be repeated three or four times It is commonly used in Pomatums for Tettars and Inflammations the Impregnation of Saturn is also used chiefly for Diseases of the skin when it is mixed with a great deal of Water it makes a Milk that is called Virgins Milk The Salt of Saturn taken inwardly is esteemed very good for the Quinsie to stop the flowing of the Menses and Hemorrhoids and for the Bloudy Flux The Dose is from two grains to four in Knot-grass or Plantain water or mixt in Gargâ—es Remarks I do commonly use Cerusse for preparing the Salt of Saturn because I find it to be more open and easier to dissolve than the other Preparations of Lead by reason of the Vinegar it is already impregnated with The Ebullition that is observed doth proceed from the violent entrance of the acids which do forcibly separate the parts of the Matter But it is remarkable that the Effervescency which happens upon pouring a like quantity of acids on any other preparation of Lead is a great deal stronger because when the acid meets with a body not so open as Cerusse it must use greater endeavour to enter into it and consequently raises up the Matter higher In these Effervescences as well as many others you cannot perceive the least Degree of Heat nay some presume to assert that Cold is increased in them Vinegar loses all its force in the penetration of Lead and acquires a kind of sweet or sugar'd taste You must not imagine that a true Salt of Lead can be drawn It is nothing but a dissolution of its substance by acids which do very closely unite with it to form a kind of Salt For if by distillation you should draw off the humidity of the Dissolution you 'd find it to be nothing but an Insipid water and consequently deprived of all its acids I shall prove that better hereafter when we come to revive our Salt into Lead This Salt called Sugar by reason of its sweetness is good for many Diseases that are caused by acid or sharp humors because it asswages them and mitigates their keenness This is particularly observed in Quinzies whose cause doth ordinarily proceed from a saline or acid serosity which falling too abundantly on the Muscles of the Larynx raises a fermentation that dilates their fibers and causes the Inflammation we see Thus whatsoever is able to dull the edge of Acids is good for the cure of this Disease Menstrual Purgations Flux of the Hemorrhoids and Dysenteries are usually caused by sharp corrosive Salts which fall into the Vessels Wherefore the Salt of Saturn as all other matters that absorb Acids do serve to cure these distempers for take away the cause of a disease and the effect will soon cease The sweetness of Salt of Saturn cannot be better explicated than by the Sulphureous or softish substanee of the particles of Lead which being actuated by the Salt of Vinegar do delightfully tickle the Nerve of the tongue when it is tasted Vinegar impregnated with some preparation of Lead is called Vinegar of Saturn If it be well tempered with Oil of Roses or some other Oil beating them together in a mortar it makes an unguent that is called Nutritum or otherwise Butter of Saturn it is good for Tettars and other disfigurations of the skin Magistery of Saturn This Operation is a Lead dissolved and precipitated Dissolve two or three ounces of the Salt of Saturn well purified as I said before in a sufficient quantity of Water and distill'd Vinegar filter the dissolution and pour upon it drop by drop the Oil of Tartar made per Deliquium it will first turn into a Milk then a kind of Coagulum that will precipitate to the bottom of the Vessel in a white Powder Boil it a little and pour it into a Tunnel lined with a Coffin of brown Paper the Liquor will pass through as clear as Water and the Powder remain in it Wash it several times with Water to carry off all the impression of Vinegar Then dry it and you 'l have a very white Magistery that is used for a Fucus like the Bismuth It is likewise mixed in Pomatums for Tettars c. Remarks When good store of Water is poured upon the Impregnation of Saturn it turns white like Milk and is commonly called Virgins milk it is used in Inflammations and to Pimples in the face if you let this Milk settle it becomes as clear as Water and a White powder sinks down to the bottom this Powder does proceed from the particles of Lead which were held up by the acidity of the Vinegar and were made let go their hold by the access of Water diluting the acid This Magistery being well washt may serve like the other
than when it is filled with water nevertheless it is plain that when an empty vessel is set over the fire the bottom does heat and grow red-hot especially if left so a good while I answer to this that when the kettle which was set in a great fire is full of liquor the fiery parts having passed through the bottom in a strait line as I said are in a manner absorbed by the liquor and have no more strength or action left to reflect again upon the bottom of the vessel and so to beat it but now when it is empty the fiery parts which pass through the bottom finding nothing to drown them and check their motion many of them do return back upon the bottom and that way heat it so much as they do And the same reason holds why an empty Tinn or Leaden vessel being set in the fire does quickly melt but when filled with liquor they will not melt make what fire under them you please for the fiery parts finding nothing that is able to hinder their activity in an empty vessel do pass to and fro through its pores often enough to melt it But these same fiery parts finding moisture to engage them in a full vessel they cannot return upon the bottom so as to melt it Copper does not melt so easily as many other matters because it contains more terrestrious parts than those others Brass or Yellow Copper is a mixture of Lapis Calaminaris and Copper and vessels that are made of it give less impression to liquors than the others Calcination of Copper To Calcine Copper is to purifie it from its more Volatile parts by the means of common Sulphur and fire in order to render it the more compact Stratifie plates of Copper with powder'd Sulphur in a large Crucible cover the Crucible with a Cover that hath a hole in the middle to give the Vapours vent Place your Crucible in a Wind-furnace and light a very strong fire about it until there rise no more vapours then draw off your Plates as they are hot and separate them this is the Aes ustum that is used in outward remedies to deterge Remarks In the making of this stratification we begin with a bed of Sulphur and lay over it a bed of Copper-plates then another bed of Sulphur and another of Plates We continue to do so till the Crucible is quite full but you must be sure to let the first and last bed be of Sulphur This Calcination is thus performed that the common Sulphur by its burning may cleanse the Copper of its superficial Sulphur but it will be much better purified by the following Operation Purification of Copper This second Purification of Copper is to render it fair to the eye and of a high colour Take what quantity you please of Calcined Copper heat it red-hot in a Crucible placed among burning coals and cast it red-hot into a Pot wherein you shall have put enough Oil of Linseed to swim above it four fingers cover the Pot presently for otherwise the Oil would take fire let the Copper steep till the Oil is grown pretty cool separate it and put it to heat again in the Crucible then cast it into Oil of Linseed continue to made it red-hot and quench it in the Oil nine several times You must change your Oil every third time and you 'l have a Copper well purified and of its former colour If you Calcine it once again to consume the Oil and powder it you 'l have a Crocus of Copper that is detersive and good to eat the proud flesh of Wounds and Ulcers Vitriol of Copper or Venus This Operation is a Copper opened and transformed into a Vitriol by Spirit of Niter Dissolve two ounces of Copper cut into little pieces in five or six ounces of Spirit of Niter pour the dissolution into a Glass-Cucurbite and evaporate in Sand about the fourth part of the Liquor put that which remains into a Cellar or some other cool place and let it lye there five or six Hours you 'l find Blue Crystals separate them and continue to evaporate and crystallize till you have drawn them all dry these Crystals and keep them in a Viol well stopt They are Caustick and are used to consume superfluous or proud flesh If you leave these Crystals in a Pan uncover'd they will turn into liquor that may serve for the same use Remarks You must put the Copper into a large body placed within the Chimney and pour to it by little and little the Spirit of Niter there does presently rise a great effervescency and a red cloud from it which would be very mischievous to the breast if it were not avoided Then the vessel grows so hot that a man cannot keep his hand upon it and the heat continues until the solution be finished for then the liquor clears up and becomes of a fair blue colour The great effervescency that happens does proceed from the sutable Pores of Copper to the edges of Spirit of Niter so that they can make their entrance and jostles with a good force for when these edges which did before swim with all liberty in a liquid do find their motion checkt in the body of the metal they do strive to disengage themselves and do thereby separate the parts of the Copper It is this violent separation which causes the ebullition and heat for the acid edges striking strongly against the solid parts of Copper do cause a great agitation in the liquor and by that means do excite a heat much after the manner as when two solid bodies are beaten against one another violently they grow so hot as even to strike fire The red cloud is derived from the Spirit of Niter which upon rarefaction does always acquire that same colour When the Copper is but half dissolved it is green but when it is all dissolved it assumes a blue colour if you will separate the acids again from the Copper dissolved and reunite the parts by the help of fire it recovers its red colour After that the acids have divided the parts of Copper as much as they are able they stick fast to them and suspend them in the liquor Some part of the liquor is evaporated that the rest may crystallize the more easily That which flies away in time of the solution is the more phlegmatick part Vitriol of Copper is nothing but the acids of Spirit of Niter incorporated in the Copper and it is these Spirits that cause all the Corrosion for they are like so many little knives fastned to the Body of the Copper which do tear and gnaw the flesh on which they are applied This Vitriol dissolves into Liquor because the Copper having large Pores the moisture doth easily insinuate into them Other Crystals of Venus These Crystals of Venus are the acid part of the Vinegar incorporated into Copper Take what quantity you please of Verdegrease in powder put it into a large Matrass and pour upon it distilled
not think the hardness of the parts of Steel above Iron whose Pores are more open does render it less proper for all sorts of Preparations seeing Spirit of Vitriol and many other acids are found to dissolve with the same ease both Iron and Steel I Answer that if Corrosive spirits do dissolve Steel they can dissolve Iron more easily and whereas a smaller quantity of them can operate upon Iron than Steel a better effect does thence follow Fifthly 'T is objected that the solidity of Steel may be an advantageous circumstance to it for the better fixing the dissolving Juices that are in the stomach and that for Metals the pure are to be chosen before those that are not so I Answer that instead of the solidity of Steels being helpful to the stomach it is certainly of great prejudice to it as well as to those other parts it is distributed into for the juices that are found in the stomach being but weak dissolvents are not able to penetrate nor rarifie this metal if it be too hard so that they leave it crude and indigest heavy and troublesome to this part Wherefore it passes away by Stool without any good effect as it often happens But now if a little of this Steel does happen to pass along with the Chyle it rather causes than takes away Obstructions for by insinuating into small vessels it stops in the narrow passages and causes grievous pains For what is said concerning the Purity of Metals it is of great use to Tradesmen for they by Purifying metals from their more rarified and Volatile parts do make them the less Porous and so the less liable to suffer prejudice from Air or time Thus Steel is much fitter for Utensils than Iron because its Pores are closer laid together and it takes not rust so soon as Iron but in Remedies it is not the same thing for those Metals that are more rarified and are more easily dissolved in the Body are such as we find best effects from for the reason I have given So that what Workmen call Purity is often but an impurity in Remedies Sixthly They say that if one would hope to find a distinct Salt in Mars it would be more likely to find it in that which is Purified than in the Faeces which are separated from it and which are indeed but the Impurities of Iron that Steel is made of I Answer there would be some reason to think that Salt might be more easily found in Steel than Iron if in the making of Steel Iron were simply Calcined without adding Nails and Horns of Animals in the Calcination for then it might be said that the Sulphur of Iron being in part evaporated its salt would be the more Soluble but we must consider that the Volatile salts which come from these parts of Animals being piercing Alkali's do destroy the acid salts of Iron and do thereby render the Steel more compact and unfit to take rust because the salts which by their motion did rarifie the metal are fixed and as it were mortified and have not the capacity of acting as they did This is the reason why a plate of Steel that has infused in Water will not give so great Impression to it as a plate of Iron Calcined of the same weight infusing the same time will do Another thing remarkable in the Calcination of Iron to turn it into Steel is that it is thereby deprived of its more Volatile salt which should have most effect with it in hopes to free it from Impurities and that which is called the Scories is the better part of Iron that has been rarified by its salt Thus for the same reason that some are pleased to call the rust of Iron its dross the whole metal may deserve the same appellation all of it being capable of rusting if it be but laid in the open air Another Aperitive Saffron of Mars This Preparation is the filings of Iron turned into rust in the Rain Put the filings of Iron into an earthen Pot unglazed and expose it to the Rain until it turns into a Paste Then set it a drying in the shade and it will rust powder it and expose it to the Rain again as before and so let it rust continue to rehumectate and rust this matter for twelve several times Then powdering it very fine keep it for use You may wet it with the water of Honey instead of Rain This Crocus hath the same virtues as the other and is given in the same Dose I cannot but prefer that which I described before because I conceive it to be more open than this Another Opening Saffron of Mars This Preparation is only the filings of Iron Calcined with Sulphur Take equal quantities of the filings of Steel and Sulphur powdered Mix them together and make them into a Paste with water put this Paste into an earthen Pan and leave it a fermenting four or five hours after which put the Pan over a good fire and stir the matter with an Iron Spatula it will flame and when the Sulphur is burnt it will appear black but continuing a good strong fire and stirring it about two hours it will be of a very red colour which declares to you the Operation is ended Let it cool and this Crocus may serve in the same Diseases as the former the Dose is from fifteen Grains to a Drachm Remarks I have thought good to deliver this Preparation for the convenience of such who need a great quantity of Saffron of Mars and who have not leasure enough to make it according to the other descriptions for it is sooner Calcined and is of a redder colour than any that are made with fire A Paste is made of the mixture to the end that the acidity of the Sulphur being diluted by Water may insensibly penetrate the Iron and open it the better and it is very easie to observe this penetration seeing that the matter does grow so hot of it self that a man can hardly endure his hand upon it It is the same thing whether you make a smaller quantity or make five and twenty or thirty pounds of this Preparation at a time it flames and half calcines before it is put upon the Fire which cannot be explicated but by the violent action and frication of the acid part of the Sulphur against the solid body of this metal This Operation may very well help us to explicate after what manner the Sulphurs do ferment in the earth when it happens to tremble and fires do burst forth as does too often happen in many Countries and among others at Mount Vesuvius and Mount Aetna for these Sulphurs mixing in Iron Mines may penetrate the Metal produce a heat and at last take flame after the same manner as they do in the present Operation And it will be in vain to object that there is no Air in the earth to help to fire the Sulphurs for there are clefts sufficient in the earth to give entrance
repeat these evaporations and Crystallizations until you have got all your Crystals then dry them and keep them in a Glass bottle well stopt This Vitriol of Mars hath the same virtues as the former and must be given in the same Dose Remarks The Spirit of Vitriol is weakned by the Water to the end that it may be incapable of dissolving but only the purer part of Mars Moreover if it were used alone it would incorporate with the very substance of Mars but would not be able to dissolve any of it because there would be wanting sufficient moisture to separate its parts During the dissolution the liquor heats and boils considerably because the acidity of Spirit of Vitriol doth violently enter the body of this metal and makes a separation of its parts To Evaporate unto a Pellicle doth signifie to consume the Liquor until a kind of thin skin is perceived to swim upon it which always happens when some part of the moisture being evaporated there remains but little more than is necessary to hold the Salt in Fusion An Acid Spirit may be drawn from this Vitriol of Mars by distilling it in a Retort in a Reverberatory fire like common Vitriol this Spirit hath been thought to have the same virtues as ordinary Spirit of Vitriol but it can't be near so good because it hath much blunted or broken some part of its edges against the body of Mars in the dissolution and distillation That which remains in the Retort after distillation is that part of Mars which the Spirit of Vitriol had dissolved It may be used like an aperitive Crocus Martis Those who do attribute the aperitive effect of Mars only to its sweetning as an Alkali the acid juices which do too plentifully abound in mens bodies will find it hard to explicate how these two last preparations do come to be esteemed the best aperitives which are made upon Mars for the acid does so far predominate in their composition that the Alkali is able to do little or nothing Tincture of Mars with Tartar This Preparation is a dissolution of Iron performed by the acid of Tartar Take Twelve ounces of the Rust of Iron and Two pounds of White Tartar of Montpelier powder and mix them together then boil them in a great Iron pot or Cauldron with Twelve or Fifteen pints of Rain-water for Twelve hours time stir the matter with an Iron Slice from time to time and take care to put more boiling water into the Cauldron according as it consumes afterwards leave it a while to settle and you 'l have a black Liquor Filtrate and evaporate it in an Earthen Pan over a Sand-fire to the consistence of a Syrup or till there rises a Pellicle upon it It is a very great Aperitive it opens the most inveterate Obstructions and is given in Cachexies Dropsies Obstruction of the Terms and other Diseases that proceed from Oppilations the Dose is from a Drachm to half an ounce in Broth or some appropriate Liquor Remarks Water alone would not be able enough to penetrate the Iron for to make a Tincture though you should boil it a Month together But when it is impregnated with Tartar it dissolves it very easily Nevertheless you must not think that this Tincture is a perfect solution of Mars for if there were an intire solution of it there would appear no more Tincture than there does in the solution of it with Spirit of Vitriol and water but because the soluble part of Tartar which is the agent in this Operation is only an impure acid Salt it can but grosly rarify the Mars and after mixing with it keep it suspended in the water After the Tincture is drawn there remains a whitish matter that you must fling away as good for nothing it is a mixture of the grosser parts of Tartar and Mars This Tincture is called Syrup of Mars by reason of a certain sweetness that is perceived in its Taste It is reduced into the consistence of a Syrup to keep the better As for its virtues it is a very great Aperitive because the force of Mars is assisted by the Tartar that serves to be its Vehicle Opening Extract of Mars This Preparation is a solution of the more open parts of Iron by aperitive juices and reduced into a solid consistence by fire Take Eight ounces of the Rust of Iron prepared in the Morning Dew put it in an Iron pot and pour upon it three pounds of the Water of Honey and four pounds of Must or the juice of White grapes perfectly ripe Add to it four ounces of juice of Lemons cover it with an Iron Cover and set it in a Furnace over a little fire leave the Matter in Digestion three days then boil the Matter gently three or four hours uncovering the Pot ever now and then to stir up the bottom with an Iron slice then cover it again that the moisture may not evaporate too fast When you perceive the Liquor to be black you must take away the fire and leave it a while to settle pass warm through a cloth that which is clear and evaporate the liquor in a Sand fire in an Earthen pan or Glass vessel to the consistence of an Extract 'T is a very good aperitive it hath the same virtues as the Tincture for Obstructions of the Liver Spleen and Mesentery it delivers the Lymphatick vessels admirably well of what may hinder the current of Serum The Dose is from Ten grains to two Scruples in Pills or else dissolved in some proper Liquor That which remains in the bottom of the Iron pot is the more Earthy part of Mars that is good for nothing Remarks This Extract doth not receive its consistence only from the Iron but from the Tartareous juices of the Grapes and Lemons with which it is mixed its virtue is augmented by the Essential Salts and the Spirit of Honey that leaves in it a very good impression The mixture is left in digestion for the better Dissolution of the Mars but seeing the Menstruum is not very sharp or corrosive it dissolves only the more Saline and soluble parts This Description is not common but may be preferred before many others Every body grants that Mars is as excellent a Remedy as any in all Physick for opening Obstructions and restoring a good complexion to those that want it by reason of Obstructions but you must not be contented with giving it once or twice but for a fortnight together some intervals may be observed that nature may not be troubled too much In hot climes such as Languedoc and Provence where are more Oppilations than in other Countries they make no difficulty to take it sometimes every day for a month together after a due Preparation and it is the best Remedy that hath been known for that Distemper Binding Extract of Mars This Preparation is a solution of Iron made with an astringent Wine and reduced into a thick consistence by fire Take Eight ounces of the
there rises up a dust to the Nose that is very unwholsom that which we aim at therefore by dissolving it and reducing it into a white Mass is only to prepare it for an easier mixture In the Sublimation I have described the Mercury loads it self with as many Acid Spirits as it is able to contain these Spirits are a kind of load to it and restrain its great Volatility so that it doth not evaporate quite away as it would do if there were nothing to withhold it but it only Sublimes to the upper part of the Vessel in fair white Crystals that are called Sublimate Corrosive the Mass that remains at the bottom of the Matrass is nothing but a mixture of the Terrestrious parts of Salt and Vitriol it weighs eight and twenty ounces Some will needs blame this preparation of Sublimate Corrosive by saying that when it is used to the making Mercurius dulcis the Spirit of Niter ought to be suspected by reason of its acrimony and particularly its Saline Sulphureous parts But by performing this Operation the way that I have described there will be no need of retaining any scruple upon this account because the Sublimate can't be made without an evaporation of many red vapours through the entrance of the Matrass for three hours time at the least and these vapours can be nothing else but the Spirits of Niter for so small a fire is not able to separate and raise so high the Spirits of Salt and Vitriol Thus there is no need of fearing these Saline Sulphureous Spirits with which Spirit of Niter is thought to be well stored because they being of a Volatile nature must necessarily come before the others But supposing that Spirit of Niter did still remain in the Sublimate Corrosive of which we make our Mercurius dulcis I see no reason why we should apprehend more hurt from their acrimony than from the other Corrosive Spirits because few men scruple to give this Spirit itself inwardly in potions for the Colick and other diseases and they give divers Preparations made with this dissolvent such as white Precipitate and many Precipitates of Gold and Silver without any visible harm But that which is most remarkable is that even those who cry out upon this Preparation for being made with Spirit of Niter do nevertheless themselves recommend and use much a Mercurius dulcis which they make by Subliming white Precipitate that is prepared with Spirit of Niter The Corrosion of Sublimate does proceed from the edged Acids which do fix in the body of Mercury and it may be said with great probability that this metal always retaining a round figure let it be divided never so subtily does rarifie by the heat of fire into an abundance of little balls which the acid Spirits do fix into on all sides and so interlace themselves in it that they hinder its rising higher and do together make one body that is called Sublimate But when this Sublimate is applied to flesh the heat and moisture of it do set in motion the Mercurial parts and the motion of the little balls being once raised they rowl about with great fury and tear the flesh with the edges they contain which are like so many little knives cutting whereever they touch from whence it comes to pass that if the Sublimate should be taken inwardly it kills in a very little time the humidity which does always accompany and soften our flesh gives it a greater hold than otherwise it would have which is the reason why Sublimate does act with that celerity it does upon a soft moist part rather than a dry nay it is often wetted with a little water to make it work the more quickly By this Remark may be explicated why the Lapis infernalis which is a Silver filled with the edges of Spirit of Niter has not so violent an effect as Sublimate Corrosive because the parts of Silver have no such aptitude to rowl to and fro and to rise as those of Mercury have for which reason it is likewise that it does not make so great an Eschar as the Sublimate although it does contain at least as much Spirit of Niter as the other And thus a reason may be given why even six grains of Crystals of Silver may be given by mouth without any danger whenas not two grains of Sublimate can be given without a manifest danger because the Crystals of the Moon have not that circulary motion in their parts as Sublimate has all their tendency is only downwards and all that they can do is to purge by their Acidity When Sublimate Corrosive is dissolved in Lime-water the water presently turns yellow as is seen in the Phagedenick water and it loses so much of its Corrosive quality that it may be given inwardly after that without fear of poisoning and the reason of this is that the greatest part of the acid points strike off from the Sublimate to enter into the alkali of Lime which is a more porous body so that the Mercury losing some of its most keen acids becomes the less Corrosive It will not be amiss to acquaint you here that you 'l often meet in the Shops of Druggists with a Sublimate Corrosive made of Arsenick Now to know the truth of it you must only rub it with a little Salt of Tartar and if it turns black there is Arsenick infallibly in it on the contrary if it turns yellow it is good Those who have thought fit to Criticize upon what I have said about the effects of Mercury would methinks have spoken more to the purpose than they have done if they had objected to me one difficulty that I have made my self since the first Edition of my Book and which has seemed to me to be the greatest that can be made on this subject It is this If the Mercury that is given in order to raise a Flux does joyn with the acid salt of our humors and so does make a Sublimate Corrosive after the same manner as it does in the Matrass when it is mixt with Salt and Vitriol this Sublimate of the body cannot be well made so long as there is any watry humor in the part wherein the Mercury is mixt with the acids just as none of it can be made in a Matrass until all the Phlegm that 's in it is evaporated away Now it is not to be conceived that there should ever happen such a Desiccation of humours to the body for it would be Corroded by the Mercury so loaded with acids before it could Sublime To answer this Objection I say That although I have made a comparison between the Sublimation of Mercury that 's made in the body and that which is done in a Matrass nevertheless there is this difference between them that the first is not only made with Salts extremely volatile but is likewise assisted or carried on by the motion of the humours with all their humidity up to the head whereas this other is made
you desire to make this Precipitate exceeding white you must dissolve the Mercury in a vessel whose mouth is very large that so the red vapour of the Spirit of Niter may sly out the more easily When the dissolution is made without the help of fire the Precipitate is the whiter The Precipitation of Mercury may be made with the Spirit of Salt as well as the salt in substance This is not so easily made as that of Bismuth because the pores of Mercury being smaller than those of Bismuth do retain with more force the acids which are fixt into it Moreover Quick-silver being of a volatile nature does remain suspended in the liquor more easily than Bismuth which is a body altogether fixt It may well seem strange that an acid salt such as sea-salt should be able to precipitate that which the acidity of Spirit of Niter had dissolved To resolve this difficulty you must know that though our Senses tell us that acids do all perform the same effect which is to prick and to pierce yet nevertheless they all do differ in the figure of their points for according as they have received more or less fermentation they have also consequently their points more subtile sharp and light and this is attested not only by taste but the sight also for if you should Crystallize the same body by dissolving several parts of it in several vessels by Spirit of Salt Spirit of Niter Spirit of Vitriol Spirit of Alom and by Vinegar you 'l observe so many kinds of Crystals different in figure as there were different dissolutions The Crystals made by Vinegar will be more sharp than those prepared by Spirit of Niter those made by Spirit of Niter will be sharper than those by the Spirit of Vitriol those made by Spirit of Vitriol will be sharper than those by the Spirit of Alom but of all these Crystals none will be found to have grosser parts than those prepared by the Spirit of Salt for these Crystals do all retain the figure of their constituent parts This now being supposed it will be an easie matter to explicate our Precipitation for the salt or its spirit containing points more gross or less delicate than those of Spirit of Niter and falling on this dissolution do move jostle and easily break the points impregnated with the body of Mercury and so do make them let go their hold whence it comes that Mercury precipitates by its own weight The same Principle may serve to explicate why Lead dissolved in Vinegar precipitates by means of the Spirit of Vitriol or Salt You must observe not to make the water too salt for then the great quantity of salt would hinder the Mercury from precipitating The Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack containing an alkali salt does much help the Precipitation for its agility carries it into every recess of the liquor where the sea-salt whose parts are not of so active a nature was not able to go which is proved from hence that if you use only sea-salt dissolved in water to make this Precipitation with it will then happen that if after pouring off the clear liquor which swims upon the Precipitate into another vessel you drop the Spirit of Sal Armoniack into the liquor there falls a considerable quantity of Mercurial Precipitate which may serve like the other If instead of the volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack you 'd use the Oil of Tartar made per Deliquium the Pricipitate would then be reddish Two objections have been made against my manner of explicating the Precipitation of such matters as Spirit of Niter had dissolved made by Sea-Salt First they say it is not proper to make the jostles and encounter of salt-water with Spirit of Niter loaded with bodies which it had dissolved to be the cause of its precipitation whenas the most violent jogs that can be given to the solution either from an arm or with matters much more heavy and solid than sea-salt are not able to cause the precipitation This Objection will raise no difficulty to any that are a little skill'd in Natural Philosophy for although I have said that by reason the edges of sea-salt are grosser than those of Spirit of Niter the sea-salt does precipitate what Spirit of Niter had dissolved and suspended I never meant that if these edges were as big as a mans arm they would do it the better It is sufficiently known that there must be a proportionable subtilty of parts between the dissolvent and that which does precipitate and that the edges of an acid must be otherwise treated than with a cuff of the fist in order to make them let go their hold But I intended to make it appear that if sea-salt does jog and shake the edges of Spirit of Niter it does it by dividing into very minute parts and thereby entring into the pores of the phlegm which in would not be able to do if these parts were as big as a mans arm or were like the solid heavy matters now spoken of Secondly if the grossness of the edges of sea-salt or the shock they give did make the precipitation of substances dissolved by Spirit of Niter we should expect afterwards to find the first with its gross edges separated from those of Spirit of Niter whereas upon evaporating and crystallizing the liquor their edges are indeed reciprocally confounded the one with the other making together a new body I answer that the shock and jostle which the edges of sea-salt do give to Spirit of Niter when loaded with some bodies does not hinder the edges of Spirit of Niter remaining after the precipitation from uniting with the sea-salt by which union the Crystals do become confused I shall here add one preparation more that is very proper to raise a Salivation with Take an ounce of the solution of Mercury made in Spirit of Niter put it into a glass-vessel and pour upon it three or four and twenty ounces of water all the liquor will turn white let it settle until it becomes clear filtrate the liquor and keep it for use This water may be given from half an ounce to an ounce in a glass of Ptisan or broth It vomits gently and provokes a Salivation some do drink half an ounce of it to cure the itch but they ought to be purged and bled before-hand Red Precipitate This preparation is a Mercury impregnated with Spirit of Niter and calcined by fire Take eight ounces of Mercury revived from Cinnabar dissolve it in a sufficient quantity of Spirit of Niter which is eight or nine ounces pour the dissolution into a Viol or Matrass with a short neck set it in Sand and evaporate all the moisture with a gentle heat until there remains a white Mass then quicken the fire by little and little to the third degree and keep it in this condition till all your matter is turned red then take it off the fire let the Viol cool and break it to obtain your Precipitate
which weighs nine ounces It is a good Escharotick it eats proud flesh it is used for the laying open of Chancres mixt with burnt Alom AEgyptiacum and the common Suppurative Some do give it inwardly to four grains for to raise a Flux with but this is dangerous unless rectified Spirit of Wine be burnt two or three times upon it Remarks This Preparation is improperly called Precipitate here being no Precipitation at all Many Authors have thought they could much encrease the redness of this Precipitate by Cohobating it or distilling Spirit of Niter three times upon the white mass but I have found by experience both ways that these Circumstances are of no use The white Mass which remains after Evaporation of the humidity is a mixture of Mercury with a great many acid Spirits for it weighs three ounces more than the Mercury did which was dissolved it is extreme Corrosive and fiery if applied to the flesh but according as it is Calcined in order to make it red the edges of the Spirit of Niter which caused the Corrosion do strike off and fly into the Air whence it comes to pass that the more we desire to encrease its redness by Calcination the less it weighs and the less it corrodes Some Chirurgeons observing this effect do choose the Precipitate that is not so red as usual when they would make an Eschar quickly If you still continue the fire some hours under the red mass it will sublime and still retain its colour this sublimate is not so Corrosive as the other which makes me think that the points of Spirit of Salt are necessary to make a sublimate very Corrosive The reason why it sublimes is because the Mercury being delivered from a great many acid Spirits which did fix it has power to rise with those that remain But because these remaining Spirits do moderate a little its volatility it makes a stop in the middle of the Viol. Some do put red Precipitate into an Earthen Pot and pour upon it Spirit of Wine well rectified then fire it and when the Spirit is consumed they add more and burn it as before they repeat the adding Spirit of Wine and burning it six times and then call this Preparation Arcanum Corallinum The Spirit of Wine by burning does carry off some edges of the Precipitate and joyns it self to the rest so that this Precipitate is sweetned and rendred fit to be taken inwardly If by way of curiosity you pour Spirit of Vitriol upon common red Precipitate such as I have described a dissolution will soon follow because Spirit of Vitriol joyning with the Spirit of Niter that remained in the Precipitate an Aqua fortis must happen from their union which is able to dissolve imperceptibly the parts of Mercury but this dissolution will happen without any Ebullition because the Mercury has been already rarified by an acid so that the Spirit of Vitriol does only dissolve them without making any commotion The solution is clear like other solutions of Mercury without any appearance of redness and the same Preparations may be made with it as are used to be by the solution of Quicksilver in Aqua fortis If instead of Spirit of Vitriol you pour Spirit of Salt upon the red Precipitate it turns presently into a curious white because the Spirit of Salt does break the force of the Spirit of Niter that was in the red Precipitate and the same thing must happen here as does when Spirit of Salt is poured upon the solution of Quicksilver for although red Precipitate be a dry body yet it is nothing else but a mixture of Quicksilver and Spirit of Niter I have given the reason why Spirit of Salt comes to weaken Spirit of Niter in my Remarks upon white Precipitate As for the sudden change of colour it is indeed somewhat strange that a matter which is grown red by Calcination should in a minutes time turn so exceeding white This Effect can be attributed only to the dislocation which the acid spirit of Salt does cause in the parts of red Precipitate and to the disposition it puts them anew into so that their Superficies is put into a capacity of reflecting the light in a right line to our eyes to give the appearance of a white colour for if by means of another sort of liquor or else by fire and some alkali body the disposition of the parts of your Precipitate is again changed it will obtain some other colour or else it will return and revive into Quicksilver If you pour the volatile spirit of Sal Armoniack upon red Precipitate it turns into a grey powder but if you throw a great deal of water upon it it becomes a milk though none of the whitest The same thing happens when you drop Spirit of Sal Armoniack into the solution of Quicksilver made with Spirit of Niter for soon after the effervescency is over a grey powder is seen to Precipitate and if you add to it water it becomes a milk of the same whiteness as the other Common red Precipitate then is subject to the same alterations as the solution of Mercury the red colour giving no particular impression to it which truly is a good proof that colour is no real thing but wholly depends upon the modification of parts Turbith Mineral or Yellow Precipitate This Preparation is a Mercury impregnated with the acidity of Oil of Vitriol Put four ounces of Quick-silver revived from Cinnabar into a glass Retort and pour upon it sixteen ounces of Oil of Vitriol set your Retort in Sand and when the Mercury is dissolved put fire underneath and distil the humidity make the fire strong enough toward the end for to drive out some of the last Spirits of all afterwards break your Retort and powder in a glass Mortar a white Mass you find within it which weighs five ounces and a half pour warm water upon it and the matter will presently change into a yellow powder which you must dulcifie by a great many repeated Lotions then dry it in the shade you 'l have three ounces and two drachms of it It purges strongly both by vomit and stool it is given in Venereal maladies the dose is from two grains unto six in Pills Remarks Though that which is improperly called Oil of Vitriol be the strongest and most Caustick acid of this Mineral Salt it is nevertheless much weaker than Spirit of Niter and so requires a greater quantity of it and longer time to dissolve the Mercury in for there 's much a-do to dispatch the solution in ten hours That which is distilled is exceeding weak because the Mercury retains the greatest part of the acid Spirits and they are the things that purge so strongly although many of them be carried off by the Lotions All these Preparations are nothing but so many different shapes of Mercury made by acid Spirits which according to their different adhesions do cause such different effects All these Precipitates and
Sublimates may be revived again into flowing Mercury by mixing them with Lime and distilling them as I have said iâ— the reviving of Cinnabar into Quick-silver because the alkali of Lime destroys those acids thaâ— disguised the Quick-silver Oil or Liquor of Mercury This preparation is an acid liquor loaded with Mercury Put the lotions of the white mass that Turbiâ—â— Mineral was made of into an earthen pan oâ— glass vessel evaporate in Sand all the liquor until there remains at bottom a matter in form oâ— salt which weighs two ounces and a drachm puâ— the pan in a cellar or other cool place and then leave it until this matter be almost all dissolveâ— into liquor It is used for the laying open Venereal Shancres and eating the flesh Pledgets being dipt into it Remarks This liquor is nothing but Mercury so penetrated and divided by the acid Spirits of Vitriol that it can dissolve like a Salt now for that it contains these corrosive Spirits it eats and corrodes where-ever it touches like unto a Sublimate Corrosive This liquor may be made with spirit of Niter and then it will be more violent in its Operation but because it would then pierce too much and cause dangerous accidents I would rather choose to prepare it with Oil of Vitriol If you drop a few drops of the Oil of Tartar made per Deliquium into this liquor there will fall immediately a Mercurial Precipitate because the alkali of Tartar will break the edges that held up the Mercury dissolved Another Oil of Mercury This preparation is a Sublimate Corrosive dissolved in spirit of Wine Powder well an ounce of Sublimate Corrosive and put it into a Bolthead pour upon it four ounces of Spirit of Wine well rectified upon salt of Tartar stop well your Bolthead and let it infuse cold six or seven hours the Sublimate will dissolve but if any sediment remains at bottom decant the liquor from it and pouring upon the sediment a little more Spirit of Wine infuse it as before to finish the solution mix your solutions and keep them in a Viol well stopt This is an Oil of Mercury milder than the former it is good in Venereal Shancres especially when there is any fear of a Gangrene you may use it with pledgets like the former Remarks Spirit of Wine well rectified can dissolve sublimate corrosive but it is not able to dissolve Quick-silver nor even Mercurius dulcis the reason of which is that the Sublimate being a Mercury extremely rarified and already as it were suspended by acids the Spirit of Wine insinuates into it by little and little and dissolves its parts but Quick-silver and Mercurius dulcis consisting of parts too close and compact the Spirit of Wine which is a rarified Sulphur cannot give shakes strong enough to disjoyn or separate them This liquor is milder than the former because Spirit of Wine which is a Sulphur does so blunt the acid edges of Sublimate Corrosive that they cannot act with that strength they did when they were at liberty Other Precipitates of Mercury These preparations are only Sublimate Corrosive dissolved and precipitated into powders of different colours Mix 7 or 8 ounces of Sublimate Corrosive powdered in a glass or marble Mortar with 16 or 18 ounces of warm water stir them about for half an hour then let the liquor settle and pour it off by Inclination filter it and divide it into three parts to be put into so many Viols Pour into one of these Viols some drops of the Oil of Tartar made per Deliquium there falls immediately a red Precipitate Drop into another of these Viols some volatile spirit of Sal Armoniack and you have a white Precipitate Pour into the last of these Viols about a spoonful of Lime-water you have a yellow water that is called Phagaedenick-water or a water for Ulcers because it is good to cleanse and heal Ulcers the Chirurgeons do frequently use it especially in Hospitals if you let the liquor settle it will let fall a yellow precipitate To obtain these three Precipitates you have only to pour off the clear water by Inclination wash them and dry them apart Red precipitate may be used like that I described before but it is not so strong it is the truest red precipitate of any The white precipitate has the same virtues as the other Yellow precipitate may be used in Pomatums for the Itch half a drachm or a drachm of it is to be mixed with an ounce of Pomatum The Sublimate which remains at the bottom of the Mortar being dried may be used in Pomatums for the Itch like yellow precipitate Remarks Sublimate being a Mercury loaded with acids common water is able to dissolve some of it because these acids do rarefie it and make a kind of salt of it but because there are not acids enough in it to dissolve all the Mercury the most compact part of it remains at bottom the liquor is filtrated to clear and purifie it the more it is as clear and transparent as Fountain water If by way of Curiosity you should drop into the Viol of red precipitate that I now described some spirit of Sal Armoniack and would shake the liquor a little it would presently turn white and your precipitate would be white but if instead of spirit of Sal Armoniack you would use spirit of Vitriol an Ebullition would rise in it and the red liquor would become clear and transparent as common water Because the Oil of Tartar is an alkali salt dissolved it breaks the edges of the acid which held up the Mercury imperceptible and serv'd as Finns to make it swim in the water so that this Mercury having nothing left to bear it up must needs precipitate by its own weight The same thing happens when spirit of Sal Armoniack is thrown upon the other part of the solution of sublimate Corrosive For this spirit being in like manner an alkali produces the same effect as the Oil of Tartar But although alkali's do all agree in this that they break and destroy acids nevertheless there is always some difference in their action And this evidently appears in those differently coloured precipitates for this diversity can be attributed only to this that they having in several manners wrought upon acids do dispose and modifie the parts of the precipitated body so as they may be capable of making different Refractions of Light These precipitates are no longer poisons though they come from sublimate Corrosive and there 's the same reason for it as there is for the precipitations for seeing that which gave the Corrosion was an acid when this acid is destroyed by such powerful alkali's as are spirit of Sal Armoniack and Oil of Tartar that which remains must become sweet When spirit of Vitriol is thrown upon the liquor of red precipitate there rises an Ebullition because the acid does penetrate the alkali salt of the Oil of Tartar and this alkali being destroyed the acid dissolves
and for heating the lowermost When its bottom is red-hot cast into it a small spoonful of Antimony in powder through the hole and stir the matter at the bottom of the pot with an Iron Spatule crooked a little on purpose to do it the better draw out your Spatule and stop the hole the flowers will rise and stick in the upper pots Continue a great fire that the pot may still remain red-hot and when you see nothing more sublime cast in so much more Antimony observing to do what I have said Repeat the casting it in through the hole till you have flowers enough Then let the fire go out and when the vessels are cold unlute them you 'l find flowers all about the three upper pots and the head gather them together with a Feather and keep them in a Viol. It is a powerful Emetick it is given in Quartan Agues and other Intermittent Feavers and also in the Epilepsie the dose is from two grains to six in Lozenges or Broth. Remarks In this preparation as in the former you must leave room enough otherwise the flowers of Antimony being driven fiercely by the fire would be apt to break the vessel for want of room to move in And this is the reason why many pots are here placed one upon another There 's no need of any Receiver because there is no liquor to fall into it so that a blind head may serve At the bottom of the pot which contained the matter there remains a mass of the more terrestrious part of Antimony that must be flung away as being good for nothing If the Flowers of Antimony do happen to be of different colours it is because the fire was not managed equally strong these Flowers are more Vomitive than the former because they have no Salt-peter in them Red Flowers of Antimony These Flowers are the more sulphureous part of Antimony rarefied and exalted by fire Powder and mix well together four pounds of common glass with one pound of Antimony put this mixture into an earthen or glass Retort luted whose half is empty set it in a Reverberatory Furnace and fit to it a large Receiver lute the junctures lightly and give a little fire at first to warm the Retort then augment it by degrees and you 'l see Red flowers come forth into the Receiver continue the fire until no more can come which you 'l know as you unlute the junctures and taking off the Receiver gather your Flowers and keep them for use They are more Vomitive than the former and are given to the same intents the dose is from two grains to four in a Lozenge or some appropriate liquor Remarks That which makes these Flowers more Vomitive than the former is the more terrestrious or fixt part of Antimony's being kept from rising by the glass so that what is exalted by the fire is more Sulphureous and consequently more Emetick The red colour of these Flowers doth proceed from the abundance of Sulphurs they are impregnated with and it may be said that glass which is an alkali acting on this Sulphur gives it this colour after the same manner as Quick-lime or the alkali Salt of Tartar makes common Sulphur turn red when they are boiled together in water The time that you take these Flowers of Antimony you must often drink broth both to facilitate the vomiting and dull the great activity of this Remedy for it is one of the strongest vomits that is in Physick But because it sometimes happens that this Powder sticking in the membranes of the stomach or some of its folds doth cause a continual vomiting notwithstanding the frequent use of broths you must then add the Cream of Tartar and dissolve it in the broth and so take some spoonful every quarter of an hour This Cream of Tartar stops the vomiting because it joyns with the Sulphurs of Antimony and fixes them so that they precipitate by stool Butter or Icy Oil of Antimony This preparation is an Antimony rendred caustick by acids Powder and mix six ounces of the Regulus of Antimony with a pound of Sublimate Corrosive put this mixture into a glass Retort whose half remains empty set your Retort in Sand and after having fitted to it a Receiver and luted the conjunctions you must first make a small fire under it and there will distil a clear oil after that augment the fire a little and there will come forth a white thick liquor like Butter which would stop the neck of the Retort and break it if you did not take care to set live Coals near it that it may melt and run into the Receiver Continue the fire until you see a red vapour come forth Then take away the Receiver and put another in its place filled with water Encrease the fire by degrees to make the Retort red-hot and the Mercury will run into the water dry it and keep it for use as other Mercury The Butter of Antimony is a Caustick it eats proud flesh and cleanses Ulcers the Powder of Algarot is made of it as I shall shew hereafter Remarks This Butter of Antimony is nothing but a mixture of the acid Spirits of Sublimate Corrosive with the Regulus of Antimony and those Spirits are they that render it Caustick The spirits of Salt and Vitriol in this operation do leave the Mercury to adhere unto the Antimony which is more porous insomuch that the Mercury being divested of that which kept it in a Crystalline form and being driven by a strong fire rarefies into vapours which pass through the neck of the Retort into the Receiver filled with water wherein it condenses into Quick-silver by means of the coolness I doubt not but some will find difficulty in conceiving how the acids that adhered to the solid body of Mercury should strike off to joyn with the Antimony but it may be said to that that the acids being so many edges fastned at one end in the body of Mercury may by t'other end be separated and drawn off by the soft and ramous parts of the Antimony that are in greater motion than the Mercury Instead of Regulus the Liver or Glass of Antimony might serve if you please Butter of Antimony together with its Cinnabar The first of these preparations is an Antimony opened and rendred caustick by the acids of Sublimate Corrosive and the second is a mixture of the Mercury that was in the sublimate and of the Sulphurs of Antimony sublimed together Fill a Retort half full with Sublimate Corrosive and Antimony powdered and mixed well together Set your Retort in Sand in a small Furnace and fitting a Receiver to it and luting the junctures proceed in the distillation the way I shewed in the preceding operation with Regulus observing the same circumstances When the red vapours begin to appear take away the Receiver and put another in its place without luting the junctures encrease the fire by little and little till you make the Retort red-hot continue
violently driven about by the volatile part of Salt-peter finds a little hole to fly out at The more fixt part of Arsenick remains at bottom with the fixt salt-peter The matter is Calcined again that being the more open it may be the more Caustick but this must be done in a covered Crucible for otherwise the Arsenick which is almost all of it sulphur would fly quite away by the great fire Corrosive Oil of Arsenick This liquor is an Arsenick opened and become of the consistence of butter by the acids of sublimate Corrosive Take equal parts of Arsenick and Sublimate Corrosive powder and mix them put this mixture into a glass-retort and set it in sand fit to it a Receiver and luting the junctures distil with a gentle fire a butter-like liquor resembling the butter of Antimony and when no more will distil take away the Receiver and put another in its place filled with water Encrease the fire and you 'l see the Mercury fall into the water drop by drop continue the distillation till there comes no more You may use this Mercury on all occasions like to another after you have washed and dried it The Butter of Arsenick is a very strong Caustick it makes an Eschar more quickly than that of Antimony Remarks The same thing happens in this operation that I spoke of in the Butter of Antimony that is the Spirits of Sublimate Corrosive do leave the Mercury to joyn with the Arsenick which they draw along with them in a gummous liquor the Mercury being afterwards disengaged and finding no sulphurs to fix it comes forth in a vapour and condenses into water CHAP. XI Of Quick-lime QVick-lime is a Stone whose moisture the fire hath quite dried up and brought into its place a great many igneous bodies It is these little bodies that cause the Ebullition when water hath opened the matter that kept them inclosed and this Ebullition lasts until all the parts of the Lime are dilated and the fiery particles set at liberty so that there is no need of further trouble to get out These little igneous bodies do likewise render the Lime Corrosive for the stone is not at all so of it self When the stone that Quick-lime is made of is grown red hot in the Furnaces the Workmen have a special care to keep up the fire at an equal height until the stone is quite Calcin'd for if the flame which has begun to burn among the stones should be suffered to lessen for a while and so the heat be checkt before the end of the work they would never afterwards be able to make Quick-lime with those stones any more though they should be at the charge of burning fifty times as much wood as is commonly required and this because in that interval of heat the pores of the stone which were begun to be opened do close and shut and the matter sinks down in a lump to the destruction of the whole And then again the flame can't rise in it any more for it finds none of those interstices or spaces between which were frequent before for it to pass through The matter therefore is rendred uncapable of receiving the fire any more because all the small cells that were useful for its reception are shut up and destroyed in this confusion It is objected that if igneous bodies were they that caused the Corrosion of Quick-lime Tiles Bricks and all stones that are not of the nature of Lime-stone and Iron Copper Silver Gold and many other bodies should be as Caustick as Quick-lime after having endured the fire as long if not longer than it But this does not follow for Tiles and other Calcined stones have not the pores disposed like those of Quick-lime to retain fiery particles and if some metals are found impregnated with them during their Calcination they are known to retain them so well by the solidity of their parts that neither the heat nor moisture of the flesh are able to draw them out of the places they are fixt in to cause a Corrosion upon the part It is easie here to give you an example for if you take the Calx of Lead that encreased its weight in the Calcination as I have said before and steep it in water the water will not act at all upon it and the Calx may be taken from the water in the same weight it was put in you must melt it by fire if you would separate the igneous bodies but now as for common Quick-lime a small matter of moisture is able to separate the tender parts of the stone and drive out the fiery particles in abundance It is said likewise that the ebullition of water which happens when flung upon Quick-lime must not be imputed to fiery bodies seeing neither spirit of wine nor oil when thrown upon it do at all cause heat although they are both of them Inflammable bodies nay on the contrary they are observed to quench the heat that uses to happen to Quick-lime when water is joyned with it I Answer that these effects do proceed from this that Oil spirit of wine and other Sulphureous liquors of the same nature instead of separating the parts of quick-lime as water does do rather hinder any separation from being made by stopping up the pores That which withdrew me from the Sentiment of those who will have all the effects of quick-lime derived from its salt was that I could never find any in it though I have sought after it with care enough for some through mistake do take a certain Bituminous scum which often swims upon the Lime-water for a salt Neither can I be of the opinion of those who will needs have an acid to be in quick-lime which being drawn out by the water and meeting an alkali does cause the effervescency which is observed when water is poured upon quick-lime for although according to appearance an acid may enter into the natural composition of the stone that quick-lime is made of this acid has lost its nature not only by breaking its points in its strict union with earth at the Petrification but also in the violent Calcination that is given to this stone to reduce it to a Calx So that we may here say the same thing happens to the acid which enters into the composition of the stone as I have said did happen to the salt of Vegetables and other mixt bodies which though naturally an acid salt changes into an alkali by means of its union with earth and the fiery particles in time of the Calcination there is only this difference between them both the acid of the stone is mixed with more earth than the salt of Vegetables When Lime is once slackt it neither causes any more ebullition nor heat with water but if you add to it an acid it makes both a considerable ebullition and heat because the acid edges will penetrate into the particles of the Lime where the water was not able to go There is not made
observed as near as may be the opposite place to your writing rub the last leaf of the Book with Cotton dipt in the liquor made of Quick-lime and Orpin nay and leave the Cotton on the place clap a folded paper presently upon it and shutting the book quickly strike upon it with your hand four or five good strokes then turn the book and clap it into a press for half a quarter of an hour take it out and open it you 'l find the place appear black where you had writ with the Invisible Ink. The same thing might be done through a wall if you could provide something to lay on both sides that might hinder the evaporation of the Spirits Remarks These Operations are indeed of no use but because they are somewhat surprizing I hope the curious will not take it ill that I make this small digression It is a hard matter to explicate well the effects I have now related nevertheless I shall endeavour to illustrate them a little without having recourse to Sympathy and Antipathy which are general terms and do explicate nothing at all but before I begin we must remark several things The first is that it is an essential point to quench the coal of Cork in Aqua vitae that the visible Ink may become black with it Secondly that the blackness of this Ink does proceed from the fuliginosity or sooty part of the coal of the Cork which is exceeding porous and light and that this fuliginosity is nothing but an oil very much rarefied Thirdly that the Impregnation of Saturn which makes the invisible Ink is only a Lead dissolved and held up imperceptibly in an acid liquor as I have said when I spoke of this metal Fourthly that the first of these liquors is a mixture of the alkali and igneous parts of Quick-lime with the sulphureous substance of Arsenick for the Orpin is a sort of Arsenick as I said before All this being granted as no body can reasonably think otherwise I now affirm that the reason why the visible Ink does disappear when the defacing liquor is rubbed upon it is that this liquor consisting of an alkali salt and parts that are oily and penetrating this mixture does make a kind of soap which is able to dissolve any fuliginous substance such as burnt Cork especially when it has been already rarefied and disposed for dissolution by Aqua vitae after the same manner as common soap which is compounded of oil and an alkali salt is able to take away or make disappear spots made by grease But it may be demanded why after the dissolution the blackness does disappear I answer that the fuliginous parts have been so divided and lockt up in the sulphureous alkali of the liquor that they are become invisible and we see every day that very exact solutions do render the thing dissolved imperceptible and without colour The little alkali salt which is in the burnt Cork may also the better serve to joyn with the alkali of the quick-lime and to help the dissolution As for the invisible Ink it is easie to apprehend how that appears black when the same liquor which serves to deface the other is used upon it For whereas the impregnation of Saturn is only a Lead suspended by the edges of the acid liquor this Lead must needs revive and resume its black colour when that which held it rarefied is intirely destroyed so the alkali of Quick-lime being filled with the sulphurs of Arsenick becomes very proper to break and destroy the acids and to agglutinate together the particles of Lead It happens then that the visible Ink does disappear by reason that the parts which did render it black have been dissolved and the invisible Ink does also appear because the dissolved parts have been revived Quick-lime and Orpiment being mixed and digested together in water do yield a smell much like that which happens when common sulphur is boiled in a Lixivium of Tartar This here is the stronger because the sulphur of Arsenick is loaded with certain Salts that make a stronger impression on the smell Quick-lime is an alkali that operates in this much like the Salt of Tartar in the other Operation you must not leave the matrass open because the force of this water doth consist in a Volatile The Lime retains the more fixt part of the Arsenick and the Sulphurs that come forth are so much the more subtile as they are separated from what did fix them before and this appears to be so because the Sulphurs must of necessity pass through all the book to make a writing of a clear and invisible liquor appear black and visible and to facilitate this penetration the book is strook and then turned about because the Spirits or Volatile Sulphurs do always tend upwards you must likewise clap it into a press that these Sulphurs may not be dispersed in the air I have found that if these circumstances are not observed the business fails Furthermore that which perswades me that the Sulphurs do pass through the book and not take a circuit to slip in by the sides as many do imagine is that after the book is taken out of the press all the inside is found to be scented with the smell of this liquor There is one thing more to be observed which is that the infusion of Quick-lime and Orpin be newly made because otherwise it will not have force enough to penetrate The three liquors should be made in different places too for if they should approach near one another they would be spoiled This last effect does likewise proceed from the defacing liquor for because upon the digestion of Quick-lime and Orpin it is a thing impossible but some of the particles will exalt stop the vessel as close as you will the air impregnated with these little bodies does mix with and alter the Inks insomuch that the visible Ink does thereby become the less black and the invisible Ink does also acquire a little blackness CHAP. XII Of Flints FLints as all other stones are made by different Salts or by acid liquors which do penetrate and incorporate with earth which is an alkali so that from their mixture there does result a Coagulum which by little and little does harden by means of the subterranean heat or else do petrifie by the cold Now you must observe that according to the quantity of earth which incounters with this acid liquor there are made such different sorts of stones Thus precious stones and Crystals do obtain their hardness and transparency from a just proportion such as is needful to make an exact penetration and a strict union of the acid with the earth There are found some waters in several places which falling upon stones do soon petrifie as particularly in a Grot at Arsi in Burgundy The reason that may be given of this petrification is that these waters do contain an acid which in passing through earths do dissolve some part of
Viol and keep it for use it is called the Oil of Philosophers It is a good Remedy applyed outwardly to discuss the Tumours of the Spleen for the Palsie Phthisick and suffocations of the mother It may be given inwardly from two to four drops in wine or some appropriate liquor Some drops of it are instilled into the Ear to dissipate the flatulent humours that are there inclosed Remarks This operation serves only to exalt the Oil of Olives that being more opened by the fire it may rarefie and dissolve humours more easily for you must not imagine that the Brick doth communicate any great virtue it is a dry body and wanting all active principles You must make a very moderate fire in this distillation that the Oil may come forth in vapours for if it should come out drop by drop it would not be so open nor would it produce so good effects Some do rectifie the Oil of Bricks with Colcothar instead of Bricks or else with the mass that remains after the distillation of Aqua fortis Antient Chymists have given the epithete Philosophick to all preparations wherein they have used Brick The reason that can be given for it is that because they call themselves the only True Philosophers or Philosophers by way of excellence they thought they were obliged to confer some influences of this mighty name upon Bricks because they are the materials wherewith they build their Furnaces to work at the high and mighty operation or the Philosophers stone for they pretend it is by this Operation alone that True Philosophy can be obtained CHAP. XIV Of Coral COral is a petrified plant that grows under deep hollow Rocks in many places of the Mediterranean Sea where the Sea is deep or rather it is a certain shoot from a Rock that hath received the form of a Plant. It is not true that it is taken out of the Sea soft as some have said There are of them of several colours as the White the Red and the Black now and then there are found some of two colours as Red and Black The Red is the most common and most in use it is chosen of a deep colour the White is more rare than the Red. A certain white stone very spungy that is like unto Coral is brought among us which is mistaken for true white Coral by those that don't know it but the true is not at all spungy it is rather very compact and as white as Ivory Black Coral is the greatest rarity of them all If you put the branches of Red Coral to infuse a day or two in melted white Wax upon hot embers the Coral will lose its former colour and become white and the wax will assume a yellow colour The Wax must be a fingers breadth above the Coral If you should put other red Coral to steep in the same Wax it would turn brown If again the third time you should put red Coral to steep in the same wax the wax would then become red The wax dissolves a little of the bituminous matter that is upon the Coral and which did render it red this operation is done only for curiosity Many persons do hang red Coral about the neck in order to stop Haemorrhagies to purifie the bloud and to fortifie the heart I believe that which gave occasion to think it has such excellent virtues was its Red colour which is like to that of the bloud and the heart but experience does no way confirm that outwardly applied it has any such effects Coral is prepared by beating it on a Marble into a most fine powder that it may the more easily be dissolved and this prepared Coral is given to stop Dysenteries Diarrheas Flux of the Haemorrhoids and Terms Haemorrhagies and all other distempers that are caused by an acrimony of humours this being an alkali that destroys them the dose is from ten grains to a drachm in Knot-grass water or some other appropriate liquor Dissolution of Coral Take what quantity you please of Coral finely powdered on a Marble put it into a large matrafs and pour upon it distilled Vinegar enough to cover the matter four fingers high there will happen a great effervescency which being over set your matter in digestion in warm sand for two days stirring the matrass from time to time Leave the Coral to settle at bottom and decant the clear liquor into a bottle Pour again so much distilled Vinegar on the remainder as before and leave it two days in digestion separate the clear liquor and continue to add more distilled Vinegar and to draw off the Impregnation until all the Coral is in a manner dissolved Then mix your dissolutions and pour them into a glass Cucurbite or else into an earthen one evaporate in sand two thirds of the liquor or until there appears upon it a very fine skin Filtrate this Impregnation and keep it in order to make the Salt and Magistery as I shall shew hereafter It may be given for the same purposes as the Salt the dose is from ten to twenty drops in some appropriate liquor Remarks Red Coral is generally used because it is thought to have more virtue than the rest by reason of its Tincture The effervescency which happens when Vinegar doth penetrate Coral is reckoned among cold effervescencies if there be any such for my part I cannot say that I ever perceived any coldness in it In truth it is very strange that so great an Ebullition or motion of the parts should not produce any sensible heat but you must consider that Coral having large pores may be easily dissolved and so the acids need not jostle it very much which would be requisite to produce any considerable heat Some do use in this operation the acid Lotion of Butter of Antimony or pure Spirit of Vitriol instead of Vinegar but because these spirits do leave too great an acidity in the Preparations of Coral I conceive it better to use distilled Vinegar Coral being an alkali the acid points do stick in it and suspending its parts do render them imperceptible and this is the reason that the Vinegar doth lose all its acidity because the acidity did only consist in the activity of its points which do now sheath themselves in the alkali If you would by way of curiosity distil this dissolution instead of Evaporating it as I have said you 'd gain nothing but an insipid water because the acid is fixt with the Coral This water is evaporated away because it would serve for nothing and would only weaken the impregnation The dissolution of Perle Crabs-eyes burnt Harts-horn and all other alkali matters is performed after the same manner their Salts and Magisteries may be likewise made as those of Coral which I am going to describe It is here remarkable that the solution of this sort of alkalies in distilled Vinegar smells much like spirit of Wine and that some quantity of it may be drawn with a very gentle fire the
reason of it is that in the making of Vinegar the acids had in a manner fixed this sulphureous Spirit but when they do enter into the pores of Coral they are forced to quit it and so let it recover its volatility Magistery of Coral Take what quantity you please of the impregnation of Coral either red or white made with distilled Vinegar as I have said before pour it it into a Viol or matrass and drop into it the liquor of the Salt of Tartar made per deliquium a Curd will appear which will precipitate to the bottom in a very white powder decant the clear liquor and washing your powder five or six times with water dry it it is that which is called the Magistery of Coral Great virtues are attributed to it such as to revive and fortifie the heart resist poison stop the bloody Flux and all other Haemorrhagies The dose is from ten to thirty grains in some liquor appropriate to the disease Remarks The name of Magistery is given only to Precipitates and they are so called to express something more exquisite than ordinary The liquor of Tartar which is an alkali salt dissolved encountring the acid makes it let go the particles of Coral that it held suspended and so they precipitate by their own weight this precipitate is nothing else but a Coral finely powdered by means of acids which do easily divide into abundance of parts things that otherwise would seem indivisible But you must observe here that these preparations instead of rendring Coral more effectual as is pretended do indeed render it almost good for nothing which is a thing easie enough to prove if we consider that Coral works in our bodies by nothing else but by absorbing acids or sharp and salt humours which do continually occasion divers diseases for example it stops Haemorrhagies only by sweetning the keen salts which corroded the membranes of the veins or else raised great effervescencies in the bloud so as to make it extravasate it stops Diarrheas by destroying the acrimony of the Choler or other humors lastly if it cures the falling down of the Vvula and does remedy many other accidents it is done by nothing else but by breaking the force of the ferments which do cause them after the same manner as it destroys the acidity of Vinegar or some other liquor this being so as there is great reason to believe it it were far better to take Coral without any other preparation than that which is made on the marble then to dissolve it by an acid and precipitate it into a Magistery for the acid or sharp humors that this Magistery is to encounter in our bodies finding nothing in the medicine that is able to blunt their edges will continue their former activity and so no effect at all will follow In this Precipitation there does not appear any effervescency because the edges of the Vinegar being broken it has neither strength nor motion enough left to penetrate and to separate the parts of salt of Tartar but if the dissolution of Coral had been made with some stronger dissolvent than Vinegar such as Spirit of Vitriol there would be an ebullition in the time of the Precipitation because there would remain still action enough to the broken edges of that spirit for to enter into the pores of the alkali salt and to rarefie it Salt of Coral This operation is a Coral rarefied and opened by the Spirit of Vinegar Take what quantity you please of the dissolution of Coral made by distilled Vinegar as I said before pour it into a glass Cucurbite or earthen pan and evaporate in sand all the moisture there will remain at bottom a Salt of Coral keep it in a Viol well stopt it is given for the same reasons as the Magistery the dose of it is less being from five to fifteen grains Remarks In this Evaporation there come forth only the watry parts and the acids adhering to the Coral do form a kind of Salt If you should put this Salt of Coral into a Retort and distil it in sand you would obtain a liquor that is only styptick without any considerable acidity which shews that the acids are destroyed and do not come forth of the alkali as they entred in CHAP. XV. Of Common Salt THere are three sorts of Common Salt the Fossile Salt the Fountain Salt and the Sea Salt the first is called Sal Gemme by reason of its transparency and smoothness like to a precious stone it is that of which whole mountains are found full in Poland and other places the second is drawn by evaporation of the waters of some Fountains and the last from Sea-water by Crystallization or Evaporation these three salts are of the same nature and have almost the same effect they are used not only in Aliments but sometimes in Remedies too such as Clysters when they should be made very Carminative It is here observable that Sal Gemme is a little more penetrating than Sea salt that is drawn by Crystallization and that the Sea salt which is drawn by Crystallization is more penetrating than that which is made by Evaporation of the waters The reason that may be given for the piercing quality of Sal Gemme is this that having never been dissolved in water it never lost any of its keenness whereas the others do lose their more subtle edges in the waters and this chiefly when those waters are in strong agitation as are those of the Sea It is very probable that the violent Vomiting which does so much annoy those who take a voyage to Sea does proceed from these same subtile parts of salt which being volatilized do fill the sea-air for this vomiting does happen only to such who have not been used to breath a salt air and who besides are sufficiently shook by the motion of the Sea The Sea salt which is made in Normandy by evaporation of Sea-water over the fire is not so strong as that which is made at Rochell by Crystallization because in the evaporation many of the subtler parts of the Salt are lost and a mark of that is that if Sea-water is distilled over a fire â—ever so small it will not fail to carry with it some volatilized salt which will alter its virtue as experience hath testified several times But it doth not happen thus to Sea-salt Crystallized for it fixes of it self when the Salt-waters have setled for some time in places fit for their reception I have delivered my thoughts sufficiently touching the Origine of these three sorts of Salt in the Remarks I made on the principles wherefore there 's no need of repeating what I then said Sea-salt is made at Rochell in salt marshes which are places that must be of a lower situation than the sea and the ground must be Clayie for otherwise they would not be able to retain the salt-water that has been let into them Thus all places near the sea are not alike proper to make salt
that by the conjunction of these two spirits the Aqua fortis is compelled to abandon the metal that it had dissolved is nothing at all to the clearing of the question unless a man will needs give an intelligence to these spirits Wherefore we must still have recourse to the agitation and jostles for the true reason It is also remarkable that the effervescency which happens when Spirit of Salt is cast into the solution of some bodies by Aqua fortis is different from that which happens when some alkali is cast into it the former being much more gentle than the latter The Spirit of Salt dissolves leaf gold which Aqua fortis is not able to do When this Spirit is dulcified it is mixed with Spirit of Wine which being a Sulphur doth take off the edges of the acid and in part hinders their motion whence it comes to pass that this Spirit is milder by this addition than if water had been used instead of Spirit of Wine The Spirit of Salt may be made with Salt Decrepitated after the same manner CHAP. XVI Of Niter or Salt-peter IT is probable that the Niter of the antients was either the Aegyptian Natron or a salt that is found in the earth in a gray compact mass or else the natural Borax or the salt which is drawn from the water of the river Nilus and many other rivers And it may be that all these salts are divers kinds of their Niter but the Niter of the moderns is nothing else but Salt-peter and this is that of which I intend to speak Niter is a Salt impregnated with abundance of Spirits out of the air which do render it volatile it is taken from among the stones and earths of old ruined buildings Some of it is likewise to be found in Cellars and several other moist places because the air doth condense it in those places and easily unites with the stones Salt-peter is also sometimes made by the Urine of Animals falling upon stones and earths Nay some have thought that all Salt-peter comes from that cause whereas we see every day that some of it is taken out of places where there never came any Urine at all This salt is half volatile and half like unto Sal Gemme as I shall prove hereafter The great and violent flame which happens so soon as Salt-peter is flung upon the coals and the red vapours which it uses to yield when reduced into a spirit have induced the Chymists generally to believe that this salt is inflammable and consequently fully loaded with Sulphur because Sulphur is the only Principle that flames but if they had suspended their judgments herein until they had got more experience on this Subject they would not only have known that Salt-peter is not at all inflammable in its nature but they would e'en have doubted whether or no any Sulphur does enter into the natural composition of this salt for if Salt-peter were inflammable of it self like Sulphur it would burn where there is no Sulphur for example in a Crucible heated red-hot in the fire but it will never flame therein use what quantity of it you please and let the fire be never so great It is true indeeed if you throw Salt-peter upon kindled coals it makes a great flame but this is only through the sulphureous Fuliginosities of the coals which are violently raised and rarefied by the volatile nature of Niter as I shall prove in the Operation upon fixt Niter As for any Sulphur that is thought to be contained in Salt-peter it can't be demonstrated by any Operation whatever for the red vapours that come from it are no more inflammable than the Niter when they are not mixt with some Sulphureous matter and it is far more probable that this salt contains no Sulphur if we consider its cleanness transparency acidity and cooling quality which have no manner of affinity with the effects of Sulphur which are commonly to make a body opake to take off acidity and to heat Purification of Salt-peter To purifie Salt-peter is to deprive it of part of its fixt salt and of a little bituminous earth which it contains Dissolve ten or twelve pounds of Salt-peter in a sufficient quantity of water let the dissolution settle and filtrate it then evaporate it in a glass or earthen vessel to the diminution of half or until there begins to appear a little skin upon it then remove your vessel into a cool place stirring it as little as may be and leave it there till the morrow you 'l find Crystals which you must separate from the liquor evaporate this liquor again to a skin and set the vessel in a cool place to get new Crystals repeat the evaporations and Crystallizations until you have drawn all your Salt-peter Note that in the last Crystallizations you 'l have a Salt altogether like unto sea-salt or Sal Gemme keep it apart it may serve to season meat with The first Crystals are the pure Salt-peter You may if you please dissolve and purifie Salt-peter several other times in water observing every time what I said before for to render it more white and purifie it from its Sea-salt Salt-peter purified is a great aperitive it cools the body by fixing the humours that are in too much motion and drives them by Urine It is given in Feavers in Gonorrheas and many other diseases the dose is from ten grains to a drachm in Broth or some appropriate liquor Remarks The first Purification that is given to Salt-peter is this the stones and earths that contain it are grosly powdered they are boiled in a great deal of water to dissolve the Salt-peter the dissolution is filtred and then poured upon ashes to make a Lixivium after it hath been poured upon the ashes several times it is evaporated and Crystallized The salt of the ashes which does mix with the Salt-peter increases its fixt part but that which is made without ashes is the better to make Aqua fortis with The earth from whence Salt-peter hath been drawn being set in the open air and stirred about from time to time doth re-impregnate with a kind of Salt The long Crystals that we see Salt-peter shoot into do proceed from its volatile part for that which is Crystallized last is fixt like sea-salt and looks just like it Salt-peter can never be purified so well but it will still contain a salt like unto Sal Gemme or sea-salt but in less quantity than before When Salt-peter is boiled a long time in water and over a great fire some part of the Spirits do fly away and there remains at last nothing but a salt like unto sea-salt or Sal Gemme which serves to prove that Salt-peter is only a Sal Gemme fuller of Spirits than the other as I said speaking of the Principles When you would Crystallize a Salt you must dissolve it in a convenient proportion of water for if there should be too much the salt would be weakned too much and
of Niter being more volatile than oil of Vitriol causes a greater effervescency In order therefore to explicate this ebullition two things must be considered First that spirit of Niter contains a great many fiery parts lock't up in its acidity but which do still retain some evident motion for it is they that make the spirit of Niter to Fume as it does The second is that spirit of Niter is more Inflammable than salt-peter when mixed with any sulphureous body and the reason thereof is that it is more rarefied than salt-peter Thus when this acid spirit is mixt with spirit of Wine which is a sulphur very much exalted and very susceptible of motion the volatile part of the spirit of Niter joyns itself to this sulphur and the mixture becomes very ready to take flame likewise after this mixture the fiery bodies that were in spirit of Niter do by striving to mount upwards put the liquor into so great a motion that it e'en almost flames and would without all question quite flame if there were not some phlegm always mixed with these spirits let them be drawn never so pure which serves to allay the activity of the fiery particles so that there must needs follow a very great ebullition This effervescency therefore proceeds from this that spirit of wine and spirit of Niter which are as it were a salt-peter and sulphur highly exalted have been almost kindled into a flame by the fiery bodies that were in spirit of Niter and that which further proves this conception is a noise or kind of detonation during the effervescency which is much like that which happens when sulphur and salt-peter are burnt together But because there may be some difficulty in conceiving what is meant by little fiery bodies I do understand by them a subtile matter which having been put into a very rapid motion does still retain the aptitude of moving with impetuosity even when it is inclosed in grosser matters and when it finds some bodies which by their texture or figure are apt to be put into motion it drives them about so strongly that their parts rubbing violently the one against the other heat is thereby produced Now the sulphureous parts of spirit of Wine and the volatile acids of spirit of Niter being mixed and being very aptly disposed for motion of themselves they must needs be easily put into it by these fiery bodies insomuch that their parts often rubbing or striking the one against the other they must cause a heat after the same manner as when a stone is strook hard against a piece of Iron a heat and fire do follow The great diminution of the liquor proceeds from the evaporation of the more volatile parts of the Spirits of Wine and Niter through the neck of the Bolt-head during the ebullition That which remains is a well sweetned spirit of Niter for not only its edges are very much blunted in the ebullition but the spirit of Wine being a sulphur does unite and imbody with those that remain so that they have no longer any Corrosive quality Aqua Fortis This preparation is a mixture of the Spirits of Niter and Vitriol drawn by fire to dissolve metals Powder and mix Salt-peter purified Vitriol Calcined white as I shall shew hereafter and Potters earth or clay dried of each two and thirty ounces put this mixture into an earthen Retort or glass one luted whose third part is to remain empty place your Retort in a close Reverberatory Furnace and fitting to it a capacious Receiver Lute well the junctures then begin by giving a little fire to warm gently the Retort and encrease it by little and little but when you perceive the Spirits to come forth into the Receiver in red clouds continue it for fifteen or sixteen hours in the same degree then drive it to the last extremity until there do appear white clouds instead of red Then let the vessels cool and unlute them you 'l find in the Receiver an Aqua fortis which you must keep in an earthen bottle well stopt It serves for the dissolution of metals Remarks I do use to Calcine the Vitriol to a whiteness that the Aqua fortis may not be weakned with an insipid water The mixture of Vitriol and Salt-peter has quickly some smell of Aqua fortis because Vitriol contains a great deal of Sulphur which easily insinuates into the volatile part of Salt-peter and exalts some little of it which causes the smell it is this Sulphur in Vitriol which by volatilizing the red spirit of Niter makes it come forth faster and with a less fire than when Salt-peter is distilled with Clay alone The greatest Corrosion of Aqua fortis proceeds from the Niter for the Vitriol doth yield but very weak Spirits in comparison with the other I do acknowledge indeed that the Oil of Vitriol is exceeding Corrosive but eighteen or twenty hours are not able to drive that out for it doth not use to come until after three days continual distillation The Vitriol then and the Clay do serve here only for a matter to separate the Salt-peter that it may by the means of fire the better rarefie into Spirits Although there does not enter into this preparation so much terrestrial matter as there does into that of Spirit of Niter nevertheless it proves very well because the Sulphurs of Vitriol do help the Spirits to rise If you would keep on the fire five days and nights together the Receiver would be still full of clouds because the Vitriol would yield some Spirits during all that time Sometimes Alom and Arsenick are added to the composition of Aqua fortis but the description which I have given you is the best of all There remains in the Retort a red mass which may be used like Colcothar for an Astringent This mass may be obtained without breaking the Retort Fixation of Salt-peter into an Alkali Salt by the means of Coals This operation is a Salt-peter rendred porous by Calcination and by the ashes of coals which are mixed with it Melt sixteen ounces of Salt-peter in a strong and large Crucible among burning coals throw into it a spoonful of coals grosly powdered and there will rise a flame and detonation which being over throw so much more and continue to do so until the matter flames no longer but remains fixt in the bottom of the Crucible then pour it into a warm mortar and when it is cold powder it and dissolve it in a sufficient quantity of water filtrate the dissolution through brown paper and evaporate all the water in an earthen pan in sand there will remain a very white salt which you must keep in a Viol well stopt This Salt hath a taste like to that of Salt of Tartar and they differ but little in virtue it opens Obstructions and works by Urine and sometimes by Stool the dose is from sixteen to thirty grains in some convenient liquor It may be used to assist in drawing forth the
writ that if Aqua Regalis dissolves Gold and cannot dissolve Silver the reason of it is that the gross points of spirit of Niter or Aqua fortis are subtilized by the mixture of sal Armoniack and are rendred fit to enter into the small pores of Gold whereas the delicate Fabrick of these same points does not leave them the necessary strength nor motion to divide the parts of Silver whose pores are a great deal bigger But this way of arguing does not agree with experience for what likelihood is there that the points of spirit of Niter are so subtilized by the penetration and division of the parts of sal Armoniack or where shall we find any example that after a considerable effervescency of two salts met together in conflict the acidity grows sharper than it was before this is a thing that can never be proved On the contrary every body knows well enough that no effervescency happens but the acid is in part blunted or broken thereby Moreover the Argument supposes that spirit of Niter does break its subtilest points in violently contending with the Sal Armoniack since also that in sal Armoniack there are alkali salts whose property it is to destroy acids I could further add here that the conjunction of salt with spirit of Niter should of necessity render its points more gross than they were and that the Crystals which are drawn by aqua Regalis have their shape not so keen as those that are drawn by aqua Fortis But that which I have said is so probable in itself and so easie to be convinced of if a man takes never so little pains to consider it that I should but amuse my Reader to little purpose if I should offer to give any proofs of it Neither do I find it convenient to make a long discourse in explicating how Silver which has lesser pores is more susceptible of the impressions of Air and Fire than Gold which has larger seeing I have already supposed that the matter intercepted between the pores of Gold is more compact and consequently more hard to separate than that of Silver Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack This preparation is a volatile salt raised from sal Armoniack by the means of Quick-lime and dissolved into a liquor Take eight ounces of sal Armoniack and four and twenty ounces of Quick-lime powder them apart and when you haved mixed them in a mortar pour upon them four ounces of water and put it quickly into a Retort whose half must remain empty Set your Retort in a sand Furnace and fitting to it a great Receiver and luting the junctures exactly begin the distillation without fire for a quarter of an hour afterwards increasing it by little and little unto the second degree continue it until nothing more comes forth take off your Receiver and pour out the Spirit immediately into a Viol turning away your head as much as may be to avoid a very subtile vapour that continually rises from it Stop the bottle close with wax to keep the Spirit in you will have of it five ounces and six drachms It is an excellent Remedy for all diseases that proceed from Obstructions and corruption of humours such as Malignant feavers the Epilepsie Palsie Plague Small-pox c. It drives by perspiration or by Urine the dose is from six drops to twenty in a glass of Balm or Carduus water Remarks Quick-lime which is an alkali destroys the strength of the acid Sea-salt which in a manner bound up the volatile salts in the Sal Armoniack whence it comes to pass that as soon as Lime and Sal Armoniack are mixed together there exhales an unsufferable smell of Urine for the volatile salts coming forth abundantly do so fill the Nose and Mouth of the Artist that he would never be able to put the mixture into the Retort if he did not take good care to turn away his head while his hands are at work Water is added to it to liquifie these volatile salts for if there were nothing to moisten them they would suddenly sublime to the neck of the Retort and stopping it all together would break it to pieces You must stop the Retort with your hand so soon as you have poured the water into it and shaking it one minute you must hasten all you can to fit to it the Receiver and to lute well the junctures for the Quick-lime does presently grow hot so soon as its body is opened and this heat which is very considerable would spend the more volatile of the salts if there were no care taken to preserve them The Quick-lime being wetted does swell and take up a great deal of room wherefore the Retort must be filled but half full that there may remain room enough for the Spirits to rarefie in you must also use a large Receiver in which the vapours that rise in abundance may be able to circulate with ease This Spirit is nothing but a solution of volatile salts in water if you would sublime and separate it from the water you must put the liquor into a matrass with its head and proceed as I shall shew when I describe the volatile salt of Vipers but this salt being dry flies away more easily than when it continues dissolved in water so that it were better keep it as it is This is a stronger Spirit than that which is prepared with Salt of Tartar because the little fiery bodies of the Quick-lime which are mixed with it have quickned the motion of the volatile salts likewise these fiery particles are they that do hinder the coagulation of this Spirit with spirit of Wine when they are mixed together for there must be a cohaesion and repose of parts in order to make a Coagulum You must also have a care when you remove the Receiver not to hold your head over it for this volatile salt suffering a greater separation than before enters the Nose immmediately and hinders Respiration insomuch that several persons have been seen to fall in a swound by that means alone Now to avoid this accident you had best have ready a wet cloth to stop the Receiver with so soon as it is unluted This Spirit is an excellent Menstruum to make precipitations with it destroys acids exceeding well as do all other volatile alkalis it is used to precipitate Gold after it is dissolved It is good in those diseases I named because it opens the pores and drives the humours by perspiration or by Urine according to the disposition of bodies moreover as it is an alkali it destroys the acids which caused these diseases Again it sometimes causes sleep because it dulls the keenness of acid salts which entring into the little conduits of the Brain do cause perpetual watchings It is better give volatile Spirits in Sudorifick waters than broth because the broth being taken hot the heat would evaporate the better part of the volatile Spirits before a man could reach the Porringer to his mouth You
will find in the Retort thirty ounces of a white matter which you must throw away as useless it is the fixt salt of sal Armoniack mixed with the Quick-lime Another Preparation of the Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack together with its Flowers and Fixt Salt against Feavers Powder and mix together eight ounces of Sal Armoniack and so much Salt of Tartar put this mixture quickly into a glass body and sprinkle it with three ounces of Rain-water set a head upon it and after fitting the Receiver and luting the junctures close with a wet bladder place your vessel in sand with a gentle fire at first to warm the Retort by little and little and distil the Spirit drop by drop but when you perceive there will distil no more take away the Receiver and stop it close then encrease the fire to the third degree and continue it about two hours there will sublime the white Flowers of Sal Armoniack which will stick about the bottom of the head like meal The Spirit hath the same strength and virtues as the former you will have seven ounces of it and a half Gather up the Flowers with a Feather and use them as you would those I described before the Preparation you 'l have of them ten drachms and a half There remains at the bottom of the Cucurbite nine ounces and three drachms of a white fixt mass You must dissolve it in sufficient water then filter the dissolution and evaporate it until it is dry you 'l have a very white Salt that may be reckoned a good Remedy for intermittent Feavers the dose is from eight grains to thirty in the small Centaury water or some other convenient liquor Remarks The Salt of Tartar serves in this Operation as the Quick-lime did in the other but because it is a more powerful Alkali than Quick-lime you must not use so great a quantity of it The fixt Salt of Niter might be substituted in its place or any other Alkali that you will When the fire begins to heat the matter there do rise up into the head store of volatile Salts in a fine delicate Crystalline form but the moist vapours coming upon them do dissolve them into Spirit The Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack is then a dissolution of Volatile salt in water and if there be not phlegm sufficient to dissolue all the Volatile salt there will remain some part of it at bottom of the Receiver and that may likewise be turn'd into Spirit by only adding enough water to dissolve it Thus the Spirit becomes as strong as it can be made for the pores of the water being filled with as much salt as they can contain it can receive no more But if there happens to be more water than the proportion of Volatile Salt requires then the Spirit proves weak and must be given in a larger dose This Spirit is Sudorifick but you may perceive more sensibly the effect of Sal armoniack to cause Sweat by dissolving six or eight grains of this salt and the same quantity of Salt of Tartar each separately in two small doses of some proper liquor and giving them to a Patient one presently after the other for the salt of Tartar working upon the Sal Armoniack in the stomach after the same manner as it does when they are mixt together in a Mortar the Spirits do separate from the latter with the more force and act more powerfully than when they were mixed before they were given for the little violence that the Volatile Spirits do use in their separation from sea-salt does leave them the more activity and disposes them the better to pass through the pores Again it is probable that in the former effort which these Spirits made in their separation from the fixt part when Sal Armoniack was mixt with salt of Tartar in a mortar the more subtile part might fly away first and be lost now it is this subtile portion that is most proper to rarefie the humours and to drive them forth by Transpiration The flowers do proceed from some part of the Sal Armoniack which the salt of Tartar had not sufficiently opened The Febrifugous salt is nothing but a mixture of salt of Tartar and the fixt and acid part of Sal Armoniack it works by Urine and but seldom by Sweat by reason that being fixed it precipitates more easily than it rarefies and it is by this means that it opens obstructions which are often the first cause of Feavers If you mix in a Viol equal quantities of Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack Spirit of Wine and shake them a little together they will cause a Coagulum This Coagulation proceeds from hence that the Spirit of Wine which is a rarefied Oil does unite with the Spirit of Sal Armoniack which is a saline liquor and it is but the same thing which happens from stirring Oil and some salt liquor in a mortar in order to make an Unguent called Nutritum By this incorporation together the salt is involved in the ramous parts of the sulphur and these same sulphureous parts are checkt or as it were fixed by the salt so that neither of them have any more freedom of motion and from this repose of these parts does result the Coagulum It may be likewise said that the conjunction of the acid that is in Spirit of Wine with the volatile Armoniack alkali does contribute much to this Coagulation The Spirit of Sal Armoniack prepared with Quick-lime does not at all coagulate with Spirit of Wine by reason of fiery parts that it contains The Salt of Tartar too may have mixed some fiery bodies in the Spirit of Sal Armoniack but there are not enough of them in it to hinder its adunation with Spirit of Wine Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack dulcified This Operation is a volatile Armoniack salt mixed and dissolved in Spirit of Wine Take Sal Armoniack and Salt of Tartar of each four ounces powder them separately and mix them well in a glass or marble mortar put this mixture into a glass body pour upon it ten ounces of rectified Spirit of Wine stir it all together with a wooden Spatule and fit to the body a head and Receiver lute well the junctures place the vessel in a Sand-furnace and give it a very little fire to warm the body The volatile salt will rise and stick to the head and neck of the receiver Increase the fire a little and continue it until there distils nothing more the operation is ended in four or five hours Let the vessels cool and unlute them You will find a volatile salt stuck to the head and a spirit in the receiver Put quickly both the one and the other into a Retort in sand and after having fitted another Retort to it to serve for a Receiver and having luted the junctures distil the whole with a small fire Cohobate it again three times then keep what you have distilled in a bottle well stopt almost all the
volatile salt will be dissolved in the Spirit of Wine and that which remains undissolved will receive a perfect dissolution in the bottle It is a very good Medicin for the Lethargy the Palsy the Scurvy Malignant feavers and Hysterical maladies it may be given instead of Spirit of Sal Armoniack before described And it is not so repugnant to the taste It works by Sweat or by insensible Transpiration the dose is from twelve drops to thirty in some proper liquor it is likewise good outwardly applied for the Palsie and for cold pains Remarks So soon as the Sal Armoniack is mixed with the salt of Tartar Volatile salts do rise from them which would very much incommode the Artist if he should hold his nose over it You must lose no time in putting the mixture into the body and then stopping it for these first salts are the most subtile of all The salts must be separately powdered by reason of the loss which would be made of the volatile salts in the mixing of the Sal Armoniack with the salt of Tartar In the making this mixture you must not use any mortar made of metal because that in the conflict of the two salts it would be corroded and that which were corroded from it would be apt to spoil the operation The body must be filled but half way when the whole is in The volatile salt is lighter than the spirit of Wine for it rises first When the Spirit of Wine is well rectified it will not dissolve any of the volatile salt at first but on the contrary it hinders this salt from dissolving in a liquor because the ramous parts of the wine do stop the entrance of the air but if there be any phlegm in the Spirit of Wine it dissolves the salt according to the proportion that there is of it Those who had rather use the volatile Sal Armoniack dry then in liquor may keep it dry in a bottle well stopt and use it for the same purposes as the spirit the dose of it must be a little less it is very white and pure this keeps better than that which is drawn with water because an impression of Spirit of Wine which remains in it does serve to retain the salts in some measure You need not wonder that there happens no Coagulum when Spirit of Wine and this volatile salt are stirred together in a bottle as there does by the mixture of Spirit of Wine and Spirit of Sal Armoniack for this salt having all its parts intirely united cannot so well mix with the sulphur of spirit of wine but if you add water enough to dissolve the salt then there will be a coagulum because the parts of the salt will be disunited and by the help of water will enter into the pores of Spirit of wine I have explicated this coagulum in the Remarks of the Chapter preceding The volatile Sal Armoniack does dissolve well with waterish liquors and spirit of Sal Armoniack may be made of them together by only mixing water enough to dissolve the salt But if you would mix or dissolve it in Spirit of wine you will find a great deal of trouble in the doing it if you should only infuse it in spirit of wine it would none of it dissolve on the contrary that is a way to keep and preserve the salt therefore you must distil it over several times that the saline parts may rarefie and unite with the spirit of wine That which remains undissolved in the Receiver has been very much rarefied by repeated distillations for which reason it also dissolves some days afterwards Spirit of wine in this operation hath so wrought upon the volatile salts that they are no longer so disagreeable to the taste or the smell as they were before and it is by that means that it sweetens them for sulphurs do contemperate the acrimony of salts as I have said speaking of the Principles Acid Spirit of Sal Armoniack This Spirit is a fixed Sal Armoniack dissolved into a liquor with a great fire Take what quantity you please of the fixt Febrifugous salt that I have spoken of powder it and mix it well with thrice as much Potters-earth powdered put this mixture into a Retort whose third part remains empty place it in a close Reverberatory Furnace and fit to it a large capacious Receiver Lute the junctures close and proceed in the method I spoke of to make the Spirit of Salt you 'l find in the Receiver an acid spirit which is a very good diuretick It is esteemed to be specifick for Malignant diseases the dose is to an agreeable acidity in Juleps and broths Remarks This acid Spirit proceeds from the fixt part of the Sal Armoniack for the Alkali contributes not one drop of it Although the Salt of Tartar has weakned the strength of Sea-salt which was mixed with the volatile salts in Sal Armoniack as I have said this same sea-salt nevertheless will yield a very acid spirit upon distillation because the parts of sea-salt though they have suffered a strong conflict with the other yet do contain a Spirit as well as they do otherwise intire after the same manner as when sea-salt is reduced into a very fine powder it continues as full of Spirits as when it was in larger pieces for you must not imagine that Sal Armoniack does contain the acidity of sea-salt separate from its earth for if it could remain in it in such a state it would quietly divide the parts of the Alkali salt with which it is mixed and would be destroyed it self but this salt remains in it in its substance intire CHAP. XVIII Of Vitriol VItriol is a Mineral compounded of an Acid Salt and Sulphureous Earth there are four sorts of it the Blue the White the Green and the Red. The Blue is found near the Mines of Copper in Hungary and the Isle of Cyprus from whence it is brought to us in fair Crystals which keep the name of the Country and are called Vitriol of Hungary or Cyprus it partakes very much of the nature of Copper which renders it a little Caustick it is never used but in outward applications such as Collyriums or waters for the eyes and to consume proud flesh White Vitriol is found near unto Fountains it is the most of all depurated from a Metallick mixture it may be taken inwardly to give a vomit it is likewise used in Collyriums There are three sorts of Green Vitriol the German English and the Roman That of Germany draws near unto the blue and contains a little Copper it is better than the rest for the preparation of Aqua fortis That of England partakes of Iron and is proper to make the Spirit of Vitriol The Roman is much like the English Vitriol excepting that it is not so easie to dissolve Red Vitriol was brought among us a few years ago out of Germany it is called Natural Colcothar and is esteemed to be a Green Vitriol
to an agreeable acidity That which remains in the body is the most acid part of the Vitriol and is improperly called Oil. It may be used like the acid Spirit for continued Feavers and other distempers that are accompanied with a violent heat This Oil is likewise used for the dissolution of metals You 'l find in the Retort a Colcothar which hath the same virtues with that I spoke of before Remarks To make the Spirit of Vitriol you must take green English Vitriol such as being rubbed upon Iron doth not at all change colour which shews it doth not partake of Copper as the German does that looks a little blueish and is more acrimonious You must Calcine it as I have said to the end it being deprived of the greatest part of its Phlegm the distillation may be dispatched the sooner A third part of the Retort is left empty that the Spirits may have room to rarefie in when they come forth There distils also a great deal of Phlegm into the Receiver and all of it is known to have come when there drops no more Those who don't care for the sulphurcous spirit do let it come forth and mix together with the Phlegm before the junctures are luted but you must be sure to govern the fire discreetly at that time for these Spirits come with a great deal of violence and use to break the Retort when they are driven too furiously When they are out you must augment the fire to the last degree of all for the acid Spirit will not part with its earth until it is forced by an extraordinary heat If you distil eight pounds of white Vitriol at sixteen ounces to the pound you 'l draw off seventeen ounces of Phlegm and two and twenty ounces and a half both of the Sulphureous and the Acid spirit of Vitriol Of these two and twenty ounces and a half there will be five ounces of Sulphureous spirit You 'l find in the Retort five pounds five ounces of Colcothar Use all the care you can possible to preserve all the liquors which come from Vitriol yet it will be impossible for you to hinder it from losing some through the junctures during the distillation If you should use German instead of English Vitriol you 'd draw off a little more spirit than the quantity I have named but it would have some smell of Aqua fortis and the matter which remains in the Retort would be of a brown colour drawing towards black This colour proceeds from sulphureous Fuliginosities which rise more from this Vitriol than the other because it partakes of Copper for this Sooty vapour finding no vent to get out at falls down again upon the matter and blackens it The Furnace in which this operation is performed must be very thick that the heat of the fire being none of it lost through the Pores may the better act upon the Retort These Spirits do rarefie into white vapours in the Receiver which must be provided large enough to give them free liberty to circulate in before they condense into a liquor at bottom The fire is usually continued four or five days together but if after that you should change the Receiver and continue the fire three or four days longer there would come forth an Oil of Vitriol congealed and caustick which is nothing but the more fixt part of the Sprit of Vitriol And this Congelation hath given this liquor the name of Oil of Vitriol though improperly Vitriol contains earth enough wherefore none is added to it as is necessarily done in the distillation of Niter Acid Spirits are Salts become fluid by the force of fire which hath disingaged them from their more terrestrious part and they may be revived again by pouring them upon some Alkali for example the Spirit of Vitriol remaining some time upon Iron doth reincorporate into Vitriol and the Spirit of Niter poured upon Salt of Tartar makes a Salt-peter There is one thing happens about the Oil of Vitriol when it is very strong which is strange indeed it is that if you mix it with its Acid Spirit or with water or else with an Ethereal Oil such as the Oil of Turpentine this mixture grows hot to that degree that sometimes it breaks the Viol it was put into and often it produces a considerable Ebullition I could quickly give an account of this heat and Ebullition if I would suppose an Alkali to be in the Oil of Vitriol as those do who pretend to explicate every thing that happens by the notions of acid and alkali but not comprehending how an alkali should be able to remain so long a time with so strong an acid as is the Oil of Vitriol without being destroyed I had rather give a reason that seems to me abundantly more probable I conceive therefore that if water or Spirit of Vitriol or the Ethereal Oil of Turpentine do come to heat the Oil of Vitriol it is by setting in motion a great many fiery particles which the Oil of Vitriol had drawn with it in the distillation for these little fiery bodies being environ'd with salts that are exceeding heavy and hard to rarefie they drive about with vehemence whatsoever stands in their way and when they have caused an Ebullition and find they can't get out at the top of the Viol they break it to pieces with the bussle they make at bottom and on the sides Perhaps it will be said I do here suppose gratis that the Oil of Vitriol does contain fiery particles but if we consider the great violence of fire and the time that is spent in drawing this acid it will be no such hard matter to grant me this supposition Besides it will be hard to explicate the great and burning Corrosion of Oil of Vitriol without admitting these fiery parts for the Vitriol contains nothing in it self of this Caustick nature it is true indeed that it contains Phlegm Sulphur and Earth but it is a thing impossible but this acid should discover it self more than it does if it were as Corrosive in the Vitriol as it is in the Oil. Once it hapned to me that putting into my Furnace a Retort whose two thirds were filled with German Vitriol dried in order to draw off its Spirits I distilled first of all the Phlegm and sulphureous spirit which I took out of the Receiver I then fitted it again to the Retort and by a great fire continued three days and three nights I distilled off the acid Spirit as we are used to do When the vessels were cold I admired to find in my Receiver nothing but a mass of Salt or Congealed Oil of Vitriol This Salt was so exceeding Caustick and burning that if I offer'd to touch the smallest part of it with my finger I presently felt an insufferable scalding and was fain to put my hand immediately into water it continued to fume still and when a little of it was thrown into water it made the same hissing noise as a
likewise fixes the stone the more and makes it fitter to keep It is one of the best Remedies I ever met with for stopping Gonorrheas when it is a proper time to stop them by Injections Salt of Vitriol This Operation is the more fixed Salt of Vitriol that remains after distillation Take two or three pounds of the Colcothar that remains in the Retort after distillation of Vitriol let it infuse in eight or ten pints of warm water for ten or twelve hours boil it a little while and then let it settle separate the water by Inclination and pour new water upon the matter proceed as before and mixing your Impregnations evaporate all the moisture in a sand-heat in a glass or earthen vessel there will remain a salt at bottom It is used as the Gilla Vitrioli to give a Vomit the dose is from ten to thirty grains Remarks This salt is that part of the Vitriol that the fire is not able to rarefie into Spirit Some Authors say that it Vomits just after the same manner as Gilla Vitrioli taken in a smaller dose but I have observed that its effect was much less and on the contrary there was need of giving it in a larger dose than the Gilla to procure a Vomit for having given of it several times a drachm at a dose the person had no Inclination at all to Vomit and truly I am apt to believe that a fixt salt of Vitriol divested of its Sulphur doth rather tend to precipitate downwards than mount upwards for Vomiting is caused by Saline Sulphurs which prick the Fibers of the Stomach whence follows a Convulsion to this part That which remains indissoluble is called Caput Mortuum it is used for Astringents If you expose it to the Air for a year or a year and half it returns into Vitriol again CHAP. XIX Of Roche-Alom and of its Purification ROche-Alom is a very Styptick Mineral Salt found in the veins of the earth in many places of Europe it is taken up in great transparent pieces the best is that which is reddish for the white contains fewer Spirits Alom is purified after the same manner as Vitriol it is used to cleanse the teeth it is a good Diuretick a drachm of it is dissolved in a quart of water and a glass of it is given now and then Many things are likewise called by the name of Alom as the Saccharinum which resembles Sugar it is nothing but a mixture of Roche-Alom Rose-water and the white of an Egg. Plume-Alom which some call Lapis Amianthus is a kind of Talk Distillation of Alom Put five pounds of Roche-Alom into a glass or earthen body and fitting to it a head with its Receiver distil in sand as much as will rise you will have a Phlegm of Alom that is used for distempers of the eyes for Quinsies and to cleanse wounds unlute the vessels break the body and powder the white mass that remains in it put it into an earthen Retort half empty place your Retort in a Reverberatory furnace and fitting to it a large Receiver lute the junctures close and light a very small fire the first three hours only to warm the Retort afterwards increase it every hour to the utmost violence and these Spirits will come forth and fill the Receiver with white Clouds continue the fire in this condition three days together then let the vessels cool you 'l find in the Receiver an acid Spirit which you may rectifie by distilling it in a glass Alembick in sand in order to make it the clearer This acid is more disagreeable than that of Vitriol it is used in Juleps for continued Feavers and Tertian Agues the dose is from four to eight drops it is likewise good to cure the Aphtha or little Chancres in the mouth Break the Retort and you 'l find in it a white mass very much rarefied and light it is called Burnt Alom or Calcined Alom it is used for to eat carnous excrescences or proud flesh Remarks The Distillation of Alom must be performed like that of Vitriol that is to say without addition of earth because these Salts do contain enough themselves The Body into which you put your Alom must be sure to be large enough because it rarefies extreamly The Phlegm is known to be all come forth when there distils no more for these Spirits being very weighty do require a greater heat than that of sand to raise them Some have written that Alom yields but very little acid yet if they take the pains to keep a strong fire under it for three days together they 'l find that this Spirit does not give place in strength or quantity to that of Vitriol Nor are we at all obliged to distinguish as they would have us the Acrimonious Corrosive salt of Alom from its acid seeing that there is nothing either Acrimonious or Corosive in this Mineral salt which will not turn into an acid Spirit when it is strongly urged by fire If a Drachm of Alom be dissolved in six ounces of this Phlegm you make an excellent Alom water to cleanse wounds and ulcers with The mass that remains in the Cucurbite or Dephlegmated Alom is more Escarotick than that which hath lost its Spirits Chirurgeons are wont to Calcine Alom in a Frying pan but the Iron dulls the greatest part of its vertue as absorbing its Spirits wherein consists the corrosion of Alom the Retort must be filled but half full because there happen Ebullitions which do require room CHAP. XX. Of Sulphur SVlphur is a kind of Bitumen that is found in many places in Italy and Spain There is brought among us both a Natural and an Artificial the Natural is greyish and called Sulphur Vivum the other is Yellow and is nothing but the Natural melted purified from its grosser earth and formed into Rowls which we do commonly use Some think that Sulphur is a Vitriol sublimed in the earth because these mixts are very often found near one another that there is a great deal of Sulphur in the mass of Mineral Vitriol and that the acid Spirits which are drawn from them both are wholly alike Flower of Sulphur This preparation is an exaltation of Sulphur Put about half a pound of Sulphur grosly powdered into a glass body place it in a small open fire and cover it with a pot or another Cucurbite turned upside down one that is unglazed so as that the neck of the one may enter into the neck of the other Change the upper Cucurbite every half hour fitting another in its place add likewise new Sulphur gather your Flowers which you find stuck in the Cucurbite and continue to do thus until you have got as much as you desire Then put out the fire and let the vessels cool there will remain at bottom only a little light insignificant earth The Flower of Sulphur is used in Diseases of the Lungs and Breast the dose is from ten to thirty grains in Lozenges or in Electuary It
my Machine You must leave an empty space between the brims of the Bell and the Pan that the Fire may have air enough to keep it lighted but besides that the Fire is apt to go out every moment use never so much precaution a very poor quantity of Spirit is drawn this way Authors do recommend this Operation to be done when the weather 's wet and to moisten the Bell before-hand but I have found by experience that these circumstances signified nothing at all With the Machine that I have described I can draw a good handsom quantity of Spirit and I am not forced to fire the Sulphur several times because the hole at top gives vent to the air and hinders the fires going out Again the more Phlegmatick part evaporates that way but the acid Spirit not being able to rise so high condenses against the sides of the tunnel and then falls down under the little pan that is turned upside down to raise the other higher that contains the Sulphur You may use a Crucible instead of a pan to put the Sulphur in The greenish Sulphur is better than the other for this Operation because it has more Vitriol in it and consequently more Spirit for this Spirit is nothing but a Vitriolick Salt dissolved that differs little from the Spirit of Vitriol besides in the Taste which is not so Empyreumatical as not having undergone so violent a Fire The Vitriolick salt which is in the Sulphur does not rise until the more volatile parts are spent for which reason the Spirit does not distil until towards the end and the drops begin then to appear in the middle of the Tunnel Forasmuch as Sulphur is good for diseases of the Lungs and Breast many do think that the Spirit which is drawn from it ought to have the same virtues but they do not consider that this Spirit being deprived of the fat or most sulphureous part of Sulphur hath also lost the virtue that accompanies it and that it must produce effects altogether different from those of Sulphur after the manner as the acid Spirits which are drawn from Sugar Vitriol and many other matters have very different virtues from those of the mixts themselves And the reason of it is very plain for whereas the Sulphur by its ramous parts can sweeten the acrimonious humours which fall upon the Lungs and so help the Cough the Spirit of Sulphur which is an acid does prick the Fibres of the Larynx and cause a Coughing as all other acids do Salt of Sulphur The Salt of Sulphur is a Sal Polychrestum impregnated with Spirit of Sulphur Put four ounces of Sal Polychrestum prepared as I have said into an earthen pan or a glass vessel and pour upon it two ounces of Spirit of Sulphur set your vessel in sand and evaporate all the liquor over a gentle fire there will remain four ounces and six drachms of an acid salt most agreeable to the taste keep it in a bottle well stopt It is a good medicine for to open all Obstructions and to work by Urine and sometimes it works also by stool the dose is from ten grains to two scruples in broth It is dissolved from half a drachm to two drachms in a quart of water for a drink in Feavers Remarks This Salt is improperly called Salt of Sulphur for it is nothing but a Sal Polychrestum impregnated with an acid Spirit Many great descriptions have been given of Salt of Sulphur which being well examined do all come to the same thing as this it is called by many Authors a Febrifugous salt The true Salt of Sulphur truly so called should be a little of the fixed Vitriol which remains in the earth of Sulphur after that the flowers have been drawn from it and should be separated from the earth by a Lixivium as other fixed salts are made but such a Salt would not have the same qualities as this Some have written that when Spirit of Sulphur is poured upon Sal Polychrestum dissolved in water there is made a great effervescency as well as when the same Spirit is thrown upon Salt-peter but without doubt they little examined the matter for there is no ebullition made neither with the Sal Polychrestum nor with Salt-peter they being both of them acid salts The union of acid Spirits with acid Salts is very different from that between acids and alkalis for the acid Spirits not being able to open the insensible parts of acid Salts they do lose nothing of their strength and their keenness remains the same but it is not so in respect of acids mixed with alkalis for such a penetration is made into the alkalis that the acid loses its strength in them And for the reason that I have now given the Salt of Sulphur is very acid and tartarum vitriolatum is hardly at all acid although there is imployed proportionably as much more acid Spirit for the making tartarum vitriolatum than there is for the making Salt of Sulphur The Salt of Sulphur is good in Tertians and continued Feavers and on all occasions where there is need of calming the too great motion of the humours because the acid serves to fixe the volatile Salts or Sulphurs which are most commonly the principal cause of these diseases CHAP. XXI Of Succinum or Ambar THere is found in small currents near the Baltick Sea in the Dutchy of Prussia a certain coagulated Bitumen which because it seems to be a juice of the earth is called Succinum and Carabè because it will attract straws it is likewise called Electrum Glessum Ambra Citrina vulgarly Yellow Ambar This Bitumen being soft and viscous several little Animals such as Flies and Ants do stick to it and are buried in it Ambar is of different colours such as White Yellow and Black The White is most esteemed though it be no better than the Yellow The Black hath the least virtue of all Ambar serves to stop spitting of bloud the Bloudy-flux the immoderate flux of the Hemorrhoids Terms and Gonorrheas the dose is from ten grains to half a drachm It is likewise used to stop a little the violence of Catarrhs by receiving the fume of it at the Nose Some do think that Petroleum or Oil of Peter is a liquor drawn from Ambar by the means of Subterranean fires which make a distillation of it and that Jet and coals are the remainders of this distillation This opinion would have probability enough in it if the places from whence this sort of drogues does come were not so far asunder the one from the other for Petroleum is not commonly found but in Italy in Sicily and Provence This Oil distils through the clefts of rocks and it is very likely to be the Oil of some Bitumen which the subterranean fires have raised Tincture of Ambar This Operation is a solution of some oily parts of Ambar made in Spirit of wine Reduce into an impalpable powder five or six ounces of yellow
CHAP. I. Of Jalap JAlap is a grayish root brought out of America cut into slices and dried it grows in the Province of Mechoacan and in several other places the best is that which is most compact and filled with Resinous veins It purges watery humors very well and is therefore usually given in the Dropsie and Gout the dose is from ten grains to a drachm in broth or White-wine Rosine or Magistery of Jalap This Operation is a solution of the oily or resinous part of Jalap made in Spirit of wine and precipitated by common water Put a pound of good Jalap grosly powdered into a large matrass pour upon it Spirit of wine Alcoholized until it be four fingers above the matter stop the matrass with another whose neck enters into it and luting the junctures with a wet bladder digest it three days in a sand-heat the Spirit of wine will receive a red Tincture decant it and then pour more upon the Jalap proceed as before and mixing your dissolutions filtrate them through brown paper Put that which you have filtred into a glass Cucurbite and distil in a vaporous bath two thirds of the Spirit of wine which may serve you another time for the same Operation Pour that which remains at the bottom of the Cucurbite into a large earthen Pan filled with water and it will turn into a milk which you must leave a day to settle and then separate the water by Inclination you 'l find the Rosine at bottom like unto Turpentine Wash it several times with water and dry it in the Sun it will grow hard like common Rosine powder it fine and it will become white Keep it in a Viol it purges Serosities It is given in Dropsies and for all Obstructions the dose is from four to twelve grains mixt in Electuary or else in Pills The Rosines of Turbith Scammony and Benjamin may be drawn after the same manner Remarks The Spirit of wine which is a Sulphur is likewise a very convenient Menstruum to extract Rosines which are gross Sulphurs you must use enough Spirit to dissolve all the Rosine and give it a sufficient time to open all the body of the Jalap after which a good part of the Spirit of wine is drawn off and may serve for the same use again provided you distil it with a very gentle fire for if you let it be too strong it will carry along with it good part of the Rosine A great deal of water is poured upon it to weaken the Spirit of wine which held the Rosine dissolved and then it revives again and its parts approaching one another there is made a kind of milk which clears up according as the Rosine precipitates If you have used sixteen ounces of Jalap you will draw an ounce and six drachms of Rosine well washed and dried From six ounces of good Scammony you draw five ounces of Rosine by the like preparation Some do evaporate the Spirit of wine and without using any Precipitation they find their Rosine in an Extract at the bottom of the vessel but then it becomes black like pitch All the Purgative virtue of the Jalap consists in the Rosine an Alkali salt may be drawn from the remainder but in a very small quantity You must observe to give the Rosine of Jalap always mixt with something else that may separate its parts for if it be taken alone it will be apt to adhere to the inward membrane of the Intestines and so cause Ulcers by its acrimonious quality Moreover Apothecaries should observe to mix it in a little yolk of an Egg when they would dissolve it in a Potion for it sticks to the mortar like Turpentine when it is humected by any aqueous liquor It may be likewise incorporated with some Electuary and then it easily dissolves Twelve grains of this Rosine work the same effect as a drachm of Jalap in substance It is not yet sufficiently known wherein the Purgative virtue of mixts doth consist to give it a right explication It is easily conceived that these effects do follow the Fermentation that the Remedy hath caused but no body can find what it is that makes this Remedy be Purgative rather than several others which seem to have as great a disposition as this to cause such Fermentation wherefore I shall not pretend to clear the knowledge of this Phaenomenon I shall only endeavour to give some reason for a very considerable difficulty which is to know how Hydragogues do work in our bodies and why they rather purge water than other humors A general reason that may be given of it is that all Hydragogue Remedies have more acrimony than other Purgatives and consequently they are better able to open the Lymphatick vessels But it may be further said that these Remedies do so cut and attenuate the Viscosities which are found in bodies that they make them be like water and there is no difficulty in conceiving this last reason when it is considered that these Remedies which do purge water are all of them Resinous or else salts for after the same manner as we see Sulphurs or Liquified salts dissolve Sulphureous bodies so do Rosines which are Sulphurs and salts dissolve Viscosities in the body which are compounded of a great deal of Sulphur But there is this difference between the effects of Salt and of Rosines that the Salt passing quick and making but little impression doth dissolve only that which is found in what is called the first Region of the body wherefore it purges but mildly whereas the Rosine by reason of its viscous hooked parts remains a longer time in the body and leasurely causes a Fermentation not only about the parts where it immediately works but operates on the brain and other remote places from whence it forces Phlegm to discharge it self into the Belly and this is that which causes Rosinous Hydragogues to purge more than Salts CHAP. II. Of Rhubarb RHubarb is a Purgative root brought from China It takes its name from Barbary where it hath grown in abundance it is likewise called Rheum The best sort is that which being broke appears of a Nutmeg colour within Its virtues are so many and so great that if they were sufficiently known and men could generally use it without that nauseousness which too commonly attends it mankind would have infinitely less need than they have of the Art of Physick in most cases and men might perhaps preserve themselves from most diseases without any other help Extract of Rhubarb This Extract is a separation of the purer parts of Rhubarb from the terrestrious Bruise six or eight ounces of good Rhubarb and steep it twelve hours warm in a sufficient quantity of Succory water so as the water may be four fingers above the Rhubarb let it just boil and pass the liquor through a cloth infuse the remainder in so much more Succory water as before then strain the Infusion and express it strongly mix your Impregnations or
matter fit to it another matrass in order to make a double vessel lute well the junctures and place your vessel to digest in horse-dung or in a vaporous Bath four days stir it from time to time the Spirit of wine will load it self with a red colour unlute the vessels filtrate the Tincture through brown paper and keep it in a viol well stopt It is a Febrifuge to be given in Agues three or four times a day at a distance from the fitt and to be continued for a fortnight the dose is from ten drops to a drachm in some proper liquor such as Centaury water or Juniper or Wormwood water or wine If you put new Spirit of wine to the matter which remains in the matrass and set it in digestion as before you will draw more Tincture but it will not be so strong as the other wherefore you must give it in a little larger dose Remarks This Tincture works like the Infusion I now spoke of it is a more convenient preparation than the other in this that it can keep as long as you will whereas the other does sowr in a little time Again those who do not love wine will like it better but I should prefer the Infusion before the Tincture because wine is a more proper menstruum wherewith to draw the saline and sulphureous substance of a mixt then Spirit of wine You may steep a few Coriander seeds or a little Cinnamon in the wine or water and after it is strained off dissolve some sugar in it and in this you may mix the Tincture of the Bark and so make a kind of Febrifugous Rossoli which Infants may be easily made to take of Extract of Peruvian Bark This Operation is a separation of the more substantial parts of the Bark Put to infuse warm four and twenty hours eight ounces of Peruvian Bark in a sufficient quantity of distilled water of Nuts afterwards boil the Infusion gently and strain it make a strong expression of the residence put it to infuse in new water of Nuts boil and strain it as before mix together what you have strained and let them settle decant the clear liquor and evaporate it in a glass or earthen vessel set in a sand-heat unto the consistence of thick honey It is a Febrifuge that has the same virtues as the former the dose is from twelve grains to half a drachm in Pills or dissolved in wine Remarks The Wine and Spirit of wine are very proper to draw forth the Tincture of the Bark but they are by no means good to make the Extract with because in the evaporation the Spirit carries away with it the more subtile parts of the mixt The water of Nuts is much more convenient for besides that it loses less of the volatile substance it is a little febrifugous itself Instead of this water you might use those of Juniper-berries the lesser Centaury or Wormwood-water The Extract is convenient for those who cannot endure the taste of remedies for it may be given in Pills wrapped up in a wafer without partaking of the taste But I should prefer the Infusion or the Bark in substance before this preparation because it is impossible to avoid the evaporation of the more subtile parts in the ebullition of it use what precaution you will to preserve them You may draw the fixt salt from the residence that remains after you have drawn the Extract or the Tincture You must dry it and burn and calcine the ashes in a crucible then steep them in hot water ten or twelve hours boil them an hour and then filtrate this lixivium and evaporate the water in an earthen pan or glass vessel in sand there will remain a salt at bottom which you must keep in a bottle well stopt This salt is an alkali as are all other fixed salts drawn from plants it is aperitive it may be given for a quartan Ague the dose is from ten grains to a scruple in some proper liquor You must not think that this salt retains all the virtues of the Bark they are rather all destroyed in the calcination Nor may we think to separate the Febrifugous virtue of this Bark by distilling it dry in a Retort for on the contrary this would destroy it by breaking the natural harmony and union of its parts and you would get only a stinking Spirit and a burnt oil which would be of no great use CHAP. VII Of Cloves CLoves are the fruit of a Tree as big as the Laurel Tree its Bark is very much like Cinnamon but tasts like the fruit Cloves it grows in many places in the Indies it is an admirable stomachick held in the mouth it preserves from the contagion of ill air Oil of Cloves per Descensum Take several large drinking glasses cover them with a Linnen-cloth and tie it round each of them leaving a cavity in each Cloth to put the powdered Cloves into set a small earthen Cup upon each glass of these Cloves let it stop so fitly that it may suffer no air to enter between its brim and that of the glass fill these Cups with hot ashes to warm the Cloves and distil down to the bottom of the glass first a little phlegm and Spirit and after that a clear and white oil continue the fire until there falls no more separate the oil in a Tunnel lined with a cornet of brown paper and keep it in a Viol well stopt Some drops of it are with Cotton put into aking Teeth it is likewise good in Malignant Feavers and the Plague the dose is two or three drops in Balm-water or some appropriate liquor You must mix it with a little Sugar-candy or a little yelk of an egg before you drop it into water otherwise it will not dissolve in the water Remarks I have given you this Preparation to serve upon an emergence when you want in haste the Oil of Cloves you must only use hot ashes to warm the Cloves if you desire to have a white Oil for if you give a greater heat the Oil turns red and loses a good part of it You must also take care to lift up the Cup from time to time to stir about the powder of Cloves The Oil of Cloves may be likewise drawn if you please like that of Cinnamon If you use a pound of Cloves to distil per descensum according to the description I have given you 'l draw an ounce and two drachms of white Oil and an ounce of Spirit there will remain thirteen ounces and two drachms of matter from whence might still be drawn a little red Oil. It is likely that the Oil of Cloves works in easing the tooth-ach much after the same manner as I said the Oil of Guaiacum did But this Oil having an agreeable smell with it there is no difficulty in admitting the application of this as there was in the other Some do dissolve Opium in Oil of Cloves and do use this dissolution for the tooth-ach
they do put one drop of it into the aking tooth and this allaies the pain in a very little time by reason of the Opium but there is one thing to be apprehended from this use of Opiates and that is deafness some have thereby become deaf though indeed that rarely happens You may rectifie the Spirit of Cloves by distilling it in sand And when you have distilled two thirds of it you must keep it in a Viol well stopt and fling away the phlegm which remains at bottom of the Cucurbite The Spirit of Cloves is a good stomachick it is good to help concoction to comfort the heart to perspire ill humors and to provoke Seed the dose is from six drops to twenty in some convenient liquor CHAP. VIII Of Nutmegs NVtmeg is the fruit of a Tree as big as a Pear-Tree which grows in the Isle Banda in the West-Indies It is called Nucista Nux Moschata Myristica Vnguentaria and Aromatites While it is green it is clothed with two Barks but when it comes to maturity the uppermost chaps and lets the second appear which is tender and very fragrant This last Bark is called Mace and improperly the Flower of Nutmegs The best Nutmeg is that which is most weighty it is mixed in Carminative Hysterical Remedies Sometimes a sort of Nutmegs called Male-Nutmeg is found at the Druggist which differs from the common sort in that it is longer and weaker Oil of Nutmeg Take sixteen ounces of good Nutmegs beat them in a Mortar until they are almost in a Paste and put them upon a boulter cover them with a piece of strong Cloth and an earthen pan over that put your cloth over a kettle half filled with water and set the kettle upon the fire that the vapour of the water may gently warm the Nutmegs when you shall find upon touching the pan that it is so hot you cannot endure your hand upon it you must take off the boulter and putting the matter into a linnen cloth take its four corners and tye them quickly together put them into a press between a couple of warm plates set the pan underneath and there will come forth an Oil which congeals as it grows cold express the matter as strongly as you are able to draw out all the Oil then keep it in a pot well stopt this Oil is very stomachick being applyed outwardly or else given inwardly The dose is from four grains to ten in broth or some more convenient liquor It is commonly mixed with Oil of Mastich to chafe the Region of the stomach And this way the green Oils of Anis-seed Fennil Dill and Mace may be drawn Remarks The Nutmegs must be well beaten or else they will yield little Oil this way of warming them is called the Vaporous Bath The ordinary method is to heat the Nutmegs in a kettle and then express them strongly but because the warming them that way carries off a great deal of its volatile parts the Oil never proves so good as when made with the circumstances I have mentioned for thus the matter heats insensibly by the vapour of the water and alters not its virtue in the least and if any water doth mix with the Nutmegs it is easily separated from the Oil. They who desire to have it very fragrant may set it over a vessel of wine instead of water If you draw the Oil from sixteen ounces of Anis-seed the way I have described you may obtain from six drachms to nine drachms and a half of it according to the goodness of the Anis-seed you use this Oil will be of a green colour The Oils of Almonds Wall-nuts Gold seeds Hazle nuts Poppy and Behen must be only beaten and so put into the press without heating because they do yield their Oils very easily and because these Oils are often taken inwardly it is better to draw them without the help of fire to avoid the Empyreumatical impression it would otherwise take CHAP. IX Distillation of an Odoriferous Plant such as Balm its Extract and fixt Salt TAke a good quantity of Balm newly gathered when it is in its vigour beat it well in a Mortar and put it into a large earthen pot make a strong decoction of other Balm and pour of it into the pot enough to swet it sufficiently cover the pot and leave it two days indigestion then put the Matter into a large Copper Vesica and cover it with its Refrigeratory or Head Tin'd on the inside set it in a Furnace and fitting to it a Receiver lute the junctures with a wet bladder make a fire of the second degree under it and distil about half the water you poured upon the Balm then let the Vessels cool and unlute them You 'l find in the Receiver a very good Balm-water put it into a bottle and expose it to the Sun five or six days open then stop it and keep it for use It is used in Hysterical Maladies in the Palsie Apoplexy and Malignant Feavers it is given from two to six ounces Express through a linnen cloth strongly that which remains in the body and let the Expression settle filter it and evaporate the water with a gentle heat in an Earthen vessel until there remains an Extract in the consistence of thick hony 'T is a good remedy for such diseases as proceed from corrupt Humors it works by perspiration or by Urine the dose is from a Scrupule to a Drachm dissolved in its proper water Dry the Residence that remains after expression and burn it with good store of other Balm likewise dried you may obtain an Alkali salt from the ashes by a Lixivium the same way I spoke of concerning the salt of Guaiacum This Salt is Aperitive and Sudorifick the dose is from ten grains to a Scrupule in Balm-water The Water Extract and Salt of all Odoriferous Plants such as Sage Marjoram Time Mint Hyssop c. may be drawn after the same manner Remarks Perhaps some will think it strange that I add water for the distillation of Balm but those who use to work on this sort of Herbs do know well enough that being dry substances of themselves there is no good distilling them without first wetting them and besides the water that is added doth only serve to imbibe the volatile parts as the Fermentation operates and when the matter is heated the more spirituous part as being the lighter rises first and savours much less of the Empyreume than if the herb were distilled without first wetting it You must observe in these distillations to give a fire from the second to the third degree because if it were made too little none of the Essential or volatile Salt of the Plant would rise and if it were too strong the water would taste of the Empyreume wherefore to make a good distillation you must let one drop follow another slowly The waters so soon as they are distilled have commonly no great smell but when they have lain some time in the
Sun their spirituous parts that were condensed in the Phlegm do display themselves and exert their activity for which reason it is that the water becomes fragrant which was not so before The Extract doth contain almost all the Essential Salt of the Plant wherefore it is of greater virtue than the water you must take care to Evaporate the liquor with a mild heat for fear too much should carry off this salt which is but too volatile of its own nature for it is in the salt that the principal virtue of the Plant doth consist CHAP. X. Distillation of a Plant that is not Odoriferous such as Carduus Benedictus and its Essential Salt TAke a good quantity of Carduus when it is in its prime pound it in a Mortar and fill with it two thirds of a Limbeck draw by expression a sufficient quantity of the Juyce of other Carduus and pour it into the Limbeck that the herbs swimming in the Juyce may incur no danger of sticking to the bottom during the distillation distil with a fire of the second degree about half as much water as you used juyce this water is Sudorifick It is used to drive out the Small-Pox and in the Plague Express through a cloth that which remains in the Limbeck let the juyce settle and after it is filtred Evaporate with a small fire about two thirds of the liquor in an earthen or glass vessel set this vessel in a cool place and leave it there eight or ten days there will shoot out Crystals round about the vessel separate them and keep them in a Viol well stopt These Crystals are called the Essential salt it is Sudorifick the dose is from six to sixteen grains in its proper distilled water The Extract of Carduus may be likewise made the same way that I described for Balm Remarks Succory Fumitory Sorrel Scabious Cresses and all other Plants that are not Odoriferous which yield good store of Juice must be distilled like the Carduus Benedictus and this method may serve to draw the Essential Salt out of any plant whatsoever The hot Plants have much more of this Salt than others Lettice contains less than Succory Succory less than Sorrel and so of the rest Seeing it is in the Salt that the virtue of the plant consists I would advise rather to use the decoction of Plants than their distilled water when the Plants are in season and when they are out then to have recourse to distilled waters and mix with them a little of their Essential Salt or Extract The fixt Alkali Salt may be drawn from the remainder of the Plant in like manner as I have shewed to draw that of Guaiacum CHAP. XI Of Sugar SVgar is the essential salt of a reed or cane that grows in many places and especially in the Western Islands The pulp in the trunk of this plant is taken and washed and then steeped in hot water this water is strained and evaporated and the Sugar remains at bottom heretofore it was called Mel arundinaceum or the Cane-honey but since it has been called Zucharum or Saccharum The first elaboration that is given to Sugar is to purifie it by dissolving it in water filtrating and evaporating the liquor after which it is made up into Loaves or else it is sent in Casks or Chests and is called Cassonnade or Castonnade There are of it the red the brown and the white Sugar according as it has been more or less purified it differs in colour The name Castonnade may have been derived from the Casks in which it is brought called Cast by the Germans When the Sugar has been refined no more then abovesaid it is a little fat now to refine it farther it is dissolved in Lime-water it is boiled and the scum taken off when it is sufficiently boiled it is cast into molds of a Pyramidal form which have a hole at bottom to let the more glutionous part run through and separate It is still farther refined by boiling it with the whites of eggs in water for the glutinous quality of the whites of eggs does help to receive and take away the impurities which might remain in the Sugar and the boiling of it serving to drive them all to the sides of the vessel in a scum the liquor is passed through a cloth and then evaporated to a due consistence Sugar-Candy is only a Sugar crystallized the way to make it is to boil refined Sugar in water to the consistence of a thick Syrop it is then poured into pots wherein little sticks have been laid in order it is left in a still place some days without stirring and you have the Sugar-Candy sticking to those sticks Red Sugar-Candy is made after the same manner Sugar is good for infirmities of the breast and lungs because it does attenuate and cut the phlegm which sometimes oppresses the fibres of these parts but you must use it as little as may be in hysterical cases by reason that it raises vapours Red-Sugar is sometimes mixed with detersive Clysters It s sweetness does proceed from an essential acid salt mixed with some oily parts of which it consists as I have already explicated in the Remarks upon Oil of Antimony prepared with Sugar The Cassonnade or Cask-sugar makes a sweeter impression upon the tongue than our finer Sugar because it contains more viscous or fat parts which do remain the longer upon the nerve of the tongue and this makes us sometimes prefer the first as to use before the other And for the same reason the finer a Sugar is the quicker it passes off the taste Sugar-candy is better for Rheums than common Sugar because being harder it requires a longer time to melt in the mouth and besides it keeps the breast moister than the common Sugar Spirit of Sugar This Spirit is a mixture of the acid part of Sugar with the Flowers of Sal Armoniack Powder and mix eight ounces of white Sugar-candy with four ounces of Sal Armoniack put this mixture into a glass or earthen body whose third only is thereby filled fit a head to the body and place it in a sand-furnace joyn a receiver to it and lute well the junctures with a wet bladder give it a small fire for an hour only to heat the vessel then increase it to the second degree there will distil a liquor drop by drop and towards the end there will rise white vapours into the head increase your fire still more until nothing more comes forth let the vessels cool and unlute them you will find in the receiver seven ounces of a brown liquor that has but an ill smell and a little black oil stuck to the sides pour it all together into a glass-body and having fitted to it a head and receiver and luted the joints distil in sand six ounces of a very acid spirit that is clear and agreeable to the taste and without any smell of Empyreum It is a good aperitive against the gravel and the
dropsie it is good to stop diarrhea's and dysenteries with it may be dropt into the Tincture of Roses instead of other acid Spirits Some do think it good for diseases of the breast the dose is eight or ten drops or to an agreeable acidity in some proper liquor That which remains in the body after the rectification is a foetid oil which may be outwardly used to cleanse old ulcers Remarks The Spirit of common Sugar is made without addition of any thing in the preparation it is an acid Spirit but is not so strong nor has so great virtues as that which I have now described It is thought good for diseases of the breast by reason of the Sugar which indeed is good for them but so strong an acid is apt to give a Cough The body must be big enough in order to give room to the vapours to circulate in as they do rise A very little Oil of Sugar can be drawn in this operation for that which remains after the rectification is not a pure oil but a remainder of the Spirit tinged with some drops of oil insomuch that it would be very hard to get one drachm of pure Oil. CHAP. XII Of Wine WIne is nothing else but the Muste or juice of ripe Grapes whose Spirituous parts are set at liberty in the Fermentation This Wine is more or less gross according as it abounds more or less with Tartar In the making of White-wine the Muste of white Grapes is left to Ferment all alone but Claret must Ferment with the Faeces of the Grapes whence it comes to pass that the Red is loaded with more Tartar than the White and remains longer in the body after it is drunk The wines of hot Countrys do commonly more abound with Tartar than others by reason of the abundance of Salts which they attract from the earth Muscat and Spanish Wines do not endure a Fermentation until good part of the Phlegm is evaporated either by the heat of the Sun or by fire and this is the reason they become so glutinous as they do almost like Syrup Lastly there may be made as many different Wines as there can be different Fermentations to the Muste Now let us consider what it is that happens in these Fermentations Muste is a sweet liquor that sends no vapours to the head to Intoxicate though one drinks never so much If you distil it there will rise first of all good store of Insipid water after that a fetid Oil with a few weak Spirits which are nothing but an Essential Salt dissolved and lastly there will remain a terrestrious mass out of which may be drawn some quantity of fixt salt by making a Lixivium as we draw other alkali salts but among all these substances we find none of those Spirits that use to make Brandy and yet nevertheless when Muste hath Fermented for some time it turns into Wine from whence you may draw a considerable quantity of Inflammable Spirits Now to explicate this effect you must know that Muste doth contain a great deal of Essential Salt this Salt like a volatile making an effort in the Fermentation to deliver it self from the oily parts with which it was before incumbred does open and divide them until by its subtile and keen points it hath rarified them into Spirit this effort of the salt does cause the Ebullition which happens to wine and which at the same time does help to purifie it for it separates the grosser parts of the wine in form of a scum of which some part does stick to and petrifie on the sides of the vessel and another part precipitates to the bottom the first is called Tartar the last the Lees of wine The inflammable Spirit of Wine then is nothing but an Oil exalted by Salts and this is an indubitable proof of what I establish that there was nothing but oil in the Muste which was capable of taking fire these same salts also being a little freed from the cover they were wrapt in are they that change the wallowish sweetness of Muste into an agreeable Tartness such as we perceive in our French Wines It is likewise remarkable that a sufficient quantity of Phlegm is requisite for the better separation of the Salts in their Fermentation and an Exaltation of the Oil for otherwise several changes are apt to happen for example when Muscat and Spanish wine are made a great deal of Phlegm is separated from them for the Muscat Grape is left to dry in the Sun upon the Branches before it is gathered to put into the press and some part of the liquor of the Muste with which Spanish wine is made is Evaporated before it is suffered to Ferment which is the cause that the Salts not having liberty to expatiate and to rarifie the Oil as much as they would do if they had room do make but an imperfect Fermentation The Oil being thus half exalted hath still strength enough to hinder the Tartness of the salt and therefore only tickling the Nerves of the tongue makes us perceive in these liquors a sweet taste And this is also the reason why fewer Spirits are drawn from Muscat and Spanish wines than from French wines for whereas the Spirit of Wine doth consist in a rarified Oil there must needs be fewer Spirits in those than in French wines But much more of a gross Oil is drawn by distillation from those half fermented Wines If on the contrary the Muste should be loaded with too much phlegm as it happens often enough there follows another imperfect Fermentation because the Salts being too much weakned by it are not able sufficiently to cut and exalt the parts of Oil whence it comes to pass that these Wines are subject to turn aigre or to sowre The Wines of Languedoc and Provence being extreamly loaded with Tartar are grosser than the Wines of Burgundy and Champaigne because their Spirits are incumbred with abundance of Salt and Earth Wherefore the goodness of Wine may be said to proceed from a convenient proportion of phlegm and Tartar It is objected to this last discourse that the Tartareous part being in a natural way separated from the Wine should in no wise diminish the quantity nor the strength of the Spirituous and inflammable part But when I asserted that the Spirits of divers Wines are extreamly loaded with Tartar I did not mean that Tartar which petrifies at the sides of the vessels for that is at quiet and does not hinder the Exaltation of Spirits but I intended a Tartar that still remains mixt in the Wine after the Fermentation and which according as it abounds more or less does render the Wines more or less thick and gross It is easy to see this Tartar I speak of if you Evaporate the aqueous part of Wine for it will remain at bottom in form of Lees. Nevertheless there is no need of establishing two sorts of Tartar in one kind of Wine for the former is only the more
into good Vinegar It may be some such thing happens in the Bodies of those who accustom to drink too much wine for whereas the volatile parts which ascend to the Brain and Heart by an agitation of the Spirits do beget Joy so on the contrary the Tartareous parts by fixing the humors about the Hypochondria do cause by little and little that which is called Melancholy which proceeds from an acid whence it comes to pass that many men making a debauch upon wine with design to pass away their Melancholy do afterwards find they have encreased it when the debauch hath had its effect If you would by way of curiosity make an exact Analysis of wine you must take that which remains in the body after distillation of the Brandy and distil off all the phlegm there will remain a Matter like unto Rosine put it into a Retort and placing it in a Furnace distil away more phlegm in a small fire until it begins to come sharp Then fit a large Receiver to the Retort and luting well the junctures strengthen the fire by degrees to drive forth acid Spirits and a little fetid Oil continue the fire until there comes no more The Oil is separated from the Spirit in a Tunnel lined with brown paper for the Spirit will pass through and the Oil being too thick will remain But it is here remarkable that more of this Spirit and Oil is drawn from Muste than wine which sufficiently proves the Remark I made before touching the origine of the volatile Spirit of wine for seeing good store of the Oil of Muste hath contributed to the making volatile Spirit of Wine there must needs remain but very little Oyl in the liquor that Brandy is drawn from The acid Spirit of wine and the Black Oil are like to those of Tartar which I shall describe anon And an alkali salt wholly resembling that of Tartar may be drawn by a Lixivium from the mass that remains in the Retort Spirit of Wine Spirit of Wine is the oily part of wine rarefied by acid Salts Fill a large bolt-head with a long neck half full with Brandy and fitting a head and Receiver lute close the junctures set your bolthead upon a pot half filled with water to distil in a vaporous Bath the Spirit which separates from the phlegm and rises pure continue this degree of fire until nothing more distils thus you 'l have a dephlegmated Spirit of Wine in the very first distillation It serves for a Menstruum to a great many things in Chymistry half a spoonful of it is given to Apoplectical and Lethargical persons to make them come to themselves likewise their Wrists Breast and Face are rubbed with it 'T is a good Remedy for Burnings if applied so soon as they happen and it is good for cold pains for the Palsie Contusions and other Maladies wherein it is requisite to discuss and to open the pores Remarks The usual way of making Spirit of Wine is by distilling Brandy in a Limbeck so many times over until it comes pure and to do this about half the Brandy is drawn by distillation and the phlegm that remains at bottom accounted of no use Again half the Spirit which was distilled is anew drawn off and the phlegm thrown away these Rectifications are continued until you find by firing a spoonful of the Spirit that every drop burns and there remains not the least Phlegm but because this Operation is very tedious and it is a hard matter thus to get a Spirit of Wine wholly free from Phlegm even after nine or ten times repeating these distillations let the fire be never so small Artists have invented a long Machine which they call the Serpent by reason of the circumvolutions which it makes It is fitted to the Cucurbite containing the Brandy and the top made like a Tunnel receives the head to which a Receiver is fitted and the junctures well luted and the vessel placed in a small fire the Spirits of Wine do rise by this gentle heat but the phlegm being too heavy cannot ascend so high so that thus a Spirit of Wine deprived of its phlegm is had the very first time But because this Machine is hard to carry into the country and other places where one would desire to make Spirit of Wine and besides that it is subject to loosen in the joints through the violence of the Spirits I have thought that the way I delivered for making Spirit of Wine was more commodious for provided you have but a matrass and a head it will be an easie matter to draw as good Spirit of Wine as that by the Serpent and there 's no need to fear the Spirits breaking any way out of the vessel if you do but lute well the junctures as I have said The matrass must have a very long neck that no phlegm may be able to rise into the Receiver The vaporous Bath is fitter than any other to perform this Operation in because a most moderate heat is requisite to raise up the Spirits all alone now the vapour of water warms very insensibly You must continue the same degree of fire until there comes nothing more Some persons do endeavour to reject the method that I have described for drawing Spirit of Wine because say they a long time is required to draw a little Spirit and by reason of the difficulty they conceive in procuring such vessels well made at Paris and much more so in the Country But it is likely these Gentlemen do blame this method because they never tried it for if they had but taken the pains to make Experiment of it they would have found that with two or three of these vessels they might have drawn as much Spirit of Wine as they could be able to do with their great Machine and that this Spirit is not liable to the impression which might be communicated to it from Copper or Tin vessels As for the difficulty that there is pretended of getting such glass vessels there is none at all that I know of but only for such as will not take the pains to visit the Glass-houses for there they would find enough for their turn and though I use a great many of them in my Courses of Chymistry I never was to seek for any yet But suppose there were none to be found ready made methinks they might as easily bespeak them and have them made at the Glass-houses as well as bespeak those grand Copper or Tin Machines that are commonly used I know that such as are better pleased with making a Fair shew than with the effects of things and who measure the goodness of an Operation by the trouble it gives one and by the greatness of vessels and Furnaces will find here but little to their satisfaction But I am very little concerned at such mens exceptions I never endeavoured to follow their Track My design is simply to facilitate the means of working in Chymistry and to take away
into a Bolus with some liquid substance or else you may boil them in some liquor but you must take the liquor very hot otherwise the Crystals will fall to the bottom of the cup you drink out of If you should boil these Crystals in common water or in broth and then let it stand to be cold they will return into the same form they were in before both at the bottom and on the sides of the vessel but the liquor will remain a little sharp through the solution of some part of the salt of Tartar into it I see no reason so much to wonder as some do why Tartar will not dissolve in cold water for although it does contain a great deal of salt this salt is involved in Earth and Oil which must needs hinder the dissolution and there is no need of having recourse for an explication of this to a proportionable Union of Volatile salts and acids Soluble Tartar Powder and mix together eight ounces of Crystals of Tartar and four ounces of the fixt salt of Tartar put this mixture into a glazed earthen pot and pouring upon it three pints of common water boil the matter gently for half an hour then letting it cool filtrate and evaporate the liquor until it is dry and there will remain at bottom eleven ounces six drachms of a white salt keep it in a Viol it is both a good Aperitive and Laxative it is good for Cachexies Dropsies and all diseases that proceed from Obstructions the dose is from ten grains to two scruples in broth or some proper liquor Remarks This Operation is nothing but a dissolution that the Salt of Tartar has made of Cream of Tartar so that it can dissolve in cold water which it could not do alone the Cream of Tartar also being an acid insinuates into the pores of the Alkali salt and sweetens it If you boil Cream of Tartar in water and put into it some salt of Tartar there will happen an Effervescency between them but if you mix these two ingredients together in cold water there will be no Effervescency the reason of which is that the acid Spirits of Cream of Tartar being involved in other principles can have no active power to open the Alkali unless they be actuated by fire I use to filter the dissolution in order to separate some terrestrious part of the Cream of Tartar which could not dissolve this salt comes near in virtue to Tartar vitriolated some do call it a Vegetable salt Chalybeated or Martial Crystals of Tartar This Preparation is a Crystal of Tartar impregnated with the more soluble part of Iron Powder and mix a pound of good white Tartar and three ounces of Rust of Iron boil this mixture in an Iron pot with five or six quarts of water for half an hour or so much time as is requisite to dissolve the Tartar pass the liquor hot through a warm cloth then let it settle in an Iron or earthen pot ten or twelve hours it will shoot into brown Crystals at the sides and bottom of the pot pour off the liquor by Inclination and gather the Crystals then evaporate about half the liquor in the same pot let the remainder settle and take out the Crystals as before continue these Evaporations and Crystallizations until you have drawn all your Tartar dry the Crystals in the Sun and so keep them They are a good remedy for Obstructions of the Liver Mesentery Spleen they are given in Cachexies and for Melancholy and the Quartan Ague the dose is from fifteen grains to two Scruples in broth or some other liquor proper to the distemper Remarks This Preparation is boil'd but little that the Tartar may dissolve only the more Saline part of Iron the liquor is made to pass through a cloth to free it from the Impurities of the Tartar and Iron which could not dissolve but you must pass it very hot for if it were a little cool the Tartar would Coagulate in the cloth and so none of the liquor would pass Instead of Crystallizing the dissolved Tartar you may evaporate all the liquor and so obtain a brown powder which has the same virtues as the Crystals When you would exhibite this Chalybeated Crystal of Tartar you must make it just boil in the liquor you give it in for otherwise it will not dissolve and you must be sure to give it as hot as they can take it for fear it should Crystallize at the bottom of the Cup. Soluble Tartar Chalybeated Put into an earthen pan or glass vessel four ounces of Soluble Tartar and sixteen ounces of Tincture of Mars prepared according to the description that I have given set the vessel in sand and with a small fire evaporate the liquor until there remains a black powder shut it in a viol well stopt and keep it you 'l have eight ounces This Martial Tartar has the same virtues as the Tincture of Tartar it is good to remove all Obstructions wherefore it is very properly used in Cachexies Dropsies retention of the Menses in Nephritick Colicks and in difficulties of Urine the dose is from ten grains to half a drachm in broth or some proper liquor or else made into Lozenges Remarks This Preparation of Chalybeate or Martial Tartar is not only more convenient for use than the former in that it dissolves or mixes in a cold liquor but has much more virtue in it for the Tincture of Mars contains only the more saline part of Tartar Soluble Emetick Tartar This Preparation is a soluble Tartar impregnated with some portion of Glass of Antimony which renders it Emetick Put into a glass vessel four ounces of Crystals of Tartar powdered pour upon it Spirit of Vrine until it be two fingers above the matter there will happen a small ebullition because the Cream of Tartar will dissolve in the Spirit of Vrine when the dissolution is finished add to it an ounce of the glass of Antimony finely powdered and eight or ten ounces of water boil it all in a sand-heat seven or eight hours and take care to put more hot water into the vessel as the liquor consumes after that filtrate and evaporate gently in sand all the liquor and there will remain three ounces of a greyish powder drawing towards white keep it in a Viol well stopt It is an Emetick that works with little violence the dose is from four to fifteen grains in broth Remarks The Ebullition which happens in this Operation proceeds from the Cream of Tartars meeting with the Volatile and Alkali Salt of Urine for the Acid of Tartar piercing the Salt of Urine divides its parts and gives vent to igneous bodies which were contained in it and which now finding themselves free do break forth in great haste Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack may be used instead of that of Vrine but then there will be no sensible Ebullition the reason of which is because the salt of this Spirit is not an Alkali so open
Salt may bruise the Crude Tartar and wrapping it up in paper may Calcine it until it turns into a white mass after which they may draw the salt by a Lixivium as I said before I do commonly draw this way four ounces of very white and well purified salt of Tartar from each pound of red Tartar a little more may be drawn from white Tartar but it is no better than the other I have observed that when water is thrown upon the mass of Tartar newly Calcined it heats much like unslack'd Lime when wetted the reason of which is the same that I have given to explicate the Ebullition of Quick-lime in water all the difference is this that Tartar Calcined containing a great deal of Salt does more easily imbibe water than Quick-lime Some do Calcine salt of Tartar with a little sulphur to hinder it from dissolving so easily by the air and to render it the whiter but this is no good practice because the acid Spirit of sulphur destroys some part of the Alkali and this does come to happen by reason that the pores of this Salt by being thus Calcined are not so open as they were and the air therefore cannot so easily melt it If you would make Salt of Tartar and other Alkali fixt salts very white indeed you must Calcine them all alone in a great fire until they become white and then purifie them by Dissolution Filtration and Coagulation As for their proneness to dissolve this is natural to Alkali salts and cannot be taken from them but by destroying their nature Nor can I approve the addition of any quantity of Niter to the Calcination of Tartar as some do because the volatile parts of Niter being exalted the fixt do remain and by their acidity do diminish the virtue of Salt of Tartar Although the Salt of Tartar be tolerably white after the first purification yet if you do calcine threescore and four ounces of it and filtrate it as I have said you will draw still abundance of earthy matter and if in curiosity you should dry this earth you would find three ounces and a half of it Alkali salts are Aperitive in that they dissolve those slimy humors which caused Obstructions and it is for the same reason that Salt of Tartar does correct Senna and hinders it from griping for the substance of Senna being viscous this does rarefie it and make it work the quicker it may also serve to dissolve some viscous phlegm that sticks in the guts which as it is going off causes griping pains The liquor or Oil made per Deliquium is only a Salt of Tartar dissolved by the moisture of the Cellar If you would make it quickly you must dissolve the Salt of Tartar in as much Rain water well filtrated as is needful to turn it into a liquor It may be used like the former it cures Tettars and discusses Tumors because being an Alkali it sweetens the keen Salts which fomented these distempers When Salt of Tartar or its liquor is dissolved in water newly distilled from some green plant the water will turn green and the greener the plant is from which the water was distilled this salt does make the water so much the greener The water of Night-shade turns greener with it than Balm-water Balm-water greener than Eye-bright-water and so of the rest The reason of this effect proceeds from this that the Alkali salt of Tartar does rarefie and make appear many little parts of the plant which did rise with the water in the distillation and did not till then appear But the water must be sure to be distilled with a fire sufficiently great for if it should have been distilled in a Balneum or such like heat there would not appear the least shew of green though an Alkali salt were mixed with it Cherry-water Rose-water and many other distilled waters of fruits or flowers do give no colour by the addition of Salt of Tartar Tincture of Salt of Tartar This Operation is an exaltation of some parts of Salt of Tartar in Spirit of wine Melt in a good Crucible twenty ounces of Salt of Tartar in great fire and when it is in Fusion cover it with a Tile and put coals round it blow about it so as to raise a greater heat than if you were melting Gold continue this degree of fire about six hours or until your Salt of Tartar is of a red marble colour which you may know by thrusting the end of a Spatula into the Crucible for when it is drawn out you may look upon a little matter that is stuck to it then take out the Crucible with a pair of tongs and turn it upside down into a warm mortar the matter will coagulate in a little time powder it presently and put it into a matrass warmed before-hand pour upon it Spirit of wine Tartarized until it swims four fingers above the matter stop the matrass with another to make a double-vessel lute the junctures close with a wet bladder set your matrass in Sand and heat it with a gradual fire to make the Spirit of wine boil seven or eight hours during which time it will assume a red colour After that let the vessels cool and unlute them separate by Inclination this most fragrant Tincture and keep it in a Viol well stopt You may pour more Spirit of Wine on the remaining Salt of Tartar and proceed as before as long as it will draw out any Tincture The Tincture of the Salt of Tartar is an excellent Aperitive it purifies the bloud and resists malignity of humors It is used in the Scurvy the dose is from ten to thirty drops in some convenient liquor Remarks You must place the Crucible in the furnace upon a Tile for fear lest the wind which comes through the doors of the Ash-hole and fire-room might be apt to cool the bottom and hinder the Fusion of the Salt The Salt of Tartar having been a good while melted in the Crucible does flame when thrown upon lighted coals as easily as Salt-peter does This effect proceeds only from this that the fire has attenuated and volatilized the parts of this fixt salt so as to render them fit to exalt with the sulphur of coals Many have writ that it is sufficient to Calcine the Salt of Tartar two hours in a violent fire or until the Salt of Tartar becomes blewish but after having tried several times to make the Tincture according to this description I could never be able to do it it is true the Spirit of Wine will be a little Tinctured but it comes not near that which is necessary to call it the Tincture of Salt of Tartar for it should be red like wine and to make it so it is requisite to Calcine it as I have said and good store of it should be put into the Crucible because it diminishes exceedingly You must likewise take care to use Spirit of wine well rectified for if there should be any phlegm
three sorts of it the Black the White and the Yellow The Inhabitants of those Countries do keep this Opium for their own use and do send us only the Meconium which is nothing else but the Juyce of these same Poppy-heads drawn by expression and then thickned and wrapt up in leaves to transport the better It is this Drug that we improperly call Opium and always use for want of the true but being more impure than the true it hath not the same activity and strength A Meconium may be made after the same manner with the heads of those Poppies that grow in Italy Languedoc and Provence but it will prove much weaker than the former The Opium which comes from Thebes or else from Grand-Cairo is accounted the best you must choose it Black Inflammable bitter to the taste and a little acrimonious its smell must be disagreeable and stupefactive Extract of Opium called Laudanum This Operation is the purer part of Opium drawn in water and Spirit of wine and reduced to the consistence of an extract Cut into slices four ounces of good Opium and put it into a bolt-head pour upon it a quart of Rain-water well filtred stop the bolt-head and setting it in sand give your fire by degrees then increase it to make the liquor boil for two hours strain it warm and pour it into a bottle Take the Opium which remains undissolved in the Rain-water dry it in an earthen pan over a small fire and putting it into a Matrass pour upon it Spirit of wine to the height of four fingers stop the Matrass and digest the matter twelve hours in hot Ashes afterwards strain the liquor and there will remain a glutinous earth which is to be flung away Evaporate both these dissolutions of Opium separately in earthen or glass vessels in a Sand-heat to the consistence of honey then mix them and finish the drying this mixture with a very gentle heat to give it the consistence of Pills or a solid Extract It is the most certain Soporifick that we have in Physick it allays all pains which proceed from too great an activity of the humors it is good for the Tooth-ach applied to the tooth or else to the Temple-artery in a plaister it is used for to stop spitting of bloud the bloudy-flux the flux of the menses and hemorrhoids for the colick for hot defluxions on the eyes and to quiet all sorts of griping pains the dose of it is from half a grain to three in some convenient Conserve or else dissolved in a Julep Remarks Opium is compounded of a Spirituous part and a gross terrestrious Rosine the Spirituous part may be easily dissolv'd in water but the Resinous requires a more convenient Menstruum such as Spirit of Wine You must dry the Opium after the first dissolution least the Spirit of Wine be too much weakned by the watry part that remains which would hinder the solution from being done so well as it should be Distilled Vinegar dissolves Opium but the acids may diminish its virtue by destroying or fixing its volatile part which serves for a vehicle to the other Spirit of wine alone might be used to dissolve both parts of the Opium but it might be feared it would carry away with it the volatile part in the Evaporation All that is in the Opium is preserved by my description for the Resinous part dissolved in the Spirit of Wine cannot evaporate with it because it is the heavier and the other part which I call Volatile in comparison with the first is mixt with a little Rosine that keeps it back while the water evaporates The truth of this I have found by experience and any body else may try as well as I have done by distilling these liqours Lastly it is hard to use any greater precaution than this for the preservation of all the pure parts of Opium and fewer Menstruums can be used that are more convenient If in curiosity you weigh the glutinous earth after it is dried you will find it to be half an ounce Almost all Authors have appointed to torrifie Opium before it be dissolved to the end a certain malignity which they say is in it may be evaporated but that which they call malignity is nothing but the Spirits or Sulphurs that are most volatile whereof I spoke but now so that by the Torrefaction they deprive it of its more active part They do further add to the Extract commonly drawn with Spirit of Wine Coral Pearl Treacle Extract of Saffron Cordial Confections Hysterical ingredients and other things which may resist a cold malignity in the fourth degree which they pretend to be in Opium But experience convinces us that it is not so dangerous when given in the foresaid dose so that there is no need at all of losing its volatile part by Torrefaction nor of mixing it with other ingredients which may hinder its operation or retard its effect It belongs to the Physician when he thinks fit to give it to judge whether there be any need of an Hysterick or Cordial which he may appoint to be mixed upon the spot I shall not stay to examine here whether Opium is cold or hot they who have made the Anatomy of this mixt do know very well that it is almost all of it Sulphur I shall endeavour to explicate its effects the most sensibly I can according to the Rules of Chymistry The virtue of Opium consists in causing sleep and that by calming the motion of the Spirits for since watchfulness does proceed from the motion of the Spirits which by rarifying the humors in the little passages of the Brain do augment their Circulation it may surely be said with probability enough that sleep is caused by some condensation of the humors which happens from a repose of the Spirits in the Brain According to this Principle then there must be contained in Opium and all other Soporificks a certain substance that inviscates the Spirits and hinders them for some time from Circulating so fast as they did before Let us examine now whether any such thing can probably be found in Opium by the Analysis I have made of it first of all I have observed a Spirituous part but after that hath been drawn out by means of Rain-water there remains a gummous and terrestrious matter and this is the substance that I find so proper to produce this effect For nothing in Physick is so fit to thicken the bloud and other humors as things that are Mucilaginous Milk and the Emulsions which are drawn from divers seeds the Water-Lily Lettice nay and all temperate Aliments do frequently incline to sleep because they are impregnated with a gummous substance which mixing in the bloud does serve to agglutinate the Spirits and to moderate the quickness of their motion this now being supposed it is easie to conceive how Opium makes one sleep seeing it is loaded with Mucilaginous parts which may be conveighed into the vessels But without doubt
is from Florida it hath been transplanted among us but our Countrey not being hot enough that which grows here is not so strong as the Tabaco that is brought out of America Tabaco either chewed or smoked now and then makes a great discharge of humors from the Head but if it be used too immoderately it is apt to cause several Diseases such as the Palsie and Apoplexy It is beaten and applied to tumors to discuss them it being full of Spirits which do rarifie them and open the pores It is likewise infused in common water and Tettars and other Itchings of the Skin are washed with this Infusion but you must have a care that the water be not too much charged with it for fear of giving a vomit Tabaco kills Serpents Vipers Lizards and such like Animals if you open a hole in their flesh and thrust a little bit into it or if you should smoke them with it Distillation of Tabaco Put into a Glass-Cucurbite eight ounces of good Tabaco cut small pour upon it about an equal weight of Phlegm of Vitriol cover the Cucurbite with its head and digest the matter in sand for a day fit to it a Receiver and distil about five ounces of liquor in a small fire keep it in a viol It is a powerful vomit the dose is from two drachms to six in some proper liquor it is likewise good for Tettars and the Itch being rubbed lightly with it Put that which remains in the Cucurbite into an earthen Retort or Glass one luted place it in a Furnace and fit to it a great Receiver and luting close the joints begin with a small fire to raise all the phlegm augment it by little and little and the Spirits will come forth confusedly with a black Oil continue the fire until there comes no more then let the vessels cool and unlute them pour that which you find in the Receiver into a Tunnel lined with brown paper the watry part will pass through while the black and fetid Oil remains in the filter keep it in a viol a drachm of it may be mixed with two ounces of Hogs-grease it is a good Remedy for the itch and for Tettars An Alkali salt may be drawn from the Coals that remain in the Retort after the same manner as the Salt of Guaiacum This salt is a Sudorifick the dose is from four grains to ten in some convenient liquor Remarks Tabaco is full of such piercing sulphurs and volatile salts that so soon as ever it is in the stomach it falls a pricking the Fibers and moving to vomit The Oil of Tabaco is so great a vomit that if one should but hold ones Nose a little over the Viol in which it is kept it would make one vomit One day I made a small Incision in the skin of a dog's thigh and thrusting in a little tent dipt in the Oil of Tabaco the dog immediately purged both upwards and downwards with a great deal of violence The fixt salt of Tabaco may be made as I have said but if you would have any quantity of it you must join a great deal of other Tabaco with it for receiving so little matter out of the Retort it would be hard to get a drachm of Salt CHAP. XIX Extractum Panchymagogum THIS Extract is a farrago of the purer substances of divers purgative and cordial medicines Take an ounce and a half of the Pulp of Coloquintida one ounce of the Pulvis Diarrhodon Abbatis so much good Agarick and two ounces of black Hellebore powder them all grosly and put them into a matrass pour upon it rain-water distilled four fingers above the mixture Stop the matrass close and set it in digestion in hot sand or in horse dung three or four days and shake the vessel ever now and then After this pass your infusion through a cloth pour upon the residence a like quantity of the same liquor let it infuse as before then strain and express it strongly mix your infusions and let them settle until they become clear decant them and evaporate the liquor in an earthen pan in a sand-heat with a little fire to the consistence of a Syrop then mix with them half an ounce of Rosine of Scammony and two ounces of Extract of Aloes evaporate the whole to the consistence of an Extract It purges all the humors well the dose is from one scruple to two in Pills Remarks The flesh or pulp of Coloquintida is nothing but the apple it self cleansed from its Seeds It purges the Brain the best is that which is whitest and lightest The powder Diarrhodon Abbatis is Cordial and resists the malignity of humors it takes its name from the Rose which is its Basis The Agarick is a Rosinous Mushrom that grows on the Larix the best is the whiter lighter and most friable it is used for to purge the brain The root of black Hellebore is a very strong purger of Melancholy wherefore it is given to Hypochondriacal persons and even to the Maniacal it gives a vomit when taken alone but with this mixture it fixes downwards the white is a poison taken inwardly it is never used but for sneezing powders Scammony is a very Purgative resinous juyce the best is most friable and which being powdered hath a grey colour drawing towards white its Rosine is drawn from it as that of Jalap Aloes is said to purge Choler I have spoken of its virtues sufficiently already when I described its Extract Spirit of Wine is commonly used to make this Extract and it may seem to be so much the purer being drawn by this dissolvent rather than by a watry Menstruum for spirit of wine dissolves only the more Balsamick and purer part of mixt bodies but nevertheless I chuse rather to prefer the use of Dew or else rain-Rain-water nay and even common water before Spirit of wine for several reasons First because in the evaporation of the liquidity of the Extract drawn by Spirit of wine a great many of the more subtile parts are lost which this dissolvent had volatilized And indeed it cannot be denied but some useful parts will evaporate let us use what dissolvent we please but it is plain there is no such great loss when watry menstruums are used as when Spirit of wine Now we should always prefer such menstruums as are best able to preserve the virtue of the mixt whose Extract we intend to draw The second is because Spirit of wine does always leave some impression of heat and acrimony in the Extracts it draws which the liquors that I use do not do The third is because Spirit of wine is not so convenient a menstruum to dissolve the salts which the Ingredients we use are full of and it is in this salt that their greatest virtue does consist Wherefore we ought to chuse such dissolvents as can best preserve the virtue of mixt bodies and such as are familiar to our nature We must use Spirit of wine to extract
chuse it clean friable and full of white spots and that sort is called Amygdaloides Flowers of Benjamin and its Oil. This is an exaltation of the volatile salts of Benjamin and a separation of its Oil by distillation Take an earthen pot high and narrow with a little border round it put into it three or four ounces of clean Benjamin grosly powdered cover the pot with a Coffin of paper and tye it round about under the border set the pot into hot ashes and when the Benjamin is heated the Flowers will sublime take off the Coffin every two hours and fix another in its place stop up quickly in a glass the Flowers you find in the Coffins and when those which afterwards sublime do begin to appear Oily take the pot off the fire put that which remains into a little glass Retort and fitting a Receiver to it distil in a Sand-heat a thick and fragrant Oil until nothing more comes forth there will remain in the Retort nothing but a very spongy earth The Flowers are good for Asthmatical persons and to fortifie the stomach the dose is from two grains to five in an Egg or in Lozenges The Oil is a Balsom for wounds and ulcers Remarks Benjamin being full of a great many volatile parts easily sublimes over the smallest fire the Flowers do rise in little needles that are very white but if you give never so little fire more than should be they carry along with them a small quantity of Oil which makes them to be yellow and impure You must therefore perform the Operation in hot Ashes or in Sand to have the Flowers fair The Flowers of Benjamin have a very pleasant acidity Tincture of Benjamin Take three ounces of Benjamin and half an ounce of Storax powder them grosly and put them into a bottle or matrass half empty pour upon them a pint of Spirit of wine stop your vessel close and set it in warm horse-dung leave it in digestion for a Fortnight after which filtrate the liquor and keep it in a Viol well stopt some do add to it five or six drops of Balsom of Peru to give it a better smell it is good to take away spots in the face a drachm of it is put into four ounces of water and it whitens like milk this water serves for a wash and is called Virgin 's Milk Remarks This Tincture is a dissolution of the Rosine of Benjamin made in Spirit of Wine When it is mixed in a great deal of water it makes a Milk because water weakens the Spirit of Wine and makes it quit what it held up dissolved If you let this Milk settle the Rosine precipi 〈…〉 to the bottom of the vessel and the water becomes clear The Storax is added to this Tincture to encrease the goodness of the smell CHAP. XXII Of Camphire CAmphire is a Rosine that distils drop by drop from a great Tree that is much like to a Walnut-tree in the Island Borneo in Asia Little Cakes of it are likewise brought out of China but that is not so good it must be chosen white transparent clean friable without spot and such as is hard to quench when once lighted Camphire is compounded of a Sulphur and Salt so exceeding volatile that it is very hard to keep it any time and it always loses something let it be never so closely stopt It is an excellent remedy for the Fits of the mother it is not only smelt to by women in this condition and used in their Clysters but also taken inwardly for it is lighted and then quenched five or six times in some water proper to the Distemper and so the water is given to drink it is likewise good for intermittent Feavers being hung about the neck because in its evaporating away it insensibly enters through the pores and causes a rarefaction and transpiration of the humor which caused the disease and for the same reason it is that several Druggs applied to the Wrists and other places have often cured diseases but you must observe that this sort of Remedies is always of a very Spirituous nature Camphire is dissolved in Spirit of Wine and this dissolution is called Spirit of Wine Camphorized it is good in the Apoplexy and in Hysterical maladies it is also found to be of excellent use in the Tooth-ach a little Cotton is dipt into it and put into the aking Tooth Oil of Camphire This Operation is a Camphire impregnated with Spirit of Niter which converts it into a liquor Powder grosly three or four ounces of good Camphire put it into a matrass and pour upon it twice as much Spirit of Niter stop your vessel close and set it over a pot half full of water a little heated stir it ever now and then to help forward the dissolution which will be finished in two or three hours and then you 'l find the Camphire turned into a clear Oil which swims above the Spirit separate it and keep it in a Viol well stopt It is used for the Caries of bones and to touch Nerves that are uncovered in wounds Remarks This Oil is nothing but a dissolution of Camphire in Spirit of Niter for if you pour water upon it to destroy the force of the Spirit it returns into Camphire as before Of all the Rosines this is the only one that can dissolve with Spirit of Niter This dissolution is made without Ebullition or sensible heat because the Camphire consisting of thin disunited parts the acids do enter among them and make an easie separation again acids mixing with sulphurs do never raise any ebullition because they find those bodies too pliant and yielding to make sufficient resistance If you have used three ounces of Camphire in this operation you will obtain four ounces of Oil and the Spirit of Niter will have lost an ounce this last will likewise have lost much of its acrimony Some have censured this operation by reason say they of the violent impression which the corrosive Spirit does give to the Camphire in its dissolution and that therefore the acrimony of the medicine renders it of a dangerous use But seeing this Oil is not wont to be given inwardly methinks there is very little reason for this scruple there are medecins which are much more acrimonious than this which nevertheless are not esteemed dangerous to be used Again there is occasion for this acrimony in the use that is made of this Oil for the Spirit of Niter which is mixed with it does very much help the Camphire to deterge wounds and to cleanse rotten bones CHAP. XXIII Of Gumm Ammoniack GVmm Ammoniack is so called because it distils from a sort of Ferula or Fennil-gyant that grows near the place where the Oracle of Jupiter Ammon stood heretofore the best is in large yellowish tears and white within It is given inwardly in Deoppilative Electuaries for Schirrhous Tumors of the Liver Spleen and Mesentery it is used in Emollient and Attractive Plaisters The
doubtless that is the reason why it is the whiter If you distil twelve ounces of Hair you will obtain eight ounces of liquor and volatile salt There will remain in the Retort three ounces and a half of a black matter very spongy and earthy from which no fixed salt can be drawn And by Rectification you will raise into the Head an ounce and seven drachms of a very fine volatile salt separate by a filter three ounces of a black and very fetid oil and by distillation of that which is filtrated you 'l have two ounces of Spirit and nine drachms of phlegm All Volatile salts have much resemblance in their figure smell and taste but that of Vipers is accounted the most active and proper against Poisons those of Harts-horn and Mans Skull are thought to be better than others for the Epilepsie that of mans bloud to purifie the bloud and so of the rest When you Rectifie the Spirit of Vipers or man's Skull or Harts-horn or hair in order to purifie them from their phlegm if you should let the liquor continue distilling longer than is fitting the phlegm will rise after the Spirit but then it separates from the Spirit as water separates from oil the Spirit will be uppermost and a little troubled and whitish but if you keep these two liquors together for a month the whole will mix together and there will be no longer any separation of them at all These effects do happen from this that the Spirit in rising does carry with it some small quantity of Oil which was dissolved in the liquor by reason of salts that it contains This Oil is very volatile it rises with the Spirit and by rendring the Spirit a little oily it hinders at first the phlegm from mixing with it It is likewise this little quantity of oil which makes the Spirit look a little troubled and whitish but when the Spirit and phlegm are kept a good while together they mix and the whole appears like a homogeneous liquor because there being but little oil in the Spirit the phlegm insensibly enters into and incorporates with it wherefore you must take care to separate the Spirit from the phlegm so soon as ever you take the Receiver from the nose of the head in case you have suffered the liquor to distil too long What I have now spoken of does not happen in the Rectification of the Spirit of Ivory and without doubt the reason is that the Ivory does not contain so much Oil as the other parts of Animals Some do prepare a Sudorifick water with Vipers after this manner They do put the Vipers alive into a great earthen body they fit to it a head with its Receiver they lute the joints and distil in a Balneum all that will rise from it but you must take care that the head be well fastned to the body for when the Vipers begin to be heated they leap and fling about with so much violence that they would otherwise throw it down and get out of their stove And then the Artist must have a care of himself and not be too bold for these creatures being irritated would fling about on every side and a bite of theirs at that time would be twice as dangerous as at another This water which rises whilest the Vipers are in their greatest fury is Sudorifick because some Volatile salts have risen and mixed with it You may give of it from a drachm to half an ounce in some proper liquor But to avoid the forementioned danger you might cut the Vipers in pieces before you put them into the body and because these pieces of them do retain life a long time the water will be little the worse for their not being intire When you have drawn as much water from them as you can by the heat of a Balneum you must put the remainder of the Vipers into a Retort and distil it as I have shewn before you will thereby have the Volatile salt the Spirit and the Oyl CHAP. II. Distillation of Vrine and its Volatile Salt THIS Operation is a separation of the Spirit the Volatile Salt and the Oil of Vrine from the phlegm and the earth which it contains Take ten or twelve quarts of Vrine newly made by sound young men evaporate it in an earthen or glass Cucurbite in a Sand-heat until it remains in the consistence of Honey then fit a head with its Receiver and luting the junctures close continue a small fire to distil the rest of the phlegm after which encrease it by little and little and the Spirits will rise in Clouds carrying with them a little Oil and after that the Volatile salt which will stick to the head like Butter-flies continue the fire until there comes no more then unlute the Vessels and separating the Volatile salt put it into a bolt-head pour likewise into it the Spirit that is in the Receiver and fit a blind-head to the bolt-head lute the junctures with a wet bladder and setting your bolt-head in Sand sublime with a small fire all the Volatile salt as I have shewed concerning that of Vipers separate this Salt and keep it in a Viol well stopt It is a good Remedy for Quartan Agues and Malignant Feavers it opens all Obstructions and works both by Vrine and Sweat the dose is from six to sixteen grains in some convenient liquor filtrate that which remains in the bolt-head the Spirit will pass through the Filter whilst a small quantity of black and extraordinary stinking Oil remains which is good to discuss cold Tumors and to give to Hysterical women to smell to You may distil the Spirit in a Sand-heat to separate it from a thick matter that remains at bottom it hath the same virtues as the Salt it is given from eight to twenty drops in some proper vehicle Two drachms of it are mixed with two ounces of Spirit of Wine to rub Paralytical parts with it is likewise used for cold pains and for the Sciatica If the Mass that remains in the Cucurbite should be Calcined and a Lixivium made of it with water a very small quantity of fixt Alkali salt might be gotten from evaporating the water and it hath the same virtues as other Alkali salts Remarks The Vrine of young men is to be prefer'd before others because it contains more Salt It must be newly made and evaporated with a gentle fire that the Fermentation or too much heat may not cause the Volatile Salts to rise with the phlegm The Spirit is only a Volatile salt dissolved in a little phlegm this Volatile salt works more by Vrine than any of the rest but its smell is more offensive This Remedy must never be given in Broth for Broth being to be taken hot the heat evaporates some of the volatile salts before it can well be taken A Volatile salt may be drawn from Vrine after setting it some months Fermenting in a Vessel close stopt and then a third part of the Liquor
Colcothar the Natural 330 And the Artificial 333 339 Colophone 490 Colour what it is 194 195 228 Variety of colours 199 344 345 and the reason of them 201 Coppel 77 Copper 118 Coral 270 The ebullition it causes with Vinegar in its dissolution thought to be a cold ebullition 273 The solution of Pearl and other alkali matters perform'd as that of Coral 274 Coral prepared 272 much better than the Magistery 275 Cornachine powder 225 Crocus Martis its best preparation of all 132 133 Crocus metallorum how often the same will serve to make the Emetick wine 221 D Depart 62 79 That Digestion owes more to the saliva than to acids 456 E Earthquakes their nature explicated 140 Ebullition without the encounter of acid and alkali 302 342 Elosaccharum 391 Elixir proprietatis 479 Emetick Syrop 215 Emetick wine 218 222 Extracts of greater virtue than waters 406 Extractum Panchymagogum 484 F Feavers their nature and their principal symptoms explicated 459 460 The regularity of their fits explicated 461 A Febrifugous salt 321 Fermentation 26 Fire how it alters the nature of bodies 20 21 25 26 251 How the substance of fire does increase the weight of some medicines 107 116 208 228 229 What Fire is 303 Flints how generated 263 Fulminant powder 71 Furnaces and vessels 31 G Gold 48 The wicked cheats which Alchymists do use in pretending to make it 49 c. The improbability of making Gold fairly represented 56 57 Whether it be a Cordial 58 59 That it can be volatilized 60 Purified by an operation called the Depart 62 Purified by Cementation 63 Its Precipitation 68 Its Fulmination from whence 70 Why it spreads under the hammer better than Sylver 315 Gravelled ashes 256 Guaiacum 383 its Oil why so good for the tooth-ach 385 Gumm Armoniack its best Purification 497 Other Gumms how Purified 498 H Hair distilled 518 Harts-horn distilled 516 Honey 542 Hunger from what cause 457 Hydragogues why they do work more on watery humours than the others 358 Hysterical vapors why allaied by ill smells 367 368 I Jalap 373 That all its Purgative virtue consists in the Rosine 373 Inks called sympathetical 258 330 Iron 130 How made Steel 131 Preferred before Steel for Physical uses ib. 132 133 c. That it opens obstructions by its salt 133 When mixed with Sulphur and wetted with water it grows extraordinary hot of it self which serves to explain the nature of Earthquakes and hot baths 140 141 Ivory distilled 517 L Lead 105 That it purifies Gold and Sylver as the white of an Egg clarifies a Syrop ib. increased in weight by Calcination 107 increased in weight by Distillation 116 how to be Revived 115 118 Lignum sanctum 383 Lime water 254 Litharge 76 Lutes 37 M Mace 425 Magnesia Opalina 219 Marcassite 101 Mercury 154 Why it remains fluid and why it so easily volatilizes by fire ib. it s ill effects 160 and its good effects 161 especially in Venereal Maladies ib. the raising a Flux by Mercury ingeniously and at large explicated 162 163 c. proved to be an alkali 167 168 why it requires less Spirit to dissolve it than other metals 172 in what form to be taken inwardly 185 Mercurius vitae 236 Mercurial water 190 191 Metals seven 46 Milk its coagulation explicated 29 454 Virgins Milk 493 Minerals their formation and growth 45 Minium 106 Mountebanks their cheat in taking Poisons 182 Myrrhe 500 N Niter see Salt-peter Nutritum or Butter of Saturn 111 Nutmegs 401 O Oleum Philosophorum or Oil of Bricks why so called 270 Opium and Meconium 467 how its narcotick quality is best to be preserved in the Extract 469 That it ought not to be Torrified 470 how it is that Opium causes sleep more than other things 471 Reason given why it allaies pains takes off deliriums and cures fluxes 473 The Turks taking such quantities of it descanted upon 474 Why Sudorifick 476 P Paper both antient and modern how made 386 Perpetual Pills 204 not good in the Iliaca passio but good in the Colick 207 Whether they do lose their virtue by frequent use 206 Perspiration insensible two sorts 72 That more is Perspired in the heat and drought of a Feaver than in the violent sweat ib. Petrification how 264 Petroleum 363 364 Peruvian Bark 393 The greatest Specifick ever known in Agues ib. The different manner of giving it heretofore and at present ib. The body to be well Purged before the Bark is given 394 The ill effects of taking it irregularly ib. To be avoided by such who have an Abscess ib. How it comes to remove the fit ib. 395 Its febrifugous virtue lost by distillation 398 Phagedenick water 171 Philosophers Stone or Powder of Projection a miserable cheat 51 c. Phosphorus the solid 523 and the Liquid 525 Its Inventors 526 Experiments made upon the Phosphorus 528 529 c. Baldwin 's Phosphorus 538 Plumbum ustum 106 Poison what it is 179 The difference between Coagulative or cold Poisons and the Corrosive or hot 179 How different the Remedies proper to each of them be 180 181 Principles of Chymistry 2 That they are not first Principles 5 How much they are indebted to fire in their production 6 c. The five Principles not to be found in Minerals 9 Pulvis Cornachinus 225 Purgative medicines their different operation explicated 487 Purgative virtue of mixt bodies wherein it consists 381 382 Pus how it becomes white 356 Q Quicklime how made 251 Fiery bodies proved to cause its corrosion and ebullition with water 252 253 No salt to be drawn from it 253 That Acids will give it a new ebullition after it is slak't 254 but will make no ebullition with Lime-water ib. R Rhubarb commended as it deserves 379 Rosines how distilled 490 S Salivation explicated 162 163 c. Sal Armoniack the Natural and the Artificial 310 Its Purification ib. Its Flowers Chalybeated 312 Sal Gemme its origine 13 277 Sal Prunellae often counterfeited 295 Salt one chief of which all the rest are compounded 12 Three sorts of it drawn from Vegetables 19 That it becomes Alkali by fire 23 24 Alkali Salts how made exceeding white 446 Common Salt 277 its origine 13 That made by evaporation not so strong as that by crystallization 278 The manner of making Salt at Rochel 279 Its Spirit drawn without addition of earth 284 New Spirits drawn several times from the same matter exposed to the air after distillation 285 Salt decrepitated must be newly made for use 282 Salt-peter or Niter of the antients different from ours 289 its origine 15 289 That it is not inflammable in it self nor sulphureous 290 308 That it is a Sal Gemme impregnated with greater store of Spirits 292 Salt-peter Purified judged better for use than Sal prunellae 295 Sanguification explicated 356 Sea-sickness its cause 278 Small-pox ingeniously compared to the fermentation of Wines 416 Vniversal Spirit 2 Steel how made 131 Stones how generated
them which is capable to make them petrifie but the great agitation they are in whilst they run with rapidity down mountains does hinder their coagulation for that can never happen until these waters have fallen into some place fit for them to repose and lye still in Calcination of Flints This operation shews the way to open the bodies of Flints and Crystal so that thereby they may be easily reduced into a powder Heat red-hot some Flints in the fire and quench them in water repeat heating and quenching them three or four times or until they are friable and can be finely powdered you must chuse River-Flints that are full of veins of several colours Crystal is Calcined after the same manner but it is more easily made friable than Flints A liquor and Tincture may be likewise drawn from it the same way I am going to shew for Flints their virtues likewise are both alike Tincture of Flints This operation is an exaltation of some parts of Flints and salt of Tartar in spirit of wine Mix well four ounces of Calcined Flints finely powdered with four and twenty ounces of Calcined Tartar put this mixture into a large Crucible cover it and place it in a wind-furnace light a fire about it by little and little to warm it gently and then encrease it to the last degree Continue it in this condition for five hours that the matter may all the while remain in Fusion Thrust a Spatule into it and see if your matter begins to grow diaphanous like glass If it doth so pour it into a warm Iron mortar and it will presently congeal into a hard mass which you must powder while it is hot and put into a matrass very dry and hot pour upon it Spirit of Wine Alcoholized four fingers above the matter stop your matrass close with another whose neck may be received into that which contains the matter Lute the conjunctions well with a wet bladder and set it in sand give a fire under it that is strong enough to make the Spirit of Wine simper for two days together it will turn of a red colour unlute your matrasses and separating them a-sunder decant the Tincture into a bottle put new Spirit of Wine to that which remains and digest it as before separate the liquor that is turned red and mingling it with the former pour it all together into a glass body and cover it with a head fit to it a Receiver and lute the junctures distil in a vaporous bath two thirds of the Spirit of Wine that may serve for use as before then take your vessel off the fire and keep that which remains in the bottom of the body in a Viol well stopt This Tincture is said to be a good remedy to open obstructions they use it for the Scurvy and in Hypochondriacal cases the dose is from ten to thirty drops in some proper liquor Remarks The Calx of Flints doth so strictly incorporate with the Salt of Tartar by the Calcination that they may be said to be converted into a Salt and this I shall shew in the following operation You must use the Spirit of Wine highly Alcoholized otherwise you will not gain the Tincture you must likewise observe to infuse the powdered matter while it is as hot as may be two thirds of the Spirit of Wine are distilled off that what remains may be the redder and stronger Almost all Chymists will needs make this red colour to proceed from the Sulphur of Flints extracted by the Spirit of Wine but it is more probable that this colour proceeds from an exaltation of the alkali salt in Spirit of Wine because a like Tincture is made on Salt of Tartar Liquor of Flints This operation is a solution of Flints into a liquor by the means of Salt of Tartar Take the other part of your Flints Calcined with Tartar and set it in a Cellar in a glass-pan it will dissolve into as clear a liquor as water Filtrate and so keep it This liquor is said to be Diuretick it is given from six to five and twenty drops in some convenient liquor If you mix an equal part of this liquor with some acid Corrosive Spirit you 'l presently turn it into a stone Remarks The Salt of Tartar or the gravell'd Ashes have so attenuated the Flint that it becomes as soluble as they and we see the truth of this in the operation for the moisture of the Cellar entring into the pores of our Calcined matter dissolves it imperceptibly and if this dissolution should be evaporated an alkali Salt is found at bottom When this liquor is mixed with an acid Spirit an Ebullition presently happens from the acid Spirits piercing the alkali and afterwards a stronger Coagulation is made then when an acid Spirit is poured on the Oil of Tartar because this same alkali contains more earth than does the Salt of Tartar This liquor may dissolve some Sulphureous obstructions that now and then happen and then it provokes Urine but if it meets with an acid humour it causes a Coagulation that may turn into a stone wherefore I would not advise any body to use this Remedy no more than the former Tincture which works only by its Salt that is mixed with the spirit of Wine From the Coagulation of these liquors may be sensibly explicated how stones come to be formed in several parts of our bodies seeing acid liquors and alkalis do so aften meet within us The Tincture of Flints is used to extract the Sulphur of many Minerals Alchymists have given it no less than the name of Alkahest CHAP. XIII Oil of Bricks THis preparation is Bricks impregnated with Oil of Olives and afterwards distilled Heat red-hot among burning Coals pieces of Brick and quench them in a pan filled half full with Oil of Olives but take care to cover it immediately for the Oil will else take fire Leave them in Infusion ten or twelve hours or until the Oil hath sufficiently penetrated the Bricks after that separate them and when you have grosly powdered the Bricks imbibed with the Oil put it into an earthen Retort or glass one luted large enough for a third part to remain empty place it in a Reverberatory furnace and fit to it a large capacious Receiver lute well the conjunctions and give a little fire at first to warm the Retort then encrease it by degrees until you see vapours come forth then continue it in this condition till there comes no more unlute the conjunctions and take away the Receiver there remains in the Retort all the Brick which you must fling away as useless Mix the Oil that remains in the Receiver with a sufficient quantity of other Brick dried and powdered and make a paste of it form several little pellets and put them into a glass Retort set the Retort in Sand and fitting to it a large Receiver and luting them together give a fire by degrees to rectifie all the Oil pour it into a