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water_n	fire_n	put_v	sugar_n	3,579	5	10.5805	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61316	A brief examination and censure of several medicines of late years extol'd for universal remedies, and arcana's of the highest preparation ... namely, Lockyers pill, Hughes pouder, Constantines spirit of salt, with several other of that kind, by which the art of pyrotechny is in danger of being brought into reproach and contempt ... / by George Starkey ...	Starkey, George, 1627-1665.	1664 (1664)	Wing S5272; ESTC R457	17,837	46

I could name several Authors both famous and learned So also Mercurius vitae reckoned by Bilichius as the Apex of Chymical preparations though he erroneously ascribes that off-spring to the parent Mercury from whom also it hath its name yet it is indeed wholly the product of Antimony as experience may make it appear to any that is ingenious in the School of Vulcan by ocular demonstration beyond denial or doubt All these and many other preparations of Antimony too tedious here to name had their time of being extolled almost for working of Miracles yet because of their malignant virulency have at length been laid aside as so many dangerous fiends not to be conjured up in Medicine without the help Art and advice of a very skilful Exorcist or Doctor Such a Devil in a new dress is this lately invented Pill as by an ordinary flux may be made to appear in a quarter of an hour by which means these Pills will quickly and easily give at least a third part of their weight in Regulus to the inexcusable disgrace of him that prepares and commends them who very disingeniously and without the least truth as I am informed denyes them to be at all Antimonial of which nevertheless they are the most contemptible preparation As for the Sun-beams which the title page and the very name of the Pill promise or seem to promise I am confident the Master of the Pill cannot tell what he understands himself or would have others to understand by the Periphrasis Whether they be extracted prepared and maturated by the Sun-beams as the Grammar sense carries it or they are brought to perfection by the influence of Gold figuratively called the Sun by Philosophers or at least have the quality nature and vertue and do that in the Microcosm which the Sun doth in the Macrocosm let what will be the Reason of that title if they be not made by the beams or heat of the Sun or dryed up and brought to a Consistence thereby it is a groundless insipid denomination It is a new name signifying just nothing Men are said to be judged by the names they give to their Children sure I am Philosophers may be judged by the titles they give to their secrets Here is a secret of whose name and title we may say as the Angel once said of his name to Manoah It is wonderful Wonderful to me what affinity Charcoal Sea-salt Saltpetre and Antimony have with the Sun-beams what the Crucible the mixture is melted in the fire that melts it the water that dulcifies it the Sugar Gums c. that make the powder into a Pill any of these or all put together he that can make out to my understanding how they denote the Solar rayes either really or analogically shall be my Oedipus till then my wonder will and must continue Howbeit as I before hinted out of Basilius Valentine in Antimony are most noble arcana's hidden but not to be prepared by the hand of every ignorant Sciolist concerning which this caution of Helmont is universally true and not to be neglected that Antimony while it causeth vomit and ☿ while Salivative are not medicaments fit for an honest man to use If any shall object that Lockyers Pill works with some scarce perceptibly I answer so will the Antimonial Cup Crocus or vitrum of Antimony in a full dose with some robust natures but this universal Pill or rather poyson is given in so small dose at first and gradually increased that scarce Arsenick Orpiment or Realgar would prove lethally dangerous if given in the same quantity which beguiling nature with an insufficient dose and gradual administration is a pernicious prevarication against the sure rules of the true Art of Medicine which prescribe that whatever noxious is given internally be given with great caution in respect of the parties strength age and other circumstances yet in a sufficient quantity to work it self out lest by this means of imposing on natures discretion with a virulent venom given in a too small dose an enemy be lodged within ready upon occasion to work an inevitable mischief when nature beguiled by the small dose of an absolute poyson shall be least aware of it and not able to prevent or remedy it for where the Archeus of the stomack is not sufficiently provoked to vomit nor the pylorus mesaraicks and bowels to an artificial dysentery or purging as it hath fallaciously got a name there at least provident nature involves the offensive powder or Pill in a flegmatick inclosure as a spider doth a fly in its web and so gradually as more is taken in it covers it till with the heat of the stomack and continuance this secondine break or dissolve then follow continual vomitings and loosness with Syncope's deliquia's and other tragical symptoms and perhaps the life of the Patient payes for the folly of the ignorant Artist at least an indelible malignant Character is imprinted upon the bowels and viscera which by no Art perhaps is after to be remedied or with extream difficulty Hence arise continual palpitations of the heart involuntary sighings oppression of the vitals with most difficult breathing as durable as the life to the amazement and horror of beholders And truely it was to gratifie the importunate requests of several who from Bristol Lincolnshire Oxfordshire Kent Surry Sussex c. have sollicited my opinion of these Pills with reciting several apparent undeniable inexcusable tragedies ensuing after and caused by the taking of them that caused me thus far to travel in the Anatomy of them and discovering their true nature vertue and danger that a record may be for future in behalf of Pyrotechny that the Philosopher by the fire hath publickly protested against them and given caution to that purpose No less Dangerous is that Mercurial preparation not more famous about the Town and in the Countrey for its monstrous price then infamous for its salivative quality of which an ounce of fine gold is but the purchase of eight grains and that quantity exceeds a single dose but one grain This powder is onely Bradshaw revived with a double value set upon the medicine by his successor It is an odd and old folly of the vulgar to value the goodness and excellency of a thing according to its price so that it is become a proverb far fetcht and dear bought is for Ladies but if it were truely known how little this powder in vertue exceeds common and ordinary precipitate men would hardly be perswaded to give after the rate of two hundred and forty pounds an ounce for it and might have the common that wants little or nothing of its goodness for less then a shilling Yet if the detrimnet of the purse were all the mischief that attended this old new invention I could be content to let it pass and suffer the people to be lasht for the itch of their curiosity with a silver whip But when that comes to be hazarded by it that is so far

grasping at a vast trade did too shamefully prevaricate in the direction he had from me as Mr. Kendall Mr. Andrews Mr. Luddington and Mrs. Marden know by which neglect his Pills bind the body obstinately and cause the next day giddiness great drought faintings dejected appetite suspension of wind fottish drowsiness c. for want of the closing hand of a true Artist which he hasty to get a trade neglected at first to advise with me concerning and having wronged me in using my secret as his own in his own name had not the face afterwards to address himself to me to learn to mend so that although much good be done by his pill yet far less then might be done thereby if those symptoms had been by full and compleat preparation taken away which affright some from medling with them and dishearten others so as to make them weary of and leave using them Therefore I did according to the dictate of reason and impulsion of necessity in a short Tractate vindicate that preparation from all pretenders and have pitcht upon one general Pill or powder which will be more efficacious then that of Mr. Mathews or any other publickly made by many degrees and have given a short Index or Catalogue of other secrets with description of the vertue and directions for the use of this and them the time dose and manner of ordering the patient in applying them and in what cases they are chiefly effectual For the necessity of that vindication and Catalogue this Apology I hope will be satisfactory to rational persons and for others I shall take little notice whether they are pleased or discontented As for the shortness of that Tractate I shall say no more but that it is a necessary direction of such whom it concerns what is to be had for recovering their health and where and how to make use of what is directed for which end short and plain advice is requisite and sufficient They that would have the Philosophy and reason of things at large for satisfying their judgements I commend them to my writings already extant and I shall God willing hereafter send forth what other Tractates I have promised which the studious in the Art of Pyrotechny expect and have for some years desired but shall not be long delayed for future Thus having made a fair and friendly end with the unlearned Alchymist and his followers I meet a many headed Chymical Monster which I must encounter or else the Art of Pyrotechny will be in danger of Contempt scorn and reproach which I shall not willingly suffer to be cast upon it at least with colour of reason and appearing just grounds For of late years the formerly contemned Art of Pyrotechny begins to have many favourers and I may without boasting say at least ten for one Since I sent forth my Apology for Helmont and his way of Medicine which was seconded by my Pyrotechny asserted c. and now a man would bless himself to think what a number of Coleburners there are and how they dayly multiply many of whom one could scarce imagine of any other extraction but that they grew out of some dunghil such heteroclyte pieces of Mortality as Weavers Taylors Botchers Coblers and who not of late have thrown aside their bodkin and thimble last awle and shuttle and are become Asini ad lyram like so many Apes in a Carpenters work-room Philosophers of the date of Jonas Gourd which sprung up in a night flourished for a day was smitten the next night and the second day withered and became scarce fit for the fire A man might perswade himself that the world were lately drowned in ignorance as the Poets fable it was once with waters in Deucalions time after which Cataclysm he and his wife Pyrrha were taught to throw stones over their backs which soon after became men and women and so repeopled the universe in imitation of whom some Chymist or other surely hath lately cast loggs of wood over his back from whence have sprung up such stupid blockish Philosophers as are or may be the scorn derision of Art and ingenuity it self These Mushroms in Phylosophy dream of themselves that they are tall Cedars in Chymistry and from the Dark bosom of Nothing they straightway soar to the pitch of Universality in Medicine It is enough for them to get a Catalogue of diseases which though they can scarce spell in true Orthography yet will promise to cure them certainly with an c. That if any more diseases either are or hereafter happen to be wo be to them at all adventure they have a wonder-doing trifle that shall destroy them as soon as they appear I long debated with my self whether or no I should meddle with this generation of boasting bubbles and their baubles or let them go unregarded as not worth the notice taking of a true son of Art and though the latter course more pleased me and suited my genius rather to scorn and neglect them then do them so much honour and credit as to examine and refute them yet at last I resolved not to pass them over in silence among many other for these special reasons 1. First because I having publickly Vindicated the Excellency of Chymistry from its real adversaries and profest enemies and my Books being taken notice of in the world I may say with modesty not without approbation of many that are learned and judicious not in this Nation onely but in foreign Countries and Kingdoms it may be justly expected that I who have defended this Art from the injuries of open adversaries should not suffer it to be reproached by the absurd pretences of seeming Friends For if on the one hand trifles be cryed up with the Elogies of powerful Arcana's and on the other hand dangerous Venomes boasted to the world for true universal remedies what a door will by this means be opened to Calumny there is none so blind but may easily perceive 2. Secondly I having promised to the world in my last published Tractate of Pyrotechny that I would expose to publick sale true Chymical medicines with large description of their vertues and full directions for their use and the performance of this my promise having been delayed for these several years in the mean time this spurious off-spring coming abroad with glorious titles and golden promises abusing and deceiving the simple and unwary What may people think or can they imagine but that these medicines are indeed such as were by me commended or that I know and approve them to be of that vertue and Excellency which the Books written of them do boast in their praise or at least that I know no other that are better There can be in reason no other conjecture made of my silence in case I should let pass without animadversion these Chymical mockeries and well it were if that were all for some of them are so virulently malignant and dangerously venemous that I cannot but concur in the

ana of Saltpetre by how much the neerer it comes glass or vitrum of Antimony For the Charcoal and Sea-salt which are mixt in the composition give it an easier fluxibility in the fire which quickens and makes more active doth no way extinguish correct or diminish the virulency of Antimony As for instance Let one part of Antimony be calcined with three parts of Saltpetre the Calx if the work be well done will be very white from which the saltness being separated by hot water and the powder dried it is then called Antimonium Diaphoreticum which may be given from ten to 30. grains without any vomitive effect ordinarily but if this powder before the Salt be washed from it be melted in a Crucible by a strong fire then poured forth and dulcified with warm water and after dryed it gives a powder in colour rather whiter then the forementioned Antimonium Diaphoreticum but in its churlish vomitive quality equal either to Crocus or vitrum it self So it is proportionably in this mock-preparation disguised under the name of Panacaea Aurea or Pillula radiis solis extracta which two preparations I would have the reader take notice are the same and Synonymous and do really excel●● ordinary Crocus in their venoms rigor and this is the highest attainment after infinice brags and boastings of these bungling Sophisters whose idle rhapsodies deserve rather a satyrical derision then any other kind of Confutation Let no man bless himself with hopes of the Pills excellency by reason of the small dose in which it is administred for since its natural ordinary and proper effect is forcibly to provoke vomit the lesser the dose is the greater and quicker malignity it argues in that which is administred As for the great cures that are noised about and attributed to this Pill I doubt not but these reports upon moderate enquiry will be found to be like to the shearing of hogs where the squeaking far exceeds the wooll I would not be understood as though I deny a possibility of great and unexpected cures by this means but say that they are adventured on with danger and hazard by reason of deficiency in the Antimonies correction Nor a hundreth part so notable and certain cures as may be made by Antimony totally corrected exalted glorified and perfected besided the absolute safety joyned with soverain Excellency in such true preparations which in these uncorrected venoms is not to be expected But lastly compare this with other preparations of Antimony which were once famous till their desperate danger that is inseparable from the vertue of such false operations brought them at last to become deservedly infamous and see if there be any thing new in this transcending them nay if there be any odds it is that this not so effectual and safe as some of them For there are several processes in Antimony the products of which at their first coming upon the stage have been extolled to the the Heavens yet wanting real worth to confirm and make good their commendations they have in short time been laid aside like a crackt Bagpipe or instrument out of tune though their first appearance in publick was ussherd in with as large a Catalogue of Cures as this is or can be For as Basilius Valentine truely saith The vertues of Antimony are so great and inexplicable that no mortal man can ever be able to search out the bottom of its secrets and mysteries Even crude as it comes out of the earth it is of great vertue Howbeit it is nothing so powerful penetrative abstersive and renovative in its gross substance nor in any preparation that doth not extinguish its venom as it is when its central profundity is by art manifested and its Arcanum made to appear Of which I shall God-willing write more fully in a peculiar tractate concerning the mysteries of Antimony Here I shall onely compare this new invention with other old ones of the like kind to see if we can find any thing peculiar herein that excels the others and upon serious and sober enquiry I find no such thing The relief that the sick may expect hence is no other then that which a man half starved may receive from a loaf of Bread fastned to the point of a sharp spear and darted at him the loaf may refresh his hunger-pincht stomack and save his life but the deadly spear threatens as much or more danger then the bread promiseth relief The tree of life is guarded with armed and angry Cherubims whose flaming sword is to be taken away by the true Artist that so the restoring fruit may be enjoyed with profit and safety but trust me this Absaloms pillar will perfom no such thing Yet it may answer expectation in keeping up the name and memory Erostratus who burnt Diana's Temple Eterniz'd his memory when the builders of it lie buried in oblivion A famous Quack will be longer remembred then a skilful Doctor of ordinary practice but the memory of one and the other differs exceedingly Thais of Corinth hath outlived the remembrance of all the noble Matrons and honest women that were coetaneous with her and so Lockyers Pill may be more durable then a Grave-stone but so as to be contemned derided and become the byword of every Practitioner when the remembrance of its formet credit and esteem will add to its present and future infamy Such a name I would not envy With what applause did the Antimonial cup court the world and that of late years of which an Antient Divine published a book in its praise boasting of as many cures done by it as might serve for a prologue on a Mountebanks stage at Tower-hill or Smithfield Besides the writings of most profound Philosophers were tortured upon the Rack of that Authors Ingeny to make them confess that all the excellency which in their most deep and mysterious sentences they boast to be in their hidden Elixars and Mercury is true of this Chymical toy And I dare affirm on my Credit nor do I doubt but my experience in the Art of Pyrotechny will be believed by those that know me sufficient to allow me for a competent judge in this case that the effects of the Antimonial Cup equal at least if they exceed not the effects of this so called Golden Panacaea or Pills extracted by the Solar rayes of which I may say truely It is tituli magniloqui trufa at the best an Ape clad in a jacket of tissue where the gay cloathing doth onely add to the beasts deformity But let all sons of Art know that diseases are not to be chased away with swelling titles and bombast names What need I mind the Reader of the fame which once the Crocus of Antimony had in the world the infusion whereof was by Rulandus an eminent German Doctor intitled aqua benedicta to which he attributes many Centuries of cures prodigiously admirable yea almost incredible Nor hath the vitrum of Antimony wanted both its favourers and admirers as