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
stupefaction of the Nerves and nauseousness of the stomach If you used sixteen ounces of purified Salt-peter and so much sulphur in this operation you 'l have at last but three ounces and a half of Sal Polychrestum very fine but if you use common Salt-peter instead of purified you 'l have five ounces of Polychrestum as white as the other This difference of weight proceeds from common Salt-peters containing more fixt salt than purified Salt-peter Sal Polychrestum may be Crystallized like Salt-peter and other salts Its Crystals are very small and much like those of sea-salt but only they are keener Monsieur Seignette an Apothecary of Rochell whom I have spoke of before hath put in use a certain Sal Polychrestum which seems at first to be like unto this but when it comes to be examined there 's found a notable difference as well in the Crystallizations and when it is thrown into the fire as in the effects for whereas six drachms of this sort taken as I have said do cause gripes in pricking the membranes of the stomach that of Monsieur Seignette in the same quantity doth purge very gently without any gripes at all as he proves in a little Treatise that he hath made touching the uses of this Polychrestum And the truth of it I have found my self in several persons The composition of this salt is known to none but himself who having given it a reputation in the chiefest Towns of France hath left some quantity of it with me to distribute and make use of here at Paris Spirit of Niter Spirit of Niter is a liquor very acid and corrosive drawn from Salt-peter by distillation Powder and mix well together two pounds of fine Salt-peter and six pounds of Potters earth dried put this mixture into a large Retort either of earth or glass luted set it in a close Reverberatory Furnace fit to it a great capacious Balon or Receiver and give a very little fire to it for four or five hours to make all the Phlegm come forth which will distil out drop by drop When you perceive there will distil no more throw the Phlegm away that is found in the Receiver and having refitted it lute the junctures and encrease the fire by little and little to the second degree there will come forth Spirits which will fill the Receiver with white clouds then keep the fire two hours in the same degree after that encrease it to the greatest violence you can give it and so the vapours will come red continue the greatest fire till there come no more the operation will be ended in fourteen hours When the vessels are cold unlute the junctures and pour your Spirit of Niter into an earthen bottle which you must stop with Wax Spirit of Niter is used for the dissolution of metals it is the best Aqua fortis that is and the corrosive virtue of other waters of this nature doth chiefly proceed from the Niter that enters into their composition Remarks You might as some do mix four parts of Potters earth with one part of Niter when you would draw its Spirit but you will succeed better and with less difficulty by observing my description for whereas the earth does here serve only as an intermedium to separate the parts of this salt to the end that the fire operating more easily upon it may draw its Spirits it is a very needless business to use more of the earth than is necessary towards this effect Besides this over great quantity of earth may serve to weaken the Spirits and by taking up too much room may hinder the drawing so much as otherwise you would with the same Retort I fling away the Phlegm because it only serves to weaken the Spirit The white vapours do proceed from the volatile part of Salt-peter and are a weaker sort of Spirit but the red ones do come from the fixt part and are the strongest Spirit for which reason the fire is made so very violent towards the latter end This fixt Spirit is commonly called Salamanders bloud Of all Salts Niter is the only one that yields red vapours When you use here the best Salt-peter there remains nothing in the Retort but only earth I have boiled several times in water a good while the earth that remained after the distillation of the Spirit of Niter and after evaporation of the filtrated decoction I could find no salt at bottom I have likewise observed that out of two pounds of purified Niter a pound and fourteen ounces of liquor in Phlegm and Spirit may be drawn A third part of the Retort wherein the operation is performed must remain empty and the Receiver must be very large for otherwise these Spirits coming hastily forth would break all to pieces for room to move in Spirit of Niter Dulcified This oparation is a Spirit of Niter whose more subtile edges have been broken or evaporated Put into a large Bolt-head eight ounces of good spirit of Niter and so much spirit of Wine well dephlegmated set your Bolthead in the Chimney upon a round of straw the liquor will grow hot without coming near the fire and half an hour or an hour afterwards it will boil very much have a care of the red vapours that come out a-pace at the neck of the Bolthead and when the ebullition is over you 'l find your liquor clear at bottom and to have lost half what it was pour it into a Viol and keep it this is the sweet spirit of Niter It is good for the wind Colick and the Nephritick for Hysterical distempers and for all Obstructions its dose is from four to eight drops in broth or some other convenient liquor Remarks You must leave the Bolthead open for the vapours would either carry away the stopple if there were one or else they would break the vessel the Bolt-head is so hot during the ebullition that one can't endure ones hand upon it The heat and ebullition begins sooner or later according as the Spirits that are used have been more or less dephlegmated or else according as the season in which it is made is either hotter or colder for in the winter you must warm the liquor in a gentle sand-heat and when it grows a little hot you must take it off and shake it thus it will come to boil This effect is very strange for spirit of Niter being a strong acid and spirit of Wine a sulphur it can't be said that there is here any alkali to cause the ebullition with acid according to the common maxim And this operation shews us that every thing can't be explicated by the sole Principles of acid and alkali as some do pretend This operation has much resemblance with that which happens when oil of Turpentine is put into a bottle with oil of Vitriol for the mixture of these liquors does heat and boil much alike I shall say something of this last mixture hereafter There is this difference notwithstanding that spirit
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-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
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
gentle sand-heat It is esteemed better than t'other to be taken inwardly because it is less Corrosive being corrected by the Spirit of Wine the dose is from four to twelve drops in some liquor appropriate to the disease Remarks The Potters earth is mixed with the Salt to divide it into particles that the fire may the more easily be able to rarefie it for the parts which Salt consists of are so strictly united that the utmost force of fire is not able to disengage them until they are separated by some Intermedium The preparation that I give unto Salt before it is put into the Retort is longer than the common sort but I have observed that the Spirit comes forth with less difficulty when the matter is prepared according to this form You must leave a vacuity in the Retort and fit to it a large Receiver for giving liberty to the spirit to circulate before it dissolves otherwise it would break them both Likewise the fire must be encreased by little and little because the first Spirits do break out with a mighty violence when they are driven too hard Some ways of drawing the Spirit of Salt without addition have been much sought after but that is not yet well discovered It is true indeed Monsieur Seignette an Apothecary of Rochell among other excellent discoveries that he hath made on Salts to the knowledge of which he hath particularly applied himself brought me hither a sea-salt in the year 1672 that we distilled without addition of any thing else by a very moderate fire and in two hours time we drew three ounces and a half of very good Spirit out of six ounces of salt that we put into the Retort After this we broke the Retort and having powdered the Salt that remained in it to the weight of two ounces and a half we exposed it to the air in a pan for a fortnight and we found it reimpregnated with Spirits we distilled it once more and with the same ease as before we drew half its weight in Spirit of the same force as the former The matter remaining in the Retort being again exposed to the air recovered new Spirits Monsieur Seignette did assure me that he had thus drawn Spirit from the same matter nine several times which is a thing worth our admiration and shews us very well that the air contains a spirit which forms divers things according to the different disposition of the subjects that it enters into This salt is particular to him that shewed it me and he prepares it himself some way that he is unwilling to discover Since I writ of Monsieur Seignette's particular way of drawing spirit of salt some have Printed that if common salt well decrepitated and kept a good while over the fire were exposed to the air for some dayes and distilled without addition of any thing to it it would yield a spirit much like that I have spoken of and in full as great a quantity But if we examine the sharp liquor which is drawn this way we shall find it of so weak a nature that it may more reasonably be called phlegm than spirit and the salt remains entire in the Retort whereas M. Seignette's spirit of salt is full as strong as common spirit of salt and has the very same qualities nay I conceive it somewhat better as not having so great an impression from fire as the other Again some say it does not deserve the name of spirit of sea-salt nor ought this preparation to be look't upon as any great mystery because the same incorporation and augmentation happens to divers other salts exposed to the air after drawing off their spirit I grant this augmentation proceeds from the spirit of the air and I conceive it is the same spirit which produces all manner of things according to the Matrixes or different pores of the earth it uses to meet with as I have explicated in my Remarks upon the Principles But because this spirit of the air has met with pores in our matter ready disposed to make a salt much like unto common salt and a spirit is drawn from it much like unto that which is drawn from common salt I see no reason to doubt why this spirit should not be a true spirit of salt all the difference is this the salt I now speak of is not so throughly united to its earthy part as common salt is and therefore its spirits do separate with more ease for they are drawn without addition of any thing else and with a gentle fire whereas those of common salt are so fixt that they can't be driven out without mixing a great deal of earth in order to separate all its parts and without a very great fire As for the augmentation which happens to many other bodies exposed to the air after their spirits are drawn off I don't question the matter of fact nor that these same substances do return into what they were before by impregnating again with spirits of the air in some considerable time but it is rarely found that any of them do yield so strong spirits and so easily as our salt and herein lies the mystery It is observable that the acids which are drawn by so violent a fire do very much differ from those that are made naturally such as the Vinegars of Beer Wine Cider the acid of Citron c. The Spirit of salt among others hath some particular difference from the rest because it will precipitate that which Aqua fortis hath dissolved This acid according as may be judged by its effects is compounded of stronger and more weighty points than the rest but they are not so sharp and piercing And this is the reason that it jogs so effectually those of Aqua fortis loaded with some bodies they have dissolved and that shaking them about it makes them let go their hold Some have writ that this precipitation must not be imputed either to the weight or the strength no more than to the agitation which spirit of salt may have given to the Aqua fortis or to matters dissolved but rather to the conjunction of the acidity of this spirit with the volatile and sulphureous alkali of Aqua fortis or Spirit of Niter which does by that means constrain this last to abandon the metal which it had dissolved But this is the way to explicate as they say one obscure thing by another that is much more obscure for what likelihood is there that the volatile spirit of Aqua fortis is an alkali and pray how comes it to remain in so great a motion with the fixed acid spirit of this same water without destroying or losing its nature this is a thing that can never be conceived very easily But furthermore supposing this spirit were an alkali it would be still necessary to explicate mechanically for what reason this alkali does quit the body of the metal to betake itself to the Spirit of salt for to say meerly
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
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
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
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
Calcination of Vitriol 332 Distillation of Vitriol 338 Styptick Water 346 Lapis Medicamentosus 347 Salt of Vitriol 348 Chap. XIX Of Roche-Alom and its Purification 350 Distillation of Alom ibid. Chap. XX. Of Sulphur 353 Flower of Sulphur ib. Magistery of Sulphur 355 Balsom of Sulphur 357 Spirit of Sulphur 358 Salt of Sulphur 361 Chap. XXI Of Succinum or Ambar 363 Tincture of Ambar 364 Distillation of Ambar and the Rectification of its Oil and Spirit 365 Volatile Salt of Ambar 370 Chap. XXII of Ambar-grease 372 Essence of Ambar-grease 373 SECOND PART Of Vegetables Chap. I. OF Jalap 375 Rosin or Magistery of Jalap ib. Chap. II. Of Rhubarb 379 Extract of Rhubarb 380 Chap. III. Of the Wood Guaiacum 383 Distillation of Guaiacum ib. Chap. IV. Of Paper 386 Oil and Spirit of Paper 387 Chap. V. Of Cinnamon 389 Oil or Essence of Cinnamon and its Celestial water 390 Tincture of Cinnamon 392 Chap. VI. Of the Bark of Peru. 393 Tincture of the Peruvian Bark 395 Extract of Peruvian Bark 397 Chap. VII Of Cloves 399 Oil of Cloves per Descensum ib. Chap. VIII Of Nutmegs 401 Oil of Nutmegs 402 Chap. IX Distillation of an odoriferous Plant such as Balm its Extract and Fixt Salt 404 Chap. X. Distillation of a Plant that is not Odoriferous such as Carduus Benedictus and its Essential Salt 406 Chap. XI Of Sugar 408 Spirit of Sugar 410 Chap. XII Of Wine 412 Distillation of Wine into Brandy 417 Spirit of Wine 421 Spirit of Wine Tartarised 425 Queen of Hungary's Water 427 Chap. XIII Of Vinegar 429 Distillation of Vinegar 430 Chap. XIV Of Tartar 433 Crystals of Tartar ib. Soluble Tartar 435 Chalybeated Crystals of Tartar 437 Chalybeated Soluble Tartar 438 Soluble Emetick Tartar 439 Another Soluble Emetick Tartar 441 Distillation of Tartar 441 Fixt Salt of Tartar and its Liquor called Oil of Tartar per Deliquium 444 Tincture of Salt of Tartar 447 Magistery of Tartar or Tartarum Vitriolatum 450 Volatile Salt of Tartar 462 Chap. XV. Of Opium 467 Extract of Opium called Laudanum 468 Chap. XVI Of Aloes 477 Extract of Aloes 478 Chap. XVII Elixir Proprietatis 479 Chap. XVIII Of Tabaco 481 Distillation of Tabaco 482 Chap. XIX Extractum Panchymagogum 484 Chap. XX. Of Turpentine 488 Distillation of Turpentine 489 Chap. XXI Of Benjamin 491 Flowers of Benjamin and its Oil 492 Tincture of Benjamin 493 Chap. XXII Of Camphire 494 Oil of Camphire 495 Chap. XXIII Of Gumm Ammoniack 497 Distillation of Gumm Ammoniack 498 Chap. XXIV Of Myrrhe 500 Tincture of Myrrhe 501 Oil of Myrrhe per deliquium 502 THIRD PART Of Animals Chap. I. OF the Viper 505 Distillation of Vipers 512 Chap. II. Distillation of Vrine and its Volatile Salt 520 The PHOSPHORUS 523 The Hermetick PHOSPHORUS of Baldwinus 538 Chap. III. Of Honey 542 Distillation of Honey 543 Chap. IV. Distillation of Wax 545 A COURSE OF CHYMISTRY Of Chymistry in General THE Word Chymistry is derived from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Juyce or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to melt because it teaches us to separate the purer substances of Mixt bodies which are sometimes called Juices and because it shews us how to melt things that are of the most solid nature The Chymists have added the Arabian particle Al in the word Alchymy intending to give it a sublime signification as particularly when the Transmutation of Metals is understood by it though otherwise Alchymy signifies no more than Chymistry It is called the Spagirick Art from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to separate and to gather together because it teaches how to separate the useful parts of a body from the unuseful and how to joyn them together again 'T is called the Hermetick Art from Hermes one of the first Inventors of it Lastly it has been called Pyrotechnia from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying the Art of Fire for in effect it is by Fire that we bring all Chymical Operations to pass Other names have been given to this Art but because the knowledge of them is to no great purpose we will be contented with having related some of the chief Chymistry is an Art that teaches how to separate the different substances which are found in Mixt bodies I mean by a Mixt body those things that naturally grow and increase such as Minerals Vegetables and Animals Under the name of Minerals I comprehend the Seven Metals Minerals Stones and Earths under Vegetables I understand Plants Gumms Rosins Fruits the several sorts of Fungus Seeds Juyces Flowers Mosses and whatsoever else comes from them Among these also I reckon Manna Honey and those that are called imperfect Mixts And under Animals I contain both the Animals themselves and whatsoever belongs to them as their parts and excrements But before I begin to speak particularly of all these things I believe it will be convenient to say something of the Principles of Chymistry and give a general Idea of Furnaces Lutes the degrees of Fire and Terms that may occasion any obscurity Of the Principles of Chymistry The First Principle that can be admitted for the composition of Mixts is an Vniversal Spirit which being diffused through all the world produces different things according to the different Matrixes or Pores of the earth in which it settles But because this Principle is a little Metaphysical and falls not under our senses it will be fit to establish some sensible ones wherefore I shall relate those that are commonly held Whereas the Chymists in making the Analysis of Mixt bodies have met with five sorts of Substances they therefore concluded that there were five Principles of Natural things Water Spirit Oil Salt and Earth Of these five three of them are Active the Spirit Oil and Salt and two Passive Water and Earth They called them active by reason they do cause all manner of action and the others passive because being in repose themselves they only serve to stop and hinder the quick motion of the actives The Spirit which is called Mercury is the first of the Active principles that appears to us when we make the Anatomy of a mixt body 'T is a subtile piercing light substance that is more in motion than any of the others It is this which causes all Bodies to grow in more or less time according as it abounds in them more or less But it happens that the Bodies wherein it abounds are more liable to corruption by reason of its too great motion and this is observ'd in Animals and Vegetables On the contrary the greatest part of Minerals as containing but a very small quantity of it do seem to be incorruptible It cannot be drawn pure no more than the others I am going to speak of But either it is involv'd in a little Oil that it carries along with it and then may be called a Volatile Spirit such as the Spirit of Wine of Roses of Rosemary of Juniper or else is
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
neck of one Matrass is put into the neck of another they are called a double vessel and this is done when we desire to circulate Spirits but then the junctures must be very well luted You must also provide many large capacious Recipients for the Distillation of Acid Spirits by a Retort They must be so very large that the Spirits may have room to Circulate the better Lingots are Iron molds of divers shapes into which melted Metals are wont to be poured in order to harden in the form that we would have them That which is used for the making Lapis infernalis must consist of two pieces joined together with two little Iron rings and the melted matter is poured into the upper part of it See its figure in the second Table Coppels are porous vessels made in form of a cup to be used for the trying and purifying of Gold and Silver They are made of Ashes well washt or of bones calcined See their figure in the second Table Ashes deprived of their salts are rather used than others for the composition of this sort of vessels that they may be made the more porous by such deprivation See the Chapter concerning Purification of Silver by the Coppel and the Remarks upon it Many glass Funnels great and small Viols of glass Crucibles Pans Mortars of glass or stone or Marble or Iron must not be forgotten Aludels must also have a place there they are Pots without a bottom joyned together and are placed over another Pot with a whole in the middle to serve for Sublimations Of Lutes The Fire is often raised to so high a degree as will melt glass Retorts in a Reverberatory Furnace wherefore it will be convenient to coat them over with such a Lute as when dry is able to preserve and contain the matter that is put into them to be distill'd This Lute may be made after the manner which follows Take Sand the dross of Iron Potters earth in powder of each five pounds horse-dung cut small a pound glass beaten into powder and Sea-salt of each four ounces mix them all and with a sufficient quantity of water make a Paste or Lute with which you must coat the Retort all round to half its neck and so set it a drying This same Lute will serve to stop close the junctures of the neck of the Retort with the Recipient but because when it dries it grows exceeding hard and it proves difficult to unlute it it is needful to wet it with wet clothes when you would take the Retort asunder from the Receiver The Lute that I commonly use my self for such occasions is compounded only of two parts of Sand and one of clay tempered together with water As for the conjunction of Limbecks ordinary Glue upon paper will serve turn but when something very spirituous is distilled such as the Spirit of Wine use a wet Bladder which carries a Glue along with it that sticks very well But if the bladder happens to be eaten or corroded by the Spirits have recourse to the following Glue Take Flower and Lime slackt of each an ounce potters-Potters-earth in powder half an ounce mix them and make a moist Paste with a sufficient quantity of the Whites of Eggs well beaten before hand with a little water This Paste may likewise serve to stop the cracks that happen in glass vessels there must be three lays of the Paste bound on with paper To Seal Hermetically is to stop the mouth or neck of a Glass-Vessel with a pair of Pincers heated red hot To do this the neck is heated by little and little with burning coals and the fire is encreased and continued until the Glass is ready to melt This way of sealing a Vessel is used when you have put some matter within it that is easie to be exalted and you have a mind to make it Circulate Of the Degrees of Fire To make a Fire of the First Degree two or three coals lighted will suffice to raise a most gentle heat For the Fire of the second degree three or four coals will serve to give such a heat as is able sensibly to warm the Vessel but so as a hand may be able to endure it for some time For the Fire of the Third degree you must cause heat enough to make a Pot boil that is fill'd with five or six quarts of water For the Fourth Degree you must use Coals and Wood together enough to give the most extream heat of all The Fire of Sand of the filings of Iron and of Ashes is made when the Vessel that contains the matter that is to be heated is covered underneath and on all sides with Sand or the filings of Iron or with Ashes this is done to heat the Vessel the more gently All these Fires have their Degrees but the Ash-fire is the mildest because the Ashes cannot contain so great a heat as the others The Reverberatory Fire is made in a close Furnace that the heat or flame which always tends upwards may reverberate or return upon the Vessel which is placed on two Iron bars This fire hath its Degrees but may be raised to a greater violence than the rest The Wheel fire for Fusion is made when with lighted coals you encompass all round a Crucible that holds the matter you desire to melt The Balneum Mariae is when an Alembick containing the matter that is to be heated is placed in a Vessel filled with Water under which the Fire is made thus the water growing hot heats the matter contained in the Alembick The Vaporous Bath is when a Glass vessel containing some Matter is heated by the vapour of hot water Explication of many Terms that are used in Chymistry To Alcoholize or reduce into Alcohol signifies to Subtilize as when a Mixt is beaten into an impalpable powder This word is also used to express a very pure Spirit thus the Spirit of Wine well rectified is called the Alcohol of Wine Amalgamate is to mix Mercury with some melted Metal this Operation serves to render the Metal fit to be extended on some Works as Gold or else to reduce it into a very subtile powder which is done by putting the Amalgame into a Crucible over the Fire for the Mercury subliming into the Air leaves the Metal in an impalpable powder neither Iron nor Copper can by any means be Amalgamated Cement is a manner of purifying Gold 'T is done by stratification with a hard paste made of one part of Salt Armoniack two of common Salt and four of Potters earth or Bricks powdered the whole having been moistned with a sufficient quantity of Urine this Composition is called Royal Cement Circulation is a motion given to liquors contained in a double vessel excited by fire and causing the vapours to ascend and descend to and fro This operation tends either to subtilize the liquors or to open some hard body that is mixed with them Coagulate is to give a consistence to liquids by
Although I cannot absolutely deny but that some certain Artist by a particular method might have got the way of making Gold heretofore nor that some body may be as lucky in time to come yet there is more appearance of Impossibility than possibility in the case because of the small knowledge that any of us have of the Natural Composition of this mixt for seeing that Gold as well as Silver is drawn from Mines environed with Waters it is very probable that these Waters do bring along with them some Saline Principles that congele and incorporate in Earths of a particular composition and whose Pores are disposed in such a manner as 't is impossible for Art to imitate Nevertheless in order to make Gold a perfect knowledge of the Salts that the Waters of the Mines do convey is very requisite as well as the disposition of the Matrixes or Earths in which they do congele Wherefore a man must be soundly prejudiced before he can believe that by the help of artificial fires he can concoct metals so as to turn them into Gold As for the Mercury which men pretend to draw out of Minerals and Metals and which they believe to be the seminal principle of Gold it is a thing meerly imaginary for first of all it is a great question and may be doubted whether there be any Mercury in those metallick matters wherein it is sought after but if we should suppose it in them what reason shall we have to make it be the seed of Gold we can no ways find that Mercury is able to produce Gold nay further as I said before the growth of metals and minerals is quite of another nature than that of Vegetables Now say they the seed of Gold is communicated unto all bodies and that it does abound in the Universal Spirit And because Manna Dew Hony are impregnated with this Spirit that Gold may by Art be drawn out of those substances We grant unto them that the Universal Spirit does contain an Acid which serves towards the production of Gold because the acid waters or salts which do enter into the composition of this metal do proceed from the Universal Spirit but if you go to call this acid a seed it will prove to be the seed of all other mixt bodies as well as that of Gold and there 's no more reason for thinking that the Universal Spirit does abound in the seed of Gold than in the seed of the grossest metal or the most unuseful plant or the most contemptible of animals so that we may conclude that to spend ones time in making of Gold seems properly to lose it by working in the dark and I find that Alchymy has been very well defined to be Ars fine arte cujus principium mentiri medium laborare finis mendicare an Art without any Art whose beginning is Lying whose middle is nothing but Labour and whose end is Beggery Gold is a good Remedy for those who have taken too much Mercury for these two Metals do easily unite together and by this union or Amalgamation the Mercury fixes and its motion is interrupted This is plainly enough perceived in such as have received the Frictions with Mercury for if they do but hold a piece of Gold in their mouth a little it will grow white by the vapour of the Quicksilver Gold taken inwardly is thought to be a most potent Cordial because Astrologers tell us it receives its Influence from the Sun which is as it were the Heart of the world and by the communication of those Influences to the heart it serves to fortifie and cleanse it from all impurities upon which ground a great many Operations have been invented in order to open this Metal and separate its Sulphur from its salt Moreover this Operation by way of bravery is called Aurum Potabile because this salt or this Sulphur dissolving in a Liquor can be taken by way of Potion And because this Aurum Potabile can be thought to be distributed into all parts of the body they fancy it can drive out every thing that interrupts the Functions of Nature that it can free him that takes it from all fear of any Diseases for a long time and can prolong life But this Opinion is built upon a weak foundation and Experience does not confirm any of these glorious effects for what assurance can we have or what Evidence is there that the Sun is such a great friend of Gold or that it bestows more Influence on it than on other mixt bodies it is a thing that can never be prov'd and we fee that the Sun casts its light and heat in general upon all bodies without making any difference Who can understand that the Pores of Gold are so disposed as to have a greater facility of retaining the Suns Influences than other metals or things This will be full as hard to prove as the other But though we should grant Astrologers this supposition concerning the Suns Influence on Gold the consequence they draw from it that therefore it Fortifies the heart would be ne're a-whit the truer for all that we are able to apprehend in Gold is that it is a most compact and weighty body the union of whose Principles is extraordinary close which is proved from hence that no Art can instruct us to dissolve it Radically so as to separate its salt and its sulphur This Gold being beaten into the thinnest Leaves that can be imagined and taken inwardly receives not the least change in our bodies and is voided the very same it was before excepting when Quicksilver has been taken beforehand for it unites with that as I have said Wherefore we must conclude that if Gold has received more Influence from the Sun than other Metals yet it is never the fitter to dissolve in our Bodies nor to produce those rare effects that are talkt of I know that stories are told to prove that Gold does communicate virtue to the bodies of those who have taken it and that it loses in the body some of its quantity and among other stories 't is said that several persons who had fed upon Capons nourished with a Paste made of a mixture of Vipers flesh and Gold together have been cured that way of several Diseases but there 's a great deal more reason to attribute this effect rather to the Vipers than Gold for we know by experience that Vipers taken inwardly without any thing else do use to produce divers sensible effects whereas we observe none at all in Gold when 't is given alone As for the diminution they imagine of Gold in bodies they prove it by their gathering together all the Excrements of those Capons and Calcining them for they could obtain again but the fourth part of the Gold that was used in the Paste the Capons had fed upon But this proof is as weak as the former for the Excrements of the Capons being full of a Volatile Salt that Salt may have Volatiliz'd
Principles it is sufficient for a body to be called an Alkali if it has its Pores so disposed as that the Acids may be able through their motion violently to separate whatsoever stands in their way Mars is almost always Astringent by Stool by reason of its Terrestrious parts and Aperitive by Vrine not only by reason of its piercing Salt but also because when the body is bound the humidities do more easily filter by way of Vrine Opening Saffron of Mars This Preparation is only a Rust of Iron contracted in the Dew Wash well several Iron Plates and expose them to the Dew for a good while they will rust and you must gather up this rust Set the same Plates again to receive the Dew and gather the Rust as before Continue to do so till you have gotten enough This Rust is really better than all the Preparations of Iron that are called Crocus It is excellent for Obstructions of the Liver Pancreas Spleen and Mesentery It is used very successfully for the Green-Sickness stopping of the Terms Dropsies and other Diseases that proceed from Oppilations The Dose is from two grains unto two Scruples in Lozenges or Pills Many do give Mars with Purgatives which is a good Practice Remarks The Chymists have called Calcin'd Steel Crocus by reason of its red colour and they have given this name to many other Preparations for the same reason Though Steel hath been always used in the Chymical Preparations that are used in Physick and is preferred before Iron for the Cure of Diseases it is certain nevertheless that Iron is fitter for that intent than Steel because it is more Soluble for if the action of Iron proceeds from nothing but its Salt as there is no reason to doubt the Salt of Iron must be much more easily separated in the stomach than that of Steel because as I have shewn before the Pores of Steel are more close than those of Iron and therefore this must have quicker effects besides that Steel being harder to be dissolved doth sometimes pass away with the excrements without bestowing any impression on the Chyle The reason that hath induced People to believe that Steel is better for use than Iron was its being thought to be deprived of many impurities by Calcination but that which is called Impurity is the more open part of the Iron and consequently the more wholesome This Preparation of the Saffron of Mars is out of the common road and longer a doing than the others but it is the best of all that ever were invented The Dew is impregnated with a Dissolvent that opens very much the Pores of Iron and incorporating with it renders it more active and soluble than it was before Iron doth open Obstructions by its salt which being assisted with the solid parts of the Metal penetrates further than other Salts But you must always purge and moisten the Person you give it to with broths before you presume to give it because if it should find the passages of the small Vessels filled and obstructed with gross matters it stops and sometimes causes Inflammations that create pains like to those of the Colick Many do use the filings of Steel without any Preparation at all Iron doth frequently open Obstructions by absorbing as an Alkali the Acid that fomented them Seeing that some persons have indeavoured to contradict the Remarks I have made upon the Effects of Mars and particularly concerning the preference I have given Iron to Steel for Physical uses I have thought it not convenient to end this Chapter before I have laid down and Answered their Objections First then they say that because the different substances of Mars cannot be separated as those of Animals and Vegetables can it is in vain that an Aperitive virtue is attributed to its Salt Answer I grant all the substances of Mars can't be separated so easily as those of Animals and Vegetables but because we find Salts to be Aperitive and commonly Remedies that are so are full of Salts and that water in which rust of Iron has steeped for some time is proper to open by way of Vrine it seems to me rational enough to attribute this effect of Mars principally to its Salt for if the water has carried off any taste or penetrating quality from Iron there 's nothing at all in Mars that is able to contribute such a virtue to it besides the Salt therein dissolved Secondly they say the Earth and Salt of Mars being united and in a manner become inseparable cannot act but by consent of both and receive together joyntly the good or bad impressions that may happen to them I Answer there 's no reason to think the Salt of Mars absolutely inseparable from the Earth for the water in which this Metal has steeped or boiled after Filtration does contain a Vitriolick taste and Aperitive quality Now it is the effect of Salt to dissolve imperceptibly in Water and drive by Vrine as I have said but if any body would take the pains to steep and boil gently the rust of Iron a good while in water then Filter it and Evaporate the liquor over a small fire to a Pellicle he 'l by Crystallization or by an entire evaporation of the humidity gain a small quantity of Salt and it is probable enough that there was much more in the water as may be collected from the strong taste it had of Mars but it being something of a Volatile nature it fum'd away in the Evaporation I do not say nevertheless that the close connexion of Earth with the Salt of Mars is altogether unuseful for this effect on the contrary I do conceive that this Earth rendring the Salt more heavy than otherwise it would be does help to drive it forwards and causes the Mars sometimes to penetrate as much by its gravity as by its Salt but we must attribute the principal virtue to the Vehicle which is Salt since without that the Earth would be a dead matter and would have no more action than other Earths bereaved of their Salts Thirdly They say that in all probability Mars does act only according to the preparations which the different juices it meets with in the stomach do make for these acid juices not failing to encounter with and to dissolve it there results from this dissolution a liberty to the parts of the body on which these juices did act and consequently their restauration a-new I am willing to believe that sometimes Mars may act in the body like an Alkali by absorbing and sweetning the acid humour which it meets with as it does absorb and sweeten the acid liquors which are poured upon it but it must not be concluded from hence that its Aperitive faculty does always consist in this effect because as I before hinted the water in which Mars has been put to boil is Aperitive and yet there is no Alkali in it to sweeten the acids of the body when it is drunk Fourthly They object that we must
unto Air. But if there were not enough the fermentation which happens at the meeting of Iron and Brimstone may be able to raise the earth in some places and to burst it a-sunder The great heat of many Mineral waters may likewise easily be explicated by the means of these Subterranean Fires and how they came to receive those Sulphurs which we see are wont to be separated on the sides of the Bath when the water is not disturbed It is because those waters do pass immediately over or else through the midst of some of these burning earths wherein they are heated as they pass and do imbibe the Sulphur But when they are arrived to the place of the Baths and have there a-while setled this Sulphur being a fatt body cannot so intimately mix with the water but that it will separate to the sides of the Bath It may be also that some Mineral waters do owe their heat to a natural Quick-lime they may meet withal in their passage through the bowels of the earth but this Quick-lime is only a stone calcined by the Subterranean Fires of which I have spoken And now to return to our Operation You must observe to make this Calcination rather in an earthen Pan than Pot or Crucible and to stir it continually with a Spatula that the Sulphur may exhale the more easily I have sometimes tried to do it in a Crucible but the matter still remained black though I persisted in calcining and stirring it for above twelve hours together If you have used a Pound of Mars you 'l get at least a pound and four ounces of Crocus which proves the acids of Sulphur or some igneous bodies to incorporate in the pores of the Iron and augment its weight The red colour proceeds from Vitriol that Mars is full off which being calcined grows red like Colcothar Many other Preparations of Opening Saffron of Mars have been invented but these three are sufficient as being the best Binding Saffron of Mars This Preparation is the filings of Iron deprived of their more Saline part Take what quantity you please of the last Aperitive Saffron of Mars wash it five or six times with strong Vinegar leaving it to steep an hour at a time then calcine it in a Pot or upon a Tile in a great Fire five or six hours after that let it cool and keep it for use It stops the Diarrhoea the immoderate flowing of the Hemorrhoids and Terms the Dose is from fifteen grains to a drachm in Lozenges or else in Pills Remarks Because Mars is an impure Vitriol the more it is Calcined the more astringent it is But seeing that which renders it Aperitive is its Salt or more soluble part I intend by washing it several times with Vinegar to deprive it of much of its Salt Afterwards I Calcine the matter to carry off by Fire what Aperitive parts might remain Not that I expect by this means to separate intirely all that is Aperitive in Mars from that which is astringent that is a thing in a manner impossible by reason of the strict union of its Salt and earth in the Mine but I do believe it very probable to say that if there be any thing astringent in this metal as it cannot be denied it must needs be the more terrestrious part I may likewise say that if the astringent Mars has sometimes the effect of opening it is by the remaining Salt that it opens but when this Salt has done acting the terrestrious part never fails to bind Lastly I further say that I do not believe any Preparation of Mars to be absolutely astringent and that all we can do is to render it less incisive and less penetrating than before by depriving it of some part of its Salts Several other Preparations for making the Astringent Saffron of Mars are taught but this one may suffice Salt or Vitriol of Mars This Preparation is an Iron opened and reduced into the form of Salt by an acid liquor Take a clean Frying-pan and pour into it an equal weight of Spirit of Wine and Oil of Vitriol set it for some time in the Sun and then in the shade without stirring it you 'l find all the Liquor incorporated with the Mars and turned into a Salt that you must dry and then separate from the Pan and keep in a Viol well stopt It is an admirable Remedy for all Diseases that proceed from Obstructions the Dose is from four to twelve grains in Broth or some appropriate Liquor Remarks The Spirit of Wine serves here to moderate the too great force of the Oil of Vitriol which if alone would indeed in a little time penetrate all the parts of the Iron and cause a very impure Salt but the spirit of Wine hinders its so quick dissolution so that nothing but the more soluble part incorporates with the Oil to make a Salt or Vitriol A Frying-pan is more proper for this Operation than another vessel less flat because the liquor spreads it self about and incorporates the better you must use a Pan that is new If you use two ounces of Spirit of Wine and the same quantity of Oil of Vitriol in a small Frying-pan you 'l obtain five ounces of Mars You may put your liquor a thumbs height in the Pan and leave it there a day and a half or two days without stirring it The Oil of Vitriol is improperly called Oil being nothing but the more caustick Spirit as I shall prove in its proper place Riverius in his Practice gives a way of preparing the Salt of Mars like unto this excepting that he puts more Spirit of Wine than Oil of Vitriol but it is better to put equal parts as I have done It s virtue is greater than that of the Crocus because it is whetted by the Oil of Vitriol and therefore is given in a less dose you must observe that sometimes it causes a nauseousness as all Vitriols do If you put this Salt or Vitriol of Mars to dissolve in a cold place you 'l have a liquor that is called improperly Oil of Mars Another Vitriol of Mars This Vitriol of Mars is an Iron dissolved and reduced into the form of Salt by Spirit of Vitriol Put eight ounces of clean filings of Iron into a large Matrass and pour upon it two pounds of common water heated a little add unto it a pound of good Spirit of Vitriol stir it and set your Matrass in hot Sand leave it in Digestion four and twenty hours during which time the purest part of the Iron will dissolve separate the Liquor by Inclination and fling away the earthy part that remains in a small quantity at the bottom Filtrate this Liquor and evaporate it in a Glass-Cucurbite unto a Skin in a Sand-fire then set your vessel in a cool place and you 'l find green Crystals which you may take out after having gently poured off the Liquor Then evaporate again this Liquor unto a Skin and Crystallize it as before
that it may be joyned with but because it doth sometimes prove very difficult to separate it from the Earths with which it is in a manner incorporated they are forced to distil it through Iron Retorts into Receivers filled with water Natural Cinnabar called Mineral is a mixture of Mercury and Sulphur that sublime together by the means of a Subterraneous heat and this is done near after the same manner as Artificial Cinnabar is made of which I shall speak anon Quicksilver by reason of its fluidity is hard to transport wherefore a great quantity of it is reduced into Cinnabar in the places whence it is taken after the manner following Artificial Cinnabar Cinnabar is a mixture of Sulphur and Quicksilver sublimed together Take a quantity of Sulphur and melt it in a great earthen pan then mix by little and little thrice as much Quick-silver you must stir about and preserve the Matter in Fusion till all the Mercury disappears Then powder your mixture and sublime it in pots in an open fire well governed you 'l have a hard Mass and of a very red colour If any heterogeneous Metal should have been mixt with the Mercury it would remain at the bottom of the Pots Besides the convenience of easily transporting Mercury by this means it is very useful in Painting It is also used in Pomatums for the Itch and to make Fumes withal to raise a Salivation Remarks A pound of Sulphur is able to incorporate three pounds of Mercury and to make a Mass together The cause of this mutation of Mercury into Cinnabar does proceed from the penetration which the more acid part of Sulphur does make into the Mercury and the intangling its parts whose motion is now checkt And being raised by the fire it volatilizes as it does but the Saline or acid Spirits of Sulphur do fix it so as that it is constrained to stop its volatility and settle in the upper part of the pot which is called subliming whereas when it is all alone or else joyned with some matter that cannot fix it it evaporates quite away Cinnabar is shaped like needles by reason of the acid Spirits of Sulphur which have entred into its body and have impressed such a figure its red colour may proceed likewise from the Sulphur which is of this colour when it is well rarified This Red appears brown while the Cinnabar is in the Mass but if you powder it very fine beating it a good while it becomes of a shining and that so high a colour that it has been called Vermillion Some women do rub their Cheeks with it when they have mixt it in Pomatum but they don't consider that so dangerous an accident may happen from it as a Salivation The Fumigation with it is made by causing a patient to receive the Fume of the Cinnabar thrown into the fire Reviving of Cinnabar into Quick-silver This Operation is performed in order to separate the Sulphur which is in the Cinnabar Take a Pound of Artificial Cinnabar powder it and mix it exactly with three pounds of Quick-lime also powdered put the mixture into an earthen or glass Retort whose third part at least remains empty Place it in a Reverberatory Furnace and after having fitted to it a Receiver filled with Water give your fire by degrees and at last encrease it to the height the Mercury will run drop by drop into the Receiver continue the fire until no more will come the Operation is commonly at an end in six or seven hours Pour the Water out of the Receiver and having washed the Mercury to cleanse it from some little portion of earth it might carry along with it dry it with Linnen or the crum of Bread and keep it for use You must draw thirteen ounces and a half of flowing Mercury out of each pound of Artificial Cinnabar You may again Revive the Cinnabar by mixing it with equal parts of filings of Iron and by proceeding in the Operation as I have taught Remarks When Mercury is thus revived you may be sure of its purity because if any Metal should have mixed with it in the Mine it would remain as I have said at the bottom of the Pot you sublime it in and if the Cinnabar were adulterated that which had been used in the adulteration either would not rise with the Mercury or else would separate from it in the Receiver Cinnabar being nothing but a mixture of acid Spirits and Mercury together if you mix it with some Alkali and drive it upwards by fire the Acids for the reason I have already spoken of concerning the Depart of Silver must leave the Bodies they were joyned to before for to enter into the Alkali and this is what happens here for the Acids finding the Quick-lime very porous do leave the Mercury and adhere to the Quick-lime so that this Mercury being disengaged from what held it fixt before and forced by the fire comes forth of the Retort in form of Spirit but the coolness of the Water that is in the Recipient condenses it and resolves it into Quick-silver A third part of the Retort is left empty because the rarified Mercury comes forth with such violence as would otherwise be apt to break the Retort You must leave the mixture to settle a day or two before you put the fire under it to the end that the Quick-lime may slake the while for if you should not observe this circumstance the Retort would burst You might also use such a Quick-lime as has been already slak't in the air and then you might begin your distillation immediately after the mixture but I do think that the Revivification will be the more exact when unslak't Lime is used because the Alkali will act more strongly upon the Sulphureous acids When the distillation begins abundance of Sulphureous fume is seen to come out of the Retort the juncture of the Receiver with the Retort must not be luted because it is better to let this Sulphur fly away for if it had no vent we might have reason to fear lest some part of the Quick-silver would joyn and unite with it in the Receiver and so we might be obliged to make a second Revivification of it If by way of curiosity you weigh the Lime which remains in the Retort after distillation you 'l find three pounds and half an ounce of it this little augmentation of weight proceeds from a remainder of the Sulphur of Cinnabar and the matter does smell of Sulphur Quick-silver is one of the greatest remedies we have in Physick when it is used as it should be but is full as dangerous when it happens into the hands of Quacks who use it upon all occasions for all sorts of Diseases and give it indifferently to all sorts of persons without any respect to the Temperament they are of Those who draw it out of Mines or work much with it do often fall into the Palsie by reason of Sulphurs that
stomach by pricking its Fibres with some salts that they carry along with them If you mix this Emetick with an Infusion of Senna or some such purgative it works as much by stool as by vomit because these Remedies do precipitate with them some part of the Sulphurs When a man swallows the Perpetual Pill it passes by its own weight and purges downwards it is washt and given again as before and so on perpetually Almost all Chymists have written that this Pill loses nothing at all of its weight though taken several times 'T is true indeed the diminution is but very small yet nevertheless it would not be hard to remark it in some measure It may be said also that in place of the Sulphureous parts which do exhale to cause the vomiting some extraneous bodies do succeed in their place as it happens when Antimony is Calcined in the Sun When this Pill hath been taken and voided twenty or thirty times it purges not so much as it did at first as well because the more soluble parts of the Sulphur are gone as that what remains doth pass without any great effect The same doth happen to Cups or Gobelets which can't make the wine so Emetick as before after they have been filled twenty or thirty times Some do prescribe the Perpetual Pill in the disease called Miserere but this practice is not without danger because the ball stopping sometime in the Intestines which are knotted or twisted together in this disease may cause an Inflammation and so exulcerate the part It is given in the Colick and then it does well Wine draws out the Emetick virtue of the Regulus much better than water or spirit of Wine or vinegar can do the reason of which is that this virtue does consist in a saline sulphur which water could not penetrate spirit of Wine indeed does dissolve some of the more sulphureous part of it but does not take enough of the salt the vinegar by its acidity does fix too much what it has dissolved but Wine contains a sulphureous spirit and a saline Tartar which do make a most convenient Menstruum to dissolve and to preserve the saline and sulphureous part of the prepared Antimony Upon considering the different ways of evacuation caused by Antimony and many other Medicins I do find it very probable that Emeticks do work as they do because their operation being quick is exerted in the stomach before the medicin had time to descend more downwards and then this viscus is very sensible when irritated and undergoes commotions sufficiently violent to make rise what is within it But if the medicin proves slow in its operation and descends into the gutts before it raises a purgative fermentation it then forces downwards whence it comes to pass that those who do not vomit upon taking emeticks are commonly purged by stool Thus Vomits and Purges do differ only in this that the first do work in the stomach the others in the gutts Oil and lukewarm water do vomit by relaxing the fibres of the stomach and changing the motion of the spirits which do then act only by shaking or turning the stomach to a discharge upwards If by way of curiosity you would Calcine four ounces of the Regulus of Antimony powdered in an earthen cup unglazed set in a small fire stirring it all the while with a Spatule there will rise up a vapour for an hour and a halfs time or there-abouts and when the matter fumes no longer it turns into a grey powder that weighs two drachms and a half more than the Regulus did at first This augmentation of quantity is the stranger for that the fume which ascended from it during the Calcination should seem rather to have diminished its weight It must be therefore granted that a great many fiery particles have entred into it in the room of that which fum'd away This Fume proceeds from some grosser Sulphur that remained in the Regulus and indeed it smells strong of the sulphur Golden Sulphur of Antimony This preparation is the sulphureous part of Antimony dissolved by Alkali salts and precipitated by an acid Take the dross of the Regulus of Antimony powder and boil them with common water in an earthen pot half an hour strain the liquor and pour vinegar into the expression there will precipitate a red powder filtrate and separate your precipitate dry it and keep it you will obtain twelve ounces and two drachms of it it is called the Golden Sulphur of Antimony and is an Emetick the dose is from two grains unto six in broth or in Pills Remarks You must put about sixteen pints of water to boil with the fifteen ounces of the dross of Regulus of Antimony though the liquor does coagulate like a Jelly when it is cold by reason of the salts and sulphurs joyning together for the dross of the Regulus is nothing but a mixture of the fixt parts of Salt-peter and Tartar that have retained with them some of the more impure Sulphur of Antimony Now seeing that these salts do become Alkali by means of Calcination the acid which is poured upon them does break or destroy their strength and makes them quit the sulphur which they held dissolved from whence the precipitation of the Golden Sulphur of Antimony does proceed So soon as vinegar is poured on the dissolution of the dross volatile sulphurs do arise which are very disagreeable to the smell the precipitate which is afterwards made is like to a Coagulum or curd in great quantity This Sulphur does operate much like to the Crocus metallorum of which I shall soon speak The Chymists have called it Golden sulphur by reason of its colour which is near like unto that of Gold but it is probable that the Antients did understand by the Golden Sulphur of Antimony some other sulphur than this because almost all of them have writ that there was a gross superficial sulphur in Antimony like unto common sulphur which is this of which our present preparation is made and another more fixt and like unto that of Gold which they held to be Sudorifick You must not imagine that our Golden Vomitive Sulphur is altogether Pure it is still loaded with a great deal of earth and salt which it has still retained in the precipitation and it is this salt which by rarefying its parts does give it this colour Regulus of Antimony with Mars This preparation is a mixture of the more fixed parts of Antimony and some portion of Iron Put eight ounces of small Nails into a great Crucible cover it and set it on a grate in a Furnace surround it above and below with a good fire and when the Nails are red hot throw into them a pound of Antimony in powder cover again the Crucible and continue a great fire when the Antimony shall be in perfect Fusion cast into it by little and little three ounces of Salt-peter a detonation will happen and the nails will melt and when
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
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
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-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-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
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
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-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
of the Sulphureous Spirits which held it as it were involved and thus clear wine sowrs alone but it does not sowr so fast and the Vinegar is not so strong as when it is made upon Tartar Furthermore if we consider the Principles that wine consists of we shall find that neither the Oil nor Earth nor Water are capable of yielding any Acidity and that nothing but the Salt is able to give it Now it cannot be doubted but that the Salt of wine is in the Tartar It may be added here that the Air to which wines are exposed by leaving the vessel open when they would have them turn into Vinegar does likewise communicate a little of its Acidity to the wines by exciting and rarifying the Acid of Tartar Distillation of Vinegar Put six quarts of strong Vinegar into an earthen pan evaporate in Balneum about a quart which is the Phlegmatick part and pour that which remains into a glass or earthen Cucurbite and distil it in a strong sand-heat until there remains at bottom nothing but a substance like Honey keep this Vinegar well stopt many do call it Spirit of Vinegar It s principal use is to dissolve or precipitate bodies It is sometimes mixed in Cordial potions to resist putrefaction the dose is half a spoonful it is mixed with water and this Oxycrate is used to stop Hemorrhagies taken inwardly and to asswage Inflammations applied outwardly Remarks The Acidity of Vinegar consists in an Essential or Tartareous Salt which being heavier than the Phlegm rises last but you must evaporate this Phlegm very gently because the Acid Spirit of Vinegar will easily sublime with it I do use an earthen pan rather than a Cucurbite that the Phlegm of Vinegar finding a large open passage may evaporate the more easily It would be no great fault if you should distil the Vinegar without dephlegmating it first for the separating the phlegm from it is not of so much consideration as to make it as clear as pure water that it may not bestow any particular tincture to the ingredients that are to be dissolved in it The Spirit of Vinegar is much less fixed than many other acids because it partakes of the Sulphureous Spirits of wine which still remain in it Common Vinegar keeps its strength a longer time than the distilled because it contains a more Terrestrious Salt that doth not Volatilize so easily And for this reason you should rather chuse to use Vinegar newly distilled than that which hath been kept a good while All Acids do prove Cordial and good against malignity of humors when it is caused by too great a commotion because it fixes and Coagulates them moderating their motion Thus in places where the Air is corrupted and Pestilential Vinegar is a good Preservative you may every morning take half a Spoonful of it Fasting but in diseases which proceed from a Tartareous humor as the Hypochondriack melancholy it is rather hurtful than good because it fixes the humors the more Some having dried and calcined the sweet extract that remains at the bottom of the Cucurbite after the distillation of Vinegar and having by Solution Filtration and Coagulation separated from it an Alkali fixt salt much like to that which is drawn from Tartar they do mix it with Spirit of Vinegar and distil and cohobate it divers times until say they the spirit has carried off all the salt and then will needs have it called Spirit of Vinegar Alkalized or Radical Spirit of Vinegar and they affirm that this being much more pure and entirely united with its proper salt is much the more powerful in dissolving Metals But the distilled Vinegar is so far from becoming the stronger through this Preparation that I can demonstrate that it breaks and loses the greatest part of its edges in contending with the Alkali salt with which it is mixt for it is the property of this salt to sweeten Acids Neither is it necessary to believe that by distillations is so drawn the Alkali salt of Vinegar for it remains fixt at bottom of the Retort with the acids it is impregnated with so that this same Spirit of Vinegar to which so many great names and uses have been appropriated is properly the more Phlegmatick part of distilled Vinegar CHAP. XIV Of Tartar ANY gross or terrestrious matter that sticks to the sides of the vessel when separated from its liquor by means of Fermentation is called Tartar But the Tartar I am going to speak of here is that of Wine It is found sticking to Casks like a very hard stone sometimes white and sometimes red according to the colour of the wine it comes from White Tartar is to be prefer'd before red because it is purer and contains less earth both one and t'other are had in greater abundance in hot Countries such as Languedock and Provence than many other Climats but the best white Tartar of all is brought out of Germany it must be heavy White and Crystalline The Lees of wine are likewise a liquified Tartar they are burned and the Ashes that are made of them are called Cineres Clavellati in English Gravelled Ashes Crystals of Tartar This Operation is a Tartar purified and coagulated in form of Crystals Boil in a great deal of water what quantity of white Tartar you please until it be all dissolved pass the liquor hot through Hippocrates his Sleeve into an earthen vessel and evaporate about half of it set the vessel in a cool place two or three days you 'l find little Crystals on the sides which you are to separate evaporate again half the liquor that remains and remit the vessel to the Cellar as before there will shoot out new Crystals continue doing thus until you have gotten all your Tartar dry the Crystals in the Sun and keep them for use The Crystal of Tartar is Purgative and Aperitive it is good for Hydropical and Asthmatical persons and for Tertian and Quartan Agues The dose is from half a drachm to three drachms in broth or some other proper liquor Remarks This Operation is to speak properly nothing but a Purification of the more Terrestrious parts of Tartar You must observe to boil it in an earthen vessel rather than any metallick one because it would be apt to take some Tincture from it A Skin that swims a-top after evaporation of some part of the liquor was heretofore carefully taken off and there was thought to be some difference between it and the Crystal of Tartar But this Cream or Skin is only a part of the Tartar that begins to Coagulate and so it is the very same thing in substance with the Crystal You must not imagine that the Crystals of Tartar do much differ from common Tartar for they differ from it only in the containing a little less earth but all the five Principles may be drawn from the Crystals as from common Tartar When you would take the Crystals in substance you must make them into Pills or
as the Spirit of Vrine by reason of some impression it has of the Acid sal Armoniack with which it was mixt insomuch that the Crystals of Tartar whose acid is not separated from the Earth has points too gross and too unactive to insinuate into the pores of this salt and separate its parts so easily as those of the salt that is contained in Spirit of Vrine whose pores are bigger Some part of the Glass of Antimony dissolves in the boiling and gives the Emetick quality to the powder It is a very gentle Vomit because the Tartar fixes and in some measure hinders the activity of the Sulphurs of Antimony If instead of making the aforesaid evaporation you should take the vessel off the fire when there is but two thirds of the liquor consumed and let it settle without stirring it in four and twenty hours the soluble Tartar will crystallize at the bottom and on the sides but it will be never a whit the better When you would make this Crystallization you must use a flat vessel let it be of earth that the Crystals may display themselves the better The liquor is to be decanted and the Crystals to be taken and dryed The evaporations and crystallizations are to be continued until you have obtained all your salt Another sort of Soluble Emetick Tartar may be made by boiling in water an ounce of the Glass of Antimony powdered with four ounces of Soluble Tartar for seven or eight hours then upon filtring and evaporating the liquor there will remain a grey powder of the same virtues as the other and to be given in the same dose Distillation of Tartar This Operation is a separation of the Phlegm the Spirit and the Oil of Tartar Fill two thirds of a Retort with Tartar grosly powdered place your Retort in a Reverberatory Furnace and fitting to it a large capacious Receiver begin the distillation with a very small fire for three hours only to warm the Retort and drive out the Phlegm drop by drop throw away this insipid water and refitting the Receiver Lute closely the joints encrease the fire by little and little and you 'l see Spirits fill the Receiver with Clouds continue it that the Oil may likewise come forth then when there will come no more let the vessels cool and unlute them pour that which is in the receiver into a Tunnel lined with brown paper that the Spirit may filtrate and separate from the thick black Oil that remains in the filter keep this Oil in a Viol it is good to smell to in Hysterical vapours it would be good to rub Paralytical parts with and for cold pains but by reason of its abominable smell it is not used Pour the Spirit into a glass Cucurbite and rectifie it by distilling it in sand it is good against the Palsie Asthma and Scurvy it works by Urine and by Sweat It is used in Hysterical maladies and for the Epilepsie the dose is from one drachm to three in some appropriate liquor You will find in the Retort a black mass from which a Salt may be drawn as I shall shew hereafter Remarks If you have used three pounds of Tartar of sixteen ounces to the pound in this Operation you will draw four ounces of Phlegm eight ounces of Spirit and three ounces of Oil the black mass which remains in the Retort after distillation will weigh two pounds or two and thirty ounces and you will draw from that mass twelve ounces of salt Almost all Authors who have spoke of Tartar have asserted that two sorts of Spirits could be drawn from it by distillation the one very Volatile the other fixt and acid wherefore after all had mixed confusedly in the Receiver they separated the Oil and added some Alkali such as Coral or Crabs-eyes to that which remained then they poured it into a Cucurbite and distilled about half the liquor which they pretended to be a Volatile Spirit for the acid Spirit remained absorb'd by the Alkali with the Phlegm in the bottom of the body But having vowed never to be led by any Authority which is not founded upon Experience I have examined the nature of Tartar as strictly as possible and after a great many distillations of it I could never perceive this Volatile Spirit which hath been obtruded upon us all that I could ever find is this that Tartar contains good store of Essential salt which renders it acid and that this Salt coming forth by distillation and mixing with phlegm doth make all the Spirit that can be drawn from Tartar So that the Spirit of Tartar according to the description of these men is only the more Phlegmatick part of the liquor that is to say the most deprived of this Essential Salt because almost all of it doth adhere unto the Alkali body of Coral or Crabs-eyes which were added to it But according to the way I have set down the Spirit may be drawn as pure as may be because I do not leave it to mix with the phlegm which comes out first If we do rectifie the Spirit it is done to purifie it from some Terrestrious parts which it might have carried along with it in the distillation Some thinking to do better than those who rectifie Spirit of Tartar on alkali matters do instead of those alkalis use biscuit powdered but they attain their end never the better for the biscuit does sweeten the acid Spirit of Tartar as much as Coral or Crabs-eyes A very volatile and alkali Spirit is drawn from the Lees of wine I shall speak of it in the Chapter of the Volatile Salt of Tartar and perhaps it is this very Spirit that Paracelsus and Van Helmont do boast so much of and which has occasioned many Authors to write that the Tartar does contain a most volatile Spirit Fixt Salt of Tartar and its liquor called Oil per Deliquium Break the Retort which served you for distillation of Tartar and take the black mass you find in it Calcine it until it becomes white then put it into a great deal of hot water and make a Lixivium filtrate it and pour it into a glass or earthen vessel evaporate in a sand-heat all the water and there will remain a white salt which is called the Alkali Salt of Tartar This Salt is Aperitive it is used for to draw forth the Tincture of Vegetables and is given for Obstructions the dose is from ten to thirty drops in broth or Laxative Infusions If you expose for some days in a Cellar this Salt of Tartar in a wide glass vessel it will dissolve into a liquor that is improperly called Oil of Tartar per Deliquium It is used for Tettars and to discuss Tumors the Ladies do mix it in Lilly-water to clear their complexion and hands Remarks In these two last Operations I have given you the means of obtaining all that can be got from Tartar but those who have no need of the Spirit or Oil and would only desire the
more effectual Sometimes a little Wax is found in the receiver which came with the Spirit from the Honey in the distillation CHAP. IV. Distillation of Wax THIS Operation is a separation of the Oil of Wax from the Phlegm and Salt Melt two pounds of Yellow Wax in an earthen pan and mix with it three or four pounds of potters earth powdered or so much as is requisite to make a Paste of it form it into little pellets and put them into an earthen Retort or glass one Coated a third of which remains empty place this Retort in a Reverberatory Furnace fit to it a Receiver and luting the joints give a small fire at first and there will come forth Phlegm then a Spirit encrease the fire a little and a liquor will distil that congeals in the Receiver like Butter continue the fire till nothing more comes forth then unlute the joints separate the Spirit mixed with Phlegm from the Butter and keep it in a Viol well stopt It is a good opener the dose is from ten drops to twenty in raddish water or some other appropriate liquor Some do use the Butter of Wax to discuss tumors rather than the Oil that I am going to describe Melt the Butter of Wax in an earthen pan and make a paste of it with sufficient quantity of potters-earth powdered form this paste into little pellets put them into a glass retort set your retort in a Sand-heat fit to it a Receiver and luting the joints begin the distillation with a small fire a great many Spirits will come forth mixed with Phlegm after which encrease it a little and a clear yellow Oil will come having distil'd about three ounces of it change the Receiver for that which comes at last is as thick as Butter It may be Rectified with other clay or potters-potters-earth and it will change into as transparent an Oil as the other Separate the Oil from the Spirit and keep it in a Viol. It is a good discutient for Tumors and Cold pains it is mixed in Unguents and Oils for that purpose The Oil of Wax may be rectified several other times to make it still clearer than before Remarks The solid consistence of Wax doth proceed from a proportionate mixture of Water Volatile Salt and Oil united and incorporated together wherefore its solidity comes to be destroyed according as the Principles do suffer a separation and this is easily observed in the Rectifications for in every distillation that is made some considerable quantity of water is separated and the Oil does likewise become clearer The Clay serves only to separate the parts of Wax and to rarifie it the more If by way of curiosity you desire to know exactly what quantity of liquor or Spirit can be drawn from Wax you must dry your Clay as much as you can or else use in its place broken pots or Bricks powdered which are not at all wet out of three and twenty ounces of Wax you 'l draw in the first distillation just the same weight of liquor to wit twelve ounces of Phlegmatick Spirit and the rest is a Butter in the second and third distillation you 'l draw fourteen ounces of Spirit and six ounces of clear Oil. Spirit of Wax is only a small quantity of acid Volatile salt dissolved in Phlegm but you must not believe what some have written that having distilled a considerable quantity of Wax and put that which was drawn into a Bolt-head they could sublime the Volatile salt like others of that nature For this salt though it be indeed Volatile yet it is not Volatile enough to rise before the Phlegm it is an acid salt much like unto that of Ambar but is not of the nature of Volatile alkali's which are known to sublime so easily it were better therefore to keep this Spirit as it is or else to evaporate about half of it with a very mild heat that it may be the stronger The Volatile salts of many sulphureous matters are drawn acid as they are in the mixt because being clothed with soft and ramous parts which give way easily to their motion they do not break their natural keenness by endeavouring to separate when they are forced to it by fire and so they do not receive so much terrestrious and firy matter as is requisite to make them porous like Volatile alkali's This Operation and that of the Distillation of Ambar which I have described do much confirm what I said before in my Remarks upon the Principle that all the salt of mixt bodies is naturally acid and that alkali is nothing else but an alteration of the Natural Salt made by fire Besides all sorts of Experiments do seem to me to confirm and establish this opinion but yet I am not so peremptory in the vindication of it but that I would gladly give place to another if I could be shewed that it is better than mine for I seek after nothing so much as to discover truth FINIS THE INDEX A ACID what Page 24 How different Crystals are drawn with different acids 188 That acids drawn by violent fires do much differ from the natural 287 How they do become able both to dissolve and to coagulate 453 That they will preserve bodies from corruption 455 That Digestion and Hunger are not so mnch beholding to acids as is commonly thought 456 457 Acid and Alkali not the only cause of ebullition 302 342 Aes ustum 123 Alchymy well defined 58 Alkaest 309 Alkali whence so called 22 What it is 25 Aloes 477 Roch-Alom 350 Alom-water 352 Alumen Saccharinum 350 Burnt-Alom 351 Amalgamation of Gold 65 Ambar 363 Ambargrease 372 Antimony 202 What renders it emetick 203 206 Its emetick quality drawn better in wine than other liquors 207 The violence of Antimonial vomits to be conquered with Cream of Tartar 231 Antimony Calcined in the Sun increases in weight 228 229 Antimonial Cup 205 Antimonium Diaphoreticum whether sudorifick 224 That it is not an alkali 225 Cinnaber of Antimony 234 Regulus of Antimony increased in weight by Calcination 208 What gives the form of a star to its Martial Regulus 212 Glass of Antimony why more emetick than its other preparations 217 How it may be corrected ib. What gives it vitrification 216 Sulphur of Antimony 236 Our Golden Sulphur of Antimony different from that of the antients 210 Aqua Regalis why it dissolves Gold and cannot dissolve Sylver 313 c. Aqua secunda 77 Arcanum Corallinum 193 Arsenick 244 What to be done when this poison happens to be taken 2inwardly 246 B Balm distilled 404 Balsom of Sulphur anisated 357 Bath-waters their heat explicated 140 Benjamin 491 Animal Bezoar 511 Bismuth 101 Bolonian stone 525 Butter of Saturn 111 C Camphire 494 How it comes to be an Amulet in Agues ib. Carduus Benedictus distilled 406 Chylification explicated 356 Cerusse 106 Cineres Clavellati 433 Cinnaber of Antimony 234 Anatomized 235 Cinnamon 389 how it differs from Cassia lignea 390 Cloves 399
they are forced to temper their grounds with Sand after the ebbing of the River Nile to make them Fertile because the earth till that is done is so full of Salt that its Pores are quite choaked up with it So that instead of causing any Fermentation in the Seed the Salt fixes and depresses it so that it can't have its motion free enough to rarifie and raise a stalk but now when Sand is mingled with it it is able to divide and separate the Salt which not having then such power of fixing the Seed it Ferments and rises into a Plant. Whence it may be seen that too much Salt is at least as Offensive to the earths fertility as too little and that it is the same thing with other Fermentable matters as it is with Earths they come to ferment by means of a moderate quantity of Salt mixed with them for if you add too much the Fermentation will be spoil'd Again every kind of Salt is not fit to fertilize lands it must be a Volatile Salt or approaching to the nature of Salt-peter to serve for Vegetation a Salt too fixt would rather spoil it and it has been observ'd that places which should fructifie have brought forth nothing when Sea-salt has been sprinkled upon them the reason of which is for that this fixt Salt hinders the Fermentation that was necessary to fertilize Nevertheless it sometimes happens that the Ashes of Vegetables though full of a fixt salt do serve to fertilize and this Countrey-men are well acquainted with who in some places where they find their Lands too poor and barren to yield any thing without assistance of Art do use at certain seasons of the year to burn Fern and Turfs upon them and spread about the ashes Now it is by reason of a Lixivious salt in the ashes that the Lands are hereby improv'd But this happens for the same reason as I said before for the fixt Salt of Vegetables that lies in the ashes is very porous as I shall prove hereafter and so does very well mix with the Spirits or acid Salts of the Air and turns easily into Salt-peter as when Spirit of Salt-peter is mixt with an Alkali salt it makes a good Salt-peter As for sea-salt possibly it might happen that if it were left in the Earth for some considerable time it would impregnate with the Spirit of the Air and so being at length Volatilized would render a place fertile But because it is a very compact body and its parts closely united the Volatilizing of it would be a tedious business and so the present requisite Fermentation failing the place would remain barren too long to gratifie our expectations It is very likely that the Volatile or Nitrous salt meets in the Earth with some Sulphureous or fat matter that is continually raised by the subterranean heat toward the surface of the Earth and unites with it This mixture of a Volatile salt and Sulphur together may much contribute towards explicating the manner of Vegetation for just as the mixture of Sulphur and Salt-peter does excellently dispose to an Exaltation by heat which will not happen while they are separated so the Bituminous or fat part of the earth mixing with Salt-peter which all Earths have the subterranean heat exalts them much more easily than if the Salt were alone And now let us see what happens from this Exaltation to the production of Plants Some part of this Sulphureous salt meeting with seed in the earth proper to grow does enter into the seed and cause a Fermentation that is to say suppling the parts of the seed disposes it to open it self Now 't is very certain and what has been sensibly demonstrated by Microscopes that each grain of seed contains in little the whole Plant with all its parts Wherefore this opening the body of the seed is by reason that the sulphureous salts entring at the pores of the root of this small Plant and by their Volatile quality insinuating along the Fibres which constitute the Plant do orderly display before us what was before but very confused in respect of us These salts do never enter at the head of the Plant and so descend to the Root though often the Root of the Seed lies uppermost and the head or stalk downwards because the Pores of the stalk are not of such a Figure as is proper to receive them whereas those of the Root have a proper contexture The Volatility of these Salts does also cause the stalk though seated downwards to rise upwards and follow their tendency which is always up and this is that which by extending and enlarging the Fibres of the Plant makes it grow to that height which their nature requires 'T is probable that this fat part of earth insinuating with the salt as I have said does make the Oyl of a mixt body for we find that those matters which help best to fertilize are full of Volatile Salt and Oyl as Dung Vrine and Plants corrupted 'T is fit to observe here that the salt does act after another-guise manner than the Oyl in hindring the Fermentation or corruption of the matter it is mixed with for it does not only stop the pores and hinder the air from entring but fixes it likewise by its hooked parts that it can neither have motion nor rarefaction for which reason it is that meat is salted in order to keep it sweet and does thereby remain firm and compact for some time Three kinds of salt are drawn from Vegetables an Acid salt called Essential a Volatile and a Fixt salt The first is sometimes like Salt-peter and sometimes like Tartar according as it contains more or less earth this salt is drawn from the juice of the Plant as I said before for after expression and purifying this juice it is set in a vessel in some cool place a few daies without stirring and the salt shoots into Crystals every way This Acid salt may be said to be the true salt that was in the Plant because the means that are used in drawing it are Natural and such as cannot change its nature but this can't be said of those others because the violent fires that are used about them make impressions of another nature and their effects are very different so that the fire seems to alter and disguise them as I shall shew in the following discourse The second salt or the Volatile salt of Plants is usually drawn from seeds or fruits Fermented While it remains in the Vegetable it differs from the Essential salt only in this that being driven up higher by Spirits it becomes more Volatile The Fermentation that is caused in fruits by beating and bruising them does very much assist us in Volatilizing the salt for it sets the particles at work and disposes them for an easier separation but it happens that in the great circulation or continual motion this salt is in it unites so strongly with the Oyl which Fruits and Seeds are full of that they
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
Rust of Iron powdered very fine put it into an Iron pot and pour upon it four pints of a strong Red wine set the pot over the fire and having covered it make the Matter boil stir it from time to time with an Iron slice till two thirds of it be consumed pass the Liquor warm through a cloth and evaporate it to the consistence of an Extract It stops the Looseness Bloody Flux the Flux of the Hemorrhoids and Terms the Dose is from Ten Grains unto Two Scruples in Pills or dissolved in some astringent Liquor Remarks The strongest Red-wine is of so high a colour that it appears to be black with this Vintners do colour their White wines they do make them to be either pale or red according to the quantity of it they mix And the Dyers do likewise use it This Wine becomes impregnated only with some part of the Mars because the Tartar which it contains is capable but of dissolving the more rarified part of this metal the rest remaining in the bottom of the pot The astringent virtue of the Wine does much increase that of the Iron and renders it very proper for the distempers before-mentioned But you must not think that its aperitive Salt is wholly destroyed for it still opens Obstructions and passes by way of Urine indeed it does not act this way so powerfully as the aperitive Extract of Mars but effects of that kind are observ'd from it The same Remedy may be both astringent by Stool and aperitive by Urine because that when the body is bound the Serosities which were wont to pass by Siege do become diverted into the Urinary passages On the contrary in a Diarrhoea the moist humours which would otherwise have taken their course by way of Urine do here turn it by siege Mars Diaphoretick Mars Diaphoretick is only the particles of Iron impregnated with Volatile Salts Powder and mix together equal quantities of the rust of Iron and Sal Armoniack put this mixture into an Earthen Cucurbite set it in a small Furnace and stop up the bottom with Lute and Bricks that the fire may not be able to pass upwards but only through certain holes or Registers fit to your Cucurbite a blind head and give a gentle fire at first augment it by degrees to heat the Cucurbite red-hot and continue this degree of heat until there arise no more vapours then let the vessels cool and taking off the head gather the sublimed Flowers dissolve them in water sufficient only to dissolve them filtrate this dissolution through a Coffin of brown paper and pour upon it drop by drop the Oil of Tartar made per Deliquium or else the Spirit of Sal Armoniack a powder will precipitate to the bottom of the vessel decant the Liquor and dry this precipitate it causes Sweat and is good against all diseases that proceed from a corruption of Humors it sometimes also drives by way of Urine according as bodies are disposed it is excellent against the Hypochondriack Melancholy and in Quartan Agues the Dose is from ten to twenty grains in pills or some proper Liquor Remarks This Preparation is Sudorifick by reason of some particles of Sal Armoniack that remain in the Precipitated Mars for when these Saline parts are actuated by the heat of the Body being of a very Volatile nature they do insensibly distribute themselves rather into the Pores of all the Body than follow the course of sixt Salts by way of Urine whence a Sweat does come to follow or sometimes an insensible transpiration because it rarifies and gives vent to abundance of Humors that were not able to pass by reason of their viscosity Sometimes also finding the Pores too much obstructed it is forced to become fixt and follow the ordinary course by way of Urine and then it opens the Lymphatick vessels and evacuates several matters that were contained in them People often find greater benefit from much Urine than Sweat because the way of Urine is more natural and weakens less CHAP. VIII Of Mercury QVick-Silver is a prodigy among Metals for it is fluid like water and though a very heavy body yet it easily flies away when set over the fire It is probable that the parts of this Metal are all of a round figure for divide it how you will without adding to it and it always keeps a globular form to every part and if you look a little near it when it dissolves in Aqua fortis you 'l observe an infinite number of little round bodies which rise up in the liquor like smoke Now the parts of Mercury being supposed round it may be explicated how this metal does remain fluid and why it Volatilizes so easily by fire although it be so exceeding heavy for the round figure being no ways proper for the connexion or union of parts the little bodies which do compose the Quicksilver cannot adhere together and consequently they must roul one upon another as we see happens to all round bodies and this is that which causes the fluidity of this metal As for its Volatility it proceeds from this that the round parts being only contiguous and having no proper union together nothing hinders its parts from rising by the force of fire for that which makes the other metals to be more fixt than Mercury and to remain in the fire without consuming wholly is because their parts are continued and so fastned together that fire has no power to disunite them in order to Volatilize them It may be objected that the parts of Quicksilver being granted round they should for the same reason be light because the round bodies which approach one another do leave many empty spaces between them But though there are such vacuities the little balls are massive and compact and this causes their gravity There 's another objection that is the parts of Mercury are heavy how come they to be volatilized by fire I answer that when these parts are said to be heavy it is in comparison with other little bodies that are lighter but you must not imagine that every part of Mercury should be heavy enough to resist the rapid nature of fire But besides these little Mercurial bodies which we suppose to be compact may have their Pores of such a texture that the igneous parts being once gotten within them may not be able to find a way out again and so they and their small prisons may fly up together It is called Quicksilver from its fluidity and Mercury because it changes into different shapes like the Celestial Mercury from whom it is thought to receive its Influence It is to be found in many places in Europe as Poland Hungary and even in France for a few years since there was discovered near St. Lo in Normandy a Mine abounding in Cinnabar from whence good store of Mercury is drawn Some of it is also found running in the Mines and this is passed through a Shammey skin to purifie it from some Earth