happened amongst the Carini a People of Germany which similitudes or Images of Men and Beasts were seen both by him and the Chancellor of Austria To the like purpose Helmont tells us of a whole Army consisting of Men Women Camels Horses Doggs with their Armour Weapons and Waggons which were all transmuted into stone and remain so to this day a horrible spectacle And this saith he happened in the Year 1320. betwixt Russia and Tartary in the Latitude of 64. degrees not far from a Fen of Kataya a Village or Horde of the Biscardians which he very rationally concludes to have happened from a strong hory petrifying breath or Ferment making an eruption through some clefts of the Earth the Land being stony underneath and the Winds having been silent for many dayes He that desireth more Examples of this kind let him consult Gorgius Wernerus de ungaricis Godfrid Smoll in lib Princip Philosoph Et Medic. antiquitatis Cap. 10. F. Leander Albertus in descript Italiae Andreas Laurentius lib. 2. de strumis Cap. 2. Georgius Agricola lib. 7. de Natura fossil Cap. 22. Johannas Wigandus in libellâ— de Succino Lobelius in fine Observat. Caelius c But I suppose what I have here related sufficient and therefore I think it now time to inquire into the Causes of Petrification and the Efficients of these Transmutations SECT Section the Second THe Doctrine of the four Elements with their qualities concutring as is suppos'd to the production of Bodies which was intorduced by the Authority of Aristotle and hath since prevailed with most Men even to this Age of ours hath been the cause why we have hitherto received but an unsatisfactory account not only of the Origine of all concretes but more particularly concerning stones and that not only in Relation to the Material Cause but also to the Efficient of Petrifications in general For they seem to think it sufficient to have crudely told us that Stones and all other Minerals and Metals are made of Earth with a slight mixture of the other three Elements as the Material and by the assistance of Heat Cold Moisture and Driness as the External and efficient Cause For perceiving the weight of Minerals and Stones to exceed the weight of water they therefore assign the matter of Minerals and Stones to be chiefly Earth and without any further Controversie or search after the matter they are content to believe and would have us do so too that all sorts of stones are nothing but Earth from which the other three Elements are forced by heat by which means it becomes baked into a stone And this they viz. the Aristotelians think they prove by alleadging the Example of Potters Earth which being burnt gains a stone-like hardness And because neither Stones nor Earth do commonly melt in the fire they therefore conclude stones are made of Earth But there being on such heat in the Superficies of the Globe much less in the bottom of the Water where commonly stones are bred I must confess I can receive but little satisfaction from this account And I find the Learned Sennertus is as unsatisfied with this Doctrine as my self for he will by no means allow the Elements or their qualities to be the Primary Efficients of Stonification His words are these Licèt vulgò multi é qualitatibus primis Calculorum Concretionum Coagulationum causas deducere conantur tamen frustrae laborant Nam neque exsiccatiâ— nec calor nec frigus hîc locum habere possunt ut primariae causae nam ut causam sine qua non concurre posse non negamus dum scilicet aquam quae concretioni obstat absumit neque à quoquam hactenus commonstrari potuit quomodo calor nudus talem Concrescendi dispositionem generare succum Lapidescentem producere possit Imo fit hoc etiam ubi omnis Calor abest in frigidis etiam membraneisque locis item in Infantibus ubinullus concedatur Caloris excessus sed manifesta potius cruditatis indicia deprehendantur in vesiâ—a generantur Calculi quomodo quaeso in fontibus frigidis in quibus ligna immersa in lapides transformantur succus lapidescens à Calore producitur Deinde frigus quod attinet non semper in loco frigido vel minus calido Calculi concrescant cùm in capite in pulmonibus circa basin Arteriae magnae in Cordis arteriis imo in Corde reperti sint uti Legimus in Observation Cornel. Gemmae lib. 1. Cosmocritic Cap. 6. Anton. Beniven de abdit Morb. Sanat Causs Cap. 24. Fernel 5. Pâ—tholog Cap. 12. Hollerii 1. de Morb. internis in schol Cap. 29. 50. Et in balneis etiam Calidissimis Trophos at stirias saxeas concrescere ubi frigus nullo modo admitti potest experientia compertum habetur in English thus Though it hath been much endeavour'd by many to deduce the causes of the concretion coagulation of stones from the first or primary qualities yet hath their labour been in vain for neither can drought heat or cold be here allowed as a primary cause but we do not deny that they may concur as a cause sine qua non so that it may for Example waste the water which hinders concretion neither could it hitherto be demonstrated by any body how heat of it self could be able to generate such a disposition of compaction and that it could produce a Lapidescent juice Nay this is performed where all heat is wanting and that in cold and Membranous places as also in Infants who are not allow'd to have any excess of heat but are rather found to have manifest crudity the stone is generated in the Biadder and how I pray is the stonisying juice produced in cold Fountains into which wood being cast is changed into stone Then as to cold stones do grow in the Head in the lungs about the basis of the great artery in the Arteries of the Heart nay they are in the Heart it self Also there grows in hot Baths as experience sheweth sandy stones stony Isicles where cold can by no means be admitted Thus far he by which you see he is clearly of opinion that neither heat nor cold can be the primary or chief cause of Petrification contrary to the Axiom which Aristotle layes down to this effect Of those bodies which adhere together and are hard they are wont to be thus affected some by the fervour of heat some by cold that drying up the moysture this pressing it forth Let us then inquire what the Chymical Philosopher's opinion is in this point and the rather because it is constantly affirmed by most of them that the Art of Pyrotechny is the only true means of informing the mind with Truth and acquainting it with realities and we shall find that they hold Salt to be the principle of solidity and the genuine cause of coagulation in all bodies as also of stonification For say they if you consult experience
it self by the help of Oyls as is above declared will at last be reduced into water All Vegetables are reducible by distillation into Water Oyl and Salt the water cohobating upon Chalk becomes merely Elemental the Oyl and Salt may as is said above be made to unite into a Saponary Body which distilled yield a stinking water which being oft re-distilled from Chalk or some such Body having laid aside its seminal qualities is indiscriminate from common water The Salt it self which is accounted the most permanent principle yet by the help of fire well contrived Vessels and proper adjuncts it may be reduced into a Volatil Menstruum which being put to act upon Bodies as a dissolvent it loseth its saline acrimony and by repeated operations it is totally converted into insipid water All Animals upon the face of the Earth are remigrable into water of which they were formed And first as to Snakes Vipers Eeâ—s Froggs c. these being perfect Animals as consisting of Organical parts as Hearts Stomacks Livers Galls Eyes c. not to mention Worms and other insects some of them accounted hot Creatures and so full of vivacity and life that several of them will survive after the taking their hearts out of their Bodies some hours not to say dayes I say one would little suspect by their out-side these Creatures should abound with moysture as they do For if any of them be put to distillation you shall perceive them to boyl in their own juice and to afford an incredible quantity of Phlegmatick Liquor which being cohobated upon dry Bodies as is directed in the reduction of Vegetables returneth to water also their Oyls and fatty substances being joyned with an Alkaly and made into a soap then distilled they yield a stinking water which cohobated as the other doth likewise return into water All other sorts of living Creatures are by the help of fire to be dissected into Oyls a fixt and a volatile Salt though they yield most of the latter an Empireumatical Spirit and Phlegm all which by the above-said helps and the like repeated Operations will at last be brought into water Middle Minerals and Mineral Salts by Art are reducible into Corrosive Spirits which acting upon Bodies are dispoil'd of their acrimony and at last return to the shape of water As for Minerals and Metals if they be fluxed with Alkalies they are thereby rob'd of their Sulphurs to which if you add Oyl it is made soap and then to be dealt with as is above directed by the Example of both Vegetables and Animals or else the Sulphurs of Minerals separated from the Alkalizate Salt may be burnt and the Fume caught by a Glass-Bell as is usual in making Oyl of Sulphur per Campanam it will be turned into a corrosive Spirit which will be reduced into water as I have shewed above other corrosive Spirits may be by acting upon Bodies Metalline Mercury or Quick-Silver that peerless body for homogeneity and likeness of parts which exceedeth water in weight at least fourteen times the parts of it being so forcibly compressed by the power of its Seed may yet totally be reduced into water in purposely contrived Vessels and a skilfull management of the fire as Raymund Lully doth witness and Experience with him Nay Nature her self doth in time by the help of Putrefaction and ferments residing in the Earth reduce into water the bodies of Vegetables and Animals whether Fish or Flesh also Salts Ashes Stones burnt to Lime c. witness the dunging of Land by these things Nay Metals themselves in time having past their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or prime degenerate into middle-Minerals and Salts and then return to water So that you see all Bodies have water for their first Matter and are by Art and Nature reducible into it again at last Paracelsus a Person hardly inferiour to any Man in the knowledge of Metals and Minerals giveth us his Opinion of the production of Metals and Stones from water in these words Sic ergo Mirabili Consilio Deus constituit ut prima Materia Naturae esset aqua mollis levis potabilis Et tamen foetus seu fructus ipsius est durus ut Metalla Lapides c. quibus nihil durius est So therofore God hath ordered by a wonderful Counsel that the first Matter of Nature should be water soft gentle potable and nevertheless the off-spring or fruit of it is hard as Metals and Stones c. than which nothing is harder Plato also is of the same judgment with him for he tells us Aquae genera duo sunt praecipua unum humidum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alterum fusile 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There are two sorts of Waters one moyst the other fusil or to be melted And presently after he explaineth what he meaneth by fusil waters Ex his veró quas aquas fusiles appellavimus quod ex tenâ—issimis levissimisque fit densissimum uniforme splendidum flavumque praetiosissima res est aurum florescens per petram compactum est But of these which we call fusil waters or to be melted Gold flowering through the Rock is compacted for it is of a most soft fine and tender thing made most hard uniform splendid and yellow and is a most precious thing The Seeds of Minerals and Metals are invisible Beings as we have shewed above the true Seeds of all other things are but to make themselves visible Bodies they do thus Having gotten themselves sutable Matrices in the Earth and Rocks according to the appointment of God and Nature they begin to work upon and Ferment the water which it first Transinutes into a Mineral-juice call'd Bur or Gur from whence by degrees it formeth Metals To which purpose I shall give you a testimony or two The first we borrow from that Book Entituled Arcae Arcani artificiosissimi apertae beginning thus Igitur Noâ— andumâ— est c. Which because the passage is long we will only give you in English thus Therefore it is to be Noted that Nature hath her passages and Veins in the Earth which doth distill waters either Salt and Clear or else turbid For it is alwayes observable by sight that in the Pitts or Groves of Metals sharp and salt Waters distill down therefore while these waters do fall downwards for all heavy things are carried downwards there doth ascend from the Centre of the Earth Sulphurous Vapours which do meet them Wherefore if so be the waters be saltish pure and clear and the Sulphurous Vapours pure also and both of them do strictly embrace each other in their meeting then a pure Metal is produced but in defect of such purity that is of the Water and Vapour then an impure Metal is generated in Elaborating of which Nature spendeth near a thousand years before she is able to bring it to perfection and this happeneth either by reason of the impurity of the Salt Mercurial Waters or the impure Sulphurous Vapours When these two do
frail Seed they presently return into themselves But Leffas is constrained to finish the Act and obey the Power of the Conceived Seed Therefore Rain Conceiving a hory Ferment is made Leffas and is sâ—cked in by the lustfull Roots 'T is experienced also that within this Kitchin of the Root there is a new hâ—ry putrefaction produced by the Ferment which is Tenant there by and by it is brought from thence to the Bark which is as it were the Liver of the Plant where it is inriched with a new Ferment of that part and is made a Herby or Woody juice and at length it being come to Maturity it is made Wood an Herb or becometh Fruit. If the Arm or Stem of a Tree shall be putrefied under the Earth then the Bark or Rinde becometh dâ—y and cleaveth assunder and sendeth forth a smoak by its own Ferment which in the beginning is spungy byt at length hardens into a true Root and so Planted Branches become Trees by the abridgment of Art Therefore it is now evident there is no mixture of Elements and that all Bodies primitively and materially are made of water by the help of Seeds and their Ferments and that the Seeds being worn out and exhausted by Acting all Bodies do at length return into their Ancient principle of water yea that Ferments do sometimes work more strongly than fire because that fire can turn great stones into Lime and burn wood into ashes but there it stops but notwithstanding if they shall assume a Ferment in the Earth they return into the juice of Leffas and at last into simple water For Stones and Bâ—icks do of their own accord decline into Salt-petre Lastly Glass which is unconquâ—red by the fire and uncorrupted by the Air in a few years putrifieth by continuance in the Earth and undergoes the Laws of Nature c. Having now gone through the two first Arguments by which I proposed to prove the Doctrine I have asserted which Arguments were grounded on two generally received and allowed Axioms viz. Those things which are the last in the resolving or retexing of a Body the same are found to be the first in its composition Secondly we are nourished by those things of which we are made or consist And having I hope sufficiently proved by both of them that Water is the Original Matter and Seeds the Efficients of all Bodies I am now come to the third and last Argument which was to shew and prove a necesssity of all Bodies being formed out of water because neither the four Elements of the Aristotelians nor the three Principles of the Old Chymists no not yet the â—ive of the Modern Chymists can possibly concur to the constituting of Bodies as either their Primary Matter or Efficient they being themselves but great disguised Schemes of one and the same Catholick Matter Water from whence they themselves were made and into which they are ultimately to be resolved and uniformly to be reduced Section the Sixth ANd First for the Chimical Principles I have shewed in the Fourth Section of this Discourse That the Oyls of Vagetables and their Fermented Spirits which are their Sulphurs that the Fat 's and Oyles of Animals which are their Sulphurs and also the Sulphurs of Minerals and Mettals are all of them reducible into Water As are also both Mineral Animal and Vegetable Salts And as to the Mercury of Animals and Vegetables improperly enough so called they being but of a loose Contexture are easily made to remigrate into water as I have taught in the same place As also is though with somewhat more reluctancy because of its strong Compression by its Seed true Mettallin Mercury or Quicksilver as my own experience hath assured me Which is also confirmed by Raymundus Lullyus the ingenious Mr. Boyl and divers others All this may be performed two ways that is Either by the means prescribed in the sorecited pages or else more solemnly speedily and universally by the help of that rare Solve the Alkahest The manner of whose operating upon Bodies I have described from the râ—lation of that worthy man Helmont in the fourth Section Now as to the two other Principles added by the Modern Chymists the one of them viz. Earth doth properly belong to the School of the Stagyrâ—t and therefore I speak to that when I come to discouâ—se of the four supposed Elements of Bodies But as to the other viz. Spirits they are all of them of one of these two Classes either Vinous and made by Fermentation or Saline and made without Now for the Vinous they are totally inflamable Bodies and therefore to be Ranked under the Classis of Sulphurs and may be reduced to water as I have shewed you above Other Sulphurs and Spirit of Wine it self may The other sort of Spirits viz. Saline are nothing but Volatlle Salts diluted with Phlegme or water and therefore by repeated distillations and careful rectifications will be brought to constitute a Lump or Mass of dry Salt Wherefore it is not an other Principle distinct from the former three of the Old Chymists and by the same handycraft-means may at last be reduced to water as I have before shewed the three Principles of the Chymists may be Nor indeed can any of these three Bodies called Salt Sulphur and Mercury pretend to be the principles of all Concretes excxept only Mercury or Water for it is proper for Principles that they be Primary and not further resolveable into more simple parts But both Salts and Sulphurs as I have made out above Being further reducible viz. into Water they therefore cannot whilst such deserve the Name of Principles Besides it is very much questioned by those two great Phylosophers Helmont and Boyl whether the Fire indeed be an adequate and fit instrument to Anatomise Bodies And whether or no those distinct Schemes into which the common Chymists resolve the matter of Bodies by Fire and which they call their three Principles were indeed really existing in those Bodies from which they were Educed that they were matterially there no man will deny they being themselves composed of water But whether they were resident in the Concrâ—te that yielded them in the same fâ—â—gures and Shapes that the Fire Exhibites them to our Sendes is very disputable And it may easily be imagined that the Fire acting upon a Body that it can master for some it cannot doth not only put the small parts of which that Body consisted and which were before in some measure at rest amongst themselves into a tumultuous motion by means of which they are sent hastily off into the Receiver but doth also break by forcing them asunder those small particles of that body into other Shades Figures and Sizes upon which account they do conyene together after new manners and so the Fire may present us with new Bodies which were not prae-existent in the Concrete when first exposed to its Action But because this point is throughly and Learnedly handled both by
distinct or separable from the Seed it self since it is connatural with it and intimately the same and is indemonstrable à priore as well as the Seed and may be thus defined A Ferment is an Expansive Elastick or Springy power of the Seed of any thing by which motion of its self it also moveth the smallest particles of that Matter in which it is immersed by which motion also which is of divers kinds according to the variety of Seeds the particles of Matter acquire new shapes sizes and postures amongst themselves and so a new texture of the whole is produced agreeable to the peculiar Nature of the Seed and correspondent to its Idea which Idea we shall explain in its place We have likewise declared often that seeds do operate by Odors or scents which we think is not said without cause for if it be well observed it will be found that no seeds do generate but in the time of their acting upon the Matter there are specifick Odors produced that is while they are in Fermentation and the work incompleat for when the Concrete is perfected the Odor is much abated as not to instance in artificial things making of Malt the fermenting of Beer and Wine in the Barrel and the leavening of Dough c. for 't is observable that the Grains of Wheat or other Vegetables sown in the ground when their invisible seed begins to ferment do send forth Odors so also the Eggs of Birds on which the Hen hath sat And that Minerals and Metals whilst in their making they do send forth such plenty of stinking Odors that many times the workmen in Mines are suffocated therewith no body can be ignorant Now these Odors are fine and subtile Effluviums or small particles of the Matter now put into motion by the power of the seed Ferment which having extricated themselves from their Companions and roving in the Air do at last strike against those parts of our Noses that are fitted by Nature to be sensible of the touch of such very small Bodies Odors then are a sign of Fermentation begun and are nothing but small particles of Matter got loose from their Fellows begun to be alter'd and specificated by the seed and therefore are very various according to the diversity of seeds and their Ferments from whence they proceed Having before declared that all Bodies proceed and are made from Seminal Beings and that the real seeds and Ferments of things are invisible and having declared what I would have understood by a seedy Fermenâ— and Odor and also having hinted above that all Bodies are Materially and Primarily nothing but water I shall now endeavour to prove the same more fully and clearly the which I shall do by three sorts of Arguments The first is grounded upon thaâ— Philosophical Axiom viz. Quaesunt prima in Compositione sunt ultima in resolutione Et quae sunt ultima in resolutione sunt prima in Compositione That which is first in the Composition is last in the resolution And those things which are last in the resolution the same are first in the Composition The second Argument is grounded upon another axiom commonly received That is Nutrimur iisdem quibus constamus We are Nourished by those things of which we are constituted or made The third argument shall be to shew and prove a necessity of all Bodies being formed out of water because neither the four Elements of the Peripateticks nor the Tria Prima or three Principles of the Chymists can possibly concur to the constituting of Bodies as either the Efficient or Primary Matter they being themselves but great disguised Schemes of one and the same Catholick Matter Water from whence they were made and into which they are ultimately to be resolved and uniformly to be reduced either by Art or Nature All which assertions I hope to prove both by Experiment and Reason and shall likewise endeavour to strengthen by good and sufficient Authorities Section the Fourth AS to the first Argument founded on that Axiom that All Bodies are made of that Matter into which they are ultimately resolved and è Contra This Maxim is agreed upon of all hands both by the Aristotelians the Old Chymists and the New ones and that almost upon the same ground For the first supposed all Bodies reducible at last into Fire Air Water and Earth and therefore held the Quaternary of Elements which by the way they could never yet sufficiently prove And the Second believed Salt Sulphur and Mercury to be the first Principles of all Bodies And the last sort the modern Chymists hold Spirit Oyl Salt Water and Earth to be the true Primary Principles of Bodies for the same reason viz. because many Concrets are resolvable by fire into the first three if not into the last five distinct Substances before named But that all Bodies are by Art to be brought back uniformly into water hear what that Learned Man Helmont saith Nostra namque operatio Mechanica mihi patefecit omne Corpus puâ—a saxum Lapidem Gemmam Silicem Arenam Marcasitam argillam terram Lapides coctos vitrum Calces Sulphur c. Transmutari in Salem actualem aequiponderantem suo Co pori unde factus est Et quod iste sâ—l aliquoties câ—hobatus cum sale circulato Paracelsi suam omnino fixitatem amittat tandem transmutetur in Liquorem qui etiam tandem in aquam insipidam transit Et quod ista aqua aequiponderet sali suo unde manavit Plantam verò carnes ossa Pisces c. quicquid similium est novi redigere in mera sua Tria unde post modum aquam insipidam Confeci Metallum autem propter sui seminis anaticam commistionem arena quellem difficilimè in salem reducuntur Cum igitur arena sive terra Originalis tam Arti quam Naturae resistat nec queat ullis unico duntaxat Gehennae artificialis igni excepto Naturae vel artis à primaeva sui constantia recedere sub quo igne artificiali arena sal â—it ac tandem aqua quia vim habet agendi super sublunaria quaevis absque reactione c. For our handy-craft Operation that is his Liquor Alkahest hath manifested to me that all Bodies to wit the Rocky Stones the Pebble the Precious stone the Flint Sand Marcasits Clay Earth Brick Metal Glass Lime and Brimstone c. may be reduced into a real Salt equal in weight to its own Body from whence it proceeded And hat Salt being often cohobated with the circulated Salt of Paracelsus doth altogether lose its fixedness and is transmuted into a Liquor which also at length becomes insipid water and that water is of equal weight to the Salt of which it was made But Plants Flesh Bones Fish c. and every such thing saith he I know how to reduce into its three first Principles from whence afterwards I have made an insipid water but Metal by reason of its strict and exact commixture with its
the other Four supposed principles of this Learned mans are reduced both by Art and Nature and of which they were made So that we may truly affirm with the Antient Philosophers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One is many and many One So that though this Learned Doctor shewed much witt in building so fair and specious a Philosophical Structure from these five supposed principles yet can it be no safe dwelling in it because the Foundation is unsound I have been the fuller in discussing the Experiments brought by this great man in favour of his five Chymical Printiples First because indeed they have a very fair appearance till they be throughly examined And Secondly I would be very loath to have it thought I would eâ—deavour inconsiderately or upon slight grounds to diminish the â—ame this ingenious man hath already gained in the World by his Writings And now having examined not only the Tria Prima or three first Principles of the Old Chymists but also the five Principles of our Modern Chymical Philosophers and not being able to allow them the Title of Principles for the reasons above alleadged I will likewise examine the Quaternary or four Elements of the Aristotelians and see whether they can plead any better Title to be allowed and established the Principles or Elements of which all Bodies are made Section the Seventh THe Quadriga or four Elements of the Peripateticks hath for a long time gained the priviledge of being esteemed the constituent Principles of all Concretes which therefore are usually stilled compound Bodies for they say of Fire Air Water and Earth all sublunary Bodies are made and from the divers mixtures of these do arise all generations corruptions alterations and changes that happen to all sorts of Bodies And first for the Element of Fire placed by Aristotle under the Globe of the Moon but never yet seen by any man certainly it is nothing else but Heat and that we know is caused by the violent and nimble agitation of the very minute-parts of Matter And though there be Heat and consequently a kind of Fire in the Bodies of Animals yet this is no radical Principle but a product of vital Fermentation The like of which we see is produced by the sermentation of Wines in the Barrel to whose Bung if the flame of a Candle be held the subtil vapours of the Wine take flame and burn which vapours if they be otherwayes debarred of all vent they by their brisk motion cause an intense heat and sometimes burst the Vessels that contain them And this hapneth not only to Wines but even to water it self for it hath been observed in long Voyages which somewhere is also taken notice of by Mr. Boyl that our Thames water being kept close stopt assisted by the motion of the Ship and its own secret fermentation a Candle being brought near the vent upon the opening of it hath set all the Cavity of the Vessel into a flame There is the like reason for the bursting forth of flame from wett and closely compressed Hay as also from the Action of dissolvents upon Mettallin Bodies c. in which action if the Glasses be stopt they break with great violence From the incoercible nature of which we may conclude that Fire if there were such an Element can never enter as a constituant Principle into the Composition of Bodies but it is rather as Helmont stiles it destructor seminum the destroyer of Seeds and is a fitter Instrument to Analize and take Bodies in pieces by not suffering their parts to be at rest amongst themselves to which purpose it is generally employed than to constitute any And therefore in this particular Paracelsus was grosly mistaken where he undeâ—takes to teach us a way to separate the Element of Fire from Bodies and afterwards pretends to make a new separation of Elements from them again For if we will suppose an Element of Fire yet if that be further reducible it must of necessity lose both the name and nature of an Element But Fire is but an Accident no distinct substance or radical Principle of Bodies for Fire or Heat as I have said before doth result from the mâ—tion which the small parts of Matter are put into by the power of their Seeds and Ferments For Fire cannot subsist of it self as matter can and doth but necesâ—arily requireth some other Body to which it may adhere and upon which it may Act Which Bodies are either of a Vinous nature as the sermented Spirits of Vegetables or their Rozinous and Brimstony parts or else of an unctuous and fatty nature as the Grease and Fatts of Animals or else of a Bituminous substance as the Sulphurs of Minerals and Mettals are And that all this is but disguised Water which hath got new textures by the operatiâ—n of Seeds and Ferments I hope I have sufficiently evinced before So that without we will much injure Truth we must degrade Fire from being an Element or Principle in the constituting of Bodies Nor doth Air enter Bodies as an Element of which they are composed though it be not only useful but absolutely necessary both to Animals and Vegetables without which neither of them live or grow and by the means of which the Circulation and Volatization of the blood in Animals is pâ—omoted By the help of which also the motion of every part is performed It also doth not only afford a convenient help to the Vegetation of Plants by its compressing the surface of the water and so forcing it to ascend into the stringy Roots and Fibers of Trees and Herbs but also by acting the part of a Separator for it is contrary to the received opinion of the Aristotelians a very dry and tenious Body it in its passage over the surface of the water inbibes and takes into its Cavities store of water which it Transports to distant places where Springs and Rivers are wanting and then being no longer able to suspend it by reason of its plenitude and weight it returns it to the Earth where it proves a fit nourishment for Plants and a proper matter for all sort of Seeds to form themselves Bodies out of An other use of the Air is to be a receptacle to receive vapours ascending from the water through the pores of the Earth where finding many Cavities these vapours rove about till by the cold of the place or the great extencion of them the Seminal Principle contained in them and by which they were specifically distinguished from water is forced to desert the Body of the vapour and so at last it returns to the Earth in the form of the Catholike and universal matter water It likewise serveth as a fit Body for the Stars to glide through and move in and also by its Elatery Spring pressing equally upon all parts of this Terraqueous Globe it keeps it firmly supported in its place and doth the same Office which I suppose Zoreastes means by his Prestor
These are some of the Offices and Uses that God and Nature hath designed the Expansum or Firmament or Etherical Air for but that Air we live in and enjoy is very far estranged from the nature of pure Ether it being filled and defiled with the Subtil steames and effluviums of all sorts of Bodies which are there in a constant Flux by which means particles of matter differently figur'd and as yet retaining some slight touch as I may say of their seminate natures meeting together by their action and reaction upon each other generate Metors which having spent themselves return to the bosome of the catholick matter water But before I take leave of this subject give me leave to take notice of a great mistake in the Aristotelians who affirm that Air may be Transmuted into water which change was never yet performed either by Nature or Art For if it be to be done by their own confession it must be performed by the means of compression or condensation But compression will not do the feat as is manifest by winde-Guns in which the Air is forcibly compressed into somtimes the Twentyeth part of the space it possessed before yet for all that it is so far from being Transmuted into water that by the help of this Compression it hath its Elastick or Springy faculty so far advanced that it will with as much impetuosity and vigour throw forth a Bullet as Gunpowder set on fire would do Nor will condensation serve the turn For the moysture which we see affix it self to the walls of Cellars and Caves or any other subteranious places is not Air Transmuted but the vapours of water lodged in the Cavities of the Air which being compressed by the cold of those places becoms drops too bigg and heavy for the Air to keep up and so falling down they settle in their pristin shape of water And as Air is not Transmutable into water neither is water into Air. For it is manifest in distillations that though water be converted into very subtile vapours yet by the touch of the cold Air it returns again into water as before and so distils into the Receiver And I have shewed above that in natures Circulations though water be so distended as to become a most subtile vapour or Gas it doth yet constantly at last return in its own Shape to its own fountainwater from whence it sprang From what hath been said it will follow that though we do allow Air to be a very great Body and a considerable part of the Universe and also exceeding useful to all Bodies we cannot yet afford it to be a material Principle or Element out of which any sublunary body is Constituted or Made Lastly let us examine whether the Earth have any right to be counted an Element or Principle of which Bodies are constituted For although the Aristotelians as well as the Chymists pretend to resolve all concretes into their first Principles by Fire which they think they evince by the example of burning wood For say they That which supplies the flame is Fire That which sweats forth of the ends of the wood is water and that which ascends in smoak is Air but that which remaines fixed viz. the Ashes after the Fire hath disbanded the other parts is Earth Yet if we examine this experiment of theirs it will be found too Gloss to make out what they endeavour to Illustrate by it For first the Phlegme of the wood is not a simple water but contains a sower Salt and doth both need and will admit of a further division to reduce it to Elementary water Nor were those parts which are converted into flame Fire but Roziny or as the Chymists phrase it Oyly or Sulphury parts which I have before shewed to be far from an Elementary simplicity Neither is the smoak which is seen to arise in the conflagrationâ— Air. For it will affix it self to the funnel of the Chimny in the form of Soot after which it may be divided into Water Oyl Salt and Earth as they call it And the Ashes which they are pleased to take the liberty to call Earth every Wash-maid knows are far enough from being so since they are yet so compound a Body that they contain very much of a lixiviate and fixt Salt So that in reason it cannot be called an Element For Elements ought to be pure and simple Bodies not capable of a further reduction into different parts And here it is necessary to remember my promise and to take notice that the modern Chymists after they have washed the Salt from these Ashes do not scruple to call it Earth and allow it the place of one of their five Principles of which they affirm all Bodies are compounded and framed But as I declared before so I do now again affirm that the separating of these parts from Concrets by the force of Fire is not a true Analisis or proper way of taking Bodies to pieces and therefore is no Genuine reduction of them but a forcing of their parts asunder by the Fire by which new combinations of the parts of Matter are made and consequently the products of the Fire are not to be looked upon as Principles which were existing in Bodies under that form in which the Fire presents them us Besides were Fire an adequate and proper Agent to dissolve the Texture of Bodies and to present us with their real Principles it would act uniformly upon all Bodies and exhibit to us the same Schemes of matter with certainty from all alike which it doth not do For as for example from Gold Silver Talk Diamonds Rubies common Stones Sand and many other Bodies who ever separated not to say the four Elements or the five Chymical Principles but even any two of them and yet if we may credit that worthy man Helmont all these Bodies by the operation of his Alkahest are to be reduced into simple water equal to their own weight So that this soluent must from the uniformity of its operation be allowed to be a much more fit instrument to discover what Bodies are composed of then Fire alone can be supposed to be And if we strictly examine the business we shall find that Earth doth not enter any natural Body as a constitutive Principal thereof but indeed Earth or Ashes may help to compose Artificial Bodies such as Pots and Glasses For all sorts of Earths are but various Coagulations of water diversified by different Seeds and Ferments and are as much the products of water as I have shewed Mineral Salts middle Minerals Stones c. to be All which as Helmont assureth us are reducible to water by his great Solvent the Alkahest which possibly I have somwhat more reason to affirm than I am willing to declare Earth I confess to me appeareth to be the first product of the water and is designed by nature as a firm foundation or Pedestal to support the weight of Animals Vegetables and Minerals and to afford proper
all those things that are compact or solid do contain Salt and where there is no Salt there can be no hardness And for this reason they esteem Salt to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Solidity which they that deny say they are obliged to shew some other cause from which Salts have that aptitude to coagulate themselves and become solid bodies For it is manifest that the Salts of Vegetables as Crystals of Tartar c. also Nitre Allom Vitriol Salt Gemm and divers other of this Nature do coagulate themselves not only into hard but even brittle bodies in the bosome of the water and to this end they alleadge that if the Salt be washed from ashes no heat of fire will make them hard but if the Salt be left in them and they be mixt with a little water the fire will not only quickly make them become hard but if they be strongly press'd with it turn them into Glass The Learned Kircherus is also of the same opinion with the Ghymists viz. that Salt is the cause of stonifying and giveth us this experiment to confirm it Si saxum inquit quodcunque in tenuissimum pâ—llinem resolveris aqua perfectè commixtum per Manicam Hippocratis Colaveris illa nil prorsus saxeum sed preter arenaceum solummodo sedimentum nil relinquet si verò Nitrum vel Tartarum aqua perfecté commixtum addideris illa quacunque tetigerint intra subjectam concham posita sive frondes similiaque post exiguum temporis curriculum aeri exposita vel in saxum ejusdem generis conversum si non totum saltem cortice Saxco vestient If saith he you reduce any sort of stone into a most subtile powder and mixing it throughly with water you strain it through Hippocrates's bagg therewill nothing of it remain that is stony nor will it leave any thing of it behind but a certain sandy sediment but if you shall add to this Nitre or Tartar perfectly dissolved in water whatsoever body they shall touch being placed in the same Dish whether it be the twiggs of a Vine or the like after a little while being exposed to the Air it will be turned into stone or at least it will be covered with a stony Crust And though this opinion be held by Crollius Hartman Quercetanus Severinus and Sennertus who are but Neoterick or late Writers yet is it no new opinion but hath been asserted by the venerable Ancients as long agoe as the time of Hermes Tresmegistus who is said to have lived in the Age of Ioshua who in his Smaragdine Tables as they are called hath left us these words Salis est ut corporibus in Mundum prodituris soliditatem coagulando praestet Sal enim corpus est Mercurius Spiritus Sulphur anima that is T is from Salt that Bodies are produced in the World it causeth Coagulation and Solidity for Salt is the Body Mercury the Spirit and Sulphur the Soul This Doctrine though much more rational than the former and seeming to be confirmed by experiment and to be verified by the account our senses give us of it cannot yet gain my full assent to it so far as to allow Salt to be the Primary either Matter or Efficient of Solidity in bodies or the cause from whence stones are produced For it is observabe that Salts are reducible into Liquors and do seem to lose their solidity either by being mixed with water or exposed to the Air in which many of them run per deliquium But to let this pass what Salt can be supposed to be communicated to Quick-silver when it is coagulated by the fumes of melted Lead by which it becomes so solid that it may be cast into Moulds and Images formed of it and when cold is not only hard but somewhat brittle like Regulus of Antimony What access of Salt can be fancied is added to the white of an Egg from whence the whole Chick is formed which is a Liquor so near water that by beating it with a whisk it is reduced into so fluid a substance that it will easily mix with water and is hardly distinguishable from it And yet this white of the Egg by the assistance of a gentle heat to stir up its seminal Principle and enable it to turn and new shuffle the parts of that liquid substance by the means of which motion divers of its parts are broken into shapes and sizes fit to adhere one to another is all of it turned into solid bodies some of them very tough as the Membranes and Nerves and some of them hard and brittle as the Beak Bones Claws c. of the Chick and all this without any new addition of salt 'T is likewise remarkable that very credible witnesses assure us that Corral though it grow in salt water at the bottom of the Sea is yet whilst it remains there soft like other Plants and juicy also neither will the example of Kircherus alleadged above avail much sinceit is commonly known that the powder of Plaster of Paris or burnt Alabaster if it be mixed with water without any sort of salt will coagulate into an entire stony lump or Mass. I do not deny but that salt may very much conduce towards the coagulation of some bodies as we see in the curdling of Milk with Runner Spirit of salt Oyl of Vitriol juice of Limmons and the like but then this happens but to some bodies and is caused from the shape and motion of its small parts which entring the pores of some bodies that are naturally fitted to be wrought upon by it it fills up many of the cavities of such bodies and also affixing it self to the particles of them it causeth them not only to stick to it self but also adhere closely one to another I say salts do this to some bodies not to all for to some other bodies instead of being an Instrument either to cause or confirm their solidity it by dissociating the parts of which they consist and putting them into motion doth reduce them into the appearance of Liquor as we see in the action of corrosive saline spirits both upon Metals and stones Now for that Argument that salts do shoot even in the water into hard and brittle Crystals if I should say they do so upon the account of a seminal Principle I should not perhaps be thought to have much mistaken the cause by those that have well consider'd the curious and regular Figures yet constantly distinct from each other which their Crystals shoot into which certainly cannot proceed from chance for they do as constantly keep their own figure as for Example that of Nitre alwayes appears in a Sexangular form that of Sea-salt in a Cubical As Wheat produceth Wheat and the seed of a Man a Man Philosophers hold there are two sorts of Agents one they stile 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the principal cause or Agent from which immediately and primarily the Action depends and
Seed and the Sand quellem are most difficulâ—ly reduced into Salt for Sand or the Original Earth doth resist as well Art as Nature neither will by any means the only artificial â—ire of Gehenna excepted that is the Alkahest be made to recede from its first-born constancy c. under which artificial fire the Sand is made Salt and at last water because it hath a power to work upon any sublunary Body without its re-acting upon it again He likewise tells us in his Tract entituled Coâ—plexionum atque Mistionum figmentum Novi enim aquam quam manifestare non Libet c. For I know a Water which it is not sit to discover meaning the Alkahest by whose help all Vegetables are changed into a distillable jâ—ice which leaveth no feces in the bottom of the glass which distilled juice if it be mixed with Alkalies or fixed Salts is reduced totally into insipid and Elementary Water And a little further in the same Tract he tells us That he took an Oak-Charcoal and mixing it with an equal weight of the Liquor Alkahest he put it in a glass Hermetically Sealed which being kept in a Balneo for three dayes it was in that time turned into a couple of Diaphanous Liquors of different colours which swam upon each other which being distilled together in Sand by a heat of the second degree it left the bottom of the glass as clear as if it had never been used The two Liquors of the Coal might be distilled with the heat of a Bath but the dissolving Liquor or Menstruum in that degree of heat would remain at the bottom of the Glass not impaired in its weight or Virtue And that the aforesaid two Liquors of the Coal being mixed with a little Chalk at thrice distilling did ascend of the same weight as before but having lost all their distinguishing qualities it became undiscernable from Rain-water The Operations of this Liquor which you have heard in reducing all Bodies uniformly into water is I think of very great force to evince what I have here affirmed viz. that all Bodies were Originally Water But after all this stress I lay upon these Experiments of Heâ—mont'S it may be objected by some That they not being possessors of this Liquor may be allowed to doubt of the truth of what he hath deliver'd concerning it To which I answer first that I think it no cogent Argument to conclude there is no such thing because many men are not possessors of it and if this should be admitted all other Arts and things that are possessed by any Man and not known to the common people would be liable to the same exception and every Cobler or Ploughman would conclude the impossibility of the effects produced by most Mathematical Auromatons or Engines because he either knoweth not or hath not seen the conâ—rivance of the thing or else is not able to conceive the reason of its Operation And if every Man that knoweth more than the Vulgar would make it his own case they would I suppose think it an unreasonable and hard way of judging of things Secondly the Man is so consentaneous to himself â—n his Experiments that that very thing to me appeareth an Argument of his Truth And as to his veracity in those things he delivers as matter of fact and upon his own knowledge I do not find that even his Enemies have detected him of Falshood and I am sure I have hitherto found him most true in whatsoever he hath delivered us as his own Experience though possibly many of those things do not at first sight seem over-probable But lest I may seem over-partial I will give you a Testimony of him that may be instar omnium and that shall be from a Man of whom the World is fully satisfied not only as to his candid Temper but also of his ability to judge both of Men and things and the unwillingness of his Nature to encourage falshood and that is the Inquisitive and Honourable Mr. Boyl who saith thus both of him and the Alkahest If our Chymists will not reject the solemn and repeated I estimony of a Person speaking of Helmont who cannot but be acknowledged for one of the greatest Spagirists they can boast of they must not deny that there is to be found in Nature another Agent able to analyze compound Bodies less violently and both more genuinely and more universally than Fire And for my own part I have found Helmont so faithful a Writer even in divers of his improbable Experiments that I think it somewhat harsh to give him the lye especially to what he delivers upon his own proper Tryal And I have heard from very credible Eye-witnesses some things and seen some others my self which argue so strongly that a Circulated salt or a menstruum such as it may be may by being abstracted from compound Bodies whether Minerals Animals or Vegetables leave them more unlocked than a wary Naturalist would easily believe that I dare not confidently measure the power of Nature and Art by that of the Menstruums and other Instruments that even eminent Chymists themselves are as yet wont to imploy about the Analyzing of Bodies Thus far he Besides he that had laboured more than thirty years in the fire and making Experiments in all probability might attain this secret since Geber and many of the Arabian Philosophers had it before him as also Basil Valentine Raymund Lully and Paracelsus Nor can I believe so grave and great a man would in his Old Age near his Death impose falshoods and lyes upon the World But without the assistance of this Liquor this Doctrine may be made out though by more troublesome and tedious wayes as we shall now proceed to shew The same worthy man Helmont saith and I have found it true by experience Olea pinguedines per ignem separata adjecto pauco sale Alkali saponis Naturam assumunt atque in aquam Elementalem abeant And again thus Omne Alkali addita pinguedine in aqueum Liquorem qui tandem mera simplex aqua fit reducitur ut videre est in sapone c. quoties per adjuncta fixa semen pinguedinis deponit That is That fats and Oyls distilled by fire a little of an Alkaly or fixt salt being added do become soap and at last may be turned into Elemental Water All Alkalies fats being added are converted into watry Liquors which at last is made and reduced into mere simple water as it is to be seen in soap c. as often as by a fixed adjunct such as Chalk it shall be made to lay aside its seed and fatness And again Omne Oleum distillatum in salem est mutabile in aquam per adjuncta All distilled Oyl is to be changed into Salt and by adjuncts into Water Also the best spirit of Wine which is totally inflamable if it be joyned with salt of Tartar will be transmuted into mere water which salt of Tartar
imitating Nature wherefore I took water which I well knew not to be compounded with any other thing than the Spirit of Life and with a heat artificial continual and proportionate I prepared it and disposed it by graduations of Coagulation Congelation and Fixation untill it was turned into Earth which Earth produced Animals Vegetables and Minerals â—he Animals did eat move of themselves c. and by the true Anatomy I made of them I found they were composed of much Suâ—phur little Mercury and less Salt the Minerals began to grow and increase by converting into their own Nature one part of the Earth they were solid and heavy and by this truly demonstrative Science namely Chymistry I â—ound they were composed of much Salt little Sulphur and less Mercury According to this Experiment Minerals were Generated out of and nourished by water From what hath been related both in this and the fore-going Section concerning the growth increase and Vegetability both of Metals Minerals and Stones as also concerning those Mineral Metalline and stony juices called Gur or Bur Soap-coal and the Medulla Lapidis c. I think it will appear that both Metals and Stones are made do grow and are nourished daily and at this time and that from water of which they were at first made by the power of their Seeds And this is the reason that Metals and Mines are now usually found in those places where for many Years before there were as both Sandivogius and Helmont assure us Inde fit quod hodie reperiantur Minerae in locis ubi ante mille annos nullae fuerunt From hence it is come to pass that Minerals may be found in placâ—s where before a thousand years since there have been none And Helmont thus Loca enim quae fodinis Caruêre olim suo quandoque die Maturato semine foenora reddent ditioribus non imparia quia radices sive fermenâ—a Mineralium sedent in loco immediatâ— ac in dierum plenitudinem fine fastidio anhelant quam ubi semen complevit tum Gas obsidens quam ibidem semen à loâ—o suscipit quod aquae sulphur dein impregnat aquam condensat atque sensim aquam Mineralem transplantat For places which have wanted or had no Mines in times past will in their own time their Seed being ripened restore Usury equal to the richer sort of Mines because the Roots or Mineral Ferments are seated immediately in the place and their full time being come they pant or breathe without weariness or loathing and when it hath gained a compleat Seed then the Gas which is seated in the water of that place receiveth that seed of the place which afterwards begets the Sulphur of the water with Child condenseth the water and by degrees turneth or transplants it into a Mineral water And to conclude this Section I will give you the Judgment of that great Naturalist Helmont by way of confirmation because I find him exactly to correspond with all that I have hitherto delivered His words are these which you shall find in his Imago Fermenti which because they are long I will only give you their sence in English And indeed because the Schools have been unacquainted with Ferments they have also been ignorant that solid Bodies are framed only of water and Ferment for I have taught that Vegetables and Grain and whatsoever Bodies are nourished by them do proceed only from water for the Fisher-man never found any food in the stomack of a Salmon if therefore the Salmon be made of water only even that of Rivers he is also nourished by it So the Sturgeon wants a mouth and appeareth only with a little hole below in his Throat whereby the whole fish draweth nothing besides water Therefore every Fish is nourished and made of water if not immediately yet at least by Seeds and Ferments if the water be impregnat therewith From the Salt Sea every fresh Fish is drawn therefore the Ferment of the Fish turneth Salt into Lastly Shell-fish do form to themselves stony shells of water in stead of Bones even as also all kind of snails do and Sea-Salt which scarce yieldeth to the force of a very strong fire groweth sweet by the Ferment in Fishes and their flesh becometh volatile for at the time of distributing the nourishment it is wholly dissipated without a residence or dreg So also Salt passeth over into its Original Element of water and the Sea though it receive salt Streams yet is not every day increased in saltness So the most unmixed and most purest water under the Equinoctial Line becometh hory and stinketh strait-way it getteth the colour of a half burnt brick then it is greenish then red and quakesh very remarkably which afterwards of its own accord returns to it self again truly this cometh to pass by reason of the conceived Ferment of that place which being consumed all these appearances cease So the most pure Fountain-water groweth filthy through the musty Ferment of the Vessel it conceiveth worms breedeth Gnats and is covered with a skin Fenns putrifie from the bottom and hence arise Frogs Shell-fish Snails Horse-Ieaches Herbs c. also swiming Herbs do cover the water being contented with drinking only of this putrid water And even as stones are from Fountains wherein a stony Seed exists So the Earth stinking with Metallick Ferments doth make out of water a Metalline or Mineral Buâ— but the water being in other places shut up in the Earth if it be nigh the Air and stirred up with a little heat it putrifieth by continuance and is no longer water but the juice Leffas of Plants by the force of which hory Ferment a Fower is conferred on the Earth of budding forth Herbs For that putrifying juice by the prick of a little heat doth ascend in smoak becomes spungy and is compassed with a skin because the ferments therein hid require it Therefore that putrefaction hath the office of a Ferment and the Virtue of a Seed and by degrees it obtaineth some measure of Life and hasteneth by the Virtue of its Seeds into the Nature of Archeuss Therefore this putrid juice of the Earth is Leffas from whence springs every Plant not having visible seed which nevertheless bring forth seeds according to their destinations Therefore there are as many rank putrid musty smells as there are proper savours of things For Odors are not only the Messengers of Savours but also their promiscuous Parents The smoak Leffas being now comprest together doth first grow pale then somewhat yellowish and presently after is of a whitish green colour and at last fully green And the power of the several species being unfolded it gains divers marks and different colours in which course it imitates the Example of the water under the Equinoctial Line Yet in this it differs that those waters have borrowed too Spiritual and volatile a Ferment from the Stars and place without a Corporal hory putrefaction and therefore through their too
Helmont and my excellent Friend Mr. Boyl in his Scâ—ptical Chymist I shall spare my self the pains of expatiating upon it and refer the Inquisitive to those two Authors for full satisfaction in this point Only I think it very necessary in this place to examine the Arguments which are brought by a very learned man and Eminent Physitian to evince the real Existence of the Chymical Principles in Bodies and to prove that they are not products of the Fire And I the rather take notice of it here First because they are not bare ratiocinations of this Learned mans but experiments upon which he hath built very much And Secondly should I omit to examine these Experiments which indeed do seem weighty they might perhaps be produced against the Doctrine I desend And some might likewise object that I had not dealt candidly with the Chymist in that I had taken no cognisance of the best weapon they have to defend their Cause This Learned man then intending to prove the real existence of Salin and Sulphurous Principles in Bodies before the action of the Fire upon them produces Experiments nevertheless that are made by the Fire His sence is this For the first viz. Salt it is commonly known that if the Salt be once washed out of the Ashes of any vegetable if they be again calcined they will yeild no more Salt Moreover if any concrete being distilled shall yeild a very sharp and acid Liquor their Calces or Ashes do remain less Salt and è contra that is where the salt is vblatâ—zed and become a Liquor and doth ascend by the Alimbec you shall in vain seek for it in the caput mortuum That which vindicates the Existence of the Principle of Sulphurs in Vegetables is this Take Guaâ—acum or any other sort of heavy wood in pieces or shavings and putting it into a Glass-Retort distill it by degrees and it will give you together with a sowet Liquor which is the Saline Latex a blackish oyl which is its sulphury part in a great quantity That this was at first in the distilled Body and not all produced by this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appeareth from hence because if you do proceed another way by which the Sulphur may be taken from the concrete bâ—fore it be distilled the Liquor which cometh forth will be almost totally deprived of its Oylyness Wherefore if you shall pour spirit of Wine upon the Shavings of this wood this menstruum will extract a great quantity of pure Rozin from it which is the same Sulphury parts and if afterwards you take these Shavings that are left and wash them with common water and being dry put them in a Retort and distil them as at first you shall have but a little Oyl But that which is more to be wondred at and which doth more fully confirm this truth is that several Bodies which have little of Spirit or Sulphuâ— in them they being for the most part found amongst Volatils and which chiefly consist of Salt Earth and Water and are separated into these Elements by distillation which being again mixed together doth restore us the same sort of mixts marked with the same sort of qualities as before V. G. if you distil Vitriol in a reverberating Furnace you shall have a Phlegme almost insipid which is its watry part Then a very sower Liquor or rather a â—luid Salt and in the bottom remains a Red Earth of a pleasant purple Colour These being rightly performed if the two distilled Liquors be poured back upon the Caput Moâ—tuum we shall have the same Vitriol as before revived of the same colour taste and almost of the same weight The like may be done with Nitre Sea-salt Salt of Tarâ—ler and perhaps with Alome and other Mineral bodies which you may proceed withal with the same success so that those concrets that consist of fixed and stable Elements may like Mechanical Engins be taken to pieces and put together again without any prejudice Thus far he First then he saith that if Salt be washed from the Ashes of a vegetable though the Ashes be afterwards never so much calcined yet will they yeild no more Salt and also that those things that yeild a sower Liquor have little or no fixt Salt in their Aâ—hes The matter of fact I do not deny but the inference from thence I suppose I may For it is no necessary consequence thatâ—a thing was really existing in that form in the body that yeilded it in the which Art presents us with it when separated from the said body As for Example who ever believed that a Cole was ever really Existent as a Cole in wood any otherwise than materially and it is sufficiently known that the Cole is a product of the Fire which hath dissipated some parts of which the wood consisted and new modified the rest From which action of the Fire the new body of the Cole resulted From which Cole if it be fluxed with an Alkalizat-Salt may be obtained a perfect true and totally inflamable Sulphur no way distinguishable from common Brimstone as I have often proved Which Brimstone is a body very different from that of Salt which the same Cole if burnt to Ashes will yeild us in the room of this Brimstone And if it shall be objected that this Brimstone is the Oyl of the Wood or Plant which this Learned man is pleased to call the Sulphury Principle and which he afterwards tells us may be obtained together with an acid Saline Liquor upon which it swimmeth by distillation from Guajacum if this be objected I desire it may be considered First that the Oyl of the wood was before sent off into the Receiver and that a much greater Stress of Fire is required to burn the wood into a Cole then is needful to separate all its Oyl from it And Secondly that after it hath afforded all the Oyl which the Fire can make of it yet then at last this Brimstone may be made out of it And thirdly that it be taken notice of that it is not a sufficient ground nay that it is a liberty not to be allowed to give different bodies the same denomination because they agree in some one quality as this Oyl and the Sulphur do in that of Inflammability when they differ in so many others as is obvious to every man And as to that part of the Experiment alledged by this Learned man in the first place viz. that these Concrets which yeild in distilling a sower Spirit which is saith he their Salt volatised and brought into the form of a Liquor and therefore as he â—aith in vain to be sought for in their Ashes in which very little will be sound It proveth no more but this that according as Bodies are differently made up so the Fire acts diversly upon their Matter As is to be seen in Wax and Clay the former of which the fire melts and the last it hardens Nor doth it appear that this Saline Liquor was such
whilst it recided in the Concrete and before the action of the Fire upon it any more than it doth that there is really and actually residing in the body of Wheat or Barly before they be made into Mault and afterwards Brewed and Fermented a vinous and inebriating Spirit Which when they are so managed we find there is But if otherwise these grains of Barly or Wheat shall be ground into Flower and made into Bread they then become wholesome Food of which a great quantity may be eate without procuring drunkenness which their fermented liquors will cause And yet from this very substance of the Grain which affordeth two such bodies as Drink and Bread by a different managing of it may be made a liquor which is so far a Corrosive that it will draw Tinctures which are solutions of the small parts of bodies from divers Minerals Mettals and Stones and that many times without the help of External heat Nor can it with more Justice be affirmed that these Salts whether fixt or volatile were really and in that form existing in the wood or other Concrete then it may be said and believed that there is actually in Bread-corn the Flesh Blood Bones Sinews Hair Nailes c. of a man because we see that by the action of a humane stomach these things are made out of Bread And as to what is alledged concerning the Oyl of Guajacum it yieldeth if it be distilled per se but if it be inâ—used in Spirit of Wine it will impregnate it with a certain Rozin or Gum. And the wood after this Extraction if it be committed to distillation will not then afford the same quantity of Oyl as before it would have done That I easily grant but then it will quite destroy the inference for which this Learned man brings it viz. That Oyl was in that form a constituant Principle of the mixt For there is a vast difference betwixt Rozin and Oyl the one being a firm body that will admit of pulverisation the other a fluid and unctious body And besides many other specifical differences which not to be tedious I purposely omit The Rozin is a product of Nature the Oyl of the Fire For the Rozin or Gum is to be seen in the wood before distillation and is only taken up and dissolyed in the Spirit of Wine which being evaporated it appears again in its own form But the Oyl is I grant substantially and materially the same with the Rozin and therefore that being for the greatest part or totally taken away the Fire produceth either lesse or no Oyl Because if the Rozin be left in the wood when it is committed to the Fire the Fire doth spread abroad break and new alter the texture of the Rozin and elevating and making a new combination of its parts it constitutes that Body which we call Oyl which is in this case a real and new product of the Fire and was not before formally Existing in that Body And it is plain besides the instances before cited that by a different mannagement of one and the same Concrete I will cause the Fire to Exhibite very different substances from it as for Example take any herb as Wormwood Mint c. and having bruised them add Yest to them or by any other means procure a fermentation in the Matter and then commit it to distillation it will afford you an Oyl and a â—inous Spirit which rectified are both of them totally inflamable but if the same herb be bruised and suffered to lie upon the Flore some dayes without fermenting and if it be thus put to distillation instead of yielding a vinous Spirit and an Oyl as the other did it will afford an urinous or Armoniack Spirit which being carefully rectified will coagulate totally into a mass of Salt and that every man knows is very different both from an Oyl and a vinous Spirit For this Salt is not only brittle but also absolutely uninflamable And Lastly as to what this Author instances concerning Vitriol Saltpeter Tarter and Alome yeilding of Saline Spirits which being poured back upon their Caput Mortuums do redentâ—grate and return to the same bodies as they were before The matter of Fact I allow to be true but withal must be allowed to say that it proveth not what he brings it for nor doth evince that Salt and Sulphur are principles in all bodies for 't is the effect of their seeds that forms these bodies out of water For Salts somtimes are the products of sâ—eds as I have proved from the regular figures into which these Concrete juices do constantly shoot as in Section the Second of this Discourse So that it is not strange that the smaller parts of these Saline juices being by Fire divorced from the grosser upon their being put together do hastily run into and lodge themselves in the cavities of their own bodies from whence they were forced by the Fire And to conclude there are many bodies which the Fire cannot force to confess they are constituted so much as of two of the five modern Chymical Principles as to instance in Gold Talk Silver c. and yet by the operation of the Alkahest even these are at last reducible to water of which they were made by the power of seed and the afore-said Oyls Salts and Concrete juices are to be all of them returned to water by the means prescribed in the Fourth Section of this Discourse And here I must again take notice of two things First that this Learned Doctors Experiments are all made by the Fire which of it self alone I deny to be a proper Agent to Analize bodies and to discover to us the truth of those principles of which they are constituted and that for these reasons because it doth not work uniformly upon all bodies exposed to its action for as I have said before it cannot of it self separate any one of these supposed Principles from Gold Talk Sand Silver and many other Concrets and yet of some other bodies it will frame not only Oyles Salt Spirit Ashes or Earth as he is pleased to call it but also a Cole Brimstone and at last Glass which three last no man I suppose will imagin were really existing in those bodies of which they are made and yet are they made by the same Agent and from the same Subject of which the Fire produced Salts Oyls Ashes c. and therefore upon the same ground may as justly plead for the prerogative of being the constituent principles of bodies The Second thing I would have considered is this That those different Shapes and Appearances into which the Fire hath put the matter of any Concrete viz. Salts Oyl Ashes Spirits all of them are yet so compound that they may be yet â—urther returned and divided into more simple parts viz. into water which is indeed the only and true material Principle deservedly so called for it is a primary and simple body into which at last all Concrets and even