of Niter being more volatile than oil of Vitriol causes a greater effervescency In order therefore to explicate this ebullition two things must be considered First that spirit of Niter contains a great many fiery parts lock't up in its acidity but which do still retain some evident motion for it is they that make the spirit of Niter to Fume as it does The second is that spirit of Niter is more Inflammable than salt-peter when mixed with any sulphureous body and the reason thereof is that it is more rarefied than salt-peter Thus when this acid spirit is mixt with spirit of Wine which is a sulphur very much exalted and very susceptible of motion the volatile part of the spirit of Niter joyns itself to this sulphur and the mixture becomes very ready to take flame likewise after this mixture the fiery bodies that were in spirit of Niter do by striving to mount upwards put the liquor into so great a motion that it e'en almost flames and would without all question quite flame if there were not some phlegm always mixed with these spirits let them be drawn never so pure which serves to allay the activity of the fiery particles so that there must needs follow a very great ebullition This effervescency therefore proceeds from this that spirit of wine and spirit of Niter which are as it were a salt-peter and sulphur highly exalted have been almost kindled into a flame by the fiery bodies that were in spirit of Niter and that which further proves this conception is a noise or kind of detonation during the effervescency which is much like that which happens when sulphur and salt-peter are burnt together But because there may be some difficulty in conceiving what is meant by little fiery bodies I do understand by them a subtile matter which having been put into a very rapid motion does still retain the aptitude of moving with impetuosity even when it is inclosed in grosser matters and when it finds some bodies which by their texture or figure are apt to be put into motion it drives them about so strongly that their parts rubbing violently the one against the other heat is thereby produced Now the sulphureous parts of spirit of Wine and the volatile acids of spirit of Niter being mixed and being very aptly disposed for motion of themselves they must needs be easily put into it by these fiery bodies insomuch that their parts often rubbing or striking the one against the other they must cause a heat after the same manner as when a stone is strook hard against a piece of Iron a heat and fire do follow The great diminution of the liquor proceeds from the evaporation of the more volatile parts of the Spirits of Wine and Niter through the neck of the Bolt-head during the ebullition That which remains is a well sweetned spirit of Niter for not only its edges are very much blunted in the ebullition but the spirit of Wine being a sulphur does unite and imbody with those that remain so that they have no longer any Corrosive quality Aqua Fortis This preparation is a mixture of the Spirits of Niter and Vitriol drawn by fire to dissolve metals Powder and mix Salt-peter purified Vitriol Calcined white as I shall shew hereafter and Potters earth or clay dried of each two and thirty ounces put this mixture into an earthen Retort or glass one luted whose third part is to remain empty place your Retort in a close Reverberatory Furnace and fitting to it a capacious Receiver Lute well the junctures then begin by giving a little fire to warm gently the Retort and encrease it by little and little but when you perceive the Spirits to come forth into the Receiver in red clouds continue it for fifteen or sixteen hours in the same degree then drive it to the last extremity until there do appear white clouds instead of red Then let the vessels cool and unlute them you 'l find in the Receiver an Aqua fortis which you must keep in an earthen bottle well stopt It serves for the dissolution of metals Remarks I do use to Calcine the Vitriol to a whiteness that the Aqua fortis may not be weakned with an insipid water The mixture of Vitriol and Salt-peter has quickly some smell of Aqua fortis because Vitriol contains a great deal of Sulphur which easily insinuates into the volatile part of Salt-peter and exalts some little of it which causes the smell it is this Sulphur in Vitriol which by volatilizing the red spirit of Niter makes it come forth faster and with a less fire than when Salt-peter is distilled with Clay alone The greatest Corrosion of Aqua fortis proceeds from the Niter for the Vitriol doth yield but very weak Spirits in comparison with the other I do acknowledge indeed that the Oil of Vitriol is exceeding Corrosive but eighteen or twenty hours are not able to drive that out for it doth not use to come until after three days continual distillation The Vitriol then and the Clay do serve here only for a matter to separate the Salt-peter that it may by the means of fire the better rarefie into Spirits Although there does not enter into this preparation so much terrestrial matter as there does into that of Spirit of Niter nevertheless it proves very well because the Sulphurs of Vitriol do help the Spirits to rise If you would keep on the fire five days and nights together the Receiver would be still full of clouds because the Vitriol would yield some Spirits during all that time Sometimes Alom and Arsenick are added to the composition of Aqua fortis but the description which I have given you is the best of all There remains in the Retort a red mass which may be used like Colcothar for an Astringent This mass may be obtained without breaking the Retort Fixation of Salt-peter into an Alkali Salt by the means of Coals This operation is a Salt-peter rendred porous by Calcination and by the ashes of coals which are mixed with it Melt sixteen ounces of Salt-peter in a strong and large Crucible among burning coals throw into it a spoonful of coals grosly powdered and there will rise a flame and detonation which being over throw so much more and continue to do so until the matter flames no longer but remains fixt in the bottom of the Crucible then pour it into a warm mortar and when it is cold powder it and dissolve it in a sufficient quantity of water filtrate the dissolution through brown paper and evaporate all the water in an earthen pan in sand there will remain a very white salt which you must keep in a Viol well stopt This Salt hath a taste like to that of Salt of Tartar and they differ but little in virtue it opens Obstructions and works by Urine and sometimes by Stool the dose is from sixteen to thirty grains in some convenient liquor It may be used to assist in drawing forth the
Sympathetical powder When you would use this powder you are to take the bloud of a wound upon a linnen cloth and to sprinkle some of it upon the bloud It is pretended that though the bloudy linnen were ten miles off from the Patient when the Sympathetical powder is applied to it the wound would presently heal But the experience of several persons who have tried it and others may do the same does evince that men have had a great faith when they have talked of the effects of this powder for if it be not applied to a cloth newly blouded and even in the chamber of the Patient you will certainly find no effect from it Nay where such precautions have been used it performs no great matter and sometimes does nothing at all Now to explicate the action of Vitriol called Sympathy you must know that there does continually exhale into the air little bodies from this mineral salt and to convince you of it you need only to put the several Vitriols of different colours pretty near one another in the same place you will find after 12 or 15 daies that they have all changed colour a little in their superficies The white will become yellow the green whitish the blue greenish the red grayish These changes of colour cannot proceed but from little bodies which being separated from each kind of Vitriol and mixing in the air some part of them do fall confusedly on the matter And it must not be said that these changes are caused by the air which does open and rarefie these salts for if you put them into places separate or distant from one another this effect will in no wise happen You must also observe that the bloud to which the Vitriolick powder is applied retaining some heat still may thereby increase the activity and number of the little bodies which do arise from the Vitriol And these Vitriolick bodies dispersing themselves in the air are they that cause all the Sympathy for they do mix in the wound of the patient and because the virtue of Vitriol is to stop the bloud and to dry it you need not wonder if the volatile parts which come from it do perform the same effect But it may be objected that the volatile parts of Vitriol have no more determination naturally to go find out the wound of a person than other parts of the body and other places of the chamber Nay on the contrary that a wound being commonly covered with a plaister and somewhat thick bandage is not so likely to receive those bodies I answer that there is no need of giving any other determination to these volatile parts of Vitriol than is given to other volatile salts which are dispersed in the air but because wounds are always of a glutinous temper it is easie to conceive that these little bodies will adhere to them in greater quantity than to others as any downy substance which flies about a room wherein there is Glue or Turpentine will more easily stick in them than in other places As for the Bandage and Plaster used to wounds you must know that those who do use the Sympathetical powder do apply none of them But when it happens which is very rare that a mans wound has been cured by this Powder although there was a Plaister and bandage also laid upon it this effect can never be attributed to any thing else but the penetration of Vitriol for there are wounds that a very little quantity of Vitriol is capable of drying Thus I have given you the most rational explication that can be of an effect which has hitherto passed for a thing altogether inexplicable To conclude I would not advise any wounded person to insist or depend too much on a remedy of this nature for to one who ever received considerable good there 's a hundred who never perceived any effect from it and the cause of it has been that the volatile parts of the Vitriol have hapned to be diverted from the wound by some wind or else because the greatest part of people have their bloud too subtile and too active to be fixed by so little a quantity of Vitriol Nevertheless those whose heads are filled with the Sympathetical Powder do speak of it as of a never failing medicine And if a man offers to convince them by an experiment to the contrary as it is not hard to do they presently cry out that the reason it fails is because it is ill prepared but it is easie to convince them if they desire a serious satisfaction in it for the powder of their own preparation that they so much magnifie though it be successful in one will be found to fail in a great many others Many Authors have also written a great many falshoods in defence of the Sympathy as for example that if the urine of an Infant were cast into the fire so soon as it is made it would cause a heat of urine that if the excrements of an animal were thrown into the fire or among Nettles there would be an Inflammation in the guts of the same creature and many the like stories which a thousand experiments will prove not to be true Distillation of Vitriol This Spirit is an acid salt of Vitriol dissolved into a liquor by a great fire Fill two thirds of a large earthen Retort or glass one luted with Vitriol Calcined to whiteness place it in a close Reverberatory furnace and fitting to it a great Balon or Receiver give a very small fire to warm the Retort and make the water come forth that might still remain in the Vitriol and when there will distil no more pour the water out of the Receiver into a Bottle this is called Phlegm of Vitriol it is used in Inflammations of the eyes to wash them with refit the Receiver to the neck of the Retort and luting the junctures exactly encrease the fire by degrees and when you perceive Clouds to come forth into the Receiver continue it in the same condition until the Receiver grows cold then strengthen the fire with wood to an extream violence until the flame rises through the Tunnel of the Reverberatory as big as ones arm The Receiver will fill again with white Clouds continue the fire after this manner for three days and so many nights then put it out unlute the junctures when the vessels are cold and pour the Spirit into a glass body set it in sand and fit to it quickly a Head with its Receiver lute the junctures close with a wet Bladder and distil with a very gentle fire about four ounces of it this is the Sulphureous spirit of Vitriol keep it in a viol well stopt It is good for the Asthma Palsie and diseases of the Lungs the dose is from four drops to ten in some convenient liquor Change the Receiver and augmenting the fire distil about half the liquor that remains in the body this is called the Acid Spirit of Vitriol it is mixed in Juleps
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
that I now described but because Water alone has not strength enough to destroy the acid so as to make it quit every particle that it held dissolved some part of the Lead still remains indiscernable in the liquor and does not precipitate Wherefore it is better to follow my description in the making Magistery of Saturn You must use an equal quantity of Water and Vinegar to dissolve the Salt of Saturn for if you should use Water alone it would rather cause a precipitation than dissolution The Oil of Tartar or rather the Salt of Tartar dissolved being an Alkali destroys the edges of the Vinegar that suspended the Lead whence it comes to precipitate for finding nothing in the Liquor that is able to hold it up it falls down by its own weight Now in this Operation there happens no effervescency at all because the edges of the Vinegar being broken the fragments of them which remain have not activity and are not keen enough to enter into the pores of Salt of Tartar with a sufficient penetration And it is the same thing with all other precipitations of matters which have been dissolved by Vinegar but when the solution has been performed with stronger acids the precipitations are made with ebullition for the reason that I gave in my Remarks upon Aurum Fulminans This Powder being washt and dried is nothing but a Cerusse rendred exceeding fine It is used for Paint but this Cosmetick as well as all others that are made of Metallick substances such as Tinn and Bismuth do often black the skin after having whitened it because the heat of the flesh doth gather together these Metallick Particles which owed all their whiteness to an exact Alkoholisation and losing that do often Revive Balsam or Oil of Saturn The Balsam of Saturn is a solution of Salt of Saturn made in Oil of Turpentine Put eight ounces of Salt of Saturn powdered into a Matrass and pour upon it Spirit of Turpentine four fingers above it place the Matrass in a small Sand heat digesting for a day you 'l have a red Tincture decant the Liquor and pour more Spirit of Turpentine on the Matter that remains in the bottom of the Matrass leave it in digestion as before then separate again the Liquor which remains still a little coloured and there will remain at the bottom nothing but a little Matter that you may Revive into Lead in a Crucible Pour your dissolutions into a Glass-Retort place it in Sand and fitting to it a Receiver distil over a gentle fire about two thirds of the Liquor which will be Spirit of Turpentine quench the fire and when the Retort is cold pour that which is in it into a Viol and keep it for use This is the Balsam of Saturn excellent for cleansing and cicatrizing of Ulcers You may touch Chancres with it though they be never so bad for it mightily resists putrefaction Remarks The Spirit of Turpentine to speak properly is an exalted Oil. It dissolves Lead and easily unites with it because it is very sulphureous If you should still persist in putting new Spirit of Turpentine on the remaining matter all the Salt of Saturn would at last dissolve Some do use to distil away all the Liquor and keep that for Oil which comes forth last But it is a great deal better to follow my description for when all the Liquor is distilled there will hardly have risen any Particle of Saturn and therefore it cannot be so good Burning Spirit of Saturn Spirit of Saturn is an inflammable liquor which is drawn from Salt of Saturn Fill two thirds of an earthen Retort or a glass one luted with Salt of Saturn place it in a Furnace over a very gentle fire both for gently heating the Retort and driving out a Phlegmatick Water continue this degree of Fire until the drops begin to have some taste then fit to the Retort a large Recipient lute well the junctures and encrease the fire by degrees a Spirit will come forth that will fill the Recipient with Clouds When nothing more will come let the Vessels cool and having unluted them pour what you find in the Recipient into a Glass-Cucurbite and rectifie in a very gentle sand-Sand-fire about half the Liquor which will be the inflammable Spirit of Saturn burning like Spirit of Wine and of a sowr taste This Spirit is very good to resist putrefaction of humours It is also given in the Hypochondriack Melancholy from eight unto sixteen drops in Broth or some Liquor peculiar to the Disease and the use of it is continued every Morning for a Fortnight The other moyety of the liquor that remains in the Alembick is called improperly Oil of Saturn it is good to cleanse the eyes of horses If you take out the blackish matter that remains in the Retort and put it in a Crucible upon burning Coals it will reassume the form of Lead Remarks You must remember not to fill above two thirds of the Retort with the Salt and to joyn a Receiver large enough because these Volatile Spirits flying out with violence might be apt to break the Vessels if they had not room to play in If you use six ounces of Salt of Saturn in your Distillation you 'l draw an Ounce and six drachms of liquor and there will remain in the Retort six ounces and six drachms of a blackish and yellow matter and if you put this matter into a Crucible setting it in the fire 't will melt and you 'l regain four ounces of Lead and half an ounce or it may be six drachms of a yellow earth coloured like Litharge of Gold It is evident from this Operation that an ounce and six drachms of the more Acid parts of Vinegar are sufficient to impregnate four ounces and two drachms of Lead to reduce it into Salt but the strangest thing that happens to it is the great change that acids do give it insomuch that it is not to be known again in the least The Augmentation that the Lead in the Retort does here receive is as evident as may be for six drachms are taken out of it at last more than were put in of Salt of Saturn besides an ounce and six drachms of liquor that were drawn out So that we must necessarily conclude that the four ounces and two drachms of Lead are encreased two ounces and an half It is probable enough that the more rarified the Lead becomes the more capable it will be of igneous particles for although the Salt of Saturn is not suffer'd to remain long in the fire yet the Lead encreases apace Possibly it may be that as fast as the acids go out of it igneous bodies enter in their place and open likewise the Pores of Lead by their nimble motion but these Pores must needs be so disposed as to shut again like valvules and hinder the return back of those fiery parts When this Calx is Calcined in an open fire in a Crucible without stirring
Vinegar four fingers above it Place the Matrass in Digestion in hot Sand and let it lye so three days stirring it ever now and then the Vinegar will acquire a blue colour separate by Inclination the liquor that swims upon the Copper and pour new distilled Vinegar upon the matter leave it in Digestion for three days as before decant the Liquor and continue to put other distilled Vinegar on the matter until three fourths of the Verdegrease or thereabouts be dissolved and there remains nothing but a terrestrious matter Then Filtrate all these Impregnations and evaporate two thirds of the moisture in a Olass Body in Sand put the Vessel into a Celler and leave it there without stirring it four or five days little Crystals will appear separate by Inclination the Liquor and gather them up consume again about the third part of the moisture and put it a crystallizing as before continue these Evaporations and Crystallizations till you have got all your Crystals dry them and keep them for the following Operation Remarks You had better use Verdegrease than crude Copper in this Operation because it is more open and disposed for solution by the acids of Vinegar for Verdegrease is nothing but a Copper opened and reduced to a rust by the fermenting spirits of Tartar For the making of Verdegrease Plates of Copper are stratified with the husks of Grapes pressed They are left so for some time and part of these Plates is turned into Verdegrease which is scraped off with a Knife then these same Plates are stratified again with pressed Grapes and are penetrated as before and more Verdegrease made This stratification is continued until the whole is turned into Verdegrease You must observe that Verdegrease is better made in Languedock and Provence than other places because in those Countries the Grapes do yield more Tartar and consequently do abound in these fermenting Spirits which do penetrate the Copper The Crystals of Venus are nothing but Copper dissolved and afterwards coagulated with the acids of Vinegar that incorporate with it and form a kind of Vitriol Spirit of Venus Put what quantity you please of the Crystals of Venus prepared with distill'd Vinegar as I shewed before into a Glass Retort whose third part remains empty Place your Retort in Sand and Fitting to it a large Receiver and Luting well the junctures give a small Fire at first to drive out a little insipid Phlegm this Phlegm will be followed by a Volatile Spirit Then augment the Fire by degrees and the Receiver will fill with white Clouds Towards the latter end kindle coals round about the Retort that the last Spirits may come forth for they are the strongest When you see the clouds disappear and the Recipient grow cool put out the Fire unlute the junctures and pour all that which is in the Recipient into a Glass Body to distil it in Sand until it is dry This is the rectified Spirit of Venus This Remedy is used against the Epilepsie the Palsie the Apoplexie and other Diseases of the Head Seven or Eight drops of it are given in a convenient Vehicle many do use it to dissolve Pearl Coral and such like substances The black Mass that remains in the Retort may be revived into Copper if put in a Crucible in a Fire of Fusion with a little Salt-peter or Tartar Remarks The Acid is drawn from the Copper by fire without breaking its points for Spirit of Venus is considerably sharp which happens not in other Metals The reason that may be given of it is that Copper which is very full of Sulphur doth but barely touch upon the Acids by its ramous parts So that when these points are stirred by the violence of fire they come forth whole because they do not meet with resistance of a body hard enough to break them in pieces They do also draw along with them some of the most Volatile parts of Copper with which they are inseparably united It hath been thought that this Spirit being poured upon Coral and Pearl was able to dissolve them without losing any thing of its force so that when you would use the same Spirit it would corrode the Matters as before But Experience doth not confirm it it is true the dissolvent comes from the Coral with a great deal of sharpness but it hath lost the Acidity which was the principal Menstruum and if there remains any sharpness it proceeds from the Copper If you use a pound of Crystals of Venus in this distillation you 'l draw half a pound of liquor and the matter which remains in the Retort will be just the same quantity CHAP. VII Of Iron IRon is called Mars from the Planet of that name whose Influence it is thought to receive it is a very Porous Metal compounded of a Vitriolick Salt Sulphur and Earth ill digested together wherefore the dissolution of its parts is very easily performed Iron is found in many Mines in Europe in form of a Stone or Marcassite which much resembles the Loadstone but this last is more heavy and brittle than Iron The Loadstone is also found in Mines of Iron and may be reduced into Iron by a strong fire Iron for its part does easily acquire the virtue of the Loadstone as every body knows so that these bodies do seem to differ only in the figure of their Pores as has been very well observed by our modern Philosophers Iron in the stone is melted in large Furnaces made on purpose both to purifie it from some earth and to bring it into the Form we desire Having continued some time in Fusion it Vitrifies as it were and much resembles an Enamel of several colours and it enters indeed into the composition of ordinary Enamels with Lead Tinn Antimony Sand the Saphire the Stone of Perigord a Province in France Gravelled ashes and the ashes of a Plant called Kali It is turned into Steel by means of Horns or Nails of Animals with which it is stratified and so Calcined These matters containing a great deal of Volatile Salt which is an Alkali do kill or destroy the Acids of the Iron that kept its Pores open and do render it more compact Besides the Fire carries off many of the more Volatile and Soluble parts of Iron whence it comes to pass that Steel will remain longer without rusting than Iron Steel is to be preferred before Iron for the making of Vtensils but for Remedies Iron is the better beyond comparison I shall give you the reasons for what I say in the following Operations Although Mars does contain an Acid Vitriolick Salt yet it ceases not the being an Alkali for it ferments with Acids and no body needs wonder at this effect when they consider there is more Earth than Salt in this Metal and this Earth containing this Salt within it retains Pores sufficient to receive the Points of Acids when thrown upon it and so does the office of an Alkali for as I have said speaking of the
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-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
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
likewise fixes the stone the more and makes it fitter to keep It is one of the best Remedies I ever met with for stopping Gonorrheas when it is a proper time to stop them by Injections Salt of Vitriol This Operation is the more fixed Salt of Vitriol that remains after distillation Take two or three pounds of the Colcothar that remains in the Retort after distillation of Vitriol let it infuse in eight or ten pints of warm water for ten or twelve hours boil it a little while and then let it settle separate the water by Inclination and pour new water upon the matter proceed as before and mixing your Impregnations evaporate all the moisture in a sand-heat in a glass or earthen vessel there will remain a salt at bottom It is used as the Gilla Vitrioli to give a Vomit the dose is from ten to thirty grains Remarks This salt is that part of the Vitriol that the fire is not able to rarefie into Spirit Some Authors say that it Vomits just after the same manner as Gilla Vitrioli taken in a smaller dose but I have observed that its effect was much less and on the contrary there was need of giving it in a larger dose than the Gilla to procure a Vomit for having given of it several times a drachm at a dose the person had no Inclination at all to Vomit and truly I am apt to believe that a fixt salt of Vitriol divested of its Sulphur doth rather tend to precipitate downwards than mount upwards for Vomiting is caused by Saline Sulphurs which prick the Fibers of the Stomach whence follows a Convulsion to this part That which remains indissoluble is called Caput Mortuum it is used for Astringents If you expose it to the Air for a year or a year and half it returns into Vitriol again CHAP. XIX Of Roche-Alom and of its Purification ROche-Alom is a very Styptick Mineral Salt found in the veins of the earth in many places of Europe it is taken up in great transparent pieces the best is that which is reddish for the white contains fewer Spirits Alom is purified after the same manner as Vitriol it is used to cleanse the teeth it is a good Diuretick a drachm of it is dissolved in a quart of water and a glass of it is given now and then Many things are likewise called by the name of Alom as the Saccharinum which resembles Sugar it is nothing but a mixture of Roche-Alom Rose-water and the white of an Egg. Plume-Alom which some call Lapis Amianthus is a kind of Talk Distillation of Alom Put five pounds of Roche-Alom into a glass or earthen body and fitting to it a head with its Receiver distil in sand as much as will rise you will have a Phlegm of Alom that is used for distempers of the eyes for Quinsies and to cleanse wounds unlute the vessels break the body and powder the white mass that remains in it put it into an earthen Retort half empty place your Retort in a Reverberatory furnace and fitting to it a large Receiver lute the junctures close and light a very small fire the first three hours only to warm the Retort afterwards increase it every hour to the utmost violence and these Spirits will come forth and fill the Receiver with white Clouds continue the fire in this condition three days together then let the vessels cool you 'l find in the Receiver an acid Spirit which you may rectifie by distilling it in a glass Alembick in sand in order to make it the clearer This acid is more disagreeable than that of Vitriol it is used in Juleps for continued Feavers and Tertian Agues the dose is from four to eight drops it is likewise good to cure the Aphtha or little Chancres in the mouth Break the Retort and you 'l find in it a white mass very much rarefied and light it is called Burnt Alom or Calcined Alom it is used for to eat carnous excrescences or proud flesh Remarks The Distillation of Alom must be performed like that of Vitriol that is to say without addition of earth because these Salts do contain enough themselves The Body into which you put your Alom must be sure to be large enough because it rarefies extreamly The Phlegm is known to be all come forth when there distils no more for these Spirits being very weighty do require a greater heat than that of sand to raise them Some have written that Alom yields but very little acid yet if they take the pains to keep a strong fire under it for three days together they 'l find that this Spirit does not give place in strength or quantity to that of Vitriol Nor are we at all obliged to distinguish as they would have us the Acrimonious Corrosive salt of Alom from its acid seeing that there is nothing either Acrimonious or Corosive in this Mineral salt which will not turn into an acid Spirit when it is strongly urged by fire If a Drachm of Alom be dissolved in six ounces of this Phlegm you make an excellent Alom water to cleanse wounds and ulcers with The mass that remains in the Cucurbite or Dephlegmated Alom is more Escarotick than that which hath lost its Spirits Chirurgeons are wont to Calcine Alom in a Frying pan but the Iron dulls the greatest part of its vertue as absorbing its Spirits wherein consists the corrosion of Alom the Retort must be filled but half full because there happen Ebullitions which do require room CHAP. XX. Of Sulphur SVlphur is a kind of Bitumen that is found in many places in Italy and Spain There is brought among us both a Natural and an Artificial the Natural is greyish and called Sulphur Vivum the other is Yellow and is nothing but the Natural melted purified from its grosser earth and formed into Rowls which we do commonly use Some think that Sulphur is a Vitriol sublimed in the earth because these mixts are very often found near one another that there is a great deal of Sulphur in the mass of Mineral Vitriol and that the acid Spirits which are drawn from them both are wholly alike Flower of Sulphur This preparation is an exaltation of Sulphur Put about half a pound of Sulphur grosly powdered into a glass body place it in a small open fire and cover it with a pot or another Cucurbite turned upside down one that is unglazed so as that the neck of the one may enter into the neck of the other Change the upper Cucurbite every half hour fitting another in its place add likewise new Sulphur gather your Flowers which you find stuck in the Cucurbite and continue to do thus until you have got as much as you desire Then put out the fire and let the vessels cool there will remain at bottom only a little light insignificant earth The Flower of Sulphur is used in Diseases of the Lungs and Breast the dose is from ten to thirty grains in Lozenges or in Electuary It
Tinctures and let them settle filtrate them and evaporate the liquor in a glass vessel over a very gentle fire until there remains a matter that hath the consistence of thick honey this is called Extract of Rhubarb keep it in a Pot. The dose is from ten grains to two Scruples in Pills or dissolved in Succory water for diseases of the Liver and Spleen it binds after the purgeing The Extracts of Vegetables are made after the same manner except the Resinous whereof I have spoken Likewise waters may be used for Menstruums that are appropriated to the virtue of the mixt whose Extract you intend to draw When you draw the Extract of Aromaticks such as Roses and Cinnamon the liquor may be distilled rather than evaporated whereby you gain a fragrant water Remarks Though the name of Extract ought to be very general in Physick it is confined only to one sort of Preparation that is reduced to the consistence of an Electuary it is nothing else but a Purification that is made to cleanse a mixt from its more Terrestrious parts that being more open and free it may work with the greater strength Now this operation is good for mixts that are not Odoriferous but not so for those that are for by evaporation their best part is lost which consists in a volatile So that I would by no means advise to make the Extract of Aromaticks Nature is a very good Artist to perform this Operation within our bodies when the Principles are easie to separate as in these sorts of mixts There has been a great contest among Chymists heretofore in which of the Principles it is that the Purgative virtue of many medicins doth consist Some have maintained it to be in the Salt others in the Sulphur and others again in the Mercury But when every party had very diligently separated each their Principle and came to try it they found after all that none of them was Purgative which hath perswaded many of them to think that this Purgative principle was of so subtile and penetrating a nature that glass it self was not able to preserve it from being lost For my part I cannot grant any such indiscernable Purgative I rather am apt to believe that the Purgative virtue of a mixt consists in nothing else but such a different mixture of Principles as is requisite to produce certain Fermentations in our bodies So that when once we separate the Sulphur Mercury or Salt the position of parts or proportion of Principles being changed there remains no longer any Purgative effect because the Principles being separated can no more produce that Fermentation which they did while they were mixed and united together some kind of way that Art is ignorant how to imitate Perhaps some who think themselves good Criticks will say this Chapter contradicts the former for I there maintained that the Rosine of Jalap which is a Sulphur doth contain all the Purgative virtue of Jalap but though I did call the Rosine of Jalap a Sulphur I did not mean it was a pure Sulphur it is a substance out of which all the five Principles may be still drawn but by reason it doth contain great store of Sulphur this name may be given to it as it often is to others of the like nature And thus Salt may be said to be Purgative too but it doth not follow from thence that the Salt alone must be thought to contain all the Purgative virtue of mixt bodies seeing many plants such as Guaiacum Box Carduus and Wormwood do contain as much or more Salt than Senna and Rhubarb and yet nevertheless do not purge at all CHAP. III. Of the Wood Guaiacum GVaiacum called Lignum Sanctum is the Wood of a large Tree that grows in a great many places in the West Indies It is likewise cultivated here in Europe in Languedoc is good store but that which is brought out of the hot Countries is best esteemed this Wood is very much in use in Sudorifick Decoctions the Bark is also used and the Gum that runs from it the best Guaiacum is that which is most compact Distillation of Guaiacum This operation is a separation of the liquid parts of Guaiacum from its terrestrious matter Take the shavings of Guaiacum fill a large Retort with them three quarters full place it in a Reverberatory Furnace and joyn to it a great capacious Receiver Begin the distillation with a fire of the first degree to warm the Retort gently and to distil the water which is called Phlegm continue it in this condition until there come no more drops which is a sign that all the Phlegm is distilled Throw away that which you find in the Receiver and fitting it again to the neck of the Retort lute well the junctures You must afterwards encrease the fire by degrees and the Spirits and Oyl will come forth in white clouds continue the fire until there comes no more let the vessels cool and unlute them pour that which is in the Receiver into a Tunnel lined with brown paper set upon a bottle or some other vessel the Spirit will pass through and leave the black thick and very fetid Oil in the Tunnel pour it into a viol and keep it for use it is an excellent Remedy for rottenness of bones for the Tooth-ach and to cleanse old Ulcers It may be rectified as I said of the Oil of Ambar and may be used inwardly in the Epilepsie Palsie and to drive forth the after-birth the dose is from two drops to six The Spirit of Guaiacum may be rectified by distilling it by an Alembeck for to separate a little impurity that might have passed with it it works by perspiration and by Urine the dose is from half a drachm to a drachm and a half It is likewise used mixt with the water of honey to cleanse inveterate Ulcers You 'l find in the Retort the coals of Guaiacum which you may turn into ashes by putting fire to them which they will sooner take than other coals Calcine these ashes some hours in a Potters furnace then make a Lixivium of them with water which being filtred evaporate it in a glass or earthen vessel in sand there will remain the Salt of Guaiacum which you may make white by Calcining it in a Crucible in a strong fire This Salt is Aperitive and Sudorifick it may serve as all other Alkalis to draw the Tincture of Vegetables the dose is from ten grains to half a drachm in some convenient liquor The earth called Caput Mortuum is good for nothing After this manner the five substances of all Vegetables may be drawn but because the fire doth give them a loathsome Empyreumatical smell other ways have been invented to draw the Oil of Aromaticks I shall describe them in the sequel Remarks During the distillation of Spirits you must not make the fire too strong for they coming forth with a great deal of violence would else be apt to break either the Retort or the
Receiver Though the Guaiacum that is used be a very dry body yet abundance of liquor is drawn from it for if you put into the Retort four pounds of this Wood at sixteen ounces to the pound you 'l draw nine and thirty ounces of Spirit and Phlegm and five ounces and a half of Oil there will remain in the Retort nineteen ounces of coals from which you may draw half an ounce or six drachms of an Alkali salt The Oil of Guaiacum is acrimonious by reason of the Salts it has carried along with it and it is the gravity of these salts that does precipitate it to the bottom of the water The Oil of Box and most others that are drawn this same way do the like These sorts of Oil are good for the Tooth-ach because they stop the nerve with their ramous parts hindring thereby the air from entring Moreover by means of the acrimonious salts which they contain they do dissipate a phlegm which uses to get within the gum and causes the pain but yet by reason of their fetid smell men have much ado to take them into their mouth That which is called Spirit of Guaiacum is nothing but a dissolution of the Essential salt of the Plant in a little phlegm The fixt salt is an Alkali that works much like others of that kind nevertheless it is very probable that the fixt salts of Vegetables let them be never so much Calcined do always retain some particular virtue of the Plant they were drawn from If one would take the pains to Calcine the earth that remains he would obtain a salt though but very little of it CHAP. IV. Of Paper THE Papyrus of the Antients which gave the name to our PAPER was a tree growing in Aegypt near the river Nilus The bark of this tree was prepared and men did write upon it but our Paper is made of old rags or clouts which are beaten exceeding fine in Paper-mills and then put into the press in order to make Paper with them This Paper has some use in Physick pieces of it are lighted in a room and Hysterical women are made to receive the fume of it they are commonly relieved with this disagreeable smell as by many others of the like nature Oil and Spirit of Paper Fold white paper into little pellets and fill a great earthen Retort or glass one luted with them place your Retort in a Reverberatory furnace Fit to it a large capacious Receiver lute well the junctures give it a very little fire for two hours only to heat the Retort increase it with two or three coals and continue it so for two or three hours then quicken it to the third degree The Receiver will be filled with white clouds put out the fire when no more will come forth the operation will be ended in seven or eight hours When the vessels are cold unlute them pour what you find in the Receiver into a Tunnel lined with a coffin of brown paper the Spirit will pass through the filter and a thick black and ill-scented oil will remain within it keep the oil for use in a Viol. It is a very good remedy in deafness some drops of it are put into the ear with a little cotton from time to time it quiets the noise of the ear it is also good for Tettars and for the Itch the parts being anointed a little with it it cures the tooth-ach much like the Oil of Guaiacum it is good likewise to repress hysterical vapours women so affected are to smell to it You must rectifie the Spirit by distilling it in sand It is an Aperitive and may be given where there is occasion for a diuretick the dose is from six drops to twenty in some proper liquor Remarks The Vitriol and other drogues which are in Ink might alter the virtue of the Oil and Spirit of paper wherefore it is better to use clean than written paper The receiver must be large in order to give room to the vapours to circulate in for they come forth with that force that they would break the vessel if they had not room enough to play in you must manage the fire with prudence for if you make it too great the first hours the Spirits will break the Retort If you have used in this operation four and twenty ounces of paper you will draw two ounces and two drachms of Oil and thirteen ounces and a half of Spirit there will remain in the Retort seven ounces and a half of coals The Oil does not pass with the Spirit through the coffin in the tunnel because it is too thick its black colour and its ill smell do come from the fire It is good for deafness because that disease is often caused by a thick or phlegmatick humor which dries and hardens in the ear so as to stop the auditory nerve Now this Oil dissolves and rarefies this humor and disposes it the better to come out And this is the reason that it dissipates the noises in the ears for they were caused by winds which this humor had shut in The Spirit is very acid in comparison with other Spirits of Vegetables because it comes from an essential salt which has been put into a very considerable motion Again it is probable that by the many different forms which the flax and canvas have received in order to make cloth and afterwards Paper and by the fermentations which they may have received their fixed salt may be volatilized and become of the nature of that which is called Essential Now in the distillation all this salt has been dissolved into a liquor by the phlegm and turned into that which is called Spirit that which confirms me in this sentiment is that there can be hardly any fixed salt at all drawn from the coal which remains in the Retort wherefore the coal is thrown away as useless it takes fire exceeding easily by reason of a light soot that is fallen upon it and which gave it the black colour CHAP. V. Of Cinnamon CInnamon is the Bark of a Tree as large as an Olive Tree it grows in the East-Indies and is much like that which the Cassia Lignea is taken from but it is not the very same as some will needs think the best Cinnamon is that which has the strongest smell is quick upon the taste and of a reddish colour The Cassia Lignea differs from Cinnamon in that it is not so biting to the taste smells not so strong and becomes mucilaginous in the mouth when it is chewed which Cinnamon doth not do Both Cinnamon and Cassia Lignea are good to fortifie the stomach to help perspiration of gross humors to strengthen and rejoice the heart and in hysterical cases Oil or Essence of Cinnamon and its Aethereal water Bruise four pounds of good Cinnamon and infuse it in six quarts of hot water leave it in digestion in an earthen vessel well stopt two days pour the Infusion into a large Copper
that it is no poison for although Spirit of Vitriol for example or some other acid does not prove mortal when taken inwardly nevertheless if the same quantity should be syringed into the veins the Animal falls presently into Convulsions and dies Now as that which caused the Spirit of Vitriol taken inwardly not to be Poison was this the acids do become weak through the mixture of the Saliva and before ever they come to mix in the Mass of bloud their parts do receive so great an alteration from the ferment of the places they must pass through that they are able to do nothing else at most but cool the Body so the same may be said of the Yellow liquor of the Viper when it is tasted of that besides its mixture with the liquors of the mouth and stomach it receives divers alterations from the ferments of the places it must pass through before it enters into the mass of bloud Many do likewise think that the venom of Vipers hath its chief seat in the Gall and thence is easily transported to the Gums when they are angry nevertheless in the Anatomy of this Animal there 's no passage found capable of such a translation I know very well that the pores of living bodies may be said to be so open that all manner of liquors may be presumed to pass through them but yet no mischievous effect is discovered to proceed from the Viper's Gall when given inwardly for it only causes sweat Lastly others will have the Viper's venom to be dispersed over all its body And those who think thus do advise us to whip these Animals in a warm bason to drive their venom into the extremities of the body before we cut as is usually done their heads two fingers below and their tails two fingers above after that to flea off the skin and take out the bowels and then boil the body in water wherein are added Salt and Dill to correct as they say the remaining malignity When the flesh is tender it is to be separated from the bones then to eight ounces of this flesh beaten into a Paste in a marble mortar are added two ounces of bread dried and powdered and Troches made of it which being dried are kept for use But this long preparation is seldom used since Experience hath taught us that no part of a dead Viper is at all poisonous The Head and Tail dried and powdered may be taken instead of a Cordial as well as the rest of the body I can likewise assure you upon my own experience that the Tooth of a dead Viper is no ways venomous having by chance been prickt my self till the bloud came whilst I was a handling the heads of Vipers newly kill'd that I had a mind to dry and there did not follow the least ill accident from it Furthermore by this Coction the Vipers flesh is deprived of its volatile salts which gave its greatest virtue for they dissolve in the broth which is flung away and only the Faeces remain wherein there hardly rests so much Cordial virtue as there does in the bread which is mixed for a Corrective But there is no need I should enlarge my self further on this subject because these Observations are sufficiently delivered in the Augustan Pharmacopoeia Wherefore I do conceive it to be much better to use the Powder of Vipers newly made than the Troches To make this Powder well it is good to chuse Vipers when they are in the prime of their strength the Females that are full of Eggs or young ones are not so good as the others their heads are to be cut off their skins thrown by and their bowels taken out and so they are set a drying in the shade to be afterwards powdered in a mortar But because this Powder is hard to keep in that worms do breed in it it will be good to make it into a Paste with a sufficient quantity of the mucilage of Gum Tragacanth so form it into Troches to dry them and powder them when there is occasion to use them and thus it keeps good a long time This Powder is given in the Small pox Malignant Feavers and all other maladies where Alexipharmicks are required and the humors are to be purified by Perspiration the dose is from eight grains to thirty in broth or some other convenient liquor The Heart and Liver are dried in the Sun and powdered together and this Powder called Animal Bezoar hath the same virtues as the body of the Viper only it is given in a little lesser dose The Gall of Vipers provokes Sweat the dose is a drop or two in Carduus water The fat that is found in them is melted then strained for to separate it from the membranes it sticks to it is as clear as Oil. Several Countries do use it in the Small-pox and in Feavers The dose is from one drop to six in broth or some other convenient liquor It likewise enters into the composition of some Plaisters and into discutient unguents Distillation of Vipers This Operation is a separation of the phlegm the volatile salt and the Oil of Vipers from its earth Take twelve dozen of Vipers dried in the shade as I said before put them into an earthen Retort or glass one Coated place it in a Reverberatory furnace fit to it a great capacious Receiver and luting the joints close begin the distillation with a small fire to warm the Retort gently and drive out a phlegmatick water drop by drop when you see no more drops to fall encrease the fire a little and Spirits will come forth which will fill the Receiver with white Clouds you will see at last a black oil come and the volatile salt stick to the sides of the Receiver Continue the fire until there comes no more after which let the vessels cool and unlute them Shake about the Receiver a little to loosen the volatile salt from the sides and pour it all into a Bolt-head fit to it a head and a small Receiver and lute the joints with a wet bladder you must set your vessel in Sand and with a gentle fire under it the volatile salt will sublime and stick to the head and uppermost part of the bolt-head separate it and keep it in a viol well stopt It is one of the best medicins we have in Physick it is good in Malignant Feavers and Agues the Pox Apoplexy Epilepsie Palsie Hysterical Maladies and the bitings of all venomous Beasts the dose is from six to sixteen grains in some proper Liquor Pour that which remains in the bolt-head into a Tunnel lined with brown paper the Spirit and phlegm will pass through and the stinking Oil remain behind Hysterical women may smell to this last to allay vapours and Paralytical parts may be anointed therewith but its smell is so offensive that it is hard to endure it Pour the Spirit and Phlegm mixed confusedly together into an Alembeck and distil in a vaporous Bath about half
doubtless that is the reason why it is the whiter If you distil twelve ounces of Hair you will obtain eight ounces of liquor and volatile salt There will remain in the Retort three ounces and a half of a black matter very spongy and earthy from which no fixed salt can be drawn And by Rectification you will raise into the Head an ounce and seven drachms of a very fine volatile salt separate by a filter three ounces of a black and very fetid oil and by distillation of that which is filtrated you 'l have two ounces of Spirit and nine drachms of phlegm All Volatile salts have much resemblance in their figure smell and taste but that of Vipers is accounted the most active and proper against Poisons those of Harts-horn and Mans Skull are thought to be better than others for the Epilepsie that of mans bloud to purifie the bloud and so of the rest When you Rectifie the Spirit of Vipers or man's Skull or Harts-horn or hair in order to purifie them from their phlegm if you should let the liquor continue distilling longer than is fitting the phlegm will rise after the Spirit but then it separates from the Spirit as water separates from oil the Spirit will be uppermost and a little troubled and whitish but if you keep these two liquors together for a month the whole will mix together and there will be no longer any separation of them at all These effects do happen from this that the Spirit in rising does carry with it some small quantity of Oil which was dissolved in the liquor by reason of salts that it contains This Oil is very volatile it rises with the Spirit and by rendring the Spirit a little oily it hinders at first the phlegm from mixing with it It is likewise this little quantity of oil which makes the Spirit look a little troubled and whitish but when the Spirit and phlegm are kept a good while together they mix and the whole appears like a homogeneous liquor because there being but little oil in the Spirit the phlegm insensibly enters into and incorporates with it wherefore you must take care to separate the Spirit from the phlegm so soon as ever you take the Receiver from the nose of the head in case you have suffered the liquor to distil too long What I have now spoken of does not happen in the Rectification of the Spirit of Ivory and without doubt the reason is that the Ivory does not contain so much Oil as the other parts of Animals Some do prepare a Sudorifick water with Vipers after this manner They do put the Vipers alive into a great earthen body they fit to it a head with its Receiver they lute the joints and distil in a Balneum all that will rise from it but you must take care that the head be well fastned to the body for when the Vipers begin to be heated they leap and fling about with so much violence that they would otherwise throw it down and get out of their stove And then the Artist must have a care of himself and not be too bold for these creatures being irritated would fling about on every side and a bite of theirs at that time would be twice as dangerous as at another This water which rises whilest the Vipers are in their greatest fury is Sudorifick because some Volatile salts have risen and mixed with it You may give of it from a drachm to half an ounce in some proper liquor But to avoid the forementioned danger you might cut the Vipers in pieces before you put them into the body and because these pieces of them do retain life a long time the water will be little the worse for their not being intire When you have drawn as much water from them as you can by the heat of a Balneum you must put the remainder of the Vipers into a Retort and distil it as I have shewn before you will thereby have the Volatile salt the Spirit and the Oyl CHAP. II. Distillation of Vrine and its Volatile Salt THIS Operation is a separation of the Spirit the Volatile Salt and the Oil of Vrine from the phlegm and the earth which it contains Take ten or twelve quarts of Vrine newly made by sound young men evaporate it in an earthen or glass Cucurbite in a Sand-heat until it remains in the consistence of Honey then fit a head with its Receiver and luting the junctures close continue a small fire to distil the rest of the phlegm after which encrease it by little and little and the Spirits will rise in Clouds carrying with them a little Oil and after that the Volatile salt which will stick to the head like Butter-flies continue the fire until there comes no more then unlute the Vessels and separating the Volatile salt put it into a bolt-head pour likewise into it the Spirit that is in the Receiver and fit a blind-head to the bolt-head lute the junctures with a wet bladder and setting your bolt-head in Sand sublime with a small fire all the Volatile salt as I have shewed concerning that of Vipers separate this Salt and keep it in a Viol well stopt It is a good Remedy for Quartan Agues and Malignant Feavers it opens all Obstructions and works both by Vrine and Sweat the dose is from six to sixteen grains in some convenient liquor filtrate that which remains in the bolt-head the Spirit will pass through the Filter whilst a small quantity of black and extraordinary stinking Oil remains which is good to discuss cold Tumors and to give to Hysterical women to smell to You may distil the Spirit in a Sand-heat to separate it from a thick matter that remains at bottom it hath the same virtues as the Salt it is given from eight to twenty drops in some proper vehicle Two drachms of it are mixed with two ounces of Spirit of Wine to rub Paralytical parts with it is likewise used for cold pains and for the Sciatica If the Mass that remains in the Cucurbite should be Calcined and a Lixivium made of it with water a very small quantity of fixt Alkali salt might be gotten from evaporating the water and it hath the same virtues as other Alkali salts Remarks The Vrine of young men is to be prefer'd before others because it contains more Salt It must be newly made and evaporated with a gentle fire that the Fermentation or too much heat may not cause the Volatile Salts to rise with the phlegm The Spirit is only a Volatile salt dissolved in a little phlegm this Volatile salt works more by Vrine than any of the rest but its smell is more offensive This Remedy must never be given in Broth for Broth being to be taken hot the heat evaporates some of the volatile salts before it can well be taken A Volatile salt may be drawn from Vrine after setting it some months Fermenting in a Vessel close stopt and then a third part of the Liquor
when the Phosphorus is not so hot as in the first Experiment and when it is not altogether so cold as in the second the alteration of the least circumstance quite alters the Experiment but the same things always happens in proportion with those already described We made another Experiment thus we put a little piece of the solid Phosphorus into a crystal vessel and we poured upon it a very fixt acid liquor I think it was Oil of Vitriol a great fume arose from the mixture we stopt the bottle with paper and stirred the matter several times after having left it some hours in digestion We lookt upon it in the dark and it appeared luminous though it were stopt and it has still been alike luminous from about two months ago until the present Indeed the light of it is not so great as is that of the Phosphorus but it keeps a much longer time That which is surprizing in these Experiments is that the air does sometimes make the Phosphorus shine and sometimes not Now to explicate this difficulty I do say that in the first Experiment the greatest part of the luminous matter of the Phosphorus did fly out of the bottle into the receiver and that that which remained in the bottle after it was separated from the receiver being deprived of its most subtle sulphurs was not able to give so great a light as before nevertheless the matter still retaining a little warmth there did rise from it enough particles to give a light when the bottle was unstopt but because by the cold the little bodies do condense and lose very much of their motion this Phosphorus likewise loses much of its strength and gives but a languid or weak light When the air was drawn out of the bottle the matter lookt very light and when the air was let to it again it went out the reason whereof is that the light being weak could not preserve its self but with a convenient proportion of air and there was some remaining still in the bottle for though the air be never so much pumped out of the vessel there will still remain a little behind The Phosphorus loses its light by the usual great quantity of air as a little candle will be put out by being exposed to the wide air or a small fire will soon go out when too great a wind blows strongly upon it So long as the Phosphorus sends forth a great many vapours a good deal of air is requisite to make it appear luminous and a little air will not be sufficient Wherefore when the Phosphorus was hot it would not shine until the bottle was unstopt but when it was cold it sent forth only weak vapors wherefore then a very little air sufficed to make it shine and when it received too much it was thereby suffocated The last Experiment made in the little Crystal bottle does further very well prove my explication the fixt acid liquor which was poured upon the Phosphorus did slacken the motion of its parts so that from that time they could not display their light with so much vigour as they did wherefore a very little sufficed to continue its light so that the paper-stopple served to give it sufficient air but when the bottle was stopt closely with its Crystal stopple no more light was seen for some time afterwards because that stopple did wholly hinder the entrance of air It is likewise the fixing of the Volatile parts of the Phosphorus which preserves the light so long for the matter having now less motion than before it was fixed its parts do come to be dissipated with the more leasure But you will tell me that the great fume which exhaled from it when the acid liquor was poured upon the Phosphorus is rather a sign of a greater than less dissipation of parts I grant that when this acid acts upon the matter there is at that time a considerable exaltation of parts but I say also that when this great motion is once over that which remains is in much less agitation than it was and you must observe that the strong acids such as Oil of Vitriol and Spirit of Niter upon being mixed with Spirit of Wine do cause a much like fume as this and yet afterwards the Spirit of Wine is much less volatile than it was Again the light of the Phosphorus which is in the little crystal bottle that is stopt may be said to be partly caused by an air which is produced by a kind of fermentation for doubtless there is some little action between the acid and the matter I find therefore that there is a parity of reason in the explication of the light which appeared in the viol after the air was pumped out of it and that which is seen in the little crystal bottle stop'd It is further remarkable that this same Phosphorus which went quite out when air was let into it by means of the Pneumatick Engine yet did not altogether lose its light when it received the air the common way that is to say meerly by unstopping the bottle whereof the reason is this the air that is communicated from the Air-pump comes in with a great force and violence through the pipe and so may very well put out the light of the Phosphorus which the air that has its ordinary motion is not able to do after the same manner as a candle lighted is much sooner put out when exposed to a blast of wind than when it is set in a place where the air is quiet From considering all the kinds of Phosphorus both Natural and Artificial and the Experiments that have been made upon them I cannot but conclude that the general cause of the light they give does proceed from a very great agitation of insensible parts and whereas it is very probable that fire is only a very violent motion of little bodies round their center the parts of our Phosphorus may be said to have received the same determination by the fermentations it has undergone for Wood never shines in the dark until it is become rotten that is to say until it has undergone a sufficient fermentation to make its most subtile parts move nimbly round their center The Bolonian stone is not luminous until it has been calcined a certain time in order to excite a motion of its parts The Viper being irritated darts forth its tongue with so much quickness that it appears all on fire Many little creatures such as some kinds of Caterpillars and Woodlice do shine in the night because they have a matter so exceeding subtile towards their tail that it produces a sort of fire and it is for the same reason of the motion of parts that Vrine does become luminous That which gave occasion to the working upon Vrine for the making of the Phosphorus was that in some little holes of the earth wherein there had been standing-puddles of Vrine a light had been observed to be seen at nights But you
lid so soon as that appears you must take your vessel off the fire and having covered it with an earthen lid without holes instead of that with holes suffer it to cool You will find on the sides of your vessel a border of yellow matter which is sometimes to the thickness of a finger this is the Phosphorus take it and keep it in a box well stopt in some dark place When you would have it appear lucid in the dark you must expose it about a quarter of an hour to the light without which it will not shine in the dark Remarks Chalk is a bituminous earth called in Latin Creta from the Isle of Crete where there is abundance of it It likewise abounds in many other Countries Some Authors do recount three sorts of it the white the greenish and the black but that which we use in this operation is the common the white It is calcined in order to make its Sulphur more active than it was before the more volatile part of it flies away but there is still enough remaining to make the PHOSPHORVS Although Chalk be bituminous nevertheless it is an alkali because the Sulphurs which it contains in small quantity are not capable to shut the pores of it and besides the calcination opens them more and disposes this earth to receive more easily the impression of acids which plainly shews it self by the strong ebullition that happens when it is thrown into the Aqua fortis The body must be large and the Chalk must be thrown into it by little and little to hinder the matter from boiling over The Chalk does all of it dissolve perfectly in the Aqua fortis and more is still to be added until there be no further ebullition for that is the sign that the acid spirits have rarefied the matter as much as they were able and that being as it were sheathed or locked up in the matter they could not possibly dissolve any more of it if therefore you should still add more in superfluity the overplus would precipitate to the bottom When the Aqua fortis you use is good it dissolves very near its weight in Chalk the solution of it is yellow That which is evaporated is the more phlegmatick part of Aqua fortis and the acid Spirits being incorporated with the Chalk do make a kind of austere salt this salt might very easily be dissolved into a liquor in the air It is fit that it should be very dry when it is put into the Coppel that the operation may be done the sooner the vessel is covered that the matter may be the more easily melted but the cover must needs have holes in it to give vent to the vapours which rise from it and that we may see when the vapours do come yellow that we may then immediately take the vessel off the fire for these yellow vapours are they that make the Phosphorus lucid After Calcination you find at bottom of the pan or coppel a terrestrious matter which must be flung away as useless In order to preserve this Phosphorus the better you may leave it as it is in the vessel wherein it was Calcined but you must stop it close in a box with a glass lid It is to be kept in a shady place that its parts being thereby the more condensed they may spend the more slowly and when you would have it to shine in the dark you must expose it to the air about a quarter of an hour because the air does put its parts into a motion This Phosphorus is in its effects very like to the Bolonian stone but that takes the air much sooner than this stone because it contains abundantly more salt its light does not endure so long as that of the Phosphorus which I described before CHAP. III. Of Honey HOney is compounded of the most Balsamick substance of several Flowers which the Bees do separate and carry into their Hives for nourishment They do gather up and order this Honey most artificially as if they took special care to make provision against Winter and thereby they make way for the Fermentation which sends to the sides the grosser part which is like to a Tartar and called Wax the Honey being found in the middle the best to the taste is the White but for Physick the Yellow is the better as containing more Spirits than the other it must be of a moderate consistence that is to say neither too hard nor too clear A Hydromel is prepared with it for Diseases of the Breast A Vinous Hydromel is made of water and clarified Honey then the liquor is put to Ferment in a vessel in the Sun until it is grown as strong as Spanish wine a Spirit may be drawn from it and Hydromel will grow as sowr as wine Distillation of Honey This preparation is a separation of the Water the Spirit and the Oil of Honey from its terrestrious part Put four pounds of good Honey into a large earthen body and distil the water in a moderate Sand-heat until acid drops begin to come then take away the fire and keep this Water in a bottle it is good to make the hair grow you must either wet your Comb with it every day or else dip a piece of Spunge into it and therewith soak the roots of the hair Take that which remains in the Body put it into an earthen Retort or glass one Coated but one that 's large enough for two thirds to remain empty and place your Retort in a Reverberatory Furnace then fitting a large Receiver and luting the joints begin the distillation with a small fire for three hours only to warm the Retort then encrease it by little and little Spirits will come forth with a little black Oil and fill the Receiver with Clouds continue the fire until all is come out that will unlute the vessels and separate the Spirit from the black and stinking Oil in a Tunnel lined with brown paper there is but very little Oil keep them both in Viols you will have twelve ounces of Spirit The Spirit is an excellent Aperitive some of it may be dropt into Juleps to give them an agreeable acidity The Spirit may be Rectified by distilling it in Sand in a glass Body and that which rises last may be kept apart as the strongest of all it is used for to cleanse old Ulcers and to eat proud flesh The Oil is good to be used in caries of bones You will have in the retort six and twenty ounces of a black very spongy matter which is inflammable by reason of a soot that remains in it when it is burnt it yields but very few ashes out of which nothing can be drawn Remarks The Vessels must be exceeding large for the Distillation of Honey because a great vacuity is requisite for it to rarifie in The Water of Honey makes the Hair to grow because it opens the Pores some do mix it with the Juice of Onion to render it the
and those other things I mentioned which are preserved in Vinegar The acids will indeed endeavour to cut in pieces what stands in their way but having to do with parts too viscous and heavy they will soon lose all their activity and fix by their quantity and their gravity the natural salt of these Aliments as Vinegar fixes that of Cucumbers for when the acids do shut the pores of the matter and keep them firm and quiet the natural salt cannot exalt so as to cause any Fermentation or digestion The reason then why a small portion of acids will cause digestion in the stomach and a greater quantity will hinder it is that the small quantity will joyn with the natural salt of the Aliments and have its operation without shutting the pores of the matter whereas a great store of acids will quite fill the pores of this matter and hinder the motion of the natural salt for it is not enough that there be a great many acids to cause such a dissolution these acids must have room to move in and to make their jostles Thus these effects do make nothing against what I have asserted concerning acids for a greater quantity of them will always have more disposition and tendency to a dissolution but if this great quantity does Coagulate divers things it is only by accident and through the disposition of the matter into which the acid points have entred What I have here established concerning acids may serve very much to explicate the nature of Feavers and their principal symptoms First of all every body must grant that when there are Obstructions in our bodies the obstructed matter does ferment and sowr as Dough Wine and several other things grow sowr by being stale This matter by Fermenting sends saline or acid vapours into the mass of bloud which do cause divers alterations in it according to their quantity and quality for these acids are commonly mixt with sulphurs which are a kind of Vehicle to the acids and are more or less corrupted according as the matter whence they are derived has sojourned more or less in the obstructed part Now if these acid vapours are carried into the vessels but only in such a quantity as is fit to make a kind of Leaven they will then rarifie the bloud too much and whereas they by consequence do encrease its motion and heat they do cause that which we call a Feaver this Feaver must remain as long as the Ferment continues in the bloud and according as there comes a new supply of matter in place of that which nature has thrown off But if a greater quantity of acids should rise all of a sudden from out of the Obstructions then there must needs happen a kind of Coagulation for these acids thus abounding and fixing the grosser part of the bloud do partly lose their motion and quiet the Ebullition of the bloud by fixing its parts It is this kind of Congelation which causes those cold shiverings which are felt before the hot fit begins for as the heat is derived from the motion of the Spirits the cold is produced from the cessation of their motion The cold fit continues until the Spirits have by their activity rarified this Congelation for the Spirits being continually supplied with additional forces do make violent assaults until they have made their way free The Coagulum being dissolved the bloud should seem to Circulate as it did before but because the matter of the Coagulum is converted into a Leaven this Leaven makes the bloud to boil and so causes a Feaver this Feaver continues until the bloud is freed from all this Ferment either by Transpiration or by Urine Now to conceive how this Coagulum may be converted into a Leaven we must consider that the Spirits of the bloud have lost most of their acidity in dissolving this Coagulum and that there remains but only acidity enough to produce a Fermentation Nevertheless you must not think I mean by this Congelation now spoken of a Coagulum altogether like to that in Milk or to that which happens when an acid liquor is syringed into the Veins of an Animal for these Congelations are too strong and there would then happen the same thing or very near the same as does to the Animal who soon afterwards falls into Convulsions and dies because the course of the Spirits and bloud would be intirely stopt and they would never be able to break through so great an obstacle but I do understand here that the bloud is made thicker than it was and has not so free a motion as it had before which is enough to cause such cold fits Now it remains for me to explicate how it comes to pass that Feavers have their returns regularly by fits The matter that makes the Obstructions which I have laid down for the Fundamental cause of Feavers begins not to send forth its vapours nor to disperse its acid salt into the bloud in order to cause a Feaver until it has got together a certain quantity in the obstructed vessels and then it is probable that there is a new discharge of the matter This discharge or eruption of Feaverish matter must happen at set times so long as the Obstruction lasts because the humors which Circulate to the obstructed parts and there stop are always in an equal quickness and an equal quantity Now because in a Tertian the vessels wherein the obstruction happens do acquire in two days a sufficient repletion of matter to produce the Eruption and Fermentation I have spoken of the Fits do come to operate every second day But because in a Quartan the humors are more tenacious and heavy and flow with less expedition the Fermentation and eruption must needs be slower and consequently the fits more distant the one from the other The Quotidian Ague is caused by a Saline Pituita which is naturally fluid enough to make the matter ferment in less time wherefore it is that the fits do return every day We may reason concerning the other kinds of Feavers upon the same principle and explicate all the accidents that happen but I have no design to enlarge my self further upon this subject I should think it would be too great a digression and a book should rather be made on purpose to express all the circumstances which might be deduced from it Volatile Salt of Tartar This Operation is the Salt of the Lees of Wine volatilized by fermentation Dry the Lees of wine with a gentle fire and fill with them two thirds of a large earthen or glass Retort place this Retort in a Reverberatory Furnace and fitting to it a large Receiver give a small fire to it to heat the Retort by degrees and to drive forth an insipid phlegm when vapours begin to rise you must take out the phlegm and luting carefully the junctures of your vessels quicken the fire by little and little until you find the Receiver filled with white clouds continue it in
this condition and when you perceive the Receiver to cool raise the fire to the utmost extremity and continue it so until there rise no more vapours When the vessels are cold unlute the Receiver and shaking it about to make the Volatile salt which sticks to it fall to the bottom pour it all into a Bolt-head fit to it a Head with a small Receiver lute well the junctures and placing it in sand give a litttle fire under it and the Volatile salt will rise and stick to the head and the top of the Bolt-head take off your head and set on another in its place gather your salt and stop it up quickly for it easily dissolves into a liquor continue the fire and take care to gather the salt according as you see it appear but when there rises no more salt a liquor will distil of which you must draw about three ounces and then put out the fire This salt is in great request for to purifie the bloud by sweat or urine it may be given in the Palsie Apoplexy Epilepsie Quartan and Tertian Agues and to open Obstructions the dose is from six grains to fifteen in some proper liquor The distilled liquor is a Volatile salt that is risen with the phlegm it is called the Volatile Spirit of Tartar and has the same virtues as the salt its dose is from eight to four and twenty drops After this same manner the Volatile salt of Beans Soot and divers Fruits and Seeds may be prepared Remarks The Lees of Wine being incomparably more Fermented than the Tartar which is found in the sides of vessels we need not wonder if its salt is more Volatile This salt is sublimed in a Bolt-head to the end the phlegm which is too heavy to rise easily so high may not mix with it but it is extraordinary hard to keep this salt dry it easily humects and dissolves into a liquor wherefore it were much better to draw it in a Spirit and less of the Volatile part would be lost being detained by the phlegm Nevertheless because there are several persons who are as well pleased with the sight of things as their effects this liquefied salt might then be mixt with a sufficient quantity of Calcined bones powdered to make thereof a Paste which might be made into little Pellets to be put into a Bolt-head and fitting to it a Blind-head this salt may be sublimed or rectified as before and this pure salt must be kept in Viols well stopt The difficulty there is in keeping this Volatile salt dry as well as that of other Vegetables does proceed from this that only the more essencial part is volatilized for there remains much sixt salt with the earth in the Retort This volatile salt becomes alkali by the means of fire as other volatile salts do whereof I have already spoken in my Remarks upon the Principles and there is no manner of probability that it should have been of this nature either in the Plant or in the Lees for the reasons that I have shewn in the same Remarks I shall add here that if the alkali salt did exist in the Lees but is not able to expand it self and get the predominancy of acids but only by a long Fermentation as the Chymists will have it who follow the common way of discoursing of these things it would then necessarily follow that the more Lees do ferment the more they must lose of their acidity because the alkali would destroy it Nevertheless the contrary to this happens for Lees do sowr as they grow stale those who make Vinegar do know well enough how to use the Lees and to make them ferment with their wine when they would make Vinegar quickly It seems to me from the consideration of this effect that there is little reason to follow the Sentiments of some who have writ that the Lees of wine abounding in volatile salt and a sulphureous spirit do contain but very little acid for it is as plain as may be that this volatile salt is acid in the Lees and is the same that makes the acid spirit of Vinegar being more volatile than many other acids to volatilize with its phlegm in the distillation It is true that salt of Tartar drawn by the Retort does rise more easily than Spirit of Vinegar but this is from its being volatilized by the violent heat of fire Another mark that all the salt of Lees is acid is this that the Tartar does all dissolve in the wine and turns into Vinegar for very little or no Lees or other Tartar is to be found in the vessels wherein Vinegar is made although there was some naturally before or though some more were added to it as I have said in the Chapter of Vinegar Perhaps it will be objected that Lees are sometimes added to wines grown ropy and mucilaginous to make them good again and yet those wines are not sowred by the Lees. But this effect happens when the former Fermentation becoming imperfect through the too great quantity of phlegm for the little proportion of salt that was in the wines the salt of the Lees does rarifie exalt and conjoin with the Oily parts of the liquor that the Spirit of wine is made of as I have said in the Chapter of Wine For the wine does not sowr so long as the salt finds Oil to act upon but it does so when this salt finds nothing to hinder it from expanding itself The volatile salt of Tartar produces much the same effects as that of Beans and other seeds and though many will needs give it sublime and extraordinary virtues in comparison with other volatile salts I do'nt see any reason for such high conceits nor that effects do answer their pretences Volatile salts have a good use when they find the pores humors disposed for perspiration but they are full as dangerous when the humors are not at all prepared for by their volatility they do put the humors into so great a motion that oftentimes the Feaver is encreased by them and a translation made to the Brain wherefore you must consider well the Temper and present state of your Patient before you presume to give them That which remains in the Bolt-head after the volatile salt and spirit are drawn off is a black and stinking Oil mixt with the more phlegmatick part of the liquor you must separate this Oil in a Tunnel lined with brown paper it is good for the Palsie for Cold pains and for Hysterical women to smell to A Lee or Tartar Calcined is found in the Retort out of which you may draw a fixt alkali salt as out of common Tartar but in a much less quantity for that the greatest part of the salt of Lees is volatilized CHAP. XV. Of Opium OPium is a Tear which distils of itself or by Incision of the heads of Poppies found very frequently in Greece in the Kingdom of Cambaia and the territories of Grand-Cairo in Egypt there are