the Author must be kept as your life and above all earthly treasure must be taken to the quantity of a spoonful or two morning and evening if you be already infected and sweat thereupon if you be not infected a spoonful is sufficient half in the morning and half at night all the plague time under God saith the Author trust to this for there was never man woman or child that failed of their expectation in taking of it This is also of the same efficacy not only against the plague but pox measles surfets c. Crollius his Treacle water Camphorated Take of Andromachus his Treacle five ounces The best Myrrhe two ounces and half The best Saffron half an ounce Camphire two drams Mix them together then pour upon them ten ounces of the best spirit of wine and let them stand 24 hours in a warm place then distill them in Balneo with a graduall fire cohobate the spirit three times This spirit causeth sweat wonderfully and resists all manner of infection It may be taken from a dram to an ounce in some appropriate Liquor A distilled Treakle Vinegar Take of the roots of Bistort Gentian Angelica Tormentill of each ten drams Pimpernell Bay berries Juniper berries of each an ounce Nutmeg five drams The shavings of Sassafras two ounces Zedoary half a dram White Sanders three drams The leaves of Rue Wormwood Scordium of each half a handfull The flowers of Wall-flower Buglosse of each a handful and half Andromachus Treacle Mithridate of each six drams Infuse them all in three pints of the best White wine vinegar the space of eight dayes in Frigido in glass vessels then distill them in Balneo This Spirit is very good to prevent them that are free from infection and those that are already infected from the danger thereof if two or three spoonful thereof be taken once in a day with sweating after for those that are infected but without sweating for others An excellent water against the Stone in the Kidneys Take of the middle rind of the root of Ash bruised two pound Juniper berries bruised three pound Venice turpentine that is very pure 2 pound and a half Put these into twelve pints of spring water in a glass vessell well closed and there let them putrifie in horse dung for the space of three months then distill them in ashes and there will come forth an oil and a water separate the one from the other Ten or twelve drops of this oil being taken every morning in four or six spoonfuls of the said water dissolves the gravell and stone in the kidneys most wonderfully Another water for the same use Take the juice of Radish Lemmons of each a pound and half Waters of Betony Tansey Saxifrage and Vervin of each a pint Hydromell and Malmsey of each two pound In these Liquors mixed together infuse for the space of four or five days in a gentle Balneo Juniper berries ripe and newly gathered being bruised three ounces the seed of Gromel Bur-dock Radish Saxifrage Nettles Onions Anise and Fennell of each an ounce and half the four cold seeds the seed of great Mallows of each six drams the Calx of Eg-shels Cinnamon of each three drams of Camphire two drams let all be well strained and distilled in ashes Two ounces of this water taken every morning doth wonderfully cleanse the Kidneys provoke Urine and expell the Stone especially if you calcine the feces and extract the Salt thereof with the said Water To make an excellent Wound water Take Plantain Rib-wort Bone-wort wild Angelica Red-mints Betony Egrimony Sanacle Blew-bottles White-bottles Scabius Dandelion Avens Honey-suckle leaves Bramble buds Hawthorn buds and leaves Mugwort Dasie roots leaves and flowers Wormwood Southernwood of each one handfull Boil all these in a pottle of White wine and as much Spring water till one half be wasted and when it is thus boiled strain it from the hearbs and put to it half a pound of hony and let it boil a little after then put it into bottles and keep it for your use Note that these hearbs must be gathered in May only but you may keep them dry and make your water at any time This water is very famous in many Counties and it hath done such cures in curing outward and inward Wounds Imposthumes and Ulcers that you would scarce beleeve it if I should recite them to you also it is very good to heal a sore mouth The Patient must take three or four spoonfuls thereof morning and evening and in a short time he shall finde ease and indeed a cure unless he be so farre declined as nothing almost can recover him If the wound be outward it must be washed therewith and linnen cloths wet in the same be applyed thereto Dr. Matthias his Palsie water is made thus Take of Lavender flowers a gallon pour upon them of the best spirit of wine three gallons the vessell being close stopped let them be macerated together in the Sun for the space of six days then distill them in an Alembick with its refrigeratory then take the flowers of Sage Rosemary Betony of each a handfull Borage Bugloss Lillie of the valley Cowslips of each two handfuls Let all the flowers be fresh and seasonably gathered and macerated in a gallon of the best spirits of Wine and mixed with the aforesaid spirit of Lavender adding then the leaves of Balm Motherwort Orange tree newly gathered the flowers of Stechados Oranges Bay berries of each an ounce After a convenient digestion let them be distilled again then adde the outward rinds of Citrons six drams the seed of Piony husked six drams Cinnamon Nutmegs Mace Cardamums Cububs of yellow Sanders of each half an ounce Lignum Aloes one dram the best Jujubs the kernels taken out half a pound Let them be digested for the space of six week then strain and filtre the Liquor to which adde of prepared Pearl two drams prepared Emrald a scruple Amber Gryse Musk Saffron Red Roses Sanders of each an ounce Yellow Sanders Rinds of Citrons dryed of each a dram Let all these species be tyed in a silken bag and hanged in the foresaid spirit A Scorbuticall water or a compound water of Horse radish is made thus Take the leaves of both sorts of Scurvie-grass being made very clean of each six pound let these be bruised and the juice pressed forth to which adde the Juice of Brook-lime Water-cresses of each half a pound of the best White wine eight pints twelve whole Lemons cut of the fresh roots of Briony four pound Horse Radish two pound of the bark of Winteran half a pound of Nutmegs four ounces Let them be macerated three days and distilled Three or four spoonfuls of this water taken twice in a day cures the Scurvy presently Spirit of Castor is made thus Take of fresh Castoreum two ounces flowers of Lavender fresh half an ounce Sage Rosemary of each two drams Cinnamon three drams Mace Cloves of each a dram the best
against the Falling sicknesse CHAP. XXXII Water of Flower The great quantity Take strong Proof spirit what sufficeth and put it into a wide mouthed Pot or other Vessell stopt very close Take those severall flowers following in their seasons and being clean pickt put them to the spirit in the Pot viz. Cowslips Wood bine Stock gilly flower of all three sorts Damask Musk Roses Sweet Brier flowers Clove July flowers Llilium Convallium Jasmine Citron Orange flowers or pils dry Tillia Flowers Garden Limon Wild Thyme flowers Lavender Marigold Chamomile Mellilot Elder Flowers of each half a pound Being furnished with all your flowers as above when you would distill them adde to them Aniseeds 2 pound Coriander 1 pound bruise the seeds It were best to bruise all the flowers as you put them up into the spirit for their more orderly working distil them into strong Proof spirit according to Art then adde to the distilled water Roses July flowers Elder flowers of each 1 pound after twelve dayes infusion it may be drawn off then dulcifie it with white Sugar 10 pound and being fine it may be drawn for use The lesser quantity Take strong Proof spirit 1 gallon and put it into a wide mouthed pot or other vessel stopt very close take those severall flowers following in their seasons and being clean pickt put them to the spirit in the pot viz. Cowslips Wood bine Stock Gilly flower of the 3 sorts Damask Musk Roses Sweet Brier flowers Clove July flowers Lilium Convallium Jasmine Citron Orange flowers or pils dry Tillia flowers Garden Limon Wild Thyme flowers Lavender Marigold Chamomile Mellilot Elder Flowers of each 6 drams and a half Being furnished with all your flowers as above when you would distil them adde to them Aniseeds 3 ounces a dram and half Coriander 1 ounce 5 drams bruise the seeds it were best to bruise all the flowers as you put them up into the spirit for their more orderly working distil them into strong Proof spirit according to Art Then adde to the distilled water Roses July flowers Elder flowers of each 1 ounce 5 drams after 12 dayes infusion it may be drawn off then dulcifie it with white Sugar 1 pound and being fine it may be drawn for use CHAP. XXXIII Water of Fruits The greater quantity Take strong Proof spirit 10 gallons Juniper berries 4 pound Quince Pipping parings dry of each 2 pound Limon pils Orange pils dry of each 1 pound Nutmegs four ounces Aniseeds 2 pound Cloves 2 ounces distil them into Proof spirit according to Art to the spirit add Strawberries Raspisses bruised of each 5 pound stir them well together and after ten dayes it being clear may be drawn off then dulcifie with syrup made as is hereafter taught and so let it stand till it be clear and then draw it off for use The lesser quantity Take strong Proof spirit 1 gallon Juniper berries 6 ounces 3 drams and a quarter Quince Pipping parings dry of each 3 ounces a dram and half Limon pils Orange pils dry of each 1 ounce 5 drams Nutmegs 3 drams and a quarter Aniseeds 3 ounces a dram and half Cloves 1 dram and a half distil them into Proof spirit according to Art to the spirit adde Strawberries Raspisses bruised of each 8 ounces stir them well together and after 10 dayes it being clear may be dawn off then dulcifie it with syrup made as is hereafter taught and so let it stand till it be clear and then draw it off for use CHAP. XXXIV Avens Water The greater quantity Take strong Proof spirit what sufficeth Avens roots 4 pound Orris roots Nutmeg Yellow Sanders Mace of each 2 ounces Lignum Rhodium Saffron Storax Benjamine of each 1 ounce Angelica roots 3 ounces Limon pils green half a pound Sweet Fennell seed Aniseeds of each 1 pound Cloves 10 drams Roman Wormwood Mint dry of each 3 handfuls Red Roses Stoechas flowers of each 4 handfuls Sweet Marjoram Balm Burnet Thyme all dry of each 6 handfuls Alkermes berries 2 ounces Bruise them all that are to be bruised distil them into Proof spirit according to Art dulcifie with Syrupâ— thus made Take Rose water 4 pound white sugar 10 pound boile it to a syrup hight then strain it and put it to the fire again adde thereto confection of Alkerms 4 ounces Syrup of Gilly flowers 1 pound Ambergreese dissolved in Rose water 1 dram and so let these boil a little till they be incorporated with the Syrup and so keep it for use The lesser quantity Take strong Proof spirit 1 gal Avens roots 6 ounces 3 drams and a quarter Orris roots Nutmeg Yellow Sanders Mace of each a dram and half Lignum Rhodium Saffron Storax Benjamine of each 3 quarters of a dram Angelica roots 2 drams and a half Limon pils green 6 drams and a half Sweet Fennell seeds Aniseeds of each 1 ounce 5 drams Cloves 1 dram Roman Wormwood Mint dry of each what snfficeth Red Roses Stoechas flowers of each what sufficeth Sweet Marjoram Balm Barnet Thyme all dry of each what sufficeth Alkermes berries a dram and half Bruise them all that are to be bruised distil them into Proof spirit according to Art dulcifie with Syrups thus made Take Rose water 6 ouuces 3 drams and quarter White Sugar 1 pound boil it to a Syrup hight then strain it and put it to the fire again add thereto Confection of Alkerms 3 drams and a half Syrup of Gilly flowers 1 ounce 5 drams Ambergreese dissolved in Rose water 6 grains and so let these boil a-little till they be incorporated with the Syrup and so keep it for use Avens water is a great Cordiall strengtheneth the Spirit comforteth all the inward parts and preserveth from Consumptions and Mesadnesse Additions to inrich these precedent Chapters to which by Numbers these are referred Additions to the first and second Chapters TAke July flowers Roses Poppy and Sanders or any of them severally what sufficeth and inâ—use them in Aqua vitae or Proof spirit till the tincture be be drawn out then draw off the spirit and reserve it close stopt for use When you have occasion to use it take 8 ounces thereof to 7 pound and a half of this water and you will give it a sufficient colour or you may take more at pleasure without inconveniency Additions to the third Chapter The greater quantity Take Aniseeds White Sugar according to Art of each five pound or what sufficeth The lesser quantity Take Aniseeds White Sugar according to Art 8 ounces Additions to the fourth Chapter The greater quantity Take Caraway seeds Coriander seeds of each 3 ounces Calamus Aromaticus Zedoary of each 4 ounces Aniseeds Cassia lignea of each 8 ounces Angelica Rootes 8 ounces or Hearb Angelica 2 pound white Sugar 2 pound and half or what sufficeth The lesser quantity Take Caroway seeds Coriander seeds of each 2 drams and a half Calamus Aromaticus Zedoary of each 3 drams and 3 quarters Aniseeds Cassia lignea of
unslaked lime half a foot thick then another of dung as before then set in your vessel and lay round it lime and horse dung mixt together press it down very hard you must sprinkle it every other day with water and when it ceaseth to be hot then take it out and put in more 12. Note that alwayes sand or ashes must be well sisted for otherwise a coal or stone therein may break your glass 13. The time for putrefaction of things is various for if the thing to be putrefied be vegetables and green less time is required if dry a longer if Minerals the longest of all Thus much note that tâ—â—â—gs are sooner putrefied in cloudy weather then in fair 14. If thou wouldst keep vegetables fresh and green all the year gather them in a dry day and put them into an earthen vessel which you must stop close and set in a cold place and they will as saith Glauberus keep fresh a whole year 15. Do not expect to extract the essence of any vegetable unless by making use of the feces left after distillation for if you take those feces as for example of a nettle and make a decoction thereof and strain it and set it in the frost it wil be congealed in it will appear a thousand leaves of nettles with their prickles which when the decoction is again resolved by heat vanish away which shews that the essence of the vegetables lies in the salt thereof 16. In all your operations diligently observe the processes which you read and vary not a tittle from them for sometimes a smal mistake or neglect spoils the whole operation and frustrates your expectation 17. Try not at first experiments of great cost or great difficulty for it will be a great discouragement to thee and thou wilt be very apt to mistake 18. If any would enter upon the practise of Chymistrie let him apply himself to some expert Artist for to be instructed in the manual operation of things for by this means he wil learn more in two months then he can by his practise and study in 7 years as also avoid much pains and cost and redeem much time which else of necessity he will lose 19. Enter not upon any operation unless it be consistent with the possibility of nature which therefore thou must endeavour as much as possibly may be to understand well 20. Do not interpret all things thou readest according to the literall sense for Philosophers when they wrote any thing too excellent for the vulgar to know expressed it enigmatically that the sons of Art only might understand it 21. In all thy operations propose a good end to thy self as not to use any excellent experiment that thou shalt discover to any ill end but for the publick good 22. It wil be necessary that thou knowest all such instruments that thou shalt use about thy Furnace and Glasses whereof some are already expressed and some more are shewn in the following page A B C D E A Signifies an iron rod with two iron rings at the ends thereof which must be heated red hot and applyed to that part of the glass which thou wouldst break off When thou hast held it there so long till the glass be very hot then take it off and drop some cold water where thou wouldst have it break off and it will presently crack in sunder These rings are for such glasses as will goe into them Thou must have divers of this sort even of all sizes B An iron hook which must be heated hot and applyed to any great glass that will not goe into a ring this hook bath a wooden handle C A pair of tongs which are for divers uses D A crooked iron to rake betwixt the grates to clear them E An iron rake to rake the ashes out of the ash-hole A thread dipt in melted brimstone and tyed about a glass and then fired may serve in stead of the iron rings and the hook Common distilled simple waters are made thus TAke what herbs or flowers you please put them into a common cold Still and let them distill gently This is the form of a common cold Still But note that this kinde of water is but the flegm of the vegetable which you distil and hath very little vertue or odour in it only roses and mints and two or three more have an odour but all besides have as little vertue as common distilled water I do not deny but that it may be so ordered that these kinds of waters may partake both of the smell and strength of their vegetables in a good measure and it is thus To make waters in a cold Still that shall have the full smell and vertue of the vegetable TAke what herbs flowers or roots you please so that they be green bruise them and mix with them some leaven and let them stand close covered for four or five days then distil them after the manner aforesaid Another way to make Water taste and smell strong of its vegetable WHen you have distilled any vegetable in a cold Still after the usuall manner so that you take heed you dry not the hearb too much which you may prevent by putting a brown paper in the bottom of the Still giving it a gentle fire and turning the cake before it be quite dryed take the cakes that remain in the bottome of the Still and the water that is distilled from thence having a good quantity thereof and put them into a hot Still and let them stand warm for the space of 24 hours then distil them Then if you would have the water strong put the said water into more fresh cakes casting away the other and doe as before This is the truest and best way to have the water of any vegetables Also thou shalt by this way purchase some oil which is to be separated and to be kept by it self To make water at any time of the year in a cold Still without green herbs so that the water shall smell strong of the hearb PUt fair water into the body of the cold Still then hang a bag full of that hearb that thou wouldst have the water of being first dryed or seed or root thereof first bruised then make a strong fire under the Still Note that those vegetables of which the water is made after this and the former manner must be of a fragrant smell for such as have but little or no smell cannot yeeld a water of any considerable odour Another way to make a water taste and smell strong of its vegetables TAke of the dry hearb or seed or root bruised to a pound of each put 12 pints of spring water distill them in a hot Still or Alembick and the water that is distilled off put upon more of the fresh hearbs seeds or roots do this three or four times and thou shalt have a water full of the vertue of the vegetable being almost as strong as a spirit To make the water of
Copper B The head C The barrell filled with cold water to refrigerate and condensate the water and oile that runs through the pipe or worm that is put through it D A pipe of brass or pewter or rather a worm of Tin running through the barrell E The Alembick set in the furnace with the fire under it How to make Aqua vitae out of beer TAke of stale strong-beer or rather the grounds thereof pu it into a Copper Still with a worm distill it gently or otherwise it will make the head of the Still fly up and there wil come forth a weak spirit which is called low wine of which when thou hast a good quantity thou mayest distill it again of it self and there will come forth a good Aqua vitae And if thou distillest it two or three times more thou shalt have as strong a spirit as out of wine and indeed betwixt which and the spirit of wine thou shalt perceive none or very little difference How to rectifie spirit of Wine or Aqua vitae DIstill it in Balneo untill the last drop that comes off be hot and full of spirit Note that every time there will remain in the bottome a quantity as weak as water Note also that every time thou distillest it when thou perceivest that a very weak water comes over thou shalt then end that distillation To make the Magistery of Wine which will be one of the greatest Cordials and most odoriferous Liquor in the world TAke good old rich Canary Wine put it into a glass vessell that it may fill the third part thereof nip it up and set it in a continuall heat of horse dung for the space of four months then in frosty weather set it forth into the coldest place of the air you can for the space of a month that it may be congealed And so the cold will drive in the true spirit of the wine into the Center thereof and separate it perfectly from its flegm That which is congealed cast away but that which is not congealed esteem as the true spirit of Wine Circulate this in a Pelican with a moderate heat for the space of a month and thou shalt have the true magistery or spirit of Wine which as it is most cordial so also most balsamicall exceeding all balsames for the cure of Wounds The form of a Pelican The mattter must be put in at the top which afterwards must be closed up To make another Magistery of Wine that a few drops thereof shall turn Water into perfect Wine TAke of the best Canary Wine as much as you please let it stand in putrefaction forty dayes then distill it in Bâ—lneo and there will come forth a spirit and at last an oil separate the one from the other and rectifie the spirit Set the oil again in putrefaction forty dayes and then distill it The feces that are left after the first Distillation will yeeld a volatile salt which must be extracted without Calcination with the flegm of the spirit purifie it well then impregnate the salt with its spirit and digest them then adde the oil and digest them together till they become a red powder which you may use as it is or else set it in a cellar till it be dissolved into a liquor and a few drops thereof will doe as above said To make an oil of Wine TAke weak spirit of Wine distil it in a Vessel of a long neck then pour on this spirit again upon the flegm distill it again do this severall times and you shall see the oil of the Wine swim on the flegm which flegm you must separate from the oil by a tunnell If this oil be afterward circulated for a month it will thereby become most odoriferous and of singular vertue and good being both very cordiall and balsamicall To extract the spirit out of Wine by the spirit of Wine PUt spirit of Wine well rectified upon Canary on Rhenish Wine so cautiously that it may not mix with but swim upon the Wine let them stand without stirring the space of 48 hours Then will the spirit that is in the Wine rise up and join it self to the spirit that swims on the top which you shall perceive by the weakness of the flegm which you must let run out at a tap which must be made in the bottome of the vessell for that purpose and so be separated from the spirit To make a very subtill spirit of Wine at the first distilling TAke white or wheaten bread as soon as it comes forth of the Oven break it in the middle i. e. the upper side from the lower side and hang it in a Glass vessell over Canary Wine but so that it touch not the wine then cover the vessel and let it so stand untill the bread swell and be sufficiently impregnated with the Spirit of Wine which it will attract from the Wine then take out that bread and put in more till you have a considerable quantity of bread thus moistned Then put this bread into a glass body and distill it in Balneo and you shall have a a very subtile spirit which you may yet rectifie by Circulation By Furnaces and Vessels made after this ensuing figure there may be made four Rectifications of any spirit at once These Vessels may either stand in ashes or in Balneo The manner of Distilling in wooden Vessels A Signifieth the vessel wherein the copper vessell lyeth B The copper vessel part of which is in the Furnace and part in the vessel of wood C The vessel of wood wherein the matter must be that is distilled D The cooling vessel with the worm E The Receiver F The Trefoot whereon the vessell standeth Note that the greater the Copper vessell is and the lesse the woodden is the sooner will the liquor boil This Furnace shews how to draw forth spirits and waters out of vegetables and animals with little cost and in short time A Balneum and a boiling Vessel made of Wood. The vessell on the left hand is for a Balneum the holes in the cover thereof are either to set in vessels over the fume of the water or for the necks of the glasses set in the Balneo to pass through The vessell on your right hand is to boil water in for any use also to brew in The Spirit of any Vegetable is made thus TAke of what vegetable you please two pound macerate it in six Gallons of Aqua vitae or low Wines or Sack for the space of 24. hours then let them be distilled by an Alembick or hot Still putting to every pound of the spirit two ounces of most pure sugar Note that the two first pints may be called the stronger spirit and the rest the weaker spirit or indeed the water but if they be both mixed together they will make an excellent midling spirit for the former hath more of the spirit of wine and the latter more of the vertue and odour of the vegetable
commonly called the spirit of Roses Take of Damask or Red Roses being fresh as many as you please infuse them in as much warm water as is sufficient for the space of twenty four hours Then strain and press them and repeat the infusion severall times with pressing untill the liquor become fully impregnated which then must be distilled in an Alembick with a refrigeratory or Copper Still with a worm let the spirit which swims on the water be separated and the water kept for a new infâ—sion This kind of spirit may be made by bruising the Roses with Salt or laying a lane of Roses and another of Salt and so keeping them half a year or more which then must be distilled in as much common water or Rose water as is sufficient Oils are made out of seeds thus Take of what seeds you please bruised two pound of spring water twenty pints let them be macerated for the space of 24. hours and then be distilled in a copper Still with a worm or Alembick with its refrigerating The oil extracted with the water being separated with a tunnell keep the water for a new Distillation This Water after three or four distillations is a very excellent water and better then is drawn any way out of that vegetable whereof these are seeds I mean for vertue though not always for smell After the same manner are made oils out of spices and aromaticall woods Oils are made out of Berries thus Take of what Berries you please being fresh 25. pound bruise them and put them into a wooden vessell with 12 pints of spring water and a pound of the strongest leaven let them be put in a cellar the vessel being close stopped for the space of three months then let them be distilled in an Alembick or copper Still with their refrigeratory with as much spring water as is sufficient After the separation of the oil let the water be kept for a new distillation Note that the water being used in two or three Distillations is a very excellent water and full of the vertue of the Berries Oil is made out of any solid Wood thus Take of what Wood you please made into gross powder as much as you will let it be put into a Retort and distilled in sand The oil which first distils as being the thinner and sweeter must be kept apart which with rectifying with much water may yet be made more pleasant the acid water or spirit which in distilling comes first forth being separated which also being rectified from the flegm with the heat of a Balneum may be kept for use being full of the vertue of the wood After the same manner are made the oil and spirit of Tartar but thus much note that both are more pure and pleasant being made out of the Crystals then out of the crude Tartar To make a most excellent oil out of any Wood or Gummes in a short time without much cost Take of what Wood you please or Gumme bruised small put it into a vessel fit for it then pour on so much of spirit of salt as will cover your matter then set it in sand with an Alembick make the spirit boil so all the oil flyeth over with a little flegm for the spirit of salt by its sharpnesse freeth the oil so that it flyeth over very easily The spirit of salt being rectified may serve again To make vegetables yeeld their oil easily Distill them being first bruised in salt water for salt freeth the oil from its body Let them first be macerated three or four days in the said water Oil or Spirit of Turpentine is made thus Take of Venice Turpentine as much as you please of spring water four times as much let them be put into an Alembick or copper Still with its refrigeratory then put fire under it so there will distil a thin white oil like water and in the bottom of the vessel wil remain a hard gum called Colophonia which is called boiled Turpentine That white oil may be better and freer from the smell of the fire if it be drawn in Balneo with a gourd and glass head Common oil Olive may be distilled after this manner and be made very pleasant and sweet also most unctious things as Sperma ceti Oil of Gums Refines fat and oily things may be drawn thus Take of either of these which you please being melted a pound mix it with three pound of the powder of tiles or unslaked lime put them into a Retort and extract an oil which with plenty of water may be rectified Note that the water from whence the oil is separated is of excellent vertue according to the nature of the matter from whence it is drawn Oil of Camphire is made thus Take of Camphire sliced thin as much as you please put it into a double quantity of Aqua fortis or spirit of Wine let the glasse having a narrow neck be set by the fire or on sand or ashes the space of five or six hours shaking the glasse every half hour and the Camphire will all be dissolved and swim on the Aqua fortis or spirit of Wine like an oil Note that if you separate it it will all be hard agâ—in presently but not otherwise Another way to make Oile of Camphire that it shall not be reduced again Take of Camphire powdered as much as you please put it into a glass like a Urinal put upon it another Urinal-glass inverted the joints being close shut sublime it in ashes inverting those Urinals so often till the Camphire be turned into an oil then circulate it for the space of a month and it wil be so subtle that it will all presently vapour away in the air if the glass be open Another way to make oil of Camphire Take two ounces of Camphire dissolve it in four ounces or pure oil olive then put them into four pints of fair water distiâ— them all together in a glass gourd either in ashes or Balneo and there will distil both water and oil which separate and keep by it self All these kinds of oil of Camphire are very good against putrefaction fits of the Mother passions of the heart c. A few drops thereof may be taken in any liquor or the brest be anointed therewith Also the fume thereof may be taken in at the mouth A true Oil of Sugar Take of the best white Sugar-candie imbibe it with the best spirit of Wine ten times after every time drying it again then hang it in a white silken bag in a moist cellar over a glass vessell that it may dissolve and drop into it Evaporate the water in Balneo and in the bottome will the oil remain This is very excellent in all distempers of the Lungs Oil of Amber is made thus Take of yellow Amber one part of the powder of flints calcined or the powder of tiles two parts mingle them and put them into a Retort and distill them in sand The oil which is
rectified Spirit of Wine three pints Let them be digested in a Glass two parts of three being empty stopt close with a bladder and Cork two dayes in warm ashes then distill the spirit in Balneo and keep it in a glass close stopt If you would make it stronger take a pint of this spirit and an ounce of the powder of Castoreum put them into a glasse and digest them into a cold place for the space of ten dayes and then strain out the Spirit This spirit is very good against fits of the Mother passions of the heart which arise from vapours c. Bezoard water is made thus Take of the leaves of the greater Sallandine together with the roots thereof three handfuls and a half Rue two handfuls Scordium four handfull Dittany of Crete Carduus of each a handfull and half Root of Zedoary Angelica of each three drams The outward rind of Citrons Lemmons of each six drams The flower of Wall-gilly-flower an ounce and half Red Roses the lesser Centory of each two drams Cinnamon Cloves of each three drams Andromachus his Treacle three ounces Mithridate an ounce and half Camphire two scruples Trochisces of Vipers two ounces Mace two drams Lignum aloes half an ounce Yellow Sanders a dram and half The seeds of Carduus an ounce Citron six drams Cut those things that are to be cut and let them be macerated three days in the best Spirit of Wine and Muscadine of each three pints and half vinegar of Wall gilly-flowers and the juice of Lemmons of each a pint let them be distilled in a glazed vessell in Balneo After half the Liquor is distilled off let that which remains in the vessell be strained through a linnen cloth and vapoured away to the thickness of honey which may be called A Bezoard Extract This water is a great Cordial and good against any infection To make a specificall Sudorifick Take of Ginger a pound long Pepper and black Pepper of each half an ounce of Cardamums three drams of Grains an ounce powder them and put them into a glass with half an ounce of the best Camphire distilled vinegar two pound digest them a month then separate the vinegar by expression which must putrefie a month and then be circulated for the space of a week then filter it and thou hast as powerfull a Sudorifick as ever was or can be made The dose is from a dram to half an ounce and to be drank in a draught of posset-drink Treacle-water is made thus Take of the juice of the green shales of Walnuts four pound the juice of Rue three pints Carduus Marygold Balm of each two pints the root of Butter-burre fresh a pound and half Burre Angelica Master-wort fresh of each half a pound the leaves of Scordium four handfull old Andromachus treacle Mithridate of each eight ounces the best Canary twelve pints the sharpest Vinegar six pints the juice of Lemmons two pints Digest them two days in horse dung the vessell being close stopped then distill them in sand Aqua Mariae is made thus Take of Sugar candid one pound Canarie Wine six ounces Rose water four ounces Make of these a Syrup and boil it well to which adde of Aqua Imperialis two pints Amber gryse Musk of each eighteen grains Saffron fifteen grains yellow Sanders infused in Aqua Imperialis two drams The Mother water commonly called Hystericall water is made thus Take of the juice of the root of Briony four pound the leaves of Rue Mugwort of each two pound Savin dryed three handfull Mother-wort Nippe Penny-royall of each two handfull Garden basill Cretensian Dittany of each a handfull and half the rind of yellow Oranges fresh four ounces Myrrhe two ounces Castoreum an ounce the best Canary wine twelve pints Let them be digested four dayes in a fit vessell then distill them in Balneo A vomiting water is made thus Take of the best Tobacco in leaves cut small four ounces Squils two ounces Nutmegs sliced half an ounce put these into three pints of spring water a pint of White wine vinegar distill them in a hot Still or Alembick If thou wouldst have it stronger thou mayest put this water on fresh ingredients and distill it again A little quantity of this water is a most safe and effectuall vomit and may be taken from the eldest to the youngest if so be you proportion the quantity to the strength of the Patient You may dulcifie it with sugar or syrup if you please A vomiting Water made by Platerus Take green Walnuts gathered about Midsummer Radish roots of each bruised two parts of distilled Wine vinegar four parts digest them five dayes then distill them in Balneo This being taken to the quantity of two spoonfull or three causeth easie Vomiting A distilled water that purgeth without any pain or griping Take of Scammony an ounce Hermodactyls two ounces the seeds of Broom of the lesser Spurge of Dwarf Elder of each half an ounce the juice of Dwarf Elder of wild Asses cucumber of black Hellebore the fresh flower of Elder of each an ounce and half Polypodium 6 ounces of Sene 3 ounces Red sugar 8 ounces common distilled Water 6 pints Let all these be bruised and infused in the water 24 hours then be distilled in Balneo This water may be given from 2 drams to 3 ounces and it purgeth all manner of humours opens all obstructions and is pleasant to be taken and they whose stomachs loath all other physick may take this without any offence After it is distilled there may be hanged a little bag of Spices in it as also it may be sweetned with sugar or any opening syrup A specificall Liquor against the tooth-ach Take of oil of Cloves well rectified half an ounce in it dissolve half a dram of Camphire adde to them of the Spirit of Turpentine four times rectified in which half a dram of Opium hath been infused half an ounce A drop or two of this Liquor put into a hollow tooth with some lint easeth the tooth-ach presently Of MINERALS BOOK III. Spirit of Salt is made thus TAke of the best Bay-salt as much as you please let it be dissolved in spring water and filtred mix with this brine in a Copper vessell of the powder of Bricks or Tiles twice or thrice as much as the Salt before its dissolution was in weight let the water vapour away over the fire continually stirring of it untill it be dry Then put this powder into a glass Retort well luted or an earthen Retort and put it into a Furnace a large Receiver joined to it according to art then give fire to it by degrees untill it will bear an open fire for the space of 12 hours Thou shalt have a very acid oil or spirit in the Receiver That Liquor being put into a little Retort in sand may be rectified by the vapouring away of the flegm then keep it for use in a glass very well stopt that no air goe in Spirit of Salt
a good Purgative and Diaphoretick medicine Take an ounce of Quick-silver not purified put it into a bolt head of glass which you must nip up set it over a strong fire in sand for the space of two months and the Quick-silver wil be turned into a red sparkling Precipitate Take this powder and lay it thin on a Marble in a Cellar for the space of two months and it wil be turned into a water which may be safely taken inwardly it wil work a little upward and downward but chiefly by sweat Note that you may set divers glasses with the same matter in the same Furnace that so you may make the greater quantity at a time I suppose it is the Sulphur which is in the Quick-silver and makes it so black that being stirred up by the heat of the fire fixeth the Mercury A fragrant oil of Mercury Take of Mercury seven times sublimed and as often revived with unslaked Lime as much as you please dissolve it in spirit of Nitre in a moderate heat then abstract the spirit of salt and edulcorate it very well by boiling it in spirit of Vinegar then abstract the spirit of Vinegar and wash it again with distilled rain water then dry it and digest it two months in a like quantity of the best rectified spirit of Wine you can get Distil them by Retort making your fire moderate at the beginning afterwards increasing it then evaporate the spirit of Wine in Balneo and there will remain in the bottome a most fragrant oil of Mercury This oil so purifies the bloud by sweat and urine that it cures all distempers that arise from the impurity thereof as the venereal disease c. The truth is they that have this medicine well made need but few other medicines the dose is four or five drops To turn Mercury into a water by it self Set this following vessell being made of iron into a Furnace so that the three bowls thereof be within the Furnace and the Pipe and Receiver be without Make your Furnace so as that there be a great hole left open at the top where you must put in your coals shutting it afterward with a cover of stone made fit thereunto on the top also must be holes to let in air The Vessell for this Operation First make your Iron vessel as red hot as possibly it can be made or else you do nothing having first annexed an earthen well-glazed Receiver to the bottom of it Then put half an ounce of Quick-silver at a time in at the top which presently stop with clay and presently the Mercury will come over part in a sharp Liquor and part as crude a Mercury as it was before which you may put in again till it be all turned to water Note that unless the Quick-silver give a great crack presently after it is put in it is a sign that the vessell was not hot enough This operation being well prosecuted may produce a medicine with which none under the Philosophers Elixir may compare How to distill Spirits and Oils out of Minerals Vegetables Bones Horns and faster and in a greater quantity in one hour then in the common way in twenty four This must be done in such a Furnace as this A Signifies the Furnace with its iron or earthen distilling vessell walled in to which a very large Recipient is joined B the Distiller who with his left hand taketh off the cover and with his right casteth in his prepared matter with an iron ladâ—e C the form of the distilling vessell D the same as it appeareth inward E the form of the vessell not walled in but standing on the coals for other uses This Furnace must be twice so high as wide and the pipe must be a foot long out of the Furnace The vessell walled in must be of earth for the distilling of Antimony Sulphur and such things as will corode iron but for other things iron is most convenient Before you make any distâ—llation let the vessell which is walled in be red hot then by little and little cast in your matter which must be cut or powdered small and clap down the cover into the false bottome above which is full of molten lead and therefore suffereth no fume to goe forth When you see the fumes in the Receiver which must be of glass to cease and condensed into a Liquor then put in more matter By this way you may make a far greater dispatch and distill a greater quantity out of the same proportion of matter then by the common way By this way there is no danger of breaking your Receiver and you may end and begin when you please and try divers experiments in one hour and cannot make the fire too strong and may make the spirits of such things as can hardly or not so well be made by a Retort as the spirits of Salt of Tartar Harts-horn Antimony c. Salt and such things as will flow must have a bole or powder of brick mixed with them before they be cast into the vessell or if you please you may first dissolve what salt you please and with red hot gross powder of Brick imbibe the water then cast in this powder by little and little into the distilling vessell and the Salt by this means will yeeld its spirit quickly and in aboundance By either of these two wayes you may make a pound of the spirit of Nitre in an hour and of salt in two hours Now whereas some things yeeld a spirit and a thick and heavy oil they may be rectified thus viz. by putting them into a Retort and distilling them in sand or ashes with a graduall heat there wil come forth the flegme of some Liquors first and then the spirit and of other some the spirit and then the flegm but of all these the heavy thick oil at last which by distilling off becomes far clearer then before which may again be rectified by spirit of salt as I have shewed before and therefore need not here repeat it To make an oil of Lapis Calaminaris Take of Lapis Calaminaris powdered as much as you please pour on it five or six times as much of rectified spirit of Salt shake them together continually or else it will be congealed into a hard mass which can hardly be mollified again when no more will dissolve in frigido put it in warm sand so long till the spirit of salt be of a high yellow colour then pour it off and put on more til all be dissolved that wil cast away the feces put the solution into a glass body and distill it in sand about the third part of the spirit of Salt cometh over as insipid as common water though the spirit were well rectified before for the driness of the Lapis Calaminaris which is the driest of all Minerals and Metals except Zink retaineth the spirit after the flegm is come over let the glass cool and thou shalt find at the bottome a thick red oil very fat
of the more unskilfull and therefore of my self without exception to be polished by the more expert Artist I rejoyce as at the break of the day after a long tedious night to see how this solary art of Alchymie begins for to shine fâ—rth out of the clouds of reproach which it hath a long time undeservedly layen under There are two things which have a long time eclipsed it viz. the mists of ignorance and the specious lunary body of deceit Arise O Sun of truth and dispell these interposed fogs that the Queen of Arts may triumph in splendour If men did beleeve what this Art could effect and what variety there is in it they would be no longer straightned by nor bound up to or jurare in verba Galeni vel Aristoâ—elis but would now subscribe a new engagement to be true and faithfull to the principles of Heâ—mes and Paraceâ—sus as they stand established without Aristoâ—le their prince and Galen and Hippocrates their lords and masters They would no longer stand dreaming forth Sic dicit Galenus but Ipse dixit Hermes I desire not to be mistaken as if I did deny Galen his due or Hippocrates what is his right for indeed they wrote excellently in many things and deserved well thereby That which I cannot allow of in them is their strict observation of the quadruplicity of humours which in the schoole of Paracelsus and writings of Helmont where the Anatomy of humours hath been most rationally and fully discussed hath been sufficiently confuted and their confining themselves to such crude medicines which are more fit to be put into Spagyricall vessels for a further digestion then into mens bodies to be fermented therein Certainly if men were lesse ignorant they would preferre cordiall essences before crude juices balsamicall Elixirs before flegmatick waters the Mercury of philosophers before common quicksilver But many men have so little insight in this Art that they scarce believe any thing in it beyond the Distilling of Waters and Oils and extracting of Salts nay many that pretend to Philosophy and would be accounted Philosophers are so unbeleeving that as saith Sandivogius although he would have intimated the true Art to them word by word yet they would by no meanes understand or beleeve that there was any water in the Philosophers sea And as he in this case so I in another know divers that will not beleeve that common quicksilver can of it selfe be turned wholy into a transparent water or that glasse can be reduced into sand and salt of which it was made saying that fusio vitrificatoria est ultima fusio or that an hearb may be made to grow in two hours and the Idea of a plant to appear in a glasse as if the very plant it selfe were there and this from the essence thereof and such like preparations as these the two former whereof may be done in half an hour but the latter requires a longer time but yet possible And for the possibility of the Elixir you shall assoon perswade them to beleeve they know nothing which is very hard nay an impossible thing to do then to beleeve the possibility thereof If there be any such thing say they why are not the possessors thereof infinitely rich famous do many miracles and cures and live long These Objections especially some of them scarce deserve an answer yet I shall to shew the vanity of them make some reply thereunto Did not Artesius by the help of this medicine live 1000. yeares Did not Flammell build fourteen Hospitals in Paris besides as many in Boleigne besides Churches and Chappels with large revenews to them all Did not Bacon do many miracles and Paracelsus many miraculous cures Besides what saith Sandivogius I have saith he incurred more dangers and difficulties by discovering my self to have this secret then ever I had profit by it and whensoever I would discover my selfe to the great Ones it alwayes redounded to my prejudice and danger Can a man that carrieth alwaies about him 10000. pounds worth of Jewels and gold travel every where up and downe safe and not be robbed Have not many rich money-mongers been tortured into a confession where their money was concealed Did you never heare of a vapouring fellow in London that portending to the knowledge of this Mystery was on a suddaine caught aside by money-thirsters and by them tormented with tortures little lesse then those of hell being forced thereby if he had knowne it into a discovery of it To say nothing of being in danger of being subjected and enslaved to the pleasure of Princes and of becoming instrumentall to their luxury and tyranny as also being deprived of all liberty as once Raimundus Lullius The truth is the greatest matter that Philosophers aime at is the enjoyment of themselves for which cause they have sequestred themselves from the world and become Hermites Well therefore and like a Philosopher spake Sandivogius when he said Beleeve me if I were not a man of that state and condition that I â—m of nothing would be more pleasant to me then a solatary life or with Diogenes to live hid under a tub for I see all things in this world to be but vanity and that deceit and covetousnesse prevail much that all things are vendible and that vice doth excel vertue I see the better things of the life to come before mine eyes I rejoice in these Now I do not wonder as before I did why Philosophers when they have attained this medicine have not cared to have their daies shortned although by the vertue of their medicine they could have prolonged them for every Philosopher hath the life to come so cleerly set before his eyes as thy face is seen in a glasse Thus much by way of reply to the frivolous objections of those that beleeve not the verity of this Art and not onely so but will not beleeve it If you should discover to them the processe of the Philosophers stone they would laugh at your simplicity and I will warrant you never make use of it Nay if you should make projection before them they would think that even in that there were a fallacy so unbeleeving are they so I finde them and so I leave them and shall for ever finde them the same There is another sort of men by whom this Art hath been much scandalized and they indeed have brought a great Odium upon it by carrying about and vending their whites and reds their sophisticated oils and salts their dangerous and ill prepared Turbithes and vitae's And indeed it were worth while and I might do good service for the Nation to discover their cheats as their sophisticating of Chymicall oils with spirit of Turpentine and salts with salt extracted out of any wood-ashes and such like but here is not place for so large a discourse as this would amount to I shall only at this time relate to you how Penotus was cheated with a sophisticated Oil of gold for saith he I gave
white and clear which first distilled off keep by it self continuing the Distillation as long as any oyl distils off then let both oyls be rectified apart in a good quantity of water The salt of Amber which adheres to the neck of the Retort within side being gathered let be purified by solution filtration and coagulation according to art and be kept for use After this manner may be made Oyls out of any gums which may be powdered Oyl of Myrrhe is made thus Take of Myrrhe bruised of Bay-salt of each six pound let them be dissolved in sixty pints of spring water and be distilled in an Alembick or Copper Still according to Art Oyl of Myrrhe per deliquium or by dissolution is made thus Take Hen-egs boiled hard and cut in the middle length-ways take out the yelks then fill up the hollow half way with powder of Myrrhe and join the parts together again binding them with a thread and so set them upon a grate betwixt two platters in a cold moist place so the liquor of the Myrrhe dissolved will distill into the lower platter Oil of Tartar per deliquium i. e. by dissolution Take of the best Tartar calcined white according to Art put it into a cotten bag hang it in the cellar or some moist place putting under a Receiver Oyls by Expression are made thus Take of what things you please such as will afford an oyl by expression bruise them then put them into a bag and press them strongly putting a vessel under to receive the oyl Note that they must stand in the Press some hours because the oyl drops by little and little Note also that if you warm them before you put them into the Press they will yeeld more oyl but then it will not keep good so long as otherwise After this manner are made oyls of Nutmegs Mace Almonds Linseed and such like A vomiting and purging Oil made by expression Take of the Berries of Ebulus or Dwarfe Elder as many as you please let them be dryed but not over-much then bruise them and in bruising them moisten them with the best spirit of Wine untill they begin to be oily then warm them by the fire and press forth the oil and set it in the sun to be purified Ten drops of this oil taken inwardly worketh upward and downward and is very good against the dropsie and all waterish diseases The belly being therewith anointed is made thereby soluble Any part that is much pained with the gout or any such grief is presently eased by being anointed with this oil Oil of Jasmine is made thus Take of flowers of Jasmine as many as you please put them into as much sweet mature oil as you please put them into a glass close stopt and set them into the Sun to be infused for the space of twenty dayes then take them out and strain the oil from the flowers and if thou wouldst have the oil yet stronger put in new flowers and do as before This is a pleasant perfume and being mixt with oils and ointments gives them a gratefull smell It is also used in the perfuming of Leather After this manner may be made oil of any flowers but because I shall keep my self to the Art of Distillation only I shal not so far digress as to speak of these kinds of oils only I thought good to set down the oil of Jasmine because by reason of its fragrancy it hath some analogie with Chymicall oils that are made by Distillation To make any Oil or Water per descensum Take an earthen gourd fill it full with wood or hearbs or what you please being cut small then invert it i e. turn it upside down and set it in the furnace lute it well thereunto then set another gourd of earth under it with a wider mouth that the uppermost may goe into it before you put the one into the other you must have a little vessell or instrument of Tin with brims round about on the top by which it must hang into the lower gourd the body thereof being 2 or 3 inches deep and full of holes that the oyl or water may drop through and not the vegetable it self Into this Instrument being first set into the lower gourd put the mouth of the upper gourd then make thy fire on the top and keep it burning as long as any liquor will drop Ths Figure of this furnace is thus A Signifies the gourd containing the matter to be distilled B The Furnace containing the Coals so that they surround the upper gourd C The lower gourd or recipient set upon straw-rings D The vessell of Tin with holes and brims which must be set in the Recipient How to make an Oyl and Water out of Soot This may be distilled per descensum or by retort as thus viz. Take of the best Soot which shines like Jet fill with it a glass Retort coated or earthen Retort to the neck distil it with a strong fire by degrees into a large Receiver and there will come forth a yellowish spirit with a black oyl which thou mayest separate and digest How to rectifie Spirits You must set them in the Sun in glasses well stopped and half filled being set in sand to the third part of their eight that the water waxing hot by the heat of the Sun may separate it self from the flegm mixed therewith which will be performed in in twelve or fifteen days There is another better way to doe this which is to distill them again in Balneo with a gentle fire or if you wil put them into a retort furnished with its receiver and set them upon crystal or iron bowls or in an iron mortar directly opposite to the beams of the Sun as you may learn by these ensuing signs Retort with its Receiver standing upon Crystal bowls just opposite to the Sun beams Another Retort with its Receiver standing in a Marble or Iron mortar directly opposite to the Sun A Shews the Retort B The Receiver C The Crystal-Bowls A Shews the Retort B The Marble or Iron Mortar C The Receiver How to rectifie all stinking thick black Oils that are made by a Retort and to take away their stink Take oyl of Amber or any such stinking oil put it into a glass Retort the fourth part only being full pour on it drop by drop the spirit of Salt or any other acid spirit and they will boil together and when so much of the spirit is poured on that it boileth no more then cease and distill it First cometh over a stinking water then a clear white well smelling oyl and after that a yellow oyl which is indifferent good but the spirit of Salt hath lost its sharpness the volatile salt of the oyl remaineth coagulated with the spirit of Salt and is black and tasteth like salt Armoniack and hath no smell being sublimed from it Now the reason of all this is because the volatile salt of the oyl which is the caâ—se of the
a bag which may be hanged in the Water the vessell being close stopt the space of a month and then be taken out and cast away the Liquor thereof being first pressed out into the foresaid Water This Water is of wonderfull vertue in Surfets and Pleurisies composeth the Spirits causeth rest helpeth digestion if two or three or four ounces thereof be drunk and the patient compose himself to rest A Pectorall Water Distill green hysop in a cold Still till you have a gallon and half of the Water to this put four handfull of dryed Hysop a handfull of Rue as much of Rosemary and Hore-hound Elecampanie-root bruised and of Horse-radish root bruised of each four ounces of Tobacco in the leaf three ounces Anniseed bruised two ounces twoâ—quarts of Canary wine let them all stand in digestion two days then distill them and in the water that is distilled put half a pound of Raisins of the Sun stoned of Licorish two ounces sweet Fennel seeds bruised two ounces and a half Ginger sliced an ounce and a half and let them be infused in Frigido the space of ten days then take them out This water sweetned with Sugar-candie and drunk to the quantity of three or four ounces twice in a day is very good for those that are ptificall it strengtheneth the Lungs attenuates thick flegm opens obstructions and is very good to comfort the stomach A very excellent water against the worms Take of Wormseed bruised eight ounces the shavings of Harts horne two ounces of Peach flowers dryed an ounce of Aloes bruised half an ounce pour on these the water of Tansie Rue Peach flowers and of Wormwood of each a pint and half let them being put into a glass vessell be digested the space of three dayes then distill them cohobate this water three times This water is very excellent against the worms it may be given from half an ounce to three ounces according to the age of the patient A Water against the Convulsions Take of Ros vitrioli which is that water that is distilled from Vitriall in the calcining thereof two quarts in this put of Rue a handfull of Juniper berries bruised an ounce of Bay berries bruised half an ounce Piony berries bruised six drams Camphire two drams Rhubarb sliced an ounce digest these four days in a temperate Balneo then distill them in a glass vessel in ashes and there will come over a water of no small vertue It cures convulsions in children especially it helps also the Vertigo the Hystericall passion and Epilepsie it is very excellent against all offensive vapours and wind that annoys the head and stomach It may be taken from two drams to two ounces An Hydropicall water Take of Wormwood Broom blossomes of each a like quantity bruise them and mix with them some leaven and let them stand in fermentation in a cold place the space of a week then distill them in a cold Still till they be very dry Take a gallon of this water and half a gallon of the Spirit of Urine pour them upon two pound of dryed Broom blossoms half a pound of Horse Radish roots dryed three ounces of the best Rhubarb sliced two ounces of sweet Fennell seed bruised and an ounce and an half of Nutmegs let them digest a week being put into a glass vessell in a temperate Balneo then press the Liquor hard from the feces put this Liquor in the said vessell again and to it put three ounces of sweet Fennel seeds bruised Licorish sliced two ounces digest them in a gentle heat the space of a week then pour it off from the feces and keep it close stopt This water being drank from the quantity of an ounce to four ounces every morning and at four of the clock in the afternoon doth seldome fail in curing the dropsie it strengtheneth also the Liver is very good against gravel in the back stone cures the Scurvy Gout and such diseases as proceed from the weakness and obstructions of the Liver A Water against the Colick Take of Aniseed three ounces Cummin seed three drams Cinnamon half an ounce Mace Cloves Nutmeg of each a dram Galingall three drams Calamus Aromaticus dryed half an ounce The dryed rind of Orenges two ounces Bay berries half an ounce Let all these being bruised be macerated in six pints of Mallago wine 48 hours then be distilled in Balneo till all be dry This water being dranke to the quantity of an ounce or two at a time doth ease the gripings of the belly and stomach very much A Water against the Vertigo and Convulsions Take of black cherries bruised with their kernels a gallon of the flowers of Lavander three handful half an ounce of white Mustard seed bruised mix these together then put some ferment to them and let them stand close covered the space of a week then distill them in Balneo till all be dry This water being dranke to the quantity of an ounce or two or three doth much relieve the weaknesse of the head and helps the Vertigo thereof as also strengthen the sinews and expell windiness out of the head and stomach A compound Water of Burre root causing sweat Take the root of the great Burre fresh Swallow wort fresh The middle rind of the root of the Ash tree of each two pound cut them small and infuse them 24 hours in the best White wine and Rue vinegar of each five pints then distill them in Balneo til all be dry put to the water as much of the Spirit of Sulphur per Campanam as wil give it a pleasant acidity and to every pint of the water put a scruple and a half of Camphire cut small and tyed up in a bag which may continually hang in the water This was a famous water in Germany against the plague pestilence and Epidemical diseases it causeth sweat wonderfully if two or three ounces thereof be drank and the patient compose himself to sweat Another excellent Sudorifick and plague water Take of the best spirit of Wine a gallon Andromachus treacle six ounces Myrrhe two ounces The roots of Colts-foot three ounces Sperma Cett Terra Sigillata of each half an ounce The root of swallow wort an ounce Dittany Pimpernel Valerian root of each two drams Camphire a dram Mix all these together in a glass vessell and let them stand close stopt the space of eight dayes in the Sun Let the Patient drink of this a spoonful or two and compose himself to sweat Dr. Burges his plague water Take three pints of Muscadine and boil in it Sage and Rue of each a handfull till a pint be wasted then strain it and set it over the fire again put therto a dram of long Pepper Ginger and Nutmeg of each half an ounce being all bruised together then boil them a little and put thereto half an ounce of Andromachus treacle and three drams of Mithridate and a quarter of a pint of the best Angelica water This water which as saith
also of its vertue A spirit may be drawn from hence by an ingenious Artist that will smell like Musk or Amber The Sulphur of Vitriall may with spirit of wine be extracted thus Take of the best Dansick Vitriall half a pound dry it by a gentle fire till it be whitish then pour on it of the best rectified spirit of Wine thirty ounces Note that there must come to it no other moisture then the spirit of Wine the glass also must be very dry else you labour in vain then digest it in horse dung the space of a month then decant from the feces the spirit of Wine without any troubling of it then in Balneo evaporate the spirit and at the bottome you will have a yellow liquor of a most wonderfull stipticity This liquor is a famous Anodynum suppressing all noxious vapours whatsoever and causing rest A few drops there may be taken in any specifical Liquor A Sudorificall Water to be used outwardly Take of sublimed Mercury very finely powdered an ounce and half of Euphorbium powdered a scruple spirit of Wine well rectified and Rosewater of each a pound digest them two or three hours in a gentle Balneo the neck of the vessell which must be very long being wel stopt then let them boll a quarter of an hour when the liquor is cold pour it from the feces and keep it in a glass If the back bone be bathed with this Water or the wrist of those that be weak it causeth sweat presently if it be done in the bed By which means diseases that require sweat may be cured Also any pained place by being bathed with this Water is in a little time eased Note that you must not bathe any place above three or four times with it for by being too often used it contracts the skin How to rectifie Oyls and Spirits of Minerals Put the Liquor that is distilled from Minerals into the Retort to which give fire by degrees and the spirit wil rise up into the upper Receiver and the heavy oyl wil go into the middle Receiver which is the biggest of all and into the little Receiver annexed to the end of the middle wil pass some of the spirit which though it passeth into the middle Receiver wil not stay there but goeth beyond it because it finds vent Of ANIMALS BOOK IV. Waters Spirits and Oils simple and compound out of Animals Oyl and Water out of Bloud is made tbus TAke of bloud as much as you please let it stand in putrefaction in a glass vessell close covered the space of forty days then distil it in ashes and there wil come forth a water and oyl extract the salt out of the feces with the said water calcine the salt in a crucible and then dissolve it in the said water and then distil off the water which will be a good rectifying of the water and dry the salt very well which then mix with the foresaid oyl being first rectified and digest them both together for the space of a month To make the Magistery of bloud Take of the purest bloud as much as you please put it into a Pelican that three parts of four may be empty and digest it a month in horse dung in which time it will swell and become as much more as it was when it was put in then distil off the flegm in Balneo and in the bottome will remain the magistery of bloud which must be distilled and cohobated nine times in a Retort in ashes and then it is perfected This Magistery is of excellent vertue which being taken inwardly and applyed outwardly cureth most diseases and easeth pain being very balsamicall Eâ—ixir of Mummie is made thus Take of Mummy viz. of mans flesh hardened cut small four ounces spirit of wine terebinthinated ten ounces put them into a glazed vessell three parts of four being empty which set in horse dung to digest for the space of a month then take it out and express it let the expression be circulated a month then let it run through Manica Hippocratis then evaporate the spirit till that which remains in the bottome be like an oyl which is the true Elixir of Mummy This Elixir is a wonderful preservative against all infections also very balsamicall The essence of mans brains Take the brains of a young man that hath dyed a violent death together with the membranes arteries veins nerves al the pith of the back bruise these in a stone mortar til they become a kind of pap then put as much of the spirit of wine as will cover it three or four fingers breadth then put it into a large glass that three parts of four be empty being hermetically closed then digest it half a year in horse dung then take it out and distill it in Balneo and cohobate the water til the greatest part of the brains be distilled off A scruple or two of this essence taken in some specificall water once in a day is a most infallible medicine against the falling sickness A famous spirit made out of Cranium humanum Take of Crannium humanum as much as you please break it into smal pieces which put into a glass Retort well coated with a large Receiver well luted then put a strong fire to it by degrees continuing of it till you see no more fumes comes forth and you shal have a yellowish spirit a red oyl and a volatile salt Take this salt and the yellow spirit and digest them by circulation two or three months in Balneo and thou shalt have a most excellent spirit This spirit is of affinity with if not the same as that famous spirit of Dr. Goddards in Holborn It helps the falling sickness gout dropsie infirm stomach and indeed strengthens all weak parts and openeth all obstructions and is a kinde of Panacea Another excellent spirit made out of Cranium Harts horn or Ivory Take of either of these if you take Cranium it need not be bruised at all only broke into little pieces if Harts horn or Ivory you must cut them in thin pieces lay it piece by piece upon a net spread upon any vessell being almost full of water cover this net with another vessel very close then make the water boyl and keep it boyling three dayes and three nights and in that time the bones or horns will be as soft as cheese then pound them and to every pound thereof put half a pound of Hungarian vitrial uncalcined and as much spirit of wine as wil make them into a thin paste This paste digest in a vessell hermetically seald the space of a month in Balneo then distil it in a Retort in sand till all be dry and you shall have a most excellent spirit This spirit is of wonderful use in the Epilepsie Convulsions all Feavers putrid or pestilential passions of the heart and is a very excellent Sudorifick This spirit may be taken from the quantity of half an ounce to an ounce in some
specificall liquor A Water and Oyl made out of Hair Fill an earthen Retort with hair cut small set it over the fire and fit a Receiver to it and there will come over a very stinking Water and Oyl This water and Oyl is used in Germany to be sprinkled upon fences and hedges to keep wild and hurtfull Cattle from coming to do harm in any place for such is the stink of this liquor that it doth affright them from coming to any place near it Water of Milk is made thus Take of what Milk thou pleasest a gallon in it dissolve half a pound of salt and put to it two handful of Plantain and an ounce of Licorish sliced then distil it in a hot Stil with a gentle fire This water is of excellent use in hot distempers of the Lungs and Kidneys You may put in other ingredients according to the use you would have it for An excellent compound water of Milk for any inflammations in the eyes Take of womans milk a pint of white Copperas a pound distil them in ashes Note that assoon as thou perceivest any sharp spirit to come off then cease Let inflamed eyes be washed three or four times in a day with this water and it helpeth them wonderfully Spirit of Vrine is made thus Take of the Urine of a young man drinking much wine as much as you please let it stand in glass vessels in putrefaction 40 dayes then pouring it from its feces distil it in a glass gourd in sand til all be dry then cohobate the said spirit on the Caput Mortuum three times then distill it in a gourd of a long neck and there will ascend besides the spirit a crystalline salt which thou mayest either keep by it self being called the volatile salt of Urine or mix it with its spirit which will thereby become very penetrating if they be digested for some days together Note that the pipe of the head must be wide or else the volatile salt will soon stop it Note that this salt is so penetrating that it penetrateth the body of the glass This Spirit by rectification may be made so pure and subtle that it will burn as fire and dissolve gold and precious stones This being often applyed to any place pained with the gout easeth it presently it also quickens any part that is benummed The salt volatile is Helmonts famous Medicine for the Jaundies A compound Spirit of Vrine Take of Hungarian Vitriall a pound the Urine of a Boy that is healthy four pints put these into a glass vessel well closed that three parts of four may be empty digest them in Balneo for the space of a month then distil them in ashes til all be dry This spirit is of great vertue in the Epilepsie Gout Dropsie Convulsions being taken from two drams to half an ounce in some specifical Liquor To make a spirit of Honey Take good strong stale Mead otherwise called Metheglin as much as thou pleasest distil it in a Copper Stil or Alembick with its refrigeratory and it wil yeeld a spirit like Aqua vitae The quintessence of honey is made thus Take of the purest Honey two pound of Fountain water one pound boyl these together til the water be boyled away taking off all the scum that riseth then take the Honey and put it into a glass four parts of five being empty close it well and set in digestion a whole year and thou shalt have the essence of Honey swimming on the top in form of an Oyle being of as fragrant smel as any thing in the World the flegm wil be in the middle and the feculent matter in the bottome of a dark colour and stinking smel Some make the quintessence of Honey after this manner Take as much Honey as thou pleasest of the best put it into a gourd of glass first distil off the flegm in Balneo then extract the tincture out from what remains with the said water then calcine the remaining feces and extract from thence the salt with the foresaid water being distilled off from the tincture calcine the salt and melt it in a crucible then let it dissolve in a cellar then again evaporate it away and thou shalt have a most white salt which let imbibe as much of the tincture as it will digest them for three months and thou shalt have an essence of Honey An essence of Honey may be made thus Take of Honey wel despumated as much as you please pour upon it as much of the best rectified spirit of Wine as will cover it five or six fingers breadth digest them in a glass vessel wel closed the fourth part only being ful in a temperate Balneo the space of a fortnight or til the spirit be very wel tinged then decant off the spirit and put on more til all the tincture be extracted then put all these tinctures together and evaporate the spirit till what remains begin to be thickish at the bottome and of a golden colour This is a very excellent essence of Honey and is of so pleasant an odour that scarce any thing is like to it It is so cordial that it even revives the dying if two or three drops thereof be taken in some cordial water A most strong Spirit of the Vinegar of Honey Take a pound of Honey put to it of the best White wine vinegar six pints an ounce of white Pepper bruised smal of the strongest Mustard-seed bruised three ounces put these into a glass vessel that three parts of four may be empty digest them in a temperate Balneo or set the vessell in the sunne for the space of a fortnight then distil them in Balneo and thou shalt have a spirit farre sharper then the common spirit of Vinegar This spirit is stronger and better then any common distilled Vinegar for the dissolving of hard things and extracting the tinctures out of things Oyl or quintessence of Wax Take of the best Wax a pound as much of pure sand well washed from al its impurity and again dryed First melt the wax and then mix the sand with it very exactly then put them into a glass Retort well coated fit a strong Receiver to it and set it in sand give it fire by degrees continuing it four days which at last must be very strong and there wil come off a spirituous oyl which must be rectified seven times in a glass Retort every time changing the Retort and you shal have a subtle oyl of a golden colour This oyl extracts the vertues out of all flowers presently being set in the sun it is wonderful Balsamical for the cure of wounds or ulcers both inward and outward it also being applyed outwardly easeth all pains quickens any deaded member as in the palfie Water is made out of any flesh thus Take what flesh you please the bloudiest part thereof unwashed being cut very smal and then bruised or if it be a feathered fowl take it being chased up and down until it
with a gentle fire distil off the water till no more will distill A compound water of the Sperm of Frogs Take of the sperm of Frogs gathered in March about the new of the Moon four pound of Cow dung fresh six pound mix them well together and let them stand the space of a day then distil them in ashes This water allays all hot pains both inward and outward especially of the Gout Another compound water of the sperm of Frogs Take of the Sperm of Frogs gathered in March two pound and half the Urine of a young man three pints new Treacle two ounces and a half white Vitrial Salt Allum of each four ounces then distil them and put to the water an ounce and half of the Salt of Vitriall Camphire and Saffron of each an ounce This water being applyed outwardly helpeth all pains especially of the Gout and such like also allayeth hot or cold swellings It also stancheth bleeding A Miscellany of Spagyricall Experiments and Curiosities BOOK V. The Spagyricall Anatomie of Water WAter seems to be a body so very Homogeneall as if neither Nature or Art could discover any Heterogeneity in the parts thereof thus indeed it seems to the eye of the vulgar but to that of a Philosopher far otherwise as I shall endeavor to make credible by presenting to your consideration a twofold process of the discovering the dissimilary parts thereof whereof the one is naturall only and the other artificiall But before I speak of either it must be premised that in the element of Water there is great plenty of the spirit of the World which is more predominant in it then in any other element for the use and benefit of universall nature and that this spirit hath three distinct substances viz. Salt Sulphur and Mercury Now by salt we must understand a substance very dry vitall and radicall having in it the beginning of corporisication as I may so call it by Sulphur a substance ful of light and vital heat or vivifying fire containing in it self the beginning of motion by Mercury a substance abounding with radical moisture with which the Sulphur of life or vital fire is cherished and preserved Now these substances which are in the Spirit of the World make all Fountaines and Waters but with some difference according to the predominancy of either This several predominancy therefore is the ground of the variety of productions I say of productions because all things are produced out of Water for Water is both the Sperme and the Menstruum of the World the former because it includes the seed of every thing the latter because the Sperme of Nature is put refied in it that the seed included in it should be actuated and take upon it the divers Formes of things and because by it the seed it self and all things produced of seed grow and are encreased Now this being premised I shall shew you what the naturall processe is which I shal make plain by instancing in three several productions viz. of the spawn of Frogs of Stones and of Vegetables The Spawne of Frogs is produced after this manner viz. The Sulphur which is in the Water being by the heat of the Sun resolved and dissolved is greedily and with delight conceived by the Element of Water even as the Sperme of a Male is by the Matrix of the Female and that upon this account The Water wants siccity which the Sulphur hath and therefore exceedingly desiring it doth greedily attract it to it self Sulphur also wants humidity and therefore attracts the humidity of the Water Moreover the humidity of the Water hath the humidity of the Salt laid up occultly in it also the Sulphur cherisheth the humidity of the fire and desires nothing more then the humidity of the Salt that is in the Water Sulphur also contains the siccity of the Salt whence it is that Salt requires a siccity from the Sulphur And thus do these attractive vertues mutually act upon each others subject Now by this means there is a conception made in the water which now begins to be turgid puffed up and troubled as also to be grosser and more slimie until out of the spermatick vessels the spermes be cast upward in which spermes after a while appeare black specks which are the seed of the Frogs and by the heat of the Sun are in a short time turned into the same by which it appears there are dissimilary parts in Water 2 Stones are produced out of Water that hath a Mucilaginous Mercury which the Salt with which it also abounds fixeth into Stones This you may see cleared by putting stones into the water for they wil after a time contract a mucilaginous slimy matter which being taken out of the water and set in the Sun becomes to be of a stony nature And whence come those stones gravel and sand which we see in Springs they are not washed down out of the Mountains and Hils as some think from whence the waters spring neither were they in the earth before the Springs brake forth as some imagine and now appear by washing away of the earth from them for if you dig round about the springs even beyond the heads of them you shal find no stones at all in the earth only in the veins thereof through which the water runs Now the reason of the smalnesse of these stones is the continual motion of the water which hinders them from being united into a continued bignesse I shall make a further confirmation of this in the artificial processe of manifesting the Heterogeneity of Water I shal here only adde the assertion of Heâ—â—ont saying that with his Altahest all stones and indeed all things may be turned into Water If so then you know what the Maxime is viz. All things may be resolved into that from whence they had their beginning 3 Vegetables are produced out of Water as you may clearly see by the Waters sending forth Plants that have no roots fixed in the bottome of which sort is the Heart called Duck-weed which putteth forth a little string into the Water which is as it were the root thereof For the confirmation of this that this Heart may be produced out of meer Water there is a Gentleman at this time in the City of no small worth that saith he had fair water standing in a glass divers yeares and at last a Plant sprang out of it Also if you put some Plants as Water-mint c. into a glass of fair water it wil germinate and shoot out into a great length and also take root in the Water which root will in a short time be so encreased and extended as to fill up the glass but you must remember that you put fresh water into the glasse once in two or three dayes Hereunto also may be added the experiment of Helmont concerning the growth of a tree For saith he I took two hundred pound weight of earth dryed in an oven and put it into a vessel in
which I set a Willow tree which weighed five pound which by the addition of water to the earth did in five yeares time grow to such a bignesse as that it weighed one hundred sixty nine pound at which time I also dryed and weighed the earth and within two ounces it retained its former weight Besides the ancients have observed that some Hearbs have grown out of snow being putrefied and do not we see that all Vegetables are nourished and increased with an insipid water for what else is their juice If you cut a Vine in the month of March it wil drop divers gallons of insipid water which water if it had remained in the trunk of the Vine would in a little time have been digested into leaves stalks and grapes which grapes also by a further maturation would have yeelded a Wine out of which you might have extracted a burning spirit Now I say although this insipid water be by the specificall Sulphur and Salt of the Vine fixed into the stalks leaves and grapes of the vine yet these give it not a corporificative matter for that it had before and an aptitude and potentiality to become what afterwards it proves to be for indeed stalks leaves and grapes were potentially in it before all which now it becomes to be actually by vertue of the Sun and of the aforesaid Sulphur and Salt whereof the two latter were originally in the smal seed and therefore as I said could not adde any bulk to them Moreover doe not we see that when things are burnt and putrefied they ascend up into the air by way of vapour and fume and then descend by way of insipid dew or rain Now what do all these signifie but that from water are all things produced and in it are dissimilary parts 2 The artificiall processe is this take of what water you please whether Well water Fountaine River or Raine water as much as you please let it settle three or four houres untill the slime thereof separates it selfe then digest it the space of a month after which time evaporate the fourth part by a very gentle heat and cast it away being but the flegm then distil off the remainder of the water till the feces only be left which feces will be a slimy saltish substance this middle substance distill again as before casting away every time the fourth part as flegme and keeping the feces by themselves for a further use and this doe seven times Note that after the fourth or fifth distillation the water will distil over like milke colouring the head of your Still so that it can hardly be washed or scoured off This pure water after the seventh distillation will leave no feces behind and if you digest it three months it will be coagulated into Stones and Crystals which some magnifie very much for the cure of inward and outward putrefactions out of which also may be made a dissolving spirit Note that as this water stands in digestion you may see divers curious colours Now as for the feces which I spake of which indeed all waters even the sweetest leave at the bottome being as I said a saltish slime and in taste as it were a Medium betwixt Salt and Nitre take them and distill them in a Retort in sand and there will first come forth a white fume which being condensed descendeth in a straight line to the bottome next will come over a red Oyl of great efficacy exceeding the vertues of the spirit of Salt or Nitre For confirmation of part of this processe take May dew gathered in a morning when it hath not rained the night before and put it into a glass vessel covered with a parchment pricked full of holes and set it in the heat of the Sun for the space of four months and there will store of green feces fall to the bottome the residue of the water being white and clear Now by all this you may conclude what manner of dissimilarity there is in the parts of water I shall adde but one observation more and so conclude this subject Take a slint out of River water and put it into a gourd glasse poure upon it as much River Water as will fill the glasse evaporate this water till the flint be drye then poure on more fresh water doe this so long till the flint will fill up the glass for in a little time it will fill it up and become to be of the forme or figure of the glasse for it attracts to it selfe the mucilaginousnesse of the water which indeed is a slimy saltish matter and the true matter of Stones And thus thou shalt have that done by Art in few dayes which Nature would have been perfecting many yeares and indeed just such a flint as is produced in the Rivers Any one that should see this flint in the glasse would wonder how it should come in there You may break your glasse and take out the flint There are divers such processes which may be used but in effect they demonstrate but little more concerning the potentiall Heterogeneity of water and therefore to avoid tediousnesse I shall here end with the Anatomy of Water concerning which if any one can make a further illustration let him be candid and impart it and I shall be glad to learn of him and in the meane time let him accept of these my endeavours The Spagyricall Anatomy of Wine I Shall not speak here of the juice of grapes as being naturally divided into Wine Tartar and Lees but of Wine as artificially divided into pure Spirit Flegm and Feces 1 The spirit is that hot subtle pure clear cordiall and balsamicall substance which ariseth with a small heat after four or five distillations being indeed but the twentieth part of the Wine This spirit is not that inebriating substance of the Wine as most think for a man may drink the spirit that is extracted out of ten pints of Wine without distempering of his brâ—in at all when as perhaps he would be distempered with drinking a pint or two of the Wine Now this spirit contains in it a subtle Armoniack and essentiall Sulphur inseparably conjoined which indeed are the life of the spirit and may be separated from the Mercuriall or watery part thereof which after separation of them remains inspid but yet of wonderfull subtility They may be separated thus First rectifie the spirit as high as you can the ordinary way then rectifie it once or twice in thâ—se following vessels Now this spirit or Aqua vitae is in all Vegetables as you may see in Malt and Vegetables that are put refied before they be distilled which then yeeld a burning spirit yet it is in Wine more then in any other Liquors I say Liquors for if you take eight gallons of Sack and as much Wheat which is a solid body the Wheat being malted will yeeld more Aqua vitae then the Sack 2 The flegm is that which remains after the spirit is distilled off
make an artificiall Claret wine Take six gallons of water two gallons of the best Cidar put thereunto eight pound of the best Mallago Raisins bruised in a Mortar let them stand close covered in a warm place the space of a fortnight every two days stirring them well together then presse out the Raisins and put the Liquor into the said vessell again to which adde a quart of the juice of Rasp-berries and a pint of the juice of Black cherries cover this Liquor with Bread spread thick with strong Mustard the Mustard side being downward and so let it work by the fire side three or four days then tun it up and let it stand a week then bottle it up And it will taste as quick as bottle-beer and indeed become a very pleasant drink and indeed farre better and wholsomer then our common Claret An artificiall Malmsey Take two gallons of English honey put it into eight gallons of the best Spring water set these in a vessell over a gentle fire when they have boyled gently an hour take them off and when they be cold put them into a smal barrell or run let hanging in the vessell a bag of spices and set it in the cellar and in half a year you may drink thereof To make an excellent aromaticall Hyppocras Take of Cinnamon two ounces Ginger an ounce Cloves and Nutmegs of each two drams of white Pepper half a dram of Cardamums two drams of Musk Mallow seed three ounces Let all these be bruised and put into a bag and hanged in six gallons of Wine Note that you must put a weight in the bag to make it fink Some boyl these spices in Wine which they then sweeten with sugar and then let run through a Hyppocras bag and afterwards bottle it up and use when they please A single Hypocras bag or Manica Hippocratis When you would have this or any other Liquor to be very clear you may use the triple Hypocras bag for what feces passeth the first will stay in the second and what in the second will stay in the last Note that these bags must be made of white Cotton A triple Hypocras bag is only one hanging above another after this manner To make an excellent Hypocras Wine in an instant Take of Cinnamon two ounces Nurmegs Ginger of each half an ounce Cloves two drams bruise these small then mix them with as as much Spirit of Wine as will make them into a paste let them stand close covered in a glass the space of six days in a cold place then presse ouâ— the Liquor and keep it in a glass A few drops of this Liquor put into any Wine giveth it a gallant relish and odour and maketh it as good as any Hypocras whatsoever and that in an instant Note that if the Wine be of it selfe harsh it will not be amisse to sweeten it with Sugar for thereby it is made far more gratefull This also being put into Beer will make it very pleasant and aromaticall Another way to make Hypocras or to make any Wine to tast of any vegetable in an instant Take what Wine you please and according as you would have it tast of this or that spice or any other vegetable of one or more together you may drop a few drops of the distilled oil of the said spices or vegetables into the Wine and brew them well together and you may make in an instant all sorts of Hypocras or other Wines as for example if you would have Wormwood Wine two or three drops of oil of Wormwood put into good Rhenish-wine being well brewed together will make a Wormword Wine exceeding any that you shall meet withall in the Rhenish-wine houses To make a good Rasberry-wine Take a gallon of Sack in which let two gallons of Raspberries stand steeping the space of twenty four houres then strain them and put to the Liquor three pound of Raisins of the sun stoned let them stand together foure or five days bring sometimes stirred together Then pour off the clearest and put it up in bottles and set it in a cold place If it be not sweet enough you may adde some Sugar to it Two other wayes to make it all the year at an instant Take of the juice of Raspberries put it into a bottle which you must stop close and set in a cellar and it will become clear and keep all the year and become very fragrant A few sponfulls of this put into a pint of Wine sweetned well with Sugar gives it an excellent and full tast of the Raspes If you put two or three ounces of the Syrup of Raspes to a pint of Wine it will doe as well but then you need use no other Sugar for that will sweeteen it sufficiently To make Mead or Metheglin that it shall tast stale and quick within a fortnight and be fit to drink To every three gallons of water put one gallon of the purest Honey put what hearbs and spices you please boyl it and skim it well now and then putting in some water When it is sufficiently boyled take it off and when it is almost cold put it into a wooden vessell and set it by the sire side cover it over with Bread spread thick with the strongest Mustard the Mustard side being downwards and so let it stand three dayes and it will worke only put a cloth over it Then tunne it up and after a week draw it forth into bottles and set it into a cellar and after a week more you may drink of it for it will taste as quick as bottle beer that is a fortnight old and indeed as stale as other Mead will in half a year To make a Spirit of Amber-gryse that a few drops thereof shall perfume a pint of Wine most richly Take of Amber-gryse 2. drams of Musk a dram cut them small and put them into a pint of the bâ—st rectified Spirit of Wine close up the glasse Hermetically and digest them in a very gentle heat till you perceive they are dissolved Then you may make use of it Two or three drops or more if you please of this Spirit put into a pint of Wine gives it a rich odour Or if you put 2. or 3. drops round the brimmes of the glasse it will do as well Half a spoonfull of it taken either of it self or mixed with some speciall Liquor is a most rich Cordiall An excellent sweet Water Take a quart of Orenge-flower water as much Rose-water adde thereto of Musk-mallow seeds grossely bruised four ounces of Bâ—njamin two ounces of Storax an ounce of Labdanum six drams of Lavender flowers two pugills of sweet Marjoram as much of Calamus Aromaticus a dram distill all these in a Glasse Still in Balneo the vessels being very well closed that no vapour breath forth Note that you may make a sweet water in an instant by putting a few drops of some distilled oils together into some Rose-water and brewing them well together To
which must have a very small hole in them no bigger then that a pins head may go in into a vessell of cold water and they will presently suck in the water of which then being full turne the noses thereof towards the candle or fire which you would have blown As for the figure C it must have a mouth drawne up round and hanging out an inch from the face which mouth the whole compasse of the face being heated first you must dip in cold water and it will suck in water as the noses of the former did This then you must hold-close to the fire that it may be heated and it will blow exceedingly as otherwise it will not viz. if it be cold If you put sweet water into such a vessell you may perfume a chamber exceedingly for a little quantity thereof will be a long time breathing forth Note that these kindes of vessels must be made of copper and be exceeding well closed that they may have no vent but by their noses An excellent invention to make a fire This fire is durable sweet not offensive by reason of the smoake or cinder as other coale fires are beautifull in shape and is not so costly as other fire burnes as well in a chamber even as Char-coal This fire may either serve for such distillations as require a strong and lasting heat or for ordinary uses either in the Kitchen or chambers A new invention for Bathes Seeing by bathing and sweating most diseases are cured especially such as proceed from wind hot and distempered humours or cold and congealed humours because all these are rarified and evaporated by transpiration in sweating or bathing I thought it a thing much conducing to mans health to set downe such a way of bathing and sweating that might be very effectuall and appropriated to any particular disease or distemper I shall therefore here commend to you a way of bathing by distillation the manner of which you may see by these ensuing vessels A Signifies a hot still with two pipes going into two wooden vessels In this Still you may put either hearbs spices with water or with Spirits and distill them by which meanes they that are in the vessels will presently be forced into a sweat by vertue of the subtlety of the vapours And this indeed is as good and effectuall a way for sweating as any can be invented You may by this meanes appropriate your ingredients to the nature of the diseases B A vessell wherein a man sits in the bath Now this vessell hath in it a door for the easier going into it which fashion is farre better and more convenient then to be open only at the top C A long vessell where a man that is weak and not able to fit up lies and is bathed Now you must note that these vapours most not be hotter then the patient can beer also if the vapour come forth too hot upon the body of the patient he may by putting a pipe upon the end of the pipe that comes into the vessell divert the hot vapour from his body and so it will not offend him that way Note that the patient assoon as he begins to be faint must come forth or else he will suffer more prejudice then good by his bathing and also to prevent him from fainting let him take some Cordiall or cold Beer which will much revive him and make him endure his bathing longer as also make him sweat the more Assoon as the patient comes forth let him goe into a warm bed and sweat as he is able to beare it and take some posset drink or broth or such like warme suppings as also some good Cordiall if he be very faint The patient may according as his strength will bear and his disease require bathe more seldome or oftner An artificiall hot Bath from the same principles as the naturall Bath is Before I set down the processe of making an artificiall hot Bath I shall premise some things concerning the true nature and originall of a hot Bath Now the clearest and best account that I ever heard or read of the cause of the heat in Bathes is that which is given by Mounsier de Rochas and that in a demonstrative way His words are these As I was saith he with some of my companions wandring in Savoy I found in the valley of Luzerne betwixt the Alps a hot spring I began to consider the cause of this heat and whereas the vulgar opinion is that the heat of fountains is from mountains fired within I saw reason to think the contrary because I saw snow upon a mountaine from whence this hot spring came unmelted which could not possibly but have been dissolved by the hot fumes of the mountains had they been fired Whereupon being unsatisfied I with my companions and other labourers whom I could very hardly perswade to undertake such a businesse by reason they were affraid that fire would thereupon breake forth out of the ground and consume us got tools and set upon digging to find out the true cause of the heat of this fountain After we had digged 15. dayes having before perceived the water to be hotter and hotter by degrees as we came neerer to the source we came to the originall of the heat where was a great ebullition In three houres more we digged beyond this place of ebullition and perceived the water to be cold yet in the same continued stream with the other that was hot upon this I began to wonder much at the reason of these things Then I carryed to my lodging some of this hot water which was both saltish and acid and evaporated it and of forty ounces I had in the bottome five drams of saltish matter which I then yet farther purified and extracted thence three drams of pure nitrous Hermetick salt the other two ounces being a slimie sulphurous substance Yet with this I was not satisfied but with my labourers went again to the place and digged twelve days more and then we came to a water which was insipid as ordinary fountain Water yet still in a continued stream with the saltish and hot water At this I wondered much whereupon I digged up some of the earth where the cold and saltish stream runned carried it home with me and our of a hundred weight thereof I extracted a good quantity of nitrous salt which was almost fluxile When I had extracted as much as I could I laid the earth aside and in 24. houres it was all covered over with salt which I extracted and out of a hundred weight of this earth which I call virgin earth I had four pound of this kind of salt which is contracted in the aforesaid 24. houres and so it would doe constantly Now this satisfied me concerning one doubt for before I was unsatisfied how there could be a constant supply of that salt which made the water saltish seeing there was but a little distance betwixt the insipid water and the
hot water and the constant stream of water washed away the salt which was in that little space for I perceived that this kind of earth attracts this universall salt of the world partly from the aire in the cavities of the earth and partly from the vapours that constantly passe through the earth After this I tooke some of that earth where the ebullition was and carried it home and proved it and I perceived it to be a sulphur mine into which the former acid saltish water penetrating caused an ebullition as doe salt of Tartar and Spirit of Vitriall being mixed together and also water poured on unslaked lime After this I began to question how it was that this sulphur mine was not consumed seeing so much matter passeth from it daily but when I began to understand how all things in the earth did assimilate to themselves whatsoever was of any kind of affinity to them as Mines convert the tooles of miners into their owne substance in a little time and such like experiments of that nature I was satisfied And after all this I understood how this universall salt of the world was to be had and I could at any time mix it with water and pour that water upon sulphur and so make an artificiall hot bath as good as any naturall bath whatsoever Note that no salt in the world but this nitrous salt will do it as I often tryed And this salt is to be found in all hot bathes and to be prepared artificially Thus farre Mounseur de Rochas Something like unto this Helmont seems to hold forth saying that there is a Primum ens salium or semina salium which are all seated in waters and vapours and give them an acidity but as yet have no saline tast untill they meet with such principles and be received into certain matrixes in the earth which may make them put forth this potentiall saltnesse into act and according to this diversity of places that this water or vapours being impregnated with those seeds of salt goe through ariseth the diversity of salts as Alum sea-salt Nitre c. Then upon this account the earth through which the cold acid saltish water abovesaid run through did specificate that potentiall salt which was both in the water and vapours into a nitrous salt by which meanes was that kind of salt in that place but whether this primum ens salium be so unspecificated or quid Hermaphroditicum as he asserts or no it matters not much to my purpose it sufficeth if that earth through which that acid nitrous water runs attracts and multiplies an acid nitrous salt with which the water being impregnated and running through a sulphurous mine causeth an ebullition All this being premised I shall now endeavor to illustrate how nature may in this be imitated as that an artificiall hot bath may be made by such like principles as the naturall hot bath consists of being artificially prepared Now these principles are the sulphur mine and the acid nitrous salt the former requires no further preparation as saith Mounseur de Rochas if it be pure the latter is to be prepared two manner of wayes for either it is to be extracted as saith the aforesaid author out of the waters of the bath by evaporating them away or by condensing the nitrous aire for indeed as many judicious philosophers are of opinion the air is wholly nitrous as it appears by the condensation of it in cold places into Nitre which his virgins earth did doe into a salt which was acid and almost fluxil Now when I say that the nitrous salt is to be thus prepared I do not say that this is the full preparation thereof for indeed it is yet further to be prepared and that is by giving it a greater acidity I question much whether or no the salt being prepared after the aforesaid wayes do retaine that acidity which is required for that ebullition I spake of and which the nitrous acid water had before it came to the Mine of Sulphur For indeed the aforesaid author when he affirmed that he could at any time make an artificiall hot bath did not say he used the salt prepared only after the 2. former wayes viz. by extracting it out of the waters of the bath and making it with his virgin earth which did attract and condense the nitrousnesse of the aire but withall by making it so acid that it might cause an ebullition when it came to be joyned with a sulphur Mine Now then how to give this Nitre a sufficient acidity is the great question For the better effecting of this we must consider whence that nitrous water above mentioned in the earth had the greatest part of its acidity As to that it must be remembred that the virgin earth through which the acid nitrous water did run did condense the nitrous air or vapours into a nitrous salt and withall it is to be considered that before this nitrous aire or vapour before it be condensed even when it is neer unto condensation is acid and part of it before condensation is mixed with the water and so renders it acid Now that waters have great part of their acidity from the acid vapours of acid Mineralls both Henricus ab Heer 's and Jordan upon Minerall waters affirme and that salts unbodied are far more acid then when they have assumed a body is clearly manifest in this viz. that spirits of salts which I call salts unbodied because they have lost their body are become very acid because unbodied if so in Spirits that have lost their bodies why not after some proportion in those that have not yet assumed a body as vapours of Nitre or nitrous air being neer to congelation and bodying and impregnant with Spirits of Nitre Now I say that nitrous vapours or nitrous air being a salt unbodied are not so acid as Spirits of Nitre because they are more phlegmatick and crude which flegme they lose by being congealed into a salt yet for all this they are far more acid then the body of salt and this is that which Helmont understands when he saith that the esurine salt being incorporificated is far more active in giving tast and odour then when it hath received its body by becoming a specificated salt Furthermore how Nitre shall become sufficiently acid for the aforesaid operation is the great matter to be required into We must therefore consider which way we may unbody Nitre seeing it is scarse possible to get it before it hath received its body and that is done two wayes either by forcing of it into a most sharp Spirit which is too acid for our intension or by digesting the whole substance of Nitre into a Liquor moderately acid which indeed serves for our purpose and the processe is this Take the purest Nitre you can get dissolve it in rain water so as that the water imbibe as much of it as it can Then put this nitrous water into a common earthen
vessell unglazed which you must set in a cellar You shall see this vessell in a short time to be white all over on the outside as with a hoar frost which whitenesse is partly the flowers of the Nitre being the purest part thereof penetrating the vessell and partly the nitrous aire condensed into Nitre by the coldnesse of the vessell as also assimilated to the Nitre that penetrated the vessell I said by the coldnesse of the vessel because such is the coldnesse of an earthen vessell wherein is Nitre dissolved in water that it will being set in snow by the fire side forthwith be freezed This Nitre you must strike off with a feather and when you have a sufficient quantity thereof as three or four pound put this or the nitrous salt extracted from bath-waters into a bolt head of glasse a pound in each bolt head that two parts of three be empty nip it up and set it in ashes and give it a reasonable strong fire viz. that the upper part of the boul of the bolt head be as hot as that you can but well suffer your hand upon it and you shall see that the Nitre will be dissolved every day a little and in 2. or 3. moneths time be wholly dissolved and become acid but not so acid as the Spirit thereof then put it into a glasse gourd with a head and distill it off and in the bottome you shall find an acid nitrous salt almost fluxil not unlike the salt which Mounseur de Rochas found in the evaporating of this water Then pour the distilled Nitre water upō the said salt then it is for your use The use of these principles or ingredients is this viz. make fountaine water sufficiently acid with this nitrous Liquor then pour it upon a sufficient quantity of the best Sulphur Mine or Sulphur vivum in a large wooden vessell where the patient is to be bathed and you will see the water presently heated so hot as the patient is able to beare The inward use of these bath-waters is by reason of the Nitre in them to dissolve grosse humours open obstructions cleanse the kidneys and bladder and by reason of the sulphur to dry mollifie discusse and glutinate and to help all uterine effects proceeding from cold and windy humours Note that they must be drunk warme and in a good quantity or else they will do more hurt then good The outward use of this is for such ill effects as are in the habit of the body and out of the veines as of palsies contractions rheumes cold humors affects of the skin and aches for they resolve discusse cleanse mollifie c. Now for the manner of bathing I shall not prescribe any thing but leave this to the discretion of the physitian who is to give order and directions for all the circumstances about it for indeed every one is not to bath when and how he pleaseth but must apply himselfe to an able physitian and submit himself to his judgement and experience or else may receive either prejudice or no benefit thereby An artificiall Tunbridge and Epsa me Water It is granted by all that Tunbridge Water proceeds from an iron mine but how it attracts that acidity and that ironish and vitriolated tast and odour seeing upon evaporation thereof there remains little or no vitriall or salt of iron at the bottome is the great question Now for the solution of this we must consider how many wayes a subterraneall minerall or metall may communicate its acidity to waters and that saith Henricus ab Heer 's upon Spaw-waters it doth three wayes one when the water passing through the mines carryeth along with it some of the dissoluble parts of the mine to which is consonant the saying of Aristotle Such are waters as is the nature of those Mines through which they passe as also of Galen when he saith that pure water passing through Minerall Mines carry with them some of the substance of the Mines The second way is when the vapours arising from sermented Mineralls and Metalls are mixed with waters Now that vapours retain the odour and tast of those things from whence they are raised Aristotle in his fourth Book Sublimium affirms and also Helmont when he saith that some parts of the iron Mines being by fermentation turned into a vapour retain the odor and tast of the Mine by vertue of the acid esurine salt and are not presently reduced into a body and also artificiall vapours of the iron Mines have more vertue activity I mean those parts that are raised by a strong fire in a furnace from the Mine of iron then iron it selfe when it is melted The third is when a great quantity of vapours arising from the aforesaid fermented Mines is elevated and by the coldnesse of the ambient earth is turned into an acid water which as it passeth through the earth meeteth with some springs of water and mixing with them gives them a pleasant acidity And this is the best of all acid wtaers being clear and very pure This being premised I shall now proceed to the processe of making artificiall waters like to those of Tunbridge and Epsome of the former viz. Tunbridge thus Take of the Mine or ore of iron beat it very smal and put it into the furnace expressed page 83. and there will come forth an acid Spirit and flowers which you must mix together till the acid Spirit extracts the salt out of the flowers then decant off the clear liquor which will have a strong tast and smel of iron A few drops of this Liquor put into a glasse full of fountaine water give it the odour and tast of Tunbridge water and communicates the same operations to it It openeth all obstructions purgeth by urine cleanseth the kidneys and bladder helpeth the pissing of bloud the stopping of the urine and difficulty of making water it allayeth all sharp humors cureth inward ulcers and impostumes cleanseth and strengtheneth the stomach and liver c. Note that fountaine water being made moderately acid with this acid ironish Liquor may be taken from a pint to six pints but by degrees and after the taking of it moderate exercise is to be used and fasting to be observed till all the water be gone out of the body which will be in seven or eight houres Epsome water is made artificially thus Take of the mine of allom or allom stones powder it very smal and distil it in the furnace expressed page 83. and there will distill over a certain acid alluminish water which must be mixed with a double quantity of Niter water the preparation whereof is set down in the processe of making the artificiall hot bath Now you must know that Epsome water hath a certain kind of acid tast which is partly alluminous and partly nitrous which procedeth from nitrous air and vapours arising from the fermentation of alluminous Mines being first mixed together and then mixed with the fountaines passing through the
page 76. at the bottome of which must be powdered coales to the thicknesse of two fingers breadth then make a strong fire that the vessell and coals be red hot put in a dram of the aforesaid mixture and it will presently sublime in a silver fume into the recipient which being setled put in more and so do till you have enough Take out the flowers and digest them in the best alcholizated Spirit of Wine that thereby the tincture may be extracted which will be green A green Oil of Silver Take of the abovesaid crystals of silver one part of Spirit of salt armoniack two or three parts digest them together in a glasse with a long neck well stopt twelve or fourteen dayes so will the spirit of salt armoniack be coloured with a very specious blew colour pour it off and filter it then put it into a small Retort and draw off most of the Spirit of armoniack and there will remain in the bottome a grass-green Liquor Then draw off all the Spirit and there will remain in the bottome a salt which may be purified with Spirit of Wine or be put into a Retort and then there will distill off a subtle Spirit and a sharp Oil. This green Liquor is of great use for the gilding of all things presently If you take common rain-water distilled and dissolve and digest the aforesaid crystals of silver for a few dayes you shall after the appearance of divers colours find an essence at the bottome not so bitter as the former but sweet and in this Liquor may all metals in a gentle heat by long digestion be maturated and made fit for medicine but note that they must first be reduced into salts for then they are no more dead bodies but by this preparation have obtained a new life and are the metals of Philosophers To make Oil of Silver per deliquium Take of the aforesaid salts or crystals of silver and reverberate them in a very gentle fire then put them into a cellar on a marble stone and they will in two moneths time be resolved into a Liquor To make a Liquor of Silver that shall make the glasse wherein it is so exceeding cold that no man is able for the coldnesse thereof to hold it in bis hand any long time Take the aforesaid salt of silver pour upon it the spirit of salt armoniack and dissolve it throughly and it will do as abovesaid With a glasse being full of this Liquor you may condense the aire into water in the hâ—at of the summer as also freeze water To make silver as white as snow Take of the calx of silver made by the dissolution of it in aqua fortis dulcifie it and boyl it in a Lixivium made of sope-ashes and it will be as white as any snow To make the silver tree of the Philosophers Take four ounces of aqua fortis in which dissolve an ounce of fine silver then take two ounces of aqua fortis in which is dissolved half an ounce of argent vive mix these two Liquors together in a clear glasse with a pinte of pure water stop the glasse very close and you shall see day after day a tree to grow by little and little which is wonderfull pleasant to behold I Have set down severall vulgar preparations of gold and silver and of almost all things else I shall now crave leave to give an account of some philosophicall preparations of the Philosophers gold and silver For indeed the Art of preparing of them is the true Alchymie in comparison of which all the Chymicall discoveries are but abortives and found out by accident viz. by endeavouring after this I would not have the world beleeve that I pretend to the understanding of them yet I would have them know that I am not incredulous as touching the possibility of that great philosophicall work which many have so much laboured after and many have found To me there is nothing in the world seemes more possible and whosoever shall without prejudice read over the Book entituled the New Light of Alchymie shall almost whether he will or no unlesse he resolves not to beleeve any thing though never so credible be convinced of the possibility of it What unworthinesse God saw in gold more then in other things that he should deny the seed of multiplication which is the perfection of the creatures to it and give it to all things besides seems to me to be a question as hard to be resolved yea and harder then the finding out the Elixir it self in the discovering of which the greatâ—st difficulty is not to be convinced of the easinesse thereof If the preparations were difficult many more would find it out then do saith Sandivâ—gius for they cast themselves upon most difficult operations and are very â—ubtle in difficult discoveries which the Philosophers never drâ—aâ—ed of Nay saith the aforesaid author if Hermeâ— himself were now living together with the â—ubtle-witted Gebâ—n and most proâ—ound Faâ—mund Lullie the would be accounted by our Chymists not for Philosophers but rather for learners They were ignorant of those so many distillations so many circulations so many calcinations and so many other innumerable operations of Artists now a dayes used which indeed men of this age did find out and inveÌ„â—ed out of their books Yet there is one thing wanting to us which they did viz. to know how to make the philosophers stone or physical tincture the processes of which according to some philosophers are these The processe of the Elixir according to Paracelsus TAke the minerall Electrum being immature and made very subtle put it into its owne spheare that the impurities and superfluiries may be washed away then purge it as much as possibly you can with Stibium after the Alchymisticall way lest by its impurity thou suffer prejudice Then resolve it in the stomach of an Estridge which is brought forth in the earth and through the sharpnesse of the Eagle is confortated in its vertue Now when the Electrum is consumed and hath after its solution received the colour of a Mary-gold doe not forget to reduce it into a spirituall transparent essence which is like to true Amber then adde halfe so much as the Electrum did weigh before its preparation of the extended Eagle and oftentimes abstract from it the stomach of the Estridge and by this meanes the Electrum will be made more spirituall Now when the stomach of the Estridge is wearied with labour it will be necessary to refresh it and alwayes to abstract it Lastly when it hath again lost its sharpnesse adde the tartarizated quâ—ntessence yet so that it be spoyled of its redness the height of foure fingers and that passe over with it This doe so often till it be of it selfe white and when it is enough and thou seest that signe sublime it So will the Electrum be converted into the whiteness of an exalted Eagle and with a little more labour be transmuted into deep rednesse and
store If your Wares grow long and ropy then put a fit quantity of Allum into it work it well together according to Art and it will grow short again THE DISTILLER OF LONDON OR Rules and Directions for Preparing Composing Distilling Extracting and making of rich Spirits Strong-Waters Aqua Vitaes c. CHAP. I. Of Aqua vitae the first sort The greater quantity TAke strong Proof spirit 10 Gallons Aniseeds bruised 1 pound Distil them into strong Proof Spirit according to Art The lesser quantity Take strong Proof spirit 1 gallon Aniseeds bruised 1 ounce 4 drams distil them into strong Proof spirit according to Art CHAP. II. Aqua vitae the second sort The greater quantity Take strong Proof spirit what sufficeth Aniseeds 2 pound Carraway seeds Coriander seeds and 4 ounces Distil them into strong Proof spirit according to Art The lesser quantity Take strong Proof spirit 1 gallon Aniseeds 3 ounces and a quarter Caraway seeds Coriander seeds three drams distil them into strong Proof spirit according to Art CHAP. III. Of Aniseed Water The greater quantity Take strong Proof spirit 10 gallons Aniseeds the best bruised five pound distil them into strong Proof spirit dulcifie it according to Art with five pound of white Sugar The lesser quantity Take strong Proof spirit what sufficeth Aniseeds the best bruised 8 ounces distil them into strong Proof spirit dulcifie it according to Art with 8 ounces of white Sugar Aniseed water strengtheneth the Stomach breaketh flegm and helpeth digestion It is also excellent agaiust the Tisick and shortnesse of breath and against wind in the Stomach and Body CHAP. IV. Of Angelica Water The greater quantity Take strong Proof spirit what sufficeth Angelica roots a pound and a half or Angelica hearb green 7 pound and a half Aniseeds 16 ounces flice the roots thin or bruise them the seeds distil them into strong Proof spirit dulcifie with 5 pound of white Sugar The lesser quantity Take strong Proof spirit 8 pound Angelica roots 2 ounces and a quarter or Angelica hearb green 12 ounces Aniseeds 1 ounce 5 drams Slice the roots thin or bruise them and the seeds distill them into strong Proof spirit dulcifie with 8 ounces of Sugar Angelica water is very cordiall strengtheneth the Stomach and inwâ—rd parts and is a good Preservative against the plague and other infections CHAP. V. Of Wormwood Water The greater quantity Take strong Proof spirit 10 gallons Aniseeds bruised one pound Wormwood common leaves and seeds stript and dry 2 pound distil them into strong Proof spirit according to Art dulcifie with white Sugar 5 pound The lesser quantity Take strong Proof spirit what sufficeth Aniseeds bruised 1 ounce and 5 drams Wormwood common leaves and seeds stript and dry 3 ounces and an half distil them into strong Proof spirit according to Art dulcifie with white Sugar half a pound Wormwood water consumeth and breaketh Windel killeth Worms hindereth Vomiting provoketh appetite and strengtheneth the stomach It is also a great Cordiall and is very good against pains of the head proceeding of a cold cause CHAP. VI. Of Balm Water The greater quantity Take strong Proof spirit what sufficeth Hearb balm dry â—3 pound Aniseeds 1 pound distil them into strong Proof spirit according to Art dulcifie with white sugar what sufficeth The lesser quantity Take strong Proof spirit 8 pound Hearb balm dry 4 ounces and an half Aniseeds 1 ounce 5 drams distil them into strong Proof spirit according to Art dulcifie with white Sugar eight ounces Balm water is good against the infirmities of the Mother and is very comfortable for women in the time of their pains to take a little of it for the sooner and safer provoking of a speedy delivery It is also a Cordiall and strengtheneth the heart CHAP. VII Of Mint Water The greater quantity Take strong Proof spirit 10 gallons Spear Mint dry 3 pound Aniseeds best 1 pound distil them into strong Proof spirit dulcifie with white Sugar 5 pound The lesser quantity Take strong Proof spirit what sufficeth Spear Mint dry 4 ounces and 3 quarters Aniseed 1 ounce and 5 drams distil them into strong Proof spirit dulcifie with white sugar what sufficeth Mint water comferteth and strengtheneth the Stomach Heart Liver and Spleen helpeth coneoction and is good against vomiting CHAP. VIII Of Rosemary Water The greater quantity Take strong Proof spirit what sufficeth Rosemary stript and dry 30 ounces Aniseeds of the best 16 ounces distil them in to strong Proof spirit dulcifie with white Sugar what sufficeth The lesser quantity Take strong Proof spirit 8 pound Rosemary stript and dry 3 ounces Aniseeds of the best 1 ounce 5 drams distil them into strong Proof spirit dulcifie with white Sugar 8 ounces Rosemary water is very good against Dysâ—ntery or Bloudy Flux proceeding of a cold cause either drunk or three spoonfuls thereof administred in a convenient Glister It also preserveth from vomiting strengtheneth the Stomach quickneth the Sight and comforteth the Brain CHAP. IX Of Limon or Orange Water The greater quantity Take strong Proof spirit what sufficeth Limon or Orange pils dry 30 ounces Aniseeds of the best 16 ounces bruise the pils and seeds distil them into strong Proof spirit according to Art dulcifie with white Sugar 5 pound The lesser quantity Take strong Proof spirit 1 gallon Limon or Orange pils dry 3 ounces Aniseeds of the best 1 ounce 5 drams bruise the pils and seeds distil them into strong Proof spirit according to Art dulcifie with white Sugar 8 ounces Limon watter strengtheneth and reviveth the feeble Spirits aromatizeth the Stomach and is a great Cordiall It also openeth obstructions exceedingly breaketh wind in the Stomach is as an healing Balsam to all the inward parts and is a great Restorative to mans Nature CHAP. X. Of Stomach Water the lesse The greater quantity Take strong Proof spirit what sufficeth Spear Mint dry Lovage roots dry Aniseeds of each 1 pound Calamus Aromaticus Ginger Sweet Fennell seeds Imperatoria roots Wormwood dry and stript of each 8 ounces Carraway Coriander seeds of each 6 ounces Cummin seeds Cloves of each three ounces Bruise them that are to be bruised distil them into strong Proof spirit according to Art dulcifie with white sugar 5 pound The lesser quantity Take strong Proof spirit 8 pound Spear Mints dry Lovage roots dry Aniseeds of each 1 ounce 5 drams Calamus Aromaticus Ginger Sweet Fennell seeds Imperatoria roots Wormwood dry and stript of each 7 drams Caraway Coriander seeds of each 5 drams Cummin seeds Cloves of each 2 drams and an half Bruise them that are to be bruised distil them into strong Proof spirit according to Art dulcifie with white Sugar 8 ounces CHAP. XI Stomach Water the greater The greater quantity Take strong Proof spirit 10 gallons Calamus Aromaticus 6 ounces Guaiacum green Bark Avens Roots dry Galingale of each 4 ounces Citron pils dry Orange pils dry White Cinamon of each 3 ounces Wormwood Common dry Wormwood Roman dry
earth If you put a few drops of this Liquor into a glasse full of fountaine water it will give it the odour and tast of Epsome water that you shall scarce discerne them asunder either by that odour or operation This water is purgative and indeed purgeth especially all sharp burning humours cools an inflamed and opens an obstructed body cleanseth the kidneys and bladder cureth inward ulcers and impostumes is a very good preservative against the consumption c. Fountaine water made acid with this Liquor may be taken from a pint to six or eight but by degrees and after it moderate exercise must be used and fasting till the water be out of the body only some thin warme suppings may be taken to helpe the working thereof Some take this water warm To make artificiall precious stones of all sorts of colours Take Crystalline white pibble-stones that are very white throughout and have no mixture of any other colour which you shal find in fountaines and on the sands of the sea Put them into a crucible make them glowing hot covering the crucible then cast them into cold water by which means they will crack and be easily reduced into a powder Take the powder thereof and put the like quantity of pure salt of Tartar thereto which salt must not be made in any metalline but glasse vessells that it may have no mixture of any other colour To this mixture you may adde what colour you please which must be of a minerall or a metalline nature then put them into a very strong crucible which must be but half full and then covered and there melt them in a strong fire till they become like glasse Note that when this mixture is in melting you must put an iron rod into it and take up some of it if there appear no cornes of gravell in it it is enough If otherwise you must melt it longer The especiall mineralls and metalls that give colours are these viz. Copper iron silver gold Wismut Magnesia and granats Common copper makes a sea-green copper made out of iron a grasse-green granats a smaragdine-green iron yellow or a Hyacinth colour silver white yellow green and granat colour gold a fine skie colour Wismut common blew magnesia an amethyst colour And if you will mix two or three of these together they will give other colous For copper and silver mixed together give an amethyst colour copper and iron a pale green Wismut and magnesia a purple colour silver and magnesia divers colours like as an Opall If you would have this masse not to be transparent but opac you may adde the calx of tin to it when it is in melting as if you would make Lapis lazuli then â—o your mixture coloured with Wismut adde the calx of tin and this mixture when it is almost ready to congeal cast into a mould where some powder of gold hath been scattered and by this means it wil become full of golden veins very like true lapis lazuli which is very pleasant to behold You may by these foresaid preparations cast what formes or figures you please of what colour you please The Metals and Minerals for the making of colours ought to be thus prepared viz. Plates of copper must be made red hot and then quenched in cold water of which then take five or six graines and mix them with an ounce of the aforesaid mixture and melt them all together and they will colour it sea-green Iron must be made into a Crocus in a reverberatory fire and then eight or ten grains thereof will tinge the mixture into a yellow or hyacinth colour Silver is to be dissolved in Aqua fortis and precipitated with Oil of flints then dulcified with water and afterward dryed of this five or six graines give a mingled colour Gold must be dissolved in Aqua regis and precipitated with the Liquor of flints then sweetened and dryed and five or six grains thereof giveth the finest saphir colour to an ounce of the mixture If gold be melted with regulus martis nitrosus five or six graines thereof give to an ounce of the masse a most incomparable rubine colour Magnesia may be powdred only and then ten or twelve grains thereof make an amethyst colour Wismut must be dissolved in Aqua regis and precipitated with Liquor of flints then sweetened and dryed and then of this foure or five graines turne an ounce of the masse into a saphir colour but not so naturall as gold doth Granata may be powder only and then ten or fifteen grains thereof tinge an ounce of the masse into a fine green colour not unlike to the naturall Smaragdine To prove what kinde of metall there is in any Ore although you have but a very few graines thereof so as that you cannot make proofe thereof the ordinary way with lead Take two or foure graines if you have no greater quantity of any Ore that you have put it to halfe an ounce of Venice-glasse and melt them together in a crucible the crucible being covered and according to the tincture that the glasse receiveth from the Ore so may you judge what kinde of metall there is in the Ore for if it be a copper Ore then the glasse will be tinged with a sea-green colour If copper and iron a glasse-green If iron a darke yellow If tin a pale yellow If silver a whitish yellow If gold a fine skie colour If gold and silver together a Smaragdine colour If gold silver copper and iron together an amethyst colour A pretty observation upon the melting of Copper and Tin together First make two bullets of red copper of the same magnitude make also two bullets of the purest tin in the same mould as the others were made weigh all four bullets and observe the weight well then melt the copper bullets first upon them being melted put the two tin bullets and melt them together but have a care that the tin fume not away Then cast this molten mixture in the same moulds as before and it will scarce make three bullets but yet they weigh as heavy as they did before they were melted together I suppose the copper condenseth the body of the tin which before was very porous which condensation rather addes then diminisheth the weight thereof A remarkable observation upon the melting of Salt Armoniack and Calx vive together Take Salt armoniack and Calx vive of each a like quantity mix and melt them together Note that Calx of it selfe will not melt in lesse then eight houres with the strongest fire that can be made but being mixed with this salt melts in half an houre and lesse like a metall with an indifferent fire This mixture being thus melted becomes a hard stone out of which you may strike fire as out of a flint which if you dissolve again in water you shall have the Salt armoniack in the same quantity as before but fixed Note that hard things have their congelation from
Salt armoniack as hornes bones and such like for little fixed salt can be extracted from them only volatile and armoniack An ounce of any of these volatile salts as of hornes bones amber and such like reduced into an acid Liquor by distillation condenseth and indurateth a pound of Oily matter An easie and cheap powder like unto aurum fulminans Take of salt Tartar one part Salt-peter three parts Sulphur a third part grind these well together and dry them A few graines of this powder being fired will give as great a clap as a musket when it is discharged To make an Antimoniall cup and to cast divers figures of Antimony Take the best crude antimony very well powdered Nitre of each a poâ—nd of crude Tartar finely powdered two pound mix them well together and put them into a crucible cover the crucible and melt them and the regulus will fall to the bottome and be like a melted metall then pour it forth into a brasse mortar being first smeared over with Oil. Or Take two parts of powdered Antimony and four parts oâ— powder of crude Tartar melt these as aforesaid This regulus you may when you have made enough of it melt again and cast it into what moulds you please you may either make cups or what pictures you please and of what figures you please You may cast it into formes of shillings or halfe-crowns either of which if you put it into two or three ounces of wine in an earthen glazed vessell or glasse and infuse in a moderate heat all night you may have a Liquor in the morning which will cause vomit of which the dose is from two drams to two ounces and half Note that in the Wine you may put a little Cinamon to correct and give a more gratefull relish to it It is the custome to fill the Antimoniall cup with Wine and to put as much Wine round about betwixt that and the little earthen cup where it stands and so infuse it all night and then drink up all that Wine but I fear that so much Wine will be too much as being three or four ounces when as we seldome exceed the quantity of two ounces of the infusion of Antimony These cups or pictures will last for ever and be as effectuall after a thousand times infusion as at first and if they be broken at any time as easily they may being as brittle as glasse they may be cast again into what formes you please Note that he that casts them must be skilfull in making his spawde as also in scouring of them and making them bright afterwards for if they be carefully handled they will look even as bright as silver BOOK VI. The Spagyricall Anatomy of Gold and Silver together with the Curiosities therein and chiefest preparations thereof I Shall first endeavour to shew whence Gold had its originall and what the matter thereof is As Nature saith Sandivogius is in the will of God and God created her so nature made for her selfe a seed i. her will in the elements Now she indeed is one yet she brings forth divers things but she operates nothing without a Sperme whatsoever the Sperme will nature operates for she is as it were the instrument of any artificers The Sperme therefore of every thing is better and more profitable then nature her self for thou shalt from nature without a Sperme doe as much as a goldsmith without fire or a husband without grain or seed Now the Sperme of any thing is the Elixir the balsame of sulphur and the same as Humidum Radicale is in metalls but to proceed to what concernes our purpose Four elements generate a Sperme by the will of God and imagination of nature For as the Sperme of a man hath its center or the vessell of its seed in the kidneys so the foure elements by their indesinent motion every one according to its quality cast forth a Sperme into the center of the earth where it is digested and by motion is sent abroad Now the center of the earth is a certaine empty place where nothing can rest and the four elements send forth their qualities into the circumference of the center As a male sends forth his seed into the womb of the female which after it hath received a due portion casts out the rest so it happens in the center of the earth that the magnetick powder of a part of any place attracts something convenient to it selfe for the bringing forth of something and the rest is cast forth into stones and other excrements For every thing hath its originall from this fountain and there is nothing in the world produced but by this fountaine as for example set upon an even table a vessell of water which may be placed in the middle thereof and round about it set divers things and divers colours also salt c. every thing by it selfe then poure the water into the middle and you shall see the water to run every way and when any streame toucheth the red colour it will be made red by it if the salt it will contract the tast of salt from it and so of the rest Now the water doth not change the places but the diversity of places changeth the water In like manner the seed or sperme being cast forth by the foure elements from the center of the earth unto the superficies thereof passeth through various places and according to the nature of the place is any thing produced if it come to a pure place of earth and water a pure thing is made The seed and sperme of all things is but one and yet it generates divers things as it appears by the former example The sperme whilest it is in the center is indifferent to all forms but when it is come into any determinate place it changeth no more its forme The sperme whilest it is in the center can as easily produce a tree as a metall and an hearb as a stone and one more precious then another according to the purity of the place Now this sperme is produced of elements thus These foure elements are never quiet but by reason of their contrariety mutually act one upon another and every one of its selfe sends forth its own subtilty and they agree in the center Now in this center is the Archaeus the servant of nature which mixing those spermes together sends them abroad and by distillation sublimes them by the heat of a continuall motion unto the superficies of the earth For the earth is porous and this vapour or wind as the philosophers call it is by distilling through the pores of the earth resolved into water of which all things are produced Let therefore as I said before all sons of Art know that the sperme of metals is not different from the sperme of all things being viz. a humid vapour Therefore in vain do Artists endeavour the reduction of metals into their first matter which is only a vapour Now saith Bernard