Liquor till you have recovered all that is in it Mix all your Crystals dry them and weigh them and if you have half an ounce of them powder them and mix them with six drachms of the matter I described for reviving the Calx of Silver remaining in the Matrass put this mixture into a Crucible and covering it with a tile light a strong fire about it to put the matter into fusion then taking it off the fire and letting it cool break the Crucible you 'l find the Silver at the bottom which will be fit for the same Operation again when you please Note that all the Liquor which was drawn by Distillation is as clear as common water wherefore I conclude that the Colour did consist in the dissolution of Silver it self and not of its sulphurs as some have thought You must cut the Silver into little pieces or plates that it may dissolve the more easily The Salt-water must be made of an ounce and a half of Salt dissolved in a quart of water this salt precipitates the Silver because it engages the points of the dissolvent and shaking them violently about makes them let go the hold they had with other bodies I shall speak more at large concerning these kinds of Precipitations in the Remarks which I shall make upon White Precipitate and shall then explicate the reason why Sea-salt which is an acid does precipitate that which another acid had dissolved I shall likewise answer the objections which have been raised on this subject Silver may be also precipitated by means of a Copper-plate as I have said already It is very indifferent which way you please to Precipitate it for it is done for no other end but to reduce the Silver into a very fine powder for an easier dissolution The Precipitate of Silver made with salt or Copper waxes brown in the drying and though dried in the shade which doubtless is by reason of some small proportion of Copper that it contains If you have dissolved an ounce of Coppel-silver and precipitate it with Salt or Copper you 'l draw an ounce and three drachms of Precipitate well washt and dried this augmentation does proceed from a remainder of the points which were broken in pieces and yet do still remain in the pores of the metal for these pores being very small they do but hardly let go what they have received into them There is no need of distilling a part of the Liquor that the Tincture may be the stronger as some have presumed to write for on the contrary it causes a Crystallization which diminishes both its colour and strength for the reason I have given before The effect of this Tincture for Diseases must rather be attributed to the Salt of Urine and spirit of Wine than to the Silver for they are not only able to fly into the Head and open obstructions there but assisted with the Natural heat do open the pores of all the body and drive out ill humours by transpiration The portion of Silver which remains at the bottom of the Matrass being impregnated with volatile parts would fly into the Air if it were melted alone without the addition of something else wherefore the abovementioned matter is added to it that being of a very fixt nature may weigh it down and hinder it from flying away Diana's Tree Take an ounce of Silver and dissolve it in three ounces of spirit of Niter pour your dissolution into a Matrass wherein you shall have put eighteen or twenty ounces of water and two ounces of Quick-silver Your Matrass must be fill'd up to the neck let it lye still upon a little round of straw in some convenient place for forty days together during which time you 'l find a Tree spread forth its branches and little balls at the end which represent their fruit This Operation is of no use at all in Physick I have here described it only to please the Curious Remarks These branches do proceed from the spirit of Niter which being incorporated with the Silver and Mercury do form divers Figures according to the room and moisture it hath to expatiate it self in For if you should put to it but ten or twelve ounces of water nothing but a kind of Crystals in great confusion would be able to appear On the contrary if you should use too much water nothing would then be seen besides a little precipitated powder You must let the mixture lye still for forty days together because the spirit of Niter being very much weakned by common water is able to work but very slowly If the matter should happen to be removed the figure would quickly fall into confusion but would recover it self again if you let it lye still long enough This Preparation is best performed in a cool place being properly a Crystallization This Operation may be fitly compared with the manner of Generation and Nourishment of Plants in the Earth for if the seed abounds with too much moisture the spirits which serve to ferment and dilate its parts will be rendred so weak as not to be able to act and so nothing can be produced if on the contrary there should prove too little moisture the spirits not finding room enough to expatiate in would either continue imprisoned or evaporate into Air and so be ineffectual But when there happens to be a fit proportion of water in the Earth then the spirits gently moving about do insensibly expatiate themselves and do rarifie and sublime along with them the substance of the seed from whence Vegetation doth proceed But to return unto our Operation If you should desire to separate the Silver from the Mercury shake the whole together and having poured it out into an earthen Vessel make it boil for half a quarter of an hour then let it cool a little till it becomes little more than luke-warm pour upon it a quart of water by little and little in which you have dissolved two ounces of Sea-salt and a white Precipitate will fall down pour off the water by Inclination and dry the Powder Then put it in a Retort placed in a Sand-furnace and having fitted to it a Receiver fill'd with water give a small fire at first then encrease it by degrees till the Retort grows red-hot and your Quick-silver will distil drop by drop into the water continue the fire till nothing more will distil let the Vessels cool pour the water out of the Receiver and having washt the Mercury dry it with linnen or the crum of bread and keep it for use You 'l find your Silver in the Retort which you may reduce into an Ingot by melting it in a Crucible with a little Salt-peter in a great Circular fire CHAP. III. Of Tinn TInn is a Metal that comes near unto Silver in colour but differs very much in the figure of its Pores and in the solidity and weight The name of the Planet Jupiter is given unto it and it is thought to receive its
that by the conjunction of these two spirits the Aqua fortis is compelled to abandon the metal that it had dissolved is nothing at all to the clearing of the question unless a man will needs give an intelligence to these spirits Wherefore we must still have recourse to the agitation and jostles for the true reason It is also remarkable that the effervescency which happens when Spirit of Salt is cast into the solution of some bodies by Aqua fortis is different from that which happens when some alkali is cast into it the former being much more gentle than the latter The Spirit of Salt dissolves leaf gold which Aqua fortis is not able to do When this Spirit is dulcified it is mixed with Spirit of Wine which being a Sulphur doth take off the edges of the acid and in part hinders their motion whence it comes to pass that this Spirit is milder by this addition than if water had been used instead of Spirit of Wine The Spirit of Salt may be made with Salt Decrepitated after the same manner CHAP. XVI Of Niter or Salt-peter IT is probable that the Niter of the antients was either the Aegyptian Natron or a salt that is found in the earth in a gray compact mass or else the natural Borax or the salt which is drawn from the water of the river Nilus and many other rivers And it may be that all these salts are divers kinds of their Niter but the Niter of the moderns is nothing else but Salt-peter and this is that of which I intend to speak Niter is a Salt impregnated with abundance of Spirits out of the air which do render it volatile it is taken from among the stones and earths of old ruined buildings Some of it is likewise to be found in Cellars and several other moist places because the air doth condense it in those places and easily unites with the stones Salt-peter is also sometimes made by the Urine of Animals falling upon stones and earths Nay some have thought that all Salt-peter comes from that cause whereas we see every day that some of it is taken out of places where there never came any Urine at all This salt is half volatile and half like unto Sal Gemme as I shall prove hereafter The great and violent flame which happens so soon as Salt-peter is flung upon the coals and the red vapours which it uses to yield when reduced into a spirit have induced the Chymists generally to believe that this salt is inflammable and consequently fully loaded with Sulphur because Sulphur is the only Principle that flames but if they had suspended their judgments herein until they had got more experience on this Subject they would not only have known that Salt-peter is not at all inflammable in its nature but they would e'en have doubted whether or no any Sulphur does enter into the natural composition of this salt for if Salt-peter were inflammable of it self like Sulphur it would burn where there is no Sulphur for example in a Crucible heated red-hot in the fire but it will never flame therein use what quantity of it you please and let the fire be never so great It is true indeeed if you throw Salt-peter upon kindled coals it makes a great flame but this is only through the sulphureous Fuliginosities of the coals which are violently raised and rarefied by the volatile nature of Niter as I shall prove in the Operation upon fixt Niter As for any Sulphur that is thought to be contained in Salt-peter it can't be demonstrated by any Operation whatever for the red vapours that come from it are no more inflammable than the Niter when they are not mixt with some Sulphureous matter and it is far more probable that this salt contains no Sulphur if we consider its cleanness transparency acidity and cooling quality which have no manner of affinity with the effects of Sulphur which are commonly to make a body opake to take off acidity and to heat Purification of Salt-peter To purifie Salt-peter is to deprive it of part of its fixt salt and of a little bituminous earth which it contains Dissolve ten or twelve pounds of Salt-peter in a sufficient quantity of water let the dissolution settle and filtrate it then evaporate it in a glass or earthen vessel to the diminution of half or until there begins to appear a little skin upon it then remove your vessel into a cool place stirring it as little as may be and leave it there till the morrow you 'l find Crystals which you must separate from the liquor evaporate this liquor again to a skin and set the vessel in a cool place to get new Crystals repeat the evaporations and Crystallizations until you have drawn all your Salt-peter Note that in the last Crystallizations you 'l have a Salt altogether like unto sea-salt or Sal Gemme keep it apart it may serve to season meat with The first Crystals are the pure Salt-peter You may if you please dissolve and purifie Salt-peter several other times in water observing every time what I said before for to render it more white and purifie it from its Sea-salt Salt-peter purified is a great aperitive it cools the body by fixing the humours that are in too much motion and drives them by Urine It is given in Feavers in Gonorrheas and many other diseases the dose is from ten grains to a drachm in Broth or some appropriate liquor Remarks The first Purification that is given to Salt-peter is this the stones and earths that contain it are grosly powdered they are boiled in a great deal of water to dissolve the Salt-peter the dissolution is filtred and then poured upon ashes to make a Lixivium after it hath been poured upon the ashes several times it is evaporated and Crystallized The salt of the ashes which does mix with the Salt-peter increases its fixt part but that which is made without ashes is the better to make Aqua fortis with The earth from whence Salt-peter hath been drawn being set in the open air and stirred about from time to time doth re-impregnate with a kind of Salt The long Crystals that we see Salt-peter shoot into do proceed from its volatile part for that which is Crystallized last is fixt like sea-salt and looks just like it Salt-peter can never be purified so well but it will still contain a salt like unto Sal Gemme or sea-salt but in less quantity than before When Salt-peter is boiled a long time in water and over a great fire some part of the Spirits do fly away and there remains at last nothing but a salt like unto sea-salt or Sal Gemme which serves to prove that Salt-peter is only a Sal Gemme fuller of Spirits than the other as I said speaking of the Principles When you would Crystallize a Salt you must dissolve it in a convenient proportion of water for if there should be too much the salt would be weakned too much and
likewise fixes the stone the more and makes it fitter to keep It is one of the best Remedies I ever met with for stopping Gonorrheas when it is a proper time to stop them by Injections Salt of Vitriol This Operation is the more fixed Salt of Vitriol that remains after distillation Take two or three pounds of the Colcothar that remains in the Retort after distillation of Vitriol let it infuse in eight or ten pints of warm water for ten or twelve hours boil it a little while and then let it settle separate the water by Inclination and pour new water upon the matter proceed as before and mixing your Impregnations evaporate all the moisture in a sand-heat in a glass or earthen vessel there will remain a salt at bottom It is used as the Gilla Vitrioli to give a Vomit the dose is from ten to thirty grains Remarks This salt is that part of the Vitriol that the fire is not able to rarefie into Spirit Some Authors say that it Vomits just after the same manner as Gilla Vitrioli taken in a smaller dose but I have observed that its effect was much less and on the contrary there was need of giving it in a larger dose than the Gilla to procure a Vomit for having given of it several times a drachm at a dose the person had no Inclination at all to Vomit and truly I am apt to believe that a fixt salt of Vitriol divested of its Sulphur doth rather tend to precipitate downwards than mount upwards for Vomiting is caused by Saline Sulphurs which prick the Fibers of the Stomach whence follows a Convulsion to this part That which remains indissoluble is called Caput Mortuum it is used for Astringents If you expose it to the Air for a year or a year and half it returns into Vitriol again CHAP. XIX Of Roche-Alom and of its Purification ROche-Alom is a very Styptick Mineral Salt found in the veins of the earth in many places of Europe it is taken up in great transparent pieces the best is that which is reddish for the white contains fewer Spirits Alom is purified after the same manner as Vitriol it is used to cleanse the teeth it is a good Diuretick a drachm of it is dissolved in a quart of water and a glass of it is given now and then Many things are likewise called by the name of Alom as the Saccharinum which resembles Sugar it is nothing but a mixture of Roche-Alom Rose-water and the white of an Egg. Plume-Alom which some call Lapis Amianthus is a kind of Talk Distillation of Alom Put five pounds of Roche-Alom into a glass or earthen body and fitting to it a head with its Receiver distil in sand as much as will rise you will have a Phlegm of Alom that is used for distempers of the eyes for Quinsies and to cleanse wounds unlute the vessels break the body and powder the white mass that remains in it put it into an earthen Retort half empty place your Retort in a Reverberatory furnace and fitting to it a large Receiver lute the junctures close and light a very small fire the first three hours only to warm the Retort afterwards increase it every hour to the utmost violence and these Spirits will come forth and fill the Receiver with white Clouds continue the fire in this condition three days together then let the vessels cool you 'l find in the Receiver an acid Spirit which you may rectifie by distilling it in a glass Alembick in sand in order to make it the clearer This acid is more disagreeable than that of Vitriol it is used in Juleps for continued Feavers and Tertian Agues the dose is from four to eight drops it is likewise good to cure the Aphtha or little Chancres in the mouth Break the Retort and you 'l find in it a white mass very much rarefied and light it is called Burnt Alom or Calcined Alom it is used for to eat carnous excrescences or proud flesh Remarks The Distillation of Alom must be performed like that of Vitriol that is to say without addition of earth because these Salts do contain enough themselves The Body into which you put your Alom must be sure to be large enough because it rarefies extreamly The Phlegm is known to be all come forth when there distils no more for these Spirits being very weighty do require a greater heat than that of sand to raise them Some have written that Alom yields but very little acid yet if they take the pains to keep a strong fire under it for three days together they 'l find that this Spirit does not give place in strength or quantity to that of Vitriol Nor are we at all obliged to distinguish as they would have us the Acrimonious Corrosive salt of Alom from its acid seeing that there is nothing either Acrimonious or Corosive in this Mineral salt which will not turn into an acid Spirit when it is strongly urged by fire If a Drachm of Alom be dissolved in six ounces of this Phlegm you make an excellent Alom water to cleanse wounds and ulcers with The mass that remains in the Cucurbite or Dephlegmated Alom is more Escarotick than that which hath lost its Spirits Chirurgeons are wont to Calcine Alom in a Frying pan but the Iron dulls the greatest part of its vertue as absorbing its Spirits wherein consists the corrosion of Alom the Retort must be filled but half full because there happen Ebullitions which do require room CHAP. XX. Of Sulphur SVlphur is a kind of Bitumen that is found in many places in Italy and Spain There is brought among us both a Natural and an Artificial the Natural is greyish and called Sulphur Vivum the other is Yellow and is nothing but the Natural melted purified from its grosser earth and formed into Rowls which we do commonly use Some think that Sulphur is a Vitriol sublimed in the earth because these mixts are very often found near one another that there is a great deal of Sulphur in the mass of Mineral Vitriol and that the acid Spirits which are drawn from them both are wholly alike Flower of Sulphur This preparation is an exaltation of Sulphur Put about half a pound of Sulphur grosly powdered into a glass body place it in a small open fire and cover it with a pot or another Cucurbite turned upside down one that is unglazed so as that the neck of the one may enter into the neck of the other Change the upper Cucurbite every half hour fitting another in its place add likewise new Sulphur gather your Flowers which you find stuck in the Cucurbite and continue to do thus until you have got as much as you desire Then put out the fire and let the vessels cool there will remain at bottom only a little light insignificant earth The Flower of Sulphur is used in Diseases of the Lungs and Breast the dose is from ten to thirty grains in Lozenges or in Electuary It
is used also in Unguents for the Itch. Remarks This Operation is intended only to rarefie the Sulphur that being become more open it may work the better Sulphur is proper against Infirmities of the Lungs when they proceed from a Viscosity that sticks to them because it deterges but if it should be given to such as are too much dried with a Feaver it proves very ill in that it raises a greater motion of the humours it cures Tettars and the Itch because opening the Pores it drives out the subtler part of the humor but yet the grosser part remaining within they do frequently return again You may use a glass head to fit upon the body If you mix one part of Sal Polychrestum with two pounds of Sulphur and sublime them together as those I have described you 'l have white flowers of Sulphur which are thought to be better for distempers of the Breast than those others they are given in the same dose This whiteness proceeds from a very exact attenuation which Sal Polychrestum gives to the Sulphur the Sal Polychrestum which remains at bottom of the Cucurbite may be Calcined and if you afterwards Purifie it by solution Evaporation and Filtration it will be as good as before Magistery of Sulphur This Operation is a Sulphur dissolved by an Alkali salt and precipitated by an acid Take four ounces of the Flower of Sulphur and twelve ounces of the Salt of Tartar or Salt-peter fixed by the coals put them into a large glazed pot and pour upon them six or seven pints of water Cover the pot and setting it on the fire make the matter boil five or six hours or until being become red the Sulphur is all dissolved Then Filtrate the dissolution and pour upon it by little and little distilled Vinegar or some other acid there will presently appear a Milk let it settle that a white powder may precipitate to the bottom of the vessel pour off by Inclination that which is clear and washing this powder five or six times with water dry it in the shade this is called the Magistery or Milk of Sulphur it is thought good for all diseases of the Lungs or Breast the dose is from six to sixteen grains in some convenient liquor Remarks Water alone is not able to dissolve such a gross body as Sulphur wherefore an Alkali salt is added to divide it into small imperceptible particles The acid liquor pierces the Alkali and by separating its parts makes it let go its hold so that the Sulphur gathers it self together and falls down to the bottom in a white powder This powder is washed to take away the impression of the Salt of Tartar and the acid that might remain among it after which it may be said to be a Flower of Sulphur Alcoholised The change of its yellow colour into a white comes from this that being more rarefied it hath a smoother surface then it had before to reflect the light in a direct line to our eyes This Operation may give us an Idea of what happens in Chylification and in Sanguification for after the same manner as the Sulphur does become white when it has been reduced into a Magistery or fine powder so the aliments having been fermented and their substance attenuated in our stomachs the Chyle receives a white colour and after the manner as the Sulphur when intirely dissolved does turn of a red colour so the parts of Chyle having been altogether exalted and dissolved by repeated circulations does become red and turn into bloud This bloud turns into a Pus and becomes white in Imposthumes because the acid which is found in them having as it were fixed and gathered together its insensible parts does make them recover again the colour of Chyle You must take care not to let there be any Silver vessel where this Operation is performed because the vapour which proceeds from Sulphur will make it black Fifteen grains of this powder will do as much as double the quantity of Flower of Sulphur for diseases of the Breast and it doth not heat so much Balsom of Sulphur This Operation is a solution of the oily parts of common Sulphur in oil of Turpentine Put into a small matrass an ounce and a half of Flower of Sulphur and pour upon it eight ounces of Oil of Turpentine place your matrass in sand and give it a digesting fire two hours afterwards encrease it a little for four hours and the Oil will take a red colour let the vessel cool then separate the clear Balsom from the Sulphur that could not dissolve This Balsom is excellent for Ulcers of the Lungs and Breast the dose is from one drop to six in some proper liquor This Balsom may be reduced to the consistence of an Unguent by evaporating some part of it and it is thus used to cleanse wounds and ulcers To make the Aniseed Balsom of Sulphur you must use the Oil drawn from Aniseed instead of the Oil of Turpentine and proceed as I have said it is more agreeable than the former and has less acrimony Remarks There is no need of a great fire for this Operation because Sulphur being a fat body doth easily incorporate with Oils and commonly gives them a red colour When you would have this Balsom taken in Potion you must dissolve it in a little yelk of an Egg that it may mix in waters or broths That which remains undissolved in the matrass is the acid or saline part of Sulphur and is found crystallized A Balsom of Sulphur may be likewise made with Oil of Linseed instead of the Oil of Turpentine for wounds Spirit of Sulphur This Spirit is the acid part of Sulphur turned into a liquor by fire Provide a great earthen pan and set in the middle of it a little earthen pan turn'd upside down and then another such pan on this filled with melted Sulphur cover both these Pans with a great glass tunnel made on purpose with a neck as long as that of a matrass and the bigness of a thumb fire the Sulphur and do not stop the hole of the tunnel but let the air come in to increase its burning for it would otherwise go out When your Sulphur is spent put new in its place and continue to do so until you find under the lower pan as much Spirit as you need keep it in a Viol. It is put into Juleps to give them an agreable acidity to qualifie the heat of continued Feavers and is a good diuretick Some do prescribe it for diseases of the Breast but because acids are apt to give a Cough it may therefore do more hurt than good to that part Remarks A great many Machines have been invented to draw the Spirit of Sulphur the ordinary one is the glass bell under which the Brimstone is burnt and the Spirits coagulating against its sides distil into an earthen pan that is set underneath after the same manner as I have shewed in the description of
Sun their spirituous parts that were condensed in the Phlegm do display themselves and exert their activity for which reason it is that the water becomes fragrant which was not so before The Extract doth contain almost all the Essential Salt of the Plant wherefore it is of greater virtue than the water you must take care to Evaporate the liquor with a mild heat for fear too much should carry off this salt which is but too volatile of its own nature for it is in the salt that the principal virtue of the Plant doth consist CHAP. X. Distillation of a Plant that is not Odoriferous such as Carduus Benedictus and its Essential Salt TAke a good quantity of Carduus when it is in its prime pound it in a Mortar and fill with it two thirds of a Limbeck draw by expression a sufficient quantity of the Juyce of other Carduus and pour it into the Limbeck that the herbs swimming in the Juyce may incur no danger of sticking to the bottom during the distillation distil with a fire of the second degree about half as much water as you used juyce this water is Sudorifick It is used to drive out the Small-Pox and in the Plague Express through a cloth that which remains in the Limbeck let the juyce settle and after it is filtred Evaporate with a small fire about two thirds of the liquor in an earthen or glass vessel set this vessel in a cool place and leave it there eight or ten days there will shoot out Crystals round about the vessel separate them and keep them in a Viol well stopt These Crystals are called the Essential salt it is Sudorifick the dose is from six to sixteen grains in its proper distilled water The Extract of Carduus may be likewise made the same way that I described for Balm Remarks Succory Fumitory Sorrel Scabious Cresses and all other Plants that are not Odoriferous which yield good store of Juice must be distilled like the Carduus Benedictus and this method may serve to draw the Essential Salt out of any plant whatsoever The hot Plants have much more of this Salt than others Lettice contains less than Succory Succory less than Sorrel and so of the rest Seeing it is in the Salt that the virtue of the plant consists I would advise rather to use the decoction of Plants than their distilled water when the Plants are in season and when they are out then to have recourse to distilled waters and mix with them a little of their Essential Salt or Extract The fixt Alkali Salt may be drawn from the remainder of the Plant in like manner as I have shewed to draw that of Guaiacum CHAP. XI Of Sugar SVgar is the essential salt of a reed or cane that grows in many places and especially in the Western Islands The pulp in the trunk of this plant is taken and washed and then steeped in hot water this water is strained and evaporated and the Sugar remains at bottom heretofore it was called Mel arundinaceum or the Cane-honey but since it has been called Zucharum or Saccharum The first elaboration that is given to Sugar is to purifie it by dissolving it in water filtrating and evaporating the liquor after which it is made up into Loaves or else it is sent in Casks or Chests and is called Cassonnade or Castonnade There are of it the red the brown and the white Sugar according as it has been more or less purified it differs in colour The name Castonnade may have been derived from the Casks in which it is brought called Cast by the Germans When the Sugar has been refined no more then abovesaid it is a little fat now to refine it farther it is dissolved in Lime-water it is boiled and the scum taken off when it is sufficiently boiled it is cast into molds of a Pyramidal form which have a hole at bottom to let the more glutionous part run through and separate It is still farther refined by boiling it with the whites of eggs in water for the glutinous quality of the whites of eggs does help to receive and take away the impurities which might remain in the Sugar and the boiling of it serving to drive them all to the sides of the vessel in a scum the liquor is passed through a cloth and then evaporated to a due consistence Sugar-Candy is only a Sugar crystallized the way to make it is to boil refined Sugar in water to the consistence of a thick Syrop it is then poured into pots wherein little sticks have been laid in order it is left in a still place some days without stirring and you have the Sugar-Candy sticking to those sticks Red Sugar-Candy is made after the same manner Sugar is good for infirmities of the breast and lungs because it does attenuate and cut the phlegm which sometimes oppresses the fibres of these parts but you must use it as little as may be in hysterical cases by reason that it raises vapours Red-Sugar is sometimes mixed with detersive Clysters It s sweetness does proceed from an essential acid salt mixed with some oily parts of which it consists as I have already explicated in the Remarks upon Oil of Antimony prepared with Sugar The Cassonnade or Cask-sugar makes a sweeter impression upon the tongue than our finer Sugar because it contains more viscous or fat parts which do remain the longer upon the nerve of the tongue and this makes us sometimes prefer the first as to use before the other And for the same reason the finer a Sugar is the quicker it passes off the taste Sugar-candy is better for Rheums than common Sugar because being harder it requires a longer time to melt in the mouth and besides it keeps the breast moister than the common Sugar Spirit of Sugar This Spirit is a mixture of the acid part of Sugar with the Flowers of Sal Armoniack Powder and mix eight ounces of white Sugar-candy with four ounces of Sal Armoniack put this mixture into a glass or earthen body whose third only is thereby filled fit a head to the body and place it in a sand-furnace joyn a receiver to it and lute well the junctures with a wet bladder give it a small fire for an hour only to heat the vessel then increase it to the second degree there will distil a liquor drop by drop and towards the end there will rise white vapours into the head increase your fire still more until nothing more comes forth let the vessels cool and unlute them you will find in the receiver seven ounces of a brown liquor that has but an ill smell and a little black oil stuck to the sides pour it all together into a glass-body and having fitted to it a head and receiver and luted the joints distil in sand six ounces of a very acid spirit that is clear and agreeable to the taste and without any smell of Empyreum It is a good aperitive against the gravel and the
into a Bolus with some liquid substance or else you may boil them in some liquor but you must take the liquor very hot otherwise the Crystals will fall to the bottom of the cup you drink out of If you should boil these Crystals in common water or in broth and then let it stand to be cold they will return into the same form they were in before both at the bottom and on the sides of the vessel but the liquor will remain a little sharp through the solution of some part of the salt of Tartar into it I see no reason so much to wonder as some do why Tartar will not dissolve in cold water for although it does contain a great deal of salt this salt is involved in Earth and Oil which must needs hinder the dissolution and there is no need of having recourse for an explication of this to a proportionable Union of Volatile salts and acids Soluble Tartar Powder and mix together eight ounces of Crystals of Tartar and four ounces of the fixt salt of Tartar put this mixture into a glazed earthen pot and pouring upon it three pints of common water boil the matter gently for half an hour then letting it cool filtrate and evaporate the liquor until it is dry and there will remain at bottom eleven ounces six drachms of a white salt keep it in a Viol it is both a good Aperitive and Laxative it is good for Cachexies Dropsies and all diseases that proceed from Obstructions the dose is from ten grains to two scruples in broth or some proper liquor Remarks This Operation is nothing but a dissolution that the Salt of Tartar has made of Cream of Tartar so that it can dissolve in cold water which it could not do alone the Cream of Tartar also being an acid insinuates into the pores of the Alkali salt and sweetens it If you boil Cream of Tartar in water and put into it some salt of Tartar there will happen an Effervescency between them but if you mix these two ingredients together in cold water there will be no Effervescency the reason of which is that the acid Spirits of Cream of Tartar being involved in other principles can have no active power to open the Alkali unless they be actuated by fire I use to filter the dissolution in order to separate some terrestrious part of the Cream of Tartar which could not dissolve this salt comes near in virtue to Tartar vitriolated some do call it a Vegetable salt Chalybeated or Martial Crystals of Tartar This Preparation is a Crystal of Tartar impregnated with the more soluble part of Iron Powder and mix a pound of good white Tartar and three ounces of Rust of Iron boil this mixture in an Iron pot with five or six quarts of water for half an hour or so much time as is requisite to dissolve the Tartar pass the liquor hot through a warm cloth then let it settle in an Iron or earthen pot ten or twelve hours it will shoot into brown Crystals at the sides and bottom of the pot pour off the liquor by Inclination and gather the Crystals then evaporate about half the liquor in the same pot let the remainder settle and take out the Crystals as before continue these Evaporations and Crystallizations until you have drawn all your Tartar dry the Crystals in the Sun and so keep them They are a good remedy for Obstructions of the Liver Mesentery Spleen they are given in Cachexies and for Melancholy and the Quartan Ague the dose is from fifteen grains to two Scruples in broth or some other liquor proper to the distemper Remarks This Preparation is boil'd but little that the Tartar may dissolve only the more Saline part of Iron the liquor is made to pass through a cloth to free it from the Impurities of the Tartar and Iron which could not dissolve but you must pass it very hot for if it were a little cool the Tartar would Coagulate in the cloth and so none of the liquor would pass Instead of Crystallizing the dissolved Tartar you may evaporate all the liquor and so obtain a brown powder which has the same virtues as the Crystals When you would exhibite this Chalybeated Crystal of Tartar you must make it just boil in the liquor you give it in for otherwise it will not dissolve and you must be sure to give it as hot as they can take it for fear it should Crystallize at the bottom of the Cup. Soluble Tartar Chalybeated Put into an earthen pan or glass vessel four ounces of Soluble Tartar and sixteen ounces of Tincture of Mars prepared according to the description that I have given set the vessel in sand and with a small fire evaporate the liquor until there remains a black powder shut it in a viol well stopt and keep it you 'l have eight ounces This Martial Tartar has the same virtues as the Tincture of Tartar it is good to remove all Obstructions wherefore it is very properly used in Cachexies Dropsies retention of the Menses in Nephritick Colicks and in difficulties of Urine the dose is from ten grains to half a drachm in broth or some proper liquor or else made into Lozenges Remarks This Preparation of Chalybeate or Martial Tartar is not only more convenient for use than the former in that it dissolves or mixes in a cold liquor but has much more virtue in it for the Tincture of Mars contains only the more saline part of Tartar Soluble Emetick Tartar This Preparation is a soluble Tartar impregnated with some portion of Glass of Antimony which renders it Emetick Put into a glass vessel four ounces of Crystals of Tartar powdered pour upon it Spirit of Vrine until it be two fingers above the matter there will happen a small ebullition because the Cream of Tartar will dissolve in the Spirit of Vrine when the dissolution is finished add to it an ounce of the glass of Antimony finely powdered and eight or ten ounces of water boil it all in a sand-heat seven or eight hours and take care to put more hot water into the vessel as the liquor consumes after that filtrate and evaporate gently in sand all the liquor and there will remain three ounces of a greyish powder drawing towards white keep it in a Viol well stopt It is an Emetick that works with little violence the dose is from four to fifteen grains in broth Remarks The Ebullition which happens in this Operation proceeds from the Cream of Tartars meeting with the Volatile and Alkali Salt of Urine for the Acid of Tartar piercing the Salt of Urine divides its parts and gives vent to igneous bodies which were contained in it and which now finding themselves free do break forth in great haste Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack may be used instead of that of Vrine but then there will be no sensible Ebullition the reason of which is because the salt of this Spirit is not an Alkali so open
as the Spirit of Vrine by reason of some impression it has of the Acid sal Armoniack with which it was mixt insomuch that the Crystals of Tartar whose acid is not separated from the Earth has points too gross and too unactive to insinuate into the pores of this salt and separate its parts so easily as those of the salt that is contained in Spirit of Vrine whose pores are bigger Some part of the Glass of Antimony dissolves in the boiling and gives the Emetick quality to the powder It is a very gentle Vomit because the Tartar fixes and in some measure hinders the activity of the Sulphurs of Antimony If instead of making the aforesaid evaporation you should take the vessel off the fire when there is but two thirds of the liquor consumed and let it settle without stirring it in four and twenty hours the soluble Tartar will crystallize at the bottom and on the sides but it will be never a whit the better When you would make this Crystallization you must use a flat vessel let it be of earth that the Crystals may display themselves the better The liquor is to be decanted and the Crystals to be taken and dryed The evaporations and crystallizations are to be continued until you have obtained all your salt Another sort of Soluble Emetick Tartar may be made by boiling in water an ounce of the Glass of Antimony powdered with four ounces of Soluble Tartar for seven or eight hours then upon filtring and evaporating the liquor there will remain a grey powder of the same virtues as the other and to be given in the same dose Distillation of Tartar This Operation is a separation of the Phlegm the Spirit and the Oil of Tartar Fill two thirds of a Retort with Tartar grosly powdered place your Retort in a Reverberatory Furnace and fitting to it a large capacious Receiver begin the distillation with a very small fire for three hours only to warm the Retort and drive out the Phlegm drop by drop throw away this insipid water and refitting the Receiver Lute closely the joints encrease the fire by little and little and you 'l see Spirits fill the Receiver with Clouds continue it that the Oil may likewise come forth then when there will come no more let the vessels cool and unlute them pour that which is in the receiver into a Tunnel lined with brown paper that the Spirit may filtrate and separate from the thick black Oil that remains in the filter keep this Oil in a Viol it is good to smell to in Hysterical vapours it would be good to rub Paralytical parts with and for cold pains but by reason of its abominable smell it is not used Pour the Spirit into a glass Cucurbite and rectifie it by distilling it in sand it is good against the Palsie Asthma and Scurvy it works by Urine and by Sweat It is used in Hysterical maladies and for the Epilepsie the dose is from one drachm to three in some appropriate liquor You will find in the Retort a black mass from which a Salt may be drawn as I shall shew hereafter Remarks If you have used three pounds of Tartar of sixteen ounces to the pound in this Operation you will draw four ounces of Phlegm eight ounces of Spirit and three ounces of Oil the black mass which remains in the Retort after distillation will weigh two pounds or two and thirty ounces and you will draw from that mass twelve ounces of salt Almost all Authors who have spoke of Tartar have asserted that two sorts of Spirits could be drawn from it by distillation the one very Volatile the other fixt and acid wherefore after all had mixed confusedly in the Receiver they separated the Oil and added some Alkali such as Coral or Crabs-eyes to that which remained then they poured it into a Cucurbite and distilled about half the liquor which they pretended to be a Volatile Spirit for the acid Spirit remained absorb'd by the Alkali with the Phlegm in the bottom of the body But having vowed never to be led by any Authority which is not founded upon Experience I have examined the nature of Tartar as strictly as possible and after a great many distillations of it I could never perceive this Volatile Spirit which hath been obtruded upon us all that I could ever find is this that Tartar contains good store of Essential salt which renders it acid and that this Salt coming forth by distillation and mixing with phlegm doth make all the Spirit that can be drawn from Tartar So that the Spirit of Tartar according to the description of these men is only the more Phlegmatick part of the liquor that is to say the most deprived of this Essential Salt because almost all of it doth adhere unto the Alkali body of Coral or Crabs-eyes which were added to it But according to the way I have set down the Spirit may be drawn as pure as may be because I do not leave it to mix with the phlegm which comes out first If we do rectifie the Spirit it is done to purifie it from some Terrestrious parts which it might have carried along with it in the distillation Some thinking to do better than those who rectifie Spirit of Tartar on alkali matters do instead of those alkalis use biscuit powdered but they attain their end never the better for the biscuit does sweeten the acid Spirit of Tartar as much as Coral or Crabs-eyes A very volatile and alkali Spirit is drawn from the Lees of wine I shall speak of it in the Chapter of the Volatile Salt of Tartar and perhaps it is this very Spirit that Paracelsus and Van Helmont do boast so much of and which has occasioned many Authors to write that the Tartar does contain a most volatile Spirit Fixt Salt of Tartar and its liquor called Oil per Deliquium Break the Retort which served you for distillation of Tartar and take the black mass you find in it Calcine it until it becomes white then put it into a great deal of hot water and make a Lixivium filtrate it and pour it into a glass or earthen vessel evaporate in a sand-heat all the water and there will remain a white salt which is called the Alkali Salt of Tartar This Salt is Aperitive it is used for to draw forth the Tincture of Vegetables and is given for Obstructions the dose is from ten to thirty drops in broth or Laxative Infusions If you expose for some days in a Cellar this Salt of Tartar in a wide glass vessel it will dissolve into a liquor that is improperly called Oil of Tartar per Deliquium It is used for Tettars and to discuss Tumors the Ladies do mix it in Lilly-water to clear their complexion and hands Remarks In these two last Operations I have given you the means of obtaining all that can be got from Tartar but those who have no need of the Spirit or Oil and would only desire the
tinn'd o' th' inside supported on two Iron bars q The Head r A copper Pipe tinn'd passing through a vessel filled with water s A glass Receiver t A small Iron Furnace u An Iron pot x The Cover to the Iron pot y A Cock to let the water out of the vessel when it grows too hot z A Matrass or Bolt-head The FIRST TABLE The SECOND TABLE a a A Moveable Furnace for fusions b Registers or holes to let the air into the fire c A Dome divided in two d A little Chimny and the flame passing through it e An Iron trevet to support the furnace f A glass Mortar with its Pestle g h A pot with a coffin of paper over it for receiving the Flowers of Benjamin i k l A Matrass or Bolt-head and its blind-head for sublimations m n A great earthen pan with a little Cup turned upside downwards A Crucible containing the lighted Sulphur A great glass Tunnel to draw Spirit of Sulphur o A Mould p A copper Body q Its Refrigeratory r The Receiver s A Circulating vessel t A Pot with a hole in the middle of its height and the stopple of the hole lying by u Three Aludels or Pots upon one another x The glass head y A Mould to make the balls of Regulus of Antimony which are called perpetual Pills z The Mould wherewith to form the lapis infernalis a a A little furnace and its pan with sand in it and an earthen pan filled with liquor to be evaporated b b A Coppel c c A little Coppel to make trials with The SECOND TABLE The THIRD TABLE A Moveable Furnace to distil in Sand. a The Ash-hole and its door b The Fire-place and its door c The Cucurbite or Body d The Sand wherein the Body is placed e The Head f The Receiver g The same Furnace empty h A Body i A Head k A glass in which Oil of Cloves is made l A Copper Balneum to contain and distil with four Alembicks m n A Pipe through which the hot water is poured into the Balneum according as it evaporates o The Receiver p A Balneum to distil with one Alembick q A Mold to make Cups of Regulus of Antimony r A French Crucible s A German Crucible The THIRD TABLE Reverberatory Furnace You may also leave holes through which the Iron-bars may pass which support the Retort that they may be easily taken out when you have a mind to use this Furnace for Fusions A Furnace of this form may be called Polychrest or general because such a one may be used for all sorts of Operations It is likewise convenient for Fusions to have a moveable Furnace of the same matter as the others it must be round and may be set upon a stool it is to have only one grate and six Registers or holes on the sides to let in the air to the fire The Dome may be made of the same matter for to cover it and a small earthen Chimney for to place upon the hole of the Dome that the fire may keep the stronger See the figure of it in the second Table You must be sure to put sand or broken pots or such like things into the Paste that you use for the building Furnaces either fixt or moveable to hinder them from cracks when they come to dry for these matters rendring the clay more porous the wet breaths out much the more easily Again Lime and Sand tempered together might serve for the building your fixt Furnaces and stones might be used instead of bricks but because it is necessary to increase and lessen the Furnaces to proportion their size to the vessels you would place in them the description which I gave before is the more convenient for that a man may very easily break them and build them again without the help of a Brick-layer A small Iron Furnace with its iron pot and a cover to it is convenient for performing many operations this pot may serve for a Balneum Mariae and for a Vaporous Bath when there is no other It may be likewise used to distil by an Alembick in a Bath of Sand Ashes or of filings of Iron See the description of it in the first Table A great Iron Furnace should likewise be had whereon to place a Copper Balneum Mariae for to distil with four bodies at once In the middle of this Bath there should be a pipe raised the top of which must be made like a Funnel into which you are to pour hot water in place of that which consumes away in vapour See its figure in the third Table As for Vessels chuse them as much as may be of Earth or Glass for it is to be feared that those which are made of Metal will communicate some particular impression to the Liquors you put into them but because sometimes you may have occasion to distil a great many things in a little time you may use the Copper-Cucurbit or Body Tinn'd because that Tinn is not so soluble as Copper and besides hath no such pernicious quality upon this Cucurbit place a fit head round about which must be made a kind of bason to hold the water that cools and condenses the vapours which rise from the Matter contained in the Vesica so soon as it is heated See its description in the second Table You may likewise provide a Copper pipe tinn'd o' th' inside which may pass sloping downwards through a vessel fill'd with water and when you would distil Essences with it you must fit the upper end of it to the nose of the head and the lower end of it to the mouth of the Receiver but you must remember to empty the water out of the vessel according as it grows hot for to cool the liquor that is distilling and to this end there must be a hole made at the bottom of the vessel to be stopt with a wooden stopple which may be taken out and put in again as often as you would let out the water The Moor's head is a Copper cap tinn'd on the inside made like to a head See the figure of it in the first Table Many Retorts of different sizes are necessary in a Laboratory those which are of Earth are convenient for the distillation of Acid Spirits because they are able to endure the utmost degree of Fire and will not melt as glass do The Vessels made of Earth have their pores as close as glass it self and preserve the Spirits as well They who want Earthen Vessels may coat their glass Retorts with the Lute that I shall describe hereafter that if the glass should melt when they are distilling Acid Spirits the Lute may preserve the matter safe Earthen and Glass Cucurbits with their heads do serve for a great many Operations Matrasses both great and small when they are fitted to the nose of a Limbeck are called Receivers at other times we put things into them to digest and they are also fit for sublimations When the
this reason will not hold when 't is considered that this Augmentation comes to pass as well when Lead is Calcin'd with Coals as Wood for Coals contain only a fixt Salt that rises not at all 'T is better therefore to refer this effect to the disposition of the pores of Lead in such a manner that part of the fire insinuating into them does there remain imbodied and can't get forth again whence the weight comes to be encreased If you would revive this Calx of Lead by way of Fusion its parts do squeez and express the igneous particles that were inclosed and the Lead does thereby weigh less than it did when reduced into a Calx for by this means the Sulphureous parts are separated and lost Salt of Saturn This Operation is a Lead penetrated and reduced into the form of Salt by the acidity of Vinegar Take three or four pounds of one of these Preparations or Calcinations of Lead for example the Cerusse powder it and put it in a large Glass or Earthen vessel pour upon it distill'd Vinegar four fingers high an Ebullition will follow without any sensible heat Put it in Digestion in hot Sand for two or three days stirring about the Matter ever now and then then let it settle and separate the Liquor by Inclination Pour new distill'd Vinegar upon the Cerusse that remains in the Vessel and proceed as before continuing to pour on distill'd Vinegar and to separate it by Inclination until you have dissolved about half the Matter Mix all your Impregnations together in an earthen or glass Vessel Evaporate in a Sand-fire with a gentle heat about two thirds of the moisture or 'till there rises a little skin over it Then transfer your Vessel into a Celler or some such cool place without jogging it there will appear white Crystals which you must separate and Evaporate the Liquor as before and set it again in the Cellar Continue your Evaporations and Crystallizations 'till you have gotten all your Salt Dry it in the Sun and keep it in a Glass If you would make it exceeding white you must dissolve it in equal quantities of distill'd Vinegar and common water then Filter it and Crystallize it as I said before This Purification may be repeated three or four times It is commonly used in Pomatums for Tettars and Inflammations the Impregnation of Saturn is also used chiefly for Diseases of the skin when it is mixed with a great deal of Water it makes a Milk that is called Virgins Milk The Salt of Saturn taken inwardly is esteemed very good for the Quinsie to stop the flowing of the Menses and Hemorrhoids and for the Bloudy Flux The Dose is from two grains to four in Knot-grass or Plantain water or mixt in Gargâ—es Remarks I do commonly use Cerusse for preparing the Salt of Saturn because I find it to be more open and easier to dissolve than the other Preparations of Lead by reason of the Vinegar it is already impregnated with The Ebullition that is observed doth proceed from the violent entrance of the acids which do forcibly separate the parts of the Matter But it is remarkable that the Effervescency which happens upon pouring a like quantity of acids on any other preparation of Lead is a great deal stronger because when the acid meets with a body not so open as Cerusse it must use greater endeavour to enter into it and consequently raises up the Matter higher In these Effervescences as well as many others you cannot perceive the least Degree of Heat nay some presume to assert that Cold is increased in them Vinegar loses all its force in the penetration of Lead and acquires a kind of sweet or sugar'd taste You must not imagine that a true Salt of Lead can be drawn It is nothing but a dissolution of its substance by acids which do very closely unite with it to form a kind of Salt For if by distillation you should draw off the humidity of the Dissolution you 'd find it to be nothing but an Insipid water and consequently deprived of all its acids I shall prove that better hereafter when we come to revive our Salt into Lead This Salt called Sugar by reason of its sweetness is good for many Diseases that are caused by acid or sharp humors because it asswages them and mitigates their keenness This is particularly observed in Quinzies whose cause doth ordinarily proceed from a saline or acid serosity which falling too abundantly on the Muscles of the Larynx raises a fermentation that dilates their fibers and causes the Inflammation we see Thus whatsoever is able to dull the edge of Acids is good for the cure of this Disease Menstrual Purgations Flux of the Hemorrhoids and Dysenteries are usually caused by sharp corrosive Salts which fall into the Vessels Wherefore the Salt of Saturn as all other matters that absorb Acids do serve to cure these distempers for take away the cause of a disease and the effect will soon cease The sweetness of Salt of Saturn cannot be better explicated than by the Sulphureous or softish substanee of the particles of Lead which being actuated by the Salt of Vinegar do delightfully tickle the Nerve of the tongue when it is tasted Vinegar impregnated with some preparation of Lead is called Vinegar of Saturn If it be well tempered with Oil of Roses or some other Oil beating them together in a mortar it makes an unguent that is called Nutritum or otherwise Butter of Saturn it is good for Tettars and other disfigurations of the skin Magistery of Saturn This Operation is a Lead dissolved and precipitated Dissolve two or three ounces of the Salt of Saturn well purified as I said before in a sufficient quantity of Water and distill'd Vinegar filter the dissolution and pour upon it drop by drop the Oil of Tartar made per Deliquium it will first turn into a Milk then a kind of Coagulum that will precipitate to the bottom of the Vessel in a white Powder Boil it a little and pour it into a Tunnel lined with a Coffin of brown Paper the Liquor will pass through as clear as Water and the Powder remain in it Wash it several times with Water to carry off all the impression of Vinegar Then dry it and you 'l have a very white Magistery that is used for a Fucus like the Bismuth It is likewise mixed in Pomatums for Tettars c. Remarks When good store of Water is poured upon the Impregnation of Saturn it turns white like Milk and is commonly called Virgins milk it is used in Inflammations and to Pimples in the face if you let this Milk settle it becomes as clear as Water and a White powder sinks down to the bottom this Powder does proceed from the particles of Lead which were held up by the acidity of the Vinegar and were made let go their hold by the access of Water diluting the acid This Magistery being well washt may serve like the other
it the parts of Lead close together and expel the fiery particles so that the Lead revives as it was before and recovers its Natural gravity The matter when shut up in the Retort would never be able to revive let the fire be made never so strong because the igneous particles would have no liberty to get out The Yellow earth that 's found in the Crucible seems to be of a Golden colour it is a terrestrious and bituminous impurity that the Lead is purified from There should be indeed but two drachms of it because four ounces of Lead are recovered wherefore the Augmentation must needs be from the fiery parts that remained in it as in a Calx Spirit of Saturn becomes inflammable from its containing in it some spirit of Wine that remains still involved in the Vinegar and was carried away with the acids into the Pores of Lead when the Salt of Saturn was made for if you quicken the Fire to distil this Salt the acids break in pieces and leave the Spirit of Wine at liberty insomuch that the Spirit of Saturn hath no acid taste The matter that remains in the Retort after the Operation may be easily revived into Lead as being deprived of the acids which gave it the form of Salt The Salt of Saturn may be likewise revived into Lead by mixing it with an Alkali Salt melted in a Crucible with a good fire because this last Salt destroys the acids that kept the Lead thus disguised but you must observe that it will flame before it revives by reason of the Spirit of Wine that I said was included in the dissolution of Cerusse made by Vinegar CHAP. VI. Of Copper COpper is a Metal that abounds in Vitriol and Sulphur it is called Venus because this Planet was thought to govern it particularly and bestow its Influences upon it and for this reason there hath been attributed unto it the virtue of encreasing seed and curing the diseases of those parts that serve for Generation But because Copper contains in it a Corrosive quality I would advise no body to use it inwardly Copper takes Rust very easily for if you leave but a drop of Water some hours upon a piece of it it makes a Verdegreese Have a care of drinking water that has lain in Copper vessels for it always dissolves some portion of it which appears easily from the taste it leaves in it It will not be altogether amiss to make mention here of an effect that is no less strange than usual 'T is that Water or any other liquor that 's heated or boil'd in a Copper vessel for a whole day together savours not at all or not so much of the Copper provided that it be not removed off the fire all that time as other water warm'd in a like vessel and put from the fire but an hour for whereas water alone can dissolve something of the Copper it would seem that being aided with the heat of fire it should partake of its nature the more Now in my opinion this is the most rational explication that can be given of this matter Every body may perceive that when the water begins to heat in a Copper vessel that 's set over the fire little Atoms do rise at bottom like the stirring of a powder and these Atoms do encrease according as the water receives more heat so that at length they make it boil on high these little Atoms can have no other cause than the fiery particles which passing through the vessel do drive the water upwards apace and rarifie its parts for this reason it is that the water is not able to dissolve any of the Copper for being continually raised upwards it can make no impression upon the bottom of the vessel Perhaps some will tell me that the liquor might take the impression of the Copper at the sides of the Bason but it is easie to imagine that though there don't pass through the sides so many fiery particles as do at the bottom there do pass nevertheless enough to hinder the liquor from sticking to or dissolving any particles of the vessel But now on the contrary the vessel being remov'd from off the fire and the motion of the igneous particles being quite ceased the liquor partakes easily of the Copper and so much the more easily as the fire has rarified the metal and rendred it more proper for dissolution Every thing seems to confirm this Opinion for if any liquor is put to boil over a strong fire in a Copper vessel it will not impregnate in the least but if you place it upon a small fire and leave it so for some time then because there will not pass enough fiery particles to cover all the surface of the vessel and raise up the liquor it will take some taste of the Copper but this taste will not be so strong as if you had left it the same length of time in such a vessel off the fire after it had been warm'd Liquors that are full of Salts do take the impression of Copper much more easily than those that are not Thus Confectioners do observe what I have mentioned for though they boil their Confections in vessels of Copper for a considerable time they find them taste nothing of the Copper but they know that if they should leave them but half an hour in the vessel taken off the fire they would be tainted with a most loathsom Copper taste We may learn from this Discourse not to use a Copper vessel when we have a mind to boil or heat a liquor gently and when we do think fit to use it to be sure to keep a good brisk fire underneath and not to let what we have boil'd cool afterwards in a vessel of this nature Another difficulty does here offer it self on this subject and it is to know why a Kettle that has been taken off the fire is not so hot at bottom as at the sides so that as soon as it is removed from off the fire one may touch it at bottom without burning ones finger which can't be done at the sides without present scalding The reason of which is that the fiery particles tending upwards through the bottom of the kettle which is flat in a direct line don't make any stop in passing through having but a little distance to conquer before they come into the liquor but those that rise on the sides finding a longer space to make upon the kettle do many of them stop in the Pores of the Copper It is not the same thing in vessels that are made in another form whose bottom is Globular because the fiery particles rising up in an indirect line do find more to do to pass through it than in a flat bottom and so by conference more of them do stop But it is objected that if igneous bodies do pass through the bottom of the kettle without any stop they would not be able to heat it any more when it is empty
repeat these evaporations and Crystallizations until you have got all your Crystals then dry them and keep them in a Glass bottle well stopt This Vitriol of Mars hath the same virtues as the former and must be given in the same Dose Remarks The Spirit of Vitriol is weakned by the Water to the end that it may be incapable of dissolving but only the purer part of Mars Moreover if it were used alone it would incorporate with the very substance of Mars but would not be able to dissolve any of it because there would be wanting sufficient moisture to separate its parts During the dissolution the liquor heats and boils considerably because the acidity of Spirit of Vitriol doth violently enter the body of this metal and makes a separation of its parts To Evaporate unto a Pellicle doth signifie to consume the Liquor until a kind of thin skin is perceived to swim upon it which always happens when some part of the moisture being evaporated there remains but little more than is necessary to hold the Salt in Fusion An Acid Spirit may be drawn from this Vitriol of Mars by distilling it in a Retort in a Reverberatory fire like common Vitriol this Spirit hath been thought to have the same virtues as ordinary Spirit of Vitriol but it can't be near so good because it hath much blunted or broken some part of its edges against the body of Mars in the dissolution and distillation That which remains in the Retort after distillation is that part of Mars which the Spirit of Vitriol had dissolved It may be used like an aperitive Crocus Martis Those who do attribute the aperitive effect of Mars only to its sweetning as an Alkali the acid juices which do too plentifully abound in mens bodies will find it hard to explicate how these two last preparations do come to be esteemed the best aperitives which are made upon Mars for the acid does so far predominate in their composition that the Alkali is able to do little or nothing Tincture of Mars with Tartar This Preparation is a dissolution of Iron performed by the acid of Tartar Take Twelve ounces of the Rust of Iron and Two pounds of White Tartar of Montpelier powder and mix them together then boil them in a great Iron pot or Cauldron with Twelve or Fifteen pints of rain-Rain-water for Twelve hours time stir the matter with an Iron Slice from time to time and take care to put more boiling water into the Cauldron according as it consumes afterwards leave it a while to settle and you 'l have a black Liquor Filtrate and evaporate it in an Earthen Pan over a Sand-fire to the consistence of a Syrup or till there rises a Pellicle upon it It is a very great Aperitive it opens the most inveterate Obstructions and is given in Cachexies Dropsies Obstruction of the Terms and other Diseases that proceed from Oppilations the Dose is from a Drachm to half an ounce in Broth or some appropriate Liquor Remarks Water alone would not be able enough to penetrate the Iron for to make a Tincture though you should boil it a Month together But when it is impregnated with Tartar it dissolves it very easily Nevertheless you must not think that this Tincture is a perfect solution of Mars for if there were an intire solution of it there would appear no more Tincture than there does in the solution of it with Spirit of Vitriol and water but because the soluble part of Tartar which is the agent in this Operation is only an impure acid Salt it can but grosly rarify the Mars and after mixing with it keep it suspended in the water After the Tincture is drawn there remains a whitish matter that you must fling away as good for nothing it is a mixture of the grosser parts of Tartar and Mars This Tincture is called Syrup of Mars by reason of a certain sweetness that is perceived in its Taste It is reduced into the consistence of a Syrup to keep the better As for its virtues it is a very great Aperitive because the force of Mars is assisted by the Tartar that serves to be its Vehicle Opening Extract of Mars This Preparation is a solution of the more open parts of Iron by aperitive juices and reduced into a solid consistence by fire Take Eight ounces of the Rust of Iron prepared in the Morning Dew put it in an Iron pot and pour upon it three pounds of the Water of Honey and four pounds of Must or the juice of White grapes perfectly ripe Add to it four ounces of juice of Lemons cover it with an Iron Cover and set it in a Furnace over a little fire leave the Matter in Digestion three days then boil the Matter gently three or four hours uncovering the Pot ever now and then to stir up the bottom with an Iron slice then cover it again that the moisture may not evaporate too fast When you perceive the Liquor to be black you must take away the fire and leave it a while to settle pass warm through a cloth that which is clear and evaporate the liquor in a Sand fire in an Earthen pan or Glass vessel to the consistence of an Extract 'T is a very good aperitive it hath the same virtues as the Tincture for Obstructions of the Liver Spleen and Mesentery it delivers the Lymphatick vessels admirably well of what may hinder the current of Serum The Dose is from Ten grains to two Scruples in Pills or else dissolved in some proper Liquor That which remains in the bottom of the Iron pot is the more Earthy part of Mars that is good for nothing Remarks This Extract doth not receive its consistence only from the Iron but from the Tartareous juices of the Grapes and Lemons with which it is mixed its virtue is augmented by the Essential Salts and the Spirit of Honey that leaves in it a very good impression The mixture is left in digestion for the better Dissolution of the Mars but seeing the Menstruum is not very sharp or corrosive it dissolves only the more Saline and soluble parts This Description is not common but may be preferred before many others Every body grants that Mars is as excellent a Remedy as any in all Physick for opening Obstructions and restoring a good complexion to those that want it by reason of Obstructions but you must not be contented with giving it once or twice but for a fortnight together some intervals may be observed that nature may not be troubled too much In hot climes such as Languedoc and Provence where are more Oppilations than in other Countries they make no difficulty to take it sometimes every day for a month together after a due Preparation and it is the best Remedy that hath been known for that Distemper Binding Extract of Mars This Preparation is a solution of Iron made with an astringent Wine and reduced into a thick consistence by fire Take Eight ounces of the
matter fit to it another matrass in order to make a double vessel lute well the junctures and place your vessel to digest in horse-dung or in a vaporous Bath four days stir it from time to time the Spirit of wine will load it self with a red colour unlute the vessels filtrate the Tincture through brown paper and keep it in a viol well stopt It is a Febrifuge to be given in Agues three or four times a day at a distance from the fitt and to be continued for a fortnight the dose is from ten drops to a drachm in some proper liquor such as Centaury water or Juniper or Wormwood water or wine If you put new Spirit of wine to the matter which remains in the matrass and set it in digestion as before you will draw more Tincture but it will not be so strong as the other wherefore you must give it in a little larger dose Remarks This Tincture works like the Infusion I now spoke of it is a more convenient preparation than the other in this that it can keep as long as you will whereas the other does sowr in a little time Again those who do not love wine will like it better but I should prefer the Infusion before the Tincture because wine is a more proper menstruum wherewith to draw the saline and sulphureous substance of a mixt then Spirit of wine You may steep a few Coriander seeds or a little Cinnamon in the wine or water and after it is strained off dissolve some sugar in it and in this you may mix the Tincture of the Bark and so make a kind of Febrifugous Rossoli which Infants may be easily made to take of Extract of Peruvian Bark This Operation is a separation of the more substantial parts of the Bark Put to infuse warm four and twenty hours eight ounces of Peruvian Bark in a sufficient quantity of distilled water of Nuts afterwards boil the Infusion gently and strain it make a strong expression of the residence put it to infuse in new water of Nuts boil and strain it as before mix together what you have strained and let them settle decant the clear liquor and evaporate it in a glass or earthen vessel set in a sand-heat unto the consistence of thick honey It is a Febrifuge that has the same virtues as the former the dose is from twelve grains to half a drachm in Pills or dissolved in wine Remarks The Wine and Spirit of wine are very proper to draw forth the Tincture of the Bark but they are by no means good to make the Extract with because in the evaporation the Spirit carries away with it the more subtile parts of the mixt The water of Nuts is much more convenient for besides that it loses less of the volatile substance it is a little febrifugous itself Instead of this water you might use those of Juniper-berries the lesser Centaury or Wormwood-water The Extract is convenient for those who cannot endure the taste of remedies for it may be given in Pills wrapped up in a wafer without partaking of the taste But I should prefer the Infusion or the Bark in substance before this preparation because it is impossible to avoid the evaporation of the more subtile parts in the ebullition of it use what precaution you will to preserve them You may draw the fixt salt from the residence that remains after you have drawn the Extract or the Tincture You must dry it and burn and calcine the ashes in a crucible then steep them in hot water ten or twelve hours boil them an hour and then filtrate this lixivium and evaporate the water in an earthen pan or glass vessel in sand there will remain a salt at bottom which you must keep in a bottle well stopt This salt is an alkali as are all other fixed salts drawn from plants it is aperitive it may be given for a quartan Ague the dose is from ten grains to a scruple in some proper liquor You must not think that this salt retains all the virtues of the Bark they are rather all destroyed in the calcination Nor may we think to separate the Febrifugous virtue of this Bark by distilling it dry in a Retort for on the contrary this would destroy it by breaking the natural harmony and union of its parts and you would get only a stinking Spirit and a burnt oil which would be of no great use CHAP. VII Of Cloves CLoves are the fruit of a Tree as big as the Laurel Tree its Bark is very much like Cinnamon but tasts like the fruit Cloves it grows in many places in the Indies it is an admirable stomachick held in the mouth it preserves from the contagion of ill air Oil of Cloves per Descensum Take several large drinking glasses cover them with a Linnen-cloth and tie it round each of them leaving a cavity in each Cloth to put the powdered Cloves into set a small earthen Cup upon each glass of these Cloves let it stop so fitly that it may suffer no air to enter between its brim and that of the glass fill these Cups with hot ashes to warm the Cloves and distil down to the bottom of the glass first a little phlegm and Spirit and after that a clear and white oil continue the fire until there falls no more separate the oil in a Tunnel lined with a cornet of brown paper and keep it in a Viol well stopt Some drops of it are with Cotton put into aking Teeth it is likewise good in Malignant Feavers and the Plague the dose is two or three drops in balm-Balm-water or some appropriate liquor You must mix it with a little Sugar-candy or a little yelk of an egg before you drop it into water otherwise it will not dissolve in the water Remarks I have given you this Preparation to serve upon an emergence when you want in haste the Oil of Cloves you must only use hot ashes to warm the Cloves if you desire to have a white Oil for if you give a greater heat the Oil turns red and loses a good part of it You must also take care to lift up the Cup from time to time to stir about the powder of Cloves The Oil of Cloves may be likewise drawn if you please like that of Cinnamon If you use a pound of Cloves to distil per descensum according to the description I have given you 'l draw an ounce and two drachms of white Oil and an ounce of Spirit there will remain thirteen ounces and two drachms of matter from whence might still be drawn a little red Oil. It is likely that the Oil of Cloves works in easing the tooth-ach much after the same manner as I said the Oil of Guaiacum did But this Oil having an agreeable smell with it there is no difficulty in admitting the application of this as there was in the other Some do dissolve Opium in Oil of Cloves and do use this dissolution for the tooth-ach
of the Sulphureous Spirits which held it as it were involved and thus clear wine sowrs alone but it does not sowr so fast and the Vinegar is not so strong as when it is made upon Tartar Furthermore if we consider the Principles that wine consists of we shall find that neither the Oil nor Earth nor Water are capable of yielding any Acidity and that nothing but the Salt is able to give it Now it cannot be doubted but that the Salt of wine is in the Tartar It may be added here that the Air to which wines are exposed by leaving the vessel open when they would have them turn into Vinegar does likewise communicate a little of its Acidity to the wines by exciting and rarifying the Acid of Tartar Distillation of Vinegar Put six quarts of strong Vinegar into an earthen pan evaporate in Balneum about a quart which is the Phlegmatick part and pour that which remains into a glass or earthen Cucurbite and distil it in a strong sand-heat until there remains at bottom nothing but a substance like Honey keep this Vinegar well stopt many do call it Spirit of Vinegar It s principal use is to dissolve or precipitate bodies It is sometimes mixed in Cordial potions to resist putrefaction the dose is half a spoonful it is mixed with water and this Oxycrate is used to stop Hemorrhagies taken inwardly and to asswage Inflammations applied outwardly Remarks The Acidity of Vinegar consists in an Essential or Tartareous Salt which being heavier than the Phlegm rises last but you must evaporate this Phlegm very gently because the Acid Spirit of Vinegar will easily sublime with it I do use an earthen pan rather than a Cucurbite that the Phlegm of Vinegar finding a large open passage may evaporate the more easily It would be no great fault if you should distil the Vinegar without dephlegmating it first for the separating the phlegm from it is not of so much consideration as to make it as clear as pure water that it may not bestow any particular tincture to the ingredients that are to be dissolved in it The Spirit of Vinegar is much less fixed than many other acids because it partakes of the Sulphureous Spirits of wine which still remain in it Common Vinegar keeps its strength a longer time than the distilled because it contains a more Terrestrious Salt that doth not Volatilize so easily And for this reason you should rather chuse to use Vinegar newly distilled than that which hath been kept a good while All Acids do prove Cordial and good against malignity of humors when it is caused by too great a commotion because it fixes and Coagulates them moderating their motion Thus in places where the Air is corrupted and Pestilential Vinegar is a good Preservative you may every morning take half a Spoonful of it Fasting but in diseases which proceed from a Tartareous humor as the Hypochondriack melancholy it is rather hurtful than good because it fixes the humors the more Some having dried and calcined the sweet extract that remains at the bottom of the Cucurbite after the distillation of Vinegar and having by Solution Filtration and Coagulation separated from it an Alkali fixt salt much like to that which is drawn from Tartar they do mix it with Spirit of Vinegar and distil and cohobate it divers times until say they the spirit has carried off all the salt and then will needs have it called Spirit of Vinegar Alkalized or Radical Spirit of Vinegar and they affirm that this being much more pure and entirely united with its proper salt is much the more powerful in dissolving Metals But the distilled Vinegar is so far from becoming the stronger through this Preparation that I can demonstrate that it breaks and loses the greatest part of its edges in contending with the Alkali salt with which it is mixt for it is the property of this salt to sweeten Acids Neither is it necessary to believe that by distillations is so drawn the Alkali salt of Vinegar for it remains fixt at bottom of the Retort with the acids it is impregnated with so that this same Spirit of Vinegar to which so many great names and uses have been appropriated is properly the more Phlegmatick part of distilled Vinegar CHAP. XIV Of Tartar ANY gross or terrestrious matter that sticks to the sides of the vessel when separated from its liquor by means of Fermentation is called Tartar But the Tartar I am going to speak of here is that of Wine It is found sticking to Casks like a very hard stone sometimes white and sometimes red according to the colour of the wine it comes from White Tartar is to be prefer'd before red because it is purer and contains less earth both one and t'other are had in greater abundance in hot Countries such as Languedock and Provence than many other Climats but the best white Tartar of all is brought out of Germany it must be heavy White and Crystalline The Lees of wine are likewise a liquified Tartar they are burned and the Ashes that are made of them are called Cineres Clavellati in English Gravelled Ashes Crystals of Tartar This Operation is a Tartar purified and coagulated in form of Crystals Boil in a great deal of water what quantity of white Tartar you please until it be all dissolved pass the liquor hot through Hippocrates his Sleeve into an earthen vessel and evaporate about half of it set the vessel in a cool place two or three days you 'l find little Crystals on the sides which you are to separate evaporate again half the liquor that remains and remit the vessel to the Cellar as before there will shoot out new Crystals continue doing thus until you have gotten all your Tartar dry the Crystals in the Sun and keep them for use The Crystal of Tartar is Purgative and Aperitive it is good for Hydropical and Asthmatical persons and for Tertian and Quartan Agues The dose is from half a drachm to three drachms in broth or some other proper liquor Remarks This Operation is to speak properly nothing but a Purification of the more Terrestrious parts of Tartar You must observe to boil it in an earthen vessel rather than any metallick one because it would be apt to take some Tincture from it A Skin that swims a-top after evaporation of some part of the liquor was heretofore carefully taken off and there was thought to be some difference between it and the Crystal of Tartar But this Cream or Skin is only a part of the Tartar that begins to Coagulate and so it is the very same thing in substance with the Crystal You must not imagine that the Crystals of Tartar do much differ from common Tartar for they differ from it only in the containing a little less earth but all the five Principles may be drawn from the Crystals as from common Tartar When you would take the Crystals in substance you must make them into Pills or
Rosines such as that of Scammony Jalap Turbith but whenever an Extract can be drawn with a watry menstruum it is better to use that rather than another for the reasons I have mentioned Purgative medecins have been divided into Melanagogues Phlegmagogues and Cholagogues By Melanagogues are understood those that chiefly purge Melancholy by Phlegmagogues such as purge Phlegm and by Cholagogues those that evacuate Choler so then by mixing these three sorts of Remedies a composition is made that is called Panchymagogue that is to say purging all the humors as doth the Extract I have described Now to explicate the action of Purgative Remedies upon all the several humors you must consider in the first place that Melancholy is a very Tartareous humor and full of fixt salts that Phlegm is very viscous and descending from the brain sticks like Glue to the internal Membrane of the Viscera and that Choler is very thin and easie to rarifie The Remedies which are called Melanagogue such as Scammony Senna c. are full of Lixivious Salts which are very good dissolvents of the Melancholick humor contained in the lower parts in that these sort of Remedies do always descend and being strong purgers do raise a Fermentation where-ever they come Phlegmagogues such as Agarick Coloquintida c. do purge the Phlegm chiefly that is contained in the Brain because these Remedies are full of volatile parts which easily sublime thither by means of the Natural heat and rarifying this humor do make it come down by the ordinary ways of Purgation Cholagognes such as Cassia Rhubarb c. which are mild Remedies and are not strong enough to excite so great a fermentation as the others do only purge Choler it being very soluble and easie to ferment but they are not able to reach Melancholy or Phlegm by reason of their thickness wherefore there is no need of wondring why a greater evacuation of Choler than other humors is effected by these Remedies It is further observable that the Remedies which purge Phlegm and Melancholy do remain or leave their impression in the body a longer time than those that purge Choler because they more abound in Spirits or Salts Moreover it is not to be imagined that these Phlemagogues and Melanagogues do evacuate no Choler at all for they do force away all they can meet with but because it is then mixt with other humors it appears not so plainly as when it is wrought upon alone CHAP. XX. Of Turpentine THere are two sorts of Trees that the Turpentine comes from by Incisions that are made into them to wit the Turpentine Tree and the Larix or Larch-tree there are a great many of both sorts in hot Countries such as Italy Provence and even in Dauphiné Turpentine is properly a liquid Rosine in the consistence of a Balsom that which is brought out of the Isle of Chios is best esteemed and is also the dearest that which we commonly use and is called Venice Turpentine must be clear transparent fragrant and a little biting on the taste it is used like a Balsom for Wounds it is very Diuretick taken inwardly and is therefore given in Gonorrheas in Bolus or else dissolved in some liquor by means of a little Yelk of an Egg it gives the Urine a smell much like Violets It is often boiled in water and then becomes solid like Rosine and being so prepared is made up into Pills the Dose is from half a drachm to a drachm if you take too much of it it gives the Head-ach If in curiosity you should boil a little Turpentine in water for a quarter of an hour and after you have removed it from the fire if you should pour cold water upon it you would see a little skin spread it self upon the water which has many curious marble colours And if you gather this skin into a lump it will become a white Turpentine Distillation of Turpentine This Operation is a separation of the Oil of Turpentine from its terrestrious part Take three pounds of good Turpentine and pour it into a Retort large enough to remain half empty Add to it a handful of Stupe to prevent the thicker parts of the Turpentine from rising when the liquor distils you must cleanse the inside of the neck of the Retort and place it in a Furnace to distil in an open fire fit to it a Receiver and luting the joints begin the Distillation with a very small fire only to warm the Retort and drive out a volatile spirit after which augment the fire by degrees there will come forth first a clear Oil then a yellow oil and at last a red oil take care to separate these liquors as they do distil and when you see the red oil begin to come thick take away the fire and when the vessels are cold unlute them Keep all these liquors separately in Viols The volatile Spirit is an excellent Aperitive it is given from four to twelve drops in some appropriate liquor to expel Gravel out of the Reins or Ureters in the Nephritick Colick or to dissolve Viscosities it is likewise used in Gonorrheas The first Oil serves for the same uses as the Spirit the second and third do serve as a Balsom to consolidate wounds discuss tumors and to fortifie the Nerves Break the Retort and you 'l find in it a mass melt and strain it to separate the Stupe it is a good Colophone and is used in Plaisters to dry and to consolidate After this manner may be distilled Rosines Mastich Frankincense Tacamahaca Gum Elemi Varnish Labdanum and other Gums of this nature Remarks The Spirit of Turpentine is properly an Ethereal oil mixed with a little phlegm and Acid Essential salt which renders it Aperitive it is this Spirit that gives the Turpentine its smell A great fire is requisite for to draw the last oil and it becomes red through some Fuliginosities that fall upon it before it comes forth of the Retort If you should continue to raise the fire until there comes no more liquor you 'd find in the Retort nothing but a little light and very rarified matter that is good for nothing The Oil of Turpentine that is bought at the Druggists is a mixture of Spirit and yellow oil The Oil of Turpentine being mixed with that of Vitriol there grows a very considerable heat and if the Oil of Vitriol is strong it makes an ebullition I have endeavoured to give you a reason for it in the Remarks which I have made upon Distillation of Vitriol CHAP. XXI Of Benjamin BEnjamin called by some Assa Dulcis is a Rosine that distils from a great Tree in Foreign Countries the name of it is unknown though many have thought fit to call it Laserpitium this Tree is very common in Samaria and in many other adjacent Countries Benjamin is very much used by the Perfumers and it hath use also in Physick to resist the malignity of humors and to fortifie the Heart and Brain you must
that it is no poison for although Spirit of Vitriol for example or some other acid does not prove mortal when taken inwardly nevertheless if the same quantity should be syringed into the veins the Animal falls presently into Convulsions and dies Now as that which caused the Spirit of Vitriol taken inwardly not to be Poison was this the acids do become weak through the mixture of the Saliva and before ever they come to mix in the Mass of bloud their parts do receive so great an alteration from the ferment of the places they must pass through that they are able to do nothing else at most but cool the Body so the same may be said of the Yellow liquor of the Viper when it is tasted of that besides its mixture with the liquors of the mouth and stomach it receives divers alterations from the ferments of the places it must pass through before it enters into the mass of bloud Many do likewise think that the venom of Vipers hath its chief seat in the Gall and thence is easily transported to the Gums when they are angry nevertheless in the Anatomy of this Animal there 's no passage found capable of such a translation I know very well that the pores of living bodies may be said to be so open that all manner of liquors may be presumed to pass through them but yet no mischievous effect is discovered to proceed from the Viper's Gall when given inwardly for it only causes sweat Lastly others will have the Viper's venom to be dispersed over all its body And those who think thus do advise us to whip these Animals in a warm bason to drive their venom into the extremities of the body before we cut as is usually done their heads two fingers below and their tails two fingers above after that to flea off the skin and take out the bowels and then boil the body in water wherein are added Salt and Dill to correct as they say the remaining malignity When the flesh is tender it is to be separated from the bones then to eight ounces of this flesh beaten into a Paste in a marble mortar are added two ounces of bread dried and powdered and Troches made of it which being dried are kept for use But this long preparation is seldom used since Experience hath taught us that no part of a dead Viper is at all poisonous The Head and Tail dried and powdered may be taken instead of a Cordial as well as the rest of the body I can likewise assure you upon my own experience that the Tooth of a dead Viper is no ways venomous having by chance been prickt my self till the bloud came whilst I was a handling the heads of Vipers newly kill'd that I had a mind to dry and there did not follow the least ill accident from it Furthermore by this Coction the Vipers flesh is deprived of its volatile salts which gave its greatest virtue for they dissolve in the broth which is flung away and only the Faeces remain wherein there hardly rests so much Cordial virtue as there does in the bread which is mixed for a Corrective But there is no need I should enlarge my self further on this subject because these Observations are sufficiently delivered in the Augustan Pharmacopoeia Wherefore I do conceive it to be much better to use the Powder of Vipers newly made than the Troches To make this Powder well it is good to chuse Vipers when they are in the prime of their strength the Females that are full of Eggs or young ones are not so good as the others their heads are to be cut off their skins thrown by and their bowels taken out and so they are set a drying in the shade to be afterwards powdered in a mortar But because this Powder is hard to keep in that worms do breed in it it will be good to make it into a Paste with a sufficient quantity of the mucilage of Gum Tragacanth so form it into Troches to dry them and powder them when there is occasion to use them and thus it keeps good a long time This Powder is given in the Small pox Malignant Feavers and all other maladies where Alexipharmicks are required and the humors are to be purified by Perspiration the dose is from eight grains to thirty in broth or some other convenient liquor The Heart and Liver are dried in the Sun and powdered together and this Powder called Animal Bezoar hath the same virtues as the body of the Viper only it is given in a little lesser dose The Gall of Vipers provokes Sweat the dose is a drop or two in Carduus water The fat that is found in them is melted then strained for to separate it from the membranes it sticks to it is as clear as Oil. Several Countries do use it in the Small-pox and in Feavers The dose is from one drop to six in broth or some other convenient liquor It likewise enters into the composition of some Plaisters and into discutient unguents Distillation of Vipers This Operation is a separation of the phlegm the volatile salt and the Oil of Vipers from its earth Take twelve dozen of Vipers dried in the shade as I said before put them into an earthen Retort or glass one Coated place it in a Reverberatory furnace fit to it a great capacious Receiver and luting the joints close begin the distillation with a small fire to warm the Retort gently and drive out a phlegmatick water drop by drop when you see no more drops to fall encrease the fire a little and Spirits will come forth which will fill the Receiver with white Clouds you will see at last a black oil come and the volatile salt stick to the sides of the Receiver Continue the fire until there comes no more after which let the vessels cool and unlute them Shake about the Receiver a little to loosen the volatile salt from the sides and pour it all into a Bolt-head fit to it a head and a small Receiver and lute the joints with a wet bladder you must set your vessel in Sand and with a gentle fire under it the volatile salt will sublime and stick to the head and uppermost part of the bolt-head separate it and keep it in a viol well stopt It is one of the best medicins we have in Physick it is good in Malignant Feavers and Agues the Pox Apoplexy Epilepsie Palsie Hysterical Maladies and the bitings of all venomous Beasts the dose is from six to sixteen grains in some proper Liquor Pour that which remains in the bolt-head into a Tunnel lined with brown paper the Spirit and phlegm will pass through and the stinking Oil remain behind Hysterical women may smell to this last to allay vapours and Paralytical parts may be anointed therewith but its smell is so offensive that it is hard to endure it Pour the Spirit and Phlegm mixed confusedly together into an Alembeck and distil in a vaporous Bath about half
the reason that less fixt salt is to be found in Animals than Plants As for what many do say that Choler causes an Effervescency like an Alkali when an acid is cast upon it 't is a mistake through want of right Observation for no Ebullition at all happens for some time Nevertheless I will not say that an acid produces no Fermentation in Choler Bloud and other parts of the body for it does very often really do that but that is no more than uses to be done in new Wine Beer and other liquors of the like nature I have already explicated this sort of Fermentation We ought not to omit speaking of the Coagulation that 's made in Milk after a Fermentation caused either by Heat or some Acid put into it Methinks here is no need at all of supposing an Alkali salt that ferments with the Acid of this liquor as many suppose for explicating this Effect since if we consider but the natural composition of Milk we shall find it to be nothing but a Creamy substance swimming on the Serum and mixed only superficially with it by the intermixture of some salt so that it is in a fitting state of separation as soon as the salt gains a little more motion than it had whether it be by Fermentation or by encreasing its activity by an acid of its own nature Thus when the heat of the Summer or fire has stirred up the acid that is in the Milk or else some acid is poured into it the edges of the acid do cut and divide the Creamy part to gain a free motion in the Serum and separate into Curd all the Butter and Cheese Now there 's nothing strange in the Precipitation of the Curd especially when an acid has been poured upon the Milk for besides the weight it gains by thickning some part of the acids do mix with it and encrease its weight for according as the acid that was mingled is stronger or weaker the Curd does Precipitate more or less Perhaps some will say for as much as acid is always the cause of Coagulation in Milk there 's no great likelihood that a salt of the same nature should be the instrument of uniting the several parts of Milk But it must be considered that although there is an acid in Milk as no body can doubt seeing it sowres of it self when stale this acid is as it were imbodied in the ramous parts of the Oyl so that there is loses all its motion and cannot come to action but by rarifying the Oyl and making it fit to mix with the serous part it is the due proportion of this salt Oyl and serum that makes the Butter and Cheesy part of Milk Now I hope I have said enough to establish what I have affirmed that there 's no salt in nature besides the acid out of which all other Salts are made and that the Alkali salt has no Natural existence in mixt bodies My discourse will be the better relished when I speak of the Operations of Chymistry and you 'l find that by this Principle which I may call the most Natural and impartial of all that have been laid till now I shall be able to give account of many Phaenomena's that have never been explicated by common Principles Of Chymical Furnaces and Vessels It is not my design to relate here exactly all the kinds of Vessels and Furnaces that Artists have invented to use in Chymistry I shall describe only those with which you will be able to perform all Operations and send curious persons who would be more particularly instructed in them into the Laboratories where they may learn more on this subject than ever they will be able to do by consulting all the Books in the world These then are the principal The Furnace which is most in use among Chymists is that which is called the Reverberatory it must be large enough to hold a great Retort for the Distillation of acid Spirits and other things This Furnace must be fixt and made of Brick joyned together with a Lute compounded of one part of Potters earth so much Horse-dung and twice as much Sand the whole kneaded together in Water let it be two Bricks breadth that the Furnace being the thicker the heat may be retained the longer let the Ash-hole be a Foot high and the Door contrived if possible on the side that the air comes that when you have a mind to open it the Fire may be lighted or encreased the more easily the fire room need not be quite so high you must lay a-cross it two Iron-bars of the bigness of your thumb which will serve you to set your Retort upon and the Furnace must be still raised near about a Foot higher to cover the Retort fit to it a Dome or Cover that may have a hole in the middle with its stopple and a small Chimny a foot high for to place upon this hole when the stopple is taken out and when you would raise a great heat for the flame preserving its self by means of this little Chimney it reverberates the more strongly upon the Retort This Cover may be made of the same Paste that I shall presently describe speaking of Portable Furnaces It will be necessary to have several Furnaces of this same fashion but they must be of different sizes to work conveniently according to the bigness of the Vessel you would place in it For that the Fire may act more vehemently upon the Retort there must be left but only the space of a fingers breadth all round between the Furnace and the Retort These Furnaces may also serve for Distilling by the Refrigeratory in the Sea-Bath the Vaporous and the Sand-bath for you may place the Copper body upon the Iron bars when you would distil by the Refrigeratory It is easie to do the same with the Balneum Mariae As for the Sand-bath lay an iron or earthen pan on the bars and put sand enough into it for to cover the bottom and sides of the Vessel you desire to heat As for Fusions you must build a Furnace of the same matter and form as those spoken of before only you must forbear laying the two Iron bars in it that you did in the others for support of the Vessel Moveable Furnaces are made of a paste that consists of three parts of broken pots in powder and two parts of clay temper'd together with Water Their structure is just like that of the An Explication of the FIGURES of the FIRST TABLE A Great Reverberatory Furnace a The Ash-hole b The Fire-room c A Retort supported on two Iron bars d The Dome or Cover e The Receiver f A little Chimny g The Dome taken off the Furnace h A Retort i A small Reverberatory Furnace ready to work with k A fixed little Furnace for Fusions l An Iron pot to hold the sand m The Fire-place n The Ash-room o A Furnace in which is placed a great Copper Body p The Copper Body
neck of one Matrass is put into the neck of another they are called a double vessel and this is done when we desire to circulate Spirits but then the junctures must be very well luted You must also provide many large capacious Recipients for the Distillation of Acid Spirits by a Retort They must be so very large that the Spirits may have room to Circulate the better Lingots are Iron molds of divers shapes into which melted Metals are wont to be poured in order to harden in the form that we would have them That which is used for the making Lapis infernalis must consist of two pieces joined together with two little Iron rings and the melted matter is poured into the upper part of it See its figure in the second Table Coppels are porous vessels made in form of a cup to be used for the trying and purifying of Gold and Silver They are made of Ashes well washt or of bones calcined See their figure in the second Table Ashes deprived of their salts are rather used than others for the composition of this sort of vessels that they may be made the more porous by such deprivation See the Chapter concerning Purification of Silver by the Coppel and the Remarks upon it Many glass Funnels great and small Viols of glass Crucibles Pans Mortars of glass or stone or Marble or Iron must not be forgotten Aludels must also have a place there they are Pots without a bottom joyned together and are placed over another Pot with a whole in the middle to serve for Sublimations Of Lutes The Fire is often raised to so high a degree as will melt glass Retorts in a Reverberatory Furnace wherefore it will be convenient to coat them over with such a Lute as when dry is able to preserve and contain the matter that is put into them to be distill'd This Lute may be made after the manner which follows Take Sand the dross of Iron Potters earth in powder of each five pounds horse-dung cut small a pound glass beaten into powder and Sea-salt of each four ounces mix them all and with a sufficient quantity of water make a Paste or Lute with which you must coat the Retort all round to half its neck and so set it a drying This same Lute will serve to stop close the junctures of the neck of the Retort with the Recipient but because when it dries it grows exceeding hard and it proves difficult to unlute it it is needful to wet it with wet clothes when you would take the Retort asunder from the Receiver The Lute that I commonly use my self for such occasions is compounded only of two parts of Sand and one of clay tempered together with water As for the conjunction of Limbecks ordinary Glue upon paper will serve turn but when something very spirituous is distilled such as the Spirit of Wine use a wet Bladder which carries a Glue along with it that sticks very well But if the bladder happens to be eaten or corroded by the Spirits have recourse to the following Glue Take Flower and Lime slackt of each an ounce Potters-earth in powder half an ounce mix them and make a moist Paste with a sufficient quantity of the Whites of Eggs well beaten before hand with a little water This Paste may likewise serve to stop the cracks that happen in glass vessels there must be three lays of the Paste bound on with paper To Seal Hermetically is to stop the mouth or neck of a Glass-Vessel with a pair of Pincers heated red hot To do this the neck is heated by little and little with burning coals and the fire is encreased and continued until the Glass is ready to melt This way of sealing a Vessel is used when you have put some matter within it that is easie to be exalted and you have a mind to make it Circulate Of the Degrees of Fire To make a Fire of the First Degree two or three coals lighted will suffice to raise a most gentle heat For the Fire of the second degree three or four coals will serve to give such a heat as is able sensibly to warm the Vessel but so as a hand may be able to endure it for some time For the Fire of the Third degree you must cause heat enough to make a Pot boil that is fill'd with five or six quarts of water For the Fourth Degree you must use Coals and Wood together enough to give the most extream heat of all The Fire of Sand of the filings of Iron and of Ashes is made when the Vessel that contains the matter that is to be heated is covered underneath and on all sides with Sand or the filings of Iron or with Ashes this is done to heat the Vessel the more gently All these Fires have their Degrees but the Ash-fire is the mildest because the Ashes cannot contain so great a heat as the others The Reverberatory Fire is made in a close Furnace that the heat or flame which always tends upwards may reverberate or return upon the Vessel which is placed on two Iron bars This fire hath its Degrees but may be raised to a greater violence than the rest The Wheel fire for Fusion is made when with lighted coals you encompass all round a Crucible that holds the matter you desire to melt The Balneum Mariae is when an Alembick containing the matter that is to be heated is placed in a Vessel filled with Water under which the Fire is made thus the water growing hot heats the matter contained in the Alembick The Vaporous Bath is when a Glass vessel containing some Matter is heated by the vapour of hot water Explication of many Terms that are used in Chymistry To Alcoholize or reduce into Alcohol signifies to Subtilize as when a Mixt is beaten into an impalpable powder This word is also used to express a very pure Spirit thus the Spirit of Wine well rectified is called the Alcohol of Wine Amalgamate is to mix Mercury with some melted Metal this Operation serves to render the Metal fit to be extended on some Works as Gold or else to reduce it into a very subtile powder which is done by putting the Amalgame into a Crucible over the Fire for the Mercury subliming into the Air leaves the Metal in an impalpable powder neither Iron nor Copper can by any means be Amalgamated Cement is a manner of purifying Gold 'T is done by stratification with a hard paste made of one part of Salt Armoniack two of common Salt and four of Potters earth or Bricks powdered the whole having been moistned with a sufficient quantity of Urine this Composition is called Royal Cement Circulation is a motion given to liquors contained in a double vessel excited by fire and causing the vapours to ascend and descend to and fro This operation tends either to subtilize the liquors or to open some hard body that is mixed with them Coagulate is to give a consistence to liquids by
and its reduction into an impalpable Powder To Amalgamate Gold is to mix it with Quicksilver Take a Drachm of the Regule of Gold beat it into very thin little Plates which you must heat in a Crucible red hot in a large Fire then pour upon it an ounce of Quicksilver revived from Cinnaber as I shall shew hereafter stir the matter with a little Iron-rod and when you find it begin to raise a fume which quickly happens cast your mixture into an Earthen Pan fill'd with Water it will coagulate and become tractable wash it several times to take away its blackness thus you have an Amalgame from which you must separate the Mercury that you find not united by pressing it a little between your fingers in a linnen cloth The Gold retains about thrice its weight in Mercury Now to reduce this Gold into Powder you must put this Amalgame into a Crucible over a gentle fire the Mercury will evaporate into the Air and leave the Gold at bottom in an impalpable Powder Remarks Mercury doth easily penetrate Gold and insinuating into its Pores makes a soft matter that is called Amalgame it doth the same with other Metals too except Iron and Copper which are too ill digested to receive its impression The Amalgamation of Gold is useful to Gilders for so it is easily extended upon their works Aurum Fulminans called Saffron of Gold This Operation is a Gold impregnated with some Spirits which cause it to give a loud crack when it is set over the Fire Take what quantity you please of Gold beaten into thin plates put it into a Viol or Matrass and pour upon it by little and little three or four times as much Aqua Regalis compounded after the manner I shall shew in its proper place Set the Matrass upon Sand a little heated until the Aqua Regalis has dissolved as much of the Gold as it is able to contain which you will know by the ceasing of the ebullitions pour your solution into a Glass-vessel of five or six times as much common Water Afterwards drop into this mixture by degrees the Volatile Spirit of Salt Armoniack or the Oyl of Tartar made by Deliquium or Solution you 'l find the Gold precipitate to the bottom of the Glass Let it alone a good while to settle that all the Gold may fall down then pouring off the Water by Inclination wash your powder with warm Water till it grows insipid and so dry it in Paper at a gentle fire because it is apt to fire and the Powder would fly away with a terrible noise If you use one drachm of Gold you will obtain four scruples of Aurum Fulminans well dried Aurum Fulminans causes sweat and drives out ill humors by Transpiration It may be given in the Small Pox from two to six grains in a Lozenge or Electuary It stops Vomiting and is also good to moderate the activity of Mercury Remarks The Plates of Gold are made use of in this Operation that its dissolution may be more easily performed You must pour the Aqua Regalis by little and little to avoid the great effervescency that might be able to drive it out of the Matrass The effervescency proceeds from the violent division of the particles of Gold by the Aqua Regalis for when it finds no more bodies to act upon having divided the Gold into as many parts as 't is possible the ebullition ceases and though the Gold doth all remain in the Aqua Regalis it becomes so imperceptible to us as it seems the Water hath not changed from what it was before it appears so very clear and transparent Indeed the solution has received a Golden colour and becomes yellow The dissolution of Gold is a suspension of this metal in Phlegm made by the edges of Aqua Regalis For it is not enough that the Aqua Regalis does divide the Gold into subtle parts but it is further requisite that its edges do hold up the Gold as if it were like so many Finns otherwise it would always fall to the bottom in a powder though it were never so subtle Now 't is objected that the particles of Gold should fall to the bottom of the liquor because they being joined to the points of the Aqua Regalis they are become more heavy than they were before for the union or adhaesion of two bodies does cause a greater weight than when the two bodies were separated one from the other I answer that we ought to conceive the particles of Gold being suspended or held up in the Phlegm by the acid points much after the manner as we do conceive very well that a small piece of metal fixed to a staff or a plank will swim with the wood in the water for although the small piece of metal sinks to the bottom when it is alone yet it swims when it is affixed to the wood the acid edges are bodies exceeding light in comparison with the particles of Gold and they have likewise their superficies more extended and consequently do take up more room in the phlegm this is that which holds them up and causes them to swim The Oyl of Tartar or the Spirit of Salt Armoniack is used for the Precipitation of Gold because both those Liquors do contain an Alkali Salt which being mixed with Acids must cause a Fermentation Now in this Fermentation the parts of Aqua Regalis that held up the particles of Gold do grow weak and having no more force to retain them longer they must needs precipitate by their own weight Perhaps some may find a difficulty in comprehending how the Volatile Spirit of Salt Armoniack should come to weaken the Aqua Regalis that is it self compounded of Salt Armoniack but there will be no difficulty at all when they shall consider that the force of the Aqua Regalis doth not so much depend on the volatile part of the Salt Armoniack as on the Sea-salt that is in good store in it united with the Aqua Fortis for Sea-salt or Sal Gemma may be substituted very well in the place of Salt Armoniack for making Aqua Regalis as I shall observe hereafter speaking of the composition of this Water It may be also enquired here why the Dissolvents do quit the bodies they held before in Dissolution to betake themselves to some other for example why the Aqua Regalis leaves the Gold it was impregnated with to give way to the Alkali Salt This question is one of the most difficult to resolve well of any in Natural Philosophy Nevertheless I 'le give you my opinion of what can be said most sensibly on this Subject I do suppose that when the Aqua Regalis hath acted upon the Gold so as to dissolve it the points or edges that enabled it to do so are fixed in the particles of Gold But seeing that these little bodies are very hard and consequently hard to penetrate these points do enter but very superficially yet far
Fusion of Metals The flame is made to Reverberate on the Silver to drive all Heterogeneous substances towards the sides That which is called a Caratt in Gold is a Denier or penny weight in Silver and thus an ounce of Silver well purified is of four and twenty penny weight which make 24 times 24 grains Now this ounce of Silver must lose nothing at all upon trial but if it should lose one penny weight in the Coppel the Silver then is said to be that of 23 penny weight and if it loses two scruples or penny weight it is but of 22 Deniers and so of the rest There is no Silver to be had of 24 deniers no more than Gold of 24 Caratts because there is always some mixture with it use what diligence and application you please in its purification Plate-silver contains one part of Copper to 24 parts of Silver and the Coppel-silver contains but a quarter of a part of Copper to four and twenty parts of Silver The Depart or parting of Metals is when a Dissolvent quits the Metal it had dissolved to betake it self unto another Thus when Copper is put into the Dissolution of Silver the Aqua fortis leaves the Silver to fall upon Dissolving the Copper and the reason of this is because the Copper-particles do so stir and shake the edges of the Dissolvent as to make them let go their hold Iron precipitates Copper Lapis Calaminaris precipitates Iron and the Liquor of fixt Niter doth so to the Lapis Calaminaris for the same reason but you must observe that Iron does not precipitate all the Copper nor the Calaminaris all the Iron no more than the Copper did precipitate all the Silver and the reason of this is that the points of the Aqua fortis having entred more deeply into the great pores of Copper and Iron are much the harder to be broken by bodies of this nature but because the liquor of fixt Niter does contain an Alkali much more active than the others it precipitates all the Lapis Calaminaris and all the Iron and Copper which did remain dissolved I shall in the sequel of this Book describe the manner of preparing the Liquor of fixt Niter the Salt that it contains reunites with the Volatile Spirits of Salt-peter that were in the Aqua fortis insomuch that the Salt-peter revives again Crystals of Silver called Vitriol of the Moon This Operation is a Silver opened and reduced into the form of Salt by the acid points of Spirit of Niter Dissolve one or two ounces of Coppel-silver in three times as much Spirit of Niter pour forth your dissolution into a Glass-Cucurbite set in a gentle Sand-fire evaporate about the fourth part of the moisture and so let the rest cool without stirring it it will turn into Crystals which you must separate from the Liquor and after you have dried them keep them in a Viol well stopt You may again fall to Evaporating half the remaining Liquor and set it a Crystallizing as before You may repeat these Evaporations and Crystallizations till all your Silver has turned into Crystals This Vitriol of the Moon is used to make an Eschar by touching the part with it It is also given inwardly for Dropsies and for Diseases of the Head from two unto six Grains in some Specifick Water it purges gently These Crystals might be prepared with Oyl of Vitriol instead of Spirit of Niter for inward use Remarks You must put your Silver purified by the Coppel into a Viol or Matrass large enough and pour upon it only as much Spirit of Niter as will serve to Dissolve it now that comes to about three times its weight Indeed you may use Aqua fortis instead of Spirit of Niter if you please in this Operation but I rather chuse Spirit of Niter because it is found to act with more celerity than Aqua fortis You may read in their proper places the description I have given you of them both and the Remarks I have made upon them Place your Vessel in Ashes or Sand a little warm for to hasten the Dissolution When the acid Spirits begin to work upon the Silver an Ebullition presently rises accompanied with a very considerable heat because these sharp edges do break those obstacles that hindred their entrance and violently force their passage It is this great motion and impetuous dispersion of parts that produces the heat and ebullition and by rarefaction of the Spirit of Niter sends forth through the neck of the Vessel a Red fume or vapour that you must be very careful to avoid as a thing very unwholsom and prejudicial to the Breast The Smoke and Ebullition do remain until the Silver is all of it dissolved after which the Liquor becomes clear and transparent but a little bluish If the Silver which is dissolved were perfectly purified from Copper the solution would no more be tinged than Spirit of Niter but because there is none to be found so perfectly pure it always tinges a little The solution of Plate-silver is much bluer than that of Silver purified by the Coppel because the Plate-silver contains more Copper than the other as I said before So that the purer the Silver is the less blue is the solution A little of it is evaporated that the rest may Crystallize the easier for that which evaporates is little better than a kind of insipid water the Silver still retaining the Acid fixt Spirits Now you must observe in all Crystallizations not to leave too much moisture for fear of weakning too much the Salts and so hindring their Coagulation Nor must you leave too little moisture for the Crystals not finding room enough to extend themselves in would confusedly fall one upon another These Crystals can be dissolved in Water like Salt their strength depends on the Spirits of Niter that are incorporated with them wherefore they weigh more than the Silver did that was employed and it is these Spirits which pierce and gnaw the flesh on which these Crystals are applied when an Eschar is to be made It is likewise they which cause that Fermentation of humours by which they purge when these Crystals are given inwardly The Liquor in which they are dissolved to be taken and the moisture of the Stomach do serve to correct their acrimony If you have a mind to revive these Crystals into Silver again you must only put them into hot Water and lay therein a plate of Copper They will then dissolve and the Silver precipitate to the bottom in a White powder that is to be washed and dried afterwards melting it in a Crucible with a little Salt-peter it will return into Ingots of the same weight as before Infernal Stone or perpetual Caustick The Infernal stone is a Silver rendred Caustick by the Salts of Spirit of Niter Dissolve in a Viol what quantity of Silver you please with three times as much Spirit of Niter set your Viol in a Sand fire and evaporate about two thirds
the Head and to the top of the Body that are nothing else but some parts of Tinn raised up by the Sal Armoniack and at the bottom of the Body you 'l find some Tinn Revived Magistery of Jupiter or Tinn This Operation is only a Tinn dissolved by an acid and precipitated by an Alkali salt Dissolve the Flowers of Tinn in a sufficient quantity of water Filtrate the Dissolution and pour upon it drop by drop the Spirit of Sal Armoniack or the Oil of Tartar made per Deliquium there will Precipitate a very White Powder You must Edulcorate it by washing it several times with warm water and afterwards dry it It serves for Paint for being mixed with Pomatum it makes a very curious White Remarks It is to be considered in both these Preparations that the Dissolution of Tinn is performed only by an acid Salt which the Sal Armoniack is impregnated with and this is the reason why the Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack doth serve to Precipitate it for being an Alkali as well as the Oil of Tartar it breaks the force of the acid which therefore le ts go what it held dissolved That being granted there will be no longer difficulty in conceiving how the Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack doth often Precipitate what Sal Armoniack had dissolved Flowers of Jupiter or Tinn This Operation is a Tinn Volatilized and raised in form of Meal by the means of a Volatile Salt Take an unglazed earthen Pot with a hole in the middle of its height and a stopple to it place the Pot in a Furnace of a just proportion wherein the pot may enter only as high as the hole and with Bricks and Lute take care that the fire may not transpire fit upon this pot three Aludels or open pots of the same earth without any bottoms and fit a Head to the uppermost with a Receiver to the Head lute well all the junctures and light a good fire in the Furnace to make red-hot that part of the pot which lies within it then mix a pound of Tinn and two pounds of purified Salt-peter throw a spoonful of this mixture through the hole of the pot and stop it a detonation soon follows which when it is over throw in another spoonful and so continue to do until all the mixture be spent let the vessels cool and unlute them and you 'l find in the receiver a little Spirit of Niter and in and round about the Aludels very white Flowers of Tinn gather them together with a feather then wash them divers times with fountain water and when you have dried them on paper in the shade keep them in a Viol they serve for Paint and they make a curious White when mixed in Pomatums or in some liquor You 'l find in the bottom of the Pot a Calx of Tinn mixed with the fixt part of Salt-peter boil it in water wash and dry it and it may be used in desiccative unguents Remarks It is a plain sign that Tinn does contain a Sulphur because being mixed with Salt-peter and put into the pot that 's heated red-hot it will flame for you must not imagine that the detonation can proceed from the Salt-peter alone this salt being never able to flame without the mixture of some Sulphureous matter as I shall prove in its own place But because the Sulphur of Tinn is lockt up in other substances it remains quiet for some time to unite with the Salt-peter before it raises a detonation Nevertheless if you be in haste to dispatch the detonation may be expedited by introducing a small cole lighted into the hole of the pot to fire the matter These Flowers do proceed from the part of Tinn which is easiest to rarifie and which the Volatile salt of Salt-peter and the Sulphur of Tinn had raised You must take care when you would make Detonations to proportion the Salt-peter with the Sulphur for otherwise they will not endure so long as they should either there being too much Sulphur it will not meet with enough Volatile parts of Salt-peter to raise it all up or else the Salt-peter being in too great a quantity for the Sulphur it causes but a Sublimation in part because the great quantity of this salt which remains at bottom without firing does fix some part of the Sulphur Wherefore there was but little reason to believe that three parts of Salt-peter to one of Tinn would raise more Flowers than when there are but two according to my description For then there being too much Salt-peter for the quantity of Tinn the Detonation will prove imperfect and almost all the Salt-peter will remain at bottom and will only serve to check some part of the Sulphurs of Tinn hindring them from Subliming into so many Flowers as would otherwise rise Three Aludels and one Head are used in this Operation that the Vapours which rise in the time of Detonation may have room enough for otherwise they would burst the Vessels notwithstanding the casting in of the matter but little at a time The Flowers of Tinn are washt in order to deprive them of a Volatile Salt derived from the Salt-peter which was mixed with it and the salt dissolves in the water leaving the Flowers in their purity You must dry them in the shade for both the Sun and fire do render them black and this because they do re-unite the particles of Tinn which owe all their whiteness to the fineness of Pulverization which gives them another Superficies than they had to reflect the light with CHAP. IV. Of Bismuth called Tinn-Glass BIsmuth is a Sulphureous Marcassite that is found in the Tinn Mines many do think it is an imperfect Tinn which partakes of good store of Arsenick its pores are disposed in another manner than those of Tinn which is evident enough because the Menstruum which dissolves Bismuth cannot intirely dissolve Tinn There is another sort of Marcassite called Zinch that much resembles Bismuth and on which the same preparations may be made that I am going to describe Marcassite is nothing else but the excrement of a Metal or an Earth impregnated with Metallick parts The Pewterers do mix Bismuth and Zinch in their Tinn to make it sound the better Flowers of Bismuth This Operation is nothing but a portion of Tinn-glass raised up in form of meal by Volatile salts Calcine Bismuth as you do Lead then mixing it with an equal part of Sal Armoniack proceed to its sublimation as you did in that of Tinn Thus you have Flowers which you may dissolve in Water and Precipitate with the Spirit of Sal Armoniack or Oil of Tartar This Magistery or Precipitate serves for the same use as that which follows Magistery of Bismuth Magistery of Bismuth is a Tinn-glass dissolved and precipitated in a very white powder Dissolve in a Matrass an ounce of Bismuth grosly powdered with three ounces of Spirit of Niter Pour the Dissolution into a clean White-ware Vessel and pour
upon it five or six pints of Fountain-water in which you shall have dissolved before-hand an Ounce of Sea-salt you 'l see a White powder Precipitate to the bottom Pour off the Water by Inclination and wash this Magistery several times then dry it in the shade It is an excellent Cosmetick called Spanish White that serves to whiten the complexion It is either mixed in Pomatum or Lilie-water Remarks You must use a large Bolt-head to dissolve the Bismuth in because the great Ebullition that happens as soon as Spirit of Niter is cast upon it requires room to move in You must likewise have a care as much as you can of receiving the Vapours at your Nose or Mouth for they are very offensive to the breast This quick and violent Ebullition proceeds from the acids immediate penetration of the large pores of Bismuth so soon as thrown upon it and the acid violently divides all that opposes its motion It happens also that the Bolt-head grows so hot that a man can't endure his hand upon it because the points of the Menstruum do chafe against the solid body of Bismuth with such force that you may observe from thence much the same heat as when two solid bodies are rub'd against one another Add to this that the great store of igneous particles contained in Spirit of Niter may much increase this heat If the Dissolution becomes turbid through some impurities in the Bismuth you must pour into it about twice as much Water and filter it for if you should go to filter it without water it would coagulate like salt in the Filter and not pass through This Coagulation proceeds from the acid spirits of Niter that are included in the particles of Bismuth which finding too little liquor to swim in and disperse do gather together into Crystals when the dissolution is cold The impurity which commonly swims upon the solution of Bismuth is a fat or bituminous matter which will not dissolve in the spirit of Niter This Magistery may be made by pouring in great quantity of Fountain water without any salt into the dissolution but it is made the quicker when you use salt and the Precipitation is the better because salt does encounter and break some of the acids that water alone was not able to weaken sufficiently Now some difficulty appears in conceiving how plain water alone comes to precipitate Bismuth Lead Antimony which the acid had dissolved and yet can do nothing at all to the precipitating Gold Silver or Mercury without the assistance of some salt or other body I do imagine that the former having large Pores the acids cannot stick so close in them but that water is able to force them out but Gold Silver and Mercury having finer pores in comparison than the other do retain the acids so very closely that the weak impulses of water alone can make no separation some more active body is requisite to do it The Augmentation which happens to Bismuth when made into a Magistery does proceed from some part of the Spirit of Niter that remains still in it notwithstanding the Precipitation and Lotion Commonly one Drachm of this Magistery or Precipitate is mixed with Four ounces of Water or in an ounce of Pomatum It softens the skin very much and is also good against the Itch because it feeds upon those acids or Salts which cherish this Disease CHAP. V. Of Lead LEad is a Metal fill'd with Sulphur or a Bituminous earth that renders it very supple and pliant It is probable that it contains some Mercury It hath Pores very like those of Tinn it is called Saturn by reason of the influence it is thought to receive from the Planet of that name Those who work upon Lead are subject to Colicks and to become Paralytick whether it be that there rises out of it a Mercury which obstructs the Nerves or else that the very substance of Lead does act upon them after the manner of Mercury Lead is extremely cold and for that reason is proper to asswage the heats of Venus being applied to the Perinaeum and it may be the heat of the skin causes it to lose some particles which insinuating through the pores do some way fix the Spirits and qualifie their motion from whence the part waxes cold it is also applied on many Tumours caused by too great an Ebullition of the Bloud Lead serves to Purifie Gold and Silver and may be said to act in the Coppel much after the same manner as the white of an Egg does in Clarifying a Syrop that 's boil'd in a Bason for as the gross and terrestrious impurities of a Syrop do stick to the white of an Egg by reason of its glutinous nature and are driven to the sides of the Bason in the stirring so do the Heterogeneous parts that were mixt with Gold and Silver stick unto the Lead and by the fire are driven to the sides of the Coppel like unto a Scum Calcination of Lead Melt Lead in an earthen Pan unglazed and stir it over the Fire with a Spatule 'till it is reduced to a powder If you increase the Fire and still Calcine the Matter for an hour or two it will be more open and fit to be penetrated by acids If you put this Powder to Calcine in a Reverberatory Fire for three or four hours it will be of a red colour and is that which is called Minium Lead is also prepared into Cerusse or White-Lead by the means of Vinegar whose vapour it is made to imbibe for it turns into a White Rust that is gather'd up and little Cakes made of it Two parts of Lead may be melted in a Pot or Crucible and one part of Sulphur added to it when the Sulphur is burnt out you 'l find the matter turned into a black powder which is called Plumbum ustum All these Preparations of Lead are of a drying nature they may be mixed with unguents and plaisters they unite with oils or fat substances in the boiling and they do give them a solid consistence and the greatest part of our plaisters do derive their hardness from it I spoke of the way of reducing Lead into Litharge when I treated of the Purification of Silver by the Coppel and it is thither I desire my Reader to return Remarks There happens an observation in the Calcination of Lead as well as several other things which very well deserves some reflection 'T is that although the Sulphureous or Volatile parts of Lead do fly away in the Calcination which loss should indeed make it weigh the less nevertheless after a long Calcining 't is found that instead of losing it increases in weight Some trying to explicate this Phaenomenon do say that as long as the violence of the flame does open and divide the parts of the Calx of Lead the acid of the Wood or other matter that burns does insinuate into tha pores of this Calx where 't is stopt or fixt by the Alkali but
Principles it is sufficient for a body to be called an Alkali if it has its Pores so disposed as that the Acids may be able through their motion violently to separate whatsoever stands in their way Mars is almost always Astringent by Stool by reason of its Terrestrious parts and Aperitive by Vrine not only by reason of its piercing Salt but also because when the body is bound the humidities do more easily filter by way of Vrine Opening Saffron of Mars This Preparation is only a Rust of Iron contracted in the Dew Wash well several Iron Plates and expose them to the Dew for a good while they will rust and you must gather up this rust Set the same Plates again to receive the Dew and gather the Rust as before Continue to do so till you have gotten enough This Rust is really better than all the Preparations of Iron that are called Crocus It is excellent for Obstructions of the Liver Pancreas Spleen and Mesentery It is used very successfully for the Green-Sickness stopping of the Terms Dropsies and other Diseases that proceed from Oppilations The Dose is from two grains unto two Scruples in Lozenges or Pills Many do give Mars with Purgatives which is a good Practice Remarks The Chymists have called Calcin'd Steel Crocus by reason of its red colour and they have given this name to many other Preparations for the same reason Though Steel hath been always used in the Chymical Preparations that are used in Physick and is preferred before Iron for the Cure of Diseases it is certain nevertheless that Iron is fitter for that intent than Steel because it is more Soluble for if the action of Iron proceeds from nothing but its Salt as there is no reason to doubt the Salt of Iron must be much more easily separated in the stomach than that of Steel because as I have shewn before the Pores of Steel are more close than those of Iron and therefore this must have quicker effects besides that Steel being harder to be dissolved doth sometimes pass away with the excrements without bestowing any impression on the Chyle The reason that hath induced People to believe that Steel is better for use than Iron was its being thought to be deprived of many impurities by Calcination but that which is called Impurity is the more open part of the Iron and consequently the more wholesome This Preparation of the Saffron of Mars is out of the common road and longer a doing than the others but it is the best of all that ever were invented The Dew is impregnated with a Dissolvent that opens very much the Pores of Iron and incorporating with it renders it more active and soluble than it was before Iron doth open Obstructions by its salt which being assisted with the solid parts of the Metal penetrates further than other Salts But you must always purge and moisten the Person you give it to with broths before you presume to give it because if it should find the passages of the small Vessels filled and obstructed with gross matters it stops and sometimes causes Inflammations that create pains like to those of the Colick Many do use the filings of Steel without any Preparation at all Iron doth frequently open Obstructions by absorbing as an Alkali the Acid that fomented them Seeing that some persons have indeavoured to contradict the Remarks I have made upon the Effects of Mars and particularly concerning the preference I have given Iron to Steel for Physical uses I have thought it not convenient to end this Chapter before I have laid down and Answered their Objections First then they say that because the different substances of Mars cannot be separated as those of Animals and Vegetables can it is in vain that an Aperitive virtue is attributed to its Salt Answer I grant all the substances of Mars can't be separated so easily as those of Animals and Vegetables but because we find Salts to be Aperitive and commonly Remedies that are so are full of Salts and that water in which rust of Iron has steeped for some time is proper to open by way of Vrine it seems to me rational enough to attribute this effect of Mars principally to its Salt for if the water has carried off any taste or penetrating quality from Iron there 's nothing at all in Mars that is able to contribute such a virtue to it besides the Salt therein dissolved Secondly they say the Earth and Salt of Mars being united and in a manner become inseparable cannot act but by consent of both and receive together joyntly the good or bad impressions that may happen to them I Answer there 's no reason to think the Salt of Mars absolutely inseparable from the Earth for the water in which this Metal has steeped or boiled after Filtration does contain a Vitriolick taste and Aperitive quality Now it is the effect of Salt to dissolve imperceptibly in Water and drive by Vrine as I have said but if any body would take the pains to steep and boil gently the rust of Iron a good while in water then Filter it and Evaporate the liquor over a small fire to a Pellicle he 'l by Crystallization or by an entire evaporation of the humidity gain a small quantity of Salt and it is probable enough that there was much more in the water as may be collected from the strong taste it had of Mars but it being something of a Volatile nature it fum'd away in the Evaporation I do not say nevertheless that the close connexion of Earth with the Salt of Mars is altogether unuseful for this effect on the contrary I do conceive that this Earth rendring the Salt more heavy than otherwise it would be does help to drive it forwards and causes the Mars sometimes to penetrate as much by its gravity as by its Salt but we must attribute the principal virtue to the Vehicle which is Salt since without that the Earth would be a dead matter and would have no more action than other Earths bereaved of their Salts Thirdly They say that in all probability Mars does act only according to the preparations which the different juices it meets with in the stomach do make for these acid juices not failing to encounter with and to dissolve it there results from this dissolution a liberty to the parts of the body on which these juices did act and consequently their restauration a-new I am willing to believe that sometimes Mars may act in the body like an Alkali by absorbing and sweetning the acid humour which it meets with as it does absorb and sweeten the acid liquors which are poured upon it but it must not be concluded from hence that its Aperitive faculty does always consist in this effect because as I before hinted the water in which Mars has been put to boil is Aperitive and yet there is no Alkali in it to sweeten the acids of the body when it is drunk Fourthly They object that we must
unto Air. But if there were not enough the fermentation which happens at the meeting of Iron and Brimstone may be able to raise the earth in some places and to burst it a-sunder The great heat of many Mineral waters may likewise easily be explicated by the means of these Subterranean Fires and how they came to receive those Sulphurs which we see are wont to be separated on the sides of the Bath when the water is not disturbed It is because those waters do pass immediately over or else through the midst of some of these burning earths wherein they are heated as they pass and do imbibe the Sulphur But when they are arrived to the place of the Baths and have there a-while setled this Sulphur being a fatt body cannot so intimately mix with the water but that it will separate to the sides of the Bath It may be also that some Mineral waters do owe their heat to a natural Quick-lime they may meet withal in their passage through the bowels of the earth but this Quick-lime is only a stone calcined by the Subterranean Fires of which I have spoken And now to return to our Operation You must observe to make this Calcination rather in an earthen Pan than Pot or Crucible and to stir it continually with a Spatula that the Sulphur may exhale the more easily I have sometimes tried to do it in a Crucible but the matter still remained black though I persisted in calcining and stirring it for above twelve hours together If you have used a Pound of Mars you 'l get at least a pound and four ounces of Crocus which proves the acids of Sulphur or some igneous bodies to incorporate in the pores of the Iron and augment its weight The red colour proceeds from Vitriol that Mars is full off which being calcined grows red like Colcothar Many other Preparations of Opening Saffron of Mars have been invented but these three are sufficient as being the best Binding Saffron of Mars This Preparation is the filings of Iron deprived of their more Saline part Take what quantity you please of the last Aperitive Saffron of Mars wash it five or six times with strong Vinegar leaving it to steep an hour at a time then calcine it in a Pot or upon a Tile in a great Fire five or six hours after that let it cool and keep it for use It stops the Diarrhoea the immoderate flowing of the Hemorrhoids and Terms the Dose is from fifteen grains to a drachm in Lozenges or else in Pills Remarks Because Mars is an impure Vitriol the more it is Calcined the more astringent it is But seeing that which renders it Aperitive is its Salt or more soluble part I intend by washing it several times with Vinegar to deprive it of much of its Salt Afterwards I Calcine the matter to carry off by Fire what Aperitive parts might remain Not that I expect by this means to separate intirely all that is Aperitive in Mars from that which is astringent that is a thing in a manner impossible by reason of the strict union of its Salt and earth in the Mine but I do believe it very probable to say that if there be any thing astringent in this metal as it cannot be denied it must needs be the more terrestrious part I may likewise say that if the astringent Mars has sometimes the effect of opening it is by the remaining Salt that it opens but when this Salt has done acting the terrestrious part never fails to bind Lastly I further say that I do not believe any Preparation of Mars to be absolutely astringent and that all we can do is to render it less incisive and less penetrating than before by depriving it of some part of its Salts Several other Preparations for making the Astringent Saffron of Mars are taught but this one may suffice Salt or Vitriol of Mars This Preparation is an Iron opened and reduced into the form of Salt by an acid liquor Take a clean Frying-pan and pour into it an equal weight of Spirit of Wine and Oil of Vitriol set it for some time in the Sun and then in the shade without stirring it you 'l find all the Liquor incorporated with the Mars and turned into a Salt that you must dry and then separate from the Pan and keep in a Viol well stopt It is an admirable Remedy for all Diseases that proceed from Obstructions the Dose is from four to twelve grains in Broth or some appropriate Liquor Remarks The Spirit of Wine serves here to moderate the too great force of the Oil of Vitriol which if alone would indeed in a little time penetrate all the parts of the Iron and cause a very impure Salt but the spirit of Wine hinders its so quick dissolution so that nothing but the more soluble part incorporates with the Oil to make a Salt or Vitriol A Frying-pan is more proper for this Operation than another vessel less flat because the liquor spreads it self about and incorporates the better you must use a Pan that is new If you use two ounces of Spirit of Wine and the same quantity of Oil of Vitriol in a small Frying-pan you 'l obtain five ounces of Mars You may put your liquor a thumbs height in the Pan and leave it there a day and a half or two days without stirring it The Oil of Vitriol is improperly called Oil being nothing but the more caustick Spirit as I shall prove in its proper place Riverius in his Practice gives a way of preparing the Salt of Mars like unto this excepting that he puts more Spirit of Wine than Oil of Vitriol but it is better to put equal parts as I have done It s virtue is greater than that of the Crocus because it is whetted by the Oil of Vitriol and therefore is given in a less dose you must observe that sometimes it causes a nauseousness as all Vitriols do If you put this Salt or Vitriol of Mars to dissolve in a cold place you 'l have a liquor that is called improperly Oil of Mars Another Vitriol of Mars This Vitriol of Mars is an Iron dissolved and reduced into the form of Salt by Spirit of Vitriol Put eight ounces of clean filings of Iron into a large Matrass and pour upon it two pounds of common water heated a little add unto it a pound of good Spirit of Vitriol stir it and set your Matrass in hot Sand leave it in Digestion four and twenty hours during which time the purest part of the Iron will dissolve separate the Liquor by Inclination and fling away the earthy part that remains in a small quantity at the bottom Filtrate this Liquor and evaporate it in a Glass-Cucurbite unto a Skin in a Sand-fire then set your vessel in a cool place and you 'l find green Crystals which you may take out after having gently poured off the Liquor Then evaporate again this Liquor unto a Skin and Crystallize it as before
that it may be joyned with but because it doth sometimes prove very difficult to separate it from the Earths with which it is in a manner incorporated they are forced to distil it through Iron Retorts into Receivers filled with water Natural Cinnabar called Mineral is a mixture of Mercury and Sulphur that sublime together by the means of a Subterraneous heat and this is done near after the same manner as Artificial Cinnabar is made of which I shall speak anon Quicksilver by reason of its fluidity is hard to transport wherefore a great quantity of it is reduced into Cinnabar in the places whence it is taken after the manner following Artificial Cinnabar Cinnabar is a mixture of Sulphur and Quicksilver sublimed together Take a quantity of Sulphur and melt it in a great earthen pan then mix by little and little thrice as much Quick-silver you must stir about and preserve the Matter in Fusion till all the Mercury disappears Then powder your mixture and sublime it in pots in an open fire well governed you 'l have a hard Mass and of a very red colour If any heterogeneous Metal should have been mixt with the Mercury it would remain at the bottom of the Pots Besides the convenience of easily transporting Mercury by this means it is very useful in Painting It is also used in Pomatums for the Itch and to make Fumes withal to raise a Salivation Remarks A pound of Sulphur is able to incorporate three pounds of Mercury and to make a Mass together The cause of this mutation of Mercury into Cinnabar does proceed from the penetration which the more acid part of Sulphur does make into the Mercury and the intangling its parts whose motion is now checkt And being raised by the fire it volatilizes as it does but the Saline or acid Spirits of Sulphur do fix it so as that it is constrained to stop its volatility and settle in the upper part of the pot which is called subliming whereas when it is all alone or else joyned with some matter that cannot fix it it evaporates quite away Cinnabar is shaped like needles by reason of the acid Spirits of Sulphur which have entred into its body and have impressed such a figure its red colour may proceed likewise from the Sulphur which is of this colour when it is well rarified This Red appears brown while the Cinnabar is in the Mass but if you powder it very fine beating it a good while it becomes of a shining and that so high a colour that it has been called Vermillion Some women do rub their Cheeks with it when they have mixt it in Pomatum but they don't consider that so dangerous an accident may happen from it as a Salivation The Fumigation with it is made by causing a patient to receive the Fume of the Cinnabar thrown into the fire Reviving of Cinnabar into Quick-silver This Operation is performed in order to separate the Sulphur which is in the Cinnabar Take a Pound of Artificial Cinnabar powder it and mix it exactly with three pounds of Quick-lime also powdered put the mixture into an earthen or glass Retort whose third part at least remains empty Place it in a Reverberatory Furnace and after having fitted to it a Receiver filled with Water give your fire by degrees and at last encrease it to the height the Mercury will run drop by drop into the Receiver continue the fire until no more will come the Operation is commonly at an end in six or seven hours Pour the Water out of the Receiver and having washed the Mercury to cleanse it from some little portion of earth it might carry along with it dry it with Linnen or the crum of Bread and keep it for use You must draw thirteen ounces and a half of flowing Mercury out of each pound of Artificial Cinnabar You may again Revive the Cinnabar by mixing it with equal parts of filings of Iron and by proceeding in the Operation as I have taught Remarks When Mercury is thus revived you may be sure of its purity because if any Metal should have mixed with it in the Mine it would remain as I have said at the bottom of the Pot you sublime it in and if the Cinnabar were adulterated that which had been used in the adulteration either would not rise with the Mercury or else would separate from it in the Receiver Cinnabar being nothing but a mixture of acid Spirits and Mercury together if you mix it with some Alkali and drive it upwards by fire the Acids for the reason I have already spoken of concerning the Depart of Silver must leave the Bodies they were joyned to before for to enter into the Alkali and this is what happens here for the Acids finding the Quick-lime very porous do leave the Mercury and adhere to the Quick-lime so that this Mercury being disengaged from what held it fixt before and forced by the fire comes forth of the Retort in form of Spirit but the coolness of the Water that is in the Recipient condenses it and resolves it into Quick-silver A third part of the Retort is left empty because the rarified Mercury comes forth with such violence as would otherwise be apt to break the Retort You must leave the mixture to settle a day or two before you put the fire under it to the end that the Quick-lime may slake the while for if you should not observe this circumstance the Retort would burst You might also use such a Quick-lime as has been already slak't in the air and then you might begin your distillation immediately after the mixture but I do think that the Revivification will be the more exact when unslak't Lime is used because the Alkali will act more strongly upon the Sulphureous acids When the distillation begins abundance of Sulphureous fume is seen to come out of the Retort the juncture of the Receiver with the Retort must not be luted because it is better to let this Sulphur fly away for if it had no vent we might have reason to fear lest some part of the Quick-silver would joyn and unite with it in the Receiver and so we might be obliged to make a second Revivification of it If by way of curiosity you weigh the Lime which remains in the Retort after distillation you 'l find three pounds and half an ounce of it this little augmentation of weight proceeds from a remainder of the Sulphur of Cinnabar and the matter does smell of Sulphur Quick-silver is one of the greatest remedies we have in Physick when it is used as it should be but is full as dangerous when it happens into the hands of Quacks who use it upon all occasions for all sorts of Diseases and give it indifferently to all sorts of persons without any respect to the Temperament they are of Those who draw it out of Mines or work much with it do often fall into the Palsie by reason of Sulphurs that
Sublimates may be revived again into flowing Mercury by mixing them with Lime and distilling them as I have said iâ— the reviving of Cinnabar into Quick-silver because the alkali of Lime destroys those acids thaâ— disguised the Quick-silver Oil or Liquor of Mercury This preparation is an acid liquor loaded with Mercury Put the lotions of the white mass that Turbiâ—â— Mineral was made of into an earthen pan oâ— glass vessel evaporate in Sand all the liquor until there remains at bottom a matter in form oâ— salt which weighs two ounces and a drachm puâ— the pan in a cellar or other cool place and then leave it until this matter be almost all dissolveâ— into liquor It is used for the laying open Venereal Shancres and eating the flesh Pledgets being dipt into it Remarks This liquor is nothing but Mercury so penetrated and divided by the acid Spirits of Vitriol that it can dissolve like a Salt now for that it contains these corrosive Spirits it eats and corrodes where-ever it touches like unto a Sublimate Corrosive This liquor may be made with spirit of Niter and then it will be more violent in its Operation but because it would then pierce too much and cause dangerous accidents I would rather choose to prepare it with Oil of Vitriol If you drop a few drops of the Oil of Tartar made per Deliquium into this liquor there will fall immediately a Mercurial Precipitate because the alkali of Tartar will break the edges that held up the Mercury dissolved Another Oil of Mercury This preparation is a Sublimate Corrosive dissolved in spirit of Wine Powder well an ounce of Sublimate Corrosive and put it into a Bolthead pour upon it four ounces of Spirit of Wine well rectified upon salt of Tartar stop well your Bolthead and let it infuse cold six or seven hours the Sublimate will dissolve but if any sediment remains at bottom decant the liquor from it and pouring upon the sediment a little more Spirit of Wine infuse it as before to finish the solution mix your solutions and keep them in a Viol well stopt This is an Oil of Mercury milder than the former it is good in Venereal Shancres especially when there is any fear of a Gangrene you may use it with pledgets like the former Remarks Spirit of Wine well rectified can dissolve sublimate corrosive but it is not able to dissolve Quick-silver nor even Mercurius dulcis the reason of which is that the Sublimate being a Mercury extremely rarified and already as it were suspended by acids the Spirit of Wine insinuates into it by little and little and dissolves its parts but Quick-silver and Mercurius dulcis consisting of parts too close and compact the Spirit of Wine which is a rarified Sulphur cannot give shakes strong enough to disjoyn or separate them This liquor is milder than the former because Spirit of Wine which is a Sulphur does so blunt the acid edges of Sublimate Corrosive that they cannot act with that strength they did when they were at liberty Other Precipitates of Mercury These preparations are only Sublimate Corrosive dissolved and precipitated into powders of different colours Mix 7 or 8 ounces of Sublimate Corrosive powdered in a glass or marble Mortar with 16 or 18 ounces of warm water stir them about for half an hour then let the liquor settle and pour it off by Inclination filter it and divide it into three parts to be put into so many Viols Pour into one of these Viols some drops of the Oil of Tartar made per Deliquium there falls immediately a red Precipitate Drop into another of these Viols some volatile spirit of Sal Armoniack and you have a white Precipitate Pour into the last of these Viols about a spoonful of Lime-water you have a yellow water that is called Phagaedenick-water or a water for Ulcers because it is good to cleanse and heal Ulcers the Chirurgeons do frequently use it especially in Hospitals if you let the liquor settle it will let fall a yellow precipitate To obtain these three Precipitates you have only to pour off the clear water by Inclination wash them and dry them apart Red precipitate may be used like that I described before but it is not so strong it is the truest red precipitate of any The white precipitate has the same virtues as the other Yellow precipitate may be used in Pomatums for the Itch half a drachm or a drachm of it is to be mixed with an ounce of Pomatum The Sublimate which remains at the bottom of the Mortar being dried may be used in Pomatums for the Itch like yellow precipitate Remarks Sublimate being a Mercury loaded with acids common water is able to dissolve some of it because these acids do rarefie it and make a kind of salt of it but because there are not acids enough in it to dissolve all the Mercury the most compact part of it remains at bottom the liquor is filtrated to clear and purifie it the more it is as clear and transparent as Fountain water If by way of Curiosity you should drop into the Viol of red precipitate that I now described some spirit of Sal Armoniack and would shake the liquor a little it would presently turn white and your precipitate would be white but if instead of spirit of Sal Armoniack you would use spirit of Vitriol an Ebullition would rise in it and the red liquor would become clear and transparent as common water Because the Oil of Tartar is an alkali salt dissolved it breaks the edges of the acid which held up the Mercury imperceptible and serv'd as Finns to make it swim in the water so that this Mercury having nothing left to bear it up must needs precipitate by its own weight The same thing happens when spirit of Sal Armoniack is thrown upon the other part of the solution of sublimate Corrosive For this spirit being in like manner an alkali produces the same effect as the Oil of Tartar But although alkali's do all agree in this that they break and destroy acids nevertheless there is always some difference in their action And this evidently appears in those differently coloured precipitates for this diversity can be attributed only to this that they having in several manners wrought upon acids do dispose and modifie the parts of the precipitated body so as they may be capable of making different Refractions of Light These precipitates are no longer poisons though they come from sublimate Corrosive and there 's the same reason for it as there is for the precipitations for seeing that which gave the Corrosion was an acid when this acid is destroyed by such powerful alkali's as are spirit of Sal Armoniack and Oil of Tartar that which remains must become sweet When spirit of Vitriol is thrown upon the liquor of red precipitate there rises an Ebullition because the acid does penetrate the alkali salt of the Oil of Tartar and this alkali being destroyed the acid dissolves
stomach by pricking its Fibres with some salts that they carry along with them If you mix this Emetick with an Infusion of Senna or some such purgative it works as much by stool as by vomit because these Remedies do precipitate with them some part of the Sulphurs When a man swallows the Perpetual Pill it passes by its own weight and purges downwards it is washt and given again as before and so on perpetually Almost all Chymists have written that this Pill loses nothing at all of its weight though taken several times 'T is true indeed the diminution is but very small yet nevertheless it would not be hard to remark it in some measure It may be said also that in place of the Sulphureous parts which do exhale to cause the vomiting some extraneous bodies do succeed in their place as it happens when Antimony is Calcined in the Sun When this Pill hath been taken and voided twenty or thirty times it purges not so much as it did at first as well because the more soluble parts of the Sulphur are gone as that what remains doth pass without any great effect The same doth happen to Cups or Gobelets which can't make the wine so Emetick as before after they have been filled twenty or thirty times Some do prescribe the Perpetual Pill in the disease called Miserere but this practice is not without danger because the ball stopping sometime in the Intestines which are knotted or twisted together in this disease may cause an Inflammation and so exulcerate the part It is given in the Colick and then it does well Wine draws out the Emetick virtue of the Regulus much better than water or spirit of Wine or vinegar can do the reason of which is that this virtue does consist in a saline sulphur which water could not penetrate spirit of Wine indeed does dissolve some of the more sulphureous part of it but does not take enough of the salt the vinegar by its acidity does fix too much what it has dissolved but Wine contains a sulphureous spirit and a saline Tartar which do make a most convenient Menstruum to dissolve and to preserve the saline and sulphureous part of the prepared Antimony Upon considering the different ways of evacuation caused by Antimony and many other Medicins I do find it very probable that Emeticks do work as they do because their operation being quick is exerted in the stomach before the medicin had time to descend more downwards and then this viscus is very sensible when irritated and undergoes commotions sufficiently violent to make rise what is within it But if the medicin proves slow in its operation and descends into the gutts before it raises a purgative fermentation it then forces downwards whence it comes to pass that those who do not vomit upon taking emeticks are commonly purged by stool Thus Vomits and Purges do differ only in this that the first do work in the stomach the others in the gutts Oil and lukewarm water do vomit by relaxing the fibres of the stomach and changing the motion of the spirits which do then act only by shaking or turning the stomach to a discharge upwards If by way of curiosity you would Calcine four ounces of the Regulus of Antimony powdered in an earthen cup unglazed set in a small fire stirring it all the while with a Spatule there will rise up a vapour for an hour and a halfs time or there-abouts and when the matter fumes no longer it turns into a grey powder that weighs two drachms and a half more than the Regulus did at first This augmentation of quantity is the stranger for that the fume which ascended from it during the Calcination should seem rather to have diminished its weight It must be therefore granted that a great many fiery particles have entred into it in the room of that which fum'd away This Fume proceeds from some grosser Sulphur that remained in the Regulus and indeed it smells strong of the sulphur Golden Sulphur of Antimony This preparation is the sulphureous part of Antimony dissolved by Alkali salts and precipitated by an acid Take the dross of the Regulus of Antimony powder and boil them with common water in an earthen pot half an hour strain the liquor and pour vinegar into the expression there will precipitate a red powder filtrate and separate your precipitate dry it and keep it you will obtain twelve ounces and two drachms of it it is called the Golden Sulphur of Antimony and is an Emetick the dose is from two grains unto six in broth or in Pills Remarks You must put about sixteen pints of water to boil with the fifteen ounces of the dross of Regulus of Antimony though the liquor does coagulate like a Jelly when it is cold by reason of the salts and sulphurs joyning together for the dross of the Regulus is nothing but a mixture of the fixt parts of Salt-peter and Tartar that have retained with them some of the more impure Sulphur of Antimony Now seeing that these salts do become Alkali by means of Calcination the acid which is poured upon them does break or destroy their strength and makes them quit the sulphur which they held dissolved from whence the precipitation of the Golden Sulphur of Antimony does proceed So soon as vinegar is poured on the dissolution of the dross volatile sulphurs do arise which are very disagreeable to the smell the precipitate which is afterwards made is like to a Coagulum or curd in great quantity This Sulphur does operate much like to the Crocus metallorum of which I shall soon speak The Chymists have called it Golden sulphur by reason of its colour which is near like unto that of Gold but it is probable that the Antients did understand by the Golden Sulphur of Antimony some other sulphur than this because almost all of them have writ that there was a gross superficial sulphur in Antimony like unto common sulphur which is this of which our present preparation is made and another more fixt and like unto that of Gold which they held to be Sudorifick You must not imagine that our Golden Vomitive Sulphur is altogether Pure it is still loaded with a great deal of earth and salt which it has still retained in the precipitation and it is this salt which by rarefying its parts does give it this colour Regulus of Antimony with Mars This preparation is a mixture of the more fixed parts of Antimony and some portion of Iron Put eight ounces of small Nails into a great Crucible cover it and set it on a grate in a Furnace surround it above and below with a good fire and when the Nails are red hot throw into them a pound of Antimony in powder cover again the Crucible and continue a great fire when the Antimony shall be in perfect Fusion cast into it by little and little three ounces of Salt-peter a detonation will happen and the nails will melt and when
and for heating the lowermost When its bottom is red-hot cast into it a small spoonful of Antimony in powder through the hole and stir the matter at the bottom of the pot with an Iron Spatule crooked a little on purpose to do it the better draw out your Spatule and stop the hole the flowers will rise and stick in the upper pots Continue a great fire that the pot may still remain red-hot and when you see nothing more sublime cast in so much more Antimony observing to do what I have said Repeat the casting it in through the hole till you have flowers enough Then let the fire go out and when the vessels are cold unlute them you 'l find flowers all about the three upper pots and the head gather them together with a Feather and keep them in a Viol. It is a powerful Emetick it is given in Quartan Agues and other Intermittent Feavers and also in the Epilepsie the dose is from two grains to six in Lozenges or Broth. Remarks In this preparation as in the former you must leave room enough otherwise the flowers of Antimony being driven fiercely by the fire would be apt to break the vessel for want of room to move in And this is the reason why many pots are here placed one upon another There 's no need of any Receiver because there is no liquor to fall into it so that a blind head may serve At the bottom of the pot which contained the matter there remains a mass of the more terrestrious part of Antimony that must be flung away as being good for nothing If the Flowers of Antimony do happen to be of different colours it is because the fire was not managed equally strong these Flowers are more Vomitive than the former because they have no Salt-peter in them Red Flowers of Antimony These Flowers are the more sulphureous part of Antimony rarefied and exalted by fire Powder and mix well together four pounds of common glass with one pound of Antimony put this mixture into an earthen or glass Retort luted whose half is empty set it in a Reverberatory Furnace and fit to it a large Receiver lute the junctures lightly and give a little fire at first to warm the Retort then augment it by degrees and you 'l see Red flowers come forth into the Receiver continue the fire until no more can come which you 'l know as you unlute the junctures and taking off the Receiver gather your Flowers and keep them for use They are more Vomitive than the former and are given to the same intents the dose is from two grains to four in a Lozenge or some appropriate liquor Remarks That which makes these Flowers more Vomitive than the former is the more terrestrious or fixt part of Antimony's being kept from rising by the glass so that what is exalted by the fire is more Sulphureous and consequently more Emetick The red colour of these Flowers doth proceed from the abundance of Sulphurs they are impregnated with and it may be said that glass which is an alkali acting on this Sulphur gives it this colour after the same manner as Quick-lime or the alkali Salt of Tartar makes common Sulphur turn red when they are boiled together in water The time that you take these Flowers of Antimony you must often drink broth both to facilitate the vomiting and dull the great activity of this Remedy for it is one of the strongest vomits that is in Physick But because it sometimes happens that this Powder sticking in the membranes of the stomach or some of its folds doth cause a continual vomiting notwithstanding the frequent use of broths you must then add the Cream of Tartar and dissolve it in the broth and so take some spoonful every quarter of an hour This Cream of Tartar stops the vomiting because it joyns with the Sulphurs of Antimony and fixes them so that they precipitate by stool Butter or Icy Oil of Antimony This preparation is an Antimony rendred caustick by acids Powder and mix six ounces of the Regulus of Antimony with a pound of Sublimate Corrosive put this mixture into a glass Retort whose half remains empty set your Retort in Sand and after having fitted to it a Receiver and luted the conjunctions you must first make a small fire under it and there will distil a clear oil after that augment the fire a little and there will come forth a white thick liquor like Butter which would stop the neck of the Retort and break it if you did not take care to set live Coals near it that it may melt and run into the Receiver Continue the fire until you see a red vapour come forth Then take away the Receiver and put another in its place filled with water Encrease the fire by degrees to make the Retort red-hot and the Mercury will run into the water dry it and keep it for use as other Mercury The Butter of Antimony is a Caustick it eats proud flesh and cleanses Ulcers the Powder of Algarot is made of it as I shall shew hereafter Remarks This Butter of Antimony is nothing but a mixture of the acid Spirits of Sublimate Corrosive with the Regulus of Antimony and those Spirits are they that render it Caustick The spirits of Salt and Vitriol in this operation do leave the Mercury to adhere unto the Antimony which is more porous insomuch that the Mercury being divested of that which kept it in a Crystalline form and being driven by a strong fire rarefies into vapours which pass through the neck of the Retort into the Receiver filled with water wherein it condenses into Quick-silver by means of the coolness I doubt not but some will find difficulty in conceiving how the acids that adhered to the solid body of Mercury should strike off to joyn with the Antimony but it may be said to that that the acids being so many edges fastned at one end in the body of Mercury may by t'other end be separated and drawn off by the soft and ramous parts of the Antimony that are in greater motion than the Mercury Instead of Regulus the Liver or Glass of Antimony might serve if you please Butter of Antimony together with its Cinnabar The first of these preparations is an Antimony opened and rendred caustick by the acids of Sublimate Corrosive and the second is a mixture of the Mercury that was in the sublimate and of the Sulphurs of Antimony sublimed together Fill a Retort half full with Sublimate Corrosive and Antimony powdered and mixed well together Set your Retort in Sand in a small Furnace and fitting a Receiver to it and luting the junctures proceed in the distillation the way I shewed in the preceding operation with Regulus observing the same circumstances When the red vapours begin to appear take away the Receiver and put another in its place without luting the junctures encrease the fire by little and little till you make the Retort red-hot continue
it so three or four hours then let the Retort cool and break it you 'l find a Cinnabar sublimed and adhering to the neck separate it and keep it it is a good Remedy for the Pox and the Epilepsie it purges by sweat the dose is from six to fifteen grains in Pills or Bolus with some proper Conserve This Butter of Antimony is Caustick like the other I now spoke of It may be rectified by distilling it anew in a glass Retort Remarks In the Receiver are found little crystals sticking to its sides which do curiously represent the branches of trees these figures do proceed from the acid spirits of sublimate mixed with Antimony If you have used five ounces of Sublimate Corrosive and the same of Antimony you 'l draw two ounces and a half of very good Butter of Antimony three ounces and six drachms of Cinnabar of Antimony and half an ounce of Quick-silver The mass which remains in the Retort does weigh two ounces and a half Thus the matter has lost six drachms which loss happened whilst the Cinnabar was rising The Quick-silver is found in the neck of the retort with the Cinnabar and in the last receiver Sometimes a kind of mossey substance is found at the end of the neck of the retort which does represent many little figures it is the more rarefied Cinnabar The mass which is found at bottom of the retort is the more terrestrious part of the Antimony and is to be flung away In the preceding operation the Mercury did not find sulphurs enough to adhere to whence it hapned that it came forth flowing but in this operation wherein crude Antimony is used which hath all its sulphur whilst the Corrosive spirits sticking to the Antimony come forth in Butter the Mercury joyns with the sulphur and by the action of fire sublimes afterwards into Cinnabar in the neck of the retort for to make Cinnabar Sulphur and Mercury must be sublimed together Now if you have the curiosity to anatomise Cinnabar you must powder it and mix it with a double quantity of Salt of Tartar then putting it into a Retort distil with a great fire the Mercury into a Receiver filled with water the Sulphur will remain in the Retort with the Salt of Tartar but may be separated from it by boiling it in water Filtrate the Decoction and then pour upon it distilled Vinegar a gray powder will precipitate which may be washed with water and dried thus you have the Sulphur of Antimony which is much esteemed for diseases of the Breast six or eight grains of it are given for a dose in some liquor appropriate to the disease If you mix Butter of Antimony with double its weight of oil or spirit of Sulphur prepared according to my description you will have a liquor that is good for foul bones and for venereal ulcers and Chancres it is applied on pledgets and works much like the oil or liquor of Mercury that I have described The Emetick powder of Algarot or Mercurius vitae It is a Precipitate of Antimony or Butter of Antimony washed Melt in hot sand the first butter of Antimony I described with Regulus and pour it into as earthen pan wherein are two or three quarts of warm water a white powder will precipitate that must be sweetned with many lotions and so kept it is improperly called Mercurius vitae It purges upwards and downwards it is given in Quartans and Intermitting feavours and all the maladies wherein it is required to purge strongly the dose is from two grains to eight in Broth or some other convenient liquor If you joyn all the lotions together and evaporate about two thirds or until the liquor becomes very acid you 'l have a Philosophick spirit of Vitriol that may be used like common spirit of Vitriol in Juleps to give them an agreeable acidity Remarks I have said before that the Butter or Icy Oil of Antimony was nothing but a mixture of the spirits of Salt and Vitriol with the Regulus of Antimony This last operation confirms this opinion because when this Butter is cast into warm water these spirits render the liquor very acid letting the Regulus of Antimony fall down to the bottom so that the powder of Algarot is an Antimony transmuted much like the white flowers I spoke of before The water does separate or take off very well the acid spirits from the Butter of Antimony because they cannot have a good hold in the pores of this softish and sulphureous mineral but it was not able to separate those same acids from the Sublimate Corrosive because the pores of Mercury being of a closer fabrick than those of Antimony they do retain what they once receive into them with greater strength The powder of Algarot may be made after the same manner as the Butter that may be drawn from crude Antimony or else with the Liver or Glass but that which is made with crude Antimony is not so white as the rest If you do use four ounces of Butter of Antimony you will draw an ounce and six drachms of Mercurius vitae after it is well washed and dried insomuch that four ounces of this Butter do contain two ounces and two drachms of acid spirit in which its corrosion does consist The acid liquor called Philosophick spirit of Vitriol does grow in a manner insipid in length of time because its acidity has been volatilized by the Mercury and afterwards by the Antimony Bezoar Mineral This preparation is an Antimony fixed by spirit of Niter and rendred sudorifick Melt in hot ashes two ounces of the Butter of Antimony and pour it into a Viol or a Bolthead drop into it good spirit of Niter until the matter is perfectly dissolved commonly so much spirit of Niter is requisite as there is Butter of Antimony during the dissolution there will rise up vapours that you must have a care of and therefore will do well to place the vessel in the Chimney Pour your solution into a glass body or an earthen dish and evaporate it in a gentle sand-fire until it is dry there will remain a white mass which you must let cool and then pour upon it two ounces of spirit of Niter set the vessel again in sand and evaporate the liquor as before once more pour two ounces of spirit of Niter on the white mass and having evaporated the humidity encrease the fire a little and Calcine the matter for half an hours time then take it off the fire and you have a white powder which you must keep in a Viol well stopt It is sudorifick and serves for the same uses as Antimonium Diaphoreticum the dose is from six to twenty grains in broth or some appropriate liquor Remarks The Spirits of Vitriol and Salt were not strong enough nor in quantity enough to make an entire dissolution of the Antimony they only made a light adhesion to it but when they are joyned with spirit of Niter they act with
Orpin and the Red called Realgal or Sandaracha the White is the strongest of all and is sometimes transparent like crystal Some do add to these for a fourth kind of Arsenick a Yellow Arsenick which is an Orpin differing from the other only in this that it is not so transparent nor of so high a colour None of these Arsenicks may be given inwardly although several persons that have ventur'd to use the white do pretend to have cured with it divers diseases and among others the Quartan-Ague They venture to give of it as far as four grains in a great deal of water and after that manner it will Vomit like Antimony But I can by no means allow of this Febrifuge and would never advise any body to use so dangerous a Remedy Nature doth furnish us with Medicins enough of Conscience to provoke Vomiting without recourse to Arsenick It is used outwardly with sufficient success because it eats proud flesh People sometimes cover the Corns of their feet with Arsenick in powder and it eats them to the root without any pain but they must be sure to cover the adjacent flesh with a plaister of Diapalma after the same manner as when Causticks are applied Regulus of Arsenick This preparation is the more fixt and compact part of Arsenick Powder and mix together a pound of Arsenick with six ounces of gravelled Ashes incorporate this powder in a pound of soft soap and make a paste of it put it in a great Crucible and cover it with an earthen cover that hath a hole in the middle set your Crucible in a wind-furnace and give a little fire at first then augment it gradually that the matter may be in a clear fusion throw it into a mortar greas'd at the bottom or into a Culot strike it round about a little with pincers and let the matter cool then knock it out you 'l find in the bottom of the mortar a Regulus of Arsenick separate it from the dross It is not so Corrosive as Arsenick it self and its effect is milder Remarks The soap being full of an alkali salt and the gravelled Ashes do correct or fix the great activity of the sulphurs of Arsenick A hole is made in the cover that the more volatile part may sublime with the Oil and humidity that are in the Soap the alkali salts do remain in the dross with some part of the more gross sulphurs of Arsenick If by way of Curiosity you should boil the dross in water Filtrate the decoction and pour Vinegar upon it or some other acid to break the force of the alkali's a Sulphur of Arsenick will precipitate that is stronger than Arsenick it self Arsenick being compounded of abundance of sulphurs is not so quick in its operation as Sublimate Corrosive because these sulphurs do not knaw so fast as the acid salts If Arsenick should happen to be taken inwardly through any mistake the person may still be saved half an hour afterwards by swallowing good store of warm oil to Vomit and Purge after that he must be purged with Cassia and Salt of Tartar and he must often drink Salt of Tartar in Broths that if any sulphur should chance to remain it might be fixed by this Salt for when Arsenick is in the body the heat of the body raises and rarefies the sulphurs on every side Sublimate of Arsenick This operation is an Arsenick corrected from its more malignant sulphurs and raised by the means of fire to the top of a matrass Put what quantity you please of Arsenick grosly powdered into a Crucible set it in a small fire under the Chimney to Calcine and evaporate about the third part of the matter Avoid as much as may be this malignous vapour pour into a mortar that which remains and when you have powdered it weigh it and mix it with an equal quantity of Salt Decrepitated put this mixture into a matrass whose two thirds remain empty set your matrass in sand in a small Furnace and making a little fire at first encrease it by little and little to the third degree in order to Sublime the Arsenick continue it in this condition until there rises no more the operation is ended in five or six hours let the vessel cool and break it gather that which sticks to the top of the matrass and keep it fling away that which remains at bottom If you should repeat the Sublimation four or five times adding salt each time a sweet Sublimate of Arsenick would be made that is to say abundantly less corrosive than common Arsenick Some Authors tell us that this sweet Arsenick is a Counterpoison but I shall never think it convenient to trust to such an Antidote seeing we don't want those that are safer The Sublimate of Arsenick eats proud flesh and cleanses old Ulcers being mixed with the common Suppurative and Aegyptiacum The same Operation may be performed with Orpin Remarks The Arsenick is Calcined to the end the more volatile part may fly away in fumes if you should continue the fire and encrease it toward the end every jot of the Arsenick would fly away Some do sublime it without addition of any thing else after it is Calcined but it is better joyn some body that may fix it a little such as Salt Seeing the sublimate of Arsenick doth resemble sublimate Corrosive in colour some Cheats do falsifie sublimate Corrosive by mixing with it that of Arsenick I have shewn the way to discover this imposture in the Chapter of sublimate Corrosive The Salt Decrepitated does six the great volatility of Arsenick and the fire carries off some of its more active sulphurs insomuch that the oftner it is sublimed the more it does dulcify and becomes proper to apply to flesh where we would gently corrode If you sublime Arsenick alone in a bolthead with a great fire without having Calcined it at all before the sublimate will be converted into a glass much resembling common glass both in colour and transparency Caustick Arsenick This operation is an Arsenick rendred more fixt and more burning than it was before and in form of a Calx by the means of fixt salts Powder and mix together a pound of Arsenick so much Salt-peter and half a pound of Sulphur put this mixture into an Iron mortar cover it with a Cover that hath a hole in 't thrust a red-hot Iron or a lighted coal through the hole the powder will take fire with a great noise called detonation this noise being over and the matter cold powder it grosly and calcine it in a covered Crucible for two hours time over a great fire then let it cool and you 'l have a Caustick matter that you must break into little pieces and stop close in a Bottle to use as common Causticks If you set it in a Cellar or other moist place it dissolves into a liquor like the salt of Tartar Remarks This great detonation proceeds from the flagration of common sulphur and that of Arsenick which being
violently driven about by the volatile part of Salt-peter finds a little hole to fly out at The more fixt part of Arsenick remains at bottom with the fixt salt-peter The matter is Calcined again that being the more open it may be the more Caustick but this must be done in a covered Crucible for otherwise the Arsenick which is almost all of it sulphur would fly quite away by the great fire Corrosive Oil of Arsenick This liquor is an Arsenick opened and become of the consistence of butter by the acids of sublimate Corrosive Take equal parts of Arsenick and Sublimate Corrosive powder and mix them put this mixture into a glass-retort and set it in sand fit to it a Receiver and luting the junctures distil with a gentle fire a butter-like liquor resembling the butter of Antimony and when no more will distil take away the Receiver and put another in its place filled with water Encrease the fire and you 'l see the Mercury fall into the water drop by drop continue the distillation till there comes no more You may use this Mercury on all occasions like to another after you have washed and dried it The Butter of Arsenick is a very strong Caustick it makes an Eschar more quickly than that of Antimony Remarks The same thing happens in this operation that I spoke of in the Butter of Antimony that is the Spirits of Sublimate Corrosive do leave the Mercury to joyn with the Arsenick which they draw along with them in a gummous liquor the Mercury being afterwards disengaged and finding no sulphurs to fix it comes forth in a vapour and condenses into water CHAP. XI Of Quick-lime QVick-lime is a Stone whose moisture the fire hath quite dried up and brought into its place a great many igneous bodies It is these little bodies that cause the Ebullition when water hath opened the matter that kept them inclosed and this Ebullition lasts until all the parts of the Lime are dilated and the fiery particles set at liberty so that there is no need of further trouble to get out These little igneous bodies do likewise render the Lime Corrosive for the stone is not at all so of it self When the stone that Quick-lime is made of is grown red hot in the Furnaces the Workmen have a special care to keep up the fire at an equal height until the stone is quite Calcin'd for if the flame which has begun to burn among the stones should be suffered to lessen for a while and so the heat be checkt before the end of the work they would never afterwards be able to make Quick-lime with those stones any more though they should be at the charge of burning fifty times as much wood as is commonly required and this because in that interval of heat the pores of the stone which were begun to be opened do close and shut and the matter sinks down in a lump to the destruction of the whole And then again the flame can't rise in it any more for it finds none of those interstices or spaces between which were frequent before for it to pass through The matter therefore is rendred uncapable of receiving the fire any more because all the small cells that were useful for its reception are shut up and destroyed in this confusion It is objected that if igneous bodies were they that caused the Corrosion of Quick-lime Tiles Bricks and all stones that are not of the nature of Lime-stone and Iron Copper Silver Gold and many other bodies should be as Caustick as Quick-lime after having endured the fire as long if not longer than it But this does not follow for Tiles and other Calcined stones have not the pores disposed like those of Quick-lime to retain fiery particles and if some metals are found impregnated with them during their Calcination they are known to retain them so well by the solidity of their parts that neither the heat nor moisture of the flesh are able to draw them out of the places they are fixt in to cause a Corrosion upon the part It is easie here to give you an example for if you take the Calx of Lead that encreased its weight in the Calcination as I have said before and steep it in water the water will not act at all upon it and the Calx may be taken from the water in the same weight it was put in you must melt it by fire if you would separate the igneous bodies but now as for common Quick-lime a small matter of moisture is able to separate the tender parts of the stone and drive out the fiery particles in abundance It is said likewise that the ebullition of water which happens when flung upon Quick-lime must not be imputed to fiery bodies seeing neither spirit of wine nor oil when thrown upon it do at all cause heat although they are both of them Inflammable bodies nay on the contrary they are observed to quench the heat that uses to happen to Quick-lime when water is joyned with it I Answer that these effects do proceed from this that Oil spirit of wine and other Sulphureous liquors of the same nature instead of separating the parts of quick-lime as water does do rather hinder any separation from being made by stopping up the pores That which withdrew me from the Sentiment of those who will have all the effects of quick-lime derived from its salt was that I could never find any in it though I have sought after it with care enough for some through mistake do take a certain Bituminous scum which often swims upon the Lime-water for a salt Neither can I be of the opinion of those who will needs have an acid to be in quick-lime which being drawn out by the water and meeting an alkali does cause the effervescency which is observed when water is poured upon quick-lime for although according to appearance an acid may enter into the natural composition of the stone that quick-lime is made of this acid has lost its nature not only by breaking its points in its strict union with earth at the Petrification but also in the violent Calcination that is given to this stone to reduce it to a Calx So that we may here say the same thing happens to the acid which enters into the composition of the stone as I have said did happen to the salt of Vegetables and other mixt bodies which though naturally an acid salt changes into an alkali by means of its union with earth and the fiery particles in time of the Calcination there is only this difference between them both the acid of the stone is mixed with more earth than the salt of Vegetables When Lime is once slackt it neither causes any more ebullition nor heat with water but if you add to it an acid it makes both a considerable ebullition and heat because the acid edges will penetrate into the particles of the Lime where the water was not able to go There is not made
any ebullition or precipitation by the mixing acids with Lime-water Phagedenick Water This water is a mixture of Sublimate and Lime-water Put a pound of Quick-lime into a large earthen pan and quench it with seven or eight pints of hot water after the Lime hath infused five or six hours and is sunk to the bottom pour off the water by Inclination and Filtrate it this is called Lime-water To each pint of this water are added fifteen or twenty grains of Sublimate Corrosive in powder and the water presently turns yellow they are stirred together a good while in a glass or marble mortar and this water is used for cleansing old Ulcers it eats proud flesh and is likewise used in the Gangreen by adding Spirit of Wine to it and sometimes Spirit of Vitriol Remarks Lime-water changes the colour of Sublimate Corrosive because being an alkali it destroys some part of the acids which according as they are diversly mixed with the Mercury do give it different colours The precipitate of the Phagedenick water being washed and dried is esteemed by some to be a good Purgative in Venereal cases It is given in Pills for fear of blacking the Teeth the dose is from one grain to three it purges upward and downward and works much like Turbith mineral Caustick stones or Cauteries This operation is the salt of Gravelled ashes or the Lees of wine Calcined rendred more corrosive than it was before by the igneous parts of Quick-lime Put into a great earthen pan one part of Quick-lime and two parts of Gravelled ashes or Calcined Tartar powder and mix them pour good store of hot water upon your matter and leaving it in infusion five or six hours boil it a little afterwards pass that which is clear through brown paper and evaporate it in a Copper basin or earthen pan there will remain at bottom a salt which you must put over the fire in a Crucible it will dissolve and boil untill all the remaining humidity is evaporated When you find it at the bottom like to an Oil cast it into a basin and cut it into pieces while it is warm put these Cauteries quickly into a strong glass bottle stop it with wax and a bladder for the air would easily dissolve it into a liquor you must also take care to keep it in a dry place These Cauteries are the strongest of all that are made and they are but half an hour in making Remarks Gravelled ashes are only a Calcined Tartar for they are made by burning the Lees of wine but because these Lees by reason of their liquidity have fermented more than common Tartar the salt which is drawn from them is of a more penetrating nature than other Tartar and consequently is fitter to make Causticks with The Quick-lime does also help to make them much the stronger for the igneous parts which it contains do mix with this salt and make it the more active and corrosive You must not powder the Quick-lime for the little fiery bodies would then fly away before they could be received into the water When you Filtrate the solution you must put a cloth under the brown paper to support it otherwise it would be presently corroded Ten or twelve ounces of salt would be drawn from the Gravelled ashes alone but the slakt Lime retains a great deal of it If you have used in this operation sixteen ounces of gravelled ashes and eight ounces of quick-lime you will have eight ounces of your Causticks If you would have the Causticks in edges you must put a hot Iron Spatule into the Crucible whilst the matter is in Fusion and form the edges in a flat bason This Caustick salt is very easily dissolved and in the making of it you must not stay till it appears dry at the bottom of the vessel as you do for other salts for it remains still fluid though all the humidity of it be gone therefore you must put a little of it to cool that you may see whether it be in its due consistence The reason why it thus remains in Fusion is because it is full of little fiery bodies which it has taken from the Quick-lime and which have so disposed its parts to penetration for all solid bodies which are put in Fusion by fire do receive this liquid form for no other reason but because the little fiery bodies are become mixed with their parts and have set them into a great agitation If you should use lime that is slakt the Causticks would not so easily melt and if you draw the salt from Gravelled ashes alone it will coagulate in drying much as other salts do wherefore this Fusion of the Causticks must needs proceed from the fiery bodies which were contained in the Quick-lime Causticks may likewise be made divers other ways but this description will deserve a preference before others when you would have them be of a quick operation Inks called Sympathetical These operations are liquors of a different nature which do destroy one another the first is an infusion of Quick-lime and Orpin the second a water turned black by means of burned Cork and the third is a vinegar impregnated with Saturn Take an ounce of Quick-lime and half an ounce of Orpin powder and mix them put your mixture into a matrass and pour upon it five or six ounces of water that the water may be three fingers breadth above the powder stop your matrass with Cork Wax and a Bladder set it in digestion in a mild sand-heat ten or twelve hours shaking the matrass from time to time then let it settle the liquor becomes clear like common water Burn Cork and quench it in Aqua vitae then dissolve it in a sufficient quantity of water wherein you shall have melted a little Gumm Arabick in order to make an Ink as black as common Ink. You must separate the Cork that can't dissolve and if the Ink be not black enough add more Cork as before Get the Impregnation of Saturn made with Vinegar distil'd as I have shewn before or else dissolve so much salt of Saturn as a quantity of water is able to receive write on Paper with a new Pen dipt in this liquor take notice of the place where you writ and let it dry nothing at all will appear Write upon the invisible writing with the Ink made of burnt Cork and let it dry that which you had writ will appear as if it had been done with common Ink. Dip a little Cotton in the first liquor made of Lime and Orpin but the liquor must be first setled and clear rub the place you writ upon with this Cotton and that which appeared will presently disappear and that which was not seen will appear Another Experiment Take a Book four fingers breadth in bigness or bigger if you will write on the first leaf with your Impregnation of Saturn or else put a paper that you have writ upon between the leaves turn to t'other side of the Book and having
reason of it is that in the making of Vinegar the acids had in a manner fixed this sulphureous Spirit but when they do enter into the pores of Coral they are forced to quit it and so let it recover its volatility Magistery of Coral Take what quantity you please of the impregnation of Coral either red or white made with distilled Vinegar as I have said before pour it it into a Viol or matrass and drop into it the liquor of the Salt of Tartar made per deliquium a Curd will appear which will precipitate to the bottom in a very white powder decant the clear liquor and washing your powder five or six times with water dry it it is that which is called the Magistery of Coral Great virtues are attributed to it such as to revive and fortifie the heart resist poison stop the bloody Flux and all other Haemorrhagies The dose is from ten to thirty grains in some liquor appropriate to the disease Remarks The name of Magistery is given only to Precipitates and they are so called to express something more exquisite than ordinary The liquor of Tartar which is an alkali salt dissolved encountring the acid makes it let go the particles of Coral that it held suspended and so they precipitate by their own weight this precipitate is nothing else but a Coral finely powdered by means of acids which do easily divide into abundance of parts things that otherwise would seem indivisible But you must observe here that these preparations instead of rendring Coral more effectual as is pretended do indeed render it almost good for nothing which is a thing easie enough to prove if we consider that Coral works in our bodies by nothing else but by absorbing acids or sharp and salt humours which do continually occasion divers diseases for example it stops Haemorrhagies only by sweetning the keen salts which corroded the membranes of the veins or else raised great effervescencies in the bloud so as to make it extravasate it stops Diarrheas by destroying the acrimony of the Choler or other humors lastly if it cures the falling down of the Vvula and does remedy many other accidents it is done by nothing else but by breaking the force of the ferments which do cause them after the same manner as it destroys the acidity of Vinegar or some other liquor this being so as there is great reason to believe it it were far better to take Coral without any other preparation than that which is made on the marble then to dissolve it by an acid and precipitate it into a Magistery for the acid or sharp humors that this Magistery is to encounter in our bodies finding nothing in the medicine that is able to blunt their edges will continue their former activity and so no effect at all will follow In this Precipitation there does not appear any effervescency because the edges of the Vinegar being broken it has neither strength nor motion enough left to penetrate and to separate the parts of salt of Tartar but if the dissolution of Coral had been made with some stronger dissolvent than Vinegar such as Spirit of Vitriol there would be an ebullition in the time of the Precipitation because there would remain still action enough to the broken edges of that spirit for to enter into the pores of the alkali salt and to rarefie it Salt of Coral This operation is a Coral rarefied and opened by the Spirit of Vinegar Take what quantity you please of the dissolution of Coral made by distilled Vinegar as I said before pour it into a glass Cucurbite or earthen pan and evaporate in sand all the moisture there will remain at bottom a Salt of Coral keep it in a Viol well stopt it is given for the same reasons as the Magistery the dose of it is less being from five to fifteen grains Remarks In this Evaporation there come forth only the watry parts and the acids adhering to the Coral do form a kind of Salt If you should put this Salt of Coral into a Retort and distil it in sand you would obtain a liquor that is only styptick without any considerable acidity which shews that the acids are destroyed and do not come forth of the alkali as they entred in CHAP. XV. Of Common Salt THere are three sorts of Common Salt the Fossile Salt the Fountain Salt and the Sea Salt the first is called Sal Gemme by reason of its transparency and smoothness like to a precious stone it is that of which whole mountains are found full in Poland and other places the second is drawn by evaporation of the waters of some Fountains and the last from sea-Sea-water by Crystallization or Evaporation these three salts are of the same nature and have almost the same effect they are used not only in Aliments but sometimes in Remedies too such as Clysters when they should be made very Carminative It is here observable that Sal Gemme is a little more penetrating than Sea salt that is drawn by Crystallization and that the Sea salt which is drawn by Crystallization is more penetrating than that which is made by Evaporation of the waters The reason that may be given for the piercing quality of Sal Gemme is this that having never been dissolved in water it never lost any of its keenness whereas the others do lose their more subtle edges in the waters and this chiefly when those waters are in strong agitation as are those of the Sea It is very probable that the violent Vomiting which does so much annoy those who take a voyage to Sea does proceed from these same subtile parts of salt which being volatilized do fill the sea-air for this vomiting does happen only to such who have not been used to breath a salt air and who besides are sufficiently shook by the motion of the Sea The Sea salt which is made in Normandy by evaporation of Sea-water over the fire is not so strong as that which is made at Rochell by Crystallization because in the evaporation many of the subtler parts of the Salt are lost and a mark of that is that if Sea-water is distilled over a fire â—ever so small it will not fail to carry with it some volatilized salt which will alter its virtue as experience hath testified several times But it doth not happen thus to Sea-salt Crystallized for it fixes of it self when the Salt-waters have setled for some time in places fit for their reception I have delivered my thoughts sufficiently touching the Origine of these three sorts of Salt in the Remarks I made on the principles wherefore there 's no need of repeating what I then said Sea-salt is made at Rochell in salt marshes which are places that must be of a lower situation than the sea and the ground must be Clayie for otherwise they would not be able to retain the salt-water that has been let into them Thus all places near the sea are not alike proper to make salt
marshes When the Season of the year begins to grow hot which commonly happens in May all the water is emptied that was let into the marshes for the better preserving them during the winter then the sluces are opened to let in as much salt-water as they think fit it is made to pass through a great many different Channels wherein it purifies and heats and then is let into places that are made flat smooth and fit to Crystallize the salt The salt is made only during the great heats of Summer the Sun does first evaporate some part of the water and because after the great heat a small wind does use to blow as is usual near the sea the coolness of this wind does condense and Crystallize the salt But if it happens to rain but two hours during the hot weather there can no salt be made for a fortnight afterwards because the marshes must be again emptied of all the water to let in more in its place so that if it chances to rain but once again in the next fortnight they can make no salt Salt is purified by dissolving it in water then filtrating the solution through brown paper and afterwards evaporating the water in an earthen pan until a very white salt does remain But besides the purification of salt by evaporation it may be further purified if instead of evaporation of the humidity you set some of it a Crystallizing in a cool place for very pure salt is found at bottom of the vessel which salt may be separated from the water and dried and you may then evaporate again some part of the salt liquor and set it in a Celler a Crystallizing and so continue your evaporations and Crystallizations but at last you must be fain to evaporate all the liquor because at last it will Crystallize no longer the reason whereof is that the remaining salt is full of a fat bituminous matter which is in a manner inseparable from it and this it is that hinders the Crystallizing at last It is probable that this fat matter may come from the earth of those marshes that were spoken of The first Crystallized salt being put into Oil of Tartar or some other alkali salt dissolved does mix with it without making any Ebullition because although sea salt is acid yet its points are too gross and have too little motion to separate the parts of the alkali The last salt being dried over the fire and mixed with some alkali salt rendred liquid such as Oil of Tartar makes a Coagulation and precipitation of a substance that appears saline and oily this Coagulation does proceed from the mixture and adhesion of some Bituminous earth with the sea-salt and the Tartar for the salts do easily unite with oily substances and in them lose their activity Many acid Bituminous salts which are drawn by the Evaporation of certain Mineral waters such as those of Baleruc in Languedoc and Digne in Provence do perform the same effects when they are mixed with Oil of Tartar This Coagulum does not dissolve in water as well by reason of the different nature of the salts it is compounded of as the oily earth that holds them together but it will dissolve in distilled Vinegar and several other acid liquors and then happens an effervescency because the acid does penetrate the salt of Tartar whose parts the sea-salt had no power to separate Calcination of Common Salt Heat a pot that 's unglazed red-hot throw into it about an ounce of sea-salt then cover it and it will crackle and so fall into powder this noise is called Decrepitation when it is over put so much more salt into the pot and continue to do so till you have enough The pot must be sure to be red-hot all the while when the crackling is over take the pot out of the fire and when it is cold put the salt into a bottle and stop it well to hinder the air from entring in to moisten it anew Bags full of it are applied behind the neck warm to consume too great a a moisture of the Brain by opening of the pores It is used likewise in several Chymical operations Remarks That which makes the Salt crackle when it is in the fire is an inwardly contained moisture which upon its being rarefied doth force its way out with impetuosity and finding the pores too closely shut to suffer an easie escape doth break through the parts and open a passage Now every thing else that hath close compact pores will make such a noise too in the Calcination as do glass and shells If you have occasion to use Salt decrepitated it is convenient to have it newly Calcined because the moisture of the air does return again what the fire had driven away But if you would keep it any time let it be in a glass bottle well stopt For as much as this Salt is deprived of all humidity by its Calcination it will absorb serosities much better than common salt It is laid hot behind the neck to the end that opening the pores it may facilitate transpiration A little Salt of Tartar may be mixed with it to render it the more active Spirit of Salt This Spirit is a very acid liquor drawn from Salt by distillation Dry Salt over a little fire or else in the Sun then powder finely two pounds of it mix it well with six pounds of Potters earth powdered make up a hard paste of this mixture with as much rain-rain-water as is needful form out of it little pellets of the bigness of a Nut and set them in the Sun a good while a drying when they are perfectly dry put them into a large earthen Retort or glass one luted whereof a third part remains empty place this Retort in a Reverberatory Furnace and fit to it a large capacious Receiver without luting the junctures give a very moderate heat at first to warm the Retort and make an insipid water come forth drop by drop when you perceive some white clouds succeed these drops pour out that which is in the Receiver and having refitted it lute the junctures close encrease the fire by degrees to the last degree of all and continue it in this condition twelve or fifteen hours all this while the Receiver will be hot and full of white clouds but when it grows cold and the clouds do disappear the Operation is at an end unlute the junctures and you 'l find the Spirit of Salt in the Receiver pour it into an earthen or glass bottle and stop it well with wax it is an Aperitive and is used in Juleps to an agreeable acidity for such as are subject to the Gravel It is likewise used for cleansing the Teeth being temper'd with a little water and to consume the rottenness of bones To make the dulcified Spirit of Salt of Basilius Valentinus you must mix equal parts of Spirit of Salt and Wine and set them in digestion two or three days in a double Vessel in a
stupefaction of the Nerves and nauseousness of the stomach If you used sixteen ounces of purified Salt-peter and so much sulphur in this operation you 'l have at last but three ounces and a half of Sal Polychrestum very fine but if you use common Salt-peter instead of purified you 'l have five ounces of Polychrestum as white as the other This difference of weight proceeds from common Salt-peters containing more fixt salt than purified Salt-peter Sal Polychrestum may be Crystallized like Salt-peter and other salts Its Crystals are very small and much like those of sea-salt but only they are keener Monsieur Seignette an Apothecary of Rochell whom I have spoke of before hath put in use a certain Sal Polychrestum which seems at first to be like unto this but when it comes to be examined there 's found a notable difference as well in the Crystallizations and when it is thrown into the fire as in the effects for whereas six drachms of this sort taken as I have said do cause gripes in pricking the membranes of the stomach that of Monsieur Seignette in the same quantity doth purge very gently without any gripes at all as he proves in a little Treatise that he hath made touching the uses of this Polychrestum And the truth of it I have found my self in several persons The composition of this salt is known to none but himself who having given it a reputation in the chiefest Towns of France hath left some quantity of it with me to distribute and make use of here at Paris Spirit of Niter Spirit of Niter is a liquor very acid and corrosive drawn from Salt-peter by distillation Powder and mix well together two pounds of fine Salt-peter and six pounds of Potters earth dried put this mixture into a large Retort either of earth or glass luted set it in a close Reverberatory Furnace fit to it a great capacious Balon or Receiver and give a very little fire to it for four or five hours to make all the Phlegm come forth which will distil out drop by drop When you perceive there will distil no more throw the Phlegm away that is found in the Receiver and having refitted it lute the junctures and encrease the fire by little and little to the second degree there will come forth Spirits which will fill the Receiver with white clouds then keep the fire two hours in the same degree after that encrease it to the greatest violence you can give it and so the vapours will come red continue the greatest fire till there come no more the operation will be ended in fourteen hours When the vessels are cold unlute the junctures and pour your Spirit of Niter into an earthen bottle which you must stop with Wax Spirit of Niter is used for the dissolution of metals it is the best Aqua fortis that is and the corrosive virtue of other waters of this nature doth chiefly proceed from the Niter that enters into their composition Remarks You might as some do mix four parts of Potters earth with one part of Niter when you would draw its Spirit but you will succeed better and with less difficulty by observing my description for whereas the earth does here serve only as an intermedium to separate the parts of this salt to the end that the fire operating more easily upon it may draw its Spirits it is a very needless business to use more of the earth than is necessary towards this effect Besides this over great quantity of earth may serve to weaken the Spirits and by taking up too much room may hinder the drawing so much as otherwise you would with the same Retort I fling away the Phlegm because it only serves to weaken the Spirit The white vapours do proceed from the volatile part of Salt-peter and are a weaker sort of Spirit but the red ones do come from the fixt part and are the strongest Spirit for which reason the fire is made so very violent towards the latter end This fixt Spirit is commonly called Salamanders bloud Of all Salts Niter is the only one that yields red vapours When you use here the best Salt-peter there remains nothing in the Retort but only earth I have boiled several times in water a good while the earth that remained after the distillation of the Spirit of Niter and after evaporation of the filtrated decoction I could find no salt at bottom I have likewise observed that out of two pounds of purified Niter a pound and fourteen ounces of liquor in Phlegm and Spirit may be drawn A third part of the Retort wherein the operation is performed must remain empty and the Receiver must be very large for otherwise these Spirits coming hastily forth would break all to pieces for room to move in Spirit of Niter Dulcified This oparation is a Spirit of Niter whose more subtile edges have been broken or evaporated Put into a large Bolt-head eight ounces of good spirit of Niter and so much spirit of Wine well dephlegmated set your Bolthead in the Chimney upon a round of straw the liquor will grow hot without coming near the fire and half an hour or an hour afterwards it will boil very much have a care of the red vapours that come out a-pace at the neck of the Bolthead and when the ebullition is over you 'l find your liquor clear at bottom and to have lost half what it was pour it into a Viol and keep it this is the sweet spirit of Niter It is good for the wind Colick and the Nephritick for Hysterical distempers and for all Obstructions its dose is from four to eight drops in broth or some other convenient liquor Remarks You must leave the Bolthead open for the vapours would either carry away the stopple if there were one or else they would break the vessel the Bolt-head is so hot during the ebullition that one can't endure ones hand upon it The heat and ebullition begins sooner or later according as the Spirits that are used have been more or less dephlegmated or else according as the season in which it is made is either hotter or colder for in the winter you must warm the liquor in a gentle sand-heat and when it grows a little hot you must take it off and shake it thus it will come to boil This effect is very strange for spirit of Niter being a strong acid and spirit of Wine a sulphur it can't be said that there is here any alkali to cause the ebullition with acid according to the common maxim And this operation shews us that every thing can't be explicated by the sole Principles of acid and alkali as some do pretend This operation has much resemblance with that which happens when oil of Turpentine is put into a bottle with oil of Vitriol for the mixture of these liquors does heat and boil much alike I shall say something of this last mixture hereafter There is this difference notwithstanding that spirit
of Niter being more volatile than oil of Vitriol causes a greater effervescency In order therefore to explicate this ebullition two things must be considered First that spirit of Niter contains a great many fiery parts lock't up in its acidity but which do still retain some evident motion for it is they that make the spirit of Niter to Fume as it does The second is that spirit of Niter is more Inflammable than salt-peter when mixed with any sulphureous body and the reason thereof is that it is more rarefied than salt-peter Thus when this acid spirit is mixt with spirit of Wine which is a sulphur very much exalted and very susceptible of motion the volatile part of the spirit of Niter joyns itself to this sulphur and the mixture becomes very ready to take flame likewise after this mixture the fiery bodies that were in spirit of Niter do by striving to mount upwards put the liquor into so great a motion that it e'en almost flames and would without all question quite flame if there were not some phlegm always mixed with these spirits let them be drawn never so pure which serves to allay the activity of the fiery particles so that there must needs follow a very great ebullition This effervescency therefore proceeds from this that spirit of wine and spirit of Niter which are as it were a salt-peter and sulphur highly exalted have been almost kindled into a flame by the fiery bodies that were in spirit of Niter and that which further proves this conception is a noise or kind of detonation during the effervescency which is much like that which happens when sulphur and salt-peter are burnt together But because there may be some difficulty in conceiving what is meant by little fiery bodies I do understand by them a subtile matter which having been put into a very rapid motion does still retain the aptitude of moving with impetuosity even when it is inclosed in grosser matters and when it finds some bodies which by their texture or figure are apt to be put into motion it drives them about so strongly that their parts rubbing violently the one against the other heat is thereby produced Now the sulphureous parts of spirit of Wine and the volatile acids of spirit of Niter being mixed and being very aptly disposed for motion of themselves they must needs be easily put into it by these fiery bodies insomuch that their parts often rubbing or striking the one against the other they must cause a heat after the same manner as when a stone is strook hard against a piece of Iron a heat and fire do follow The great diminution of the liquor proceeds from the evaporation of the more volatile parts of the Spirits of Wine and Niter through the neck of the Bolt-head during the ebullition That which remains is a well sweetned spirit of Niter for not only its edges are very much blunted in the ebullition but the spirit of Wine being a sulphur does unite and imbody with those that remain so that they have no longer any Corrosive quality Aqua Fortis This preparation is a mixture of the Spirits of Niter and Vitriol drawn by fire to dissolve metals Powder and mix Salt-peter purified Vitriol Calcined white as I shall shew hereafter and Potters earth or clay dried of each two and thirty ounces put this mixture into an earthen Retort or glass one luted whose third part is to remain empty place your Retort in a close Reverberatory Furnace and fitting to it a capacious Receiver Lute well the junctures then begin by giving a little fire to warm gently the Retort and encrease it by little and little but when you perceive the Spirits to come forth into the Receiver in red clouds continue it for fifteen or sixteen hours in the same degree then drive it to the last extremity until there do appear white clouds instead of red Then let the vessels cool and unlute them you 'l find in the Receiver an Aqua fortis which you must keep in an earthen bottle well stopt It serves for the dissolution of metals Remarks I do use to Calcine the Vitriol to a whiteness that the Aqua fortis may not be weakned with an insipid water The mixture of Vitriol and Salt-peter has quickly some smell of Aqua fortis because Vitriol contains a great deal of Sulphur which easily insinuates into the volatile part of Salt-peter and exalts some little of it which causes the smell it is this Sulphur in Vitriol which by volatilizing the red spirit of Niter makes it come forth faster and with a less fire than when Salt-peter is distilled with Clay alone The greatest Corrosion of Aqua fortis proceeds from the Niter for the Vitriol doth yield but very weak Spirits in comparison with the other I do acknowledge indeed that the Oil of Vitriol is exceeding Corrosive but eighteen or twenty hours are not able to drive that out for it doth not use to come until after three days continual distillation The Vitriol then and the Clay do serve here only for a matter to separate the Salt-peter that it may by the means of fire the better rarefie into Spirits Although there does not enter into this preparation so much terrestrial matter as there does into that of Spirit of Niter nevertheless it proves very well because the Sulphurs of Vitriol do help the Spirits to rise If you would keep on the fire five days and nights together the Receiver would be still full of clouds because the Vitriol would yield some Spirits during all that time Sometimes Alom and Arsenick are added to the composition of Aqua fortis but the description which I have given you is the best of all There remains in the Retort a red mass which may be used like Colcothar for an Astringent This mass may be obtained without breaking the Retort Fixation of Salt-peter into an Alkali Salt by the means of Coals This operation is a Salt-peter rendred porous by Calcination and by the ashes of coals which are mixed with it Melt sixteen ounces of Salt-peter in a strong and large Crucible among burning coals throw into it a spoonful of coals grosly powdered and there will rise a flame and detonation which being over throw so much more and continue to do so until the matter flames no longer but remains fixt in the bottom of the Crucible then pour it into a warm mortar and when it is cold powder it and dissolve it in a sufficient quantity of water filtrate the dissolution through brown paper and evaporate all the water in an earthen pan in sand there will remain a very white salt which you must keep in a Viol well stopt This Salt hath a taste like to that of Salt of Tartar and they differ but little in virtue it opens Obstructions and works by Urine and sometimes by Stool the dose is from sixteen to thirty grains in some convenient liquor It may be used to assist in drawing forth the
the same virtue as Sal Armoniack but are given in a little less dose as from four to fifteen grains Remarks This operation is performed to the end the Sal Armoniack may be volatilized by checking some part of its fixt salt by the addition of Salt decrepitated thus these Flowers are a little more active than the Sal Armoniack though they are both compounded of the same Salts Iron or Steel powdered may be used instead of Sea-salt as Schroder describes it and then the Flowers do become of a Yellow colour because the Salts do take the Tincture of Mars And these last Flowers are a little more penetrating than the others Aqua Regalis This water is a solution of Sal Armoniack in Spirit of Niter Powder four ounces of Sal Armoniack and put them into a matrass or other glass vessel of a good bigness pour upon it sixteen ounces of Spirit of Niter place the vessel in sand a little warm until the Sal Armoniack is all dissolved then pour the dissolution into a bottle and stop it with wax this is Aqua Regalis you will have seventeen ounces of it Remarks This water is called Regalis or Royal because it dissolves Gold which is the King of metals It is likewise called Aqua Stygia or Chrysulca The vessel in which it is made must be of a sufficient bigness because in the dissolution the Spirits do rarefie with so great violence that they would break it if they had not room to circulate in when a great deal of this water is preparing at a time you must take care to remove the vessel from the fire so soon as the dissolution begins Aqua Regalis may be likewise made with equal quantities of Salt-peter and Sal Gemme by mixing these Salts with thrice as much Potters-earth powdered and the distillation of it is made after the same manner as I shewed to draw the Spirit of Niter It is somewhat difficult to conceive how Aqua Regalis is able to dissolve Gold which is a most solid Metal and cannot dissolve Silver which is a much less solid body Some Chymists endeavouring to resolve this difficulty have said that Gold being a Metal fuller of Sulphur than Silver did therefore require a sulphureous dissolvent such as Aqua Regalis compounded of the volatile sulphureous salts of Sal Armoniack but this explication destroys itself for if Gold did contain more Sulphurs than Silver it would consequently be less weighty for Sulphur is one of the lightest Principles in Chymistry I know the Alchymists will tell me that their Sulphur is quite of a different nature from the common sort and that they do conceive in Gold a Fixt and consequently a heavy sulphur But besides that a fixt sulphur is a thing meerly imaginary it can never be so heavy as the other principles which they pretend to be in Gold and which they are forced to think as fixed as the Sulphur Moreover if we examine what happens in the composition of the dissolvent of Gold it will be no difficult matter to contradict this opinion for we see that as soon as ever the Spirit of Niter begins to work upon the Sal Armoniack the acid salt joyns with it and quits the volatile salts which finding themselves disingaged from the bodies that held them in a manner fixed do rise up with violence but because these salts which are alkalies do meet in their passage with some acids of the Spirit of Niter the great effervescency happens which is always wont at the meeting of alkali salts and acids This effervescency being over our Aqua Regalis remains in the vessel it is properly nothing else but an acid sea-salt dissolved in Spirit of Niter the volatile salts being either exalted or destroyed by Acids and that which confirms this opinion is that Aqua Regalis is as well made with sea-salt in which there are no volatiles at all as with Sal Armoniack according as I have said It is not then by discourses of this nature that this Phanomenon can be clearly explicated I am apt to believe with more likelihood that if Aqua Regalis be not able to dissolve Silver the reason of it is because the edges of the Spirit of Niter being magnified by the addition of Salt do slide over the pores of Silver not being capable to enter into them by reason of the disproportion of their figures whereas they easily enter into Gold whose pores are larger to make their divisions On the contrary if the Spirit of Niter dissolves Silver it is because its points are very subtle and fitly proportioned to enter into the small pores of this metal and by their motion to divide its parts These same points may likewise enter into the large pores of Gold but they are too small and pliable to act upon this body There 's need of stronger and keener knives which by filling its pores more advantageously may have force enough to divide it I do easily foresee it will be objected that Gold being heavier than Silver should have lesser pores and not greater because the weight of a body doth only consist in the proximity of parts but it is easie to solve this difficulty by considering each metal with a good Microscope for the pores of Gold are seen to be much larger than those of Silver though indeed there are much fewer and that will explicate very well why Gold is heavier than Silver though its pores are greater for seeing they are at a good distance the one from the other there 's a very compact matter as it were intercepted which causes all the weight but the pores of Silver being very near one another and of a much greater number do intercept less solid matter and consequently it must be lighter I 'le use a familiar example to make my self more plainly understood If you take two vessels of the same size and bigness and fill one with small hail-shot and the other with large bullets that which holds the bullets will be much heavier than that which is full of shot and yet notwithstanding the vacuities between the bullets are much larger than those between the shot According to this Hypothesis reason may be likewise given why Gold is cut in pieces more easily than Silver for the greater the pores of a body are the easier entrance will a pair of Sheers meet with Gold spreads under the hammer more than Silver because having larger pores the hammer makes a greater impression into it and dilates the parts the more easily It is objected that if there be any heavy matter as it were intercepted between the pores of Gold it must needs precipitate of itself after the action of Aqua Regalis upon this metal which is a thing that does not happen I answer that if the parts of Gold are heavy the dissolvent nevertheless is a gross body and very well proportioned to hold up those heavy parts and to hinder them from precipitating Others have opposed this explication and have
writ that if Aqua Regalis dissolves Gold and cannot dissolve Silver the reason of it is that the gross points of spirit of Niter or Aqua fortis are subtilized by the mixture of sal Armoniack and are rendred fit to enter into the small pores of Gold whereas the delicate Fabrick of these same points does not leave them the necessary strength nor motion to divide the parts of Silver whose pores are a great deal bigger But this way of arguing does not agree with experience for what likelihood is there that the points of spirit of Niter are so subtilized by the penetration and division of the parts of sal Armoniack or where shall we find any example that after a considerable effervescency of two salts met together in conflict the acidity grows sharper than it was before this is a thing that can never be proved On the contrary every body knows well enough that no effervescency happens but the acid is in part blunted or broken thereby Moreover the Argument supposes that spirit of Niter does break its subtilest points in violently contending with the Sal Armoniack since also that in sal Armoniack there are alkali salts whose property it is to destroy acids I could further add here that the conjunction of salt with spirit of Niter should of necessity render its points more gross than they were and that the Crystals which are drawn by aqua Regalis have their shape not so keen as those that are drawn by aqua Fortis But that which I have said is so probable in itself and so easie to be convinced of if a man takes never so little pains to consider it that I should but amuse my Reader to little purpose if I should offer to give any proofs of it Neither do I find it convenient to make a long discourse in explicating how Silver which has lesser pores is more susceptible of the impressions of Air and Fire than Gold which has larger seeing I have already supposed that the matter intercepted between the pores of Gold is more compact and consequently more hard to separate than that of Silver Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack This preparation is a volatile salt raised from sal Armoniack by the means of Quick-lime and dissolved into a liquor Take eight ounces of sal Armoniack and four and twenty ounces of Quick-lime powder them apart and when you haved mixed them in a mortar pour upon them four ounces of water and put it quickly into a Retort whose half must remain empty Set your Retort in a sand Furnace and fitting to it a great Receiver and luting the junctures exactly begin the distillation without fire for a quarter of an hour afterwards increasing it by little and little unto the second degree continue it until nothing more comes forth take off your Receiver and pour out the Spirit immediately into a Viol turning away your head as much as may be to avoid a very subtile vapour that continually rises from it Stop the bottle close with wax to keep the Spirit in you will have of it five ounces and six drachms It is an excellent Remedy for all diseases that proceed from Obstructions and corruption of humours such as Malignant feavers the Epilepsie Palsie Plague Small-pox c. It drives by perspiration or by Urine the dose is from six drops to twenty in a glass of Balm or Carduus water Remarks Quick-lime which is an alkali destroys the strength of the acid Sea-salt which in a manner bound up the volatile salts in the Sal Armoniack whence it comes to pass that as soon as Lime and Sal Armoniack are mixed together there exhales an unsufferable smell of Urine for the volatile salts coming forth abundantly do so fill the Nose and Mouth of the Artist that he would never be able to put the mixture into the Retort if he did not take good care to turn away his head while his hands are at work Water is added to it to liquifie these volatile salts for if there were nothing to moisten them they would suddenly sublime to the neck of the Retort and stopping it all together would break it to pieces You must stop the Retort with your hand so soon as you have poured the water into it and shaking it one minute you must hasten all you can to fit to it the Receiver and to lute well the junctures for the Quick-lime does presently grow hot so soon as its body is opened and this heat which is very considerable would spend the more volatile of the salts if there were no care taken to preserve them The Quick-lime being wetted does swell and take up a great deal of room wherefore the Retort must be filled but half full that there may remain room enough for the Spirits to rarefie in you must also use a large Receiver in which the vapours that rise in abundance may be able to circulate with ease This Spirit is nothing but a solution of volatile salts in water if you would sublime and separate it from the water you must put the liquor into a matrass with its head and proceed as I shall shew when I describe the volatile salt of Vipers but this salt being dry flies away more easily than when it continues dissolved in water so that it were better keep it as it is This is a stronger Spirit than that which is prepared with Salt of Tartar because the little fiery bodies of the Quick-lime which are mixed with it have quickned the motion of the volatile salts likewise these fiery particles are they that do hinder the coagulation of this Spirit with spirit of Wine when they are mixed together for there must be a cohaesion and repose of parts in order to make a Coagulum You must also have a care when you remove the Receiver not to hold your head over it for this volatile salt suffering a greater separation than before enters the Nose immmediately and hinders Respiration insomuch that several persons have been seen to fall in a swound by that means alone Now to avoid this accident you had best have ready a wet cloth to stop the Receiver with so soon as it is unluted This Spirit is an excellent Menstruum to make precipitations with it destroys acids exceeding well as do all other volatile alkalis it is used to precipitate Gold after it is dissolved It is good in those diseases I named because it opens the pores and drives the humours by perspiration or by Urine according to the disposition of bodies moreover as it is an alkali it destroys the acids which caused these diseases Again it sometimes causes sleep because it dulls the keenness of acid salts which entring into the little conduits of the Brain do cause perpetual watchings It is better give volatile Spirits in Sudorifick waters than broth because the broth being taken hot the heat would evaporate the better part of the volatile Spirits before a man could reach the Porringer to his mouth You
will find in the Retort thirty ounces of a white matter which you must throw away as useless it is the fixt salt of sal Armoniack mixed with the Quick-lime Another Preparation of the Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack together with its Flowers and Fixt Salt against Feavers Powder and mix together eight ounces of Sal Armoniack and so much Salt of Tartar put this mixture quickly into a glass body and sprinkle it with three ounces of rain-Rain-water set a head upon it and after fitting the Receiver and luting the junctures close with a wet bladder place your vessel in sand with a gentle fire at first to warm the Retort by little and little and distil the Spirit drop by drop but when you perceive there will distil no more take away the Receiver and stop it close then encrease the fire to the third degree and continue it about two hours there will sublime the white Flowers of Sal Armoniack which will stick about the bottom of the head like meal The Spirit hath the same strength and virtues as the former you will have seven ounces of it and a half Gather up the Flowers with a Feather and use them as you would those I described before the Preparation you 'l have of them ten drachms and a half There remains at the bottom of the Cucurbite nine ounces and three drachms of a white fixt mass You must dissolve it in sufficient water then filter the dissolution and evaporate it until it is dry you 'l have a very white Salt that may be reckoned a good Remedy for intermittent Feavers the dose is from eight grains to thirty in the small Centaury water or some other convenient liquor Remarks The Salt of Tartar serves in this Operation as the Quick-lime did in the other but because it is a more powerful Alkali than Quick-lime you must not use so great a quantity of it The fixt Salt of Niter might be substituted in its place or any other Alkali that you will When the fire begins to heat the matter there do rise up into the head store of volatile Salts in a fine delicate Crystalline form but the moist vapours coming upon them do dissolve them into Spirit The Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack is then a dissolution of Volatile salt in water and if there be not phlegm sufficient to dissolue all the Volatile salt there will remain some part of it at bottom of the Receiver and that may likewise be turn'd into Spirit by only adding enough water to dissolve it Thus the Spirit becomes as strong as it can be made for the pores of the water being filled with as much salt as they can contain it can receive no more But if there happens to be more water than the proportion of Volatile Salt requires then the Spirit proves weak and must be given in a larger dose This Spirit is Sudorifick but you may perceive more sensibly the effect of Sal armoniack to cause Sweat by dissolving six or eight grains of this salt and the same quantity of Salt of Tartar each separately in two small doses of some proper liquor and giving them to a Patient one presently after the other for the salt of Tartar working upon the Sal Armoniack in the stomach after the same manner as it does when they are mixt together in a Mortar the Spirits do separate from the latter with the more force and act more powerfully than when they were mixed before they were given for the little violence that the Volatile Spirits do use in their separation from sea-salt does leave them the more activity and disposes them the better to pass through the pores Again it is probable that in the former effort which these Spirits made in their separation from the fixt part when Sal Armoniack was mixt with salt of Tartar in a mortar the more subtile part might fly away first and be lost now it is this subtile portion that is most proper to rarefie the humours and to drive them forth by Transpiration The flowers do proceed from some part of the Sal Armoniack which the salt of Tartar had not sufficiently opened The Febrifugous salt is nothing but a mixture of salt of Tartar and the fixt and acid part of Sal Armoniack it works by Urine and but seldom by Sweat by reason that being fixed it precipitates more easily than it rarefies and it is by this means that it opens obstructions which are often the first cause of Feavers If you mix in a Viol equal quantities of Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack Spirit of Wine and shake them a little together they will cause a Coagulum This Coagulation proceeds from hence that the Spirit of Wine which is a rarefied Oil does unite with the Spirit of Sal Armoniack which is a saline liquor and it is but the same thing which happens from stirring Oil and some salt liquor in a mortar in order to make an Unguent called Nutritum By this incorporation together the salt is involved in the ramous parts of the sulphur and these same sulphureous parts are checkt or as it were fixed by the salt so that neither of them have any more freedom of motion and from this repose of these parts does result the Coagulum It may be likewise said that the conjunction of the acid that is in Spirit of Wine with the volatile Armoniack alkali does contribute much to this Coagulation The Spirit of Sal Armoniack prepared with Quick-lime does not at all coagulate with Spirit of Wine by reason of fiery parts that it contains The Salt of Tartar too may have mixed some fiery bodies in the Spirit of Sal Armoniack but there are not enough of them in it to hinder its adunation with Spirit of Wine Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack dulcified This Operation is a volatile Armoniack salt mixed and dissolved in Spirit of Wine Take Sal Armoniack and Salt of Tartar of each four ounces powder them separately and mix them well in a glass or marble mortar put this mixture into a glass body pour upon it ten ounces of rectified Spirit of Wine stir it all together with a wooden Spatule and fit to the body a head and Receiver lute well the junctures place the vessel in a Sand-furnace and give it a very little fire to warm the body The volatile salt will rise and stick to the head and neck of the receiver Increase the fire a little and continue it until there distils nothing more the operation is ended in four or five hours Let the vessels cool and unlute them You will find a volatile salt stuck to the head and a spirit in the receiver Put quickly both the one and the other into a Retort in sand and after having fitted another Retort to it to serve for a Receiver and having luted the junctures distil the whole with a small fire Cohobate it again three times then keep what you have distilled in a bottle well stopt almost all the
Calcined by some subterranean heat It is the least common of them all it stops Bloud being applied to Hemorrhagies If you dissolve a little white or green Vitriol in water and write with the dissolution the writing will not be seen but if you rub the paper with a little Cotton dipt in the decoction of Galls it will appear legible then if you wet a little more Cotton in Spirit of Vitriol and pass it gently over the paper the Ink will disappear again and yet at last if you rub the place with a little more Cotton dipt in Oil of Tartar made per Deliquium it will again appear legible but of a Yellowish colour The reason that I can give for these effects is this the Spirit of Vitriol dissolves a certain Coagulum which is made of Vitriol and Galls but the Oil of Tartar breaking the force of this acid Spirit the Coagulum recovers it self and appears again but because it now contains Oil of Tartar too it acquires a new colour If you throw the dissolution of Vitriol or Vitriol only powdered into a strong decoction of dried Roses it will turn as black as common Ink if you pour some drops of spirit of Vitriol into it this Ink will turn red and if you add to it a little volatile spirit of Sal Armoniack it will turn gray These changes of colour do proceed from the spirit of Vitriol's dissolving the Coagulum which the Vitriol it self had made and rendring it invisible the liquor recovers a fresher red colour than it had before the Vitriol was put into it because the same spirit does separate the parts of the Rose which were dissolved in the liquor and renders them more visible The volatile spirit of Sal Armoniack which is an alkali does partly break the acid edges of the spirit of Vitriol so that the parts of the Rose having nothing more to keep them rarefied do close together and consequently the liquor changes colour By this experiment may be seen that the dried Rose may serve to make Ink with as well as Galls Indian wood and divers other things will do the same Gilla Vitrioli or Vomitive Vitriol This operation is only a purification of white Vitriol Dissolve what quantity you please of white Vitriol in as much Phlegm of Vitriol as is needful to dissolve it filtrate the dissolution and evaporate two thirds of the moisture in an earthen pan Put the rest into a cool place for three days time there will shoot out Crystals which you must separate then evaporate a third part of the liquor that remains and set the vessel again in a Cellar there will shoot new Crystals continue thus evaporating and crystallizing until you have gotten all you can dry these Crystals in the Sun and keep them for use the dose is from twelve grains to a drachm in Broth or some other liquor Remarks This is only a Purification of Vitriol that serves to separate a little earth from it All the liquor may be evaporated without any Crystallization the Gilla Vitrioli will remain at bottom in a white powder White Vitriol is used in this operation rather than Green because it is milder The other Vitriols may be purified after the same manner After taking this vomit a man sometimes voids by stool a black matter like Ink because it frequently happens that some part of the Vitriol descending into the Guts meets a saline matter that it joyns with and so causes a blackness as it uses to do when Vitriol is mixed with Galls Calcination of Vitriol Put what quantity you please of Green Vitriol into an earthen pot unglazed set the pot over the fire and the Vitriol will dissolve into water boil it to the consumption of the moisture or else until the matter turn into a grayish mass drawing towards white this is called Vitriol Calcined to whiteness If you should Calcine this gray Vitriol a good while over a strong fire it would turn as red as bloud It is called Colcothar and is good to stop bloud being applied to a wound Remarks You must not Calcine the Vitriol in a glazed pot for fear of dissolving the Vernish which would change the nature of the Vitriol It may be Calcined or rather dryed in the Sun until it becomes white this Calcination deserves to be preferr'd before the other but only it is longer a doing The Vitriol may be likewise spread about a Furnace heated a little and so dried until it turns white If you should resolve to dry as exactly as you can sixteen pounds of green Vitriol there would remain but seven pounds of white Vitriol But in order to do this you must powder the white mass of Calcined Vitriol after you have broke the pot and stir it a long time in an earthen pan over a little fire until there rises no more fume from it or until there remains in it no more phlegm If you should Calcine this white Vitriol to a redness you 'd have five pounds and a half of Colcothar The sulphur of Vitriol is lost during this last Calcination you must do it in the Chimney for the fume would be very injurious to the breast This sulphur has the same smell as ordinary sulphur Some have writ that the red colour which appears after a long Calcination of English Vitriol was an undoubted proof that there was Copper in it after the same manner as the red colour which happens to Verdigreese calcined is a certain proof that it contains in it some particles of Copper But that which is here said to pass for a thing undeniable is no proof at all for first of all those Vitriols which are thought most to partake of Copper do give no greater redness in their Calcination than the others which partake the least of it Secondly let Copper be prepared which way you please you can never make it redder than the Colcothar of English Vitriol whose redness must be thought to proceed from some particles of this metal contained in it And thirdly we see plainly that Iron Lead Mercury and divers mineral bodies do acquire a red colour in their Calcining without containing any Copper The Sympathetical powder that has made so much noise is nothing but white Vitriol opened prepared divers ways according to mens different conceptions about it The Roman Vitriol is better esteemed than the other for this operation The common method of preparing this Powder is to expose it to the heat of the Sun whilst the Sun is in Leo that is in July in order to dry it and to open it And men think that Sign does bestow particular influences on the preparation Though in truth it undergoes drying better in that season than another by reason of the great heat then of the Sun And it may be the parts of the Vitriol do become more volatile by this heat but for what is said of Influence it is meerly imaginary Many do only pulverize the ordinary Vitriol in order to make the
to an agreeable acidity That which remains in the body is the most acid part of the Vitriol and is improperly called Oil. It may be used like the acid Spirit for continued Feavers and other distempers that are accompanied with a violent heat This Oil is likewise used for the dissolution of metals You 'l find in the Retort a Colcothar which hath the same virtues with that I spoke of before Remarks To make the Spirit of Vitriol you must take green English Vitriol such as being rubbed upon Iron doth not at all change colour which shews it doth not partake of Copper as the German does that looks a little blueish and is more acrimonious You must Calcine it as I have said to the end it being deprived of the greatest part of its Phlegm the distillation may be dispatched the sooner A third part of the Retort is left empty that the Spirits may have room to rarefie in when they come forth There distils also a great deal of Phlegm into the Receiver and all of it is known to have come when there drops no more Those who don't care for the sulphurcous spirit do let it come forth and mix together with the Phlegm before the junctures are luted but you must be sure to govern the fire discreetly at that time for these Spirits come with a great deal of violence and use to break the Retort when they are driven too furiously When they are out you must augment the fire to the last degree of all for the acid Spirit will not part with its earth until it is forced by an extraordinary heat If you distil eight pounds of white Vitriol at sixteen ounces to the pound you 'l draw off seventeen ounces of Phlegm and two and twenty ounces and a half both of the Sulphureous and the Acid spirit of Vitriol Of these two and twenty ounces and a half there will be five ounces of Sulphureous spirit You 'l find in the Retort five pounds five ounces of Colcothar Use all the care you can possible to preserve all the liquors which come from Vitriol yet it will be impossible for you to hinder it from losing some through the junctures during the distillation If you should use German instead of English Vitriol you 'd draw off a little more spirit than the quantity I have named but it would have some smell of Aqua fortis and the matter which remains in the Retort would be of a brown colour drawing towards black This colour proceeds from sulphureous Fuliginosities which rise more from this Vitriol than the other because it partakes of Copper for this Sooty vapour finding no vent to get out at falls down again upon the matter and blackens it The Furnace in which this operation is performed must be very thick that the heat of the fire being none of it lost through the Pores may the better act upon the Retort These Spirits do rarefie into white vapours in the Receiver which must be provided large enough to give them free liberty to circulate in before they condense into a liquor at bottom The fire is usually continued four or five days together but if after that you should change the Receiver and continue the fire three or four days longer there would come forth an Oil of Vitriol congealed and caustick which is nothing but the more fixt part of the Sprit of Vitriol And this Congelation hath given this liquor the name of Oil of Vitriol though improperly Vitriol contains earth enough wherefore none is added to it as is necessarily done in the distillation of Niter Acid Spirits are Salts become fluid by the force of fire which hath disingaged them from their more terrestrious part and they may be revived again by pouring them upon some Alkali for example the Spirit of Vitriol remaining some time upon Iron doth reincorporate into Vitriol and the Spirit of Niter poured upon Salt of Tartar makes a Salt-peter There is one thing happens about the Oil of Vitriol when it is very strong which is strange indeed it is that if you mix it with its Acid Spirit or with water or else with an Ethereal Oil such as the Oil of Turpentine this mixture grows hot to that degree that sometimes it breaks the Viol it was put into and often it produces a considerable Ebullition I could quickly give an account of this heat and Ebullition if I would suppose an Alkali to be in the Oil of Vitriol as those do who pretend to explicate every thing that happens by the notions of acid and alkali but not comprehending how an alkali should be able to remain so long a time with so strong an acid as is the Oil of Vitriol without being destroyed I had rather give a reason that seems to me abundantly more probable I conceive therefore that if water or Spirit of Vitriol or the Ethereal Oil of Turpentine do come to heat the Oil of Vitriol it is by setting in motion a great many fiery particles which the Oil of Vitriol had drawn with it in the distillation for these little fiery bodies being environ'd with salts that are exceeding heavy and hard to rarefie they drive about with vehemence whatsoever stands in their way and when they have caused an Ebullition and find they can't get out at the top of the Viol they break it to pieces with the bussle they make at bottom and on the sides Perhaps it will be said I do here suppose gratis that the Oil of Vitriol does contain fiery particles but if we consider the great violence of fire and the time that is spent in drawing this acid it will be no such hard matter to grant me this supposition Besides it will be hard to explicate the great and burning Corrosion of Oil of Vitriol without admitting these fiery parts for the Vitriol contains nothing in it self of this Caustick nature it is true indeed that it contains Phlegm Sulphur and Earth but it is a thing impossible but this acid should discover it self more than it does if it were as Corrosive in the Vitriol as it is in the Oil. Once it hapned to me that putting into my Furnace a Retort whose two thirds were filled with German Vitriol dried in order to draw off its Spirits I distilled first of all the Phlegm and sulphureous spirit which I took out of the Receiver I then fitted it again to the Retort and by a great fire continued three days and three nights I distilled off the acid Spirit as we are used to do When the vessels were cold I admired to find in my Receiver nothing but a mass of Salt or Congealed Oil of Vitriol This Salt was so exceeding Caustick and burning that if I offer'd to touch the smallest part of it with my finger I presently felt an insufferable scalding and was fain to put my hand immediately into water it continued to fume still and when a little of it was thrown into water it made the same hissing noise as a
fire-coal flung into water would do Besides it heated the water very much and much more than common Oil of Vitriol could I kept this congealed Spirit about six months after which time it dissolved into a liquor which I used as Oil of Vitriol for it was in effect the same thing And in my opinion this operation does sufficiently evince that Oil of Vitriol contains fiery parts It hapned to me another time that having rectified the Spirit of Vitriol to separate it from its Oil by an Alembick some part of the distilled Spirit was turned into fair and transparent Crystals in the bolt-head or Receiver which Crystals had the same acrimony and strength with the mass I now spoke of If you pour some drops of Spirit or Oil of Vitriol into a quart of hot water in which you shall infuse a pugil of dried red Roses the liquor will in a little time become as red as Claret and this effect must not so much be attributed to the Spirit of Vitriol's sharpning the water and so thereby drawing out the Tincture of Roses as to this that the acid Spirit does rarefie and separate the particles of the Rose which the water had dissolved and made to appear better than before for if you strain the Infusion and separate the Roses before you pour to it your Spirit of Vitriol although the liquor so strained be yet but little raised in colour it will nevertheless turn to as high a red after the Spirit is dropt into it as if the Roses remained still in the liquor We must say the same thing of other Tinctures that are drawn by acids as also of such as are made by an Alkali salt If you fill a glass Viol with the decoction of Nephritick wood clarified and look on it turning toward the light it will appear yellow but if you turn your back to the light it will appear blue if you mix with it some drops of Spirit of Vitriol it will appear yellow on every side but if you again add about as much more Oil of Tartar it will return unto its first colour If you take a Blue or Violet tincture made in water such as is drawn out of the Sun-flower or Violet flowers and pour upon it some drops of Spirit of Vitriol it will presently turn red but if you throw into it some Alkali salt it will recover again its former colour On the contrary if you pour an Alkali liquor such as volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack or the Oil of Tartar upon the blue Tincture it will presently turn green and if you again pour upon it a little Spirit of Vitriol it will change this colour into an obscure red The decoction of Indian wood is very red if you drop into it a little Spirit of Vitriol it will turn yellow and if you still add some volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack it will become black If you infuse three or four hours a piece of Indian wood in some clear juice of Citron and take out your wood the liquor will have received no alteration of colour but if you add to it some drops of Oil of Tartar made per deliquium it will take a brown colour and if you add to it a little Spirit of Vitriol it will resume its colour again If you pour some drops of Oil of Tartar upon Claret it will become greenish and if you add to it a little Spirit of Vitriol it will return to its former colour All these changes of colour which the Spirit of Vitriol or other acids and Alkali's do make proceed only from the different position of bodies dissolved in the liquor and from its disposition to modifie the light different ways Styptick Water This water is a solution of Vitriol and other ingredients to stop bleedings Take Colcothar or the red Vitriol that remains in the Retort after the spirit is drawn out Burnt-alom and Sugar-candy of each half a drachm the Urine of a young person and Rose-water of each half an ounce Plantain-water two ounces stir them all together a good while in a mortar then pour the mixture into a Viol and when you use it separate it by Inclination If you apply a Bolster dipt in this water to an opened Artery and hold your hand a while upon it it stops the bloud In like manner you may wet a little Pledget in it and thrust it into the Nose when an Hemorrhage continues too long taken inwardly it cures spitting of bloud bloudy flux and the immoderate flux of the Hemorrhoids or Terms the dose is from half a drachm to two drachms in Knot-grass water Remarks When the bloud gushes forth too fast you must redouble the first Bolster that was put upon the wound and assist it a little with your fingers for half an hour The Basis of this water is Colcothar Having used this water with good success upon several occasions I was willing to insert it in this Book and I believe if any body please to experiment it as I have done they will easily acknowledge it to be an excellent Remedy in many Distempers Lapis Medicamentosus Powder and mix together Colcothar or the red Vitriol that remains in the Retort after distillation or in want of it Vitriol Calcined to a redness two ounces Litharge Alom and Bole-Armenick of each four ounces put this mixture into a glazed pot and pour upon it good Vinegar enough to cover the matter two fingers high cover the pot and leave it two days in digestion then add to it eight ounces of Niter two ounces of Sal Armoniack set the pot over the fire and evaporate all the moisture Calcine the mass that remains about half an hour in a strong fire and keep it for use It is a good Remedy to stop Gonorrheas a drachm of it is dissolved in eight ounces of Plantain water or Smith's water to make an Injection into the Yard it is likewise good to cleanse the eyes in the small pox seven or eight grains of it must be dissolved in four ounces of Plantain or eye-bright water it is also good to stop bloud applied outwardly to a wound It may be dissolved in Knot-grass water and will go near to have the same effects as the styptick water Remarks This stone is called Medicamentosus by way of excellence by reason of the good effects it produces The Colcothar that remains in the Retort after the distillation of Vitriol must be better than the others for this Operation because being deprived of the greatest part of its Spirits it is the more Astringent Litharge which is a Lead Calcined Alom and Bole-Armenick are so many considerable Astringents that do no hurt in this composition Vinegar is put in to incorporate the ingredients together and set them a Fermenting after which the Niter and Sal Armoniack do easily mix among the rest The Calcination which is given to it at the end is done to carry off some part of the acid and to augment the Astriction It
Ambar and put it into a bolt-head pour upon it Spirit of wine to the height of four fingers stop this bolthead with another to make a double vessel and having exactly luted the junctures with a wet bladder place it in digestion in hot sand and leave it there five or six dayes or until the Spirit of wine is sufficiently tinged with the Ambar colour decant this Tincture and put more Spirit of wine to the matter you must digest it as before then having separated the impregnation mix it with the other Filtrate them and distil from them in an Alembick with a very little fire about half the Spirit of wine which may serve you as before keep the Tincture that you will find at the bottom of the Alembick in a Viol well stopt It is good for the Apoplexy Palsie Epilepsie and for Hysterical women the dose is from ten drops to a drachm in some proper liquor Remarks You must powder the Ambar finely that the menstruum may open its body the better this Tincture is nothing but the Sulphureous or oily part of Ambar which Spirit of wine a Sulphur does become impregnated with a liquor that were not sulphureous would perhaps dissolve the Ambar but that which is dissolved by it would be the more impure wherefore you must always use such a dissolvent as is of the same nature with the substance that you would dissolve Half the Spirit of wine is drawn off to make the Tincture the stronger Distillation of Ambar and the Rectification of its Oil and Spirit Fill with Ambar grosly beaten two thirds of an earthen Retort or glass one luted place it in a Furnace on two iron bars fit to it a large Receiver and luting the junctures close give under it a small Fire to warm the Retort and drive out the Phlegm Afterwards augment it by little and little there will come forth a Spirit and an Oil continue the Fire until there comes no more then let the vessels cool and unlute them Pour about a pint of warm water into the Receiver and stirring it soundly about for to dissolve some volatile Salt that often sticks to the sides of the Receiver pour all the liquor into a glass Alembeck fit to it a Receiver and luting well the junctures make a small Fire to heat the vessel then augment it a little the water and Spirit will rise and carry with them a little white Oil continue the Fire until there rises no more and the thick Oil remains at bottom of the Cucurbite without boiling separate the white Oil that swims above the Spirit and Phlegm and keep it in a Viol well stopt it is given inwardly in Hysterical Distempers in the Palsie Apoplexy and Epilepsie the dose is from one drop to four in some appropriate liquor it may be mixed with a little yelk of an Egg to dissolve it easily in water or broth The water and Spirit do remain mixed confusedly together now to separate them you must pour this mixture into an earthen or glass dish and evaporate over a very gentle Fire two thirds of it that which remains is the Spirit of Ambar keep it in a Viol well stopt It is an excellent Aperitive and is given in the Jaundise stoppage of Urine Ulcers of the neck of the bladder and in the Scurvy the dose is from ten to four and twenty drops in some convenient liquor The Black Oil which remains in the Cucurbite may be kept apart for outward uses to chafe the Nose and Wrists of women in Hysterical maladies If you would rectifie it you must mix it with so much sand as is necessary to make it into a Paste and put it into a Retort and placing it in a Furnace in a naked Fire distil all the Oil the first that comes forth will be red but exceeding clear keep it by it self It may serve instead of the white The Oil of Jet may be drawn as the Oil of Ambar but because Jet is more terrestrious it requires a stronger Fire Remarks The Oils of Ambar and Jet do work in Hysterical cases chiefly by their ill smell for we see that whatsoever is ungrateful to the smell does commonly allay symptoms in diseases of the matrix and that good smells do increase them The reason of these effects is not very easie to find seeing that all that has been hitherto said for explication of them has only come to this that the matrix sympathizing with the brain does rise upwards to share in the good smells of the brain and sinks downwards when the nose is offended with that which is unpleasant Nay some have thought the matrix to be a little animal by reason of the many motions that have been observed in it These kinds of discourses are indeed very proper to leave people in the same doubts they were in before and I don't think any body has received any satisfaction from them Therefore let us try whether we can say any thing more to the purpose When a woman receives an agreeable smell the tickling pleasure which this smell produces in the brain by means of the olfactive nerve does move the Spirits and determinate them to run into the vessels in a greater abundance and with more agility than they did before Then also is perceived if she minds it a certain titillation of the parts and all the senses do seem willing to partake of this good smell All this is common to men as well as women But because the vessels which go from the brain to the matrix do swell with this affluence of Spirits they must of necessity be abbreviated in their length as a cord is found to swell and to shorten when it is wetted or as the Fibres of a glove do shrink when the humidity that is within them is rarefied by the Fire These vessels being thus shortned they must needs give shocks and receive like returns from the matrix And then likewise it is perceived to rise and to move upwards But because this viscus does commonly contain a gross bloud and humors very easie to ferment which are actuated by these shocks there do rise from it gross vapours which oppress the diaphragm and do cause that which is called the suffocation of the matrix These distempers do likewise very often happen to women who have no ways been offended with sweet smells but that which causes the same symptoms does work after the same manner As for ill smells they must produce a quite contrary effect for by striking offensively the nerve of the nose the Spirits do retire back to their places and consequently the vessels and the matrix do resume their ordinary disposition But you will say perhaps that a grain of Musk or Civet is often applyed to the Navil to settle the mother and to lay the vapours This has been practised indeed by some but without any proof that ever it did any good or that it gave any ease Civet is put into the middle of
Limbeck and fitting a Receiver to it and luting close the junctures with a wet bladder distil with a pretty good fire three or four pints of the liquor then unlute the Limbeck and pour into it by Inclination the distilled water you 'l find at bottom a little oil which you must pour into a Viol and stop it close Distil the liquor as before then returning the water into the Limbeck take the Oil you find at bottom of the Receiver and mix it with the first Repeat this Cohobation until there rises no more Oil then take away the fire and distil the water that remains in the Receiver the same way I shall shew hereafter to rectifie Spirit of wine you 'l have an excellent spirituous Cinnamon water The Oil of Cinnamon is an admirable Corroborative it strengthens the stomach and assists nature in her evacuations It is given to make women have an easie delivery and to bring their Terms it likewise encreases Seed a drop of it is commonly mixed in a little Sugar-Candy to make the Eleo-saccharum which is easily dissolved in Cordial or Hysterical waters The spirituous water of Cinnamon hath the same virtues but two or three drachms are requisite for a dose After this manner almost all the Oils of Odoriferous Vegetables may be drawn such as those of Box Roses Rosemary Lavender Juniper Cloves and Anis-seed which do either swim above the water or fall to the bottom according as they are more or less loaded with Salts Remarks You must make the fire strong enough for if there be not a sufficient heat the Oil will not rise The Cohobation serves to open the Body the more that the Oil may compleat its separation Cinnamon yields less Oil than other woods or Barks and it is very difficult to draw six drachms of it out of four pounds let it be never so good The Spirituous water of Cinnamon is nothing but a rarefied Oil whose parts are separated in the water by Fermentation so as they become imperceptible they do make what is called a volatile Spirit which easily mixes with all sorts of liquors as doth the Eleo-saccharum for the Eleo-saccharum is properly an Oil whose parts being separated in the Sugar do easily mix in waters Tincture of Cinnamon This operation is an exaltation of the more oily parts of Cinnamon in Spirit of wine Take what quantity of bruised Cinnamon you please put it into a Matrass and pour upon it Spirit of wine one finger above it stop your matrass close and set it in Digestion in horse-dung four or five days the Spirit of wine will be impregnated with the Tincture of Cinnamon and become red separate it from the Cinnamon and after it is filtrated keep this Tincture in a viol well stopt it is an admirable Cardiack it fortifies the stomach and rejoices all the vital parts it may be used like Cinnamon water in a little smaller dose After this manner the Tincture of all Odoriferous Vegetables may be drawn CHAP. VI. Of the Bark of Peru. THE Peruvian Bark called Quinquina or Kina Kina by the French is a Bark that has been brought into these parts some years since from Peru it retains the name of the Tree from which it is taken the Spaniards do call it Palo de Calenturas or the wood against Feavers There are two kinds of this Tree the one is cultivated and the other grows wild the cultivated is much better than the other you must choose it of a compact substance bitter to the taste and of a reddish colour It is the most certain remedy that ever yet was known to hinder the fits of Agues The manner of using it for a great while past has been to give the patient the powder from half a drachm to two drachms with a little white-wine at the coming of the fit But this method has been quite changed in our days for at present we do infuse an ounce of the powder in two quarts of wine eight and forty hours in a Balneum the infusion is then strained and the patient is made to drink every day three or four little glasses of it at some distance from the Paroxysm The use of this remedy is continued a fortnight at least Some do frequently add to the infusion of this Bark the lesser Centaury Wormwood Chervil Juniper-berries the bark of the Alder-tree Sassafras Salt of Tartar and divers other ingredients thought to be Febrifuges But the basis of all is the Bark of Peru the rest of the ingredients do no great good Some do likewise mix with it a little Opium but that ought not to be done without a great deal of precaution You must observe to purge your patient well before you give him the Bark because this remedy shuts up the humors for some time and when they come to ferment a-new they do sometimes cause more dangerous maladies than he had before such as Asthma's dropsies rheumatisms dysenteries suppression of the menses in women and many others which have too too often succeeded Cures by this Bark For which reason many diseased persons have again wished for their Ague that were cured by this remedy The Bark is likewise very ill for those who have any Abscess in their body for it fixes and hardens the humor for some time which afterwards ferments and causes a gangrene in the part You must forbear the use of Milk and aliments of that nature when you take this remedy by reason of their cheesie part which would lie heavy upon the stomach and be apt to corrupt in the vessels It is probable that the Bark does check the humor of the Feaver much after the manner as an Alkali does stop the motion of an acid salt that is to say it unites with it and makes together a kind of Coagulum this humor does commonly remain quiet a fortnight and the person cured does find himself a little swelled and heavy especially if he were not purged before he took it Afterwards the Ague returns because the feaverish humor having been agitated by the Spirits or else being joyned with other humors of the same nature which have been preparing in the body during the fornights respite it gets quit from the Bark and ferments as it did before But sometimes and that especially when the body of one in an Ague has been well cleansed if you should persist in continuing the use of the Bark you will so fix the humor that you will dispose it to precipitate and be evacuated either by stool or urine or by insensible perspiration and the Ague returns no more for the Spirits in our body do by their motion push outwards as much as they are able whatsoever molests the oeconomy of the parts Tincture of the Peruvian Bark This Operation is an extraction of the more oily and separable parts of the Bark by Spirit of wine Put into a Bolt-head four ounces of good Peruvian Bark grosly powdered pour upon it Spirit of wine four fingers height above the
soluble part of the other Divers little Objections have likewise been made me on this subject for want of duly examining what I have established Wherefore I do not desire to enlarge in the relation of them for I do aim as much as I can to avoid Repetitions as being good for nothing but to swell a Book and tire the Reader Wine diminishes the appetite as saith Hippocrates and the cause may be because the Sulphureous Spirits it is charged with do dull and oppress the Ferment of the Stomach which by its irritation caused hunger Vinous liquors may be made of all Fruits and many other things by means of Fermentation as from Apples Pears Honey and Hopps In like manner Berries Seeds Leaves and Flowers may be made to Ferment but because several of these things are naturally too dry to ferment easily they must be wetted with water after they are beaten and to quicken their Fermentation a little Yest is to be added and by this means liquors are made whence burning Spirits may be drawn as well as from Wine That which happens in the fermentation of Wines may serve very well to explicate many diseases but especially the Small Pox for it is very probable that in this disease the bloud does boil and ferment in the vessels much after the manner as Wine ferments in a vessel The little pustules of the Small Pox are a Tartar which is separated from the bloud to the skin after the same manner as the Tartar separates from the Wine to the sides of the vessel and indeed they have the same effect as salt in corroding the skin Infants are more subject to this disease than elder persons because their bloud is more like to Muste and consequently is more subject to ferment The Small-pox does usually happen but once in a mans life just as Muste does ferment also but once Distillation of Wine into Brandy Fill with Wine half a large Copper body cover it with its Moors head bordered with its Refrigeratory and fit to it a Receiver lute well the junctures with a wet Bladder and distil with a gentle fire about a quarter of the Liquor or else until the liquor which distils doth not burn when fire is put to it that which is in the Receiver is called Brandy and in French Aqua vitae Remarks Brandy is a Spirit of wine loaded with phlegm that it hath carried with it in the distillation these Spirits do always rise first and so it is known that there remain no more in the Cucurbite when the liquor that distils is no longer inflammable Brandy may be drawn from all sorts of Wines but more of it may be drawn in some Countries than others For example the Wines that are made about Orleans and Paris do yield greater plenty of Brandy than many others which seem to be stronger and the reason is that those Wines which appear stronger being loaded with a great deal of Tartar have their Spirits as it were fixed whereas the others containing but a convenient portion of this Tartar do leave their Spirits at greater liberty When Wine has been drunk there is made a separation of Spirits in the body much resembling that which is made by distillation for the heat of the bowels warming it causes the Spirituous parts to spread on all sides through the pores and some part of them to mix with the bloud and rarefie it from whence it comes to rejoyce the heart and encrease the vigour of the whole body but because these Spirits do always tend upwards the greatest part flies into the brain where it quickens its motion and produces a certain gaiety of mind that is wont to furnish us with many excellent thoughts But now if wine moderately taken is so profitable for the Functions of the body it likewise causes many mischiefs when it is excessively used for the Spirituous parts rising in great abundance do circulate in the brain with so much celerity that they soon confound the whole Oeconomy And then the objects will appear double and the walls of the place where one is seem to have changed their ordinary situation This Confusion remains until the Spirits having some good time dissolved the phlegm do in part condense with it and in part spend through the pores It likewise then happens that a man is prone to sleep because the Pituita being attenuated either by the Spirits of wine or by the phlegm they have drawn along with them glides into the small passages of the brain and retards the Circulation of the Animal Spirits by gluing them together for after the same manner as the motion of the Spirits in the Brain doth beget watchfulness so their repose or condensation produces sleep But I shall speak more amply of this subject hereafter when I come to treat of the effects of Opium The sleep which is caused through excess of Wine doth usually remain until the Animal Spirits have rarefied this phlegm and opened a free passage Those who are intoxicated with Beer Sider or some such like liquor do remain in their Drunkenness a longer time and sleep more after it than those who are drunk with Wine because the Spirit of these liquors carrying along with it a viscous phlegm into the brain remains a longer time in the disengaging it self and passing through the pores Again it is the viscosity of this phlegm which entring into the Sinus of the brain does cause so long a sleep because it is so hard to rarefie Those Accidents that I have related to proceed from the immoderate use of Wine are but the first and the less grievous though indeed they are but little to be desired every body knows that a continuation of frequent debauches doth at last render a man dull and stupid and this by reason the Spirits of Wine do not only trouble the Natural Spirits in their functions and render them Phlegmatick but likewise by rarefying them do ever carry off and lose some store of them These Persons are likewise subject to a continual spitting or else they are molested with defluxions Catarrhs and Gout because the Pituita being rendred more liquid by the Spirits and phlegm of vinous liquors is forced to descend through the Lymphatick vessels but if there happens to be the least obstacle in these vessels it takes its course with the Nerves and falls upon all the parts of the body Lastly when excess of wine does occasion falling into the Apoplexy and Palsie it is by reason the Pituita is rendred too liquid by the Spirits and Phlegm of wine and causes Obstructions in the head and hinders the natural course of the Spirits into the Nerves Many other sad effects of wine-debauches might be here mentioned but this digression is too long Let us return to our Operation After the wine hath been deprived of these Sulphureous Spirits there remains in the body a Tartareous liquor which being exposed a good while to the Sun in a Cask without its stopple turns
into good Vinegar It may be some such thing happens in the Bodies of those who accustom to drink too much wine for whereas the volatile parts which ascend to the Brain and Heart by an agitation of the Spirits do beget Joy so on the contrary the Tartareous parts by fixing the humors about the Hypochondria do cause by little and little that which is called Melancholy which proceeds from an acid whence it comes to pass that many men making a debauch upon wine with design to pass away their Melancholy do afterwards find they have encreased it when the debauch hath had its effect If you would by way of curiosity make an exact Analysis of wine you must take that which remains in the body after distillation of the Brandy and distil off all the phlegm there will remain a Matter like unto Rosine put it into a Retort and placing it in a Furnace distil away more phlegm in a small fire until it begins to come sharp Then fit a large Receiver to the Retort and luting well the junctures strengthen the fire by degrees to drive forth acid Spirits and a little fetid Oil continue the fire until there comes no more The Oil is separated from the Spirit in a Tunnel lined with brown paper for the Spirit will pass through and the Oil being too thick will remain But it is here remarkable that more of this Spirit and Oil is drawn from Muste than wine which sufficiently proves the Remark I made before touching the origine of the volatile Spirit of wine for seeing good store of the Oil of Muste hath contributed to the making volatile Spirit of Wine there must needs remain but very little Oyl in the liquor that Brandy is drawn from The acid Spirit of wine and the Black Oil are like to those of Tartar which I shall describe anon And an alkali salt wholly resembling that of Tartar may be drawn by a Lixivium from the mass that remains in the Retort Spirit of Wine Spirit of Wine is the oily part of wine rarefied by acid Salts Fill a large bolt-head with a long neck half full with Brandy and fitting a head and Receiver lute close the junctures set your bolthead upon a pot half filled with water to distil in a vaporous Bath the Spirit which separates from the phlegm and rises pure continue this degree of fire until nothing more distils thus you 'l have a dephlegmated Spirit of Wine in the very first distillation It serves for a Menstruum to a great many things in Chymistry half a spoonful of it is given to Apoplectical and Lethargical persons to make them come to themselves likewise their Wrists Breast and Face are rubbed with it 'T is a good Remedy for Burnings if applied so soon as they happen and it is good for cold pains for the Palsie Contusions and other Maladies wherein it is requisite to discuss and to open the pores Remarks The usual way of making Spirit of Wine is by distilling Brandy in a Limbeck so many times over until it comes pure and to do this about half the Brandy is drawn by distillation and the phlegm that remains at bottom accounted of no use Again half the Spirit which was distilled is anew drawn off and the phlegm thrown away these Rectifications are continued until you find by firing a spoonful of the Spirit that every drop burns and there remains not the least Phlegm but because this Operation is very tedious and it is a hard matter thus to get a Spirit of Wine wholly free from Phlegm even after nine or ten times repeating these distillations let the fire be never so small Artists have invented a long Machine which they call the Serpent by reason of the circumvolutions which it makes It is fitted to the Cucurbite containing the Brandy and the top made like a Tunnel receives the head to which a Receiver is fitted and the junctures well luted and the vessel placed in a small fire the Spirits of Wine do rise by this gentle heat but the phlegm being too heavy cannot ascend so high so that thus a Spirit of Wine deprived of its phlegm is had the very first time But because this Machine is hard to carry into the country and other places where one would desire to make Spirit of Wine and besides that it is subject to loosen in the joints through the violence of the Spirits I have thought that the way I delivered for making Spirit of Wine was more commodious for provided you have but a matrass and a head it will be an easie matter to draw as good Spirit of Wine as that by the Serpent and there 's no need to fear the Spirits breaking any way out of the vessel if you do but lute well the junctures as I have said The matrass must have a very long neck that no phlegm may be able to rise into the Receiver The vaporous Bath is fitter than any other to perform this Operation in because a most moderate heat is requisite to raise up the Spirits all alone now the vapour of water warms very insensibly You must continue the same degree of fire until there comes nothing more Some persons do endeavour to reject the method that I have described for drawing Spirit of Wine because say they a long time is required to draw a little Spirit and by reason of the difficulty they conceive in procuring such vessels well made at Paris and much more so in the Country But it is likely these Gentlemen do blame this method because they never tried it for if they had but taken the pains to make Experiment of it they would have found that with two or three of these vessels they might have drawn as much Spirit of Wine as they could be able to do with their great Machine and that this Spirit is not liable to the impression which might be communicated to it from Copper or Tin vessels As for the difficulty that there is pretended of getting such glass vessels there is none at all that I know of but only for such as will not take the pains to visit the Glass-houses for there they would find enough for their turn and though I use a great many of them in my Courses of Chymistry I never was to seek for any yet But suppose there were none to be found ready made methinks they might as easily bespeak them and have them made at the Glass-houses as well as bespeak those grand Copper or Tin Machines that are commonly used I know that such as are better pleased with making a Fair shew than with the effects of things and who measure the goodness of an Operation by the trouble it gives one and by the greatness of vessels and Furnaces will find here but little to their satisfaction But I am very little concerned at such mens exceptions I never endeavoured to follow their Track My design is simply to facilitate the means of working in Chymistry and to take away
as much as lies in my power those things which render it mysterious and dark Spirit of Wine is good for Lethargical and Apoplectical persons because it puts the Spirits into a greater motion than they were in before Now because according to all appearance these Diseases are caused by Obstructions which hinder the course of the Spirits into the Brain this Spirit serves to give them a new vigour to dissolve and rarefie these Tartareous viscosities which shut up their passage It likewise discusses Tumors and Defluxions because it not only opens the pores and gives vent to the subtler part of the humor to perspire but likewise dissolves and rarefies the grosser part so as to render it fit to circulate with the blood The Spirit of Wine is excellent for Burnings provided it be used so soon as they happen for then it opens a passage for the igneous particles to come out at and if there should remain any within the part it unites with them as it uses to do when mixed with an Acid. Spirit of Wine Tartarised This preparation is a Spirit of Wine that has carried with it some portion of Salt of Tartar Put a Pound of Salt of Tartar into a long glass-body pour upon it four pounds of Spirit of Wine prepared as I said before place your vessel in Sand and cover it with a head to which fit a Receiver lute well the junctures with a wet Bladder and give it a gradual fire which continue until three parts of the Spirit of Wine are risen then remove the fire and keep this Spirit in a Viol well stopt it hath the same virtues as the other but is more subtile The liquor that remains in the body may be evaporated and a Salt of Tartar got as good as before Remarks This Operation is only a Rectification of the Spirit of Wine to render it more subtile than it was before because the Salt of Tartar becomes impregnated with the Phlegmatick parts and hinders them from rising The Spirit of Wine doth likewise volatilize and carry along with it some portion of the Salt of Tartar which gives it a very agreeable smell and renders it a good Remedy for Obstructions A sign that the Spirit of Wine has carried along with it some of the Salt of Tartar is this if you dry gently the Salt of Tartar that remains in the Body and weigh it you 'l find it diminished an ounce and a half You may again put this Spirit of Wine Tartarized to half a pound of more Salt of Tartar and distil it as before but I have found that it is never a-whit the better for it This way of Tartarizing Spirit of Wine is the very best and shortest of all that have been invented whether you desire to make it pure or to impregnate it with Salt of Tartar and I may venture to say that all the many long and tedious descriptions that have been given of this Operation have been only invented to cast a dust into the eyes of Novices for it is easie for any to observe who give themselves a little to examine things that after all their long turnings and windings and circumstances to no purpose the Spirit of Wine is not so well Tartarized as by the plain method that I have described Queen of Hungary's Water This Operation is a Spirit of Wine impregnated with the more essential part of Rosemary flowers Fill a glass or earthen cucurbite half full with Rosemary Flowers gathered when they are at their best pour upon it Spirit of Wine sufficient to infuse the Flowers in set your Cucurbite in a Balneum and joyning its head and Receiver lute close the junctures and give it a digesting fire for three days after which unlute them and pour into the Cucurbite that which may have been distilled Refit your Alembick and encrease the fire strong enough to make the liquor distil so as one drop may immediately follow another and when you shall have drawn about two thirds of it and put out the fire let the vessels cool and unlute them you 'l find in the Receiver a very good Water of the Queen of Hungary keep it in a Viol well stopt It is good in the Palsie Lethargy Apoplexy and Hysterical Maladies The Dose is from one drachm to two It is likewise used outwardly for Burnings Tumors Cold pains Contusions Palsie and all other occasions wherein it is requisite to revive the Spirits Ladies do use to mix half an ounce of it with six ounces of lily-Lily-water or Bean-flower water and wash their Face with it to clear their complexion Remarks You must distil this water in a Fire that is strong enough for otherwise the Spirit of Wine would rise alone or else draw along with it but very little Essence as I have observed in the working upon it The Oyl or Essence of Rosemary may be made as the Oyl of Cinnamon and some drops of it mixed in the Spirit of Wine and hereby you have a Queen of Hungary's water made upon the spot The Water of the Queen of Hungary sometimes gives ease to the Tooth-ach being snufft at the Nose or applied to the Gums with a little Cotton Some thinking to Criticize a little do say it is altogether useless to digest Rosemary flowers with Spirit of Wine because their substance being of a very Volatile nature it easily dissolves in the Spirit without any digestion But this Circumstance is very necessary if we desire to have a Water well impregnated with the Essence of the Flowers for although there is a Volatile substance in Rosemary yet good part of the Oil in which consists principally the Smell is involved in the other Principles and cannot be well rarefied mixed and exalted but only by a digestion and thus we have a very good effect from it CHAP. XIII Of Vinegar WInes like all other liquors that use to Ferment do grow sowr by the dissolution of their Tartar in a second Fermentation This dissolution is commonly made when upon the Wines going to decay some of the more subtile Spirits are lost for the Tartar taking their place fixes the rest of the Spirits which remain in the Wine so that they can act no longer This fixation is the cause that when the Wine turns sowr very little quantity of it is diminished and very little Tartar is found in the vessels wherein Vinegar is made To the end that Wine may quickly sowr you must set the Vessel that contains it in some hot place and mix the Lees from time to time for this Tartar will easily dissolve when heat comes to act upon it Perhaps it will be objected that Wine deprived of Tartar and Lees does grow sowr when kept a long time in a vessel without any dissolution of Tartar But we must consider that Wine let it be as clear and pure as may be does always retain the more saline and subtile part of Tartar which exalts and easily smells when by Fermentation it gets the predominancy
Salt may bruise the Crude Tartar and wrapping it up in paper may Calcine it until it turns into a white mass after which they may draw the salt by a Lixivium as I said before I do commonly draw this way four ounces of very white and well purified salt of Tartar from each pound of red Tartar a little more may be drawn from white Tartar but it is no better than the other I have observed that when water is thrown upon the mass of Tartar newly Calcined it heats much like unslack'd Lime when wetted the reason of which is the same that I have given to explicate the Ebullition of Quick-lime in water all the difference is this that Tartar Calcined containing a great deal of Salt does more easily imbibe water than Quick-lime Some do Calcine salt of Tartar with a little sulphur to hinder it from dissolving so easily by the air and to render it the whiter but this is no good practice because the acid Spirit of sulphur destroys some part of the Alkali and this does come to happen by reason that the pores of this Salt by being thus Calcined are not so open as they were and the air therefore cannot so easily melt it If you would make Salt of Tartar and other Alkali fixt salts very white indeed you must Calcine them all alone in a great fire until they become white and then purifie them by Dissolution Filtration and Coagulation As for their proneness to dissolve this is natural to Alkali salts and cannot be taken from them but by destroying their nature Nor can I approve the addition of any quantity of Niter to the Calcination of Tartar as some do because the volatile parts of Niter being exalted the fixt do remain and by their acidity do diminish the virtue of Salt of Tartar Although the Salt of Tartar be tolerably white after the first purification yet if you do calcine threescore and four ounces of it and filtrate it as I have said you will draw still abundance of earthy matter and if in curiosity you should dry this earth you would find three ounces and a half of it Alkali salts are Aperitive in that they dissolve those slimy humors which caused Obstructions and it is for the same reason that Salt of Tartar does correct Senna and hinders it from griping for the substance of Senna being viscous this does rarefie it and make it work the quicker it may also serve to dissolve some viscous phlegm that sticks in the guts which as it is going off causes griping pains The liquor or Oil made per Deliquium is only a Salt of Tartar dissolved by the moisture of the Cellar If you would make it quickly you must dissolve the Salt of Tartar in as much Rain water well filtrated as is needful to turn it into a liquor It may be used like the former it cures Tettars and discusses Tumors because being an Alkali it sweetens the keen Salts which fomented these distempers When Salt of Tartar or its liquor is dissolved in water newly distilled from some green plant the water will turn green and the greener the plant is from which the water was distilled this salt does make the water so much the greener The water of Night-shade turns greener with it than balm-Balm-water balm-Balm-water greener than eye-bright-Eye-bright-water and so of the rest The reason of this effect proceeds from this that the Alkali salt of Tartar does rarefie and make appear many little parts of the plant which did rise with the water in the distillation and did not till then appear But the water must be sure to be distilled with a fire sufficiently great for if it should have been distilled in a Balneum or such like heat there would not appear the least shew of green though an Alkali salt were mixed with it Cherry-water Rose-water and many other distilled waters of fruits or flowers do give no colour by the addition of Salt of Tartar Tincture of Salt of Tartar This Operation is an exaltation of some parts of Salt of Tartar in Spirit of wine Melt in a good Crucible twenty ounces of Salt of Tartar in great fire and when it is in Fusion cover it with a Tile and put coals round it blow about it so as to raise a greater heat than if you were melting Gold continue this degree of fire about six hours or until your Salt of Tartar is of a red marble colour which you may know by thrusting the end of a Spatula into the Crucible for when it is drawn out you may look upon a little matter that is stuck to it then take out the Crucible with a pair of tongs and turn it upside down into a warm mortar the matter will coagulate in a little time powder it presently and put it into a matrass warmed before-hand pour upon it Spirit of wine Tartarized until it swims four fingers above the matter stop the matrass with another to make a double-vessel lute the junctures close with a wet bladder set your matrass in Sand and heat it with a gradual fire to make the Spirit of wine boil seven or eight hours during which time it will assume a red colour After that let the vessels cool and unlute them separate by Inclination this most fragrant Tincture and keep it in a Viol well stopt You may pour more Spirit of Wine on the remaining Salt of Tartar and proceed as before as long as it will draw out any Tincture The Tincture of the Salt of Tartar is an excellent Aperitive it purifies the bloud and resists malignity of humors It is used in the Scurvy the dose is from ten to thirty drops in some convenient liquor Remarks You must place the Crucible in the furnace upon a Tile for fear lest the wind which comes through the doors of the Ash-hole and fire-room might be apt to cool the bottom and hinder the Fusion of the Salt The Salt of Tartar having been a good while melted in the Crucible does flame when thrown upon lighted coals as easily as Salt-peter does This effect proceeds only from this that the fire has attenuated and volatilized the parts of this fixt salt so as to render them fit to exalt with the sulphur of coals Many have writ that it is sufficient to Calcine the Salt of Tartar two hours in a violent fire or until the Salt of Tartar becomes blewish but after having tried several times to make the Tincture according to this description I could never be able to do it it is true the Spirit of Wine will be a little Tinctured but it comes not near that which is necessary to call it the Tincture of Salt of Tartar for it should be red like wine and to make it so it is requisite to Calcine it as I have said and good store of it should be put into the Crucible because it diminishes exceedingly You must likewise take care to use Spirit of wine well rectified for if there should be any phlegm
three sorts of it the Black the White and the Yellow The Inhabitants of those Countries do keep this Opium for their own use and do send us only the Meconium which is nothing else but the Juyce of these same Poppy-heads drawn by expression and then thickned and wrapt up in leaves to transport the better It is this Drug that we improperly call Opium and always use for want of the true but being more impure than the true it hath not the same activity and strength A Meconium may be made after the same manner with the heads of those Poppies that grow in Italy Languedoc and Provence but it will prove much weaker than the former The Opium which comes from Thebes or else from Grand-Cairo is accounted the best you must choose it Black Inflammable bitter to the taste and a little acrimonious its smell must be disagreeable and stupefactive Extract of Opium called Laudanum This Operation is the purer part of Opium drawn in water and Spirit of wine and reduced to the consistence of an extract Cut into slices four ounces of good Opium and put it into a bolt-head pour upon it a quart of Rain-water well filtred stop the bolt-head and setting it in sand give your fire by degrees then increase it to make the liquor boil for two hours strain it warm and pour it into a bottle Take the Opium which remains undissolved in the rain-Rain-water dry it in an earthen pan over a small fire and putting it into a Matrass pour upon it Spirit of wine to the height of four fingers stop the Matrass and digest the matter twelve hours in hot Ashes afterwards strain the liquor and there will remain a glutinous earth which is to be flung away Evaporate both these dissolutions of Opium separately in earthen or glass vessels in a Sand-heat to the consistence of honey then mix them and finish the drying this mixture with a very gentle heat to give it the consistence of Pills or a solid Extract It is the most certain Soporifick that we have in Physick it allays all pains which proceed from too great an activity of the humors it is good for the Tooth-ach applied to the tooth or else to the Temple-artery in a plaister it is used for to stop spitting of bloud the bloudy-flux the flux of the menses and hemorrhoids for the colick for hot defluxions on the eyes and to quiet all sorts of griping pains the dose of it is from half a grain to three in some convenient Conserve or else dissolved in a Julep Remarks Opium is compounded of a Spirituous part and a gross terrestrious Rosine the Spirituous part may be easily dissolv'd in water but the Resinous requires a more convenient Menstruum such as Spirit of Wine You must dry the Opium after the first dissolution least the Spirit of Wine be too much weakned by the watry part that remains which would hinder the solution from being done so well as it should be Distilled Vinegar dissolves Opium but the acids may diminish its virtue by destroying or fixing its volatile part which serves for a vehicle to the other Spirit of wine alone might be used to dissolve both parts of the Opium but it might be feared it would carry away with it the volatile part in the Evaporation All that is in the Opium is preserved by my description for the Resinous part dissolved in the Spirit of Wine cannot evaporate with it because it is the heavier and the other part which I call Volatile in comparison with the first is mixt with a little Rosine that keeps it back while the water evaporates The truth of this I have found by experience and any body else may try as well as I have done by distilling these liqours Lastly it is hard to use any greater precaution than this for the preservation of all the pure parts of Opium and fewer Menstruums can be used that are more convenient If in curiosity you weigh the glutinous earth after it is dried you will find it to be half an ounce Almost all Authors have appointed to torrifie Opium before it be dissolved to the end a certain malignity which they say is in it may be evaporated but that which they call malignity is nothing but the Spirits or Sulphurs that are most volatile whereof I spoke but now so that by the Torrefaction they deprive it of its more active part They do further add to the Extract commonly drawn with Spirit of Wine Coral Pearl Treacle Extract of Saffron Cordial Confections Hysterical ingredients and other things which may resist a cold malignity in the fourth degree which they pretend to be in Opium But experience convinces us that it is not so dangerous when given in the foresaid dose so that there is no need at all of losing its volatile part by Torrefaction nor of mixing it with other ingredients which may hinder its operation or retard its effect It belongs to the Physician when he thinks fit to give it to judge whether there be any need of an Hysterick or Cordial which he may appoint to be mixed upon the spot I shall not stay to examine here whether Opium is cold or hot they who have made the Anatomy of this mixt do know very well that it is almost all of it Sulphur I shall endeavour to explicate its effects the most sensibly I can according to the Rules of Chymistry The virtue of Opium consists in causing sleep and that by calming the motion of the Spirits for since watchfulness does proceed from the motion of the Spirits which by rarifying the humors in the little passages of the Brain do augment their Circulation it may surely be said with probability enough that sleep is caused by some condensation of the humors which happens from a repose of the Spirits in the Brain According to this Principle then there must be contained in Opium and all other Soporificks a certain substance that inviscates the Spirits and hinders them for some time from Circulating so fast as they did before Let us examine now whether any such thing can probably be found in Opium by the Analysis I have made of it first of all I have observed a Spirituous part but after that hath been drawn out by means of Rain-water there remains a gummous and terrestrious matter and this is the substance that I find so proper to produce this effect For nothing in Physick is so fit to thicken the bloud and other humors as things that are Mucilaginous Milk and the Emulsions which are drawn from divers seeds the Water-Lily Lettice nay and all temperate Aliments do frequently incline to sleep because they are impregnated with a gummous substance which mixing in the bloud does serve to agglutinate the Spirits and to moderate the quickness of their motion this now being supposed it is easie to conceive how Opium makes one sleep seeing it is loaded with Mucilaginous parts which may be conveighed into the vessels But without doubt
is from Florida it hath been transplanted among us but our Countrey not being hot enough that which grows here is not so strong as the Tabaco that is brought out of America Tabaco either chewed or smoked now and then makes a great discharge of humors from the Head but if it be used too immoderately it is apt to cause several Diseases such as the Palsie and Apoplexy It is beaten and applied to tumors to discuss them it being full of Spirits which do rarifie them and open the pores It is likewise infused in common water and Tettars and other Itchings of the Skin are washed with this Infusion but you must have a care that the water be not too much charged with it for fear of giving a vomit Tabaco kills Serpents Vipers Lizards and such like Animals if you open a hole in their flesh and thrust a little bit into it or if you should smoke them with it Distillation of Tabaco Put into a Glass-Cucurbite eight ounces of good Tabaco cut small pour upon it about an equal weight of Phlegm of Vitriol cover the Cucurbite with its head and digest the matter in sand for a day fit to it a Receiver and distil about five ounces of liquor in a small fire keep it in a viol It is a powerful vomit the dose is from two drachms to six in some proper liquor it is likewise good for Tettars and the Itch being rubbed lightly with it Put that which remains in the Cucurbite into an earthen Retort or Glass one luted place it in a Furnace and fit to it a great Receiver and luting close the joints begin with a small fire to raise all the phlegm augment it by little and little and the Spirits will come forth confusedly with a black Oil continue the fire until there comes no more then let the vessels cool and unlute them pour that which you find in the Receiver into a Tunnel lined with brown paper the watry part will pass through while the black and fetid Oil remains in the filter keep it in a viol a drachm of it may be mixed with two ounces of Hogs-grease it is a good Remedy for the itch and for Tettars An Alkali salt may be drawn from the Coals that remain in the Retort after the same manner as the Salt of Guaiacum This salt is a Sudorifick the dose is from four grains to ten in some convenient liquor Remarks Tabaco is full of such piercing sulphurs and volatile salts that so soon as ever it is in the stomach it falls a pricking the Fibers and moving to vomit The Oil of Tabaco is so great a vomit that if one should but hold ones Nose a little over the Viol in which it is kept it would make one vomit One day I made a small Incision in the skin of a dog's thigh and thrusting in a little tent dipt in the Oil of Tabaco the dog immediately purged both upwards and downwards with a great deal of violence The fixt salt of Tabaco may be made as I have said but if you would have any quantity of it you must join a great deal of other Tabaco with it for receiving so little matter out of the Retort it would be hard to get a drachm of Salt CHAP. XIX Extractum Panchymagogum THIS Extract is a farrago of the purer substances of divers purgative and cordial medicines Take an ounce and a half of the Pulp of Coloquintida one ounce of the Pulvis Diarrhodon Abbatis so much good Agarick and two ounces of black Hellebore powder them all grosly and put them into a matrass pour upon it rain-water distilled four fingers above the mixture Stop the matrass close and set it in digestion in hot sand or in horse dung three or four days and shake the vessel ever now and then After this pass your infusion through a cloth pour upon the residence a like quantity of the same liquor let it infuse as before then strain and express it strongly mix your infusions and let them settle until they become clear decant them and evaporate the liquor in an earthen pan in a sand-heat with a little fire to the consistence of a Syrop then mix with them half an ounce of Rosine of Scammony and two ounces of Extract of Aloes evaporate the whole to the consistence of an Extract It purges all the humors well the dose is from one scruple to two in Pills Remarks The flesh or pulp of Coloquintida is nothing but the apple it self cleansed from its Seeds It purges the Brain the best is that which is whitest and lightest The powder Diarrhodon Abbatis is Cordial and resists the malignity of humors it takes its name from the Rose which is its Basis The Agarick is a Rosinous Mushrom that grows on the Larix the best is the whiter lighter and most friable it is used for to purge the brain The root of black Hellebore is a very strong purger of Melancholy wherefore it is given to Hypochondriacal persons and even to the Maniacal it gives a vomit when taken alone but with this mixture it fixes downwards the white is a poison taken inwardly it is never used but for sneezing powders Scammony is a very Purgative resinous juyce the best is most friable and which being powdered hath a grey colour drawing towards white its Rosine is drawn from it as that of Jalap Aloes is said to purge Choler I have spoken of its virtues sufficiently already when I described its Extract Spirit of Wine is commonly used to make this Extract and it may seem to be so much the purer being drawn by this dissolvent rather than by a watry Menstruum for spirit of wine dissolves only the more Balsamick and purer part of mixt bodies but nevertheless I chuse rather to prefer the use of Dew or else Rain-water nay and even common water before Spirit of wine for several reasons First because in the evaporation of the liquidity of the Extract drawn by Spirit of wine a great many of the more subtile parts are lost which this dissolvent had volatilized And indeed it cannot be denied but some useful parts will evaporate let us use what dissolvent we please but it is plain there is no such great loss when watry menstruums are used as when Spirit of wine Now we should always prefer such menstruums as are best able to preserve the virtue of the mixt whose Extract we intend to draw The second is because Spirit of wine does always leave some impression of heat and acrimony in the Extracts it draws which the liquors that I use do not do The third is because Spirit of wine is not so convenient a menstruum to dissolve the salts which the Ingredients we use are full of and it is in this salt that their greatest virtue does consist Wherefore we ought to chuse such dissolvents as can best preserve the virtue of mixt bodies and such as are familiar to our nature We must use Spirit of wine to extract
chuse it clean friable and full of white spots and that sort is called Amygdaloides Flowers of Benjamin and its Oil. This is an exaltation of the volatile salts of Benjamin and a separation of its Oil by distillation Take an earthen pot high and narrow with a little border round it put into it three or four ounces of clean Benjamin grosly powdered cover the pot with a Coffin of paper and tye it round about under the border set the pot into hot ashes and when the Benjamin is heated the Flowers will sublime take off the Coffin every two hours and fix another in its place stop up quickly in a glass the Flowers you find in the Coffins and when those which afterwards sublime do begin to appear Oily take the pot off the fire put that which remains into a little glass Retort and fitting a Receiver to it distil in a Sand-heat a thick and fragrant Oil until nothing more comes forth there will remain in the Retort nothing but a very spongy earth The Flowers are good for Asthmatical persons and to fortifie the stomach the dose is from two grains to five in an Egg or in Lozenges The Oil is a Balsom for wounds and ulcers Remarks Benjamin being full of a great many volatile parts easily sublimes over the smallest fire the Flowers do rise in little needles that are very white but if you give never so little fire more than should be they carry along with them a small quantity of Oil which makes them to be yellow and impure You must therefore perform the Operation in hot Ashes or in Sand to have the Flowers fair The Flowers of Benjamin have a very pleasant acidity Tincture of Benjamin Take three ounces of Benjamin and half an ounce of Storax powder them grosly and put them into a bottle or matrass half empty pour upon them a pint of Spirit of wine stop your vessel close and set it in warm horse-dung leave it in digestion for a Fortnight after which filtrate the liquor and keep it in a Viol well stopt some do add to it five or six drops of Balsom of Peru to give it a better smell it is good to take away spots in the face a drachm of it is put into four ounces of water and it whitens like milk this water serves for a wash and is called Virgin 's Milk Remarks This Tincture is a dissolution of the Rosine of Benjamin made in Spirit of Wine When it is mixed in a great deal of water it makes a Milk because water weakens the Spirit of Wine and makes it quit what it held up dissolved If you let this Milk settle the Rosine precipi 〈…〉 to the bottom of the vessel and the water becomes clear The Storax is added to this Tincture to encrease the goodness of the smell CHAP. XXII Of Camphire CAmphire is a Rosine that distils drop by drop from a great Tree that is much like to a Walnut-tree in the Island Borneo in Asia Little Cakes of it are likewise brought out of China but that is not so good it must be chosen white transparent clean friable without spot and such as is hard to quench when once lighted Camphire is compounded of a Sulphur and Salt so exceeding volatile that it is very hard to keep it any time and it always loses something let it be never so closely stopt It is an excellent remedy for the Fits of the mother it is not only smelt to by women in this condition and used in their Clysters but also taken inwardly for it is lighted and then quenched five or six times in some water proper to the Distemper and so the water is given to drink it is likewise good for intermittent Feavers being hung about the neck because in its evaporating away it insensibly enters through the pores and causes a rarefaction and transpiration of the humor which caused the disease and for the same reason it is that several Druggs applied to the Wrists and other places have often cured diseases but you must observe that this sort of Remedies is always of a very Spirituous nature Camphire is dissolved in Spirit of Wine and this dissolution is called Spirit of Wine Camphorized it is good in the Apoplexy and in Hysterical maladies it is also found to be of excellent use in the Tooth-ach a little Cotton is dipt into it and put into the aking Tooth Oil of Camphire This Operation is a Camphire impregnated with Spirit of Niter which converts it into a liquor Powder grosly three or four ounces of good Camphire put it into a matrass and pour upon it twice as much Spirit of Niter stop your vessel close and set it over a pot half full of water a little heated stir it ever now and then to help forward the dissolution which will be finished in two or three hours and then you 'l find the Camphire turned into a clear Oil which swims above the Spirit separate it and keep it in a Viol well stopt It is used for the Caries of bones and to touch Nerves that are uncovered in wounds Remarks This Oil is nothing but a dissolution of Camphire in Spirit of Niter for if you pour water upon it to destroy the force of the Spirit it returns into Camphire as before Of all the Rosines this is the only one that can dissolve with Spirit of Niter This dissolution is made without Ebullition or sensible heat because the Camphire consisting of thin disunited parts the acids do enter among them and make an easie separation again acids mixing with sulphurs do never raise any ebullition because they find those bodies too pliant and yielding to make sufficient resistance If you have used three ounces of Camphire in this operation you will obtain four ounces of Oil and the Spirit of Niter will have lost an ounce this last will likewise have lost much of its acrimony Some have censured this operation by reason say they of the violent impression which the corrosive Spirit does give to the Camphire in its dissolution and that therefore the acrimony of the medicine renders it of a dangerous use But seeing this Oil is not wont to be given inwardly methinks there is very little reason for this scruple there are medecins which are much more acrimonious than this which nevertheless are not esteemed dangerous to be used Again there is occasion for this acrimony in the use that is made of this Oil for the Spirit of Niter which is mixed with it does very much help the Camphire to deterge wounds and to cleanse rotten bones CHAP. XXIII Of Gumm Ammoniack GVmm Ammoniack is so called because it distils from a sort of Ferula or Fennil-gyant that grows near the place where the Oracle of Jupiter Ammon stood heretofore the best is in large yellowish tears and white within It is given inwardly in Deoppilative Electuaries for Schirrhous Tumors of the Liver Spleen and Mesentery it is used in Emollient and Attractive Plaisters The
the liquor you 'l have a Spirit that must be kept well stopt it hath the same virtues as the Salt the dose is from ten to thirty drops The Phlegm must be flung away If that which remains in the Retort is Calcined in an open fire and a Lixivium made of it as I said concerning fixt Alkali Salts a small quantity of fixt Salt will remain which nevertheless hath no more virtue than other Alkali Salts I spoke of before The volatile salts of Harts-horn the bloud Skull Nails Hair and other parts of Animals may be drawn after the same manner Remarks The Receiver must be sure to be large enough that the Spirits may circulate with greater ease the fire must likewise be well managed for these Spirits being forced out too fast do rush forth violently and break the Receiver or else are lost through the joints The Phlegm comes before the other Principles in the first distillation but in the Rectification the Volatile Salt rises first because it is at liberty and is lighter than the Phlegm The Spirit which is drawn from Animals by Chymistry is nothing but a volatile salt dissolved in Phlegm Your vessel for sublimation must be very high that the Volatile Salt may rise without any Phlegm for when the vessel is short the Phlegm riseth with the Volatile salt liquifies it and turns it into Spirit A bolt-head or a long body with its head may serve for this Operation because the Phlegm being too heavy cannot mount so high and therefore leaves the Volatile Salt to sublime alone which may nevertheless be Rectified to become more pure you must mix it with the distilled Spirit and repeat the Sublimation according as I have said but because this Salt always carries along with it a small quantity of Oil a few days afterwards it loses its whiteness and turns Yellowish now to avoid that you must pour upon it when it is in the bottle Spirit of Wine Tartarised one fingers height and so keep it well stopt This Spirit of Wine hinders the salt from dissolving its self and the Oil it contained so that after some days it turns red and the salt grows white when it is to be used the Spirit is decanted from it and the Salt left alone by means of this Lotion it loses a little of its former smell but care must be taken that the Spirit of Wine be well Rectified for if there remained any the least Phlegm the Salt would dissolve in it You may also sublime it again as before after having well washt it in Spirit of Wine it will be dry and very fair There is another way of Rectifying the Volatile salt which is by mixing it with four or five times as much bones or horns burnt white and putting the mixture into a glass or earthen body then fitting to it a blind-head or such a one whose Nose has not been opened after that luting well the joints then setting the vessel in sand and with a gentle fire the Volatile salt will rise and stick to the head you must continue the fire until there rises no more This salt is hereby purified from a great deal of its Oil which remains in the powder of Bones wherefore it becomes whiter than it was and pleasanter to the palate It may again be mixt with other Calcined bones and sublimed as before to render it purer still and take away more of its loathsome smell that 's caused partly by the Empyreumatical oyl that it draws along with it in the distillation The Volatile salt dissolved in a little water Crystallizes like Sugar-Candy and then it is easier to keep than before There can be drawn from Animals but a very little quantity of fixt salt because the Spirits which abound in them do volatilize their salt for which reason this volatile salt keeps dry longer than that of Vegetables The virtue of Animals doth principally consist in their Volatile salt it is that which gives meat its savour that makes Broths strong and turns them into a Gelly according as they do abound more or less The Juscula Consummata which are made with a small fire are better than those that are boiled quick because a strong fire carries away good part of the Volatile salts Volatile Salts do rarifie the humors of the body both by reason of their piercing nature and also in that being Alkalis they do dull the strength of Acids which keep the humors condensed after which the bloud being in greater motion than before doth the more easily purifie it self either by perspiration or by Urine from heterogeneous bodies which were there gathered together This Operation may serve to shew how the Volatile Salt of all Animals or any part of them may be drawn When the Volatile Salt of Bloud is to be drawn that of the best colour must be taken and dried in the Sun or else with a very little fire and so distilled like Vipers If you distil two and thirty ounces of shavings of Harts-horn you 'l draw thirteen ounces of liquor and Volatile salt and there will remain in the Retort nineteen ounces of matter as black as Coal You 'l draw from the liquor an ounce and a half of Volatile salt six ounces of Spirit and two ounces of Black oil The black matter being grinded on a Marble is good for Painters use if you Calcine it the fuliginous parts which make it black will fly away and leave the Harts-horn very white you 'l have sixteen ounces of it and this is called burnt Harts-horn It is accounted a Cordial but indeed has no other virtue than to destroy acids as all other alkali matters do Some do stratifie Harts-horn with Bricks and Calcining it that way they call it Harts-horn prepared Philosophically they account it more Cordial than it was before but they are egregiously mistaken for the Volatile salt and oil which were the things that should render it Cardiacal were carried away in the Calcination and there remains only a Terrestrious matter that may be called a Caput mortuum Notwithstanding it is an alkali which may serve as Crabs-eyes Coral and divers other matters of the like nature which absorb acids the Bricks bestow no virtue at all to it If you distil forty ounces of Ivory you will draw thirteen ounces of liquor and volatile salt and there will remain in the Retort six and twenty ounces of a matter as black as Coal Afterwards by the Rectification you will get two ounces and a drachm of Volatile salt one ounce and five drachms of a stinking black oil five ounces of Spirit and four ounces two drachms of phlegm If you Calcine the black pieces which remain in the Retort in an open fire the soot will leave them and they will burn white this is called burnt Ivory or Spodium it has the same virtues as burnt Harts-horn you will have at least twenty ounces of it It is here remarkable that Ivory does contain much more earth than Harts-horn and
doubtless that is the reason why it is the whiter If you distil twelve ounces of Hair you will obtain eight ounces of liquor and volatile salt There will remain in the Retort three ounces and a half of a black matter very spongy and earthy from which no fixed salt can be drawn And by Rectification you will raise into the Head an ounce and seven drachms of a very fine volatile salt separate by a filter three ounces of a black and very fetid oil and by distillation of that which is filtrated you 'l have two ounces of Spirit and nine drachms of phlegm All Volatile salts have much resemblance in their figure smell and taste but that of Vipers is accounted the most active and proper against Poisons those of Harts-horn and Mans Skull are thought to be better than others for the Epilepsie that of mans bloud to purifie the bloud and so of the rest When you Rectifie the Spirit of Vipers or man's Skull or Harts-horn or hair in order to purifie them from their phlegm if you should let the liquor continue distilling longer than is fitting the phlegm will rise after the Spirit but then it separates from the Spirit as water separates from oil the Spirit will be uppermost and a little troubled and whitish but if you keep these two liquors together for a month the whole will mix together and there will be no longer any separation of them at all These effects do happen from this that the Spirit in rising does carry with it some small quantity of Oil which was dissolved in the liquor by reason of salts that it contains This Oil is very volatile it rises with the Spirit and by rendring the Spirit a little oily it hinders at first the phlegm from mixing with it It is likewise this little quantity of oil which makes the Spirit look a little troubled and whitish but when the Spirit and phlegm are kept a good while together they mix and the whole appears like a homogeneous liquor because there being but little oil in the Spirit the phlegm insensibly enters into and incorporates with it wherefore you must take care to separate the Spirit from the phlegm so soon as ever you take the Receiver from the nose of the head in case you have suffered the liquor to distil too long What I have now spoken of does not happen in the Rectification of the Spirit of Ivory and without doubt the reason is that the Ivory does not contain so much Oil as the other parts of Animals Some do prepare a Sudorifick water with Vipers after this manner They do put the Vipers alive into a great earthen body they fit to it a head with its Receiver they lute the joints and distil in a Balneum all that will rise from it but you must take care that the head be well fastned to the body for when the Vipers begin to be heated they leap and fling about with so much violence that they would otherwise throw it down and get out of their stove And then the Artist must have a care of himself and not be too bold for these creatures being irritated would fling about on every side and a bite of theirs at that time would be twice as dangerous as at another This water which rises whilest the Vipers are in their greatest fury is Sudorifick because some Volatile salts have risen and mixed with it You may give of it from a drachm to half an ounce in some proper liquor But to avoid the forementioned danger you might cut the Vipers in pieces before you put them into the body and because these pieces of them do retain life a long time the water will be little the worse for their not being intire When you have drawn as much water from them as you can by the heat of a Balneum you must put the remainder of the Vipers into a Retort and distil it as I have shewn before you will thereby have the Volatile salt the Spirit and the Oyl CHAP. II. Distillation of Vrine and its Volatile Salt THIS Operation is a separation of the Spirit the Volatile Salt and the Oil of Vrine from the phlegm and the earth which it contains Take ten or twelve quarts of Vrine newly made by sound young men evaporate it in an earthen or glass Cucurbite in a Sand-heat until it remains in the consistence of Honey then fit a head with its Receiver and luting the junctures close continue a small fire to distil the rest of the phlegm after which encrease it by little and little and the Spirits will rise in Clouds carrying with them a little Oil and after that the Volatile salt which will stick to the head like Butter-flies continue the fire until there comes no more then unlute the Vessels and separating the Volatile salt put it into a bolt-head pour likewise into it the Spirit that is in the Receiver and fit a blind-head to the bolt-head lute the junctures with a wet bladder and setting your bolt-head in Sand sublime with a small fire all the Volatile salt as I have shewed concerning that of Vipers separate this Salt and keep it in a Viol well stopt It is a good Remedy for Quartan Agues and Malignant Feavers it opens all Obstructions and works both by Vrine and Sweat the dose is from six to sixteen grains in some convenient liquor filtrate that which remains in the bolt-head the Spirit will pass through the Filter whilst a small quantity of black and extraordinary stinking Oil remains which is good to discuss cold Tumors and to give to Hysterical women to smell to You may distil the Spirit in a Sand-heat to separate it from a thick matter that remains at bottom it hath the same virtues as the Salt it is given from eight to twenty drops in some proper vehicle Two drachms of it are mixed with two ounces of Spirit of Wine to rub Paralytical parts with it is likewise used for cold pains and for the Sciatica If the Mass that remains in the Cucurbite should be Calcined and a Lixivium made of it with water a very small quantity of fixt Alkali salt might be gotten from evaporating the water and it hath the same virtues as other Alkali salts Remarks The Vrine of young men is to be prefer'd before others because it contains more Salt It must be newly made and evaporated with a gentle fire that the Fermentation or too much heat may not cause the Volatile Salts to rise with the phlegm The Spirit is only a Volatile salt dissolved in a little phlegm this Volatile salt works more by Vrine than any of the rest but its smell is more offensive This Remedy must never be given in Broth for Broth being to be taken hot the heat evaporates some of the volatile salts before it can well be taken A Volatile salt may be drawn from Vrine after setting it some months Fermenting in a Vessel close stopt and then a third part of the Liquor
must be distilled with a gentle fire it is in this distilled Vrine that the Volatile salt will be found exalted by the Fermentation Rectifie this liquor again three or four times throwing away each Distillation the Phlegm that remains at the bottom of the Cucurbite then putting your Spirit of Vrine into a Matrass with its head sublime the Volatile Salt as I shewed before Some do add to it Salt-peter This Salt is of a more penetrating nature than the other but a great deal of time is required to make it The Phosphorus It is a luminous matter distilled from Vrine that has been fermented Take a good quantity of humane urine let it ferment or putrifie in the air in an open vessel three or four months then pour it into earthen pans and evaporate it over the fire until the remaining matter comes to the consistence of thick honey put this matter into an earthen body that can endure the fire and is big enough to be left at least half empty place your body in a furnace fit to it a glass head with its receiver and having well luted the joints give it a little fire for two or three hours to distil some phlegmatick Spirits which still remained in the matter after which you must encrease the fire by little and little to the third degree there will rise some small quantity of Volatile Salt which will stick to the head and some black oil which will fall into the receiver continue a good coal fire until there comes no more Oil let the vessels cool and having taken off the receiver pour the liquor you find in it into a Tunnel lined with brown paper the Spirit and phlegm will pass through and the oil will remain in the filter put the oil into an earthen pan and in a mild sand-heat dry it until it comes to be as thick as an ointment take off the head and you will find in the body a black spongey mass which you are to separate from the solid compact matter which remains at bottom powder your spongey matter and mix it with the dried black oyl put it into an earthen retort set it in a Reverberatory furnace fit to it a large capacious receiver and luting well the joints give it a small fire to heat insensibly the Retort then increase it by little and little a Volatile salt will come forth which will stick to the sides of the receiver and a little oil with it increase the fire to the last degree of violence and you will perceive a white Fume which after it has circulated in the receiver will likewise stick to the receiver and will be of a yellow colour this is the PHOSPHORVS continue the fire in its greatest vigour four or five hours or until no more will come into the retort Let the vessels grow cold then unlute them throw water into the receiver and having shook it sufficiently about to loosen that which was glu'd to its sides pour it all into a large glass vessel and leave it to settle the volatile salt will dissolve in the water but the matter of the Phosphorus and the oil will precipitate to the bottom decant the water and having gathered the matter together put it into a little glass vessel add to it a little water and place the vessel in sand give it a digestive heat and stir the matter gently with a wooden spatule the Phosphorus will separate from the oil and sink to the bottom you may make it up into little sticks whilst it is hot by putting of it into the neck of a very little bolt-head and taking it out when it is cold then keep it stopt in a little bottle filled with water for without water to preserve it it would spend it self and be lost in fumes To make PHOSPHORVS liquid you must scrape or break off a piece of it put it into a viol and pour upon it the clear Essence of Cloves to the height of one finger stop the viol close and set it two days in digestion in horse-dung stirring it from time to time to help the solution of the matter after that take your viol and keep it you have in it the liquid PHOSPHORVS All the matter will not have dissolved some part of it will remain at bottom Remarks The word Phosphorus comes from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Lucifer or the Morning-Star Of them there are the Natural and the Artificial the Natural are such as Glow-worms Rotten wood and many others The Artificial are made with the Bolonian stone with chalk with urine with bloud and with divers other sulphureous matters The Bolonian stone was one of the first Artificial Phosphorus that has been known it takes its name from the Town in Italy where it was made he that did prepare it is dead without leaving the knowledge of his Secret insomuch that no body 'till the present has been able sufficiently to imitate it he did calcine it for a certain time and perhaps after such a manner as we are still ignorant of then exposing it to the air it yielded a great light in the dark which by little and little grew weaker and weaker This Stone is bituminous and full of Sulphur which is the thing that gives it this disposition to shine in the dark but because its sulphur is spent by little and little it comes at length to be opake like another stone When it has not been calcined enough it yields no light at all because the sulphureous parts have not been put into sufficient motion and when it is calcined too much these sulphureous parts are thereby lost therefore a medium is to be observed which no body has yet been able to hit The Germans being very curious and industrious in Chymical concerns have found out several kinds of Phosphorus and I do not doubt but upon working further upon this subject much may still be done Among those who have particularly applied themselves to it Balduinus a German has invented a sort of Phosphorus whose description I shall give anon Kunkelius a Saxon has written very well upon it and workt to good effect Daniel Kraff a German Chymist is the first inventor of the Phosphorus which is drawn from Urine he gives it the consistence of a paste or of a liquor as he pleases and the Honourable Mr. Boyle of London to whom all the ingenious have so much obligation put forth a Treatise in English about three or four years ago called Noctiluca Aeria full of abundance of Experiments and most Curious Remarks which he has made upon this Phosphorus he likewise found the way to give it a solid consistence and a little while since he put forth the same Treatise in Latin enlarged above half with new Experiments and Observations on the same subject You must provide a great quantity of Urine for this Operation for a great deal is necessary to draw a little luminous matter from The vessel in which it is put to
ferment is left open that the air entring into it may help the fermentation and in truth the more volatile salts are hereby lost but yet there do remain sufficient to make the Phosphorus When the Urine upon evaporation begins to grow thick you must take care that the matter does not swell over the vessel for it rarifies very much you must evaporate as much phlegm as possibly you can when the evaporation is made in the earthen pans to the end that the operation be sooner ended in the body for there is much less time spent in the evaporation and it is much more easie to keep down the matter when it swells in earthen pans than in a body which is luted and has its head on The body must therefore be sure to be large enough by reason of this rarefaction of the matter which will be apt otherwise to rise into the head and to mix in the receiver with the distilled liquor which would force you to begin the distillation anew When the vessels are unluted you may take the Volatile salt out of the head if there remains any in it and rectifie it as I have shewed speaking of the distillation of Urine but you will find little of it because the greatest part of this salt was lost in the fermentation you might also preserve the liquor which is separated from the oil in the filtration it is a Spirit of Urine The compact matter which remains in the body after that the spongy part is separated is fixed and saline you might calcine it and draw from it a fixed Salt of Urine by a Lixivium as other fixed alkali salts are separated You must heat the Retort very gently for if you should make too great a fire at first it would break it to pieces The Oil which is separated from the Phosphorus at the end of the operation is a little luminous but it is very foetid there is but little of it because some part of it has been rarefied by the fire and turned into Phosphorus Mr. Boyle gives a description of the Phosphorus in which he puts to the thickned Urine three times as much sand The Phosphorus contains more sulphur than any thing else for water condenses it and oyls dissolve it it has an offensive smell and it is partly to correct the smell that it is dissolved in Oil of Cloves when we make it liquid The liquid Phosphorus gives more light at first than the solid because its matter is more rarefied Open but the bottle in the dark and it appears to be all of a fire You might use Oil of Cinnamon instead of Oil of Cloves and the light would be still the greater because the parts of Essence of Cinnamon are more volatile than those of the Essence of Cloves but it would endure the less time for the same reason Add to this that the Oil of Cinnamon is a very dear commodity If you should fire a little piece of the solid Phosphorus with a Burning-glass and quench it when two thirds of the quantity are consumed that which remains will be yellow and a little luminous still it will easily dissolve in water This Experiment shews that the more fixed part of the Phosphorus is saline because it dissolves in water The Phosphorus is luminous in the dark at all times but especially in hot weather for the cold does a little constringe the parts If you take a little piece of the Solid or even the stopple of the bottle that contains the liquid and write with it on paper or upon the hand of a person the letters do seem to be a perfect fire If you rub a little piece of the solid Phosphorus on paper and press it down with the point of a knife the paper will be set on fire After some Experiments made one day at my house upon the Phosphorus a little piece of it being left negligently upon the Table in my Chamber the maid making the bed took it up in the bed-clothes she had put upon the Table not seeing the little piece the person who lay afterwards in the bed waking at night perhaps through the more than ordinary heat he felt perceived that the coverlid was on fire It seems the Phosphorus being heated with the body of him that lay in bed had set fire to the coverlid and had before he perceived it burnt a great hole in it It is observable that the air lighting the fire by exciting the motion of parts in the Phosphorus does likewise make it yield a considerable light for when the matter has continued shut some time in the glass it shines no longer and it recovers its light no more until the glass is opened and the air is let into it Nevertheless some Experiments made a while since in Paris at the house of Monsieur d' Alence by Mr. Homberg a German do seem to evince the contrary that the air is not always necessary to make the Phosphorus shine in the dark The case was thus a very little piece of the solid Phosphorus was put into a little glass bottle a brass cock was fitted to this bottle and made so as it could enter into another cock belonging to a large glass Receiver Then the bottle that contained the Phosphorus was heated and the cock of this bottle was made to enter into that of the great glass vessel out of which the air had been pumped So soon as the cocks were opened the air came forth of the little bottle and at the same time was seen to come a great train of light like a flash nay some did discover particles of the Phosphorus at the bottom of the great glass The bottle was then taken from the receiver and the light of the Phosphorus was very much diminished it sometimes seemed to be quite out the cock was turned to let in the air and presently the Phosphorus recovered its light again In the mean time the heat of the Phosphorus grew less and less and it yielded but a weak light We began the Experiment again the same bottle that had the Phosphorus was applied to the great glass receiver and when the air was drawn out of the bottle the Phosphorus did shine brighter on the contrary when we let the air again into it the Phosphorus went out which is quite different from what hapned whilst the bottle that held the Phosphorus was hot in the former Experiment We repeated the Experiments divers times and saw the same thing continually happen that is to say the Phosphorus being heated lost much of its light when the air was pumped out of the bottle wherein it was contained and it recovered light again when new air was let into it on the contrary the Phosphorus being cold did shine when the air was pumped out of the bottle and the light disappeared when the air was let into it It suffices to have related two Experiments as contrary one to another as can be it is easie to judge what would happen
more effectual Sometimes a little Wax is found in the receiver which came with the Spirit from the Honey in the distillation CHAP. IV. Distillation of Wax THIS Operation is a separation of the Oil of Wax from the Phlegm and Salt Melt two pounds of Yellow Wax in an earthen pan and mix with it three or four pounds of potters earth powdered or so much as is requisite to make a Paste of it form it into little pellets and put them into an earthen Retort or glass one Coated a third of which remains empty place this Retort in a Reverberatory Furnace fit to it a Receiver and luting the joints give a small fire at first and there will come forth Phlegm then a Spirit encrease the fire a little and a liquor will distil that congeals in the Receiver like Butter continue the fire till nothing more comes forth then unlute the joints separate the Spirit mixed with Phlegm from the Butter and keep it in a Viol well stopt It is a good opener the dose is from ten drops to twenty in raddish water or some other appropriate liquor Some do use the Butter of Wax to discuss tumors rather than the Oil that I am going to describe Melt the Butter of Wax in an earthen pan and make a paste of it with sufficient quantity of potters-earth powdered form this paste into little pellets put them into a glass retort set your retort in a Sand-heat fit to it a Receiver and luting the joints begin the distillation with a small fire a great many Spirits will come forth mixed with Phlegm after which encrease it a little and a clear yellow Oil will come having distil'd about three ounces of it change the Receiver for that which comes at last is as thick as Butter It may be Rectified with other clay or potters-earth and it will change into as transparent an Oil as the other Separate the Oil from the Spirit and keep it in a Viol. It is a good discutient for Tumors and Cold pains it is mixed in Unguents and Oils for that purpose The Oil of Wax may be rectified several other times to make it still clearer than before Remarks The solid consistence of Wax doth proceed from a proportionate mixture of Water Volatile Salt and Oil united and incorporated together wherefore its solidity comes to be destroyed according as the Principles do suffer a separation and this is easily observed in the Rectifications for in every distillation that is made some considerable quantity of water is separated and the Oil does likewise become clearer The Clay serves only to separate the parts of Wax and to rarifie it the more If by way of curiosity you desire to know exactly what quantity of liquor or Spirit can be drawn from Wax you must dry your Clay as much as you can or else use in its place broken pots or Bricks powdered which are not at all wet out of three and twenty ounces of Wax you 'l draw in the first distillation just the same weight of liquor to wit twelve ounces of Phlegmatick Spirit and the rest is a Butter in the second and third distillation you 'l draw fourteen ounces of Spirit and six ounces of clear Oil. Spirit of Wax is only a small quantity of acid Volatile salt dissolved in Phlegm but you must not believe what some have written that having distilled a considerable quantity of Wax and put that which was drawn into a Bolt-head they could sublime the Volatile salt like others of that nature For this salt though it be indeed Volatile yet it is not Volatile enough to rise before the Phlegm it is an acid salt much like unto that of Ambar but is not of the nature of Volatile alkali's which are known to sublime so easily it were better therefore to keep this Spirit as it is or else to evaporate about half of it with a very mild heat that it may be the stronger The Volatile salts of many sulphureous matters are drawn acid as they are in the mixt because being clothed with soft and ramous parts which give way easily to their motion they do not break their natural keenness by endeavouring to separate when they are forced to it by fire and so they do not receive so much terrestrious and firy matter as is requisite to make them porous like Volatile alkali's This Operation and that of the Distillation of Ambar which I have described do much confirm what I said before in my Remarks upon the Principle that all the salt of mixt bodies is naturally acid and that alkali is nothing else but an alteration of the Natural Salt made by fire Besides all sorts of Experiments do seem to me to confirm and establish this opinion but yet I am not so peremptory in the vindication of it but that I would gladly give place to another if I could be shewed that it is better than mine for I seek after nothing so much as to discover truth FINIS THE INDEX A ACID what Page 24 How different Crystals are drawn with different acids 188 That acids drawn by violent fires do much differ from the natural 287 How they do become able both to dissolve and to coagulate 453 That they will preserve bodies from corruption 455 That Digestion and Hunger are not so mnch beholding to acids as is commonly thought 456 457 Acid and Alkali not the only cause of ebullition 302 342 Aes ustum 123 Alchymy well defined 58 Alkaest 309 Alkali whence so called 22 What it is 25 Aloes 477 Roch-Alom 350 Alom-water 352 Alumen Saccharinum 350 Burnt-Alom 351 Amalgamation of Gold 65 Ambar 363 Ambargrease 372 Antimony 202 What renders it emetick 203 206 Its emetick quality drawn better in wine than other liquors 207 The violence of Antimonial vomits to be conquered with Cream of Tartar 231 Antimony Calcined in the Sun increases in weight 228 229 Antimonial Cup 205 Antimonium Diaphoreticum whether sudorifick 224 That it is not an alkali 225 Cinnaber of Antimony 234 Regulus of Antimony increased in weight by Calcination 208 What gives the form of a star to its Martial Regulus 212 Glass of Antimony why more emetick than its other preparations 217 How it may be corrected ib. What gives it vitrification 216 Sulphur of Antimony 236 Our Golden Sulphur of Antimony different from that of the antients 210 Aqua Regalis why it dissolves Gold and cannot dissolve Sylver 313 c. Aqua secunda 77 Arcanum Corallinum 193 Arsenick 244 What to be done when this poison happens to be taken 2inwardly 246 B Balm distilled 404 Balsom of Sulphur anisated 357 Bath-waters their heat explicated 140 Benjamin 491 Animal Bezoar 511 Bismuth 101 Bolonian stone 525 Butter of Saturn 111 C Camphire 494 How it comes to be an Amulet in Agues ib. Carduus Benedictus distilled 406 Chylification explicated 356 Cerusse 106 Cineres Clavellati 433 Cinnaber of Antimony 234 Anatomized 235 Cinnamon 389 how it differs from Cassia lignea 390 Cloves 399
not able to coagulate and if on the contrary there should be too little the Crystals would be confused Therefore to make them fair you must take your vessel off the fire when you perceive a little skin upon the liquor which is a mark to shew that there remains a little less liquor than is convenient to keep all the salt dissolved and thus when it comes to be set in a cool place it will not fail to fix Acid salts and among them the volatile do Crystallize in much less time than others Salt-peter cools the body by reason that being an acid it depresses the humours which by their too great motion did heat the body and so precipitates them by Urine for the volatile salts and sulphurs that all bodies are full of are easily fixed and quieted by acids Crystal Mineral called Sal Prunellae This operation is a Salt-peter from which some of the volatile part hath been separated by the means of Sulphur and fire Bruise two and thirty ounces of Purified Salt-peter and put it into a Crucible which you must set in a furnace among burning coals When the Salt-peter is melted throw into it an ounce of flower of Sulphur a spoonful at a time the matter will presently flame and the more volatile spirits of Salt-peter fly away when the flame is over the matter will remain in a very clear fusion Take the Crucible out with a pair of tongs and turn it upside down into a brass bason very clean and a little warmed before-hand to dry up the moisture that might be upon it shake about the bason to spread the matter while it is cooling and this is called Sal Prunellae If you desire to have it very pure you must dissolve it in a sufficient quantity of water filtrate the dissolution and crystallize it as I have said in the Purification of Salt-peter It is accounted better than purified Salt-peter for Physical uses because the Sulphur is thought to have corrected it It is given to cool and to work by Urine in burning Feavers in Quinseys Gonorrheas and other diseases that proceed from heat and obstruction the dose is from ten grains to a drachm in Broth or some other liquor appropriate to the distemper Remarks This Preparation is called Sal or Lapis prunellae either because the essential salt which is drawn from prunella or Self heal hath near upon the matter the same virtue and figure as Crystal Mineral or else because it is given in hot Feavers whose heat is compared to that of a burning coal called Pruna The Germans do give it the form of a Sloe after having coloured it red with Roses The Antients have thought it necessary to throw Flowers of Sulphur on melted Salt-peter to the end it might be made the more Aperitive but thereby it is deprived of the more opening spirits which the Sulphur carries away along with it thus instead of rendring it more open and effectual the better part of it is lost It is easie to perceive that this abuse is one of those that hath insensibly gained upon men and diminishes very much from the benefits that might be received from Chymical Physick for want of applying themselves to examine well the constituent parts of natural things before proposing of correctives I shall rather advise them to use simple purified Salt-peter or purified from its fixt salt three or four several times so as I have described and I am confident after the experience that I have often made of it that it will better satisfie the intensions of those who use it than when it shall have been prepared with Sulphur The diminution which is made of the Salt-peter is not only of the volatile parts which are carried off with the Sulphur but it is likewise of the watry part which this salt does always contain and which does hereby evaporate Crystal Mineral is often counterfeited by mixing Roche-alom with it during the fusion and if those men do use a Salt-peter that is not very pure this Alom does serve to purifie it by causing a thick scum to separate to the sides of the Crucible and so the Crystal Mineral becomes much the whiter This adulteration may be known in that the Crystal Mineral made this way is more glittering than the other and it is the Alom which gives it this colour Those who carry about this Crystal Mineral to the shops do easily enough vend it for its outward excellency and for the cheapness they sell it at for Alom costs but little but this sort wants a great deal of having so good effects as the other Sal Polychrestum This operation is a Salt-peter fixed by Sulphur and by fire Powder and mix equal parts of Salt-peter and common Sulphur throw about an ounce of this mixture into a good Crucible which you shall have heated red-hot before-hand there will rise a great flame which being over throw into it as much more of the matter and continue to do so until all your mixture is used Let the fire continue four or five hours so as to keep the Crucible all the while red-hot then pour out the matter into a copper well dried by the fire and when it is cold powder it and dissolve it in a sufficient quantity of water filtrate the dissolution and evaporate it in an earthen pan or a glass vessel in sand until it is dry You must fling away as insignificant that which remains in the filter If the Salt be not altogether so white as we would have it it is because it still retains some Sulphur therefore you must calcine it in a strong fire in a Crucible stirring it about with a Spatule three or four hours or until it becomes very white then repeat your dissolution in water your filtration and evaporation thus you have a Sal Polychrestum exceeding pure Sal Polychrestum purges serous humors by stool and sometimes by Urine the dose is from half a drachm to six drachms in some proper liquor Remarks This Salt is properly a Salt-peter divested of its volatile part by Sulphur it is called Polychrestum from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say good for several uses because it is used not only to purge by stool but by urine too being taken to the weight of one or two drachms in a quart of water in the morning like a Mineral water It is commonly used in Infusions of Senna from one scruple to four as well to increase the strength of the Purgative as to draw out more strongly the Tincture of Senna Some do give it to six drachms in a pint or a quart of water to purge strongly but I would not advise any body to use this Purgative all alone by reason of the vellications that it gives in passing through the stomach Sal Polychrestum must by no means be used until it is made very white and very pure for when there remains any gross portion of Sulphur it is apt to cause Vertigoes
lid so soon as that appears you must take your vessel off the fire and having covered it with an earthen lid without holes instead of that with holes suffer it to cool You will find on the sides of your vessel a border of yellow matter which is sometimes to the thickness of a finger this is the Phosphorus take it and keep it in a box well stopt in some dark place When you would have it appear lucid in the dark you must expose it about a quarter of an hour to the light without which it will not shine in the dark Remarks Chalk is a bituminous earth called in Latin Creta from the Isle of Crete where there is abundance of it It likewise abounds in many other Countries Some Authors do recount three sorts of it the white the greenish and the black but that which we use in this operation is the common the white It is calcined in order to make its Sulphur more active than it was before the more volatile part of it flies away but there is still enough remaining to make the PHOSPHORVS Although Chalk be bituminous nevertheless it is an alkali because the Sulphurs which it contains in small quantity are not capable to shut the pores of it and besides the calcination opens them more and disposes this earth to receive more easily the impression of acids which plainly shews it self by the strong ebullition that happens when it is thrown into the Aqua fortis The body must be large and the Chalk must be thrown into it by little and little to hinder the matter from boiling over The Chalk does all of it dissolve perfectly in the Aqua fortis and more is still to be added until there be no further ebullition for that is the sign that the acid spirits have rarefied the matter as much as they were able and that being as it were sheathed or locked up in the matter they could not possibly dissolve any more of it if therefore you should still add more in superfluity the overplus would precipitate to the bottom When the Aqua fortis you use is good it dissolves very near its weight in Chalk the solution of it is yellow That which is evaporated is the more phlegmatick part of Aqua fortis and the acid Spirits being incorporated with the Chalk do make a kind of austere salt this salt might very easily be dissolved into a liquor in the air It is fit that it should be very dry when it is put into the Coppel that the operation may be done the sooner the vessel is covered that the matter may be the more easily melted but the cover must needs have holes in it to give vent to the vapours which rise from it and that we may see when the vapours do come yellow that we may then immediately take the vessel off the fire for these yellow vapours are they that make the Phosphorus lucid After Calcination you find at bottom of the pan or coppel a terrestrious matter which must be flung away as useless In order to preserve this Phosphorus the better you may leave it as it is in the vessel wherein it was Calcined but you must stop it close in a box with a glass lid It is to be kept in a shady place that its parts being thereby the more condensed they may spend the more slowly and when you would have it to shine in the dark you must expose it to the air about a quarter of an hour because the air does put its parts into a motion This Phosphorus is in its effects very like to the Bolonian stone but that takes the air much sooner than this stone because it contains abundantly more salt its light does not endure so long as that of the Phosphorus which I described before CHAP. III. Of Honey HOney is compounded of the most Balsamick substance of several Flowers which the Bees do separate and carry into their Hives for nourishment They do gather up and order this Honey most artificially as if they took special care to make provision against Winter and thereby they make way for the Fermentation which sends to the sides the grosser part which is like to a Tartar and called Wax the Honey being found in the middle the best to the taste is the White but for Physick the Yellow is the better as containing more Spirits than the other it must be of a moderate consistence that is to say neither too hard nor too clear A Hydromel is prepared with it for Diseases of the Breast A Vinous Hydromel is made of water and clarified Honey then the liquor is put to Ferment in a vessel in the Sun until it is grown as strong as Spanish wine a Spirit may be drawn from it and Hydromel will grow as sowr as wine Distillation of Honey This preparation is a separation of the Water the Spirit and the Oil of Honey from its terrestrious part Put four pounds of good Honey into a large earthen body and distil the water in a moderate Sand-heat until acid drops begin to come then take away the fire and keep this Water in a bottle it is good to make the hair grow you must either wet your Comb with it every day or else dip a piece of Spunge into it and therewith soak the roots of the hair Take that which remains in the Body put it into an earthen Retort or glass one Coated but one that 's large enough for two thirds to remain empty and place your Retort in a Reverberatory Furnace then fitting a large Receiver and luting the joints begin the distillation with a small fire for three hours only to warm the Retort then encrease it by little and little Spirits will come forth with a little black Oil and fill the Receiver with Clouds continue the fire until all is come out that will unlute the vessels and separate the Spirit from the black and stinking Oil in a Tunnel lined with brown paper there is but very little Oil keep them both in Viols you will have twelve ounces of Spirit The Spirit is an excellent Aperitive some of it may be dropt into Juleps to give them an agreeable acidity The Spirit may be Rectified by distilling it in Sand in a glass Body and that which rises last may be kept apart as the strongest of all it is used for to cleanse old Ulcers and to eat proud flesh The Oil is good to be used in caries of bones You will have in the retort six and twenty ounces of a black very spongy matter which is inflammable by reason of a soot that remains in it when it is burnt it yields but very few ashes out of which nothing can be drawn Remarks The Vessels must be exceeding large for the Distillation of Honey because a great vacuity is requisite for it to rarifie in The Water of Honey makes the Hair to grow because it opens the Pores some do mix it with the Juice of Onion to render it the