does Volatilize the Salts of Sulphur and causes a white flame to burn violently as I shall shew hereafter in the Operation of Salt Polychrest Many things are called Oils very improperly as the Oyl of Tartar made per Deliquium the Oyl of Vitriol and the Oyl of Antimony The first is nothing else but a Salt dissolved the second is the strongest and most caustick part of the spirit of Vitriol and the last is a mixture of Acid Spirit and Antimony As for Salt I am apt to think that there is one chief of which all the rest are compounded and do conceive it to be made of an Acid liquor sliding through the veins of the Earth which doth insensibly insinuate and incorporate in the Pores of stones which it does dilate and attenuate afterwards by a long fermentation and concoction of several years a Salt comes to be formed that is called Fossile and this Opinion is the more likely to be true because from the mixture of Acids with some Alkali matter we always draw a substance very like unto Salt Now stones are an Alkali I add that the long fermentation and concoction which is made in the stone serves to digest and perfectly unite the Acid with the stony parts for the making of Salt This Fossile salt which is called Gemma by reason of its transparency is found in many high Mountains of Europe such as those in Poland Catalonia and Persia and in the Indies it is altogether like that we use for nourishment which is called Sea salt insomuch that the Waters of the Sea may be said to receive their saltishness from nothing else but this Salt dissolved in them Is it not likely enough that the bottom of the Sea or its shores may be much like the surface of the Earth we inhabit and that there may be Mountains Rocks different sorts of earth and consequently inexhaustible Mountains of Salt in a Million of places at the bottom of the Sea whence it receives its brackishness And it may be there are Waters which after taking Salt from several earths do at last discharge themselves into the Sea through an infinite number of subterranean channels which do much contribute likewise to making sea-Sea-water salt That which confirms me in this opinion is because there are Lakes in Italy Germany Egypt the Indies and many other places which are as Salt as the Sea and can have no other cause but that their waters have hapned to run through Mines of Salt I doubt not but many will be apt to object against my opinion that the Sea being of so prodigious boundless an extent all the Salt I have spoken of would not be able to salt it as it is but if they please to consider that this great extent of the Ocean may meet with Mines of Salt in abundance of places and that what is once dissolv'd can never be separated from it I am perswaded their doubt will soon vanish Add to what is said that Sea water does not contain so great a quantity of Salt as is commonly imagined and this is easily prov'd if you take the pains to evaporate some of it over the fire or dissolve salt in that water for it will receive a considerable quantity into it which is a certain sign that the water was not so salt before as it might have been for if it had been impregnated with as much as it could it would have dissolv'd no more Therefore we have good reason to believe that the Sea which may be called a large Lake becomes salt through the Mines that are therein and the Salt Currents that in several places empty into it Some Fountains are also seen to yield a Salt like this because their waters having passed through places fill'd with this Salt have dissolved and carried along with them some of it Salt-peter differs from these salts I speak of in that it contains more spirit so that when you take the pains to exalt a part of it what remains is like unto Sal Gemme It may be objected that Salt peter is found in places where no Acid liquor can be thought to come but no body can doubt but that there is an Acid in the Air which though a very insensible body is able enough to enter into Stones and Earths the truth whereof is seen every day in Earths that have lost their Salt as much as could be drawn by Art which upon being exposed some time to the open air get new additions of Salt and encrease their weight considerably Now the liquor that I speak of which runs in some places of the earth receives its Acidity from this Acid Spirit of the Air which condenses in some places better than in others by reason of the coolness or some other disposition it finds there I conceive therefore that Salt peter is form'd in Stones and Earths by the Acid spirit of the Air after the same manner as Sal Gemme in Mines by an Acid liquor and that this Aerial acid entring insensibly into the body of stones produces a Salt at first much like Sal Gemme but afterwards new Acid spirits still coming and mixing with it makes it of a middle nature between Volatile and fixt And it is for this reason that a great deal of Salt peter is taken from old ruined buildings for the stones there continuing a long time exposed to the air receive greater quantity of spirits than other stones it is likewise to be found in Cellers and other places where the Sun casts no heat because the spirit of the air does there easily condense by reason of the coolness and moisture But I shall discourse more amply of that when I come to treat of the Preparations that are made upon Salt peter Vitriols Alums and all other Salts that are naturally found in the Earth may be explicated upon the same Principle for according as Acid liquors do meet with different earths they produce different Salts All Earths being impregnated with an Acid Salt as I have said it is not hard to conceive how that the salt of Vegetables is communicated to them from the earth wherein they grew Their growth must needs have proceeded from a Saline juice of the earth they grew in which having opened the Seed through the Fermentation it caused insinuates and filtrates into the Fibres that constitute the Plant and the leaving grounds fallow some years is in order to preserve and retain the Salt that is continually encreased in them by the Acid spirit of the air Likewise Dung and other matters which are said to fatten and fructifie Lands do so by nothing else but their Salt Neither need we wonder at the barrenness of sandy and stony soils for that the Acid spirit of the Air cannot unite and fix with them in sufficient quantity to render them fertile Nevertheless it is worth observation that there are Lands which remain barren through too great an abundance of Salt they contain and for this reason in Egypt
evaporating some part of them over the fire or else by mixing liquors together that are of a different nature Cohobate signifies to repeat the Distillation of the same liquor having poured it again upon the matter that remains in the Vessel This Operation is used to open Bodies or to Volatilize the Spirits Congele is to let some matter that is melted fix or grow into a consistence as when we let a metal cool after it has been melted in a Crucible or else it is when wax fat butter or the like are taken from the fire and set to cool Detonation is a noise that is made when the Volatile parts of any mixture do rush forth with impetuosity it is also called Fulmination Digestion is when some body is put to steep or infuse in a convenient menstruum over a very gentle heat Dissolve is to turn some hard matter out of a hard into a liquid form by means of a certain liquor To Distil per ascensum is when fire is put under the Vessel that contains the matter which is to be heated To Distil per descensum is when fire is placed over the matter that is to be heated for then the moist parts being rarified and the vapour which rises from them not being able to arise away upwards as it would do if not hindred it precipitates and distils at the bottom of the vessel Edulcorate is to sweeten some matter that is impregnated with Salts by means of common water Extract is to separate the purer part from the grosser Fermentation is an ebullition raised by the Spirits that endeavour to get out of a Body for meeting with gross earthy parts that oppose their passage they swell and rarifie the liquour until they find their way out Now in this separation of parts the Spirits do divide subtilize and separate the principles so as to make the matter be of another nature than it was before Filtrate is to purifie a Liquor by passing it through a Coffin of brown paper Fumigate is to make one Body receive the Fume of another Granulate is to pour a melted Metal drop by drop into cold water that it may congeal into grains Levigate is to reduce a hard Body into an impalpable powder upon a marble Mortifie is to change the outward form of a Mixt as is done in Mercury Also Spirits are said to be Mortified when they are mixed with others that hinder or destroy their strength Precipitate is to separate a matter that is dissolved so as to make it fall or settle at the bottom Rectifie is to Distil Spirits for the separation of what Heterogeneous parts might have been drawn along with them Reverberate is to cause the flame of the Wood or coals that 's lighted in the Furnace to beat back upon the Vessel by means of a Dome placed over it Revive is to restore a Mixt to its former condition that lies disguised by Salts or Sulphurs Thus Cinnabar and the other preparations of Mercury are Revived into Quick-silver Stratifie is to lay different matters bed upon bed This operation is performed when we would Calcine a Mineral or Metal with a Salt or some other matter Sublime is to raise by Fire any Volatile matter to the top of the Cucurbit or into its Head THE FIRST PART Of Minerals WHatsoever is found Petrified in the Earth or upon the Earth is called Mineral Petrification is made by a Coagulation of acid or salt waters that are found in the pores of the Earth This Petrification differs according to the divers dispositions or different nature of the Earth and according to the time that Nature uses in its perfection The growth of Minerals proceeds from an accumulation or from several veins of congeled Waters that do as it were glue together and these veins are the cause that all the adjacent parts have their Sinus and meetings a travers one another and not running directly downwards These Sinus like so many joints are of great help to Labourers to cut in the Quarries for by those cavities the stones are in great measure separated before hand whereas 't would be extream hard working them out if nature had not so concurred The growth of Minerals is very different from that of Vegetables and Animals for whereas the former does happen through an agglutination of congeled waters as I have said the latter is performed by means of juices that insinuate and spread in the vessels and fibres that Animals and Plants do consist of Metals do differ from other Minerals in being malleable which the others are not They are counted seven Gold Silver Iron Tinn Copper Lead and Quicksilver this last is not malleable of it self but is so mingled with the others and because this is thought to be the Seed of Metals it is numbred with the rest Astrologers have conceited that there was so great an affinity and correspondence between the Seven Metals before named and the seven Planets that nothing hapned to the one but the others shared in it they made this correspondence to happen through an infinite number of little bodies that pass to and from each of them and they suppose these corpuscles to be so figured that they can easily pass through the pores of the Planet and Metal they represent but cannot enter into other bodies because their pores are not figured properly to receive them or else if they do chance to get admittance into other bodies they can't fix and stay there to contribute any nourishment for they do imagine that the Metal is nourished and perfected by the Influence that comes from its Planet and so the Planet again the same from the Metal For these reasons they have given these seven Metals the name of the seven Planets each accordingly as they are governed and so have called Gold the Sun Silver the Moon Iron Mars Quicksilver Mercury Tinn Jupiter Copper Venus and Lead Saturn They have likewise fancied that each of these Planets has his day apart to distribute liberally his Influence on our Hemisphere and so they tell us that if we work upon Silver on Munday Iron on Tuesday and so of the rest we shall attain our end much better than on other days Again they have taught us that the seven Planets do every one govern some particular principal part of our bodies and because the Metals do represent the Planets they must needs be mighty specifick in curing the distempers of those parts and keeping them in good plight Thus they have assigned the Heart to Gold the Head to Silver the Liver to Iron the Lungs to Tinn the Reins to Copper and the Spleen to Lead Thus you see in short what some of the most sober Astrologers do fancy concerning Metals and they draw consequences from hence which 't would be too long here to relate I have told you what the soberest among them say for nothing can be so absurd as what some of them would have us believe 'T is no hard matter to disprove these
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-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-salt-water that has been let into them Thus all places near the sea are not alike proper to make salt
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
and carried away the greatest part of the Gold during the Calcination after the same manner as we see several Volatile liquors to sublime Gold I know well enough by my own Experience that there are such Volatiles as are able to sublime Gold for having one day mixed three ounces of Gold with about three pounds of matter consisting of divers Volatile ingredients I put the mixture about a month afterwards into the Coppel and the Gold appeared very resplendent in the middle of the mixture but blowing as we use to do in its purification I was astonished to see it Exalt away by little and little into the air until there was not a grain of it left Thus no body can be assured that Gold did nourish those Capons but besides though some of it should be dissolved in the body as it does in Aqua Regalis which is very hard to conceive though some of it should exalt nay though some should plainly glitter in the Chyle here 's no proof nevertheless that it produces such wonderful effects Now although I have asserted that Gold taken alone does not receive any change as for health yet I value very much several preparations of Gold made with Spirits for 't is these Spirits that give certain determinations to Gold according to their nature and make it operate as it does When I speak of Aurum Fulminans I shall give an instance of what I now say Purification of Gold To Purifie Gold is to separate from it the other Metals which are mixed with it Put as much Gold as you please into a Crucible make it red hot and when it begins to melt cast into it four times as much Antimony in powder the Gold will presently melt continue a strong Fire until you perceive the Matter to sparkle Then take your Crucible out of the Fire and knock it that the Regule may fall to the bottom Break it when it is cold and separate the Regule from the dross that remains a top of it If you have a mind to save your Crucible pour out the matter that lies in Fusion into an Iron Mortar made like a Founders Mould which you shall have heated a little and greased before-hand then strike about the Mortar with pincers till the matter settles in a Mass Let this Mass cool a little then flinging it out separate the Golden Regule from the dross Weigh this Regule melt it again in a Crucible over a strong Fire and when it shall come to melt throw into it by little and little three times as much Salt-peter continue a good strong Fire that the matter may remain in Fusion and when the Fumes are all gone and it appears clear and clean cast it into your Iron Mortar warm'd and greas'd as I said but now or else leave it in the Crucible that you shall beat while it is cooling for the separation of the Regule from the Dross that remains a top and your Golden Regule will prove perfectly pure Remarks The ordinary way of purifying Gold is the Coppel in which the same method is used that I shall speak of in the Purification of Silver But the Coppel not being able to separate Silver from Gold recourse is had to another Operation that is called the Depart Melt three parts of Silver with one part of Gold in a Crucible over a good Fire and when this mixture is in Fusion cast it into cold water and it condenses into Grains which being dried a separation of the Silver from the Gold is made by the means of Aqua fortis for this Menstruum dissolves Silver very well but the Gold remains in powder at the bottom of the Vessel for the reason that I shall relate in the Chapter of Aqua Regalis The Dissolution of Silver is poured off by Inclination then the Powder of Gold is washed to be made sweet But it often happens that some particles of the Silver do still remain united with the Gold so that this Purification cannot be said to be altogether perfect There is another method of Purifying Gold to wit Cementation which is thus performed Stratifie in a Crucible thin plates of Gold with a dry paste that is called Cement in which the Salts Gemma and Armoniack do enter cover the Crucible and having made a fire round about it Calcine the matter for ten or twelve hours with a violent heat that the Salts may eat and consume the impurities of the Gold but nevertheless they often leave it still impregnated with other Metals The Purification at Gold by the means of Antimony is better than any other for there is nothing but Gold that is able to make resistance against this devourer it often eats some portion of it but never leaves it in any other Metal You must remember to lay a Tile under the Crucible for fear that the air which comes by the Ash-hole should happen to cool the bottom of the Crucible Gold presently melts as soon as Antimony is cast into the Crucible by reason that Antimony contains some Saline Sulphurs which do encrease the force of the Fire and do separate the parts of this Metal it is then that the more porous and volatile part uniting with the Antimony one part evaporates away in Smoke and the other remains fixt in the Dross The sparkles which toward the end do fly out of the matter do proceed from some Particles of Antimony which finding themselves intangled in the Gold do use violence to get out Then take your matter off the Fire that it may lose none of its substance and pour it into an Iron Mortar as I said before After this the Regule is melted once more and Salt-peter cast into it to absorb or receive all the Antimony that may yet remain and so by this means you have a Regule as well purified as may be and even that of four and twenty Caratts if there be any such Gold A Carat of Gold is properly the weight of one Scruple or four and twenty grains and four and twenty Caratts make an ounce If you take an ounce of Gold and find that it loses not a jot in the Purifications that may be made of it this is called Gold of four and twenty Caratts if it be found to have diminished but one Caratt then it is said to be Gold of three and twenty Caratts if it loses two Caratts then it is Gold of two and twenty Caratts and so of the rest But it is commonly held that there is no such thing to be found as Gold of four and twenty Caratts because there is none but contains some small proportion of Silver or Copper purifie it as much as you will Red Gold is the less valuable because it contains the more Copper which gives it this colour the Yellow is the better and it ought to remain Yellow even whilst it is in the fire A Caratt of Pearls Diamonds and other precious stones is but four grains Amalgamation of Gold with Mercury
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-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
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
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
making the subtiler part of it perspire away or that by being Alkali's they do absorb some part of it For this reason some do use to give their Patients the Volatile Salt of Vipers several mornings together but these Alkali's are in truth of too weak a nature to carry off such an Acidity after they are impregnated with it as Mercury is able to do without losing its nature They are Nets of too fine a make to catch such keen and active bodies if these Salts do destroy some part of the Acidity they destroy themselves likewise in the conflict so that they can have no further operation wherefore there 's need of a more powerful Volatile Alkali than these Salts are to eradicate the Acidity of the Venereal poison As for Fixt Salts and Alkali bodies as Pearl Coral Crabs-eyes whereas they have no Volatile quality in them and their tendency is wholly downwards it is very uncertain whether ever they reach to Venereal tumours which commonly rise in the Joints by reason of the long way they have to pass thither and the Juices they have to encounter with in their passage which may in all likelihood change their nature but suppose they were carried to those Tumors with the same qualifications with which they were taken they would only serve to weaken a little this Acidity without being able to carry it off and so they would only give a little ease without removing Radically the Ferment of the Distemper as Mercury is able to do It may be further asked why Sublimate does not fill the substance of the Brain with Vlcers as well as it does the mouth I Answer that this Sublimate being in the Brain finds it self so clog'd with a Mucilaginous moisture that it is fain to lose there some part of its Acidity so that it can do nothing else but cause a Fermentation which makes the Phlegm purge away through the Salivating vessels and this it is that causes the Spittle of those who have a Flux to be so sharp and stinking This sharp Phlegm may also as it passes in the mouth encrease the number of Vlcers for the mouth is as it were the sink of the whole body upon this occasion Sublimate Corrosive Sublimate Corrosive is a Mercury impregnated with acids and raised by fire to the top of the vessel Put a pound of Mercury revived from Cinnabar into a Matrass pour upon it Eighteen ounces of Spirit of Niter Set your Matrass in Sand a little warm and leave it there till it be all dissolved pour your dissolution which will be clear as water into a glass vessel or earthen pan and evaporate the Liquor gently in Sand until there remains a white Mass which you must powder in a glass mortar and mix with a pound of Vitriol Calcined white and so much Salt decrepitated put this mixture into a Matrass whose two thirds at least remain empty place your Matrass in Sand and begin with giving a small fire which you must continue so for three hours then encrease it with coals to a pretty good strength there will arise a Sublimate to the top of the Matrass the Operation must be ended in six or seven hours let the Matrass cool then break it avoiding a kind of Farine or light powder that flies into the air when the matter is stirred you 'l have a pound of very good Sublimate Corrosive keep it for use The red Scories that are found at the bottom must be flung away as useless This Sublimate is a powerful Escharotick it eats proud flesh and cleanses old Ulcers very well If half a drachm of it be dissolved in a pound of Lime-water it turns Yellow and makes that which is called Phagedenick Water Remarks There needs not half the Spirit of Niter for dissolving a pound of Mercury as there does for the same weight of Bismuth although the pores of this last be much the larger and the parts more disposed for separation the reason of which is that the Mercury being Volatile and very disunited in its parts it will divide almost of it self and is held up more easily by Acid Spirits than another body can be whose parts are more united and whose tendency is downwards such as Bismuth is When the dissolution of mercury is a making there appears a great ebullition in the Matrass accompanied with Red vapours also the heat is so very strong that a man cannot endure his hand upon it all this great stir proceeds from the Acids which meet with resistance in their penetration of this body for jostling one against another they heat the liquor and cause some part of the Spirit of Niter to evaporate away in red clouds as it uses always to do when it rarifies When the mercury is all dissolved the dissolution clears up and cools because the edges of the Spirits are all sheathed in the mercury whence their motion comes to be interrupted and cease and this is a thing so true that if you should by way of curiosity distil this dissolution you would draw off only a weak acid for the greatest part of the edges do remain involved with the mercury in a white mass That which proves this Remark is this that the white mass which is drawn from the Solution of sixteen ounces of Quicksilver in eighten ounces of Spirit of Niter does weigh at least two and twenty ounces that is to say six ounces more than the weight of the Quicksilver Now this augmentation cannot proceed from any thing else but the acid Spirits This mass is exceeding Corrosive by means of the same acid Spirits which become very active whereever they are met with If instead of Spirit of Niter we should use Aqua fortis to dissolve the Mercury the Solution would become clear like the other but there would be this difference between them that when we have evaporated about a fourth part of the liquor in a glass-body in Sand the remainder would be as red as Claret wine and if we should let the liquor cool there would appear in it white Crystals in form of long needles and the liquor would still retain its red colour I conceive that the Solution acquires this colour from the Sulphurs which remain in the Aqua fortis for the Sulphureous parts being in great motion may often turn and whirl about the insensible parts of Mercury round their center Now it is easie to Remark by abundance of Experiments that the red colour is a consequence of the great attenuation or disposition to circulary motion which the matter has received But the Solution which is made with Spirit of Niter does not become red because there is no Sulphur in this Spirit or else there is not enough to do it You might perform this Operation by only mixing crude Mercury with Salt and Vitriol without taking the pains to dissolve it with Spirit of Niter but you would be an intolerable while incorporating them together so as to make the Quicksilver imperceptible Moreover
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-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
It is given also in substance from two grains unto six An Emetick Syrup is prepared with the Glass of Antimony infused in the juice of Quinces or Lemons and Sugar If instead of these acid juices one should use Wine the Syrup would be the more Vomitive The dose of the one and the other Syrup is from two drachms to an ounce and a half and is given especially to nice persons and to Infants Remarks The Antimony must be Calcined within the Chimny and the vapours that fly from it must be avoided as being very injurious to the Breast This Calcination is performed to devest it of some gross Sulphurs that might hinder its Vitrification Some do add to this gray powder Borax others crude Antimony and others Sulphur that it may Vitrifie the more easily The Vitrification happens not until the parts of Antimony have been rendred more firm and stiff than they were before to the end the fiery particles passing and repassing through the matter may form the pores into a strait line so that they can remain in this condition when the Antimony is grown cold and it is the figure of these pores which causes the transparency because they suffer the light to pass through them directly The sulphur and antimony do help it to melt wherefore some do add them to the matter though in a small quantity and their volatile part flies away before the Vitrification The Borax does not only help the fusion but likewise serves to harden the matter when cold that the pores may the longer be preserved strait for although a great part of the sulphurs of Antimony flies away yet there remains enough still in the very substance of the glass which yet do not very long continue in their first position but shutting the pores of the matter do render it opake This accident does not happen to such glasses as contain no Sulphur because their parts being always preserved stiff and firm their pores do never become obstructed Glass of Antimony receiving more Calcination than the other preparations should consequently be less Vomitive by reason of the dispersion and loss of much Sulphur wherein its Vomitive virtue doth consist Nevertheless experience shews us the contrary for it works with more force as I have said and the reason of it is because no Salt is used in the making of this glass whereas in the other preparations Salt-peter is used which by its fixt parts hinders the activity of some part of the Sulphurs thus although there doth remain but a small quantity of Sulphur in the Glass of Antimony yet as little as there is being in great motion it causes a greater disposition to Vomit The Glass of Antimony may be corrected by Calcining it in a crucible with a third part of Salt-peter then washing it divers times with hot water it is to be dried This powder is not so strong in its operation as the Glass of Antimony because the Salt-peter has fixed some part of the Sulphurs of Antimony It works much like the Crocus metallorum of which I am to treat Liver of Antimony or Crocus Metallorum This preparation is an Antimony opened by Salt-peter and by fire which have made it half glass and which have given it a Liver-colour Take a pound of Antimony and so much Salt-peter powder them and mix them well together put this mixture into an Iron mortar and cover it with a tyle leave an open place nevertheless through which you may convey a coal of fire and take it out again the matter will flame and cause a great detonation which being over and the mortar grown cold strike against the bottom that the matter may fall down then separate the dross with a hammer from the shining part which is called Liver of Antimony from its colour To make the Emetick wine you must infuse an ounce of this Liver of Antimony in powder in a quart of White-wine four and twenty hours and so let it settle the Dose of this wine is from half an ounce to three ounces That which is called Crocus Metallorum is nothing but the Liver of Antimony washt several times with warm water and afterwards dried It is used as the Liver of Antimony to make the Emetick wine and it is given likewise in substance to Vomit strongly the dose is from two to eight grains Remarks This preparation is a more impure Glass of Antimony than that I described and consequently it is more opaque it works not so violently as the glass The Liver of Antimony hath a different strength according to the proportion of Niter that enters into it when there 's more Niter than Antimony it is the less Vomitive not only because great store of the Sulphurs of Antimony are lost in the strong detonation that it raises but also because there remains more fixt parts of the Salt-peter which do joyn and unite with the Sulphurs that remain in the matter Thus if instead of a pound of Salt-peter you should use twenty ounces as many do you 'd have a Liver of Antimony less Vomitive than that I described Now on the contrary when less Salt-peter than Antimony is used the Liver that proceeds from this mixture is not so Vomitive as that I now described the reason of it is that the Sulphurs of Antimony have not been sufficiently stirred by the Salt-peter in so little a quantity for Antimony becomes not Vomitive but only when it hath been sufficiently opened either by fire or some Salts The most convenient proportion then that can be observed to render the Liver of Antimony as Vomitive as may be is to take equal parts according to my description The strong detonation that happens when fire is put to the matter is not caused through the flagration of Salt-peter as almost every body hath thought through want of sufficient reflexion I shall prove in its proper place that it can never take flame and that its volatile parts do serve for a kind of Bellows or Vehicle to rarifie and exalt the Sulphurs of Antimony A Liver of Antimony is prepared with equal quantities of Antimony Niter and Sea-salt decrepitated and because these salts do give it a red colour like unto the Opale this preparation has been called Magnesia Opalina it is less Emetick than the other by reason of the addition of sea-salt which fixes the saline Sulphur of Antimony Several other ways of preparing the Liver of Antimony have been invented but I am contented with having given you the best of all and the easiest to prepare If you use ordinary salt-peter in this Operation you 'l obtain eight ounces and two drachms of Liver of Antimony but if you use purified salt-peter you 'l get but six ounces and a half This difference of quantity proceeds from the nature of salt-peter for the more volatile parts this Mineral salt contains the more apt it is to carry off some parts of the Antimony Now purified Salt-peter is much more volatile than the common sort
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
marshes When the Season of the year begins to grow hot which commonly happens in May all the water is emptied that was let into the marshes for the better preserving them during the winter then the sluces are opened to let in as much salt-water as they think fit it is made to pass through a great many different Channels wherein it purifies and heats and then is let into places that are made flat smooth and fit to Crystallize the salt The salt is made only during the great heats of Summer the Sun does first evaporate some part of the water and because after the great heat a small wind does use to blow as is usual near the sea the coolness of this wind does condense and Crystallize the salt But if it happens to rain but two hours during the hot weather there can no salt be made for a fortnight afterwards because the marshes must be again emptied of all the water to let in more in its place so that if it chances to rain but once again in the next fortnight they can make no salt Salt is purified by dissolving it in water then filtrating the solution through brown paper and afterwards evaporating the water in an earthen pan until a very white salt does remain But besides the purification of salt by evaporation it may be further purified if instead of evaporation of the humidity you set some of it a Crystallizing in a cool place for very pure salt is found at bottom of the vessel which salt may be separated from the water and dried and you may then evaporate again some part of the salt liquor and set it in a Celler a Crystallizing and so continue your evaporations and Crystallizations but at last you must be fain to evaporate all the liquor because at last it will Crystallize no longer the reason whereof is that the remaining salt is full of a fat bituminous matter which is in a manner inseparable from it and this it is that hinders the Crystallizing at last It is probable that this fat matter may come from the earth of those marshes that were spoken of The first Crystallized salt being put into Oil of Tartar or some other alkali salt dissolved does mix with it without making any Ebullition because although sea salt is acid yet its points are too gross and have too little motion to separate the parts of the alkali The last salt being dried over the fire and mixed with some alkali salt rendred liquid such as Oil of Tartar makes a Coagulation and precipitation of a substance that appears saline and oily this Coagulation does proceed from the mixture and adhesion of some Bituminous earth with the sea-salt and the Tartar for the salts do easily unite with oily substances and in them lose their activity Many acid Bituminous salts which are drawn by the Evaporation of certain Mineral waters such as those of Baleruc in Languedoc and Digne in Provence do perform the same effects when they are mixed with Oil of Tartar This Coagulum does not dissolve in water as well by reason of the different nature of the salts it is compounded of as the oily earth that holds them together but it will dissolve in distilled Vinegar and several other acid liquors and then happens an effervescency because the acid does penetrate the salt of Tartar whose parts the sea-salt had no power to separate Calcination of Common Salt Heat a pot that 's unglazed red-hot throw into it about an ounce of sea-salt then cover it and it will crackle and so fall into powder this noise is called Decrepitation when it is over put so much more salt into the pot and continue to do so till you have enough The pot must be sure to be red-hot all the while when the crackling is over take the pot out of the fire and when it is cold put the salt into a bottle and stop it well to hinder the air from entring in to moisten it anew Bags full of it are applied behind the neck warm to consume too great a a moisture of the Brain by opening of the pores It is used likewise in several Chymical operations Remarks That which makes the Salt crackle when it is in the fire is an inwardly contained moisture which upon its being rarefied doth force its way out with impetuosity and finding the pores too closely shut to suffer an easie escape doth break through the parts and open a passage Now every thing else that hath close compact pores will make such a noise too in the Calcination as do glass and shells If you have occasion to use Salt decrepitated it is convenient to have it newly Calcined because the moisture of the air does return again what the fire had driven away But if you would keep it any time let it be in a glass bottle well stopt For as much as this Salt is deprived of all humidity by its Calcination it will absorb serosities much better than common salt It is laid hot behind the neck to the end that opening the pores it may facilitate transpiration A little Salt of Tartar may be mixed with it to render it the more active Spirit of Salt This Spirit is a very acid liquor drawn from Salt by distillation Dry Salt over a little fire or else in the Sun then powder finely two pounds of it mix it well with six pounds of Potters earth powdered make up a hard paste of this mixture with as much rain-water as is needful form out of it little pellets of the bigness of a Nut and set them in the Sun a good while a drying when they are perfectly dry put them into a large earthen Retort or glass one luted whereof a third part remains empty place this Retort in a Reverberatory Furnace and fit to it a large capacious Receiver without luting the junctures give a very moderate heat at first to warm the Retort and make an insipid water come forth drop by drop when you perceive some white clouds succeed these drops pour out that which is in the Receiver and having refitted it lute the junctures close encrease the fire by degrees to the last degree of all and continue it in this condition twelve or fifteen hours all this while the Receiver will be hot and full of white clouds but when it grows cold and the clouds do disappear the Operation is at an end unlute the junctures and you 'l find the Spirit of Salt in the Receiver pour it into an earthen or glass bottle and stop it well with wax it is an Aperitive and is used in Juleps to an agreeable acidity for such as are subject to the Gravel It is likewise used for cleansing the Teeth being temper'd with a little water and to consume the rottenness of bones To make the dulcified Spirit of Salt of Basilius Valentinus you must mix equal parts of Spirit of Salt and Wine and set them in digestion two or three days in a double Vessel in a
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
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
volatile salt will be dissolved in the Spirit of Wine and that which remains undissolved will receive a perfect dissolution in the bottle It is a very good Medicin for the Lethargy the Palsy the Scurvy Malignant feavers and Hysterical maladies it may be given instead of Spirit of Sal Armoniack before described And it is not so repugnant to the taste It works by Sweat or by insensible Transpiration the dose is from twelve drops to thirty in some proper liquor it is likewise good outwardly applied for the Palsie and for cold pains Remarks So soon as the Sal Armoniack is mixed with the salt of Tartar Volatile salts do rise from them which would very much incommode the Artist if he should hold his nose over it You must lose no time in putting the mixture into the body and then stopping it for these first salts are the most subtile of all The salts must be separately powdered by reason of the loss which would be made of the volatile salts in the mixing of the Sal Armoniack with the salt of Tartar In the making this mixture you must not use any mortar made of metal because that in the conflict of the two salts it would be corroded and that which were corroded from it would be apt to spoil the operation The body must be filled but half way when the whole is in The volatile salt is lighter than the spirit of Wine for it rises first When the Spirit of Wine is well rectified it will not dissolve any of the volatile salt at first but on the contrary it hinders this salt from dissolving in a liquor because the ramous parts of the wine do stop the entrance of the air but if there be any phlegm in the Spirit of Wine it dissolves the salt according to the proportion that there is of it Those who had rather use the volatile Sal Armoniack dry then in liquor may keep it dry in a bottle well stopt and use it for the same purposes as the spirit the dose of it must be a little less it is very white and pure this keeps better than that which is drawn with water because an impression of Spirit of Wine which remains in it does serve to retain the salts in some measure You need not wonder that there happens no Coagulum when Spirit of Wine and this volatile salt are stirred together in a bottle as there does by the mixture of Spirit of Wine and Spirit of Sal Armoniack for this salt having all its parts intirely united cannot so well mix with the sulphur of spirit of wine but if you add water enough to dissolve the salt then there will be a coagulum because the parts of the salt will be disunited and by the help of water will enter into the pores of Spirit of wine I have explicated this coagulum in the Remarks of the Chapter preceding The volatile Sal Armoniack does dissolve well with waterish liquors and spirit of Sal Armoniack may be made of them together by only mixing water enough to dissolve the salt But if you would mix or dissolve it in Spirit of wine you will find a great deal of trouble in the doing it if you should only infuse it in spirit of wine it would none of it dissolve on the contrary that is a way to keep and preserve the salt therefore you must distil it over several times that the saline parts may rarefie and unite with the spirit of wine That which remains undissolved in the Receiver has been very much rarefied by repeated distillations for which reason it also dissolves some days afterwards Spirit of wine in this operation hath so wrought upon the volatile salts that they are no longer so disagreeable to the taste or the smell as they were before and it is by that means that it sweetens them for sulphurs do contemperate the acrimony of salts as I have said speaking of the Principles Acid Spirit of Sal Armoniack This Spirit is a fixed Sal Armoniack dissolved into a liquor with a great fire Take what quantity you please of the fixt Febrifugous salt that I have spoken of powder it and mix it well with thrice as much Potters-earth powdered put this mixture into a Retort whose third part remains empty place it in a close Reverberatory Furnace and fit to it a large capacious Receiver Lute the junctures close and proceed in the method I spoke of to make the Spirit of Salt you 'l find in the Receiver an acid spirit which is a very good diuretick It is esteemed to be specifick for Malignant diseases the dose is to an agreeable acidity in Juleps and broths Remarks This acid Spirit proceeds from the fixt part of the Sal Armoniack for the Alkali contributes not one drop of it Although the Salt of Tartar has weakned the strength of Sea-salt which was mixed with the volatile salts in Sal Armoniack as I have said this same sea-salt nevertheless will yield a very acid spirit upon distillation because the parts of sea-salt though they have suffered a strong conflict with the other yet do contain a Spirit as well as they do otherwise intire after the same manner as when sea-salt is reduced into a very fine powder it continues as full of Spirits as when it was in larger pieces for you must not imagine that Sal Armoniack does contain the acidity of sea-salt separate from its earth for if it could remain in it in such a state it would quietly divide the parts of the Alkali salt with which it is mixed and would be destroyed it self but this salt remains in it in its substance intire CHAP. XVIII Of Vitriol VItriol is a Mineral compounded of an Acid Salt and Sulphureous Earth there are four sorts of it the Blue the White the Green and the Red. The Blue is found near the Mines of Copper in Hungary and the Isle of Cyprus from whence it is brought to us in fair Crystals which keep the name of the Country and are called Vitriol of Hungary or Cyprus it partakes very much of the nature of Copper which renders it a little Caustick it is never used but in outward applications such as Collyriums or waters for the eyes and to consume proud flesh White Vitriol is found near unto Fountains it is the most of all depurated from a Metallick mixture it may be taken inwardly to give a vomit it is likewise used in Collyriums There are three sorts of Green Vitriol the German English and the Roman That of Germany draws near unto the blue and contains a little Copper it is better than the rest for the preparation of Aqua fortis That of England partakes of Iron and is proper to make the Spirit of Vitriol The Roman is much like the English Vitriol excepting that it is not so easie to dissolve Red Vitriol was brought among us a few years ago out of Germany it is called Natural Colcothar and is esteemed to be a Green Vitriol
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-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
Tinctures and let them settle filtrate them and evaporate the liquor in a glass vessel over a very gentle fire until there remains a matter that hath the consistence of thick honey this is called Extract of Rhubarb keep it in a Pot. The dose is from ten grains to two Scruples in Pills or dissolved in Succory water for diseases of the Liver and Spleen it binds after the purgeing The Extracts of Vegetables are made after the same manner except the Resinous whereof I have spoken Likewise waters may be used for Menstruums that are appropriated to the virtue of the mixt whose Extract you intend to draw When you draw the Extract of Aromaticks such as Roses and Cinnamon the liquor may be distilled rather than evaporated whereby you gain a fragrant water Remarks Though the name of Extract ought to be very general in Physick it is confined only to one sort of Preparation that is reduced to the consistence of an Electuary it is nothing else but a Purification that is made to cleanse a mixt from its more Terrestrious parts that being more open and free it may work with the greater strength Now this operation is good for mixts that are not Odoriferous but not so for those that are for by evaporation their best part is lost which consists in a volatile So that I would by no means advise to make the Extract of Aromaticks Nature is a very good Artist to perform this Operation within our bodies when the Principles are easie to separate as in these sorts of mixts There has been a great contest among Chymists heretofore in which of the Principles it is that the Purgative virtue of many medicins doth consist Some have maintained it to be in the Salt others in the Sulphur and others again in the Mercury But when every party had very diligently separated each their Principle and came to try it they found after all that none of them was Purgative which hath perswaded many of them to think that this Purgative principle was of so subtile and penetrating a nature that glass it self was not able to preserve it from being lost For my part I cannot grant any such indiscernable Purgative I rather am apt to believe that the Purgative virtue of a mixt consists in nothing else but such a different mixture of Principles as is requisite to produce certain Fermentations in our bodies So that when once we separate the Sulphur Mercury or Salt the position of parts or proportion of Principles being changed there remains no longer any Purgative effect because the Principles being separated can no more produce that Fermentation which they did while they were mixed and united together some kind of way that Art is ignorant how to imitate Perhaps some who think themselves good Criticks will say this Chapter contradicts the former for I there maintained that the Rosine of Jalap which is a Sulphur doth contain all the Purgative virtue of Jalap but though I did call the Rosine of Jalap a Sulphur I did not mean it was a pure Sulphur it is a substance out of which all the five Principles may be still drawn but by reason it doth contain great store of Sulphur this name may be given to it as it often is to others of the like nature And thus Salt may be said to be Purgative too but it doth not follow from thence that the Salt alone must be thought to contain all the Purgative virtue of mixt bodies seeing many plants such as Guaiacum Box Carduus and Wormwood do contain as much or more Salt than Senna and Rhubarb and yet nevertheless do not purge at all CHAP. III. Of the Wood Guaiacum GVaiacum called Lignum Sanctum is the Wood of a large Tree that grows in a great many places in the West Indies It is likewise cultivated here in Europe in Languedoc is good store but that which is brought out of the hot Countries is best esteemed this Wood is very much in use in Sudorifick Decoctions the Bark is also used and the Gum that runs from it the best Guaiacum is that which is most compact Distillation of Guaiacum This operation is a separation of the liquid parts of Guaiacum from its terrestrious matter Take the shavings of Guaiacum fill a large Retort with them three quarters full place it in a Reverberatory Furnace and joyn to it a great capacious Receiver Begin the distillation with a fire of the first degree to warm the Retort gently and to distil the water which is called Phlegm continue it in this condition until there come no more drops which is a sign that all the Phlegm is distilled Throw away that which you find in the Receiver and fitting it again to the neck of the Retort lute well the junctures You must afterwards encrease the fire by degrees and the Spirits and Oyl will come forth in white clouds continue the fire until there comes no more let the vessels cool and unlute them pour that which is in the Receiver into a Tunnel lined with brown paper set upon a bottle or some other vessel the Spirit will pass through and leave the black thick and very fetid Oil in the Tunnel pour it into a viol and keep it for use it is an excellent Remedy for rottenness of bones for the Tooth-ach and to cleanse old Ulcers It may be rectified as I said of the Oil of Ambar and may be used inwardly in the Epilepsie Palsie and to drive forth the after-birth the dose is from two drops to six The Spirit of Guaiacum may be rectified by distilling it by an Alembeck for to separate a little impurity that might have passed with it it works by perspiration and by Urine the dose is from half a drachm to a drachm and a half It is likewise used mixt with the water of honey to cleanse inveterate Ulcers You 'l find in the Retort the coals of Guaiacum which you may turn into ashes by putting fire to them which they will sooner take than other coals Calcine these ashes some hours in a Potters furnace then make a Lixivium of them with water which being filtred evaporate it in a glass or earthen vessel in sand there will remain the Salt of Guaiacum which you may make white by Calcining it in a Crucible in a strong fire This Salt is Aperitive and Sudorifick it may serve as all other Alkalis to draw the Tincture of Vegetables the dose is from ten grains to half a drachm in some convenient liquor The earth called Caput Mortuum is good for nothing After this manner the five substances of all Vegetables may be drawn but because the fire doth give them a loathsome Empyreumatical smell other ways have been invented to draw the Oil of Aromaticks I shall describe them in the sequel Remarks During the distillation of Spirits you must not make the fire too strong for they coming forth with a great deal of violence would else be apt to break either the Retort or the
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
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
of the Sulphureous Spirits which held it as it were involved and thus clear wine sowrs alone but it does not sowr so fast and the Vinegar is not so strong as when it is made upon Tartar Furthermore if we consider the Principles that wine consists of we shall find that neither the Oil nor Earth nor Water are capable of yielding any Acidity and that nothing but the Salt is able to give it Now it cannot be doubted but that the Salt of wine is in the Tartar It may be added here that the Air to which wines are exposed by leaving the vessel open when they would have them turn into Vinegar does likewise communicate a little of its Acidity to the wines by exciting and rarifying the Acid of Tartar Distillation of Vinegar Put six quarts of strong Vinegar into an earthen pan evaporate in Balneum about a quart which is the Phlegmatick part and pour that which remains into a glass or earthen Cucurbite and distil it in a strong sand-heat until there remains at bottom nothing but a substance like Honey keep this Vinegar well stopt many do call it Spirit of Vinegar It s principal use is to dissolve or precipitate bodies It is sometimes mixed in Cordial potions to resist putrefaction the dose is half a spoonful it is mixed with water and this Oxycrate is used to stop Hemorrhagies taken inwardly and to asswage Inflammations applied outwardly Remarks The Acidity of Vinegar consists in an Essential or Tartareous Salt which being heavier than the Phlegm rises last but you must evaporate this Phlegm very gently because the Acid Spirit of Vinegar will easily sublime with it I do use an earthen pan rather than a Cucurbite that the Phlegm of Vinegar finding a large open passage may evaporate the more easily It would be no great fault if you should distil the Vinegar without dephlegmating it first for the separating the phlegm from it is not of so much consideration as to make it as clear as pure water that it may not bestow any particular tincture to the ingredients that are to be dissolved in it The Spirit of Vinegar is much less fixed than many other acids because it partakes of the Sulphureous Spirits of wine which still remain in it Common Vinegar keeps its strength a longer time than the distilled because it contains a more Terrestrious Salt that doth not Volatilize so easily And for this reason you should rather chuse to use Vinegar newly distilled than that which hath been kept a good while All Acids do prove Cordial and good against malignity of humors when it is caused by too great a commotion because it fixes and Coagulates them moderating their motion Thus in places where the Air is corrupted and Pestilential Vinegar is a good Preservative you may every morning take half a Spoonful of it Fasting but in diseases which proceed from a Tartareous humor as the Hypochondriack melancholy it is rather hurtful than good because it fixes the humors the more Some having dried and calcined the sweet extract that remains at the bottom of the Cucurbite after the distillation of Vinegar and having by Solution Filtration and Coagulation separated from it an Alkali fixt salt much like to that which is drawn from Tartar they do mix it with Spirit of Vinegar and distil and cohobate it divers times until say they the spirit has carried off all the salt and then will needs have it called Spirit of Vinegar Alkalized or Radical Spirit of Vinegar and they affirm that this being much more pure and entirely united with its proper salt is much the more powerful in dissolving Metals But the distilled Vinegar is so far from becoming the stronger through this Preparation that I can demonstrate that it breaks and loses the greatest part of its edges in contending with the Alkali salt with which it is mixt for it is the property of this salt to sweeten Acids Neither is it necessary to believe that by distillations is so drawn the Alkali salt of Vinegar for it remains fixt at bottom of the Retort with the acids it is impregnated with so that this same Spirit of Vinegar to which so many great names and uses have been appropriated is properly the more Phlegmatick part of distilled Vinegar CHAP. XIV Of Tartar ANY gross or terrestrious matter that sticks to the sides of the vessel when separated from its liquor by means of Fermentation is called Tartar But the Tartar I am going to speak of here is that of Wine It is found sticking to Casks like a very hard stone sometimes white and sometimes red according to the colour of the wine it comes from White Tartar is to be prefer'd before red because it is purer and contains less earth both one and t'other are had in greater abundance in hot Countries such as Languedock and Provence than many other Climats but the best white Tartar of all is brought out of Germany it must be heavy White and Crystalline The Lees of wine are likewise a liquified Tartar they are burned and the Ashes that are made of them are called Cineres Clavellati in English Gravelled Ashes Crystals of Tartar This Operation is a Tartar purified and coagulated in form of Crystals Boil in a great deal of water what quantity of white Tartar you please until it be all dissolved pass the liquor hot through Hippocrates his Sleeve into an earthen vessel and evaporate about half of it set the vessel in a cool place two or three days you 'l find little Crystals on the sides which you are to separate evaporate again half the liquor that remains and remit the vessel to the Cellar as before there will shoot out new Crystals continue doing thus until you have gotten all your Tartar dry the Crystals in the Sun and keep them for use The Crystal of Tartar is Purgative and Aperitive it is good for Hydropical and Asthmatical persons and for Tertian and Quartan Agues The dose is from half a drachm to three drachms in broth or some other proper liquor Remarks This Operation is to speak properly nothing but a Purification of the more Terrestrious parts of Tartar You must observe to boil it in an earthen vessel rather than any metallick one because it would be apt to take some Tincture from it A Skin that swims a-top after evaporation of some part of the liquor was heretofore carefully taken off and there was thought to be some difference between it and the Crystal of Tartar But this Cream or Skin is only a part of the Tartar that begins to Coagulate and so it is the very same thing in substance with the Crystal You must not imagine that the Crystals of Tartar do much differ from common Tartar for they differ from it only in the containing a little less earth but all the five Principles may be drawn from the Crystals as from common Tartar When you would take the Crystals in substance you must make them into Pills or
as the Spirit of Vrine by reason of some impression it has of the Acid sal Armoniack with which it was mixt insomuch that the Crystals of Tartar whose acid is not separated from the Earth has points too gross and too unactive to insinuate into the pores of this salt and separate its parts so easily as those of the salt that is contained in Spirit of Vrine whose pores are bigger Some part of the Glass of Antimony dissolves in the boiling and gives the Emetick quality to the powder It is a very gentle Vomit because the Tartar fixes and in some measure hinders the activity of the Sulphurs of Antimony If instead of making the aforesaid evaporation you should take the vessel off the fire when there is but two thirds of the liquor consumed and let it settle without stirring it in four and twenty hours the soluble Tartar will crystallize at the bottom and on the sides but it will be never a whit the better When you would make this Crystallization you must use a flat vessel let it be of earth that the Crystals may display themselves the better The liquor is to be decanted and the Crystals to be taken and dryed The evaporations and crystallizations are to be continued until you have obtained all your salt Another sort of Soluble Emetick Tartar may be made by boiling in water an ounce of the Glass of Antimony powdered with four ounces of Soluble Tartar for seven or eight hours then upon filtring and evaporating the liquor there will remain a grey powder of the same virtues as the other and to be given in the same dose Distillation of Tartar This Operation is a separation of the Phlegm the Spirit and the Oil of Tartar Fill two thirds of a Retort with Tartar grosly powdered place your Retort in a Reverberatory Furnace and fitting to it a large capacious Receiver begin the distillation with a very small fire for three hours only to warm the Retort and drive out the Phlegm drop by drop throw away this insipid water and refitting the Receiver Lute closely the joints encrease the fire by little and little and you 'l see Spirits fill the Receiver with Clouds continue it that the Oil may likewise come forth then when there will come no more let the vessels cool and unlute them pour that which is in the receiver into a Tunnel lined with brown paper that the Spirit may filtrate and separate from the thick black Oil that remains in the filter keep this Oil in a Viol it is good to smell to in Hysterical vapours it would be good to rub Paralytical parts with and for cold pains but by reason of its abominable smell it is not used Pour the Spirit into a glass Cucurbite and rectifie it by distilling it in sand it is good against the Palsie Asthma and Scurvy it works by Urine and by Sweat It is used in Hysterical maladies and for the Epilepsie the dose is from one drachm to three in some appropriate liquor You will find in the Retort a black mass from which a Salt may be drawn as I shall shew hereafter Remarks If you have used three pounds of Tartar of sixteen ounces to the pound in this Operation you will draw four ounces of Phlegm eight ounces of Spirit and three ounces of Oil the black mass which remains in the Retort after distillation will weigh two pounds or two and thirty ounces and you will draw from that mass twelve ounces of salt Almost all Authors who have spoke of Tartar have asserted that two sorts of Spirits could be drawn from it by distillation the one very Volatile the other fixt and acid wherefore after all had mixed confusedly in the Receiver they separated the Oil and added some Alkali such as Coral or Crabs-eyes to that which remained then they poured it into a Cucurbite and distilled about half the liquor which they pretended to be a Volatile Spirit for the acid Spirit remained absorb'd by the Alkali with the Phlegm in the bottom of the body But having vowed never to be led by any Authority which is not founded upon Experience I have examined the nature of Tartar as strictly as possible and after a great many distillations of it I could never perceive this Volatile Spirit which hath been obtruded upon us all that I could ever find is this that Tartar contains good store of Essential salt which renders it acid and that this Salt coming forth by distillation and mixing with phlegm doth make all the Spirit that can be drawn from Tartar So that the Spirit of Tartar according to the description of these men is only the more Phlegmatick part of the liquor that is to say the most deprived of this Essential Salt because almost all of it doth adhere unto the Alkali body of Coral or Crabs-eyes which were added to it But according to the way I have set down the Spirit may be drawn as pure as may be because I do not leave it to mix with the phlegm which comes out first If we do rectifie the Spirit it is done to purifie it from some Terrestrious parts which it might have carried along with it in the distillation Some thinking to do better than those who rectifie Spirit of Tartar on alkali matters do instead of those alkalis use biscuit powdered but they attain their end never the better for the biscuit does sweeten the acid Spirit of Tartar as much as Coral or Crabs-eyes A very volatile and alkali Spirit is drawn from the Lees of wine I shall speak of it in the Chapter of the Volatile Salt of Tartar and perhaps it is this very Spirit that Paracelsus and Van Helmont do boast so much of and which has occasioned many Authors to write that the Tartar does contain a most volatile Spirit Fixt Salt of Tartar and its liquor called Oil per Deliquium Break the Retort which served you for distillation of Tartar and take the black mass you find in it Calcine it until it becomes white then put it into a great deal of hot water and make a Lixivium filtrate it and pour it into a glass or earthen vessel evaporate in a sand-heat all the water and there will remain a white salt which is called the Alkali Salt of Tartar This Salt is Aperitive it is used for to draw forth the Tincture of Vegetables and is given for Obstructions the dose is from ten to thirty drops in broth or Laxative Infusions If you expose for some days in a Cellar this Salt of Tartar in a wide glass vessel it will dissolve into a liquor that is improperly called Oil of Tartar per Deliquium It is used for Tettars and to discuss Tumors the Ladies do mix it in lilly-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
three sorts of it the Black the White and the Yellow The Inhabitants of those Countries do keep this Opium for their own use and do send us only the Meconium which is nothing else but the Juyce of these same Poppy-heads drawn by expression and then thickned and wrapt up in leaves to transport the better It is this Drug that we improperly call Opium and always use for want of the true but being more impure than the true it hath not the same activity and strength A Meconium may be made after the same manner with the heads of those Poppies that grow in Italy Languedoc and Provence but it will prove much weaker than the former The Opium which comes from Thebes or else from Grand-Cairo is accounted the best you must choose it Black Inflammable bitter to the taste and a little acrimonious its smell must be disagreeable and stupefactive Extract of Opium called Laudanum This Operation is the purer part of Opium drawn in water and Spirit of wine and reduced to the consistence of an extract Cut into slices four ounces of good Opium and put it into a bolt-head pour upon it a quart of Rain-water well filtred stop the bolt-head and setting it in sand give your fire by degrees then increase it to make the liquor boil for two hours strain it warm and pour it into a bottle Take the Opium which remains undissolved in the Rain-water dry it in an earthen pan over a small fire and putting it into a Matrass pour upon it Spirit of wine to the height of four fingers stop the Matrass and digest the matter twelve hours in hot Ashes afterwards strain the liquor and there will remain a glutinous earth which is to be flung away Evaporate both these dissolutions of Opium separately in earthen or glass vessels in a Sand-heat to the consistence of honey then mix them and finish the drying this mixture with a very gentle heat to give it the consistence of Pills or a solid Extract It is the most certain Soporifick that we have in Physick it allays all pains which proceed from too great an activity of the humors it is good for the Tooth-ach applied to the tooth or else to the Temple-artery in a plaister it is used for to stop spitting of bloud the bloudy-flux the flux of the menses and hemorrhoids for the colick for hot defluxions on the eyes and to quiet all sorts of griping pains the dose of it is from half a grain to three in some convenient Conserve or else dissolved in a Julep Remarks Opium is compounded of a Spirituous part and a gross terrestrious Rosine the Spirituous part may be easily dissolv'd in water but the Resinous requires a more convenient Menstruum such as Spirit of Wine You must dry the Opium after the first dissolution least the Spirit of Wine be too much weakned by the watry part that remains which would hinder the solution from being done so well as it should be Distilled Vinegar dissolves Opium but the acids may diminish its virtue by destroying or fixing its volatile part which serves for a vehicle to the other Spirit of wine alone might be used to dissolve both parts of the Opium but it might be feared it would carry away with it the volatile part in the Evaporation All that is in the Opium is preserved by my description for the Resinous part dissolved in the Spirit of Wine cannot evaporate with it because it is the heavier and the other part which I call Volatile in comparison with the first is mixt with a little Rosine that keeps it back while the water evaporates The truth of this I have found by experience and any body else may try as well as I have done by distilling these liqours Lastly it is hard to use any greater precaution than this for the preservation of all the pure parts of Opium and fewer Menstruums can be used that are more convenient If in curiosity you weigh the glutinous earth after it is dried you will find it to be half an ounce Almost all Authors have appointed to torrifie Opium before it be dissolved to the end a certain malignity which they say is in it may be evaporated but that which they call malignity is nothing but the Spirits or Sulphurs that are most volatile whereof I spoke but now so that by the Torrefaction they deprive it of its more active part They do further add to the Extract commonly drawn with Spirit of Wine Coral Pearl Treacle Extract of Saffron Cordial Confections Hysterical ingredients and other things which may resist a cold malignity in the fourth degree which they pretend to be in Opium But experience convinces us that it is not so dangerous when given in the foresaid dose so that there is no need at all of losing its volatile part by Torrefaction nor of mixing it with other ingredients which may hinder its operation or retard its effect It belongs to the Physician when he thinks fit to give it to judge whether there be any need of an Hysterick or Cordial which he may appoint to be mixed upon the spot I shall not stay to examine here whether Opium is cold or hot they who have made the Anatomy of this mixt do know very well that it is almost all of it Sulphur I shall endeavour to explicate its effects the most sensibly I can according to the Rules of Chymistry The virtue of Opium consists in causing sleep and that by calming the motion of the Spirits for since watchfulness does proceed from the motion of the Spirits which by rarifying the humors in the little passages of the Brain do augment their Circulation it may surely be said with probability enough that sleep is caused by some condensation of the humors which happens from a repose of the Spirits in the Brain According to this Principle then there must be contained in Opium and all other Soporificks a certain substance that inviscates the Spirits and hinders them for some time from Circulating so fast as they did before Let us examine now whether any such thing can probably be found in Opium by the Analysis I have made of it first of all I have observed a Spirituous part but after that hath been drawn out by means of Rain-water there remains a gummous and terrestrious matter and this is the substance that I find so proper to produce this effect For nothing in Physick is so fit to thicken the bloud and other humors as things that are Mucilaginous Milk and the Emulsions which are drawn from divers seeds the Water-Lily Lettice nay and all temperate Aliments do frequently incline to sleep because they are impregnated with a gummous substance which mixing in the bloud does serve to agglutinate the Spirits and to moderate the quickness of their motion this now being supposed it is easie to conceive how Opium makes one sleep seeing it is loaded with Mucilaginous parts which may be conveighed into the vessels But without doubt
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
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
Colcothar the Natural 330 And the Artificial 333 339 Colophone 490 Colour what it is 194 195 228 Variety of colours 199 344 345 and the reason of them 201 Coppel 77 Copper 118 Coral 270 The ebullition it causes with Vinegar in its dissolution thought to be a cold ebullition 273 The solution of Pearl and other alkali matters perform'd as that of Coral 274 Coral prepared 272 much better than the Magistery 275 Cornachine powder 225 Crocus Martis its best preparation of all 132 133 Crocus metallorum how often the same will serve to make the Emetick wine 221 D Depart 62 79 That Digestion owes more to the saliva than to acids 456 E Earthquakes their nature explicated 140 Ebullition without the encounter of acid and alkali 302 342 Elosaccharum 391 Elixir proprietatis 479 Emetick Syrop 215 Emetick wine 218 222 Extracts of greater virtue than waters 406 Extractum Panchymagogum 484 F Feavers their nature and their principal symptoms explicated 459 460 The regularity of their fits explicated 461 A Febrifugous salt 321 Fermentation 26 Fire how it alters the nature of bodies 20 21 25 26 251 How the substance of fire does increase the weight of some medicines 107 116 208 228 229 What Fire is 303 Flints how generated 263 Fulminant powder 71 Furnaces and vessels 31 G Gold 48 The wicked cheats which Alchymists do use in pretending to make it 49 c. The improbability of making Gold fairly represented 56 57 Whether it be a Cordial 58 59 That it can be volatilized 60 Purified by an operation called the Depart 62 Purified by Cementation 63 Its Precipitation 68 Its Fulmination from whence 70 Why it spreads under the hammer better than Sylver 315 Gravelled ashes 256 Guaiacum 383 its Oil why so good for the tooth-ach 385 Gumm Armoniack its best Purification 497 Other Gumms how Purified 498 H Hair distilled 518 Harts-horn distilled 516 Honey 542 Hunger from what cause 457 Hydragogues why they do work more on watery humours than the others 358 Hysterical vapors why allaied by ill smells 367 368 I Jalap 373 That all its Purgative virtue consists in the Rosine 373 Inks called sympathetical 258 330 Iron 130 How made Steel 131 Preferred before Steel for Physical uses ib. 132 133 c. That it opens obstructions by its salt 133 When mixed with Sulphur and wetted with water it grows extraordinary hot of it self which serves to explain the nature of Earthquakes and hot baths 140 141 Ivory distilled 517 L Lead 105 That it purifies Gold and Sylver as the white of an Egg clarifies a Syrop ib. increased in weight by Calcination 107 increased in weight by Distillation 116 how to be Revived 115 118 Lignum sanctum 383 Lime water 254 Litharge 76 Lutes 37 M Mace 425 Magnesia Opalina 219 Marcassite 101 Mercury 154 Why it remains fluid and why it so easily volatilizes by fire ib. it s ill effects 160 and its good effects 161 especially in Venereal Maladies ib. the raising a Flux by Mercury ingeniously and at large explicated 162 163 c. proved to be an alkali 167 168 why it requires less Spirit to dissolve it than other metals 172 in what form to be taken inwardly 185 Mercurius vitae 236 Mercurial water 190 191 Metals seven 46 Milk its coagulation explicated 29 454 Virgins Milk 493 Minerals their formation and growth 45 Minium 106 Mountebanks their cheat in taking Poisons 182 Myrrhe 500 N Niter see Salt-peter Nutritum or Butter of Saturn 111 Nutmegs 401 O Oleum Philosophorum or Oil of Bricks why so called 270 Opium and Meconium 467 how its narcotick quality is best to be preserved in the Extract 469 That it ought not to be Torrified 470 how it is that Opium causes sleep more than other things 471 Reason given why it allaies pains takes off deliriums and cures fluxes 473 The Turks taking such quantities of it descanted upon 474 Why Sudorifick 476 P Paper both antient and modern how made 386 Perpetual Pills 204 not good in the Iliaca passio but good in the Colick 207 Whether they do lose their virtue by frequent use 206 Perspiration insensible two sorts 72 That more is Perspired in the heat and drought of a Feaver than in the violent sweat ib. Petrification how 264 Petroleum 363 364 Peruvian Bark 393 The greatest Specifick ever known in Agues ib. The different manner of giving it heretofore and at present ib. The body to be well Purged before the Bark is given 394 The ill effects of taking it irregularly ib. To be avoided by such who have an Abscess ib. How it comes to remove the fit ib. 395 Its febrifugous virtue lost by distillation 398 Phagedenick water 171 Philosophers Stone or Powder of Projection a miserable cheat 51 c. Phosphorus the solid 523 and the Liquid 525 Its Inventors 526 Experiments made upon the Phosphorus 528 529 c. Baldwin 's Phosphorus 538 Plumbum ustum 106 Poison what it is 179 The difference between Coagulative or cold Poisons and the Corrosive or hot 179 How different the Remedies proper to each of them be 180 181 Principles of Chymistry 2 That they are not first Principles 5 How much they are indebted to fire in their production 6 c. The five Principles not to be found in Minerals 9 Pulvis Cornachinus 225 Purgative medicines their different operation explicated 487 Purgative virtue of mixt bodies wherein it consists 381 382 Pus how it becomes white 356 Q Quicklime how made 251 Fiery bodies proved to cause its corrosion and ebullition with water 252 253 No salt to be drawn from it 253 That Acids will give it a new ebullition after it is slak't 254 but will make no ebullition with Lime-water ib. R Rhubarb commended as it deserves 379 Rosines how distilled 490 S Salivation explicated 162 163 c. Sal Armoniack the Natural and the Artificial 310 Its Purification ib. Its Flowers Chalybeated 312 Sal Gemme its origine 13 277 Sal Prunellae often counterfeited 295 Salt one chief of which all the rest are compounded 12 Three sorts of it drawn from Vegetables 19 That it becomes Alkali by fire 23 24 Alkali Salts how made exceeding white 446 Common Salt 277 its origine 13 That made by evaporation not so strong as that by crystallization 278 The manner of making Salt at Rochel 279 Its Spirit drawn without addition of earth 284 New Spirits drawn several times from the same matter exposed to the air after distillation 285 Salt decrepitated must be newly made for use 282 Salt-peter or Niter of the antients different from ours 289 its origine 15 289 That it is not inflammable in it self nor sulphureous 290 308 That it is a Sal Gemme impregnated with greater store of Spirits 292 Salt-peter Purified judged better for use than Sal prunellae 295 Sanguification explicated 356 Sea-sickness its cause 278 Small-pox ingeniously compared to the fermentation of Wines 416 Vniversal Spirit 2 Steel how made 131 Stones how generated
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