Liquor till you have recovered all that is in it Mix all your Crystals dry them and weigh them and if you have half an ounce of them powder them and mix them with six drachms of the matter I described for reviving the Calx of Silver remaining in the Matrass put this mixture into a Crucible and covering it with a tile light a strong fire about it to put the matter into fusion then taking it off the fire and letting it cool break the Crucible you 'l find the Silver at the bottom which will be fit for the same Operation again when you please Note that all the Liquor which was drawn by Distillation is as clear as common water wherefore I conclude that the Colour did consist in the dissolution of Silver it self and not of its sulphurs as some have thought You must cut the Silver into little pieces or plates that it may dissolve the more easily The Salt-water must be made of an ounce and a half of Salt dissolved in a quart of water this salt precipitates the Silver because it engages the points of the dissolvent and shaking them violently about makes them let go the hold they had with other bodies I shall speak more at large concerning these kinds of Precipitations in the Remarks which I shall make upon White Precipitate and shall then explicate the reason why Sea-salt which is an acid does precipitate that which another acid had dissolved I shall likewise answer the objections which have been raised on this subject Silver may be also precipitated by means of a Copper-plate as I have said already It is very indifferent which way you please to Precipitate it for it is done for no other end but to reduce the Silver into a very fine powder for an easier dissolution The Precipitate of Silver made with salt or Copper waxes brown in the drying and though dried in the shade which doubtless is by reason of some small proportion of Copper that it contains If you have dissolved an ounce of Coppel-silver and precipitate it with Salt or Copper you 'l draw an ounce and three drachms of Precipitate well washt and dried this augmentation does proceed from a remainder of the points which were broken in pieces and yet do still remain in the pores of the metal for these pores being very small they do but hardly let go what they have received into them There is no need of distilling a part of the Liquor that the Tincture may be the stronger as some have presumed to write for on the contrary it causes a Crystallization which diminishes both its colour and strength for the reason I have given before The effect of this Tincture for Diseases must rather be attributed to the Salt of Urine and spirit of Wine than to the Silver for they are not only able to fly into the Head and open obstructions there but assisted with the Natural heat do open the pores of all the body and drive out ill humours by transpiration The portion of Silver which remains at the bottom of the Matrass being impregnated with volatile parts would fly into the Air if it were melted alone without the addition of something else wherefore the abovementioned matter is added to it that being of a very fixt nature may weigh it down and hinder it from flying away Diana's Tree Take an ounce of Silver and dissolve it in three ounces of spirit of Niter pour your dissolution into a Matrass wherein you shall have put eighteen or twenty ounces of water and two ounces of Quick-silver Your Matrass must be fill'd up to the neck let it lye still upon a little round of straw in some convenient place for forty days together during which time you 'l find a Tree spread forth its branches and little balls at the end which represent their fruit This Operation is of no use at all in Physick I have here described it only to please the Curious Remarks These branches do proceed from the spirit of Niter which being incorporated with the Silver and Mercury do form divers Figures according to the room and moisture it hath to expatiate it self in For if you should put to it but ten or twelve ounces of water nothing but a kind of Crystals in great confusion would be able to appear On the contrary if you should use too much water nothing would then be seen besides a little precipitated powder You must let the mixture lye still for forty days together because the spirit of Niter being very much weakned by common water is able to work but very slowly If the matter should happen to be removed the figure would quickly fall into confusion but would recover it self again if you let it lye still long enough This Preparation is best performed in a cool place being properly a Crystallization This Operation may be fitly compared with the manner of Generation and Nourishment of Plants in the Earth for if the seed abounds with too much moisture the spirits which serve to ferment and dilate its parts will be rendred so weak as not to be able to act and so nothing can be produced if on the contrary there should prove too little moisture the spirits not finding room enough to expatiate in would either continue imprisoned or evaporate into Air and so be ineffectual But when there happens to be a fit proportion of water in the Earth then the spirits gently moving about do insensibly expatiate themselves and do rarifie and sublime along with them the substance of the seed from whence Vegetation doth proceed But to return unto our Operation If you should desire to separate the Silver from the Mercury shake the whole together and having poured it out into an earthen Vessel make it boil for half a quarter of an hour then let it cool a little till it becomes little more than luke-warm pour upon it a quart of water by little and little in which you have dissolved two ounces of Sea-salt and a white Precipitate will fall down pour off the water by Inclination and dry the Powder Then put it in a Retort placed in a Sand-furnace and having fitted to it a Receiver fill'd with water give a small fire at first then encrease it by degrees till the Retort grows red-hot and your Quick-silver will distil drop by drop into the water continue the fire till nothing more will distil let the Vessels cool pour the water out of the Receiver and having washt the Mercury dry it with linnen or the crum of bread and keep it for use You 'l find your Silver in the Retort which you may reduce into an Ingot by melting it in a Crucible with a little Salt-peter in a great Circular fire CHAP. III. Of Tinn TInn is a Metal that comes near unto Silver in colour but differs very much in the figure of its Pores and in the solidity and weight The name of the Planet Jupiter is given unto it and it is thought to receive its
will find in the Retort thirty ounces of a white matter which you must throw away as useless it is the fixt salt of sal Armoniack mixed with the Quick-lime Another Preparation of the Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack together with its Flowers and Fixt Salt against Feavers Powder and mix together eight ounces of Sal Armoniack and so much Salt of Tartar put this mixture quickly into a glass body and sprinkle it with three ounces of Rain-water set a head upon it and after fitting the Receiver and luting the junctures close with a wet bladder place your vessel in sand with a gentle fire at first to warm the Retort by little and little and distil the Spirit drop by drop but when you perceive there will distil no more take away the Receiver and stop it close then encrease the fire to the third degree and continue it about two hours there will sublime the white Flowers of Sal Armoniack which will stick about the bottom of the head like meal The Spirit hath the same strength and virtues as the former you will have seven ounces of it and a half Gather up the Flowers with a Feather and use them as you would those I described before the Preparation you 'l have of them ten drachms and a half There remains at the bottom of the Cucurbite nine ounces and three drachms of a white fixt mass You must dissolve it in sufficient water then filter the dissolution and evaporate it until it is dry you 'l have a very white Salt that may be reckoned a good Remedy for intermittent Feavers the dose is from eight grains to thirty in the small Centaury water or some other convenient liquor Remarks The Salt of Tartar serves in this Operation as the Quick-lime did in the other but because it is a more powerful Alkali than Quick-lime you must not use so great a quantity of it The fixt Salt of Niter might be substituted in its place or any other Alkali that you will When the fire begins to heat the matter there do rise up into the head store of volatile Salts in a fine delicate Crystalline form but the moist vapours coming upon them do dissolve them into Spirit The Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack is then a dissolution of Volatile salt in water and if there be not phlegm sufficient to dissolue all the Volatile salt there will remain some part of it at bottom of the Receiver and that may likewise be turn'd into Spirit by only adding enough water to dissolve it Thus the Spirit becomes as strong as it can be made for the pores of the water being filled with as much salt as they can contain it can receive no more But if there happens to be more water than the proportion of Volatile Salt requires then the Spirit proves weak and must be given in a larger dose This Spirit is Sudorifick but you may perceive more sensibly the effect of Sal armoniack to cause Sweat by dissolving six or eight grains of this salt and the same quantity of Salt of Tartar each separately in two small doses of some proper liquor and giving them to a Patient one presently after the other for the salt of Tartar working upon the Sal Armoniack in the stomach after the same manner as it does when they are mixt together in a Mortar the Spirits do separate from the latter with the more force and act more powerfully than when they were mixed before they were given for the little violence that the Volatile Spirits do use in their separation from sea-salt does leave them the more activity and disposes them the better to pass through the pores Again it is probable that in the former effort which these Spirits made in their separation from the fixt part when Sal Armoniack was mixt with salt of Tartar in a mortar the more subtile part might fly away first and be lost now it is this subtile portion that is most proper to rarefie the humours and to drive them forth by Transpiration The flowers do proceed from some part of the Sal Armoniack which the salt of Tartar had not sufficiently opened The Febrifugous salt is nothing but a mixture of salt of Tartar and the fixt and acid part of Sal Armoniack it works by Urine and but seldom by Sweat by reason that being fixed it precipitates more easily than it rarefies and it is by this means that it opens obstructions which are often the first cause of Feavers If you mix in a Viol equal quantities of Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack Spirit of Wine and shake them a little together they will cause a Coagulum This Coagulation proceeds from hence that the Spirit of Wine which is a rarefied Oil does unite with the Spirit of Sal Armoniack which is a saline liquor and it is but the same thing which happens from stirring Oil and some salt liquor in a mortar in order to make an Unguent called Nutritum By this incorporation together the salt is involved in the ramous parts of the sulphur and these same sulphureous parts are checkt or as it were fixed by the salt so that neither of them have any more freedom of motion and from this repose of these parts does result the Coagulum It may be likewise said that the conjunction of the acid that is in Spirit of Wine with the volatile Armoniack alkali does contribute much to this Coagulation The Spirit of Sal Armoniack prepared with Quick-lime does not at all coagulate with Spirit of Wine by reason of fiery parts that it contains The Salt of Tartar too may have mixed some fiery bodies in the Spirit of Sal Armoniack but there are not enough of them in it to hinder its adunation with Spirit of Wine Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack dulcified This Operation is a volatile Armoniack salt mixed and dissolved in Spirit of Wine Take Sal Armoniack and Salt of Tartar of each four ounces powder them separately and mix them well in a glass or marble mortar put this mixture into a glass body pour upon it ten ounces of rectified Spirit of Wine stir it all together with a wooden Spatule and fit to the body a head and Receiver lute well the junctures place the vessel in a Sand-furnace and give it a very little fire to warm the body The volatile salt will rise and stick to the head and neck of the receiver Increase the fire a little and continue it until there distils nothing more the operation is ended in four or five hours Let the vessels cool and unlute them You will find a volatile salt stuck to the head and a spirit in the receiver Put quickly both the one and the other into a Retort in sand and after having fitted another Retort to it to serve for a Receiver and having luted the junctures distil the whole with a small fire Cohobate it again three times then keep what you have distilled in a bottle well stopt almost all the
fire-coal flung into water would do Besides it heated the water very much and much more than common Oil of Vitriol could I kept this congealed Spirit about six months after which time it dissolved into a liquor which I used as Oil of Vitriol for it was in effect the same thing And in my opinion this operation does sufficiently evince that Oil of Vitriol contains fiery parts It hapned to me another time that having rectified the Spirit of Vitriol to separate it from its Oil by an Alembick some part of the distilled Spirit was turned into fair and transparent Crystals in the bolt-head or Receiver which Crystals had the same acrimony and strength with the mass I now spoke of If you pour some drops of Spirit or Oil of Vitriol into a quart of hot water in which you shall infuse a pugil of dried red Roses the liquor will in a little time become as red as Claret and this effect must not so much be attributed to the Spirit of Vitriol's sharpning the water and so thereby drawing out the Tincture of Roses as to this that the acid Spirit does rarefie and separate the particles of the Rose which the water had dissolved and made to appear better than before for if you strain the Infusion and separate the Roses before you pour to it your Spirit of Vitriol although the liquor so strained be yet but little raised in colour it will nevertheless turn to as high a red after the Spirit is dropt into it as if the Roses remained still in the liquor We must say the same thing of other Tinctures that are drawn by acids as also of such as are made by an Alkali salt If you fill a glass Viol with the decoction of Nephritick wood clarified and look on it turning toward the light it will appear yellow but if you turn your back to the light it will appear blue if you mix with it some drops of Spirit of Vitriol it will appear yellow on every side but if you again add about as much more Oil of Tartar it will return unto its first colour If you take a Blue or Violet tincture made in water such as is drawn out of the Sun-flower or Violet flowers and pour upon it some drops of Spirit of Vitriol it will presently turn red but if you throw into it some Alkali salt it will recover again its former colour On the contrary if you pour an Alkali liquor such as volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack or the Oil of Tartar upon the blue Tincture it will presently turn green and if you again pour upon it a little Spirit of Vitriol it will change this colour into an obscure red The decoction of Indian wood is very red if you drop into it a little Spirit of Vitriol it will turn yellow and if you still add some volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack it will become black If you infuse three or four hours a piece of Indian wood in some clear juice of Citron and take out your wood the liquor will have received no alteration of colour but if you add to it some drops of Oil of Tartar made per deliquium it will take a brown colour and if you add to it a little Spirit of Vitriol it will resume its colour again If you pour some drops of Oil of Tartar upon Claret it will become greenish and if you add to it a little Spirit of Vitriol it will return to its former colour All these changes of colour which the Spirit of Vitriol or other acids and Alkali's do make proceed only from the different position of bodies dissolved in the liquor and from its disposition to modifie the light different ways Styptick Water This water is a solution of Vitriol and other ingredients to stop bleedings Take Colcothar or the red Vitriol that remains in the Retort after the spirit is drawn out Burnt-alom and Sugar-candy of each half a drachm the Urine of a young person and Rose-water of each half an ounce Plantain-water two ounces stir them all together a good while in a mortar then pour the mixture into a Viol and when you use it separate it by Inclination If you apply a Bolster dipt in this water to an opened Artery and hold your hand a while upon it it stops the bloud In like manner you may wet a little Pledget in it and thrust it into the Nose when an Hemorrhage continues too long taken inwardly it cures spitting of bloud bloudy flux and the immoderate flux of the Hemorrhoids or Terms the dose is from half a drachm to two drachms in Knot-grass water Remarks When the bloud gushes forth too fast you must redouble the first Bolster that was put upon the wound and assist it a little with your fingers for half an hour The Basis of this water is Colcothar Having used this water with good success upon several occasions I was willing to insert it in this Book and I believe if any body please to experiment it as I have done they will easily acknowledge it to be an excellent Remedy in many Distempers Lapis Medicamentosus Powder and mix together Colcothar or the red Vitriol that remains in the Retort after distillation or in want of it Vitriol Calcined to a redness two ounces Litharge Alom and Bole-Armenick of each four ounces put this mixture into a glazed pot and pour upon it good Vinegar enough to cover the matter two fingers high cover the pot and leave it two days in digestion then add to it eight ounces of Niter two ounces of Sal Armoniack set the pot over the fire and evaporate all the moisture Calcine the mass that remains about half an hour in a strong fire and keep it for use It is a good Remedy to stop Gonorrheas a drachm of it is dissolved in eight ounces of Plantain water or Smith's water to make an Injection into the Yard it is likewise good to cleanse the eyes in the small pox seven or eight grains of it must be dissolved in four ounces of Plantain or eye-bright water it is also good to stop bloud applied outwardly to a wound It may be dissolved in Knot-grass water and will go near to have the same effects as the styptick water Remarks This stone is called Medicamentosus by way of excellence by reason of the good effects it produces The Colcothar that remains in the Retort after the distillation of Vitriol must be better than the others for this Operation because being deprived of the greatest part of its Spirits it is the more Astringent Litharge which is a Lead Calcined Alom and Bole-Armenick are so many considerable Astringents that do no hurt in this composition Vinegar is put in to incorporate the ingredients together and set them a Fermenting after which the Niter and Sal Armoniack do easily mix among the rest The Calcination which is given to it at the end is done to carry off some part of the acid and to augment the Astriction It
doubtless that is the reason why it is the whiter If you distil twelve ounces of Hair you will obtain eight ounces of liquor and volatile salt There will remain in the Retort three ounces and a half of a black matter very spongy and earthy from which no fixed salt can be drawn And by Rectification you will raise into the Head an ounce and seven drachms of a very fine volatile salt separate by a filter three ounces of a black and very fetid oil and by distillation of that which is filtrated you 'l have two ounces of Spirit and nine drachms of phlegm All Volatile salts have much resemblance in their figure smell and taste but that of Vipers is accounted the most active and proper against Poisons those of Harts-horn and Mans Skull are thought to be better than others for the Epilepsie that of mans bloud to purifie the bloud and so of the rest When you Rectifie the Spirit of Vipers or man's Skull or Harts-horn or hair in order to purifie them from their phlegm if you should let the liquor continue distilling longer than is fitting the phlegm will rise after the Spirit but then it separates from the Spirit as water separates from oil the Spirit will be uppermost and a little troubled and whitish but if you keep these two liquors together for a month the whole will mix together and there will be no longer any separation of them at all These effects do happen from this that the Spirit in rising does carry with it some small quantity of Oil which was dissolved in the liquor by reason of salts that it contains This Oil is very volatile it rises with the Spirit and by rendring the Spirit a little oily it hinders at first the phlegm from mixing with it It is likewise this little quantity of oil which makes the Spirit look a little troubled and whitish but when the Spirit and phlegm are kept a good while together they mix and the whole appears like a homogeneous liquor because there being but little oil in the Spirit the phlegm insensibly enters into and incorporates with it wherefore you must take care to separate the Spirit from the phlegm so soon as ever you take the Receiver from the nose of the head in case you have suffered the liquor to distil too long What I have now spoken of does not happen in the Rectification of the Spirit of Ivory and without doubt the reason is that the Ivory does not contain so much Oil as the other parts of Animals Some do prepare a Sudorifick water with Vipers after this manner They do put the Vipers alive into a great earthen body they fit to it a head with its Receiver they lute the joints and distil in a Balneum all that will rise from it but you must take care that the head be well fastned to the body for when the Vipers begin to be heated they leap and fling about with so much violence that they would otherwise throw it down and get out of their stove And then the Artist must have a care of himself and not be too bold for these creatures being irritated would fling about on every side and a bite of theirs at that time would be twice as dangerous as at another This water which rises whilest the Vipers are in their greatest fury is Sudorifick because some Volatile salts have risen and mixed with it You may give of it from a drachm to half an ounce in some proper liquor But to avoid the forementioned danger you might cut the Vipers in pieces before you put them into the body and because these pieces of them do retain life a long time the water will be little the worse for their not being intire When you have drawn as much water from them as you can by the heat of a Balneum you must put the remainder of the Vipers into a Retort and distil it as I have shewn before you will thereby have the Volatile salt the Spirit and the Oyl CHAP. II. Distillation of Vrine and its Volatile Salt THIS Operation is a separation of the Spirit the Volatile Salt and the Oil of Vrine from the phlegm and the earth which it contains Take ten or twelve quarts of Vrine newly made by sound young men evaporate it in an earthen or glass Cucurbite in a Sand-heat until it remains in the consistence of Honey then fit a head with its Receiver and luting the junctures close continue a small fire to distil the rest of the phlegm after which encrease it by little and little and the Spirits will rise in Clouds carrying with them a little Oil and after that the Volatile salt which will stick to the head like Butter-flies continue the fire until there comes no more then unlute the Vessels and separating the Volatile salt put it into a bolt-head pour likewise into it the Spirit that is in the Receiver and fit a blind-head to the bolt-head lute the junctures with a wet bladder and setting your bolt-head in Sand sublime with a small fire all the Volatile salt as I have shewed concerning that of Vipers separate this Salt and keep it in a Viol well stopt It is a good Remedy for Quartan Agues and Malignant Feavers it opens all Obstructions and works both by Vrine and Sweat the dose is from six to sixteen grains in some convenient liquor filtrate that which remains in the bolt-head the Spirit will pass through the Filter whilst a small quantity of black and extraordinary stinking Oil remains which is good to discuss cold Tumors and to give to Hysterical women to smell to You may distil the Spirit in a Sand-heat to separate it from a thick matter that remains at bottom it hath the same virtues as the Salt it is given from eight to twenty drops in some proper vehicle Two drachms of it are mixed with two ounces of Spirit of Wine to rub Paralytical parts with it is likewise used for cold pains and for the Sciatica If the Mass that remains in the Cucurbite should be Calcined and a Lixivium made of it with water a very small quantity of fixt Alkali salt might be gotten from evaporating the water and it hath the same virtues as other Alkali salts Remarks The Vrine of young men is to be prefer'd before others because it contains more Salt It must be newly made and evaporated with a gentle fire that the Fermentation or too much heat may not cause the Volatile Salts to rise with the phlegm The Spirit is only a Volatile salt dissolved in a little phlegm this Volatile salt works more by Vrine than any of the rest but its smell is more offensive This Remedy must never be given in Broth for Broth being to be taken hot the heat evaporates some of the volatile salts before it can well be taken A Volatile salt may be drawn from Vrine after setting it some months Fermenting in a Vessel close stopt and then a third part of the Liquor
repeat these evaporations and Crystallizations until you have got all your Crystals then dry them and keep them in a Glass bottle well stopt This Vitriol of Mars hath the same virtues as the former and must be given in the same Dose Remarks The Spirit of Vitriol is weakned by the Water to the end that it may be incapable of dissolving but only the purer part of Mars Moreover if it were used alone it would incorporate with the very substance of Mars but would not be able to dissolve any of it because there would be wanting sufficient moisture to separate its parts During the dissolution the liquor heats and boils considerably because the acidity of Spirit of Vitriol doth violently enter the body of this metal and makes a separation of its parts To Evaporate unto a Pellicle doth signifie to consume the Liquor until a kind of thin skin is perceived to swim upon it which always happens when some part of the moisture being evaporated there remains but little more than is necessary to hold the Salt in Fusion An Acid Spirit may be drawn from this Vitriol of Mars by distilling it in a Retort in a Reverberatory fire like common Vitriol this Spirit hath been thought to have the same virtues as ordinary Spirit of Vitriol but it can't be near so good because it hath much blunted or broken some part of its edges against the body of Mars in the dissolution and distillation That which remains in the Retort after distillation is that part of Mars which the Spirit of Vitriol had dissolved It may be used like an aperitive Crocus Martis Those who do attribute the aperitive effect of Mars only to its sweetning as an Alkali the acid juices which do too plentifully abound in mens bodies will find it hard to explicate how these two last preparations do come to be esteemed the best aperitives which are made upon Mars for the acid does so far predominate in their composition that the Alkali is able to do little or nothing Tincture of Mars with Tartar This Preparation is a dissolution of Iron performed by the acid of Tartar Take Twelve ounces of the Rust of Iron and Two pounds of White Tartar of Montpelier powder and mix them together then boil them in a great Iron pot or Cauldron with Twelve or Fifteen pints of Rain-water for Twelve hours time stir the matter with an Iron Slice from time to time and take care to put more boiling water into the Cauldron according as it consumes afterwards leave it a while to settle and you 'l have a black Liquor Filtrate and evaporate it in an Earthen Pan over a Sand-fire to the consistence of a Syrup or till there rises a Pellicle upon it It is a very great Aperitive it opens the most inveterate Obstructions and is given in Cachexies Dropsies Obstruction of the Terms and other Diseases that proceed from Oppilations the Dose is from a Drachm to half an ounce in Broth or some appropriate Liquor Remarks Water alone would not be able enough to penetrate the Iron for to make a Tincture though you should boil it a Month together But when it is impregnated with Tartar it dissolves it very easily Nevertheless you must not think that this Tincture is a perfect solution of Mars for if there were an intire solution of it there would appear no more Tincture than there does in the solution of it with Spirit of Vitriol and water but because the soluble part of Tartar which is the agent in this Operation is only an impure acid Salt it can but grosly rarify the Mars and after mixing with it keep it suspended in the water After the Tincture is drawn there remains a whitish matter that you must fling away as good for nothing it is a mixture of the grosser parts of Tartar and Mars This Tincture is called Syrup of Mars by reason of a certain sweetness that is perceived in its Taste It is reduced into the consistence of a Syrup to keep the better As for its virtues it is a very great Aperitive because the force of Mars is assisted by the Tartar that serves to be its Vehicle Opening Extract of Mars This Preparation is a solution of the more open parts of Iron by aperitive juices and reduced into a solid consistence by fire Take Eight ounces of the Rust of Iron prepared in the Morning Dew put it in an Iron pot and pour upon it three pounds of the Water of Honey and four pounds of Must or the juice of White grapes perfectly ripe Add to it four ounces of juice of Lemons cover it with an Iron Cover and set it in a Furnace over a little fire leave the Matter in Digestion three days then boil the Matter gently three or four hours uncovering the Pot ever now and then to stir up the bottom with an Iron slice then cover it again that the moisture may not evaporate too fast When you perceive the Liquor to be black you must take away the fire and leave it a while to settle pass warm through a cloth that which is clear and evaporate the liquor in a Sand fire in an Earthen pan or Glass vessel to the consistence of an Extract 'T is a very good aperitive it hath the same virtues as the Tincture for Obstructions of the Liver Spleen and Mesentery it delivers the Lymphatick vessels admirably well of what may hinder the current of Serum The Dose is from Ten grains to two Scruples in Pills or else dissolved in some proper Liquor That which remains in the bottom of the Iron pot is the more Earthy part of Mars that is good for nothing Remarks This Extract doth not receive its consistence only from the Iron but from the Tartareous juices of the Grapes and Lemons with which it is mixed its virtue is augmented by the Essential Salts and the Spirit of Honey that leaves in it a very good impression The mixture is left in digestion for the better Dissolution of the Mars but seeing the Menstruum is not very sharp or corrosive it dissolves only the more Saline and soluble parts This Description is not common but may be preferred before many others Every body grants that Mars is as excellent a Remedy as any in all Physick for opening Obstructions and restoring a good complexion to those that want it by reason of Obstructions but you must not be contented with giving it once or twice but for a fortnight together some intervals may be observed that nature may not be troubled too much In hot climes such as Languedoc and Provence where are more Oppilations than in other Countries they make no difficulty to take it sometimes every day for a month together after a due Preparation and it is the best Remedy that hath been known for that Distemper Binding Extract of Mars This Preparation is a solution of Iron made with an astringent Wine and reduced into a thick consistence by fire Take Eight ounces of the
in order to try the virtue of their remedies as they pretend to do all the Mithridate they have would never be able to save them And supposing they did not understand their Legerdemain tricks well enough but should be constrained to swallow such poisons as these you must not think them such fools as to keep to the remedy they recommend which would be sure to do nothing else but increase their misery by its acrimonious heat They would have recourse to the Oil and other fat substances to avoid death which otherwise would certainly follow Sweet Sublimate or Mercurius dulcis Sweet Sublimate is a Mercury reduced to a white mass by some broken edges of acids Powder sixteen ounces of Sublimate Corrosive in a marble or glass mortar mix with it by little and little twelve ounces of Mercury revived from Cinnabar stir this mixture with a wooden Pestle until all the Quicksilver becomes imperceptible then put this gray powder into several Viols or into a Matrass whose two thirds do remain empty place your vessel in Sand and give but a little fire at first then augment it unto the third degree continue it in this condition until your Sublimate is made which usually happens in four or five hours Break your Viols and fling away a little light earth that 's found at bottom separate also that which sticks to the neck of the Viols or the Matrass and keep it for Unguents against the Itch but gather up carefully all that is in the middle which is very white and having powdered it resublime it in Viols or a Matrass as before separate once more the matter in the middle and resublime it in other Viols as before this third time lastly separate the terrestrious matter at the bottom and the Fuliginous that lies in the neck of the Viols and keep the Sublimate that is in the middle for it is sufficiently dulcified It s use is for all sorts of Venereal diseases it opens obstructions and kills the Worms the Dose is from six unto thirty grains in Pills it purges gently by Stool Remarks You must observe never to powder Sublimate Corrosive in a mortar made of metal because it would corrode it and carry off some part which would spoil the operation glass marble and stone mortars are more convenient because they can communicate no ill impression to the matter Many have written that we should use equal parts of Sublimate and Mercury but they did not consider that so great a quantity of Mercury could not be here used and that when the Sublimate hath received near about the quantity I have appointed the rest will remain unmixed When a matrass is used for this operation half its neck must be cut off before-hand for when it is performed in common matrasses a great part of the Fuliginous matter not being able to rise high enough falls down again on the Sublimate and hinders it from becoming sweet because this Fuliginosity contains the more acrimonious part whereas it will easily fly out of Viols or matrasses with a short neck Two thirds of each vessel must remain empty otherwise the Mercury which rarefies like a Spirit would be apt to break them That which sticks to the neck of the Viols being too acrimonious to be used inwardly may serve for Ointments against the Itch and Tettars Sweet Sublimate rises more easily than the Corrosive because it is less loaded with acids The Sublimate that is made in a matrass loses half an ounce each sublimation so that an ounce and a half is lost in three times when the operation is done Six drachms of Scories and light earth are found at bottom and consequently there is but two drachms of matter carried off each Sublimation But if you try this operation in Viols the sublimate loses half an ounce more as having a larger aperture to fly out at than in a matrass or long neck It seems a little strange at first that so strong a Poyson as Sublimate Corrosive should be reduced into so mild a remedy by the addition of nothing but Mercury But you ought to wonder no longer when you consider that those Spirits which caused the Corrosion were then shut up in a strait room but being now divided and enlarging their quarters cannot in reason act with such force besides that by the repeated action of fire the subtler part of their points is blunted against the body of Mercury The Purgative quality of sweet Sublimate does consist in the acids that remain wherefore if you should sublime it twice or thrice more the Sublimate would not be at all Purgative but only Sudorifick And it is then more proper to raise a Flux with than it was before for having lost those salts which by irritating the stomach and guts did render it Purgative it is the more disposed for rarefaction in the body and so to joyn with the ferment of Venereal Tumors Mercury prepared any way whatsoever ought to be taken inwardly no other way than in Pills but by no means in potion for fear it should stick in the Gums and so spoil and loosen the Teeth White Precipitate White Precipitate is a Mercury dissolved by Spirit of Niter and precipitated by salt into a white powder Dissolve in a Glass-Cucurbite sixteen ounces of Mercury revived from Cinnabar with eighteen or twenty ounces of Spirit of Niter when the dissolution is made pour upon it salt-water filtrated made of ten ounces of sea-salt in two quarts of water add unto this about half an ounce of the volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack there will Precipitate a very white powder that you must leave for a sufficient time to settle then having poured off the water by Inclination wash it several times with Fountain water and dry it in the shade It is used to raise a Flux with the Dose is from four to fifteen grains in Pills It is also used in Pomatums for Tettars and the Itch from half a drachm to two drachms for an ounce of Pomatum Remarks Although I do recommend eighteen or twenty ounces of Spirit of Niter for the solution of sixteen ounces of Mercury yet you must know that it is not very necessary to keep too strictly to this same quantity You may use either a little more or a little less according to the strength of the Spirit or according as it is more or less dephlegmated I my self do commonly use but an equal weight of it with the Quick-silver because the Spirit of Niter I do use is exactly dephlegmated You might likewise use Aqua fortis instead of Spirit of Niter The Dose of white Precipitate must be less than that of sweet Sublimate because it retains more acid Spirits but if you would Sublime this Precipitate alone in a matrass in a gradual fire you 'd obtain a Sublimate as sweet as the other because the fire having acted upon it breaks most of its points and then it may be given in as great a Dose as ordinary Mercurius Dulcis If
which weighs nine ounces It is a good Escharotick it eats proud flesh it is used for the laying open of Chancres mixt with burnt Alom AEgyptiacum and the common Suppurative Some do give it inwardly to four grains for to raise a Flux with but this is dangerous unless rectified Spirit of Wine be burnt two or three times upon it Remarks This Preparation is improperly called Precipitate here being no Precipitation at all Many Authors have thought they could much encrease the redness of this Precipitate by Cohobating it or distilling Spirit of Niter three times upon the white mass but I have found by experience both ways that these Circumstances are of no use The white Mass which remains after Evaporation of the humidity is a mixture of Mercury with a great many acid Spirits for it weighs three ounces more than the Mercury did which was dissolved it is extreme Corrosive and fiery if applied to the flesh but according as it is Calcined in order to make it red the edges of the Spirit of Niter which caused the Corrosion do strike off and fly into the Air whence it comes to pass that the more we desire to encrease its redness by Calcination the less it weighs and the less it corrodes Some Chirurgeons observing this effect do choose the Precipitate that is not so red as usual when they would make an Eschar quickly If you still continue the fire some hours under the red mass it will sublime and still retain its colour this sublimate is not so Corrosive as the other which makes me think that the points of Spirit of Salt are necessary to make a sublimate very Corrosive The reason why it sublimes is because the Mercury being delivered from a great many acid Spirits which did fix it has power to rise with those that remain But because these remaining Spirits do moderate a little its volatility it makes a stop in the middle of the Viol. Some do put red Precipitate into an Earthen Pot and pour upon it Spirit of Wine well rectified then fire it and when the Spirit is consumed they add more and burn it as before they repeat the adding Spirit of Wine and burning it six times and then call this Preparation Arcanum Corallinum The Spirit of Wine by burning does carry off some edges of the Precipitate and joyns it self to the rest so that this Precipitate is sweetned and rendred fit to be taken inwardly If by way of curiosity you pour Spirit of Vitriol upon common red Precipitate such as I have described a dissolution will soon follow because Spirit of Vitriol joyning with the Spirit of Niter that remained in the Precipitate an Aqua fortis must happen from their union which is able to dissolve imperceptibly the parts of Mercury but this dissolution will happen without any Ebullition because the Mercury has been already rarified by an acid so that the Spirit of Vitriol does only dissolve them without making any commotion The solution is clear like other solutions of Mercury without any appearance of redness and the same Preparations may be made with it as are used to be by the solution of Quicksilver in Aqua fortis If instead of Spirit of Vitriol you pour Spirit of Salt upon the red Precipitate it turns presently into a curious white because the Spirit of Salt does break the force of the Spirit of Niter that was in the red Precipitate and the same thing must happen here as does when Spirit of Salt is poured upon the solution of Quicksilver for although red Precipitate be a dry body yet it is nothing else but a mixture of Quicksilver and Spirit of Niter I have given the reason why Spirit of Salt comes to weaken Spirit of Niter in my Remarks upon white Precipitate As for the sudden change of colour it is indeed somewhat strange that a matter which is grown red by Calcination should in a minutes time turn so exceeding white This Effect can be attributed only to the dislocation which the acid spirit of Salt does cause in the parts of red Precipitate and to the disposition it puts them anew into so that their Superficies is put into a capacity of reflecting the light in a right line to our eyes to give the appearance of a white colour for if by means of another sort of liquor or else by fire and some alkali body the disposition of the parts of your Precipitate is again changed it will obtain some other colour or else it will return and revive into Quicksilver If you pour the volatile spirit of Sal Armoniack upon red Precipitate it turns into a grey powder but if you throw a great deal of water upon it it becomes a milk though none of the whitest The same thing happens when you drop Spirit of Sal Armoniack into the solution of Quicksilver made with Spirit of Niter for soon after the effervescency is over a grey powder is seen to Precipitate and if you add to it water it becomes a milk of the same whiteness as the other Common red Precipitate then is subject to the same alterations as the solution of Mercury the red colour giving no particular impression to it which truly is a good proof that colour is no real thing but wholly depends upon the modification of parts Turbith Mineral or Yellow Precipitate This Preparation is a Mercury impregnated with the acidity of Oil of Vitriol Put four ounces of Quick-silver revived from Cinnabar into a glass Retort and pour upon it sixteen ounces of Oil of Vitriol set your Retort in Sand and when the Mercury is dissolved put fire underneath and distil the humidity make the fire strong enough toward the end for to drive out some of the last Spirits of all afterwards break your Retort and powder in a glass Mortar a white Mass you find within it which weighs five ounces and a half pour warm water upon it and the matter will presently change into a yellow powder which you must dulcifie by a great many repeated Lotions then dry it in the shade you 'l have three ounces and two drachms of it It purges strongly both by vomit and stool it is given in Venereal maladies the dose is from two grains unto six in Pills Remarks Though that which is improperly called Oil of Vitriol be the strongest and most Caustick acid of this Mineral Salt it is nevertheless much weaker than Spirit of Niter and so requires a greater quantity of it and longer time to dissolve the Mercury in for there 's much a-do to dispatch the solution in ten hours That which is distilled is exceeding weak because the Mercury retains the greatest part of the acid Spirits and they are the things that purge so strongly although many of them be carried off by the Lotions All these Preparations are nothing but so many different shapes of Mercury made by acid Spirits which according to their different adhesions do cause such different effects All these Precipitates and
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
Receiver Though the Guaiacum that is used be a very dry body yet abundance of liquor is drawn from it for if you put into the Retort four pounds of this Wood at sixteen ounces to the pound you 'l draw nine and thirty ounces of Spirit and Phlegm and five ounces and a half of Oil there will remain in the Retort nineteen ounces of coals from which you may draw half an ounce or six drachms of an Alkali salt The Oil of Guaiacum is acrimonious by reason of the Salts it has carried along with it and it is the gravity of these salts that does precipitate it to the bottom of the water The Oil of Box and most others that are drawn this same way do the like These sorts of Oil are good for the Tooth-ach because they stop the nerve with their ramous parts hindring thereby the air from entring Moreover by means of the acrimonious salts which they contain they do dissipate a phlegm which uses to get within the gum and causes the pain but yet by reason of their fetid smell men have much ado to take them into their mouth That which is called Spirit of Guaiacum is nothing but a dissolution of the Essential salt of the Plant in a little phlegm The fixt salt is an Alkali that works much like others of that kind nevertheless it is very probable that the fixt salts of Vegetables let them be never so much Calcined do always retain some particular virtue of the Plant they were drawn from If one would take the pains to Calcine the earth that remains he would obtain a salt though but very little of it CHAP. IV. Of Paper THE Papyrus of the Antients which gave the name to our PAPER was a tree growing in Aegypt near the river Nilus The bark of this tree was prepared and men did write upon it but our Paper is made of old rags or clouts which are beaten exceeding fine in Paper-mills and then put into the press in order to make Paper with them This Paper has some use in Physick pieces of it are lighted in a room and Hysterical women are made to receive the fume of it they are commonly relieved with this disagreeable smell as by many others of the like nature Oil and Spirit of Paper Fold white paper into little pellets and fill a great earthen Retort or glass one luted with them place your Retort in a Reverberatory furnace Fit to it a large capacious Receiver lute well the junctures give it a very little fire for two hours only to heat the Retort increase it with two or three coals and continue it so for two or three hours then quicken it to the third degree The Receiver will be filled with white clouds put out the fire when no more will come forth the operation will be ended in seven or eight hours When the vessels are cold unlute them pour what you find in the Receiver into a Tunnel lined with a coffin of brown paper the Spirit will pass through the filter and a thick black and ill-scented oil will remain within it keep the oil for use in a Viol. It is a very good remedy in deafness some drops of it are put into the ear with a little cotton from time to time it quiets the noise of the ear it is also good for Tettars and for the Itch the parts being anointed a little with it it cures the tooth-ach much like the Oil of Guaiacum it is good likewise to repress hysterical vapours women so affected are to smell to it You must rectifie the Spirit by distilling it in sand It is an Aperitive and may be given where there is occasion for a diuretick the dose is from six drops to twenty in some proper liquor Remarks The Vitriol and other drogues which are in Ink might alter the virtue of the Oil and Spirit of paper wherefore it is better to use clean than written paper The receiver must be large in order to give room to the vapours to circulate in for they come forth with that force that they would break the vessel if they had not room enough to play in you must manage the fire with prudence for if you make it too great the first hours the Spirits will break the Retort If you have used in this operation four and twenty ounces of paper you will draw two ounces and two drachms of Oil and thirteen ounces and a half of Spirit there will remain in the Retort seven ounces and a half of coals The Oil does not pass with the Spirit through the coffin in the tunnel because it is too thick its black colour and its ill smell do come from the fire It is good for deafness because that disease is often caused by a thick or phlegmatick humor which dries and hardens in the ear so as to stop the auditory nerve Now this Oil dissolves and rarefies this humor and disposes it the better to come out And this is the reason that it dissipates the noises in the ears for they were caused by winds which this humor had shut in The Spirit is very acid in comparison with other Spirits of Vegetables because it comes from an essential salt which has been put into a very considerable motion Again it is probable that by the many different forms which the flax and canvas have received in order to make cloth and afterwards Paper and by the fermentations which they may have received their fixed salt may be volatilized and become of the nature of that which is called Essential Now in the distillation all this salt has been dissolved into a liquor by the phlegm and turned into that which is called Spirit that which confirms me in this sentiment is that there can be hardly any fixed salt at all drawn from the coal which remains in the Retort wherefore the coal is thrown away as useless it takes fire exceeding easily by reason of a light soot that is fallen upon it and which gave it the black colour CHAP. V. Of Cinnamon CInnamon is the Bark of a Tree as large as an Olive Tree it grows in the East-Indies and is much like that which the Cassia Lignea is taken from but it is not the very same as some will needs think the best Cinnamon is that which has the strongest smell is quick upon the taste and of a reddish colour The Cassia Lignea differs from Cinnamon in that it is not so biting to the taste smells not so strong and becomes mucilaginous in the mouth when it is chewed which Cinnamon doth not do Both Cinnamon and Cassia Lignea are good to fortifie the stomach to help perspiration of gross humors to strengthen and rejoice the heart and in hysterical cases Oil or Essence of Cinnamon and its Aethereal water Bruise four pounds of good Cinnamon and infuse it in six quarts of hot water leave it in digestion in an earthen vessel well stopt two days pour the Infusion into a large Copper
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
three sorts of it the Black the White and the Yellow The Inhabitants of those Countries do keep this Opium for their own use and do send us only the Meconium which is nothing else but the Juyce of these same Poppy-heads drawn by expression and then thickned and wrapt up in leaves to transport the better It is this Drug that we improperly call Opium and always use for want of the true but being more impure than the true it hath not the same activity and strength A Meconium may be made after the same manner with the heads of those Poppies that grow in Italy Languedoc and Provence but it will prove much weaker than the former The Opium which comes from Thebes or else from Grand-Cairo is accounted the best you must choose it Black Inflammable bitter to the taste and a little acrimonious its smell must be disagreeable and stupefactive Extract of Opium called Laudanum This Operation is the purer part of Opium drawn in water and Spirit of wine and reduced to the consistence of an extract Cut into slices four ounces of good Opium and put it into a bolt-head pour upon it a quart of Rain-water well filtred stop the bolt-head and setting it in sand give your fire by degrees then increase it to make the liquor boil for two hours strain it warm and pour it into a bottle Take the Opium which remains undissolved in the rain-Rain-water dry it in an earthen pan over a small fire and putting it into a Matrass pour upon it Spirit of wine to the height of four fingers stop the Matrass and digest the matter twelve hours in hot Ashes afterwards strain the liquor and there will remain a glutinous earth which is to be flung away Evaporate both these dissolutions of Opium separately in earthen or glass vessels in a Sand-heat to the consistence of honey then mix them and finish the drying this mixture with a very gentle heat to give it the consistence of Pills or a solid Extract It is the most certain Soporifick that we have in Physick it allays all pains which proceed from too great an activity of the humors it is good for the Tooth-ach applied to the tooth or else to the Temple-artery in a plaister it is used for to stop spitting of bloud the bloudy-flux the flux of the menses and hemorrhoids for the colick for hot defluxions on the eyes and to quiet all sorts of griping pains the dose of it is from half a grain to three in some convenient Conserve or else dissolved in a Julep Remarks Opium is compounded of a Spirituous part and a gross terrestrious Rosine the Spirituous part may be easily dissolv'd in water but the Resinous requires a more convenient Menstruum such as Spirit of Wine You must dry the Opium after the first dissolution least the Spirit of Wine be too much weakned by the watry part that remains which would hinder the solution from being done so well as it should be Distilled Vinegar dissolves Opium but the acids may diminish its virtue by destroying or fixing its volatile part which serves for a vehicle to the other Spirit of wine alone might be used to dissolve both parts of the Opium but it might be feared it would carry away with it the volatile part in the Evaporation All that is in the Opium is preserved by my description for the Resinous part dissolved in the Spirit of Wine cannot evaporate with it because it is the heavier and the other part which I call Volatile in comparison with the first is mixt with a little Rosine that keeps it back while the water evaporates The truth of this I have found by experience and any body else may try as well as I have done by distilling these liqours Lastly it is hard to use any greater precaution than this for the preservation of all the pure parts of Opium and fewer Menstruums can be used that are more convenient If in curiosity you weigh the glutinous earth after it is dried you will find it to be half an ounce Almost all Authors have appointed to torrifie Opium before it be dissolved to the end a certain malignity which they say is in it may be evaporated but that which they call malignity is nothing but the Spirits or Sulphurs that are most volatile whereof I spoke but now so that by the Torrefaction they deprive it of its more active part They do further add to the Extract commonly drawn with Spirit of Wine Coral Pearl Treacle Extract of Saffron Cordial Confections Hysterical ingredients and other things which may resist a cold malignity in the fourth degree which they pretend to be in Opium But experience convinces us that it is not so dangerous when given in the foresaid dose so that there is no need at all of losing its volatile part by Torrefaction nor of mixing it with other ingredients which may hinder its operation or retard its effect It belongs to the Physician when he thinks fit to give it to judge whether there be any need of an Hysterick or Cordial which he may appoint to be mixed upon the spot I shall not stay to examine here whether Opium is cold or hot they who have made the Anatomy of this mixt do know very well that it is almost all of it Sulphur I shall endeavour to explicate its effects the most sensibly I can according to the Rules of Chymistry The virtue of Opium consists in causing sleep and that by calming the motion of the Spirits for since watchfulness does proceed from the motion of the Spirits which by rarifying the humors in the little passages of the Brain do augment their Circulation it may surely be said with probability enough that sleep is caused by some condensation of the humors which happens from a repose of the Spirits in the Brain According to this Principle then there must be contained in Opium and all other Soporificks a certain substance that inviscates the Spirits and hinders them for some time from Circulating so fast as they did before Let us examine now whether any such thing can probably be found in Opium by the Analysis I have made of it first of all I have observed a Spirituous part but after that hath been drawn out by means of Rain-water there remains a gummous and terrestrious matter and this is the substance that I find so proper to produce this effect For nothing in Physick is so fit to thicken the bloud and other humors as things that are Mucilaginous Milk and the Emulsions which are drawn from divers seeds the Water-Lily Lettice nay and all temperate Aliments do frequently incline to sleep because they are impregnated with a gummous substance which mixing in the bloud does serve to agglutinate the Spirits and to moderate the quickness of their motion this now being supposed it is easie to conceive how Opium makes one sleep seeing it is loaded with Mucilaginous parts which may be conveighed into the vessels But without doubt
is from Florida it hath been transplanted among us but our Countrey not being hot enough that which grows here is not so strong as the Tabaco that is brought out of America Tabaco either chewed or smoked now and then makes a great discharge of humors from the Head but if it be used too immoderately it is apt to cause several Diseases such as the Palsie and Apoplexy It is beaten and applied to tumors to discuss them it being full of Spirits which do rarifie them and open the pores It is likewise infused in common water and Tettars and other Itchings of the Skin are washed with this Infusion but you must have a care that the water be not too much charged with it for fear of giving a vomit Tabaco kills Serpents Vipers Lizards and such like Animals if you open a hole in their flesh and thrust a little bit into it or if you should smoke them with it Distillation of Tabaco Put into a Glass-Cucurbite eight ounces of good Tabaco cut small pour upon it about an equal weight of Phlegm of Vitriol cover the Cucurbite with its head and digest the matter in sand for a day fit to it a Receiver and distil about five ounces of liquor in a small fire keep it in a viol It is a powerful vomit the dose is from two drachms to six in some proper liquor it is likewise good for Tettars and the Itch being rubbed lightly with it Put that which remains in the Cucurbite into an earthen Retort or Glass one luted place it in a Furnace and fit to it a great Receiver and luting close the joints begin with a small fire to raise all the phlegm augment it by little and little and the Spirits will come forth confusedly with a black Oil continue the fire until there comes no more then let the vessels cool and unlute them pour that which you find in the Receiver into a Tunnel lined with brown paper the watry part will pass through while the black and fetid Oil remains in the filter keep it in a viol a drachm of it may be mixed with two ounces of Hogs-grease it is a good Remedy for the itch and for Tettars An Alkali salt may be drawn from the Coals that remain in the Retort after the same manner as the Salt of Guaiacum This salt is a Sudorifick the dose is from four grains to ten in some convenient liquor Remarks Tabaco is full of such piercing sulphurs and volatile salts that so soon as ever it is in the stomach it falls a pricking the Fibers and moving to vomit The Oil of Tabaco is so great a vomit that if one should but hold ones Nose a little over the Viol in which it is kept it would make one vomit One day I made a small Incision in the skin of a dog's thigh and thrusting in a little tent dipt in the Oil of Tabaco the dog immediately purged both upwards and downwards with a great deal of violence The fixt salt of Tabaco may be made as I have said but if you would have any quantity of it you must join a great deal of other Tabaco with it for receiving so little matter out of the Retort it would be hard to get a drachm of Salt CHAP. XIX Extractum Panchymagogum THIS Extract is a farrago of the purer substances of divers purgative and cordial medicines Take an ounce and a half of the Pulp of Coloquintida one ounce of the Pulvis Diarrhodon Abbatis so much good Agarick and two ounces of black Hellebore powder them all grosly and put them into a matrass pour upon it rain-rain-water distilled four fingers above the mixture Stop the matrass close and set it in digestion in hot sand or in horse dung three or four days and shake the vessel ever now and then After this pass your infusion through a cloth pour upon the residence a like quantity of the same liquor let it infuse as before then strain and express it strongly mix your infusions and let them settle until they become clear decant them and evaporate the liquor in an earthen pan in a sand-heat with a little fire to the consistence of a Syrop then mix with them half an ounce of Rosine of Scammony and two ounces of Extract of Aloes evaporate the whole to the consistence of an Extract It purges all the humors well the dose is from one scruple to two in Pills Remarks The flesh or pulp of Coloquintida is nothing but the apple it self cleansed from its Seeds It purges the Brain the best is that which is whitest and lightest The powder Diarrhodon Abbatis is Cordial and resists the malignity of humors it takes its name from the Rose which is its Basis The Agarick is a Rosinous Mushrom that grows on the Larix the best is the whiter lighter and most friable it is used for to purge the brain The root of black Hellebore is a very strong purger of Melancholy wherefore it is given to Hypochondriacal persons and even to the Maniacal it gives a vomit when taken alone but with this mixture it fixes downwards the white is a poison taken inwardly it is never used but for sneezing powders Scammony is a very Purgative resinous juyce the best is most friable and which being powdered hath a grey colour drawing towards white its Rosine is drawn from it as that of Jalap Aloes is said to purge Choler I have spoken of its virtues sufficiently already when I described its Extract Spirit of Wine is commonly used to make this Extract and it may seem to be so much the purer being drawn by this dissolvent rather than by a watry Menstruum for spirit of wine dissolves only the more Balsamick and purer part of mixt bodies but nevertheless I chuse rather to prefer the use of Dew or else Rain-water nay and even common water before Spirit of wine for several reasons First because in the evaporation of the liquidity of the Extract drawn by Spirit of wine a great many of the more subtile parts are lost which this dissolvent had volatilized And indeed it cannot be denied but some useful parts will evaporate let us use what dissolvent we please but it is plain there is no such great loss when watry menstruums are used as when Spirit of wine Now we should always prefer such menstruums as are best able to preserve the virtue of the mixt whose Extract we intend to draw The second is because Spirit of wine does always leave some impression of heat and acrimony in the Extracts it draws which the liquors that I use do not do The third is because Spirit of wine is not so convenient a menstruum to dissolve the salts which the Ingredients we use are full of and it is in this salt that their greatest virtue does consist Wherefore we ought to chuse such dissolvents as can best preserve the virtue of mixt bodies and such as are familiar to our nature We must use Spirit of wine to extract
tinn'd o' th' inside supported on two Iron bars q The Head r A copper Pipe tinn'd passing through a vessel filled with water s A glass Receiver t A small Iron Furnace u An Iron pot x The Cover to the Iron pot y A Cock to let the water out of the vessel when it grows too hot z A Matrass or Bolt-head The FIRST TABLE The SECOND TABLE a a A Moveable Furnace for fusions b Registers or holes to let the air into the fire c A Dome divided in two d A little Chimny and the flame passing through it e An Iron trevet to support the furnace f A glass Mortar with its Pestle g h A pot with a coffin of paper over it for receiving the Flowers of Benjamin i k l A Matrass or Bolt-head and its blind-head for sublimations m n A great earthen pan with a little Cup turned upside downwards A Crucible containing the lighted Sulphur A great glass Tunnel to draw Spirit of Sulphur o A Mould p A copper Body q Its Refrigeratory r The Receiver s A Circulating vessel t A Pot with a hole in the middle of its height and the stopple of the hole lying by u Three Aludels or Pots upon one another x The glass head y A Mould to make the balls of Regulus of Antimony which are called perpetual Pills z The Mould wherewith to form the lapis infernalis a a A little furnace and its pan with sand in it and an earthen pan filled with liquor to be evaporated b b A Coppel c c A little Coppel to make trials with The SECOND TABLE The THIRD TABLE A Moveable Furnace to distil in Sand. a The Ash-hole and its door b The Fire-place and its door c The Cucurbite or Body d The Sand wherein the Body is placed e The Head f The Receiver g The same Furnace empty h A Body i A Head k A glass in which Oil of Cloves is made l A Copper Balneum to contain and distil with four Alembicks m n A Pipe through which the hot water is poured into the Balneum according as it evaporates o The Receiver p A Balneum to distil with one Alembick q A Mold to make Cups of Regulus of Antimony r A French Crucible s A German Crucible The THIRD TABLE Reverberatory Furnace You may also leave holes through which the Iron-bars may pass which support the Retort that they may be easily taken out when you have a mind to use this Furnace for Fusions A Furnace of this form may be called Polychrest or general because such a one may be used for all sorts of Operations It is likewise convenient for Fusions to have a moveable Furnace of the same matter as the others it must be round and may be set upon a stool it is to have only one grate and six Registers or holes on the sides to let in the air to the fire The Dome may be made of the same matter for to cover it and a small earthen Chimney for to place upon the hole of the Dome that the fire may keep the stronger See the figure of it in the second Table You must be sure to put sand or broken pots or such like things into the Paste that you use for the building Furnaces either fixt or moveable to hinder them from cracks when they come to dry for these matters rendring the clay more porous the wet breaths out much the more easily Again Lime and Sand tempered together might serve for the building your fixt Furnaces and stones might be used instead of bricks but because it is necessary to increase and lessen the Furnaces to proportion their size to the vessels you would place in them the description which I gave before is the more convenient for that a man may very easily break them and build them again without the help of a Brick-layer A small Iron Furnace with its iron pot and a cover to it is convenient for performing many operations this pot may serve for a Balneum Mariae and for a Vaporous Bath when there is no other It may be likewise used to distil by an Alembick in a Bath of Sand Ashes or of filings of Iron See the description of it in the first Table A great Iron Furnace should likewise be had whereon to place a Copper Balneum Mariae for to distil with four bodies at once In the middle of this Bath there should be a pipe raised the top of which must be made like a Funnel into which you are to pour hot water in place of that which consumes away in vapour See its figure in the third Table As for Vessels chuse them as much as may be of Earth or Glass for it is to be feared that those which are made of Metal will communicate some particular impression to the Liquors you put into them but because sometimes you may have occasion to distil a great many things in a little time you may use the Copper-Cucurbit or Body Tinn'd because that Tinn is not so soluble as Copper and besides hath no such pernicious quality upon this Cucurbit place a fit head round about which must be made a kind of bason to hold the water that cools and condenses the vapours which rise from the Matter contained in the Vesica so soon as it is heated See its description in the second Table You may likewise provide a Copper pipe tinn'd o' th' inside which may pass sloping downwards through a vessel fill'd with water and when you would distil Essences with it you must fit the upper end of it to the nose of the head and the lower end of it to the mouth of the Receiver but you must remember to empty the water out of the vessel according as it grows hot for to cool the liquor that is distilling and to this end there must be a hole made at the bottom of the vessel to be stopt with a wooden stopple which may be taken out and put in again as often as you would let out the water The Moor's head is a Copper cap tinn'd on the inside made like to a head See the figure of it in the first Table Many Retorts of different sizes are necessary in a Laboratory those which are of Earth are convenient for the distillation of Acid Spirits because they are able to endure the utmost degree of Fire and will not melt as glass do The Vessels made of Earth have their pores as close as glass it self and preserve the Spirits as well They who want Earthen Vessels may coat their glass Retorts with the Lute that I shall describe hereafter that if the glass should melt when they are distilling Acid Spirits the Lute may preserve the matter safe Earthen and Glass Cucurbits with their heads do serve for a great many Operations Matrasses both great and small when they are fitted to the nose of a Limbeck are called Receivers at other times we put things into them to digest and they are also fit for sublimations When the
and its reduction into an impalpable Powder To Amalgamate Gold is to mix it with Quicksilver Take a Drachm of the Regule of Gold beat it into very thin little Plates which you must heat in a Crucible red hot in a large Fire then pour upon it an ounce of Quicksilver revived from Cinnaber as I shall shew hereafter stir the matter with a little Iron-rod and when you find it begin to raise a fume which quickly happens cast your mixture into an Earthen Pan fill'd with Water it will coagulate and become tractable wash it several times to take away its blackness thus you have an Amalgame from which you must separate the Mercury that you find not united by pressing it a little between your fingers in a linnen cloth The Gold retains about thrice its weight in Mercury Now to reduce this Gold into Powder you must put this Amalgame into a Crucible over a gentle fire the Mercury will evaporate into the Air and leave the Gold at bottom in an impalpable Powder Remarks Mercury doth easily penetrate Gold and insinuating into its Pores makes a soft matter that is called Amalgame it doth the same with other Metals too except Iron and Copper which are too ill digested to receive its impression The Amalgamation of Gold is useful to Gilders for so it is easily extended upon their works Aurum Fulminans called Saffron of Gold This Operation is a Gold impregnated with some Spirits which cause it to give a loud crack when it is set over the Fire Take what quantity you please of Gold beaten into thin plates put it into a Viol or Matrass and pour upon it by little and little three or four times as much Aqua Regalis compounded after the manner I shall shew in its proper place Set the Matrass upon Sand a little heated until the Aqua Regalis has dissolved as much of the Gold as it is able to contain which you will know by the ceasing of the ebullitions pour your solution into a Glass-vessel of five or six times as much common Water Afterwards drop into this mixture by degrees the Volatile Spirit of Salt Armoniack or the Oyl of Tartar made by Deliquium or Solution you 'l find the Gold precipitate to the bottom of the Glass Let it alone a good while to settle that all the Gold may fall down then pouring off the Water by Inclination wash your powder with warm Water till it grows insipid and so dry it in Paper at a gentle fire because it is apt to fire and the Powder would fly away with a terrible noise If you use one drachm of Gold you will obtain four scruples of Aurum Fulminans well dried Aurum Fulminans causes sweat and drives out ill humors by Transpiration It may be given in the Small Pox from two to six grains in a Lozenge or Electuary It stops Vomiting and is also good to moderate the activity of Mercury Remarks The Plates of Gold are made use of in this Operation that its dissolution may be more easily performed You must pour the Aqua Regalis by little and little to avoid the great effervescency that might be able to drive it out of the Matrass The effervescency proceeds from the violent division of the particles of Gold by the Aqua Regalis for when it finds no more bodies to act upon having divided the Gold into as many parts as 't is possible the ebullition ceases and though the Gold doth all remain in the Aqua Regalis it becomes so imperceptible to us as it seems the Water hath not changed from what it was before it appears so very clear and transparent Indeed the solution has received a Golden colour and becomes yellow The dissolution of Gold is a suspension of this metal in Phlegm made by the edges of Aqua Regalis For it is not enough that the Aqua Regalis does divide the Gold into subtle parts but it is further requisite that its edges do hold up the Gold as if it were like so many Finns otherwise it would always fall to the bottom in a powder though it were never so subtle Now 't is objected that the particles of Gold should fall to the bottom of the liquor because they being joined to the points of the Aqua Regalis they are become more heavy than they were before for the union or adhaesion of two bodies does cause a greater weight than when the two bodies were separated one from the other I answer that we ought to conceive the particles of Gold being suspended or held up in the Phlegm by the acid points much after the manner as we do conceive very well that a small piece of metal fixed to a staff or a plank will swim with the wood in the water for although the small piece of metal sinks to the bottom when it is alone yet it swims when it is affixed to the wood the acid edges are bodies exceeding light in comparison with the particles of Gold and they have likewise their superficies more extended and consequently do take up more room in the phlegm this is that which holds them up and causes them to swim The Oyl of Tartar or the Spirit of Salt Armoniack is used for the Precipitation of Gold because both those Liquors do contain an Alkali Salt which being mixed with Acids must cause a Fermentation Now in this Fermentation the parts of Aqua Regalis that held up the particles of Gold do grow weak and having no more force to retain them longer they must needs precipitate by their own weight Perhaps some may find a difficulty in comprehending how the Volatile Spirit of Salt Armoniack should come to weaken the Aqua Regalis that is it self compounded of Salt Armoniack but there will be no difficulty at all when they shall consider that the force of the Aqua Regalis doth not so much depend on the volatile part of the Salt Armoniack as on the Sea-salt that is in good store in it united with the Aqua Fortis for Sea-salt or Sal Gemma may be substituted very well in the place of Salt Armoniack for making Aqua Regalis as I shall observe hereafter speaking of the composition of this Water It may be also enquired here why the Dissolvents do quit the bodies they held before in Dissolution to betake themselves to some other for example why the Aqua Regalis leaves the Gold it was impregnated with to give way to the Alkali Salt This question is one of the most difficult to resolve well of any in Natural Philosophy Nevertheless I 'le give you my opinion of what can be said most sensibly on this Subject I do suppose that when the Aqua Regalis hath acted upon the Gold so as to dissolve it the points or edges that enabled it to do so are fixed in the particles of Gold But seeing that these little bodies are very hard and consequently hard to penetrate these points do enter but very superficially yet far
Principles it is sufficient for a body to be called an Alkali if it has its Pores so disposed as that the Acids may be able through their motion violently to separate whatsoever stands in their way Mars is almost always Astringent by Stool by reason of its Terrestrious parts and Aperitive by Vrine not only by reason of its piercing Salt but also because when the body is bound the humidities do more easily filter by way of Vrine Opening Saffron of Mars This Preparation is only a Rust of Iron contracted in the Dew Wash well several Iron Plates and expose them to the Dew for a good while they will rust and you must gather up this rust Set the same Plates again to receive the Dew and gather the Rust as before Continue to do so till you have gotten enough This Rust is really better than all the Preparations of Iron that are called Crocus It is excellent for Obstructions of the Liver Pancreas Spleen and Mesentery It is used very successfully for the Green-Sickness stopping of the Terms Dropsies and other Diseases that proceed from Oppilations The Dose is from two grains unto two Scruples in Lozenges or Pills Many do give Mars with Purgatives which is a good Practice Remarks The Chymists have called Calcin'd Steel Crocus by reason of its red colour and they have given this name to many other Preparations for the same reason Though Steel hath been always used in the Chymical Preparations that are used in Physick and is preferred before Iron for the Cure of Diseases it is certain nevertheless that Iron is fitter for that intent than Steel because it is more Soluble for if the action of Iron proceeds from nothing but its Salt as there is no reason to doubt the Salt of Iron must be much more easily separated in the stomach than that of Steel because as I have shewn before the Pores of Steel are more close than those of Iron and therefore this must have quicker effects besides that Steel being harder to be dissolved doth sometimes pass away with the excrements without bestowing any impression on the Chyle The reason that hath induced People to believe that Steel is better for use than Iron was its being thought to be deprived of many impurities by Calcination but that which is called Impurity is the more open part of the Iron and consequently the more wholesome This Preparation of the Saffron of Mars is out of the common road and longer a doing than the others but it is the best of all that ever were invented The Dew is impregnated with a Dissolvent that opens very much the Pores of Iron and incorporating with it renders it more active and soluble than it was before Iron doth open Obstructions by its salt which being assisted with the solid parts of the Metal penetrates further than other Salts But you must always purge and moisten the Person you give it to with broths before you presume to give it because if it should find the passages of the small Vessels filled and obstructed with gross matters it stops and sometimes causes Inflammations that create pains like to those of the Colick Many do use the filings of Steel without any Preparation at all Iron doth frequently open Obstructions by absorbing as an Alkali the Acid that fomented them Seeing that some persons have indeavoured to contradict the Remarks I have made upon the Effects of Mars and particularly concerning the preference I have given Iron to Steel for Physical uses I have thought it not convenient to end this Chapter before I have laid down and Answered their Objections First then they say that because the different substances of Mars cannot be separated as those of Animals and Vegetables can it is in vain that an Aperitive virtue is attributed to its Salt Answer I grant all the substances of Mars can't be separated so easily as those of Animals and Vegetables but because we find Salts to be Aperitive and commonly Remedies that are so are full of Salts and that water in which rust of Iron has steeped for some time is proper to open by way of Vrine it seems to me rational enough to attribute this effect of Mars principally to its Salt for if the water has carried off any taste or penetrating quality from Iron there 's nothing at all in Mars that is able to contribute such a virtue to it besides the Salt therein dissolved Secondly they say the Earth and Salt of Mars being united and in a manner become inseparable cannot act but by consent of both and receive together joyntly the good or bad impressions that may happen to them I Answer there 's no reason to think the Salt of Mars absolutely inseparable from the Earth for the water in which this Metal has steeped or boiled after Filtration does contain a Vitriolick taste and Aperitive quality Now it is the effect of Salt to dissolve imperceptibly in Water and drive by Vrine as I have said but if any body would take the pains to steep and boil gently the rust of Iron a good while in water then Filter it and Evaporate the liquor over a small fire to a Pellicle he 'l by Crystallization or by an entire evaporation of the humidity gain a small quantity of Salt and it is probable enough that there was much more in the water as may be collected from the strong taste it had of Mars but it being something of a Volatile nature it fum'd away in the Evaporation I do not say nevertheless that the close connexion of Earth with the Salt of Mars is altogether unuseful for this effect on the contrary I do conceive that this Earth rendring the Salt more heavy than otherwise it would be does help to drive it forwards and causes the Mars sometimes to penetrate as much by its gravity as by its Salt but we must attribute the principal virtue to the Vehicle which is Salt since without that the Earth would be a dead matter and would have no more action than other Earths bereaved of their Salts Thirdly They say that in all probability Mars does act only according to the preparations which the different juices it meets with in the stomach do make for these acid juices not failing to encounter with and to dissolve it there results from this dissolution a liberty to the parts of the body on which these juices did act and consequently their restauration a-new I am willing to believe that sometimes Mars may act in the body like an Alkali by absorbing and sweetning the acid humour which it meets with as it does absorb and sweeten the acid liquors which are poured upon it but it must not be concluded from hence that its Aperitive faculty does always consist in this effect because as I before hinted the water in which Mars has been put to boil is Aperitive and yet there is no Alkali in it to sweeten the acids of the body when it is drunk Fourthly They object that we must
not think the hardness of the parts of Steel above Iron whose Pores are more open does render it less proper for all sorts of Preparations seeing Spirit of Vitriol and many other acids are found to dissolve with the same ease both Iron and Steel I Answer that if Corrosive spirits do dissolve Steel they can dissolve Iron more easily and whereas a smaller quantity of them can operate upon Iron than Steel a better effect does thence follow Fifthly 'T is objected that the solidity of Steel may be an advantageous circumstance to it for the better fixing the dissolving Juices that are in the stomach and that for Metals the pure are to be chosen before those that are not so I Answer that instead of the solidity of Steels being helpful to the stomach it is certainly of great prejudice to it as well as to those other parts it is distributed into for the juices that are found in the stomach being but weak dissolvents are not able to penetrate nor rarifie this metal if it be too hard so that they leave it crude and indigest heavy and troublesome to this part Wherefore it passes away by Stool without any good effect as it often happens But now if a little of this Steel does happen to pass along with the Chyle it rather causes than takes away Obstructions for by insinuating into small vessels it stops in the narrow passages and causes grievous pains For what is said concerning the Purity of Metals it is of great use to Tradesmen for they by Purifying metals from their more rarified and Volatile parts do make them the less Porous and so the less liable to suffer prejudice from Air or time Thus Steel is much fitter for Utensils than Iron because its Pores are closer laid together and it takes not rust so soon as Iron but in Remedies it is not the same thing for those Metals that are more rarified and are more easily dissolved in the Body are such as we find best effects from for the reason I have given So that what Workmen call Purity is often but an impurity in Remedies Sixthly They say that if one would hope to find a distinct Salt in Mars it would be more likely to find it in that which is Purified than in the Faeces which are separated from it and which are indeed but the Impurities of Iron that Steel is made of I Answer there would be some reason to think that Salt might be more easily found in Steel than Iron if in the making of Steel Iron were simply Calcined without adding Nails and Horns of Animals in the Calcination for then it might be said that the Sulphur of Iron being in part evaporated its salt would be the more Soluble but we must consider that the Volatile salts which come from these parts of Animals being piercing Alkali's do destroy the acid salts of Iron and do thereby render the Steel more compact and unfit to take rust because the salts which by their motion did rarifie the metal are fixed and as it were mortified and have not the capacity of acting as they did This is the reason why a plate of Steel that has infused in Water will not give so great Impression to it as a plate of Iron Calcined of the same weight infusing the same time will do Another thing remarkable in the Calcination of Iron to turn it into Steel is that it is thereby deprived of its more Volatile salt which should have most effect with it in hopes to free it from Impurities and that which is called the Scories is the better part of Iron that has been rarified by its salt Thus for the same reason that some are pleased to call the rust of Iron its dross the whole metal may deserve the same appellation all of it being capable of rusting if it be but laid in the open air Another Aperitive Saffron of Mars This Preparation is the filings of Iron turned into rust in the Rain Put the filings of Iron into an earthen Pot unglazed and expose it to the Rain until it turns into a Paste Then set it a drying in the shade and it will rust powder it and expose it to the Rain again as before and so let it rust continue to rehumectate and rust this matter for twelve several times Then powdering it very fine keep it for use You may wet it with the water of Honey instead of Rain This Crocus hath the same virtues as the other and is given in the same Dose I cannot but prefer that which I described before because I conceive it to be more open than this Another Opening Saffron of Mars This Preparation is only the filings of Iron Calcined with Sulphur Take equal quantities of the filings of Steel and Sulphur powdered Mix them together and make them into a Paste with water put this Paste into an earthen Pan and leave it a fermenting four or five hours after which put the Pan over a good fire and stir the matter with an Iron Spatula it will flame and when the Sulphur is burnt it will appear black but continuing a good strong fire and stirring it about two hours it will be of a very red colour which declares to you the Operation is ended Let it cool and this Crocus may serve in the same Diseases as the former the Dose is from fifteen Grains to a Drachm Remarks I have thought good to deliver this Preparation for the convenience of such who need a great quantity of Saffron of Mars and who have not leasure enough to make it according to the other descriptions for it is sooner Calcined and is of a redder colour than any that are made with fire A Paste is made of the mixture to the end that the acidity of the Sulphur being diluted by Water may insensibly penetrate the Iron and open it the better and it is very easie to observe this penetration seeing that the matter does grow so hot of it self that a man can hardly endure his hand upon it It is the same thing whether you make a smaller quantity or make five and twenty or thirty pounds of this Preparation at a time it flames and half calcines before it is put upon the Fire which cannot be explicated but by the violent action and frication of the acid part of the Sulphur against the solid body of this metal This Operation may very well help us to explicate after what manner the Sulphurs do ferment in the earth when it happens to tremble and fires do burst forth as does too often happen in many Countries and among others at Mount Vesuvius and Mount Aetna for these Sulphurs mixing in Iron Mines may penetrate the Metal produce a heat and at last take flame after the same manner as they do in the present Operation And it will be in vain to object that there is no Air in the earth to help to fire the Sulphurs for there are clefts sufficient in the earth to give entrance
wherefore the Liver of Antimony where it is used is in lesser quantity The Liver of Antimony that 's made with common salt-peter is the redder and comes nearer to the colour of an Animals Liver than that which is made with purified salt-peter this happens through the fixt salt which is in this preparation more than in the other for common salt-peter contains much fixt salt as I shall shew in its proper place this salt does likewise make the matter the heavier As for the virtues of these Livers of Antimony the difference is not very great but only that which is made with purified salt-peter is a little more Emetick than the other I cannot pass by here the false imagination of some men who think that preparation of the Liver of Antimony of which half a drachm or two scruples may be given is much better than that whereof 3 or 4 grains perform the same effect for there is no doubt but the taking so great a quantity of Antimony will give an impression to the stomach that a lesser quantity is not able to do Furthermore whereas these kind of preparations do commonly open the Antimony but little or but half-fix the saline sulphurs it is to be feared lest some salt they may meet with in the stomach should open them too much or volatilize them and so cause most unhappy accidents When the Liver of Antimony is washed with warm water some part of the fixt Niter that remained in it is separated Many have believed that the more violent part of the Emetick was carried off by this Lotion but on the contrary this fixt part is more capable of mitigating than augmenting its violence for the reasons I have spoke already You must observe that if you should put four ounces of prepared Antimony into a quart of wine the wine will not be more Vomitive than if you should put but an ounce because being loaded with as much of the substance of it as it is able to contain the rest remains at bottom and cannot be dissolved unless more wine be added Now an ounce of Crocus Metallorum or Liver of Antimony is according to experience capable of impregnating not only one quart of wine but after having poured off the liquor by Inclination if you put as much more wine to the matter that remains and leave it in digestion two or three days together you 'l have an Infusion as Emetick as the first You may if you please renew the wine that is poured upon it to be infused nine several times and it will always prove Emetick after which if you Calcine your matter a quarter of an hour in an earthen pot unglazed over a small fire stirring the matter continually with an Iron Spatule you may infuse it again as before and it will render the wine Emetick That Emetick wine which is made with the Crocus Metallorum is most in use it is likewise prepared with the Regulus and glass as I have said speaking of them You might likewise make another sort of it by infusing warm some days crude Antimony in white-wine for the tartarous salts of the wine do open the Antimony but it would not prove so vomitive as the other The Emetick wine is given alone or mixed with Purgatives that convey it partly by stool When you find an Inclination to vomit you must be provided of broth a little fat and take some spoonfuls to facilitate the Vomiting and hinder the great efforts which sometimes break vessels and cause mortal Hemorrhagies to follow You must also consider that those who have their breasts strait and bodies thin are much harder to vomit than others But let us leave those particulars to the wisdom of Physicians Antimonium Diaphoreticum This preparation is an Antimony whose sulphurs are fixed by Salt-peter and are thereby hindred from working otherwise than by sweat Powder and mix well together one part of Antimony with three parts of purified Salt-peter and having heated a Crucible red-hot in the Coals cast into it a spoonful of your mixture you 'l hear a noise or detonation after that 's over cast in another spoonful and continue to do so 'till all your powder is in the Crucible Leave a great fire about it two hours then throw your matter which will be white into an earthen pan almost filled with Fountain-water and leave it a steeping warm ten or twelve hours that the fixt Salt-peter may dissolve in it separate the liquor by Inclination wash the white powder that remains at bottom five or six times with warm water and dry it This is called Antimonium Diaphoreticum or mineral Diaphoretick or the Calx of Antimony This Preparation is esteemed good to procure Sweat and to resist Poison and consequently is good in Malignant Feavers the small Pox the Plague and other Contagious diseases The dose is from six grains to thirty in some appropriate liquor All the Lotions may be evaporated and a fixt Salt-peter will be found at the bottom of the vessel which works much like the Sal Polychrestum Remarks In this preparation three pounds of Salt-peter are used for one pound of Antimony that after sublimation of the volatile parts there may remain store of fixt Niter which unites with the Antimony and hinders it from being Vomitive It is observable that three parts of Niter with one of Antimony do not cause so strong a detonation nor so great a diminution of the parts of Antimony as when there are but equal quantities And the reason of it is that there 's too little sulphur of Antimony for the quantity of Niter and that some part of the sulphur does remain unactive in the fixt Niter which admits not of flagration for the volatile part of Salt-peter does not burn but according to the proportion of sulphur with which it is mixed And this is a proof of my assertion in this matter that if you throw upon lighted coals a little of that Salt-peter which you shall have drawn from the lotions of Antimonium Diaphoreticum it will still cause a flame to arise by reason of new sulphur which it meets with in the coals which sulphur does joyn together with the volatile part of Salt-peter that remained I shall speak more at large of the flagration of Salt-peter in the Chapter of this Salt You must put the mixture into the Crucible spoonful after spoonful that the Calcination may be done the better When it is ended the matter is washed for to separate the Salt-peter that is unuseful But let there be never so many lotions they can never wash away a certain inveloping or cover that is given to the Antimony by the fixt Salt-peter for each particle of Antimony is so closely united that it cannot any way be separated without recourse to some reductive Salt and this is it that makes this preparation of Antimony to be not at all Vomitive Many do say it is Sudorifick but I could never observe any such effect sensibly Nevertheless I would
violently driven about by the volatile part of Salt-peter finds a little hole to fly out at The more fixt part of Arsenick remains at bottom with the fixt salt-peter The matter is Calcined again that being the more open it may be the more Caustick but this must be done in a covered Crucible for otherwise the Arsenick which is almost all of it sulphur would fly quite away by the great fire Corrosive Oil of Arsenick This liquor is an Arsenick opened and become of the consistence of butter by the acids of sublimate Corrosive Take equal parts of Arsenick and Sublimate Corrosive powder and mix them put this mixture into a glass-retort and set it in sand fit to it a Receiver and luting the junctures distil with a gentle fire a butter-like liquor resembling the butter of Antimony and when no more will distil take away the Receiver and put another in its place filled with water Encrease the fire and you 'l see the Mercury fall into the water drop by drop continue the distillation till there comes no more You may use this Mercury on all occasions like to another after you have washed and dried it The Butter of Arsenick is a very strong Caustick it makes an Eschar more quickly than that of Antimony Remarks The same thing happens in this operation that I spoke of in the Butter of Antimony that is the Spirits of Sublimate Corrosive do leave the Mercury to joyn with the Arsenick which they draw along with them in a gummous liquor the Mercury being afterwards disengaged and finding no sulphurs to fix it comes forth in a vapour and condenses into water CHAP. XI Of Quick-lime QVick-lime is a Stone whose moisture the fire hath quite dried up and brought into its place a great many igneous bodies It is these little bodies that cause the Ebullition when water hath opened the matter that kept them inclosed and this Ebullition lasts until all the parts of the Lime are dilated and the fiery particles set at liberty so that there is no need of further trouble to get out These little igneous bodies do likewise render the Lime Corrosive for the stone is not at all so of it self When the stone that Quick-lime is made of is grown red hot in the Furnaces the Workmen have a special care to keep up the fire at an equal height until the stone is quite Calcin'd for if the flame which has begun to burn among the stones should be suffered to lessen for a while and so the heat be checkt before the end of the work they would never afterwards be able to make Quick-lime with those stones any more though they should be at the charge of burning fifty times as much wood as is commonly required and this because in that interval of heat the pores of the stone which were begun to be opened do close and shut and the matter sinks down in a lump to the destruction of the whole And then again the flame can't rise in it any more for it finds none of those interstices or spaces between which were frequent before for it to pass through The matter therefore is rendred uncapable of receiving the fire any more because all the small cells that were useful for its reception are shut up and destroyed in this confusion It is objected that if igneous bodies were they that caused the Corrosion of Quick-lime Tiles Bricks and all stones that are not of the nature of Lime-stone and Iron Copper Silver Gold and many other bodies should be as Caustick as Quick-lime after having endured the fire as long if not longer than it But this does not follow for Tiles and other Calcined stones have not the pores disposed like those of Quick-lime to retain fiery particles and if some metals are found impregnated with them during their Calcination they are known to retain them so well by the solidity of their parts that neither the heat nor moisture of the flesh are able to draw them out of the places they are fixt in to cause a Corrosion upon the part It is easie here to give you an example for if you take the Calx of Lead that encreased its weight in the Calcination as I have said before and steep it in water the water will not act at all upon it and the Calx may be taken from the water in the same weight it was put in you must melt it by fire if you would separate the igneous bodies but now as for common Quick-lime a small matter of moisture is able to separate the tender parts of the stone and drive out the fiery particles in abundance It is said likewise that the ebullition of water which happens when flung upon Quick-lime must not be imputed to fiery bodies seeing neither spirit of wine nor oil when thrown upon it do at all cause heat although they are both of them Inflammable bodies nay on the contrary they are observed to quench the heat that uses to happen to Quick-lime when water is joyned with it I Answer that these effects do proceed from this that Oil spirit of wine and other Sulphureous liquors of the same nature instead of separating the parts of quick-lime as water does do rather hinder any separation from being made by stopping up the pores That which withdrew me from the Sentiment of those who will have all the effects of quick-lime derived from its salt was that I could never find any in it though I have sought after it with care enough for some through mistake do take a certain Bituminous scum which often swims upon the Lime-water for a salt Neither can I be of the opinion of those who will needs have an acid to be in quick-lime which being drawn out by the water and meeting an alkali does cause the effervescency which is observed when water is poured upon quick-lime for although according to appearance an acid may enter into the natural composition of the stone that quick-lime is made of this acid has lost its nature not only by breaking its points in its strict union with earth at the Petrification but also in the violent Calcination that is given to this stone to reduce it to a Calx So that we may here say the same thing happens to the acid which enters into the composition of the stone as I have said did happen to the salt of Vegetables and other mixt bodies which though naturally an acid salt changes into an alkali by means of its union with earth and the fiery particles in time of the Calcination there is only this difference between them both the acid of the stone is mixed with more earth than the salt of Vegetables When Lime is once slackt it neither causes any more ebullition nor heat with water but if you add to it an acid it makes both a considerable ebullition and heat because the acid edges will penetrate into the particles of the Lime where the water was not able to go There is not made
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-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-Sea-water is distilled over a fire â—ever so small it will not fail to carry with it some volatilized salt which will alter its virtue as experience hath testified several times But it doth not happen thus to Sea-salt Crystallized for it fixes of it self when the Salt-waters have setled for some time in places fit for their reception I have delivered my thoughts sufficiently touching the Origine of these three sorts of Salt in the Remarks I made on the principles wherefore there 's no need of repeating what I then said Sea-salt is made at Rochell in salt marshes which are places that must be of a lower situation than the sea and the ground must be Clayie for otherwise they would not be able to retain the salt-water that has been let into them Thus all places near the sea are not alike proper to make salt
marshes When the Season of the year begins to grow hot which commonly happens in May all the water is emptied that was let into the marshes for the better preserving them during the winter then the sluces are opened to let in as much salt-water as they think fit it is made to pass through a great many different Channels wherein it purifies and heats and then is let into places that are made flat smooth and fit to Crystallize the salt The salt is made only during the great heats of Summer the Sun does first evaporate some part of the water and because after the great heat a small wind does use to blow as is usual near the sea the coolness of this wind does condense and Crystallize the salt But if it happens to rain but two hours during the hot weather there can no salt be made for a fortnight afterwards because the marshes must be again emptied of all the water to let in more in its place so that if it chances to rain but once again in the next fortnight they can make no salt Salt is purified by dissolving it in water then filtrating the solution through brown paper and afterwards evaporating the water in an earthen pan until a very white salt does remain But besides the purification of salt by evaporation it may be further purified if instead of evaporation of the humidity you set some of it a Crystallizing in a cool place for very pure salt is found at bottom of the vessel which salt may be separated from the water and dried and you may then evaporate again some part of the salt liquor and set it in a Celler a Crystallizing and so continue your evaporations and Crystallizations but at last you must be fain to evaporate all the liquor because at last it will Crystallize no longer the reason whereof is that the remaining salt is full of a fat bituminous matter which is in a manner inseparable from it and this it is that hinders the Crystallizing at last It is probable that this fat matter may come from the earth of those marshes that were spoken of The first Crystallized salt being put into Oil of Tartar or some other alkali salt dissolved does mix with it without making any Ebullition because although sea salt is acid yet its points are too gross and have too little motion to separate the parts of the alkali The last salt being dried over the fire and mixed with some alkali salt rendred liquid such as Oil of Tartar makes a Coagulation and precipitation of a substance that appears saline and oily this Coagulation does proceed from the mixture and adhesion of some Bituminous earth with the sea-salt and the Tartar for the salts do easily unite with oily substances and in them lose their activity Many acid Bituminous salts which are drawn by the Evaporation of certain Mineral waters such as those of Baleruc in Languedoc and Digne in Provence do perform the same effects when they are mixed with Oil of Tartar This Coagulum does not dissolve in water as well by reason of the different nature of the salts it is compounded of as the oily earth that holds them together but it will dissolve in distilled Vinegar and several other acid liquors and then happens an effervescency because the acid does penetrate the salt of Tartar whose parts the sea-salt had no power to separate Calcination of Common Salt Heat a pot that 's unglazed red-hot throw into it about an ounce of sea-salt then cover it and it will crackle and so fall into powder this noise is called Decrepitation when it is over put so much more salt into the pot and continue to do so till you have enough The pot must be sure to be red-hot all the while when the crackling is over take the pot out of the fire and when it is cold put the salt into a bottle and stop it well to hinder the air from entring in to moisten it anew Bags full of it are applied behind the neck warm to consume too great a a moisture of the Brain by opening of the pores It is used likewise in several Chymical operations Remarks That which makes the Salt crackle when it is in the fire is an inwardly contained moisture which upon its being rarefied doth force its way out with impetuosity and finding the pores too closely shut to suffer an easie escape doth break through the parts and open a passage Now every thing else that hath close compact pores will make such a noise too in the Calcination as do glass and shells If you have occasion to use Salt decrepitated it is convenient to have it newly Calcined because the moisture of the air does return again what the fire had driven away But if you would keep it any time let it be in a glass bottle well stopt For as much as this Salt is deprived of all humidity by its Calcination it will absorb serosities much better than common salt It is laid hot behind the neck to the end that opening the pores it may facilitate transpiration A little Salt of Tartar may be mixed with it to render it the more active Spirit of Salt This Spirit is a very acid liquor drawn from Salt by distillation Dry Salt over a little fire or else in the Sun then powder finely two pounds of it mix it well with six pounds of Potters earth powdered make up a hard paste of this mixture with as much rain-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
writ that if Aqua Regalis dissolves Gold and cannot dissolve Silver the reason of it is that the gross points of spirit of Niter or Aqua fortis are subtilized by the mixture of sal Armoniack and are rendred fit to enter into the small pores of Gold whereas the delicate Fabrick of these same points does not leave them the necessary strength nor motion to divide the parts of Silver whose pores are a great deal bigger But this way of arguing does not agree with experience for what likelihood is there that the points of spirit of Niter are so subtilized by the penetration and division of the parts of sal Armoniack or where shall we find any example that after a considerable effervescency of two salts met together in conflict the acidity grows sharper than it was before this is a thing that can never be proved On the contrary every body knows well enough that no effervescency happens but the acid is in part blunted or broken thereby Moreover the Argument supposes that spirit of Niter does break its subtilest points in violently contending with the Sal Armoniack since also that in sal Armoniack there are alkali salts whose property it is to destroy acids I could further add here that the conjunction of salt with spirit of Niter should of necessity render its points more gross than they were and that the Crystals which are drawn by aqua Regalis have their shape not so keen as those that are drawn by aqua Fortis But that which I have said is so probable in itself and so easie to be convinced of if a man takes never so little pains to consider it that I should but amuse my Reader to little purpose if I should offer to give any proofs of it Neither do I find it convenient to make a long discourse in explicating how Silver which has lesser pores is more susceptible of the impressions of Air and Fire than Gold which has larger seeing I have already supposed that the matter intercepted between the pores of Gold is more compact and consequently more hard to separate than that of Silver Volatile Spirit of Sal Armoniack This preparation is a volatile salt raised from sal Armoniack by the means of Quick-lime and dissolved into a liquor Take eight ounces of sal Armoniack and four and twenty ounces of Quick-lime powder them apart and when you haved mixed them in a mortar pour upon them four ounces of water and put it quickly into a Retort whose half must remain empty Set your Retort in a sand Furnace and fitting to it a great Receiver and luting the junctures exactly begin the distillation without fire for a quarter of an hour afterwards increasing it by little and little unto the second degree continue it until nothing more comes forth take off your Receiver and pour out the Spirit immediately into a Viol turning away your head as much as may be to avoid a very subtile vapour that continually rises from it Stop the bottle close with wax to keep the Spirit in you will have of it five ounces and six drachms It is an excellent Remedy for all diseases that proceed from Obstructions and corruption of humours such as Malignant feavers the Epilepsie Palsie Plague Small-pox c. It drives by perspiration or by Urine the dose is from six drops to twenty in a glass of Balm or Carduus water Remarks Quick-lime which is an alkali destroys the strength of the acid Sea-salt which in a manner bound up the volatile salts in the Sal Armoniack whence it comes to pass that as soon as Lime and Sal Armoniack are mixed together there exhales an unsufferable smell of Urine for the volatile salts coming forth abundantly do so fill the Nose and Mouth of the Artist that he would never be able to put the mixture into the Retort if he did not take good care to turn away his head while his hands are at work Water is added to it to liquifie these volatile salts for if there were nothing to moisten them they would suddenly sublime to the neck of the Retort and stopping it all together would break it to pieces You must stop the Retort with your hand so soon as you have poured the water into it and shaking it one minute you must hasten all you can to fit to it the Receiver and to lute well the junctures for the Quick-lime does presently grow hot so soon as its body is opened and this heat which is very considerable would spend the more volatile of the salts if there were no care taken to preserve them The Quick-lime being wetted does swell and take up a great deal of room wherefore the Retort must be filled but half full that there may remain room enough for the Spirits to rarefie in you must also use a large Receiver in which the vapours that rise in abundance may be able to circulate with ease This Spirit is nothing but a solution of volatile salts in water if you would sublime and separate it from the water you must put the liquor into a matrass with its head and proceed as I shall shew when I describe the volatile salt of Vipers but this salt being dry flies away more easily than when it continues dissolved in water so that it were better keep it as it is This is a stronger Spirit than that which is prepared with Salt of Tartar because the little fiery bodies of the Quick-lime which are mixed with it have quickned the motion of the volatile salts likewise these fiery particles are they that do hinder the coagulation of this Spirit with spirit of Wine when they are mixed together for there must be a cohaesion and repose of parts in order to make a Coagulum You must also have a care when you remove the Receiver not to hold your head over it for this volatile salt suffering a greater separation than before enters the Nose immmediately and hinders Respiration insomuch that several persons have been seen to fall in a swound by that means alone Now to avoid this accident you had best have ready a wet cloth to stop the Receiver with so soon as it is unluted This Spirit is an excellent Menstruum to make precipitations with it destroys acids exceeding well as do all other volatile alkalis it is used to precipitate Gold after it is dissolved It is good in those diseases I named because it opens the pores and drives the humours by perspiration or by Urine according to the disposition of bodies moreover as it is an alkali it destroys the acids which caused these diseases Again it sometimes causes sleep because it dulls the keenness of acid salts which entring into the little conduits of the Brain do cause perpetual watchings It is better give volatile Spirits in Sudorifick waters than broth because the broth being taken hot the heat would evaporate the better part of the volatile Spirits before a man could reach the Porringer to his mouth You
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
my Machine You must leave an empty space between the brims of the Bell and the Pan that the Fire may have air enough to keep it lighted but besides that the Fire is apt to go out every moment use never so much precaution a very poor quantity of Spirit is drawn this way Authors do recommend this Operation to be done when the weather 's wet and to moisten the Bell before-hand but I have found by experience that these circumstances signified nothing at all With the Machine that I have described I can draw a good handsom quantity of Spirit and I am not forced to fire the Sulphur several times because the hole at top gives vent to the air and hinders the fires going out Again the more Phlegmatick part evaporates that way but the acid Spirit not being able to rise so high condenses against the sides of the tunnel and then falls down under the little pan that is turned upside down to raise the other higher that contains the Sulphur You may use a Crucible instead of a pan to put the Sulphur in The greenish Sulphur is better than the other for this Operation because it has more Vitriol in it and consequently more Spirit for this Spirit is nothing but a Vitriolick Salt dissolved that differs little from the Spirit of Vitriol besides in the Taste which is not so Empyreumatical as not having undergone so violent a Fire The Vitriolick salt which is in the Sulphur does not rise until the more volatile parts are spent for which reason the Spirit does not distil until towards the end and the drops begin then to appear in the middle of the Tunnel Forasmuch as Sulphur is good for diseases of the Lungs and Breast many do think that the Spirit which is drawn from it ought to have the same virtues but they do not consider that this Spirit being deprived of the fat or most sulphureous part of Sulphur hath also lost the virtue that accompanies it and that it must produce effects altogether different from those of Sulphur after the manner as the acid Spirits which are drawn from Sugar Vitriol and many other matters have very different virtues from those of the mixts themselves And the reason of it is very plain for whereas the Sulphur by its ramous parts can sweeten the acrimonious humours which fall upon the Lungs and so help the Cough the Spirit of Sulphur which is an acid does prick the Fibres of the Larynx and cause a Coughing as all other acids do Salt of Sulphur The Salt of Sulphur is a Sal Polychrestum impregnated with Spirit of Sulphur Put four ounces of Sal Polychrestum prepared as I have said into an earthen pan or a glass vessel and pour upon it two ounces of Spirit of Sulphur set your vessel in sand and evaporate all the liquor over a gentle fire there will remain four ounces and six drachms of an acid salt most agreeable to the taste keep it in a bottle well stopt It is a good medicine for to open all Obstructions and to work by Urine and sometimes it works also by stool the dose is from ten grains to two scruples in broth It is dissolved from half a drachm to two drachms in a quart of water for a drink in Feavers Remarks This Salt is improperly called Salt of Sulphur for it is nothing but a Sal Polychrestum impregnated with an acid Spirit Many great descriptions have been given of Salt of Sulphur which being well examined do all come to the same thing as this it is called by many Authors a Febrifugous salt The true Salt of Sulphur truly so called should be a little of the fixed Vitriol which remains in the earth of Sulphur after that the flowers have been drawn from it and should be separated from the earth by a Lixivium as other fixed salts are made but such a Salt would not have the same qualities as this Some have written that when Spirit of Sulphur is poured upon Sal Polychrestum dissolved in water there is made a great effervescency as well as when the same Spirit is thrown upon Salt-peter but without doubt they little examined the matter for there is no ebullition made neither with the Sal Polychrestum nor with Salt-peter they being both of them acid salts The union of acid Spirits with acid Salts is very different from that between acids and alkalis for the acid Spirits not being able to open the insensible parts of acid Salts they do lose nothing of their strength and their keenness remains the same but it is not so in respect of acids mixed with alkalis for such a penetration is made into the alkalis that the acid loses its strength in them And for the reason that I have now given the Salt of Sulphur is very acid and tartarum vitriolatum is hardly at all acid although there is imployed proportionably as much more acid Spirit for the making tartarum vitriolatum than there is for the making Salt of Sulphur The Salt of Sulphur is good in Tertians and continued Feavers and on all occasions where there is need of calming the too great motion of the humours because the acid serves to fixe the volatile Salts or Sulphurs which are most commonly the principal cause of these diseases CHAP. XXI Of Succinum or Ambar THere is found in small currents near the Baltick Sea in the Dutchy of Prussia a certain coagulated Bitumen which because it seems to be a juice of the earth is called Succinum and Carabè because it will attract straws it is likewise called Electrum Glessum Ambra Citrina vulgarly Yellow Ambar This Bitumen being soft and viscous several little Animals such as Flies and Ants do stick to it and are buried in it Ambar is of different colours such as White Yellow and Black The White is most esteemed though it be no better than the Yellow The Black hath the least virtue of all Ambar serves to stop spitting of bloud the Bloudy-flux the immoderate flux of the Hemorrhoids Terms and Gonorrheas the dose is from ten grains to half a drachm It is likewise used to stop a little the violence of Catarrhs by receiving the fume of it at the Nose Some do think that Petroleum or Oil of Peter is a liquor drawn from Ambar by the means of Subterranean fires which make a distillation of it and that Jet and coals are the remainders of this distillation This opinion would have probability enough in it if the places from whence this sort of drogues does come were not so far asunder the one from the other for Petroleum is not commonly found but in Italy in Sicily and Provence This Oil distils through the clefts of rocks and it is very likely to be the Oil of some Bitumen which the subterranean fires have raised Tincture of Ambar This Operation is a solution of some oily parts of Ambar made in Spirit of wine Reduce into an impalpable powder five or six ounces of yellow
Ambar and put it into a bolt-head pour upon it Spirit of wine to the height of four fingers stop this bolthead with another to make a double vessel and having exactly luted the junctures with a wet bladder place it in digestion in hot sand and leave it there five or six dayes or until the Spirit of wine is sufficiently tinged with the Ambar colour decant this Tincture and put more Spirit of wine to the matter you must digest it as before then having separated the impregnation mix it with the other Filtrate them and distil from them in an Alembick with a very little fire about half the Spirit of wine which may serve you as before keep the Tincture that you will find at the bottom of the Alembick in a Viol well stopt It is good for the Apoplexy Palsie Epilepsie and for Hysterical women the dose is from ten drops to a drachm in some proper liquor Remarks You must powder the Ambar finely that the menstruum may open its body the better this Tincture is nothing but the Sulphureous or oily part of Ambar which Spirit of wine a Sulphur does become impregnated with a liquor that were not sulphureous would perhaps dissolve the Ambar but that which is dissolved by it would be the more impure wherefore you must always use such a dissolvent as is of the same nature with the substance that you would dissolve Half the Spirit of wine is drawn off to make the Tincture the stronger Distillation of Ambar and the Rectification of its Oil and Spirit Fill with Ambar grosly beaten two thirds of an earthen Retort or glass one luted place it in a Furnace on two iron bars fit to it a large Receiver and luting the junctures close give under it a small Fire to warm the Retort and drive out the Phlegm Afterwards augment it by little and little there will come forth a Spirit and an Oil continue the Fire until there comes no more then let the vessels cool and unlute them Pour about a pint of warm water into the Receiver and stirring it soundly about for to dissolve some volatile Salt that often sticks to the sides of the Receiver pour all the liquor into a glass Alembeck fit to it a Receiver and luting well the junctures make a small Fire to heat the vessel then augment it a little the water and Spirit will rise and carry with them a little white Oil continue the Fire until there rises no more and the thick Oil remains at bottom of the Cucurbite without boiling separate the white Oil that swims above the Spirit and Phlegm and keep it in a Viol well stopt it is given inwardly in Hysterical Distempers in the Palsie Apoplexy and Epilepsie the dose is from one drop to four in some appropriate liquor it may be mixed with a little yelk of an Egg to dissolve it easily in water or broth The water and Spirit do remain mixed confusedly together now to separate them you must pour this mixture into an earthen or glass dish and evaporate over a very gentle Fire two thirds of it that which remains is the Spirit of Ambar keep it in a Viol well stopt It is an excellent Aperitive and is given in the Jaundise stoppage of Urine Ulcers of the neck of the bladder and in the Scurvy the dose is from ten to four and twenty drops in some convenient liquor The Black Oil which remains in the Cucurbite may be kept apart for outward uses to chafe the Nose and Wrists of women in Hysterical maladies If you would rectifie it you must mix it with so much sand as is necessary to make it into a Paste and put it into a Retort and placing it in a Furnace in a naked Fire distil all the Oil the first that comes forth will be red but exceeding clear keep it by it self It may serve instead of the white The Oil of Jet may be drawn as the Oil of Ambar but because Jet is more terrestrious it requires a stronger Fire Remarks The Oils of Ambar and Jet do work in Hysterical cases chiefly by their ill smell for we see that whatsoever is ungrateful to the smell does commonly allay symptoms in diseases of the matrix and that good smells do increase them The reason of these effects is not very easie to find seeing that all that has been hitherto said for explication of them has only come to this that the matrix sympathizing with the brain does rise upwards to share in the good smells of the brain and sinks downwards when the nose is offended with that which is unpleasant Nay some have thought the matrix to be a little animal by reason of the many motions that have been observed in it These kinds of discourses are indeed very proper to leave people in the same doubts they were in before and I don't think any body has received any satisfaction from them Therefore let us try whether we can say any thing more to the purpose When a woman receives an agreeable smell the tickling pleasure which this smell produces in the brain by means of the olfactive nerve does move the Spirits and determinate them to run into the vessels in a greater abundance and with more agility than they did before Then also is perceived if she minds it a certain titillation of the parts and all the senses do seem willing to partake of this good smell All this is common to men as well as women But because the vessels which go from the brain to the matrix do swell with this affluence of Spirits they must of necessity be abbreviated in their length as a cord is found to swell and to shorten when it is wetted or as the Fibres of a glove do shrink when the humidity that is within them is rarefied by the Fire These vessels being thus shortned they must needs give shocks and receive like returns from the matrix And then likewise it is perceived to rise and to move upwards But because this viscus does commonly contain a gross bloud and humors very easie to ferment which are actuated by these shocks there do rise from it gross vapours which oppress the diaphragm and do cause that which is called the suffocation of the matrix These distempers do likewise very often happen to women who have no ways been offended with sweet smells but that which causes the same symptoms does work after the same manner As for ill smells they must produce a quite contrary effect for by striking offensively the nerve of the nose the Spirits do retire back to their places and consequently the vessels and the matrix do resume their ordinary disposition But you will say perhaps that a grain of Musk or Civet is often applyed to the Navil to settle the mother and to lay the vapours This has been practised indeed by some but without any proof that ever it did any good or that it gave any ease Civet is put into the middle of
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
they do put one drop of it into the aking tooth and this allaies the pain in a very little time by reason of the Opium but there is one thing to be apprehended from this use of Opiates and that is deafness some have thereby become deaf though indeed that rarely happens You may rectifie the Spirit of Cloves by distilling it in sand And when you have distilled two thirds of it you must keep it in a Viol well stopt and fling away the phlegm which remains at bottom of the Cucurbite The Spirit of Cloves is a good stomachick it is good to help concoction to comfort the heart to perspire ill humors and to provoke Seed the dose is from six drops to twenty in some convenient liquor CHAP. VIII Of Nutmegs NVtmeg is the fruit of a Tree as big as a Pear-Tree which grows in the Isle Banda in the West-Indies It is called Nucista Nux Moschata Myristica Vnguentaria and Aromatites While it is green it is clothed with two Barks but when it comes to maturity the uppermost chaps and lets the second appear which is tender and very fragrant This last Bark is called Mace and improperly the Flower of Nutmegs The best Nutmeg is that which is most weighty it is mixed in Carminative Hysterical Remedies Sometimes a sort of Nutmegs called Male-Nutmeg is found at the Druggist which differs from the common sort in that it is longer and weaker Oil of Nutmeg Take sixteen ounces of good Nutmegs beat them in a Mortar until they are almost in a Paste and put them upon a boulter cover them with a piece of strong Cloth and an earthen pan over that put your cloth over a kettle half filled with water and set the kettle upon the fire that the vapour of the water may gently warm the Nutmegs when you shall find upon touching the pan that it is so hot you cannot endure your hand upon it you must take off the boulter and putting the matter into a linnen cloth take its four corners and tye them quickly together put them into a press between a couple of warm plates set the pan underneath and there will come forth an Oil which congeals as it grows cold express the matter as strongly as you are able to draw out all the Oil then keep it in a pot well stopt this Oil is very stomachick being applyed outwardly or else given inwardly The dose is from four grains to ten in broth or some more convenient liquor It is commonly mixed with Oil of Mastich to chafe the Region of the stomach And this way the green Oils of Anis-seed Fennil Dill and Mace may be drawn Remarks The Nutmegs must be well beaten or else they will yield little Oil this way of warming them is called the Vaporous Bath The ordinary method is to heat the Nutmegs in a kettle and then express them strongly but because the warming them that way carries off a great deal of its volatile parts the Oil never proves so good as when made with the circumstances I have mentioned for thus the matter heats insensibly by the vapour of the water and alters not its virtue in the least and if any water doth mix with the Nutmegs it is easily separated from the Oil. They who desire to have it very fragrant may set it over a vessel of wine instead of water If you draw the Oil from sixteen ounces of Anis-seed the way I have described you may obtain from six drachms to nine drachms and a half of it according to the goodness of the Anis-seed you use this Oil will be of a green colour The Oils of Almonds Wall-nuts Gold seeds Hazle nuts Poppy and Behen must be only beaten and so put into the press without heating because they do yield their Oils very easily and because these Oils are often taken inwardly it is better to draw them without the help of fire to avoid the Empyreumatical impression it would otherwise take CHAP. IX Distillation of an Odoriferous Plant such as Balm its Extract and fixt Salt TAke a good quantity of Balm newly gathered when it is in its vigour beat it well in a Mortar and put it into a large earthen pot make a strong decoction of other Balm and pour of it into the pot enough to swet it sufficiently cover the pot and leave it two days indigestion then put the Matter into a large Copper Vesica and cover it with its Refrigeratory or Head Tin'd on the inside set it in a Furnace and fitting to it a Receiver lute the junctures with a wet bladder make a fire of the second degree under it and distil about half the water you poured upon the Balm then let the Vessels cool and unlute them You 'l find in the Receiver a very good Balm-water put it into a bottle and expose it to the Sun five or six days open then stop it and keep it for use It is used in Hysterical Maladies in the Palsie Apoplexy and Malignant Feavers it is given from two to six ounces Express through a linnen cloth strongly that which remains in the body and let the Expression settle filter it and evaporate the water with a gentle heat in an Earthen vessel until there remains an Extract in the consistence of thick hony 'T is a good remedy for such diseases as proceed from corrupt Humors it works by perspiration or by Urine the dose is from a Scrupule to a Drachm dissolved in its proper water Dry the Residence that remains after expression and burn it with good store of other Balm likewise dried you may obtain an Alkali salt from the ashes by a Lixivium the same way I spoke of concerning the salt of Guaiacum This Salt is Aperitive and Sudorifick the dose is from ten grains to a Scrupule in Balm-water The Water Extract and Salt of all Odoriferous Plants such as Sage Marjoram Time Mint Hyssop c. may be drawn after the same manner Remarks Perhaps some will think it strange that I add water for the distillation of Balm but those who use to work on this sort of Herbs do know well enough that being dry substances of themselves there is no good distilling them without first wetting them and besides the water that is added doth only serve to imbibe the volatile parts as the Fermentation operates and when the matter is heated the more spirituous part as being the lighter rises first and savours much less of the Empyreume than if the herb were distilled without first wetting it You must observe in these distillations to give a fire from the second to the third degree because if it were made too little none of the Essential or volatile Salt of the Plant would rise and if it were too strong the water would taste of the Empyreume wherefore to make a good distillation you must let one drop follow another slowly The waters so soon as they are distilled have commonly no great smell but when they have lain some time in the
into good Vinegar It may be some such thing happens in the Bodies of those who accustom to drink too much wine for whereas the volatile parts which ascend to the Brain and Heart by an agitation of the Spirits do beget Joy so on the contrary the Tartareous parts by fixing the humors about the Hypochondria do cause by little and little that which is called Melancholy which proceeds from an acid whence it comes to pass that many men making a debauch upon wine with design to pass away their Melancholy do afterwards find they have encreased it when the debauch hath had its effect If you would by way of curiosity make an exact Analysis of wine you must take that which remains in the body after distillation of the Brandy and distil off all the phlegm there will remain a Matter like unto Rosine put it into a Retort and placing it in a Furnace distil away more phlegm in a small fire until it begins to come sharp Then fit a large Receiver to the Retort and luting well the junctures strengthen the fire by degrees to drive forth acid Spirits and a little fetid Oil continue the fire until there comes no more The Oil is separated from the Spirit in a Tunnel lined with brown paper for the Spirit will pass through and the Oil being too thick will remain But it is here remarkable that more of this Spirit and Oil is drawn from Muste than wine which sufficiently proves the Remark I made before touching the origine of the volatile Spirit of wine for seeing good store of the Oil of Muste hath contributed to the making volatile Spirit of Wine there must needs remain but very little Oyl in the liquor that Brandy is drawn from The acid Spirit of wine and the Black Oil are like to those of Tartar which I shall describe anon And an alkali salt wholly resembling that of Tartar may be drawn by a Lixivium from the mass that remains in the Retort Spirit of Wine Spirit of Wine is the oily part of wine rarefied by acid Salts Fill a large bolt-head with a long neck half full with Brandy and fitting a head and Receiver lute close the junctures set your bolthead upon a pot half filled with water to distil in a vaporous Bath the Spirit which separates from the phlegm and rises pure continue this degree of fire until nothing more distils thus you 'l have a dephlegmated Spirit of Wine in the very first distillation It serves for a Menstruum to a great many things in Chymistry half a spoonful of it is given to Apoplectical and Lethargical persons to make them come to themselves likewise their Wrists Breast and Face are rubbed with it 'T is a good Remedy for Burnings if applied so soon as they happen and it is good for cold pains for the Palsie Contusions and other Maladies wherein it is requisite to discuss and to open the pores Remarks The usual way of making Spirit of Wine is by distilling Brandy in a Limbeck so many times over until it comes pure and to do this about half the Brandy is drawn by distillation and the phlegm that remains at bottom accounted of no use Again half the Spirit which was distilled is anew drawn off and the phlegm thrown away these Rectifications are continued until you find by firing a spoonful of the Spirit that every drop burns and there remains not the least Phlegm but because this Operation is very tedious and it is a hard matter thus to get a Spirit of Wine wholly free from Phlegm even after nine or ten times repeating these distillations let the fire be never so small Artists have invented a long Machine which they call the Serpent by reason of the circumvolutions which it makes It is fitted to the Cucurbite containing the Brandy and the top made like a Tunnel receives the head to which a Receiver is fitted and the junctures well luted and the vessel placed in a small fire the Spirits of Wine do rise by this gentle heat but the phlegm being too heavy cannot ascend so high so that thus a Spirit of Wine deprived of its phlegm is had the very first time But because this Machine is hard to carry into the country and other places where one would desire to make Spirit of Wine and besides that it is subject to loosen in the joints through the violence of the Spirits I have thought that the way I delivered for making Spirit of Wine was more commodious for provided you have but a matrass and a head it will be an easie matter to draw as good Spirit of Wine as that by the Serpent and there 's no need to fear the Spirits breaking any way out of the vessel if you do but lute well the junctures as I have said The matrass must have a very long neck that no phlegm may be able to rise into the Receiver The vaporous Bath is fitter than any other to perform this Operation in because a most moderate heat is requisite to raise up the Spirits all alone now the vapour of water warms very insensibly You must continue the same degree of fire until there comes nothing more Some persons do endeavour to reject the method that I have described for drawing Spirit of Wine because say they a long time is required to draw a little Spirit and by reason of the difficulty they conceive in procuring such vessels well made at Paris and much more so in the Country But it is likely these Gentlemen do blame this method because they never tried it for if they had but taken the pains to make Experiment of it they would have found that with two or three of these vessels they might have drawn as much Spirit of Wine as they could be able to do with their great Machine and that this Spirit is not liable to the impression which might be communicated to it from Copper or Tin vessels As for the difficulty that there is pretended of getting such glass vessels there is none at all that I know of but only for such as will not take the pains to visit the Glass-houses for there they would find enough for their turn and though I use a great many of them in my Courses of Chymistry I never was to seek for any yet But suppose there were none to be found ready made methinks they might as easily bespeak them and have them made at the Glass-houses as well as bespeak those grand Copper or Tin Machines that are commonly used I know that such as are better pleased with making a Fair shew than with the effects of things and who measure the goodness of an Operation by the trouble it gives one and by the greatness of vessels and Furnaces will find here but little to their satisfaction But I am very little concerned at such mens exceptions I never endeavoured to follow their Track My design is simply to facilitate the means of working in Chymistry and to take away
of the Sulphureous Spirits which held it as it were involved and thus clear wine sowrs alone but it does not sowr so fast and the Vinegar is not so strong as when it is made upon Tartar Furthermore if we consider the Principles that wine consists of we shall find that neither the Oil nor Earth nor Water are capable of yielding any Acidity and that nothing but the Salt is able to give it Now it cannot be doubted but that the Salt of wine is in the Tartar It may be added here that the Air to which wines are exposed by leaving the vessel open when they would have them turn into Vinegar does likewise communicate a little of its Acidity to the wines by exciting and rarifying the Acid of Tartar Distillation of Vinegar Put six quarts of strong Vinegar into an earthen pan evaporate in Balneum about a quart which is the Phlegmatick part and pour that which remains into a glass or earthen Cucurbite and distil it in a strong sand-heat until there remains at bottom nothing but a substance like Honey keep this Vinegar well stopt many do call it Spirit of Vinegar It s principal use is to dissolve or precipitate bodies It is sometimes mixed in Cordial potions to resist putrefaction the dose is half a spoonful it is mixed with water and this Oxycrate is used to stop Hemorrhagies taken inwardly and to asswage Inflammations applied outwardly Remarks The Acidity of Vinegar consists in an Essential or Tartareous Salt which being heavier than the Phlegm rises last but you must evaporate this Phlegm very gently because the Acid Spirit of Vinegar will easily sublime with it I do use an earthen pan rather than a Cucurbite that the Phlegm of Vinegar finding a large open passage may evaporate the more easily It would be no great fault if you should distil the Vinegar without dephlegmating it first for the separating the phlegm from it is not of so much consideration as to make it as clear as pure water that it may not bestow any particular tincture to the ingredients that are to be dissolved in it The Spirit of Vinegar is much less fixed than many other acids because it partakes of the Sulphureous Spirits of wine which still remain in it Common Vinegar keeps its strength a longer time than the distilled because it contains a more Terrestrious Salt that doth not Volatilize so easily And for this reason you should rather chuse to use Vinegar newly distilled than that which hath been kept a good while All Acids do prove Cordial and good against malignity of humors when it is caused by too great a commotion because it fixes and Coagulates them moderating their motion Thus in places where the Air is corrupted and Pestilential Vinegar is a good Preservative you may every morning take half a Spoonful of it Fasting but in diseases which proceed from a Tartareous humor as the Hypochondriack melancholy it is rather hurtful than good because it fixes the humors the more Some having dried and calcined the sweet extract that remains at the bottom of the Cucurbite after the distillation of Vinegar and having by Solution Filtration and Coagulation separated from it an Alkali fixt salt much like to that which is drawn from Tartar they do mix it with Spirit of Vinegar and distil and cohobate it divers times until say they the spirit has carried off all the salt and then will needs have it called Spirit of Vinegar Alkalized or Radical Spirit of Vinegar and they affirm that this being much more pure and entirely united with its proper salt is much the more powerful in dissolving Metals But the distilled Vinegar is so far from becoming the stronger through this Preparation that I can demonstrate that it breaks and loses the greatest part of its edges in contending with the Alkali salt with which it is mixt for it is the property of this salt to sweeten Acids Neither is it necessary to believe that by distillations is so drawn the Alkali salt of Vinegar for it remains fixt at bottom of the Retort with the acids it is impregnated with so that this same Spirit of Vinegar to which so many great names and uses have been appropriated is properly the more Phlegmatick part of distilled Vinegar CHAP. XIV Of Tartar ANY gross or terrestrious matter that sticks to the sides of the vessel when separated from its liquor by means of Fermentation is called Tartar But the Tartar I am going to speak of here is that of Wine It is found sticking to Casks like a very hard stone sometimes white and sometimes red according to the colour of the wine it comes from White Tartar is to be prefer'd before red because it is purer and contains less earth both one and t'other are had in greater abundance in hot Countries such as Languedock and Provence than many other Climats but the best white Tartar of all is brought out of Germany it must be heavy White and Crystalline The Lees of wine are likewise a liquified Tartar they are burned and the Ashes that are made of them are called Cineres Clavellati in English Gravelled Ashes Crystals of Tartar This Operation is a Tartar purified and coagulated in form of Crystals Boil in a great deal of water what quantity of white Tartar you please until it be all dissolved pass the liquor hot through Hippocrates his Sleeve into an earthen vessel and evaporate about half of it set the vessel in a cool place two or three days you 'l find little Crystals on the sides which you are to separate evaporate again half the liquor that remains and remit the vessel to the Cellar as before there will shoot out new Crystals continue doing thus until you have gotten all your Tartar dry the Crystals in the Sun and keep them for use The Crystal of Tartar is Purgative and Aperitive it is good for Hydropical and Asthmatical persons and for Tertian and Quartan Agues The dose is from half a drachm to three drachms in broth or some other proper liquor Remarks This Operation is to speak properly nothing but a Purification of the more Terrestrious parts of Tartar You must observe to boil it in an earthen vessel rather than any metallick one because it would be apt to take some Tincture from it A Skin that swims a-top after evaporation of some part of the liquor was heretofore carefully taken off and there was thought to be some difference between it and the Crystal of Tartar But this Cream or Skin is only a part of the Tartar that begins to Coagulate and so it is the very same thing in substance with the Crystal You must not imagine that the Crystals of Tartar do much differ from common Tartar for they differ from it only in the containing a little less earth but all the five Principles may be drawn from the Crystals as from common Tartar When you would take the Crystals in substance you must make them into Pills or
Rosines such as that of Scammony Jalap Turbith but whenever an Extract can be drawn with a watry menstruum it is better to use that rather than another for the reasons I have mentioned Purgative medecins have been divided into Melanagogues Phlegmagogues and Cholagogues By Melanagogues are understood those that chiefly purge Melancholy by Phlegmagogues such as purge Phlegm and by Cholagogues those that evacuate Choler so then by mixing these three sorts of Remedies a composition is made that is called Panchymagogue that is to say purging all the humors as doth the Extract I have described Now to explicate the action of Purgative Remedies upon all the several humors you must consider in the first place that Melancholy is a very Tartareous humor and full of fixt salts that Phlegm is very viscous and descending from the brain sticks like Glue to the internal Membrane of the Viscera and that Choler is very thin and easie to rarifie The Remedies which are called Melanagogue such as Scammony Senna c. are full of Lixivious Salts which are very good dissolvents of the Melancholick humor contained in the lower parts in that these sort of Remedies do always descend and being strong purgers do raise a Fermentation where-ever they come Phlegmagogues such as Agarick Coloquintida c. do purge the Phlegm chiefly that is contained in the Brain because these Remedies are full of volatile parts which easily sublime thither by means of the Natural heat and rarifying this humor do make it come down by the ordinary ways of Purgation Cholagognes such as Cassia Rhubarb c. which are mild Remedies and are not strong enough to excite so great a fermentation as the others do only purge Choler it being very soluble and easie to ferment but they are not able to reach Melancholy or Phlegm by reason of their thickness wherefore there is no need of wondring why a greater evacuation of Choler than other humors is effected by these Remedies It is further observable that the Remedies which purge Phlegm and Melancholy do remain or leave their impression in the body a longer time than those that purge Choler because they more abound in Spirits or Salts Moreover it is not to be imagined that these Phlemagogues and Melanagogues do evacuate no Choler at all for they do force away all they can meet with but because it is then mixt with other humors it appears not so plainly as when it is wrought upon alone CHAP. XX. Of Turpentine THere are two sorts of Trees that the Turpentine comes from by Incisions that are made into them to wit the Turpentine Tree and the Larix or Larch-tree there are a great many of both sorts in hot Countries such as Italy Provence and even in Dauphiné Turpentine is properly a liquid Rosine in the consistence of a Balsom that which is brought out of the Isle of Chios is best esteemed and is also the dearest that which we commonly use and is called Venice Turpentine must be clear transparent fragrant and a little biting on the taste it is used like a Balsom for Wounds it is very Diuretick taken inwardly and is therefore given in Gonorrheas in Bolus or else dissolved in some liquor by means of a little Yelk of an Egg it gives the Urine a smell much like Violets It is often boiled in water and then becomes solid like Rosine and being so prepared is made up into Pills the Dose is from half a drachm to a drachm if you take too much of it it gives the Head-ach If in curiosity you should boil a little Turpentine in water for a quarter of an hour and after you have removed it from the fire if you should pour cold water upon it you would see a little skin spread it self upon the water which has many curious marble colours And if you gather this skin into a lump it will become a white Turpentine Distillation of Turpentine This Operation is a separation of the Oil of Turpentine from its terrestrious part Take three pounds of good Turpentine and pour it into a Retort large enough to remain half empty Add to it a handful of Stupe to prevent the thicker parts of the Turpentine from rising when the liquor distils you must cleanse the inside of the neck of the Retort and place it in a Furnace to distil in an open fire fit to it a Receiver and luting the joints begin the Distillation with a very small fire only to warm the Retort and drive out a volatile spirit after which augment the fire by degrees there will come forth first a clear Oil then a yellow oil and at last a red oil take care to separate these liquors as they do distil and when you see the red oil begin to come thick take away the fire and when the vessels are cold unlute them Keep all these liquors separately in Viols The volatile Spirit is an excellent Aperitive it is given from four to twelve drops in some appropriate liquor to expel Gravel out of the Reins or Ureters in the Nephritick Colick or to dissolve Viscosities it is likewise used in Gonorrheas The first Oil serves for the same uses as the Spirit the second and third do serve as a Balsom to consolidate wounds discuss tumors and to fortifie the Nerves Break the Retort and you 'l find in it a mass melt and strain it to separate the Stupe it is a good Colophone and is used in Plaisters to dry and to consolidate After this manner may be distilled Rosines Mastich Frankincense Tacamahaca Gum Elemi Varnish Labdanum and other Gums of this nature Remarks The Spirit of Turpentine is properly an Ethereal oil mixed with a little phlegm and Acid Essential salt which renders it Aperitive it is this Spirit that gives the Turpentine its smell A great fire is requisite for to draw the last oil and it becomes red through some Fuliginosities that fall upon it before it comes forth of the Retort If you should continue to raise the fire until there comes no more liquor you 'd find in the Retort nothing but a little light and very rarified matter that is good for nothing The Oil of Turpentine that is bought at the Druggists is a mixture of Spirit and yellow oil The Oil of Turpentine being mixed with that of Vitriol there grows a very considerable heat and if the Oil of Vitriol is strong it makes an ebullition I have endeavoured to give you a reason for it in the Remarks which I have made upon Distillation of Vitriol CHAP. XXI Of Benjamin BEnjamin called by some Assa Dulcis is a Rosine that distils from a great Tree in Foreign Countries the name of it is unknown though many have thought fit to call it Laserpitium this Tree is very common in Samaria and in many other adjacent Countries Benjamin is very much used by the Perfumers and it hath use also in Physick to resist the malignity of humors and to fortifie the Heart and Brain you must