brown Paper in which let it dry at leisure in the shade Obs 1. That the Faeces of both these Reguluses do contain a Sulphureous smoot of Antimony and a fix'd Salt of Niter and Tartar therefore common Water is easily impregnated therewith by ebullition Obs 2. That the Acid which you pour upon the said Lexivium filtrated produces three different effects of which the first is To separate the sulphureous and saltish Smoot from the common Water and so it appears in Curds The second is To give a gross yellow colour to the Curds and Water The third is To make the said Curds and Water stink abominably It produces the first effect because that the Antimonial Sulphur dissolved by a saltish and lexivial dissolvant remains incorporated with him till you pour in a little of a salinous Precipitant which being of a different nature to the dissolvant it happens that these two Salts thus mingled begin to whet one another and by their action and re-action cause an ebullition evaporation and dissipation of the sharpest part of the dissolvant So that growing weak he is forced to let go his hold and suffer the body he had seized upon to fall away to the bottom of the Vessel The Acid produces the second effect because all Acids do enliven and enlighten colours now the colour of Sulphur is yellow from whence it comes that this Antimonial Sulphur which in its dissolution was of a dark yellow in its precipitation becomes now of a fine light yellow Now all salinous Spirits do vivifie colours because they are of a detergent nature and do cleanse and take away all the greasie obscure smoot which did darken the lustre of the natural colour as linnen grows white and clean by bucking The Acid produces the third effect because Sulphur when it is heated is naturally stinking now it is heated by the action of the Precipitant and re-action of the Dissolvant This may be observed in the hot waters of Mineral Baths which stink extreamly of Sulphur because a bituminous and a sulphureous spring happening to joyn with a nitrous and vitriolous spring do whet and heat one another and so produce the sulphureous smell Obs 3. That if you pour a good quantity of common VVater upon these Curds that presently they are precipitated into a yellow powder because the said VVater dissolves all the Salts that remained in the said Curds so that then the Antimonial Sulphur being free from all tyes and bonds precipitates it self into a powder of a much livelier colour than that of the Curds because now the Sulphur has thrown off the Salts and appears under its own natural colour of Sulphur Obs 4. That the golden Diaphoretick Sulphur is nothing but a fix'd Sulphur of Antimony drawn from the Faeces of Antimony opened and melted by Niter for the volatil Sulphur of Antimony is so much the more venomous as it is volatil and that which is least volatil is violently vomitive and purgative but this being fix'd is only diaphoretick and opening and for a proof that the said Diaphoretick Sulphur is but a fix'd Sulphur of Antimony do but let the said Faeces of the Regulus of Antimony lye two or three days upon the ground and there will rise of it self without any Artifice a kind of a yellow Moss all over your Faeces which is nothing but the true Sulphur of Antimony purified It s Vse and Vertue It is a powerful Diuretick and Diaphoretick it serves principally to provoke the Monthly Courses of Women being taken in the weight of twenty or thirty Grains either alone or with Saffron Savin and Sene of each ten or twelve Grains infusing them twelve hours in White-wine and so continuing for two or three days together to the same end may be received by a Tunnel the vapour of the Lexivium of the said Faeces before their precipitation into Curds And take notice here that if the said Powder have not been carefully wash'd and sweetned that it may chance to purge and provoke vomit too The Diaphoretick Antimony or the Diaphoretick Mineral TAke one pound of Male Antimony or of the Regule of Antimony or of the Regulus of Mars and four pound of pure Salt-peter powder them very fine and searce your Antimony through a Silk Sieve then mingle them together to the end the Niter may well inflame the Antimony in the mean time set a Camion or great Crucible upon a Round in a great circulatory Fire when your Crucible is red-hot then with a wooden Ladle throw in a Ladle full of your matter cover your Pot to keep in the smoak which being past do as at first and put in another Ladle full so continuing till you have consumed all your matter then continue the Fire taking off the cover from your Crucible till there come out no more vapours which will be in half an hours time after which take off your Crucible for if you did let it stand any longer your matter would become a red Liquor which being cold would settle in a lump like the Liver of Antimony and would have the same Vertues because the excessive heat would have opened its body a-fresh then take out your matter by Ladle-fulls with a Tin Ladle and throw it as hot as you can into a great stone Pan full of cold Water and do not throw it in of a sudden lest some of the matter should sparkle upon your hands and face but dip in your Ladle by little and little when you have done all your matter then wash your hands and with them stir and break the said matter precipitated to the bottom till the Water become as white as Milk and your matter as small as you can make it Separate by Inclination the said milky Water from its Faeces who are a fix'd Niter undissolvable in Water and which you may throw away Let this milky Water stand three or four hours to the end that all your white powder may precipitate to the bottom then separate by Inclination this Water which will be good for the Itch then pour on more Water and do so till it come away insipid Having poured off the last Water there will remain a kind of white Pap which put into a Coffin of white Paper over a glass or earthen Vesica so all the Water will run into the Vesica and there will remain a white lump which you must dry leisurely in the shade upon the bottom of a Sieve Being very dry and in little white brittle pieces you may keep them so or powder them and put them into a glass Vial well stopped If you desire to reduce this Magistery into Trochishs you may do thus When it is yet Pap put it into a glass Tunnel and stop the bottom of it with your finger till your matter be setled then let go your finger and let your matter drop out in drops upon a Marble and so it will be formed into Trochisks dry them in the shade and not in the
taking away the Lute and cutting the thread that ties your Mould together Obs 7. That the Infernal Stone is nothing but a little Coppel-Silver dissolv'd and calcin'd Philosophically by Aqua-fortis then coagulated by the evaporation of the greatest part of the said Water and at last petrified by the fusion of the said coagulated matter which has retained enough of the Aqua-fortis to be in the consistence of a Stone It s Vse and Vertues It is a gentle and pleasant Escarotick it consumes by touching all Warts proud Flesh Cancers Ulcers and red Spots if you wet with a little Water the said Warts and Spots It appeases the pain of the Teeth using it as has been said upon the part of that Skin and Cartilage that makes the hollow of the Ear the crumbs of this Stone powdered and incorporated with a Suppurative consume likewise ill Flesh rotten in Ulcers It serves likewise to dye the Beard black if you put the weight of two or three grains of it into a spoonful of Water distilled from the green shells of Walnuts then with a pencel or some such thing pass it over your hair three or four times observing to hold between it and your skin a little Comb for else this Water fails not to black the skin wherever it touches and that because of the Vitriol that is in the Aqua-fortis and if sometimes the hair grow green it is because there has been dissolved in the Aqua-fortis Silver mingled with Copper in stead of pure Coppel-Silver Cauteries PUt a pound of Quick-lime into a stone Pan pour upon it by spoonfuls about four ounces of common cold Water not all at once but by little and little that so you may gently and without smoak slack it and so retain a good part of its volatile and fusible Salts which will contribute very much to the fusion of the matter of your Cauteries and so make them fitter to be moulded into any shape And besides it will make them more caustick for all volatile Salts are more caustick than fix'd ones Your Lime being well slack'd and in the consistence of paste pour at once upon it as much Water as will reduce it to the consistence of thin Pap and then put to it immediately two pound of good gravell'd Ashes heat red-hot before-hand for an hour in a reverberatory Furnace and in an unglazed Pot but you must put them in by spoonfuls as hot as possibly you can as we have already taught in the making of the Diaphoretick Antimony This done pour upon this matter about four quarts of Water which is as much as is requisite to dissolve all these Salts and so let it stand twelve hours to the end your Water may be well impregnated and thus you will have a Lixivium which you must separate by Inclination from its Faeces into a copper Basin which by reason of its Vedigreece will whet your Cauteries more and more and make them look blewish Set this Basin on a gentle Fire and evaporate your Lixivium till it be dry and have the consistence of a grey Salt If then you desire to use them as they are in a lump and without shape take off your Basin and take out your Cauteries by pieces and keep them in Glass Vials well stopp'd if you will have them well shap'd then when your Lixivium is dried to the consistence of a grey Salt encrease your Fire and melt the said Salt and when it is melted into a blew Liquor then with an Iron Spatula red-hot else the Salts would presently congeal and stick to it take up as much as you please and let your lump fall by drops upon a cold Marble there they will be shaped like half Beads when they are cold take them off with a knife and keep them in glass Vials well stopp'd with Cork to keep the Air from them Continue this till you have shaped all your matter and that the remaining become black and dry upon which if you pour some of your Lixivium which you must have preserv'd on purpose it will dissolve and be fit to be moulded as the rest At last if there remain as there will some black dry matter you may wash your Basin clean and throw that away Obs 1. That Lime contains two Salts one fix and the other Volatile the fix is dissolv'd in the Water which slacks the Lime the volatil evoporates in the smoak and boyling with this distinction That if you pour upon it at first all your Water and so cause a huge ebullition and smoking then all the volatil Salt flies away but if you slack it by little and little pouring only some spoonfuls at a time then there being but a gentle ebullition and gentle smoak the volatil Salts are but weakned and so do dissolve in the Water Now when you make Lime-water to serve to the making of the Phagedenick Water there it is not necessary to slack your Lime so gently because it suffices if you retain the fix'd Salt that so it may be able to dry and consume putrid Ulcers but when you make the Lime-water to serve to the making of Cauteries then you must strive to keep in the Volatil Salt because it is the Volatil Salt that makes the fix'd Salt of both Lime and Ashes to be fusible and therefore if you will shape your Cauteries and make them more Caustick you must retain the volatil Salt Obs 2. That gravell'd Ashes are a Calx proceeding from the Calcination of the Lees of Wine and old pieces of Casks which ordinarily are of Oak so that this Calx contains the Salt of the Lees of Wine and the Ashes of the said Casks of Oak the best sort is that which is blue and well dried and you may easily perceive that it is a Vegetable Salt and indeed nothing but Tartar calcin'd or a Salt of Tartar Now this Salt is fusible as it has been said besides we heat it red hot and throw it into this Lime-pap there to dissolve Heretofore we made use of Ashes of common Wood of Cabbage and Bean-stalks and we may use it still but this does as well and is to be had easily at Paris Obs 3. That in this Operation we use no 〈◊〉 of glazed Earth lest the Salts of Lime and Ashes should corrode the Lead and so dull their point and activity to no purpose which they are to preserve to cauterize therewith the places they are applied to nay if you do but evaporate your Cauteries in a vernish'd Pan they will lose much of their force Obs 4. That these Cauteries are nothing but a Salt composed of the fix and volatil Salts of Quick-lime and gravell'd Ashes which having been dissolved in common water have by evaporation been coagulated in a moderate heat then having been melted by a greater heat have been coagulated by cold upon a Marble It s Vse and Vertues The name shews its caustick escarotick vertues this kind of Cautery produces its effect in a small time and yet gently
very porous and spongious therefore always put it in Glass White-ware or glaz'd Vessels or Stone because that these are very dry and thick and there is no danger in glaz'd Pots because your VVater has no Acrimony wherewith to corrode the glazing all the danger is that the Frost should break them for preventing of which inconvenience you must keep your Vessels in a warm deep Cellar or in a Box full of Hay Obs 2. That the refin'd crystalliz'd Niter which you put in your Water serves to preserve it for many years and that Niter is fitter for this purpose than the fix'd Salt of the Plant which would be very tedious to extract by drying and burning of the Faeces then infusing the Ashes then filtrating this Lixivium then evaporating it to the consistence of a Salt Obs 3. That you must presently stop your stone Pitchers with a Cork stopple and it is not necessary to expose them to the Sun-beams Obs 4. That to make rose-Rose-water it is better to put pale Roses well picked into a great earthen glazed Pan and add to them water and common Salt for example upon six pounds of Roses as many quarts of water and one pound of common Salt and so let them macerate and ferment two or three days then put them into the Vesica and distil them observe that during the distillation and after it is done the Rose water does smell but very little of the Roses but if you will quicken the smell it is but setting your Pitchers some days in the Sun covered only with a white Paper then take them and stop them close with a cork stopple and set them up Its Vse and Vertue It is the same with the vertue of the Plant it is distilled from The soft Conserve of Leaves and Flowers TAke a deep large Pan set it in such a Furnace as the great Reverberatory Furnace throw a handful or two of sand into your Pan then place in it a stone Pitcher of a quart five quarters full of water fill up your pan with sand so as to bury the belly of the pitcher in sand Then put into the mouth of the Pitcher a Glass or Tin Pipe as big as your little finger and a foot long being bended in its middle angular-wise one end of it must be so streight that a drop of water may not go through in substance the other end must be pretty wide put the wide end lapt about with a little Linnen into your pitcher and then make a fire in your Furnace and cause your water to boyl as soon as it boyls there will come out with violence at the little end of the Pipe a moist burning vapour which will stream above half a foot beyond the Pitcher and yet not a drop of water with it set under this vapour a pan full of Leaves or Flowers newly gathered and fresh having before hand sprinkled upon them two or three spoonfuls of Spirit or Flegm or Vitriol or Sulphur these Leaves or Flowers will fade by little and little as they receive this penetrating vapour In the mean time you must turn them continually till they become like a thick hasty pudding which will be in half a quarter of an hour then take out these Flowers thus prepared put in more continuing so till you have prepared all your Leaves and Flowers then put them all together into an Earthen Pan and add to them double their weight of fine Sugar well powdered and searced incorporate them well together with your Spatula and thus you will have a very pleasant good conserve which will keep as long as that which is made by beating the herbs in a Mortar keep it in white ware pots Obs 1. That we have filled our Pitcher but three quarters full to the end that the water in boyling should not come out through the little end of the Pipe in its own substance but in Vapour Obs 2. That the Spirit of Vitriol or Sulphur with which we sprinkle the said Leaves or Flowers serves for two ends First it revives and quickens their natural colour preserves it nay and re-cals it if it were a decaying Secondly it is as a Salt to these Leaves or Flowers to preserve them from corruption Obs 3. That in all seasons even in winter you may by this method make a soft or Liquid Conserve of Roses with dry Roses whose dying yellowish colour you may this way revive and make them of a lovely red But the Operation will be somewhat tedious for it will last an hour but also the Conserve will last and keep longer than if it had been made of fresh Roses Obs 4. That if you take a straight Pipe half a foot long and put the wide end of it into the nose of the cover of the Brass Vesica which must be half full of water then the Sulphur that shall come out of the streight end of the said Pipe will do the same effect as the Engine described already Obs 5. That if you sprinkle the Conserve of Flowers of wild Popies with Oyl of Tartar made per deliquium or by dissolution of its Salt and then stir the said conserve it will become of the colour of Violets like Syrup of Violets and if you sprinkle the conserve of Roses with the said Oyl of Tartar and then stir it it will become as green as growing grass The Lime Water and Phagedenick Water TAke four or five pound of quick-Lime in stones and not in powder and choose such stones as are very well calcin'd put them into a barrel knocked out at one end or into a great stone Pot throw upon it at once two pale fulls of water and then stir it with a stick reiterating the agitation from time to time there will be a very great ebullition smoak in which the volatil Salt of the Quick-lime will evaporate in two hours or thereabouts the boyling will cease and the Quick-lime will fall to the bottom upon the surface of the Water there will remain a thin transparent white Ice which is the essential Crystallized Salt of the Quick-lime let this water stand for some days stirring it from time to time that it may be well impregnated with the Salt of the Lime or else at first you may separate it by inclination from the Lime that is in the bottom and then filtrate it through a brown Coffin of Paper and so keep it in great Glass or white Ware Bottels or Stone ones if you will provided they be all well stopped with Cork stopples Obs 1. That here we quench or slack the Quick-lime on a sudden all at once and so by a great ebullition and evaporation the volatil Salt of the Lime is dissipated for in this remedy we do not need the volatil Salt as we do in our Cauteries it is enough here that the Water be impregnated with the fixt Salt of the Quick-lime to be fit to cleanse and dry Ulcers It s Vse and Vertues It consumes the superfluous
Tongs put the head of it into this Brimstone which is in the sand presently the Brimstone will be in a flame therefore have ready a Glass-Bell well proportioned to the bigness of your Pan and with it cover your Pan as soon as the Brimstone begins to take fire and that you may lose nothing of the Vapour stop with Linen the junction of the Bell and Pan from this inflamed Sulphur will rise an abundance of white Vapours which will be converted part of them into acid Spirits which being received in the Pan impregnate the Water and part of them into yellow Flowers of Sulphur which will be found sticking to the sides of the Bell and Pan and will form a little skin upon the superflicies of the Water After a quarter of an hour the Vapours being ceased and condensed into Spirits and Flowers break that skin that the Water may be at liberty to re-impregnate it self with new Spirits at a second flagration then put another spoonful of Sulphur inflame it cover it and in a word do as before continuing this till all your Brimstone be spent When you have done there remains a muddy acid Water into which put all those Flowers of Brimstone which you find sticking to the sides of your Pan or Bell as likewise those that swim upon the Water put them all together into a Matrass of an ordinary size not luted which set upon a Salt-seller in the little Circulatory fire the Phlegm will be evaporated the Flowers will dissolve into the Spirit and the Spirit will wax black then with a wet clout take out your Retort and pour out your Liquor thus hot into a white Earthen Bason The Spirit being cool you 'll find in the bottom the Flowers congealed into a bright yellow lump By this method in one day out of four pound of Sulphur you may draw half an ounce of black Oyl and if you put an ounce of Water upon one dram of this Oyl mingling them well in a Matrass and then filtring them through a course Paper you may have that which is called the Spirit or Acid of Brimstone of a yellow bright transparent colour like Gold Or by another way do but evaporate the two thirds of your pound of Water impregnated with the Spirit of Brimstone and there will remain four ounces of a yellow inflegmated Spirit Obs 1. That we put sand into the little Earthen Cup lest the Brimstone inflamed should break it which it would do were it empty Obs 2. That Water is put into the Pan that the Spirits may be the better gathered without which they would be apt to be consumed to no purpose in the superficies and substance of the said Earthen Pan. Obs 3. That the Matrass in which the Evaporation is performed must be short-neck'd that the phlegm may the easilier evaporate therefore let it be two inches high Obs 4. That we pour the said Spirit hot into a white Basin and not into a glazed one lest it should corrode the Lead of the Vernish and so be weakned and loaden with a blackness which no filtration would be able to take away and the reason why we pour out the Liquor hot is because if we did let it cool the Brimstone would congeal into such a lump as could never be come by without breaking the Matrass Obs 5. That if by this method there is but little Spirit drawn from such a quantity of Sulphur yet by all the other processes you meet with in Authors you shall draw less It s virtue and use It cools and purifies the Blood resists Corruption appeases the Burning Feavers 'T is a very good preservative against the Plague taking three or four drops of it in a glass of water ever morning It is most excellent to touch Venereal Ulcers and Warts it dissolves Pearls and Corral It fixes Mercury but cannot dissolve him no more than the other Metals The Marks by which it is distinguished are the same by which Spirit of Vitriol is known from other Spirits but all the difficulty is to distinguish Spirit of Vitriol from Spirit of Sulphur Spirit of Wine TAke as much good Aqua vitae as will fill your Vesica or Copper body half full set it in a naked Circulatory fire fit to it its cover or Moors-head bordered with its Refrigeratory having before hand put into the Vesica's long neck five or six sponges held up by two sticks set a-cross and kept from falling down or rising up Then to the Moors-head Nose fit the moveable Pipe which shall join it with the long Brass Pipe that goes through the two Hogs-heads of water then starch on long slices of Paper upon all the conjunctions of the Pipes and over the Paper put cloth-ones which bind fast with pack-thread fit your Receiver of glass to the lower end of the long Brass Pipe that goes through the Hogs-heads set your Coals on fire and add some wood to them to make at first a great fire which may raise and distil your Spirit quickly In a very little time it will come not by drops but in a small stream like a Fountain In all the course of this Operation there must be singular care taken that the distillation be equal and moderate so that as soon as you perceive white vapours in the Recipient diminish your fire either by throwing ashes on it or taking a good deal of it away For these white Vapours are the Spirits which come in such an abundance that they have not had time to condense neither in the Moors-head nor in the long Pipe and therefore will easily scape out of your Receiver and so the best of your Spirit will be lost to no purpose besides whensoever the Distillation is performed in too big a stream though there be no Vapours yet diminish your fire But if it should come drop by drop then augment the heat you may take notice that the first quart that comes though excellent and pure yet it is not clear but muddy having contracted a foulness from the sides of the Vessel therefore throw it in again with a Tunnel by the little Pipe which on purpose is in the top of the Vesica and presently stop the said Pipe close with its Woodden stopper the Spirit that shall from henceforth be distilled will be clear and transparent By this method out of thirty quarts of good Aqua vitae you may draw eighteen quarts of good Spirit of Wine in a day and in one only Vesica You must observe often all along your Operation whether your Spirit be well deflegmated which try thus Put as much Gunpowder as you can take up with your two fore-fingers and your thumb into a little spoon which fill with Spirit of Wine then fire it with a Match or lighted Paper for if this Spirit take fire and burn blew till it be consumed and then fire the Gunpowder and that at last there be no mark of any moistness left in the spoon you may be sure your
Precipitate TAke of pure Mercury eight ounces and of Aqua fortis sixteen put them into an unluted long necked Matrass and of such a size as it be not half full lest when the Mercury and Aqua fortis are in dissolution there should be so great an ebullition as to cause the matter to run over stir a little your Matrass with your hands to heat the Aqua fortis then set your vessel on warm ashes to help a little more your Aqua fortis in its action upon the Mercury but have a care you give not a greater heat than is necessary for a gentle ebullition for if your Aqua fortis be over-heated and opened it will tinge by the means of its Vitriol your Mercury in a yellow colour as soon as your Mercury is entirely dissolved which may be done in half an hour pour your dissolution into an earthen Stone Pan or glass Bell the glazed earth being unfit because the Aqua fortis would dissolve the Vernish then pour upon your matter cold sea-sea-water well filtrated and impregnated with common Salt undecrepitated you may use about a quart of this Water till your dissolved Mercury be all precipitated to the bottom of your Vessel in a white powder And take notice that if you had used common water you would not have precipitated your Mercury but turned your dissolution into a white Liquor which would have discharged it self of a white sharp powder because that common water having no salt cannot fight with the salts of the Aqua fortis but if it be impregnated with a contrary salt there arises a conflict during which the Mercury scrapes and falls to the bottom leaving behind him a good part of his salts This done separate by Inclination your sea-water and pour a great quantity of common water upon your matter to take away the Acrimony which the Aqua fortis by its Niter and Vitriol has communicated to the Mercury and continue this till your water come off insipid Then having pour'd off your last water filtrate the remainder in a brown or rather white Paper to preserve the colour and dry your Precipitate in the shade for if you do it in the Sun or by the Fire it will lose much of its whiteness when it is very dry keep it in a close Vial well stopped and covered with an oyl'd Bladder Obs 1. That though this Remedy be taken inwards yet we use Aqua fortis and not Spirit of Niter because Aqua fortis costs less and is sooner made than Spirit of Niter which undoubtedly without this reason of sparing would be much fitter for this Operation yet we think that the great Lotions that are made do dulcifie it as if it had been prepared with Spirit of Niter Obs 2. That we take as much again of Aqua fortis as of Niter as well because the dissolvant must be stronger than the thing dissolv'd as because that Experience teaches that such a Dose of Aqua fortis is necessary to dissolve the Mercury entirely Obs 3. That the Matrass must be long necked that the Aqua fortis rais'd by the heat to the middle of the neck may cool be condensed and fall down again for in this Operation we pretend to nothing but to dissolve and calcine Philosophically and lightly the Mercury without penetrating its Body and opening it by the Salts of the Aqua fortis as we mean to do in the Red Precipitate and thence it comes that this Mercury after its precipitation retains its white colour and the nature of Quicksilver Obs 4. That if you pour hot Sea-water on your Dissolutions then you will not be able to precipitate entirely your Mercury because that the salt sea-Sea-water being sharpened by an actual heat would penetrate and dissolve a part of the said Mercury in stead of precipitating it Obs 5. That to make sea-Sea-water you must not take decrepitated Salt because it would be to no end to take away the flegm since you are to put it into Water and as for purifying it filtration will do that Obs 6. That the White Precipitate is nothing but Mercury opened and calcined by the Aqua fortis and retaining but very little of the Salts of the said Aqua fortis the rest being carried away by the dulcorations It s Vse and Vertue It is the gentlest of all the Purgatives drawn from Mercury though it be dissolved by Aqua fortis because it has been sweetned by Lotions It purges nevertheless more violently than the sweet Sublimate and its Dose is less For to Children it is from three to six Grains and for Aged persons it is from six to fifteen It cures the Pox taken interiourly and being dissolved with Oyl it may be exteriourly used by Frictions to cure the Itch c. This Remedy fluxes as easily as the sweet Sublimate because the Mercury being unfix'd in these Preparations has his wings left him wherewith he presently flies upwards in stead of purging by Stools The Red Precipitate of Mercury PUt four ounces of good Quicksilver and six ounces of Aqua fortis into a Matrass luted from its bottom to half the belly set your Matrass on a Round in a small circulary Fire give a gentle heat at first lest you should cause too great an ebullition then encrease it by little and little till your Aqua fortis be evaporated and you will know if your Aqua fortis be evaporated by laying upon the mouth of your Matrass a piece of Brass or any other Metal for if it be not wet then it is a sign that all the humidity proceeding from the Aqua fortis is evaporated then encrease the Fire putting live Coals round about the Glass as high as the Lute goes and continue the Fire till your Mercury rise upon the brim of the Matrass in form of a yellow Soot and that a piece of yellow Metal set over this vapour do grow white by rubbing of it and that is a sign that the Operation is ended therefore take off your Glass with all speed else your Mercury would all vanish away in this smoak Your Matrass being cold must be broken a little above the matter and you shall find in the bottom an Orange-colour lump the same in weight as the crude Mercury you used at first and this is it which we call a Red Precipitate Obs 1. That if perchance the middle of this lump were of a whitish colour then that is a sign that the Operation is not perfect and therefore you must reduce it to powder in an Iron Mortar and reverberate it in a Crucible with a Fire of Suppression till it become right Orange-colour Obs 2. That you must not give the Fire so long till your lump be red because than your Mercury would lose all its corrosive Salts and therefore would be disabled from consuming proud flesh which is its principal Vertue Obs 3. That we use here Aqua fortis to calcine Mercury because the Remedy which we intend is a Topick exteriour
Regulus time to separate from its Faeces Obs 5. That you must powder and mingle together the said matters that you must not make use of a glazed pot that you must not put in your matter till your pot be red hot that you must not put it in all at a time but by little and little and that presently after every projection you must cover the Pot with its cover That you must stir your matter with a stick for the reasons alledged in our observations upon the Liver of Antimony Obs 6. That the Regulus of Antimony is nothing but an Antimony opened and melted by the Niter somewhat more intimately than the Liver of Antimony because of the addition that is made here of the Tartar and Charcoal and also by reason of the continuation of the fire which devests it of its terrestreity and of a good part of its venomous Sulphur and flowers but yet it is endowed with a great emetick and purgative vertue Therefore we have not used here much Niter and though the fire has been more violent than in the Liver of Antimony yet it has not been strong enough to banish all the vomitive and purgative vertue as shall be done in the Diaphoretick Antimony The Vertues and Vse It is a milder vomative and a gentler purgative than the Crocus metallorum and it is used in three different ways 1. It may be powder'd and infus'd and so make a Vinum emeticum as has been said in the Crocus metallorum 2. We make of it eternal Pills 3. We make Cups of it in which Wine infus'd becomes purgative and emetick 4. It serves also to make the Diaphoretick by calcining it with Niter either in a fire of suppression or in the Sun-beams by a burning-glass To make the everlasting Pills you must have a Mould for leaden Bullets of the bigness of an ordinary pill lute with our Lute the lower parts and all the sides of your Mould to the end that your melted liquor being thereby kept in may be fitly and handsomly shaped into the form of Pills then take as much as you please of your Regulus and put it into an iron melting spoon with a long handle which set upon a great fire of suppression or in a wind Furnace cover the said spoon with a dry Tyle not a wet one lest it should fly then pour coals upon your spoon thus covered and give a melting fire till your matter be red hot and perfectly melted and as shining and bright as quicksilver then pour gently your matter into your mould and when it is cold take out your Pills which stick all one to another separate them and with a knife even them so as they may have no unequal parts which might hurt the throat esophage the Maw the Guts or the Fundament One of these Pills may serve you for ever taking it out of the close-stool and then making it clean for another time for one Pill of dragm has the same effect as the ordinary dose of Vinum emeticum and works as well as if you took three or four of these Pills at a time As for the mould of the Cup it must be of sand and can serve you but once your Cup must be as thick as a Crown piece you must make your addresses to those that cast Bells to make you a mould you may make one of Brass but it will cost you too much and yet will not do so well as one of sand The Regulus of Mars TAke two pound of Male Antimony one pound of Tartar and as much of Common Niter two ounces of Charcoal and six ounces of filings of steel or iron powder all these and mingle them well together and operate in the same manner as you did in making the Regulus of Antimony The Operation done will produce you thirteen ounces of Regulus proceeding from Seven ounces of Antimony and six of filings whereby you may perceive that the Antimony loses much of its smooty Sulphur and its sulphureous malignant flowers Obs 1. That we add here the filings to the end we may fix the vomative quality of Antimony but you must not put above three ounces to each pound of Antimony lest it should be so fixt as to lose its purgative vertue and contract the nature of a metal Obs 2. That we employ not so much Charcoal in this Regulus of Mars as in the precedent Regulus of Antimony in recompense whereof we put the filings which produce the same effect Obs 3. That out of the Faeces of this Regulus is also made the golden Diaphoretick Sulphur Obs 4. That the Regulus of Mars is nothing but Antimony perfectly opened by Niter and devested of its venemous qualities by a long fusion though not long enough to evaporate all its purgative Sulphur It s Emetick vertue is fixt by the Addition of Mars It s Vse and Vertue It purges gently by stool without provoking to vomit if it be infused in white Wine or if you make of it everlasting Pills or Cups in the same dosis and methods we have described in the Regulus of Antimony Nay more if you powder one pound of it and tye it up loosely in a coorse linnen and then let it infuse in a quart of the decoction of sudorifick Woods and Roots you may cure the Pox without fluxing by Mercurial remedies There is also made with the Regulus of Antimony and Niter calcin'd together an excellent Diaphoretick Antimony but observe that that which is made either with crude Antimony or with the Regulus of Antimony provokes vomiting except it be very well washed whereas that which is made with the Regulus of Mars never incites to vomit The golden Diaphoretick Sulphur TAke of the Faeces of Regulus Antimony or of the Regulus of Mars and boil them a quarter of an hour in common water in a Brass kettle to make thereof a dark yellow Lexivium which filtrate through a brown Paper Gather together all your filtrations and put them into a glass or stone vessel but not into a glazed earthen then one lest the Salts of your matter should corrode the Lead or Vernish and so black your powder then pour upon them two or three spoonfuls of Vinegar or Spirit of Niter Vitriol or Sulphur or some other acid the stronger it is the higher will be the colour of your Precipitate for these acid Spirits do much more vivifie colours than Vinegar does You will see presently that your Faeces will curdle become yellowish and stink your Curd being setled pour away the Liquor which you may keep to wash your Bedsteds withal to keep them clean from Punaises then upon your Curds throw common Water and you shall see them precipitate into a powder of a Saffron-colour Pour away this first Water and pour on some more in great quantity that you may at once sweeten your powder and take away from it its ill smell and its emetick vertue then having poured away this last Water filtrate the residue through a
Sun for the reverberation of its beams would alter the white colour which is the beauty of these Remedies all Magisteries may be trochiskated in the same way and then must be kept in a glass Vial well stop'd Obs 1. That in this Composition we make use of Male Antimony rather than of the Female because being heavier it is better and for the same reason we use the Regulus of Antimony and rather the Regulus of Mars because it is already more purified of the venomous part of its volatil substance Now in this Remedy we do pretend that all that part of the Antimony which has been opened by the Niter is absolutely devested of its purgative and emetick substance that is of all its volatil Salt and Sulphur therefore we ought not to use the Female Antimony which has more of this volatil substance than the Male. But the Regulus of Antimony is better because as it is devested as well of a considerable part of its volatil substance as of its terrestreity it is fitter to be purified and entirely refin'd from all its malignous qualities and yet the Regulus of Mars is best of all because in it the emetick Vertue is already fixed by Mars incorporated with the Antimony You must also take notice That they that seek the Philosophers Stone in Antimony prefer Mineral Antimony before all others thinking that because it has not been melted it is impregnated with all its vertue and therefore ought to be used also in this Operation but without diving any further in this Well of Democritus I will only say That for the use of Physick Mineral Antimony is the most malignant of all and it is devested of these ill qualities only by long and reiterated fusions and evaporations Obs 2. That we use here very fine Niter because we are not only to open and melt the Antimony for common Niter would do that but also so to penetrate the Antimony as to cause an evaporation of all its volatil purgative and emetick substance Now common Niter cannot do this because having a terrestrious substance and a fix'd Salt in it self it would not be fit to maintain a long and penetrating fusion Obs 3. That for the same reason we put three times as much Niter upon the said Dosis of Antimony and for the same reason we keep the Antimony and the Niter upon the Fire half an hour after their Flagration and Projection till all the smoak be vanished and with it the emetick and purgative qualities which the Niter had opened and set loose in the Antimony but if after that you continue your Fire it will produce the same effect in the Antimony that the Niter did that is it will discover and bring forth a new emetick and purgative vertue as we see it is done in the Vitrum Antimonii or glass of Antimony and yet not be able to make it evaporate for that belongs to Niter to do and by this you will perceive that one must be a good Artist that prepares this Remedy well Obs 4. That you must with all the care imaginable wash and edulcorate your Magisterie of Antimony else in stead of being simply Diaphoretick and opening it would prove vomitive because that though the volatil part of your Niter has carried away with it all the volatil substance of the Antimony that it had un-chain'd and set at liberty yet the fix'd Salt of the said Niter remaining in the Antimony retains some part of the emetick substance therefore it is necessary by frequent Lotions to dissolve the said fix'd Salt and so extract it And here again you see the great pains and care that an Artist is at in preparing of this Remedy so excellent and so much used Obs 5. That the Diaphoretick Antimony is nothing but an Antimony most intimately penetrated and opened by Niter and all its emetick and purgative vertues evaporated and carried away with the said Niter by a long and great Fire and then afterwards edulcorated by washing and Lotions It s Vse and Vertues 'T is a powerful Diaphoretick and an excellent Diuretick apperitive and desopilative it is used with good success against all Venereal Diseases as old Gonorrhaea's being mingled with some Venice Turpentine that has been brought to the consistence of Colophone as we shall teach in the Chapter of the Diuretick Pills It is very good against the Small Pox in the weight of a Five Shillings piece of Gold in Water or Syrup of Cinamon taking it three days together to make the small pox come out and dry against all opilations and tumours of the Spleen the Pancreas and the Mesentery incorporating it with the Salt of Tamaris the Mercurius dulcis the Crocus martis apperitivus and scummed Honey as it is here frequently practised with good success The Black and Acid Oyl of Antimony TAke of Antimony fine Niter Brimstone of each one pound powder them and mingle them well together then fire this mixtion in the same way and manner and in the same Vessels that we taught to make the Spirit of Sulphur in There will rise a vapour as red as blood and there will stick to the sides of the Bell and of the Pan and upon the surface of the water a little skin of the same colour all your Matter being consumed take your red flowers and mingle them with your water which is already impregnated with the acid Spirit of these three Minerals Put all this into a glass Matrass unluted and let it be but three quarters full Pose your Matrass on a Round in a small circulatory Furnace continuing a gentle fire till your flowers melt and go to the bottom and that there appears no Sulphur swimming upon the Liquor which will look thick and of a red dark blackish colour but take care that the ebullition be not such as to run over or break your Matrass 'T is in this case that one must be a good Artist and acquire by attention reason and experience a way of Operating surely and easily This done take off your Matrass and pour out your liquor very hot into a white earthen Pot. When it is cool separate by inclination the black and acid Oyl and you will find in the bottom of your Pot a congealed lump of yellow reddish Sulphur keep the said Oyl in a Glass well stop'd and keep your Sulphur to serve you in the making of the Salt of Brimstone Obs 1. That Niter is here used to open the body of Antimony the Brimstone is employed to fix its emetick quality and the Brimstone if it were not joyned with Niter would not be able to inflame the Antimony for the Brimstone being stifled in these vessels would presently go out but the Niter once a-fire though afterwards stifled yet sets the other combustible bodies that are with it a-fire also till they be consumed Obs 2. That the smoak and flowers of this Matter are red because of the Sulphur of the Antimony which is redder than ordinary Sulphur and so
Algarot is nothing but a good quantity of Mercury made volatil by a less quantity of Antimony by the means of the fire and the volatil Salts that are in the corrosive sublimate then devested of the said Salts and sweetned by Lotions The vertue and use of the powder is known by its name which speaks it to be a vomitive and that it performs much more gently than the Crocus metallorum because the Antimony we employ is purer and in less quantity and because that the great washings have carried away the venomous Salts Its Dose in persons grown up is five Grains you may give eight in some Conserve or the yolk of an Egg or in any Liquor appropriated The Vse and Vertues of the Butter of Antimony 'T is a powerful Corrosive it eats away Warts and burns pocky Cancers in a moment but if it be applyed to any nervous part it causes an inflamation for four and twenty hours it is excellent for the exfoliation of Bones and for the Gangrene The Vse and Vertues of the Pontick water It is excellent for Ulcers Itch Scabs the Gangrene you may use it in stead of Spirit of Vitriol by mingling three or four drops in a Julip in putrid and burning Feavers The Vse and Vertues of the Cinnaber of Antimony It is a great Sudorifick in the Pox. The Dosis is from eight to fifteen Grains Bezoard Mineral TAke as much as you will of Butter of Antimony melt it gently before the Fire then pour it into a glass Bell or Cucurbite set it in a Chimney lest the vapours which you must raise should offend you Pour upon it some Spirit of Niter drop by drop for else the ebullition would be such and the red vapours so strong that the matter would run out of the Vessels and the vapours hurt your Brain Continue this Injection till the Mercury and Antimony which are in form of Butter be absolutely dissolved by the said Spirit which you shall know by pouring on some new Spirit of Niter for if there be no ebullition nor smoaking then the dissolution is performed you must pour as much Spirit of Niter in weight as you have used Butter of Antimony your dissolution will appear all along of a yellow colour As soon as it is done pour upon it all at once a quart of Sea-water actually cold this Precipitant will presently make all your Liquor of a milky colour and will precipitate your Butter to the bottom into a very white powder if you let it stand ten or twelve hours to the end your Magistery have more time to precipitate entirely then separate by inclination your sea-Sea-water impregnated with the Spirit of Niter which was the dissolvant and pour on common Water till it come away sweet and insipid filter the rest through a white Paper dry your powder and keep it in a glass Vial well stopped Obs 1. That if instead of Sea-water you had made use of common Water for your Precipitation you would have turn'd your Dissolution into a white Liquor but you would never have precipitated your powder because that though common Water does much weaken the dissolvant yet it does not do it so much as Sea-water which because of its Salt contrary to the Salt of Niter does fight with the said Niter and in the conflict causes the sharpest and most active part of the Niter to evaporate and so to forsake its hold as to let the Butter of Antimony fall and precipitate to the bottom in form of a white powder Obs 2. That that which we call Sea-water is made thus Take four ounces of common Salt boyl it to dissolution in a quart of Water in a brass Kettle then filtrate it through the brown Paper Obs 3. That in the great ebullition and effumation caused by the Spirit of Niter all the emetick and purgative vertue which was in the said butter of Antimony is evaporated and at last carried away by reiterated Lotions Obs 4. That Bezoard Mineral is nothing else but a Magistery or Precipitate compounded of a good quantity of Mercury and a small quantity of Antimony both being calcin'd and opened by the Salts of the corrosive Mercury then devested of the said Salts by the Spirit of Niter so that there remains in this Magistery no other but a Cordial Bezoardick Sudorifick vertue It s Vse and Vertue 'T is an excellent Sudorifick against the Pox the Scurvy all putrid and venomous Feavors The Dose is from eight to twelve Grains in some Conserve but observe that if you mingle it with Conserve of Red Roses it becomes immediately green for the Reasons that we shall alledge hereafter The Calcination or Calx of Lead TAke Lead beat it into fine thin plates and take also of powder'd Brimstone as much lay them stratum super stratum in a glaz'd Pot which set upon two Bricks in the Furnace of a great wheel Fire and half Suppression there leave it till the Brimstone which of its self by the heat of the Pot will take fire be quite out and have a care you do not let it stand longer for fear of melting your Lead and so reducing it to its first metallick consistence therefore take off your Pot and with an Iron Spatula stir your calcin'd matter to hinder it from getting into a lump then take it out and powder it in a Morter then searce it in a silken Sieve till it be reduced to an impalpable powder Obs 1. That we use brimstone to calcine Lead because nothing but Brimstone will take Fire all alone and burn a good while Niter would not take fire all alone with Lead and indeed never is inflamable but when he is joyned with some combustible Body as Tartar Antimony Charcoal or Brimstone and if we did use here Niter with some of these Bodies its flame would be too swift to calcine Lead Obs 2 That we use a vernish'd Pot for this Calcination because our Calx is of the same Nature with the Lead of the Pot and therefore is not in danger of being spoyled and besides the vernish will not be corroded by the Sulphur because it is not a dissolvant powerful enough to corrode a glazing so dried and fastned for if the Lead which you will calcine were not beaten into very thin plates and Sulphur mingled with it every where it would hardly be calcin'd Obs 3. That the Calx of Lead thus calcin'd is nothing but Lead opened and dissolved by the Spirit and Salt of Sulphur and the said Lead will remain in the nature of a Calx but as long as there will be some of the Spirit and Salt of Sulphur incorporated with it therefore if you continue your Fire any time after the Calcination you will evaporate this Spirit and Salt and so your Lead devested of them both will return to its first metallick Nature It s Vse and Vertues It serves to dry and cicatrize old Ulcers when they are cleansed before and almost fill'd with flesh by mingling it
It is most excellent in dissolving those fleshly Excrescences and Ulcers called Wolfes The Extract of Hellebore PUt half a pound of the Roots of black Hellebore cut into little bits into a capacious Matrass pour on Spirit of Wine four fingers above your matter fit to it another little Matrass to make a double Vessel place it in a Sand-Furnace and there let it stand in digestion three or four days and let not the belly of your Matrass be above a quarter-way in the Sand nor do not make your fire so great as to make your Spirit of Wine boyl for then part of your Spirits would exhale and be gone yet let there be heat enough to extract the red Tincture of the Roots Separate this Tincture by Inclination or if there be any Faeces filtrate it through a Coffin of brown Paper pour this Tincture into a glass Body which set in the same Sand-Furnace and fit to it a glass Head and Receiver and so draw off by Distillation as much Spirit of Wine as you poured on which will serve you for other uses then take off the Head and evaporate your matter to the consistence of an Extract like Honey In the mean time boyl the Roots left in the Matrass in a quantity of common Water to make a Decoction which strain through a course Linnen then clarifie it with Whites and Shells of Eggs and evaporate it in a stone or glaz'd earthen Pan to the consistence of an Extract which you may mingle with the precedent if you think good We draw these two Extracts separately and with different menstruums because that the Spirit of VVine extracts only the gummy rosinous part and cannot extract the saltish and the common Water does quite contrary It s Vse and Vertues It purges Melancholy most commonly with a loathing and sometimes with vomiting An Essence for the Tooth-ach PUt of the Spirit of Wine campherized of the Tincture of Cloves of the Oyl of Box of the Oyl of Guaiacum of the black Oyl of Sulphur and if you will of the Tincture of Opium of each an equal part there will result an oily red transparent Liquor which you must keep in a glass Vial well stop'd It s Vse and Vertues It is a most excellent Remedy to appease the Tooth-ach and draw off the sharp humour that falls on the Teeth you must pour some of it into a glass and then dip a little Cotton of which make a Pellet as big as a Pea and apply it to the Tooth or in its hollow part if there be any there will presently distil from it a good deal of Water and the pain will cease Turpentine Pills PUt four ounces of clear transparent Turpentine of Venice into a glaz'd Disn pour upon it three times as much water boyl them together with a gentle heat till your Turpentine look white and not yellow as before then take out a little of it upon the point of a Knife and let fall a drop or two upon a pewter Plate if you see that the drop when cold does not stick to your fingers then it is boyl'd enough to make Pills of so take it off and pour cold Water into your Pan that will precipitate the Turpentine in a white Paste take this Paste and knead it with your hand to wring the Water out you may wipe your Turpentine with some Linnen but you must do it gently lest while it is warm the Linnen should stick to it then add to it one ounce of a Diaphoretick Antimony half an ounce of Salt of Sulphur and as much of Cremor Tartari incorporate them together into a lump which will soon grow hard but will easily grow soft again being handled before the fire Keep this Mass for Pills in a Hogs bladder well oyl'd with Sallet Oyl It s Vse and Vertues These Pills do dry up and stop Gonorrhaea's when they have flow'd enough by giving half an ounce for Dosis for the space of a fortnight or three weeks For those that cannot swallow Pills you must boyl your Turpentine a little more till it grow so hard upon the Plate as to be broken in pieces powder this in a mortar and add to it the same Druggs as above The Dosis mentioned will be the same here and must be dissolv'd in white Wine or in Broth or in some Decoction or appropriated Water The distilled Water of Plants PUt a good Hand-basket full of leaves for Example of Plantane new gather'd and fresh into the Brass Vesica add to them about four quarts of Water to the end the Herb may boyl during the distillation and that in boyling the said Water may extract and be impregnated with the vertue of the plant yet let not your Vesica be above three quarters full lest the Water in boyling should carry the substance and not the vapours into the Moors-head You need not put any sponges into the neck of the Vesica as you do in the distillation of the Spirit of Wine because these sponges would hinder the passage of your vapours fit to your Vesica its Moors-head bordered with its Refrigeratory and make use also of the second Refrigeratory that is of the two Hogsheads full of Water as has been taught in the distillation of Spirit of Wine this will further the distillation of your Water very much Give at first a good Fire of Coals and two or three Fagot-sticks continue this Fire and moderate your Distillation so as to make a little stream of Water come always into your Receiver into which it will not fall perpendicularly as the Spirit of Wine does but a little arch-wise As soon as with this little stream you perceive that there come vapours into the Receiver lessen your Fire to hinder the loss of these vapours which spend themselves in vain If your Distillation be performed but slowly and drop by drop or in a very little stream falling perpendicularly then encrease the Fire that you may not lose your time by an unnecessary protraction of the Distillation From time to time empty your Receiver and immediately pour it through a glass Tunnel into a stone Pitcher As soon as you perceive that there comes into your Receiver a muddy Water then be sure that all the good part of your Operation is at an end because this muddy VVater proceeds from the burning of the Plants which begins to send forth its Spirit and stinking Oyl therefore give over distilling put out your Fire take out the Grounds of the Herbs left in the bottom and throw away the muddy Water that you shall find there with them after which begin a new Distillation with new Herbs and new Water When you have gathered all your Water into stone Pitchers put into them some Saltpeter well purified and crystallized half a dragm to every pound of Water Obs 1. That you must not put your Water into an earthen Vessel unglazed because at last it would lose its self entirely through the pores of the Potters-Earth which is
of red dry Roses of the year you are in and stir all together again with your Spatula and so let them stand till the water begin to boil then take off your Vessel cover it and when the matter is cold strain your Tincture through a Cloth or a Coffin of brown Paper it will be as red as a Ruby and will keep four or five months without danger of corruption Obs 1. That if you did put your Roses into the water before the Spirit of Sulphur or Vitriol you would lose your Spirit afterwards in the Roses without effect but the water being sharpned first is fit to extract and revive the Tincture of the Roses It s Vse and Vertues It is a very pleasant cooler being Cordial and strengthening and most excellent for the Liver the Kidneys and the Stomach The Milk or Precipitate or Magistery of Brimstone TAke four ounces of Flowers of Brimstone and sixteen ounces of common Salt decrepitated and powdered mingle them well together which that you may the better do put a spoonful of each at a time upon a Marble stone and there grind them to an impalpable powder wet this powder drop by drop with distilled Vinegar till you have reduced all into the consistence of Pap or hasty Pudding then scrape it together with a piece of Horn and continue doing thus till all your matter be grown'd and thus prepared in the mean time boil six pound or three quarts of common water in a Brass Kettle and when the water boils throw in all this lump of Matter and after it has boil'd a little add to it half an ounce of white Roch-Alom in powder and stir it with a Woodden Spatula keeping your Kettle on the fire till all be dissolved in the water which then will be of reddish muddy colour and this will happen in half an hours time then take off the Kettle let your dissolution cool in cooling the Brimstone will precipitate to the bottom in a whitish colour when it is all precipitated pour off gently the Water which will be impregnated with the common Salt and Alom pour common Water upon your whitish Matter to sweeten it and do so till the Water come away insipid and that the Matter be entirely freed from the Acrimony of the Vinegar Alom and common Salt filtrate that which remains through a Coffin of white Paper or through a glass Tunnel as has been taught heretofore and you have the Precipitate or Magistery of Brimstone Obs 1. That our design being here to open and whiten the body of Brimstone we use the Flowers of Brimstone because that by reason of their impalpability which they have contracted in their sublimation they are fitter to be incorporated with common Salt and to become whiter than common Brimstone would be which would be very hard to be powdered so fine as the flowers of Brimstone are already Obs 2. That we use common Salt to open calcine and whiten the body of Brimstone and we use it decrepitated and three times as much in quantity as the flowers of Brimstone to the end it may do its work the better for the furthering of which we also add distilled Vinegar which quickens the common Salt by incorporating it with the Sulphur Obs 3. That for this incorporation we use not a Brass Mortar because it might black the powder by the attraction of the Tincture of the Metal but we use a Marble and Stone one where the finest things may be easily made finer so that a hair might be broken upon it Obs 4. That Brimstone alone would never dissolve in water though never so exactly powder'd because that being exteriourly of a greasie oleaginous nature and its Salt being altogether buried in its own substance all the ways of being dissolv'd are taken away from it But if you add to it common Salt by means of the distilled Vinegar and the Levigation of it then all being one body it happens that the Salt and Vinegar in their dissolution do engage the Brimstone to dissolve at the same time but then it is necessary that your water should boil some time to hasten the dissolution of these bodies and so the Sulphur being a little opened and calcin'd by the common Salt and Vinegar does at last afford its Tincture to the said water Obs 5. During the ebullition of the common Salt and Brimstone in the common water we add a little Alom to whiten and scowre the Brimstone for Alom is a very dry white Salt and Brimstone quite contrary is a very oyly mucilaginous one we do not use Roman Alom because that it is red and would communicate its colour to the Magistery of Brimstone which ought to be white by reason of the common Salt Obs 6. That the Brimstone is precipitated all alone without any Precipitant as soon as the water grows cold because its dissolution in water was not perfect and the strength of the Salts being dulled by the coldness of the water they can no longer retain the Brimstone above water Obs 7. That the Precipitate or Magistery of Brimstone is but Brimstone Philosophically calcin'd by common Salt and distilled Vinegar and scoured by Alom then sweetened by washings and so whitened in form of a powder It s Vse and Vertues 'T is an excellent dryer or dissicative for all Ulcers and therefore is fitter to make the Balsam of Brimstone either with Spirit of Turpentine or with Walnut-Oyl than ordinary Brimstone or the Flowers of Brimstone It is particularly good against all Ulcers of the Lungs to ripen the Fluxions that fall from the Breast and help the Expectoration of Flegms and also to dry away the humours which flow that way It may be taken either in a spoonful of Syrup or in some Conserve or you powder with it a Toast spread with fresh Butter or Oyl The Dosis is from half a dragm to a dragm And if at the same time you will strengthen the Stomach and gently loosen the Belly you add half a dragm of Rhubarb in powder upon your Toast you may put it into a spoonful of some pectoral Water but it is not so easie this way because by its lightness it swims upon the Water and that so in stead of swallowing it a good deal will remain in your mouth You may likewise use it in a Pomatum against the Itch and Scabs because that this Brimstone hath acquired not only a singular whiteness but has also lost all its ill smell which makes all the Unguents and Balsams of Sulphur so stinking and unpleasant but it would be a dear Unguent because you can hardly prepare much of this Magistery at once nor without great pains and cost The Magistery of Pearls TAke one ounce of Oriental Pearls which are better and much dearer than the Occidental reduce them to a fine powder in a Brass Mortar which must be covered with a Leather Cover in which is a hole to put your Pestle in put this powder into a Glass precipitatory Vessel
and pour to it Spirit of Sulphur or distilled Vinegar or juice of Lemmons four or five fingers high above the matter there will presently be caused a little simpring or boiling which ended stir your matter with a stick then suffering it to settle a little pour off your Dissolvant which will be loaded with some part of the said powder of Pearls and will be as white as Milk Pour more Dissolvant upon the matter left and do as at first continuing this Operation till all your powder be dissolved then gather together all your Dissolutions in the same precipitatory Vessel or in another if you will and pour upon them great quantity of common Water divers times to sweeten and wash the said Dissolution and continue this till the Water have carried away all the Acrimony of the Dissolvant After you have poured out the last Water your matter will remain like Pap which put into a paper Coffin and there let it dry in the shade upon a Sieve you will have the Magistery of Pearls as white as Snow in little mis-shapen pieces which you may keep as they are or else powder them or if you please you may at first before your matter be dry form them into Trochisks as has been taught Obs 1. That we reduce the Pearls to a fine powder that they may be easilier dissolved by a less quantity of Dissolvant in the powdering of them the Mortar is covered because that Pearls being small and round and hard would in beating be apt to leap out of the Mortar and be lost if it were not covered Obs 2. That we rather use here Spirit of Sulphur than distill'd Vinegar or juice of Lemmon because it dissolves them easilier than either of the other insomuch that one pound of Spirit of Sulphur will sooner dissolve an ounce of Pearls than twelve pound of distill'd Vinegar or juice of Lemmons besides that the Spirit of Sulphur is more cordial and pectoral than either of them Obs 3. That the Spirits of Salt Niter and Vitriol are not proper for this Operation because of their too great corrosive faculties which would go near to rest in the Magistery and then we should be obliged to sweeten it so long till at last the Water of the Lotion would carry away with it a good part of the Magistery We may say as much of the Oyl of Tartar made per deliquium in a wet place or by the dissolution of the Salt of Tartar in common Water besides the Spirit of Vitriol would black the whiteness of the Magistery and the Oyl of Tartar would make it rough to the feeling Obs 4. That common Water is sufficient to precipitate the said Magistery and weaken the Spirit of Sulphur so as to make it lose its hold because that the dissolution of Pearls by the said Spirit having been performed without the help of an external heat and without any great penetration there is no need of any strong fight between the Dissolvant and the Precipitant Obs 5. That the Water of the first sweetning has a little smell of Ambergreece if the dissolution be with the Spirit of Sulphur for Pearls opened by this Spirit have such a smell It s Vse and Vertues This Magistery is a great Cordial against all venomous Feavers the Small Pox in Children the pains of the Spleen it is likewise good for Consumptive persons and against Loathings and desires to vomit caused by sharp serosities The Dose is from a scruple to a dragm It is also a Fucus being mingled with some proper Pomatum Some brag with ostentation of a Water of Pearls but it can be nothing else but this Magistery mingled with some Cordial Water which if stirred becomes as white as Milk for as for the true Milk of Pearls which is the Dissolution of Pearls in the Spirit of Brimstone it cannot properly be called Water of Pearls because that by reason of its sharpness it is not potable The Water of the first Lotion of your Magistery is excellent to scour and whiten the hands The Calx of Oyster-shells TAke of the uppermost part of Oyster-shells what quantity you please wash them and cleanse them in warm Water and let them dry upon a Lettice in the Sun Then take six or eight Tiles made in the form of a half-Circle of such a proportion as that two of them join'd together may fill the inward Round of the Laboratory of a Reverberatory Furnace leaving the space of an inch empty between the sides of the Furnace and the said Tiles to give the fire play round about and betwixt the said Tiles for there must be also in two or three places of their Circumference a Brim of an inch deep to let the flame in to calcine those matters that shall be set upon them Place two of these Tiles upon the Iron Bars of the Laboratory and upon them place three or four other rows of Tiles loaden with Oyster-shells one upon another so as there be half a foot left empty of the top of the Laboratory then cover your Laboratory with an earthen Pan turn'd upside down in whose bottom is a hole give a great Fire at first with Wood and Coals and when it is come to the last degree continue that twelve hours the flame passing upon your Oyster-shells will calcine them and reduce them into Calx as white as Snow and so brittle as to fall into powder if you touch it Obs 1. That we take only the upper part of the Oyster-shells because that part is whiter and thinner and easier to calcine than the lower part Obs 2. That we wash them in warm Water before we calcine them that we may scour them and cleanse them from a certain mucilaginous ordure which in the calcining would leave a blackness and spoil the beauty of your Calx If you desire to scour your Oyster-shells a better way after you have washed them in warm Water put them into a stone Pan and pour upon them distilled Vinegar one finger high over the matter and so let them soak one day then take them out and dry them in the Sun before you calcine them Obs 3. That the Calx of Oyster-shells is very Salt so that by the same method that we draw the Salt of Vegetables and Animals we may likewise draw this Salt in good quantity that is by dissolution in common Water filtration and evaporation of your Lixivium till it be dry This Calx is composed of two substances viz. of a good deal of white Virginal Earth and of a good deal of Salt both fix and volatil by means of which the said Oyster-shells are naturally heavy It s Vse and Vertues This Calx is most excellent for the Gravel because of its Salt it is very opening and dries up by means of the two substances it is composed of all superfluous humidities of the Body The Dose is from twenty to thirty Grains in some Conserve Preserve or Syrup The Magistery and Calx of Egg-shells TAke a good
sufficient quantity of the shells of Hens Eggs new-laid and clean wash them in fair Water and then dry them as we do Oyster-shells put them into a stone Pan or a glass Bell and pour upon them Spirit of Vinegar that is distilled Vinegar separated from its Flegm five or six fingers above the matter it will presently begin to simper and will dissolve the Egg-shells as soon as it has done and that by laying your Ear to you perceive no more noise then your Egg-shells are dissolved and the Dissolvant is loaden with its proportion of the dissolved substance and has lost its Acrimony and sharpness in the combat This done stir your matter with a woodden Spatula and by this agitation your Dissolution will be turned into white Curds Let it settle and then pour off this curdled Dissolution into a stone Glass or White-ware Vessel after which pour on more Vinegar and do as at first till all your matter be dissolved Having put all your Dissolutions into one Vessel pour upon them a great quantity of clear cold Water stirring them with a woodden Spatula the Water will become at first as white as Milk and the Magistery will precipitate to the bottom then the Water will be clear and sowrish pour off this Water and pour on more till you have entirely sweetened your Magistery and that your Water come away insipid put the remainder into a Coffin of white Paper through which the Water that remains will filtrate and you will have remaining the Magistery of Egg-shells which you must dry in the shade upon the bottom of a Sieve To make the Simple Calx of Egg-shells Take a good quantity of the newest and cleanest well washed and dried bruise them between your hands and fill them with an earthen Pot unglazed which set in a Potters Oven for nine days and you will have a Calx as white as Snow Obs 1. That you must take new and clean Egg-shells to the end that being free from all soiling and dirt the Spirit of Vinegar may the easilier corrode them for all smoot and ordure in a thing does dull the action of a Dissolvant and if you should calcine them with this ordure upon them they would grow black and spoil your Calx Obs 2. That you must use the Egg-shells of Hens and not of Ducks Geese or Turkeys because that Hens Egg-shells are easilier calcin'd being thinner by reason that a Hen is a more temperate Animal Water-fowl are hotter and by reason of their heat do concoct and harden their Egg-shells more than other Fowl and from thence comes that you must have a greater quantity of your Dissolvant employ more heat and spend more time to calcine the Eggs of Water-fowl than of Hens whose Egg-shells do also produce a whiter Calx than any of the others Obs 3. That we use here Spirit of Vinegar deflegmated to dissolve the said Egg-shells for if it were undeflegmated it would not be strong enough to corrode the hardness of the Egg-shells you might use Spirit of Sulphur but it is too dear and Egg-shells are not so hard but that they may be dissolved by a weaker Dissolvant than Spirit of Sulphur or Spirit of Niter which would do well and produce a very white Calx but for Spirit of Vitriol and Aqua fortis they would altogether spoil your Operation by communicating a blackness to your Calx which ought to be extream white Obs 4. That the Magistery of Egg-shells is nothing but Egg-shells Philosophically calcin'd by their dissolution in Spirit of Vinegar then precipitated by the cold Water into a white Calx and sweetened by reiterated Lotions then filtred and dried in the shade As for the simple Calx of Egg-shells it is a calcination of them made by a strong fire of nine days so as to be reduced into a substance containing much of white Virginal Earth and a little Salt If you wash this Calx you take from it all its Salt and sharpness and there will remain an insipid Virginal Earth of the nature of the Magistery It s Vse and Vertues It is a good desiccative which dries up Ulcers without corrosion therefore it is very good for these Ulcers that affect that Coat of the Eye called Cornea it is also a very good Fucus for if you rub your hand and face with it without mingling it with any Pomatum it will so insinuate its self into the pores as to produce a rare whiteness The Calcination of Venice Tale. TAke four ounces of Venice Talc which crumble between your fingers then take four pound of whole River-pibbles not of the biggest nor of the least size put into a white Leather Bag gather'd at each end both your Pibble-stones and your Talc and then shake it as the Pin-makers do when they whiten their Pins do this for an hour then take out your Talc and put it into a Silken Sieve and searce it take that which could not pass through and put into the Bag and so shake it again as at first then searce it and do thus till all your Talc be reduced to a white impalpable powder like Meal-dust Obs 1. That we use here a Bag of Sheeps-skin white and clean and well dressed because that a Bag of black Leather would black your powder and so would it do if it were not very clean and well dressed a Linnen Bag would not be fit because that the finest part of the powder would go through it besides the danger of its breaking or wearing out in this agitation Obs 2. That we use River-pibbles and not Mountain ones because that the River ones are whiter harder and smoother than other and therefore fitter for this Operation Obs 3. That Venice Talc is improperly said to be calcin'd by this Operation for it is nothing but Talc very well powder'd by this ingenious method which reduces it into a finer and whiter substance than could be done by a Pestle in a Brass Mortar or by a violent fire and tedious calcination It s Vse and Vertues It is the finest of all Fucuses to apply without Pomatum to the skin penetrating the pores and sticking to them by its unctuosity or oyliness more than any other It may be useful other ways too The Salt of Crystal Venice TAke one pound of the transparentest Crystal put it into a Crucible of a reasonable size and set it in a great reverberatory Furnace for eight hours till it be melted down then take off your Crucible and when it is cold break it and take out your matter which in a Brass Mortar you must reduce to an impalpable powder mingle this powder with its weight of Nitar well purified and reduced to powder put them in a Crucible which set in the same Furnace and cover it with a little earthen cover continue a reverberatory Fire for six and thirty hours together or till the matter yields no more fumes then take off your Crucible and presently break it and powder your matter in a
Tinctures to draw out of them and precipitate either the Rosin or the Magistery If you will be content to lose your Dissolvant and so convert all your Tinctures into Rosin pour them into a great glass Bell full of cold water and presently your Tincture will precipitate to the bottom in the consistence of a white Rosin separate all the liquor that swims above it and loosen and take away your Rosin which did begin to stick to the bottom of the Vessel put it into a glass either whole or in pieces which being cold will grow as hard as Rosin or Colophone If you will draw off your dissolvant and change your Tinctures into a Magistery put them all into a glass Cucurbit of such a proportion as not to be above half full with them place it in a Balneum Mariae and fit to it a head Give the fire by degrees and draw off by distillation about half the Spirit of Wine to use in other such uses then pour the remainder while it is warm into a glass Bell full of cold water and presently the Tincture of your dissolvant will be precipitated not into a Rosin but into a white Curd which by little and little in half a quarter of an hours time will be converted into a white Rosinous powder Separate by inclination the water and pour two or three times cold water upon this powder to separate it well from its dissolvant then filter the remainder through a Coffin of white Paper and dry it in the shade keep this powder or Magistery in a Vial well stopt Obs 1. That we take Jalap very well cleansed from its ordures that we may have a fairer Rosin and more of it and that it is first dried in the Sun to the end that its waterish humidity being gone it may not dull the action of the dissolvant and so it will be able to extract easilier the Resinous Tincture of Jalap Obs 2. That common cold water precipitates your Tincture into a Rosin or a Rosinous powder because that weakening the Spirit of Wine by its quantity it makes it lose its hold and so let fall to the bottom that substance which it had seized upon in the dissolving it Obs 3. That the precipitate of Jalap is more properly called a Rosin than a Gum because it would dissolve better in oyly liquors as Rosins do than in waterish liquors as Gums do Obs 4. That when your Tincture is thrown into cold water before it be evaporated half away it then precipitates in consistence of a Rosin but when it is evaporated half away then it is precipitated in consistence of a Curd which comes to a Powder Obs 5. That the Rosin or Magistery of Jalap is nothing but the Rosinous part of Jalap separated from all the terrestrial part which remains in the Matrass and from its volatil Salt which has been dissolved in the Dissolvant or in the Precipitant It s Vse and Vertue It purges by stools without procuring Vomit it has a gentler way of operating than pure Jalap taken in substance because it is devested of its Volatil Salt which is its sharpest part The Dose is from six to twelve grains or thereabouts in form of Pills or Bolus with some Conserve or some such thing The Rosin or Magistery of Scammony TAke good clean Scammony powder it then fasten a leaf upon a little woodden Square or Frame upon the Paper spread your powder place it over the vapour of Brimstone which you must throw from time to time into a Chasing-dish full of Coals and in the mean time stir continually your powder with a woodden Spatula and do not approach it too near the Fire lest it should melt and so become a lump as before for if such a thing should happen you would not be able to make the flegm and the volatil and sulphureous malignant salts of the Scammony to evaporate which is the thing you aim at Your Scammony being thus prepared you shall extract out of it a Tincture as red as blood in a glass double-Matrass with Spirit of Wine of which Tincture make the Rosin or Magistery in the same way that you make the Rosin or Magistery of Jalap It s Vse and Vertues The Rosin of Scammony purges gentlier than Scammony in substance because it is devested of a great deal of its sulphureous volatil Salt by the burning vapour of the Brimstone The Spirit of Wine and common Water have set at liberty and dissolved the rest of the volatil Salt and the terrestrial part or Faeces remain in a small quantity in your Matrass The Dose is from ten to twenty grains The Cremor Tartari TAke four pound of white Tartar of Montpellier in great lumps wash them well in common cold Water and then dry them upon boards in the Sun this done beat them in a brass Mortar and searce them to a very fine powder In the mean time let there be a pale of Water boyling in a Brass or Copper Kettle and into it throw your Tartar by spoonfuls and so let it boyl for two hours stirring it continually with a woodden Spatula then take off your Kettle from the fire and filter your Dissolution while it is warm through divers Coffins of brown Paper evaporate your filtrations in earthen glaz'd Pans over a naked fire till by their boyling there appear a kind of a skin upon the surface of the said Decoction then take off your Pans place them in your Cellar and in three or four days there will be congealed to the bottom and sides of your Pans great quantity of Crystals as white as Snow and of a triangular and square Figure Pour out the Water that remains in your Pans if it look dirty keep it and boyl it again to a consistence of a skin then congeal it in your Cellar and so draw out all the Crystals left in it dry your Crystals either in the Sun or in a dry place then gather them and put them into glass Vials well stop'd and thus you have that which Chymists call Cremor Tartari or Crystal of Tartar Out of one pound of Tartar you have foor ounces of Crystals and twelve of Faeces Obs 1. That for this Operation we chuse Tartar of Montpellier because it is much salter than the Tartar of any other part of France because that at Montpellier they use great Hogsheads or rather Tuns that serve twenty or thirty years so that there gather to the sides of them a Tartar three or four fingers thick and by consequent very saltish besides that the strength of the Wine of those parts makes their Tartar better and at last we chuse white Tartar because it contains more Salt than the red Obs 2. That we wash well the lumps of Tartar before we powder them to the end we may cleanse them from a kind of terrestrial dreggs which remain upon the said Tartar in form of a powder by washing part of this powder goes to the bottom
and part of it makes the Water look muddy Obs 3. That we powder and searce it that we may extract easilier and more abundantly the said Crystal of Tartar Obs 4. That we boyl it in a great quantity of Water and that a good while that we may extract all its saltish substance Obs 5. That it is thrown in by spoonfuls and not altogether that so the dissolution of its Salt be the better performed and sooner and for the same reason the Water is not cold but boyling hot Obs 6. That we stir it continually with a Spatula else it would remain in the bottom of the Kettle in a lump and so being touched by the Water but on one side it would not so easily dissolve Now your Spatula must be of Wood and not of Iron lest the blackness of the Iron by the acidity of the Tartar come off and spoil the beauty of your Crystals Obs 7. That we boyl our Tartar with Water in Brass or Copper Kettles and in earthen Pans because that the Salt of Tartar is not sharp enough to corrode Brass Copper or the glazing of Lead and therefore there is no danger it should be loaden or impregnated with their substance and particularly if it be uncalcin'd Tartar and dissolved in Water Obs 8. That your Tartar having sufficiently boyl'd in Water and the Water being impregnated with all its Salt we filter this dissolution through a brown Paper-coffin that so we may separate all the terrestrial indissolvable part of it which will remain in the Coffin of brown Paper this filtration is performed while the Dissolution is warm that so the Salt may pass with it which would go to the bottom in form of a white powder if the Dissolution were cold Obs 9. That to crystallize the Salt of Tartar uncalcin'd and dissolv'd in Water you must evaporate above half of your Water till your Salt begin to coagulate which you observe by that little skin that gathers upon the surface of your Water then by taking off your Vessels and placing them in a cold place as the Cellar the Salt is formed into Crystals and is freed from the Water which kept it in dissolution If you had continued your evaporation till your matter had been dry there would have remained in the bottom of your Vessel a white Salt in powder but it is much more pleasant to have it in the form of Crystals Obs 10. That the Crystal of Tartar or Cremor Tartari is nothing but Tartar scoured and whitened by Lotion pulverisation boyling in the Water filtration evaporation and coagulation or crystallization made in the Cellar It is composed of two substances one is saltish the other is terrestrial The first dissolves in any Water the second only in warm Water and as soon as the Water is cold the Crystal frees its self from it and coagulates in the bottom in form of a white powder if there be a good deal of Water but if there be but a small quantity of Water it coagulates into white Crystals sticking to the sides of the Vessel It s Vse and Vertues It is a great Aperitive Desopilative and Diuretick It purges gently sometimes but its principal effect is always by way of Urine The Dose is from half a dragm to two taken inwardly in broth It is often mingled with Opiates and also with purgative Potions but then you must swallow them more than luke-warm else it would coagulate and remain in the bottom of the Cup or Glass some also do dissolve of it in Clysters to the weight of two dragms or half an ounce The Cremor Tartari Calybeatus or the Steel'd Crystal of Tartar TAke four pound of white Tartar of Montpellier wash'd dry'd powder'd and searc'd as has been said in the precedent Chapter Mingle with it two ounces of the Crocus or Saffron Aperitive of Mars or Iron throw this mixtion by spoonfuls into a Kettle full of boyling Water stir it continually with a wooden Spatula and boyl your Water half away then take off your Kettle filtrate the rest while it is warm put your Filtration into earthen Pans unglazed and evaporate it in a gentle fire to the Pellicule as you do in the Salt of Saturn then set it in a Cellar to congeal and in three or four days there will strike to the bottom and sides of your Pans a good many clear Crystals of a fine green colour round in figure and a little sharp separate by inclination the remainder of the Liquor of the Pans and evaporate it again and set it to crystallize as the first set your Crystals in the Sun by placing your Pans on one side that all the Liquor may run from them when your Crystals are very dry loosen them with the point of a Knife and put them into Vials to keep let them be well stop'd for if the air come at them they will dissolve again or at least grow wet and lose their colour Obs 1. That you must take the Crocus Martis aperitivus or opening and not the astringent because that the Astringent is devested of its Salt Now here we pretend to the proper Salt of Mars and to mingle it with the Salt of Tartar By this Mixtion the Crystal of Tartar acquires the green colour of the vitriolick Salt of Mars and the faculty of dissolving in cold Water If instead of the Saffron of Mars you had added the Salt of Tartar calcin'd you would have made Chrystals of white Tartar dissolvable in cold Water for either of those two Salts of Mars or calcin'd Tartar would prove a Corrective to the terrestrial and indissolvable substance of the Cremor Tartari Obs 2. That we evaporate the Dissolution of these two Salts by a gentle fire that we may keep in their volatil Salts which by their mixtion do whet and attenuate one another and so are disposed to fly away which if they did then your Crystals would not so easily crystallize Obs 3. That the Steel'd Cremor Tartari is nothing but the Cremor Tartari incorporated with the vitriolick Salt of Mars by their dissolution in Water the evaporation to a Pellicule or skin and the crystallization in a cold Cellar It s Vse and Vertues 'T is a more powerful opener and desopilative than the Cremor Tartari It is most excellent against the Yellow Jaundice the Green Sickness and to provoke the Monthly Courses if stopped The Dose is from half a dragm to a dragm in some Broth or appropriated Water The Virginal Milk of Benjamin and Storax TAke of Benjamin and Storax of each two ounces reduce them to a fine powder and put them into a Matrass pour on Spirit of Wine so as the matter be covered four or five fingers deep with the said Spirit let your Vessel stand in a cool place for two or three days in this time the Gums will be dissolv'd and will colour the Dissolvant with a red transparent colour like a Ruby and withal will communicate to the Dissolvant their
it is impossible to extract the Salt of any Body before it be calcin'd and as for Metals they cannot be calcin'd otherwise than Philosophically that is by the corrosion of some acid Spirits for fire though never so violent can but melt them and evaporate some part of them Obs 2. That we use here distilled Vinegar to dissolve Verdigreece and extract its Tincture and Salt because it contains but little of a tartareous Salt or Salt of Tartar which being joined with the Salt of Venus cannot hurt but Aqua fortis Aqua regalis the Spirit of Niter Brimstone or Vitriol contain a great deal of corrosive Salt which would alter the Salt of Venus and make it corrosive being joyned with it for it cannot crystallize without them Obs 3. That you must use here glass and stone Vessels and not of vernish'd or glaz'd Potters Earth because that the sharpness of the Verdigreece would corrode the glazing and impregnating its self with Lead would spoil the brightness of your Crystals and if your Vessel were unglazed then the Verdigreece having by its dissolution in distill'd Vinegar acquired a singular sharpness and penetration would insinuate and lose its self in the pores of the Vessel Obs 4. That we distil and evaporate the Tincture of Verdigreece in a gentle heat of Balneum Mariae lest in a greater heat the sulphureous part and volatil Salt of Venus should exhale and be gone since it is in that sulphureous part that consists the greatest vertue of this Remedy and it is it that contributes most to the crystallization Obs 5. That the Crystals of Venus change their blew dark colour into a green transparent one by the means of reiterated dissolutions and crystallizations which Operations do purifie these Crystals from their blew terrestreity and that the true colour of the purified Salt of Venus is to be as green as an Emerald Obs 6. That the Crystals of Venus are nothing else but the Salt of Venus extracted from the Calx of Venus which is Verdigreece by a gentle Dissolvant which is distilled Vinegar then after evaporation of half of the Dissolvant crystallized in a cool place It s Vse and Vertues It is a powerful Diuretick and Desiccative and therefore most excellent against Gonorrhaea's It s Dosis is from three to six grains in a Pill of Turpentine that has been boyl'd to a consistence of Colophone continuing to take of it three days together There may be also drawn out of it a Spirit fit to precipitate all sorts of Dissolutions The Crystals or Salt or Vitriol of Mars TAke five or six pound of the opening Saffron of Mars called commonly Crocus Martis aperitivus as it has been described in this Book powder it in a Mortar and searce it through a silken Sieve then throw it by spoonfuls into a Kettle of ten or twelve quarts of boyling Water stirring it continually for two hours together with a Ladle or Spatula of Iron till the Water be half boyled away then take off your Kettle and filtrate your Liquor while it is warm through a brown Paper evaporate your Filtration in a Sand-fire to the Pellicule in stone or glass Vessels and afterwards set them in the Cellar in two days there will be a good many green transparent Crystals sticking to the sides and bottom of your Pans Pour off by inclination the Water that is not congealed and evaporate it again and crystallize it then gather all your Crystals together and put them into a glass Vial well stopp'd As for the powder of Mars devested of its Salt which will remain in your Coffins of brown Paper after filtration dry it and keep it to make the Astringent or binding Saffron of Mars Obs 1. That to extract the Salt of Mars we take the opening Saffron of Mars because it is nothing but Mars calcin'd by the means of Brimstone and a Reverberatory fire Now it is not possible to have the Salt of Mars if it have not been first calcin'd and it cannot be calcin'd by fire alone which would only melt it as it does other Metals you must therefore calcine it Philosophically with Brimstone whose Salt and Spirit corrodes and calcines Mars Obs 2. That to extract the Salt of the Crocus Martis aperitivus it is enough to powder and searce it and throw it into a great quantity of boiling Water which has force enough to draw to it the Salt of the Calx of Mars or Croous Martis aperitivus Obs 3. That the Crystals of Mars are of a green transparent colour because that Mars is drawn out of a vitriolick Earth which indeed does contain nothing but pure Vitriol which by the violence of fire is changed into a metallick Body the hardest and blackest of all Metals and being opened by the Agents and Dissolvants of Chymistry doth communicate this colour Obs 4. That if you do not keep these Crystals in a Vial well stopp'd as soon as the Air comes to them they will be covered with a kind of white Meal which will spoil their transparency and greenness and that Mars being a very dry Metal and for this reason the hardest and less flexible of all the Metals it easily dries and is converted into this white mealy substance Obs 5. That these Crystals of Mars are nothing but the Salt of Mars extracted out of the opening Calx of Mars by the sweetest of all Dissolvants which is common Water boiling hot then evaporated and crystallized It s Vse and Vertues It is an opener or aperitive much stronger than the opening Saffron of Mars because it is the pure Salt of Mars separated from its terrestrial indissolvable part and is therefore excellent against the Green Sickness the Yellow Jaundice and to provoke the Monthly Courses The Dose is from a scruple to a dragm in Broth or some Syrup you may add to it a dragm of the Extract of Savin to augment its vertue The Astringent or binding Saffron of Mars TAke the powder of Crocus Martis aperitivus which remains in the Coffin of brown Paper after you have filtred the Dissolution of the said Crocus Martis aperitivus in common Water which powder will be then devested of all its Salt of Mars fill with it a Pot of Potters Earth unglazed place this Pot in the Furnace of the great Reverberatory Fire and give the Fire for eight and forty hours then take off your Pot and break it and while it is hot powder your matter in a Brass Mortar and then set it in the air upon a Board or upon a Marble Stone when it is quite cold searce it through a silk Sieve and keep it in wooden or glass Vessels Obs 1. That though the said powder of Mars be devested of its Salt yet we reverberate it a great while that so all its Salt may evaporate and the Remedy be the more Astringent which is the only intention it is to answer Obs 2. That we use not a glaz'd Pot lest in the reverberation the glazing
full of the said Vinegar of Saturn stir it till it be in a consistence of Butter or Balsamum The Use of this Balsam is To cool and asswage pain and extinguish Inflammations to dissipate and ease the Hemorrhoids The Use of the Vinegar of Saturn being dissolved in a small quantity in Water is To appease Inflammations and to serve for Injection in Gonorrhaea's being mingled with a little Water of Barley Of the Oyl of Bricks or the Philosophers Oyl PUt five parts of powdered Bricks and one part of Oyl of Olives into a glass Retort luted and bigger than needs for so much matter place it in a Circulary Fire which by little and little you must bring to the highest degree or Fire of Suppression the Flegm will come first then a stinking thick red Oyl which being rectified will become yellow clearer and less stinking The Use of this Oyl is For Contusions the Sciatica and cold Defluxions The Oyl of yellow Wax POur one part of yellow Wax melted upon five parts of powder'd Bricks make with it little Balls and with them fill a glass Retort luted up to the neck give the same Fire as in the Oyl of Bricks the Flegm will come first then a red stinking Oyl which will congeal into a yellow Butter which being rectified will become clear and white and less stinking The Use of it is the same as of the Oyl of Bricks Of the Extract of Hellebore PUt half a pound of the Roots of black Hellebore and upon it as much Spirit of Wine as will cover it three fingers high into a double Matrass draw the Tincture in a Sand-fire for three or four days evaporate the said Tincture in a glass Cucurbite in a Sand-fire to a consistence of Honey The Use is To purge Melancholy it causes Loathing and Vomiting The Dose is from ten grains to a scruple Of Aqua fortis PUt into a glass Retort common Niter undeflegmated Vitriol in powder and leaving third part of your Vessel empty distil them in a Fire of Reverberation or Suppression giving it by degrees A little Flegm will come first then the Spirit in red vapours The Use is To dissolve Minerals and Metals and to give force and penetration to Dyings or Tinctures Of the Infernal Stone PUt two parts of Aqua fortis to one part of Coppel Silver cut into little pieces in a small Matrass half luted evaporate the Aqua fortis in a Circulary Fire till your matter be dry with a black scum upon it then give a melting fire till there rise no more vapours then take off your Matrass and let your matter cool or else pour it into little moulds The Use is To consume Warts and proud Flesh to cure Cancres the Ulcers of the Mouth and the Gangrene by touching them with this Stone Of the burning Spirit of Honey PUt one pound of Honey and a pint of White Wine into a glass Cucurbite or an earthen one distil them in a Sand-fire till you hear that it boyls no longer and that there remains nothing but a black Honey in the bottom The Use is To dye the Beard and Hair Of the Arcanum Corallinum POur warm Water upon the Red Precipitate of Mercury till at last your Water come away insipid then pour upon it Spirit of Salt in a glass Cucurbite dry it in a Sand-fire that will fix the Mercury then sweeten with cold Water the said Mercury fixed till the Water come away insipid then reverberate it in a Crucible it will become as red as Coral then burn upon it Spirit of VVine two or three times The Use of it is To purge and provoke vomiting gently and cure the Pox. The Dose is from three to six grains cinnamon-Cinnamon-Water PUt four ounces of Cinnamon and a quart of White Wine into a glass or stone Cucurbite fit to it a Head and Receiver of Glass distil them in a Sand-fire there will come at first a clear Water and toward the end a whitish muddy one The Use of the first Water is To fortifie the Stomach and comfort the Heart and to facilitate and further the delivery of Women in Child-bed The second Water may serve in the confection of the Syrup of Cinnamon by infusing the Cinnamon before you dissolve your Sugar in it Of the sweet Sublimate TAke of Corrosive Sublimate and Quicksilver of each a like quantity powder your Sublimate in a white Dish with a Pestle of VVhite-ware stopping your nose close then add to it the Quicksilver and when they are half incorporated together add a little distilled Vinegar to make a wet powder put this mixtion into an unluted Matrass with a straight neck place it in a Circulary Fire after the evaporation of the Vinegar stop the Matrass with a Paper stopple continue your fire till your matter be elevated from the bottom of the Matrass take off your Matrass break it and take out the Sublimate which cleanse every where powder it and put it into a greater Matrass half luted to be sublim'd a second time in the same fire which you must encrease towards the end of the Operation till there remain little or nothing in the bottom of the Matrass Take off your Matrass and break it and keep this Sublimate in a glass Vessel well stop'd It s Use is To purge gently from twenty to forty grains it fluxes in four or five Doses one after another Of the Salt of Saturn PUt as much distilled Vinegar as you please into a glaz'd Pan which set upon a Trevet over a fire of Wood and Coals and add to it as much as you please of powder'd Lytharge stirring it with a wooden Spatula then after it has boyled a little let it cool pour off the distilled Vinegar impregnated and pour on more reiterate the boyling till there remain no Lytharge filter your Dissolutions and evaporate them in a Sand-fire in a glass Cucurbite till your matter become as red as Blood then put it into VVhite-VVare Dishes to congeal into white Crystals as sweet as Sugar and there will remain a red Oyl sweet also which has the same vertue as the Salt It is a Collyrium for the Eyes in Ophthalmies it is good to inject in Gonorrhaea's and it is excellent for redness of the Face or Erysipelases in VVater or Vnguentum Rosatum Of the Diaphoretick Antimony TAke one pound of Mineral Antimony or the Regule of Antimony or Mars four pound of fine Niter powder them and mingle them together and put them in fâ—agration and fusion by spoonfuls in a great Pot of the Crucible Earth heated red-hot in a fire of Suppression covering at each time the Pot continue the fire till the vapours cease then take it off and with a Lattin Ladle pour out the matter gently into an earthen pan full of VVater bruise between your hands the matter thus quenched Pour off the white milky Dissolution within 2 or 3 hours pour off the VVater of that which is precipitated to the bottom and sweeten
it till your water come away insipid then filter your Magistery and dry it in the shade The Use of it is That it is a powerful Diuretick and Diaphoretick against Venereal Diseases the Small Pox and all long Distempers The Dose is from ten to twenty grains and more Boyl four ounces of Venice Turpentine into the consistence of Colophone in a kettle full of Water and mingle with it while it is warm an ounce of Diaphoretick Antimony half an ounce of Niter sulphurated and as much Cream of Tartar form of it Pills which will be excellent for old Gonorrhaea's Of the binding Saffron of Mars PUt two parts of filings of Steel and one part of powder'd Brimstone all at once into a Crucible heated red-hot in a fire of Suppression till the Brimstone be consumed and an hour after take off your Crucible and powder presently your matter spread this powder that is now of the colour of Violets upon Tiles and it will become brown It is good in bloody and Hepatick Fluxes in the weight of a dragm It augments the binding vertue of Plasters The opening Saffron of Mars SPrinkle the binding Saffron of Mars in a stone pan with Spirit of Vitriol or Brimstone two fingers above the matter which in two or three days will be a kind of paste with which fill a large Crucible and set it in a Reverberatory Fire for eight hours then powder it while warm and searce it The Vse This Saffron is good against the Yellow Jaundice it provokes the Monthly Courses and opens the Spleen from half a dragm to two Of the Spirit of Sulphur PLace a stone Cup half full of Sand upon a little Pot placed in the middle of a great earthen Pan a quarter full of Water put into it a spoonful of powder'd Brimstone and with a red Cart-nail set it on fire put presently a glass Bell over the Pan the Brimstone will burn the Spirit will impregnate the Water and the Flowers will produce a little skin reiterate all that till you have thus consumed four pound of Brimstone then mingle your Flowers and your impregnated Water in a Matrass with a short neck and evaporate in a Circulary Fire the Flegm till your Brimstone be dissolved and that your Spirit grows black pour it all into a stone or White-ware Vessel while it is warm the Brimstone will be congealed in the bottom and you shall have half an ounce of black Oyl or Spirit of Brimstone It cools purifies the Blood preserves from the Plague fixes Mercury dissolves Pearls and Coral and cures Cancers and Warts Of the Spirit of Vitriol and Oyl of Colcothar FIll a glass Retort throughly luted with green Vitriol calcin'd to a grey colour in a great Crucible in a Circulary Fire and of Suppression place it in a Furnace of great Reverberation till there appear black spots upon the Receiver then pour off your Spirit of Vitriol which is as clear as Water encrease your fire you shall have a black Oyl very acid and there will remain a Colcothar in the Retort The Use of both is To cool and resist Corruption against all Distempers of the Liver Kidneys against burning and pestilential Feavers it serves also to dissolve Pearls Coral Crabs Eyes Egg-shells c. but it is not strong enough to dissolve Metals Of the Oyl of Myrrha FIll with Myrrha in pieces a glass Retort luted place it in a Circulary Fire fitting to it a great Receiver there will come out a Flegm and an Oyl both together separate them one from another with a glass Tunnel The Use of the Oyl is Against Fits of the Mother by smelling to it it cleanses and ripens Wounds being mingled with the Digestivum and hinders the Gangrene being mingled with the Egyptiacum Of Cauteries SLack half a pound of Quick-lime in a stone Pan by pouring Water upon it by little and little till it become like pap in the mean time heat in a Crucible in a Fire of Suppression two pounds of gravell'd Ashes and throw them hot into the said pap then pour upon it sufficient quantity of Water to dissolve your Salts after twelve hours infusing pour your Lixivium into a brass Basin and evaporate it till it be dry and thus as it is you may use it as people do other Cauteries If you melt this matter you may mould Cauteries upon a Marble The Use is To cauterize when they are moulded they are dryer and must be well wet before their application Of the Red acid oyl of Antimony POwder and mingle fine Niter Brimstone and Antimony of each a pound set fire to your matters by little and little in an earthen pan under a glass Bell as you do the Spirit of Brimstone then evaporate it in a Matrass of a short neck till your Brimstone be melted and your Niter exhaled and that your Oyl appears red and thick taking care that your matter in boyling do not run over pour all your matter into a little stone pot or of White-ware and when it is cold it will congeal into a fair reddish Sulphur The Use of the Oyl is To cure by touching the Ulcers and Cancres of the Pox it purges without provoking vomit from eight to eighteen drops Of Besoard Mineral MElt some butter of Antimony and pour it into a glass Bell and add to it drop by drop and at divers times Spirit of Niter in equal quantity for fear of too great an ebullition when the smoak and boyling cease pour to it a pint of Sea-water filtred and cold there will be produced a white Precipitate after twelve hours pour off this Water sweeten your Precipitate with common Water then filter the remainder through a coffin of Paper and keep your powder well stop'd It s Use is To be an excellent Sudorifick for malignant Feavers and the Pox. The Precipitate of Bismuth PUt four ounces of powder'd Bismuth into a glass Bell and pour upon it by little and little eight ounces of Spirit of Niter having a care of too great an ebullition and of the venomous vapours of the said Spirit The ebullition being ceas'd and the dissolution perform'd and cold it will crystallize Pour upon it Sea-water to precipitate the Magistery pour off your Sea-water and pour on common Water to sweeten it filter the remainder through a Paper coffin and let it dry in the shade The Use is To dry Ulcers and to be a Fucus being mingled with Pomatum The spirit and oyl of Turpentine FIll a glass Retort luted with the waterish Spirit of Turpentine with its Oyl distil it in a Circulary Fire till three parts of four come away which will be the Spirit and there will remain in the Retort a thick red Oyl rectifie your Spirit so often till there remain no Oyl in it The Oyl is a good Anodynum for wounds of the nervous parts the Spirit is a good Diuretick dissolves Gums extracts Tinctures of Aromatick Plants and serves to make the Balsam of Sulphur Of the sulphurated Niter call'd Sal Antifebrile or the salt against Feavers TAke four ounces of Brimstone or its Flowers and mingle them with eight ounces of fine Niter fire this mixtion by degrees in an earthen Cup set in a stone Pan in which is a quart of Spirit of Urine covering the pot with a Bell then take the Faeces of the calcin'd Brimstone and powder them and mingle them with the Spirit of Urine impregnated with the Spirits of Niter and Sulphur let them infuse twelve hours in this stone Pot till they be dissolved filter the Dissolution and evaporate it in a short necked Matrass in a Circulary Fire till it come to a white scum then diminish the Fire and evaporate it till it cease boyling and have a care that the too much boyling do not break your Vessel pour this matter while warm into a White-ware Dish and it will congeal like Crystal Mineral To mould it you must melt it and then pour it into a Vial or melt in the Vial and then break your Vial by cold Water and take away all the Glass with the point of a Knife The Use 'T is a powerful Diuretick and cooler it resists Corruption it drives Gravel cures Feavers softens Metals The Dose is from twenty to thirty Grains FINIS
THE ART OF Chymistry As it is now Practised Written in French By P. THIBAVT Chymist to the French King And now Translated into English BY A Fellow of the Royal Society LONDON Printed for John Starkey at the Miter near Temple-Bar in Fleetstreet 1675. Licensed Roger L'Estrange The Author's PREFACE I Have Courteous Reader but two things to say to thee the first is To deliver my Opinion concerning Chymistry and the other is To set down my Way and Method of proceeding in Operations Chymistry as I take it is a Liberal Art which though it have the same Object and the same End as Vulgar Pharmacy does nevertheless compose it by Nobler and more Ingenious Means and more to the advantage of Physick In ancient times even long before Hippocrates Physitians neither knew nor made use of any more than four ways of preparing their Remedies for either they pressed the Juice out of their Ingredients or beat them to powder or they boiled them or else they infused them in Water or some other Liquor and so gave them to their Patients Some Ages after and particularly since Mesue and those other famous Arabians till the time of Paracelsus Physitians continually invented so many new Preparations and put so many Disguises upon their Remedies that they were fain to give over doing of it themselves and to assign that care to those whom we now call Apothecaries But if we give a Judicious Curiosity leave to pry into these manifold Disguises we shall soon be convinced that they are indeed nothing but the four first Simple Preparations with the addition of Sugar or Honey and some differences of Colour and Consistency for the most part heaping great quantities of Simples one upon another to the end their Patients might swallow them with less distaste Paracelsus and his Followers having particularly wrought upon Minerals found out some excellent Remedies and being encouraged by their rich Discoveries they continued them with such eagerness that in a short time with Inventions equally ingenious and laborious they did almost subdue the three Kingdoms of Vegetables Animals and Minerals and came to the possession of most rich and hitherto unknown Secrets insomuch as one may say that even from the beginning of the World to their times the Vertues of those excellent Remedies lay buried in their own Bodies as in a Grave This may be clearly seen in Crude Antimony of which a pound either in powder or in Infusion or Decoction works no other effect in the Body than if we had swallowed as much Saw-dust But if you know how to open its Body by the Keys of Chymistry then for interiour Remedies you shall have an Emetick a Purgative a Sudorifick a Diaphoretick a Diuretick and a Cordial which you need only give in a different proportion of so many Grains And for exteriour Applications you may out of the same Antimony have a Desiccative a Mundificative a Consumptive or Escarotick with other rare Remedies as we shall hereafter set down at large If we consider Mercury they that work in the Mines in Spain teach us by their Theft that more than a pound of it may be taken inwards without harm for a little before they give over working they swallow a good quantity of it which when they are at liberty they ease themselves of by Stool and so keep it to sell in secret And this the Overseers having discovered do now force every Workman to stay there a considerable time after his giving over working that these Mercurial Thieves may be so forced to leave their theft behind them But if by the vertue of Chymical Dissolvants you open the body of Quicksilver it will produce in very small Doses such various and wonderful effects that out of it alone may be had Remedies to answer all the Indications of Physick Is there any thing more contemptible than Niter in the hands of the Vulgar Pharmacy But is there any thing more admirable than the self-same Niter handled by Chymistry for with it we make now a pleasant and cooling Acid now a hot and burning Corrosive sometimes it revives the Emetick and Purgative vertue of Antimony sometimes it kills the Emetick and revives only the Purgative and sometimes it destroys both Emetick and Purgative and quickens either the Diuretick or Diaphoretick and in a word it produces so many wonderful effects upon all the other Minerals that we may justly call it the Vniversal Agent of Chymistry Who would think that a quantity of Silver no bigger than a Pea Chymically prepared were able to heal by once touching any Ulcers of the Mouth and by two or three touchings soften and heal the hardest and most inveterate Ulcers and even the Gangrene it self in any part of the Body and that incomparably better than any Remedy of the Old Pharmacy Would any body believe that out of Common Salt which is generally reputed so prejudicial to those that are subject to the Stone or Gravel Chymists should extract a pleasant Spirit which drives out all Gravel breaks the Stone in the Kidneys and Bladder and dissolves entirely in the palm of the hand a Stone cut out of a humane Bladder I should be tedious in setting out all the other VVonders of this Art only this I 'll say to prove its excellency That whereas in its birth and even in its growth when it was either not known at all or ill known by Physitians almost every body had an aversion and a prejudice against it now quite contrary being highly esteemed and throughly known by the Learned and Experienced Professors of this Art it has gained the Reputation of being the best Instrument of the excellent Cures they perform But if in requital of the kind Reception it now meets withal in the world Chymistry hath any acknowledgments to pay it is particularly to Monsieur Vallot who having been long the Physitian of the greatest Practice in Paris is now the Physitian of his Most Christian Majesty in which place by his profound Learning and the excellent choice of Remedies borrowed for the most part from Chymistry he still performs wonderful and most singular Cures So famous an Example makes me apt to believe that if there be any persons obstinate in their old errour against Chymistry they will by little and little forsake it as those have been forced to do who for a long time stubbornly opposed the new Discovery of the Vessels that carry the Chyle from the Stomach to the Heart without coming at the Liver only because they had not seen or at least not well observed this new conveyance Now for my Method it all runs upon two principles First To find out and set down solid and pertinent Reasons of all the Circumstances which accompany our Operations The Second to discover the best easiest and shortest way of performing the said Operations These were no easie things to be found out for the first Chymists happened upon abundance of excellent Secrets but being ignorant of the true Reasons of
Lead the top of it rises in form of a point the bottom is broad and proportioned to the body In its lower part it hath a brim inwards on which the Vapours that rise in it fall and gently distil to the Nose of the Pipe which is of half a foot long and conveys the liquors into the Receiver These two Vessels fitted one to another serve to distil and rectifie in a sand-fire per assensum the waters of Plants Aqua vitae Spirit of Wine the phlegm Oyl and Spirit of Vegetables and Animals and to rectifie the Phlegm and Spirit of Minerals Before you put your Cucurbit into the sand you must lute two or three slices of white Paper upon the neck of your body that so you may even it and make it fit for the head which must fit close upon these slices of Paper round about the Glass-body tye a pack-thread with a loose knot then with more Paper lute together the head and its body over this pack-thread the use of which will be to undo easily these Vessels one from another by drawing the pack-thread and so breaking the Papers when the Operation shall be ended If you expect not a considerable quantity of liquor from your matter then make use of a small Receiver which you may hang to the Nose of the Limbick by a pack-thread fastned to the little button that is on the top of its head but if it be big and you hope for much liquor then place it carefully upon a little Stool or upon Bricks laid one upon another Blind Limbicks are made of a Cucurbit and its head sealed hermetically to it of the bigness of ones fist in the top of the head there is a little hole fit to receive the small end of a Tunnel by which the Liquors are poured into this Vessel and in the lower part of the head there is a nose by which the Liquors distil It s use is to rectifie the acid Spirits of Minerals Vegetables and Animals so that nothing be lost nor exhale from them and therefore you must carefully stop the hole by which you put in your matter with a Glass or Cork-stopple Twins or Pelicans are two blind Limbicks whose noses are reciprocally inserted into the Bodies of one another they must both have a hole in the top for the use mentioned in the other they serve to fix and circulate the Oyls and Spirits with their Salts of Animals Vegetables and Minerals The Retort is a glass made up of a great belly or ball and a long bending neck which near the belly is six or eight inches wide but diminishing still grows less till its end be but wide enough to put your finger in it serves to distil by the side of the Furnace and ordinarily in a naked circulatory fire the black Oyls and Spirits of Minerals and Metals and the stinking Oyls of Vegetables and Animals The Iron or Earthen Retort is like the Glass-one only the neck is three inches diameter near the belly and two inches in its extremity to the end that gross and heavy ingredients may the easilier be put in it serves to distil the Spirit and stinking Oyls of Woods Barks Roots and Berries The Matrass or Bolt-head is always of Glass and may be of different sizes it consists of a round bowl convex in its bottom with a neck half a foot long or thereabouts according to the bigness of the body the neck is every where an inch wide it serves to sublime Mercury and divers Salts The Recipient is a Matrass of any bigness whose neck must be broken off four fingers breadth near the belly to the end that the extremity of the neck of the Retort may enter into the middle of the body of the Receiver it serves to receive Waters Essences Oyls and Spirits of Animals Vegetables Minerals and Metals The way to make a Recipient of a Matrass is this Heat the neck in that part where you intend to cut it off and when it is very hot wet it and so knock it with a hammer and it will break there where it has been wet if it be not very even you may with a key even it by little and little The Stone or Earthen Receiver is of the same figure with the Glass one only it has a wider neck to receive the Nose of the Earthen Retort you may use an Earthen Pitcher if you cannot get a fit Receiver so the neck of the Pitcher be straight and the belly big and wide taking care to lute it close with the Retort but these Earthen Receivers are seldom used except it be to receive the Spirits and stinking Oyls of Wood Rinds Roots Barks and Berries The double Vessel in form of a Matrass is a Matrass with a long neck into which is inserted the neck of another Matrass of the same bulk in the ball though its neck be a little less and may if you will also be shorter and go but half way into the first Matrass you must lute with three or four slices of Paper the Junction of these two Vessels that nothing may exhale it serves to extract by Infusion in a Sand-heat all sorts of Tinctures The double Vessel in form of a Cucurbit or Body is a Cucurbite of Glass or Earth upon whose mouth you place a Cup like your Cupping-Glasses with the mouth downwards it having a little brim by which it is suspended upon the top of the Cucurbite these two Vessels must be close luted together The best Lute will be of Flower or Starch in form of a hasty Pudding This Vessel serves to extract by infusion the tincture of Aromatick Flowers that so nothing may be lost of their Spirit and is fitter than the Pitcher ordinarily used to this purpose The Bell is a great Glass-Vessel like the Bell Gardiners use to cover Melons withal The use of this is to draw the Spirit and Oyl of Sulphur of Salt Armoniack of Antimony and Mars or Iron by covering with it an Earthen Pan and if you turn it with the mouth upwards it serves for precipitations and washings or lotions The Glass-Tunnel though it be open at both ends yet we reckon it among the Vessels as well because sometimes by stopping the little end it is really one and contains Liquors as because there is something worth observation in its Fabrick or making it must have a straight long neck because being used in the blind Alimbeck it must reach as far as within the Body and not spill upon the inward brim of it it must not have so large a belly as the Tin-Tunnels lest when you separate your distilled Oyl from their Phlegm and Spirit much of the Oyls be lost by sticking to the large sides of your Tunnel It serves to separate the Oyl from the acid Phlegm distilled with it which is done by letting these two Liquors settle in the Tunnel and then taking away your finger which stopped it and giving leave to that Liquor which is lowermost to run
fourth 4. When you have augmented the fire by degrees and are come to the last which you maintain the space of some hours as it is done in the distillation of the black Oyl of Vitriol or Colcothar The Spirit of Salt TAke a quantity of Potters-Earth cut it into slices of the length breadth and thickness of a finger and set them in order upon a Grid-iron which you shall set upon red Coals in a hot Oven after the bread is drawn when they are dry on one side turn them on the other then take them out and powder them in a Mortar and keep this Earth thus dried and powdered as well for this Operation as for divers others Mingle five parts of this Earth thus prepared with one part of common Salt beaten to powder but not decrepitated with this matter fill a Glass-Retort of an ordinary size which must be luted up to half the neck set it in a close Reverberatory and fit it to a large and capacious Glass-Receiver Give your fire by degrees coming as soon as you can to the last degree which continue twenty four hours or till your Recipient seem cold though the Retort be violently hot from whence you may infer that your matter hath sent out all its Spirits out of one pound of Salt by this method you 'll draw nine or ten ounces of Spirits Observe 1. This Earth is given to the Salt as an intermedium to hinder its fusion for Salt melts in a great fire and being once melted becomes so fix as there is no raising of its Spirits to distil them Observe 2. That we rather make use of a Glass than of an Earthen Retort because the Spirits of Salt being very acid and something corrosive might so penetrate the Earth of the Retort as to lose something of their virtue and dull their activity therefore you must also keep your Spirit of Salt in Glass not in Earthen Vessels Observe 3. That the Salt must not be decrepitated that is separated from its Phlegm nor the Clay absolutely dried or heat red in the fire for it is necessary that there should remain some watrish humidity in both to the end that this phlegm coming first in distillation may help the acid Spirits and be as a Vehicle to them otherwise were your fire never so violent if there were no Phlegm you would never obtain any acid Spirits Observe 4. That your Retort must be filled up to the neck because the Spirits in their first rising and separating themselves from their grosser parts would if there were any Vacuum presently re-impregnate themselves and be so fix'd as that no power of fire would be able to raise them again and make them Volatil whereas the Vapours raised meeting with no empty room in the Retort are not able to condense there but by the fire are forced into the Recipient into which they enter in form of a white Vapour which by little and little cools and condenses and at last dissolves into a Liquor white and clear as water Observe 5. That that Phlegm which first comes is little in quantity and if you will have your Spirit strong and pure you may deflegmate and rectifie it in a sand-heat It s vertue and use is It resists all corruption taken interiourly and outwardly applied and for this reason in venomous and malign Feavers we mingle three or four drops of it with a Cordial Julip and for a preservation against the Plague we put a spoonful of it into a quart of Oxycrate and so rub the body all over before a good fire It whitens the Teeth admirably being mingled with a little Water or some syrup it 's a powerful diuretick against suppressions of Urine caused by the oppilation of the conducts thorow which it should pass it drives the Gravel out of the Kidneys and Bladder and so is specifick to break the Stone of the Kidneys and Bladder that if you put a Stone cut out of a humane Bladder into a quantity of Spirit of Salt it will dissolve immediately without fire or any addition of any thing though it were never so hard it is used to dissolve Gold and make it Potable if you do whet its Vertue by putting to it a little Salt decrepitated before you put your Gold in it alone it dissolves Pearls and Coral The marks whereby you may know and distinguish this Spirit from others are these 1. That it is clear and white drawing to a citrine transparent colour 2. Being newly made it is Vaporous and seizes the nose presently but without stink and being old it has no odour at all 3. That upon your tongue it is of an acid biting faltish taste 4. It neither corrodes nor tinges of any colour its cork-stopple Spirit of Niter MIngle one part of fine and well purified Niter with four or five parts of Potters Earth prepared as in the Chapter of Spirit of Salt fill with this a Glass-Retort well luted up to its neck place it in a close Reverberatory Furnace fitting to it a large and capacious Recipient give your fire by degrees till you come to the highest which continue twenty four hours The Phlegm will come first and in small quantity and also with a little Spirit which will appear in the Recipient in form of a White Vapour a little after the pure Spirit will come appearing in form of red Vapours which will make your Recipient bright and red as a Ruby Out of one pound of Niter thus distilled you may have four ounces of Spirit Obs 1. That you must be very exact in luting your Retort close with your Recipient lest many of your Vapours should exhale and however the Artist must have a care of coming too near at that time lest the Sulphureous and Malign Vapours of the Niter which our Authors call the flying Dragon should offend his Brain and Nerves and make him Paralytick by the fusion and resolution of the humours of the Brain which at that time borrowing from the subtle Nitrous Vapours an extraordinary thinness and penetration would easily insinuate themselves into the nerves and by their abundance cause a total Obstruction Obs 2. That we give the Potters Earth to Niter as we do to Salt to hinder its fusion now Niter is very easily melted because it is the Body which helps other Bodies to be so too by reason of its great thinness the abundance of its Sulphureous substance and its penetration but when once it has been melted it becomes so fix that having lost all its Sulphur it can neither evaporate nor be inflamed though you put it into the fire Then therefore it is called Salt of Niter being fix as Salts whereas before its fusion it was so strangely Volatil that when you did but put a Coal into it it presently was in such a flame that it was almost quite consumed Obs 3. That for this Operation we make use of very fine purified Niter because the purer it is the less it hath of fixed
Spirit of Vitriol is nothing but a small portion of the true Spirit mingled with a great deal of Phlegm and that this black Liquor which we call Oyl is indeed a pure Spirit of Vitriol entirely dephlegmated but because of its Sulphureous blackness and thickness it is improperly called Oyl being somewhat unctuous to the feeling though it be not at all inflameable as all true Oyls are Obs 1. That you must dephlegmate the Vitriol and powder it well before you put it into your Retort else you would not draw off the Spirit but the Phlegm alone for the matter would coagulate in the bottom of the Vessel into a lump which sticking close to the sides of the Retort would so retain all the Spirits that a strong fire of forty hours lasting would scarce be able to reduce this mass to powder therefore it is better to dephlegmate and reduce to powder your Vitriol before it be put into the Retort Obs 2. That we give no Intermedium to Vitriol as we do to Salt and Niter because being a terrestrious Salt it cannot be melted and by consequent cannot fix and retain its Spirits within its self so that provided it be dephlegmated the Spirits are easily raised and distilled by the violence of the fire Obs 3. That you need not fill your Retort up to the neck with your matter because the Spirit of Vitriol having not so much tenuity as the Spirits of Salt and Niter is not in danger of re-impregnating and fixing its self in its own masse Obs 4. That the Retort must be of Glass for the reason alledged in the Spirit of Salt Obs 5. That you chuse good Vitriol not too dry for it will yield more Spirit and Oyl therefore that which comes from Germany and the Low Countries is better than the Roman Vitriol for this effect It s virtue and effects Both the white Spirit and the black Oyls are Acids which pleasantly and excellently do cool desopilate and resist all corruption and therefore they are frequently and with good success made use of for the Liver and Kidneys in burning and Pestilentious Feavers The dose is five or six drops of the Spirit two or three of the Oyl either in Water Broth or White Wine It serves for the dissolution of Metals and in Surgery it is used either pure or mingled with a little water or Mel rosatum to touch the ulcers of the mouth The first and second Colcothar are both an excellent Astringent given in violent Diarrhoea's Dysenteries and Hepatick Fluxes or mingled with some unguents it stops bleeding Wounds The Marks to distinguish the Oyl of Vitriol from other are these 1. It is very black 2. It is not only acid but caustick 3. It is very heavy 4. It seizes the nose with a strong Vapour when new made and in all these four conditions it is like the Oyl of Sulphur As for the Spirit it is known by its pleasant acidity by its yellowish colour and because being old it yields no smell no more than Spirit of Sulphur neither doth it corrode or make its stopple yellow the Spirits of Niter and Aqua fortis are distinguished from it by their smell and because they corrode and change the colour of their stopples Spirit of Salt is known from it because it has a brackish taste and smells strong when new being much more intolerable and unpleasant than Spirit of Vitriol Aqua Fortis TAke a Glass-Retort luted up to half its neck put in it equal parts of common Niter and green Vitriol not dephlegmated but they must be beaten to powder in an Iron Mortar before fill but two thirds of your Retort leaving a third empty for else the Vitriol being melted by the Niter would it may be rise and run in substance into the Recipient before the distillation of the Aqua fortis could be begun Set your Retort in a little Reverberatory or in a little Circulatory fire a great Reverberatory being not so necessary here because the Niter is of it self so volatil and having melted the Vitriol it makes it likewise capable of yielding its Spirits without a very violent degree of heat Give your fire by degrees continuing the first degree till the phlegm which will appear in a white vapour in the Recipient be distilled otherwise if at first you did give a great heat the Niter and Vitriol together would boil over your Vessel and in their own substance run into the Recipient When your Recipient begins to fill with red Vapours which is the sign of the Spirit 's coming forth augment your fire and cover your Retort with Coals if it be in a Circulatory fire continue this heat till your Recipient begin to lose something of the brightness of its red colour and till it become cold though the fire be vehement under the Retort then the matter has sent forth all its Spirits and you shall find these red Vapours dissolved all into a white clear Liquor as water Out of one pound of common Niter and as much of green Vitriol undephlegmated you may have sixteen ounces of Aqua fortis Obs 1. That though the Spirit of Vitriol cannot be drawn from Vitriol undephlegmated yet Aqua fortis may because being in company with the Niter it cannot after the distillation of its Phlegm coagulate in a lump which might fix and retain its Spirits the Niter by its opening Sulphur keeping the Vitriol porous and vaporous Obs 2. That Aqua fortis may be very well made with dephlegmated Vitriol and fine Niter and then it is so strong and corrosive that it is Aqua regalis and can dissolve Gold and Silver but because we do not ordinarily need in Chymistry so strong a dissolvent for the frequent dissolutions we make of Mercury of Tin of Bismuth and of Silver we are content with Aqua fortis prepared as has been taught It s virtue and use This is a very caustick burning water some do touch Warts and Corns with it but it is dangerous so to do and our Chymistry will afford us gentler and fitter remedies which I shall set down hereafter It serves to dissolve your Metals and Minerals the Dyers use it to give a strength and penetration to their Colours The Marks to distinguish it are 1. It is yellowish 2. Stinks very much 3. It yellows and corrodes its stopple and the bladder and pack-thread that are employed about the stopping of it 4. If you pour a drop or two of it upon a Brass-half-peny it makes it stir and look green The Spirit and black Oyl of Sulphur TAke a great Stone or unglazed Earthen Pan put it into a pound of common water in the middle of this Pan set a little Stone-pot and upon this Pot place a little flat Earthen Cup full of sand in the mean time reduce into powder four pound of Brimstone and of this put one spoonful into the middle of the sand then take a great Coach-wheel Nail and heat it red hot and with a pair of
a Retort and open fire nevertheless to speak properly the name of Oyl is not due to either of them because they are neither Sulphurous nor inflamable substances If after you have made the Salt of Tartar you are in haste to have the Oyl you may presently compass your end by throwing eight ounces of common Water upon four ounces of this Salt of Tartar for then it will all dissolve into Liquor Obs 1. That you chuse good Tartar for that is all Salt whereas the grosser sort of Tartar has much of faeces and terrestreity in it which would spoil this Operation in which we pretend to dissolve all the Salt into Water Obs 2. That your Niter be well devested of all its fixt Salt because we desire here a pure Salt of Tartar without the mixtion of any other therefore your Niter must be entirely volatil and exhale all in the flagration Obs 3. That they both be well powder'd and mingled together that so the Niter penetrating the Tartar do throughly calcine it and it is for this reason that we use an equal quantity of Niter By this method the Tartar is far better and easilier calcin'd than by the naked fire without any Intermedium Obs 4. That we make use here of an earthen glazed Pan without any fear that the Niter should corrode the Lead of the Vernish because its flame is not retained but is at liberty to exhale An unglazed or stone-Pan would be unfit for the Operation because it would presently break by the Inflammation of the Niter The Virtues and Use of the Salt 'T is a great Aperitive Deopilative and Diuretick the dose is from one to two dragms in some Broth or any other appropriated Liquor The Tartar Vitriolated because of the grateful acidity which it borroweth from the Vitriol is much more pleasant to take than this Salt This Salt in the quantity of half a scruple will extract in a quarter of an hour the virtue and tincture of half an ounce of Senna in a glass of cold water and at the same time proves a good Corrective to the noisom smell and taste of the Senna giving it also the virtue of penetrating into all the Veins The Oyl of Tartar is very scouring and drying and is therefore excellent to rub all Scabs Itch and Tetters as also to take away Spots and Sun-burns upon the Hands and Face It is useful to precipitate the dissolutions of Metals and Half-metals or Marcasites And pray by the By take notice That all Acids as Sea-water distilled Vinegar Oyl of Tartar Spirit and black Oyl of Sulphur and Vitriol Spirit of Niter and Aqua fortis serve to precipitate the dissolutions of Minerals but that ordinary common Water serves to precipitate the Distillations and Calcinations of Minerals as also the Dissolutions of Vegetables made in Spirit of Wine for the Reasons which hereafter we shall alledge Crystal Mineral or Lapis Prunellae TAke a Pot of the same Earth that Crucibles are made of of the bigness of a Chamber-pot and like it in Figure with a handle set it upon two Bricks in a great Circulatory Fire of Suppression before the Pot be heated throw into it as much pure Salt-peter in powder as will fill it up to the brim the Salt-peter will melt and as soon as it is melted throw into it a spoonfull of Brimstone in powder which immediately will take fire and be consumed when the flame ceases throw in as much more and so do three or four times This Brimstone does not communicate any virtue to the Niter only serves to purifie it by precipitating its Faeces to the bottom of the Pot till it become so transparent that after these Projections and Flagrations you may see the bottom of the Pot through the melted Niter This done pour a little of this melted Niter into a Brass-tinn'd-Kettle and presently set your Pot upon the fire again having taken away a good part of the Coals round about it then stir your Kettle so as to make the Niter spread it self all over the bottom of your Vessel which done set it in a bigger Vessel full of cold Water that so you may hinder the Niter from burning and adhering too strongly to the bottom of your Kettle separate then at last this white Crust which is as thin and as brittle as Glass and as white as Alabaster and is by some called Crystal Mineral After this take more melted Niter out of your Pot pour it into your Kettle and do all things as before continuing till there be nothing left in the Pot but the Faeces of the Niter which you may throw away Then gather all these thin Crystals together and put them into a Kettle of Water upon the Fire there to dissolve by a gentle ebullition and if all dissolve not it is a sign there is not Water enough When all is dissolved take off your Kettle and filter this Liquor presently while it is warm through a brown Paper over an earthen unglaz'd Cucurbite Then set the said Cucurbite in a Sand-heat there to evaporate till there appear upon the Superficies a thin skin then take it off let it cool the Niter will crystallize into Needles of a sexangulary Figure white clear and transparent as any Rock-Crystal but as brittle as Glass and of a pleasant and grateful acidity And then it is properly called Crystal Mineral because of its resemblance with Crystal Some call it Lapis Prunellae and that is because it is sharp and sowre like your wild Prunes or Plums Obs 1. That we make use of a Pot of the same Earth that the Crucibles are made of and not of an ordinary earthen-glaz'd Pot because the Niter being once melted would also dissolve the ledding of the Pot and being incorporated with it would lose much of its whiteness Obs 2. That we fill the Pot full up to the brim that we may make at once a great quantity of Crystal Mineral and because the Niter melted will take up but half the room it did before being no ways subject to rise and run over Obs 3. That you must beat to powder your Niter for so a greater quantity will be contained in the Pot and also be easilier melted Obs 4. That you must not stay till your Pot be warm before you put in your Niter because the Pot being very hot and the flegm of the Niter coming to be dissolved first would be broke infallibly Therefore put in your Niter at first and so by degrees as your Pot warms your Niter will be deflegmated and yet observe That if you throw a spoonful of Niter into a pot red-hot it will not break because there is too little flegm for so much heat Obs 5. That the Niter being hot enough melts and is deflegmated it melts by the means of its flegm for it is the flegm that puts all Salts into fusion And whensoever Salts are entirely calcined or deflegmated they cannot be melted except they be wet anew by
one to corrode and consume all superfluous fleshly Excrescences and it is necessary that it should be in greater quantity than the Mercury to dissolve it entirely Moreover calcin'd Mercury does not retain its natural whiteness because the Vitriol of the Aqua fortis communicates this tincture and because that the Fire here is much more violent than that which is us'd in the preparation of the Remedy call'd Turbith Mineral The dissolvant being also much more over-heated and penetrating by the help of the Fire communicates a sulphureous colour Obs 4. That the Precipitate is found to be equal in weight to the Mercury that was dissolved because though in this Operation it have lost something of its volatil part yet it hath impregnated it self with some of the Salts of the Aqua fortis as much as to make up the weight and these Salts it will keep till it be reviv'd and made Cuicksilver again Obs 5. That the Red Precipitate of Mercury is a Mercury dissolv'd and calcin'd by Aqua fortis and then charg'd with the sharpest part of the Salts of the said Aqua fortis It s Vse and Vertue It is lightly caustick and escarotick or consumptive and therefore eats away all proud flesh and excrescences and to mollifie it a little it is mingled with some Unguent as the Basilicum c. It is good to cleanse Ulcers it is useful likewise in the preparation of the Arcanum Corallinum Arcanum Corallinum PUt as much Red Precipitate as you please into a glass Bell pour upon it a good quantity of warm Water not too hot for fear of breaking your Vessel and do this often till at last your Water come away sweet and insipid then having poured off your last Water put your Precipitate into a little glass Cucurbite and twice as much Spirit of Salt in weight as there is Precipitate set your Cucurbite in a Sand-fire with its Head and glass Receiver fitted to it to draw off by distillation the flegm of the Spirit of Salt in the mean time the volatil Salt of the common Salt which composes the Spirit of Salt will remain in the bottom and be incorporated with the Precipitate of Mercury and so fix it as to make it able to endure a reverberatory Fire without evaporation on the top of this Mercury there is a white Crust which is the grossest part of the Spirit of Salt that is corporified Pour upon all this some cold Water as soon as your vessel is cool to the end you may dissolve this grosser Salt and draw it off from the Mercury reiterating thus your Lotions till your Water come off insipid then put your Mercury which is of a dark yellow into a Crucible and reverberate it in a small reverberatory Furnace till it become as red as Corral and in this reverberation the Salts of the common Salt which were incorporated in the Mercury do evaporate and leave the Mercury in the same weight it had before its first Lotion and nevertheless the Mercury is fix'd by that little of these Salts which it enjoys This done put the said Mercury into a Dish of Earth glazed and pour upon it good Spirit of Wine two or three Fingers deep which set on fire till it be consumed and so reiterate once more the said Flagration to the end that the purgative and vomitive Vertues of the Mercury be milder by the evaporation of the volatil and venomous part of the said Mercury and its Salts Obs 1. That we wash the Red Precipitate with luke-warm Water to the end that all the sharp Salts that are in the said Precipitate be dissolv'd the better and by these reiterated Lotions it becomes at last as sweet as if it had been prepar'd with Spirit of Niter in stead of Aqua fortis Obs 2. That the Spirit of Salt as well as the Spirit of Sulphur has the vertue of fixing Mercury because the Mercury it self too is naturally fix'd being therefore opened and intimately penetrated by the Spirit of Salt the said Spirit communicates to it its fixative vertue and is it self fixed in the Mercury And observe that the Spirit of Salt has un-dyed the Red Precipitate and made it of a dark yellow because the common Salt being by its nature all white and coming to mingle with the Orange-colour must needs clear it and give it this yellow Obs 3. That the Arcanum Corallinum is nothing but Mercury calcin'd and dissolv'd Philosophically by Aqua fortis then fix'd by Spirit of Salt and devested by washings from the most malignous part of its Salts and of the volatilest part of its substance by reiterated flagrations of Spirit of Wine It s Vse and Vertue It purges and sometimes procures a Vomit gently opening and unstopping at the same time the passages and dissolving all the hardnesses of the schirrous parts alone it cures the Pox without fluxing because it is fix'd The Dose is from three to six grains The Crocus Metallorum or Liver of Antimony TAke of Female Antimony one pound and half a pound of common impure Niter powder them and mingle them together in the mean time heat red-hot upon two Bricks in a great Fire of Suppression a large and capacious Crucible or Camion throw into this with a great Iron Ladle a quantity of your matter and cover presently your Crucible keeping it covered till all the smoak cease continue this Projection and Flagration till all your matter be consumed This done encrease the Fire and stir with a stick your matter continually till it be all melted then take it off from the Fire and pour it into a Brass or Iron Mortar hindring as much as you can the Faeces which swim upon the top from going into the Mortar this liquor will congeal into a lump which when it is cold you may break into many pieces as glistring and shining as Steel or as burn'd Liver then if you powder them they will change into a Saffron-colour'd powder not unlike a diseas'd bilious Liver and thence it is call'd the Saffron of Metals As for the Faeces remaining in the Crucible you must throw them away as useless Obs 1. That you must take Female Antimony as being the worst and you may know it by its long bright white Needles as also because it is much more brittle than either the Male or Mineral Antimony The Male is better than the Female and is known by its little blue yellow green Needles diversified in colours like a Rainbow The Mineral Antimony is worst of all because not having been melted it has not lost any of its volatil substance in which consists all its malignity It is distinguished easily for it is full of the Rock out of which it is drawn When you melt Mineral Antimony the Male goes to the bottom In this Operation of the Crocus Metallorum Female Antimony is good enough because the Remedy resulting from it is none of the best of Chymistry you may use the Male if you will but have a
enough it is always dry if it be kept well stopp'd in a glass Vial but if it be too dry it cannot dissolve upon the skin therefore while you prepare all things for its application put it to soak in a spoonful of water The Magistery or Precipitate of Bismuth SEt a Cucurbit Glass Bell or Head upon any thing within a Chimney that so the infectious vapours may not poyson the room and offend by their stench the Artist and Spectators put into your Vessel four ounces of Bismuth well powdered in a Brass Mortar pour upon it one or two spoonfuls of Spirit of Nitar which presently will produce an ebullition and a stinking infectious smoak when they are past pour on again a like quantity of Spirit of Niter which will cause the same effect continue this till you have spent eight ounces of Spirit of Niter if you pour on too much at a time your ebullition will be so violent that all your matter will run over your Vessel and be lost and the smoak will be so thick that by its stinking red vapours it will go near to do you some mischief When you have thus spent all your Spirit of Niter though after the last Projection all your Bismuth be not dissolved and devour'd by the said Spirit nevertheless separate by inclination your dissolution while it is warm from that part of the Bismuth which remains undissolv'd in the bottom of your Vessel and you must pour this Dissolution into a precipitatory Vessel of Glass or white-ware and there it will be congealed into a thousand little transparent white Cristals In the mean time pour by little and little and at divers times some new Spirit upon the Bismuth left in your vessel to the end you may dissolve all the pure and good Bismuth that is left in this lump for there will remain at last a few black Faeces which cannot be dissolved Separate by inclination this second Dissolution in another Glass or white-ware Vessel and there let it Crystallize as the former then take all your Crystals and mingle them together in a Glass Bell and there melt them with a gentle heat and when they are melted pour upon them a quart of Sea-water actually cold which will precipitate them into a white Curd which Curd will by little and little dissolve into a white powder then separate by inclination this first Water pour on more and so continue till your powder be entirely sweetned nay do it three or four times after that your water comes away insipid for if there did remain the least Acrimony in this powder it would wrinkle the Face which it ought to whiten filtrate this powder through a white Paper and let it dry upon the said Paper in the shade taking care to cover it lest the dust should come at it and do not dry it by the Fires side or in the Sun-beams for then it would return to brown-blackish colour When it is very dry put it into a glass Vial well stopped and you have the true Magistery or precipitate of of Bismuth Obs That Bismuth is a kind of Marcassite of Silver and that therefore it is almost as good as Silver to make by its calcination a good Fucus or Cosmetick for it is certain that the Precipitate of Silver made in the same way as this does much excel the Precipitate of Bismuth Obs 2. That to make the Dissolution of Bismuth in Spirit of Niter you must take a Vessel very broad towards the top and therefore a glass Bell is the fittest to the end that the venemous vapours that rise out of the matter may the sooner and the easilier be gone therefore in a Matrass these vapours being streightned would re-impregnate themselves and make your matter yellow instead of white Then your vessel must be Glass or White-ware for in an earthen glaz'd Vessel your powder would grow black because it would dissolve the Lead of the Vernish and a stone or unglazed one be less fit because the Spirit of Niter might lose and insinuate it self in the pores of the said Earth Obs 3. That though Aqua-fortis can dissolve Bismuth yet we use it not because by its Vitriol the Calx of the Bismuth would be so blacked as to be useless in the design of whitening the skin Obs 4. That your dissolution being poured into a glass or white ware vessel does there congeal into a thousand little white Chrystals transparent and saltish because that the Spirit of Niter being loaden with the quantity of a Metalick body Christallises as Metals use to do after their dissolution These Crystals are white because that the Bismuth is as white as Silver and they melt by a gentle fire because they were congealed by cold Obs 5. That Sea water does precipitate dissolved Bismuth in a white curd and white powder because that the Sea-salt which makes the Sea-water being contrary to the Salt which makes the Spirit of Niter attakes and fights with it and so the Niter being weakned because that in this conflict its sharpest part evaporates away le ts go the Bismuth which it had seized upon and immediately the said Bismuth falls into a white curd and powder 'T is true that the common water by moistening the Spirit of Niter does much weaken it but if in this water there had not been some Sea-salt the Calx of Bismuth would never have been well separated from its dissolvant neither would it have been precipitated to the bottom of the Vessel Obs 6. That you must dry this Magistery in the shade by little and little and not in haste or by the fire side or in the Sun-beams lest it recover its brown dark colour for the actual heat either of the Fire or the Sun would revive in it a black burned Sulphur which sticks to the surface of this remedy from whence Ladies that use it may learn that they must by a double reason keep it in the shade as well to conserve their own natural beauty as the artificial beauty which they borrow from this Magistery Obs 7. That the Precipitate or Magistery of Bismuth is nothing but a Calx of Bismuth calcin'd Philosophically by the Spirit of Niter and then precipitated by the contrariety of the Sea-water and sweetned by reiterated Lotions It s Vse and Vertues It is in Physick an excellent desicative for Ulcers as well as the Magistery of Saturn and it is likewise a most excellent Cosmetick or Fucus to make the face and hands white and fair either by rubbing them with the powder alone which insinuates its self into the pores of the skin or else by applying a Pomatum made of one dragm of the said precipitate and two dragms of Vnguentum Pomatum which you may prepare if you will with one ounce of white Virgin Wax and four ounces of Oyl of sweet Almonds or Acorns or of Beans or of the four cold seeds The Spirit Oyl and Extract of Guaiacum TAke a great Stone Retort lute it every where
therefore serves to ripen and Suppurate wounds being mingled with the ordinary digestive it hinders the Gangrene being mingled with the Aegyptiac or other like unguent it stinks extremely and therefore being smelt to helps the suffocations of the Matrix The Oyls of Mastick Oblibanum Storax Benjamin and all other Gumms except Camphire are made in the same way and method and without intermedium as the Oyl of Myrrha The Oyl of Bricks or of the Philosophers PUt five pound of powder'd Brick into a Glass Retort well luted then pour into it one pound of Oyl of Olives either with a Tunnel or a Paper Coffin in case the neck of your Retort be so straight that you cannot pour into it otherwise without spilling Do not fill above two parts of your Retort left the oyl in boyling should run out in its proper substance and carry the Brick along with it before it distill Place your Retort upon a Round hollow Earthen Pan in a circulary fire and fit to it a Receiver Give the Fire by little and little and have a care you do not put your Coals near the Retort before the flegm be entirely distilled off which you will know when you shall hear that your matter makes no more noise in the Retort then encrease the fire and lay your kindled Coals near the Retort and at last give a fire of suppression by covering your Retort with kindled live Coals There will come two Oyls one red and the other black and stinking the distillation ought to be performed drop by drop and besides these drops there come fumes that is a sign that the fire is too strong therefore lessen it This distillation will last four or five hours out of one pound of Oyl of Olives and five pound of Bricks you will have about four ounces of Oyl and half an ounce of flegm separate by a glass Tunnel the flegm that will go to the bottom from the Oyl which swims upon the top if you rectifie this Oyl in a little glass Retort in a sand-fire it will become yellowish and less stinking Obs 1. That we use a glass and not a stone Retort because the Oyl would penetrate the last and cannot penetrate the first Obs 2. That we give an intermedium to the Oyl of Olives because it can never be distilled alone and would sooner break the Retort than distill and this intermedium is rather powderd Brick then any thing else because it being a spongious porous substance it is sooner imbib'd and then having little flegm because it has been baked it is fitter for this Operation where much flegm would be prejudicial and would go near to break the Retort by its combat with Oyl Some quench pieces of Bricks red hot in Oyl then powder and distill them but they have a very small quantity of Oyl and yet they must use a great Retort and a great Reverberatory fire Obs 3. That the Oyl of Bricks is nothing buâ— Oyl of Olives distilled having acquired by distillation a Tenuity and Thinness of substance which makes it very penetrative and warming and also very stinking the Brick communicates no vertue to it and is only an intermedium It s Vse and Vertues This Oyl is very penetrating inciding and resolving and therefore is most Soveraign for the pains and swellings that come from cold humours as in the Sciatica and also for contusions and blows The Oyl of yellow Wax TAke five parts of Clay or powder'd Bricks put them into an Earthen glazed Pan and pour upon them one part of yellow Wax melted incorporate them well together and make little Balls and Cylinders to put easily into a glass Retort well luted fill it up to the neck place it upon a round hollow Earthen Pan in a circulary Fire fit and lute to it a Receiver give the fire by degrees as in the Oyl of Bricks your matter being once hot the flegm begins to boyl and make a noise and comes out first in form of a white Vapour then the Oyl also in the same form of white vapours which are condensed into a very red stinking Oyl which when cold congeals into butter as yellow as Gold This Operation will last four or five hours For a pound of Wax out of which you will have fourteen ounces of Oyl or Butter and half an ounce of flegm If you rectifie this Oyl divers times in a little glass Retort by a sand fire it will become as white and as clear as whites of Eggs and will not stink so much Observe That there are no other observations to be made upon this process than what has been already observed in the making of the Oyl of Bricks It s Use and Vertues are likewise the same but besides it is most excellent for the clefts of the Breasts in women The Oyl of Yolks of Eggs. PUt twenty or thirty Eggs into a Kettle of cold water set your Kettle upon the fire and boyl your Eggs till they be hard then scale them and take out the Yolks put all these Yolks together into a frying-Pan which set upon a Trevet and make a good flaming fire under the Pan then crumble all your yolks with an Iron Spoon and so turn them now and then continue thus doing till almost all your yolks be reduced to a black Oyl and that there remains but a few burnt black Faeces pour this Oyl into a little Earthen Pot keeping with your spoon the Faeces from going in with it this Oyl does not congeal because it has been drawn with a great Fire and you may use it without any other preparation but if you desire to have it clearer and more penetrating then rectifie it in a glass Retort in a sand-fire it will become as yellow as Gold and will congeal like Butter If you rectifie it in a naked fire it will not be so yellow but it will congeal a little for by both of these rectifications by a gentle heat the stinking Sulphur remains in the Retort and if was this Sulphur that made it stink and kept it from congealing which is proved by this following experience which is another way of clarifying the said Oyl viz. Put the said Oyl into a double Matrass for a month over a gentle fire or in a Lamp Furnace or ashes or in Horse-dung the Oyl will clarifie its self most perfectly because it s Faeces will go to the bottom and then you may easily separate the clarified Oyl from its Faeces Obs 1. That if you put your Eggs into the water when it boyles that they will scarce be hard enough and therefore will not be fit to yield their Oyl beeause they retain while they are not hard somthing of a superfluous humidity and in the Pan they would crackle and sparkle and hardly afford any Oyl Obs 2. That this Oyl though when it comes from the Pan be blackish has not nevertheless any ill taste nor smell but when it is rectified it becomes sharp and stinking It s Vse
s Vse and Vertue It is a most excellent anodynum to appease the Tooth-ach by putting a litle Cotton dipp'd in the said Spirit of Wine to the pain'd Tooth and it is good to help the paines in the Ears by dipping in it some black Wool cut off of the Stones of a black Ram and so put into the Ear. The Aromatick tincture of Cloves PUt of whole Cloves what quantity you please into a Matrass and pour on well rectfied Spirit of Wine to the height of four fingers above your matter make a double Vessel with another small Matrass fitted to the first and well luted together place this vessel in a Sand-heat and there let it stand till the Spirit of Wine be dyed of a red-blackish colour separate by inclination this tincture and keep it in a glass Vial well stopp'd Of this tincture may be made a Syrup by putting to it a sufficient quantity of Sugar and so boyling of it to the consistence of a Syrup or you may make of the said tincture an Extract by evaporating your tincture to the consistence of an Extract The Vse and Vertues of the Tincture Syrup and Extract are to comfort and strengthen the Stomach by consuming cold superfluous humours take away the pains of the Colick it is excellent against all Faintings of the Heart and kills worms in the body The Dosis is a spoonful of the Tincture or Syrup and a Pill of the Extract or else you apply Linnen dipt in the said Tincture upon the Stomach Belly and Navel Cinnamon Water PUt four ounces of whole Cinnamon not powdered two pound of White-wine or Sack into a Glass or Stone Cucurbite place it in a Sand Furnace with a glass Head and Receiver there will be distilled a Water very clear and full of Spirits which from time to time you must take and pour out of your Receiver to the end it be not mingled with the gross flegm which will come at last of a whitish muddy colour Obs 1. That you must not distil Cinnamon-water in a Cucurbite of glazed Earth lest the Cinamon should whet the Spirit of Wine and make it corrode the Lead of the Vernish and so being impregnated with the Saturn alter its own vertue Obs 2. That the Water of Cinnamon is nothing but the purest part of the Wine impregnated with the Volatil Aromatick Salt of Cinamon It s Vse and Vertues It is a good Cordial fortifies the Stomach facilitates and helps the delivery of Women in Child-bed the flegm of this Water is fitter to make the Syrup of Cinnamon than common VVater by infusing in it some new Cinnamon and aftâ—r the straining dissolve in it a sufficient quantity of Sugar and so boyl it up to a Syrup This flegm contains a little Spirit of Wine in it with a little of the Volatil Salt of the first Cinnamon and so is fitter to open penetrate and extract the substance of new Cinnamon than simple common water The Spiritus Ardens or burning Spirit of Honey The sweet Tincture of Honey The stinking or faecid Oyl and Spirit of Honey The stinking Tincture of Honey PUt into a Glass or Stone or glazed Earth Cucurbit one pound of good Honey and two pound of white-wine place your Cucurbite in a Sand-Furnace and set it half way into the Sand fitting to it a glass Head and Receiver give a good Fire and continue it till all be distilled and that you hear nothing boyl in the Body then there will remain a very black thick Honey keep the distilled Liquor which will be of two sorts the first will be clear and transparent and in a small quantity and in this is the burning Spirit of-Honey and the Spirit of Wine The second will be of an Orange colour and more in quantity and contains the flegm of the Wine with the sulphureous Tincture of the Honey Take the Faeces of the said Distillation put them into a Stone Retort well luted and put to them alike quantity of River-pibble-stones calcin'd place your Retort in a Reverberatory Furnace fit to it a great glass Receiver and give your Fire from the first to the last degree for the space of some hours till there come out of the Retort neither vapour nor liquor then you will have in your Receiver a Spirit and stinking Oyl of Honey and there will yet remain some Faeces in your Retort If upon these Faeces you pour Spirit of Wine till it be four or five fingers above your matter you may have by digestion in a Matrass or double Vessel in a Sand-Furnace a foetid Tincture of Honey as red as Claret VVine The Vse and Vertues of all these Tinctures Spirits and Oyls Are to make the Hair grow stiffer and thicker upon Bald-heads The Vinegar of Saturn The Butter or Balsamum of Saturn BOyl some distilled Vinegar in a Brass or Tin Skillet or in a glaz'd Pipkin pour it out boyling hot upon Minium or Seruse or Lytharge of Gold or Silver reduc'd to powder or upon calcin'd Lead let your matter be in a glaz'd Pan and you must have so much Vinegar as may be four or five fingers deep over your matter Stir it a little with a wooden Spatula not with an Iron one for it would black both your Liquor and the Salt to be extracted out of it in an hours time your distilled Vinegar will become sweet and sugar'd and impregnated with the Salt of Saturn To make the Butter or Balsamum of Saturn melt one ounce of white Wax in a little glaz'd Pan then put to it four ounces of Oyl of Olives mingle them well with a wooden Spatula pour this mixtion immediately into a Brass Mortar and upon it a glass full of the Vinegar of Saturn stir them well together with a Brass Pestle till the Oyl and Wax be both impregnated with the Salt of Saturn contain'd in the said Vinegar and that all the Composition be thick and white as the soft Ointment of white Roses It s Vse and Vertues This Vinegar serves to appease inflammations and pains being applied outwardly to any part by Linnen dipp'd in Virgins Milk made of one spoonful of this Vinegar and a glass of Water it may also be useful in Injections in recent and fresh Gonorrhaea's to appease the violence of the pain And observe That this Vinegar pour'd upon any distill'd Water does not whiten it nor make it like Milk The Butter or Balsamum of Saturn serves to cool and appease the ardour of inflammations as well of the Stones as of the Hemorrhoides and other parts as also it produces the same effect in Erisypelases The Plaister of Saturn PUt one pound of Oyl of Olives into a vernish'd Pan add to it four ounces of well powder'd Minium or Mine-Lead and so boyl them together stirring them sometimes with an Iron Spatula till they be reduced to the consistence of a Plaister as black as Jet you may add to it a little Wax to give it a Body It s Vse and Vertues
humours in Ulcers resists corruption drys them and cicatrises them It serves also for mealy Ring-worms for the Itch Scales and Erisypelases for Inflammations but you must have a care to make it more or less sharp according to the nature of the distemper and the sensibility of the part you intend to apply it to which to do you need only put more or less common water according as you will have it more or less acrimonious for the force of this water is in its Salt which you cannot sweeten but by encreasing the dose of common water and diminishing that of the Salt Therefore it is but trifling to make two or three Lime waters one after another upon the same Lime To make the Phagedenick water put two pound of the said Quick-lime Water into a Glass Bell or an Earthen white Ware Pan and put to it from half a dragm to a dragm of Corrosive Sublimate well powdered in an Earthen white Ware Dish with an Earthen Pestle This Water and the Sublimate after the first stirring of them together will become presently of an Orange colour the Sublimate will go to the bottom and is called the Orange-Sublimate If you have a desire to make your Phagedenick Water weaker pour upon it two pounds more of Lime Water then the water and the Sublimate will change their Orange colour into a Lemmon keep this water together with its Sublimate in a Glass Vial well stopped for your use Obs 2. That the Sublimate from white becomes yellow or orange colour when mixt with the Lime water because that those Sulphureous Salts of which the Corrosive Sublimate is not devested being to engage with the Salt of the Lime are quickened and so revive their colour in the conflict so much as to communicate their tincture to the VVater and Sublimate It s Vse and Vertues In this VVater we dip Linnen and apply it to old rotten Ulcers full of frothy flesh to consume the ill flesh correct the putrefaction cleanse and produce better flesh and at last dry them and bring them to cicatrize The Magistery of Coral The Salt of Coral TAke as much as you please of red Coral that which is in little branches is the best beat it to a fine powder in a Brass Mortar and put it into a Glass Stone or VVhite-ware Vessel pour upon it Spirit of Sulphur two or three fingers high above your Matter let them stand together far from the fire and there the Coral will dissolve while it dissolves there will be an ebullition with a little noise which ceasing marks to you that the Spirit is loaden with as much of the Coral as it is able to dissolve and it has lost its great acidity and sharpness Pour off by inclination this dissolution and put it into a Vessel apart then pour new Spirit upon the Faeces and continue so doing till you have dissolved all the Coral This done put all your dissolutions together into a Glass Bell and pour upon them cold water in such quantity and so often till at last your water come away without any taste filterate that which remains through a Coffin of white Paper upon which let it dry or make Trochisks of it as has been taught in the Chapter of the Diaphoretick Antimony Obs 1. That to make your dissolutions you must not take an earthen glazed Pan lest your Spirit of Sulphur should spend its force upon the glazing and black and spoyl your Magistery nor you must not take a Vessel of potters earth unglazed because that this earth being porous would imbibe and consume the Spirit in its porosities now your Stone Vessels are of a thick compact Matter and your White-ware is a kind of glass Obs 2. That instead of Spirit of Sulphur you may use Spirit of Vitriol but because Vitriol naturally blacks all it comes near your Magistery will not be so white you may also make use of distilled Vinegar or juyce of four Lemmons but we do not because we should need too great a a quantity and so it would prove dearer and your Operation would only be longer but not better Obs 3. That the Magisteries of Crabs eyes Pearls Bezoard mother of Pearl are all made the same way as the Magistery of Coral yet we shall give a description of some of them by another method Obs 4. That both the Magistery and the Salt of Coral are nothing but a Calx of Coral or a Philosophick calcination of it by the corrosion of the Spirit of Sulphur all the difference that is between the Magistery and the Sulphur is that the Magistery is a Calx slackened washed and sweetened by common water and so freed from the acrimony of the Salt of Sulphur whereas the Salt of Coral is a Calx yet impregnated with some rest of Spirit of Sulphur incorporated in it by crystallization or not driven away by the fire in the drying from whénce it proceeds that the Magistery is infipid but the Salt of Coral is acid and biting upon the Tongue and from thence it has the name of Salt though in effect it be no salt for it is not to be dissolved in water and is properly a Stone salted by the impregnation with the Spirit of Sulphur for if you go about to dissolve it there will be in the water nothing but some Spirit of Sulphur so that if you continue sweetning this Salt you will at last make the Magistery of Coral of it It s Vse and Vertues The Magistery and Salt of Coral have the same vertues with pure Coral but they are exalted because the body of Coral being opened is more penetrating and so fitter to carry its astringent corroborative faculty to the remotest parts of the body yet it is certain that there where the design is only to take away the Acrimony of those humours which do corrode the Stomach and Intestines there I say ordinary Coral well powdered is better than its Magistery because that the Chymical Operation will be performed in the body with more benefit by those corrosive sharp humours which meeting with the Coral fall to dissolving of it and so dull their own Acrimony which is the most malignous thing in the body We see nevertheless by experience too that if upon the Magistery of Coral you pour new Spirit of Sulphur or of some other Acid there will be a more sudden and stronger ebullition though it last not so long as in the first dissolution of Coral and therefore the serous sharp Humours of the body may produce the same effect upon the Magistery But the Dissolvant meeting not with so much resistance in Coral already opened and calcin'd as in natural Coral does not work with so much force and therefore dulls not its activity nor loses so much of its Acrimony after the dissolution The Balsam of Saint John 's Wort compounded drawn by the Spirit of Wine Put into a Matrass five or six ounces of Spirit of Wine put to it Myrrhe Aloes and Sanguis
hindring your whites of Eggs from coming away with the Tincture into the stone Pan you receive it in then evaporate it gently in a Sand-Furnace to the consistence of an Extract a stone Pan is fitter than a glazed Earthen one because the stone one is much thinner in the bottom and every where than a glazed one and may therefore be sooner penetrated by a sand heat It s Vse and Vertues This extract is called the â—ermans Treacle because that in Germany they â—se it frequently as we do here Treacle and it is â—ndeed a great preservative against the Plague â—nd a rare Antidote against poisons it strengthens the stomach the dose is from a scruple to two dragms All extracts of Berries Leaves and Flowers are made the same way The Laudanum TAke four ounces of good Opium and if it be soft cut it into pieces with a Knife or if it be dry powder it in a Mortar and have a care that the powder rising do not at last work upon you the same effect that a double Dose of pills of Opium would do Put this Opium without any other preparation into a Matrass and pour upon it Spirit of Wine till it be four or five fingers above your matter and that your Matrass have a third part empty lest your menstruum in stead of extracting the Tincture should evaporate and be gone Place your Vessel in a sand Furnace up to half the belly in the sand fit to it another little Matrass and so form a double Vessel lute them well together with Paper and Glew that so nothing may exhale make a good fire and let your Vessel stand a whole day the next day separate your Tincture from its Faeces and pour new Spirit of Wine to them which also must stand a day and then be poured off then for a third time put new Spirit of Wine to extract the remainder of the Tincture which done put all your Tinctures together into a stone Pan. Place this Pan either in a sand Furnace or in a Balneum Mariae if it happen that you are then distilling of Spirit of Wine in the Brass Vesica you may place your Pan upon the Moors-head which may serve in stead of a Balneum Mariae evaporate gently your Tinctures to the consistence of an extract If you desire to draw off most of your Spirit of Wine put your Tinctures at first into a glass Cucurbit and distil them in a Sand-fire till they begin to grow thick and then pour them into a stone Pan and evaporate them as hath been said Obs 1. That all those preparations practised upon Opium ordinarily do rather cleanse it and purifie it from its Faeces than free it from any venomous substance or malignous quality therefore if you take of that Opium which is in little even Cakes neatly environed with Leaves you may give it without any other preparation at all only beat it warm in a Mortar and so form Pills of it Obs 2. That in the belief that most have that the thin Volatil substance of Opium is that which causes its malignity they have studied all ways imaginable whereby to devest it of this Volatil substance as by drying it over the fire and so causing this Sulphureous subtile substance to evaporate but it is not against reason to believe that in this exsiccation or drying the flegm alone which is innocent enough is the thing exhal'd and that Opium in its whole substance is of a subtle Volatil Narcotick nature and in that consists its Malignity Obs 3. That we use Spirit of Wine for a dissolvant because it draws much more perfectly this Tincture than any other liquor would because that Opium is of a thick glutinous juicy nature and Spirit of Wine is the best Dissolver of all Gums besides the design being to benumb the senses the Spirit of Wine which has the same faculty is most proper and being a cordial is a rare corrective of that malignity which we suppose in Opium Some are of opinion that distilled Vinegar would be a fitter menstruum because they pretend by it to fix a little the Volatil nature of the Opium and hinder the fumes which make it to arise to the head To which I answer with this distinction That if the design be to appease the Head-ach and correct Insomniums then Laudanum prepared with Spirit of Wine is best but if it be to stop a Diarrhaea or Dysentery or asswage the pains of the Colick then Laudanum prepared with Vinegar is fittest because the Spirit of Wine carries one to the Head and the Vinegar keeps the other down in the Belly but we must have one of these menstruums if we will extract the Tincture of Opium well for pure Vinegar smells too much of Vinegar common Water is not strong enough because of the viscosity of the Opium which requires a penetrating dissolvant Obs 4. That if your Opium be very clean and without Ordure it will turn almost all of it into Tincture and leave but very few Faeces and so the extract of Opium is but a purified Opium delivered from all mixture of other things and devested of some of its own indissolvable terrestreity Obs 5. That in Authors you meet with an infinite number of descriptions of Laudanum and all the variety is produced from nothing but from a different mixtion of ingredients but certainly the best Laudanum is the simplest and such as we have described it Saffron Pearls Corral Treacle Musk Ambergrease and other ingredients which are added serving for nothing but to take up more room and often are quite opposite and contrary to the design intended by giving Opium so far they are from augmenting the vertue of it It s Vse and Vertues are to make those sleep that are troubled with continual waking and intolerable Insomniums not to be overcome by ordinary Somniferous remedies to asswage great head-ach to thicken and soften all sharp humours flowing to the breast to stay loosnesses dysenteries and help pains in bilious colicks and dysenteries But have a care you give not Laudanum while the body is full and has not been evacuated sufficiently by Blood-letting Clysters and a moderate diet nor when there is a copious Fluxion upon the breast caused by a thick humour nor when there is pain and stopping of breath nor when the patient is very weak and has but little natural heat The dose is from one grain to two or three or four at most and you must never give the highest dose without having given the first and second without effect it is ordinarily given in form of a little Pill The Tincture of Roses PUt into a Brass Pot or into an earthen glazed Pan four pound or two quarts of water set it upon a Furnace in a naked fire till it begin to simper and then put into it two or three spoonfuls of Spirit of Sulphur or Vitriol and stir it with a woodden Spatula to the bottom then throw into it a good handful
Brass Mortar while it is warm then throw it by spoonfuls into a Kettle full of boiling water and there let it boil till your Water be half consumed away filter the said dissolution while it is warm through a coffin of brown Paper evaporate your filtration by a good fire either in the same Kettle or in an earthen-glaz'd Pan till there remain nothing but a powder as white as flower in the bottom of the Vessel taking care to stir the said powder with an iron Spatula lest by so great a fire it should melt again Obs 1. That we take here Venice Crystal because it is the best Obs 2. That we calcine first the Crystal in a great reverberatory fire till it be melted to the end we may so open it as to be able to reduce it to an impalpable powder and so make it fit to be calcined by the Niter Obs 3. That we calcine a second time the said Crystal with fine Niter to open its body better and so the Niter may communicate to it its fix'd Salt and that of the body of the Crystal and of the body of the fix'd Salt of Niter there result one body and one Calx Obs 4. That we dissolve this Calx of niter'd Crystal in hot Water and afterwards we filter it and then evaporate it to a dry powder to the end that by this dissolution and filtration the Salt of Niter be whiter Obs 5. That this Salt of Crystal is nothing but Crystal incorporated with the fix'd Salt of Niter so that it is more properly a Calx than a pure Salt The Crystal communicates nothing but its Virginal Earth and the Niter nothing but its fixt Salt and therefore Crystal containing in its self no Salt at all this Remedy ought more properly to be called Crystal niter'd Crystal is a clear transparent Glass and Glass is a Crystal less clear and transparent the only subject matter of both of them made by Art is a congealed Virginal Earth hardened under the form of Pibble Stones and Crystalline River Sand. This matter cannot be melted and purified but by the Salts both of Vegetables and Minerals and after the fusion and vitrification of the said Sand and Pibble Stones all the Salt is separated and comes away from it so as there remains not any in either Glass or Crystal It s Vse and Vertues It is a powerful Diuretick it drives away Gravel and breaks the britle Stones of the Kidney it dryes up Gonorrhaea's The Salts of Corals Pearls fragment of Rubies Topaz Stones Emeralds Diamonds and other precious Stones are to be prepared in the same way and have the same vertues with the Salt of Crystal by reason of their calcination and also the Diuretick and Lithontriptick or Stone-breaking vertue of the fix'd Salt of Niter The Flowers of Benjamin Here is the Figure of your Iron Round Obs 1. That we apply the said earthen Coffin to the brim of the Furnace and not to the brim of the Crucible lest the heat striking the outside of the Coffin should make the Flowers once sublim'd melt and resolve into their first nature Obs 2. That we use here an earthen Coffin and not a Paper one as most Chymists do because with an earthen one of the mentioned breadth we gather a greater quantity of flowers besides an earthen Coffin may always serve whereas you must change your Paper one and in that interval you lose many vapours that might have been converted into flowers Obs 3. That the flowers of Benjamin are Benjamin its self melted in a Crucible then elevated in dry vapours under the form of a white snowy powder as the flowers of Sal Armoniac for Benjamin is a Rosinous Gum very dry and totally volatil and from thence proceeds that as soon as it is hot it rises in vapours which being dry are converted into a very white flower or Snow In this Operation Benjamin loses its red colour and acquires a very white one because that of what colour soever the body that is converted into flowers be the flowers still must be white because it is their volatil Salt which predominates over them and which by consequent must invest them with that colour which is natural to all and particularly to volatil Salts The red colour of Benjamin consists in a little gross heavy Sulphur which cannot be raised but by the violence of the fire which is not needful in the sublimation of the flowers but only in the distillation of the Oyl of Benjamin Their Vse and Vertues These flowers are most excellent to ripen old coughs and to help out flegms because that they are all Volatil and Balsamick Salt The Flowers of Antimony POwder one pound of Crude Antimony or rather of Regulus put it to an Earthen Cucurbit unglazed place it upon the two Iron Bars that are in the great Reverberatory Furnace so that the neck of the Cucurbit be four fingers higher than the top of the Furnace Lute your Vessel round about to the Furnace and fit to this Cucurbit an Earthen Pot turn'd upside down so that the brim of your Cucurbit enter within the said Pot a little This Pot must have in its bottom an hole as big as an Egg. Lute well the conjunction of these two Vessels and to the uppermost of them fit another Pot a little less having also a hole in its bottom and then put upon this another yet less and having a hole of the same bigness and so fit as that its brim must go into the brim of the inferiour Pot then fit to this another less still and having a hole also and at last fit another and fifth pot having a hole of the bigness of your little finger and having its brim inserted into the brim of the Pot under it They must be thus less and less by degrees as the Pyramide grows higher and have a care that you lute well all the conjunctions of these several Pots Give at first a violent fire and continue it to the highest degree for forty eight hours and all the while keep the little uppermost hole well stopt with some of our Lute your Antimony will be melted in your Cucurbit and then it will rise and be sublim'd in dry vapours which will stick to the sides of the said Pots in the form of flowers as white as Snow In the first Pot they are yellow in the second red and in the third white your Operation having lasted out the time prescribed put out your fire and as soon as your Pots are cold unlute them neatly and with a feather scrape away all the said flowers putting white to white red to red yellow to yellow Obs 1. That for this Operation the Regulus of Antimony is fitter than Crude Antimony because that the Regulus being already separated from its Faeces is all sublimed and so makes a greater quantity of flowers both better and purer for Crude Antimony contains four times as much Faeces as it does Regulus which is the
uses as we shall teach hereafter VVhen you see your Spirit well tinged with the colour of Gold then pour it off and put to your matter the like quantity of the Salt Anatron or of Sea-Salt decrepitated in its place and as much rectified Spirit of Salt to draw off another Tincture and do so as long as your Spirit does draw any Tincture and till it come away as sharp as it went in Put your Tinctures together they will make a Potable Gold as yellow as a Topaz and of no taste If you put them into a small glass Body with a Head of the same in a Lamp-fire and draw off by Distillation half your Dissolvant there will remain a Tincture of Gold more lively and acid and also potable Obs 1. That we use Crystal as an intermedium for Gold which without any intermedium could not be calcin'd but would melt and if it be not calcin'd then it will not dissolve in so gentle a Dissolvant as Spirit of Salt Now there is no intermedium better than Crystal for all other Metals would melt and mingle with Gold Minerals besides their metallick qualities would also impart to the Gold the Corrosion and Acrimony of their Salts but Crystal containing but a very little Salt and a great deal of Earth it does not mingle nor communicate to the Gold any Acrimony and yet by the driness of its substance it hinders the melting of Gold and so furthers its calcination Obs 2. That the Gold and Crystal being calcin'd are powder'd because that so the Gold is easier to be dissolved by so gentle a Dissolvant as Spirit of Salt Obs 3. That we use Spirit of Salt to dissolve Gold already calcin'd because that though there be more powerful Dissolvants as Aqua fortis made with fine Niter and deflegmated Vitriol or Colcothar as also Aqua regalis which is made with Niter Vitriol and Salt Armoniack yet these Dissolvants are too corrosive before and after the dissolution of the Gold to be potable and the Spirits of Vitriol or Sulphur are not sharp enough so that the Spirit of Salt alone has force enough to dissolve Gold and make it potable after its dissolution and yet this Spirit must be rectified too and whet and sharpened by the addition of Salt Anatron or common Salt decrepitated Obs 4. That the Crystal which remains in the Matrass after the dissolution must be well dulcorated or sweetened and then may serve for a Dentrifice or cleanse Teeth by wetting a corner of a Towel in common Water and then putting it into the said powder and with it rub your Teeth or it may serve to make the Salt of Crystal as we have said already Obs 5. That the Gold is potable but as long as it remains dissolved in the said Spirit of Salt and that you must not mingle it with any Liquor whatsoever for if you do it will precipitate your Gold into a yellow powder and so you will lose your Tincture Obs 6. That potable Gold is nothing but Leaves of Gold calcin'd with Crystal and dissolved in rectified Spirit of Salt It s Vse and Vertues It cannot be doubted but that this Potable Gold has the vertues of Spirit of Salt that is it is excellent against pestilential and putrid Feavers to purifie the Blood drive out Gravel whiten the Teeth and also it may be said to have the vertue of the Water of Pearls and being thus prepared consumes all sharp humors in the Body as Pearls thus prepared do so that it is not without reason that this Remedy is esteemed as good against Cancres and venomous Ulcers and pestilential Feavers The Dose is six or eight drops in some Broth or appropriated Water and for the Teeth you may put a spoonful of it in two spoonfuls of rose-Rose-Water or Flower of Orange or Jasmin It has likewise the vertue of preserving your Wine in your Cellar for many years by putting about half a pound of this Potable Gold into a Hogshead of Wine but except it be very rare Wine indeed and that you desire to have it of many years it would cost you more than it would be worth The Salt of Vitriol or the Crystals of Venus TAke Verdigreece or Spanish Green as much as you please powder it in a Brass Mortar and stop your Nose close left the venomous vapours should poyson you put it into an ample Matrass with a long neck so that it be three quarters empty pour upon it good distilled Vinegar so that your Matrass be almost quite full place it in a Sand-fire and by fitting to it another Matrass make a double Vessel of it in twelve hours time you will have a blew Tincture like true Turquoises pour off this Tincture into a stone Pan pour on more distilled Vinegar upon the Faeces to extract a new Tincture and do this till there remain nothing but brown Faeces in the bottom of your Matrass then take a glass Cucurbite and apply to the bottom of it a leaden or iron Ring tied to it by four pack-threads which are fastened to a pack-thread tied about the body of the Cucurbite put all your Tinctures into this Cucurbite which set in a Kettle full of Water where it cannot swim nor lean more on one side than the other because of the weight it has at the bottom draw off the distilled Vinegar till you see that there is a thin skin begun to be formed upon your Tincture then take out your Cucurbite and set it in a cool place as a Cellar in three or four days there will be in the bottom and upon the sides of your Vessel divers Crystals of a lovely blew-like Turquoises This done pour off by inclination all the Water that is not congealed and evaporate it in a Cucurbite in a Balneum Mariae as has been said already reiterating the evaporation and crystallization of the said Water or Tincture till there remain very little of it Then put together all your Crystals into another Matrass pour upon them distilled Vinegar enough to dissolve them you may make use of that Vinegar which you drew off from your first Tincture place your Matrass in a Sand-fire and make a double Vessel of it in three or four hours time the dissolution of your Crystals being done filter it while it is warm through a brown Paper and receive your filtration in a stone Pan there will congeal in this Pan great quantities of Crystals which will change their blew colour into a green one like Emeralds and half transparent Pour off by inclination the Water that shall not congeal then set your Crystals in the Sun to dry them well and when they are well dryed take them out of the Pan and put them into a glass Vial well stopp'd to keep for your use Obs 1. That to extract the Salt of Venus or Copper we use Verdigreece because that Verdigreece is nothing but Venus dissolv'd extracted and calcin'd Philosophically by the acid Spirit of Wine Now
should melt by the violent heat of the Fire and mingle with the Mars Obs 3. That we powder the said Mars while it is warm that we may powder it easilier and make a finer powder of it Obs 4. That we searce it through a Silk Sieve that so we may make it so impalpable as that in passing through the Stomach it leaves no hard gravelous substance that might offend the Coats of the Stomach or Intestines Obs 5. That the Astringent Saffron of Mars is nothing but Mars calcin'd Philosophically by Fire and Brimstone devested of its Salt by its dissolution in common Water then reverberated powdered and searsed to be reduced to an impalpable powder It s Vse and Vertues It is a powerful Astringent inwardly taken and exteriourly applied it stops the Bloody Flux the Hepatick Flux and all Diarrhaea's Its Dose is from half a dragm to two in some Conserve or Preserve or Bolus It stops likewise bleeding of the Nose by powdering some Cotton with this powder and filling the Nostrils with the Cotton thus powdered A Little TREATISE OF CHYMISTRY OR An Abridgement of the precedent TREATISE Of the Hermetick Lute TAke of Potters Earth Sand and Horse-dung equal quantity of each and knead them together with a little Water or Whites of Eggs to a soft lump this serves to make Bricks in a Mould to cement your Bricks in the structure of your Furnaces to lute your Vessels and to fill up the holes chinks and cracks of your Furnaces and Vessels Of Hermetick Furnaces AFurnace to distil with the Vesica covered with its Refrigeratory Waters Aromatick Essences and Spirit of Wine it has an Ash-hole a Fire-room and a Laboratory the Laboratory must be as high as the Vesica and half a finger in its circumference wider than the Vesica you must put Wood and Coals into the Fire-room A Furnace for a violent Reverberatory Fire serving to draw the Spirits and Oyls of Minerals and Metals in a glass or stone Retort luted or in an iron one it is like the precedent only the Laboratory must be of the height of the Retort and that there must be a gap to put the neck of the Retort out at and must have an inch in circumference more than the Retort then in the Operation you must add to it three Layes or Rounds of Bricks lesser still towards the top and fill the holes with pieces of Brick or Iron Wood and Coals are the materials of your Fire A Furnace for a Circulatory Fire and of Suppression serving to distil the Flegm Spirit and Oyl of Seeds Berries Woods Barks Roots c. in a stone or glass Retort luted it is built like the precedent only the Ash-hole and Fire-room are not separated from one another and that you must cover the top of your Furnace with an earthen Pan that has a hole in its middle Wood and Coals are your fuel A furnace for a Wheel Fire serving to sublime the Salts of Minerals and Metals in a Matrass of Glass luted it is made of two Rounds of Bricks without Cement or Lute leaving a little space between the Bricks You must put an earthen Bowl in the middle to set your Matrass on and kindled Coals round about it A Furnace for a Circulatory Fire and of Suppression serving to calcine and melt Minerals and Metals and to calcine Vegetables and Animals in Crucibles or great Pots of the same Earth It is made of two Rounds of unluted Bricks set at a little distance one from the other that the air may come in it is enough to make it two fingers above the Crucible when set in its earthen Bowl you must lay round about as high as the Vessel kindled Coals A Furnace for a Circulary Fire and of Suppression serving to distil Oyls acid Spirits and Flegms of Gums Rosins VVax in a glass Retort luted It is built as the precedent only there must be a place for the neck of the Retort to come out at The same Materials of VVood and Coals for your Fire A Furnace to distil in a Balneum Maris or Mariae or vaporous Bath all sorts of Liquors to evaporate the Extract of Salts and for all other Operations It is made of divers Layes of Bricks luted together there is in it an Ash-hole a Fire-room and a Laboratory and in the top of the Laboratory three little gaps to give a passage to the Flame You must put your Coals in the Fire-room and a Kettle with a brim in your Laboratory A Furnace for the Fire of Ashes or Sand wet or dry serving to distil and rectifie all sorts of Liquors and for Infusion Digestion Tinctures Evaporation c. It is made of an Oval Lay of Tiles and three other Oval Layes of crooked Bricks cemented with our Lute Plaster of Paris and Water so that the Oval Rounds grow wider as they rise higher and that there be in one end of the Oval a double door for the Ash-hole and Fire-room then building a square about the said Oval with broken Tiles and Mortar add one perfect Round of Bricks leaving a little gap over against the Fire-room-door then apply your iron plate and add two or three Rounds of Bricks more to make the Laboratory at last put upon the said iron Plate Ashes or Sand an inch thick A Wind-Furnace for violent Fusions is made by building a Furnace of a Circulary Fire and Suppression upon the bottom of a Hogshead in which bottom there is a hole as big as ones head which is covered with a Grate well cemented with Lute and Plaster The Hogshead must be knocked out at the lower end and elevated from the ground about half a foot Of Spirit of Wine TAke as much Brandy as you please put it into the Copper Vesica placed in its proper Furnace fit to it its cover or Moors-head bordered with its Refrigeratory then fit to the nose or pipe of the said cover and to the pipe of Copper that passes through two Hogsheads full of Water a little moveable pipe to joyn them together Light the Fire in the Furnace that serves to distil Aromatick Essences the Spirit will come in a stream This Spirit of Wine is not good to be taken inwardly if it be not rectified in a glass Cucurbite and Alembick the first is excellent for burnings the second is proper to dissolve Gums and Rofins to take inwardly and to draw their Tinctures and Extracts Of Salt of Tartar TAke of Tartar and Niter powdered equal parts mingle them and having put them into a glaz'd earthen Pan set fire to them with a red hot Iron stirring them continually till the Niter be consumed and the Tartar calcined It is aperitive and diuretick The Dose is from one to two dragms The Regulus of Antimony MIngle three pound of Male Antimony with one pound and an half of common Niter as much of Tartar four ounces and an half of powdered Charcoal put this mixtion by spoonfuls into a pot heated red-hot in a
Furnace of a Circulary Fire and Suppression till your pot be full then encrease your fire stirring your matter from time to time with a stick which you must not put to the bottom till all be melted then take off your pot and when it is cold break it you will find in the bottom the Regulus and the Faeces on the top Of it is made Vinum Emeticum everlasting Pills and Cups and the Diaphoretick its Faeces serves to make the Golden Sulphur Diaphoretick Of the Liver of Antimony of which is made the Crocus Metallorum MIngle one pound of Male or Female Antimony with half a pound of common Niter powdered put them by spoonfuls into a Crucible or pot of the same Earth heated red-hot in a Furnace of a Circulary Fire and Suppression covering your pot at each spoonful then encrease your fire and stir incessantly your matter with a stick till it be in Fusion take off your pot and pour into a Mortar the melted Liquor retaining the Faeces from going in with it your matter being cold is called Liver of Antimony and being powdered is called The Saffron of Metals or Crocus Metallorum Of it is made the Vinum Emeticum The Dose is one ounce in a pint of VVine of which take one or two ounces inwardly and four or five ounces in a Clyster The Spirit and Oyl of Guaiacum FIll up to the neck a great earthen Retort well luted with shavings or little pieces of the VVood of Guiacum place it in a small Reverberatory Furnace fitting to it a stone Receiver or a glass one and covering your Furnace with an earthen Pan that has a hole in the bottom then by a moderate heat of twelve sixteen or twenty hours you will have the Spirit and Oyl together which separate either by a glass Tunnel or by a coffin of brown Paper wet with ordinary VVater Of the Ashes or Coals re-calcin'd you may make a Lixivium and extract the Salt This Oyl is good for old Ulcers for the Gangrene and Rot and two or three drops in Cinnamon-water is good for the Colick the Spirit is good for Burnings Ulcers and for the Pox in a Decoction of Guaiacum Crystal Mineral THrow fine Niter powdered into a Pot set in a Furnace of a Circulary Fire and Suppression and let it be quite full at first being melted throw into it four or five times at each time a spoonful of powder'd Brimstone then pour out by little and little your melted Niter into a Brass Kettle shaking the Kettle and dipping it into cold Water dissolve your Niter thus prepar'd in warm Water filter it through a brown Paper and evaporate it to a Pellicule then setting it cool you will have fair Crystals which are the true Crystal Mineral or Sal Prunellae It cools opens and resists Corruption taken inwardly from a scruple to a dragm and in a Clyster from a dragm to half an ounce The Spirit and Oyl of Box ARe made as the Spirit and Oyl of Guaiacum only this Wood yields much Spirit but little Oyl the Oyl is good for the putrefaction and pain of the Teeth for Contusions and Ulcers Of the Regulus of Mars POwder and mingle two pounds of Male Antimony with one pound of Tartar and one of common Niter six ounces of filings of Steel and two ounces of powder'd Charcoal It is made as the Regulus of Antimony and there results of it a Regulus containing seven ounces of Antimony with the six ounces of filings It purges by stool and vomit in powder or in vessel with Wine and serves to make an excellent Diaphoretick which never provokes vomit The Spirit of Salt TAke one part of common Salt and five of Potters Earth dried and powdered fill with it a glass Retort well luted place it in a Furnace of a great Reverberatory Fire give the fire by degrees and continue the last degree for twenty hours It s vertue is Diuretick it drives away Gravel and breaks little britle Stones whitens the Teeth and preserves from the Plague and all Corruption Of the Red Precipitate of Mercury PUt four ounces of Mercury and six ounces of Aqua fortis in a Matrass of glass luted up to half its Body place it in a Furnace of a moderate Circulary Fire till the Aqua fortis be evaporated then give a Fire of Suppression till there rise a yellow vapour upon the brim of the Matrass then take it off and when cold break your Vessel and you will find in the bottom a Red Precipitate of an Orange colour Of Spirit of Niter PUt one part of fine Niter to four parts of dried Potters-Earth fill a glass Retort well luted then distil it in a great Reverberatory Fire and have a care of its vapours in distilling it It s Vse and Vertues Are to dissolve Mercury Camphire and Metals and is better for interior Remedies than Aqua fortis Of Turbith Mineral PUt two ounces of Mercury and three ounces of Spirit of Niter into a glass Retort luted up to half its neck place it in a Furnace of a Circulary fire giving a gentle fire till the Mercury be dissolved and dried then take off your vessel and let it cool then pour upon it one ounce of Oyl or Spirit of Sulphur and evaporate it by the same fire reiterating this three or four times then burn upon it Spirit of Wine break your Vessel and you will have a white lump which powder and wash in warm Water till the Water come away insipid Dry this matter in a Sand-fire and burn upon it Spirit of Wine three or four times it will make your Mercury as yellow as Gold then give it a melting fire which it will endure very well without losing any thing because of the fixedness it has acquired by the Spirit of Sulphur Of the white Precipitate PUt eight ounces of Mercury and one pound of Aqua fortis into an ample glass Retort with a long neck shake your vessel and heat it a little upon warm Ashes till your Mercury be dissolved then pour your Dissolution into a glass Bell and pour upon it a quart of Sea-water to precipitate your Mercury separate your Sea-water and sweeten your Precipitate with common Water then dry it in a coffin of white Paper It is used with Pomatum to rub Ring-worms withall It s internal Use is To purge in the Pox from three to eight grains Of the golden Diaphoretick Sulphur BOyl in common Water in a Kettle the Faeces of Regule of Antimony or Regule of Mars filter their Lixivium through a brown Paper pour two or three spoonfuls of Vinegar or of some acid Spirit upon all this Lixivium it will curdle grow yellow and stink then pouring Water upon it precipitate your Tincture thus curdled into a powder of the colour of Saffron which you must edulcorate or sweeten to take away the ill smell then dry it in a coffin of Paper It s Vse is to provoke the Monthly Courses from eight to twelve
grains by whetting its vertue with twice or thrice as much of Sena Saffron and Savin or by receiving the vapour of the Lixivium in sitting over a Close-stool Of the Oyl of Eggs. PUt twenty or thirty Eggs into a Kettle of cold Water boyl it till your Eggs be hard take out the hard Yolks and put them into a Frying-pan over a flaming fire bruise them and turn them often with an iron Ladle till they be almost all turn'd into Oyl which separate from its Faeces while it is warm you may rectifie it if you please in a glass Retort in a Circulary Fire or rather in a Sand-fire which will make it yellow and incapable of congealing It s Vse is That it is a very good Balsam for green Wounds Burnings Ruptures or falling of the Guts into the Scrotum and for Wounds in the Nerves Ligaments and Membranes which are uncovered Of the Oyl and Spirit of Ash-wood THey are drawn as the Spirit and Oyl of Box and this wood yields but very little Oyl It s Vertue is For pains in the Kidneys Spleen Teeth and for the rotting of Bones applied outwardly Of distilled Vinegar TAke a glass stone or glaz'd earthen Cucurbite fill it half full with good Vinegar place it in a Sand-heat fitting to it its Head and Receiver give at first a great fire stop the Registers and Doors of your Ash-hole and Fire-room continuing your fire till you have drawn off within half a pint all the Vinegar you put in you may rectifie it upon its Faeces and separate the Flegm which will come first from the acid Spirit which will come last half in half or thereabouts It s Vse is To dissolve Pearls Corals Fish-shels to make of them Magisteries and to extract the Salt of Metals Oyl of Camphire PUt into a Matrass or Vial two ounces of Camphire and four ounces of Spirit of Niter shake them together and let them stand till the Camphire be dissolved separate by a glass Tunnel the Oyl which will swim upon the Spirit It s Vse is To moderate the pains of the Nerves that are naked and uncovered in a Wound and to exfoliate rotten Bones Of Spirit of Wine campherized PUt as much Camphire as you please into a Matrass and pour to it as much Spirit of Wine as shall be three or four fingers above it fit to it another Matrass and make a double Vessel place it in a Sand-heat till your Camphire be dissolved The Vse is For the Tooth-ach and for Deafness applied to the Tooth in a little Cotton and put into the hollow of the Ear with a little Wool cut off from the Stones of a black Ram. Of the Aromatick Tincture of Cloves PUt into a Matrass as many Cloves as you please and pour upon them Spirit of Wine to the height of three or four fingers above the matter place it in a Sand-heat till the Spirit be died of a blackish red separate your Tincture and make of it either an Extract or a Syrup The Vse of the Tincture Is to fortifie the Stomach and Heart ease the pains of the Colick kill VVorms taken inwardly and applied outwardly inform of an Epithema The calcination of Lead TAke Lead beaten into thin plates and Brimstone powder'd of each equal parts make Stratum superstratum in a glaz'd earthen Pot place it in a Circulary Fire and of Suppression till your inflamed and burning Sulphur be consumed take it off from the fire and stir it with an Iron Rod then powder it and searce it It s Vse is To dry up old Ulcers and Scabs being incorporated with Grease or Diapompholix and also from it is drawn the Sugar of Saturn The stinking Oyl of Cloves PUt of Cloves what quantity you will into a glass Retort luted place it in a Circulary Fire there will come into the glass Receiver white fumes which will congeal into a black Oyl stinking and caustick It serves to exfoliate rotten Bones it cures the Gangrene and pocky Ulcers Of the Oyl and Butter of Antimony of which is made the Mercury of Life or Emetick Powder or of Algarot Of the Cinnaber of Antimony Of Mercury and Antimony revived PUt Corrosive Sublimate and Mineral Antimony in Powder of each four ounces into a glass Retort luted leaving a gap to look in at place it in a small Circulary Fire till all the Oyl be distilled into a glass Receiver and that you see in the bottom of your Retort a bright melted lump then give a fire of Suppression till your Retort begin to grow soft and be half melted break it there will come out of the neck Mercury half quick and revived and half in a blackish powder In the entry of the neck you will find a greyish Crust and in the bottom a lump of Antimony reviv'd and made crude again Then put your Oyl of Antimony which being congealed is called Butter of Antimony into a little Retort to be rectified once only in a small Circulary Fire throw it into some Water which being impregnated with the Mercurial Salts is called the Philosophical Vinegar pour off this acid Water and sweeten your white powder with other water till it come away insipid This powder is called Mercury of Life The use of the Emetick powder is To cause vomiting and to purge gently in intermittent Feavers and Dropsies the Philosophick Water is good for the Itch Scabs Ring-worms and Lice the Cinnaber of Antimony is a Sudorifick for the Pox. Of the Oyl and Tincture of Karabe FIll a glass Retort luted up to the neck with Karabe powdered pour upon it Spirit of Wine up to the neck too place it in a Circulary Fire and fit to it a large glass Receiver give your fire by degrees till you come to a fire of Suppression and that there appears no more vapours in the Receiver separate the Oyl that goes to the bottom from the Spirit that swims on the top The Use of the Tincture of Karabe is For the Palsie the Sciatica the cold Gout all cold Fluxions and bruises of the Nerves The Oyl is good against the suffocations of the Mother and old Wounds Of the Oyl of Jet FIll a Retort of glass well luted with Jet in pieces up to the neck place it in a Circulary Fire and fit to it a glass Receiver giving the fire by degrees as in the Oyl of Karabe and separate the Oyl from the Spirit that will swim on the top The Use of the Oyl is for the Suffocation or Fits of the Mother for all Contusions and Bruises Of the Butter Cream or Nutritum of Saturn PUt into an earthen glaz'd Pan Minium or Lytharge or Ceruse or calcin'd Lead as much as you please pour upon it boyled distill'd Vinegar five or six fingers above the matter stir it with a wooden Spatula an hour after melt an ounce of white Wax in an earthen glaz'd Pan and add to it four ounces of Oyl pour this mixtion into a Mortar and upon it a glass