it hath received its body) and that is done two wayes either by forcing of it into a moſt ſharp Spirit, which is too acid for our intenſion, or by digeſting the whole ſubſtance of Nitre into a Liquor moderately acid, which indeed ſerves for our purpoſe, and the proceſſe is this.
Take the pureſt Nitre you can get, diſſolve it in rain-water, ſo as that the water imbibe as much of it as it can. Then put this nitrous water into a common earthen veſſell unglazed, which you must ſet in a cellar. You ſhall ſee this veſſell in a ſhort time to be white all over on the outſide as with a hoare froſt, which whiteneſſe is partly the floures of the Nitre being the pureſt part thereof penetrating the veſſell, and partly the nitrous aire condenſed into Nitre by the coldneſſe of the veſſell, as alſo aſſimilated to the Nitre that penetrated the veſſell. I ſaid by the coldneſſe of the veſſell becauſe ſuch is the coldneſſe of an earthen veſſell wherein is Nitre, diſſolved in water, that it will being ſet in ſnow by the fire ſide forthwith be freezed. This Nitre you muſt ſtrike off with a feather, and when you ſufficient quantity thereoſ, as three or four pound, put this, or the nitrous ſalt extracted from bath-waters into a bolt head of glaſſe (a pound in each bolt head) that two parts of three be empty, nip it up, and let it in aſhes, and give it a reasonable ſtrong fire, viz. that the upper part of the boul of the bolt head be as hot as that you can but well ſuffer your hand upon it, and you ſhall ſee that the Nitre will be diſſolved every day a little, and in two or three moneths time be wholly diſſolved, and become acid, but not ſo acid as the Spirit thereof; then put it into a glaſſe gourd with a head, and diſtill it off, and in the bottome you ſhal find an acid nitrous ſalt almoſt fluxil not unlike the ſalt which Mounſeur de Rochas ſound in the evaporating of his water. Then pour the diſtilled Nitre water upon the ſaid ſalt, & then it is for your uſe.
The uſe of theſe principles or ingredients is this, viz. make fountaine water ſufficiently acid with this nitrous Liquor, then pour it upon a ſufficient quantity of the beſt Sulphur Mine, or Sulphur vivum in a large wooden veſſell where the patient is to be bathed, and you will ſee the water preſently heated ſo
