Sceptical Chymist/The Third Part
THE
SCEPTICAL CHYMIST.
The Third Part.
WHat I have hitherto Discours’d, Eleutherius, (sayes his Friend to Him) has, I presume, shew’n You, that a Considering Man may very well question the Truth of those very Suppositions which Chymists as well as Peripateticks, without proving, take for granted ; and upon which Depends the Validity of the Inferences they draw from their Experiments. Wherefore having dispach’t that, which though a Chymist Perhaps will not, yet I do, look upon as the most Important, as well as Difficult, part of my Task, it will now be Seasonable for me to pro166ceed to the Consideration of the Experiments themselves, wherein they are wont so much to Triumph and Glory. And these will the rather deserve a serious Examination, because those that Alledge them are wont to do it with so much Confidence and Ostentation, that they have hitherto impos’d upon almost all Persons, without excepting Philosophers and Physitians themselves, who have read their Books, or heard them talk. For some learned Men have been content rather to beleeve what they so boldly Affirm, then be at the trouble and charge, to try whether or no it be True. Others again, who have Curiosity enough to Examine the Truth of what is Averr’d, want Skill and Opportunity to do what they Desire. And the Generality even of Learned Men, seeing the Chymists ( not contenting themselves with the Schools to amuse the World with empty words ) Actually Perform’d divers strange things, and, among those Resolve Compound Bodies into several Substances not known by former Philosophers to be contain’d in them : Men I say, seeing these Things, and 167Hearing with what Confidence Chymists Averr the Substances Obtain’d from Compound Bodies by the Fire to be the True Elements, or, ( as they speak ) Hypostaticall Principles of them, are forward to think it but Just as well as Modest, that according to the Logicians Rule, the Skilfull Artists should be Credited in their own Art; Especially when those things whose Nature they so Confidently take upon them to teach others are not only Productions of their own Skill, but such as others Know not else what to make of.
But though ( Continues Carneades ) the Chymists have been able upon some or other of the mention’d Acounts, not only to Delight but Amaze, and almost to bewitch even Learned Men ; yet such as You and I, who are not unpractis’d in the Trade, must not suffer our Selves to be impos’d upon by hard Names, or bold Assertions ; nor to be dazl’d by that Light which should but assist us to discern things the more clearly. It is one thing to be able to help Nature to produce things, and another thing to Understand well the Nature 168of the things produc’d. As we see, that many Persons that can beget Children, are for all that as Ignorant of the Number and Nature of the parts, especially the internal ones, that Constitute a Childs Body, as they that never were Parents. Nor do I Doubt, but you’l excuse me, if as I thank the Chymists for the things their Analysis shews me, so I take the Liberty to consider how many, and what they are, without being astonish’d at them ; as if, whosoever hath Skill enough to shew men some new thing of his own making, had the Right to make them believe whatsoever he pleases to tell them concerning it.
Wherefore I will now proceed to my Third General Consideration, which is, That it does not appear, that Three is precisely and Universally the Number of the Distinct Substances or Elements, whereinto mixt Bodies are resoluble by the Fire ; I mean that ’tis not prov’d by Chymists, that all the Compound Bodies, which are granted to be perfectly mixt, are upon their Chymical Analysis divisible each of them into just Three Distinct Substances, nei169ther more nor less, which are wont to be lookt upon as Elementary, or may as well be reputed so as those that are so reputed. Which last Clause I subjoyne, to prevent your Objecting, that some of the Substances I may have occasion to mention by and by, are not perfectly Homogeneous, nor Consequently worthy of the name of Principles. For that which I am now to consider, is, into how many Differing Substances, that may plausibly pass for the Elementary Ingredients of a mix’d Body, it may be Analyz’d by the Fire; but whether each of these be un-compounded, I reserve to examine, when I shall come to the next General Consideration ; where I hope to evince, that the Substances which the Chymists not only allow, but assert to be the Component Principles of the Body resolv’d into them, are not wont to be uncompounded.
Now there are two Kind of Arguments ( pursues Carneades ) which may be brought to make my Third Proposition seem probable ; one sort of them being of a more Speculative Nature, and the other drawn from Expe170rience. To begin then with the first of these.
But as Carneades was going to do as he had said, Eleutherius interrupted him, by saying with a somewhat smiling countenance ;
If you have no mind I should think, that the Proverb, That Good Wits have bad Memories, is Rational and Applicable to You, You must not Forget now you are upon the Speculative Considerations, that may relate to the Number of the Elements ; that your Self did not long since Deliver and Concede some Propositions in Favour of the Chymical Doctrine, which I may without disparagement to you think it uneasie, even for Carneades to answer.
I have not, replies he, Forgot the Concessions you mean ; but I hope too, that you have not forgot neither with what Cautions they were made, when I had not yet assumed the Person I am now sustaining. But however, I shall to content You, so discourse of my Third general consideration, as to let You see, That I am not Unmindful of the things you would have me remember.
171To talk then again according to such principles as I then made use of, I shall represent, that if it be granted rational to suppose, as I then did, that the Elements consisted at first of certain small and primary Coalitions of the minute Particles of matter into Corpuscles very numerous, and very like each other, It will not be absurd to conceive, that such primary Clusters may be of far more sorts then three or five ; and consequently, that we need not suppose, that in each of the compound Bodies we are treating of there should be found just three sorts of such primitive Coalitions, as we are speaking of.
And if according to this Notion we allow a considerable number of differing Elements, I may add, that it seems very possible, that to the constitution of one sort of mixt Bodies two kinds of Elementary ones may suffice ( as I lately Exemplify’d to you, in that most durable Concrete, Glass, ) another sort of Mixts may be compos’d of three Elements, another of four, another of five, and another perhaps of many more. So that according to this Notion, there can be no determinate number assign’d, as 172that of the Elements ; of all sorts of compound Bodies whatsoever, it being very probable that some Concretes consist of fewer, some of more Elements. Nay, it does not seem Impossible, according to these Principles, but that there may be two sorts of Mixts, whereof the one may not have any of all the same Elements as the other consists of ; as we oftentimes see two words, whereof the one has not any one of the Letters to be met with in the other ; or as we often meet with diverse Electuaries, in which no Ingredient ( except Sugar ) is common to any two of them. I will not here debate whether there may not be a multitude of these Corpuscles, which by reason of their being primary and simple, might be called Elementary, if several sorts of them should convene to compose any Body, which are as yet free, and neither as yet contex’d and entangl’d with primary Corpuscles of other kinds, but remains liable to be subdu’d and fashion’d by Seminal Principles, or the like powerful and Transmuting Agent, by whom they may be so connected among themselves, or with the parts of one of the bodies, as to make the com173pound Bodies, whose Ingredients they are, resoluble into more, or other Elements then those that Chymists have hitherto taken notice of.
To all which I may add, that since it appears, by what I observ’d to you of the permanency of Gold and Silver, that even Corpuscles that are not of an Elementary but compounded Nature, may be of so durable a Texture, as to remain indissoluble in the ordinary Analysis that Chymists make of Bodies by the Fire ; ’Tis not impossible but that, though there were but three Elements, yet there may be a greater number of Bodies, which the wonted wayes of Anatomy will not discover to be no Elementary Bodies.
But, sayes Carneades, having thus far, in compliance to you, talk’t conjecturally of the number of the Elements, ’tis now time to consider, not of how many Elements it is possible that Nature may compound mix’d Bodies, but ( at least as farr as the ordinary Experiments of Chymists will informe us ) of how many she doth make them up.
I say then, that it does not by these sufficiently appear to me, that there is 174any one determinate number of Elements to be uniformly met with in all the several sorts of Bodies allow’d to be perfectly mixt.
And for the more distinct proof of this Proposition, I shall in the first place Represent, That there are divers Bodies, which I could never see by fire divided into so many as three Elementary substances. I would fain ( as I said lately to Philoponus ) see that fixt and noble Metal we call Gold separated into Salt, Sulphur and Mercury : and if any man will submit to a competent forfeiture in case of failing, I shall willingly in case of prosperous successe pay both for the Materials and the charges of such an Experiment. ’Tis not, that after what I have try’d my self I dare peremptorily deny, that there may out of Gold be extracted a certain substance, which I cannot hinder Chymists from calling its Tincture or Sulphur ; and which leaves the remaining Body depriv’d of its wonted colour. Nor am I sure, that there cannot be drawn out of the same Metal a real quick and running Mercury. But for the Salt of Gold, I never could either see it, or be satisfied that there was ever such a thing separa175ted, in rerum natura, by the relation of any credible eye witnesse. And for the several Processes that Promise that effect, the materials that must be wrought upon are somewhat too pretious and costly to be wasted upon so groundlesse adventures, of which not only the successe is doubtful, but the very possibility is not yet demonstrated. Yet that which most deterres me from such tryalls, is not their chargeablenesse, but their unsatisfactorinesse, though they should succeed. For the Extraction of this golden Salt being in Chymists Processes prescribed to be effected by corrosive Menstruums, or the Intervention of other Saline Bodies, it will remain doubtful to a wary person, whether the Emergent Salt be that of the Gold it self; or of the Saline Bodies or Spirits employ’d to prepare it ; For that such disguises of Metals do often impose upon Artists, I am sure Eleutherius is not so much a stranger to Chymistry as to ignore. I would likewise willingly see the three principles separated from the pure sort of Virgin-Sand, from Osteocolla, from refined Silver, from Quicksilver, freed from its adventitious Sulphur, from Venetian Talk, 176which by long detention in an extreme Reverberium, I could but divide into smaller Particles, ( not the constituent principles, ) Nay, which, when I caused it to be kept, I know not how long, in a Glasse-house fire, came out in the Figure it’s Lumps had when put in, though alter’d to an almost Amethystine colour ; and from divers other Bodies, which it were now unnecessary to enumerate. For though I dare not absolutely affirme it to be impossible to Analyze these Bodies into their Tria Prima ; yet because, neither my own Experiments, nor any competent Testimony hath hitherto either taught me how such an Analysis may be made, or satisfy’d me, that it hath been so, I must take the Liberty to refrain from believing it, till the Chymists prove it, or give us intelligible and practicable Processes to performe what they pretend. For whilst they affect that AEnigmatical obscurity with which they are wont to puzzle the Readers of their divulg’d Processes concerning the Analyticall Preparation of Gold or Mercury, they leave wary persons much unsatisfyed whether or no the differing Substances, they promise to produce, be truly 177the Hypostatical Principles, or only some intermixtures of the divided Bodies with those employ’d to work upon them, as is Evident in the seeming Crystalls of Silver, and those of Mercury ; which though by some inconsiderately supposed to be the Salts of those Metalls, are plainly but mixtures of the Metalline Bodies, with the Saline parts of Aqua fortis or other corrosive Liquors ; as is evident by their being reducible into Silver or Quicksilver, as they were before.
I cannot but Confesse ( saith Eleutherius ) that though Chymists may upon probable grounds affirm themselves Able to obtain their Tria Prima, from Animals and Vegetables, yet I have often wondred that they should so confidently pretend also to resolve all Metalline and other Mineral bodies into Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury. For ’tis a saying almost Proverbial, among those Chymists themselves that are accounted Philosophers ; and our famous Countryman Roger Bacon has particularly adopted it ; that Facilius est aurum facere quam destruere. And I fear, with You, that Gold is not the only Mineral from which Chymists are wont fruitlessly to attempt the 178separating of their three Principles. I know indeed ( continues Eleutherius ) that the Learned Sennertus, even in that book where he takes not upon him to play the Advocate for the Chymists, but the Umpier betwixt them and the Peripateticks, expresses himself roundly, thus; Sennert. lib. de cons. & dissens. pag. 147.Salem omnibus inesse ( mixtis scilicet ) & ex iis fieri posse omnibus in resolutionibus Chymicis versatis notissimum est. And in the next Page, Quod de sale dixi, saies he, Idem de Sulphure dici potest : but by his favour I must see very good proofs, before I believe such general Assertions, how boldly soever made ; and he that would convince me of their truth, must first teach me some true and practicable way of separating Salt and Sulphur from Gold, Silver, and those many different sort of Stones, that a violent Fire does not bring to Lime, but to Fusion ; and not only I, for my own part, never saw any of those newly nam’d Bodies so resolved ; but Helmont, who was much better vers’d in the Chymical Anatomizing of Bodies then either Sennertus or I, has somewhere this resolute passage ; Helmon. pag. 409.Scio (saies he) ex arena, silicibus & saxis, non Calcariis, nunquam Sulphur aut Mercu179rium trahi posse ; Nay Quercetanus himself, though the grand stickler for the Tria Prima, has this Confession of the Irresolubleness of Diamonds ; Quercet. apud Billich. in Thessalo redivivo. pag. 99.Adamas (saith he) omnium factus Lapidum solidissimus ac durissimus ex arctissima videlicet trium principiorum unione ac Cohaerentia, quae nulla arte separationis in solutionem principiorum suorum spiritualium disjungi potest. And indeed, pursues Eleutherius, I was not only glad, but somewhat surprized to find you inclined to Admit that there may be a Sulphur and a running Mercury drawn from Gold ; for unlesse you do (as your expression seem’d to intimate) take the word Sulphur in a very loose sence, I must doubt whether our Chymists can separate a Sulphur from Gold : For when I saw you make the experiment that I suppose invited you to speak as you did, I did not judge the golden Tincture to be the true principle of Sulphur extracted from the body, but an aggregate of some such highly colour’d parts of the Gold, as a Chymist would have called a Sulphur incombustible, which in plain English seems to be little better than to call it a Sulphur and no Sulphur. And as for Metalline Mercuries, I had 180not wondred at it, though you had expressed much more severity in speaking of them : For I remember that having once met an old and famous Artist, who had long been ( and still is ) Chymist to a great Monarch, the repute he had of a very honest man invited me to desire him to tell me ingenuously whether or no, among his many labours, he had ever really extracted a true and running Mercury out of Metalls ; to which question he freely replyed, that he had never separated a true Mercury from any Metal ; nor had ever seen it really done by any man else. And though Gold is, of all Metalls, That, whose Mercury Chymists have most endeavoured to extract, and which they do the most brag they have extracted ; yet the Experienced Angelus Sala, in his Spagyrical account of the seven Terrestrial Planets (that is the seven metalls) affords us this memorable Testimony, to, our present purpose ; Quanquam ( saies he ) &c. experientia tamen ( quam stultorum Magistrum vocamus ) certe Comprobavit, Mercurium auri adeo fixum, maturum, & arcte cum reliquis ejusdem corporis substantiis conjungi, ut nullo modo retrogredi possit. To which he sub-joynes, 181that he himself had seen much Labour spent upon that Design, but could never see any such Mercury produc’d thereby. And I easily beleeve what he annexes ; that he had often seen Detected many tricks and Impostures of Cheating Alchymists. For, the most part of those that are fond of such Charlatans, being unskilfull or Credulous, or both, ’tis very easie for such as have some Skill, much craft, more boldness, and no Conscience, to impose upon them ; and therefore, though many profess’d Alchymists, and divers Persons of Quality have told me that they have made or seen the Mercury of Gold, or of this or that other Metal ; yet I have been still apt to fear that either these persons have had a Design to deceive others ; or have not had Skill and circumspection enough to keep themselves from being deceived.
You recall to my mind ( sayes Carneades ) a certain Experiment I once devis’d, innocently to deceive some persons, and let them and others see how little is to be built upon the affirmation of those that are either unskillfull or unwary, when they tell us they have 182seen Alchymists make the Mercury of this or that Metal ; and to make this the more evident, I made my Experiment much more Slight, Short and Simple, than the Chymists usuall processes to Extract Metalline Mercuries ; which Operations being commonly more Elaborate and Intricate, and requiring a much more longer time, give the Alchymists a greater opportunity to Cozen, and Consequently are more Obnoxious to the Spectators suspicion. And that wherein I endeavour’d to make my Experiment look the more like a True Analysis, was, that I not only pretended as well as others to extract a Mercury from the Metal I wrought upon, but likewise to separate a large proportion of manifest and inflamable Sulphur. I take then, of the filings of Copper, about a Drachme or two, of common sublimate, powder’d, the like Weight, and Sal Armoniack near about as much as of Sublimate ; these three being well mingl’d together I put into a small Vial with a long neck, or, which I find better, into a Glass Urinall, which ( having first stopped it with Cotton ) to avoid 183the Noxious Fumes, I approach by degrees to a competent Fire of well kindled coals, or ( which looks better, but more endangers the Glass ) to the Flame of a candle ; and after a while the bottom of the Glass being held Just upon the Kindled Coals, or in the flame, You may in about a quarter of an Hour, or perchance in halfe that time, perceive in the Bottom of the Glass some running Mercury; and if then You take away the Glass and break it, You shall find a Parcel of Quicksilver, Perhaps altogether, and perhaps part of it in the pores of the Solid Mass; You shall find too, that the remaining Lump being held to the Flame of the Candle will readily burn with a greenish Flame, and after a little while ( perchance presently ) will in the Air Acquire a Greenish Blew, which being the Colour that is ascrib’d to Copper, when its Body is unlocked, ’Tis easie to perswade Men that this is the True Sulphur of Venus, especially since not only the Salts may be Suppos’d partly to be Flown away, and partly to be Sublim’d to the upper part of the Glass, whose inside ( will 183Commonly appear Whitened by them ) but the Metal seems to be quite Destroy’d, the Copper no longer appearing in a Metalline Forme, but almost in that of a Resinous Lump ; whereas indeed the Case is only this, That the Saline parts of the Sublimate, together with the Sal Armoniack, being excited and actuated by the Vehement heat, fall upon the Copper, (which is a Metal they can more easily corrode, than silver) whereby the small parts of the Mercury being freed from the Salts that kept them asunder, and being by the heat tumbled up and down after many Occursions, they Convene into a Conspicuous Mass of Liquor ; and as for the Salts, some of the more Volatile of them Subliming to the upper part of the Glass, the others Corrode the Copper, and uniting themselves with it do strangely alter and Disguise its Metallick Form, and compose with it a new kind of Concrete inflamable like Sulphur ; concerning which I shall not now say any thing, since I can Referr You to the Diligent Observations which I remember Mr. Boyle has made concerning this Odde kind of Verdigrease. But Continues 185Carneades smiling, you know I was not cut out for a Mountebank, and therefore I will hasten to resume the person of a Sceptick, and take up my discourse where You diverted me from prosecuting it.
In the next place, then, I consider, that, as there are some Bodies which yield not so many as the three Principles ; so there are many others, that in their Resolution Exhibite more principles than three ; and that therefore the Ternary Number is not that of the Universal and Adequate Principles of Bodies. If you allow of the Discourse I ately made You, touching the primary Associations of the small Particles of matter, You will scarce think it improbable, that of such Elementary Corpuscles there may be more sorts then either three, or four, or five. And if you will grant, what will scarce be deny’d, that Corpuscles of a compounded Nature may in all the wonted Examples of Chymists pass for Elementary, I see not, why you should think it impossible, that as Aqua Fortis, or Aqua Regis will make a Separation of colliquated Silver and Gold, though the Fire cannot ; so there may be some A186gent found out so subtile and so powerfull, at least in respect of those particular compounded Corpuscles, as to be able to resolve them into those more simple ones, whereof they consist, and consequently encrease the number of the Distinct Substances, whereinto the mixt Body has been hitherto thought resoluble. And if that be true, which I recited to you a while ago out of Helmont concerning the Operations of the Alkahest, which divides Bodies into other Distinct Substances, both as to number and Nature, then the Fire does ; it will not a little countenance my Conjecture. But confining our selves to such wayes of Analyzing mix’d Bodies, as are already not unknown to Chymists, it may without Absurdity be Question’d, whether besides those grosser Elements of Bodies, which they call Salt Sulphur and Mercury, there may not be Ingredients of a more Subtile Nature, which being extreamly little, and not being in themselves Visible, may escape unheeded at the Junctures of the Destillatory Vessels, though never so carefully Luted. For let me observe to you one thing, which though 187not taken notice of by Chymists, may be a notion of good Use in divers Cases to a Naturalist, that we may well suspect, that there may be severall Sorts of Bodies, which are not Immediate Objects of any one of our senses ; since we See, that not only those little Corpuscles that issue out of the Loadstone, and perform the Wonders for which it is justly admired ; But the Effluviums of Amber, Jet, and other Electricall Concretes, though by their effects upon the particular Bodies dispos’d to receive their Action, they seem to fall under the Cognizance of our Sight, yet do they not as Electrical immediately Affect any of our senses, as do the bodies, whether minute or greater, that we See, Feel, Taste, &c. But, continues Carneades, because you may expect I should, as the Chymists do, consider only the sensible Ingredients of Mixt Bodies, let us now see, what Experience will, even as to these, suggest to us.
It seems then questionable enough, whether from Grapes variously order’d there may not be drawn more distinct Substances by the help of the Fire, then from most other mixt Bodies. For the 188Grapes themselves being dryed into Raysins and distill’d, will ( besides Alcali, Phlegm, and Earth ) yield a considerable quantity of an Empyreumatical Oyle, and a Spirit of a very different nature from that of Wine. Also the unfermented Juice of Grapes affords other distil’d Liquors then Wine doth. The Juice of Grapes after fermentation will yield a Spiritus Ardens ; which if competently rectifyed will all burn away without leaving any thing remaining. The same fermented Juice degenerating into Vinager, yields an acid and corroding Spirit. The same Juice turn’d up, armes it self with Tartar ; out of which may be separated, as out of other Bodies, Phlegme, Spirit, Oyle, Salt and Earth : not to mention what Substances may be drawn from the Vine it self, probably differing from those which are separated from Tartar, which is a body by it self, that has few resemblers in the World. And I will further consider that what force soever you will allow this instance, to evince that there are some Bodies that yield more Elements then others, it can scarce be deny’d but that the Major part of bodies that are divisible into Ele189ments, yield more then three. For, besides those which the Chymists are pleased to name Hypostatical, most bodies contain two others, Phlegme and Earth, which concurring as well as the rest to the constitution of Mixts, and being as generally, if not more, found in their Analysis, I see no sufficient cause why they should be excluded from the number of Elements. Nor will it suffice to object, as the Paracelsians are wont to do, that the Tria prima are the most useful Elements, and the Earth and Water but worthlesse and unactive ; for Elements being call’d so in relation to the constituting of mixt Bodies, it should be upon the account of its Ingrediency, not of its use, that any thing should be affirmed or denyed to be an Element : and as for the pretended uselessness of Earth and Water, it would be consider’d that usefulnesse, or the want of it, denotes only a Respect or Relation to us ; and therefore the presence, or absence of it, alters not the Intrinsick nature of the thing. The hurtful Teeth of Vipers are for ought I know useless to us, and yet are not to be deny’d to be parts of their Bodies; and it were hard to shew of 190what greater Use to Us, then Phlegme and Earth, are those Undiscern’d Stars, which our New Telescopes discover to Us, in many Blanched places of the Sky ; and yet we cannot but acknowledge them Constituent and Considerably great parts of the Universe. Besides that whether or no the Phlegme and Earth be immediately Useful, but necessary to constitute the Body whence they are separated ; and consequently, if the mixt Body be not Useless to us, those constituent parts, without which it could not have been That mixt Body, may be said not to be Unuseful to Us : and though the Earth and Water be not so conspicuously Operative ( after separation ) as the other three more active Principles, yet in this case it will not be amiss to remember the lucky Fable of Menemius Aggrippa, of the dangerous Sedition of the Hands and Legs, and other more busie parts of the Body, against the seemingly unactive Stomack. And to this case also we may not unfitly apply that Reasoning of an Apostle, to another purpose ; If the Ear shall say, because I Am not the Eye, I am not of the Body ; Is it therefore not of the Body ? If the whole 191Body were Eye, where were the Hearing ? If the whole were for hearing, where the smelling ? In a word, since Earth and water appear, as clearly and as generally as the other Principles upon the resolution of Bodies, to be the Ingredients whereof they are made up; and since they are useful, if not immediately to us, or rather to Physitians, to the Bodies they constitute, and so though in somewhat a remoter way, are serviceable to us; to exclude them out of the number of Elements, is not to imitate Nature.
Transcriber’s Note: See the printer’s note for material that the printer inadvertently omitted from this page.
But, pursues Carneades, though I think it Evident, that Earth and Phlegme are to be reckon’d among the Elements of most Animal and Vegetable Bodies, yet ’tis not upon that Account alone, that I think divers Bodies resoluble into more Substances then three. For there are two Experiments, that I have sometimes made to shew, that at least some Mixts are divisible into more Distinct Substances then five. The one of these Experiments, though ’twill be more seasonable for me to mention it fully anon, yet in the mean time, I shall tell you thus much of it, That out of two Distill’d Liquors, 192which pass for Elements of the Bodies whence they are drawn, I can without Addition make a true Yellow and Inflamable Sulphur, notwithstanding that the two Liquors remain afterwards Distinct. Of the other Experiment, which perhaps will not be altogether unworthy your Notice, I must now give you this particular Account. I had long observ’d, that by the Destillation of divers Woods, both in Ordinary, and some unusuall sorts of Vessels, the Copious Spirit that came over, had besides a strong tast, to be met with in the Empyreumaticall Spirits of many other Bodies, an Acidity almost like that of Vinager : Wherefore I suspected, that though the sowrish Liquor Distill’d, for Instance, from Box-Wood, be lookt upon by Chymists as barely the Spirit of it, and therefore as one single Element or Principle ; yet it does really consist of two Differing Substances, and may be divisible into them ; and consequently, that such Woods and other Mixts as abound with such a Vinager, may be said to consist of one Element or Principle, more then the Chymists as yet are Aware of ; Wherefore bethinking 93my self, how the separation of these two Spirits might be made, I Quickly found, that there were several wayes of Compassing it. But that of them which I shall at present mention, was this, Having Destill’d a Quantity of Box-Wood per se, and slowly rectify’d the sowrish Spirit, the better to free it both from Oyle and Phlegme, I cast into this Rectify’d Liquor a convenient Quantity of Powder’d Coral, expecting that the Acid part of the Liquor would Corrode the Coral, and being associated with it would be so retain’d by it, that the other part of the Liquor, which was not of an acid Nature, nor fit to fasten upon the Corals, would be permitted to ascend alone. Nor was I deceiv’d in my Expectation ; For having gently abstracted the Liquor from the Coralls, there came over a Spirit of a Strong smell, and of a tast very piercing, but without any sourness ; and which was in diverse qualities manifestly different, not only from a Spirit of Vinager, but from some Spirit of the same Wood, that I purposely kept by me without depriving it of its acid Ingredient. And to satisfy you, that these two Substances were of 194a very differing Nature, I might informe you of several Tryals that I made, but must not name some of them, because I cannot do so without making some unseasonable discoveries. Yet this I shall tell you at present, that the sowre Spirit of Box, not only would, as I just now related, dissolve Corals, which the other would not fasten on, but being pour’d upon Salt of Tartar would immediately boile and hiss, whereas the other would lye quietly upon it. The acid Spirit pour’d upon Minium made a Sugar of Lead, which I did not find the other to do ; some drops of this penetrant spirit being mingl’d with some drops of the blew Syrup of Violets seem’d rather to dilute then otherwise alter the colour ; whereas the Acid Spirit turn’d the syrup of a reddish colour, and would probably have made it of as pure a red as Acid Salts are wont to do, had not its operation been hindered by the mixture of the other Spirit. A few drops of the compound Spirit being Shaken into a pretty quantity of the infusion of Lignum Nephriticum, presently destroyed all the blewish colour, whereas the other Spirit would not take it away. To all which 195it might be added, that having for tryals sake pour’d fair water upon the Corals that remained in the bottom of the glass wherein I had rectifyed the double spirit ( if I may so call it ) that was first drawn from the Box, I found according to my expectation that the Acid Spirit had really dissolved the Corals, and had coagulated with them. For by the affusion of fair Water, I Obtain’d a Solution, which ( to note that singularity upon the bye ) was red, whence the Water being evaporated, there remained a soluble Substance much like the Ordinary Salt of Coral, as Chymists are pleas’d to call that Magistery of Corals, which they make by dissolving them in common spirit of Vinager, and abstracting the Menstruum ad Siccitatem. I know not whether I should subjoine, on this occasion, that the simple spirit of Box, if Chymists will have it therefore Saline because it has a strong tast, will furnish us with a new kind of Saline Bodies, differing from those hitherto taken notice of. For whereas of the three chief sorts of Salts, the Acid, the Alcalizate, and the Sulphureous, there is none that seems to be friends with both the other 196two, as I may, e’re it be long, have occasion to shew ; I did not find but that the simple spirit of Box did agree very well ( at least as farr as I had occasion to try it ) both with the Acid and the other Salts. For though it would lye very quiet with salt of Tartar, Spirit of Urine, or other bodies, whose Salts were either of an Alcalizate or fugitive Nature ; yet did not the mingling of Oyle of Vitriol it self produce any hissing or Effervescence, which you know is wont to ensue upon the Affusion of that highly Acid Liquor upon either of the Bodies newly mentioned.
I think my self, sayes Eleutherius, beholden to you, for this Experiment ; not only because I forsee you will make it helpful to you in the Enquiry you are now upon, but because it teaches us a Method, whereby we may prepare a numerous sort of new spirits, which though more simple then any that are thought Elementary, are manifestly endow’d with peculiar and powerfull qualities, some of which may probably be of considerable use in Physick, as well alone, as associated with other things ; as one may hopefully guess by the redness of 197that Solution your sour Spirit made of Corals, and by some other circumstances of your Narrative. And suppose ( pursues Eleutherius ) that you are not so confin’d, for the separation of the Acid parts of these compound Spirits from the other, to employ Corals ; but that you may as well make use of any Alcalizate Salt, or of Pearls, or Crabs eyes, or any other Body, upon which common Spirit of Vinager will easily work, and, to speak in an Helmontian Phrase, Exantlate it self.
I have not yet tryed, sayes Carneades, of what use the mention’d liquors may be in Physick, either as Medicines or as Menstruums : But I could mention now ( and may another time ) divers of the tryals that I made to satisfy my self of the difference of these two Liquors. But that, as I allow your thinking what you newly told me about Corals, I presume you will allow me, from what I have said already, to deduce this Corollary ; That there are divers compound bodies, which may be resolv’d into four such differing Substances, as may as well merit the name of Principles, as those to which the Chymists freely give it. For since they scruple 198not to reckon that which I call the compound Spirit of Box, for the spirit, or as others would have it, the Mercury of that Wood, I see not, why the Acid liquor, and the other, should not each of them, especially that last named, be lookt upon as more worthy to be called an Elementary Principle ; since it must needs be of a more simple nature then the Liquor, which was found to be divisible into that, and the Acid Spirit. And this further use ( continues Carneades ) may be made of our experiment to my present purpose, that it may give us a rise to suspect, that since a Liquor reputed by the Chymists to be, without dispute, Homogeneous, is by so slight a way divisible into two distinct and more simple Ingredients, some more skilful or happier Experimenter then I may find a way either further to divide one of these Spirits, or to resolve some or other, if not all, of those other Ingredients of mixt Bodies, that have hitherto pass’d among Chymists for their Elements or Principles.