attractive Power between the Particles of Oil of Vitriol and the
Particles of Water, that Oil of Vitriol draws to it a good quantity of
Water out of the Air, and after it is satiated draws no more, and in
Distillation lets go the Water very difficultly? And when Water and Oil
of Vitriol poured successively into the same Vessel grow very hot in the
mixing, does not this Heat argue a great Motion in the Parts of the
Liquors? And does not this Motion argue, that the Parts of the two
Liquors in mixing coalesce with Violence, and by consequence rush
towards one another with an accelerated Motion? And when _Aqua fortis_,
or Spirit of Vitriol poured upon Filings of Iron dissolves the Filings
with a great Heat and Ebullition, is not this Heat and Ebullition
effected by a violent Motion of the Parts, and does not that Motion
argue that the acid Parts of the Liquor rush towards the Parts of the
Metal with violence, and run forcibly into its Pores till they get
between its outmost Particles, and the main Mass of the Metal, and
surrounding those Particles loosen them from the main Mass, and set them
at liberty to float off into the Water? And when the acid Particles,
which alone would distil with an easy Heat, will not separate from the
Particles of the Metal without a very violent Heat, does not this
confirm the Attraction between them?
When Spirit of Vitriol poured upon common Salt or Salt-petre makes an
Ebullition with the Salt, and unites with it, and in Distillation the
Spirit of the common Salt or Salt-petre comes over much easier than it
would do before, and the acid part of the Spirit of Vitriol stays
behind; does not this argue that the fix'd Alcaly of the Salt attracts
the acid Spirit of the Vitriol more strongly than its own Spirit, and
not being able to hold them both, lets go its own? And when Oil of
Vitriol is drawn off from its weight of Nitre, and from both the
Ingredients a compound Spirit of Nitre is distilled, and two parts of
this Spirit are poured on one part of Oil of Cloves or Carraway Seeds,
or of any ponderous Oil of vegetable or animal Substances, or Oil of
Turpentine thicken'd with a little Balsam of Sulphur, and the Liquors
grow so very hot in mixing, as presently to send up a burning Flame;
does not this very great and sudden Heat argue that the two Liquors mix
with violence, and that their Parts in mixing run towards one another
with an accelerated Motion, and clash with the greatest Force? And is it
not for the same reason that well rectified Spirit of Wine poured on the
same compound Spirit flashes; and that the _Pulvis fulminans_, composed
of Sulphur, Nitre, and Salt of Tartar, goes off with a more sudden and
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