Contribute to its bearing fruit. But, to proceed to what I was going
to say, You may observe with me, _Eleutherius_, that, as I told You
once before, Qualities sleight enough may serve to Denominate a
Chymical Principle. For, when they anatomize a compound Body by the
Fire, if they get a Substance inflamable, and that will not mingle
with Water, that they presently call Sulphur; what is sapid and
Dissoluble in Water, that must pass for Salt; Whatsoever is fix'd and
indissoluble in Water, that they name Earth. And I was going to add,
that, whatsoever Volatile substance they know not what to make of, not
to say, whatsoever they please, that they call Mercury. But that these
Qualities may either be produc'd, otherwise then by such as they call
Seminal Agents, or may belong to bodies of a compounded Nature, may be
shewn, among other Instances, in Glass made of ashes, where the
exceeding strongly-tasted _Alcalizate_ Salt joyning with the Earth
becomes insipid, and with it constitutes a Body, which though also
dry, fixt, and indissoluble in Water, is yet manifestly a mixt Body;
and made so by the Fire itself.
And I remmember to our present purpose, that _Helmont_,[15] amongst
other Medicines that he commends, has a short processe, wherein,
though the Directions for Practice are but obscurely intimated; yet I
have some reason not to Dis-believe the Process, without affirming or
denying any thing about the vertues of the remedy to be made by it.
_Quando_ (sayes he) _oleum cinnamomi &c. suo sali alkali miscetur
absque omni aqua, trium mensium artificiosa occultaque circulatione,
totum in salem volatilem commutatum est, vere essentiam sui simplicis
in nobis exprimit, & usque in prima nostri constitutivasese ingerit._
A not unlike Processe he delivers in another place; from whence, if we
suppose him to say true, I may argue, that since by the Fire there may
be produc'd a substance that is as well Saline and volatile as the
Salt of Harts-horn, blood, &c. which pass for Elementary; and since
that this Volatile Salt is really compounded of a Chymical Oyle and a
fixt Salt, the one made Volatile by the other, and both associated by
the fire, it may well be suspected that other Substances, emerging
upon the Dissipation of Bodies by the Fire, may be new sorts of Mixts,
and consist of Substances of differing natures; and particularly, I
have sometimes suspected, that since the Volatile Salts of Blood,
Harts-horn, &c. are figitive [Errata: fugitive] and endow'd with an
exceeding strong smell, either that Chymists do Erroneously ascribe
all odours to sulphurs, or that such Salts consist of some oyly parts
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