[Errata: it self] to be the true Oyle of Annisseeds; which Concrete I
therefore chose to employ about this Experiment, that the Difference
of these Oyles might be more conspicuous then it would have been, had
I instead of it destill'd another Vegetable.
I had almost forgot to take notice, that there is another sort of
Bodies, which though not obtain'd from Concretes by Distillation, many
Chymists are wont to call their Sulphur; not only because such
substances are, for the most part, high colour'd (whence they are
also, and that more properly, called Tinctures) as dissolv'd Sulphurs
are wont to be; but especially because they are, for the most part,
abstracted and separated from the rest of the Masse by Spirit of Wine:
which Liquor those men supposing to be Sulphureous, they conclude,
that what it works upon, and abstracts, must be a Sulphur also. And
upon this account they presume, that they can sequester the sulphur
even of Minerals and Metalls; from which 'tis known that they cannot
by Fire alone separate it. To all This I shall answer; That if these
sequestred substances where indeed the sulphurs of the Bodies whence
they are drawn, there would as well be a great Disparity betwixt
Chymical Sulphurs obtain'd by Spirit of Wine, as I have already shewn
there is betwixt those obtain'd by Distillation in the forme of Oyles:
which will be evident from hence, that not to urge that themselves
ascribe distinct vertues to Mineral Tinctures, extolling the Tincture
of Gold against such and such Diseases; the Tincture of Antimony, or
of its Glass, against others; and the Tincture of Emerauld against
others; 'tis plain, that in Tinctures drawn from Vegetables, if the
superfluous spirit of Wine be distill'd off, it leaves at the bottom
that thicker substance which Chymists use to call the Extract of the
Vegetable. And that these Extracts are endow'd with very differing
Qualities according to the Nature of the Particular Bodies that
afforded them (though I fear seldom with so much of the specifick
vertues as is wont to be imagin'd) is freely confess'd both by
Physitians and Chymists. But, _Eleutherius_, (sayes _Carneades_) we
may here take Notice that the Chymists do as well in this case, as in
many others, allow themselves a License to abuse Words: For not again
to argue from the differing properties of Tinctures, that they are not
exactly pure and Elementary Sulphurs; they would easily appear not to
be so much as Sulphur's, although we should allow Chymical Oyles to
deserve that Name. For however in some Mineral Tinctures the Natural
fixtness of the extracted Body does not alwayes suffer it to be easily
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