Addition obtain'd in processe of time (and by an easie way which I am
ready to teach you) from one of the noblest sorts of Wine, pretty
store of pure and curiously figured Crystals of Salt, together with a
great proportion of a Liquor as sweet almost as Hony; and these I
obtained not from Must, but True and sprightly Wine; besides the
Vinous Liquor, the fermented Juice of Grapes is partly turned into
liquid Dregs or Leeze, and partly into that crust or dry feculancy
that is commonly called Tartar; and this Tartar may by the Fire be
easily divided into five differing substances; four of which are not
Acid, and the other not so manifestly Acid as the Tartar it self; The
same Vinous Juice after some time, especially if it be not carefully
kept, Degenerates into that very sour Liquor called Vinegar; from
which you may obtain by the Fire a Spirit and a Crystalline Salt
differing enough from the Spirit and Lixiviate Salt of Tartar. And if
you pour the Dephlegm'd Spirit of the Vinegar upon the Salt of Tartar,
there will be produc'd such a Conflict or Ebullition as if there were
scarce two more contrary Bodies in Nature; and oftentimes in this
Vinager you may observe part of the matter to be turned into an
innumerable company of swimming Animals, which our Friend having
divers years ago observed, hath in one of his Papers taught us how to
discover clearly without the help of a _Microscope_.
Into all these various Schemes of matter, or differingly Qualifyed
Bodies, besides divers others that I purposely forbear to mention, may
the Water that is imbib'd by the roots of the Vine be brought, partly
by the formative power of the plant, and partly by supervenient Agents
or Causes, without the visible concurrence of any extraneous
Ingredient; but if we be allowed to add to the Productions of this
transmuted Water a few other substances, we may much encrease the
Variety of such Bodies; although in this second sort of Productions,
the Vinous parts seem scarce to retain any thing of the much more
fix'd Bodies wherewith they were mingl'd; but only to have by their
Mixture with them acquir'd such a Disposition, that in their recess
occasion'd by the Fire they came to be alter'd as to shape, or
Bigness, or both, and associated after a New manner. Thus, as I
formerly told you, I did by the Addition of a _Caput Mortuum_ of
Antimony, and some other Bodies unfit for Distillation, obtain from
crude Tartar, store of a very Volatile and Crystalline Salt, differing
very much in smell and other Qualities from the usuall salts of
Tartar.
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