Vitriol in a well stopt Glas-Vessel for about six or seven Weeks; and
having caus'd the Mass (grown hard and brittle) to be distill'd in a
Retort plac'd in Sand, with a strong Fire; we found the Antimony to be
so opened, or alter'd by the _Menstruum_ wherewith it had been
digested, That whereas crude Antimony, forc'd up by the Fire, arises
only in Flowers, our Antimony thus handled afforded us partly in the
Receiver, and partly in the Neck and at the Top of the Retort, about
an Ounce of Sulphur, yellow and brittle like common Brimstone, and of
so Sulphureous a smell, that upon the unluting the Vessels it infected
the Room with a scarce supportable stink. And this Sulphur, besides
the Colour and Smell, had the perfect Inflamability of common
Brimstone, and would immediately kindle (at the Flame of a Candle) and
burn blew like it. And though it seem'd that the long digestion
wherein our Antimony and _Menstruum_ were detain'd, did conduce to the
better unlocking of the Mineral, yet if you have not the leasure to
make so long a Digestion, you may by incorporating with powder'd
Antimony a convenient Quantity of Oyl of Vitriol, and committing them
immediately to Distillation, obtain a little Sulphur like unto the
common one, and more combustible than perhaps you will at first take
notice of. For I have observ'd, that though (after its being first
kindled) the Flame would sometimes go out too soon of its self, if the
same Lump of Sulphur were held again to the Flame of a Candle, it
would be rekindled and burn a pretty while, not only after the
second, but after the third or fourth accension. You, to whom I think
I shewed my way of discovering something of Sulphureous in Oyl of
Vitriol, may perchance suspect, _Eleutherius_, either that this
Substance was some Venereal Sulphur that lay hid in that Liquor, and
was by this operation only reduc'd into a manifest Body; or else that
it was a compound of the unctuous parts of the Antimony, and the
Saline ones of the Vitriol, in regard that (as _Gunther_[4] informs
us) divers learned men would have Sulphur to be nothing but a mixture
made in the Bowels of the Earth of Vitriolate Spirits and a certain
combustible Substance. But the Quantity of Sulphur we obtain'd by
Digestion was much too great to have been latent in the Oyl of
Vitriol. And that Vitriolate Spirits are not necessary to the
Constitution of such a Sulphur as ours, I could easily manifest, if I
would acquaint you with the several wayes by which I have obtain'd,
though not in such plenty, a Sulphur of Antimony, colour'd and
combustible like common Brimstone. And though I am not now minded to
discover them, yet I shall tell you, that to satisfie some Ingenious
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