purposely cause to be Decocted in fair Water a Plant abounding with
Sulphureous and Spirituous Parts, and having expos'd the Decoction to
a keen North-Wind in a very Frosty Night, I observ'd, that the more
Aqueous Parts of it were turn'd by the next Morning into Ice, towards
the innermost part of which, the more Agile and Spirituous parts, as I
then conjectur'd, having Retreated, to shun as much as might be their
Environing Enemy, they had there preserv'd themselves unfrozen in the
Form of a high colour'd Liquor, the Aqueous and Spirituous parts
having been so sleightly (Blended rather than) United in the
Decoction, that they were easily Separable by such a Degree of Cold as
would not have been able to have Divorc'd the Parts of Urine or Wine,
which by Fermentation or Digestion are wont, as Tryal has inform'd me,
to be more intimately associated each with other. But I have already
intimated, _Eleutherius_, that I shall not Insist on this Experiment,
not only because, having made it but once I may possibly have been
mistaken in it; but also (and that principally) because of that much
more full and eminent Experiment of the Separative Virtue of extream
Cold, that was made, against their Wills, by the foremention'd Dutch
men that Winter'd in _Nova Zembla_; the Relation of whose Voyage being
a very scarce Book, it will not be amiss to give you that Memorable
part of it which concerns our present Theme, as I caus'd the Passage
to be extracted out of the Englished Voyage it self.
"_Gerard de Veer_, _John Cornelyson_ and Others, sent out of
_Amsterdam_, _Anno Dom._ 1596. being forc'd by unseasonable Weather to
Winter in _Nova Zembla_, neer Ice-Haven; on the thirteenth of
_October_, Three of us (sayes the Relation) went aboard the Ship, and
laded a Sled with Beer; but when we had laden it, thinking to go to
our House with it, suddenly there arose such a Winde, and so great a
Storm and Cold, that we were forc'd to go into the Ship again, because
we were not able to stay without; and we could not get the Beer into
the Ship again, but were forc'd to let it stand without upon the Sled:
the Fourteenth, as we came out of the Ship, we found the Barrel of
Beer standing upon the Sled, but it was fast frozen at the Heads; yet
by reason of the great Cold, the Beer that purg'd out froze as hard
upon the Side of the Barrel, as if it had been glu'd thereon: and in
that sort we drew it to our House, and set the Barrel an end, and
drank it up; but first we were forc'd to melt the Beer, for there was
scarce any unfrozen Beer in the barrel; but in that thick Yiest that
was unfrozen lay the Strength of the Beer, so that it was too strong
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