to make my Experiment look the more like a True _Analysis_, was, that
I not only pretended as well as others to extract a Mercury from the
Metal I wrought upon, but likewise to separate a large proportion of
manifest and inflamable Sulphur. I take then, of the filings of
Copper, about a Drachme or two, of common sublimate, powder'd, the
like Weight, and _Sal Armoniack_ near about as much as of Sublimate;
these three being well mingl'd together I put into a small Vial with a
long neck, or, which I find better, into a Glass Urinall, which
(having first stopped it with Cotton) to avoid the Noxious Fumes, I
approach by degrees to a competent Fire of well kindled coals, or
(which looks better, but more endangers the Glass) to the Flame of a
candle; and after a while the bottom of the Glass being held Just upon
the Kindled Coals, or in the flame, You may in about a quarter of an
Hour, or perchance in halfe that time, perceive in the Bottom of the
Glass some running Mercury; and if then You take away the Glass and
break it, You shall find a Parcel of Quicksilver, Perhaps altogether,
and perhaps part of it in the pores of the Solid Mass; You shall find
too, that the remaining Lump being held to the Flame of the Candle
will readily burn with a greenish Flame, and after a little while
(perchance presently) will in the Air Acquire a Greenish Blew, which
being the Colour that is ascrib'd to Copper, when its Body is
unlocked, 'Tis easie to perswade Men that this is the True Sulphur of
_Venus_, especially since not only the Salts may be Suppos'd partly to
be Flown away, and partly to be Sublim'd to the upper part of the
Glass, whose inside (will Commonly appear Whitened by them) but the
Metal seems to be quite Destroy'd, the Copper no longer appearing in a
Metalline Forme, but almost in that of a Resinous Lump; whereas indeed
the Case is only this, That the Saline parts of the Sublimate,
together with the _Sal Armoniack_, being excited and actuated by the
Vehement heat, fall upon the Copper, (which is a Metal they can more
easily corrode, than silver) whereby the small parts of the Mercury
being freed from the Salts that kept them asunder, and being by the
heat tumbled up and down after many Occursions, they Convene into a
Conspicuous Mass of Liquor; and as for the Salts, some of the more
Volatile of them Subliming to the upper part of the Glass, the others
Corrode the Copper, and uniting themselves with it do strangely alter
and Disguise its Metallick Form, and compose with it a new kind of
Concrete inflamable like Sulphur; concerning which I shall not now say
any thing, since I can Referr You to the Diligent Observations which I
remember Mr. _Boyle_ has made concerning this Odde kind of
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