_To compose a red Colour, imitating the Colour of Blood._
This liquor or fluid furnishes the entertaining means of making known
to a company the person who is most addicted to love.
_Preparation of the Liquor._
Cut in very small chips a piece of Fernambuco wood; put them in a large
glass full of good white wine vinegar; add to it a bit of common white
allum, of the size of a small nut; make the whole simmer over a gentle
fire for half an hour, in a new earthen pot or pipkin; taking care to
stir this composition, in order to prevent it from boiling over while
on the fire.
When it is taken from the fire, let it cool, and strain it through a
piece of linen; then pour it into a bottle of clear glass.
You must make all these preparations before-hand; as these experiments
are only agreeable when performed with quickness.
You will find it necessary to provide yourself with a tube of clear
glass, about fifteen or eighteen inches long, about the thickness of a
wax candle, taking care to have it stopt at one end.
When you present yourself before a company, in order to perform this
experiment, you are to carry the tube in your pocket, and holding the
phial in your hand, you are to say, “Ladies and gentlemen, here is a
phial containing liquid blood; I hope to make you know by it the person
most addicted to love in the company.
“Please to observe that I pour a little of this liquor in this tube.
As you might imagine that this liquor, like that put in thermometers,
may rise by dilating itself when exposed to heat, and consequently the
pressure of the hand will suffice to produce this effect, and it will
condense by rarifying when exposed to cold; I assure you, ladies and
gentlemen, it is not the case; this liquor differs entirely from that
put in thermometers; and you may easily be convinced of it before I
make the experiment I promised you. You may put it near the heat of
a candle, and even that of a fire, without any degree of heat making
it rise in the least; but by a peculiar and sympathetic virtue you
will see it boil, when the tube is touched by a person of an amorous
disposition.”
Then take out of your pocket a little potash, keep it in the interior
part of the hand that holds the tube at the top, as if you wanted to
keep it shut, and as soon as the person you wish to make pass for the
most amorous in the company takes the lowest part of the tube in his
hand, you are to let fall dexterously a little of the potash in it, and
you will see the liquor boil and rise to the top of the tube, to the
great astonishment of the spectators.