But on this Occasion (_Pyrophilus_) we must add once for all, that in many

of the above-recited Experiments, though the changes of Colour happen'd as

we have mention'd them: yet the emergent or produc'd Colour is oft times

very subject to Degenerate, both quickly and much. Notwithstanding which,

since the Changes, we have set down, do happen presently upon the Operation

of the Bodies upon each other, or at the times by us specify'd; _that_ is

sufficient both to justifie our Veracity, and to shew what we Intend; it

not being Essential to the Genuineness of a Colour to be Durable. For a

fading Leaf, that is ready to Rot, and moulder into Dust, may have as true

a Yellow, as a Wedge of Gold, which so obstinately resists both Time and

Fire. And the reason, why I take occasion from the former Experiment to

subjoyn this general Advertisement, is, that I have several times observ'd,

that the Mixture resulting from the Oyls of Vitriol, and of Anniseeds,

though it acquire a thicker consistence than either of the Ingredients had,

has quickly lost its Colour, turning in a very short time into a dirty

Gray, at least in the Superficial parts, where 'tis expos'd to the Air;

which last Circumstance I therefore mention, because that, though it seem

probable, that this Degeneration of Colours may oft times and in divers

cases proceed from the further Action of the Saline Corpuscles, and the

other Ingredients upon one another, yet in many cases much of the Quick

change of Colours seems ascribeable to the Air, as may be made probable by

several reasons: The first whereof may be fetcht from the newly recited

Example of the two Oyls; The next may be, that we have sometimes observ'd

long Window-Curtains of light Colours, to have that part of them, which was

expos'd to the Air, when the Window was open, of one Colour, and the lower

part, that was sheltred from the Air by the Wall, of another Colour: And

the third Argument may be fetch'd from divers Observations, both of others,

and our own; For of that Pigment so well known in Painters Shops, by the

name of _Turnsol_, our Industrious _Parkinson_, in the particular account

he gives of the Plant that bears it, tells us also, That _the Berries when

they are at their full Maturity, have within them between the outer Skin

and the inward Kirnel or Seed, a certain Juice or Moisture, which being

rubb'd upon Paper or Cloath, at the first appears of a fresh and lovely

Green Colour, but presently changeth into a kind of Blewish Purple, upon

the Cloath or Paper, and the same Cloath afterwards wet in Water, and wrung

forth, will Colour the Water into a Claret Wine Colour, and these_

(concludes he) _are those Raggs of Cloath, which are usually call'd_

Turnsol _in the Druggists or Grocers Shops_[21]. And to this Observation of

our _Botanist_ we will add an Experiment of our own, (made before we met

with That) which, though in many Circumstances, very differing, serves to

prove the same thing; for having taken of the deeply Red Juice of

_Buckthorn_ Berries, which I bought of the Man that uses to sell it to the

Apothecaries, to make their Syrrup _de Spina Cervina_, I let some of it

drop upon a piece of White Paper, and having left it there for many hours,

till the Paper was grown dry again, I found what I was inclin'd to suspect,

namely, That this Juice was degenerated from a deep Red to a dirty kind of

Greyish Colour, which, in a great part of the stain'd Paper seem'd not to

have so much as an Eye of Red: Though a little Spirit of Salt or dissolv'd

_Alcaly_ would turn this unpleasant Colour (as formerly I told you it would

change the not yet alter'd Juice) into a Red or Green. And to satisfie my

self, that this Degeneration of Colour did not proceed from the Paper, I

drop'd some of the deep Red or Crimson Juice upon a White glaz'd Tile, and

suffering it to dry on there, I found that ev'n in that Body, on which it

could not Soak, and by which it could not be Wrought, it nevertheless lost

its Colour. And these Instances (_Pyrophilus_) I am the more carefull to

mention to you, that you may not be much Surpris'd or Discourag'd, if you

should sometimes miss of performing punctually what I affirm my self to

have done in point of changing Colours; since in these Experiments the

over-sight or neglect of such little Circumstances, as in many others would

not be perhaps considerable, may occasion the mis-carrying of a Trial. And

I was willing also to take this occasion of Advertising you in the

repeating of the Experiments mention'd in this Treatise, to make use of the

Juices of Vegetables, and other things prepar'd for your Trials, as soon as

ever they are ready, lest one or other of them grow less fit, if not quite

unfit by delay; and to estimate the Event of the Trials by the Change, that

is produc'd presently upon the due and sufficient Application of Actives to

Passives, (as they speak) because in many cases the effects of such

Mixtures may not be lasting, and the newly produc'd Colour may in a little

time degenerate. But, (_Pyrophilus_) I forgot to add to the two former

Observations lately made about Vegetables, a third of the same Import, made

in Mineral substances, by telling you, That the better to satisfie a Friend

or two in this particular, I sometimes made, according to some Conjectures

of mine, this Experiment; That having dissolv'd good Silver in

_Aqua-fortis_, and Precipitated it with Spirit of Salt, upon the first

Decanting of the Liquor, the remaining Matter would be purely White; but

after it had lain a while uncover'd, that part of it, that was Contiguous

to the Air, would not only lose its Whiteness, but appear of a very Dark

and almost Blackish Colour, I say that part that was Contiguous to the Air,

because if that were gently taken off, the Subjacent part of the same Mass

would appear very White, till that also, having continu'd a while expos'd

to the Air, would likewise Degenerate. Now whether the Air perform these

things by the means of a Subtile Salt, which we elsewhere show it not to be

destitute of, or by a peircing Moisture, that is apt easily to insinuate it

self into the Pores of some Bodies, and thereby change their Texture, and

so their Colour; Or by solliciting the Avolation of certain parts of the

Bodies, to which 'tis Contiguous; or by some other way, (which possibly I

may elsewhere propose and consider) I have not now the leisure to

discourse. And for the same reason, though I could add many other

Instances, of what I formerly noted touching the emergency of Redness upon

the Digestion of many Bodies, insomuch that I have often seen upon the

Borders of _France_ (and probably we may have the like in _England_) a sort

of Pears, which digested for some time with a little Wine, in a Vessel

exactly clos'd, will in not many hours appear throughout of a deep Red

Colour, (as also that of the Juice, wherein they are Stew'd, becomes) but

ev'n on pure and white Salt of Tartar, pure Spirit of Wine, as clear as

Rock-water, will (as we elsewhere declare) by long Digestion acquire a

Redness; Though I say such Instances might be Multiply'd, and though there

be some other Obvious changes of Colours, which happen so frequently, that

they cannot but be as well Considerable as Notorious; such as is the

Blackness of almost all Bodies burn'd in the open Air: yet our haste

invites us to resign you the Exercise of enquiring into the Causes of these

Changes. And certainly, the reason both _why_ the Soots of such differing

Bodies are almost all of them all Black, _why_ so much the greater part of

Vegetables should be rather Green than of any other Colour, and

particularly (which more directly concerns this place) _why_ gentle Heats

do so frequently in Chymical Operations produce rather a Redness than

another Colour in digested _Menstruums_, not only Sulphureous, as Spirit of

Wine, but Saline, as Spirit of Vinegar, may be very well worth a serious

Inquiry; which I shall therefore recommend to _Pyrophilus_ and his

Ingenious Friends.

[21] _Parkinson_, Thea. Bot. Trib. 4 cap. 12.

_EXPERIMENT XXXVII._

It may seem somewhat strange, that if you take the Crimson Solution of

_Cochineel_, or the Juice of Black Cherries, and of some other Vegetables

that afford the like Colour, (which because many take but for a deep Red,

we do with them sometimes call it so) and let some of it fall upon a piece

of Paper, a drop or two of an Acid Spirit, such as Spirit of Salt, or

_Aqua-fortis_, will immediately turn it into a fair Red. Whereas if you

make an Infusion of Brazil in fair Water, and drop a little Spirit of Salt

or _Aqua-fortis_ into it, that will destroy its Redness, and leave the

Liquor of a Yellow, (sometimes Pale) I might perhaps plausibly enough say

on this occasion, that if we consider the case a little more attentively,

we may take notice, that the action of the Acid Spirit seems in both cases,

but to weaken the Colour of the Liquor on which it falls. And so though it

destroy Redness in the Tincture of Brazil, as well as produce Red in the

Tincture of _Chochineel_, its Operations may be Uniform enough, since as

Crimson seems to be little else than a very deep Red, with (perhaps) an Eye

of Blew, so some kinds of Red seem (as I have lately noted) to be little

else than heightned Yellow. And consequently in such Bodies, the Yellow

seems to be but a diluted Red. And accordingly Alcalizate Solutions and

Urinous Spirits, which seem dispos'd to Deepen the Colours of the Juices

and Liquors of most Vegetables, will not only restore the Solution of

_Cochineel_ and the Infusion of Brazil to the Crimson, whence the Spirit of

Salt had chang'd them into a truer Red; but will also (as I lately told

you) not only heighthen the Yellow Juice of Madder into Red, but advance

the Red Infusion of Brazil to a Crimson. But I know not whether it will not

be much safer to derive these Changes from vary'd Textures, than certain

kinds of Bodies; and you will perhaps think it worth while, that I should

add on this occasion, That it may deserve some Speculation, why,

notwithstanding what we have been observing, though Blew and Purple seem to

be deeper Colours than Red, and therefore the Juices of Plants of either of

the two former Colours may (congruously enough to what has been just now

noted) be turn'd Red by Spirit of Salt or _Aqua-fortis_, yet Blew Syrrup of

Violets and some Purples should both by Oyl of Tartar and Spirit of Urine

be chang'd into Green, which seems to be not a deeper but a more diluted

Colour than Blew, if not also than Purple.

_EXPERIMENT XXXVIII._

It would much contribute to the History of Colours, if _Chymists_ would in

their Laboratories take a heedfull notice, and give us a faithfull account

of the Colours observ'd in the Steams of Bodies either Sublim'd or

Distill'd, and of the Colours of those Productions of the Fire, that are

made up by the Coalition of those Steams. As (for Instance) we observe in

the Distilling of pure Salt peter, that at a certain season of the

Operation, the Body, though it seem either Crystalline, or White, affords

very Red Fumes: whereas though Vitriol be Green or Blew, the Spirit of it

is observ'd to come over in Whitish Fumes. The like Colour I have taken

notice of in the Fumes of several other Concretes of differing Colours, and

Natures, especially when Distill'd with strong Fires. And we elsewhere

note, that ev'n Soot, as Black as it is, has fill'd our Receivers with such

copious White Fumes, that they seem'd to have had their In-sides wash'd

with Milk. And no less observable may be, the Distill'd Liqours, into which

such Fumes convene, (for though we will not deny, that by skill and care a

Reddish Liqour may be obtain'd from Nitre) yet the common Spirit of it, in

the making ev'n of which store of these Red Fumes are wont to pass over

into the Receiver, appears not to be at all Red. And besides, that neither

the Spirit of Vitriol, nor that of Soot is any thing White; And, besides

also, that as far as I have observ'd, most (for I say not all) of the

Empyreumatical Oyls of Woods, and other Concretes, are either of a deep

Red, or of a Colour between Red and Black; besides this, I say, 'tis very

remarkable that notwithstanding that great Variety of Colours to be met

with in the Herbs, Flowers, and other Bodies wont to be Distill'd in

_Balneo_: yet (as far at least as our common Distillers Experience

reacheth) all the Waters and Spirits that first come over by that way of

Distillation, leave the Colours of their Concretes behind them, though

indeed there be one or two Vegetables not commonly taken notice of, whose

Distill'd Liqours I elsewhere observe to carry over the Tincture of the

Concrete with them. And as in Distillations, so in Sublimations, it were

worth while to take notice of what comes up, in reference to our present

scope, by purposely performing them (as I have in some cafes done) in

conveniently shap'd Glasses, that the Colour of the ascending Fumes may be

discern'd; For it may afford a Naturalist good Information to observe the

Congruities or the Differences betwixt the Colours of the ascending Fumes,

and those of the _Flowers_, they compose by their Convention. For it is

evident, that these _Flowers_, do many of them in point of Colour, much

differ, not only from one another, but oft times from the Concretes that

afforded them. Thus, (not here to repeat what I formerly noted of the Black

Soots of very differingly Colour'd Bodies) though Camphire and Brimstone

afford _Flowers_ much of their own Colour, save that those of Brimstone are

wont to be a little Paler, than the Lumps that yielded them; yet ev'n of

Red _Benzoin_, that sublim'd Substance, which _Chymists_ call its

_Flowers_, is wont to be White or Whitish. And to omit other Instances,

ev'n one and the same Black Mineral, Antimony, may be made to afford

_Flowers_, some of them Red, and some Grey, and, which is more strange,

some of them purely White. And 'tis the Prescription of some Glass-men by

exquisitely mingling a convenient proportion of Brimstone, Sal-Armoniack,

and Quicksilver, and Subliming them, together, to make a Sublimate of an

excellent Blew; and though having caus'd the Experiment to be made, we

found the produc'd Sublimate to be far from being of a lovely Colour, (as

was promis'd) that there and there, it seem'd Blewish, and at least was of

a Colour differing enough from either of the Ingredients, which is

sufficient for our present purpose. But a much finer Colour is promis'd by

some of the Empiricks, that pretend to Secrets, who tell us, that Orpiment,

being Sublim'd, will afford among the Parts of it that fly Upward, some

little Masses, which, though the Mineral it self be of a good Yellow, will

be Red enough to emulate Rubies, both in Colour and Translucency. And this

Experiment may, for ought I know, sometimes succeed; for I remember, that

having in a small Bolt-head purposely sublim'd some powder'd Orpiment, we

could in the Lower part of the Sublimate discern here and there some

Reddish Lines, though much of the Upper part of the Sublimate consisted of

a matter, which was not alone purely Yellow, but transparent almost like a

Powder. And we have also this way obtain'd a Sublimate, the Lower part

whereof though it consisted not of Rubies, yet the small pieces of it,

which were Numerous enough, were of a pleasant Reddish Colour, and

Glitter'd very prettily. But to insist on such kind of Trials and

Observations (where the ascending Fumes of Bodies differ in Colour from the

Bodies themselves) though it might indeed Inrich the History of Colours,

would Robb me of too much of the little time I have to dispatch what I have

further to tell you concerning them.

_EXPERIMENT XXXIX_

Take the dry'd Buds (or Blossoms) of the Pomegranate Tree, (which are

commonly call'd in the Shops _Balaustiums_) pull off the Reddish Leaves,

and by a gentle Ebullition of them in fair Water, or by a competent

Infusion of them in like Water well heated, extract a faint Reddish

Tincture, which if the Liquor be turbid, you may Clarifie it by Filtrating

it Into this, if you pour a little good Spirit of Urine, or some other

Spirit abounding in the like sort of Volatile Salts, the Mixture will

presently turn of a dark Greenish Colour, but if instead of the

fore-mention'd Liquor, you drop into the simple Infusion a little rectify'd

Spirit of Sea-Salt, the Pale and almost Colourless Liquor will immediately

not only grow more Transparent, but acquire a high Redness, like that of

Rich Claret Wine, which so suddenly acquir'd Colour, may as quickly be

Destroy'd and turn'd into a dirty Blewish Green, by the affusion of a

competent quantity of the above-mention'd Spirit of Urine.

_Annotation._

This Experiment may bring some Light to, and receive some from a couple of

other Experiments, that I remember I have met with in the ingenious

_Gassendus_'s Animadversions upon _Epicurus_'s Philosophy, whilst I was

turning over the Leaves of those Learned Commentaries; (my Eyes being too

weak to let me read such Voluminous Books quite thorough) And I the less

scruple (notwithstanding my contrary Custom in this Treatise) to set down

these Experiments of another, because I shall a little improve the latter

of them, and because by comparing there with that which I have last

recited, we may be assisted to Conjecture upon what account it is, that Oyl

of Vitriol heightens the Tincture of Red-rose Leaves, since Spirit of Salt,

which is a highly Acid _Menstruum_, but otherwise differing enough from Oyl

of Vitriol, does the same thing. Our Authors Experiments then, as we made

them, are these; We took about a Glass-full of luke-warm Water, and in it

immerg'd a quantity of the Leaves of _Senna_, and presently upon the

Immersion there did not appear any Redness in the Water, but dropping into

it a little Oyl of Tartar, the Liquor soon discover'd a Redness to the

watchfull Eye, whereas by a little of that Acid Liquor of Vitriol, which is

like the former, undeservedly called Oyl, such a Colour would not be

extracted from the infused _Senna_. On the other side we took some Red-rose

Leaves dry'd, and having shaken them into a Glass of fair Water, they

imparted to it no Redness, but upon the affusion of a little Oyl of Vitriol

the Water was immediately turn'd Red, which it would not have been, if

instead of Oyl of Vitriol, we had imployed Oyl of Tartar to produce that

Colour: That these were _Gassendus_ his Experiments, I partly remember, and

was assur'd by a Friend, who lately Transcribed them out of _Gassendus_ his

Book, which I therefore add, because I have not now that Book at hand. And

the design of _Gassendus_ in these Experiments our Friend affirms to be, to

prove, that of things not Red a Redness may be made only by Mixture, and

the Varied position of parts, wherein the Doctrine of that Subtil

Philosopher doth not a little Authorize, what we have formerly delivered

concerning the Emergency and Change of Colours. But the instances, that we

have out of him set down, seem not to be the most Eminent, that may be

produced of this truth: For our next Experiment will shew the production of

several Colours out of Liquors, which have not any of them any such Colour,

nor indeed any discernable one at all; and whereas though our Author tells

us, that there was no Redness either in the Water, or the Leaves of

_Senna_, or the Oyl of Tartar; And though it be true, that the Predominant

Colour of the Leaves of _Senna_ be another than Red, yet we have try'd,

that by steeping that Plant a Night even in Cold water, it would afford a

very deep Yellow or Reddish Tincture without the help of the Oyl of Tartar,

which seems to do little more than assist the Water to extract more nimbly

a plenty of that Red Tincture, wherewith the Leaves of _Senna_ do of

themselves abound, and having taken off the Tincture of _Senna_, made only

with fair Water, before it grew to be Reddish, and Decanted it from the

Leaves, we could not perceive, that by dropping some Oyl of Tartar into it,

that Colour was considerable, though it were a little heightned into a

Redness; which might have been expected, if the particles of the Oyl did

eminently Co-operate, otherwise than we have expressed, to the production

of this Redness.

And as for the Experiment with Red-rose Leaves, the same thing may be

alleged, for we found that such Leaves by bare Infusion for a Night and Day

in fair Water, did afford us a Tincture bordering at least upon Redness,

and that Colour being conspicuous in the Leaves themselves, would not by

some seem so much to be produc'd as to be extracted by the affusion of Oyl

of Vitriol. And the Experiment try'd with the dry'd Leaves of Damask-roses

succeeded but imperfectly, but that is indeed observable to our Authors

purpose, that Oyl of Tartar will not perform in this Experiment what Oyl of

Vitriol doth; but because this last named Liquor is not so easily to be

had, give me leave to Advertise you, that the Experiment will succeed, if

instead of it you imploy _Aqua-fortis_. And though some Trials of our own

formerly made, and others easily deducible from what we have already

deliver'd, about the different Families and Operations of Salt, might

enable us to present you an Experiment upon Red-rose Leaves, more

accommodated to our Authors purpose, than that which he hath given us; yet

our Reverence to so Candid a Philosopher, invites us rather to improve his

Experiment, than substitute another in its place. Take therefore of the

Tincture of Red-rose Leaves, (for with Damask-rose Leaves the Experiment

succeedeth not well) made as before hath been taught with a little Oyl of

Vitriol, and a good quantity of fair Water, pour off this Liquor into a

clear Vial, half fill'd with Limpid water; till the Water held against the

Light have acquir'd a competent Redness, without losing its Transparency,

into this Tincture drop leisurely a little good Spirit of Urine, and

shaking the Vial, which you must still hold against the Light, you shall

see the Red Liquor immediately turn'd into a fine Greenish Blew, which

Colour was not to be found in any of the Bodies, upon whose Mixture it

emerg'd, and this Change is the more observable, because in many Bodies the

Degenerating of Blew into Red is usual enough, but the turning of Red into

Blew is very unfrequent. If at every drop of Spirit of Urine you shake the

Vial containing the Red Tincture, you may delightfully observe a pretty

variety of Colours in the passage of that Tincture from a Red to a Blew,

and sometimes we have this way hit upon such a Liquor, as being look't upon

against and from the Light, did seem faintly to emulate the above-mention'd

Tincture of _Lignum Nephriticum_. And if you make the Tincture of Red-roses

very high, and without Diluting it with fair Water, pour on the Spirit of

Urine, you may have a Blew so deep, as to make the Liquor Opacous, but

being dropt upon White Paper the Colour will soon disclose it self. Also

having made the Red, and consequently the Blew Tincture very Transparent,

and suffer'd it to rest in a small open Vial for a Day or two, we found

according to our Conjecture, that not only the Blew but the Red Colour also

was Vanish'd; the clear Liquor being of a bright Amber Colour, at the

bottom of which subsided a Light, but Copious feculency of almost the same

Colour, which seems to be nothing but the Tincted parts of the Rose Leaves

drawn out by the Acid Spirits of the Oyl of Vitriol, and Precipitated by

the Volatile Salt of the Spirit of Urine, which makes it the more probable,

that the Redness drawn by the Oyl of Vitriol, was at least as well an

extraction of the Tinging parts of the Roses, as a production of Redness;

and lastly, if you be destitute of Spirit of Urine, you may change the

Colour of the Tincture of Roses with many other Sulphureous Salts, as a

strong Solution of Pot-ashes, Oyl of Tartar, &c. which yet are seldome so

free from Feculency, as the Spirituous parts of Urine becomes by repeated

Distillation.

_Annotation_.

On this, occasion, I call to mind, that I found, a way of producing, though

not the same kind of Blew, as I have been mentioning, yet a Colour near of

Kin to it, namely, a fair Purple, by imploying a Liquor not made Red by

Art, instead of the Tincture of Red-roses, made with an Acid Spirit; And my

way was only to take Log-wood, (a Wood very well known to Dyers) having by

Infusion the Powder of it a while in fair Water made that Liquor Red, I

dropt into it a _Tantillum_ of an Urinous Spirit, as that of Sal-Armoniack,

(and I have done the same thing with an _Alcali_) by which the Colour was

in a moment turn'd into a Rich, and lovely Purple. But care must be had,

that you let not fall into a Spoonfull above two or three Drops, lest the

Colour become so deep, as to make the Liquor too Opacous. And (to answer

the other part of _Gassendus_ his Experiment) if instead of fair Water, I

infus'd the Log-wood in Water made somewhat sowr by the Acid Spirit of

Salt, I should obtain neither a Purple Liquor, nor a Red, but only a Yellow

one.

_EXPERIMENT XL._

The Experiment I am now to mention to you, _Pyrophilus_, is that which both

you, and all the other _Virtuosi_ that have seen it, have been pleas'd to

think very strange; and indeed of all the Experiments of Colours, I have

yet met with, it seems to be the fittest to recommend the Doctrine propos'd

in this Treatise, and to shew that we need not suppose, that all Colours

must necessarily be Inherent Qualities, flowing from the Substantial Forms

of the Bodies they are said to belong to, since by a bare Mechanical change

of Texture in the Minute parts of Bodies; two Colours may in a moment be

Generated quite _De novo,_ and utterly Destroy'd. For there is this

difference betwixt the following Experiment, and most of the others

deliver'd in these Papers, that in this, the Colour that a Body already

had, is not chang'd into another, but betwixt two Bodies, each of them

apart devoid of Colour, there is in a moment generated a very deep Colour,

and which if it were let alone, would be permanent; and yet by a very small

Parcel of a third Body, that has no Colour of its own, (lest some may

pretend I know not what Antipathy betwixt Colours) this otherwise permanent

Colour will be in another trice so quite Destroy'd, that there will remain

no foot-stepts either of it or of any other Colour in the whole Mixture.

The Experiment is very easie, and it is thus perform'd: Take good common

Sublimate, and fully satiate with it what quantity of Water you please,

Filtre the Solution carefully through clean and close Paper, that it may

drop down as Clear and Colourless as Fountain water. Then when you'l shew

the Experiment, put of it about a Spoonfull into a small Wine-glass, or any

other convenient Vessel made of clear Glass, and droping in three or four

drops of good Oyl of Tartar, _per Deliquium_; well Filtred that it may

likewise be without Colour, these two Limpid Liquors will in the twinkling

of an Eye turn into an Opacous mixture of a deep Orange Colour, which by

keeping the Glass continually shaking in your hand, you must preserve from

setling too soon to the Bottom; And when the Spectators have a little

beheld this first Change, then you must presently drop in about four or

five drops of Oyl of Vitriol, and continuing to shake the Glass pretty

strongly, that it may the Nimbler diffuse it self, the whole Colour, if you

have gone Skilfully to work, will immediately disappear, and all the Liquor

in the Glass will be Clear and Colourless as before, without so much as a

Sediment at the Bottom. But for the more gracefull Trial of this

Experiment, 'twill not be amiss to observe, First, That there should not be

taken too much of the Solution of Sublimate, nor too much of the Oyl of

Tartar drop'd in, to avoid the necessity of putting in so much Oyl of

Vitriol as may make an Ebullition, and perhaps run over the Glass.

Secondly, That 'tis convenient to keep the Glass always a little shaking,

both for the better mixing of the Liquors, and to keep the Yellow Substance

from Subsiding, which else it would in a short time do, though when 'tis

subsided it will retain its Colour, and also be capable of being depriv'd

of it by the Oyl newly mention'd. Thirdly, That if any Yellow matter stick

at the sides of the Glass, 'tis but inclining the Glass, till the clarify'd

Liquor can wash alongst it, and the Liquor will presently imbibe it, and

deprive it of its Colour.

Many have somewhat wondred, how I came to light upon this Experiment, but

the Notions or Conjectures I have about the differing Natures of the

Several Tribes of Salts, having led me to devise the Experiment, it will

not be difficult for me to give you the Chymical Reason, if I may so speak,

of the _Phænomenon_. Having then observ'd, that _Mercury_ being dissolv'd

in Some _Menstruums_, would yield a dark Yellow Precipitate, and supposing

that, as to this, common Water, and the Salts that stick to the _Mercury_

would be equivalent to those Acid _Menstruums_, which work upon the

_Quick-silver_, upon the account of their Saline particles, I substituted a

Solution of Sublimate in fair Water, instead of a Solution of _Mercury_ in

_Aqua-fortis_, or Spirit of _Nitre_, that simple Solution being both

clearer and free from that very offensive Smell, which accompanies the

Solutions of _Mercury_ made with those other corrosive Liquors; then I

consider'd, that That, which makes the Yellow Colour, is indeed but a

Precipitate made by the means of the Oyl of Tartar, which we drop in, and

which, as _Chymists_ know, does generally precipitate Metalline Bodies

corroded by Acid Salts; so that the Colour in our case results from the

Coalition of the Mercurial particles with the Saline ones, wherewith they

were formerly associated, and with the Alcalizate particles of the Salt of

Tartar that swim up and down in the Oyl. Wherefore considering also, that

very many of the effects of Lixiviate Liquors, upon the Solutions of other

Bodies, may be destroy'd by Acid _Menstruums_, as I elsewhere more

particularly declare, I concluded, that if I chose a very potently Acid

Liquor, which by its Incisive power might undo the work of the Oyl of

Tartar, and disperse again those Particles, which the other had by

Precipitation associated, into such minute Corpuscles as were before singly

Inconspicuous, they would become Inconspicuous again, and consequently

leave the Liquor as Colourless as before the Precipitation was made.

This, as I said, _Pyrophilus_, seems to be the Chymical reason of this

Experiment, that is such a reason, as, supposing the truth of those

Chymical Notions I have elsewhere I hope evinc'd, may give such an account

of the _Phænomena_ as Chymical Notions can supply us with; but I both here

and elsewhere make use of this way of speaking, to intimate that I am

sufficiently aware of the difference betwixt a Chymical Explication of a

_Phænomenon_, and one that is truly Philosophical or Mechanical; as in our

present case, I tell you something, when I tell you that the Yellowness of

the Mercurial Solution and the Oyl of Tartar is produc'd by the

Precipitation occasion'd by the affusion of the latter of those Liquors,

and that the destruction of the Colour proceeds from the Dissipation of

that Curdl'd matter, whose Texture is destroy'd, and which is dissolv'd

into Minute and Invisible particles by the potently Acid _Menstruum_, which

is the reason, why there remains no Sediment in the Bottom, because the

infused Oyl takes it up, and resolves it into hidden or invisible Parts, as

Water does Salt or Sugar. But when I have told you all this, I am far from

thinking I have told all that such an Inquisitive Person as your self would

know, for I presume you would desire as well as I to learn (at least) why

the Particles of the _Mercury_, of the Tartar, and of the Acid Salts

convening together, should make rather an Orange Colour than a Red, or a

Blew, or a Green, for 'tis not enough to say what I related a little

before, that divers Mercurial Solutions, though otherwise made, would yield

a Yellow precipitate, because the Question will recurr concerning them; and

to give it a satisfactory answer, is, I freely acknowledge, more than I

dare as yet pretend to.

But to confirm my conjecture about the Chymical reason of our Experiment, I

may add, that as I have (_viz._ pag. 34th. of this Treatise) elsewhere (on

another occasion) told you, with Saline Liquors of another kind and nature

than Salt of Tartar, (namely, with Spirit of Urine, and Liquors of kin to

that) I can make the _Mercury_ precipitate out of the first simple Solution

quite of another Colour than that hitherto mention'd; Nay, if instead of

altering the Precipitating liquor, I alter'd the Texture of the Sublimate

in such a way as my Notions about Salt requir'd, I could produce the same

_Phænomenon_. For having purposely Sublim'd together Equal parts (or

thereabout) of Sal-Armoniack and Sublimate, first diligently Mix'd, the

ascending Flowers being diffolv'd in fair Water, and Filtred, gave a

Solution Limpid and Colourless, like that of the other Sublimates, and yet

an _Akaly_ drop'd into this Liquor did not turn it Yellow but White. And

upon the same Grounds we may with _Quick-silver_, without the help of

common Sublimate, prepare another sort of Flowers dissoluble in Water

without Discolouring it, with which I could likewise do what I newly

mention'd; to which I shall add, (what possibly you'l somewhat wonder at)

That so much does the Colour depend upon the Texture resulting from the

Convention of the several sorts of Corpuscles, that though in out

Experiment, Oyl of Vitriol destroys the Yellow Colour, yet with

_Quick-silver_ and fair Water, by the help of Oyl of Vitriol alone, we may

easily make a kind of Precipitate of a fair and permanent Yellow, as you

will e're long (in the forty second Expement of this third Part) be taught.

And I may further add, that I chose Oyl of Vitriol, not so much for any

other or peculiar Quality, as for its being, when 'tis well rectify'd,

(which 'tis somewhat hazardous to bring it to be) not only devoid of Colour

and in Smells, but extremely Strong and Incisive; For though common and

undephlegmated _Aqua-fortis_ will not perform the same thing well, yet that

which is made exceeding Strong by being carefully Dephlegm'd, will do it

pretty well, though not so well as Oyl of Vitriol which is so Strong, that

even without Rectification it may for a need be made use of. I will not

here tell you what I have try'd, that I may be able to deprive at pleasure

the Precipitate that one of the Sulphureous Liquors had made, by the

copious Affusion of the other: Because I found, though this Experiment is

too ticklish to let me give a full account of it in few words, I shall

therefore tell you, that it is not only for once, that the other

above-mention'd Experiment may be made, the same Numerical parcels of

Liquor being still imploy'd in it; for after I have Clarify'd the Orange

Colour'd Liquor, by the addition of as little of the Oyl of Viriol as will

suffice to perform the effect, I can again at pleasure re-produce the

Opacous Colour, by the dropping in of fresh Oyl of Tartar, and destroy it

again by the Re-affusion of more of the Acid _Menstruum_; and yet oftner if

I please, can I with these two contrariant Liquors recall and disperse the

Colour, though by reason of the addition of so much new Liquor, in

reference to the Mercurial particles, the Colour will at length appear more

dilute and faint.

_An improvement of the fortieth Experiment_.

And, _Pyrophilus_, to confirm yet further the Notions that led me to think

on the propos'd Experiment, I shall acquaint you with another, which when I

had conveniency I have sometimes added to it, and which has to the

Spectators appear'd little less Odd than the first; And though because the

Liquor, requisite to make the Trial succeed well, must be on purpose

prepar'd anew a while before, because it will not long retain its fitness

for this work, I do but seldome annex this Experiment to the other, yet I

shall tell you how I devis'd it, and how I make it. If you boyl Crude

Antimony in a strong and clear _Lixivium_, you shall separate a Substance

from it, which some Modern _Chymists_ are pleas'd to call its Sulphur, but

how deservedly I shall not here examine, having elsewhere done it in an

Opportune place; wherefore I shall now but need to take notice, that when

this suppos'd Sulphur (not now to call it rather a kind of _Crocus_) is let

fall by the Liquor upon its Refrigeration, it often settles in Flakes, or

such like parcels of a Yellow Substance, (which being by the precedent

dissolution reduc'd into Minute parts, may peradventure be made to take

Fire much more easily than the Grosser Powder of unprepar'd Antimony would

have done.) Considering therefore, that common Sulphur boyl'd in a

_Lixivium_ may be Precipitated out of it by Rhenish-wine or White-wine,

which are Sowrish Liquors, and have in them, as I elsewhere shew, an Acid

Salt; and having found also by Trial, that with other Acid Liquors I could

Precipitate out of Lixiviate Solvents some other Mineral concretions

abounding with Sulphureous parts, of which sort is crude Antimony, I

concluded it to be easie to Precipitate the Antimony dissolv'd, as was

lately mention'd, with the Acid Oyl of Vitriol; and though common Sulphur

yields a White Precipitate, which the _Chymists_ call _Lac Sulphuris_, yet

I suppos'd the Precipitated Antimony would be of a deep Yellow Colour, as

well, if made with Oyl of Vitriol, as if made only by Refrigeration and

length of Time. From this 'twas easie to deduce this Experiment, that if

you put into one Glass some of the freshly Impregnated and Filtrated

Solution of Antimony, and into another some of the Orange-Colour'd Mixture,

(which I formerly shew'd you how to make with a Mercurial Solution and Oyl

of Tartar) a few drops of Oyl of Vitriol dropp'd into the last mention'd

Glass, would, as I told you before, turn the Deep Yellow mixture into a

Cleer Liquor; whereas a little of the same Oyl dropp'd out of the same Viol

into the other Glass would presently (but not without some ill sent) turn

the moderately cleer Solution into a Deep Yellow Substance, But this, as I

Said, succeeds not well, unless you employ a _Lixivium_ that has but newly

dissolv'd Antimony, and has not yet let it fall. But yet in Summer time, if

your _Lixivium_ have been duly Impregnated and well Filtred after it is

quite cold, it will for some dayes (perhaps much longer than I had occasion

to try) retain Antimony enough to exhibit, upon the Affusion of the

Corrosive Oyl, as much of a good Yellow Substance as is necessary to

satisfie the Beholders of the Possibility of the Experiment.

_Reflections upon the XL. Experiment Compared with the X. and XX._

The Knowledge of the Distinction of Salts which we have propos'd, whereby

they are discriminated into _Acid, Volatile,_ or _Salfuginous_ (if I may

for Distinction sake so call the Fugitive Salts of Animal Substances) and

_fix'd_ or _Alcalizate_, may possibly (by that little part which we have

already deliver'd, of what we could say of its Applicableness) appear of so

much Use in Natural Philosophy (especially in the Practick part of it) that

I doubt not but it will be no Unwelcome Corollary of the Preceding

Experiment, if by the help of it I teach you to distinguish, which of those

Salts is Predominant in Chymical Liquors, as well as whether any of them be

so or not. For though in our Notes upon the X. and XX. Experiments I have

shown you a way by means of the Tincture of _Lignum Nephriticum_, or of

Syrrup of Violets, to discover whether a propounded Salt be Acid or not,

yet you can thereby only find in general that such and such Salts belong

not to the Tribe of Acids, but cannot determine whether they belong to the

Tribe of Urinous Salts (under which for distinction sake I comprehend all

those Volatile Salts of Animal or other Substances that are contrary to

Acids) or to that of Alcalies. For as well the one as the other of these

Salino-Sulphurous Salts will restore the Cæruleous Colour to the Tincture

of _Lignum Nephriticum_, and turn that of Syrrup of Violets into Green.

Wherefore this XL. Experiment does opportunely supply the deficiency of

those. For being sollicitous to find out some ready wayes of discriminating

the Tribes of Chymical Salts, I found that all those I thought fit to make

Tryal of, would, if they were of a Lixiviate Nature, make with Sublimate

dissolv'd in Fair Water an _Orange Tawny_ Precipitate; whereas if they were

of an Urinous Nature the Precipitate would be _White_ and Milky. So that

having alwayes by me some Syrrup of Violets and some Solution of Sublimate,

I can by the help of the first of those Liquors discover in a trice,

whether the propounded Salt or Saline Body be of an Acid Nature or no, if

it be I need (you know) inquire no further; but if it be not, I can very

easily, and as readily distinguish between the other two kinds of Salts, by

the White or Orange-Colour that is immediately produc'd, by letting fall a

few Drops or Grains of the Salt to be examin'd, into a spoonfull of the

cleer Solution of Sublimate. For Example, it has been suppos'd by some

eminently Learned, That when Sal Armoniack being mingled with an Alcaly is

forc'd from it by the Fire in close Vessels, the Volatile Salt that will

thereby be obtain'd (if the Operation be skilfully perform'd,) is but a

more fine and subtile sort of Sal Armoniack, which, 'tis presum'd, this

Operation do's but more exquisitely purifie, than common Solutions,

Filtrations, and Coagulations. But this Opinion may be easily shown to be

Erroneous, as by other Arguments, so particularly by the lately deliver'd

Method of distinguishing the Tribes of Salts. For the Saline Spirit of Sal

Armoniack, as it is in many other manifest Qualities very like the Spirit

of Urine, so like, that it will in a trice make Syrrup of Violets of a

Lovely Green, turn a Solution of good Verdigrease into an Excellent Azure,

and make the Solution of a Sublimate yield a White Precipitate, insomuch

that in most (for I say not all of the Experiments) where I Aim onely at

producing a sudden change of Colour, I scruple not to use Spirit of Sal

Armoniack when it is at hand, instead of Spirit of Urine, as indeed it

seems chiefly to consist (besides the flegm that helps to make it fluid) of

the Volatile Urinous Salt (yet not excluding that of Soot) that abounds in

the Sal Armoniack and is set at liberty from the Sea Salt wherewith it was

formerly associated, and clogg'd, by the Operation of the Alcaly, that

divides the Ingredients of Sal Armoniack, and retains that Sea Salt with it

self. What use may be made of the like way of exploration in that inquiry

which puzzles so many Modern Naturalists, whether the Rich Pigment (which

we have often had occasion to mention) belongs to the Vegetable or Animal

Kingdome, you may find in another place where I give you some account of

what I try'd about Cocheneel. But I think it needless to exemplifie here

our Method by any other Instances, many such being to be met with in divers

parts of this Treatise; but I will rather advertise you, that, by this way

of examining Chymical Liquors, you may not onely in most Cases conclude

_Affirmatively_, but in some Cases _Negatively_. As since Spirit of Wine,

and as far as I have try'd, those Chymical Oyles which Artists call

Essential, did not (when I us'd them as I had us'd the several Families of

Salts upon that Syrrup) turn Syrrup of Violets Red or Green, nor the

Solution of Sublimate White or Yellow, I inferr'd it may thence be probably

argued, that either they are destitute of Salt, or have such as belongs not

to either of the three Grand families already often mention'd. When I went

to examine the Spirit of Oak or of such like Concretes forced over through

a Retort, I found by this means amongst others, that (as I elsewhere show)

these Chymists are much mistaken in it, that account it a simple Liquor,

and one of their Hypostatical Principles: for not to mention what flegm it

may have, I found that with a few drops of one of this sort of Spirits

mix'd with a good proportion of Syrrup of Violets, I could change the

Colour and make it Purplish, by the affinity of which Colour to Redness, I

conjectur'd that this Spirit had some Acid Corpuscles in it, and

accordingly I found that as it would destroy the Blewness of a Tincture of

_Lignum Nephriticum_, so being put upon Corals it would Corrode them, as

common Spirit of Vinegar, and other Acid Liquors are wont to do. And

farther to examine whether there were not a great part of the Liquor that

was not of an Acid nature, having separated the Sour or Vinegar-like part

from the rest, which (if I mistake not) is far the more Copious, we

concluded as we had conjectured, the other or remaining part, though it had

a strong taste as well as smell, to be of a nature differing from that of

either of the three sorts of Salts above mention'd, since it did as little

as Spirit of Wine, and Chymical Oyls, alter the Colour either of Syrrup of

Violets or Solution of Sublimate, whence we also inferr'd that the change

that had been made of that Syrrup into a Purple Colour, was effected by the

Vinegar, that was one of the two Ingredients of the Liquor, which was wont

to pass for a Simple or Uncompounded Spirit. And, upon this account, 'twas

of the Spirit of Oak (and the like Concretes) freed from it's Vinegar that

I elsewhere told you, that I had not then observ'd it, (and I have repeated

the Tryal but very lately) to destroy the Cæruleous Tincture of _Lignum

Nephriticum_. But this onely, _en passant_; for the Chief thing I had to

add was this, That by the same way may be examin'd and discover'd, divers

changes that are produc'd in Bodies either by Nature only, or by Art;

either of them being able by changing the Texture of some Concretes I could

name, to qualifie them to Operate after a New manner upon the above

mention'd Syrrup, or Solution, or both. And by this means, to tell you that

upon the by, I have been able to discover, that there may be made Bodies,

which though they run _per Deliquium_, as readily as Salt of Tartar, belong

in other respects, not to the family of Alcaliz, much less to that of

Salfuginous, or that of Acid Salts. Perhaps too, I may know a way of making

a highly operative Saline Body that shall neither change the Colour of

Syrrup of Violets, nor Precipitate the Solution of Sublimate; And, I can

likewise if I please conceal by what Liquors I perform such changes of

Colour, as I have been mentioning to you, by quite altering the Texture of

some ordinary Chymical productions, the Exploration of which is the main

use of the fortieth Experiment, which I think teaches not a little, if it

teach us to discover the nature of those things (in reference to Salt) that

are obtain'd by the ordinary Chymical Analysis of mix'd Bodyes, though

perhaps there may be other Bodyes prepar'd by Chymistry which may have the

same Effects in the change of Colours; and yet be produc'd not from what

Chymists call the Resolution of Bodies, but from their Composition. But the

discoursing of things of this nature is more proper for another place. I

shall now onely add, what might perhaps have been more seasonably told you

before; That the Reason why the way of Exploration of Salts hitherto

deliver'd, succeeds in the Solution of Sublimate, depends upon the

particular Texture of that Solution, as well as upon the differing Natures

of the Saline Liquors imploy'd to Precipitate it. For Gold dissolv'd in

_Aqua Regia_, whether you Precipitate it with Oyl of Tartar which is an

Alcaly, or with Spirit of Urine, or Sal Armoniack which belongs to the

family of Volatile Salts, will either way afford a Yellow substance: though

with such an Acid Liquor, as, I say not Spirit of Salt, the Body that

yields it, being upon the matter an Ingredient of _Aqua Regis_, but Oyl of

Vitriol it self, I did not find that I could Precipitate the Metall out of

the Solution, or destroy the Colour of it, though the same Oyl of Vitriol

would readily Precipitate Silver dissolv'd in _Aqua-fortis_. And if you

dissolve pure Silver in _Aqua-fortis_, and suffer it to shoot into

Crystals, the cleer Solution of these made in fair Water, will afford a

very White Precipitate, whether it be made with an Alcaly, or an Acid

Spirit, as that of Salt, whereas, which may seem somewhat strange, with

Spirit of Sal Armoniack (that I us'd was made of Quicklime) I could obtain

no such White Precipitate; that Volatile Spirit, nor (as I remember) that

of Urine, scarce doing any more than striking down a very small quantity of

Matter, which was neither White nor Whitish, so that the remaining Liquor

being suffer'd to evaporate till the superfluous Moisture was gone, the

greatest part of the Metalline Corpuscles with the Saline ones that had

imbib'd them, concoagulated into Salt, as is usual in such Solutions,

wherein the Metall has not been Precipitated.

_EXPERIMENT XLI._

Of Kin to the last or fortieth Experiment is another which I remember I

have sometimes shewn to _Virtuosi_ that were pleas'd not to dislike it. I

took Spirit of Urine made by Fermentation, and with a due proportion of

Copper brought into small parts, I obtain'd a very lovely Azure Solution,

and when I saw the Colour was such as was requisite, pouring into a clean

Glass, about a spoonfull of this tincted Liquor, (of which I us'd to keep a

Quantity by me,) I could by shaking into it some drops of Strong Oyl of

Vitriol, deprive it in a trice of its Deep Colour, and make it look like

Common-water.

_Annotation_.

This Experiment brings into my mind this other, which oftentimes succceds

well enough, though not quite so well as the former; Namely, that if into

about a small spoonfull of a Solution of good French Verdigrease made in

fair Water, I drop't and shak'd some strong Spirit of Salt, or rather

deflegm'd _Aqua Fortis_, the Greenness of the Solution would be made in a

trice almost totally to disappear, & the Liquor held against the Light

would scarce seeme other than Cleer or Limpid, to any but an Attentive Eye,

which is therefore remarkable; because we know that _Aqua-fortis_ corroding

Copper, which is it that gives the Colour to Verdigrease, is wont to reduce

it to a Green Blew Solution. But if into the other altogether or almost

Colourless Liquor I was speaking of, you drop a just quantity either of Oyl

of Tartar or Spirit of Urine, you shall find that after the Ebullition is

ceas'd, the mixture will disclose a lively Colour, though somewhat

differing from that which the Solution of Verdigrease had at first.

_EXPERIMENT XLII._

That the Colour (_Pyrophilus_) of a Body may be chang'd by a Liquor which

of it self is of no Colour, provided it be Saline, we have already

manifested by a multitude of instances. Nor doth it seem so strange,

because Saline Particles swimming up and down in Liquors, have been by many

observ'd to be very operative in the Production and change of Colours. But

divers of our Friends that are not acquainted with Chymical Operations have

thought it very strange that a White Body, and a Dry one too, should

immediately acquire a rich new Colour upon the bare affusion of

Spring-Water destitute as well of adventitious Salt as of Tincture. And yet

(_Pyrophilus_) the way of producing such a change of Colours may be easily

enough lighted on by those that are conversant in the Solutions of Mercury.

For we have try'd, that though by Evaporating a Solution of Quick-Silver in

_Aqua-fortis_, and abstracting the Liquor till the remaining matter began

to be well, but not too strongly dryed, fair Water pour'd on the remaining

_Calx_ made it but somewhat Yellowish; yet when we took good Quick-Silver,

and three or four times its weight of Oyl of Vitriol, in case we in a Glass

Retort plac'd in Sand drew off the Saline _Menstruum_ from the Metalline

Liquor, till there remain'd a dry _Calx_ at the bottome, though this

Precipitate were a Snow White Body, yet upon pouring on it a large quantity

of fair Water, we did almost in a moment perceive it to pass from a Milky

Colour to one of the loveliest Light Yellows that ever we had beheld. Nor

is the Turbith Mineral, that Chymists extol for its power to Salivate, and

for other vertues, of a Colour much inferiour to this, though it be often

made with a differing proportion of the Ingredients, a more troublesome

way. For _Beguinus_,[22] who calls it _Mercurius præcipitatus optimus_,

takes to one part of Quick-Silver, but two of Liquor, and that is Rectifi'd

Oyl of Sulphur, which is (in _England_ at least) far more scarce and dear

than Oyl of Vitriol; he also requires a previous Digestion, two or three

Cohobations, and frequent Ablutions with hot Distill'd Water, with other

prescriptions, which though they may conduce to the Goodness of the

Medicine, which is that he aims at, are troublesome, and, our Tryals have

inform'd you unneccessary to the _obtaining the Lemmon Colour_ which he

regards not. But though we have very rarely seen either in Painters Shops,

or elsewhere a finer Yellow than that which we have divers times this way

produc'd (which is the more considerable, because durable and pleasant

Yellows are very hard to be met with, as may appear by the great use which

Painters are for its Colours sake fain to make of that pernicious and heavy

Mineral, Orpiment) yet I fear our Yellow is too costly, to be like to be

imploy'd by Painters, unless about Choice pieces of Work, nor do I know how

well it will agree with every Pigment, especially, wich Oyl'd Colours. And

whether this Experiment, though it have seem'd somewhat strange to most we

have shown it to, be really of another Nature than those wherein Saline

Liquors are imploy'd, may, as we formerly also hinted, be so plausibly

doubted, that whether the Water pour'd on the _Calx_, do barely by imbibing

some of its Saline parts alter its Colour by altering its Texture, or

whether by dissolving the Concoagulated Salts, it does become a Saline

_Menstruum_, and, as such, work upon the Mercury, I freely leave to you

(_Pyrophilus_) to consider. And that I may give you some Assistance in your

Enquiry, I will not only tell you, that I have several times with fair

Water wash'd from this _Calx_, good store of strongly tasted Corpuscles,

which by the abstraction of the _Menstruum_, I could reduce into Salt; but

I will also subjoyn an Experiment, which I devis'd, to shew among other

things, how much a real and permanent Colour may be as it were drawn forth

by a Liquor that has neither Colour, nor so much as Saline or other Active

parts, provided it can but bring the parts of the Body it imbibes to

convene into clusters dispos'd after the manner requisite to the exhibiting

of the emergent Colour. The Experiment was this.

[22] _Beguinus_, Tyr. Chy. Lib. 2º. Cap. 13º.

_EXPERIMENT XLIII._

We took good common Vitriol, and having beaten it to Powder, and put it

into a Crucible, we kept it melted in a gentle heat, till by the

Evaporation of some parts, and the shuffling of the rest, it had quite lost

its former Colour, what remain'd we took out, and found it to be a friable

_Calx_, of a dirty Gray. On this we pour'd fair Water, which it did not

Colour Green or Blew, but only seem'd to make a muddy mixture with it, then

stopping the Vial wherein the Ingredients were put, we let it stand in a

quiet place for some dayes, and after many hours the water having dissolv'd

a good part of the imperfectly calcin'd Body, the Vitriolate Corpuscles

swiming to and fro in the Liquor, had time by their opportune Occursions to

constitute many little Masses of Vitriol, which gave the water they

impregnated a fair Vitriolate Colour; and this Liquor being pour'd off, the

remaining dirty Powder did in process of time communicate the like Colour,

but not so deep, to a second parcel of cleer Water that we pour'd on it.

But this Experiment _Pyrophilus_ is, (to give you that hint by the way) of

too Luciferous a Nature to be fit to be fully prosecuted, now that I am in

haste, and willing to dispatch what remains. And we have already said of

it, as much as is requisite to our present purpose.

_EXPERIMENT XLIV._

It may (_Pyrophilus_) somewhat contribute towards the shewing how much some

Colours depend upon the less or greater mixture, and (as it were,)

Contemperation of the Light with shades, to observe, how that sometimes the

number of Particles, of the same Colour, receiv'd into the Pores of a

Liquor, or swiming up and down in it, do seem much to vary the Colour of

it. I could here present you with particular instances to show, how in many

(if not most) consistent Bodyes, if the Colour be not a Light one, as

White, Yellow, or the like, the closeness of parts in the Pigments makes it

look Blackish, though when it is display'd and laid on thinly, it will

perhaps appear to be either Blew, or Green, or Red. But the Colours of

consistent Pigments, not being those which the Preamble of this Experiment

has lead you to expect Examples in, I shall take the instances I am now to

give you, rather from Liquors than Dry Bodyes. If then you put a little

fair Water into a cleer and slender Vial, (or rather into one of those

pipes of Glass, which we shall by and by mention;) and let fall into it a

few drops of a strong Decoction or Infusion of _Cochineel_, or (for want of

that) of _Brazil_; you may see the tincted drops descend like little Clouds

into the Liquor; through which, if, by shaking the Vial, you diffuse them,

they will turn the water either of a Pinck Colour, or like that which is

wont to be made by the washing of raw flesh in fair Water; by dropping a

little more of the Decoction, you may heighten the Colour into a fine Red,

almost like that which ennobles Rubies; by continuing the affusion, you may

bring the Liquor to a kind of a Crimson, and afterwards to a Dark and

Opacous Redness, somewhat like that of Clotted Blood. And in the passage of

the Liquor from one of these Colours to the other, you may observe, if you

consider it attentively, divers other less noted Colours belonging to Red,

to which it is not easie to give Names; especially considering how much the

proportion of the Decoction to the fair Water, and the strength of that

Decoction, together with that of the trajected Light and other

Circumstances, may vary the Phænomena of this Experiment. For the

convenienter making whereof, we use instead of a Vial, any slender Pipe of

Glass of about a foot or more in length, and about the thickness of a mans

little finger; For, if leaving one end of this Pipe open, you Seal up the

other Hermetically, (or at least stop it exquisitely with a Cork well

fitted to it, and over-laid with hard Sealing Wax melted, and rubb'd upon

it;) you shall have a Glass, wherein may be observ'd the Variations of the

Colours of Liquors much better than in large Vials, and wherein Experiments

of this Nature may be well made with very small quantities of Liquor. And

if you please, you may in this Pipe produce variety of Colours in the

various parts of the Liquor, and keep them swimming upon one another

unmix'd for a good while. And some have marveil'd to see, what variety of

Colours we have sometimes (but I confess rather by chance than skill)

produc'd in those Glasses, by the bare infusion of Brazil, variously

diluted with fair Water, and alter'd by the Infusion of several Chymical

Spirits and other Saline Liquors devoid themselves of Colour, and when the

whole Liquor is reduc'd to an Uniform degree of Colour, I have taken

pleasure to make that very Liquor seem to be of Colours gradually

differing, by filling with it Glasses of a Conical figure, (whether the

Glass have its basis in the ordinary position, or turn'd upwards.) And yet

you need not Glasses of an extraordinary shape to see an instance of what

the vari'd mixture of Light and Shadow can do in the diversifying of the

Colour. For if you take but a large round Vial, with a somewhat long and

slender Neck, and filling it with our Red Infusion of Brazil, hold it

against the Light, you will discern a notable Disparity betwixt the Colour

of that part of the Liquor which is in the Body of the Vial, and that which

is more pervious to the Light in the Neck. Nay, I remember, that I once had

a Glass and a Blew Liquor (consisting chiefly (or only, if my memory

deceive me not,) of a certain Solution of Verdigrease) so fitted for my

purpose, that though in other Glasses the Experiment would not succeed, yet

when that particular Glass was fill'd with that Solution, in the Body of

the Vial it appear'd of a Lovely Blew, and in the neck, (where the Light

did more dilute the Colour,) of a manifest Green; and though I suspected

there might be some latent Yellowness in the substance of the neck of the

Glass, which might with the Blew compose that Green, yet was I not

satisfi'd my self with my Conjecture, but the thing seem'd odd to me, as

well as to divers curious persons to whom it was shown. And I lately had a

Broad piece of Glass, which being look'd on against the Light seem'd clear

enough, and held from the Light appear'd very lightly discolour'd, and yet

it was a piece knock'd off from a great lump of Glass, to which if we

rejoyn'd it, where it had been broken off, the whole Mass was as green as

Grass. And I have several times us'd Bottles and stopples that were both

made (as those, I had them from assur'd me) of the very same Metall, and

yet whilst the bottle appear'd but inclining towards a Green, the Stopple

(by reason of its great thickness) was of so deep a Colour that you would

hardly believe they could possibly be made of the same materials. But to

satisfie some Ingenious Men, on another occasion, I provided my self of a

flat Glass (which I yet have by me,) with which if I look against the Light

with the Broad side obverted to the Eye, it appeares like a good ordinary

window Glass; but if I turn the Edge of it to my Eye, and place my Eye in a

convenient posture in reference to the Light, it may contend for deepness

of Colour with an Emerald. And this Greeness puts me in mind of a certain

thickish, but not consistent Pigment I have sometimes made, and can show

you when you please, which being dropp'd on a piece of White Paper appears,

where any quantity of it is fallen, of a somewhat Crimson Colour, but being

with ones finger spread thinly on the Paper does presently exhibit a fair

Green, which seems to proceed only from its disclosing its Colour upon the

Extenuation of its Depth into Superficies, if the change be not somewhat

help'd by the Colours degenerating upon one or other of the Accounts

formerly mention'd. Let me add, that having made divers Tryals with that

Blew substance, which in Painters shops is call'd _Litmase_, we have

sometimes taken Pleasure to observe, that being dissolv'd in a due

proportion of fair Water, the Solution either oppos'd to the Light, or

dropp'd upon White paper, did appear of a deep Colour betwixt Crimson and

Purple; and yet that being spread very thin on the Paper and suffer'd to

dry on there, the Paper was wont to appear Stain'd of a Fine Blew. And to

satisfie my selfe, that the diversity came not from the Paper, which one

might suspect capable of inbibing the Liquor, and altering the Colour, I

made the Tryal upon a flat piece of purely White Glass'd Earth, (which I

sometimes make use of about Experiments of Colours) with an Event not

unlike the former.

And now I speak of _Litmass_, I will add, that having this very day taken a

piece of it, that I had kept by me these several years, to make Tryals

about Colours, and having let fall a few drops of the strong Infusion of it

in fair water, into a fine Crystal Glass, shap'd like an inverted Cone, and

almost full of fair Water, I had now (as formerly) the pleasure to see, and

to show others, how these few tincted drops variously dispersing themselves

through the Limpid Water, exhibited divers Colours, or varieties of Purple

and Crimson. And when the Corpuscles of the Pigment seem'd to have equally

diffus'd themselves through the whole Liquor, I then by putting two or

three drops of Spirit of Salt, first made an odd change in the Colour of

the Liquor, as well as a visible commotion among its small parts, and in a

short time chang'd it wholly into a very Glorious Yellow, like that of a

Topaz. After which if I let fall a few drops of the strong and heavy

Solution of Pot-ashes, whose weight would quickly carry it to the sharp

bottome of the Glass, there would soon appear four very pleasant and

distinct Colours; Namely, a Bright, but Dilute Colour at the picked bottome

of the Glass; a Purple, a little higher; a deep and glorious Crimson,

(which Crimson seem'd to terminate the operation of the Salt upward) in the

confines betwixt the Purple and the Yellow; and an Excellent Yellow, the

same that before enobled the whole Liquor, reaching from thence to the top

of the Glass. And if I pleas'd to pour very gently a little Spirit of Sal

Armoniack, upon the upper part of this Yellow, there would also be a Purple

or a Crimson, or both, generated there, so that the unalter'd part of the

Yellow Liquor appear'd intercepted betwixt the two Neighbouring Colours.

My scope in this 3d. Experiment (_Pyrophilus_) is manifold, as first to

invite you to be wary in judging of the Colour of Liquors in such Glasses

as are therein recommended to you, and consequently as much, if not more,

when you imploy other Glasses. Secondly, That you may not think it strange,

that I often content my self to rub upon a piece of White paper, the Juice

of Bodies I would examine, since not onely I could not easily procure a

sufficient Quantity of the juices of divers of them; but in several Cases

the Tryals of the quantities of such Juices in Glasses would make us more

lyable to mistakes, than the way that in those cases I have made use of.

Thirdly, I hope you will by these and divers other particulars deliver'd in

this Treatise, be easily induc'd to think that I may have set down many

Phænomena very faithfully, and just as they appear'd to me, and yet by

reason of some unheeded circumstance in the conditions of the matter, and

in the degree of Light, or the manner of trying the Experiment, you may

find some things to vary from the Relations I make of them. Lastly, I

design'd to give you an opportunity to free your self from the amazement

which possesses most Men, at the Tricks of those Mountebancks that are

commonly call'd Water-drinkers. For though not only the vulgar, but ev'n

many persons that are far above that Rank, have so much admir'd to see, a

man after having drunk a great deal of fair water, to spurt it out again in

the form of Claret Wine, Sack, and Milk, that they have suspected the

intervening of Magick, or some forbidden means to effect what they

conceived above the power of Art; yet having once by chance had occasion to

oblige a Wanderer that made profession of that and other Jugling Tricks, I

was easily confirm'd by his Ingenious confession to me, That this so much

Admir'd Art, indeed consisted rather in a few Tricks, than in any great

Skill, in altering the Nature and Colours of things. And I am easy to be

perswaded; that there may be a great deal of Truth in a little Pamphlet

Printed divers years ago in English, wherein the Author undertakes to

discover, and that (if I mistake not) by the confession of some of the

Complices themselves, That a famous Water-drinker then much Admir'd in

_England_, perform'd his pretended Transmutations of Liquors by the help of

two or three inconsiderable preparations and mixtures of not unobvious

Liquors, and chiefly of an Infusion of Brazil variously diluted and made

Pale or Yellowish, (and otherwise alter'd) with Vinegar, the rest of their

work being perform'd by the shape of the Glasses, by Craft and Legerdemane.

And for my part, that which I marvel at in this business, is, the Drinkers

being able to take down so much Water, and spout it out with that violence;

though Custome and a Vomit seasonably taken before hand, may in some of

them much facilitate the work. But as for the changes made in the Liquors,

they were but few and slight in comparison of those, that the being

conversant in Chymical Experiments, and dextrous in applying them to the

Transmuting of Colours, may easily enough enable a man to make, as ev'n

what has been newly deliver'd in this, and the foregoing Experiment;

especially if we add to it the things contained in the XX, the XXXIX and

the XL. Experiments, may perhaps have already perswaded You.

_EXPERIMENT XLV._

You may I presume (_Pyrophilus_) have taken notice, that in this whole

Treatise, I purposely decline (as far as I well can) the mentioning of

Elaborate Chymical Experiments, for fear of frighting you by their

tediousness and difficulty; but yet in confirmation of what I have been

newly telling you about the possibility of Varying the Colours of Liquors,

better than the Water-drinkers are wont to do, I shall add, that _Helmont_

used to make a preparation of Steel, which a very Ingenious Chymist, his

Sons Friend, whom you know, sometimes employes for a succedaneum to the

Spaw-waters, by Diluting this _Essentia Martis Liquida_ (as he calls it)

with a due proportion of Water. Now that for which I mention to you this

preparation, (which as he communicated to me, I know he will not refuse to

_Pyrophilus_) is this, that though the Liquor (as I can shew you when you

please) be almost of the Colour of a German (not an Oriental) Amethyst, and

consequently remote enough from Green, yet a very few drops being let fall

into a Large proportion of good Rhenish, or (in want of that) White Wine

(which yet do's not quite so well) immediately turn'd the Liquor into a

lovely Green, as I have not without delight shown several curious Persons.

By which _Phænomenon_ you may learn, among other things, how requisite it

is in Experiments about the changes of Colours heedfully to mind the

Circumstances of them; for Water will not, as I have purposely try'd,

concurr to the production of any such Green, nor did it give that Colour to

moderate Spirit of Wine, wherein I purposely dissolv'd it, and Wine it self

is a Liquor that few would suspect of being able to work suddenly any such

change in a Metalline preparation of this Nature; and to satisfie my self

that this new Colour proceeds rather from the peculiar Texture of the Wine,

than from any greater Acidity, that Rhenish or White-wine (for that may not

absurdly be suspected) has in comparison of Water; I purposely sharpen'd

the Solution of this Essence in fair Water, with a good quantity of Spirit

of Salt, notwithstanding which, the mixture acquir'd no Greenness. And to

vary the Experiment a little, I try'd, that if into a Glass of Rhenish Wine

made Green by this Essence, I dropp'd an Alcalizate Solution, or Urinous

Spirit, the Wine would presently grow Turbid, and of an odd Dirty Colour;

But if instead of dissolving the Essence in Wine, I dissolv'd it in fair

Water sharpen'd perhaps with a little Spirit of Salt, then either the

Urinous Spirit of Sal Armoniack, or the solution of the fix'd Salt of

Pot-ashes would immediately turn it of a Yellowish Colour, the fix'd or

Urinous Salt Precipitating the Vitriolate substance contain'd in the

Essence. But here I must not forget to take notice of a circumstance that

deserves to be compar'd with some part of the foregoing Experiment, for

whereas our Essence imparts a Greenness to Wine, but not to Water, the

Industrious _Olaus Wormius_[23] in his late _Musæum_ tells us of a rare

kind of Turn-Sole which he calls _Bezetta Rubra_ given him by an Apothecary

that knew not how it was made, whose lovely Redness would be easily

communicated to Water, if it were immers'd in it; but scarce to Wine, and

not at all to Spirit of Wine, in which last circumstance it agrees with

what I lately told you of our Essence, notwithstanding their disagreement

in other particulars.

[23] Libr. 2do Cap. 34.

_EXPERIMENT XLVI._

We have often taken notice, as of a remarkable thing, that Metalls as they

appear to the Eye, before they come to be farther alter'd by other Bodyes,

do exhibit Colours very different from those which the Fire and the

_Menstruum_, either apart, or both together, do produce in them; especially

considering that these Metalline Bodyes are after all these disguises

reducible not only to their former Metalline Consistence and other more

radical properties, but to their Colour too, as if Nature had given divers

Metalls to each of them a double Colour, an _External_, and an _Internal_;

But though upon a more attentive Consideration of this difference of

Colours, it seem'd probable to me, that divers (for I say not all) of those

Colours which we have just now call'd _Internal_, are rather produc'd by

the Coalition of Metalline Particles with those of the Salts, or other

Bodyes employ'd to work on them, than by the bare alteration of the parts

of the Metalls themselves: and though therefore we may call the obvious

Colours, Natural or Common, & the others Adventitious, yet because such

changes of Colours, from whatsoever cause they be resolv'd to proceed may

be properly enough taken in to illustrate our present Subject, we shall not

scruple to take notice of some of them, especially because there are among

them such as are produc'd without the intervention of Saline _Menstruums_.

Of the Adventitious Colours of Metalline Bodies the Chief sorts seem to be

these three. The first, such Colours as are produc'd without other

Additaments by the Action of the fire upon Metalls. The next such as emerge

from the Coalition of Metalline Particles with those of some _Menstruum_

imploy'd to Corrode a Metall or Precipitate it; And the last, The Colours

afforded by Metalline Bodyes either Colliquated with, or otherwise

Penetrating into, other Bodies, especially fusible ones. But these

(_Pyrophilus,_) are only as I told you, the _Chief_ sorts of the

adventitious Colours of Metalls, for there may others belong to them, of

which I shall hereafter have occasion to take notice of some, and of which

also there possibly may be others that I never took notice of.

And to begin with the first sort of Colours, 'tis well enough known to

Chymists, that Tin being Calcin'd by fire alone is wont to afford a White

_Calx_, and Lead Calcin'd by fire alone affords that most Common Red-Powder

we call _Minium:_ Copper also Calcin'd _per se_, by a long or violent fire,

is wont to yield (as far as I have had occasion to take notice of it) a

very Dark or Blackish Powder; That Iron likewise may by the Action of

Reverberated flames be turn'd into a Colour almost like that of Saffron,

may be easily deduc'd from the Preparation of that Powder, which by reason

of its Colour and of the Metall 'tis made of is by Chymists call'd, _Crocus

Martis per se_. And that _Mercury_ made by the stress of Fire, may be

turn'd into a Red Powder, which Chymists call Precipitate _per se_, I

elsewhere more particularly declare.

_Annotation I._

It is not unworthy the Admonishing you, (_Pyrophilus_,) and it agrees very

well with our Conjectures about the dependence of the change of a Body's

Colour upon that of its Texture, that the same Metall may by the successive

operation of the fire receive divers Adventitious Colours, as is evident in

Lead, which before it come to so deep a Colour as that of _Minium_, may

pass through divers others.

_Annotation II_.

Not only the _Calces_, but the Glasses of Metalls, Vitrify'd _per se_, may

be of Colours differing from the Natural or Obvious Colour of the Metall;

as I have observ'd in the Glass of Lead, made by long exposing Crude Lead

to a violent fire, and what I have observ'd about the Glass or Slagg of

Copper, (of which I can show you some of an odd kind of Texture,) may be

elsewhere more conveniently related. I have likewise seen a piece of very

Dark Glass, which an Ingenious Artificer that show'd it me profess'd

himself to have made of Silver alone by an extreme _Violence_ (which seems

to be no more than is needfull) of the fire.

_Annotation III_.

Minerals also by the Action of the Fire may be brought to afford Colours

very differing from their own, as I not long since noted to you about the

variously Colour'd Flowers of Antimony, to which we may add the Whitish

Grey-Colour of its _Calx_, and the Yellow or Reddish Colour of the Glass,

where into that _Calx_ may be flux'd.

And I remember, that I elsewhere told you, that Vitriol Calcin'd with a

very gentle heat, and afterwards with higher and higher degrees of it, may

be made to pass through several Colours before it descends to a Dark

Purplish Colour, whereto a strong fire is wont at length to reduce it. But

to insist on the Colours produc'd by the Operation of fire upon several

Minerals would take up farr more time than I have now to spare.

_EXPERIMENT XLVII._

The Adventitious Colours produc'd upon Metalls, or rather with them, by

Saline Liquors, are many of them so well known to Chymists, that I would

not here mention them, but that besides a not un-needed Testimony, I can

add something of my own, to what I shall repeat about them, and divers

Experiments which are familiar to Chymists, are as yet unknown to the

greatest part of Ingenious Men.

That Gold dissolv'd in _Aqua Regia_ ennobles the _Menstruum_ with its own

Colour, is a thing that you cannot (_Pyrophilus_,) but have often seen. The

Solutions of Mercury in _Aqua-fortis_ are not generally taken notice of, to

give any notable Tincture to the _Menstruum_; but sometimes when the Liquor

first falls upon the Quick Silver, I have observ'd a very remarkable,

though not durable, Greenness, or Blewness to be produc'd, which is a

_Phænomenon_ not unfit for you to consider, though I have not now the

leisure to discourse upon it. Tin Corroded by _Aqua-fortis_ till the

_Menstruum_ will work no farther on it, becomes exceeding White, but as we

elsewhere note, does very easily of it self acquire the consistence, not of

a Metalline _Calx_, but of a Coagulated matter, which we have observ'd with

pleasure to look so like, either to curdled Milk, or curdled Whites of

Eggs, that a person unacquainted with such Solutions may easily be mistaken

in it. But when I purposely prepar'd a _Menstruum_ that would dissolve it

as _Aqua-fortis_ dissolves Silver, and not barely Corrode it, and quickly

let it fall again, I remember not that I took notice of any particular

Colour in the Solution, as if the more Whitish Metalls did not much Tinge

their _Menstruums_, though the conspicuously Colour'd Metalls as Gold, and

Copper, do. For Lead dissolv'd in Spirit of Vinegar or _Aqua-fortis_ gives

a Solution cleer enough, and if the _Menstruum_ be abstracted appears

either Diaphanous or White. Of the Colour of Iron we have elsewhere said

something: And 'tis worth noting, that though if that Metall be dissolv'd

in oyl of Vitriol diluted with water, it affords a Salt or Magistery so

like in colour, as well as some other Qualities, to other green Vitriol,

that Chymists do not improperly call it _Vitriolum Martis_; yet I have

purposely try'd, that, by changing the _Menstruum_, and pouring upon the

filings of Steel, instead of oyl of Vitriol, _Aqua Fortis_, (whereof as I

remember, I us'd 4 parts to one of the Metall) I obtain'd not a Green, but

a Saffron Colour Solution; or rather a thick Liquor of a deep but yellowish

Red. Common Silver, such as is to be met with in Coines, being dissolv'd in

_Aqua fortis_, yields a Solution tincted like that of Copper, which is not

to be wondred at, because in the coining of Silver, they are wont (as we

elsewhere particularly inform you) to give it an Allay of Copper, and that

which is sold in shops for refined silver, is not (so far as we have tryed)

so perfectly free from that ignobler Metall, but that a Solution of It in

_Aqua fortis_, will give a Venereal Tincture to the _Menstruum_. But we

could not observe upon the solution of some Silver, which was perfectly

refin'd, (such as some that we have, from which 8 or 10 times its weight of

Lead has been blown off) that the _Menstruum_ though held against the Light

in a Crystal Vial did manifestly disclose any Tincture, only it seem'd

sometimes not to be quite destitute of a little, but very faint

Blewishness.

But here I must take notice, that of all the Metalls, there is not any

which doth so easily and constantly disclose its unobvious colour as Copper

doth. For not only in acid _Menstruums_ as _Aqua Fortis_ and Spirit of

Vinegar, it gives a Blewish green solution, but if it be almost any way

corroded, it _appears of one of those_ two colours, as may be observ'd in

Verdigreese made several wayes, in that odd preparation of _Venus_, which

we elsewhere teach you to make with Sublimate, and in the common Vitriols

of _Venus_ deliver'd by Chymists; and so constant is the disposition of

Copper, notwithstanding the disguise Artists put upon it, to disclose the

colour we have been mentioning, that we have by forcing it up with _Sal

Armoniack_ obtain'd a Sublimate of a Blewish Colour. Nay a famous Spagyrist

affirms, that the very Mercury of it is green, but till he teach us an

intelligible way of making such a Mercury, we must content ourselves to

inform you, that we have had a Cupreous Body, that was Præcipitated out of

a distill'd Liquor, that seem'd to be the the Sulphur of _Venus_, and

seem'd even when flaming, of a Greenish Colour. And indeed Copper is a

Metall so easily wrought upon by Liquors of several kinds, that I should

tell you, I know not any Mineral, that will concurr to the production of

such a variety of Colours as Copper dissol'd in several _Menstruums_, as

Spirit of Vinegar, _Aqua fortis_, _Aqua Regis_, Spirit of Nitre, of Urine,

of Soot, Oyls of several kinds, and I know not how many other Liquors, if

the variety of somewhat differing colours (that Copper will be made to

assume, as it is wrought upon by several Liquors) were not comprehended

within the Limits of Greenish Blew, or Blewish Green.

And yet I must advertise you (_Pyrophilus_) that being desirous to try if I

could not make with crude Copper a Green Solution without the Blewishness

that is wont to accompany its Vulgar Solutions, I bethought my self of

using two _Menstruums_, which I had not known imploy'd to work on this

Metall, and which I had certain Reasons to make Tryal of, as I successfully

did. The one of these Liquors (if I much misremember not) was Spirit of

Sugar distill'd in a Retort, which must be warily done, (if you will avoid

breaking your glasses) and the other, Oyl or Spirit of Turpentine, which

affords a fine Green Solution that is useful to me on several occasions.

And yet to shew that the adventitious colour may result, as well from the

true and permanent Copper it self, as the Salts wherewith 'tis corroded, I

shall add, that if you take a piece of good _Dantzick_ Copperis, or any

other Vitriol wherein _Venus_ is prædominant, and having moistened it in

your Mouth, or with fair water, rubb it upon a whetted knife, or any other

bright piece of Steel or Iron, it will (as we have formerly told you)

present'y stain the Steel with a Reddish colour, like that of Copper, the

reason of which, we must not now stay to inquire.

_Annotation I._

I presume you may have taken notice (_Pyrophilus_) that I have borrowed

some of the Instances mention'd in this 47th Experiment, from the

Laboratories of Chymists, and because in some (though very few) other

passages of this Essay, I have likewise made use of Experiments mention'd

also by some Spagyrical Writers, I think it not amiss to represent to you

on this Occasion once for all, some things besides those which I intimated

in the præamble of this present Experiment; For besides, that 'tis very

allowable for a Writer to repeat an Experiment which he invented not, in

case he improve it; And besides that many Experiments familiar to Chymists

are unknown to the generality of Learned Men, who either never read

Chymical processes, or never understood their meaning, or never durst

believe them; besides these things, I say, I shall represent, That, as to

the few Experiments I have borrowed from the Chymists, if they be very

Vulgar, 'twould perhaps be difficult to ascribe each of them its own

Author, and 'tis more than the generality of Chymists themselves can do:

and if they be not of very known and familiar practise among them, unless

the Authors wherein I found them had given me cause to believe, themselves

had try'd them, I know not why I might not set them down, as a part of the

_Phænomena_ of Colours which I present you; Many things unanimously enough

deliver'd as matters of fact by (I know not how many Chymical Writers)

being not to be rely'd on, upon the single Authority of such Authors: For

Instance, as some Spagyrists deliver (perhaps amongst several deceitful

processes) that _Saccarum Saturni_ with Spirit of Turpentine will afford a

Balsom, so _Beguinus_ and many more tell us, that the same Concrete

(_Saccarum Saturni_) will yield an incomparably fragrant Spirit, and a

pretty Quantity of two several Oyles, and yet since many have complain'd,

as well as I have done, that they could find no such odoriferous, but

rather an ill-sented Liquor, and scarce any oyl in their Distillation of

that sweet Vitriol, a wary person would as little build any thing on what

they say of the former Experiment, as upon what they averr of the later,

and therefore I scrupled not to mention this Red Balsom of which I have not

seen any, (but what I made) among my other experiments about redness.

_Annot. II._

We have sometimes had the Curiosity to try what Colours Minerals, as

Tinglass, Antimony, Spelter, &c. would yield in several _Menstruums_, nor

have we forborn to try the Colours of stones, of which that famous one,

(which _Helmont_ calls _Paracelsus's Ludus_) though it be digg'd out of the

Earth and seem a true stone, has afforded in _Menstruums_ capable to

dissolve so solid a stone, sometimes a Yellowish, sometimes a Red solution

of both which I can show you. But though I have from Minerals obtain'd with

several _Menstruums_ very differing Colours, and some such as perhaps you

would be surpriz'd to see drawn from such Bodies: yet I must now pass by

the particulars, being desirous to put an End to this Treatise, before I

put an end to your Patience and my own.

_Annotation III._

And yet before I pass to the next Experiment, I must put you in mind, that

the Colours of Metals may in many cases be further alter'd by imploying,

either præcipitating Salts, or other convenient Substances to act upon

their Solutions. Of this you may remember, that I have given you several

Instances already, to which may be added such as these, That if Quicksilver

be dissolv'd in _Aqua fortis_, and Præcipitated out of the Solution, either

with water impregnated with Sea salt, or with the spirit of that Concrete,

it falls to the Bottom in the form of a white powder, whereas if it be

Præcipitated with an Alcaly, it will afford a Yellowish or tawny powder,

and if there be no Præcipitation made, and the _Menstruum_ be drawn off

with a convenient fire, the corroded Mercury will remain in the bottom, in

the form of a substance that may be made to appear of differing Colours by

differing degrees of Heat; As I remember that lately having purposely

abstracted _Aqua fortis_ from some Quicksilver that we had dissolv'd in it,

so that there remain'd a white _Calx_, exposing that to several degrees of

Fire, and afterwards to a naked one, we obtain'd some new Colours, and at

length the greatest part of the _Calx_ lying at the Bottome of the Vial,

and being brought partly to a Deep Yellow, and partly to a Red Colour, the

rest appear'd elevated to the upper part and neck of the Vial, some in the

form of a Reddish, and some of an Ash-Colour Sublimate. But of the

differing Colours which by differing wayes and working of Quick Silver with

Fire, and Saline Bodies, may be produc'd in Precipitates, I may elsewhere

have occasion to take further notice. I also told you not long since, that

if you corrode Quick-silver with Oyl of Vitriol instead of _Aqua-fortis_,

and abstract the _Menstruum_, there will remain a White _Calx_ which by the

Affusion of Fair Water presently turns into a Lemmon Colour. And ev'n the

_Succedaneum_ to a _Menstruum_ may sometimes serve the turn to change the

Colours of a Metal. The lovely Red which Painters call Vermillion, is made

of Mercury, which is of the Colour of Silver, and of Brimstone which is of

Kin to that of Gold, Sublim'd up together in a certain proportion, as is

vulgarly known to Spagyrists.

_EXPERIMENT XLVIII._

The third chief sort of the Adventitious Colours of Metals, is, that which

is produc'd by associating them (especially when Calcin'd) with other

fusible Bodies, and Principally Venice, and other fine Glass devoid of

Colour.

I have formerly given you an Example, whereby it may appear, that a Metal

may impart to Glass a Colour much differing from its own, when I told you,

how with Silver, I had given Glass a lovely Golden Colour. And I shall now

add, that I have Learn'd from one of the Chief Artificers that sells

Painted Glass, that those of his Trade Colour it Yellow with a preparation

of the _Calx_ of Silver. Though having lately had occasion among other

Tryals to mingle a few grains of Shell-silver (such as is imploy'd with the

Pensil and Pen) with a convenient proportion of powder'd Crystal Glass,

having kept them two or three hours in fusion, I was surpriz'd to find the

Colliquated Mass to appear upon breaking the Crucible of a lovely Saphirine

Blew, which made me suspect my Servant might have brought me a wrong

Crucible, but he constantly affirm'd it to be the same wherein the Silver

was put, and considerable Circumstances countenanc'd his Assertion, so that

till I have opportunity to make farther Tryal, I cannot but suspect, either

that Silver which is not (which is not very probable) brought to a perfect

Fusion and Colliquation with Glass, may impart to it other Colours than

when Neal'd upon it, or else (which is less unlikely) that though Silver

Beaters usually chuse the finest Coyn they can get, as that which is most

extensive under the Hammer, yet the Silver-leaves of which this Shel-silver

was made, might retain so much Copper as to enable it to give the

predominant tincture to the Glass.

For, I must proceed to tell you (_Pyrophilus_) as another instance of the

Adventitious Colours of Metals, that which is something strange, Namely,

That though Copper Calcin'd _per se_ affords but a Dark and basely Colour'd

_Calx_, yet the Glassmen do with it, as themselves inform me, Tinge their

Glass green. And I remember, that when once we took some crude Copper, and

by frequent Ignition quenching it in Water had reduc'd it to a Dark and

Ill-colour'd Powder, and afterward kept it in Fusion in about a 100. times

its weight of fine Glass, we had, though not a Green, yet a Blew colour'd

Mass, which would perhaps have been Green, if we had hit right upon the

Proportion of the Materials, and the Degree of Fire, and the Time wherein

it ought to be kept in Fusion, so plentifully does that Metal abound in a

Venerial Tincture, as Artists call it, and in so many wayes does it

disclose that Richness. But though Copper do as we have said give somewhat

near the like Colour to Glass, which it does to _Aqua-fortis_, yet it seems

worth inquiry, whether those new Colours which Mineral Bodies disclose in

melted Glass, proceed from the Coalition of the Corpuscles of the Mineral

with the Particles of the Glass as such, or from the Action (excited or

actuated by fire) of the Alcalizate Salt (which is a main Ingredient of

Glass,) upon the Mineral Body, or from the concurrence of both these

Causes, or else from any other. But to return to that which we were saying,

we may observe that _Putty_ made by calcining together a proportion of Tin

and Lead, as it is it self a White _Calx_, so does it turn the _Pitta di

Crystallo_ (as the Glassmen call the matter of the Purer sort of Glass,

wherewith it is Colliquated into a White Mass, which if it be opacous

enough is employ'd, as we elsewhere declare, for White Amel. But of the

Colours which the other Metals may be made to produce in Colourless Glass,

and other Vitrifiable Bodies, that have native Colours of their own, I must

leave you to inform your self upon Tryal, or at least must forbear to do it

till another time, considering how many Annotations are to follow, upon

what has in this and the two former Experiments been said already.

_Annotation I._

When the Materials of Glass being melted with Calcin'd Tin, have compos'd a

Mass Undiaphanous and White, this White Amel is as it were the Basis of all

those fine Concretes that Goldsmiths and several Artificers imploy in the

curious Art of Enamelling. For this White and Fusible substance will

receive into it self, without spoyling them, the Colours of divers other

Mineral substances, which like it will indure the fire.

_Annotation II._

So that as by the present (XLVIII.) Experiment it appears, that divers

Minerals will impart to fusible Masses, Colours differing from their own;

so by the making and compounding of Amels, it may appear, that divers

Bodies will both retain their Colour in the fire, and impart the _same_ to

some others wherewith they were vitrifi'd, and in such Tryals as that

mention'd in the 17. Experiment, where I told you, that ev'n in Amels a

Blew and Yellow will compound a Green. 'Tis pretty to behold, not only that

some Colours are of so fix'd a Nature, as to be capable of mixture without

receiving any detriment by the fire, that do's so easily destroy or spoyl

those of other Bodies; but Mineral Pigments may be mingled by fire little

less regularly and successfully, than in ordinary Dyeing Fatts, the vulgar

Colours are wont to be mingled by the help of Water.

_Annotation III._

'Tis not only Metalline, but other Mineral Bodies, that may be imploy'd, to

give Tinctures unto Glass (and 'tis worth noting how small a quantity of

some Mineral substances, will Tinge a Comparatively vast proportion of

Glass, and we have sometimes attempted to Colour Glass, ev'n with Pretious

Stones, and had cause to think the Experiment not cast away. And 'tis known

by them that have look'd into the Art of Glass, that the Artificers use to

tinge their Glass Blew, with that Dark Mineral _Zaffora_, (some of my

Tryals on which I elsewhere acquaint you) which some would have to be a

Mineral Earth, others a Stone, and others neither the one, nor the other,

but which is confessedly of a Dark, but not a Blew Colour, though it be not

agreed of what particular Colour it is. 'Tis likewise though a familiar yet

a remarkable practise among those that Deal in the making of Glass, to

imploy (as some of themselves have inform'd me) what they call Manganess,

and some Authors call _Magnesia_ (of which I make particular mention in

another Treatise) to exhibit in Glass not only other Colours than its own,

(which is so like in Darkness or blackishness to the Load stone, that 'tis

given by Mineralists, for one of the Reasons of its Latine Name) but

Colours differing from one another. For though they use it, (which is

somewhat strange) to Clarifye their Glass, and free it from that Blewish

Greenish Colour, which else it would too often be subject to, yet they also

imploy it in certain proportions, to tinge their Glass both with a Red

colour, and with a Purplish or Murry, and putting in a greater Quantity,

they also make with it that deep obscure Glass which is wont to pass for

Black, which agrees very well with, and may serve to confirm what we noted

near the beginning of the 44th Experiment, of the seeming Blackness of

those Bodies that are overcharg'd with the Corpuscles of such Colours, as

Red, or Blew, or Green, &c. And as by several Metals and other Minerals we

can give various Colours to Glass, so on the other side, by the differing

Colours that Mineral Oars, or other Mineral Powders being melted with Glass

disclose in it, a good Conjecture may be oftentimes made of the Metall or

known Mineral, that the Oar propos'd, either holds, or is most of kin to.

And this easie way of examining Oars, may be in some cases of good use, and

is not ill deliver'd by _Glauber_, to whom I shall at present refer you,

for a more particular account of it: unless your Curiosity command also

what I have observ'd about these matters; only I must here advertise you,

that great circumspection is requisite to keep this way from proving

fallacious, upon the account of the variations of Colour that may be

produc'd by the differing proportions that may be us'd betwixt the Oar and

the Glass, by the Richness or Poorness of the Oar it self, by the Degree of

Fire, and (especially) by the Length of Time, during which the matter is

kept in fusion; as you will easily gather from what you will quickly meet

with in the following Annotation upon this present 48th Experiment.

_Annotation IV._

There is another way and differing enough from those already mention'd, by

which Metalls may be brought to exhibit adventitious Colours: For by This,

the Metall do's not so much impart a Colour to another Body, as receive a

Colour from it, or rather both Bodies do by the new Texture resulting from

their mistion produce a new Colour. I will not insist to this purpose upon

the Examples afforded us by yellow Orpiment, and common Sea Salt, from

which, sublim'd together, Chymists unanimously affirm their White or

Crystalline Arsenick to be made: But 'tis not unworthy our noting, That

though Yellow Orpiment be acknowledg'd to be the Copiousest by far of the

two Ingredients of Arsenick, yet this last nam'd Body being duely added to

the highest Colour'd Metall Copper, when 'tis in fusion, gives it a

whiteness both within and without. Thus _Lapis Calaminaris_ changes and

improves the Colour of Copper by turning it into Brass. And I have

sometimes by the help of Zinck duely mix'd after a certain manner, given

Copper one of the Richest Golden Colours that ever I have seen the Best

true Gold Ennobled with. But pray have a care that such Hints fall not into

any hands that may mis-imploy them.

_Annotation V._

Upon the Knowledge of the differing wayes of making Minerals and Metalls

produce their adventitious Colours in Bodies capable of Vitrification,

depends the pretty Art of making what Chymists by a Barbarous Word are

pleas'd to call _Amanses_, that is counterfeit, or factitious Gemms, as

Emeralds, Rubies, Saphires, Topazes, and the like. For in the making of

these, though pure Sand or Calcin'd Crystal give the Body, yet 'tis for the

most part some Metalline or Mineral _Calx_, mingled in a small proportion

that gives the Colour. But though I have many years since taken delight, to

divert my self with this pleasing Art, and have seen very pretty

Productions of it, yet besides that I fear I have now forgot most of the

little Skill I had in it, this is no place to entertain you with what would

rather take up an intire Discourse, than be comprehended in an Annotation;

wherefore the few things which I shall here take notice of to you, are only

what belong to the present Argument, Namely,

First, That I have often observ'd that Calcin'd Lead Colliquated with fine

White Sand or Crystal, reduc'd by ignitions and subsequent extinctions in

Water to a subtile Powder, will of it self be brought by a due Decoction to

give a cleer Mass Colour'd like a _German_ Amethyst. For though this glass

of Lead, is look'd upon by them that know no better way of making

_Amanses_, as the grand Work of them all, yet which is an inconvenience

that much blemishes this way, the Calcin'd Lead it self does not only

afford matter to the _Amanses_, but has also as well as other Metals a

Colour of its own, which as I was saying, I have often found to be like

that of _German_ (as many call them) not Eastern Amethysts.

Secondly, That nevertheless this Colour may be easily over-powr'd by those

of divers other Mineral Pigments (if I may so call them) so that with a

glass of Lead, you may Emulate (for Instance) the fresh and lovely

Greenness of an Emerald, though in divers cases the Colour which the Lead

it self upon Vitrification tends to, may vitiate that of the Pigment, which

you would introduce into the Mass.

Thirdly, That so much ev'n these Colours depend upon Texture, that in the

Glass of Lead it self made of about three parts of _Lytharge_ or _Minium_

Colliquated with one of very finely Powder'd Crystal or Sand, we have taken

pleasure to make the mixture pass through differing Colours, as we kept it

more or less in the Fusion. For it was not usually till after a pretty long

Decoction that the Mass attain'd to the Amethystin Colour.

Fourthly and lastly, That the degrees of Coction and other Circumstances

may so vary the Colour produc'd in the same mass, that in a Crucible that

was not great I have had fragments of the same Mass, in some of which

perhaps not so big as a Hazel-Nut, you may discern four distinct Colours.

_Annotation VI._

You may remember (_Pyrophilus_) that when I mention'd the three sorts of

adventitious Colours of Metals, I mention'd them but as the chief, not the

only. For there may be other wayes, which though they do not in so strict a

sense belong to the adventitious Colours of Metals, may not inconveniently

be reduc'd to them. And of these I shall name now a couple, without denying

that there may be more.

The first may be drawn from the practise of those that Dye Scarlet. For the

famousest Master in that Art, either in _England_ or _Holland_, has

confess'd to me, that neither others, nor he can strike that lovely Colour

which is now wont to be call'd the _Bow-Dye_, without their Materials be

Boyl'd in Vessels, either made of, or lin'd with a particular Metall. But

of what I have known attempted in this kind, I must not as yet for fear of

prejudicing or displeasing others give you any particular Account.[24]

The other way (_Pyrophilus_) of making Metals afford unobvious Colours, is

by imbuing divers Bodies with Solutions of them made in their proper

_Menstruum's_, As (for Instance) though Copper plentifully dissolv'd in

_Aqua fortis_, will imbue several Bodies with the Colour of the Solution;

Yet Some other Metalls will not (as I elsewhere tell you) and have often

try'd. Gold dissolv'd in _Aqua Regia_, will, (which is not commonly known)

Dye the Nails and Skin, and Hafts of Knives, and other things made of

Ivory, not with a Golden, but a Purple Colour, which though it manifest it

self but slowly, is very durable, and scarce ever to be wash'd out. And if

I misremember not, I have already told you in this Treatise, that the purer

Crystals of fine Silver made with _Aqua fortis_, though they appear White,

will presently Dye the Skin and Nails, with a Black, or at least a very

Dark Colour, which Water will not wash off, as it will ordinary Ink from

the same parts. And divers other Bodies may the Same way be Dy'd, some of a

Black, and others of a Blackish Colour.

[24] See the latter end of the fiftieth Experiment.

And as Metalline, so likewise Mineral Solutions may produce Colours

differing enough from those of the Liquors themselves. I shall not fetch an

Example of this, from what we daily see happen in the powdring of Beef,

which by the Brine imploy'd about it (especially if the flesh be over

salted) do's oftentimes appear at our Tables of a Green, and sometimes of a

Reddish Colour, (deep enough) nor shall I insist on the practise of some

that deal in Salt Petre, who, (as I suspected, and as themselves

acknowledg'd to me) do, with the mixture of a certain proportion of that;

and common Salt, give a fine Redness, not only to Neats Tongues, but which

is more pretty as well as difficult, to such flesh, as would otherwise be

purely White; These Examples, I say, I shall decline insisting on, as

chusing rather to tell you, that I have several times try'd, that a

Solution of the Sulphur of Vitriol, or ev'n of common Sulphur, though the

Liquor appear'd clear enough, would immediately tinge a piece of new Coin,

or other clean Silver, sometimes with a Golden, sometimes with a deeper,

and more Reddish colour, according to the strength of the Solution, and the

quantity of it, that chanc'd to adhere to the Metall; which may take off

your wonder that the water of the hot Spring at _Bath_, abounding with

dissolv'd Substances of a very Sulphureous Nature, should for a while, as

it were gild, the new or clean pieces of Silver coyn, that are for a due

time immers'd in it. And to these may be added those formerly mention'd

Examples of the adventitious Colours of Mineral Bodies; which brings into

my mind, that, ev'n Vegetable Liquors, whether by degeneration, or by

altering the Texture of the Body that imbibes them, may stain other Bodies

with Colours differing enough, from their own, of which very good

Herbarists have afforded us a notable Example, by affirming that the Juice

of _Alcanna_ being green (in which state I could never here procure it)

do's yet Dye the Skin and Nails of a Lasting Red. But I see this Treatise

is like to prove too bulky without the addition of further Instances of

this Nature.

_EXPERIMENT XLIX._

Meeting the other day, _Pyrophilus_, in an _Italian_ book, that treats of

other matters, with a way of preparing what the Author calls a _Lacca_ of

Vegetables, by which the _Italians_ mean a kind of Extract fit for

Painting, like that rich _Lacca_ in English commonly call'd _Lake_, which

is imploy'd by Painters as a glorious Red. And finding the Experiment not

to be inconsiderable, and very defectively set down, it will not be amiss

to acquaint you with what some Tryals have inform'd us, in reference to

this Experiment, which both by our Italian Author, and by divers of his

Countrymen, is look'd upon as no trifling Secret.

Take then the root call'd in Latin _Curcuma_, and in English Turmerick,

(which I made use of, because it was then at hand, and is among Vegetables

fit for that purpose one of the most easiest to be had) and when it is

beaten, put what Quantity of it you please into fair Water, adding to every

pound of Water about a spoonfull or better of as strong a _Lixivium_ or

Solution of Potashes as you can well make, clarifying it by Filtration

before you put it to the Decocting water. Let these things boyl, or rather

simper over a soft Fire in a clean glaz'd Earthen Vessel, till you find by

the Immersion of a sheet of White Paper (or by some other way of Tryal)

that the Liquor is sufficiently impregnated with the Golden Tincture of the

Turmerick, then take the Decoction off the Fire, and Filter or Strain it

that it may be clean, and leisurely dropping into it a strong Solution of

Roch Allum, you shall find the Decoction as it were curdl'd, and the

tincted part of it either to emerge, to subside, or to swim up and down,

like little Yellow flakes; and if you pour this mixture into a Tunnel lin'd

with Cap Paper, the Liquor that Filtred formerly so Yellow, will now pass

clean thorow the Filtre, leaving its tincted, and as it were curdled parts

in the Filtre, upon which fair Water must be so often pour'd, till you have

Dulcifi'd the matter therein contain'd, the sign of which Dulcification is

(you know) when the Water that has pass'd through it, comes from it as

tasteless as it was pour'd on it. And if without Filtration you would

gather together the flakes of this Vegetable Lake, you must pour a great

Quantity of fair Water upon the Decoction after the affusion of the

Alluminous Solution, and you shall find the Liquor to grow clearer, and the

Lake to settle together at the bottom, or emerge to the top of the Water,

though sometimes having not pour'd out a sufficient Quantity of fair Water,

we have observ'd the Lake partly to subside, and partly to emerge, leaving

all the middle of the Liquor clear. But to make this Lake fit for use, it

must by repeated affusions of fresh Water, be Dulcifi'd from the adhering

Salts, as well as that separated by Filtration, and be spread and suffer'd

to dry leisurely upon pieces of Cloth, with Brown Paper, or Chalk, or

Bricks under them to imbibe the Moisture[25].

[Page 372]

_Annotation I._

Whereas it is presum'd that the Magistery of Vegetables obtain'd this way

consists but of the more Soluble and Coloured parts of the Plants that

afford it, I must take the liberty to Question the supposition. And for my

so doing, I shall give you this account.

According to the Notions (such as they were) that I had concerning Salts;

Allom, though to sense a Homogeneous Body, ought not to be reckon'd among

true Salts, but to be it self look'd upon as a kind of Magistery, in regard

that as Native Vitriol (for such I have had) contains both a Saline

substance and a Metall, whether Copper, or Iron, corroded by it, and

associated with it; so Allom which may be of so near a kin to Vitriol, that

in some places of _England_ (as we are assur'd by good Authority the same

stone will sometimes afford both) seems manifestly to contain a peculiar

kind of Acid Spirit, generated in the Bowels of the Earth, and some kind of

stony matter dissolv'd by it. And though in making our ordinary Allom, the

Workmen use the Ashes of a Sea Weed (vulgarly call'd Kelp) and Urine: yet

those that should know, inform us, that, here in _England_, there is

besides the factitious Allom, Allom made by Nature Without the help of

those Additaments. Now (_Pyrophilus_) when I consider'd this composition of

Allom, and that Alcalizate Salts are wont to Præcipitate what acid Salts

have dissolv'd, I could not but be prone to suspect that the Curdled

Matter, which is call'd the Magistery of Vegetables, may have in it no

inconsiderable proportion of a stony substance Præcipitated out of the

Allom by the _Lixivium_, wherein the Vegetable had been decocted, and to

shew you, that there is no necessity, that all the curdl'd substance must

belong to the Vegetable, I shall add, that I took a strong Solution of

Allom, and having Filtred it, by pouring in a convenient Quantity of a

strong Solution of Potashes, I presently, as I expected, turn'd the mixture

into a kind of white Curds, which being put to Filtre, the Paper retain'd a

stony _Calx_, copious enough, very White, and which seem'd to be of a

Mineral Nature, both by some other signes, and this, that little Bits of it

being put upon a live Coal, which was Gently Blown whilst they were on it,

they did neither melt nor fly away, and you may keep a Quantity of this

White substance for a good while, (nay for ought I can guess for a very

long one) in a red hot Crucible without losing or spoiling it; nor did hot

Water wherein I purposely kept another parcel of such _Calx_, seem to do

any more than wash away the looser adhering Salts from the stony substance,

which therefore seem'd unlikely to be separable by ablutions (though

reiterated) from the Præcipitated parts of the Vegetable, whose Lake is

intended. And to shew you, that there is likewise in Allom a Body, with

which the fix'd Salt of the Alcalizate Solution will concoagulate into a

Saline Substance differing from either of them, I shall add, that I have

taken pleasure to recover out of the slowly exhal'd Liquor, that pass'd

through the filtre, and left the foremention'd _Calx_ behind, a Body that

at least seem'd a Salt very pretty to look on, as being very White, and

consisting of an innumerable company of exceeding slender, and shining

Particles, which would in part easily melt at the flame of a Candle, and in

part flye away with some little noise. But of this substance, and its odd

Qualities more perhaps elsewhere; for now I shall only take notice to you,

that I have likewise with Urinous Salts, such as the Spirit of Sal

Armoniack, as well as with the Spirit of Urine it self, Nay, (if I much

mistake not) ev'n with Stale Urine undistil'd, easily Precipitated such a

White _Calx_ as I was formerly speaking of, out of a Limpid Solution of

Allom, so that there is need of Circumspection in judging of the Natures of

Liquors by Precipitations wherein Allom intervenes, else we may sometimes

mistakingly imagine that to be Precipitated out of a Liquor by Allom, which

is rather Precipitated out of Allom by the Liquor: And this puts me in mind

to tell you, that 'tis not unpleasant to behold how quickly the Solution of

Allom (or injected lumps of Allom) do's occasion the severing of the

colour'd parts of the Decoction from the Liquor that seem'd to have so

perfectly imbib'd them.

[25] _The Curious Reader that desires further Information concerning

Lakes, may Resort to the 7th Book of_ Neri's _Art of Glass, Englished (6

or 7 years since the Writing of this 49th Experiment) and Illustrated

with Learned Observations, by the Inquisitive and experienc'd Dr._

Charles Merret.

_Annot. II._

The above mention'd way of making Lakes we have tryed not only with

Turmerick, but also with Madder, which yielded us a Red Lake; and with Rue,

which afforded us an extract, of (almost if not altogether) the same Colour

with that of the leaves.

But in regard that 'tis Principally the Alcalizate Salt of the Pot-ashes,

which enables the water to Extract so powerfully the Tincture of the

Decocted Vegetables, I fear that our Author may be mistaken by supposing

that the Decoction will alwayes be of the very same Colour with the

Vegetable it is made off. For Lixiviate Salts, to which Pot-ashes eminently

belong, though by peircing and opening the Bodies of Vegetables, they

prepare and dispose them to part readily with their Tincture, yet some

Tinctures they do not only draw out, but likewise alter them, as may be

easily made appear by many of the Experiments already set down in this

Treatise, and though Allom being of an Acid Nature, its Solutions may in

some Cases destroy the Adventitious Colours produc'd by the Alcaly, and

restore the former: yet besides that Allom is not, as I have lately shown,

a meer Acid Salt, but a mixt Body, and besides, that its operations are

languid in comparison of the activity of Salts freed by Distillation, or by

Incineration and Dissolution, from the most of their Earthy parts, we have

seen already Examples, that in divers Cases an Acid Salt will not restore a

Vegetable substance to the Colour of which an Alcalizate one had depriv'd

it, but makes it assume a third very differing from both, as we formerly

told you, that if Syrrup of Violets were by an Alcaly turn'd Green, (which

Colour, as I have try'd, may be the same way produc'd in the Violet-leaves

themselves without any Relation to a Syrrup) an Acid Salt would not make it

Blew again, but Red. And though I have by this way of making Lakes, made

Magisteries (for such they seem to be) of Brazil, and as I remember of

Cochinele it self, and of other things, Red, Yellow or Green which Lakes

were enobled with a Rich Colour, and others had no bad one; yet in some the

colour of the Lake seem'd rather inferiour than otherwise to that of the

Plant, and in others it seem'd both very differing, and much worse; but

Writing this in a time and place where I cannot provide my self of Flowres

and other Vegetables to prosecute such Tryals in a competent variety of

Subjects, I am content not to be positive in delivering a judgment of this

way of Lakes, till Experience, or You, _Pyrophilus_, shall have afforded me

a fuller and more particular Information.

_Annotation III._

And on this occasion (_Pyrophilus_) I must here (having forgot to do it

sooner) advertise you once for all, that having written several of the

foregoing Experiments, not only in haste but at seasons of the year, and in

places wherein I could not furnish my self with such Instruments, and such

a variety of Materials, as the design of giving you an Introduction into

the History of Colours requir'd, it can scarce be otherwise but that divers

of the Experiments, that I have set down, may afford you some matter of new

Tryals, if you think fit to supply the deficiencies of some of them

(especially the freshly mention'd about Lakes, and those that concern

Emphatical Colours) which deficiencies for want of being befriended with

accommodations I could better discern than avoid.

_Annotation IV._

The use of Allom is very great as well as familiar in the Dyers Trade, and

I have not been ill pleas'd with the use I have been able to make of it in

preparing other pigments than those they imploy with Vegetable Juices. But

the Lucriferous practises of Dyers and other Tradesmen, I do, for Reasons

that you may know when you please, purposely forbear in this Essay, though

not strictly from pointing at, yet from making it a part of my present work

explicitly and circumstantially to deliver, especially since I now find

(though late and not without some Blushes at my prolixity) that what I

intended but for a short Essay, is already swell'd into almost a Volume.

_EXPERIMENT L._

Yet here, _Pyrophilus_, I must take leave to insert an Experiment, though

perhaps you'l think its coming in here an Intrusion, For I confess its more

proper place would have been among those Experiments, that were brought as

proofs and applications of our Notions concerning the differences of Salts;

but not having remembred to insert it in its fittest place, I had rather

take notice of it in this, than leave it quite unmention'd: partly because

it doth somewhat differ from the rest of our Experiments about Colours, in

the way whereby 'tis made; and partly because the grounds upon which I

devis'd it, may hint to you somewhat of the Method I use in Designing and

Varying Experiments about Colours, and upon this account I shall inform

you, not only What I did, but Why I did it.

I consider'd then that the work of the former Experiments was either to

change the Colour of a Body into another, or quite to destroy it, without

giving it a successor, but I had a mind to give you also a way, whereby to

turn a Body endued with one Colour into two Bodies, of Colours, as well as

consistencies, very distinct from each other, and that by the help of a

Body that had it self no Colour at all. In order to this, I remembred, that

finding the Acidity of Spirit of Vinegar to be wholly destroy'd by its

working upon _Minium_ (or calcin'd Lead) whereby the Saline particles of

the _Menstruum_ have their Taste and Nature quite alter'd, I had, among

other Conjectures I had built upon that change, rightly concluded, that the

Solution of Lead in Spirit of Vinegar would alter the Colour of the Juices

and Infusions of Several Plants, much after the like manner that I had

found Oyl of Tartar to do; and accordingly I was quickly satisfied upon

Tryal, that the Infusion of Rose-leaves would by a small quantity of this

Solution well mingl'd with it, be immediately turn'd into a somewhat sad

Green.

And further, I had often found, that Oyl of Vitriol, though a potently Acid

_Menstruum_, will yet Præcipitate many Bodies, both Mineral and others,

dissolv'd not onely in _Aqua fortis_ (as some Chymists have observ'd) but

particularly in Spirit of Vinegar, and I have further found, that the

_Calces_ or Powders Præcipitated by this Liquor were usually fair and

White.

Laying these things together, 'twas not difficult to conclude, that if upon

a good Tincture of Red Rose-leaves made with fair Water, I dropp'd a pretty

quantity of a strong and sweet Solution of _Minium_, the Liquor would be

turn'd into the like muddy Green Substance, as I have formerly intimated to

You, that Oyl of Tartar would reduce it to, and that if then I added a

convenient quantity of good Oyl of Vitriol, this last nam'd Liquor would

have two distinct operations upon the Mixture, the one, that it would

Præcipitate that resolv'd Lead in the form of a White Powder; the other,

that it would Clarifie the muddy Mixture, and both restore, and exceedingly

heighten the Redness of the Infusion of Roses, which was the most copious

Ingredient of the Green composition, and accordingly trying the Experiment

in a Wine glass sharp at the bottom (like an inverted Cone) that the

subsiding Powder might seem to take up the more room, and be the more

conspicuous, I found that when I had shaken the Green Mixture, that the

colour'd Liquor might be the more equally dispersed, a few drops of the

rectifi'd Oyl of Vitriol did presently turn the opacous Liquor into one

that was cleer and Red, almost like a Rubie, and threw down good store of a

Powder, which when 'twas settl'd, would have appear'd very White, if some

interspers'd Particles of the red Liquor had not a little Allay'd the

Purity, though not blemish'd the Beauty of the Colour. And to shew you,

_Pyrophilus_, that these Effects do not flow from the Oyl of Vitriol, as it

is such, but as it is a strongly Acid _Menstruum_, that has the property

both to Præcipitate Lead, as well as some other Concretes out of Spirit of

Vinegar, and to heighten the Colour of Red Rose-leaves, I add, that I have

done the same thing, though perhaps not quite so well with Spirit of Salt,

and that I could not do it with _Aqua-fortis_, because though that potent

_Menstruum_ does as well as the others heighthen the Redness of Roses, yet

it would not like them Precipitate Lead out of Spirit of Vinegar, but would

rather have dissolv'd it, if it had not found it dissolv'd already.

And as by this way we have produc'd a Red Liquor, and a White Precipitate

out of a Dirty Green magistery of Rose-leaves, so by the same Method, you

may produce a fair Yellow, and sometimes a Red Liquor, and the like

Precipitate, out of an Infusion of a curious Purple Colour. For you may

call to mind, that in the Annotation upon the 39th. Experiment I intimated

to you, that I had with a few drops of an Alcaly turn'd the Infusion of

Logg-wood into a lovely Purple. Now if instead of this Alcaly I substituted

a very Strong and well Filtrated Solution of _Minium_, made with Spirit of

Vinegar, and put about half as much of this Liquor as there was of the

Infusion of Logg-wood, (that the mixture might afford a pretty deal of

Precipitate,) the affusion of a convenient proportion of Spirit of Salt,

would (if the Liquors were well and nimbly stirr'd together) presently

strike down a Precipitate like that formerly mention'd, and turn the Liquor

that swam above it, for the most part into a lovely Yellow.

But for the advancing of this Experiment a little further, I consider'd,

that in case I first turn'd a spoonfull of the infusion of Logg-wood

Purple, by a convenient proportion of the Solution of _Minium_, the

Affusion of Spirit of Sal Armnoniack, would Precipitate the Corpuscles of

Lead conceal'd in the Solution of _Minium_, and yet not destroy the Purple

colour of the Liquor; whereupon I thus proceeded; I took about a spoonfull

of the _fresh_ Tincture of Logg-wood, (for I found that if it were _stale_

the Experiment would not alwayes succeed,) and having put to it a

convenient proportion of the Solution of _Minium_ to turn it into a deep

and almost opacous Purple, I then drop'd in as much Spirit of Sal

Armoniack, as I guess'd would Precipitate about half or more (but not all)

of the Lead, and immediately stirring the mixture well together, I mingled

the Precipitated parts with the others, so that they fell to the bottom,

partly in the form of a Powder, and partly in the form of a Curdled

Substance, that (by reason of the Predominancy of the Ting'd Corpuscles

over the White) retain'd as well as the Supernatant Liquor; a Blewish

Purple colour sufficiently Deep, and then instantly (but yet Warily,)

pouring on a pretty Quantity of Spirit of Salt, the matter first

Precipitated, was, by the above specified figure of the bottome of the

Glass preserv'd from being reach'd by the Spirituous Salt; which hastily

Precipitated upon it a new Bed (if I may so call it) of White Powder, being

the remaining Corpuscles of the Lead, that the Urinous Spirit had not

struck down: So that there appear'd in the Glass three distinct and very

differingly colour'd Substances; a Purple or Violet-colour'd Precipitate at

the bottom, a White and Carnation (sometimes a Variously colour'd)

Precipitate over That, and at the Top of all a Transparent Liquor of a

lovely Yellow, or Red.

Thus you see, _Pyrophilus_, that though to some I may have seem'd to have

lighted on this (50th.) Experiment by chance, and though others may

imagine, that to have excogitated it, must have proceeded from some

extraordinary insight into the nature of Colours, yet indeed, the devising

of it need not be look'd upon as any great matter, especially to one that

is a little vers'd in the notions, I have in these, and other Papers hinted

concerning the differences of Salts. And perhaps I might add upon more than

conjecture, that these very notions and some particulars scatteringly

deliver'd in this Treatise, being skilfully put together, may suggest

divers matters (at least,) about Colours, that will not be altogether

Despicable. But those hinted, _Pyrophilus_, I must now leave such as You to

prosecute, having already spent farr more time than I intended to allow my

self in acquainting You with particular Experiments and Observations

concerning the changes of Colour, to which I might have added many more,

but that I hope I may have presented You with a competent number to make

out in some measure what I have at the beginning of this Essay either

propos'd as my Design in this Tract, or deliver'd as my Conjectures

concerning these matters. And it not being my present Designe, as I have

more than once Declar'd, to deliver any Positive Hypothesis or solemn

Theory of Colours, but only to furnish You with some Experiments towards

the framing of such a Theory; I shall add nothing to what I have said

already, but a request that you would not be forward to think I have been

mistaken in any thing I have deliver'd as matter of Fact concerning the

changes of Colours, in case you should not every time you trye it, find it

exactly to succeed. For besides the Contingencies to which we have

elsewhere shewn some other Experiments to be obnoxious, the omission or

variation of a seemingly unconsiderable circumstance, may hinder the

success of an Experiment, wherein no other fault has been committed. Of

which truth I shall only give you that single and almost obvious, but yet

illustrious instance of the Art of Dying Scarlets, for though you should

see every Ingredient that is us'd about it, though I should particularly

inform You of the weight of each, and though you should be present at the

kindling of the fire, and at the increasing and remitting of it, when ever

the degree of Heat is to be alter'd, and though (in a word) you should see

every thing done so particularly that you would scarce harbour the least

doubt of your comprehending the whole Art: Yet if I should not disclose to

You, that the Vessels, that immediately contain the Tinging Ingredients,

are to be made of or to be lin'd with Tin, You would never be able by all

that I could tell you else (at-least, if the Famousest and Candidest

Artificers do not strangely delude themselves) to bring your Tincture of

Chochinele to Dye a perfect Scarlet. So much depends upon the very Vessel,

wherein the Tinging matters are boyl'd, and so great an Influence may an

unheeded Circumstance have on the Success of Experiments concerning

Colours.

* * * * *

_FINIS._

* * * * *

A SHORT

ACCOUNT

OF SOME

OBSERVATIONS

Made by Mr. _BOYLE_

About a _Diamond_ that _Shines_ in the Dark.

First enclosed in a Letter written to

a Friend,

And now together with it annexed to the Foregoing

Treatise, upon the score of the

Affinity Betwixt

_Light_ and _Colours_.

* * * * *

_LONDON,_