Book X, chapters 20–21: Distillation

CHAP. XX.

Of Aqua Fortis.

NOw I will recite those Distillations, which draw out neither Water nor Oyl, but a middle between both: for the terrene parts are forced up, turned into Water by the vehemency of the fire: from whence they do acquire so great a heat, that corrode and burn most violently. They are extracted onely in igne reverberationis, and with great care and labour.

How to draw Aqua Fortis, or Oyl, out of Salt.

It is a piece of Art discovered to very few. Take Pit-Salt, put into a Glass-Retort, treble luted over, and dried: set it in igne reverberationis, where the flames do struggle most violently: the first time you will get but little moysture. Break the Retort, and remove the Foeces into another, and pour the extracted Water into them, and distill them again: the second time thou wilt get more. Do the same a third time, and so to the tenth, until the Salt be all turned into Liquor, which is a most precious Jewel and worth thy labor. Some quench hot Bricks in the liquified Salt, and then distil them with a most intense fire, as in Oyl of Bricks.

A Water for the Separation of Silver.

Take Salt-Peter and Alom in equal quantity, beat them in a Morter, and put them into a Glass-Retort luted over three double: when it is well dried, set it in the circulating-fire, that is, which is reverberated on the top and below too. Stop it close, and set a large Receiver under it: for if it be too narrow, the strong Spirits will break out with a great bounce, crack the Vessel, and frustrate your labour. Distil it six hours: if you calcine the Alome-fire, the VVater will be stronger.

A Water for Separation of Gold.

Mix with the equal parts of Salt-Peter and Alom, as much Vitriol, and distil it, as before: there will proceed a VVater so strong, that it will even corrode the […]i[…]cture of Gold. Wherefore, if this seem too violent, take nine pounds of the former Salts, being dissolved in VVater, and two ounces of Sal Ammoniacum: when they are melted, set them two days in Fimo, and with hot Ashes you may distil a VVater that will corrode Gold. If you refund the VVater upon the Foeces, let them macerate and distil it again, the VVater will be much stronger.

How to purge the phlegm from these Waters,

without which they are of no force: cast a little Silver into a litle of this VVater; which, being overcharged with phlegm, will not corrode it. But set it to heat over the fire, and it will presently do it: pour all this VVater into another Pot, and leave the Foeces behinde in the former: so the VVater will be clarified.

Oyl of Vitriol.

Dissolve Vitriol in an earthen Pan with a wide mouth; let the phlegm evaporate, then encrease the fire and burn it, till it be all red, and the fourth part be consumed. Put it into a Glass-Retort, luted all over thrice double, and well dried, and set in igne reverberationis, continually augmenting the fire, and continning it for three days, until the Vessel melt, and an Oyl drop out without any VVater. Every three pounds will […]ield one ounce of Oyl. Put it into a Glass-bottle, and set it in hot Embe[…]s that the VVater, if any be in the Oyl, may evaporate; for so it will be of greater strengh. The sign of a perfect extraction, is, if it make a piece of VVood, being cast into it, smoak, as if it burned it.

Oyl of Sulphur.

This is the proper way to extract Oyl of Sulphur: Take a Glass with a large mouth in the form of a Bell, and hang it up by a wire: place a large Receiver under it, that it may catch the Oyl, as it droppeth out of the Bell. In the middle between these, hang an earthen Vessel full of Sulphur: kindle the fire, and make the Sulphur burn; the smoak of which, ascendeth up into the Bell, condenseth it self, and falls down in an oyly substance. When the Sulphur is consumed, put in more, until you have the quantity of Oyl which you desire. There is also another way to extract it in a greater quantity: Prepare a great Glass-Receiver, such as I described in the Extraction of Oyl of Tartar, and Aqua Fortis: cut a hole thorow it with an Emerauld, and indent the edges of it, that the smoak may pass out: set this upon an earthen Pan, in which you burn the Sulphur. Above this, set another Vessel of a larger size, so that it may be about a handful distant from the first: cut the edges of the hole in deeper notches, that the vapor ascending thorow the first, and circulating about the second, may distil out of both; so you may add a third and fourth. Pour this Oyl into another Glass, and let the phlegm evaporate over hot Embers; it will become of that strength, that it will dissolve Silver: and I may say, Gold also, if it be rightly made. The fume of Sulphur is congealed in Sal Ammoniacum: for I have gathered it in the Mountains of Campania, and condensed it into Salt, nothing at all differing from that which is brought out of the Eastern Countries. Thus Sal Ammoniacus, which hath so long lain unknown, is discovered in our own Country, and is nothing but Salt of Sulphur; and this Oyl is the Water of Sal Ammoniac, or Salt of Sulphur. I would fain know how Learned Men do approve this my Invention. I take the Earth, thorow which the smoak of Sulphur hath arisen, and dissole it in warm Waters, and purge it thorow a hanging Receptacle described before: then I make the Water evaporate; and so finde a Salt nothing different, as I hope, from Ammoniacum.

CHAP. XXI.

Of the Separation of the Elements.

IN every Compound, there are four Elements; but for the most part, one is predominant, the rest are dull and unprofitable. Hence, when we speak of separating the Elements of a Compound, we mean the separating that predominant one. In the Water-Lilly, the Element of Water is chief; Air, Earth and Fire are in it, but in a small proportion. Hence there is but a small quantity of heat and driness in it, because VVater overwhelms them all. The same must be understood in other things also. But do not think, that we intend by the separation of the Elements, to divide them absolutely, the Air from the VVater, and the VVater from the Fire and Earth; but onely by a certain similitude, as what is hotter then the rest, we call Fire; the moister, VVater. Stones participate more of Earth: VVoods, of Fire; Herbs, of VVater. VVe account those Airy, which fill the Vessels and Receivers, and easily burst them, and so flie out. VVhen the Elements are thus separated, they may afterwards be purified and attenuated. The manner of extracting them, is various according to the diversity of natural things; for some must be calcined: some sublimated, others distilled. I will set down some examples.

How to separate the Elements of Metals.

Lay your Metal in Aqua Fortis, as I shewed before, till it be dissolved: then draw out the Aqua Fortis by a Bath, and pour it on again, and so again, until it be turned into an Oyl of a light Red, or Ruby-colour. Pour two parts of Aqua Fortis unto the Oyl, and macerate them in a Glass in Fimo for a month: then distil them on Embers till the VVater be all drawn out, which you must take and still again in Balneo, until it ascend; so will you have two Elements. By the Bath the Air is elevated, the VVater and Earth remain in the bottom: the Fire continueth in the bottom of the former Vessel: for it is of a fiery substance: this, Nature, and the Affusion of Water, and the Distillation in Balneo will reduce into an Oyl again: in which you must correct the Fire, and it will be perfect. You may lay Metal in Embers, then by degrees encrease the fire: the VVater will first gently ascend, next the Earth. In Silver, the first Oyl is blewish, and in perfect separation, settleth to the bottom, and the VVater ascendeth; but in Balneo, the Elements of Fire and Earth: for the substance of it is cold and moist: in Balneo the Elements of Fire and Earth remain; first the Earth will come out, afterwards the Fire. So of Tin, the first Oyl is yellow; in Balneo, the Air will remain in the bottom, the Fire, Earth and VVater will ascend: which is proper onely to Tin; for in no other Metal, the Air remaineth last; but in Tin, the VVater is first elevated; next the Fire; last of all, the Earth. Of Iron is made a dark ruddish Oyl; Of Quick-silver, a white Oyl: the Fire settleth to the bottom: the Earth and Water are elevated: and so of the rest.

How to separate the Elements in Herbs.

In Herbs there is alwayes one Element which reigneth in chief. Take the Leaves of Sage, bruise them, macerate them in Fimo, and then distil them: the Fire will first ascend, until the colours be changed; next the VVater; then a part of the Earth: the other part will remain in the bottom, not being volatile, but fixed. Set the VVater in the Sun six dayes, then put it in Balneo: the VVater will ascend first, then the colour will alter; and the Fire ascendeth next, till the taste be changed: at length, a part of the Earth, the rest being mix'd with the Air, tarrieth behinde in the Bottom. In VVater-Plants, the Air ariseth first; next the VVater and Fire.

How to finde out the Vertues of Plants.

There are no surer Searchers out of the Vertues of the Plants, then our Hands and Eyes: the Taste is more fallible: for, if in Distillation, the hottest parts evaporate first, we may conclude, that it consisteth of hot and thin parts: and so of the rest. You may easily know by the separation of the Elements, whether a Plant have more of […]ire, or VVater, or Earth, by weighing the Plant first: then afterward, when the VVater and Oyl are extracted, weighing the Foeces, and by their proportion you may judge of the degrees of each Element in the Composition of it, and from thence of their Qualities. But the narrow limits of this Book will not give me leave to expatiate farther on this Subject. Wherefore I will leave the Discourse of it to a particular Treatise, which I intend to set out at large on this matter.

How to extract Gum out of Plants.

There are some Plants out of which we may extract Gum: some Plants, I say, because many have none in them, and nothing can give more then it hath. Fennel, and all other kindes of it, Opoponax, and such-like Herbs are full of it. Nature is the best Director in extracting them: for when the Sun shines very hot, and the Stalks of these Plants are swelled with sap, by reason of the continual encrease of their juice; they open themselves in little clefts, like a Woman when her labour approacheth; and thence doth the Plant bring forth, as it were in travel, that Noble Liquor, which partly by the heat of the Sun, partly by a natural Inclination grows clammy, and is condensed into a hard Body. Hence we may learn.

How to extract Gum out of Opoponax.

In the Summer Solstice gather the Roots in the night-time, that the heat of the Sun may not exhaust the moysture; slice it long wayes, and put it into a well vernished earthen Pipkin: then set it upside down in a descending Furnace with a Receiver underneath, to catch the falling-Liquor: make a Fire about the upper part of the Vessel, which will drive down a Noble Gum, which must be purged in other Vessels, and may be meliorated by Di[…]illation. The same may be effected on Sagapene, w[…]ose Roots must be gathered at the same time, and sliced; and being put into a Vessel with a gentle fire, will drop out a glutinous Liquor into the Receiver; which, being clarified, will harden like Gum, and is kept for Medicinal uses.

How to extract Gum out of Fennel.

Gather the stalks of Fennel, when it is in its vigor, and the Flowers begin to blow, about the full of the Moon; for then they are more succulent: slice them into pieces of a hand-long, and put them into a Glass-Tub of a hand in wideress, and a handful and a half in length: fill it full, and set the bottom of it, being full of little holes, into a Tunnel fit to receive it, and the lower part of the Tunnel into a Receiver. Then make a gentle fire about the Tub at a handful distance, which may beat upon the stalkes on every side with its heat, like the Sun-beams. The Tub thus growing hot, will exclude some drops; which, flying from the violence of the heat, slide down thorow the ho[…]es of the bottom into the Tunnel, and from thence into the Receiver, where they will condense into Gum, participating of the Nature of Fennel, of no contemptible vertues.