MEMOIRS FOR THE NATURAL HISTORY OF Humane Blood, Especially The Spirit of that Liquor. By the Honourable ROBERT boil Fellow of the Royal Society. Etsi enim haud pauca, eáque ex praecipuis, supersint absolvenda, tamen consilium est universum opus potius promovere in multis, quam perficere in paucis. Verulam. in Praefat. ad Histor. Natural. & Experiment. LONDON, Printed for Samuel Smith at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1683/4. THE Preface Introductory ADDRESSED To the very Ingenious and Learned Doctor J. L. I Willingly acknowledge, that divers Physicians have Amply and Learnedly, and some of them very Eloquently, set forth the praises of the Blood, and manifested how noble and excellent a Liquor it is, But I must beg their pardon if I doubt whether their Writings have not better celebrated its Praises, then discovered to us its Nature. For, though the laudable curiosity of the Moderns has acquainted us with several things not delivered to us by the Ancients, yet, if I mistake not, what is generally known of Humane Blood, is as yet imperfect enough, and consists much more of Observations than Experiments; being suggested far more by the Phaenomena that Nature herself has afforded Physicians, than by Trials industriously made, to find what she will not, unsolicited by Art, discover. I will not be so rash as to say, that to mind (as too many Anatomists have done) the Solid parts of the Body, and overlook Inquiries into the Fluids, and especially the Blood, were little less improper in a Physician, than it would be in a Vintner to be very solicitous about the Structure of his Cask, and neglect the consideration of the Wine contained in it. But though I will not make so bold a Comparison, yet when I consider how important a part of the Humane Body, the Blood is; and that as when it is well constituted, and does orderly move, it conveys nourishment and vigour, and motion, and in a word health to the rest of the living Engine: So the Mass of Blood being either vitiated, or (which is very often the effect of that Depravation) disorderly moved, is the Seat of divers, and the Cause of most Diseases, whose cure consequently depends mainly upon the rectifying of the Blood when (I say,) I consider these things, I cannot but think it an Omission, that so important a Subject has not been more skilfully and industriously enquired into. But I hope you were not in earnest, when you solicited me to repair that Omission. For you know, I have not the Vanity to pretend to be a Physician. And being none, I must want both the Skill and many Opportunities, wherewith a Man that were professedly so, would be advantaged. And though I deny not that many years ago I propounded to some Ingenious Physicians a History of the Fluid parts of the Body, such as the Humours and other Juices, and also the Spirits of it; and did particularly draw up a set of Inquiries, and make divers Experiments in reference to the Blood, yet those Papers being since lost, and a long Tract of Time, and Studies of a quite other nature, having made me lose the Memory of most of the Particulars; I find myself unable to contribute any thing considerable to your laudable design. And as all the search your Commands obliged me to make after my Papers, has hitherto proved fruitless, so they having been written when I had far more Health, Vigour, and Leisure than I now have, and when my Thoughts were much more conversant with Medicinal Subjects; any thing that I shall now present you about the Blood, will not only be extremely short of what ought to be said, but will also be short even of what, if I mistake not, I did say of it. But yet all this is said, not to excuse me from obeying you at all, but to excuse me for obeying you so unskilfully. For, since you will have me set down what I can retrieve about Humane Blood, you shall receive it in the following Paper; which consists of Four Parts. The First whereof contains a set of Titles (which I call Of the First Order, for Reasons to be given you in the Advertisements about them) towards the Natural and Medical History of Humane Blood, which may direct those that want better Guides, what Inquiries to make, and to what Heads to refer, what they have found by Observation or Trial. But because this Part contains but bare Titles (whose Systeme yet perhaps I look upon as likely to make the usefullest part of the ensuing Papers) and because I have neither leisure nor Materials to answer all or most of the Titles, I thought fit in a couple of Subjects, namely the Serum of Humane Blood, which is a Natural, and the Spirit, which is a Factitious part of it, to give some instances of what I had thoughts to do on others; and propose some Example to those that may be more unpractised in drawing up Natural Histories, than the general design and course of my Studies of Natural Things permitted me to be. And what is said on these two Subjects, makes the Third and Fourth Part of these Papers. As for the other Titles (of the History of the Blood) I contented myself, in compliance with my haste, to set down what occurred to me in the Casual Order wherein they offered themselves; without scrupling to mingle here and there among the Historical Notes, some Experiments that I formerly but designed, as Trials that might prove Luciferous, whatever the event should be. This Rhapsody of my own Observations makes one of the Four Parts, and the Second in Order, of what your Commands embolden me to offer you at this time. And I shall be very glad to be so happy as to find, that by doing a thing, that I am wont to do so delightfully as to obey you, I have by breaking the Ice contributed something to so noble and useful a work as the History of Humane Blood. About which, that I may not make the Porch much too great for the Building, I shall add to this Preamble nothing but these two Advertisements; of which the First shall be, That it is not my design in these Papers, to treat of my Subject, as it may be considered (to borrow a School Phrase) in fieri, which would have obliged me to trace the Progress from the reception of Aliments at the Mouth, to the full Elaboration, which were to write the History of Sanguification as well as that of Blood; but to treat of this Liquor as 'tis completely elaborated, and that too, not as 'tis formed in the Vessels of a living Body, but as it is Extravasated, and let out by the Lancet; such Blood alone being that on which I had some opportunity to make Trials, and to this first Advertisement, I shall subjoin as the Second, That in the following Papers I have, as the Title intimates, treated but of such Humane Blood, as was taken from sound Persons; both because being no professed Physician, I had not the Opportunities of Examining that of Sick Persons molested with particular Diseases, (which yet would much conduce to a complete History of the Blood;) and because the Knowledge of the Nature of the Blood, when 'tis rightly conditioned, is necessary to those that would discern, in what particulars, and how far it deviates in the Sick, according to that generally received Axiom, Rectum est Index sui & Obliqui: On which account the Scheme of Titles drawn up for the History of Healthy Blood, may serve for a direction to any that would write the History of Morbid or Depraved Blood in any particular Disease, as a Pleurisy, a Quartan Ague, the Dropsy, the Scurvy, etc. For having compared the Qualities and Accidents of this vitiated Blood, with those of the Blood of Sound Men delivered in the forementioned Systeme of Titles, 'twill not be difficult for a Physician to find, to what heads he is to refer those things that considerably recede from such as belong to Healthy Blood. And these Recessions or Depravations, with perhaps a few Additions of some Peculiarities, if any occur, will make up the History of the Blood as 'tis wont to be vitiated in that Particular Disease, one General Admonition sufficing (if that itself be not unnecessary) to make the Reader take notice, that in all other Points the Blood of Persons sick of that Disease is not unlike that of those that are Healthy. This Book being Printed in the absence of the Author, some Erratas have escaped the Press which be pleased to correct thus. PAg. 4. line 4. for he takes read it takes. p. 12. l. 8. for he r. the. ibid. l. 14. for Sorts r. Salts. p. 18. l. 23 for a Blood r Blood. ibid. l. 24. for Liquor r. a Liquor. p. 30. l. 12. for Urine r. Wine. p. 57 l. 15. for or, r. and. p. 65. l. 5. for ℥ viij. r. ℥ viijss. p. 70. l. 25. for the Water. r. in the Water. p. 77. l. 25. for at r. a. p. 100 l. 5. for which r. with, p. 140. l. 2. for operation of this r. operation. Of this. p. 157. l. 18. for weeks r. months. ibid. l. 19 for months r. weeks. p. 187. l. 10. these words, For the sixth Salt of Blood does itself much resemble Sea-Salt, whether its Spirit be Acid or no, should be included in a Parenthesis. p. 190. l. 12. for so r. so close, p. 194. l. 15, for base r. bare. p. 215. l. 21. for Dephlegmed Sulphur r. Dephlegmed, Sulphur. p. 217. l. 10 for + in which r. in which. p. 225. l. 11. for Histories r. History. p. 228. l. 13. for their remained ℥ ij. +. r. there remained ℥ iij. +. p. 229. l. 10. for portion r. proportion. p. 230. l. 9 for their r. there, ibid. l. 10. for Fourteen r. Thirteen. p. 233. l. 3. for subliming Salt r. subliming the Salt. p. 234. deal the first three lines Experiments belonging, etc. p. 252. l. 15. for by r. that by. ibid. l. 16. for what r. one may see what. p. 259. l. 3. deest [Experiment I.] p. 268. l. 12. after made deest. [Having set down these Preliminaries, I shall proceed to] Experiment I. etc. p. 274. l. 3. deest [eight.] p 282. for Conclusion r. Postscript. THE Natural History OF Humane Blood. PART. I. Containing A List of Titles for the History of Humane Blood . To which are Premised some Advertisements about them. THat the Scope and meaning of the ensuing Scheme of Titles, (and divers others that I drew up for differing Subjects) may be the more clearly understood, I must lay down in this place some passages borrowed from the (unpublished) Essay or Letter I wrote to Mr. Oldenburg (Secretary to the R. Society) about the way of compileing a Natural History. I proposed then in that tract three sorts of Heads, to which the particulars that might occur, and properly belong to the History of the Subject to be treated of, whether a Body, or a Quality or an Operation, or a Process, (that is, a progressive change) might conveniently be referred. These distinct sets of Topics or Inquiries I call Orders, Ranks or classes, and because to each of these sets, it was found by Experience, that things of somewhat differing nature were to be referred, as Queries more properly So called, Propositions either Affirmative or Negative, and other Heads of Natural History, that are less fit to be reduced to either of the two former Sorts, then to be looked upon as Subjects to be treated of. For this reason, I say, among others, I thought fit to comprise all these sorts of particular Topics, or Articles or Inquiry (to use our illustrious Verulam's phrase) under the general and comprehensive name of Titles. The first Order or Classis of these Titles, I would have to consist of such as occurred readily enough to my thoughts, upon the first deliberate view, or general Survey, of the Subject to be treated of. For 'tis scarce to be expected that at the first attempt a man should be so clear sighted, or so happy, as to pitch, or light upon as direct and compendious ways of Indagation, and as good Methods of Digesting, and delivering what is discovered, as when a studious Enquiry has furnished him with better Informations about the Subject he is to treat of; and therefore it may suffice for the first time, that the mind do as it were walk round the Object, it is to contemplate, and view it on every side, observing what differing Prospects it will that way afford, (as when a Painter or an Anatomist looks upon a man's Body, first when the Face and Belly are towards him, then when the Back and other hinder parts are so) and that he takes notice of the Limits and Boundaries of it, and of the most Essential and considerable Parts, or other things that belong to it. Wherefore in the first Uassis of Titles, one need not be too scrupulous about the enumerating, and marshalling the Particulars referable to it, but may be more Solicitous, that the Titles should be various, and comprehensive enough, than that they should be nicely Methodical, and much less than that they should be accommodated to any particular Hypothesis. And because, even at the first deliberate view, some (though perhaps very few) of these Titles may appear considerable, and fertile enough to deserve, that there should to each of them be referred two or a greater number of Subordinate, and more particular Topics; I thought fit for methods sake to call the Capital Titles, that is those of the first Classis, Primary Titles, and the Subordinate, Secondary ones. [Of which Distinction a Notable Instance will be met with in what is hereafter delivered, about the Spirit of Humane Blood. All the Sixteen Titles together with the Appendix, contained in that Epistolary Discourse, being Secondary Titles, referable to that Primary one, which is the Eighteenth in the first Classis of the History of Humane Blood.] When by Reading, Conference, Meditation, and (which is here mainly to be considered) the Trials suggested in the Topics of the first Classis, or order, the Naturalist has received the best and fullest Information he can procure, of all that belongs to the Subject he is to treat of, he may then proceed to frame another set of Titles, which may be called the Second, or (if no other interpose) the last Order or Classis of them, which, if he have been diligent and any thing prosperous, will be much more copious and better ranged than the first. For now divers things will in likelihood appear to belong to the Subject of the History, which were not at first taken notice of to do so, yea perhaps were not at all thought of, and the further discovery made of the nature of the thing treated of, may direct the Historian to range his Topics, or Titles in a better Order, and more natural Method, than those of the first Classis. And, which is a thing of far greater Moment, divers, and perhaps most, of the Particular Titles will appear to be of greater extent, or more comprehensive, than they were formerly conceived to be: so that a Particular Title may well be thought fit to be branched into many Subordinate Topics, or Articles (which we lately called Secondary Titles) some one of which may perhaps comprise as many Experiments, or Observations, as 'twas at first guessed would appertain to the prime or more general Title itself. And from the Materials orderly drawn together under this last set or Classis of Titles, with some requisite changes in point of Method, and Connexion's, and some Additional things as Transitions etc. by the help I say, of such Alterations and Additions, the Particulars whereof the last Order or Classis consists, may be digested and framed into an Inchoate Natural History of the Subject they have relation to; I said, an Inchoate History, to intimate, hat even after all that has been already done, I think it too probable that the History will hereafter appear to have been rather begun then completed, the nature of things, & the Industry of skilful men being so very fertile, that the knowledge of the Subject of the History will from time to time be increased, and so the History itself may be enlarged and corrected, but will not, I fear in many Ages, if ever it be at all, be made absolutely perfect. And on this occasion I must add That when the Subject to be treated of is very comprehensive or very Difficult, as the Generation of living Creatures, Magnetism, Fermentation, Gravity, etc. it may be very useful, if not almost necessary, to interpose between the Titles of the Last and those of the First Classis, a set of Titles that may be called of the middle Order, or Classis. For the framing whereof the Historian is considerately and narrowly to re-survey the Nature of the Subject, and make a heedful Collation of that, and of the several Notices attained by his Endeavours to furnish the differing Titles of the first Classis with a Competent number of Particulars. For by this Collation there will in likelihood be suggested to him, many new Topics of Enquiry, and Hints, which added to the former will deserve to have a new Classis framed consisting of Articles more copious, and various than the First, and fit to be ranged in another Order. It may perhaps illustrate what I have been saying and am going to say, about the several Classes of Titles, if on this occasion I shall add, that a Natural Subject being proposed to be Historically treated of, there may occur something like what happened to the Israelites, in reference to the Land of Canaan. For at their first entrance into it, Joshua, and the other Spies took a transient view of the Country, and could bring back but an unaccurate account of it, together with a little of the most remarkable Fruit. But upon a second Expedition, the Spies were furnished with fuller Instructions, and ordered to direct their Researches to the answering of a great many particular Articles of Enquiry; their Industry to answer which produced in Methodical Tables or Schemes, a far more copious and distinct Chorography, and Survey of the fruitful land of Canaan. It is scarce to be expected that at the very first time the Titles, whether Primary or Secondary, of a natural History should be made so comprehensive, and be so skilfully bounded, as not to need to be either enlarged, or reform by Second Thoughts, and a further Progress in the Practical knowledge of the Subject treated of. I therefore thought it necessary, or at least useful, to subjoin to the first Edition of the Titles of each of the Natural Histories, I delineated, a Mantissa or Appendix, that should consist of two Sorts of Particulars; viz, Paralipomena and other Addenda, whereof the first should contain such things, as may be properly referrable to some one or more of the Titles, (either Primary, or Secondary,) distinctly enumerated in the Scheme of the History, and were but by haste or oversight kept from having place among them. The other consists of new Particulars, that, after the History was written, were Suggested by further Discoveries; whether these Particulars did directly belong to any of the preceding Titles, or might only in a general way contribute somewhat to the knowledge, or illustration of the Subject. Titles of the First Order. For the Natural History of Humane Blood of Healthy men. 1 OF the Colours of Humane Blood Arterial and Venal. 2. Of the Taste of Humane Blood. 3. Of the Odours of Humane Blood. 4. Of the Heat of freshly emitted Humane Blood. 5. Of the Inflammability, and some other Qualities of Humane Blood. 6. Of the Aerial Particles naturally mixed with Humane Blood; and also found in its distinct Parts. 7. Of the Specific Gravity of Humane Blood entire. 8. Of the Specific Gravity of the two obvious Parts of Humane Blood, the Red (and Fibrous) and he Serous. 9 Of the Consistence of entire Humane Blood. 10. Of the Disposition of Humane Blood to Concretion, and the Time wherein it is performed. 11. Of the Liquors and Sorts that coagulate Humane Blood. 12. Of the Liquors and Salts that impede or dissolve its coagulation. 13. Of the Liquors, etc. that preserve Humane Blood. 14. Of the Mixtures that Humane Blood may admit from Aliments. 15. Of the Spontaneous or natural Analysis of Humane Blood into a Serous and a Fibrous part. 16. Of the respective Quantities of the Serous and Fibrous part of Humane Blood. 17. Of the Differences between the Serous and the Red part of Humane Blood. 18. Of the Artificial or Chemical Analysis of Humane Blood, and first of its Spirit. 19 Of the Vol. Salt of Humane Blood, and its Figures. 20. Of the Phlegm of Distilled Humane Blood. 21. Of the two Oils of Humane Blood. 22. Of the Fixed Salt of Humane Blood. 23. Of the Terra Damnata of Humane Blood. 24. Of the Proportion of the differing Substances chemically obtained from Humane Blood. 25. Of the Fermentation or Putrefaction of Humane Blood, and its Phoenomena. 26. Of the Mechanical uses of Humane Blood, as in Husbandry, etc. 27. Of the Chemical uses of Humane Blood. 28. Of the Medicinal uses of Humane Blood. 29. Of the Difference between Humane Blood as 'tis found in sound Persons differingly constituted and circumstantiated, as men, women, (when menstruous, and when not) Children Moors, Negroes, etc. 30. Of the Affinity and Difference between the Blood of men, and that of divers other Animals, as Quadrupeds, Birds, Fishes, and Sanguineous Infects. An Appendix, containing 1. PAralipomena relating to the History of Humane Blood. 2. Miscellaneous Observations, Experiments and Inquiries about Humane Blood (to be added to the History of it.) I do not think it unlikely that some of the Titles of our intended History of Blood and a greater number of the particulars that you will meet with in it, may seem frivolous to you at the first perusal. But perhaps in process of time, these very things will not appear impertinent, nor be found useless. For 'tis a matter, as of more difficulty, so of more utility, than men are wont at first to discern, to find out, and bring into a narrow compass, a considerable number of particulars relating to one Subject, and present them as it were at one view, to the Intellect to act upon And there is many a particular Experiment o● Observation which upon the first, or perhaps the 2d reading may seem but slight or Superfluous, which afterwards is found capable of being made good use of by those who seriously intent, and endeavour to attain, not a maimed or a Superficial, but a deep and solid knowledge of the Subject of their Enquiry. And to such Indagators many particulars, that at first were passed by unregarded, because there appeared no direct use or obvious application of them, will be found serviceable to hint new Hypotheses or Theories, or to illustrate them, to examine those of others, and if they be true, to confirm them, and if erroneous, to confute them. For, to be short, the knowledge of matters of fact cannot but be some way or other, and probably more ways than one, serviceable to a Naturalist, that has Sagacity and Judgement to make a right use of them. Having already advertised you, that the following Papers treat of none but Extravasated Blood, since I had no other at command, to make my Trials upon; I presume you will not wonder that you find not in the Scheme of Titles such as these. Of the Process of Sanguification, or the Series of changes that the Aliment successively undergoes, from its being taken in at the mouth, till it be turned into Blood. Of the motions of the Mass of Blood, and particularly its Circulation. Of the Chyle, Lympha, and other Liquors, that are supposed to enter and mingle with the Blood. Whether the Humours, Phlegm, Gall, and Melancholy, be really contained in the Blood, as constituent Parts of it. Whether some other substances may not with as much reason be admitted into the composition of the Blood. These, as I was saying, and perhaps some other Titles should have been added, if my Design had reached further, than to treat of Blood separated from the Body, and I wish that you, who by your Abilities and Profession are far better qualified than I for such a work, would fill up these, Titles and add them, some as Preliminaries, and others as Appendices, to the History of Blood I have adventured to begin. Perhaps it may not be altogether impertinent to add, that I had once some Thoughts of a Designation of a Natural History of other Liquors of a humane Body, as well as the Blood; I mean such as the Gall, the Lympha, the Succus Pancreaticus, spital, Urine, Milk, etc. But I quickly perceived it was fit for me to resign such Tasks to Physicians; only I shall here Subjoin, as a small Specimen, a set of Titles for the History of Urine, which though by reason of its Affinity in many regards to Blood, it must have many Titles in common with it, yet some will be differing according to the nature of the Subject; which (Liquor) I therefore pitch upon, because I dare own to you, and I do it not without Premeditation, and having wrought on Urine longer than on a Blood itself, that I think Urine to be a Liquor, which, as much despised as it is by others, deserves to be solicitously enquired into by Physicians, Naturalists, and upon special Accounts by Chemists; who will perhaps be excited to seek and hope for great matters, both for Medicine and Alchemy, from this Liquor skilfully handled, when they consider that the Phosphorus, of which I have elsewhere related so many new, and some of them surprising, Phaenomena, is made, at least according to my way of Mere Urine by a Simple Distillation. Titles of the First Classis, For the Natural History of Humane Urine emitted by Healthy men. 1. OF the Colours of Humane Urine. 2. Of the Taste of Humane Urine. 3. Of the odours of Humane Urine fresh and putrified. 4. Of the Heat and Cold of Humane Urine. 5. Of the Specific Gravity of Humane Urine. 6. Of the Consistence of Humane Urine, as to Density, Viscosity, etc. 7. Of the Aerial Particles contained in Humane Urine. 8. Whether Humane Urine is a fit Liquor for Fermentation properly so called. 9 Of the Differences between fresh and stale Humane Urine. 10. Of the Fermentation or Putrefaction of Humane Urine, and the time it requires. 11. Of the Spontaneous Separation of Parts in Humane Urine. 12. Of the vulgar Analysis of Humane Urine by Distillation. 13. Of some other ways of distilling Humane Urine. 14. Of the Proportion of the Principles, or Ingredients of Humane Urine. 15. Of the Spirits of Humane Urine. 16. Of the Phlegm of Humane Urine. 17. Of the Volatile Salt of Humane Urine. 18. Of the Fixed Salt of Humane Urine. 19 Of the compounded Salt of Humane Urine. 20. Of the shining Substances obtainable from Humane Urine. 21. Of the Salt that is predominant in Humane Urine. 22. Of the Empyreumatical Oil, or Oils of Urine. 23. Of the Mellago, or Rob of Humane Urine, and its uses. 24. Of the Terra Damnata of Humane Urine. 25. Of some accidental Differences of Humane Urine, as 'tis emitted in the morning, or at certain Distances from meat, or after the use of certain Aliments, or Medicaments, as Asparagus, Turpentine etc. Or at differing Seasons of the year, as Winter, Summer, etc. 26. Of the Affinity of Humane Urine with divers other Bodies, especially Vegetable and Mineral. 27. Of the Hostility of Humane Urine with Acids, etc. 28. Of the Affinity and Difference between Urine, Blood, Gaul, Milk, etc. and divers other Liquors, or Juices belonging to the Animal Kingdom particularly of the comparison between Humane Urine and that of Beasts. 29. Of the Mechanical uses of Human Urine. 30. Of the Chemical uses of Humane Urine, and its parts especially as Menstruums. 31. Of the Medicinal uses of Humane Urine, External and Internal. An Appendix, containing 1 PAralipomena relating to the History of Humane Urine. 2. Promiscuous Observations, Experiments and Inquiries about Humane Urine, (To be added to the History of it.) The II. Part. Containing Miscellaneous Experiments and Observations, about Humane Blood. IF I were furnished with all the former Experiments, Observations, and Papers, that at several times I made and wrote about Humane Blood, or were supplied with Materials and Opportunities to repair the want of them, (as possibly, God assisting, I may hereafter be,) this Second Part of our Work would perhaps appear much less maimed, and jejune, than it will now be found. But I am so sensible of the disadvantage, that the want of those requisite helps must have brought to this Rhapsody of unconnected Notes, (written at differing times, and on differing occasions) that I was more than once inclined totally to omit it. And 'tis the importance of the Subject, upon which even mean Experiments may sometimes prove of good use, that keeps me from suppressing it. Which I thus early give notice of, that nothing more than loose Experiments, and those referable but to some of the Titles of the History of Humane Blood, (divers others being left untouched) may in the Second Part of our Memoirs be expected. To the IV. (Primary) Title OF THE History of Humane Blood, Experiment I. HAving for some reasons, that need not here be mentioned, been induced to inquire of more than one person, that has used to let many men Blood, whether they did not observe, that some persons found a manifest and considerable change in the heat of the Blood, as it came to issue out first or last? I was answered Affirmatively and told that several persons that had no Fever said, that after their Blood had run out a while, they found it come sensibly hotter than before; and some of them complained, that it came with a degree of Heat that was troublesome, and as they fancied, ready to scald them. To the same Title OF THE History of Humane Blood. Experiment II. I Got a Chirurgeon to put a sealed Weatherglass, adjusted by the Standard of Gresham College, into the Porringer wherein he was going to bleed a young Gentlewoman, that, as the Blood ran out of the open Vein, it might fall upon the Ball of the Instrument; in which the Liquor was made by the warmth to ascend a good way, but not much (if at all) nearer than about an Inch to the smaller upper Ball of the Thermoscope. To the same Title, Experiment 3. BUt within less than an hour before this time, having procured a man of middle age (that seemed healthy enough, and was let blood in the same Shop by the same Chirurgeon) to bleed upon the same Weatherglass, the tincted Spirit of Wine ascended above all the Marks belonging to the Stem, and from the top of the stem expanded itself to a considerable quantity in the small upper Ball of the Stem, (for the Chirurgeon told me it was a fourth part of the height of the Ball;) so that, though we could not determine how high it would have risen if the Stem had been long enough, yet it seemed manifest that the Warmth that made it rise, did considerably exceed the usual Warmth of the Air in the Dog-days, these gauged Thermoscopes being wont to be so framed, as to keep the Liquor in the Stem all the year long without sinking quite into the greater Ball in Winter, or ascending into the lesser in Summer. We employed also, when a young Woman was blooded, a sealed Thermometer that was not gauged, but was much shorter than the other, and in this the tincted Spirit was raised almost to the top, which argued no inconsiderable degree of Heat. To the same Title, Experiment 4. I know not whether it may be worth while to take notice on this occasion, that a Porringer whereinto a healthy man had been let blood having been brought from the Surgeons house to my Lodging, though the Blood was already Coagulated, yet when I thrust into it the Ball of the forementioned gauged Thermoscope, it appeared to have retained Warmth enough to make the Spirit of Urine ascend, by my guess, at least Three or Four fingers breadth above its former station. To the V. Title OF THE HISTORY. SInce Humane Blood does in Distillation afford a not inconsiderable quantity of Oil, one may well suppose it to be a Combustible Body: but every one will not think it so Inflammable, as upon Trial purposely made I found it to be. For having taken a piece of Humane Blood dried till it was almost pulverable, and held it in the flame of a Candle, it would take fire, and afford a Flame much like that which excited it, burning with a crackling noise (much like that of Sea Salt cast into the Fire) and here and there melting. But the Inflammableness of such dried Blood did much better appear, when putting together 4 or 5 throughly kindled Coals, we laid on them a piece of dried Blood of the bigness of a small Nutmeg, or thereabouts, for this yielded a copious and very yellow Flame, and if it were seasonably and warily blown from time to time, as the Effluvia degenerated into smoke, it would by these frequent re-accensions continue to yield clear and Yellow Flames of no contemptible bigness (in proportion to the Body that yielded them) much longer than one would expect. And during a good part of this Deflagration, the Blood appeared as it were to fry upon the Coals, and in good part to melt into a Black substance almost like Pitch. There was also a crackling noise produced, like that which Chemists observe when they decrepitate common Salt. These Experiments for the substance were repeated. But I showed another Instance of the Inflammableness of Blood, that was somewhat surprising. For, having caused some Humane Blood (being part of the same that was made use of in the foregoing Trials) to be so far dried that it was reducible to fine Powder, I took some of this Powder that had passed through a fine Search, and casting it through the Flame of a good Candle, the grains in their quick Passage through it took fire, and the Powder flashed, not without noise, as if it had been Rosin. This Experiment was reiterated with success. To the VII. Title OF THE HISTORY. THE specific Gravity of Humane Blood is more difficult to be determined, than one would readily imagine. For the Gravity of Blood may differ sensibly in several persons according to their Sex, Age, Constitution, etc. And in the same person it may be varied by the time of the year, and of the day, and by being drawn at a greater or lesser distance from a Meal, and by divers other Circumstances. But besides all these things there is a Mechanical difficulty, if I may so call it, that attends the work we are speaking of. For the Blood begins to coagulate so soon after it is emitted, that 'tis scarce a practicable thing to weigh it hydrostatically, either by immersing into it a Solid Body heavier than itself or by weighing the whole Blood in Water; the former way being opposed by the fibrous part of the Blood, and the latter by the Serum. And upon the same account it is somewhat (though not so much) difficult to compare with any accurateness, the weight of Blood, with that of water in a Glass, as also for other reasons which he that shall considerately go about to try it, will quickly find But however, since it may be a thing of considerable use, to have some tolerable Estimate, though nor an exact one, of the difference in Gravity between Water and Humane Blood, by which so many parts of the Body, consistent as well as fluid, are by various changes of Texture both constituted and nourished. I shall subjoin a Trial, that this consideration invited me to make as well as I could. We took the Blood of a sound man emitted all at one time, and put the whole mass of it, as well the Serous as the Fibrous part, into an oblong Glass, of the fittest size and shape we could light on amongst several. And having suffered the Blood to rest till all was settled, and the many Bubbles vanished, we carefully marked with a Diamond that narrower part of the Glass, which the upper surface of the Blood reached to. Then we weighed the Glass and the Blood in a very good Balance and having poured out the Blood (for other uses) and washed the Glass, it was filled with common Water to the lately mentioned Mark, and then weighed again in the same Balance; afterwards the Water being poured out, the Glass alone was Counterpoised in the same scales, and its weight being deducted from each of the two formerly mentioned weights, the Water was found to have weighed ℥ ix. ʒvi. 50. Gr. And the Blood (equal to it in bulk) to have weighed ℥ x. ʒij. 4. Gr. So that the difference between them being ʒiij. 14. gr. the Blood was beavier than so much Water, but about the 25th part (for I omit the Fraction) of its own weight. But this Experiment, for the Reasons above intimated, deserves to be reiterated more than once. To the XI. Title OF THE HISTORY. THough rectified Spirit of Wine be a Menstruum consisting of very subtle parts, and upon that account be a good Dissolvent of divers Vegetable Substances, and as Experience has assured me, of some Metalline ones too, that seem to be more solid than the Fibrous part of Humane Blood; yet looking upon this Body as of a very differing texture from those, I thought Spirit of Wine might have a very differing Operation upon it. And accordingly having separated from the Serum a clot of Blood, that was coagulated but soft enough, as the Fibrous part uses to be before 'tis dried, I kept it for divers hours in a very well dephlegmed Vinous Spirit, from whence I afterwards took it out as hard as if it had been well dried by the fire. To the XIX. Title OF THE HISTORY, Experiment 1. THe Volatile Salt of Humane Blood as fugitive as 'tis, is yet so fusible, that if it be dextrously handled, one part of it may be brought to melt, and as I have tried, even to boil, whilst the rest is flying away. The like I have tried with some other Volatile Salts, and I presume the Observation will hold in most, if not all of them. To the same Title, Experiment 2. THough the Volatile Salt of Humane Blood, when 'tis by sublimation made white and clean, seems to be a very homogeneous Substance and according to the Principles of the Chemists ought to be so; yet I am apt to suspect, either that its Substance is not altogether Similar, or that the Corpuscles that compose it are of sizes, if not also of shapes, differing enough. For having weighed out some Grains of a resublimed Salt of Humane Blood, that seemed very pure, the Odour was so strong and diffusive, that one would have expected the whole Salt, being but six Grains, should in a few hours evaporate away, especially being left in a South Window exposed to the Air in a flat piece of Glass. And yet several days after, if I mistake not seven or eight, I found the Salt so little diminished as to its sensible bulk, (for I did not think fit to weigh it) that it seemed to have wasted but little, and yet what remained had scarce any odour at all that I (whose Organs of smelling are acute enough) could well perceive, notwithstanding which this White Body retained a saline Taste; and a little of it being for trial's sake put upon a solution of common Sublimate in fair Water, readily turned it White. So that it seemed that the penetrant and diffusive Odour of the Volatile Salt of Blood proceeded from some Particles much more subtle and fugitive than the other parts that composed it. But this Experiment ought to be reiterated with differing Quantities of Salt by which means perhaps a heedful observer may discover, whether the comparative Fixity of the Salt, that remains after the Odorous Particles are (at least for the most part) flown away, may not arise from their Coalition with some Acid Corpuscles that are wont to rove up and down in the Air, and adhere to Bodies, disposed to admit their Action. To the same Title, Experiment 3. A dram of Volatile Salt of Humane Blood sublimed in a lamp furnace, was put into as much common Water, as in a narrow Cylindrical Glass served to cover the whole Ball of our Standard or gauged Thermoscope, and when after this had stood a while in the Water to be brought to its temper, we put in the above mentioned Salt, the tincted Spirit of Wine manifestly subsided about two tenth parts of an Inch, and probably would have fallen lower if there had been more water in the vessel, to make a seasonable solution of the Salt, whereof a considerable part lay undissolved at the bottom. To the same Title, Experiment 4. WHen we perceived the Liquor to subside no more, we put to it by degrees some strong spirit of Nitre, till it would no longer make any manifest conflict with the dissolved Salt. The event of which Trial was, that the Liquor in the Thermoscope began presently to mount, and continued to do so as long as the conflict lasted, at the end of which we found by measure, that it had ascended more than three Inches and a half above the Station it rested at when the Ebullition began. To the same Title, Experiment 5. THe figuration of the Volatile Salt of Humane Blood may be considered, either in regard of the Single Grains, or of that Aggregate of them, which when they are made to ascend to the top of the Glass, may be called its Sublimate. The latter of these may be best observed, when the Saline Exhalations first ascend, and fasten themselves to the inside of the blind head, or other Glass that is set to receive them. For, though towards the end of the Operation the Corpuscles lie so thick and confused, as to leave no distinct figures, yet at first one may often observe the little Saline concretions to lie in Rows, sometimes strait enough, and sometimes more or less crooked, with differing Coherencies and Interferings, so that though sometimes these Rows of concretions may, especially if a little befriended by the Spectators fancy, represent either Trees, or their Branches, or Hartshorn, etc. yet these seem not to be constant Representations, depending upon the particular Nature of Humane Blood, but casual figurations that depend upon several accidental causes and circumstances, such as the degree of Fire employed to sublime the Salt, the plenty or paucity of the ascending Matter the capacity and figure of the vessel that receives it, besides several others not needful to be here enumerated. Nor is the Salt of Humane Blood the only Volatile one, among whose elevated concretions I have observed the above named Circumstances to produce diversity of Configurations. But as to single grains of the Volatile Salt of Blood, I discerned a good many of them to be finely shaped. But whether it were accidental or not, further Trial must inform me. I could not, that I remember, observe these handsome Figures in the concretions that composed the Sublimate, that was obtained by rectifying or elevating again the Salt that first came over, but in the grains that in the first Distillation fasten themselves to the upper part and sides of the Receiver; For of these divers were of considerable bigness and solidity, and though they were not all of the same shape, some of them being not unlike to Cubes, others to Parallelopipeds, others to Octoedrons', being almost like Grains of Alum; yet most of them were prettily shaped, being comprehended by Planes smooth, finely figured, and aptly terminating in solid Angles, as if the Concretions had been cut and polished by a Jeweller. To the same Title, Experiment 6. THere is another way that I have used to observe the Figures of the Salt of Blood which was to rectify the Spirit of Blood, so as it may be fully satiated with the Salt whilst the Liquor (in the Receiver continued yet somewhat warm. For then setting aside this over impregnated Liquor when it came to be quite refrigerated (which should be done very slowly) there appeared at the bottom of the Vial a good number of Saline concretions of differing Sizes, several of which, as far as the rest would suffer me to see them, were shot into Crystalline Plates very smooth, and prettily figured, having to the best of my conjecture, their broad and parallel Surfaces of a Hexagonal or an Octogonal Figure regular enough. To the same Title, Experiment 7. ACcording to the Hypothesis of divers Learned Naturalists and Physicians, I supposed it would be thought considerable, to know what would happen upon putting together the Volatile Salt of Humane Blood, and the Spirit of Nitre, with the more fugitive parts of which Salt they conceive the Air to be plentifully, and some of them to be vitally impregnated. To gratify some of these Philosophers, we took a dram of dry Volatile Salt of Blood, (which we made choice of, rather than Spirit, because we had a mind to know what quantity of Acid Salt it would retain;) and having dissolved it in some distilled Water, we dropped into it good Spirit of Nitre, till the two Liquors, though they were shaken, would no longer manifestly act upon one another; the Conflict being ceased, we slowly evaporated the superfluous moisture, which steamed almost all away before the Saline part would coagulate. At length it came to dryness, and then the middlemost part appeared in the form of thin Crystals, not unlike those of Salt Petre; but the rest, which was by much the greater part of the concretion seemed to be a confused mass without any distinct figure. This mass weighed but 12 gr. more than a dram. So that as far as this single Experiment can inform us, the Volatile Salt of Blood may be satiated by so little as a Fifth part of its weight of the Saline Corpuscles of Spirit of Nitre. This compounded Salt being laid in a Window, did appear to be very prone to be resolved by the moisture of the Air, or in the Chemist's Phrase to run per deliquium. A little of the same Salt being put upon a well-kindled Coal, readily melted, and seemed to boil, and towards the latter end, made a noise, and afforded a flame very like common Nitre, save that its colour was more yellow. The strong smell that accompanied this deflagration, was like that which is peculiar to Spirit of Nitre. To the XXI. Title OF THE HISTORY, Experiment 1. HUmane Blood, as most of the other Subjects of the Animal Kingdom that I have had occasion to examine, afforded by Distillation in a Retort an Empyreumatical and very fetid Oil, whose colour was almost black; but that seemed to me to proceed only from the intense and opacous Redness of the Liquor, since some Portions of it being purposely looked on against the Light, when they were spread very thin upon Glass, appeared of a deep yellow, or of a Reddish colour, as they chanced to lie more or less thick upon the Glass. Experiment 2. WHen the Blood was well dried, before it was committed to Distillation, I found it to afford a greater quantity of Oil, in proportion to the weight of the dry Body, than was at first expected. Once out of a pound of not over-well dried Blood, we had near an ounce and a half of Oil; and from another parcel we had it in a far greater proportion to the quantity of Blood that afforded it. Experiment 3. I Remember, that having many years ago had the curiosity to prepare Blood by a very convenient Digestion, and to rectify very carefully the Distilled Liquors that came over, with the Flame of a Lamp, I obtained among other things two Oils of very differing colours, the one being of a Yellow or pale Amber colour, and the other of a deep Red. But that which surprised even ingenious Spectators, was, that though these Oils were both of them afforded by the same Blood, and were clear and pure enough, yet they would not only swim in distinct Masses one over another, but if they were confounded by being shaken together, would little by little separate again, as common Oil and Water are wont to do. Whether the difference in Specific Gravity between these two Oils could keep them from permanently mixing, when they were mingled, as well as it kept their Masses distinct before they were shaken; or whether this seeming Antipathy proceeded from some particular Incongruity in the Textures of these Liquors, I shall not now stay to dispute. Experiment 4. IT may be of some use, especially to those that aim at making Medicinal uses of Humane Blood, to know, that having had a suspicion that the Oil of Blood might contain or conceal divers Saline Particles, capable of being separated from it; we took a parcel of unrectified Oil, and having put to it a convenient quantity of Distilled Water (I suppose Rain-water would have done as well, though common Water would not) we diligently confounded these Liquors by frequent agitation, that the Water might rob the Oil of its separable Saline Corpuscles. Of which Trial the Event was, that after the Liquors were well settled, the Water (whereof we purposely forbore to employ too much) was found impregnated with Saline Corpuscles, that it had by dissolution obtained from the Oil, by virtue of which it was endowed with a moderately brisk taste, and would readily turn Syrup of Violets green, and precipitate out of a Solution of common Sublimate a white Powder, to name now no other of its resemblances to weak Spirit of Humane Blood. And this operation I the more willingly relate on this occasion, that you may be invited to try what the like Method will do on other Empyreumatical Oils, as of Hartshorn, Urine, etc. drawn from bodies that belong to the Animal Kingdom. Experiment 5. TO examine a Conjecture, whose Grounds I cannot stay to set down, we put some unrectified Oil of Humane Blood into a concave piece of Glass, and then having dropped into it as much Oil of Vitriol as might by guess amount to a fourth or third part of the Fetid Oil, we stirred them well together with a slender piece of solid Glass, by which means the mixture was made to send up good store of whitish Fumes or Smoke, and grew, as was expected, considerably hot, it being indeed so hot, that though it amounted not to above a spoonful, yet I was not able without pain & inconvenience, to hold my finger underneath that part of the Glass that contained the incalescent Liquors. Experiment 6. IT may be worth while to relate, that what I have elsewhere observed about some other Empyreumatical Oils, holds true in that of Humane Blood: For having taken some of this Liquor unrectified, though in that state it appeared gross, and dark, and muddy, yet it would readily, even in the cold, dissolve in, or mingle with highly rectified Vinous Spirits, to which it communicated a Reddish colour deep enough, agreeably to what I formerly noted touching the colour of this Oil. To the XXII. Title OF THE HISTORY. I do not remember to have met with, in any Author, an account of the Qualities of the fixed Salt of Humane Blood, and I know not whether any have had the curiosity to prepare it, whereat I do not much wonder, since to obtain so much as ℥ i. Of it there is requisite a considerable quantity, perhaps some pounds of Blood, and the Calcination requires so obstinate a fire, that a man's patience may easily be tired before the Operation be perfected, or by the small appearance of Calcination that the Caput Mortuum will afford him after having been kept Three or Four hours in the fire, he may be induced to conclude that all the Salt of Blood is volatile in a good Fire, and consequently, that it will yield no fixed Salt. But having by an obstinate Calcination obtained between Three or Four Drams of this Salt, I found not that it was a fixed Alcaly or a Lixiviate Salt, but rather as I expected, of the nature of common or Sea-Salt, though not without some little diversity which discovered itself by some nice Trials. But as to the main our Salt was scarce distinguishable from marin Salt, for it tasted very like it, a strong Solution of it did not readily (for I was not at leisure to wait long for the Event) turn Syrup of Violets green or greenish, nor (which was more) Precipitate a Brick Colour or brownish Yellow, no more than a white Powder, out of Solution of Sublimate. I also found by Trial that the Spirit of Salt did not dissolve it as an Alcaly. And to these ways of examining it I added three others, that I had not known used for such a purpose, and which had all three of them such Events as were expected, for having put some Oil of Vitriol upon a little of our dry Salt, it did immediately, as I had divers times observed it to do upon common Salt, corrode it with great violence, and with much foam and smoke. We also dropped a little of our fixed Salt dissolved in distilled water, upon a Solution of fine Silver made in Aqua Fortis, whereupon immediately ensued a Precipitation of a copious white Powder. And lastly for further Trial, having put some leaf Gold into Aqua fortis, which would not (as will easily be believed) work upon it, whilst it was swimming there without being so much as discoloured, I put a little of our Powdered Salt into the Liquor, which being thereby turned into a kind of Aqua Regia, did in a trice, without the assistance of heat, totally dissolve it. To the XXIII. Title OF THE HISTORY OF Humane Blood. THere is a far greater Calcination than one would expect, required to obtain the Caput Mortuum of Humane Blood, which affords but very little of it. For from ℥ xxiv. of dried Blood, (which perhaps was but the Third or Fourth part, in weight of the entire Blood that afforded it) we could get after two days Calcination but ʒij. 9 gr. of Earth. And though this were so carefully made that it may very probably be supposed to deserve the name of Terra Damnata, better than most substances to which Chemists are wont to give that appellation, yet one may suspect, that this itself was not pure Elementary earth, since it had a red colour, very like that of Colcotar of Vitriol. To the VXXI. Title OF THE HISTORY. THe Quantities of the Principles, or rather of the Several differing Substances, obtained by Distillation from Humane Blood, may seem easy, but is indeed very difficult, if at all possible, to be determined not only because of the sometimes great disparity, as to proportion, that may be met with of the Fibrous, or concreted part to the Serum, in the Blood of differing Persons, and even of the same Person according to differing Circumstances, but also, because it is more difficult to distil even the dried and pulverable part of Blood without addition, than those that have not tried, will easily judge, and I doubt that few have tried it well, because I have not met with any that takes notice of the necessity of shifting the Retort, to gain as much Volatile Substance as may be obtained, and leave as little as may be in the Caput Mortuum. For when we distilled a somewhat considerable quantity of dried Blood, though it was warily done by an expert Artist, yet the same heat, that made the lower part of the Blood pass in the form of Exhalations into the Receiver, made the matter so swell, that it heaved up to the upper part of the vessel a considerable quantity of Black Matter, which an ordinary Distiller would have taken and thrown aside for Caput Mortuum, but which an heedful Eye might easily discern to be much of the same nature with what it was, when it was first put in, though it were blackened by the ascending fumes. Wherefore we took it out and mixing it with the remaining Substance, that was less remote from the Nature of a true Caput Mortuum, it was again in another Retort committed to Distillation, whereby we obtained more Oil, etc. And perceiving that even this seeming Caput Mortuum, had at the top of it a pretty deal of matter, that I did not think sufficiently dispirited, if I may so speak, I caused it to be taken out and distilled in a fresh Retort, in which it afforded a not contemptible quantity of Volatile matter. Having thus prepared you not to expect any thing of accurateness, in the determination of the Quantities of the differing substances obtainable even from dried Humane Blood, that I may assist you to make some guess at it, that may approach somewhat ●ear the truth, I will inform you, That having thus in three Retorts distilled 24 Ounces of dried Humane Blood, we obtained of Volatile substances, I mean Spirit together with a little Phlegm, white Salt, and very high coloured Oil ℥ xiij. and a dram, besides several Parcels of thick Oil, that stuck to the Retorts and the Receiver, which we estimated at Seven drams more. So that the whole quantity of the Volatile part amounted to Fourteen Ounces, of which we found the Oil to be about ℥ iij. + ʒuj. And the clear Liquor (which though probably not without some Phlegm, may deserve the name of Spirit, because it was fully satiated with Saline and Spirituous parts) to be ℥ vi +. ʒiijss. besides the Volatile Salt, which when the Spirit was drained from it, appeared white, but wet; for which reason 'twas not possible to determine exactly, neither how much Liquor it yet retained, nor consequently how much itself weighed but you may guests pretty near the truth when I shall have told you, that having carefully sublimed the Salt, there remained in the glass ʒij and about five grains of Phlegmatic Liquor, which was not judged devoid of Salt, though it could not by that operation be separated. And of Volatile Salt in a dry form we obtained ℥ j + ʒijss. The Caput Mortuum amounted to ℥ viij, and somewhat better, which being calcined for two days together, afforded not white, but only brownish red Ashes; whence we obtained ʒvij and a quarter of White and Fixed, Of this Salt see the Notes referred to the 22d Title. but not truly Lixiviate, Salt, and (as was lately noted to another purpose, under the next foregoing Title) ʒij, and nine grains of Earth. In this troublesome Experiment there occurred so many necessary Operations, in each of which we could scarce possibly avoid losing some, and now and then a considerable portion of the matters we handled, that if you had been present at the Trials, perhaps you would not think it strange that I should write, (as I did a little above) that I think it a very difficult thing in Practice, to determine exactly the Proportions of the differing Substances, that may be chemically obtained by vulgarly known Operations, from a proposed parcel of Humane Blood; especially since I think that 'tis without sufficient grounds that Chemists do universally take it for granted, that in Distillations carefully made, the matter that passes into the Receiver, or at least ascends, together with the Remains, or Caput Mortuum, amount to just the weight that the entire Body had before Distillation. Which Paradox I endeavour to make highly probable, if not certain, in another Paper, that belongs not to the present Collection. The Third Part, Containing Promiscuous Experiments and Observations about the Serum of healthy Man's Blood; (Whereof the first may be referred to the Sixteenth, and most of the rest to the Seventeenth of the Titles of the first Order.) SInce the Division that Nature herself makes of Humane Blood, when being let out of the Veins, it is suffered to refrigerate and settle, is, into a fluid or Serous, and a consistent or Fibrous part; and since 'tis found that oftentimes the former of these Parts either equals or exceeds the latter in quantity; I thought it might probably much conduce to the better discovery of the Nature of the Blood, to make some Trials upon the Serum by itself, of which it will not, I hope, be useless to give a summary account in the following promiscuous Observations, that were made only upon the Serum, or Whey of the Blood of Persons presumed to be sound. 1. Having separately weighed the Serum, and the Consistent Part of a parcel of Humane Blood, obtained at once by a single Phlebotomy, we found the latter to weigh ℥ iv + ʒviss. and the former ℥ iij + ʒuj. And having made the like Trial with another parcel of Blood drawn from another person, the Fibrous part weighed ℥ iv + ʒv, and the Serum four ounces. But though in both these Trials the weight of Serum that appeared in one Mass, was inferior to that of the Fibrous Part, yet it would not be safely inferred, that, absolutely speaking, the Fibrous part of either of these parcels of Blood exceeded the other, since we weighed only the Serum that we found in a distinct Mass; whereas a multitude of Serous Particles may well be supposed to be lodged between the Parts of the Consistent Mass or Portion of the Blood; since besides that it is, probably upon the account of the Interspersed Serosity, very soft, it affords a great deal of Aqueous Liquor. 2. This may sufficiently appear by the following Experiment, which was purposely made to examine this Conjecture. We took a Porringer of Blood, wherein the Serum was separated from the Fibrous Portion, that was coagulated into one Consistent Mass, and having carefully poured off all the fluid part, we put the remaining Mass, (which weighed ℥ iv. + ʒ v v 34 gr.) into a small Head and Body, and distilled it in the Digestive Furnace, till the Matter left in the bottom of the Cucurbite was quite dry, which it did appear to be long before it was so indeed. Then taking out the separated Parts of this Red Mass, the dried Portion was found to weigh but ℥ j + ʒiij + 34 gr. whereas the Serous Liquor that passed into the Receiver, and was lympid and aqueous, without any show of Salt or Oil, amounted to ℥ iij + 53 gr. For further satisfaction we repeated this Experiment with the Fibrous part of another parcel of Humane Blood, and found the dry Mass remaining in the Cucurbite to weigh but ℥ j + ʒuj + 50 gr. whereas the Phlegmatic Liquor distilled from it amounted to ℥ seven, that is to more than three times and a half as much as the dry part. 3. Having Hydrostatically examined the Serum of Humane Blood, we found it heavier than common Water. For a piece of Red Sealing-Wax, being suspended in a good Balance by a Horsehair, was found in the Air to weigh ʒj + 56. gr. and the Water 35 gr. but did in the Serum weigh but 33 gr. This Trial was confirmed by a more exact one, made with an Instrument that I purposely caused to be made for weighing Liquors nicely, in which, when Common Water weighed 253 grains, an equal bulk of Serum weighed 302. And because I supposed that all Serums of Humane Blood would not be of equal Specific Gravity, I thought fit to try that of the Blood of another person in the same Instrument, and found it to weigh two grains less, that is, 300 grains in all. 4. We once employed some Serum that could not be (or at least was not) poured off so clear, but that it appeared of a reddish colour; and though we filtered it through Cap-paper, yet a good number of the ting Corpuscles were so throughly mingled with it, that the Liquor passed through the Filtre of a Yellow Colour. 5. To try whether Acids would coagulate our Serum, as I had found they would some other Animal Liquors, I dropped into it some Spirit of Salt, which did immediately produce with it some white Concretions that quickly subsided to the bottom, and there (when there was a pretty quantity of them) appeared like a very light and tender Cheese-Curd. The like Operation, but more powerful had Oil of Vitriol upon another parcel of our Serum. 6. We dropped into some of our Liquor, good Spirit of Sal-Armoniac, which, as we expected, rather made it more Fluid, than did appear to coagulate it, as the Acid Liquors had done. 7. To try whether these Precipitations did not more proceed from the Coalition and Texture of the Acid Salts and the Serum, than barely from the peculiar action of those Salts as Acids, we dropped into another portion of our Serum, a strong Alcalisate Salt, viz. Oil of Tartar per deliquium, which instantly produced a White Curd, as the Spirit of Salt had done, but not, as it seemed to us, so copiously. 8. We poured also upon some Serum, highly rectified Spirit of Wine, which, as we expected, did presently coagulate some part of it into a White Curd, that was copious enough, but appeared much lighter than either of the former, since it would not like them subside, but kept at the top of the Liquor. 9 To try also what a Salt compounded with a Metal, would do upon our Serum, we put to it a little strong Solution of Sublimate, with which it presently afforded a white and curdled substance. We put some of our Serum upon some Filings of Mars, but by reason of the colour of the Liquor itself, we could not satisfy ourselves about the Event. And though we afterwards put another parcel of Serum upon Filings of the same Metal, yet neither did this give us satisfaction, in regard the Vial having been mislaid, was not looked upon again till many days after; at which time the Liquor was grown so thick and muddy, that we could not well discern any more of the colour, than that it was somewhat dark, but not either black or blackish; yet by a Trial or two that we made with a little of this Liquor, it seemed to have made a Solution of some part of the Steel: For putting it to some fresh Infusion of Galls made with Water, it presently afforded a copious Precipitate; but this was so far from being Inky, that it was not so much as dark coloured, but rather whitish; at which some analogous Experiments (mentioned in another Treatise) that I formerly made, kept me from wondering. Yet I shall not omit to add on this occasion, that having mixed with some of our impregnated Serum, a convenient quantity of Infusion of Galls made in a highly rectified Vinous Spirit, the two Liquors did not only afford a kind of Coagulum, or Precipitate, but being left together for some hours, associated into a Consistent Body, wherein the Eye discovered no distinct Liquor at all. 10. But expecting more clear success, by putting some of our Liquor upon Filings of Copper, which when wrought upon by bodies that have in them any thing of Urinous Salt, are wont to give a conspicuous Tincture, we accordingly found that the Metal had in a very few hours discoloured the Menstruum; and afterwards (the Vial being left unstopped, that the Air might have Access to the Liquor) it began by degrees to grow more and more Blue, and within a day after was of a deep Ceruleous Colour. 11. And, to be confirmed in our Conjecture, that this Tincture proceeded from some Particles of Volatile Salt latent in the Liquor, we mixed some of it with a convenient quantity of Syrup of Violets, and thereby obtained what we looked for, namely, a colour, which by reason of the action of those Particles upon the Syrup, appeared of a fine Green. 12. The Blue Tincture or Solution of Copper (mentioned number the 10th) I thought fit to keep for some time, to try whether the Metalline Particles would as it were embalm the Serum they were dispersed through, and preserve the Liquor from Putrefaction. And in Effect, though the Vial was left unstopped in a window in my Bedchamber for many weeks, yet I (whose Organs of smelling are very tender, and who did often put the Vial to my Nose) did not perceive the Liquor to grow at all stinking. 13. About ℥ ij, by guess of Serum of Humane Blood were left in an unstopped vial, (which they more than half filled) for Twenty days or Three weeks and though the Glass usually stood in a South Window, and in the month of July, yet, somewhat to our wonder, the Serum did not by the smell appear putrefyed, and yet had let fall a considerable quantity of Whitish Sediment. But within Three or Four days after this, the Liquor was found to stink offensively. Wherefore we tried whether this more than incipient Putrefaction was accompanied with any Acidity, but could not perceive that it was, since it would not so much as take off the blue colour of the infusion of Lignum Nephriticum or our Succedaneum to it. When it was in this state we put it to distil in a low Cucurbite with a gentle fire, to try if from this faetid Liquor, as is usual from putrefyed Urine, the Spirit would first ascend. But we found the Liquor that first came over to be so little Spirituous or Saline, that it would not in an hours time turn Syrup of Violets green. But yet we judged it not quite destitute of Volatile Alcaly, because having let fell some of it into a good solution of Sublimate, it presently made at White Precipitate. 14. We took some Ounces of Serum of Humane Blood, filtered through Cap Paper to free it from all concreted Substance, and having committed it to Distillation in a small Retort place in a Sand Furnace, we obtained only a few large drops of a Darkish red Oil, some of which subsided to the bottom of the other Liquor, but the greater part swum upon it. We obtained in this first Distillation no Volatile Salt in a dry form, but after a pretty deal of insipid Phlegm had been drawn off, there came over a good proportion of Spirituous Liquor, which smelled almost like the Spirit of Blood; and contained a pretty deal of Volatile Alcaly, so that it would readily turn Syrup of Violets Green, and make a White Precipitate in the solution of Sublimate, and a great Ebullition with Spirit of Salt: This Spirit being rectified in a small Head and Body, there was left in the bottom of the Glass a greater quantity than was expected of a substance thick like Honey, and which was for the most part of a dark Red, and seemed to contain more Oil than appeared upon the first Distillation. The Liquor that came over the Helm, seemed more pure, but not very much stronger. than the first Spirit. Yet, having put it into a Glass Egg with a slender neck, and given the vessel a convenient situation in hot Sand, we obtained a Volatile Alcaly that sublimed into the neck in the form of a White Salt. If this Trial be reiterated with a success like that I have now recited, 'twill seem to argue that the Serous or Fluid part of the Blood affords the same Elementary Principles or Similar Substances, both as to number and kind, that the Fibrous and Consistent part does, though not as to quantity, that of the Oil and dry Salt being less in a determinate portion of Serum, than they would be in a like quantity or weight of the concreted part of the Blood. Having long since observed, that though the Spirituous parts of Man's Urine are wont to require that the Liquor be digested or putrefyed about Six weeks, to loosen them from the more sluggish parts, and make them ascend before the Phlegm, yet if fresh Urine be poured upon a due proportion of Quicklime, a good part of the Spirit will presently be untied, and made capable of ascending in Distillation, I thought it worth while to try, what would be afforded by the Serum of Humane Blood if it were put upon Quicklime, before we distilled it. In pursuit of this Enquiry, we put these two Bodies together, upon whose commixture there ensued (but not presently) a sensible but transient heat. This compounded Body being committed to distillation afforded first a kind of Phlegm in a gentle fire, and then in a stronger, a moderate quantity of Liquor that was thought to smell manifestly of the Lime, but had not a brisk taste. This was accompanied with somewhat more of high coloured & fetid Oil than was expected. The other Liquor being slowly rectified, the Spirit that first came over had a strong and piercing smell, but less rank than that of Humane Blood drawn the ordinary way. It's taste also was not only quick, but somewhat fiery. Being dropped upon Syrup of Violets, it presently turned it green, with a strong Solution of Sublimate in Water, and another of Quicksilver in Aqua Fortis, it immediately made two White Precipitates. And being mingled with some good Spirit of Sea-Salt though upon their being confounded there appeared a thick but whitish Smoke, there was not produced any visible conflict or Bubbles. Yet the Colour of the Spirit of Salt, appeared much heightened by this Operation. But here I must, though not in due place, take notice, that having put the lately mentioned mixture of the Spirit of Serum and of Salt to evaporate, that we might observe whether it would afford a Salt much figured like Sal-armoniac; we found, that it did not, bot that the Colour produced in the Mixture whilst fluid, was so heightened in the concretion we speak of, that it appeared of a Blood-red Colour, but for the shape, it was so confused, that we could not reduce it to any known kind of Salt. By all which Phoenomena this Spirit of the Serous part of Blood, seems to be very near of kin to that of the concreted part of Blood, elsewhere by us described. Because Quicklime is wont to be suspected by Physicians, by reason of its Caustick and Fretting Quality, I thought fit to try whether the Fixed Salt of Pota-shes (which is a Lixiviate Alcaly as well as Lime,) being substituted in the Room of it, would in Distillation have the same Effect upon Serum of Humane Blood. Wherefore to Four parts of the Liquor, we put one of the Salt, and having Distilled them slowly in a Glass Head and Body, we obtained good store of a Liquor, which was not judged any thing near so strong, as that formerly mentioned to have been drawn off from Quicklime. And having put this weak Liquor, afforded by our Serum, to rectify with a gentle heat, we found that even the two spoonfuls of Liquor that first ascended, were not Spirituous, but very Phlegmatic. Nor would it well turn Syrup of Violets Green, though it afforded some little and light Precipitate, when it was put upon a Solution of Sublimate. This may seem somewhat the more remarkable, if I add on this occasion an Experiment, that may be sometimes of Practical use, especially in Physic, and may afford much Light to those that are studious, to know the Nature and Preparations of so very useful a Subject, as Humane Urine. We took three parts of fresh Urine, (that was not many hours old) and having put into it one part of Salt of Pot-ashes, (because that was at hand, for else I presume the fixed Salt of Tartar, or even of Common Wood ashes, would have served the turn) and having slowly distilled them in a Head and Body, there first ascended a Liquor Spirituous enough; which being set aside, We continued the Distillation (after having poured the Mixture into a Retort) till the Remains appeared dry. In this operation it is to be noted; that we obtained not one drop of Oil; and that (perhaps for that reason) this Spirit of Urine was not near so fetid, as being made the Common way 'tis wont to be: and that the Liquor that came over toward the latter end of the Distillation, was so unlike that which the Serum of Blood afforded us, that it was not only considerably strong, and manifestly stronger than that which first ascended, but had a penetrating and fiery Taste, which left a lasting Impression upon the Tongue; and with good Spirit of Salt made a notable Ebullition, which I remember not, that upon Trials purposely made, I found the Spirit of Urine drawn from Quicklime to have done. And, whereas with this last mentioned Liquor, I never (that I remember) found any Volatile Salt to ascend (in a dry form) in the operation made by the help of Salt of Pot-ashes, there came up without Rectification, divers Grains of Volatile Salt, one of which was Crystalline, and considerably large; so that we could with pleasure observe it to be like a Plate curiously figured; but because of some lesser Corns of Salt, that hid one part of it, I could not clearly discern whether it were Hexagonal or Octogonal. But here I must not conceal, that having for greater certainty reiterated this Experiment, it had not so good success; the Liquor that came over appearing much more Phlegmatic, than that which the former Trial afforded us; though we both times employed Salt of Pot-ashes taken out of the same Vessel, and the Urine of the same Person. So that what the reason of the difference may be, does not yet occur to me; but perhaps will upon further Trials: yet this Liquor, that appeared so weak at its first coming over, being rectified per se, afforded more than was expected of a Brisk Saline Spirit, from which we easily obtained a pretty quantity (in proportion to the Liquor) of Volatile Salt in a dry form, and of a very White Colour. We took between two and three Ounces of Serum of Humane Blood, and having put it into a Bolthead, capable by our guess of containing about four times as much Liquor, and having sealed the Glass Hermetically, set it by, as well to observe whether any manifest Changes would appear in it within a Week or two, (of which none in that time occurred to us) as for some other Purposes, that may be guessed at by the following Account of the Event. 1. After we had kept the Liquor sealed up above a whole Year, it did not appear to be at all coagulated, nor to have let fall any manifest Residence; but seemed to be as fluid as when it was first put in. 2. It did not appear to have bred any the least Worm or Maggot. And this I the rather take notice of, because it agrees very well with what I have elsewhere alleged, in disfavour of their Opinion, that think, all the fluid and soft Parts of Humane Bodies do naturally, and of themselves, in no long time breed Worms, or some such Infects; which, for my part, I never observed to be generated in Blood itself, though very long kept, and putrified, provided it were fresh enough when put into the Glass, and by an exact Closure kept from being any way blown upon by Flies, or impregnated by Seminal Particles, that may be unsuspectedly conveyed to it by the Air. 3. Nor did there appear to the Eye any Mother, as they call it, or Recrementitious Substance, that is supposed in Liquors always to accompany, and betoken Putrefaction. 4. One of my Designs, in our Experiment, being to try whether the Serum would, by the mutual Action of the Parts upon one another, or by that of some Catholic, permeating Fluid, afford so much Air as would either crack, or more violently break the Glass; the Tip at which the Bolt-head was sealed, was warily taken off with a Key, whereupon there rushed out a pretty deal of Air, with a considerable noise: And I doubted not that this generated (or at least extricated) Air, had been considerably compressed whilst it was penned up; when casting my Eyes on the Liquor, to discover what change this Eruption had made there, I perceived on the upper Surface of the Liquor a multitude of small Bubbles, such as are wont to be seen in Drink a little Bottled, upon the opening of the Vessel; and also in divers Liquors, after the Air has been penned up with them, when the Glasses come to be unstopped. And I also the less wondered at this, because I remembered what formerly happened to me, after having sealed up some Sheep's Blood, and kept it for several Days in a gentle warmth; for, though the Glass it was enclosed in, were far larger than this that contained our Serum; yet after some time, when no Body offered any violence to it, or was near enough to stir it, it was suddenly blown up with a surprising noise by the Aereal or Elastical Corpuscles that were produced, or set free by the Putrefaction we discovered to have been made. 5. The smell of our Serum was strong, but not Cadaverous, but rather resembled that of the Tincture of Sulphur made with Salt of Tartar and Spirit of Wine, or of some such Sulphureous Preparation. 6. One of the chief aims I had in keeping our Serum so long Sealed up, was to try, whether by a Digestion, or Putrefaction for some Months, the Serum of Blood would like Urine (which is commonly thought to be a Liquor made of it, and of very near Cognation to it) afford a Saline Spirit, or an Alcaly Volatile enough to ascend before the Phlegm. And in pursuit of this enquiry we committed our Serum to Distillation in a small Glass Head and Body, and in a Digestive Furnace, being careful to take the first Spoonful, or thereabouts of Spirit that passed into the Receiver: But we found, that, though this Liquor at first smelled strong enough, (I say at first, because the Odour soon after grew fainter) yet the taste was not at all brisk nor Spirituous like that wont to be obtained by Distillation from Putrified Urine. Nor did our Liquor being dropped into a little Syrup of Violets, give it presently any manifest greenness. But yet, because I found it not insipid, I thought fit to examine it a little more critically, and dropped a convenient quantity of it into a clear and Saturate Solution of Sublimate in Common Water, by which means there was produced a whiteness like that (but not near so dense) which Spirit of Urine, or Volatile Salt would have produced. And by this I was invited to mix some of it with a little Syrup of Violets upon a piece of White Paper, and also to wet with the same (Distilled) Liquor, some small filings of Copper spread upon another piece of Paper, and to leave them both all Night in the open Air, that the Liquor might have time enough to work upon the Syrup, and the Metal. By which course we found in the Morning, that the former was turned green, and the latter was so far dissolved as to leave a large bluish stain upon the Paper. I mention these things the rather, because according to the Opinion of some Learned Men, this degenerated Serum should have been of an Acid, not an Alcalisate nature. 7. The near Cognation that, according to some Learned Physicians, there is between Milk, and the more Serous part of the Blood, invited me to try whether, (according to an Experiment made on New Milk, that I have heard ascribed to the famous Silvius,) our Serum of Humane Blood would grow Red, by being kept continually stirring over a moderate heat with a competent quantity of Salt of Tartar, but in two trials, we found not any redness produced, though one of them was made in a Vessel of refined Silver, with an eighth part of the Salt in reference to the Serum, which was the same proportion that we had used when we made the Experiment succeed well in Milk. 8. Perhaps it will be needless to take notice, that the Serum of Humane Blood will by heat be in a short time coagulated into a kind of Jelly, or rather, as far as I have observed, into a Substance like a Custard, as to Consistence, though not as to Colour. And therefore I shall now add, that having found that Acid Spirits also would coagulate Serum. I thought fit to try, whether Alcalys would not oppose, or retard its Coagulation. Of which Trial the event was, that having put Spirit of Humane Blood to a convenient quantity of Serum, and caused them to be kept stirring over a very gentle Fire, though the Volatile Alcaly did not hinder the Coagulation, yet it seemed to make it both more slow, and more soft or lax. And this effect was yet more considerable, when we tried another parcel of Serum with Salt of Tartar instead of Spirit of Blood. The Fourth Part, Containing the History of the Spirit of Humane Blood Begun; In an Epistolary Discourse to the very Learned Dr. J. L. Sir, HAving by want of leisure and opportunity, been reduced to treat of the History of Humane Blood in so imperfect and desultory a way, that several of the Titles have been left wholly untouched, and others have been but transiently and jejunely treated of; I thought fit to handle more fully, some one of the Primary Titles, and branch it into its several subordinate or secundary Titles. And for this purpose I pitched upon the Spirit of Humane Blood, being willing on so noble a Subject to give a Specimen of what might have been done to Illustrate the other Primary Titles, if some requisites had not been wanting. And since the Spirit of Humane Blood is at least one of the noblest of Urinous or Volatile Alcalies; so that most of the things that shall be taught concerning that, may with some little variation be applied to Spirit of Urine, Hartshorn, Sal-Armoniac, Soot, etc. I thought fit to lay down a Scheme of subordinate Titles, whose Heads (which amount to above half the number of the Primary ones, that belong to the whole History of Blood) should be so numerous and comprehensive, that this Paper may pass not only for an Example, but for a kind of summary of the History of Volatile Salts in general, and so supply the loss of a Paper that I once begun on that Subject. And now I should without further Preamble proceed to the intended History, but that I think it requisite to premise three or four short Advertisements. Whereof the First shall be, That the Spirit I employed in making the following Trials and Observations, was drawn from Humane Blood without any Sand, Day, or other Additament, (save perhaps that by a mistake that could do no mischief, a small parcel had some Vinous Spirit put to it to preserve it a while) and that the first distillations (which I so call to distinguish them from Rectifications) were performed in Retorts placed in Sand, (and not with a naked Fire) care being taken that the Vessels were not too much filled because Blood, N. B. if it be not well dried, is apt to swell much, and pass into the Neck of the Retort, if not into the Receiver. Secondly, I desire to give notice, that the Blood we made use of, was drawn from Persons that parted with it out of custom, or for prevention, which was the main reason why I was so scantly furnished with Blood, that of sound persons being in the place I resided in, very difficult to be procured in quantity, and that of sick persons being unfit for my purpose. Thirdly, It may not be amiss for obviating of some Scruples, to advertise that, there being so great a Cognation between the Spirit and Volatile Salt of Humane Blood, that, as we shall see anon, 'tis probable that the latter is little other than the Spirit in a dry form, and the former than the Salt united with Phlegm enough to give it a Liquid form; 'tis presumed that it may be allowable to consider the Volatile Salt of Blood as its dry Spirit. Lastly, To the three foregoing, 'twill be fit to add this Fourth Advertisement, That tho, in comparison of the Particulars thrown in to the Second and Third Part of those Memoirs, the ensuing Fourth Part is methodically written, yet you are not to expect to find in the Method any thing of Accurateness; since the Experiments and Observations whereof this Fourth Part consists, were written in loose Papers, at distant times and on differing occasions, and because of this and of my haste, will be found, without any regular dependence or connexion, referred to the Titles under which they are ranged, in that order, or rather disorder, wherein they chanced to come to hand. A List of the Secondary Titles concerning The Spirit of Humane Blood. a. 1. WHether Humane Blood may be so ordered by Fermentation or Putrefaction, as that in Distillation, a Spirit, either Urinous or Vinous, may ascend before the Phlegm. b. 2. Whether Spirit of Humane Blood be really any thing but the Volatile Salt and Phlegm well commixed. c 3. Of the Species of Saline Bodies to which Spirit of Humane Blood is to be referred. d. 4. Whether Spirit of Humane Blood be differing from Spirit of Urine, and other Spirits that are called volatile Alcalies. e. 5. Of the Quantity of Spirit contained in Humane Blood: Whether accompanied which its Serum or dried. f. 6. Of the Specific Gravity of Spirit of Humane Blood. g. 7. Of the Odour, Taste, Colour, Transparence and Consistence of the Spirit of Humane Blood. h. 8. Of the Dissolutive Power of the Spirit of Humane Blood. i. 9 Of the Tinctures that may be drawn with Spirit of Humane Blood. k. 10. Of the Coagulating Power of the Spirit of Humane Blood. l. 11. Of the Precipitating Power of the Spirit of Humane Blood. m. 12. Of the Affinity between Spirit of Humane Blood, and some Chemical Oils and Vinous Spirits. n. 13. Of the Relation between Spirit of Humane Blood and the Air. o. 14. Of the Hostility of Spirit of Humane Blood with Acids, whether they be in the form of Liquors, or of Fumes. p. 15. Of the Medicinal virtues of Spirit of Humane Blood outwardly applied. q. 16. Of the Medicinal virtues of Spirit of Humane Blood inwardly used in Pleurisies, Headaches, Coughs, Fevers, Scurvies, Cachexies, Dropsies, Fits of the Mother, etc. App. An Appendix containing Parralipomena, and Promiscuous Experiments, and Observations concerning the Spirit of Humane Blood. The I. (Secondary) Title. Whether Humane Blood may be so ordered by Fermentation, or Putrefaction, as that in Distillation a Spirit either urinous or Vinous, may ascend before the Phlegm. IT is not unlike, that you will think the Question proposed in this Title, more curious than necessary; and I shall not quarrel with you if you do so. But that you may not think it groundless, I desire two things may be considered; first, how ordinary it is, especially since the Learned Dr. Willis's Writings came to be applauded, to look upon Fevers as inordinate Fermentations of the Blood. And the second, that though Humane Urine, which has a great cognation with the Humane Blood, will not, whilst fresh, afford by Distillation a Spirit or Volatile Salt, till the Phlegm be first drawn off, and then requires a good Fire to make it rise; yet, if it be kept for a competent time (which usually amounts to divers weeks) in Fermentation, (as Chemists commonly call that, which in this case I would rather style Putrefaction) the Spirit and Volatile Salt will with a gentle Fire ascend, before much, if not before any Phlegm. These two Considerations, as I was intimating, may keep that from being thought a groundless Question, which has been above proposed. And, though I more incline to the Negative than to the Affirmative, at least as to the first part or member of the Question, yet I thought it well deserved to be determined, if it may be, by Experiment. But for want of a sufficient quantity of Blood, and good luck in making Trials with that I could procure, I must suspend my Judgement, till further Experience resolve me one way or other. By what I have yet tried, I am not much encouraged to expect from Humane Blood a Vinous or Ardent Spirit, though that be the usual product of Fermentation in Liquors, and I am the less encouraged to expect this, because I am not sure that there is any Fermentation truly & properly so called in Humane Blood, either within or out of the Body; having never yet found any thing in the Blood, or Urine, that convinced me, that either of those Liquors would afford an ardent Spirit. I remember I once kept Humane Blood for a year together, in a Glass very carefully, and if I mistake not, Hermetically closed, with a purpose to try, whether any Spirits would first ascend. But when the Blood came to be exposed to the contact of the Air, the stink was so great and offensive, especially to some Ladies that lived in the house, that we were fain to have it hastily thrown away. Another time, having caused some Sheep's Blood to be digested in a pretty large Vial Hermetically sealed, after it had continued a good while in the Digestive Furnace, upon a sudden, though no Body touched it, it broke with a surprising noise, and blew off the long neck of the Vial. Two or three almost like mischances I had with Attempts made on Humane Blood, which I was the more troubled at, because I thought it not very improbable, that by Putrefaction the Texture of Blood, like that of Urine, may be so loosened or otherwise altered, that a Volatile Salt or Spirit may in a slow distillation ascend before the Phlegm. But, as I said before, 'tis only from further Experience that I must expect Satisfaction in these Inquiries. Yet in the mean time I shall add on this occasion, That the ill success I had in my Attempts to draw a Spirit from entire Portions of Blood, without separating any part from it, or adding any foreign Body to it, did not hinder, but rather invite, me to try, whether I could not make some Experiment of affinity to those above mentioned upon whose success I might ground some kind of Conjecture, what would have been the Events of those Trials, in case they had not miscarried. Wherefore looking upon the Serum of Blood as the likeliest part of it, as well as much more likely than the entire Blood, to concur to a Fermentation properly so called; we took some Ounces of this Serum, and put to it about a fourth part of Raisins (of the Sun) well bruised, and kept them in a Glass, whereof a considerable part was left empty, and having closed the Vessel, we kept it in a warm room for many days. The Event of this Trial was, that within few days the Raisins began to emerge, and afterwards continued to float; and there was produced or extricated a considerable quantity of permanent and Springy Air, as by a certain Contrivance described in another Paper, did manifestly appear. Both which Phaenomena seemed plainly to argue, that there had been some degree of Fermentation produced in the mixture. But yet when we came to distil the thus altered Serum, though it did not stink, as if it had putrefied it would have done, yet the Liquor that first ascended, even with a gentle heat, did not taste or smell like a Vinous Spirit, though it was differing from mere Phlegm. If I had been furnished with a greater quantity of Serum, perhaps the reiterated Experiment would have given more satisfaction; and in making it I would have been careful to observe, whether the produced Fermentation might not be suspected to proceed not so much from the whole Serum as such, as from the Aqueous Particles, in distinction from the others that concurred with them to compose it. As for the Second Question intimated in this present First Title, namely, whether Blood will by Digestion or Putrefaction be so opened, as that when it is distilled, the Spirit will ascend before the Phelgm: I likewise endeavoured to try, That, with the Serous part of the Blood poured off from the Fibrous or Coagulated, as supposing it in this separated state, more proper for our Trial than the entire Blood: and having kept a pretty quantity of this Serum above four times as long, as I had observed to have been sufficient, to make Urine in Distillation part with its Spirit before its Phlegm; we distilled this long kept Liquor with a very gentle sire, that few or none besides the fugitive parts might at first ascend. But we found the Liquor that came over, to have but little strength, either as to smell or Taste, nor would it readily turn Syrup of violets Green. I say readily, because after they had been some hours together it would. But yet as a Volatile Alcaly, it would presently turn a strong solution made of common Sublimate in fair Water, into a White, Opacous, and almost Milky Liquor. The II. (Secondary) Title, Whether Spirit of Humane Blood be really any thing but the Volatile Salt and Phlegm well commixed? SInce the Question moved in this Title may be also propounded concerning other Alcalisate Spirits, as those of Urine, Hartshorn, Soot, etc. It is upon that account the more important. And for this Reason, as well as for the difficulty of determining it by cogent Proofs, I may think myself obliged to forbear taking upon me to decide it peremptorily, till further Experience shall have furnished me with fuller Information. So that for the present about this difficult Question, I shall venture to say no more than this, that what has hitherto occurred to me, inclines me to think that the Spirit of Humane Blood is totally composed of Volatile Salt and Phlegm, if by Phlegm, we understand not Simple, or Elementary Water, but a Liquor, that, althô it pass among Chemists for Phlegm, and deserves that name better than any other Liquor afforded by Humane Blood, yet in the strictest acception it is not That; for when the Spirit, Volatile Salt, and Oil, are separated from it by Distillation and Sublimation, as far as they are wont to be in Chemical Preparations of Volatile Alcalies, the remaining Liquor, which passes for Phlegm, will yet be impregnated with some Particles of Oil, and perhaps also with some few of volatile Salt, that are too minute to be distinguishable by the naked Eye. But whether frequent Rectifications may so accurately separate these Heterogeneous parts, as perfectly to free the Aqueous ones from them, and thereby reduce the Phlegm to Simple or Elementary Water, I am content at least till I shall have had sufficient Quantities of distilled Blood for making the requisite Trials, to leave as a Problem. And this the rather, because I am not sure, but that by frequent Distillations, some Particles of the Fire may from time to time Substantially be associated with those of the Liquor; nor yet but that even in the first Distillation of Humane Blood, The Fire may have either separated or produced a Liquor that though almost strengthless, and not justly referable to either of the received Principles or Ingredients, Oil, Salt and Earth, is not yet Phlegm truly so called, but a Liquor as yet Anonymous; as I have elsewhere shown, that Woods and many other Bodies afford by Distillation a Liquor that is not an Oil, and is neither Acid nor Alcalisate, and yet is no true Phlegm, but as I have there styled it, an Adiaphorous Spirit. It will probably be thought Material, if on this occasion I add, in favour of the Opinion or Conjecture to which I lately owned myself inclined, That considering that the knowledge of the Composition of a Body may be sometimes as well, if not better, investigated by the way of generating or producing of it, as by that of Analysing or Resolving it; I made for Trials sake the following Experiment. We dissolved in distilled Water as much Volatile Salt of Humane Blood as the Liquor would take up, and then having carefully distilled it in a conveniently shaped Vessel, with a regulated degree of Heat, the Distillation afforded us such a Liquor as was desired, namely one that by Smell, Taste and divers Operations, appeared to be a good brisk Spirit of Humane Blood. This Experiment for the main, was made another time with the like success. The III (Secondary) Title. Of the Species of Saline Bodies to which the Spirit of Humane Blood is to be referred. I need not spend much time to declare a thing that is now so well known to many Physicians and Chemists of this and some of the neighbouring Countries, as 'tis that of late years Saline Spirits obtained by Distillation have been observed to be of two sorts. But because there are many, even of the Learned especially in the remoter parts of Europe, that are not well acquainted with this Distinction, lest some to whom you may show this Paper should chance to be of that number, it may not be amiss to intimate in two or three Words, that the Saline Spirits that ascend in Distillation, are some of them Acid in Taste, as Spirit of Nitre, Spirit of Vitriol, etc. And some others have Tastes very differing from that, being rather somewhat like Common Salt, or like Lixiviate Salts. And the difference is greater in their operations than in their Tastes; For being put together there will presently ensue a manifest Conflict between them, and usually (for I have not found it to hold in all cases) the one will Precipitate the Bodies that the other hath Dissolved. And 'tis necessary to add, that among the Salts called Alcalies, some are Fixed in considerable degrees of Fire, and others not, for which reason divers modern Spagyrists and Physicians, that take Acid and Alcaly for the true Principles of Mixed Bodies, call the one Fixed and the other Volatile Alcalies. And, though I have elsewhere questioned this Doctrine, and given my Reasons why I approve neither it nor the Appellations newly mentioned, and often call the Salts made by Combustion, simply Alcalies or else Lixiviate Salts, and those that ascend sometimes urinous, and sometimes Volatile Salts and Spirits: yet, since the Names of Fixed Alcalies and Volatile ones are now much in request, I shall comply with custom, & oftentimes (though not always) make use of them in the sense of those that employ them. These things being premised I may now seasonably propound this important Question, To what Species of Saline Bodies the Spirit of Humane Blood is to be referred? I say of Saline Bodies because though the Spirit of Blood be a Liquor, yet it's more efficacious Operations seem almost (if not more than almost) totally to depend upon the Fugitive Salt wherewith it abounds. The ground of the foregoing Question may be twofold; the one, that I have elsewhere proved against the general supposition, that some Volatile Salts, that arise even in a dry form, may not be of an Alcalisate; but Acid nature, and the other, that not only Helmont and his Disciples, but a great part of the Modern Chemists and Physicians too, ascribe Digestion to an Acid Ferment or Menstruum in the Stomach; Whence one may suspect that store of Acid Corpuscles may pass into the Mass of Blood, & impregnate it, as I elsewhere show that Particles of differing Natures may be even by the senses discovered to do. But notwithstanding this, I shall not scruple to say in answer to the propounded Question, that, as far as I have hitherto been able to observe, the Spirit of Humane Blood is manifestly referable to that Classis that many call Volatile Alcalies (and I often call urinous Spirits) for I find Spirit of Blood capable of doing those things, the performance of which has been looked on almost ever since I publicly proposed them, as the Touchstone to know Volatile Alcalies, and distinguish them from the other sorts of Saline Bodies. For the Spirit of Humane Blood will make a great conflict with divers Acid Spirits, as Spirit of Salt, Aqua fortis, etc. It will immediately turn Syrup of Violets from its Blue Colour into a fair Green, 'twill Precipitate a Solution of Sublimate in common Water, into a White Powder, and in short I found it to perform those other things that may be expected from Volatile Alcalies as such, as often as I had occasion to make Trial of it, sometimes on one Body, and sometimes on another. If I were sure (as for Reasons elsewhere declared I am not) that the Digestion of Aliments were made by an Acid Ferment or Juice, whencesoever the Stomach is furnished with it, I should be prone to suspect that some Acid Particles may be mingled with the Blood. But however that would not hinder me from referring the Spirit of Humane Blood to Volatile Alcalies, because so few Acid Particles would be either destroyed by the Alcalisate ones, that are so abundant in the Spirit, or at least these would be so very much predominant, as to allow us very warrantably to give on their account a Denomination to the Mixture. As if a few drops of Spirit of Vinegar were mixed with some Pints or Pounds of stale Urine, they would either be deprived of their Acidity by some Corpuscles of a contrary nature, that they would meet with in the Liquor, or they would be so obscured and overpowered by the Fugitive Salts it abounds with, that the Acetous Corpuscles would not hinder the Spirituous Liquor drawn from the Mixture by distillation to be justly referable to the Classis of Volatile, urinous Salts. The IV. (Secondary) Title. Whether Spirit of Humane Blood be differing from Spirit of Urine, and other Spirits that are called Volatile Alcalies? THe Question, Whether there be any difference between the Spirit of Humane Blood, and other volatile Alcalies? As Spirit of Urine, Hartshorn, etc. seems to me very difficult to be decided, because two Bodies may agree in many Qualities, and perhaps in all of those that are the most obvious, and yet may on some third Body, or in some Cases, manifest distinct Powers, and have their peculiar Operations. Nor do I yet see any certain way, by which the Affirmative part of the Question, though it should be true, can be clearly demonstrated. Therefore leaving the peremptory Decision of this Question, to those that shall think themselves qualified to make it, I shall (at least till I be further informed) content myself to make a Couple of Remarks, in reference to the proposed Enquiry. And first I think, there may be a great difference between Volatile Salts or Spirits, as they are ordinarily prepared for medicinal uses, and as they may, by reiterated Rectifications, and otherways of Depuration, be brought to as great a simplicity or Purity, as a dextrous Chemist can bring them to: I thus express myself, because as to an Exquisite or Elementary Simplicity though some eminent Artists pretend to it, I am not sure that Chemists can attain it; especially considering what I elsewhere show of the unheeded Commixtures, that may (at least sometimes) be made by the Corpuscles of the Fire, with those of the Bodies it works on. My other Remark is, that whether or no, if the Spirit of Humane Blood, and other Liquors abounding like it in Volatile Alcalies, were reduced to as great a purity as they can by Art be brought to, they would be altogether alike in their Nature and Qualities; yet, if we consider them (as men use to do) in that state wherein they are wont to be thought pure enough for medicinal uses, and are accordingly employed by Physicians and Chemists; I think it very probable, that there is some difference between the Spirit of Humane Blood and some other Volatile Alcalies, and particularly those afforded by Urine and by Hartshorn. For though to me the bad smells of all these Liquors seem to be much alike, yet divers Ladies, and those of very differing Ages, affirm they find a manifest difference between these smells, and do abhor the odour of Spirit of Blood as a stink, though they will with pleasure hold their noses a great while over the Sp. of Hartshorn, and even that of (vulgar or European) Sal-armoniac (which is in effect a Sp. of Man's Urine) and affirm themselves to be much refreshed by it. And, whereas with Spirit of Urine or of Sal-armoniac joined in a due proportion with Spirit of Salt, I have usually (as I have long since noted in another Paper a The usefulness of Experimental Philosophy. ) been able to make a Salt that shoots into the peculiar Figure of Sal-Armoniac, which figure is very differing from that of Sea Salt, Nitre, etc. I have seldom, if ever obtained (at least in any quantity) a Salt of that shape, by the commixture of the Spirit of Humane Blood, with that of common Salt; for, though their Saline Corpuscles, upon the Evaporation of the Superfluous moisture, would coagulate together, yet the concretion seemed confused, and either all or a great part of it was destitute of that neat and distinct shape, that I had several times observed in concretions, made by the mixture of the Spirit of Sea-Salt with Urinous Spirits. And, as to the Medicinal virtues of Spirit of Blood, though I have not had opportunity to make comparisons experimentally, and therefore shall forbear to affirm any thing myself, yet, if we credit the famous Helmont, there is a considerable difference between the Sp. of Humane Blood, & that of Humane Urine, since he somewhere expressly notes, (though I remember not the place, nor have his Book at hand) that the Spirit of Humane Blood cures Epilepsies, which is a thing the Spirit of Urine will not do. The V. (Secondary) Title. Of the Quantity of Spirit contained in Humane Blood whether accompanied with its Serum or dried. 'TIs not easy to determine the exact proportion of that Liquor, which, when by Distillation obtained from Humane Blood, the Chemists call its Spirit, in reference to the other Principles or Ingredients whereof the Blood consists. For some men's Blood may be much more Phlegmatic or serous than that of others, which itself may be more or less Spirituous according to the Complexion, Age, Sex, etc. of the person that bleeds. But, to make some Estimate, that will not probably much recede from what may be ordinarily found, I shall inform you, that Twelve Ounces of healthy Humane Blood afforded us seven Ounces and a half of Phlegm, and consequently about Four Ounces and a half of dry stuff. And then I shall add, that having committed to Distillation in a Retort in a Sand Furnace seven Ounces of well dried (but not scorched) Blood, we obtained about seven Drams, that is, about an Eighth part of Spirit, to which though it were not rectified, that Name may well enough be given, because it was so very rich in Spirituous and Saline parts, that it left in the Receiver, and in the Vial I kept it in, a good deal of Volatile Salt undissolved, which a Phlegmatic Liquor would not have done. And if that be admitted for a truth, that was above proposed as a very likely Conjecture; namely, that Spirit of Blood is but Salt and Phlegm united, we may well suppose that Humane Blood yields a far greater proportion of Spirit than this; since from the seven Ounces of dried Blood last mentioned, we obtained about Five Drams of Volatile Salt, which if we had by Distillations united with a fit quantity of Phlegm, would probably have afforded us near Two Ounces more of a Liquor deserving the name of Spirit. The VI (Secondary) Title. Of the Consistence and Specific Gravity of the Spirit of Humane Blood. TO the Consistence of the Spirit of Humane Blood, taken in the more lax sense of the word Consistence, one may refer its Specific Gravity, (as that is usually proportionate to the Density of Bodies,) the greater or lesser degree of Fluidity that belongs to the Liquor as a Mass, and the greater or lesser Subtlety of the Minute Parts whereof it is composed, or wherein it abounds. And as to the first of the Three Attributes, we have noted to be referrable to the Consistence of our Spirit; Gravity is a Quality that is so radicated, if I may so speak, in the nature of Visible Fluids or Liquors, and does so obstinately accompany them, that I durst not omit to examine the Specific Gravity (that is, the Gravity in proportion to the Bulk) of Spirit of Humane Blood; though by reason of the small quantity I had of it, I could not make use of the same Instruments, that I was wont to employ in Hydrostatical Trials, where I was not so stinted in the Liquor to be examined. But however I made a shift to make a Trial of this kind, by which I found, that a compact body weighing fifty eight Grains in the Air, and in Water six Grains and three fourth parts weighed in Rectified Spirit of Humane Blood, but five Grains and one fourth part. And on this occasion I shall tell you, what I presume, you did not expect, which is, that notwithstanding the Volatility of our Spirit of Blood, I found that a pretty large piece of Amber being put into it, did not, as most men would confidently expect, fall to the bottom of the Liquor, but kept itself floating at the upper part of it, and if plunged into it would emerge. The next Quality we referred to the Consistence of our Spirit of Blood, is the Degree of its Fluidity, or, if you please, it's greater or lesser Immunity from Tenaciousness or Viscosity, which some Modern Philosophers (whose Opinion needs not here be discussed) think to belong to all Liquors as such. Now one may be the more inclined to expect a manifest Degree of Tenacity in the Spirit of Humane Blood, because among many Modern Chemists it passes for an Alcaly; and we know that divers other Alcalisate Liquors, as Oil of Tartar per deliquium, Fixed Nitre resolved the same way, Solution of Pot-ashes, etc. are sensibly unctuous, and but languidly Fluid. But yet I did not observe, that some rectified Spirit of Humane Blood, that I purposely tried between my Fingers, did feel more unctuous than Common Water. And whereas those that sell Brandy, or Spirit of Wine, are wont to shake it, till it afford some Froth, and then by the stay this makes on the Surface, to judge of the Tenacity or Tenuity of the Liquor, esteeming that to be the most Unctuous, whereon the Bubbles make the longest stay, and that the finest on which they soon disappear; I thought fit by the same Method to examine Spirit of Humane Blood, and found that the Froth would last very little on the Surface of it, the bubbles breaking or vanishing, almost (if not quite) as nimbly, as if the Liquor had been good Spirit of Wine. And I likewise observed, that when I warily let fall some of our well rectified Spirit of Blood upon some other body, it seemed to me, that the single drops were manifestly smaller than those of Water, and of several other Liquors, would have been, which will be much confirmed by one passage of what I have to say about the third Quality referrable to the Consistence of the Spirit we treat of. Because it may be a thing of some Importance, as well as Curiosity, to know how subtle the active parts of Spirit of Humane Blood are, and how disposed and fitted to disperse or diffuse themselves through other Liquors of convenient Textures; to make a visible discovery of this, I bethought myself of a Method, that having formerly devised for several purposes, I thought fitly applicable to my present Design. For having looked upon it as a great defect, that men have lazily contented themselves to say in general, that such a Body is of subtle, or of very subtle Parts, without troubling themselves to find out any way of making more particular and less indeterminate Estimates of that subtlety; I was invited to find out and practise a way that might on divers occasions somewhat supply that defect. But having delivered this easy method in another Paper, I shall forbear to repeat a tedious account of it in this; since it may here suffice to tell you in short, what will perhaps surprise you; namely, That according to the forementioned way, we so prepared Common Water by Infusions made in it without heat, that by putting one single drop of our rectified Spirit of Humane Blood into ℥ iv. + ℈ iv. (which make 2000 grains) of the prepared Water, and lightly shaking the Vial, there appeared throughout the Liquor a manifest Colour, whereof no degree at all was discernible in it just before. Which sufficiently argues a wonderful subtlety of Parts in the Spirit we employed; since that a single drop of it could disperse its Corpuscles, so as to diffuse itself through, and mingle with two thousand times as much Water, and yet retain so much Activity, as to make their presence not only sensible, but conspicuous, by a manifest change of Colour they produced. I confess this computation is made, upon supposition that a drop of Water weighs about a grain, and that a drop of our Spirit of Blood was of the same weight with a drop of Water. The former supposition is commonly made; and though I have not found it to be exactly true, but that a drop of Water weighed a Tantillum more than a Grain; yet that difference is much more than recompensed, by that which we found between the weight of a drop of Water, and the weight of one of Spirit of Humane Blood. For having in a very good and carefully adjusted Balance, let fall ten drops of Common Water, and as many of our Rectified Spirit of Humane Blood, (as judging it a safer way to make an Estimate, by comparing so many drops of each Liquor than one alone;) we found, as we might well expect, that a drop of this last named Liquor, as it was manifestly lesser, so it was far lighter, than a drop of Water, in so much, that the whole ten drops did not amount to four Grains. So that we may safely judge the drop of Spirit to have manifestly diffused itself, and acted upon above 4000 times so much Water in weight, (and perhaps in bulk too) since indeed the proportion extended a good way towards that of one to 5000; and so may be said to be as that of one to between 4000 and 5000, which, though it may seem incredible to those that are unacquainted with the great subtlety of Nature and Art, in the Comminutions they can make of Bodies; yet I can by repeating the Experiment easily convince a doubter, in less than a quarter of an hour. And this Subtlety of the Parts of Blood will appear yet greater, if it be considered, (what I think I can evince,) that no contemptible part of the single drop I employed was Phlegm, useless to the change produced, the operation being due to the Energy of the Saline Spirits of the little drop. The VII. (Secondary) Title. Of the Odour, Taste, Colour, and Transparence of the Spirit of Humane Blood. THose Qualities, that in my Opinion more generally than deservedly are called first, do not any of them belong to the Spirit of Humane Blood, in such manner as to oblige me to say any thing of them in relation to it. And therefore I shall content myself to have made this transient mention of them, to keep it from being thought, that through forgetfulness I had overlooked them. Yet something there is, that may not inconveniently be referred to the heat or coldness of Spirit of Humane Blood; in regard that Physicians, as well as Philosophers, distinguish these Qualities into Actual and Potential. For it seems, that the Spirit of Humane Blood is in reference to some Liquors potentially cold, since it refrigerates them, and in reference to some others potentially hot, since being mingled with them, the mixture becomes actually hot. Of this last I shall here set down the ensuing Instance. Into a slender Cylindrical Glass we put the lower part of an Hermetically Sealed Thermoscope, which in this Paper and elsewhere I usually call the gauged one, because it was adjusted according to the standard of such Instruments kept at Gresham College. Into this Cylindrical Glass we poured as much moderately strong Spirit of Blood, as would cover the Ball of the Thermometer, and then dropped on that Liquor some good Spirit of Salt, upon whose mingling with it there was produced a Conflict accompanied with noise and bubbles, and a heat, which nimbly enough made the Spirit of Wine ascend above two inches and a half. This Experiment is therefore the more considerable, because there are divers Volatile Alcalies that being confounded with Acid Spirits, though they seem to make a true Effervescence, yet do really produce a notable degree of Coldness. And that which to me seemed considerable on this occasion, was, that whereas I had several times found by Trial, that the Spirit of Verdegrease (which some call the Spirit of Venus) would with the Volatile Salt of Sal Armoniac, or of Urine, produce a seeming Effervescence, but a real coldness; this Spirit of Verdegrease itself, being mixed in the forementioned small Cylindrical Glass, with but moderately strong Spirit of Blood, did not only produce a hissing noise and store of bubbles, but an actual heat, whereby the Spirit of Wine in the Thermoscope was made quickly to ascend above an inch and a half, though the Liquors employed amounted not both together to two spoonfuls. The VIII. (Secundary) Title. Of the Dissolutive Power of Spirit of Humane Blood. IT will not only serve to manifest the Subtlety and Penetrancy of the Spirit of Human Blood, but it may be also of some use to Physicians, if it be made appear by Experiments, that this Spirit is by itself not only a good Medicine for several diseases, (as will be hereafter shown,) but may be also employed as a Menstruum, to dissolve several Bodies, and even some Metalline ones. And because these last mentioned are the most unlikely to be readily dissoluble, by a substance belonging to the Animal Kingdom, as Chemists speak; I shall subjoin two Trials, that I made to evince this Dissolutive Power of the Spirit of Blood. And first we took Crude Copper in Filings, (which if they be very small, are so much the fitter for our purpose) and having poured on them some highly rectified Spirit of Human Blood, we shook them together, and in about a quarter of an hour or less, perceived the Menstruum to begin to look a little Bluish, which argued its operation to have already begun. And this colour grew higher and higher, till after some hours the Menstruum had dissolved Copper enough to make it deeply Ceruleous. Some other, and somewhat differing Trials on the same Metal will be met with in their proper place. In the mean time I shall here take notice, that in some Circumstances the Spirit of Blood has such an operation upon Copper, whose quickness is surprising. For having made a coined piece of that Metal clean and bright (that no grease or foulness might hinder the effect of the Liquor,) and put a drop or two of our Spirit upon it, within about half a Minute of an Hour, (observed by a watch that showed Seconds) the verge of the moistened part of the Surface appeared bluish, and almost presently after, the rest of the wetted part acquired a fine Azure Colour. We also took filings of Zink, or (as in the shops they call it) Spelter, and having poured on them very well rectified Spirit of Blood, we observed, that even in the cold it quickly began to work manifestly, though not vigorously. But being assisted with a little heat, it dissolved the Zink briskly, and not without producing store of bubbles, being also a little discoloured by the operation of this Experiment, some use is made in another place, and therefore need not be delivered in this. On this occasion I shall add, that for curiosities sake I took a piece of Coagulated Blood, but not dried, somewhat bigger than a large Pea, having a care to take it from the lower part of the lump of Blood, that it might be black, the superficial part of Fibrous Blood that lies next the Air, being usually Red. This clot of Blood we put into a slender Vial of clear Glass, that the colour might be the better discerned, and then poured on it a little Rectified Spirit of Humane Blood, and shook the Glass alittle; whereupon in a trice the colour of (at least) the Superficial part of the Blood, was, as I had conjectured, manifestly changed, the blackness quite disappearing, and being succeeded by a very florid colour like that of fine Scarlet. The Liquor also was tinged, but not with near so deep or so fair a Red, and by the little bubbles that from time to time passed out of the Clod into it, it seemed to work somewhat like a Menstruum. And yet soon after coming to look upon this lump of Blood again, I found it to have much degenerated from its former colour, to one less fair and more dark. We took also another Clot of Blood like the former, save that one part of it which had lain next the Air, was not black; and having in a Vial like the former poured on it some Spirit of Blood, taken out of the same Vial whence I took the first parcel, the Reddish colour seemed presently to be much improved, and made more fair, and like true Scarlet. But the black was not so altered, as to be deprived of its blackness, but retained a dark and dirty colour. So that this second Experiment requires a further Trial, when there shall be conveniency to make it, and it will the rather deserve one, because what has been already recited of the Operation of the Spirit upon the two parcels of Blood, may suggest uncommon Reflections to Speculative Wits. And here on this occasion it will be proper to relate to you, that having a confused remembrance, that I had a great while before put up some Humane Blood, with a certain quantity of Volatile Spirit, to keep it fluid and preserve it, without distinctly remembering what Volatile Alcaly I had employed; I found among other Glasses that had been laid aside, one Bolt-head with a long Neck, to which was tied a Label, importing that at such a time twelve Drams of Humane Blood, were put up with two Drams of Spirit of Humane Blood. By the date of this Paper it appeared, that this Blood had been preserved much above a whole twelve Month; and yet it appeared through the Glass of a fine Florid Colour, and seemed to be little less than totally Fluid. And indeed when we came to open the Vessel, which was carefully stopped with a good Cork, and hard Sealing Wax, we found no ill scent or other sign of Putrefaction in the Mixture, and but a very small Portion of Blood lightly clotted at the bottom; the rest passing readily through a Rag. So that the Spirit of Humane Blood seems to have a great embalming Virtue; since 'twas able so long and well to preserve six times its weight, of a Body so apt to Concrete and Putrefy, as Humane Blood is known to be, and probably would have preserved it much longer, if we had thought fit to prosecute the Experiment. To this account of our Trial I know not whether it will be worth while to add, that having broken it off, that we might distil the above mentioned Mixture with a very gentle heat, the first Liquor that ascended was not a Spirit, but a kind of Phlegm, though afterwards there came up, besides a Spirituous Liquor, a Volatile Salt in a dry form. On this occasion I shall subjoin the following Trial, long since made with a Spirit, that I supposed to have been weaker than that, with which the lately mentioned Experiments were made. In order to a design that need not here be mentioned, I caused some Filings of Mars to be purposely made, that being presently employed they might not contract any Rust, whereby the operation of our Liquor might be made doubtful. On these we poured some of our Spirit, and having kept them together a while in Digestion, we found as we expected, that the Liquor had wrought on the Metal, and produced a considerable quantity of a light substance, in colour almost like Crocus, but something paler. And we also found more than we expected; for there appeared in the Liquor good store of thin Plates, like a kind of Terra Foliata, (as the Chemists speak) which after a very slight agitation, being held against the Sunbeams, exhibited the Colours of the Rainbow in so vivid a manner, as did not a little delight, as well as surprise the Spectators, but I did not perceive that the taste of the Liquor was considerably Martial. The IX. (Secondary) Title. Of the Tinctures that may be drawn with Spirit of Humane Blood. MOst of those Extractions the Chemists call Tinctures, being, as I have elsewhere shown, partial Solutions of the Bodies from which they are obtained, 'twill I presume be easily granted, that since the Spirit of Blood is able (as in the foregoing Title it has appeared to be) to dissolve Copper and Zink, that are Solid and Metalline Bodies, 'twill be able to extract Tinctures out of divers others. But, that this power of our Menstruum may be rather proved than supposed, it will not be amiss to add a few Instances of it. Spirit of Blood being put upon English Saffron, did soon acquire upon it a fine Yellow Colour. Spirit of Blood being put upon Powdered Curcuma, or, as Tradesmen are wont to call it, Turmerick, did in the cold Extract from it a lovely Tincture, like a rich solution of Gold; which probably (to intimate that upon the by) may prove a good de-obstruent Medicine, particularly in the Jaundice; in which disease Turmerick that is taken to be a kind of East Indian Saffron, is upon experience commended, and in this our Tincture is united with Spirit of Humane Blood, which is very near of kin to Spirit of Urine, and probably at least as efficacious; with which Liquor, when well rectified, I have had more than ordinary success in the Jaundice. To make some Trial of the Extracting Power of the Spirit of Blood, upon substances that have belonged to Animals, I thought it might particularly conduce to some Medical purposes, to try what it would do upon the solid part of Humane Blood itself slowly dried, so as not to be burned, but only to be reducible with some pains to fine Powder. Accordingly upon this well sifted Powder of Blood, we put some moderately strong Spirit of the same subject, on which the Liquor began very soon to colour itself, even in the cold; and within no long time after, it appeared as Red as ordinary French Claret Wine. This Extraction made me suspect, that the Phlegm that was not carefully separated from the Spirit I then employed, might hasten the coloration of the Menstruum. For which reason I put upon another Portion of the same Powder some rectified Spirit of Blood, so well deflegmed that it would not dissolve a grain of the Volatile Salt of Blood: And I found indeed, as I suspected, that this Menstruum did not any thing near so soon draw a Tincture, as the other had done; for after divers hours the colour it had obtained was but brown, but after some hours longer the colour appeared to be heightened into Redness, but yet manifestly inferior to that of the somewhat Phlegmatic Spirit above mentioned, whereto it did yet in a longer time grow almost equal. By this means we may not only disguise the Spirit of Blood, but impregnate it with the finer parts of the unanalysed solid Body, which may possibly make the Spirit a Remedy more proper for some Diseases or Constitutions: and this Medicine I sometimes call the entire Tincture of Humane Blood, because it consists of nothing else but such Blood. To show at length that the Spirit of Humane Blood may extract Tinctures out of some of the hardest Bodies, I made the following Experiment. We took some choice Filings of Steel (for such are those that are saved by the Needlemakers) and having put them into a small Egg, we poured on them some highly rectified Spirit of Blood, and kept them all Night in digestion in a moderate heat. The next day (but not early) we found the Menstruum turned of a Brownish Red colour, that was deep enough. And some of the Filings that chanced to stick to the sides of the Glass, but were higher than the Liquor could reach in its gross body, seemed to have been, either by Exhalations from the Menstruum, or perhaps by the Transient Contact of it, as it was pouring in, turned into a kind of Yellow Crocus Martis. I must not here forget, that having kept the Menstruum and the Filings together in the forementioned Egg for some days longer, the colour was grown opacous, and appeared to be black, when it was looked on in any considerable bulk, this last expression I employ, because it had another appearance, when it was somewhat thinly spread upon White Paper. Perhaps it may be a Remark not altogether useless to Physicians, among many of whom Chaly beat Remedies are in very great request, if I add, that for reasons not needful to be mentioned here, having a suspicion that our Spirit would work upon Steel, in another manner than the Acid Solvents wont to be used by Chemists and Physicians, we poured some of our Tincture drawn from Filings of Steel, upon a freshly drawn Tincture of Galls (infused in Common Water,) and did not find that this Liquor would with the Infusion make any Inky mixture, nor that the Precipitate that was quickly produced, was of a black, much less of a true Inky colour: Though I have found means to produce in a trice a black mixture, with other Martial Solutions and Tinctures, which for curiosities sake I sometimes made Green, sometimes Red, sometimes Yellow, and sometimes, if I mistake not, of neither of those colours. I have been the more express in setting down the Particulars above delivered, because I hope they may be somewhat helpful to Rectify the Judgement of divers very ingenious modern Physicians, especially among the Cultivaters of Chemistry, who build much upon a supposition, which though I deny not to be specious, I doubt is not solid, and I fear may be of ill consequence. For by the above recited Trials it may appear, that 'tis unsafe either to suppose, that if Chalybeates be dissolved in the body, it must be by some Acid Juice; or to conclude, that if Steel be dissolved by the Liquors of the Body, it must be ex praedominio, (as they speak) Alcalisate; since a Liquor that exercises a great Hostility against Acids, dissolves it; and by parity of reason one may probably infer the quite contrary of what they suppose; in regard that Steel in our Experiment was (partially at least) dissolved by what they call an Alcaly; and consequently aught to be ex praedominio, of an Acid nature. But of this Hypothesis we elsewhere purposely discourse, and therefore shall here add nothing concerning it, but leave it to be considered, whether it would not be requisite to seek out some other way, than Physicians have hitherto pitched on, to explicate the manner of operation of Chalybeate Medicines in the Humane Body; and whether some use may not be made in Medicine, of Martial Remedies prepared by Volatile Alcalies, instead of Acids. I put some Spirit of Humane Blood upon powdered Amber, sifted through a fine Sieve, and kept it in Digestion for some days, giving it a pretty degree of heat; but we obtained not hereby any Tincture at all considerable; whether it was, that the Spirit was not yet highly enough rectified, or that the Amber (which was of a finer sort of white Amber) was not so proper to yield its Tincture, as I have several times found courser, but deeper coloured Amber to be. To this (IX.) Title may be referred the event that followed, upon our having put some Spirit of Humane Blood upon that sort of Gum-Laccae, that comes out of the East Indies in Grains, and (for that reason) is commonly called Seed-Lac. For the Spirit we put upon this, though this be a resinous Gum, and of no easy Solution, soon became tincted; which I expected it should, because I conjectured that the Redness wont to appear in many of the Seed-like Grains, is but superficial, and proceeds from some adhering Blood of the little (winged) Infects, that by their bitings occasion the production of this Gum, upon the Twigs of the Tree where the Lac is found; on which Twigs I have more than once seen store of these Gummous Grains. So that the Tincture seems not to be drawn from the Lac itself, but rather to be afforded by the Blood of these little Animals, which the Spirit of Humane Blood, that will draw Tinctures from dried Man's Blood, dissolves; and this Tincture may probably be a good Medicine, since most of the Infects used in Physic, as Millepedes, Lice, Bees, Aunts, etc. Even in our colder Climates, afford Medicines of very subtle and piercing parts, and of considerable efficacy. The X. (Secondary) Title. Of the coagulating Power of the Spirit of Humane Blood. THough the Spirit of Humane Blood, have such a dissolving power as we have mentioned, in reference to some Bodies, yet upon some others it seems to have a quite contrary Operation. I say seems, because it may be questioned, (and I am not now minded to dispute it) whether the effect I am going to speak of be a Coagulation, properly so called, that one Body makes of another or a Coalition of Particles fitted, when they chance to meet one another, (in a convenient manner,) to stick together. But whatever name ought to be properly given to the thing I am about to speak of, I have found by Trial purposely made, that the highly rectified Spirit of Humane Blood, being well mingled by shaking with a convenient quantity, (which should be at least equal) of Vinous Spirits that will burn all away, (for if either of the Liquors be Phlegmatic, the Experiment succeeds either not at all, or not so well) there will presently ensue a Coagulation or concretion, either of the whole Mixture, or a great portion of it, into Corpuscles of a Saline form, that cohering loosely together, make up a Mass that has consistence enough not to be fluid, though it be very soft: and in this form it may remain as far as I have yet tried, for a good while, perhaps several weeks, or months at least, if it be kept in a cool place. The XI. (Secondary) Title. Of the Precipitating Power of Spirit of Humane Blood. OF the Precipitating Power of Spirit of Humane Blood, I have yet observed nothing that is peculiar, and therefore it may suffice to say in general, that, as far as I have had occasion to try, it has in common with those other Volatile Spirits, which I elsewhere call urinous, a Power of Precipitating most Bodies that are dissolved in Acid Menstruums I say most, because (as I have elsewhere more fully shown) it is an Error, though a vulgar one, to suppose (as Chemists and Physicians are wont to do) that whatever is dissolved by an Acid will be Precipitated by an Alcali as such, whether Fixed or Volatile, which latter sort they take the spirits of Urine, Blood, etc. to be of. For there is no Necessity this Rule should hold, when the Body is of such a nature, that it may be dissolved as well by an Alcaly as by an Acid. And though, the Hypothesis of Alcali and Acidum allowed them not to think there were any such Bodies, yet I have in another Paper Experimentally evinced, that there are so. And it may be proved without going very far, since we lately observed a See the viij. Title. that good Spirit of Humane Blood Would in the cold dissolve both Copper & Zink, which are Bodies that will each of them be readily dissolved by Aqua fortis, and some other Acid Menstruums. Bating such Bodies as those I have been speaking of, I have not found but that Spirit of Humane Blood Precipitates other Bodies dissolved in Acid Menstruums, much after the same manner that Spirit of Urine and other such Volatile Alcalies are wont to do. Of this, among other Instances, I remember that I made Trial upon Red-lead or Minium dissolved in the Acid Salt of Vinegar, Silver in Aqua fortis, Gold in Aqua Regia, and Tin dissolved in an appropriated Menstruum. I also with our Spirit Precipitated the Solutions of divers other Bodies, which need not here be named. But in regard of the great and frequent use that men make of Sea Salt, in preserving and seasoning what they eat, it may not be amiss particularly to mention that out of a solution of common Salt made in common Water, we could readily Precipitate with the Spirit of Blood, a substance that looked like a White Earth; and such a substance I obtained in far greater quantity, from that which the Saltmakers call Bittern, which usually remains in their Salt pans after they have taken out as much, or near as much Salt, as would Coagulate in figured grains. The Spirit of Humane Blood does also make a Precipitation of Dantsick Vitriol dissolved in Water, but not, that I have observed, a total one, which you need not wonder at, because it will dissolve Copper, which is one of the Ingredients of Blue Vitriol. The XII. (secondary) Title. Of the Affinity between Spirit of Humane Blood and some Chemical Oils and Vinous Spirits. THough in another Paper a About the Mechanical Origine or Production of Qualities. I declare myself, for Reasons there expressed, dissatisfied with the Vulgar Notions of Sympathy, Antipathy, Friendship, Affinity, Hostility, etc. that are presumed to be found among Inanimate Bodies, yet in this place nothing forbids to employ the Terms Affinity Cognation, and Hostility, in the lax and popular sense, wherein they are used not only by the Vulgar, but by School Philosophers and Chemists. It seems then, according to this acception of the Word Affinity, that there is such a thing between Rectified Spirit of Humane Blood, and pure Spirit of Wine; since we have formerly (under the Tenth Title) observed, that being put together they will readily Concoagulate, and continue united a long time. It is very probable, that the like Association may be also made with other Ardent Spirits prepared by Fermentation. We have likewise formerly noted, that our Spirit will make a Solution of the finer parts of Humane Blood well dried, which Instance I mention on this occasion, because it seems to be the Effect of some Affinity or Cognation (as most men would call, what I would call Mechanical Congruity) between the Spirit and the Body it works on, in regard I found, by more than one Trial purposely made, that a highly Rectified Vinous Spirit (for if it be Phlegmatic, the Water may dissolve some of the Blood) would not (at least in divers hours that my Trials lasted) draw any Tincture from it. With Lixiviate Liquors, such as are made of Salt of Tartar, fixed Nitre, etc. resolved in the Air or otherwise, the Chemist will expect that the Spirit of Blood should have an Affinity, since they esteem all these Liquors Alcalies though this be Volatile and those be fixed. But though these Liquors comport well with one another, yet we find not that they strictly Associate by Concoagulation, as we lately observed the Spirit of Blood to do with Spirit of Wine. See the Producibility of Chemical Principles. The same Spirit of Blood mingles readily with that Spirit of Vegetables, that I have elsewhere given a large account of under the Title of Adiaphorous Spirit, which argues that there is some Affinity between them, or rather, that there is not any manifest Hostility or contrariety. The like Relation may be found between Spirit of Blood and many other Liquors, which it were needless and tedious to enumerate. It may better deserve the consideration of a Chemist, that though there is manifestly a near Cognation between the Spirit of Humane Blood and the Oil, since they both proceed immediately from the same Body, yet even dephlegmed Spirit of Blood being shaken, and thereby confounded with its Oil, will quickly separate again from it, though with Spirit of Wine (which is according to the Chemists a Liquid Sulphur as well as the Oil) it will permanently unite, notwithstanding that these two Liquors do (to speak in their Language) belong even to differing Kingdoms, the one to the Animal, and the other to the Vegetable. With the Essential Oils (as Chemists call them) of Aromatic Vegetables, or at least with some of them the well Rectified Spirit of H. Blood seems to have a greater Affinity. For having taken a dram of this Liquor, and an equal weight of Oil of Aniseeds drawn in a Lembick [per vesicam,] and shaken them well together they made a soft or semifluid White Coagulum, that continued in that form for a day or two, and probably would have longer done so, if I had not had occasion to proceed further with it. It may not be impertinent on this occasion to take notice, that because I presumed, that, though Spirit of Blood would not totally mix with Essential Oils, (as Chemists call them) it might either communicate some Saline parts to them, or work a change in them; I digested a while in a Glass with a long neck, some Rectified Spirit of Humane Blood, with a convenient quantity of Oil of Aniseeds drawn in a Lembick, and found, as I expected, that the Oil grew coloured of a high Yellow, and afterwards attained to a Redness; which Experiment I the rather mention, because it may possibly afford you a hint about the Cause, of some Changes of Colour, that are produced in some of the Liquors of the Body. Upon the forementioned Affinity or congruity of the Spirit of Blood with that of Wine, and with (some) Essential Oils, I founded a way of taking off the offensive smell of Spirit of Humane Blood, which is the only thing that is likely to keep the more delicate sort of Patients from employing so useful a Medicine, as this will hereafter appear to be. But to deal with a Philosophical candour, I must not conceal from you, that, till Experience shall be duly consulted, I shall retain a Doubt, whether the way employed to deprive our Spirit of its stink, will not also deprive it of part of its Efficacy. But on the other side, I consider it as a thing probable enough, that these Aromatised Spirits may, by being impregnated with many of the finer parts of the Oils employed to correct their Odour, be likewise endowed with the virtues of those Oils, which are Liquors that Chemists not improbably believe to consist of the noblest parts of the Vegetables that afford them. To Aromatise the Spirit of Humane Blood we employed two differing ways, the first whereof was this; we took a convenient quantity of well Rectified Spirit of Blood and having put it into a Glass Egg, we added to it as much, or (what may in many Cases more than suffice) half as much, Essential Oil of Aniseeds for instance; And having shaken these Liquors together to mingle them very well, we placed the Glass in a sit posture, in a Furnace where it should not have too great a heat, by which means the slight Texture of the Coagulum being dissolved, part of the Oil (sometimes a great portion of it) appeared by itself floating at the top of the Spirit. Whence being separated by a Tunnel or otherwise, the remaining Liquor was Whitish and without any stink, the smell predominant in it being that of the Aniseeds, of which it tasted strongly, though the Saline Spirituous parts of the Blood did in this Liquor retain a not inconsiderable degree of their brisk and penetrant Taste. The other way I thought of to Aromatise our Spirit of Blood, was by employing a Medium to unite it with Essential Oils. For which purpose in a Vinous Spirit, so Dephlegmed that in a Silver spoon it would totally burn away, we dissolved by shaking a convenient proportion, as an eighth part or a far less (according to the strength of the Oil) of an Essential Oil (of Aniseeds for instance,) and to this solution we added an equal quantity, or some other convenient one, of our Rectified Spirit of Blood, and having by shaking mixed them as well as we could, we suffered the expected Coagulum (which was soft and not uniform) to rest for some time, after which it appeared that some of the Oil was revived, and swum in drops distinct from the other Liquor, which consisted of a Mixture of the two Spirits, impregnated with the Particles of the Oil they had intercepted and detained. This Liquor abounded with little concretions made by the concoagulation of the Sanguineous and Vinous Spirits. And these with a very gentle heat sublimed in the form of a Volatile Salt, to the upper part of the Glass; Which Salt seemed to have a much less penetrating odour, than the mere Volatile Salt of Humane Blood, but had quite lost its stink, and yet retained a considerable Quickness, and somewhat of the scent of the Anise Seeds; the remaining Liquor also was deprived of its ill smell, and moderately imbued with that of the Oil. I thought it worth trying, whether there would be any Affinity between our Spirit (which I perceived contained in it many latent Particles of an Oleaginous nature) and the highly rectified Oil of Petroleum; which is a Mineral Bitumen: and having shaken together a Convenient quantity of these two Liquors in a new Vial, they presently turned into a White Mixture. And though after it had for many hours been left to settle, the greater part of the Oil swum above the Spirit, yet there appeared betwixt the two Liquors a good quantity of a whitish Matter, which seemed to be something that had been produced by the Precipitation or Union of many Particles of the Spirit and Oil, that were more disposed than the rest to combine with one another. The XIII. (Secondary) Title. Of the Relation between Spirit of Humane Blood and the Air. THat the Contact of the Air has a speedy and a manifest operation upon Humane Blood, is elsewhere shown by some Experiments of an Italian Virtuoso, Signior— and some of mine. But whether, after Humane Blood has had its Texture so much altered, as it uses to be by Distillation, it will retain any peculiar Relation to the Air, I have not been able to make Trials enough to determine; but however it will not be amiss, to set down the chief Experiments I made on this occasion, because they may be considerable as parts of our History, though they should not be so, as Arguments decisive of our controversy. The first Experiment was quickly made, by thinly spreading upon a piece of White Paper, (which ought to be close, that it may not soak up the Liquor) some small Filings of Copper, and wetting them well, without covering them quite over, with a few drops of good Spirit of Blood, for by this means being very much exposed to the free Air, the Action of the Liquor was so much promoted, that within a Minute or two it did, even in the cold, begin to acquire a bluish colour, and in fewer Minutes than one would have expected, that colour was so heightened as to become Ceruleous. But when I put another parcel of the same Filings into a Vial, and covered them with Spirit of Blood, and then stopped the Vial, to keep it from intercourse with the external Air, the Liquor would not in some Hours acquire so deep a colour. The other Experiment we made, in order to the lately proposed enquiry, was the same for substance, that I had formerly made, (and have elsewhere at large delivered) with the Spirit of Urine, and with that of Sal-Armoniac, save that, to spare our Spirit of Blood, we employed a far less quantity of it, than we did of either of the foremention'd Liquors. For having in a clear Cylindrical Vial of about an Inch Diameter, put more Filings of Copper than were requisite to cover the bottom, we poured upon it, but so much Spirit of Humane Blood, as served to swim a Finger's breadth, or about an Inch above them. This Liquor, because of the quantity of Air, that was contained in the Vial, did within few Hours acquire a rich Blue colour, and this after a day or two began to grow more faint, and continued to do so more and more, till it came to be almost lost; but yet the Liquor was not altogether Lympid, or colourless, as I have often had it with Spirit of Urine, or of Sal-Armoniac; which remains of blewishness I was apt to attribute to the great quantity of Air, that was included in the Vial with so small a quantity of Liquor. And though I thought it not impossible, but that length of time might destroy these Remains of blewishness also, yet not having leisure to wait so long, I unstopped the Vial, and perceived, as I expected, that in a very short time, perhaps about two Minutes of an hour, the Surface of the Liquor, where it was touched by the newly entered Air, became Ceruleous, and in a short time after, perhaps less than a quarter of an hour, the whole Body of the Liquor had attained a deeper colour than that of the Sky, which colour, the Vial being seasonably and carefully stopped, began in two or three days to grow paler again. These Experiments would, I question not, to many seem manifestly to infer a great Cognation or Affinity (for I know not well what name to give it) between the Spirit of Humane Blood and the Air. But though I shall not deny the Conclusion as 'tis an Assertion, I dare not rely on the validity of the Inference; because I have for curiosities sake made the like Experiments succeed, with other Spirits abounding with Volatile Salt. I foresee it may very speciously be pretended, that those Trials succeeded upon the account of some Spirituous parts of the Blood, since Spirit of Urine is made of a Liquor separated from the Blood; and that, though the Salarmoniack that is made in the East, may consist in great part of Camel's Urine, yet that which is made in Europe, (where Camels are rarities) and is commonly sold in our Shops, is made of Man's Urine, and consequently its Spirit may well be presumed to be impregnated with Spirit of Humane Blood. And I confess, that when this consideration came first into my mind, it appeared so probable, that I should perhaps have acquiesced in it, if it were not for what I am going to subjoin; namely, That I found by Trial carefully made, that with another Volatile Spirit made without any substance that is afforded by the body of Man, I could with Filings of Copper make an Experiment, very analogous to that above related. But because in this Trial, the reiterated contact of the Air produced in the Liquor not a Ceruleous, but a Green colour, I am willing to suspend my Judgement about the Problem lately proposed, till experience shall have further informed me. I know not whether it will be worth while to relate, that having in an unstopped Glass, put some Spirit of Humane Blood into a Receiver, placed upon our Pneumatick Engine, and withdrawn the incumbent Air by pumping; the Spirit of Blood seemed to afford lesser and fewer Aereal Bubbles, than such a quantity of Common Water itself would probably have done. But, as I lately intimated, I know not whether this observation be considerable, because being not willing to weaken by exposing it, a fresh parcel of Spirit, I know not whether the paucity of Air observed in that lately mentioned, were accidental or not. The XIV. (Secondary) Title. Of the Hostility of the Spirit of Humane Blood to Acids, whether they be in the form of Liquors or Fumes. THat there is in the Spirit of Humane Blood, such a thing, as a Chemist or a vulgar Philosopher would call Hostility, or an Antipathy in reference to Acids, has been plainly enough, though very briefly, intimated in a Passage belonging to the third of the precedent Titles. But yet it may not be impertinent to add in this place, that our Spirit of Humane Blood exercises this Hostility against more than one sort of Acid Spirits, though perhaps they differ not a little from one another, as Spirit of Salt, Spirit of Nitre, Spirit and Oil of Vitriol, Aqua Fortis, Aqua Regia, etc. and not only against Factitious Acids, but against Natural ones too, the Spirit of Humane Blood may discover a manifest Hostility, as I found by the conflict it would make with newly expressed Juice of Lemons which it would put into a confused agitation accompanied with bubbles. And this was yet the more evident, when I employed the Volatile Salt of Blood, that is, the Spirit in a dry form: for having squeezed upon a parcel of this, some Juice of Lemons, there was presently excited a great commotion, accompanied not only with froth, but with noise. But (to return to the strongly Acid Liquors made by Distillation) whether the great commotion, and froth, and hissing noise, that usually follows upon the mixing of Spirit of Humane Blood with any of these Menstruums, do proceed from a true Hostility, or an Antipathy deservedly so called, or else be a motion to Coalescence or Union; or an effect of the disturbed motions proper to the differing, but now confounded, Liquors; or lastly, a consequent of some Impediment, which the new Texture of the mingled Liquors gives to the free passage of some Aethereal or other subtle Permeating Matter or Fluid, I shall not take upon me to determine; but rather to what I lately told you, of the at least seeming contrariety of the Spirit of Humane Blood to Acid Spirits, I shall add (what perhaps you did not expect) that this Hostility extends even to the invisible Effluvia or Emanations of these Liquors, as may be readily seen by the following way, that I long since pitched upon to make it not only visible but manifest. This is easily done by putting any strong Acid Spirit, as of Salt, or of Nitre, etc. into a Vial somewhat wide-mouthed, and some well dephlegmed Spirit of Blood into another, for when I purposely inclined these Glasses so towards one another, that their Lips did almost touch, and their respective Liquors were ready to run out, though neither of the Liquors did at all visibly fume whilst they were kept asunder, though the Glasses were unstopped, yet, as soon as the Liquors came to be approached in the way just now mentioned, the Fumes meeting each other in the Air would make little Coalitions, which would be manifestly visible in the form of ascending Smoke, which was wont at first to surprise the delighted Spectators; and this production of Smoke would continue a good while, if the Vials were not severed to make it cease, which upon their remove it would presently do. I have divers times practised a more easy way of making these Fumes conspicuous; but it belongs more to another Paper, and what has been now delivered may suffice for my present purpose. Yet it may not be improper to take this occasion, to acquaint you with an Experiment that I made, to observe what the contrary Salts, that abound in our Spirit of Blood and in some Acid Liquors, would produce, when they were combined and brought into a dry form. I shall therefore annex a Transcript of the Experiment I speak of, as I find it registered in one of my Note Books. [We took some pure Volatile Salt of Humane Blood, and having just satiated it with Spirit of Nitre, we slowly evaporated away the superfluous moisture, that the Acid and Urinous Salts might be united into a dry Concretion, from which my design was to separate them again, the Salt of Blood in its Pristine form, and the Spirit of Nitre in the form of Saltpetre. To effect this, we put the compounded Salt into a small Bolt-head with a long and slender neck, and then added to it a convenient quantity of Salt of Tartar, and as much distilled Water as would suffice to make the Mixture somewhat Liquid, to promote the Action of the contrary Salts upon one another. By which mutual Actions we supposed, that the Saline Spirits of Nitre, being more congruous to the fixed Salt than to the Volatile, would forsake the Salt of Blood, (which it detained before from flying away,) and give it leave to sublime; and accordingly having kept the Glass, wherein the mixture was made, for a competent time in a convenient heat, we obtained what we looked for; since a good proportion of fine Volatile Salt ascended in a dry form, into the Neck.] Having put to some of the Spirit of Humane Blood, a small quantity of exceeding strong Spirit of Nitre, there was upon the conflict of the two Liquors excited so great a quantity of thick white Fumes, that I could not but wonder at it, having never seen any thing of that kind comparable to it. And these Fumes Circulating long in the Cavity of the Glass, whereof perhaps a tenth part was full of Liquor, did many of them, though the Vessel were wide-mouthed, fall back and run down the sides of the Glass into the stagnant mixture, as if they had composed streams of a Milky Liquor. And when at length, after these Fumes had disappeared, we dropped in a little more of the same smoking Spirit of Nitre, the like strange plenty of white Exhalations did presently ensue, and continue to Circulate a great while in the open Glass, the Mixture in the mean while appearing reddish. Being settled, and seeming to have been so discoloured by a fattish substance, we put to it a little Rain or Distilled Water, and having by Filtration separated it from the Faeces, and slowly evaporated the thus Clarified Liquor, the Saline parts shot into Crystals much of the shape, and crossing one another much after the manner, of Stiriae of Saltpetre; but their colour after a while appeared Yellow, as if some Oily substance were yet mixed with them. N. B. Tho on several occasions the Spirit of Blood appeared thus. Oily, yet I remember I had not long since some Distilled from another parcel of Blood, which after having been kept a year, was limpid and colourless like an ordinary Vegetable Spirit. Some of the forementioned crystals being put upon well kindled Charcoals, did presently melt and burn away with a noise not unlike Saltpetre; but the flame seemed not quite so halituous, and was more differing in colour, being not at all Blue but very Yellow. After the deflagration was quite past, I was curious to see if any fixed substance was left upon the Coals, and found it to be somewhat odd; for it was not of a light colour, nor of an incoherent Body, like Ashes, but a little lump of a dirty coloured matter, in which I could not perceive an Alcalisate taste, and indeed scarce any at all. And this brittle substance (for such it was) being held in the flame, became red hot, without appearing destroyed by that Ignition, no more than afterwards it did by being a good while kept upon a glowing Coal. The XV. (Secondary) Title. Of the Medicinal Virtues of Spirit of Humane Blood outwardly applied. HAving resided for many years last passed, in a place so well furnished with learned Physicians as London is, I was careful to decline the occasions of entrenching upon their profession. And though that care did not always secure me quiet, yet it did it so far, as that you, to whom my circumstances are not unknown, will not I hope expect, that I should say much upon my own experience, of the Medicinal Virtues of Spirit of Humane Blood; yet since I had some few opportunities to get Trials made by practitioners in Physic, (who were pleased very willingly to make them for me,) that I may not leave this Subject wholly untouched, I will subjoin what occurs, either to my Memory, or to my Thoughts, about it. When I consider, that, as far as I have observed, we do not meet regularly with any Acid Substance, (except perhaps in the Succus Pancreaticus) in a sound Humane Body: For the fixed Salt of Blood does itself much resemble Sea-salt, whether its Spirit be Acid or no; whereas the several parts of it, whether Solid, as Bones, or Liquid, as Blood, afford in Distillation store of Liquor impregnated with Volatile Salt; I am induced to think it probable, that the Spirit of Humane Blood, wherein such a Salt abounds, and whereof it is the main and predominant Ingredient, is like to have notable operations upon the Humane Body, and afford Medicines of great Efficacy in many of its Diseases. And, though against most of these it is to be internally given, yet there are some against which it may be successful, when but Externally administered. For, as well rectified Spirit of Humane Blood abounds with very subtle Particles, which in point of Taste, Odour, Diffusiveness and Penetrancy, do much resemble those of strong Spirits of Urine, of Hartshorn, and of Salarmoniack; so one may very probably expect to find the same virtues in the Spirit of Blood, that Experience has manifested to belong to those other Spirituous Liquors. I have seldom, if ever, seen any Medicine operate so nimbly in Fits of the Mother, as a well dephlegmed Spirit of Sal-Armoniac; which as I formerly noted is in effect mainly a Spirit of Urine; which itself is granted to be, a Liquor separated from Blood: for this Spirit being held to the Noses of Hysterical Women, has often in a trice, to the wonder of the Bystanders fetched them out of their Fits. Nor is this the considerablest effect that I have had of this Spirit, for sometimes it has with a strange quickness brought to themselves Patients that were fallen to the ground, and either really were, or were judged to be, Epileptical. And even in Agonizing Persons, where it could not recover them, it would frequently for the time, bring them out of their swoons, and make them know and understand the Assistants, and perhaps speak to them too: of which, if it were needful I could give more than one instance. But I shall rather add, that if nature be not quite spent, and the case wholly desperate, this may be of great advantage, because it allows the Physician some (though perhaps but little) time, and a good opportunity to administer other Remedies which the Patient, unless excited and brought to himself, would not be made to take. Of which I shall give you a memorable instance in a Patient of the very learned Dr. Willis's, who being in the Fit of an Apoplexy, when he was necessitated to go from her out of the Town, and leave her in that Condition, he Committed her to the care of a very Ingenious Physician, who (whether by his direction or no, I remember not) came to me to acquaint me with it, complaining that they could not hope for any success of their Remedies, in regard she was so stupid, and had shut her mouth so, that they could not get any down; whereupon I gave him, and told him the use of, a very subtle Spirit that I had by me for such cases, though I remember not, whether it were of Sal-armoniac, or some other Volatile and Liquid Alcaly; by applying which to her Nose, the Physician found he could presently make her open her Eyes, and in part come to herself; but then she would again, when the Glass was removed, soon relapse into her former Condition. Wherefore having by those frequent Vicissitudes gained some time, and got a Medicine for his purpose he then held the glass to her Nose for a good while together; by which means she so recovered her senses, that she knew the Bystanders, and being exhorted to take a Medicine that was offered her, which they told her would do her much good, she understood them, and swallowed it; and though afterwards, upon the removal of the Vial, she relapsed into a senseless state, yet by the help of the Urinous Spirit they kept her alive, till the very brisk Medicine she had taken began to act its part, and make a Copious Evacuation, which did not only rouse her, but little by little relieve her; So that in a short time she happily escaped a danger, that was judged to be very hardly, if at all, superable by any Medicines. But here I must give you notice, that in such difficult and desperate Cases I am not content that a Vial with a somewhat long neck be held to the nose, but sometimes order that little Pellets of Lint or Cotton, or of thin rags, be dipped into the Spirit and thrust up into the Nostrils. And the same thing I would advise, if need should require it, in the administration of Spirit of Humane Blood. And as, for external uses, I make a particular Preparation of Spirit of Sal-Armoniac, or of Urine, that is more strong and penetrant, then that which is made the more ordinary way: So, if I had been furnished with store of Spirit of Blood, I would have handled it in a not very unlike manner. And however with the little I had, I made the following Experiment, for Trials sake. We took some dried Volatile Salt of Humane Blood, (being then better able to spare that than Spirit,) and put to it as much Spirit of Nitre, as would just serve to satiate it; and then by Evaporation we obtained thence an Anomalous kind of compounded Salt, which afterwards, because we desired a Medicine in a dry form, we sublimed from a Convenient quantity of a well chosen fixed Alcaly, (if I mistake not, we took an equal weight of Salt of Tartar) fit to retain, not only the Phlegmatic parts, but the Oleaginous too, which oftentimes lie concealed in Volatile Salts and Liquors, wherein they do not at all at first appear, and unto which the greatest part of their foetid or offensive smell may probably be imputed. By this means we obtained a dry white Salt of a very piercing smell. But I had no opportunity to try this sublimed Salt upon diseased Persons: for whose sake, I also made use of another way to bring over the Saline part of Blood in a Liquid form, (which for the use of smelling I for the most part prefer to the dry) for which purpose we mixed two parts of dried Humane Blood, with three parts of Lime, and then distilled them with a pretty strong Fire, by which means we obtained, as we expected, a pretty deal of Spirit unaccompanyed with any Volatile Salt in a dry form, which Spirit seemed, even without Rectification, to have a stronger smell, and a more fiery taste then other Spirit of Blood, after a Rectification. And I guessed that if we had taken more or stronger Lime, we should have had less Oil, and a more piercing Spirit, since the Lime would probably have retained most of the Oil, and perhaps all the Superfluous Moisture. I have likewise often found, that slighter headaches have been cured in less (and perhaps much less) time than a quarter of an hour, by the base smell of some of these well depurated Volatile Alcalies; and if I misremember not, I have been relieved particularly by that of H. B.) and I have very rarely for these many years used, or (thanks be to God) needed any other Medicine to free myself from pains of the Head. And even Violent and durable pains of that part have been, if not quite removed yet much lessened, by the same remedy often reiterated, which I have likewise observed to be usually enough very effectual in faintings, especially those of Hysterical and Hypochondriacal Women; which makes it probable, that our Spirit of Humane Blood, which is a Liquor that in many Qualities manifestly resembles other Volatile Alcalies, (and perhaps surpasses them,) and which, when well freed from its Oil, can by few, if by any, be distinguished from other Urinous Spirits, may by its odour be available in the forementioned Maladies. I expect you should tell me, that the ill scent of Spirit of Blood will hinder that sex from useing it externally, to divers of whose Distempers it is the most proper. To this it may be answered, that most of those that find themselves in pain or danger, would be content to be eased or rescued by an unpleasant Medicine. For we may apply to health, what Vespasian said of the Tax that was paid him, upon the score of Urine, Lucri bonus odor ex re qualibet. And accordingly we see, that Ladies themselves ordinarily make use in such Cases of burnt Feathers, and in these and some others of Castoreum, Galbanum and Asafoetida, whose smells are offensive enough to men. But for the more delicate and Nauseous Patients, one may much lessen the offensive odour of our Spirit, by long Digestions, or by reiterated, or skilful Rectifications. And if even then they cannot be reconciled to the odour of so good a Remedy, that odour may (as was formerly intimated on another occasion) be corrected by uniting it with a Convenient quantity of highly rectified Spirit of Wine; by which means it may perhaps (for I am not sure on't) lose somewhat of its penetrancy, as well as of its Urinous odour, but yet may remain subtle and active enough for divers good purposes. And if you would not only correct the smell of the Spirit of Blood, but make it afford a fragrant one, you may do it by dissolving in the Spirit of Wine a convenient quantity of some Aromatic, or other well scented, Chemical Oil, whose proportion may be found by letting it fall drop after drop into the Vial, and frequently shaking it to mingle the Liquors well, till you find by your smell, That the offensive odour of the Spirit of Blood is sufficiently obscured; or (if you will not only correct it, but perfume the Liquor) that the mixture is sufficiently imbued with the grateful Odour of the Oil, wherewith you compounded it. I shall add on this occasion, that, if we aim chiefly at correcting or changing the smell of Spirit of Blood, we may usefully employ a Chemical Oil, more mild or temperate than the Aromatic ones of Cinnamon or Cloves. For Trial purposely made has informed me, that, if the Oil of Rhodium (which is much esteemed by perfumers) be sincerely and skilfully made, (which I fear it is not over frequently) a very few drops of it will make an ounce of Alcohole of Wine so fragrant, that this Solution being shaken together with a convenient quantity (perhaps much less than an equal one) of well rectified Spirit of Humane Blood, there will emerge a mixture, that I found to have a scent brisk enough, and yet to be not only free from stink, but imbued, though not strongly, with the Odoriferous Particles of the Rhodium. I must not here omit, that divers happy Practitioners, as well Physicians as professed Chemists, do highly extol the Oil of Amber, against Convulsion fits and other Distempers of the Brain and Genus Nervosum: And indeed Experience has so recommended some Medicines of Amber to me, that in some cases there are few that I more willingly give or take. And besides the great Character that Helmont has left of Amber dissolved in Spirit of Wine, Experience has brought such Credit to it in divers cases, (for there are some cases and constitutions wherein I suspect it of too much heat) that many Patients, as well Women as Men, had much rather endure the smell, than deny themselves the benefit of the Tincture or the Oil. And if you have any such Patients, perhaps you will not be ill pleased to be advertized, that you may according to the formerly mentioned way, employ the high Tincture of Amber taken with Spirit of Wine; to correct the Odour, and increase (at least in number) the Virtues of Spirit of Humane Blood. And because it requires some skill, and not seldom a pretty deal of time, to draw this Tincture from Crude Amber, though finely powdered, I bethought myself of the following way, to draw speedily a strong Tincture from the Oil itself; for, though this Oil will not, even by long shaking, dissolve throughly in Spirit of Wine, as the Aromatic and other Oils lately mentioned will do; yet I found that by well shaking those two Liquors together, and leaving them to settle at leisure; though they would separate into distinct Masses, yet the Spirit of Wine would even in the cold extract from the Oil a fine Tincture of a high Yellow colour, little, if at all, different from that of the Oil itself. Of which Tincture I afterwards mixed as much with Spirit of Blood, as sufficed to obscure the Urinous smell, and make that of the Oil of Amber somewhat predominant, and as we judged, more subtle and brisk than it was before. Three things more I have to intimate concerning the external use of our Spirit of Blood. The first is, that by what has been said of the good effects it may have, when (after it has been, by the lately mentioned or other preparations, imbued with Chemical Oils) it is smelled to, I would by no means be thought to deny, that it is after these changes fit to be also inwardly employed, as I shall have ere long occasion more particularly to declare. My second Admonition shall be, that, whereas in some mixtures it will be hard to hit upon the proportion of the Chemical Oil, or other things employed to correct the smell of the Spirit of Blood, so exactly, but that after the mixture has had some time to settle, a separation of some oleaginous parts will be made: The bulk of the mixture may be freed from it, by pouring all into a Glass Tunnel somewhat sharp at the bottom, after the manner used among Chemists to separate Oils from other Liquors, and then the mixture that will run through before the Oil, may be kept close stopped in a Vial by itself, and the fragrant Oil (unless it be of Cinnamon or Cloves) reserved for other uses. And whereas frequently, if not most commonly, if the Vinous Spirit were sufficiently Rectified, there will, by the Concoagulation of the Saline and Urinous Particles, be produced a kind of Salt; you may either pour the Liquid part from it into another Vial, and use each of them separately without more ado, or else without thus separating them, you may sublime with a very gentle warmth, as much as will ascend from the rest of the Mixture in a dry form. And this Sal Volatile Oleosum of Spirit of Blood, when it was duly prepared, I found to be deprived of its former bad scent, and perhaps endowed with a fragrant one, and yet to have an Odour more subtle, brisk, and piercing, than I had thought it reasonable to expect. The third and last thing I would advertise, is, that besides those Medicinal uses, that may be made of the Odours of Spirit of Blood Simple or Compounded, it may have considerable Virtues, applied in substance as a Liquor, by way of Fomentation or otherwise; which I think the more likely, because the Spirit of Sal-Armoniac has been much commended, for mitigating the sharp pains of the Gout, and is said to have been successfully used in the Erysipelas. And when I consider, that our Liquor is very Spirituous and Penetrating, and so fit to strengthen and resolve, and also of an Alcalisate nature, which fits it to mortify Acidities, it seems very probable, that, by virtue of these and other friendly Qualities, it may, by being applied in its Liquid form, prove good in divers cases, where the Chirurgeons or the Physicians help is wont to be required. But 'tis high time for me to proceed, from the External to the Internal uses of the Spirit of Humane Blood, The XVI. (Secondary) Title. Of the Medicinal Virtues of Spirit of Humane Blood inwardly used. I Have long been prone to think, that 'tis not necessary the number of specifically different Morbific Matters (as Physicians call actually noxious Humours or other substances) in the Humane Body, should be near so great as that of the Diseases 'tis obnoxious to; and consequently, that every Disease, that has a distinct Name assigned to it, does not always require a distinct sort of Peccant Matter to produce it; but that the same hurtful Humour, or other Agent, may produce sicknesses that pass for differing one's, (and accordingly have distinct Denominations) only as the same Morbific Agents bad effects are diversified, partly by its own greater or lesser quantity, and more or less active Qualities, and partly (and indeed chiefly) by the particular Natures, or Structures and Situations, of the parts that it invades. To this Opinion I have been led by divers Inducements, that I shall not now stay to set down; especially, since the probability of it may be easily deduced, from what frequently enough occurs among sick persons, of the Metastases of Morbific Matters; the same Acid or Sharp Humour, for instance, producing sometimes a Colic, sometimes after that a Palsy, sometimes a Cough, sometimes a Flux of the Belly, sometimes an Ophthalmi●, sometimes a violent Headache, sometimes Convulsions, and sometimes other Distempers; as the Peccant Humour, or other Noxious Matter, happens primarily to invade, or afterwards to be translated to, this or that particular part of the Body. And to the hitherto proposed Notion 'tis very agreeable, that one Remedy, by being capable victoriously to oppugn one or two of the principal kinds of Morbific Matter, may be able to cure differing Diseases; especially if it be endowed with any variety of active Virtues. And upon this ground I am apt to think, that the Spirit of Humane Blood, skilfully Prepared and Administered, may be a good Remedy in no small number of Internal Affections of the Humane Body. And indeed Volatile Alcalies in general, have been in England so prosperously made use of in Physic, since the year 1656, (about which time I had the good fortune to contribute so to introduce them, as to bring them by degrees into request, by divulging easy ways of making them, as well as by declaring their Virtues) that I see small cause to doubt, but that they will hereafter be more generally esteemed and employed, than yet they are, and will little by little invite Physicians to prefer them to a great many vulgar Remedies, that for want of better are yet in common use, though they clog or weaken the Patient, and want divers advantageous Qualities that may be found in Volatile Alcalies. For (to apply what has been said to our present Subject, as an instance that may serve for other Urinous Spirits) the Spirit of Humane Blood is endowed with divers Qualities, that are both Active and Medicinal. For it mortifies Acid Salts, which are the causes of several Diseases, and, if I mistake not, of some that are not wont to be imputed to them. It is a great Resolvent, and on that score fit to open Obstructions, that produce more than a few Diseases. It is both Diaphoretic and Diuretic, and on both these accounts fit to assist Nature, to discharge divers Noxious Salts, and expel divers Contagious or Malignant Corpuscles that offend her. It resists Putrefaction and Coagulation of the Blood, gives it a briskness and Spirituosity that promotes the free Circulation of the Blood, to which it is Congeneal; by which means (though not perhaps by these only) it becomes a good Cordial, and probably against some Poisons an Antidote. And, which is none of the least, nor least extensive, Virtues, it is very friendly to the Genus Nervosum, and upon that account is like to be very proper in Fits of the, Mother (as they are called,) Convulsions, some sorts of Head aches, Palsies, Incipient Apoplexies, some sort of Asthmas, etc. It is also Balsamical in some Circumstances, and may have divers other Virtues that have not yet been observed. For a Medicine that does not weaken, not cause great Evacuations, nor clog the Stomach, nor is blemished with the excess of any manifest Quality, but has in itself a Complex of so many useful Powers, may reasonably be supposed, likely to be available in more than a few Diseases; since a good part of those that Humane Bodies are liable to, may be powerfully oppugned by some of those excellent Qualities, one or more, whose Confluence may be found in the Spirit of Humane Blood. I presume therefore that one may rationally propose it, as likely to be a good Remedy in many Distempers, especially wherein either Spirit of Urine, or the Urinous Spirit of Sal-Armoniac, have been found successful Medicines; such as Hysterical Fits, Pleurisies, Coughs, some Scorbutic Distempers, Convulsions, Apoplexies, some kinds of Fevers, headaches, the Jaundice, etc. But I formerly prepared you not to expect that I should say much of the Virtues of the Spirit of Humane Blood (inwardly given,) upon my own personal experience. And therefore I shall not scruple to tell you, that Helmont himself, as little as he is apt to praise other than his own or the Paracelsian Arcana, more than once commends the Spirit of Cruor, though that be in his sense of the Word, Spiritus Vitae N. 16. Pag. M. 122. not yet fully elaborated Humane Blood) against the Epilepsy, which he says it will cure even in adult persons, which is a Virtue he expressly denies to the Spirit of Urine. And a famous Writer about the Hermetick Physic (but, if I mistake not, better versed in divers other parts of Learning, than in Chemical Arcana,) though he so far depretiates Spagyrical Preparations, as to commend the Utility but of a very few of them, is pleased to put the Distilled Liquor of Blood into the number of those very few that he vouchsafes a good Character to. I am the more inclined to give Credit to these praises of Spirit of Blood, because, as I remember, this was the Medicine that I made use of in the following Case. A young Lady, in whose family the Consumption was an hereditary disease, was molested with a Violent and Stubborn Cough, that was judged consumptive, and looked upon by those that gave her Physic, as not to be cured by any other way, than a seasonable remove from London into the French Air; but she was already so far gone and weakened, and there remained so much of the Winter, that 'twas judged she would die before the season would make it any way fit for her to undertake so long and troublesome a journey; but if she could be kept alive till the end of the Spring, there would be some hopes she might in France recover. On this occasion being solicited by some friends of hers and mine, to try what I could do to preserve her, I sent her some Spirit of Humane Blood very carefully prepared and rectified, (to which I gave some name that I do not well remember,) upon the use of which she manifestly mended, notwithstanding the unfriendliness of the Season; insomuch that about the end of February, she had gained relief and strength enough to venture to cross the Seas, and make a journey to Montpellier, whence in Autumn she brought home good looks and recovery. If I much misremember not, the same Spirit of Blood, made very pure and subtle by the help of a Lamp Furnace, was the Medicine that I put into the Hands of an Ingenious and Successful Physician, who complained to me that he had a Patient, that had quite puzzled him, as well as baffled the endeavours of other eminent Doctors, whom the difficulty of the case had invited at several times to try their skill upon him. This man was frequently Obnoxious to such violent and tormenting fits of the Headache, that he could not endure the light, and was offended with almost every noise or motion that reached his Ears; insomuch that he was forced to give over his Profession, which was that of a Tailor: But upon the constant use of the before mentioned Spirit of Blood, (for the other Medicines he took were much inferior to it, and had not before been available) he received such relief, as made him with great joy and thankfulness return to the exercise of his Trade, and the Physician, to whom I gave the remedy for him, told me one circumstance, too considerable to be here omitted▪ Namely, That the Patient having by our famous Harvey's advice, been used to bleed once in two or three Months, the Physician counselled him, notwithstanding his recovery, not abruptly to break off his ancient custom, and the Patient thereupon sent for the same Chirurgeon that had been formerly wont to let him Blood, and to complain of the great badness of his Blood; but when this Chirurgeon who knew not what had been done to the Patient, came to open a Vein again, and perceived what kind of Blood it afforded, he was so surprised, that he stopped the operation, and asked the man with wonder, how he came by such Florid Blood, adding, that 'twas pity to deprive him of so well conditioned a Liquor. The Medicinal Virtues hitherto mentioned belong to the Spirit of Humane Blood, as 'tis pure and simple: But 'tis not improbable that it may acquire other, and perhaps nobler Faculties; if it be dexterously corrected, diversified, or united with fit Ingredients, that is, in a word, skilfully altered or compounded. These things may be performed several ways. For they may be done either by uniting as well as one can, by long digestion, or frequent Cohobations, the Spirit of Humane Blood with the Oils, Salt, and (if need be) Phlegm, of the same Concrete, into such a kind of Mixture as some Chemists call Clyssus. Or, 2. By uniting the Spirit of Blood with Acids, as with Spirit of Nitre, Spirit of Vinegar, Spirit of Verdegrease, Oil of Vitriol, etc. and employing these mixtures, either in their Liquid form, or reduced by Evaporation into Crystals or other Salts; and making use of these either as they are, or after a kind of Analysis of them. Or, 3. By uniting our Spirit with Metalline Solutions, as of Gold, Silver, Mercury, and with solution of Minium made with Spirit of Vinegar, by mixture of which Liquor with Spirit of Blood, and a slow Evaporation of them, I remember I have had pretty store of finely figured Crystals. Or, 4. By dissolving in Spirit of Blood carefully Dephlegmed Sulphur opened with Salt of Tartar. Or else, By dissolving in it some Metalline Bodies, as Copper, Zink, and Iron, which last will afford a Martial Liquor, that differing much from other preparations of Steel, that are wont to be made with Acids, may probably have some Virtues, distinct from those of the known Remedies made of that Metal. But I cannot stay to enumerate the several ways whereby the Spirit of Humane Blood may be made serviceable to the Medicinal Art. Yet one Preparation there is, which though I have already taken notice of in the foregoing Title, and therefore can scarce mention without some repetition, yet I think I ought not to pretermit it on this occasion; partly because whereas it was formerly proposed with respect only to the outward uses of it, I shall now consider it with reference to the inward; and partly because by this way of proceeding we may at once correct, diversify and compound our Spirit of Blood. This Operation may be performed two ways, whereof the former is more simple than the latter. The first is, to add to well rectified Spirit of Blood, a double weight, or about an equal one, (as the Liquors, especially the Volatile Alcaly, are more or less strong) of Alcohole of Wine. For these Liquors being well shaken together, will in very great part coagulate into Salt, which with a very gentle heat will sublime in a dry form, + in which I found it to have lost almost all its offensive smell. And though against this way of proceeding I know it may be objected, (as was formerly intimated) that the efficacy of the Medicine may, as well as the Urinous smell, be much weakened by this Preparation; yet I found this Salt to retain a considerable degree of Quickness and Penetrancy, which its Volatility kept me from thinking strange. And experience has persuaded me, that divers of these compounded, or, if I may so style them, Resulting Salts, (which some Chemists call Salia Enixa, for all agree not in the Sense of that name) though they seem to have their Activity clogged, may have considerable operations both in Chemistry and Physic. And why the Emergent Salt we speak of, may not be of that number, I see no sufficient cause; (N. B.) especially since such a kind of Mixture, though made with another Urinous Spirit, has had such effects in Fevers, as I thought extraordinary. Nor is the Liquor that our Compounded Salt leaves behind, to be thrown away: since if it be Dephlegmed, it may afford a not Despicable Liquor, both for Medical and Mechanical uses, of which it may here suffice to have given you in general this hint. And if the more simple way of altering the Spirit of Humane Blood, be carried on a little further, by dissolving in the Alcohole of Wine, before the conjunction of the two Spirits be made, a convenient proportion (as perhaps a Twentyeth or Twenty-fourth part) of an Essential Chemical Oil, as of Cloves, Aniseeds, Marjoram, etc. the Volatile Salt that will be sublimed from this Mixture, will not only be deprived of its stink, but endowed with the smell and the Relish of the Oil; which by being thus united with a Salt very subtle and friendly to nature, will less overpower and offend the Brain and Stomach, than mere Chemical Oils are wont to do; and being associated with such Agile and penetrating Corpuscles, will with them gain admission into the more inward Recesses of the Body, and there exercise the Virtues that belong to the Vegetables that afforded the Oils, or at least to the Oils themselves. In these odoriferous Aromatic Mixtures the Oleaginous Particles are, by the intervention of the Saline ones, brought to mix readily with other Liquors, and even with Aqueous Vehicles, and to continue long enough mixed, for the Patient to take them commodiously. And thus by this one method there may be a multitude of Salia Volatilia Oleosa, that is, of pleasing, subtle and efficacious Remedies for inward uses, prepared, even as many as the Physician or Chemist shall please to make Essential Oils, (or others that will dissolve in Alcohole of Wine;) and if these be drawn from Cephalick Plants, as Marjoram, Rosemary, Lavender, etc. or from Cephalick Spices, as Nutmegs, Cinnamon, etc. they will probably afford very brisk and grateful Medicines to relieve and comfort the Brain and Spirits; as they may the Heart, Liver, and other Viscera, if in the sublimation the Saline Particles of Blood be associated with those of Oils, drawn from Vegetables whose Virtues do peculiarly respect those parts. Other ways might be here proposed of making Remedies, whereof the Spirit of Blood should be the main ingredient. But I willingly leave that work to yourself, and those of your profession, if you think fit to prosecute it; since my present task does not require that I should write like what I am not, a professed Physician, but like what I endeavour to be, a Diligent Natural Historian. And for the same reason I purposely forbear, to insert here some Chemical processes that I have met with of Remedies that admit of Distilled Blood, though I have also declined the mention of them for two other Reasons, one, that the Authors do not recommend them upon their own Experience, and the other, that these Medicines being much, more compounded than those I lately proposed, wherein our Spirit is mingled but with some one Chemical Oil or other, diluted with Alcohole of Wine; their preparations are less fit for my Design; which leads me to consider the Effects of Humane Blood upon Patients, less as they are Sanative, than as they are Signs of Qualities, whose knowledge tends to the discovery of the Nature of Spirit of Humane Blood, and so of that of Blood itself. And this, Sir, it may suffice to have at present set down, touching the History of the Spirit of Humane Blood; of which, and of the other parts constituting that Red Body, or obtainable from it, I might have given you a far less incomplete Account, if I had had more leisure; and if, for want of Materials to make Experiments upon the entire Liquor, and the Concreted and Serous Parts of it distinctly, and especially to afford a sufficient quantity of the Spirit, I had not been so straitened that I was fain to leave many things untried, and to try some others in much less quantities, and much more unaccurately than otherwise should have been done by, Sir, your, etc. AN APPENDIX TO THE MEMOIRS FOR THE HISTORY OF Humane Blood. HAving elsewhere mentioned the Reasons that moved me to think it fit to subjoin an Appendix to each of the Natural Histories, that I drew up, or designed, of particular Subjects; it would be needless to trouble you with them in this place, where it may therefore suffice to advertise you, that the following Particulars I have thrown together as they occurred to me, to be annexed to the foregoing History of Humane Blood, are made up of two sorts: Some which through haste or otherwise were Praetermitted, when they should have been ranged under one or other of the foregoing Titles, and so are answerable to those, that in the First Part of these Memoirs were called Paralipomena; and others that are for the most part of kin to those, that are there styled Addenda; though some of them may be judged to deserve better the name of Supernumerary, which yet I thought fit to let pass among the rest, because, though they do not directly belong to any of the distinct Titles of our History, yet they may obliquely be referred to one or other of them, or are at least capable of being made some way subservient to the general Design of the History itself. But the paucity of the particulars that I am at present furnished with, makes me fear it may favour of Ostentation, if in so much penury of matter I should curiously refer the Particulars that now occur to me to the differing Titles, Primary and Subordinate, that have been enumerated in the Schemes of our intended Histories. And therefore, till I be better stocked with materials, I shall forbear to make Scrupulous References of them, or so much as constantly distinguish the Paralipomena, from the other Addenda▪ contenting myself to refer some of them in a general way, and in the order they Chance to come to hand, to that part of the Memoirs, whether the Second, the Third, or the Fourth, to which they respectively seem most to belong. 'Tis hoped that neither Connection nor style will be expected, in loose Notes hastily set down at several times, to secure the Matters of fact, then fresh in Memory, from being, as to any necessary Circumstances, forgotten. Some Trials may seem to have been made extravagantly and quite at random, which perhaps would be otherwise thought of, but that I judged it not worth while, especially writing in haste, to spend time in setting down the Inducements I had to make them, or the Aims I had in them. I am well aware, that some few of the following Trials may seem but Repetitions of others, recited in the Body of the History. But these were added on purpose, that where the Event of both Trials was the same, they might confirm one another, which, where the subject has lain uncultivated, is oftentimes a desirable thing; and where they disagree in any considerable Circumstances, their Difference may occasion further Trials, and in the mean time keep us from building Dogmatical Conclusions upon the Circumstances wherein they differ. Particulars referable to the Second Part of the History. Experiment. I. THe Proportion of the substances obtainable from dried Humane Blood, being as I formerly noted, very difficult, to be determined, because of that Difficulty, and the Importance of the Inquiry, I thought fit to employ some Blood, that I made a shift to collect since the writing of the Second Part of the foregoing History, in making another Experiment, that we may make the nearer and safer estimate, of the Quantities of the distinct substances sought after. For this end I caused Twelve Ounces of dried Blood to be carefully distilled by an expert Laborant, well admonished of the Difficulty of his Task, and the exactness he was to aim at in performing it. The Distillation being ended, the substances obtained were brought me, with this note of their Quantities. Twelve Ounces of dried Humane Blood yielded, of Volatile Salt and Spirit together five Ounces, of which we poured off from the wet Salt ʒxiij+. 54. gr. So that their remained ℥ xiij+. ʒij+. 6. gr. Of Volatile Salt; of foetid Oil there were two Ounces, of Caput Mortuum four Ounces, and two Drams. So that in spite of all his care there was lost, by sticking to the Retorts and other Glasses (which I presumed, retained little else than the more viscous Oil and phlegm,) and by avolation of some more subtle parts (especially upon pouring the Liquors from Vessel to Vessel,) about Six Drams. The four Ounces and two Drams of Caput Mortuum being diligently calcined, afforded but Six Drams and a half of Ashes: Of which very great Decrement, the Accension and Consumption of the more fixed Oleaginous Part seems to be the cause. And if it be so, we may suppose, that there is a far greater portion of Oil, in Humane Blood, than has been hitherto taken notice of. These Ashes were not white or Grey, as those of other Bodies use to be, but of a Reddish Colour, much like that of Bricks; and yet the watchful Laborant affirmed, he could easily know them to be true Ashes, because that whilst there remained any thing Oily or Combustible in the Caput Mortuum, it would look like a throughly kindled Charcoal (which it would continue to do far longer, than one would expect:) But when that Combustible substance was quite wasted, the remaining Caput Mortuum would look in the fire like dead and ordinary Ashes, though, when they were Cold, they appeared and continued Red. These Ashes being carefully Elixiviated, afforded five Scruples of White-fixt Salt, besides a little, which being casually got into the Contiguous sand, and thence recovered by water, and reduced to the like White Salt, amounted to about a Scruple more. So that their remained for the Terra damnata Fourteen Scruples & about a half, that is, a good deal above twice the weight of the Salt, whence it appears, that according to this Analysis, the pure fixed Salt of Humane Blood is but between the 57th and 58th part even of dried Blood, and therefore probably amounts but to the 150th or perhaps the 170th part (in weight) of Blood, as it flows from the Vein opened by a lancet: and the Fixed Earth or Terra damnata, is to the dried Blood that affords it, as 19 and about a half to 1. Experiment II. IN regard the foregoing Experiment, and another of the like nature formerly mentioned were made with dried and pulverable Blood of several Persons put together, though I knew it would be scarce possible, in so small a quantity of Blood, as I could obtain at once from one Person, to find out with any accurateness, the quantities of the several substances, it was capable of affording; yet, to be able to make some tolerable estimate grounded upon experience, I was invited to make a trial, whose success, though in one part of it unlucky, was registered as follows. An entire parcel of Humane Blood weighing ten ounces and 73 gr. being slowly distilled to dryness in a Head and Body on a digestive Furnace, afforded of phlegmatic Liquor ℥ vij+. ʒij+. 47. gr. and of Caput Mortuum, or rather of dry substance ℥ ij+. ʒij. This pulverable matter being beaten and put into a Retort, and distilled in sand by degrees of Fire afforded ʒij+. 48. gr. of Oil. But there happened an unlucky mistake about the Salt and Spirit: for after the latter was poured off, which weighed but 48. gr. the wet Salt which stuck in good quantity to the lateral and upper parts of the Receiver, instead of having been washed out, as it should have been, with the phlegm of the same Blood, was washed out with distilled water, whence we obtained by sublimation into the neck of a glass Egg, ʒj+. 5. gr. of dry Salt. But by the taste of the distilled Water whence it was sublimed, it appeared that all the Salt had not been raised: which invited me to put to it as much good Spirit of Salt as I supposed to be at least sufficient to satiate it, with design to try, whether by evaporating this Mixture to dryness, and subliming Salt by the help of an Alcaly, we might not recover all, or almost all, the Volatile Salt, that had been somewhat fixed by the Acid Spirit. The Retort being cut, that the Caput Mortuum might be taken out, it was found to weigh ʒuj+. 12. gr. which being carefully calcined yielded but two Scruples and four grains of Ashes, which the Laborant said were Red. These being Elixiviated, afforded eighteen grains of Salt, besides the remaining Earth or Terrestrial substance, which, I keep by me, because, notwithstanding all the violence of fire it has undergone, 'tis of a Red Colour, which seems to some to have an Eye of Purple in it. Experiments belonging to the Primary Title of the Natural, History of Humane Blood. Experiment III. SPirit of Vinegar being put upon the florid Superficies of a parcel of Humane Blood, did very quickly deprive it of its fresh Scarlet Colour, and make it of a dark or dirty Colour. Experiment IU. THe Juice of a Lemon squeezed upon the Florid Surface of Blood, did presently somewhat impair the colour, but did not appear to alter it any thing near so much, as the Spirit of Vinegar had done. Experiment V. JUice of Orange changed the Colour of the Florid Surface of Blood, less than Juice of Lemmons had done. Experiment VI. THe Black or lower part of a Portion of Humane Blood being turned uppermost, and thereby exposed to the Air, within half or three quarters of an hour, (somewhat more or less) acquired by the Contact of it, a pleasant and florid colour. Experiment VII. BUt if upon the Black Surface of the Blood some good Urinous Spirit (as that of Salarmoniack) were dropped, there would be an alteration produced in a trice, and a pleasant Red colour, though perhaps somewhat inferior to that produced by the contact of the Air, would presently appear on the Surface of the Blood. Experiment VIII. Fixed Alcalies, or Lixiviate Salts resolved Per deliquium, did likewise alter the Black Superficies of the Blood to a Red colour, but not so Florid or Pleasant, as that produced by the Urinous Spirit above mentioned. Experiment IX. THe freshly drawn Juice of the Leaves of Scurvygrass, being dropped upon the Black Superficies of a lump of Humane Blood, seemed presently to make some change in the colour of it, making us judge it somewhat Reddish and inclinable to Floridness. The seven foregoing Notes suppose it to be already known, that when healthy Blood is suffered to settle in a Porringer, that Surface of the Concreted Part, which is exposed to the Air, will be adorned with a fine Red colour, and if the same Mass be turned upside down, that which before was the lower Surface of it, will appear of a very dark and blackish colour. Experiment X. HAving for trial's sake almost filled a Vial capable of containing by guess near a pound of Humane Blood, with a mixture of that Liquor, and some rectified Spirit of Wine, whose proportion I cannot remember, but guess it was a fourth, or eighth part: At the end of above three years, looking upon the same Glass, stopped with nothing but a Cork, we found it coagulated, or, to speak more warily in a consistent form. And the Vessel being unstopped, there appeared no sign of Putrefaction in the Blood; and having smelled to it, we could not perceive that it did at all stink: So Balsamic a Virtue has Dephlegmed Spirit of Wine, to preserve Humane Blood. Experiment XI. WE took a piece of Fibrous or Concreted Blood, of the bigness of a large Bean (or thereabouts) and having put it into a small Glass Vessel with a flattish bottom, we poured on it as much highly rectified▪ Vinous Spirit, as might serve to cover it, though it had been twice thicker than it was; then we lightly covered this Open-mouthed glass with another, and set the Vessel in a quiet place, that the Vinous Spirit might have leisure to imbibe the serous or aqueous parts of the Blood, and thereby harden that yet soft substance; and in effect it quickly seemed to have gained a superficial Crust, but the internal parts continuing yet soft, we left the Liquor upon the Blood for a day or two longer, and then we found, that the action of the Liquor had quite penetrated the lump of Blood, and made it moderately hard and friable. This Experiment, having been made in the cold, may much confirm a Trial elsewhere mentioned, to have been made to the same purpose; and both of them together induced me to fear that two or three ingenious Writers, that in their Chemical Receipts prescribe Solutions and Tinctures of Concreted Blood in Spirit of Wine, have set down the Pompous Processes wherein these Operations are prescribed, rather according to Conjectures than Experience. Experiment XII. IT may be of some use to the Speculative, to know how much Volatile Salt of Blood is dissoluble in Water or Phlegm; and therefore having caused an ounce of Distilled Water (for common Water, because of some Saltishness that usually accompanies it, would not have been so proper on this occasion) to be carefully weighed out, we put into it, little by little, some dry and white Volatile Salt of Blood, and shook it well into the Liquor, to make it disperse the better; we allowed it also a competent time for solution, and by this means we found, that ℥ i. of Water would dissolve at lest ʒij. that is, a fourth part of its weight of dry Salt, and that in the cold. For afterwards by the help of heat, we made the same Liquor dissolve near five and twenty Grains more. In which last part of the Experiment I had a further aim, which was to try, whether upon the Refrigeration of the Liquor, the dissolved Salt would not shoot into Crystals of observable Figures. But the event answered not at that time my desire; yet left me not without some intention to reiterate the Experiment, if I shall get another opportunity. POSTSCRIPT. Experiment XIII. WE put the above mentioned Solution into a Retort, to be drawn off with a pretty quick heat, (which on this occasion we preferred to a much slower one) and thereby obtained a Distilled Liquor, that contained all the Volatile Salt, save a little that escaped in a dry form; which Liquor tasted strong enough to pass for quite, or at least almost, as brisk a Liquor, as moderate Spirit of Blood drawn the common way, and consequently discovered near enough, what proportion should be taken, of the Aqueous Ingredient to the Saline when one would make such a Spirit. The knowledge of which Proportion may probably ease us of some Trials, that would otherwise be necessary to find it out, when we are (as we may often be) less stored with Spirit than with Volatile Salt, and desire to employ this in a Liquid form; in which we are wont to call it, for distinctions sake, the Aqueous (not the Phlegmatic) Spirit of Blood. If opportunity had not been wanting, we would have tried, whether by repeating the Distillation twice or thrice, a better or stricter union of the Salt and Liquor would not have been effected: and this the rather, because having ordered the Vial that contained this Aqueous Spirit, in which the Water had been, if I may so speak, Superonerated to be kept stopped during a Frosty Night, we perceived at the bottom of the Glass (what we had missed of before) a pretty deal of Volatile Salt, coagulated or shot into Crystals, though the Crystals that were this way obtained, were fine and clear, and some of them larger than Spangles, yet being much more numerous than we desired, by adhering closely and confusedly enough to one another, they kept us from being able to discover the Figure of particular Grains, and made me somewhat doubt, whether the single Crystals were all of them of the same shape; all that I could clearly discern, being, that divers of those Concretions were flat, thin Plates with fine Rectilinear Angles that inclined us to think, that if the whole Plains could have been perfectly discovered their broadest Surface would have been found Hexagonal, or of some Polygone Figures very near of kin to that. Experiment XIV. WE put an ounce of Distilled Water, wherein we dissolved as much Volatile Salt of Humane Blood, as it would well take up, into a Glass Egg, and exposed it during a Frosty Night to congeal: which we did with design to discover, whether, as the Saltness that is in Sea Water keeps it here in England from freezing, (at least in ordinary Winters,) so the Volatile Salt of Humane Blood, which much resembles the other in Taste, would have the like effect upon Water, especially if it were fully impregnated therewith. To this Conjecture the event was answerable, the Frost having produced no Ice in our solution, nor having so much as made any of the Salt manifestly shoot, (as I wished it had done, hoping thereby to discover somewhat about the Figuration of the Salt of Humane Blood.) And, though afterwards we removed it into a Frigorifick Mixture, that would probably have frozen Beer and Ale, and perhaps the weaker sort of French Wine; yet we did not perceive it to glaciate any part of our solution, but only made it let fall a pretty deal of Matter, that seemed to be Feculent, (for what it was, I had not opportunity to examine.) Experiment XV. SEa-salt dissolved in Water renders that Liquor much more difficult to be frozen, than it was before; and yet being joined with Ice or Snow, the other Ingredient of our Frigorifick Mixture, it does, when outwardly applied, very much conduce to the Artificial Congelation of it, which usually would not succeed without it. Wherefore to try whether, as Volatile Salt of Humane Blood, being dissolved in Water, did, as was formerly noted, hinder it from freezing, so it would outwardly applied highly promote its Glaciation; we mixed by guess about a Scruple of this Salt with a convenient quantity of beaten Ice, and having put into this Mixture a somewhat slender Pipe of Glass with Common Water in it, we found, after a while, the Water that lay in the lower part of the Glass Vessel, and was surrounded by the Mixture, was turned into Ice. Experiment XVI. TO try some suspicions I had about the Saline and Aqueous Parts, that I thought might he concealed in the Fibrous or Consistent part of Humane Blood, I caused some of it to be in an open and shallow Glass exposed to the Air in a Frosty Night, and the next morning found it to be lightly frozen, and the Surface of the Ice prettily figured with resemblances of Combs, with Teeth on both sides or edges; on which account these Figures did not ill resemble those, that I have oftentimes obtained, by slowly coagulating into Salt, a solution of Salarmoniack made in Common Water. In the Second Part of the foregoing Memoirs, I have not said any thing of the Medicinal Virtues of Humane Blood itself, (for those of the Spirit belong to the Fourth Part) and, though I might now, if I thought fit, say something not impertinent to that Subject, in this Appendix, both out of some Printed Books and my own observations, yet I now forbear to do it, not only for a reason that 'tis not necessary I should here declare, but because four or five Processes that I have met with about Humane Blood in Paracelsus, Burgravius, (famous for his Biolychnium made of that Subject) and one or two more, about the Transplantation of Diseases by means of the Patient's Blood, are such, as either I do not well understand, because of their being (probably on purpose) obscurely penned, or seem in themselves unlikely, of which sort is the Biolychnium, or Lamp of Life, in which 'tis pretended that the Blood is so prepared, that the state of Health of the Person whose it is, may be discovered by the manner of the burning of the Flame it affords, (though he be perhaps at a great distance from it,) and his Death by its Extinction. Besides that, as I have elsewhere noted, some Circumstances relating to the Ashes of Humane Blood, make me doubt, whether some of these Processes were not rather the Products of Fancy than Experience. And, though I think those Medicines less improbable, that without much destroying the Texture of the Blood by Fire, aim at transplanting Diseases by its intervention, yet I thought fit to decline transcribing the forementioned Medicines, till Experience shall warrant me to do it. And I shall also at present forbear to set down my own Trials, because I have not yet seen the Events of them. But yet I shall invite you to endeavour with me to prepare two, that, if they succeed, may afford, especially the last of them, considerable Medicines. The first Medicine that I attempted, was, by putting to Salt of Tartar Oil of Humane Blood instead of Oil of Turpentine: and by keeping them long, and stirring them frequently, in the open Air, to make such a Saponary Concretion, as is not unknown to many in London, by the name of Matthews' Corrector, which as he made it with Common Oil of Turpentine, though it seem but a slight Composition, is yet esteemed and employed with good success, by some Doctors of Physic and other Practitioners in London. To make the other Medicine, we endeavoured to unite by long Digestion, the Salt, Spirit, and Oil of Humane Blood, into a Mixture, which some Chemists (for their Terms are not by all of them used in the same sense) call a Clyssus. But having begun this, without having had time to finish it, we shall say no more of it, but that divers Chemists may not improbably look upon this sort of Compositions, as one of the noblest sort of Preparations that many a Drug is capable of. Particulars referable to the Third Part of the History. Experiment. I. A Young Man having bled into a Porringer, and the Blood having been kept several hours, that a sufficient separation might be made of the Coagulated or consistent part and the fluid, the fibrous portion and the Serum were separately weighed: and the difference of the two masses in point of weight was not so great as one would have expected, the curdled part of the Blood weighing about six Ounces, and the Serous part not many drams from that weight. This Trial is here set down by comparing it with some others, what difference there is between the Bloods of sound Persons, as to the proportion of the Serum, and the concreted part. Experiment. II. HUmane Urine, having first (that I know of) by the very ingenious Mr. Hook, and oftentimes by me, been observed, when frozen, to have on the surface of the Ice, figures not ill resembling Combs or Feathers; the great affinity generally supposed to be betwixt Urine and the Serum of Blood, made me think fit to try at once whether this last named Liquor would freeze with such a degree of Cold, as would easily, and yet not very easily glaciate water, and whether, in case it should freeze, the Ice would have a surface figured like that of frozen Urine. But, having for this purpose exposed some Serum of Humane Blood to the Cold Air, in two freezing nights consecutively, the Serum was not found to congeal, though some Grumous parts of the same Blood did, as has formerly been noted, yet I scarce doubted, but an exceeding hard frost would have produced, at least a thin Plate of Ice upon the surface of our Liquor. And to confirm this Conjecture, we took the same Serum, and having strained it through a Linen cloth, to separate the Liquor as much as by that way we could, from any clotted or Fibrous Parts, that might have lain concealed in it, we put it into a shallow, concave glass, and laid that upon some of our Frigorifick mixture, made of Ice and Salt, which we have described, and often made use of, in the History of Cold. By this means the exposed Serum, being frozen from the bottom upwards, there appeared here and there upon the Ice contiguous to the Air, certain Figures, that did not ill resemble those of Conglaciated Urine. Experiment. III. HAving formerly had occasion to observe that Man's Urine would tolerably well serve for what they call an invisible Ink: and having considered (when I remembered this) the great Affinity that is supposed to be between Urine and the Serum of Blood, I thought fit to try, whether the latter might not be employed like the former to make a kind of invisible Ink, To this effect we took some Serum of Humane Blood, and having dipped a new Pen in it, we traced some Characters upon a piece of white Paper, and having suffered them to dry on, we held the unwritten side of the Paper over the Flame of a Candle, keeping it always stirring, that it might not take fire. By which means the Letters that had been written, appeared on the upper surface of the Paper, being tho, not of an Inky Blackness, yet of a Colour dark enough to be easily legible and very like to some others that having been purposely written with fresh Urine, and made visible, by heat, were compared with them. Particulars referable to the Fourth Part of the History. I confess, the Defectiveness of our Historical knowledge of Humane Blood extravasated, has been such, that among the Authors I have had occasion to peruse, I have met with so few matters of fact delivered upon their own knowledge, that the things I have thought fit to transcribe out of their Books into this little tract, do scarce all of them together amount to half a sheet of Paper, But yet I would not impute this Penury, either to the Laziness or the Ignorance of Writers, but rather to this that they wanted some Person, exercised in designing Natural Histories to excite their Curiosity, and direct their Attention; there being many that would inquire, if they knew what Questions were fit to be asked, about a proposed subject, as for instance Humane Blood, and what Researches aught to be made, to discover its nature. Upon this account, I hope that after some time the foregoing Scheme of Titles, and the Papers that refer to it, will give occasion to a great many more Experiments and Observations about the Blood, (and perhaps other Liquors of the Humane Body) than hitherto have been published by others, or are now imparted by me. Which last words I set down, because I would not be thought guilty of the vanity of pretending to have near exhausted the subject I have treated of; since besides other deficiencies, I now perceive that I wholly omitted a considerable Title which might either have been referred to the Primary ones of the first order, or employed as a kind of Preliminary to the Secondary Titles of the History of the Spirit of Blood. This pretermitted Title should have been of the several ways of Distilling Humane Blood; since according to these, the produced Spirit, Salt, etc. may be considerably diversified. Upon this account I thought fit, to distil three Portions of dried Blood, each with a differing Additament. The first with a Mineral Alcaly, Quicklime: the next with a Vegetable Alcaly, Calcined Tartar: and the third with a Sulphureous Acid, Oil of Vitriol. And, though some Accidents kept me from prosecuting the Trials as I desired, yet the first having succeeded indifferent well, and the two others not having wholly miscarried, I shall subjoin the Accounts of all three as they were set down in my Notes. Having observed that divers Bodies, when they were Distilled with Quick lime, afforded Liquors differing from those they would have yielded, if they had been distilled, either per se, or with some Vulgar Additaments; we took ℥ v. of concreted, but not dried Humane Blood, and having mixed it with an equal weight of Quicklime, (such as I could procure, but not so strong as I have often seen,) we distilled it by degrees of Fire in a Retort placed in Sand, by which means we obtained a large Proportion of Reddish Spirituous Liquor, which did not seem considerably Phlegmatic; together with some Oil, which was but in very small quantity, the rest being probably kept back, (and perhaps some of it destroyed) by the Lime: and of this little Oil that did come over, there was a small portion that sunk in the Spirit, the rest swimming upon it. The above mentioned Spirit being put into a small Head and Body, was set into a Digestive Furnace, to Rectify at leisure with a very gentle heat, and the Receiver was three or four times shifted, that we might observe what difference, if any, there would be betwixt the successively ascending Portions of Liquor. The first Spirit that came over did not smell near so rank as that is wont to do that is distilled per se. This Observation belongs also to the three or four succeeding Portions of Liquor: probably, because the Lime had better freed the Spirit of the first Distillation from the fetid Oil, many of whose Particles are wont, though unperceivedly, to mingle with it when it is drawn over without Additament. The rectified Spirit, which was clear and colourless, had a taste much stronger than its smell; for a small drop of it upon the Tongue, had something of Fieryness that was surprising, and lasted longer than one would wish; which made me doubt, whether the Spirituous part of the Blood had not carried up with it, some of the Fiery parts of the Quicklime; which doubt, if future Trials resolve in the Affirmative, one may expect some uncommon effects from such a Spirit, which in this case would be enriched with a kind of Volatilised Alcaly, a thing much desired by many Chemists and Physicians. Upon occasion of this suspicion, we dropped a little of it into a strong solution of Sublimate in fair Water, and it seemed at the first contact to make a Precipitate a little inclining to Yellow, (as I have observed the Saline parts of Quicklime to do in a greater measure,) though afterwards the Precipitate appeared white, like that made with ordinary Volatile Liquors of an Urinous Nature. But because I expected that our Alcalisate Spirit of Blood, if I may so call it, would have some peculiar Qualities, discriminating it from the Spirit drawn without addition; I thought fit to make a few Trials with it, whose event justified my conjectures. For having put into a Glass Egg with a slender neck, some of our well rectified Spirit, it did not then afford any Volatile Salt in a dry form: (though afterwards, if I mistook not, by another Trial, we at length obtained a little) and having continued the Trial somewhat obstinately, we found the Spirit to have by the action of the Fire, lost its Limpidness, and to have been made muddy or troubled. Having mingled another portion of it with a highly rectified, ardent Spirit, and kept them all night in the cold, no coagulation ensued, nor could we perceive any, after it had been kept divers hours in a moderate heat. But the Mixture acquired a Yellow colour, and let fall, somewhat to our surprise, a pretty deal of darkish Powder, though not enough to invite us to make any Trials upon it. We put to another parcel of our Spirit some good Spirit of Salt, but, though they smoked much at their meeting, yet we observed no noise nor bubbles upon their commixture. And having mingled another Portion with Oil of Vitriol, though there was produced a very great smoke, and besides that an intense degree of Heat, (the quantity of the matter considered,) yet there was no visible Ebullition, nor any noise or bubbles produced, but the colour of the Oil of Vitriol was very much heightened, the mixture growing almost red. From these, and the like Phaenomena one may gather, that our Alcalisate Spirit of Blood is in several things differing from the simple. Whether this disparity will make it a more potent Medicine, or make it, by too much participation of the fiery parts of the Lime; a less safe Remedy, future Experience must discover. But it seems not improbable, that either as a Medicine, or as a Menstruum, if not in both capacities, it may be a not Inconsiderable Liquor. For which reason I have made my account of it the more Circumstantial. Experiment II. WE took ℥ ij of Tartar Calcined to whiteness by equal weight of (kindled) Nitre, and mingled this Alcaly with ℥ ij of dried and powdered Humane Blood. This mixture being distilled in a Retort in a Sand Furnace, made it appear by its Productions, that Quicklime on these occasions acts otherwise upon the Blood than other Alcalies do. For, whereas the Distillation wherein Lime was employed, afforded us, as has been noted, a Spirit that before Rectification was very strong, and unaccompanied with dry Salt; the Calcinatum of Nitre and Tartar afforded us at the very first Distillation, a Spirit less strong; but withal, so much Volatile Salt as covered almost all the inside of the Receiver, not now to mention the difference of their respective Caput Mortuums.) And though the strong Saline Spirit of Blood made with Quicklime, did not, as we lately noted, make an Effervescence with Acid Spirits, yet this Volatile Salt readily did it upon the affusion of Spirit of Salt. Experiment III. BEsides the fixed Alcalisate Additaments, with which I distilled the dried Blood of Men, I thought fit to add to it a very Acid Additament, viz. Oil of Vitriol; and this the rather, because I had long since found by Trial, (and, if I misremember not, have elsewhere related) that this Liquor being mixed with some other Bodies, particularly with some belonging to the Animal Kingdom, did in an odd manner mingle its own substances (for I take it not to be a simple body) with them, and notably diversify the Products of the Distillation. We put therefore upon ℥ iij. of powdered Humane Blood, an equal weight of Oil of Vitriol, and left them for some time together, to try if by the action of this Corrosive Menstruum, though upon a Body not of a Mineral Nature, some heat would not be excited, and accordingly we found, that after a while, though not at the very first, the mixture grew sensibly warm. Then we removed the Retort into a Sand Furnace, and distilling it by degrees of Fire, we had a Spirit which was preceded by a pretty deal of Phlegmatic Liquor, of an odd sulphureous smell, but so strong and lasting, that I could not but wonder at it. The Caput Mortuum I was fain to let alone, because I had some Inducements to suppose, that it was of so compounded a nature, that I should not in my present Circumstances have the opportunity to examine it throughly. But it seemed remarkable, that, notwithstanding the great Acidity of Oil of Vitriol, and the fixative power it exercises on many Bodies, wherewith it is committed to Distillation, our Experiment afforded us a pretty quantity of Volatile matter in the form of a white Salt. But indeed the smell and taste of it were so uncommon, that I was troubled I had not then conveniency to examine it carefully; much less to try, whether it had any peculiar Virtues or Operations in Physic; though I had then by me a Glass Instrument, that I purposely provided to obviate the great inconvenience that is usually met with, and has been often complained of by me as well as others, in the way Chemists are wont to employ, when they are put to make repeated Sublimations of Volatile Salts, whether alone or with Additaments of this Instrument I cannot now stay to give you an account, but if it continue to appear as useful as expeditious, I may hereafter do it by presenting you one ready made. Experiment. I. TO some Naturalists and Physicians that delight to frame Hypotheses, perhaps it may not be unwelcome to know, that for curiosities sake we attempted to make Aurum fulminans, by Precipitating a solution of Gold (made in Aqua Regia) with Spirit of Humane Blood, by dulcifying the Precipitate with Common water, and then drying it leisurely and that by this means we succeeded in the attempt. Experiment. II. HAving into a wide-mouthed glass put as much Spirit of Blood, as would more than cover the Ball of a small sealed Weatherglass, and suffered this Instrument to stay a while, that the Ambient Liquor and the Included might be reduced to the same temper, as to Heat and Cold; we poured on some Spirit of Verdegreece made per se, and observed that, though this Spirit with some other Volatile Saline Liquors, had a very differing operation, yet working on our Spirit of Blood, with which it made a conflict and excited Bubbles, there was produced in the Mixture a degree of Warmth, that was not insensible on the outside of the glass, but was much more sensible in the Thermoscope, whose Liquor being hereby rarified, ascended to a considerable height above the former station, towards which when the conflict of the two Liquors was over, it began, though but slowly, to return. Experiment. III. HAving by degrees mixed our Spirit of Blood, with as much good Spirit of Nitre as it would manifestly work on, there was, not without noise, produced great store of Bubbles by their mutual conflict; which being kept in a quiet place, till after the Liquors had quite ceased to work on one another, it began to appear, that notwithstanding all our care to free the Spirit of Blood from Oil, something of Oleaginous that had been concealed in it, had been manifested, and partly separated, by this Operation; since not only a somewhat red Colour was produced by it, but after a while the surface of the Liquor was covered with a film, such as I have often observed in Saline Liquors, copiously impregnated with Antimony or other Sulphureous Bodies. And this thin Membrane had its Superficies so disposed, that looking upon it with Eyes placed Conveniently in reference to it and the Light, it did to me, and other Persons, that did not at all look on it from the same place, appear adorned with vivid Colours of the Rainbow, as Red, Yellow, Blue and Green; and as I remember, in the same order that these Colours are to be seen in the Clouds. Experiment. IV. HAving unexpectedly found amongst some other long neglected Glasses, a Vial that was written upon above twelve years before, and inscribed Spirit of Humane Blood, it appeared to have been, by I know not what Accident, very loosely stopped: and yet not so, as to give me cause to think, that the Liquor was much wasted. But notwithstanding this, and that the Liquor had acquired a deep Colour, almost like that of Red Wine; yet it was so dispirited and strengthless, that it appeared to be very little other than nauseous Phlegm. Which Observation I therefore think not unworthy to be preserved, because by it we may guests, how little a portion of the noble and genuine Spirit or Salt, may suffice to make a Liquor pass for Spirit of Humane Blood. Experiment. V. IN a Frosty season we exposed late at night two or three spoonfuls by guess of Spirit of Humane Blood, that was not of the best, being at the utmost but moderately strong. And though the Cold of that season had throughly frozen a Vial almost full of Oil of Vitriol, and the night wherein our Spirit was exposed, was (at least) moderately Frosty, yet the next morning we did not find so much as any Superficial Ice upon it. But having removed the Vial into a mixture of Powdered Ice and Common Salt we found in no very long time, that most part of the Spirit was turned into thin Plates of Ice, which joined close together, and had their edges upwards, like those of the Leaves of a Book, when it is held with its back downwards. Experiment. VI TO make a further Trial of that imperfect one mentioned in the Subordinate Title, we took a Clot of Humane Blood of the bigness of a Bean, or thereabouts, and having put it into a Vial in such manner, that that part, which before was contiguous to the Air, and for that reason, was florid, was now the undermost, and the other, which was blackish lay now uppermost, we made haste to pour upon it as much Spirit of Humane Blood, as was more than sufficient to cover it, and perceived that the contact of it presently began to lessen the blackness of the surface of the Blood, and bring it to a considerable degree of Floridness; and to try whether that would continue, we stopped the Vial, and set it by till the next morning, (for it was then night,) when looking upon it, we found the Superficial Colour not to be Black but still Red. Experiment VII. UPon the Powder of dried Humane Blood we put (in a small Vial) some of the rectified Spirit of Humane Blood, which quickly dissolved part of it, and acquired a deep and pleasant Colour. But highly rectified Spirit of Wine, being put upon some of the same Powder in a like glass, did not in many hours acquire any manifest Tincture, and got but a pale Yellow one, even after having been for a longer time kept in a moderate heat. And yet Common water, being put upon another portion of the same Powder, did quickly enough appear, by the Colour it acquired, to have dissolved a pretty deal of it. Experiment VIII. SOme of our Spirit of Humane Blood being put upon some curious Vitriol, that I had as a Rarity (if I mistake not) from the East Indies, part whereof was in lumps, and part beaten to Powder; that Liquor which was put upon the former, being able to dissolve it but slowly, made little or no Froth; but the Spirit that was put upon the latter, by hastily working on it produced a manifest one. And the Solutions made of both parcels of Vitriol, were of a deeper and more lovely Blue, than the Mineral itself had been: nor did I observe in them any Precipitate of a dark Colour, as I have done upon the Mixture of Spirit of Urine and Ordinary Vitriol. Experiment IX. HAving with a clean Pen drawn some Letters upon white Paper with Spirit of Humane Blood, and as soon as 'twas dry, moved the unwritten side over the Flame of a Candle, we found that this Liquor may for a need be employed, as an invisible Ink, that seemed to be somewhat better, than those formerly mentioned to have been afforded us by Serum and Urine. Experiment X. HAving found by Trial that divers Salts, some that are Volatile and some that are not, being put in Powder into water, will whilst they are dissolving, sensibly refrigerate it; and on the other side that some very subtle Spirits actually cold, being put into cold Water, will quickly produce in it a sensible warmth, I thought it would not be amiss to try, what Spirit of Humane Blood would do, when employed after the same manner. Having therefore placed a sealed Thermoscope in an open mouthed glass, furnished with as much distilled water as would cover the Ball of the Instrument, we left it there for a while to bring the internal Liquor and the external to the same degree of Coldness. Then we poured upon the immersed Ball two or three spoonfuls of Spirit of Humane Blood (which was all we could spare for this Trial) but perceived very little alteration to ensue in the Thermoscope, only that it seemed, the Spirit of Wine in the stem did a little, and but a very little, subside which effect (though it had been much more manifest) I should not have been surprised at, partly because I found Spirit of Urine to have a like, or somewhat more considerable effect, and partly because I remembered, what I elsewhere relate about the Operation of the pure Salt of Humane Blood upon Distilled Water; which Liquor I therefore make use of in these and many other Experiments, because in our common Pump-Water or Well-Water, and in most other common Waters, I have observed a kind of common Salt, which though in very small quantity, makes it apt to coagulate with, or precipitate, some kind of Saline Corpuscles, whether more simple, or more compounded. But before I quite dismiss the lately recited Experiment, I must acknowledge, that I dare not acquiesce in it. Since probably the effect of the Spirit of Blood would have been more considerable, if I had been furnished with a sufficient quantity of it, to pour into the Water. Experiment XI. INto a slender Cylindrical Vial we put Filings of Copper, more than enough to cover the bottom, and then pouring on some Spirit of Humane Blood, till it reached about an Inch above the Filings, we stopped the Glass close, and, as we expected, the Menstruum dissolved some of the Metal, and acquired upon it a deep ceruleous colour, which by keeping the Vessel in a quiet place for some days, did by degrees disappear, and left the Liquor like Water. And then the Glass being unstopped, there did, as was expected, appear a fine Blue surface on the confines of the Air and the Liquor, in a Minute of an hour or less; and this fine colour extending itself downwards, was in no long time diffused through the whole Body of the Liquor; and that so plentifully, as to render it almost opacous. But, though I kept the Glass many days after well stopped, yet (whether it were that there was too much Air left in the Vial, or for some other reason) the colour did not disappear, as was expected, but continued very intense. This may confirm and diversify an Experiment related in the thirteenth Title of the Fourth Part of the Memoirs. Experiment XII. IT is not only upon Copper in its perfect Metalline form, but by Nature itself Embryonated in, or blended with stony matter, that our Spirit of Humane Blood did manifestly work: for having poured some upon well powdered Lapis Armenus, the Liquor did even in the cold, and in no long time, (for it exceeded not a few hours) acquire a deep and lovely Blue, almost like the solution of Filings of Crude Copper, made with the same Menstruum. THE CONCLUSION. ANd here, Sir, I shall at length dismiss a Subject, about which I now perceive I have already entertained you much longer than at first I imagined. And yet, if I prevail with you, your trouble is not quite at an end; since I must exhort you to take the pains, for your own satisfaction and mine, to try over again such of the foregoing Experiments, as you shall judge likely to be of a contingent Nature. For, though I hope you'll do me the right to believe, that I have as faithfully as plainly delivered Matters of Fact, without being biased by Hypotheses, or aiming at Elegance, yet my Exhortation may be reasonable. For I have observed Humane Blood to be a thing so diversifyable by various Circumstances, and especially by the Habitual Constitution of the person that bleeds, and his present condition at the very time of Phlebotomy, that I dare not undertake, that every repeater of the like Experiments with mine, will always find the Events to be just such as I have recited mine to have had. Nay I dare not promise myself an exact uniformity of successes, even when I myself shall reiterate some (of the nicer) of my own Trials; especially if I can do it, as I desire with greater Quantities of Blood than (for want of them) the first were made with. To the Particulars already delivered in order to the History of Humane Blood, I could now, Sir, add some others, if Time and Discretion would permit me to do it. For, as little cultivated as the Subject has been, I found it not so barren, but that, whilst I was delivering some Trials concerning it, the consideration of those, and of the Nature of the thing, suggested new ones to me. But 'tis high time I should break off an Appendix, that, being but a Rhapsody of the Notes and other things, that have occurred to me since the Memoirs were written, may I fear, seem already too prolix, as well as confused. I do not forget, that the two last Subordinate Titles of the Fourth Part of the Memoirs, concern the External and Internal use of the Spirit of Blood in Physic; and that therefore perchance it may be expected, that I should here add some Experiments or Observations, relating to those Titles. But I hope the lately mentioned Reasons, and my just backwardenss to part with some of them, because they are not yet finished, will make you easily excuse my laying them aside; which I am like to do long, unless you, and your Learned Friends shall peremptorily require them of me, in a fitter season than this; in which some occasions, that I cannot dispense with, call me off to other Employments, and oblige me to leave a further inquiry into this Subject to yourself, and those able professed Physicians, who have, as well more Obligation, as more Ability than I, to pursue it effectually. This I may well hope that you and they will do, since upon a cursory review of a part only of what I have written, so many things sprang up even in my thoughts, as Original Trials, if I may so call them, or as other things fit to be further considered, that I perceived 'twould not be difficult to increase the Appendix, by two sorts of particulars; the one made up of designed Experiments, that is, such as have not yet been tried, and yet seem worthy to be so, (to which 'tis probable our excellent Verulam would have given the Title of Historia Designata:) the other should consist of such Trials as I call▪ Succedaneous Experiments, that is, such as I intended should be made upon the Blood of Beasts, in such Cases and Circumstances, wherein the Blood of Men, either cannot be had, or ought not to be procured. When I shall next have the happiness to converse with you, you may command a sight of what I have drawn up of this kind. And, if God shall please to vouchsafe me Health and Conveniency, I may perhaps (for I must not absolutely promise it) offer you what Addenda have occurred to me, as things not unfit to make way for a more copious, and less unaccurate, Scheme of Titles, such as those that in the first part (of the Memoirs) are called Titles of the Second Classis, or Order: for which Scheme I was the rather invited to think it fit, Materials should be by some body provided, because second thoughts made me sensible that the Particulars compiled in this small Book, come far short, (as I lately acknowledged, and you will easily believe,) of comprising all that should and may be known of so noble and useful a Subject, as I have ventured to treat of. And I will freely confess to you on this occasion, that for my part, in the prospect I have of the future Advancement of Humane Knowledge, I think most of those Virtuosos that now live, must content themselves with the satisfaction, of having employed their Intellects on worthy Objects, and of having industriously endeavoured, by promoting useful Knowledge, to glorify God and serve Mankind. For I presume, that our enlightened Posterity will arrive at such attainments, that the Discoveries and Performances, upon which the present Age most values itself, will appear so easy, or so inconsiderable to them, that they will be tempted to wonder, that things to them so obvious, should lie so long concealed to us, or be so much prized by us; whom they will perhaps look upon with some kind of disdainful Pity, unless they have either the equity to consider, as well the smallness of our helps, as that of our Attainments; or the generous gratitude to remember the Difficulties this Age surmounted, in breaking the Ice, and smoothing the way for them, and thereby contributing to those Advantages, that have enabled them so much to surpass us. And since I scruple not to say this of those shining Wits and happy inquirers, that illustrate and ennoble this learned Age, I hope you will not think that I, who own myself to be more fit to celebrate than Rival them, would dissuade you from improving and surpassing the slight Performances, that are in this little Tract submitted to your Judgement by, Sir, your very Humble Servant. Knightsbridge, December 22, 1683. FINIS. A Catalogue of late Physic Books sold by Samuel Smith, at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Churchyard. Fol. BOneti Anatomia, 2. Vol. 1680. — Mercurius, 1682. Breiniis Plantarum Exoticar. Cent. cum Figuris, 1680. Fabritii Hildani opera cum Severino, 1682. Hippocratis Opera Foetii. Dioscoridis Opera, G. Lat. Saxoniae Opera. Med. 1680. Piso Hist. naturalis de rebus Indiae. Schenkii Observat. Med. Mentzelii Index Plant. cum Figuris, 1683. Lepenii Bibliotheca Med. 1683. Riverii Opera, 1679. Zwelferii Pharmacopeia. Quartoes. Bauhini Pinax cum Prodromo. Broeckhuysen Oeconomia Corporis Anim. 1683. Boil Opera omnia, 2 vol. Blasii Anatomia, 1681. Borellus de motu Animalium, 2 vol. Bl●ny Zodiacus Galen. Med. Chymicus, 1682. Bartholini Acta Medica. Castelli Lexicon Med. 1682. Cardilucii Officina Sanitatis. Clauderi Methodus Balsamandi. Cleyer Specimma Medicinae Sinicae, 1682. Charas Pharmacopeia Regia, 1683. Diemerbroeck Anatomia. Fern●lii Opera, 1683. Van Helmontii Opera, 1682. Gockeliis Deliciae Academicae, 1682. Hoffmanni Praxis Med. 1680. Helwigii Observationes Med. 1680. Hoffmannus in Schroderum. Joel Opera medica. Kyperi Anthropologia corporis humani. Konig Regnum Animale, 1682. Kirckringii Specilegium Anatom. Licetus de Monstris. Museum Hermetic. Miscellanea Curiosa M. Physica, 7 vol. 1682. — Id. Decuria secunda Anni Primi, 1683. Margravi Materia Medica. — Prodromus. Regii Medicina. Rolfinchius de purgantibus, 1683. — Ordo & Methodus Med. Specialis. — Concilia Med. Sylvii Opera Med. Schorkii Pharmacopeia. — Hisi. Moschi. Ang. Salae Opera med. 1682. Swammerdam miraculum Naturae. Vigerii Opera med. Versaschae de Apoplexia. Waltheri Sylva medica. Welschii Decades X. med. Wedelii Opiologia. — Physiologia Med. — Pharmacia. — de medicam. facultatibus. — de medicam. compositione. Wepferi cicutae Aquaticae. Zwelferi Pharmacop. Octavoes. Borelli Observat. Med. Barthol. Anatomia. Beckeri Physica subterranea cum supplemento, 1681. Brunneri Experimenta nova circa Pancreas, 1682. Camerarii Sylloges memorabilium Med. 2 vol. 1683. Deckeri Exercitationis Med pract. Dodonaei Praxis Medica. Franchiment Lithotomia Med. 1683. Funerwalfi Anatomia. Gockeliis Concilia & observat. Med. 1683. De Graaf Opera. Grulichius de Hydrope, 1681. — De Bile, 1682. Hartmanni Praxis Chymiatrica, 1682. Heido Anatome nytuli & observat. Med. 1684. Hippocratis Opera, 2 vol. Juncken Chymia Experimentalis, 1681: Medicus praesenti Seculo Accommodat. 1682. Liseri Coulter Anatomicus: Ma●chetti Anatomia: Meekren Observat. Med. Chyrur. 1682: Mereti Pinax: Plateri Observat. Med. Peonis & Pythagor. Exercit. Anat. & Med. 1682: Riverii Institutiones: Schroderi Pharmacopeia: Swalve Quaerelae Ventriculi: — Alcali & acidum: Tilingii Lilium Curiosum, 1683: Tilingii Prodromus, med. Versaschae Observat. med. Wepferi de Apoplexia: Witten memoria medicor. Zypaei Fundamenta med, 1683: Twelve. Barthol. De Ovariis: — De Unicornu: — De Pulmonum substantia: Beughen Bibliographia Med. & Physica, 1682: Barbetti Chyrurgia: — Praxis cum notis Deckerii: Beguini Tyrocinium Chymicum: Comelini Catalogus Plantarum, 1682: Drelincourt Praeludium Anat. Guiuri Arcanum Acidular. 1682: Glissoni Opuscula, 3 vol. Van Helmont. Fundamenta Med. 1682: Hoffmanus de usu Lienis, etc. 1682: Harvey de Gener. Animal. — De motu cordis: Kirckring. in Basil Valent. currum Triumph. Kunckeliis Observat. Chymiaes, 1681: Le Mort Compendium Chymicum, 1682: Mauro Cordatus de motu Pulmonum, 1682. Macasii Promptuarium Materiae Med. Matthaei Experimenta Chymica, 1683: Muis Praxis Chyrurgica duabus partibus, 1684. Morelli Methodus perscribendi formulas Remedior. Primrose ars Pharmac. Pecket Anatomia: Redus de Insectis: Reidimi Observe. med. Rivinus de peste lipsiensi. 1680: Smitzii Compena. med. 1682: Stockhameri Microcosmographia, 1682: Verlae Anat. Oculi: Vigani Medulla Chymiae: Advertisement. THat these above mentioned Books in Physic and Chemistry, with many other Foreign Books, are sold by Samuel Smith, at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Churchyard; and that he will furnish himself with much variety of new Books in that kind, from time to time, as they shall come from Franckfort Mart; and likewise he can procure such other Books for Gentlemen, which perhaps are not to be met with here, from his Correspondents, if to be had, beyond Sea. Books Printed for, and sold by Samuel Smith. THe Philosophical Transactions published by the Royal Society Monthly, beginning January 1683: The whole Art of the Stage, etc. Translated out of French: In Quarto, 1684 price 5. s. A new History of Ethiopia, being a full and Accurate Description of the Kingdom of Abessinia, vulgarly though erroneously, called the Empire of Prester John in four Books (illustrated with many Copper Plates) and also a new and exact Map of the Country, and a Preface showing the usefulness of this History; with the life of Gregorius Abba, etc. By the learned Job Ludolphus Counsellor to his Imperial Majesty and the Dukes of Saxony, and Treasurer to his Highness, the Elector Palatine, In Fol. 1684. Price 12. s. Guideon's Fleece, or a vindication of the College of Physicians, in answer to a Book entitled the Conclave of Physicians. By Dr. Harvey, in Quarto, 1684. Pr. 6. d. An Anatomical account of an Elephant which was lately Dissected in Dublin, June 17, in the year 1681. By A. M. Med. of Trinity College near Dublin, illustrated with Cuts, in Quarto, 1682. Price 1. s. Swammerdami (Johan.) Amst. M. D. Miraculum Naturae. In Octavo. The true method of curing Consumptions. By S. H. Med. D. 1683. Price 1. s. A Discourse about Bagnio's, and Mineral Baths, and of the drinking of Spa Water, with an Account of the Medicinal Virtues of them, and also showing the usefulness of Sweeting, Rubbing, and Bathing, and the great benefit many have received from them in various Distempers. By S. H. Med. Doct. 1683. Price 1. s. Miracles, Works above and contrary to Nature; or an Answer to a late Translation out of Spinosa's Tractatus Theologice-politicus, Mr. Hobbs Leviathan, etc. in Quarto, 1683. Price 1. s. A Treatise of Self Examination, in order to the worthy receiving the Holy Communion. By Monsieur John Claude Minister of the Reformed Church at Paris: Translated from the French Original, in Twelves, 1683. Price 1 s. 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