Salt may be so introverted by the Operation of the Fire, as that it shall lose its sharp properties, and acquire a sweetness, and be brought by the help of other Vegetables and of Water, unto Fermentation, and so yield a good and sweet burning Spirit, a clear, sweet, and strong white Ale, conserving its tast for many years; various drinks, not unlike in tast to the Wine made of Honey and Fruits of Trees, strong and clear Vinegar, and white Tartar, fully as profitable for such Operations, as the common and natural Tartar of Wine is wont to be used about, and may be with those others [afore mentioned] prepared with small charges.
The Air and Fire do in a short time transmute Salt, into true natural Salt-peter, which is no small profit.
The Fire doth likewise very easily endow common Salt with such kind of properties, as render it capable of fatning and dunging barren Fields, Vines, Fruit Trees, Hops, and all other Garden Herbs as well as Sheeps or Beasts Dung.
Salt is also so changed by the Fire in few hours time, as to put on a magnetick nature, and attract the moisture and water out of the Air, and to retain it with it self a long while, and therefore is not easily dried up by the Sun. Corn, as Oats, Barley, Rye, Wheat, Pease, Beans, and other Seeds being steeped in such a Salt for a Night, do by means thereof, grow up the speedier out of the Earth. It is very profitable therefore in the Summer Season, wherein there’s scarcity of Rain, and especially in sandy Grounds, because it holds the Rain Water a good while, so that it is not so easily dried up by the Sun. Besides, too, that Salt is of such attracting virtues as that one ounce thereof, being put in some little Glass to two ounces of Water, hardens all this Water, in the likeness of Salt, so as that you may carry the same about you in a Paper; whereas there were two parts of Water to one of Salt.
This Salt abounds with yet many other wonderfull virtues, some of which I have declared in my Treatise, of the Nature of Salts, stiling it by the name of Sal Mirabilis, and that not without good cause. It is of the form of Salt-peter, and is void of all Acrimony, it is a little bitterish to the tast, and is of a Balsamick Nature. For being rub’d on Beef or other such like Flesh, it keeps the same, though exposed to the open Air, from being infested with Magots, and from being corrupted: And therefore it is an efficacious subject, with which as being a most efficacious Balsom, dead Bodies are conserved from corruption. It converts all things put into it, in long process of time, into an hard Stone, and abounds with many other wondrous virtues, which (for certain causes,) I pass by in silence at this time. Paracelsus calls it Sal Enixum, but I Sal Mirabilis.
Nor ought it to seem at all wonderfull, that common Salt doth so easily obtain by the Operation of the Fire, a better and sweeter quality. I do in very deed affirm, that not onely the common Kitchin Salt, but even those too, which are of a most biting corrosivity, as Aqua Fortis, Aqua Regia, Oil of Salt, of Sulphur, and of Vitriol, may by a certain sweet Vegetable, (without the addition of any contrary Salt) be brought to such a pass in three hours time, as that a Man cannot perceive the least Corrosion at all in them. Nay more, if this very Salt hath dissolved up any Metals, it does not part with them, but holds them still: so that the corrosive Solution of Gold which is made with Oil of Salt, becomes a sweet liquor, which likewise comes so to pass, with the Solutions of Silver, and of the other Metals: so that by this way excellent Medicaments may most easily be made out of Metals.
New Wines being fermented with such a Salt, do change their Tartar into sweet Wine, and become clear in a months time, and suddenly have both the tast and odour as old Wines usually have. Certainly it is a secret of very great concernment, when by reason of the coldness of the Air, the Wines cannot attain unto their due maturity. N. B. There appertains to this fermentation, a singular and excellent Artifice, by which the Wines and other drinks are promoted to a speedy and strong fermentation, insomuch that the Wine boils in the Vessel, though the Vessel should be set out to the Snow and Ice in the coldest time of Winter: whereby the Wines must needs be made better, stronger, and sweeter. It is a very artificial invention, hitherto concealed by me, but now I am minded to reveal the same unto my Friends.
By the same Salt too, Wine, Ale, Metheglin, and other drinks may be in short time turned into good and sharp Vinegar without the help of the Sun, or of a warm Stove.
If therefore any one needs for his Operations any distilled Vinegar, he may even distill it in wooden Vessels, without any Sparkle of Fire, onely in the Air, by the proper efficacy of the liquors themselves, and by the help of the Air: and this in such wise, as that a whole Barrel of distilled Vinegar will not cost so much as one Token, the Barrels or Vessels excepted, which verily is a most Artificial Distillation.
Thus likewise by the same means may a sweet burning Spirit be distilled out of Ale, Wine, and other the like Liquors.