The oyl and vitriol of silver.
If you dissolve silver in Aqua fortis, and pour so much of this spirit into it till it ceaseth to make a noise, some of the silver will precipitate in the form of a black powder, the rest of the silver remaineth in the liquor: the phlegm abstracted from it in Balneo, till it get a skin at the top, and then set into a cool place, there will grow white crystals in it, which being taken out and dryed are a good purge in madness, dropsie, feavers and other diseases, safely and without danger to be used to young and old. The rest of the liquor which did not crystallise may be extracted with spirit of wine, and the fæces being cast away the extraction will be pleasanter. The spirit of wine abstracted from it, there will remain a medicine of no small value in all diseases of the brain.
To extract a red Tincture out of Antimony or common sulphur.
Boyl sulphur or Antimony made into powder in a Lixivium of salt of tartar, till it turn red, and pour this spirit upon it, and distill gently in a Balneum, and there will come over a fair tincture with the volatile spirit, silver anointed therewith will be guilt, though not lastingly. It serveth for all diseases of the lungs.
How to ripen Antimony and common sulphur, so that several sorts of such smels, as vegetables have, arise from thence.
Dissolve Antimony or sulphur in the liquor of pebles or sand, coagulate the solution to a red mass; upon this mass pour spirit of urin, and let it extract in a gentle warmth. The spirit being coloured red, pour it off, and pour on other spirit, let it extract likewise, and this you must iterate so often, till the spirit will extract no more tincture; then pour all the extracts together and abstract the spirit of urin from it in Balneum through a limbeck, and there will remain a blood red liquor, and if you pour upon this spirit of wine it will extract a fairer tincture then the former was, leaving the fæces behind, and this tincture smelleth like garlick: and if it be digested three or four weeks in a gentle warmth, it will get a very pleasant smel, like unto the yellow prunes or plums: and if it remain longer yet in digestion, it will get a smel not inferior to musk and ambar; This tincture having been digested a long time, and got several smels, is not only notably by the fire increased in pleasantness of smel and taste, but also in vertue: for so many and various sweet smels are perceived in it, that it is to be admired, which variety and exaltation proceedeth only from the pure and ripening spirit of urin, for there is hid in it a fire, which doth not destroy but preserve and graduate all colours, whereof in another place more shall be said.
N. B. Betwixt the spirit of urin and the animal and mineral Copper there appeareth a great sympathy; for it doth not only love copper above all other metals, and mingleth easily with it, and maketh it extraordinary fair, and of good use in Physick, but it prepareth it also to such a medicine, whereby all venerous sores (both by inward and outward use) how deep so ever they took root in the blood, without the use of any other medicaments, are perfectly cured; it maketh fruitful and barren, according as it is used; it cleanseth the matrix, hindreth the rising thereof, and miraculously furthereth womens courses that have been stayed, above all other medicaments of what name soever.
If this spirit be mingled with the volatile (but not corrosive) spirit of vitriol or common salt there will come a salt out of it, which is inferior to none in fusibleness, and useful both in Alchymy and Physick.
N. B. The liquor of the salt Of tartar, and the spirit of wine do not mix without water, this being the mean partaking of both of their natures, and if you add unto it spirit of urin it will not mingle but keep its own place: so that these three sorts of liquors, being put in the same glass, and though they be shaked never so much will not incorporate for all that: the liquor of the salt of tartar keepeth to the bottom, next to it will be the spirit of urin, and on the top of that is the spirit of wine: and if you pour a distilled oyl upon it, that will keep uppermost of all, so that you may keep four sorts of liquors in one glass, whereof none is mingled with the other.
Although this be of no great profit, yet it serveth for to learn thereby the difference of spirits.