It is more to our purpose to take notice, that the later Pretenders to this Philosophy, by finding their three Principles, Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury in this Body, will lead Us into its true Nature and Composition.
For whether We take Orpiment or Sandaracha, either of them will afford a Regulus or Mercurial Substance, more pure than that of Antimony. The manner of extracting It Lemery [(132)] has taught; and to This indeed the Mineral owes its great Ponderosity.
The Inflammability and Smell of Arsenick are sufficient Proofs of its abounding Sulphur, which may without much difficulty be separated from It [(133)].
That it consists of some Saline Parts we are assured by Its Solution in common Water [(134)]; and it is upon the account of These that It does more happily promote the Flowing of Metals than any other Salt-Pouders which the Workmen make use of: Wherefore some have called It a coagulated Aqua Fortis.
From all this it appears, that Authors do vainly Dispute wherein the Noxious quality of Arsenick resides, since the Case here is plainly much the same with that of Sublimate Corrosive; and as the Salts there, together with the Mercurial Particles, do compose pungent Crystals, so without all doubt the Regulus of this Mineral gives a like force to the Saline Bodies, which without this weight could be but of small Effect. The main difference is, that in Arsenick we have an addition of Sulphur, which does not only strengthen the Action of the other Parts, in that as a Vinculum it keeps them united together; but consisting besides of many hot and fiery Corpuscles, promotes the Inflammation of those Wounds which the Crystalline Spicula make in the Membranes of the Stomach.
Upon the Score of such a Texture and Make as this, Arsenick makes no Ebullition either with Alcalies or Acids [(135)]; and as the Regulus of It being cleared from most of its Salts, is by much less hurtful than the crude Mineral it self; so on the other Hand, the Factitious White, in which there is a much greater Proportion of the Saline to the Metallic Parts, is the most Violent of all the kinds, superiour in Force to Mercury Sublimate.
The several Histories related by Wepfer [(136)] do put this out of Question; It is sufficient to our Purpose to mention One.
A Dog having eat some Fat mixt with White Arsenic, died the next Day; The upper Part of the Stomach, when opened, was red and inflamed, the Coats thinner than ordinary, the bottom of It was covered with a fætid Slime, and some Pieces of Fat; the Thin Guts were so Corroded as to be Pervious in Three Places, Two of the Ulcers so large that they would easily admit a Bean. The Cavity of the Abdomen contained a yellowish Ichor tinged with Blood.
The Case being thus, one would wonder what should induce Authors to prescribe so Corrosive a Mineral to be worn upon the Pit of the Stomach, as an Amulet against the Plague. This Trick we may well believe to be Dangerous, when Lionardo di Capo [(137)] tells Us of a Child a kill’d by the Violent Vomiting and Purging, occasion’d from a slight Wound made in the Head by a Comb wet with Oil in which Arsenick had been infused; for the Pores of the Body being opened by Heat and Exercise, some of the Noxious Effluvia may easily Insinuate themselvs into the Part; accordingly Crato [(138)] observ’d an Ulcer of the Breast caused by this Application; Verzascha [(139)] Violent Pains, and fainting Fits; Diemerbrock [(140)], and Dr. Hodges [(141)], Death it self.
The Truth of the Matter is, This Practice seems to owe its Origine to a Mistake [(142)], some of the Arabian Physicians had commended Darsini worn in a Bag for a Preservative in Plague time; This in their Language signifies Cinnamom; but the Latin Interpreters retaining the same Word in their Translations (as was frequently done), one or other afterwards not understanding its meaning, and deceived by the likeness of the sound, substituted in its Place De Arsenico, as if Darsini were all one with Zarnich. The Authority of the first Author served to propagate the Error; nor were Those wanting who reason’d upon the Matter, and found it agreable to their Philosophy, that this Mineral should draw to it self and concenter the Arsenical Effluvia out of the Air, and thus secure the Body from their Infection; These being, as they imagined, the Common Cause of Pestilential Diseases.