seem'd to terminate the operation of the Salt upward) in the confines betwixt the Purple and the Yellow; and an Excellent Yellow, the same that before enobled the whole Liquor, reaching from thence to the top of the Glass. And if I pleas'd to pour very gently a little Spirit of Sal Armoniack, upon the upper part of this Yellow, there would also be a Purple or a Crimson, or both, generated there, so that the unalter'd part of the Yellow Liquor appear'd intercepted betwixt the two Neighbouring Colours.
My scope in this 3d. Experiment (Pyrophilus) is manifold, as first to invite you to be wary in judging of the Colour of Liquors in such Glasses as are therein recommended to you, and consequently as much, if not more, when you imploy other Glasses. Secondly, That you may not think it strange, that I often content my self to rub upon a piece of White paper, the Juice of Bodies I would examine, since not onely I could not easily procure a sufficient Quantity of the juices of divers of them; but in several Cases the Tryals of the quantities of such Juices in Glasses would make us more lyable to mistakes, than the way that in those cases I have made use of. Thirdly, I hope you will by these and divers other
particulars deliver'd in this Treatise, be easily induc'd to think that I may have set down many Phænomena very faithfully, and just as they appear'd to me, and yet by reason of some unheeded circumstance in the conditions of the matter, and in the degree of Light, or the manner of trying the Experiment, you may find some things to vary from the Relations I make of them. Lastly, I design'd to give you an opportunity to free your self from the amazement which possesses most Men, at the Tricks of those Mountebancks that are commonly call'd Water-drinkers. For though not only the vulgar, but ev'n many persons that are far above that Rank, have so much admir'd to see, a man after having drunk a great deal of fair water, to spurt it out again in the form of Claret Wine, Sack, and Milk, that they have suspected the intervening of Magick, or some forbidden means to effect what they conceived above the power of Art; yet having once by chance had occasion to oblige a Wanderer that made profession of that and other Jugling Tricks, I was easily confirm'd by his Ingenious confession to me, That this so much Admir'd Art, indeed consisted rather in a few Tricks, than in any great Skill, in altering the Nature and Colours of things. And I am easy
to be perswaded; that there may be a great deal of Truth in a little Pamphlet Printed divers years ago in English, wherein the Author undertakes to discover, and that (if I mistake not) by the confession of some of the Complices themselves, That a famous Water-drinker then much Admir'd in England, perform'd his pretended Transmutations of Liquors by the help of two or three inconsiderable preparations and mixtures of not unobvious Liquors, and chiefly of an Infusion of Brazil variously diluted and made Pale or Yellowish, (and otherwise alter'd) with Vinegar, the rest of their work being perform'd by the shape of the Glasses, by Craft and Legerdemane. And for my part, that which I marvel at in this business, is, the Drinkers being able to take down so much Water, and spout it out with that violence; though Custome and a Vomit seasonably taken before hand, may in some of them much facilitate the work. But as for the changes made in the Liquors, they were but few and slight in comparison of those, that the being conversant in Chymical Experiments, and dextrous in applying them to the Transmuting of Colours, may easily enough enable a man to make, as ev'n what has been newly deliver'd in this, and the foregoing Experiment; especially if we add
to it the things contained in the XX, the XXXIX and the XL. Experiments, may perhaps have already perswaded You.
EXPERIMENT XLV.
You may I presume (Pyrophilus) have taken notice, that in this whole Treatise, I purposely decline (as far as I well can) the mentioning of Elaborate Chymical Experiments, for fear of frighting you by their tediousness and difficulty; but yet in confirmation of what I have been newly telling you about the possibility of Varying the Colours of Liquors, better than the Water-drinkers are wont to do, I shall add, that Helmont used to make a preparation of Steel, which a very Ingenious Chymist, his Sons Friend, whom you know, sometimes employes for a succedaneum to the Spaw-waters, by Diluting this Essentia Martis Liquida (as he calls it) with a due proportion of Water. Now that for which I mention to you this preparation, (which as he communicated to me, I know he will not refuse to Pyrophilus) is this, that though the Liquor (as I can shew you when you please) be almost of the Colour of a German (not an Oriental) Amethyst, and consequently remote enough from Green,
yet a very few drops being let fall into a Large proportion of good Rhenish, or (in want of that) White Wine (which yet do's not quite so well) immediately turn'd the Liquor into a lovely Green, as I have not without delight shown several curious Persons. By which Phænomenon you may learn, among other things, how requisite it is in Experiments about the changes of Colours heedfully to mind the Circumstances of them; for Water will not, as I have purposely try'd, concurr to the production of any such Green, nor did it give that Colour to moderate Spirit of Wine, wherein I purposely dissolv'd it, and Wine it self is a Liquor that few would suspect of being able to work suddenly any such change in a Metalline preparation of this Nature; and to satisfie my self that this new Colour proceeds rather from the peculiar Texture of the Wine, than from any greater Acidity, that Rhenish or White-wine (for that may not absurdly be suspected) has in comparison of Water; I purposely sharpen'd the Solution of this Essence in fair Water, with a good quantity of Spirit of Salt, notwithstanding which, the mixture acquir'd no Greenness. And to vary the Experiment a little, I try'd, that if into a Glass of Rhenish Wine made Green by this Essence,
I dropp'd an Alcalizate Solution, or Urinous Spirit, the Wine would presently grow Turbid, and of an odd Dirty Colour; But if instead of dissolving the Essence in Wine, I dissolv'd it in fair Water sharpen'd perhaps with a little Spirit of Salt, then either the Urinous Spirit of Sal Armoniack, or the solution of the fix'd Salt of Pot-ashes would immediately turn it of a Yellowish Colour, the fix'd or Urinous Salt Precipitating the Vitriolate substance contain'd in the Essence. But here I must not forget to take notice of a circumstance that deserves to be compar'd with some part of the foregoing Experiment, for whereas our Essence imparts a Greenness to Wine, but not to Water, the Industrious Olaus Wormius[23] in his late Musæum tells us of a rare kind of Turn-Sole which he calls Bezetta Rubra given him by an Apothecary that knew not how it was made, whose lovely Redness would be easily communicated to Water, if it were immers'd in it; but scarce to Wine, and not at all to Spirit of Wine, in which last circumstance it agrees with what I lately told you of our Essence, notwithstanding their disagreement in other particulars.