The Sixth Part.

12 loth (or six ounces) out of one pound of Ashes or Fæces. And this Story may well incline us to suspect that since the Caput Mortuum of the Sulphur was kept so long in the fire before it was found to be any thing else then a Terra damnata, there may be divers other Residences of Bodies which are wont to pass only for the Terrestrial Fæces of things, and therefore to be thrown away as soon as the Distillation or Calcination of the Body that yielded them is ended; which yet if they were long and Skilfully examin’d by the fire would appear to be differing from Elementary Earth. And I have taken notice of the unwarrantable forwardness of common Chymists to pronounce things useless Fæces, by observing how often they reject the Caput Mortuum of Verdegrease; which is yet so farr from deserving that Name, that not only by strong fires and convenient Additaments it may in some hours be reduc’d into copper, but with a certain Flux Powder I sometimes make for Recreation, I have in two or three minutes obtain’d that Metal from it. To which I may add, that having for tryall sake kept Venetian Taclk in no less a heat than that of a glass Furnace, I found after all the Brunt of the fire it had indur’d, the remaining Body though brittle and discolour’d, had not lost very much of its former Bulke, and seem’d still to be nearer of kin to Talck than to meer