The First Part.

only annex at present this sleight, but not impertinent Experiment. That whereas I lately observed to you, that the Urinous and common Salts whereof Sal Armoniack consists, remain’d unsever’d by the Fire in many successive Sublimations, they may be easily separated, and partly without any Fire at all, by pouring upon the Concrete finely powder’d, a Solution of Salt of Tartar, or of the Salt of Wood-Ashes; for upon your diligently mixing of these you will finde your Nose invaded with a very strong smell of Urine, and perhaps too your Eyes forc’d to water by the same subtle and piercing Body that produces the stink; both these effects proceeding from hence, that by the Alcalizate Salt, the Sea Salt that enter’d the composition of the Sal Armoniack is mortify’d and made more fixt, and thereby a divorce is made between it and the volatile Urinous Salt, which being at once set at liberty, and put into motion, begins presently to fly away, and to offend the Nostrils and Eyes it meets with by the way. And if the operation of these Salts be in convenient Glasses promoted by warmth, though but by that of a Bath, the ascending Steams may easily be caught and reduc’d into a penetrant Spirit, abounding with a Salt, which I have sometimes found to be separable in a Crystalline Form. I might add to these Instances, that whereas Sublimate, consisting, as you know, of Salts & Quicksilver combin’d and carried up together by Heat, may be Sublim’d, I know not how often, by a like degree of Fire, without suffering any divorce of the component Bodies, the Mercury may be easily sever’d from the adhering Salts, if the Sublimate be distill’d from Salt of Tartar, Quick Lime, or such Alcalizate Bodies. But I will rather observe to you, Eleutherius, what divers ingenious men have thought somewhat strange; that by such an Additament that seems but only to promote the Separation, there may be easily obtain’d from a Concrete that by the Fire alone is easily divisible into all the Elements that Vegetables are suppos’d to consist of, such a similar Substance as differs in many respects from them all, and consequently has by many of the most Intelligent Chymists been denied to be contain’d in the mixt Body. For I know a way, and have practis’d it, whereby common