Process 2.

high Strain, wherein the Author too often delivers it; but in a difcreet, fober and moderate Senfe. And having given this Advertisement in the general, we proceed with our Account of the remaining Part of the Work.

It was above observed, that there are 88 Proceffes upon Vegetables, the firft of which is already described at large. The Second fhews Decoctions. the Manner of making Decoctions; and is performed upon the Remains of the former. And as that manifefted the Effect of 85 Degrees of a dry Heat upon a recent Plant; fo this fhews what Effect a moift Heat, or Fire and Water in conjunction, will have upon the fame Subject; when the Heat is gradually raised from 85 to 212 Degrees; that is, a Heat fufficient to make Water boil.

Robs,

&c.

3.

PROCESS 3. exhibits the Method of making Robs, Jellies, Extracts, &c. and is perExtracts, formed upon the Decoction of the fecond, by evaporating the fuperfluous Water, and by redu cing the Remainder to a thick or fomewhat folid Confiftence; whence we understand what Parts of Vegetables are foluble in boiling Water.

4.

5. 6.

THE fourth fhews the manner of burning or calcining Vegetables to white Ashes, by means of an open Fire; and is performed upon the Remains of the fecond Procefs; where it is remarkable that the external Figure of the Plant remains perfect in the Ashes.

THE fifth and fixth are Repetitions of the fourth, upon Subjects not robbed of their Salt by Decoction. Thefe Proceffes fhew, (1.) That Water affifted with the utmost Force of Fire, diffolves not the Solids; but only the Juices of Vegetables. (2.) That Fire employ'd by it felf, has fcarce a greater Efficacy upon Vege

tables,

tables, or rather extracts lefs from them, than boiling Water; as leaving their Salt behind, which is diffolved by Water. (3.) That boiling Water extracts even an inflammable Substance from Vegetables. (4.) That the Oil and Salt naturally mixt in Plants, are together foluble in boiling Water, fo as to remain united; tho they are still separable by an open Fire. (5.) That the Juices of Plants and Animals in a healthy State, are naturally a kind of faponaceous Mixture, that becomes morbid upon the Separation of their Oil or Salt. And (6.) That the elementary Differences of Plants confift in their Juices; the more fixed and earthy Parts being alike in them all.

THE Seventh Procefs fhews the manner of obtaining the effential or natural Salts of Plants;Vegetable by fuffering their Juices, properly purified and Salts. defended, to ftand for fome Months in a cool Place.

THE eighth fhews how the native Salt, or S Tartar, is obtained from vegetable Juices, after they have been fermented, or made into Wines; viz. by letting the purified Liquor stand in the Cask to fhoot.

THE ninth fhews the way of preparing that 9 called the Medicated Salt of Tachenius; by torrifying a Plant, or burning it black, with a ftifled Heat; then elixating the black Ashes, and evaporating the Liquor to a Salt. And Salts thus prepared, the Author highly recommends for their medicinal Virtues; and largely describes the Method of ufing them.

THE tenth Procefs is a Repetition of the 10. ninth, upon a dry'd Plant; the former being upon a green one.

THE

11.

12.

13.

14.3

The Hiftory

THE eleventh fhews the common way of procuring the fixed Salts of Vegetables, by Calcination, Solution in Water, and Evaporation.

THE twelfth fhews the Method of preparing the fixed, corrofive, alcaline Sorts of Vegetables, and running thofe Salts per deliquium: being a farther Profecution of the ninth, tenth, and eleventh.

THE thirteenth fhews the Method of making the common Caustick, or a highly corrofive. Salt, with Pot-afh and Quick-lime, for chirurgical Ufes. And thus the Power of Chemistry upon fix'd alkaline Salts, the Author tells us, is carried as far as he was capable.

THESE Proceffes with regard to Salts make it appear, (1.) That fixed Salt is procurable by burning certain vegetable Subjects; fome whereof afford a greater, and fome a lefs Proportion thereof. (2.) That it is obtained only by means of Fire. (3.) That this Salt is not the native Salt of the Plant. And (4.) That it is of different Species or Degrees of Strength; according as the Fire has acted more or less. thereon.

THE fourteenth Procefs fhews that fixed ve getable alkaline Salt yields a bitter, cryftalline, hard, fixed, unalkaline and fomewhat vitreous Salt, by being diffolved in Water. This, tho' a common Obfervation, its Doctrine is of an extraordinary nature; but not duly profecuted by the Author. And thus concludes the chemical History of Salts.

We next proceed to Distilled Waters; the of diftilled Manner of obtaining which is delivered in four Proceffes.

Waters.

15.

PROCESS 15. therefore fhews the common Method of diftilling fimple Waters, or

what

what Parts of recent Vegetables rife with the Heat of boiling Water, and what remain behind: Whence it appears, that the fapid and odorous Parts of Plants chiefly exhale by fuch Treatment. And here the Rule is to stop as foon as the Water comes over without any remarkable Scent and Tafte of the Subject.

THE fixteenth fhews the Method of cohoba- 16. ting fimple Waters; or returning them back upon a fresh Parcel of the fame Subject; and diftilling them off again, fo as to make them richer.

THE Seventeenth fhews the Manner of di- 17. ftilling a Water from Plants, after they have been fermented with Water, and Yeaft, or Honey, &c. which Method, tho' it somewhat alters the Virtues of the Subject, has confiderable Ufes.

THE eighteenth fhews the Manner of diftil- 18. ling per Defcenfum, or downwards; a Process of little Significance.

THE nineteenth Procefs is perform'd uponthe Remains of the fifteenth, fixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth Proceffes; to fhew what was left behind in those Operations; after the fame manner as the fifth, fixth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh Proceffes were performed. And. this concludes the Bufinefs of diftilling Waters.

Oils.

VEGETABLE Oils come next in order. The 28. twentieth Process therefore fhews the common Vegetable Manner of obtaining Oils from Seeds, Nuts, &c. by Expreffion or Squeezing.

PROCESS twenty-first fhews how to 11. make a kind of vegetable Milk, or Emulfion, by grinding the oily Seeds, Nuts, &c. in a Mor

N. XIX. 1732.
VOL. IV.

22.

23,24, 25,

29.

tar with Water; which thus diffolves their oily Parts.

PROCESS twenty fecond fhews how Vegetables may be made to afford a large Proportion of Oil, barely by boiling them with Water, and fcumming off the Oil as it rifes to the top.

THE twenty-third fhews how to procure 26,27,28, thofe called the Effential or Chemical Oils of Vegetables; by Diftillation with Water. And under this Article the Author ftrangely trefpaffes against his own Rules, laid down in the beginning, to prevent the needlefs Repetition of any one Procefs: for after having, in the prefent Procefs,given an Example of the Manner of procuring thefe Oils, the Leaves of Savin; he repeats the fame Procefs no lefs than fix times over, viz. in Procefs 24, upon Mint; in Process 25, upon Lavender; in Procefs 26, upon Fennelfeed; in Process 27, upon Indian Cloves; in Procefs 28, upon Saffafras; and in Process 29, upon Cinnamon fo that we have here seven Proceffes to fhew what might as well have been fhewn under one; efpecially after fuch Profeffions as the Author made at the beginning of doing nothing in vain, &c.

30.

THE thirtiteb Procefs fhews the Manner of diftilling Oils per Defcenfum, by another Example in Cloves. And this too might have been omitted, as a thing fufficiently explained before, under Procefs eighteen; which fhews the Manner of diftilling per Defcenfum.

THERE are feveral remarkable Particulars fhewn by this Hiftory of Oils. We will enumerate a few of them, viz. (1.) That the aromatic Virtue of Plants is contained in their

effential

Sée Original, pag. 2, &c.