tillation the
Spirit of the common Salt or Salt-petre comes over much easier than it
would do before, and the acid part of the Spirit of Vitriol stays
behind; does not this argue that the fix'd Alcaly of the Salt attracts
the acid Spirit of the Vitriol more strongly than its own Spirit, and
not being able to hold them both, lets go its own? And when Oil of
Vitriol is drawn off from its weight of Nitre, and from both the
Ingredients a compound Spirit of Nitre is distilled, and two parts of
this Spirit are poured on one part of Oil of Cloves or Carraway Seeds,
or of any ponderous Oil of vegetable or animal Substances, or Oil of
Turpentine thicken'd with a little Balsam of Sulphur, and the Liquors
grow so very hot in mixing, as presently to send up a burning Flame;
does not this very great and sudden Heat argue that the two Liquors mix
with violence, and that their Parts in mixing run towards one another
with an accelerated Motion, and clash with the greatest Force? And is it
not for the same reason that well rectified Spirit of Wine poured on the
same compound Spirit flashes; and that the _Pulvis fulminans_, composed
of Sulphur, Nitre, and Salt of Tartar, goes off with a more sudden and
violent Explosion than Gun-powder, the acid Spirits of the Sulphur and
Nitre rushing towards one another, and towards the Salt of Tartar, with
so great a violence, as by the shock to turn the whole at once into
Vapour and Flame? Where the Dissolution is slow, it makes a slow
Ebullition and a gentle Heat; and where it is quicker, it makes a
greater Ebullition with more heat; and where it is done at once, the
Ebullition is contracted into a sudden Blast or violent Explosion, with
a heat equal to that of Fire and Flame. So when a Drachm of the
above-mention'd compound Spirit of Nitre was poured upon half a Drachm
of Oil of Carraway Seeds _in vacuo_, the Mixture immediately made a
flash like Gun-powder, and burst the exhausted Receiver, which was a
Glass six Inches wide, and eight Inches deep. And even the gross Body of
Sulphur powder'd, and with an equal weight of Iron Filings and a little
Water made into Paste, acts upon the Iron, and in five or six hours
grows too hot to be touch'd, and emits a Flame. And by these Experiments
compared with the great quantity of Sulphur with which the Earth
abounds, and the warmth of the interior Parts of the Earth, and hot
Springs, and burning Mountains, and with Damps, mineral Coruscations,
Earthquakes, hot