by a certain way of the Author, produced a
_Fixt_ salt.

6. _Oyle of Vitriol poured upon a Solution of Bay-salt:_ whence was
abstracted a liquor, that by the smell and Taste appeared to be a spirit of
salt. In which operation, the mixture, by working a great change of
Texture, did so alter the nature of the compounding Bodies, that the
sea-salt, though a considerably fixt Body, was distill'd over in a moderate
Fire of sand, whilst the Oyl of Vitriol, though no such gross salt, was by
the same operation so fixt, as to stay behind: Besides that the same, by a
competent heat yeilded a substance, though not insipid, yet not at all of
the taste of Sea-salt, or of any other pungent one, much less having the
highly corrosive acidity of oyl of Vitriol, &c.

7. _A dissolvent, made by pouring a strong spirit of Nitre on the rectified
Oyl of the Butter of Antimony, and then distilling off all the liquor, that
would come over, &c._ This _Menstruum_ (called by the Author _Peracutum_)
being put to highly refined Gold, destroyed its Texture, and produced,
after the method prescribed in the book, a _true Silver_, as its whiteness
in colour, dissolublenes in _Aqua fortis_, and odious Bitterness, did
manifest: which change of a Mettal, commonly esteemed to be absolutely
indestructible by Art, though it be far from being _Lucriferous_, is yet
exceedingly _Instructive_; as is also the way, the Author here adds, of
_Volatilizing_ Gold, by the power of the same _Dissolvent_.

8. _Aqua fortis, concoagulated with differing Bodies_, produced very
differing Concretes: And the same Numeral Saline Corpuscles, that being
associated with those of one Mettal, had already produced a Body eminent in
one Taste, did {197} afterwards, being freed from that Body, compose a
Liquor of a very differing taste; and after _that_ too, being combin'd with
the parties of another Mettal, did with them constitute a Body of a very
eminent Taste, as opposite as any one can be to both the other Tasts; and
yet these Saline Corpuscles, being instead of this second Mettal,
associated with such a one as that, they are driven from, did therewith
exhibite again the first of the three mention'd Tasts.

9. _Water transmuted into Earth_, though the Author saith of this
Transmutation, that it was not so perfect, as he wish'd, and as he hopes to
make it.

10. _A mixture of Oyle of Vitriol and Spirit of Wine._ These two Liquors,
being of odd Textures in reference to each other