A choice collection of rare secrets and experiments in philosophy as also rare and unheard-of medicines, menstruums and alkahests : with the true secret of volatilizing the fixt salt of tartar / collected and experimented by the honourable and truly learned Sir Kenelm Digby, Kt., Chancellour to Her Majesty the Queen-Mother ; hitherto kept secret since his decease, but now published for the good and benefit of the publick by George Hartman.

Lauremberg's Observations upon Angelus Sala his Synopsis of Aphorisms, 1624. in Quarto, pag. 4.

HE saith thus: I did so prepare fluid ☿, that without the mixture of any thing whatsoever imaginable, without any dis∣solving Menstruum, it did acquire the form of a most pure and transparent Liquor; nei∣ther hitherto hath it lost this liquid form, but is so liquid, that you would imagine it had been brought from a Fountain, and which you will more admire, being tasted, it is void of all acrimony, and meerly in∣sipid; (I add also this) that some Months ago I reduced English ♃ into a fluid and moist Liquor, without the least addition of Menstruum, which humidity it not only con∣tinually keepeth entirely to this day, but (so far as I can see) will never lose it.

(Afterwards in the same page, he saith,)

I confess ingenuously, that not long ago, I had the happiness of seeing at a Friends, and feeling such an unfactitious Liquor (li∣quorem 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) whereby leaves of Gold

and Silver were dissolved into a pliant and fluid Liquor, without any noise or the least suspition of Acrimony. This Liquor can be no other than congealed Air, without which the Life of Animals becomes no Life; and there is no Body under the Sun in that three-fold Kingdom that is destitute of it. I had rather search its Medicinal Power with silent speculation, than weary People with tedious and fruitless Discourses.