Dr. Willis's practice of physick being the whole works of that renowned and famous physician wherein most of the diseases belonging to the body of man are treated of, with excellent methods and receipts for the cure of the same : fitted to the meanest capacity by an index for the explaining of all the hard and unusual words and terms of art derived from the Greek, Latine, or other languages for the benefit of the English reader : with forty copper plates.

6. Salt of Amber.

Take of the whitest Amber, pulverized lb ss. distil it in a glassen Retort either with a very strong heat of sand, or a weak heat of a reverberating Oven; first there will * 1.1 arise a phlegm and an yellow Oil with some quantity of spirit; then a volatile salt

will ascend into the neck of the Retort and sides of the Receiver; and last of all a black Oil will come forth before it ascends: this must be taken out and the Receiver changed, lest the Salt should be polluted by it.

This Salt being at first white, and of a very grateful smell and taste, unless it be * 1.2 kept in a vessel very fast stopped, becomes in a short time yellow, and then grows red and stinks. The cause of which is, because this Medicin contains in it much sulphur; the particles whereof, as long as the salt predominates, being subdued and clogged with others, are altogether obscured; yet afterward, when the composition of the mixed body is loosened, they get out, and shewing themselves above the rest, demon∣strate their excellency to several of our senses. The Dose of it is from ℈ss. to ℈j. The best way of keeping or giving this Salt of Amber is, if it be mingled with a dou∣ble quantity of the purest Nitre.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Salt of Am be
• * 1.2

  The reason of it.