A compendious body of chymistry, which will serve as a guide and introduction both for understanding the authors which have treated of the theory of this science in general: and for making the way plain and easie to perform, according to art and method, all operations, which teach the practise of this art, upon animals, vegetables, and minerals, without losing any of the essential vertues contained in them. By N. le Fèbure apothecary in ordinary, and chymical distiller to the King of France, and at present to his Majesty of Great-Britain.

To make the Tincture of Coral thus.

℞ As much of the fairest and reddest Coral you can meet with, and reduce it cleanly to a very subtile pouder, which put in a Matrass and pour upon of the first Menstruum about ℥ j. or ij. at once, stirring it nimbly, then begin again to pour fresh Men∣struum, and stir until your matter be covered with it the height of four inches; stop your Vessel with a Blindhead, and put to digest in a vaporous Bath in shred straw during the space of three weeks, with a heat a little more then lukewarm, after this open the Vessels, draw off the red Tincture by inclination, and keep in a Vial; then reaffund new Menstruum upon the remaining body of the Coral, and continue the digestion and extraction untill the Menstruum takes no more of the colour: then join all the Tin∣ctures and filtrate them, and having put them in a Cucurbite on sand draw off the liquor to a dry bottom in a moderate heat, and you shall find in the bottom of the Glass a red pouder, which hides in its center the internal sulphur of the Coral, which constitutes

its colour and vertue: put this pouder in a circulatory Vessel called a Pelican, and pour upon it of the second Menstruum cal∣led temperate water the height of vj. fingers; lute exactly the up∣per orifice of the Vessel; after you have stopt it with a Glass-stople, place it in Balneo and keep in digestion during the space of one Philosophical Moneth, and this sweet and pleasant Menstruum will draw to its self this wonderful Sulphur, and take a very pleasant colour. This done, cease the fire, open the vessel and filtrate the Tincture, to separate the feculency and sediment which remains in the bottom of the Pelican; put then the filtration in a Cu∣curbite, and draw off the two thirds or half of the Menstruum, and keep choicely the remainder, as one of the principal Reme∣dies of a Spagyrical shop. Let not our Artist presume to cut off any part, or shorten the space of forty dayes, though he perceives his Menstruum to be tincted: for the circulation must perform the extraction, exaltation and union, which operations do require no less time; for the Chymical Apothecary which desires to be successful in his work, ought to follow the motion of Nature which works nothing but slowly, and must ever have in his re∣membrance the saying of our great Master Paracelsus, that om∣nis praecipitatio à Diabolo; and that he that doth well, hath ever done soon enough.

But before we prescribe the Dosis and vertues of this Tincture, we must satisfie Mens minds, that it is not only good in opinion and fancy, but in reality. To this end let us make a judicious re∣flection both upon the matter and the Menstruum's. There is no body but knows and confesses that Coral hath many singular noble vertues, so that both ancient and modern Authors have all una∣nimously acknowledged, that this vertue resided in its redness, and have all stroven to finde out some liquor analogous to our Nature wherewith to extract it. This is plain in our processe; for the Ingredients we employ for the distillation of the first Menstruum, are good and harmless each of them asunder; but besides there is a mystical and philosophical union made of them by the distillation and digestion that hath been previous, so that the sharpness of the Vitriol hath been moderated and sweetened by the Tartar, and by their action and reaction each upon the o∣ther, and thus of this match doth result a Spirit friendly to Na∣ture

and free from corrosiveness, which may take away all fear that it might have altered the seminal principles of Coral: con∣trariwise, it only has freed them from the commerce of the matter whereby they were fettered, and rather exalted them to a perfection then debased their worth. As for the second Men∣struum, I believe there is no body will take upon him to say ought against it, since the spirit of Wine and that of Salt are two real conservative Balsom's, not only of living bodies but even of dead ones, while they are yet asunder: But who shall not admire the wonderful secrets of Art and Nature, capable to make an union of the subtilest and most volatile of all Spirits, with one of the most fix, and thereof make a neutral and middle compound, which hath nothing left either of the taste, or any other quality of the two taken asunder! so that I conclude that this Tincture cannot be but one of the most excellent Remedies which Chymistry can afford, and therefore hath it this prerogative to be one of the first and principal of all Remedies to purifie the masse of the blood from all the impurities by which it may be tainted: either Leprosie, Venerean Pox, or Scorbute; it strengthens the Heart, chears the Senses, drives away Melancholy, hinders sad Dreams, stops Hemorrhagies, allayes inward pains, strengthens the Sto∣mach, appeases the irritation of the Mother, corrects ••oding va∣pours of the Spleen, removes obstructions of the Liver, Mesen∣tery and Pancreas or sweet bread, provokes and stops monethly Courses, purges and cleanses the Kidnies and Bladder, and streng∣thens the Brain and all the functions of the Body and Mind: briefly, I should never have done to rehearse here all what an∣tient and modern Writers have said in praise of this Tincture; and to speak ingenuously, nothing but great matters can be ex∣pected from all the Remedies which are made by volatile Spirits animated with the strength and vertue of internal Sulphurs of things, and chiefly those that are of a Solar Nature, because these noble Medicines do in an instant as the light penetrate into our last digestions, and as they go imprint in all the parts the stamp and Character and the Idea of their Balsamick vertue, which causes them to remove and drive away all the impurities which the vice of digestions had left in them. This Tincture may be used by the way of a preservative morning and evening in old

Wine, or Hydromel or meade old and well digested in Broth, or some proper water to the end which is intended. The Dosis from j. drop to iiij. and for the cure of Diseases, it must be given to the sick in ordinary or Chronical Diseases from j. drop to x. in Menstruum analogical and proportionate to the Disease, and that during the space of forty dayes, because that interval is suf∣ficient to renew and repair the whole Body in the most obstinate Diseases, and so proportionally under that time according to the exigency of the distemper and malady; therefore we must leave it to the judgement of the Physitian; but because all are not capable of preparing this Remedy, and knowing the Genius of our Na∣tion to be too impatient to allow themselves the requisite time whereby they may possess the Tinctures and Arcana's: I have thought it fitting to join and teach here the manner of prepa∣ring a Syrup of Coral, by a quick and easie way, and which may be made use of instead of this Tincture; but with much difference of vertue; and I know not whether Apothecaries will take the pains and be at the necessary charge of the confection of this Sy∣rup, though to speak truth, it may prove the best piece of their furniture; yet I have some hopes that those that are careful and do intend the good and advantage of their Neighbour, and dis∣charge honestly the trust of their employment, shall furnish themselves with the one and the other of these two Remedies.