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.

The fixation of Niter.

MElt lb vj. of very pure Niter in an Iron pot in open fire; throw in it continually by small parcels Charcoal dust, which will immediately take fire, and softly consume by the action of its fire and sulphur, the waterish moisture which the salt of the Earth had coagulated and united to it self in its chrystallizati∣on; continue this throwing of Coal-dust until you finde it will kindle no more, and that the remainder of the Niter begins to thicken and turn to a blewish and greenish colour; then cease this Operation, and take off this salt out of the pot, and put it in a warm Mortar: and if the Artist will preserve any of it whole, let him put thereof as it is hot and dry in a Bottle, and stop it exactly with a stople dipt in melted Wax. This is true fixed Niter, much altered from its first nature; for it is no more volatile or apt to be turned into Chrystals, but contrariwise turns exposed to the ayre into a liquor which is subtile and penetrating, hath an urinous and lixivial taste like unto salt of Tartar, but yet more biting and more penetrating. We are beholding to Glauber for the invention of this Liquor, who hath given us the description thereof under the name of Liquor alkahest, fit to draw the Tinctures of all natural Bodies, whether Animals, Vegetables or Minerals, and to speak truly, this Liquor hath in it something very considerable, being ca∣pable of extracting the sulphurs of Metals, provided they have been well opened before; those of Minerals do easily yield unto it, from whence it may be concluded that it takes in an instant the sulphurs and volatile salts of Animals and Vegetables. If any Chymical Artists have a curiosity for these noble Oparations, they shall finde them in the Book which this great and famous Artist hath given us thereof. But there is left much matter of speculation and Philosophy upon this fixation of Niter, which is made by the Vegetable sulphur of Coals, which doth change it into the nature

of salt Alkali, whose taste is urinous and lixivial; this salt being ca∣pable of fertilizing the worst Earth's, if the seeds to be put in be prepared with a Liquor made of this salt and some other Ingredi∣ents, this admirable Salt so nourishing and invigorating the bud or sprout of the seed, that it multiplyes to so high a number as to seem altogether Hyperbolical, and fabulous to those which appre∣hend not the hidden mysterie which Nature doth extract from the light of Spirits and Salts, and how the sperm of the seed finds in this saline Liquor that which is analogous to its principle, doth greedily suck and attract it, for which reason being as it were dou∣bly strengthened, it shoots and puts forth a more vigorous and nu∣merous stalk, yielding eares and graines of Corn above all belief, as it hath been seen and tryed in Paris some yeares since. But to make this Assertion more plain and palpable, let us reflect upon the practice of the Husbandman in Britany and the Forrest of Or∣dermes; who meeting with unfruitful and barren grounds, produ∣cing nothing but Heath and Fern, a kind of wild Flag and Broom, use to pare off the upper part or moale of their ground, pluck off the Broom and Fern, and drying all in heaps something distant one from the other, set it on fire, leaving after the heavenly influences and Rain to work upon this calcined Earth, containing the Alkali of all the plants fixed by their own sulpbur; this Alkali assisted by the sulphur hath contracted a fatnesse and clammy moisture, heavy and of slow motion, which communicated to the lightnesse, dry∣nesse and too great porosity of the Earth, causes it to keep with it a kind of greedinesse and delectation, a pleasant substance and nou∣rishment; and as soon as the Rain doth abound and exuberate, it cannot so soon be disjoined from it, neither carried away by the violent heat of the Sun by reason of its fixednesse; and so it comes to passe, that when these Husbandmen have plowed and sowed their grounds, they reap store of Rye for the first year and Oates in the second. We brought in this story only to the end that the Artist may reflect with his meditation upon this salt, and note the better its worth and excellency, which proceeds from nothing else but the mysterie of Nature contained in the Salt-peter, which he must seek by his industry how to free and dis-ingage.