Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/952

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iers, but the concrete Jukes are more permanent, and leave certain fediments which render them vifible and palpable, af- ter the diftillation of the waters with which they are mixed. When thefe happen to be fimple, and of the fame fpecies with thofe known in a folid ftate, it is eafy to deduce the vir- tues of the waters from them, and to know what muft be the effect of fuch fluids as carry fpar, fulphur, vitriol, or other well known fubflances, into the blood ; but it feldom happens that thefe things are thus contained fimple and entire in the waters, they are often blended varioufly with one another, and often not the whole of the known body is contained,- but the principles that conftitute fome part of it, fuch as the acid of vitriol without its metalline part, the bafis of fea fait with- out its acid, and fo of the reft.

Salts and earths are evidently the moft fenfible and the moft common matters which are mixed with water, and it is from them in general that the medicinal fprings take up their vir- tues; There is fcarce any earth that does not contain fome fort of mineral fait, capable of being wafhed out by water, tho' it be generally in imperceptible quantities ; but where the earths are richer in thefe falts, the waters not only take them up, but carry alfo with them the feveral finer particles of the earth itfelf in which they are bedded, and rifing up at fome fmall diftance from the place they make medicinal fprings, of virtues anfwerable to the peculiar fpecies of the fait that was lodged there. We are always able to feparate, by analyfis, the falts and the earths of the mineral waters ; but when we have done this, we are not arrived at the end of the tafk, for they are often fuch mixed fubflances, that we can neither know them perfectly as they are, nor feparate them. The four moft known and frequent of thofe concrete 'Juices which are called falts, are alum, nitre, vitriol, and culinary fait ; but the examination of the waters of different medicinal fprings fhews us, that there are in the earth others very dif- ferent from thefe, and that perhaps in great numbers. There is in Afia a native alkali fait, or natrum, and in all the mi- neral waters we celebrate, there is a peculiar fait feparable by evaporation, which is nearer allied to this than to any of the other four, to one or other of which it has ufed to be the cuftom to reduce all falts ; and yet different even from this in fome refpects. Befide this thofe Juices of the faline kind, whofe difpohtion to concretion is not yet finifhed, and whofe ftate is, as it were, but in embryo, or the fiift ftage of being, are not to be known, when fcpaiated from the waters to which yet they may have perhaps given virtues greater than the concrete, in what we call its more perfect ftate, might have given : Nay, even thofe that are more formed, and are already concreted, or in a ftate capable of concretion, have not fimple and homogeneous fubftauces in each of the fpecies. The fait that is called culinary fait, is obferved to have two different portions mixed together ; the one is condenfed and cryftallizcd by cold and in moifture, after the evaporation of a part of the water wherein this fait hath been diflblved ; and the other will not be cryftallized nor condenfed, but by a to- tal evaporation of the water. The portion of this fait that is cryftallized by cold and in moifture, is the moft fulphureous, and by its fulphureity it will mix itfelf with the fulphureous fait of calcin'd tartar refolved in a nioift air, or in common water, without turbidnefs, and without coagulation ; but that portion of this common fait which is not condenfed but by the total evaporation of the water which had diflblved it, hath an acidity which inftantly coagulates the fait of tartar diflblved, and all other falts in the fame ftate which are fulphureous and nitrous, i It is evident, that while this fait is in its embryo ftate, the one or the other alone of thefe two very different fubflances of which it is contained, may be mixed with the waters of a fpring, and communicate virtues different from thofe which .the whole body of the fait would have done. This fait alfo being procured by evaporation of the water, or by any other analyiis of it, could not be known or referred to the common falts, and muchlefsifin the earth, as may very eafily happen, it fhould be united with fome one of the conflituent parts of fome other fait, in the fame difunited or imfaihion'd ftate.

The vitriol which in a moifl; air yields an effiorefcence upon fulphureous marcafites, has likewife a juicy portion, con- denfible only by a total evaporation of its aqueous humidity ; this is of a very acrimonious tafte, of an unctuous fubftance, and eafily runs to water in a moifl air. This juicy portion of vitriol is very different from that which fhoots and condenfes in the fluid liquor, by means of the cold. Thefe cryftals are pure vitriol acid, auftere, and on being mixed with the ful- phureous and nitrous falts, a great quantity of earthy matter precipitates out of them; but the other portion will mix itfelf with thefe falts in folution, without turbidnefs or emotion, not having, like the former, that acidity upon which the ful- phureous or nitrous falts can act j which is exactly contrary to what happens to common fait, of which the firft portion is the moft fulphureous, and the latter portion the moft acid. Nitre is alfo like the reft compofed of two different faline por- tions, the one more fulphureous, which cryftallizes with the cold, and in moifture, and the other, which remains diflblved after all the cryftals are obtained, and which cannot be obtained in a dry form, but by the evaporation of all the

humidity. This is left fulphureous than the other part ob- tained in cryftals, and has fome acidity which the other has not.

The firft embryos of mineral falts are nothing elfe but vapours or Juices not concreted, but totally volatile or vaporable } of thefe fome may be condenfed, and in part fixed by the action of fire, or difengaged from their matrices, and made capable of concretion by means of the air, as is obferved in certain nitrous, aluminous, and vitriolic felts. The fulphu- reous part, which is formed in the lime, made of certain hard ftones burnt in the fire, which is generally allowed to be a fpecies of nitre, has certainly its feminal being in thefe crude ftones, and in that ftate of its firft being, is very different from that which we find after it has palled the fire, which from cold and coagulative, changes into cau'ftic and refolu- tive. This cold and coagulative quality of this ftony fait, in its firft ftate, manifefts itfelf fufficiently in the waters of cer- tain rock fprings, which are very limpid and cold, and breed cold and fchirrous tumours under the throats of thofe people who ordinarily drink them, as in the Alps, c3V, This feminal matter of this fait then is wholly altered in its nature by fire, and is rendered fulphureous and cauftic as nitre. Fire is able to exalt and alter the ftate of being of this fait, but it is no more able to produce it in thefe ftones, than in the fhells of oyfters, &c. of which alfo a lime is made, which yields a fait not more fulphureous, than this.' Du C/os, Obferv. fur Ies Eaux Miner.

The feminal being of alum and vitriol muff, in the fame manner, exift in thofe fubflances out of which thofe falts are extracted by water, after they have been calcined by fire, or expofed to a flower calcination in the open air. They are not found in thefe ftones before thefe proceffes, yet it is fuf- ficiently evident that the fire and air could not produce them, but could only exalt them there.

All thefe varieties to which the feveral mineral falts are liable in their different ftages, and In which they may be abforbed together, and united by water under the earth, do not only render the judging of the mineral waters, which partake of them by analy fifes very uncertain, but even, in many cafes* perplex and confound us, by the very means by which we hope to underftand them.

Mineral Juices. Many countries afford thefe, and give marks by them of treafures that might be turned to great ac- count, were the proper manner of allaying them known ; which is by firft properly reducing them to a dry fubftance, fo as to come at the folid matter they contain. With a view to the difcovery of metallic veins, the erection of fait- works, vitriol -works, alum- works, borax -works, and the like, the curious on this fubject may find many excellent hints for fur- ther difcoveries in the clofe of Agricola's work, De re metal- lica ; and the view is farther carried on by Boyle, Beccher, Stahl, and Homberg. The royal academy of Paris have alfo given fome hints that may be of ufe, in their memoirs ; and fome practical things are recorded in the Philofophical Tranf- actions.

We have accounts in the Philofophical Tranfadtions of white and thick fluids like cream, found in mines at very great depths, and containing mineral particles. The bottoms of our coal-pits fometimes afford this liquor in very large quan- tities. And fome of the iron mines in Shropfhire, particu- larly that called the white mine near Hales in that county, affords a great quantity of this fort of Juice. It is thick as cream, white, and of a fweetifh tafte, but with a vitriolic twang behind it. This is contained in the nodules of iron ftone, which are here a fort of enhydri, very large, com- pofed of thick cruft, and fome of them holding near a hog's- head of this fort of liquor. Phil. Tranf. N". ioo. See the article Enhydros.

Juice of Tar. See the article Tar- Water.

JUJUBES (Cycl.) — There are feveral fpecies of this tree pre- ferved in the gardens of the curious. They are propagated by planting their items in pots of light earth, foon after the fruit is ripe, and in winter they fhould be preferred under a com- mon hot-bed frame, where they may he defended from the feverer frofts, and in fpring the pots mould be plunged into a moderate hot-bed. When the young plants are come up, they fhould be enured to the open air by degrees, and in June they may be removed out, and placed under the fhelter of a warm hedge. In this place, they fhould remain till the beginning of October, when they are to be removed into the green-houfe, or elfe placed under a hot-bed frame, that they may be preferred from the frofts. During the winter they fhould have as much air as the feafon will permit, and be watered at times, tho' this muft be very cautioufly done af- ter they have fhed their leaves. In the March following, before they begin to fhoot, they are to be tranfplanted each into a feparate pot of light earth, and they fhould then be plunged into a moderate hot-bed, and watered and fhaded till they have taken thorough root ; and in May they are to be removed thence into the open air. They muft be houfed in winter till they are about four years old, and then may be tranfplanted into the naked ground, and will ftand our win- ters. Miller's Gardener's Diet.

JUJUB, Zizypbus, in botany. See the article Zizyphus.

I JULEP,