Page:The Sceptical Chymist.djvu/75

Rh to mention what I elsewhere take notice of, concerning common Brimstone once or twice sublim’d, that expos’d to a moderate Fire in Subliming-Pots, it rises all into dry, and almost tastless, Flowers; Whereas being expos’d to a naked Fire it affords store of a Saline and Fretting Liquor: Not to mention this, I say, I will further observe to you, that as it is considerable in the Analysis of mixt Bodies, whether the Fire act on them when they are expos’d to the open Air, or shut up in close Vessels, so is the degree of Fire by which the Analysis is attempted of no small moment. For a milde Balneum will sever unfermented Blood (for Instance) but into Phlegme and Caput mortuum, the later whereof (which I have sometimes had) hard, brittle, and of divers Colours, (transparent almost like Tortoise-shell) press’d by a good Fire in a Retort yields a Spirit, an Oyl or two, and a volatile Salt, besides a Caput mortuum. It may be also pertinent to our present Designe, to take notice of what happens in the making and distilling of Sope; for by one degree of Fire the Salt, the Water and the Oyl or Grease, whereof that factitious