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He was especially desirous they should consider what part the air might play in calcinations; he spoke of the air as a "menstruum or additament," and said that, in such operations as calcination, "We may well take the freedom to examine ... whether there intervene not a coalition of the parts of the body wrought upon with those of the menstruum, whereby the produced concrete may be judged to result from the union of both."
Of this you may remember, that I have given you several Instances already, to which may be added such as these, That if Quicksilver be dissolv'd in Aqua fortis, and Præcipitated out of the Solution, either with water impregnated with Sea salt, or with the spirit of that Concrete, it falls to the Bottom in the form of a white powder, whereas if it be Præcipitated with an Alcaly, it will afford a Yellowish or tawny powder, and if there be no Præcipitation made, and the Menstruum be drawn off with a convenient fire, the corroded Mercury will remain in the bottom, in the form of a substance that may be made to appear of differing Colours by differing degrees of Heat; As I remember that lately having purposely abstracted Aqua fortis from some Quicksilver that we had dissolv'd in it, so that there remain'd a white Calx, exposing that to several degrees of Fire, and afterwards to a naked one, we obtain'd some new Colours, and at length the greatest part of the Calx lying at the Bottome of the Vial, and being brought partly to a Deep Yellow, and partly to a Red Colour, the rest appear'd elevated to the upper part and neck of the Vial, some in the form of a Reddish, and some of an Ash-Colour Sublimate.
And I have sometimes try'd, that by Rubbing upon a good Touch-stone a certain Metalline mixture so Compounded, that the Impression it left upon the Stone appear'd of a very differing Colour from that of Gold, yet a little of Aqua-fortis would in a Trice make the Golden Colour disclose it self, by Dissolving the other Metalline Corpuscles that conceal'd those of the Gold, which you know that Menstruum will leave Untouch'd.
The magnificent constituency of mediocrities of which the world is made up, the people without biographies, whose lives have made a clear solution in the fluid menstruum of time, instead of being precipitated in the opaque sediment of history But this is a narrative, and not a disquisition.
Tin Corroded by Aqua-fortis till the Menstruum will work no farther on it, becomes exceeding White, but as we elsewhere note, does very easily of it self acquire the consistence, not of a Metalline Calx, but of a Coagulated matter, which we have observ'd with pleasure to look so like, either to curdled Milk, or curdled Whites of Eggs, that a person unacquainted with such Solutions may easily be mistaken in it.
When he had fed heartily on his homely fare, he filled a large cup, made of a cocoa-nut shell, with brandy, and, drinking it off, told us, "Prandy was the best menstruum for onions and sheese."
The magnificent constituency of mediocrities of which the world is made up, the people without biographies, whose lives have made a clear solution in the fluid menstruum of time, instead of being precipitated in the opaque sediment of history But this is a narrative, and not a disquisition.
2dly, That when the agate was formed, the cavity then contained every thing which now is found within it, and nothing more. 3dly, That the contained substances must have been in a fluid state, in order to their crystallizing. Lastly, That as this fluid state had not been the effect of solution in a menstruum, it must have been fluidity from heat and fusion.
Aqua Regia is a compound menstruum invented by the alchemists for dissolving gold. These materials are not properly oxidized; it nearly causes their combination with chlorine, which is in the Muriatic acid. This acid forms a valuable addition to the chemicals employed by the practical Daguerreotypist.
It is also to be noticed that countless alchemic scribblers who did not understand the works of the “masters” worked with substances like urine, semen, spittle, dung, blood, menstruum, etc., where the dim idea of a procreative essence in these things came into play. I will have something to say on this subject in connection with the Homunculus.
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