Of Qhmgitig Metals . t6^

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Chap. it. ... n

Of Leads and bow it may be converted into another Metal. . ! £' "

T He Ancient Writers that have been conversant in the'Natures' of Metals,are wonts callTmne by the name of white Lead ; and Lead, by the nameos black Tinne: insinuating thereby the affinity of the Natures of these twoMetals, that they are very like each to another, and therefore may very easily beone of them transformed into the other. Ic is no hard matter therefore, asto change Jinne into Lead, which we have spoken of in the former 1 Chapter,So also

To charge Lead into Tinne-

Jt may be effected csiely by bare wishing of it: for if you bath or wash Leadoften times, that is, if you often melt it, so that the dull and earthy substanceof it be abolished, it will become Tinne very easily: for the same quick-silver,whereby the Lead was first made a subtil and pure substance, before it contract-ed that foil and earihiness which makes it so heavy , doth still remain :n the Lead,as Cehrtu hath observed ; and this is it which caufeth that creaking and gnashingfound, which Tinne is wont to yield , and whereby it is especially dicerned fromLead: so that when the Lead hath lost itscWn earthy lumpifhness , which is ex-pelled by often melting ; and when it is endued with the found of Tinne,which the quick-silver doth easily work into it, there can be no difference put be-twixt them ,but that the Lead is become Tin. It is also possible to transform

Antimony i’ to Lead:

For, that kind of Antimony which the Alchymists are wont to call by the name ofRegulus, if it be oftentimes burned id the fire, and be first throughly boiled, itturneth into Lead. This experiment is observed by Diofcertdes , who faith, That ifyou take Antimony and burn it exceedingly in the fire, it is converted into Lead;Galen (heweth another experiment concerning Lead, namely,

How to procure Lead to become heavier , then of it [elf it is :

For, whereas he had found by his experience , that Lead hath in it seisin æthereal otairy substance, he brings this experiment. Of all the Mettals, faith he, that I havebeen acquainted with, only Lead is encreased both in bigness and also in weight for,if you lay it upinfellars or such other places of receipt that arc under the ground,wherein there is a turbulent and gross foggy air, so that whatsoever is lai-s up in suchrooms shall straightways gather filth and soil, it will be greater and weightier thenbefore it was. Yea, even the very clamps of Lead which have been fastened intocarved Images to knit their parts more strongly together, especially thole that havebeen fastened about their feet, have been divers times found to have waxed bigger jand some of those clamps have been seen to swell so much, that whereas in the ma-king of such Images the leaden plates and pins were made level with the Imagesthemselves, yet afterwards they have been soswoln, as that they have stood forthlike hillock? and knobs very unevenly, out of tfe Chriftal stones whereof the Imageswere made. This Lead, is a Mettal that hath in it great store of quick-silver, as maya Ppear by this, because it is a very caste mastery,

To extract Quicks her out of Lead .

Let your Lead be filed into very tina.ll dust, and to every two pounds of Lead thusbeaten into powder, you must put one ounce of Salt-Peter, and one ounce of ordi-nary common Salt, and one ounce of Antimony. Let all these be well beaten andpowned to a ether, and put into a sieve ; and when they are well sifted, put them in-

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