Of changing Metals. , 6 A

you must four it forth , and call into small rod-, and beat it with hammers j it isver'' brittle, and will easily be bitken : then a flolve it with Atjua-fortu, Itch as * scompounded of virriol and Alcme tempered together : let it upon hot cinderstiUit boil, and be diffolved into vapour', and lo qtiitc vanish away ; and the subsi-dence thereof, or the rubbish that remains behind, if it be reduced into one solidbody again, will become good brass. If you would

C Make Iron to become white,

you may effect it by divers and lur.dry sleights ; yet let this cnely device contentyou in this matter, kith,you mull cleanie and purge your Iron of that dross and re-fuse that is in it, and of that poysoned a rruption of rust that it is generally infe-cted withal: for it hath more earthly substance ar,d parts in it then any other me-tal hath, insomuch that if you boil it and purge it never so often,it will still of it iclfyield some new excrements. To cleanse and purge it this is the best wa y : Takesome small thin plates of Iron, and make them red hot, and then quench them instrong lye and vineger which have been boiled with ordinary Salt and Alome ; andthis you must use to do with them oftentimes, till they be somewhat whitened:the fragments or scrapings also of Iron, you trust pewn in a morter, aster theyhave been steeped in salt; and you must bray them together till the salt be quitechanged, so that there be no blackness left in the liquor of it, and till the Ironbe cleansed and purged from the dross that is in it. VV hen you have thus preparedyour Iron, you must whiten it on this manner: Make a plaister as it were, of quick-silver and lead tempered together; then pown them into powder, and put thatpowder into an earthen vessel amongst your plates of Iron that you have preparedto be whitened: close up the vessel fast, and plaister it all over with morter, sothat there may be no breathing place for any air either to get in or out: then put itinto the sire, and there let it stay for one whole day together, and at length en-crease your fire, that it may be io vehement hot as to melt the Iron; for the plai-ster or cc nfection which was made of lead ard Quick silver, will work in the Irontwo effects; for first, it will dispose it to melting, that it shall soon be dvstolved;and secondly, it will dispose it to whitening, that it shall the iooncr receive a glit-tering colour. After all this, draw forth your Ire n into small thin plates again, andproceed the second time in the same course as before, till you find that it hath ta-ken le) much whitrrefleas your purpose was to endue it withal. In like manner, ifyou melt it it a vessel that hath holes in the bottom of ir, and melt with it lead,andthe Matt hast, e or fire-stone, ard Arsnick, end such other things as we spake of be-fore in our experiments of brass, yeu may make Iron to become white. If youput amongst ir lo me silver, though it be not much, k will soon rew table thecolour of silver: fer Iron doth easily luffer itself to he me died with gold or silver;and they may he lo thoroughly incorporated into each other, that by all the tmes ofseparation that can be uled, you cannot without great labour, and very much adoseparate the one of them from the other.

C h a p. V.

Of Quick;filver, and of the tffetts and operations thereof.

I N the next place it is meet that we speak something concerning Quick-silver.andthe manifold operatic ns thereof: wherein we will first set down certain vulgarand cc mmon congelations that it makes with other things, because maDv men dodesire to know them ; and secondly, we will shew, how it may be dissolved into wa-ter,that they which are desirous of luch experiments, may be satisfied herein. Firsttherefore we will shew

Hsw Quicksilver way be congealed and curdled as it were with Iron,

B b