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Vol. III.
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FWd than Witter % ought not to be reckon’d among Volatile Saks . This.Standard will be justify’d by gaod Measures, grounded on Experience : Forall Saks that are truly Volatile , as fer as I could abserve, are really Ughterthun Water, that is, in a Chymical Sense, do with a leis Degree of FircSublime in our Glastes, or come over the Hdm, than Water does, This Isind justify’d in our Volatile Sah oi Ambtr , erroneously so call’d, for icdoes not come up toour Standard of Volat ility, and is really no VolatileSait ;as will be made appear: If you take this suppos’d Volatile Salt, and DißiUit in a Retort, or Head and Body, with common Water , the Water willAscend in such a Degree of Fire where the Salt will nor, for you mu st in-crease your Fire coniiderably to make it Rise aster the Witter is gone, andhas lest ehe Dry Sah at the Lottom. This made me enquire ferther intothe Properstes of this Salt, which did not at all correspond with VolatileSalts, (for all true Volatile Saks are Alkalks ) but on the contrary woul'dFerment with them, and quite destroy the property of true Volatile Salt,by bringing them toadull Infipid Salt, which seme call Sal Netarum j andalso by Fixing their Volatile Nature, not only in putting them by the Stan-dard of Volatility, but also does quite destroy their Spiritous and StimularingSmtll, by Virtue of which they have been always descrvedly esteem’dsuch Excellent Cephalick Medicines. Therefore examining this Salt yet alittle farther, you will plainly prove it to be an Acui, that Corrodes Iron,turns Syrup oijuly-fiowers Green, destroys the Tincture of Lignum Nephri-ticum, and does not Ferment with common Acids ; so that it plainly belongsto the Ti ibe of Acids, and should be struck out of the Catalogue of Vola-tile Salts ; and perhaps, out of the Number of Specifick Cephalicks, and ra-th er to be degraded amongstthe Diureticks, and even in that Rank to havebut an inferior Station ; for it feeras to me to be but a Dull Medicine, andmore valuable for its Price than great Vertue, efpecially if quite Divested ofall its Oyl, in which the great Cepbahck and Vordial Ver tues must needs beown’d to consist.

CoroL III. That Volatile Saks have a great Property to draw TmB teres,and do particularly advance those Cblours that are dispos’d to be Red : Fortho’ the Spirit of Wme be a very Cathokc Alenßruum , and draws a very deepTinfttire oiCochineeL, yet we have osten observ’d, that if we put to this Tm-Bure, whenhighest, a finali proportion of Volatile-Salt, that would advanceit to a great, even a double Degree. Thus I have obscrv’d it to advance the1indhtre of Arterial Blood, and which is very Curious, if you Dissolve it inyour ß/Wwhilst you are Bleeding at one of your Vein?, that Blood ml\ hs-come very Flortd, and like Arterial Blood. Therefore since Nitrous-Saltsproduce none of these Tinging Effects; this CoroUary scems much to fevourthe Notion, that the Effects of the Air upon the Blood, may be due to suchSalts as are of a Volatile-Alkahfat Nature.

Corol. IV- Contagious Diseafes are Communicated by the Air Inspired atthe Lungs ; and this feems more probable, than what Dr. Needham andothers have endeavour’d to make out, with more Difftcuhy, in attributing thefame Effect to the Air takcn in our Meat by Maftication, and swallow’d down

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