C 103 ) 
our Experiments were made, which are referred to in th^ 
Catalogue; 
To make the Common Spirit: of Nitre, you need 
only to mix five or fix times as much Clay as you 
take of Nitre, and Diftill them in a Retort, and you 
may obtain a ftrong Spirit of Nitre this way, efpeciaily 
if you dephlegm it,and re£lifie it to the beft Advantage. 
With this we have made an Experiment of Accenfion 
fijcceed fometimes, but with great uncertainty ; but tha 
BtAy which I call the Compound Spirit of Nitre, is 
only to be rely ed on. 
That Chyraiftry has been very pregnant in produ* 
cing many good Phcemmem very Serviceable to the 
better Explication of Natural Philofophy, and alfo very 
ufcful in Preparing Medicines for Curing Difeafes, the 
Learned Men of this Age do generally allow ; and that 
Glauber^ though a very Chymift or Laborant, and no- 
thing at all of a clear Philofopher, has yet led on the 
beft of Chymifts, not only to make good Furnaces, but^ 
alfo other good Medicinal Preparations, I found the Mat- 
ter of Fad: the truer the more I perufed him. He hints 
at the way of making this Compound Spirit of Nitre , 
and alfo the Compound Spirit of Salt, by Diftilling them 
with Oyl of Vitriol, but after fuch an Invidious and 
^Enigmatical manner, that he obfcures it all he can, and^ 
leads the Operator forward and backward on purpofe to 
perplex bim ,- which indeed has had this good Effedt, 
That he has put us upon differing ways of Preparing, 
this Spirit,and making it much more N^ble than the Au- 
thor did himfelf, who yet fo over-valued itjas to think he^ 
had found the greateft Jrctf»«w in the World, and fet 
this on the top of , his Preparations, Miraculum^ 
Mundi , and the other Salt muft be called Sal Mirahile ; 
to which he attributes Twenty Six fuch extraordinary 
Properties, as the Experimentors of this Age can no wife? 
findj neither in his Salt, nox in the whole Creatioi?, But^ 
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