Page:The Art of Distillation, 1651.djvu/12

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

To the Reader.

ſerved well thereby; That which I cannot allow of in them is their ſtrict obſervation of the quudraplicity of humours (which in the ſchoole of Paracelſus, and writings of Helmont, where the anatomy of humours hath been moſt rationally and fully diſcuſſed, hath been ſufficiently confuted) and their confining themſelves to ſuch crude medicines, which are more fit to be put into Spagyricall veſſels for a further digeſtion, then into mens bodies to be fermented therein. Certainly if men were leſſe ignorant they would preferre cordiall eſſences before crude juices, balſamicail Elixirs before ſlegmatick waters, the Mercury of philoſophers before common quickſilver. But many men have ſo little inſight in this Art, that they ſcarce believe any thing in it beyond the Diſtilling of Waters,and Oils, and extracting of Salts; nay many that pretend to Philoſophy, and would be accounted Philoſophers, are ſo unbeleeving, that, as faith Sandivogius, although he would have intimated the true Art to them word by word, yet they would by no meanes underſtand or beleeve that there was any wa=

ter