Experiment in Consort, Touching — Whiteneſs & Blackneſs
Experiment I.
Illuminated H in Having Aving promis’d in the 114, and 115. Pages of the foregoing Diſcourſe of Whiteneſs and Blackneſs, to ſhew, that thoſe two Colours may by a change of Texture in bodies, each of them apart Diaphanous and Colourleſs, be at pleaſure and in a trice as well Generated as Deſtroy’d, We ſhall begin with Experiments that may acquit us of that promiſe.
Take then what Quantity you pleaſe of Fair Water, and having Heated it, put into it as much good Common Sublimate, as it is able to Diſſolve, and (to be ſure of having it well glutted:) continue putting in the Sublimate, till ſome of it lye Untouch’d in the bottom of the Liquor, Filter this Solution through Cap-paper, to have it cleer and limpid, and into a ſpoonfull or two thereof, (put into a clean glaſs veſſel,) ſhake about four or five drops (according as you took more or leſs of this Solution) of good limpid Spirits of Urine, and immediately the whole mixture will appear White like Milk, to which mixture if you preſently add a convenient proportion of Rectifi’d Aqua Fortis (for the number of drops is hard to determine, becauſe of the Differing Strength of the liquor, but eaſily found by tryal) the Whiteneſs will preſently diſappear, and the whole mixture become Tranſparent, which you may, if you pleaſe, again reduce to a good degree of Whiteneſs (though inferiour to the firſt) onely by a more copious affuſion of freſh Spirit of Urine. N. Firſt, That it is not ſo neceſſary to employ either Aqua Fortis or Spirit of Urine about this Experiment, but that we have made it with other liquors inſtead of theſe, of which perhaps more elſewhere. Secondly, That this Experiment, though not made with the ſame Menſtruums, nor producing the ſame Colour is yet much of Kin to that other to be mentioned in this Tract among our other Experiments of Colours, about turning a Solution of Præcipitate into an Orange-colour, and the Chymical Reaſon being much alike in both, the annexing it to one of them may ſuffice FOR both.