cleer Solution of Sublimate. For Example, it has been suppos'd by some eminently Learned, That when Sal Armoniack being mingled with an Alcaly is forc'd from it by the Fire in close Vessels, the Volatile Salt that will thereby be obtain'd (if the Operation be skilfully perform'd,) is but a more fine and subtile sort of Sal Armoniack, which, 'tis presum'd, this Operation do's but more exquisitely purifie, than common Solutions, Filtrations, and Coagulations. But this Opinion may be easily shown to be Erroneous, as by other Arguments, so particularly by the lately deliver'd Method of distinguishing the Tribes of Salts. For the Saline Spirit of Sal Armoniack, as it is in many other manifest Qualities very like the Spirit of Urine, so like, that it will in a trice make Syrrup of Violets of a Lovely Green, turn a Solution of good Verdigrease into an Excellent Azure, and make the Solution of a Sublimate yield a White Precipitate, insomuch that in most (for I say not all of the Experiments) where I Aim onely at producing a sudden change of Colour, I scruple not to use Spirit of Sal Armoniack when it is at hand, instead of Spirit of Urine, as indeed it seems chiefly to consist (besides the flegm that helps to make it fluid) of the Volatile Urinous Salt (yet not excluding that of Soot) that abounds in the Sal Armoniack and is set at liberty from the Sea Salt wherewith it was formerly associated, and clogg'd, by the Operation of the Alcaly, that divides the Ingredients of Sal Armoniack, and retains that Sea Salt with it self. What use may be made of the like way of exploration in that inquiry which puzzles so many Modern Naturalists, whether the Rich Pigment (which we have often had occasion to mention) belongs to the Vegetable or Animal Kingdome, you may find in another place where I give you some account of what I try'd about Cocheneel. But I think it needless to exemplifie here our Method by any other Instances, many such being to be met with in divers parts of this Treatise; but I will rather advertise you, that, by this way of examining Chymical Liquors, you may not onely in most Cases conclude _Affirmatively_, but in some Cases _Negatively_. As since Spirit of Wine, and as far as I have try'd, those Chymical Oyles which Artists call Essential, did not (when I us'd them as I had us'd the several Families of Salts upon that Syrrup) turn Syrrup of Violets Red or Green, nor the Solution of Sublimate White or Yellow, I inferr'd it may thence be probably argued, that either they are destitute of Salt, or have such as belongs not to either of the three Grand families already often mention'd. When I went to examine the Spirit of Oak or of such like Concretes forced over through a Retort, I found by this means amongst others, that (as I elsewhere show) these Chymists are much mistaken in it, that account it a simple Liquor, and one of their Hypostatical Principles: for not to mention what flegm it