[363] A _verbum œnigmaticum_. The Phœnix is a singular animal, as Bacon justly observes, inasmuch as it springs from its own _ashes_. Its name, therefore, may be figuratively used with perfect propriety to denote _animal charcoal_, an efficacious agent in clarifying solutions of impure saltpetre.—Bloxam’s “Chemistry,” 8th ed., p. 488. [364] Bacon appears to have poured the hot solution upon the laxative, precisely as Clarke directs in his “Natural History of Nitre,” London, 1670, p. 42: “Pour the hot liquid on ashes ... ’tis no matter how soon you let it run off the ashes again.” [365] _i.e._ the removal of the insoluble impurities. [366] “Then pour it into the other jar.”—Hassan, A, p. 24. [367] _i.e._ into a crystallising jar. [368] “The solution is kept in constant agitation by poles while cooling.”—Waltham Abbey Regs., H, p. 20. [369] “The mother liquid, from which the saltpetre flour has been deposited, is boiled down and crystallised.”—Bloxam’s “Chemistry,” 8th ed., p. 488. [370] _Salit petræ_ is the reading of Zetzner’s _Theatrum Chemicum_, 1613, v. 962, which is adopted by Reinaud and Favé, p. 123; of Manget’s _Bibliotheca Chemica_, 1702, i. 624; of the _Verosimilia Sacra et Profana_ of Hoven and Molfenger, 1732, ii. 93; and of the copy used by Romocki, i. 93. Prof. Brewer’s MS. reads _sal petræ_. [371] “Atque mala vites incidere falce _novellas_.”—Vergil, “Bucol.,” iii. 11. The word, however, may be simply _novæ_. [372] “Maltha, quæ est genus bitumenis.”—_Opus Majus_, London, 1733, p. 474. [373] “Possumus artificialiter componere ignem comburentem, scilicet, ex sale petræ ... ex oleo petroleo ... ex maltha et naphta et consimilibus.... His vicinus est ignis græcus et multa comburentia.”—_De Secretis_, cap. vi. [374] “Maltha ... projecta super hominem armatum comburit eum.... Ignis comburens fit ex eo qui cum difficultate potest extingui, nam aqua non extinguit.”—_Op. Maj._, as above. [375] “Sunt alia stupenda naturæ. Nam soni velut tonitrua et coruscationes fieri possunt in aere; imo majori horrore quam illa quæ fiunt per naturam. Nam modica materia adaptata, scilicet ad quantitatem unius pollicis, sonum facit horribilem et coruscationem ostendit vehementem.”—_De Secretis_, cap. vi. [376] See p. 156.