It is likewise probable the Ancients were mistaken concerning its substance and generation; they conceiving it a vegetable concretion made of the gums of Trees, especially _Pine_ and _Poplar_ falling into the water, and after indurated or hardened, whereunto accordeth the Fable of _Phaetons_ sisters: but surely the concretion is Mineral, according as is delivered by _Boetius_. For either it is found in Mountains and mediterraneous parts; and so it is a fat and unctuous sublimation in the Earth, concreted and fixed by salt and nitrous spirits wherewith it meeteth. Or else, which is most usual, it is collected upon the Sea-shore; and so it is a fat and bituminous juice coagulated by the saltness of the Sea. Now that salt spirits have a power to congeal and coagulate unctuous bodies, is evident in Chymical operations; in the distillations of _Arsenick_, sublimate and _Antimony_; in the mixture of oyl of _Juniper_, with the salt and acide spirit of _Sulphur_, for thereupon ensueth a concretion unto the consistence of _Birdlime_; as also in spirits of salt, or _Aqua fortis_ poured upon oyl of Olive, or more plainly in the Manufacture of Soap. And many bodies will coagulate upon commixture, whose separated natures promise no concretion. Thus upon a solution of _Tin_ by _Aqua fortis_, there will ensue a coagulation, like that of whites of Eggs. [SN: _How the stone is bred in the Kidney or Bladder._] Thus the volatile salt of Urine will coagulate _Aqua vitæ_, or spirits of Wine; and thus perhaps (as _Helmont_ excellently declareth) the stones or calculous concretions in Kidney or Bladder may be produced: the spirits or volatile salt of Urine conjoyning with the _Aqua vitæ_ potentially lying therein; as he illustrateth from the distillation of fermented Urine. From whence ariseth an _Aqua vitæ_ or spirit, which the volatile salt of the same Urine will congeal; and finding an earthy concurrence, strike into a lapideous substance. [Sidenote: _Of a Bee and a Viper involved in Amber._ Mart. _l._ 4.] Lastly, We will not omit what _Bellabonus_ upon his own experiment writ from _Dantzich_ unto _Mellichius_, as he hath left recorded in his Chapter, _De succino_, that the bodies of _Flies_, _Pismires_, and the like, which are said oft-times to be included in _Amber_, are not real but representative, as he discovered in several pieces broke for that purpose. If so, the two famous Epigrams hereof in _Martial_ are but Poetical, the _Pismire_ of _Brassavolus_ imaginary, and _Cardans Mousoleum_ for a Flie, a meer phansie. But hereunto we know not how to assent, as having met with some whose reals made good their representments. CHAPTER V Compendiously of sundry other common Tenents, concerning Mineral and Terreous Bodies, which examined, prove either false or dubious.