e yellow
Earth, and sometimes it will run together in the form of Horn, or of a
white Horse Hoof, which you can by no Art reduce into a Body.

Wherefore you must remember to take the _Antimony_ out presently after
the Solution, precipitate and adulterate it according to the custom of
_Alchymists_, that it may not be corroded with its perfect Oil by the
Water, and burnt up to nothing.

_The Water wherein we dissolve is thus made._

R. _Vitriol_, a pound and a half, _Salt-Armoniac_ one pound, _Azinat_
one pound, _Salt-nitre_ a pound and a half, _Salt-gemme_ one pound,
_Allom_ half a pound; these are the Ingredients which belong unto the
making of the Water for the Solution of _Antimony_.

Take and mix them well together; at first distil very slowly, for the
Spirits ascend with greater violence than those of any other common
_Aqua fortis_; beware of its Spirits; for their Fumes are very subtile
and hurtful in their penetration.

When you have adulterated the _Antimony_ well and purely from the
corrosive Water, then put it into a clean Vial, poure good distilled
Vinegar upon it, set it forty dayes and nights to putrefie in
Horse-dung, or in _Balneum Mariae_, it will be bloud-red. Take it out,
and see how much is yet to be dissolved, decant off gently the pure and
clear, which is red into a Glass-Gourd, poure other Vinegar upon the
_Faeces_ as before, that if any thing should yet remain therein, it might
be dissolved; this must be done four times in fourty days and nights;
for if any good be in the _Faeces_, it will be dissolved in that time,
then cast the Dregs away as unprofitable, being but Dirt, and to be cast
to the Dunghill.

Put all the Solutions in a glass-Gourd into _Balneum Mariae_, distil all
the tart Vinegar from it, pour it on again, or else pour fresh, if this
be too weak, it will quickly dissolve in the Vinegar; distil it again
from it, that the Matter be quite dry; then take common distilled water,
wash all tartness from it with the Vinegar imparted to the Matter, then
dry the Matter in the Sun, which is of a very deep red, or else dry it
very well at a gentle fire.

When the Philosophers find our _Antimony_ thus secretly prepared, they
say then that its external nature and virtue is inverted internally, and
the internal cast forth externally, henceforth becoming an Oil, which is
concealed in its innermost and profoundest part, till it be well
prepared, and cannot any more be brought into its first