Century I.

...by a small pillar of water in the neck of the glass; it is that which sets the motion to work. For water and wine in one glass, if left to stand for a long time, will hardly separate original: "sever".

This experiment should be extended from mixtures of several liquors to simple bodies, which consist of several similar parts. Try it, therefore, with brine (or salt water) and fresh water, placing the salt water (which is the heavier) in the upper glass, and see whether the fresh will come to the top. Try it also with water heavily sugared and pure water, and see whether the water which comes to the top will lose its sweetness. For this purpose, it would be good to have a small tap original: "Cocke" made in the belly of the upper glass.

Experiments in common regarding judicious and accurate infusions, both in liquors and air.
17.

In bodies containing fine spirits, which dissipate easily, the rule for making infusions is this: a short stay of the body In this context, the "body" refers to the physical plant material being soaked. in the liquor receives the spirit, but a longer stay ruins it. This is because a longer soak draws out the "earthy" parts as well, which debases the finer spirits. Therefore, it is an error for physicians to rely simply on the length of the soak to increase the medicinal strength. If you want a strong infusion of those kinds of bodies that have fine spirits, your method should not be to give it more time, but to repeat the infusion of the body more often. Take violets and infuse a good handful original: "Pugill"; a handful or a large pinch. of them in a quart of vinegar. Let them stay for three-quarters of an hour and then take them out. Refresh the infusion with the same quantity of new violets seven times. This will make a vinegar so fresh with the scent of the flower that if it is brought to you in a saucer a year later, you shall smell it before it even reaches you. Note that it smells more perfectly of the flower a good while after it is made than it does at first.

This rule which we have given is of singular use for the preparation of medicines and other infusions. For example: the leaf of borage original: "Burrage"; a herb often used in traditional medicine to treat mood. has an excellent spirit to suppress the sooty original: "Fuliginous"; smoky or soot-like. According to the medical theories of the time, "vapors" from the organs caused mental states. vapor of dark melancholy and so to cure madness. Nevertheless, if the leaf is infused for a long time, it yields only a raw substance of no medicinal value. Therefore, I believe that if borage stays for a short time in the "must" unfermented grape juice of wine or the "wort" of beer while it is fermenting (before it is tunned term: "Tunned"; put into a large cask or barrel for storage.), and is often changed for fresh leaves, it will make an excellent drink for melancholy passions. I believe the same would work for orange flowers.

Rhubarb clearly has parts within it that perform contrary operations: parts that purge the bowels and parts that bind In medical terms, "binding" refers to causing constipation or stopping diarrhea. the body. The purging parts are more easily released, while the binding parts lie deeper. Thus, if you infuse rhubarb for only an hour and crush it well, it will purge better and bind the body less after the purging than if it had stood for twenty-four hours. This has been tested. But I also believe that by repeating the infusion of rhubarb several times (as was described for violets), letting each batch stay in for only a short time, you may make it as strong a purging medicine as scammony term: "Scammony"; a plant-based resin used as a very powerful and harsh purgative.. It is no small victory in medicine if you can make rhubarb and other medicines...