Notes of experiments in chemistry and alchemy (MS Add.3973)

The whiteness of the residue original: caput mort.; the solid remains after distillation (which was black before) seemed to proceed from some part of the antimony original symbol: ♁ precipitating in the sublimation the process of heating a substance into a vapor and then cooling it back into a solid. Of the sublimate, I dissolved 60 grains (or perhaps only 40 grains) in water, and there fell a white precipitate. When this was washed original: edulcorated and dried, it weighed 15 grains, so that there was about 45 grains of sal ammoniac original symbol: 🜔 salt which would not precipitate.

I dissolved two parts of antimony original symbol: ♁ that had been acted on once in three parts sal ammoniac original symbol: 🜔, three parts spirit original: V; likely Spirit of Wine or Vinegar, and 6 parts water original symbol: ▽. Then, I dissolved two parts of the antimony once acted on in 3 parts sal ammoniac original symbol: 🜔 and 6 parts water. The solutions were clear, but by continuing them too long in too great a heat, some part of what was dissolved grew cloudy original: muddy by the precipitation of some part of the antimony original symbol: ♁ once acted on. Therefore, I dissolved a fresh batch of antimony once acted on in four parts of sal ammoniac original symbol: 🜔 and 12 parts water. The solution, taking too much heat at first, grew cloudy and would never clear. Therefore I also dissolved:

I dissolved 3 ounces original: ℥iij of antimony original symbol: ♁ once acted on in 4 ounces original symbol: 🜔 of sal ammoniac and 12 ounces of water original symbol: ▽ ℥ 12. These proportions were as 3, 4, 12. The solution was clear. A residue original: calx was left in the bottom weighing an ounce and 20 grains. Or, 50 grains are to be deducted for some precipitate which fell by the pouring in original: affusion of water to wash that matter out of the glass. From the solution of these materials original: materia, some transparent matter, a coagulum like jelly, formed out of the solution. I put this jelly back into the solution matter and evaporated it in a gentle heat, and then put it in a retort and distilled it. In the distillation, the retort cracked and about 1/4 or 1/3 of the liquid ran out. I changed the retort and distilled on. After the sharp, watery liquid original: acute flegm came over, first a liquid appeared which smoked much in the air and absorbed the moisture of the air, and then a salt mixed with this liquid. This salt was as volatile as sal ammoniac original symbol: 🜔 and very easy to melt original: fusible. Most of it stuck in the neck of the retort like butter of antimony antimony trichloride, a thick, oily substance, and this weighed 270 grains. That which came over into the receiver in a great flask was perhaps about 100 grains, besides the liquid mixed with it. After this arose a salt much less volatile and scarcely meltable, which weighed 37 grains. The solid residue original: Caput mortuum weighed 600 grains. I had heated original: urged it with a graduated [heat]...