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

...when put into fire original symbol: Δ. But when taken out, it left a solidified original: coagulated substance which, if not pressed with too much heat, would melt by absorbing moisture from the air original: run per deliquium. If pressed with much heat, it would still leave a good part of it fixed non-volatile; resistant to change by fire. In the distillation of this salt, the liquid which came over last, when it ran upon the liquid which had come over before, reacted with it with a bubbling original: ebullition. Upon this liquid, salt of tartar salt of Tartar potassium carbonate, often used as a reagent being poured caused a bubbling; but perhaps not upon the salt itself, unless so far as this liquid was mixed with it.

I dissolved gold calx Calx of Gold original symbol: ☉; a powder produced by heating gold, often used as a starting point for further experiments (which had been processed once) in 4 parts Aqua Fortis original: A; nitric acid and one part sal ammoniac original symbol: ⚹; ammonium chloride in a gentle heat not much exceeding that of hot blood. After a digestion of 7 or 8 hours in this heat, I added to it 1/6 part of fresh mercury original symbol: ☿. After 4 or 5 hours more, another 1/6 part of fresh mercury precipitated separated into a solid form from the solution much of what was dissolved before.

I put the same mercury (3 parts), sal ammoniac (4 parts), and Aqua Fortis (12 parts) together. Then, I used 3 1/2 parts mercury, 4 parts sal ammoniac, and 16 parts Aqua Fortis to dissolve them, using the heat of boiling water; some of the matter precipitated. From this, I concluded the heat was too great. Into this solution, I put some filings of copper, and it reacted on the filings vehemently and let fall a heavy precipitate which seemed to be double or triple the amount of the salt which remained unprecipitated.