CHAPTER V.

_Of distilled Waters._


HITHERTO we have spoken of medicines which consist in their own nature,
which authors vulgarly call Simples, though sometimes improperly; for
in truth, nothing is simple but pure elements; all things else are
compounded of them. We come now to treat of the artificial medicines,
in the form of which (because we must begin somewhere) we shall place
distilled waters in which consider,

1. Waters are distilled of herbs, flowers, fruits, and roots.

2. We treat not of strong waters, but of cold, as being to act Galen’s
part, and not Paracelsus’s.

3. The herbs ought to be distilled when they are in the greatest
vigour, and so ought the flowers also.

4. The vulgar way of distillations which people use, because they know
no better, is in a pewter still; and although distilled waters are the
weakest of artificial medicines, and good for little but mixtures of
other medicines, yet they are weaker by many degrees, than they would
be were they distilled in sand. If I thought it not impossible, to
teach you the way of distilling in sand, I would attempt it.

5. When you have distilled your water, put it into a glass, covered
over with a paper pricked full of holes, so that the excrementitious
and fiery vapours may exhale, which cause that settling in distilled
waters called the Mother, which corrupt them, then cover it close, and
keep it for your use.

6. Stopping distilled waters with a cork, makes them musty, and so
does paper, if it but touch the water: it is best to stop them with a
bladder, being first put in water, and bound over the top of the glass.

Such cold waters as are distilled in a pewter still (if well kept) will
endure a year; such as are distilled in sand, as they are twice as
strong, so they endure twice as long.