“ Yet the workmen are sufficiently mischiev'd without them: for, though they be not suddenly suffocated, yet the Mercury getting into their Bodies, they are languishingly destroyed by it. Much less could I hear any news of either noxious or innocent Apparitions, Virunculi &c. such as some write, and many talk of in other Mines.
In a Laboratory, where the Quicksilver is-separated by Fire, I saw an heap of 16000 Retorts of Iron; every one of which costs a Crown at the best hand from the Iron-furnaces in Carinthia, There are 800. ”

“ Wherein consist the Distinctions of those sorts of Salt, which are called Catts of Salt, and Loaves of Salt? An. As White Salt is that, deliver'd in my former discourse and Gray Salt the sweepings of such Salt, as is constantly shed and scatter'd about on the floore without taking much of the Dirt, which occasions its grayness (which sells not at half the rate of the White Salt, and is only bought up by the poorer sort of People, and serves them in salting Bacon, course Cheef, &c.) So Catts of Salt are only made of the worst of Salt, when yet wettish from the Panns ”

“ Ans. Our Springs do not sensibly alter in their decrease or increase in either dry or wet seasons; for, being plentiful Springs, we have alwayes the Pitt full; Only this is observ'd by the Briners, that they make more Salt with the same quantity of Brine in dry, than in wet seasons; and more Salt of the same quantity of Brine at the Full of the Moon, than at any other time.
2. How long before the Spring, or in the Spring, it may be, before the Fountains break our into their fullest source? An. 'Tis not observable at all in our Salt-springs. ”

“ But Loaves of Salt are the finest of all for Trencher-use. No difference in the boyling of these from the common way of the line Salt; but in the making up some care is used: for first they cut their Barrows, they intend or Salt-loaves, with a long slit from top to bottom equally on both sides; then they tye both tides together with cords; then fill this Barrow with Salt boiled as usually, but in the filling are careful to ramm down the Salt with the end of some wooden bar, continuing this, till the Barrow be fill'd to their minds ”

“ This Lake is near two German Miles long, and one broad. On the South-side thereof lyes a great Forrest, wherein are many Deer, and wild Boares, Wolves and Bears. On the North side the Country is flat; but the whole Valley is encompassed with Hills, at some distance from it.
This Lake is well fill'd with Water for the greatest part of the Year ”

“ That also is accounted Virgin-Quicksilver, which, having no need to pass the fire, is separated by water first in a Sive, and afterwards in a long trough, having very small holes at one end. So that there are in a manner two sorts of Virgin-Mercury; the one, running out and discovering itself without labour, the other, requiring some way of Extraction and separation, though not so high an one, as by Fire. ”

“ In which he takes occasion, among many other weighty particulars, to intimate, That it is principally the business of a Mechanician, to excogitate and make practicable such Engins, to be interposed between the Strength and the Weight, as may so moderate the Celerity of Motion, as to compensate the Greatness of the Weight, by the Slowness of the Motion, or the want of strength, by the length of time. ”

“ To confute the opinion of those (and by name of the famous Italian Philosopher Redi, who, a few years since, publisht also a Book of Vipers) that assert, that the Venom of these Animals resides in the Jellow liquor contained in the Bagg about the Vipers teeth; whereas this Author will have it to be in their vexed and enraged spirits: which he thinks, he hath sufficiently proved by wounding several Animals with some of the biggest teeth of Vipers, pulled out, and letting into wounds thus made, and rubbing with that reputed poisonous liquor of the bag ”

“ But beside these holes at the bottom of the Lake (of which there are many) there are also divers Caverns and deep places in the Country of Carniola, even where there is no water; after the like manner as we have in the Peack-country, and at Elden-hole in England.
Halfe an English mile nearer the Lake than the town of Zirchnitz, stands a village named Seadorf, and neigher to the Lake than this, another village called Niderdorf: between these two there are Corn-fields; yet sometimes these lands are also drown'd ”

“ In the Castle I saw 3000 Saumes of Quicksilver together, in barrels; the Quicksilver being first made up in double leather: And in another house as much rich Ore, as can be distill'd in 2. years, except they have great plenty of rain to bring down the wood; but, the Hills being high about them, it snows at the tops of them oftner than it rains. ”

“ E. G. A Dutch Stuyver swallowed down, and by closing the Pylorus of the Stomach, killing the Patient in ten days; on the contrary, a small Brass-coyn being-swallowed, was after a Moneths time voided by Purges, and the Patient saved, the Coyn being so worn in the Stomach, that the same hardly appeared: Item, Of a Tumor on the Back, resembling a Sack filled with Corn, formed there by the force of Imagination: Examples of Superfœtation, and Ambiguous Births; of Animals bred the Ear, and Worms come out of the Nose; of two Niples in one Brest; of divers very odd Monsters; of Infants born with Teeth ”

“ But the best is an hard Gone; which they commit not presently to the operation of the Fire, but powder it grossly, and work it by the Sive; that so, if any Virgin-quicksilver be found in it, it may be separated in this manner, and what doth not pass the Sive, may be separated by Fire in Iron-furnaces; Fifty of them in a Fire. ”

“ Which (Center of Gravity) he does not onely demonstrate to be (which others have hitherto Postulated, but not any, that I know of, demonstrated;) but doth from General Principles shew, How by Calculation to assign the same in infinite sorts of Lines, Surfaces, Solids, as well such as are bounded, or take their rise from Crooked Lines, as those that are bounded onely with Streight Lines and Plains. ”

“ How much Water the Spring yields daily, or in an hour, ordinarilv, or in great Droughts? An. Our Pitt is about 5 yards square or better and of so plentiful a source, that I believe, it cannot be guessed; and the rather, because it seems not to run much, when 'tis permitted to come at its lull guage, where a vent through the bank into the River is ”

“ Which he confirms by another tryal, wherein, holding- the Jaws of a Viper, and then thrusting its teeth into the flesh of a living Animal, and letting the Juyce of the bag into the wound, no ill consequence appeared, considering that the angrcd Spirits of the Viper, in that forced and refrained posture, were kept from passing abroad; for the emission of which he supposeth the freedom of the Animal is required.
3. To recommend, among divers other Antidotes for the bitings of Vipers, the Volatile Salt made of them ”