and the lower part, that was sheltred from the Air
by the Wall, of another Colour: And the third
Argument may be fetch’d from divers Observations,
both of others, and our own; For of that Pigment so
well known in Painters Shops, by the name of Turnsol,
our Industrious Parkinson, in the particular
account he gives of the Plant that bears it, tells
us also, That the Berries when they are at their
full Maturity, have within them between the outer Skin
and the inward Kirnel or Seed, a certain Juice or Moisture,
which being rubb’d upon Paper or Cloath, at
the first appears of a fresh and lovely Green Colour,
but presently changeth into a kind of Blewish Purple,
upon the Cloath or Paper, and the same Cloath afterwards
wet in Water, and wrung forth, will Colour the Water
into a Claret Wine Colour, and these (concludes
he) are those Raggs of Cloath, which are usually
call’d Turnsol in the Druggists or Grocers
Shops[21]. And to this Observation of our
Botanist we will add an Experiment of our own,
(made before we met with That) which, though in many
Circumstances, very differing, serves to prove the
same thing; for having taken of the deeply Red Juice
of Buckthorn Berries, which I bought of the
Man that uses to sell it to the Apothecaries, to make
their Syrrup de Spina Cervina, I let some of
it drop upon a piece of White Paper, and having left
it there for many hours, till the Paper was grown
dry again, I found what I was inclin’d to suspect,
namely, That this Juice was degenerated from a deep
Red to a dirty kind of Greyish Colour, which, in a
great part of the stain’d Paper seem’d
not to have so much as an Eye of Red: Though
a little Spirit of Salt or dissolv’d Alcaly
would turn this unpleasant Colour (as formerly I told
you it would change the not yet alter’d Juice)
into a Red or Green. And to satisfie my self,
that this Degeneration of Colour did not proceed from
the Paper, I drop’d some of the deep Red or
Crimson Juice upon a White glaz’d Tile, and
suffering it to dry on there, I found that ev’n
in that Body, on which it could not Soak, and by which
it could not be Wrought, it nevertheless lost its
Colour. And these Instances (Pyrophilus)
I am the more carefull to mention to you, that you
may not be much Surpris’d or Discourag’d,
if you should sometimes miss of performing punctually
what I affirm my self to have done in point of changing
Colours; since in these Experiments the over-sight
or neglect of such little Circumstances, as in many
others would not be perhaps considerable, may occasion
the mis-carrying of a Trial. And I was willing
also to take this occasion of Advertising you in the
repeating of the Experiments mention’d in this
Treatise, to make use of the Juices of Vegetables,
and other things prepar’d for your Trials, as
soon as ever they are ready, lest one or other of
them grow less fit, if not quite unfit by delay; and
to estimate the Event of the Trials by the Change,


