for several Years, has at length determin'd to endeavour to extend
it's Utility, by thus making it public; as he knows of no one who
has ever published it's _medicinal virtues_; or offered it to Sale
in it's _Perfection_; or given the Criteria by which they who are
unacquainted with it might distinguish the _Genuine_ from the
_Spurious_: And he doubts not but every candid Person who examines
it, will agree with him, That it carries with it the strongest
Marks of a valuable Addition to the _Materia Medica_, and
therefore ought to lie no longer in Obscurity.





AN ACCOUNT OF THE AETHER, _&c._


This truly extraordinary Chemical Preparation is not a new
Discovery, having been known and esteemed, as a valuable
Curiosity, by many of the greatest Chemists and Philosophers, both
Ancient and Modern; particularly by Sir _Isaac Newton_ [Footnote:
Quere 31st, at the End of his Optics.], and the Honourable
Mr. _Boyle_ [Footnote: Treatise on the Producibleness of Chemical
Principles.], who both mention it in their Works, tho' not by this
Name: And therefore before any Thing is said of it's Virtues as a
Medicine, it may not be improper to explain the Nature of it, and
enumerate a few of it's remarkable Properties, considered as a
Curiosity in Chemistry, in which Light chiefly it has hitherto
been view'd by those who have been acquainted with it.