Volatile spirit of sal ammoniac

In 1773 it occurred to Priestley to apply the method he had used to obtain his marine acid air to see whether an alkaline air might be obtained from substances containing volatile alkali. He procured some volatile spirit of sal ammoniac (that is, ammonia water), placed it in a thin phial and heated it with a candle. A great quantity of vapor was discharged, which, collected over mercury, continued in the form of a transparent and permanent air, not at all condensed by cold. Sal volatile (that is, ammonium carbonate) and other salts obtained by the distillation of sal volatile with fixed alkalies, were tried but found to yield much fixed air also, so that he eventually used the mixture then customary for preparing the volatile spirit of sal ammoniac, viz., one part of sal ammoniac with three parts of slaked lime, which furnished him a large and easily controlled supply of pure alkaline air. ... 

Lemery also described the volcanic sal ammoniac found near Vesuvius. When sal ammoniac is heated with lime, volatile spirit of sal ammoniac (ammonia) is formed, since quicklime, which is alkali, destroys the power of the acid of sea salt (sel marine acide) by which the volatile salt is in a manner enchained in the sal ammoniac . Water must be added otherwise the retort would burst, and when pouring out, turn your head to one side to avoid the very subtle vapour.The spirit is also made by distilling sal ammoniac with salt of tartar (potassium carbonate), when sel febrifuge (potassium chloride) is also formed, since this n est autre chose qu un melange de sel de tartre et de la partie fixe et acide du sel armoniac . ... 

I procured some volatile spirit of sal ammoniac, and having put it into a thin phial, and heated it with the flame of a candle, I presently found that a great quantity of vapour was discharged from it and being received in a vessel of quicksilver, standing in a bason of quicksilver, it continued in the form of a transparent and permanent air, not all all condensed by cold. 

It has long been known... as... volatile alkali, hartshorn, spirit of sal ammoniac... at present generally by the name of ammonia. 

So, it is this vitriol which is the basis of the hermetic Work it is the primary material of the Art it is the salt (not Seel) which, through a series of actions, will take the form of Mercury or Secret Fire, and by an intimate union of the Volatile with the Fixed, will give us Sulfur, the Philosophical Lover, attracting the Universal Spirit, the sal ammoniac of Artephius... 

In the noble metals and in many minerals the elements were believed to be so well combined that heat could not separate them. Other minerals, as sulphur, orpiment, asphalt, etc., when heated in the air are partly broken down, the aerial element, not being so firmly united to the earth, being driven off as vapor and mingling with the particles of the atmosphere. This process was interpreted by the Greek alchemists and their Arabian successors as the separation of the spirit from the body, and such substances as were volatilized or burned with formation of gaseous products—as sulphur, arsenic (sulphides), sal ammoniac, quicksilver—were called spirits, while the metals and minerals which, when heated in the air did not volatilize nor disappear in gaseous products, were called bodies (corpora). 

Of particular interest was the concept embodied in the remedy referred to as The Spirit of Human Blood as described by no less an authority than Robert Boyle. It was an uncommon remedy, for blood was not only a commodity that was not freely available, but healthy blood was in especially short supply, being drown from persons that parted with it out of custom or for prevention. To be safe and efficacious, it was essential that the blood was obtained from healthy individuals, since that acquired from persons of dubious health was clearly unlikely to be salubrious. The blood was dried, put in a retort, and heated on a sand bath, and the material distilled in this way was the spirit (spirit in this context was interpreted as the volatile salt of human blood). Boyle regarded it as an alkaline material similar to that obtained by distillation of hartshorn, urine, or sal ammoniac rather a disappointing substance compared to its name. 

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