frequently cat Sand or pieces of Bricks whereby to restrain the super-abounding Acidity the said Acid would slide down from the Stomach and trouble the other Digestions whence they would fall into an Atrophy and never grow fat or else it is coagulated by the Juices of Vegetables as of Lemmons Oranges Barberies Vinegar and what ever else tastes Acid and Sharp Milk also sowres of its own accord as do other Juices as well of Vegetables as Animals when they incline to putrefaction yea nothing can putrify or be generated anew Acid and Alcaly in Milk unless this Acidity do proceed and then it is also coagulated and the Whey separated which carries off with it the occult Volatile Alcaly by means of which it doth refrigerate as shall be shewed in its place Both these faculties are latent in good and sound Milk and therefore they cause an occult Saltness therein which is the reason that Salt of what kind soever either Natural or Artificial never hurts Milk yea sublimate Mercury it self being a compound of the above-named Acid Minerals i e. Vitriol Nitre and Salt whose Acidity being suckt up by the Quicksilver Salt things do not curdle Milk as by Alcaly is changed into a very excellent Salt doth Milk no hurt at all Hence it appears that Salt things do indeed dissolve mucilaginous compounds but destroy not harder and more compact Bodies as will be more plainly manifested in the Sequel CHAP. XIV The Precedent 〈◊〉 Illustrated by the Resolution and Composition of the Stone I said in the foregoing Chapter that the perceptable or manifest Acidity The Analysis of the Stone out of the Stomach was the cause of Diseases which assertion the Composition of the Stone doth confirm which for greater Illustration I will now Mechanically resolve and again compound Take a Stone cut out from the Bladder or coming voluntarily from the Reins a drachme or two is sufficient put it into a Glass Retort new and clean let not the Stone be beat to Powder but of that bigness that it may not stick to the Neck of the Retort put the Retort into Sand set too a new and clean Receiver urge it with a moderate Fire First of all an Alcaly like Urine yet of no smell will drop into the Receiver and a little after you shall see the more fixed part of the same Alcaly to be sublimated in the Neck of tho Retort mix both those Spirits the Liquid and the Solid and keep them diligently in a Glass Vessel stopped with Wax For if it be open they vanish to Air of which Hippocrates taken part it is not sufficient either for it self L. i. de Diat or any other In the Retort when it is cooled you shall find the pieces of Stone in the same form as they were put in yet so light and friable that if you touch them but lightly with your finger they fall to powder as dead carkasses in Roma Subterraneâ upon which entire pieces if you again pour the Alcaly reserved from the stone or else other Alcaly of Urine presently it hardens as it was before which is a signe that the Alcaly in the aforesaid cadaver finds an occult Acid which may absorbe it for unless it finds the Acid it abides not alone in the open Aire but according to its nature would vanish away Because being severed they are sufficient neither for themselves nor any other as Hippocrates teacheth Hence we learn That the Stone for Example is not congealed neither in the Bladder nor in the Reins unless by the Alcaly of Urine or the Alcaly of the place and the Acid unduly unproperly and by mistake falling down from the Stomach and there being degenerated the Acid and the Alcaly being joyned there must needs concrete into a Masse as I shall every where plainly shew and they lay hold also on that which is not much different from their Nature which together with these two undergo coagulation as I have said in Calx or Lime and daily experience also witnesseth I know it says the Author of the Rosary because of necessity the work mast come to such a Nature Hence Red Stones are congealed by a little Blood which falls down in the same place from the Acid out of the eroded vein wherefore they are more friable and brittle but the other Stones having mucilage joyned to them are whiter and thporefore harder This is that which my Hippocrates most skilful in Chymistry doth proclaim These things are thus brought to pass by Divine necessity yet they know not what they do but every thing fulfils his destined fate which is as if he had said both these Spirits or Faculties being joyned together in whatsoever place L. 1. de Diat must of necessity concrete and congeale but being severed they effect nothing in Nature neither can they subsist being neither sufficient for themselves or other things as my Doctor says So that manifest Acidity without the Stomach in whatsoever place it be is Morbous and Inimicous to Nature This Doctrine of the Old man is most true for it is daily observed in practice that Stones do concrete all vacuities of the body wheresoever the Acid being out of its place by mistake meets with the Alcaly as in the Lungs the Liver the Vena porta the Ureters the Intestinum Colon and the Bladder of the Gaul which is against the most Aoute Galen L. 1â— de â—â— affect who teaches That the Stone is generated in the Bladder and Reins only by heat wherefore the Stone of all Animals of which we now speak hath nothing in its Composition but Acid and Alcaly both Volatile as also Blood or Mucilage but when it is coagulated in the Bladder of the Gaul then it lays hold of that bitterness which it meets there â—â—pp L. 1. de Diaet some going hither some thither and being throughly mixed amongst themselves c. Hence we may learn of what Vertue in dangerous Diseases the Water tempered with or poured upon the Stone which is found in the Gaul of an Hedghog may be which yet some ignorant Practicioners do mightily extol 't is a wonder they are not afraid of this Stone as of an igneous or fiery nature since it is better from the Gaul which hitherto they have not observed If the ablution of this Stone were good for any thing furely one drop of the Gaul of the meanest Fish were much better then twenty Ablutions thereof Wherefore from the coagulation of the Stone it now appears how far Lithon-Tribon Cantharides the Blood of an Hare of a Fex and the like have hitherto profited in the Stone so that Paracelsus rightly judges that the Stone and the Knotty Gout are coagulated like Tartar by two Faculties according to the Doctrine of Hippocrates i. e. the Acid and the Alcaly it also coagulates with it some foeces which by chance it finds there and Galen witnesses against himself and his followers Lib. 7 de Meth. The cause
Flux or loosness of the Intestines from too much Salt Sapor which Sapor doth at least dissolve those things which are but lightly and gently concreted yet it is never pernicious but is overcome by Milk alone because Milk is easily mixed and washed off with Salt things But if the Acid and Alcaly are proportioned with a due heat in every Ventricle like adhearing to like without any strife or variance This is called Sanâ—ty Hipp 1. dâ— Diaet and so Smegma Sope is perfected and coagulated which also it self if it be disproportioned becomes Morbous and must be dissolved by its like and again by its contrary as I have shewed above it must be reduced and recocted for Sanity and be coagulated into Salt 'T is enough to have hinted at these things belonging to this matter concerning the rise and generation of Volatil Salts in the Animal Family unless any man shall object that Volatile Salts are therefore made because we eat Salt things which I have shewed before to be impossible by reason of the fixedness of Salt yea Salt is found in Urine as it was eaten being unchanged in its Form and Nature and without the least Alteration as may be easily experimented i. e. viz. by the inspissation of Urine and afterwards by its Calcination Solution and Coagulation where Salt is found granulated as also Men live on the Alps of simple Milk alone whose Urine notwithstanding is not destitute of Acid and Alcaly which though concreted in the sorm of Salt yet it is not granulated as Sea-salt but of a Cubical form nor doth it endure constant in the Fire but the Alcaly with a gentle heat forsakes the Acid as Experience doth declare CHAP. XVI A return from the former Digression to the Mechanical Demonstration of Alcalyes I have shewed the way of Extracting Alcaly out of Sweat so also out of Urine out of Blood out of the flesh of all Animals I have also declared that Alcaly with the Acid is changed into Salt not only in the Stomach but in all the Ventricles of which * L. de Aâ—te Hippocrates reckons an infinite number and when that Salt hath done its work then together with its dissident or contrary i. e. with the unctuous excrements L. 1. de Diaet it transpires and is carried off into Elements as it happens in all sublunary things and I have shewed in Fixed Salt of Tartar and Oil and shall afterwards do it more plainly and also in Artificial Sope which after it is made and hath served for use will return into Water and Earth which transpiration and reduction to Earth ad orcum will more manifestly appear by Examples Let any one drink Vitriol seperates Alcaly from Acid. or but lightly taste a little Vitriol of Mars and presently his Tongue waxeth Black seeming to swell as if it were furred with Velvet whose Pores are always turged with the Exhalations Occultly Salt which either are mingled with Spittle or vanish into Air so that as soon as ever the Acidity of the Vitriol of Mars perceives the hidden Alcaly in the Spittle in a trice it separates the Colcothar which sticks to the Tongue and makes it Black But least you should think I speak of incredible things behold an Ocular Demonstration Dissolve Vitriolum Martis in fair Water into the clear Solution instill by drops the fixed Alcaly of Tartar i. e. the Liquor of Tartar then theâ— olcothar falls obscurely greenish Alcaly Celâ—ndine Lavender Wormwood Rosemary Volatile urine Sweat Blood Vipers Praecipitates dissolved Vitriolum Martis of a Yellow Green Orange moredarkthen Salt of Tartar Darkly green Brighter Obscurer Colour Salt of Bean-stalks troubles it into a Yellowness and after an hoâ—rs rest elevates Oâ—re from the bottom Common Salt as being the perfectest of all Salts is mixed with Vitriol So also Mercury sublimate being an artificial Salt and also all Acid things do not precipitate Vitriol Wherefore only Alcalyes do precipitate Vitriol enclining to black at bottom but they are not found fixed in a living Animal but are only Volatile and being perpetually compact with the Acid after they have served for use do exhale from us and transpire with the Acid under an Occult-Salt-Sapor which will more clearly appear The whole body of Man as long as he lives is Expirable and Conspirable as Hippocrates first observed and whatsoever expires is occultly Salt but this Salt evaporates not only to the External Surface of the body but the greatest part of it falls down to the intestines which is thus proved Drink Vitriol of Mars dissolved in water and you shall see the excrements of the Belly tinged either black or green after the same manner being precipitated by the inward Alcaly as I have already declared by experiment but in the External habit of the body dissolved Vitriol is not precipitated by the Effluviums of Salt therefore it passes in greater quantity to the Intestines So neither is the Urine tinged black for the Colcothar is precipitated before the liquor is hurried to the Mesaraicks so that of necessity it must remain in the Bowels If therefore the greatest part of the Excrements pass to the Bowels being designed by Nature for Expulsion It is sometimes by mistake detained in undue places by the Bonds of Coagulation or to speak according to Fernelius Language in the First Region of the Body and then of necessity it must be furthered in order to Expulsion by some Loosning Medicament So that it seems not to me Pargatives alone are not sufficient to recover health as Hippocrates teaches that all Loosning Medicaments are to be disallowed in Diseases as some think neither are they alone sufficient to procure health and recovery as the greatest part of Physicians do believe and practice against the Tenent of Hippocrates But it may be demanded why Acid Fountains carrying Iron make not the Tongue Black as well as the Excrements of the Belly That happeneth because the Natural Acid Spirit corroding the Vein of Immature Iron being mixed with Water is not saturated but prevailes in the Compositum and the Fountain being drunk off in the very Act of Corrosion there is not then time given for Praecipitation in the Tongue but as soon as the grateful Acidity is carried to the Stomach then the Colcotar falls or is praecipitated from the Alcaly which flowes to the dissolved Iron for defect of one faculty and excess of another and whatsoever of Mucilage they catch in that Coagulation they constrain into their own Nature as I have above-shewed in the Concretion of the Stone by the Authority of Hippocrates and in a rude Example in slacked and dissolved Lime This Coagulum is called by Physicians Obstruction Obstruction what The Acid or the Alcaly may now and then exceed in it so the Stomach repugne not which is the president of all Actions as * Lib. de Humor Hippocratcs teaches or if the Acid Waters touch the place which pass not beyond the Diaphragma a thing
Otto Tachenius his Hippocrates Chymicus Discovering The Ancient foundation of the late Viperine Salt with his Clavis thereunto annexed Translated by J.J.V. London Printed are to be sold by W Marshall at the Bible in Newgate street 1690 TRANSLATOR TO THE READER THe Author of these Ensuing Discourfes who is as 't is hoped yet Living at Venice hath his Name in an high degree of Merit amongst the Prime Physicians and Chymists of this Age His knowledge in the Spagyrical Art in the judgement of those Emunct and Sagacious persons who have Studied the Controversie betwixt Them far exceeding That of Zwelfer his Antagonist who during this whole Treatife goes under the name of the Reformer for the reason mentioned p. 2. The Translation it Self was not performed without Labour and Sweat partly because the Editions which were made use of one from Brunswick the other from Leyden were very unperfect and incorrect partly also because The Author being more intent on Matter than Words on Things than Expressions 't is his own Apology p. 4. doth sometimes leave his Sense to be picked out by the Analogy of his Doctrine If morose and supercilious Censurers shall object Impoliteness Solaecisme Inept Cadencys and Cohaesions of Words and Sentences Obscurities length of Parentheses's and other flawes usually incident or at least imputed to Translations In bar to such Hypercriticks I offer the particulars following viz. That every Language hath its Idiom which is not properly transferrable to another That a Translator is no Paraphrast but being limited to the Sense and in great part confined to the Words of his Author hath no allowable Liberty to make Excursions or to add any explanatory Embellishments to another Man's Work It is his Province to write by the Copy before him i. e. to Vestigate and Overtake the Author's Sense and faithfully to render it which I hope is here not unhappily performed As for the Obscurity objected The Doctrine it self must bear part of the Guilt if any he For That being Novel or at least retrived from Antiquity may not perhaps be so clearly and Apodictically explained in a Compendium which the Author intimates more than once as to stop the Mouths of all Gain-sayers though plainly enough especially with the addition of the Clavis to satisfie the Reasons and convince the Judgements of Candid and Ingenious Readers Lastly Since 't is an easie thing to be Witty in another Man's Labour I shall conclude with the Poet Carpere vel noli nostra velede Tua J. W. PUBLISHER TO THE READER THis Book as to the Translation of it hath been sufficiently perused justified and approved by some of the most learned and experienced Chymists in and about this City As to the Matter of it it needs no other Commendation than the long since allowed and printed Observation and Approbation of the Royal Society of England in these words Philosophical Transactions Aug. 16. 1669. Num. 50. page 1019. OTTO NISTACHENII Hippocrates Chymicus Venetiis in 12o. THis Author though Printed two or three years ago came not to our Knowledge till now He in his Tract endeavours to justifie the Ancients blamed by Zwelfer in his Pharmacopaea Augustana for having committed several Faults in the preparation of a certain Salt call'd Theriacal because extracted out of Vipers and diverse other Ingredients composing Theriack and having done this he thence takes occasion to Treat of the Nature of Salts especially of Alcalyes and Acids which he with some other Chymists hold to be the first Principles of all mixt Bodies And being perswaded that Hippocrates was also of this opinion and a great Chymist too he Entitles His Book Hippocrates Chymicus Though the Salt Alcaly properly signifieth that Salt which is drawn out of the Ashes of an Egyptian Herb named Kaly yet Chymists take it in a larger Sense and understand by that Word all the Salts which like that of the said Herb draw and impregnate themselves with Acid ones To this Salt our Author refers almost all the Operations of Nature and having examined its properties relates divers not Uncurious Observations concerning it For Example That nothing pierceth so much as Alcalyes and that therefore Nature hath stored the Sweat of Animals so plentifully with it for that the Ordure which continually gathers on the Skin would soon stop the pores of it if the Sweat were not furnisht with some efficatious Dissolvent to open and pierce Them Whence he observes that the best liquored Boots and such as are Water-proof will be quickly pierced by the sweat of Horses adding that though Riding-post he had to avoid that inconvenience rubhed his Boots with a Vernice which resisted even to Aqua Fortis yet the Sweat of the Horses he rode on dissolved that fence after the second day of his Voyage Next He holds it to be an error to use Spirit of Vitriol for whitening the Teeth Experience shewing that from the mixture of an Alcaly and the Spirit of Vitriol there results a yellow and that there is an Alcaly continually transpiring out of the Gums as out of all the other parts of the Body whence it must follow that the Spirit of Vitriol employed to rub the Teeth when mixt with that Salt must tinge them of the same colour Then he affirms that Wood rotten hath no Alcaly in it and that it rots not but upon the account of the exhaling of that Salt Whence 't is saith he That the Venetians to harden the Timber designed for building of Ships sink it green in Water and there leave it many years which is the cause That the Alcaly having been hindred from exhaling the Timber rots not but becomes as hard in a manner as Stone We cannot pretermit taking notice That this Author finds occasion in this Book to explain the way by which the Famous Turnheiser a Germane Chymist made that celebrated Nail half Gold and half Iron which is shewed at Florence in the Repository of the Great Duke of Tuscany 'T is said that That Chymist having in the presence of that Prince immersed in a certain Oyl the one half of a Nail which appeared to be all Iron that part which touched the Oyl was instantly found to be good Gold Several persons having examined this Nail and seeing the Gold and Iron exceeding well conjoyned were perswaded that it could not well be effected but by a true change of one of those two Metals into the other believing it impossible they could be Sodered together But the Author of this Book maketh that a very easie thing if the Iron be before prepared after a certain manner which He teacheth and He pretends That That was the whole Secret of Turnheiser the rest being nothing but Illusion for after he had by that means Sodered together a piece of Gold with half a Nail He knew so well to give the colour of Iron to Gold that Men believed that the whole Nail was of Iron and having afterwards put this Nail into the Fire and held it
flame and is a Remedy for the Quinzey which otherwise being separated are Caustick Regeneration of common Salt Of Acid Spirits only Spirit of Salt dissolves Gold and why as I have shewed in Aurum Fulminans If you add Spirit of Salt to the same Salt of Tartar then after Coagulation it becomes common Salt as it was before it was turned by a strong fire into Spirit and therefore since the Acid Spirit of Salt by solution returns to Salt we may cease our wonderment why amongst all Acid Spirits no other dissolves Gold but that of Salt because that by Corrosion it reassumes the Nature of Salt even as the water commonly called Aqua Regia which without Salt touches not the Gold at all Tartarus Regeneratus by some improperly called Tina folia a Phylosophâ—n un Distilled Vinegar becomes fat Oyl concerning flame The same Salt of Tartar if it hath imbibed Vinegar distilled from Wine is made common Tartar of Wine having all the properties thereof excepting only that in humjdo it doth more easily melt Cleanse this Regenerated Tartar by solution from all its impurity and afterwards distil it with a strong fire through a Glass retort placed in Sand and you shall obtain an Oyl and bitter Liquor as that which is elicited from crude Tartar yet the Oyl somewhat resembles the goodness of the Wine of which the Vinegar was made 'T is almost incredible to be spoken What more pleasant than to know those things and to see them with our eyes and handle them with our hands under a grateful silence which common sense doth not apprehend and by nature are put remole from us Oyl made water Oyl made Aqua Ardens Aqus Atdens made Alcaly and Elementary water that distilled Vinegar should contain in it an occult fatness and yet it is very true but Salt of Tartar hath not this piâ—â—guedo for it is fixed and tryed in the fire At Rome from one Ounce of this Regenerated Tartar I drew forth six Drachmes of Oyl of an Orange colour and grateful smell but at Venice a pound scarce afforded me one Drachme and that black coloured and stinking I say it is even incredible that in Vinegar not only the qualities of the Wine but of the Country where it grows should manifest themselves From what hath been said it appears that Acids do attract Alcalyes at their pleasure and rule over them as they lift In like manner it reduces Oyls either distilled or expressed into their first Elements for they being mixed in a just proportion i.e. to satiety with Salt of Tartar and digested afterwards out of a Glass retort placed in Sand one Moity returns Oyl the other Moity is water Again mix this Oyl with new Salt of Tartar as above repeat the distillation and you will see all the Oyl converted into water a little Earth being left with the Tartar which you shall know increased in weight so that Oyl which otherwise is wholly inflamable here you may find turned into odoriferous water and again distilling this water out of a Glass you will extract Aqua Ardens which again with Salt of Tartar returns to Alcaly and afterwards into Elementary water like that which remained in the Glass There were two pound of the remaining Salt of Tartar in the Retort which I laid upon an Iron Board or Slate that it might run into a pellucid Liquor I distilled all the Humidity out of the Retort placed in Sand and breaking the Vessel Salt of Taâ—tar turne I into simple Elements I again dissolved in the Air the Salt which was in the bottom upon the Iron Slate which is not prejudiced at all which is done in about forty hours space and there remained nothing on the Slate besides a little slimy Faex I again distilled the Liquor encreasing the fire as before till nothing came forth either dropping or smoaking and I again dissolved the same Salt having broken the Retort on the Iron Slate I renewed these Operations twelve times and all the Salt of Tartar was turned into the Element of water I gathered up the Faeces which were left each time on the Slate and I extracted all the saltness from the distilled water with which I made the same Process as before so that all the Salt of Tartar as the Vinegar Oyl and Aqua Ardens were turned into insipid water and Terra Mortua of no savour or smell which Earth and Water a little before seemed Caustical 'T is a wonder to consider what becomes of this Fiery Vital power and vertue both of the Oyl Vinegar and Aqua Ardens as also of the Salt of Tartar yet this vertue or form persisted constant in the fire until the reduction into the Elements I now call it the Rector for our clearer understanding of it of which more particularly in its place You may call it as you please either Fire Form Archeus 't is all one to me All are like though they appear unlike as Hippocrates affirms L. 1 de Diaet In Append. ad animad f. 84. If the Reformer had had any knowledge of fixed Alcalyes he had never prescribed to Podagrical persons Oyl of Venice Soap for whatsoever of Oyl distils from Soap is like that from Brick and contains nothing of Alcaly so also they who dissolve the Body of Soap and say that it is good for gouty diseases are in a great mistake the taste may be an Omen of their disappointment which is found manifestly salt for it doth not precipitate Mercury from the above-mentioned solution Wherefore the Alcaly of Tartar seems to bear a representation of the Philosophers Chaos wherein they say their Mercury hath a Resurrection of which Paracelsus The Regeneration L. 1. de natura rerum says he and Renovation of Metals is thus made as man returns to the Earth whence he was first taken and so shall be again Regenerated at the last day So also Metals may again return to Mercury of which they wâ—re first derived and be dissolved with it and râ—-become Mercury and again by fire which also shall judge the World be re-produced and clarified This way as he goes on are stones Regenerated Of which see Roger Bacon Riply Isaac Holland yet read them with caution and also special tinctures of Silver and Gold Thus far Paracelsus In the mean while I would not advise any man to perswade himself that Salt of Tartar after whatsoever manner prepared is the Catholick Chaos of the Philosophers though Metals in it may return-into running Mercury 'T is enough in short to have advertised this But I am enjoyned silence by Harpocrates concerning fixed Salt of Tartar Actaeons example deters me lest I should be injurious to the curious disquisitions of Learned men who have spent much labour and pains to attain the full knowledge thereof it being a Medium giving vivification to many things The Academical Spiâ—i understands not this Mystery Basillus Paracelsus and others have taken great notice of it who
thing L. 1 de Diaet to blame any one of them for not findingâ— all are rather to be commended for seeking and enquiring after These things being praeviously understoods let us now consider What excellence and prerogative the Viporine Sals of this Reformer hath above the Inventions of the Ancients which yet They prepared by an easte Operation but He with great charge labour pompous ostentation and triumph The Alcaly of Vipers under that Title Pharm f. 486. distilled out of a Retort drinks up the Acid Spirit of Common Salt which I have shewed with Alcaly added to be separable without the Art of Distillation The Sal Viptverium of the Reformer sâ— Common Salt from that Conjunction i. e. of the Acid Salt and the Alcaly of Vipers is made Comon Salt If we urge this Common Salt with Fire of Sand it will be elevated into Artificial Sal Armoniack as having all its properties which is proved by this Experiment Mingle the Powder of Salt of Tartar i. e. the Fixed Alcaly of Tartar with an equal part of the Viperine Salt of our Reformer Pure Alcaly of Vipers distil this Mixture in a Retort placed in Sand and you shall presently see the Alcaly of Vipers to ascend by the neck of the Retort because the Fixed Alcaly of Tartar apprehends and catches the Acid Salt then the Alcaly of Vipers willingly leaves her Acid Companion whilest it is forced to fly away by Heat Do the same with Common Sal Armoniack and you shall find no difference and therefore what the Ancients did with the Body of Salt That the Reformer performs with greater labour and cost with the Spirit of Salt and if the Ancients Sal Viperirum be of no use as he says surely His hath the same property But when Pure Alcaly of Urine That Alcaly is expelled with Salt of Tartar from the Common Sal Armoniack then you will have the pure and dry Spirit or Alcaly of Urine which the Reformer most foolishly calls Salt Spirit of Sal Armoniack as he also with the same sottishness calls that Vinegar which he distilled from Meal mixed with Sal Armoniack out of a Retort The Acid Spirit of Sal Armoniack adding withal this gross mistake These two Spirits out of Sal Armoniack Append. ad Amimad f. 73 74. the Acid and the Salt though both of them contain not a drop of Sal Armoniack though produced out of one Subject yet are contrary one to another and being joyned together destroy one another wherefore let the Apothecaries carefully distin uish between the Salts and Acids But the Reformer informs them very grosly concerning Tastes yea he presumes to teach them that which he is ignorant of himself witness amongst many other things * The Water of Mindererus for the Hearing Aqua Mindereri for the Hearing For this Water hath Urine and Vinegar for its Foundation which-mixture the Reformer doth not only disallow as believing without further enquiry That the Salt and Acid are destreyed by one another being ignorant that the destruction of one is the generation of another Thus he huggs his own opinions as the Ape doth her Apelings but also he asperses a worthy Man with reproach and calumnies who hath candidly communicated his experiences for the Publick good notwithstanding which the Reformer after his manner thus scribbles in his Appendix Besides many other Absurdities Ad Aâ—imadver Fol. 336. I see Vinegar and Vrine to be poured on which are plaâ—nly contrary one to another for the Vrine of Animals distilled yields a sharp Saline spirit which is a destroyer of all Acetous spirits Thus he Hitherto I have demonstrated that the Volatile Salt of Urine is by no means Salt but Alcalizate and therefore being mixed with Acid from them both there arises a balt tart Sapor wherefore from the mixture of the Volatile Alcaly of Urine and Distilled Vinegar which two do never concrete there is made a distillable salt and most piercing Liquor I question whether any thing be more subtle in nature of a simple mixture for an old Obstruction For which cause the most Ingenious Mindererus rightly and with good Judgment Without hurt or pain it pervades the Cornea Toniea and dissidves the Whitespots in the Pupel left there by the Small-Pox The ignorant carp at what they do not understand commends and prescribes it for Thickness and Difficulty of Hearing because it is salt as Sweat is as shall be proved and in regard of its Symbolicalness and congenious nature thereunto this Distilled Salt and Volatile Water pervades the membrane of the Tympanum yea it is willingly admitted into it I said this Spirit was Salt which is proved by experience for it doth not precipitate Mercury from the often named Solution as other salt things do not which according to Galen's opinion do cut attenuate and discuss the excrements they dry they support and strengthen Nature and that in a rude lump of Salt why may not then this most subtle Spirit be also Salt Wherefore let the Skilful judg whether the most Learned Mind rerus be not unworthily worthily blamed by Impostors The Reformer understood Hippocrates but ill who says L. 6. Prac. That a Physician using veason for his guide will never enviously calumniate another for thereby he betrays the weakness of his own mind Now let 〈◊〉 consider Salt of Tartar which drinking up the Acid â—ad stparated it from the Alcaly of Vipers and remained in the Retort they call that but improperly Caput mortuum especially that from common Sal Armoniack from whence the Spirit or Urine hath been extracted That Caput Mortuum is a compound of Acid and Alcaly and will be doubtless of a salt relish like the Viperine Salt of this Reformer and common Sal Armoniack as hath been said and shewed and for confirmation thereof I will repeat another Experiment Dissolve the said Caput Mortuum in water cause the foeces to go to the bottom and coagulate the clear liquor with a gentle heat to a Siccity and with Bole Armoniack in a four-fold proportion mix it into a very fine powder urge this with a naked Fire from a Glass Retort luted into a great Receiver and the Acidness of the Salt which found a body in the Alcaly of Tartar by the power and heat of the fire is put to flight but in the greatness of the heat it flies not alone because being absorbed by the fixed Alcaly it carries off with it the fixed Salt of Tartar so that from the Acid and Alcaly being mixed and urged with a violent fire there is extracted a Spirit Semi-Acid-Salt which as it is an artificial product from a various mixture doth not precipitate Mercury from the aforesaid solution yet it is not of it self unfit for Medicine as neither for destroying certain Minerals but one Operation being finished part of the Tartar returns into the element of Water and the Acidity of the Sal Armoniack from the other part of the Tartar cloaths it self
being known 't is easy to find the remedy and therefore whatsoever of the Stones of Crabs of Lapis Judaicus of Flints of the Stones of Carpes of Perches and the like being in Powder or dissolved in Vinegar is taken at the mouth for the Stone it indeed imbibes the Antecedent cause of the Coagulum i. e. the Acid as I have shewed but it doth not abate or diminish the Stone when it is once coagulated So also Salt things by reason of their Acid part do hinder the concreteing of the Stone in as much as they consume and drink up the Alcaly of the Urine so that the Acid roving up and down the Body can find no Alcaly wherewith to associate or be coagulated but Salt things do not dissolve the Stone when it is already concreated But that common Salt doth imbibe and absorbe into it self the Alcaly of Urine and other Alcalyes of Animals as I have shewen above in the preparation of Sal-Armoniack so I will now further demonstrate by another experiment 'T is known That the flesh of whatsoever Animal is preserved by common Salt which in a few days runs down there-from into a Salt Sanguineous Liquor Boil about a pound of this Liquor and scum it and put it into a Glass Retort and with a gentle fire draw forth all the moisture lastly cover the Retort with sand increasing the fire then the Alcaly of the flesh will be elevated into the neck of the Retort like the Alcaly of Urine which the common Salt had absorbed and drawn out from the flesh only by a few days maceration and steeping after the same manner the Salt which we eat must needs consume and drink up the superfluous Alcaly gathered together here and there in the Gavities or Ventricles as Hippocrates says which is unfit for Transpiration reason it self dictates this and experience beareth witness thereto for Alcaly by an easy process is sublimated out of Urine and the Soa-salt remains as it was eaten in the bottom The Dignity of Common Salt the same way as I just now shewed concerning the Salt Liquor of Flesh Hence we may gather That Salt is bestowed on Mortals as a necessary support of Health and Life 'T is plain from our antecedent Discourse The Wise say nothing is more â—â—â—â—ral than a â—â—ing to be dilsolved by that of which it is compounded that by a Mechanical necessity the Stone is not dissolved unless by a middle Sapor between Acid and Alcaly This Sapor is changed into Urine of great Strength and grateful to the intestines as hath been said and it ought to be subtil that it may pass up and down and pervade all freely If you will call this way of dissolving either by its contrary or by its like you do not much mistake for the Alcaly if it dissolves 't is done by its like the Acid if it destroys 't is done by its contrary Who of what Sect soever besides Hippocrates Hiop de loc in Homiae could have unfolded this Riddle to us wherefore Galen commends Him not without Cause as * Ad Glauc our Director in Physick and an excellent Master in the whole course of our Life There is also a Specifick Remedy known to few which in young people fully and perfectly takes away the Stone of the Blader A Remedy for the Stone Asthma Epilepsy without relapse and elder persons may also take it at Mouth without any inconvenience I would willingly communicate it if I were not afraid of Impostors but chance here more prevails then reason The Asthma and Epilepsie are also perfectly cured by the same Remedy CHAP. XV. A Thing unheard of and admirable yet most ancient discoursed of I Have already declared That the Acidity in the Stomach I have also shewed That the Stone Urine Sweat and Blood are Salt I have also shewed how the Salt or Sapor taste is divided with fixed Alcaly that so the Alcaly may be freed from the Acid now it is my part to shew how Urine Sweat and Blood c. do acquire this Salt Taste All Aliments and whatsoever doth nourish have but a little of the Acid and much of Volatile Alcaly as hereafter will be more clearly shewed i. e as much Acid as will bind up and restrain the Alcaly that it vanish not away for alone it is not sufficient for it self as I have formerly noted out of Hippocrates the Acidity of the Stomach acts upon that Alcaly L. 1. de Diat of these two Sapors is made a Salt-Juice which being impressed with that Acid Vital Character is called Chyle This passeth not through the Mesaraicks neither is it admitted thereunto unless it put on after its own manner a Salt Taste i. e. a mature one otherwise it will be ungrateful and troublesome to the inward parts and so the Acidity of the stomach vivifies the Chyle that it may be made fit for nourishment Hence it is that my * De buâ—â—â—â—ibus Hippocrates saith As the Stomach nourisheth heateth and cooleth in Animals so doth the Earth in Vegetables which sounds thus That the Stomach is the President of all Actions which hap pen in the Body for the sake or by means of Vital Acid alone lurking there I think there is no need Urine of sound men Salt that the Urine of great Drinkers and Toss-pots who by reason of the quantity they swallow do piss every hour especially if it be Watery Rhenish Wine which they drunk should pass through all the Channels and Ducts of the Veins for then it would come forth tinged but their Urine though like in colour to simple Water is notwithstanding Salt like That which is produced from moderate drinking which the Alcalizate Lye proveth as I have shewed concerning Sweat On the other side the Urine of dying men though they make it in a little quantity and tinged to yet it altogether wants Saltness and also Alcaly Urine of dying men Saltless besides the common if they take any in their Meat wherefore of necessity that Saltness must be generated from the Impression of the Vital Acidity having it's place in the Stomach which forsakes dying men by degrees By this observation 't is as clear as noon-day that the Vital Instrument in sound animals wherewith the Aliment is impressed before it glides from the Pylorus lest it should putrify The Proto-Chymickdweils in the Stomach as I have said out of Hippocrates is Acid wherewith the Chyle in the very Stomach representing an Egg or grain of Seed must be made Salt In one word Chyle is made Salt by and with the Acidity of the Stomach and the Alcalizated Aliment So is also the Urine Salt for the same Cause even of those who never tasted any Salt their flesh and bones This Experiment shews whither a Glister can nourish yea the very excrements of the Belly are Salt yet the Alcalye hereof though it be an hundred times Rectâ—â—ed in a few hours is again changed into
he be Occult yet by Mechanical necessity he must needs be Acid as I have evidenced in Oyl Suet Milk c. otherwise nothing at all in the Universe would be Coagulated For the things which have been spoken says my Doctor none of them can be seen with the Eye i. e. none can understand my Writings De Arte. unless he be versed in this Chymical and Salt-fusory Art Wherefore Hippocrates found out those things which by a grateful consent The book of Nature is to be read but Paper ones are not to be rejected are subject to the Empire of Art and Nature On this Foot he places the unmovable Foundations of Learning and from these he hath deduced all Mechanical Progresses and Explications of Causes so firmly that if all Paper Books with their Authors were lost yet by this Method out of the Great Book of Nature they may be all again retrieved Hence it appears how many Fables have been ascribed to this worthy Man which he never so much as dream'd of yea many things published under his name suit not with his Profound Wisdom so that if he were alive again he would be ashamed to own them The permixture and alteration which I have demonstrated in fixed Alcalyes with Acids the same also * L. 1. of Diet. my Hippocrates would have to be understood of the Volatile Alcalyes of Animals for the Volatile Alcaly of any Animal whatsoever being saturated with the Acid Spirit of Variol assumes the nature of Vitriol but not having the Colcothar of Iron it is precipitated by juice of Galls into a bottom of a Purple Colour like to White Vitriol of which above Out of what hath been spoken 't is as clear as Noon-day that the Spirit is the Vehicle and lodging place of the Soul and the Bond joyning Soul and Body which I shall also shew by the following Experiments For the same Volatile Alcaly of what Animal soever with Spirit of Nitre is made natural Nitre conceiving Flame and is melted in the fire like ordinary Nitre The same Alcaly I say with Vinegar is made Tartar which is wholly Distilled into a Salt liquor as I have shewed in Mindererus his Water the same may be said of other Acid Juices for as fixed Alcalyes are vacuous and empty bodies so are also the Volatile ones of all Animals whose preparations the Reformer indeed teaches which yet is very inane and empty as all Alcalyes are Hence my Hippocrates moved to a smiling laughter pleasantly says L. 1. of Diet. They know not what they do but they obey their destined fate Wherefore the Alcaly of Vipers being a vacuous and empty body is saturated by the Reformer as empty with great labour and cost with the Acid Spirit of Salt Pharm f. 486. and what else I pray but Common Salt can issue from it Behold the Cheat and Imposture which the Reformer hath at last found out with so much labour of which triumphing before the victory he thus scribbles Whosoever thou art never think there is any other way of Fixing having spoken this by and by heâ—recants Pharm f. 486. saying with a low voice If yet there be any Man who hath greater Experience in these Operations I give him occasion for the Publick good that what he hath Experimented herein he would not suffer to die with him Alas poor Man why not but go too Let us comply with his desires he hath made a fair Oration and no doubt deserves a Statue from the Common-Wealth of Physick Append. in Animadu fol. 75. for having so politely distinguished the Acid from the Salt for the benefit of Apothecaries CHAP. XXII A Childish Opinion Discovered I Will briefly now run over the Acids In Append. f. 52. which the Reformer teaches as contrary to Salts which Doctrine yet with many others I find to be false and full of Ignorance Fire both Internal and External Explains the Book of Nature as the ordinary professor of the Creator as shall be demonstrated by Fire keeping to the Terms usually received for Fire is here the publick Professor and just Judge Logick hath no such way of distinguishing for That only handles true Sciences already found out and propounds Methodically and clearly and profitably to treat of what is to be known in every knowable thing But I have before distinguished the Tastes or Sapors of Salts as much as was necessary for the understanding of this present Compendium Let there be made a Powder of Nitre The Calcining of Gold the day way and Common Salt Ana four Ounces and two Ounces of Allum to which add Simple Water as much as is sufficient for the solution of the Salts which act not undissolved and you will obtain a Salt Liquor to which add two Drachms at least of Leaf-Gold mingle the Gold with the Salts and boil them in a glazen pot to Siccity towards the end encrease the fire till it affords a smell like That of Aqua Fortis so the saltness of the mixture erodes the Gold Dissolve the white Mass in a pot with Common Water let the Solution rest in the Glass Vessel till the Faeces of the Salt do subside when it is clear pour it out by inclination to this clear solution instil by drops some fixed resolved Alcaly Ex. Gra. Liquor of Tartar which presently absorbs the more subtil Acid Spirits and the Gold presently falls of a Purple colour In this Operation the Salt hinders not the Acid Spirits as the Reformer teaches but the Alcaly of Tartar consuming the Acids destroys the Compositum The same way but with great force distilled water of Nitre and Allum in which Common Salt hath been dissolved Galcining of Gold the morst way dissolves Gold for if the Salt were not dissolved in water it would not corrode the Gold Wherefore Salt doth not destroy the Acid Aqua Fortis neither in the dry nor moist way but adds Vigor to it like to Sal Armoniack Hence Basilius What is found in the Eagle is also to be met with in me Hence it appears that Gold is not dissolved but by Salts but why the Acid Spirit of Salt doth dissolve It I have elsewhere shewed viz. by corroding the Spirits it returns to That which it natively and originally was viz. into Salt CHAP. XXIII Obscure things made manifest I Will shew another Experiment very pleasing to the Eye manifesting that Salts are not contrary to Acids Take three pound of dryed Vitriol Tincture of Gold two pound of Nitre fix ounces of the Flowers of Common Sulphur and five pound and a half of Common Salt and Powder of Bricks as much as is sufficient least the Salts should be melted with the Sulphur Let there be six pound of this last powder mingle the small powders exactly and distil the water at least out of Sand put Gold Money into this water without rectification premised and in a few hours hours in a warm place you will see the water
which in healthy Men are turgid and full of Spirit for so they are called by Hippocrates L. de Arte. Then the second or at least the third day Those who are anointed either whole or sick for now t is all one to the Mercury begin to languish the Tortor abides in the Anointing until at length The Catholick Hippocratical Doctrine is every where alike in all the Ventricles it doth disorder alienate and destroy the Occult Acid and Alcaly or the faculties as my Hippocrates speaks which I have shewed to be and to operate there That venemous Acidity of the Sulphur of Mercury absorbs the Alcaly of the Ventricles and makes its fellow otherwise Occult with most strong Poyson more Acid and manifest So one faculty is extinguished and the Acid multiplyed tiplyed by Poyson goes on in working and acts Retrograde and resolves as Causticks do all the Aliment into a putrid Mash This the Vital Vertue or Nature call it as you please endeavouring to expel by fit passages it partly dissipates it by Sweats partly by its purging faculty it expels it by Stool with great gripeings Whence it appears why many who have been Cured by Salivation after a long space of time Relapse into their ancient Diseases 't is because the Malignant disposition is still left in the Body This Occult Hippocrates resolves this Doubt for us but Venemous Acidity of Mercury doth primarily then hurt the Teeth and Gums for as all Sulphur hath an Occult Acid as I have shewed before per Campanum so Mercury hath an Occult Venemous Sulphur Sulphur of Mercury Acid. which doth precipitate and rubify it with a gentle but constant Fire like Common Sulphur which I have demonstrated above not only by fire in an Experiment but also by the authority of Geber Now all Acids especially Putrefactive ones do offend the Teeth and Gums as the Scurvey shews and dissolve the Nerves then the Blood sowres there and putrefies becoming more stinking than a Jakes with such a Contagion that the Lips by touching it contract Ulcers and the Cheeks ulcerate within and this happens not only from its External Unction but also the live Mercury taken often in a small quantity by the mouth performs the same thing as Experience shews and Rondeletius and Platerus have also observed Of this sort are the Pills of live Mercury called Barbarossae The old Verses of Mathesius suit herewith In Saropta Terram Mercurij producta Metalla Veneno Esse ferunt verum est nil nisi virus habet Metals produced with Poyson full Men say Are Mercury's Soil which Venom de display Hence it appears what we are to think of that Sulphur which at this season in the mouths of some Nobles of this Court Fear not your Teeth in the case under the credulous pretence of a fine sweet and Vital Steam or Aura gives forth a sad filthy truculent and stinking Smell In such cases my Hippocrates says with a loud voice Vnskilfulness is an evil Treasure c. * De Lege Hence we may see the reason why Gold-guilders and they which suck in the steam of Mercury do often in progress of time either tremble or are cramped in their Joynts but that I may not be too Prolix I pass over these things in this place Wherefore I have observed Mercury Regenerated an Alexipharmacum for the French Disease That Mercury regenerated out of Silver or other perfect Metals although boiled a whole year with a different fire in the above-named Phyal of a plain bottom yet it can be precipitated per se in no degree and therefore this regenerated Mercury must needs want that external Sulphur as appears by Mechanical necessity in the want of which Sulphur it may move Sweat and sweetly perform its Operations Reason and Experience confirming as much But by great Judgement it being divided into its essential parts and re-conjoyned with new and perfect Sulphur Then it becomes the subject of all Wonder L. 2. Of Occult Philosophy as H. C. Agrippa says in his Scale of Vnity but because it is not my purpose now to treat of it unless only as it serves for Vulgar use in Physick I will keep my self within my bounds It appears then that neither Vitriol nor Sulphur of what kind soever do add either Corrosive Vertue or weight to Mercury as the Reformer would make us believe saying That therefore Vitriol must be warily Calcined last the Spirits should perish For Mercury in Sublimation wants Them not but only its Humid Sulphur which as I have said is elevated by the Spirit of Nitre and they both conjoyned do act at least on the external Sulphur of the Mercury But if it be urged with a stronger fire it arises into a red Powder not Corrosive which Huserus and Crollius believed to be the Aroanum Corallinum of Paracelsus but they understood not his meaning but were mistaken in their opinion but when Common Salt is added to Vitriol and Nitre then the Mercury is dissolved deeper by reason of the Salt sapor and the Sublimate grows white becomes Corrosive and encreaseth in Weight And here also doth not the Acid acquire strength by the Salt so far is it from destroying it So also the Caustick water distilled from Vitriol or Allum and Salâ—pâ—tre which is called Aqua Fortis acts at least about Sulphur and unless the Acid Sulphurous Spirits are in part washed away or are put to flight by the fire they are Coagulated with the Mercury into an Aluminous body Astringent and Corrosive This Corrosive Mercury our Reformer would have to be mixed in the Plaister of Froggs Pharm f. 681. Plaister of Froggs with Mâ—â—cury with the Mercury of Vigo An Absurdinvention says he that Mercury can be mortified by Spittle As if Johan de Vigo knew not the Corroding of Mercury who was the Inventor of that Vulgar Precipitate from him now called Vigo's Prec pâ—tate He I say made an Emplaister to mitlgate the pains of the Joynts arising from a Virulent Pox perswading himself that Mercury was the true Alexipharmick of this Disease but he mingled the live Mercury with things easing Pains and sometimes with good success wherefore he advised to mortify the Mercury with Spittle and Oyl of Bayes which is done in a moment and afterwards to mix it with the other Ingredients This Mortification of Vigo The Vulgar judges of few things by the rule of Truth but of most things by Opinion the Reformer laughs at and perverts that excellent Man's Text and meaning adding Reproaches and Calumnies to boot and in stead of quick Mercury he teaches to add Corrosive without any Alution or encreasing the fire to expel the Spirits but whilest it is yet a Liquor he enjoyns Fat and Oyl to be super-added as if the Corroding Acid would die in the Fat. Hence it appears that the Reformer of the Auspurgh Dispensatory hath not so much as a spark of distinguishing Judgement Surgeons to consume
having received a Book though Licensed and Approved yet full of ridiculousness and folly a few days after my health requiring it I went on a sudden to Millaine to that Illustrious Person The Lord Marquess Fiorenza a Noble Senator of that City and I compleated this Hippocratical Doctrine in my Chariot on the way yea I had published it compleat before the last of the Calends of November the same year I mean as compleat as the nature of the argument required unless the censure of the Inquisitors had retarded my purpose which I think fit gentle Reader to acquaint thee with Favour me therefore if thou art in thy right mind and remember Hippocrates his Advice which is not to divulge or make known any thing but what is within the Ken and Cognizance of Rusticks and Plebeians Farewell Otto Tachenius HIS KEY To the Ancient HIPPOCRATICAL LEARNING CHAP. I. Acid and Alcaly the most Ancient Principles of Things what they are TO know things is to know them by their Causes as Aristotle Teaches in the first of his Physicks Now the Causes are Matter Form and Efficient Matter is that of which a thing is made for in Nature there is no thing which is not made of some pre-existent and subject matter Form which gives being or esse to the thing and by which the thing receives its name is it self invisible the Efficient Cause is that which moves the matter to its proper end Hippocrates reduces all these three Causes into two necessary and sufficient Principles calling them Fire and Water Raimund calls them Entia Realia Fire and Water Basilius Pugiles and in another place Gladiatores others stile them Lis and Concordia Attraction and Repulsion Rarefaction and Condensation The Principles of Hippocrates Acid and Alcaic Male and Female c. But I for the clearer knowledge and explanation of them do call those two Principles of Hippocrates Acid and Alcaly because all things in the Universe are made up of those two Universal Principles as I shall gradually shew by Experience so is also that one only Medicine or Physick of the Ancients To which yet a third doth Inseparably adhere Hence arose Sal Sulphur and Mercury the Three Principles of some Philosophers and rightly to as will more clearly appear in the progress These two either perpetually burn in Love one towards another or else are at perpetual variance are multiplied and one is contrary to the other so that the death of one is the life of the other and that which one produces another destroys that so from this another more noble thing may again arise Hence it is that Hippocrates with good Reason affirms That these two Elements Fire and Water or Acid and Alcaly can do all things and that all things are in them From the Acid do proceed two Masculine Qualities to wit Hot and Dry from the Alcaly as many Female ones viz. Cold and Moist all flowing forth for the generation of mixed bodies for which reason they do concur and are commixed The two greater Lights do preside over those two as Principle Elements The Sun is the Author of the Fire of Nature and the Moon the Mistris of Humids Matter or Hyle is therefore called the Principle of all things because all things in an invisible manner are generated of Fire and Water From those two is made up the innate Calid of all things which Hippocrates says is very much in them as they increase the matter will be most clear when we shall speake not only to the ears but to the eyes also CHAP. II. Acid the most Ancient Principle as being Spiritual is not subjected to the Sensure or Judgement of the Senses MY Hippocrates Chymicus in the 10th and 18th Chapter shews in Wine and Tartar that the Fire of Hippocrates the formal Principle of things can be separated by no Analytick Destruction nor by any Ingenuity of Art This the Prince of the Academicks calls Forma The Ancients as also the sacred Philosopher calls it Light Lâ—â—â— and Sulphur from its Similitude because that like Sulphur it manifests it self to be both occultly Acid and also pinguous to This they gave the first place styling it the Vital and Masculine Spirit because in it the seeds of all things are contained though imperceptibly as to our senses for we must confess that all things do consist of insensible principles as Lucretius speaks Lib 2. and all things have their original from it and there is nothing produced in the whole world but by it it hath its seat in the Air A Child of the Son because the Wind carries it in its belly and the Father of it says Hermes in Parva Schedula is the Sun whence the lofty wited Lullius in Testament Chap. 67. We says he with many others call it the Child of the Sun for first it was generated through the influence of the Sun by Nature without the help of Science or Art And therefore Aristotle called the Sun the Father and the Earth the Mother of all Vegetables because the Sun impregnates the Earth with its vivifying heat which afterwards is turned into natural heat and this is multiplied by the help and assistance of the heat of Fire c. Hereupon afterwards it was styled by the Philosophers themselves The Son of Fire The Son of Fire as appears by Bernard de Tresne in his third part who calls Gold most pure Fire So that if Gold be Fire and Fire the Child of the Sun and This the Vital Spirit which the Wind carries in its Womb as Hermes witnesses then without doubt these three must be Brethren and all Children of the Sun And as the Sun in the Firmament of Heaven is judged by Wise Men to be incorruptible constant and perpetual and by its Author is endewed with so many Embellishments that Himself is said to have placed his Tabernacle in it for which cause it is called the Form of Forms or the Acid of Acids though it be not acknowledged for such by the Vulgar as neither is Gold or the Vniversal Form which in the work of generation infuses all Natural Forms and the seeds of all things into disposed matter for every individual thing hath hidden in it a spark of this Light of Nature or Acid whose Beams do Occultly influence the Seed with an Active and Moving Vertue So also Gold being the Off-spring of the Heavenly Sun is incorruptible constant and perpetual of an entire Form or a perfect Acid and fixed though as I said before it be not owned as such by the ignorant Vulgar For unless it were a fixed Acid Gold a fixed Acid how could the saying of Philosophers be verifyed and fulfilled That which is perpetual makes things perpetual and that which is fixed makes things fixed And therefore in the beginning Light was created over the Universe and contracted into this Body being endowed with a vivifying Vertue and secret Faecundity I call it an entire or compleat Acid fixed
and constant which yet as Raimund saith will make the empty Brain of one who hath seen nothing in Philosophy nor is ever like to see to be altogether sottish and stupid Yet in my Hippocrates Chymicus I have demonstrated the Acidity of Gold by two familiar Examples which I shall now again recite out of my late Hippocrates for a solid confirmation of the Truth and the shame of all Zoilusses and Detractors for if you dip the end of an Iron Rod in Gold melted or put to fusion the Iron in a moment will be turned into Scoria or rust as if it were burnt with kindled Sulphur Croâ—us Martâ—â— now unless Gold were Occultly Acid and pinguous as common Sulphur is it would never corrode Iron Those superficial and vain Writers who are enemies to the Doctrine of Hippocrates cannot comprehend this fixed Acid who had rather seem wise than be so much good may their vain applause do them I envy them not for they know no other Acid but that which they dream to distill from Copper which they falsly call Spirit of Venus because out of sloth they deny that there is a fixed Acid in Nature as if That in Copper were Volatile Secondly The purest Gold is dissolved in Aqua Regia instill Alcaly of Tartar into the Solution which will drink up the Acid Spirits even of the Gold it self my Hippocrates Chymicus Chap. 7. shews the Reason viz. Because the Alcaly of Tartar embraces the Nature even of Metals themselves and the Gold so drunk up falls into a Powder of a Yellow Colour Croll us teacheth this Preparation in his Cordial so doth Beguinus under its proper Title Corannocryson Aurum Fulmiâ—naâ—s In this slight Preparation Gold hath acquired a Fulminating or Thundering force because its Sulphur being of its own Nature acetous to use the words of Sendivogius is associated with Artificial Nitre which association is made in the Alcaly of Tartar in the very moment wherein it is poured into the Aqua Regia containing the dissolved Gold The manner how this is to be done is laid down in Hippocrates Chymicus Chap. 7. for those things which have been spoken elsewhere and rightly by others I will not unnecessarily repeat so that Gold unless it were Acid and Pinguous Gold is Sulphur as common Sulphur is would never perform Sulphurous Actions with Nitre as common Sulphur doth with the same Nitre for Gunpowder If then the Sun according to Hormes be the Father of that Vital Spirit which dwells in the Air and Gold and Fire are its Brethren the Sons must necessarily partake of the quality Fire Acid. dispositions and properties of the ParenÌ„t so that it must needs follow by Reason and Authority Experience also a stipulating thereunto that the Vital Spirit of ours the Child of the Sun as also Gold and Fire are Acid and Pinguous wherefore Acid and Pinguous is a most Ancient Principle the Life and Fountain of all things Writers give It several Names as Fire Sun Gold Spirit Sulphur Form Humid Calid Dry and many other Appellations all which are Synonymous signifying the same thing but in different respects diversifyed into several Names But I both here and elswhere call it Acid. This Acid doth occultly lurk in all Seeds because of its self it is a most peaceable and quiet thing in regard Nature hath implanted more of Alcaly than of Acid in every Compositum except Sulphurs and therefore it moves not unless it be excited as we see plainly in Dough of Bread which being excited by a very little Acid Ferment and by Heat is moved and from that Heat and Motion the Acid is multiplied and unless it were bridled and restrained by a heat exceeding the inward i. e. by Artificial Fire it would proceed to Vitality and produce Worms Hence it appears That Natural Fire is quite another thing then Artificial and that these Two differ much from one another Natural Fire Acid. for the Natural or Soft Fire according to Hippocrates as I have shewed in Dough doth Impregnate Cherish Infuse Strength and doth semblably perform all things in its Lesser World which the Sun its Parent doth in the Greater World Hence we may observe A Microcosme what That the proud Name of Microcosme doth not belong onely to Man for every Seed every Worm every Member says Hippocrates hath its Ventricle and may be therefore called a Microcosme But Artificial Fire is an enemy to all Generation it lives upon Prey and Rapine it fubfists by others Ruins being the Destroyer of Life and Enemy of Nature Wherefore from the Sun as from a Fountain Natural Acid and Vital Light do flow forth which in reality are both one only distinguished by their Office for it is the Office of the Acid to pierce into the inwards of Nature whereas Light doth only discover the externals of things however the Beams of the Sun do operate both So that the Sun is the first Natural Organ by whose Access and Recess all the Operations of Nature are variously governed intended and remitted Hence the Ingenious Cosmopolita If there were not a Vegetable power in Sulphur that is a Pinguous Acid and Child of the Sun Water would never be Coagulated into Herbs If therefore the Acid flowing from the Sun be infused into Matter as for Example Mineral presently it receives the determination of the Nature and the Vertue of the Mineral The like may be said of other Animals and Vegetables too as Lully speaks and because this Natural Acidity is coupled with all Matter in the World it hath therefore the Name of Mercury given it by the Wise And though the Eyes of the Vulgar do daily behold this multiplication and also incorporation of the Natural Acid yet they do not understandingly consider it Take the Mine of Salt-petre at Padua The Mother of Nitre for an Example which is now exhausted but in Five or Seven years time will be filled again for the Earth is its Nurse as Hermes testifies whence it is That this Spirit assumes a Body in it and becomes inflammable Nitre But I have a greater thing to speak off There 's an Island in the Tuscane Sea commonly called Little Elbe Elbe the Mether of Iron containing twenty Italian Miles in compass very Rich in Iron from which that Metal hath been dug out for many ages and is so to this day so that not only the Mountains there but the two Islands also must needs have been dug through and exhausted yet nevertheless Iron once dug forth in twenty years renews again and now more and better than formerly because the Alcaly or Mother of the Mineral there is again exsaturated from the Vital Fountain and takes the determination of Metal so becomming Iron Also the evacuated Mine of Vitriol in Carinthia Mother of Vitriol first being exposed to the free and open Air and afterwards covered for some years is again replenished so that Calid most acutely Teaches That the Roots
Rinds of Walnuts But Basilius Hollandus Helmont and others do extoll Alcaly of Tartar because it easily is conjoyned to and makes a Coalition with Fire of its own nature Yet these ridiculous Masters do ungratefully rail upon Helmont too as well as other Learned Men falsly accusing Him for not discovering the way of Prepararing this Salt But what need have your Masterships of Helmont's help Since ye your selves are sure that the Vertues of Salt of Tartar have passed through the Lembick and that you have obtained a great Secret Why do you reproach a Man who hath faithfully shewed you the right way as I have done in my Hippoc. Chymic in three places and also in this Tract clearly discovering the Preparation of this Alcaly which if you do not understand yet do not Revile but rather blame your own ignorance and afterwards apply Cupping-Glasses and a sharpe Suppository left your envious Bowels should burst asunder But nothing is more ridiculous than that which is whispered into the ears of his Followers in the same Text I am induced by this motive to reveal this to thee lest I should seem to be enviously affected against many Writers of our Age. Plautus would say to such a man Aplauda es nequior Neither is that less Jocular or Ridiculous which in the above-cited place they demand viz. that the curious Investigations of Learned Men for which they have taken pains should be openly and plainly discovered to such Masters of Vanity who know not how to distinguish Water from Salt as if it were not sufficient that Quid pro quo were often enough prescribed to poor Patients but that they themselves must likewise have an occasion administred to Adulterate and Defame the Inventions of Philosophers Do they not know that Hippocrates forbids it in express words and allows us to divulge only those things which are known to Plebeians For they do not understand the force and meaning of my words Take this my Reduction of Alcaly of Tartar into Water for an Example they presently among the Unskilful Vaunt This to be Volatile Alcaly and do moreover commend it for a Cordial with their vain yet swelling words By These and the like Fables studious Young-men are imposed upon under pretence of Truth because they are Licensed and Approved by the Lofty Magnifique Deans and Professors of Physick Innocent Youth is easily perswaded that Truth lyes in the bottom of such Trifles not knowing any more than their Masters how to discern Truth from Falshood But what effect such and the like things can have in an Art is manifest by daily Experience so that it is grown and not without cause a common Proverb Mentiris ut Medicus Which therefore of all the Philosophers would take pains to instruct such an Indocile Quarelsome and Sluggish Rout he cannot do it without doing great Wrong to himself and contracting an indelible stain of Infamy to his Credit Leaveing therefore these processes which come not forth upon the Stage without the laughter of Learned Men I convert my speech to the Studies of Truth and do affirm That the Ancient Scienceof Physick doth not consist in compiling of Processes and Receipts here and there surrpetitiously taken up To know what and perhaps also but ill understood of which Personhs the Proverb speaks true Cum Charta cadit tota Scientia vadit He that for their Knowledge looks Finds it not i'th'r Head but Books But in the true Understanding and Knowledge of Things by their Causes as Aristotle hath rightly taught l. 1. Physic For he that knows Things by their Causes is not only said to have Experience but to know and comprehend Them perfectly This is the Foundation of the Ancient Physick and although all Receipts with their Exscribers Subscribers and Approvers were utterly lost and perished yet this Ancient Science would remain unmoveable whose foundation I have faithfully discovered in my Hippoc. Chymicus by familiar and common Words and Examples but such putative and empty Doctors by reason of the blindness of their minds cannot reach to it I call it blindness seeing all Knowledge is Light and Ignorance Darkness as being long since excluded from the Knowledge of the Truth Enough now concerning this disguised Elementary Water There are many such like trifles packed together in the fore-named Dispensatory which do not only cast a blot upon Noble Physick but do also redound to the Ruin of our Neighbour Things ill got because not understood will be as badly spent But these things requiring a Volume by themselves I shall forbear further speaking of them at present and return whence I digressed Common Salt doth not wash out filth therefore Sope cannot be made of it Hence it was that Nausicca the Daughter of King Alcinous washed her Linnen out of a Fountain in the Sea-shore as Homer notes 6. Odyss which Aristotle rightly refers to the perfect mixture of this Salt for seeing it hath no vacuity in it as Alcaly hath it can receive nho filth into it self Sal Alcaly is vacuous and by consequence imbibes filth and Sope is madeof it because it absorbs the Occult Acid in the Oyl and Fat which by a flow Concoction are converted together into Sope of a Salt taste as my Hippoc. Chymicus hath it Common Salt fortifies and strengthens living Flesh it cures the Scab Mangy and other Diseases of the Skin as the Sea-fishers can witness yea being mixed with Oyl it cures Scalds Sal Alcaly doth mortify and putresy living Flesh as Potential Cauteries do witness and the History also shews that it putresyed a whole living Man in a moment as it is mentioned in Hippocrates Chymicus Chap. 4. Common Salt with Sand passes not over into Glass because it is saturated with Acid. Sal Alcaly with Sand it melted into Glass because being destitute of Acid it receives into its Bowels the Acid of Flint and by Fusion becomes of a Rocky Nature as I shewed before Common Salt makes Nitre impure Sal Alcaly cleanses Nitre from all impurity as my Hippoc. Chymicus teaches Chap. 8. So we Read in Holy Scripture every Sacrifice should be seasoned with Salt but no mention at all is made of Alcaly there So that it is manifest from the Circumstances above-mentioned That Meat Salt or Common Salt the Child of the Sun and the Chiefest of all Salts differs very much from Inane and Vacuous Alcaly which therefore I have set one against another that it may appear to the Learned and Curious that there is not a grain of Salt in those great Bodies of Innovators who contend That Sal Alcaly is a Salsum and so do ignorantly perswade their unskilful followers For there are no more Salts in the Universe than Acid and Alcaly Acids are infinite all which have one only Alcaly for their foundation in which they subsist and are incorporated as I shall Ocularly demonstrate in the 6th Chapter So that all Salts and all Things which are in the World may by an easy method
blackned with Gauls as Vitriol of Iron is or because it cannot be distilled as Common Vitriol may as some foolishly give forth but why will you fantastically put a force upon Nature from those Accidents which are not common to all Vitriol Surely that Wise Mistriss doth little esteem not only the contumelies of venemous Tongues but she doth as much undervalue the old doting Fables of Wordy Doctors who refuse to learn Attend therefore diligently that you may be informed That as I have shewed a little before of Acids They bring Alcalyes to their will so it must needs happen here For when Natural Acid hath by chance corroded immature Iron then they are both coagulated into Vitriol of Iron which being mingled with Juice of Galls yields a black colour by reason of the Iron and not by reason of the Acid. And when the same Natural Acid hath by chance corroded immature Copper then they are both coagualted into Vitriol of Copper which though mixed with Juice of Galls grows not black yet it is and is also called both by the Skilful and Unskilful Vitriol That Natural Acid drawn forth by Distillation when it hath corroded Iron is coagulated again into Vitriol of Iron of a green colour The same Acid when it hath corroded Copper they are both coagulated into Vitriol of an * Coelesâ—iâ—i Azure colour So the same Acid when it hath corroded Alcaly of Tartar they are both coagulated into Vitriol of a White colour which is nothing else but regenerated Vitriol as my Hippocrates shews Chap. 17. Which Book I would wish you to read over before you rail against the Works of Nature But why your Common Vitriolate Tartar cannot be distilled Why Vitriolate Tartar made the Common way is not Distillable I will now clearly demonstrate That Natural Acidity which hath corroded Iron being Healthful Grateful and Precious is sought after by many but found by few I say This is attempted to be extracted out of the corroded and immature Metal by Art and the help of Fire in Distillation but seeing it cannot never be alone as Hip. de Diaet hath taught it easily carries off with it is like i. e. the Immature and Volatile Metalline Sulphur because the wind carries both in its womb and it becomes Common Spirit of Vitriol Austere and Corrosive by reason of the inseparable immature Metalline Sulphur mixed with it This Common and sourish Liquor of Vitriol however rectified yet contains in it the Sulphureous Liquamen of the Metal upon this ground that it can never be alone as in the progress will clearly appear If this Spirit or Liquor be poured on Alcaly of Tartar untilthe noise cease The Alcaly is impregnated but not with a Natural but a Metalline Acid the Aust erity of the immature Metalline Sulphur having the dominion and so a Son is begotten which must needs resemble the properties of his Father i. e. be fixed and constant in the Fire Lo here your Doctorships may see the reason why your Vitriolate Tartar cannot be Distilled For in that instant of Coition when the more powerful is embraced by the Alcaly The third because it is wealâ— is strangled and slain as will appear by little and little to the Reader This is That which the barren approvers with those which went before them were hitherto ignorant of I do call together with the company of Ancient Philosophers This Son of Metalline Sulphur Alcaly made Regenerated Vitriol Regenerated Vitriol because it hath laid down its Iron or Earthly Body and shines again re-produced in a brighter form Wherefore the soul of the imperfect Metal hid in the fowre Acid Spirit forms to it self a Fixed Body in the Alcaly of Tartar Whence it clearly appears That the Spirit is the Vehicle of the Soul and the Vinculum binding Soul and Body together which in the subsequent Discourse will more evidently appear to the Studious Lovers of the Truth Let us now hear Basilius Valeminus speaking of this Two-fold Spirit of Vitriol not to mention mine own Experience in His Book called Spirit of Vitriol two-fold Repetitio Lapidis Magnis in these words And that you may understand Vitriol says he you must know that it hath two Spirits a White and a Red the White is white Sulphur the Red is red Sulphur He that hath Ears to hear let him hear And let him diligently mark and forget it not for it is a dissicult saying and every word is of great weight the White Spirit of Vitriol is Acid amiable very grateful to the Stomach like Nectar to the Bowels and profitable for Vniversal Concoction but the Red is much more Acid and more weighty than the White and therefore requires a longer time to be extracted by Distillation Hitherto Basilius He that desires more let him consult the cited place the words are of great weight and for good reason cited and transcribed here If therefore the composition of Vitriol be of the Natural Acid amiable and of a sweet smell like Nectar to the Inwards in which no sensible biting is perceived by the Tongue but a spiritual and grateful Acidity Let Bâ—filius Acid Waters and Experience be all witnesses and of Immature Sulphureous Metal which Two cannot possibly be severed by Distillation for the Natural Acidity which is highly Volatile ascends not without its Companion the Acid Sulphur of the immature Metal because it cannot bâ— alone as I have shewn out of Hippocrates and have also learned by experience it remains therefore that it must be catch'd by crafty hands and that in a fit time too when it is asleep There are many private ways which the Studiers of Natures Secrets may take to procure this grateful and much sought for Acid which though many yet all conduce to one end as Geber rightly observes yet This way is not to be despised though the ignorant do contumeliously charge it to procure vomiting and raise many other Symptoms Ah unhappy Patients what Ministers of Nature have you got I speak not to deaf ones as being uncapable but to you who love the Truth I devote and offer this my work Dissolve then Vitriol of Iron I say of Iron which hath no smell of Copper if This cannot be had prepare That as Nature her self shews the way Hippoc. Chymic Chap. 28. For That which is Artificial of the Distilled Acid of Vitriol and Iron will not serve here Tartar Vitriolate of great 〈◊〉 see Hippoc. Chymic Chap. 17. The Roman is the best Instill into this clear Solution the purest Alcaly of Tartar which presently attracts and consumes the Natural Acid The Acid and Alcaly do not wax hot in this Conjunction as before in the Common Preparation of Vitriolate Tartar because the Fire or the Sulphur of the Immature Metal covets the Fire and for the greatest part is separated from the Natural Spirit as by degrees I shall Mechanically demonstrate ad oculum If this Composition seem to thee too thick so that the
whence this Grease is not only mixed with the Precipitate against the intent of the Inventor but moreover is odious and troublesome to Apothecaries especially since Hogs-grease will do as well with precipitate as also unprofitable to the Sick You have now heard O ye Truth-respecting hearers on what ground this Plaister of Froggs with Mercury hath been reformed It is your part to judge whether that ingenious Person John de Vigo deserves to be contumeliously Reproached for this And whether That barren insipid and truthless Doctrine be to be suffered which Rails against both the order of Nature and also the wise institutions of our Ancestors by which hopeful Youth in tender years being seasoned the Poyson of Ignorance and Unskilfulness grows up with them and so the wound becomes Incurable But these things were not of so great moment if the Health of Man were not endangered thereby for they prescribe to the Sick Simple water for Cordial Vinegar for an Epileptick Remedy Causticks for Anodines Poyson of Copper for a wholsome Medicine Sick and weak Persons can hope for no Cure from such men but only a foolish profusion of their money and at length the loss of their lives to boot Let them then avaunt and be packing to the farthest Garamantes with their Spirit of Venus and their Gounterfeit receits Let them not trouble the Civil World Let them there weep like Women since here they have not acquitted themselves like Men. Order now requires Sublimate Mercury that I should shew what Mercury Sublimated is since I have laid That down as an Instrument in the examen of of Alcalyes How It is Prepared Hippoc. Chym. shews chap. 29. Where observe that Vitriol Rubefied or Calcined to Redness is not added to encrease the weight of the Mercury as these magnifick Masters with their Partizans do suppose for then it would not be calcined to the highest Red but to Whiteness only as is done in the distillation of Vitriol whose Caput Mortuum left after distillation of the Spirit is most fit for this purpose and therefore-we need not its Spirit to add weight to the Mercury but it is added that the Sulphureous Nitre might apprehend the Sulphur of the immature Metal lying hid in the Rubefied Vitriol as I have shewed before and so by their joynt-forces they may dissolve the Mercury This is the reason why Rubefied Vitriol is required But the quantity is Quadruple in respect of the Salts because These are of easie fusion in the Fire from the which by Rubefied Vitriol they are preserved see more in Hippoc Chymic in the fore-cited chapter The same Mercury once sublimated needs not again be re-sublimated with new Powders as the unskilful Approvers think because it doth not put off or depose the Acid Spirits once absorbed so as to stand in need to reassume the same from new Powders and suppose that it were sublimated an hundred times with new Powder yet it would never become purer as they falsly affirm the reason is because this way the External Sulphur is not separated neither doth Suscipere magis velminus although Legitimately as they fay a thousand yea an hundred thousand times it be resublimated And the word Legitimately in this place doth discover their gross ignorance and stands for no other use but to be nausceous to the understandings of Wife-Men but it receives as much as is enough for its saturation as they know well who have sometimes dissolved Mercury in Aqua Fortis which if it be not sufficiently Powerful the Gram of Mercury remains untouched and quick because it could not imbibe That which was not and on the other side the water could not dissolve it because it wanted Acid Salt Truly this word Legitimate with this purer Mercury and the rest of their false Receits may well enough be discarded and abandoned even by the Puniest Apothecaries The Revivisication of Sublimate or Precipitate Mereury But when sublimate Mercury is freed from the Acid Spirits by Vegetable Alcaly and is fetched back quite from the Retort then indeed it may be mixed with new Powders and again sublimated which way the Deans with their fellows are yet ignorant of yet nevertheless it would not become more pure and splendant because in its first sublimation it neglected all that which was not of its own nature in the Faeces and Caput Mortuum but it would come over and return in less quantity because it would return to Elements by frequent sublimation and revivification as I have shewed above concerning Alcaly of Tartar concerning Spirit of Vitriol and concerning Vinegar see Hippoc. Chym. chap. 10. This foresaid mixture of Mercury with Rubefied Vitriol Nitre and Salt if you sublime it not by little and little but in great haste and more than is fit the Mercury will concrete in the top of the Caput Mortuum into lucid and great Chrystals like Nitre and not inferior to a Diamond in lustre which these Babblers vaunt for a great Secret and affirm it to be The purest Mercury For whom the speech of Mercury in Sendivogius may well be applied That 't is natural for him to laugh at fools which Disease as Cardan says they may easily Cure without a Cudgel by eating Hens brains the Testicles of Doves and Tortoises and by drinking a little White-wine Vinegar every day If Cardan had had any knowledge of this child of Venus newly born to these Obstreperous Doctors perhaps he would have preferred it before Vinegar since duly exhibited it cures Epileptick and Melancholy persons witness the Physical Doctors of the Austrian and Norimberg Colledge In the interim let their humours be purged with black Hellebore would all Anticyra had enough of it Let them drink Capon-broth and smell to the flowers of Nymphaea which with their grateful smell do mightily chear nhe spirits of the Heart and engrave Aristotle in a Topaze walking Tempe Hitherto Cardan to which I add that unless these overwise Doctors with their fellows had approved and owned this child of Venus the simplest man alive would never have believed there was ever any such thing But so I communicate to you this great Artifice gratis To conclude therefore I affirm that neither Mercury sublimated or precipitated ill handled with Vipers-grease and mortified in Aqua Fortis and also mixed with Alcalyes and Revivificated with a naked fire out of a Retort and by consequence weak and frail as Alcalyes nor no other Matter can be so destroyed but it will still shew something of its Form CHAP. VIII That Acid doth both Destroy and Perfect and that the Fire the Sun and Acid have the same Vertues and Powers I Have shewed in the beginning Chap. 2d both by Authority and Experience That Nature â—â—th endued Seeds with the least part of Acidity because of themselves they receive Increase and are multiplied as appears manifestly in a grain of Corn the quantity of whose natural Acid is computed to be the 8200. part in respect of its Body as the
empty Stomach which desires to be satisfied Silver being given it for food it dissolves it and is pleased with it but when you cast in a Physical Drug as I may so call it into this Solution I mean Copper with which for the similitude between them it is more delighted than with the Silver presently it deserts the Silver and again dissolves the Copper and the whole Solution becomes green It must needs be so also in the Body of Man since Nature is in every thing alike as Pythagoras and since Him Hippocrates have taught us Again If you put Iron into Aqua Fortis which here is as the Stomach or Ventricle impregnated or loaded with Copper in regard Copper is of harder Solution and Concoction than Iron the Water presently leaves the Copper and dissolves the Iron And although Aqua Fortis hath already deposed Silver and Copper yet its Acidity and Property hath still dominion over them until they are freed by a melting Fire which is to be observed by Our Friends for it is else where of great use But it is objected by such as are ignorant of this Common and Ancient Order and Consent of Nature and who out of their small Skill go about to overthrow the Hippocratical Verity That I put my Sickle into another Mans Corn and Harvest as if it were a shame for me to know That which all men should or ought to know in an Art or as if They were the only famous Philosophers who compile together Surreptitious and ill understood Receits without the knowledge of the Causes of Things And as Silver and Copper were troublesome to the Stomach of Aqua Fortis that I may so speak which is better when it is cured with Iron so also this Morbóus Forrain Ferment or Humour call it which you please being consumed by the Iron The Ventricle of the Milt and the neighbour parts become botter affected Take therefore at mouth Stomoma i. e. Steel or its Crocus either Astringent or Aperitive with which that Acid Ferment hath a greater agreement than with the Milt and therefore it hastily rushes in pervading its Pores from the Ventricle of the Milt to the whole Stomach Horat'us his Sterilis Rubigo that it may associate it self with the assumed Iron which by that Acid Forrain Ferment is dissolved into a Black or Green Fax according to the property of the Acid as the Excrements of the Belly do testify and if this Acid be not totally consumed by the Iron at one turn it is repeated so often till the Milt shew some signs of its Exiccation so the Anima of one ens i. e. the Ferment of the Disease enters into the Iron and the Anima of another goes out because the Acid or Anima of the Iron which constitutes the Iron goes forth Hence Crocus Martis is called by Horatius Sterilis Rubigo that the Acidity of the Disease might again enter in according to the Doctrine of the Pythagoreans For Nature acts in the Microcosme by the same Instruments as in the Macrocosme For the Ancients have taught us That it is every where alike Here Ideots and Destroyers of Hippocratical Medicine will object That I place a Disease in the Ventricle of the Milt and yet give Iron by the Mouth How then can the Morbous Acid come or reach from the Milt to the Iron as they have also written concerning burnt Harts-horn Which Objection is not worth the answering for one Fool may raise more Questions than an hundred Wise Men can answere but sithence these sluggish Doctors never understood This out of Hippocrates his Sixth Book de Morbis Popularibus out of pitty to them I will shew them the place for he there says that the whole Body as long as Life is in it is perspirable and penetrable see Hippoc. Chymic Chap. 16. But when the Milt or Liver is gone to a Schirrhus then indeed the Steel by consuming the Faber or Operant would more harden the Bowels though the Aperitive Crocus Martis of all these Subscribers be never so much taken by the Mouth He that desires to know more of Iron let him read Hippocrates Chymicus in the fore-cited Chapter So that the Acid which Iron consumes in the Body of Man differs very much from the false Spirit of Venus and from all other Acids in general because it is a specifick and to be found in no other place for if Iron be not wholly dissolved by It in the Body the Excrements of the Belly are not tinged into a Black or Green Colour and then indeed Iron doth Astringe though the Aperitive Crocus of these Innovators be administred as Hippoc Chymic in the fore-cited Chap. doth experimentally shew so that Acid is also a Specifick which burnt Harts-horn drinks up in some Feavors which the sluggish Approvers do judge must needs pass through the intestines to the place affected and to the seat of the Feavor if otherwise it ought to consume the Acid there generated and detained They understand not what Hippocrates teaches in the fore-cited place that the whole Body in Living Persons is permeable and that a Spirit Acid more Acid or most Acid is the Cause of Diseases c. and that it is fermentable and so flows as well through the Pores adextra by diaphoresis or gentle sweat as appears in the Crisis as it goes and rushes to the Intestines unto the Harts-horn as I have shewed concerning Steel provided it find a convenient and specifick Acid in the Body Truly this is a rural clownish Doctrine and worthy the Approvers for if Mediciues must needs pass out of the Stomach to the Seat of the Disease through the Pores then the Sweat and Urine would wax Red from the Crocus Martis especially their Aperitive Crocus Bezoar in Swoonings doth not pass through the Membranes of the Stomach to the Heart nor doth it return from thence for consuming the Lypothymick Acid Neither doth Ostiocolla travel to the broken Bone that it may prohibit or absorb the Specifick Acid there neither doth the Stone of a Crab go to the Wound nor doth a grain of Opium taken at Mouth for the Head-ach pass up or ascend to the Head They are ignorant that the Subtile Argute Judge and equal Weigher of all things which distinctly knows the Seminal Vertue not only of Medicines but also of all other things besides and accordingly doth either embrace segregate or neglect It dwels in the Stomach as I shall shew by Experience Authority and Reason in the following Chap. wherefore this indecent kind of ignorance is to be hissed out of the School of Hippocrates and out of Common Life too To instruct Block heads as Lucian says is a greater and nobler Secret than the very Philosophers Stone for it were to transsorm the understanding and to make Dolts and Stupid Persons Teachable CHAP. IX That Acid and Alcaly in Animals is the innate Calid and Radical Humid HAving discovered the Properties and Essences of Things the Rise Progress and Death
were a Radical Moisture remaining in Flesh and in all Aliments fit and sufficient nourishment could not be suppeditated to the Living especially to those who are growing and encreasing witness Flesh and Fish salted and dried in the smoak which have less Radical Moisture than when they were fresh or new for much of it is eaten up by the Salt as Hippoc. Chymic shews chap. 14. and therefore they nourish less than if they were fresh Wherefore Acid or Soft Fire is to be found as well in the Vegetable and Mineral as in the Animal Family and it is That which adorns every thing which is in the World even as Water is That which nourisheth it as Hippocrates rightly speaks I say by the presence of this Fire and Water both which do constitute the Radical Moisture as I shall shew immediately before Chylification is the Acid of the Stomack enlightned and refreshed in regard it is more or less in all Aliments as also in other things as experience shews There is more radical humidity in one new-laid Egg than in an whole Pot full of Coleworts more in one Cup of Wine than in an whole Bucket of Water Wherefore Acidity being deficient in the Stomack as Hippoc. Chymic in the places fore-cited plainly shews is restored by the Radical Moisture of Aliments but chiefly and most of all by that Gelestial Food dwelling in the Air for This is the Seed of Life without which neither Man nor other Animals or any Vegetable can attain to Generation or Life for that Spiritual Food or Attraction of the External Air which by often breathing we suck in doth so much conduce to the Life of Animals that it hath caused not only Philosophers but also Plebeians to admire at it Neither hath Nature Artificially placed her Bellows in the neighbourhood of the Heart onely to cool it as the Vulgar think c. but also that by their frequent Ventilation they might suck in the Aethereal Aura by whose afflatus and in-breathing the aforesaid Acid is repaired and doth uncessantly regerminate For as the Ingenious Cosmopolita shews before in the Third Chapter as the Rain receives That Vertue of Life and by the Sun Beams joyns it with the Alcaly of the Earth so also the same Vertue of Life is attracted into the Microcosme by Inspiration and is fixed by the Solar Beams of the Heart into the Alcaly or Radical Moisture of Animals as I shall by and by Experimentally shew This is the True Ancient Learning and Doctrine of Hippocrates concerning the Soft Fire Adorhing Bodies which will always hold in despight of Rabious Maledicence as He testifies in his Book de Carnibus as well as Cosmcpolita saying to the same sense I will also deliver my Opion That which we call Calid seems to me to be immortal and to understand all Things to Adorn See Hear and Perceive all Things both present and future the greatest part whereof in the general Perturbation of all Things retired into the supream Appartiment which the Ancients seem to me to have called Aether The other part obtaining the lowest place is called Earth Cold and Dry undergoing many mutations wherein there is yet much Calidity What can be spoken more clearly for the Radical Moisture of Things For That which Cosmopolita shews in the Macrocosme see Chap. 3. the same things according to Hippocrates are to be understood in the Microcosme For Mans Body unless it were required by that Immortal Calid both by Aliments and also by Inspiration being Cold and Dry would undergo many changes and at length would crumble to nothing before our Eyes even as the flame of a Candle when the Wax or Tallow is spent or when it is blown out by the Wind yet it doth not wholly perish as 't is Vulgarly thought and as it seems but being destitute of its Pabulum is plucked from it and so is scattered abroad and vanishes into Air which is the Abysse and Universal Receptacle of the Lights and Spiritual Natures of the Material World as Raymund hath it and as the Text of Hippocrates in his Book de Carnibus doth a little before explain Wherefore the chief Fewel and Food of Life is supplied out of the Air to all the three Kingdoms Hence the Ancients said Jovis omnia plena and Cosmopolita affirms that the hidden Food of Life is in the Air which as I have shewed assumes a Body to it self in an agreeable and consentaneous root and subject Wherefore Innate Calid and Radical Humid differ much one from another That is wholly Solar and Occultly Acid and Oily but This is more Corporeous Constnat and Saline That is of a Superior Order This of an Inferior in which is that Country where Man takes a Wife to himself as Cosmopolita speaks in his Tract de Sulphur and it is the Hell whether Plato is said to have hurried Preserpina and Cores her Mother imploring Jupiters aid for her Redemption was answered That she might return if she had tasted nothing in Hell i. e. unless that Celestial Spirit the Child of the Sun had not been absorbed by the Alcaly but as yet had dwelt free in the Air then she might have easily returned but she had tasted Grains of a Pomegranate in Elisium i. e. in Pleasure for which Reason she could not return till six Months were expired i. e. till the Pomegranates were consumed and then Proserpina returns to her Mother as the Light of a Candle doth to its Source or Country as I said before So that They are deceived who confound Innate Calid and Radical Humid in all the Three Families for they differ no less amongst themselves than Aqua Caustica doth from Mercury in which it takes a Body as appears by the falsified or counterfeit Emplaister unjustly ascribed to John de Vige. For in mixt Bodies the Radical Morstarâ— is the Seat and Food of the Celestial Fire and its Bond uniting it to the Elementary Body but that Igneous Vertue is the Form and Soul of mix'd Bodies more clearly thus The Spirit being either occultly or manifestly Acid is the Seat and Band which ties the Soul to the Body Let us then do as Nature doth whom Art ought to imitate as her Guid in all Things or otherwise we shall never become Compleat Servants to Nature Let Elementary Water be an Example which being impregnated with the Child of the Sun that is with Celestial heat falls upon the Radical Moisture or Alcaly of a Vine and is imbibed by it and so becomes the same thing with it as I have shewed in the Second and Third Chapter I shall also give an Example in the Counterfeit Spirit of Venus which from the beginning was Simple Water which being impregnated with Celestial Calidity fell upon the Radical Humid of the Vine This in undergoing many Mutations by Reason of the aforesaid Calid having a power in it self from Nature to multiply it self is brought to Maturity and becomes a Grape whose Aqueous Juice being pregnant
exercising their lying Genius's and in fruitless blotting of Paper Their labour both formerly and hereafter shall be in vain for if a generous Horse regards not the Barkings of following Curs I shall as little esteem my present or future Opposers either single or altogether you know my meaning for I live and conside in just actions but enough of This To return In Vitriol there is an Acid most grateful to pleasant and desired by humane nature as Paracelsus and Experience say This Acid because it cannot be alone associates it self with the immature Metal and with It grows into a Saline Body free or separate It and it will be worth your labour for there lurks in It an Arcanum for the Epilepsy of which the ingenious Crollius speaks Paracilsus attributes many Vertues to the volatileness of Spirit of Vitriol Pasilius Vâ—lâ—â—â— his White Spirit of Viâ—â—iol what in curing the Ep lepsy but I could never see any of Them neither did ever any man affirm to me that he could cure a confirmed Epâ—lepsy only by Vulgar and simply prepared Spirit of Vitriol Thus far He. Therefore for the reasons hinted before it cannot be elicited by Distillation as all Candid Operators witness for this cause the Searchers into the Secrets of Nature have tried another way which I should willingly have declared in this place but that I have experience That 't is a foolish thing to expose ones self to Ignorants and to the Vulgar for what they praise is blame-worthy what they think is vain what they speak is false what they disapprove is good what they allow evil and what they extol infamous as I have hitherto proved by clear Examples Neither doth an Arcanum lie hid in the said Volatility only for the Epilepsie but also for the Suffocation of the Matrix for the Palpitation of the Heart and for the Corroboration of the Spirits Brain Heart and of the whole Individuum since it is the Child of the Sun and the Twin-brother of our Vital Spirit But of This I have said enough I return now to the Vacuous Alcaly of Vipers which is ill treated by the company of Vulgar pretended Chymists As we do not give a Scorpion or a Piece of Wood to those that are hungry and ask for Bread neither do we give Oil mixed with Gaul to such as are thirsty but we exhibite to them similary and consentaneous Aliments of the same family of which the hungry person consists as Hippocrates teaches So also the Alcaly of Vipers being vacuous hungry and thirsty must be satisfied with That of which it consists not with Calx or Spirit of Salt as unskilful Writers give out for I have shewed in the 3. Chapter of this Tract That Nature doth so and she is every where alike And if the Alumnus and Scholar of Truth in his Operations shall imitate Her he can never go out of the way as by and by will appear by a clearer Example But here I would have all Readers to take Notice that as all Remedies proceeding from Animals are weaker for Mans use than Those that come from Minerals so we are here to understand that Alcaly of Vipers possesses a specifick Form and is impregnated with Natural Acid supervening and under a convenient heat of Digestion it is ripened into one excellent Body The same Alcaly indeed may arise more efficacious by reason of its Masculine adjunct yet it cannot ascend beyond the boundary before alledged out of Raymund so that the Remedies taken from the Mineral Family are found to be much more perfect in the Epilepsie Asthma Stone and most Coagulated Diseases Hippoc. Chymic Chap. 14. in as much as their Radical Humid is found by Experience to be more constant Now Those in general are called Coagulated Diseases Coagulated Diseases who from Immature Acid flow from the Stomach to the other Shops of Digestion and are Coagulated there or if in these very Shops through the degenerating of the Occasional Cause the Acid become more powerful then it suppresses the Innate and presently the Pores are contracted and it undergoes Coagulation with the Alcaly of the place according to the property of the Member as I have above shewed out of Hippocrates And as in the Macrocosme there dwels an Occult Food of Life in the Air which because it contains all things which the World hath is therefore called a Multiventrous Spirit we must also understand the same in the Microcosme So that in the Air of Mans Stomach there inhabits a Multiventrous Spirit which contains in it whatsoever a Man can do or hath as I have shewed out of Hippocrates in his Book de Carnibus If therefore any of This Spirit dwelling in the Stomach shall suck in a more Acid Air of a strange and forraign taste or smell not agreeing to its own Nature which it cannot throughly change into Mature or Salt and it falls into another Shop of Digestion where Concoction and Alteration proceed more sweetly than in the Stomach then presently the more powerful suppresses the weaker and they are both Coagulated into a forrain Indoles whence the indwelling Spirit rages and as it were disdains the Member waxes hot and doth not Concoct its proper Aliment from whence a Disease is manifestly produced after the same manner as when Vinegar suppresses the indwelling Rector of a Pearl and doth so weaken It that it loses the form and shape of Pearl as I have elsewhere clearly shewn Wherefore the vivid and manifest Acid if by mistake it fall from the Stomach and pass to the Oeconomy of the Bowels immediately as forrain and more powerful it subdues the feeble Operator of the place and takes the Province to it self causing either Collick pains or making the Belly either loose or costive or working such like disorders in the Intestines which I think better to avoid Prolixity to omit in this place for they require a distinct Tract by themselves I have only endeavoured to deduce necessary Arguments in this matter from thence to discover the folly of Those who have learned to do nothing else but to defame and revile the Truth which is unknown to them Viral Aura Now this vivid and manifest Acid of which I now speak must not be understood to be a certain Fluid Liquor which as the vulgar speaks descends as a swist Torrent but it is also a vital thing called by Hippocrates Aura Levis by Virgil Igneus Vigor by Horatius Divina Aura of it self wanting a Body but not enduring to be alone as Hippocrates says de Diaeta it incorporates it self with Meats and Drinks and informs Them into the Vital Aliment of the Body which takes in that Food Hence again Hippocrates in his first Book de Diaeta The Soul of Man is excreased in Man and in no other and the like of other great Animals Aâ—â—a the Cause of Diseases Now this Aura by Irradiation alone persects its work but a forrain Aura mixed with it as Water with Water
Fire with Fire is alone sufficient to be the cause of Diseases as our Master teaches de veteram Medicina because it can easily alter the inbred Operator for every Male hath its Ventricle which being altred presently the Digestion of the place is disturbed A way of Cryptography and the very Aliment otherwise Vivid is pâ—â—verted into a Mucous Indâ—les according tothe property of theÌ„ diseased and affected Member just as the Occult Sulphurous Odor of Orpiment doth die and denigrate Sal Saturni though far distant from it after this manner Write with Saccharum Saturni dissolved in Water that Writing will not be seen upon the Paper place that written paper in the Frontispiece of any Book then have ready an Humid Sulphurous Odor which is made of unslaked Lime and Orpiment both first severally pounded and afterwards mixed together pour Water on this Powder and make a Lixivium with which you moisten another Paper and place it at the end of the same Book shut the Book and the next morning you shall find the Writing to appear obscurely black because the Sulphureous Odor of the Orpiment being excited by the Alcaly of the Lime hath pierced through the whole body of the Book unto its own subject Art imitates Nature and this Art In like sort says Hippocrates de Diaeta The nature of Man doth operate with which all Arts and all Artifices do communicate For if the Operator and Causes of that glewish matter called Synovia in the joynt of the Foot for Example were so disposed to receive the vitiated Aura of the Stomach as Sal Saturni is to entertain the Aura inquinated by the Odor of the Sulphur of Orpiment then indeed the Aura of the Stomach being tinged with a forrain Odor would also inquinate the Synovia in the joynt of the Toe and this is done only by Odor that I may so speak from whence ariseth pain in the joynt of the Foot which from the place is called Podagra or the Foot-gout and immediately the Aliment otherwise vivid is perverted into a Mucous Indoles c. as I said but now This kind after the manner of the Ancients Hippocrates in general called Divine and hath enjoyned every one to take notice of and observe That if there be any Divine Thing in Diseases we should have special regard to that if ever we would be good and admirable Physicians Now that Divinum of Hippocrates is the Occult The Diviâ—um of Hippocrates Arduous Obscure Hidden Cryptical and Admirable Ferment in all the Ventricles both of the great and lesser World which cannot be seen with the eyes neither can it be perceived by any outward sense but only 't is known by its effect and that not without much labour and no little expence of time but I have shewed it to be the Child of the Sun Chap. 2. For whatsoever doth escape the sight of the bodily eye the eye of the Understanding doth and can reach it as in His book of Preccpts The Vieâ—â—â— Professors gross and Contumelious Opinion of the foundation of Ancient Physick This arduous and obscure Ferment hath so crazed the Brains of the Deans and their Collegiats though they think they were solid strong and well grounded in Art That they do altogether dislike that Divinum as a certain piacular thing which my Hippoc. Chymic celebrates both in Diseases and Remedies and they are also ignorant how to distinguish new things from old latter from former which the fourth in order of the Vienna Professors a scurrilous and dicacious prater doth confess viz. that he is amazed to find that it should be treated of by learned men as being manifestly false and foolish but he Dreams waking as the Proverb is But our Galen even when he was old deriding such mens madness together with many other famous Men had It in great esteem and with Hippocrates consesses in his 2. Book of the Differences of Feavors Chap. 27. That It is placed in a certain secret affection and that it doth inhere in the very parts saying of intermittent Feavors It ceases not to bring abcut the Circuitus of their Fits as long as the Disposition in the generating part is preserved whence it appears that in that place he fetches the Cures of Feavors a little higher than he doth in his Books of Method and in his First Book of Art to Glaxcoe affirming That the correction of this Disposition is the principle scope of the Cure and in the same book Where heat overcomes the matter it is called increment He means nothing else but what my Hippoc. Chym. hath more clearly explained for the sake of the studious viz. Ferment either occult or manifest which speaking to Plebeiasn he calls heat and Alcaly matter for if heat do overcome it must needs have dominion over the Matter or Alcaly as I have abundantly proved by all examples both in the great and lesser world and then sayes Galen Heat is encreased not only in Feavors but also in all other Diseases and Matters as I have before shewed in Barly a seed of the Macrocosme and now shall likewise shew even ad oculum in Paronychia i. e. and imposthumation under the root of the Nails a seed of the Microcosm Now Paronychia the Mistress or Queen of almost all Diseases is an Igneous Tumour so called from the most Acute pain accompanying it the like whereof is hardly to be found amongst Men it arises in the root of the Nails i. e. in their Ventricle when the Occult Ferment is by mistake There made manifest and soured in that very moment the vivid Aliment is perverted the neighbouring parts are disturbed and sometimes the Bones themselves are eroded But this Disposition is corrected by a more powerful Acid descending from a perfecter Family which can subdue the inflamed Ferment of the Microcosme For before the Tumour be opened it must be anointed over and the whole Nail too with Acid of Sulphur as it is gathered Ex Campana which by reason of its thickness they call Oil when this Unction causeth pricking and itching a little in the part affected in that very moment you may observe the corruptive Disposition to be corrected because the more powerful Anima gets dominion over the weaker no otherwise than as counterfeit Spirit of Venus subjugates the Occult Acid in a Pearl Do but wash your Finger with this warm Water and it is enough I would have discovered many more of these things for the benefit of my Neighbours as also a pleasant safe and delightsome Remedy for the Lues Venerca it self unless I had been every where prevented by the deep Wisdom of the Vienna Professors I know Learned Men not a few have by long use and experience taken notice of things that do eradicate certain Dispositions but by reason of the multitude of Ignorants in this woful age which with one mouth would raile against them I am almost ashamed to speak it they are afraid to publish Them because
filings of it taken by the mouth would do no good The Loadstone is the Mother of Iron which perceives the smell of her Son because she loves him but not being sufficiently satisfied with the smell of It for that cause it attracts and allures Iron to it as I have shewed concerning Aloalyes and the Mother of things But Rubigoe Rubigo Steriliâ— or Crocus Martis though that be also the Son of the Magnete yet it is neglected by it because its Soul or Acid is departed from it and therefore his Mother doth not perceive his smell and odor Hence it is called by Horatius Sterilis Rubigo And by how much the younger and newer the Load-stone is by so much the more strongly and vigorously it draws but the Ablution of it doth not do so Now as the Ablution of the Magnete doth not attract Iron so neither doth the Ablution of the Histrixe's Stone draw the Cause of the Disease no not although it were the Mother of a certain Morbifick Cause hitherto un-named Whatsoever attracts any thing from afar off as the Magnete doth Iron it attracts it for loves sake and it always attracts its like and as Vegetable Alcaly draws Alcaly of Lime for making Sope for this is a true attraction and of a thing like it self so we have seen that Gold is attracted yea plainly is dissolved and dies I say dies because the Cadaver stunk by the Mother Alcaly and this is the Magnete of Albertus Magnus drawing Gold to it which words a certain foolish Doctor taking in a literal sense turned into a jeer for so saith Bernardus in the fourth part of his Book The Fountain is to it as the Mother she draws the King and not the King her This was Paracelsus's meaning when he said that the Magnete extinguished in Oil of Mars that is Oil of Mars what Gold dissolved in the strongest Metaline Alcaly its like then to acquire a ten times greater Vertue is encreased ten times in his force For unless there were a consent of things and a mutual natural Love amongst them Nature could not subsist or if it should be interrupted a while the frame of Nature in a short space of time would be wholly ruined for the Son onely would be left in a small quantity neither would he encrease or be multiplied so that there is no discord or disagreement in Nature as some have taught but whatsoever is done is done in love for Nature of her own Genius doth chiefly cover and desire to be in the bottom of the Elementated Body in which she operates by strengthening its Natural heat and Prolifick Vertues because it is pervious to all Bodies as Great Raymund witnesses which Doctrine and Attraction of Natural Love I shall demonstrate by the following Experiment in a Mettaline Example since our present discourse is of Metals that it may appear Nature to be alike in every thing Take an Ounce of Silver dissolved by Aqua Fortis coagulate this Solution into a Saline Powder and cast this Powder upon Lead melted in the Fire but not very hot nor quite cold and in the eighth part of an hour The Acid Salt of the Aqua Fortis deserts the Silver and corrodes the whole quantity of the Lead as much as it had lost of the Silver i. e. an Ounce because it performes the Office of Metaline Alcaly in Artificials it draws and is saturated with the Silver which by a probatory Cupple returns again to Light Many Learned Men have admired this Experiment for they have drawn out an Ounce of Silver from the Lead and have found the Powder of the same form and weight as they cast it on whence they doubted in their opinion whether it were the same Powder of Silver which they cast on from which they could gain much if the way how the Powder might be refunded into the Body could be found out But as the Loadstone draws Iron so also Saturn the Alcaly in Artificials draws Luna and when the thirsty Salt of the Aqua Fortis wanting Aqueous Humidity cannot be alone it attracts so much Lead as it had lost of Silver These and the like Operations and Attractions which I have explained by illustrious Examples both in my Hippoc. Chymic and in this Book have been perhaps erst exploded because the Metampsychosis of the Pythagoreans hath not been understood Metampsychosis On this foundation the Stone also of the hairy Serpent newly found out is attractive Kircher describes it in his Book intitled The Magnetick Kingdom of Nature I have plenty of this Stone by me and to apply it to the bitings of mad Dogs to which it sticks strongly for about eighteen hours and I applied it to another Girl hurt by a mad Dog for seven days and nights and yet the Ablution of this Stone had not done the feat whatsoever these upstart Doctors do babble And as the Magnete of all the Things and Metals in the World draws nothing but Iron and is delighted with its Spirit neglecting the Rubigo and the Stone of the hairy Serpent rejoyces to attract the Odor of the Poison infused by the venomous bitings but it doth not attract Arsnick Wolfs-bane nor any other Poison so also Jasper draws an Exotick Spirit which makes an Impetus in Mans Bloud I have known sometimes Eyes troubled with a Suffusion of Blood Jasper to have been cured the next morning upon a Jasper Stone being bound to the neck at night But as the Ablution of the Magnete doth not draw Iron nor the Ablution of the Serpents-stone Poison nor That of Jasper the Spirit making the assault from the Blood so neither doth the Ablution of the Hedghogs or Histrixes-stone draw out any Malignity from Humane Bodies so teaches Galen in his First Book of Natural Faculties Chap. 14. Whatsoever things says he do draw forth the Poison of Serpents or Weapons These do shew forth the same Vertue that the Load-stone hath but the Ablution of the Magnete shews no such Faculty and why then should the Ablution of the Porcupine or Hedghogs-stone so that these are meer Dreams and Old Wives Fables imposed upon Great Men. It were better for such dreamers and for the Art of Physick too if they did philosophize with the Spade as Lucian jeeringly speaks of one who was about to dig the ground I have said That the Magnetick perceives Iron at a distance from it and attracts it by its odor only provided it be taken out of its Native Oil for otherwise where it grows it attracts nothing because there in its Native Place there is no want of the Odor of Iron The Island Elbe is fruitful of Lead-stones yet it was never seen nor heard off that it did incommode Ships passing by nor injure the Needle of the Compass be-because the Mother Magnete is there saturated with Spirit of Iron so also the Stone of the hairy Serpent being saturated with the Odor of the Poison which it drew from the biting of the Mad
it makes a Mock-shew and resemblance of Oyl but not with a benign sweet and grateful Acid as Vinegar and other Acid Juices which is to be marked After the same manner Camphire given at Mouth doth presently attract to it self that Malign inwardly Venemous Stinking Corroding and Suffocating Acidity which in Acute Diseases doth range through all the Veins and torments the Patients without intermission whereby the Vital Spirit is made purer chearfuller and acquires strength which Avicen amongst Practicioners first observed whence he rightly commends and calls it Camphire A Treacle against hot Poysons The Vital Spirit says he acquires Subtilty and exceeding Sprightliness and Vivacity from It and therefore it chears and comsorts even in spight of that Vulgar Proverb Castrat por Nares Camphora odore Mares i. e. Smell'd Champhires dose Castrates by th' Nose I add this in regard all that I have known If I speak noâ— the Truth let me be ashamed employed about purifying of It from its Dreggs by Sublimation both at Venice and Amsterdam they are called Resinatores whose houses smelled of nothing but Camphire are most Salacious Procreative and full of Children as if you will not believe their own Confession their numerous Off-springs may evince Camphire so dissolved in Aqua Fortis and precipitated or rather reduced with plain Simple water is made Soap wherewith Womans hands being annointed and afterwards washed with water it takes away that roughness which exasperates the Skin and makes them soft and as white as Milk a singular Ornament for the Female Sex for our * In his book of Precepts Master teaches That the care of the Sound and Healthy is to be also undertaken fox Comeliness and Beauties sake As the Alcaly of Camphire drinks up nothing Antimory but Acidity alone So also doth Antimony being destitute of its proper and innate Acidity which consists in a subtil venemous Exhalation not at all weighty as its Glass or Powder called Mercurius Vitae doth shew out of which with Acid Wine its like but not with Sweet is Extracted a Poyson which the Stomach abhors and there-there this Wine taken at Mouth with great violence is rejected from and by the Vital parts both by Vomit and Seige and by accident it sometimes Cures the Diseases of the first Region Hence Helmont De â—â—brâ—â— c. 15 6. As long as Antimony provokes Vomit 't is no remedy for an Honest Man But when That Poyson is expelled out of the Antimony either by the flame of the fire or by kindled Nitre of which I have spoken in its place then the Alcaly of Antimony is again Saturated with the aforesaid Acid Spirits which yet The Mines of Vitriol in Caria bia being emptied in a few years in the open Air are filled again by it So are also the empty Mines of Saâ—-peter at Padua whence it is called Anima â—â—undi or Spiritus Multiforâ—â—is by the Wise For this reason Basilius praises Alcaly of Aesenick as the Treasure of Health yet I would have none but the Learned to deal in it coming from flame or Nitre are not proper to Antimony So that in a few days space out of the Air It draws an Aliment like it self as I have shewed in a Flint which out of the Air extracts a nourishment like it self not like the life of a Dog So That which erst did gently provoke Sweat and Urine now like the very Glass of Antimony it self moves Vomit Wherefore the flame as also the Acidity of the Nitre as they are not Poysons so they are not proper to the Antimony now dispoiled and evacuated and so the Antimony being reduced to Alcaly and rob'd of all taste or sapor which they call Diaphoretick if it finds any Venemous thing in Man's body it attracts it and is Saturated by it For Nature rejoyces in its like Nature retaining it and rejoycing therein more then if it wandered up and down in Man's body Wherefore that empty and Diaphoretick Antimony profits nothing in Diseases unless when They are accompanyed with some Acid Poyson either occult or manifest as in the Plague burning Feavors Petectriales or Spotted ones and in diverse inward Ulcers in what place soever they be the venemous exhalations of which being absorbed by the Antimony then the Pores do open of their own accord and the Antimony becomes Diaphoretick otherwise not Hence Basilius says That this Powder is of great force In Repet Antiquiss Lap. f. 80. in my Edition to Cure many old Vlcerated Diseases c. i. e. whose Acidities are putrefying and escarotick or corroding for These this Powder imbibes and destroys and hereby as I have said the contraction of the Pores is enlarged and relaxed this action the Vulgar call Exsiccation for which cause it is also an Ingredient into that Plaister which Paracelsus calls by a barbarous Name Oppodeldock But what this Absumption Imbibition Precipitation or Exsiccation are and how they are effected I shall again Ocularly demonstrate anon when I speak of the properties of Iron and though Pearls Corals and other Cordials do also absume the Acidities arising about the Heart yet These are not putrefactive neither joyned with an hidden Venom So that it is one kind of Acid which emptyed and Alcalized Antimony doth imbibe Commonly 't is cailed by the general name of Heat another kind that Pearls Attract in the Palpitration of the Heart another which Crabbs Eyes draw forth in Wounds and Bruises another attracted by Goats-blood in Pleurisies another by Iron in Obstructions and Loosnesses another by the Volatile Alcalyes of Vegetables in Hecticks another by thd Bezoar Stone when rich men fall into a Swoon I say rich men The weight of a drachm was given to King Edward see Monardus for unless the proportion of this precious Stone which is very dear be correspondent to that Acidity which is hateful to Nature it is given in vain Hence Crato says he never observed any good from it though it were frequently given which I perswade my self to be true especially it being prescribed by Grains as Books perswade The skilfullest Practicioners of this City have observed this Defect as well as Crato who therefore perscribe Western Bezoar not that it is better than the Eastern but because it is cheaper and therefore it is given in a greater Dose For it is commonly believed to provoke and expel Sweat which effect yet it doth not produce unless it hath first consumed the Morbous Acidity as * Ch. p. of Pestilert Flavors Hercules of Saxony a Physician of note hath observed for this Stone is considered by them as many other Simples to act upon the Body as a Wedg driven by a Beetle not remembring that the Extraneous Sapor being consumed by the Stone or it s like the contraction of the Pores is enlarged and then the whole Body transpires of it self as old Hippocrates teaches the truth of whose doctrine is confirmed by a fly falling into the Eye whose
lids are presently with great violence contracted not that the Fly contracts them but the Sense abhors a Forreign Inmate but as soon as the Fly is taken out the Eye-lids are again gently relaxed I say it is one sort of Acidity which Paracelsus his Libium doth consume in the Dropsy another which the Spiritual Salt of Tartar destroyes in Hypocondriacal Melancholy and all other Diseases of the Spleen another that Ostiocolla doth waste in the rupture of Bones another that Corals with their specifick Alcaly destroy and absorb in the Gonorrhaea c. But the aforesaid Simples do not imbibe nor so much as enter into the proper I have shewed before by Alcaly that the Seeds of things in the Macrocosin are Acid so in the Microcosm as well in the Healthy as Sick Nature studiously Observes the same consent as this daily and common Praris doth declare innate and manifest Acidity of the Stomach as I have shewed whereby it Concocts and changes the food into an Acid Vital Juice which is to be admired Hence it appears every Acidity or Aura call it as you please expects and willingly entertains its convenient Compar and Fellow as I have erst shewed in the Earth of Carinthia evacuated of Vitriol wherewith it delights to be altered absorbed and transmuted and one disturbs not the course or province of another Hence Man hath obtained the Name of the Microcosm and * In Tabula Hermes says The things which are in the Superior are also in Inforior Bodies These are the foundations of Physick according to the nature of Man as its inventors first found it out and judg'd it an Art worthy to be ascribed to God and it hath been so accounted as the * De Vâ—tâ—r Medâ—â—in Old Man teaches for says he in the cited place It is not Siccity Humidity Heat nor Cold c. but Sapors which he there reckons up These my * Lib. de Arte. Hippocrates shews to be in the Cavities and Ventricles saying That Man's Body hath many Ventricles or Sapors as they can witness who are solicitous to know them he means only Chymical Philosophers for by and by he subjoyns of all the aforesaid things there is none visible and conspicuous to the Eye Wherefore they are called obscure by me not that they remain always so and do ever fly from our understanding but as much as is possible they may be understood and known For it is possible to Chymical Hippoâ—ratical Philosopher as far as the Nature of the Sick doth assist in the consideration and as far as the natures of the Enquirers are fit for that purpose For with much labour and no small space of time they are known and exhibited to the Eye For those things which escape our bodly Eyes are comprehended by our Followers by the eyes of their minds so far he Many of these things by the Authority of Hippocrates I have clearly demonstrated to the Eye as much as the brevity of a Compendium will allow but not to the Intent that every Hippocratist should imprudently practise or prostitute this Doctrine to De Pâ—isâ—a Midic and before the Unskilful Our Master vehemently forbids That saying It seems best to me that they who undertake to speak of this Art should discourse only of those things which are known to the Vulgar not enquiring into any other but the Diseases to which they are usually Obnoxious which is as much as to say Speak as the Many Think as the Few Arist 1. Top. if thou record other things besides the four Exerementitious Humours to be the cause of Diseases and does not pretend to expel them with their Concomitants and Attendants the same way that others do thou shalt be called a Fugitive an Emperick and a Paracelsian Since therefore our Master was afraid of Plebeian ignorants an Hippocratist should often ruminate on that saying of the Comedian Quodscis nescis To make no further Digression Out of what hath been spoken we may conclude how meet it is that all Alcalyes without Acids should be empty and inanous bodies for fixed Alcaly saturated with fixed Acid Alcaly is a Vacuâ—m in Nature is made Petrous as I have shewed in Lime but when It undergoes a melting heat then they pass into Glass The same fixed Alcaly boiled to maturity with an Occult Pingueous Acid the Humid-way is made Sope. So fixed Alcaly mixed with Acid Spirit of Salt is made Common Salt having all the properties thereof So also fixed Alcaly with the Acid of Vitriol is made Vitriol which is called Tartarum Vitriolatum and though Writers affirm that the Acid of Sulphur per Campanam No body at all doth perish nor is made That which it was not before Hipp. L. 1. de Diaet doth not differ from the Acid of Vitriol yet it is not true but as all Acids do retain and preserve the properties of their seed even unto the very Elements as I have shewed before in Wine so doth this Acid Liquor for when it corrodes a natural Body as Sand for Example having not yet undergone the fire then out of It is sublimated natural Sulphur Wherefore nothing in the world dies but all things are transmigrated and changed as * In Pimandro Trismegistus rightly determines and Lucretius also All things into their own bodies are dissolved L 2. nothing by Nature is to naught resolved Fixed Alcaly with the Acid Spirit of Nitre is turned into Frigid Nitre conceiving Flame and is a Remedy for the Quinzey The same Alcaly with the Acid Spirit of Wine is made Tartar of Wine as I have above largely shewn After this sort says my Master Hippocrates doth Nature also proceed which turnes the Aliments replenished with a Volatile Alcaly with and by the Acidity of the Stomach The Ferments of the place which they call Mumail first of all into Chyle manifestly Acid and in the subsequent Ventricles the Alcaly is coagulated according to the property of the Occult Acid which the Cavities contain within themselves So the Alcaly of the Excrements of the Belly though it be an hundred times rectified is troubled of its own accord as I have shewed in its place An Odorous smell is inseparable from the Alcaly of Urine the Alcaly of the Sweat of a sound Man doth not stink so there is a different coagulation of the Stone as I have shewn in its dissolution and concretion That Acid is different which hardens the Alcaly in the Bones another in the Blood another in the Veins another in the Hair and another must necessarily be in the Nails Reason it self dictates so much for otherwise every thing would be generated of every thing So also Sope made with Oyl differs from That made with Axungia and this again from that made with Tallow or Suet. All the Muscles says * I. de Aste Hippocrates have their proper Ventricle intimating that every Specifick Coagulation doth also require a Specifick Coagulator which though