like gunpowder but if it be kindled from above it doth not fulminate but onely burneth away like a quick fire metals may be melted and reduced thereby To make a spirit out of Salt of Tartar Sulphur and Salt-nitre IF you take one part of salt of Tartar and one part and half of Sulphur with three parts of salt nitre and grinde them together you will have a composition which fulminateh like Aurum fulminans and the same also after the same manner as above hath been taught with the gold can be distilled into flores and spirits which are not without speciall vertue and operation For the corruption of one thing is the generation of another How to make a spirit of saw dust sulphur and salt nitre IF you make a mixture of one part of Saw-dust made of Tilia or Linden-wood and two parts of good sulphur and nine parts of purified and well dryed salt nitre and cast it in by little and little there will come over an acid spirit which may be used outwardly for to cleanse wounds that are unclean But if you mix with this composition minerals or metals made into fine powder and then cast it in and distill it there will come not only a powerful metallical spirit but also a good quantity of flores according to the nature of the mineral which are of no small vertue for the minerals and metals are by this quick fire destroyed and reduced to a better condition whereof many things could be written but it is not good to reveal all things Consider this sentence of the Philosophers It is impossible to destroy without a flame The combustible Sulphur of the Calx which the digged Mine doth doe Also fusible minerals and metals may not only be melted therewith but also cupellated in a moment upon a Table in the hand or in a nut shel whereby singular proofs of oares and metals may be made and much better then upon a Cupel whereof further in the fourth part of this book Here is opened unto us a gate to high things if entrance be granted unto us we shall need no more books to look for the Art in them To make metallical spirits and flores by the help of salt-nitre and linnen cloth IF metals be dissolved in their appropriated Menstruums and in the solution wherein a due proportion of salt nitre must be dissolved fine linnen rags be dipt and dryed you have a prepared metal which may be kindled and as it was mentioned above concerning the saw dust through the burning away and consuming of their superfluous sulphur the mercurial substance of the metal is manifested And after the distillation is ended you will finde a singular purified calx which by rubbing coloureth other metals as that of gold doth guild silver that of silver over-silvereth copper and copper calx maketh iron look like copper c. which colouring though it cannot bring any great profit yet at least for to shew the possibility I thought it not amiss to describe it and perchance something more may be hid in it which is not given to every one to know Of Gun-powder OF this mischievous composition and diabolical abuse of Gunpowder much could be written but because this present world taketh onely delight in shedding innocent blood and cannot endure that unrighteous things should be reproved and good things praised therefore it is best to be silent and to let every one answer for himself when the time cometh that we shall give an account of our stewardship which perhaps is not far off then there will be made a separation of good and bad by him that tryeth the heart even as gold is refined in the fire from its dross And then it will be seen what Christians we have been We do all bear the name but do not approve our selves to be such by our works every one thinketh himself better then others and for a words sake which one understandeth otherwise or takes in another sense then the other and though it be no point wherein salvation doth depend one curseth and condemneth another and persecuteth one another unto death which Christ never taught us to do but rather did earnestly command us that we should love one another reward evil with good and not good with evil as now a dayes every where they use to do every one standeth upon his reputation but the honor of God and his command are in no repute but are trampled under foot and Lucifers pride vaine ambition and Pharisaicall hypocrisie or shew of holiness hath so far got the upper-hand with the learned that none will leave his contumacy or stubbornness or recede a little from his opinion although the whole world should be turned upside down thereby Are not these fine Christians By their fruit you shall know them and not by their words Woolves are now clothed with sheeps skins so that none of them almost are to be found and yet the deeds and works of Woolves are every where extant All good manners are turned into bad women turn men and men women in their fashion and behaviour contrary to the institution and ordinance of God and Nature In brief tke world goeth on crutches If Heraclitus and Democritus should now behold this present world they would finde exceeding great cause for their lamenting and laughing at it And therefore it is no marvel that God sent such a terrible scourge as the gun-powder is upon us and it is credible that if this do not cause our amendment that a worse will follow viz. thunder and lightning falling down from heaven whereby the world shal be turned upside down for to make an end of all pride self-love ambition deceit and vanity For which the whole creature doth waite fervently desiring to be delivered from the bondage thereof Now this preparation which is the most hurtfull poyson a terror unto all the living is nothing else but a sulmen terrestre denouncing unto us the wrath and coming of the Lord. For Christ for to judge the world is to come with thundering and lightning and this earthly thunder perchance is given us for to put us in minde and fear of that which is to come but this is not so much as thought on by men who prepare it only for to plague and destroy mankinde therewith in a most cruel and abominable manner as every one knoweth For none can deny but that there is no nimbler poyson then this gunpowder It is written of the Basiliske that he killeth man only by his look which a man may avoyd and there are but few if any at all of them found but this poyson is now prepared and found every where How often doth it fall out that a place wherein this powder is kept is stricken with thunder as with its like in so much that all things above it are in a moment destroyed and carryed up into the aire Also in sieges when an Ordnance is discharged or mines blown up all whom it lays hold on
from it by the power of rectification so well as with lapis calaminaris This spirit doth perform many things in medicine as in Alchymie as also in other arts as you may easily conjecture but here is not opportunity to speak more of these things yet for the sake of the sick I shall add one thing to which few things are to be compared the plaine and short process whereof I would not have thee be offended at And it is this viz. Mix this spirit with the best rectified spirit of wine digest this mixture somewhile and the spirit of salt will separate the spirit of wine and will make the oyle of wine swim on the top the volatile salt being mortified and this oyle is a most incomparable cordial especially if with the said spirit of wine spices have first been extracted and with the said spirit of salt gold hath been dissolved For then in the digestion of this mixture the oyle of wine being separated attracts the essence of the cordial species and of other vegetables being extracted before with the spirit of wine as also the tincture of gold and so by consequence a most efficacious imcomparable and universal medicine for all diseases fortifying the Humidum radicale that it way be able to overcome its enemies for which let praise and glory be given to the immortall God for ever who hath revealed to us so great secrets Of the extrinsecal use of the spirit of salt in the kitchen I Said before that in stead of vinegar and verjuice it may be used as also in stead of the juice of Limons now it remains that I shew you how it is to be used and that indeed as wil for the sake of the healthy as the sick Let him therefore that will dress a pullet pigeons veale c. in the first place put a sufficient quantity of spices of water and butter and then as he pleaseth a greater or lesser quantity of spirit of salt and by this means fleshes are sooner made ready being boyled then that common way an old hen though the flesh thereof be old is made as tender as a chicken by the addition of this spirit but he that will use it in stead of the juice of Limons with rost meat must put into it the pill of limons for preservation sake because it preserves it It is used in stead of verjuice by it self alone or mixed with a little sugar if it be too acid He that will stew beef and make it as tender as kid must first dissolve it in tartar and a little salt before he wets the flesh therewith and the flesh will not only be preserved but made tender thereby but to keep flesh a long time you must mix some water therewith and with weights press down the flesh that it may be covered with the pickle for by this means flesh may be preserved a great while After the same manner may all kinds of garden fruits be preserved as cucumbers purslaine fennel broom German capers c. and indeed better then in vinegar Also flowers and hearbs may a long while be preserved by the help thereof so that you may have a rose all the winter It preserves also wine if a little be mixed therewith A little thereof being mixed with milk precipitates the cheese which if it be rightly made is never corrupted being like to such cheese as they call Parmesan The whey of that milke dissolves Iron and cures any scab being washed therewith With the help of spirit of salt is made with honey and sugar a most pleasant drink not unlike to wine There is made also of certain fruits with the spirit of salt a very good vinegar like to the Rhenish vinegar Such and many more things which I wil not now divulge may be done with spirit of salt And thus have I in some measure taught the use of the spirit of salt which I would not have you take as if I had revealed all things for for brevities sake as also for some other reasons I have silently passed over many things Neither do I know all things my self but those things which I do know I have so far declared that others may from thence have hints of seeking further He that would describe all every power vertue thereof had need to write a whole volume that which is not my purpose at this time to do but may prehaps be done another time There shall also be shewed in the second part of this book some secrets which may be prepared by the help of this spirit as how it may be dulcified to extract the tincture of gold and of other metals leaving a white body which tincture is a medicine not to be slighted Wherefore now seeing it is manifest how great things this spirit can do every one will desire a good quantity for his houshold uses especially seeing most excellent spirits may be made after an easie and short way How an acid spirit or vinegar may be distilled out of all vegetables as hearbs woods roots seeds c. FIrst put a few living coals into the furnace then put upon them the wood that is to be distilled that it may be burnt out of which whilest it is burning goes forth the acid spirit thereof into the receiver where being condensed it fals down into another receiver resembling almost common vinegar in its smell wherefore also it is called the vinegar of woods And after this manner you may draw forth an acid spirit out of any wood or vegetable and that in a great quantity without costs because the wood to be distilled is put but upon a very few living coals and upon that another for one kindles the other and this spirit requires no more charges then of the wood to be distilled which is a great difference betwixt this and the common way of distilling where besides retorts is required another fire and out of a great retort scarce a pound of spirit is drawn in the space of five or six hours whereas in ours in the space of one day and that without any cost or labor may be extracted twenty or thirty pound because the wood is immediately to be cast into the fire to be distilled and that not in pieces but whole Now this spirit being rectified may commodiously be used in divers Chymical operations for it doth easily dissolve animal stones as the eyes of Crabs the stones of Perches and Carps Corals also and Pearle c. as doth vinegar of wine By means thereof also are dissolved the glasses of metals as of tin lead Antimony and are extracted and reduced into sweet oyles This vinegar being taken inwardly of it self doth cause sweat wonderfully wherefore it is good in many diseases especially that which is made of Oake Box Guaiacum Juniper and other heavy woods for by how much the heavier the woods are by so much the more acid spirit do they yeeld Being used outwardly it mundifies ulcers wounds consolidates extinguisheth and mitigates
turned into spirit Moreover the acide or sowre oyle of common Vitriol doth precipitate all metals and stones of beasts or fishes also pearles and corals they being first dissolved in spirit of salt or of Nitre and maketh faire light powders of them which by the Apothecaries are called Magisteries much fairer then by precipitation with salt of Tartar is done especially of corals and pearles such a faire glistering and delicate powder is made and likewise also of mother of pearle and other shels of snailes that it giveth as fair a gloss to them as the fairest oriental pearles have which way hath not been made common hitherto but being known only to few hath been kept very secret by them as a singular Art Such magisteries commonly were precipitated out of vinegar onely by salt of Tartar which for lightness whiteness and fair gloss are not comparable at all to ours But if in stead of the oyle of Vitriol you take oyle of sulphur then these powders will be fairer then when they are done by the oyle of Vitriol in so much that they may be used for painting for a black skin Having made mention of Magisteries I cannot forbear to discover the great abuse and error which is committed in the preparing of them Paracelsus in his Archidoxes teacheth to make Magisteries which he calleth extracted Magisteries but some of his disciples teach to make precipitated Magisteries which are quite different from the former Paracelsus is clean of another opinion in the preparing of his Magisteries then others in the making of theirs doubtless Paracelsus his Magisteries were good cordiall living medicines whereas the other were but dead carkases and although they be never so faire white and glistering yet in effect they prove but a gross earthy substance destitute of vertue I do not deny but that good medicines may be extracted out of pearles and corals for I my self also do describe the preparations of some of them but not at all after such a way as theirs is For what good or exalting can be expected by such a preparation where a stony matter is dissolved in corrosive waters and then precipitated into stone again Can its vertue be increased thereby surely no but rather it is diminished and made much the worse thereby For it is well known that the corrosive spirits no less then fire do burn some certain things for not all things are made better by fire or corrosives but most of them are absolutely spoyled by them Some perchance will say that such preparations of Magisteries are onely for to be reduced into a finer powder that so much the sooner they may perform their operation To which I answer that pearles corals and other of the like nature if they be once dissolved by corrosive waters and then precipitated and edulcorated never or hardly can be dissolved againe by acid spirits Whence it is evident that by such preparations they are not opened or made better but rather closed or made worse And we see also by daily experience that those Magisteries do not those effects which are ascribed unto them By which it appeareth cleerly that to the Archeus of the stomach they are much less grateful then the crude unprepared corals and pearles whose tender essence being not burnt up by corrosives do oftentimes produce good effects For our Ancestors have ascribed unto corals and pearles that they purifie the impure and corrupt blood in the whole body that they expel Melancholy and sadness comforting the heart of man and making it merry which also they effectually perform whereas the Magisteries do not And this is the reason why unprepared corals pearles and stones of fishes have more effect then the burnt Magisteries For it is manifest and well known that the abovesaid diseases for the most part do proceed from obstructions of the spleen which obstructions are nothing else but a tartarous juice or a sowre flegme which hath possessed and filled up the entrals and coagulated it self within them By which obstruction not only head-ach giddiness panting of the heart trembling of the limbs a spontaneous lassitude vomits unnatural hunger also loathing of victuals then cold then hot flushing fits and many more strange symptomes are caused but also a most hurtful rottenness and corruption is introduced into the whole mass of blood from whence the leprosie scurvy and other loathsome or abominable scabs do spring Of which evil the onely cause as hath been said is a crude acide Tartar from which so many great diseases do rise This to be so may easily be proved for it is notorious that melancholik folks hypocondriaques and others do often cast up a great quantity of acid humor which is so sharpe that no vinegar is comparable to it and doth set their teeth on such an edge as if they had eaten unripe fruit What remedy now take away the cause and the disease is taken away If you could take away the peccant matter by purgings it would be well but it remaineth obstinate and will not yeeld to them By vomit it may be diminished in some measure But because that not every one can abide vomiting it is therefore no wisdome to turn evil into worse Shall then this tartar be killed and destroyed by contraries which indeed in some sort may be effected as when you use vegetables or animals whose vertue consisteth in a volatile salt such are all species or sorts of cresses Mustard-seed horse-radish scurvy grass also the spirit of Tartar of Hartshorn and of urine and the like which by reason of their penetrating faculty pass through all the body finding out the Tartar thereof destroying the same as being contrary unto it and in this combat two contrary natures is kindled a great burning heat whereby the whole body is throughly heated and brought to sweating and whensoever by these contraries a sweating is caused there is alwayes mortified some of this hurtful Tartar But because that of that acid humor but a little at a time can be mortified and edulcorated by contrary volatile spirits and that therefore it would be required to use them often for to kill and expell all the Tartar and because also as hath been mentioned before a strong sweat alwayes is caused by every such operation whereby the natural spirits are much weakened so that the patient would not be able to hold out long thereby but by taking away of one evil another and greater one would be occasioned And therefore such things must be offered to that hungry acid humor by which the corrosive nature thereof may be mortified and grow sweet with that proviso nevertheless that those things be such as are not contrary or hurtful to the nature of man but grateful and friendly as are corals pearles and crabs eyes c. For amongst all stones none are more easily to be dissolved then Pearles Corals Crabbs-eyes and other stones of fishes But the truth of this viz. that every corrosive is killed by feeding upon pearles and corals and
be cured thereby c. It s use is the same as was taught above of the Antimonized spirit of sugar Of the spirit of Muste or new wine TAke sweet Muste or juyce of grapes as soon as it is squeezed out boyle it to the consistency of honey and then mix it with sand corals or which is better with flores of Antimony and so distil it and it will yield such another spirit as that which is made of honey or sugar onely that this is somewhat tarter then that of honey With honey sugar and the juyce of grapes several metals may be dissolved in boyling and so prepared and made up into divers medicaments both with and without distillation after the same manner as was taught above with Tartar for honey sugar and the juyce of grapes are nothing else but a sweet salt which by fermentation and addition of some sowre thing may be changed into a sowre Tartar in all like unto that which is gathered in the wine vessels There can be made also a Tartar out of cherries pears apples figs and all other fruit yielding a sweet juyce as also of rye wheate oates barley and the like whereof in the third part more shall be said For every sweet liquor of vegetables if it be turned inside out by fermentation may be changed to a natural sowre Tartar and it is utterly false that as some do suppose onely wine yeilds Tartar which by daily use made of it by those that have very hungry stomachs like Woolves indistinctly together with the nourishment went into the limbs and theâ—e turned to a stony matter If this were true then in cold countries where no wine groweth men would not be troubled with the gout or stone the contrary whereof is seen daily though I must confess that among all vegetable none yeildeth more then the vine the concurrent acidity being cause thereof for it turneth the sweetness into Tartar for the sowrer the wine is the more Tartar it yeildeth and so much the sweeter so much the less Tartar By this discourse an industrious Chymist may easily come to know the original nature and proprieties of Tartar and in default of wine how to make it out of other vegetables the common salt or the salt of Tartar may be distilled with honey sugar or sodden wine sapa and it will yeild as strong spirits as that metals may be dissolved with them and they are not to be despised in Physick and Alchymie Of oyle Olive OUt of oyles made by expression as oyle olive rape oyle wallnut oyle hempseed oyle linseed oyle and the like there may be distilled a penetrating oyle useful both outwardly and inwardly which is done thus Take common potters clay not mingled with sand frame little bals of it as big as a pigeons or hens-egg burn them but not too strong to a hard stone so that they may attract the oyle and when they are no more quite red-hot but pretty hot then throw them into oyle olive which is the best let them lye in it till they be quite ful and drunk of the oyle which will be done in two or three hours some cast them red hot into the oyle but amiss because the oyle contracts thence an Empyreuma Then take them out and cast in one or two of them at once into your distilling-vessel made red-hot and let it go and within a while after carry in one or two more and continue this till you have oyle enough If the vessel be full of the bals take them out with the tongs or ladle that you may proceed without let in your distillation in this maner you need not fear the breaking of your retort or receiver or the burning of your oyle The distillation being performed take off your receiver powre the oyle that came over into a glass retort and rectifie it from calcined Allome or Vitriol and the Allome will keep back the blackness and stinck and so the oyle will come over cleer which must be yet rectified once or twice more with fresh calcined Allome according to the intensness of penetrating which you look for that which cometh over first ought still to be caught by it self and you will get a very faire bright and clear oyle which is very subtle but that which cometh after is somewhat yellow and not so penetrating neither as the first and therefore it is but for external use to extract flowers and hearbs therewith and to make pretious balsames for cold and moyst sores Also you may dissolve with it ambar mastick myrrhe and the like attractive things and with wax and Colophony reduce it to a plaster which wil be very good in venemous sores and boyles for to attract the poyson and to heal them out of hand If you dissolve in it common yellow sulphur made into powder you will get a blood red balsame healing all manner of scabs and other like defects of the skin especially when you add to it purified Spanish green and in hot sores Saccharum Saturni which in a gentle heat and by continual stirring about do easily melt and mingle therewith It needeth not to be done in glasses but may be done in an ordinary earthen pot or pipkin The use of the blessed oyle THe first and cleer is of a very penetrating nature some drops thereof given in some Aqua vitae presently stayes the colick proceeding from windes that could not be vented as also the rising of the mother the navil being anoynted therewith and a cold humor being faln upon the nerves whereby they are lamed if you do but anoynt them with this oyle and rub it in with warm hands it will quickly restore them and therefore in regard of its present help may well be called Oleum sanctum If you extract plate of iron or copper with this oyle it will turn deep red or green and is a soveraigne remedy for to warm and dry up all cold and watery sores It consumeth also all superfluous moysture in wounds and ulcerous sores as also all other excrescencies of the skin it healeth tettars and scald-heads and other like defects proceeding from superfluous cold and moysture You may also dissolve in it Euphorbium and other hot gums and use them against great frost for what limb so ever is anoynted therewith no frost how great so ever can do it any hurt The balsames made with gum or sulphur may be also distilled through a retort and in some cases they are more useful then the undistilled balsame Of the oyle of Wax IN the same manner may be distilled also the oyle of wax the use whereof is in all like unto the former and for all cold and infirmities of the nerves this is found more effectual yet then the former A Spirit good for the Stone OUt of the stones which are found in grapes there may be distilled a sowre spirit which is a certain and specifical remedy for the stone in the kidneys and bladder and also for all paines of the
the great dammage of the sick For almost all natural baths and volatile spirits of salts minerals and metals partake of some most subtile penetrating heating and drying sulphureous salt spirit but the spirits of vegetables and animals partake of a certain volatility that is most subtile penetrating heating opening cutting and attenuating both urinous and nitrous viz. contrary to the former as appeares by the pouring on of any volatile sulphureous spirit as of common salt vitriol allome minerals and metals upon the rectified spirit of urin or salt Armoniack where presently the one mortifies the other and takes away its volatility and subtilty so that of both subtile spirits of divers natures there cometh a certaine salt of no odour and efficacy Whence it is manifest that all spirits partaking of divers natures and essences have not the same faculties Therefore be thou cautious in giving most potent spirits lest thou give an enemy in stead of a friend and learn their natures vertues and essences before thou usest them in medicine But thou dost aske whether is that great force of those spirits gone as it were in a moment did it evaporate in that duel No I say but transmuted into a corporeal substance for of a most pure mineral subtile and most volatile sulphur and a most penetrating animal Mercury is made a certain corporeal salt which is wonderful and deserves to be called Aquilâ— Philosophorum because it is easily sublimed with a gentle heat in which many things lye for it doth not only conduce to the solution of metals especially of gold but also of it self by the power of maturation doth become a most efficacious medicine Of which no more at this time because I will only advise the reader that he be diligent in searching out the spirits of nature which although they change their bodies yet are not therefore to be called dead but rather reduced to a better perfection And let this suffice concerning the dry use of baths in provoking sweat for the expelling of diseases now for what diseases this or that spirit serves thou shall reader find in its proper Treatise of which there hath been mention above but in a word know that those volatile sulphureous spirits of salts minerals and metals are good in all obstructions of the inward parts viz. of the spleen lungs and liver but especially are most excellent in heating the cold nerves because they do most efficaciously heat attenuate cut expel and mundifie wherefore they are good in Contractures Palsies Epilepsie Scorbute Hypochondriacal Melancholy Morbus Gallicus Itch and other corrosive ulcers and Fistulaes c. But the spirit of another kinde as of Tartar Hartshorn salt Armoniack Urine c. are hot also but not so dry and besides the heating vertue have also a penetrating cutting mollifying attenuating absterging and expelling power wherefore also they work wonderfully in all obstructions of the inward and outward parts for they do better then all others open the pores of the skin and provoke sweat mollifie and open the hemorrhoides proyoke the menses of young and elder women purge and heat the womb and therefore cause fruitfulness they heat and purge a cold and moist braine acuate the intellect and memory let they that be great with child take heed of them and also they that have a porous open skin Such and other more properties and that deservedly are ascribed to these spirits Now those two aforesaid baths in one whereof those spirits are used in a humid way being mixed with warm water for the whole body to be bathed and sweat in but in the other in a dry way where the vapours are by force of the fire made under the Globe forced up into the sweating box towards the patient which being used after this manner do oftentimes penetrate and operate more efficaciously then that humid way are not to be slighted for the recovery of health as doing things incredible Now those spirits not being found in shops nor being to be made by any according to the manner that I have shewed in the second part I would have thee know that there is yet another matter which needs not to be distilled and it is mineral which being put into the Copper instrument doth of its own accord without fire yield such a sulphureous spirit which penetrates very much and goeth into the sweating box like in all things to that which is made out of salts minerals and metals Nature also hath provided us another matter that is to be found every where which being in like manner put into the instrument doth by it self and of its one accord without fire yeild a spirit in vertue not unlike to that which is made out of crude Tartar or salt Armoniack Soot Urine c. Of which in the second part doing viz. the same things with that which is made with costs and labour Those foresaid 2. matters therefore can do the same things which are required for a bath and sweating which those two foresaid kinds of spirits viz. mineral and sulphureous vegetable and animal can do c. Now what those two matters which are easily every where to be found are thou desirest to know but I dare not if I would for the sake of the pious to reveal them for the sake of the ungrateful and unworthy For it is an offence to cast pearle before swine which yet the pious may by the blessing of God finde out by the reading of the rest of my writings Now follows a wooden vessel which is to be used in stead of a Caldron in boyling of Beer Metheglin Vinegar c. MAny things might be said concerning this matter for although men may be found in any part of the world who know how to make malt of corne and of this beer and vinegar yet many things may be said of this matter for the correcting of it but because it is not my purpose to shew such things now yet I shall say something of the use of that copper globe which any one may provide in stead of Caldrons and which is to be used with a certain wooden vessel in the boyling of beer which by this way he may as hath been spoken above concerning the operations make as well as by the help of Caldrons Moreover I could here also teach some other most profitable secrets viz. how honey may be freed from its ungrateful odour and tast by the help of precipitation and how afterwards a most sweet spirit is to be drawn out of it very like in all things to the spirit of wine also how the best and sweetest wine cleer and durable like to Mallago may be made thence also how after purging it is to be crystallised so as to resemble Sugar-candy in goodness and tast also how the sweetness thereof may be converted into Tartar very like to the natural Also how out of fruits of trees as cherries apples pears c. a very good and durable wine in goodness colour tast and vertue
reward of his labours as also their cavillations and contumelious reporting of mens writings to be false and lyes Why doth not Glauber if he had the knowledge of so great things of which he made mention in the Appendix make himself rich but lives in idleness Therefore they are nothing but vaine dreams Thou dost judge very excellently of colours which thou never sawest to whom I am not constrained to give an account of my idleness of which if thou hadst asked me without doubt I had given thee satisfaction and had prevented thy foolish censure But such kind of men betray their own ignorance of things that are to be performed by fire for he that goes about to catch fishes doth not cast his net upon the mountaines but into the water so he that gets his living in metals must needs be conversant in these places where metals are found Now that I have lived in these places so many yeers with disprofit besides my will hath been a hindrance to my fortune which elswhere where I might have operated perhaps might have happened to me But it is better to possess a few things in peace then many things in the hazardousness of a dreadful war But now I am fully resolved whether that most desired peace of Germany succeed or no to betake my self to such places where I may have opportunity to handle coales and mines which when I have done let cavillers if they will enquire whether I do any thing whereas indeed in this place I was not minded to attempt any thing whereby to be rich by reason of inconveniences For in this place I had enough to do all things being dear to get an honest livelyhood and to search into the secrets of nature for thy good and to make experiment in less things greater being neglected Hence the cause of my slothfulness will appear to thee wherefore do not thou any more judge rashly but minde thine own affaires aud let other men alone And this is the cause of explaining the Appendix which was made not for the general and universal communicating of those secrets the knowledge whereof as you may guess is not so easily to be attained to but for the demonstration of the truth that toyes and and trifles may no more be esteemed by the incredulous and ignorant but the profitable secrets of nature the inventor whereof I can boldly pronounce my self to be prized and received by all and every one Wherefore from the beginning to the end I shall treat of each of them briefly and shall give the explanation of each as far as I may without prejudice that they may be received not for dreams but for natural sciences certaine and most profitable for the confutation sake of cavillers Annotations upon the Appendix of the FIFTH BOOK PARAGRAPH I. A preparation of corn wheat barley oates c. also of pears apples cherries and other tree fruits to be performed by the help of a certain fermentation whereby through the help of distillation they yeeld a very good and most pure spirit very like to that which is made of the lees of wine without great costs where also from the remainders of the corn the burning spirit being drawn off may be made a very good beer or vineger and of the remains of the fruits a very good drink like to wine Whence there is a double benefit so that any one may not only have from thence wherewith to live but also to lay up THis Art hath appeared to many very strange of which no man yet hath made mention Some having knowledge of the common distilling Art have thought that that which is to be distilled having a burning spirit is to be put into a still yeelding all its spirit in the fire nothing thereof being left in the remainders This is to be ascribed to their ignorance they not knowing to give an account of their operations operating only out of use and custome things which they have seen heard not considering with themselves that there may be given a better or nearer way of distilling of spirits with whom I will not contend but only shew in brief which way all kindes of corn and fruits being distilled yeeld more spirits then that common way or at least how the spirit being abstracted something may be made of the residue of the matter being equall in the price to the matter distilled so that by this means the burning spirit may be had almost for nothing and it is done after this following manner It cannot be denyed that all vegetables whatsoever as all kinds of corn and fruits also grass it self being prepared and fermented yeeld a burning spirit more or lesse in quantity and quality viz. a consideration being had of the maturity or immaturity fatness or dryness of them For those things which are fatter and sweeter yeeld more spirits then things which are unripe sowre and dry for by how much more the subjects are dry and less ripe so much the fewer spirits doe they yeeld and that not before fermentation which gives them such a maturity as to make them yeeld their spirit in distillation which otherwise they would not doe Hence therefore it doth necessarily follow that fermentation is the onely cause of the burning spirit and by consequence the onely Medium whereby plenty of spirits are obtained viz. if the things be rightly and well fermented whereby they are so qualified as to be able afterward to yeeld their burning spirits the more easily which by how much the better they are fermented doe yeeld the more But seeing that common fermentation is not sufficient for the totall elevation of the burning spirit it comes to pass that the best part thereof is left in the still which hitherto by reason of ignorance hath been used to no other purpose then to feed hogges which is ill done for the matter that is left ought first to have lost its fatness and that either by distilling of more spirits or by the making of beer or vineger before the reliques be cast to Hogges whence there comes a double profit to the operator But you must not be ignorant that for this operation you must not make choice of any common Cauldron in which fruits are used to contract an Empyreuma viz. an ungratefull tast and smell but another certain instrument of the same Nature which wil hinder and not permit the adustion of the matter which is to be distilled though it be thick by the help whereof there is obtained a very sweet spirit in a great aboundance by the help of our secret fermentation And so thou dost understand the reasons by the help whereof more and sweeter spirits are obtained from corn and fruits whence a double gain viz. by the help of a certain vessel or instrument and of our secret fermentation PARAG. II. The making of wine not unlike to Rhenish French or Spanish that shall endure for the space of many yeares out of corn and fruits IN this Paragraph the