though he takes his beginning from it which he presently clears by a plain familiar example Man says he doth thresh wash and grinde Bread corn and baking it he uses not a strong Fire to make it up in a body but a soft and gentle one Wherefore the Fire of the Chymical Philosopher in the extraction of Animals Minerals or Vegetables called Small Elixirs by the Modernes must be moderate Hippocrates teaches All things to be like which were unlike But as soon as Fire exceeds the degree of being moderate 't is no longer the Philosophers fire but the Artists for then things are not advanced by the intervention thereof but are altered thereby as our Master teacheth in the fore-cited Book Whosoever therefore do apply themselves to the Fusion or Liquation of Salts either with a gentle or a vehement heat They all have their dependance on this Ancient Chymical Philosophy So that such persons are in a gross and ignorant Mistake in the judgement of Hippocrates who exclude Apothecaries from this Art For when Pharmacopaeans do pound Vegetables and wring out their Juice then it is that they make a fusion of Salts expelling and thrusting out the Exotick and Forrain not being of one and the same temper they are Hippocrates his words but when they condense the melted Salts with Sugar into a Syrup then they throughly mix and alter them So 't is says Hippocrates with the nature of Man all Arts communicating with humane Nature Wherefore if Nature do precede Art and Art doth but imitate Nature there is no man under the Sun who hath not within himself as it were a Chymical and Salt-melting shop only the Canonical Physician who bears an hatred to the opinions of Hippocrates by reason of his ignorance of this Ancient Art excepts himself as being altogether unacquainted with this divinely inspired Science And by means of such Ignoramus's Physick is accounted the meanest of all Professions for it hath no foundation to build upon Of such Ignorants Seneca speaks That they are always learning but never attain to the knowledge of the Truth Hence it is that Galen in his rich Writings approves and commends Hippocrates to us Ars Glaucon initio and lib. 1. De Venaesect adversus Erasist as the Guide and Author of all Good which Epithites he frequently bestows upon him thereby eternizing and consecrating his Name to Posterity This so well grounded opinion of Galen hath moved me never as long as I live to admit of any other Doctrine in Physick but that of Hippocrates which I believe will be Coaevous with Nature it self Otto Tachenius HIS HIPPOCRATES CHYMICVS The Occasion of writing the Ensuing Treatise A man knows only so much as is certainly discovered to him by either Mental or Manual Operation and Experiment CHAP. I. THe perfect knowledge of all Sciences is so difficult that the Life of Man would sooner be at an end than he can attain unto the compleat understanding of any one of them so as to be put beyond all dispute by the help only of * Whic'â— yet are not wholly to be rejected Paper-books Socrates having made a through disquisition into almost all Sciences was then judged the wisest of men by the Oracle when he openly professed that he knew nothing at all This the Preacher seems to confirm to us I beheld says he all the Works of God Eccl. Ch. 8. v. 17. that a man cannot find out the reason of the Works which are done under the Sun and the more he labours to find it out the further it is off though a wise man think to know it yet shall he not be able to find it out The Divine Hippocrates was not ignorant of this difficulty of obtaining knowledge in our Art of Physick which made him ingeniously to confess it in his * In Epist Epistles to Democritus For says he though I am an old man yet I am not arrived to the true knowledge of Physick And the same person avers * 1. Apb. 1. That our life is too short for the acquist of any one Science from the very Foundation thereof Hereupon he advises us to honour and esteem those which have endeavoured to search out the hidden works of Wise Nature L. 1. de Diaet adding withal that no one of them could be justly blamed though he were not able fully to find them cut But it seems the Writer who reformed the Augustane or Auspurgh Dispensatory was of another mind his Book was printed at Tergow by William Vorhoven A. D. 1657. Upon occasion of that Book a few days since my respected Friend John de Lanou a Famous Bookseller of this City asked my advice whether I thought it worth his labor to Print it here c. 'T is true I had heard of the Title before but I had never seen the Book for I had not so much leisure as to spend my time in reading such Pieces Nevertheless upon that occasion at spare hours I read it all over and could not but take notice of and wonder at that corrupt Custom so familiar to him and others against the direct Precept of Hippocrates that whatsoever a man had honestly found out by great Labour and Study and had commended it to Posterity in writing for the good of the Publick the same should presently be traduced defamed and spurned at amongst the Ignorant Vulgar not by force of Reason and Experience but by monstrous Calumnies and Reproaches that so like Herostratus they might procure some fame to themselves by the ruine of other mens Credit The Reformer of the Auspurgh Dispensatory treads in those steps railing and declaiming not only against the Ancients but the Moderns also Followers of Hippocrates and Galen in such sort that there is hardly an Arrow in the Quiver of Slander which he shoots not at them I had formerly instructed this Man in the way of making Vâ—perine Salt but under a Metaphorical disguize for I had denied to teach him in plain terms and now he proclaims me for a Cheat Pharmace f. 487. and that I hinder by Imposture the making of it publick I ingeniously confess that here at least in part the Reformer speaks truth for whatsoever made Physicians who were lovers of Truth famous heretofore the same things Impostors do craftily adulterate Our Hippocrates was afraid of such Cheats which made him conceal his Antipestilential Medicament by which he had procured so much Honour to himself and had happily and securely cured that Disease as his Epistles do testifie Paracelsus did also dread Impostors who by his wonderful Art cured the otherwise incurable Contagions of the Body as his Epitaph speaks which may be seen graven on a stone at Saltsburge in the Hospital of S. Sebastians In our dayes Lazarus Riverius feared the like Cheats and for that cause he published his Specifique against Feavors under a Metaphor So Helmont very prudently vailed the Liquor which with Paracelsus he calls by a corrupt Name
administred against the aforesaid Indications as I have shewn then indeed it wants not a deletery Vertue as Avicen teaches well for it excites the gripings of the Intestines dryness and roughness of the tongue siccity of the Body costiveness of the Belly and pains of the Head because it doth consume not only the manifest Ferment of the Stomach but also the occult Acid of the other Bowels and sucks up the Vital Seed but the quantity of it being small viz. the 8200 part of its Body 't is no wonder if upon the taking of Crocus Martis though it should be Aperitive as they ignorantly babble the Disease become more vehement to the destruction of the Patient And in that Case they blame the Apothecary-behind his back as if he had mistook the Box and so detract from his honesty without Cause But if they will not hearken to an old faithful Admonition and to my Experience but pertinaciously resist good Counsel it may chance to come to pass that at last daily Experience and the Death of their Patients will in spight of their teeth enform them of the Truth Otherwise the World would be filled with far fetched ill understood false and dubious Receits and the diligent Observations of our Ancestors would be lightly esteemed and so a new unskilful ambiguous costly speculative infinite and groundless way of Physick would take place which under the disguise of false Words and deep Learning would be entertained by Ideots who not knowing the Vertues of Things hotly contend amongst themselves and rail one at an other not only about Aperitive or Astringent Iron but about many other things some of which I have spoken of as much as the nature of the Argument and the good of my Neighbours require So also by uncertain Conclusions and vain Opinions they revile the Wits of the Studious and to the hurt of their Neighbour and the infamy of the Art they approve and subscribe to Lying Fables And not at all studying the Truth they boast themselves to be great Doctors who yet never will attain to Science because they follow the herd that went before and think they have already attained it as Seneca rightly speaks but to return to the matter Dioscorides handles Iron two manner of ways either preparing Ferrugo out of it or extinguishing It in Water or Wine yet to both the Preparations he ascribes an Astringent Vertue he doth not call the one Astringent and the other Aperitive For when Iron opens it comes from the specifick Acid degenerating in the body which Nature could not receive into nourishment and therefore by reason of its Acid taste it rushes to the Iron so the Bowels being strengthened by degrees Nature expels That together with the detained excrements by stool Hence Helmont says that Iron doth open by a specifick and appropriate Vertue but it binds by a second quality so that neither of the Vertues of the Iron do proceed from the absence or presence of its Mercury which they boast but without Truth that they can extract from it but from the attraction of the specifick Acid in the Morbous Bodies as Hippoc. Chymic shews Chap. 16. and 28. Thither I refer the Reader that I may not clog him with the repetition of things there spoken But we may grant that they can as well extract Mercury from Iron as Eximious Vertues from Copper These Vanities are and always were nausceous to Me as well as to the World and the Sick for they have no foundation in Nature so that they and their Masters are to be banished from the society of good Men whilest on the other side I deal with the Doctrine of Truth and the most Ancient Science which the Ancients found to be agreeable to the Nature of Man and thought worthy to be ascribed to God as the School of Truth yet thinks as Hippocrates hath it De Veterum Medicina for He there teaches that as there is a manifold Acid in the Macrocosme so also in Mans Body And in his Book de Arte every Acid hath its proper Ventricle which yet the vocal and wordy Colledge is ignorant of and therefore he adds as they know who study these things but seeing it is easier to steal blind Receits and to approve them to suppress Truth and to load It with Calumnies then to learn the knowledge of the Ventricles of Mans Body 't is no wonder that They are ignorant of the Instruments of Physick who have no regard to the Ventricles For if says the Old Man they do not know the Constitution from the beginning and that which is predominant in the body they cannot prescribe that which is good for a Sick Man Lo here the Cause why Crocus Martis being Aperitive in the hands of superficial and ignorant Doctors becomes Astrictive and Vice Versa because they are ignorant of their proper Instruments and in the method of Curing know not how to apply Active things to Passive because they have not the knowledge of Ventricles or Sapors neither did they ever learn Them out of Hippocrates of which my Hippoc. Chymic doth discover very many This is the reason why as I said before they come to Practice as the Ass to his fodder not knowing to what he extends his Lips but only as far as his exterior senses without understanding by seeing and tasting do draw him to his meat But why do I insist on the decrees of Philosophers deduced and drawn down from Nature it self since I have to do with such Persons who never so much as dreamt of the Verity and Excellency of the Art of Physick Therefore they are to be instructed by Examples taken out of the Shop of Wise Nature Observe then That in the Stomach and Milt of a sound Animal there dwels a Vital Acid proper to the Milt but when That Acid doth degenerate into an unusual taste or sapor all the neighbouring parts are also contaminated and presently the pores are contracted and the Body which was transpirable in health now ceases from action hence the Milt swels from the motion of the Ferment which will not obey purging Medicines as experience shews Now Iron taken at mouth is good for that Ferment and prae-acid Taste by which the Milt is lessened or dried call it which you will but not by reason of the Aperitive force of the Iron but that Acidity there detained doth in a special manner love the Iron as a thirsty Man doth Beer Let Silver dissolved in Aqua Fortis be an Example Aqua Fortis hath the smell and property of Sulphur of Iron because it is made of Sulphurous Nitre Vitriol or Allum whence by reason of the likeness between them it loves Copper and Iron as I have above Mechanically shewed Now as in the Stomachs of Animals the hungry Acid desires to be satisfied with its like and That like i. e. food it dissolves and is delighted with it 't is just so in the Matrocosme For Example The Acidity of Aqua Eortis is as an
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
in the Oyl to take off that colour he made appear that Gold which was hid before To the Most Serene and Mighty PRINCES The LORDS George William John Frederick Ernest Augustus Brethren By the Grace of GOD DUKES of Brunswick and Lunenburg c. His Most Bonntiful LORDS POndering often in my Mind High and Mighty Princes and my Noble Patrons the Great and many Favours which Your Grand and Prince-like Liberality hath most Graciously heaped upon me and thereby Eternally obliged me to Your Excellencies I became solicitous and concerned in my thoughts with what Veneration and Industry of Wit answerable to the Obsequiousness of my Devoted mind I might declare by some Testimony at least an endeavour of Gratitude for Your Benefits bestowed upon me 'T is the guise of Others in Dedicating their Lucubrations to Princes and Nobles chiefly to concern themselves in Blazoning their Genealogies and in Decyphering their Praises and Heroick Acts in an high Method of Elegancy thereby extolling them as we say with an open mouth to the Skies But I well knowing that the full-blown Elogies of Talkative Fame do displease Your Excellencies especially since glorious and memorable Vertue it self for so many Ages backward together with Magnanimous Bounty have flourished in the most August House of Brunswick and Lunenburg and by God's Blessing will ever flourist in the same I I say waving therefore all such Proceedure do come only furnished with a gift not large nor great though you are worthy of both nor glittering with Gold Silver or Precious Stones Ornaments which Divine Bounty hath aboundantly replenished Your Highnesses withall but are denied to me and persons of my condition Mine is only a Paper gift but extracted from the true Protochymick Art which is most Ancient and hath more in the Recess than it promises in the Front Yea it is That by which the uncreated Spirit the Founder of the World dâ—d order and distinguish the otherwise confused Natures of things Hereupon I perswaded my Self that I could offer no gift more grateful to Your Highnesses than a new work of this most Vetust yet Wonderful and Necessary Science A Work most curious in it self which hitherto Envy hath forborne to restore and to gratify the World with For although the unconquerable Truth comes commended only by its own strength and is sufficiently fortified by its proper and native Vigor for nothing can subsist which is not firmed in the very Foundation of Nature and so enjoys this invincible Patronage yet the plain Purity of my Writings being Dedicated to Your Eminencies and thereby armed with so great Splendor thus doubly strengthened will appear more boldly in the sight of the World Accept therefore most Noble Princes this Diminutive Gift for the bare Title 's sake and go on if not entirely to love yet somewhat to respect and favour VENICE the Ides of May 1666. Your Highnesses most Devoted Servant OTHO TACHENIVS The PREFACE to the Courteous READER And Lover of the Ancient Doctrine of HIPPOCRATES HIppocrates The Writings of the Ancients were like the Oracles of Apollo Aenigmatical That bright-shining Light of Physick did wrap up His Divine Oracles in Aenigma's and with an Obscure Brevity related his Precepts in all the parts of his Works So that his Instructions and Aphorismes by reason of their Obscurity are wrested by Writers into diverse Senses some of which Galen with wonderful Skill and comely Order hath digested into Chapters but othersome especially the Golden Book De Diaetâ which is full of Mysteries he hath left untouched For the Divine Old-Man bequeathed Those only to the followers of Chymistry which Art was heretofore and perhaps in Hippocrates his time called Natural Philosophy For who can understand the rare sayings of that Old-Man or comprehend the Soft Fire mentioned by him unless he be well versed in this Occult Natural Philosophy of Hippocrates Raimund Lully gives his Attestation hereto for says he Testam chap. 26 Though a Logician may have as profound Wit acquired or natural able to argue concerning outward things yet he can never understand by any Reason grounded on Sense how the Seed in the Earth doth germinate increase and brings forth Fruit unless being assisted by experimental Learning He first have made some progress in Our Natural Philosophy rather than in That Sophistical Wordy one which Logicians do attain to by sundry Phantastical suppositions and presumptions who thereby with the Prognostications of their sequels against the force of Nature do cause many Men pertinaciously to err through an intoxicated Mind But by our Mechancial Science the Understanding is rectifyed in point of insight and of true Mental Knowledge by the force of Experience Yea Our Experiments are superior to all phantastical Probations of Conclusions and therefore admit not of Them but do shew the way how all other Sciences may enter vigorously into the Understanding Whence we further learn by Nature that Inward thing That it is and What it is because by such Science the Understanding is freed from those superfluities and errors which do ordinarily carry it off from the Truth by reason of those presumptions and prejudices which are believed in the Conclusions Hence it is that Our Chymists have directed themselves through the path of every Science to enter into all Experience by Art according to the course of Nature in her Uniâ—â—cal Principles For 't is only Chymistry which is the â—lass of the true Understanding shewing it how to feel and see Truths in a clear light and therefore Tabula Smaragdina saith By this kind of demonstration all Obscurity is banished and expelled from Man c. Hippocrates points at the foundations of this most Ancient Art Lib. 1 de Diaeta in the beginning of his aforesaid Book All other living Creatures says he as well as Man are constituted of Two principles different in faculty but concording and joyntly fit for Use Fire an Water Both of These together are sufficient both for all other things and also for themselves mutually but eitheir of them severally and a-part is sufficient neither for it self or any other c. It is my purpose in this short Tract to expose to View those two hitherto Obscure Principles to wit This soft Fire and Coagulable Water only out of a desire to propagate Truth which in this Age is wofully kept under by the Haters of Hippocratical Learning not that I think it possible for any Men wholly to exinguish it In regard it is Powerful Impregnable and Triumphant above all things in the whole World 3 Esdr c. 3 4. as Holy Writ also testifies For Zorobabel says Wine is strong The King si stronger Women strongest but above all things Truth beareth away the Victory all the Earth calleth upon Truth The Heaven praiseth it it is always strong it conquereth and liveth for evermore c. I know many men according to the variety of their Dispositions Obj. will diversly censure me for publishing That which Nature
with a new body which is again sublimated and separated It may be demanded The Spirit of Sal Armoniack re-assumes a body in Tartar why in this place a Spirit is elicited from the fixed Alcaly of Tartar and the Volatile Acid whereas above from the Alcaly of Flints and the Acid spirit of Salt it succeeds not To which I answer that the Acrimony of the Salt of Tartar in a fire not very vehement returns quite to nothing as I have shewed elsewhere and for this cause with its associate it is easily elevated into Spirit but the Alcaly of Flints is more fixed which before it flies is rather with its adjunct turned into Glafs CHAP. XII How Volatile Alcaly is generated in an Animal and the parts of it I Have said in the Examination of Mindâ—rerus his water that * I call Sweat either that insersinly transpiring or that which makes wet 't is all one here Sweat by the Natural Proto-Chymist is made Salt as is also every compound of Acid and Alcaly Urine not excepted which this Operation shews Take that Lye wherein foul Linnen Shirts have been steeped and washed not boiled put this Lye into a Glass of a long narrow and equal neck set to a Limbeck at least carelesly and place it in a digesting Bath or Sand and in a few days you shall see the Alcaly of Sweat to ascend yet not stinking as That which is sublimated from Urine This Alcaly could not be seperated from Sweat unless its Salt relish were divided The pure Alcaly of Sacat which consists of Acid and Alcaly both Volatiles as I have shewed in Mindererus his Water and elsewhere so that the Lye is a Fixed Alcaly absorbing the Acid part of the Sweat in the Heat of Digestion and the sugitive Alcaly being divided from it goes to top and a cold place I once observed as I was travelling post Sweat salt and pingueous this Salt Volatile Fat and therefore penetrating and resolving Sweat how although my Leggs were armed with Boots made of the choicest Leather and well waxed so as to admit neither Rain not Water yet the Sweat of the Horses exhaling like a Vapour had penetrated them as it also happened to my Companions of good note To avoid this inconvenience I invented an Oyntment like Vernish which in other cases could resist Aqua fortis and then in a second Journey for the first days I found less inconvenience but the days following the Sweat had not only penetrated the Vernish but had plainly dissolved it as far as the Vapour of it reached Hence I learned That Sweat was therefore made Salt by Nature that it might resolve the filth in living Bodies which here and there was coagulated in them But how the Sweat of all Animals and whatsoever doth insensily exhale from them yea of which the Animal consists doth acquire Saltness I shall explain a little more clearly only for the sake of this Viperine Salt whose Acidity as it is occult so the Saltness of it is more subtil and grateful The Invention of the Salt of Vipers I profess my self to be the Inventor thereof though Momus fret never so much which the following Epistle shews And though for Lucre of a little Gain in this Age and Theatre of the World some unskilful men and ignorant of Natures instruments and of this Hippocratical Doctrine have appeared who obtrude I know not what on the unwary and unexpert to the Prejudice of my Name yet I now give the Readâ—r to understand that which I have not discovered to any man living hitherto save by this publique Writing Mareus Aurelius Severinus wisheth prosperity and good success to Otho Tachenius a great Studier of Nature and the Hermetical Art The Epistle THe confidence which I alwayes had in your friendship and good will I now really experiment For my desire to hav some of your Viperine Sult being scarce signified to you you presently satisfied me therein for which I return you many thanks I wish some chance would happen that you might pass over the Fordye Adriatique to the flourishing Parthenope it would be neither unuseful nor unprofitable to you Besides that choice Matron whom you visited in her blindness at Naples from that very day hath impatiently longed for you wishing that the hinder ances of your intended Voyage were removed but because you have sent me a Viperine gift I will requite you with another of the same kind I mean a Volume of the Nature Poyson and Medicinalness of the Viper printed for me at Padua by the Famous Printer Paul Frombottus who upon the sight of this Letter will diliver one to you in my Name and he will give it to you the more freely if you shewing a willingness to communicate the useful observations Mary Fremies for Truths sake are a great honour amongst understanding Men. An Old Proverb which you have long made of this Viperine Salt do bâ—take your self to the Famous John Rhodius my special Friend the Corrector of the Press who if need be can add them to the end of the Work I wish also you would add some preparation and description of this Viperine Sale of your own I have her with inserted the preparation of Volatile Salt out of Johannes Vepserus Pray tell me how far you approve it and continue to love me as I do you For I desire nothing more at Naples than to enjoy the hopes of such a felicity as your Conversation and Company would afford Here you would find a Liberal Harvest Farewel From Naples the Ides of May Anno Dom. 1650. The Illustrious Matron the Wife of Capicius Regens to whom you gave your Viperine Remedy Salutes you BUt to what end should I produce the Testimonies of Learned Men this present Writing sufficiently declares that this Salt with all its requisites was not so much as dream'd of by this Reformer before I acquainted him with It as I could shew by his own Letters to me but that I am willing to consult his Credit yet unless he produce other Foundations of Art and Nature than he hath hitherto done he will never come to the knowledg of this Salt No more will men of a far higher Order and Rank than himself however they boastingly and ambitiously word it out and pretend to be able to attain it As Urine and Sweat so also Blood The Alealy of Blood Volatile and pure precipitates a white Mercuâ—â— whilest it is yet hot and reaking may be commixed with Lye and Alcaly be sublimated from it but when the same Blood without the Lye is distilled out of a Retort with the Fire of Sand then in the Caput Mortuum it leaves much Salt somewhat fixed More Fixed Salt of Blood a noble Medicine doth not precipitate Mercury The Alcaly precipitates Mercury from the oftennarned Solution into a white Powder but the Salt doth not Hence 't is manifest that as the Lixivious and Fixed Alcaly drinks up the Acid from
Tartar fell to the bottom as a Cadaver But the Acidity spread through the Liquor hath dominion over it and doth defend it and is called Wine the Acidity whereof is grateful to the Palate because of the Alcaly with which it is joyned and tempers the Acid till at length the Acidity weary of the Alcaly or excited again by Heat strives to overcome the Alcaly and so a new and insensible fight begins and the Wine foures more and is called by a common name Vinegar from which if the Acidity be separated in a Limbeck Without Art there is not found a pure Acid in Nature unmited with Alcaly and on the contrary Hippoc. l. 1. de Diat Aust 1. Phys and the bottom burnt by fire then the Alcaly is found out of that Tartarous bottom though it seem impossible to some to find Alcaly in so great an Acidity yet it is true and it is That which the Philosopher means when he says That it is impossible there should be any matter under which there should not be some form Pour or superadde Distilled Acid on this Alcaly and evocate the watery flegme having the smell of Aqua Ardeus or hot water then from the Acid and the Alcaly you shall have a re-generated Tartar which out of a Retort yields a fat Oyl and a bitter Water full of â—olatile Alcaly out of the Phlegme through a Phyal of a long Neck So the Rector by degrees vanishes from our External senses into nothing that Man cannot find out the work which God operates Fâ—cl 3.11 evocate the Fat burning watery part which we call Aqua vitae the other part is elementary water the Fat re-assumes the Alcaly out of which again extract the Elementary Water and repeat this operation and the whole substance of Wine passes into Water and Elementary Earth void of all taste and smell Hence it appears that the Juice of Grapes hath preserved the Alcaly and the Acid in which the Rector doth inhabit in various hazards and several alterations even unto its last annihilation CHAP. XIX An untrodden Path discovered THat which I have spoken in the precedent Chapter concerning the Juice of Grapes the same is also to be understood of the Juice of all Vegetables for in them all there is Acid and Alcaly more or less as Hippocrates and Experience also shew but with this difference that in those Vegetables which we call Cold the Alcaly doth predominate and they are not fermentable unless by the help of an outward Acid or being excited by heat but in those which are hot the Acid prevails and therefore they are easily fermentable as in the Progress will appear Also the Alcaly of some Vegetables is nearer to fix'd and therefore it joynes in with Acid Minerals All things are corrupted mutually by themselves the greter by the less and the less by the greater Hipp. L. 1. de Diaet as I have shewed in Galls in the greater Housleak in Rinds of Pomgranates c. The Alcalyes of others are much more delicate so that Acid Minerals do presently absume them in as much as they are nutritive and fit for the digestion of Animals which consists in a milder Acidity of which sort are Winter-green Sanicle Bettony Fole-foot c. Which therefore are called Vulnerary Herbs whose Alcaly restrains and hinders the injust Acidity vising in the Stomach as it lessens it also in wonuds because all Acidity out of the Stomach is hurtful morbous and accompanies putrefaction which the Vulgar call heat from the effect for it causes a Feavour and putrefies Wounds many skilful Chyrurgeons have taken notice of that Acidity in wounded men as the beginner of heat and putrefaction and have therefore forbade them the use of Wine and not without cause least the subtle and evaporable Acidity of the Wine should encrease the Disease I say the Alcaly of these is not discovered with Acid Minerals Nature delights in its like nature but because they themselves are Nutritive therefore the said Alcaly associates it self with its similary Nutritives and with gentler Acids than Minerals As for Example Dissolve a drachm of Sal Saturni made with Distilled Vinegar for that resists not the Digestion of Animals in about three Ounces of Distilled Water which hath no Volatile Alcaly of Rosemary Lavender Rue c. Suffer the Lees to settle This Solution being sweet in taste contains Occult Lead drop the clear Juice of the foresaid Vulnerary Herbs into this clear Solution and it presently grows as white as Milk which is a sign that the Alcaly of the Herbs absorbs the Acid from the Lead which falls by degrees For as fixed Alcaly praecipitates Mercury and Alcaly nearer to fixed praecipitates Vitriol as I have shewed before so also here a milder Alcaly requires a milder Examen Paracelsus first observed That hidden Alcaly of Herbs and it is probable that by the like Examen he took notice of their several minute degrees he had taken notice that in wounds putrefaction came from Acidity and from thence arose feavorish heats and corruptions of Wounds he also first prescribed Vulnerary Potions and did happily restrain the said Acidity and putrefaction Paracelsus his Analytick knowledge of Bodies and called the Herbs Vulnerary And though John Taugaultius a French Man and Gabriel Fallopias an Italian both famous Physicians and excellent Chyrurgeons do condemn and endeavour to explode Vulnerary Potions in the Cure of Wounds affirming that by their heat they inflame and extenuate the Blood and excite its eruption from the Wound yet though simple Vulnenary Medidicaments are not known to every Chyrurgeon and and are prescribed without distinction and knowledge of their degrees for all cannot attain this pitch of Science nevertheless Experience shews Ulcers of the Feet or Thighs and Wounds are Cured by Potions why may they not do the same in the Lungs that the aforesaid Potions are useful with which also Paracelsus cured the Ulcers of the Lungs as Histories witness and also the Hectick Feavor as I have also experimented which is an universal and inept Acidity and that of the solid parts which in one word we call Heat and which the aforesaid Alcalys do more readily absorb and consume than Milk as I have shewed in its place and the cure it self demonstrates Therefore Vulnerary Potions are not to be rejected but used with good Success in the curing of Wounds Many of the accuratest sort of Chyrurgeons The brevity of this Compendium will not allowme to discourse of Specifick Acid. Yet see ch 21. and Physicians have taken notice that Acidâ—ty is the cause of Heat and Pain as also that burnt Harts-horn absumes in it self Vinegar and other Acids of all sorts whence it comes to pass that it is given with good success in Feavors in a great dose from half an ounce to an ounce in any cooling water containing Volatile Alcaly For as they have observed to their great joy that the said burnt Harts-horn absorbs and
fire p. 19 Salts their Nature changed without fire p 19 Salt of Soot p 19 Salt of Tartar its Prerogative p. 22 it converts any Metal into running Mercury p. 23 it is a Medium in which both Metals and Minerals do revive p. 24 it is a Medium between a Mineral and a Vegetable p. 29 it is turned into Simple Element p. 27 Salt Common its Regeneration p. 25 Sal-Armoniack Artificial p. 30 Salt Common and Armoninck have an Acid communicable out of the Fire p. 30 Soda the same with Sal Kaly p. 17 Specifick Remedies p. 70 Spirit the Vehicle of the Soul p. 89 Spirit of Venus p. 115 its Preparation examined p. 115 Spaw Water why Transportable to other places p. 15 Spirit of Vitriol Acid retains the Liquamen of Metals p. 56 Spirit of Vitriol makes the Teeth yellow p. 56 Spirit Minerals p. 61 Sulphur how good for Diseases of the Lungs p. 82 Sweat proved to be Salt and Pinguous p. 35 Sweat how excited p. 85 Sulphur rubifies Mercury p. 99 Sulphur of Mercury an external Poyson but not the Acid by which it is sublimated p. 102 Sulphur of Vitriol Narcotiquâ— p. 119 Sulphur hath an Occult Acid p. 81 T TIn p. 60 Tartar how Generated p. 63 Its spirit p. 63 Its spirit not Acid but bitterish p. 63 Its Regeneration p. 26 Tympanitis its Remedy p. 93 V VInegar how made p. 64 Vinegar distilled made fat Oyl p. 26 Verdigrease yields Vinegar p. 58 Vinegar Julep made of Water and Sugar p. 39 Vegetables their Humid hath Alcaly and Acid p. 62 They have not sixed Salt by nature p. 5 Vitriol in Substance coagulates Milk p. 40 Vitriol of Mars separates the Alcaly from the Acid p. 53 Taken inwardly it tinges the Excrements p. 53 Vitriol makes the Teeth black p. 56 Vitriol of Cyprus True p. 59 False p. 58 Vitriol white p. 59 Romane p. 59 Vitriol of Mars Artificial p. 59 Vitriol its Regencration p. 24 Vulnerary Potions diminish the Acid p. 65 First given by Paracelsus p. 66 Vrine of Drunkards passes noi through all the Ducts of the Veins p. 47 Vrine of healthy men salt p. 47 Vrine of dying men not salt p. 47 Vrine of men living only on Milk hath Acid and Alcaly p. 51 W WIne turned to Water and Elementary Earth p. 64 Wine what and how made p. 64 Wood fixed p. 79 Wood rotten yields no Salt p. 76 Water called Aqua Regia without Salt doth not touch Gold p. 26 Water of Frogs-Spawn abounds with much Alcaly p. 67 Water distilled differs from that undistilled p. 69 Water of Roses causes Vomit and kills Worms p. 69 Water of Roses not altogether cold p. 69 Water of Roses hath an occult Acid p. 69 Water of Mindererus for the Hearing p. 32 FINIS OTTO TACHENIVS HIS CLAVIS To the Antient Hippocratical PHYSICK OR MEDICINE Made by Manual Experience in the very Fountains of NATURE WHEREBY Through Fire and Water in a Method unheard of before the Occult Mysteries of Nature and Art are Unlocked and clearly Explained by a Compendious way of OPERATION Senec. Epist A man can never more torment the Envious than by applying ones self to Virtue and Glory LONDON Printed for Will. Marshal at the Bible in Newgate-street 1690. Where is likewise sold Coke's Marrow of Chirurgery Anatomy and Physick As also his Observations of English Bodies of Eminent persons in desperate Diseases To the Serene and Mighty Prince the Lord CHRISTIANVS ALBERTVS By the Grace of God Heir of Norway Duke of Sleswick and Holsatia Stormar and Dithmarsh Earl of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst His very good Lord. IT was the custome of the First Philosophers Most Serene and Mighty Prince that whatsoever Secrets of Things or Mysteries of Nature they found out they would immediately impose Divine Names on them and so as much as they could hide them from the Vulgar or else they would relate them under disguised Words Forreign and unusual Terms Allegories Aenigma's and Metaphorical Speeches either because they feared the offence of the Unskilful Multitude or else being perswaded that those Abstruse things would meet with no approbation if they were easily understood Hippocrates of Coos treading in the same steps that Divine and Venerable Old-man and deservedly Chief in this most Famous Art in whose Praises the Ancients and all Neotericks have sufficiently Expatiated shews the hidden Foundation of this Noble Science in these words If there be any thing Divine in Diseases the knowledge and fore-sight also of That is to be sought after if a Man would approve himself a good and admirable Physician But what that Divine Thing was he no where clearly discovered nay he Studiously and of purpose concealed it expresly affirming that nothing ought to be spoken or published in this Art save what was known to Plebeians On which account Physick was heretofore esteemed Sacred and the gift of God so that all the Ancients were of opinion that It could hardly be attained unto by Humane Understandings because the Foundations thereof seemed so abstruse hidden and admirable that They were not to be found out by the strength of Nature And although heretofore and in all Ages Men of great account for acuteness of Wit and Skill in Physick have Illustrated Its Doctrine yet there is nothing extant in their Writings in clear and express words neither can any thing be culled out from thence but what is sullied with Obscurity They all endeavouring as much as they could more to eclipse and darken It Neoterick Physicians who succeeded them in Writing Disputing and desiring to encrease this Art have falne to pieces amongst themselves and contemning that Divine thing in Diseases rail at one another and are divided into several Sects neither doth the Division cease to this very day For one desires to be styled a Chymist or Methodist another a Galenist a third a Dogmatist or Canonist so that this most Noble Ancient Hippocratical Medicine which is but One is now not only rent into many Sects but is also overcharged with an infinite number of Books by which a lover of and enquirer after Truth is not only confounded but must needs be over-whelmed There being such a vast Ocean of Them and so great a variety of Writers subtilly spinning out their Arguments pro and con In the mean time I was always of opinion that That before-mentioned short Sentence of Hippocrates was to be deeply weighed and the rather because that Famous Man whom Antiquity did almost reverence as a Deity comprehended that great Supellex and Furniture of Things which he had in his mind in short and concise Aphorismes and Speeches Excited therefore by my respect and love to Him I began to Investigate what that Divine thing was for without the Plenary knowledge of It the Art of Cureing Diseases would always be Mutilous and only Inchoative never fully and absolutely compleat in all its parts Some there are who do accuse those men of Impudence and do also Contumeliously reproach them who
do their utmost to restore and underprop Sciences delivered indeed by the Ancients but now almost worn out by age and Adulterated besides or else who do endeavour to add to them or illustrate them moreover they labour to Degrade such persons from the first Knowledge of things and so to dis-inherit them from their possession of ancient Learning by whose Calumnies the Enquirers after Truth are deterred and led out of the right way If the ancient Philosophers had taken this course to reproach the Labours and Studies of Those that went before them they had never pierced into the inward knowledge of Nature but the Truth in many Sciences would as yet have been buryed in Obscurity and very few would have attained to any light in the Secrets of Nature But since Those Philosophers were pleased with another way and manner of Study not being deterred or taken off from their honest Labour by the tongues of Revilers but rather more earnestly applying themselves to their Disquisitions and Studies so that almost in every age some one or other Art and Science was hatched or else retrieved and from small beginnings promoted to great encrease Semblably why may not I more clearly open the sense of Hippocrates That so the Ancient and Noble Science of Physick and Method of Cures may receive an advancement why may it not be lawful for me to Contemplate that divine abstruse and admirable Thing as well in Diseases as Remedies and to restore It from Darkness to Light Let the Tongues of Slanderers be silent let them not blame me that being but a Puny I first of all bear the Lamp to all that seek for Truth in this Argument Let all such Flies and Cantharides be packing for as the One pitches on the slourishing Corn and the Other fly into the sweetest Oyntments so these foolish and sloathful Calumniators cease not to detract from the labours and manners of other men perswading themselves that they shall catch much Honour and Glory by fishing for it in the disgracing of others Avaunt such Thorny Medickes Let them continually go a begging and spend their time in collecting raw Receits reformed neither by Reason Method nor Judgement which Hippocrates disapproves and proscribes in the very entrance into this Art as unsafe because not understood Experiment says he upon this account is fallacious Neither let them Object to me this my Institution as a new and unprofitable piece whereas indeed It is most Ancient and found most true by solid Experience not that I am so vain and insolent as to boast my self to be the Author of It I only profess my self to be its Interpreter and Explainer These things I determined to do in a Book by it self and therefore I pre-emitted my Hippocrates Chymicus which Book seem ed necessary for the demonstration of the Subsequent Doctrine by known Examples But now seeing Malign Ignorance raigns in Our Art I think it better to change my Resolution and to reduce into this Compendium what and how much of Divinity is in Ancient Medicine as also in Natural Philosophy and in all things All which shall be discussed for the sake of the Prudent in this Little Book I determined Mighty Prince and my gracious Lord to Dedicate this my grand Endeavour to You not with an intent to Blazon the Genealogy of Yours and Your Ancestors most August House that be far from me for I know that all Adulation doth displease Your Highness but because You are a Favourer of hidden Sciences and of all admirable Things and especially a Patron of the Muses which evidently appears not only by that flourishing Academy which you have lately erected but furthermore by those great Largesses and Stipends wherewith you have endowed its choice Members and learned Professors out of Your incredible Clemency and Favour To which may be added Your Highnesses singular Courtesy Bounty and Benevolence extended towards Me in particular your poor Client the last year and also that unspeakable Beneficence which Your Father of happy Memory a few years since shewed towards me which you by a rare Example have also doubled and out-done Which consideration alone had been sufficient to have obliged me to make this Dedication to Your Self and so to hang up this little Table on the publick Altar of Immortality not only that my Writings may hereby speak to the whole World but that I might manifest the symbol of a grateful mind and might testify and profess my observance of You. Be pleased therefore Great Sir favourably to accept of that admired Divine Thing of Hippocrates anciently adorned with somany Trophies now consecrated to Your Mighty Name and let it find a place there whither the Messengers of a grateful mind are wont to be admiâ—â—â—â— which as I supplicate with that humility which becomes me So I also beseech Almighty God from the bottom of my heart long to preserve Your Highness in safety and prosperity so prayes VENICE the Ides of November 1668. Your Highnesses most devoted TACHENIUS THE PREFACE TO THE COURTEOUS READER And Lover of the Ancient Hippocratical MEDICINE IN the Inquist after the hidden Causes of Things how prone Men are to erre and to be mistaken without the help of True Experiments it easily appears by that common and in this age Epidemical Complaint which I my self do also think not altogether groundless concerning the inconsiderate edition and multitude of New Books partly beeause the rash publication of the Writings of Sciolists and vain Persons is of it self odious partly also because such a multiplicity of raw Pamphlets doth prejudice even our common Scanties and takes off the minds of many from Reading the Books of the Ancients which are full fraught with accurate Wisdom and Instruction whence probably it may come to pass that the Studies of the Ancients in enquiring after Truth may be less esteemed and regarded by us And if any one demand why do I then publish this present Tract A piece Composed with no Maturity of Judgment but thrust forth in great haste and temerity and consequently in no wise to be compared in point of Vsefulness with the Mouuments of the Ancients To him I answer There are two Causes which moved me again to put Pen to Paper and to emit to publick view this Piece of Ancient Medicine First in the Year 1666 I Printed the necessary Opinions of the Old Philosophers under the Title of Hippocrates Chymicus and there shewed by clear Arguments deduced from Exerience p that Fire and Water in essence root and property ought to be esteemed the Primordial Principles of all Things since the Divine Old Man Hippocrates in his first Book of Diaet treats of the same after the manner of the Pythagoreans wittily enough yet most obscurely perhaps fearing the ridiculous censure and inept confutation of such as the Austrian and Norinberg Doctors of Physick and their foul mouthed companions who are craftily busied with their Rustick Muse only about the barks and outside of things because in