efficacious This distilled Spirit of Vitriol if it again corrode any thing either Iron or Copper and be coagulated with it and again be re-distilled from it the Liquor indeed returns Acid of the same nature but much more subtle because that in all Coagulation every Salt or Saline Spirit loses of its Radical Humid what that is I shall shew anon when of necessity it must lay down its Earth the Vulgar call it its Faex and so the Lumen must be more contracted But from the repeated Coagulation and Distillation It returns more watery and at last returns to Elements as I have Mechanically shewed in Alcaly of Tartar for Example in my Hippoc. Chymic Chap. 10. After the same manner and fashion Counterfeit Spirit of Venus by repeated Solution Coagulation and Distillation re-passes into Elements for as often as it dissolves Corals or any other thing I began with Corals and will end with Them and is afterwards Coagulated and Exsiccated with the same Corals so often it lays down its Earth or Alcaly and as much Earth as it lays down so much Acid Salt the Corals do drink up because this cannot be alone and the Vinegar becomes so much the more Aqueous and by repeated labour at last returns to Element i. e. into Insipid Water but the Earth and Acid Salt gave weight to the Corals which also pass out of them by repeated Distillation and go to their own Country after the same manner as I have shewed concerning Wine in Hippoc. Chymic chap. 18. Now that Vinegar or Spirit of Vitriol poured on Copper Why Vinegar returns Acid from Copper and not from Alcaly and re-distilled do return Acid but from the Alcaly of Tartar Insipid and Aqueous the reason is because Alcaly being a Vacuum saturated it self with Acid Salt which dwelt in the Aqueous Liquor whence the Acid Salt converts and transmutes the Alcaly into its own nature But Copper is not a Vacuum for the Acid or Form of Copper doth overcome its Alcaly and therefore it doth not absorb Acid Salts and though they act and are busie about It and do erode its body yet they can make no impression of any of their Form or Vertues nor can they destroy It because Copper hath obtained a constant Soul from Nature or to speak in Plautus's Phrase it hath Acid in its breast Again Why from Lead insipid They demand why Vinegar is re-distilled from Copper even as it was poured on but from Lead Insipid Although I am almost ashamed to handle This or the like Childish Question yet being moved with commiseration towards those unskilful and sluggish Doctors hoping that this my present answer may be for their future amendment I shall willingly repeat my former answer I told you that Copper hath a prevailing Acid whence it is that it resists not only Vinegar and the Counterfeit Spirit of Venus but also all Acid Minerals but Lead hath obtained but a very little particle of It by Nature and therefore it imbibes every Acid in hopes of Perfection that I may so speak as I have shewed in Alcalyes This is the cause why Lead is similitudinarily called by Philosophers The first matter of Metals or the Alcaly of Metals in respect of other Metals which are more or less richer in Acid. Gold is most Acid and therefore most perfect as I have shewed in the 2. Chapter See how easily I have extricated my self out of these great Difficulties Some of Ours may wonder why I spend time in a matter so plain for Basilius Valentinus an Age ago hath taught us how to prepare this Vinegar out of Aerugo in juventure and he called it not by the name of Spirit of Venus Spirit of Venus is Vinegar but Vinegar for he knew well so do not the Deans and their Fellows that it was established by the decree of the Supream Creator That the more excellent Nature should not degenerate into the worser which is proved by the remaining Faex or Caput Mortuum left in the Retort after the distillation of this Vinegar which with Borax by an easie Fusion returns into Copper an evident Argument That Copper lost none of its Substance or excellent Vertue as they say See more in my Hppocrates Chymicus chap. 29. For conclusion of this Chapter I repeat That whatsoever the World hath is begot preserved and multiplied by the Acid Spirit either Occult or Manifest to which it owes its All And That the Soul dwells in the Acid and is inseparably bound to it and that the Body or Alcaly is informed according to the property of the Acid Spirit If therefore Nature be alike in every thing and Art doth imitate Nature as Pythagoras Hippocrates and Experience teach it must needs follow That when the Acid Spirit of Vinegar distilled from Verdigrease hath corroded Corals and hath been absorbed by Them and coagulated with them then the Corals will be endued with the properties and conditions of Vinegar not that the innate Acid or Form of Corals doth perish but only is suppressed by a more powerful Acid as I have shewed before in the Magistery If therefore your celebrated Spirit of Venus lawfully and duly as they say exhibited though they never yet shewed the way helps Hippochondriacal Epileptical and Hysterical Distempers c. the Magistery of Corals which with a proud and swoln breast they call Our Soluble Magistery made with Spirit of Venus must needs perform much greater things if otherwise the Spirit must animate the Body to whom it is joyned as I have hitherto clearly and experimentally shewn and shall hereafter shew But as their Spirit of Venus lawfully and duly administred is the best to season a Vinegar Vessel so also it hath and will always retain the nature of Wine-Vinegar till it become like Alcahest But our Master Deans with the rest of their Colledg-Company out of the treasure of their Liberality have lately discovered to us a great Secret which had lain hid to this very day Vinegar cleanseth viz. That their Counterfeit Spirit of Venus helps the Tooth-ach neither could we learn it out of Dioscorides his History of Vinegar unless it had been discovered to the World in a Dream or by hidden Revelation But as Vinegar doth dissolve Corals so it scours off and takes away the hardned Mucus or Filth about the Teeth that the Gums may be again united to the Teeth for sound and sharp-pointed Gums admit not Pain but when they are forced to recede by Filth and the Teeth are never so little denudated or bared presently upon the solution of a continuum the Blood sours putrefies and is coagulated there into an hard Faex which some but improperly call Tartar which Faex when it is abraded or taken off with Vinegar or Spirit of Salt or else with an Instrument of Iron presently the Teeth find relief And thus you have O ye sincere lovers of Truth the entire Tragoedy the Rise and Overthrow of this Celebrated Spirit of Venus which
tinge of a black colour Yea Silver doth the same without Galls and the blackness appears after the Acid Spirits are spent Other Metals though dissolved and re-coagulated do shew as if they were Vitriol but perform not the actions of Vitriol Find out the cause if you can for it is not unpleasant to discover it A Semi-acid-Salt Spirit Distilled from the Caput Mortuum of Tartar and Sal Armoniack An admirable Spirit was mixed with Bole Armonick of which above This Spirit with juice of Galls was greenish in a moment From which I learned that the Bole Armonick did necessarily contain in it immature Copper-seed which the soresaid Spirit catcht away with it in the torture of the Fire I call it a Copper-seed for Vitriol made of Copper with Spirit of Vitriol being precipitated with juice of Galls appears of the same green colour as I shewed above but when it is made of common Bole-Armonick then it is black Whence it is clear that the Volatile Salt or the Alcaly of Galls or of Pomgranate Rinds Foundation of black colout or of Vulnerary Herbs do not dye of a black colour unless with Iron dissolved in an Acid Mineral There is another observable thing that a pure Acid natural Spirit cannot be extracted or acquired by any man for being Distilled from Vitriol however rectified it never forsakes the Liquamen of the Metal neither can it be precipitated from it by any Alcaly after the common way for in these it cloaths it-self again with a new body and returns to what it was as I have shewed in its place yet Paracelsus doth praise that Acid Spirit which is found near the Village Veltin in Helvetia as in some sort pure as I have elsewhere observed Add hereto the Counterseit which the Reformer boasts for Magistery of the Seed of Kermes which yet is nothing else but the Alcaly of Allum Pharm Regiaâ— fol 282. which sucked up the Occult Acidity from the very grains for fear of a Vacuum inasmuch as it lost its own proper Acidity in the Alcaly of Tartar CHAP. XVIII Pass we now out of the Mines Vnder-ground into a pleasant Garden to the more hidden Volatile Alcalyes of Vegetables ALl Vegetables Mechanical Instruments of Vegetables are the two faculties of Hippoc. L. 1. de Diaet as well as Animals have Vital Instruments which they make use of for their encrease and propagation The prevailing Acidity therefore lies sleeping in the Seed as in an Egg or in a Stomach with a little Alcaly for its sustentation and with the specifick Rector of which elsewhere but when it is cast into the earth it is dissolved by Humidity and excited by Heat The Acid as being igneous begins to act upon the Alcaly to which the Humid also comes and the Rector by the assistance of Heat informs it So invisibly the Acid assumes the Alcaly and the Alcaly again swallows up the Acid they tend to each side as Ferments do yea they cease not The Mystery of Fermentation was heretofore hid on purpose till they have finished their several and prefixed Courses for their proper ends one Spirit draws another protrudes as Hippocrates in the fore-cited place So that the Humidity of every Vegetable contains Acid and Alcaly in some the Alcaly predominates in others the Acid The Acid is most known but the Alcaly yet known to few which I will now demonstrate to the Eye in the sweet expressed juice of Grapes as most known wherein the first days the Rector is Dormant who a while after applying the Mechanical Organs the Acid begins to Corrode the Alcaly and This absorbs the Acid and so there happens a vehement Contention and Fight which from the Heat or Boyling is called Fermentation which lasts till the Acid as Victor hath overcome the Alcaly Fermentum quòd servendo erescit In this Fight both the Faculties or Tastes or Sapors Instruments Mechanical or Architechtonical call them as you please or else the Archeus or Innate Heat c. undergo a great overthrow there being made a mighty slaughter the Acid being swallowed up destroyed and enfeebled by the Alcaly both mutually fall in a mutual embrace into a Cadaver in respect of Wine which is called Tartar If you Distill this Tartar out of a Retort Spirit of Tartar the Acid is excited by Heat and begins again to act upon the Alcaly and This likewise on the Acid and so a new Fermentation begins for which you must use a very slow fire and though the Receiver be great yet the incondensible Odor of the Fermentation which Helmont calls Gas is perceived a far off yet at last the Alcaly overcomes the Acid and doth plainly absorb it and both of them for the greatest part are fixed The Liquor and Oyl in the Receiver are Saturated and Impregnated with Volatile Alcaly which is of excellent use of it self yet known to few If you again re-infuse the Distilled Liquor and the Oyl upon the Caput Mortuum then the Volatile Alcaly which the Liquor did contain is drunk up by the Acid in the Caput Mortuum and becomes fixed but that which then re-distills out will be of greater Affinity to the Element of Water and so of less efficacy But the Reformer here as every where else grievously mistakes Mantis Herm. f. 745. for he says That Common Spirit of Tartar which is not rectified from its remaining Caput Mortuum is by no means to be accounted for pure Spirit of Tartar From this his Rectified Spirit of Tartar and out of his own insipid Brain he compounds a Medicine Mantis f. 750. truly lamentable which he calls A mixture of Three from the Spirits of the Minerals First The Volatile Alcaly in the Tartar is Saturated with the Acid of the Sulphur of Antimony That he calls the Tartarized Spirit of Antimony if by chance some of the Volatile Alcaly do yet remain what doth he then He mortifies it with Vinegar from Verdigrease and the Acid of Vitriol whence this hurtful though artificial and unprofitable Composition consists of Elementary Water and Vinegar this mixture the Ancients called Posca to which the Reformer adds nothing but the stinking smell of Tartar But the Spirit of Tartar being prudently Distilled by an Hippocratist is not Acid but somewhat bitter and full of Volatile Alcaly on which if you poure Spirit of Vitriol it waxeth hot that you can hardly hold the pot in your hands which is an evident sign that the Acid of the Vitriol hath drunk up the Alcaly of the Tartar as it happens when water is poured on Lime and as in the slacking and heating of Lime the Salts dye and it degenerate into a Neutral the same is to be understood of Spirit of Tartar with whatsoever Acid it be mixed so my Master Hippocrates teaches I return now Things thorowly miâ—'d undergo alteration L. 1. de Diaet whence I digressed i. e. to the Chymical Fermentation of Wine for whose sake the
Skilfullest person that is would have judged to be Iron And then heating it by the fire and dipping it in a certain Oyl as the Testimonial says and washing away the Ferrugo the Gold appeared This was the Artifice if it be worthy of that name But let us return to Iron which taken at Mouth frees from Obstructions arising from the aforesaid Excrement and so becomes Aperitive by accident Iron Opens and Binds in as much as it absorbs that coagulating wandering Acidity proscribed by Nature yet of it self it is still Astringent wherefore it is Aperitive by a specifick and appropriate Vertue but it Binds by a second quality CHAP. XXIX Nux Cassa Shell without Kernel I Have declared that Copper is turned by Vinegar into Aerugo or Verdigrease This the Reformer advises us to Distil Append. f. 7â— I remember says he that I have made mention of a certain secret Menstruum which hitherto the Canine envy of some Malignant and Ingrateful Fools hath caused me to keep socret amongst my other Arcana's A sad severity in Countenance but no truth in his words Ter. Andr. but now leaving the revenge of all injuries wrongfully offered by what hand soever to God being pressed on by a good conscience and the benefit of the Publick I am resolved to publish it on which the greatest of Remedies do depend at their main Pillar What will our Princely Doctor now reach us Spirit of Venus and an hidden Menstruum which for unworthy Mens sake who can forbear laughing he determined to conceal Oh unskilful Rudeness who would ever have expected from him such a great and liberal Contribution for the publick good unless he had told us so himself O Curas hominum O quantum est in rebus inane O curious Study and vain Care Of Men that vain and empty are 'T was more than a hundred years since that Basilius Valentinus published this Distillation of Vinegar in a Book which he calls A Manuduction to Physick Written in the Germane Tongue and Reprinted at Frankfort by Luke Iennis An. 1625. in Quarto under the Title of The true Solution of Pearls The Reformer borrows it from him suppressing the Author's Name for there it is word for word In Aq. Epilept Pharm Regia f. 170. and this he boasts not only for an Vniversal Solvent but seigns it also to be his own Invention and inscribes it Our Spirit of Venus for the Liquor Alcahest So that not without a fatal Prediction John Frederick Bauz prefixed the Reformer's Name before the Dispensatory with an Anagramme worthy of him as may be there seen To what purpose these uncouth costly laborious and nauseous Compositions if Vinegar which is grateful to all doth the deed But the Reformer adds without blushing This most excellent Spirit is not only of great vertue in Physick as being highly Curative of Epileptick Apoplectick Hysterical and Hypochondriacal Distempers being duly and lawfully exhibited but is as the Liquor Alcahest and not as other Acid Spirits who suffer and are destroyed by Solution and so are turned into another Ens c. I could wish Basilius when he taught us how to distil this Vinegar had been afraid of Impostors as Hippocrates Paracelsus and others were Then the Reformer had never obtruded This for the Liquor Alcahest nor had loaded it with so many Encomiums thereby deluding the World He advises us to buy this Vinegar at any rate adding these Vain-glorious and Magnificent words Enjoy Courteous Reader Turpe est Doctori c. this Secret and let me continue in thy good grace for my faithful Communication of it In good time draw near all ye inquisitive ones behold a great Secret manisested ' never so much as dream'd of before But Nature laughs to see such lyes held forth for truths There are some who without any great labour time or expence do distil a like and much more powerful Liquor out of Lees of Vinegar into a great Receiver which yet they proclaim not for Alcahest Let us therefore take notice of the Subject from which the Reformer distils this Wonderful Solvent which with a worthy Name he appropriates to himself and calls it Our Spirit of Venus It is Aerugo or Verdigrâ—ase which is thus made thin Copper plates are put into Mother of Wine when it is sowre this Acidity corroding the Copper is coagulated with it into Salt as it happens to every Acid by Corrosion as I have Ocularly demonstrated in Lead and Coral The Reformer mundifies this green Salt with Distilled Vinegar from which surely nothing but Vinegar can be distilled as Basilius in the fore-cited place doth ingeniously confess as it happens to Spirit of Vitriol by corroding Copper it becomes Vitriol from which if you distil it you can extract nothing else but the same Stagma or Spirit of Vitriol which you poured on it according to the Old saying Nihildat quod in se non habet Melt the remaining Caput Mortuum or Faeces in a Pipkin adding thereto a little Nitre and Tartar then the Copper returns to Copper as it was before it was changed with the Vinegar in Verdigrease This is the Secret and mysterious business the Reformer out of his over-flowing Liberality is willing to communicate for the Publick good and perswades us to buy at any rate saying Enjoy Reader this Secret c. Away with this Cheating Secrets discovered lose their esteem which even the Vulgar do deride not believe Men know well enough that Secrets are not to be revealed but in Parables Allegories Metaphors and such like Disguisings So Hâ—ppocrates advises and both He and Venerable Antiquity doth the same Speak not says the Wiseman in the ears of a Fool for he will despise the Instructions of thy mouth So Johannes Picus in his Book of the Dignity of Man Pythagoras Plato Boetius Macrobius in Scipio's Dream Cornelius Tacitus c. All of them with one Mouth affirm that Secrets are not to be divulged that so unworthy men may not be partakers of them But go to may we not use Vinegar simply distilled with less labour and charge since it is one and the same thing Do not the Writers of the Elements of Chymistry teach us to prepare Salt of Pearls and Corals with Distilled Vinegar and afterwards to wash it which yet is found to be unprofitable in as much as the Acids are coagulated with the Solution as I have often shewed before But to contract all in a few words The Vinegar and Spirit of Venus of our Reformer are nothing but water impregnated with an Acid Volatile Salt which if it corrodes any thing 't is presently Coagulated which afterwards by combustion is fixed into Alcaly Wherein now doth the Magistery of Corals and Pearls of the Reformer exceed That which the Rudiments teach What Prerogative one hath above the other we may learn from Spirit of Vitriol and Sulphur which precipitates both the reason whereof is that the more potent Acidity apprehends the Solution
blackned with Gauls as Vitriol of Iron is or because it cannot be distilled as Common Vitriol may as some foolishly give forth but why will you fantastically put a force upon Nature from those Accidents which are not common to all Vitriol Surely that Wise Mistriss doth little esteem not only the contumelies of venemous Tongues but she doth as much undervalue the old doting Fables of Wordy Doctors who refuse to learn Attend therefore diligently that you may be informed That as I have shewed a little before of Acids They bring Alcalyes to their will so it must needs happen here For when Natural Acid hath by chance corroded immature Iron then they are both coagulated into Vitriol of Iron which being mingled with Juice of Galls yields a black colour by reason of the Iron and not by reason of the Acid. And when the same Natural Acid hath by chance corroded immature Copper then they are both coagualted into Vitriol of Copper which though mixed with Juice of Galls grows not black yet it is and is also called both by the Skilful and Unskilful Vitriol That Natural Acid drawn forth by Distillation when it hath corroded Iron is coagulated again into Vitriol of Iron of a green colour The same Acid when it hath corroded Copper they are both coagulated into Vitriol of an * Coelesâ—iâ—i Azure colour So the same Acid when it hath corroded Alcaly of Tartar they are both coagulated into Vitriol of a White colour which is nothing else but regenerated Vitriol as my Hippocrates shews Chap. 17. Which Book I would wish you to read over before you rail against the Works of Nature But why your Common Vitriolate Tartar cannot be distilled Why Vitriolate Tartar made the Common way is not Distillable I will now clearly demonstrate That Natural Acidity which hath corroded Iron being Healthful Grateful and Precious is sought after by many but found by few I say This is attempted to be extracted out of the corroded and immature Metal by Art and the help of Fire in Distillation but seeing it cannot never be alone as Hip. de Diaet hath taught it easily carries off with it is like i. e. the Immature and Volatile Metalline Sulphur because the wind carries both in its womb and it becomes Common Spirit of Vitriol Austere and Corrosive by reason of the inseparable immature Metalline Sulphur mixed with it This Common and sourish Liquor of Vitriol however rectified yet contains in it the Sulphureous Liquamen of the Metal upon this ground that it can never be alone as in the progress will clearly appear If this Spirit or Liquor be poured on Alcaly of Tartar untilthe noise cease The Alcaly is impregnated but not with a Natural but a Metalline Acid the Aust erity of the immature Metalline Sulphur having the dominion and so a Son is begotten which must needs resemble the properties of his Father i. e. be fixed and constant in the Fire Lo here your Doctorships may see the reason why your Vitriolate Tartar cannot be Distilled For in that instant of Coition when the more powerful is embraced by the Alcaly The third because it is wealâ— is strangled and slain as will appear by little and little to the Reader This is That which the barren approvers with those which went before them were hitherto ignorant of I do call together with the company of Ancient Philosophers This Son of Metalline Sulphur Alcaly made Regenerated Vitriol Regenerated Vitriol because it hath laid down its Iron or Earthly Body and shines again re-produced in a brighter form Wherefore the soul of the imperfect Metal hid in the fowre Acid Spirit forms to it self a Fixed Body in the Alcaly of Tartar Whence it clearly appears That the Spirit is the Vehicle of the Soul and the Vinculum binding Soul and Body together which in the subsequent Discourse will more evidently appear to the Studious Lovers of the Truth Let us now hear Basilius Valeminus speaking of this Two-fold Spirit of Vitriol not to mention mine own Experience in His Book called Spirit of Vitriol two-fold Repetitio Lapidis Magnis in these words And that you may understand Vitriol says he you must know that it hath two Spirits a White and a Red the White is white Sulphur the Red is red Sulphur He that hath Ears to hear let him hear And let him diligently mark and forget it not for it is a dissicult saying and every word is of great weight the White Spirit of Vitriol is Acid amiable very grateful to the Stomach like Nectar to the Bowels and profitable for Vniversal Concoction but the Red is much more Acid and more weighty than the White and therefore requires a longer time to be extracted by Distillation Hitherto Basilius He that desires more let him consult the cited place the words are of great weight and for good reason cited and transcribed here If therefore the composition of Vitriol be of the Natural Acid amiable and of a sweet smell like Nectar to the Inwards in which no sensible biting is perceived by the Tongue but a spiritual and grateful Acidity Let Bâ—filius Acid Waters and Experience be all witnesses and of Immature Sulphureous Metal which Two cannot possibly be severed by Distillation for the Natural Acidity which is highly Volatile ascends not without its Companion the Acid Sulphur of the immature Metal because it cannot bâ— alone as I have shewn out of Hippocrates and have also learned by experience it remains therefore that it must be catch'd by crafty hands and that in a fit time too when it is asleep There are many private ways which the Studiers of Natures Secrets may take to procure this grateful and much sought for Acid which though many yet all conduce to one end as Geber rightly observes yet This way is not to be despised though the ignorant do contumeliously charge it to procure vomiting and raise many other Symptoms Ah unhappy Patients what Ministers of Nature have you got I speak not to deaf ones as being uncapable but to you who love the Truth I devote and offer this my work Dissolve then Vitriol of Iron I say of Iron which hath no smell of Copper if This cannot be had prepare That as Nature her self shews the way Hippoc. Chymic Chap. 28. For That which is Artificial of the Distilled Acid of Vitriol and Iron will not serve here Tartar Vitriolate of great 〈◊〉 see Hippoc. Chymic Chap. 17. The Roman is the best Instill into this clear Solution the purest Alcaly of Tartar which presently attracts and consumes the Natural Acid The Acid and Alcaly do not wax hot in this Conjunction as before in the Common Preparation of Vitriolate Tartar because the Fire or the Sulphur of the Immature Metal covets the Fire and for the greatest part is separated from the Natural Spirit as by degrees I shall Mechanically demonstrate ad oculum If this Composition seem to thee too thick so that the
Alcahest which yet is not free from Adulterators but instead thereof the Reformer substitutes Vinegar * In Append f. 71. hereupon being instructed by my loss I became my own School-master and have often thought upon that Saying of Escheurenterus to Gratarolus Thou knowest on easier terms the Sentence passed at Bononia that he was proclaimed a Traytor to his Countrey and worthy to be hanged who first made a Filatory at Trent in Germany which is an Engine whereby Raw Silk by Spindles is artificially drawn into Threads So that I have hitherto concealed That which might ennoble a Physician being jealous not without cause lest by my sluggishness and neglect it might fall into the hands of Impostors and thereby the worthy and the unworthy should undergo the same Fate But the earnest importunity of this * Pharmac 487. Reformer hath caused me to select some things out of the heap of my Observations and Experiments which I had designed only for my own use and now to make them publick yet still I keep to the Precept of †Libro Raaic None are worthy of the name of Teacher but such who teach by sure Principles and causes Arist in Protm Me. taph Hermes That the Wisdom of the Author ought to be greater than his Book But I must follow the Clew of inevitable Fate and I undertake this labour the more willingly that I may discover the right way to those that wander and may bring back Straglers into it As also that those who have hitherto opposed this Art might at length correct their mistakes and begin to be wiser And further also that they who practise it may assuredly understand that it is founded on the Principles of Nature and so for the future may be delivered from the crafts and deceits of Sophisters and Impostors In this work I mind more the Truth of the Cause than the Ornaments of Elocution for the speech of Truth says Euripides is plain neither matters it therein what stile we use especially since Cicero doth not require Eloquence in a Philosopher much less doth Celsus in a Physician For as Plato saith Three words are sufficient in a just cause when we dispute of things the rudeness or the elegancy of words are not to be heeded but only that satisfaction may be obtained as to the Doctrine of the things themselves neither have I inserted florid disputings or odious altercations but whatsoever offers it self more occultly to the Senses that Experience being my guide I have despoiled of its coverings and have exposed the truth of things naked to the eyes of all beholders so that every individual man may know it for Truth loves brevity not disputation By this Compass I have Steered Draw near therefore all ye Lovers of Truth and you shall behold things both admirable and pleasant with your eyes yea and handle them with your hands which have hitherto stood remote from our sensation and knowledge Now to the work it self CHAP. II. Qui nimium properat serius absolvit Or No more haste than good speed THe * Pharmac 5.481 Reformer begins with a lofty Brow Now says he let us come to the examination of the Salt of Treacle of the Ancients whose preparation was so Childish and absurd that their simplicity did no where more appear than about it c. And a little after Animals only have Volatile Salt and in a violent Calcination leave commonly nothing behind them save only Terra Mortua yea the rest of their absurdities are not to be passed over in silence Do not tastly condemn the guiltless not having throughly weighed their cause in that they substituted Sal Armoniack in the place of Common Salt not at all as I perceive understanding the matter because all the Sal Armoniack is vanished into Air and so there remains nothing to them neither of the Vipers nor of their added Salt Thus. he But for my part I cannot see that the Ancients deserve to be accused of absurdity or simplicity in this thing so as to incur the undue reprehension of the Reformer so thet before we judge we are to hear and that both sides and we ought to find out what the Sal Armoniack of the Ancients was and for what reason they substituted it in the room of Common Salt and for what end and wherein their offence lay so as to merit the rash anger and bitter despight of this Reformer To make these things more plain it is necessary that we dive into the secret nature of certain Salts No imaginary things here in order to the examination and understanding of them and of the differences between them by accidents proper to them and known to Sense and that not by Logical and convertible Syllogismes or imaginary Non-Entities but by an Experimental and Natural History I say then and am ready to prove that not Animals only have Volatile Salt but against the Opinion of this Reformer that all Vegetables also have not a grain of fixed Salt by Nature unless they acquire it by Ary But first I will speak of things more known proceeding afterwards by degrees to those which are more occult Pliny witnesseth that Natural Sal Armoniack was in great use amonst the Ancients It is found says he L. 1. Ch. 7. in Africa in the Country of Cirenia till you come to the Oracle of Jupiter Hammon in lumps somewhat long and under the Sands Diascorides confirms the same that Sal Armoniack is praised from the Country where it is found This Salt endures constant in the fire being after its manner of a more Salt-acid relish than our common Trencher-salt as I shall shew and therefore the Ancients found it more advantagious for Medicines and for that cause have more commended it to us But that which is brought to us is not in longish lumps neither is it Natural but is made by Art viz. of the Natural and of the Volatile Alcaly of Ammals as the resolution of it shews according to the Axiom of * All things necessâ—â—ily consists of that into which they can be resolved Aristorle for it is divided into an Acid Spirit of Salt and also into a volatile Alcaly all salt things are divided into two substances viz. Alcaly and Acid as I shall shew by degrees both which being separated and again reunited become the Sal Armoniack which it was before The Acid part or Spirit hath all the properties of that which is distilled from Common Salt but the Alcaly is of the same nature with that which is sublimated from Mans Urine only 't is not so stinking Whence I conjecture that they chose Camels Urine not Mans for the composition L. 28. c. 8. For the Urine of Camels as Pliny observes is more profitable for Fullers than the Urine of other Animals from whence there must needs be a richer Alcaly perhaps because they eat no Salt as other Animals do for common Salt doth not wash out or cleanse Odys l. 6.
this they washed and again extinguished until the Bean-ashes had destroyed all the Alcaly and had left an impalpable Powder This is the Powder of Flints as That before melted with Alcaly and precipitated with Acid which the Reformer thinks cannot be safely given at Mouth so much as to Country people though he commends it to Queens as I have said to procure Milk In this Preparation which the Reformer out of his sloth and ignorance calls sleight The true preparation and knowledge of Simples requires almost a mans whole life lies hid the profound knowledge of Natural things as will appear by degrees and the taking of it is not at all to be feared as the Reformer falsly teacheth But ignorant persons are of necessity subject to great fears CHAP. VI. Rumor sine Capite A Report without ground THere is a way reported and practised of drawing out the Diuretick Vertue from Calcined Flint by the destruction of the Alcaly that is by a rule contrary to the Alcaly with Acid Spirits after this manner into Spirit of Salt they put by piece-meal unslaked Lime the Spirit is presently absorbed by the Alcaly of the Lime with great force and vehement ebullition they draw forth the insipid Phlegm and dissolve the Lime saturated with the Acid Salt they melt it with a gentle fire in a Crucible straining it into a cold Mortar when it is cold they beat it to Powder it then emitting fiery sparks from which with hot water they elicite the saltness this they purifie and coagulate and again suffer it of its own accord to run into a salt liquor not unprofitable But there are some Sophisters and Impostors who give forth that this Liquor is distilled in a Lembick for they mix the foresaid Liquor with Calcined and Powdered Flints in a fourfold proportion and distil it with an open fire into an Acid Spirit which by a wrong name they call Spiritus Calcis Basilii Now let us see to what Original or Parent we may ascribe the foresaid distilled Spirit First of all the Spirit of Salt was absorbed and swallowed up by the vitrifying Alcaly and most constant in the fire Further the Acid part of the Flint was separated by the water and cast off under the covert of the Faces Thirdly the fix'd Alcaly of the Flint or Lime drinks up the Acid Spirit of the Salt and a Salt is made of the volatile Acid and most fixed Alcaly Fourthly they mix this Salt with the Calcined Flints i. e. with the unslaked Lime which abounds more with Alcaly than Acid as I have shewed in Glass and Soap And though this Mixture be urged with the strongest fire what else can it distil forth than a volatile Acid that is the same Spirit of Salt which the Alcaly had absorbed and drunk up Famous and Learned men have commended this Spirit in the Gout and Stone as a singular Remedy but the success hath not answered But Basilius ill interpreted and understood wrote not to Impostors and therefore he is wrongfully accused by them for a Cheat Rightly therefore doth the Comoedian commend us If thou be wise make thy self ignorant of what thou knowest An Addition to this Examen By this Method after you are once instructed in this Hippocratical Learning which I hold forth in this short Tract you may in every Process Nature as to Physick hath nothing occult in this sublunary Globe but by this method an Hippocratist may discover it as well Chymical as Medicinal by ingenuity and discourse discern prove and separate Truth from Falshood without any expence or loss of time so as no longer to be gulled by Deceivers and Cheats yea by the same method you may in your Operations and in writing of Books travel on perpetually the right way without wandering in this Natural Chymical True and Ancient Philosophy through all the three Kingdoms Animal Mineral and Vegetable as you will confess in the Progress CHAP. VII Qui bene distinguit beue docet To distinguish well is to teach well FOr our clearer light and understanding it will be worth the while before I proceed to demonstrate to the Eye the difference of Alcalyes and to shew what the contrariety or the absorbing and imbibing of Acids is There are as I have said several degrees and Species of fix'd Salt Alcaly as of Tartar which hath a singular priviledge of Lime-trees of Hazel of all sorts of Oaks and those which in the Forrests of Norway Lituania and Muscovy are burnt out of green wood into to Pot-ashes Also all hot and Oily Herbs as Rosemary Laevender Rue c. all of them in a word are contrary to and destroyers of Acids whose difference the following Experiments shew Dissolve an ounce and half of sublimate Mercury which by the * Hip. l. 2. de Diaâ—t mixture is changed from Acid and Alcaly into Salt into fifty ounces of common water distilled into a part of this clear solution infuse by drops yet somewhat quickly the fixed Alcaly of Tartar which is the Liquor of Tartar resolved of its own accord this in a moment divides the Compositum absorbing the Acid and the Mercury presently goes to the bottom of a colour obscurely red From the Calcined Faeces or Lees of Vinegar The wonderful difference of fix'd Alcaely there is drawn forth with water Alcaly of Tartar which though produced out of the same Vine with Wine yet it precipitates aâ— Mercury sparkling and splendent But when the same Alcaly is Calcined by Art to a redness then the same Mercury falls down like pounded Cinnabar The Tartar being burnt up if you add the Calx and draw forth the Alcaly with simple water then the falling Mercury glisters like Gold but extracted out of the Herb Kaly it precipitates a Mercury much more dark coloured than the former The Lye or Lixivium which Soap-boilers call Magistra which consists of the Calx and Alcaly of Oaks yields Mercury darkly yellow There is an Alcaly brought out of Spain 't is not certain whether a simple or compounded one which yet precipitates Mercury of a Tawney yellow colour But when the same Mercury is precipitated with Alcalyes of Cephalick Herbs as of Rosemary Lavender c. these indeed are Alcalyes but not of Ashes as the former but much more volatile These I say cast Mercury red and shining So Celandine hath a wonderful Alcaly so that its fisth Essence which yet I take to be the Gift of Heaven i. e. the Alcalized Liquor of this Spiritual Salt is praised He which hath not tasted the relish of Sales shall never attain to the desired Ferment of Ferments says the Author of the Rosary not without a Mystery by Paracelsus and Lully â— and it casts a most red Mercury I once carelesly neglected the small Vessel in which 't was put and caused it not to be washed and about a Month after at the top of the Liquor there appeared a Golden Flower not unlike the Flower of Celandine
it was chamfered in its Coalition like Nitre to the wonderment of the beholders These Examples do shew that by how much Alcaly is fuller of Fire the Mercury falls so much the darker because that in the very instant of absorbing Arsenick called by Paraâ—â—sus the Soot of Metals fired with Nitre and resolved is not excepted the Fiery Alcaly affects and flashes against its Sulphur like Lightning but the further it recedes from Ignipotence the Mercury falls the brighter so that volatile Alcalyes as of Soot and of all Animals from the aforesaid Solution do precipitate Mercury of a white and snowy colour all which will more clearly appear in the Progress So Mercury precipitated from the Balsam Samech casts a snowy colour Balsamus Samech somewhat inclining to yellow but if you pour on more than its Nature can bear then it turns to a glittering colour But salt things of what kind soever do not precipitate Mercury out of the above-named solution yea by how much the nearer they approach to the nature of Salts so much the less they hurt Acids Examples follow Alcaly of Saltpeter though its first Original be from Alcaly of Urine yet with Sulphur being fix'd into Alcaly and therefore it tasts somewhat saltish it somewhat disturbs the Mercury so dissolved but doth not precipitate it but if you add to this Pulverised mixture before it doth deflagrate and leave burning a certain fixed and dried Alcaly of Tartar and keep it over a gentle fire then first it melts the Sulphur and the pingueous Acid of the Sulphur preparing for its flight is greedily imbibed or drunk in by the Alcaly which is also pingueous as it happens in the preparation of Lac Sulphuris the moist way The heat still continuing the Nitre also is melted whose sulphureous and inflamable part is associated to its like viz. to the Pinguedo of the Sulphur yea it is greedily received in by the Alcaly a middle part of which is sufficient in respect of the Powders as of * Sal Fulminant Nitre three parts of Alcaly of Tartar two parts of Sulphur one part and so becomes Salt In this Salt mass each of the Sulphurs doth boil or bubble up and the fire continuing and being increased they take flame which in the kindling not enduring the narrowness of place in the Salt bursts out into the Air with a noise like Thunder That these things are so the Alealy which is sometime left behind may inform us especially when it is kindled not in a Concave but in a plain place and very leisurely for then it is changed by the Acid Spirits into Salt and doth not any longer precipitate Mercury Hence by the way we may learn that This is the ground why Ceraunocryson or Aurum Fulminans gives a crack or loud noise I have elsewhere shewed that the Spirit of Nitre in Alcaly is made Nitre of Tartar Aurum Fulminans Gold is almost all Sulphur after its own sort and manner as I have also experimentally demonstrated in its place for which reason it is not corroded by Acids Gold therefore being dissolved in salt water of Nitre Allum and Sal Armoniack or common Salt if you pour in by little and little not all at once a certain Alcaly the Acid Spirit of the Nitre for the Spirit of Allom or Vitriol in the distillation of Aqua fortis doth not ascend takes to it self a Body in the vacuous and empty Alcaly and so becomes natural Nitre but the sulphurous Nitre easily adheres via humida to the sulphurous * This is the cause that Gold dissolved in Spirit of Salt and the same fore-cited Alcaly precipitat is not falminans for it returns to Salt which resists the flame Gold because of the similitude between them and they are so throughly mix'd together that by no art of Ablution they can be separated i. e. when the Acid of Nitre is imbibed by the Alcaly it is coagulated into natural Nitre which finds the Sulphur in the dissolved Gold and with it as being of the same nature to use Hippocrates's words it receives coagulation as I have shewed in Calx But if you pour on more of the Alcaly so that it exceed the degree of Nitre then the Nitre also inclines and deflects to the nature of Alcaly and it can no longer be called Aurum Fulminans of which more anon But to return from this digression So also Fel Vitri * Anat. Croll in Lupide medicam contracts the same relish becoming Salt from the Acidity of the Flint for it doth not precipitate Mercury at all Liquor of Talck not Oyl as the ignorant vulgar think for it conceives not flame stirs not Mercury at all as neither do Salts from all Diuretick Herbs as Bean-stalks Broom S. John's Wort Rupture Wort Nettles c. all these I say are Acid-salt and do not precipitate Mercury from the said Solution but when they are Alcalized by a quick flame or Fusion then the Mercury falls down reddish Hence it appears that that most Learned Man of the Ancients who taught us to extinguish red hot Glass in the Ashes of Bean-stalks and not in its Salt did rightly institute the burning thereof and not according to the Doctrine of our unskilful Reformer lest the Salt should unadvisedly assume the nature of Alcaly of which I have spoken before in the fifth Chapter The salts of the Ashes of vulnerary Herbs such as Bettony Agrimony Winter-green Elatine Star-wort Sanicle c. all yielding a tart Salt are therefore unfit for vitrification and do not precipitate Mercury which is of the same taste as shall be shewed in its place But all the aforesaid Salts by the fire of Fusion do change their nature and become Alcalyes are vitrified and do precipitate Mercury of a sparkling colour Hence Zoar upon Exodus observes that Glass is made of any Ashes i.e. when they are reduced to Alcaly Common Salt doth not precipitate Mercury Conslancy of Salt in the Fire from the above-mentioned Solution yea although it be burnt a long time and with a quick flame it would never become Alcaly neither doth it change its nature by digestion wherefore it is the perfectest of all Salts and by a singular priviledge is called by Helmont The excellentest of Salts So Salt of Vipers doth not precipitate Mercury unless the Acid and the Alcaly be again separated one from the other of which hereafter Salt of Wormwood being Acid-salt doth not for that reason precipitate Mercury Pharmico f. 788. neither doth it absorb Spirit of Vitriol as the Reformer teaches under the Title of Coagulated Spirit of Vitriol but when it is Alcalized it precipitates Mercury yellow and then also it absorbs the Acid Spirit of Vitriol and vitrifies Hence we learn that in a fire stronger than the nature of the thing will bear Salts will be fixed and converted into a Neutral thing wherefore many things are produced by the sole Regiment of Fire not as
flame and is a Remedy for the Quinzey which otherwise being separated are Caustick Regeneration of common Salt Of Acid Spirits only Spirit of Salt dissolves Gold and why as I have shewed in Aurum Fulminans If you add Spirit of Salt to the same Salt of Tartar then after Coagulation it becomes common Salt as it was before it was turned by a strong fire into Spirit and therefore since the Acid Spirit of Salt by solution returns to Salt we may cease our wonderment why amongst all Acid Spirits no other dissolves Gold but that of Salt because that by Corrosion it reassumes the Nature of Salt even as the water commonly called Aqua Regia which without Salt touches not the Gold at all Tartarus Regeneratus by some improperly called Tina folia a Phylosophâ—n un Distilled Vinegar becomes fat Oyl concerning flame The same Salt of Tartar if it hath imbibed Vinegar distilled from Wine is made common Tartar of Wine having all the properties thereof excepting only that in humjdo it doth more easily melt Cleanse this Regenerated Tartar by solution from all its impurity and afterwards distil it with a strong fire through a Glass retort placed in Sand and you shall obtain an Oyl and bitter Liquor as that which is elicited from crude Tartar yet the Oyl somewhat resembles the goodness of the Wine of which the Vinegar was made 'T is almost incredible to be spoken What more pleasant than to know those things and to see them with our eyes and handle them with our hands under a grateful silence which common sense doth not apprehend and by nature are put remole from us Oyl made water Oyl made Aqua Ardens Aqus Atdens made Alcaly and Elementary water that distilled Vinegar should contain in it an occult fatness and yet it is very true but Salt of Tartar hath not this piâ—â—guedo for it is fixed and tryed in the fire At Rome from one Ounce of this Regenerated Tartar I drew forth six Drachmes of Oyl of an Orange colour and grateful smell but at Venice a pound scarce afforded me one Drachme and that black coloured and stinking I say it is even incredible that in Vinegar not only the qualities of the Wine but of the Country where it grows should manifest themselves From what hath been said it appears that Acids do attract Alcalyes at their pleasure and rule over them as they lift In like manner it reduces Oyls either distilled or expressed into their first Elements for they being mixed in a just proportion i.e. to satiety with Salt of Tartar and digested afterwards out of a Glass retort placed in Sand one Moity returns Oyl the other Moity is water Again mix this Oyl with new Salt of Tartar as above repeat the distillation and you will see all the Oyl converted into water a little Earth being left with the Tartar which you shall know increased in weight so that Oyl which otherwise is wholly inflamable here you may find turned into odoriferous water and again distilling this water out of a Glass you will extract Aqua Ardens which again with Salt of Tartar returns to Alcaly and afterwards into Elementary water like that which remained in the Glass There were two pound of the remaining Salt of Tartar in the Retort which I laid upon an Iron Board or Slate that it might run into a pellucid Liquor I distilled all the Humidity out of the Retort placed in Sand and breaking the Vessel Salt of Taâ—tar turne I into simple Elements I again dissolved in the Air the Salt which was in the bottom upon the Iron Slate which is not prejudiced at all which is done in about forty hours space and there remained nothing on the Slate besides a little slimy Faex I again distilled the Liquor encreasing the fire as before till nothing came forth either dropping or smoaking and I again dissolved the same Salt having broken the Retort on the Iron Slate I renewed these Operations twelve times and all the Salt of Tartar was turned into the Element of water I gathered up the Faeces which were left each time on the Slate and I extracted all the saltness from the distilled water with which I made the same Process as before so that all the Salt of Tartar as the Vinegar Oyl and Aqua Ardens were turned into insipid water and Terra Mortua of no savour or smell which Earth and Water a little before seemed Caustical 'T is a wonder to consider what becomes of this Fiery Vital power and vertue both of the Oyl Vinegar and Aqua Ardens as also of the Salt of Tartar yet this vertue or form persisted constant in the fire until the reduction into the Elements I now call it the Rector for our clearer understanding of it of which more particularly in its place You may call it as you please either Fire Form Archeus 't is all one to me All are like though they appear unlike as Hippocrates affirms L. 1 de Diaet In Append. ad animad f. 84. If the Reformer had had any knowledge of fixed Alcalyes he had never prescribed to Podagrical persons Oyl of Venice Soap for whatsoever of Oyl distils from Soap is like that from Brick and contains nothing of Alcaly so also they who dissolve the Body of Soap and say that it is good for gouty diseases are in a great mistake the taste may be an Omen of their disappointment which is found manifestly salt for it doth not precipitate Mercury from the above-mentioned solution Wherefore the Alcaly of Tartar seems to bear a representation of the Philosophers Chaos wherein they say their Mercury hath a Resurrection of which Paracelsus The Regeneration L. 1. de natura rerum says he and Renovation of Metals is thus made as man returns to the Earth whence he was first taken and so shall be again Regenerated at the last day So also Metals may again return to Mercury of which they wâ—re first derived and be dissolved with it and râ—-become Mercury and again by fire which also shall judge the World be re-produced and clarified This way as he goes on are stones Regenerated Of which see Roger Bacon Riply Isaac Holland yet read them with caution and also special tinctures of Silver and Gold Thus far Paracelsus In the mean while I would not advise any man to perswade himself that Salt of Tartar after whatsoever manner prepared is the Catholick Chaos of the Philosophers though Metals in it may return-into running Mercury 'T is enough in short to have advertised this But I am enjoyned silence by Harpocrates concerning fixed Salt of Tartar Actaeons example deters me lest I should be injurious to the curious disquisitions of Learned men who have spent much labour and pains to attain the full knowledge thereof it being a Medium giving vivification to many things The Academical Spiâ—i understands not this Mystery Basillus Paracelsus and others have taken great notice of it who
Alcaly of Galls or with some Oil the hidden Acidity of which enters into the Galls being placed in a pot in a slow Fire of Ashes leave them there till you see the Galls become Blacker but not so as to be reduced to Coals then their Alcaly will be more fit for Colouring and an Ounce of such burnt Galls doth more than a pound of others yea it colours of it self because the Acidity of the Fat by the Fire hath acted upon its Alcaly Very many Vegetables do abound with the like Volatile and Occult Alcaly Rinds of Pomgranates as the greater Housleek Sage Rinds of Pomgranates all which do spend and absume the Acid of the Vitriol and cause the Colcotar to be much less black A certain Prince of great Renown an Enquirer into the Mysteries of Nature wondered much when he heard that a certain Gentlewoman of the Nursery in his Court had taken by Mouth Rinds of Pomgranates which are universally judged to be Adstringent which yet provoked the Courses in her which had been stopped some Months To whom when I declared the copious Alcaly wherewith these Rinds do abound and that the stopping of the Menstrua did arise from that Morbous Acidity which the Alcaly of the Rinds had absorbed it ceased his wonderment But you must note that Artificial Vitriol of an Azure colour Things thorowly mixed and divided are altered Hip. l. 1. de Diat which is falsly called Cyprus Vitriol doth not become black with Galls though they be burnt but with Rinds of Pomgranates it tinges obscurely Yellow Now it is made of the spangles or thin flakes of Copper by Spirit of Sulphur or of common Vitriol both which in a cold place are Coagulated into somewhat long-angular little stones hardly dissolvable and unfit for Distillation because it wholly wants that Cupreous Sulphur This with Urine waxeth Green and with the Alcaly of Urine is cast into an Azure bottom which by Fusion returns to Copper So also Verdigrease as proceeding from ripe Copper and Vinegar doth not wax black with Galls Distilled Aerugo yields Vinegar but becomes of a light red or Spadiceous colour and by the Reformers leave I know and have experimented that nothing but Vinegar will be distilled from thence because the remaining Caput Mortuum after Distillation by the fire of Fusion is reduced to pure Copper of which more hereafter Whence it appears that burnt Brass with tosted Galls produceth not a black tincture as Alexius of Piedmont promises with which process the Women of this Country do wonderfully vexe themselves that therewith they may black their hair for as far as this composition tingeth any thing it ownes that Vertue to the tosted Galls Alexius his Secret the burnt Brass contributing nothing thereunto But Cyprus Vitriol is truly Hermaphroditical richly furnished with natural Acidity and Cupreous Sulphur The Metaphor of Mars companying with Venus doth not unfiâ—ly suit here for which reason it is always moist and never of it self conctetes into small stones wherefore it very easily grows black with Galls which is a sign that it partakes of the Nature of Venus and Mars for Vitriol of Venus without Mars doth not grow black with Galls as I have shewed For Iron and Copper are of affinity one to another as Male and Female This Secret sayes Basilius you may take notice of but conceal for it is of great use This Vitriol De Vitriels dissolved in water is of a Tawney colour if burnt Brass be dissolved in it or flakes of Copper or Iron then it concretes into little stones and becomes vendible but inferior to that which is Medicineable The White Vitriol which comes from Gosloria and that also from Carinthia White Vitriol doth participate indeed of Mars and Venus but are not rich in natural Acidity for which reason they very slowly wax black with Galls a drop of this Solution mixed with Galls and falling on Paper makes a Party-coloured Iris after it is dry But Romane Vitriol which abounds with Iron Roman Vitriol though poor in Spirit yet it colours quickly because of the Iron So Artificial Vitriol which is made of the fileings of Iron Vitriolâ—m Martis artislciale with Spirit of Vitriol or Sulphur doth tinge most readily and therefore Dyers for want of Sweet Vitriol do add fileings of Iron to the Humid and by consequent the sharp which it doth Corrode and so the Vitriol is Dulcified So also Crocus Martis which is made of artificial Vitriol burnt in a covered Crucible till it be red being dissolved with Spirit of Salt and digested with Spirit of Wine Câ—ocus Martis Solutus acquires a golden colour and becomes a noble Medicine One drop alone of this Solution in half an ounce of the Decoction or Extract of Galls becomes perfectly black pour out this black and wash the vessel with clean water and the Ablution will be of the colour of an Amtihyst A drop of the former on Paper after it is dryed of its own accord represents divers colours as a Peacocks tail curious to the eyes of the beholders Whilest I was busied heretofore about these curious experiments I perceived my fingers to be tingedwith a Purple colour as it happens from Gold dissolved in Aqua Regia and the tincture endured for some days This Basilius calls Sanguis Veneris Martis The blood of Venus and Mars and commands us not without reason to observe it accurately and to conceal it Gold corroded by Aqua Regia and coagulated into the shape of Vitriol Gold doth tinge the fingers as I have said of a Purple colour and with the infusion of Galls the liquor becomes like yellow Amber with which if with a liberal hand you dawb over Paper after it is dryed it shines as Varnish Silver corroded in Aqua Fortis Silver of Nitre and Alome with an infusion of Galls doth not change its nature if you write on Paper with this mixture after two days every black letter is as it were compassed with a Silver and shining list which cannot be without Alcaly Hence this rare Man may understand why the Ancients Metaphorically called Gold the Male and Silver the Female A drop of this Solution if with a large hand it drop on Paper after the silver lift it draws and makes another of a Chesnut colour a pleasant Spectacle as if it were so painted on purpose So also Tinn and Lead being reduced into Salt or Vitriol Leed Tiau with the juice of Galls as also with Alcaly of any sort yields a white bottom i. e. the Alcaly of the Galls drinks up the Acid and the Metal goes to bottom but not so in Gold nor Silver nor Copper c. Quick silver dissolved by Acid things Mercury and re-coagulated with the aforesaid juice of Galls waxeth but slowly Yellow imitating Gold which is to be observed Wherefore of the seven Metals being dissolved by Acids Iron and Silver with Galls do
small Vessels says Quercetan fit for that purpose having its mouth close sealed with Wax and so keep it least the Dew should evaporate which is very light by reason of the Spirits these Spirits in the following Chapter I shall shew * See Cosmopolita being occultly Acid and Volatile yea being the hidden Food of Life with which the Dew is so impregnated in the Air that when it is included in an Egg-shell and put upon a * Which I think ought not to be round Spear placed obliquely then the Egg is lifted up by the heat of the Sun to the top of the Spear as * In Magia Natura Hildebrand teacheth but that the said Dew may be sucked up by the Seed Afterwards in a clear Night re-expose the said Glass-board with the Seeds into the aforesaid Meadow that it may re-attract and draw in the Dew which you must also again seal up in the aforesaid Phyal before Sun-rising that it exhales not so the Seeds by little and little by means of the Dew suck'd in will begin to swell and be turgid the Acid and Alcaly acquiring strength from the Dew and Heavenly Influences which the Rector will then begin to direct Let this setting out and taking in of the Seeds be so long repeated till the Signs of Germination and Vitality do appear In the interim whilest these things are a doing you must in the same Meadow stretch and spread abroad clean Linnen-cloths on wooden-sticks and so gather the Dew on them and wring it out keeping it in a Glass Vessel well stopped which in its Settling will afford or depose some Faeces from the small dust flying up and down in the Air of this pure Dew pour as much on the Seeds as may be about an Inch above them and so place them in a Vaporating Bath for * It Testamen c. 24. Raimund teacheth That what Nature doth by the heat of the Sun and Stars the same it will do by the heat of Fire provided it be so ordered as not to exceed the motive and informative Vertue which is in the matter of the Celestial Insluences stopping the mouth of the Glass with melted Sulphur The Acid and Alcaly in the Humid and Calid then begin to act upon one another and so they will be freed from the Earthly body of the Seed in which they were included and in the space of a few days this natural Composition will wax Green at the top as it happens to Stagnant Waters in shadowy places by the ambient heat of the Summer Under this Green Film is the union of the Faculties perfected which I have shewed to be Volatile and together with the Rector As Hipp. L. 1. of Diet. unseparable from the Acid being immortal per se which union may be called Confermentation The Receptacle or body of the Seed will be a dead Substance which in a few days will suck up the Viridity i. e. the Bubbles of Fermentation with the Superfluous Liquor as we see in Pools growing green at top and by little and little it is turned into a most fine Powder like Ashes when it is come to a ripeness This Vessel being warmed so doubtless Quercetan saw it the Levity of the Dew being Confermented with the Rector and the Faculties of the Seeds will represent the image of Iâ—oppy The mouth of the Vessel if it be melted with Glass I judg will never decay and because the Practick part doth not attain to nor follow the Speculative word for word there is therefore need of a Skilful and Ingenious Operator Hitherto as I have said I never had a fit place at Venice to make this tryal nor ever shall for want of fruitful and pure Dew which is here troubled by the continual steaming of * Malltre is made of Echalations of stinking Urine and other mixtures embracing one another Lib. 1. of Metcors Halinitre as the Walls of all the Houses shew with which the very Dews being also subtle exhalations as Aristotle teacheth and our own experience confirms are mixed and so they fall down mix'd again Such a shadowy Regeneration of things was hid by Paracelsus being illuminated in this Natural Hippocratical Doctrine under the Vail and Metaphor of the Generation of Man whom certain Grandees of Physick Sennert de Consil Edi. C. 4. being ignorant of this Doctrine understanding litterally judged him as an Impious Man to Banishment I add that in the whole School of Philosophy there is nothing though never so diligently sought for which doth more lively demonstrate to us the Mystery of the Resurrection than these proper instruments of Nature being cleansed from their Refuse by an Hippocratist and again conjoyned re-united and re-produced if the said Mystery be at all demonstrable by Natural things CHAP. XXI A Summary Rehearsal of what hath been spoken THe Alcaly and the Volatile Acid in the family of Vegetables are burnt together by Fire into a Fixed or a truly Alcalizate Salt Fol. 788. The way is indeed promised by the Resormer in his Mantissa Hermetica in lofty words but no where to be found in the mean time he finds fault with those Salts whose ashes are burnt with Sulphur and he blames Hartman as a bad Writer In his Appendix fol. 101. and says that nothing can be more foâ—lishly taught than to mix Alcaly Salts with Acids as if he himself had not taught to mix the Alcaly of Vipers with the Acid Spirit of Salt as also the Spirit of Vitriol with the Alcalizate Salt of Wormwood Mantiss f. 788. under the title of Coagulated Spirit of Vitriol and again in his Appendix f. 100. he extolls such mixed Salts with great Praises and a little after he again admits Ashes to be calcined with Sulphur When uncertainty is the Mistriss what can be chosen Know then that no Vegetable hath any fixed Salt of what kind soever unless it be burned with actual Fire So that the Acid in burning may act upon and apprehend the Alcaly The Air deth Volatize and likewise the Alcaly on the Acid as I have shewed in Juice of Wine and its Tartar As may be seen in rotten Wood though you reduce it never so carefully to Ashes in what fire soever you will never get Salt out of it for the Acid and the Alcaly being both Volatile are already absumed by the Air and have left nothing but an unprofitable Cadaver behind but if it be burnt before Putrefaction then you may obtain your desire Wherefore our chief care and labour in this Work must be This action may be called Fermentation for the instruments of Nature are changed that the Herbs may be fresh and not withered for then in burning the innate Humidity when it boils up doth dissolve the Acid and the Alcaly which being dissolved do act mutually one upon another and one apprehending the other they are both fixed according to the property of the Concrete But that part which flies away with the
he be Occult yet by Mechanical necessity he must needs be Acid as I have evidenced in Oyl Suet Milk c. otherwise nothing at all in the Universe would be Coagulated For the things which have been spoken says my Doctor none of them can be seen with the Eye i. e. none can understand my Writings De Arte. unless he be versed in this Chymical and Salt-fusory Art Wherefore Hippocrates found out those things which by a grateful consent The book of Nature is to be read but Paper ones are not to be rejected are subject to the Empire of Art and Nature On this Foot he places the unmovable Foundations of Learning and from these he hath deduced all Mechanical Progresses and Explications of Causes so firmly that if all Paper Books with their Authors were lost yet by this Method out of the Great Book of Nature they may be all again retrieved Hence it appears how many Fables have been ascribed to this worthy Man which he never so much as dream'd of yea many things published under his name suit not with his Profound Wisdom so that if he were alive again he would be ashamed to own them The permixture and alteration which I have demonstrated in fixed Alcalyes with Acids the same also * L. 1. of Diet. my Hippocrates would have to be understood of the Volatile Alcalyes of Animals for the Volatile Alcaly of any Animal whatsoever being saturated with the Acid Spirit of Variol assumes the nature of Vitriol but not having the Colcothar of Iron it is precipitated by juice of Galls into a bottom of a Purple Colour like to White Vitriol of which above Out of what hath been spoken 't is as clear as Noon-day that the Spirit is the Vehicle and lodging place of the Soul and the Bond joyning Soul and Body which I shall also shew by the following Experiments For the same Volatile Alcaly of what Animal soever with Spirit of Nitre is made natural Nitre conceiving Flame and is melted in the fire like ordinary Nitre The same Alcaly I say with Vinegar is made Tartar which is wholly Distilled into a Salt liquor as I have shewed in Mindererus his Water the same may be said of other Acid Juices for as fixed Alcalyes are vacuous and empty bodies so are also the Volatile ones of all Animals whose preparations the Reformer indeed teaches which yet is very inane and empty as all Alcalyes are Hence my Hippocrates moved to a smiling laughter pleasantly says L. 1. of Diet. They know not what they do but they obey their destined fate Wherefore the Alcaly of Vipers being a vacuous and empty body is saturated by the Reformer as empty with great labour and cost with the Acid Spirit of Salt Pharm f. 486. and what else I pray but Common Salt can issue from it Behold the Cheat and Imposture which the Reformer hath at last found out with so much labour of which triumphing before the victory he thus scribbles Whosoever thou art never think there is any other way of Fixing having spoken this by and by heâ—recants Pharm f. 486. saying with a low voice If yet there be any Man who hath greater Experience in these Operations I give him occasion for the Publick good that what he hath Experimented herein he would not suffer to die with him Alas poor Man why not but go too Let us comply with his desires he hath made a fair Oration and no doubt deserves a Statue from the Common-Wealth of Physick Append. in Animadu fol. 75. for having so politely distinguished the Acid from the Salt for the benefit of Apothecaries CHAP. XXII A Childish Opinion Discovered I Will briefly now run over the Acids In Append. f. 52. which the Reformer teaches as contrary to Salts which Doctrine yet with many others I find to be false and full of Ignorance Fire both Internal and External Explains the Book of Nature as the ordinary professor of the Creator as shall be demonstrated by Fire keeping to the Terms usually received for Fire is here the publick Professor and just Judge Logick hath no such way of distinguishing for That only handles true Sciences already found out and propounds Methodically and clearly and profitably to treat of what is to be known in every knowable thing But I have before distinguished the Tastes or Sapors of Salts as much as was necessary for the understanding of this present Compendium Let there be made a Powder of Nitre The Calcining of Gold the day way and Common Salt Ana four Ounces and two Ounces of Allum to which add Simple Water as much as is sufficient for the solution of the Salts which act not undissolved and you will obtain a Salt Liquor to which add two Drachms at least of Leaf-Gold mingle the Gold with the Salts and boil them in a glazen pot to Siccity towards the end encrease the fire till it affords a smell like That of Aqua Fortis so the saltness of the mixture erodes the Gold Dissolve the white Mass in a pot with Common Water let the Solution rest in the Glass Vessel till the Faeces of the Salt do subside when it is clear pour it out by inclination to this clear solution instil by drops some fixed resolved Alcaly Ex. Gra. Liquor of Tartar which presently absorbs the more subtil Acid Spirits and the Gold presently falls of a Purple colour In this Operation the Salt hinders not the Acid Spirits as the Reformer teaches but the Alcaly of Tartar consuming the Acids destroys the Compositum The same way but with great force distilled water of Nitre and Allum in which Common Salt hath been dissolved Galcining of Gold the morst way dissolves Gold for if the Salt were not dissolved in water it would not corrode the Gold Wherefore Salt doth not destroy the Acid Aqua Fortis neither in the dry nor moist way but adds Vigor to it like to Sal Armoniack Hence Basilius What is found in the Eagle is also to be met with in me Hence it appears that Gold is not dissolved but by Salts but why the Acid Spirit of Salt doth dissolve It I have elsewhere shewed viz. by corroding the Spirits it returns to That which it natively and originally was viz. into Salt CHAP. XXIII Obscure things made manifest I Will shew another Experiment very pleasing to the Eye manifesting that Salts are not contrary to Acids Take three pound of dryed Vitriol Tincture of Gold two pound of Nitre fix ounces of the Flowers of Common Sulphur and five pound and a half of Common Salt and Powder of Bricks as much as is sufficient least the Salts should be melted with the Sulphur Let there be six pound of this last powder mingle the small powders exactly and distil the water at least out of Sand put Gold Money into this water without rectification premised and in a few hours hours in a warm place you will see the water
Chap. 21. And he writes thus to Apothecaries That these are boiled according to Art But among Metals there is none that doth more readily associate with fixed Acid than Lead For according to the species of the Acid it changes its form as I have said of Alcalyes The steam of Vinegar turnes It into white Ceruss Acidity in flame into red Minium Lead yields Colours and Glass by the Acid of Sulphur fire being added 't is turned into black with Acid Minerals impure and mix'd ' tis-turned into a double Litarge with the Acid of yellow Clay 't is burnt into Glass of a box-like colour with the Acid of black Clay into a swarthy vitreous colour as the Glass-men know For which cause Melters and Refiners of Metals do honour it very much because it absorbs all sorts of Acids and clears the Metal from all spots The Ancients have observed that all inflamations in living creatures arise from Acidity * In his Book of Ancient Medicine Hippocrates attesting the same In Man says he there is Acid bitter most Acid and hundreds of other things which according to their quantity and strength have various faculties For which cause they devised several Oyntments and Plaisters of Lead How Lead cools That they might take away that Acidity and the oftner those foresaid Unguents are changed the sooner is the Acid consumed and the Distemper cured This consumption of the Acid in condescention to the oapacities of the Vulgar we call re-frigeration in as much as it mortifies the cause of Heat CHAP. XXVII A further Probation that there is Acidity in Flame REverberate whole Corals in an open fire Tincture of Corals twelve ounces for example for six days and nights the fire serves the Skilful for distilling Spirit of Vitriol and you will find fifteen-ounces i. e. three ounces encreased and turned into a most fine powder this encrease is nothing else but the Acid from the flame which dissolves the Corals and is coagulated and fixed with them after the manner of Acids into Salt If you poure distilled Vinegar on this Salt it doth not send forth Bubbles as it otherwise happens in Corals not reverberated for they are saturated with Acid and it dissolves Them into a pellucid Semi-Acid Liquor which though transparent and colourless yet it hath a Latent Sanguineous Redness which the affusion of Spirit of Vitriol in a moment makes manifest 'T was neither the Vinegar nor the Spirit of Vitriol This Tincture is the Rector or Archeus as long lifed as Coral it self of great Vertue not destro ' d by fire it self as I have shewed in Wine which introduced this redness for then the Mixture would be always red when the Magistery of Corals is prepared the common way wherefore of necessity this redness must be secretly Latent in the Coral and by the help of Fire be produced to maturity of which I shall now forbear to speak more 't is enough that contrary to the sleepy Doctrine of the Reformer I have shewed that Acid hath not destroyed this Salt and that Tincture of Corals abides constant in the fire which you may by ingenuity separate and it will commend and praise it self So place the Regulus of Antimony Antimony fixed by Acid from fire being elevated into Flowers E. C. twelve ounces on the floure or hearth of the Glass-mens Oven or Furnace in a large fit Earthen Vessel well covered lest the flying Ashes should fall into it and remove it far from the Eye where the flame plays that it be not melted so let it stand eight days afterwards draw the Vessel nearer to the Eye every fifth day a little until about the fiftieth day then you will find the Flowers of the Regulus fixed into a small light and most white powder and encreased by two ounces by the Acidity drawn from the fire which pierced the Earthen Vessel without hurting it after the manner of Spirits This Regulus was erst melted with a gentle fire now it resists even Antimonial Fusion unless it be urged with quick blowing Bellows then the Acid Spirits return from the fire to their Elements and you will find twelve ounces of Regulus as I before shewed in Lead In like manner deal with Crude Antimony and it will part with its Volatile Acid Spirits and assume other more fixed ones from the fire and is turned into a white powder like Antimonium Diaphoreticum of greater vertue in Physick then that which is burnt with Nitre the reason is that here so much of the Sulphur doth not deflagrate with the Nitre but it is here fixed by its proper Regulus by the fire which this Mechanick shews Boil Antimony in simple water let it be mixed with three parts of Nitre and by turns kindled and calcined in that Ebullition Milk of Sulphur of Antimony of great Vertue the Nitre from the Sulphur of Antimony being burnt to Alcaly dissolves the Sulphur of the Antimony which is now fixed as the boiling or bubbling Alcaly of Tartar doth dissolve common Sulphur for Milk as Crollius hath it sprinkle Vinegar on this Solution being filtrated warm and you shall perceive the Odor of the Sulphur which presently is drunk up by the Alcaly and the Sulphur falls into a white small rare Fixed Antipesti ential Antimony light and spongy Powder which you must wash A drachm of this given with Vinegar in the Plague is more worth than an ounce of that which is not boiled nor dissolved Hence it appears That the Sulphur of Antimony which elsewhere deflagrates with the Nitre here is fixed by its proper Regulus by the Fire in the above-named Vessel and so becomes more perfect so that there is Acidity in the flame of Fire which I have shewed to be imbibed by Corals and Antimony as well as Lead and so by Iron it self which with this and all other Acids is with fire turned into Rust So that there is no difference betwixt that Crocus Martis Câ—ocus Marth which is made either with manifest or Occult Acids both of them are either binding or loosning CHAP. XXVIII The ways and necessities of Precipitation discovered THere are Varieties of Opinions amongst Writers concerning the Properties and Operations of Iron and how and by what manner it performs them in Man's body * L. 3. P. 2. sect 2. C. 7. Sennertus gives us a Catalogue of them but few of them have hit the Mark by reason of their ignorance of Hippocrates his Doctrine * L. 1. de Diaet I will therefore shew how It adstringes and how it loosheth Iron doth manifestly bind and consequently it strengthens the Stomach and neighbour parts Therefore it is good in the Dysentery Lientery Diarrhaea and all Laxative diseases c. But I hear some object that Iron Medicaments provoke the Terms in Women and restore the defects of the Liver and Spleen and so do rather Loosen than Bind Lanswer not as that Canonical Physician who asserted That the stones
of Crabbs were a Mineral and therefore an enemy to Nature but my answer is from the works of Nature in which I have demonstrated out of * L. 1. de Diaet Hippocrates That these things must needs so happen by Divine necessity To wit that there is often observed to wander up and down in us a certain dissolved Salt the Generation whereof I have shewed before in its place It consisting of Acid and Alcaly Compounded less agreeing among themselves and unfit for Transpiration and Sweat This by reason of the inequality of the Sapors doth not obey Purging Medicines as Experience shews Call this if you will an Humour truly excrementious lodging either in the first or in the last region of the Body produced either by the Womb Liver Spleen Reins Sweet-bread Mesentery or Stomach as to this point 't is all one Iron then being taken which as I have shewed Mechanically doth easily imbibe all Acids presently That Noxious Liquid-Salt or Excrementitious Humour runs hastily to the Iron and adheres to it that it may dissolve it and so that Saline Excrement according to the kind of the Sapor whiles it sticks to the Iron and corrodes it is coagulated as we have seen it with the Acid of Vitriol to be turned into Vitriol with the Acid of Wine into * And becomes the Tincture of Mars of the Reformer in his Appendix fol. 83. Rust So also it happens in Copper which if Vinegar corrode it becomes Verdigrease if the same Copper be corroded by Spirit of Vitriol it becomes Vitriol of Venus Consonant to this Doctrine is what I have formerly Ocularly demonstrated concerning Alcalyes and Acids but sithence It cannot be assumed into Aliment therefore it is purged by Stool It doth not â—scend the Viaphragma with the dissolved Iron of a black colour which colour ariseth when the Acid Salt corrodes the Iron and the Alcaly precipitates it into Colcothar as I have shewed above in its place But when Iron is drank As appears in Acid Fountains dissolved in an Acid Liquor but grateful to the Stomach The same Liquors being taken and throughly admitted the Iron presently being unfit as I said for Aliment is separated from the Acid by the Vertue of the Alcaly in the Mixture In which Segregation the aforesaid Salts or Humours flow to the Iron and adhere to It as we see it happens to Silver dissolved in Aqua Fortis if thin Plates of Copper be cast into the Solution then presently the Acidity of the Aqua Fortis deserts the Silver and corrodes the Copper and the Silver adheres to the Copper I speak not of him that never few any thing in his life but stinking Excrements as a compact Powder Again put a thin plate of Iron into the Solution which is now greenish from the Copper and the water presently leaves the Copper and corrodes the Iron and the Copper adheres to the Iron whiles the Vitriolate water of Goslarla corrodes the Iron then the Copper falls from the water into the place of the Iron which contained the Vitriol unripened this red powder melted in the fire turns to Copper This Precipitation many learned Men but ignorant of Hippocrates his Doctrine have believed to be the transmutation of Iron into Copper even so Mechanical reason and necessity also do Dictate that it must be in Man's body especially since Nature is alike in every think as the Old man speaks For unless the excrementitious Humour were of a certain Semi-acid Nature and Taste the Iron would not be dissolved in the body into a green or black mash as we daily see that it is and I have also shewed in its place And unless the Excrements be so tinged Iron is unadvisedly given for it finds not a fit Humour to dissolve it and in that case Iron is Astringent The use and abuse of Acids though the Aperitive Crocus Martis of the Reformer had been taken by the Mouth The same thing is to be understood of Acid Spirits as of Vitriol Sulphur Glass and Salt for These if they find not a wandering Alcaly in the body of Man an enemy to Vitality and therefore Morbous which the Acid Spirit may receive into it self they do more hurt than good for then by their over much Acidity they infect the neighbour Aliment of the Stomach and make it unfit for Nourishment A Physician of Rome a friend of mine Anno Dom. 1656 in the time of the Plague used Spirit of Sulphur in quantity for a Preservative who thereupon became * The Remedy of Arthritis is by Alcalyes Arthritical and was afterwards restored by the Alcaly of Animals as I have elsewhere shewed concerning the Feet-Gout For the Alcaly imbibes the Acid wanderingly dispersed over the the body which was the cause of Disease and Pain in the Ventricles not being accustomed to things manifestly Acid for so * Of Purging Medicines Hippocrates teacheth If any one prescribe Acid meats inconsiderately and without choice they do no good On this principle of Precipitation was the Golden Nail of the great Duke of Florence made which Ferdinand the first of happy Memory graced with this Testimony which is to be seen with the Nail at Florence Mr. Leonard Turneisser in my sight and presence A Golden Nail turned an Iron Nail heated in the fire and immersed in Oyl into Gold done at Rome the 20th day of November after Dinner Such Nails I have also in Sport sometimes made with my own hands but such as deal in Metals the vulgar way think it altogether impossible that Gold and Iron should Conglutinate and therefore they firmly believe that This Nail is really changed out of Iron into Gold and that which confirms their belief is that Gold doth not adhere to Iron yea Gold melted corrodes It in a moment and turns it into Rust * As Common Sulphur doth But Gold is connected with Iron by means of Precipitation as I have said on the same reason and ground for which Iron precipitates Copper Cut then an Iron Nail into two parts moisten the end at least with Spittle and presently touch that part with Cupreous Vitriol and in the very punctum the extremity of the Iron waxeth red and hath now acquired the nature of Copper The passage from one Extream to another is impossible withcut a Medium as the Philosopher says 6. Phys Now Gold is easily associated to and with Copper and so fit a Guspe or point made of Gold to this Cupreous Iron and with Borax and Golden Solidature or Soder which is made of * Glew of Gold Copper money a little Silver and Gold melted at the Eye is better melt it after the accustomed manner in a fitting Coal-fire and then you shall have the Golden Nail so much spoken of Turneisser tinged this Nail with Ferrugo wherewith he hid the Gold and so without doubt offered it to that great Prince to handle with his hands which being so disguised the
its foundation p. 61 C CAlx or Lime what Page 8 Calx petrified by contrary faculties p. 8 Calx its bastard Spirit of Basilius p. 13 Camphire what p. 82 Camphire with Aqua Fortis makes a Mock-shew of Oyl not so with Vinegar and other Acid Juices p. 82 Camphire absorbs the peccant Acid in the Body p. 82 Camphire its workers salacious p. 83 Camphire helps the roughness of the skin p. 83 Cementum Regale p. 21 Cinnabar Common p. 21 23 Cinnabar of Antimony p. 94 Corals its â—ncture p. 109 Corals encreased in the Fire p. 109 Contraries coagulated by Contraries p. 8 Coagulum what p. 41 Chrystaltinged with the colour of Rubies p. 93 Crocus Martis aperitive p. 106 Crocus Martis p. 59 D DIurectickness in a Flint Page 11 Diuretick from a calcined Flint p. 13 E ELixir Parvum p. 20 Emplaister of Frogs with Mercury p. 104 Emplaâ—sters prepared of Lead p. 108 Epistle of Aurel. Severinus to the Author p. 36 F FEbrifuge Oyl p. 93 Febrifuge of Riverius p. 19 Fel vitri p. 18 Fermentation how performed p. 63 Fire its flame Acid p. 107 It comes near to the nature of Salt p. 107 Fire and Water in a Flint p. 8 Fire changeth the Regiment and alters the vertues of things p. 78 Fire its various necessity p. 78 79 Fire when strong changeth the nature of Salts p. 19 Fire and Water contain all things necessary for Generation p. 38 Flint taken from its natural place grows p. 8 Flint its Powder as made by the Ancients p. 12 G GOld calcined the dry way Page 90 Gold calcined the moist way p. 91 Gold not dissolved but by Salt things p. 91 Gold its Tincture p. 91 Gold called Aurum Potabile p. 92 Gold adheres to Iron by the help of Copper p. 114 Gout its pain from Acid p. 48 its Remedy p. 68 Glass how made p. 10 it s Axungia what its Fel p. 10 11 its Burning p. 11 Glass burnt not Hurtful p. 12 Glass its Resolution p. 12 H HErbs have an Occult Nutritive Alaly p. 70 Harts-horn burnt imbibes Acidity p. 67 Hemorrhage of the Womb its Remedy p. 67 Hectick Feavor cured with Vulnerary Potions p. 66 I IVlip of Vinegar made of Water and Sugar p. 39 Inke its foundation p. 57 Iron Astringent p. 111 Iron provokes the Terms p. 111 Iron changed into Copper p. 112 113 Iron Cpens and Binds p. 114 Iron why subject to Rust p 68 Iron how it grows stronger p. 68 L LAc Sulphuris Antimonii p. 110 Lac Sulphuris p. 82 Latarge out of Lead is Preparaton p. 108 Lye for Sope its making and force p. 9 10 Letters writ with Ink why afterwards Pale p. 57 Liquor Acid changes Aliments included in a glass into Chyle p. 40 Ludus Preparatus p. 119 Luna Cornea p. 24 Lead encreased in the flame p. 107 its encrease in the Fire is from Acid p. 107 Lead delighted with Acid p. 108 it absorbs Acids of all sorts p. 108 Lead cools the Heart p. 108 Lead p. 60 Lungs ulcered cured by Vulnerary Potions p. 66 Like dissolved by like p. 8 9 M MErcurius Sublimatus its Reduction p 105 Mercurius Vita p. 105 Mercury Sublimate doth not coagulate Milk p. 41 Mercury p. 60 Mercury out of Silver p. 23 Metals one Frecipitates another p. 112 Metal its Precipitation by Alcaly p. 20 Minium its Preparation p. 107 Minerals are all associated with Acids p 20 Milk not Coagulated but by Acidity p 40 Materia Prima p. 101 Medicaments Solutive not to be dissolved in Diseases p 53 Menstrua their Obstruction from Acid p. 58 Mercury Sublimate p. 94 95 Mercury Sublimate Common p. 97 Mercury Sublimate sweet reddish p 98 Mercurius precipit Communis p. 98 Mercury praecipit per se p. 99 Mercury praecipit per se becomes Sublimate Corrosive p. 99 Mercury praecipit its Vertues p. 99 Mercuries Acidâ—ty hurts Teeth and Gumms p 102 Mercury of Metals is not praecipit per se p. 103 N NAil of Gold p. 113 Nitre its regeneration p. 25 Nettles green and dry its different effects p. 71 O OCre what p. 55 Odors many resist Digestion p. 121 Oyl is made Salt p. 79 Oyl Olive hath Acid in it p. 80 deprived of its Acidity it helps Pains p. 81 Oyl old why musty p. 81 Oyl turned into Watrer by Salt of Tartar p. 26 Oyl made Strongwater p. 28 Oyl of Sope like that of Bricks p. 27 P POx French cured by a Decoction of Vipers p. 31 Pomegranate Rinds provoke the Terms p. 58 Paracelsus his Coralline Secret p. 103 Panacaea of Michael Sendivogius p. 101 Plâ—urisy its Remedy p. 48 Plants their Regeneration p. 72 73 Posca of the Ancients what p. 63 Protochymist dwells in the Stomach p. 47 Powder Antipodagrick p. 48 Q QVinzey its Remedy p 21 Quartan its Remedy p. 72 R REgulus Antimonii p. 21 Rector what p 27 S SIlver separated from Tin p. 96 Silver p. 60 Silver consists of Acid and Alcaly p. 24 44 Stone its Analysis p. 42 Stone its regeneration p. 42 Stone how generated in the Body p 42 43 Stones Red whence p 43 Stones concreter every where in the body p. 43 Stones remedy an Hedge-Hogs or Histrixes stond how far good for it p 44 Stones other Remedies examined p 44 Stone its true Remedy p. 45 Stone its remedy out of Paracelsus and Helmont p. 48 Story of Sal Prunella p. 21 Sage its Juice grows black with Vitriol of Mars p. 120 Salt of Treacle of the Ancients examined p. 4 5 Sal Armoniack natural in use among the Ancients p. 5 Sal Armoniack natural its Properties p. 5 Sal Armoniack Ours what p. 5 6 its constituting parts p. 6 the manner of making it p. 6 Salt Common doth not wash p. 6 Salt Kaly whence made p. 7 Sal-Kaly is not unless made by Art its Vertue and Properties p. 7 Sal-Alkaly what where found p. 7 its Multiplicity p. 7 Sope its making p. 9 Sea-Salt with Oyl is not made Sope p. 10 Salt of Vipers of the Reformer is Common Salt p. 31 Salt of Tartar fix'd with Acid spirit of Salt is Sublimated into Spirit p. 34 Salt of Vipers its Inventor p. 36 its foundation known to Hippoerates p. 38 Salt things do not curdle Milk p. 41 Salt as 't was eaten found in Vrine p. 51 Salt of greater affinity to Vinegar than Metals p. 70 Salt of Wormwood its Preparation p. 77 Salts Precipitate not Mercury p. 16 Sal Fulminans p. 17 Salts frâ—m Diuretique herbs are Acid-salt p. 18 They Precipitate not Mercury p. 18 being Alcalized with a quick Flame they Precipitate Mercury red p. 18 Salts from Vulnerary herbs are Acid-salt and do not Precipitate Mercury p. 18 in a melting Fire they change their Natures and become Alcalyes which Precipitate Mercury sparkling and glittering p. 18 Salt Common the perfectest of Salts and never made Alcaly p. 18 Salts of Vipers p. 18 Salt of Wormwood Acid-salt p. 19 it is Alcalized with a strong
and constant which yet as Raimund saith will make the empty Brain of one who hath seen nothing in Philosophy nor is ever like to see to be altogether sottish and stupid Yet in my Hippocrates Chymicus I have demonstrated the Acidity of Gold by two familiar Examples which I shall now again recite out of my late Hippocrates for a solid confirmation of the Truth and the shame of all Zoilusses and Detractors for if you dip the end of an Iron Rod in Gold melted or put to fusion the Iron in a moment will be turned into Scoria or rust as if it were burnt with kindled Sulphur Croâ—us Martâ—â— now unless Gold were Occultly Acid and pinguous as common Sulphur is it would never corrode Iron Those superficial and vain Writers who are enemies to the Doctrine of Hippocrates cannot comprehend this fixed Acid who had rather seem wise than be so much good may their vain applause do them I envy them not for they know no other Acid but that which they dream to distill from Copper which they falsly call Spirit of Venus because out of sloth they deny that there is a fixed Acid in Nature as if That in Copper were Volatile Secondly The purest Gold is dissolved in Aqua Regia instill Alcaly of Tartar into the Solution which will drink up the Acid Spirits even of the Gold it self my Hippocrates Chymicus Chap. 7. shews the Reason viz. Because the Alcaly of Tartar embraces the Nature even of Metals themselves and the Gold so drunk up falls into a Powder of a Yellow Colour Croll us teacheth this Preparation in his Cordial so doth Beguinus under its proper Title Corannocryson Aurum Fulmiâ—naâ—s In this slight Preparation Gold hath acquired a Fulminating or Thundering force because its Sulphur being of its own Nature acetous to use the words of Sendivogius is associated with Artificial Nitre which association is made in the Alcaly of Tartar in the very moment wherein it is poured into the Aqua Regia containing the dissolved Gold The manner how this is to be done is laid down in Hippocrates Chymicus Chap. 7. for those things which have been spoken elsewhere and rightly by others I will not unnecessarily repeat so that Gold unless it were Acid and Pinguous Gold is Sulphur as common Sulphur is would never perform Sulphurous Actions with Nitre as common Sulphur doth with the same Nitre for Gunpowder If then the Sun according to Hormes be the Father of that Vital Spirit which dwells in the Air and Gold and Fire are its Brethren the Sons must necessarily partake of the quality Fire Acid. dispositions and properties of the ParenÌ„t so that it must needs follow by Reason and Authority Experience also a stipulating thereunto that the Vital Spirit of ours the Child of the Sun as also Gold and Fire are Acid and Pinguous wherefore Acid and Pinguous is a most Ancient Principle the Life and Fountain of all things Writers give It several Names as Fire Sun Gold Spirit Sulphur Form Humid Calid Dry and many other Appellations all which are Synonymous signifying the same thing but in different respects diversifyed into several Names But I both here and elswhere call it Acid. This Acid doth occultly lurk in all Seeds because of its self it is a most peaceable and quiet thing in regard Nature hath implanted more of Alcaly than of Acid in every Compositum except Sulphurs and therefore it moves not unless it be excited as we see plainly in Dough of Bread which being excited by a very little Acid Ferment and by Heat is moved and from that Heat and Motion the Acid is multiplied and unless it were bridled and restrained by a heat exceeding the inward i. e. by Artificial Fire it would proceed to Vitality and produce Worms Hence it appears That Natural Fire is quite another thing then Artificial and that these Two differ much from one another Natural Fire Acid. for the Natural or Soft Fire according to Hippocrates as I have shewed in Dough doth Impregnate Cherish Infuse Strength and doth semblably perform all things in its Lesser World which the Sun its Parent doth in the Greater World Hence we may observe A Microcosme what That the proud Name of Microcosme doth not belong onely to Man for every Seed every Worm every Member says Hippocrates hath its Ventricle and may be therefore called a Microcosme But Artificial Fire is an enemy to all Generation it lives upon Prey and Rapine it fubfists by others Ruins being the Destroyer of Life and Enemy of Nature Wherefore from the Sun as from a Fountain Natural Acid and Vital Light do flow forth which in reality are both one only distinguished by their Office for it is the Office of the Acid to pierce into the inwards of Nature whereas Light doth only discover the externals of things however the Beams of the Sun do operate both So that the Sun is the first Natural Organ by whose Access and Recess all the Operations of Nature are variously governed intended and remitted Hence the Ingenious Cosmopolita If there were not a Vegetable power in Sulphur that is a Pinguous Acid and Child of the Sun Water would never be Coagulated into Herbs If therefore the Acid flowing from the Sun be infused into Matter as for Example Mineral presently it receives the determination of the Nature and the Vertue of the Mineral The like may be said of other Animals and Vegetables too as Lully speaks and because this Natural Acidity is coupled with all Matter in the World it hath therefore the Name of Mercury given it by the Wise And though the Eyes of the Vulgar do daily behold this multiplication and also incorporation of the Natural Acid yet they do not understandingly consider it Take the Mine of Salt-petre at Padua The Mother of Nitre for an Example which is now exhausted but in Five or Seven years time will be filled again for the Earth is its Nurse as Hermes testifies whence it is That this Spirit assumes a Body in it and becomes inflammable Nitre But I have a greater thing to speak off There 's an Island in the Tuscane Sea commonly called Little Elbe Elbe the Mether of Iron containing twenty Italian Miles in compass very Rich in Iron from which that Metal hath been dug out for many ages and is so to this day so that not only the Mountains there but the two Islands also must needs have been dug through and exhausted yet nevertheless Iron once dug forth in twenty years renews again and now more and better than formerly because the Alcaly or Mother of the Mineral there is again exsaturated from the Vital Fountain and takes the determination of Metal so becomming Iron Also the evacuated Mine of Vitriol in Carinthia Mother of Vitriol first being exposed to the free and open Air and afterwards covered for some years is again replenished so that Calid most acutely Teaches That the Roots
being separated is called by the Skilful Fel vitri The Mass by little and little is clarifyed into transparent Glass so that That which erst was a Vegetable is now by the Spirit or Soul of the Flint turned into a Mineral and a rocky or petrous disposition and nature i. e. Glass which consideration is of great weight For the Soul of the Flint goes forth and enters into the Alcaly as the Pythagorians speak or the Vegetable Soul goes forth and re-assumes the Mineral Nature and the Vegetable is animated with a Rocky Indoles so that for the future no Fire or Acid Liquor can overcome or hurt it whence Raimund whispers to his followers Take away its Soul and restore it to it agains and though the operation of which he speaks is not properly concerning vitrification yet it is of no loss value since Nature in every thing is alike as I shall shew in this Book to the Prudent and Loers of Truth as for the prophane Vulgar which neither is nor will be capable of the Study of this Ancient Medicine I matter them not I study to please but a few for that which pleases the many is not without suspicion and it is the Advice of Pythagoras to follow the fewest if walking in a right path So that Alcaly is as the Female in respect of the Acâ—d the Child or Male of the Son and is its Sister Alcaly a Female which it loves and is reciprocally loved by it as Cosmopolita speaks moreover it is as the Moon which is impregnated with Light and Vertue by the Child of the Sun whence the Moon is the Mother as Hermes and after him other Interpreters of Natures Recesses and Secrets have phrased her for they call their Alcaly Luna So that the Anonymous Revealer of Natures Mysteries says rightly The heat of the Female answers to the Terrestrial heat whilst it putrifies cherishes and prepares the seed but the Fire implanted in the seed being the Child of the Sun disposes the Matter and informes it so disposed If then the Alcaly receives putrefies and cherishes the Acid the Child of the Sun that This again may arise into a new and clarifyed Body as I have shewed in Glass it must necessarily perform the Office of a Mother and so be vacuous if otherwise it must be impregnated by the Child of the Sun as Hermes and Experience witness Hence Hippocrates in his first Book of Diaet sighing at and lamenting the ignorance of Those who amongst their fellows boast themselves Wise Men says he know not how to consider and inferre obscure things out of such as are manifest Therefore to distinguish It from the Acid of Common Salt Alcaly of Tarar it is called Alcaly not only by Philosophers but also by Mechanical Glass Men and Sope-boilers If therefore Alcaly be vacuous and Acid an imbiber as I have shewed How and by what reason can the Alcaly of Tartar be proclaimed to be purely Salt and how can it be approved for such Surely so to affirm is meerly a monstrous thing and an old Wives Tale full of filthy ignorance invented and approved only by shallow heads but exploded and derided by the intelligent and learned Beware therefore O ye lovers of Truth of such couzening Chapmen the matter is far otherwise then those boasters do vain-gloriously pretend To Me they can do no harm but I write this for the sake of young and unwary beginners that they may not give up themselves to false Doctrines which would lead them out of the way but that they may know for the future whom to avoid I conclude therefore with Hippocrates That all things in the world are constituted of Fire and Water or of Acid and Alcaly of these Two Instruments all things in the Vniverse are made up as also is the Ancient Physick of our fore-fathers in which yet a Third is inseperably included which is therefore hinted to us under the name of Sal Philosophorum Sal Philosophorum whence They called all bodies compleatly mixed of Acid and Alcaly viz. when the Fire did not overcome the Water nor on the contrary Salt Hence arose that saying In the Sun and in Salt are all Natures Productions yea all the Grace Ornament Delight and Contentation of Humane Life could not be expressed in a fitter word and therefore delightful Elegancies which offend none are called Salâ—s nay the appellation of Graces is also given to it Hence St. Paul Col. 4. Let your speech be always savory seasoned with Salt admnistring grace c. And the Scripture not without Reason often takes Salt for an Emblem of Wisdom intimating thereby that the fundamental Knowledge of the Nature of Salt and of its composition of the Two Instruments of Nature is of great Moment If therefore determinated Common Saline Matter viz. Alcaly being informed by the Acid or Child of the Sun as well in Scripture as in Moral Philosophy be called Salt and the denomination of Salt be given to it alone why should any defraud the highest Masculine being innocent and which may be likened to the Sun and rob it of its proper Name Receive therefore from me the Salt of Wisdom and beseech the Lord to give you all the Spirit of discerning for no age is too late to learn Truth and good Manners Let Old Age blush which cannot amend it self yet scorns to learn for my part I am willing to insinuate and to be complaisant as Caesar was that Men may attain to a better Understanding Hearken therefore attentively and give ear to the difference betwixt vacuous Sal Alcaly and Common Salt which Wise Men by reason of its perfect mixture have compared with the Sun CHAP. IV. Trenchar-Salt or the Salt which we eat how much it differs from Vitrifying and Saponary Alcaly The Praise and Renown of Trenchar-Salt is spread over the whole world Salt a known thing so that in Apologizing for it I undertake as it were the defence of the Sun against a swarm of Flies endeavoring to ecclipse its Light Salt because it is so necessary an Element for Mortals that Mans Life cannot be sustained without it therefore Nature exhibited it to us brought to full perfection and requires not from us as in our other Acquist any Ustion but only that we dry it from its aqueous Humidity whether it be Sea Salt or Salt from Pits Principles equally poized do concur to its mixture which is made in Natures Shop so that venerable Antiquity hath determined All Natures Perfections to be in the Sun and Salt and it is called by Helmont and that on good ground the Chief of Salts and is the Armoniack amongst them all yet notwithstanding it is praised from the Countrey whence it comes as Dioscorides hath it See Hippocrates Chymicus Chap. 2. But the Fame of Alcaly hath not yet reached to all People Alcaly unknown to most because Essentially and Corporally it appears not in Nature unless it be made by Art and Ustion
be referred to Acid and Alcaly therefore it will not be a miss yea pleasant and acceptable before I proceed to subjoyn the Preparation of Medicinable Salts CHAP. V. The Preparation of Medicinable Stals HAving shewed before That there is nothing in the Universe but Acid and Alcaly of which Two Nature composes all her works to which yet a Third doth also inseparably adhere as by degrees will be manifested I shall now proceed to confirm my Proposition of Medicinable Salts and to shew what they are because I have not found Their Nature hitherto described by any Man and therefore I think it worth my Labour to transfer the True way of their Preparaton out of my Hippoc. Chymicus Chap. 21. to this place which will likewise declare their Essence and Nature Most Wise Nature in the 3. Chap. shews us the way how het Spirit of the Air is coagulated and fixed to witâ— by Fire and Water i. e. by the Sun Beams and by Rain for unless they both concur the Spirit returns to its Original which They find to be True who endeavour to prepare Salts out of dry Simples for in drying the greatest part doth exhale and by how much the dryer they are left the less quantity of Salt is procured from them least of all yea nothing from rotten Sticks and Wood which though with great Care you reduce into Ashes Rotten Wood hath no Salt in its Asheâ— yet you can elicite no Salt from them but on the contrary the fresher and newer they are burnt a greater quantity of Salt will be extracted there-from Therefore for the Preparation of Salts our principle Care and Study should be That the Herbs be fresh see Chap. 3. for then in concremation the innate Acid apprehends the Alcaly and the Alcaly absorbs or sucks up the Acid and they are both fixed according to the property of the concrete but from that part which flies away with the flame and not being sufficiently bound in by the Acid goes to Soot you may easily extract Volatile Alcaly Let Green Wormwood be the Example Take This green as it is and burn it in a Chimney or open Place but Fumitory or such like Juicy Herbs may be cast Green and Fresh into a Red Hot Furnace and the Mouth-hole be shut that it catch its Flame flaming out is to be hindered as much as we can for it is sufficient that it be turned into Ashes though but black which Ashes are further to be Caloined in a large Earthen Pot and low or upon a large Iron Plate of a lifted up edge Coals being kindled under in the Wind Furnace to the end that the little Door may be opened or shut as there is need The Ashes are always to be stirred with an Iron Spatule till they be very white Note that the process made this way is and must be more Sweet and Benigne than that mentioned Chap. 3. in the Preparation of Alcaly for There the Ashes are stirred and agitated with a quick flame which are therefore called Clavellated or Pot-ashes but here the Fire must not touch the Ashes but they must be spread on a large Iron or Earthen Plate or Table which must not enter the mouth of the Furnace see the Contents of my Hippoc. Chymicus in the above-cited Chapter Lay the Ashes on a Linnen Acuminated Bag or if there be few of them on Acuminated Paper and pour Common Water on them which running through them being pregnant with Salt is called a Lixivium or Lye Coagulate this strained Lye with a quick Ebullition in a Frying Pan not greased in the Kitchin and make it up into a Mass which when it begins to thicken like Honey you must continually move with a Spatule and it will be dryed up into a Grey Powder which you must presently lay in a Pot not Glazed with a Cover the little Door of the Wind Furnace being stopped and cover them with Small Coals mixed with the Powder of the same Coals leisurely heat it unto Brunity not making it Red Hot or melting it when all is cooled put the Salt into a Glass Vessel and dissolve it in a sufficient quantity of Water stirring it between whiles with a Wooden Stick till the whole be dissolved afterwards let it rest for two or three dayes when it is clear pour it forth from the Lees without much stirring and in a Leaden or Glass Vessel placed in Sand suffer the Water to exhale without bubbles till a Saline Cuticle appear Then remove the Vessel and the next morning gather up the Splendent Grains of Salt which are to be washed with clear Water with a quick motion and dryed put the remaining Lye again into Sand that the Water may exhale as before unto the Cuticle Both these Salts are to be kept together joyntly in one Vessel It is to be observed that Salts this way sweetly prepared do resemble the Crasis of their Concretes the rest of the Lixivium being of an Urine-like taste and stinking smell is to be lest for washing of Glasses This is the easie and natural way to prepare Salts of Vegetables which do never melt of themselves neither are of an ungrateful taste for they are compounded of their proper Acid and Alcaly by Concremation A pound of These Ashes yields almost four Ounces of the purest Salt but four Pound of the Ashes of dry Herbs will scarce afford one Ounce of Salt CHAP. VI. That the Seminal Vertue of all things is Acid and that Acids lead Alcalyes ad Lubitum and that every Acid Liquor is a Solution of Acid-Salt in Elementary Water I Have shewed before that Water would be coagulated by the force of Vegetable Sulphur into That of whose Determination Sulphur was It is the property of Sulphur to be Occultly Acid and Pinguous as I have shewed in Chap. 2. which in Vegetables is always Volatile Take therefore eitheir Wood or Meal whose Spirit these Magnifick Ridiculous Masters do proclaim and approve for Acid Spirit of Sal Mrmoniack or any simple Vegetable whatever it be yea or the very grains of Kermes and Distil through a Report the Pinguous Acid Liquor which is called andis Sulphur of the Grains of Kermes or any other Vegetable â—â— which their Masterships hitherto were ignorant of upon this Liquor pour alcaly of Tartar which answers to Water the Fire being taken away as my Hippoc. Chymic teaches Chap. 10. till the Strepitus cease strain this Compositum through Paper and dry it up by degrees into the consistency of Honey and the Tartar of the Grains of Kermes or as some call it Tartar of Kermes The essential Salt will concrete in it when it is cold But if you desire to turn it into Pure Salt heat it in a Pot not Glazed scarce to Brunity only that the exceeding Pinguousness may deflragrate or else put it into a Retort and distil the Oyl from the empty Cuppel Dissolve the black Mash with Common Water let the Solution rest for three days till it
be clear then poure it out leasurely and in a Glass Vessel placed in Sand Exsiccate it to the Cuticle and the next morning you may collect a Salt of the same Vertue that the Acid which you poured on the Alcaly was off so that the Alcaly is brought to the will and pleasure of the Alcalyâ— As the Acid Liquor distilled from the Grains doth Impregnate the Alcaly with its Vertue which from thence receives its determination so that it may be called and is Salt of grains of Kermes So also poure distilled Vinegar on the same Alcaly as much as it can imbibe i. e. to Saturity which you may know when the Strepitus ceaseth and the smell of Vinegar breaths out Coagulate the Impregnated Alcaly to Siccity and though the Vinegar was distilled and the Alcaly of Tartar most Pure yet the Coagulum is very Impure Sordid and Black by reason of the Pinguousness of the Vinegar which being separated doth therefore catch or conceive Flame Dissolve this black Mass in clear Water let as much as is dissolved rest for three days then separate through Paper the Pure from the Impure dry the Pure again as before and you shall have Regenerated Tartar Regenerated Tartar of Wine Distil this out of a Retort as we do Tartar of Wine and it will afford an Oyl more or less Fetid according to the quality of the Wine of which the Vinegar was made and a bitterish Liquor such as Common Tartar is wont to yield The Faces or Caput Mortuum unless by the vehemency of the Fire it be turned to Glass yoâ—â— must again dissolve in clear Water and strain and coagulate it into true Alcaly of Tartar Alcaly of Tartar made Salt of Kermes as if it were left of the Common So that the same Alcaly of Tartar being Impregnated with Acid Sulphur from the Grains of Kermes follows the nature thereof and becomes Salt of grains of Kermes Alcaly of Tartar made Tartar of Wine and the same Alcaly Impregnated with Vinegar imitates the nature of the Vinegar and performs that which Tartar of Wine doth like as a Woman who being Married to a Man loses her Father's Name and takes that of her Husband For Nature is alike in all things as Pythagoras and after him Hippocrates have taught But I have a greater thing in my mind yet before I come to it I must repeat some Experiments out of my Hippocrates Chymicus Distil therefore out of a Retort with an open Fire Common Salt with four parts of Bole Armonick all of them first reduced into a fine Powder it will succeed more happily if they be mixed and blended together for then they will easily fall through the Sieve poure the Acid Liquor which comes forth on the Pure Alcaly of Tartar till the Strepitus cease and the Alcaly be Impregnated Alcaly of Tartar made Common Salt Exhale this Mixture in a Glass Vessel with a gentle heat or else at the Sun until the Film or Cuticle concrete a-top and the next morning when all is cooled you shall have splendent grains of Common Salt So that the spirit of Salt in the Alcaly of Tartar returns into true Common Salt As you have done with Common Salt Alcaly regenerated into Nitre so in like manner do with Nitre whose spirit in the Alcaly of Tartar becomes true Nitre conceiving Flame and is a Remedy for the Quinzey see Hippoc. Chym. Chap. 21. So also an Acid Spirit is elicited from Allum with which let the alcaly of Tartar be so far impregnated Alcaly regenerated into Allume as above-said till the hissing cease which Liquor in a soft Fire is coagulated into Allum so that the Acid Spirit not only of of all Vegetables but of all middle sort of Minerals re-asumes a body in the Alcaly and becomes the same thing from whence the Acid Spirit was drawn forth But the Acid of Sulphur becomes not Sulphur in the Alcaly because it hath lost its terreous pinguousness by the Flame but it is sublimated into True Sulphur with Sand or Flints ground to Powder for it finds in them That to which it may associate it self and overcome it as Hippoc. Chymicus shews Chap. 21. These Experiments do evince the Truth of That which is laid down in the 1. Chapter viz. That the Spirit of the World or Child of the Sun is Acid and Pinguous and that this Pinguousness or Sulphur doth participate of a third which as I have shewed in the said first Chapter doth inseparably adhere to Fire and Water which I will now more clearly demonstrate in Vitriol and in the Anatome thereof wherefore it is vain ignorant and against all Truth what they scrible viz that Acids do not prevail over Alcalys nor draw them hither and thither as they please To convince such vain Talkers distill the Spirit Spirit of Vitriol out of dryed Vitriol the common way which is Acid Sulphureous which you must rectify or distill once more out of a Retort placed in an empty Cuppel on which pour on leisurely so much of the Alcaly of Tartar till the hissing and ebullition cease for if you pour it in hastily they will both grow hot by reason of the fiery Nature in both Subjects Alcaly regenerated into Vitriol exhale the superfluous Insipid and Aqueous Humour till you see the appearance of a growing Cuticle Here you must observe that if both the Alcaly and the Acid were not first sufficiently diluted before their Conjunction at their very first Meeting and Coalition the White Powder of Vitriolated Tartar will fall and there will be no Chrystalline Grains produced Then remove the Vessel from the heat and set it in a cold place and in the morning you shall find Shining Grains arising and resembling the form of Vitriol because the Acid Spirit hath drawn the Alcaly to its own pleasure i. e. into the form of Vitriol This White Vitriol they call Vitriolate Tartar but I call it Regenerated Vitriol whatsoever the ignorant multitude do murmur to the contrary for the Acid of Flint in the Alcaly is regenerated into a Pellucid Frangible Rocky Substance which afterwards neither Fire nor any Acid Liquor can destroy as I have shewed in its place concerning Flint and shall shew hereaster concerning Coral The Occult Acid of Oyl in the Alcaly is regenerated into Pinguous Salt Sope. The Acid of Grains of Kermes in the same Alcaly becomes the Son of Kermes i. e. Salt The Acid of Common Salt in the same Alcaly becomes a Salt of the same Nature The Acid of Nitre in Alcaly becomes True Nitre conceiving Flame and is a remedy for the Quinzey The Acid of Allum in Alcaly becomes True Allum The Acid of Wine in Alcaly becomes Tartar and all the other Acids are regenerated in Alcaly their Mother Why should not then the Acid of Vitriol regenerated in Alcaly Measuring the Wisdom of Nature by their own folly be called regenerated Vitriol Is it because it is not
with Alcaly of Tartar as I have formerly taught conconcerning Salt Vinegar and Distilled Nitre i. e. Thus Pour so much of This Spirit on the Alcaly of Tartar till the hissing cease near upon equal parts suffer the abounding or exceeding Flegme to exhale or if you will distill it carefully to Siceity distill that Flegm from an high Glass in Balneo and there will come forth Aqua Ardens see Hippoc. Chymic Chap. 18. and you shall sind regenerated Tartar of the same Nature Condition and Property that That was which was above generated from Vinegar of Wine for it is the very same for if it hid any thing of the Nitre the Allum or the Copper hid in it as they ignorantly give forth they would all be manifested in the Alcaly of Tartar as I have Mechanically shewed above But it must needs be that This Spirit can have no other Instruments but distilled Vinegar since it can only make a Body of Tartar for it self Whence this Spirit hath been presently known by Philosophers Spirit of Venus which is as Alcahest is known to be Vinegar not for the Immortal Son of Venus or as Alcahest but for the True Genuine Brother of Vinegar of Wine and that not Spurious neither as my Revilers and Reproachers have published to the World but the Legitimate Son of the Vine which hereafter will count it an impious thing to be reviled by unskilful Masters Therefore in this regeneration He was willing again to discover himself to the Curious and to the Lovers of Truth for the True and Natural Brother of Vinegar of Wine i. e. for Distilled Vinegar Now that nothing may be wanting to this Enquiry but all doubt taken away viz. that This Spirit which they dream to be the Child of Venus hath acquired no Constancy no Immortality or excellent Vertues from the Copper nor that it is as Alcahest as the Deans with their Fellows do cant you may learn by this Experiment Take this regenerated Tartar to wit from the Imaginary Spirit of Venus and the Alcaly of Tartar distill It out of a Retort as you did before and there will extil an Oyl of a loathsome smell together with a bitterish Water as I have shewed a little before from regenerated Tartar out of simply Distilled Vinegar Out of what hath been spoken it appears that whatsoever is distilled from the Alcaly of Tartar which is impregnated with Distilled Vinegar i. e. the bitterish Water Aqua Ardens and the Oyl taking Flame the same thing is distilled from Alcaly of Tartar impregnated with fained Spirit of Venus to wit bitterish Water Aqua Adrens and Oyl taking Flame Spirit of Venus is Distilled Vinegar and so That Spirit of Venus since it hath all the Properties and Operatious of Vinegar is nothing else nor never will be than distilled Vinegar Witness Aristotle and Experience But leaving this puny vain and futile Society to please themselves in their foolish Detrectings I convert my Speech to you O ye famous Lights of the World That you may judge of the Truth herein not that I would trouble you to vindicate it from the fained and rash Contumelies of such clamorous Reproachers since it appears out of Pliny That when Frogs croak more than ordinary it is a sign of a Tempest ensuing supposing then but not granting that one drop of Acid contains only the 8200 part of the Eximious Vertue of Copper I say this so small part ought yet under the heat of Fermentation to extend it self and to regenerate if not in Vegetable Alcaly yet at least in Metalline as the order of Fermentation elsewhere shews so that it would turn though not much yet a small quantity of the Metalline Alcaly into Copper no otherwise then the Vertue of Acid Vegetables and the mid-sort of Minerals doth transmute Alcaly of Tartar into a Salt of its own proper Nature as I have before said and proved but as the Antecedent and their Premises are false and favour of gross ignorance so is the Consequence Again supposing but not granting That Vinegar did carry off with it such eximious Vertues from Copper as they unlearnedly and without truth affirm yet I could never find eithe ramongst Philosophers or Physicians that It was assumed within the Body but whatsoever was got from the Copper was always used outwardly for Chirurgical Operations And although mighty Vertues might be drawn forth and distilled out of Copper by Vinegar which I have shewed to be impossible why is not the same Eximious Vertue drawn forth with less labour out of immature Copper since it is easier to go one Mile than two Why should my regenerated Vitriol prepared from Crude Vitriol of Mars procure monstrous Vomitings and Suffocations This sained yet prâ—sed Spirit of Venus is 〈◊〉 a counter â—â— Pâ—â—acta and Alcahist is if you draw forth such Eximious Vertues from mature Copper by Vinegar to which you subjoyn these losty but most false words This most praise-worthy Spirit is not only of great use in Physick seeing in highly Cures and Relieves the Epilepsy Appolexy Histerical and Hypochondriatal Listempers but is as the Liquor Alcahest and not as other Acid Spirits which by Solution do suffer and are destroyed and so turned into another ens See Hippoc. Chy. mic Chap. 29. Now let the Reader who loves the Truth judge whether any thing could have been devised more sottish than to affirm That the regenerated Vitriol of Philosophers educed from an Immature Mine of Iron is pernicious and deadly when we see that every year some Myriads of Men do drink even in great quantity Acid Waters saturated with Immature Iron and Natural Spirit and that with great benefit and advantage and also That the great Imaginary Vertue extracted with Vinegar out of Mature Copper if there were any such is a Panacea I may very aptly apply hither That of Plautus nothing can be more foolishly sottishly or falsly spoken It remaines that we bring That most praised Spirit of Venus which they fay is as Alcahest by dissolving some Body unto an Examen Now Alcahest is described by Helmont to be an Eximious Liquor Alcahest what (a) Pharm 14 ti be got by the Art or Labour of Sophia (b.) Imâ—g Form S. 8. which doth not only resolve every visible Body into its first Matter (c.) Verb. explic but is moreover Immortaland Incorruptable (d.) Arcana Paracels it putrifies Nature and takes away all Diseases (e.) Potesl Medic. S. 4. 2. but it is not given to putative and empty Doctors but to well Lined and rich Vnderstandings (f.) Arboravita in sine So Helmont Now let the equal Reader Judge whether this praised Vinegar of these Prateing and Wordy Doctors which is Distilled from Copper be alike in Vertue to Alcahest Truly if this their foolish Assertion were profoundly examined and laid before the Eyes of the Readers it would move Nauseousness and Indignation and therefore I shall discover their Vanity by Experience
alone Dissolve then at least one Drachm of Red Powdered Corral Spirit of Venus dissolves Coral in This Vinegar which they proclaim to be the praised Spirit of Venus dry the Solution in a Bath In like manner dissolve another Drachm of pounded Corals in Vinegar simply Distilled Vinegar dissolves Coral which likewise Exsiccate in Balneo Diligently gather up those Powders and weigh them severally in a Ballance and you shall find the dissolved and dryed Corals to be increased half a Drachm as well by the Spirit of Venus which They count as Alcahest as by the Vinegar Vulgarly Distilled So that the Corals have imbibed as much Acid Salt from the counterfeit Spirit of Venus as from the Distilled Vinegar Whence it again appears Spirit of Venus is Vinegar not Alcahest That This shews it self to be Vinegar because it is so indeed and not the Liquor Alcahest as the lofty Doctors would impose upon rude and ignorant people Again They urge That this praised Spirit of Venus doth dissolve Pearls without bubbles and leaves the cortices untouched Truly this may seem a wonder to Men altogether unskilful in the Art of Physick and who never learned the Rudiments thereof but methinks it should seem a trivial and sleight thing to the Deans and the rest of the Approvers For what ordinary or mean Physician can be ignorant that Vinegar simply Distilled doth perform the same thing though in a longer tract of time if you cast whole Pears into It Spirit of Venus is 〈◊〉 Vinegar and therefore your spirit of Venus which you account as Alcahest will not cease to be distilled Vinegar But why the skins or pellicles of Pearls are not dissolved by either of the Vinegars the reason is Their fatness and unitive glew the feat of the Child of the Sun which is proper and familiar to all Crustaceous Creatures to Fishes and the Membranes of Animals The counterfeit Son of Venus however extolled by vain Approvers doth never touch this Glew in stones of Crabbs Pearls c. it hath no access to them it is Leprous in comparison of them and therefore is not admitted to the Princely-Seat unknown to Ideots But why Vinegar doth corrode the Medulla of Pearls of the afore-said stones and Corals c. The cause is That Nature hath put least part of Acid into most things as I have shewed in the second Chapter which least part unless it be multiplied by Art or Nature is easily suppressed by the more powerful I will give an Example in the afore-said dissolved and dried Corals in which there is the least portion of Natural Acid which being oppressed by the counterfeit Spirit of Venus is made subject to It hence they are encreased in weight Again Dissolve these dried Corals in some water either Distilled or common clear water let the Solution rest that the Turbid may subside which they improperly call Faces which nevertheless you must separate and drop into the clear Solution a little of the spirit of Vitriol of Sulphur which overcoming the counterfeit Spirit of Venus not by its Acidity but the Nobleness of its Soul cast out the Vinegar which they call Spirit of Venus from its seat and place and doth assume the possession of the Region of the Spirit of Vitriol and with the Corals represents the form of curdled Milk but the Counterfeit Spirit of Venus being now expelled by the more Noble is diluted and sticks to the supernatant water and is mingled with it Wash both these Coagulums as much as you may and dry them severally in brown Paper and you shall have Magistery of Corals equal in weight as well from the counterfeit Spirit of Venus Spirit of Venus is distilled vinegar as from the Vinegar simply distilled because it is the same But take that water so washed from the Corals in which as I have said the counterfeit Spirit of Venus or some simple distilled Vinegar was diluted if you have otherwise warily poured on the Spirit of Vitriol for if you have carelesly and without judgment powred on more than the Coral will imbibe it will not swim atop but I suppose the affusion was skilfully made and instill into it Alcaly of Tartar till the Motion of Ebullition cease exhale the abounding Water in a Glass Vessel placed in Sand and you shall find regenerated Tartar as I have shewed above from the Counterfeit Spirit of Venus or Vinegar simply distilled imbibed in Alcaly of Tartar for it is the same by this infallible Argument That in the Corals dissolved and dryed in a Bath there remained only half a Drachm of Acid Salt from the feigned Spirit of Venus That Acid Salt being separated from the Corals by Spirit of Vitriol cannot be alone wherefore it guards it self again in Elementary Water as in his Mothers lap and diffuses it self in her and becomes again Counterfeit Spirit of Venus And unless Elementary water did contain Occult Alcaly in its belly Acid Salt could not inhabit in it because that alone it is not sufficient for it self as Hippocrates hath taught us De Diaeta Simple distilled Vinegar performes also the same thing so that it now appears even to the most unskilful-in Physick that this most celebrated Spirit of Venus here and every where is nothing else and savours of nothing else but Distilled Vinegar whatsoever Bugbears its Adorers would fright us with And although Crollius Beguinus and other Writers of the Elements of Chymistry in express words do call it Solvent Vinegar from whom the process of this Vinegar is stoln word for word as my Hippoc. Chym. shews Chap. 29. Yet This poyson of Ignorance hath infected not only Austria but almost all upper Germany witness these unskilful Approvers and their soolish Partizans with their Rythmes It would be no woder if as the Romans of old so Magistrates now would eject out of their Cities and Common-wealths such Harlotry Collegiates and such a Nest of Bablers who do scrible of things unknown even to themselves to their Neighbours hurt Low Germany is yet free from this Contagion so is Italy and France and for the future I hope by this Antidote they will be preserved Now Why Vinegar distilled from Verdigrease Vinegar from Eruga why more Acid than Simple in a small quantity doth more powerfully dissolve Corals than That which is distilled the vulgar way I have shewed the reason before viz. that it happens because Vinegar distilled the common way is as yet diluted with much Water but the Elementary Water is evaporate from That which is distilled from Aerugo by gradual Exhalation no otherwise than in the distillation of Green and Humid Vitriol for then the Acid Salt being long in the Liquor would be very weak but when the humid which they call Phlegm hath by degrees exhaled and evaporated before distillation the Acid Salt must needs be more powerful and strong in a lesser quantity of water for Light by how much more contracted by so much the more
whence this Grease is not only mixed with the Precipitate against the intent of the Inventor but moreover is odious and troublesome to Apothecaries especially since Hogs-grease will do as well with precipitate as also unprofitable to the Sick You have now heard O ye Truth-respecting hearers on what ground this Plaister of Froggs with Mercury hath been reformed It is your part to judge whether that ingenious Person John de Vigo deserves to be contumeliously Reproached for this And whether That barren insipid and truthless Doctrine be to be suffered which Rails against both the order of Nature and also the wise institutions of our Ancestors by which hopeful Youth in tender years being seasoned the Poyson of Ignorance and Unskilfulness grows up with them and so the wound becomes Incurable But these things were not of so great moment if the Health of Man were not endangered thereby for they prescribe to the Sick Simple water for Cordial Vinegar for an Epileptick Remedy Causticks for Anodines Poyson of Copper for a wholsome Medicine Sick and weak Persons can hope for no Cure from such men but only a foolish profusion of their money and at length the loss of their lives to boot Let them then avaunt and be packing to the farthest Garamantes with their Spirit of Venus and their Gounterfeit receits Let them not trouble the Civil World Let them there weep like Women since here they have not acquitted themselves like Men. Order now requires Sublimate Mercury that I should shew what Mercury Sublimated is since I have laid That down as an Instrument in the examen of of Alcalyes How It is Prepared Hippoc. Chym. shews chap. 29. Where observe that Vitriol Rubefied or Calcined to Redness is not added to encrease the weight of the Mercury as these magnifick Masters with their Partizans do suppose for then it would not be calcined to the highest Red but to Whiteness only as is done in the distillation of Vitriol whose Caput Mortuum left after distillation of the Spirit is most fit for this purpose and therefore-we need not its Spirit to add weight to the Mercury but it is added that the Sulphureous Nitre might apprehend the Sulphur of the immature Metal lying hid in the Rubefied Vitriol as I have shewed before and so by their joynt-forces they may dissolve the Mercury This is the reason why Rubefied Vitriol is required But the quantity is Quadruple in respect of the Salts because These are of easie fusion in the Fire from the which by Rubefied Vitriol they are preserved see more in Hippoc Chymic in the fore-cited chapter The same Mercury once sublimated needs not again be re-sublimated with new Powders as the unskilful Approvers think because it doth not put off or depose the Acid Spirits once absorbed so as to stand in need to reassume the same from new Powders and suppose that it were sublimated an hundred times with new Powder yet it would never become purer as they falsly affirm the reason is because this way the External Sulphur is not separated neither doth Suscipere magis velminus although Legitimately as they fay a thousand yea an hundred thousand times it be resublimated And the word Legitimately in this place doth discover their gross ignorance and stands for no other use but to be nausceous to the understandings of Wife-Men but it receives as much as is enough for its saturation as they know well who have sometimes dissolved Mercury in Aqua Fortis which if it be not sufficiently Powerful the Gram of Mercury remains untouched and quick because it could not imbibe That which was not and on the other side the water could not dissolve it because it wanted Acid Salt Truly this word Legitimate with this purer Mercury and the rest of their false Receits may well enough be discarded and abandoned even by the Puniest Apothecaries The Revivisication of Sublimate or Precipitate Mereury But when sublimate Mercury is freed from the Acid Spirits by Vegetable Alcaly and is fetched back quite from the Retort then indeed it may be mixed with new Powders and again sublimated which way the Deans with their fellows are yet ignorant of yet nevertheless it would not become more pure and splendant because in its first sublimation it neglected all that which was not of its own nature in the Faeces and Caput Mortuum but it would come over and return in less quantity because it would return to Elements by frequent sublimation and revivification as I have shewed above concerning Alcaly of Tartar concerning Spirit of Vitriol and concerning Vinegar see Hippoc. Chym. chap. 10. This foresaid mixture of Mercury with Rubefied Vitriol Nitre and Salt if you sublime it not by little and little but in great haste and more than is fit the Mercury will concrete in the top of the Caput Mortuum into lucid and great Chrystals like Nitre and not inferior to a Diamond in lustre which these Babblers vaunt for a great Secret and affirm it to be The purest Mercury For whom the speech of Mercury in Sendivogius may well be applied That 't is natural for him to laugh at fools which Disease as Cardan says they may easily Cure without a Cudgel by eating Hens brains the Testicles of Doves and Tortoises and by drinking a little White-wine Vinegar every day If Cardan had had any knowledge of this child of Venus newly born to these Obstreperous Doctors perhaps he would have preferred it before Vinegar since duly exhibited it cures Epileptick and Melancholy persons witness the Physical Doctors of the Austrian and Norimberg Colledge In the interim let their humours be purged with black Hellebore would all Anticyra had enough of it Let them drink Capon-broth and smell to the flowers of Nymphaea which with their grateful smell do mightily chear nhe spirits of the Heart and engrave Aristotle in a Topaze walking Tempe Hitherto Cardan to which I add that unless these overwise Doctors with their fellows had approved and owned this child of Venus the simplest man alive would never have believed there was ever any such thing But so I communicate to you this great Artifice gratis To conclude therefore I affirm that neither Mercury sublimated or precipitated ill handled with Vipers-grease and mortified in Aqua Fortis and also mixed with Alcalyes and Revivificated with a naked fire out of a Retort and by consequence weak and frail as Alcalyes nor no other Matter can be so destroyed but it will still shew something of its Form CHAP. VIII That Acid doth both Destroy and Perfect and that the Fire the Sun and Acid have the same Vertues and Powers I Have shewed in the beginning Chap. 2d both by Authority and Experience That Nature â—â—th endued Seeds with the least part of Acidity because of themselves they receive Increase and are multiplied as appears manifestly in a grain of Corn the quantity of whose natural Acid is computed to be the 8200. part in respect of its Body as the
of Seeds both Theoretically and Practically by the two Instruments of Nature viz. Acid and Alcaly Now the Nature of my Argument requires that I discourse some things concerning the Nature of Animals very necessary for this work and that I make them plain by clear Examples Now as from the beginning I have chosen the Ancients for my Guids so for the future I shall respect them as my Deities and shall not stir an hairs breadth from the Truth for fear or favour of any Man but amongst the Ancients I chuse chiefly in all things to follow Hippocrates He being to Discourse of Animals chuses Man as the Noblest of all saying in his Book of Diet The Soul of Man is increased in Man but in no other and likewise the Soul of other great Animals c. The Divine meaning whereof he gives us in the foresaid Book of Diet in a Learned and Profound Interpretation where also he proposes the Universal Generation of all Things and the Nature of Seeds which my Hippoc. Chymic explains according to his meaning All Things says he in the same place both Animals and Man himself consists of two Principles differing indeed in Faculty but agreeing in Vse viz. Fire and Water Both these together are sufficient both for all other Things and for themselves mutally but either of them apart is sufficient neither for it self nor for any other Fire adorns Water nourishes and a little after in the same Book Omitting other Animals I shall speak of Man a Soul creeps into Man having the mixture or temper ament of Fire and Water Fire adorns all things which are in the Body and can move all things but Water nourishes all and through all because for a need it abounds with Alcaly as I have shewed before by evident Examples by which a solid substance is concocted by inspissation against the opinion of these gain sayers but the Fire of which the Old Man speaks in this place is not culinary Fire as he shews in the same Book Man says he Threshes Washes and Grindes Bread-Corn and after it is baked in the Fire he uses it but with a strong Fire in its Body it is not made up but with a soft and gentle one so that it is a soft Fire which adorns and moves all things which in the 2 Chap. of this Book and here and there besides throughout the whole Book I have shewed by many Examples to be Acid and hereafter shall likewise further shew So that Fire and Water or Acid and Alcaly call them which you will is that Balsam which is given to Bodies for Salt That they putrefie not and in very deed it is Salt as Hippocrates Chymicus shews from the 12 to the 16 Chapter and it will more fully appear in the progress This is that innate Calid which old Hippoc. says doth abound in things that grow Aph. 14. S. 1. because it is fermentable and expirable and from aliment taken in like it self it doth incessantly reâ—erminate therefore reason perswades that it very much must want Aliment by which Aphorisme he intended to shew that unless the innate Calid i. e. Fire and Water in Animals especially growing ones being very Volatile were restored by its like the strength of the Body would soon decay Hence that saying Vbifames laborandum non est c. Now that which is its like is not that External Body of Flesh or Bread which we touch since Man lives not only by Visible Bread but by the innate Calid of the Aliments which as soon as ever it is embraced by the Stomach even before it be heated there presently the strength of the Body is repaired This innate Calid is also in Lettice so that the Acid of the Stomach after it is consumed by the Aliment and is passed into Radical Humid or Moisture immediately the Stomach Contracts it self and the whole Body Languishes for want of It. Hence ariseth Hunger and Appetite of Food so that an hungry Man though he be weakned by long Fasting or by Labour yet upon the taking of Food or Drink yea of one Cup of Wine only he finds himself immediately refreshed and that before the Food begins to be chylified because the deficient Acid is restored by That which was in the Meat Drink Bread or Wine though imperceptibly as to our outward Senses Whence Hippoc. says Aliment is that which is turned into Spiritual Vapours by such as these the Vital Spirits which are the Authors of the Active are nourished For as I shewed before That as every Acid Spirit carries the Anima inseparably in its belly and gets dominion over that body into which it is infused immediately forming it according to its own nature as I gave examples chap. 6. in Spirit of Salt which being poured into Alcaly of Tartar presently forms to it self a Saline Body agreeable to its own Nature and becomes Salt and Spirit of Vinegar or Distilled Vinegar in the same Alcaly of Tartar forms to it self a Body adaequate to its proper nature and becomes Tartar of Wine The like may be said of Vitriol and other Acids So also the Acid of the Stomack of a Man when it lays hold on Bread or any nourishing thing over which it may have dominion it doth turn and transmute it into Chyle and afterwards into humane flesh and the Acid of a Dogs Stomack converts the same Bread into Dogs Flesh as we are daily taught also by other Living Creatures because Nature works by the same Instruments in them all as I have shewed in the beginning of this Chapter out of Hippocrates in these following words The soul of Man is increased in no other but in Man c. and from the same things of which it consists and though Bread be fermented and Acid as most Aliments are either more or less yet the Acid in the Stomack of a Man though of it self weak hath yet a vitality joyned with it whence it can obtain dominion over the same As Vinegar gets dominion over and suppresseth the Acid innate in a Pearl and Aqua Fortis subdues the Acid in Silver so also the Vital Aeidity of the Stomach subjugates the Acid Ferment of the Bread and other Aliments and bears such rule over them as to convert and change them into its own nature For example When a man eats a Capon the Acid of his Stomack overcomes the radical moisture of the Capon and being predominant over it transforms it into its own nature on the contrary if a Capon or a Fish could or did eat a Man his Vital Acid in the Stomack over-powers and kills the radical moisture left after death in mans flesh which then becomes the flesh of a Capon Now that there is a Radical or Vital Moisture remaining in a Dead Carcass appears by the Worms which will infallibly breed there and likewise by the growing of the nails and hair And this not only Paracelsus but many other curious Enquirers into Natural Things have observed And unless there
were a Radical Moisture remaining in Flesh and in all Aliments fit and sufficient nourishment could not be suppeditated to the Living especially to those who are growing and encreasing witness Flesh and Fish salted and dried in the smoak which have less Radical Moisture than when they were fresh or new for much of it is eaten up by the Salt as Hippoc. Chymic shews chap. 14. and therefore they nourish less than if they were fresh Wherefore Acid or Soft Fire is to be found as well in the Vegetable and Mineral as in the Animal Family and it is That which adorns every thing which is in the World even as Water is That which nourisheth it as Hippocrates rightly speaks I say by the presence of this Fire and Water both which do constitute the Radical Moisture as I shall shew immediately before Chylification is the Acid of the Stomack enlightned and refreshed in regard it is more or less in all Aliments as also in other things as experience shews There is more radical humidity in one new-laid Egg than in an whole Pot full of Coleworts more in one Cup of Wine than in an whole Bucket of Water Wherefore Acidity being deficient in the Stomack as Hippoc. Chymic in the places fore-cited plainly shews is restored by the Radical Moisture of Aliments but chiefly and most of all by that Gelestial Food dwelling in the Air for This is the Seed of Life without which neither Man nor other Animals or any Vegetable can attain to Generation or Life for that Spiritual Food or Attraction of the External Air which by often breathing we suck in doth so much conduce to the Life of Animals that it hath caused not only Philosophers but also Plebeians to admire at it Neither hath Nature Artificially placed her Bellows in the neighbourhood of the Heart onely to cool it as the Vulgar think c. but also that by their frequent Ventilation they might suck in the Aethereal Aura by whose afflatus and in-breathing the aforesaid Acid is repaired and doth uncessantly regerminate For as the Ingenious Cosmopolita shews before in the Third Chapter as the Rain receives That Vertue of Life and by the Sun Beams joyns it with the Alcaly of the Earth so also the same Vertue of Life is attracted into the Microcosme by Inspiration and is fixed by the Solar Beams of the Heart into the Alcaly or Radical Moisture of Animals as I shall by and by Experimentally shew This is the True Ancient Learning and Doctrine of Hippocrates concerning the Soft Fire Adorhing Bodies which will always hold in despight of Rabious Maledicence as He testifies in his Book de Carnibus as well as Cosmcpolita saying to the same sense I will also deliver my Opion That which we call Calid seems to me to be immortal and to understand all Things to Adorn See Hear and Perceive all Things both present and future the greatest part whereof in the general Perturbation of all Things retired into the supream Appartiment which the Ancients seem to me to have called Aether The other part obtaining the lowest place is called Earth Cold and Dry undergoing many mutations wherein there is yet much Calidity What can be spoken more clearly for the Radical Moisture of Things For That which Cosmopolita shews in the Macrocosme see Chap. 3. the same things according to Hippocrates are to be understood in the Microcosme For Mans Body unless it were required by that Immortal Calid both by Aliments and also by Inspiration being Cold and Dry would undergo many changes and at length would crumble to nothing before our Eyes even as the flame of a Candle when the Wax or Tallow is spent or when it is blown out by the Wind yet it doth not wholly perish as 't is Vulgarly thought and as it seems but being destitute of its Pabulum is plucked from it and so is scattered abroad and vanishes into Air which is the Abysse and Universal Receptacle of the Lights and Spiritual Natures of the Material World as Raymund hath it and as the Text of Hippocrates in his Book de Carnibus doth a little before explain Wherefore the chief Fewel and Food of Life is supplied out of the Air to all the three Kingdoms Hence the Ancients said Jovis omnia plena and Cosmopolita affirms that the hidden Food of Life is in the Air which as I have shewed assumes a Body to it self in an agreeable and consentaneous root and subject Wherefore Innate Calid and Radical Humid differ much one from another That is wholly Solar and Occultly Acid and Oily but This is more Corporeous Constnat and Saline That is of a Superior Order This of an Inferior in which is that Country where Man takes a Wife to himself as Cosmopolita speaks in his Tract de Sulphur and it is the Hell whether Plato is said to have hurried Preserpina and Cores her Mother imploring Jupiters aid for her Redemption was answered That she might return if she had tasted nothing in Hell i. e. unless that Celestial Spirit the Child of the Sun had not been absorbed by the Alcaly but as yet had dwelt free in the Air then she might have easily returned but she had tasted Grains of a Pomegranate in Elisium i. e. in Pleasure for which Reason she could not return till six Months were expired i. e. till the Pomegranates were consumed and then Proserpina returns to her Mother as the Light of a Candle doth to its Source or Country as I said before So that They are deceived who confound Innate Calid and Radical Humid in all the Three Families for they differ no less amongst themselves than Aqua Caustica doth from Mercury in which it takes a Body as appears by the falsified or counterfeit Emplaister unjustly ascribed to John de Vige. For in mixt Bodies the Radical Morstarâ— is the Seat and Food of the Celestial Fire and its Bond uniting it to the Elementary Body but that Igneous Vertue is the Form and Soul of mix'd Bodies more clearly thus The Spirit being either occultly or manifestly Acid is the Seat and Band which ties the Soul to the Body Let us then do as Nature doth whom Art ought to imitate as her Guid in all Things or otherwise we shall never become Compleat Servants to Nature Let Elementary Water be an Example which being impregnated with the Child of the Sun that is with Celestial heat falls upon the Radical Moisture or Alcaly of a Vine and is imbibed by it and so becomes the same thing with it as I have shewed in the Second and Third Chapter I shall also give an Example in the Counterfeit Spirit of Venus which from the beginning was Simple Water which being impregnated with Celestial Calidity fell upon the Radical Humid of the Vine This in undergoing many Mutations by Reason of the aforesaid Calid having a power in it self from Nature to multiply it self is brought to Maturity and becomes a Grape whose Aqueous Juice being pregnant
with Celestial Calid and Radical Humid These Two beginning Action and Passion one with another it comes to pass that from their Mutual Action and Re-action it conceives Heat see Hippoc. Chymic Chap. 18. whence it is said to be Fermented and it becomes Wine in which the heavenly Calid overcomes the Radical Humid and if This at length gain strength it becomes Vinegar with this Vinegar and Lees of Wine now soured Copper is eroded which so eroded as Dioscorides rightly teaches becomes Aerugo from which by Distillation Vinegar is again drawn forth which unskilful Persons by a false Name call Spirit of Venus as I have exactly shewed in its place This Vinegar is nothing else but Water impregnated with Acid Salt from the Principle of the Vine and it is the Seed and Radical Humid of its innate Celestial Fire now specificated by the Vine for being pure it doth not expose it self to be handled by the impure hands of Ignorants or of the Vulgar and it is called by a common name Vinegar And as the Heavenly Calid had from its first beginning its Seat in the Alcaly of the Water and afterwards was multiplied in the Vine Hence also it hath retained the Name of its Original which it keeps also inviolate in Copper to the shame of the Norimberg and Vienna Doctors and their Colleagues So that Vinegar shall again be an Example to us of the Celestial Calid I say let This be satiated with Alcaly of Tartar till the Ebullition and Strepitus cease in that Ebullition The Spirit binds and unites the Heavenly Fire with the Terr estrial Body i. e. with Alcaly Alcaly in this place represents the Radical Humid in which the Heavenly Calid is bound and after the Alcaly i. e. the Matrix hath received a due Proportion it casts forth and ejects the rest to use Cosmopolita's words If you would have Proserpina return to her Mother then distil this Tartar and there will come forth an Oil and Water which is bitterish by reason of the Oil the Oil is that Pinguous by which it was made Vinegar again imbibe this Oil and Water in Alcaly and distil it as before and instead of the Oil there comes forth insipld elementary Water and so Water in the beginning is impregnated with Coelestical Calid and afterwards 't is changed by Fermentation into Grapes then into Wine then into Vinegar at length 't is made Salt in its Mother Alcaly which is turned into Oil and at last as I have said of the Light of a Candle and of Proserpina it returns to its Mother i. e. to Aether as Hippocrates spoke a little before So that the root of the thing returns into Elementary Water viz. into that which it was before it was foecundated with the Indoles of a Vine by the Child of the Sun So also the Capu Mortuum which is left is nothing else but the Alcaly of Tartar in which the same Spirit inhabites which I have shewed in Vinegar but in a way more constant therefore I shall call it in this place Radical Hunâ—d which also by repeated Distillations returns into empty Earth and simple Elementary Water as Hippoc. Chymio teaches Chap. 10. Thus the saying of Hermes and others is fulfilled That nothing in the World dies c. The absurd Collegiates as appears by one of their Society do venditate and boast this Simple Elementary Water to be a Cordial in desperate Diseases as I have said above Chap. 4. but with what advantage to Physick let honest Men judge Wherefore that Igneous and Oily Vertue is the matter of Humid and Calid in mixed Bodies dispensed into these Inferiora by Superior Natures without which the Earth would again be vacuous and inane but the Aqueous Humor is the immediate Keeper and Cabinet of that Igneous Spirit incarcerated in the Seed which abides there so long till by adventitious heat it be promoted to Generation in a fit Matrix And as I have shewed in Alcaly with Acid so also the Radical Humid in every mixt Body is the Shop and Hearth of Vulcan into which that immortal Fire flows and wherein it is kept which is the first Mover of all the faculties of the Individuum and because it is the Child and as it were Vicar of the Sun I conclude with Raimund and by the authority of Hippocrates de Carnibus that it acts all things in every lesser world which the Sun doth in the greater These things being premised The Seat of Radical Moisture let us now see where the Seat of this Radical Moisture in Man is which without intermission doth catch and absorb the Child of the Sun or Proserpina From the scituation and effectual Vertue of the Sun we may inferr that it supplies the place of an Heart to the Universe for Life flows down into all parts from the Sun in regard Light is the Vehicle of Life yea it is the Fountain and next Cause which inspires Life into Things excepting only the Soul of Man which is a Beam of super-coelestial uncreated Light Uncreated Light Now as the Sun in the Macrocosme supplies the place of an Heart and inspires Life into Things so also the Heart in the Microcosme must supply the place of the Sun if these Things are True as they are most True and Veracious which Hermes hath left us In his Tabula viz. That Superior Bodies are as inferior ones and Vice Versa Therefore the Vital Spirit or Coelestial Calid attracted by the Lungs and as it were sifted through a Sieve passed directly to the Heart where Proserpina is embraced and detained by the Radical Humid and there acquires a Body as I above observed out of Hippocrates de Carnibus and I have noted the same thing also concerning Caustick Water with Mercury and concerning Vinegar with Alcaly of Tartar And as Phlegme or Elementary Water which is the Root of Aqua Fortis and Vinegar is not coagulated with Mercury neither with Alcaly but exhales from heat and returns into Elementary Water as I have shewed so also the Phlegme and Elementary Aqueous Vapor which we inspire and suck in with the Câ—lestial Calid the Child of the Sun must needs again by Expiration return to Water as every Plebeian knows and is forced to confess But the Saline Nature of Aqua Fortis is fixed with Mercury as the Saline Nature of Vinegar into Alcaly with Corals so also Proserpina or the Child of the Sun by Inspiration attracted by the Lungs to the Radical Humid which hath its Seat in the Heart is detained there and is wrought and fixed by the Radii and heat of the Heart after its manner into Alcaly or Radical Moisture which thereupon by the same Heat and Pulse or Protrusion is diffused through the whole and inspires Life Actions and Faculties into Things and Members for Hippocrates hath said in his fore-cited Book de Carnibus That It Vnderstands Sees Adorns Hears and Perceives all Things See also the end of the fore-going Chapter
promotes putrefaction p. 17 Alcaly absorbes Acid Spirits p. 18 Alcaly Distilled in anâ— open Fire gives forth a bitter Liquâ—r p. 18 Alcaly Volatile of Lilly convaly p. 20 Alcaly why it received Filth p. 22 Alcaly its effects p. 22 23 Alcaly not a Salsum p. 23 Alcaly and Acid all things in the World may be referred to them p. 23 Alcaly attracted and led as it pleaseth the Acid p. 27 Alcaly of Tartar made Sal-Kermes p. 28 Alcaly of Tartar made Tartar of Wine p. 28 Alcaly of Tartar made Common Salt p. 28 Alcaly regenerated with Nitre into Allum p. 28 Alcaly made Vitriol p. 29 Aloahest what p. 42 Aloalyes retain something of the Form with which the Mixta were saturated proved by Experiments p. 49 Alcaly of Vinegar p. 45 Alcaly its Form not whoâ—ly consumed by the Fire p. â—1 Alcaly of Vegetables 〈◊〉 the Acid from Calcined Corals p. 67 Alcaly of Mans Blood p. 89 Alcaly of Metals p. 90 Alcaly of Vipers p. 91 Alcaly of Vrine p. 90 Alcaly of Sweat doth not stink as Alcaly of Vrine p. 90 Alcaly of 〈…〉 it retains the Form of Animals understroyed p. 90 Alcalu◠〈◊〉 Odor 〈…〉 from the 〈…〉 burning parts of Animals is destructive of 〈◊〉 p. 114 Amber p. 111 Acid the Seat of the Soul p. 47 Aqua Fortis loves Copper and Iron p. 74 Aromaticks do all yield a Fermentable Odor p. 114 Art imitates Nature p. 12 Aura Vitalis p 96 Aura the cause of Diseases p. 96 Aura of the Stomach being mixed with a Forraign Odor can penetrate even to the Joynts of the Toes p. 101 Air contains the Sead of Life p. 82 Alcalyes Medicinable p. 51 B BAsilius his Pugiles and Gladiatores p. 1. Barley having no smell of it self becomes odoriferous p. 111 Bread and Water made a Body p. 100 Bread and Water made Spirit p. 101 C CAlid innate its difference from Radical Moisture p. 83 Cause Efficient what p. 1 Cause coagulating Water in Herbs p. 7 Calid what p. 82 Cephalick Herbs afford a Volatile Alcaly p. 20 Contraries coagulated by contraries p. 34 Corals dissolved in Vinegar encrease in weight p. 43 Coral its Magistery p. 44 Corals dissolved by any Acid p. 66 Corals encreased in weight by the Fire p. 66 Corals their Life Redness p. 67 Corals Calcined are not Calx p. 67 Corals their Tincture p. 67 68 Crocus Martis made with melted Gold p. 5 Crocus Martis Natural p. 68 Crocus Martis Artificial p. 69 Crocus Martis its invention p. 70 Crocus Martis made by the help of Fire p. 70 Crocus Martis opens and binds as it is prepared several wayes p. 70 Crocus Martis whom it hurts p. 71 Crocus Martis whom 't is good for p. 71 Crocus Martis It tinges the Excrements of the Belly p. 75 76 Why called Sterilis Rubigo p. 76 Cryptography how performed p. 97 Copper is not destroyed by Acid Liquors or Vapors p. 36 Copper made Green by all Acids p. 37 Copper hath Acid prevailing p. 47 Copper precipitates Silver dissolved in Aqua Fortis p. 74 75 Copper dissolved in Aqua Fortis precipitated by Iron p. 75 D DIseases Coagulated what p. 95 Diseases of the Womb easily excited by Odors p. 114 Diseases excited and caused by sweet smells are cured by stinking ones p. 112 E Experience who is said to have p. 21 F FIre why called soft p. 88 Fire in Man soft and Acid p. 79 Flesh Salted hath less Radical moisture than when it is Fresh p. 89 Fermentation what p. 59 Ferment of the Stomach doth change the Radical Moisture of the Aliments p. 80 81 Ferment of Putrefaction p. 90 Form what p. 1. Fermentum Vitale p. 87 Fire Acid and Pinguous p. 6 Fire Sun Gold Spirit Sulphur Form Humid Calid Dry c. are Synonymous p. 6 Fire Natural differs from Artificial p. 6 Fire Natural its effects p. 6 Fire an inflamed Acid p. 61 Fire Beaut fies all things in the Body p. 78 Flint not encreased by flame p. 66 Flint its Powder from Glass p. 14 Flint made Alcaly p. 15* Flint not corroded by any Acid p. 65 Flint made Caustick in Fire p. 66 Flint burnt called Lime p. 66 Flint how differs from Corals p. 65 G GOld is an Acid perfect fixed constant p. 4 Gold called Aurum Fulminans its preparation p. 15 Gold Acid and Pinguous p. 5 Gold because most Acid is the most perfect of Metals p. 47 Gold turns Iron into Crocus or Rust p. 69 Golden Nail p. 69 Gold and the Sun in the Firmament compared p. 4 Glass its Fel not good to made Glass p. 19 Glass its Fel shews like Common Salt p. 16* The usefulness of its Fel p. 16* What its Fel is p 16* Grape of it self inodorous made to give a strong smell p. 111 Glass may be made of any Herb p. 13 Why it crackes p. 13 Its Resolution into a Liquor p. 14 Its Destruction by the Ancients p. 13 How it is made p. 16* H HVnger whence p. 79 80 Hippocrates his Principles called by this Authour Acid and Alealy p. 2 Hyle or Matter why called The First Principle of all Things p. 2 Humid Radical its Seat in Man p. 86 'T is Volatile in all Animals p. 89 I INk its foundation and way of making p. 110 Iron what p. 68 Iron why it acquires strength being quenched in Water p. 68 Iron both Aperitive and Astringent of itself p. 70 Iron unduly given hath a deletery Vertue p. 71 Iron two wayes of precipitating it out of Dioscorides p. 72 Jasper Stone its Vertues p. 108 L LIme contains Acid p. 8 Lime is Salt and doth not precipitate Mercury p. 50 Lime inodorous of it self when it diffuses an Odor hurtful to Man p. 111 Load stone p. 106 It is the Mother of Iron p. 106 Its Child rust p. 106 by how much the purer so much the more attractive p. 106 Load-stone of Albertus Magnus attracting Gold p. 106 Load-stone quenched in Oil of Mars encreases double in Vertue p. 107 Load-stone plentiful in the Isle Elbe p. 109 Load-stone its Vertue like that of the Serpents-stone p. 109 Lead hath little Acid p. 47 Lead called the First Matter of Metals p. 47 Lead its weight increased in Fire p. 62 Like easily mingled with like dissolved and attracted by its like p. 9 34 M MErcury takes the form of that by which it is dissolved p. 55 Mercury Caustick mixed with Ointments p. 55 Mercurius Sublimatus p. 56 once sublimated needs no second sublimation p. 57 Mercury sublimate or percipitate its revivification p. 57 Mercury reduced to Elements p. 57 Mercury a caution to be used in its Sublimation p. 57 58 Mercury of Mars p 72 73 Medicine but one p. 102 Microcosme a Term not proper onely to Man p. 6 Mixture yielding an wonderful smell p. 111 112 Musk p. 112 Man whence he lives p. 79 Moisture Radical remains in Dead Carkasses proved by Experiments p. 81 Moisture Radical of all Animals is Volatile p.
into Pellucid Tartar which he burnt and as the custom is with common water extracted the Alcaly which he suffered to run down into a Liquor of its own accord A sudden occasion offering it self that he was to go to Rome with a certain great man to the end that the precious Liquor might not be lost in the interim he commanded his Servant to preserve it in a Vessel which he appointed and shewed him for that purpose his Servant by a mistake poured it into a Neighbourâ— Vessel like the former in which Silver was which had been dissolved in Aqua fortis to which Sal Armoniack sublimated and dissolved in distilled Vinegar begun for another work had been added My Friend returning after nine Months and seeking for the Liquor of Tartar he found the Cucurbite into which his Servant was injoyned to put it quite empty The Servant answering that he had poured it into a Neighbourâ— Vessel looking there he found not the Liquor but dry Earth nine Months exsiccated which he touched with his Rod Mercury out of Silver and a great part of the running Mercury discovered it self at that time he could not believe that running Mercury could be made out of perfect Metals being so perswaded according to the Axiom That it is easier to make than to destroy perfect Metals which made him neglect the Experiment imagining in himself that the Mercury had fallen into the Vessel by some chance But at length he learned out of Basilius Valentinus that Salt of Tartar hath this priviledge above all other Salts The ingenious Helmont hath confirmed this Experiment in these words I have found says he Tract potest Medic S. 4. that the Crudity of Saturn is dissolveable by the fat of fixed Salts and that the parts of the Compositum are so divided that it suffers Silver to run crude There came then to my mind a strong Lixivium wherewith old women boil Litarge to black their hair of which Porta also makes mention in his Magia Naturalis into which I dropped Spirit of Vitriol and presently the Alcaly suffered the Metal to run into a white Powder which I reduced into Lead by which means I knew for certain that Alcalyes do invisibly contain and hide in their Bowels Calcined Metals This Experiment being made Helmont goes on saying That calcined things are most sharp but they are dulcerated with dissolved Sal Armoniack and putrified Tartar i.e. they are turned into running Mercury which is not any longer tart or biting as Calcined things are but insipid to the taste I return now to the Salt of Tartar which in form of Liquor was poured into the Cucurbite in which was Silver corroded by Aqua fortis with Sal Armoniack All these changed their nature into Neutral Salts different from their former state so the Silver made no more any shew of Silver of which * Lite de magno mundi Mirac Basilius de Tartaro Durch c. By my Spirit they take revenge and break or dissolve all Metals For as all Sublunary Bodies Experience being witness do consist of two things Acid and Alcaly as I shall mechanically shew in this Tract the same may be said of Silver from this Silver the Alcaly of Tartar by due digestion and coction hath absorbed so much of the Acid Sulphur Diana nada as was sufficient for the Mercury in the state of Silver now it being segregated and divided from it for its constancy into the place of Mercury succeeds the Alcaly Philosophers call it Adulterium which it imbraces from the Silver and therefore loseth its form and beauty and changeth its nature so that it is melted even with the gentlest fire as Lead or Sal Armoniack mix'd with the Calx of Flints Lana Cornea and it is called by Crollius Luna Cornea because it may be cut with a Knife like Horn. This Luna Cornea though it be washed an hundred times with hot water and * As I have elsewhere said of Furum Fulminans melted with a swift Flux from Tartar and Nitre yet it is impossible to Separate them one from the other unless in Balneo Saturni in which that of the Silver which remains returns to pure but the Salts with the Lead into dross and Litarge which also again by simple Fusion is reduced into Lead but the dross which were Salts are hurried into Element together with the Sulphur of Silver which they had absorbed CHAP. X. That the Bodies of Alcalyes are Vacua proved by examples WHerefore Salt of Tartar is a Medium A Vacuum in Nature demonstrated by Art wherein not only Metals but Minerals also do revive and obtain as it were a Resurrection though by Art and a strong fire they seem quite destroyed Pour Spirit of Vitriol drop by drop upon dissolved Salt of Tartar till the hissing noise cease reduce the Liquor into Chrystals or dry it all up and you shall find a Salt having the nature of Vitriol it provokes vomit and being superbibed purges by Stool as white Vitriol is wont to do Regeneration of Vitriol It is mingled with Nitre and Quick-silver 't is sublimated into red to which add common Salt and it becomes a Corrosive Sublimate it is distilled per se as Vitriol The whitish Mucilage subsiding in the bottom is the same Faex which in dissolved crude Vitriol by the affusion of Salt of Tartar falls down black It endures the fire and resisteth fusion as the Colcothar or Caput mortuum of Vitriol which yet without the affusion of Spirit of Vitriol was easily melted That fixed Salt is Vitriol Regenerated called by the Writers of the Rudiments of Chymistry Tartarus Vitriolatus and Vniversale digestivum It is made much more excellent and perfect from crude Vitriol dissolved in water and Liquor of Tartar poured upon it until it cease to be troubled which point of Saturation is not found without difficulty for if it exceed but one drop it turns the mixture either into Vitriol or Alcaly of which my Hippocrates L. I. de Diaet Nunquam simul in codem consistunt coagulate the clear Liquor into shining Chrystals This is more Noble than the former because in distilling the Vitriol the violence of the fire elevates the Liquamen of the Copper and mixes it with the Spirit so that it become troublesome to the Stomach But in this simple way the Alcaly consumes only that most simple Natural Acid which corroded the embrionated Metal in its Flux This is that simple Acld agreeable to our Nature in Acid Fountains refreshing the Drinkers and acceptable to the Stomach though taken in great quantity of this I determine to speak briefly yet * De morbis Tartareis Paracelsus relates that in a Village called Veltin in Helvetia there is a Fountain the like whereto is not to be found in the whole World So also Spirit of Nitre reassumes a Body in Salt of Tartar and becomes cold natural Nitre Regeneration of Nitre conceiving