the subtlest spirits will come over and after them the phlegme at last a sowre vinegar together with the oyle whereof you must get each by it self But if you desire to have the subtle spirit which came over first more penetrating yet then you must take the Caput Mortuum that stayed in the retort and make it red hot in a crucible and abstract the spirit once more from it and the calcined Tartar will keep the remaining moystness or phlegme and onely the subtlest spirit will come over which is of a most penetrating quality whereof from half a dram to an ounce taken in wine or any other liquor provoketh a quick and strong sweat and it is a powerful medicine in all obstructions and most approved and often tryed in the plague malignant feavers scurvy Melancholia Hypochondriaca colick contracture epilepsie and the like diseases And not onely these mentioned diseases but also many others more which proceed from corrupt blood under God may successefully be cured with it The phlegme is to be cast away as unprofitable the vinegar cleanseth wounds the oyle allayeth swelling and pains and doth cure scabs and disperseth knobs that are risen upon the skin as also other excrescencies of the same if it be used timely and the use thereof be continued N. B. If the black stinking oyle be rectified from the calcined Caput Mortuum it will be clear and subtle and it will not only asswage very speedily all pains of the goute but also dissolve and expel the conglobated gravel in the reines applyed as a plaster or unguent In like manner it will dissolve and extract the coagulated Tartar in the hands knees and feet so that the place affected will be freed and made whole thereby because in such a despicable oyle there lyes hid a volatile salt which is of great vertue But if you desire experimentally to know whether it be so then poure upon this black stincking oyle an acid spirit as the spirit of common salt or of vitriol or salt nitre or only distilled vinegar and the oyle will grow warm and make a noyse and rise as if Aqua fortis had been powred upon salt of Tartar and the acid spirit will be mortified thereby and turne to salt And this well purified oyle doth dissolve and extract the Tartar out of the joynts unless it be grown to a hard stony substance even as sope scowres the uncleanness out of cloths or to compare it better even as like receiveth its like and is easily mixed with it and doth love it but on the contrary nothing will mixe it self with that wherewith it hath no affinity at all As if you would take pitch out of cloth by washing it with water which never will be done by reason of the contrary nature for common water hath no affinity with pitch or other fat things nor will it ever be taken out therewith without a mediator partaking of both natures viz. of the nature of pitch and that of the water and such are sulphureous salts and nitrous salts whether they be fixed or volatile As you may see at the soape-boylers who incorporate common water by the help of sulphureous salts with fat things as tallow and oyle But if you take warm oyle or any thin fat substance and put it upon the pitch or rozin then the oyle easily accepteth of and layes hold on its like and so the pitch is dissolved and got out of the cloth and the remaining fatness of the oyle may be fetcht out of the cloth with lye or sope and common water and so the cloth recovereth its former beauty and pureness And as it falleth out with the sulphureous things so it doth likewise with the Mercurial For example if you would take the salt out of powdred flesh or pickled fish with lixivium it would not succeed because that the nitrous and acid salts are of contrary natures But if upon the powdred flesh or pickled fish you poure on water wherein some of the same salt wherewithall the flesh was powdered is dissolved that salt water will extract the salt out of the flesh as being its like much more then common sweet water wherein there is no salt In this manner the hardest things also as stones and metals may be joyned or united with water whereof more in my other books are extant it is needless here therefore to relate I gave a hint of it onely for to shew that alwayes like with like must be extracted True it is that one Contrarium can mortifie another and take the corrosiveness from it whereby the paynes for a time are asswaged but whether the cause of the disease it self be eradicated thereby is a question Here may be objected that I made a difference between the sulphureous and Mercurial salts whereas neither Mercury nor sulphur apparently is to be seen in either It is true he that doth not understand nor know the nature of salts is not able to apprehend it And I have not time now to demonstrate it but the same is shewed at large in my book de Natura salium that some of them are sulphureous and some Mercurial but he that looks for a further direction yet let him read my book de Sympathia Antipathia rerum wherein he shall finde it demonstrated that from the Creation of the World to the time present there were alwayes two contrary natures fighting one against the other which fight will continue so long till the Mediator betwixt God and Man the Lord Jesus Christ shall put an end unto this strife when he shall come to separate the good from the bad by whose lightning and fire flame the proud and hurtful superfluous sulphur shall be kindled and consumed the pure Mercurial being left in the center How to make pretious spirits and oyles out of Tartar joyned with some minerals and metals TAke any metal or mineral dissolve it in a fit menstruum mix with it a due proportion of crude Tartar so that the crude Tartar being made into powder together with the solution make up a pap as it were then at once cast in one spoonful of it and distil it into a spirit and oyle which after the distillation must be separated by rectification for to keep each by it self for its proper use The use of the metallized spirit and oyle of Tartar THis spirit of a Tartarized metal is of such a condition that it readily performeth its operation according to the strength of the spirit and the nature of the metal or mineral whereof it is made For the spirit and oyle of gold and Tartar is good for to corroborate the heart and to keep out its enemies the spirit of silver and Tartar doth serve for the braine that of Mercury and Tartar for the liver of lead and tin for the spleen and lungs of iron and copper for the reins and seminary vessels that of Antimony and Tartar for all accidents and infirmities of the whole body and these metallical spirits made
therefore that all the other as well in the dry as in the wet way may be precipitated thereby and reduced into light calxes in so much that the calx of gold or silver precipitated in this manner if so be you proceed well retaineth its splendor or gloss and is like a fine powder wherewith you can write out of a pen. To make a subtle spirit and pleasant oyle of Zinck BEcause I made mention here of Zinck I thought good not to omit that there may be made a penetrating spirit and wholesome oyle out of it by the help of vinegar which is thus to be done Take of the flores which were taught to be made in the first part one part put them into a glass fit for digestion and poure upon them 8. or 10 parts of good sharp vinegar made of honey or in want thereof take wine vinegar and set the glass with the flores and vinegar in a warm place to dissolve and the solution being performed powre off the cleer which will look yellow and after you have filtred it abstract the phlegme and there will remaine a red liquor or balsome to which you must add pure sand such as is well burnt and distill it and first there will come over an unsavory phlegme afterward a subtle spirit and at last a yellow and red oyl which are to be kept by themselves separated from the spirit as a treasure for to heale all wounds very speedily The spirit is not inferior unto the oyle not onely for inward use to provoke sweat thereby but also externally for the quenching of all inflammations and doubtless this spirit and oyle is good for more diseases but because its further use is not known to me yet I will not write of it but leave the further triall to others To distil a spirit and oyle out of lead IN the same manner as was taught of the Zinck there may be out of lead also distilled a subtle spirit and a sweet oyle and it is done thus Poure strong vinegar upon Minium or any other calx of lead which is made per se and not with sulphur let it digest and dissolve in sand or warm ashes so long till the vinegar be coloured yellow by lead and turned quite sweet Then poure off the clear solution and poure on other vinegar and let this like wise dissolve and this repeat so often till the vinegar will dissolve no more nor grow sweet then take all these solutions and evaporate all the moysture and there will remaine a thick sweet yellow liquor like unto honey if the vinegar was not distilled but if it was distilled and made clear then no liquor remaineth but onely a white sweet salt This liquor or salt may be distilled after the same manner as was taught with the Zinck and there will come over not only a penetrating subtle spirit but also a yellow oyle which will not be much but very effectual in all the the same uses as of the spirit and oyle of the Zinck was taught N. B. This is to be observed that for to make this spirit and oyle you need no distilled spirit but that it may be done as well with undistilled vinegar and the undistilled yeilds more spirit then the distilled But if you look for a white and cleer salt then the vinegar must be distilled else it doth not shoote into crystals but remaineth a yellow liquor like unto honey and it is also needless to make the solution in glasses and by digestion continued for a long time but it may as well be done in a glased pot viz. powring the vinegar upon the Minium in the pot and boyling it on a coale fire for you need not fear that any thing of the vinegar will evaporate in regard that the lead keeps all the spirits and lets onely go an unsavory phlegme You must also continually stir the lead about with a wooden spatula else it would turn to a hard stone and would not dissolve the same must be done also when the solution is done in glasses and the solution after this way may be done in three or four houres and when both kinde of solutions are done there will be no difference betwixt them and I think it providently done not to spend a whole day about that which may be done in an houre And if you will have this spirit and oyle better and more effectual you may mix â„¥ i. of crude Tartar made into powder with lb j. of dissolved and purified lead and so distill it after the same manner as you do distill it by it self and you will get a much subtler spirit and a better oyle then if it were made alone by it self To distill a subtile spirit and oyle out of crude Tartar MAny think it to be but a smal matter to make the spirit of Tartar for they suppose that if they do but onely put Tartar into a retort and apply a receiver and by a strong fire force over a water they have obtained their desire and they do not observe that in steed of a pleasant subtle spirit they get but a stinking vinegar or phlegme the pleasant spirit being gone Which some careful operators perceiving they caused great receivers to be made supposing by that means to get the spirit Now when they after the distillation was done weighed their spirits together with the remainder they found that they had suffered great loss wherefore they supposed it to be an impossible thing to get all the spirits and to lose none and indeed it is hardly possible to be done otherwise by a retort for although you apply a great receiver to a smal retort and that there be also but a little Tartar in it and the joynts being wel luted so that nothing can pass through and though you make also the fire never so gentle hoping to get the spirit by that way yet for all that you cannot avoyd danger and loss For at last the retort beginning to be red hot and the black oyle going then and but then the subtlest spirits will come forth which either steale through the joynts or else do break the retort or receiver because they come in abundance and with great force and do not settle easily wherefore I will set down my way of making this most profitable and excellent spirit The preparation and the use of the spirit of Tartar TAke good and pure crude Tartar whether it be red or white it matters not make it into fine powder and when the distilling vessel is red hot then cast in with a ladle half an ounce and no more at once and so soon as the spirits are gone forth and setlted cast in another â„¥ ss and this continue till you have spirit enough then take out the remainder which will look black and calcine it wel in a crucible and put it in a glass retort and poure the spirit that came over together with the black oyle upon it drive it in sand at first gently and
hath also this commodity in it that although by littleness of the dose or the strong nature of the patient it doth not work by vomit or stool yet it doth not like other medicines hurt the body but works either by sweat or urine so that Antimony being rightly prepared is seldome adminstred without profit When as on the contrary vegetable Catharticks being given in less dose or by reason of some other causes do not work although they do not make the body swel and produce manifest diseases yet they may threaten to the body occult sicknesses Now the Arcanum of Antimony doth not only not do hurt if it do not sensibly operate but by insensible working doth much good to the body of man Wherefore there is a great difference betwixt purging minerals and vegetables For minerals are given in a less dose without nauseousness but vegetables with a great deal of nauseousness and sometimes with danger to the sick in a greater dose Now that nauseousness also proceeding oftentimes from the great dose of the ungrateful bitter potions does more hurt then the potion it self I wish that such kinde of gross medicines were abolished and the sweet extracts of vegetables and essences of minerals were substituted in their place A purging Extract TAke of the roots of black Hellebor gathered in a fit time and dryed in the aire one pound the roots of Mechocan Jâ—llap of each four ounce Cinnamon Annisseed and Fennel-seed of each one ounce of English Saffron a dram powder all these ingredients then powre upon them the best rectified Spirit of wine in a high glass gourd and upon this put a blind Alembick and set it in digestion in Balneo until the Spirit of wine be tinged red which then decant off and powre on fresh and set it againe in digestion untill the spirit be red which also decant off then powre on fresh again and do this so often until the spirit will no more be tinged red which commonly is done at three times Mix these tinged spirits filter them and in Balneo by a glass Alembick with a gentle heat draw them off from the Tincture and a thick juyce will remaine at the bottome of a brounish colour which you must take out whilest it is yet hot and keep it in a clean glass for its uses The Spirit of wine drawn off from the extract may be reserved for the aforesaid same use Now this extract is given from grains 3. 6. 9. 12. to 31. according to the age and person beeng mixed with Sugar it hath not an ungrateful tast and it works gently and safely if it be not given in too great adose And if thou wilt have it in the form of a pill mix with it being yet hot an ounce of cleer Aloes and half an ounce of Diagridium powdered being mixed bring it into a mass for pils and keep it for your use The dose is from grains 1. to a scruple It evacuates all superfluous humors but it is not to be compared with the medicine of Antimony And this extract I put down for the sakes of those that fear minerals and abhor vomits which in my judgment is the best of all vegetable Cathartickes A Diaphoretical Extract TAke the Wood Sassafras Sassaparilla of each six ounces Ginger Galangal Zedoary of each three ounces long Pepper Cardamoms Cububs of each an ounce Cinnamon Mace of each half an ounce English Saffron Nutmeg Cloves of each a dram Let the woods be rasped the roots and spices powdered powr upon them being mixed the spirit of wine and let the tincture be drawn forth in Balneo as hath been above said of the purging Extract evaporate away the spirit to the consistency of honey which keep for your use It is good in the plague feavers scorbute leprosie frenchpox and other diseases proceeding from the impurity of the blood curing them by sweat The dose of this Extract is from a scruple â—o a dram with proper vehicles it provoketh sweat presently driveth away all venenosities from from the heart and mundifies the blood And although it be a most effectual vegetable Diaphoretick yet it may not be compared to those subtile spirits of minerals of which in the second part Also animal diaphoreticks have their commendations as the flesh of vipers the fixed salt of spiders and toads in their peculiar operations where each alone without the mixture of any other thing puts forth and sheweth its operations neither are animal and vegetable diaphoreticks to be compared to the mineral as bezâ—aâ—ticum minerale antimonium diaphoreticum and aurum diaphoreticum A Diuretical Extract TAke the seeds of Saxifrage Caryoway Fennel Parsly Netles of each 3. ounces the root of liquorish the greater bur of each an ounce the powder of woodlice half an ounce Let these being mixed and powdered be extracted with spirit of Juniper according to art then mix these following things with the extracted matter Take the salt of Ambar soot netles of each half a dram purified nitre a dram Let these be powdered and mixed with the extract and this mixture be kept for use The dose is from a scruple to a dram in the water of parsly fennel c. This extract forceth urin opens the ureters purgeth the reines and bladder from all viscous flegme the mother of all tartareous coagulation viz if it be used timely In this case is commended also the solution of flints and crystals made with spirit of salt A greater commendation have salts of nephretick hearbs made by expression and crystallisation without calcination the preparation whereof shall not here but elsewhere be taught A Somniferous Extract TAke of Thebaic opium four ounces of Spirit of Salt two ounces purified Tartar one ounce set them being mixed in maceration in Balneo in a glass vessel for a day and night and the spirit of salt with Tartar will open the body of the opium and prepare it for extraction upon which powre half a pint of the best spirit of wine set it in a gentle Balneo to be extracted Decant off the spirit that is tinged and powre on fresh set it in digestion till the spirit be coloured Then mix the extractions together and put to them in a glass gourd two drams of the best Saffron of oyle of Cloves a dram and draw off the spirit of wine in Balneo and there will remaine a thick black juyce which is to be taken out and kept in a clean glass vessel The dose thereof is from grain one to five or six for those of a mans age but to children the sixth or eighth part of a graine It may be used in all hot distempers without danger It provoketh quiet sleep mitigates pains as well outward as inward it causeth sweat but especially it is a sure remedy for the epilepsie in children that are new born for assoon as it is given to them to the quantity of the eighth part of a graine in wine or womans milk there presently follows rest and
sweat with sleep by which means the malignity is expelled the children are refreshed and desire victuals and the fit returns no more afterward Although haply the like symptomes may be perceived againe yet if the aforesaid dose be administred againe the children are refreshed and cured wholly whereas otherwise they would have dyed c. whereof I have not restored few with this medicine Moreover also there are very effectual anodyne medicines as those volatile spirits of vitriol allome antimony and other minerals with which as also with that narcoticke sulphur precipitated from the volatile spirit of vitriol nothing may be compared A Cordial Extract TAke of red roses four ounces of the lilie of the valley two ounces the flowers of borage rosemary sage of each an ounce cinnamon lignum aloes of each two drams cloves mace nutmeg galangal cardamoms the lesser of each half an ounce the shaving of ivory hartshorn of each an ounce of English saffron a dram of nux vomica a dram Mixe them and reduce them to a fine powder and let the tincture be extracted with spirit of wine in Balneo which is to be drawn off again unto a just consistency Let the extract be kept for use It may be used in almost all faintings and other affects that are not joyned with a preternatural heat The dose thereof is from grains 3. 6. 9. to a scruple with proper vehicles being often administred it refresheth the spirits corroborates the braine and other parts of the body It is made more efficacious by the adding of the essences of minerals especially of gold of which thing see the first part concerning the sweet oyle of gold Of an odoriferous Extract I Need not teach the making of any odoriferous vegetable extract because the manner of drawing forth or distilling oyles of vegetables that have sweet odours hath been shewed a little before as of hearbs flowers and seeds which are the most noble and sweet essences of vegetables by the odour whereof the heart and braine are corroborated which being reduced into balsams are made transportable Better extracts therefore and more excellent cannot in my judgement be made out of vegetables then those aforesaid oyles unless any one would mixe aromatical extracts made with spirit of wine with metallick solutions and being mixed digest them then there will a certain most odoriferous oyl go from the extract not only more efficacious but more excellent then that common distilled oyl by reason of the admixtion of the spiritual metallick vertue especially of gold and silver dissolved in the acid Menstruum communicating its vertues to the Aromatical oyle Moreover any vegetable oyle may be exalted in vertues and odour by the help of spirit of urine or salt Armoniack by the help whereof not only odoriferous oyles are exalted but also the inodorous oyles of vegetables are made odoriferous if they be a while digested in spirit of urine and not this only but every mineral and metallick sulphur although the odour thereof be bound up with most strong bonds is opened by the benefit thereof and is reduced by digestion in a very little time into a most sweet and odoriferous essence Lixivial spirits exalt the odours and colours of sulphurs acid purge sulphurs but change their colours and odours Muske and Civet get the sweetness and excellency of their odour from the subtile urinous spirit of a certain Cat digesting some certain fat and converting it into such a kinde of most odoriferous matter And let this that hath been said suffice concerning Extracts which might have been omitted because many of these kinde of Extracts are found in the writings of other authors in many languages but I was willing to set down these lest this book might seem to contain in it nothing else besides the new way of distilling being furnished also with good medicines Of Baths A Little before hath been given a description of a Tub for a Bath in which any one may sit with his whole body except his head not only to be washed in sweet warm water whether medicinal and mineral but also to sweat in without water where the vessel is heated by warm vapours either of sweet waters or minerals And every one may provide such Baths for himself according to his necessity at home whereby the same diseases are cured as those that are cured by the help of natural Bathes so that he need not for the Baths sake go a great journey but may stay at home with his family and follow his calling without trouble when he hath occasion and need to use them And whereas it cannot be denyed that by the use of the Baths most grievous diseases which cannot be cured by Physitians are happily cured I was willing for the sake of my neighbour to publish this instrument together with the preparation of mineral waters which publishing will not without doubt be without profit and advantage Wherefore I will in brief shew you the preparation of mineral and sweet waters and their use and first Of a Bath of sweet or common water THere is no art to make a Bath of sweet water for you have nothing else to do then to fill your vessel with river or raine water and to make a fire which by the help of the copper globe will heat the water which being sufficiently heated you may sit in it and cover the Tub that the hot vapors evaporate not nor the cold aire enter in and coole the exteriour parts of the body Wherefore also you must apply a clean linnen cloth about your neck lest the warme vapors may evaporate there which being rightly observed you may sit the space of 1. 2. 3. hours or as long as you please or your sickness require You must keep a continual heat as much as is necessary which may be done by the help of that globe If you be thirsty in the mean time you may drink some proper distilled drink according to the nature of your disease of which thing nothing now because I am resolved to write a peculiar book de Balneis and here only to shew the use of that copper globe in heating of Baths And although there be not a perfect instruction of all yet of some Baths and their uses there shall a short instruction be given in this place Of the nature and property of natural Baths KNow that the greatest parts of medicinal waters in Germany and other countries as well hot as cold carry with them from the earth a certaine sulphureous acidity more or less in which acidity consists that medicinal faculty and vertue of this or that water And if those waters lose their odour and tast by the exhalâ—g of their subtile spirits then also they loose their vertues although also there be found some waters which have not only a spiritual sulphur but also are impregnated with a certain mineral or metallick body mixed with Allome or Vitriol which comes not elsewhere then from the common water running through the mines There are
pious men deceive posterity with their workes and reduce them into errors Though there remain not the works of famous Worthies yet there would be a plain confirming the truth of this Art For I am perswaded there are some to be found having this knowledge and privately possessing it For who is so madd to reveal himself to the world to receive nought but envy for his reward Let no man therefore doubt of this secret Art's truth But say you Why stand you so much for the Art Did you ever see or perform any thing in it I reply though I never made projections to perfect metals nor saw transmutations yet I am sure of this I have often from metals with metals leaving no gold and silver in the cupel extracted gold and silver by the help of fire But I will not have you think that one imperfect metal will perfect another or turn it into gold or silver impure and drossie without in comparison of gold and silver for how can such metals perfect another imperfect which thus understand For as in the vegetable kingdom water cleanseth water or juice with seething as is wont to be done in purifying honey and sugar or any other vegetable juice with common water and white egges so also you must understand of mineral juices or metal of which if we know the water and white surely we might refine the impurity in which gold and silver lye hid as in black shales and powerfully extract gold and silver which is not a transmutation of metals but an eduction of gold and silver from the dunghil Dost thou ask how gold and silver can be educed from copper iron tin and lead to wit by the help of lotion out of which none is drawn with that best probe as 't is thought of Cupels to which we answered before of the probe of cupels not to be sufficient for all severall metals I need therefore say no more but I refer the studious Reader to Paracelsus his booke the Vexation of Chymists where thou shalt finde another lotion and purification of metals which heretofore was unknown to Miners and dealers in minerals As for example A Miner finding the oar of copper useth his skill delivered by the ancients to his utmost endeavour whereby he may cleanse it and reduce it to metal where first he breaks it into pieces and boils it for to take away the superfluous sulphur then by vertue of melting he brings it into a stone so called which afterward again he commits to fire and freeth it by the addition of lead of its gold and silver which done he blacks and reddens it turning it into copper which is his last labour whereby the copper is made malleable and vendible which done the Chymist coming tries another separation by whose help gold and silver is extracted as yet tryed of very few of which mention is here made Paracelsus also saith in the same place that gold hath given some an easier way of separating gold and silver from courser metals and indeed without refining the oar which is a special and curious Art which he teacheth not in plain tearms but onely saith it is sufficiently taught in seven rules of that book where he treats of the nature and propriety of metals in which you may seek it And this purification of courser metals I count most easie which I have often tryed in small quantity and I doubt not but God hath shewn other Artizens also other purifications which imperfect metals are perfected for example if one would purge the fruit of the earth by distillation so that the dregs and impurities being taken away it would grow up with a new clear clarified body as if one distil black and impure Amber by a retort the separation would be made by fire of the water savouring of the Empyreum of the oyl and volatile salt and the Caput mortuum be left in the bottome of the retort by which meanes in a very short time without great labour is made a great alteration and emendation of Amber though the oyl be black impure and stinking but if it be again distilled by the retort with some mundifying water as with the spirit of salt namely through a fresh clean glass retort shall be made a new separation by that spirit ofi salt and a far clearer oyle shall be extacted the dregs with the stink left in the bottom of the retort which afterward may be twice or thrice rectified againe with fresh spirit of salt until it get the clearness of salt and sweetness of sent resembling amber and musk And this transmutation makes of a hard thing a soft unlike the former in shape which though never so soft and liquid oily may again be coagulated so that it become as it was at first after this manner following Take the said oyle very well clarified adde to it new spirit of salt yea salt enough for its own recoagulation and againe it requires the hardness of amber of an excellent clear and admirable colour of which half an ounce is worth more than some pounds of black amber of which scarse the eight or tenth part remains in purifying all the soul superfluities cast away By this means I think one may cleanse and mend black metals if so be the manner of their cleansing were known by distillation sublimation and recoagulation But thou say'st that metal cannot like vegetables be purified by force of distillation to which I present our first furnace not given to peasants but Chymists trying metals so also the possibility of their perfection is shown by help of fermentation For as fresh leaven may ferment the vegetable juices which are perfected with fermentation the dregs being cast away as one may see in wine ale and other liquors whose lasting and perfection proceeds from no other thing but fermentation purifying the vegetable juices without which they could not otherwise withstand the Elements subject to corruption in a very short time which fermented last some years so also if we knew the proper ferment of metals surely we might refine and perfect them so that they would not be any more subject to rust they would prevaile against fire and water and be nourished and fed by them For so the world heretofore perished with water and shall at last perish with fire and our bodies must rot and be purified with fire before we come to the sight of God And thus far of the fermentation of metals wherewith they are resisted and perfected Metals also are pur'd and mended like milk set on the fire whose cream the better part the substance of butter in the top is separated from whey and cheese and according to the heat of the place the separation is speeded even so it is with the separation of metals where metals putinto a fitted hot place by themselves without any addition of another thing for metals were before reduced to a milky substance oâ— curd are separated in time by parting the nobler parts from the
done often without the losse of health nor in great quantity wherefore when a better way is known 't is a folly to doe it so The Regulus's also may be purified by lead on a teste which work may be done in a great quantity but it requires aboundance of coals and lead where the antimony cannot be preserved but it may be done with gain and is to be preferred before the former wayes Thou maist if thou pleasest calcine the aforesaid Regulus's and then fuse them which way gold and silver may easily be drawne out Thou maist also fuse them in a crucible and by the addition of some salts separate the antimony from the gold and silver turning the antimony into dross which being separated those are found purified and mallcable which though it be the easiest way it is yet also very dangerous for the salts often if you doe not warily proceed doe spoil much gold and and silver and sometimes leave gold immalleable and so double the pains But he who knows how to doe this by Nitre only he may with great gain and in a short time purifie a great quantity of the aforesaid Regulus's with out losse of gold silver or antimony There are also other means for the doing of it which to relate were tedious and indeede impossible Wherefore I will set downe the best of all most profitable in the separations of great quantities of Regulus's Where first is required some peculiar little Furnace with a fire almost like to that in our first part of Philosophicall Furnaces built for the subliming of flowers it wants indeed a grate but it hath little vents for to make the coals burn that thy antimony separated from the gold may be sublimated or elevated into sublimatory vessels Which being rightly built and heated let so much of the Regulus be cast in with a spoon as the fire can bear which wilquickly melt and elevated the air being attracted by the vents without any trouble which being sublimed you may cast in more if you have more until all the Regulus be separated sublimated from the gold and silver which are left in the fire pure and malleable the furnace being cold you may take out the flowers and keep them of which afterwards for uses which way you may not only separate a great number of Regulus's from gold and silver in a smal time but also keep all the antimony which may many ways be used in Alchymy and Medicine with great profit Which sure is an excellent knowledge for not only hereby may any one get aboundantly without wronging his neighbour but also help many sick people viz. by that excellent medicine made of the flowers which is a speciall gift of God for which we owe immortal thanks And this is of all others that I know the best way of separation of gold from antimony which is not only done in great quantity in a short time and with small charge but also without losse of the antimony Here follows the use of Antimoniall Flowers FIrst you may take the whitest of the Flowers out of the lower hole and keep them for a Universall Medicine but reduce the rest being lesse pure into Regulus by the salt of Tartar for divers uses as shall bee said afterward or you may mingle them with an equall weight of common sulphur or antimony which being mixt in a covered crucible melt them and they will yeeld an antimony like to a naturall good to purifie gold or thou maist mingle themwith other metals or minerals that by this means they may be made beter or thou maist use them in Chirurgery for they of all sliptick plaisters make the best In breif the aforesaid flowers may many wayes be used with good gain and successe The aforesaid antimoniall drosse may also be reduced into flowers and used in the same manner which indeed are endowed with as excellent properties as they which are made out of Regulus's because inthat fusion and separation of gold extracted out of flints and talc the gold only that was fixt and mature was separated from the Regulus's the immature and volatile being left in the drosse and elevated with the flowers it follows thence that these are better as well in medicine as in the transmutation of metals Or if thou wilt adde to the antimony as aforesaid used old iron to reduce it in a furnace and take the Regulus having gold and silver which may therefore be used in other operations of Chymistery where there is need of Regulus as we may shew hereafter But the dross doth yeeld a Regulus viz. in a very strong fire and a furnace with a peculiar separatory by abstraction which although it contain not gold yet it may bee used not without gain as if it be mingled with Tin in fusion it procures to it a hardnesse and sound usefull for fashioning divers sort of houshold-stuffe which is not so easily darkened as the common Tin or if thou wilt not thou maist make weights of it Hitherto we have treated of the extraction of gold out of flints and of its purification by antimony now wee will teach you how to use the rest of the antimony as well in the perfection of base metals as in medicine as well for the preserving of Health as the curing of Diseases But seeing wee have made mention of an Universall Medicine to he made out of antimony aforesaid I would not have thee think that that is such as can take away all distempers in generall without distinction which vertue is only ascribed to the Philosophers Stone but not by me to this medicine to which I attribute no more then I have tryed But this in truth I dare affirm that there is besides the stone scarce any comparable to it for it doth not onely preserve the body from divers diseases but also happily frees it from the present so that it may deservedly be tearmed a Vniversall Medicine The preparation followeth â„ž of the flowers purified from the drosse a pound viz. of Antimony by which the extracted gold was purified which for the most part are of a yellow colour having gold volatile and immature in defect of which take the flowers made out of the golden Regulus's being for the most part white to which powre in a glasse Phiall strong and long necked of spirit of wine tartarised three or four pound mingle and stir them wel together and put on it another crooked pipe within which let there be some ounces of quicksilver as is described in the fifth Part of our Philosophicall Furnaces and make strong the joints with a bullocks bladder thrice folded made wet which dryed place the glass in Balneum and give fire by degrees that the spirit of wine with antimony may digest in which leave it for 24 houres space and so soon as the fire is out take out the glasse when it is cold pour off the spirit tinged red from the flowers and poure on fresh and place it as before in
Balneum to digest 24 houres space till it be red and doe this the third time or so often till the spirit be no more coloured for then no more is to be poured on and that which is coloured is to be filtred with Cap-paper The rest of the flowers after the extraction as not requisite to this businesse are to be either kept by themselves or thrown away But the tinged spirit is to be abstracted out of a glasse cucurbit by an alembick to the half from the tincture which distilled spirit may again be used in the same work but the tincture left in the cucurbit is the medicine of which mention has beene made Now mention being made also of tartarised spirit of wine that I may satisfie the doubtfull concerning that I will here also give its description which is as followeth â„ž of tartar 20 or 30 pound put it in a large coated retort and place it in sand and distill the spirit off with a soft heat N. B. This work may better and sooner be performed by that instrument of our second Furnace and because it requires great and large receivers as being very penetrative thou maist first apply a tin or copper serpent to the neck of the retort instead of a receiver which is placed in a tub filled with cold water that the spirits being thereby cooled may be retained which afterward you must abstract to the halfe out of a glasse cucurbit by an alembick for the other half with black oil is unprofitable in this work and therefore to be taken away After that mingle the more subtile part distilled with half of the Caput Mortuum of the aforesaid spirit calcined to a whiteness and abstract it half again in a gentle Balneum out of a glasse cucurbit by an alembick the joints whereof are every where to be well closed and the calcined Tartar shall receive with it selfe the stench together with the phlegm only the purer part of the spirit and more subtle distilling forth which is again to be mingled with the other halfe of the Tartar calcined to a whitenesse and to be rectified by another alembick the Caput Mortuum may again be calcined to take away the fetidnesse that it may be used again And this is that tartarised spirit of wine with which the aforesaid tincture and essence is extracted and truly not only this but of all other metals which no other can doe And if it were lawfull I would write something more of its wonderfull force and vertue which it hath in purifying baser metals with which it hath a great affinity for it can separate the pure from the impure of which more in another place But when it is to bee used in mending of metals it needs not so much rectification as is required in the extraction of metallick medicines where you may draw it in plenty out of the dry lees of wine But there is also another tartarised spirit of wine which may also be used in this same work which is made after the following way Dissolve in a pound of the spirit of wine six ounces of crystall of Tartar which solution use in the aforesaid extraction in the same manner An Admonition I Desire thee not to be offended at the plainnesse of the preparation viz. of this medicine made out of a very meane thing and without much acutenesse of understanding say not to thy self if this be true that such a famous and excellent medicine can be gotten by such easie meanes what neede we so many various decoctions both pretious and nauseous bee prepared why is not this substituted in their places Certainly this should rather be used But who is so audacious as to dare to displease the multitude defending those kinds of decoction Surely none and there are few who are able to turn from their old custom An ancient custom therefore whatsoever need it hath of being amended yet prevails Would to God the time would come when Physitians would practise not out of avarice but out of charity which we owe to our neighbour which is desired by and full of comfort to the sick But for the vertue of so great a medicine I shall open to those that are younger and lesse skilful than my self not it to those who in yeers and learning doe goe before me but let every man enjoy his own judgement Of the vertues of this Medicine THis antimoniall tincture doth above all other medicines evacuate vitious humours insensibly purgeth impure bloud opens any obstructions of the liver Spleen Reins and the other vessels attracting to it all malignities and leaving no impurities behinde it And because it cleanseth the bloud it cures the Leprosie French pox and itch and other diseases proceeding from the impurity of the bloud By its penetrative and attenuative vertue it resolves all tartareous humours and evacuateth them viz. which ingâ—nder the gout the Stone of the Bladder and Reins but not the Stone perfectly coagulated onely it mitigateth its pain and hinders its increase but being not hardened or coagulated it attracteth and evacuateth it totally and fundamentally out of all parts it takes away also all Feavers and other diseases comming from the superfluity of humours It gently evacuateth the water between the skin by siege and urine In brief it strengthens and purges the principall parts and preserves them from all preternaturall accidents It is a most excellent preservative in the time of Pestilence and other contagious diseases and of them being caught it is a most absolute remedy expelling the disease suddenly from the heart and evacuating it In few words 't is of all others a most excellent Universall Medicine very profitable to both old and young and also very safe but warily to be ministred by reason of its strength with which it is endued which is most powerfull for it is as a great fire which extinguisheth the lesser Truly a better Medicine cannot be desired than this which is extracted of a very mean thing in a short space of time and with very small cost and pains I ingenuously confesse I never saw its like which I doubt not to be the best in the world Wherefore then do we seek any other but this viz. which excels in those things which are desired from the reall medicine But as it is most excellent yet I am certain that many deluded people will bee offended at it being prepared out of Antimony a mean and despised thing and after a plain way But 't is no matter For the world will be deceived looking after gay things disrespecting and despising mean things when all good things yea even when God himself doth rejoice in simplicity for which by wicked and proud men he is not sought unto But this is the effect of sinne by which man is so blinded that though he know not good when set before his eyes yet he is studious of evill Of the use and dose of this Medicine SEEing of all Medicines it is the most powerfull it had