the operation is performed better with the flowers of these metals the preparation whereof shall be hereafter taught Take therefore the flowers upon which in a gourd glass pour the spirit of salt and presently the spirit will work upon them especially being set in a warm place filter the yellow solution and abstract the humidity untill there remain a yellow heavy oyle which is proper against pitrid ulcers Oyle of Mercury NEither is this easily dissolved with the spirit of salt but being sublimed with vitriol and salt is easily dissolved Being dissolved it yeelds an oyle very corrosive which must be used with discretion wherefore it is not to be administred unless it be where none of the other are to be had For I saw a woman suddenly killed with this oyle being applyed by a certain Chirurgeon But this oyle is not to be slighted in eating ulcers tetter c. which are mortified by it Oyle of Antimony CRude Antimony that hath never undergone the fire is hardly dissolved in spirit of salt as also the Regulus thereof but the Regulus being subtilly poudered is more easily wrought upon in case the spirit be sufficiently rectified The Vitrum is more easily but most easily of all the flowers are dissolved being such as are made after our prescription a little after set down Neither is Butyrum Antimonii being made out of sublimed Mercury and Antimony any thing else but the Regulus of Antimony dissolved with spirit of salt for sublimed Mercury being mixed with Antimony feeling the heat of the fire is forsaken by the corrosive spirits associating themselves with antimony whence comes the thick oyle whilest which is done the sulphur of Antimony is joyned to the quick-silver and yeelds a Cinnabar sticking to the neck of the retort but the residue of the Mercury remains in the bottom with the Caput Mortuum because a little part thereof doth distill off And if thou hast skill thou maist recover the whole weight of the Mercury again And these things I was willing the rather to shew thee because many think this is the oyle of Mercury and therefore that white pouder made thence by the pouring on of abundance of water they call Mercurius vitae with which there is no mixture at all of Mercury for it is meer Regulus of Antimony dissolved with spirit of salt which is again separated when the water is poured on the antimoniall butter as is seen by experience For that white pouder being dryed and melted in a crucible yeelds partly a yellow glass and partly also a Regulus but no Mercury at all Whence it doth necessarily follow that that thick oyle is nothing else but Antimony dissolved in spirit of salt For the flowers of Antimony being mixed with spirit of salt make an oyle in all respects like to that butter which is made of Antimony and sublimated Mercury which also is after the same manner by the affusion of a good quantity of water precipitated into a white pouder which is commonly called Mercurius vitae It is also by the same way turned into Bezoardicum minerall viz. by abstracting the spirit of nitre and it is nothing else but Diaphoretick Antimony For it is all one whether that Diaphoretick be made with spirit of nitre or with nitre it self viz. corporeal for these have the same vertues although some are of opinion that that is to be preferred before the other but the truth is there is no difference But let every one be free in his own judgement for those things which I have wrote I have not writ out of ambition but to finde out the truth Now again to our purpose which is to shew an oyle of antimony made with the spirit of salt Take a pound of the flowers of Antimony of which a little after upon which pour two pound of the best rectified spirit mix them well together in a glass and set them in sand a day and night to dissolve then pour out that solution together with the flowers into a retort that is coated which set in sand and first give a gentle fire untill the flegme be come off then follows a weak spirit with a little stronger fire for the stronger spirits remaine in the bottom with the Antimony then give a stronger fire and there will come forth an oyle like to the butter of Antimony made with sublimed Mercury and is appropriated to the same uses as follows The flowers of Antimony white and vomitive TAke of this butter as much as you please upon which in a glass gourd or any other large glass pour a great quantity of water until the white flowers will precipitate no more then decant off the water from the flowers which edulcorate with warm water and dry with a gentle heat and thou shalt have a white pouder The Dose is that 1. 2. 3. 8. 10. grains be macerated for the space of a night in wine which is to be drank in the morning and it worketh upward and downward But it is not to be given to children those that be old and weak but to those that be strong and accustomed to vomiting When at any time this infusion is taken and doth not work as sometimes it fals out but makes the patient very sick he must provoke vomiting with his finger or else it will not work but make those that have taken it to be sick and debilitated even to death We must also in the over much working of these flowers drink a draught of warm beer or rather of warm water decocted with chervil or parsly and they will work more mildly But let not him that is able to bear the operation thereof any way hinder it for there is the greater hope of recovering his health thereby for they do excellently purge choler and evacuate flegme in the stomack being humors that will not yeeld to other Catharticks they open obstructions resist the putrefaction of the blood the causes of many diseases such as are feavers headaches c. they are good for them that are leprous scorbutical Melancholical hypochondriacal infected with the French pox and in the beginning of the plague In brief they do work gallantly and do many things After the taking of them the patient must stay in his bed or at least not go forth of his house for to avoid the aire or otherwise they may be mistrusted And because of their violence they are feared and hated I shall in the fourth part of this book for the sake of the sick set down such as are milder and safer such as shall work rather downward then upward causing easie vomits which also thou mayest give to children and those that are old without danger yet some respect being had of the disease and age The flowers of Antimony diaphoretical THE foresaid flowers if they be cast into melted nitre and be left a while in melting are made fixt so as to become Diaphoretical and lose their Cathartical vertue The acid water being separated from the flowers if
it be evaporated leaves behinde the best spirit of salt serving for the same or such like uses again Of the external use of the Corrosive oyle of Antimony THis oyle hath been long used by Chirurgions for they have with a feather applyed it to wounds almost uncurable to separate impurities for the acceleration of the cure that after other medicaments being applyed may the better operate But it is better if it be mixed with spirit of salt for they are easily mixed and it is made more mild thereby and the too great corrosive faculty thereof is mitigated Neither is there any other beside the spirit of salt with which this oyle can be mixed unless it be the strongest spirit of nitre for the weak spirit of Antimony precipitates the butter of Antimony as you may see in the preparation of Bezoardicum Minerale But the strongest spirit of nitre dissolving this butter makes a red solution of wonderful vertue in Chymistry of which we are not to treat in this place and if this be drawn off again by distillation it leaves behinde the first time a fixed Antimony and Diaphoreticall which otherwise must be drawn off twice or thrice viz. if it be weak and not able to dissolve the butter without precipitation Now this Bezoardicum is the best and safest Diaphoretick in all diseases that require sweat as in the plague french pox feavers scorbute leprosie c. if it be given from 6. 8. 10. to twenty grains in proper vehicles it penetrates the whole body and evacuates all evil humors by sweat and urine The Oyle of Arsenic and Auripigmentum AS the spirit of salt doth not easily work upon Antimony by reason of the abundance of crude sulphur unless it be reduced into flowers in the preparation whereof some part of its sulphur is burnt so also Arsenic and Auripigmentum are hardly dissolved with spirit of salt unless they be reduced into flowers and the spirit of salt be very strong which may be able to work upon it These may be distilled by retort like Antimony into a thick heavy oyle which being used in cancrous eating ulcers exceeds that of Antimony in mortifying mundifying and purging those evils After the same manner may corrosive oyles be made out of all the realgars being ordained for outward uses Oyle of Lapis Calaminaris TAke of the best yellow or red Lapis Calaminaris very subtilly poudered as much as you please and pour upon it five or six times as much of rectified spirit of salt mix and stir them well together and do not leave them long unstirred but ever and anon shake the glass with the materials and this do oftentimes or else the Lapis calaminaris will grow together into a very hard stone which can be dissolved no more which is prevented by the aforesaid often shaking and when the spirit of salt will dissolve no more thereof in frigido set the glass in warm sand so long untill the spirit be tinged with a most yellow colour which then decant and pour on fresh and again set it in digestion to extract and do not forget to shake the glass often The solution being finished filter it and cast away the residue of the terra mortua Afterwards set the solution in sand and give fire and almost three parts of the spirit of salt will go over insipid which is nothing but the flegme although the spirit was never so well rectified the reason whereof is the most dry nature of lapis calaminaris to which the spirit of salt is very friendly and therefore very hard to be separated from it For I never knew any mineral or metal beside Zinck which exceeds lapis calaminaris in dryness At last when no more flegm will go over let all things coole which being done take out the glass and thou shalt finde a thick red oyle as fat as oyle olive and not very corrosive for that spirit of salt being almost mortified with lapis calaminaris is deprived of its acidity This oyle is to be kept from the aire or else within a few dayes it attracts much aire which it converts into water and thereby becomes weakened This oyle is of wonderful vertue being used as well inwardly as outwardly And I wonder that in so long a time there hath been no body who hath operated in lapis calaminaris described the nature thereof seeing it hath in it a golden sulphur of which thing in the fourth part for if the terrestreity thereof were separated from it artificially pure gold would be manifested therein now the greatest part thereof is volatile and immature and cannot easily be reduced into a body in melting wherefore hitherto that stone hath not 〈◊〉 esteemed of by Chymists but to the wise was 〈…〉 c. The use of the oyle of Lapis Calaminaris 〈…〉 given from 1. 2. 3. drops to ten and fifteen with sutable vehicles it purgeth the dropsie leprosie gout and other noxious fixed humors not yeelding to vegetable Catharticks of which more at large in the second part of the spirit of urine and salt of tartar It serves outwardly for an excellent vulnerary balsome the like to which can scarce be shewed not only in reducing old corrupt wounds but also in those that are green for it doth powerfully dry mundifie and consolidate It is also used in houshold affaires for birdlime being dissolved in it yeelds a certain tenacious matter serving to catch birds mice c. about the house or in the field For it is as permanent in the heat of the Sun as in the cold of winter wherefore it may be used at any time of the yeere all small animals stick to it if they do but touch the matter A ligature or string smeered therewith and bound about any tree prevents the spiders from climbing up thereon and other kindes of insects that are noxious to the fruit a thing worth taking notice of This oyle is not by the pouring on of water corrupted neither is it precipitated as that of Antimony wherefore it is useful for many things Common yellow sulphur boyled in it viz. in a strong fire so as to be dissolved in it swims upon it like fat is thereby purified and made as transparent as yellow pellucid glass and a better medicine then those common flowers of sulphur it serves also for other uses all which to relate here it would be too tedious This oyle being mixed with clean sand and distilled by retort in a fire that is very strong otherwise the spirit of salt will leave the lapis calaminaris yeelds a most fiery spirit the lapis calaminaris remaining in the bottome of the retort This spirit is so strong that it can scarce be kept it dissolves all metals and all minerals excepting silver sulphur wherefore by the help thereof many excellent medicaments are made which cannot be made with the common spirit though never so well rectified which although it be often rectified yet is not without flegme which cannot be separated
inflammations caused by fire cures the scab but especially the decoction being made of its own wood in the same Being mixed with warm water for a bath for the lower part of the body it cures occult diseases of women as also malignant ulcers of the leggs This spirit therefore deserves some place in the shops i. e. it is unjustly rejected in the shops seeing it is easie to be made In distilling of wormwood and other vegetables there remaines in the bottome of the furnace ashes which being extracted with warme water yeelds a salt by decoction which being again dissolved in its own spirit or vinegar and filtred doth by the evaporating of flegme being placed in a cold place pass into a Crystalline salt which is of a pleasant tast not like unto a lixivium nor unto other salts that are dissolved in aire This salt is also more efficacious being reduced into Crystals by its proper Spirit then that which is made by the help of sulphur or Aqua fortis and oyle of Vitrioll and otherwayes which Chymists and Apothecaries use The spirit of paper and linen cloth PEices of linen cloth gathered and got from Sempsters being cast into the furnace upon living coales yeeld a most acid spirit which tingeth the nailes skin and hair with a yellow colour restores members destroyed with cold is good in a gangrene and erysipelas if linen clothes wet in the same be applyed thereto c. The same doth spirit made of paper viz. of the peices thereof The spirit of Silk AFter the same manner is there a spirit made of pieces of silke which is not so sharpe as that which is made of linnen and paper neither doth it tinge the skin but is most excellent in wounds as wel old as green and it makes the skin beautiful The spirit of mans haire and of other animals as also of horns OUt of horns also and hair is made a spirit but most fetid wherefore it is not so useful although otherwise it may serve for divers arts being rectified it becomes clear and to be of the odour of the spirit of urine It dissolves common sulphur and yeelds a water that cures the scab in a very short time Now for this business shreds of woollen cloth undyed may serve being cast in a good quantity into the furnace Pieces of cloth dipt in this spirit and hanged in vinyards and fields keep out Deer and Swine from coming in because they are afraid of the smell of that spirit as of a huntsman that waits to catch them The spirit of vinegar honey and sugar HE that will distill liquid things must cast red-hot coals into them as for example into vinegar in the furnace or if it be honey or sugar let them first be dissolved in water by which means they will be drunk up by the coales which being therewith impregnated must afterwards at several times be cast into the furnace and be burnt and whilest the coals are burning that which is incombustible comes forth And by this means you may distill liquid things in a great â—uantity Vinegar which is distilled this way is of the same nature as that which is distilled in close vessels But honey and sugar that are distilled after this manner are a little altered and acquire other vertues but how they shall be distilled without the loss of their volatile spirit shall be taught in the second part Also after this manner may all liquid things being drunk up by living coales be distilled Of the use of distilled vinegar many things might be said but because the books of all the Chymists treat abundantly thereof I account it needless to repeat what they have writ Yet this is worth taking notice of that the sharpest vinegar hath a great affinity with some metals which may be extractby the help thereof also dissolved and reduced into medicaments yea many things may be made with the help thereof as the books of all the Chymists testifie But there is yet another vinegar of which there is often mention made in the books of the Philosophers by the help whereof many wonderful things are performed in the solutions of metals the name whereof the ancients have been silent in of which I do not here treat because it cannot be made by this furnace but I shall treat of it in another part yet so that I incur not the curse of the Philosophers How spirits may be made out of the salt of tartar vitriolated tartar the spirit of salt tartarizated and of other such like fixed salts AS many Chymists as there hath been almost all have been of the opinion that a spirit cannot be drawn out of salt of tartar and other fixed salts For experience hath taught that by retort little or no spirit can be drawn from thence as I had often experience of before the invention of this furnace the reason of which thing was the admixtion of sand earth bole pouder of tiles c. for to prevent the flowing of salt of tartar being by this means dispersed But this is done through the ignorance of Authors who have been ignorant of the properties of salt of tartar For a stony matter as sand flint bole c. being mixed with salt of tartar feeling the heat of the fire and being made red with the same is joyned to it most closely so as no spirit can be drawn from thence but become a most hard stone For sand and such things that are like to it have so great an affinity with the salt of tartar that being once united can scarce ever be separated Yet it may be made by Art by the addition of pure sand or flint because the whole substance of the salt of tartar may be turned into a spirit in the space of one or two hours as shall be taught in the second part and it excels all other medicaments in vertue in curing the stone and gout And if by the regiment of art there be left any Caput Mortuum in that distillation it hath being dissolved in the aire a power to putrefie metals being prepared and mixed with it in the space of few hours so as to make them become black and to grow up like trees with their roots trunks boughs which by how much the longer they are so left become the better Of calx of lead being subtilized and of salt of tartar may be made a spiritus gradatorius of wonderful vertues as well in medicine as Alchymie There is made of the Caput Mortuum per deliquium a green liquor which doth wonderful things whence it is proved That Saturne is not the lowest of the planets Enough to the wise And so is Lac Virginis and the Philosophical Sanguis Draconis made SOmetimes there is found a certain earth or bole which hath no affinity with tartar which being mixed with salt of tartar yeelds a spirit but very little But in this furnace may all fixed things be elevated because the Species not being included in it but
it would be much better to prepare good medicaments of it to restore the poor diseased to health there with then to destroy with it those that are whole and sound I know a Chymist that spent much time and cost to search this poysonous dragon thinking to make the universal medicine or stone of the ancient Philosophers out of it Especially because he saw that so many strange changes of colours appeared whereof mention is made by the Philosophers when they describe their medicine and the preparation thereof The dragons blood Virgins milke green and red lion black blacker then black white whiter then white and the like more needless here to relate which easily may perswade a credulous man as it hapned also unto him But afterward he found that this subject in which he put so much confidence was leprous and not pure enough and that it be impossible to to make that tingent stone of it for to exalt men and metals and so was glad to be contented with a good particular medicine and to commit the rest unto God And so much of that poysonous dragon the gunpowder but that there is another and more purer dragon whereof the Philosophers so often made mention I do not deny for nature is mighty rich could reveal us many Arcana by Gods permission But because we look only for great honor and riches and neglect the poor there is good reason why such things remaine hidden from the wicked and ungodly men To make spirits and flores of Nitre and Coales IF you distill Nitre well purified from its superfluous salt mixed with good coals the Egyptian Sun bird doth burn away and out of it doth sweat a singular water useful for men and metals It s burnt ashes are like unto calcined Tartar and for the purging of metals not to be despised To make flores and spirits of flints crystals or sand by adding of coales and salt nitre to them TAke one part of flints or sand and three parts of Linden coales with six parts of good salt nitre mixed well together and cast of it in and the combustible sulphur of the flints will be kindled by the piercing and vehement fire of the salt nitre and maketh a separation carrying over with it part thereof which it turneth into spirits and flores which must be separated by filtring The spirit tasteth as if it had been made of salt Tartar and flints and is of the same nature and condition and the remaining Caput Mortuum also yeildeth such an oyle or liquor in all like unto that and therefore its condition is not described here but you may finde it where I shall treat of the spirit made of salt tartar by adding of flints To make a spirit and oyle out of Talck with salt nitre TAke one part of Talck made into fine powder and three parts of Linden-coales mixe them with five or six parts of good salt nitre cast in of that mixture one spoonful after another and there will come over a spirit and a few flores which must be separated as hath been taught above concerning flints The spirit is not unlike unto the spirit of sand the Caput Mortuum which looks grayish must be made red hot or burnt well in a crucible so that it melt and then powre it out and it will yeild a white transparent Massa like as the flints and crystals do which in a cold moist cellar will turn to thick liquor fatter in the handling then the oyle of sand It is something sharpe like unto oyle of Tartar it cleanseth the skin haire and nailes and makes them white the spirit may be used inwardly for to provoke sweat and urine externally usedit cleanseth wounds and healeth all manner of scabs in the body out of hand What further may be done with it I do not know yet But how to bring Talck pebles and the like stony things to that pass that they may be dissolved with spirit of wine and reduced into good medicaments shall be taught in the fourth part To make a spirit flores and an oyle out of Tin IF you mixe two parts of the filings of Tin with one part of good salt nitre and cast it in as you were taught to do with other things then the sulphur of Tin will kindle the salt nitre and make a flame as if it were done with common sulphur whereby a separation is made so that one part of the Tin cometh over in flores and spirit and the rest stayeth behinde which if it be taken out some of it in a moyst place will turn into a liquor or oyle which externally may be used with good success in all ulcers for to cleanse them It hath also the vertue if it be pertinently applyed to graduate and exalt wonderfully all the colours of vegetables and animals which would be useful for dyers The spirit of it mightily provoketh sweating the flores being edulcorated and used in plasters do dry and heal very speedily To make a spirit flores and a liquor out of Zinck or speauter IN like manner as hath been taught with the Tin you may also proceed with the Zinck and it will yeild a good deal of flores and also a spirit and oyle almost of the same vertues with those made of Tin and these flores corrected with sale nitre are better then those which were taught to be made by themselves in the first part of the book To make a spirit flores and oyle of Lapis Calaminaris MIxe two parts of salt nitre with one part of lapis calamiaris and cast it in and it will yield a sharp spirit very useful for separating of metals and there will come over also a few yellow flores The rest remaining behinde is a dark green Mass very fiery upon the tongue like salt of Tartar and if it be dissolved with raine water yeildeth a grass green solution which being not presently coagulated into salt the green separateth it self from the fixed salt nitre and there falleth to the bottom a fine red powder and if it be edulcorated and dryed and given in from one grain to ten or twelve it causeth gentle stools and vomits better then prepared Antimony for lapis calaminaris and Zinck are of the nature of gold as in the fourth part shall be proved the white lixivium or lye from which the green is precipitated may be coagulated into white salt like unto salt of Tartar but if you coagulate the green solution before the green be separated from the salt nitre then you will get a very faire green salt high in colour and much more fiery then salt of Tartar whereby special things can be done in Alchymy which doth not belong hither And if you desire to make such a green salt for to use it in Alchymie you need not to take so much pains as first to distil a spirit out of the mixture but take three or four parts of good salt nitre and mixe it with one part of
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
of particular use for the washing and cleansing of several metals for it is endued with admirable vertues for the use of metals whereof in other places more shall be said hereafter How to make a Tartarised spirit and oyle out of Iron or Steel and Copper IF you intend to make a good medicine out of iron or steel or copper joyned with Tartar then for the iron or steel take an iron pot and for copper a kettle of copper make them very clean and put in it the filings of iron or steel or copper which you please and twice as much of pure Tartar made into powder and so much water that the Tartar may be dissolved well by it in the boyling and so boyle the metal with the Tartar-water so long till it be deeply coloured by the metal as red by the iron and deep green by the copper and when the water in the boyling doth waste you must still supply it with other that the Tartar may not burn for there must be alwayes so much water that no skin of the Tartar may rise at the top but that it remaine alwayes open and there must not be too much water neither lest it be too sweet and not able to dissolve the metal The solution of iron or steel being come to be red and sweet and in taste like unto vitriol but green and bitter of copper powre it off warm by inclination into an other clean vessel and let it stand so long againe in a very gentle heap of coals till almost all the water be evaporated and the dissolved metal with the Tartar remaine in the consistency of honey Which metallical liquor may be used inwardly and outwardly especially that of iron which doth purge gently and openeth the obstructions of the liver and spleen cleanseth the stomach and killeth the wormes externally used it is a good wound balsame and goes far beyond all such as are made of vegetables It is a singular treasure not onely for to cure new wounds but also for to cleanse and heal old corrupt exulcerated sores turned to fistulaes but the liquor of copper is not so safe for to be used inwardly for it is not only very unpleasant in taste but also causeth vehement vomits and therefore I would not advise any one to be forward to use it unless it be for strong folkes and for to kill wormes in them for which purpose it is excellent good and surpasseth all other medicines whatsoever but to little children it ought not to be given at all in regard that it is of farre too strong an operation for them N. B. And if you will use it to strong bodies against the wormes or stomach-agues you must observe that the patient in case he cannot get it up thrust his finger into the throat to further the vomiting that it may not stay behinde but come forth againe out of the body which done health followeth upon it but if it remaine in the body it causeth a loathsomness to use it any more And therefore you must take heed to use it warily and in regard that this liquor is very bitter you may mixe it with some sugar to facilitate the taking thereof but that of iron needeth no such correction it being sweet enough of it self and therefore I commend and prefer it before the other But if you will needs that of copper becauseth it worketh so strongly then the patient must keep in from the cold aire and not presently after the operation load the stomach with strong drink and superfluity of meat contenting himself with some warm broth and a little cup of wine or beer and the next day his meat and drink will taste the better with him and do him so much the more good But externally this liquor is of the same use with that of iron or steel yea proveth more effectual and speedier in healing It would be good that Surgeons knew how to prepare iâ— and would use it instead of their salves wherewith many fresh wounds are spoyled and turned into horrid ulcers especially it requiring so little cost and paines to make it And if you would have these liquors purer yet you must poure on spirit of wine and extract them and they will easily yeild their Tincture and leave many faeces behinde which are good for nothing but the Tincture will be so much the better purer and more effectual so that you need but one to four or five drops for purging whereas of the gross liquor you must have from 4. 6. 8. to 12. or 16. drops and this extracted Tincture worketh also much better externally and keepeth longer then the balsame or liquor which in time is corrupted but the extraction is never spoyled But if you will distil the liquor or balsame it is needless that it be extracted first but may be distilled so as the boyling made it after the same manner as above was taught for Lead and there will come over a yellow spirit and oyle from iron or steel and from copper a greenish spirit and oyle The spirit and oyle of iron may safely be used in the plague feavers obstructions and corruption of blood from Ê’ i. to â„¥ i. It is much better to provoke sweat then that which is made of crude Tartar without addition of a metal the like doth that also which is made of copper and more effectually yet and sometimes causeth a vomit if it be used in a greater quantity then is fitting N. B. Although the Chymists do perfer copper before iron as a more firme and ripe metal nevertheless it is found by experience that iron or steel by reason of its sweetness is better to be used for an inward medicine then copper But for external use copper if it be well prepared hath the preheminence being an appropriate medicine for all ulcers and open sores in all the parts of the body if the same inwardly be kept clean besides by fitting purges For not only the now described medicine but also many more besides are taught to be made out of copper in other places of my books A Country-physick and purge I will teach for those which either live far from Apothecary-shops or have no money to spare for physick and it is to be made out of iron and copper whereby they may cleanse their slymie stomachs spoyled by a disorderly dyet whence headaches wormes agues and other diseases are occasioned warning withal those that are either too old or too young or else decayed and weak and so not strong enough for such powerful physick that they will forbear to use it lest besides the wormes they kill and expel life it self also but those that are of a strong constitution and a midle age and of a sound heart may safely use this purge whereby stomach-agues belly-worms and many other occult diseases may be cured with good success The preparation is done thus Take â„¥ ss of pure Tartar made into powder and â„¥ ss or â„¥ j. of sugar or honey
lost its stink and be made fixe then it will be able sufficiently to pay for the paines and coals bestowed upon it N. B. Hither belongeth the Process to powre dissolved metals upon filed hartshorn and so to distil them Of the oyle of Ambar AMbar yeildeth a very pleasant oyle and of great vertue especially the white Ambar the yellow is not so good and the black is inferior to this for by reason of its impurity it cannot be well used inwardly and there cometh over also along with it a volatile salt and an acid water which must be separated the water for ought that I know is of little vertue the salt if it be sublimed from the salt of Tartar and purified is a good diuretick and in the stone and the Gout and may successefully be used both inwardly and outwardly The oyle if it be rectified especially that which comes over first is an excellent medicine against the plague epilepsie rising of the mother and megrim 6. 8. 10. to 20. drops being taken thereof at once and the nostrils also being anoynted therewith for to smel to it and it is to be observed that when it is rectified through spirit of salt it proveth much cleerer then done by it self without addition but if it be rectified with salt of Tartar it is of much more vertue though it fall not so cleer as that which is done by spirit of salt N. B. If it be rectified over a strong Aqua Regia having before once already been rectified with spirit of salt it will turn so subtle that it is able to dissolve iron or copper in some sort and to reduce them into good medicines and in this second rectification by Aqua Regia all will not come over but part of it will be coagulated by the corrosive water so that it turneth thick like unto mastick which in the warmth is soft and may be handled with ones fingers like wax but in the cold it is so hard that it may be broken and made into powder and glistereth like gold Of the oyle of soot OF the soot which is taken from Chimneys where nothing is burnt else but wood there may be distilled a sharp volatile salt and a hot oyle The salt is in vertue not unlike unto that which is made of hartshorn or ambar and it quencheth inflammation from what cause so ever it do proeeed The oyle may without rectification externally be used very successefully for all loathsome scabs and for a scald head c. But if it be rectified as hath been taught to be done with the oyle of Tartar of Ambar and of Hartshorn then it may safely used inwardly as the above written oyles are used for it be doeth prove as good as these yea better in some special cases How to make a good oyle out of soot without distilling BOyle the soot in common water till the water turn blood-red urine is better then water and set this solution being in an earthen pot in winter time into the greatest frost so long till all in the pot be frozen into one peece and turned white then brake the pot and the ice and in the midst thereof you will finde the hot oyle unfrozen and liquid in colour like blood which is not much inferior in vertue unto that which is distilled yet afterward it may be rectified and so exalted in its vertue when you please and is to be noted that this separation doeth only succeed in the greatest frost and cold and not else Of the spirit and oyle of haney OF honey there may be made a subtle spirit and a sowre vinegar if it be mingled with twice as much of pure calcined sand and so distilled and it falleth muchbetter yet if it be made with the flores of Antimony which were taught to be made in the first part whereby the spirit is increased in its vertue and its running over hindred thereby and so distilling it there will come over a pleasant spirit a sharp vinegar and some red oyle also which must be separated the spirit after the rectification inwardly used is good in all diseases of the lungs It openeth and enlargeth the breast strengthneth the heart takes away all obstructions of the liver and spleen it dissolveth and expelleth the stone resisteth all putrefaction of the blood preserveth from and cureth the plague all agues dropsies and many other diseases daily used from ℈ j. to ʒj taken with distilled water proper for the diseases the sowre vinegar coloureth haire and nayles as yellow as gold it cureth the itch and scabs of the skin it cleanseth and healeth old and new wounds they being bathed and washed therewith The red oyle is too strong to be used of it self it may be mingled with the subtle spirit which came over first and so used and the spirit will be exalted thereby in its vertue Of the oyle and spirit of sugar IN the same manner as hath been taught of honey there is also made a spirit and oyle of sugar viz. adding pure sand to it or which is better of the flores of Antimony and then according to the rules of Art one spoonful after the other of this mixture cast in it will yeild a yellow spirit and a little red oyle which after the distillation must be digested in Balneo so long together till the spirit have assumed the oyle and be turned thereby very red colour it needeth not to be rectified but may daily be used either by it self or with such vehicles as are proper for your purpose in all it is like in vertue unto that which was made of honey yet this of sugar is more pleasant then the other it reneweth and restoeth all the blood in man in regard that it received great vertue from the diaphoretical flores of Antimony and this spirit may fitly be used in all diseases it can do no hurt neither in cold nor hot diseases it doth help nature mightily and doth so much good that it is almost beyond belief Especially if for a time it be daily used from ℈ j. to ʒj The residue of it is black and may be kept for the same use again viz. for an addition to other honey or sugar or else you may sublime it again into flores in the furnace described in the first part or in the furnace described in the fourth part of this book with an addition of iron or Tartar or salt nitre into a Regulus c. To distil an excellent spirit and a blood red tincture of corals and sugar IF you mix sugar with red corals made into powder and distil it there will besides the spirit come over a blood-red Tincture like a heavy oyle which is to be joyned with the spirit by digestion in Balneo and it will be as vertuous as that which was made with Antimony diaphoreticum It doeth perfectly and lastingly cure epilepsie in young and old it cleanseth the blood from all filth so that leprosie together with its several species may
from it by the power of rectification so well as with lapis calaminaris This spirit doth perform many things in medicine as in Alchymie as also in other arts as you may easily conjecture but here is not opportunity to speak more of these things yet for the sake of the sick I shall add one thing to which few things are to be compared the plaine and short process whereof I would not have thee be offended at And it is this viz. Mix this spirit with the best rectified spirit of wine digest this mixture somewhile and the spirit of salt will separate the spirit of wine and will make the oyle of wine swim on the top the volatile salt being mortified and this oyle is a most incomparable cordial especially if with the said spirit of wine spices have first been extracted and with the said spirit of salt gold hath been dissolved For then in the digestion of this mixture the oyle of wine being separated attracts the essence of the cordial species and of other vegetables being extracted before with the spirit of wine as also the tincture of gold and so by consequence a most efficacious imcomparable and universal medicine for all diseases fortifying the Humidum radicale that it way be able to overcome its enemies for which let praise and glory be given to the immortall God for ever who hath revealed to us so great secrets Of the extrinsecal use of the spirit of salt in the kitchen I Said before that in stead of vinegar and verjuice it may be used as also in stead of the juice of Limons now it remains that I shew you how it is to be used and that indeed as wil for the sake of the healthy as the sick Let him therefore that will dress a pullet pigeons veale c. in the first place put a sufficient quantity of spices of water and butter and then as he pleaseth a greater or lesser quantity of spirit of salt and by this means fleshes are sooner made ready being boyled then that common way an old hen though the flesh thereof be old is made as tender as a chicken by the addition of this spirit but he that will use it in stead of the juice of Limons with rost meat must put into it the pill of limons for preservation sake because it preserves it It is used in stead of verjuice by it self alone or mixed with a little sugar if it be too acid He that will stew beef and make it as tender as kid must first dissolve it in tartar and a little salt before he wets the flesh therewith and the flesh will not only be preserved but made tender thereby but to keep flesh a long time you must mix some water therewith and with weights press down the flesh that it may be covered with the pickle for by this means flesh may be preserved a great while After the same manner may all kinds of garden fruits be preserved as cucumbers purslaine fennel broom German capers c. and indeed better then in vinegar Also flowers and hearbs may a long while be preserved by the help thereof so that you may have a rose all the winter It preserves also wine if a little be mixed therewith A little thereof being mixed with milk precipitates the cheese which if it be rightly made is never corrupted being like to such cheese as they call Parmesan The whey of that milke dissolves Iron and cures any scab being washed therewith With the help of spirit of salt is made with honey and sugar a most pleasant drink not unlike to wine There is made also of certain fruits with the spirit of salt a very good vinegar like to the Rhenish vinegar Such and many more things which I wil not now divulge may be done with spirit of salt And thus have I in some measure taught the use of the spirit of salt which I would not have you take as if I had revealed all things for for brevities sake as also for some other reasons I have silently passed over many things Neither do I know all things my self but those things which I do know I have so far declared that others may from thence have hints of seeking further He that would describe all every power vertue thereof had need to write a whole volume that which is not my purpose at this time to do but may prehaps be done another time There shall also be shewed in the second part of this book some secrets which may be prepared by the help of this spirit as how it may be dulcified to extract the tincture of gold and of other metals leaving a white body which tincture is a medicine not to be slighted Wherefore now seeing it is manifest how great things this spirit can do every one will desire a good quantity for his houshold uses especially seeing most excellent spirits may be made after an easie and short way How an acid spirit or vinegar may be distilled out of all vegetables as hearbs woods roots seeds c. FIrst put a few living coals into the furnace then put upon them the wood that is to be distilled that it may be burnt out of which whilest it is burning goes forth the acid spirit thereof into the receiver where being condensed it fals down into another receiver resembling almost common vinegar in its smell wherefore also it is called the vinegar of woods And after this manner you may draw forth an acid spirit out of any wood or vegetable and that in a great quantity without costs because the wood to be distilled is put but upon a very few living coals and upon that another for one kindles the other and this spirit requires no more charges then of the wood to be distilled which is a great difference betwixt this and the common way of distilling where besides retorts is required another fire and out of a great retort scarce a pound of spirit is drawn in the space of five or six hours whereas in ours in the space of one day and that without any cost or labor may be extracted twenty or thirty pound because the wood is immediately to be cast into the fire to be distilled and that not in pieces but whole Now this spirit being rectified may commodiously be used in divers Chymical operations for it doth easily dissolve animal stones as the eyes of Crabs the stones of Perches and Carps Corals also and Pearle c. as doth vinegar of wine By means thereof also are dissolved the glasses of metals as of tin lead Antimony and are extracted and reduced into sweet oyles This vinegar being taken inwardly of it self doth cause sweat wonderfully wherefore it is good in many diseases especially that which is made of Oake Box Guaiacum Juniper and other heavy woods for by how much the heavier the woods are by so much the more acid spirit do they yeeld Being used outwardly it mundifies ulcers wounds consolidates extinguisheth and mitigates
water and proceed as before stirring it often untill that also come to be green this must be repeated so often until no water more will be coloured by standing upon Then let all the green waters which you poured off run through filtring paper for to purifie them and then in a glass-body cut off short let them evaporate till a skin appear at the top then set it in a cold place and there will shoote little green stones which are nothing else but a pure vitriol the remaining green water evaporate again and let it shoote as before and this evaporating and Crystallising must be continued untill no vitriol more will shoote but in warm aud cold places there remaine still a deep green pleasant sweet liquor or juyce which is the true sweet and green oyle of Vitriol and hath all the vertues above related But now this green oyle further without fire may at last after the preparing of many fair colours between be reduced to a blood red sweet and pleasant oyle which goeth far beyond the green both in pleasantness and vertue and is in comparison to it like a ripe grape to an unripe Hereof happily shall be spoken at another time because occasion and time will not permit me now to proceed further in it And therefore the Philo-Chymical Reader is desired for the present to be contented with the green oyle to prepare it carefully and to use it with discretion and doubtless he will get more credit by it and do more wonderfull things then hitherto hath been done by the heavy corrosive oyle The use and Dose of the sweet oyle of Vitriol OF this green oyle there may be taken from 1. 2. 4. 8. to 10. or 12. drops at once according to the condition of the patient and the disease in fit Vehicles in Wine or Beer in the morning fasting as other medicines are usually taken Also the Dose may be increased or lessened and as often reiterated as the disease shall require it This Oyle expelleth all ill humors not only by stoole and vomits but also by urine and sweating according as it doth meet with superfluities and this very safely and without any danger at all whereby many diseases radically or perfectly can be cured Let no man wonder that I ascribe such great vertues unto this oyle it coming from such a despicable stone and its preparaâ—ion requiring no great Art or paynes as those intricate deceitful processes do that are every where extant in books quite filled up with them And it is no marvel that men are in love with such false and costly processes for the most of them do not believe that any good is to be found in things that are not in esteeme but onely make great account of deer things far fetcht and requiring much time and paines for to be prepared Such men do not beleeve the word of God testifying That God is no respecter of persons but that all men that fear and love him are accepted of him If this be true which no good Christian will doubt then we must beleeve also that God created Physick or the matter of Physick as well for the poor as for the rich Now if it be also for the poor then certainly such will be the condition thereof that it may be obtained by them and easily prepared for use So we see that Almighty God causeth not oneâ—y in great mens grounds to come forth good vegetables Animals and Minerals for the curing of the infirmities of mankinde but that the same also are found every where else Whereby we perceive that it is also the will of God that they shall be known by all men and that he alone as the Maker of all good may be praised and magnified by all men for the same I doubt not but that there will be found self-conceited scoffers that will despise this so little regarded subject as if no good thing could be made of it because they could finde nothing in it themselves But be it known to them that neither to me nor them all things have been discovered but that yet many wonderful works of Nature are hidden to us and besides that I am not the first that writ of Vitriol and its medicine For the Ancients our dear Ancestors had alwayes Vitriol in very great esteem as the following Verse doth prove Visitabis Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem Veram Medicinam Whereby they would give us to understand that a true medicine is to be found in it And the same also was known to the latter Philosophers for Basilius and Paracelsus have alwayes highly commended it as in their writings is to be found It is to be admired that this Oare or Metallical seed which may justly be called the gold of the Physitians in regard that so good a medicine can be made of it is not changed or altered in the earth like other things that grow in it but keepeth alwayes the same form and shape untill it cometh to the aire which is its earth or ground wherein it putrefieth groweth For first it swelleth and groweth like as a vegetable seed doth in the earth and so taketh its increase grows out of theaire just as a seed of an hearb in the earth and the earth is noâ— only its Matrix wherein it groweth and doth increase like a vegetable but it is also its Sun which maketh it ripe For within four weeks at the furthest it putrefieth and groweth black and about a fourtnight after it groweth white and then green and thus far it hath been described here But if you proceed further Philosopher-like therewith there will come forth to light at the last the fairest red and most pleasant Medicine for which God be praised for ever and ever Amen Of the sulphureous volatile and Acide spirit of common Salt and of Allome THE same way which above hath been taught for the making of the volatile spirit of vitriol must be likewise used in the making of the volatile spirits of common salt and allome The manner of preparing ALlome is to be cast in as it is of it self without mixing of it but the salt must be mixed with bolus or some other earth to keep it from melting with the spirit volatile there goeth also along an acid spirit whose vertue is described in the 1. part The Oyle of allome hath almost the like operation with the oyle of vitriol Also the spirit volatile of both these is of the same nature and condition with that which is made of vitriol and the common salt and allome do not yeeld as much as the vitriol unless both viz. salt and allome be mixed together and so a spirit distilled of them Of the sulphureous volatile spirit of Minerals and Metals and of their preparation SUch a penetrative sulphureous spirit can be made also of Minerals and Metals which in vertue goeth beyond the spirit of vitriol that of common salt and that of allome viz. after the following manner
silver To which I answer that some salts are of that nature that in the melting they take from the gold its colour and soule whereof if the gold be truly deprived it is then no more gold nor can be such neither is it silver but remaineth onely a volatile black body good for nothing which also proveth much more unfixt then common lead not able to endure any force of fire much less the cupel But like Mercury or Arâ—enicum vanisheth or flyeth away by a small heat Hence it may be gathered that the fixedness or fixity of gold doth consist in its soul or Tincture and not in its body and therefore it is credible that gold may be anatomized its best or purer part separated from the grosser or courser and so that a Tingent medicine or Tincture may be made of it But whether this be the right way whereby the universal medicine of the ancient Philosophers by whose means all metals can be changed or transmuted into gold is to beattained unto I will not dispute yet I believe that peradventure there may be another subject endued with a far higher Tincture then gold is which obtained no more from nature then it doth need it self for its own fixedness However we may safely beleeve that a true Anima or Tincture of gold if it be well separated from its impure black body may be exalted and improved in colour so that afterwards of an imperfect body a greater quantity then that was from which it was abstracted may be improved and brought to the perfection of gold But waving all this it is true and certain that if the gold be deprived of its Tincture the remaining body can no more be gold as is demonstrated more at large in my treatise de Auro potabili vero of the true potable Gold And this I mentioned here onely therefore that in case the lover of this Art in his work should meet perchance with such a white corne he may know from whence it doth proceed I could have forborne to set down the preparation of the sulminating gold and so save paper and time in regard that it is described by others but because I promised in the first part to teach how to make the flores of gold and that those are to be made out of fulminating or thundring gold I thought it not amiss to describe its preparation that the lover of this Art need not first have his recourse to another book for to finde out the preparation but by this my book may be furnished with a perfect instruction for the making of the flores of gold and this is the common way for to make Aurum fulminans known unto most Chymists but in regard that easily an error may be committed in it either by pouring on too much of the liquor of Tartar especially when it is not pure enough so that not all the gold doth precipitate but part of it remaineth in the solution whereby you would have loss or else the gold falling or precipitating into a heavy calx which doth not fulminate well and is unfit for to be sublimed into flores Therefore I will here set down another and much better way whereby the gold can be precipitated quite and clean out of the Aqua Regia without the least loss and so that it cometh to be very light and yellow and doth fulminate twice as strong as the former and there is no other difference between this and the former preparation but only that in steed of the oyle of Tartar you take the spirit of urine or of Salt Armoniack for to precipitate the dissolved gold thereby and the gold as before said will be precipitated much purer then it is done by the liquor of the salt of Tartar and being precipitated it is to be edulcorated and dryed as above in the first preparation hath been taught The use of Aurum fulminans THere is little to write of the use of Aurum fulminans in physick for because it is not unlockt but is onely a gross calx and not acceptable to the nature of man it can do no miracle And although it be used to be given per se from 6. 8 12. grains to ℈ i. for to provoke sweating in the plague and other malignant feavers yet it would never succeed so well as was expected Some have mixed it with the like weight of common sulphur and made it red hot or calcined it whereby they deprived it of its fulminating vertue supposing thus to get a better medicine but all in vaine for the gold calx would not be amended by such a gross preparation But how to prepare a good medicine out of Aurum fulminans so that it may be evidently seen that the gold is no dead body nor unfit for physick but that it may be made quick and fit for to put forth or shew forth those vertues which it pleased God to treasure up in it I shall briefly discover it here First get such an instrument as above hath been taught made for you out of Copper but not too big nor with a lid at the top but only with a pipe unto which a receiver may be applyed which must not be luted to it but it sufficeth that the pipe enter far into the belly of the receiver and at the lower part it must have a flat bottome that it may be able to stand over the bottome there must be a little hole with a little door that closeth very exactly and there must be also two little plates or scales of silver or copper as big as the naile of ones finger whereupon the Aurum fulminans is to be set into the the Instrument which is to stand upon a Trevet under which you are to lay some burning coals for to warm or heat the bottom withal The Instrument together with the glass receiver being so ordered that it stands fast and also the bottom thereof being warmed or heated then with little pinsers one of the little scales containing 2. 3. or 4. grains of Aurum fulminans must be conveighed into the Instrument set upon the warm bottom and then shut the little door and when the gold doth feel the heat it kindleth and giveth a clap and there is caused a separation and especial unlocking of the gold for as soon as the clap is done the gold doth go through the pipe like a purple coloured smoak into the receiver and sticks on every where like a purple coloured powder When the smoak is vanished which is soon done then take the empty scale out of the Instrument or Oven and set in the other with the gold which will likewise fulminate and yeild its flores Then the first being cooled in the mean time is to be filled again and put in in stead of that which is empty and so forth putting in one scale after another by turns continue it so long till you have got flores enough After the sublimation is performed let the Copper vessel grow coole
but not too hard and there will a green mass remaine behinde which you may cast in by little and little and so distil it as of silver hath been taught It doth yeild a strong and powerful spirit and flores also for outward use in putrid wounds to lay a good ground thereby for the healing A medicine out of iron or steel IN the same manner you may proceed with iron and steel and there will remaine behinde a good crocus of a great stipticity or astringency especially out of iron or steele and may with good success be mixed with oyntments and plasters Of Tin and Lead IF Tin or Lead be dissolved therein after the abstracting of part of the spirit they will shoote into cleer and sweet crystals But Tin is not so easily dissolved as lead both may safely be used for medicines Also there may be spirits and flores got out of them by distilling The rehearsing of the preparation is needless for what for the preparing of silver hath been taught is to be understood also of other metals The use of the crystals of Lead and Tin THe crystals of lead are admirably good to be used in the plague for to provoke sweating and expel the venome out of the body they may also with credit be used in the bloody flux Externally dissolved in water and clothes dipt therein and applyed they excellently coole and quench all inflamations in what part of the body so ever they do befall Likewise the spirit thereof used per se and the flores mixed among oyntments do their part sufficiently But the crystals of Tin do not prove altogether so quick in operation though they do act their part also they are more pleasant then those that are made of Lead for in Tin there is found a pure sulphur of gold but in Lead a white sulphur of silver as is proved in my Treatise of the Generation and nature of metals Of Mercury VVHen you dissolve common Mercury in rectified spirit of Nitre and abstract the spirit from it again then there will remaine behinde a faire red glistering precipitate but when the spirit is not rectified it will not be so faire because that the impurity of the spirit remains with the Mercury and pollutes it This calcinated Mercury is called by some Mercurius praecipitatus and by others Turbith minerale wherewith the Surgeons and somtimes one or other unskilful Physitians do cure the pox they do give at once 6. 8. 10. graines more or less according to its preparation and force in operation to the patient for if the spirit be not too much abstracted from it it worketh much stronger then when by a strong fire it is quite separated from it for the spirits that remaine with the Mercury make it quick and active which else without the spirits would not be such The other metals also if they be not first made soluble by salts or spirits can perform either none or but very smal operation unless it be Zinck or Iron which being easily soluble are able to work without any foregoing dissolution as hath been shewn above when we treated of the oyle of vitriol But that the sharp spirits are the cause of that operation may hence be perceived and made manifest that although you take â„¥ ss of quick-silver and pour it down into the stomach yet it would run out again beneath as above it was poured in But if it be prepared with the spirits or salts then but few graines of it will work strongly and the more it is made soluble the stronger it worketh as you may see when it is sublimed from salt and vitriol that it groweth so strong thereby that one graine doth work more then eight or ten grains of Turbith Mineral and three or four grains thereof would kill a man by reason of its mighty strength Also it worketh extreamly and much more then the sublimate when it is dissolved in spirit of Nitre and crystallised so that you cannot well take it upon your tongue without danger Which some perceiving evaporate the Aqua fortis by a gentle heat from it so that the Mercurius remained yellow which in a smaler dose wrought more then the red from which the spirits were quite evaporated And they used it not only externally strewing it into impure sores for to corrode or fret away the proud flesh not without great paine to the patient but also without distinction of young or old gave it inwardly for to purge which is one of the most hurtful purges that can be used For this evil guest however he be prepared cannot leave his tricks unless it be reduced into such a substance as that it never can be brought back to a running Mercury for then much good can be done therewith in physick without any hurt or prejudice to the health of man whereof perchance something more shall be said in another place I cannot omit for the benefit of young innocent children to discover a great abuse For it is grown very common almost among all that deale in physick that as soon as a little childe is not well before they know whether it will be troubled with wormes or with any thing else they presently fall upon Mercury supposing that in regard it hath no taste it be so much the better for to get the children to take it for to kill the wormes But those men do not know the hurtful nature of it which it doth shew against the sinews and nerves For some are of opinion that if they know to prepare Mercury so that it can be given in a greater dose as is to be seen in sublimed Mercurius dulcis that then it is excellently prepared but they are in a great error and it were much better it were not so well prepared that the less hurt might be done to man in regard that then they durst not give it in so great a dose For if that which is prepared with Aqua fortis or spirit of salt nitre be used in the pox to men that are advanced in years it cannot do so much hurt because it is given in a small dose and doth work with them whereby nature gets help for to overcome and expel that hurtful venome and its malignity is abated by the strong salivation which the provident nature hath planted in it so that not so much mischief can come by it as by Mercurius dulcis whereof is given to little weak children from ten to thirty graines at once which commonly unless they be of a strong nature and do grow it out doth cause a weakness and lameness in their limbs so that if they do not come to be quite lame at last they have a long time to struggle withal till they overcome it In like manner those also do err which do shake Mercury in water or beer so long until the water come to be gray-coloured and so give that water or beer to little children to drink for the wormes pretending that they do not
are suddenly killed and most miserably destroyed What nimbler poyson then could there be invented I beleeve there is none who will not acknowledge it to be such And seeing that the ancient Philosophers and Chymists were alwayes of opinion that the greater the poyson is the better medicine may be made of it after it is freed from the poyson which with us their posterity proved true by many experiences as we see by Antimony Arsenick Mercury and the like minerals which without preparation are meer poyson but by due prepartion may be turned into the best and most effectual medicaments which though not every one can comprehend or believe yet your Chymists know it to be true and the doing of it is no new thing to them And because I treat in this second part of medicinal spirits and other good medicaments and finding that this which can be made out of the gunpowder is none of the least I would not omit in some measure and as far as lawfully may be done to set down its preparation which is thus performed How to make a spirit of Gunpowder YOur distilling vessel being made warm and a great receiver with sweet water in it being applyed to it without luting put a dish with gunpowder containing about 12. or 15. grains a peece one after another into it in the same manner as above was taught to do with gold For if you should put in too much of it at once it would cause too much winde and break the receiver As soon as you have conveighed it into the vessel shut the doore and the gunpowder will kindle and give a blast that it maketh the receiver stir and a white mist or steam will come over into the receiver As soon as the powder is burnt you may cast in more before the mist is settled because else the distilling of it would cost too much time and so you may continue to do untill you have spirit enough Then let the fire go out and the furnace grow coole and then take off the receiver poure the spirit with the water that was poured in before the flores being first every where washed off with it out of the receiver into a glass body and rectifie it in a B. through a limbeck and there will come over a muddy water tasting and smelling of sulphur which you must keep In the glass body you will finde a white salt which you are to keep likewise in the glass-body Take out the Caput Mortuum which remained in the distilling vessel and looks like gray salt calcine it in a covered crucible that it turn white but not that it melt and upon this burnt or calcined salt pour your stinking water which came over through the limbeck and dissolve the calcined white salt with it and the feces which will not dissolve cast away Filtre the solution and poure it upon the white salt which remained in the glass body from which the sulphureous spirit was abstracted before and put the glass body with a limbeck luted upon it into sand and abstract the sulphureous water from it which will be yellowish and smell more of sulphur then it did before This water if it be abstracted from the salt several times will turn white almost like unto milk and tast no more of sulphur but be pleasant and sweet It is is very good for the diseases of the lungs Also it doth guild silver being anoynted therewith although not firmely and by digestion it may be ripened and reduced into a better medicine The salt which remained in the glass body urge with a strong fire such as will make the sand wherein the glass standeth red hot and there will sublime a white salt into the limbeck in taste almost like unto salt Armoniack but in the the midst of the glass body you will finde another which is yellowish of a mineral taste and very hot upon the tongue These sublimed salts as well the white which did ascend into the limbeck as the yellow which remained in the glass body are good to be used in the plague malignant feavers and other diseases where sweating is required for they doe mightily provoke sweating they comfort and do cleanse the stomach and cause sometimes gentle stools But what further may be done in Physick with it I do not know yet In Alchymie it is also of use which doth not belong to this place upon the remaining salt which did not sublime you may pour rain water and dissolve it there in the glass body if it be whole still else if it be broken you may take out the salt dry and dissolve and filtre and coagulate it againe and there will be separated a great deal of saeces This purified salt which will look yellowish melt in a covered crucible and it will turn quite blood red and as hot as fire upon the tongue which with fresh water you must dissolve again and then filtre and coagulate by which operation it will be made pure and clear and the solution is quite green before it be coagulated and as fiery as the red salt was before its dissolution This grass green solution being coagulated again into a red fiery salt it may be melted again in a clean and strong crucible and it will be much more red and fiery N. B. And it is to be admired that in the melting of it many fiery sparks do flye from it which do not kindle or take fire as other sparks of coales or wood use to do This well purified red salt being laid in a cold and moist place will dissolve into a blood red oyle which in digestion dissolveth gold and leaveth the silver this solution may be coagulated and kept for use in Alchymie There may also a pretious Tincture be extracted out of it with alcolized spirit of wine which Tincture guildeth silver but not firmely And as for use in Physick it ought to be kept as a great Treasure But if the red fiery salt be extracted with spirit of wine before gold be dissolved therewith it will yeild likewise a faire red Tincture but not so effectual in Physick as that unto which gold is joyned And this Tincture can also further be used in Alchymie which belongeth not hither because we onely speak of medicaments Of the use of the medicine or Tincture made of the Gunpowder THis Tincture whether with or without gold made out of the red salt is one of the chiefest that I know to make if you go but rightly to work and prepare it well for it purifieth and cleanseth the blood mightily and provoketh also powerfully sweat and urine so that it may safely and with great benefit be used in the plague feavers epilepsie scurvy in Melancholia Hypochondriaca in the gout stone and the several kinds of them as also in all obstructions of the spleen and liver and in all diseases of the lungs and it is to be admired that of such a hurtful thing such a good medicine can be prepared Therefore
lapis calaminaris and let this mixture boyle together in a winde furnace till the salt nitre be coloured green by the lapis calaminaris then powre it out and separate the green goldish salt from it and make such good use of it as you thinke fit But if you will extract a good Tincture and Medicine make it into powder and extract it with spirit of wine and it will yeild a blood red Tincture both in Physick und Alchymie of good use Further you are to take notice that among all metals and minerals which I know except gold and silver there is none found out of which can be extracted a greenness which is of fire proofe but only out of lapis calaminaris which deserveth to be well considered and further thought upon To make a spirit of salt nitre sulphur and common salt TAke one part of fast two parts of sulphur and four parts of salt nitre grinde all together and cast in one spooneful after another to distill and it will yeild a sharp yellow spirit which if it be put among common water so that the water be not made too sharp of it it is a good bath good for many diseases especially it healeth all scabs very suddenly The Caput Mortuum may also be dissolved in water and used among bathes and it is good likewise but the spirit is penetrating and doth operate suddenly in shrinkings and other defects of the nerves of such kinde of bathes there shall be spoken more in the third part Also the remaining fixed yellow salt is good to be used in Alchymie for it graduateth somewhat the silver by cementing To make a spirit flores and oyle out of salt nitre and Regulus Martis TAke one part of Regulus Martis setellatus made of one part of Iron or steele and three parts of Antimony whose preparation is described in the fourth part and three parts of pure salt nitre mix and grinde all together and cast it in by little and little to distill and there will come over a spirit together with a white sublimate which must be separated with water as hath been taught above with other flores and both the spirit and and the flores are good to provoke sweat The remaining Caput Mortuum as they usually call it is not dead but full of life and vertue whereby much good may be done both in Physick and Alchymie as followeth The remaining Mass which looks white and is very sharpe and fiery if the Regulus have been pure if not then it will look yellowish may be edulcorated with fresh water and it will yeild a lixivium or lye in all like unto calcined Tartar but sharper and purer and may be used almost in all operations in stead of salt of Tartar but first the Regulus Antimonii must be precipitated from it by the help of water and afterward it may be coagulated into salt and kept for its use the edulcorated as also that which was precipitated with water is a white and fine powder useful in the plague feavers and other diseases to provoke sweating thereby and may very safely be used and although if it be given in a greater quantity then usual it do cause some vomits also yet for all that it doth no hurt It is easily taken because it hath no taste It is given to children from 3. 4. to 12. grains to elder folkes from ℈ ss to ʒ ss they worke successefully in all diseases where sweating is needfull This Antimonium diaphoreticum may also be melted into glass and so extracted and dissolved with spirit of salt and it may be prepared into several good medicaments and if all that which may be done with it should be described at large it would require too much time The lixivium if it be coagulated hath wonderfull vertues so that if one should describe them he would hardly be credited by any body because it is not made of costly things and truly the life of man is too short to finde out by experience all that lyes hid in it and it would be but a laughing matter to a proud fool if one should reveale it therefore it is better to keep counsel then to sow strife Basilius Valentinus in his Triumph of Antimony where he writeth of the signed star hinted it sufficiently but very few take notice of it Paracelsus also here and there in his books under an unknown name makes frequent mention of it but its true preparation and use by reason of the unthankeful was never described by the Philosophers which for instruction of good honest men we do here mention Before you edulcorate the Regulus made by fulmination you may extract of it a good medicinal Tincture with spirit of wine and if you dissolve it with spirit of salt there will shoote a white foliated Talck in all like unto the Mineral Talck whereof a liquor may be made which coloureth the skin very white but if this calx of Antimony before it be extracted with spirit of wine or dissolved with spirit of salt be made into fine powder and exposed to the moist aire it will dissolve into a fat liquor which though it be something sharpe yet doth no hurt to the skin if it be used with discretion but rather cleanseth it more then any other thing and so it doth likewise to the haire and nailes but as soone as the liquor hath been applyed for that purpose it must be washed off again with water lest it do not onely take away the gross and unclean skin but also work upon the tender white skin and do hurt and therefore I give warning that you use it discreetly for according to the old proverbe you may misuse even that which else is good in it self If you put some of it into warm water and bath your self in it the gross skin will peele off all the body so that you will almost seem to be another body And this bath also is good for many diseases for it openeth the pores mightily and cleanseth all the blood in the body by drawing many ill humors out of it which maketh a man light and strong especially if he be purged first before he useth the bath It is also good for Melancholy scurvy and leprosie especially when the red Tincture drawn out of it with spirit of wine be used besides It is also good to be used in a foot bath for those that are troubled with corns and other excrescencies upon their feet or with nailes that cut the flesh for it softeneth them and makes them fit for cutting and as tractable as wax For there is nothing known under the Sun which softneth more a hard skin haire nailes and other excrescencies then this oyle And this I did set down therefore because I know that many are so tormented therewith that they cannot well endure their shoes upon their feet But if you coagulate this oyle into salt and melt it in a crucible and powre it out into a flat brass bason that it flow at large
of salts minerals and other materials but contenting themselves onely with the Receipt saying this or that Author hath written so and therefore it must be so whereas many times such books are patcht up out of all sorts of authors And those that stick to so many books will hardly ever come to get any good but are lead out of one Labyrinth into another spending their life miserably in watching and cares but if they would first seriously consider things and learn to know nature and then take their worke in hand then they would sooner attaine unto true knowledge and so much of this matter by the way I hope that he that hath been in error will be pleased with it and the knowing will not grudge to have it imparted to the ignorant That which remaines after the distillation is done is also good for use if the addition have been of salt of Tartar a melting powder may be made of it to reduce metals Of lapis calaminaris or Zinck yeilds per deliquium a clear white and heavy sharpe oyle for the sharper part of salt Armoniack which did not turn to spirit hath dissolved the lapis calaminaris and is almost of the same vertues for external use in Chyrurgury with that which above in the first part which was taught to be made out of lapis calaminaris and spirit of salt save onely that this in the distilling doth not yeild so strong a spirit as the other but onely yeilds a sharpe sublimate Of the use and vertue of the spirit of salt Armoniack THis spirit is of a sharppenetrating essence and of an airie moyst and warm nature and therefore may with credit be used in many diseases 8. 10. 12. more or less drops thereof used in a convenient vehicle doe immediately penetrate all the body over causing suddaine sweating opening the obstructions of the spleen and dispersing and expelling many malignities by sweat and urine it cureth the quartane colick the suffocation of the Matrix and many more diseases In brief this spirit is a safe sure and ready medicine for to disperse and expel all tough gross and venemous humors Also this spirit acteth his part externally quenching all inflammations curing the Erysipelas and Grangrene it allayeth the pains of the gout clothes being dipt in it and applied and although it draw blisters it matters not laid to the pulse it is good in ardent feavers it asswageth swellings and paines discusseth congealed blood helpeth strayned limbs and benummed nerves onely smelled unto it cureth the megrim and other Chronical diseases of the head for it dissolveth the peccant matter evacuateth it through the nostrils it restoreth the lost hearing being externally laid on with a little instrument fit for the purpose Also in the obstructions of womens courses applyed by a fit instrument in a spiritual way openeth presently and cleanseth the wombe and maketh women fruitful c. Mingled with common water and hâ—â—d in the mouth asswageth the tooth-ach proceeding from sharp humors which are faln into the teeth A little of it applyed in a glister killeth the wormes in the body and allayeth the colick This spirit can also further be used to many other things especially by means thereof many pretious and effectual medicaments may be made out of metals and minerals whereof some shall be described as followeth N. B. There is yet another matter which is found every where and at all times and is to be got by every one without distillation and charges and is as good for the abovesaid diseases as the distilled spirit and if all men knew it there would not be found every where so many sick people nor so many Doctors and Apothecaries To distil a blood red oyle of vitriol by the help of the spirit of urine DIssolve Hungarian or other good vitriol in common water and let it run through a filtring paper powre of this spirit upon it so much till all the green be vanisht and the water be made cleer and a yellow sulphur be settled then powre off the cleere and the rest which is muddy powre together in a filtrum that the moysture may run off and the earth of the vitriol remaine in the paper which you must dry and distil to a blood-red oyle which will open the obstructions of the whole body and perfectly cure the epilepsie The cleere water must be evaporated dry and there will remaine a salt which being distilled yields a wonderful spirit Before it be distilled it is a specificum purgans whereof 8. 10. 12. to 24. grains taken may safely be used in all diseases The tincture of Vegetables SPices seeds or flowers being extracted therewith and digested and distilled the essence of them will come over with it in the form of a red oyle Vitriol of copper IF you powre it upon calx of copper made by firing and quenching it againe it will extract within an houres time a faire blew colour and having dissolved as much thereof as it could powre it off and let it shoote in a cold place and you will get a fair sky coloured vitriol a smal quantity whereof will cause strong vomits the rest of the vitriol remaineth a blew oyle good to be used in ulcers The Tincture of crude Tartar IF you take common crude Tartar and powre of this spirit upon it and set it in digestion the spirit will extract a blood-red Tincture and if the spirit be abstracted from it there will remaine a pleasant red oyle of no small vertue and power To make the oyles or liquors of salts THis spirit also dissolveth crystals and other stones they being first dissolved precipitated and reduced to impalpable powders turning them into oyles and liquors good to be used in Alchymy and Physick To precipitate all metals with it ANy metal being dissolved in an acid spirit can be precipitated better and purer therewith then with the liquor of the salt of Tartar for Aurum fulminans which is precipitated with it fulminateth far stronger then if it were done with oyle of Tartar â„ž Some juyce of Lemon with the solution of gold before it be precipitated and then not all the gold will precipitate but some of it will remaine in the solution and in time many small green stones not unlike unto common vitriol will appear which in a small dose will purge all noxious humors The oyle and vitriol of silver IF you dissolve silver in Aqua fortis and powre so much of this spirit into it till it ceaseth to make a noyse some of the silver will precipitate in the form of a black powder the rest of the silver remaineth in the liquor the phlegme abstracted from it in Balneo till it get a skin at the top and then set into a coole place there will grow white crystals in it which being taken out and dryed are a good purge in madness dropsie feavers and other diseases safely and without danger to be used to young and old The rest of the liquor which
be cured thereby c. It s use is the same as was taught above of the Antimonized spirit of sugar Of the spirit of Muste or new wine TAke sweet Muste or juyce of grapes as soon as it is squeezed out boyle it to the consistency of honey and then mix it with sand corals or which is better with flores of Antimony and so distil it and it will yield such another spirit as that which is made of honey or sugar onely that this is somewhat tarter then that of honey With honey sugar and the juyce of grapes several metals may be dissolved in boyling and so prepared and made up into divers medicaments both with and without distillation after the same manner as was taught above with Tartar for honey sugar and the juyce of grapes are nothing else but a sweet salt which by fermentation and addition of some sowre thing may be changed into a sowre Tartar in all like unto that which is gathered in the wine vessels There can be made also a Tartar out of cherries pears apples figs and all other fruit yielding a sweet juyce as also of rye wheate oates barley and the like whereof in the third part more shall be said For every sweet liquor of vegetables if it be turned inside out by fermentation may be changed to a natural sowre Tartar and it is utterly false that as some do suppose onely wine yeilds Tartar which by daily use made of it by those that have very hungry stomachs like Woolves indistinctly together with the nourishment went into the limbs and theâ—e turned to a stony matter If this were true then in cold countries where no wine groweth men would not be troubled with the gout or stone the contrary whereof is seen daily though I must confess that among all vegetable none yeildeth more then the vine the concurrent acidity being cause thereof for it turneth the sweetness into Tartar for the sowrer the wine is the more Tartar it yeildeth and so much the sweeter so much the less Tartar By this discourse an industrious Chymist may easily come to know the original nature and proprieties of Tartar and in default of wine how to make it out of other vegetables the common salt or the salt of Tartar may be distilled with honey sugar or sodden wine sapa and it will yeild as strong spirits as that metals may be dissolved with them and they are not to be despised in Physick and Alchymie Of oyle Olive OUt of oyles made by expression as oyle olive rape oyle wallnut oyle hempseed oyle linseed oyle and the like there may be distilled a penetrating oyle useful both outwardly and inwardly which is done thus Take common potters clay not mingled with sand frame little bals of it as big as a pigeons or hens-egg burn them but not too strong to a hard stone so that they may attract the oyle and when they are no more quite red-hot but pretty hot then throw them into oyle olive which is the best let them lye in it till they be quite ful and drunk of the oyle which will be done in two or three hours some cast them red hot into the oyle but amiss because the oyle contracts thence an Empyreuma Then take them out and cast in one or two of them at once into your distilling-vessel made red-hot and let it go and within a while after carry in one or two more and continue this till you have oyle enough If the vessel be full of the bals take them out with the tongs or ladle that you may proceed without let in your distillation in this maner you need not fear the breaking of your retort or receiver or the burning of your oyle The distillation being performed take off your receiver powre the oyle that came over into a glass retort and rectifie it from calcined Allome or Vitriol and the Allome will keep back the blackness and stinck and so the oyle will come over cleer which must be yet rectified once or twice more with fresh calcined Allome according to the intensness of penetrating which you look for that which cometh over first ought still to be caught by it self and you will get a very faire bright and clear oyle which is very subtle but that which cometh after is somewhat yellow and not so penetrating neither as the first and therefore it is but for external use to extract flowers and hearbs therewith and to make pretious balsames for cold and moyst sores Also you may dissolve with it ambar mastick myrrhe and the like attractive things and with wax and Colophony reduce it to a plaster which wil be very good in venemous sores and boyles for to attract the poyson and to heal them out of hand If you dissolve in it common yellow sulphur made into powder you will get a blood red balsame healing all manner of scabs and other like defects of the skin especially when you add to it purified Spanish green and in hot sores Saccharum Saturni which in a gentle heat and by continual stirring about do easily melt and mingle therewith It needeth not to be done in glasses but may be done in an ordinary earthen pot or pipkin The use of the blessed oyle THe first and cleer is of a very penetrating nature some drops thereof given in some Aqua vitae presently stayes the colick proceeding from windes that could not be vented as also the rising of the mother the navil being anoynted therewith and a cold humor being faln upon the nerves whereby they are lamed if you do but anoynt them with this oyle and rub it in with warm hands it will quickly restore them and therefore in regard of its present help may well be called Oleum sanctum If you extract plate of iron or copper with this oyle it will turn deep red or green and is a soveraigne remedy for to warm and dry up all cold and watery sores It consumeth also all superfluous moysture in wounds and ulcerous sores as also all other excrescencies of the skin it healeth tettars and scald-heads and other like defects proceeding from superfluous cold and moysture You may also dissolve in it Euphorbium and other hot gums and use them against great frost for what limb so ever is anoynted therewith no frost how great so ever can do it any hurt The balsames made with gum or sulphur may be also distilled through a retort and in some cases they are more useful then the undistilled balsame Of the oyle of Wax IN the same manner may be distilled also the oyle of wax the use whereof is in all like unto the former and for all cold and infirmities of the nerves this is found more effectual yet then the former A Spirit good for the Stone OUt of the stones which are found in grapes there may be distilled a sowre spirit which is a certain and specifical remedy for the stone in the kidneys and bladder and also for all paines of the
porous and drink up great part of the spirit and oyls I answer none of the spirits seeketh a violent passage out in case the wayes be open There is no danger therefore when there is passage enough given them by a pipe that is wide enough Neither doth oil stick to them in distillation for whatsoever is by force of the boiling water to be separated from the spirit and seeds that also is sublimable by the force of the seething water so as to distill in the refrigeratory no more is lost then in the stils Distillation being made the aforesaid spirits may be rectified in these wooden vessels being first washed as well as in the copper stils The making of a wooden vessell for a Balneum which is to be used in stead of copper and leaden Cauldrons for digestion and distillation by glasse vessels MAke an oaken vessel as big or as little as you please according to the greatnesse or littlenesse multitude or formes of the vessels of two or three spans high a little narrower above then below and so fashioned above that a cover of wood copper or lead may most closely be joined to it the cover must have holes greater or lesser according to the glasses as is wont to be in the making of a Balneum as you may see by the annexed figure This vessel also must be placed upon a stool of the height of an el or such height as is required for the joining of the copper globe with the Balneum which must have a hole neer the lower bottom for the receiving of the neck of the aforesaid globe In defect of such a vessell which yet you may provide easily enough take a wine or beer vessell divided in the middle and make a hole neer the bottome for the neck of the globe make also a wooden cover with holes c. He that will be curious may provide all things according to the best Art A wooden vessell serving for boiling of beere metheglin vinegar c. as well as copper Iron and tin vessels MAke a wooden vessel which shall be more high then broad a little under above then below as you please or take a wine or beer barrel divided in the middle and neer the bottome make a hole for the neck of the globe which is to be covered with boards which serves as wel for the boyling of beer c. as those of copper A wooden vessel for a bath for sweet or minerall water which may be according as you please kept warm for the preserving of health MAke a long wooden tub convenient to sit in which is to be set upon a stool of a just height viz. that the bottome of the vessel may answer the neck of the globe which is put into the furnace you may also have a cover that may cover the whole tub which may be divided and united in that place where the head goes forth as appeates by the annexed figure or you may cover it with a cloth laying it upon small crooked sticks fastned in the tub yet so that the head may have its liberty especially in a vaporous bath of common sweet or medicinall water or make a high wooden cover shutting very close for a dry sweat where it is no matter whether the head be shut in or no. Of the use of wooden vessels in distilling boyling bathing c. And first of the distilling vessel HE that will distill any burning spirit by help of the distilling vessel out of wine metheglin beer barley wheat meal apples pears cherries figs c. also out of flowers seeds and other vegetables hath need so to prepare his materials that they may yeeld their spirit Where I thought it convenient and indeed necessary to say something of the preparation of each vegetable for better information sake or else a profitable distillation is not to be expected but labour in vain to be feared And first of the preparation of the lees of wine beer hydromel and other drinkes THe lees of wine beer hydromel c. have no need to be prepared because they doe easily enough of themselves yeeld their spirit unless haply having lost all their humidity they be dryed which you may make moist again by the admixtion of common water lâ—ft they be burnt in distilling and stick to the vessel of which thing more in the distillation it selfe Now flowers roots hearbs seeds fruites apples pears cannot be distilled without a foregoing preparation You must therefore first prepare them as followeth Of the preparation of all kind of corn as wheat Oats Barly c. which must goe before the distilling of the spirit ANd first of all a malt must be made of the corn as it is wont to be in the making of beer Now the manner of making of malt is known almost to all wherefore I need not speak much of that because in all places that have no wine there is scarse any house found in which Malt and Beer is not made as well in the country as cities But however there is a great deal of difference of making of it for a long knife doth not make a good Cook nor all drinkers of wine are good planters For many have perswaded themselves that if they follow the footsteps of their fathers they have done well although they have been in an errour and being scornfull refuse instruction Wherefore something is to be said of the difference of malting Although I never exercised the Art of making Beer yet I am certain I doe in that excell all other distillers and Brewers For I often saw and indeed with admiration the simplicity of many in their operations although common and dayly to whom though an age should be granted yet they would never bee more thrifty being content with their ancient customes Good God! How perverse is the world where no body labours to find out any good neither is there any one that thinks of perfecting and amending things already found out Where all things run to ruine and all manner of vice increase for now almost every one seeks only after riches by right or wrong for it is all one with them if they have them not thinking that things ill gotten shall perish and that the third heir shall not injoy them and that unjust riches shall devoure hose that have been honestly gotten with danger also of eternall damnation I pray you if our Ancestors had been so negligent and had left nothing to us I pray you I say what Arts and Sciences should wee have had now It is come to this pass now that vertues decrease and vices increase Of the difference of malting THe difference of malt by reason whereof it yeelds better or worse beer and spirit consists for the most part in the preparation thereof for being made after the vulgar way it retaines its tast wherefore it cannot yeeld good spirit nor good beer which is observed of very few wherefore they could not draw forth good spirit out of corn
cast away with loss wherefore for admonition sake I was willing to adde such things that the operators may have an opportunity to consider the matter a little more profoundly with themselves or at least of learning the art of distilling from countrymen who do not suffer their malt to putrefie grow sowre or mouldy before they fall upon their distillations but presently fermentation being made the third or the fourth day begin their distillation But some one will object that my vegetable spirits are not pure by reason of the ferment that is mixed having in it self a spirit I answer there is not so great a portion of the ferment mixed which can corrupt the vegetable spirit For although some spoonfuls of ferment yeelding but a few drops of spirit be added to a great quantity of the vegetables yet there can come no hurt or detriment to so many quarts of the vegetable spirit I have seen some supercilious men that would not adde ferment to the matter of their spirit but sugar or honey by which they would promote fermentation and so have thought to get a pure spirit not considering that honey and sugar after fermentation are made to yeeld their spirits also whereof one spoonful yeelds more then ten or twenty of Barm But honey and sugar fermenting not without difficulty themselves how can they promote the fermentation of other things Who also have had experience that the addition of their ferment hath been superfluous whilest their flowers and hearbs have stood some weeks in maceration before they begun to ferment and that oftentimes they have contracted an acidity mustiness and stink the reason of which was an unsutable ferment There are indeed the fruits of some trees that have a sweet and ful juice as grapes cherries apples pears figs c. which need not the addition of any ferment having a natural ferment of their own but other vegetables not so being lean as hearbs flowers roots It is necessary there to promote the fermentation of them by the addition of a sutable ferment left in length of time these hearbs and seeds lose their spirit exhaling in maceration And thus much I was willing to say for information sake and indeed for the sake of them who seek after the best and choicest medicines wanting a good burning spirit as a companion applicable to them For this spirit came not only by it self as Aqua vitae into a medicinall use as well internal as external especially that which is prepared of cordial and cephalick hearbs but also being united with the proper oyls of those hearbs in many desperate diseases where it could put forth its vertues eminently And thus much sufficeth concerning the preparation of vegetables that goes before the distillation of burning spirits The manner of distilling in generall followeth HE that is going to distil hath need to stir his fermented matter very well with a stick that the thicker parts may be well mixed with the thinner and then he must fill therewith his distilling vessel set upon a treefoot and joined to the copper globe in the furnace on one side and to the refrigeratory on the other the joints in all places being well closed either with Oxe bladders or with starch and paper Also the interiour part of the globe in the distilling vessel must be fenced with a copper or wooden basket that the hearbs seeds and other things enter not into the globe into which only water must come Also the upper hole must be close stopped with a fitting stopple wrapt about with linnen clouts viz. that hole by which the matter to be distilled is put in like to vessels of wine that are stopped Which being well done you must kindle the fire in the furnace under the globe until all the matter in the whole vessel boil wel and that burning spirit rise and go out though the refrigeratory where it is condensed into the glass receiver that is set under it no less then distilled out of a stil and you must continue the fire til all the spirit be come forth which you may know by the tast Which being done and all things being cold let the remainders be taken out by the lower largetap hole for meat for swine or other uses The spirit that is drawn off may be exalted and rectified at your pleasure in the same vessel being first made clean together with the refrigeratory Note wel that sometimes there is left a fat oil with the flegm in rectifying of the spirit proceeding from that hearb of which that was the spirit which did distil off with the spirit from the matter with a strong fire in the first distillation but in the rectifying could not ascend with the spirit in a gentle fire but is constrained to remain with the insipid flegm And this oyl also hath its vertues especially that which is rectified by a glass gourd in Balneo with spirit of salt and clarified Now the like oyl is got almost from all hearbs roots seeds flowers and fruits but out of one subject more then another according to the hot and cold temper thereof Especially the sediment of wines yeelds a good quantity of such oyl which is as medicinable as the true oyl of wine being rectified not before it be endued with a sweet savour and it is an excellent cordiall although I knew no body that knew this before And thus I have shewed the generall way of distilling burning spirits by help of the aforesaid wooden distillatory Now also follows The manner of distilling spices seeds flowers hearbs roots Woods c. FIrst the seeds must be broken in a mill flowers hearbs and roots cut smal the woods broken are filed upon which afterwards a good quantity of water in which they may swim must be powred for the maceration of them so that when the distillation is ended there may remain some water lest for want of water they be burnt in the distilling â—nd yeeld an oyl savouring of the empyreuma and not sweet Neither is too great a quantity to be powred on them but as much as shall serve to prevent the burning of the aforesaid vegetables in the distilling of the oyl thereof And indeed fresh vegetables may presently without any foregoing maceration being put with their proper waters into the distilling vessel be distilled But they that be dry may for the space of some dayes be macerated before they be distilled Also the water appointed for maceration must be salted for the better mollifying and opening the aforesaid materials that they may the sooner yeeld their oyl Now green and fresh need not any salt water yet it wil not be hurtful to mix some therewith because salt helps the boiling water so as to make the oyl more easily to ascend It also helps and furthers distillation as doth Tartar and Allome if they be rightly mixed and ordered Which being all rightly done the materials that are macerated must be put by a funnel into the distilling vessel and fire must
a long neck well stopt in a Balneo that the spirit may not exhale for the coction of it and in the space of a few hours there will be an union of the mixture which will be as white as milke Which being done let the glass coole for there is a conjunction of the spirit oyle and salt so that neither can be discerned from another which is to be powred into a vessel of a wide mouth and it will be congealed in the cold like a white oyntment not only to be annoynted with all but also to be dissolved in any liquor being of an excellent odour which may also be given inwardly very conveniently and being used outwardly it makes the skin beautiful and sweet wherefore this is that most desired balsame of Princes and Ladies And by this way the three principles of vegetables being separated and purified are againe remitted in which union there is of that whole vegetable found the whole vertue tast and odour Note well That he that will colour balsames must draw the colour out of vegetables with spirit of wine which he must make to be coagulated together with it After this aforesaid manner therefore you may draw out of any vegetable that hath in it salt spirit and oyle soluble and well smelling balsames without the addition of any other strong thing which are not to be contemned And because here also is taught that most odoriferous balsame of roses for roses yeild but a little oyle without which that cannot be done know that not only roses or rose leaves also are to be taken for the making the aforesaid balsame but also together with the leaves those whole knots for that yellow that is in them yeilds that oyle not the rose leaves c. And let what hath been said suffice concerning our preparation of balsames which if they be rightly made are not I suppose to be contemned neither do I reject those that are made without salt Let him that hath bettet communicate them and not carp at ours And so I would that all and each process should be comprehended under some one general viz. of distilling burning spirits and oyles by the help of a wooden distilling vessel and their conjunction by the help of their proper fixed salt I could here add more things concerning the use and vertues of spirits of wine and of those most sweet vegetable oyles but because they are cleerly enough spoken of by others I account it a superfluous thing to repeat the sayings of others being contented with the description of one onely general process which you may imitate in other particulars There followes now the use of the second wooden vessel which is to be used in stead of those of copper or lead serving for distillations digestions extractions and fixatious THe vessel being made ready according to the prescription set down before there is nothing else to do then to fit the furnace with the globe and at your pleasure to heat water in it with a government of the fire in the furnace Now all things may here be done which otherwise are done in a common Balneo where there is no other difference but of vessels here is used a wooden vessel there a copper leaden or iron c. In this operation also is used the same furnace with the same globe which was used above in the distillation whrefore you need add nothing else beside for nothing is more common then a Balneum in distillation let the demonstration therefore of the use of a copper globe suffice Now I thought it worth while to set down some Chymical medicinal extracts not common which may be made by the help of this Balneum which being rightly prepared do many things in many diseases And first of a vomitive Extract TAke an once of the flowers of Antimony of purified Tartar â„¥ ij of sugar-candy â„¥ vj. of raine water two pints being mixed together set them in a strong vial in Balneo for to be cocted and make them to boyle strongly the space of ten or twelve hours Then the Balneum being cold take out the glass and powr forth the decoction and filter it through a brown paper put into a tunnel the filtred water will be reddish betwixt sweet and sowre which take the faeces in the filtre being cast away and in a smal gourd glass draw off all the moysture with a gentle fire in Balneo unto the consistency of honey of a brownish colour upon which again powre a pint of spirit of wine powred forth into a vial of a long neck and set it in Balneo with a moderate heat the space of eight or sixteen hours and then the spirit of wine will separate and extract the essence which will be more pure and noble the faeces being left in the bottome which after all things are cold are to be separated by the help of filtration through a double brown paper Then take the red tincture that is filtred and in a gourd glass in a gentle Balneo draw off almost all the spirit of wine until there remaine a mattet like a very sweet syrup which being taken out keep as a most excellent vomitive most profitable in many diseases where other Catharticks can do nothing For this medicine works most gently wherefore it may be given to children of a yeer and half old without danger and also to old men This medicine purgeth all humors and attracts all humours from the nerves and veins opens all obstructions of the liver spleen lungs and kidneys by which means many most grievous diseases are cured I never found a vomitive comparable to this which works quickly and safely The dose of it is from grain 1. 2. 3. 4. to 10 and 30 according to the age and sickness It may be taken by it self or in wine beer c. and it will within a quarter of an houre begin to work and ceaseth within two hours Sometimes it doth not provoke vomit at all but only stools where a glyster is very helpful if it be given a little before the administring of the aforesaid medicine being made of two or three spoonful of oyle Olive and salt water for the glyster prepares the way below so that it seldome then works by way of vomit when also the patient may presently after the taking of the medicine hold hot tosted bread to his mouth and nose which hinders vomiting and promotes the operation by stool But in my judgement it is better not to hinder the medicine seeking a spontaneous way of operation and not forced For vomiting is more convenient for some then purging by stoole Now these things I have spoken for the sake of those who although they abhor vomiting yet desire to be purged by the essence of Antimony which is of all that I know the most safe and sweet Cathartick For it searcheth the whole body far better then all others and frees it from many occult diseases that which all other vegetable Catharticks could not do It
in which when they are stopt you may take them with a paire of Tongs stir them and cleanse them from the burnt water and then again put them into their own places wherefore also the Furnace must on the fore part be open under the grate that you may the better order the grate Also the grate must have above a covering of Iron or Stone with a hole in the midle thereof with a certain distinction which is to be filled with sand that the cover may the better and more fitly shut the hole and prevent the exhaling of the spirits which by this means will being forced go forth thorow the Pipe into the receivers after you have cast in the water which is to be distilled Of the Receivers Let the receivers be made of glass or of strong earth which may retain the spirits and such is Waldburgick Hassiack Frechheimensian Siburgic earth c. They are better that are made of glass if they are to be had and those especially which are made of strong and firme glass which may be smoothed about the joynts with a Smiris stone and so fitted that they may the better be joyned together and then they need not laving but how they shall be smoothed with the Smiris stone and be fitted shall be taught in the fifth part which treates of Manuals because by this means they are joyned so close that no spirits can go through the joynts otherwise you must close the joynts with the best lute such as will not let the spirits exhale which shall be taught in the book treating of Manuals The form of the recipient you may see in the delineation thereof As for the quantity thereof know that by how much the greater they are so much the better they are for then you need the fewer but the more by how much the lesser they are Let the superior orifice be larger then the inferior so that alwayes another receiver may with its inferior orifice be joyned to it and let the inferior orifice have a Diameter of three fingers breadth or thereabouts I mean in case the Diameter of the Furnace be of one span For a greater Furnace requires greater holes as also orifices of the receivers by which means a sufficient and due proportion of aire may be given to the fire or if the Diameter of the furnace be more then a span it must also have two or three pipes which being considered together should have a wideness answering the wideness of the third part of the Furnace for so great a wideness and so much aire is required if the fire burn freely and do its office to which vessels of the aforesaid proportion must be applyed that the fire be not choaked Now the figure that is annexed will teach the conjunction of the receivers as also their application to the furnace And in the first place the receiver stands in a threefoot stoole bored thorow in the middle that the neck of the first receiver may pass thorow to which is applyed a dish with a pipe receiving the dropping spirits To the first there is joyned a second and to that a third and so consequently viz. neer unto a wall or ladder so many as you please Let the upper receiver and indeed all the rest be left open To the lower as hath been said is joyned a dish with a pipe by which the distilled spirits run down into another certain glass vessel added thereunto which being filled is taken away and another is set in the place of it because that is set under it without luting and therefore may easily be changed And if you please to distil any thing else you must take away that dish with a pipe and make it clean and then joyn it close again that no spirit may breath forth to the work of the lower receiver And if that dish cannot be so closely joyned that nothing exhale pour in a spoonful of water for that doth astringe neither doth it hurt the spirits because in the rectifying it is separated Of Subliming vessels These you need not make of glass or of such earth as may retain the spirits as hath been above mentioned it is sufficient if so be they be made of good common potters earth and be well glazed within viz. of such a form and figure as appears by the annexed delineation Yet you must choose good earth that will endure the fire for the lower pots are so heated by the fire that they would be broken if they should not be made of good earth Now I will shew you in general the manner it self of distiling as also the manual necessaries in every distillation The manner of distilling In the first place let there be some burning coales put in which afterwards must be covered with more until the Furnace be full almost to the pipe which being done let not the uppermost cover be laid over its hole that the heat and smoke may pass that way and not thorow the pipe and receivers which will thereby be red hot and this will be a hindâ—ance to the distillation untill the fire be sufficiently kindled and the furnace be throughly hot then cast in with an Iron ladle of the water prepared for distillation as much as will cover the coales which being done stop the furnace very close by pressing down strongly the upper cover upon its hole or sand which is put in the lower part of the hole being a place made for that purpose Now let him that casts in any thing thorow the middle hole presently stop it with a stopple of stone and that very close for by this means all those things which were cast in will be forced after the manner of a thick cloud to break forth through the pipe into the receivers and there to condense themselves into an acid spirit or oyle and thence to distil into the dish set under through the pipe whereof they do yet distil down further into an other glass receiver The Coales being burnt out and all the spirits being come forth you must cast in more Coales and more materials untill you have got a sufficient quantity of Spirits In this way of distilling you may at your pleasure cease and begin again without any danger When you will make clean the Furnace you need do nothing else then draw out the Iron bars that ly on the cross bar that the Caput Mortuum may fall down which afterwards may be taken away with a fire shovel which being done you must put in the bars again and â—ay them on the cross bars as before upon which you must cast burning coals and upon them others until there be enough then on them all being well kindled cast your materials When you go to make clean the receivers and to begin to distil an other thing you need not remove them but only pour pure water into them viz. by their upper receiver by the descending whereof the other are purified And by this way not only out of vegetables
volatiles and minerals incombustible but also out of metals fixed and stones spirits oyles and flowers are drawn forth wonderfully easily and in good quantity which otherwise could never have been done by the vulgar art of distilling Now in this furnace are distilled only such materials which being distilled yeeld an incombustible quantity as common salt vitrial allom and other minerals vessels each of which doth yet require their peculiar manuals if operated upon Now because this furnace doth not serve for every water because the materials to be distilled are cast upon burning coals which are things combustible I have determined in the second part to give another viz. a lesser unlike to this yet convenient to distil all combustible things that are endued with volatile spirits as Tartar Hartshorn Ambâ—r Salt armoniac of urine c There are by the help hereof made most subtile volatil sulphureous spirits of salts and minerals as of common salt vitrial allom nitre antimâ—ny and of all other minerals and metals which otherwise without this furnace could not have been made with which spirits wonderful things are performed in Medicine and Alchymie as in the second part shall be demonstrated more largely Now I will shew you a way to make other receivers belonging to the first furnace and indeed such as are more fit for some operations as the former were more fit then others wherefore let him that will operate choose these or the other as he pleaseth As therefore the former being erected upwards by a wall or ladder by which means the spirit might ascend from one into an other so long untill being refrigerated and condensed might again drop downward into the dish that is annexed thereto so these are a contrary way set and placed collaterall in a vessel filled with cold water to condense the spirits by which means you need not so many receivers Also they must not be fashioned like the former as to be open above and below but only above like pots that serve for boyling but this you must observe that by how much the deeper and larger they are by so much the better they are Also you must joyn them together by the help of earthen pipes being so distinct that the spirits may be kept back being yet hot and not refrigerated from passing out of one into the other but being forced through the middle of the separation of the pipes may go to the bottom of every receiver and thence arise by another pipe into another receiver that hath a double cover like the former where again descending to the cold bottom remain refrigerated and condensed Now three or four of these are enough whereas of other thirteen or fifteen are required a regard being had of their greatness You may see the figure of these receivers as also their joyning together by the annexed delineation Now for the most part one is sufficient for him that distils a few things especially if the water be not pretious and then let one crooked earthen pipe at least be joyned one arme with the pipe that goeth forth of the furnace the other with the receiver but so that it go into the receiver downwards even to the middle thereof and then you need not shut the orifice of the receivers for it is no great matter if somewhat evaporate viz. if the water to be distilled be not pretious And by this way may new spirits and new flowers be made every houre with the help of one furnace and one recipient but with this caution that for every new distillation the recipient be washed with water before it be put to the pipe which being put to you may then cast your species into the furnace and this do till you have a sufficient quantity of spirits And this way of distillation serves especially for the trying of the natures and properties of many and divers minerals such as yeild in the fire spirits and flowers For it would be too tedious in every new distillation to apply a new and distinct receiver as also many studious of the Chymical art would quit their study being able to make by retort but one tryal in a day And no wonder if expences and loss of time should deter many Now here there is no need of many Retorts nor of laving them without receivers and such like superfluous things neither is there here required the constant presence of the operator the observation of the regiment of fire the neglect whreof would otherwise endanger the loss of the retorts and receivers and by consequence the loss of labor These and such like tedious things are not here to be cared for because it is sufficient only to cast the water upon the coals and cover the furnace and then presently go forth the spirits and flowers of the same kinde with their mineral of which when thou hast got a sufficient quantity thou must draw out the Iron bars upon which the coals lye that they may fall down and be taken away and whilst the furnace is yet hot to put in the Iron bars again and upon them to lay fresh coals which then will of their own accord be kindled with the heat of the furnace In the mean time you must take away the receiver and make it clean and set it to again or if you had rather put another clean one viz. for the new distillation of another water And by this way divers things may be in the space of 1. hour distilled and sublimed viz. in a small quantity But he that will distil or sublime in a greater quantity let him take three or four pots that the spirits may pass from one into another that nothing thereof be lost Here need not as I said before the continual presence of the operator for he may be gone cease or repeal as he please because the work is without danger of breaking the retorts and receivers He that knows the use of this furnace may do many things in a short time without spending much time or cost For any one may do more by the help thereof in one hour then in the common way in 24. by which way also there is a great saving of coals because ten pound of coals will do more this way then a hundred the other As for example he that will try shall make a pound of spirit of salt in one hour with 3. 4. or five pounds of coals whereas after the other way are required fifty or sixty pounds and at least twenty or thirty hours time viz. in the common way by the help of retorts which is indeed very tedious Also by this way may be made the flowers of minerals and metals in a great quantity very easily and in a short time without great cost so as that in one hours space with three or four pound of coals may a pound of the flowers of Antimony be made And this is no small help to the Physitian and Chymist Moreover this furnace being once built endures for many
yeers and being broken is easily repaired And by this way you shall need only materials to be distilled no retorts and receivers are not in danger by which means much cost is saved Besides the aforesaid wayes I have yet another and that more compendious viz. of distilling and subliming and more easie by which means in a very little time an incredible quantity of spirits of salts and flowers of Minerals and metals may be made which I shall refer till another time because for the present I have said enough Now I do not doubt but diligent Chymists will follow my steps and finde out those things which were unknown to me For it is easier to adde to things founde out then to finde out things unknown The construction therefore of the furnaces being in mine opinion cleerly shewed there now follows the manner of distilling and subliming with it Although haply and contrary to my hope any obscurity should be met withall yet one process will explain another and the diligent operator and searcher of nature shall without doubt by his practise attain the effect after the same manner as I have prescribed And this is that which together with the blessing of God may overtake all pious Chymists Amen How the Spirit of Salt is to be distilled THE reason why I enter upon the spirit of salt before I say any thing of the spirits of vegetables is this viz. because it is even the chiefest which can be made in this furnace for few exceed this in strength and vertues wherefore I also have given it the preeminency Neither is there any of the acid spirits about which the Chymists hitherto have been more busied then this wherefore also it was of all of greatest price c. For some have mixed salt with potters clay and have made this mixture into little bals which they have for to get the spirit forced by retort into a very strong fire some have mixed salt with bole some with the powder of tyles others with burnt Allume c. Others using a more compendious way have made salt to flow in a retort which hath a pipe both in the upper and hinder part by the upper pipe of which they have dropped in cold water to elevate the ponderous spirits of the salt but by the hinder they have blown with bellows to force the spirits into the retort and this way is not altogether to be slighted yet it hath this inconveniency that in process of time the retorts are broken that they can no longer retain the salt and so the distillation is intercepted Some have attempted it with Iron retorts but by this means the spirits have been deaded because they easily set upon the Iron whence in stead of spirit they have had flegme And such and other tedious wayes of distilling they have invented and by the best of them indeed they could scarce distill one pound in 24. or 30. houres space with 50. 60. or 100 pound of coals this being the reason because the salt is very little wrought upon and therefore it is that few ever had the spirit right and good whence also the vertues thereof have been unknown And this therefore I was willing to make known that it might appeare what price this spirit hath hitherto been of and how easie and abundantly and with what little cost it may after my new invented way be made It is said above that the materials may in this way of distilling be immediately cast into the fire yet this must be wisely understood For although some of the species may without any preparation be immediately cast into the fire yet it doth not follow that all and every one of them must for in some of them we must use our discretion as in the distilling of salt For if the salt be immediately cast into the fire it will not only yeeld no spirits but will leap so long upon the coals untill it finde a descent to the lowest part of the furnace Now this may be prevented divers wayes and first indeed after this manner Dissolve salt in common water then quench burning coales in this water that they may be impregnated with the salt which afterwards set on fire in the furnace but you must first cast in other burning coals upon which you must cast those that are impregnated with salt untill the furnace be full as is above said and whiles the coales burn the the salt is resolved by the force of the fire into spirit Now you must observe that he that distils spirit of salt after this manner must make choice of glass receivers because the spirit whilest it is hot penetrates by reason of its wonderful subtilty those that are earthen And this spirit is of a most grateful tast But in defect of glass receivers I shall shew you another way wherein you may use those that be of earth Mix salt and vitrial or allome together grinding them very wel in a morter for by how much the better they are ground the more spirit they yeeld Then cast this mixture into the fire with an Iron ladle viz. so much of it as will be sufficient to cover the coals and then with a great fire the spirits come forth into the receivers where being coagulated they distill down into a dish and thence into another receiver And if thou knowest how to work aright the spirits will like water continually run out through the pipe the thickness of a straw and thou mayest easily every hour make a pound of the spirit Now the reason why thou shalt by this way have more spirits then by the other is this viz. because the vitriol and allome which is mixed with the salt makes it flow quickly by which means it is prevented from falling down through the coals to the lower part of the furnace but sticking to the coals is almost all of it turned into spirits The Caput Mortuum which is reddish easily fals with the ashes through the grate and can no more be distilled but yeelds by excoction a white fixed salt which serves for the flowing of metals and being dissolved in warm water serves also for a glyster against the worms which it kils and purgeth also the bowels Thou wilt object that the spirit made after this maner is not the true spirit of salt by reason of the mixture of vitriall and allome but mixed and compounded I answer There can by this way distill no spirit of vitrioll and allome being that which I often tryed casting vitriol or allome into the furnace where I received no spirit at all the reason of this is because these spirits are far more heavy then the spirit of salt neither can they ascend so great a height viz. of three spans but are burnt whence unless the flegme nothing distils Wherefore the spirit of salt that is made after this manner is not mixed but pure and meer spirit of salt of the same tast and vertue as that is of that is made by it self
because in this furnace the spirit of allome and vitriol cannot be made unless a pipe go out of the furnace neer the grate as you may see by the delineation of the furnace for otherwise it cannot be made besides these spirits are better and more truly taught in the second part And if it be granted that somewhat together with the spirit of salt come forth which is yet impossible what hurt I pray you comes from thence either in the solution of metals or medicine wherefore the spirit made after this way is not to be suspected Yet I will satisfie the incredulous and will shew him another way without the addition of allom or vitrial for the distilling of that spirit but that will be in the second part of this book where I will teach you the furnace by which is made spirit of nitre Aqua foris and amongst combustibles the oyles of vegetables and fats of animals and other things which cannot be made by this and by this way I will satisfie those who are not pleased with the former Now for want of glass receivers we are forced to use earthen but these cannot retain the spirit of salt made after the aforesaid wayes in which case I could indeed discover a certain little manual by vertue of which the aforesaid spirit may be received even in a great quantity in earthen recipients but for certain causes I shall here be silent and shal refer it till the edition of the second part Let it suffice therefore that I mentioned such a thing wherefore omitting that I shall proceed to shew you the vertues and use of this spirit as well in Alchymie as in medicine other Mechanical arts Of the use of the spirit of Salt IT is worth while to speak of the power and vertues of this excellent spirit what other authors have cleerly described I shall here pass over and refer the reader to the writings of those Authors touching only on some few of which they said nothing The Spirit of salt is by most accounted a most excellent medicine and safely to be used as well inwardly as outwardly It extinguisheth a preternatural thirst in hot diseases abstergeth and consumeth flegmatique humors in the stomack exciteth the appetite is good for them that are hydropical have the stone and gout c. It is a menstruum dissolving metals excelling all other therein For it dissolveth all metals and minerals excepting silver and almost all stones being rightly prepared and reduceth them into excellent medicaments It doth also many excellent things in mechanicall arts Neither is it to slighted in the kitchen for with the help thereof are prepared divers pleasant meats for the sick as well as for those that are in health yea and better then with vinegar and other acid things and it doth more in a small quantity then vinegar in a great But especially it serves for those countreys that have no vinegar It is used also instead of verjuice and the juce of Lymons For being prepared after this way it is bought at a cheaper rate then vinegar or juice of Lymons Neither is it corruptible as expressed juices are but is bettered by age Being mixed with Sugar it is an excellent sauce for rost meat It preserves aso divers kinds of fruits for many yeers It makes also-raisins and dryed grapes to swell so as to acquire their former magnitude again which are good to refresh a weak stomach in many diseases and serves for the preparing of divers kinds of meats of flesh and fish but you must mix some water with the spirit or else the raisins will contract too much acidity This spirit doth especially serve for making meats delightfully acid for whatsoever things are prepared with it as Chickens Pigeons Veale c. are of a more pleasant tast then those which are prepared wirh vinegar Beefe being macerated with it becomes in a few dayes so tender as if it had been a long time macerated with vinegar Such and many more things can the spirit of salt do A distillation of vegetable oyles whereby a greater quantity is acquired then by that common way by a gourd still AS many distillers as hitherto have been have bin ignorant of a better way to distill oyles of spices woods and seeds then by a gourd still or alembick with a great quantity of water And although they may also be made by retort yet there is a great deal of care required or else they contract an Empyreuma wherefore that way by a still is alwayes accounted the better which way indeed is not to be slighted if you distill vegetables of a low price and such as be oleaginous but not so in the distillation of spices and of other things that are of a greater value as are Cinnamon Mace Saffron c. which cannot be distilled in a gourd still without loss because then there is required a great quantity of water and by consequence great and large vessels to which something adheres wherefore we lose almost half which is not to be so much valued in vegetables that are oleaginous as in annisseed fennel and caryoway seed c. But the loss made in the distilling of dryer and dearer vegetables as of Cinnamon Lignum Rhodii Cassia is evident enough and by consequence not to be slighted Neither can it be that all things can be distilled that way for a good quantity by coction acquireth a gummy tenaciousness which cannot ascend with the water But that this way for the future be prevented I will shew another way to distill the oyles of spices and other pretious things which is done with spirit of salt whereby all the oyle is drawn forth without any loss the process whereof is this viz. Fill a gourd with cinnamon or any other wood or seed upon which pour so much of the spirit of salt as will be sufficient to cover the wood then place it with its Alembick in sand and give it fire by degrees that the spirit of salt may boyle and all the oyle will destill off with a little flegme for the spirit of salt doth with its acrimony penetrate the wood and freeth the oyle that it may distil off the better and easier And by this way the oyle is not lost by the addition of that great quantity of water in those great and large vessels but is drawn in lesser glass vessels with the addition of a little moysture Distillation being finished the spirit is poured off by inclination from the wood being again useful for the same work And if it hath contracted any impurity from the wood it may be rectified but the residue of the spirit which remains in the wood ye may recover if that wood be cast into the aforesaid furnace upon burning coals by which means it may come forth again pure and clear and by this means we lose none of the spirit of salt And after this way by help of the spirit of salt are drawn forth oyles of dearer vegetables together
with their fruit which cannot be done by a still There are made also by means thereof oyles of gummes and rosins cleer and prospicuous The cleer oyle of Mastick and frankincense TAke of frankincense or mastick powdered small as much as will serve to fill the third part of a cornute which must be coated upon which pour a sufficient quantity of the spirit of salt taking heed that the retort be not filled too full or else the spirit when it boyles flows over it then place it in sand and give fire by degrees and there will first come out some phlegme after which a clear transparent oyle together with the spirit of salt which must be kept by it self after this a certain yellow oyle which must be received by it self and last of all there follows a red oyle which although it is not to be cast away yet it is very unlike to the first serving for outward uses and to be mixed with oyntments and Emplasters for it doth wonderfully consolidate and therefore good in new and old wounds The first being well rectified is in its subtilty and penetrating faculty not unlike to spirit of wine and may profitably be used inwardly and outwardly viz. in cold affects but especially in the stiffness of the Nerves caused by cold humors upon which follows a contraction but then you must first rub the member contracted with a linnen cloth that it may be well warmed into which then the oyle must be chafed with a warm hand For it doth do wonders in such like affects of the Nerves After the same maner may oyles be made out of all gums The red tenacious and stinking oyles of Tartar Hartshorn Amber c. distilled after the common way by retort are also rectified with spirit of salt so as to become transparent and to lose the Empyreuma contracted by distillation Now the cause of the blackness and fetidness of these kind of oyles is a certain volatile salt which is to be found as well in vegetables as certain Animals which is easily mixed with the oyle and then makes it of a brown colour For every volatile salt whether it be of Urine Tartar Amber Hartshorn and of other vegetables and Animals is of this condition and nature as to exalt and alter the colours of sulphureous things and that either for the worse or for the better but for the most part it makes oyles thick black and stinking as you may see in Amber Hartshorn and Tartar The cause therefore of the blackness and fetidness of these oyles being known we may the more easily take heed thereof in distilling and being contracted correct them again by the help of spirit of salt For all volatile salt hath contrariety to any acid spirit and on the other side every acid spirit hath a contrariety with all volatile salts that have the nature of salt of Tartar For metals that are dissolved with acid spirits are as well precipitated with spirit of urine or any volatile salt as with the liquor of salt of Tartar which shall be more at large declared in the second part The volatile salt therefore is by the mortifying acid spirits as of salt vitrial allom vinegar c. deprived of its volatility and is fixed by which means being debilitated it forsakes its associate which was infected with blackness by it it is necessary that we should proceed after the same maner with these fetid oyles viz. as follows Take any fetid oyle of Tartar Amber c. with which fill the fourth part only of a glass cornute and upon it poure by drops the spirit of salt and it will begin to be hot as it is used to be when Aqua fortis is poured on salt of Tartar wherefore the spirit is to be poured on it by little and little and by drops for fear of breaking the glasse Now the signe of the moriification of the volatile salt is when it ceaseth to make a noise and then no more is to be poured on but set your retort in sand and give fire to it by degrees as is used to be done in the rectifying of things of easie elevation and first of all will go forth a certain stinking water after which comes a transparent clear and odoriferous oyle and after that a certain yellow clear and also well smelling oyle but not so as the first wherefore each must be taken a part by changing the receivers Now these oyles become more grateful then those fetid of the shops For these oyles retaine their cleerness and fairness the cause of their fetidness and redness being taken away by the spirit of salt In the bottom of the retort remains the black volatile salt with the spirit of salt from whence it may be sublimed into an odoriferous salt resembling salt armoniack in tast The spirit of salt is also deprived of its acidity and coagulated by the volatile salt and is like tartarum vitriolatum appointed also for its uses as shall be spoken in the second part of the spirit of urine After the same manner also are rectified other oyles which by length of time have contracted a clamminess as are oyle of Cinnamon Mace cloves c. with the spirit of salt if they be rectified by retort for then they acquire again both the same clearness and goodness as they had when they were newly distilled Here I must make mention of a certain error of Physitians not only of ignorant Galenists but Spagyricks committed in the preparations of some Chymical medicaments For many have perswaded themselves that oyle of Tartar Harts-horn c. having lost its stink is a medicine radically taking away all obstructions but this must be taken with a graine of salt For some have rectified these kinds of oyles by calcined vitriol and by that means have somewhat made them lose their Empyreuma but withall their vertues which others observing have conceived that the fetidness thereof is not to be taken away because the vertue of them is thereby lost as if the vertue consisted in the fetidness thereof but that is a very great error because fetidness is an enemy to the heart and brain and in it is no good But this is granted that they that take away the fetidness of those oyles mortifie the vertues of them But thou saist How then must we proceed in taking away their fetidness without the loss of the vertues Must they be rectified by the spirit of salt as even now thou taughtest R. No for although I said that oyles might be clarified with spirit of salt yet it doth not follow that my meaning was that that clarification was the mending of them this is only a way of clarification whereby they become more gratefull and it is not to be slighted a better being unknown But how they are to be rectified from their fetidness and blackness without the loss of their vertues and to be made more noble doth not belong to this place because it cannot be done by this furnace I shall
refer the reader therefore to the second part where it shall be shewed how such spirits are to be rectified without the loss of their vertues which being so prepared may well be accounted for the fourth pillar of Physick And these things I was willing at least for information sake to shew you not to offend you and that because I was moved with pity and compassion towards my neighbor The Quintessence of all vegetables POur upon spices seeds woods roots fruits flowers c. the spirit of wine well rectified place them in digestion to be extracted untill all the essence be extracted with the spirit of wine then upon this spirit of wine being impregnated pour the best spirit of salt and being thus mixed together place them in Balneo to digest untill the oyle be separated and swim above from the spirit of wine then separate it with a separating glass or distill off the spirit of wine in Balneo and a cleer oyle will ascend for if the spirit of wine be not abstracted then that oyle will be as red as blood and it is the true quintessence of that vegetable from whence by the spirit of wine it was extracted The Quintessence of all Metals and Minerals DIssolve any metal excepting silver which must be dissolved in Aqua fortis in the strongest spirit of salt and draw off the flegme in Balneo to that which remaines pour the best rectified spirit of wine put it to digesting untill the oyle be elevated to the top as red as blood which is the tincture and quintessence of that metal being a most pretious treasure in medicine A sweet and red oyle of metals and minerals DIssolve a metal or Mineral in spirit of salt dissolve also an equall weight of salt of wine essentificated mix these dissolutions and distill them by retort in a gradual heat and there will come out an oyle sweet and as red as blood together with the spirit of salt and sometimes the neck of the retort and receiver will be coloured like a Peacocks taile with divers colours and sometimes with a golden colour And because I would without any difference comprehend all metals and minerals under one certain general process let him that would make the essence of silver take the spirit of nitre and proceed in all things as was spoken of the other metals Concerning the use of these essences I need not speak much thereof for to him that knows the preparation shall be discovered the use thereof Concerning the corrosive oyles of metals and minerals seeing they cannot be described by any one process it will be worth while to set down what is peculiar to each of them as followeth The oyle or liquor of Gold DIssolve the calx of gold in the spirit of wine which must be very strong or else it cannot dissolve it but in defect of the strongest spirit thereof mix a little of the purest salt-peter but that oyle is the best which is made with the spirit of salt alone From the gold dissolved abstract half the solution and there will remaine a corrosive oyle upon which pour the expressed juice of limons and the dissolution will become green and a few feces fall to the bottom which may be reduceed in melting This being done put this green liquor in Balneo and draw off the flegme that which remains take out and put upon a marble in a cold moist place and it will be resolved into a red oyle which may safely and without danger be taken inwardly curing those that are hurt with Mercury But especially it is commended in old ulcers of the mouth tongue and throat arising from the French pox leprousie scorbute c. where the oyle of other things cannot be so safely used There is not a better medicine in the exulceration and humors of the glandules in the ulcers of tongue and jaws which doth sooner mundifie and consolidate Neither yet must we neglect necessary purgings and sudorifickes for fear of a relapse the cause not being taken away Neither will there any danger follow whether it be given inwardly or used outwardly as in the accustomed use of other medicaments and gargarismes for it may dayly and truly without all danger be used at least three times with a wonderful admiration of a quicke operation Oyle of Mars DIssolve thin plates of Iron in rectified spirit of salt take the solution which is green of a sweet tast and smelling like fetid sulphur filter it from that filthy and seculent residence then in a glass gourd in sand abstract all the humidity viz. with a gentle fire which will be as insipid as rain-water because the iron by reason of its dryness hath attracted all the acidity to it self but in the bottom will remain a masse as red as blood burning the tongue like fire It takes away all proud flesh of wounds and that without all danger It is to be kept in a glasse close stopt from the aire lest it be resolved into an oyle which will be of a yellow colour But he that desires to have the oyle may set it on a marble in a moist Cellar and within a day it will be resolved into an oyle which will be in colour betwixt yellow and red It is a most excellent secret in all corroding ulcers fustula's cancer c. being an incomparable consolidator and mundifier And it is not without profit mixed also with common water to wash the moist fetid ulcers of the leggs which cause humors by being applyed warm like a bath for it dryes and heales suddenly if withal Purges be administred It cures also any scab That red masse being yet unresolved being put on the oyle of sand or flints of which in the second part makes a tree to grow in the space of one or two hours having root trunk and boughs which being taken out and dryed in the test yeelds good gold which that tree extracts from the earth i. e. from the flints or sand Thou maist if thou pleasest more accurately examine this matter Oyle of Venus SPirit of Salt doth not easily work upon Copper unless it be first reduced into a calx and that after this manner Take plates of Copper made red hot in an open crucible quench them in cold water they will cleave into red scales then the remainders of the plates make red hot quench as before do this so often till thou hast got a sufficient quantity of the calx which being dryed and poudered extract with the rectified spirit of salt in sand untill the spirit of salt be sufficiently coloured with a green timcture which you must decant and filter and then abstract from it the superfluous moisture that there may remain a green thick oyle which is an excellent remedy for ulcers especially such are venereal being applyed outwardly Oyle of Jupiter and Saturne NEither are these two metals easily dissolved in the spirit of salt yet being filed are dissolved in the best rectified spirit of salt But
dispersed being cast upon the fire are from the fire elevated through the aire and are being refrigerated in the recipients again condensed which cannot be so well done by a close retort He therefore that will make the spirit of the salt of tartar need do nothing else then to cast the calcined tartar into the fire and it will wholly come over in a spirit but then there are required glass recipients because those that are earthen cannot retain it And this is the way whereby most fixed salts are distilled into a spirit by the first furnace In the second furnace viz. in the furnace of the second part it may be done better and easier where together with the preparation shall be taught the use thereof The spirits flowers and salts of Minerals and stones BY this way spirits may be raised from any minerall or stone and that without the addition of any other thing yet so as that the minerals and stones as flints Crystal talke lapis calaminaris Marcasite Antimony being ground be with an Iron ladle cast upon the coales and there will arise together with a certain acid spirit some salt and flowers which are to be washed off from the recipients and filtred and the flowers will remain in Charta bibula for the water together with the spirit and the salt passeth through the filter all which may be separated rectified and be kept by themselves for their proper uses Now this you must know that you must choose such minerals which have not been touched by the fire if you desire to have their spirit How minerals and metals may be reduced into flowers and of their vertues HItherto the flowers of metals and minerals have not been in use excepting the flowers of Antimony and sulphur which are easily sublimed for Chymists have not dared to attempt the sublimation of other metals and fixed minerals being content with the solution of them with Aqua fortis and corrosive waters precipitating them with the liquor of salt of tartar and afterward edulcorating and drying them and being so prepared they have called them their flowers but by which flowers I understand the same water which is by the help of fire without the addition of any other thing sublimed and turned into a most subtile pouder not to be perceived by the teeth or eyes which indeed is in my judgement to be accounted for the true flowers when as the flowers which others make are more corporeal and cannot be so well edulcorated but retaine some saltness in them as may be perceived by the increase of their weight and therefore hurtful to the eyes and other parts But our flowers being by the force of the fire sublimed by themselves are not only without saltness but are also so subtile that being taken inwardly presently operate and put forth their powers viz. according to the pleasure of the Physitian Neither is their preparation so costly as the others Metals also and minerals are maturated and amended in their sublimation that they may be the more safely taken but in other preparations they are rather destroyed and corrupted as experience witnesseth Now how these kind of flowers are to be made I shall now teach and indeed of each metal by it self whereby the artist in the preparation cannot erre and first thus Of Gold and Silver GOld and silver can hardly be brought into flowers because many are of opinion that nothing comes from them in the fire especially from Gold although it should be left there for ever which although it be true viz. that nothing comes from gold in the fire although it should remaine there a long time and from silver but a little except it have copper or any other metal mixed which yet vapours away but by little and little Which I say although it be so yet they being broken and subtilized and scattered upon coales and so dispersed may by the force of the fire and help of the aire be sublimed and reduced into flowers Now seeing the aforesaid metals are dear and of a great price and the furnace with its recipients large I would not that any one should cast them in especially gold because he cannot recover them all but I shall to those that desire to make these flowers shew another way in the second part whereby they may make them without the loss of the metal to which I referr the reader For this furnace serves for the subliming of metals and minerals which are not so pretious the loosing of part whereof is not so much regarded And thus much is said to shew that gold and silver although fixed may be sublimed Now other metals may more easily be sublimed yet one more easily then another neither need they any other preparation but beating small before they be cast into the fire Flowers of Iron and Copper TAke of the filings of Iron or Copper as much as you please cast them with an Iron laddle upon burning coals viz. scatteringly and there wil arise from Iron a red vapour but from Copper a green and will be sublimed into the sublimatorie vessels As the fire abates it must be renewed with fresh coales and the casting in of these filings be continued untill you have got a sufficient quantity of flowers and then you may let all coole This being done take off the sublimatorie vessels take out the flowers and keep them for they are very good if they be mixed with unguents and emplasters and being used inwardly cause vomiting therefore they are better in Chirurgery where scarce any thing is to be compared to them Copper being dissolved in spirit of salt and precipitated with oyle of vitriol edulcorated dryed and sublimed yeelds flowers which being in the aire resolved into a green balsom is most useful in wounds and old putrid ulcers and is a most pretious treasure Flowers of Lead and Tin YOU need not reduce these metals into small crums it is sufficient if they be cast in piece by piece but then you must under the grate put an earthen platter glazed and filled with water to gather that which flows down melted which is to be taken out and cast again into the fire and this so often until all the metall be turned into flowers which afterwards are again the vessels being cold to be taken out as hath been said of the flowers of Mars and Venus And these flowers are most excellent being mixed with plaisters and oyntments in old and geeen wounds for they have a greater power to dry then metals calcined as experience can testifie Of Mercury THis is easily reduced into flowers because it is very volatile but not for the aforesaid reason because it leapes in the fire and seeks to descend And if you desire to have the flowers thereof mix it first with sulphur that you may pulverize it and cast it in mortified And if you cast into a red hot crucible set in the furnace a little quick Mercury viz. by times with a laddle presently it
will fly out and some part thereof will be resolved into an acid water which is to be preferred before the flowers in my judgement but the rest of the Mercury drops into a receiver But here are required glass vessels because the aforesaid water is lost in earthen And this water without doubt doth something in Alchymie It is also good being applyed outwardly in the scab and venereal ulcers The flowers of Zinck IT is a wonderful metal and is found in the spagyrical anatomie to be meer sulphur golden and immature Being put upon burning coales doth suddenly fly away wholly it is inflamed also and partly burns like common sulphur with a flame of another colour viz. golden purple and yeelds most gallant white and light flowers The use BEing given from 4. 5. 6. grains to 12. they provoke sweat wonderfully and sometimes vomit and stooles according to the offending matter The vertues thereof being exteranlly used are also wonderful for there are not found better flowers for they do not only speedily consolidate fresh wounds but also old such as alwayes drop water in which cases they excell all other medicaments For they are of such dryness which hath joyned with it a consolidating vertue as that they do even things incredible They may be used divers wayes as to be strewed by themselves putting over them a stiptick plaister or being brought into a unguent with honey to be put into wounds which unguents in deep wounds may be boyled to a hardness for the making of small suppositories which are to be put into the wounds which must afterwards be covered with some plaister and preserved from the aire Being applyed after this manner they cure fundamentally being mixed with plaisters also they do wonderfull things If they be mixed with rose or raine water so as to be united together and afterwards some of this mixture be sometimes every day dropt into red eyes that water yeelding not to other ophthalmicks do restore and heal them These flowers being taken up in lint and strewed upon those places of Children that are galled with their urine those places being first washed with water heale them quickly They heale also quickly any excoriation which is contracted by lying long in any sickness and is very paineful if they be strewed thereon These flowers also are more easily dissolved in corrosive waters then other metals and minerals neither doth the spirit leave them in the fire but an insipid phlegme only distils off leaving a fat and thick oyl as is above said concerning the lapis calaminaris being ordained for the same uses but more efficaciously then that Which spirit if it be by the violence of fire driven forth is of so great strength that it can scarce be kept And not only spirit of salt but also Aqua fortis and Regia may after this manner be exalted so as to be able to do wonderful things in the separation of metals but here is not place for these things they shall be spoken of in the fourth part But you need not make flowers for this work because crude Zinck doth the same although the flowers do it something better whence it appears that a metal contracts a higher degree of dryness in sublimation Flowers of Antimony THere is no difficulty to make the flowers of Antimony for Chymists have a long time made use of them and because their preparation was tedious they were not sold at a low rate Wherefore there was no body willing to attempt any thing else in them because they were used only for vomiting the dose whereof was from 1. 2. 3. 4. grains to 8. and 10. in affects of the stomack and of the head as also in feavers plague morbus gallicus c. Neither is it a wonder if Chymists tryed no farther in them for we see that there are found men in these dayes who perswade themselves that there is nothing which was not found out by the learned ancients can be found out in these dayes and if there were any thing to be yet found out it was found out already by them But this opinion truly is very foolish as if God gave all things to the ancients and reserved nothing for them that should come after Neither indeed do they understand nature in their operations which works incessantly and is not wearyed in her labours c. But how ever it is manifest that God hath revealed things in these times which were hid from them of old and he will not cease to do the same even to the end of the world But to return to our purpose againe which is to shew an easier way of making the flowers of Antimony whereby a greater quantity may be had as also that they may serve for other uses Take of crude Antimony poudered as much as you please first make your furnace red hot then cast in at once a pound of Antimony or thereabouts viz. scatteringly upon the coals and presently it will flow and mixed with the coals by the force of the fire will be sublimed through the aire into receivers like a cloud which will there be coagulated into white flowers Note that when the first coales are burnt up more must be put in to continue the sublimation and those must be first kindled before they are put in lest the flowers be by the dust of the coales arising together with the flowers discoloured and contract thence a gray colour but it matters not if you will not use them by themselves to provoke vomiting because there is no danger thereby for that colour comes only from the smoake of the coales wherefore you need not be afraid of them But let him that dislikes this colour first kindle the coales before he put them into the furnace and then he shall have white flowers Also you must not shut the middle hole through which the coales and Antimony are cast in that thereby the fire may burn the more freely for else the flowers of the superior pots will be yellow and red by reason of the sulphur of the Antimony which is sublimed higher then the regulus Now you may by this way make a pound of the flowers with 3. 4. 5. pound of coals It is a little that goes away from the Antimony viz. the combustible sulphur which is burnt all the rest going into flowers You must have a care to provide a sufficient quantity of subliming pots by reason that a large space is required for the sublimation of the flowers The flowers that are prepared after this way are sold at a lower rate so that one pound thereof is cheaper then half an ounce of those that are made after the other manner Also they are safer as being made with an open and free flame of the fire for they do not provoke vomit so vehemently morever the flowers of the lower pots are not vomiting but diaphoretical as if they had been prepared with nitre for thus they are corrected by the fire And by this way at
one and the same operation divers flowers of divers operations may be made for the flowers of the lower pots are diaphoretical of the middle a little vomitive but of the uppermost vehemently vomitive For by how much the more they have endured the fire by so much the better are they corrected from whence the diversity of their power proceeds Wherefore each of them are to be kept by themselves and the uppermost for plaisters or butter or oyle and those to be made sweet or corrosive thereby The midle for purging and vomiting but the lowermost for sweat being more excellent then Bezoardicum Minerale or Antinomium Diaphoreticum made with nitre Truly I do not believe that there is an easier way of making vomiting and diaphoretical flowers then ours Now for the use of them you must know that those that are vomitive are to be administred to those that are strong and accustomed to vomit but to children and old men with discretion as hath been said above of the butter of Antimony but those that are diaphoretical may be given without danger to old and young to those that are in health and to the sick in any affection that requires sweat as in the plague Morbus Gallicus scorbute leprosie feavers c. The Dose of them is from 3. 6. 9. 12. graines to 24. with proper vehicles to sweat in the bed for they do expel as well by sweat as by urine all evil humors And because they that are vomitive are in a greater quantity then those that are diaphoretical and not so necessary as these and there may be many more doses out of them it is necessary to shew you how those that are vomitive may be turned into diaphoreticall and that may be done three wayes the two former whereof I have before shewed concerning the butter of Antimony made of flowers with spirit of salt the third is this viz. put flowers in a crucible covered without luting lest any thing fall into it so set them by themselves in a gentle fire that they melt not but be made only darkly glow for the space of some hours then let them coole for they are become fixed and diaphoreticall Although they had before contracted some yellowness or ash colour yet by this means they are made white and gallant fixed and diaphoretical Also these flowers are used in stiptick plaisters by reason of their dry nature with which they are endued Also they are melted into a yellow transparent glass neither is there taught an easier way of reducing Antimony by it self into a yellow transparent glass where crude Antimony is first sublimed and being sublimed is melted into glass This sublimation serves in stead of calcination by the help whereof 20. pound are more easily sublimed then by the help of the other one pound is brought into calx Neither is there here any danger of the ascending fumes because when the Antimony is cast into the fire you may be gone which is a safe and easie calcination whereas the common way requires the continual presence of the artist stirring the matter who also takes out the matter when it is once grown together and grinds it again by which means he hath much to do before the matter come to a whiteness but by our way the matter is at the first time made sufficiently white and more then by that common way of calcination and agitation I suppose therefore that I have shewed to him that will make glass of Antimony the best and hitherto unknown way which being taught I hope there is no man will hereafter like a fool go that tedious way of the ancients but rather follow my steps For by this way may any Physitian most easily be able to prepare for himself vomitive and diaphoretical flowers and also glass of Antimony perâ—se Of those flowers may bemade oyles both sweet and corrosive and other medicaments as hath been above said of the spirit of salt and shal afterwards be spoken in the second part Let him that will make flowers of the regulus fairer then those which are made of crude Antimony east it being poudered into the fire and in all things proceed as hath been said and he shall have them c. for they are easily sublimed Now how the regulus is to be made after a compendious manner you shall finde in the fourth part The scory also are sublimed so as nothing is lost But he that will make flowers that shall be dissolved in the aire into a liquor must adde some calcined tartar or some other fixt vegetable salt and he shall have flowers that will be dissolved in any liquor but he that will make red flowers as well those that are diaphoretical as those that are purging must mix Iron and he shall have flowers like to cinnabar Let him that desires green mix copper if purple lapis calaminaris And thus out of any mineral may be made flowers whether it be fixed or volatile for it is forced to fly on high being cast into the fire And these may be used diversly in Chirurgery in plaisters and unguents for they dry and astringe potently especially those that are made of lapis calaminaris Neither are they to be slighted that are made of the golden and silver marcasite Those that are made of Arsenic and auripigmentum are poysonous but are useful for painters Arsenic auripigmentum being calcined with nitre and then sublimed yeeld flowers that are safely to be taken inwardly expelling all poysons by sweat and stoole For they are corrected two wayes viz. first by by the nitre secondly by the fire in the subliming they are not therefore to be feared because that Antimony was poysonous before the preparation thereof For by how much the greater poyson it was before preparation so much the greater medicine afterwards The flowers of sulphur are taught in the second part although they may also be made by this furnace viz. the nature and properties thereof being known by an expert artist or otherwise it is burnt So also stones being prepared are brought into flowers and many other things of which we need not say any thing only let him that pleaseth make tryal thereof And now I suppose I have made plain and shewed you cleerly how distillation is to be made in this our first furnace wherefore I will now end He therefore that nnderstands and knows the fabrick of the furnace which he may understand by the delineation thereof and the use thereof will not deny but that I have done a good work and will not disapprove of my labor And this is the best way of distilling and subliming incombustible things In the second part you shall finde another furnace in which are distilled combustible things as also most subtile spirits c. The first furnace serves also for other uses as the separation of metals of the pure from the impure for the making of the central salt and of the humidum radicale of them all But because it
can be distilled in this furnace and much better then by means of a Retort especially such subtile spirits as by the other way of distilling cannot be saved but pass through the lutum are got by this our way and they are much better then those heavy oyles which commonly are taken for spirits but are none being only corrosive waters For the nature and condition of a spirit is to be volatile penetrating and subtle and such are not those spirits of salt Vitriol Allome and Nitre which are used in Apothecary shops they being but heavy oyles which even in a warm place do not evaporate or exhale But a true spirit fit for Medicinal use must rise or ascend before the phlegme and not after for whatsoever is heavier then phlegme is no volatile spirit but a heavy spirit or rather called a sowre heavy oyle And it is seen by the experience that the Apothecaries spirit of vitriol will cure no falling sickness which vertue is ascribed to that spirit and indeed justly for the true spirit of vitriol performeth that cure out of hand Likewise their spirit of Tartar as they call it is no spirit but only a stinking phlegme or Vinegar The way to make such true spirits I will now shew because much good may be done by them in all manner of diseases And this way of distilling serveth only for those which seek after good medicines but others which care not whether their medicines be well prepared or no need not take so much pains as to build such a furnace and to make their spirits themselves for at any they can buy for a small matter a good quantity of dead and fruitless spirits at the common sellers and Apothecaries Hence it is no marvel that now a dayes so little good is done by Chymicall medicaments which of right should far outstrip all the Galenical in goodness and vertue But alas it is come to that passe now that a true Chymist and honest son of Hermes is forced almost to blush when he heareth men talk of Chymical medicines because they do no such miracles as are ascribed unto them Which infamy is occasioned by none more then by careless Physitians which though they make use of Chymicall medicines because they would faine be esteemed to know more then others yet they do take greater care for their kitchin then for the welfare of their patients and so buying ill prepared medicines of unskilful stillers and withall using them undiscreetly whereby they many times do more hurt then good to the sick they do lay such foule aspersions up on the noble Art of Chymistry But an Industrious and accurate Physitian is not ashamed to make his medicines himself if it be possible or at least to have them made by good and well exercised Artists whereupon he may better relye and get more credit then one that knoweth not whereof nor how his medicine which he doth administer to his patients is prepared But such wicked and ignorant men will one day fal short of their answer before the Judgement of the righteous Samaritane How to make the Acid oyle and the volatile spirit of Vitriol HItherto I have taught how to distill in general and to get the subtle spirits There remaineth now to describe what manuals or preparations are fitting for every matter in particular and first Of Vitrioll TO distill Vitrioll there needs no other preparation but only that it be well viewed and if there be any filth amongst it that the same be carefully pickt out lest being put together with the Vitriol into the distilling vessel the spirit be corrupted thereby But he that will go yet more exactly to work may dissolve it in faire water then filtrate it and then evaporate the water from it till a skin appear at the top and then set it in a cold place and let it shoote again into Vitrioll and then you are sure that no impurity is left in it Now your vessel being made red hot with an Iron ladle cast in one or two ounces of your vitriol at once put on the lid and presently the spirits together with the phlegme will come over into the receiver like unto a white cloud or mist which being vanished and the spirits partly settled carry in more Vitriol and continue this so long until your vessel be full Then uncover your vessel and with a pair of tongs or an iron ladle take out the Caput Mortuum and cast more in and continue this proceeding as long as you please still emptying the vessel when it is filled and then casting in more matter and so proceeding untill you conceive that you have got spirits enough Then let the fire go out and let the furnace coole take off the receiver and powre that which is come over into a retort and lay the retort in sand and by a gentle fire distill the volatile spirit from the heavy oil having first joyned to the retort the receiver which is to receive the volatile spirit with a good lutum such as is able to hold such subtle spirits the making whereof shall be taught in the fifth part of this book amongst the Manuals All the volatile spirit being come over which you may know by the falling of bigger dropps then take off the receiver and close it very well with wax that the spirit may not make an escape then apply another without luting it and so receive the phlegme by it self and there will remaine in the retort a black and heavy corrosive oyle which if you please you may rectifie forcing it over by a strong fire and then it will be clear if not let all coole then take out your Retort together with the black oyle and pour upon it the Volatile spirit which in the rectifying went over first put the retort into the sand and apply a receiver and give it a very gentle fire and the volatile spirit will come over alone leaving its phlegme behinde with the oyle which by reason of its dryness doth easily keep it Thus the spirit being freed from all phlegme is become as strong as a meer fire and yet not corrosive And if this spirit be not rectified from its own oyle it will not remaine good but there doth precipitate a red pouder after it hath stood for some space of time and the spirit looseth all its vertue in so much that it is not to be discerned from ordinary water which doth not happen when it is rectified The reason of this precipitation is no other then the weakness of the spirit which is accompanied with too much water and therefore not strong enough for to keep its sulphur but must let it fall but after it is rectified by its own oyle it can keep its sulphur well enough because then it is freed from its superfluous moisture However the red powder is not to be thrown away but ought to be kept carefully because it is of no less vertue then the spirit it self And it is nothing else but
a Volatile sulphur of Vitrioll It hath wonderfull vertues some of which shall be related The use and Dose of the Narcotick sulphur of Vitrioll OF this sulphur 1. 2. 3. 4. or more grains according to the condition of the patient given at once mitigates all pains causeth quiet sleep not after the manner of Opium Henbane and other the like medicines which by stupefying and benumming cause sleep but it performeth its operation very gently and safely without any danger at all and great diseases may be cured by the help thereof Paracelsus held it in high esteeme as you may see where he doth wâ—ite of Sulphur embryonatum Of the use and vertue of the Volatile spirit of Vitrioll THis sulphureous volatile spirit of Vitrioll is of a very subtle and penetrating quality and of a wonderful operation for some drops thereof being taken and sweated upon it doth penetrate the whole body openeth all obstructions consumeth those things that are amiss in the body even as fire It is an excellent medicine in the falling sickness in that kinde of madness or rage which is called Mania in the convulsion of the mother called Suffocatio matricis in the scurvy in that other kinde of madness which is called Melancholia Hypochondriaca and other diseases proceeding from obstructions and corruption of the blood It is also good in the plague and all other feavers mingled with spirit of wine and daily used it doth wonders in all external accidents Also in the Apoplexy shrinking and other diseases of the Nerves the distressed limbe rubbed therewith it doth penetrate to the very marrow in the bones it doth warm and refresh the cold sinews grown stiffe In the Colick besides the internal use a little thereof in a clyster applyed is a present help Externally used in the Goute by anoynting the places therewith asswageth the pains and taketh away all tumors and inflammations it doth heale the scabs tetters and ringworms above all other medicines it cureth new wounds and old sores as Fistulaes Cancers Woolves and what name so ever else they may have It extinguisheth all inflammations scaldings the Gangrene dissipateth and consumeth the knobs and excrescencies of the skin In a word this spirit which the wise men of old called Sulphur Philosophorum doth act universally in all diseases and its vertue cannot sufficiently be praised and expressed And it is much to be admired that so excellent a Medicine is no where to be found If it be mingled with spring water it doth make it pleasantly sowrish and in tast and vertue like unto the natural sowre water of wels Also by this spirit many diseases may be cured at home so that you need not go to bathes afar off for to be rid of them Here I could set down a way how such a spirit may be got in great abundance for the use of bathing without distillation whereby miraculous things may be done but by reason of the ungratefulness of men it shall be reserved for another time Of the vertue and use of the corrosive oyle of Vitrioll THis oyle is not much used in Physick although it be found almost in every Apothecaries shop which they use for to give a sowrish tast to their syrups and conserves Mingled with spring water and given in hot diseases it will extinguish the unnatural thirst and coole the internal parts of the body Externally it cleanseth all unclean sores applyed with a feather it separateth the bad from the good and layeth a good foundation for the cure Also if it be rectified first some metals may be dissolved with it and reduced into their Vitriols especially Mars and Venus but this is to be done by adding common water thereunto else it will hardly lay hold on them The way of doing it is thus How to make the Vitrioll of Mars and Venus TAke of your heavy oyle just as it came over viz. together with its phlegme but that the Volatile spirit be drawn off from it first as much as you please put it into a glass body together with plate of copper or iron set it in warme sand and let it boyle untill that the oyle will dissolve no more of the metal then power off the liquor filtre it through brown paper and put it into a low gourd glass and set it in sand and let the phlegme evaporate untill there appear a skin at the top then let the fire go out and the glass grow coole then set it in a cold place and within some dayes there will shoote faire green Crystals if of iron greenish if of Copper then something blewish take them out and dry them uppon filtering paper the remaining liquor which did not shoote into Vitriol evaporate again in sand and then let it shoote as before continue this proceeding untill all the solution or filtred liquor be turned to Vitriol This Vitrioll is better and purer then the common for it yeeldeth a better Volatile spirit and for that reason I did set down the way how to make it There can also be made a good Vitrioll of both these metals by the means of ordinary yellow brimstone but because the making of it is more tedious then of this here set down I think it needless to describe its preparation in this place The way to make a faire blew Vitrioll out of Luna that is silver DIssolve the shavings or filings of silver with rectified oyle of Vitrioll adding water thereunto but not so much as to Iron and Copper Or else which is better dissolve calcined silver which hath been precipitated out of Aqua fortis either with Copper or salt water the solution being ended powre it off and filtre it and drop into it of spirit of urine or of Sal armoniac as long as it doth hiss and almost all the silver will precipitate again out of the oyle and so there will fall a white powder to the bottome This precipitated silver together with the liquor poure into a phiall-glass set it to boyle in sand for twenty four hours and the liquor will dissolve again almost all the precipitated silver-calx and become blew thereby Then poure off the solution or liquor and filtre it through brown paper and abstract the moisture till a skin arise at the top then in a cold place let it shoote to Vitriol With the remaining liquor proceed further as above in the preparation of the Vitriol of Iron and Copper hath been taught By this way you will get an excellent Vitrioll out of silver which from 4. 5. 6. to 10. grains used onely of it self will be a good purge especially in diseases of the braine If you have a good quantity of it that you may distill a spirit thereof you will get not only an acide or sowre but also a volatile spirit which in the infirmities of the braine is most excellent that which in the distilling remains behinde may be reduced againe into a body so that you lose nothing of the silver save onely that which is
turned into spirit Moreover the acide or sowre oyle of common Vitriol doth precipitate all metals and stones of beasts or fishes also pearles and corals they being first dissolved in spirit of salt or of Nitre and maketh faire light powders of them which by the Apothecaries are called Magisteries much fairer then by precipitation with salt of Tartar is done especially of corals and pearles such a faire glistering and delicate powder is made and likewise also of mother of pearle and other shels of snailes that it giveth as fair a gloss to them as the fairest oriental pearles have which way hath not been made common hitherto but being known only to few hath been kept very secret by them as a singular Art Such magisteries commonly were precipitated out of vinegar onely by salt of Tartar which for lightness whiteness and fair gloss are not comparable at all to ours But if in stead of the oyle of Vitriol you take oyle of sulphur then these powders will be fairer then when they are done by the oyle of Vitriol in so much that they may be used for painting for a black skin Having made mention of Magisteries I cannot forbear to discover the great abuse and error which is committed in the preparing of them Paracelsus in his Archidoxes teacheth to make Magisteries which he calleth extracted Magisteries but some of his disciples teach to make precipitated Magisteries which are quite different from the former Paracelsus is clean of another opinion in the preparing of his Magisteries then others in the making of theirs doubtless Paracelsus his Magisteries were good cordiall living medicines whereas the other were but dead carkases and although they be never so faire white and glistering yet in effect they prove but a gross earthy substance destitute of vertue I do not deny but that good medicines may be extracted out of pearles and corals for I my self also do describe the preparations of some of them but not at all after such a way as theirs is For what good or exalting can be expected by such a preparation where a stony matter is dissolved in corrosive waters and then precipitated into stone again Can its vertue be increased thereby surely no but rather it is diminished and made much the worse thereby For it is well known that the corrosive spirits no less then fire do burn some certain things for not all things are made better by fire or corrosives but most of them are absolutely spoyled by them Some perchance will say that such preparations of Magisteries are onely for to be reduced into a finer powder that so much the sooner they may perform their operation To which I answer that pearles corals and other of the like nature if they be once dissolved by corrosive waters and then precipitated and edulcorated never or hardly can be dissolved againe by acid spirits Whence it is evident that by such preparations they are not opened or made better but rather closed or made worse And we see also by daily experience that those Magisteries do not those effects which are ascribed unto them By which it appeareth cleerly that to the Archeus of the stomach they are much less grateful then the crude unprepared corals and pearles whose tender essence being not burnt up by corrosives do oftentimes produce good effects For our Ancestors have ascribed unto corals and pearles that they purifie the impure and corrupt blood in the whole body that they expel Melancholy and sadness comforting the heart of man and making it merry which also they effectually perform whereas the Magisteries do not And this is the reason why unprepared corals pearles and stones of fishes have more effect then the burnt Magisteries For it is manifest and well known that the abovesaid diseases for the most part do proceed from obstructions of the spleen which obstructions are nothing else but a tartarous juice or a sowre flegme which hath possessed and filled up the entrals and coagulated it self within them By which obstruction not only head-ach giddiness panting of the heart trembling of the limbs a spontaneous lassitude vomits unnatural hunger also loathing of victuals then cold then hot flushing fits and many more strange symptomes are caused but also a most hurtful rottenness and corruption is introduced into the whole mass of blood from whence the leprosie scurvy and other loathsome or abominable scabs do spring Of which evil the onely cause as hath been said is a crude acide Tartar from which so many great diseases do rise This to be so may easily be proved for it is notorious that melancholik folks hypocondriaques and others do often cast up a great quantity of acid humor which is so sharpe that no vinegar is comparable to it and doth set their teeth on such an edge as if they had eaten unripe fruit What remedy now take away the cause and the disease is taken away If you could take away the peccant matter by purgings it would be well but it remaineth obstinate and will not yeeld to them By vomit it may be diminished in some measure But because that not every one can abide vomiting it is therefore no wisdome to turn evil into worse Shall then this tartar be killed and destroyed by contraries which indeed in some sort may be effected as when you use vegetables or animals whose vertue consisteth in a volatile salt such are all species or sorts of cresses Mustard-seed horse-radish scurvy grass also the spirit of Tartar of Hartshorn and of urine and the like which by reason of their penetrating faculty pass through all the body finding out the Tartar thereof destroying the same as being contrary unto it and in this combat two contrary natures is kindled a great burning heat whereby the whole body is throughly heated and brought to sweating and whensoever by these contraries a sweating is caused there is alwayes mortified some of this hurtful Tartar But because that of that acid humor but a little at a time can be mortified and edulcorated by contrary volatile spirits and that therefore it would be required to use them often for to kill and expell all the Tartar and because also as hath been mentioned before a strong sweat alwayes is caused by every such operation whereby the natural spirits are much weakened so that the patient would not be able to hold out long thereby but by taking away of one evil another and greater one would be occasioned And therefore such things must be offered to that hungry acid humor by which the corrosive nature thereof may be mortified and grow sweet with that proviso nevertheless that those things be such as are not contrary or hurtful to the nature of man but grateful and friendly as are corals pearles and crabs eyes c. For amongst all stones none are more easily to be dissolved then Pearles Corals Crabbs-eyes and other stones of fishes But the truth of this viz. that every corrosive is killed by feeding upon pearles and corals and
The preparation of the volatile spirits of Metals DIssolve either Iron or Copper or Lead or Tin with the acid spirit of vitriol or of common salt abstract or draw off the phlegme then driâ—e the acid spirit againe from the Metal and he will carry along a volatile spirit which by rectifying must be separated from the corrofive spirit And such Metallical spirits are more effectual then those that are made of the salts The preparation of the volatile spirit of Minerals TAke of Antimony made into fine powder or of gold-Marcasite or of some other sulphureous Mineral which you please two parts Mixe therewith 1. part of good purified Salt nitre and cast in of that mixture one little quantity and then an other and so forth after the manner above described and there will come over a spirit which is not inferior to the former in efficacy and vertue but it must also be well rectified Another way CEment what laminated or granulated Metal you please except gold with half as much in weight of common Sulphur closed up in a strong melting pot or crucible such as doth not let the Sulphurgo through for the space of half an houre untill that the Sulphur hath penetrated and broken the plates of Metals Then beat them into powder mixe them with the like quantity in weight of common salt and so distill it after the way above mentioned and you will get a volatile spirit of great vertue and every such spirit is to be used for such special part or member of the body as the Metal is proper for it out of which the spirit is made So Silver for the braine Tinne for the lungs Lead for the spleen and so forth The spirit of Zinck OF Zinck there is distilled both a volatile and also an acid spirit good for the heart whether it be made by the help of the spirit of Vitrioll or of salt or of Allome or else by the means of Sulphur for Zinck is of the nature of gold The volatile spirit of the Drosse of the Regulus Iron THe black scoria of the Regulus Martis being first faln asunder in the aire yeilds likewise a very strong sulphureous volatile spirit not much unlike in vertue unto the former The like Sulphureous volatile spirits can be made also of other minerals which for brevities sake we do omit as also in regard that they are almost the same in vertue How to make a white acid and a red volatile spirit out of salt nitre TAke two parts of Allome and one part of salt nitre make them both into powder mix them well together and cast into the still a little and a little thereof as above in the making of other spirits hath been taught and there cometh oveâ— an acid spirit together with the volatile spirit and so many pounds as there is of the materials which are to be cast in so many pounds of water must be put into the receiver to the end that the volatile spirits may so much the better be caught and saved And when the distillation is performed the two spirits may be separated by the means of a gentle rectification made in Balneo and you must take good heed that you get the volatile spirit pure by changing the receiver in a good time so that no flegme be mixed with the red spirit whereby it will be weakened and turn white The marke whereby you may perceive whither the spirit or the flegme doth go forth is this when the volatile spirit goeth then the receiver looketh of a deep red and afterward when the flegme doth come the receiver looks white again and lastly when the heavy acide spirit goeth then the receiver to be red again but not so as it is was when the first volatile spirit came over This spirit can also be made and distilled after another way viz. mixing the salt nitre with twice as much bole or brick dust and so framed into little bals to prevent melting but no way is so good as the first especially when you will have the red volatile spirit Of the use of the red volatile spirit THis volatile spirit which being quite freed from flegm remaineth alwayes red and doth looke like blood in all occasions may be accounted like in vertue unto the former fulphureous spirits especially in extinguishing of inflammations gangrenes it is a great treasure the clothes being dipt in it laid upon the grieved place Also it goeth almost beyond all other medicines in the Erysipelas and colick and if there be any congealed blood in the body which came by a fall or blow this spirit outwardly applyed with such waters as are proper for the grief also taken inwardly doth dissolve and expell it and being mingled with the volatile spirit of urine it doth yeild a wonderful kinde of salt as hereafter shall be taught The use of the white acid spirit of salt nitre THe heavy and corrosive spirits of salt nitre is not much used in Physick though it be found almost in all Apothecaries shops and there is kept for such use as above hath been mentioned of the spirit of vitriol viz. to make their conserves and cooling-drinks tast sowrish Also it is used by some in the colick but it is too great a corrosive and too gross to be used for that purpose and although its corrosiveness may be mitigated in some measure by adding of water thereto yet in goodness and vertue it is not comparable at aâ—â— to the volatile spirit but is as far different from it as black from white and therefore the other is fittest to be used in Physick but this in dealing with metals and minerals for to reduce them into vitriols calxes flores and crocus Aqua Regis IF you dissolve common salt which hath been decrepitated first in this acid spirit of salt nitre and rectifie it through a glass retort lying in sand by a good strong fire it will be so strong that it is able to dissolve gold and all other metals and minetals except silver and sulphur and several metals may by the means thereof be separated much better then by that Aqua regia which hath been made by adding of Salt Armoniack But if you rectifie it with lapis calaminaris or Zinck it will be stronger yet so as able to dissolve all metals and Minerals silver and sulphur excepted whereby in the handling of Metals much more may be effected then with common spirit of salt nitre or sulphur as now hereafter shall be taught and first in the preparing of gold The preparation of Aurum fulminans or Aurum Tonitruans TAke of fine granulated or laminated gold whither it he refined by Antimony or Aqua fortis as much as you please put it in a little glass body and powre four or five times as much of Aqua regis upon it set it stopt with a paper in a gourd in warme sand and the Aqua regis within the space of one or two hours will dissolve the
together with the coles that are in it become red hot Then take off the lid and with a ladle throw in at once of your Crystals of silver Ê’ i. yea more or less according as you think that your receiver in regard of its bigness is able to bear This done presently put on the lid and the salt nitre together with the crystals of silver will be kindled by the coles that lye on the bottome of the vessel and there will come forth a white silver fume through the pipe into the receiver and after a while when the cloud is vanished in the receiver cast in more and continue this so long until all your prepared silver is cast in then let it coole amd take off the receiver and poure into it good Alcolized spirit of wine and wash the flores with it out of the receiver and proceed further with them as above you have been taught to proceed with the gold and you will get a greenish liquor which is very good for the braine Take the coles out of the distilling vessel and make them into fine powder and wash them out with water to the end that the light cole-dust may be got from it and you will finde much silver dust or a great many little silver graines which the salt nitre could not force over which you may reduce for it will be good silver There can also be made a very good medicine out of the crystals of silver which will be little inferior to the former whereby the diseases and infirmities of the braine may be very well remedied which is done thus How to make a green oyle out of silver POure upon Crystals of silver twice or thrice as much in weight of the strongest spirit of salt Armoniack put it in a glass with a long neck well closed into a very gentle warmth for the space of 8. or 14 dayes in digestion and the spirit of salt Armoniack will be tinged with a very faire blew colour from the silver then pour it off and filtre it through brown paper and then put it in a little glass retort or glass body and abstract in Balneo by a gentle fire almost all the spirit of salt Armoniack which is still good for use and there will remaine in the bottom a grass green liquor which is to be kept for a medicine But in case that you should miss and abstract too much of the spirit from the Tincture of silver so that the Tincture be quite dry and turned to a green salt then you must poure upon it again as much of the spirit of salt Armoniack as will dissolve the green salt again to a green liquor but if you desire to have the Tincture purer yet then abstract all moystness from it to a stony dryness upon which you must poure good spirit of wine which will quickly dissolve the stone and then filtre it and there will remaine faeces and the Tincture will be fairer from which you must abstract most of the spirit of wine and the Tincture will be so much the higher in vertue But if you please you may distill that green salt or stone before it be extracted once again with spirit of wine in a little glass-retort and you will get a subtile spirit and a sharp oyle and in the bottome of the retort there remaineth a very fusile silver which could not come over It is to be admired that when you pour spirit of salt Armoniack or spirit of wine upon that stone for to dissolve it that the glass comes to be so cold by it that you harldyare able to endure it in your hand which coldness in my opinion cometh from the silver being so well unlockt which naturally is cold The use of the green liquor in Alchymy and for Mechanical operations THis green liquor serveth not only for a medicine but also for other Chymical operations for both Copper and glass may be easily and very fairly silvered over therewith very useful for those that are curious and love to make a shew with fair houshold-stuff for if you get dishes trencher plates salters cups and other vessels made of glass after the same fashion as those of silver use to be made you may very easily and without any considerable charge silver them over therewith within and without so that by the eye they cannot be discerned from true silver plate Besides the above related good medicines there may be made an other and especial good one out of the crystals of silver viz. dissolving and digesting them for a space of time with the universal water which hath been distilled by nature it self and is known to every body and after its digesting for a short time and change into several colours there will be found a pleasant essence which is not so bitter as the above described green liquor which is not brought yet by heat to ripenesse and maturation N. B. In this sweet universal Menstruum there can also all other metals by a small heat and the digestion of a long time be ripened and fitted for medicines having first been reduced into their vitriols and salts and then they are no more dead bodies but by this preparation have recovered a new life and are no more the metals of the covetous but may be called the metals of the Philosophers and of the Physitians Besides Physick or physical use LAstly there may be many pretty things more effected besides the medicinal use by means of the Crystals of silver viz. when you dissolve them in ordinary sweet raine water you can dye beards haire skin and nailes of men or beasts into carnation or pinck red brown black according as you have put more or less thereof in the water or else according as the haire was more or less times wetted therewith whereby the aspect of man and beast which sometimes in several occasions may not be contemned is changed so that they cannot be known This colouring or dye may be also performed with Lead or Mercury no less then with silver but otherwise prepared whereof in the fourth part Now I have taught how to make flores and tinctures of gold and silver by the help of the acid spirit of Nitre There may be many other medicines taught to be made out of them but in regard that they belong not to this place they shall be reserved for other places of this second and also for the other following parts As by the help of the spirit of Nitre good medicines can be made out of gold and silver so the like may be done out of other inferiour metals But in regard that their description is fitter for other places of this book I do omit them here Yet nevertheless I thought good to describe one preparation of every metal and after the silver there followeth now the copper A medicine out of copper externally to be used DIssolve burnt plates of copper in spirit of salt and abstract the spirit again from thence to a dryness
give the substance or body of Mercury but onely its vertue But this gross preparation is no better then if they had ministred the running Mercury it self Neither have I ever seen that the use of Mercurius dulcis or of the gray coloured water was seconded with good success in killing of the worms But it is credible that it may be done by yellow or red precipitate in regard of its strong operation But who would be such an enemy to his childe as to plague and torture it with such a hurtfull and murthering medicine especially there being other medicines to be had which do no harme to the children as is to be found by iron or steel and the sweet oyle of vitriol And so much of the abuse of Mercury I hope it will be a good warning unto many so that they will not so easily billet such a tyrannical guest in any ones house whereby the ruine thereof of necessity must follow And that cure deserveth no praise at all whereby one member is cured with the hurt of two or three other members As we see by the pox when one infected member is cured by Mercury and that but half and not firme at all that all the rest of the body is endangered thereby for the future And therefore it would be much better that such crude horse-physick might be severed from good medicaments such used instead of them as may firmely safely and without prejudice to other parts perform the cure of which kinde several are taught in this book But in case that you have patients which have been spoyled by such an ill-prepared Mercury then there is no better remedy to restore them then by medicines made of metals wherewith Mercury hath great affinity as of gold and silver for when they are often used they attract the Mercury out of all the members and carry it along with them out of the body and so do rid the body thereof But externally the precipitated Mercury may more safely be used then internally in case there be nothing else to be had viz. to corrode or eat away the proud flesh out of the wound But if in stead of it there should be used the corrosive oyle of Antimony Vitriol Allom or common salt it would be better and the cure much the speedier and it would be better yet that in the beginning good medicaments were used to fresh wounds and not by carlesness to reduce them to that ill condition that afterwards by paineful corrosives they must be taken away But such a Mercury would serve best of all for souldiers beggers and children that go to schoole for if it be strewed upon the head of children or into their clothes no louse will abide there any longer In which case Mercury must by his preparation not be made red but onely yellow and it must be used warily and not be strewed on too thick lest the flesh be corroded which would be the occasion of great mischief Of Aqua fortis OUt of Salt nitre and vitriol taking of each a like quantity or if the water is to be not altogether so strong two parts of vitriol to one part of salt nitre a water distilled is good to dissolve metals therewith and to separate them from one another as gold from silver and silver from gold which in the fourth part punctually shall be taught The Aqua fortis serveth also for many other Chymical operations to dissolve and fit metals thereby that they may be reduced the easier into medicaments but because the spirit of salt nitre and the Aqua fortis are almost all one and have like operations for if the Aqua fortis be dephlegmed and rectified you may perform the same operations with it which possibly may be performed with the spirit of salt nitre and on the other side the spirit of salt nitre will do all that can be done with the Aqua fortis whereof in the fourth part shall be spoken more at large Now I know well that ignorant laborators which do all their work according to custome without diving any further into the nature of things will count me an Heretick because I teach that the Aqua fortis made of vitriol and salt nitre is of the same nature and condition with the spirit of salt nitre which is made without vitriol saying that the Aqua fortis doth partake likewise of the spirit of vitriol betause vitriol also is used in the preparation of it To which I answer that although vitriol be used in the preparation of it yet for all that in the distilling nothing or but very little of its spirit comes over with the spirit of salt nitre and that by so small a heat it cannot rise so high as the spirit of salt nitre doth and the vitriol is added onely therefore unto the salt nitre that he may hinde its melting together and so the more facilitate its going into a spirit And for the more to be convinced of this truth the unbelieving may adde to such spirit of salt nitre as is made by it self a little of oyle of vitriol likewise made by it self and try to dissolve silver gilded with it and he will finde that his spirit of salt nitre by the spirit of vitriol is made unfit to make a separation for it preyeth notably upon the gold which is not done by Aqua fortis Of the sulphurized spirit of salt nitre THere can also be made a spirit of salt nitre with sulphur which is still in use with many viz. that they take a strong earthen retort which hath a pipe at the top and fasten it into a furnace and having put salt nitre in iâ— they let it melt and then through the pipe they throw peeces of sulphur of the bigness of a pea one after another which being kindled together with the nitre doth yield a spirit called by some spirit of salt nitre and by others oyle of sulphur but falsely for it is neither of both in regard that metals cannot be dissolved therewith as they are done with other spirit of salt nitre or sulphur neither is there any great use for it in physick and if it were good for any Chymical operations by the help of my distilling instrument might easily be made and in great quantity N B. But if salt nitre be mixed with sulphur in due proportion and in the first furnace be cast upon quick coles then all will be burnt and a strong spirit cometh over whose vertue is needless here to describe but more shall be mentioned of it in another place Of the Clissus AMong the Physitians of this latter age there is mention made of another spirit which they make of Antimony Sulphur and salt nitre a like quantity taken of each which they call Clissus and which they have in high esteem and not without cause because it can do much good if it be well prepared The inventor for the making thereof used a retort with a pipe as was mentioned by the sulphurized
spirit of salt nitre through which pipe he threw in his mixture And it is a good way if no better be known but if the Author had known my invention and way of distilling I doubt not but he would have set aside his that hath a nose or pipe retort and made use of mine The materials indeed are good but not the weight or proportion for to what purpose so great a quantity of sulphur it being not able to burn away all with so smal a quantity of salt nitre And if it doth not burn away but only sublime and stop the neck of the retort whereby the distillation is hindred how can it then yeeld any vertue Therefore you ought to take not so much sulphur but only such a quantity as will serve to kindle the salt nitre viz. to lb i. of salt nitre four drams of sulphur but because Antimony also is one of the ingredients which hath likewise much sulphur for there is no Antimony so pure but it containeth much combustible sulphur as in the fourth part of this book shal be proved therefore it is needless to add so much sulphur unto Antimonie to make it burn because it hath enough of it self And therefore I will set down my composition which I found to be better then the first Take Antimony lb i. salt nitre lb ij sulphur â„¥ iij. the materials must be made into smal powder and well mixed and at once cast in â„¥ ij thereof and there will come over a sulphureous acid spirit of Antimony which will mix it self with the water which hath been put before in the receiver which after the distillation is finished must be taken out and kept close for its use It is a very good diaphoretick or sweat-provoking medicine especially in feavers the plague epilepsie and all other diseases whose cure must be performed by sweating The Caput Mortuum may be sublimed into flores in that furnace which is described in the first part Of the Tartarifed spirit of nitre IN the very same manner there may also be distilled a good sweat-provoking spirit out of salt nitre and Tartar a like quantity taken of each which is very good to be used in the plague and malignant feavers The Caput Mortuum is a good melting powder for to reduce the calxes of metals therewith or else you may let it dissolve in a moyst place to oyle of Tartar Of the Tartarised spirit of Antimony A Much better spirit yet may be made of Tartar salt nitre and Antimony a like quantity being taken of each and made into fine powder and mixed well together which though it be not so pleasant to take is therefore not to be despised For not only in the plague and feavers but also in all obstructions and corruptions of blood it may be used with admiration of its speedy help The Caput Mortuum may be taken out and melted in a crucible and it will yeeld a Regulus the use whereof is described in the fourth part Out of the scoria or dross a red Ticture may be extracted with spirit of wine which is very useful in many diseases But before you extract with spirit of wine you may get a red lixivium out of it with sweet water which lixivium may be used externally for to mend the faults of the skin and to free it from scabbiness Upon this lixivium if you poure Vinegar or any other acid spirit there will precipitate a red pouder which if it be edulcorated and dryed can be used in physick It is called by some Tartar auratum diaphoreticum but it is no Diaphoretick but maketh strong vomits and so in case of necessity when you have no better medicine at hand it may be used for a vomitory from 6. 7. 9. to 15. grains Also out of the scoria there can be extracted a faire Sulphur with the spirit of urine and distilled over the Limbeck which is very good for all diseases of the lungs Of Stone-coles IF you mixe stone-coles with a like quantity of salt nitre and distill them you will get an admirable spirit and good to be used for external sores for it cleanseth and draweth the wounds together exceedingly and there will also come over a metallical vertue in the form of a red powder which must be separated from the spirit and kept for its use But if you cast in stone-coles alone by themselves and distill them there will come over not only a sharp spirit but also a hot and blood red oyle which doth powerfully dry and heal all running ulcers especially it will heal a scald-head better then any other medicine and it doth consume also all moyst and spongious excrescencies in the skin where ever they be but if you sublime stone-coles in the furnace described in the first part there comes over an acid metallical spirit and a great deale of black light flores which suddenly stanch bleeding and used in plasters are as good as other metallical flores Of the Sulphreous spirit of salt nitre or Aqua fortis IF you take one part of sulphur two parts of salt nitre and three parts of vitriol and distill them you will get a graduating Aqua fortis which smelleth strongly of sulphur for the sulphur is made volatil by the salt nitre and vitriol It is better for separating of metals then the common Aqua fortis If silver be put in it groweth black but not fixed some of it poured into a solution of silver a great deal of black calx will precipitate but doth not abide the tryal You may also abstract a strong sulphureous volatile spirit from it which hath like vertue as well internally as externally for bathes and may be used like unto a volatile spirit of Vitriol or Allome Of the Nitrous spirit of Arsenick IF you take white Arsenick and pure salt nitre of eacha a like quantity ground into fine powder and distill them you will get a blew spirit which is very strong but no water must be put into the receiver else it would turn white for Arsenick from which the blew cometh is precipitated by the water This spirit dissolveth aud graduateth the copper as white as silver and maketh it malleable but not fix The remaining Caput Mortuum maketh the copper white if it be cemented therewith but very brittle and unmalleable but how to get good silver out of Arsenick and with profit you shall finde in the fourth part In physick the blew spirit serveth for all corroding cancrous sores which if they be anoynted therewith will be killed thereby and made fit for healing To make aspirit of Sulphur crude Tartar and Salt nitre IF you grinde together one part of Sulphur two parts of Crude Tartar and four parts of salt nitre and distill it Philosopher-like you will get a most admirable spirit which can play his part both in Physick and Alchymie I will not advise any body to distill it in a retort for this mixture if it groweth warm from beneath it fulminateth
and may be broken then you have the best Causticum to open the skin withal where is need If you dissolve crude Tartar with it and coagulate it again you will get a salt which is useful in many Chymical operations and there may be extracted out of it a blood red Tincture with spirit of wine which proveth very effectual against all obstructions Also every combustible sulphur can be easily dissolved with it and used among bathes it acteth his part admirably If any oyle of spices be boyled therewith then the oyle will dissolve in it and they turn together to a balsome which doth mingle it self with water and is good to be taken inwardly for some infirmities but women with childe must not meddle with it because it makes them miscarry But after their delivery it is good to expel after burthen and other reliques But if you boyle Oleum ligni Rhodii with this liquor and rose water so long till the oyle do incorporate with the liquor and waters and then separate the watery substance from it you will get a sope as white as snow which may be used for to wash the hands with it and it doth smel very wel You may also wash the head with it for it strengthneth the braine and cleanseth the head and haire This sope may be distilled and it will yeild a penetrating oyle very good for the sinews and nerves Now as this liquor of Regulus Antimonii softneth the skin nailes haire feathers horns and the like and dissolveth them more then any thing in the world In the like manner also it hath power to dissolve not only metals but also the hardest stones but not in that manner which is done by boyling and was mentioned by the sulphur but after another way which is not proper for this place It sufficeth that I hinted it The fiery fixed salt nitre can be dissolved with spirit of salt or vinegar and sublimed into a Terra foliata What further can be effected with it doth not belong to this place and perchance some where else more shall be spoken of it To distil Butyrum out of Antimony Salt and vitriol like unto that which is made out of Antimony and Mercury sublimate TAke one part of crude Antimony two parts of common salt and four parts of vitriol calcined white beat all to powder and mix them wel and so cast it in as you were taught to do with other materials and there will come over a thick oyle of Antimony like butter which may be rectified like any other oyle that is made after the common way with Mercury sublimate and is also the same with it in use which use you may see in the first part the same also can be made better and in a greater quantity in the furnace described in the first part and also with less coals and time by the help of the open fire because it endureth greater heat then in the second furnace To distil Butyrum of Arsenick and Orpiment AFter the same manner as was taught with Antimony there may also out of Arsenick and Auripigment together with salt and vitriol a thick oyle be distilled which not only outwardly but also inwardly is safe to be used and may be so corrected that it shall be nothing at all inferior in vertue unto the butyrum Antimonii but rather go beyond it which perchance will seem impossible to many But he that knows the nature and condition of minerals will not be astonished at my words but they will be to him as a light in a darke place To make a rare spirit of vitriol IF common vitriol be dissolved in water and you boyle granulated Zinck in it all the metal and sulphur contained in the vitriol will precipitate on the Zinck and the solution will turn white the precipitated matter is nothing else but iron copper sulphur which the salt of vitriol did containe and now is drawn from it by the Zinck The reason why the metal precipitateth out of the salt upon the Zinck belongeth to the fourth part where you will finde it sufficiently explained The white solution from which the metallical matter is separated must be coagulated to the dryness of salt and so by it self a spirit distilled of it which riseth easily and is in taste and vertue not unlike unto common oyle of vitriol but only that this is a little purer then the common Here perchance many may object you take the green from the vitriol which Paracelsus doth not teach but bids us to keep it To which I answer that I do not teach here to make the sweet red oyle of vitriol whereof Paracelsus hath written but the white acid oyle which is as good or rather much better then the common which is made of the common impure vitriol To what purpose is it that you take green vitriol to distil whereas the green doth not come over and although that green should come over why should that oyle be better then the white for the green in the common vitriol is nothing else but copper and iron which the salt water running through the passages of Metals did dissolve and take into it self and as soon as such a green vitriol feeleth the fire the green turneth into red which is nothing else but a calcined iron or copper which in the reducing by a strong fire and by melting is made manifest Paracelsus hath not taught us that we should drive over the green by the force of the fire into a red and sweet oyle but he hath shewed us an other way which is found out by few men whereof in the beginning of the second part already hath been made mention This spirit or acid oyle distilled out of the purified vitriol iâ— of a pleasant sowreness and serveth for all those uses which above by the vitriol were described And this process is set down onely for that end that we may see that when the vitriol is purified that then it is easier distilled and yeildeth a more pleasant spirit then if it be yet crude and impure And that such a purifying of the vitriol iâ— nothing else but a precipitating of the metal which the water as before said running through the veines thereof hath assumed is thus to be proved dissolve any metal in its appropriate Menstruum whether it be done with distilled acid spirits or sharpe salts adding common water to them or else dry by the fire in a crucible according as you please and then put into that solution another metal such as the dissolvent doth sooner seize on then upon that which it hath assumed and then you will finde that the dissolvent doth let fall the assumed metal or mineral and fals upon the other which it doth sooner seise on and dissolveth it as being more friendly to it Of which precipitation in the fourth part shall be spoken more at large This one thing more is worthy your observation that among all metals there is none more soluble then Zinck and
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
with Tartar provoke sweat exceedingly whereby many malignities are expelled out of the body Likewise also the oyle hath its operation though this of several metals as of Mercury and copper is not well to be used inwardly because it causeth salivations and strong vomits But externally they are very good for to cleanse all putride ulcers and to lay a good and firme ground for healing them The remainder whereof the spirit and oyle is distilled you may take out and reduce it in a crucible into a metal so that what is not come over may not be lost but made to serve againe And as you were taught to distill spirits and oyles out of dissolved metals and crude Tartar so you may get them likewise out of common vitriol and Tartar viz. thus take one part of Tartar made into powder two parts of good pure vitriol mixe them well together and distill a spirit of them which though it be unpleasant to take for all that in all whatsoever obstructions and corruption of blood it is not to be despised but very successefully performeth its operation especially when it is rectified from its Caput Mortuum and so freed from its phlegme and its best vertue which consisteth in the volatility be not lost in the distilling N. B. But if you will have this spirit more effectual then you may joyn Tartar and vitriol by boyling them together in common water and crystallizing and then cast it in and distill it and there will come over a much purer and more penetrating spirit because that in the solution and coagulation of both many faeces were separated but if to one part of vitriol you take two parts of Tartar and dissolve it together and so filtre and coagulate it then the Tartar with the vitriol will shoote no more but there remaineth a thick liquor like unto honey out of which with spirit of wine there may be extracted a good tincture against obstructions This liquor taken from ℈ i. to ʒi doth purge very gently and sometimes it causeth a vomit especially if the vitriol was not pure and good and it may also be distilled into a spirit not inferior unto the former in vertue Besides the way above taught there is yet for to distill a metallized spirit of Tartar another way whereby several metals and minerals may be reduced into much pleasant spirits and oyles and of more vertue and it is done in this manner Take of the Tartar of white Rhenish wine made into powder powre upon it sweet raine or running water so that to lb j. of Tartar there come lb x. or lb xij of water or so much that the Tartar may be dissolved by it in the boyling and then boyle the mixture with the water in a tinned kettle or which is better in a glased pot until it be quite dissolved and in the mean while take off the skum with a woodden skimmer still as it riseth in the boyling and when no more skum riseth and all the Tartar is dissolved then powre the solution thus hot through a linen cloth tyed straight on an earth glased vessel that the remaining slymigness may be separated The Tartar water being strained let it stand for 24. or 30. houres without stirring and there will stick a crystallised Tartar to the sides of the vessel which after the water is powred off may be taken out and washed with cold water and then dryed This purified Tartar keep untill I shall teach you what further is to be done with it and this Tartar is pure enough for the above said purpose viz. to reduce metals into oyle with it as shall follow anone It is also good taken of it self for an abstersive to make the body soluble But if you desire to have it yet whiter and fairer and in great crystals you must proceed thus You must know this that all salts if they shall shoote into great crystals there must be a great quantity of them for of little there comes but little And if you will make great and faire white crystals of Tartar which will be not better then the former but only pleasant to the eye then you must proceed in this manner Take of white Tartar made into powder about ten or thirty lb. powre so much water upon it as is needful for to dissolve it and boyle it by a strong fire in a tinned kettle untill all the Tartar be dissolved which you may know by stirring in it with a woodden ladle and skim off diligently all the filth rising on the water and you must take heed that you take neither too much nor too little water to it for if you take too little part of the Tartar will remaine undissolved and so will be cast away and lost among the slime but if you take too much of it then the Tartar is too much dispersed in the water and cannot shoote well and so will likewise be lost being cast away afterwards with the water For I heard many a one complain that they could get but little of a pound and therefore supposed the Tartar to have been nought whereas the fault was not in the Tartar but in the workman that managed not wel his work powring away one half which did not shoote with the water but if you proceed well then four pound of common Tartar will yeild lb iij. of pure white Crystals The solution being well made and one and no skim more rising at the top cover the kettle and let it coole without removing from the warme place it stands in which will be done within three or four dayes if the kettle be bigg But the fire must be taken away from under the kettle and so let it stand for the time mentioned In the mean while the Tartar will crystallise to the sides of the kettle which crystals after the time is expired and the water powred off are to be taken out and washed and boyled again with fresh water and so skimmed and crystallised and this proceeding must be still reiterated untill which is done the third or fourth time the crystals are white enough then take them out dry and keep them for use whereof from ʒ j. to ℥ j. made into powder and taken in wine beer warme broth or other liquor will give some gentle stooles and serveth for those which cannot endure strong physick This Tartar may be sharpened with Diagridium or any other purging drug that so you need not take it in so great a quantity at once but a lesser dose may serve turn But if you do not look for great crystals but only for Tartar well purified then you may use this following manual and you will get exceeding faire and glistering little crystals which need no beating into powder but by the working come to be so pure and fine as if they had been ground upon a stone and looking not like a dead powder but having a gloss like unto small glistering snow that fell in very cold weather and it is done
thus when the crystals are come to be pure enough by often dissolving and coagulating then dissolve them once again in pure water and pour the solution into a clean vessel of wood copper or earth being glased and let it not stand still as above taught with the crystals but as soon as it is powred in with a clean wooden stick stirr about continually without ceasing till all be cold which will be done in half an houre In this stirring the Tartar hath no time to shoote into crystals but doth coagulate into the smallest glistering powder pleasant to behold and like unto frozen snow settleth to the bottom of the vessel then poure off the water and dry the powder and keep it for use The waters which you powred off in regard that they containe yet some Tartar ought not to be cast away as others do but evaporated and the Tartar contained in them will be saved and so nothing will be lost and in this manner not onely white Tartar may be reduced into clear crystals but also the red being several times dissolved and crystallised loseth its redness and turneth white and cleer Besides the above said there is another way to reduce the Tartar into great white crystals at once by precipitation but these being good enough for our purpose viz. to make good medicines out of metals I hold it needlesse to lose more time by the relation of it and so I will acquiesce The other way to make a metallised spirit of Tartar TAke of purified Tartar dissolved and coagulated but once as much as you please poure so much raine or other sweet water to it as will serve to dissolve it in which solution you must boyle the plate of metals until the Tartar have dissolved enough of it so that it will dissolve no more the signe whereof is when the solution is deep coloured of the metal and during your boyling you must often supply the evaporated water with pouring on of other lest the Tartar come to be too dry and burn and this solution may be done best of all in a metallical vessel as when you will make the solution of iron you may do it in an iron pot and for copper you may take a copper kettle and so forth for other metals a vessel made of the same is to be taken But you must know that gold silver and crude Mercury unless they be first prepared cannot be dissolved like iron and copper but when they are prepared first for the purpose then they will also be dissolved In like manner some minerals also must be first prepared before they can be dissolved with Tartar an water But if you can have good glasses or glased vessels of earth you may use them for all metals and minerals for to dissolve them therein and the solution you may not onely use of it self for a medicine but also distill it and make a very effectual spirit and oyle of it as followeth To distil the spirit and oyle of Lead and Tin TAke the filings of Lead and Tin and boyle them with the water or solution of Tartar in a leaden or tin-vessel untill the Tartar be sweetned by the water so that it will dissolve no more to which pass it will be brought within twenty four hours for both these metals will be dissolved but slowly but if you would perform this solution sooner then you must reduce the metals first into a soluble calx and then they may be dissolved in less time then an houre The solution being done you must filtre it and in B. abstract all the moysture to the thickness or consistency of honey and there will remaine a pleasant sweet liquor which of it self without any further preparation may safely be used inwardly for all such diseases for which other medicaments made of these metals are useful Especially the sweet liquor of lead and tin doeth much good in the plague not only by driving the poyson from the heart by sweating but also by breaking or allaying the intolerable heat so that a happy cure doth follow upon it but externally the liquor of lead may be used succesfully in all inflammations and it healeth very suddenly not only fresh wounds but also old ulcers turned to fistulaes for the Tartar cleanseth and lead consolidates The liquor of tin is better for inward use then for outward whose operation is not so fully known yet as that of lead But if you will distill a spirit thereof then cast it in with a ladle by little and little as above in other distillations oftentimes was mentioned and there will come over a subtle spirit of Tartar carrying along the vertue and best essence of the metals and therefore doth also prove much more effectual then the common spirit of Tartar which is made alone by it selfe and this spirit as well that which is made of tin as that of lead if it be well dephlegmed first may be used and held for a great treasure in all obstructions especially of the spleen and few other medicins will go beyond them but besides there must not be neglected the use of good purging medicines if need require them With the spirit there cometh over also an oyle which is of a quick operation especially in wounds and sores of the eye where other oyntments and plasters may not so fitly be used for it doth not only allay the heat and inflammation a common symptome of the eye wounds but also doth hinder and keep back all other symptomes which few other medicaments are able to do and for the residue if it be driven further by the strongest fire then there will come over a sublimate which in the aire dissolveth into oyle which is also of a powerful operation not only in physick but also in Alchymie And the Lead runeth together in a fair white Regulus which is much whiter purer and fairer then other common lead but the Tartar retaines the blackness and raiseth it self to the top as a fusible dross which is impregnated with the sulphur of lead wherewith you may colour haire bones feathers and the like and make them to be and remaine brown and black I made tryal once of such a distillation in an iron vessel whereby the same in the inside was so whitened by the purified lead that it was like unto fine silver in brightness which afterwards trying againe it would not fall so faire as at first whereat none ought to wonder for I could write something more if it were fit of Tartar knowing well what may be effected with it if I did not stand in fear of scoffers which do vilifie all what they do not understand I durst presume to call Tartar the sope of the Philosophers for in the cleansing of some metals by long experience I found it of admirable vertue though I would not be understood thus as if I did count it to be the true Azoth universalis Philosophorum whereby they wash their Laton but I cannot deny but that it is
and â„¥ v. or â„¥ vj. of spring or raine water put all into a clean copper vessel which is not greasie and boyle it upon a coal fire as long or somewhat longer then you use to boyle an egg or at the furthest half a quarter of an hour take off the skum in boyling let it stand till it be milk warm so that it may be drunke This potion tasting almost like warme wine sweetned with sugar give unto the patient to drink and let him fast upon it and within half an hour it wil begin to work upwards and downwards whereat you need not to be amazed but only keep the body warm and within an houre it will have done working But if you will drive out wormes from little children by purging then in stead of the copper-vessel take a clean iron-vessel and put in a less quantity of Tartar sugar and water and boyle it as abovesaid and give it to them and it will purge onely downward but sometimes it will also give a gentle vomit which will do them no hurt but rather will cleanse the stomach the better But if the drink be too weak so that it doth not work it may be used againe the next day but you must take more of the ingredients or else let them boyle longer there is no danger in it at all if you proceed aright and it is much pleasanter to take then the bitter wormseed wherewith they usually torment children The reason why this decoction works in this manner is that the Tartar and sugar being boyled in metallical vessels with water worke upon the metal and extract vertue out of it which causeth vomiting and purging the Tartar also being helpful to it How to make a Tartarised spirit of Mercuâ—y VUlgar Mercury cannot be dissolved like the former metals with Tartar and water without any foregoing preparation but must be sublimed first with salt and vitriol or crystallised with Aqua fortis and then it may be dissolved by boyling with Tartar and water and reduced into a balsame like other metals but it is not to be used inwardly unless it be digested a sufficient time so that its fiercenesse be allayed Externally it may safely be used in all desperate especially venereal sores and it is a very effectual and profitable medicine for them But most of all it doth serve for Alchymie although few do know this guest because he will not be seen by every one The spirit which comes over from it by distillation is an admirable thing not only in physick but also in Alchymie yet you must take heed that in stead of a friend you do not harbor a great enemy for its force and vertue is very great and powerful How to make a Tartarised spirit of Gold and Silver GOld and silver also can by no means be dissolved with Tartar in a wet way but in a dry way adding its helper to it it will easily dissolve which doth not belong hither but if you will draw a spirit of it then the gold and silver must first by dissolving and coagulating be reduced to crystals and then dissolved with purified Tartar and water and of Gold you will get a yellow solution and of silver a white inclining unto green which being reduced to the consistency of honey may be used safely and without fear The solution of Gold doth loosen and keep the body open it effectually strengtheneth the stomach heart lungs and liver and other principal members and that of silver purgeth very forcibly according to the quantity given like another purge but without harme or danger so that in all diseases where purging is necessary it may be used safely from ℈ i. to Ê’ss but that of gold is used in a smaller quantity and both the liquor of gold and of silver may very suceessfully be used externally but because for external uses inferior metals will serve â—he turn it is needless to use costly things thereto The spirit which is forced from it by distillation is endued with great vertue for the volatile part of the metal cometh over joyned with the spirit of Tartar the remainder may be reduced so as it was taught of other metals This spirit especially that of Gold is exceeding good in the plague and other diseases where sweating is necessary for it driveth not onely by sweating all malignities from the heart but also doth strengthen the same and preserveth it from all hurtful symptomes Likewise also that of silver is very commendable especially if it be first dephlegmed from its Caput Mortuum as above was taught in the preparation of the common spirit of Tartar For any Physitian expert in Chymistry may easily guess what the spirit of Tartar well rectified and impregnated with the vertues of gold may effect and therefore it is needless to make any further mention of it but it shall be left to the tryal thereof To make a Tartarized spirit of Antimony CRude Antimony cannot be dissolved in such a manner as above hath been taught but if it be first prepared into flores or a vitrum it yeildeth easily its vertue in boyling and it is done thus Take to one part of the flores or of smal ground vitrum Antimonii made per se three parts of pure Tartar and 12. or 15 parts of clean water boyle the Antimony with the Tartar and water in a glased pot for three or four hours and the evaporated water must be still supplyed with other that the Tartar may not burn for want of water and the vitrum must be sometimes stirred about with a wooden spatula which the flores being light do not need This done the Tartar water will be deep red coloured by the Antimony and leave the remaining Antimony settled in the bottom from which powre off the solution and after having filtred it evaporate the water from it and then extract it once more with spirit of wine and you will get a blood red Extractum whereof 1. 2. 3. to 10. or 12. drops given at once causeth gentle vomits and stooles which may be safely used by old and young people in all diseases that have need of purging and you need not fear any danger at all For I know no vomit which purgeth more gently then this and if you please you may make it work only per inferiora downward so that it shall cause no vomits at all and you need do nothing else but make a toste of brown bread and hold it hot to your nose and mouth and when this is almost cold have another hot in readiness and so use one after another by turns till you feel no more loathing and that the vertue of Antimony hath begun to work downward This is a good secret for those that would use Antimonial physick but that they are afraid of vomiting which they are not able to endure But if you will not spend so much paines as to make such an Extract then do as you was taught above to do with the copper and
take ten or twelve grains of prepared Antimony for an old body but for a young one 5. 6 grains or more or less according to the condition of the person and â„¥ ss or Ê’vj of pure Tartar and together with â„¥ iiij or â„¥ v. of water put it in a little pipkin and boyle it a quarter of an houre then poure the solution onely into a cup and dissolve a little sugar in iâ— whereby the acidity of the Tartar will be somewhat qualified This decoctum drink warm and keep your self as it is fit and it will work much better then it had been steeped over night in wine which not every one can abide to take fasting but this decoctum because it tasteth like warm and sweet wine is much pleasanter for to take N. B. It is to be admired that well prepared Antimony is never taken in vaine for although it be given in a very small quantity so that it cannot cause either stooles or vomits yet it worketh in sensibly viz. it cleanseth the blood and expelleth many malignities by sweat so that mighty diseases may be rooted out thereby without any great sensible operation Which many times hapned unto me and gave me occasion to think further of it and therefore I sought how to prepare Antimony so that it might be used daily without causing of vomits or stooles which I put in execution accordingly and found it good as afterward shall follow Of the solution above described viz. of the flores of Antimony with Tartar make a good quantity and after the evaporation of the water distill a spirit of it and there will also come over a black oyle which must be separated from the spirit and rectified per se and externally applyed it will not onely do the same wonderful operations which above have been ascribed to the simple oyle of Tartar but it goeth also far beyond it for the best essence of Antimony hath joyned it self thereunto in the distilling and so doubled the vertue of the oyle of Tartar and this oyle may with credit be used not onely for all podagrical tumors to allay them very readily but also by reason of its dryness it doth consume all other tumors in the whole body whether they be caused by winde or water for the volatile salt by reason of its subtlety conveigheth the vertue of Antimony into the innermost parts of the body in a marvellous and incredible way whereby much good can be performed in Chyrurgerie As for the spirit you may not onely use it very succesfully in the plague pox scurvy Melancholia Hypochondriaca feavers and other obstructions and corruptions of blood but also if you put some of it into new wine or beer and let it work with it the wine or beer comes to be so vertuous thereby that if it be daily used it doth stay and keep off all diseases proceeding from superfluous humors and corrupted blood so that neither plague scurvy Melancholia hypochondriaca or any other disease of that kinde can take roote in those that daily use it wherein no metal or mineral except gold can be paralleld with it but in case you have no conveniency for to make that spirit and yet you would willingly have such a medicinal drink made of Antimony then take but of the solution made with Tartar before it be distilled and put lb i. or lb iss of it into 18. or 20. gallons of new wine or beer and let it work together and the vertue of the Antimony by the fermentation of the wine will grow the more volatile and efficacious to work And if you cannot have new wine in regard that it doth not grow every where you may make an artificial wine of honey sugar peares figs cherries or the like fruit as in the following third part shall be taught which may stand in stead of natural wine These medicinal wines serve for a sure and safe preservative not only to prevent many diseases but also if they have possessed the body already effectually to oppose and expel them Also all externall open sores which by daubing and plastering could not be remedied by daily drinking thereof may be perfectly cured For not only Basilius Valentinus and Theophrastus Paracelsus but many more before and after them knew it very well and have written many good things of it which few did entertain and because their description was somewhat dark most despised and diffamed them for untruths In like manner and much more may this my writing be lightly esteemed of because I do not set down long and costly processes but only according to truth and in simplicity do labour to serve my neighbour which doth not sound well in the ears of the proud world which rather do tickle and load themselves with vaine and unprofitable processes then hearken unto the truth and it is no wonder that God suffereth such men which only look after high things and despise small things to be held in error Why do we look to get our Medicines by troubling our braines and by subtle and tedious works whereas God through the simple nature doth teach us otherwise Were it not better to let simple nature instruct us surely if we would be in love with small things we should finde great ones But because all men do strive only for great and high things therefore the small also are kept from them and therefore it would be well that we could fancy this maxime that also things of small account can do something as we may see by the Tartar and the despicable Antimony and not only so many coles glasses materials and the like but also the pretious time would not be wasted so much in preparing of medicaments for all is not gold that glistereth but oftentimes under a homely coate some glorious thing is hid which must be taken notice of Some may object why I do teach to joyn the Antimony first with the Tartar by the help of common water before its fermentation with the wine whether it would not be as good to put it in of it self in powder or to dissolve it with spirit of salt which would be easier to do then with Tartar and so let it work To which I answer that the working wine or drinke receiveth no metallical calx or solution unless it be first ptepared with Tartar or spirit of wine For although you dissolve Antimony or any other metal or mineral in spirit of salt or of vitriol or of salt nitre or any other acid spirit and then think to let it work with wine or any other drink you will finde that it doth not succeed for the acide spirit will hinder the fermentation and let fall the dissolved metals and so spoyle the work and besides Tartar may be used among all drinks and doth more agree with ones taste and stomach then any corrosive spirit In the same manner as was taught of Antimony other minerals and metals also may be fitly joyned with wine or other drink the
use of such Antimonized wine is this viz. that it be drunk at meals betwixt meals like other ordinary drink to quench thirst but for all that it must not be drunk in a greater quantity then that Nature be able to bear it For if you would drink of it immoderately it would stir vomits which ought not to be for it is but only to work in an insensible way which if it be done it preserveth not only the body from all diseases proceeding from corrupted impure blood as the plague leprosie pox scurvy and the like but by reason of its hidden heat whereby it doth consume and expel all evil and salt humors as the Sun dryeth up a poole by sweat and urine so doth unburthen the blood from all such sharpe and hurtful humors c. It doth not only cure the above said diseases but also all open sores ulcers fistulaes which by reason of the superfluity of salt humors can admit of no healing and it doth dispatch them in a short time in a wonderful manner and so firmely that there is no relapse to be feared This drink is not only good for the sick but also for the whole though in a smaller quantity because that it wonderfully cleanseth the whole body and you need not fear the least hurt either in young or old sick or healthy And let no man stumble at it that many ignorant men do diffame Antimony and hold it to be poyson and forbid it to be used for if they knew it well they would not do so but because such men know no more then what they get by reading or by heare-say they pronounce a false sentence and it might be replyed unto them as Apelles did to the Shoe-maker Ne â—utor ultra crepidam but what shall we say Non omnis fert omnia tell us When an Ass after his death doth rot out of the carcass there grew beetles which can flye higher then the Ass from whence they came In the like manner we wish it may fare with the haters of the royal Antimony viz. that their posterity may get seeing eyes and what they know not they may forbear to despise and scoffe at I must confess that if Antimony be not well prepared and besides be indiscreetly used by the unskilful that it may prejudice a man in his health which even the vegetables also may do But to reject it by reason of the abuse would be a very unwise act If perchance a childe should get into his hand a sharpe-edged knife and hurt himself or others because it doth not understand how to use a knife should therefore the use of a knife be rejected and forbidden to those that are grown up and know how to use it Good sharpe tooles make a good workman so good quick working and powerful medicines make a good physitian and the sharper the toole is the sooner a stone carver or other crafts man can spoyle his work by one cut which he doth amiss which also must be understood of powerful medicines for if they be used pertinently in a short time more good may be done with them then with weak medicaments in a long time Now as a sharpe toole is not to be handled but by a good workman so likewise a powerful medicine ought to be managed by an understanding and conscientious physitian who according to the condition of the person and the disease knows to increase or abate the strength of the medicine and not by such an one as doth minister it ignorantly without making any difference at all Let no man marvaile that I ascribe such great vertues unto Antimony it being abundantly enriched with the primum ens of gold If I should say ten times as much more of it I should not lye It s praise is not to be expressed by any mans tongue for purifying of the blood there is no mineral like unto it for it cleanseth and purifieth the whole man in the highest degree if it be well prepared first and then discreetly used It is the best and next friend to gold which by the same also is freed and purified from all addition and filth as we said even now of man Every Antimony for the most part agreeth with the gold and its medicine for out of Antimony by the cleansing Art may be made firme gold as in the fourth part shall be taught and which is more by a long digestion a good part of the same is changed into gold Whereby it is evident that it hath the nature and property of gold and it is better to be used for a medicine then the gold it self because the golden vertue is as yet volatile in this but in the other is grown fixed and compacted and may be compared to be like an old man to a young child which you may lead whither you please Therefore it is my advice that in the Antimony its medicine should be sought it being hid therein very richly and not to trifle away time and cost in vaine and useless things Further note That if you desire to contract neerer together the vertue of Antimony or any other mineral or metal as above was taught to be done with the Tartar you must by exhalation of the superfluous moystness in Balneo reduce the solution to a honey thick liquor and poure spirit of wine upon it for to extract and within few dayes it will be very red then powre it off and powre on other and let this likewise extract continue this proceeding with shifting the spirit of wine till the spirit of wine can get no more Tincture then put all the coloured spirit of wine together into a glass with a long neck and digest it so long in a tepide Balneum till the colour or best essence of Antimony be separated from the spirit of wine and settled to the bottom like a blood red thick fat oyle so that the spirit of wine is turned white againe which is to be separated from the faire and pleasant oyle of Antimony which is made without any corrosive and is to be kept as a great treasure in physick The spirit of wine retaines somewhat of the vertue of Antimony and may be used with success of it self both inwardly and outwardly But the Tincture as a Panacea in all diseases acteth its part with admiration and as here mentioned of Antimony so in the same manner all metals by the help of Tartar and spirit of wine may without distilling be reduced into pleasant and sweet oyles which are none of meanest in Physick for every knowing and skilful Chymist will easily grant that such a metallical oyl as without all corrosives out of the gross metals is reduced into a pleasant essence cannot be without great and singular vertue How to make good spirits and oyles out of Pearles Corals Crabs-eyes and other light soluble stones of beasts and fishes TAke to one part of pearles or corals made into fine powder three or four parts of pure Tartar and so
be melted out of it but also that other inferior metals may be purified thereby so that they are like unto the best gold and silver in all tryals and although I never got any great profit by the doing of it yet it doth suffice me that I have seen several times the possibility and truth thereof which in its proper place likewise shall be taught This liquor of the flints is of that nature toward the metals that it maketh them exceeding faire but not so like women do scowre their vessels of tin copper iron c. with lye and smal sand till all filth be scoured off and that they get a bright and faire gloss but the metals must be dissolved therein by Chymical art and then either after the wet or dry way digested in it for its due space of time which Paracelsus calleth to go into the mothers wombe and be born again if this be done rightly then the mother will bring forth a pure child All metals are engendred in sand or stone and therefore they may well be called the mother of metals and the purer the mother is the purer and sounder child she will bear and among all stones there is none found purer then the peble crystal or sand which are of one nature if they be simple and not impregnated with metals And therefore the peble or sand is found to be the fittest bath to wash the metal withal But he that would take this bath to be the Philosophers secret Menstruum whereby they exalt the king unto the highest purity would be mistaken for their Balneum is more friendly to gold by reason of its affinity with it then with other metals but this doth easier dissolve other metals then gold Whereby it is evident that it cannot be Bernhards his fountaine Bernhardi fontina but must be held only to be a particular cleanser of metals But omitting this and leaving it to the further practise and tryal of those that want no time nor conveniency for to search what may be done with it let us take notice of the use of this liquor in physick for which uses sake this book is written That which hath been said was onely done to that end that we may observe that we must not alwayes look upon dear and costly things but that many times even in mean and contemptible things as sand and pebles much good is to be found How to extract a blood-red Tincture with spirit of wine out of the liquor of peble-stones IF you will extract a Tincture out of peble-stones for use in Physick or in Alchymie then in stead of the white take a faire yellow green or blew peble or flint whether it hold fixed or volatile gold and first with salt of Tartar distil the spirit thereof or if you do not care for the spirit then melt the mixture in a covered crucible into a transparent soluble and fusible glass and in a warme morter make it into fine powder put this powder in a long necked glass and powre upon it rectified spirit of wine it needeth not to be dephlegmed it maters not if it be but pure let it remaine upon it in a gentle warmth till it be turned red the glas with the prepared peble or flints must be often stirred about that the peble be divided and the spirit of wine may be able to work upon it then powre off the coloured spirit of wine and powre on other and let this likewise turn red this powring off and on must be iterated so often till the spirit of wine get no more colour out of it All the tinctured spirit of wine put together and abstract in a Balneum through a Limbeck from the Tincture which will remaine in the bottome of the glass body like a red juyce which you must take out and keep for its use The use of the Tincture of pebles or flints in Physick THis Tincture if it be made of gold pebles or sand is to be held for none of the least medicines for it doth powerfully resist all soluble Tartareous coagulations in the hands knees feet reins and bladder and although in want of those that hold gold it be extracted but only out of common white pâ—ble it doth act its part however though not altogether so well as the first Let no man marvel that sand or pebles made potable have so great vertue for not all things are known to all and this Tincture is more powerful yet if first gold have been dissolved with the liquor of pebles before the extraction And let no man imagine that this tincture comes from the salt of Tartar which is taken to the preparing of the oyle of sand because that of it self also doth colour the spirit of wine for there is a great difference betwixt this Tincture and that which is extracted out of the salt of Tartar for if you distil that of the salt of Tartar in a little glass body or retort there will come first a cleer spirit of wine then an unsavory phlegme and a salt will remaine behinde in all like unto common salt of Tartar wherein after its calcining not the least colour appeareth and because none came over neither it might be questioned where it remained then To which I answer that it was not a true Tincture but only that the sulphur in the sprit of wine was exalted or graduated by the corporeal salt of Tartar and so got a red colour which it loseth as soone as the salt of Tartar is taken from it and reassumeth its former white colour even as it hapneth also when the salt of urine or of hartshorn or soot or any other like urinous salt is digested with spirit of wine that the spirit turneth red of it but not lastingly but just so as it fals out with the salt of Tartar for if by rectification it be separated again from the spirit of wine each viz. both the salt and also the spirit of urine doth recover again its former colour whereby it appeareth that as above said it was not a true Tincture He that will beleeve it let him dissolve but â„¥ i. of common white salt of Tartar in lb i. of spirit of wine and the spirit will turn as red of it as if it had stood a long time upon several pounds of blew or green calcined salt of Tartar and if I had not tryed it my self several times I should have also been of that opinion but because I found it to be otherwise therefore I would not omit to set down my opinion though I know I shall deserve smal thanks of some especially of those which rather will err with the greater number then to know and confess the truth with the less number However I do not say that the supposed tincture of the salt of Tartar is of no vertue or useless for I know well enough that it was found very effectual in many diseases for the purest part of the salt of Tartar hath been dissolved by
the spirit of wine it being thus coloured thereby and therefore that tinctured spirit of wine may very fitly be used But as for the Tincture which is extracted out of the prepared pebles it is clean of another condition for if you abstract the spirit of wine from it though it also cometh over white yet there remaineth a deep tinctured salt whose colour is lasting in the strongest fire and therefore may be counted a true Tincture How by the help of this liquor out of Gold its red colour may be extracted so that it remains white THis oyle or liquor of pebles is of such a condition that it doth precipitate all metals which are dissolved by corrosives but not after that manner as the salt of Tartar doth for the calx of metals which is precipitated by this liquor because that the pebles do mingle themselves therewith is grown much heavier thereby then if it had been only precipitated with salt of Tartar For example dissolve in Aqua Regia as much Gold as you please and powre of this liquor upon it till all the Gold fall to the bottome like a yellow powder and the solution turn white and cleer which you must powre off and edulcorate the precipitated Gold with sweet water and then dry it as you was taught to do with the Aurum fulminans and you need not fear that it will kindle and fulminate in the drying as it useth to do when it is precipitated with salt of Tartar or spirit of urine but you may boldly dry it by the fire and it will look like yellow earth and will weigh as heavy again as the Gold did weigh before the solution the cause of which weight are the peble stones which did precipitate themselves together with the Gold For the Aqua Regia by its acidity hath mortified the salt of Tartar and robbed it of its vertues so that it could not choose but let fall the assumed pebles or sand on the other side the salt of Tartar which was in the liquor of pebles hath annihilated the sharpeness of the Aqua Regia so that it could not keep the dissolved gold any longer whereby both the gold and the pebles are freed from their dissolver This edulcorated and dryed yellow powder put into a clean crucible and set it between live coals that it begin to be red hot but not long and the yellow will be changed into the fairest purple colour which is pleasant to behold but if you let it stand longer then the purple colour vanisheth and it turns to a brown and brick colour and therefore if you desire to have a faire purple coloured gold you must take it off from the fire as soon as it is come to that colour and let it not stand any longer else it loseth that colour again This faire gold-powder may be used by the rich which are able to pay for it from ℈ i. to Ê’ss in convenient vehicles and in all diseases where sweating is needâ—ul for besides the provoking of sweat it comforteth not onely the heart but also by the vertue of the peble it expelleth the stone in the reines and bladder if it be not grown to the height of hardness like sand together with the urine so that it may be safely used as well to prevent as to cure the plague gout and stone How to make further out of this purple coloured gold a soluble Ruby for medicinal use shall be taught in the fourth part for in regard that it must be done by a strong fire in a crucible it doth not belong hither but to its proper place where other like medicaments are taught to be made If you will extract the colour out of this precipitated gold then powre upon it before it be put into the fire for to calcin of the strongest spirit of salt and in a gentle heat the spirit will dissolve part of the gold which will be much fairer and deeper in colour then if it had been done with Aqua Regia upon this solution powre five or six times as much of dephlegmed spirit of wine and digest both together its due time then by the digestion of a long time part of the Gold will fall out of the solution to the bottome like a faire white powder which may be reduced with Borax or salt nitre and Tartar it is white like silver and as heavy as other gold and may easily get its colour again by the help of Antimony The residue out of which the white gold is faln viz. the spirit of salt mingled with the spirit of wine must be abstracted from the Tincture and there will remaine a pleasant sowre liquor coloured by the gold upon the bottome of the glass body which is almost of the same vertue which above hath been ascribed to other tinctures of the gold Especially this liquor of gold strengthneth the heart braine and stomach N. B. Sometimes there comes over with the spirit of wine a little red oyle which the strong spirit of salt hath separated from the spirit of wine and it is impregnated with the Tincture of gold It is an excellent cordial few are found like unto it whereby weak people decayed by sickness or age may be kept alive a long time they taking daily some drops of it who else for want of the humidum radicale would be forced to exchange their life for death Here some body may ask whether this Tincture is to be counted or taken for a true Tincture of gold or whether there be another better to be found To which I answer that though many hold it to be such and I my self do call it so here yet that after due examination it will not prove to be such for although some vertue is taken from the gold by this way yet it doth stil keep its life though it be grown weak and pale because it can so easily recover its former sound colour by a contemptible mineral if its true Tincture or soul were gone from it surely an inferior mineral could not restore it to life but of necessity there would be required such a thing for to do it which hath not onely so much as it hath need of for itself but hath a transcendent power to give life unto dead things As we may see by a man or any sensible beast that if they have lost their vigor by adversities in that no life more is perceived in them yet by medicines fit for the purpose they may be refreshed and brought to their former health so that their former disease appeareth no more in them but if their soul be once gone the dead body can by no medicines be restored unto life again but must remaine dead so long till he in whose power it is to give and to take life have mercy upon it So likewise it is to be understood of the gold when its colour is taken from it and yet its life is left which by the help of Antimony being its medicine as also by
followeth Take of the urine of sound men living chaste gather a good quantity together in a wooden vessel let it stand for its time to putrefie and distil a spirit thereof which afterward in a great glass retort with a wide neck must be rectified over calcined Tartar and still that which cometh over first may be saved by it self and so the second and third also the strongest may be used for the preparing of metallical medicines and the weaker for a medicine alone by it self or else mingled with fit vehicles and the stronger may serve for the preparations of metallical medicines the salt which in the rectification cometh over with the strongest spirit may be put to the weakest to make it the stronger or else it may be saved by it selfe in a good strong glass But because the spirit of urine is tedious to make therefore I will shew how to get it easier out with salt Armoniack The preparation is thus Take of salt Armoniack and lapis calaminaris ana make each by it self into powder and then mixe them together and cast of it into the red hot vessel at once no more then â„¥ ss or â„¥ i. Unto the vessel there must be applyed a great receiver for this spirit goeth with such a force and power that it were impossible to distil it in a retort without danger or loss for I broke more then one receiver with it before I did invent this instrument The spirits being wel settled in the receiver cast in more of your mixture this continue so long till all your matter is cast in then take off the receiver and powre the spirit into a strong glass which must be well closed at the top but not with wax and a bladder because it softeneth the wax and doth penetrate through the bladder but first stop it with paper then melt Lacca or sulphur and powre it upon it so that it come to be very well closed and then it will not be able to exhale or thou mayest get such glasses made as in the fifth part shall be taught for to keep all the subtle spirits in them for more security sake And this spirit if no water have been mixt with it in the receiver needeth no rectifying but he that will have it stronger yet may rectifie it through a glass retort and so keep it for use And this is the best way to make a strong spirit out of salt Armoniack the same may be done also by taking of filed Zinck in stead of lapis calaminaris also by adding of salt of Tartar salt made of the Lee of wood ashes unquencht lime and the like but the spirit is nothing neer so strong although all those things may be done with it that are done with the former as that which is made with lapis calaminaris or Zinck The process or the manner of making it is this TAke lb i. of salt Armoniack made into powder and as much of salt of Tartar mixe both together by the help of a lye made of Tartar or only with common water so that all come to be like a pap and cast in one spooneful thereof at once into a distilling vessel then cast in more till you have spirit enough N. B. The salt of Tartar may also be mixed drye with the salt Armoniack without any lye or water and so distilled but it is not so good as when the mixture is tempered with lye or water for if it be cast in dry the spirit will come over in the form of a volatile salt but if the mixture have been moystened then most part thereof will come over like a fiery burning spirit in like manner also the mixture of lyme and salt Armoniack may be tempered moist and it will yield more spirit then if it be distilled dry It may be asked why lapis calaminaris Zinck and unquencht lyme calcined Tartar salt of pot-ashes fixed salt nitre or the like things prepared by the fire must be added unto salt Armoniack and whether it be not as good to add some bolus or other earth as usually is done to other salts and so to distill a spirit of it To which I answer that there are two sorts of salts in salt Armoniack viz. a common acide salt and a volatile salt of urine which without mortifying of one of them cannot be separated for as soon as they feel the heat the volatile salt of urine carrieth the acid salt upwards and they both together yeild a sublimate of the same nature and essence with common salt Armoniack which is not sublimed salt Armoniack is purer then the common And no spirit would come over from it if it should be mingled with bole brick dust sand or any other strengthless earth and so distilled but the whole salt as it is of it self leaving its earthy substance behinde would sublime thus dry but that it falleth out otherwise with the lapis calaminaris which is also like an earth so that a separation of the salts is wrought thereby and a volatile spirit commeth over the reason is that the lapis calaminaris and Zinck are of such a nature that they have a great affinity with all acid things and do love them and are loved by them likewise whereof some mention hath been made in the first part so that the acide salt sticks to it in the warmth and uniteth it self with it and the salt volatile is made free and distilled into a subtle spirit which could not have been done if the acide salt had not been kept back by the lapis calaminaris or Zinck But that a spirit is distilled off by addition of fixed salts the reason is because that fixed salts are contrary unto acid salts and if they get the upperhand do kill the same and rob them of their strength whereby those things which are mixed with them are freed from their bond and so it fals out here with salt Armoniack that when by addition of a vegetable fixd salt the acidity of the salt Armoniack is killed the salt of urine which formerly was bound therewith gets its former freedom and strength and sublimated turnes into a spirit Which could not have been done if common salt had been added to the salt Armoniack in stead of salt of Tartar for the salt of urine would thereby as by a far greater enemy be killed and kept back so that it could yield no spirit I thought it fit to give notice hereof to the ignorant not for those who knew it before and to the unknowing it will do much good and that they may have a light for other labours for I have many times seen and see iâ— still by daily experience that the most part of your vulgar Chymists whatsoever they do having got it either by reading seeing or hearing they hurle it over like botchers and are not able to give any solid reason why this or that must fall out in such or another manner not labouring to finde out the natures and conditions
did not crystallise may be extracted with spirit of wine and the saeces being cast away the extraction will be pleasanter The spirit of wine abstracted from it there will remaine a medicine of no small value in all diseases of the braine To extrast a red Tincture out of Antimony or common sulphur BOyle sulphur or Antimony made into powder in a lye of the salt of Tartar till the lye turn red and powre this spirit upon it and distil gently in a Balneum and there will come over a faire Tincture with the volatile spirit silver anoynted therewith will be guilt though not lastingly It serveth for all diseases of the lungs How to ripen Antimony and common sulphur so that several sorts of such smels as vegetables have arise from thence DIssolve Antimony or sulphur in the liquor of pebles or sand coagulate the solution to a red mass upon this mass powre spirit of urine and let it extract in a gentle warmth The spirit being coloured red powre it off and powre on other spirit let it extract likewise and this you must iterate so often till the spirit will extract no more tincture then powre all the extracts together and abstract the spirit of urine from it in Balneum through a limbeck and there will remaine a blood red liquor and if you powre upon this spirit of wine it will extract a fairer tincture then the former was leaving the saeces behinde and this tincture smelleth like garlick and if it be digested three or four weeks in a gentle warmth it will get a very pleasant smel like unto the yellow prunes or plums and if it remaine longer yet in digestion it will get a smel not inferior to musk and ambar This Tincture having been digested a long time and got several smels is not only notably by the fire increased in pleasantness of smel and taste but also in vertue for so many and various sweet smels are perceived in it that it is to be admired which variety and exaltation proceedeth onely from the pure and ripening spirit of urine for there is hid in it a fire which doth not destroy but preserve and graduate all colours whereof in another place more shall be said N. B. Betwixt the spirit of urine and the animal and mineral Copper there appeareth a great sympathy for it doth not onely love copper above all other metals and mingleth easily with it and maketh it extraordinary faire and of good use in Physick but it prepareth it also to such a medicine whereby all venereous sores both by inward and outward use how deep so ever they took roote in the blood without the use of any other medicaments are perfectly cured it maketh fruitful and barren according as it is used it cleanseth the matrix hindreth the rising thereof and miraculously furthereth womens courses that have been stayed above all other medicamenes of what name so ever If this spirit be mingled with the volatile but not corrosive spirit of vitriol or common salt there will come a salt out of it which is inferior to none in fusibleness and useful both in Alchymy and Physick N. B. The liquor of the salt of Tartar and the spirit of wine do not mixe without water this being the mean partaking of both their natures and if you add unto it spirit of urine it will not mingle but keep its own place so that these three sorts of liquors being put in the same glass and though they be shaked never so much will not encorporate for all that the liquor of the salt of Tartar keepeth to the bottome next to it will be the spirit of urine and on the top of that is the spirit of wine and if you powre a distilled oyle upon it they will keep uppermost of all so that you may keep four sorts of liquors in one glass whereof none is mingled with the other Although this be of no great profit yet it serveth for to learn thereby the difference of spirits Of the spirit and oyle of Hartshorn TAke Hartshorn cut it with a saw into peeces of the bigness of a finger and cast in one of it at a time in the aforesaid distilling vessels and when the spirits are fettled then another and continue this untill you have spirits enough and the vessel being filled with the peeces that were carryed in take them out with the tongs and cast in others and do this as often as is needful The distilling being finished take off the receiver and powre into it dephlegmed spirit of wine which will cleanse the volatile salt powre the oyle with the spirit and salt volatile through a filtring paper made wet first lying in a glass funnel and the spirit of wine together with the spirit of Hartshorn and the volatile salt will run through the paper and the blackish oyle will stay behinde but it must quickly be powred out else it will through after them The spirit together with the volatile salt rectifie through a retort and the best part of the spirit will come over together with the spirit of wine and volatile salt and when the phlegme is coming take off the spirit which is come over that the naughty phlegme may not come amongst it keep it wel for it is very volatile the oyle may be mingled with salt of Tartar and rectified through a glass retort and so it wil be cleer if you will have it fairer you must rectifie it with spirit of salt The first which is done with salt of Tartar is of more vertue it cureth the quartane proveketh sweating extreamly cureth all internal wounds and pains which were caused by fals blows or other wayes 6. or 8. 10. to 20. drops of it taken in wine and sweated upon it in the bed The spirit is very good for all obstructions of the whole body from ℈ ss to ʒss thereof taken in a fit vehicle provoketh urine and forceth down womens courses it cleanseth the blood and maketh sweat mightily In the Plague Pox Leprosie Scurvy Melancholia Hypochondriaca malignant feavers and the like where sweating is necessary it proveth a rare medicine To make the spirit of mans haire an excellent medicine AFter the same manner you may make spirits out of all kinde of horns and claws of beasts but since by reason of their ill smel the use of them is not liked of though in several heavy diseases as in the fits of the mother and Epilepsie they do admirably well therefore I will acquiesce However it is worth observing that the spirit made of mans haire is not to be rejected in metallical operations for it dissolveth the common sulphur and reduceth it into a milk which by further ripening may be turned into blood the like whereunto no spirit is able to do The same spirit may also of it self without addition of sulphur be fixed into a ruby but that which is ripened with sulphur is the better and if it be brought so far by the fire that it have
goute It is not onely to be used internally but also externally wetting clothes in it and applying them to the places affected and it will asswage and drive away the paines Of the spirit or acid oyle of Sulphur TO reduce sulphur into a sowre spirit or oyle hath been sought hitherto by many but found by few Most of them made it in glass-bels but got very little that way for the glasses being quickly hot could not hold the oyle so that it went away in a smoak Some thought to get it by distilling others by dissolving but none of all these would do the feat Which is the reason why nowadayes it is found almost no where right and in the Drugsters and Apothecaries shops they usually sell oyle of Vitriol in stead of it which by far is not to be compared in vertue to the oyle of sulphur For this is not onely of a far pleasanter sowre taste but in efficacy also much exceeds the other And therefore being of so great use both in Physick and Alchymie as in all hot diseases mingling the patients drink therewith till it get a pleasant sowre taste for to quench the intolerable drowth to strengthen the stomach to refresh the lungs and the liver Also externally for to cure the gangrene Also for to crystallise some metals thereby and to reduce them into pleasant vitriols useful as well in Alchymie as Physick I thought good to set down the preparation though it be not done in this our distilling furnace but in another way by kindling and burning it as followeth Make a little furnace with a grate above which a strong crucible must be fastned resting on two iron bars and it is to be ordered so that the smoake be conveighed not above by the crucible but through a pipe at the side of the furnace the crucible must be filled with sulphur even to the top and by a cole-fire without flame be brought to burn and kept burning Over the burning sulphur a vessel is to be applyed of good stony earth like unto a flat dish with a high brim wherein is alwayes cold water to be kept and whereunto the burning sulphur do flame Which thus burning its fatness consumeth and the acid salt is freed and sublimed to the cold vessel where it is dissolved by the aire and in the form of a sharpe oyle runs from the hollow vessel into the receiver which must be taken off sometime and more sulphur supplyed in stead of that which hath been consumed to the end that the sulphur may still burn in the crucible and beat with the flame to the cold head and within few dayes you will get a great quantity of oyle which else by the campana glass-bell in many weeks could not have been done N. B. Such a sowre spirit or oyle may also be got by distillation together with the flores viz. thus If you take pieces of sulphur as big as hens eggs and carry them one after another into the hot distilling vessel a sowre oyle together with flores will come over into the receiver which must with water be separated out of the flores and the water abstracted from it againe in a cucurbit and in the bottome of your glass body you will finde the oyle which in vertue and taste is equal to the former but you get nothing neer so much in quantity by this way and if you do not look for the oyle you may leave it with the flores which by reason of their pleasant acid taste are much toothsomer to take then the ordinary ones To the courteous Reader THus I conclude this second part I could have set down more medicinal processes in this Treatise but having as many as will be a sufficient guide for the distilling of other things also I thought it good here to acquiesce and whatsoever is proper for this Treatise and hath been forgotten or omitted shall be made amends for in the following parts FINIS THE THIRD PART OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL FURNACES IN WHICH Is described the Nature of the THIRD FVRNACE By the help whereof and that without Stils and Caldrons and other Copper Iron Tin and Leaden Instruments various Vegetable burning Spirits Extracts Oyles Salts c. By the help of a certain little Copper Instrument and wooden vessels are made for Chymical and Medicinal uses By JOHN RUDOLPH Glauber LONDON Printed by Richard Cotes for Tho Williams at the signe of the Bible in Little-Britain 1652. A Preface of the Copper Instrument and Furnace NOW this Instrument is made of strong Copper plates after the following manner You must make two strong hemispheares of Copper or Latten of the bignesse of a mans head or thereabout and joine them together with a most strong soder and that without tin whereof the one must have a pipe Now the pipe must be of a most exact roundnesse that it may most accurately fit the hole that is made with an auger or wimble to keep the water from flowing out like to a tap of the length of one span at least wider on the hinder part towards the globe then on the forepart which also must bee according to the bignesse of the globe greater or lesser and be exactly joined with the best soder to its hemispheare and the diameter of the forepart being very round like a tap and most exactly filling the round hole must be of two fingers breadth Now there is required to the foresaid instrument or globe a certaine peculiar little furnace made of iron or copper viz. most strong copper plates covered within with stones or the best lute iâ—tâ— which is put that globe like a retort so that it may lye upon two iron barrels of the distance of a span or span and halfe from the grate the work whereof that pipe goeth forth of the furnace one span at least The furnace also must have below a place for the ashes and above a cover with its hole for the letting forth of the smoke and for regulating the fire as you may see by the annexed figure It must also below have a treefoot on which the furnace must be set and on the sides two handles by the help whereof it may be removed from place to place the which is very necessary for it is not only used for the distilling of burning spirits by wooden vessels instead of copper but also for such distillation and digestion that is performed in gourds boltheads and other instruments of glasse stone copper tin c. which are to be set in Balneo also in the boyling of beer methegline wine and other drinkes which are to be performed by the help of wooden vessels A. The furnace with a Copper globe B. The Copper globe C. The distilling vessel D. The refrigeratory with a worme E. The receiver F. Stooles on which the vessels stand A Balneum with a cover having holes in it for the glasses set upon a treefoot A wooden vessel for the making of Beer A Tub for a moyst Bath which is
but such as savours of the tast and smell of the malt Which is not the salt of the corn but of the artificer not operating aright in the preparation of his malt in distilling and rectifying For if it were prepared a right in all things corn yeelds the best spirit not unlike to that which is made out of the lees of wine in tast odour and other vertues Which Art although it be not known to all yet it doth not follow that it is impossible Now I did not say that it is that common way whereby that spirit which is like to the spirit of wine is distilled but another which is more subtill and witty Out of all vegetables is drawn a burning spirit yet such as is perceived by some difference of the tast and odour but that is not the spirits fault but of the vegetable as of hearbs seeds corn c. communicating their vertues tast and odour to the spirit whence that spirit deserves to be called not simple but compounded for else all the burning spirit being rightly rectified from its flegm is made out of any thing having the same vertues with the spirit of wine although it seem unprobable to some I do not deny that one simple may yeeld more or less sweet spirit then another For sweeter wines yeeld sweeter spirits Also cleere wine yeelds a sweeter spirit then the lees of wine although they come forth out of one and the same vessel For clarified wine and that which is sparated from the faeces yeelds a sweeter spirit then the Lees and impure heterogeneal sediment which corrupts the simple and sweet spirit with 〈◊〉 strong tast and smell so that that may deservedly being as it were simple be preferred before this which is accidentally corrupted And this is to be understood of all other spirits What hath hitherto been said hath been spoken for the sakes of them who have perswaded themselves that they could not perform chymical operations so well by the spirit of corn as with the spirit of wine for I never found any difference of both in the extraction of minerals as vegetables Let him therefore that can receive my opinion and experience seeing I will have nothing to doe with contradicting Carpers Without hurt to others I dare not reveal the Art of distilling sweet spirit with great profit out of corn in all things like to that which is made of the faeces of wine viz. without preparation or grinding of malt which shall haply be communicated elsewhere at some time or other For this Book is not written for the publishing of secrets but of a new invented distillation But thou that wilt make a sweet burning spirit out of malt or honey know this that the corn must be brought after a certaine peculiar manner into malt and lose its ungrateful savour before its distilling and fermenting or else after the wonted manner a certain ungratefull spirit will be drawn from thence that cannot be compared to the spirit of wine The whole Art therefore consists in a true preparation For ungrateful things are by Art brought into a gratefulness and on the contrary grateful things are made ungrateful by negligence And thus much for information sake Of the fermentution of Malt. TAke of malt ground in a mil as much as you please upon which in a wooden vessel set up right pour cold water as much as will moisten it and serve for mixtion and comminution then also pour as much warm water as will suffice for the making the mixture moist and thin and also warm for it must be neither hot nor cold which being done mix with it some new barm and cover it with a cloth and in a short space being exposed to heat it will begin to ferment wherefore the vessel is not to be filled to the top and leave it so long in fermentation until the mixture descends which for the most part is wont to be done the third day and the malt will be ready for distillation Of the fermentation of Honey NEither hath honey any need of a singular Art in its fermentation because being mixed with 6 7 8 10 parts of warm water it is dissolved and unto the solution is added ferment as hath been spoken concerning malt which afterward is left covered in some heat for to be fermented being fit for distillation when it becomes to wax hot Now know that too great a quantity of honey makes a very slow fermentation viz. of some weeks and months wherefore for acceleration sake I advise that a greater quantity of water bee added although otherwise it yeelds plenty of spirits but ungrateful which therefore I advise no body to distil as being unprofitable unlesse any one know how to take away the ungratefulness thereof Of the preparation of fruits seeds flowers hearbs roots c. THe fruits of trees as cherries plums apples pears figs juniper-berries elder-berries dwarf-elder and mulberries c. are bruised in wooden vessels with wooden pestils and upon them being bruised is poured warm water and ferment added to quicken it as hath been abovesaid of malt Seeds are broken in a mill flowers hearbs and roots are cut small and are stirred up to fermentation by mixing of warm water and barm An Annotation BEfore thou distil the aforesaid vegetables prepared by the help of fermentation diligently weigh and accurately observe whether the mixture be sufficiently fermented for sometimes there is sometimes too much cold or hot water put to it sometimes the vessel is not well covered by which meanes the cold air is let in whence the fermentation is hindered and consequently the distillation of the spirit For by the help of fermentation the burning spirit of the vegetables is set at liberty without which it cannot be done also the distillation is hindred by too much hast as wel as by too much delay for if thou begin to distil before the time viz. fermentation not being yet perfected thou shalt have but few spirits wherefore also the better part is by many that are unskilful cast to the swine but without any great loss if the matter were malt because that swine are fed therewith But not so if other vegetables were the matter of the distillation Also too much slowness where the matter begins to be sowre before it be distilled yeelds very few spirits that which often happens whilest hearbs and flowers c. are out of ignorance left in fermentation 3 4 5 and more weeks before they be distilled for the greatest part of the spirit is then turned to vinegar which would not be so very ill done if so be these men knew how to clarifie the remainders and torn it into vinegar that nothing thereof be lost for the vinegars of hearbs flowers seeds and roots are not to be contemned And so often times a thing to be lamented the better part if they be spices and pretious things is lost The matter of the distillation and other choice things as seeds and hearbs are
be given as hath been spoken concerning the burning spirit and the oyle of the seed or wood macerated in the water will come forth in the coition together with the water And although by this way more oyle comes forth viz. Maceration being made by the addition of salt then without salt by the help of the sweet water alone as is the fashion in all places almost to distil oyls of spices yet much remaines inseparable by the water and consequently not to be sublimed with the water Therefore the better way is that which I shewed in the first part to be performed with the spirit of salt which if you please you may follow All the oyle being come forth that which is perceived by the changing of the receivers the fire is to be extinguished and the remainder is to be taken out which if it be of seeds hearbs or fruits may being yet warm be fermented by the addition of ferment for the distilling of the spirit of which there cannot be so great a quantity by reason of taking away of the oyle as otherwise is drawn out of things that have not lost their oyle For all burning spirit partakes of much oyl of the essence and nature whereof more a little after Now the oyls must be made without the addition of any salt for salt hinders the fermentation without which the burning spirit cannot be had But the water that is distilled together with the oyle is to be set in a certain temperate place until the oyle ascend and swim upon the water from whence it is to be separated with a Tunnel of which in the fifth part also there are some oyles which doe not ascend but fall to the bottome which are are also to be separated with a Tunnel and kept for their uses Now how these oyles may be kept clear long and not contract any clamminess shall be taught in the 5 part but how they shall after they have lost their clearness by long standing and are become tenacious be restored and clarified again is taught in the first part wherefore I need not here repeat it How Oyles are to be coagulated into Balsames IT hath been the custome a long time to turn aromaticall oyles into Balsames where alwayes one hath been willing to excell another in this Art which nevertheless was nothing hitherto but for a washing and cleansing for they could not be used inwardly but only outwardly for their odour to comfort the heart and brain Now the aforesaid oyls are coagulated many ways and are made portable in Tin Silver and ivory boxes Some have mixed the fat of a lamb with them by help of heat and have turned them into a liniment which they have colored with divers colours as for example they have corrupted the oyles of green hearbs as rosemary majoram lavender rue sage with a green colour by the admixtion of verdigrease which is noxious to the head and heart where one corroborates and refresheth another destroyes They have tinged the Balsame of Cinnamon and lignum Rhodium with a red colour by the help of a poysonous Cinnabar Others that are more industrious have tinged their Oyles with extracted colours of vegetables which balsames are more safely taken inward But they are not durable acquiring a sliminess and stink wherefore they have mixed a white wax to coagulate them By which means they are become more durable without stinking but yet in length of time so tenacious that being smeared or rubbed upon the skin they stick fast by reason of the wax that is mixed with them at last others have found out a better way of coagulating aromatical oyles and other things viz. by the addition of the oyle of Nutmeg made by expression having lost its odour and colour by spirit of wine which they called the Mother of Balsames And this way hath been a long time concealed by Apothecaries as a great secret until at length it be made of publick right so that balsames prepared after this manner are sold almost in all shops But however that be the best way yet they are not durable balsames that are made that way because they lack salt I doe not contemne and disapprove of Balsames made after this way for if a better way were knowne better had been made for no man is forced beyond his power Wherefore they are not onely to bee excused that have used Lambes fat Waxe and the oyle of Nutmegs in the making of their Balsames but also to be honored for their communication Now seeing the aforesaid Balsames cannot bee taken inward nor bee so well outwardly administred by reason of their unctuosity others have consulted to congelate the Oyles by the admixtion of their owne proper fix-salts and Balsames prepared after this manner are made free from clamminesse or tenaciousnesse and may be dissolved in wine beer or any liquor Wherefore they may be not onely conveniently taken inward but also more conveniently then those old be rubbed outwardly for the odours sake because they are easily washed off againe with water They doe not onely give a most sweet odour being rubbed but also by reason of the admixtion of a fixed salt having the nature of salt of Tartar doe beautifie the skin Wherefore they are commended being dissolved in fair warme water for a washing for the head and face not onely because they beautifie but corroborate with their excel-cellent odour that which those fat Balsames cannot doe Wherefore this way is to be preferred farre before the other Let him therefore that will receive what I have said for rare things and new things are not alwayes accepted especially being obscure but I hope for the approbation of the age to come The manner of preparing follows TAke the remains of the burning spirit and being put into a sack press it hard reduce the water pressed out into vinegar and of roses thou shalt have a rose vinegar and of other things another being the best in a family for to season meats then take the remains out of the sack and reduce it to white ashes in a potters furnace upon which pour the flegme of its own burning spirit being separated to extract the salt from which evaporate again all the humidity in a glazed earthen pot calcine the coagulated salt gently in a clean crucible and it will be white and be like to salt of Tartar in tast from which abstract sometimes its owne proper burning spirit calcining the salt first every time and the spirit will be so exalted by its proper salt so that it will presently assume its proper oyle and will being powred upon it associate it to itself so as to be perceived no more in the spirit which will remaine very clear Which being done calcine the salt yet once more very well in a crucible and dissolve so much of it in its proper flegme as sufficeth for the coagulation of the oyle then mix this solution with the burning spirit mixed with its oyle and set it in a vial of
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
is sufficient if the place only where the coals still lye be made of them and the other part of the furnace be made of common bricks A Lute for the erecting of Furnaces LUte may be made divers wayes for this businesse for men prepare their lute several wayes as they please Some mix with sifted potters earth the beaten hairs of cows oxen harts or the chaffe of barley tow flocks horse-dung and the like that hold together the clay and prevent chops to which they adde sometimes sifted sand if the clay be too fat beating the mixture together with water and bringing it to a just consistency And this is the best mixture that is not subject to cleaving yet weak because in length of time the hair and chaffe are burnt wherefore the furnace becomes thin and weak Many leave out combustible things and mix potters clay and sand together and temper them with brine for the making of their furnaces And this is the best mixture because it is not combustible as the other is neither is it subject to cracking by reason of the salt and for this purpose the brine of fish and salt flesh doth serve and is very good because the bloud helps the joining of them together but if the caput mortuum of vitriol or aqua fortis being mollified be mixed with potters clay and sand you goe a better way to work for this lute is not at all subject to cracking but fixed in the fire and permanent With this lute are retorts and goards very well luted and coated also the joints of retorts and receivers closed this being mollified with a wet cloth applyed to it may again be separated and taken off as that also with which salt is mixed but the other lutes that want salt will not be separated by reason whereof glasses oftentimes are broken Wherefore in defect of the caput mortuum of Vitriol temper the clay and sand with brine But many mixe the filings of iron powdered glass flints c. but you need not them for the building of the furnaces but only for the coating of certaine glasses used for separation and distillation because the filings of iron being helped with salt binds and joins together most strongly Of the closing of the joints hindring the evaporation of subtile spirits THe aforesaid lute is sufficient for the closing of the joints of the first furnace where air is not kept from the spirits but not of the vessels of the second furnace where most subtile spirits are distilled which it cannot retain penetrating the same with the loss of the better part wherefore you must make choice of another unless upon the other being well dryed besmeared over with a pencil a mixture made of quick lime most subtilly powdered and Linseed oil which the porous clay attracting to it is fortified so as to be able to retain those most subtile spirits but this lute can hardly be separated again because refusing water it cannot be mollified wherefore the clay is to be tempered only with the white of egges and to be applyed with linen clouts but you must prevent the burning of the linen by reason of the extream heat of the neck of the receiver by putting between an iron or strong glass neck viz. betwixt the receiver and the retort The joints also may be closed with oxe bladders wet in the white of egges also with starch tempered with water if it be sometimes applyed being smeared on paper For by this means those most subtile spirits are easily retained but not corrosive for which use the caput mortuum of aqua fortis is more convenient which after it is dryed must be smeered over with a mixture made of linseed oyle and quick lime And divers kinds of these lutes are had being destined to divers uses Another lute for broken glasses IT happens sometimes that glass vessels as receivers and retorts have some cracks but otherwise are whole and sound which are greater in those glasses that doe again suffer the heat of the fire wherefore at last the glasses are broken which if you will prevent make a liniment or thin lute of linseed oyl quick lime and red lead which being smeered over a linen cloth apply to the crack upon which being dryed apply another but if the crack be very great you may apply 3 or 4 linen cloths for the greater safety sake as you may apply the whites of egges beaten together upon the cracks with linen and cast upon it quick lime sifted very fine and press it down hard with your hand which being done you may apply over them more linen clouts wet in the whites of egges and cast upon them quick lime again which when the lute is well dryed retaines the spirits but sooner subject to the corrosion of corrosive spirits then the former Note well that quick lime is not to be mixed with the white of eggs and so used upon linen clouts as the manner of some is because the whites of egges acquire a hardness from the lime before they be united and therefore cannot stick but linen clouts wet first therewith before the quick lime be cast upon them so that the lime doth not immediately touch the glass being applyed betwixt two linen clothes How those subtile spirits when they are made may be kept that they evaporate not THose glasses in which those spirits are kept are for the most part stopt with cork or wax upon which afterward bladders are bound which stopping is convenient for some spirits that doe not prey upon cork or wax For all corrosive spirits as of vitriol allome common salt nitre c. corrode cork and lixivial spirits as that of hartshorn tartar salt armoniack urine wine c. melt wax and penetrate it And although other stopples might be made which might retain both sorts of spirits yet it would be tedious and laborious to open those so often and to stop them againe Wherefore I have found out a fit kind of glasses viz. of such whose mouths have distinctions and are fit to receive their covers as it appears by the delineation A. signifies the cover B. the glass containing the spirit C. a drawer by the help whereof the spirits are taken out of the glass when there is occasion into the distinction in the brim of the mouth viz. of the glass that contains the spirit is put quicksilver and upon this is put a cover this being done the Mercury closeth the joints of both glasses running in the brim so that nothing at all can evaporate for the spirits doe not penetrate the Mercury unless they be very corrosive a thing to be noted which then in process of time turn the Mercury into water but very seldome and then the Mercury is to be renewed But we need not give so much honour to corrosive spirits as not to be compared to those volatiles which being abstracted from corrosives doe not prey upon Mercury and much less then these doe lixivial spirits corrode Mercury
reward of his labours as also their cavillations and contumelious reporting of mens writings to be false and lyes Why doth not Glauber if he had the knowledge of so great things of which he made mention in the Appendix make himself rich but lives in idleness Therefore they are nothing but vaine dreams Thou dost judge very excellently of colours which thou never sawest to whom I am not constrained to give an account of my idleness of which if thou hadst asked me without doubt I had given thee satisfaction and had prevented thy foolish censure But such kind of men betray their own ignorance of things that are to be performed by fire for he that goes about to catch fishes doth not cast his net upon the mountaines but into the water so he that gets his living in metals must needs be conversant in these places where metals are found Now that I have lived in these places so many yeers with disprofit besides my will hath been a hindrance to my fortune which elswhere where I might have operated perhaps might have happened to me But it is better to possess a few things in peace then many things in the hazardousness of a dreadful war But now I am fully resolved whether that most desired peace of Germany succeed or no to betake my self to such places where I may have opportunity to handle coales and mines which when I have done let cavillers if they will enquire whether I do any thing whereas indeed in this place I was not minded to attempt any thing whereby to be rich by reason of inconveniences For in this place I had enough to do all things being dear to get an honest livelyhood and to search into the secrets of nature for thy good and to make experiment in less things greater being neglected Hence the cause of my slothfulness will appear to thee wherefore do not thou any more judge rashly but minde thine own affaires aud let other men alone And this is the cause of explaining the Appendix which was made not for the general and universal communicating of those secrets the knowledge whereof as you may guess is not so easily to be attained to but for the demonstration of the truth that toyes and and trifles may no more be esteemed by the incredulous and ignorant but the profitable secrets of nature the inventor whereof I can boldly pronounce my self to be prized and received by all and every one Wherefore from the beginning to the end I shall treat of each of them briefly and shall give the explanation of each as far as I may without prejudice that they may be received not for dreams but for natural sciences certaine and most profitable for the confutation sake of cavillers Annotations upon the Appendix of the FIFTH BOOK PARAGRAPH I. A preparation of corn wheat barley oates c. also of pears apples cherries and other tree fruits to be performed by the help of a certain fermentation whereby through the help of distillation they yeeld a very good and most pure spirit very like to that which is made of the lees of wine without great costs where also from the remainders of the corn the burning spirit being drawn off may be made a very good beer or vineger and of the remains of the fruits a very good drink like to wine Whence there is a double benefit so that any one may not only have from thence wherewith to live but also to lay up THis Art hath appeared to many very strange of which no man yet hath made mention Some having knowledge of the common distilling Art have thought that that which is to be distilled having a burning spirit is to be put into a still yeelding all its spirit in the fire nothing thereof being left in the remainders This is to be ascribed to their ignorance they not knowing to give an account of their operations operating only out of use and custome things which they have seen heard not considering with themselves that there may be given a better or nearer way of distilling of spirits with whom I will not contend but only shew in brief which way all kindes of corn and fruits being distilled yeeld more spirits then that common way or at least how the spirit being abstracted something may be made of the residue of the matter being equall in the price to the matter distilled so that by this means the burning spirit may be had almost for nothing and it is done after this following manner It cannot be denyed that all vegetables whatsoever as all kinds of corn and fruits also grass it self being prepared and fermented yeeld a burning spirit more or lesse in quantity and quality viz. a consideration being had of the maturity or immaturity fatness or dryness of them For those things which are fatter and sweeter yeeld more spirits then things which are unripe sowre and dry for by how much more the subjects are dry and less ripe so much the fewer spirits doe they yeeld and that not before fermentation which gives them such a maturity as to make them yeeld their spirit in distillation which otherwise they would not doe Hence therefore it doth necessarily follow that fermentation is the onely cause of the burning spirit and by consequence the onely Medium whereby plenty of spirits are obtained viz. if the things be rightly and well fermented whereby they are so qualified as to be able afterward to yeeld their burning spirits the more easily which by how much the better they are fermented doe yeeld the more But seeing that common fermentation is not sufficient for the totall elevation of the burning spirit it comes to pass that the best part thereof is left in the still which hitherto by reason of ignorance hath been used to no other purpose then to feed hogges which is ill done for the matter that is left ought first to have lost its fatness and that either by distilling of more spirits or by the making of beer or vineger before the reliques be cast to Hogges whence there comes a double profit to the operator But you must not be ignorant that for this operation you must not make choice of any common Cauldron in which fruits are used to contract an Empyreuma viz. an ungratefull tast and smell but another certain instrument of the same Nature which wil hinder and not permit the adustion of the matter which is to be distilled though it be thick by the help whereof there is obtained a very sweet spirit in a great aboundance by the help of our secret fermentation And so thou dost understand the reasons by the help whereof more and sweeter spirits are obtained from corn and fruits whence a double gain viz. by the help of a certain vessel or instrument and of our secret fermentation PARAG. II. The making of wine not unlike to Rhenish French or Spanish that shall endure for the space of many yeares out of corn and fruits IN this Paragraph the
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
calaminaris ibid. The use of the oyle of lapis calaminaris 27 Of the extrinsecal use of the spirit of salt in the Kitchen 29 How an acid spirit or vinegar may be distilled out of all vegetables as hearbs roots woods seeds c. 31 The spirit of paper and linen cloaths 32 The spirit of silk 33 The spirit of mans haire and of other animals and also of horns ibid. The spirit of vinegar honey and sugar ibid. How the spirits may be made out of the salt of tartar vitriolatedtartar the spirit of salt tart arised and of other such like fixed salts 34 Lac virginis and the Philosophic al sanguis draconis 35 The spirits flowers and salts of minerals and stones 36 How minerals and metals may be reduced into flowers and their vertues 36 Of gold and silver 37 Flowers of iron and copper 38 Flowers of lead and tin 39 Flowers of Mercury ibid. Flowers of Zinck ibid. The use 40 Flowers of Antimony 41 The Contents of the second Part. THe structure of the second furnace 51 The way or the manner to perform the distillation 52 How to make the acid oyle the volatile spirit of vitriol 55 Of Vitriol ibid. The use and dose of the narcotick sulphur of vitriol 57 Of the use and vertue of the volatil spirit of vitriol 58 Of the vertue and oyle of the corrosive oyle of vitriol 59 How to make the vitriol of Mars and Venus ibid. The way to make a faire blue vitriol out of Luna that is silver 60 Of the sweet oyle of vitriol 67 The preparation of the sweet oyle of vitriol 70 The use and the dose of the sweet oyle of vitriol 72 Of the sulphurous volatile and acid spirit of common salt and of Allome 74 The manner of preparing 74 Of the sulphurious volatile spirit of minerals of their preparation 75 The preparation of the volatile spirit of metals 75 The preparation of the volatile spirit of minerals ibid. Another way ibid The spirit of Zinck 76 The volatile spirit of the dross of Regulus Martis ibid. How to make a white acid and red volatile spirit out of salt nitre ibid. Of the use of the red volatile spirit 77 The use of the white acid spirit of salt nitre ibid Aqua Regis 78 The preparation of Aurum Fulminans ibid. The use of Aurum Fulminans 83 The use of the tincture of gold 85 Of the flowers of silver and of its medicine 86 Of the use of the crystals of silver 87 How to sublime the crystals of silver into flowers and then to make a good medicine of the flowers 88 How to make a green oyle out of silver 89 The use of the green oyle in Alchymie and for Mechanical uses 90 A medicine out of copper externally to be used 91 A medicine out of iron or steel 92 Of tin or lead ibid. The use of the crystals of lead and tin ibid. Of Mercury 93 Of Aqua fortis 96 Of the sulphurised spirit of salt nitre 98 Of the Clissus ibid. Of the tartarised spirit of nitre 99 Of the tartarised spirit of Antimony 100 Of stone coales 101 Of the sulphurious spirit of salt nitre or Aqua fortis 101 Of the nitrous spirit of Arsenick 102 To make a spirit of sulphurous crude tartar and salt nitre ibid. To make a spirit out of salt of tartar sulphur and salt nitre ibid. How to make a spirit of saw dust sulphur and salt nitre 103 To make metallical spirits and flores by the help of salt nitre and linnen cloth 104 Of gunpowder ibid. How to make a spirit of gunpowder 107 Of the use of the medicine or tincture made of gunpowder 109 To make spirits and flowers of nitre and coales 110 To make flowers and spirits of flints crystal or sand by adding of coales and spirit of salt nitre to them 110 To make a spirit and oyle out of talck and salt nitre 111 To make a spirit flowers and an oyl out of tin 112 To make a spirit flowers and a liquor out of Zinck ibid. To make a spirit flowers and a oyle of lapis calaminaris 113 To make spirit of salt nitre sulphur and common salt 114 To make a spirit flowers and oyl out of salt nitre and Regulus Martis 114 To distil Butyrum out of Antimony salt and vitriol like unto that which is made out of Antimony and Mercury sublimate 118 To distil butyrum of Arsenick and orpiment ibid. To make a rare spirit of vitriol 119 To make a subtle spirit and pleasant oyle of Zinck 120 To distil a spirit and oyle out of lead 121 To distil a subtle spirit and oyle out of crude tartar 122 The preparation and use of the spirit of tartar 123 How to make pretious spirits and oyles out of tartar joyned with some minerals and metals 126 The use of the metallised spirit and tartar ibid. The other way to make a metallised spirit of tartar 130 To distil the spirit and oyle of lead and tin How to make a tartarised spirit and oyl out of iron steel or copper 133 How to make a tartarised spirit of Mercury 137 How to make a tartarised spirit of gold and silver ibid. To make a tartarised spirit of antimony 139 How to make good spirits and oyles out of pearls corals and crabs eyes and other light soluble stones of beasts and fishes 146 To distil a spirit out of salt of tartar and crude tartar 147 How to get a powerful spirit out of the salt of tartar by the help of sand or peble stones ibid. How to extract a blood red tincture with spirit of wine out of peble stones 150 The use of the tincture of pebles or flints in physick 151 How by the help of this liquor out of gold its red colour may be extracted so that it remaines white 153 Another way to extract a tincture out of gold by the help of the liquor of sand or pebles 159 What further may be done with the liquor of pebles 160 How by the help of this liquor to make trees to grow out of metals with their colours ibid. Of the spirit of urine and of the vo latile spirit of salt Armoniack 162 The process or manner of making it is this 163 Of the use or vertue of the spirit of salt Armoniack 166 To distil a blood red oyle of vitriol by the help of the spirit of urine 167 The tincture of vegetables 168 Vitriol of copper ibid. The tincture of crude tartar ibid. To make the oyles or liquors of salts ibid. To precipitate all metals with it ibid. The oyle and vitriol of silver 169 To extract a red oyle on t of Antimony or common sulphur ibid. How to ripen Antimony and common sulphur so that several sorts of such like smâ—ls as vegetables have arise from thence 171 Of the spirit and oyle of harts-home 171 To make the spirit of mans haire an excellent medicine 172 Of the oyle of Ambar 173 Of the oyle of soot
174 How to make a good oyle out of soot without distilling ibid. Of the spirit and oyle of honey ibid. Of the oyle and spirit of sugar 175 To distil an excellent spirit and blood red tincture of coals and sugar 176 Of the spirit of Must or new wine ibid. Of oyle olive 177 The use of the blessed oyle 179 Of the oyle of wax ibid. A good spirit for the stone ibid. Of the spirit or acid oyle of sulphur 180 To the Courteous Reader 181 The Contents of the third Part. A Preface of the copper instrument and furnace 185 Of wooden instruments that are to be used in stead of stils baths and cauldrons 189 The preparation of the vessel 192 The making of a wooden vessel for a Balneum which is to be used in stead of copper and leaden cauldron for digestion and distillation by glass vessels 193 A wooden vessel serving for boyling of Beer Metheglin Vinegar c. as well as copper iron and tin vessels ibid. A wooden vessel for a bath for sweet or mineral waters which may be according as you please kept warm for the preservation of health 194 Of the use of wooden vessels in distilling boyling bathing c. and first of the wooden vessel ibid. Of the preparation of the lees of wine boer hydromel and other drink ibi Of the preparation of all kinde of corn as wheat oats barley c. which must go before the distilling of the spirit 195 Of the difference of malting 196 Of the fermentation of malt 197 Of the Fermentation of honey 198 Of the preparation of hearbs flowers seeds c. ibid. An Annotation 199 The manner of distilling in general followeth 202 The manner of distilling spices seeds flowers hearbs roots woods c. 203 How oyles are to be coagulated into balsoms 204 The manner of preparing follows 206 There follows now the use of the second wooden vessel which is to be used in stead of those of copper or lead serving for distillations digestions extractions and fixations 208 And first of a volatile extract ibid. A purging extract 210 A diaphoretical extract 211 A diuretical extrast 212 A Somniferous extract ibid. A cordial extract 213 Of an odoriferous extract 214 Of baths 215 Of a bath of sweet or common water 216 Of the nature and property of natural baths ibid. And first of sulphureous bathes that have a subtle acidity 218 The mixture of those subtile mineral sulphureous and salt spirits with water 220 Of sulphur baths 221 The use of the copper globe in dry bathes which are more excellent then the moyst in many cases 222 Now follows a wooden vessel which is to be used in stead of a cauldron in boyling of beer vinegar metheglin c. 226 The Contents of the fourth Part. OF making the Furnace 233 How minerals are to betryed 238 Of the melting of mines and metals 243 Of the separation of metal ibid. Of separating courser metals 247 What is to be held concerning the perfection of metals 248 Another demonstration by a dry way 255 Of the Philosophers stone 262 Whether minerals as antimony arsenick orpin cobolt zinck sulphur c. may be transmuted into metals and into what 265 Another way of separating the superfluous Antimonial sulphur 268 Of the tincture of Sol and Antimony 269 Another tincture and medicine of gold 272 Of looking glasses 273 Metallick mixaure for the matter of the glasses 276 Of the smoothing and polishing looking glasses 278 Of mettallick glasses 280 The colouring of the foresaid vessel follows in which it is made most like to Venice 284 Of the preparation of the colours for the colouring the mass of flints and crystals 285 The Contents of the fifth Part. OF the preparation of the furnace 293 Of the preparation of the furnaces 297 A lute for the errecting of furnaces 298 Of the closing of the joynts hindering the evaporation of subtile spirits 299 Another lute for broken glasses 300 How those subtle spirits when they are made may be kept that they evaporate not 301 How glass stoples are to be smoothed grinding for the retaining of subtle spirit in their glass vessels 303 Of the making of the best crucibles 313 Of the vitrisication of earthen vessels belonging to the first and second furnace 320 Of the use of the foresaid cups 324 An Appendix 328 Annotations upon the Appendix of the fifth Book A Preparation of corn wheat barley oates c. also of pears apples cherries and other tree fruits to be performed by the help of fermentation when thorough the help of distillation they yeeld a very good and most pure spirit very like that which is made of the lees of wine without great costs where also from the Remainders of the corn the burning spirit being drawn off may be made a very good beer or vinegar and of the remaines of the fruit a very good drink like to wine whence there is a double benefit so that any one may not only have from thence wherewith to live but also to lay up 338 The making of wine not unlike to Rhenish French or Spanish that shall endure for many yeers out of corn or fruits 340 A making of a burning spirit out of the baser sort of things which are commonly known like to that made out of Rhenish and French wine and at an easie rate 343 The making of sugar like to that of the India and of tartar like to that of the Rhenish out of honey not costly so that the price of one pound of sugar doth not exceed eight or ten stivers and a pound of tartar exceed not the price of two stivers ibid. A peculiar purification of vulgar impure tartar without any loss and the crystallizing or reduction of it into great crystals a pound whereof being purified doth not exceed the price of six stivers 347 The taking away of the ungrateful odour avd tast of honey which being taken away there is drawn forth out of honey a very good burning spirit which savours not of the qualities of honey and also a hydromel like to natural wine in tast and other vertues c. ibid. The making of a hydromel very good and clear out of raisins both greater and smaller resembling the best Spanish wine out of which also is made a very good and cleer vineger ibid. How good wines and good vinegars may be made in those places where grapes grow in unmanuered places and are acid 349 Also the preparation of wholesome drinks out of goose-berries barberries mul-berries and other wilde fruits 351 The correction of troubled viscous wines and such as begin to be red musty and sowre ibid. A very easie making of vinegar in great quantity out of certaine vetables that are every where to be had viz. very good cleer and durable like to French vinegar c. 352 A production of wines in cold places which othâ—rwise by reason of the cold aire do not bring forth wines the coldâ—st places of all only excepted viz. of the
will not p. 29. l. 22. r. will p. 45 l. 2. r. scoriae p. 52. l. 6. r. in an l. 12. r. with a copple p. 53. l. 4 r. cast l. 29. or they p. 54 l. 30. r. any time p. 58. l 4. blot out it p. 60. l. 1. blot out green p. 66. l. 23. blot out they p. 57. l. 18. r. spoyled p. 69. l. 26. r. also the p. 73. l. 11. r. saying l. 28. r. aire is p. 78. l. 16. blot out now p. 84. l. 17. r. set upon the warm bottom l. 28. r. is taken out p. 87. l. 5. r. and in p. 100. l. 22. r. sulphur auâ—atum p. 108. l. 36. blot out it p. 117. l. 25. r. concerning the p. 123. l. 3. blot out they p. 227. l. 22. blot out it p. 134. l. 3. r. heat p. 135. l. 15. r. but use four p. 144. l. 15. but if he be not wary p. 148. l. 37. r. fine p. 149 l. 27. r. who scoure p. 162. l. 7. r. be fixed p. 169. l. 3 r. and mixe it with p. 171. l. 26. cast in l. 34. read will pass page 17. 8. l 5. read cast â—page 18â— line 14. r. cast p. â—87 l. 3. r. bars l. 4. r. neck p. 191. l 32. r. write p. 192. l. 11. r. set p. 193. l. 3. r. or fâ—wnâ—ss l. 19 r wider p. 196. l. 1. r. those l. 14. faulâ— p. 202. l. 16 r. or filâ—d p. 203. l. 7. r. distillation p. 206. l. 34. r. reunited p. 217. l. 25. r. heat l. 25. know p. 221. l. 32. blot out is p 222. l. 26. blot out which p. 223. l. 6. r. inwardly p. 241. l. 23. r. hematitis l. 28. r. aforesaid manner p. 243. l. 7. super p. 247. l. 30. r. sâ—ll p 248. l. 31. r. seduce p. 250. l. 6. r. God hath p. 251. l. 1. r. set it in digestion and the oyles will attract out of the spirit of salt salt enough l. 2 acquires l. 1â— r. and as by these two examples the perfection of metals is proved so also l. 28. râ—fined p. 252. l. 7. r. separated by its contrary and bettered l. 20. not appear p. 254. l. 33. r. which was mixed with l. 35. r. in a l. 37. r. long ground p 255. l. 21. r. augmenting the weight of gold l. 30. blot out of gold p. 256. l. 2. r. imperfect perfect l. 24. r. whâ—nce p 257. l. 2. r. for the earth l. 11. r. operation l. 13. r. his gifts will not should be common l. 14. being an l. 17. many fear l. 28. r. for the p. 258. l. 27. r. into p. 259. l. 2. r. coming l. 12. r. the power of the sun and fire being discovered l. 23. r. from iron l. 27. r. retaine the mixt l. 31. to be under stood of metals where p. 260. l. 28. r. giâ—ing credit to these p. 261. l. 27. r. concerning the p. 262. l. 15. have been rather p. 263. l. 37. r. gift p. 265. l. 11. r. nature say they l. 21. r. againe quickly perishing p. 266. l. 1. r. be denyed l. 8. r. â—mbrionated l. 23. r. as from l. 27. blot out to l. 33. r. conceive l. 37. r. hidden in the aire p. 267. l. 10. r. minerals l. 21. blot out though l. 25. r. being afterward melted p. 268. l. 8. r. regulus â— 10. r. of minerals l. 18. r. then that which is sul hureous with which being mixed it foâ—saketh 269. l. 10. r. old Saturne l 29. r. grind very l. 33. r. and that antimonial nitre will assume p. 270. l. 2. r. leave in l. 10. r. for taking l. 3â— r. in destroying perfecting and transmuting metals by fusion p. 271. l. 17 r. not but by l. 30 r. and drawed off p 272. l. 19. being surnâ—sht with the gold of covetous men p. 273. l. 7. out a l. 20. conceive p. 274. l. 6. r. a paire of compasses l. 15. lime or the l. 21. the bottome l. 24. smoother parts if the l. 31. r. and to smooth l. 36 r. put an earthen tunnel and the mould into dry sand to the top p. 275. l. 17. impressed â—n sand or the l. 34. blot out let p. 276. l. 14. r. acquired l. 26. linseed oyle p. 282. l. 10. r. without minium l. 32. lot out equal parts p. 284. l. 4. r. smooth and light iron l. 13. r. by which 285 l. 1. r. the re will be made thence a stone p. 286. l. 12. r. forme l. 14. take out p. 287. l. 10. r. afterward is poured into it p. 295. l. 9. blot out is p. 296. l. 10. r. can not p. 302 l. 27. r. stopples p 310. l. 6. blot out that p. 314. l. 17. r. glasses p. 315. l. 14. r. satness of p. 321. l. 31. r. pour p. 322. l. 37. r. and not to p. 331. l. 30. r. spared p. 352. l 27. r. yet by art p. 354. l. 1. r. consistency p. 359. l. 5. r. pure clay p. 403. l. r. wax-like earth Page 388. The copper globes are nere through mistake left out but the manner thereof you may see in the foregoing page Part 4. for patterne and types read moulds Books Printed and are to be sold by Thomas Williams at his shop in Little-Brittaine THe new light of Alchymy by Michael Sandevogius with nine books of Paracelsus of the nature of things with a Chymical Dictionary The Art of Distillation Vade Mecum or a companion for a Chirurgion fitted for times of peace or war By Tho Brugis Doctor in Physick
to be warmed by the Copper Globe A wooden Box for a dry Bath to provoke sweat with volatile spirits THE THIRD PART OF PHILOSOPHICAL FURNACES Of Wooden Instruments of that are to be used instead of Stills Baths and Cauldrons IN the first place I shall speak of wooden vessels that are to be used instead of Copper stils in the distilling of burning spirits out of wine beer lees malt wheat meal roots hearbs flowers seeds and other vegetables as also oyles of vegetables See that thou hast an oaken barrel like to those wherein wine and beere are kept of a just bigness viz. answerable to the bigness of the globe as is sufficient for the coction For a barrel that is too big will make the coction slow and tedious A greater globe may be fitted to a lesser barrel but not on the contrary a great barrel to a little globe For by how much bigger the globe is and the less the barrel so much the sooner is the work hastned Now seeing that this Art was invented for the saving of costs which otherwise would have bin expended in providing of stils cauldrons furnaces c. it is best not to have too great a globe which requires a greater furnace and is more hardly to be carryed because it is to be covered within with lute or a wall for it is sufficient if it be big enough for the coction Wherefore I wil give you a just and due proportion of both viz. of the globe and vessel which in distillations and other operations the curteous reader may imitate A globe of the bigness of a mans head containing three or foure cannes whereof each containing four pints is sufficient for the heating of a barrell of 30 40 50 60 and 100 gallons which by how much the more remote from 100 and neerer to 30 so much the sooner is it heated and the coction furthered and on the contrary by how much the neerer it is to 100 and more remote from 30 so much the slower is the coction I do not therefore advise that a huge barrell be chosen for a small globe by reason of a long and tedious operation And if all and every thing be not so accurately observed to a hair yet it matters not much because it sufficeth to do the same thing by the help of any small copper instrument which otherwise is done by divers copper instruments of divers forms For in this way of distilling wooden vessels that are requisite to the distilling of spirits and boiling of Beer and for baths are more easily provided then so many copper vessels in the common way For by this means not only costs are spared but also it is in stead of building of furnaces because when any barrell hath been used you may remove it and set another in the place of it for another operation the which cannot be done with stils and cauldrons fastened into a furnace And this invention is for those that want Artificers as Coppersmiths c. because wooden instruments are more easily provided also by the help of this globe may most secret operations be performed For the furnace with the copper globe may be built in one place and in another place the Balneum viz. places divided with a wall so that he that looks to the fire may not know what is done in the Elaboratory for oftentimes the care of the fire is committed to heedlesse servants that breake glasse instruments by their carelesseness by which means oftentimes a most pretious medicine is lost which danger this invention is without Wherefore this copper globe with its wooden vessels is more convenient then those copper stils and cauldrons But this I would have thee know that this new invented distillation is slower then the common way which is performed by stills and consequently requires a long fire I desire therefore the rich that dwell in large and spacious houses that they would use the old way of distilling but the poor who have but little houshold conveniences and the covetous that they would use this little copper globe with its wooden vessels for although there be a longer fire required yet these are not to be compared to those costs which are otherwise expended upon so many copper vessels of so many divers formes Let him therefore keep to his copper vessels who cannot understand me for it concernes not me Without doubt there are some whom this my new invented way of distilling will please before other being communicated for the sake of the poor labouring house-keepers that cannot boil Beer and distill burning spirits for lack of vessels for a globe of five or four pound is more easily provided then other copper vessels of 60 80 100 pound also those wooden vessels are more easily provided then furnaces which some for want of place only cannot build Choose therefore which way thou wilt for these things which I have wrote I have wrote for the poores sake rather then of the rich Certainly rich men that have spacious Elaborateries need not be ashamed to follow this way for it is free for every man to goe a shorter way unless they had rather prefer the old and true way before a new and compendious whom I cannot help being contented with a publication which is made for the sake of my neighbour whether it be taken well or ill with a good minde certainly knowing that more profit then disprofit may be obtained by the help thereof It shall not therefore repent him of his labour who knows rightly to prepare and use copper and wooden vessels There follows now the preparation of the vessel THE vessel being made is to be placed with one bottome upon a stool that is fitted for it which being done make a hole with a wimble neer the bottome for the receiving of the neck of the copper globe which is to be covered over with a linnen cloth make also about the lower bottome another hole for a tap by the help whereof the remainder of the distillation is drawn forth also you must make a large hole in the upper bottome the diameter whereof must be one span for to poure in the water to be distilled with a funnell Also there must be made a hole neer the upper bottome of two or three fingers breadth into which is to be sent a copper pipe of a span long which is to be fastened closely therein and to this pipe another oaken vessell with a copper worm and cold water like to other refrigeratories must be applyed Also the joints of the aforesaid short pipe viz. of the first barrell and of the second barrell viz. the refrigeratory must be straightly and closely united together which afterward may be the better joined together with a fit lute for the distilling And this is the form and fashion of the wooden vessell that is to be used in the place of copper vessels in the distilling of burning spirits and oiles But thou wilt object that these kinde of wooden vessels are
by this meanes nothing can be gotten wherefore the work is to be done warily and with wisdome and industry You must have a care you burne not the Regulus of lead with too much fire when you reduce it into drosse for fear of attracting the gold from the iron and turning it into drosse And although this may by art be prevented yet we must not presently create every one Master of Arts it requiring diligence and daily exercise besides the reading of Bookes But this secret shall other where be communicated This admonition then I give that thou doe not impute thy errour if thou dost erre to me but to thy selfe for what I have written is true and doe not thence infer an impossibility of attracting gold by iron out of lead and of turning it into drosse which is no wonder to me though it may so seem to thee Which he who hath the knowledg of metals wil himself easily perceive But that thou maist be certain try the certainty after the following manner take two hundred lib. of lead of the lesser weight of the refiners put it on a test under a tyle adde eight or ten lotons of pure gold of tin two or three l. six or eight of iron viz. of the lesser weight make them flow together an houre to make drosse as examiners use to doe then poure it out and separate the lead from the dross viz. to cupell that which is eparated then weigh the grains of gold left and thou shalt finde half of it consumed by the drosse If this happen to corporeall gold and fixt how will it be with that which is newly extracted out of an imperfect metall therefore you must diligently search out the natures of metals and then such cases shall not seem incredible From hence then and other examples mentioned it appeares that that separation which is done by tests and cupels is not true and legitimate and consequently that another profitable separation of metals is to be sought because by this the greater part of gold and silver burns into drosse witnesse experience for which cause the former example was alleadged whither belongs the proof viz. how much gold the drosse hath attracted which is done as followeth â„ž the remaining black drosse to which adde a double weight of salt of tartar put in it a crucible filled but to the half for fear of boiling out and covered that nothing fall in under a tyle or among live coals one or two hours space to digest and a new Regulus of lead shall be precipitated which separated from the dross you may cupel and you shall finde new graines of gold attracted by the iron to the dross but now separated by the salt of tartar overcoming the rage of the iron And so you have heard from two examples how in the coction of the separation gold may be drawn out of the lead by tin and iron and that therefore there is need that gold be separated by the Antimonial Regulus out of the aforesaid metals and not by lead if you would extract the true substance with gaine N. B. Gold may likewise be separated out of the glass of lead being first dissolved with the ashes of tin with coal dust adding it in the flux and stirring it with an iron wier and also with common sulphur by burning it on it but the aforesaid way with iron is to be preferred before those two which spoyle the gold c. wherefore the remaining dross is to be gathered which by some abstracting furnace by other means may be tryed for to recover the spoyled or lost gold and silver And all these are alleadged to demonstrate that the gold in tin and iron is to be separated by the Antimonial Regulus and not by lead But how this separation may be perfected you shall here in that third part where we will treat of lead explained by Paracelsus in his book called Caelum Philosopherum and other artificial Chymical labors wherefore here we omit it being superfluous to handle one thing in diverse places In the mean while exercise thy self in lesser things that thou maist be more fit for greater when they shall be set forth But wonder not at my liberality in publishing so great secrets for I have reasons for it Such a burden is too much for me alone neither doth it profit the covetous to sell his goods to them which keep not their words nor pay the mony after they have obtained their art which hath happened to me Wherefore I have determined to communicate some secrets to all the world indifferently that the poor may receive some profit by them knowing that though I write plainly yet that al wil not at the first view obtaine their desires For some are so dull that they cannot imitate a work though often seen For some have often visited me to see my new maner of distilling which though it was sufficiently demonstrated to the eye yet they could not imitate it till with often perusals at length they have found the right path Others have left it as too hard a work when it would not presently succeed which if it happened to those who had an occular demonstration how much more difficult will it be and hard to them who have nothing but what they have heard or read Wherefore I am certain that though I should publish every one of my secrets yet could they not be performed by all men my coals and materials being left sufficing for my necessity Wherefore I fear not to publish the next opportunity offered diverse profitable and exeellent secrets viz. in favor of all and every one As for that spirit of salt necessary to this work you may finde it in the first part of my Philosophical Furnaces corrected and amended but the way of separation in the fourth part And so I finde this work published in favor of those who by war though honest men are reduced to poverty But what things are deficient in this little tract shall God willing be delivered in the next which shall follow in a short time largely and cleerly without fraud FINIS The Contents of the first Part. OF the structure of the first Furnace 1 Of the receiver 2 The manner of distilling 4 How the spirit of salt is to be distilled 9 Of the use of the spirit of salt 12 A distillation of vegetable oyles whereby a greater quantity is acquired then by that common way by a gourd still 13 The cleare oyle of Mastick and Frankincense 15 The quintessence of vegetables 18 The quintessence of metals and minerals ibid. A sweet and red oyle of metals and minerals 19 The oyle or liquor of gold ibid. Oyle of Mars 20 Oyle of Venus 21 Oyle of Jupiter and Saturne ibid. Oyle of Mercury 22 Oyle of Antimony ibid. The flowers of Antimony white and voltill 24 The flowers of Antimony diaphoretical 25 Of the external use of the corrosive oyl of Antimony ibid. The oyle of Arsenick and Auripigmentum 26 Oyle of lapis