in the Oyl to take off that colour he made appear that Gold which was hid before To the Most Serene and Mighty PRINCES The LORDS George William John Frederick Ernest Augustus Brethren By the Grace of GOD DUKES of Brunswick and Lunenburg c. His Most Bonntiful LORDS POndering often in my Mind High and Mighty Princes and my Noble Patrons the Great and many Favours which Your Grand and Prince-like Liberality hath most Graciously heaped upon me and thereby Eternally obliged me to Your Excellencies I became solicitous and concerned in my thoughts with what Veneration and Industry of Wit answerable to the Obsequiousness of my Devoted mind I might declare by some Testimony at least an endeavour of Gratitude for Your Benefits bestowed upon me 'T is the guise of Others in Dedicating their Lucubrations to Princes and Nobles chiefly to concern themselves in Blazoning their Genealogies and in Decyphering their Praises and Heroick Acts in an high Method of Elegancy thereby extolling them as we say with an open mouth to the Skies But I well knowing that the full-blown Elogies of Talkative Fame do displease Your Excellencies especially since glorious and memorable Vertue it self for so many Ages backward together with Magnanimous Bounty have flourished in the most August House of Brunswick and Lunenburg and by God's Blessing will ever flourist in the same I I say waving therefore all such Proceedure do come only furnished with a gift not large nor great though you are worthy of both nor glittering with Gold Silver or Precious Stones Ornaments which Divine Bounty hath aboundantly replenished Your Highnesses withall but are denied to me and persons of my condition Mine is only a Paper gift but extracted from the true Protochymick Art which is most Ancient and hath more in the Recess than it promises in the Front Yea it is That by which the uncreated Spirit the Founder of the World dâ—d order and distinguish the otherwise confused Natures of things Hereupon I perswaded my Self that I could offer no gift more grateful to Your Highnesses than a new work of this most Vetust yet Wonderful and Necessary Science A Work most curious in it self which hitherto Envy hath forborne to restore and to gratify the World with For although the unconquerable Truth comes commended only by its own strength and is sufficiently fortified by its proper and native Vigor for nothing can subsist which is not firmed in the very Foundation of Nature and so enjoys this invincible Patronage yet the plain Purity of my Writings being Dedicated to Your Eminencies and thereby armed with so great Splendor thus doubly strengthened will appear more boldly in the sight of the World Accept therefore most Noble Princes this Diminutive Gift for the bare Title 's sake and go on if not entirely to love yet somewhat to respect and favour VENICE the Ides of May 1666. Your Highnesses most Devoted Servant OTHO TACHENIVS The PREFACE to the Courteous READER And Lover of the Ancient Doctrine of HIPPOCRATES HIppocrates The Writings of the Ancients were like the Oracles of Apollo Aenigmatical That bright-shining Light of Physick did wrap up His Divine Oracles in Aenigma's and with an Obscure Brevity related his Precepts in all the parts of his Works So that his Instructions and Aphorismes by reason of their Obscurity are wrested by Writers into diverse Senses some of which Galen with wonderful Skill and comely Order hath digested into Chapters but othersome especially the Golden Book De Diaetâ which is full of Mysteries he hath left untouched For the Divine Old-Man bequeathed Those only to the followers of Chymistry which Art was heretofore and perhaps in Hippocrates his time called Natural Philosophy For who can understand the rare sayings of that Old-Man or comprehend the Soft Fire mentioned by him unless he be well versed in this Occult Natural Philosophy of Hippocrates Raimund Lully gives his Attestation hereto for says he Testam chap. 26 Though a Logician may have as profound Wit acquired or natural able to argue concerning outward things yet he can never understand by any Reason grounded on Sense how the Seed in the Earth doth germinate increase and brings forth Fruit unless being assisted by experimental Learning He first have made some progress in Our Natural Philosophy rather than in That Sophistical Wordy one which Logicians do attain to by sundry Phantastical suppositions and presumptions who thereby with the Prognostications of their sequels against the force of Nature do cause many Men pertinaciously to err through an intoxicated Mind But by our Mechancial Science the Understanding is rectifyed in point of insight and of true Mental Knowledge by the force of Experience Yea Our Experiments are superior to all phantastical Probations of Conclusions and therefore admit not of Them but do shew the way how all other Sciences may enter vigorously into the Understanding Whence we further learn by Nature that Inward thing That it is and What it is because by such Science the Understanding is freed from those superfluities and errors which do ordinarily carry it off from the Truth by reason of those presumptions and prejudices which are believed in the Conclusions Hence it is that Our Chymists have directed themselves through the path of every Science to enter into all Experience by Art according to the course of Nature in her Uniâ—â—cal Principles For 't is only Chymistry which is the â—lass of the true Understanding shewing it how to feel and see Truths in a clear light and therefore Tabula Smaragdina saith By this kind of demonstration all Obscurity is banished and expelled from Man c. Hippocrates points at the foundations of this most Ancient Art Lib. 1 de Diaeta in the beginning of his aforesaid Book All other living Creatures says he as well as Man are constituted of Two principles different in faculty but concording and joyntly fit for Use Fire an Water Both of These together are sufficient both for all other things and also for themselves mutually but eitheir of them severally and a-part is sufficient neither for it self or any other c. It is my purpose in this short Tract to expose to View those two hitherto Obscure Principles to wit This soft Fire and Coagulable Water only out of a desire to propagate Truth which in this Age is wofully kept under by the Haters of Hippocratical Learning not that I think it possible for any Men wholly to exinguish it In regard it is Powerful Impregnable and Triumphant above all things in the whole World 3 Esdr c. 3 4. as Holy Writ also testifies For Zorobabel says Wine is strong The King si stronger Women strongest but above all things Truth beareth away the Victory all the Earth calleth upon Truth The Heaven praiseth it it is always strong it conquereth and liveth for evermore c. I know many men according to the variety of their Dispositions Obj. will diversly censure me for publishing That which Nature
Operation of those Instruments by vehement Heat or Cold and so the Work is perfected and Bread made which is so necessary for the Sustentation of Man's life Neither do Aliments alone stand in need of this Art but also the most Wholesome and Effectual Medicines cannot be made without it as amongst others We may see in Treacle for unless the infinite Instruments of Nature in the Simples which make up that Compositum be united by Fermentation and so suffered to rest it would be altogether useless For * Lib. De Viribus Cordis Tract 2. c. 4. Avicen says That That Medicine is of double Vertue which hath suffered Fermentation For which cause the Inventor thereof being well skilled in Chymical Operations adds Wine that the Work may be more readily done For all Natural things are transformed by Fermentation as is plainly seen in the Juice of Grapes in Brewing of Beer and in Making of Bread But it is alleaged Obj. though Reason and Truth it self do evidence these things to be so yet notwithstanding the Novelties which you introduce into Philosophy and Physick and the Mineral and Metalline Remedies prescribed by you which are very contrary to Man's nature and were unknown to Antiquity These are the things which we implead and oppose I answer Ans It is an impossible thing to introduce Novelties into the World but to perfect alter throughly to mix and compound things introduced already by the Creator is very possible This Hippocrates teacheth and it is allowed to Art So Flax or Hemp by various alterations is made Paper Grass by the like Alterations is changed into a Glove There is nothing made which was not before but things thorowly mixed and severed are alâ—ered L. 1. De Diaet and also into Glew The Juice of Flowers by a various Alteration is made Honey and Honey in like sort is changed into Hydromel i. e. Mead or Methegline a most pleasant Drink in Lituania nothing inferior to Spanish Wine and at length it turns to Vinegar which is afterwards casily reduced to Elementary Water Bread-corn by Alteration is made Hot-water Sundry Simples gathered together and mixt in one by Fermentation become Treacle So since Hippocrates his time Cassia Sena Mechoacan Cremor Tartari and infinite other things are found out which he made no mention of which yet are not new but only retrieved and brought forth into use again by long Study and Experience So that we may boldly say with the Wise Man Eâ— l. c. 1. v. 10. There is no new thing under the Sun Whatsoever therefore the Followers of Hippocrates have handed out and as it were Mid-wifed into the World the same was from the beginning though our eyes were not so clear-sighted as to discover it But Stephen Pasquier answers this Objection very Elegantly Dicitur esse novus nobis Paracelsus ob idque Crimen in obseurum pellitur exilium At novus Hippocrates novus est Chrysippus c ipsi Romae Asclepiades tempore quisque suo Qui nova damnatis veteres damnetis oportet Aut ista nihil est in novitate novi Englished thus Some Paracelse of Novelty implead For which Judg'd Crime he erst was banished So Hippocrates Chrysippus and at Rome Asclepiade too were New They'd all one Doom They who condemn new things condemn the old Or else do both mis-judge and are o'r bold As for Mineral and Metalline Remedies neither these were not newly introduced into Physick but were in use among the Ancients For Treacle that most ancient Compound is altogether Ineffectual without Chalcitis Alkermes takes into its composition Lapis Lazuli and Gold Gold the perfectest and noblest of Metals The same Mesue made Pills of the same stone of good use in Melancholy and Madness which latter Practitioners guild over with Gold or Silver At Vilna the Metropolis of Lituania I knew a Silver-Smith a lusty Fellow a Batchellor unlearned Silver yet of so happy a memory that in his own Mother Tongue he could repeat almost word for word whatsoever he had once heard This man from his youth to that very time which was the 47th year of his age had accustomed himself daily to eat a little of the filings of Silver as he was at work and he firmly believed that the use thereof encreased his memory Emeraulds Rubies Jacinths Gems do they not enter into various compositions which we call Cordial ones Sulphur is daily prescribed in the Diseases of the Lungs Sulphur and is praised by Dioscorides a very Ancient Writer Iron is commended by the Ancients in the Diseases of the Spleen and we use it at this day with good success Iron Mineral Waters were in great veneration among the Ancients and we also have recourse to them every year in desperate cases But what will they say of Salt Salt without which Man's Life cannot be sustained and which we use every day in seasoning our Meat Is that a new Invention or had the Ancients no knowledge of it yet it is excocted not only from the Sea and from Fountains but there are besides Mountains and Mines of native solid Salt like Marble out of which it is hewn and grows again like Stones in Quarries I my self have seen such in Valachia and near Cracovia a greater Revenue arising thence to the King than from any other thing which yet cannot be called a Vegetable nor an Animal it must therefore needs be a Mineral So for external Remedies The Ancients never composed their Oyntments Plaisters Collyries and such like without Minerals and Metals Of Lead Lead mix'd by Chymical Art with Vinegar they made Cerusse for the Vnguent and Plaister which is called White of Lead is made Litarge of which is made the Emplastrum Triapharmacum All these were found out by the Ancients Of Copper and Vinegar by the same Art is made Verdigrease Copper which enters into the composition of the Egyptian Oyntment so called from its Swarthy colour the invention also of the Ancients But why do I spend time in mentioning these things there is not an Old Woman in Italy but will inveigh against the opposers of this Art for without It it is impossible for them to find out ony thing to Colour and Dye their Hair In a word whatsoever Famous and Excellent thing is performed by Art it proceeds from the foundation of This Ancient Philosophy though men know this well enough yet they are ashamed to speak it out L. 1. De Diaet The Old-Man Hippocrates admiring at this stupidity and turning to his Followers says smilingly and with a low voice The Divine Mind hath instructed men to imitate her Works they know what they do but are ignorant of what they imitate They are Hippocrates his words So that Hippocratical Chymists do not endeavour to produce new things but to recal from Oblivion Things approved by the Ancients It is further objected That the strong Remedies of Quicksilver and Antimony do evince the ignorance
Alcahest which yet is not free from Adulterators but instead thereof the Reformer substitutes Vinegar * In Append f. 71. hereupon being instructed by my loss I became my own School-master and have often thought upon that Saying of Escheurenterus to Gratarolus Thou knowest on easier terms the Sentence passed at Bononia that he was proclaimed a Traytor to his Countrey and worthy to be hanged who first made a Filatory at Trent in Germany which is an Engine whereby Raw Silk by Spindles is artificially drawn into Threads So that I have hitherto concealed That which might ennoble a Physician being jealous not without cause lest by my sluggishness and neglect it might fall into the hands of Impostors and thereby the worthy and the unworthy should undergo the same Fate But the earnest importunity of this * Pharmac 487. Reformer hath caused me to select some things out of the heap of my Observations and Experiments which I had designed only for my own use and now to make them publick yet still I keep to the Precept of †Libro Raaic None are worthy of the name of Teacher but such who teach by sure Principles and causes Arist in Protm Me. taph Hermes That the Wisdom of the Author ought to be greater than his Book But I must follow the Clew of inevitable Fate and I undertake this labour the more willingly that I may discover the right way to those that wander and may bring back Straglers into it As also that those who have hitherto opposed this Art might at length correct their mistakes and begin to be wiser And further also that they who practise it may assuredly understand that it is founded on the Principles of Nature and so for the future may be delivered from the crafts and deceits of Sophisters and Impostors In this work I mind more the Truth of the Cause than the Ornaments of Elocution for the speech of Truth says Euripides is plain neither matters it therein what stile we use especially since Cicero doth not require Eloquence in a Philosopher much less doth Celsus in a Physician For as Plato saith Three words are sufficient in a just cause when we dispute of things the rudeness or the elegancy of words are not to be heeded but only that satisfaction may be obtained as to the Doctrine of the things themselves neither have I inserted florid disputings or odious altercations but whatsoever offers it self more occultly to the Senses that Experience being my guide I have despoiled of its coverings and have exposed the truth of things naked to the eyes of all beholders so that every individual man may know it for Truth loves brevity not disputation By this Compass I have Steered Draw near therefore all ye Lovers of Truth and you shall behold things both admirable and pleasant with your eyes yea and handle them with your hands which have hitherto stood remote from our sensation and knowledge Now to the work it self CHAP. II. Qui nimium properat serius absolvit Or No more haste than good speed THe * Pharmac 5.481 Reformer begins with a lofty Brow Now says he let us come to the examination of the Salt of Treacle of the Ancients whose preparation was so Childish and absurd that their simplicity did no where more appear than about it c. And a little after Animals only have Volatile Salt and in a violent Calcination leave commonly nothing behind them save only Terra Mortua yea the rest of their absurdities are not to be passed over in silence Do not tastly condemn the guiltless not having throughly weighed their cause in that they substituted Sal Armoniack in the place of Common Salt not at all as I perceive understanding the matter because all the Sal Armoniack is vanished into Air and so there remains nothing to them neither of the Vipers nor of their added Salt Thus. he But for my part I cannot see that the Ancients deserve to be accused of absurdity or simplicity in this thing so as to incur the undue reprehension of the Reformer so thet before we judge we are to hear and that both sides and we ought to find out what the Sal Armoniack of the Ancients was and for what reason they substituted it in the room of Common Salt and for what end and wherein their offence lay so as to merit the rash anger and bitter despight of this Reformer To make these things more plain it is necessary that we dive into the secret nature of certain Salts No imaginary things here in order to the examination and understanding of them and of the differences between them by accidents proper to them and known to Sense and that not by Logical and convertible Syllogismes or imaginary Non-Entities but by an Experimental and Natural History I say then and am ready to prove that not Animals only have Volatile Salt but against the Opinion of this Reformer that all Vegetables also have not a grain of fixed Salt by Nature unless they acquire it by Ary But first I will speak of things more known proceeding afterwards by degrees to those which are more occult Pliny witnesseth that Natural Sal Armoniack was in great use amonst the Ancients It is found says he L. 1. Ch. 7. in Africa in the Country of Cirenia till you come to the Oracle of Jupiter Hammon in lumps somewhat long and under the Sands Diascorides confirms the same that Sal Armoniack is praised from the Country where it is found This Salt endures constant in the fire being after its manner of a more Salt-acid relish than our common Trencher-salt as I shall shew and therefore the Ancients found it more advantagious for Medicines and for that cause have more commended it to us But that which is brought to us is not in longish lumps neither is it Natural but is made by Art viz. of the Natural and of the Volatile Alcaly of Ammals as the resolution of it shews according to the Axiom of * All things necessâ—â—ily consists of that into which they can be resolved Aristorle for it is divided into an Acid Spirit of Salt and also into a volatile Alcaly all salt things are divided into two substances viz. Alcaly and Acid as I shall shew by degrees both which being separated and again reunited become the Sal Armoniack which it was before The Acid part or Spirit hath all the properties of that which is distilled from Common Salt but the Alcaly is of the same nature with that which is sublimated from Mans Urine only 't is not so stinking Whence I conjecture that they chose Camels Urine not Mans for the composition L. 28. c. 8. For the Urine of Camels as Pliny observes is more profitable for Fullers than the Urine of other Animals from whence there must needs be a richer Alcaly perhaps because they eat no Salt as other Animals do for common Salt doth not wash out or cleanse Odys l. 6.
administred against the aforesaid Indications as I have shewn then indeed it wants not a deletery Vertue as Avicen teaches well for it excites the gripings of the Intestines dryness and roughness of the tongue siccity of the Body costiveness of the Belly and pains of the Head because it doth consume not only the manifest Ferment of the Stomach but also the occult Acid of the other Bowels and sucks up the Vital Seed but the quantity of it being small viz. the 8200 part of its Body 't is no wonder if upon the taking of Crocus Martis though it should be Aperitive as they ignorantly babble the Disease become more vehement to the destruction of the Patient And in that Case they blame the Apothecary-behind his back as if he had mistook the Box and so detract from his honesty without Cause But if they will not hearken to an old faithful Admonition and to my Experience but pertinaciously resist good Counsel it may chance to come to pass that at last daily Experience and the Death of their Patients will in spight of their teeth enform them of the Truth Otherwise the World would be filled with far fetched ill understood false and dubious Receits and the diligent Observations of our Ancestors would be lightly esteemed and so a new unskilful ambiguous costly speculative infinite and groundless way of Physick would take place which under the disguise of false Words and deep Learning would be entertained by Ideots who not knowing the Vertues of Things hotly contend amongst themselves and rail one at an other not only about Aperitive or Astringent Iron but about many other things some of which I have spoken of as much as the nature of the Argument and the good of my Neighbours require So also by uncertain Conclusions and vain Opinions they revile the Wits of the Studious and to the hurt of their Neighbour and the infamy of the Art they approve and subscribe to Lying Fables And not at all studying the Truth they boast themselves to be great Doctors who yet never will attain to Science because they follow the herd that went before and think they have already attained it as Seneca rightly speaks but to return to the matter Dioscorides handles Iron two manner of ways either preparing Ferrugo out of it or extinguishing It in Water or Wine yet to both the Preparations he ascribes an Astringent Vertue he doth not call the one Astringent and the other Aperitive For when Iron opens it comes from the specifick Acid degenerating in the body which Nature could not receive into nourishment and therefore by reason of its Acid taste it rushes to the Iron so the Bowels being strengthened by degrees Nature expels That together with the detained excrements by stool Hence Helmont says that Iron doth open by a specifick and appropriate Vertue but it binds by a second quality so that neither of the Vertues of the Iron do proceed from the absence or presence of its Mercury which they boast but without Truth that they can extract from it but from the attraction of the specifick Acid in the Morbous Bodies as Hippoc. Chymic shews Chap. 16. and 28. Thither I refer the Reader that I may not clog him with the repetition of things there spoken But we may grant that they can as well extract Mercury from Iron as Eximious Vertues from Copper These Vanities are and always were nausceous to Me as well as to the World and the Sick for they have no foundation in Nature so that they and their Masters are to be banished from the society of good Men whilest on the other side I deal with the Doctrine of Truth and the most Ancient Science which the Ancients found to be agreeable to the Nature of Man and thought worthy to be ascribed to God as the School of Truth yet thinks as Hippocrates hath it De Veterum Medicina for He there teaches that as there is a manifold Acid in the Macrocosme so also in Mans Body And in his Book de Arte every Acid hath its proper Ventricle which yet the vocal and wordy Colledge is ignorant of and therefore he adds as they know who study these things but seeing it is easier to steal blind Receits and to approve them to suppress Truth and to load It with Calumnies then to learn the knowledge of the Ventricles of Mans Body 't is no wonder that They are ignorant of the Instruments of Physick who have no regard to the Ventricles For if says the Old Man they do not know the Constitution from the beginning and that which is predominant in the body they cannot prescribe that which is good for a Sick Man Lo here the Cause why Crocus Martis being Aperitive in the hands of superficial and ignorant Doctors becomes Astrictive and Vice Versa because they are ignorant of their proper Instruments and in the method of Curing know not how to apply Active things to Passive because they have not the knowledge of Ventricles or Sapors neither did they ever learn Them out of Hippocrates of which my Hippoc. Chymic doth discover very many This is the reason why as I said before they come to Practice as the Ass to his fodder not knowing to what he extends his Lips but only as far as his exterior senses without understanding by seeing and tasting do draw him to his meat But why do I insist on the decrees of Philosophers deduced and drawn down from Nature it self since I have to do with such Persons who never so much as dreamt of the Verity and Excellency of the Art of Physick Therefore they are to be instructed by Examples taken out of the Shop of Wise Nature Observe then That in the Stomach and Milt of a sound Animal there dwels a Vital Acid proper to the Milt but when That Acid doth degenerate into an unusual taste or sapor all the neighbouring parts are also contaminated and presently the pores are contracted and the Body which was transpirable in health now ceases from action hence the Milt swels from the motion of the Ferment which will not obey purging Medicines as experience shews Now Iron taken at mouth is good for that Ferment and prae-acid Taste by which the Milt is lessened or dried call it which you will but not by reason of the Aperitive force of the Iron but that Acidity there detained doth in a special manner love the Iron as a thirsty Man doth Beer Let Silver dissolved in Aqua Fortis be an Example Aqua Fortis hath the smell and property of Sulphur of Iron because it is made of Sulphurous Nitre Vitriol or Allum whence by reason of the likeness between them it loves Copper and Iron as I have above Mechanically shewed Now as in the Stomachs of Animals the hungry Acid desires to be satisfied with its like and That like i. e. food it dissolves and is delighted with it 't is just so in the Matrocosme For Example The Acidity of Aqua Eortis is as an
of Seeds both Theoretically and Practically by the two Instruments of Nature viz. Acid and Alcaly Now the Nature of my Argument requires that I discourse some things concerning the Nature of Animals very necessary for this work and that I make them plain by clear Examples Now as from the beginning I have chosen the Ancients for my Guids so for the future I shall respect them as my Deities and shall not stir an hairs breadth from the Truth for fear or favour of any Man but amongst the Ancients I chuse chiefly in all things to follow Hippocrates He being to Discourse of Animals chuses Man as the Noblest of all saying in his Book of Diet The Soul of Man is increased in Man but in no other and likewise the Soul of other great Animals c. The Divine meaning whereof he gives us in the foresaid Book of Diet in a Learned and Profound Interpretation where also he proposes the Universal Generation of all Things and the Nature of Seeds which my Hippoc. Chymic explains according to his meaning All Things says he in the same place both Animals and Man himself consists of two Principles differing indeed in Faculty but agreeing in Vse viz. Fire and Water Both these together are sufficient both for all other Things and for themselves mutally but either of them apart is sufficient neither for it self nor for any other Fire adorns Water nourishes and a little after in the same Book Omitting other Animals I shall speak of Man a Soul creeps into Man having the mixture or temper ament of Fire and Water Fire adorns all things which are in the Body and can move all things but Water nourishes all and through all because for a need it abounds with Alcaly as I have shewed before by evident Examples by which a solid substance is concocted by inspissation against the opinion of these gain sayers but the Fire of which the Old Man speaks in this place is not culinary Fire as he shews in the same Book Man says he Threshes Washes and Grindes Bread-Corn and after it is baked in the Fire he uses it but with a strong Fire in its Body it is not made up but with a soft and gentle one so that it is a soft Fire which adorns and moves all things which in the 2 Chap. of this Book and here and there besides throughout the whole Book I have shewed by many Examples to be Acid and hereafter shall likewise further shew So that Fire and Water or Acid and Alcaly call them which you will is that Balsam which is given to Bodies for Salt That they putrefie not and in very deed it is Salt as Hippocrates Chymicus shews from the 12 to the 16 Chapter and it will more fully appear in the progress This is that innate Calid which old Hippoc. says doth abound in things that grow Aph. 14. S. 1. because it is fermentable and expirable and from aliment taken in like it self it doth incessantly reâ—erminate therefore reason perswades that it very much must want Aliment by which Aphorisme he intended to shew that unless the innate Calid i. e. Fire and Water in Animals especially growing ones being very Volatile were restored by its like the strength of the Body would soon decay Hence that saying Vbifames laborandum non est c. Now that which is its like is not that External Body of Flesh or Bread which we touch since Man lives not only by Visible Bread but by the innate Calid of the Aliments which as soon as ever it is embraced by the Stomach even before it be heated there presently the strength of the Body is repaired This innate Calid is also in Lettice so that the Acid of the Stomach after it is consumed by the Aliment and is passed into Radical Humid or Moisture immediately the Stomach Contracts it self and the whole Body Languishes for want of It. Hence ariseth Hunger and Appetite of Food so that an hungry Man though he be weakned by long Fasting or by Labour yet upon the taking of Food or Drink yea of one Cup of Wine only he finds himself immediately refreshed and that before the Food begins to be chylified because the deficient Acid is restored by That which was in the Meat Drink Bread or Wine though imperceptibly as to our outward Senses Whence Hippoc. says Aliment is that which is turned into Spiritual Vapours by such as these the Vital Spirits which are the Authors of the Active are nourished For as I shewed before That as every Acid Spirit carries the Anima inseparably in its belly and gets dominion over that body into which it is infused immediately forming it according to its own nature as I gave examples chap. 6. in Spirit of Salt which being poured into Alcaly of Tartar presently forms to it self a Saline Body agreeable to its own Nature and becomes Salt and Spirit of Vinegar or Distilled Vinegar in the same Alcaly of Tartar forms to it self a Body adaequate to its proper nature and becomes Tartar of Wine The like may be said of Vitriol and other Acids So also the Acid of the Stomack of a Man when it lays hold on Bread or any nourishing thing over which it may have dominion it doth turn and transmute it into Chyle and afterwards into humane flesh and the Acid of a Dogs Stomack converts the same Bread into Dogs Flesh as we are daily taught also by other Living Creatures because Nature works by the same Instruments in them all as I have shewed in the beginning of this Chapter out of Hippocrates in these following words The soul of Man is increased in no other but in Man c. and from the same things of which it consists and though Bread be fermented and Acid as most Aliments are either more or less yet the Acid in the Stomack of a Man though of it self weak hath yet a vitality joyned with it whence it can obtain dominion over the same As Vinegar gets dominion over and suppresseth the Acid innate in a Pearl and Aqua Fortis subdues the Acid in Silver so also the Vital Aeidity of the Stomach subjugates the Acid Ferment of the Bread and other Aliments and bears such rule over them as to convert and change them into its own nature For example When a man eats a Capon the Acid of his Stomack overcomes the radical moisture of the Capon and being predominant over it transforms it into its own nature on the contrary if a Capon or a Fish could or did eat a Man his Vital Acid in the Stomack over-powers and kills the radical moisture left after death in mans flesh which then becomes the flesh of a Capon Now that there is a Radical or Vital Moisture remaining in a Dead Carcass appears by the Worms which will infallibly breed there and likewise by the growing of the nails and hair And this not only Paracelsus but many other curious Enquirers into Natural Things have observed And unless there
Alcaly or Mother or first Matter of Metals which I have before demonstrated is variously agitated by the unskilful multitude in Acids and Causticks and Calx's of Things not agreeable to its Nature with which they oppress and destroy its internal Form and the spark of Acid Metaline Light so that it cannot be encreased or multiplied as I have shewed in a Grain of Corn so also I find the first Faeminine matter of Alcaly of Vipers to be miserably tossed and debased by unskilful Sciolists sometimes with Calx sometimes with most Acid Spirit of Salt see Hippoc. Chymic Chap. 3. and 11. Things contrary to its Nature so that the spark of Light or Internal Form of the Viper which ought by a gentle Fermentation to be encreased and multiplied by these Violators of Nature is almost wholly destroyed and annihilated in like sort as the light of a Pearl remains oppressed and slain by Their Celebrated Spirit of Venus And as a skilful Artist taking Nature for his Guide can multiply the form in Mother of Metals so also the same Artist by the same Guide can multiply the Form in the Mother or Alcaly of Vipers I have shewed how wise Nature by her working doth perfect Radical Humid for the Family of Vegetables on which Antiquity hath superstructed Artificial Humid with good success I have also shewed out of Hippocrates de Carnibus the method and way that Nature useth in the preparation of Radical Humid in the Animal Family in imitation of which I have made the Artificial not departing an hairs breadth from the Natural Operation Hence it will appear to all in general and every individual Man in particular both present and to come against the opinion of Calumniators That This Invention of mine may be truly and without fraud called Radical humid by Art as well as Salt of Vipers The Viperine Salt of the Author is Radical Humid by Art for it consists of the Alcaly of Vipers which as I have above evinced by Experience and the Authority of Geber to act the Woman as in Minerals and Vegetables so also in this Animal Classis it is wholly of a feminine nature and hath in it an Occult Viperine form and of the Child of the Sun or coelestial Calid not as yet corrupted which since it cannot be alone is received into and detained in the Alcaly of Water until it be fermented into Salt i. e. into the degree of the perfection of its Nature Thus you have my mind For an Example of this Salt my Hippoc. Chymic chap. 10. holds forth the way whereby with Alcaly of Tartar Vitriolate Tartar may be made out of a Crude Minera of Vitriol of Mars and it shews also That Nature is in all things alike and truly it discovers a great thing But these barren and unfruitful pretenders to Physick by reason of the caecity of their minds are not capable of the evident truth yea They scarce know the things which are before their eyes for in Acid Fountains they see not the Child of the Sun diluted by providen Nature in Water which never falls and by flowing by an immature Vein of Iron it licks and affects it with a sweet Acidity and aftr it hath flowed down a little it waxes yellow as Hippocrates Chymiâ—us shews chap. 16. An evident argument that the Celestial Spirith flaggs in its action when seed fails no otherwise then as Proserpina having enjoyed her pleasure returns to her Mother yet notwithstanding it suffers not it self to be taken by polluted hands but to intelligent persons it manifests it self even whilest dormant and asleep Wherefore there are many wayes conducing to this end which are very craggy and obscure to Detractors But what ingenious Man would not try the same with crude Natural Vitriol of Mars Unless perhaps he be afraid of the frequent solution long digestion and judicious coagulation Behold here all ye Candid Assertors of Physical Light how the first Faeminine matter of Alcaly of Vipers by a Triumphant and Solemn Marriage with the Child of the Sun is exalted into the Nature of Salt whose Marriage is celebrated in the House of Nature to use Cosmopolita's words against which for these twenty years whilest I have made my abode in this Country Dogs have barked Ravens have croked and unheard of clamors have been made which I despising do yet live to triumph over and contemne my Adversaries but if I had died some would have accounted those things as Prodigies and Omens of my Death Oh how much paper have these Grammatical Masters spent about this matter what slanders what infamatory Libels how many Calumnies and filthy Reproaches have these uncivil Decl aimers against the Works of Nature vomited forth into their own laps As for my Self I have chosen Truth for my faithful Defendress which though it may be oppressed and exercised with great weight and burden amongst Men yet it is impossible that it should be wholy extinguished in regard it is powerful inexpugnable and triumphant above all things in the World as my Preface to Hippoc. Chymicus proves out of the Holy Scripturs Therefore I entertain with delight the contempts of Phebâ—ians for I can scarce find filth or dirt enough to stop the Mouths of such evil Speakers I know that 't is the part of a fool to contend with unskilful persons about things which they understand not or to think to get any credit by teaching them but on the contrary a Wise Man will silently consider the times places and customs of the Ruling Men with whom he is conversant and besides he will confide in just actions and then cheerfully expect an equal event for hereby accrews great glory and emolument Let Helwigdidrick be a late Example I speak not reproachingly for we should say nothing but good of the dead or of the absent what stone did not he turn heretofore together with his Associates against the Experimental Truth which was a stranger and unknown to Them all what did they not infuse into the Vulgar aganst my conversation as if that were at all to the purpose but I derided all the actions of these dancing Camels to speak proverbially as knowing that 't is the common refuge of vain and wild heads when they want reasons to oppugne the Truth to catch at any opportunity to blemish ones manners as my Answer published in the year 1656 under the Title of Eccho may witness These furious Deans Eccho to vindicate Chyrosophus with their foul-mouthed Colleagues and their antecedent herd do commit the same evil at this day but the best is they are All Judges contaminated with filthy ignorance and are unjust witnesses yea falsaries in the Law as I have hitherto clearly proved All whose Writings as well past as present though by foolish diligence compacted into a great Volume yet they are not sufficient to bear down Tachenius who is supported by the Truth But these Idlers do but waste their golden and irreparable time in these employments in thus