having received a Book though Licensed and Approved yet full of ridiculousness and folly a few days after my health requiring it I went on a sudden to Millaine to that Illustrious Person The Lord Marquess Fiorenza a Noble Senator of that City and I compleated this Hippocratical Doctrine in my Chariot on the way yea I had published it compleat before the last of the Calends of November the same year I mean as compleat as the nature of the argument required unless the censure of the Inquisitors had retarded my purpose which I think fit gentle Reader to acquaint thee with Favour me therefore if thou art in thy right mind and remember Hippocrates his Advice which is not to divulge or make known any thing but what is within the Ken and Cognizance of Rusticks and Plebeians Farewell Otto Tachenius HIS KEY To the Ancient HIPPOCRATICAL LEARNING CHAP. I. Acid and Alcaly the most Ancient Principles of Things what they are TO know things is to know them by their Causes as Aristotle Teaches in the first of his Physicks Now the Causes are Matter Form and Efficient Matter is that of which a thing is made for in Nature there is no thing which is not made of some pre-existent and subject matter Form which gives being or esse to the thing and by which the thing receives its name is it self invisible the Efficient Cause is that which moves the matter to its proper end Hippocrates reduces all these three Causes into two necessary and sufficient Principles calling them Fire and Water Raimund calls them Entia Realia Fire and Water Basilius Pugiles and in another place Gladiatores others stile them Lis and Concordia Attraction and Repulsion Rarefaction and Condensation The Principles of Hippocrates Acid and Alcaic Male and Female c. But I for the clearer knowledge and explanation of them do call those two Principles of Hippocrates Acid and Alcaly because all things in the Universe are made up of those two Universal Principles as I shall gradually shew by Experience so is also that one only Medicine or Physick of the Ancients To which yet a third doth Inseparably adhere Hence arose Sal Sulphur and Mercury the Three Principles of some Philosophers and rightly to as will more clearly appear in the progress These two either perpetually burn in Love one towards another or else are at perpetual variance are multiplied and one is contrary to the other so that the death of one is the life of the other and that which one produces another destroys that so from this another more noble thing may again arise Hence it is that Hippocrates with good Reason affirms That these two Elements Fire and Water or Acid and Alcaly can do all things and that all things are in them From the Acid do proceed two Masculine Qualities to wit Hot and Dry from the Alcaly as many Female ones viz. Cold and Moist all flowing forth for the generation of mixed bodies for which reason they do concur and are commixed The two greater Lights do preside over those two as Principle Elements The Sun is the Author of the Fire of Nature and the Moon the Mistris of Humids Matter or Hyle is therefore called the Principle of all things because all things in an invisible manner are generated of Fire and Water From those two is made up the innate Calid of all things which Hippocrates says is very much in them as they increase the matter will be most clear when we shall speake not only to the ears but to the eyes also CHAP. II. Acid the most Ancient Principle as being Spiritual is not subjected to the Sensure or Judgement of the Senses MY Hippocrates Chymicus in the 10th and 18th Chapter shews in Wine and Tartar that the Fire of Hippocrates the formal Principle of things can be separated by no Analytick Destruction nor by any Ingenuity of Art This the Prince of the Academicks calls Forma The Ancients as also the sacred Philosopher calls it Light Lâ—â—â— and Sulphur from its Similitude because that like Sulphur it manifests it self to be both occultly Acid and also pinguous to This they gave the first place styling it the Vital and Masculine Spirit because in it the seeds of all things are contained though imperceptibly as to our senses for we must confess that all things do consist of insensible principles as Lucretius speaks Lib 2. and all things have their original from it and there is nothing produced in the whole world but by it it hath its seat in the Air A Child of the Son because the Wind carries it in its belly and the Father of it says Hermes in Parva Schedula is the Sun whence the lofty wited Lullius in Testament Chap. 67. We says he with many others call it the Child of the Sun for first it was generated through the influence of the Sun by Nature without the help of Science or Art And therefore Aristotle called the Sun the Father and the Earth the Mother of all Vegetables because the Sun impregnates the Earth with its vivifying heat which afterwards is turned into natural heat and this is multiplied by the help and assistance of the heat of Fire c. Hereupon afterwards it was styled by the Philosophers themselves The Son of Fire The Son of Fire as appears by Bernard de Tresne in his third part who calls Gold most pure Fire So that if Gold be Fire and Fire the Child of the Sun and This the Vital Spirit which the Wind carries in its Womb as Hermes witnesses then without doubt these three must be Brethren and all Children of the Sun And as the Sun in the Firmament of Heaven is judged by Wise Men to be incorruptible constant and perpetual and by its Author is endewed with so many Embellishments that Himself is said to have placed his Tabernacle in it for which cause it is called the Form of Forms or the Acid of Acids though it be not acknowledged for such by the Vulgar as neither is Gold or the Vniversal Form which in the work of generation infuses all Natural Forms and the seeds of all things into disposed matter for every individual thing hath hidden in it a spark of this Light of Nature or Acid whose Beams do Occultly influence the Seed with an Active and Moving Vertue So also Gold being the Off-spring of the Heavenly Sun is incorruptible constant and perpetual of an entire Form or a perfect Acid and fixed though as I said before it be not owned as such by the ignorant Vulgar For unless it were a fixed Acid Gold a fixed Acid how could the saying of Philosophers be verifyed and fulfilled That which is perpetual makes things perpetual and that which is fixed makes things fixed And therefore in the beginning Light was created over the Universe and contracted into this Body being endowed with a vivifying Vertue and secret Faecundity I call it an entire or compleat Acid fixed
if they were entirely generated anew and brought forth to light for increase as the vulgar being ignorant of this Hippocratical Learning do suppose but only by a simple alteration of the Subject as my Hippocrates shews L. 1. de Diet. and they also know who have skill to make an Harmonious Conjunction between the External and Internal So also without the help of Fire Salts are changed from their natural temper as for example mingle Liquor of Salt of Wormwood not Alcalized with Rosemary and the Solution becomes milky both of them being coagulated into a Neutral thing On this Foundation stands the Process of the Febrifuge Medicine of Lazarus Riverius Riverius Febrifuge hitherto known to few but I shall crave leave a little more clearly to explain it know then that it is made of one only Subject representing Alcaly and two Acids all of them not having yet undergone the Fire but by Exaltation so often repeated till you see it again changed from blackness into a most white volatile artificial Salt not unpleasant to the taste to which afterwards the fourth Athleta is added i.e. Scammony as appears in the Process But who can enumerate all the Metamorphoses which arise from the mixture of Salts some of them assuming one form some another by their mutual mixtures as Hippocrates teaches L. I. de Diaet It is to be observed that Salt of Soot having its Original from the stock of vegetables doth precipitate Mercury from the aforesaid Solution white spongy Alcah of Soot is made Salt and light as do the volatile Alcalyes of all Animals as shall be said anon but if they are converted into Salts then the Mercury falls no more Hence we may conclude that almost all oily Herbs and such as are counted hot and pingueous do yield Sal Alcaly by a light and simple Incineration to which if the Hippocratist renders its proper Pinguedo by an hidden Coction they are converted into an admirable Salt which is then called by our Chymists Elixir Parvum and is of great * See Riple Bacon c. vertue in Physick of which in its place The salts of other Herbs do degenerate and turn into imperfectly Salt or into Acids and by a quick flame or the fire of Fusion are reduced into vitrifying Alcaly CHAP. VIII The Founders Art doth further shew that Alcalyes and Acids are absorbed ALl Minerals of what kind soever having in them hidden Metalline Bodies are joyned with Acids i.e. Sulphur of several sorts which do hinder the Metal from being purged from the impurity of the Mines In this streight it is needful to have recourse to Alcalyes which do the work speedily Reducing therefore the Mineral to Powder they mix it with Alcaly and melt it in a Crucible the Fusion is accelerated by Nitre which is kindled with the Sulphur as part burns away so part with the Tartar is turned into Alcaly that Alcaly absorbs all the Acid with which otherwise all the Metal would fly away but this way it easily goes to bottom and that Artists call Regulus i. e. pure Metal free from Sulphur which again under a Probatory cuppell with Lead they further purifie for which you may consult the Say-masters and Refiners it being my intent to speak only of the Foundation of Salts I have told you Silver flies away with Acid Minerals that Metals are turned by Acid Minerals into Fume which is manifest in Silver melted with Lead in an Earthen Pot made of Pot-ashes put the Sulphur piece-meal into it whose acidity as it flies away it also expels the Metal which you may gather up again with a moist Linnen Cloth spread abroad in the Chimney Another Experiment to prove that Metals are carried off by the Acid Mineral is that Cement Gold slies off with the Acid Mineral which is called Regale which is made of common salt and Powder of Bricks with which they stratifie or spread over Gold Money bound in with Copper In this Cement the Gold without Fusion dismisses the Copper and together with the Acid Spirit of Salt vanishes to smoak which yet carries off with it something of the Gold but when the Acid Spirit being loaded with the Gold assays to pass through the Earthen Covers the Gold is precipitated and sticks to the Covers Regulus Antimony whiles the Spirit corrodes them which are afterwards pounded together with Quick-silver and water This recollects the Gold and restores it to his Master when it is separated from it through Leather As Minerals bearing Metals are precipitated into Regulus the same way is Regulus of Antimony precipitated i. e. with Tartar and Nitre because the Alcaly of Tartar imblbes the Acid Sulphur from the Antimony and segregates the pure Regulus Antimony is also melted with common Salt but the Acidity of this latter doth corrode the Antimony in the vehemency of the fire and it is raised into bubbles and so less Regulus falls These examples concerning precipitation the dry way may suffice So any Alcaly being dissolved in water which is called the moist way as it always drinks up the Acid it also cleanses Salt-peter from every Acid which therefore the ablest Physicians do chuse for a great cooler in the Quinzey for which reason it is called Sal Prunellae A certain dull Fryar hearing Sal Prunellae to be commanded by Chymists came by night to a skilful Apothecary and demanded of him whether this Sal Prunellae were extracted out of Sloes or Garden Plums yet these are the men who would be accounted by vulgar Ideots and silly women the only Regular Practicioners I say they boil * Nitre burnt with Sulphur doth more hurt than good in a Quinzey for it becomes salt Nitre in Alcalized Lye till a drop stands on cold Iron like Suet then they set it aside in a cool place without pouring it into any other Vessel and in a night suffer it to concrete into most clear and pure Flakes which the next morning they wash off for the Alcaly hath drunk up all the hurtful and impure Acid from it as it happens also in mans body as Hippocrates shews in his first Book of Diaet CHAP. IX The Prerogative and Priviledge of Alcaly of Tartar I Have mentioned already that amongst the fixeder sort of Alcalyes Salt of Tartar is endued with a singular priviledge for though it be an heavy Body terrestrial impure Gold is almost all Sulphur and gives the least Mercury of all and mixed with filth yet being digested with any Metal whatsoever in a due space of time it turns it into running Mercury Having experimented this I affirm it for a truth to convince the incredulous but if any refuse to believe it I am not much solicitous A Friend of mine endeavouring to obtain Tartar from generous mature and clear Wine did elicit and draw forth the Spirit and suffered the Phlegme to exhale the remainder being thick as a Syrup he permitted to concrete in a cold place
he be Occult yet by Mechanical necessity he must needs be Acid as I have evidenced in Oyl Suet Milk c. otherwise nothing at all in the Universe would be Coagulated For the things which have been spoken says my Doctor none of them can be seen with the Eye i. e. none can understand my Writings De Arte. unless he be versed in this Chymical and Salt-fusory Art Wherefore Hippocrates found out those things which by a grateful consent The book of Nature is to be read but Paper ones are not to be rejected are subject to the Empire of Art and Nature On this Foot he places the unmovable Foundations of Learning and from these he hath deduced all Mechanical Progresses and Explications of Causes so firmly that if all Paper Books with their Authors were lost yet by this Method out of the Great Book of Nature they may be all again retrieved Hence it appears how many Fables have been ascribed to this worthy Man which he never so much as dream'd of yea many things published under his name suit not with his Profound Wisdom so that if he were alive again he would be ashamed to own them The permixture and alteration which I have demonstrated in fixed Alcalyes with Acids the same also * L. 1. of Diet. my Hippocrates would have to be understood of the Volatile Alcalyes of Animals for the Volatile Alcaly of any Animal whatsoever being saturated with the Acid Spirit of Variol assumes the nature of Vitriol but not having the Colcothar of Iron it is precipitated by juice of Galls into a bottom of a Purple Colour like to White Vitriol of which above Out of what hath been spoken 't is as clear as Noon-day that the Spirit is the Vehicle and lodging place of the Soul and the Bond joyning Soul and Body which I shall also shew by the following Experiments For the same Volatile Alcaly of what Animal soever with Spirit of Nitre is made natural Nitre conceiving Flame and is melted in the fire like ordinary Nitre The same Alcaly I say with Vinegar is made Tartar which is wholly Distilled into a Salt liquor as I have shewed in Mindererus his Water the same may be said of other Acid Juices for as fixed Alcalyes are vacuous and empty bodies so are also the Volatile ones of all Animals whose preparations the Reformer indeed teaches which yet is very inane and empty as all Alcalyes are Hence my Hippocrates moved to a smiling laughter pleasantly says L. 1. of Diet. They know not what they do but they obey their destined fate Wherefore the Alcaly of Vipers being a vacuous and empty body is saturated by the Reformer as empty with great labour and cost with the Acid Spirit of Salt Pharm f. 486. and what else I pray but Common Salt can issue from it Behold the Cheat and Imposture which the Reformer hath at last found out with so much labour of which triumphing before the victory he thus scribbles Whosoever thou art never think there is any other way of Fixing having spoken this by and by heâ—recants Pharm f. 486. saying with a low voice If yet there be any Man who hath greater Experience in these Operations I give him occasion for the Publick good that what he hath Experimented herein he would not suffer to die with him Alas poor Man why not but go too Let us comply with his desires he hath made a fair Oration and no doubt deserves a Statue from the Common-Wealth of Physick Append. in Animadu fol. 75. for having so politely distinguished the Acid from the Salt for the benefit of Apothecaries CHAP. XXII A Childish Opinion Discovered I Will briefly now run over the Acids In Append. f. 52. which the Reformer teaches as contrary to Salts which Doctrine yet with many others I find to be false and full of Ignorance Fire both Internal and External Explains the Book of Nature as the ordinary professor of the Creator as shall be demonstrated by Fire keeping to the Terms usually received for Fire is here the publick Professor and just Judge Logick hath no such way of distinguishing for That only handles true Sciences already found out and propounds Methodically and clearly and profitably to treat of what is to be known in every knowable thing But I have before distinguished the Tastes or Sapors of Salts as much as was necessary for the understanding of this present Compendium Let there be made a Powder of Nitre The Calcining of Gold the day way and Common Salt Ana four Ounces and two Ounces of Allum to which add Simple Water as much as is sufficient for the solution of the Salts which act not undissolved and you will obtain a Salt Liquor to which add two Drachms at least of Leaf-Gold mingle the Gold with the Salts and boil them in a glazen pot to Siccity towards the end encrease the fire till it affords a smell like That of Aqua Fortis so the saltness of the mixture erodes the Gold Dissolve the white Mass in a pot with Common Water let the Solution rest in the Glass Vessel till the Faeces of the Salt do subside when it is clear pour it out by inclination to this clear solution instil by drops some fixed resolved Alcaly Ex. Gra. Liquor of Tartar which presently absorbs the more subtil Acid Spirits and the Gold presently falls of a Purple colour In this Operation the Salt hinders not the Acid Spirits as the Reformer teaches but the Alcaly of Tartar consuming the Acids destroys the Compositum The same way but with great force distilled water of Nitre and Allum in which Common Salt hath been dissolved Galcining of Gold the morst way dissolves Gold for if the Salt were not dissolved in water it would not corrode the Gold Wherefore Salt doth not destroy the Acid Aqua Fortis neither in the dry nor moist way but adds Vigor to it like to Sal Armoniack Hence Basilius What is found in the Eagle is also to be met with in me Hence it appears that Gold is not dissolved but by Salts but why the Acid Spirit of Salt doth dissolve It I have elsewhere shewed viz. by corroding the Spirits it returns to That which it natively and originally was viz. into Salt CHAP. XXIII Obscure things made manifest I Will shew another Experiment very pleasing to the Eye manifesting that Salts are not contrary to Acids Take three pound of dryed Vitriol Tincture of Gold two pound of Nitre fix ounces of the Flowers of Common Sulphur and five pound and a half of Common Salt and Powder of Bricks as much as is sufficient least the Salts should be melted with the Sulphur Let there be six pound of this last powder mingle the small powders exactly and distil the water at least out of Sand put Gold Money into this water without rectification premised and in a few hours hours in a warm place you will see the water
its foundation p. 61 C CAlx or Lime what Page 8 Calx petrified by contrary faculties p. 8 Calx its bastard Spirit of Basilius p. 13 Camphire what p. 82 Camphire with Aqua Fortis makes a Mock-shew of Oyl not so with Vinegar and other Acid Juices p. 82 Camphire absorbs the peccant Acid in the Body p. 82 Camphire its workers salacious p. 83 Camphire helps the roughness of the skin p. 83 Cementum Regale p. 21 Cinnabar Common p. 21 23 Cinnabar of Antimony p. 94 Corals its â—ncture p. 109 Corals encreased in the Fire p. 109 Contraries coagulated by Contraries p. 8 Coagulum what p. 41 Chrystaltinged with the colour of Rubies p. 93 Crocus Martis aperitive p. 106 Crocus Martis p. 59 D DIurectickness in a Flint Page 11 Diuretick from a calcined Flint p. 13 E ELixir Parvum p. 20 Emplaister of Frogs with Mercury p. 104 Emplaâ—sters prepared of Lead p. 108 Epistle of Aurel. Severinus to the Author p. 36 F FEbrifuge Oyl p. 93 Febrifuge of Riverius p. 19 Fel vitri p. 18 Fermentation how performed p. 63 Fire its flame Acid p. 107 It comes near to the nature of Salt p. 107 Fire and Water in a Flint p. 8 Fire changeth the Regiment and alters the vertues of things p. 78 Fire its various necessity p. 78 79 Fire when strong changeth the nature of Salts p. 19 Fire and Water contain all things necessary for Generation p. 38 Flint taken from its natural place grows p. 8 Flint its Powder as made by the Ancients p. 12 G GOld calcined the dry way Page 90 Gold calcined the moist way p. 91 Gold not dissolved but by Salt things p. 91 Gold its Tincture p. 91 Gold called Aurum Potabile p. 92 Gold adheres to Iron by the help of Copper p. 114 Gout its pain from Acid p. 48 its Remedy p. 68 Glass how made p. 10 it s Axungia what its Fel p. 10 11 its Burning p. 11 Glass burnt not Hurtful p. 12 Glass its Resolution p. 12 H HErbs have an Occult Nutritive Alaly p. 70 Harts-horn burnt imbibes Acidity p. 67 Hemorrhage of the Womb its Remedy p. 67 Hectick Feavor cured with Vulnerary Potions p. 66 I IVlip of Vinegar made of Water and Sugar p. 39 Inke its foundation p. 57 Iron Astringent p. 111 Iron provokes the Terms p. 111 Iron changed into Copper p. 112 113 Iron Cpens and Binds p. 114 Iron why subject to Rust p 68 Iron how it grows stronger p. 68 L LAc Sulphuris Antimonii p. 110 Lac Sulphuris p. 82 Latarge out of Lead is Preparaton p. 108 Lye for Sope its making and force p. 9 10 Letters writ with Ink why afterwards Pale p. 57 Liquor Acid changes Aliments included in a glass into Chyle p. 40 Ludus Preparatus p. 119 Luna Cornea p. 24 Lead encreased in the flame p. 107 its encrease in the Fire is from Acid p. 107 Lead delighted with Acid p. 108 it absorbs Acids of all sorts p. 108 Lead cools the Heart p. 108 Lead p. 60 Lungs ulcered cured by Vulnerary Potions p. 66 Like dissolved by like p. 8 9 M MErcurius Sublimatus its Reduction p 105 Mercurius Vita p. 105 Mercury Sublimate doth not coagulate Milk p. 41 Mercury p. 60 Mercury out of Silver p. 23 Metals one Frecipitates another p. 112 Metal its Precipitation by Alcaly p. 20 Minium its Preparation p. 107 Minerals are all associated with Acids p 20 Milk not Coagulated but by Acidity p 40 Materia Prima p. 101 Medicaments Solutive not to be dissolved in Diseases p 53 Menstrua their Obstruction from Acid p. 58 Mercury Sublimate p. 94 95 Mercury Sublimate Common p. 97 Mercury Sublimate sweet reddish p 98 Mercurius precipit Communis p. 98 Mercury praecipit per se p. 99 Mercury praecipit per se becomes Sublimate Corrosive p. 99 Mercury praecipit its Vertues p. 99 Mercuries Acidâ—ty hurts Teeth and Gumms p 102 Mercury of Metals is not praecipit per se p. 103 N NAil of Gold p. 113 Nitre its regeneration p. 25 Nettles green and dry its different effects p. 71 O OCre what p. 55 Odors many resist Digestion p. 121 Oyl is made Salt p. 79 Oyl Olive hath Acid in it p. 80 deprived of its Acidity it helps Pains p. 81 Oyl old why musty p. 81 Oyl turned into Watrer by Salt of Tartar p. 26 Oyl made Strongwater p. 28 Oyl of Sope like that of Bricks p. 27 P POx French cured by a Decoction of Vipers p. 31 Pomegranate Rinds provoke the Terms p. 58 Paracelsus his Coralline Secret p. 103 Panacaea of Michael Sendivogius p. 101 Plâ—urisy its Remedy p. 48 Plants their Regeneration p. 72 73 Posca of the Ancients what p. 63 Protochymist dwells in the Stomach p. 47 Powder Antipodagrick p. 48 Q QVinzey its Remedy p 21 Quartan its Remedy p. 72 R REgulus Antimonii p. 21 Rector what p 27 S SIlver separated from Tin p. 96 Silver p. 60 Silver consists of Acid and Alcaly p. 24 44 Stone its Analysis p. 42 Stone its regeneration p. 42 Stone how generated in the Body p 42 43 Stones Red whence p 43 Stones concreter every where in the body p. 43 Stones remedy an Hedge-Hogs or Histrixes stond how far good for it p 44 Stones other Remedies examined p 44 Stone its true Remedy p. 45 Stone its remedy out of Paracelsus and Helmont p. 48 Story of Sal Prunella p. 21 Sage its Juice grows black with Vitriol of Mars p. 120 Salt of Treacle of the Ancients examined p. 4 5 Sal Armoniack natural in use among the Ancients p. 5 Sal Armoniack natural its Properties p. 5 Sal Armoniack Ours what p. 5 6 its constituting parts p. 6 the manner of making it p. 6 Salt Common doth not wash p. 6 Salt Kaly whence made p. 7 Sal-Kaly is not unless made by Art its Vertue and Properties p. 7 Sal-Alkaly what where found p. 7 its Multiplicity p. 7 Sope its making p. 9 Sea-Salt with Oyl is not made Sope p. 10 Salt of Vipers of the Reformer is Common Salt p. 31 Salt of Tartar fix'd with Acid spirit of Salt is Sublimated into Spirit p. 34 Salt of Vipers its Inventor p. 36 its foundation known to Hippoerates p. 38 Salt things do not curdle Milk p. 41 Salt as 't was eaten found in Vrine p. 51 Salt of greater affinity to Vinegar than Metals p. 70 Salt of Wormwood its Preparation p. 77 Salts Precipitate not Mercury p. 16 Sal Fulminans p. 17 Salts frâ—m Diuretique herbs are Acid-salt p. 18 They Precipitate not Mercury p. 18 being Alcalized with a quick Flame they Precipitate Mercury red p. 18 Salts from Vulnerary herbs are Acid-salt and do not Precipitate Mercury p. 18 in a melting Fire they change their Natures and become Alcalyes which Precipitate Mercury sparkling and glittering p. 18 Salt Common the perfectest of Salts and never made Alcaly p. 18 Salts of Vipers p. 18 Salt of Wormwood Acid-salt p. 19 it is Alcalized with a strong
from vers 85. to 96. therefore Nansicca the Daughter of Alcinous washed her Linnen in a Fountain on the Sea-shore as Homer records But Artificial Sal Armoniack is made after the same manner as Sope for Nature works alike in every thing as * L. 1. de Diaet Hippocrates says to wit of the Acid part of Sal Armoniack and the Alcaly of the Urine of Camels or of other Animals 't is all one I have made the like Salt from the Alcaly of Soot and the Acid Spirit of Salt for want of other for the Urine doth dissolve the Salt by Maceration and the Alcaly of the Urine which otherwise in a few days would vanish Sal. Armoniack here being delayed and stop'd finds the Acid which it imbibes and so of the Acid part of the Salt and the Alcaly of the Urine a new Artificial Creature is produced of a salt relish But that which is not of the same nature nor †Hâ—p l. 1. de Diaet accords with this new Salt of its own accord is severed and sinks to the bottom The clear Salt liquor swimming at top they boil and scum and again suffer the Faeces to settle and at last coagulate it into a Cake This is the Sal Armoniack which is brought to us but it is not that which the Ancients chose for Salt of Treacle as the Reformer guesses but that is the Natural which is found under the Sands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Pliny shews in the fore-cited place of which I shall speak more clearly in the Progress of this Work but before I proceed I must explain more fully what Alcaly is CHAP. III. Sal Alcaly what it is IT is not my purpose here to deduce the matter I call the Senses the Guides of Life and of all its Operations ab ovp as they say or from the very Elements but to manage a Demonstration concerning things Physical Natural Material and known by our Senses Know then that Salt-Kaly is made of the Herb Kaly coming in great quantity out of Egypt which is there burnt whiles it is green and so brought over to us and is called by some Soda and Alumen Catinum but the right name is Sal-kaly This Salt is not found in Natures three Kingdoms unless it be produced by Art through the help of Fire whence it is that this Virgin is said by the Ancients to have three Fathers viz. Nature Fire and the Philosopher This Sal-kaly as other Salts is part of the Compositum Alcaly is inane and empty yet deprived of its seminal vertues only it hath an abstersive Sope-like and resolving property and by reason of this inanition being as it were without form it sucks up and imbibes all sorts of Acids the Ancients call it impregnation Hence it is that all Salts which do mortifie Acids are called by one general name Alcalies which are found not only in the vegetable but also in the Animal and Mineral Kingdoms And in these three there are several sorts of them viz. six'd volatile manifest occult and of a middle nature taken from parts of Animals which are to be demonstrated to the eye But first I shall begin with that which is more known which is found in a Flint which considered quatenus a Flint is thought by the unskilful to be under the Regiment only of one Rector but the skilful Glass-men of Murano have observed that though taken from its Native place it weighs 100 l. yet it yearly acquires 10 l. or * Cosmopolita says that the occult Food of Life is in the Aire thereabouts to its weight Hence the Hippocratist learns that Jovis omnia plena yea that it receives nourishment from the ambient Air but as soon as the External and Artificial Fire supervenes then the skilful Operator sometimes converts it to Glass and sometimes to Calx or Lime So that the Hippocratical and Chymical Philosopher comprehends two different Faculties in a Flint being so instructed by his †L. 1. de Diaet Master Fire and Water so called for the two reasons which constituted a Flint These Faculties the Chymists alter by the help of a due Fire which alteration is called Incineration for of its own accord it turns to a Powder whence it is called by a common name Calx or Lime In this Calx or Calcinated Ashes the Chymist again comprehends the above-named Faculties which for our better understanding we will now once for all * Acid and Alcaly the instraments of Nature and at all times hereafter call the Acid and the Alcaly from their effects Calx then or Lime hath two Salts or as Hippocrates two Faculties in it self That the Fire is Acid the Water Alcaly I will shew in its place the Acid and the Alcaly both most constant in the fire and one contrary to the other and when the Calx is sprinkled with water then the Salts are dissolved and act upon one another The Alcaly sucks in and acts upon the Acid and this again assumes the Alcaly not for the destruction of either but for the Production and Generation of a new thing and whatsoever they lay hold on in that Generation not being too heterogeneous from their natures is concreted with them into the hardness of stone so one contrary is coagulated by another This knowledge of Calx if the Reformer had learned out of Hippocrates the Poor Man had never gone about the fixation of viperine Alcaly with Calx as with a lamentable voice he declares in his Discourse concerning Salt of Treacle Pharmac f. 485. Contraries are coagulated by contraries After the Hippocratist hath learned that according to the Laws of Nature Calx is petrified by contrary Faculties then he reminds the Lesson of his Master and Instructer viz. that like is to be dissolved by like and that not only in Artificials but in Naturals especially in Physick and Humane Bodies as will anon appear for Arts do imitate Humane Nature Hip. l. 1. de Diaet they are Hippocrates his words who also teacheth That agreeable things adhere to one another CHAP. IV. Alcaly and Oyl are made Soap CAlx or Lime as I have said hath two different Faculties Acid and Alcaly I have shewed before that Alcaly hath at least a Soap-like and abstersive vertue Likethings are dissolved by like Hip. de locis in bemire which Hippocratists have taught to extract and separate by its like Therefore Soap-men add to the Calx a factitious Alcaly burnt out of Vegetables in a triple proportion because it mortifies the Acid part in the Calx and melts the other part by its like wherefore they moisten a little the Alcalized Ashes with which they cover over the unslacked Calx and so leave them until the Lime or Calx falls asunder as a sign of mutual action then they mix them together and pour on water that the Mass may become moister according to the Rule Salts act not unless they be dissolved then
this they washed and again extinguished until the Bean-ashes had destroyed all the Alcaly and had left an impalpable Powder This is the Powder of Flints as That before melted with Alcaly and precipitated with Acid which the Reformer thinks cannot be safely given at Mouth so much as to Country people though he commends it to Queens as I have said to procure Milk In this Preparation which the Reformer out of his sloth and ignorance calls sleight The true preparation and knowledge of Simples requires almost a mans whole life lies hid the profound knowledge of Natural things as will appear by degrees and the taking of it is not at all to be feared as the Reformer falsly teacheth But ignorant persons are of necessity subject to great fears CHAP. VI. Rumor sine Capite A Report without ground THere is a way reported and practised of drawing out the Diuretick Vertue from Calcined Flint by the destruction of the Alcaly that is by a rule contrary to the Alcaly with Acid Spirits after this manner into Spirit of Salt they put by piece-meal unslaked Lime the Spirit is presently absorbed by the Alcaly of the Lime with great force and vehement ebullition they draw forth the insipid Phlegm and dissolve the Lime saturated with the Acid Salt they melt it with a gentle fire in a Crucible straining it into a cold Mortar when it is cold they beat it to Powder it then emitting fiery sparks from which with hot water they elicite the saltness this they purifie and coagulate and again suffer it of its own accord to run into a salt liquor not unprofitable But there are some Sophisters and Impostors who give forth that this Liquor is distilled in a Lembick for they mix the foresaid Liquor with Calcined and Powdered Flints in a fourfold proportion and distil it with an open fire into an Acid Spirit which by a wrong name they call Spiritus Calcis Basilii Now let us see to what Original or Parent we may ascribe the foresaid distilled Spirit First of all the Spirit of Salt was absorbed and swallowed up by the vitrifying Alcaly and most constant in the fire Further the Acid part of the Flint was separated by the water and cast off under the covert of the Faces Thirdly the fix'd Alcaly of the Flint or Lime drinks up the Acid Spirit of the Salt and a Salt is made of the volatile Acid and most fixed Alcaly Fourthly they mix this Salt with the Calcined Flints i. e. with the unslaked Lime which abounds more with Alcaly than Acid as I have shewed in Glass and Soap And though this Mixture be urged with the strongest fire what else can it distil forth than a volatile Acid that is the same Spirit of Salt which the Alcaly had absorbed and drunk up Famous and Learned men have commended this Spirit in the Gout and Stone as a singular Remedy but the success hath not answered But Basilius ill interpreted and understood wrote not to Impostors and therefore he is wrongfully accused by them for a Cheat Rightly therefore doth the Comoedian commend us If thou be wise make thy self ignorant of what thou knowest An Addition to this Examen By this Method after you are once instructed in this Hippocratical Learning which I hold forth in this short Tract you may in every Process Nature as to Physick hath nothing occult in this sublunary Globe but by this method an Hippocratist may discover it as well Chymical as Medicinal by ingenuity and discourse discern prove and separate Truth from Falshood without any expence or loss of time so as no longer to be gulled by Deceivers and Cheats yea by the same method you may in your Operations and in writing of Books travel on perpetually the right way without wandering in this Natural Chymical True and Ancient Philosophy through all the three Kingdoms Animal Mineral and Vegetable as you will confess in the Progress CHAP. VII Qui bene distinguit beue docet To distinguish well is to teach well FOr our clearer light and understanding it will be worth the while before I proceed to demonstrate to the Eye the difference of Alcalyes and to shew what the contrariety or the absorbing and imbibing of Acids is There are as I have said several degrees and Species of fix'd Salt Alcaly as of Tartar which hath a singular priviledge of Lime-trees of Hazel of all sorts of Oaks and those which in the Forrests of Norway Lituania and Muscovy are burnt out of green wood into to Pot-ashes Also all hot and Oily Herbs as Rosemary Laevender Rue c. all of them in a word are contrary to and destroyers of Acids whose difference the following Experiments shew Dissolve an ounce and half of sublimate Mercury which by the * Hip. l. 2. de Diaâ—t mixture is changed from Acid and Alcaly into Salt into fifty ounces of common water distilled into a part of this clear solution infuse by drops yet somewhat quickly the fixed Alcaly of Tartar which is the Liquor of Tartar resolved of its own accord this in a moment divides the Compositum absorbing the Acid and the Mercury presently goes to the bottom of a colour obscurely red From the Calcined Faeces or Lees of Vinegar The wonderful difference of fix'd Alcaely there is drawn forth with water Alcaly of Tartar which though produced out of the same Vine with Wine yet it precipitates aâ— Mercury sparkling and splendent But when the same Alcaly is Calcined by Art to a redness then the same Mercury falls down like pounded Cinnabar The Tartar being burnt up if you add the Calx and draw forth the Alcaly with simple water then the falling Mercury glisters like Gold but extracted out of the Herb Kaly it precipitates a Mercury much more dark coloured than the former The Lye or Lixivium which Soap-boilers call Magistra which consists of the Calx and Alcaly of Oaks yields Mercury darkly yellow There is an Alcaly brought out of Spain 't is not certain whether a simple or compounded one which yet precipitates Mercury of a Tawney yellow colour But when the same Mercury is precipitated with Alcalyes of Cephalick Herbs as of Rosemary Lavender c. these indeed are Alcalyes but not of Ashes as the former but much more volatile These I say cast Mercury red and shining So Celandine hath a wonderful Alcaly so that its fisth Essence which yet I take to be the Gift of Heaven i. e. the Alcalized Liquor of this Spiritual Salt is praised He which hath not tasted the relish of Sales shall never attain to the desired Ferment of Ferments says the Author of the Rosary not without a Mystery by Paracelsus and Lully â— and it casts a most red Mercury I once carelesly neglected the small Vessel in which 't was put and caused it not to be washed and about a Month after at the top of the Liquor there appeared a Golden Flower not unlike the Flower of Celandine
with a new body which is again sublimated and separated It may be demanded The Spirit of Sal Armoniack re-assumes a body in Tartar why in this place a Spirit is elicited from the fixed Alcaly of Tartar and the Volatile Acid whereas above from the Alcaly of Flints and the Acid spirit of Salt it succeeds not To which I answer that the Acrimony of the Salt of Tartar in a fire not very vehement returns quite to nothing as I have shewed elsewhere and for this cause with its associate it is easily elevated into Spirit but the Alcaly of Flints is more fixed which before it flies is rather with its adjunct turned into Glafs CHAP. XII How Volatile Alcaly is generated in an Animal and the parts of it I Have said in the Examination of Mindâ—rerus his water that * I call Sweat either that insersinly transpiring or that which makes wet 't is all one here Sweat by the Natural Proto-Chymist is made Salt as is also every compound of Acid and Alcaly Urine not excepted which this Operation shews Take that Lye wherein foul Linnen Shirts have been steeped and washed not boiled put this Lye into a Glass of a long narrow and equal neck set to a Limbeck at least carelesly and place it in a digesting Bath or Sand and in a few days you shall see the Alcaly of Sweat to ascend yet not stinking as That which is sublimated from Urine This Alcaly could not be seperated from Sweat unless its Salt relish were divided The pure Alcaly of Sacat which consists of Acid and Alcaly both Volatiles as I have shewed in Mindererus his Water and elsewhere so that the Lye is a Fixed Alcaly absorbing the Acid part of the Sweat in the Heat of Digestion and the sugitive Alcaly being divided from it goes to top and a cold place I once observed as I was travelling post Sweat salt and pingueous this Salt Volatile Fat and therefore penetrating and resolving Sweat how although my Leggs were armed with Boots made of the choicest Leather and well waxed so as to admit neither Rain not Water yet the Sweat of the Horses exhaling like a Vapour had penetrated them as it also happened to my Companions of good note To avoid this inconvenience I invented an Oyntment like Vernish which in other cases could resist Aqua fortis and then in a second Journey for the first days I found less inconvenience but the days following the Sweat had not only penetrated the Vernish but had plainly dissolved it as far as the Vapour of it reached Hence I learned That Sweat was therefore made Salt by Nature that it might resolve the filth in living Bodies which here and there was coagulated in them But how the Sweat of all Animals and whatsoever doth insensily exhale from them yea of which the Animal consists doth acquire Saltness I shall explain a little more clearly only for the sake of this Viperine Salt whose Acidity as it is occult so the Saltness of it is more subtil and grateful The Invention of the Salt of Vipers I profess my self to be the Inventor thereof though Momus fret never so much which the following Epistle shews And though for Lucre of a little Gain in this Age and Theatre of the World some unskilful men and ignorant of Natures instruments and of this Hippocratical Doctrine have appeared who obtrude I know not what on the unwary and unexpert to the Prejudice of my Name yet I now give the Readâ—r to understand that which I have not discovered to any man living hitherto save by this publique Writing Mareus Aurelius Severinus wisheth prosperity and good success to Otho Tachenius a great Studier of Nature and the Hermetical Art The Epistle THe confidence which I alwayes had in your friendship and good will I now really experiment For my desire to hav some of your Viperine Sult being scarce signified to you you presently satisfied me therein for which I return you many thanks I wish some chance would happen that you might pass over the Fordye Adriatique to the flourishing Parthenope it would be neither unuseful nor unprofitable to you Besides that choice Matron whom you visited in her blindness at Naples from that very day hath impatiently longed for you wishing that the hinder ances of your intended Voyage were removed but because you have sent me a Viperine gift I will requite you with another of the same kind I mean a Volume of the Nature Poyson and Medicinalness of the Viper printed for me at Padua by the Famous Printer Paul Frombottus who upon the sight of this Letter will diliver one to you in my Name and he will give it to you the more freely if you shewing a willingness to communicate the useful observations Mary Fremies for Truths sake are a great honour amongst understanding Men. An Old Proverb which you have long made of this Viperine Salt do bâ—take your self to the Famous John Rhodius my special Friend the Corrector of the Press who if need be can add them to the end of the Work I wish also you would add some preparation and description of this Viperine Sale of your own I have her with inserted the preparation of Volatile Salt out of Johannes Vepserus Pray tell me how far you approve it and continue to love me as I do you For I desire nothing more at Naples than to enjoy the hopes of such a felicity as your Conversation and Company would afford Here you would find a Liberal Harvest Farewel From Naples the Ides of May Anno Dom. 1650. The Illustrious Matron the Wife of Capicius Regens to whom you gave your Viperine Remedy Salutes you BUt to what end should I produce the Testimonies of Learned Men this present Writing sufficiently declares that this Salt with all its requisites was not so much as dream'd of by this Reformer before I acquainted him with It as I could shew by his own Letters to me but that I am willing to consult his Credit yet unless he produce other Foundations of Art and Nature than he hath hitherto done he will never come to the knowledg of this Salt No more will men of a far higher Order and Rank than himself however they boastingly and ambitiously word it out and pretend to be able to attain it As Urine and Sweat so also Blood The Alealy of Blood Volatile and pure precipitates a white Mercuâ—â— whilest it is yet hot and reaking may be commixed with Lye and Alcaly be sublimated from it but when the same Blood without the Lye is distilled out of a Retort with the Fire of Sand then in the Caput Mortuum it leaves much Salt somewhat fixed More Fixed Salt of Blood a noble Medicine doth not precipitate Mercury The Alcaly precipitates Mercury from the oftennarned Solution into a white Powder but the Salt doth not Hence 't is manifest that as the Lixivious and Fixed Alcaly drinks up the Acid from
imbibes the Acid Volatile Salt from Vinegar so it takes away the Acidity accompanying several sorts of Feavors Besides Vulnerary ones Occult Alcalys there are also more Occult and Volatile Alcalys in Herbs which we call Cooling as Lettice Purslane Colts-foot Endive and its species whose Alcaly is very Fugitive and is found not only in their Juices but also in their Waters carefully Distilled Whence we may learn that such Herbs being dryed are of no value because their Alcaly hath evaporated So also the Distilled water of Frogs-Spawn the whole Spawn with Patience is elevated in è Balneo into a pure water the black and dry Grains or Specks Cooling waters have an occult Alcaly being left behind which are not to be rejected doth abound with Occult Volatile Alcaly and doth presently precipitate Lead out of the aforesaid Solution more readily and copiously than any other cooling water This water is much to be esteemed in many diseases arising from a peculiar Acidity I have known a desperate Hemorrhage from the Womb happily cured by it in as much as at first it sucks up the Acidity of the Blood afterwards it restrains and expels it Also this water applyed to the grieved part in the Feet-Gout presently asswages the pain in as much as it mortifies and alters the Acrimony But when the pain is more violent then the Acidity is in greater quantity and vigor and the Volatile Alcaly consuming the cause of the pain Volatile Altalys ease the pains of the Gout then must needs be more manifest for it indubitably takes away the pain whence we learn that the cause thereof proceeds from Acidity if otherwise the principal indications are to be taken from things helpful and nocent as Avicen teaches Foolish therefore and almost Frantick is the opinion of certain Canonical Physicians who against the Doctrine of Hippocrates out of ignorance do fear and perswade the simple that a greater mischeif is occasioned by undertaking to Cure by contraries and by endeavouring to repel the Catarrh by such Simples For Hippocrates shews that Volatile Alcaly is empty and void and that it takes away all pain of the Feet-Gout I mean not the knotty and coagulated Gout all Arthritick The knotty Feet-Gout doth coagulate as the Stone aâ— least by a diverse Acid. Hippoc. l. 1. de Diaet Simple water doth nourish and there is a great Secret in water as Hermes saith Let Canonical Physicians observe that the Alcaly of common water doth not ascend in a Limbeck Wherefore distilled it cools not as the water of Frogs-Spawn before spoken of Nephritick Sciatick and such like pain in a very short time if it be but outwardly applyed in as much as it presently imbibes and assumes being impatient of Vacuity the Acidness which is the cause of the pain But not only waters Distilled from cooling Herbs but also common water both of Wells and Rivers contains an Occult Alcaly by means whereof it nourishes Animals and all Plants Red hot Iron quenched in water acquires strength thereby as Hippocrates teaches in the fore-cited Book and daily Experience shews for Iron hath too much of the Volatile Acid whence it readily passes into Scoria and Rust but when the Acid is imbibed by the Alcaly then it is made more compact and resists more therefore Cutlers of Knives and Swords anoint their work with shavings of Horns heating their blades till the shavings melt and thus they draw the Alcaly out of the Horns and their blades become stronger hence it is that such as pass by their shops do sometimes perceive the stinking smell of burnt Horns But it is easily proved that an Occult Alcaly is in common simple water by the fore-mentioned solution of Sal Saturni which presently grows white thereby So if Silver be dissolved in Aqua Fortis and you add simple water to the Solution it presently waxes white as Milk but when the same water hath been distilled then the Alcaly doth not ascend neither doth the Solution of Silver grow white any longer thereby For which cause John Baptista Porta advises Water to be twice or thrice distilled for a Tree of Silver and Mercury Lib 5. Magnatur c. 3. which the Vulgar foolishly call the Philosophers Tree So also Water distilled from Cephalick herbs doth precipitate neither Silver nor Lead from the above-named Solution For these as I have said contain not Alcaly in their Juices So that the Water distilled only from cooling Herbs as also common water not distilled do contain a Volatile Alcaly by means of this Alcaly Water doth nourish Hence Lactantius saith From Water are all things L. 1. c. 5. which before Hippocrates Thalâ—s Milesius also knew perhaps by the benefit of this Art as Laertius witnesseth in his Life So the Ancient Hermes Water saith he is susceptible and producible of Nutriment in Men and other creatures And without Water Nature operates not c. Now because our discourse is fallen upon Cooling Waters I shall not pass over in silence the abuse of Rose Water which is said to cool but it is disproved by this Experiment At Venice Rose-water as commonly all other waters are distilled out of a Copper Vessel sometimes lined within with Tinn though oftentimes the Tinn for age is worn away This Water is prescribed to Children because it kills and expels Worms and sometimes provokes Vomitting which Operation and Vertue is Vulgarly ascribed to the Rose-water whereas Rose-water is not simply cold but of a temperate nature as containing an occult and insensible Acidity rose-Rose-water doth not cool unless it be distilled through Lead which is unseparable from it never leaving it till it be annihilated but in flowing through a Copper Limbeck its Occult Acidity abrades and takes off certain Atomes from the Copper which are invisibly mixed with the water if you would discover or separate the Copper drop into a little quantity of this water one or two drops of the Alcaly of Urine and presently all the water turns Green because the Acidity of the water doth more greedily catch the light Alcaly more similary to it than the Metal which therefore by little and little subsides into a greenish bottom Then the same water doth no longer provoke Vomit nor kill Worms but will be like That which is Distilled through Glass Vessels but melt the green bottom with Borax and then it returns to Copper again Neither is this Occult Nutritive Alcaly found only in Vulnerary and Cooling-herbs All Pot-herbs contain a Volatile Alcaly and cooling and as all wound herbs beget Milk in Nurses for Acidity is an hindrance to Milk but in all Pot-herbs whatsoever which are therefore desired by the Stomach abounding with Acidity This Alcaly is the cause that such as eat boiled Cabbage or Coleworts before a fit of Drinking are seldom inebriated for the Alcaly of this Herb as it moderates the inebriateing Acidity of the Wine in the Stomach so it absords and consumes That in the Glass But
tinged with a Golden colour by occasion of this Tincture It comes to my mind that not without great labour by the help of Fire and much Diligence a Volatile Alcaly of which I have elsewhere spoken ascended of a grateful smell so rare and light that it can scarce be perceived by the touch sometimes of a grey sometimes of a white colour of a Salt taste biting the Tongue and so subtil that without the irritation by fire in an open Vessel of its own accord it evaporates to Air whereas of it self it remains constant in fire I say by the property of this Alcaly Gold Silver Quick-silver Chrystal c. are made truly potable so that it is not only impossible they should return to their bodies but moreover they are so freed from the bonds of Coagulation that we may freely dally with them c. But these and the like being not proper for this place I willingly pass them over Pour out the aforesaid water and super-adde other and again distil it in a hot place till the water be sufficiently tinged mix and shake the tinged waters together in another Phyal and into that water put plates of Silyer first cuppelled then the water tinged with a Golden colour presently grows Black and in a few moments all the Silver is invisibly dissolved and all falls into a black Calx which the Skilful in the Art without contradiction call Gold But observe that water not tinged by Gold dissolves not no nor any way affects the Silver Hence * Of the propertieâ— of Blanets Basilius de Argento I have devoted my Soul my Spirit and my Body to my King Wash the Gold-money and you will find it something paler but to have lost little or nothing of its weight This Experiment is worthy of consideration but when the aforesaid powders are distilled with a naked Fire and open more of the dust of Bricks being added then it draws forth no Tincture but wholly dissolves all the Gold I say this Experiment though it seems useless yet is pleasant and of great consequence doth not succeed without Salt So that Salt doth not hurt these Acid Spirits So also simple Aqua Fortis of Nitre and Allum Sulphur of Antimony or Vitriol corrodes not nor dissolves Crude Antimony but add to this water so much fused Salt i. e. clean and finely powdered as it can dissolve The Minera of Antimony from the Raurian Mountains with red spots or Veins so dissolved melts Gold Superfuse This water on the Antimony only grosly pounded like the grains of Millium and presently with a gentle heat it acts on the Antimony and corrodes the Regulus of it on which presently pour cold water and you will see the Sulphur seperated which swims a-top of the water like Pitch But mark that at one operation you should dissolve not above two drachms or there-abouts for in a greater quantity the Sulphur is also corroded by the water and turns to Faeces Dulcify this Sulphur with cold water and it will look like the Common only a little greener This separation also succeeds not without Salt so that Acids are not hurt by It. Of this Sulphur adding two simples A Febrisuge Oyl you may make an Oyl with which if you annoint the Back-bone Hand-wrists soles of the Feet one hour before the fit you may cure all intermitting Tertian Agues and Feavors This Sulphur is the Basis of the Artificial water wherein if Silver be dissolved it precipitates the greatest part of it into a black Calx which Aqua Fortis afterwards will not touch If Chrystal be coemented with the same Sulphur as also Crude Antimony marked with red Spots Christial tinged like Ruby mix'd with a little Orpiment and powdered it acquires the colour of a Ruby but take heed of the wind for that will make it chink and crack or break This is that Sulphur of Antimony which * Tract de Verbis Herbis Lapâ—dibus Remedy of Tympanâ—tis Helmont advises us to extract scarce different from the Common in sight only it is a little more greenish how much this Sulphur avails in the Dropsy called Tympanitis They who having used it know as well as I yea I firmly maintain that * Ruland ' Ba'sam of Sulphur Rulandus his Balsam is elicited from this Sulphur Helmont goes on make says he Cinnabar I know many do much disquiet themselves with this Operation but I will now openly and clearly discover it Melt this Sulphur of Antimony in an Iron spoon with a gentle Fire when the Sulphur is melted of which let there be E. C. an ounce and a half add about six drachms of Mercury a little over or under 't is no great matter for the Sulphur receives as much as it can mortify mix them continually with an Iron Spatule till they be cooled reduce the Mass into Powder which many fire or kindle with live coals that the superfluous Sulphur may deflagrate put this powder into a Retort of a large neck I say large lest it be stopped by the Cinnabar ascending and by degrees Distil it from Sand then that which is superfluous either of the Mercury or Sulphur runs down through the neck of the Retort which gather up Cinnabar of Antimony then encrease the fire that the Cupple may be hot and the Cinnabar will be elevated when all is cold break the Retort reduce the Cinnabar to Powder which you must seven times more sublimate per se in a fit Glass Vessel or Retort and you shall have your intent By the same way Common Cinâ—â—â—ar Common Cinnabar is also made but without repetition of the Sublimation Helmont here purposely concealed There must be but one Rector that it must not be Common Mercury but That taken from the very body of Antimony Errors sought after are sound out by Operation not else To what purpose is this superfluous industry Let me whisper this word to Our Chymists when as the same Cinnabar is Sublimated after Distillation of Butter of Antimony unless Mercury of Antimony be here required CHAP. XXIV Nocuments are Documents HItherto in those Operations The Reformer is ignorant what Hermes thought of these Trifles which are all persormed by Acids and Salts it no where appears that they destroy one another now let us proceed to the Rhapsody of the Reformer which he proudly calls Mantissa Hermetica as we are told in his own Book Where the true preparation of Mercury Sublimate and Corrosive is Mantis f. 801 as he says presented to us Good Wine needs no Bush as the Poet says why he adds True preparation to the Title I see not I suspect that after his accustomed manner he hath a mind to cheat us with fair words but let us do the best we can to prevent it Mercury says he is rightly sublimated with Salt and Vitriol 't is a wonder he did not fear lest the Salt should destroy the Acidness of the Vitriol
Proud-flesh mix the Precipitate Mercury of Vigo which is commonly sweet in Taste with Fat 's and Oyntments not that the Corrosive Vertue may be destroyed but that it may not sall off So then if the precipitate of Vigo being sweet and insipid to the Taste mixed with Oyntment cats up the flesh surely This Caustick and corroding one of the Roformer doth exulcerate and in the place where it ought to asswage Pains it raiseth new ones This is the Artifice which our Reformer instructs us in to whom I may well apply that of Plautus Ibo ad medicum atque ibi me Toxico morti dabo I will to the Physician hye That by his Poyson I may dye But Sublimate Mercury doth revive when its corrodeing faculty is taken from it This Antimony doth and also Alcalyes This Antimony simple Aqua Fortis doth not dissolve by reason of the Sulphur mix'd with it Butter of Attimony as I have shewed above but Salt being added it presently acts upon it and separates its Sulphur that it swims atop like Pitch This in the moist way So also in the dry way mingle Antimony with Mercury sublimate which I have demonstrated to be Salt Mers Vitae and presently the Saline Spirits desert the Mercury and corrode the Regulus of Antimony but when the Spirits are driven out of the Retort they run down Saturated with the dissolved Regulus in the form of Butter which if it be washed with cold water the powder of Antimony falls small rare light and very white Powder of Algerotti unfitly called Mercurius vitae But when this Ablution is made with hot water then it turns Yellowish and is called Pulvis Algerotti But the same Butter if it be dissolved in Spirit of Nitre which again by reason of its similitude with Sulphur doth again corrode Sulphurous and dissolved Antimony and is abstracted by Cohobation and afterwards applied to the Fire then after its manner it remains constant or fixed and begins to be called Bezoar Minerale Bezear Minerale a Cure for great Diseases But the Mercury being freed from the Corrosive representing Metalline Alcaly is saturated by the Acidity of the Sulphur of Antimony which is also Metalline Cinnâ—bar of Antimony and they both constitute an Occult Salt thing which by the encrease of the fire is elevated into Cinnabar and this again with a lighter Alcaly is reduceable into running Quick-silver as I have shewed in its place So that Gold is not dissolved without Salt in Acids as neither is Antimony nor Mercury it self wherefore Salt doth not destroy Acids nor on the contrary Laborious Minerva hath discovered This Mystery which few hitherto have been able to attain unto In fine Salt if it were at any enmity either Occult or Open with Acids it would surely be made manifest in the Butter of Antimony alone which is so sensible a thing that if but one drop of water fall into it presently the Acid Spirits do associate themselves with the water and the dissolved Antimony grows white but cast common Salt either natural or artificial or other salt things and that in quantity into the said Butter and it will not be moved nor troubled at all so far is it from being destroyed thereby CHAP. XXVI Dicta cum Factis componit Words and Deeds compared BUt if any Acid be destroyed that comes not to pass by reason of the Salts I hive shewed that Alcaly is in water and now that Acidity is in fire though by a rude Example yet it may suffice for our Chymists as I have said but the Alcalizates or those of affinity with them and It is changed into another nature according to the difference of the Acid as for example The Reformer teaches how to prepare Crocus Martis which he calls Aperitive with Acids I approve his way in it He also teaches to prepare another Crocus which he calls Astringent in Flame only not considering that the flame of fire is also Acid so that This latter Crocus must needs be like the former you may call it Astringent or Aperitive Crocus according to the effect it works All inflamable things communicate Acidity to the flame as Wood Shrubs Herbs c. The Reformer braggs that this inflamable Acidity is the Acid spirit of Sal Armoniack In Append. f. 73. and in this place he plainly is ignorant of it It may seem to many that I speak a Paradox when I say that the flame of the fire is Acid I am so far from Recanting it that I further affirm Fire comes nearest to the nature of Salt consisting of Alcaly and Acid Nature alike in every thing for which cause it is biting sharp acetous subtilly cutting piercing pure incorruptible incombustible Proâ—erties of Fire and Salt and is that which preserves from Corruption Now as in Salt I have separated the Acid part so I shall shew by this Experiment following that it is separable also in Flame Lead with Acid dry Wood is burnt into Minium but 100 l. Lead made Mâ—â—ium of Lead after it is turned to Minium makes 110 l. I demand how the Minium gets 10 l. in weight certainly nothing had been added to it but the flame only The flame therefore assumed a body in the Lead and this body which encreased the Lead from the flame is of an Acid taste as the following experiment proves Distil out of a Glass Retort with an open sire some of the self same Wood with which you burnt the Lead and there will extil a Liquor of an Acid raste which That Volatile Alâ—aly is distilled from Soot is known to all out of the Retort in form and manner of flame embraces the Lead and is mixed with it and fixed into Alcaly Melt again the Minium into Lead and there will be only 100 l. as before so that the ten pound gained was neither Minium nor Lead but the Acid expelled from the Wood. But This not being of the nature of Lead is not Colliquated with it and because it is not sufficient for it self singly as Hippocrates says in the reducing the Lead it flies into Element as I have shewed before concerning Salt of Tartar Oyl Vinegar c. This artificial Alcaly out of Lead being turned into Minium with fire and vegetable Acid or the same Lead with Mineral Acid Lead made Litarge made Litarge if you boil it with Oyl and Fat then the Alcaly acts upon the Ocoult Acid of the Fat after the manner of the Alcalyes and the Acid again upon the Alcaly and so they are coagulated in a Neutral thing Thus is made the Emplaister Plaisters of Lead most Ancient Prepared by Chymical Art Triapharmacum as also That of Cerusse and others of the like sort as I have shewn in Sope the cause of whose inspissation was hitherto unknown to the Reformer as appears by his Epistle to me to wit That the Oyl of Tartar with the Alcaly was inspissated like Pitch as
fire p. 19 Salts their Nature changed without fire p 19 Salt of Soot p 19 Salt of Tartar its Prerogative p. 22 it converts any Metal into running Mercury p. 23 it is a Medium in which both Metals and Minerals do revive p. 24 it is a Medium between a Mineral and a Vegetable p. 29 it is turned into Simple Element p. 27 Salt Common its Regeneration p. 25 Sal-Armoniack Artificial p. 30 Salt Common and Armoninck have an Acid communicable out of the Fire p. 30 Soda the same with Sal Kaly p. 17 Specifick Remedies p. 70 Spirit the Vehicle of the Soul p. 89 Spirit of Venus p. 115 its Preparation examined p. 115 Spaw Water why Transportable to other places p. 15 Spirit of Vitriol Acid retains the Liquamen of Metals p. 56 Spirit of Vitriol makes the Teeth yellow p. 56 Spirit Minerals p. 61 Sulphur how good for Diseases of the Lungs p. 82 Sweat proved to be Salt and Pinguous p. 35 Sweat how excited p. 85 Sulphur rubifies Mercury p. 99 Sulphur of Mercury an external Poyson but not the Acid by which it is sublimated p. 102 Sulphur of Vitriol Narcotiquâ— p. 119 Sulphur hath an Occult Acid p. 81 T TIn p. 60 Tartar how Generated p. 63 Its spirit p. 63 Its spirit not Acid but bitterish p. 63 Its Regeneration p. 26 Tympanitis its Remedy p. 93 V VInegar how made p. 64 Vinegar distilled made fat Oyl p. 26 Verdigrease yields Vinegar p. 58 Vinegar Julep made of Water and Sugar p. 39 Vegetables their Humid hath Alcaly and Acid p. 62 They have not sixed Salt by nature p. 5 Vitriol in Substance coagulates Milk p. 40 Vitriol of Mars separates the Alcaly from the Acid p. 53 Taken inwardly it tinges the Excrements p. 53 Vitriol makes the Teeth black p. 56 Vitriol of Cyprus True p. 59 False p. 58 Vitriol white p. 59 Romane p. 59 Vitriol of Mars Artificial p. 59 Vitriol its Regencration p. 24 Vulnerary Potions diminish the Acid p. 65 First given by Paracelsus p. 66 Vrine of Drunkards passes noi through all the Ducts of the Veins p. 47 Vrine of healthy men salt p. 47 Vrine of dying men not salt p. 47 Vrine of men living only on Milk hath Acid and Alcaly p. 51 W WIne turned to Water and Elementary Earth p. 64 Wine what and how made p. 64 Wood fixed p. 79 Wood rotten yields no Salt p. 76 Water called Aqua Regia without Salt doth not touch Gold p. 26 Water of Frogs-Spawn abounds with much Alcaly p. 67 Water distilled differs from that undistilled p. 69 Water of Roses causes Vomit and kills Worms p. 69 Water of Roses not altogether cold p. 69 Water of Roses hath an occult Acid p. 69 Water of Mindererus for the Hearing p. 32 FINIS OTTO TACHENIVS HIS CLAVIS To the Antient Hippocratical PHYSICK OR MEDICINE Made by Manual Experience in the very Fountains of NATURE WHEREBY Through Fire and Water in a Method unheard of before the Occult Mysteries of Nature and Art are Unlocked and clearly Explained by a Compendious way of OPERATION Senec. Epist A man can never more torment the Envious than by applying ones self to Virtue and Glory LONDON Printed for Will. Marshal at the Bible in Newgate-street 1690. Where is likewise sold Coke's Marrow of Chirurgery Anatomy and Physick As also his Observations of English Bodies of Eminent persons in desperate Diseases To the Serene and Mighty Prince the Lord CHRISTIANVS ALBERTVS By the Grace of God Heir of Norway Duke of Sleswick and Holsatia Stormar and Dithmarsh Earl of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst His very good Lord. IT was the custome of the First Philosophers Most Serene and Mighty Prince that whatsoever Secrets of Things or Mysteries of Nature they found out they would immediately impose Divine Names on them and so as much as they could hide them from the Vulgar or else they would relate them under disguised Words Forreign and unusual Terms Allegories Aenigma's and Metaphorical Speeches either because they feared the offence of the Unskilful Multitude or else being perswaded that those Abstruse things would meet with no approbation if they were easily understood Hippocrates of Coos treading in the same steps that Divine and Venerable Old-man and deservedly Chief in this most Famous Art in whose Praises the Ancients and all Neotericks have sufficiently Expatiated shews the hidden Foundation of this Noble Science in these words If there be any thing Divine in Diseases the knowledge and fore-sight also of That is to be sought after if a Man would approve himself a good and admirable Physician But what that Divine Thing was he no where clearly discovered nay he Studiously and of purpose concealed it expresly affirming that nothing ought to be spoken or published in this Art save what was known to Plebeians On which account Physick was heretofore esteemed Sacred and the gift of God so that all the Ancients were of opinion that It could hardly be attained unto by Humane Understandings because the Foundations thereof seemed so abstruse hidden and admirable that They were not to be found out by the strength of Nature And although heretofore and in all Ages Men of great account for acuteness of Wit and Skill in Physick have Illustrated Its Doctrine yet there is nothing extant in their Writings in clear and express words neither can any thing be culled out from thence but what is sullied with Obscurity They all endeavouring as much as they could more to eclipse and darken It Neoterick Physicians who succeeded them in Writing Disputing and desiring to encrease this Art have falne to pieces amongst themselves and contemning that Divine thing in Diseases rail at one another and are divided into several Sects neither doth the Division cease to this very day For one desires to be styled a Chymist or Methodist another a Galenist a third a Dogmatist or Canonist so that this most Noble Ancient Hippocratical Medicine which is but One is now not only rent into many Sects but is also overcharged with an infinite number of Books by which a lover of and enquirer after Truth is not only confounded but must needs be over-whelmed There being such a vast Ocean of Them and so great a variety of Writers subtilly spinning out their Arguments pro and con In the mean time I was always of opinion that That before-mentioned short Sentence of Hippocrates was to be deeply weighed and the rather because that Famous Man whom Antiquity did almost reverence as a Deity comprehended that great Supellex and Furniture of Things which he had in his mind in short and concise Aphorismes and Speeches Excited therefore by my respect and love to Him I began to Investigate what that Divine thing was for without the Plenary knowledge of It the Art of Cureing Diseases would always be Mutilous and only Inchoative never fully and absolutely compleat in all its parts Some there are who do accuse those men of Impudence and do also Contumeliously reproach them who
of things are in the Air. If these things are so as Experience proves them to be True why should not the Acid flowing down from the Sun into the Matter of a Flint The Mother of Flint fired and constant in the Fire be multiplied in It and be hardned into the fixation constancy and siccity of the Flint Since every individual hath treasured up in it a spark of the Nature of Light by whose Beams the Body will be multiplied as my Hippocrates Chymicus shews Chap. 3. and afterwards when the Flint by Artificial Fire is turned into Lime or Calx its Acid doth not therefore perish which since it is fixed by External Fire in Vegetables as I shall shew anon why may it not be so also in a Flint Fixed Acid in a Flint So that it is a sottish thing to deny that there is Acid in Lime but these are vain Arguments and Subjects forged in empty Brains wherefore leaving such false Conjectures I turn my self to the Lovers of Truth CHAP. III. Alcaly what it is and how it is made both by Nature and by Art and whence it had that name AS in the former Chapter I have shewed out of Hermes and by Experience That the Sun is the Father of Acidity now in this Chapter I will also demonstrate our of the same Hermes and the same Experience That the Moon is the mother of Alcaly and as the Acid doth not discover it self but to the Natural Philosopher so also Alcaly comes not forth to view or light unless it be detained by the Acid which she loves And first I will alledge the Operations of Nature and afterwards will Mechanically demonstrate how Art doth ape Them in her Imitations Thales Heraclitus Hesiod Hermes as well as Hippocrates have affirmed That Water is the first matter of all things The Writer of Genesis seems to be also of the same mind For all water is of a feminine nature because it contains and cherishes in it self the Seeds of things and clothes it self with various figures In the Macrocosm 't is made sometimes Wine sometimes Vinegar sometimes Aqua Ardens Caustick Oyl c. In the Microcosm 't is sometimes Choler sometimes Milk Sweat Blood Urine c. The root of all these is water and that cold which from the beginning was endued with a tenuious Acid or Light that so it might be fitter to receive the form of mixed Bodies for so Fire is easily mixed with Fire Light with Light Water with Water for unless it had been endued with this slender Light from the beginning the Vital Spirit had never been able to assume a body in it For our better understanding I now call that little body Alcaly Experience so directing me See Hippoc. Chymicus chap. 19. Alcaly in Water The way which Nature useth in preparing that Alcaly is taught us by that Noble Polonian the Ingenious Cosmopolita in these clear and express words When Rain falls says he it takes from the Air that Vertue of Life which in the Chapter afore-going I have shewed to be the Acid Spirit and conjoyns it with the Salt-nitre of the Earth because the Salt-nitre of the Earth is like calcined Tartar by its Siccity drawing the Air to it self which Air in it is resolved into water Such a force of Atraction hath that Salt-nitre of the Earth which also was Air Alcaly the Child of thâ—â— Sun and is conjoyned with the fatness of the Earth and by how much the more plentifully the Sun beams do then affect it so much the greater quantity of Salt-nitre is made and by consequence a plentifuller crop of Corn is produced and this is done day by day Thus far He whose single Testimony culled out from many others is a sufficient authority for me to affirm That the Acid Vital Spirit in the fatness of the Earth by the Sun-beams is fixed into Alcaly which again covets to be saturated with the Acid Vital Spirit from the Air into Salt which there is called Nitre of the Earth the reason thereof will more clearly appear in the progress Hence it is that he says in another place That this Spirit hath a Sister Alcaly which it loves The Child of the Sun loves his Sister Alcaly and is again loved by it for it is to it as a Mother What can be more clearly held forth for the preparation of Alcaly out of the Acid Vital Spirit by the Operation of Nature I add That if this Spirit be shot down out of the Air upon the Earth by Rain then it must necessarily fall down also on the Water and the same Sun-beams which by Reverberation do fix it on the Earth into Salt-nitre of the Earth do in like manner fix it in the Water Alcaly in Water if not into Salt-nitre yet at least into Natural Alcaly with which all waters do abound except such as are distilled from Cephalick Herbs the reason whereof you may see in Hippocrates Chymicus chap. 19. and in some places they fix it into Sea-Salt other where into Vitriol and sometimes into Mineral according to the disposition of its Mother as I have also shewed out of Lully in the fore-going Chapter Upon this foundation proceeds the spiritual representation of Plants Regeneration of Plants proceeds from Hippocratical Learning concerning which see Hippoc. Chym. chap. 20. If any one doubt of or desire to know its Inventor let him consult and weigh this Ancient True Philosophy and the sincere Studier of Natures Secrets maugre the Brawls of Scolding Detractors will soon obtain his desire As concerning the Ignorant either Allowers or Detractors who write without any sure foundation I am not solicitous about them for I know that Calumny which is not in a Man 's own power to avoid leaves a guilt on him that casts it He against whom it is directed being innocent and faultless Nay nothing is more pleasing to an Honest-man then to undergo Reproaches for love of Vertue for it is undergone in this case with Incredible Pleasure and Alacrity and being never long-lived It again returns of its own accord without any labour to its Author But to return That Alcaly is found in the Earth Alcaly in the Earth Experience confirms by the Extraction of it because a Volatile Alcaly is drawn and sublimated out of Earth which hath not yet attained any constancy whence not enduring to be solitary and alone it strives to avolate into the Air. So That nourishing Alcaly is made out of Water Alcaly in Water Paracelsus proves by the accretion of a Flint in a Phyalglass for water is the Liquor and Root of all things as Hippocrates witnesseth in his Books of Diet Fire Water doth Nourish says he moves all things but Water nourishes all things Hence Lactantius Water is all things Democritus also was not ignorant of the Vertues of Water who therefore affirmed that Truth was hid or immersed in a Well So Hermes Water is susceptible and producible of
as well in the Animal as Vegetable and Mineral Kingdoms yet with this difference that some Minerals not equally mixed contain more of Alcaly than Acid Sulphur Gold and Meat-Salt being excepted which have more of Acid as I have shewed Hence it is that the Ancients have Writ that this Virgin hath three Fathers viz. Nature Fire and the Philosopher but here we must Note that no man by the art of Ustion in any one of Natures Kingdoms Artificial Alcaly never Pure or destitute of any Form can prepare any Alcaly absolutely Pure i. e. deprived of all mixture of the Acid whatsoever he that seeks to do it will lose his labour Whence Cosmopolita Burn says he Sulphur from incombustible Sulphur and from its Soul whose Grain and Ferment indeed Mercury hath in it as much as is sufficient for it self but make that it may be sufficient for other things too Enough now hath been spoken for the convincing of Those that deny the principles of this Ancient Art viz. That Mercury hath no Sulphur separable from it 'T is altogether vain what some Masters and Writers of Vanity have thought says Geber for I have seen that It doth emanate from it c. Experience also confirms the same Common Salt is of a Salt-acid taste i. e. the Acid is prevalent in it therefore it is incorruptible if the Salt have lost his savour wherewith shall it be seasoned Hence being moderately mixed with Meat it conciliates a grateful taste to them and excites Appetite Sal-Alcaly is contrary to a Salt-Acid taste hence if it be mixed though but moderately with Meats it gives them an unsavory taste and blunts the Appetite Common Salt by reason of its Acidity preserves Flesh and Fish a long time from Putrfaction and draws out and attracts from them the Volatile Alcaly which by a Retort is again easily separated as Hippoc. Chymic teaches Chap. 14. On the contrary Sal-Alcaly doth consume the Acid and promotes Putrefaction Common Salt doth imbibe nothing of Acid and therefore being dryed from its Aqueous Humidity and cast into Butter of Antimony it disturbs it not Sal Alcaly being dryed and cast into the fame Butter of Antimony is so far from not disturbing it that in an instant it quite destrovs it because it drinks up the Acid Spirits and the Antimony falls into a white Powder Common Salt being mixed with the Quadruple of Bole Armonick and distilled with an open Fire yields an Acid Liquor Sal Alcaly mixed and distilled with the like quantity of Bolus with an open Fire yields a bitterish Liquor by reason of the Bolus Insipid and Aqueous per se as Hippoc. Chymic shews Chap. 10. In this place I desire the equal Reader to take notice That the Process concerning the making Volatile Salt of Tartar A false Proâ—â— of Volaâ—ile Salt of Tartar inserted into the last Edition of the Reformer I had almost said Deformed Auspurgh's Dispensatory f. 247 was stolen out from my above-named 10th Chapter of Hippocrates Chymicus And after they had stript it of things unknown to them as I can shew what further they mutilate the Text then load it with Calumnies pervert Sentences and prove manifest Falsaries God Almighty curb such Plagiary Falsified Stoln and Deformed Labours which darken the minds of the Studious In that fore-cited 10th Chapter I did Experimentally Demonstrate That all things did consist of Eire and Water and that Water was the Basis and Root not only of Sweet and Insipid but also of Igneous Vertues and of Caustick things as of Aqua Fortis Alcalyes Salts Oyls Vinegars Hot Waters and of all things in which the Acrimony of Fire doth prevail I say Water and that cold is the root of all those things for Nature impresses the Vertues of Her things upon a moist Element Wherefore Moisture is the first Subject of Nature upon which Her first Labour is spent as I have shewed in the Third Chapter of this Book and hereafter will make clear by plain and evident Examples I say for this end my Hippocrates Chymicus in the fore-cited place reduced many things as also Alcaly of Tartar by Solution and Coagulation into Simple Elementary Water of no Taste or Smell but Fire and the Child of the Sun for whose sake the Dance is made in that Operation returns to its own Country and that for this Cause That Man may not find out the work that God doth Eccles chap. 3. v. 2. See also Hippoc. Chymicus Chap. 18. These Surreptitious Doctors have not only stoln out this my Labour Sweat and Travel to advance their own Praises but have also essayed to reproach the Author with infinite Calumnies and to suppress the Truth yea they boast that this Simple Elementary Water is Volatile Salt of Tartar in these Rhodomontado words And by this means at length Courteous Reader thou mayst be sure That the Vertues of Salt of Tartar have passed through the Lembick and That thou hast in succinct words received a great Secret destinated to thy own and neighbours Health which use happily Consider Friendly Reader whether any thing could be more plausibly devised by their Mightinesses What to rob an Author and afterwards to Defame Him and then to depress and detract from the clear Truth and that they may procure Fame to themselves amongst their Companions with a lofty Brow to Venditate most Simple Watâ—r for Volatile Salt of Tartar not only to the prejudice of ones Neighbour but to the reproach of Physick it self which would certainly be the Noblest of all Arts unless it were thus treated by such ignorant Brains which are dar more vacuous and emptie than Alcaly Loe this is the cause why now it is reputed the vilest and meanest of Arts by the Vulgar What Candid Person Ingenious Reader can be pleased with such Actions or gull'd with Prescriptions stuffed with manifest Vanities under the pretence of Physick Heretofore he that taught Falsities was accounted Infamous and a Knave Hence Cicero speaks Pro Roscio A man may easily be deceived by a Knave Their Brain is pre-possessed with so many Absurdities that they have lost their Remembrance and have forgot That Water drawn from Alcaly of Tartar is most Simple neither are any of those Vertues radicated in it contained therein which Raimund Basilius Hollandus Helmont and others Ascribe to Volatils Salt of Tartar Doth this Water which you have so Distilled from Alcaly of Tartar dissolve a Metal or at least the Stones of Crabbs by a true Solution Can only four drops of this your Distilled Water taken by the Mouth augment the Vital Spirit when it is weak with incredible Vigour To which I add that Volatile Alcaly may be made not only from Tartar but from all Cephalick Herbs which contain Alcaly in their Ashes i. e. without Clavellation So a Friend of mine extracted Volatile Alcaly out of Lillye Convallye which was very Restorative Yea I my Self have prepared the same of no less Efficacy in dissolving from the outward
be referred to Acid and Alcaly therefore it will not be a miss yea pleasant and acceptable before I proceed to subjoyn the Preparation of Medicinable Salts CHAP. V. The Preparation of Medicinable Stals HAving shewed before That there is nothing in the Universe but Acid and Alcaly of which Two Nature composes all her works to which yet a Third doth also inseparably adhere as by degrees will be manifested I shall now proceed to confirm my Proposition of Medicinable Salts and to shew what they are because I have not found Their Nature hitherto described by any Man and therefore I think it worth my Labour to transfer the True way of their Preparaton out of my Hippoc. Chymicus Chap. 21. to this place which will likewise declare their Essence and Nature Most Wise Nature in the 3. Chap. shews us the way how het Spirit of the Air is coagulated and fixed to witâ— by Fire and Water i. e. by the Sun Beams and by Rain for unless they both concur the Spirit returns to its Original which They find to be True who endeavour to prepare Salts out of dry Simples for in drying the greatest part doth exhale and by how much the dryer they are left the less quantity of Salt is procured from them least of all yea nothing from rotten Sticks and Wood which though with great Care you reduce into Ashes Rotten Wood hath no Salt in its Asheâ— yet you can elicite no Salt from them but on the contrary the fresher and newer they are burnt a greater quantity of Salt will be extracted there-from Therefore for the Preparation of Salts our principle Care and Study should be That the Herbs be fresh see Chap. 3. for then in concremation the innate Acid apprehends the Alcaly and the Alcaly absorbs or sucks up the Acid and they are both fixed according to the property of the concrete but from that part which flies away with the flame and not being sufficiently bound in by the Acid goes to Soot you may easily extract Volatile Alcaly Let Green Wormwood be the Example Take This green as it is and burn it in a Chimney or open Place but Fumitory or such like Juicy Herbs may be cast Green and Fresh into a Red Hot Furnace and the Mouth-hole be shut that it catch its Flame flaming out is to be hindered as much as we can for it is sufficient that it be turned into Ashes though but black which Ashes are further to be Caloined in a large Earthen Pot and low or upon a large Iron Plate of a lifted up edge Coals being kindled under in the Wind Furnace to the end that the little Door may be opened or shut as there is need The Ashes are always to be stirred with an Iron Spatule till they be very white Note that the process made this way is and must be more Sweet and Benigne than that mentioned Chap. 3. in the Preparation of Alcaly for There the Ashes are stirred and agitated with a quick flame which are therefore called Clavellated or Pot-ashes but here the Fire must not touch the Ashes but they must be spread on a large Iron or Earthen Plate or Table which must not enter the mouth of the Furnace see the Contents of my Hippoc. Chymicus in the above-cited Chapter Lay the Ashes on a Linnen Acuminated Bag or if there be few of them on Acuminated Paper and pour Common Water on them which running through them being pregnant with Salt is called a Lixivium or Lye Coagulate this strained Lye with a quick Ebullition in a Frying Pan not greased in the Kitchin and make it up into a Mass which when it begins to thicken like Honey you must continually move with a Spatule and it will be dryed up into a Grey Powder which you must presently lay in a Pot not Glazed with a Cover the little Door of the Wind Furnace being stopped and cover them with Small Coals mixed with the Powder of the same Coals leisurely heat it unto Brunity not making it Red Hot or melting it when all is cooled put the Salt into a Glass Vessel and dissolve it in a sufficient quantity of Water stirring it between whiles with a Wooden Stick till the whole be dissolved afterwards let it rest for two or three dayes when it is clear pour it forth from the Lees without much stirring and in a Leaden or Glass Vessel placed in Sand suffer the Water to exhale without bubbles till a Saline Cuticle appear Then remove the Vessel and the next morning gather up the Splendent Grains of Salt which are to be washed with clear Water with a quick motion and dryed put the remaining Lye again into Sand that the Water may exhale as before unto the Cuticle Both these Salts are to be kept together joyntly in one Vessel It is to be observed that Salts this way sweetly prepared do resemble the Crasis of their Concretes the rest of the Lixivium being of an Urine-like taste and stinking smell is to be lest for washing of Glasses This is the easie and natural way to prepare Salts of Vegetables which do never melt of themselves neither are of an ungrateful taste for they are compounded of their proper Acid and Alcaly by Concremation A pound of These Ashes yields almost four Ounces of the purest Salt but four Pound of the Ashes of dry Herbs will scarce afford one Ounce of Salt CHAP. VI. That the Seminal Vertue of all things is Acid and that Acids lead Alcalyes ad Lubitum and that every Acid Liquor is a Solution of Acid-Salt in Elementary Water I Have shewed before that Water would be coagulated by the force of Vegetable Sulphur into That of whose Determination Sulphur was It is the property of Sulphur to be Occultly Acid and Pinguous as I have shewed in Chap. 2. which in Vegetables is always Volatile Take therefore eitheir Wood or Meal whose Spirit these Magnifick Ridiculous Masters do proclaim and approve for Acid Spirit of Sal Mrmoniack or any simple Vegetable whatever it be yea or the very grains of Kermes and Distil through a Report the Pinguous Acid Liquor which is called andis Sulphur of the Grains of Kermes or any other Vegetable â—â— which their Masterships hitherto were ignorant of upon this Liquor pour alcaly of Tartar which answers to Water the Fire being taken away as my Hippoc. Chymic teaches Chap. 10. till the Strepitus cease strain this Compositum through Paper and dry it up by degrees into the consistency of Honey and the Tartar of the Grains of Kermes or as some call it Tartar of Kermes The essential Salt will concrete in it when it is cold But if you desire to turn it into Pure Salt heat it in a Pot not Glazed scarce to Brunity only that the exceeding Pinguousness may deflragrate or else put it into a Retort and distil the Oyl from the empty Cuppel Dissolve the black Mash with Common Water let the Solution rest for three days till it
with all its Eximious Vertues cannot cure the slothfulness of these Approvers and Subscribers so that it happens to them as to those mens Children who hire other mens Farms for They seeing their Fathers they themselves being yet but Children gathering in the fruits and commanding the labourers do presently conclude the soil is theirs and so are very Jocund but when they grow up and understand that there was nothing Theirs but the labour of Tilling the Ground then their Mirth is turned into Sorrow Even such are these men and as we read in Sendivogius whatsoever the Alchymist would have out of Sulphur it ended in a snuff the same happens to these Deans with the other Approvers Whatsoever Eximious Vertues they would have from Copper 't is still naught but Vinegar CHAP. VII That no Matter can be so destroyed but It will remain under some Form or other I Shewed in the fore-going Chapter that Acids do draw Alcalyes to their own properties and that Both are changed into Salts But those which are not fully Alcalyes when a noble Acid supervenes upon them their internal Acid is indeed abated but not so wasted or destroyed that any other new thing can be Regenerated out of it I will now proceed to prove by the following Argument and that Mechanically That all Alcalyes do after a sort retain of the Form with which the Mixta were saturated before they were reduced by Fire into Alcaly of which see Hippoc. Chymic Dissolve half an ounce of Sublimate Mercury in fifty ounces of Common Water distilled or at least a drachm of Sublimate in twelve ounces of Water Into a part of this clear Solution instill by drops but with a quick infusion fixed Alcaly of Tartar in the form of Liquor or as they call it Oyl of Tartar per deliquium which in a moment separates and absorbs the Acidity for the greatest part from the Mercury and the Mercury falls into the bottom of the Vessel in the form of Powder obscurely Red. This Operation is called by Apothecaries and their Operators and by all Lovers of Physick Precipitation which name I shall also retain and use Out of the Faeces of distilled Vinegar burnt into Ashes Alcaly of Tartar is elicited by water and though It be produced out of the same Vine with Wine yet it Precipitates Mercury dissolved as before sparkling and splendent But when the same Alcaly is calcined to Redness with a moist fire then the same Mercury falls like pounded Cinnabar To the Tartar being burnt if you superadd the Calx and extract the Alcaly with Simple Water the Mercury is Precipitated Rutilant Calx of it self doth not Precipitate Mercury so dissolved since it is Salt from Acid and Alcaly and they who against Experience do deny the saltness of Calx are to be reckoned in the number of Fools But if the Liquor of Mercury afore-spoken of into which a piece of Calx hath been injected be suffered to rest for some hours so long until the Acid which contains the dissolved Mercury can suppress That in the Calx then indeed Mercury is forced to fall by little and little and to stick round about the Calx like Minium a delightful spectacle to Curious Eyes Alcaly extracted from the Herb Kaly being incinerated doth Precipitate Mercury much more obscure than the former The Lixivium which Sope-Masters call Magistra which consists of Calx and artificial Alcaly yields Mercury darkly Yellow Out of Spain there is brought an Alcaly whether Simple or Compound is uncertain yet it Precipitates Mercury of a Tauney colour These Examples concerning Fixed Alcalyes for Sope and Glass which do admit Reverberation in Ashes neither do easily perish from an acute Flame may suffice I will add certain Alcalyes in Physick which do not bear sharp reverberation in Ashes unless they be mixed with the former And These are made of the Herbs called Cephalickes as of Rosemary Lavender Rue c. all Hot and of a Grateful Smell I say all these are indeed Alcalyes but not fusible in Ashes for they easily fly away and are therefore Medicinal All these be they never so many do cast Mercury so dissolved into a Reddish shining Powder So also Celandine affords Alcaly or Precipitates Mercury most red so that John Isack Holland doth not unskilfully but excellently and learnedly speak He that knows not Salts will never perform any thing in Art All the foresaid Alcalyes as well those burnt by a sharp Flame for Sope and Nitre as the Medicinal ones from Cephalick Herbs do Precipitate Mercury so dissolved as I have said of a different colour a manifest Argument that their Form is not totally consumed by the Fire but that they preserve some properties of their Simples from whence they were extracted as Geber says Salt retains the property of that thing from whence it had its Original To which the Experience which I have shewn bears witness Heretosore I was of opinion that the difference of Colours in Sublimate Mercury dissolved as before and Precipitated by Alcalyes did proceed from the Fire acting more or less upon the Alcaly but at length by frequent Experience I have found my mistake for day to day and night to night sheweth Knowledge we are not all born Masters nor can we all be Lullies but Age frequent Use and Experience do manifest the Truth I have observed that Hippocrates and Galen also being better informed did Conrect their Errors so that it is no shame for me a slow witted Person to amend the mistakes committed in my youth especially seeing had not Forerunners from whom I might excerp any thing as they have who seek for Glory in gathering together Receipts niether had I any other guide save the fountain of all Vertue so that I have bolted out the Truth by immense Meditation and Labour and not a little Expence from the fountain of Nature by my own Industry Wherefore to demonstrate the constancy of Forms be it known to you That I can find no better nor shorter way than that which I have shewed by the alterations of Mercury upon the affusion of Alcalyes For when I endeavour to declare the Forms with the same labour the Precipitation of Mercury doth voluntarily offer and discover it self which yet running being dissolved in Aqua Fortis upon the affusion of Alcaly of Tartar is precipitated into a colour obscurely Yellow All the aforesaid Precipitated Powders of Mercury are of a Caustick and Corrosive Property because the Mercury assumes the nature of that thing with which it is first mixed and the Caustickness is not wasted off by any Artifice but by fire alone as Hippocrates Chymicus shews In like manner Mercury dissolved in Aqua Fortis and evaporated to Siccity the Fire being encreased that the bottom of the Vessel may be Red-hot is made a most Red sparkling Powder and is called in Physick the Precipitate of Vigoe because Johana de Vigoe a Chyrurgeen of great Fame was the Inventor of it on which Red
most subtil Fume kindled from the heavenly Fire c. I have shewed before that in It the Sun's Child doth inhabit which assumes not a Body unless with his beloved Sister The authority and experience both of the Old and also the Modern true Philosophers bear witness hereunto So that the Air being most subtil and incondensible of it self can add no weight to the Minium The Air it self is neither light nor heavy neither is it compressed of its own accord but by some force in the barrel of a Gun from which it again breaks out by force we see the same thing in that Glassy Organ which is called a Weather-glass the Air indeed is compressed in it by Cold but is again rarefied and dilated by Heat If therefore the Air in a cold season did add weight to the Minium it would make it lighter in an hot But Minium weighs alike in all Seasons so that it is not the Air that gives weight to the Minium But supposing though not granting that the Child of the Sun dwelling in the Air did assume a body in the Minium yet this would not be but in some years space as I have shewed in the Matrix of Nitre and Mines of Vitriol But Minium newly drawn out from the Furnace and as yet hot weighs as much as it will do some years after so that the Child of the Sun neither hath any Tabernacle in the Minium nor gives any weight to it The Air being impatient of a Vacuum as I have shewed by the authority of Philosophers is always filled with an Aqueous Humour which in the cold presently concretes to Water Take a familiar houshold example when we drink cold things in the hot Summer-time out of a Glass as soon as the Glass is filled with the cold Liquor presently it is troubled because the Aqueous Vapor dispersed through the Air is condensed by the Cold and sticks there in so great quantity that sometimes drops do fall down Here they wonderfully lift up their Crests and cry aloud rejoycingly Now you are catched This is that Aqueous Vapor which is attracted by the Minium out of the Air and adds the weight to it but soft and fair Your Aqueous Vapor doth concrete in Cold and again rarefy in hot Weather which your ridiculous and childish Experiment proves viz. The Caput Mortuum of Vitriol i. e. the Faex of Vitriol out of which the Spirits by one single distillation have been drawn being exposed to the Air is again saturated with Spirit of Vitriol which if it be distilled doth again yiold Spirit Lo O Curious and Truth-loving Reader This is their Proof that as the Caput Mortuum of Vitriol is again satiated with Spirit in the Air so also Minium drawn from the Furnace is saturated out of the Air with weight which is both Childish and Ridiculous and as I have shewed all the rest to be false and ill understood so I shall likewise demonstrate This to be most false and least of all understood by the whole Colledge of Guessers For if Vitriol have once undergone the tyranny of a quick Fire the Child of the Sun acts no more upon it than it doth on an Egg boiled for the hatching of the Chick Now burnt Vitriol doth attract from the Air by reason of its driness because it is without moisture not the Acid Spirit of Vitriol but an Aqueous Vapor which when the Vitriol grows hot either by the Sun or by Fire again flies into Air as it is the property of all Water For if that Caput Mortuum could again re-assume the nature of Vitriol in the Air that Famous Distiller of Spirit of Vitriol at Amsterdam who furnishes not only near the third part of Europe but also all Ships and both the Indies therewith yearly expending many thousands of pounds upon it if it being once Distilled and Exposed to the Air would again become Vitriol he would have luck in a Bag as we say but as it is false that the Caput Mortuum of Vitriol returns to Vitriol so it is also an untruth that the Aqueous Vapor adds weight to the Mium which I prove by this Experiment Take at least an Ounce of Minium such as is commonly sold and in a Glazed Earthen Vessel large and low put it for a Night in a Bakers hot Oven or else expose it to the Noon-day Sun whose heat as it doth exiccate not only the Humid Minium but also dries up Marishes Lakes and Rivers so in like manner it would expel the Humidity of the Air if there were any in the Minium but the same weight of Minium which was put in is also drawn forth from the Oven or heat of the Sun so that That which gives weight to the Minium is not the Child of the Sun nor the Air nor Water therefore against the absurd prateing of the Deans and Approvers it must needs be the Acidity in the kindled Flame which as the false Spirit of Venus exercising tyranny over the Debile Acid in the Medulla of Pearls or in Coral adds weight to Them so also the Acid kindled in the Flame which by its tyrannical power and force doth keep down and suppress the Debile Acid in the Lead is fixed into Alcaly rules over it and gives weight to it Hippoc. Chymic Chap. 26. We may learn from hence that if the Reader whosoever he be enquiring after the truth in those infinite doubts which in long Art do daily occur should have recourse to these Denns and their Associates what profit could he get thereby Surely none which plainly appears by that counterfeit and lamentable piece of Science which they had forth to the whole World for they call Simple Water Volatile Salt of Tartar and moreover judge it an incomparable Cordial Besides with what pompous and swelling Words do they shamelesly adorn it and commend it to their poor Neighbours and to the Sick as I have shewed above in the Chapter of the Difference of Salts in their own Words there quoted They say also That Vinegar Distilled is the Son of Venus that Acid is not in Graines of Kermes that Gold is not Fixed and Constant in the Fire that Mercury corroded with Caustick Water is made sweet by boiling with Vipers Grease that Minium acquires weight from the Air and infinite other absurdities which I shall anon discover Fye for shame defile not Youth with these fooleries and falsities Dispute not de Lana Caprina and after the dispute ended you silence your Opponents in a matter of no value and gain nothing but an empty puff of breath And then in your silence Truth as the Philosopher says though unsought for will come to light if she may But leaving these Jejune Interpreters of Physick who proceed to the Practick Part as the Ass to his fodder not knowing to what he lays his Lips I shall go on to prove that there is Acid in Fire by This no less Noble than profitable and pleasant Example I shewed before That the Salts
into Pellucid Tartar which he burnt and as the custom is with common water extracted the Alcaly which he suffered to run down into a Liquor of its own accord A sudden occasion offering it self that he was to go to Rome with a certain great man to the end that the precious Liquor might not be lost in the interim he commanded his Servant to preserve it in a Vessel which he appointed and shewed him for that purpose his Servant by a mistake poured it into a Neighbourâ— Vessel like the former in which Silver was which had been dissolved in Aqua fortis to which Sal Armoniack sublimated and dissolved in distilled Vinegar begun for another work had been added My Friend returning after nine Months and seeking for the Liquor of Tartar he found the Cucurbite into which his Servant was injoyned to put it quite empty The Servant answering that he had poured it into a Neighbourâ— Vessel looking there he found not the Liquor but dry Earth nine Months exsiccated which he touched with his Rod Mercury out of Silver and a great part of the running Mercury discovered it self at that time he could not believe that running Mercury could be made out of perfect Metals being so perswaded according to the Axiom That it is easier to make than to destroy perfect Metals which made him neglect the Experiment imagining in himself that the Mercury had fallen into the Vessel by some chance But at length he learned out of Basilius Valentinus that Salt of Tartar hath this priviledge above all other Salts The ingenious Helmont hath confirmed this Experiment in these words I have found says he Tract potest Medic S. 4. that the Crudity of Saturn is dissolveable by the fat of fixed Salts and that the parts of the Compositum are so divided that it suffers Silver to run crude There came then to my mind a strong Lixivium wherewith old women boil Litarge to black their hair of which Porta also makes mention in his Magia Naturalis into which I dropped Spirit of Vitriol and presently the Alcaly suffered the Metal to run into a white Powder which I reduced into Lead by which means I knew for certain that Alcalyes do invisibly contain and hide in their Bowels Calcined Metals This Experiment being made Helmont goes on saying That calcined things are most sharp but they are dulcerated with dissolved Sal Armoniack and putrified Tartar i.e. they are turned into running Mercury which is not any longer tart or biting as Calcined things are but insipid to the taste I return now to the Salt of Tartar which in form of Liquor was poured into the Cucurbite in which was Silver corroded by Aqua fortis with Sal Armoniack All these changed their nature into Neutral Salts different from their former state so the Silver made no more any shew of Silver of which * Lite de magno mundi Mirac Basilius de Tartaro Durch c. By my Spirit they take revenge and break or dissolve all Metals For as all Sublunary Bodies Experience being witness do consist of two things Acid and Alcaly as I shall mechanically shew in this Tract the same may be said of Silver from this Silver the Alcaly of Tartar by due digestion and coction hath absorbed so much of the Acid Sulphur Diana nada as was sufficient for the Mercury in the state of Silver now it being segregated and divided from it for its constancy into the place of Mercury succeeds the Alcaly Philosophers call it Adulterium which it imbraces from the Silver and therefore loseth its form and beauty and changeth its nature so that it is melted even with the gentlest fire as Lead or Sal Armoniack mix'd with the Calx of Flints Lana Cornea and it is called by Crollius Luna Cornea because it may be cut with a Knife like Horn. This Luna Cornea though it be washed an hundred times with hot water and * As I have elsewhere said of Furum Fulminans melted with a swift Flux from Tartar and Nitre yet it is impossible to Separate them one from the other unless in Balneo Saturni in which that of the Silver which remains returns to pure but the Salts with the Lead into dross and Litarge which also again by simple Fusion is reduced into Lead but the dross which were Salts are hurried into Element together with the Sulphur of Silver which they had absorbed CHAP. X. That the Bodies of Alcalyes are Vacua proved by examples WHerefore Salt of Tartar is a Medium A Vacuum in Nature demonstrated by Art wherein not only Metals but Minerals also do revive and obtain as it were a Resurrection though by Art and a strong fire they seem quite destroyed Pour Spirit of Vitriol drop by drop upon dissolved Salt of Tartar till the hissing noise cease reduce the Liquor into Chrystals or dry it all up and you shall find a Salt having the nature of Vitriol it provokes vomit and being superbibed purges by Stool as white Vitriol is wont to do Regeneration of Vitriol It is mingled with Nitre and Quick-silver 't is sublimated into red to which add common Salt and it becomes a Corrosive Sublimate it is distilled per se as Vitriol The whitish Mucilage subsiding in the bottom is the same Faex which in dissolved crude Vitriol by the affusion of Salt of Tartar falls down black It endures the fire and resisteth fusion as the Colcothar or Caput mortuum of Vitriol which yet without the affusion of Spirit of Vitriol was easily melted That fixed Salt is Vitriol Regenerated called by the Writers of the Rudiments of Chymistry Tartarus Vitriolatus and Vniversale digestivum It is made much more excellent and perfect from crude Vitriol dissolved in water and Liquor of Tartar poured upon it until it cease to be troubled which point of Saturation is not found without difficulty for if it exceed but one drop it turns the mixture either into Vitriol or Alcaly of which my Hippocrates L. I. de Diaet Nunquam simul in codem consistunt coagulate the clear Liquor into shining Chrystals This is more Noble than the former because in distilling the Vitriol the violence of the fire elevates the Liquamen of the Copper and mixes it with the Spirit so that it become troublesome to the Stomach But in this simple way the Alcaly consumes only that most simple Natural Acid which corroded the embrionated Metal in its Flux This is that simple Acld agreeable to our Nature in Acid Fountains refreshing the Drinkers and acceptable to the Stomach though taken in great quantity of this I determine to speak briefly yet * De morbis Tartareis Paracelsus relates that in a Village called Veltin in Helvetia there is a Fountain the like whereto is not to be found in the whole World So also Spirit of Nitre reassumes a Body in Salt of Tartar and becomes cold natural Nitre Regeneration of Nitre conceiving