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
Tartar fell to the bottom as a Cadaver But the Acidity spread through the Liquor hath dominion over it and doth defend it and is called Wine the Acidity whereof is grateful to the Palate because of the Alcaly with which it is joyned and tempers the Acid till at length the Acidity weary of the Alcaly or excited again by Heat strives to overcome the Alcaly and so a new and insensible fight begins and the Wine foures more and is called by a common name Vinegar from which if the Acidity be separated in a Limbeck Without Art there is not found a pure Acid in Nature unmited with Alcaly and on the contrary Hippoc. l. 1. de Diat Aust 1. Phys and the bottom burnt by fire then the Alcaly is found out of that Tartarous bottom though it seem impossible to some to find Alcaly in so great an Acidity yet it is true and it is That which the Philosopher means when he says That it is impossible there should be any matter under which there should not be some form Pour or superadde Distilled Acid on this Alcaly and evocate the watery flegme having the smell of Aqua Ardeus or hot water then from the Acid and the Alcaly you shall have a re-generated Tartar which out of a Retort yields a fat Oyl and a bitter Water full of â—olatile Alcaly out of the Phlegme through a Phyal of a long Neck So the Rector by degrees vanishes from our External senses into nothing that Man cannot find out the work which God operates Fâ—cl 3.11 evocate the Fat burning watery part which we call Aqua vitae the other part is elementary water the Fat re-assumes the Alcaly out of which again extract the Elementary Water and repeat this operation and the whole substance of Wine passes into Water and Elementary Earth void of all taste and smell Hence it appears that the Juice of Grapes hath preserved the Alcaly and the Acid in which the Rector doth inhabit in various hazards and several alterations even unto its last annihilation CHAP. XIX An untrodden Path discovered THat which I have spoken in the precedent Chapter concerning the Juice of Grapes the same is also to be understood of the Juice of all Vegetables for in them all there is Acid and Alcaly more or less as Hippocrates and Experience also shew but with this difference that in those Vegetables which we call Cold the Alcaly doth predominate and they are not fermentable unless by the help of an outward Acid or being excited by heat but in those which are hot the Acid prevails and therefore they are easily fermentable as in the Progress will appear Also the Alcaly of some Vegetables is nearer to fix'd and therefore it joynes in with Acid Minerals All things are corrupted mutually by themselves the greter by the less and the less by the greater Hipp. L. 1. de Diaet as I have shewed in Galls in the greater Housleak in Rinds of Pomgranates c. The Alcalyes of others are much more delicate so that Acid Minerals do presently absume them in as much as they are nutritive and fit for the digestion of Animals which consists in a milder Acidity of which sort are Winter-green Sanicle Bettony Fole-foot c. Which therefore are called Vulnerary Herbs whose Alcaly restrains and hinders the injust Acidity vising in the Stomach as it lessens it also in wonuds because all Acidity out of the Stomach is hurtful morbous and accompanies putrefaction which the Vulgar call heat from the effect for it causes a Feavour and putrefies Wounds many skilful Chyrurgeons have taken notice of that Acidity in wounded men as the beginner of heat and putrefaction and have therefore forbade them the use of Wine and not without cause least the subtle and evaporable Acidity of the Wine should encrease the Disease I say the Alcaly of these is not discovered with Acid Minerals Nature delights in its like nature but because they themselves are Nutritive therefore the said Alcaly associates it self with its similary Nutritives and with gentler Acids than Minerals As for Example Dissolve a drachm of Sal Saturni made with Distilled Vinegar for that resists not the Digestion of Animals in about three Ounces of Distilled Water which hath no Volatile Alcaly of Rosemary Lavender Rue c. Suffer the Lees to settle This Solution being sweet in taste contains Occult Lead drop the clear Juice of the foresaid Vulnerary Herbs into this clear Solution and it presently grows as white as Milk which is a sign that the Alcaly of the Herbs absorbs the Acid from the Lead which falls by degrees For as fixed Alcaly praecipitates Mercury and Alcaly nearer to fixed praecipitates Vitriol as I have shewed before so also here a milder Alcaly requires a milder Examen Paracelsus first observed That hidden Alcaly of Herbs and it is probable that by the like Examen he took notice of their several minute degrees he had taken notice that in wounds putrefaction came from Acidity and from thence arose feavorish heats and corruptions of Wounds he also first prescribed Vulnerary Potions and did happily restrain the said Acidity and putrefaction Paracelsus his Analytick knowledge of Bodies and called the Herbs Vulnerary And though John Taugaultius a French Man and Gabriel Fallopias an Italian both famous Physicians and excellent Chyrurgeons do condemn and endeavour to explode Vulnerary Potions in the Cure of Wounds affirming that by their heat they inflame and extenuate the Blood and excite its eruption from the Wound yet though simple Vulnenary Medidicaments are not known to every Chyrurgeon and and are prescribed without distinction and knowledge of their degrees for all cannot attain this pitch of Science nevertheless Experience shews Ulcers of the Feet or Thighs and Wounds are Cured by Potions why may they not do the same in the Lungs that the aforesaid Potions are useful with which also Paracelsus cured the Ulcers of the Lungs as Histories witness and also the Hectick Feavor as I have also experimented which is an universal and inept Acidity and that of the solid parts which in one word we call Heat and which the aforesaid Alcalys do more readily absorb and consume than Milk as I have shewed in its place and the cure it self demonstrates Therefore Vulnerary Potions are not to be rejected but used with good Success in the curing of Wounds Many of the accuratest sort of Chyrurgeons The brevity of this Compendium will not allowme to discourse of Specifick Acid. Yet see ch 21. and Physicians have taken notice that Acidâ—ty is the cause of Heat and Pain as also that burnt Harts-horn absumes in it self Vinegar and other Acids of all sorts whence it comes to pass that it is given with good success in Feavors in a great dose from half an ounce to an ounce in any cooling water containing Volatile Alcaly For as they have observed to their great joy that the said burnt Harts-horn absorbs and
flame and is a Remedy for the Quinzey which otherwise being separated are Caustick Regeneration of common Salt Of Acid Spirits only Spirit of Salt dissolves Gold and why as I have shewed in Aurum Fulminans If you add Spirit of Salt to the same Salt of Tartar then after Coagulation it becomes common Salt as it was before it was turned by a strong fire into Spirit and therefore since the Acid Spirit of Salt by solution returns to Salt we may cease our wonderment why amongst all Acid Spirits no other dissolves Gold but that of Salt because that by Corrosion it reassumes the Nature of Salt even as the water commonly called Aqua Regia which without Salt touches not the Gold at all Tartarus Regeneratus by some improperly called Tina folia a Phylosophâ—n un Distilled Vinegar becomes fat Oyl concerning flame The same Salt of Tartar if it hath imbibed Vinegar distilled from Wine is made common Tartar of Wine having all the properties thereof excepting only that in humjdo it doth more easily melt Cleanse this Regenerated Tartar by solution from all its impurity and afterwards distil it with a strong fire through a Glass retort placed in Sand and you shall obtain an Oyl and bitter Liquor as that which is elicited from crude Tartar yet the Oyl somewhat resembles the goodness of the Wine of which the Vinegar was made 'T is almost incredible to be spoken What more pleasant than to know those things and to see them with our eyes and handle them with our hands under a grateful silence which common sense doth not apprehend and by nature are put remole from us Oyl made water Oyl made Aqua Ardens Aqus Atdens made Alcaly and Elementary water that distilled Vinegar should contain in it an occult fatness and yet it is very true but Salt of Tartar hath not this piâ—â—guedo for it is fixed and tryed in the fire At Rome from one Ounce of this Regenerated Tartar I drew forth six Drachmes of Oyl of an Orange colour and grateful smell but at Venice a pound scarce afforded me one Drachme and that black coloured and stinking I say it is even incredible that in Vinegar not only the qualities of the Wine but of the Country where it grows should manifest themselves From what hath been said it appears that Acids do attract Alcalyes at their pleasure and rule over them as they lift In like manner it reduces Oyls either distilled or expressed into their first Elements for they being mixed in a just proportion i.e. to satiety with Salt of Tartar and digested afterwards out of a Glass retort placed in Sand one Moity returns Oyl the other Moity is water Again mix this Oyl with new Salt of Tartar as above repeat the distillation and you will see all the Oyl converted into water a little Earth being left with the Tartar which you shall know increased in weight so that Oyl which otherwise is wholly inflamable here you may find turned into odoriferous water and again distilling this water out of a Glass you will extract Aqua Ardens which again with Salt of Tartar returns to Alcaly and afterwards into Elementary water like that which remained in the Glass There were two pound of the remaining Salt of Tartar in the Retort which I laid upon an Iron Board or Slate that it might run into a pellucid Liquor I distilled all the Humidity out of the Retort placed in Sand and breaking the Vessel Salt of Taâ—tar turne I into simple Elements I again dissolved in the Air the Salt which was in the bottom upon the Iron Slate which is not prejudiced at all which is done in about forty hours space and there remained nothing on the Slate besides a little slimy Faex I again distilled the Liquor encreasing the fire as before till nothing came forth either dropping or smoaking and I again dissolved the same Salt having broken the Retort on the Iron Slate I renewed these Operations twelve times and all the Salt of Tartar was turned into the Element of water I gathered up the Faeces which were left each time on the Slate and I extracted all the saltness from the distilled water with which I made the same Process as before so that all the Salt of Tartar as the Vinegar Oyl and Aqua Ardens were turned into insipid water and Terra Mortua of no savour or smell which Earth and Water a little before seemed Caustical 'T is a wonder to consider what becomes of this Fiery Vital power and vertue both of the Oyl Vinegar and Aqua Ardens as also of the Salt of Tartar yet this vertue or form persisted constant in the fire until the reduction into the Elements I now call it the Rector for our clearer understanding of it of which more particularly in its place You may call it as you please either Fire Form Archeus 't is all one to me All are like though they appear unlike as Hippocrates affirms L. 1 de Diaet In Append. ad animad f. 84. If the Reformer had had any knowledge of fixed Alcalyes he had never prescribed to Podagrical persons Oyl of Venice Soap for whatsoever of Oyl distils from Soap is like that from Brick and contains nothing of Alcaly so also they who dissolve the Body of Soap and say that it is good for gouty diseases are in a great mistake the taste may be an Omen of their disappointment which is found manifestly salt for it doth not precipitate Mercury from the above-mentioned solution Wherefore the Alcaly of Tartar seems to bear a representation of the Philosophers Chaos wherein they say their Mercury hath a Resurrection of which Paracelsus The Regeneration L. 1. de natura rerum says he and Renovation of Metals is thus made as man returns to the Earth whence he was first taken and so shall be again Regenerated at the last day So also Metals may again return to Mercury of which they wâ—re first derived and be dissolved with it and râ—-become Mercury and again by fire which also shall judge the World be re-produced and clarified This way as he goes on are stones Regenerated Of which see Roger Bacon Riply Isaac Holland yet read them with caution and also special tinctures of Silver and Gold Thus far Paracelsus In the mean while I would not advise any man to perswade himself that Salt of Tartar after whatsoever manner prepared is the Catholick Chaos of the Philosophers though Metals in it may return-into running Mercury 'T is enough in short to have advertised this But I am enjoyned silence by Harpocrates concerning fixed Salt of Tartar Actaeons example deters me lest I should be injurious to the curious disquisitions of Learned men who have spent much labour and pains to attain the full knowledge thereof it being a Medium giving vivification to many things The Academical Spiâ—i understands not this Mystery Basillus Paracelsus and others have taken great notice of it who
Alcaly of Galls or with some Oil the hidden Acidity of which enters into the Galls being placed in a pot in a slow Fire of Ashes leave them there till you see the Galls become Blacker but not so as to be reduced to Coals then their Alcaly will be more fit for Colouring and an Ounce of such burnt Galls doth more than a pound of others yea it colours of it self because the Acidity of the Fat by the Fire hath acted upon its Alcaly Very many Vegetables do abound with the like Volatile and Occult Alcaly Rinds of Pomgranates as the greater Housleek Sage Rinds of Pomgranates all which do spend and absume the Acid of the Vitriol and cause the Colcotar to be much less black A certain Prince of great Renown an Enquirer into the Mysteries of Nature wondered much when he heard that a certain Gentlewoman of the Nursery in his Court had taken by Mouth Rinds of Pomgranates which are universally judged to be Adstringent which yet provoked the Courses in her which had been stopped some Months To whom when I declared the copious Alcaly wherewith these Rinds do abound and that the stopping of the Menstrua did arise from that Morbous Acidity which the Alcaly of the Rinds had absorbed it ceased his wonderment But you must note that Artificial Vitriol of an Azure colour Things thorowly mixed and divided are altered Hip. l. 1. de Diat which is falsly called Cyprus Vitriol doth not become black with Galls though they be burnt but with Rinds of Pomgranates it tinges obscurely Yellow Now it is made of the spangles or thin flakes of Copper by Spirit of Sulphur or of common Vitriol both which in a cold place are Coagulated into somewhat long-angular little stones hardly dissolvable and unfit for Distillation because it wholly wants that Cupreous Sulphur This with Urine waxeth Green and with the Alcaly of Urine is cast into an Azure bottom which by Fusion returns to Copper So also Verdigrease as proceeding from ripe Copper and Vinegar doth not wax black with Galls Distilled Aerugo yields Vinegar but becomes of a light red or Spadiceous colour and by the Reformers leave I know and have experimented that nothing but Vinegar will be distilled from thence because the remaining Caput Mortuum after Distillation by the fire of Fusion is reduced to pure Copper of which more hereafter Whence it appears that burnt Brass with tosted Galls produceth not a black tincture as Alexius of Piedmont promises with which process the Women of this Country do wonderfully vexe themselves that therewith they may black their hair for as far as this composition tingeth any thing it ownes that Vertue to the tosted Galls Alexius his Secret the burnt Brass contributing nothing thereunto But Cyprus Vitriol is truly Hermaphroditical richly furnished with natural Acidity and Cupreous Sulphur The Metaphor of Mars companying with Venus doth not unfiâ—ly suit here for which reason it is always moist and never of it self conctetes into small stones wherefore it very easily grows black with Galls which is a sign that it partakes of the Nature of Venus and Mars for Vitriol of Venus without Mars doth not grow black with Galls as I have shewed For Iron and Copper are of affinity one to another as Male and Female This Secret sayes Basilius you may take notice of but conceal for it is of great use This Vitriol De Vitriels dissolved in water is of a Tawney colour if burnt Brass be dissolved in it or flakes of Copper or Iron then it concretes into little stones and becomes vendible but inferior to that which is Medicineable The White Vitriol which comes from Gosloria and that also from Carinthia White Vitriol doth participate indeed of Mars and Venus but are not rich in natural Acidity for which reason they very slowly wax black with Galls a drop of this Solution mixed with Galls and falling on Paper makes a Party-coloured Iris after it is dry But Romane Vitriol which abounds with Iron Roman Vitriol though poor in Spirit yet it colours quickly because of the Iron So Artificial Vitriol which is made of the fileings of Iron Vitriolâ—m Martis artislciale with Spirit of Vitriol or Sulphur doth tinge most readily and therefore Dyers for want of Sweet Vitriol do add fileings of Iron to the Humid and by consequent the sharp which it doth Corrode and so the Vitriol is Dulcified So also Crocus Martis which is made of artificial Vitriol burnt in a covered Crucible till it be red being dissolved with Spirit of Salt and digested with Spirit of Wine Câ—ocus Martis Solutus acquires a golden colour and becomes a noble Medicine One drop alone of this Solution in half an ounce of the Decoction or Extract of Galls becomes perfectly black pour out this black and wash the vessel with clean water and the Ablution will be of the colour of an Amtihyst A drop of the former on Paper after it is dryed of its own accord represents divers colours as a Peacocks tail curious to the eyes of the beholders Whilest I was busied heretofore about these curious experiments I perceived my fingers to be tingedwith a Purple colour as it happens from Gold dissolved in Aqua Regia and the tincture endured for some days This Basilius calls Sanguis Veneris Martis The blood of Venus and Mars and commands us not without reason to observe it accurately and to conceal it Gold corroded by Aqua Regia and coagulated into the shape of Vitriol Gold doth tinge the fingers as I have said of a Purple colour and with the infusion of Galls the liquor becomes like yellow Amber with which if with a liberal hand you dawb over Paper after it is dryed it shines as Varnish Silver corroded in Aqua Fortis Silver of Nitre and Alome with an infusion of Galls doth not change its nature if you write on Paper with this mixture after two days every black letter is as it were compassed with a Silver and shining list which cannot be without Alcaly Hence this rare Man may understand why the Ancients Metaphorically called Gold the Male and Silver the Female A drop of this Solution if with a large hand it drop on Paper after the silver lift it draws and makes another of a Chesnut colour a pleasant Spectacle as if it were so painted on purpose So also Tinn and Lead being reduced into Salt or Vitriol Leed Tiau with the juice of Galls as also with Alcaly of any sort yields a white bottom i. e. the Alcaly of the Galls drinks up the Acid and the Metal goes to bottom but not so in Gold nor Silver nor Copper c. Quick silver dissolved by Acid things Mercury and re-coagulated with the aforesaid juice of Galls waxeth but slowly Yellow imitating Gold which is to be observed Wherefore of the seven Metals being dissolved by Acids Iron and Silver with Galls do
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
alone Dissolve then at least one Drachm of Red Powdered Corral Spirit of Venus dissolves Coral in This Vinegar which they proclaim to be the praised Spirit of Venus dry the Solution in a Bath In like manner dissolve another Drachm of pounded Corals in Vinegar simply Distilled Vinegar dissolves Coral which likewise Exsiccate in Balneo Diligently gather up those Powders and weigh them severally in a Ballance and you shall find the dissolved and dryed Corals to be increased half a Drachm as well by the Spirit of Venus which They count as Alcahest as by the Vinegar Vulgarly Distilled So that the Corals have imbibed as much Acid Salt from the counterfeit Spirit of Venus as from the Distilled Vinegar Whence it again appears Spirit of Venus is Vinegar not Alcahest That This shews it self to be Vinegar because it is so indeed and not the Liquor Alcahest as the lofty Doctors would impose upon rude and ignorant people Again They urge That this praised Spirit of Venus doth dissolve Pearls without bubbles and leaves the cortices untouched Truly this may seem a wonder to Men altogether unskilful in the Art of Physick and who never learned the Rudiments thereof but methinks it should seem a trivial and sleight thing to the Deans and the rest of the Approvers For what ordinary or mean Physician can be ignorant that Vinegar simply Distilled doth perform the same thing though in a longer tract of time if you cast whole Pears into It Spirit of Venus is 〈◊〉 Vinegar and therefore your spirit of Venus which you account as Alcahest will not cease to be distilled Vinegar But why the skins or pellicles of Pearls are not dissolved by either of the Vinegars the reason is Their fatness and unitive glew the feat of the Child of the Sun which is proper and familiar to all Crustaceous Creatures to Fishes and the Membranes of Animals The counterfeit Son of Venus however extolled by vain Approvers doth never touch this Glew in stones of Crabbs Pearls c. it hath no access to them it is Leprous in comparison of them and therefore is not admitted to the Princely-Seat unknown to Ideots But why Vinegar doth corrode the Medulla of Pearls of the afore-said stones and Corals c. The cause is That Nature hath put least part of Acid into most things as I have shewed in the second Chapter which least part unless it be multiplied by Art or Nature is easily suppressed by the more powerful I will give an Example in the afore-said dissolved and dried Corals in which there is the least portion of Natural Acid which being oppressed by the counterfeit Spirit of Venus is made subject to It hence they are encreased in weight Again Dissolve these dried Corals in some water either Distilled or common clear water let the Solution rest that the Turbid may subside which they improperly call Faces which nevertheless you must separate and drop into the clear Solution a little of the spirit of Vitriol of Sulphur which overcoming the counterfeit Spirit of Venus not by its Acidity but the Nobleness of its Soul cast out the Vinegar which they call Spirit of Venus from its seat and place and doth assume the possession of the Region of the Spirit of Vitriol and with the Corals represents the form of curdled Milk but the Counterfeit Spirit of Venus being now expelled by the more Noble is diluted and sticks to the supernatant water and is mingled with it Wash both these Coagulums as much as you may and dry them severally in brown Paper and you shall have Magistery of Corals equal in weight as well from the counterfeit Spirit of Venus Spirit of Venus is distilled vinegar as from the Vinegar simply distilled because it is the same But take that water so washed from the Corals in which as I have said the counterfeit Spirit of Venus or some simple distilled Vinegar was diluted if you have otherwise warily poured on the Spirit of Vitriol for if you have carelesly and without judgment powred on more than the Coral will imbibe it will not swim atop but I suppose the affusion was skilfully made and instill into it Alcaly of Tartar till the Motion of Ebullition cease exhale the abounding Water in a Glass Vessel placed in Sand and you shall find regenerated Tartar as I have shewed above from the Counterfeit Spirit of Venus or Vinegar simply distilled imbibed in Alcaly of Tartar for it is the same by this infallible Argument That in the Corals dissolved and dryed in a Bath there remained only half a Drachm of Acid Salt from the feigned Spirit of Venus That Acid Salt being separated from the Corals by Spirit of Vitriol cannot be alone wherefore it guards it self again in Elementary Water as in his Mothers lap and diffuses it self in her and becomes again Counterfeit Spirit of Venus And unless Elementary water did contain Occult Alcaly in its belly Acid Salt could not inhabit in it because that alone it is not sufficient for it self as Hippocrates hath taught us De Diaeta Simple distilled Vinegar performes also the same thing so that it now appears even to the most unskilful-in Physick that this most celebrated Spirit of Venus here and every where is nothing else and savours of nothing else but Distilled Vinegar whatsoever Bugbears its Adorers would fright us with And although Crollius Beguinus and other Writers of the Elements of Chymistry in express words do call it Solvent Vinegar from whom the process of this Vinegar is stoln word for word as my Hippoc. Chym. shews Chap. 29. Yet This poyson of Ignorance hath infected not only Austria but almost all upper Germany witness these unskilful Approvers and their soolish Partizans with their Rythmes It would be no woder if as the Romans of old so Magistrates now would eject out of their Cities and Common-wealths such Harlotry Collegiates and such a Nest of Bablers who do scrible of things unknown even to themselves to their Neighbours hurt Low Germany is yet free from this Contagion so is Italy and France and for the future I hope by this Antidote they will be preserved Now Why Vinegar distilled from Verdigrease Vinegar from Eruga why more Acid than Simple in a small quantity doth more powerfully dissolve Corals than That which is distilled the vulgar way I have shewed the reason before viz. that it happens because Vinegar distilled the common way is as yet diluted with much Water but the Elementary Water is evaporate from That which is distilled from Aerugo by gradual Exhalation no otherwise than in the distillation of Green and Humid Vitriol for then the Acid Salt being long in the Liquor would be very weak but when the humid which they call Phlegm hath by degrees exhaled and evaporated before distillation the Acid Salt must needs be more powerful and strong in a lesser quantity of water for Light by how much more contracted by so much the more
thing L. 1 de Diaet to blame any one of them for not findingâ— all are rather to be commended for seeking and enquiring after These things being praeviously understoods let us now consider What excellence and prerogative the Viporine Sals of this Reformer hath above the Inventions of the Ancients which yet They prepared by an easte Operation but He with great charge labour pompous ostentation and triumph The Alcaly of Vipers under that Title Pharm f. 486. distilled out of a Retort drinks up the Acid Spirit of Common Salt which I have shewed with Alcaly added to be separable without the Art of Distillation The Sal Viptverium of the Reformer sâ— Common Salt from that Conjunction i. e. of the Acid Salt and the Alcaly of Vipers is made Comon Salt If we urge this Common Salt with Fire of Sand it will be elevated into Artificial Sal Armoniack as having all its properties which is proved by this Experiment Mingle the Powder of Salt of Tartar i. e. the Fixed Alcaly of Tartar with an equal part of the Viperine Salt of our Reformer Pure Alcaly of Vipers distil this Mixture in a Retort placed in Sand and you shall presently see the Alcaly of Vipers to ascend by the neck of the Retort because the Fixed Alcaly of Tartar apprehends and catches the Acid Salt then the Alcaly of Vipers willingly leaves her Acid Companion whilest it is forced to fly away by Heat Do the same with Common Sal Armoniack and you shall find no difference and therefore what the Ancients did with the Body of Salt That the Reformer performs with greater labour and cost with the Spirit of Salt and if the Ancients Sal Viperirum be of no use as he says surely His hath the same property But when Pure Alcaly of Urine That Alcaly is expelled with Salt of Tartar from the Common Sal Armoniack then you will have the pure and dry Spirit or Alcaly of Urine which the Reformer most foolishly calls Salt Spirit of Sal Armoniack as he also with the same sottishness calls that Vinegar which he distilled from Meal mixed with Sal Armoniack out of a Retort The Acid Spirit of Sal Armoniack adding withal this gross mistake These two Spirits out of Sal Armoniack Append. ad Amimad f. 73 74. the Acid and the Salt though both of them contain not a drop of Sal Armoniack though produced out of one Subject yet are contrary one to another and being joyned together destroy one another wherefore let the Apothecaries carefully distin uish between the Salts and Acids But the Reformer informs them very grosly concerning Tastes yea he presumes to teach them that which he is ignorant of himself witness amongst many other things * The Water of Mindererus for the Hearing Aqua Mindereri for the Hearing For this Water hath Urine and Vinegar for its Foundation which-mixture the Reformer doth not only disallow as believing without further enquiry That the Salt and Acid are destreyed by one another being ignorant that the destruction of one is the generation of another Thus he huggs his own opinions as the Ape doth her Apelings but also he asperses a worthy Man with reproach and calumnies who hath candidly communicated his experiences for the Publick good notwithstanding which the Reformer after his manner thus scribbles in his Appendix Besides many other Absurdities Ad Aâ—imadver Fol. 336. I see Vinegar and Vrine to be poured on which are plaâ—nly contrary one to another for the Vrine of Animals distilled yields a sharp Saline spirit which is a destroyer of all Acetous spirits Thus he Hitherto I have demonstrated that the Volatile Salt of Urine is by no means Salt but Alcalizate and therefore being mixed with Acid from them both there arises a balt tart Sapor wherefore from the mixture of the Volatile Alcaly of Urine and Distilled Vinegar which two do never concrete there is made a distillable salt and most piercing Liquor I question whether any thing be more subtle in nature of a simple mixture for an old Obstruction For which cause the most Ingenious Mindererus rightly and with good Judgment Without hurt or pain it pervades the Cornea Toniea and dissidves the Whitespots in the Pupel left there by the Small-Pox The ignorant carp at what they do not understand commends and prescribes it for Thickness and Difficulty of Hearing because it is salt as Sweat is as shall be proved and in regard of its Symbolicalness and congenious nature thereunto this Distilled Salt and Volatile Water pervades the membrane of the Tympanum yea it is willingly admitted into it I said this Spirit was Salt which is proved by experience for it doth not precipitate Mercury from the often named Solution as other salt things do not which according to Galen's opinion do cut attenuate and discuss the excrements they dry they support and strengthen Nature and that in a rude lump of Salt why may not then this most subtle Spirit be also Salt Wherefore let the Skilful judg whether the most Learned Mind rerus be not unworthily worthily blamed by Impostors The Reformer understood Hippocrates but ill who says L. 6. Prac. That a Physician using veason for his guide will never enviously calumniate another for thereby he betrays the weakness of his own mind Now let 〈◊〉 consider Salt of Tartar which drinking up the Acid â—ad stparated it from the Alcaly of Vipers and remained in the Retort they call that but improperly Caput mortuum especially that from common Sal Armoniack from whence the Spirit or Urine hath been extracted That Caput Mortuum is a compound of Acid and Alcaly and will be doubtless of a salt relish like the Viperine Salt of this Reformer and common Sal Armoniack as hath been said and shewed and for confirmation thereof I will repeat another Experiment Dissolve the said Caput Mortuum in water cause the foeces to go to the bottom and coagulate the clear liquor with a gentle heat to a Siccity and with Bole Armoniack in a four-fold proportion mix it into a very fine powder urge this with a naked Fire from a Glass Retort luted into a great Receiver and the Acidness of the Salt which found a body in the Alcaly of Tartar by the power and heat of the fire is put to flight but in the greatness of the heat it flies not alone because being absorbed by the fixed Alcaly it carries off with it the fixed Salt of Tartar so that from the Acid and Alcaly being mixed and urged with a violent fire there is extracted a Spirit Semi-Acid-Salt which as it is an artificial product from a various mixture doth not precipitate Mercury from the aforesaid solution yet it is not of it self unfit for Medicine as neither for destroying certain Minerals but one Operation being finished part of the Tartar returns into the element of Water and the Acidity of the Sal Armoniack from the other part of the Tartar cloaths it self
tinge of a black colour Yea Silver doth the same without Galls and the blackness appears after the Acid Spirits are spent Other Metals though dissolved and re-coagulated do shew as if they were Vitriol but perform not the actions of Vitriol Find out the cause if you can for it is not unpleasant to discover it A Semi-acid-Salt Spirit Distilled from the Caput Mortuum of Tartar and Sal Armoniack An admirable Spirit was mixed with Bole Armonick of which above This Spirit with juice of Galls was greenish in a moment From which I learned that the Bole Armonick did necessarily contain in it immature Copper-seed which the soresaid Spirit catcht away with it in the torture of the Fire I call it a Copper-seed for Vitriol made of Copper with Spirit of Vitriol being precipitated with juice of Galls appears of the same green colour as I shewed above but when it is made of common Bole-Armonick then it is black Whence it is clear that the Volatile Salt or the Alcaly of Galls or of Pomgranate Rinds Foundation of black colout or of Vulnerary Herbs do not dye of a black colour unless with Iron dissolved in an Acid Mineral There is another observable thing that a pure Acid natural Spirit cannot be extracted or acquired by any man for being Distilled from Vitriol however rectified it never forsakes the Liquamen of the Metal neither can it be precipitated from it by any Alcaly after the common way for in these it cloaths it-self again with a new body and returns to what it was as I have shewed in its place yet Paracelsus doth praise that Acid Spirit which is found near the Village Veltin in Helvetia as in some sort pure as I have elsewhere observed Add hereto the Counterseit which the Reformer boasts for Magistery of the Seed of Kermes which yet is nothing else but the Alcaly of Allum Pharm Regiaâ— fol 282. which sucked up the Occult Acidity from the very grains for fear of a Vacuum inasmuch as it lost its own proper Acidity in the Alcaly of Tartar CHAP. XVIII Pass we now out of the Mines Vnder-ground into a pleasant Garden to the more hidden Volatile Alcalyes of Vegetables ALl Vegetables Mechanical Instruments of Vegetables are the two faculties of Hippoc. L. 1. de Diaet as well as Animals have Vital Instruments which they make use of for their encrease and propagation The prevailing Acidity therefore lies sleeping in the Seed as in an Egg or in a Stomach with a little Alcaly for its sustentation and with the specifick Rector of which elsewhere but when it is cast into the earth it is dissolved by Humidity and excited by Heat The Acid as being igneous begins to act upon the Alcaly to which the Humid also comes and the Rector by the assistance of Heat informs it So invisibly the Acid assumes the Alcaly and the Alcaly again swallows up the Acid they tend to each side as Ferments do yea they cease not The Mystery of Fermentation was heretofore hid on purpose till they have finished their several and prefixed Courses for their proper ends one Spirit draws another protrudes as Hippocrates in the fore-cited place So that the Humidity of every Vegetable contains Acid and Alcaly in some the Alcaly predominates in others the Acid The Acid is most known but the Alcaly yet known to few which I will now demonstrate to the Eye in the sweet expressed juice of Grapes as most known wherein the first days the Rector is Dormant who a while after applying the Mechanical Organs the Acid begins to Corrode the Alcaly and This absorbs the Acid and so there happens a vehement Contention and Fight which from the Heat or Boyling is called Fermentation which lasts till the Acid as Victor hath overcome the Alcaly Fermentum quòd servendo erescit In this Fight both the Faculties or Tastes or Sapors Instruments Mechanical or Architechtonical call them as you please or else the Archeus or Innate Heat c. undergo a great overthrow there being made a mighty slaughter the Acid being swallowed up destroyed and enfeebled by the Alcaly both mutually fall in a mutual embrace into a Cadaver in respect of Wine which is called Tartar If you Distill this Tartar out of a Retort Spirit of Tartar the Acid is excited by Heat and begins again to act upon the Alcaly and This likewise on the Acid and so a new Fermentation begins for which you must use a very slow fire and though the Receiver be great yet the incondensible Odor of the Fermentation which Helmont calls Gas is perceived a far off yet at last the Alcaly overcomes the Acid and doth plainly absorb it and both of them for the greatest part are fixed The Liquor and Oyl in the Receiver are Saturated and Impregnated with Volatile Alcaly which is of excellent use of it self yet known to few If you again re-infuse the Distilled Liquor and the Oyl upon the Caput Mortuum then the Volatile Alcaly which the Liquor did contain is drunk up by the Acid in the Caput Mortuum and becomes fixed but that which then re-distills out will be of greater Affinity to the Element of Water and so of less efficacy But the Reformer here as every where else grievously mistakes Mantis Herm. f. 745. for he says That Common Spirit of Tartar which is not rectified from its remaining Caput Mortuum is by no means to be accounted for pure Spirit of Tartar From this his Rectified Spirit of Tartar and out of his own insipid Brain he compounds a Medicine Mantis f. 750. truly lamentable which he calls A mixture of Three from the Spirits of the Minerals First The Volatile Alcaly in the Tartar is Saturated with the Acid of the Sulphur of Antimony That he calls the Tartarized Spirit of Antimony if by chance some of the Volatile Alcaly do yet remain what doth he then He mortifies it with Vinegar from Verdigrease and the Acid of Vitriol whence this hurtful though artificial and unprofitable Composition consists of Elementary Water and Vinegar this mixture the Ancients called Posca to which the Reformer adds nothing but the stinking smell of Tartar But the Spirit of Tartar being prudently Distilled by an Hippocratist is not Acid but somewhat bitter and full of Volatile Alcaly on which if you poure Spirit of Vitriol it waxeth hot that you can hardly hold the pot in your hands which is an evident sign that the Acid of the Vitriol hath drunk up the Alcaly of the Tartar as it happens when water is poured on Lime and as in the slacking and heating of Lime the Salts dye and it degenerate into a Neutral the same is to be understood of Spirit of Tartar with whatsoever Acid it be mixed so my Master Hippocrates teaches I return now Things thorowly miâ—'d undergo alteration L. 1. de Diaet whence I digressed i. e. to the Chymical Fermentation of Wine for whose sake the
change their Nature and are turned into Vitrifying Alcaly as * On Exod. Zoar hath observed which yet was not much less fixed in the Concretes before they passed through the fire which again by Inversion doth not only put on Volatility but is also reduced into Elements as I have shewed in the Alcaly of Tartar But if Alcalyes be boiled with their proper Distilled Oyls in a just proportion observing a due time with an artificial and occult Circulation and in a fit Vessel they afford Ens Mirabile So Oyl of Cinnamon Oyl made Salt being absorbed by its proper Alcaly being deprived of its Vestiments effects in the Palsy and such like Diseases as much as can be hoped from it Oyl of Tartar being Volatile and Fat with its proper Alcaly in a just proportion is made Sope. When the Reformer heretofore had been informed by me Evil departs not from the unthankful Man's house by word of Mouth of this example of Tartar he presently boils the Alcaly of Vipers with Oyl of Tartar being of a diverse Nature after a Rural fashion and with little heed which by Coction in a Glass of a long neck with the Alcaly acquired the consistence of Sope yet he blames me for my Friendly Information in a very long Letter Saying The Oyl of Tartar you advised me to pour on became like very Pitch and that so thick when it was cold that a man may cut it So that I perceive you deceived mâ— 'T is true I heard from your mouth before that the preparation of this Salt would give great light to Chymistry c. This great Naturalist had not so much Salt as we say in his Brains though he writes and seribbles of Salt as to enquire into the necessary cause of this Inspissation but presently calls that which he understands not f. 487. A Cheat and an Imposture But like as he hath observed the cause of this Inspissation which is known even to the Vulgar and to all those who make Sope even so with the same heed he hath observed the Things which he Reforms Hearken therefore to me All Oyl and also all Pingue-Does or Fatts have an Occult Acid on which the Alcalyes act and consume it otherwise Sope could never be made for the distilled Oyl of Olives doth corrode and dissolve Silver insensibly when it is cast on it but a short space which would not be unless Acidity were in it the remainder being thick better preserves Iron from Rust in as much as the aforesaid Acid hath been taken away by Distillation and is turned by a strong fire into a Coal Alcalized which is plain to the Eye by the affusion of any Acid Spirit This is the reason why the Chief Armourers and Overseers of the Arsenal of this Famous City before they Oyl their Armour cause the Oyl to Evaporate at a gentle Fire almost to the half So the common People in sharp Pains proceeding ordinarily from Acidity desire to be annointed withthe Oyl which burns before Images Thick Oyl of Olives resembles Alcaly and That asswages their Pain This Relief the Superstitious People of Greece attribute to the Image before which the Lamp burns But the true cause is the Spissitude in the Lamp loses its more subtil Acid part by the flame and so being destitute thereof it grows impatient and desires to be Saturated with a new Acid and finding That in the grieved part it draws it out and unites it to it self and so the Grief either wholly ceases or is at least mitigated and abated The Vulgar believe Why old Oyl grows mouldy that Old Oyl is as good as Balsam because the Oyl of a Hundred years old in the Castle of Breschia eases many from their pains arising from Acidity in which Oyl by reason of its antiquity the Alcaly hath in part mastered the Acidity hence at-last it grows very musty So Venerable Antiquity prescribes Old Oyl in Compositions for External use For the same reason rotten Apples do cool Rotten Apples more than boiled ones which therefore we call Anodynes Fresh Butter hath more Alcaly than Acid and therefore it cooles more than Oyl Hence Schola Salerni Lenit humectat solvit sine Febre butyrum Butter mollifies moistens and dissolves yet without a Feavor for this cause it is not coagulated in the Milk Butter unless the Milk be sowred before and if in making or Churning of Butter fixed Alcaly be cast in which consumes the Acid the Butter will never come for the Acid must coagulate the Alcaly So also Alcalized Salts do easily flow and are dissolved in the Air but as soon as Acid is poured on them to overcome the Alcaly they harden and are coagulated Sulphur in its Fat hath an hidden Acidity Sulphur is Acid. and is most readily dissolved not only in Oyl but also in Alcaly but never in that which is manifestly Acid though it be most powerful but if it be fired under a Glass Bell then its hidden Acidity is turned to Smoak which is compacted into a most Acid Juice and the Alcaly which erst did friendly embrace the Sulphur now is destroyed by It and a new production is made different from the former But Sulphur is praised by Dioscorides in the Diseases of the Lungs though some say it is the Anima thereof understand when it is evacuated by an Hippocratist and fixed into insipid and milky Earth then it becomes impatient of Innanition and again desires to be satiated with its like Wherefore it greedily attracts and absorbes the putrefactive Acidity of the Lungs which is firmly believ'd to descend from the Head but without this preparation it is found altogether unprofitable for those Diseases as the Enquirers after Truth by Nauseating experience do daily find This earth is then called by the Skilful * Milk of Sulpbur Lac Sulphuris and that worthily for it performes many things which Crollius hath mentioned under its Title Moreover Distill also Vinegar in which I have shewed that there is Fat Oyl and Aqua Ardeus drive the dry Faeces out of the Retort and there will come forth Acid and Pingueous Oyl reduce the Coal left into Ashes from These Elicite the Alcaly by common Water which again imbibes and absorbs its own Vinegar out of the Phlegm is made Aqua Ardeus From the Alcaly and the Acid you shall have regenerated Tartar so there are All in all things i. e. you shall every where find the Acid and the Alcaly All things in all things Camphire about which it is strongly disputed whether it be hot or cold is a Volatile Alcaly furnished and saturated by Nature The often smell of Aqua Fort is breeds an Atrophy with most bitter pains See Helmont c. 9. f. 71. with its proper Fatness as I have shewed like things may be done by Art for it imbibes into it self the stinking and corroding Acidity of Aqua Fortis which Suffocates by its very Smell and with
but because he found it so Writ by others at length he adds That the Vitriol must be warily Calcined lest it be deprived of its Acid Spirlt He thinks he hath advised some great matter here as also by telling us That the Sublimation must be twice or thrice repeated with new powders of Salt and Vitriol But why and to what purpose this repeated Sublimation with new Powders for Mercury being once saturated with the Acid Spirits what needs any Reiteration of the labour especially if it be true as it is most true in Nature That all things are governed by certain Numbers Weights and Measures according to that of the Poet. Est Modus in rebus sunt certi denique fines Quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum i. e. A mean and certain Limits all things bound Beyond or this side which the right 's not found So that the nature of Mercury once saturated with Acid Spirits hath absorbed and imbibed as much as it can bear and as much as it wants from its first Subllmation and though it be re-sublimated afterwards and hundred times either by it self or with new powders yet it stil remains the same Sublimated Mercury So that to reiterate the labour is to make havock of the Powders and to lose time This is that which the wise Man says in the Proverbs Chap. 20. v. 10. Ealse Weights and deceitful Ballances are an abomination to the Lord. I know the way of Sublimating Mercury is coveted by many because they fear That which is Sold up and down is mix'd with Arsenick which as a dangerous Drugg ought not to be added to Mercury in its Sublimation by reason of subtil Poyson which it breaths forth in Sublimating and choaks the Operators I can shew that 't is a subtil Poyson by the danger I have experimently found in it my self For heretofore Arsenick when by the perswasion of Johannes Agricola I essay'd to sublimate Arsenick so often that at length it might remain fixed in the bottom of the Vessel for at that time out of my eager desire after Knowledge I feared neither Smoaks Vapours nor any other danger After many Sublimations when I opened the Vessel I suck'd in a breath so sweet so grateful and benign to the Palate that I even admired it as having never felt the like before but after half an hour I perceived my stomach to be contracted and to ake with a convulsion of all my Members I breathed with difficulty I pissed Blood with incredible Heat suddenly after I was taken with the Collick and wholly cramped for the space of an hour and half being recovered by Milk and Oyl I was indifferent well yet a slow Feavor like a Hectick stuck by me all the Winter which I cured by Decoction of Vulnerary Herbs and eating the tops or buds of Cole-worts and Colly-flowers boiled tender in Water and seasoned with juice of Oranges Oyl and a little Salt yea I did so covet this meat that I could scarce restrain my Appetite till Supper and Meat-time and by these Remedies I grew perfectly well But in spight of the danger there are some who can burn pure Tinn into Powder Geber de Argent c. 18. and Basil de Propriet which by no Vulgar Art can be again reduced to Tinn as other Metals yet with Arsenick it is made Scoria part of which by a singular Skill 7 Metals De fove becomes pure Silver Sigismund Wan a Citizen of Wondsied in Voitland knew and practised this Art of Separation to his great benefit Tinn yields Silver for in the year 1464 he built and endowed a Famous Hospital there which as Gasper Bruschius relates is this day to be seen with the Epitaph of the Citizen aforesaid Now that Silver may be made out of Tinn with Arsenick * 2 Vol. Theatri Chym. fol. 39. Clavius proves in his Apology against Ernstus to whom I refer you So much for Arsenick for the sake of the Curious I now return to Mercury whence I digressed which is sublimated in this proportion Take of Mercury or Quick-silver 280 pound so much one bundle weighs as it is brought out of Hydria in Sheep-skins of Mercry Sublimated twenty pound of Common Salt and Salt-Peter ana 200 l. of the reserved Caput Mortuum fifty pound of Vitriol Rubified 400 l. All these must be severally reduced to Powder under a Mill-stone which is to grind them turning round and standing upright The mixture is made after this sort The common sublimation of Mercury The Quick Mercury and the Sublimate must first be mingled with a part of the Common Salt and of the Salt-petre and although the Salts be dry yet by this Mixture they become moist so the Mercury in being mixed with the said Powders dies then add the other part of the Salts proceeding to mix them with an Iron Instrument till the Mercury appear no where quick This Mixture is very moist to which if you have a mind to add Rubified Vitriol which is very dry it consumes the Humidity in a moment and they become altogether as hard as stone wherefore instead of the aforesaid Vitriol you must add the Caput Mortuum either reserved from the first Sublimation or from Aqua Fortis 't is all one so the Mixture becomes moderately dry which then you must agitate through a Sieve afterwards you may conveniently mix the fifted Powder with the Rubified Vitriol Thus the Mixture is made with which fill sixteen great Glass Vessels let the fourth part of them be empty place them on Stillatories and you will sublimate Mercury out of the Ashes but not with an open fire as the Reformer dreams in four little Furnaces each of which may hold four Vessels set Limbecks to the Vessels at least loosly with their Receivers Let the fire be slow for twenty four hours in that time the Salts will dissolve the Mercury and in the Operation it smells like Aqua Fortis which hurts the Lungs yea it almost strangles those that suck it in as the smell of the Vault at Puteoli near Naples doth a Dog after twenty four hours the smell ceases and then the Mercury begins to be Sublimated gather up the Aqua Fortis which is fortified by the other Powders and serves for the precipitation of Mercury continue that heat till you see the Mercury seperated at top from its Caput Mortuum in form of a Cake which commonly happens about the fifth day if you have not erred in the Operation When all is cooled by reason of the great weight of the Sublimate the Glass Vessels will break of their own accord you must gather up the pieces by themselves for they have some Sublimate which you may scrape off wherewith at another time running Mercury may be mortified Take heed of the Ashes lest it falls through the chinks upon the Cakes which they curiously take off with both hands and lay aside they call them loaves of which every one will weigh about
turning of the Stomach yea they resist Digestion as appears in Meats seasoned with Spice who do destroy the ferment of the Stomach Hence the Ancients commend simple Food as most wholsome For this cause Simple Food most profitable the heaping together of Sipots is Pestiferous Plin. l. 11. c. 53.5 even for this Syrup they chose Pontick Wormwood as less Odorous and boiled it in old Wine together with Spike that the Odor together with the Spirit of Wine to which it is easily associated might wholly be expelled and gone which the addition of Juice of Quinces shews for unless This had been the Intention of the Ancients instead of this Syrup they had used Quince-Wine and Wormwood-Wine as we may * L. 5. c. 49. see in Dioscorides They preserved the remainder with Sugar from an hoary Vinew and thickned it into a Syrup So also sundry sorts of Wines mixed together and drunk as is usual in Feasts and Banquets do not only create trouble and labour to the Rector in Man which I shewed above Chap. 15. out of * Of the Humours Hippocrates hath his seat in the mouth of the Stomach to unite them but moreover do easily Inebriate Men and by tender Persons are sometimes violently cast out by Vomit Gic. Loccat Nov. 7. Fab 2. observed this also but when the Juices of the same Grapes though Multiformous and Various are united together by Fermentation then from and by diverse Rectors one wholsome drink is made not offending the Stomach even as Treacle is made out of diverse simples co-united by Fermentation over which one only Rector doth Predominate Hence It is commended by Avicen as of wonderful Vertue as I have noted in my Preface But since it is none of my Intent to discover Pebbles in the Sea-shore as the Proverb is where there is such an infinite number of them especially not being delighted with this kind of Writing it is against my Genius to insist any longer on these Trifles and therefore I will now withdraw my Pen and Hand This is the Stress of the Matter The Reformer came to act his Part on the Stage before he knew That Nature did act alike in every thing Now for a Conclusion a word or two to our Friends in their ears the Acid doth inform the Alcaly with These the ancient Foundations of Old Physick and of the Viperine Salt do absolutely agree in a perpetual Concord and an immutable Similitude The specifick Rector dwells in the Acid which iâ— forms the Alcaly as I have shewed to those that uderstand me aright from the decree of Nature it self and out of the Doctrine of my Hippocrates by the most Harmonious and Mechanick Reason and the highest necessity My pretended Friend endeavouring heretofore to learn this consent of Nature and Art by examples and not being able to do it he rages like a mad Dog and bites all that come near him prefering himself far before others as appears throughout all his Writings So every Bird likes his own note best neither is any thing more unjust than an unskilful Man as Tirence speakes Who thinks nothing well done In Adâ—â— act 1 sc 2. but what he does himself FINIS AN INDEX Of the Experiment 〈◊〉 other Remarkes 〈◊〉 in HIPPOCRATES CHYMICVS AFOREGOING Fitted to the several Pages A ACids diverse to be diversly taken away Page 85. Acid retains the property of Seed p. 87. Acid its diversity in the Body p. 88 Acids not contrary to Salts p. 90. Acids all offend the Teeth p. 102 Acid Fountains why they make not the Teeth black p. 53 Acid Waters when to be drunk p. 54 Acid destroyeth Black Colour p. 57 Acids forbidden to wounded Men p. 65 Acids expel and put to flight Metals proved by experience p. 20 Of Acid Spirits only spirit of Salt dissolves Gold p. 25 Acid in a sound Stomach p. 38 Acid Juices differ one from another p. 39 Acids their Vse and Abuse p. 113 Acid and Alcaly in Lime of Flints p. 8 Acid Coagulating Milk threefold p. 40 Acid and Alcaly in Milk p. 41 Acid and Alcaly in Lime p. 8 Acid out of the Stomach Morbous p. 41 Acid and Alcaly Volatile in the Stone p. 44 Acid of the Stomach and Alcaly of the Aliments produce a salt Chyle p. 46 Acids more sharp Precipitate Bodies dissolved in an Acid Liquor less sharp p. 48 Acidity the Vital Instrument in all things p. 49 Acid manifest in the Stomach p. 49 occult in other members p. 49 Alcaly is a Vacuum in Nature p. 87 Alcalyes fixed their Mutations with Acid. p. 87 Alcalyes 〈◊〉 their Mutations with Acid p. 89 Alumen catinum the same with Saltcaly p. 7 Alcaly fixed its Degrees and Kinds proved by diverse Experiments p. 14 Alcaly fixed of Tartar p. 14 Alcaly fixed of Vinegar p 15 Alcaly of Tâ—rtar and Lime p. 15 Alkaly of the Herb Kaly p. 15 Alcalyes of Oak and Lime p. 14 15 Alcaly of Cephalick herbs p. 15 Alcaly of Celandine p. 15 Alcaly of Flesh p. 45 Alcaly and Sea-Salt in Vrine p. 45 Alcaly of every thing preserves the Occult Acid p. 47 Alcaly of Vipers commended in the Feet-Gout p. 48 Alcalyes their diversity discovered from the precipitation of the Colcothar of Vitriol of Mars dissolved in Water p. 52 Alcaly fixed not found in living Animals p. 53 Alcaly of Galls made more perfect by Oyl p. 57 Alcaly Volatile like Alcaly of Galls abounds in some Vegetables p. 58 Alcaly in Vinegar p. 64 Alcaly in Vulnerary Herbs proved by Experiments p. 66 Alcaly Occult in Rain and Well-water p. 68 Alcalyes Occult in Cooling Herbs p. 67 Alcaly and Acid Volatile of Vegetables by fire burnt into fix'd Salt p. 75 Alcaly Volatile in Soot p. 76 Alcaly of Salt-Petre p. 16 Alcalyes invisibly hide calcined Metals p. 23 Alcaly of Herbs draws forth a like fixed Alcaly from Flints p. 28 Alcalyes turned into Salt imitating Acids p. 29 Alcaly of Animals p. 30 Alcaly Volatile of Blood p. 37 Alexius his Secret p. 59 Aliments have little Acid and much Volatile Alcaly p. 46 Alcahest of the Reformer is distilled Vinegar p. 28 29. Antimonium Diaphoreticum how good and for what p. 84 Antimony its Sulphur p. 90 Antimony is fixed by the Acid of Fire p 110 Animals have a Volatile Salt p. 5 Antimony its Emetick force p. 83 Antimonium Diaphoreticum made Emetick p. 84 Argentum Potabile p. 90 Arsenick a subtil Poyson p. 96 Arthritick person from the use of Spirit of Sulphur recovered by Alcalyes p. 113 Aurum Potabile p. 92 Aurum Fulminans from the solution of Spirit of Nitre not of Salt p. 17 Apples rotten Cool p. 81 B BLood of Venus and Mars Page 60 Blood by one drop of Acid made Morbous p. 49 Balsam of Sulphur of Rulandus p. 93 Balsam of Samech p. 16 Bezoar Minerale p. 105 Butter of Antimony p. 105 Butter fresh hath more Alcaly then Acid p. 81 Bezoar stone its use p. 85 Black Colour
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
with Alcaly of Tartar as I have formerly taught conconcerning Salt Vinegar and Distilled Nitre i. e. Thus Pour so much of This Spirit on the Alcaly of Tartar till the hissing cease near upon equal parts suffer the abounding or exceeding Flegme to exhale or if you will distill it carefully to Siceity distill that Flegm from an high Glass in Balneo and there will come forth Aqua Ardens see Hippoc. Chymic Chap. 18. and you shall sind regenerated Tartar of the same Nature Condition and Property that That was which was above generated from Vinegar of Wine for it is the very same for if it hid any thing of the Nitre the Allum or the Copper hid in it as they ignorantly give forth they would all be manifested in the Alcaly of Tartar as I have Mechanically shewed above But it must needs be that This Spirit can have no other Instruments but distilled Vinegar since it can only make a Body of Tartar for it self Whence this Spirit hath been presently known by Philosophers Spirit of Venus which is as Alcahest is known to be Vinegar not for the Immortal Son of Venus or as Alcahest but for the True Genuine Brother of Vinegar of Wine and that not Spurious neither as my Revilers and Reproachers have published to the World but the Legitimate Son of the Vine which hereafter will count it an impious thing to be reviled by unskilful Masters Therefore in this regeneration He was willing again to discover himself to the Curious and to the Lovers of Truth for the True and Natural Brother of Vinegar of Wine i. e. for Distilled Vinegar Now that nothing may be wanting to this Enquiry but all doubt taken away viz. that This Spirit which they dream to be the Child of Venus hath acquired no Constancy no Immortality or excellent Vertues from the Copper nor that it is as Alcahest as the Deans with their Fellows do cant you may learn by this Experiment Take this regenerated Tartar to wit from the Imaginary Spirit of Venus and the Alcaly of Tartar distill It out of a Retort as you did before and there will extil an Oyl of a loathsome smell together with a bitterish Water as I have shewed a little before from regenerated Tartar out of simply Distilled Vinegar Out of what hath been spoken it appears that whatsoever is distilled from the Alcaly of Tartar which is impregnated with Distilled Vinegar i. e. the bitterish Water Aqua Ardens and the Oyl taking Flame the same thing is distilled from Alcaly of Tartar impregnated with fained Spirit of Venus to wit bitterish Water Aqua Adrens and Oyl taking Flame Spirit of Venus is Distilled Vinegar and so That Spirit of Venus since it hath all the Properties and Operatious of Vinegar is nothing else nor never will be than distilled Vinegar Witness Aristotle and Experience But leaving this puny vain and futile Society to please themselves in their foolish Detrectings I convert my Speech to you O ye famous Lights of the World That you may judge of the Truth herein not that I would trouble you to vindicate it from the fained and rash Contumelies of such clamorous Reproachers since it appears out of Pliny That when Frogs croak more than ordinary it is a sign of a Tempest ensuing supposing then but not granting that one drop of Acid contains only the 8200 part of the Eximious Vertue of Copper I say this so small part ought yet under the heat of Fermentation to extend it self and to regenerate if not in Vegetable Alcaly yet at least in Metalline as the order of Fermentation elsewhere shews so that it would turn though not much yet a small quantity of the Metalline Alcaly into Copper no otherwise then the Vertue of Acid Vegetables and the mid-sort of Minerals doth transmute Alcaly of Tartar into a Salt of its own proper Nature as I have before said and proved but as the Antecedent and their Premises are false and favour of gross ignorance so is the Consequence Again supposing but not granting That Vinegar did carry off with it such eximious Vertues from Copper as they unlearnedly and without truth affirm yet I could never find eithe ramongst Philosophers or Physicians that It was assumed within the Body but whatsoever was got from the Copper was always used outwardly for Chirurgical Operations And although mighty Vertues might be drawn forth and distilled out of Copper by Vinegar which I have shewed to be impossible why is not the same Eximious Vertue drawn forth with less labour out of immature Copper since it is easier to go one Mile than two Why should my regenerated Vitriol prepared from Crude Vitriol of Mars procure monstrous Vomitings and Suffocations This sained yet prâ—sed Spirit of Venus is 〈◊〉 a counter â—â— Pâ—â—acta and Alcahist is if you draw forth such Eximious Vertues from mature Copper by Vinegar to which you subjoyn these losty but most false words This most praise-worthy Spirit is not only of great use in Physick seeing in highly Cures and Relieves the Epilepsy Appolexy Histerical and Hypochondriatal Listempers but is as the Liquor Alcahest and not as other Acid Spirits which by Solution do suffer and are destroyed and so turned into another ens See Hippoc. Chy. mic Chap. 29. Now let the Reader who loves the Truth judge whether any thing could have been devised more sottish than to affirm That the regenerated Vitriol of Philosophers educed from an Immature Mine of Iron is pernicious and deadly when we see that every year some Myriads of Men do drink even in great quantity Acid Waters saturated with Immature Iron and Natural Spirit and that with great benefit and advantage and also That the great Imaginary Vertue extracted with Vinegar out of Mature Copper if there were any such is a Panacea I may very aptly apply hither That of Plautus nothing can be more foolishly sottishly or falsly spoken It remaines that we bring That most praised Spirit of Venus which they fay is as Alcahest by dissolving some Body unto an Examen Now Alcahest is described by Helmont to be an Eximious Liquor Alcahest what (a) Pharm 14 ti be got by the Art or Labour of Sophia (b.) Imâ—g Form S. 8. which doth not only resolve every visible Body into its first Matter (c.) Verb. explic but is moreover Immortaland Incorruptable (d.) Arcana Paracels it putrifies Nature and takes away all Diseases (e.) Potesl Medic. S. 4. 2. but it is not given to putative and empty Doctors but to well Lined and rich Vnderstandings (f.) Arboravita in sine So Helmont Now let the equal Reader Judge whether this praised Vinegar of these Prateing and Wordy Doctors which is Distilled from Copper be alike in Vertue to Alcahest Truly if this their foolish Assertion were profoundly examined and laid before the Eyes of the Readers it would move Nauseousness and Indignation and therefore I shall discover their Vanity by Experience
efficacious This distilled Spirit of Vitriol if it again corrode any thing either Iron or Copper and be coagulated with it and again be re-distilled from it the Liquor indeed returns Acid of the same nature but much more subtle because that in all Coagulation every Salt or Saline Spirit loses of its Radical Humid what that is I shall shew anon when of necessity it must lay down its Earth the Vulgar call it its Faex and so the Lumen must be more contracted But from the repeated Coagulation and Distillation It returns more watery and at last returns to Elements as I have Mechanically shewed in Alcaly of Tartar for Example in my Hippoc. Chymic Chap. 10. After the same manner and fashion Counterfeit Spirit of Venus by repeated Solution Coagulation and Distillation re-passes into Elements for as often as it dissolves Corals or any other thing I began with Corals and will end with Them and is afterwards Coagulated and Exsiccated with the same Corals so often it lays down its Earth or Alcaly and as much Earth as it lays down so much Acid Salt the Corals do drink up because this cannot be alone and the Vinegar becomes so much the more Aqueous and by repeated labour at last returns to Element i. e. into Insipid Water but the Earth and Acid Salt gave weight to the Corals which also pass out of them by repeated Distillation and go to their own Country after the same manner as I have shewed concerning Wine in Hippoc. Chymic chap. 18. Now that Vinegar or Spirit of Vitriol poured on Copper Why Vinegar returns Acid from Copper and not from Alcaly and re-distilled do return Acid but from the Alcaly of Tartar Insipid and Aqueous the reason is because Alcaly being a Vacuum saturated it self with Acid Salt which dwelt in the Aqueous Liquor whence the Acid Salt converts and transmutes the Alcaly into its own nature But Copper is not a Vacuum for the Acid or Form of Copper doth overcome its Alcaly and therefore it doth not absorb Acid Salts and though they act and are busie about It and do erode its body yet they can make no impression of any of their Form or Vertues nor can they destroy It because Copper hath obtained a constant Soul from Nature or to speak in Plautus's Phrase it hath Acid in its breast Again Why from Lead insipid They demand why Vinegar is re-distilled from Copper even as it was poured on but from Lead Insipid Although I am almost ashamed to handle This or the like Childish Question yet being moved with commiseration towards those unskilful and sluggish Doctors hoping that this my present answer may be for their future amendment I shall willingly repeat my former answer I told you that Copper hath a prevailing Acid whence it is that it resists not only Vinegar and the Counterfeit Spirit of Venus but also all Acid Minerals but Lead hath obtained but a very little particle of It by Nature and therefore it imbibes every Acid in hopes of Perfection that I may so speak as I have shewed in Alcalyes This is the cause why Lead is similitudinarily called by Philosophers The first matter of Metals or the Alcaly of Metals in respect of other Metals which are more or less richer in Acid. Gold is most Acid and therefore most perfect as I have shewed in the 2. Chapter See how easily I have extricated my self out of these great Difficulties Some of Ours may wonder why I spend time in a matter so plain for Basilius Valentinus an Age ago hath taught us how to prepare this Vinegar out of Aerugo in juventure and he called it not by the name of Spirit of Venus Spirit of Venus is Vinegar but Vinegar for he knew well so do not the Deans and their Fellows that it was established by the decree of the Supream Creator That the more excellent Nature should not degenerate into the worser which is proved by the remaining Faex or Caput Mortuum left in the Retort after the distillation of this Vinegar which with Borax by an easie Fusion returns into Copper an evident Argument That Copper lost none of its Substance or excellent Vertue as they say See more in my Hppocrates Chymicus chap. 29. For conclusion of this Chapter I repeat That whatsoever the World hath is begot preserved and multiplied by the Acid Spirit either Occult or Manifest to which it owes its All And That the Soul dwells in the Acid and is inseparably bound to it and that the Body or Alcaly is informed according to the property of the Acid Spirit If therefore Nature be alike in every thing and Art doth imitate Nature as Pythagoras Hippocrates and Experience teach it must needs follow That when the Acid Spirit of Vinegar distilled from Verdigrease hath corroded Corals and hath been absorbed by Them and coagulated with them then the Corals will be endued with the properties and conditions of Vinegar not that the innate Acid or Form of Corals doth perish but only is suppressed by a more powerful Acid as I have shewed before in the Magistery If therefore your celebrated Spirit of Venus lawfully and duly as they say exhibited though they never yet shewed the way helps Hippochondriacal Epileptical and Hysterical Distempers c. the Magistery of Corals which with a proud and swoln breast they call Our Soluble Magistery made with Spirit of Venus must needs perform much greater things if otherwise the Spirit must animate the Body to whom it is joyned as I have hitherto clearly and experimentally shewn and shall hereafter shew But as their Spirit of Venus lawfully and duly administred is the best to season a Vinegar Vessel so also it hath and will always retain the nature of Wine-Vinegar till it become like Alcahest But our Master Deans with the rest of their Colledg-Company out of the treasure of their Liberality have lately discovered to us a great Secret which had lain hid to this very day Vinegar cleanseth viz. That their Counterfeit Spirit of Venus helps the Tooth-ach neither could we learn it out of Dioscorides his History of Vinegar unless it had been discovered to the World in a Dream or by hidden Revelation But as Vinegar doth dissolve Corals so it scours off and takes away the hardned Mucus or Filth about the Teeth that the Gums may be again united to the Teeth for sound and sharp-pointed Gums admit not Pain but when they are forced to recede by Filth and the Teeth are never so little denudated or bared presently upon the solution of a continuum the Blood sours putrefies and is coagulated there into an hard Faex which some but improperly call Tartar which Faex when it is abraded or taken off with Vinegar or Spirit of Salt or else with an Instrument of Iron presently the Teeth find relief And thus you have O ye sincere lovers of Truth the entire Tragoedy the Rise and Overthrow of this Celebrated Spirit of Venus which
whence this Grease is not only mixed with the Precipitate against the intent of the Inventor but moreover is odious and troublesome to Apothecaries especially since Hogs-grease will do as well with precipitate as also unprofitable to the Sick You have now heard O ye Truth-respecting hearers on what ground this Plaister of Froggs with Mercury hath been reformed It is your part to judge whether that ingenious Person John de Vigo deserves to be contumeliously Reproached for this And whether That barren insipid and truthless Doctrine be to be suffered which Rails against both the order of Nature and also the wise institutions of our Ancestors by which hopeful Youth in tender years being seasoned the Poyson of Ignorance and Unskilfulness grows up with them and so the wound becomes Incurable But these things were not of so great moment if the Health of Man were not endangered thereby for they prescribe to the Sick Simple water for Cordial Vinegar for an Epileptick Remedy Causticks for Anodines Poyson of Copper for a wholsome Medicine Sick and weak Persons can hope for no Cure from such men but only a foolish profusion of their money and at length the loss of their lives to boot Let them then avaunt and be packing to the farthest Garamantes with their Spirit of Venus and their Gounterfeit receits Let them not trouble the Civil World Let them there weep like Women since here they have not acquitted themselves like Men. Order now requires Sublimate Mercury that I should shew what Mercury Sublimated is since I have laid That down as an Instrument in the examen of of Alcalyes How It is Prepared Hippoc. Chym. shews chap. 29. Where observe that Vitriol Rubefied or Calcined to Redness is not added to encrease the weight of the Mercury as these magnifick Masters with their Partizans do suppose for then it would not be calcined to the highest Red but to Whiteness only as is done in the distillation of Vitriol whose Caput Mortuum left after distillation of the Spirit is most fit for this purpose and therefore-we need not its Spirit to add weight to the Mercury but it is added that the Sulphureous Nitre might apprehend the Sulphur of the immature Metal lying hid in the Rubefied Vitriol as I have shewed before and so by their joynt-forces they may dissolve the Mercury This is the reason why Rubefied Vitriol is required But the quantity is Quadruple in respect of the Salts because These are of easie fusion in the Fire from the which by Rubefied Vitriol they are preserved see more in Hippoc Chymic in the fore-cited chapter The same Mercury once sublimated needs not again be re-sublimated with new Powders as the unskilful Approvers think because it doth not put off or depose the Acid Spirits once absorbed so as to stand in need to reassume the same from new Powders and suppose that it were sublimated an hundred times with new Powder yet it would never become purer as they falsly affirm the reason is because this way the External Sulphur is not separated neither doth Suscipere magis velminus although Legitimately as they fay a thousand yea an hundred thousand times it be resublimated And the word Legitimately in this place doth discover their gross ignorance and stands for no other use but to be nausceous to the understandings of Wife-Men but it receives as much as is enough for its saturation as they know well who have sometimes dissolved Mercury in Aqua Fortis which if it be not sufficiently Powerful the Gram of Mercury remains untouched and quick because it could not imbibe That which was not and on the other side the water could not dissolve it because it wanted Acid Salt Truly this word Legitimate with this purer Mercury and the rest of their false Receits may well enough be discarded and abandoned even by the Puniest Apothecaries The Revivisication of Sublimate or Precipitate Mereury But when sublimate Mercury is freed from the Acid Spirits by Vegetable Alcaly and is fetched back quite from the Retort then indeed it may be mixed with new Powders and again sublimated which way the Deans with their fellows are yet ignorant of yet nevertheless it would not become more pure and splendant because in its first sublimation it neglected all that which was not of its own nature in the Faeces and Caput Mortuum but it would come over and return in less quantity because it would return to Elements by frequent sublimation and revivification as I have shewed above concerning Alcaly of Tartar concerning Spirit of Vitriol and concerning Vinegar see Hippoc. Chym. chap. 10. This foresaid mixture of Mercury with Rubefied Vitriol Nitre and Salt if you sublime it not by little and little but in great haste and more than is fit the Mercury will concrete in the top of the Caput Mortuum into lucid and great Chrystals like Nitre and not inferior to a Diamond in lustre which these Babblers vaunt for a great Secret and affirm it to be The purest Mercury For whom the speech of Mercury in Sendivogius may well be applied That 't is natural for him to laugh at fools which Disease as Cardan says they may easily Cure without a Cudgel by eating Hens brains the Testicles of Doves and Tortoises and by drinking a little White-wine Vinegar every day If Cardan had had any knowledge of this child of Venus newly born to these Obstreperous Doctors perhaps he would have preferred it before Vinegar since duly exhibited it cures Epileptick and Melancholy persons witness the Physical Doctors of the Austrian and Norimberg Colledge In the interim let their humours be purged with black Hellebore would all Anticyra had enough of it Let them drink Capon-broth and smell to the flowers of Nymphaea which with their grateful smell do mightily chear nhe spirits of the Heart and engrave Aristotle in a Topaze walking Tempe Hitherto Cardan to which I add that unless these overwise Doctors with their fellows had approved and owned this child of Venus the simplest man alive would never have believed there was ever any such thing But so I communicate to you this great Artifice gratis To conclude therefore I affirm that neither Mercury sublimated or precipitated ill handled with Vipers-grease and mortified in Aqua Fortis and also mixed with Alcalyes and Revivificated with a naked fire out of a Retort and by consequence weak and frail as Alcalyes nor no other Matter can be so destroyed but it will still shew something of its Form CHAP. VIII That Acid doth both Destroy and Perfect and that the Fire the Sun and Acid have the same Vertues and Powers I Have shewed in the beginning Chap. 2d both by Authority and Experience That Nature â—â—th endued Seeds with the least part of Acidity because of themselves they receive Increase and are multiplied as appears manifestly in a grain of Corn the quantity of whose natural Acid is computed to be the 8200. part in respect of its Body as the
is turned to rust Hippocrates took notice of this Volatile Acid of Iron hence he teaches in his Tract De Diata that when it is quenched in Water it acquires Strength because the Light Alcaly in the Water is a True Comforter of the Light Acid in the Iron and Cutlers do strengthen It with the Alcaly of Animals which is also Volatile as Hippocrates Chymic shews Chap. 19. For this cause Aristotle the 4. Meteorol not without Reason makes a difference betwixt Iron and all other Metals Gold says he Silver Brass Tyn Lead Quick-silver belong to Water but Iron to the earth and Galen says 4. de Facult Simplic Medicament That Iron is a terreous and crass Body c. So that the Acid degenerating or dying of its own accord Rust is natural Crocus Martis or being separated by the stronger there remains only the terreous principle as Hippoc. Chymic shews of Alcaly of Tartar Chap. 10. which by the Ancients and by Practicers of Physick as Dioscorides witnesseth is called Rust This Rubigo is also prepared by Art out of the dust or fileings of Iron when the sharpest Vinegar is poured on it and it is dried in the Sun and again afterwards dipped in Vinegar and dried then it must be washed with common water and dried and so kept powdered and small And as Vinegar so also all sorts of Acids Gold rurns Iron into Crocus or Rubige do turn Iron into Rubigo yea Gold it self doth occultly and presently turn that Acid into Rust as I have shewed Chap. 2. Hence we see the Cause why Gold cannot be conglutinated with Iron unless it first assumes a Cupreous Nature as Hippoc. Chymic boldly shews Chap. 28. concerning the Golden Nail for the Truth offends none A Golden Nail but those that hate it The Lord Anbert a Noble man of France in his Natural and Moral History of the American Islands proves by Eye Witnesses that the Vnicorn is not a four-footed Animal The Unicorn but a Fish that hath an Horn growing in his Forehead yet he grievously offended not the Lovers of Truth but those only who made a Monopoly of those Hornes so I never read that Moralists or Politicians did envy the Truth though Hoarse Grass-hoppers chirp against it and the Cuckows subscribe and approve their Note He that is affraid of the Truth is not perfect for an Adept or one compleatly Wise should fear nothing For which Cause I was always willing that my Hippoc. Chymic Hippoc Chymic a Truth-speaking Book should speak the Truth out and not conceal it not fearing any thing nor respecting either the friendship or hatred of any Sect but that it should give things their proper Names not being solicitous either to offend or please in imitation of Thucydides who perceiving the Writings of Herodotus to be in great esteem I had rather sayes he displease by speaking the truth than please by relating Fables because by displeasing I gain but by pleasing I hurt But I return whence I digressed This most ancient Rust of Iron The invention of Crocus Martis that it might be more pleasant to the Eye the Curious began to burn it in an acute Flame into a small Powder and from its fair redness they call it Crocus Martis But use age and experience being our daily Instructors they observed That This is a long and tedious way of turning Iron into Rust by the aspersion of Viner gar therefore they burnt the dust or Filings of Iron in an acute Flame the acidity whereof being set on fire they found they could make more of this light and rare red Powder in a day than they could do with Vinegar in a month so that they rejected the long and tedious and took to the quicker way of operation This Powder they called Crocus Martis from its redness So that Filings or Scobs of Iron or its Natural or Artificial Rust either with Vinegar eroded and afterward reverberated in the Flame Crocus Martis curiously prepared doth open and astringe or else without Vinegar by Flame simply or with Vinegar from Aerugo or False Spirit of Venus being converted into a red Powder or Liquor for it is all one and taken by the Mouth have a strengthening Vertue so that They are good for the Stomack and for a Loose Liver for Dysentericks and Lientericks and all moist or praehumid Diseases for Womens Flux for the Gonorrhaea or incontinency of Urine and all solutive Distempers And the same Iron performs also contrary operations for it opens great praehumid Livers and their Obstructions it promotes Womens Terms so that it hath restored some Girles I say not all who were discoloured by paleness to their Health and Beauty and therefore both Philosophers and Phisicians do unanimously teach that Iron of it self doth both open and bind Experience also shews as much which is and ought to be accounted the Best School-mistriss to us all It wants not therefore the suspicion of fraud or ignorance when men shall passionately yet weakly affirm That Iron from its single preparation is either astringent or aperitive They should live and die in their ignorance for me unless sick persons were in danger to be ruined thereby Learn therefore not from Me who have alwayes undervalued vain applause but from the Giver of all good for frequent experience and the company of dexterous Philosophers and true Practicioners are more to be believed than either an handful of Calumniators or a multitude of such who are ignorant of the Instruments of Physick Now they who commend Iron in all Diseases What Diseases Crocus Mart is is not good for and do prescribe it in every Dropsie in the Schirrhus of the Liver in an inveterate Jaundice especially joyned with a Eeavor in Hypochondriack Melancholy or in Diseases of the Stomach They do it not without the extream Peril of the Patient 'T is true Iron is very good for great Livers loosned with moisture and tumid but when they are hardened to a Schirrhus it is so far from dissolving it that it rather confirms it and by consuming its Acid producer drives it to a Lapideous hardness so that Iron either For what it is Filed or any other way turned to Rubigo hath been always commended by sure Evperiments for great and swoln Livers but never for dissolving a Schirrhus So Ferreous and Acid Waters are good to attenuate the Spleen and to open all Obstructions of the lower part of the Belly arising from Morbous Acid as yet fluid as Hippoc. Chymic shews by clear Experiments Chap. 16. viz. by consuming the Acid humour by corroborating the Fibra's and by contracting Them when loose that so the inbred heat might arise more strong in the corroborated member and may digest that which remains so that they who commend Iron in the dry and acid Diseases of the Liver or Milt and do there either fraudulently or ignorantly call it Aperitive cannot escape the brand either of Ignorants or Impostors For Iron
with Celestial Calid and Radical Humid These Two beginning Action and Passion one with another it comes to pass that from their Mutual Action and Re-action it conceives Heat see Hippoc. Chymic Chap. 18. whence it is said to be Fermented and it becomes Wine in which the heavenly Calid overcomes the Radical Humid and if This at length gain strength it becomes Vinegar with this Vinegar and Lees of Wine now soured Copper is eroded which so eroded as Dioscorides rightly teaches becomes Aerugo from which by Distillation Vinegar is again drawn forth which unskilful Persons by a false Name call Spirit of Venus as I have exactly shewed in its place This Vinegar is nothing else but Water impregnated with Acid Salt from the Principle of the Vine and it is the Seed and Radical Humid of its innate Celestial Fire now specificated by the Vine for being pure it doth not expose it self to be handled by the impure hands of Ignorants or of the Vulgar and it is called by a common name Vinegar And as the Heavenly Calid had from its first beginning its Seat in the Alcaly of the Water and afterwards was multiplied in the Vine Hence also it hath retained the Name of its Original which it keeps also inviolate in Copper to the shame of the Norimberg and Vienna Doctors and their Colleagues So that Vinegar shall again be an Example to us of the Celestial Calid I say let This be satiated with Alcaly of Tartar till the Ebullition and Strepitus cease in that Ebullition The Spirit binds and unites the Heavenly Fire with the Terr estrial Body i. e. with Alcaly Alcaly in this place represents the Radical Humid in which the Heavenly Calid is bound and after the Alcaly i. e. the Matrix hath received a due Proportion it casts forth and ejects the rest to use Cosmopolita's words If you would have Proserpina return to her Mother then distil this Tartar and there will come forth an Oil and Water which is bitterish by reason of the Oil the Oil is that Pinguous by which it was made Vinegar again imbibe this Oil and Water in Alcaly and distil it as before and instead of the Oil there comes forth insipld elementary Water and so Water in the beginning is impregnated with Coelestical Calid and afterwards 't is changed by Fermentation into Grapes then into Wine then into Vinegar at length 't is made Salt in its Mother Alcaly which is turned into Oil and at last as I have said of the Light of a Candle and of Proserpina it returns to its Mother i. e. to Aether as Hippocrates spoke a little before So that the root of the thing returns into Elementary Water viz. into that which it was before it was foecundated with the Indoles of a Vine by the Child of the Sun So also the Capu Mortuum which is left is nothing else but the Alcaly of Tartar in which the same Spirit inhabites which I have shewed in Vinegar but in a way more constant therefore I shall call it in this place Radical Hunâ—d which also by repeated Distillations returns into empty Earth and simple Elementary Water as Hippoc. Chymio teaches Chap. 10. Thus the saying of Hermes and others is fulfilled That nothing in the World dies c. The absurd Collegiates as appears by one of their Society do venditate and boast this Simple Elementary Water to be a Cordial in desperate Diseases as I have said above Chap. 4. but with what advantage to Physick let honest Men judge Wherefore that Igneous and Oily Vertue is the matter of Humid and Calid in mixed Bodies dispensed into these Inferiora by Superior Natures without which the Earth would again be vacuous and inane but the Aqueous Humor is the immediate Keeper and Cabinet of that Igneous Spirit incarcerated in the Seed which abides there so long till by adventitious heat it be promoted to Generation in a fit Matrix And as I have shewed in Alcaly with Acid so also the Radical Humid in every mixt Body is the Shop and Hearth of Vulcan into which that immortal Fire flows and wherein it is kept which is the first Mover of all the faculties of the Individuum and because it is the Child and as it were Vicar of the Sun I conclude with Raimund and by the authority of Hippocrates de Carnibus that it acts all things in every lesser world which the Sun doth in the greater These things being premised The Seat of Radical Moisture let us now see where the Seat of this Radical Moisture in Man is which without intermission doth catch and absorb the Child of the Sun or Proserpina From the scituation and effectual Vertue of the Sun we may inferr that it supplies the place of an Heart to the Universe for Life flows down into all parts from the Sun in regard Light is the Vehicle of Life yea it is the Fountain and next Cause which inspires Life into Things excepting only the Soul of Man which is a Beam of super-coelestial uncreated Light Uncreated Light Now as the Sun in the Macrocosme supplies the place of an Heart and inspires Life into Things so also the Heart in the Microcosme must supply the place of the Sun if these Things are True as they are most True and Veracious which Hermes hath left us In his Tabula viz. That Superior Bodies are as inferior ones and Vice Versa Therefore the Vital Spirit or Coelestial Calid attracted by the Lungs and as it were sifted through a Sieve passed directly to the Heart where Proserpina is embraced and detained by the Radical Humid and there acquires a Body as I above observed out of Hippocrates de Carnibus and I have noted the same thing also concerning Caustick Water with Mercury and concerning Vinegar with Alcaly of Tartar And as Phlegme or Elementary Water which is the Root of Aqua Fortis and Vinegar is not coagulated with Mercury neither with Alcaly but exhales from heat and returns into Elementary Water as I have shewed so also the Phlegme and Elementary Aqueous Vapor which we inspire and suck in with the Câ—lestial Calid the Child of the Sun must needs again by Expiration return to Water as every Plebeian knows and is forced to confess But the Saline Nature of Aqua Fortis is fixed with Mercury as the Saline Nature of Vinegar into Alcaly with Corals so also Proserpina or the Child of the Sun by Inspiration attracted by the Lungs to the Radical Humid which hath its Seat in the Heart is detained there and is wrought and fixed by the Radii and heat of the Heart after its manner into Alcaly or Radical Moisture which thereupon by the same Heat and Pulse or Protrusion is diffused through the whole and inspires Life Actions and Faculties into Things and Members for Hippocrates hath said in his fore-cited Book de Carnibus That It Vnderstands Sees Adorns Hears and Perceives all Things See also the end of the fore-going Chapter
hate it so much the more gloriously it triumphs and treads down falsity under her feet For it is not enough out of meer ignorance to condemn the memorable Observations of the Ancients faithfully made by long study and many watchful lucubrations and so transmitted to us and farther by unusual clamours without any known reason and cause to Reform them defaming also all such who tread in their steps but Men had need to demonstrate the contrary if not by Authority and Experience yet at least by reason otherwise all their ridiculous and inept approbations together with their absurd clamours will not only be judged to be false and vain by Wise and Understanding Persons and therefore worthy to be sent packing from whence they 〈◊〉 but will also be reckoned by the Vulgar amongst futile and sordid devices and fogeries and the highest levities for so indeed they are 'T was never read in the Writings either of the Old or New Interpreters of Nature that They taught That Distilled Vinegar was Celebrated Spirit of Venus or was as Alcahest That the Poison of Copper extracted by Vinegar was an Epileptick or Hysterick Remedy That Elementary Water was Volatile Salt of Tartar and a Panacaea for disperate Diseases or That Corals which both by Wise Men and by Ideots too are reckoned amongst Gemmes should be compared to Common Corrosive Calx and pronounced unuseful or That the Vinegar distilled from Meal was Acid Spirit of Sal-Armoniack or That Minium could condense the Air into a Ponderous Body and many hundreds more of such falsities destructive to Mankind and worse than the dotages of frantick Persons which besides the corruption of good manners can hardly be read without tediousness such things I say and others like them were never taught by our Ancestors and yet though they are found most false by Experience Reason and Authority and to be to the detriment of Physick and Mankind nevertheless They are approved and cryed-up by our fore-said Magnifick Doctors Hence it is that Aristotle in a passion commands Sciolists to dip their Pens in their Minds before they do it in Ink least one inconvenience being granted a thousand false conclusions do follow As not only the Studiers of Ancient Physick do find to their great detriment but Physick it self and that which is more to be lamented the Sick suffers under such things as manifestly appears in the Syrup of Wormwood which the Ancients appointed to be made without any smell that it might be given for an Astringent to every individual as clearly appears by the Reasons and Experiences just now alleaged but These men against the institutions and precepts of Medicine yea against the order of Nature her self do mixe it with Aromatized Spirit of Wine and that most odoriferous and do so prescribe it being induced thereunto by this false and vain opinion That Odors are good indifferently for all both Men and Women But with what fruit or profit they so think Let Practicioners speak and let those judge who have but the Spirit of a Man in their Breasts and who have ever seen the Female Sexe troubled with Uterine Distempers I confess in a pedantick slavish Writer this error were tolerable and need only simple correction but it is an abominable wickedness and not to be endured in the Deans and their Colleagues who sore at such High things and boast that they can teach others Skill themselves being in the mean time ignorant of the common and safe way of healing prescribed by Galen as I have shewed For if the Ancients whom they insult over could find out Syrup of Wormwood and Syrup of Quinces as we see in Dioscorides what difficulty had it been for them to add odoriferous Spike and Roses if Odors and Spirit of Wine had been useful in this Compound It appears by this that They knew well a Dog from a black Sheep to speak proverbially and could distinguish things that smelt of Garlick of the Hogsty of the Sow and Goat mixed together I have sometimes admired why not only Hippocrates enjoyned that we should only speak of Those Things which are known to Plebeians but that Arnold Holland and many others have so industriously concealed the Ancient Foundations of this Art Yea heretofore It was confined only within the Family of Aesculapius but my wonder ceases when now adays I see the Truth judged condemned and cast out of doors by Those who are bound to advance it for their Neighbours good and this not by choice of Doctrine or Science but by a meer fit of foolish temerity before they understand the cause of the matter as I have evidenced in this whole Tract from the beginning to the end very copiously not by opinion only as Southsayers do but by clear Reasons Authority and Experimental Operations Wherefore let such Putative and Insipid Doctors be hissed out of the Theatre of Wisâ—om and cast forth unto their sluggish Colleagues together with their emendicated and inept Receits ill â—nderstood and falsly approved That so the Ancient and True Hippocratical Physick the Noblest of all Arts may be redeemed from the contempt of the Vulgar and by degrees may recover its Ancient estimation and lustre Take therefore in good part The Conclusion O ye Curious Readers and Lovers of the Ancient Truth this my Clavis which I sincerely and faithfully offer to you by the help whereof you may unlock and open the Ancient Cabinet of Hippocratical Medicine Sluggish Doctors who by their ulcerous yet reforming Doctrine do endeavour to pervert Natures order and to hinder the progress of Hippocratical Physick to their Neighbours detriment are conversant in thick darkness far from the Light of Truth who not being able to get out from thence by their own strength do study how to lacerate and revile the fame of their Predecessors yea the works of Nature it self that they may obtain a Name and Praise amongst such as are like themselves 'T is wonderful to consider how far this mad rage of evil speaking hath extended it self by occasion whereof the unshaken Wisdom of the Ancients shines forth with greater lustre and the fundamental Verity and Excellency of the most Noble Hippocratical Physick doth the more appear so as laying aside all modesty Men dare petulantly to rise up against the minds of Hippocrates and Galen yea against the Truth it self against Experience and the Law of Nations and openly to their perpetual shame to extol subscribe and approve miserable fooleries and false receits to the damage of their Neighbours and their Posterity Wherefore let the unprejudiced Reader weigh with an equal ballance and indifferent mind This Ancient Doctrine of Truth and Firm Foundation of our Fore-Fathers which are laid and established in my Hippocrates Chymicus and in this Comment upon it according to their mind and opinion and then I doubt not but he will pass an equal Sentence for he will find all my Experiments deduced from the same Fountains from whence the Venerable Ancients and the more
promotes putrefaction p. 17 Alcaly absorbes Acid Spirits p. 18 Alcaly Distilled in anâ— open Fire gives forth a bitter Liquâ—r p. 18 Alcaly Volatile of Lilly convaly p. 20 Alcaly why it received Filth p. 22 Alcaly its effects p. 22 23 Alcaly not a Salsum p. 23 Alcaly and Acid all things in the World may be referred to them p. 23 Alcaly attracted and led as it pleaseth the Acid p. 27 Alcaly of Tartar made Sal-Kermes p. 28 Alcaly of Tartar made Tartar of Wine p. 28 Alcaly of Tartar made Common Salt p. 28 Alcaly regenerated with Nitre into Allum p. 28 Alcaly made Vitriol p. 29 Aloahest what p. 42 Aloalyes retain something of the Form with which the Mixta were saturated proved by Experiments p. 49 Alcaly of Vinegar p. 45 Alcaly its Form not whoâ—ly consumed by the Fire p. â—1 Alcaly of Vegetables 〈◊〉 the Acid from Calcined Corals p. 67 Alcaly of Mans Blood p. 89 Alcaly of Metals p. 90 Alcaly of Vipers p. 91 Alcaly of Vrine p. 90 Alcaly of Sweat doth not stink as Alcaly of Vrine p. 90 Alcaly of 〈…〉 it retains the Form of Animals understroyed p. 90 Alcalu◠〈◊〉 Odor 〈…〉 from the 〈…〉 burning parts of Animals is destructive of 〈◊〉 p. 114 Amber p. 111 Acid the Seat of the Soul p. 47 Aqua Fortis loves Copper and Iron p. 74 Aromaticks do all yield a Fermentable Odor p. 114 Art imitates Nature p. 12 Aura Vitalis p 96 Aura the cause of Diseases p. 96 Aura of the Stomach being mixed with a Forraign Odor can penetrate even to the Joynts of the Toes p. 101 Air contains the Sead of Life p. 82 Alcalyes Medicinable p. 51 B BAsilius his Pugiles and Gladiatores p. 1. Barley having no smell of it self becomes odoriferous p. 111 Bread and Water made a Body p. 100 Bread and Water made Spirit p. 101 C CAlid innate its difference from Radical Moisture p. 83 Cause Efficient what p. 1 Cause coagulating Water in Herbs p. 7 Calid what p. 82 Cephalick Herbs afford a Volatile Alcaly p. 20 Contraries coagulated by contraries p. 34 Corals dissolved in Vinegar encrease in weight p. 43 Coral its Magistery p. 44 Corals dissolved by any Acid p. 66 Corals encreased in weight by the Fire p. 66 Corals their Life Redness p. 67 Corals Calcined are not Calx p. 67 Corals their Tincture p. 67 68 Crocus Martis made with melted Gold p. 5 Crocus Martis Natural p. 68 Crocus Martis Artificial p. 69 Crocus Martis its invention p. 70 Crocus Martis made by the help of Fire p. 70 Crocus Martis opens and binds as it is prepared several wayes p. 70 Crocus Martis whom it hurts p. 71 Crocus Martis whom 't is good for p. 71 Crocus Martis It tinges the Excrements of the Belly p. 75 76 Why called Sterilis Rubigo p. 76 Cryptography how performed p. 97 Copper is not destroyed by Acid Liquors or Vapors p. 36 Copper made Green by all Acids p. 37 Copper hath Acid prevailing p. 47 Copper precipitates Silver dissolved in Aqua Fortis p. 74 75 Copper dissolved in Aqua Fortis precipitated by Iron p. 75 D DIseases Coagulated what p. 95 Diseases of the Womb easily excited by Odors p. 114 Diseases excited and caused by sweet smells are cured by stinking ones p. 112 E Experience who is said to have p. 21 F FIre why called soft p. 88 Fire in Man soft and Acid p. 79 Flesh Salted hath less Radical moisture than when it is Fresh p. 89 Fermentation what p. 59 Ferment of the Stomach doth change the Radical Moisture of the Aliments p. 80 81 Ferment of Putrefaction p. 90 Form what p. 1. Fermentum Vitale p. 87 Fire Acid and Pinguous p. 6 Fire Sun Gold Spirit Sulphur Form Humid Calid Dry c. are Synonymous p. 6 Fire Natural differs from Artificial p. 6 Fire Natural its effects p. 6 Fire an inflamed Acid p. 61 Fire Beaut fies all things in the Body p. 78 Flint not encreased by flame p. 66 Flint its Powder from Glass p. 14 Flint made Alcaly p. 15* Flint not corroded by any Acid p. 65 Flint made Caustick in Fire p. 66 Flint burnt called Lime p. 66 Flint how differs from Corals p. 65 G GOld is an Acid perfect fixed constant p. 4 Gold called Aurum Fulminans its preparation p. 15 Gold Acid and Pinguous p. 5 Gold because most Acid is the most perfect of Metals p. 47 Gold turns Iron into Crocus or Rust p. 69 Golden Nail p. 69 Gold and the Sun in the Firmament compared p. 4 Glass its Fel not good to made Glass p. 19 Glass its Fel shews like Common Salt p. 16* The usefulness of its Fel p. 16* What its Fel is p 16* Grape of it self inodorous made to give a strong smell p. 111 Glass may be made of any Herb p. 13 Why it crackes p. 13 Its Resolution into a Liquor p. 14 Its Destruction by the Ancients p. 13 How it is made p. 16* H HVnger whence p. 79 80 Hippocrates his Principles called by this Authour Acid and Alealy p. 2 Hyle or Matter why called The First Principle of all Things p. 2 Humid Radical its Seat in Man p. 86 'T is Volatile in all Animals p. 89 I INk its foundation and way of making p. 110 Iron what p. 68 Iron why it acquires strength being quenched in Water p. 68 Iron both Aperitive and Astringent of itself p. 70 Iron unduly given hath a deletery Vertue p. 71 Iron two wayes of precipitating it out of Dioscorides p. 72 Jasper Stone its Vertues p. 108 L LIme contains Acid p. 8 Lime is Salt and doth not precipitate Mercury p. 50 Lime inodorous of it self when it diffuses an Odor hurtful to Man p. 111 Load stone p. 106 It is the Mother of Iron p. 106 Its Child rust p. 106 by how much the purer so much the more attractive p. 106 Load-stone of Albertus Magnus attracting Gold p. 106 Load-stone quenched in Oil of Mars encreases double in Vertue p. 107 Load-stone plentiful in the Isle Elbe p. 109 Load-stone its Vertue like that of the Serpents-stone p. 109 Lead hath little Acid p. 47 Lead called the First Matter of Metals p. 47 Lead its weight increased in Fire p. 62 Like easily mingled with like dissolved and attracted by its like p. 9 34 M MErcury takes the form of that by which it is dissolved p. 55 Mercury Caustick mixed with Ointments p. 55 Mercurius Sublimatus p. 56 once sublimated needs no second sublimation p. 57 Mercury sublimate or percipitate its revivification p. 57 Mercury reduced to Elements p. 57 Mercury a caution to be used in its Sublimation p. 57 58 Mercury of Mars p 72 73 Medicine but one p. 102 Microcosme a Term not proper onely to Man p. 6 Mixture yielding an wonderful smell p. 111 112 Musk p. 112 Man whence he lives p. 79 Moisture Radical remains in Dead Carkasses proved by Experiments p. 81 Moisture Radical of all Animals is Volatile p.
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-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