consent and dissent and whence these hidden qualities arise are hard to be found And it is more hard to find out individuals in man as Balm and Walflowers If Paracelsus could have done it he had done well for profit for as cold and heat moisture and driness are in man because the Elements are in him and as the vital heat in the heart like that in the Heavens is sent to the whole body therefore because they say the properties of Balm and other plants are in man let them shew in what subject they are and where they lie They are also because the knowledg of man is only from outward things for there is more in the species then in the genus or general and there is more in man who is the end of Natural things then in other Naturals and what man hath in him he hath as a man Therefore the soul that loves truth is not satisfied with similitudes onely but desires solid demonstrations and volves things from their own not from the principles of another And as they who think they have demonstrative arguments are often deceived much more may they who use only comparisons There is nothing so like but in some part it is unlike Moreover the Chymists know not the great World all over how then can they bring us to the knowledg of the little World thereby If they know it perfectly let them examine themselves if they can arrogate that unto themselves truly Chap. 7. Of the first Matter THe Modern Chymists call Aristotles first matter a changing Protous a lustful Thais and a deformed Monster Paracelsus cals the first Matter of all things a great Mystery and saies thus of it As a Child is born of its Mother In Philosophia ad Atheniens so are all things from the great Mystery and this is the Mother of all corruptible and mortal things But these are but trifles being without reason and to be rejected or they are taken from the Greeks and involved with hard Names That some Paracelsians are forgers appears in that Paracelsus speaks otherwise of the first Maâ—ter then his followers and both without reason For Paracelsus and Dornaeus say all created things are from the first Matter and great Mystery stery But the late Chymists say the first Matter was put into rude mass which was before it By Mystery Paracelsus means nothing but the Matter which invisibly contains somthing in it self or that out of which somthing comes that was not observed to be in it So Dung is the Mystery of Beetles Milk of Cheese and Butter and Whey Cheese of Worms or Mites And to explain him It is an Idea or Platonick Soul of the World or the Chaos which many Philosophers mentioned For Paracelsus his great Mystery is like the Idea of Plato for Plato writes thus If this World be beautiful In Timaeo and the Maker good it is plain that it was made by an eternal and permanent Pattern Lib. de anima mundi And Paracelsus calls this Idea The great uncreated Mystery and saith all things came from it and as it is uncreated it agrees with Plato's Idea Lib. Philoso ad Athen. In others it is the Chaos that ancient Philosophers mentioned Therefore Paracelsus told us no news but to make us think he did he gives strange names And he is out when he calls the great Mystery uncreated for it is against Scripture and reason that any thing should be uncreated besides God Therefore the Chymists ought not to inveigh against the first Matter of Aristotle so much let them take heed lest they speak against the Creator of all things and dispraise that which he saw to be good For in regard there is a difference between the Matter and the form and the generation and corruption and transmutation of natural things cannot be denied we cannot deny the first Matter The form only in the Elements is not the whole Essence nor is it from the form that a thing is of such a quantity therefore there is somthing in material things that with the form makes up the whole and sustains the form and in the Elements it is nothing but the first Matter And because all natural bodies are material they must needs partake of the common matter Let them that deny the first Matter consider that it is one thing to be begotten another to be created another to be corrupted another to be reduced to nothing Those are from somthing to somthing these from nothing to nothing And because one thing is made of another and the form is abolished there must somthing remain that is the subject of the change This Plato and Aristotle call the first Matter And though its Essence distinct from its form cannot be comprehended by sense but only by reason yet it is not a being only of reason or a meer figment but a real being and a substance or being distinct from an accident But it hath of it self properly no existence which is proper only to compound bodies But it is wholly a power not as to its being which it hath by its Essence but as to its being thus or thus nor was it created of God as a definite and distinct species of a natural thing but it is rather created together with natural things and is as it were a Rudiment and Principle nor doth it remain extant any time without a form but lies under it Chap. 8. Of the Elements Such is the confusion of the Chymists in explaining of the Elements that we need an Oedipus to interpret And which is worst they go contrary to the old Philosophers that is from known things to unknown by shewing of reasons And seem to command all men to believe what they say as if they were Gods and so wise that they might determine what they please Paracelsus denies not the Elements nor his Disciples but they speak of them otherwise then the old Philosophers do They say the Elements are visible and invisible The visible are the fire air water and earth which they scarce think worthy of the names of Elements but call them dead bodies without secrets In Praefat. lib. meteor philosoph Sag. lib. 1. Idea medi. c. 5. and that they are but shells of the Nuc-kernel contained in them having none but relolling qualities But they say their Elements are invisible and they are the essence life and act of all beings Paracelsus calls them the Matrices that bear and nourish fruit Nor say they can generations be made from these Elements but there are seeds in them all which at certain times do generate So his Element is whatsoever produceth and nourisheth fruit or any created species Severinus divides the Elements into two Globes to each he allows two Elements to the upper the Firmament Heaven Fire and Air to the lower the Earth Water And he saith each Element produceth its fruit The fruits of the Firmament are Manna and Dew-waters Minerals Metals Stones and these Elements are not
mixed The modern Chymists follow Severinus and Crollius saith they are lighter but they are more dark Thus he writes In praefat admonit Our visible Elements are only the bodies and houses of others and keep off their force The Earth is twofold the outward visible the inward invisible The outward is not an Element but the body of the Element and is Salt Sulphur and Mercury but the Element of the Earth is Life and Spirit in which the Stars of the Earth lie which by the body of the Earth produce all growing things and so of the rest In which he follows the Doctrine of Paracelsus but differs from Severinus and other Chymists But many things here cannot be proved First they abuse the word Element contrary to the custom of all ages for it properly signifies the least part of that from which the thing is made as from its matter But their Elements are only places matrices receptacles And the place differs much from the matter The wiser Chymists have three principles that come from the Elements or are joyned in the composing of natural bodies But Paracelsus puts his principles before the Elements and from one mixture of Salt Sulphur and Mercury and makes Fire In labyr med err from another Air another Water and Earth which no Philosophy can allow Others make the Elements vile and servile Bodies in disgrace of God and Nature who made all very good They serve God and man and all sublunary creatures and so are to be commended nor are they by that of no value or relolling as they say For the Chymists know their actions who can do nothing with heat and cold They erre also in making the Elements gross Bodies though the Earth be Also they erre in calling them visible they may see Earth and Water but when they will see air or fire I know not They foolishly say they are dead because they never were alive And it is worse that they say The Earth is cursed As for their invisible Elements Inexam philoso we shal believe it when they prove any such hidden under these for their affirmations only cannot creat new beings Libavius writes well of Severinus The good man saith he speaks well as if he came from the treasure of Nature and saw all open but he proves nothing Severinus his Eloments being without bodies and dimensions are not to be allowed for all learned men say the principles of bodies are corporeal He saies they are not infinite therefore they have dimensions and bounds Nor doth it hang together when he calls these incorporeal Elements empty and void and allows to them contrariety and resistence and explains their invisible Nature It may be that Paracelsus put one Element within another for the form and beginning of action and original of all qualities for when the external visible Elements which are inferior to their internal have noble qualities their Elements must have more noble qualities and actions but they never shewed us any yet They say in general only that they are vital and strong to nourish the seed of generation Nor do they prove that seeds are without their species in the Elements as they say Nor did God put seeds in the Elements in the Creation but into the species of natural things in the Elements Nor are seeds seen out of the individuals in the Elements but only in the individuals of their species Nor did God say in the Creation Let the seeds of Plants be in the Elements the same reason is in Animals All things have their seed in themselves and multiply by force of the Divine Word and so the species are preserved And to that they say from Orpheus and Hippocrates We know they spake often from the opinion of the Vulgar and themselves and many things are attributed to Hippocrates which were not his And many absurdities are among the Ancients most from ignorance of the Creation Erastus examines their Doctrine at large As for the first qualities which they value not but call relolling and dead It is foolish to fight against the experience of fense by which it is plain that the first qualities have great force for generation and corruption of natural things and are as considerable as scent savor and colour While we desend the Elements we must not adhere to them alone as some Aristotle knew above the Elemēts as in his Books of the Soul And when he saith 2. de generat anim c. 3. The vertue and power of every soul partakes of another body which is more Divine then the Elements and as the souls are more or less noble so is the Nature of that body For there is in all seeds which makes them fruitful which is heat not a fire but a Spirit which is contained in the seed or froathy body And the Nature in that Spirit is like the Element of the Stars c. Alexander Aphrodisaeus saith many things are in Nature that are known only by experience In proemio probl and are called by Physitians secret proprieties and accuseth them that say the causes of such effects come from the Elements or their qualities Galen accuseth Pelops his Master Lib. 11. de simpl facult Exercit. 101. sect 14. because he would bring all things to manifest qualities and Scaliger saith it is great impudency to Cardan thus What evil genius hath lead thee to say that iron may draw the Loadstone only by mixture of Elements Hence we see that Galenists and Aristotelians are not drowned in the qualities of the Elements Also they knew the Sympathy and Antipathy of things and we defend not them that know nothing but the first qualities For alteration or hurt from manifest qualities cannot kill a man so soon as poyson Secondly the first qualities have not very great force in a smal quantity but poyson hath a little spittle of a mad Dog lyeth somtimes above six months in the body and then offends grievously 3. delo art c. 7. which elementary qualities cannot do and so of other things as the Loadstone and Purgers and Antidotes Nor do occult qualities arise from a singular temper of things mixed unknown to us Lib. 1. de plantis called Idiosynorasia for occult qualities cannot arise from the first qualities For as Scaliger saith There is no savor or tast in any Element as it is an Element nor can it be in a compound from the Elements And if occult qualities are from a singular mixture of Elements may not life laughter sense and voluntary motion and the soul come from the same And to what they say the strange actions come from the form though the qualities are the instruments of forms and are directed by them yet they never loose their strength or Nature but only exercise them If any more noble action be done it is from other faculties and qualities meeting And while they are directed by their forms they act not beyond the strength of their species As things differ
Sulphur drawn by the same fire out of any body for much Salt is drawn from Wormwood Fennel Vine-branches but very little from the Gourd or Cowcumber But they object that the resolution is artificial not natural and the axiome that all things are made of such things as they are resolved into is ment of natural not artificial resolution But we deny that Chymical resolutions are not natural if we consider the immediate agent though the Artificer be joyned for they are from heat and fire which are natural causes as for example When a plant is burnt to make Salt the action is plainly natural not in respect of the plant which is destroyed but in respect of the agent When the spirit of Wine is raised by heat the action is as natural as when the same spirit is sent to the brain by the heat of the stomach and liver or when a thing is evaporated by the heat of the Sun Therefore we say the thing made by the Chymists is natural in its being the action of heat by which it is made is natural and the motion of the thing is natural But it is artificial in respect of the Chymists putting it into a vessel and applying fire to it nor is it any otherwise artificial then health which is recovered by the help of a Physitian The use of Chymical principles is that the proprieties which are in mixed bodies and cannot be immediately shewed from the Elements may be shewed from them as the next and proper principles as it is plain in the searching out of the faculties of Medicines For though Erastus thinks that all these may be fetcht from the Elements he proves it not let them tell me why when Opiats are distilled the vapors cause sleep so that the servants are many times sound asleep other vapors do not the same Why doth the fume of Lead and Quicksilver corrode gold not the fume of Vitriol and other things Why doth only a flegm distil from spirit of Vitriol and sealed Earth These questions cannot be answered without the Principles of the Chymists onely from the Doctrine of the Elements and Meteors Nor do I think all the proprieties of bodies are to be reduced to the Chymical principles for some come from nobler forms as I shewed Nor am I of opinion in all things and I dispute not here whether the force of purging be from Salt only in general I say some properties are from Salt others from Sulphur and in what mixture soever such a property is found there you must seek for the principle hence arise the profitable separations of Chymists But note these common Principles as such are not proper and next principles of particular affects nor is force of purging from Salt nor is a narcotick force from Sulphur as Sulphur for then all Salts would purge and all Sulphur would be narcotick But these principles as they are common are only the principles of common affects but the special affects come from determinate principles So we have shewed in general that besides the Elements there are other principles of mixed things nor is the generation made immediately from the Elements but there are other bodies which as the first subjects some qualities do flow which cannot come from the Elements which Hippocrates acknowledged and the Chymists have given them names and I care not what the names are so the thing be true But as for the species number and nature of particulars it is not clear I will pin my self upon no mans sleeve but give my judgment not to dissent but consent with the Aristotelians and Galenists if it may be The three Principles are Salt Sulphur and Mercury I 'le give my judgment of every one First for Salt Lib. 31. hist nat c. 7. it is so plainly in every natural body that Pliny saith Salt is a necessary Element only consider the growth of Plants what makes them fruitful and flourish the chief cause is piss which hath much Salt and consider that there is no art used As for the properties of Salt It is first a thing to be tasted and all things to be tasted are so from Salt nor is Kitchin-salt the only Salt but that in Mustard Rhadish Garlick Vinegar Choler Allum Vitriol and the like And because tast and feeling are senses united and have objects alike acrimony is ascribed also to Salt and that which twitcheth the feeling is Salt Hence there is in smoak Radishes Watercresses Onions and the like force to twitch the eyes from the volatile Salt in them Secondly Salt will melt in moisture and be hard in a dry place which earth will not and though earth dissolve in water yet it melts not in it as Salt much less will earth melt in a moist air as Salt wil. Thirdly from Salt is the coagulation of all things the Crystal and Diamond are hard from Salt the Metals are strong also Bones Herbs and Trees consist by it Also the stone in the bladder and kidnies grow together from Salt The Chymists prove this by many things in the Sea that grow as Coral and Waters that make stones the growing of Vitriol and Allum and other Salts in the water Moreover they who have the stone piss like snot or the white of an egg which taken into a clout turns to a stone and it hath much Salt because it is sharp and corroding and causeth pain in pissing the cause of these cannot be heat cold or driness For stones bred in the bladder in cold and membranous parts and in infants in whom there is no excess of heat but manifest signs of crudity And how can a stone-making juyce be caused of heat in a cold Well that turns sticks into stones Nor can cold be the cause because stones are found in the arteries of the heart and in the heart and lungs Nor are these causes by accident or by drying up the moisture for in some waters things turn to stone of which Anshelme Boetius speaks Lib. 2. de gemmis c. 300. Also stones breed in the kidnies and bladder where moisture is never wanting and there can be no such drying Hence they think it in vain to seek for the cause of concretion in external causes but to consider the internal matter and disposition by which stones are made hard nor are they against Philosophy I shall deliver my opinion in short First there are many equivocations by which they are bafled in the causes of coagulation and concretion for concretion and coagulation are not the same for juyces and gums and water and many other things may be concreted as ice by cold and clay by the Sun There is Crystal and glass and solid Metal but they are not concreted from the same cause nor is water or Crystal hard or concreted from the same cause To speak distinctly the question is not here of things which are coagulated and made hard only by driness after the moisture is consumed by which they were soft before or
flow that are not in the Elements Exercit. 307. sect 20. so that is true of Scaliger Every form of any perfect mixture though it be not a soul is of a fifth Nature far different from the four Elements For God created forms and substances like that of Heaven put them into natutal bodies These opinions whether they be mine or other learned men do no whit diminish the splendor of Aristotelean Philosophy and Galenical Physick for he that supplies a defect overthrows not the former Chap. 12. Of Generation and Mixture THe former Principles being granted the modern Chymists lay down Generation Mixture thus They place the groud of generation in seeds and define generation thus It is the progression of seeds from their fountains and abysse and vital Principles into this scene of the world by which from invisible things they become visible and produce all the ornaments of all bodies and by this renovation of individuals they preserve the perpetuity of all species or kinds Ideae Philos cap. 8. And they add many things out of Severinus as that seeds have this power that they acquire to themselves things consentaneous or agreeable and that they are not in every subject but in such a hot cold moist or dry body or this or that Salt Sulphur or Mercury For the confirmation of which they quote Hippocrates Lib. 1. de diaetta saying That nothing wholly perisheth nor doth any thing arise that was not before c. And after he saith thus Light goes and is transmuted into Jupiter darkness into hell and light into hell and darkness into Jupiter c. For say they bodies being adorned with the signatures of seeds and clothed with comeliness represent the image of light but when they wither and loose the vigor of their seeds they are covered with darkness and therefore are called dark And Severinus saith That Operations are by mechanick Spirits which being not armed with knowledg are dispersed into naked vapors and smoak They assign three kinds of generation to the inferior globe namely of Animals Vegetables and Minerals They say that in Animals there is a seminal matter in the animal Balsom the vital Sulphur in the vital Spirit and Mummy which is alwaies in man Perfect creatures beget and are begotten onely of their own proper seeds Others from seed and putrefaction as Mice But Plants have a thicker body more slimy in respect of the seed of Animals and in them some parts resemble the testicles or stones by which the seed is prepared more perfect and more safely kept and such parts by that do propagate the seminal matter Hence it is that some plants propagate by their seed others by their roots others by other waies They make the generation of Minerals much different from the former Their seeds and speciesflourish in the seminal reasons of the matter and are kept in the Night of Orpheus and the Hell of Hippocrates or the Iliastrum of Paracelsus and there they expect their fate which is destinated and at times appointed they enter into the world with vital Principles and mechanick Spirits They deny not life to be in Minerals but prove it to be from the times of maturity from the fixed Periods of Paroxisms by orderly running of the veins from the agreeable compositions of their bodies from their tast and colour Also they acknowledg no greater art in living forms then what is in the variety of their colour scent and tast and that the colour of a Saphire and hardness of a Diamond are as wonderful as the organs of a Bat. As for the upper Globe there are in it certain distinct generations For in the Celestial Elements they say there are perfect Individuals that last with admirable vigor And that they flourish with aboundance of vital spirit which being fermented to a due exaltation and maturity go into the air with a spiritual invisible but abundant fertility and having acquired bodies as fit garments they produce their fruits They say some Stars are made to produce winds some Eastern some Western some Southern some Northern And these Stars have not only the first qualities but other vertues and properties And that there are Stars for rain hail snow lightning fair weather and for other Meteors That every month the Moon by a new generation produceth fruits and that there are vital principles of generation in the air that at appointed times are hot with the dispensation of their fruits They deny that the change of times are from the lower or higher position of the Sun or from the obliquity of its beams or from the direct influence of them but they say some Stars are for Summer others for Winter The Sun is the chief Summer star but if it should be without the rest there would be a perpetual Winter That the Moon is the chief Winter-star and that the Summer-stars do spring up as plants in the Spring and die again And that as Trees are not every year alike fruitful In lib. Meteo so those Stars are somtimes barren somtimes fertile Paracelsus makes the like generation of Winds Rain Snow Lightning Thunder the Rain-bow and the Morning c. This is their opinion of generation and they make a mixture accordingly they say the mover of mixture is a vital Principle adorned with Knowledg by the power of which the Divine offices of mixture are performed Severinus They say that Transplantation is an accident of generation as the faculty of the seed is strong or weak and as the spirits of seeds are subject That transplantations are seldom in perfect creatures and not in any but such as are alike in seed and Nature as Wolves and Dogs may mingle Horses and Asses but in such as the difference of Sexes is not apparent there are usual Transplantations They say that in Vegetables and Minerals Transplantations are companions of generation so Calamints turns into Mints because the seed is equivocal so there is the form of Darnel in Wheat but as a servant or companion which if it get outward aid will turn Master and bring in its own signatures See Severinus for more of this Of all these we thus think When they say that generation is the progression of seeds from their fountain and abyss into the stage of the World they tell us no news for it is the opinion of the most ancient Greeks not only of Hippocrates but of Hermes Tresmegistus Dionysius Aropagita Apollonius Thyaneus And this error came from their ignorance of the Worlds Creation from which every thing hath its Nature and Being Therefore they supposed that all things came forth into light from night hell and an invisible abyss and returned thither again But the Scripture teacheth otherwise Gen. 1. for God said Let the Earth bring forth fruit The herb that brings seed and the Tree fruit after their kind and it was so Let the Water bring forth living creeping things and let the Birds flie over the Earth in
the air Let the Earth produce Creatures after their kinds beasts and creeping things and it was so And that God blessed the Creation saying Increase and multiply Hence it appears that God by his power created the kinds of all natural things and gave them their forms and bodies He that made the Elements mixed them according to his Wisedom and joyned them with those close Principles Thus all things are multiplied by the divine blessing and preserved to this time so that the species of Plants and all living Creatures are only in their Individuals God at the Creation gave forms to all things and made them not of the Elements as some modern Writers say that know nothing but the Elements Therefore the forms of things come not from an abyss and take fit bodies by their Mechanick spirits but God in the Creation gave every thing its form In examine Philo. vit part 2. contra Paracel which multiply by his blessing The other opinions are bawbles like the gate by which Aeneas came from Hell Libavius and Erastus have written at large against them What they say of the superior Globe and its fruits and generations is absurd and ridiculous against both reason and experience the Stories of Lucian are more probable and Erastus saith right of Paracelsus The Principle upon which all his Doctrine of Meteors stands besides its prophaneness against Scriptures is so foolish and simple absurd and ridiculous and false that a man cannot without fear of disgrace rehearse them or speak of the confutation of them among wise men What they say of the generation of Plants and Animals may agree with Aristotle if they would allow that the species came not from an abyss or Hippocrates his Hell but the propagation came from seeds as that corporal things are made of incorporeal and incorporeal of corporal For they differ rather in words then sense from Aristotle and Galen because spirits somtimes are condensed into bodies and bodies are turned into spirits when vital and animal spirits are made of blood Their Doctrine of Transplantation is not to be disallowed altogether for it is probable by many things in Nature that the same form may be in a divers body or many forms may be in one seed but subordinate so that one be chief the other servants as appears in the silk-worm but every worm doth not breed from every plant and the forms of such worms are subordinate to the forms of the Plants and other Animals Exercit. 59. sect 2. exer 195. Scaliger and others shew what worms are from such and such Plants I spake in my Hypomnema Chap. 5.8 of Scotch Geese and also of the degenerating of Plants into other for it is certain that they are changed but not every one into any if that be observed there may be a cause given of many generations Some flie to an equivocal generation and putrefaction therefore it is questionable whether there be any generation truly equivocal without any seed Therefore consider that for the propagation of all Plants and Animals there is requisite an inbred matter rightly disposed by which the form may propagate it self but this preparation of matter is greater in some then others Most of the perfect Animals are generated from the womb by the mixture of the male and female seed Others lay eggs from which by heat external the chickens are hatched In ignobler Creatures and Plants generation is not tied to such straight conditions Some Plants onely by seeds sown in the earth do grow others by the roots onely planted others both waies others by slips and siences In some the seminal humor is throughout the whole plant so that any branch or root being taken off and set in the earth they will grow as Willows and Vines I heard from a credible person that from the foam of a mad Dog cleaving to a garment there arose little creatures like Dogs For this seminal principle of ignoble things lies long hidden in a tough clammy matter and resists external injuries and impressions and at length gets up and acteth Let this seed be called Analogical if not Univocal so long as the thing generated be not from putrefaction only Moreover it is not against reason and experience altogether that some seeds are ambiguous and have many forms so that one be chief the other subservient or that some seeds are disposed to divers forms as appears in silk-worms Therefore Averroes and his Disciples speak against reason saying that Animals from putrefaction are different in species from those that are from seed for they are not wholly destitute of seed nor can putrefaction alone produce any creature Since then no generation is without mixture things do not arise from a contention between the Elements but in the first Creation every thing receaved from God not only its proper form but also a body fitted thereunto and they keep this their Nature by the wil and blessing of the Creator to the last Therefore in the propagation of things a specifick form is required which the concourse of Elements and that rash mixture cannot make Therefore the form and soul is the architect and the first mover of every thing in mixture is that soul and form The common operator and instrument of Nature to nourish the vertues of things is the innate and imbred heat and spirit but the operator of mixture is the Divine command which was given to the Elements in the Creation namely that they should agree exactly among themselves for the generation of every particular as Erastus saith but he had said better if he had said that convenient matter had been attracted from the Divine commād by the vegetative soul of every creature for since natural things are not onely first produced in the Creation but stil mixed by the vicissitudes of generation and corruption he should have added that still in generation of things all things are directed by the form not by the mixture of Elements that agree for the constitution of every thing For the forms are the Divine and unchangeable Principle that determines all the actions and passions of natural things and they are as the instrument or hand of the wise Creator that gave them that efficacy at the first Creation then which nothing can be more wonderful The next thing to be considered is whether alwaies in the generation of things there be a resolution to the first Elements so that nothing is mixed but the Elements And whether no sour salt or bitter things be mixed Lib. de prisca medicina Hippocrates writes That a salt and sharp humor is made thick by concoction and mixture And this is so certain that even Vegetables partake of the Nature of Minerals as you may see in the Leaves of Oak and Bayberries Pomegranate peels green which dye a black colour from the Vitriol that is in them so that the Chymists offer to draw Vitriol from green Walnut-shells Lastly it may be doubted whether the first qualities are
Salts have power to dissolve others to coagulate therefore they say that humors coagulated by Salt are to be cured by Salt dissolveth And they say that a feaver from burning Sulphur is not cured by burning Sulphur but by sharp Sulphur that may coagulate these Spirits that are on fire and allay them De prisc mat med c. 3. 3. and keep them burning Quercetan proves this by gun-powder for though Salt-peeter and Sulphur are easily set on fire yet both have a sharp Spirit with which if you touch the pouder it will flame no more Therefore in one respect the like cures the like and in another the contrary the contrary for between humors and things that dissolve humors there is a familiarity But in respect of the taking away of the disease and the causes contraries are required And thus much of the consent and dissent between the Chymists and the Galenists He that considers this wisely Lib. 4. Epist ad Andr. Blauv wil find that Chymical medicines are not to be neglected for Galenical nor Galenical for Chymical for as Mathiolus writes None can be an ordinary Physitian that knows no Chymistry and he is admirable that knows what is Divine in Diseases in Medicines and Nature and finds out the fountains of actions all which may be done by Chymistry but he that cleaves onely to the first qualities in things cannot come to this Other things that respect the constitution faculties and actions the causes and differences of Diseases and Symptoms the Signs Prognosticks and Method of Curing may be found in Hippocrates and Galen and their Interpreters He that neglects these is an Emperick and no Physitian AN APPENDIX Chap. 19. Of the Constitution of Chymistry IN this Appendix we suppose what Libavius wrote at large and Beguin in short and what we mentioned in the fifth Book of Institutions That though Chymical Opeperations and Medicines are there added yet here I will plainly lay down as in a Table the whole Nature of Chymistry and its Constitution from the places alleadged and add some admonishments This I shall do without calumniating any or detracting from them For two may differ in opinion And still in friendship keep communion All Sciences and Arts as they are found ought to stand upon some Principles that reasons may be given of things done in them otherwise it is rather an ignorance then a science yet Chymistry the most noble useful Art hath few things fortified with reason and brought from certain Principles for there are many proceedings and Forms of Operation of which few teach the causes and Principles so that it seems to be an Art without an Art But as Physick so Chymistry is wholly subject to the natural Science and must follow the Laws of Nature in working so that there may be a mutual consent between them both In the first Chapter of this Tractate there is the Subject Definition and a twofold end of Chymistry But laying aside the former end we shall here speak onely of the Constitution of Chymistry as it serves a Physitian and helps him to good Medicines and we shal propound some things in Operations which may serve for the last end A Chymist to obtain his end must have some means or Mediums which are Chymical operations and instruments by which he worketh Of which we shall speak in order As for the instruments the chief are fire or heat the Menstruum air and water but that agents may be applied to the patients there are required furnaces glasses and many other vessels We spake elswhere of furnaces glasses and other vessels and of luting Inst l. 1. part 3. sec 2. c. 11.12.14 and we added instruments for other operations And Chap. 2. we spake of fire and heat The Menstrua are whatsoever things serve for solution extraction and separation of bodies and this name is commonly given to liquors which cast upon bodies have an actual force to dissolve or extract somthing out as common Water distilled Waters Dew Spirit of Wine Turpentine distilled Vinegar and things distilled in it Spirit of Salt Niter Vitriol Aqua fortis and Regia of which in the place of my Institutions cited We may bring all these liquors into three heads some are watery some have Salt others are oyly bodies are not dissolved but by their proper dissolvers that answer to their nature The watery bodies are like water and are dissolved and extracted by watery Menstrua Sugar and Salt which melt in water dissolve salt bodies and no other Things spiritual are dissolved by Spirits salt things by salt Spirits and extracted by oyl and fats Metals and Stones by Aqua fortis and Regia and the like liquors And without Salt no Metal is dissolved because all Metals are of a salt nature therefore the first melting must needs be by Salts Mercury dissolveth gold not so much by corrosion as by similitude or an occult quality And Aqua fortis though it be very corrosive dissolves not Rosin Wax or Pitch but they are dissolved in oyls and fats Therefore get the proper Menstruum for dissolving of very thing Some understand by the word Menstruum not only liquors but other dry bodies which dissolve things as Salt Niter Sulphur which being added to Metals or Stones and resolved in a fire of reverberation insinuate into the bodies applied and dissolve them Thirdly Chymists must have air which conduceth two waies namely as it is moist and hath waterish vapors and as it is cold as it is moist it serves a Chymist when it is mixed with things by nature dry and makes them of a moist consistence this is when air gets into Salts in moist places and makes them melt And in some distillations the moist air causeth the Spirits that are by nature dry and come forth like clouds to turn moist as in Oyl of Sal Gem made by a bell in Spirit of Salt and Vitriol and the like Also air serveth in respect of its coldness for cold by accident and binding of Homogeneal bodies doth congregate therefore Salts sooner grow together in water then in heat Fourthly water is an instrument of the Chymists not only as a Menstruum to dissolve and wash but to mix it self with dry Spirits in a moist air I should add Earth and the like but for offence therefore in making Spirit of Salt and Niter Poters Earth Bole and sealed Earth are used In distilling some Oyls the pouder of Bricks Sand and Ashes are used First that the body to be distilled may be as fine and small as may be and be better healed Secondly least the glass should be broken by things that easily dissolve as Niter another body is added to make it dissolve gently Also the Chymists use other instruments for some operations as Oyl of Tartar to precipitate Pearl and Coral being dissolved and other for others but I doubt whether these may be added to the former instruments As for Chymical operations they are diversly divided and I let