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
Otto Tachenius his Hippocrates Chymicus Discovering The Ancient foundation of the late Viperine Salt with his Clavis thereunto annexed Translated by J.J.V. London Printed are to be sold by W Marshall at the Bible in Newgate street 1690 TRANSLATOR TO THE READER THe Author of these Ensuing Discourfes who is as 't is hoped yet Living at Venice hath his Name in an high degree of Merit amongst the Prime Physicians and Chymists of this Age His knowledge in the Spagyrical Art in the judgement of those Emunct and Sagacious persons who have Studied the Controversie betwixt Them far exceeding That of Zwelfer his Antagonist who during this whole Treatife goes under the name of the Reformer for the reason mentioned p. 2. The Translation it Self was not performed without Labour and Sweat partly because the Editions which were made use of one from Brunswick the other from Leyden were very unperfect and incorrect partly also because The Author being more intent on Matter than Words on Things than Expressions 't is his own Apology p. 4. doth sometimes leave his Sense to be picked out by the Analogy of his Doctrine If morose and supercilious Censurers shall object Impoliteness Solaecisme Inept Cadencys and Cohaesions of Words and Sentences Obscurities length of Parentheses's and other flawes usually incident or at least imputed to Translations In bar to such Hypercriticks I offer the particulars following viz. That every Language hath its Idiom which is not properly transferrable to another That a Translator is no Paraphrast but being limited to the Sense and in great part confined to the Words of his Author hath no allowable Liberty to make Excursions or to add any explanatory Embellishments to another Man's Work It is his Province to write by the Copy before him i. e. to Vestigate and Overtake the Author's Sense and faithfully to render it which I hope is here not unhappily performed As for the Obscurity objected The Doctrine it self must bear part of the Guilt if any he For That being Novel or at least retrived from Antiquity may not perhaps be so clearly and Apodictically explained in a Compendium which the Author intimates more than once as to stop the Mouths of all Gain-sayers though plainly enough especially with the addition of the Clavis to satisfie the Reasons and convince the Judgements of Candid and Ingenious Readers Lastly Since 't is an easie thing to be Witty in another Man's Labour I shall conclude with the Poet Carpere vel noli nostra velede Tua J. W. PUBLISHER TO THE READER THis Book as to the Translation of it hath been sufficiently perused justified and approved by some of the most learned and experienced Chymists in and about this City As to the Matter of it it needs no other Commendation than the long since allowed and printed Observation and Approbation of the Royal Society of England in these words Philosophical Transactions Aug. 16. 1669. Num. 50. page 1019. OTTO NISTACHENII Hippocrates Chymicus Venetiis in 12o. THis Author though Printed two or three years ago came not to our Knowledge till now He in his Tract endeavours to justifie the Ancients blamed by Zwelfer in his Pharmacopaea Augustana for having committed several Faults in the preparation of a certain Salt call'd Theriacal because extracted out of Vipers and diverse other Ingredients composing Theriack and having done this he thence takes occasion to Treat of the Nature of Salts especially of Alcalyes and Acids which he with some other Chymists hold to be the first Principles of all mixt Bodies And being perswaded that Hippocrates was also of this opinion and a great Chymist too he Entitles His Book Hippocrates Chymicus Though the Salt Alcaly properly signifieth that Salt which is drawn out of the Ashes of an Egyptian Herb named Kaly yet Chymists take it in a larger Sense and understand by that Word all the Salts which like that of the said Herb draw and impregnate themselves with Acid ones To this Salt our Author refers almost all the Operations of Nature and having examined its properties relates divers not Uncurious Observations concerning it For Example That nothing pierceth so much as Alcalyes and that therefore Nature hath stored the Sweat of Animals so plentifully with it for that the Ordure which continually gathers on the Skin would soon stop the pores of it if the Sweat were not furnisht with some efficatious Dissolvent to open and pierce Them Whence he observes that the best liquored Boots and such as are Water-proof will be quickly pierced by the sweat of Horses adding that though Riding-post he had to avoid that inconvenience rubhed his Boots with a Vernice which resisted even to Aqua Fortis yet the Sweat of the Horses he rode on dissolved that fence after the second day of his Voyage Next He holds it to be an error to use Spirit of Vitriol for whitening the Teeth Experience shewing that from the mixture of an Alcaly and the Spirit of Vitriol there results a yellow and that there is an Alcaly continually transpiring out of the Gums as out of all the other parts of the Body whence it must follow that the Spirit of Vitriol employed to rub the Teeth when mixt with that Salt must tinge them of the same colour Then he affirms that Wood rotten hath no Alcaly in it and that it rots not but upon the account of the exhaling of that Salt Whence 't is saith he That the Venetians to harden the Timber designed for building of Ships sink it green in Water and there leave it many years which is the cause That the Alcaly having been hindred from exhaling the Timber rots not but becomes as hard in a manner as Stone We cannot pretermit taking notice That this Author finds occasion in this Book to explain the way by which the Famous Turnheiser a Germane Chymist made that celebrated Nail half Gold and half Iron which is shewed at Florence in the Repository of the Great Duke of Tuscany 'T is said that That Chymist having in the presence of that Prince immersed in a certain Oyl the one half of a Nail which appeared to be all Iron that part which touched the Oyl was instantly found to be good Gold Several persons having examined this Nail and seeing the Gold and Iron exceeding well conjoyned were perswaded that it could not well be effected but by a true change of one of those two Metals into the other believing it impossible they could be Sodered together But the Author of this Book maketh that a very easie thing if the Iron be before prepared after a certain manner which He teacheth and He pretends That That was the whole Secret of Turnheiser the rest being nothing but Illusion for after he had by that means Sodered together a piece of Gold with half a Nail He knew so well to give the colour of Iron to Gold that Men believed that the whole Nail was of Iron and having afterwards put this Nail into the Fire and held it
in the Oyl to take off that colour he made appear that Gold which was hid before To the Most Serene and Mighty PRINCES The LORDS George William John Frederick Ernest Augustus Brethren By the Grace of GOD DUKES of Brunswick and Lunenburg c. His Most Bonntiful LORDS POndering often in my Mind High and Mighty Princes and my Noble Patrons the Great and many Favours which Your Grand and Prince-like Liberality hath most Graciously heaped upon me and thereby Eternally obliged me to Your Excellencies I became solicitous and concerned in my thoughts with what Veneration and Industry of Wit answerable to the Obsequiousness of my Devoted mind I might declare by some Testimony at least an endeavour of Gratitude for Your Benefits bestowed upon me 'T is the guise of Others in Dedicating their Lucubrations to Princes and Nobles chiefly to concern themselves in Blazoning their Genealogies and in Decyphering their Praises and Heroick Acts in an high Method of Elegancy thereby extolling them as we say with an open mouth to the Skies But I well knowing that the full-blown Elogies of Talkative Fame do displease Your Excellencies especially since glorious and memorable Vertue it self for so many Ages backward together with Magnanimous Bounty have flourished in the most August House of Brunswick and Lunenburg and by God's Blessing will ever flourist in the same I I say waving therefore all such Proceedure do come only furnished with a gift not large nor great though you are worthy of both nor glittering with Gold Silver or Precious Stones Ornaments which Divine Bounty hath aboundantly replenished Your Highnesses withall but are denied to me and persons of my condition Mine is only a Paper gift but extracted from the true Protochymick Art which is most Ancient and hath more in the Recess than it promises in the Front Yea it is That by which the uncreated Spirit the Founder of the World dâ—d order and distinguish the otherwise confused Natures of things Hereupon I perswaded my Self that I could offer no gift more grateful to Your Highnesses than a new work of this most Vetust yet Wonderful and Necessary Science A Work most curious in it self which hitherto Envy hath forborne to restore and to gratify the World with For although the unconquerable Truth comes commended only by its own strength and is sufficiently fortified by its proper and native Vigor for nothing can subsist which is not firmed in the very Foundation of Nature and so enjoys this invincible Patronage yet the plain Purity of my Writings being Dedicated to Your Eminencies and thereby armed with so great Splendor thus doubly strengthened will appear more boldly in the sight of the World Accept therefore most Noble Princes this Diminutive Gift for the bare Title 's sake and go on if not entirely to love yet somewhat to respect and favour VENICE the Ides of May 1666. Your Highnesses most Devoted Servant OTHO TACHENIVS The PREFACE to the Courteous READER And Lover of the Ancient Doctrine of HIPPOCRATES HIppocrates The Writings of the Ancients were like the Oracles of Apollo Aenigmatical That bright-shining Light of Physick did wrap up His Divine Oracles in Aenigma's and with an Obscure Brevity related his Precepts in all the parts of his Works So that his Instructions and Aphorismes by reason of their Obscurity are wrested by Writers into diverse Senses some of which Galen with wonderful Skill and comely Order hath digested into Chapters but othersome especially the Golden Book De Diaetâ which is full of Mysteries he hath left untouched For the Divine Old-Man bequeathed Those only to the followers of Chymistry which Art was heretofore and perhaps in Hippocrates his time called Natural Philosophy For who can understand the rare sayings of that Old-Man or comprehend the Soft Fire mentioned by him unless he be well versed in this Occult Natural Philosophy of Hippocrates Raimund Lully gives his Attestation hereto for says he Testam chap. 26 Though a Logician may have as profound Wit acquired or natural able to argue concerning outward things yet he can never understand by any Reason grounded on Sense how the Seed in the Earth doth germinate increase and brings forth Fruit unless being assisted by experimental Learning He first have made some progress in Our Natural Philosophy rather than in That Sophistical Wordy one which Logicians do attain to by sundry Phantastical suppositions and presumptions who thereby with the Prognostications of their sequels against the force of Nature do cause many Men pertinaciously to err through an intoxicated Mind But by our Mechancial Science the Understanding is rectifyed in point of insight and of true Mental Knowledge by the force of Experience Yea Our Experiments are superior to all phantastical Probations of Conclusions and therefore admit not of Them but do shew the way how all other Sciences may enter vigorously into the Understanding Whence we further learn by Nature that Inward thing That it is and What it is because by such Science the Understanding is freed from those superfluities and errors which do ordinarily carry it off from the Truth by reason of those presumptions and prejudices which are believed in the Conclusions Hence it is that Our Chymists have directed themselves through the path of every Science to enter into all Experience by Art according to the course of Nature in her Uniâ—â—cal Principles For 't is only Chymistry which is the â—lass of the true Understanding shewing it how to feel and see Truths in a clear light and therefore Tabula Smaragdina saith By this kind of demonstration all Obscurity is banished and expelled from Man c. Hippocrates points at the foundations of this most Ancient Art Lib. 1 de Diaeta in the beginning of his aforesaid Book All other living Creatures says he as well as Man are constituted of Two principles different in faculty but concording and joyntly fit for Use Fire an Water Both of These together are sufficient both for all other things and also for themselves mutually but eitheir of them severally and a-part is sufficient neither for it self or any other c. It is my purpose in this short Tract to expose to View those two hitherto Obscure Principles to wit This soft Fire and Coagulable Water only out of a desire to propagate Truth which in this Age is wofully kept under by the Haters of Hippocratical Learning not that I think it possible for any Men wholly to exinguish it In regard it is Powerful Impregnable and Triumphant above all things in the whole World 3 Esdr c. 3 4. as Holy Writ also testifies For Zorobabel says Wine is strong The King si stronger Women strongest but above all things Truth beareth away the Victory all the Earth calleth upon Truth The Heaven praiseth it it is always strong it conquereth and liveth for evermore c. I know many men according to the variety of their Dispositions Obj. will diversly censure me for publishing That which Nature
of Crabbs were a Mineral and therefore an enemy to Nature but my answer is from the works of Nature in which I have demonstrated out of * L. 1. de Diaet Hippocrates That these things must needs so happen by Divine necessity To wit that there is often observed to wander up and down in us a certain dissolved Salt the Generation whereof I have shewed before in its place It consisting of Acid and Alcaly Compounded less agreeing among themselves and unfit for Transpiration and Sweat This by reason of the inequality of the Sapors doth not obey Purging Medicines as Experience shews Call this if you will an Humour truly excrementious lodging either in the first or in the last region of the Body produced either by the Womb Liver Spleen Reins Sweet-bread Mesentery or Stomach as to this point 't is all one Iron then being taken which as I have shewed Mechanically doth easily imbibe all Acids presently That Noxious Liquid-Salt or Excrementitious Humour runs hastily to the Iron and adheres to it that it may dissolve it and so that Saline Excrement according to the kind of the Sapor whiles it sticks to the Iron and corrodes it is coagulated as we have seen it with the Acid of Vitriol to be turned into Vitriol with the Acid of Wine into * And becomes the Tincture of Mars of the Reformer in his Appendix fol. 83. Rust So also it happens in Copper which if Vinegar corrode it becomes Verdigrease if the same Copper be corroded by Spirit of Vitriol it becomes Vitriol of Venus Consonant to this Doctrine is what I have formerly Ocularly demonstrated concerning Alcalyes and Acids but sithence It cannot be assumed into Aliment therefore it is purged by Stool It doth not â—scend the Viaphragma with the dissolved Iron of a black colour which colour ariseth when the Acid Salt corrodes the Iron and the Alcaly precipitates it into Colcothar as I have shewed above in its place But when Iron is drank As appears in Acid Fountains dissolved in an Acid Liquor but grateful to the Stomach The same Liquors being taken and throughly admitted the Iron presently being unfit as I said for Aliment is separated from the Acid by the Vertue of the Alcaly in the Mixture In which Segregation the aforesaid Salts or Humours flow to the Iron and adhere to It as we see it happens to Silver dissolved in Aqua Fortis if thin Plates of Copper be cast into the Solution then presently the Acidity of the Aqua Fortis deserts the Silver and corrodes the Copper and the Silver adheres to the Copper I speak not of him that never few any thing in his life but stinking Excrements as a compact Powder Again put a thin plate of Iron into the Solution which is now greenish from the Copper and the water presently leaves the Copper and corrodes the Iron and the Copper adheres to the Iron whiles the Vitriolate water of Goslarla corrodes the Iron then the Copper falls from the water into the place of the Iron which contained the Vitriol unripened this red powder melted in the fire turns to Copper This Precipitation many learned Men but ignorant of Hippocrates his Doctrine have believed to be the transmutation of Iron into Copper even so Mechanical reason and necessity also do Dictate that it must be in Man's body especially since Nature is alike in every think as the Old man speaks For unless the excrementitious Humour were of a certain Semi-acid Nature and Taste the Iron would not be dissolved in the body into a green or black mash as we daily see that it is and I have also shewed in its place And unless the Excrements be so tinged Iron is unadvisedly given for it finds not a fit Humour to dissolve it and in that case Iron is Astringent The use and abuse of Acids though the Aperitive Crocus Martis of the Reformer had been taken by the Mouth The same thing is to be understood of Acid Spirits as of Vitriol Sulphur Glass and Salt for These if they find not a wandering Alcaly in the body of Man an enemy to Vitality and therefore Morbous which the Acid Spirit may receive into it self they do more hurt than good for then by their over much Acidity they infect the neighbour Aliment of the Stomach and make it unfit for Nourishment A Physician of Rome a friend of mine Anno Dom. 1656 in the time of the Plague used Spirit of Sulphur in quantity for a Preservative who thereupon became * The Remedy of Arthritis is by Alcalyes Arthritical and was afterwards restored by the Alcaly of Animals as I have elsewhere shewed concerning the Feet-Gout For the Alcaly imbibes the Acid wanderingly dispersed over the the body which was the cause of Disease and Pain in the Ventricles not being accustomed to things manifestly Acid for so * Of Purging Medicines Hippocrates teacheth If any one prescribe Acid meats inconsiderately and without choice they do no good On this principle of Precipitation was the Golden Nail of the great Duke of Florence made which Ferdinand the first of happy Memory graced with this Testimony which is to be seen with the Nail at Florence Mr. Leonard Turneisser in my sight and presence A Golden Nail turned an Iron Nail heated in the fire and immersed in Oyl into Gold done at Rome the 20th day of November after Dinner Such Nails I have also in Sport sometimes made with my own hands but such as deal in Metals the vulgar way think it altogether impossible that Gold and Iron should Conglutinate and therefore they firmly believe that This Nail is really changed out of Iron into Gold and that which confirms their belief is that Gold doth not adhere to Iron yea Gold melted corrodes It in a moment and turns it into Rust * As Common Sulphur doth But Gold is connected with Iron by means of Precipitation as I have said on the same reason and ground for which Iron precipitates Copper Cut then an Iron Nail into two parts moisten the end at least with Spittle and presently touch that part with Cupreous Vitriol and in the very punctum the extremity of the Iron waxeth red and hath now acquired the nature of Copper The passage from one Extream to another is impossible withcut a Medium as the Philosopher says 6. Phys Now Gold is easily associated to and with Copper and so fit a Guspe or point made of Gold to this Cupreous Iron and with Borax and Golden Solidature or Soder which is made of * Glew of Gold Copper money a little Silver and Gold melted at the Eye is better melt it after the accustomed manner in a fitting Coal-fire and then you shall have the Golden Nail so much spoken of Turneisser tinged this Nail with Ferrugo wherewith he hid the Gold and so without doubt offered it to that great Prince to handle with his hands which being so disguised the