why certain simples do specifically Cure some Diseases Specifique Medicines as the Juice of Yarrow the Haemorrhoides Fumitory the Jaundies Butchers Broom the Distempers of the Urine Guajacum and Sarza the French-pox and the like and wherein all the Faculties of Purging simply do consist it would be tedious to declare in this place let it suffice to have given some small hint of it at least in this Writing wherein even against my will I have been inforced to discover Salts hitherto Objection Occult. But I hear some whispering an Objection that I endeavor to shew the Volatile Alcalyes of Vegetables with dissolved Lead whereas all Salt things do also precipitate Lead from this Solution as we have confessed before but with this difference that the Lead falls down with the Salt in the form of a Powder Distil the clear swimming upon the top and you will have Vinegar which carryed the dissolved Lead but it falls from the Vinegar because Salt hath a greater affinity with Vinegar than Metal but mix the Alcaly of the Herbs or rather drop the Juice of the aforesaid Herbs into that Solution of Lead then it doth not hastily fall down in form of a Powder but becomes as a Pultiss Distil the supernating Liquor and then you shall draw from it not Vinegar but an Insipid Water which is a manifest Argument that the Alcaly hath suckt up the Acidity How much Light this Hippocratical Doctrine may give to a Physician Solation as well in compounding Medicines that one ingredient hinder not another yea the Vertue of Simples may by this Knowledge be wonderfully exalted as in Curing Diseases let those judge who know how to distinguish Tastes and Sapors and moderately to invert and vary them which at present I shall only demonstrate in that one Example of the Nettle which being fresh and moist stings and blisters Vertue of the Nettle but dryed astringes and stops blood the Juice thereof is coagulated in dissolved Lead into a Black Gobbet which again in fixed Alcaly is presently diluted into an obscure but penetrable colour whence we learn that dryed Nettles boiled in Alcalizate Lye yet sweet as they call it do hinder Gray and Hoary Hairs if every day they be kembed with them with Vitriol it again concretes into yellowish clots which with the Spirit of the same Vitriol are again dissolved into a clear and pellucid Liquor Such I suppose were the hidden vertues of Roots and the differences of Shrubs of which Solomon speaks which he learned from the wise Artificer of all things in his Disputation from the Hyssop to the Cedar of Lebanon for it is not credible that He unnecessarily discoursed of first Qualities and of Elementary Degrees which our Botanicks boast to measure as it were with their tongues of These it cannot be said that they are hidden vertues This is the meaning of that Speech of Arnoldus de villa Nova though on other accounts his Works want correction Where Simples are at hand In Aph. 't is deceit to use Compounds Whilest I heretofore applyed my Self to this study I was much assisted by that Eminent and Skilful Botanick and diligent Apothecary Johannes Marâ—a Fero of this City who with singular Care and Study gathered together all sorts of Vegetables to whose Industry I do owe very much and accordingly I render him my real and hearty thanks By the help of this study I have also found out a Compound Powder A Powder against a Qartaâ— equivalent to if not exceeding the vertue of Chinella in a Quartan as they can witness who have bought and used it in order to their Health CHAP. XX. The Spiritual Representation of Plants OUt of what hath been spoken and declared we may discover the foundation on which the Spiritual Regeneration of Plants ought to be built of which Quercetan speaks in his Book against Anonymus which he said he had seen at a certain Cracovian Physicians who knew how to prepare the ashes of every plant so Elegantly and how to preserve their Spirits the Authors of their Vertues so Exactly that having above thirty of them in several Glass Vessels Seal'd with Hermes 's Seal if any one asked to have a Rose or a Marigold shewed him then he would put the bottom of the Vessel wherein was the Rose-ashes and the like of any other Flower which he was to shew to the Candle to warm it a little and then that fine and impalpable Ashes of it self would represent the evident form of a Rose encreasing and growing by degrees manifestly exhibiting the figure of a living florid Rose which shadowy representation when the Vessel was removed from the heat would again return to ashes This Secret says he I sought after with great study but could never attain it But this Spiritual Resuscitation of Plants seems not so difficult to the Hippocratical Philosopher especially when it is prosecuted The Vulgar burn by Fire the Châ—miâ—s by Water not with a violent but a soft fire therein imitating Nature as our Master teaches I have invented a way for it which yet by reason of the incommodity of this place for such kind of Studies I have not confirmed by Experience yet for the sake of the Curious I will here set it down I have Ocularly demonstrated out of Hippocrates that Acid and Alcaly the Architectonick Instruments of Nature are in all sublunary things These when they are not subjected to the Artificer but left to the government of Nature alone then That subject encreaseth and grows strong as the meanest Flint declares of which I have spoken in his place If then it encreaseth and grows of necessity the Acid and * I have elsewhere shew'd that the Spirit is the Bond joyning Soul and Body Alcaly must have something which directs their Operations to their proper ends This I elsewhere call the Rector give it what name you please provided we understand the thing for I shall not quarrel about words These Three Hermes that most ancient Philosopher calls Body Spirit and Soul Nature is like in every thing as Hermes Pythagoras and a terward Hippoc. teaches So that these Three are latent in that Terrene Receptacle which represents to us the figure of a Seed Let half a pound of this Seed for instance of Poppy from a full flower or head be gathered in â—â—ir weather which you must keep in a temperate place till the next Spring then in the Evening observe the clearing of the Sky whether it promise a fair Night for the Night must be fair wherein the Seed is to be exposed on a large board of Glass with the edg turned up that it fall not down and placed in a Meadow or Garden full of divers Flowers and Herbs for unless the soil be fruitful the Dew will be but barren In the Morning before Sun-rising you must carefully take away the Seed now moist with Dew from the Glass-Board and put it into a Phyal They were
blackned with Gauls as Vitriol of Iron is or because it cannot be distilled as Common Vitriol may as some foolishly give forth but why will you fantastically put a force upon Nature from those Accidents which are not common to all Vitriol Surely that Wise Mistriss doth little esteem not only the contumelies of venemous Tongues but she doth as much undervalue the old doting Fables of Wordy Doctors who refuse to learn Attend therefore diligently that you may be informed That as I have shewed a little before of Acids They bring Alcalyes to their will so it must needs happen here For when Natural Acid hath by chance corroded immature Iron then they are both coagulated into Vitriol of Iron which being mingled with Juice of Galls yields a black colour by reason of the Iron and not by reason of the Acid. And when the same Natural Acid hath by chance corroded immature Copper then they are both coagualted into Vitriol of Copper which though mixed with Juice of Galls grows not black yet it is and is also called both by the Skilful and Unskilful Vitriol That Natural Acid drawn forth by Distillation when it hath corroded Iron is coagulated again into Vitriol of Iron of a green colour The same Acid when it hath corroded Copper they are both coagulated into Vitriol of an * Coelesâ—iâ—i Azure colour So the same Acid when it hath corroded Alcaly of Tartar they are both coagulated into Vitriol of a White colour which is nothing else but regenerated Vitriol as my Hippocrates shews Chap. 17. Which Book I would wish you to read over before you rail against the Works of Nature But why your Common Vitriolate Tartar cannot be distilled Why Vitriolate Tartar made the Common way is not Distillable I will now clearly demonstrate That Natural Acidity which hath corroded Iron being Healthful Grateful and Precious is sought after by many but found by few I say This is attempted to be extracted out of the corroded and immature Metal by Art and the help of Fire in Distillation but seeing it cannot never be alone as Hip. de Diaet hath taught it easily carries off with it is like i. e. the Immature and Volatile Metalline Sulphur because the wind carries both in its womb and it becomes Common Spirit of Vitriol Austere and Corrosive by reason of the inseparable immature Metalline Sulphur mixed with it This Common and sourish Liquor of Vitriol however rectified yet contains in it the Sulphureous Liquamen of the Metal upon this ground that it can never be alone as in the progress will clearly appear If this Spirit or Liquor be poured on Alcaly of Tartar untilthe noise cease The Alcaly is impregnated but not with a Natural but a Metalline Acid the Aust erity of the immature Metalline Sulphur having the dominion and so a Son is begotten which must needs resemble the properties of his Father i. e. be fixed and constant in the Fire Lo here your Doctorships may see the reason why your Vitriolate Tartar cannot be Distilled For in that instant of Coition when the more powerful is embraced by the Alcaly The third because it is wealâ— is strangled and slain as will appear by little and little to the Reader This is That which the barren approvers with those which went before them were hitherto ignorant of I do call together with the company of Ancient Philosophers This Son of Metalline Sulphur Alcaly made Regenerated Vitriol Regenerated Vitriol because it hath laid down its Iron or Earthly Body and shines again re-produced in a brighter form Wherefore the soul of the imperfect Metal hid in the fowre Acid Spirit forms to it self a Fixed Body in the Alcaly of Tartar Whence it clearly appears That the Spirit is the Vehicle of the Soul and the Vinculum binding Soul and Body together which in the subsequent Discourse will more evidently appear to the Studious Lovers of the Truth Let us now hear Basilius Valeminus speaking of this Two-fold Spirit of Vitriol not to mention mine own Experience in His Book called Spirit of Vitriol two-fold Repetitio Lapidis Magnis in these words And that you may understand Vitriol says he you must know that it hath two Spirits a White and a Red the White is white Sulphur the Red is red Sulphur He that hath Ears to hear let him hear And let him diligently mark and forget it not for it is a dissicult saying and every word is of great weight the White Spirit of Vitriol is Acid amiable very grateful to the Stomach like Nectar to the Bowels and profitable for Vniversal Concoction but the Red is much more Acid and more weighty than the White and therefore requires a longer time to be extracted by Distillation Hitherto Basilius He that desires more let him consult the cited place the words are of great weight and for good reason cited and transcribed here If therefore the composition of Vitriol be of the Natural Acid amiable and of a sweet smell like Nectar to the Inwards in which no sensible biting is perceived by the Tongue but a spiritual and grateful Acidity Let Bâ—filius Acid Waters and Experience be all witnesses and of Immature Sulphureous Metal which Two cannot possibly be severed by Distillation for the Natural Acidity which is highly Volatile ascends not without its Companion the Acid Sulphur of the immature Metal because it cannot bâ— alone as I have shewn out of Hippocrates and have also learned by experience it remains therefore that it must be catch'd by crafty hands and that in a fit time too when it is asleep There are many private ways which the Studiers of Natures Secrets may take to procure this grateful and much sought for Acid which though many yet all conduce to one end as Geber rightly observes yet This way is not to be despised though the ignorant do contumeliously charge it to procure vomiting and raise many other Symptoms Ah unhappy Patients what Ministers of Nature have you got I speak not to deaf ones as being uncapable but to you who love the Truth I devote and offer this my work Dissolve then Vitriol of Iron I say of Iron which hath no smell of Copper if This cannot be had prepare That as Nature her self shews the way Hippoc. Chymic Chap. 28. For That which is Artificial of the Distilled Acid of Vitriol and Iron will not serve here Tartar Vitriolate of great 〈◊〉 see Hippoc. Chymic Chap. 17. The Roman is the best Instill into this clear Solution the purest Alcaly of Tartar which presently attracts and consumes the Natural Acid The Acid and Alcaly do not wax hot in this Conjunction as before in the Common Preparation of Vitriolate Tartar because the Fire or the Sulphur of the Immature Metal covets the Fire and for the greatest part is separated from the Natural Spirit as by degrees I shall Mechanically demonstrate ad oculum If this Composition seem to thee too thick so that the
out of which it was made and again is Congealed into Verdigreese the Faeces being rejected c. Spirit of Venus made This purged Aerago or eroded Brass is distilled with an open Fire out of a plated Retort and afrerwards is rectified out of Sand. Lo here Thou Mystes of Nature This is that Spirit of Venus and asecret menstruum as Alcahest see Hippoc. Chymic Chap. 29. which the Deans and Doctors of the Austrian and Norinberg Physick with their Fellows do adore for the Son of Venus of whom Epictetus sayes well Many are word-wife not deed-wise The proâ—city and filthy licentiousness that Venus is accused of by the many but vain clamours of false witnesses viz. that It admits of Five Lovers in one Act hath drawn Philosophers not only to the admiration but even to the unbelief thereof unless they had also known That in the Court of Accusation a multitude of Witnesses is many times loathsome and suspected by the Judges especially since they are not ignorant that in Nature Love is so far from admiting Five that it endures not a Third whence it is That they rather give sentence against the Accusers and say That as Venus upon Examination notwithstanding the false Imputations of her Accusers is found chaste and constant to one Male so it may likewise happen that any man may grow Famous from such Accusations as many have done who were otherwise unknown 'T is known to be True That indeed Venus is Lascivious Copper growe green from all Acids and that she admits every Male that is all Acids as well Occult as Manifest as Vinegar Oyl Suet Sugar Honey c. I say they all wax green with Copper without any difference into her Imbraces so that all Males are hot in Love i. e. wax green with Her But witness Alcaly the Mother of Natural Things She is never ravished with the delight of any of them to a del quium but only with her own Brother But that this discourse may appear more clear we will setch the Doctrine of it a little higher viz. That the Acid of every Vegetable drawn forth either by Fermentation on Distillation or Expression whether it be Occult or Manifest if it be poured on the Alcaly of Tartar doth inform the fame Alcaly with the Soul of That from whence it was taken and it is made a Salt of the same Acid Nature as I have shewed in the beginning of this Chapter by the Graines of Kermes in which the Deans with their Fellows deny that there is any Acid i. e. any Seminal Vertue and by Meal out of which They boast they can distill Acid Spirit of Sal Armoniackâ— see also Hippoc. Chymic Chap 2. and the end of Chap. 17. So also Vinegar of Wine distilled and cast upon Alcaly of Tartar to fatiety is Coagulated into Tartar Artificial Tartar and 〈◊〉 of the same Nature with the Wine from whence the Vinegar was taken This Tartar if it be distilled out of a Retort with Fire of Sand or an open Fire there comes forth a fat Oyl and bitterish Liquor as in the Distillation of Common Tartar I have also shewed the same thing Artificial Silt. in the beginning of this Chapter concerning Nitre concerning Salt concerning Allum and also concerning Vitriol for all Acid Liquor joyned with Alcaly doth impregnate it with the Soul of that Body from which it was reduced and forms a Body to it self ad Lubitum i.e. like its own proper Nature Let us see now Spirit of Venus â—reduced to an Examen for a Tryal of the Verity and Glory of Noble Physick whether That Vinegar Distilled from Verdigrease which they do so solicitously endeavour to keep from the Examen of Learned Men be the Legitimate Son of Venus or no I have shewed That Acid is the one only Spirit of the World and the Child of the Sun which is not found naked upon the earth but refusing to be alone It assumes Matter wherewith it dwells encreaseth regerminates and is multiplied sometimes as the Artificer pleases for his proper ends This when it falls on the seed of Copper that I may so speak it cloaths it self with the Nature of Copper in a long and laborious work Therefore it is not separable from Copper it self unless by the total destruction of the Copper as the example of Salt of Tartar in my Hippoc. Chymic Chap 10. doth shew for carrying in it the least Odor of a Metalline Nature it cannot descend to the Nature of Vegetables And the same Spirit falling upon the Seed of a Vine Clothes it self there with the indoles of the Vine and in like manner cannot ascend to the Nature of Minerals as I have demonstrated out of Lully and by Experience yea it is not separated from the Disposition or Indoles of the Vine unless being dissolved or loosned from its Body by Nature and Art it return to the Element of Air whence it came as Hippoc. Chymic in the fore-cited 10. and 18. Chapters shews The same is also to be understood of Salt of Vitriol of Nitre and of all the Things in the World for this cause because Art cannot create Seeds he that boasts he can do it Cosmopolita proves him to be a Deceiver so that every Spirit either Occultly or Manifestly Acid hath but one only Soul within it with which it being inseparably joyned doth constitute the Form of That Body in which it determines to dwell from which wehn it is extracted and again instilled upon a new Alcaly and is absorbed by it it takes upon it the like Body wherewith it was cloathed before or from whence it was first extracted but that Body somewhat clearer an Infallible Argument That a Spirit either Occultly or Manifestly Acid is the Vehicle of the Soul and the Bond uniting Soul and Body together And unless the Spirit of all Things in the Universe were Acid it could not invisibly carry in its Belly or Womb the Aima or Soul of the Body as Hermes and Experience Teach Let us now return to the Child new born which the Sworn Servant of Venus have lately begun to nominate and to commend for the Son or Spirit of Venus peremptorily also affirming That This hath drawn mighty Vertues from his Mother or Copper but they consider not that the Vertues of Things as also the force of Purgatives do confist in their Soul which I have shewed in the first Chapter to be a Child of the Sun The Vertue of Purgatives whence and to be inseparably joyned to the Spirit of that Thing both which do constitute that Eximious Vertue which is in Copper which Spirit ought again to manifest it self in Alcaly if it did flow in an Acid form as I have experimentally shewed to the Eyc concerning other Spirits and concerning Alcaly of Tartar Let us now proceed to Experience and to make Trial of this Acid and Rectifyed Spirit of Venus saturated to Susliciency Spirit of Venus in Alcaly made Tartar
were a Radical Moisture remaining in Flesh and in all Aliments fit and sufficient nourishment could not be suppeditated to the Living especially to those who are growing and encreasing witness Flesh and Fish salted and dried in the smoak which have less Radical Moisture than when they were fresh or new for much of it is eaten up by the Salt as Hippoc. Chymic shews chap. 14. and therefore they nourish less than if they were fresh Wherefore Acid or Soft Fire is to be found as well in the Vegetable and Mineral as in the Animal Family and it is That which adorns every thing which is in the World even as Water is That which nourisheth it as Hippocrates rightly speaks I say by the presence of this Fire and Water both which do constitute the Radical Moisture as I shall shew immediately before Chylification is the Acid of the Stomack enlightned and refreshed in regard it is more or less in all Aliments as also in other things as experience shews There is more radical humidity in one new-laid Egg than in an whole Pot full of Coleworts more in one Cup of Wine than in an whole Bucket of Water Wherefore Acidity being deficient in the Stomack as Hippoc. Chymic in the places fore-cited plainly shews is restored by the Radical Moisture of Aliments but chiefly and most of all by that Gelestial Food dwelling in the Air for This is the Seed of Life without which neither Man nor other Animals or any Vegetable can attain to Generation or Life for that Spiritual Food or Attraction of the External Air which by often breathing we suck in doth so much conduce to the Life of Animals that it hath caused not only Philosophers but also Plebeians to admire at it Neither hath Nature Artificially placed her Bellows in the neighbourhood of the Heart onely to cool it as the Vulgar think c. but also that by their frequent Ventilation they might suck in the Aethereal Aura by whose afflatus and in-breathing the aforesaid Acid is repaired and doth uncessantly regerminate For as the Ingenious Cosmopolita shews before in the Third Chapter as the Rain receives That Vertue of Life and by the Sun Beams joyns it with the Alcaly of the Earth so also the same Vertue of Life is attracted into the Microcosme by Inspiration and is fixed by the Solar Beams of the Heart into the Alcaly or Radical Moisture of Animals as I shall by and by Experimentally shew This is the True Ancient Learning and Doctrine of Hippocrates concerning the Soft Fire Adorhing Bodies which will always hold in despight of Rabious Maledicence as He testifies in his Book de Carnibus as well as Cosmcpolita saying to the same sense I will also deliver my Opion That which we call Calid seems to me to be immortal and to understand all Things to Adorn See Hear and Perceive all Things both present and future the greatest part whereof in the general Perturbation of all Things retired into the supream Appartiment which the Ancients seem to me to have called Aether The other part obtaining the lowest place is called Earth Cold and Dry undergoing many mutations wherein there is yet much Calidity What can be spoken more clearly for the Radical Moisture of Things For That which Cosmopolita shews in the Macrocosme see Chap. 3. the same things according to Hippocrates are to be understood in the Microcosme For Mans Body unless it were required by that Immortal Calid both by Aliments and also by Inspiration being Cold and Dry would undergo many changes and at length would crumble to nothing before our Eyes even as the flame of a Candle when the Wax or Tallow is spent or when it is blown out by the Wind yet it doth not wholly perish as 't is Vulgarly thought and as it seems but being destitute of its Pabulum is plucked from it and so is scattered abroad and vanishes into Air which is the Abysse and Universal Receptacle of the Lights and Spiritual Natures of the Material World as Raymund hath it and as the Text of Hippocrates in his Book de Carnibus doth a little before explain Wherefore the chief Fewel and Food of Life is supplied out of the Air to all the three Kingdoms Hence the Ancients said Jovis omnia plena and Cosmopolita affirms that the hidden Food of Life is in the Air which as I have shewed assumes a Body to it self in an agreeable and consentaneous root and subject Wherefore Innate Calid and Radical Humid differ much one from another That is wholly Solar and Occultly Acid and Oily but This is more Corporeous Constnat and Saline That is of a Superior Order This of an Inferior in which is that Country where Man takes a Wife to himself as Cosmopolita speaks in his Tract de Sulphur and it is the Hell whether Plato is said to have hurried Preserpina and Cores her Mother imploring Jupiters aid for her Redemption was answered That she might return if she had tasted nothing in Hell i. e. unless that Celestial Spirit the Child of the Sun had not been absorbed by the Alcaly but as yet had dwelt free in the Air then she might have easily returned but she had tasted Grains of a Pomegranate in Elisium i. e. in Pleasure for which Reason she could not return till six Months were expired i. e. till the Pomegranates were consumed and then Proserpina returns to her Mother as the Light of a Candle doth to its Source or Country as I said before So that They are deceived who confound Innate Calid and Radical Humid in all the Three Families for they differ no less amongst themselves than Aqua Caustica doth from Mercury in which it takes a Body as appears by the falsified or counterfeit Emplaister unjustly ascribed to John de Vige. For in mixt Bodies the Radical Morstarâ— is the Seat and Food of the Celestial Fire and its Bond uniting it to the Elementary Body but that Igneous Vertue is the Form and Soul of mix'd Bodies more clearly thus The Spirit being either occultly or manifestly Acid is the Seat and Band which ties the Soul to the Body Let us then do as Nature doth whom Art ought to imitate as her Guid in all Things or otherwise we shall never become Compleat Servants to Nature Let Elementary Water be an Example which being impregnated with the Child of the Sun that is with Celestial heat falls upon the Radical Moisture or Alcaly of a Vine and is imbibed by it and so becomes the same thing with it as I have shewed in the Second and Third Chapter I shall also give an Example in the Counterfeit Spirit of Venus which from the beginning was Simple Water which being impregnated with Celestial Calidity fell upon the Radical Humid of the Vine This in undergoing many Mutations by Reason of the aforesaid Calid having a power in it self from Nature to multiply it self is brought to Maturity and becomes a Grape whose Aqueous Juice being pregnant
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
Immature Metal cannot fall down dilute it with Water and it will the sooner fall Let it not be tedious to thee to find the Moment of Saturation which after the first Filtration will easily follow or if the Alcaly do overcome the Acid it produces no other inconvenience then the loss of time in digestion That the Immature Metal may subside see Hippoc. Chymicus Chap. 10. Exhale leasurely unto the Cuticle the clear Liquor placed in a Bath of Dew in a Glass Vessel being acuminated under or in the bottom to the end that if there be any of the Immature Metal it may be separated in the heat at the bottom and when 't is cold you shall find Splendent Chrystals which do neither heat nor turn the stomach as Common Vitriolate Tartar doth for they have not the Sowre and Corrosive Sulphureous Liquamen of the Immature Metal and therefore are much to be prized in Physick Lo here the Rudiments out of the Hippocratical and Pythagorical School which are enough for the Ingenious neither is it lawful to discover All plainly These and many other Things are to be reserved for Our followers Concerning the Vertues of this Vitriolate Tartar see Crollius and you will act securely I say no more for it shews it self to be a most powerful Hercules 'T is true indeed That one Ounce of this Vitriolate Tartar requires at the beginning about three Ounces of Alcaly because first it mortifies the Immature Sulphur of the Metal and afterwards draws forth the Natural Acid. An Example of which Operation I have given Chap. 3. concerning the Lixivium of Sope-boilers viz. where Vegetable Alcaly doth first mortifie the Acid of the Calcined Flint which is unfit for the Lye and doth concrete it into a rocky substance Contraries coagulated by Contraries for contraries are Coagulated by contraries and afterward the same Vegetable Alcaly doth elicite and draw forth from the Calcined Flint a most powerful Alcaly because like is dissolved drawâ— and joyned to its like The same Action is also performed in this our regenenerated Vitriol or Vitriolate Tartar call it as you please yet with this difference That the Alcaly of Tartar is turned with the Immature Metal into its Coagulum and afterwards it absorbs the Natural Acid which difference is to be observed because it is useful See also Hippoc. Chymicus Chap. 3. and 4. where the Example of Sope is not without Cause propounded nor is it to be thought useless as heedless people think This our Vitriolate Tartar is not constant in the Fire but for the half Volatile according to the property of the Father which begat it whereas on the contrary the Common Tartar remains constant in the Fire by reason of the Metalline Sulphur which the Alcaly had imbibed and therefore it is not Volatile or Distillable because it hath not got the Metalline Soul which perseveres in Fire Artificial Vitriol of Mars and Venus as I have above likewise shewed If therefore Spirit of Common Vitriol be informed with the Soul of Copper or Iron 't is no wonder if being poured on these Two perfect Metals it dissolves Them and with Them make a counterfeit shew of Vitriol for like is easily joyned to like fire to fire water to water Spirit of Vitriol being distilled delights in Sulphur and in its like in Mars and Venus it is pleas'd with it it pierceth into their Bowels it dissolveth both Metals and again assumes a body and with Them resembles Natural Vitriol But having no Dominion over Them it cannot perfect the said Metals because it hath no more than is sufficient for its own sustentation for if you again separate the Acid from the said Metals by Distillation the same Spirit of Vitriol will return as you poured it on neither perfecter nor better and the remaining Caput Mortuum is melted into the same Copper that it was before it was dissolved or into Crocus Martis if it had dissolved the Iron without any alteration neither doth it come forth better or worse then other Crocus's however prepared as I have shewed and shall further shew for Nature is the same in every thing as both Pythagoras and Hippocrates have taught If therefore Spirit of Vitriol make an impression on Copper by means of Sulphur as I have shewed and yet can take away nothing of the Vertue of the Copper either by Maceration or Solution Coagulation and Distillation much less can other Acids of what kind soever It is both admirable and pleasant throughly to search into this Matter for it is of great concernment as to the Common-wealth of Medicine so also to all Virtuosi and to the Numerous the Famous and in our times the Flourishing Company of Apothecaries Aerugo made of Plates of Copper and Grapeâ— make therefore Aerugo or Verdigrease of thin Plates of Copper with Recent Grapes thin Webs of Linnen or Silk being interposed adding thereto whatsoever pleases you in the rude way of operation Vinegar â—V rine of Women doubtless otherwise it would not bear the Name of Venus tAllum and Nitre The Deans of the Austrian and Norimberg Colledge with the other Approvers do affirm That this miscellany doth not in time wax sowr yea that the Acid vapour of the ingredients cannot pass through the thin web to the body of the Copper to corrode it but if this can savour I will not say of Truth but of Probability let the Skilful judge How Aerugo is made Dioscorides Teaches rightly and without fraud Five Masterless Theeves and Robbers fighting under the gross Banner of Ignorance do assault a frail Female let modest youth take notice that this chaste bashful Female is clad with a thin Vail that she may not appear naked in the sight of Five such Souldiers who for a long time makes a stout resistance but seeing Hercules himself cannot long withstand Two she at last is made a prey and with one of the Robbers i. e. Vinegar as I shall shew she is turned into biting Aerugo imitating the nature of the Acid. This Matter is called by our Ancestos Green Aerugo but it hath not been called by the Name of Vitriol because it hath not the properties of Vitriol and therefore they called it Aerugo to intimate that the Five Robbers altogether had not the force or power to extract the least Vertue from the Copper or of altering it in the least point Copper is not destroyed by Acid Liquors or Vapors but only of corroding its Corporeity for they have no dominion over It neither do they return the richer from It And though there be many that do boast of such a thing yet their boasting is vain for it is established by the Decree of the great Creator that the more noble should not degenerate into the less noble or the better into the worse and so pass into the servile form of a slave Wherefore Copper or if you will Venus is now turned into Verdigrease biting and rough and is dissolved in Distilled Vinegar
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
empty Stomach which desires to be satisfied Silver being given it for food it dissolves it and is pleased with it but when you cast in a Physical Drug as I may so call it into this Solution I mean Copper with which for the similitude between them it is more delighted than with the Silver presently it deserts the Silver and again dissolves the Copper and the whole Solution becomes green It must needs be so also in the Body of Man since Nature is in every thing alike as Pythagoras and since Him Hippocrates have taught us Again If you put Iron into Aqua Fortis which here is as the Stomach or Ventricle impregnated or loaded with Copper in regard Copper is of harder Solution and Concoction than Iron the Water presently leaves the Copper and dissolves the Iron And although Aqua Fortis hath already deposed Silver and Copper yet its Acidity and Property hath still dominion over them until they are freed by a melting Fire which is to be observed by Our Friends for it is else where of great use But it is objected by such as are ignorant of this Common and Ancient Order and Consent of Nature and who out of their small Skill go about to overthrow the Hippocratical Verity That I put my Sickle into another Mans Corn and Harvest as if it were a shame for me to know That which all men should or ought to know in an Art or as if They were the only famous Philosophers who compile together Surreptitious and ill understood Receits without the knowledge of the Causes of Things And as Silver and Copper were troublesome to the Stomach of Aqua Fortis that I may so speak which is better when it is cured with Iron so also this Morbóus Forrain Ferment or Humour call it which you please being consumed by the Iron The Ventricle of the Milt and the neighbour parts become botter affected Take therefore at mouth Stomoma i. e. Steel or its Crocus either Astringent or Aperitive with which that Acid Ferment hath a greater agreement than with the Milt and therefore it hastily rushes in pervading its Pores from the Ventricle of the Milt to the whole Stomach Horat'us his Sterilis Rubigo that it may associate it self with the assumed Iron which by that Acid Forrain Ferment is dissolved into a Black or Green Fax according to the property of the Acid as the Excrements of the Belly do testify and if this Acid be not totally consumed by the Iron at one turn it is repeated so often till the Milt shew some signs of its Exiccation so the Anima of one ens i. e. the Ferment of the Disease enters into the Iron and the Anima of another goes out because the Acid or Anima of the Iron which constitutes the Iron goes forth Hence Crocus Martis is called by Horatius Sterilis Rubigo that the Acidity of the Disease might again enter in according to the Doctrine of the Pythagoreans For Nature acts in the Microcosme by the same Instruments as in the Macrocosme For the Ancients have taught us That it is every where alike Here Ideots and Destroyers of Hippocratical Medicine will object That I place a Disease in the Ventricle of the Milt and yet give Iron by the Mouth How then can the Morbous Acid come or reach from the Milt to the Iron as they have also written concerning burnt Harts-horn Which Objection is not worth the answering for one Fool may raise more Questions than an hundred Wise Men can answere but sithence these sluggish Doctors never understood This out of Hippocrates his Sixth Book de Morbis Popularibus out of pitty to them I will shew them the place for he there says that the whole Body as long as Life is in it is perspirable and penetrable see Hippoc. Chymic Chap. 16. But when the Milt or Liver is gone to a Schirrhus then indeed the Steel by consuming the Faber or Operant would more harden the Bowels though the Aperitive Crocus Martis of all these Subscribers be never so much taken by the Mouth He that desires to know more of Iron let him read Hippocrates Chymicus in the fore-cited Chapter So that the Acid which Iron consumes in the Body of Man differs very much from the false Spirit of Venus and from all other Acids in general because it is a specifick and to be found in no other place for if Iron be not wholly dissolved by It in the Body the Excrements of the Belly are not tinged into a Black or Green Colour and then indeed Iron doth Astringe though the Aperitive Crocus of these Innovators be administred as Hippoc Chymic in the fore-cited Chap. doth experimentally shew so that Acid is also a Specifick which burnt Harts-horn drinks up in some Feavors which the sluggish Approvers do judge must needs pass through the intestines to the place affected and to the seat of the Feavor if otherwise it ought to consume the Acid there generated and detained They understand not what Hippocrates teaches in the fore-cited place that the whole Body in Living Persons is permeable and that a Spirit Acid more Acid or most Acid is the Cause of Diseases c. and that it is fermentable and so flows as well through the Pores adextra by diaphoresis or gentle sweat as appears in the Crisis as it goes and rushes to the Intestines unto the Harts-horn as I have shewed concerning Steel provided it find a convenient and specifick Acid in the Body Truly this is a rural clownish Doctrine and worthy the Approvers for if Mediciues must needs pass out of the Stomach to the Seat of the Disease through the Pores then the Sweat and Urine would wax Red from the Crocus Martis especially their Aperitive Crocus Bezoar in Swoonings doth not pass through the Membranes of the Stomach to the Heart nor doth it return from thence for consuming the Lypothymick Acid Neither doth Ostiocolla travel to the broken Bone that it may prohibit or absorb the Specifick Acid there neither doth the Stone of a Crab go to the Wound nor doth a grain of Opium taken at Mouth for the Head-ach pass up or ascend to the Head They are ignorant that the Subtile Argute Judge and equal Weigher of all things which distinctly knows the Seminal Vertue not only of Medicines but also of all other things besides and accordingly doth either embrace segregate or neglect It dwels in the Stomach as I shall shew by Experience Authority and Reason in the following Chap. wherefore this indecent kind of ignorance is to be hissed out of the School of Hippocrates and out of Common Life too To instruct Block heads as Lucian says is a greater and nobler Secret than the very Philosophers Stone for it were to transsorm the understanding and to make Dolts and Stupid Persons Teachable CHAP. IX That Acid and Alcaly in Animals is the innate Calid and Radical Humid HAving discovered the Properties and Essences of Things the Rise Progress and Death
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
89 Moon the Mother of Alcaly p. 18* Moon why called Mother p. 18* Matter what p. 1 Mars his Root in the Air p. 7 Mercury precipitated obscurely Red p. 50 Mercury its properties p. 52 Mercury its Caustickness how to be taken away p. 52 Mercury precipitate of Vigoe p. 52 Mercury extinguished with Oil and Spittle is Sweet p. 53 Mercury precipitate Caustick p. 52 Mercury absumes the Nature of that to which it is joyned p. 54 55 Mercury made Anodyne Anodynes being added to it p. 51 N NAture hath given more Alcaly than Acid to all Compound Bodies except Sulphurs p. 6 Nature acts after a Spiritual manner p. 100 Nitre its Root in the Air p. 7 Nitre its quantity whence it depends p. 9 Nitre of the Earth p. 9 P Pot-ashes p. 13 Pearls dissolved in Vinegar not good p. 60 Paronychia what p. 99 Plants how spiritually resuscitated p. 10 Principles of Hippocrates p. 1. Proverb Mentiris ut Medicus whence p. 21 Purging Medicines whence they have their force p. 39 They loose their Vertue when their innate Spirit is washed off p. 101 Principles Three of Chymists whence p. 2 Pearls their Pellicles not dissolveable by Vinegar or Spirit of Venus p. 43 S SOul of Man what p. 86 Simples dry yield little Salt p. 24 Stone of the Reins is Red from the Blood p. 103 Stone its Original p. 102 Stone of the Bladder why white p. 103 Stones of Crabs are not Morbous p. 102 Stone in the Gall of an Hedghog p. 102 Its Vertues p. 103 It is bitter p. 103 Its use p. 103 104 Stone in the Gall of an Oxe p. 103 Stone of the Reins why Red p. 101 Stone of an Hairy Serpent p. 109 It doth not attract all Poyson p. 109 Sal Philosophorum a Medium between Alcaly and Acid p. 15 Salt Common compared to the Sun p. 16 Its necessity p. 16 It is the chiefest of all Salts p. 16 'T is of a Salt Acid taste Why it preserves Flesh from putrefaction p. 17 It imbibes no Acid p. 17 It gives an Acid Spirit p. 18 Salt which to be preferred before other p. 17 Salt of Tartar Volatile its process refuted p. 18 Salt Common washes not away filth and therefore cannot be made Sope p. 24 Why it admits not filth p. 24 Its Vertues p. 24 25 Salt in general an Acid and Alcaly p. 23 Salt Alcalyes their preparation requires fresh Herbs p. 24 Salt of Wormwood its preparation p. 25 Salt of Vegetables its preparation p. 26 Salts Artificial p. 38 Salt of Mans Blood p. 89 Salt of Vipers of the Author what p. 91 Saturn attracts Luna p. 107 Sol and Luna govern Acid and Aloaly p. 2 Spirit of Venus p. 36 Spirit of Venus a counterfeit Panacea and Alcahest p. 41 Sun why called by Aristotle Father and Earth the Mother of all Vegetables p. 3. Sun in the Firmament called Acid of Acids p. 4 Sun its effects p. 6 Suns Child Acid and Pinguous p. 29 Suns Child assumes not a Body but with his Sister p. 62 Sun and Heart compared p. 86 Spirit of Vitriol Acid Sulphureous p. 29 Spirit It contains the Sulphureous Liquamen of Metals p. 31 Spirit the Vehicle of the Soul p. 32 Spirit of Vitriol twofold p. 32 Spirit occultly or manifestly Acid the Vehicle and Bond uniting Soul and Body together p. 39 Spirit of Vitriol with Corals makes a counterfeit shew of curdled Milk p. 44 Spirit of Vitriol returns more subtil after coagulation with Metals p. 46 Spirit of Vitriol Volatile the Suns Child and Brother of our Vital Spirit p. 94 Sulphur Sol and Salt have more Acid than Alcaly p. 17 T TArtar of Graines of Kermes p. 27 Tartar of Wine regenerated p. 28 Tartarus Vitriolatus p. 29 30 Tartar Vitriolate cannot be distilled p. 31 Tartarus Vitriolatus of the Author p. 33 Tartar Vitriolate of the Author not fixed p. 34 Tartar Artificial p. 37 Tartar Vitriolate of Alcaly of Tartar and crude minera of Vutriol of Mars p. 91 V VInegar its Pinguedo conceives flame p. 27 Vinegar dissolvâ—s Corals p. 42 Vinegar from Aerugo why more sharp than the simple p. 45 Vinegar from Copper returns more Acid not from Alcaly p. 46 Vinegar returns insipid from Lead p. 47 Vinegar cleanseth p. 48 Vinegar what p. 84 Vinegar destroyed p. 85 Verdigrease the way of makeing it p. 35 Vener is Spiritus examined p. 38 Venus Spirit with Alcaly made Tartar p. 39 Veneris Spiritus dissolves Corals and Pearles p. 42 43 Venus Spirit counterfeit discovered from its very rise p. 40 84 Vitriol its root in the Air p. 7 Vitriol of Venus grows not black with Juice of Galls p. 30 Vitriol of Mars doth p. 30 Vitriol of Venus its colour p. 31 Vitriol of Mars its colour p. 31 Vitriol white p. 31 Vitriol Artificial of Mars and Venus p. 34 reduced p. 35 Vigoe his Plaister of Frogs with Mercury p. 53 Vitriol why added in the Sublimating of Mercury p. 56 Vitriol its Caput Mortuum exposed to the Air impregnated with a new Spiritual Humidty p. 63 Vitriol its Caput Mortuum not regenerated in the Air into Vitriol p. 64 Vnicorn not a four-footed Animal but a Fish p. 69 W VVAter the first matter of all things p. 9 Water of a Feminine Nature p. 9 Water the root of many things p. 9 Water called Alcaly p. 9 Water Catholick Wine p. 11 Water nourisheth all things p. 11 Water Elementary contains an occult Alcaly p. 45 Water nourisheth all in the Body p. 78 Water of Frogs Spawn rich in Alcaly takes away inflamations of the Gout p. 102 Wood rotten void of Lixivious Salt p. 24 FINIS An Advertisement concerning the ERRATA In regard the Translator could not at all attend the Press during the whole time of the Impression several mal-punctations and literal mistakes have happened which are left to the Reader 's candor and ingenuity to amend with his pen But the Errata which do most affect the sense are these which follow In HIPPOCRATES CHYMICVS PAge 15 l. 7 read in for into p. 14 l. 10 r. command for commend p. 16 l. 7 r. it ran into Chrystals as Nitre for it was chamfered in its coalition as Nitre p. 17 l. 20 r. In Alcaly of Tartar is made Nitre for in Alcaly is made Nitre of Tartar p. 20 l. 34 r. in a Test for in an Earthen Pot p. 21 l. 10 r. the Covers of the Test for the Earthen Covers p. 21 l. 5 r. allayed for bound in p. 22 l. 27 and 34 r. Neighbour Vessel for Neighbours Vessel p. 23 l. 22 r. to fall for to run p. 27 l. 3 l. 7 l. 9 l. 13 r. plate for slate p. 39 in margine r. c. 6. for l. 16. p. 40 l. 10 r. from Acid into a Lacteous Salt Chyle for from an Acid Salt into a Lacteous Chyle p. 41 l. 18 r. precede for proceed p. 42 l. 22 r. apart for part p. 43. l. 33. r. in all vacuities for all vacuities p. 44 l. 14 r. bitter for better p. 45 l. 32 r. with all its strength and is grateful for of great strength and is grateful p 46 l. 15 r. there is acidity in the Stomach for the acidity in the Stomach p. 48 l. 2 r. Liquor for dissolving the Stone with Ludus for a Liquor for the Stone Ludus p. 52 l. 30 adde more dark p 56 l 21 r. spirit for powder p. 67 l. 28 dele e p. 70 l. 23 r. simples for simply p. 73 l. 30 r. as in for in p. 75 l. 18 r. Homunâ—â—lus for man p. 78 l. 17 dele of the p. 76 l. 34 r. constancy for consistency p. 78 l. 32 r. things for salts p. 79 l 37 dele their p. 84 l. 23 r. petechiales for petectriales p. 83 l. 2 r one acidity alone for acidity alone p. 85 l. 34 r. lilium for libium p. 88 in margine r. mumial for mumail p. 90 l. 5 r. Acid and Salt for Acid from Salt p. 102 l 14 r. Campanam p. 108 l. 3 dele the l 5 r. into for in p. 113 l. 18 r. Nitre for Glass p. 118 l. 30 r. impertinently for impatiently In the CLAVIS IN the Epistle r. favourer for feavourer p. 3 in margine r. Sun for Son p. 11. l. 27 r. is coagulated for as coagulated p. 13 l. 4 dele comma after Salt p. 18 l 3 r. Sun for Son l 35 r. Acids imbiber for Acid an imbiber p. 24 l. 31 r. apluda for aplauda p. 28 l 2 r. Salts for Stals p. 27 l. 25 r. Acid for Alcaly p. 25 l 7 r. catch not flame for catch its flame p. 31 l 17 r. can for cannot p. 33 l. 24 r. covets the bottom for covets the fire p. 36 l. 33 r. luted for plated p. 38 l. 9 reduced for reduced p. 40 l 4 r. had for hid p. 54 l. 6 r. Mercury simply dissolved in Aqua fortis and precipitated for Mercury and simple dissolved in Aqua fortis precipitated p 58 l. 9 r. to whom for from whom p. 59 l. 26 r. which though it beinflameable is yet Acid for yea though it be inflameable p. 66 l. 15 r. coals for corals p. 83 l. 22 r. Pluto for Plato p. 33. l. 14 r. mystae for myxtae p. 97 l. 1 r. muscle for male p. 98 l 39 r. ferment viz. Acid for viz Ferment either c. p 102 l. 6 after attributes insert i. e. various Acids p 107 l. 9 after Son insert of the Sun p. 109 l. 3 r. magnet for magneâ—â—k l. 5 r. soil for Oil p. 115 l. 7 r. indivisibili for indivisibility
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
it was chamfered in its Coalition like Nitre to the wonderment of the beholders These Examples do shew that by how much Alcaly is fuller of Fire the Mercury falls so much the darker because that in the very instant of absorbing Arsenick called by Paraâ—â—sus the Soot of Metals fired with Nitre and resolved is not excepted the Fiery Alcaly affects and flashes against its Sulphur like Lightning but the further it recedes from Ignipotence the Mercury falls the brighter so that volatile Alcalyes as of Soot and of all Animals from the aforesaid Solution do precipitate Mercury of a white and snowy colour all which will more clearly appear in the Progress So Mercury precipitated from the Balsam Samech casts a snowy colour Balsamus Samech somewhat inclining to yellow but if you pour on more than its Nature can bear then it turns to a glittering colour But salt things of what kind soever do not precipitate Mercury out of the above-named solution yea by how much the nearer they approach to the nature of Salts so much the less they hurt Acids Examples follow Alcaly of Saltpeter though its first Original be from Alcaly of Urine yet with Sulphur being fix'd into Alcaly and therefore it tasts somewhat saltish it somewhat disturbs the Mercury so dissolved but doth not precipitate it but if you add to this Pulverised mixture before it doth deflagrate and leave burning a certain fixed and dried Alcaly of Tartar and keep it over a gentle fire then first it melts the Sulphur and the pingueous Acid of the Sulphur preparing for its flight is greedily imbibed or drunk in by the Alcaly which is also pingueous as it happens in the preparation of Lac Sulphuris the moist way The heat still continuing the Nitre also is melted whose sulphureous and inflamable part is associated to its like viz. to the Pinguedo of the Sulphur yea it is greedily received in by the Alcaly a middle part of which is sufficient in respect of the Powders as of * Sal Fulminant Nitre three parts of Alcaly of Tartar two parts of Sulphur one part and so becomes Salt In this Salt mass each of the Sulphurs doth boil or bubble up and the fire continuing and being increased they take flame which in the kindling not enduring the narrowness of place in the Salt bursts out into the Air with a noise like Thunder That these things are so the Alealy which is sometime left behind may inform us especially when it is kindled not in a Concave but in a plain place and very leisurely for then it is changed by the Acid Spirits into Salt and doth not any longer precipitate Mercury Hence by the way we may learn that This is the ground why Ceraunocryson or Aurum Fulminans gives a crack or loud noise I have elsewhere shewed that the Spirit of Nitre in Alcaly is made Nitre of Tartar Aurum Fulminans Gold is almost all Sulphur after its own sort and manner as I have also experimentally demonstrated in its place for which reason it is not corroded by Acids Gold therefore being dissolved in salt water of Nitre Allum and Sal Armoniack or common Salt if you pour in by little and little not all at once a certain Alcaly the Acid Spirit of the Nitre for the Spirit of Allom or Vitriol in the distillation of Aqua fortis doth not ascend takes to it self a Body in the vacuous and empty Alcaly and so becomes natural Nitre but the sulphurous Nitre easily adheres via humida to the sulphurous * This is the cause that Gold dissolved in Spirit of Salt and the same fore-cited Alcaly precipitat is not falminans for it returns to Salt which resists the flame Gold because of the similitude between them and they are so throughly mix'd together that by no art of Ablution they can be separated i. e. when the Acid of Nitre is imbibed by the Alcaly it is coagulated into natural Nitre which finds the Sulphur in the dissolved Gold and with it as being of the same nature to use Hippocrates's words it receives coagulation as I have shewed in Calx But if you pour on more of the Alcaly so that it exceed the degree of Nitre then the Nitre also inclines and deflects to the nature of Alcaly and it can no longer be called Aurum Fulminans of which more anon But to return from this digression So also Fel Vitri * Anat. Croll in Lupide medicam contracts the same relish becoming Salt from the Acidity of the Flint for it doth not precipitate Mercury at all Liquor of Talck not Oyl as the ignorant vulgar think for it conceives not flame stirs not Mercury at all as neither do Salts from all Diuretick Herbs as Bean-stalks Broom S. John's Wort Rupture Wort Nettles c. all these I say are Acid-salt and do not precipitate Mercury from the said Solution but when they are Alcalized by a quick flame or Fusion then the Mercury falls down reddish Hence it appears that that most Learned Man of the Ancients who taught us to extinguish red hot Glass in the Ashes of Bean-stalks and not in its Salt did rightly institute the burning thereof and not according to the Doctrine of our unskilful Reformer lest the Salt should unadvisedly assume the nature of Alcaly of which I have spoken before in the fifth Chapter The salts of the Ashes of vulnerary Herbs such as Bettony Agrimony Winter-green Elatine Star-wort Sanicle c. all yielding a tart Salt are therefore unfit for vitrification and do not precipitate Mercury which is of the same taste as shall be shewed in its place But all the aforesaid Salts by the fire of Fusion do change their nature and become Alcalyes are vitrified and do precipitate Mercury of a sparkling colour Hence Zoar upon Exodus observes that Glass is made of any Ashes i.e. when they are reduced to Alcaly Common Salt doth not precipitate Mercury Conslancy of Salt in the Fire from the above-mentioned Solution yea although it be burnt a long time and with a quick flame it would never become Alcaly neither doth it change its nature by digestion wherefore it is the perfectest of all Salts and by a singular priviledge is called by Helmont The excellentest of Salts So Salt of Vipers doth not precipitate Mercury unless the Acid and the Alcaly be again separated one from the other of which hereafter Salt of Wormwood being Acid-salt doth not for that reason precipitate Mercury Pharmico f. 788. neither doth it absorb Spirit of Vitriol as the Reformer teaches under the Title of Coagulated Spirit of Vitriol but when it is Alcalized it precipitates Mercury yellow and then also it absorbs the Acid Spirit of Vitriol and vitrifies Hence we learn that in a fire stronger than the nature of the thing will bear Salts will be fixed and converted into a Neutral thing wherefore many things are produced by the sole Regiment of Fire not as
into Pellucid Tartar which he burnt and as the custom is with common water extracted the Alcaly which he suffered to run down into a Liquor of its own accord A sudden occasion offering it self that he was to go to Rome with a certain great man to the end that the precious Liquor might not be lost in the interim he commanded his Servant to preserve it in a Vessel which he appointed and shewed him for that purpose his Servant by a mistake poured it into a Neighbourâ— Vessel like the former in which Silver was which had been dissolved in Aqua fortis to which Sal Armoniack sublimated and dissolved in distilled Vinegar begun for another work had been added My Friend returning after nine Months and seeking for the Liquor of Tartar he found the Cucurbite into which his Servant was injoyned to put it quite empty The Servant answering that he had poured it into a Neighbourâ— Vessel looking there he found not the Liquor but dry Earth nine Months exsiccated which he touched with his Rod Mercury out of Silver and a great part of the running Mercury discovered it self at that time he could not believe that running Mercury could be made out of perfect Metals being so perswaded according to the Axiom That it is easier to make than to destroy perfect Metals which made him neglect the Experiment imagining in himself that the Mercury had fallen into the Vessel by some chance But at length he learned out of Basilius Valentinus that Salt of Tartar hath this priviledge above all other Salts The ingenious Helmont hath confirmed this Experiment in these words I have found says he Tract potest Medic S. 4. that the Crudity of Saturn is dissolveable by the fat of fixed Salts and that the parts of the Compositum are so divided that it suffers Silver to run crude There came then to my mind a strong Lixivium wherewith old women boil Litarge to black their hair of which Porta also makes mention in his Magia Naturalis into which I dropped Spirit of Vitriol and presently the Alcaly suffered the Metal to run into a white Powder which I reduced into Lead by which means I knew for certain that Alcalyes do invisibly contain and hide in their Bowels Calcined Metals This Experiment being made Helmont goes on saying That calcined things are most sharp but they are dulcerated with dissolved Sal Armoniack and putrified Tartar i.e. they are turned into running Mercury which is not any longer tart or biting as Calcined things are but insipid to the taste I return now to the Salt of Tartar which in form of Liquor was poured into the Cucurbite in which was Silver corroded by Aqua fortis with Sal Armoniack All these changed their nature into Neutral Salts different from their former state so the Silver made no more any shew of Silver of which * Lite de magno mundi Mirac Basilius de Tartaro Durch c. By my Spirit they take revenge and break or dissolve all Metals For as all Sublunary Bodies Experience being witness do consist of two things Acid and Alcaly as I shall mechanically shew in this Tract the same may be said of Silver from this Silver the Alcaly of Tartar by due digestion and coction hath absorbed so much of the Acid Sulphur Diana nada as was sufficient for the Mercury in the state of Silver now it being segregated and divided from it for its constancy into the place of Mercury succeeds the Alcaly Philosophers call it Adulterium which it imbraces from the Silver and therefore loseth its form and beauty and changeth its nature so that it is melted even with the gentlest fire as Lead or Sal Armoniack mix'd with the Calx of Flints Lana Cornea and it is called by Crollius Luna Cornea because it may be cut with a Knife like Horn. This Luna Cornea though it be washed an hundred times with hot water and * As I have elsewhere said of Furum Fulminans melted with a swift Flux from Tartar and Nitre yet it is impossible to Separate them one from the other unless in Balneo Saturni in which that of the Silver which remains returns to pure but the Salts with the Lead into dross and Litarge which also again by simple Fusion is reduced into Lead but the dross which were Salts are hurried into Element together with the Sulphur of Silver which they had absorbed CHAP. X. That the Bodies of Alcalyes are Vacua proved by examples WHerefore Salt of Tartar is a Medium A Vacuum in Nature demonstrated by Art wherein not only Metals but Minerals also do revive and obtain as it were a Resurrection though by Art and a strong fire they seem quite destroyed Pour Spirit of Vitriol drop by drop upon dissolved Salt of Tartar till the hissing noise cease reduce the Liquor into Chrystals or dry it all up and you shall find a Salt having the nature of Vitriol it provokes vomit and being superbibed purges by Stool as white Vitriol is wont to do Regeneration of Vitriol It is mingled with Nitre and Quick-silver 't is sublimated into red to which add common Salt and it becomes a Corrosive Sublimate it is distilled per se as Vitriol The whitish Mucilage subsiding in the bottom is the same Faex which in dissolved crude Vitriol by the affusion of Salt of Tartar falls down black It endures the fire and resisteth fusion as the Colcothar or Caput mortuum of Vitriol which yet without the affusion of Spirit of Vitriol was easily melted That fixed Salt is Vitriol Regenerated called by the Writers of the Rudiments of Chymistry Tartarus Vitriolatus and Vniversale digestivum It is made much more excellent and perfect from crude Vitriol dissolved in water and Liquor of Tartar poured upon it until it cease to be troubled which point of Saturation is not found without difficulty for if it exceed but one drop it turns the mixture either into Vitriol or Alcaly of which my Hippocrates L. I. de Diaet Nunquam simul in codem consistunt coagulate the clear Liquor into shining Chrystals This is more Noble than the former because in distilling the Vitriol the violence of the fire elevates the Liquamen of the Copper and mixes it with the Spirit so that it become troublesome to the Stomach But in this simple way the Alcaly consumes only that most simple Natural Acid which corroded the embrionated Metal in its Flux This is that simple Acld agreeable to our Nature in Acid Fountains refreshing the Drinkers and acceptable to the Stomach though taken in great quantity of this I determine to speak briefly yet * De morbis Tartareis Paracelsus relates that in a Village called Veltin in Helvetia there is a Fountain the like whereto is not to be found in the whole World So also Spirit of Nitre reassumes a Body in Salt of Tartar and becomes cold natural Nitre Regeneration of Nitre conceiving
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
with a new body which is again sublimated and separated It may be demanded The Spirit of Sal Armoniack re-assumes a body in Tartar why in this place a Spirit is elicited from the fixed Alcaly of Tartar and the Volatile Acid whereas above from the Alcaly of Flints and the Acid spirit of Salt it succeeds not To which I answer that the Acrimony of the Salt of Tartar in a fire not very vehement returns quite to nothing as I have shewed elsewhere and for this cause with its associate it is easily elevated into Spirit but the Alcaly of Flints is more fixed which before it flies is rather with its adjunct turned into Glafs CHAP. XII How Volatile Alcaly is generated in an Animal and the parts of it I Have said in the Examination of Mindâ—rerus his water that * I call Sweat either that insersinly transpiring or that which makes wet 't is all one here Sweat by the Natural Proto-Chymist is made Salt as is also every compound of Acid and Alcaly Urine not excepted which this Operation shews Take that Lye wherein foul Linnen Shirts have been steeped and washed not boiled put this Lye into a Glass of a long narrow and equal neck set to a Limbeck at least carelesly and place it in a digesting Bath or Sand and in a few days you shall see the Alcaly of Sweat to ascend yet not stinking as That which is sublimated from Urine This Alcaly could not be seperated from Sweat unless its Salt relish were divided The pure Alcaly of Sacat which consists of Acid and Alcaly both Volatiles as I have shewed in Mindererus his Water and elsewhere so that the Lye is a Fixed Alcaly absorbing the Acid part of the Sweat in the Heat of Digestion and the sugitive Alcaly being divided from it goes to top and a cold place I once observed as I was travelling post Sweat salt and pingueous this Salt Volatile Fat and therefore penetrating and resolving Sweat how although my Leggs were armed with Boots made of the choicest Leather and well waxed so as to admit neither Rain not Water yet the Sweat of the Horses exhaling like a Vapour had penetrated them as it also happened to my Companions of good note To avoid this inconvenience I invented an Oyntment like Vernish which in other cases could resist Aqua fortis and then in a second Journey for the first days I found less inconvenience but the days following the Sweat had not only penetrated the Vernish but had plainly dissolved it as far as the Vapour of it reached Hence I learned That Sweat was therefore made Salt by Nature that it might resolve the filth in living Bodies which here and there was coagulated in them But how the Sweat of all Animals and whatsoever doth insensily exhale from them yea of which the Animal consists doth acquire Saltness I shall explain a little more clearly only for the sake of this Viperine Salt whose Acidity as it is occult so the Saltness of it is more subtil and grateful The Invention of the Salt of Vipers I profess my self to be the Inventor thereof though Momus fret never so much which the following Epistle shews And though for Lucre of a little Gain in this Age and Theatre of the World some unskilful men and ignorant of Natures instruments and of this Hippocratical Doctrine have appeared who obtrude I know not what on the unwary and unexpert to the Prejudice of my Name yet I now give the Readâ—r to understand that which I have not discovered to any man living hitherto save by this publique Writing Mareus Aurelius Severinus wisheth prosperity and good success to Otho Tachenius a great Studier of Nature and the Hermetical Art The Epistle THe confidence which I alwayes had in your friendship and good will I now really experiment For my desire to hav some of your Viperine Sult being scarce signified to you you presently satisfied me therein for which I return you many thanks I wish some chance would happen that you might pass over the Fordye Adriatique to the flourishing Parthenope it would be neither unuseful nor unprofitable to you Besides that choice Matron whom you visited in her blindness at Naples from that very day hath impatiently longed for you wishing that the hinder ances of your intended Voyage were removed but because you have sent me a Viperine gift I will requite you with another of the same kind I mean a Volume of the Nature Poyson and Medicinalness of the Viper printed for me at Padua by the Famous Printer Paul Frombottus who upon the sight of this Letter will diliver one to you in my Name and he will give it to you the more freely if you shewing a willingness to communicate the useful observations Mary Fremies for Truths sake are a great honour amongst understanding Men. An Old Proverb which you have long made of this Viperine Salt do bâ—take your self to the Famous John Rhodius my special Friend the Corrector of the Press who if need be can add them to the end of the Work I wish also you would add some preparation and description of this Viperine Sale of your own I have her with inserted the preparation of Volatile Salt out of Johannes Vepserus Pray tell me how far you approve it and continue to love me as I do you For I desire nothing more at Naples than to enjoy the hopes of such a felicity as your Conversation and Company would afford Here you would find a Liberal Harvest Farewel From Naples the Ides of May Anno Dom. 1650. The Illustrious Matron the Wife of Capicius Regens to whom you gave your Viperine Remedy Salutes you BUt to what end should I produce the Testimonies of Learned Men this present Writing sufficiently declares that this Salt with all its requisites was not so much as dream'd of by this Reformer before I acquainted him with It as I could shew by his own Letters to me but that I am willing to consult his Credit yet unless he produce other Foundations of Art and Nature than he hath hitherto done he will never come to the knowledg of this Salt No more will men of a far higher Order and Rank than himself however they boastingly and ambitiously word it out and pretend to be able to attain it As Urine and Sweat so also Blood The Alealy of Blood Volatile and pure precipitates a white Mercuâ—â— whilest it is yet hot and reaking may be commixed with Lye and Alcaly be sublimated from it but when the same Blood without the Lye is distilled out of a Retort with the Fire of Sand then in the Caput Mortuum it leaves much Salt somewhat fixed More Fixed Salt of Blood a noble Medicine doth not precipitate Mercury The Alcaly precipitates Mercury from the oftennarned Solution into a white Powder but the Salt doth not Hence 't is manifest that as the Lixivious and Fixed Alcaly drinks up the Acid from
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
lids are presently with great violence contracted not that the Fly contracts them but the Sense abhors a Forreign Inmate but as soon as the Fly is taken out the Eye-lids are again gently relaxed I say it is one sort of Acidity which Paracelsus his Libium doth consume in the Dropsy another which the Spiritual Salt of Tartar destroyes in Hypocondriacal Melancholy and all other Diseases of the Spleen another that Ostiocolla doth waste in the rupture of Bones another that Corals with their specifick Alcaly destroy and absorb in the Gonorrhaea c. But the aforesaid Simples do not imbibe nor so much as enter into the proper I have shewed before by Alcaly that the Seeds of things in the Macrocosin are Acid so in the Microcosm as well in the Healthy as Sick Nature studiously Observes the same consent as this daily and common Praris doth declare innate and manifest Acidity of the Stomach as I have shewed whereby it Concocts and changes the food into an Acid Vital Juice which is to be admired Hence it appears every Acidity or Aura call it as you please expects and willingly entertains its convenient Compar and Fellow as I have erst shewed in the Earth of Carinthia evacuated of Vitriol wherewith it delights to be altered absorbed and transmuted and one disturbs not the course or province of another Hence Man hath obtained the Name of the Microcosm and * In Tabula Hermes says The things which are in the Superior are also in Inforior Bodies These are the foundations of Physick according to the nature of Man as its inventors first found it out and judg'd it an Art worthy to be ascribed to God and it hath been so accounted as the * De Vâ—tâ—r Medâ—â—in Old Man teaches for says he in the cited place It is not Siccity Humidity Heat nor Cold c. but Sapors which he there reckons up These my * Lib. de Arte. Hippocrates shews to be in the Cavities and Ventricles saying That Man's Body hath many Ventricles or Sapors as they can witness who are solicitous to know them he means only Chymical Philosophers for by and by he subjoyns of all the aforesaid things there is none visible and conspicuous to the Eye Wherefore they are called obscure by me not that they remain always so and do ever fly from our understanding but as much as is possible they may be understood and known For it is possible to Chymical Hippoâ—ratical Philosopher as far as the Nature of the Sick doth assist in the consideration and as far as the natures of the Enquirers are fit for that purpose For with much labour and no small space of time they are known and exhibited to the Eye For those things which escape our bodly Eyes are comprehended by our Followers by the eyes of their minds so far he Many of these things by the Authority of Hippocrates I have clearly demonstrated to the Eye as much as the brevity of a Compendium will allow but not to the Intent that every Hippocratist should imprudently practise or prostitute this Doctrine to De Pâ—isâ—a Midic and before the Unskilful Our Master vehemently forbids That saying It seems best to me that they who undertake to speak of this Art should discourse only of those things which are known to the Vulgar not enquiring into any other but the Diseases to which they are usually Obnoxious which is as much as to say Speak as the Many Think as the Few Arist 1. Top. if thou record other things besides the four Exerementitious Humours to be the cause of Diseases and does not pretend to expel them with their Concomitants and Attendants the same way that others do thou shalt be called a Fugitive an Emperick and a Paracelsian Since therefore our Master was afraid of Plebeian ignorants an Hippocratist should often ruminate on that saying of the Comedian Quodscis nescis To make no further Digression Out of what hath been spoken we may conclude how meet it is that all Alcalyes without Acids should be empty and inanous bodies for fixed Alcaly saturated with fixed Acid Alcaly is a Vacuâ—m in Nature is made Petrous as I have shewed in Lime but when It undergoes a melting heat then they pass into Glass The same fixed Alcaly boiled to maturity with an Occult Pingueous Acid the Humid-way is made Sope. So fixed Alcaly mixed with Acid Spirit of Salt is made Common Salt having all the properties thereof So also fixed Alcaly with the Acid of Vitriol is made Vitriol which is called Tartarum Vitriolatum and though Writers affirm that the Acid of Sulphur per Campanam No body at all doth perish nor is made That which it was not before Hipp. L. 1. de Diaet doth not differ from the Acid of Vitriol yet it is not true but as all Acids do retain and preserve the properties of their seed even unto the very Elements as I have shewed before in Wine so doth this Acid Liquor for when it corrodes a natural Body as Sand for Example having not yet undergone the fire then out of It is sublimated natural Sulphur Wherefore nothing in the world dies but all things are transmigrated and changed as * In Pimandro Trismegistus rightly determines and Lucretius also All things into their own bodies are dissolved L 2. nothing by Nature is to naught resolved Fixed Alcaly with the Acid Spirit of Nitre is turned into Frigid Nitre conceiving Flame and is a Remedy for the Quinzey The same Alcaly with the Acid Spirit of Wine is made Tartar of Wine as I have above largely shewn After this sort says my Master Hippocrates doth Nature also proceed which turnes the Aliments replenished with a Volatile Alcaly with and by the Acidity of the Stomach The Ferments of the place which they call Mumail first of all into Chyle manifestly Acid and in the subsequent Ventricles the Alcaly is coagulated according to the property of the Occult Acid which the Cavities contain within themselves So the Alcaly of the Excrements of the Belly though it be an hundred times rectified is troubled of its own accord as I have shewed in its place An Odorous smell is inseparable from the Alcaly of Urine the Alcaly of the Sweat of a sound Man doth not stink so there is a different coagulation of the Stone as I have shewn in its dissolution and concretion That Acid is different which hardens the Alcaly in the Bones another in the Blood another in the Veins another in the Hair and another must necessarily be in the Nails Reason it self dictates so much for otherwise every thing would be generated of every thing So also Sope made with Oyl differs from That made with Axungia and this again from that made with Tallow or Suet. All the Muscles says * I. de Aste Hippocrates have their proper Ventricle intimating that every Specifick Coagulation doth also require a Specifick Coagulator which though
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
fire p. 19 Salts their Nature changed without fire p 19 Salt of Soot p 19 Salt of Tartar its Prerogative p. 22 it converts any Metal into running Mercury p. 23 it is a Medium in which both Metals and Minerals do revive p. 24 it is a Medium between a Mineral and a Vegetable p. 29 it is turned into Simple Element p. 27 Salt Common its Regeneration p. 25 Sal-Armoniack Artificial p. 30 Salt Common and Armoninck have an Acid communicable out of the Fire p. 30 Soda the same with Sal Kaly p. 17 Specifick Remedies p. 70 Spirit the Vehicle of the Soul p. 89 Spirit of Venus p. 115 its Preparation examined p. 115 Spaw Water why Transportable to other places p. 15 Spirit of Vitriol Acid retains the Liquamen of Metals p. 56 Spirit of Vitriol makes the Teeth yellow p. 56 Spirit Minerals p. 61 Sulphur how good for Diseases of the Lungs p. 82 Sweat proved to be Salt and Pinguous p. 35 Sweat how excited p. 85 Sulphur rubifies Mercury p. 99 Sulphur of Mercury an external Poyson but not the Acid by which it is sublimated p. 102 Sulphur of Vitriol Narcotiquâ— p. 119 Sulphur hath an Occult Acid p. 81 T TIn p. 60 Tartar how Generated p. 63 Its spirit p. 63 Its spirit not Acid but bitterish p. 63 Its Regeneration p. 26 Tympanitis its Remedy p. 93 V VInegar how made p. 64 Vinegar distilled made fat Oyl p. 26 Verdigrease yields Vinegar p. 58 Vinegar Julep made of Water and Sugar p. 39 Vegetables their Humid hath Alcaly and Acid p. 62 They have not sixed Salt by nature p. 5 Vitriol in Substance coagulates Milk p. 40 Vitriol of Mars separates the Alcaly from the Acid p. 53 Taken inwardly it tinges the Excrements p. 53 Vitriol makes the Teeth black p. 56 Vitriol of Cyprus True p. 59 False p. 58 Vitriol white p. 59 Romane p. 59 Vitriol of Mars Artificial p. 59 Vitriol its Regencration p. 24 Vulnerary Potions diminish the Acid p. 65 First given by Paracelsus p. 66 Vrine of Drunkards passes noi through all the Ducts of the Veins p. 47 Vrine of healthy men salt p. 47 Vrine of dying men not salt p. 47 Vrine of men living only on Milk hath Acid and Alcaly p. 51 W WIne turned to Water and Elementary Earth p. 64 Wine what and how made p. 64 Wood fixed p. 79 Wood rotten yields no Salt p. 76 Water called Aqua Regia without Salt doth not touch Gold p. 26 Water of Frogs-Spawn abounds with much Alcaly p. 67 Water distilled differs from that undistilled p. 69 Water of Roses causes Vomit and kills Worms p. 69 Water of Roses not altogether cold p. 69 Water of Roses hath an occult Acid p. 69 Water of Mindererus for the Hearing p. 32 FINIS OTTO TACHENIVS HIS CLAVIS To the Antient Hippocratical PHYSICK OR MEDICINE Made by Manual Experience in the very Fountains of NATURE WHEREBY Through Fire and Water in a Method unheard of before the Occult Mysteries of Nature and Art are Unlocked and clearly Explained by a Compendious way of OPERATION Senec. Epist A man can never more torment the Envious than by applying ones self to Virtue and Glory LONDON Printed for Will. Marshal at the Bible in Newgate-street 1690. Where is likewise sold Coke's Marrow of Chirurgery Anatomy and Physick As also his Observations of English Bodies of Eminent persons in desperate Diseases To the Serene and Mighty Prince the Lord CHRISTIANVS ALBERTVS By the Grace of God Heir of Norway Duke of Sleswick and Holsatia Stormar and Dithmarsh Earl of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst His very good Lord. IT was the custome of the First Philosophers Most Serene and Mighty Prince that whatsoever Secrets of Things or Mysteries of Nature they found out they would immediately impose Divine Names on them and so as much as they could hide them from the Vulgar or else they would relate them under disguised Words Forreign and unusual Terms Allegories Aenigma's and Metaphorical Speeches either because they feared the offence of the Unskilful Multitude or else being perswaded that those Abstruse things would meet with no approbation if they were easily understood Hippocrates of Coos treading in the same steps that Divine and Venerable Old-man and deservedly Chief in this most Famous Art in whose Praises the Ancients and all Neotericks have sufficiently Expatiated shews the hidden Foundation of this Noble Science in these words If there be any thing Divine in Diseases the knowledge and fore-sight also of That is to be sought after if a Man would approve himself a good and admirable Physician But what that Divine Thing was he no where clearly discovered nay he Studiously and of purpose concealed it expresly affirming that nothing ought to be spoken or published in this Art save what was known to Plebeians On which account Physick was heretofore esteemed Sacred and the gift of God so that all the Ancients were of opinion that It could hardly be attained unto by Humane Understandings because the Foundations thereof seemed so abstruse hidden and admirable that They were not to be found out by the strength of Nature And although heretofore and in all Ages Men of great account for acuteness of Wit and Skill in Physick have Illustrated Its Doctrine yet there is nothing extant in their Writings in clear and express words neither can any thing be culled out from thence but what is sullied with Obscurity They all endeavouring as much as they could more to eclipse and darken It Neoterick Physicians who succeeded them in Writing Disputing and desiring to encrease this Art have falne to pieces amongst themselves and contemning that Divine thing in Diseases rail at one another and are divided into several Sects neither doth the Division cease to this very day For one desires to be styled a Chymist or Methodist another a Galenist a third a Dogmatist or Canonist so that this most Noble Ancient Hippocratical Medicine which is but One is now not only rent into many Sects but is also overcharged with an infinite number of Books by which a lover of and enquirer after Truth is not only confounded but must needs be over-whelmed There being such a vast Ocean of Them and so great a variety of Writers subtilly spinning out their Arguments pro and con In the mean time I was always of opinion that That before-mentioned short Sentence of Hippocrates was to be deeply weighed and the rather because that Famous Man whom Antiquity did almost reverence as a Deity comprehended that great Supellex and Furniture of Things which he had in his mind in short and concise Aphorismes and Speeches Excited therefore by my respect and love to Him I began to Investigate what that Divine thing was for without the Plenary knowledge of It the Art of Cureing Diseases would always be Mutilous and only Inchoative never fully and absolutely compleat in all its parts Some there are who do accuse those men of Impudence and do also Contumeliously reproach them who
of things are in the Air. If these things are so as Experience proves them to be True why should not the Acid flowing down from the Sun into the Matter of a Flint The Mother of Flint fired and constant in the Fire be multiplied in It and be hardned into the fixation constancy and siccity of the Flint Since every individual hath treasured up in it a spark of the Nature of Light by whose Beams the Body will be multiplied as my Hippocrates Chymicus shews Chap. 3. and afterwards when the Flint by Artificial Fire is turned into Lime or Calx its Acid doth not therefore perish which since it is fixed by External Fire in Vegetables as I shall shew anon why may it not be so also in a Flint Fixed Acid in a Flint So that it is a sottish thing to deny that there is Acid in Lime but these are vain Arguments and Subjects forged in empty Brains wherefore leaving such false Conjectures I turn my self to the Lovers of Truth CHAP. III. Alcaly what it is and how it is made both by Nature and by Art and whence it had that name AS in the former Chapter I have shewed out of Hermes and by Experience That the Sun is the Father of Acidity now in this Chapter I will also demonstrate our of the same Hermes and the same Experience That the Moon is the mother of Alcaly and as the Acid doth not discover it self but to the Natural Philosopher so also Alcaly comes not forth to view or light unless it be detained by the Acid which she loves And first I will alledge the Operations of Nature and afterwards will Mechanically demonstrate how Art doth ape Them in her Imitations Thales Heraclitus Hesiod Hermes as well as Hippocrates have affirmed That Water is the first matter of all things The Writer of Genesis seems to be also of the same mind For all water is of a feminine nature because it contains and cherishes in it self the Seeds of things and clothes it self with various figures In the Macrocosm 't is made sometimes Wine sometimes Vinegar sometimes Aqua Ardens Caustick Oyl c. In the Microcosm 't is sometimes Choler sometimes Milk Sweat Blood Urine c. The root of all these is water and that cold which from the beginning was endued with a tenuious Acid or Light that so it might be fitter to receive the form of mixed Bodies for so Fire is easily mixed with Fire Light with Light Water with Water for unless it had been endued with this slender Light from the beginning the Vital Spirit had never been able to assume a body in it For our better understanding I now call that little body Alcaly Experience so directing me See Hippoc. Chymicus chap. 19. Alcaly in Water The way which Nature useth in preparing that Alcaly is taught us by that Noble Polonian the Ingenious Cosmopolita in these clear and express words When Rain falls says he it takes from the Air that Vertue of Life which in the Chapter afore-going I have shewed to be the Acid Spirit and conjoyns it with the Salt-nitre of the Earth because the Salt-nitre of the Earth is like calcined Tartar by its Siccity drawing the Air to it self which Air in it is resolved into water Such a force of Atraction hath that Salt-nitre of the Earth which also was Air Alcaly the Child of thâ—â— Sun and is conjoyned with the fatness of the Earth and by how much the more plentifully the Sun beams do then affect it so much the greater quantity of Salt-nitre is made and by consequence a plentifuller crop of Corn is produced and this is done day by day Thus far He whose single Testimony culled out from many others is a sufficient authority for me to affirm That the Acid Vital Spirit in the fatness of the Earth by the Sun-beams is fixed into Alcaly which again covets to be saturated with the Acid Vital Spirit from the Air into Salt which there is called Nitre of the Earth the reason thereof will more clearly appear in the progress Hence it is that he says in another place That this Spirit hath a Sister Alcaly which it loves The Child of the Sun loves his Sister Alcaly and is again loved by it for it is to it as a Mother What can be more clearly held forth for the preparation of Alcaly out of the Acid Vital Spirit by the Operation of Nature I add That if this Spirit be shot down out of the Air upon the Earth by Rain then it must necessarily fall down also on the Water and the same Sun-beams which by Reverberation do fix it on the Earth into Salt-nitre of the Earth do in like manner fix it in the Water Alcaly in Water if not into Salt-nitre yet at least into Natural Alcaly with which all waters do abound except such as are distilled from Cephalick Herbs the reason whereof you may see in Hippocrates Chymicus chap. 19. and in some places they fix it into Sea-Salt other where into Vitriol and sometimes into Mineral according to the disposition of its Mother as I have also shewed out of Lully in the fore-going Chapter Upon this foundation proceeds the spiritual representation of Plants Regeneration of Plants proceeds from Hippocratical Learning concerning which see Hippoc. Chym. chap. 20. If any one doubt of or desire to know its Inventor let him consult and weigh this Ancient True Philosophy and the sincere Studier of Natures Secrets maugre the Brawls of Scolding Detractors will soon obtain his desire As concerning the Ignorant either Allowers or Detractors who write without any sure foundation I am not solicitous about them for I know that Calumny which is not in a Man 's own power to avoid leaves a guilt on him that casts it He against whom it is directed being innocent and faultless Nay nothing is more pleasing to an Honest-man then to undergo Reproaches for love of Vertue for it is undergone in this case with Incredible Pleasure and Alacrity and being never long-lived It again returns of its own accord without any labour to its Author But to return That Alcaly is found in the Earth Alcaly in the Earth Experience confirms by the Extraction of it because a Volatile Alcaly is drawn and sublimated out of Earth which hath not yet attained any constancy whence not enduring to be solitary and alone it strives to avolate into the Air. So That nourishing Alcaly is made out of Water Alcaly in Water Paracelsus proves by the accretion of a Flint in a Phyalglass for water is the Liquor and Root of all things as Hippocrates witnesseth in his Books of Diet Fire Water doth Nourish says he moves all things but Water nourishes all things Hence Lactantius Water is all things Democritus also was not ignorant of the Vertues of Water who therefore affirmed that Truth was hid or immersed in a Well So Hermes Water is susceptible and producible of
being separated is called by the Skilful Fel vitri The Mass by little and little is clarifyed into transparent Glass so that That which erst was a Vegetable is now by the Spirit or Soul of the Flint turned into a Mineral and a rocky or petrous disposition and nature i. e. Glass which consideration is of great weight For the Soul of the Flint goes forth and enters into the Alcaly as the Pythagorians speak or the Vegetable Soul goes forth and re-assumes the Mineral Nature and the Vegetable is animated with a Rocky Indoles so that for the future no Fire or Acid Liquor can overcome or hurt it whence Raimund whispers to his followers Take away its Soul and restore it to it agains and though the operation of which he speaks is not properly concerning vitrification yet it is of no loss value since Nature in every thing is alike as I shall shew in this Book to the Prudent and Loers of Truth as for the prophane Vulgar which neither is nor will be capable of the Study of this Ancient Medicine I matter them not I study to please but a few for that which pleases the many is not without suspicion and it is the Advice of Pythagoras to follow the fewest if walking in a right path So that Alcaly is as the Female in respect of the Acâ—d the Child or Male of the Son and is its Sister Alcaly a Female which it loves and is reciprocally loved by it as Cosmopolita speaks moreover it is as the Moon which is impregnated with Light and Vertue by the Child of the Sun whence the Moon is the Mother as Hermes and after him other Interpreters of Natures Recesses and Secrets have phrased her for they call their Alcaly Luna So that the Anonymous Revealer of Natures Mysteries says rightly The heat of the Female answers to the Terrestrial heat whilst it putrifies cherishes and prepares the seed but the Fire implanted in the seed being the Child of the Sun disposes the Matter and informes it so disposed If then the Alcaly receives putrefies and cherishes the Acid the Child of the Sun that This again may arise into a new and clarifyed Body as I have shewed in Glass it must necessarily perform the Office of a Mother and so be vacuous if otherwise it must be impregnated by the Child of the Sun as Hermes and Experience witness Hence Hippocrates in his first Book of Diaet sighing at and lamenting the ignorance of Those who amongst their fellows boast themselves Wise Men says he know not how to consider and inferre obscure things out of such as are manifest Therefore to distinguish It from the Acid of Common Salt Alcaly of Tarar it is called Alcaly not only by Philosophers but also by Mechanical Glass Men and Sope-boilers If therefore Alcaly be vacuous and Acid an imbiber as I have shewed How and by what reason can the Alcaly of Tartar be proclaimed to be purely Salt and how can it be approved for such Surely so to affirm is meerly a monstrous thing and an old Wives Tale full of filthy ignorance invented and approved only by shallow heads but exploded and derided by the intelligent and learned Beware therefore O ye lovers of Truth of such couzening Chapmen the matter is far otherwise then those boasters do vain-gloriously pretend To Me they can do no harm but I write this for the sake of young and unwary beginners that they may not give up themselves to false Doctrines which would lead them out of the way but that they may know for the future whom to avoid I conclude therefore with Hippocrates That all things in the world are constituted of Fire and Water or of Acid and Alcaly of these Two Instruments all things in the Vniverse are made up as also is the Ancient Physick of our fore-fathers in which yet a Third is inseperably included which is therefore hinted to us under the name of Sal Philosophorum Sal Philosophorum whence They called all bodies compleatly mixed of Acid and Alcaly viz. when the Fire did not overcome the Water nor on the contrary Salt Hence arose that saying In the Sun and in Salt are all Natures Productions yea all the Grace Ornament Delight and Contentation of Humane Life could not be expressed in a fitter word and therefore delightful Elegancies which offend none are called Salâ—s nay the appellation of Graces is also given to it Hence St. Paul Col. 4. Let your speech be always savory seasoned with Salt admnistring grace c. And the Scripture not without Reason often takes Salt for an Emblem of Wisdom intimating thereby that the fundamental Knowledge of the Nature of Salt and of its composition of the Two Instruments of Nature is of great Moment If therefore determinated Common Saline Matter viz. Alcaly being informed by the Acid or Child of the Sun as well in Scripture as in Moral Philosophy be called Salt and the denomination of Salt be given to it alone why should any defraud the highest Masculine being innocent and which may be likened to the Sun and rob it of its proper Name Receive therefore from me the Salt of Wisdom and beseech the Lord to give you all the Spirit of discerning for no age is too late to learn Truth and good Manners Let Old Age blush which cannot amend it self yet scorns to learn for my part I am willing to insinuate and to be complaisant as Caesar was that Men may attain to a better Understanding Hearken therefore attentively and give ear to the difference betwixt vacuous Sal Alcaly and Common Salt which Wise Men by reason of its perfect mixture have compared with the Sun CHAP. IV. Trenchar-Salt or the Salt which we eat how much it differs from Vitrifying and Saponary Alcaly The Praise and Renown of Trenchar-Salt is spread over the whole world Salt a known thing so that in Apologizing for it I undertake as it were the defence of the Sun against a swarm of Flies endeavoring to ecclipse its Light Salt because it is so necessary an Element for Mortals that Mans Life cannot be sustained without it therefore Nature exhibited it to us brought to full perfection and requires not from us as in our other Acquist any Ustion but only that we dry it from its aqueous Humidity whether it be Sea Salt or Salt from Pits Principles equally poized do concur to its mixture which is made in Natures Shop so that venerable Antiquity hath determined All Natures Perfections to be in the Sun and Salt and it is called by Helmont and that on good ground the Chief of Salts and is the Armoniack amongst them all yet notwithstanding it is praised from the Countrey whence it comes as Dioscorides hath it See Hippocrates Chymicus Chap. 2. But the Fame of Alcaly hath not yet reached to all People Alcaly unknown to most because Essentially and Corporally it appears not in Nature unless it be made by Art and Ustion
be clear then poure it out leasurely and in a Glass Vessel placed in Sand Exsiccate it to the Cuticle and the next morning you may collect a Salt of the same Vertue that the Acid which you poured on the Alcaly was off so that the Alcaly is brought to the will and pleasure of the Alcalyâ— As the Acid Liquor distilled from the Grains doth Impregnate the Alcaly with its Vertue which from thence receives its determination so that it may be called and is Salt of grains of Kermes So also poure distilled Vinegar on the same Alcaly as much as it can imbibe i. e. to Saturity which you may know when the Strepitus ceaseth and the smell of Vinegar breaths out Coagulate the Impregnated Alcaly to Siccity and though the Vinegar was distilled and the Alcaly of Tartar most Pure yet the Coagulum is very Impure Sordid and Black by reason of the Pinguousness of the Vinegar which being separated doth therefore catch or conceive Flame Dissolve this black Mass in clear Water let as much as is dissolved rest for three days then separate through Paper the Pure from the Impure dry the Pure again as before and you shall have Regenerated Tartar Regenerated Tartar of Wine Distil this out of a Retort as we do Tartar of Wine and it will afford an Oyl more or less Fetid according to the quality of the Wine of which the Vinegar was made and a bitterish Liquor such as Common Tartar is wont to yield The Faces or Caput Mortuum unless by the vehemency of the Fire it be turned to Glass yoâ—â— must again dissolve in clear Water and strain and coagulate it into true Alcaly of Tartar Alcaly of Tartar made Salt of Kermes as if it were left of the Common So that the same Alcaly of Tartar being Impregnated with Acid Sulphur from the Grains of Kermes follows the nature thereof and becomes Salt of grains of Kermes Alcaly of Tartar made Tartar of Wine and the same Alcaly Impregnated with Vinegar imitates the nature of the Vinegar and performs that which Tartar of Wine doth like as a Woman who being Married to a Man loses her Father's Name and takes that of her Husband For Nature is alike in all things as Pythagoras and after him Hippocrates have taught But I have a greater thing in my mind yet before I come to it I must repeat some Experiments out of my Hippocrates Chymicus Distil therefore out of a Retort with an open Fire Common Salt with four parts of Bole Armonick all of them first reduced into a fine Powder it will succeed more happily if they be mixed and blended together for then they will easily fall through the Sieve poure the Acid Liquor which comes forth on the Pure Alcaly of Tartar till the Strepitus cease and the Alcaly be Impregnated Alcaly of Tartar made Common Salt Exhale this Mixture in a Glass Vessel with a gentle heat or else at the Sun until the Film or Cuticle concrete a-top and the next morning when all is cooled you shall have splendent grains of Common Salt So that the spirit of Salt in the Alcaly of Tartar returns into true Common Salt As you have done with Common Salt Alcaly regenerated into Nitre so in like manner do with Nitre whose spirit in the Alcaly of Tartar becomes true Nitre conceiving Flame and is a Remedy for the Quinzey see Hippoc. Chym. Chap. 21. So also an Acid Spirit is elicited from Allum with which let the alcaly of Tartar be so far impregnated Alcaly regenerated into Allume as above-said till the hissing cease which Liquor in a soft Fire is coagulated into Allum so that the Acid Spirit not only of of all Vegetables but of all middle sort of Minerals re-asumes a body in the Alcaly and becomes the same thing from whence the Acid Spirit was drawn forth But the Acid of Sulphur becomes not Sulphur in the Alcaly because it hath lost its terreous pinguousness by the Flame but it is sublimated into True Sulphur with Sand or Flints ground to Powder for it finds in them That to which it may associate it self and overcome it as Hippoc. Chymicus shews Chap. 21. These Experiments do evince the Truth of That which is laid down in the 1. Chapter viz. That the Spirit of the World or Child of the Sun is Acid and Pinguous and that this Pinguousness or Sulphur doth participate of a third which as I have shewed in the said first Chapter doth inseparably adhere to Fire and Water which I will now more clearly demonstrate in Vitriol and in the Anatome thereof wherefore it is vain ignorant and against all Truth what they scrible viz that Acids do not prevail over Alcalys nor draw them hither and thither as they please To convince such vain Talkers distill the Spirit Spirit of Vitriol out of dryed Vitriol the common way which is Acid Sulphureous which you must rectify or distill once more out of a Retort placed in an empty Cuppel on which pour on leisurely so much of the Alcaly of Tartar till the hissing and ebullition cease for if you pour it in hastily they will both grow hot by reason of the fiery Nature in both Subjects Alcaly regenerated into Vitriol exhale the superfluous Insipid and Aqueous Humour till you see the appearance of a growing Cuticle Here you must observe that if both the Alcaly and the Acid were not first sufficiently diluted before their Conjunction at their very first Meeting and Coalition the White Powder of Vitriolated Tartar will fall and there will be no Chrystalline Grains produced Then remove the Vessel from the heat and set it in a cold place and in the morning you shall find Shining Grains arising and resembling the form of Vitriol because the Acid Spirit hath drawn the Alcaly to its own pleasure i. e. into the form of Vitriol This White Vitriol they call Vitriolate Tartar but I call it Regenerated Vitriol whatsoever the ignorant multitude do murmur to the contrary for the Acid of Flint in the Alcaly is regenerated into a Pellucid Frangible Rocky Substance which afterwards neither Fire nor any Acid Liquor can destroy as I have shewed in its place concerning Flint and shall shew hereaster concerning Coral The Occult Acid of Oyl in the Alcaly is regenerated into Pinguous Salt Sope. The Acid of Grains of Kermes in the same Alcaly becomes the Son of Kermes i. e. Salt The Acid of Common Salt in the same Alcaly becomes a Salt of the same Nature The Acid of Nitre in Alcaly becomes True Nitre conceiving Flame and is a remedy for the Quinzey The Acid of Allum in Alcaly becomes True Allum The Acid of Wine in Alcaly becomes Tartar and all the other Acids are regenerated in Alcaly their Mother Why should not then the Acid of Vitriol regenerated in Alcaly Measuring the Wisdom of Nature by their own folly be called regenerated Vitriol Is it because it is not
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
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
of Seeds both Theoretically and Practically by the two Instruments of Nature viz. Acid and Alcaly Now the Nature of my Argument requires that I discourse some things concerning the Nature of Animals very necessary for this work and that I make them plain by clear Examples Now as from the beginning I have chosen the Ancients for my Guids so for the future I shall respect them as my Deities and shall not stir an hairs breadth from the Truth for fear or favour of any Man but amongst the Ancients I chuse chiefly in all things to follow Hippocrates He being to Discourse of Animals chuses Man as the Noblest of all saying in his Book of Diet The Soul of Man is increased in Man but in no other and likewise the Soul of other great Animals c. The Divine meaning whereof he gives us in the foresaid Book of Diet in a Learned and Profound Interpretation where also he proposes the Universal Generation of all Things and the Nature of Seeds which my Hippoc. Chymic explains according to his meaning All Things says he in the same place both Animals and Man himself consists of two Principles differing indeed in Faculty but agreeing in Vse viz. Fire and Water Both these together are sufficient both for all other Things and for themselves mutally but either of them apart is sufficient neither for it self nor for any other Fire adorns Water nourishes and a little after in the same Book Omitting other Animals I shall speak of Man a Soul creeps into Man having the mixture or temper ament of Fire and Water Fire adorns all things which are in the Body and can move all things but Water nourishes all and through all because for a need it abounds with Alcaly as I have shewed before by evident Examples by which a solid substance is concocted by inspissation against the opinion of these gain sayers but the Fire of which the Old Man speaks in this place is not culinary Fire as he shews in the same Book Man says he Threshes Washes and Grindes Bread-Corn and after it is baked in the Fire he uses it but with a strong Fire in its Body it is not made up but with a soft and gentle one so that it is a soft Fire which adorns and moves all things which in the 2 Chap. of this Book and here and there besides throughout the whole Book I have shewed by many Examples to be Acid and hereafter shall likewise further shew So that Fire and Water or Acid and Alcaly call them which you will is that Balsam which is given to Bodies for Salt That they putrefie not and in very deed it is Salt as Hippocrates Chymicus shews from the 12 to the 16 Chapter and it will more fully appear in the progress This is that innate Calid which old Hippoc. says doth abound in things that grow Aph. 14. S. 1. because it is fermentable and expirable and from aliment taken in like it self it doth incessantly reâ—erminate therefore reason perswades that it very much must want Aliment by which Aphorisme he intended to shew that unless the innate Calid i. e. Fire and Water in Animals especially growing ones being very Volatile were restored by its like the strength of the Body would soon decay Hence that saying Vbifames laborandum non est c. Now that which is its like is not that External Body of Flesh or Bread which we touch since Man lives not only by Visible Bread but by the innate Calid of the Aliments which as soon as ever it is embraced by the Stomach even before it be heated there presently the strength of the Body is repaired This innate Calid is also in Lettice so that the Acid of the Stomach after it is consumed by the Aliment and is passed into Radical Humid or Moisture immediately the Stomach Contracts it self and the whole Body Languishes for want of It. Hence ariseth Hunger and Appetite of Food so that an hungry Man though he be weakned by long Fasting or by Labour yet upon the taking of Food or Drink yea of one Cup of Wine only he finds himself immediately refreshed and that before the Food begins to be chylified because the deficient Acid is restored by That which was in the Meat Drink Bread or Wine though imperceptibly as to our outward Senses Whence Hippoc. says Aliment is that which is turned into Spiritual Vapours by such as these the Vital Spirits which are the Authors of the Active are nourished For as I shewed before That as every Acid Spirit carries the Anima inseparably in its belly and gets dominion over that body into which it is infused immediately forming it according to its own nature as I gave examples chap. 6. in Spirit of Salt which being poured into Alcaly of Tartar presently forms to it self a Saline Body agreeable to its own Nature and becomes Salt and Spirit of Vinegar or Distilled Vinegar in the same Alcaly of Tartar forms to it self a Body adaequate to its proper nature and becomes Tartar of Wine The like may be said of Vitriol and other Acids So also the Acid of the Stomack of a Man when it lays hold on Bread or any nourishing thing over which it may have dominion it doth turn and transmute it into Chyle and afterwards into humane flesh and the Acid of a Dogs Stomack converts the same Bread into Dogs Flesh as we are daily taught also by other Living Creatures because Nature works by the same Instruments in them all as I have shewed in the beginning of this Chapter out of Hippocrates in these following words The soul of Man is increased in no other but in Man c. and from the same things of which it consists and though Bread be fermented and Acid as most Aliments are either more or less yet the Acid in the Stomack of a Man though of it self weak hath yet a vitality joyned with it whence it can obtain dominion over the same As Vinegar gets dominion over and suppresseth the Acid innate in a Pearl and Aqua Fortis subdues the Acid in Silver so also the Vital Aeidity of the Stomach subjugates the Acid Ferment of the Bread and other Aliments and bears such rule over them as to convert and change them into its own nature For example When a man eats a Capon the Acid of his Stomack overcomes the radical moisture of the Capon and being predominant over it transforms it into its own nature on the contrary if a Capon or a Fish could or did eat a Man his Vital Acid in the Stomack over-powers and kills the radical moisture left after death in mans flesh which then becomes the flesh of a Capon Now that there is a Radical or Vital Moisture remaining in a Dead Carcass appears by the Worms which will infallibly breed there and likewise by the growing of the nails and hair And this not only Paracelsus but many other curious Enquirers into Natural Things have observed And unless there
And as It performs several Actions so it hath obtained several Names for in the Eyes it sees in the Tongue it Tastes in the Fingers it Touches c. And as I have shewed that Acid and Alcaly do constitute Ferments so also Radical Humid and innate Calid as well in a Grain of Corn as in Mans Body do perform Vital Actions and therefore may not unfitly be called Vital Ferment The Vital Ferment for it flows and is diffused from thence into all the Members of the Body And as that Vital Spirit or Child of the Sun is multiplicative that I may so speak of it self in the Stomach or Ventricle of a Grain of Corn which is the 8200 part of its Body as the deep Sages of Natures Mysteries have observed and from the super-abounding stock of its Wealth may wax sour and be made Ardent and inflameable Water So also This in Mans Stomach doth regerminate is multiplied it sours after the manner of Ferment and like Aqua Ardens doth illuminate the whole humane Body with vivid Heat and Colour and because it hath the Operations of Fire Why 't is called Ignis Mollis therefore it is called by Hippocrates a soft Fare having its Seat in the Stomach For as the Sun the heart of the World doth uncessantly send this Spirit to the Aether which contains all Things which the World hath in it self lest the Frame of the World should fail so also the Heart doth unintermittently send this Spirit to the Aether of the Microcosme i. e. to the Stomach which contains in its Cavity or Venter all Things which the Microcosme hath and therefore Natures Myxtae have given it the Name of Multiventrous Spirit of Mercury Now because It flows all the days of our Life and vanishes by reason of the volatility and frailty proper to the Nature of Animals especially growing ones as Hippoc. Chymic demonstrates Chap 12. It is therefore necessary that It should be repaired by Congruous Food for we are nourished by the same Things of which we consist which doth acquire in the Stomach a beginning of volatileness from the fore-said Spirit of the Animal himself a Species whereof that Spirit was from the beginning so Meat in the Stomach conceives Ferment from within as Raymond in his Theory Hence of necessity Bread and Water in the Stomach of a Man become Humane Aliment and the same Bread and Water in the Stomach of a Dog become Canine Aliment c. because the Vital Acid of Animals and the Acid Occult in Aliments are by Digestion and Concoction turned into Radical Humid All these have fetch'd and deduced their Original from the Child of the Sun But the specifick Acid Vertue in the Aliments is overcome by the Vital Acid dwelling in the Stomach of Animals as the Acid seated in a Pearl is subdued and brought under by Vinegar but Aliment doth not fall down from a sound Stomach till it hath attained the end of Ferment as I have shewed by many Examples in the 6 Chap. For Nature is alike is all Things Hippocrates the Authority of the Ancients and Experience proving the same hi i. e. till it hath attained the Foundation of Vitality and Volatility for since the Radical Humid of all Animals is Volatile as it is also the very Shop of Vulcan it is requisite that whatsoever is laboured and wrought out there should be also frail and volatile Hence the Flesh of all Animals Blood Urine Sweat Stones Sand Gravel Schirrhus's Tophus's c. and whatsoever and Animal can generate do not resist but are destroyed from their former State and annihilated by Fire or else are reduced into an insipid Calx as Bones or into a mordicant Calx as the shells of Eggs of Oisters and the like c. But that all These before spoken of were Occultly Salt before they were burnt we may be convinced not only by the Reason aforesaid and by the Authority of Hippocrates but moreover also by our School Mistriss frequent Experience For which that I may not cloy you with Repetitions see Hippoc. Chymic from Chap. 12. to the 16. For whatsoever is distilled from an Animal by the help of Fire there goes forth from it a Liquor pinguous Oil and flying Alcaly but the Acid which bound up the Alcaly in this tyrannical Operation returns with Proserpina to her Mother which you may again fetch from thence by Art and subtile Hands as I shall shew anon But the Caput Mortuum even from the hardest Bones is left vacuous and empty except Blood which whilst it is by degrees reduced to a Coal by a gentile Fire in a Retort then out of it by Common Water is elicited a portion of Salt but the greatest part is turned into Fugitive Alcaly not very much stinking a plain argument that in the Blood there is a greater part of Occult Acid binding in the Alcaly that with a Light Fire it may not fly away than in the Bones or other parts Hippoc. Chymic Chap. 12. But that it is Salt viz. a Composition of Alcaly and Acid the Solution of Sublimate Mercury doth prove Salt of Blood for being cast into It it doth not precipitate It as Alcaly as above Chap. 7. But the part which is distilled from the Retort is fugitive Alcaly Alcaly of Blood and precipitates Mercury of a White Colour and in to a small spongy Powder Add fixed Alcaly to Vrine a little coagulated to the consistence of Hony that the Alcaly may imbibe the Acid Salt which Man eats Distill it through a Limbeck and it will emit a flying Alcaly having the stinking smell of the Urine from the Ferment of Putrefaction Ferment of Putrefaction what Urine doth not acquire this putrefactive Ferment in Artificial Putrefactions as those Deans with their wild Colleagues do imagine but in that very moment when the Serum passes through the Reins as through a Syringe but for want of a Name I call it Ferment of Putrefaction to distinguish it from other Ferments for Alcaly of Sweat doth not stink as that of Vrine doth neither doth That of Bones nor Horns but hath a fresh smell which these vain-glorious Artists hitherto were ignorant of though my Hippoc. Chymic hath taught them it yet they never understood it for That Book as it sets forth the difference of fixed Alcalyes and the constancy of Forms by the Precipitation of Sublimate Mercury dissolved so it distinguisheth the Permanency of the Forms of Volatile Alcalyes by the Ferments acquired in their Native Places because the same Form walks pari passu to the Fire with them even unto the very Eliments viz. The Form of the same thing from which they were taken as Geber and Experience do witness as I have above clearly shewed By this we see the reason why Alcaly and Viperine Radical Humid or the Alcaly of other Animals passing through Actual Fire as I have said doth retain the Form of the Animal whence it was taken undestroyed but as the
exercising their lying Genius's and in fruitless blotting of Paper Their labour both formerly and hereafter shall be in vain for if a generous Horse regards not the Barkings of following Curs I shall as little esteem my present or future Opposers either single or altogether you know my meaning for I live and conside in just actions but enough of This To return In Vitriol there is an Acid most grateful to pleasant and desired by humane nature as Paracelsus and Experience say This Acid because it cannot be alone associates it self with the immature Metal and with It grows into a Saline Body free or separate It and it will be worth your labour for there lurks in It an Arcanum for the Epilepsy of which the ingenious Crollius speaks Paracilsus attributes many Vertues to the volatileness of Spirit of Vitriol Pasilius Vâ—lâ—â—â— his White Spirit of Viâ—â—iol what in curing the Ep lepsy but I could never see any of Them neither did ever any man affirm to me that he could cure a confirmed Epâ—lepsy only by Vulgar and simply prepared Spirit of Vitriol Thus far He. Therefore for the reasons hinted before it cannot be elicited by Distillation as all Candid Operators witness for this cause the Searchers into the Secrets of Nature have tried another way which I should willingly have declared in this place but that I have experience That 't is a foolish thing to expose ones self to Ignorants and to the Vulgar for what they praise is blame-worthy what they think is vain what they speak is false what they disapprove is good what they allow evil and what they extol infamous as I have hitherto proved by clear Examples Neither doth an Arcanum lie hid in the said Volatility only for the Epilepsie but also for the Suffocation of the Matrix for the Palpitation of the Heart and for the Corroboration of the Spirits Brain Heart and of the whole Individuum since it is the Child of the Sun and the Twin-brother of our Vital Spirit But of This I have said enough I return now to the Vacuous Alcaly of Vipers which is ill treated by the company of Vulgar pretended Chymists As we do not give a Scorpion or a Piece of Wood to those that are hungry and ask for Bread neither do we give Oil mixed with Gaul to such as are thirsty but we exhibite to them similary and consentaneous Aliments of the same family of which the hungry person consists as Hippocrates teaches So also the Alcaly of Vipers being vacuous hungry and thirsty must be satisfied with That of which it consists not with Calx or Spirit of Salt as unskilful Writers give out for I have shewed in the 3. Chapter of this Tract That Nature doth so and she is every where alike And if the Alumnus and Scholar of Truth in his Operations shall imitate Her he can never go out of the way as by and by will appear by a clearer Example But here I would have all Readers to take Notice that as all Remedies proceeding from Animals are weaker for Mans use than Those that come from Minerals so we are here to understand that Alcaly of Vipers possesses a specifick Form and is impregnated with Natural Acid supervening and under a convenient heat of Digestion it is ripened into one excellent Body The same Alcaly indeed may arise more efficacious by reason of its Masculine adjunct yet it cannot ascend beyond the boundary before alledged out of Raymund so that the Remedies taken from the Mineral Family are found to be much more perfect in the Epilepsie Asthma Stone and most Coagulated Diseases Hippoc. Chymic Chap. 14. in as much as their Radical Humid is found by Experience to be more constant Now Those in general are called Coagulated Diseases Coagulated Diseases who from Immature Acid flow from the Stomach to the other Shops of Digestion and are Coagulated there or if in these very Shops through the degenerating of the Occasional Cause the Acid become more powerful then it suppresses the Innate and presently the Pores are contracted and it undergoes Coagulation with the Alcaly of the place according to the property of the Member as I have above shewed out of Hippocrates And as in the Macrocosme there dwels an Occult Food of Life in the Air which because it contains all things which the World hath is therefore called a Multiventrous Spirit we must also understand the same in the Microcosme So that in the Air of Mans Stomach there inhabits a Multiventrous Spirit which contains in it whatsoever a Man can do or hath as I have shewed out of Hippocrates in his Book de Carnibus If therefore any of This Spirit dwelling in the Stomach shall suck in a more Acid Air of a strange and forraign taste or smell not agreeing to its own Nature which it cannot throughly change into Mature or Salt and it falls into another Shop of Digestion where Concoction and Alteration proceed more sweetly than in the Stomach then presently the more powerful suppresses the weaker and they are both Coagulated into a forrain Indoles whence the indwelling Spirit rages and as it were disdains the Member waxes hot and doth not Concoct its proper Aliment from whence a Disease is manifestly produced after the same manner as when Vinegar suppresses the indwelling Rector of a Pearl and doth so weaken It that it loses the form and shape of Pearl as I have elsewhere clearly shewn Wherefore the vivid and manifest Acid if by mistake it fall from the Stomach and pass to the Oeconomy of the Bowels immediately as forrain and more powerful it subdues the feeble Operator of the place and takes the Province to it self causing either Collick pains or making the Belly either loose or costive or working such like disorders in the Intestines which I think better to avoid Prolixity to omit in this place for they require a distinct Tract by themselves I have only endeavoured to deduce necessary Arguments in this matter from thence to discover the folly of Those who have learned to do nothing else but to defame and revile the Truth which is unknown to them Viral Aura Now this vivid and manifest Acid of which I now speak must not be understood to be a certain Fluid Liquor which as the vulgar speaks descends as a swist Torrent but it is also a vital thing called by Hippocrates Aura Levis by Virgil Igneus Vigor by Horatius Divina Aura of it self wanting a Body but not enduring to be alone as Hippocrates says de Diaeta it incorporates it self with Meats and Drinks and informs Them into the Vital Aliment of the Body which takes in that Food Hence again Hippocrates in his first Book de Diaeta The Soul of Man is excreased in Man and in no other and the like of other great Animals Aâ—â—a the Cause of Diseases Now this Aura by Irradiation alone persects its work but a forrain Aura mixed with it as Water with Water
they exceed the understanding of Gregarious and Talkative Medicks So the Vulgar Country People by proper Antidotes i. e. such as specifically destroy some Dispositions or do restrain absorb or overcome the Acid and Ferment of the place do sometimes Cure not only Feavors but many other Diseases without Purgation premised whereby Old Women do sometimes disgrace even the most able Physicians and do counterfeit their Art so Hippocrates teaches in his Book de Affectionibus If Patients seem to have no need of Pharmaca give them Medicaments in Drink by which the Feavor may be either changed or may abate My Hippocrates Chymicus with Galen and Hippocrates give many Examples of this Correction as the former calls it of Transmutation as the latter of Dispositions which being Cryptical Abstruse and Magnetical Works of Nature and besides are the Foundations of the Physick of our Predecessors The Deans and their Colleagues have indeed read them as appears but being above their reach and above Priscians Grammar Rules they could not understand Them as appears by their reproachful canting for therefore they asperse them as not having learned to consider obscure things from manifest as Hippocrates pleasantly derides them L. 1. de Diaeta But if this Spiritual Operation be to be derided Wonderful are thy works O Lord c. Psa 91. then surely whole Nature and the profound Science of True Physick will be also counted ridiculous For whatsoever Nature works in the greater or lesser world she always begins and ends it in a Spiritual manner for the Creator hath given her no other Instruments to work withal Out of a small Seed of Hemp or Flax there ariseth a Plant which having first undergone many vexatious Alterations at length is made a Sail by the help whereof and by the blowing of the Winds Men are carried up and down the World This Action from the beginning to the end proceeds Spiritually like Cryptography as Hippocrates Chymicus shews in the fore-cited place And also Mans Nature it self of Bread only and simple Water doth not only frame for it self the Body which we touch but also the Optick Spirit of incomprehensible Tenuity Bread and Water are made Spirits None but the Norimberg and Austrian Collegiates and their fellows would ever have called this Operation of Nature inept Circum-foraneous and Mountebank-like So in the very Science of Physick neither Rhubarb Senna nor Agarick c. their innate Spirit being taken away can any longer disturb Mans Body neither in their full strength if they could be given to a Carkass of a Man the Spirit being gone would they purge It. So that whatsoever is in Medicine besides the Clamours of the Deans and their Colleagues like Cryptography it proceeds Spiritually for we must needs confess that all things do consist of insensible Principles as Lucretius says Lib. 2. Moreover one weight or parcel or Galls and a fourth part of that weight of Vitriol though neither of them black yet being joyned together with an Aqueos Liquor Ink produced of Occult things by reason of the innate Spirit do wax black because the Alcaly of the Galls doth suck up the Aoid Spirit of the Vâ—triol and the immature Iron is diluted into Ink which is in use amongst Kings Learned nad Unlearned yea Plebeians themselves Yet all these when they handle this Cryptick and hidden Colour brought thus to light are accused by these lofty Deans and their Owl-light Companions as Circumforaneous and Juglers Truly they use their Tongues ill but their Ink worse But to make an end I conclude with Lucretius That both Learned and Unlearned must needs confess That whatsoever the World hath is produced of Cryptical and hidden things Only these talkative Praters to evidence to the whole World that they are vain and empty Bodies without Spirit do laugh at these Works of Nature together with their Instruments They are a company of light ungrateful and ludicrous Birds which I leave to be fed upon by such hungry Stomachs as desire them and so I return whence I digressed The Aura of the Stomach being endued with a forrain odor can creep to the joynts of the Foot as the Aura of Common Sulphur can reach Sal Saturni though far distant from it as I have experimentally shewed and there it can so trouble the inhabiting Spirit that the Aliment of the place waxes sour and pain arises which from the place is called Podagrick But of what Species this Acidity is so tinged by the strange or forrain Aura Mans understanding cannot comprehend Whence Hippocrates in Fraeceptionum libello By reason diverse attributes sometimes Diseases stay a longer while So that for the particulur Cure That which is contary to these pains lies hid in the specifick Alcaly which thirsts after such an Acid as I have shewed concerning Iron for the Spleen and concerning Ostio Colla see Hippocrates Chymic Chap 28. But for an external Remedy I have sometimes seen the most vehement pain to have been mitigated by warm Water of Frogs Spawn Water of Frogs Spawn rich in Alcaly takes away Gowty inflamations which is rich of Volatile Alcaly as Hippoc. Chymic hath it Chap. 19. Tonzelius also in his Exegesis hath the same only adding Allum This Aura if it creeps to the Reins and there suppresses the presiding Spirit whatsoever it lays hold on The Original of the Stone it coagulates with the Alcaly of Urine into the shape of a Stone the same also happens in the Bladder in the Liver in the Vena Porta in the Lungs in the Vesicle of the Gaul and in all the Shops of Digestion in which there is found a fluid Nature For the way see Hippoc. Chimic Chap. 14. Stones are preternaturally generated after the same manner not only in Men but also in certain Animals and their parts and the same Acid which had coagulated them the order being changed doth again dissolve them as Dame Nature shews in Stones of Crabs which yet are not Morbous to the Crabs but arise from their very first Constitutions I also keep by me Stones taken out of the Kidneys of Cappons and out of the Gauls of Oxen. There are some which can shew some taken from Their Bladders and Reins So also there is preternaturally bred a stone found in the Gaul of an Histrix or Hedghog The Stone of an Histrix which such Fablers who are ignorant of the nature and causes of things do mightily commend especially Those who would be accounted by Old Wives and the ignorant Vulgar Canonical Physicians Whereas the Learned know That Hypocratical Medicine is but One which needs be distinguished but into Internal and External whereas these Men out of their ignorance have parted it into diverse Sects as my Hippoc. Chymic hath it in the Preface I return to the stone growing in the Hedghogs Gaul to which they ascribe many imaginary Vertues And out of meer simplicity which is not to be endured in Physick do affirm that it is of
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.
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